Gobstones and Bubbles | Dylan

[Tigran Razi]

A Sunday Afternoon in November

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.

[Dylan Duckheart]

Dylan had to admit that this was a new case. So naturally Dylan had been eager to be one of the healers to be on this case. And perhaps most exciting, he had an intern with him.

The former Ravenclaw was enjoying working with Tigran. Far more than most junior healers. He seemed fascinating, and to have wonderful research interests. Ones that Dylan hoped he would carry forward.

He was having trouble keeping his face straight to hide the shock at this case. It had also caused a wave of nostalgia remembering when Cyrus had shown them a lady with an invisible arm. Gwen had been horrified at Dylan's lack of tact.

He agreed with Tigran's questions that he asked.

"Well done Tigran. Yes, get a needle and give the biggest bubble a poke." Dylan said, smiling at the young man. He turned to the patients. "This is one of our brightest interns." He paused as he pulled out the chart. That was what piqued the Healer's interest. It could have been tampered with. Or just an enthusiastic squirter. Perhaps even an allergic reaction. "So this is a new set. Could you tell me what the spray smelt like? And looked like."

[Tigran Razi]

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. “