Vulnerable - Printable Version

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+---- Thread: Vulnerable (/showthread.php?tid=7732)

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Vulnerable - Gideon Ollivander - February 2, 2021


Gideon was still blind as a bat, which meant he hadn't read the article printed in the paper that morning, but the intern who had come in to deliver his breakfast had told him the long and short of it. It was quite distressing, for a few reason. He hadn't been aware that the Potts shop had been damaged by his foolishness before this, and was already wracking his brain trying to think how he might make amends. He tried very hard to be a good neighbor, and the Potts were such a pleasant family. Luckily no one had been injured, aside from himself. What was even more distressing than the Potts damage was the fact that it was in the paper at all. Billie would have heard, then, and he was so far incapable of picking up a quill to reassure her that everything was fine.

Miss Montague had stopped by that morning with well-wishes and a bouquet of flowers — likely not the convalescence gift she would have chosen if she knew he couldn't see them, but a well-intentioned gift all the same — and owls had been arriving periodically, contributing to a growing stack of letters he couldn't read. He was hoping for a visit from Quincey Honeyduke — the only person who might understand his urgency in seeing whether one of the letters was from Billie, and whom he might trust to write a response in his stead to calm her down — but the next person who entered was his healer once again.

"Good morning, Miss," he said, before exchanging the same superficial question-and-answer he'd had with the intern that morning. How are you feeling? Any change since last night?

"Miss Chevalier," he said hesitantly, when there was a break in the questions. "I know this is a terrible imposition, but — given the circumstances — I wonder if you might take a look at the mail I've gotten and tell me if you see one from a little girl named Billie," he said, cheeks flushing slightly. "She's got awful handwriting," he added, to give Miss Chevalier some clue to decipher which envelope might be hers.

Tabitha Chevalier @"Elsie Beauregard" (Feel free to ignore until our other one is done if you want! Was just feeling musey after getting letters ^^)

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RE: Vulnerable - Tabitha Chevalier - February 3, 2021

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RE: Vulnerable - Gideon Ollivander - February 3, 2021

He could hear the undercurrent of hesitation in her voice, and he was sympathetic to what a strange request it was. He ordinarily never would have asked, and if the situation had been even a little less dire, he would have put it off — but since he didn't actually know what the Prophet story had said, precisely, and he didn't know what Billie might have heard, he was eager to see how she'd responded to the news. Gideon's heart skipped a beat when she indicated she'd found the letter. Any news was better than no news, he thought, so that he could stop fretting over whether or not she'd heard yet, but he felt awful that she'd been worried enough to write him in the first place.

Did he want Miss Chevalier to read it? Gideon hesitated. He hardly knew this woman, and didn't relish the thought of sharing anything with her that was so personal. It was dangerous, too, as he couldn't be sure exactly what Billie might have written until after the letter had been read. He didn't think she'd say anything explicit, but he couldn't be sure. Miss Chevalier definitely shouldn't be burdened with anything even approaching the truth of his relationship with Billie, and it wouldn't be fair to his daughter to violate her privacy in that way. She had no reason to believe a letter she wrote to him might be seen by anyone else, and if she was worried, she might not have been quite as careful as she would have been otherwise.

But on the other hand, she was worried, and Gideon was, in turn, worried about Billie. Quin may or may not come at some point today — he was a good friend, but he did have his own life to manage, his own shop, and could hardly be expected to sense something was amiss and drop everything to rush to Gideon's side to help — and he couldn't just sit here wondering what the letter said until he arrived.

"If you wouldn't mind," he said eventually, with a frown. "I'm sorry, I know it's a terrible imposition — this is well outside your responsibilities as a healer," he continued, shaking his head. "But I would like to know what she's said."

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RE: Vulnerable - Tabitha Chevalier - February 3, 2021

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RE: Vulnerable - Gideon Ollivander - February 3, 2021

Gideon caught himself holding his breath as she started to read the letter, and had to force himself to exhale. He could almost see the way the words would look on the page, in her familiar handwriting — could guess at her misspellings. He was touched that she'd offered to come help, but was dreading that she might actually try to do it. He could just picture her packing up a bag with things she considered necessities — candy and bowtruckle bait, perhaps — and then setting off into the Forbidden Forest in the vague direction of Hogsmeade.

"Would you?" he asked immediately, obviously relieved. It might be better for Billie if someone she was familiar with wrote to reassure her, but the logistics of having Miss Chevalier write to someone who would then write to Billie without any context seemed too complicated. Getting a faster response was better, he decided, even if it came from an unfamiliar healer, which might add to her worry in and of itself. "If you could just say that I'm —" he was about to say fine, but hesitated at the last moment; he still had no guarantees that his sight would ever be restored to him, and while he was not ready to give up hope just yet he was reluctant to use such a superficial word when such a monumental factor was still an unknown.

"I'm in very good hands, here, and I don't need her to leave Hogwarts to help," he decided. After a beat, he added, "And that I'll write her myself as soon as I can."

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RE: Vulnerable - Tabitha Chevalier - February 4, 2021

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RE: Vulnerable - Gideon Ollivander - February 5, 2021

"Of course," Gideon agreed. That seemed entirely appropriate, under the circumstances. Billie would want to know who this strange young woman was and why she was responding to his letters for him. He might have thought to say something along those lines himself, when dictating to her, but he wasn't sure exactly what words he would have chosen. It was difficult to describe someone when they were standing right there listening to you do it, wasn't it? And the kind of reassurances he might have given Billie (she's very kind, she seems very clever, I'm sure she'll have me settled in no time and she'll take exceptionally good care of me until then so please, don't fret) might have made the woman blush. Better that she'd written it herself, really.

She asked about the signature, and he hesitated. It was a good idea, as far as the letter went. It would reassure Billie that he was alive, and not in a coma, or delirious, or any of the other reasons she might have supposed he wasn't writing his own letters. He was sure he could still manage it; he'd been signing his name his whole life and his hand remembered the movement even if his eyes couldn't watch the strokes. But it was quite a bit to ask of poor Miss Chevalier.

"You'd have to put my hand on the paper," he pointed out uncertainly.

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RE: Vulnerable - Tabitha Chevalier - February 5, 2021

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RE: Vulnerable - Gideon Ollivander - February 6, 2021

He was vaguely aware of her movements because he could hear the shuffle of her clothing, but his senses still weren't nearly as fine-tuned as they ought to have been. He didn't realize how close she was until she'd suddenly touched his hand, and it was all he could do to grasp the quill and not drop it in surprise. He was being rather ridiculous about this, he thought. She was acting in a professional capacity, doing something he'd asked her to do. There wasn't anything intimate or improper about this, actually, but her touch still made his heart skip a beat all the same. It must have had something to do with the fact that he couldn't see her, he thought. She was still a stranger, to an extent — and this feeling of being touched unexpectedly in the dark was vaguely reminiscent of the sort of trouble he'd used to get into, before he'd found Billie.

"Thank you, Miss," he said after he'd signed his signature at the bottom of the page, hopefully in more or less a straight line. "That's — I hope it will make her feel a little better about it," he said, with a frown. "I wish I had some... well, you know, some good news for her, but I suppose this'll have to do."

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RE: Vulnerable - Tabitha Chevalier - February 6, 2021

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RE: Vulnerable - Gideon Ollivander - February 8, 2021

"You mean you could tell her," he pointed out, with a half-smile for the first time since entering the hospital. He was happy to hear that she'd made some progress on the situation, but he didn't expect that he would be able to read and write again by tomorrow morning — and if he was, the fact that Miss Chevalier had narrowed things down would hardly still be relevant news.

"I'm sure you'll get the recipes soon, Miss Chevalier," he continued. "Macrae is very dedicated to his work. His work just doesn't typically include managing my medical care." He let out a short huff of breath, somewhere between a chuckle and a sigh of exasperation at the situation in which he'd placed himself. "But, to answer your question, no. I can't imagine I'll need anything else. You've already done more than you know," he said, thinking of Billie.

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RE: Vulnerable - Tabitha Chevalier - February 14, 2021

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