January 15th, 1894 - Hogsmeade Hospital

It wasn't often Jack was called in to deal with patients directly these days, but he didn't mind. He often missed the face-to-face of active healing and working with those who needed their help. His administrative position felt like far too much paperwork and consulting than anything else. He couldn't complain, he had a son to provide for and now that Emerson was off to school, Jack didn't feel too bad about working longer, later hours. Still, it was surreal to think that his only son was a first year this year. Emerson seemed to be having an absolutely wonderful time at school, which was a relief, even if it made Jack feel incredibly old.

The head of a harried healer popping into his office with a request to take a look at some kind of bite got Jack out from behind his desk. For some reason they always called him when it was a kid. Something about his easy way with them. Well, he did have lots of practice after all. He flipped through the chart presented, but couldn't glean much information from the words on the page, he would have to take a solid look at it.

"I hear somebody got nipped," he said gently as he entered the exam room, looking between mother and child. Jack was usually pretty good at reading a room, trying to gauge the state of both the room's occupants. Sometimes the kids were more worked up, sometimes the mother. "Can you tell me what happened?" He smiled between the pair, pulling up a stool to take a look at what it was he was dealing with.

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Evangeline Rowle c/o Henry Berkwood
Hope this is okay, let me know!

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To put it mildly, this was not how Evangeline had anticipated her day going. A pleasant afternoon in the park with her children had ended prematurely when Elliott had gotten himself bitten by... something. It had been a long time since Eva had done much study of creatures, so she wasn't entirely sure of the identity, but she'd at least gotten a good enough look at the thing to describe it to the healer.

Emilia was sent home with a servant, and now Evangeline and her son were sitting in the hospital waiting for a healer to come see them. The pair of them were an interesting sight, she though ruefully--her son, doing his very best to look brave, even as he was cradling his injured hand to his chest and quietly sniffling; Evangeline, worried but keeping a stubbornly reassuring expression on her face, very aware of her child's perceptive gaze--if she panicked, he surely would. When the healer arrived, Elliott was leaning into Eva's side and she was stroking his hair, but when the door opened, the boy pulled away and Evangeline tried not to be hurt by it.

When prompted, Elliott told the healer about coming across a strange creature in the trees in Padmore Park, and Evangeline interjected with a description of thing, saying, "I'm not sure what it was, I don't think I've seen it before."

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Set by Bee <3

Jack nodded along as the story unfolded. He suspected he might know what he was dealing with here, but it had been a while since he'd seen a bite like this. "Let's have a good look then." He would be able to confirm his hypothesis once he cleaned it up. "I'm Jack by the way," he added as he turned the boy's hand over in his own. First names always went over better with the younger set. Made him less scary.

"Came out of a tree, you said?" That narrowed it down considerably, most of the things he dealt with around here came out of the lake. Or someone's basement. This could be a case of the latter, still. Which meant he'd be reaching out to Scamander yet again to see about figuring out how people kept getting illegal creatures into the town. "I'm going to clean it up a little bit, but it'll just be cold, promise." He assured the boy as he pulled over a little basin and a jar of clear, opalescent liquid. He didn't think they were dealing with anything poisonous, but just in case, this would clean out the puncture wounds and let him really see the bite itself.

Jack poured the solution over the bite and it washed away the little bit of remaining blood, bubbling in the puncture spots. "Tickles a little, doesn't it?" He made a face and dried the spot off. "Well the good news is I think what we're dealing with is just a clabbert, not poisonous, not going to leave any marks. The bad news is we might need a few stitches." He thought some dittany would close up most of them, but it looked like the boy had tried to pull his hand from the creature's mouth and that had torn a few of the punctures.

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Evangeline watched the healer's work, though mostly she was keeping an eye on her son, who was paying more keen attention to what the healer--Jack--was doing than Eva would have expected. She wasn't sure if it was an interest in the healing process or if Elliott just wanted to see for himself what was happening. She suspected the latter, but at least it was distracting him, which was really all Evangeline could ask for.

'Thank you," Evangeline said, flashing a relieved smile at the man. She patted her son's uninjured hand. "Stitches don't sound so bad, do they? They'll be out before you know it."

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Set by Bee <3

"You can tell all of your friends you got into a fight with a creature and won." Jack chuckled as he stood to ready the materials he would need to do the sutures. That's what Emerson would do. Always adding details to a story to make it more interesting.

Lining up the dittany, the salve that would numb the area and his stitching tools, Jack realized he hadn't gotten all of the normal paperwork nonsense out of the way. "Alright sir, I need some details, like your name, how old you are, which hand is that again?" Jack knew it was his left, but the more distraction the better, he usually figured. "Is this mum? What's her name?" He continued, as he put all of his things on a tray, bringing the parchment and potions back to where his young patient sat.

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Elliott seemed bolstered by the idea of turning this into a heroic tale. A good story was a solid trade off, Evangeline supposed wryly. Not that she could argue with the logic--not if it was working! And the boy seemed calm enough now to answer the healer's questions--Elliott Rowle, with two l's and two t's, and he leaned forward to be sure the man was noting it down correctly. When Eva prompted him to answer the other questions, Elliott held out his left, injured hand, said he was eight--and one-half, which was obviously very important and the man needed to be aware. Clearly.

Evangeline was decidedly more relaxed now that her son was calmer and being taken care of. 'Evangeline Rowle," she supplied, since Elliott seemed sufficiently distracted, which she suspected was the point. Thank Merlin.

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Set by Bee <3

"Eight and one-half, Elliott with two l's and two t's. I could have sworn you would have been due for Hogwarts soon." Jack winked at him, showing the chart for inspection.

"And Mrs. Rowle, I always feel it's inappropriate to say 'lovely to meet you' under such circumstance, but never know quite what else to say." He passed her another smile as he pulled his tray over with the suture supplies. "My son, Emerson, just one m, unfortunately, just went to Hogwarts this year." Jack continued by way of keeping up with the distractions. "I'll have to tell him about your brave battle with the clabbert."

Jack scooped a little numbing cream out with a spatula. "This will make your hand a little tingly, but this way you won't feel the stitches." Explaining as he went was usually his mode of operation, unless the patient said otherwise. "You let me know when it goes all cold and we'll get started. Shouldn't take too long."

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Elliott seemed content with the idea of impressing an older boy--even one he didn't know--and Eva could only be grateful for the simple worries and wants of children. He was also watching the healer's work with enough interest to not notice that his mother was not looking directly at it. It was a good thing she trusted the work of healers, because her usually strong constitution had a decidedly harder time when it came to an injury incurred by one of her children.

When Elliott indicated that it was time to proceed, Evangeline asked, "How long will he need to have the stitches in?"

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It didn't take long for the numbing salve to do it's job and Jack began meticulously repairing the cuts. It wouldn't be much, just a couple of stitches for each of the open wounds. "I would say three to four weeks." Jack replied as he finished up the first set. He cut the string and moved onto the next.

Elliott was paying attention with rapt attention, which was unusual, most kids looked away, but Jack couldn't help but to notice that Mrs. Rowle was looking away. Fortunately for him, Emerson hadn't had too many injuries in the past, and nothing that Jack couldn't handle. He could certainly understand why no mother wanted to see their child stitched up. "They aren't too deep, just a little ragged, so I'd lean toward the three. We can schedule a follow up at that point and I can take another look to see if they need more time or not." Making sure his sutures were clean and tight was important. "It might scar, but minimally. I have a salve that you can put on after the stitches to come out that will help minimize the appearance of the scars."

Jack tidied up the second set and began on the third. "Still a good story to tell. You'll have a good one for the Welcome Feast at Hogwarts." Jack said as he winked at Elliott.

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That seemed to satisfy her son, and Evangeline relaxed further. She dipped into her reticule to pull out a small notepad to note all this down. She took little as seriously as she took looking after her children--oftentimes, more than many of her peers did. Certainly more than her own parents had. Really, "devoted mother" was by far one of her better traits, and even Eva could admit to that.

"Is there anything we should look out for?" Evangeline asked, looking up from her notes. "Anything that might--" She was going to say go wrong, and then thought better of it. "--Be unusual?"

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"Any sign of infection, oozing, redness, tenderness, hot to the touch." He listed them off even though he would write them down on a piece of parchment too. "Rinse well with warm water once a day and wrap it in clean bandages." Jack was so used to giving out directions like this that he knew sometimes people seemed like they were taking it all in, but in the aftermath of an injury tended to forget things.

"I'm afraid you'll have to take it easy mate, no tree climbing or broom riding for a few weeks." He added to Elliott as he finished up the last stitch and set down the suture supplies. He moved to get a clean bandage from the tray and began to wrap it himself. "Mrs. Rowle, if you'd like to see how I do it, so you can replicate it at home?" Jack paused, unsure as to whether or not it would even be Mrs. Rowle doing the wrapping, but he supposed it wouldn't hurt for her to see how he did it regardless.

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"Yes, of course," Evangeline said, giving the healer her full attention. Probably, she would have to make sure a servant knew how to do this, as well, but Eva was, by and large, much more hands-on with her parenting than most of her peers. It was something she refused to be shamed for--perhaps, she sometimes thought bitterly, if her own parents had taken more of a personal interest in their children's upbringing, they would have found themselves much less disappointed later.

Regardless, she wanted to know how to do this. "Would you mind doing it slowly so I can be sure I have it right?" she asked.

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Set by Bee <3

"Certainly," Jack smiled easily as he undid the little bit of the wrap that he had done. He motioned for Mrs. Rowle to move in closer and positioned Elliott's hand so it was easy to see. "Start here," Jack wrapped it around the young man's wrist twice before moving up into the hand. "Tight enough to keep it in place, but not too tight." No need to cut off any circulation, that wouldn't end well. "Go around the space here a couple of times," Jack made sure to wrap around the space between the thumb and forefinger slowly, going around the hand between each time to secure it.

"Back down to where you started and tuck it in at the base," Jack demonstrated slowly. "And it'll be all set. Make sure it is thoroughly dry, then put just a thin layer of the salve on to keep it hydrated, before you put the bandage on." He pushed his stool back and reached for some parchment to put everything in writing for her as well. He listed off the washing and bandaging instructions before handing her the paper. "Just let me jar up the rest of this salve and you can take it with you."

Jack worked quickly at the counter. "If it's painful, a little pain potion at night will be fine." It might ache for a week or so until the healing process was more complete. "Please don't hesitate to send me an owl if anything pops up, no matter the time." Without Emerson at home, Jack didn't mind being on call if the need came up.

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Evangeline watched closely and was relieved to realize that this was within her capabilities. She hadn't been overly worried that it wasn't, but it wasn't as if she had experience in healing, so who knew what she didn't know she was ignorant of? "I think I should be able to handle that fine," Evangeline said, sounding more relieved than confident. "Thank you so much."

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wrap/new thread?

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