WHO: Mandy Brocklehurst and Wayne Hopkins. WHEN: May 5 late morning. WHERE: St. Mungo's. SUMMARY: Mandy brings Wayne a new plant child! And accidentally makes Wayne realise something about his injuries. WARNINGS: Mentions of medical injuries.
Mandy sat outside of the room number that she'd written on a small piece of parchment, her fingers tapping against the pot she'd been holding. She'd been nervous about coming here at all, never having been a fan of the hospital, and even more so upon realisation that so many of her schoolmates had ended up in the very spot. Still, Mandy showed up, because she wanted to check in on her friends.
She finally gathered up the courage to knock on Wayne's door, but before she could, a Healer had opened the door from the other side. The Healer greeted her with a haphazard smile, mumbled something about "he's awake" and promptly went on his way, before Mandy even fully comprehended everything.
But she stepped through the doorway and she smiled at Wayne, who'd been lying on his bed. "Hi, Wayne," she spoke quickly, offering him the brightest smile she could possibly muster in that moment. "I got you a new plant child!"
Wayne had spent the past forty-eight hours in a blur. He had first woken up being fussed over by Fleur Delacour, who had hummed all sorts of French sweet nothings into his ear and told him that everything was going to be all right. A Healer had poured some potions down his throat, and he’d gone back to sleep, only to be woken back up by his mother’s voice once they had transported him to St. Mungo’s. There he had received even more potions, and during bursts of wakefulness he had heard worried murmurings between his parents and the Healer in charge of his case, too soft for him to make out.
He had no idea how much time had passed when he woke again, this time screaming in pain. A Healer appeared to give him another potion: apparently his previous dose had worn off.
The heat in his veins beginning to slow to a dull throb, Wayne took a look around the room. His parents weren’t there, for once, and the curtains around the other beds were drawn, making it impossible for him to see who else was in his ward.
His head turned towards the door when it opened with a soft click. He blinked blearily at the girl who entered, brightening when a lightbulb went off in his head at the sound of her voice. “Mandy!” he blurted, his voice slightly hoarse with disuse. He grappled for his glasses, which were resting on the table next to his bed, accidentally knocking them to the floor.
The smile instantly disappeared, and a frown replaced it quickly. She moved forward quickly, reaching his bedside, and grabbed the glasses from the floor. Standing up straight again, she left the plant on the table, before using both of her hands to unfold the glasses. She put it on for him, and exhaled quietly to herself, before stepping back. "I should have asked your family if I could visit, I know," she sounded apologetic, and glanced backwards, as if expecting his mother or father to come around to yell at her for disturbing their son. "But I had to see you when I heard about what happened, and —," she tried to swallow something away.
She took a seat on a chair near the bed, and reached for his hand, giving it a firm squeeze. "How do you feel?"
“Thanks,” Wayne mumbled as she put the glasses onto his nose for him. He blinked as the world swam back into focus and he took in the contours of Mandy’s face, her hair, her glossy lips. She looked good. He had known that, of course, but after his recent brushes with death it felt particularly good to see her again. He remembered thinking that he never would, again.
“No, no, I’m glad you’re here.” He gave her a smile that was perhaps a bit more loopy than she was used to due to his medication. “I feel fine, really.” And he did, for the moment, aside from the general discomfort of being stuck in a hospital bed and having more skin covered by bandages than not.
"What happened?" Mandy asked, her voice low, just to make sure that no one else nearby could hear their conversation. Her eyes scanned his face, then the rest of his body, and she frowned again. "What happened to you?"
Somehow, this was going worse than she'd pictured in her head when she heard the news, and she hated it very, very much. Mandy knew Wayne had been badly injured, but — this? This was not what she had expected, at all. "I want to know everything," she insisted, giving him a firm nod.
“Uh,” Wayne started intelligently. Everything was a blur in his mind, one fight bleeding into the next, pain and terror accompanying each memory. Then he remembered the very start of the battle, when they had gone to the greenhouses to gather plants, and his face grew serious. “I’m so sorry, Mandy,” he said, sounding like he was about to tell her something absolutely horrifying. “Ginger and Archibald- they didn’t make it.”
Mandy had been bracing herself to hear the absolutely worst news ever, and she shut her eyes, expecting to hear a story about someone who had died, and when she heard 'Gin-', she was preparing for it to end with '-ny'. But she started to laugh before Wayne finished 'Archibald' and she shook her head, as she relaxed her posture quite a bit. "Well, I think I'm okay with that, as long as you made it out okay. And will be okay. And help me tend to our plant children."
She turned to the plant she had got for him, and spoke again. "I made some goodies with Lisa for everyone, but I figured you'd appreciate something a bit greener."
Wayne was a bit surprised when Mandy started laughing: he had expected her to be upset at him for using their plant children as makeshift projectiles. “They were pretty badass,” he told her. “Archibald wrapped his vines all around this Death Eater. He couldn’t even walk.” He smiled a bit. It was perhaps the one good memory that the battle had brought him, their plants making him feel like a proud father, even though he was sorry to lose them.
He brightened even further when he took notice of Mandy’s gift. “A tiny flutterby bush!” Wayne turned to the plant. “Hello, little one. What’s your name?”
He wanted to reach out for the plant so he could look at it more closely, but he could barely manage to twist his body sideways, his lower body unhelpful in aiding the movement. “Urgh,” he grumbled. “I swear, these pain potions are so strong that I can’t even feel my toes. What is that about?”
Mandy opened her mouth to reply about the plant's name (and how it hadn't been named yet), but she frowned at Wayne's next statement, as she looked at him with a frazzled expression. "What do you mean you can't feel your toes?" she asked, her voice lower than she'd expected it to be. And before she could stop herself, Mandy reached for his leg, and she poked at his foot — despite his legs being covered by sheets. "You can't feel this?"
His head still fuzzy, Wayne didn’t catch on to Mandy’s concern. So what if he couldn’t feel his toes? He was just glad that he couldn’t feel his head, or the massive patch of skin that had been violently peeled off of his side.
“Of course I can’t feel that,” he told her. “You didn’t even poke me properly.”
"Yes, I did," Mandy replied sternly, before she poked his leg harder. Mandy raised both of her brows, waiting for another reaction again. She nervously swallowed, not entirely sure what she was expecting, but dear Merlin, she hoped it was nothing like what she was imagining. "What about now, then?"
Nothing, not even a pinch. Wayne frowned, then brought his own fist down onto his upper leg, not hard enough to bruise but definitely hard enough to hurt.
“What the fuck,” he uttered. For a moment he wondered whether he had somehow turned into a superhero and was unable to feel any pain. That’s what always happened in the comics: most heroes were forged during horrible situations, and he figured that surviving the battle definitely qualified. Then he remembered that he could in fact still feel pain — it was what had woken him up, after all.
Mandy moved to sit on the edge of his bed, and frowned for a moment, as thoughts swirled in her head. But she quickly spoke up, trying to distract both Wayne, as well as herself. "It's probably just the pain potions that you're on," she tried to sound reassuring. "I'm sure it's nothing." Though her voice sounded light and cheery, she was sure that her face betrayed her worry.
"Hey, Wayne, we haven't named the flutterby bush yet!" she suddenly exclaimed, glancing at the pot. "Here, you can have the honours!"
But Wayne was no longer listening, panic beginning to bubble up low in his belly. Now that he was paying attention, he realised that he couldn’t feel anything in his legs. Not the shape of the dodgy mattress underneath him, nor the weight of the blanket that covered him. But worse than that, it seemed like he couldn’t make them move.
Concentrating hard, Wayne commanded his right leg to kick, shift to the side, anything at all. “Mandy,” he choked out. “What’s happening? I can’t— My leg, it won’t—”
No, no, no. Mandy's gaze shifted back to his legs again, as though that would somehow help her figure out the answer, but she frowned instead, her brows coming together. She didn't touch his legs, but she hopelessly wanted to believe that it was due to the — "Potions!" she exclaimed again, this time more frazzled. "It's the pain potions, Wayne. That's what it is." She anxiously glanced towards the door, hoping a Healer would come through right at that precise moment to assure the pair of them that it was exactly what it was.
Unfortunately, that didn't happen, and she was left scrambling for answers. But she didn't want to worry Wayne any more than he already was, so she desperately tried to distract him further. "Did you know my brother got puppies?" she quipped, clearing her throat. "You should come over and play with them sometime. They really like my mum, oh and — My mum is home! It's been really nice!"
“Right, the potions,” Wayne echoed, not sounding any less panicky. If it was the potions, then why was the rest of him behaving as normal? Sure, he felt a bit sluggish, but he could move his arms and his head just fine.
Oh god, oh god, oh god. What if he could never move his legs again? What if it was spreading, and soon he wouldn’t be able to move at all? Was that why his parents had looked so worried?
“That’s- that’s nice, Mandy.” He should have been pleased for her, knowing how worried she had been about her mother, but he couldn’t think of anything else but himself at the moment. Tears started welling up in the corner of his eyes and he wiped at them violently, though they were soon replaced by fresh ones.
Mandy would have been happy to go on and on about her mother, if it meant that she could keep Wayne distracted, but it was very apparent that his mind had floated elsewhere. And honestly, she couldn't blame him.
"Way— Wayne," Mandy started, inhaling sharply. "Oh, Wayne." She quickly moved closer to him, pulling him into a hug, patting his back. "It'll be okay. It'll be okay, I'm here. Don't worry, okay?" she assured him, as she rubbed Wayne's back a few times. "You'll be okay, Wayne. I'm here for you. I'll always be here, okay? And you're going to be just fine, sweetheart."
Wayne’s tears changed into full-on sobs the moment Mandy pulled him into her arms. It was all too much: the battle, Joanna’s death, waking up at St Mungo’s, and now this. He clung to her desperately, all of the emotional tension that had been building up inside of him finally finding a release. Worried as he was, her words were just what he needed to hear, and slowly his crying started to taper off until finally he withdrew from Mandy with an embarrassed sniffle.
“I’m sorry,” he said, unconsciously doing the best impression of a sad puppy that he had likely ever produced. His eyelids were beginning to droop; he hadn’t been awake this long since he had arrived at the hospital.
She responded with a laugh and reached for her eyes, as she wiped away her own tears. It was the problem with someone who was so emotional — Mandy was just as easily worked up when she saw other people being that way. "Hey, it's okay," she replied, flashing a big grin in the process. "I'll forgive you as long as you get me ice cream soon."
Once she was finally settled, Mandy leaned forward and pecked his cheeks quickly, lingering for a moment. "I should get going," she whispered quietly, gulping, before pulling back. "I'll let you get your rest." And she offered him one more smile. "I'll bring you a dessert next time, I swear."