September 14th, 1893 — London
Mabel Brighton

Dragons.

There were bloody dragons in London.

Dory swore for the umpteenth time as he hid behind a collapsed wall. He'd been tasked with guiding the terrorized people on the streets towards the triage areas and the evacuation points, but had thus far been mainly dodging the lethal attacks of a determined dragon. The dragon had spotted him while he was transfiguring a makeshift crutch for a muggle with a broken leg (someone would be wiping their memories later, he prayed) and had followed him down two blocks now.

What sort of spell did one use on a dragon? He couldn't stun it, not by himself and certainly not with the typical dueling spells. After all, Expelliarmus certainly wouldn't cut it here. Instead, Dory had begun attempting to collapse buildings upon the bloody thing. Aiming bombardment spells on what looked like strong points of whatever building and praying for the best. Thus far, his manufactured chaos hadn't worked. All his actions had done was cause an insane amount of obstacles to cross and force the dragon into an even more frenzied state.

Bloody hell.

Dory took another steadying breath against the wall as the dragon roared in fury. He had seconds to either shield himself here or try and find shelter elsewhere. Seconds to strategize his next move.

And then he saw her.

Mabel.

All thoughts of strategy and his own personal safety evaporated from his mind as he sprinted towards her position, barreling into her only a split second before the scorching fire blazed down the street. "Are you insane?!" He shouted at her above the roaring flames. What was she doing here?! Why was she not in triage or somewhere else?! "There isn't anyone on this street, you need to go. Now." There was no room for arguing in his tone. Only further demands that she consider her own personal safety above those lost souls still trapped elsewhere.

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beautiful set by lady

There were days when Mabel worked for hours on end. She hadn’t had one of those for quite some time, but as soon as she had heard about what had happened down at the river, she knew it was going to be one of those days. Gathering all the supplies she could, Mabel headed out with her team, casting Alice an apprehensive look; this would be the first mass catastrophe the young healer would be working. Mabel wanted to reassure her, but there was neither time nor precedent for such placating words. It would be a hard day. They would win some, and they would lose some, and that would be that.

Silently wishing her colleague good luck, Mabel stepped into the triage hall and rolled up her sleeves. After rolls of gauze, thousands of diagnostic charms cast, quick calculations and reassurances to her patients, the healer could already feel the fatigue settle in. She battled with feeling thankful that they had to stay in the triage area for the time being, until she got to her last patient - a mother, severely wounded and in a frantic state looking for her child. Mabel tried to calm her down and give her some potion, but she could see there wasn’t much that would get the other woman to sit still. And as Mabel cast all the diagnostic charms and determined her unfit to go back out, her heart nearly fractured at the desperate wail the mother let out. Seizing Mabel by the wrist, she begged for her to find her daughter and gave her the description of what her child had last been seen in. A pink dress with blue ribbons in her hair. Brown hair. 4 years old. Mabel couldn’t just stay here and sit on that knowledge. So after a moment’s hesitation, she nodded, told the mother she would do everything she could to find her child, gathered up her satchel of healing supplies, and slipped out of the room.

Outside was chaos. People were still screaming, and the buildings looked as if they’d had chunks ripped out of them. Spells were cast occasionally to protect people from falling debris, but not everyone was safe. Hurrying quickly, Mabel made her way through the surrounding streets keeping an eye out for a flash of blue ribbons and a pink dress. Brown hair. Four years old. Instead of finding the girl, she caught a glimpse of someone in the crowd and her heart dropped. Dory. No. “Dory!” Even as she screamed, the roar of a dragon tore through the air. But she had to get to him, and make sure he was alright. He would bleed out and die helping someone with no regard for his own safety, she just knew it. Then what would she do? Except as soon as she had seen him, he’d vanished. Desperately looking around, Mabel felt a sob rise in her chest. She was too late in realizing a dragon was headed straight for her, its jaws bared and its chest igniting.

Before she could act, someone tackled her. And then Dory was shouting at her, his expression twisted in fury as he stared down at her. Even though he looked positively terrifying, Mabel thanked the Lord he was alright. “I can’t, I’m searching for a lost child!” She explained, looking behind him and tugging him into a nearby alley. “Her mother’s back at triage, she was going to go back out and look for her if I didn’t come out here.”

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loveliness by mj <3

Dory could have laughed if he wasn't so terrified. Maple risking her life in favor of one of her patients was so fitting that he couldn't blame her for being out here. Not truly. Not even if the sight of her caused his heart to clench and his every thought of helping others to vanish. She was always trying to help, always doing her duty. Who was he to begrudge her that?

"What does the child look like? What's its name? Where were they last seen? I'll look and you can go back." He knew it was unlikely that she'd go back so quickly, knew she'd fight him rather than think of herself for once. "I'll find the kid, alright? You need to get out of he-"

The dragon's ear splitting shriek echoed down the street once more.

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beautiful set by lady

There was little time for them to debate this matter. In the middle of such a cacophony of noise, Mabel barely had time to decipher the glimmer of emotion that showed on Dory’s face before he returned to glaring at her. Before she could even answer his question, the street exploded into more chaos and Mabel visibly jumped. She had to clap a hand over her mouth to keep from shrieking in fright. There was no time to heed Dory’s warning before the dragon began advancing down the street, its eyes glittering maliciously.

Mabel seized Dory’s arm and pulled as hard as she could towards - anywhere that had shelter.

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loveliness by mj <3