Mid-Morning, June 13th, 1888 - Hogsmeade Hospital

With the fog reaching Hogsmeade and almost certain to expand further, Ross had spent his morning so far on damage control. That had involved talking to the Prophet long before most people were even awake, and he'd set the junior assistant to drafting a memo before he arrived to his newly-scheduled appointment with Mr. Keene.

Ross arrived to his appointment ten minutes early, and was ushered in by Mr. Keene's secretary. "Mr. Keene," he said warmly, holding his hand out for the director to shake, "Thank you for agreeing to speak with me at such short notice; I'm sure you appreciate the urgency of the matter at hand."

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So much for a peaceful summer.

Baxter had accepted the Minister's urgent request without a second thought; clearly this fog and the carnival workers needed to be dealt with, but he honestly hadn't envisioned that he'd be dealing with both at the same time.

"Of course, it's unavoidable at this point. Mr. Jamsehill at St. Mungo's already reached out to offer support. I fear I'm running out of space and hands at the moment." It wasn't so much a complaint as an observation. He had some ideas to streamline everything, but first he needed to see what it was exactly that the minister needed from him.

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I may never actually change this set by MJ

That was, more or less, exactly what Ross had expected. He nodded at Mr. Keene.

"In the interest of full disclosure - we expect that the fog will reach the hospital and surrounding areas within the next 24 to 72 hours," Ross said. Keene was a smart man, so he probably knew that already - but it was one thing to suspect and another thing to confirm.

"With that information - what can I do for you?"

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Baxter had assumed things would only keep spreading, so that news was no surprise. It was worrisome, but not really news. "The extra space is the hardest part. With the carnival workers in quarantine for the time being, I'm running out of room." What could they possibly do about it however? Conference rooms and every other possible nook and cranny were already playing house to the carnival folk.

"Until I can finish up their dedicated time, it'll be tight." Bax had to wonder if the minister might be able to expedite that process, but didn't dare ask. They only had a little over a week left anyway. "Fortunately there have been no signs of deadly, incurable diseases." A couple cases of dragon pox they'd contained alarmingly fast, but that was it.

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"We'll assist in moving them when the quarantine expires," Ross said, "Are there any signs of anything dangerous in the broader population?" The last thing they needed was another plague - especially because emergency cases would have to be moved to St. M's. Goddamn.

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Well they'd just have to ride that out then. The end of the quarantine would be relieve quite a few of their problems, and until then, they would muddle through. Fortunately once each carnival worker had been checked out, they didn't require too much more attention other than repeated surveillance.

"Nothing extremely contagious has popped up. A case or two of dragon pox, but those were dealt with swiftly." With aggressive potions and a boot back to where they came from. Bax felt bad, but honestly he couldn't deal with another epidemic like the last one. That had been incredibly trying as a healer and he'd rather not repeat it. "As long as we can keep an open line of communication with Jameshill, we should be fine." Bax hoped anyway. "We will need them to make potions for us though, that's out of our realm of possible  right now." And they were going to need them frequently. Without magic itself they were going to have to rely heavily on potions and muggle methods for the time being.

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Ross nodded. "We can ship potions in on the train," he said. Merlin, was this what muggles had to deal with all the time? Transportation disasters and over-crowding and no convenient way to get anywhere? Merlin's sake. "And please don't hesitate to send any emergency cases out. Mercy Magical Hospital in Edinburgh will be entirely at your use."

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Nodding along, Bax made a note to reach out to the director at Mercy personally after the minister left. Another line of communication that needed to be open and was frankly far easier to get to than London at the moment. "Certainly, it's ridiculous how crippled we are without our traditional treatments." Bax let out a frustrated sigh and straightened up to stretch out his back. Damn he was tired.

"Please let me know if we can be of any further assistance." Bax wasn't sure what he could possibly do for the minister aside from keep his hospital running as smoothly as possible, but if there was something else, he would do it to the best of his ability.

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I may never actually change this set by MJ