| Inked | (George Weasley)

Chapter Eighty-Seven

Olive woke up gasping and choking for air, clawing at the bedsheets as if they were strangling her. Her heart was racing in her chest, pounding so intensely it rattled her whole body.

Looking around, she saw that she was in her dormitory, her dormmates crowded around her bed. Natalie was gripping her shoulders with white knuckles, as if she had been shaking Olive awake. Cho and Mariette stood close to each other at the foot of the bed, staring wide-eyed at her as if she had been throwing in a fit.

From the way Olive felt, perhaps she had been.

"Ollie." Natalie gave her shoulders a squeeze, "Are you alright? Can you hear me?"

She couldn't seem to be able to catch her breath. Her shoulders heaved, her gasps rattling in her chest at an alarmingly fast pace. No matter how hard she tried, she still felt like she couldn't breathe.

Olive nodded, clawing at her throat with trembling hands. Her whole body felt exhausted, her muscles aching and sore, her head feeling heavy. Any moment she felt like she'd collapse back down onto her pillow.

"Hey," Natalie grabbed at her hands, "Stop. You're going to hurt yourself."

She pulled away from the blonde, shaking her head as she began groping at her throat, pulling on the fabric of her t-shirt. Even though the shirt was too large for her, it still felt like it was strangling her. Olive needed to breathe. She needed air.

"I-I can't-" She gasped, stumbling out of her bed. Her vision spun, her stomach tight with nausea, "I can't breathe."

Olive practically fell into the window sill, fumbling desperately with the latch until she got it open. Her clammy hands forced the panes apart, and immediately the cool nighttime breeze hit her face. She hung her head out the window, eyes closed, sucking in the air in large, gulping breaths.

Her entire body was visibly trembling, even as she laid over the window sill practically limp. Sweat had caused some of her hair to stick to the sides of her face, and coated her forehead and neck in tiny beads of moisture.

"Ollie," The blonde was the only one who wasn't hesitant to approach the raven-haired girl. Olive felt Nat's presence behind her as she took a seat beside her at the windowsill, "What happened? Are you alright?"

Her voice sounded muffled and underwater, making it hard for her to focus. Slowly she turned back to Nat, her head leaning against the cool glass panes. Like the rest of her surroundings, her friend was blurry and distorted.

"He's... he's alive." She spoke as slow as she could, gulping in a fresh breath of air between words, "Cedric."

Olive's words sent a heavy blanket over everyone in the room. Cho became visibly upset, tears pricking her eyes. Marietta frowned, turning to comfort her friend. Nat studied Ollie carefully, holding herself stiffly.

"What?"

"Cedric." Olive pushed herself off the windowsill. Her body swayed almost drunkenly as she stumbled back over to her bed, "He's in... where is it?"

She pushed around her sheets and blankets, searching the area for her notebook. With each passing moment, she became more and more desperate to find it. She needed to find it.

Cedric was inside that notebook.

"Olive." Nat sounded more serious, her voice wavering only slightly, "Olive, stop."

The Ravenclaw kept searching, tears pricking her eyes, a lump forming in her throat. She began throwing her things out of the way, stripping her bed down to the mattress. Sobs were caught in her throat, her vision almost gone from tears and the ceaseless swaying of the room. Her stomach heaved and clenched, trying to force down the retching that was starting to overtake her.