Cigarette Burns and Humiliation

"Krum, Elijah" said someone in one of the ER doors. It was finally his turn.

Brienne smiled, "It's time! Finally, I thought I'd have to start taunting the other patients to become amused." She didn't stop the massage just yet. She'd do so once Eli moved.

Daniel groaned in relief, "Thank Merlin." He hated hospitals as much as the next person, but for different reasons; crooked doctors, ones that killed their patients that they swore to take care of via the Hippocratic Oath. These vulnerable people at the hands of monsters masquerading as legitimate members of the medical field.

((Muahahahaahahaa! Character POV change. ))

Arguing with snippy nurses hadn’t been the way Jen had planned on spending her evening but here she was arguing with Sadie who just truly did not want to know. The guns did not need to come out. Wands were subtler and Jen had hers trained on the irate woman. A little push in the right direction would get things moving along. So after five or six stinging hexes she had his name called. A look of superiority crossed Jenifer’s face and childishly she poked her tongue out at Sadie before striding over to where her little Slytherin was. She stopped a few feet away from and scowled. Elijah glanced up at met her gaze and the two shared a smile.

“Why do you always get yourself into trouble?” She asked in a motherly tone.

Elijah shrugged innocently. “This isn’t trouble this is pain.”

“Same difference.” Jen shrugged. “Lupin isn’t around is he?”

“If I knew that I’d already be in there.” Elijah said in a bored tone. He sent Brienne a smile of thanks slowly got up out of the chair. Jen could see how tired he was and he was feeling it. As far as she knew he’d also had to leave Amelia. He’d regret that later she was sure. Elijah had planned on going straight to the room but Jen pulled him into a hug before he had a chance and he threw his arms around the smaller woman. “You can have a cigarette holder from now on you stupid boy.” She hissed in his ear but Elijah could hear the smile in her words.

The Slytherin pulled away from his surrogate mother and smiled at her. “Oh,” He said quickly. “While I remember, Jen. This is Daniel and Brienne.”

Jen nodded, “Oh I know that.” She smiled slyly. “It’s nice to meet you both.” She nodded.

“Which way to the emergency room then?” Elijah asked half way through a yawn.

(Ahahahah!)

"It's this way" Brienne said, pointing to a numbered room where a doctor stood in the doorway. She was obviously an intern, or something. She looked as if she was a newbie to the whole job, even the way she was dressed was an indicator.

Daniel looked at Jen and Eli, "You may call me DJ if you'd like". He then followed his best friend over to the room.

Brienne spoke to the newbie doctor, "My friends will be along in a minute, I think they're just getting stuff in order."

"Well, we haven't got all night so could they please come over here soon or I'll be forced to call another name." She sounded kinda rude and pushy, but the ER was packed full of people now.

The emergency room was rubbing Jen the wrong way incredibly quickly. She didn’t understand how it filled so quickly. Looking at the burns on Eli’s hand she knew she probably could have tried to heal it but it looked redder and angrier than it should have done. It was as if someone had tried to heal it with a simple spell, one too simple and too weak to really do any help. It caused a lot more damage by the looks of things. Jen turned Eli’s hand over in her own and gently brushed her fingers around the skin of the burns. A small hiss escaped the Slytherin’s mouth and Jen frowned. “The good news is that if you get it healed then you’ll always know your left from your right.” Jen joked. “It should be fine but it’s not bleeding. That’s a bit of a concern but nothing to worry about.”

“Where is Fauve, Jen?” Knowing that if one person would know where his daughter was then it would be Jen who kept tabs on him no matter where he was in the world. Jenifer looked at the boy and smiled softly at him. Elijah exhaled shakily as she continued to inspect his hand and he opened his mouth to ask again but she cut him off, “I had David and Christophe go and get her. She’s in good hands. Rob is probably entertaining her as we speak. What are you so worried about? That now you’re momentarily incapacitated, which you’re not by the way, your mother will turn Fauve into some sort of Pureblood trading horse?” Elijah nodded and Jen smiled. “I already told you I’ve got it covered. Besides, she’s still trying to trade you off so she won’t move onto your daughter just yet.”

Elijah nodded once and Jen released his hand. Elijah walked over to where his friends had been and Jen followed behind him. She decided that he was too weary to really handle with anymore snippy women tonight. Jen herself couldn’t handle anymore but thankfully it wasn’t Ella that she had to argue with, it was just some random. “You call another name and I’ll have you sacked.” Jen said abruptly, making the intern pale considerably. Jen regarded the woman silently. Obviously she recognised her from the wanted posters. It was strange the others hadn’t said anything but she had been pardoned by Robert so she could hardly be chucked back into Azkaban. “Come on, move it along.” She huffed, glancing at Elijah who was resting his head against one of the pillars.

"Okay okay" The intern felt dread. She allowed them in, and began her examination.

"Looks like someone tried to heal this already. I hate it when people try and do that, Episkey simply doesn't work on wounds where there is considerable amounts of skin gone". She touched the angry-looking wound. "It's not bleeding, not good. There may be nerve damage from this, if the burn was deep enough to cauterize itself, it would certainly be bad enough to kill nerve tissues. The main concern now is to debride the dead tissues. It might hurt a lot, so I'm going to give you a pain potion to soothe it until I'm finished."

The intern searched a cabinet, then found a clear bottle that contained a purple liquid. "This is topical, or rubbed on skin in other words". The newbie poured the purple liquid into a pan, then got herself a sponge. She took said sponge and soaked it in the liquid, then dabbed some on the cigarette burns. She waited for the potion to take effect.

"It's very important to numb the burn, otherwise the stress will make the patient worse. Especially during the cleaning and debriding of the tissues."

Brienne didn't entirely trust the newbie. Something about her just screamed "breaker of Hippocratic Oath".

“Where’s Robert?” Elijah hissed desperately at Jen. “This woman might kill me especially if she has a Sadie-enthused grudge!” Elijah was silenced with one look from Jen and he sighed. He had no clue what people did with burns nor was he exactly sure what it had done exactly. As long as his fingers didn’t fall off then he truly didn’t care but he felt like an injured kitten. Injured kittens he could generally heal tough so that was what was irritating him more so. Well that and the fact that the intern was babbling. “Aren’t there spells for nerve and tissue healing?” The Slytherin asked, watching the intern idly. “I really don’t want you fiddling with nerves...I...” He looked at Jen for support but she seemed to be interested in something across the room so the Slytherin sighed.

Elijah didn’t know who the woman was explaining all the nonsense to. He just hoped that someone with extensive healing knowledge would come and bail him out. He wanted out. He could live with nerve damage...maybe. Eli trapped his bottom lip between his teeth and he looked down at his hand that was being tinged purple with the potion. He rolled his lip between his teeth and remained silent. He truly wasn’t sure what he was supposed to say but he wanted to know what nerve and tissue damage would do in a cat and what it would mean for his Animagus form.

The intern snarled, "Relax! I will be doing spells, but first I have to numb you. Otherwise you'll be hurt." She swore under her breath. The newbie's name was on her tag: Erie Iota. What an appropriate last name, too. It looked like she hadn't a single iota of medical knowledge. Brienne scowled, then grabbed "Dr." Iota's arm.

"Don't give us that attitude! Do your work on him and shut up! I'll be watching closely for any slips. If you make any, I swear, your head is on a silver platter courtesy of me." Brienne hated the grumbles and complaints of this stupid intern that clearly didn't know her rear-end from a hole in the ground.

Intern Iota grumbled curse words under her breath, then continued to numb the area. She seemed to narrate every move she made in a condescending tone, as if the people around her needed to know every move she made. Finally, she finished applying the purple potion. After waiting for it to set in a few minutes, she said "Scourgify". The wounds were cleaned of excess potion and other debris. She then tried to sprinkle on a green mixture that she claimed was a nerve-healing potion. The way it bubbled though was a dead giveaway that it wasn't anything good.

Daniel didn't stay silent here, he took one look at the potion and slid it away from the intern's grasp. "That's not nerve potion! It wouldn't bubble and be green if it was! It'd be yellow with a bit of sediment at the bottom!" Brienne knocked the intern's arm away and pushed her. "You...you tried to kill him!" She felt an unbelievable rage, and started trying to choke Iota.

(Trying to make this RP exciting, instead of all work. Nice switching the points of view, by the way.)

((Exciting it will get. They'll have to get up the stairs to the ward, yet. xD))

Elijah blinked in surprise at her words and he sighed. He knew she was numbing him; he didn’t have brain damage, so she didn’t need to point out the blatantly obvious. Elijah didn’t say anything else; he just kept himself quiet and let her get on with whatever she was doing. Elijah was fairly confused by the potion. It had stained his skin purple, the same colour as beetroot and he wasn’t sure if he was supposed to be worried about that or not. He didn’t usually have much cause to be in hospitals and he didn’t pay attention in Potions either so Elijah wasn’t sure what it was supposed to do apart from numb, obviously. He looked up when Brienne took the interns arm and his eyebrows shot to his hairline. He glanced at Daniel and to Jen who was now watching the intern with fascination.

Elijah had a strange feeling that Jen was waiting for the intern to make a mistake. It seemed as if Brienne was doing the same and he figured he should have been as well but he didn’t particularly care too much as long as she sorted his hand out. A yawn escaped Elijah’s mouth and he rolled his shoulders around a bit to keep himself awake. He heard the witch cast a spell and he felt a spark of pain shoot through the hand. She couldn’t have waited until the numbing potion had taken total effect could she? “Ow,” Elijah commented blandly. The intern glared and Elijah raised an eyebrow at her. His eyes dropped down to his hand and flicked back to the supposed nerve potion. Why was it green? Eli swallowed and moved his hand so the bits that had come from the vial missed. “Oops.”

The next thing that happened wasn’t exactly what Elijah had expecting. He’d wanted the job done not a random fight in the emergency room. Elijah could feel the fury rolling off of Brienne and he looked at Daniel for an answer, having missed the exclamation while he was muddled up in his own thoughts, and the his eyes went back to Jen who had called the potion to her. She was swirling it around like you would wine and she lifted it to her nose. “It’s a variation of the Pepperup Potion. It would have worked like acid.” She explained. “It would have taken the skin off of your hand if she put a fair bit on there which I’m sure she would have done and then it would have eaten down through. “Does anyone want to try it? I’m eager to see whether this is my brother’s or not.”

Elijah looked despairingly at Jen and she gave him a look of innocence. She corked the potion and chucked it at Daniel before turning on her heel and disappearing through a pair of double doors, shouting over her shoulder, “I’m going to go and admit him.” Elijah’s eyes drifted back to Brienne who was choking the intern and his eyes widened. Elijah jumped up and he threw the arm with his good hand attached around Brienne’s waist and lifted her off of the intern before she did lasting damage. He set her down on the floor and stood behind her so she didn’t go back again. Elijah took his wand from his pocket and pointed it at the intern. He wasn’t in the mood for a fight but she wasn’t going anywhere. “I don’t think I want to see anymore healers just yet.” He said firmly, looking at Daniel.

(( This will be real fun))

Brienne snarled at the "healer". "You tried to burn him! You will pay!." She felt herself grabbed by Elijah, and then sat down on the ground. "I hate quacks" she said, Daniel used his magic fingers to soothe Brienne. Her tail wagged, and a relieved groan escaped her lips. Her tongue hung out of her mouth and she panted like a dog, nearly killing the intern put strain on her.

Daniel, meanwhile, examined the potion. "I make potions like this, and I use them to kill rats! It'd cause severe internal bleeding when they ingest it through bait-food. Elijah is no rat, but this would still cause severe damage internally and externally. I once used it as a poison for Brianna's arrows, but she told me to quit because it'd render a carcass unbutcherable!" He shook his head, "I'm starting to hate it here more than anyone else. A careless doctor killed siblings of mine. My little twin siblings, Tadashi and Sora. Of course, he was a muggle doctor, but he still didn't take care of them."

Brienne sighed, "Eli, I just hope that your finger heals. You're too good a person to have had that 'tard mangle your finger all to hell." She examined the wounds again, they looked a little worse than when they first came in.

"Iota's probably in cahoots with Sadie."

Iota herself growled right back at Brienne. She clenched her neck, and started breathing hard. After coughing a couple times, she got back up. Her face was still faintly red.

“If it’s Rob’s,” Elijah said jovially. “Then it’ll be ten times as powerful and twenty times as deadly.” Elijah didn’t care so much anymore. He had everyone else doing it for him so he didn’t have to worry about worrying about himself. He was going to be fine as soon as Robert or Khaat got hold of him. He had faith in those two and those two alone; he wasn’t seeing anyone else tonight except one of them. Eli looked at Daniel and stepped away from Brienne. He gently squeezed the other man’s hand and smiled sadly. “I’m sorry.” He murmured. “I know it is a cliché to say so but I know what that feels like. You’re helpless because you can’t do anything to stop it...you want to but there is nothing you can do and before you know it it’s already too late. I’ve been there. You’re not alone in that.”

Elijah released Daniel’s hand and met Brienne half way. He glanced down at his fingers and bit his lip. Perhaps he was wrong in thinking he’d avoided all of the potion that had left the vial. “Good person...” Elijah echoed quietly to himself. He didn’t believe it for one minute. Brienne saw the charm and the flair. To see below that would have taken five muggle x-rays and a full body scan. He wasn’t a good person otherwise he’d be better for everyone. He wouldn’t have been sat in the emergency room with his hand in tatters because of a habit he’d had since he was fourteen. He would have been at home basking in the art with little or no success with his talent abroad or in his own country.

It seemed as if everything that ever happened to Elijah after the point he ran away was all because of the life he’d fallen into. But then again, he could have been brave and gone back further. Something had changed in him the night Alice died, something horrific and he didn’t know what it was. Perhaps it was because he watched her die. Something went wrong those moments, something snapped inside of him. It was then that he reached rock bottom and at nine-years-old he started burrowing down with dirt and rocks sealing the top denying him the opportunity to go up again. Fauve was one turning point. She helped him head up to the surface but he was still, even now seven years later, submerged beneath the ground with no sure way of reaching the surface.

Elijah couldn’t hear, he couldn’t see...all he could do was think. He missed Jen returning and giving the location of his room. He missed everything in those moments. He could feel though. He felt himself slip to the floor and land on the cold tiles. He didn’t understand why. He was still this scared child underneath everything. Underneath the notches on his bedpost, the scars, the art, the sex it all tore back to that one point when he watched her torture without being able to do anything about it. He was still that terrified little boy trying to pull himself out of the arms of the man that held him back. He was helpless just like before. Just like before he couldn’t do anything to help himself or her. The difference was that it was just him. He was alone. Elijah supposed nothing really had changed then. He’d always been alone. The only thing difference now was that he was alone with company.