The Sudden Swoon

[Chauncey Snicket]

He bounded in through the great oak doors after a fair enough lunch in Hogsmeade and a cheerful walk back, nose a little flushed from the cold but spirits high. It was still too early for supper in the Great Hall yet, but Chauncey and the couple of classmates he'd been with had decided they may as well take up in there for the hour and do some studying - or pretended studying - at the long tables.

He hadn't quite made it through the Entrance Hall, amidst other clumps of students to-ing and fro-ing, and his boisterous pace slowed as his classmates carried on ahead. He had stopped in his tracks, feeling a little strange. Violently light-headed, actually; Chauncey blinked, trying to cure himself of this dizziness.

He'd eaten and drunk normally all day, so it certainly couldn't be that. This morning, he'd even - not that he would let it play upon his conscience now; it was their fault, whoever had left them out! - scarfed a chocolate or two that had been lying out in the Slytherin common room. (There had been a name on the box but Chauncey had not deigned to look. The box had been open, after all, which was practically an invitation, and they'd been delicious.)

Dazed grin still on his face so as not to betray this absurd sensation, Chauncey's knees buckled beneath him and he keeled backwards in a dramatic faint.

@Maertje Vandenbroek