Remember, Remember // 5th of November 1978 (open)

[Ted Tonks]

Bonfire night was always a busy evening in A&E, even when you didn’t factor in the casualties of the ongoing war. The other wards did what they could to help the overworked mediwizards and emergency ward healers, which included Ted running between floors and helping to clear beds so they weren’t stacking patients in the halls. It felt like everywhere he went, he was putting out fires. There was little time for rest through most of the shift, but sometime after midnight things finally began to slow.

An assortment of St Mungo’s staff had collected in the staff’s break room, each taking their own leave for as long as their respective teams could manage without them but hardly anyone dared to utter anything about going home aloud. It seemed as though there was a taboo placed on the words, because as soon as anyone mentioned clocking off, a new wave of injured and sick would arrive. It was uncanny how consistently it seemed to happen, and it often meant breaks were cut short and healers were back out on the floors until the volume of patients needing immediate attention could be stabilized.

This was Ted’s third attempt at a lunch break, at quarter past midnight, and he was starting to drag. At 26, with a 5 year old at home, Ted felt like an old man already. His muscles ached as he fell into the chair and let his head rest on the table. “Is there any more coffee?” he asked the room at large. Someone slid a mug in front of him. “My god, you’re a lifesaver.” He looked up and smiled appreciatively at his coworker. “Are you lot faring any better than Spell Damage tonight?”

[Yvette Singh]

"They're celebrating the failure of an explosive plot by setting off their own fireworks? I can't fathom...j'ai perdu mes chèvres. I'm sorry, it'll come back to me. I'll meet you back down in fifteen, pardon."

Was it that today was endless, or the continuous bombardment of the results of poor choices, or the clinging and rather horrifying stench of vomit and smoke that had her unable to hold onto an argument about something other than healing at this rare opportunity to pause? Catching a good whiff of herself as she pulled her hair up again, Yvette almost gagged. The smell. By Merlin and all that is holy, the smell. Hours in rooms with patients covered in one, both, or Mark Here For Other, and she worried this would be the time that it stuck in her hair forever. And what a day for it. Her training partner was the latest of many who she'd tried to gain a greater understanding of this day from, and everyone seemed to have a different spin on the old tale, their patients having the least to say about its historical significance of anyone. She was glad, at least, to have only treated one frequent flyer tonight. So far. As always, Rufus kept up a chipper chatter as she worked. He'd recovered from, evidently, one too many falls from his broom in his school days to much mind the rather more delicate process of removing shards of plastic from his forearms, and promised to be back soon. Her threat yelled down the hall had only made him smile and wave, and increase her volume.

Coffee, Pepper-Up, Wide-Eye...the ease of finding stimulants at the hospital was something to worry about later. Coffee, coffee would do. She helped herself to a mug at the break room station and leaned against the closest wall, eyes shutting. Just for a moment. The noise and annoyances of the night could fade if she could rest, sip her coffee, and think ahead to a day stretched out in bed, enveloped by a pile of blankets and...the odd schedule of the hospital was the calendar she lived by, and her brows knit as she thought...Sunday night already. Merde. He's back to work. Maybe it was for the best, to see Wes again when she'd slept and bathed off her first Bonfire Night shift, but the realization was still disappointing. She would have loved to open her apartment door to be greeted by his sleepy laugh at her in this state. The most appealing she'd ever been, clearly. She'd shoo him away, there was no need for him to suffer too, and with the very smile that mended her broken heart, he'd come to her anyway. Vini smiled into her mug, breathing more easily at the moment of peace, and opened her eyes at a familiar voice - and a call for coffee.

Healer Tonks, head down on a table. Dear, sweet, brilliant, overworked man.

She poured another full mug and headed over, setting it down before him and pulling a chair out as she tsked. "Artefacts, ma choucroute. Bad night for a competition, but I bet we're neck-in-neck," Vini chuckled, and a great exhale escaped her as she sat for the first time in...long enough for sitting to be a mistake. "It's sheer madness everywhere tonight, isn't it? Does everyone always think they're cleverer than their explosives on Guy Fawkes?" The young witch drank and spoke with her hands, the timeline of events so simple - and, apparently, too difficult for the public to grasp. "If you set something to explode, and stand too close - it's going to explode, and you will have to come here."

*I've lost my goats
sh*t
my cabbage

[Miya Catchlove]

“No, I don’t care that you feel fine, sit your ass back down and let me help you,” Miya snapped at her patient, the man insisting he was fine when he’d got a blasting curse to the chest. Muggles were idiotic enough on this day, did magical folks also have to go and try and blow things up? There had been years in school where idiots had played with fire and gotten burnt, and Miya had been the one to tend to them in the hospital wing. She never had the patience for this day, even if she could support the message Guy Fawkes had been trying to send. It was only the beginning of her third twelve-hour shift, and the hospital had been busy when she arrived with no end in sight to the stupidity wandering the halls. And those ridiculous masks, scattered about the hallways.

“Lay down, and don’t leave. Unless you’d like to pass out in some alleyway,” she told the man after she’d recorded his vitals, running a hand through her hair as he left the room. Normally Miya liked working in spell damage, it always meant that she would get to use her superior healing skills for good. But on a night like this? She just wanted five minutes to sit down and she’d barely been here an hour. Pushing past a couple who were arguing about whether or not they needed to go and find his missing fingers, she moved into the breakroom which was much calmer than the noise right outside of it.

“Is Ted dead?” she asked with a laugh, looking at the Healer with his head on the table. She didn’t know how long he’d been on shift, but he looked tired enough to have been working the last 24 hours. “The idiocy of people with explosives never ceases to amaze me. Did you see the guy missing his hand? Brutal, but he brought it in with him and I think they might be trying to reattach it.” Coffee acquired, Miya came and sunk into the chair next to Vini, clinking their coffee mugs together. “Cheers to one of the longest nights of the year.”

[Ted Tonks]

“Feels like it,” Ted spoke into the table without moving his head an inch after someone asked if he was dead. Feet throbbing, back aching, and stomach growling – there were a lot of sensations occurring for a dead man, but if he wasn’t actually dead he surely felt on the way. Chair legs scraped across the dingy tile floor as his savior pulled out a seat beside him. He could smell the coffee before he’d even lifted his nose away from the table top. "Cheers."  Yvette’s kind face smiled back at him as he gripped his mug and took the first savory sip. Alright, savory perhaps wasn’t the proper word to use in this instance, but at this stage in the game coffee was coffee and it would do. She reminded him of the department she was working in tonight, and Ted forfeit the competition, throwing his hands in the air. “You win. There’s no beating artefacts tonight, although our floor seems to be giving it a good go. Don’t you think, Miy?”

The younger witch joined the table and regaled them with tales of someone missing a hand. That would not be a pretty sight, he was sure of it. “In fairness,” Ted pondered aloud between too large of sips from his mug, “he was probably pissing drunk when he blew it off, and everyone knows you’re invincible when you’re three sheets to the wind. How was he supposed to know firework go boom?” Ted rolled his eyes but he knew he’d been just as stupid when he was younger. The fact that he was half way through his twenties and still had all of his own original bones was a miracle. Especially with how often he ended up in hospital wing during Quidditch season.

[Isla Alton]

“I’ve have fuel loves!” Isla announced to the break room at large as she entered, a purposefully subdued smile on her face. Her own night was going swimmingly in the baby department, twins! But all others were up to their necks in celebratory mishaps and the blonde liked to do what she could to help ease things on nights like these. In addition, she had popped over the the bakers during her lunch and picked up a few boxes of tasty pastries for her co-workers. After she was to report to the fourth floor to assist there, so honestly, the scones and tarts and pie slices were as much to prepare herself for the second half of her shift as it was to bring some comfort to her fellows. Even if it was just some sugar to keep going.

She slid three boxes onto the counter -which were immediately attacked with gusto, she smiled brightly at that- and brought the fourth over to a particularly weary-looking table. “Here dears, you look as if you need these.” Isla said sympathetically, flipping the box open and taking a seat next to Healer Singh. Snagging herself an attractive berry-filled tarte she sat back, crossing one leg over the other and surveying the others. “Anyone in Spell Damage? I have to go there next." Isla frowned down at her pristine frock. It was sure to get ruined tonight, especially in that ward, but at least she could try.

[Roderick Bones]

“Oh come on Gracie, you know you want to finish the phrase. Remember, remember the fifth of November-” he started, looking down to his friend for her to finish it. Nights like these didn’t happen often, where the hospital was overcrowded with people who had blown stuff up and gotten injured. It was the time of year when he and Grace got shifted around to other floors, as most of their patients were in spell damage, and not potions or bugs. Although the bugs did have a point here, those disgusting little things called leeches good at restoring blood flow to dead skin. And it looked like Grace had brought all of them out of their homes to take up to the fourth floor tonight.

Stepping onto the crowded lift, he smirked in amusement at some of the other individuals. There was a man who was hissing to what Roderick assumed was his wife about the stupidity of their son, and also about missing fingers. That was an easy one to guess, probably was holding the firework as it exploded. There was a blonde girl who looked like she had just graduated from Hogwarts, if he had to guess, who seemed nervous and kept looking around. She looked away when they made eye contact, and he turned to Grace and shrugged as the lift stopped on the top floor. He waited for everyone else to leave, most of them going to the tea room or the hospital shop. Stepping out, he held the elevator for another fresh out-of-school adult who looked like they were lost, before jogging to catch up with Grace.

The break room smelled like coffee and sweets, and Roderick made his way to grab himself a scone before they were all gone, and he found a tart he was sure Grace would like. Turning around he found her at a table with all of his favorite people, and treats in hand he headed over. “Really Gracie, do you have to put your leeches on this table? Can’t you just drop them off somewhere else?” he asked as he sunk down in a chair next to Isla. “I think most of us are being assigned to spell damage tonight. Has anyone else noticed all these nervous looking people wandering around the halls? I mean it’s a busy night but it just seems weird.”

[Yvette Singh]

Yvette grinned anew as Miya swept into the break room, and pushed the chair beside her out for the other witch to drop into. While her first year at the hospital had been a bit of a rough transition as she'd buried herself in training - not needlessly, anyone who claimed not to have to study and practice was hiding something - she'd not balanced her life as much as she was dearly trying to now. Miya had been one of the Healers to draw her in early as she felt an undeniable kinship, and she was so happy to call her a mentor and a friend. As the witch spoke of the man with a missing hand, a thrill lit her own dark eyes, and in this company? She didn't worry about coming off as too excited about a magical, medical emergency. Surely her fellows understood the irreplaceable opportunities to learn that hid behind every door - they were always stretching the limits of what was possible, giving those in their care as many lives as cats had. While she'd handled a few reattachments on her own this fall, including a very notable one indeed - a hand! Few parts of the body were as complex - it'd be a miracle if they could pull it off, and as tired as she'd been on entering, Vini found herself eagerly sitting forward. "Did you hear what room they're in?"

A mite distracted, she nevertheless knocked her mug to Miya and Ted's at the cheers and drank, sending Ted a grin as he let her claim the win and added his take. Tonight had definitely brought them more intoxicated patients than she ever remembered, and they were wearing the staff down. They all had some steam to blow off, to regain the patience and frame of mind needed to do their work. But could the patients meet them even halfway?! Vini gave her watch a quick look - if she found the right room on her first try, she might be able to catch a glimpse something before she was back on duty, but that was a mighty big if with how busy the hospital was tonight, and the crowd that had likely already been drawn around it - and the decision was made for her as Isla entered with sweets. The darling blonde never missed the mark, and while spying on the reattachment would refuel her in some ways - grand company, sitting, caffeine and a snack could do so even better.

"Merci," Vini cooed, helping herself to a too-beautiful-to-resist piece of pie. She popped open the container and took a bite, leaning back in contentment. It would be a different kind of miracle if she managed to not make a mess of herself, but it was delicious, and so worth it. Still, she brushed at her nose to check for rogue wisps of whipped topping. "All's well on sixth tonight?" While her dedicated rotation on the maternity ward had solidified that she was better suited elsewhere, she admired Healers like Isla who had found their community there. Isla was off to fourth after her break, though - and her attention was tugged away in amusement at hearing a familiar back-and-forth. They bickered like brother and sister, Roderick and Gracie, and she was glad that there was room yet at their table for them. Even if it meant sharing space with some of Gracie's nightmare-inducing coworkers.

The abrupt addition of leeches to their gathering made her go green, even as she knew it was silly, she'd seen and felt far worse things in the last few hours. Again - they were lucky that Grace was called to work with the bugs. Someone had to, and they couldn't be better cared for under her attention. And while her relationship with Wesley was new, and Gracie was his sister, and she wanted to remain on fond terms...they were eating! "I'm with him, mon papillon* - at least while there's food out? They could...have their own chair instead?" She turned to Roderick curiously, undeniably in great part to avoid the leeches. He had a worried way about him tonight, different than what she or the others seemed to carry. Her focus had been with the patients in front of her more than anything else, but being on the ground floor, word got around. "Surely they're trying to find their loved ones, no? The welcome witches are doing their best to direct everyone, but reception is practically flooded."

*my butterfly

[Gracie Peasegood]

Sighing, she shifted the jars in her arms as she looked up to Roderick, frowning. “You know I don’t want to finish the phrase, any more than I want my precious leeches to be discarded of once they’ve done their job.” Unfortunately, unless she kept a watchful eye over them, she was sure that some of her leeches would be killed after they had done their duty. And given that she wasn’t on spell damage tonight, she wouldn’t be able to hover. Instead, she was healing cuts and bruises on the less damaged patients, even with rumors of someone missing a hand floated throughout the halls. “You better not let anyone kill any of my babies while you are up on fourth,” she said as they stepped into the lift, ignoring the looks of others who were staring at the jars in her arms.

The crowded lift was full of anxious people, which wasn’t strange for a night like this. Missing fingers were normal on a day like today, even if Grace found reattachment of fingers to be one of the things that made her squeamish. “Mum said they are barely getting a break between calls tonight.” The mediwitches and wizards were out in full force tonight, and Grace was sure the obliviators were also having a busy night. Grace could only imagine how flooded the muggle hospitals must be tonight. The lift lurched to a stop and she followed others out, not bothering to stop and wait for Roderick. He caught up to her quickly, the short walk to the lounge filled with bickering between the two of them until they entered. Roderick went straight for the sweets, and Grace laughed as she joined the table of their friends, setting her leeches down.

“They’re in jars,” she said as both Roderick and Vini voted her leeches off the table, but she still pulled up an extra chair and set the jars down there. They would be safe, and her friends wouldn’t have to look at them, even if Grace thought they were just the cutest thing. She took the offered tart from Roderick, giving a smile to the rest of the table as she dug in. This was just the thing she needed to get over being excluded from the fourth floor tonight, but Roderick was being a worry wart. “Vini’s right Ick, people are just overwhelmed out there. You worry too much.”

[Miya Catchlove]

Laughing as Ted confirmed that he was sort of dead, Miya was glad for the coffee and the chance to get off her feet. The night was likely to get worse before it got better, and there was no telling when any of them would get another break. “That’s a great question Ted, how was he supposed to know fireworks go boom?” Miya said with a laugh, turning to look at Vini. “I don’t know what room he’s in now, but they’re taking him to surgery soon and I got us seats already.” Sneaking off to watch the surgeries was something she and Vini had started doing once she joined them at the hospital, and Miya couldn’t ask for a more enthusiastic companion to watch a reattachment with. Even with magic, things could be tricky. Who knew if the hand was even going to be viable?

Isla arrived with treats, and Miya grinned at her as she snagged a scone from the box, leaning back in her chair. It was nice to see her, their shifts not often overlapping given the different floors they worked on. But sometimes Miya would go up to look at the new babies when a day was particularly stressful. She didn’t ever want children of her own, but she could admit that babies were cute to look at. “Ted and I are in spell damage as usual, it’s getting a little hectic. Hope you have energy Isla, it’s going to be a long night.” Familiar bickering brought her attention to the door of the break room, where Roderick and Grace had just entered. As usual, Grace had some sort of bug with her, and Miya scrunched her nose as Gracie brought them over to the table.

“Yeah, I’m with the both of them. No leeches on the table.” Leeches were a very welcome site compared to some of the bugs that Grace would bring, but Miya didn’t necessarily want to look at them while she ate. “Jars or no jars, off the table,” she teased. Roderick was worried, which wasn’t entirely unusual. He always seemed a little worried these days, and she couldn’t really blame him. With both of his siblings being Aurors, and the world being the way it was, she could understand where he was coming from. Miya was always grateful that Greta had not chosen a job that would put her in danger. “Let’s take bets on Mr. Blown off Hand. Five galleons says they can’t reattach it.”

[Ted Tonks]

A twinkling voice broke through the dark laughter of the healers as they coped in their off-color manner about their patients. Ted swallowed his most recent gulp of coffee – hot, hot, hot – and bore a thankful smile in Isla’s direction. “Sweet angel.” He plucked a cinnamon bun from the box and began unravelling it, breaking small pieces off and popping them into his mouth one at a time between sips of coffee. He had eaten most of the lunch Dromeda had packed from him during his break during his first shift, and he had assured her he would find something healthy for his second shift but 12 hours in, he was taking anything that could give him the courage to make it through the last quarter of his day. “Me,” he mumbled through coffee soaked mouthful of bun in response to Isla’s query, but Miya was better able to articulate for the both of them. They were lucky to have the softer witch’s help tonight, but if she thought she was coming out of this shift looking half as bad as a day spent delivering babies and consoling those whose precious little ones hadn’t made it, she was sorely mistaken. Ted had been there for Nymphadora’s birth. He had witnessed the challenges the maternity ward staff dealt with and he would not wish that stress on his worst enemies, but Bonfire Night in A&E was a whole different sort of unhinged – metamorphmagus newborn and all.

An unseemly addition to the table’s poor excuse for a mid-shift meal were set on the table in a collection of various sized jars. Ted pulled his mug closer to him with a chuckle as the others took to chiding Gracie for her pets. Ted was no fan of insects and small creatures around his food but as the witch correctly pointed out, they were contained. Still, the brunette removed the bugs from the table and their growing posse seemed content with them having a chair to themselves. The next healer or matron to try to join them, however, was likely in for a start.

“Are you in Spell Damage or Artefact tonight, Peasegood?” Ted asked, glad that Rod would be with them on the fourth floor for the remainder of the night. “Ground floor might need some help with these two off to gawk at the fantastical Mr Pyrotechnic and his disappearing – reappearing hand.” He gave Yvette a friendly wink, completely understanding of her fascination with the possible procedure, but his expression grew more serious as Roderick discussed the influx of people inside the hospital tonight.

Ted didn’t work with Dumbledore’s group in any official capacity, but on occasion she and Dromeda had taken in a witch or wizard in hiding while the Order of the Phoenix sought out somewhere more permanent for them to hide from Death Eaters and their deranged leader. Ted hadn’t given the crowded halls a second thought until Roderick mentioned it, but now he grew concerned that there might be some additional concern beyond idiot celebrators and their recreational explosives. Could there be dark wizards lurking among the masses, taking advantage of the hospital’s already busy staff? He sipped on his coffee silently, then shoved the last bit of bun into his mouth as he looked at Rod carefully, silently praying this war had only made them paranoid.