The Healer | Part 3: The Survivors

What He Would Give Anything For

Edith

I didn't hear from Bonnie like I usually did for a while. It was just as well, in my opinion. I had far too much to be getting on with without dealing with the aftermath of that evening with our parents. It wasn't as if it had changed my relationship with my parents.

I never missed a day on the fourth floor at St Mungo's no matter how nauseous I felt or how out of breath I got from climbing the stairs. I wanted to prove myself. I had already proved to Healer Bidelspach and the rest of the faculty that I could handle the theoretical work. Now I had to prove to Healer Baird that I wasn't some foolish girl who had gotten herself pregnant despite knowing a perfectly good contraception charm and was actually a competent Trainee Healer. I was trying to get the hang of things as quickly as I could before I would be on call for the ward.

During the course of the next few weeks, we treated a patient who had been burned with Fiendfyre, he had required several days admission to the ward for burn treatments, a witch who had been caught by a Laughing Curse, and several more biting teacups. I was struggling to maintain my image as a competent Healer as it was, I hoped Healer Baird didn't hold it against me that my husband was one of the inventors of the bothersome teacups. Even I had to admit they were childish, but they had mostly likely been invented while George and Fred were still children themselves. Besides, I knew George loved stuff like that, I would never say anything negative about it.

I met most of the other nurses on the ward as they rotated through their shifts. Most were kind and eager to help me and show me where things were kept. Some of the older ones kept their distance. The head nurse, Alice, told me they thought twins were a bad omen. I wondered how everyone had known I was expecting twins when I thought I'd done a decent enough job of hiding the fact that I was pregnant at all. I couldn't take it on though, it wasn't worth it.

I was sitting at the kitchen table at home one evening, I had the Instant Owl Notebook from the ward close by. I was on first call after hours now, I had to be able to respond at a moment's notice. I had another piece of parchment in front of me as well as a quill and jar of ink. I'd had to write orders and sign my name to them for the first time that day and had embarrassed myself when I'd signed Falconer instead of Weasley. I'd had to scratch everything out and start again. Now I was practicing so I wouldn't get caught doing the same thing again.

George was sitting opposite me at the table, his own notebook open in front of him, writing down and drawing ideas for new products. He had still had a smirk on his face from his earlier teasing about my signature.

My mobile rang.

Both George and I froze in our tasks and looked towards my old leather clutch where the mobile was. I hadn't had a telephone call since before Christmas, I only kept it nearby out of habit. Then we looked at each other.

'Well, answer it!' He was the first to recover. 'No one ever wants to talk to me on that thing.'

I said nothing but lunged for my bag and rummaged around in it until I found the mobile.

'H-hello?' I answered. I don't know why I was so nervous. I knew it was Bonnie, no one else knew my number.

'Edith?' It was Bonnie, she sounded as nervous as I felt.

'Hi Bonnie,' I replied. 'What's up?'

'Look, I'm really, really sorry for what happened,' she said, her voice shaking a little.

'Bonnie, it wasn't your fault,' I exclaimed. I had to bite my tongue to hold back from reminding her that I did try and warn her. 'How are you?'

'I'm... I dunno, Edie,' she sighed heavily. 'I've been feeling really guilty about what happened.'