sortinghat_logs | Stop and smell the grass

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Stop and smell the grass

WHO: Kurloz Makara
TONE: somewhat macabre
RATING: PG-13
WHEN: 13 October, early evening
WHERE: Library
WHAT: Kurloz is taking advantage of Hogwarts' massive library and delving into the medical biology section. (btw he's not wearing his makeup, just his eyeliner)
STATUS: ONGOING

Kurloz had decided to spend the majority of his Saturday sketching. Not completely unusual, and some of the sketches had even been lighthearted ones of the outdoor scenery. He'd even bothered to collect one of the autumn leaves and draw it out in exquisite detail, but then he'd gotten lost in the veins of the plant. Veins had led to thoughts of blood, and blood had led to here, the library, in the shadowy section on biology. He hadn't bothered with the general Healing tomes - he'd gone straight for the titles regarding the transformation and distortion of anatomy through spellwork, staring fascinated at the images depicting various gruesome twisted creatures and failed experiments.

He sat at one of the desks, several of the books piled at his arm as he scanned through one in front of him, eyes fixated on the detailed water-coloured painting of two wizards that had been merged to share one spine, both of their faces in agony as the writer noted that the subjects had not lasted long under the pain.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Although it wasn't often that she was seen outside of the hospital wing, Dolores occasionally did venture out for a change of scenery and company that wasn't ill or injured. Today had found her drawn to the library, where her medically-inclined nature had taken her to the biology section. She was always so fascinated by the ways in which the Wizarding and Muggle medical professions differed, and as such their interpretations of the way the human body worked and how it might be fixed.

She recognised Kurloz the moment she saw him, but left him to himself for a few minutes while she selected a book - a leather-bound volume on the rarer diseases known to inflict humankind - then quietly approached him, clearing her throat to announce her presence and smiling softly.

"Hello, Kurloz.. do you mind if I join you?"

Kurloz glanced up and took note of her, smiling warmly and shaking his head, gesturing for the seats around the table he was at. He carefully pushes his pile aside so there'd be more space for Dolores.

"Thank you, dear."

She took a seat and placed her book down when he cleared the space, glancing over at him after a moment and then at the pages of the book open in front of him.

"Is this school work?"

... Really, she doubted it was, but it didn't hurt to ask.

He paused and got his bag out from under the table, taking out his notebook and a pencil to scribble out:

No, just got curious and went right on digging until this here brother ended up in some proper weird stuff.

He held the notebook up to her so she could read his message, smiling with just a tiny hint of bashfulness as he closed the gruesome library book.

Dolores waited patiently, and smiled when she read his message, hiding it behind her hand as she laughed softly. When he closed the book she tipped her head slightly to read the title, making a quiet sound of curiosity.

"That's very advanced for someone your age. Do you understand it all?"

She clasped her hands together, resting them on the table in front of her.

With a moment of hesitation he scratched the back of his head and slowly nodded, taking the time to scribble out another message.

Didn't do much other than reading up on miraculous happenings like this last year. Obviously a brother can't understand all of it but it's not up and impossible.

"Of course not, you're a very bright young man."

She shifted and rested her chin on her hand, then looked over to the words he'd written again. A tiny frown twitched at her expression, just for a moment.

Now that made Kurloz smile distinctly bashful, a pleased flush showing on his (for once) bare cheeks. His hand moved automatically to touch his chin and fan down, lips mouthing 'thank you' as he kept smiling.

Noticing her frown, he tilted his head in question, staring at her with huge eyes.

Seeing how pleased he was showing so obviously on his face cleared the frown in an instant, and she gave a small nod.

"You're welcome." Then the staring, and she looked back at him calmly. "It must be time consuming, to communicate like that," she said. "You must be very patient."

Kurloz smiled awkwardly and shook his head, writing out:

It's not so bad - it's nice just to be at school again.

She returned his smile, a soft upturn of the corners of her lips.

"You must have missed all your friends, sweetheart. Are you settling in well?"

His smile grew at that and he nodded vigorously, hair flopping into his face a bit. He quickly jotted down:

[nothing's up and changed

well, now a brother's in the wrong class and all but that's cool.

Ah, yes, he'd been kept back a year hadn't he? That had been some unfortunate timing, but he didn't seemed to be at all upset about it. Another quick look was shot to the book he'd been reading and she shifted her chair around just a little.

"Might I see what's interesting you?"

Again the hesitation was apparent, and then he slowly opened the book for the both of them to see, slowly and carefully turning between the pages he'd been perusing earlier. Here what looked like the earliest attempts on the Animagus spell, then attempts at merging humans with animals, humans with other humans, body parts, and so on and so forth.

"It's alright, dear, don't be shy."

When the book was opened she looked down at it unflinchingly. Some of the examples were things she had seen before, albeit rarely, while working at St. Mungo's, and it didn't faze her at all to see them on paper.

"Once," she said quietly, glancing across at him as if sharing a secret. "I treated a patient who had done something similar to this." She placed her finger against one of the pictures, one illustrating a badly botched Animagus transformation.

Kurloz's eyes widened with awe rather than horror and the beginnings of a smile tweaked at the edges of his gaping mouth.

She noted that smile, and chuckled gently. Somehow, she hadn't thought that kind of thing would faze him.

"Oh, there are many things I might tell you about the time I spent working at St. Mungo's."

If possible this only served to make him perk up more, his eyes practically twinkling as he leaned forward expectantly in his seat.

Dolores chuckled and pressed two fingers to her lips to hide her smile, then scooted her chair closer, putting them shoulder to shoulder in front of the book. She flicked through it, humming and making interested sounds now and then - not interested in the dark arts themselves, as such, but certainly their effects.

"You would be shocked, my dear, by how many accomplished witches and wizards can find themselves in peril thanks to their overconfidence and pride. Magic is not something to be trifled with, even in the most experienced hands."

She paused on one of the illustrations, eyes lingering on the look of agony depicted on the face of the subject.

"And static drawings are not something which can compare to the reality."

Kurloz watched as she flicked through the book and took the time to write his next message neatly:

did you manage to get them all back together again and normal? how were they after all that?

"Disturbed, as anyone might be."

She said the words quietly, seriously, as if to impress upon him that it was not something trifling, and she placed a hand gently on his shoulder.

"But given time, and patience, most of my patients recovered fully."

Her fingers squeezed lightly, then she let him go.

"I saw many young Aurors in my time there."

At the touch to his shoulder Kurloz met Dolores' eyes, face suddenly expressionless as he understood what she was saying in subtext. He gave her a small smile, the one he gave his mother when she was worried and asking how he was feeling, the one that made her and the doctors stop suspecting he was unhinged.

helped a lot of really badly hurt patients huh miss?

It didn't do much to fool her but she smiled in return and looked across to what he'd written, giving a small nod. She'd been at the hospital for over fifteen years when Sybille had warned her that they might be figuring her out, and she hadn't stayed for long enough for them to reach a conclusion. Vampires had their rights, but in the end, they'd always be second class citizens.

"I did, yes.. Though I see a fair share of badly hurt people even here."

that bad here? really?

He looked genuinely surprised at that - sure, he knew students got into accidents and occasionally a few duels got out of hand but he'd never thought anything extreme would happen at school.

"Ah, yes.. though it is mostly the professors making nuisances of themselves."

Her nose wrinkled as she laughed softly, turning a few more pages and looking at the images without even a flicker to show if she was disturbed by them.

"There have been a few accidents. One student was bitten by a plant during Herbology during my first year of employment."

Stop and smell the grass

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