Just me and you and . . . you? Or is she me? on Hospital Wing

Heinrich Hexenmeister

June 26, 2018 3:27 PM

Just me and you and . . . you? Or is she me? by Heinrich Hexenmeister

Heinrich knocked tentatively on the door to the hospital wing, not so much to gain admittance, as he had already opened it and stepped over the threshold, as to draw attention to the fact that he was here. The chairs in the waiting area looked inviting - too inviting. If he sat in one, he'd probably pass out. He was that tired. It was something of a miracle he'd even made it this far as it was.

He'd already passed out in Herbology earlier, which was why he had been ordered in no uncertain terms to come here. He had argued to the best of his English that he was fine, but the Teppenpaw Head of House had been uncharacteristically firm and even started insisting somebody accompany him. Heinrich wasn't entirely sure what either of them said next, and only partially because of his subpar English, but he was allowed to go without assistance and he had given his word to actually do as he was told.

It had been a tough call at several points during the journey, whether he would keep that word or veer off to his room to sleep this off, or just take a quick nap on an inviting bed of moss, but here he was. Herr Xavier ought to be proud.

He guessed he probably had that fever that was going around, but mostly he just felt exhausted. It was a warm sunny day, and it was hard to say if the sweat on his brow was from walking around outside in that, especially when doing so felt like such an effort as it did today, or if he was actually feverish.

So he held onto the doorjam instead of sinking into one of the waiting chairs, aware that if he went down, he'd probably need assistance to get back up, and he was too proud for that, just as he was too proud to need a classmate to walk him here.

When the healer came out soon after his knock, he was surprised to see two of her. He hadn't realized she had an identical twin. The first spoke in English. The second, who on closer inspection looked a bit translucent, translated what she said into German for him. Which was great, because he really wasn't up to translating what she said himself right now, but now he was pretty sure Second Medic Twin wasn't really real. Which was disappointing because she spoke perfect German.

“Heinrich Hexenmeister, erstes Jahr, Aladren. Ich bin gegen nichts allergisch.”

“Heinrich Hexenmeister,” the German-speaking fake-medic told the solid real English-speaking one, “First year Aladren. No allergies.”

The medic said something else but he wasn't listening. He was scowling at the ghost medic, suddenly resentful of her presence. “I've been sick over a month,” he complained peevishly at her, in German. “You're only now showing up as my translator? You would have been useful to have during classes you know.”

“You didn't need me so much then,” she pointed out logically. “She wants you to open up for a thermometer.”

Heinrich grunted unhappily but opened up. A thermometer popped in and he closed his mouth, still looking like he was on the verge of sulking. It spoke in English, some big number, but when the ghost medic translated for him it didn't sound quite as scary. Still high, at 38.5 degrees, yes, but not in the hundreds of degrees, like he'd thought he heard in the English. Maybe he really did need the translator today.

1 Heinrich Hexenmeister Just me and you and . . . you? Or is she me? 1414 Heinrich Hexenmeister 1 5

Aisha Kapoor

June 29, 2018 10:01 AM

Why me? by Aisha Kapoor

Aisha had been having a perfectly normal day, and when a pale and sweaty looking first year showed up, she'd had no reason to think anything out of the ordinary was going to happen. Just another fever case. But now, here she was, standing next to herself. She had thought things had peaked in creepiness when she had had to listen to the Teppenpaw second year sleep shouting things that she had not understood but which had evidently indicated he was somewhere very, very unpleasant in his mind. This was definitely worse. That, at least, had been a sort of normal symptom of a fever, just somewhat unpleasant and distressing to witness. This was just bizarre.

She had jumped when the… whatever this was first appeared, and for a second she thought she'd gone so mad that no words were making sense, until she realised this kid had conjured his own translator. Why it had to look exactly like her and not more… more like someone who spoke whatever this language was would be expected to look, she didn't know. She would have rather seen just… a random apparition. Staring at herself, and seeing herself do something she couldn't do was kinda cool, but it was also really, really weird and unnerving.

“Get into bed,” she advised him, and she could kind of hear how the ‘ins Bett gehen' that her other self provided in German (thank you, patient information sheet) kind of sounded like the same idea… “I'll bring you some medicine,” similarly yielded the recognisable ‘Medizin bringen.' She wondered how quickly she would learn a language if she could just have herself following her around repeating everything? Most accidental magic was still… well, magic. It was within the laws of their world. So, did that mean this spell existed? She'd always heard translation spells were kind of… off. They could get you some basics but they weren't to be relied on, for example, when negotiating the subtleties of a Goblin peace treaty. She seemed to remember some examples from History of Magic where inaccurate translations had led to a lot of problems - something to do with someone's grandma either being insulted or accidentally traded...

“Once you're feeling better, she'll probably disappear,” she added, realising a potential complication with curing Heinrich. “Do you think you'll manage in English once you're feeling better, or should I send for a dictionary?” she asked. She was giving him the same benefit of the doubt that she had given The Screamer - that he functioned a lot better in English when not running a fever over a hundred degrees. It seemed fair to assume that that would really screw anyone up, and she'd had a couple of the American students barely managing to string logical sentences together even though it was their native language. But, whilst she had the help, she thought it wise to check. She held out a vial of sunshine yellow potion for him to use once he was ready to forsake his translator.

13 Aisha Kapoor Why me? 1482 Aisha Kapoor 0 5