Needing a few drinks

It had been a long night, and Brian had a feeling it wasn't over.  He'd accidentally run into James Blood in a dead end alley.  Well, actually, James had found him.  Cornered him.  

Brian wasn't typically eager to skirmish with a werewolf that stood over seven foot tall.  However, he did want to escape with his life, and he didn't see a choice but to battle it out.  James was big, and most of the time, Brian could out think him and out maneuver him. Tonight hadn't been much different.

Brian had escaped with torn clothing, bruises, some deep cuts from James's claws.  He hadn't been bitten, though, and that was something.  He wasn't eager to be infected with the curse. He wasn't eager to be absent that much from his family's life.  It had been the only thing that was on his mind when he had been cornered.  He wasn't surrendering. He wasn't going to be a werewolf, and he certainly wasn't going to die in an alley.  He had the one thing now that he'd always wanted--a woman he loved more than his own life, and a houseful of gorgeous children.  

It was bitterly cold, and the night wind felt like it was cutting through the torn leather jacket and his cotton shirt.  It felt like it was freezing his blood to his skin.  

He went into the Leaky, wanting to be, at least for a moment, in a safe place, and he wanted a drink.  Something to warm up from the winter cold and the chill that he felt in his spirit from barely escaping with his life.

The bartender was an acquaintance of Brian's. He looked at him, scowled, and poured him a firewhiskey without Brian needing to order.  Brian walked up to the bar, took the drink, downed it in a gulp, and put the glass back on the bar for a refill.

"Did you win?" the bartender asked, refilling the glass.

"Well, I lived. I don't know if that counts as winning, but I lived," Brian said, willing to drink the second drink in a more civilized manner.

"For you? That's about par for the course," the bartender laughed. He left the bottle on the counter and walked away.  Brian glanced over at the man next to him.  He didn't look in much better shape than Brian himself was in.

"Your night looks like it was just about like mine," Brian said to the man next to him with the torn clothing.  Dragon keeper garb.  "Looks like you won, though.  Dealing with a dragon and living to tell it, you must be a decent dragon keeper."

James looked over at the man next to him and realized that he looked just about beat up as he was. Though James knew that he was going to get a talking to from Soph when he got home because of the burn on his arm from the Dragon. Hearing the mans words he smiled despite his mood. "Well I can't have been too smart one of them still got me. Then again the dragon I was working with kinda was ill-tempered because it had something stuck in his foot." He said to the man next to him as he took another drink from his cup completely draining it.

"I try to make sure that the dragons are safe in their habitats and I just make sure that I don't end up as lunch. Some of them have some bad temper problems but I love my job because the dragons are very smart as well as very cunning." James said as he moved his injured arm carefully. "I'm James Faulkner," He said holding out his hand to the man beside him.

"Brian Quinn," He said, shaking James's hand. "Nice to meet you. I don't know a whole lot about dragons. I only know I survived a couple weeks at Charlie Weasley's place in Romania a couple years ago, but largely because Charlie made sure I didn't get eaten. Don't know if I could survive that on my own.

"And evidently I didn't know a whole lot about getting home tonight. Ran into a werewolf that wanted to put me on the menu."

"Pfft," the bartender rolled his eyes as he passed Brian to refill the pint of the man on the other side of him. "How many times are you gonna tangle with him? You should just get rid of him and get him out of all our miseries."

Brian looked back at James, and as a means of explanation he said, "Werewolves aren't always so easy to deal with either. Especially big ones." He laughed. "Maybe I should feed him to one of your dragons." He glanced at James' arm. "I can heal that for you if you want. Healers aren't so gifted at healing themselves--not healing by touch anyway, but we're pretty good with others."

"Nice to meet you as well Brian. Most people don't know a whole lot about dragons. They are extremely smart creatures and more than once they've knocked me on my rear end." James said laughing softly at the memory of the first time he went toe to toe with one. "Yeah Charlie is a great guy, I take some of my dragon's to him when they are able to be released from my care. Yeah there was a few who thought I might be tasty but then they realized i was like Charlie. So I was able to avoid being an appetizer for them."

"Jeez I'm glad I haven't met one of them. The most I've had a run in with is a vampire which isn't any better." He said wincing remembering when he accidentally cornered one.

James laughed at Brian's words and said, "Well I have been running low on some food." He laughed more at those words. "That would be great actually, I wouldn't have to get a talking to from my girlfriend. She's a healer too but she hates when I delay getting the wounds healed. I get smacked more times than not, I'm just used to having to wait before getting healed I guess." He began unwrapping the gauze from around his forearm showing the pink color of the burn. It looked worse than it felt to James but he knew that it wasn't anything good. "I'm just glad it was first degree burn instead of worse." He admitted as he looked at the burn.

"This guy might feed a couple of dragons," Brian said. "He stand over 7 foot tall in human form, and he gets bigger when he transforms to werewolf form.  And, get this--he happens to be a bodybuilder in his human form.  He's a lot like trying to take down a brick wall that has teeth and claws."  Brian had a visual of a pair of dragons on a couple of chain leashes, and setting them on James.  Dragons=1, James=0.  That actually was a pleasant thought.

"I understand the girlfriend thing," Brian said.  "I have a wife and a father in law that are healers.  I sorta get the same treatment--quite a lot, come to think about it.  Let's see if we can keep you out of trouble tonight."  He laid his hand gently over the burn and used a touch spell on the burn.  "You know, we could mend the shirt and the problem would be solved, you know."

Brian saw the bartender watching him work on the burn.

"Why can't you just use your wand like any normal wizard?" the bartender scowled.

"Healing by touch has been a normal form of healing for thousands of years," Brian laughed.  "The downside to it is that when we heal by touch, we can't heal ourselves. It depends on our own magical chemistry being used to heal someone else. If we're injured or ill, that magical chemistry is compromised, so it doesn't work when we try to heal ourselves."

"See? Wands are still better," the bartender said.

"This said by a man who keeps a box of plasters and a bottle of iodine behind the bar," Brian teased, taking his hand away from James' arm.  "What do you think, James? Better? How does it feel?"

"Holy crap that's a big guy," James said shaking his head. He knew that he was tall but he had nothing on a seven foot werewolf. "Man I think I'd prefer the dragons to that guy. The dragons are like mountains but easily avoided because you can see them. That has to be rough for you to try and take that guy on." He ordered a shot from the bartender and knocked it back quickly. He felt the burning run down and felt some of the chill from the cold go away.

"I doubt I'll stay completely out of trouble but at least it won't be something to do with the dragons." He said laughing softly at that thought of making Soph mad at him. "I have an extra shirt in my satchel which funny enough is the same color. This one was getting pretty worn down because of all the things i have to do with the dragons."

James watched from his stool as the man healed him and could feel the hurt from the burn disappearing. "Well that doesn't seem fair that you can't heal yourself. Though being able to heal others through touch seems like a good trade but at least your able to get healed. You want some help with your injuries mate?" He said looking at Brian smiling.

James smiled as he took a drink then began moving his forearm testing it. "That's great thanks, it feels a lot better. Doesn't even so much as twinge at all, I can't tell you how much I owe you one on this." He grabbed the gauze from where it was sitting and threw it in his satchel to dispose of later.

"I try not to take him on if I don't have to," Brian said. "Not alone anyway, because when I do, I usually lose. But the nice thing about being that much smaller than he is, is that I make great bait." He laughed. "If I have others with me, I call him some foul name to get under his skin, he gets irked, runs after me, and if I'm lucky, I get to duck into someplace too small for that big hairy buggar to get into."

He listened to James talk about getting into trouble and irking his wife. Oh, that was something Brian understood all too well. He laughed. He'd heard the same conversation in his own home. It was familiar ground.

"Now, why did I never think to carry a spare shirt?" he laughed. "That might have saved me a lecture or two. Your wife sounds a lot like mine."

The bartender set out his bottle of iodine, and a couple of fresh, clean white bar towels. It wasn't the first time a bar towel or two had been torn into bandages. Wouldn't be the last either. It was the best he had. "My plasters aren't going to be big enough," he told James and Brian.

"I'll take you up on the first aid offer," Brian told James. "Then we'll call it even."

"The way you two like trouble," the bartender said. "You really ought to go do it together. Or..well, maybe not, on second thought."

"I don't know," Brian looked at James with a hint of a love of adventure that he just couldn't hide, "I think we'd do alright. Tell me, James. How fast can you run?" Brian loved adventure. Any adventure. And anyone that loved it half as much as he did, well, that was what he looked for in a friend.

"Yeah I don't blame you on that one," James said smiling as he thought about trying to take the werewolf on. Hearing him say that he would hide in a small space that the werewolf couldn't go made him almost choke on his drink. "Blimey it has to be rough trying to squeeze into a small space. Though I have to say you calling him foul names makes it seem like you have a death wish mate." He said laughing just imagining it.

"Oh it took me about five times to think of it, trust me some of those fights weren't exactly friendly." He said laughing more. "She's not my wife yet but hopefully she will be. I absolutely adore her daughter and her nephew," He thought about those kids every time he was trying to face off an irritated dragon.

James smiled as he took out his wand and healed the man's injuries. Finishing he pointed to the mirror behind the bar and said, "Take a look I'm pretty sure I got everything let me know if I might have missed something." He readjusted his tall frame on the bar stool in which he was already perched.

"Hey I don't look for trouble though, the dragons just find me tasty looking sometimes." He said to the bartender jokingly.

James' eyes lit up with mischief and humor as he looked at Brian. "I can run really fast, what did you have in mind?" He grinned at Brian and he couldn't help but feel elated to trying something other than running from a dragon. "I've had to get fast because in my field you have to outrun a fire breathing dragon."

"This werewolf has the hots for my wife, so, yeah. I'm happy any time I can get him away from her," Brian said. When James finished, Brian checked. "Oh, much better. Thank you. Looks to me like you got it all."

"I know what you mean though about being crazy about her kids. My wife had an adopted daughter and, when I came back into her life, she was actually in labor. Her husband left her on the night their daughter was born. I ended up having to help deliver her baby. And when it was time for her to leave the hospital, she had no place to go. So, I took her and the baby home to my place, and a year later, we got married. We'd made this stupid agreement we could live together in the same house and still be friends, just like when we were kids. Yeah, that all went down the drain when we decided we weren't feeling like 'just friends' anymore. And now we've got eight kids.

"Thought I was a dyed-in-the-wool permanent bachelor, and she changed all that. The moment I delivered her daughter and held her, I think, that bachelor stuff was all over, and I just hadn't seen it. I'm the only dad that little girl knows."

When James said he could run fast, and when he saw the spark of mischief in his eyes, Brian grinned back.

"You interested in helping me prank an old friend who is more than overdue for it?" Brian asked. "I've got a friend who inherited a boggart a couple of years ago. I think its time we set it loose on him for a change. He sets it on everyone else. I think its time we set it on him for once. But if we think we're going to sneak up on him, we'll have to be really good at it. He won't be easy to get past to get to the boggart. Should be hilarious, though."