Hogwarts School - Elsewhere

He just nodded as he was rather confident that all the suitors at least this far were second rate distractions - and for some that was generous.  On paper there were a couple one could argue otherwise, but unless Cordelia had feelings for them which he was confident she didn’t that was an irrelevant detail.

He just watched as Cordelia reacted mostly happy that her hair color changing wasn’t accompanied by a hex aimed at him as he ate a few bites of his food.  The answer to the question he asked predictably confirmed making things easier.  Yet harder at the same time.

He smirked putting down his fork into his bowl of food acknowledging the board was as he expected it to be.

“Not that it matters. They’re not really asking me what I want.”

He said “ What do you want?  Boys are nice isn’t a way one describes second-rate boys whose only potential to be a fun snog off to the side.  Those boys are being pushed towards you out of either duty or an attempt to leverage some influence you have or are expected to gain. “ 

Then he took a breath with hardly a pause before he continued “ The fact that they are all second-rate at best and the sheer number of them shows all this game has the potential to be is an irrelevant distraction to you. “

If he hadn't managed to make the connection he had in his internship last summer he was certain he'd of not been at St. Mungos now.  The last thing he wanted was for his friend Cordelia to lose a chance if she really wanted a spot at the Ministry to this distraction of suitors.  Especially with how second-rate they all were which was a slight mystery to him considering how much potential he saw in his friend Cordelia.

Then he smirked “ So again what do you want?  What are your goals? “

If there was something he was good at it was listening.  He was good at mentally taking notes and remembering names while saying comforting things to Cordelia while he listened to tales of suitors.  He acted like all he did was support his friend, and was going to stay completely out of it saying things like how this was expected of pureblood families and other such meaningless platitudes.  Platitudes he even repeated to his best friend Jasper when recounting the conversations to him later.

The catch was once he was out of Cordelia’s sight his actions which were anything but the meaningless platitudes he said to his friend to comfort her.  Names were collected and he quietly looked into.  He looked into them the way his grandfather looked into boys for his cousin Penelope who was his age and his grandfather oddly always used to pair him with for lessons when he was younger.  It oddly had him make an odd truce with some of older Razi cousins as the list of Cordelia’s potential suitors had an overlap with Penelope’s list of crushes in the form of Humphrey Sneaks.  It shocked his cousins as he had a chat with Humphrey on Penelope’s behalf as the boy wasn’t good enough and had been stupid enough to snog Angela Ollie the term prior giving him ammo.  Ammo he turned into leverage on Penelope’s behalf to stop that crush, and that got his cousins to spill information on some of the other boys still at Hogwarts and even a few who had graduated in the past few terms.  Information he continued collecting on various names he heard as the summer began and he made his weekly trips to have lunch with Cordelia at the Ministry.

As he put a spoon in his bowl of rice mixed with meat and vegetables that he’d prepared at home he listened to Cordelia mention one of the previous suitors names in a complaint.  The names were running together as they were all second rate.  They all had personality flaws and indiscretions that made them not good enough for his friend Cordelia.  They all had something that could be picked a part about there families that even the Razi families more criminal elements were far enough removed from him that he could say he was superior.  He even remembered his conversation with Headmistress Ivansko suggesting he pair with Cordelia out of some pureblood duty. 

A smirk crossed his face as he cast silent Imperterbable Charm with a flick of his wand trying to make it harder to overhear them.

Then he leaned forward on the table as he finished chewing his bite of food and said in a whisper “ Let’s stop with this game.  Your real complaint should be he’s second rate.  They are all second rate distractions that would just pull you down if you actually had any interest in any of them and with your internship you need to focus. “

His words unusually forward and he only paused a few seconds to look into her eyes to see if he had her attention.   He said in a continued whisper “ I had sisters.  They were squibs as were my parents.  I saw my grandfather try to arrange a lot of second and third rate and then watched as he meddled in my other more worthy cousins affairs with first rate candidates.  I could walk into your grandfather's room at St. Mungos and give him a heart attack with how bad the lot is. “  All of this was in the past as his sisters died at the end of his third year, and his grandfather the end of his fourth however he still remembered.  It was hard to forget what one was raised to be and his grandfather was trying to raise him to follow him in the proper Razi footsteps as the only wizard in his immediate family.

Then he raised his eyebrow and said “ You don’t have interest in any of them do you? Guys in general? “  A question he was oddly confident he knew the answer to but wanted to confirm as he moved to eat another bite of his lunch with a casualness this conversation didn’t have.

The middle-aged woman had been sent straight up to the Magical Bugs department where he was working today though he was sure it should have been spell damage.  There was no way the things coming off her neck were an infection of any sort as all his mind could picture was some torture-iffic transfiguration that gave her what looked like tentacles coming out from her.  An opinion that was further supported when one of the healers from spell damage claimed it was definitely spell damage from a series of hexes. 

He said nothing as the healers debated and just took the sample ensuring that he didn’t touch her while taking the sample.  As one thing he’d learned was when he had no clue to let the more experienced healers debate unless they were asking him about something.  Thankfully this time they weren’t as they were to busy debating with each other whose case it was.

Floating the sample in front of him he made his way to another room and saw Robbie.  With a small nod of recognition he said “ I’m sure you can hear the debate through thew wall if that patient was hexed or has scrofungulus. “  Then he floated the sample towards one of the workstation tables in the back room so he could examine it.  Then he added with a smirk “ With how much debate they are having I’m surprised I wasn’t followed with the sample. “ 

His words just friendly small talk before he looked at the workstation and debated his plan to figure out what this was.  His first step was put the sample under the microscope to take a look at it mostly to give himself time to remember what test was he supposed to be running.  Then he said mostly to himself " This doesn't look right. "  The structure seemed more like a fungus than something that came from a person.

He stopped himself from reacting to being told to give the biggest bubble a poke.  As he couldn’t imagine using a work like poke in the name of science, but alas he’d accepted that healing was more practical with it being a word that was probably better for the patient to hear than the alternatives that went through his head.  Bedside manner was one of those things he still had to work on as his brain to easily went towards pure scientific curiosity.  Patients were people and words like poke were much less scary than the word excision which more described what he’d be actually doing.  Especially to wizards who knew that exorcisms were real.

What he couldn’t do was hold back a look of surprise as Dylan called him one of the brightest interns.  Blinking he nodded slightly towards Dylan thanks, then focused on the tool in his hand examining various accessible bubbles on the patient choosing one.

The ones that had obviously been wiped getting more on the man were not ones he could pick.

The man’s friend said “ It looked like a gobstone. “  Then the patient said “ Only thing different was it was a bit warmer and itchy. “

The word itchy made him think that the bigger bubbles would be more of the patient’s reaction. Picking a bubble he applied a salve with gloved hands saying “ I’m going to put this salve over the area so none of the contents of the bubble will touch your skin. “  Then he counted with his metal tool working as he said “ This will scrape. Then I’ll side it towards this small glass plates so it doesn’t spread on your skin. “

Or so he hoped, thankfully it didn’t.

He managed to pop one of the bubbles and get the goo on the very thin piece of glass. He said “ I’ll have this sent for a test. “  As he handed the film over to one of the other healers lingering about the side of the room who wandered off with the sample.  Then towards Dylan he asked " I got one of the larger ones, but do you think I should do one of the smaller ones as a larger one has likely more of a reaction from the patient.  Or do you think the reaction is equal it was just the size of the splatter that was smaller. "

Then he looked towards the patient as he said “ Were you using them like a set of regular gobstones as this seems like a larger coverage area than a normal squirt of them and let me tell you there is always a fall pick-up in popularity of the game at Hogwarts. “

The routine of working at St. Mungos made him less focused on the classes he was taking at Hogwarts.  His only focus was his research interests into magic of the mind, studying for NEWTs, and doing good at this internship.  As the reality was he’d decided he was either going to become a Healer or his grades likely wouldn’t manner as he didn’t see himself in the Ministry or anywhere else that would care.

As he looked around St. Mungos he realized how little grades likely mannered in the wizarding world with things like who you knew and the reputation of ones family being more important.

Thankfully, there were places like St. Mungos in the wizarding world were when it came to a medical issue at least everyone was treated equally - or so he thought.  He saw a pair of guys just a bit older than him being rushed to a room with shocked questions coming out of the other healers mouths questioning how this could have happened with a gobstone.

“ It exploded and hit me “ said one of the patients whose eyes were scrunched shut with bubbling spots on his skin.  Then the other man said “ Like I just told those healers that ran out and told you to clean him up.  I got a new set of gobstones and it was our first game. “

Tigran looked at the guy with the spots of bubbling skin and said “ I’m guessing the lines on the arms are where you tried to Wipe it and it spread?  We are going to need to get a sample of it. “  Then he grabbed a metal tool realizing he might have to scrape off a sample off one of the small splotches of skin that the man had bubbling.

All he could do was look at Dylan and hope the more experienced healer had a better idea.

He had to nod as he agreed it certainly took a lot of imagination to run this place.  He couldn’t imagine taking the risk of opening a business like this himself mostly as his focus was purely on stability.  Though he said nothing as he assumed the boy meant instead the fantastical products in the shop.

With a smile he said “ Don’t be afraid to enhance some of those stories when they come your way.  Have fun with it. “

Then he smiled as the boy picked up one of the containers.  Then said “ It was nice talking to you too “ as the boy turned away.

With a smirk he said “ It all is impressive to me, and consider thinking up an idea yourself to try to impress Jasper. “  . Then he went to a nearby shelf and started organizing the products on it that had been moved about.

He smiled.  If there was anything he was, it was resourceful.

Though he wasn’t confident that being resourceful could save this potion as he considered it further.  With a shrug he said “ Rum cocktails are illusions of pirate ships as the trick is the customer has to think of some sort of wonder about it and adding noise to the Snake Pit would distract from other things like the music and conversations. “

Then he smiled as Jasper told him about the progress he made on the other things.  At least there’d be less experiments with the dung bomb deluxe as it was one product he couldn’t even understand why it existed.  Though, he’d seen enough stinky pranks at Hogwarts to not question the appeal it had for other.

With a chuckle he said “ I clean bathrooms at a bar and work at St. Mungos.  I’ll take care of the back bathroom before I leave. “ Even if both the Snake Pit and St. Mungos were rather clean compared to places he worked as a janitor in the muggle world without magic that would go unmentioned.  With magic this would be nothing and part of him was shocked Jasper didn’t just clean it himself. 

He raised an eyebrow doubting if Jasper would have eaten before he got truly hungry. 

Considering the potion again he said “ I think the best we can get with this is try to get this down to a paste then consider it another day.  What is the next experiment on the agenda? “

It had been years since he’d been to a formal party and worn dress robes which he transfigured to look better and add silver accents.  Back then his grandfather had him summoned to refresh his memory on things.  Lessons that came in handy as he passed the knowledge combined with a few experiences he had in the past onto Kora. 

He wished he’d managed to get Brutus to pay such attention to him when he tried to invite his cousin to dinner where he was staying prior.  His cousin had zero training for this as no one ever expected him to ever go to something like this.  The Razi family was very divided by class and the only reason he got educated in both sides was because his grandfather had been the Head of the Razi family putting him in the higher class, but his parents were squibs dropping him to the lower class in the hierarchy in the Razi family.

He started the introductions at the door with whomever greeted them when they got there with a slightly nodded head and the expected greetings.  Though he attempted to work through them as fast as possible as it felt foreign emphasizing his name was Tigran Razi with the emphasis on Razi said with a pride that had been trained into him.  Plus with Kora on his arm he held a certain nervousness for both the introductions and the evening.

Thankfully, they’d gotten past the introductions. 

It didn’t take long for Kora to mention getting a drink which if this were him really dating her should have been him.  He recognized it for what it was and whispered “ Never fill the cup, three quarters at most. “ giving her one last piece of advice before he watched her go towards Brutus.

A Brutus that was regrettably standing by Cordie meaning he couldn’t just follow. 

For all the training for these events this was the first one he attended since his grandfather's death a bit over two years prior.  He found himself a spot along the wall to just observe like he used to.  He hoped Brutus would handle this situation with a level of composure that at least kept things solid with Kora.  As the rest of his extended family was in enough chaos the fact that Kora was at least a halfblood might go unnoticed for a while - due to bigger problems.

He chuckled and said “ In potions everything is creative problem solving.  You’d be surprised how many potions that haven’t turned out as expected I’ve taken onto the dueling block. “  An admission that was probably better made after Jasper had graduated.  Though he acknowledged his friend still had family in the castle that might see him on the block next term.

He just nodded at the comment about a healers handbook with a smile.  Mostly as he’d read quite a few versions of such a thing that various healers wrote and it only showed what he already knew which was one never knew what they’d see in St. Mungos.

He said with a smirk “ Exactly, and don’t forget leprechauns for the Irish beers. “

With a shrug he said “ Probably more Tattle, but I’m sure you can find a use for it somewhere.  How is the rest of what you are working on coming?  As, this was probably more tattle than toad ten minutes ago and you look way to hungry to have waited for me to randomly come by.  Just imagine if I'd of gotten caught up in something at work. “

The fact that Marcus didn’t understand him surprised him as besides divination professors at Hogwarts he waged Marcus had the highest odds of such.  Though admittedly he was used to it.  As it was rare he spoke with anyone interested in having conversations on magic related to the mind due to most peoples interest in divination not straying far from the predictive applications. 

Yet, unlike most he wanted to at least try to help Marcus understand as perhaps someday it might get him an opportunity to read books on similar.  As it was he was collecting data from books that barely touched upon his true interest.

Naturally he was interested in Marcus’ way with the ghosts, but his mind was more focused on how he might make Marcus understand his words better.

He said “ I’d suspect you do some of the things I’m describing, however much like most books I’ve read if similar concepts are mentioned they are usually training steps with the objective achieving something like entering the Otherworld with the focus quickly passing towards that goal. “  Which while regrettable also meant he’d read books on a lot of types of divination searching for such references.

He continued “ While I find the applications interesting, I must admit I’m more interested in the control and impacts to the mind of extending it into such realms.  When one is studying other forms of magic like transfiguration one starts with building blocks gaining control with very few ultimately achieving the skill to transform themselves into an animagus.  The catch is the field of divination mostly treats the advanced levels of stretching the mind as individuals having an inherent gift of talent not as a focused upon skill.  Which leads to a high number of practitioners of it experiencing being overwhelmed as part of there journeys.  An overwhelmed that when it reaches St. Mungos often is responded to with potions that quell the mind without helping the person gain control in a cyclical pattern of dependency. “

The fact that he had some inherent magical talent in the field of predictive divination went unsaid, and that talent with it’s lack of control was the motivation of his interest.