Afterglow || Garreth Weasley x MC ||

Crushes and Burn Ointments

Liliana

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The glass bottles fall to the ground, at least half a dozen of them and I groan as I bend over to pick them up.

I had been working in the Hospital Wing for years with Nurse Blainey, yet somehow I always seem to forget about the stupid storage cupboard door getting stuck, and if you pull too hard the bottles will fall.

The storage closet door opens behind me suddenly causing me to screech and drop any of the bottles I had just picked up.

"Oh Miss. Langley." Nurse Blainey clicks her tongue at me with a soft smile. My hand is placed over my heart feeling the rapid rate as it thuds against my rib cage.

"Sorry Nurse Blainey, I always forget this door gets stuck." I grumble bending over again to pick up the bottles, but they are already floating back into place. I turn to look at Nurse Blainey, whose wand is gracefully waving through the air.

"Not to worry dear." She cocks her head to the side giving me a stern look, "I need you to tend to the patient who just arrived. Nasty burn. Potions class injury."

I nod. We have been working on my burn ointment for weeks, an invention of my own. Nurse Blainey was shocked at how quickly I had thought of the recipe. Using properties of a muggle burn cream and adding in Dittany to try and speed up healing. It may sound terrible, but we were waiting for a student to burn themselves so we could see it truly in action.

"Is it serious?" I ask grabbing the ointment off the shelf.

"No, mild. Just the right hand." Nurse Blainey replies and I nod. "Call me if you need any help, though, I doubt you will."

"Thank you." I give her a weak smile before pushing past her back into the Hospital Wing.

It wasn't ever really busy, at least it hasn't been for the first week of classes. The term had only begun earlier that week, most of the students were too busy trying to figure out where their classes were or catching up with friends that they hadn't seen all summer.

Most of the injuries that came in were first years who were being pranked by older students, which were never serious but great practice. I wasn't entirely sure at what point I wanted to become a healer but my mom used to always tell me I was a caretaker.

Even as a child, if someone scraped their knee on the pavement it was me who was cleaning the wound and finding them a bandaid. My parents told me I could heal the world with my smile, as most parents would tell their children. But it was something I wanted to do, try and make people feel better.

I walked confidently to the only bed that had the curtains drawn around it, I don't think I could've prepared myself for what I saw the second I pulled the fabric back.

The boy with orange hair and bright green eyes beaming at me.

Garreth Weasley.

I feel like my eyes are about to pop out of my head, my stomach instantly twisting. This would have been better if it were anyone else. But it wasn't.

It was him.

My crush on the boy a year ahead of me started back in his fifth year. I was just starting to help out in the hospital wing when he came in with a potions related injury. I wasn't allowed to care for students then, being too young but I had assisted Nurse Blainey. He had turned all of his skin completely green, rather than moping around about it, he made a ton of green related jokes. I remember him saying that he should've turned himself yellow to be a Hufflepuff while gesturing at me. He was the first boy to ever make me blush.