Lose the GOAL. Isn't it enough to be in Leontes with Golondrina and Fay?

When you MISS attempting to ACHIEVE YOUR GOAL, choose one.

• You weasel out of it or miss the opportunity. Cross off the GOAL. Roll to GET OUT OF TROUBLE.

⚂⚄ + 2 = 10.

On a 10+, you charm your way out of trouble.

Preston Sharper gives you a familiar pat on the head. A little crackle of static is audible. You get a wave of dizziness.

"Two out of three is a passable showing, Morgan," he says. "Emily Leopard was at the top of her game." He nods and smiles. "Of course, now we have to figure out what to do with her as a Prefect."

What a gossip, you think.

"Just give her to the Warden, I suppose?" you ask.

"Oh dear, Morgan," the Tutor says. "I fear you may have a future in management. Why aren't you in House Draconis?"

You clear your throat. With a night's rest in the Infirmary since your duel, your head has mostly quit spinning. But you've looked at your hair, and you've gone from "scarecrow" to "scarecrow struck by lightning".

"Well, you know," you say. "There are those who are in it for the game, and those who are in it for the goal. I'm less in it for the game."

"How diplomatic," he says. He gives you a wink. "I am pleased that you decided to join us in House Leontes. Perhaps you'll look me up once you're ready for more special studies."

"I appreciate your offer, Tutor," you say. Making no promises.

He adds, "I was impressed by your quick action to protect the spectators when the wards leaked, when Leopard and Applebum were dueling. That proved you in my eyes." He shrugs. "Or perhaps you'd like to take on arranging a social event. Leonteans often run off in every direction. Herding cats. You seem to be able to do it. Think about it."

You nod to the Tutor, carefully not rolling your eyes. But you seem to have left a good impression, at least.

"Well, I must be getting along," Preston Sharper says. "I leave you to the gentle mercies of Miss Wormwood."

Roll +BRAVERY(-1) to GET OUT OF THE INFIRMARY.

⚁⚄ - 1 = 6, Miss.

You may take a CONSEQUENCE or sacrifice a FAVOR to be allowed to leave the INFIRMARY. Otherwise, describe a bizarre magical treatment to improve your condition or a strange complication and roll again to GET OUT OF THE INFIRMARY before the next chapter.

Miss Wormwood frowns. "Puzzling," she says. "I'd never suggest that you cut it off, but it does seem that your hair is interacting with your sense of balance. Although I would have to say that the electric lion's mane look does seem appropriate to your new House, Morgan. Leontes. I would never have suspected it of you. Or that moony girl you're so attached to."

The green snakes that the Nurse has in place of hair are wriggling in different directions, flickering their tongues out this way and that.

She sighs. "I can see two directions to go. We could conjure a spirit into it. Well, properly you would conjure a spirit into it. Turn your hair into a familiar of sorts."

Miss Wormwood's snakes all nod together. Or bow. You've never quite figured it out.

Morgan Woodbine, the new Medusa, you think.

She continues. "Or we can apply a grounding oil and see if things settle down."

"Let's, ah...let's start with the grounding oil," you say.

Miss Wormwood sighs. "Ah well, it would be simpler, I suppose," she says.

⚃⚁ - 1 = 5, Miss.

That evening, Miss Wormwood combs a thick oil through your hair and wraps it up in a turban. She raises her wand and intones "SOMNUS."

You sleep.

The next morning, things are awful. You're so dizzy you can barely sit up.

Miss Wormwood tilts her head. Her snakes make a rippling bow. You feel nauseous.

"I see that didn't work," the Nurse says. "Let me take you to wash it all out."

With bile in your mouth and rubbery legs, you just about manage to stand up. The Nurse removes your smock, unwraps the turban, and lays you down on a marble slab in the little bath house behind the Infirmary. With your head firmly down, the dizziness abates.

Patiently, the snake-haired, grey-faced Nurse of Boarbristle tends to you, rinsing and combing, rinsing and combing. Your body makes its needs known partway through.

"Miss Wormwood, I need the pot," you say, feeling pressure.

"If you just need to wee, Morgan," Miss Wormwood says. "Let it go. We needn't stand on modesty together. Not you and I."

You whimper. You close your eyes, take two slow, deep breaths, and make water onto the bathing slab. There's warmth between your legs and a trickling sound as it flows off between your heels.

"That's good, dear girl," she says. "So, grounding oil is NOT the answer. I'll attempt a banishing. What did that Leopard girl throw at you?"

"I don't know," you say. "I just ended up down on my bum, wondering what had happened, with my head spinning. Assistant Warden, ah, Asteria Hornbeam, she looked me over and sent me here."

"Well, we'll just try different things until we find something that works," Miss Wormwood says. "Here, let me rinse you."

[Nine rolls of MISS telescoped into a brief summary: nothing that the Nurse tries seems to work, but you eventually get better. Perhaps the thing to do would have been to take a CONSEQUENCE.]

When you emerge from the Infirmary, ten days later, you look halfway between your usual scarecrow self and a ghost. Pale of face, your hair still rising round your head in a great black cloud, Fay and Golondrina take you straight to Boarbristle's main kitchen where you fort up in a table behind the scullery, and feed you bowls of soup and warm milk until you're satiated and sleepy.

Fay frowns. "I wonder if Leopard was using a Forbidden Spell?" she says. "Ten days in the Infirmary?"

You chuckle. "Miss Wormwood was sorely perplexed," you say. "I don't know if any of the treatments actually did anything. Maybe all the bathing and the hair combing."

Fay laughs out loud. "I'd get better with that sort of treatment. Or maybe I wouldn't, ha ha." She lowers her voice. "Did she bite you again?"

You laugh. "No, she was all business," you say. "I was That Interesting Case of Dueling Reaction. Well, almost all business, but I don't think she was, ah, in the mood?"

Fay wraps her arms around you. "I always worry when you go to the Infirmary that she'll just keep you. You were her play toy, Morgan,when I met you."

Golondrina looks up. Or maybe down. Even sitting down, she's tall. She's finishing the bowl of soup you left unfinished. There's a drop of soup on her chin, orange-red and glistening. She adds her own smile. "I was worried about you," she says. "Fay..."

"Hush, Lolo," Fay hisses. "I told you not to..." She lets it trail off into a sigh. "Come, Morgan, you're looking sleepy. Let's pack you off to bed. This time, you're in the middle."

Supported between Fay and Golondrina -- well, mostly Golondrina, who is both tall and strong, where Fay is mostly determined -- they walk you back to House Leontes, where Fay has arranged for the three of you to room together.

The beds are all pushed together, the coverings shared among them. You're in the middle. Fay is soft and cuddly. Golondrina's inner fires radiate warmth at you. Sleep comes quickly.

You have +2 Ambition, -1 Bravery, +2 Cunning, +0 Diligence.

Your FRIENDS are Fay and Grace Winterthorn.

You have 2 XP.

Choose your next Move.

• Follow up on Miss Wormwood's idea. Conjure a spirit into your hair to make it a familiar. Treat this as a DIFFICULT GOAL (-3) on CUNNING. Success will grant you a one-time FAVOR and +1 BRAVERY going forward, and you can use your hair as another pair of hands, as long as you leave your hair long.
• Reunion. Roll +BRAVERY(+1) (-1 BRAVERY, +2 FRIEND) to ENCOUNTER Fay to ask to HAVE SEX. If Fay's too busy, there's also Grace.
• Choose another GOAL from the Tutor, or gain one from an instructor. You might have some extra lesson to make up for your absence (an EASY GOAL on Diligence).