Memory Shore [Max]

[dahlia jade greyback]

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March 8th, 2028

Thwack. That was the last noise she heard as an incredibly thick troll paw had punched her in the side of the head. If that hadn't knocked her out cold, the smell would have. Waking up in St. Mungo's unaware of what happened was even worse. According to a bank representative (who may have been one of their lawyers as well - she wasn't sure), one of the security trolls mistook an order it was given, confusing Cursebreaker for break-in. Dahlia was fairly certain that Gringotts didn't want to be sued, and essentially enticed her to sign paperwork without realizing what she was doing. Exploitative? Sure. But that was the name of the game in this business. And she knew they wouldn't want to lose out on their investment. Training new Cursebreakers cost a ton after all.

The headache she had wasn't even the worst part of it all either. Dahlia was more pissed that she hadn't had the chance to punch the troll back. How was that even fair? If they were going to scuffle, she wanted an even shot at it. Being sucker punched in the skull by a troll was apparently an amazing injury to live through too. At least that was what most of the mediwizards had been telling her. It was kind of embarrassing to be hospitalized over this too. Getting cursed in a crypt or trapped and starved in a tomb was so much cooler. She knew that eventually Max would get word too, considering this was the same ward she worked in. Rhys probably knew already too. Maybe they had already been whilst she slept. Time sort of drifted in and out for her, and all she knew was that it had been a couple of days since the accident.

Shifting in her hospital bed, she stared blankly down at the breakfast that had been provided. Oatmeal and a banana. Even thinking about opening her mouth right now hurt her head. Everything was apparently fixed up, the teeth that had been knocked loose either replaced or spelled back to the way they had been prior. Still, she groaned at the idea and twirled her spoon around in the soggy bowl of oats instead. Eventually it would be cool enough to eat.

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[maxima ruqayyah greyback]

March 8, 2028

Part of what had drawn Max to working in Creature-Induced Injuries was because of her connections to her werewolf half-siblings, who would have been dead upon being attacked by a werewolf without the kind of intervention Healers such as those at St. Mungo's provided. When she started her training as a nurse there, she had expected that she might have occasional interactions with her own friends and relatives but that they would be few and far between. That had been wishful thinking, though, because it was impossible to count the number of ways patients could find themselves getting healed up in Creature-Induced Injuries alone, never mind the rest of the hospital.

Such an example came when Dahlia had gotten hit in the head by a troll. It was sort of impressive that that was what had led to her hospitalization, Max thought when she'd been informed of it after arriving at work that morning, but she was concerned in terms of the fact that it was Dahlia who was in the hospital.

There was a good chance that Dahlia was still asleep, Max considered as she headed over to where Dahlia's bed was on the ward, but she didn't really mind that. Dahlia was a patient; she wasn't there to entertain her at work. Max didn't want to get in the way of any of her coworkers who were responsible for Dahlia's care, either, as long as they were treating her properly.

dahlia jade greyback

[dahlia jade greyback]

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"C'est horrible..." Dahlia muttered under her breath after blowing on the oatmeal a few times and finally taking a bite. The texture felt completely off to her tastebuds, though that could have because of the head injury still. She could have sworn that in the moment she had gotten slugged in the head, she could taste purple. And the oats definitely didn't have that. Even once it cooled down she had a feeling it wasn't going to go over well. She had a better chance with the banana once the headache stopped, plus it would double as a snack if she needed one later. That was assuming it would stop in the first place.

Leaning back into her bed, she felt the soft feathered cushion of the pillow. At least that gave some sort of relief to her. Turning her head to the side to see if that would make everything feel better, she thought she saw a Max-shaped figure. This was the creature induced injury ward, right? That meant Max would be here if she was on to work. "Max," she groaned, though it was more because words still weren't forming correctly in her extremely dry and cracked throat. Hadn't there been a class of water on her bedside at some point too? Slowly flipping her head to look to the other side where there was a nightstand, there was indeed a glass. An empty one. Right. She'd drank all of it upon waking up earlier.

She still had no clue if that person was Max, as Max-shaped and completely delirious from a troll-induced concussion had led her to have numerous nightmares the last several days. There were points where she didn't even know if she'd been awake or not. She still wondered if that was due to the potions she was being given or from the troll. "Max?" she repeated, hoping it actually was her sister.

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[maxima ruqayyah greyback]

March 8, 2028

Max was near enough in time to overhear Dahlia describe something in French as "horrible", which didn't need any translation. On the positive side, her complaint meant that she was well enough to complain, and Max kept that in mind as she approached her half-sister's bed.

"Max," Dahlia said aloud, though she didn't sound fully with the program. That wasn't unexpected, considering the circumstances.

At the mention of her name, Max drew closer to Dahlia.

"Max?"

"Yeah, Dahlia, it's Max," she confirmed gently, walking up to where she was standing beside where Dahlia's head was positioned rather than at the foot of her hospital bed so that Dahlia wouldn't have to put any more energy than necessary into interacting with her. Max knew that she didn't really need to ask Dahlia how she was, considering that she was stuck at St. Mungo's after having been hit in the head by a troll, but she wanted to gauge from her how she had been doing nevertheless. "How're you feeling?" she wondered, feeling that didn't need to go into the whole spiel about asking Dahlia to rate her pain level. At least, she didn't yet.

dahlia jade greyback

[dahlia jade greyback]

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It seemed her vision wasn't completely shot from getting thwacked in the head. Being able to pick her head up enough to see was definitely an improvement, but she couldn't do it for too long before the creeping stiffness of atrophied muscles started to roll back in. That part was going to be the most difficult of the recovery. One of the doctors, who said they were a physical therapist of sorts, told her that it would take a while to get everything moving back to the way it had been. Not to mention the concussion she dealt with. Magically healed or not, blows to the head had to be treated seriously. Regardless of how she faired when she eventually walked out of St. Mungo's, she was going to be on desk duty and research for the other cursebreakers for at least the next six months.

"Like shit," she responded as she turned her head to look up at Max as she got closer. That had to be obvious though. "I wish I could have punched the troll back," Dahlia added, trying to grin but that only caused a ripple of pain up both sides of her face and towards her temples. She still would have lost, but at least it would have shown strength on her end. The worst part about the pain was that it was only going to be amplified the next few days when the full moon arrived. Now that was going to be a fun transformation. "Is there a way to get better food? And maybe tea?" She didn't want to turn Max into her personal caterer, but she definitely needed real food. Oatmeal for the rest of her stay wasn't going to cut it. Not to mention that the wolf needed energy for the transformation, even if she was going to be subdued throughout it.

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[maxima ruqayyah greyback]

March 8, 2028

"Like shit," Dahlia replied to her question. Though the way she was feeling might not have been the greatest, it was another positive that she was perfectly coherent while speaking. She added that she wished she could have punched the troll back. Max understood, of course, why she felt that way, but she was glad that she hadn't gotten a punch in. Dahlia was lucky that she hadn't been more seriously injured, and punching a troll might not have led to the same outcome.

"Is there a way to get better food? And maybe tea?" Dahlia then asked her.

St. Mungo's had moved to using some Muggle technology that had been made capable of functioning in a magical environment, just as the Ministry had, but the hospital hadn't become so high-tech that patients could order food to be delivered to their hospital beds beyond the standard offerings. Unfortunately, Max was working, so she couldn't exactly leave to go grab Dahlia something more palatable from the tearoom herself, either. "There's the tearoom with food upstairs, but I won't be able to get anything for you there until I've got a break, at the earliest," Max explained apologetically. She felt bad about making Dahlia wait until after she had finished the shift that she had only just started to get something that was actually edible, but there wasn't too much that she could do.

It was the middle of the week, too, which meant that Max almost certainly couldn't get hold of her mother to bring Dahlia food from outside the hospital. Initially, she didn't think that she had too many options. She couldn't create food out of thin air, but she could summon what she already had. "Er, I know it's not exactly a 'meal', but I put a pumpkin pasty in my bag before work…" Max then mentioned. It was probably better than nothing, though.

dahlia jade greyback

[dahlia jade greyback]

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So essentially she was going to have to wait for any kind of real 'food'. Eating the slop in the bowl in front of her would make the nurses happy and then between buttering them up and Max, she could probably score a couple good meals here. It was too bad food delivery apps hadn't been integrated into the magic phones. She'd kill to have fast food delivered by broom. "If you could, I would appreciate it," she answered about getting food during Max's break. Most of her attention was on the watery oatmeal, which slid off the spoon in a manner that made her think of the last time she'd thrown up from drinking too much. Same texture and color too. If there had been anything but painkiller potions in her stomach, the mere thought of her oatmeal looking like vomit would have made her stomach turn. Speaking of the potions, it was amazing she even had an appetite right now. Prior to the meal arriving, she had been convinced she wasn't hungry. But even in its unappetizing glory, her stomach rumbled the second she saw it.

"No, no," she raised a hand of wearily to wave off Max's offer of the snack. "That is yours. I don't want to take that from you." Her stomach growled again, louder this time. Hesitantly spooning the dribbling oatmeal into her mouth to help stop the stomach squelching, she was surprised to find that it wasn't that bad. The liquid form it had made a lot more sense once she swallowed, the oatmeal infinitely easier to eat and digest this way. She still wanted whatever the tearoom had though. After barely eating these last few days, her hunger was voracious. And that was not the werewolf speaking.

The thought hadn't crossed her mind until now, but the full moon had to be coming up soon right? "Max, what day is it?" A sudden surge of panic overtaking the headache as she tried to look for her phone. Yesterday it had been on her side table, though she couldn't recall if she had looked at it since. "Do they know I'm a werewolf? They haven't said anything about Wolfsbane I think..." Were they just going to risk it and shove Aware-Wolf down her throat on the day of?

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[maxima ruqayyah greyback]

March 8, 2028

Although Dahlia declined her offer of the pumpkin pasty that she had brought to work with her, she was more receptive of the idea of getting something else to eat when Max was able to go on a break. That was fine by Max, who was also glad to see that Dahlia had developed an appetite for the food that she had been given, hospital food though it was.

"Max, what day is it?" Dahlia asked her suddenly, sounding almost frantic. Max was about to respond that it was the eighth, and then Dahlia continued that she wasn't sure if the other staff members at the hospital who were responsible for her care knew that she was a werewolf. She said that she didn't think that they had said anything to her about Wolfsbane Potion. Obviously, that was a problem when the full moon was a few short days away.

"Sh*t," Max muttered. If they hadn't put information about her lycanthropy on Dahlia's chart, that could be catastrophic. The dosage and timing related to the administration of Wolfsbane Potion was more complicated than most potions, and anyone working in Creature-Induced Injuries—of all the specialties at St. Mungo's—had to know that. Aware Wolf was one way of averting any potential danger to Dahlia or anyone else, but it wasn't yet their go-to.

At the same time, it was equally possible that Dahlia simply didn't have any recollection of anyone's having brought up Wolfsbane Potion while she had been hospitalized so far. It was important not to jump to conclusions either way, Max knew, lest Dahlia ended up being given an extra dosage of the potion.

Whatever had happened, Max felt that she needed to get to the bottom of it. It was her responsibility as a nurse and as Dahlia's half-sister.

"Yeah, I'll check on that," Max told Dahlia, the sense of urgency evident in her voice. "It's the eighth, so if they haven't given you Wolfsbane yet, obviously they should have done."

dahlia jade greyback

[dahlia jade greyback]

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Unless a second new discovery had been made and Wolfsbane could be give intravenously, Dahlia was almost positive she was days behind on taking the potion. As much as she wanted to attribute the sudden intestinal knot she felt on the bland oatmeal, the horror of turning without one of the two potions stopping the werewolf was very, very real. Dahlia had only messed up once before, during her brief vacation whilst stuck outside of the UK when Hag's Fever was ravaging the country. Once again, that was very much not on her because finding Wolfsbane in stock in the south of France was basically impossible. That and she didn't have the money to buy any by the time the moon came calling. Locking herself away in the basement of an abandoned building miles outside of her hometown was about all she could that time, lucky that no groups of teenagers decided to go ghost hunting that night. Being stuck in St. Mungo's and on the verge of wolfing out was so much different though. She would have no problem if they dragged her over to the hotel and tossed her in there, where at least she'd be safe from harming anyone. Concussion be damned, this turn was going to suck no matter what at this point.

"If they can't get Aware Wolf, I can give you money to buy it from Slug and Jiggers..." she offered. It wasn't nearly as expensive as Wolfsbane, but every werewolf wanted it these days, so it was hard to come by sometimes. She didn't blame them though, she agreed that the side effects were so much better with this new potion. Or lack of side effects, really. "This sucks..." One thing after another, really. She barely cared about the troll at this point, as turning was so much more of an immediate threat to her livelihood and the well-being of others. As much as Dahlia disliked dealing with people, she didn't want to break free from the hospital and go on an uncontrolled rampage.

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[maxima ruqayyah greyback]

March 8, 2028

If the hospital couldn't acquire Aware Wolf itself, Dahlia offered, she could give her money to go buy some at Slug & Jiggers in Diagon Alley. Max wasn't sure that was going to be necessary at that point, though she gave Dahlia a quick nod. Whatever lengths she had to go to in order to advocate for her half-sister's well-being, she would. Dahlia wasn't even at St. Mungo's for something related to her lycanthropy; it was just the timing of her having been hit in the head by a troll. The good news was that she was on the right ward for anything to do with her lycanthropy, too.

"This sucks…" Dahlia added. That was true, but there was no need for either of them to panic until Max had gotten the chance to speak with some of her coworkers to determine what had or hadn't happened with Dahlia's care in her absence.

"Save your money for now," Max said as reassuringly as she could. Dahlia didn't need the added stress of figuring out how to handle the full moon with a head injury. "I've got it under control." As much as it was possible to have the situation under control, anyway, it was under control. Nothing was at risk of happening immediately, and Dahlia was otherwise stable.

"Here. Let me check your chart," Max mentioned, though she already had Dahlia's chart in hand by then and was ready to check what was in it. Her first job was to figure out, more than anything, if it was noted that Dahlia was a werewolf. Second would be if she had been given Wolfsbane Potion and by whom (or who had been working when she should have been given it).

dahlia jade greyback

[dahlia jade greyback]

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Closing her eyes as a new throbbing sensation came into the side of her head, Dahlia tried to compose herself. Obviously if something went wrong medical-wise, this was the best place she could be. It was just unbelievably frustrating, and she was starting to come to the realization that she was injured and couldn’t do anything about it. Slowly lowering her head back down on her pillow helped immensely, and after a moment, she was able to open her eyes again and look at Max. She was responding about the Wolfsbane (or Aware Wolf), saying that Dahlia could save her money and that everything would be under control. Merlin, it was a good thing that Max worked here. It was reassurance that everything was going to be fine. She hadn’t something like that since before her mother was killed, and even then, it had only happened when she was really little and sick. All before the werewolf, of course.

”Okay,” she responded slowly as she watched her sister looking at what she assumed to be her chart. ”I am probably going to be here for a while, aren’t I?” The only thought that kept spinning through her head was how incredibly stupid it was that she had gotten taken down in this manner, instead of by a trap or cursed object. And also lucky that the troll hadn’t accidentally killed her. Dahlia already couldn’t remember what it was that she had been diagnosed with again. Some sort of concussion. But every part of her body hurt, starting with the head and shoulders and basically all the way down. She had never been in a car or broom crash, but assumed it was similar to this.

”Does Rhys know?” It was a thought that had crossed her mind earlier, but she was trying to fill the empty space with anything that made it seem like she wasn’t hanging on by a thread. He probably did know, as well as all of her colleagues. Injuries were typically sent out to everyone whenever it happened, mostly as a precaution and warning to stay on your toes in the field. Apparently they were going to have to do that at the bank now too.

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[maxima ruqayyah greyback]

March 8, 2028

Dahlia shut her eyes for a moment, which wasn't unexpected under the circumstances. The hospital's lights were bright anyway because they needed to be, but Max could only imagine that their brightness felt worse after being whacked in the head by a troll, of all creatures. For what had happened, she was doing pretty well. The outcome could have been more severe, though checking on the status of her treatment in relation to her lycanthropy was also very necessary.

"Okay," Dahlia answered her when she mentioned looking at her chart. "I am probably going to be here for a while, aren't I?"

It was hard for Max to say, mostly because she hadn't had a chance to read through everything that had been noted in Dahlia's chart before she'd posed that question to her. The main problem, of course, was that Dahlia had suffered a concussion. Though a concussion itself was less of a magical concern than a lot of what they treated at St. Mungo's, it was still concerning because of how it had occurred. Trolls were powerful—generally stupid, yes, but powerful—and not to be taken lightly. As was the case with any patient, Dahlia would need to stay at St. Mungo's until it was clear that she was well enough to go home.

"Maybe a few days?" Max replied. She knew that it probably wasn't what Dahlia wanted to hear, but there was a lot outside of her control. Adding in the full moon, there was a chance that the Healers would want to keep her in the hospital longer just to make sure that nothing would go wrong during her transformation, highly unlikely though it was that anything would happen. Between her time at Hogwarts and then her training as a nurse, Max had gotten used to the idea that things didn't always go according to plan, but she didn't want to add to Dahlia's list of what-ifs by bringing it up. Part of healing a concussion included not thinking so much.

After that, Dahlia asked if Rhys knew that she was at St. Mungo's, to which Max shook her head. "Erm, I don't know if he knows yet," she admitted, speaking as she checked the information in Dahlia's chart. It was possible that he knew already because they were both Curse-Breakers and Dahlia's injury had occurred on the job, but Max could only speculate. "I didn't know until I got here, and I haven't had a chance to contact him," she explained. "Do you want me to let him know you're here?"

dahlia jade greyback

[dahlia jade greyback]

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She slowly pushed her head deeper into her pillow. A few days? That didn’t sound as optimistic as she had hoped. Dahlia had heard of cursebreakers being stuck in the hospital for months from less. It was like something was trying to prevent her from doing her job around every corner. First it was Hag’s Fever and now this. She didn’t think her colleagues understood how frustrating this was. They were going to start talking about how unlucky she was eventually too. She could already see it happening. Thank Merlin they didn’t care about werewolves, and she had Rhys to back her up, because that would have made her run off to some other country again. The fact that she was getting flashbacks of her time returning to Beauxbatons after her bite was not fun at all.

As for if Rhys knew, Max didn’t seem to know either. It sort of sucked, because he was her emergency contact if something like this were to happen. But if he was out of the country on a job, then there was no one else to contact. She probably needed to update that to include Max once she got out, assuming that was okay. Not to mention, Dahlia couldn’t even remember if Rhys was around right now. Trying to think about it only made her head hurt more, so she was trying to not do much of that right now. ”If you could…” she trailed off, closing her eyes as a wave of pain started to radiate through her head again. Apparently, the medicine was wearing off. ”Sorry Max…I think I am going to need to rest more.” Sleep and medicine. That was the only way she was going to get better now. This sucked.

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[maxima ruqayyah greyback]

March 8, 2028

Understandably, Dahlia didn't want to converse at length. She did request that she let Rhys know, though, which Max was happy to do. (On the other hand, she wasn't thrilled with some of her colleagues, who seemed to have dropped the ball in relation to Dahlia's care.) Dahlia then added in apology that she thought she needed to rest more.

Max, who needed to get to work anyway, was in agreement. "Yeah," she told Dahlia gently. "You should rest. I'm working now if you need anything, alright? You're going to be okay."

dahlia jade greyback
Fin!