Mostly An Accident || Elias

Saturday, September 25, 1920
Hospital Wing
4:54 PM

It wasn't the afternoon she thought she would have, but Rae wasn't complaining. Sooner or later, the girl would've made her way down to the hospital wing to sign in for a shift. She was always eager to put on her nurse's uniform and grab a chart. With all the chaos that had taken place, there had been an uptick in patients. Nothing could've made her happier. If she was meant to become a competent healer someday, she would need the practice. For that reason, she could appreciate the more reckless among them and their penchant for getting themselves injured.

She also wasn't afraid to take matters into her own hands and procure for herself some patients.

Elias wasn't one of the reckless lot. The poor boy had claimed to be looking for a quiet place when he'd stumbled into the Spellcaster's clubroom earlier. It had been exceptionally poor decision-making for a Ravenclaw and an opportunity for growth on her end.

His mistake would be her Saturday evening.

Rae led the way into the hospital wing, trusting he was keeping up. There was already some mild reddening around his wrist, but it wasn't anything she didn't think they could fix. Worst case, they'd call the head nurse over, and she would handle it.

"You have a seat here and I'll be right back," she said, guiding the boy toward one of the beds that had already been made.

Without waiting to see if he actually did, Rae moved off to the locker room to get properly attired. One of her favourite parts of being on the wing was getting to change into her nurse's uniform. It was the only time she liked to pull her unruly head of curls into a neat and manageable bun of ponytail. Rae took pride in ensuring her uniform was always neatly pressed and pristine. If there was a question of which club the girl took seriously, the answer would be obvious.

Once she was changed, she moved back to the patient's area with a new chart in hand.

"Okay, let's take a look at that wrist." Rae looked him overly briefly, already making a few initial jottings. "And does anything else hurt?" There was blood, and where there was blood, there were likely other injuries.

Only time would tell if she was so lucky.

Elias perched on the edge of the hospital bed, legs swinging slightly. The white sheets were tucked so tightly around the mattress that they barely moved when he sat down. Everything in the hospital wing was clean and sharp-smelling, though it seemed chaotic somehow. It was nothing like the dusty club room they'd just left.

He watched Ruth disappear into what must be a changing room. She'd known exactly where to go, exactly what to do. Like she belonged here.

When she came back, she looked completely different. The neat uniform, the pulled-back hair, the official-looking chart in her hands. She moved around like she was in charge, not like someone who'd just been hexing first years for practice.

"My wrist," he said when she asked, "And my forehead got cut." He touched the spot above his eyebrow where the debris had caught him. The bleeding had mostly stopped, but it was still red and sore.

The uniform made her seem older. More serious. But she was the same person who'd cast that dancing jinx on him, wasn't she? The same person who'd exploded those dummies while he was still hopping around all helpless.

"Are you actually a nurse?" he asked, then immediately felt stupid for questioning her. But she was a fourth year, not a grown-up. "I mean... do you work here?"

He shifted on the bed, trying not to jostle his wrist. The whole situation felt strange. Like when Mum would scold him for tracking mud through the shop and then immediately start fussing over whether he'd hurt himself falling in the alley.

"My wrist really hurts," he said, holding it up for inspection. "It feels... wrong. Like the bones aren't sitting right."

He glanced around the hospital wing, taking in the rows of empty beds and the cabinets full of potions and bandages. Why were they all half-empty?

Wrist....scribble.

Forehead...scribble.

Nothing else? That certainly made things easier. Having been there and knowing the explosion she'd cast, Rae was relieved to learn that the damage was relatively contained. Not such a disaster after all. If nothing else, she would argue to Barlowe later that it was proof of her growing control when it came to her magic. Precocious as her magic had been when she really started to hone it, it had also been uncontained. The girl had injured herself nearly as often as she managed to achieve the effects she set out for. It was a rough patch that she was happy to be moving past.

"Are you actually a nurse?"

"Hm?" Gently, she applied pressure to his wrist, wanting to feel the bone and test his pain threshold. "I'm sort of a nurse," she replied, gingerly turning the hand to get a look at the other side. He'd said the bones didn't feel like they were sitting right. That could be for a few reasons. "I've been coming by here since my first year, helping out, tending patients. It was little things at first. Changing bedsheets, bandages, all that. Eventually started getting trusted with the bigger stuff--don't jostle it too much."

She let his hand go, moving toward one of the cabinets. With the way magic cast within the wing had become temperamental, Rae figured Elias may have appreciated her using more manual means this go around. The boy had likely had enough excitement for one day. A simple sterilisation charm could easily rocket the boy into the ceiling. Interesting as that would make her evening...she would refrain.

When she returned to his bed, she was accompanied by a few supplies. Rubbing alcohol, cotton gauze, and wrapping bandages, as well as a smaller one to stick to his forehead when it was cleaned.

"Now that the healer's up and left, and they've started recruiting volunteers. I guess you can say I do kinda work here now. This will sting a bit." She got the cotton soaked with the alcohol, then began wiping at the easier injury. There was a practiced carefulness in the way she worked, built from literal years of administering care.

"My first year, there was a nurse who always had muffins for the little group of us. That was all I'd needed at the time." Directionless as she'd been at 11, Rae had always followed her stomach.

"How come you never tried to dodge when I shot the first spell at you?" That question had followed her all the way to the wing.