The moment the hands released his neck, Ioan gasped and hacked and coughed his way to his hands and knees, where he stayed until the black spots in his vision disappeared and he could breathe again. Which was around the same time that he caught a glimpse of something pale out of the corner of his eye. He jerked back against the wall, too overwhelmed by everything to really be afraid anymore. It looked like...a ghost? But it didn't have quite the same shape or clarity as the rest of the castle spirits. Ioan stared at it. Glanced down the hall where the blackness had seemingly vanished. Then back at the whatever-it-was. Weird though it may have been, he didn't get the same sense of wrongness. He still didn't put his wand away. Ioan wasn't an idiot. It didn't stop relief from washing over him that that thing was gone.
"Are you," he swallowed to soothe his achy throat, and tried again. "What are you?"