After finishing her shift at the hospital, Alex stopped by the Apothecary quickly before ducking home to crash, well after a day like today that’s all could think of doing right now. She could however send an Owl to Ryder and see what he was up to…wait! No she couldn’ t do that…. what if he got the wrong message and though she liked him, well she did like him in a strictly friend sense that was all. Shaking the idea from her mind, she slowly walked down the aisles of the stuffy shop. She wasn’t even sure what she was looking for ingredient wise, she didn’t make potions at home and any medical potions she needed were available from St Mungo’s. Sometimes being a healer did have some perks.


She turned on her heel and started walking up the next aisle. Coming to realise that her visit to the shop was pointless, Alex thought of leaving but then spotted a familiar face. Sure she had shared her dorm with Amaris their entire time at Hogwarts but the other witch had been so confident and people knew her, everyone knew her, whereas with Alex it was different, a few people knew her and she tended to keep to herself most of the time. She was in two minds if she should even speak to Amaris or not, but biting the bullet she walked over. “Hey, long time no see” she said smiling a little, wanting to appear at least a little friendly.


@amaris

Amaris was surprised that she had even managed to drag herself out of bed, even if it was the late afternoon. If it weren’t for the fact that she needed to pick up some ingredients for next month’s Wolfsbane Potion, she really wouldn’t have bothered. Of course, she didn’t make the potion herself, finding someone that had offered quite the trade for his services, but he was not exactly easy to deal with. She would argue that since there was a month until the next full moon, purchasing the necessary ingredients that he’d run out of could wait. But he always bloody wanted her to go almost immediately, and that was the only reason she was dragging her feet about in the apothecary. Even though Wolfsbane kept her under control during the full moon, the actual act of transforming left her body sore and weak for days afterward. For some odd reason, she also always had trouble sleeping the first few days after, so she knew that she looked like absolute shit. It didn’t help that she didn’t like being in the apartment when transformed, as that meant she found herself in the forest—usually seeing how long and fast she could run until she tired out, meaning her arms and legs were scattered with cuts and scrapes from tree branches and whatever else. Rolling her eyes, she focused back in on the list that she’d been given, as the man was really only short on a few ingredients. Aconite, she thought to herself, knowing exactly where to go to pick that up.

Once she had collected the other two items on the list, she made to head to pay, immediately stopping in her tracks as someone approached her. Oh, bloody hell, she cursed, smiling slightly awkwardly as Alexandra spoke. If anyone was going to notice the differences in her demeanor, it was going to be a girl who lived in the same damn room as her for seven years. Not to mention she was carrying very telling ingredients—at least to anyone who knew anything about potion making, “Hey Alex,” she replied. Amaris had never had a problem with the girl, obviously; Alex had been quiet, whereas she had been all over the damn place, but they were at least friendly, “How have you been?” Amaris added, trying not to act as cornered as she felt. She really shouldn’t have gotten out of bed, she mused, though she supposed her lycanthropy wasn’t a huge secret. Well, it was, as she never told anyone; but it was simple enough for people to check the registry at the Ministry and know about it, should they feel the need to.

Outfit

Sure it had been a long time since Alexandra had seen Amaris but she supposed working and not giving herself the opportunity to socialise was to blame for that. She of course had never had any issues with Amaris during their time together at Hogwarts. As she gazed around the shop Alexandra couldn’t help but notice that it was extremely quiet, which was to be expected, it wasn’t the most popular of shops, the musky scent, the dusty space wasn’t overly welcoming. Even with being a healer, Alex rarely ventured into the shop since she had all the potions she would need at St Mungo’s. Not that she needed potions much, working with so many sick people, she rarely fell sick unless it was something seriously contagious.

“I’ve been well” Alex finally answered Amaris once she zoned back. She offered the other girl an apologetic smile. Even around Ryder the a few days back she had been rather apologetic, but of course then she had other reasons for being distracted, reasons she couldn’t quite figure out yet. It was then that she realised that she given practically the same answer to Amaris as she had to Ryder. I really must get more creative with my answers, she told herself. “Busy with work mainly “ the girl shrugged additionally.

Being a healer, Alexandra’s immediate react was to study the face of a person, especially if she knew them. She noticed that the other girl did look tired, her eyes briefly looked over the potion ingredients that Amaris held in her arms. While she wasn’t brewing potions nowadays she had studied the ingredients carefully of every main potion commonly used by Witches or wizards in a healing sense. Aconite? She questioned herself as she finally looked back at Amaris. She didn’t arch her brow or make any other facial expression. It was the last thing she wanted to do in front of her former dorm mate. “Amaris, is everything okay?” 

Amaris remembered a time where she had been almost impossible to shut up. She had talked so much at Hogwarts, and went through friends, flings, and boyfriends like it was her job. It was unreal to her how much could change in the matter of years. Really, she would scarcely recognize who she used to be, and she was almost surprised that Alex had even recognized her. But she had, which meant that she needed to do some amount of damage control to make sure that the woman didn’t suspect anything was amiss. She supposed she could channel her personality from Hogwarts for a few minutes—long enough to act as though everything was fine. If she didn’t do that, Alex would immediately know that something had happened; even though they weren’t exactly friends back in school, she would know enough about her… or at least, so Amaris assumed.

“Glad to hear it,” she stated, smiling brightly as she shifted the ingredients in her arms slightly, hoping the former Gryffindor wouldn’t be able to put together what they were for. If Amaris recalled correctly, Alex had always been smart and had been good at potions—so she would just have to hope that she was a bit rusty on those skills, “Where do you work now?” Amaris asked, figuring that she was doing a decent job of acting like she had back in school. All she had to do was portray that same confidence, which she might have lost over the years, but even she could pull it out for a few moments if necessary. This was certainly a situation where that was necessary, and that did make her gad that she was still capable of such feats.

Of course, no matter how could at acting she was, it wasn’t as though she could do anything about how she looked. Amaris had known when she walked out of the apartment that she looked like shit; granted, she literally lived barely a hundred meters away, and wasn’t about to clean herself up just to pop in here. However, she should have known better, really, that luck was never on her side. She would run into someone who knew her from school when she looked like she hadn’t slept in days and lost a fight with some thorn bushes. Alex was examining her almost clinically, which wasn’t at all reassuring. At least her escape back to her apartment wouldn’t take too long, she mused, letting out a melodious laugh at her former roommate’s comment, “Me? I’m fine. A bit under the weather, but nothing to complain about,” she told her, shrugging. Suddenly she wished that she had been better at potions, as then she could come up with an excuse for her ingredients. Instead, she supposed she would just have to wing it, “Thought I’d have my brother make me some Pepper-Up potion since, if you recall, I’m useless at potions.”

It wasn’t lost on the healer that Amaris wasn’t her normal confident self, thought she couldn’t put her finger on what it was exactly. They had never had any issues with each other during their seven years at Hogwarts together and had always been cordial with each other. Of course Alex had been slightly envious of the confidence that Amaris possessed back then, though that had seemed to change now that she worked as healer and one to be confident all the time when working. If Alexandra had to guess correctly she would almost suspect that the other witch was hiding something but given that she hadn’t seen her for a number of years it was possible that she could be wrong about that. Obviously people changed in the way they behaved over the years as life took over.

“I’m a healer at St Mungo’s” she replied happily as she saw Amaris shift the ingredients in her arms, she then realised that she was clearly trying to hide something. “What do you do nowadays?” she asked genuinely. This certainly was an odd situation, which would have never happened had Alex just not visited the Apothecary this evening. Of course she had no reason for even being in here, obviously her former dorm mate had some purpose, if she was to go on the number of ingredients Amaris was currently carrying.

She arched her brow as the other witch stated she was just ‘under the weather’. Something told Alex that it was more than that but she wouldn’t come out and straight question her on it. Well, maybe she would in a few minutes. The Healer’s eyebrow remained arched Amaris laughed, it was a little unexpected. “Make pepper-up potion? I do recall it wasn’t your best subject but you know they do sell that here” she said as she pointed out small vials of the potion on a shelf near the counter.

Amaris really couldn’t even tell if her act was working, though it seemed to be well enough. It was easier than she thought to put on this persona, even if only for a few minutes. She was sure it would get rather tiring after that, as she was clearly not that person at all anymore. If she had come here five minutes earlier or five minutes later, she wouldn’t have found herself in this situation in the slightest; but since she was, she had to give it a good and see if it was at all believable that she was the same person she had been back at Hogwarts. After all, it seemed likely that she would be running into more people from her school days. She had only been back in London for… hell, it had almost been a year now, so she was surprised she hadn’t seen more people that would recognize her from school. Perhaps she’d just gotten lucky, she mused, but this would be good practice in acting normal from a woman who hadn’t known her all that well. Inevitably, she would eventually run into someone who she had been incredibly close with. That would be far more challenging to deal with, but she was certain she’d be able to play the part—at least for a bit.

“A healer,” she repeated, though internally she was cursing. If anyone were to know what the potion ingredients in her arms were for, it would be a healer. If anyone would be able to recognize the signs of lycanthropy, it would be a damn healer. That would be just her luck, she thought, though she smiled in response, “That’s impressive—do you like it?” Amaris asked, deciding that perhaps distracting her with questions would stop her from focusing in too much on her. Of course, the thought that asking this question opening up being asked about her own job hadn’t occurred to her, and for a moment she contemplated lying, trying to remember what she had ever wanted to do back when she had the options. But nothing even came to mind, leaving her at a loss, “Oh, I work at the White Wyvern,” she stated, shrugging casually. Perhaps the woman wouldn’t even know what that was, as not many people ventured into Knockturn Alley or talked about it enough to know many shops that were there.

She glanced over at the shelf that Alex pointed at, once again cursing in her head as she contemplated an excuse to make up for that. Her smile widened as she turned to look at the former Gryffindor again, “You got me there—but my brother likes practicing his Potion making. Insists on making everything himself,” she said, offhandedly, rolling her eyes as if it was entirely inconvenient, “I tried to tell him he’s just making everything more complicated, but that’s family for you,” she concluded, knowing that she complained enough about her brother back at Hogwarts to make her blasé tone believable. After all, they really hadn’t gotten along at all until he’d tracked her down and made her move back here.

Given all the experience she had with patients who put on a brave face when she was treating them. Even the manliest of wizards, Alex could often spot when someone was faking it and right now she could see right through Amaris’s charade. She wasn’t going to question the woman on it now, again from experience she knew the truth would eventually surface. Looking down she noticed the scrapes that ran along the woman’s legs, she looked up and arched her brow. They didn’t look like they had to be treated but there were still noticeable. “Amaris, how did you get those?” Alex asked in reference to the many scratches on her legs. And why were there so many? She knew that something like that could only be sustained during a fall and a fall in a forest of some sort. But there were no forests close to London, though they weren’t far away from the city. She could also tell by the woman’s demeanour that she was clearly concerned that some secret would come out and was trying her hardest to prevent that from happening. She really was good at this observation thing, since she did it so much at work.

Why had she just repeated my occupation? Alex wondered as she finally relaxed her arched brow and smiled when Amaris said it was impressive. “It is I guess…..” she trailed off shrugging, she never talked up her job no matter how impressed others were by it. Yes it was an important job, Alex knew that by how many people she had saved in recent times but for her it was more a passion rather than just a job. “But yes I love it…..you get to meet a wide variety of people” she replied. Not to mention certain old friends too. She had heard of the White Wyvern but had never been there. “Right, the place in Knockturn Alley” she nodded her head. “Some of my patients have been there so I hear about every shop or pub around here” she told the other witch.

Alex had heard of Amaris’s older brother Dorian and remembered seeing him when he was at Hogwarts. But she had never considered him to a person who liked to continue brewing potions at home. Though she supposed that could have changed over the years. She knew that Amaris had diversionary technique going on. Now that it dawned on her based on the ingredients, she had an inkling of what could be happening but would rather Amaris admit to it than her guessing something wrong. “Yes family, its funny how the dynamics are. My older brother is like that a little but I rarely see him so it’s not all bad” she laughed.

Of all the people that she could have run into today, she was sure that luck wasn’t on her side that it was Alex. From what Amaris remembered of her, she was smart and rather observant. Hell, she was certainly observant—Amaris could tell that just by the way she was looking at her. She could tell the moment that her former roommate caught a glimpse of the scratches littering her arms and legs, wishing for a moment she’d thrown on more layers in order to cover all of that up. That was a benefit of winter, surely, as most of her injuries were always covered and there was nothing at all odd about that. Wearing long sleeves in May, however, wasn’t exactly a common occurrence. Amaris had been hoping that Alex wouldn’t straight up ask her about it, but she held back a groan when she did just that. Instead, her smile widened as she shrugged it off, “I go hiking a lot, and I’ve learned forests and clumsiness don’t mix in the slightest,” she replied, thinking that sounded believable enough. Sure, she wasn’t exactly a clumsy person, but there was a chance that Alex didn’t even know that. It was a pretty logical explanation for her to have come up with so quickly, figuring that it would do the trick.

She couldn’t recall what she had ever wanted to do with herself after Hogwarts. There had to have been a time where she’d had a job in mind. Had it been at the Ministry? Had she ever wanted to be a healer, herself? It was odd that she couldn’t even remember, but she had never had plans to work in Knockturn Alley, serving drinks to Death Eaters and down-on-their-luck purebloods all day. Granted, she was used to it by now, but obviously it had never been the plan. Amaris supposed she wasn’t smart enough to have been a healer, as she was impressed that that was what Alex did, even if it was incredibly inconvenient at the current time. She nodded in response, still smiling. Her mouth was starting to hurt from all of the happiness, as she was sure she hadn’t smiled this much in years, “Oh, I’m sure you see a hell of a lot of interesting people,” she agreed, knowing that some people in the wizarding world most certainly got themselves into ridiculous predicaments that required a healer’s assistance. “That’s the one,” Amaris stated, casually, at this point figuring that nothing in this conversation was going to go her way. At least the woman had never been to the pub herself; there was quite the difference between having heard of it and having seen it firsthand.

Amaris couldn’t tell if Alex even fell for her excuse, so she could only just hope she had. She supposed Dorian didn’t look like the type to brew potions at home, but that much wasn’t exactly a lie. He had certainly brewed some potions for her before, but not ones that could be bought just downstairs. Alex’s response made it seem as though she believed her, which would be a nice change from the fact that she wasn’t sure how well this conversation was going at all, “Lucky you,” she said, lightly, shaking her head, “I live with Dorian, so unfortunately I have to deal with his crazy every day,” Amaris concluded, jokingly. Really, he was the one that had to deal with all of her bullshit, hence why she hadn’t wanted to come home in the first place.

From working with a variety of patients Alex knew that everyone had their secrets and she could tell that her former dorm mate had one or two up her sleeve from her vague responses to her stance and most evidently the bruises and grazes on her legs and arms. Did Amaris think she was stupid? No wait, she shouldn’t be thinking that or getting annoyed with the other woman, after all she had just run into her after not seeing her in a long time. The healer let her eyes sweep over the scratches again, they didn’t look serious, something somone would suffer they tripped over a fallen tree branch. But it still didn’t explain why there were so many or yet why they looked like they had been sustained recently. “Hiking? Well I suppose it’s only natural since the weather is warming up to go exploring in the forests, when did you go last?” Alex asked innocently enough. She didn’t meant to question Amaris so much or so intently but her healer instinct took over ninety per cent of the time. And she really hoped that Amaris was okay, though if she was to guess correctly she would say that the other witch wasn’t exactly thrilled to be speaking with her.

Interesting people, was an understatement where Alex was concerned, when she normally spoke with her parents about her work, they tended to panic because of all the curses and hexes she came across, fearful she might catch something even if she reassured them it wasn’t contagious. “I have my fair share of interesting cases” she shrugged as if it was no big deal. Since becoming a fully-fledged healer, there wasn’t a case that Alex wasn’t assigned to treat. It certainly made her days more interesting than treating Gnome bites. She nodded her head as Amaris confirmed the location of her work. “Been there long?” she asked, wanting to move the conversation along since she was sure that Amaris wanted to get her purchases sorted and out of there.

She didn’t mind that Andrew lived so far away, she understood why he did and when they did get together they had more to catch up. With her other siblings she saw them practically every second weekend for dinner or lunch at their parent’s house. Though she hadn’t been over in the last month and kept getting annoying owls from her sister about it. “I Suppose so, what kind of crazy does Dorian get up to?” she enquired. He hadn't seemed the overly crazy type back in Hogwarts but people did change over time

Hiking. The excuse was almost amusing to Amaris, even though she figured that it was a solid enough reason. Her injuries were unmistakably ones from a forest—the scrapes at least, though she supposed she could have explained away just bruises by numerous different stories. What was funny to her was that she really had never bloody liked too many activities that involved the outdoors. Her parents had always wanted to go camping when she and Dorian were younger, which always ended with Amaris complaining until they found themselves back in civilization. What kind of trip involved sleeping on the ground outside, regardless of a ridiculous tent? She’d disliked hiking as well, as she hadn’t really seen the point in walking around aimlessly for no reason whatsoever. Looking back, she knew that she was quite high maintenance, which was a stark contrast to the way she was now. However, that didn’t stop her excuse from sounding legitimate to Alex, hopefully. It wasn’t like the topic of camping, hiking and the outdoors was something that came up at Hogwarts; she really shouldn’t know about that, at least not as far as Amaris could recall. She did suppose she had been quite the talker back at school, so it could have come up in a conversation in the dormitory between Amaris and some of the other girls—as she did remember that Alex hadn’t talked all that much. “Oh, a couple days ago,” she said, indifferently, not wanting to give her an exact date as that would help her put it together if she was able to start connecting dots, “The weather has been quite agreeable for hiking,” Amaris added, nodding. That was certainly a good thing as far as the full moon was concerned; being outside in the winter was far less pleasant for her, even though she did have a coat of fur to shield the elements to an extent.

It really didn’t seem to Amaris that Alex really wanted to talk about her work, as she kept speaking rather dismissively about it. That was fine with Amaris, as she wasn’t one to press topics, but it did mean that she would have to figure out some other safe subject for however long this conversation went on. “I actually was out of the country for a bit—only just moved back last summer. So, I haven’t been there too long,” she explained. It had seemed like longer than it actually had been, she had realized that, as time seemed to move slower back here as situations got worse. Every day when she ventured into Knockturn Alley, it seemed that situations were tenser, and she did hear quite a bit of mutterings of what was going on. As far as she was concerned, it was only going to get direr as days went on.

Dorian wasn’t actually all that crazy—as far as crazy went, at least. She was at quite the loss on how to answer that question, and wondered why she had worded her statement like that and put herself in the position to back up some ridiculous claim. Either the woman was suspicious and that was why she had so many questions, or Alex was just an inquisitive person. Amaris didn’t know enough about her to know which option was the case, “It’s nearly indescribable—just Dorian,” she stated.