Chapter 268

He woke up to the sound of someone crying.

His fingers twitched in response and he opened his mouth to speak something but the raw pain in his throat stopped him from doing any such thing and he coughed.

The resulting pain in his throat woke him up and he coughed a few more times, each cough sending a jolt of pain from his throat before he finally calmed down.

He felt someone saying some gibberish and massaging his back.

He blearily opened his eyes and saw the ground filled with black dust.

He took some dust on his index finger and rubbed it with his thumb. Why, he had no idea.

Where was he? Why was his whole body burning in pain?

He felt someone Ygritte him around and saw…

"Ygritte." His words were barely above a whisper and he flinched at the pain it caused him.

Why was his throat hurting so much.

"Thank god you're alright." She said, her eyes filled with tears and she bent down to kissed him.

"Where're we?" he whispered once again, grimacing at the pain once again.

Ygritte smiled at him through her tears "In the ritual room. Did you forget?"

The ritual room? What…

Oh…

The memories came back to him.

The pain. The screaming. The sensation of his body being torn to pieces and being rebuilt over and over.

He shivered in fear and Ygritte's grip around him tightened.

Then as if remembering something, she reached for her bottomless pouch and took out… a large blanket from inside it.

The red colored embroidery on the blanket was beautiful. It reminded him of…

He removed the image of Ginny from his mind and paid attention to Ygritte.

A part of him realized that he was still a little disoriented while the other part felt comfort as Ygritte wrapped the blanket around him.

"Dittany." He whispered to her.

"What?" she asked and turned her ears toward him to listen to him more closely.

"Essence of Dittany." He said.

She nodded and quickly reached for his bottomless bag.

She put her hand inside it and took out a large chest a few moments later.

She opened the chest. It was filled to the brim with various kinds of potions he had managed to replicate in the decade since he came to this world and took out the bottle named Essence of Dittany.

It was not Essence of Dittany. Not really. It was just a poor substitute for the real thing that he'd managed to make with the ingredients he had found around the world and grown in his magical glass house.

But even a poor substitute of the Essence of Dittany was far better than any other muggle medicine out there.

He closed his eyes to check the state of his body and if it was alright for him to consume a potion so quickly after such a powerful ritual.

His body was filled with magical residual to the brim and he wasn't sure if it was entirely safe to drink the magical potion right now.

It could help him as much as it could kill him at this point.

Should he take the risk?

He opened his eyes and shook his head.

"Library." He whispered to him, feeling more sluggish and weak by the moment.

"You want me to take you to the library?" Ygritte asked.

He nodded, the world becoming blurry by the moment.

Ygritte put the bottle back in the trunk and the trunk back in the pouch before she picked him up in princess carry and took him out of the room.

'This is a little humiliating' were his last thoughts before he lost consciousness once again.