[PLOT] Mass Casualty Event :: OPEN

Sunday, 8:00 am
12 September 1920
Hospital Greenhouse

It was the second Sunday of the term, all classes were up and running, clubs were starting and for the most part everyone seemed to be in good spirits. This was probably due to the kitchens pumping out hot delicious food for every meal. Thank goodness, Matilda loved a good sandwich like most people, but they were getting very old very fast.

Her schoolwork was done for the week, the required reading finished. She had the entire day open and there was no place she would rather be than the Greenhouse. Professor Briar was FAR better than last term’s hiring mistake, so Matilda felt safe in the assumption that the castle greenhouse was in good hands, so off to the Hospital Wing she hobbled.

Getting to the Hospital was easy peasy, not having to venture down the stairs and on the grounds was a chore. Not to mention, she had to see the Head Nurse twice a day for her Neurotoxin Potion, so why not just spend the day there.

Entering the wing Matilda waved at the few volunteers that were also in attendance. Very few patients, so that was always a plus. First stop, the locker room to store her bag and put her hair up in a messy bun. Getting it out of her face was essential.

Matilda stopped at the Apothecary station to look at the list of needed ingredients next, short for a Sunday, but the term had just started, so no huge surprise. She grabbed the list in her hand and walked towards the greenhouse. As the door opened, the Lumos Orbs were dark, which was strange, but not unheard of. If they had sensed no movement for a long period of time they would sometimes turn off. Lifting her wand, Tilly pointed in the direction of the orms and said ”Lumos!”

As the orbs caught the light and illuminated the scene Tilly’s face went from happy and content to outright devastation.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

She yelled, not concerned with bothering the patients in the nearby ward. “HEALER BLUSTWICK!”

The plants were dead. Every. Last. One.

Black with decay, fruit flies fluttering around the wilted flowers, the smell was unnatural and disgusting. Tilly’s hand went to her mouth, tears in her eyes. All her hard work, ruined. As the nurse ran in and took stock of the greenhouse, she walked away swearing under her breath, no direction, no conversation, just walked away. Matilda’s blue eyes watching in horror.
There goes a lazy Sunday working with the plants. This was going to take forever to deal with.

It had only been two weeks and yet Joshua felt like he had never been this busy in his whole life! The first few days had flown by in a flurry of lessons and students and sandwiches and professors and even some budding friendships. He'd been so excited to see and experience all the new things that sometimes it had been hard to go to bed at night, his head full of all the exciting things he'd seen and learned.

And a few of the more weird or frightening things, too.

The first week he'd met all his new professors and seen what their lessons would be like. That had been pretty fun, but also quite nerve-wracking. He'd also spent quite a bit of time outside, wandering the grounds and exploring every nook and cranny he could find. And the library! He didn't think he'd ever seen such a big library before. And with so many books!

Then had come the greenhouses and the paddocks with the magical creatures. Not that he'd really spent that much time inside any of those areas. Not yet at least. He knew some of the students helped out care for both the plants and the creatures, but he was pretty sure he needed to learn a bit more about them first. Which once again let him to the library.

And to the Hospital Wing greenhouse, like this early Sunday morning, armed with his trusted notebook, quill and a library book full of herbs and plants.

He was still not quite sure if he really should be here, but the nurse hadn't sent him away so far, and the older students hadn't seemed to be bothered by him either. Or maybe they just hadn't noticed the first year sitting between the plant beds taking notes and cross referencing with books full of plants several afternoons this week.

Entering the Hospital Wing, Joshua was nearly at the doors to the greenhouse when he heard a yell causing him to stop dead in his tracks. Then the nurse rushed past him, into the greenhouse and then right back out again, muttering under her breath. Josh looked after her, unsure what had happened and who had called for help from inside the greenhouse. Was someone hurt? Surely not, or the nurse wouldn't have left...

With slight hesitation in his steps, the first year slipped through the doors to the greenhouse, then stopped, blue eyes widening. The plants. He drew in a sharp breath. The plants... Why? How?

"What happened?" Joshua whispered, eyes flicking over all the different plants, taking in the horror of the scene as he stepped forwards to stand next to the older girl. The plants. Only yesterday there'd been a bush over there, and herbs next to it, blooming and thriving. Now, though. Now they were dead. All dead.

"Can we..." he wasn't even what to do, but maybe... "Can we help them?"

Hogwarts had proved even more exciting than Vinnie had anticipated. His classes were filled with all manner of strange happenings, so that between rituals and floating chalk and magical dodgeball games, there was rarely a dull moment. Those came mostly when Vinnie was doing his homework or sitting still too long between one in-class demonstration and the next. He had never been good at remaining sedentary for too long.

It was for that reason, perhaps, that potions had become his favorite subject. It wasn’t as flashy as other brands of magic Vinnie had liked to watch as a kid. Transfiguration had been his favorite then. He still remembered being five years old and asking his father to transform a hat into a rabbit, and shrieking with laughter when his father had performed the spell with the hat still on his head.

Yet potions held a different sort of allure. More so than any other class, Vinnie found that he was never doing nothing. There were always ingredients to chop and crush, always a cauldron to heat or stir or stare at with furrowed eyebrows because it looked nothing like the picture in his textbook. The rather eccentric Professor Roan had grown on him too.

Whether Professor Roan liked him was a different question. Vinnie had a habit of getting distracted by one thing or another and turning up several minutes late to class. His eyes tended to skip over instructions on occasion, so he did botch his potion once in a while by misreading the rules. His precision in chopping ingredients was somewhat lacking too.

Nevertheless, when Vinnie had seen the notice posted in the Gryffindor Common Room, he had jumped at the chance to help out as an assistant Alchemist. As a first year he was mostly brewing simple potions like Cure for Boils and Wiggenweld Potion, with some help from older students. It was always tempting to have a go at some of the more risky and exciting healing potions, but Vinnie had managed to resist temptation so far.

Rather than do the History of Magic homework he’d been assigned, Vinnie decided to spend the morning volunteering in the Hospital Wing. He passed through the entrance to the waiting area, where a couple of patients with minor injuries sat in plush armchairs while lumos orbs floated overhead. A few other volunteers were drifting through as well. An older redhead girl waved at the volunteers at large, and Vinnie waved back enthusiastically. Matilda, he thought her name was. He’d seen her around the Gryffindor common room.

It was necessary to walk through the lounge on the way to the locker room, where a volunteer candy striper was sitting at the small table, drinking a cup of tea whilst poring over an open textbook. When he reached the locker room, Vinnie opened the fourth locker from the left, shoving his book bag inside. There he changed into his wing uniform, hanging up his Gryffindor robes on one of the room’s hooks.

He had just started towards the apothecary when he heard a scream. Vinnie stopped dead. He turned towards the wing’s greenhouse and rushed towards the source of the noise. The healer was walking away from the door, swearing under her breath, when Vinnie pushed it open to see what was the matter.

The air, which normally smelled of rich soil and exotic flowers, now smelled of death. The first thing he noticed was the other students. The Gryffindor girl he’d seen before had a hand over her mouth, eyes welling with tears. Near the door stood a first year Ravenclaw who wasn’t in uniform at all. “What happened?” It wasn’t until those words that Vinnie’s gaze turned on the plants. Rows upon rows of herbs and flowers, all of them wilted. His eyes went wide. “Can we…Can we help them?”

“I think they’re past helping,” Vinnie commented. Some wilting was reversible - he’d learned that much in his Herbology classes - but death itself? He wasn’t sure.

Vinnie wandered over to the planter box on the right where dittany was grown, and examined the leaves. Not one of them looked salvageable. “The wing apothecary’s out of dittany. And sprigs of mint,” he reported in an overly official way that sounded slightly ridiculous in his eleven year-old voice. Vinnie had planned to restock both in the morning after supplies had run low last night. Now that was looking more and more unlikely. “We can’t make Wiggenweld Potion without them.”

Vinnie rolled up the sleeves of his uniform’s robes, turning back towards the older Gryffindor girl. If he couldn’t do his job as an assistant alchemist, he could at least help with this strange new problem. The mystery of it intrigued him. “Should we clean up the dead plants? Maybe the Hogwarts greenhouses can send more.”

It was common knowledge that Matilda Nordstrom was obsessed with plants. Plant Girl, Leaf Licker, Daughter of Dirt and Mother Matilda were just a few of her many vegetation related nicknames. Mother Matilda, a play on Mother Earth still made her chuckle. Unfortunately she wasn’t laughing today. With crutches under her arms, she swung around the Greenhouse, inspecting the dead plants. All of them, just gone.

Healer Blustwick had come and gone, she was honestly in over her head on this one. They all were. "What happened?"

Hearing the voice, Tilly’s head whipped up, finding the first year, Joshua, who also liked to spend his time in the Greenhouse. She made her way over to him, frowning at the look on his face. It probably mirrored her own.

"Can we… Can we help them?" Looking back at the plants, a tear falling. All her hard, wasted. “I think they’re past helping.” The new voice made her jump, she hadn’t heard the other boy come in.

“Unfortunately, I would have to agree.” Shaking her head, this was going to take awhile.

“The wing apothecary’s out of dittany. And sprigs of mint,” The young Lion reported. She wasn’t sure of his name. “We can’t make Wiggenweld Potion without them.”

Matilda wiped her sweaty palms down the front of her apron. Hands feeling clammy and shaky. “I think the first step is going to be getting rid of all these plants. I’ll get the nurse back in here to help with that. Then, we will need to clean everything. I want to keep one of each plant, we can move them over to that table,” she said pointing to the side. “I want to study them, see if we can figure out what happened. I don’t think we should bring any other plants up here yet, not until we know how and why this happened.”

Letting out a long sigh, even more annoyed and angry at her leg injury and crutches, being able to walk more than a couple of steps would come in very handy right now. “We can get a detailed list from the Alchemists, see what they need, then someone can go down to the castle greenhouse and harvest some of the plants.”

Looking at the two boys standing there she smiled her best, fake, ‘We can do this!’ smile. “You guys in?”



((OOC: Nurse Blustwick can come in and vanish/Evanesco the dead plants whenever. Unfortunately, it is slightly above my pay grade.))

Vinnie grinned. “I’m in!” he told the older Gryffindor. He might have been out of his depth, but that didn’t deter his confidence in her words. “I’ll get a list from the wing apothecary, and be right back to help you guys sort out the plants.”

He took off towards the mini apothecary, which had quickly become familiar in his position as an Alchemist. Two nights before he had spent over an hour there, bouncing between the ingredients lining the walls and the workbenches to brew a batch of Cure for Boils potions. It was perhaps because of this newfound familiarity that Vinnie knew instantly something was wrong.

The air tasted sour and acrid. The potions along the wall he’d brewed two nights before had turned from blue to grey, condensation gathered near their stoppers. Further down, the Wiggenweld Potions had all gone a sickly brownish-green, one of them leaking dark fumes that smelled of rotten eggs. For a moment, Vinnie wondered if he had royally messed them up. He wasn’t the most skilled Alchemist among the student volunteers, and mistakes were easily made.

Yet the rest of the potions were exactly the same. All of them had turned, their color or smell or shimmer completely wrong. Potions that should have been thin as water were now thick and slimy in their bottles. The ingredients were no better. The plants had wilted as much as any in the greenhouse. Shrake spines and dried nettles had crumbled into dust in their jars. Spoiled flobberworm mucus was leaking from its container and down the cabinet, further contaminating already ruined ingredients.

Somehow, everything had gone bad in the matter of minutes between Vinnie arriving in the Hospital Wing that morning, and going to investigate the greenhouse.

Uh oh, he thought, taking in the scene with wide-eyed disbelief. It was one thing to have to go down to the Hogwarts greenhouses or potion classroom for fresh ingredients. This was another. They would have to start from scratch, brew every single healing potion all over again. It could take days to get their stores back up to what they had been.

Pulling himself back towards his mission, Vinnie abandoned the short list of ingredients that had been taken down the night before. The Alchemists would need everything, now. He took a heavy brown potion book from a shelf under one of the workbenches. The books contained the recipes - and therefore ingredients - for every single healing potion carried in the hospital wing. Vinnie pulled down a poster from the wall too, which listed how many of each potion the apothecary ought to have in its stores:

Full Medicinal Potions List
- Anti-Paralysis Potion: 21
- Antidote to Common Poisons: 30
- Antidote to Uncommon Poisons: 17
- Blood Replenishing Potion:…

Unfortunately, Vinnie suspected this situation would require arithmetic.

He stopped by the locker room to grab his bag. When he returned to the wing’s greenhouse, Healer Blustwick was already there. She had vanished most of the plants, leaving behind one of each. “The apothecary -” Vinnie told her, still half in disbelief. “Everything in there’s gone bad.”

Almost before Vinnie had finished speaking, Blustwick walked out of the room again in a hurry, looking extremely harried.

Vinnie went to a table at the side of the greenhouse, setting down his bag and pulling from it a quill and parchment. Alright, Antidote to Common Poisons has two mistletoe berries, and we need thirty of them, so it’s sixty mistletoe berries total for that potion… Merlin, how he hated arithmetic.

Nevertheless, he flipped through the book and noted down ingredients for one potion after another. Within a few, it was already starting to make him restless. He itched to move around. “How’s it going with the plants?” Vinnie asked the other two students. His list could wait, if they needed an extra pair of hands.

“I’m in! I’ll get a list from the wing apothecary, and be right back to help you guys sort out the plants.”

Tilly smiled, it was nice when someone was ready to get their hands dirty. Something she had no trouble doing. Hobbling over to the workbench, she deposited her bag with a thud and a sigh. All her work getting the plants to a good place, ruined.

Pulling her hair up in a bun, needing it out of her way, Matilda grabbed an apron, gloves and her wand. Leaving her crutches leaning against the workbench. They would just get in the way. Then began the process of getting rid of the dead.

“Episkey!” Matilda said, over and over. It was slow going, but effective. Then healer Blustwick came in and with a flourish of her wand, whole sections would vanish. Maybe one day she would be that powerful. It took a bit of time, but soon there was only one plant of each type left. Healer Blustwick left in a huff when the job was done, looking more frustrated than she had ever seen.

Hoping over to a work table, Matilda pointed her wand, one at a time, to the remaining plants and said “Locomotor!” Magic really was amazing. With her injured leg, using magic to bring the plants to her was just smart.

When Vinnie came back in, telling her about the potions that had gone bad, she swore under her breath. This was bad, like really bad.

“How’s it going with the plants?”

Matilda stopped and took a look around the greenhouse. “Well, we’re making a dent. If the potions are ruined we will need a lot of ingredients from the castle greenhouse. I want to make up some tea blends as well. Things to help with the common cold, coughs, sleep, anxiety. So I will need to add a few things to your list.”

‘Lavender, Slippery Elm, Chamomile, Marshmallow Root, Licorice Root, Peppermint, 2 Lemons, and a chunk of honeycomb in a jar.’

Looking over the list, she sighed. There was enough to cover everything on the list in the castle greenhouses, but it would make a large dent in their supplies. She would need to replant and reseed quite a few to get new plants growing.

“Ok, I think that list will be a huge start. We will need a bigger list once the potions storage is gone through. Do you want to go down to the greenhouse and start harvesting some of these plants?”