No One Laughs at God in a Hospital (Railynn)

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Nikolai had told her and Ripley to find Irina and return to Hogwarts, but Tatiana wasn’t sure if going back to school was something that she could handle. Besides, Daniel was still visiting Nikolai on the ward, and he had to return to Hogwarts, too. She excused herself to go up to the fifth floor, which was where the tearoom and hospital gift shop were located. There wouldn’t be so many Healers up there, and she could distract herself with whatever the shop had available.

Perhaps the most British distraction in the entire world was a cup of tea. Even the country’s Bulgarian transplants weren’t immune to the phenomenon, as Tania found herself in the tearoom a short time later, seated at a small table with a cup and saucer in front of her. She looked around at the others in the tearoom, all of them visitors to the hospital, too. Without any idea why any of them were there, she tried to imagine the possibilities. Not all of them were there because of tragedy; there was too much of that in the world already for one building to be full of it.

Irina had known something about the attack on Nikolai and Magdalena before it had happened, but she had left before explaining any more about it. Tatiana understood that simply being at the hospital was emotional for all of them, but her elder sister’s reaction stuck out. Because she had already purchased it and didn’t want them to go to waste, Tania sipped at her tea and picked at her scone, though neither were particularly appetizing to her.

@railynn

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Rai had been stationed in Hogsmede when someone needed help. It wasn't a student, but she was still the closest authority figure around so she helped and escorted them to Mungos. Thankfully, it didn't look like the villains had anything to do with it, just a bad accident. She had made sure the wizard was all settled before heading down to the tea room, planning to grab a spot of tea before heading back to the village.

She walked in and her eyes immediately fell on Tania. She was a student, currently, which confused Rai. She should be back at school right now. Rai immediately felt a sense of dread. Was Irina okay? Was Ripley? Nik? Rai didn't know them all well, but she knew them enough to know their names and be worried for them. Rai crossed over to her, sitting across from the girl and smiling softly. "Hey Tatiana. What's going on?" she tried to sound more like that was a 'what's wrong, can I help?' rather than just sounded curious.

@tatiana

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“Hey, Tatiana. What's going on?” Tania was surprised to hear her name. Across from her, a tall, slim young woman with shorter brown hair had sat down.

“Hi, Railynn.” Like Nikolai, Railynn Stughtattle had been in Gryffindor. She had been in Nikolai's year, too. More than that, however, she was one of the kidnapping victims, and now she was on her way to becoming a full-fledged Auror.

To Tatiana, it was inspiring that Railynn had had the courage to join the Auror training program after having been kidnapped. She had lived through the one thing that had frightened her most, and she hadn't let it ruin her life; it had only made her stronger.

Tania had seen Railynn in passing, since she was a member of the guard responsible for protecting Hogwarts. The Aurors hadn't sent their trainee to Saint Mungo's to accompany her, Irina, Ripley, and Daniel back to the school, though, or she would have known about the stabbing.

“It's Nikolai,” Tania said quietly, looking across the table at the older girl. “He was stabbed.” Her voice lingered on the abnormality. Most people only carried their wands on them. The fact that someone had been carrying anything like a knife on them meant that Nikolai's attacker had intended to cause harm.

Picking apart her scone, she retold to Railynn what she knew. “He was at a nightclub with Magdalena Ollivander,” she started, guessing that she would at least know Magdalena—a former Hufflepuff—to some degree. “And I guess these guys came and just… stabbed him.” Nikolai was a professional Quidditch player. He was muscular. He was an athlete. No one had said anything about an altercation before the stabbing. Nikolai must have put up a fight, though. No one could have debilitated him just like that.

“Irina and Ripley are here.” She stared down at a morsel of her scone and nudged it around her plate with the tip of her index finger. “Daniel Hoh—a family friend of ours from Durmstrang—is, too,” she added. He was like another brother to her; he always had been. “He's here for the Triwizard Tournament.” She felt the need to make it clear that Daniel hadn't come just to visit Nikolai.

“I thought our parents would be here by now.” Still, it was late, and the hospital must have had a cap on the number of visitors allowed to see any one patient at a time.

She took a sip of her lukewarm tea. “The Healers say he'll be okay, but…” Tania still wasn't convinced.

@railynn

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The younger girl greeted her and Rai smiled softly, patiently waiting for her to start explaining, if she needed to. She felt her heart skip at the mention of Tatanias brother, Nik, how Rai had been in Gryffindor with. She waited, then tried to keep a clam face as the girl said he had been stabbed. She continued to listen to the story. Magdalena... now that was a name Rai didn't know very well. A night club? Rai felt a sickening pang in her stomach. Club Indigo where Uriah worked. That had to be the place. She clenched her fists in her lap, hoping that her knuckles weren't turning so white that Tania would notice.

"I'm sure your parents are on their way," she said with a nod, her hands still clenched. "Tania, hey," she leaned forward slightly, trying for a small smile, "I'm going to be brutally honest for a moment. Stabbing is really serious, it is, but it's completely manageable for wizard healers. He's going to be just fine, I promise. They didn't mean to kill him, other wise they would have," oh sure, that's gonna make the kid feel better.

She sighed, "what I mean is, I know he's going to be fine. He just needs his rest. And so do you, I may add," she finally unclenched her hands and laid them flat on her lap instead. "Just take deep breaths and I promise everything will be okay."

@tatiana

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Railynn was quick to reassure her that her parents had to have been on their way there. They wouldn't have—couldn't have—ignored something so serious. Tatiana kept trying to tell herself that. Nikolai might have been an adult and out of school, but he would probably appreciate seeing their mother and father, too.

“Tania, hey.” She looked back up at Railynn, only to give the older girl a worried look when she admitted that she was about to be “brutally honest” with her. Tania had no idea what she was going to say; she didn't want to hear something sugar-coated, as though she were much younger and incapable of understanding, but hearing the honest truth didn't sound much better. “Stabbing is really serious, it is, but it's completely manageable for wizard Healers. He's going to be just fine, I promise. They didn't mean to kill him, otherwise they would have.”

“That's what I don't understand.” They could have just killed him with one spell—painlessly—but the person or people who had attacked Nikolai had wanted to hurt him and cause him physical injury. “Why did they use a knife, Railynn?“ Tania asked, speaking her thoughts aloud. “Because they wouldn't get a sentence in Azkaban?” If they had used the Cruciatus Curse against him, that would have meant prison time for their use of an Unforgivable Curse alone.

Apparently, however, that wasn't the topic Railynn had intended to introduce. She said that what she had meant to say was that Niko would be “just fine”; he simply needed some rest. “And so do you, I may add.”

Tania nodded. She knew that she needed to sleep, although an even better solution would have been to turn her thoughts off for an hour or three. Unfortunately, save for begging Railynn to wipe her memories of Nikolai's hospitalization, there wasn't much that she could do.

Taking deep breaths was the last thing that she thought would help, but Tania humored Railynn and did just that. She inhaled slowly and then exhaled slowly, focusing her attention on the crumbs she'd picked off of her scone.

She looked at Railynn again. “…Why are you here?”

@railynn

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"Because they were threatening him," Rai explained. This type of behavior made sense to her, it was what she had studied. "Like I said, if they wanted to really hurt him they would have," she added again. She understood, for the most part, how their minds worked. After a few deep breaths, Tania asked Rai why she was there. "I just had to drop somebody off who was hut in Hogsmede. They're okay," she added with a soft smile. "I better go," she said gently, standing up and crossing over to Tania and bending down beside her. "Have faith. The world won't always be so dark. The sun will rise," she promised, reaching out to gently squeeze the younger girls hand before leaving. She'd be all right, they all would.

@tatiana
(rai out.)

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Tania listened as Railynn explained that the people who had attacked her brother with a knife had used the weapon for the sake of threatening him. She took her word for it when she said that they would have hurt him more severely if they had really wanted to, although Tania wasn't sure that she wanted to think about the other possible outcomes. Her head, she thought, wasn't always the most enjoyable place to be, but she felt bad for being so annoying and saying what she felt out loud.

Hearing that Railynn was only at the hospital because she had had to transport somebody else there from Hogsmeade made Tania feel somewhat better (and far less self-absorbed). “They're okay,” Railynn said, although she excused herself to leave. They had been conversing for long enough, and she had to get back to work.

“Have faith,” she advised, and Tania knew that it wasn't a bad idea. Optimism sounded like a wonderful change of pace. As Railynn squeezed her hand, she added, “The world won't always be so dark. The sun will rise.”

How much longer would that take? Railynn had left Tania with more questions than answers, but maybe everyone became more sure of themselves once they had left school.

@railynn

(Fin.)