All's Quiet

[alt_poppy]

Ah, Sunday morning. All's quiet in the castle. Especially this Sunday morning after a Valentine's Saturday.

Not a bed on the ward is occupied this morning. Even on so a cold night, I had none of my usual refugees from chilly towers and dank dungeons. Perhaps the aura of romance infuses the very walls with unwonted heat. I suspect, however, that last night's pretty desserts were infused with a bit of a calming charm to defuse any ardent, youthful impulses and thus avoid any unfortunate mistakes. House elf magic at its best.

Valentine's.

The students would never imagine it, but I do remember.


I've started the day with a lovely brisk walk around the lake. I can't think how many weeks it's been since I've been free to go so far or stay as long.
 
 

Comments

[alt_gredforge]

If you'd like we could liven things up for you a bit...

[alt_poppy]

There's certainly no need of that! I see quite enough cases already.

You weren't by any chance responsible for all the swollen, purple-spotted tongues I treated this afternoon? Two dozen in the space of an hour!


(It would surely be best if you did not answer that question.)

Order only

[alt_sirius]

What's this? No love-potion victims in need of disinfection? No broken hearts? No tummy-aches from too many chocolates or pricked fingers from rose thorns?

No, ahem, more private difficulties?

Hogwarts is still full of teenagers, isn't it?

Re: Order only

[alt_poppy]

Oh, never fear. Yesterday was a full day! No love potions (that I'm aware of) this year, but plenty of digestive troubles (the transfigured chocolates are worse than the genuine article). Of course, there were the usual cases of eyes irritated by glitter charms, and several youngsters came by to have indelible kissing gloss removed from this part or that.

This year's prize-winning mishap was a poorly executed sparkly hair charm that turned out instead as a Medusa hex: a lovely head long brown curls transfigured into a mass of writhing vipers. Poor thing was bitten when she reached up to see why it felt so odd.

Hogwarts is as full of teenagers as ever -- and we shall simply have to hold our breath (as we always do) that there will be no 'private difficulties', as you term them.

Re: Order only

[alt_alice]

All the children around here are far too young to make too much of a fuss, which is a blessing. The ones old enough to write all worked together to decorate cards for the staff, which was very sweet of them.

I read that Neville wasn't swanning around or doing anything ridiculous like that, which was a relief to be sure. I don't know what I'll do when he gets older and starts crushing on girls.

Re: Order only

[alt_poppy]

Alice, dear, your Neville is an exceptional lad. Did you see in the journals that he was the one who took that poor Weasley boy -- the one that's a Prefect -- in hand when he'd been hexed and brought him to me for fixing up? And he's only a first-year! He has a good head and a better heart, that one.

Re: Order only

[alt_alice]

I read as much. We're both so proud of him and how he's growing up.

Thank you, Poppy. It's good to hear coming from you.

[alt_sinistra]

I saw several students heading your way in the afternoon - glad to hear that none of it was particularly dire or long-lasting.

Also glad to hear you're getting a bit of time to yourself - seems our schedules are the inverse, as I've been madly grading again. Star charts, of course, as a preparatory for the OWLs. Better to figure out now what they still don't know than later this spring.

[alt_poppy]

No, no, nothing dire. Strangely enough, yesterday held no candle to today! My goodness, what a lot of hexes I've seen this afternoon. I suppose much of it's related: jealousy causes such havoc at that age.

The only thing worse than having Valentine's fall on a Saturday is when it coincides with the full moon. Now those are eventful days!

I hope you've had enough uninterrupted moments today to complete all your marking.


If you find yourself with time for a cup of tea tomorrow afternoon, I'd very pleased to see you: I'm hoping that things will not be so utterly mad as they were today.