OVER MY HEAD

OPEN!

Luck was not really on her side today. She knew that it could be worse. As a glass-half-full type of person, Maggie knew that it was lucky that the owner of the stables had come by when she had. She had sprained her ankle--not even doing anything cool of course, but just by literally walking. Then to make matters worse, she had caught her fall into a plant that she was either allergic to or was just… well, she didn’t think that Contessa would have poisonous plants so close to the trails, but there was definitely something going on with those plants because her hands had started to get all red and itchy. She didn’t know what was up with that. But even with all of that, she knew that she could still be out there if it weren’t for Contessa coming by. So maybe luck was on her side just a little bit. Just not enough for her to see a hole before she tripped in it. Obviously. But she was sure that it would get fixed up soon enough.

She had never actually been to the hospital by herself before. She had always been with her parents, or at least one of them, and she knew that she was nearly an adult but… she had to admit that she’d really rather one of them be here now. Being here by herself, with a weird rash and a sprained ankle was just not fun at all. She wouldn’t have even known the right place to go if the welcome witch hadn’t pointed her in the right direction. This just wasn’t something that she’d had to do by herself before. Maggie was sure that they would call her parents if she wanted them to--in fact, they might have to, since she wasn’t of age yet. But she didn’t know. She didn’t really want to bother them when they were working, She might just suggest that they see if her sister was working. Primrose was probably around here somewhere--she was always here. Training to be a nurse was apparently not an easy thing to do. Not that she had thought that it was easy, but… that was just beside the point.

The point was, her sister was probably here and maybe that would be better than calling her parents. Then she wouldn’t have to worry them when really she had just gotten hurt doing something dumb, as always. She was clumsier on her feet than most people; it was why it was so odd to her that she could horseback ride, that she could get on a broom and be fine, but she couldn’t walk more than a few steps away from her horse before tripping in a hole. It was embarrassing, but she knew that a sprained ankle wasn’t too hard to heal. She’d had more than a few sprains in her day, after all. It was the weird rash that she wasn’t sure about. She didn’t even know what plant it had been, she just knew that being red and itchy was not a normal reaction to have. Maggie just hoped that was as easy to deal with. Humming to herself, she leaned back a little on the cot that she’d been brought to, and stared at the curtain to try to will someone to come in just a little faster.

The rumors flew faster than a bat out of hell: Jackson Creighton had given a ton of girls in the sixth year some sort of weird disease. According to the rumors, it had an incubation period of about a month…just long enough for everyone to get out of Hogwarts and realize that they were in for a treat. Thankfully, Remington Monroe never kissed Creighton. He was cute. But he wasn’t her type.

For one, he wasn’t smart enough to be even remotely interesting.

Except for the scandal in his wake. Now that was interesting.

Just because the school year had wrapped up didn’t mean that the work of The Advocate was ever finished. If anything, Remy was going to get the scoop of the summer by reporting on all the girls that were holed up in St. Mungo’s because of their gross dealings with Creighton. She would come back to Hogwarts in September and blow the rest of the staff writers out of the water. Even Lyla would be thrilled. Though she might not be overly pleased with the subject matter at hand. That girl was such a goodie goodie…though, she couldn’t ignore the fact that Lyla’s Hogwarts birthday party happened to be one of the most talked about illegal parties to happen at Hogwarts last year. Maybe there was more to their Ravenclaw editor than met the eye. She supposed only time would tell.

The girl that she was interviewing was currently crying in her hospital bed, eyes all weepy, hair a mess. Antonia Frances looked like she had seen better days. Much better days. But Remy was to be playing the part of the concerned housemate. “It’s horrible! I just can’t believe it,” she said, reaching out to pat the girl on the shoulder and then suddenly remembering that the girl had contracted something. She drew her hand back quickly and feigned a sad smile. “Don’t worry, though, I’m sure there are other girls in your shoes, Antonia.”

“W-What?” The girl looked stunned — sad, even.

“Oh, honey, you didn’t think you were the only one, did you?”

“Well I-I-“

“Jackson's been all over the Ravenclaws and Slytherins. Heard there was even a Gryffindor exhibiting symptoms. You didn’t…ever see him with anyone else did you?” Remy raised an eyebrow, hoping that the girl wouldn’t catch on to her game.

But Antonia seemed so devastated by the news that all she could do was cry. She reached out for Remy, as if she was going to try and hug her and the Slytherin immediately shoved a tissue into her hand and took a step back. “There was this one girl that I saw him with…Kate something. A Ravenclaw. I thought they were friends...I just never thought that he…he…. I thought he loved me!”

And she was back to crying again. But at least this time, Remy had another lead. Giving the girl a few parting words of wisdom which included the typical likes of ‘don’t worry, boys suck’ and ‘I’m sure they’ll be able to fix this in no time,’ Remy excused herself and went into the hallway to catch up on her notes.

It was then that she heard someone coming her way. Technically, she wasn’t supposed to be back here. She had managed to convince someone that she was Antonia’s cousin, twice removed, but if they went to double check her credentials, Remington was going to be kicked out of Mungo’s faster than Jackson's disease was spreading through Hogwarts.

She wasn’t getting caught. She refused. Darting forward, Rem ducked behind one of the curtains and let out a sigh of relief. At least until she turned around and found herself staring at one Magdalene Bowman. “Oh man, this is gonna be good,” Remy said, raising one of her eyebrows. “Did you get that weird disease from Jackson, too? Little Bowman! Look at you, so grown up! Such a little woman! Her first disease!”

over my head Soften a bit until we all just get along

Maggie knew that she was just a little too old to not like being at the hospital by herself. She was almost an adult--she was sixteen! She shouldn’t be just a little bit emotional at the thought of being fixed up by a healer without one of her parents here, but she was. She couldn’t really help it. She’d just… never been at St. Mungo’s without one or both of them with her. At least her mum. It made her wish that she’d taken Contessa up on her offer to get ahold of her for her. She’d thought that she would be fine--that she’d be fixed up in no time and that she wouldn’t need a parent with her. She was old enough to be at the hospital alone. Thinking otherwise, or admitting otherwise, would just be embarrassing. She would be fine. She just wished that a healer or nurse or anyone would just hurry up. Maggie didn’t care who fixed her up as long as she got out of here soon. It just was so… official and sterile and clean, and she was just uncomfortable. Her ankle still hurt, and the rash on her hands was starting to spread up her arms just a little bit. She still didn’t know what plant that she’d landed on during her fall but clearly she was allergic to it or something. Maybe she should have made sure that it wasn’t poisonous. She thought that Contessa would have told her that when she found her, but then again, the rash hadn’t shown up until after she’d dropped her at the hospital. Maybe she hadn’t known that she’d been in contact with some poisonous plant that she was hiding on her grounds. Maybe it was going to keep spreading and then kill her. Merlin, she hoped not. She didn’t think that the woman would have any kind of poisonous plants that close to the trails. There were plenty of better places to hide them. Or so she figured, at least. There was more than enough woods off of the trails, and there would be less of a chance of someone finding them that way. It made sense to her, anyway. Not that she’d ever thought all that much into hiding poisonous plants before this very moment. It wasn’t something that she’d had to worry about… until now, apparently. Maggie just really wanted a healer to tell her that her hands weren’t about to fall off because she’d come into contact with some deadly plant. The sooner, the better. She was going to start to worry and overthink the longer that she was left alone and that wasn’t going to do her a bit of good. She thought that humming a song to herself and keeping herself occupied would help until someone pulled back the curtains to hopefully ease her concerns and fix her hand. However, when someone did appear behind the curtains, it was in a quick motion and it was… not a healer. Quite the opposite. It was Remington Monroe, who was probably one of the last people that Maggie wanted to see here. The Slytherin was… intimidating, to say the least. Assertive, intimidating, mean, beautiful, and pretty much that combination made her quite low no the list of people that Maggie wanted to see while she was more than a little nervous about being at the hospital on her own. She knew that she needed to get her act together now. Remington Monroe was good at spotting weakness. But her words immediately confused her, and Maggie found herself furrowing her brow. “Jackson’s giving people diseases? How?” She couldn’t immediately think of why or how he was giving diseases to people. “Like the flu?” It wasn’t really flu season but she supposed that people could get sick year-round. Maybe he’d caught it somewhere and now he was just passing it around to people. That was probably it. Of course, the flu wasn’t weird, and the Slytherin had called it weird. And why would she be a woman for getting the flu? Merlin, how confusing. She just didn’t have the focus to try to figure all that out when she was a little bit too worried that her hands were going to fall off if this rash started spreading.

I won't let it
go down till we
torch it ourselves

❧

Remington desperately loved prying into other people’s business. Even as a child, it had been one of her favorite things to do. Before Hogwarts, she’d spent her years at Safe Haven Orphanage, asking other kids what happened to their parents. She supposed now that she was older, she was able to see her prying for what it was. If people were distracted talking about themselves and sharing secrets from times long past, then they couldn’t ask her about her family. They couldn’t ask her why her father was dead or if her mother had murdered him. They couldn’t ask what it had been like to be born in Azkaban or to know that your parents were murderers. They couldn’t ask her if she was pureblood or halfblood or even if she was a blood vampire. When people were distracted with their own problems, they stayed the bloody fuck out of hers. And Remy liked it that way.

It was part of the reason that she’d joined the Advocate at Hogwarts, too. While she was writing for the paper, she didn’t have to worry about people writing articles about her (or her family). She could efficiently supervise — and sometimes trash — articles that weren’t “up to snuff,” so to speak. Remy was protecting herself because Merlin knew no one else would. She supposed that was the orphan in her talking. Remy had grown up so removed from her own mother and father that she had forgotten what it was like to have someone else on her team. It wasn’t until she’d started to spend summers and holidays with the Notts did she understand what it was like to have someone in your corner. Although they weren’t her family, they were the closest thing she’d had — or presumably ever would have, given that her mother had finally kicked the bucket at New Beginnings a few years back.

Remington paused her quick-paced thinking and looked at Magdalene like she was crazy. Was this girl really so daft? Perhaps daft wasn’t the right word, maybe innocent was more appropriate. Though, Remy wasn’t sure. She hadn’t interacted with her enough to make a true judgment call. All she knew was that she had never been like little Hufflepuff Bowman. “Like the flu? Oh, little Magenta—” Remy reached out and ruffled the girl’s obviously dyed hair. “Of course not.” Sometimes, she couldn’t believe just how dense people could be. Did Maggie honestly believe that Jackson was giving people the flu? Surely she realized that wasn’t newsworthy in the slightest.

Now a sexually transmitted disease…that was the rumor to launch a thousand stories, in Remington’s opinion. “Like the kind you get when you…you know…” Remington wiggled her eyebrows suggestively, but she was unsure if the young girl would get it, still. It seemed like she was a lot more “innocent” than Remington had believed. All pride that she had previously felt about Maggie becoming a “woman” suddenly vanished as she rolled her eyes.

@ maggie

[attr="class","cred"]MADE BY VEL OF WW + ADOX 2.0

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soften a bit until
we all just get along

❧

To her, summer was a good time to relax and spend time with her family. They didn’t have to do all that much for her to have fun. They stayed at home for the most part. Sometimes they went out to dinner or went to the water park or something, but usually they were just at home. They had an impressive collection of board games that they pulled out often. To her, all she needed for a good night was her family, a game of Monopoly, and some tea--or hot cocoa, depending on her mood. It wasn’t exactly the season for hot cocoa, but she still considered it and tea to be the two best drink options for a night in playing board games. No cold drink really fit the bill.

That was all that she wanted to be doing right now. She didn’t want to be stuck at the hospital anymore, but she knew that she didn’t have much of a choice until a healer fixed her up and sent her on her way.

Hopefully tonight, everyone would be around so that they could have a game night. She thought that she could really use one after the day that she’d had. Injuring herself while out riding was not something that happened all that often. Or ever, actually. It hadn’t even been the horseback riding or the horse that had caused the injury. It had been her own clumsiness when they had been taking a break. Maggie often found it pretty easy to trip over absolutely nothing. The hole in the dirt had barely been a hole at all… she still wasn’t even sure what it was that had caused something like that. Some kind of animal, probably, but that was hardly the point.

The point was, that it was just her luck to inure herself like that while out on a ride, and now she had to be stuck here. She probably should have told Contessa that she didn’t want her to leave. She had asked if she was all right, after all, and she’d said that she was fine. She was very nearly an adult. She shouldn’t have a problem waiting at the hospital to be healed by herself. But she was nervous. It would have been better if Tess had waited for her until her parents could be called, but there was nothing she could do about that now. All she could do was get through this on her own. It had just been a tiring day, and a part of her just wanted to cry. Which was childish, of course, but she had gotten hurt, and she was at the hospital alone and she just wanted to be back home.

When the curtain opened, she had hoped that she was nearly through with all of this. What she hadn’t expected was Remington. She was a girl that Maggie hadn’t talked to all that much at school--and for good reason. Maggie thought that she was incredibly intimidating, and she had definitely heard not to get on her bad side. In fact, she hadn’t even thought that the Slytherin had known her name and she had been pretty good with keeping it that way. Except she apparently hadn’t managed to keep off of the girl’s radar as well as she thought that she had. She wrinkled her nose when Remy ruffled her hair. Then what was she talking about? It honestly wasn’t even flu season, so it wasn’t like that had made all that much sense anyway, but it had been her best guess.

She raised her eyebrows when the Slytherin spoke again and then the realization struck her and her face flushed red. “Oh. Like… one of those diseases.” She didn’t actually want to say what kind of diseases they were actually talking about but she was quite sure that they were on the same page. “I thought he was dating that…” She wasn’t even sure she knew her name. People whispered about all sorts of people, and sometimes she listened--sometimes she didn’t. And apparently, sometimes even when she did listen, she forgot the details. But she was pretty confident that she’d heard some girl named Andrea or Toni or someone, was dating him.

@ remington

[attr="class","cred"]MADE BY VEL OF WW + ADOX 2.0

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