Who: Siobhan Kennedy and Johann Baxter
Where: A remote wizarding colony in Botswana
What: :X
When: January 7, 1985
She’d signed up for field work knowing very well that this was the sort of thing she’d end up doing -- or that was what she told herself as she was driven across the very
unpaved and bumpy road in the middle of the night. She’d been planning to go to a party that had been planned for the evening and had just been putting the finishing touches on her makeup (which actually involved wiping some of her eyeshadow off, since doing her face in the dimly-lit bathroom had proved near catastrophic once she’d come out into regular lighting) when she’d received the bright red emergency envelope delivered by a very persistent and angry raven rapping at her window. Siobhan had debated declining the letter, hiding it under a nearby window and insisting that she hadn’t received it -- for about two seconds.
No, this was the perfect time to prove to people she wasn’t just a pretty face. She could be useful past whatever role she’d had in helping the scientists move along with the V2 vaccine, and she would show them just
how useful tonight. She threw off her ball gown and dragged on a pair of hospital blue robes, donning her cloak over it a moment or two later. She grabbed a handful of things -- mostly documents that she kept filed alphabetically in her den -- and took the portkey that had been carefully attached to the inside of her letter off. She felt herself transported immediately to -- a shack.
No, that was certainly what it was. A desk with a candle, and a very tall blonde man pacing in the small space, tapping his wand on his hand.
“Ah!” The man jumped and nearly hit his head squarely on the roof. Siobhan sighed, pulling down the hood of her cloak and looking to him impatiently.
“Well? We don’t have all night. I’m Miss Kennedy, and I believe you are to take me to an isolated patient.”
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“We are here,” came Johann’s gruff, somewhat tired voice. She’d nodded off even with all the bumps, and when she stepped out of the vehicle it was into a very dusty village of only a few mud-brick houses. For all she knew, the child who was sick here just had the damned V2. From what Johann had managed to brief her on, there wasn’t much in the way of wizarding hospitals in a place so far from most wizarding epicentres.
Siobhan nodded, smoothing down her cloak and following Johann in the direction that he’d started off to. She wondered about the man -- he’d been quiet after giving her his information and his name, hadn’t told her why he was in this place, or who he worked for. She’d found it odd, but he’d seemed genuine enough. Once they stepped inside the dimly lit hut, she was struck by the smell -- old blood, and from the look of the floor -- quite a lot of it. There was a mass huddled in the corner with a dirty blanket wrapped around it, almost too small to be considered anything but a pile of rags -- but it moved, faster than something like that should have. She turned, startled, and noticed something alarming -- the door had been barred shut behind them. From the look in his eye, Johann hadn’t been expecting it either.
“What --” and then the bundle of scraps was upon her, clawing and biting -- his teeth felt sharp as they sunk into her abdomen and she let out a cry, bringing her hands to try and pry him off. Her wand had been flung to the side, out of reach. She was prepared for another flurry of hands and teeth when she found herself suddenly freed. As she dragged herself toward her wand, she saw the thing -- the creature, for it was no human, and now much larger than it had been before -- rake its paws across Johann’s throat, bright splatters of red hitting her and staining the pale blue of her robe. His eyes rolled back in his head and he let out a gurgle, something that almost sounded like her name.
The creature looked up from its prey, golden eyes suddenly fixed on her. She dragged her hand through across the dirt floor until she felt it contact something hard and wooden, squeezed her eyes shut, and prayed that she could travel in her condition.
The last thing she heard was a guttural howl before the crack of her spell.
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Her bathroom looked no better than the hut had when she’d left it, covered in splashes of red, brown, black. She’d thrown up on the floor, unable to reach the toilet before being overwhelmed, and then she’d limped into the tub. The hot water stung the teeth marks on her stomach, leeched a sickening black-brown gel out of the wounds. Her mind was reeling -- what had happened? It was supposed to be a low-risk, routine examination and that’s why they’d send her, but that was certainly not what it was.
What was she going to tell her superiors? What would they
find out about Johann? These were the thoughts racing through her mind moments before she blacked out, waking several hours later in ice-cold water tinged pink.
