PARKER | Dark H.S. AU

xlii. ready or not?

Copyright © zylgnagnaba 2014

The cafeteria is a complete hysteria. Harry's head would snap to any direction as different sounds -- hushed conversation, cajoling and laughter -- of students whiz by next to his shoulder. Nina asked him if he could spare a minute to talk to him at the said place. Seeing as there's still less than thirty minutes before the culminating program starts, he agreed.

Between the remaining time, Harry's memory of the previous event has failed him and Nina Riley, the medicine student, had to remind him that she's a friend whom he agreed to come with. It was hard convincing someone who has a serious case of amnesia, she decided. But somehow, miraculously, she was able to sway Harry to enter the large hall.

He sits quietly across the blonde girl, his hand fondling on the camera that he places over the steel white-painted table between them. His eyes avert from the object and point to the small notebook and pen she grabbed from her purse.

"What's that?" He asks, his eyes now studying Nina's flustered face.

She clears her throat, stopping her fingers from trembling as she drops her writing tool next to the notebook. She's nervous...anxious. Her behavior is now a little bit in contrast a few minutes earlier when she saw Harry in front of the bulletin board. She was confident. She was herself. But that was until now that the information has sunk in and the man is tangibly sitting across from her, she couldn't believe it. She was just hoping to meet him one day, and now...

"It's for my assignment. You don't mind, do you?" She peers up at him, blue eyes examining if there is any difference from the green ones she first saw in the picture. She sees innocence, oblivion and wonder.

Harry breathes and shakes his head. He should have denied her the opportunity to document their conversation, but for some unknown reason, he allowed her.

"Okay, um-" she clears her throat again, shifting on her seat to get comfortable. "Do you remember anything the night you were..." Nina trails off just as Harry shakes his head to answer the common question. She continues to stare at him as if she isn't aware that it's rude. On her defense, she thinks she's staring at him in a very normal way -- whatever normal is for her.

Harry feels like an animal in the zoo, an extinct specie of a wild animal. She tilts her head, scrutinizing every edge of him...marvelling and wondering how he was able to survive the wrath of nature...and hunters.

She spots the two unequal linear patches protruding from his skin at the left side of his forehead; the scar extending to the side of his head hidden by his dark curls, leaving most to the imagination.

She recalls the picture that greeted her once she discovered his medical records. It's an earlier photo of him, probably months after his recovery. Most of his head was shaved -- it is the hospital's protocol to shave the hair on the part where it needs operation to avoid unnecessary infection. The big scar was more evident in that photo compared now that his hair is longer.

Feeling self-conscious all of a sudden, Harry tugs at his curls and brush some strands forward to cover most of the exposed scar. Nina pulls herself backward to her chair, blinking several times as she finally realizes she's being intrusive. Her sight gravitates to the polaroid camera he handles with extra care. She remembers Dr. Vernon mention Harry taking pictures of his previous activities, the important people he meets, and whatnot to remind him what he's been up to the past weeks, days, hours, minutes and seconds. She's impressed, to say the least. How could a troubled person think of such a clever strategy to aid his anterograde amnesia? Even she couldn't imagine herself thinking of such a way if she was in his shoes.

"Do you remember your last job...you know before this happened...?" She asks while her eyes travel back and forth from his face to the writings on her notes.