[thd] i'll pay my weight in blood • • c l e m

Dennis pushed himself forward on his skateboard with his free leg, leaning to the side slightly to turn. Today, he'd brought his skateboard to Hogsmeade when he'd left school. Currently, he was trying to re-teach himself how to do a couple of basic tricks, but he'd fallen over a few times and almost injured himself. He'd met up with Clementine a little while ago but they weren't really talking. Dennis wasn't a very talkative person. At the moment, he was just skating and she was reading or finishing an assignment on the bench nearby the makeshift skate park. He'd learned a few spells and transfigured the concrete to make a little ramp for him to skate up and down.

As he did lazy figure eights on his skateboard, getting used to it again, Dennis heard the familiar pop! of someone apparating nearby. He glanced up and saw the person who'd just arrived in the distance. They were headed towards the center of town, away from where he and Clem were hanging out. His skateboard came to an abrupt halt as one of the wheels encountered a small rock and Dennis had to jump off it so he didn't fall. His eyes stayed trained on the space where the person had just appeared, however. Really, he was jealous. He'd been able to do magic legally in the outside world now for over a year, but he hadn't learned how to apparate. Last summer, the teenager had scraped together a few coins to attend an apparating lesson but he hadn't done that well.

Without really thinking about it, Dennis pulled his wand from the inside pocket of his denim jacket. What was it again? Half a step in this direction, focus on where he wanted to go...

The teenager felt himself fold inside out - it was the most uncomfortable feeling - but it was over in an instant. When he reappeared, Dennis realised he'd successfully apparated away from where he'd been a moment ago. He looked down, stunned at the strangest sensation in his leg... "Oh," he said. "Clem could I borrow you for a sec?" Dennis felt a little weak. Somehow, the teenager had apparated himself into his skateboard. The shock of agony that had just shot up his leg came from the fact that he'd somehow just merged part of his leg with the skateboard or something. It was right there, sticking out from the bottom of his calf right now. Dennis felt a little woozy, even though a weird, distant part of him enjoyed the shock.

He was also kind of proud he'd just apparated successfully. A bloom of red spread from the bottom of his jeans and he swayed slightly.

Okay, maybe semi-successful.

They were hanging out in Hogsmeade today, far away from the pressure of Hogwarts. Not too far, though -- Clementine had brought some reading for her Transfiguration class with her, and it wasn't exactly fun, but it was more fun than watching Dennis almost break his ankle on that stupid skateboard. Skateboards scared her. She supposed they were similar in their anatomy to a broom, but she could steer a broom. She didn't feel much like steering a skateboard was a thing that was possible. She chewed on a piece of minty gum slowly and leisurely while she read, brow furrowed intensely in concentration. She had to work extra hard to focus with all the random animal noises in the trees above her and the pop of apparitions and the general bustle of the world. Outside was always better than inside, though, so she would deal with it as best she could.

And then there was being around Dennis, which she definitely didn't mind. It was becoming her preferred method of existence. He didn't stress her out. He let her do what she wanted and he supported her when she messed up, especially in the area of... substances. He seemed to understand.

Her name pulled her out of an enthralling passage on how to add pintuck details to pillows when transfiguring them, and she lifted her head immediately, her eyes widening at the red splotch coloring the ankle of Dennis' jeans. She sucked a gasp in fast and dropped the book. It was forgotten completely, pages flapping around in the wind, while she ran to him. "What the fuck happened?!" She shouted, her voice cracking a little on the highest point of the sentence. "Give me your wand." She commanded, then jerked her hand, impatient request on a time clock. "Reducto!" The Gryffindor shouted first to the skateboard, and watched it splinter into pieces despite his wand's defiant twitching. "Scourgify," Clementine said firmly to it, so at least the blood would go back into his leg, even though it didn't like being in her possession. Maybe she could fudge it and say that Dennis had cast the spells. After all this time, she still wasn't really sure how the trace worked.

"Okay, come on," She murmured a little more gently, her heart leaping forward in a panic when she noticed him wobble. Her arm went around him and she looked over at him, smiling sheepishly. "Put your arm around my shoulders, we need to go into the store and get someone from the DMAC. I can't sew something this bad up myself. I don't even know any magic to do it. Hobble if you have to. Hurry up, I'm not having you bleed out."

Clementine looked over at him as he called her name, looking sort of serene for a moment before serenity turned into alarm and then outright panic. He couldn't help but smile a little when she yelled at him. Just a little. Just a quirk of his lips and the slight dimpling of one cheek. He felt a little faint, like all of his energy was being sucked into the place where his skin and muscle intersected with the wood of the board. It hurt like hell but Dennis had felt worse pain. He was a little worried about falling over, though.

"Tried to apparate," he said breathlessly, trying to shrug a little but finding it difficult to do so when his body was so tense. He shook his head. "I mean, I did apparate I guess..." Dennis handed her his wand as she'd requested, feeling a bit out of it as she snatched it off him. Would he have to go to St Mungos for something like this? Dennis really hoped not. He didn't like hospitals. He especially didn't like magical ones. He'd done a lot of stupid stuff - climbed places he shouldn't, wrestled with friends etc - when he was younger and had accrued a long list of injuries over the years. His body was a tapestry of little scars from all kinds of adventures. Healers had always made him a little uncomfortable for some reason. Maybe a mix of the disapproval he felt from them and the general intimidation many aspects of the wizarding world held. Dennis didn't know the first thing about healing magic.

"Ah!" Dennis glanced down in alarm as the pain shot up a few notches for one hot second as she destroyed his board. "...Fuck!" he exclaimed, his voice coarse as he stretched the word out, putting some of his pain into the expression. Dennis swayed for a moment, unsteady as she tried to clean his wound. There was blood everywhere now. Dennis put an arm around her shoulders. He tried to take a step without leaning on her too much but his leg buckled beneath him so he let her half-carry him as they made their way into town. "Sorry," he said, sort of smiling again despite the blood and the pain and the chunk of calf he could feel only half attached to the rest of his leg.

Unfortunately, the closest thing to them was a joke shop. It made her cringe a little that she was relying on finding help for Dennis and his destroyed leg in there, but she couldn't take him too far. She needed to sit him down and stop the bleeding as much as she possibly could. They managed to slide through the door quite narrowly -- it almost hit her in the ass on the way in. "Lean on me." She told him indignantly. She wasn't going to entertain the chivalry bullshit when his leg was about to snap off. She couldn't go on normal dates with someone without a leg, and regrowing the whole thing would take a ridiculous amount of time, she was sure, even if it was something they could do, and that was debatable.

Clementine dragged him up to the counter, panting a little from the strength she'd had to use, and didn't see anybody in sight. "Sit down. I'm going to tie this off and then I'm going to find someone and get you some water," She told him. She was pretty proud of herself for how well she was handling the crisis. Perhaps she should've pursued a career in medicine, but the blood and the skin hanging off was making her turn a little green. Clementine didn't even have a weak stomach. Once he was in the chair, she took her shirt off and ripped most of it in her teeth, uncaring that she was nearing half naked in the middle of a public space, and then she rolled it up, squatting to move Dennis' jeans and to tie it as tightly (and gently in so doing) as she could around his leg. "Okay, now, you're not gonna die, just wait here." She knew she was saying this more for her own benefit than for his, but he would deal with it. For some weird reason, he seemed to think her reactions were amusing. What a weirdo.

The young witch walked back to the other side of the counter and noticed a red button. Maybe that was for calling an employee. "Hello?" She called initially. When no one responded, she looked at Dennis and made a face, shrugging. Button it was. She pushed it quickly and shortly thereafter let loose a short, earsplitting scream when balls of fire seemed to begin falling from the ceiling. They were screaming, too, and what the --

Oh. Fireworks. "HELLO?! WE NEED MEDICAL ASSISTANCE," She bellowed over the top of the hissing, whistling fireworks. What the hell had someone installed such a button for? They needed to get a regular bell to ring for service. She wasn't above snooping around in the stock room if she had to.

Dennis struggled as they made their way to the shop. He couldn't put any weight on his injured leg at all. A part of him wanted to tell her not to look so worried, that he'd be fine. Another part of him was feeling a little too nauseous though, so he chose not to speak for now. When they finally made it to her destination, Dennis basically collapsed into the bench by the shop counter. He tugged at his torn jeans, trying to get a better look at the wound. It was messy, he thought, surveying the bits of flesh and skin hanging loosely from the rest of his shin. "Wait one sec," Dennis said, touching her arm lightly to stop her before she could wrap up the wound.

She was going to yell at him, he thought. If not actually yell then she'd at least recite some kind of yelling monologue in her head. Dennis quickly pulled his camera from the pocket of his jacket and took a couple of quick snaps of the mess that was his leg. He made sure to include the thick wooden splinter poking out from the skin that had stubbornly remained in there when she'd cleaned out his wound magically. "Okay," he breathed, letting her wrap it up. He kind of wished that he'd taken a few snaps when he'd been half human man and half skateboard. Skate-man, he thought distantly. Worst superhero ever.

Wow, his thoughts went to weird places sometimes.

He almost leapt to his feet as fireworks exploded overhead. It would have been a terrible idea, he thought - leaping to his feet. Dennis tipped his chin up, staring at the display for a moment before shifting his confused gaze back down to Clementine. "What...?" Wizards were weird, he decided.

She wanted to push him back so he was leaning against the bench instead of bending over and encouraging more blood flow, but she refrained, settling for a glare that she was sure he could feel cutting his skin, even though he was too fascinated by the wound to pay attention to what she was doing. Clementine was annoyed that the tiny brush of his fingertips over her arm had risen a bunch of little hairs in that localized spot. Not annoyed with him, of course. Annoyed with herself. She was being an idiot.

Unwilling to completely fawn over him in a medical emergency just yet, she clapped her hands over her ears until the fireworks were done going off and let loose an annoyed growl. A skinny man who was only a couple of inches taller than she was came out of the stock room, a little taken aback at the sight before him. When he opened his mouth to say something, she interrupted him, pointer finger standing straight up in rigid irritation. He looked about thirty-nine, maybe forty. Like he'd never seen a girl without a shirt on in his life. He was gaping. "I'm not the medical emergency. He is. I've probably already activated the trace, so please, just... close your mouth and go get the DMAC. Hurry up. Time is of the essence."

Clementine had forgotten her bag with all of her things in it in the park, so she snuck into the back room while the strange little man was contacting the DMAC and stole a water bottle from the employee stock of them and opened it with shaking hands to give to Dennis. "Here, drink this." Clementine said gently, noticing the way his head was kind of lolling and his eyes were rolling back a little when she sat down next to him. "Dennis, don't pass out. Don't do that. Please," She gritted out a little more urgently, and slid her hand into his hair to keep his head sort of balanced. "There's someone on the way to fix your splinch, but you can't fall asleep." Her tone was as calm and firm as she could make it without sounding completely freaked out, but maybe he'd be able to hear it buried deep under there anyway.

The bell on the door dinged and a tall, handsome man walked through the door with another person in healing robes in tow. Thank god. Clementine shifted to the side to let them do their work and continued chatting under her breath pretty much the whole time. "You owe me so bad. You scared the shit out of me, you idiot." Her face flushed strawberry-red.

Dennis probably should have learned some healing spells. He'd thought about it more than once in the past year and a bit that he'd been able to perform magic outside of school, but nowadays he wasn't that good at learning and he didn't know where to start. Asking someone who knew seemed to be the obvious choice, but Dennis wasn't very good at asking for help. He didn't look at her as he snapped a few pictures of his leg then leaned back against the bench again, his head reeling a little from the blood loss. If he knew what kind of magic he was supposed to perform in this situation, it would have made things a lot easier. Something to stop the bleeding, even.

"No it's cool, I wont," he said, but he shifted to let his head rest on the wall behind the bench anyway as he sipped a little water. The teenager winced as the movement jarred his leg ever so slightly - now that the immediate trauma had passed, some of the adrenaline was wearing off and he was starting to feel the pain in new ways. Dennis passed the bottle back to her; the water was too cold on his sensitive teeth. He shut his eyes for a moment, feeling suddenly quite tired indeed. "No, don't worry," he said, trying to wave away her fears. He probably wasn't going to pass out, he thought. He'd passed out before and it hadn't felt like this. It was awfully comfortable to just rest his head back a little though...

He opened his eyes as new people walked through the door nearby. Healing robes. Yep, that looked about right. Thinking Clem might be a little uncomfortable - knowing, though, that she probably wasn't - Dennis leaned forwards again as he shrugged his jacket off. How had he let her rip her shirt off when he had multiple layers on was beyond him. It spoke volumes about Dennis Creevey that he was chastising himself for letting her go out of her way to help him while there was a small pool of blood around his savaged calf. "Hey, take this," he said, passing his jacket to her. He hoped she didn't get some weird impression from him - like that he thought she should be more modest or some shit. He figured the risk was worth it on the off chance she actually would be more comfortable. The boy's mottled green eyes flicked quickly down her bare chest before he could look away, focusing on the newcomers rather than her lack of clothing.

"Hey," he said, offering a bit of a smile. Dennis didn't like to show weakness in these sorts of situations and opted for a well-natured sort of acceptance instead. It wasn't just for Clem's sake that he was doing his best not to let pain or panic creep into his expression, though that was a new factor that certainly had some effect. Dennis didn't like to be interpreted as weak. Of course, all this moving was causing little movements that sent shocks of pain up his leg. I've had worse, he reminded himself. Was it weird that he liked the pain a little bit? There was something about it that was so shocking to his system that it didn't feel entirely bad. He didn't know what to make of that.

"Sorry," he said, half-smiling at the insult. His breathing hitched a little as something acidic was applied to his wound. "I'll try make it up to you when my leg muscles aren't dangling in pieces around my shin," he said, trying to make a joke about it and mostly failing.

Clementine made a minute noise of distress when Dennis leaned forward to take his jacket off. She frowned, a little confused at the gesture until she remembered she was almost half-naked. The whole time, she watched his eyes and the way they lingered just a little, and then cleared her throat, taking his jacket in her grasp. She knew that she was probably turning a little red. Oh well, right? She didn't... mind, of course, but she hadn't even really thought about it like that until she'd watched the way his eyes had moved, even if it had just been for a split second. The blonde stood slowly to shrug the jacket on over her shoulders, and she turned her nose toward the collar of it, trying to conceal that she was kind of smelling it. It smelled good. It smelled like Dennis. "Thank you. It's warm." She grinned at him then, pearly white teeth peeking through the space between her lips.

She sat down next to him again and relief washed over her like a warm wave. She noticed all the blood that had pooled near their feet sort of levitating into the air and somehow absorbing back into Dennis' leg, led by the tip of the man's wand. She'd never understand the mechanics of that sort of thing, and that kind of bugged her, but it was going to make him feel a little better. That was the important part. Clementine's eyes were soft as she studied the features on his face: the dusting of freckles across his nose, his full lips, the thick brows and the hazel-green eyes. His dimples weren't there right now, but she was sure she could make them show up later.

"Hi," Clementine responded, laughing at the simplicity of the expression even though it wasn't really a humorous situation at all. She wasn't going to encourage him to look down at the gory mess that was his leg, but the potions and the spells they were using were sewing his ligaments and muscles back together. It looked almost like his leg again. "Feeling better?" The Gryffindor asked, scooting closer to lay her palm on his shoulder. Her fingers travelled lightly over the nape of his neck and behind his ear, sliding finally into the hair at the crown of his head. Clem stroked at it a little, enjoying the way it felt in her hand, and she smiled at him again.

"Don't worry about it. Should be fixed up soon." She waited a beat and then frowned. "You're going to have to remind me to give you back this jacket, though. I keep stealing your clothes. I need to wash some, I've been sleeping in them because --" She could feel her blood heating her cheeks, her neck, and her collarbone. Why had she told him that? What if he thought it was weird? Too full on? Something?? "They're comfortable," Clementine finished, and they smell like you. Having dug an already relatively deep hole, she settled for that choppy outro and leaned back on the bench, her small hand relocating to the back of his head and idly drawing patterns in his hair there.

Dennis closed his eyes again, feeling the strangest things in his leg as the muscle and skin knitted itself back together magically. "Feels weird," he answered. It hurt, actually, but the pain was so different to the feeling of getting an injury that he didn't know how to describe it properly. When he felt her fingertips touch his neck affectionately, Dennis' eyes opened, but he kept looking up at the ceiling rather than over at her. He leaned into her touch instinctively, a tiny part of him marvelling at it once more. Dennis didn't bother trying to curb his imagination as she mentioned that she slept in his clothes. He wasn't that big but he was bigger than her and his oversized hoodies probably were super comfy. He enjoyed the image she'd conjured, not noticing her embarrassment.

Dennis nodded blankly when the doctors - or medi-wizards or healers or whatever these particular magic wizard doctors were called - gave him all the info he needed. His calf muscle would be tender for the rest of the day. He could walk but was advised not to do anything more strenuous. "Yeah, thanks so much," he said, running a hand through his damp hair. The Gryffindor boy was given a piece of paper with a note addressed to the school's Hospital wing. Two prescriptions were noted on the paper - one for something to dull the ache and speed up the healing and another to smooth the skin that had been magically stitched together so that it didn't scar. Dennis really hated the Hospital wing and he hated doctors; a part of him had already decided to bin the note as soon as Clem was no longer by his side.

The fact that his wound would be totally healed by the following day really struck him in a way that he probably should have expected, but didn't. One afternoon's worth of healing would fix up a wound that would take weeks in the muggle world. More, he amended distantly, thinking about the way his calf muscle had been ripped apart. He felt a jarring flash of bitterness about it all, something he really hadn't felt while he'd been hanging out with Clementine recently. Imagine the good they could do for muggles, if they weren't so secretive, so controlling.

Dennis leaned forward to inspect their work as the healers exited the room. He pushed his feelings down, not wanting her to see it on his face. His leg looked pretty normal again, though there was a thick, raised pink line down the back of his calf. The surrounding skin looked was pinker than usual too. Curiously, the boy poked at it with one finger. It was tender, but felt more like he'd completed some really thorough workout yesterday and was feeling the results rather than he'd just apparated into his skateboard. "Wonder where I can get a new board," he joked, lips quirking into a crooked smile as he glanced at his companion.