Lucinda had been having a wonderful day. She’d come out to Hogsmeade with her friends, fully kitted out in an artfully shredded wedding dress with fake blood smeared all over the top half of it and two puncture marks in her neck that she’d painstakingly made as lifelike as possible with makeup. She’d been going for the Bride of Dracula look but, having caught sight of herself in the window of Dervish & Banges, she now thought she looked more like something out of that exorcist film her sister had made her see a few years ago.
She was rounding off the day with a nice frothy Butterbeer when a sharp pain speared through her abdomen making her gasp. She plonked her glass down abruptly, sloshing amber liquid over the side as she gripped the edge of the heavy wooden table. The sharp pain came again and she gritted her teeth trying not to make a scene. When the third stabbing pain came it was too much and she stumbled to her feet.
Luce braced herself against a wooden beam in the Three Broomsticks, feeling violently queasy; her stomach was roiling and her vision blurring slightly at the edges as she had stood up. She felt awful. The vein in her temple had begun the slow thud thud thud of what was sure to be the migraine from hell and the pains just kept coming. She couldn’t think clearly enough to think back on what she’d had today to make her feel so sick aside from the few drinks she’d had in here.
“Oh my god.... it’s so painful,” she gasped, swaying on her feet.