Regret Me Not
Challenge Eighteen: March Madness Redux
Title: Regret Me Not
Author: somigliana
Wizard/Witch: Cormac McLaggen/Susan Bones
Rating/Warnings: PG-13/R
Genre: Romance/Drama
Word count: Exactly 500
Prompt: 6. Quidditch pitch rainbow
Summary: Healer Cross is St Mungo’s evil twin version of Professor McGonagall. Susan ends up with the last job in the wizarding world she’d ever want to do.
“The Appleby Arrows are here for their spring medical examinations. A volunteer?”
Shite, thinks Susan. She’s heard the stories, and she has her own reasons to add, too.
Nobody meets Healer Cross’ expectant glare. They are all holding their breath, frozen in motion, hoping to avoid notice.
Healer Cross is St Mungo’s evil twin version of Professor McGonagall. She dispatches her troops of Trainee Healers with surgical precision. Rounds, potions lab, filling out charts, releasing patients... you never know where you’ll end up on any given day.
“Well, I’ll just have to pick one of you, then,” Cross says, sounding a deeper shade of severely disappointed. “Sumo Unus.”
Karma, the bitch, halos Susan in verdant green.
“Thank you, Healer Bones.”
Susan manages a grimace of a smile, and Cho pats her shoulder sympathetically.
As expected, the morning is a study in torture-a tiresome parade of egos and muscles and every excuse under a Quidditch pitch rainbow as to why one or another test isn’t required.
“Aw, c’mon, Susie-Q,” Zach Smith drawls, leaning into her as she removes the blood-pressure cuff from his bulging bicep. “You know I’d never take Performance Potions... why waste your time testing?”
“Healer Bones... I’d like to jump your bones.”
“How’d you like some season tickets?”
“You like what you see, eh?”
Susan’s headache has matured to an insistent throb by the time the team’s Keeper ducks his head under the door frame. It feels like she’s Summoned a million butterflies to swarm and writhe inside her stomach, but she manages to keep a relatively neutral expression on her face as she stares at a point over his shoulder.
“Please take your shoes off, Mr. McLaggen, and then stand on the scale.”
She begins to fill in his form-anything to keep the flood of humiliating memories at bay.
Susan can feel the beat of bass through the dance floor, throbbing up her body sensually, throbbing low in her belly to the beat of the music, throbbing like Cormac’s erection against her hip as he dances close to her.
She glances at the readout on the scale. “Two kilograms heavier,” she notes. Her voice sounds detached and foreign. “Stand up straight, please.”
“Quam Altus.” His height is recorded on the sheet. He’s a shade less than two meters. She doesn’t look up, but she can feel him watching her.
She feels tiny in his arms, petite and pretty, maybe like Ginny Weasley would feel every day.
Cormac clears his throat. “I’m... sorry, Susan.”
She returns from the bathroom with his taste on her tongue. He’s kissing another woman in the middle of the dance floor, his hands cupping and squeezing her arse rhythmically. The Arrows give him the thumbs up behind her back, leering and cheering. Now, all she tastes is salt on her lips.
Susan clenches her teeth, and she gestures to a chair. “Sit down, please.”
“I shouldn’t have taken you to the club after dinner.”
“No, you shouldn’t have,” she agrees.
Author's Notes: Sumo Unos = pick one
Quam Altus = how high
Thank you, gelsey. Happy Birthday, hero :D
Proof-reader: gelsey