Lorelei Wentworth π¦ Alice Longbottom (harmonize) wrote in dunhavenic, @ 2019-04-08 11:24:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | !narrative, * jeanne, c: lorelei wentworth |
WHO: Alice Fortescue, Collum & Elspeth Fortescue (NPCs)
WHEN: 1970
WHERE: Hogwarts, St Mungo's
SUMMARY: In the process of writing some Fralice backstory, Terri asked me what had happened to Alice to make her so closed off to emotions. Here's the answer.
WARNINGS: Descriptions of magical maladies, loss of parents
January 1970 Alice had gotten the letter at Hogwarts barely two weeks after she'd returned from the Christmas holidays. Vanishing sickness. One of those things that was used to scare disobedient children. If you don't behave, you'll get the vanishing sickness! No more hands or feet! It wasn't supposed to be something that mothers got. A quarantine at St Mungo's was the only option, and even with that, there was no assurance that Elspeth Fortescue would ever recover. The Healers didn't know how she'd contracted the disease in the first place, and the treatments they offered were experimental at best. Sometimes it seemed like maybe they'd work- twice, even, a few of Elspeth's previously-vanished fingers started to reappear. But then, just as easily, something else would be gone. A hand below the wrist, a leg below the knee, an ear. No one was allowed in to see her, but the Healers allowed Elspeth to write. At least, until her hands had vanished, too. Alice threw herself into preparations for her OWL examinations, needing something- anything- to distract her from the hopelessness that awaited her otherwise. There were several times that she was found asleep and yet still half-delirious with exhaustion in the library. Her marks, when they came through, were somehow all E's and O's. It astounded her, then, but when Alice was older and could look back on those moments, she knew that had been the easiest time of all. ~~ June 1970 Alice hated St Mungo's. The whole place was sterile and unfeeling, stark walls and emotionless Healers. She supposed they had trained themselves out of having emotions, otherwise they wouldn't have been able to stand spending a lifetime here. "Second Floor," the lift announced, cheerfully, as its doors opened. "Magical Bugs, Maladies, and Diseases. Please report to Healer Station. Access to quarantined patients is forbidden. Repeat. Please report to Healer Station. Access to quarantined patients is forbidden." (She knew that message by heart, now.) Slipping her hand into her father's, Alice let him lead the way toward the Healer's Station. They wouldn't be allowed into her mother's room, of course, but they'd let them through to an observation window. Where they could watch through glass that was thick-paned and magically-reinforced, designed to keep Elspeth's sickness from them⦠but which kept their voices from reaching one another, too. ~~ August 1970 "Why don't you go spend the day with your grandfather?" Though Collum spoke the offer as if it were some delightful novelty, it wasn't. Alice knew that her father's cheer was false, but she wouldn't let on to that. He needed her to believe him, so she would. "I'd like that. Maybe he'll let me work in flavor mixing today." Collum's smile didn't quite reach his eyes, but he nodded. "I bet he will." Holding a hand out toward his daughter, he tugged her into an embrace and pressed a kiss to her hair. "Love you, A. You know that, right?" Alice buried her face against the front of her father's robes, but managed a nod. "Yeah, dad. I know." ~~ "Access to quarantined patients is forbidden. Repeat. Please report to Healer Station. Access to quarantined patients is forbidden. Repeat. Please report to Healer Station. Access to quarantined patients is forbidden. Repeat. Please report to-" The lift's announcement was stuck, kept on repeat by the door being blocked open. Lying across that threshold was the green-clad form of a Healer, face down. Three others in similar positions of stupefaction marked a trail toward the quarantined patients. But the glass hadn't been broken. No, rather, Collum Fortescue had been very careful to ensure that the door to his wife's room closed fully behind him, sealing the both of them in together. He climbed into the bed beside her, ignoring Elspeth's desperate tears and pleading for him to leave. She couldn't reach for him or even really turn what was left of her limbless body toward or away from him. Collum wrapped his arms around her so tightly, clinging on as if she were his last anchor to the world at large. He spent hours whispering soothing words against her remaining ear, reassuring her of things that they both knew would never be true. Within an hour, one of Collum's hands had disappeared. A week later, they both vanished entirely. |