Closed Impact

[Connor Holland]

Connor didn't think New Zealand would ever really feel warm to him, but the summers at least were closer to what he was used to back home, so he made a point to take as much advantage of them as he could. It felt good to be out in actual sunshine, and Connor had decided to spend an afternoon tending to the flowers he had planted in the Wild Patch. The delphiniums and carnations were blossoming beautifully, and he took special care to make sure they were watered, wondering if it would do the plants too much damage to pick a few for his dorm. As he was considering the flowers he didn't look up at a now-familiar whooshing sound overhead, having long since adjusted to the initially terrifying sound of kererū in the New Zealand skies. What he wasn't expecting, however, was the loud thump that followed the sound. Looking over in the direction of the sound, Connor's heart dropped as he realised what had happened. The bird had flown into the side of one of the greenhouses, and was now fluttering and struggling on the ground. "Oh no!" Connor dropped his watering can and ran over, wincing at the uncomfortable angle the bird's wing was now sitting at. He crouched down next to it, tearing up slightly at his own helplessness. Why didn't he know any spells for fixing broken bones?!

 

[Lysander Summers]

The sun was out, and Lysander trudged slowly toward the gardens, loosely holding his trusty plastic sword in one hand and occasionally swinging it over the blades of grass to destroy his imaginary enemies. He'd brought it along on the off-chance he needed to bop some gnomes on the head and chase them away from the flowers, though usually it just sat planted in the dirt while he tended to the plants or relaxed in the sunlight. He swiped up, uppercutting an invisible dark wizard, or other such bad guy, and let it fall to a rest on his shoulder, a job well done. Those gnomes were in for a rude awakening if they thought they could square up against Lysander the Great™ and his garden. He looked up, spotting a kererū fly by, though glanced back down and didn't think much of it until he heard an unsettling thump after the glass pane of a nearby greenhouse. He looked back in time to watch it fall uselessly to the ground, and quickly broke off into a sprint, splashing in a puddle of water and almost tripping over the watering can someone had dumped. He wasn't the only one to spot it by the looks of it, and he stopped his run to skid into a crouch next to Connor, ignoring the grass stains he'd earned on his knees. "Did you see what happened?" He asked, setting down his sword. He hovered his hands above the bird, trying to get a good look at it without it trying to fly away. He grimaced at the wing, and checked for any other visible injuries, any blood, or any obvious reason it had ended up in its predicament, though perhaps thankfully, it seemed to just be a wing injury. "Do you have anything we can wrap it up with?" He asked. It was too warm for him to have brought a cloak, which would have been perfect otherwise, and short of taking off a sock or a shirt, he didn't have anything else to use. Cautiously, he put his hands around the bird, holding its wing closer to its body to try and avoid any further damage. "Sh, sh, it's okay. You're gonna be okay." He cooed. The bird seemed startled, and he held it firmly, annoyed that he wasn't somehow able to communicate with it, like Kas could with snakes. One of the biggest frustrations with helping animals was the fact he couldn't simply tell them he was going to help them, to get them to somehow understand him.​

 

[Connor Holland]

Connor was surprised to find he wasn't alone, but the surprise was quickly overwhelmed by relief that he wasn't. Lysander's dad was a teacher, he had to know what to do. He shook his head when the Gryffindor asked if he had seen what happened, peering down at the bird sadly. "It just flew into the greenhouse, it must not have seen the glass..." He said hesitantly. His eyes widened when Lysander reached for the bird, terrified the other boy would wind up hurting it worse. He nodded when Lysander asked about something to wrap it though, scrambling back to where he had been gardening to grab his abandoned robe. "Here, this should work..." He came back over, helping Lysander gently swaddle the bird in his robe, careful to avoid touching its wing. "Should we take it to the hospital wing?" He asked warily. "Or... your dad? I don't know what to do."

 

[Lysander Summers]

Lysander was relieved to see that Connor had brought something that would make wrapping the bird up easier. He focused on trying to make sure it was comfortable, occasionally glancing at the Hufflepuff, and his apprehension about touching its wing while they worked on keeping the bird warm. "We have to make sure its folded naturally, and that its kept pressed to its body so it doesn't hurt itself more. They don't know what they're doing, so sometimes they make it worse." He tried to explain. A box, or something similar would have been better to put it in, but the walk to get help wouldn't be too long. He cradled the bird, almost possessively, not quite sure he could trust Connor to, even though he'd been there first. He'd dealt with enough sick and injured animals with his dad to feel like he knew enough about what to do, and he had no idea how much experience the other boy had. Not a lot by the sound of it. "My dad would know what to do." Lysander nodded, looking back up towards the castle. He frowned. "But he's on the fifth floor most of the time. The hospital wing is closer. They can probably heal it too. They wouldn't only know how to heal people, right?" He asked, starting the careful trek to the castle. He had to imagine that any spells that worked on humans, worked on animals as well.​

 

[Connor Holland]

Connor nodded seriously as he listened to Lysander explaining how they needed to hold the bird. He was glad Lysander was here to do the handling, as knowing his own luck Connor was afraid he would have wound up hurting the poor thing even worse. He nodded as Lysander talked about the options, keeping his eyes on the poor injured bird in Lysander's arms. "Yeah, the hospital wing is probably the best option." He agreed, setting off towards the castle with the Gryffindor. He couldn't imagine the spells for healing humans and healing birds were all that different. "Have you done this before?" Connor asked, glancing up at Lysander's face as they walked. The other boy seemed so much more confident than Connor felt himself, and he wondered if it came from experience.

 

[Lysander Summers]

Every step Lysander took felt as if the ground underneath was more precarious, with how fragile the poor bird in his arms felt. He had to trudge carefully, keeping an eye on the grass, and every rock or root that he was sure hadn't been there on his way down. "Yeah, loads. Usually my dads will handle any animal we come across thats hurt, or one they've rescued, but they taught me some stuff, and I get to help out with looking after them and making sure they get better." He shrugged, though it looked more like he'd dipped his head towards one shoulder, rather than raise both and risk jostling the bird around. "One time, my dad brought home these puffskeins that had almost died of a heat stroke because their owner had left them out in the sun for too long during the Summer. We had to cool them down, and it was my job to give them water with a little dropper to try and rehydrate them. They're okay now. It was scary though, and it took a while to get them to properly drink. Some people just don't care about what happens to their animals." He continued, his brows knitting together in mild frustration. It wasn't fun to think about, and he'd heard even worse stories he'd had no part in. He was grateful when the ground below them evened out, and he didn't have to worry so much about tripping. He glanced at the snug bird in his arms, and back at Connor. "I can't tell what gender this is, but we should come up with a name for it. Any ideas?" He asked. They still had a walk ahead of them, and he disliked referring to any animal as "the bird" or "the dog". It was fun to give them nicknames to go by instead. People seemed to treat animals better when they were named.​

 

[Connor Holland]

Connor listened with wide eyes as Lysander recounted stories of animals he had helped over the years, covering his mouth in horror when he talked about the puffskeins. "That's horrible!" Connor breathed, feeling the all-too familiar sensation of tears springing to his eyes. "Who would do something so cruel?! They must have been the worst!" He felt his hands balling into fists with anger, quickly wiping the tears forming in his eyes. It didn't take much to make Connor upset, but he wasn't used to getting this angry about things. The thought of anyone just not bothering to take care of an innocent animal though... he could barely stomach it. It was hard to calm down when Lysander changed the subject to a name for their new charge, glancing down at the kererū in Lysander's arms. "Hmmm... what about Opal?" He said slowly, thinking about it. "'Cause the changing colours in its feathers kind of look like an opal."

 

[Lysander Summers]

Lysander could only nod in agreement, though he was surprised by how much Connor reacted to him recounting his stories. He knew the feeling, he just didn't know anyone else would feel the same way. Sometimes he wondered if he was just different, like how not many people had seemed to care about the mandrakes being killed in Herbology. It made him so, so furious whenever anyone just completely discounted the lives of other creatures, because why? They couldn't talk? Weren't intelligent enough to be valued? People like that didn't deserve to be around other creatures, or even other people. It was awful, and he was lucky to have only heard about it more than he'd seen it, but there had still been too many of those stories to listen to. "Opal." He repeated, his eyes on the kererū, as if it would give any indication of liking or disliking the name. It just continued its heavy breathing. His stomach knotted, and he slightly quickened the pace. "Yeah, I mean, I don't really remember what opals look like, but I like it." They looked like rocks with a kererū's colour, he imagined, but he couldn't picture one. The sunlight beating down on them was obscured as they crossed the threshold into the entrance hall. It wouldn't be too far now. "Do you, uh, do you have any animals?" He asked conversationally, wanting to distract from the negative feelings, though he had to take a moment to pause his chat, and the walking, as his foot found the first of the steps. He shuffled gingerly aside, avoiding a group of students thundering down the stairs from the floor above. "Could you lead the way up? I don't want to run into anyone." Using Connor as a battering ram seemed like the best idea if he wanted to avoid being jostled about.​

 

[Connor Holland]

Connor nodded when Lysander agreed with the name, shrugging slightly when he said he couldn't picture them. "They're like.... they do that shiny thing where they're sort of green and purple and blue all at the same time, you know? Like the shiny bits on its feathers?" He said awkwardly, wishing he was better at describing things. Someone like Poppy would have been able to describe what he was thinking of better. Connor looked around as they entered the school, keeping an eye out for any nurses that might have just happened to be taking a walk around the area. With no such luck, he shook his head when LYSANDWER asked about pets. "I really want like, a cute kitten or a puppy or something, but we can't really afford it." Connor flushed, some of the residual bitterness he had learned from Eric creeping into his mind. "We're not rich like our cousins." It was a relief when Lysander distracted him by asking him to lead the way, and Connor quickly understood what he wanted. "Oh, yeah!" He slid into step in front of Lysander, squaring his arms up as big as he could and creating a blockade so nobody could come anywhere their injured ward. "EVERYONE BE CAREFUL! INJURY COMING THROUGH!" He called out, forging a safe path for Lysander through the crowded corridors.

 

[Lysander Summers]

Lysander was confused by Connor's comment about not being able to afford a pet. Wasn't he related to like, the Minister? Shouldn't he have been mega-rich? The question was answered before he could open his mouth to ask. "It's the same with me and my cousins. But, I dunno, I think I'm still lucky." He said. The Frosts had a ton of money, they were famous, but the Summers household had always been simply comfortable. They couldn't afford the best brooms or a mansion, his dad had said a lot of their money went back into the shop, but he still managed to get things he wanted from time to time. They could definitely afford the animals. It had always been easy to assume anyone could afford to have at least one pet. Being so used to his home becoming its own menagerie, it was odd to hear that wasn't the case. He didn't linger on it, following after Connor up the staircase. He took each step carefully, chuckling lightly at how the other boy looked, barging his way through. It wasn't long before they were at the Hospital Wing, pushing on through the doors. "Can we get some help over here?" Lysander shouted out for any of the nurses. When NPC nurse #3 frantically rushed over to check the boys out for injuries, he held the bird out instead. "No, we're okay, it's the kererū." He explained. He gingerly passed it over, leaving it in more experienced hands. "Phew. We did it! I think Opal's gonna be okay." He said, giving the other boy a pat on his shoulder for reassurance. And to reassure himself, too. The nurse hadn't seemed too distressed, and he could only imagine they'd dealt with worse injuries. "Thanks, for everything. Who knows what could've happened." There were tons of cats at the school, and he didn't want to think about what might have happened if one of those had reached the bird before either of them had.​

 

[Connor Holland]

Connor didn't much like pushing people off the rugby pitch, but these were special circumstances, and he didn't hesitate to clear a path for Lysander with a couple of well-placed elbows, doing his best to make space where the hallways were crowded so nobody would run the risk of bumping into the poor bird. It was a relief once they reached the hospital wing, Connor's shoulder sagging as he watched Lysander hand the bird over to the nurses, trusting that it would be well cared for here. "I think so too." Connor smiled when Lysander said he thought the bird would be okay, brightening up slightly. This had been an unexpectedly stressful afternoon, but ultimately all for the best, and it was a relief to know Lysander shared his care for animals. Connor shrugged when Lysander thanked him, shaking his head. "Thank you for being there, I dunno what I would have done if I was alone!" He smiled sincerely, relieved that he would never have to worry about that possibility.