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“I can’t imagine what that must have been like.” Susan whispered, a soft sigh escaping her as she sat down on the edge of the bed. “She must have been terrified.”
“We’ll probably never know how she felt.” Justin pointed out. He didn’t want to be the bearer of bad news, but with Hannah still in the hospital, he knew that he had to be the voice of reason. He chewed on his lip slightly as he watched Susan flop backwards, her head landing in the middle of Ernie’s chest.
Their boyfriend was already basically asleep already and considering the fact that he had hardly left the hospital since Hannah had been admitted, Justin could completely understand why he was exhausted. He was tired himself, but he also didn’t think that he would be able to sleep anytime soon. His thoughts were running at a hundred miles an hour, not to mention the guilt that he felt for leaving Hannah. He knew that her parents were with her, but that didn’t mean that he was comfortable with doing this.
“No, I suppose not. I mean, I hope that she doesn’t even remember how she felt... “ Susan trailed off as she reached for Justin’s hand. Justin let himself take the comfort even though he knew that both of them would rather be comforting their best friend just then.
Justin was pretty confident that Hannah didn’t remember anything, or at least if she did then she wasn’t quite aware yet just how close she had been to death when she had been in her coma. He didn’t want her to know that part, none of them did, it had been hard enough when they thought that they had lost her when her body was moved to the Great Hall with the rest of the injured and dead.
“J. Susie. I love you. But can you please shut up.” Ernie groaned as he pushed Susan off of him. “If I don’t sleep I’m going to end up grumpy.”
Justin bit back a comment about how Ernie was already grumpy as he decided that it wasn’t at all worth it to get himself kicked out of the room that the three of them were renting at the Leaky Cauldron. Justin hadn’t been home in almost a year now, for his mother’s own safety, and so he doubted that turning up in the middle of the night was going to be the best way to go back to her. He doubted that she was going to be happy with him for running away last summer, not even when he explained that it was for her own good.
He let out a sigh as he lay down and after pressing a kiss to Ernie’s cheek, he closed his eyes tightly and tried to get himself to fall asleep. He wasn’t convinced that sleep would take him, but he knew that he had to at least try, if not for his own sake then for the sake of his relationship with Ernie.
**
It was like there was a weight sitting on Justin’s chest. He couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t even call out for help. His heart was pounding so far that he could taste blood but try as he might he couldn’t push whatever it was that was on top of him away. He was stuck. He wanted to scream but he couldn’t even inflate his lungs enough to do that.
Justin tried to open his eyes, to find out what was sitting on him, to find out what was attacking him. If he was even being attacked. He wanted to thrash around but he couldn’t seem to move at all, as if he was glued to the bed.
He felt someone shaking his shoulders and heard someone calling his name but try as he might, he couldn’t respond. He could feel bile rising up in his throat, burning away at his esophagus but there wasn’t anything that he could do about that either.
The shaking was harder now and then he felt a hand strike his cheek and his eyes shot open. It took him a moment to catch his breath and realise that he was still in the room in the Leaky Cauldron, in the bed with Ernie who was kneeling over him.
“J..?” Ernie’s hand was on his cheek, rubbing the spot where he assumed that Ernie had just slapped him. “You alright there?” He asked softly to which Justin swiftly shook his head. He wanted to tell Ernie that he was okay but he knew that he couldn’t lie to him, so instead Justin just sat up and wrapped his arms around his boyfriend and let himself sob into his chest.
He knew that his dream was because of Hannah, was just his subconscious trying to process everything that their little sunshine had been through, but that didn’t make it any easier for him to deal with. Poor Hannah was at the forefront of his mind.