September 28th, 1892 — Location

Merida loved her job. She loved the hard work, the long hours, the patients, the puzzle of an injury and it's treatment, all of it! Her jade green healers cape complimenting her pale skin and vivid red hair as though she had chosen the profession to be as complimentary to her colouring as possible. Her normally wild red mane was tamed into a bun at the base of her neck, but a long shift had caused a few tendrils to escape.

As she passed the intake desk she picked up her next patient, checked the bay number and with a quick thank you to the intake nurse hurried off.

'Alright then?' Merida trilled as she entered the curtained bay in which her next patient was recumbant on a bed, taking an appraising look at her new patient in between glances at the intake chart that had been drawn up by the medi witch and tried not to roll her eyes - there was almost no information on the nature and extent of the injury and even the patients name was fairly eligible.

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SU

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The very idea of being at the Hogsmeade Hospital was absurd and Leo was over it. He didn’t want to be here and shouldn’t be here, but the medic who’d quickly looked him over told him he better safe rather than sorry. Hogsmeade Hospital had been the closest even if he would have preferred St. Mungo’s, but there were also less people he’d know here than there. He’d been grumpy with the front desk when he’d walked in and the paperwork he’d filled out had been quick: his name and the reason for his being here: bite. The woman had kindly asked him to fill out more to help the healer in question, and he'd just laughed and tossed the paper onto the desk. He was quickly ushered into a room after that.

Leo was sitting on the bed with his arms crossed tightly across his chest when he heard a woman’s voice that sounded entirely too happy for any occasion, and he didn’t even bother tossing her a look over his shoulder before he was speaking. “Can we make this quick? I’m a busy man and have better things to do.” Like getting back to work, for one. And mostly… everything. He had paperwork to fill out, people to boss aroundquestion and here he was, wasting time here.

Bright blue hues shifted upward as he held his arm out, a few tiny indents littering his skin.[b] “A doxy, I think. It didn’t even break the skin though, so it’s fine.” Someone had been hoarding hundreds of doxy eggs and waiting for them to hatch. Leo wasn’t sure what for what purpose and had he not been forced to come here, he would have found out by now.

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MJ made this masterpiece<3

Inpatience from her patients was not unexpected in this line of work, especially when the waiting room was busy -but today was not one of those days. Today the queue was moving rather quickly and no one was waiting very long at all to be seen. Today - this gent just seemed to be in a bad mood. So his snappy comment, came as something of a surprise and she stopped in her tracks for a moment, the notes still held before her, forgotten as she appraised the back of his head, as though the back of his scalp could tell her something about the man she was about to deal with.

Merida was grateful that he was turned away from her because she could hide her wrinkled nose in annoyance as she quickly schooled her features, into her best professional healer face- all calm, control and bedside manner.

Still, 'I'm sure you are sir' was all she said to his demand that she hurry, in a vaguely condescending tone, as though agreeing with a child that they were actually a cowboy. She set aside the medical notes and moved around to the front of the bed, taking the offered arm to examine the bite marks. Her fingers deftly moved the arm to give her the best view of the tiny needle marks.

'And how exactly did you manage to come into contact with doxy's?' she asked, meeting his gaze appraisingly, trying to ascertain if she was dealing with a hapless victim or an idiot doing something appropriately idiotic like smuggling doxy eggs.

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Timoleon didn’t like her tone and he already felt like she was going to waste his time in a situation that he shouldn’t even be in to begin with. A grunt was the only reply he could manage. If only she knew how busy he actually was. He rolled his eyes as she finally came toward him and appraised his arm that was outstretched, her fingers slightly warm against his skin. It made him frown.

Her eyes might have been nice to look at in any other situation, although Leo narrowed his as he inhaled sharply; he’d seen her before, somewhere. “I was investigating someone hoarding doxy eggs, and the doxy who laid them didn’t like me snooping around.” Timoleon arched an eyebrow at her. “The medic on scene told me I should get this checked out, but it didn’t even break the skin. Just sign the damn paperwork so I can get back to work.” This was just wasting time; he had cases to review and a boss to annoy with updates.

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MJ made this masterpiece<3

She gave a small 'huh' noise, at his explanation, that was the sort of polite, vaguely listening noise that your barely interested hairdresser made while attending to your hair. She let go of his arm, and with a sunny smile, she moved to sit on a stool opposite the bed. It wasn't until she sat down that she realized exactly who he was - the french chap that worked for her brother! Wasn't that a fun coincidence - and it made a little more sense that he had ended up assaulted by doxys.

'So you definitely need to be seen to' she explained, her tone bright and sunny in spite of the fact they were actually discussing the nature and extent of his injuries. No point in laboring the danger of doxy poison, better to keep it up beat.
'doxy venom is very dangerous, we'll need to give you a strong antidote and you will need to spend a few hours here to make sure it takes.' she gave a wincing sympathetic look, aware that this was going to go down like a lead balloon.

'but I'm sure I can square it with the boss.' she joked brightly, cocking her head to one side like a cat observing a curious bird.

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Leo tracked her movements as she dropped his arm and moved away from the bed. His eyes fleeted over the door and when she didn’t make her way toward it, he stifled a groan. His eyes narrowed once more as he pressed his lips together, wondering just how much shit he’d get for walking out of the hospital - he didn’t care about the write ups or the lectures, but he did care about his performance and how he was viewed.

“It didn’t pierce anything.” Timoleon repeated himself. “Which makes the antidote and staying here useless. Have you actually graduated to being a full-fledged healer yet?” Cocking an eyebrow at her, he shifted on the bed that was uncomfortable beneath him - there was no way she expected him to stay here for hours and be comfortable. Although maybe while she was here, he could teach her a few things about doxies. She must have gone to Hogwarts for her education because she didn’t seem like she knew much of anything.

His eyes flared with recognition and he snorted. “Tell your brother I’m refusing treatment and I’ll be back before he leaves for the day.” He could already picture Murdock Greyback laughing that his subordinate managed to be bitten by a doxy and wind up needing some form of treatment. “I have updates he needs to hear.” Leo’s fingers tightened around the edge of the bed as he met her gaze. Miss Greyback wasn’t going to win this.

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MJ made this masterpiece<3

Merida bristled, how dare he doubt her skills! But she wasn't one to allow that to read and she buried her emotions behind her professional mask, which generally looked like a quirked head and a sunny smile.

'It appears so and I certainly hope so,' she made the concession of agreeing - except it wasn't agreeing it was the sort of polite noise that acknowledged you were not an idiot but were also still entirely wrong. 'the smaller back teeth of the doxy are so thin and sharp that they can puncture the skin without you feeling out and without leaving a mark. You might not even realize it' She crossed her arms over her chest and the clipboard of notes, waiting to see if he would argue with the logic of it.

'I doubt he cares that much' she couldn't help but quip and covered her mouth as soon as she said it, as though she had hiccoughed or sneezed, the moment of her personal and professional life bleeding together, and the snarky comment about her brother couldn't be contained.

She coughed, 'He will not thank you for you endangering yourself for the sake of a few hours.' Merida gave him an appraising look, trying to read his face to see just how stubborn he was inclined to be. Murdock had said that he was a 'focused' man, which she had often taken as a euphemism for stubbornness to a fault. She met his gaze, wondering how likely it was that he flinch under her appraising expression.

She had no real ability to keep him here, beyond appealing to common sense - why wouldn't he want to spend a few hours in the hospital? - she was a god damn delight to spend time with.

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The first thing he noted was she didn’t immediately answer his question, which was answer enough – there was no way in hell that Ms. Greyback was a full fledged healer, and he wasn’t sure he trusted her speech about the doxies. Then there was the condescending tone she used like she knew more than he did – Leo had gone to Beauxbaton, which automatically made him more adverse in everything compared to her.

Still, he glanced down at his arm which was actually beginning to hurt just a tad, but he wasn’t going to admit that. He didn’t immediately answer her, especially as he started prattling on about Greyback, but she had a point – Murdock Greyback wouldn’t care, but it didn’t mean that he wanted to be late with his reports. She was mocking him and if he could ask for a new healer he would, but going through the same thing that he was fine with someone else seemed repetitive.

Part of his arm throbbed then, a quick pulse that made Leo loosen his grip on the bed. Huffing loudly, he glanced up at Miss Greyback and growled at her. “Fine. Antidote, thirty minutes then I’m out.” Leo’s eyes narrowed. “Well then, hop to it. Hate to report that you just keep wasting my time today.”

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MJ made this masterpiece<3

'Lets start with that' she said, rather hoping he would miss her decidedly non-commital statement, it was far from an admission that his allotted 30 minutes would be enough, but she was wasn't prepared to blow up the conversation when a sneak attack would work just as well. She tried to hide her slightly smirking smile, behind her very professional mask. Merida was like her brother in may regards, gregarious, mostly easy going and convivial - traits not often needed in dealing with patients. Her patience and sympathy made her a good healer, the rest of it needed to be hidden behind her professional visage but that was not to say that it did not slip, and it slipped most often with those to whom she had a personal connection. She was forced to conceed that her brothers presence, looming large as a consideration in their conversation had rather dropped Mister Maxime into that 'personal' category - wether he wanted to be or not.


She bit back her comment about how his boss would take any report of a complaint about her, she was fairly sure if Murdock recieved a report on her, about her, then his first thought would be to add an addendum of all the things Merida had done to annoy him as a child. Being so many years her senior he had been subjected to the pestering of a parent, not the good natured ribbing of a brother. She was his responsibility to marry off and get settled in life, a gentleman complaining about her would probably result in a lecture about taking steps to ensure that she did not become a spinster by alienating ministry men.

'I'm sure everyone would agree that your safety is worth the extra time Mister Maxime, I should hate to have answer to my brother about why I allowed his deputy to die on my watch' she said, trying to charm him with humour. Determind as she was to not allow his ill humour to infect her, and sure that his ill temper was the result of his having been bitten and not his natural state. 'Can you imagine how awkward that would make Christmas!' She quipped with a smile.

She moved to the side of the bed and produced the doxy antivenom from her pocket, before handing it to him. Merida poured a large cup of water from the jug on the bedside cabinet and held it out to him and her empty palm up to take back the antivenom vial. 'It tastes foul but there isn't much we can do about that, the water should help.' Merida had won over literal Azkaban residents with her bedside manner, and she was determined that this ornery Frenchman would not defeat her!

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Leo glared at the poor woman, but she was starting to get under his skin, which was pissing him off. Not a lot of people told him what to do (Murdock was one of those simply because he was his superior, but that was going to change one day, and hopefully soon), and those who thought they could made him laugh. Miss Greyback was one of those people who seemed to think she had any authority over him, when they both knew she didn’t. He snapped his teeth shut and snorted at her.

Start with that. After thirty minutes he was getting up and walking his ass out of the hospital, because then he could check off the box that he’d come. Leo crossed his arms across his chest. “Well don’t worry, I’ll be sure to haunt him so I can give him all the details.” He grumbled back, his frown deepening at the talk about Christmas. She was trying to make a joke, that much he knew, but he let it fall flat – Mis Greyback was anything but funny.

He reached forward to take the antidote from her and downed it in one go before he placed the empty vial back in her palm; his face twisted and his nose wrinkled because it was foul, and as he took the water and gulped it down, he realized she was right – it didn’t do anything.

“Should really mix it with whiskey.” He frowned at her, and then moved to take a pocket watch from his pocket. “Thirty minutes. Tick. Tock.” Leo flicked his gaze toward her. “Shouldn’t you be getting discharge paperwork ready while I wait?”

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MJ made this masterpiece<3

He probably would be fine if he left after the 30 minutes, the likelihood of a negative reaction after that point dropped exponentially. Still she would send a message to Murdock to tell him to keep an eye on his underling and to send him straight back to the hospital if he started to look a little green around the gills. Since she was 80% sure that a ghostly deputy would be significantly less useful to her brother than a corporeal one.

His snarky comment about the discharge papers caused her eyes to narrow - in a look of mock annoyance, that was real annoyance meant to look like joking annoyance.

She could tell his tone was less than amused but determined not to allow him to 'win' their little tete a tete she chuckled as though he was making a joke in which she was sharing. Serious as he seemed to be that he was leaving. She held up the clip board and made herself comfortable on the chair in the corner of the room. This way at least she could assure herself that he wasn't going to have a reaction, while also seeming to be being accommodating by completing the paperwork as he sat there.

'You intimidate everyone around you in ordinary life don't you Mister Maxime?' Merida asked with a pleasant smile, as she took her time to complete the notes that would need to accompany the paperwork. 'You're very much used to people doing exactly what you say when you say it - arn't you?' it was a rueful observation, calmly delivered.

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Finally Miss Greyback appeared to be doing something other than wasting his time, and Leo narrowed his eyes at her as she made herself comfortable in a corner away from him. His eyes flicked down to the pocket watch and found that only a minute had passed since he’d asked her to sit down, and even then she did it with a stupid chuckle. Maybe she saw too, how much of him being here was a joke – he would have had reactions by now if that was the case, and it was a bloody shame he couldn’t complain to his superior that his sister was terrible at her job.

Well, he could, but Leo didn’t want to explain why he felt the desire to leave early and go against the wishes of a healer.

Then he snorted rather rudely, finding that the question was just a statement of things that everyone should already know about him. “Of course people do what I say Miss Greyback. I’m very high up on the food chain, so I'm used to people falling over their feet to please me.” His eyes flicked back to the pocket watch which mocked him with its lazy, ticking hand. “In fact one day I’ll be the Minister of Magic and then everyone will do exactly what I say without question. Including you.” Because anyone who defied him would come to rue it.

Blue eyes narrowed at her. “You’d do better in life if you were less peppy and more assertive.” Unsolicited advice, but he felt like she deserved it.

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MJ made this masterpiece<3

If he had been a more pleasant person, she might have actually felt rather bad about being so obstructive to his wishes. However he was making it rather difficult to actually play nice with him. But then she was the one who had wanted to be a healer and not just a debutante, she had signed up to be nice to unpleasant people.

'Then I shall be able to say that I treated the ministor for magic' she responded, trying not to rise to the bait of his tone, but instead act as suitably impressed as he no doubt intended her to be. It was becoming clear that Mister Maxime had, inspite of Murdock being a werewolf, a greater killer instinct than her brother. Murdock had become the head of his department, a noted member of the wizengemot, but he had no political aspirations, never even considered going for a position like the Minister for Magic. So when Mister Maxime said he would one day be minister she had little cause to doubt him. He would certainly look the part at press conferences.

She laughed at his assertion of her pep - as a healer it was a valuable resource. 'I will bear it in mind Mister Maxime,' she returned, as though he had offered her some great compliment on the shade of her dress, as though she would look better in blue rather than red. 'Less pep - noted, although being more assertive is not something gentlemen liked in young ladies?' it was as much of a genuine question as a commentary on his statement of her personality. 'I thought most men of note wanted demure, quiet, with sunny dispositions.' her eyebrows gave a small teasing eyebrow raise.

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Damn straight she was going to be able to say she treated the future Minister – it was only a matter of time before Ross was forced to step down for something. He wasn’t sure what, or when, but it was bound to happen. Everyone had skeletons in their closet and the man was no different; it was just a matter of time before he put the man on his list to see what he could dig up.

“Most men want someone who isn’t vapid.” He eyed Miss Greyback because her sunny disposition made him think she was just that; someone who would bore him to death if they were anything beyond a healer and (reluctant) patient. “Although you are right that women should be quiet and demure.” Women should be seen and not heard, always. What good would their opinions be in any situation that was an important matter? They should only be asked for opinions on superficial things, like the color of curtains or where a certain piece of furniture should go.

Leo glanced down at the ticking watch in his hand as he willed it to go faster.

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MJ made this masterpiece<3

She let him rattle on. There were very few men who would have called a lady capable of becoming a healer - vapid - certainly less so than the average debutante or society lady. But apparently, Mister Maxime was immune to her bedside manner - most people, especially those with debilitating, lifelong afflictions, like werewolfism, liked someone like Merida treating them. She wasn't austere or severe, didn't treat them like lepers unworthy of her time or civility.

'I shall bear it in mind Mister Maxime' she said, her tone more than a little arch, as she continued to make her way through the paperwork. She balanced the paperwork on her knee, leaning forward to take his pulse, pressing two fingers to his throat, just under his jaw. 'I'm sure with your good council I shall be married before the end of the year - I'll be sure to send you a thank you gift.' She withdrew her hand and scribbled the number on her notes.

Merida checked the small fob watch that hung from the chain around her waist. Not long left of the time she had conceded to him. If he had no reaction, or it stayed moderate she could live with it, and release her captive back into the world. She was sure that a quick letter to Murdock would ensure that if there was an issue the people at the ministry would be keeping an eye out, and for him. 'Have you any questions before you leave? - About your treatment I mean.' she clarified.

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A roll of his eyes accompanied her words; she was sarcastic, a real treat under the sweet demure she tried to throw on, but he knew how women worked. They all had claws and were only good for one thing, and well… he pitied the man who would call Miss Greyback his wife. (And the man who was attached to the Greyback name because it wasn’t like Murdock was a treat either.) His hands almost moved to swat at her as she leaned into his space, but instead Leo held his breath as he felt her press against his neck; her fingers were cold. Then she was gone, thank goodness.

“No questions. As I’ve already said, I’m fine.” Leo rolled to stick his feet onto the floor. “We done here?” Because he was leaving anyway. Places to go, people to see. A stupid doxy wasn’t going to keep him down. Plus the less time he spent with Miss Greyback, the better. Her sunshine was starting to give him a headache and she’d probably make him stay overnight if he complained about that.

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MJ made this masterpiece<3