InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Rock-a-bye -BANG-"

Despite the conversation she’d had with Frank and even mostly knowing that it was true, Alice was anxious to get a proper diagnosis about the possible pregnancy. In some ways her mind said that it would be better for her and Frank if it wasn’t true, but in others it felt like something else. Not that she could rightly describe what that feeling was at the moment. No, she needed confirmation, but also to get some work done for the Order. It was a perfect excuse.

After making an official appointment with Florinda McGonagall, an Order contact who had been helping with other things for the Order, she was certain to arrive ten minutes early with her case file in hand. While a little on the flimsy side, Alice was confident enough that it wouldn’t raise any red flags to be asking for the information in pursuit of solving the case. As for her personal matter, with it not being official DMLE business, she could request anyone she wanted for the job.

“Florinda McGonagall,” Alice said to the Welcome Witch by way of greeting.

The welcome witch looked up with what Alice easily recognised as a pretense of friendly interest disguising the sort of boredom that comes from dealing with too many people's crises all day. "Do you have an appointment?"

Alice shifted a little uncomfortably. “No, I don’t. I have a personal matter to attend to and was referred by a friend.” No need to say what friend that was.

"I'll see if she's available." The witch scrawled a few words on a piece of paper and folded into an airplane, which she tapped on the rear with her wand. The plane rose from her desk and flew up into the atrium, up the stairs, where it joined an air-stream of similar notes and rose out of Alice's sight.

A few minutes later Florrie arrived, in her mediwitch's robes, and looked round to find Alice. "Florinda McGonagall. How may I help you, Auror?" Her accent was definitely Scottish but had been dialed down to a lilt for hospital work.

Alice held out her hand to shake Florrie’s. “Hi, Alice Travers. I have a rather personal request that doesn’t require an official DMLE sanctioned healer. I was wondering if you could assist me?” She looked sidelong at the welcome witch as though the woman was trying to glean all of her secrets.

Florrie smiled. "Of course. Always glad to help with law enforcement. My Aunt Minerva speaks so highly of her former colleagues." Which was useful for putting off suspicion if this was something she needed to be quiet about. Medical confidentiality covered a lot of sins. "Let's go up and find a free exam room." She gestured for Alice to follow her up the stairs and out of the Welcome Witch's hearing.

Once she'd found an empty exam room on one of the upper floors, where they were less likely to be bothered and marked it busy, Florrie put up the privacy wards and turned to Alice. "Now what can I do to help you?"

Alice shifted a little uncomfortably once inside the exam room. Needing to get an official verdict and actually getting it were two different things. “Right,” she breathed out and straightened her back. “My fiance and I may be pregnant. I… need to know if that is the case. And obviously this is completely confidential, regardless of the outcome.” She didn’t need either of their parents finding out about this either.

Alice gave another cursory glance around the exam room. “Do you happen to have any acid pops? I rather have a fondness for them.” Or just a need to let Florrie know that she was not here just to take a pregnancy test.

As she got down the needed items for a pregnancy test, Florrie was ready with her standard spiel about confidentiality--and now she understood why Alice wouldn't want to go to a DMLE healer or mediwizard--when Alice interrupted her with an Order code phrase. She stopped what she was doing and turned round to give Alice a good look before returning the proper answer: "I'm afraid I don't, but I could give you a lemon sherbet instead."

“Of course. That would do nicely,” she responded absently while she watched Florrie gather the test together. “While I am here, though, I was wondering if I could get some assistance on another matter?” Alice pulled the file from her robes and set it down on the counter. “The Auror office is making another attempt at closing old cold cases and I found one in particular that needed some data collection from the Hospital. Officially at my request.”

Florrie had all the necessary items for the pregnancy test prepared by the time Alice had asked the question. "Of course," she said, and paused to take a look at the paperwork. "This is--I could get this information; it'll take me a few days to work through proper channels for it, perhaps a week. And I'm to bring it straight to you?" The soft burr of her Scottish accent grew stronger as she spoke.

Alice nodded. “Yes, the requesting Auror receives the information and then it’s my responsibility to take it from there. Once you hand it over to me then you no longer need to worry about it. The DMLE thanks you for your assistance while we do our best to get our house in order.” She knew she didn’t need to elaborate any further as Florrie obviously understood that everything had to stay above board.

“And thank you for helping me with this,” Alice gestured at the pregnancy test. “I know it’s procedure not to share patient information, but… news has a way of getting out and I just wanted to know that the person who helped me would be trustworthy.”

"It's my pleasure to help the Auror Office. Especially those who like the right sort of candies." Florrie gave Alice a broad grin. "Now I'm afraid I'll need to prick your thumb for this next bit--let me just get you ready for that, and you can have a seat on the exam table." And she put something over the file Alice had brought with her as she continued about her work ...