January 28th, 1891 — several hours after this — Potions & Plant Poisoning Ward, Hogsmeade Hospital

The commotion of the initial explosion, its aftermath, and his arrival at the hospital having subsided, Gideon was now left only with his thoughts. He had been incredibly stupid, and he'd paid quite the price for his stupidity. The shelf that had collapsed above him and sent half a dozen vials of various wand making potions and agents directly into his face had preventing him from actually seeing the destruction on his workshop first hand, but the descriptions didn't sound promising. Luckily, they'd said the storefront was mostly undamaged, which meant his supply of wands hadn't been destroyed in the blast, but this was still a major setback. It would take him months to rebuild and restock his workshop, and he'd have to redouble his wandmaking efforts in order to keep the stock up to standards through the summer. It meant less free time for him, that was certain — after he got out of the hospital, anyway. His initial injuries from the explosion had been tended to fairly quickly, but the first healer who'd seen to him said he'd have to be transferred to Potions and Plant Poisoning before anything could be done about his eyes. Not my area of expertise, unfortunately, but I'm sure they'll have you right as rain in no time, Mr. Browne had said, brimming with optimism.

Hopefully the optimism was well founded; Gideon would be utterly useless as a wandmaker if his vision wasn't restored to him. So off he'd gone to the appropriate ward — being wheeled on a bed, rather than walking, which was quite mortifying — and now he was merely sitting here, waiting in a quiet and empty room and repeatedly kicking himself for being so reckless. The worst part was that Billie was likely going to hear about this, with all the fuss he'd created, and she'd be worried. As soon as he had his eyes restored to him, he'd need to write her and try to reassure her.

A noise near the door alerted him that he may no longer be alone in the room. He turned his head out of habit, though he couldn't see a thing. "Hello?" he asked uncertainly. Losing his vision had put him entirely out of sorts.

Tabitha Chevalier @"Elsie Beauregard"

  

Tabitha had heard about the explosion at Ollivander's through the hospital grapevine and thankfully it seemed like it was not a huge disaster as the last time a Hogsmeade shop had been blown to bits. It appeared that Mr. Ollivader himself was really the only injury, but Tabs hadn't thought anything of it beyond that as she had assumed he'd wind up in Spell Damage or the emergency department. The very last thing she expected was for him to be transferred to her ward later in the evening.

Pausing at his door to read his chart, she flipped through it, skimming for the important parts before stepping fully into the room. His hesitant greeting had her looking up from the chart and into his unseeing eyes. Oh. She'd missed that part. "My apologies Mr. Ollivander, I did not mean to startle you." She replied softly, moving across the room toward his bed.

"My name is Tabitha Chevalier, I'll be taking over your care." She added as she resumed skimming the chart. Spilled ingredients, possible unknown potions into the eyes. Well then, that was a challenge indeed. "I hear you've had quite a day, if you'd prefer I can come back in the morning." Her shift had just started after all, she'd still be here and he could probably use a little rest.

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absolute beauty by MJ

A pleasant female voice answered him. Gideon felt a little self-conscious. He was no stranger to female company (he did have a daughter, after all), nor was he particularly bashful about being alone with women when business required it. He'd helped women in the shop plenty of times. Not being able to see her, however, added another layer. He felt vulnerable, which in turn made being alone in the room with her feel more intimate than just being in his store with a customer.

He pushed that uneasy feeling away and shook his head at her question. This was her job, and he was being silly; he'd have to have her in to look at his eyes sooner or later and it might as well be sooner. "If there's anything you can do to help, Miss, I'd like to get right into it," he explained. "I'm not used to... it's very disorienting, not being able to see. And I'll sleep a lot better knowing it's fixable. I'll be fairly worthless in my workshop if I can't see what I'm doing."

Though arguably he was already fairly useless; he had blown the thing up, after all.

  

Well, Tabi supposed he had a point. "I can only imagine, I'm told your other senses will compensate after a while. If you're up for it, I do have a couple questions then." Realistically it would be hard for her to figure what was causing his blindness without knowing exactly what his eyes had come into contact with. Unfortunately any number or combination of potions or ingredients that could injure his eyes, catching that loss of sight. Tabi want even are if it was temporary or permanent yet.

Approaching the bed, Tabi leaned a hip against it casually. "Do you have any idea what could have gotten into your eyes during the explosion?" It might narrow down some of the options and give her an idea of how to beginning fixing it. Otherwise she was going to have start thinking of salves or potions she could start trying or brewing to help heal his eyes.

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absolute beauty by MJ

Gideon sighed and tried to think. He knew where he'd been standing when the initial explosion occurred, and he knew which wall he'd hit before the shelf had collapsed on him. There was a whole line of different potions along that wall, though. He knew his workshop like the back of his hand, but in the chaos of the moment he couldn't be exactly sure which portion of the shelf he'd been directly under.

"Well, there's a sealing balm. Used for piecing the wood together after the core's inserted," he explained, as though this information would be at all helpful for her. He thought it was unlikely that was what had gotten into his eyes, since they weren't — well, sealed. Since it was intended to work on wood, though, and he had never experimented around with what it would do to skin, it was still possible. "And a few different things to keep the cores fresh. Distilled morning dew, embalming fluid, cinder philter," he listed off; those were most common as they were used for unicorn hair, dragon heartstring, and phoenix feather, respectively, but there were half a dozen others he had in use as well at any given time, and he wasn't sure exactly which of them had been in stock at the moment of the explosion. One of his employees might have had a better idea, and they did have an inventory sheet somewhere — but it might have gone up in smoke during the explosion. At the very least, it would be difficult to lay hands on at the moment.

"I'm afraid it could have been almost anything," he admitted. "So I'm not sure if that's much help to you. I have a lot of, ah, experimental things in my workshop," he said with a shrug. After this little interlude, though, perhaps he'd take a nice long break from anything too experimental.

  

Tabitha scratched notes into his chart as he spoke, nothing unfamiliar to her, save the sealing potion he first mentioned. Tabi obviously did not know the first thing about making wands, her own wasn't even from Ollivander's. It came from a French wandmaker that her father's wand had also come from when he was a young man.

"Any clue is better than nothing. There isn't anything you mentioned that I am entirely unfamiliar with, but I might have to track down some of the recipes to make sure there's nothing particularly potent that might be causing the sight loss. Do you mind if I take a look? I'll have to touch your face, if that's alright." Because he couldn't see, she felt the need to detail her every moment, lest she startle him again.

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absolute beauty by MJ

The idea of a young woman he had never previously met touching his face made Gideon decidedly uncomfortable, but he pushed the feeling down. This was her job, and he could hardly expect his sight restored to him if he was squeamish about her doing what was necessary to restore it. They were in a hospital room, not a broom closet; this was professional, not some stolen moment.

"Ah — yes, that's fine," he said after a brief moment's hesitation. He wondered if he ought to move somewhere, to make his eyes more accessible to her, but he wasn't sure that would be helpful. He had only a vague notion of where she was, based on the sound of her voice, and very little idea at all of the layout of the room. He might just as quickly crash into her or fall off the bed as do anything helpful.

"Macrae would have the recipes for anything we brew in house," he continued, as he braced himself for the feeling of her fingers. "And the manufacturers for anything we buy."

  

If he could see her, Tabitha would not get quite so close. Distance was better for her in regards to gentleman patients, but since she hadn't any idea if the veela in her could overwhelm him if he couldn't see her, so Tabi would have to take the risk.

Lighting the end of her wand, Tabi neared the bed, this time perching herself on the edge of his bed. Gently, she placed her free hand under his chin so that he was facing her completely. "I apologise, my hands are always cold." She withdrew for a moment to rub her hand on her skirt in an attempt to warm it up, before resuming her previous position. Holding her want closer to his face, she peered directly into his eyes. "Can you see anything? Even a shadow? I have my wand lit right above your face."

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absolute beauty by MJ

Her hand was cold, as she'd said, but soft, too. He chewed his lower lip and waited as she held his chin, entirely unaware what she was doing. It seemed as though nothing was happening whatsoever for a long moment, and when she asked the question he was rather startled to hear that she'd had a wand just inches from his eyes.

"No... no," he admitted, feeling his stomach drop significantly. He had no experience with blindness whatsoever, but that didn't sound like a good development. He might have assumed it was normal, except that her asking about it meant that it was possible he might've been able to see shadows. Instead, he saw nothing at all. "Is that very bad?" he asked, unable to keep the anxiety from his tone despite the fact that he was trying his best to be stoic about this entire ordeal.

  

Frowning slightly, brows furrowed, she couldn't strictly see anything in his eyes. "Just trying to make sure I understand the depth of the situation." She assured him calmly, though to her recollection, she didn't have any experience with a loss of sight.

"What color are your eyes normally?" She asked as soon as the thought popped into her head, uncertain as to if she'd ever really seen such a shade of grey before. They looked almost cloudy. She had to wonder if whatever it is that had gotten in there was leaving a film over his eyes and causing the problem.

Slowly she withdrew her hand once more and moved back from her perch on the edge of his bed to note it on his chart. "I do think it would be helpful if we could get that list from your shop. I'll send an owl when we're done here."

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absolute beauty by MJ

His eyes had changed colors? Gideon could tell that Miss Chevalier was trying not to alarm him — she had that practiced tone of voice that he sometimes used when explaining to customers that their wand was damaged beyond repair — but he was alarmed all the same. Was that normal? He wished he had any experience with this whatsoever so that he knew what to expect, but he'd never taken even a passing interest in healing as a trade. He'd certainly never looked into what might happen if someone broke an assortment of miscellaneous potions and reagents over their head. Perhaps he was lucky that it was only his eyes that were affected — but at the moment it was difficult to look on the bright side, seeing as he wasn't sure whether or not he'd able be able to go back to the craft he had dedicated his life to.

"Blue," he answered. His pulse had quickened significantly. He was glad she'd taken her hand away. He was trying to keep calm, and was worried his heart rate might have given him away if she'd still be touching him.

"Miss Chevalier," he said after a moment. "I know you may not know the answer to this, yet, but — well, if there's an indication that they might... stay this way," he said, with some difficulty. "I'd appreciate if you'd tell me outright. I'd have... a lot to tend to, with the shop."

Merlin, he might have to ask his brother to come supervise the reconstruction, if he couldn't get back to it in a timely fashion. How mortifying that would be!

  

Blue would suit him better than the stormy grey that they currently were, Tabitha thought absentmindedly. She was scribbling down her thoughts in the notebook she kept in her apron, one of them to owl the shop for the potions recipes, and an idea of two she had about possible treatments.

When he spoke again, Tabi could hear the underlying concern in his voice; she'd been doing this for enough time to pay attention for it. Though he couldn't see it, she put on the best reassuring smile that she could, hoping the optimism would leak into her voice. "Please believe me when I say it's too early to tell. I'll have to do a little research and figure out the best options for treatment. I can't say that I've dealt with something if this magnitude before, but I promise I'm giving it my utmost attention." If nothing else, Tabitha loved a puzzle and a challenge. Still, this was his sight and his livelihood at stake and so she would make it her top priority.

"I have a theory to work through and I will let you know what I come up with an soon as possible." Gently she reached out to give his hand a squeeze.

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absolute beauty by MJ

There was plenty to latch on to if he was inclined to keep worrying (namely that she admitted she had never dealt with anything of this magnitude, which sounded ominous), but her tone was reassuring. Her utmost attention was all he could possibly ask. She had the expertise in the subject, not him, so his eyes were entirely in her hands. Continuing to fret about it when there was nothing for him to do but wait for her to work her magic would do neither of them any good.

He opened his mouth to thank her, but before he could get the words out he was startled to feel her hand on his. It was an intimate and unexpected gesture, but sent a wave of encouragement through him, which was probably what she'd intended. She probably hadn't meant it to be so intimate, either — this might have just been a stand-in for the typical practiced smile she offered most patients, since she knew he couldn't see it. Maybe it didn't feel quite so significant to her as it did to him, either, but waiting in the darkness in an unfamiliar room with nothing to hold on to, contact meant a great deal to him. But how could she have guessed that? He was surprised at it himself.

Pushing these somewhat conflicted thoughts down to his stomach, Gideon nodded. "Thank you, Miss. I'll look forward to hearing what you come up with, then."