Rather Feel Pain

Damian had been fuming for weeks, anger boiling just below the surface. He'd nearly started a fistfight with a particularly aggravating seventh year. It spoke great volumes to how much Damian had matured that he had managed the control to walk away from the older boy.

Still, he had had plenty of time to work himself into a fury as the words of the letters he'd received during Winter Hols and at the start of the year kept replaying through his mind at random. He needed an outlet, otherwise, he would start fighting with his schoolmates, and Asric would be none too happy.

So, it was that he was in the Room of Requirement, again, fighting with magically animate training dummies. The angrier Damian was, the more unfair the odds against him. Just like he wanted. Fighting - physical pain - was the only way to alleviate his anger when he got like this.

Damian wasn't certain it would succeed this time.

You ruined her.

The boy ground an elbow into the belly of one of the dummies, quickly reaching up to seize it by the arm and throw it over his shoulder into one of its fellows.

I need some time to think. Alone.

He was grabbed from behind, but Damian used it to land a solid kick to a dummy's chest. Throwing himself backwards, he slammed his captor into the wall.

We're both too messed up for another damaged person...

It's your fault Lynne is dead.

Damian's temper flared and in response, the force of dummies fighting against him instantly doubled. For a fleeting moment, maybe two, the boy seemed to prevail, running purely on adrenaline and anger. The moment passed, however - there was far too much opposition for Damian to handle, even if he had been using the room to train all summer when he wasn't training with Master Chaos.

A blow was landed to his gut, another to his rib cage with cracking force. One after another, the strikes rained upon him, faster than Damian could dish them out.

Somehow, the boy became airborne, flying across the room. Damian hit the ground hard, a loud, sickening crack filling the air, followed by a crunching sound as first the back of his left elbow hit the ground, then that same shoulder. His vision went white, then blurred as his head struck next.

Seemingly seconds later, Damian skidded to a halt, belly down, skin scraped off the side of his face. The room had stopped attacking, of course - it always did when he was 'out'.

The last thing Damian was consciously aware of was that his arm was killing him - and then, everything went black.

Juniper stormed out of the Ravenclaw common room, furious. If she had a knut for every moron at this school, well she'd be a billionaire. She stalked through the several hallways of the floor, her fists clenched tightly. There was something about the human race that just made her want to push people off a cliff. Especially those dumb, ditzy girls from her year.

She was so angry that she almost passed by a curious looking set of double doors she'd never noticed before. Almost. Juniper stopped for a moment, looking all around her for some sign that she was in the wrong hallway. But this was the same one she had walked down almost a million times. And yet here was a door that was brand new.

It was creepy, to say the least. Doors didn't just pop up out of nowhere. She placed her hand on the handle. Yup, definitely real. Turning it carefully, she peeked inside the room. Her eyes glazed over the assortment of dummies and onto a body, lying still on the floor. "Oh, SHIT!"

Juniper ran over, her breathing shallow and panicky. "Ohh, Jesus Christ... What the hell is going on?" She turned over the body, starting when she saw the frightening amount of blood, bruises, and massive scrapes on the boy. "Ohh, you better not be fucking dead..."

Her hand picked up the boy's arm, gliding across the skin in search of some sort of pulse. Finally finding one, she let out a relieved sigh. Now all she had to do was wake him up. There was probably some sort of spell for that, but in terms of magic, Juniper was hopeless. She took out her wand anyway, racking her brains for something that might work.

"Aguamenti!" A thick spray of water burst out of her wand and onto the kid's face. It wasn't exactly what she had hoped for, but at least it was something, and maybe it was enough to wake him up...

Everything was blissfully black.

Until it suddenly wasn't.

Damian woke up sputtering, jerking in surprise - only to immediately let out a cry of pain. He let out a rather long and loud string of profanities, his right arm reaching across towards his upper left - which was obviously broken - stopping short of actually touching it. From the way he avoided letting his elbow rest on his lower ribs, his left side was probably injured, too.

"Aguamenti?" he demanded, though his words sounded a bit... off. Slurred almost. Blue eyes gazed blearily up at the girls - girl. "Of... all th' waays t' wake me up, you uused aguamenti? Wh't happen t' shaaking a p-person?"

The boy gasped painfully, the sound half-sob. Tears of agony streamed from his eyes, though he wasn't wholly unconscious of them. Reaching the hand of his (seemingly) uninjured arm further, he gingerly felt the back of his head, hissing at the contact. Bringing his hand back in front of his face, he stared at the blood on his fingertips.

"Shit!" Damian swore again. He briefly brushed his hand against his cheek; more blood. "Fu-" He had let his hand rest against his collar - which was a mistake, as it, too, was broken. Another cry tore itself from his throat.

"Wh't... you dooing? G-get a... pr-profess-" He broke off again, letting out something akin to a bemused sigh. "Imma pass out..."

And he promptly did.

Ric had that feeling again. Like something wasn't right. He closed his eyes and sensed the whereabouts of his apprentices, one was safe and sound whilst the other... He got to his feet and spun on the spot landing right in the middle of the room of requirements.

"Damian, what have you been doing!" He said assessing the mess. With a wave of his wand he'd got most of the injures wrapped up, leaving the scraps and bruises free. "Damian? Wake up son." He said tilting the boys head so he could look into his eyes. He'd hit his head, that much was clear.

"You may get back to class now Miss Carrow, ill see to it that he's okay." He sakd scooping the boy into his arms and apparating them both to the hopsital wing.