Chapter 183: Rewards, Curses, Ravens. (1/2)
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The link is also in the synopsis.
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”Uhmnngh.”
Eddie slowly opened his eyes, letting the dim light enter his eyes. His heartbeat fastened when he couldn't see properly as everything was blurred, but before the panic could set in, his vision cleared, and he could see the white ceiling in his sight.
”Nmuhmnghumn,” his throat was really parched, and he could feel it hurt if he even gulped a little too hard.
”You're finally awake, huh, you little—,” he heard with a sigh at the end.
Eddie slowly turned his head to the side to see Quinn sitting there with a book in his hands. Eddie didn't say anything but took in the sight of his best friend.
”.. .. You look terrible,” said Eddie in a voice too quiet for him.
The Quinn West, he knew, was meticulous in most of the things he did, especially in the way he dressed. But right now, Eddie could see ever so little out-of-place hair, a shirt that wasn't ironed, tie out of place, and with half the shirt not tucked into the pants.
”You look like you lost control of a broom at high speed and crashed hard into the ground,” said Quinn.
Eddie weakly smiled and laughed just to fall into a coughing fit.. .. ”Ah, so that happened, huh. I do remember being clashing with the beaters and then taking a bludger into the back.. . .”
”You lost control,” said Quinn, snapping his book close, ”you were too aggressive — no, you were plain reckless. There's a reason why chasers work in a three-man squad.”
”Hmm,” said Eddie, avoiding commenting on the subject, ”how long was I out?”
”It's been thirty hours since your crash.”
”Did we win?”
Quinn silently stared at Eddie for a good few moments before sighing in answer, ”Barons won. They say it was a blowout.”
”They?”
”.. .. I wasn't at the game.”
”Ah — you were here, huh.. .. It must be serious.”
”It was and wasn't — you could've died on the spot, but because you held on, Madam Pomfrey was able to patch you up. It was either all or nothing.”
Eddie laughed into another coughing fit, ”Ah, it hurts.. .. of course, I held on — my life is too precious for me to let go of it.”
Quinn smiled just a bit, staring at Eddie. ”You look like a mummy with the bandages all over you.”
”Hmm, I'm sure rocking this look.. .. also, I've been coughing here for a while, why are you just sitting here, can you call Madam Pomfrey? My throat is really hurting.”
”You will be fine,” said Quinn, ”you slept with your mouth open.” He took waved his hand, and Eddie felt a soothing feeling in his throat. ”I'll give you a potion later; that will fix you up completely.”
Eddie stared at Quinn's empty hand and smiled before going back to staring at the ceiling. ”When do I get out of here?”
”You'll be back to normal in three to four days. Madam Pomfrey will discharge you out of here in a week.”
Eddie groaned at the thought of staying in the hospital wing for a week under the vigilant eye of prison warden Pomfrey.
”You should rest; you really look like shit,” said Eddie, ”I'll be fine and go back to the dorm to get some sleep.”
”I'll be fine—”
”You're too ugly for me to look at, so you should go.”
Quinn faulted for a second at the blatant disrespect even though he had just spent an entire day by the bedside.
”I will inform Madam Pomfrey; she'll perform a check-up,” said Quinn getting up with a sigh, ”Marcus will be coming next to keep you company.”
”He doesn't have to do that.”
”He doesn't have to, but he wants to, so don't complain and just lay there. If we leave you alone, you'll get bored out of your mind and try to do something stupid.”
”Even I can behave, you know?!”
”Sure, you can.”
With that, Quinn left, leaving Eddie alone for the first time since his accident. Eddie sighed and stared intently at the ceiling, glared at the ceiling, trying to hold it back, but he couldn't.
”Fuck, we lost.. .. and I wasn't even there.. .. fuck.. . lost.”
Poppy entered the curtained-off bed and saw that her patient had red eyes, trembling lower lip and chin as if holding something back.
”Are you crying?” she asked.
”No! You're crying!”
”What?” she uttered before moving closer while thinking if Eddie had hit his head a little too hard.
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- (Scene Break) -
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”Sorry to keep all of you waiting,” said Quinn sitting down behind his desk in the AID office. It was a few hours after he had left the hospital wing, and he had freshened up and was back to his usual self.
He looked up at the six people in front of him and smiled, ”To start this off, I would like to thank all of you for all the hard work that you did for the past few months. It was because of your constant efforts that our quidditch tournament became as big of a thing as it did and proceeded as smoothly it did.”
Daphne Greengrass, Tracey Davis, Susan Bones, Hannah Abbot, Fred, and Geroge Weasley sat in front of Quinn, the students Quinn had hired to help him with the tournament.
”Ms. Bones and Ms. Abbot,” said Quinn to the Hufflepuff group in the room, ”your efforts in maintaining the sales of merchandise were a great help to the tournament. The sales were more than enough to cover all the day-to-day costs needed to run the tournament. Your performance was outstanding, and the fact that you handled everything on your own for most of the time showed how capable you were.. .. please extend my gratitude to the students working under you.”
The two Hufflepuff girls smiled and nodded in appreciation. While the work had been tough, they had a lot of fun after getting used to it — over that, their popularity and status in Hogwarts had taken a jump.
”Now, Daphne and Tracey,” said Quinn to the Slytherin group in the room, ”how do I even start.. .. if you two weren't part of this — I'm pretty sure I would've been big, big trouble. The amount of work you guys put in was tremendous. Daphne, you were in contact with ten teams which were seventy people — the number of problems you solved for me was life-saving. And, Tracey, your job was even tougher — the number of unsavory letters you got really made me realize the number of shitty people out there; thank you for handling everything so well.”
Daphne gracefully nodded while Tracey beamed with pride. Both of their jobs were pretty time-consuming, and now with hindsight, Quinn would've contracted more people for the job the two Slytherin did alone.
”To thank you for all that time you devoted week after week, I would like to thank you with a reward for your hard work,” he said and levitated four rectangle coupons of parchment into the hands of the girls.
”What is this??” asked Hannah.
”In your hands are all-you-can-buy coupons for Madam Touswade's at Horizont Alley.”
” ” ” ”Madam Touswade!!” ” ” ” All four girls in the room exclaimed at the same time. It was the premier store for woman's fashion in the country, and having an all-you-can-buy coupon was
”Uh-huh,” smiled Quinn, ”you can avail any service from there, and they will send the bill to me. You don't have to feel shy so go nuts if you feel like it. The coupon is good till you another three years; as such, you don't have to go right now and can use the coupon when you actually need it.”
The girls stared at the ornately printed coupons in their hands with amazement.
”Well, I hope you like it. If you don't, I can always switch it with a hefty amount of coin for you to use.”
”No, thank you,” replied Susan while the other girls nodded.
Quinn looked at the Weasly twins and just smiled at the Gryffindor group in the room. He wordlessly took out one stack of parchment and one of paper before handing it to the twin brothers.
The brothers stared at Quinn, then at each other, before reading their respective stacks. For a couple of pages, the twins nodded and continued to read, and at a certain page, their eyes widened.
”A-Are you serious?” ”I-Is this amount real?!”
”Oh, it's real,” smiled Quinn, ”I will invest that amount in your shop. From what you have pitched to and I've calculated, the amount I'm promising will keep your shot afloat for a year even if you don't sell a single thing — everything from store rent to research and production can and will be covered by the promised amount.”
The twins dumbfoundedly stared at the paper. Not only was the amount immense, but Quinn was only asking a very reasonable volume of share of the shop in return.
”If you flip a few more pages. It also says that I will re-invest my part of profits back into the shop for the first three years to support the growth,” said Quinn and leaned ahead with his arms crossed over the table, ”so what do you two say? Is this enough of a reward for your services? Am I to look forward to working with you two as part-owner of the future Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes?”
”Yeah—” ”— Absolutely.”
”Alright then, read the papers over a couple times and sign the one drafted in parchments and bring it back to me; I'll sign it, and then it will be one West and two Weasleys — three W-s with my W hidden behind you two W-s.”
” ”O-Okay.” ”
Quinn pulled back and gazed at the four people and found that all were a little too engrossed in their rewards, so he dismissed them so that they could take it in.
As they left, Quinn called out to Tracey.