[ottery st. catchpole] when you get the chance [darla]

january 2002

Hi Darla,

I hope this isn’t too presumptuous but I need some help. Medical help, specifically. It’d be easier to explain in person, if you wouldn’t mind.

Luna xx

She also enclosed her address before sealing and securing the small roll of parchment ot her tiny owl’s leg. Luna stepped back outside, her boots crunching in the freshly fallen snow, and let Pluto go. She tapped out another note with her wand, sticking this one to the front door, letting any visitors know that they could find her in the back garden. Of course, now the only visitor she was expecting was Darla. She hoped. Dad was in town for the afternoon, so she had a few more hours to work in peace.

Following the footprints she had made earlier, Luna walked around the house, past the winter bare dirigible plum trees, and into the back garden to take a seat on the Thinking Stump. She had a perfect view point from there, could see right into the small paddock she and her father had set up a few weeks ago.

Luna had, at long last, become a successful magizoologist. It was her first discovery, still named nothing more descriptive than ‘001’. He was small when Luna had found him; blue, butterfly-like wings yet black spider-like legs, and a beak that closely resembled an occamy. She had yet to classify it, still primarily concerned with determining what it needed to eat. She had been feeding it young bowtruckles so far, and while he seemed to enjoy them, he also seemed to be getting more pleasure (and perhaps more nutrients) from gnawing on Luna.

It had been just a finger at first, but last week he had taken a liking to the tip of her nose, the only bare piece of skin she had for him to see because she had been so bundled up. But yesterday she had rolled up her sleeves without thinking and he had latched onto her arm, needing quite a bit of coaxing to remove himself. Of course, every time he had bitten Luna, he had also grown a bit. He had started out the size of a field mouse, but now he was more the size of a kneazle. It was.. interesting.

Never mind that the bites weren’t exactly healing and she had yet to determine why.

She knew she was supposed to go to the Ministry, to properly file paperwork and get her discovery officially recognized and classified as a new magical creature. But after they had handled Snuggles and the subsequent protests, Luna was back to her wartime feelings about them. They simply couldn’t be trusted, at least not now. She had so far only told her dad and Ginny about all of this, and they both seemed to support her. All she needed now was to stay healthy long enough to find out everything she needed to know.

Crossing her legs right over left, Luna tapped her wand absentmindedly on her knee as she watched 001 fly around his paddock (a magically reenforced bubble, basically), once again thinking of the best possible names for him.

@Darla Boyd

It was January, it was a completely new year, and it was time for a new Darla.

Yet, as much as the former Gryffindor had wanted to change herself this new year, she was still the same Darla Boyd. Having a free day, she had done nothing but nap, lazy around, and occasionally be ticked off by all the wedding planning materials left lying around the family house in Chelsea. She understood that Ranulph was excited to finally tie the knot with his fiancée, but having been recently abandoned by her own love of her life (she thought), Darla was extremely bitter regarding everything that even seemed remotely romantic. The only exception to that rule was Edith, as Darla was happy her friend had found someone to her taste. And of course, Fearghas. Still, anyone else but Edith and Fearghas talking about their love lives were simply irritating, including Ranulph.

The young healer decided to lazily make her way to the kitchen, realising that after her morning run she hadn’t had anything to eat, and an apple sounded particularly delicious at the moment. Darla sighed, and rolled off her bed, sheets ending up more on the floor than on the bed. The girl made her way down the stairs, and reached the kitchen with a repulsed look as she saw material samples for her brother’s wedding suit. She sighed, and picked up an apple, one of the redder ones. Darla turned around to go and wash the fruit before cutting it, but she ended up having quite the surprise – a tiny owl was waiting at the window, curiously looking inside. Darla put the apple back on the counter and opened the window, patted the owl a few times before picking up the attached roll of parchment, and then waved goodbye as the small bird flew away.

She closed the window and picked up her apple again – after carefully washing it, Darla went to the living room, where she threw herself on the sofa as she took a bite of the apple. The healer opened the parchment, her eyes widening with shock as she read the letter. Feeling that she was almost chocking, Darla jumped up, cleared her throat, and read the piece of parchment again. It was a letter from nobody else than Luna Lovegood, a girl she had met during her sixth year, as both were members of Dumbledore’s Army. Darla had always thought that Luna was a pretty tough girl, despite what rumours surrounded her, and the younger witch’s letter definitely confirmed her thoughts. Last time she heard of Luna, Darla found out that she was now a magizoologist. Naturally, she knew what that implied – always having injuries from being too ‘loving’ with some creatures. One of Darla’s own brothers was a magizoologist, and the healer could still hear her father yelling at Ùisdean for getting himself bitten by a phoenix once.

Still, Luna’s letter was quite worrisome. It seemed pretty serious, which made Darla highly doubt that it was simply a bite from a bird. The witch sighed, took a large bite out of her apple, and headed towards her room, to change in a more presentable outfit, and pick up her case of basic potions, to which she had added some fresh bottled herbs, just in case. In the end, she had no idea what had happened exactly to Luna, so it was better to be prepared, rather than lack anything when she’d be there.

After double-checking to make sure she’s grabbed everything that would be needed, Darla read the address once more, before Apparating in front of the cottage. “Hello?” She let out shyly, before noticing the small note on the front door. Darla blinked twice, shivering a bit at the sudden change of temperature. Still, it wasn’t that cold, particularly for her own Scottish self. The former Gryffindor turned around on her heel, and made her way around the building, to the back garden. Her eyes widened as they fell on Luna’s figure, briefly realising how much time had passed since she's last seen the slightly younger witch. Her first instinct was to wave, but the former Ravenclaw seemed to be looking in a different direction, which Darla’s own gaze followed.

She froze. That was nothing like anything Ùisdean brought home – it was like a blue curse flying around, with strangely beautiful wings, but disgusting spider-like legs, and to top it all, it also had a beak. If she wouldn’t have been so perplexed by the sight of that creature, Darla would have probably wondered what exactly it was. But even in full shock, the Scottish could tell that this being was inventing a new kind of grossness on its own. Luna was amazing for owning such a creature, yet Darla, who had seen her own share of awful things at St. Mungo’s, could literally feel the half of apple she’d eaten jumping up and down her throat. The girl took a deep breath, and attempted to turn her gaze back to Luna – but she couldn’t.

The creature was as fascinating as it was gross. “What is that?” Darla eventually managed to let out, being so focused on the creature’s wings that she completely forgot why she was there in the first place.

Luna continued tapping her wand against her knee as she looked at her find, tilting her head from one side to the other. She didn’t move from the Thinking Stump, not even when the sound of snow-crunching approaching footsteps broke the relative silence. They weren’t heavy enough to belong to her father, and she had no reason to expect anyone else but Darla.

“Hullo,” she offered, not taking her eyes off the creature. It dropped to the ground and started walking around, running into the walls of the invisible enclosure as if it was looking for some sort of structural weakness. Luna sketched a smile and tilted her head to the right. Sparks emitted from her wand as she tapped it one more time on her knee, and she straightened up, uncrossed her legs, and stopped fiddling with it. “Oh, I haven’t decided yet,” she replied to Darla’s question.

She sniffed, and scratched absentmindedly at an itch on her nose, upsetting her bandage in the process. “Oh.” She pulled her hand away from her face and glanced down at it, her white mitten barely bloody. “Right,” she said to herself, remembering why she had asked Darla there in the first place. She needed to be fixed so she could continue her studies.

Turning where she sat, Luna reached back up to her nose, this time purposefully removing the bandage that covered the fleshy part at the end. “I can’t get this to heal.” She paused to let her words sink in, but also to give herself a change to remove her left mitten. “Or this,” she said as she held up her bandaged fingers. “Or,” she continued, shrugging off her coat and pushing up the sleeve on her right arm, with yet another bandage. “This.” She didn’t remove that bandage, though, as that was the freshest injury, and the last time she had changed the dressing, it had started bleeding again.

Luna pulled her sleeve back down and slipped back into her coat, not offering the final bit of information that the creature they had just been admiring was the same creature that had inflicted the wounds.

Darla’s eyes widened a bit in shock, Luna’s words revealing that the creature was indeed a new finding. The former Gryffindor didn’t move her gaze from the fascinatedly hideous creature, and tried to wrap her mind around the idea of a new discovery. Didn’t such things need to be registered at the Ministry of Magic? Was it registered already? If so, wouldn’t this be a huge piece of news, worthy of every newspaper’s front page? Darla sighed, realising that she was asking too much of the media. In the end, they liked scandals and frivolous events, never focusing on things that really did matter, such as new discoveries.

At Luna’s quick remark, which was possibly more to herself than to Darla, the healer slowly moved her gaze to younger witch. “Bloody hell…” Quite literally. Luna seemed to be filled with wounds, and none of them looked particularly nice. And, from first glance, it seemed that not only that they weren’t healing at all, but they were causing quite the blood loss too. “What even happened to you…” Darla started, but then realised that wasn’t even the issue at hand “No. Never mind… I need to properly look at those.”

The former Gryffindor took a step forward, realising that it was for the best not to have her consultation outside, but inside, where she could also take out her herbs and potions, and accurately take care of Luna’s injuries. “I need to expand… Is there any place inside I can arrange my equipment so I can look at your wounds better? It’s best if we go somewhere warm too, since I’ll want you to remove both your coat and shirt.” Darla’s voice lingered, her gaze becoming particularly worried. She had no idea how much blood Luna had also lost, so she’d also have to give her something for hydration, just in case.

“Can you walk or… here, take my hand.” Darla stretched out her free hand in Luna’s direction, hoping that the girl was still in a somewhat good condition. Still, at just a glance, those wounds were nothing to joke about. She hoped that Luna’s remark that she wouldn’t get them to heal was only a result of the former Ravenclaw’s lack of knowledge in the advanced healing department, and not because they actually couldn’t heal at all. Still, Darla was confident she could help Luna. She just needed to take out all her kits and organise herself.

Luna shrugged, not taking her eyes off the paddock just a few meters away. “I haven’t quite determined his optimal diet.” She said this with her usual lightness, offering no sign of worry that his ‘optimal diet’ seemed to include bits of her own flesh. It was simply because she hadn’t yet figured out an acceptable alternative. It was the simplest answer to Darla’s question of what had happened.

“Oh, I’m alright,” she mused, though she still took Darla’s offered hand with her uninjured one. She stood, tucking her wand behind her ear. “They’re mostly just annoying,” she sighed and made a small shrug. She had received worse before, though she wasn’t using that as any sort of excuse for feeling relatively fine now. Never mind that the ‘worse’ injuries in question had never been caused by something that she had just discovered. She was far too focused on the discovery itself.

The woman nodded, taking one last look at her find before heading back around to the front of the house via the zigzagging and overgrown path, up the steps, and through the door. The entire ground floor housed the Lovegood’s kitchen, perfectly circular, all fixtures curved to hug the walls. It wasn’t the same as it was before it had been destroyed before the war, but they had attempted to put everything back in its place. Her mother had originally put things there for a reason, after all. There were no bare surfaces; each wall had been painted, as well as the cabinet doors, with brightly colored birds, plants, and insects. And not for the first time that day, Luna’s eyes scanned for a possible spot to add in the likeness of the creature in the garden.

She motioned to the curved table, long and wooden, set across from the stove. “Will that work?” She dropped Darla’s hand and shrugged off her coat, holding it out for one of the hand-shaped coat hangers on the wall to grab it and secure it for her. “Would you like some tea?” She had drifted away, around the wrought-iron spiral staircase in the middle of the room, and was soon fidgeting with a tin of freshly dried and ground gurdyroots and various spices.

The table was unusually uncluttered, and Luna turned to move the rest of the things on it to the side as she waited for the kettle to boil. “How have you been?”

Darla’s expression was noticeably concerned. She was worried for Luna’s well-being, especially since the wounds in question had been unable to heal by the magizoologist. Of course, Darla doubted that Luna knew advanced healing techniques and potions, but something as frivolous as a bite or a scratch should be healed rather easily. Right now, the healer could only hope her friend wasn’t cursed or something among those lines. The fact that she was unaware of how much blood Luna lost was only even adding to her worries.

She blinked as Luna stated that she was alright, not actually believing the other witch’s words. Should she have been fine, Darla wouldn’t be here in the first place. She sketched a soft smile in the former Ravenclaw’s direction, and gently took her hand, to make sure she wouldn’t cause Luna any kind of other discomfort. Merlin knew how aggravating those wounds must be for someone like Luna there to say they were annoying. Darla was naturally apprehensive, and treated the other witch with extreme delicacy. 

They walked towards the front of the house, Darla following Luna as she zigzagged her way around. Normally, she would have found this rather fun, but her concern was getting the best of her. They entered the house, and Darla had taken off her shoes at the entrance, making sure to neatly arrange her sneakers in a corner before stepping in. “Yes.” She gazed in the direction of the table, but was a bit taken aback by the chamber itself. The kitchen was overwhelming, at least for her; there were no empty spots at all, and each wall was painted, along with the cabinet doors, with brightly coloured elements of flora and fauna.

Darla didn’t dislike it, quite on the contrary. Plus, she felt it reflected the Lovegoods’ personalities quite well. It was a perfect match, astonishingly so. She placed her case on the table and opened it, taking out an empty vial, and then pouring two different potions within it. As she picked up one of her herbs, Darla let out a soft “Hmm?” as Luna addressed her. “Sure, tea sounds nice. But make sure you don’t strain yourself.”

She added the herb to the vial, and it dissolved nicely. All she needed now was a tiny bit of salamander blood – just one drop. Darla picked up the vial containing her desired ingredient, and sketched a smile as she heard Luna’s question. “Alright, I guess. Healing school took all of my time, and being a full healer is also tiring. It feels nice though.” The former Gryffindor’s smile slightly widened. “I decided on my specialisation as soon as the war ended. I mean, I thought of going into it before, but then it just felt… right.” Darla glanced in Luna’s direction for a moment, as she gently swayed the vial in her hand, for the salamander blood to mix up well with the rest of the potion.

“Paediatrics and maternity.” Her smile faded a little as she bit her lower lip, and glanced back down at the vial in her hand. “I’ll want to apply this directly on the wounds, so if you can remove your bandages it would be great. It should dry them, and then I can fix you something to drink so it’s healed from within.”