Thicker than Water (Marauders Era)

30 January, 1979 - Wolfsbane

Lavinia did indeed talk to Remus the next morning. Actually, she apologized sp profusely that Remus told her, a bit impatiently, to please stop because he got it. And Lupin apologized as well, a gesture Lavinia responded to with immediate forgiveness because as far as she was concerned, he hadn't really done anything wrong. By the end of the conversation, which took place over breakfast, Lavinia thought they'd actually managed to reach a decent understanding. She knew where Remus was coming from and she thought he probably understood what had driven her as well. It had been the heat of the moment that had drawn out far deeper insecurities and led both of them to react more harshly than they normally would.

What Lavinia didn't tell Remus was that in the midst of a nearly sleepless night, she'd had an idea for the full moon. Or at least, an idea of where to start looking for a proper solution. But with their apologies only just finished, she didn't particularly want to bring the subject up again in case he gave her another lecture about her insistence on taking care of her friends.

She departed for work as usual and spent the day as she always did until she finished her shift in the Mungo Bonham ward. Then, instead of going down to the staff room immediately, Lavinia made her way to the first floor, which was where creature induced injuries were dealt with. She made her way down the halls, her eyes skimming over the plaques by doors until she found what she was looking for: the Dai Llewellyn ward for serious bites.

She'd been here only once before, when Mr. Hayes had asked her to fetch a healer from this ward to advise them on treatment of a hit wizard who'd been bitten by a modified Venomous Tentacula, causing his whole left side to swell and turn purple. She shuddered slightly at the memory. She didn't like treating bites.

When she entered, the healer in the room, who happened to be the same one she'd fetched that time with the Venomous Tentaculs, looked up and sighed. He was a reedy man with a mop of slightly mousy brown hair and, if her previous experience was any indication, an incredibly impatient temperament.

"Another hit wizard got bitten?" he asked, sounding annoyed already, as though it was her fault hit wizards encountered dangerous things with fangs.

Lavinia shook her head, biting back a snappish retort. "I have a personal question," she explained, trying to keep her tone light.

Regardless of her tone, however, the healer scowled at her and Lavinia had to resist the urge to wince. "I can wait until you're done," she clarified hastily, glad she'd told Miriam not to wait up. She had the sneaking suspicion this was going to take a little while and not least because the last time she'd spoken to this particular healer - Smethwyck was his name - he'd been painfully unhelpful until she'd told him to just go up to the ward himself and deal with the hit wizard. He hadn't much liked that, but Lavinia hadn't much liked being interrupted every time she tried to explain what the bite looked like.

Now Smethwyck nodded and didn't say anything else, instead merely turning back to his work and leaving Lavinia to stand awkwardly against the wall and wonder how long he would take.

About fifteen minutes later, nearly half of which he spent flipping through pages in his clipboard and, in Lavinia's opinion, probably hoping she would give up and leave, Smethwyck came up to her. "You have a question?" he prompted, raising his eyebrows and looking mildly annoyed that she hadn't left yet.

Lavinia nodded and swallowed, trying to decide how best to go about this. She didn't want to give Smethwyck any indication of who exactly she was talking about, and she also didn't want to see too forward. But she did need answers so... "I... I have a friend," she started, but Smethwyck cut her off.

"Congratulations," he said drily and Lavinia pursed her lips at him.

"Who suffers from lycanthropy," she continued tartly, deciding to pretend the healer hadn't said anything.