Morning nostalgia

[Briar Rowan-Cullen]

It was the end of december. that week before christmas and new year when no one wants to go to work. however Briar had got up early (or rather late) from where she had spent the christmas break In london with her boyfriend. it had been an enjoyable holiday, snug in his flat. This morning she was glad to be somewhere where she could stretch her legs. she had arrived in new zealand a couple of hours early and gone to brightstone village and had a nice run in the park. glad that her works clothes were runable and practical, not like some of the offices where the women wore heels and suits. once she had decided she had run enough after a few laps she stopped and headed along the road breathing a little heavily. she paused at one of the cafes and bought a bottle of juice and a ham and cheese croissant and an aple for her breakfast. she wandered down the road and sat on a bench overlooking the sea. as she chewed on the pastry and sipped the juice she let her mind wander looking over the water made her think of when she had been in this harbour two years ago. she had been so happy then, that boat trip had caused a lot about her to change. lots of her walls had been broken down and she had become a lot more of an open person. though over those two years a lot of time had passed. a lot of events fall outs, make ups, love and loathing. both towards her and away from her. as even then she had been keeping her condition a secret, and now look at her, werewolf activist employee of werewolf support services. As she chewed she looked around wondering if there was anyone around this early.

 

[Jeremy Thorne]

Coming off of a crazy rotation at St. Mungo's, Jeremy was dressed more casually than he ever dressed in a pair of track pants and a plain white t-shirt with a pair of sneakers. His hoodie was unzipped and hung loosely on his thin frame. The young man's face was drawn, his eyes with slight dark circles under the name and the shadow on his jaw was going on more like eight o'clock. The slight breeze was enough to keep him awake though and Jeremy had enjoyed a leisurely stroll through the park after he'd apparated there from work. His bed was calling to him, but Jeremy was putting off heading to his apartment. Not that being outside was much better. The guy had a lot on his mind these days. He was still dating his girlfriend, but he didn't know where things were going with them. It just seemed that they were growing complacent in their relationship and Jeremy couldn't help but wonder if it was his fault. He had always known that being a Healer was going to be incredibly time-consuming, but he had always thought he would be able to balance things well. Now, he wasn't so sure.

Pulling his wand from his pocket, Jeremy used it to make some of the water spout. The ghost of a smile crossed his face as he leaned against the railing and just looked straight ahead, his blue eyes not really staring at anything. To take his mind off of Alyss, Jeremy thought about the patients he'd dealt with today. He'd helped stitch up a couple of splinched limbs, not extremely tough work but requiring more precision and concentration than he would have thought. It had kept his mind off of things though. With a yawn, Jeremy stood and ran a hand, first across his face and then through his hair, before he readied to apparate towards his apartment. His hands rose in the air, stretching his tightened muscles. At least he had a day off tomorrow. Perhaps he would call Alyss and take her out to dinner or something.

 

[Briar Rowan-Cullen]

Briar tried to think of hat she had to do today and she remembered she had an appointment with one of her clients bosses later that day to explain why they needed the extra few days off even between all the public holidays, and to try and settle some negotiation between the two, it was looking to be a long meeting as she knew both sides thought they were right, she just hoped that the boss didn't say anything stupid. As she still wasnt that good at facing those who thought tht werewolves were subhuman and told her so. for that caused her to tell them what she thought of them, this didnt generally go down well with the head of department. come to think about it maybe she should actuallyput some make up on to cover her scar so he would treet her like a ministry employee as opposed to the teenage werewolf which she was.
As briar looked around she saw a man standing nearby other than that the street was near deserted. not thinking much of it she went back to her apple before she realised that she recognised the man. She got up and headed to over to him. It had been months since she had seen anyone from shool other than her brother and sister who she had spent time with over their holidays. "Jeremy?" she asked as she got a little closer. As she drew even nearer she saw that he looked tired, like some of her clients the day after a full moon minus the scratches and blood, like how she knew she would look in half a weeks time as the full moon was nearly upon them, she was sure by this time tomorrow she would be feeling it, what she meant was just the practically dead on their feet look, from staying up all night in a stressful place. "How have you been?" she asked wondering if he had managed to fulfil his dreams and he was a healer now.

 

[Jeremy Thorne]

The man's head turned as he heard his name called, his blue eyes swinging towards the voice. A small, tired smile crossed the guy's face as he took in an old friend, one he hadn't seen or been in contact with for several months. After graduation, Jeremy's focus had turned to his girlfriend and now it was on his Healing studies. The ex-Head Boy stifled another yawn as Briar spoke. She looked good, as if the days since graduation had been good to her. "Hey Briar" he greeted, his hand coming up in greeting. Thinking on her next question, he spoke. "I'm good...just a bit tired. I'm coming off of a long shift at St. Mungo's. Being a Healer-in-training is hard work"he explained with a wry grin.

"How've you been? I haven't seen you in the hospital, so are the transformations going ok?" he asked, a smirk crossing his face. Jeremy tried to think about when the next full moon was, but he realized he had no idea. He had no reason to. He often worked night shifts and barely had the opportunity to see the moon or look at a calendar for that matter.

 

[Briar Rowan-Cullen]

Briar smiled as Jeremy greeted her, it was good to meet up with someone from school after so long. especially the boy who she had become pretty good fiends with in her final year. when they had been placed together as headboy and head girl at the start of the seventh year she hadn't known him that well, just a quiet boy who worked hard. that year they had gotten to know each other and she felt a little bad for not meeting up with him sooner. it wasn't like they were best friends or anything, in fact most of her best friends at the school had been in lower years than her. When he said he was good just tired she nodded "you look it' she said not thinking before she said it. it was a couple of minutes before she realised how it may have sounded. "I didn't mean that in a bad way, just that you have had a busy night" she said. clarifying what she had meant. "I bet it is hard work. I remember when i was little my aunt, well never mind" she said. the aunt in question had like all of her family not ben a relative at all, but a centaur. she had been the herds healer and she had seen how hard it had been at times finding the right plants and looking after the sick and injured.
she chuckled as Jeremy asked if her transformations had been going okay. "they are going really well, especially now i am not cooped up in the small cavern i was in at school" she said. the last few months had been her most enjoyable transformations yet she and dederick had spent them on her property in australia, where she could actually run and explore and even hunt if she wanted to in the moonlight and the charms she had put on the property had made it safe. "I have been in the hospital a few times but only up on the first floor to see clients as i did manage to get the job in the ministry i wanted." she said she was proud of her job even though it was a lot more paper work than she had thought she was working on a project that was still being cleared by the authorities but it if worked it would be a useful and enjoyable outcome she hoped. "How are you liking being a healer" she asked hoping he was enjoying it more than the night shifts.

 

[Jeremy Thorne]

Jeremy just stared at Briar as she attempted to fix the mistake she seemed to have thought she'd made. The guy knew he looked like hell and would have been even more surprised had she said that he looked great. He was used to Briar speaking though and knew that she didn't mean to offend him or anything. "That's good" he said politely, adjusting his bag on his shoulder. As she spoke about the hospital he nodded. "Ah...that makes sense. I'm usually down in the basement brewing potions" he explained. He'd grown so frustrated but was grateful for the brief reprieve when he'd worked with Healer Styx. That had opened up the opportunity for him to make rounds there once a week and whenever staff was low. It's the reason he'd just finished working the long shift.

He thought about what the first floor was for and then nodded. "Are you working with other werewolves then?" he asked. He hadn't seen anyone come in with a werewolf bite and figured he wouldn't for a long while. He mostly dealt with splinchings and small illnesses when they allowed him to deal with patients at all. At her question, Jeremy thought for a moment and the replied. "It's a lot harder than I thought it would be and I was pretty sure it was going to be hard." He shrugged his shoulder and continued to speak. "I'm mostly doing potion brewing these days. I've gotten pretty decent at wolfsbane actually" he smiled.

 

[Briar Rowan-Cullen]

Briar was glad that Jeremy knew her well enough to know she wasn't trying to insult him. She smiled when he said he was usually in the basement. "Maybe i'll see you there some time, when do you get to decide what you are going to specialise in?" she asked. wondering when he would be allowed on the wards. when he guessed she was working with werewolves she nodded. "Yes I play quidditch, for the Moutohora Macaws" she said keeping a serious expression on her face as best as she could. se waited a few moments to let it set in before she laughed. "I work for the ministry too, Werewolf Support Services." she said she loved both her jobs, they covered her two passions, sport and the other was magical creatures. as although she was in werewolf support she often had to help the other departments, just a few weeks ago she was tidying up after a dragon had been on a rampage. "I'm sure it will get easier when you get adjusted to it and the healers know what you are capable of. When he said that He had gotten pretty good at the wolfsbane potion she chuckled. "If you get a big order of wolfsbane soon it will be me. I would consider making it myself but you were far better at potions than me, i never seemed to be able to keep attention for a whole class" she said as she spoke she waved her hand her ears were replaced by wolf ears, she tried to keep a straight face as she had remembered the potions class she had done the same thing in and lost her house ten points. even though that hadn't been good for the head girl it had been totally worth it, and she never claimed to be a normal head girl.

 

[Jeremy Thorne]

Jeremy shrugged his shoulders. “I think when we’ve been there about six months, or once they decide we won’t kill anyone if we get sent to a ward” he replied drily. He was glad that he wasn’t stuck in the basement anymore. The fumes from the various potions brewed down there combined with the lack of windows and people were enough to drive even the sanest wizard up to the floor where the mentally ill patients were. It took a second for Jeremy to realize what Briar was talking about. He hadn’t been watching much quidditch lately. He wasn’t doing much of anything lately except for working. When he did realize, his blue eyes lit up and a smile crossed his face. “Oh…that’s great. I’ll have to come out and watch you play one day.” He actually thought he might too. Quidditch had always been a favorite thing of the young man’s and he certainly did need to de-stress a bit. “You’re probably right. I eventually get onto one of the wards and help fix splinched parts” he stated, happy that he no longer flinched when he thought about splinched parts. He still did when he saw them though. There was just something about seeing a person carrying their own ear that gave Jeremy the willies.

As she continued, Jeremy found himself laughing. One of his favorite things about Briar, once he’d gotten to know her, was how easygoing she was about life in general. Seeing her wolf ears reminded him of that time in Potions class where she’d lost herself housepoints just for a laugh. It was a much simpler time in both of their lives despite the threat of looming NEWTs. “ I still say that Hensel probably died laughing once we left the classroom” he kidded. “But that’s cool. It better not be so massive that you run through our supply though. I’d rather eat a thestral than have to start another round of wolfsbane making this month.” Jeremy chuckled a bit, but he was mostly serious. Burns were scattered on his arms and hands from potion making while half asleep. That particular potion was so intricate that he found himself having to set various alarms to keep track of stirs and ingredient placement and boiling times.

 

[Briar Rowan-Cullen]

Briar nodded when jeremy said that they, generally waited until they were sure he wouldn't kill anyone. "not killing people would be a good start" she said nodding. When he said he would have to watch her play one day. she blushed. "the real league is a lot tougher than at school, but it the challenge is exiting." she said. she loved a physical challenge and professional quidditch was one. but it was sort of hard for her to adjust to a team where everyone was good and pulling their own weight, and she wasn't able to play as the superstar.
"fixing splinchings, sounds, urm, sounds fun" she said in a tone that said she wasn't convinced. it wasn't that she was squeamish at all, she had hunted through her whole childhood and in doing so had seen most of what could be classed as squeamish from when she was little, it was more that she thought they sounded boring, being the drama queen she was liked things with a little more danger if she was ever a healer, which she would never want to be, she would most likely work in creature injuries, or some form of spell mishap ward.
when he started to laugh at her ears she couldn't keep a straight face over and started laughing too. after a minute or so she managed to draw concentration back enough to change her ears back to her ears. "He probably did. "dont worry about this month, I think my supplies are all stocked up, Its a full moon in a couple of days so I'll have some of my regulars come in for it. I just hope you aren't on nights on the 29th as as it isn't just werewolves that are effected by the full moon, supposedly loads more things go wrong then" she said. she had practically memorised moon times. not intentionally but the number of times she had written them down she had sort of found it easier than looking at a table or counting days. "so other than work, what else have you been up to?" she said. wondering what else he had done. she remembered he had had a girlfriend at the end of school, and wondered how they were doing, if they were still together. and what else he was up to.

 

[Jeremy Thorne]

Jeremy shook his head, stifling a yawn. "Liar. You know it sounds boring" he replied, and easy he added in his head. It was the reason that the newest Healers were sent to do it. The likelihood of messing up was slim to none and it freed the master Healers for the bigger, more exciting stuff. Still, he was sure that the experience was useful. Jeremy thought about his schedule for a moment after Briar mentioned the 29th and then smiled. "Yup...I'm off that day and night" he spoke and then added, "But I have to work on the 30th." So, he'd be there for some of the aftermath of the full moon.

As she stopped speaking about work, Jeremy could contain his yawn no longer. He covered his hand with his mouth, hoping Briar would know that it wasn't the conversation that he found boring. He was just tired, but not tired enough to go home just yet. The healer-in-training shrugged. "Not much. Umm...I officially moved to New Zealand" he said, hoping that was vaguely interesting. His parents had both commented that he was starting to say more like a Kiwi than an American anyway and the move had probably been a good one. "And um...Al and I are still together" he added as an afterthought. He wasn't sure how their relationship was going, but it wasn't a lie to say that they were still together. "How about you? You're not just working all day, right?" he asked, knowing that he was a cauldron calling a pot black even if she said yes.

 

[Briar Rowan-Cullen]

Briar smiled when he sad that she kew it sounded boring. "splinchings, not boring as such just not really what i would find interesting" she said knowing that there wasn't really that much difference between the two other than the fact that the latter was her view. when he said that he was off during the full moon she nodded. "that's good, by the next morning things are meant to be back to normal" she said. she had heard the healers complaining about odd occurrences during full moons. As he yawned she looked away over the harbour for a moment letting him have the yawn in privacy. she knew the feeling, of being that tired, you didn't want to sleep but couldn't help yawning, living between three time zones and some nights not sleeping meant that some days it was almost 48 hours before she could get some sleep, the first month she had done that she had fallen asleep at work, thankfully she was at her desk, not training quidditch or it could have been painful.
"its good to her you have officially moved to new zealand." she said not quite sure if it was what one would normally say to that but couldn't think of anything else. [b"and it's nice to hear that you are still both together"[/b] she said. when he asked her if she was doing other than working day and night she thought, "i don't see night time often actually, only weekends and full moons, you see, I now live between london and wagga wagga, though i work in new zealand, so time zone jumping makes it almost always day." she said, before realising that it probably wasn't what interested him. "also just after graduation I got back together with Dederick" she continued, not sure if jeremy knew who dee was, though she had been thinking about him enough during seventh year she may have mentioned him she wouldn't have been surprised. Getting back together had been great for her, she did love him and although neither of them spoke of the future much she hoped that they would be together for it.

 

[Jeremy Thorne]

Jeremy nodded his head at the acknowledgment that he and Alyss were still together. He wasn’t sure if it was exactly something to be proud of seeing as they didn’t spend much time together. It made him wonder what their relationship would be like if they spent more time together like normal couples were able to. The point was moot though. He enjoyed the craziness of the hospital even if it did disrupt his sleep schedule. Listening to Briar, he cocked his head a bit. ”Really? That must be weird” he stated, wondering if it really was so different from his own life. Maybe just hearing how she explained it sounded weird. "Actually, it's not that weird. I don't think I see the moon much either." The boy’s thoughts were jumbled and he decided to stop thinking about it all. He was too tired to have coherent thoughts.

The former Head Boy tried to think if he had ever heard Briar talking about a Dederick. He didn’t know him from school, that much he was sure of. The name didn’t sound even the slightest bit familiar though the way she made it sound, she had mentioned his name. “Oh…that’s good.” Jeremy scratched his head and then added, “Does he know about your um…wolf?” he asked, wondering how that conversation could have gone. He didn’t know how he’d feel if Alyss came to him one day, sat him down, and explained she was a werewolf. It’d be a hell of a conversation. That was for sure.

 

[Briar Rowan-Cullen]

Broar thought there was something on jeremy's mind shough she didnt know what it was and didn't tryto ask as she didnt wasnt to seem nosey and it probably had nothing to do with her. "yeah, it is a little odd when i started it working days and evenings in new zealand then heading back to london to sleep, though i do spend a few nights a wek in wagga wagga too." she said refuring to the town in australia where she had land which had a high proportion of wizards. she had ended up picking land there due to firstly the fact that there were quite a few wizards around and secondly the rumors af a wagga wagga werewolf from around 50 years ago.
when she mentioned dederick there was a look of confusion on Jeremy's face, "oh, i dated him in sixth year and we broke up part way through seventh but we are back together now which is awesome" she said. she really did love dederick and he was one of the few people who she had become dependent on, not physically dependent but emotionally dependent, which is why when they had broken up it had hit her so hard she had stopped taking potion. at the question of her knowing if she was a wolf she thought for a minute, he certainly knew she was a wolf, he had caused her to be one, but the only people she had told that to were her brother and sister and although she was friends with and did trust jeremy she didn't want him to know instead she frowned and nodded. "yeah, he does, though he isn't happy about it, which is why we broke up for a bit, but now he is trying not to let him bother him too much" she said, if dee hadn't come out as being a werewolf then she certainly wasn't going to tell people he was.