Smoke and Scrapes | Indy

[Tigran Razi]

A Sunday in Mid-August 1973
Emergency & Triage Ward, St. Mungos

One of the advantages of being an intern meant he got to see how things worked in different departments.  Though he had to admit emergency and triage was his favorite simply as they got to see the most diverse things which taught him the most.  Though today, he’d of been better likely working in morgue as he wasn’t moving as fast as he’d had a long night working as a bartender the night before at the Snake Pit.

He yawned not moving fast enough as the last patient was rushed in to follow the healers in the room as the healer he was supposed to be working with shut the door before he could follow.  With a shrug he brushed off the scoffing at the man had been giving him for being so tired - and being irresponsible for being such.  He couldn't find it in himself to be upset the punishment for his tiredness was being not invited to help with a puking kid.  Leaning against the center station he grabbed his cup of coffee and sipped it not even blinking as Professor Amberghast walked in.

Then he took another sip his face furrowing in confusion as Professor Amberghast kept walking with the woman towards him.

His furrow turned to shock as he Professor Amberghast signaled him to follow him into an exam room that the woman he was with was pushed towards a bed.  A push that was accompanied with restraints that would ensure the roughed up woman who had multiple scrapes and likely other injuries.

Then he heard the door close behind him.

He looked between the two confused, however he'd heard enough stories about how Aurors barely got them treated for them for things prior to being sent to Azkaban from various extended family members to realize he'd not have much time to help the woman.  Well not really help the woman, but at least see she got some level of medical care.  He said " Any injuries either of you would like to tell me about? " though his focus was more on the woman.  A focus that continued as he said "Damnum Invenio" running a medical diagnostic spell that had unsurprising results in the form of scrapes, and a few broken bones.

Then he cast "Vulnera Sanentur" saying the word clearly as he pointed at a few of the more noticeable cuts followed by a "Brackium Emendo" pointed at her right hip.  Then with a glance at the diagnostic spell he said " She has some inflammation in the digestive track so she'll need a potion before she leaves. "

Was Professor Amberghast just going to smoke?

[Indigo Amberghast]

“She’s fine,” he said, lighting a cigarette that almost seemed insufficient antidote for two of them.

“And that’s not a traumatic brain injury, either. She was like that when I met her.”

“Get stu—” the wretched woman began to say, though the venomous tone withered and fell silent under the intensity of his gaze. Not smart enough not to be a miserable no-hoper and a sad reprobate, okay, sure — but nobody was perfect — though she clearly recalled how quick he was with a silencing charm.

“Subsisting on cheap brandy and moldy bread will do that to a person, but really there’s no need for you to fuss so much over a sore stomach. That’s nothing the Azkaban-Detox couldn’t fix. All the Ministry wants to know is that she will survive being thrown into her cell.”

“You’re a heartless bastard.”

He ignored the woman completely and took a long, long draw of his cigarette, flicking ash onto the floor, thinking one fire wouldn’t be good enough for this place. Nor would ten.

“And she doesn’t need her nails manicured, either, before you ask. Unless she’s about to keel over and die—”

And luckily his mind was never clouded with wishful thinking.

“Then just sign the parchment and you can go back to whatever it is you’re pretending to be this time.”

[Tigran Razi]

She wasn’t fine. 

There were half a dozen things on his scan that would in a normal situation justify an overnight stay and more than a detox.  He’d gotten multiple nights a couple years back when he got overloaded with ghosts surrounding him and his headaches got so bad he couldn’t focus on things.  A situation that even at his worst had him better than the woman before him at current.

Though he had some idea how this all went hearing stories growing up and any comfort he could give the woman was likely more than she’d get from anyone else.  Mostly as the truly disillusioned amongst his co-workers who would fail by spouting things off that caused Indigo to carry her off and leave.  He focused on casting a series of “Scourgify, Vulnera Sanentur" multiple times on as many scrapes as he could alongside a liberal usage of “Brackium Emendo” for things that were barely breaks as Indigo discussed brandy and moldy bread. 

All he could do was shrug in partial agreement when the woman called Professor Amberghast a heartless bastard, however the more he got done the better off she’d be.  Indigo was an Auror, one had to be heartless in cases such as this.  He’d seen enough when he was homeless in small spurts watching people drown in bottles to know that no amount of compassion would save them - tough love was needed sometimes.

He said “ While the Victorians may have thought the salty air of the sea was a cure-all it isn’t.  It will make any scrapes I miss worse, and she’ll need to take a draught for her stomach to ensure any mold she consumed doesn’t actually kill her. “

“And she doesn’t need her nails manicured, either, before you ask. Unless she’s about to keel over and die—

He laughed and said “I think her nails are the one fine part of her” as he fetched a potion from the potion supply closet that he hoped would settle her stomach.  Part of him wished he had a bezoar to feed her just incase - but he didn’t.

“Then just sign the parchment and you can go back to whatever it is you’re pretending to be this time.”

He said “ Just remember I’m signing the healer line while you’re pretending my signature manners. “  Part of him wondered if whomever he showed it to would laugh at seeing Razi on it - though there were a number of his extended family that had positioned themselves reputably.  The catch was to his knowledge they all came from a higher station than him.

Then he measured the dosage of the potion for her stomach and put it in a small glass.  Then he looked between the glass and the woman as she indicated that he should hand it to her.   Handing a criminal a glass container that could be used to make a weapon wasn’t his plan for today so he pointed his wand at the potion and froze it into a round ice cube using a muttered transfiguration.

Then he said “ Now open your mouth and I’ll float you your potion cube. “  To which he did float it to right in front of her mouth to which she moved forward to grab it in her mouth.

[Indigo Amberghast]

He was thinking about that fire again.

In fact, every word that poured out of Tigran’s mouth pushed him closer to the flames, his bored — tired, so very tired — imagination not deterred by the sad reality that immolation by metaphor was not actually possible.

“Okay.”

It was a non-specific statement, replying to everything and nothing all at once. Something weary flashed in his gaze even as his eyes remained steady, not blinking, staring seemingly at the ghastly interaction between Punch and Judy but, actually, more focused on the wall behind them, again undeterred by the impossibility of burning a hole straight through it.

“I wouldn’t worry. Just like everything else you’ve ever signed, Tigran, it’ll end up in the bin.”

With another flick of his cigarette, tapping it twice against the metal bedpost balancing his towering frame, he added to the small pile of ash decorating the floor.

“Do you have a potion for me?” he asked, his deadpan tone blisteringly cold.

“I seem to be rapidly losing the will to live.”

[Tigran Razi]

He chuckled when Indigo mentioned the papers with his signature would end up in the rubbish bin.  Smirking he said “ Unlike the rest of my colleagues I can’t say I care if your bosses toss it.  We both know if I applied to the Auror’s office you’d personally have my application burned.“

He was surprisingly able to get a good amount of the wounds that the woman had healed.  More than he’d seen other healers manage with Auror’s just as impatient as Indigo.  An effort he continued with more healing spells cast.

Then he heard Indigo’s questions about his own care. 

He said “  My apologies.  I was told not to bother as most Auror’s are cured by the paperwork any injuries would cause.  If it’s small I’ll tack it on her paperwork. “  When it came to paperwork with how tired he was he would have zero issue filling out his side.  It was Indigo’s side he expected the headaches to occur on.

Looking away from the woman he turned towards Indigo and point his wand at him saying “Damnum Invenio ” attempting to aim a diagnostic spell towards Indigo.

Looking away was the wrong move as he felt something hit him in his lower leg and glance towards the ground showed it to be the remaining unmelted portion of the potion ball he gave the woman.  Her sound of gagging wasn’t surprising to him considering how bad he knew that potion to taste - however he wasn’t going to give her a glass container either.

After all, if he’d given her a glass container and she managed to injure herself more that would be the type of paperwork that ruined him.  Even if he doubted that she’d received that type of education like he had when he was a child.  Something told him this was someone who’d fallen from a grace he’d likely never know.

[Indigo Amberghast]

“Don’t be so sure. Maybe not a Hit Wizard, but you’d make an excellent double agent—”

Why hadn’t he just sent a doppelgänger to do this shit?

“Lots of pretending to be something you’re not.”

The bitter, miserable, wretched creature being tended to looked over at him, really stared hard at him, something ugly and snarled barking back at him through the huge, empty hollow her existence had carved out inside of her. Nothing left. Nothing to cling to, nowhere to crawl to, every desperate lunge forward merely digging her deeper.

Why bother with the truth? What did any of them want to do with it?

All Tigran was doing — and it was rare outside this setting that he could make sense of the boy — was providing the Dementors with a more palatable feast. Noble, in a stupid kind of way.

The kind that didn’t actually understand nobility at all.

So, basically, a Razi. Charming family.

And as palatable a feast as any.

The unpleasant gagging sound, as well as Tigran’s fussing, forced him to roll his eyes, otherwise unmoved until the precise moment a diagnostic spell was aimed in his direction and smoothly sidestepped, smoke still chimneying from his lips.

“Save it for my corpse.”

[Tigran Razi]

Him a double agent the statement made him laugh. 

He wasn’t stupid he knew compared to the Razi family the ministry held little power.  After all, Indigo was bringing someone he was about to put into Azkaban into St. Mungos for a check-up prior.  His family would just put them into the ground for a slight against them, or otherwise eliminate them from concern.

He shrugged when Indigo mentioned him pretending to be something he wasn’t.  He’d spent years tanking his grades starting so they wouldn’t be used to benefit his family in marrying his sisters off to slugs older than Indigo, and then he continued it so his extended family didn’t find him worth noticing.  The catch was he was now seventeen so there was no tossing him in their custody should they choose to want him.

With a smirk he said “ I can’t say I’m sorry that all that pretending tanked any chances of me becoming whomever you or anyone else thought I should be. “

He choose to ignore that Brutus’ father still gave him job offers, but he suspected that had something to do with an acknowledgment that Brutus was soft and he’d covered for his cousin while at Hogwarts.  Which was leverage enough to ensure Brutus’ father wouldn’t pull him into things unwillingly.

His wand continued to attempt to heal as much on the woman before as he could even if neither her nor Indigo likely cared about such details.

“Save it for my corpse.”

He said “ I’ll have it ready for the day you can’t sidestep it in the triage department.  I'd hate to waste my skills on your corpse. “

As he looked over the woman there were obviously things that could be done if she stayed overnight, or better days to detox herself from the vices she’d drowned herself in.  The catch was for now admittedly there wasn’t much he could do else.

He said “ I was always told as a boy to relax and still my thoughts when I ended up at Azkaban so the dementors went after weaker people like her first. “  He regretted the slip of word immediately.  Hoping it would go unnoticed he continued and putting the focus clearly on the patient as he said “ Would giving her a potion to help her relax help.  It is evident she has little control over herself and has drowned so far in vices that it would take time she’ll never get to detox. “