InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "What if it doesnt heat up?"

Zahara Flume (zjhoneydukes) wrote in vrrpg,
@ 2018-01-23 13:16:00

Entry tags:

!complete, char: pandora montgomery, char: zj montgomery, location: honeydukes, time: 2010 01

RP: Bump in the night
Who: Zahara & Pandora
What: Goes Bump in the Night
When: January 23rd
Where: Honeydukes
Warnings: Animal abuse, blood, saving the day

Zahara's first trimester was coming to a close, she was finally starting to feel normal again. She wasn't nearly so exhausted as she had been, she wasn't falling asleep as soon as she got home anymore. She was able to spend more hours awake with her fiance, she was able to get more done at work, and she was starting to show. It was a small bump. It was just big enough that when she wore her usual skin tight tops and if you knew what you were looking for, you'd be able to see it. She was quietly proud of her little bump, excited about their little bun.

Even though she was feeling better, she still wasn't back to working full time just yet. That was going to be in the next few weeks, she wanted to get the shop together for when she needed to take her maternity leave. Yet, she didn't want to stop these nights charming the candies with Dora. She enjoyed the time they spent with the candies, catching up with each other, playing with the babies, and Zahara always tried to get Dora dancing. She had read that dancing helped mum feel closer to the baby, so she had been dancing more than she usually did. She was already known for dancing around when she was far too happy about things.

Tonight was one of those nights, where Zahara came in late, and she got to stay late to charm candies after hours with Dora and the twins. They were on one of their last sets of candies, and Zahara was pulling them from the oven. "Oh they smell delicious, I've been snacking far too much when I'm making candies lately," she said with a low whine. She set the tray down to cool, before she went to grab out the last few that were in the oven. It wouldn't take long for them to finish up. Zahara thought she heard a noise outside the backdoor, but when she didn't hear something again, she just ignored it to finish pulling everything out of the oven. "Have you had any cravings this time around? I know last time it was frozen treats, mostly ice cream."

"Tsk tsk! Will power, darling," Dora said. Her lips twitched and she lost the ability to keep a straight face. "I say this from a wealth of experience of stuffing my face with ice cream alternating with the spiciest food I could get." Her cravings had been pretty intense that time around.

"Though in my defense I love ice cream at any time. If I could live off of it I totally would." She shrugged then, glancing in the direction that Zee looked but not hearing anything herself. Paranoia had her tapping her wand as subtly as possible to one ear to dial up the sound. "But no, actually, I've been surprised. I've not had any unusual cravings so far. What about you?"

A low playful whine slipped from Zahara at Dora’s teasing. “I don’t think I have any of that,” she said with a playful laugh. She grinned wider though as she heard just how her sister-in-law had survived her first pregnancy. “Spicy food, Holy Helga, Dora!” she said with wide eyes, another laugh falling from her. She was definitely not craving spicy food, and suddenly even more grateful that they weren’t having twins. She would handle the sweets, she already ate them enough as it was. She was just making sure she didn’t take home anymore than she usually would have, she didn’t want Persephone lecturing her because she became diabetic while pregnant.

“That’s sort of my problem, I already carry around candy in my pockets. Now I’m trying to stuff Hyperion’s pockets filled with candy,” she joked, shaking her own head at herself. She knew it was ridiculous.

Zahara was oblivious though, she didn’t realize that Dora had noticed her looking towards the noise, and she didn’t notice when the other witch turned up her aides. “It’s just the candy right now, or rather sweets,” she admitted, those cinnamon buns that her mother had brought over the other day had hit the spot.

While Zahara was thinking about the cinnamon bun, there was another thud near the door. It was just a little louder than it had been before, as if something had fallen against the door. It seemed as though this time the pregnant brunette hadn’t heard a thing, as she popped a piece of cooled truffle into her mouth.

"It was insane. This weird cycle of spicy, heartburn, and frozen treats," she said with a bit of a sigh. "Honestly, my pregnancy with them was miserable, and I'm really glad they can't understand me yet. I wish I could say it was a brilliant experience but I apparently really suck at being pregnant." She had the depressed thought that this time wasn't going to be much better, though at least she didn't feel constantly sick.

Dora just tsked at her. "Just be careful. Sweets aren't good for you," she scolded mildly, but she was grinning slightly. "I do wonder if there will be a craving this time or if I'll skate through without one."

This time it was Dora who looked up. "I think there's something outside," she said. Her wand was already in her hand -- though a different one than the moment before. If anyone paid attention, she had grabbed her wand she generally used when she was dueling rather than the one she favored for charms work. She glanced at the twins. "I'm going to see what it is, I think."

Zahara’s nose wrinkled at just the thought, she was so glad that she wasn’t going through that. If she was honest, she was thankful every day that she didn’t have the morning sickness as bad as Dora and Addi had. She was hopeful she was going to have an easy pregnancy, but she didn’t want to say it out loud and jinx herself. “That sounds terrible, but I doubt you suck at being pregnant. I don’t honestly think there’s a way to be good at a pregnancy. You have to just take the hits as they come, and roll with it,” she said, hoping that Dora would believe her. She really didn’t think there was a way to be good at being pregnant, if there was she would have been trying. She thought it was all just luck of the draw.

A musical little laugh slipped from her when Dora scolded her, laughing softly. “They aren’t, but they’re all I want. I do hope you’ll have some sort of cravings, they say that it’s one of those tells that will help you predict the sex,” she said, sounding just a bit excited. She had been hoped it had meant she was having a girl, a few of the other wives tales had pointed towards boy. Everyone already knew though that they were having a girl, the couple had found out on the 19th and then personally delivered baked goods with the gender colored jelly on the inside to their mothers, Dora, Cooper, and Adelaide. They hadn’t been able to keep their excitement to themselves.

She was pulled from her musing over genders when Dora said she thought something was outside. “I thought I heard something earlier…” Zahara admitted in a softer tone, and while she was good with defensive spells, she knew Dora was the better of the two of them. She was a professional duelist, Zahara would gladly let the other woman take point. “Want me to stay with the twins? I can come with you or stay,” she said, glancing at the twins in question.

Her lips quirked but there wasn't any true humor behind them. "Most women are thrilled when they're pregnant. Or at least upbeat and happy. I'm pretty sure I nailed 'miserable' the first time around, at least." She didn't mention how she just couldn't seem to get excited this time around. She felt terribly guilty about it. After all, she did love the life growing inside her. But the excitement was just not there. She wanted to celebrate, but she couldn't seem to get there.

It didn't help that while they'd fought and they'd made up, there was still a tension in her house right now. It weighed on her heart a lot, even though she didn't talk about it much. Just thinking about it made her emotional. Some people knew that there were issues -- Zee did. She just had clammed up about a lot of it unless poked. She did smile though, trying her best to be encouraging. She was so happy for Zee and Hyperion. Just like she was happy for Adelaide. She just didn't have the same zest they did. "Well, now you don't have to wonder anymore," she half-teased. She'd been thrilled with the little reveal treat. She'd popped over to give them both a big hug. "I don't have any clues at all then." She didn't even know if she had a preference. She hadn't scheduled a gender reveal with Persy yet.

Dora glanced over at the twins and shot another ward over their way, just in case. "They'll be okay for a few minutes at least," she said. "Come have my back." Not something she'd invite just anyone to do.

Zahara had noticed that Dora wasn't exactly excited this time around either, though she intended to change that. There was no set plan in place, she still hadn't figured out where to start with everything. It wasn't for lack of love, she knew that Dora absolutely loved her children. She had a sneaking suspicion that it was all due to Ewan not seemingly excited, but she didn't know how to touch that subject either.

"Hmm, do you think you'll let yourself be surprised this time around?" she asked curiously, unable to stop the question before it popped out of her mouth. Maybe that was the way to get Dora excited about it, though she wasn't entirely sure that Dora liked surprises in the way that Zahara did.

She slipped her wand from her pocket when Dora told her to have her back, and did just that. Zahara was right there as the pair headed towards the door, she lifted her wand just to be sure that Honeydukes was in fact locked down. After Dora had arrived, Zahara had been sure to put the wards back into place since it was just the two women alone in the back. It made them vulnerable, especially with the twins. She was relieved when she the wards let her know that they were still in place, no one but Dora and Zahara would be getting back inside without one of the two witches letting them in.

It was then that the two witches slipped out the back door, Zahara made sure that it shut behind them. She wouldn't chance someone slipping inside while they were investigating the noise outside, not while her niece and nephew were inside.

Just a few feet from where the two stood was another thumping noise, this time louder than the last. Another thump, andthe garbage cans in front of them came tumbling over. Out of one of the cans came a large black bag that seemed to be moving. Zahara had a moment of fear that it was a body, a child perhaps with how small the bag was, struggling to lie. Then the bag let out a very animalistic whimper of pain, and she was flooded with anger. Anger that someone would do this behind her shop, anger that someone would do this at all to a defenseless animal.

It was mostly the tired. And the stress. And the depression. And the coolness still between her and her husband even though she was trying to work it out. She was trying to be understanding. She knew his anxiety was where most of it all stemmed from, and she understood. She really did. She dealt with it every day. Unfortunately, she was apparently the one with a greater amount of 'cope' and so she had to heft it around and just deal.

She thought for a second and then shook her head. "No, I don't like that kind of surprise very much," she said. "I'll make an appointment with Persy soon. I just have a few," half a dozen or more, "things to get done before I can do that. I'd rather not make sister time into doctor time, you know?"

Dora slipped outside, senses on high alert. Unlike most, she didn't focus on her hearing, and she didn't cast a light charm as soon as she was outside, pausing instead to let her eyes adjust to the dim greyness. She didn't jump when the can clattered over, only went still and watching the bag for a long moment. Like Zee, for a moment she thought it might be a child, but her instincts told her no.

Despite that, she eased forward and knelt, grateful the motion was still mostly easy, but she stayed poised to spring away if needed. She was effectively tone deaf and had been her entire life, but she still started crooning to whatever or whoever was in the bag before she used her wand to gently slide it open.

Zahara's head nodded, she knew that feeling far too well. "Believe me, I understand," she said in a soft voice, giving Dora a smile. She had always thought of Persephone as a sister, they had been close since that day at the Triwizard Tournament. She never wanted the time she did get to spend with Persephone to be all about Healer Persephone. It was one of the reasons she had debated asking Persephone to recommend someone, but she knew that Persephone was the best there was.

She pushed the thoughts from her mind though as they were outside, focused on the bag. When Dora eased forward, she let her eyes drift from Dora's back to glance around the area. Just because the bag wasn't a body, or harmful to them, it didn't mean that someone wasn't lurking in the shadows to attack the women. She swept her eyes over the area around them, being sure that nothing seemed out of place.

It was when she swept her eyes back around, that she glanced down towards the bag as Dora started to slide it open. A gasp slipped from her when the first thing her hazel eyes landed on was blood, a lot of blood. It took a moment for Zahara to realize just what she was looking at, it was a small brown pup that looked as though someone had tried to kill the poor thing and failed. She could only see the small face from where she stood, the one eye didn't even look as if it were there. She thought it was just a gaping bloody hole where there should have been a little eye. For the first time during her pregnancy, Zahara thought she was going to throw up. She couldn't tear her eyes away though, instead she found her voice. "Is it alive? I'm sure Rolf is still around the Beastiery. He has to know someone," she said in a rush, finally able to look around the alley once again. What if whoever had left him to die in her trash was still around? She had to be sure no one would hurt either of them, or that poor dog, again.

Dora was oddly calm in these sorts of situations. She didn't freak out. She didn't get sick. Blood didn't faze her, at least 99% of the time. (That last 1% was a bitch and a half though.) Mainly she felt, first, an overwhelming relief that what was in the bag wasn't human, and most especially wasn't a child, which would have pinged too close to home after the war and now having had children of her own.

"It's alive," she said in that same calm voice, and then she crooned to it again. He, she noted abstractly. "Easy now, easy now," she told it calmly as it snarled weakly at her and snapped at her hand as she moved it to try to see what else was wrong.

It took her a couple of minutes to even get it to calm down enough to let her touch it, but she wasn't going to use any charms just yet. She didn't know if the animal were under the influence of any right now, and sometimes interactions could be bad. For a couple of minutes all she did was carefully pat a tacky, bloody spot of fur on his side that didn't seem to hurt. Finally there was a long, low whine and a weak wagging of the tail. "Tha's my lad," she told him gently.

"Go ahead and call Rolf, Zee. This is definitely more than I can deal with. I think his back leg is really hurt, too. That's a lad, you're doing so good, mate."

Zahara was marveled at how calm Dora was, Zahara herself had never really been in any sort of situations like this. The most dangerous situation she had been in was when she had been trying to break into Hyperion's home when they first started dating, and he had snuck up on her. It was for that reason that she couldn't bring herself to look at the dog for a long moment, tricking herself into believing that it was because she was watching the alley for anyone else that might be lurking. It was obvious though that whoever had done this was long gone by now.

It was when she heard Dora call him 'lad' that she looked down at the pup again, relief flooding as she saw that Dora had been able to gain the little guy's trust. Her head bobbed quickly, and pulled her phone from her pocket. Rolf was still on her speed dial after the pregnant Nancy cat situation, and as the light of her phone screen killed her night vision, she quickly pressed the number eight and put the phone to her ear. She knew it was getting late, she hoped he was still at the Beastiery tucking everyone into bed. She really hoped he wasn't busy with something important.

As soon as she heard the phone pick up, she just started to talking. "Rolf, it's Zee. Someone dumped a pup behind my shop, and they're really hurt. Please, please, tell me you know somewhere we can take him? Dora's here with me, she's got the twins. He's in really bad shape.." Those last words came out strangled, as she felt tears spring to her eyes. She had been trying so hard to ignore her feelings, but having to tell someone else what was going on had her ready to cry.

Dora was, most of the time at least, excellent to have around for an emergency. She was calm and collected and unless something managed to trigger her in the moment, she was almost unflappable. It was generally afterwards that a person had to watch her, alert for a belated reaction that might trigger any of her past traumas. Even then, it might just show up as a nightmare or a night terror later. But in the moment, she could almost always keep her head.

Knowing that Zee was behind her and was scanning the surroundings, she felt safe enough to actually sit next to the pup, rather than crouching. The animal cried at her now that it wasn't snarling, giving his pain a little bit of voice though it wasn't that loud. It was a painfully sad sound to her ears though. Dora had only been around dogs at Rolf's rescue, though she was usually more drawn to them than the cats. She'd sat more than once with a big old dog and they'd both been content in the company.

Rolf was just finished up with the animals that night when his phone lit up, and on seeing the number he went ahead and answered. Zahara had never called him over nothing yet. Eyebrows shot up upon hearing the words, and then worry creased his forehead. "Yeah, I have the number of an emergency magivet or the number of a muggle vet, depending. Which one do you want?"

Rolf's question threw Zahara off for a moment, and as her eyes swept over Dora and the poor dog again. "I think I need magical, just in case." she admitted. It was just in case the bastards that had done this had used magic. It wasn't like they were in muggle London, they were deep into Victory Road. She didn't want to say that though, it made her sick to her stomach that there were people out there that would do such a thing to a defenseless creature.

"We should get it inside, do you think it'll let us move it inside? I think I have towels, something..." Something other than that bag filled with blood. Her heart ached as she watched Dora with the little dog. She could feel tears trying to prick her eyes, but she quickly blinked them back. There would be time later for her to fall apart about it all, once the dog was safely to the vet, and they knew just what was going on. This likely wasn't something the aurors could take on, but she wished deep down that perhaps Hyperion would at least look into it. She wanted whoever had done this to be caught for hurting the little thing.

"Ehhhh," Rolf equivocated for a moment. "Have Dora make the call if it can be moved. She knows blood pretty well, from what I understand. If it's going to start bleeding worse, we'll have to get the vet to you, but if she thinks it can be moved, I'll send you the address. Also don't either of you put yourselves in danger, all right? If it's going to bite you, I'll come over there and do it myself."

"I'll let her make the call," she agreed, nodding her head though Rolf couldn't see her. "Dora, do you think we should move it? Do you think you need Rolf? He said if we fear that the dog will bite us, he'll come over here to handle it... He looks comfortable with you though," she admitted, which was part of the reason she didn't want to move the dog. She had a feeling they would need to, she just hoped apparating or something wouldn't hurt him more.

"Ummm." Dora took a moment to move the little dog, trying to examine him only by the floating ball of light she'd conjured a moment ago, to see if he was bleeding a lot or if he'd be safe to move. "No, I think I can get him, and I don't think he'll really bite me, or at least he won't mean it if he does."

"She says that she's got this. I'll give you a call if we need anything else, thank you so much," she said, before she hung up the phone. She wanted them to get to the vet as quickly as possible. "Let's get inside. We can get the twins, then we can head to the vet." Zahara was already moving to get the door, knowing she would need to hold it for Dora. She was prepared to let Dora carry the dog, while she got the twins together and brought them along. They could drop the pup off with the vet, and once she knew everything was going to be alright with the pup, they could all go home.

"Do you think you can get them both, or do we need to trade and me give you the dog?" Dora said as she rose slowly after having coaxed the dog close enough to pick up gingerly. It wouldn't take long if Zee could do that, and they could get to the vet's and get the poor thing taken proper care of.

"I can get them both," she assured Dora with a smile. "He seems to have become accustomed to you. I don't want to upset him by transferring him to me." Zahara went about scooping up the littles then, using everything Dora had to bring them there. She had watched Dora get the twins together coming and going, that she had learned how to manage getting them comfortable and together for apparating. It took her a little longer than it would have likely taken Dora, but she was ready to go, and the twins were safe and happy. "Alright, I'm ready," she said, giving her sister-in-law a brighter smile. "Let's get to the vet. Once we get him in, you can take the twins home, and I'll leave once i know he's going to be alright," she said, not wanting to keep Dora and the twins out too late.

"Sounds like a plan." She glanced around once more to make sure nothing important was forgotten, and then they all apparated to the vet's place. They'd get this all taken care of and hopefully the poor thing would be fine.

With that, Zahara apparated them lot of them. She just hoped they weren't too late to save the poor pup, he deserved more than that.