A Price must be Paid Open Closed

Approaching behind Sirin was a beacon of hope. A tall thin,bespectacled graying beacon, who nearly tripped over and came crashing to the floor himself as he approached the scene with Sirin. It was the first time outside of a sports game that required him to leave the hospital wing to attend to a patient. He was disappointed to find that none of the little helpers on his list of interns had responded to the situation yet, but one could not expect everything from students.

"It's alright - let's see what we're dealing with here..." There was no blood on the scene, something which Polonius noted with an approving nod, inspecting the girl splayed out on the stone as if she were a performance art piece rather than a girl potentially nearing death. @Lucia Fox confirmed that the worst had not come to pass, and the nurse gave her a stilted smile at the revelation. "Right. Well, a knock on the floor..."

The school nurse leaned down and combed his fingers through Opeila's dark hair, checking his fingers. No blood of any sort. No doubt the girl would wake up somewhat concussed when the source of her exhaustion was removed, but that, too, was far from fatal. Not one to lose his head at the scene, Polonius continued to examine @Opeila Winters, confirming Lucia's observations. "Yes, she's quite fine. I will need to move her to the hospital wing."

Moving around behind Opeila, Frogge squat low again and scooped up the girl's upper body, keeping her head stable with his arms. This left her legs dragging on the stones. The magician would need an assistant if he intended to get the girl up the two flights of stairs to the conveniently placed Hospital Wing.

"You," he said, nodding to @Alec Mason, one of the older students present among the onlookers, and the one who seemed the strongest... although that was a low bar. The duty may have gone to @Sirin Liu had the poor girl not already been burdened with frantically dashing through the corridors to get the nurse in the first place. "Take her legs up and we'll carry her along. Easy does it."

Of course, if Alec would forgo that opportunity, Frogge would pass it along to the next person who seemed willing and able. It didn't matter to him as long as the girl got where she needed to go.

Alec was relieved things seemed to be settling down, at least a little, Kim backed away to give Opeila some space and Alec would for once in his life offer the other a grateful look. The Gryffindor wasn't as nice as she should have been, but felt he had been offering fair critique to the other in the way the situation had been handled. What Alec should have done was run up immediately and help out himself, still, no further incidents had occurred besides Opeila fainting. While it was concerning it itself, she didn't look hurt and that was a good sign. Alec supposed he shouldn't have been taking it as a good sign too early when looks can be deceiving and she had been very ill days prior.

An overwhelming amount of relief flooded him as he heard the clack of the first year's footsteps bounding down the corridor, she had to be practically sprinting right? Out of breath from all the running around. His eyes settled upon her as she entered back into the scene, mentioning she had brought the nurse and asking if the girl was okay. She wanted to help, she asked what she could do, there was a fair chance she was talking to the nurse but he didn't care. “You already did, you went to get the nurse.” As he spoke his eyes shot her an appreciative look, thankful she had gone out of her way to get the nurse. He wondered how much the nurse would really be able to do to help, whatever the nurse could do it had to be better than something...

This was the naive hope the Gryffindor had carried with him until he saw the nurse coming up behind Sirin.

He was a tall spindly man with dark unkempt hair and gray eyes, he wore black spectacles, and his large stature was stifled by the way he slouched. Alec watched with concern, the man nearly tripped as scrambled towards the scene. The nurse would begin examining Opeila while the older girl explained how she had collapsed onto the ground. Alec watched silently as everything went on. He would find himself unable to keep away to eery feeling of being watched as if people had stopped in the corridor to watch and stare at the situation. (cough pi cough)

The nurse move behind Opeila, and tried to pick the girl up, he seemed to be having trouble and Alec was curious as to why he tried carrying her in the first place. Wasn't there a spell for this? There had to be a spell for this. The nurse struggled and eventually called out nodding to him... Him? As in him Alec? As in a duellist- duellist who have a reputation for being physically weak and this man called on him? Alec couldn't tell if it was an error of judgment or if the man was serious. Alec eyed him skeptically, followed by him slowly nodding and making his way over. Though he didn't pick up Opeila. “I can help but are you sure you should...” Alec's voice quieted and he glanced away trailing off awkwardly.

“I just- You know- maybe, since your not using magic-” Alec spoke, his eyes drifted turning to look back towards the group. Polonius seemed to struggle carrying Opeila, no doubt it would have been thr same even if Alec helped, and well- He didn't trust it. The strongest out of the group besides him looked to be the first year. Perfect, what a relief, she had wanted to help, she could even get her wish. “Maybe me and-” he would cut himself off to point to the girl, the first year(sirin), he'd seen her a few times before, but had no clue of her names, he was terrible at remembering that type of stuff. “-maybe me and her should carry Opeila? You lead the way to the hospital wing.” Alec suggested hopefully. One wrong move and if Polonius almost tripped this time it wouldn't be good. Besides. Alec had always heard adults complain about the strain carrying heavy things took on their back. It would be a shame to have their nurse break his back before anything could be done for Opeila.

@Sirin Liu @Kim Sato @Lucia Fox @Polonius Frogge

Speech
264/200

Bailey was walking to class when she saw a huddle of students.
She saw Kim, Alec, Lucia, Sirin, Nurse Frogge, and a limp body that looked like Opelia!
Bailey ran over, worried and wondering can I do anything to help? I know quite a lot about muggle medicine, will that help here? Or is this a magical injury of sorts?
Bailey looked around- everyone looked anxious and worried.
Looking to Nurse Forgge, Bailey asked “How can I help? My dads a muggle firefighter and paramedic- I know more than most about muggle medicine; will that help any? Or is this … a Magic’s injury of sorts?”
Taking a breath, Bailey continued “Well… does she have a pulse?” she asked, worried. She felt Opelia’s wrist and felt a pulse. Sighing in relief, Bailey realized that they must be trying to carry her to the Hospital wing.
Bailey looked at the Nurse who was struggling with the girls dead weight, and asked “Can I help you with carrying her? I’m not as weak as most think- and I’m sure Kim and Alec would LOVE to help, wouldn’t you boys?”
She shot a look at the boys, glaring at them, crossing her fingers figuratively that they would step forwards and help them.
“And Sirin, darling, would you make sure that nothing fell out of Opelia’s pockets or bag, if she has one. I think she’s like to have all of her things, and you’re just the person to help with that! Thanks sweetie!” Bailey said to the younger girl, hoping her words helped calm her and everyone else down.

@Opelia Winters, @Bailey Glade, @Alec Mason, @Kim Sato, @Sirin Liu @Polonius Frogge & @Lucia Fox

House Colours: Slytherin

Calming Presence in Effect
's Grace d100 (75+): Both Piérre (31) & Figaro (26) are Visible

The boy tried to shrink back into the crowd as the new nurse made his presence known, green eyes glittering with a mixture of apprehension and curiosity as he would begin to fret over the condition of the collapsed girl. There was still a very high likelihood in the boy's head that any of these nurses that had come to the school in the past four years could be that mad nurse Finley merely under the effects of a polyjuice potion; that every single new face of a nurse was simply his adaptation of a new genetic sequence after the old body had been used up. So what if the news said that he was contained? So what if there were theories that he was dead? So what if some said that he was an escaped convict?! So what? So what?!

There was more than one way to make yourself inconspicuous and scarce; even magic could be used to combat magic. So far as the boy knew, this nurse was no better than any of the other ones, and certainly nowhere as decent as their most recent: Kelsey Brumby. With a potentially escaped Finley... the boy couldn't help but be perpetually on edge that something would not be what people said it was.

Flurries of movement all about, and the boy continued to peer between legs and through the broader shoulders and limbs of his classmates. His fingers danced towards the wand holster on the right side of his chest, his hand tucking through the collar of the green-inseamed school robe to brush the green handle of the bone white yew wand. His eyes never left the nurse in particular, even when he called upon the assistance of two of the other students in the vicinity to help him move the unconscious girl to the death trap that was the Hospital Wing. People moved and bustled about, seemingly prepared to ready up for the transit, and the lithe boy slipped through the crowd once more, glancing at the ground around the place where the girl had fallen. Already, a smaller girl was going about, trying to check for things that could have possibly fallen from the unconscious girl's potential pockets or bags. Piérre's green eyes continued to pierce through the crowd, flicking towards the girl and the nurse and the unconscious girl in equal measures. He wanted to especially stay out of the way of the nurse and Kim (they always had such a way of running into one another recently).

Narrowing his eyes, the boy slowly withdrew his wand but kept it within his sleeve, angling it curiously towards the collection of people; observing, analyzing, assessing... prepared to take action if something went south. Not a word, not a rapid movement, just a boy and his cat observing the situation with curious green eyes.

Piérre stroked his cat before pointing towards the young girl (Sirin) with the tip of his bone white wand with a murmur in the ear of his beloved familiar. "Indagare. Investigate."

The bengal chirped once before lightly trotting into the fray, looking up at Sirin with half-closed mint green eyes and a merrily whisking tail. "Prrrrrr-eau!" Figaro mewed calmly, attempting to rub on her legs and brush against her body in a symbol of affection.

If the group left with the girl in tow... the boy wouldn't be far behind, following the crowd and keeping to the edges of periphery (Active Stealth). Teasing people as they passed by, perhaps; taking roles and masks as his own, but always watching, always observing with those keen eyes.

Polonius stared at Alec for a few moments, wondering why the student had not immediately done as he was told. When he was a student at Hogwarts, deferral to authority was the standard. Well, at least his standard. Was there some other reason why the boy wasn't willing to do the simple work of carrying the girl's legs? Surely there was no need to resort to waving his wand about when the girl could simply be lifted and carried the old fashioned way? Polonius sighed, turning his gaze from Alec, discarding him as white noise in the context of moving poor Pei.

Kim presented himself as a more useful alternative. "You then," he said, moving to heave Opeila up and expecting Kim to pick up the slack rather than leave him carrying the poor limp girl around like some sort of macabre rag doll. Bailey, seeking to make herself useful, ran up to join them, prompting a stern glare from Frogge as the girl started touching the girl's arm. "Don't help," he said. A simple directive from a man forgetting his manners in a time of potential crisis.

A stretcher might have been a good idea. Then again, most bouts of temporary unconsciousness also did not last long, and he had not exactly had his ideal packing list on hand when he rushed to Opeila's aid. Emergency medical transport in his past had meant apparating - but of course, that wouldn't be possible at Hogwarts. Not that it would be necessary here. She was stable, not bleeding, and otherwise seemed quite fine beyond being unconscious. Frogge suspected poisoning - nothing fatal, and thus, nothing to panic over.

...In all honesty, Polonius had lost his instinct to reach for his wand to solve problems ever since he married a muggle. But of course, this was Hogwarts, a place where the statute of secrecy might as well have been printed on toilet paper for all it mattered. Wizard central, this place. "I will make this easier," he declared, before drawing his wand and swishing it down at the poor unconscious girl, who he had set back on the floor to ensure safe targeting of his spell. "Sublevo brevis."

The unconscious girl floated up from the ground slowly, as though she'd been replaced by a helium balloon slowly rising toward the ceiling. "Catch her legs," he said to Kim, before taking the girl under the arms again to pull her gracefully through the hall as though floating down an unseen stream. "She will be heavy again in a minute. Take care not to drop her!"

With that, Polonius would move to leave for the hospital wing, whether anyone tried to keep poor Opeila's feet from floating away or not.

Lucia watched Nurse Frogge and the others around her, all with jobs, all seemingly at least semi-comfortable with the situation. Why did it feel like everyone else knew what to do in an emergency, and Lucia just froze? Why hadn't she even thought to do what the Nurse had done, and check from an injury from when the brunette had crumpled onto the stone floor? "Thank Merlin," was all Lucia could breathe out when the Nurse confirmed that the brunette girl was okay. It was only when he said that she'd need to be moved to the Hospital Wing that reality set in again: it wasn't fine until the girl woke up and the cause of her fall was identified. Lucia would be no help there - and she'd be no help with lifting the girl, thanks to her utter lack of upper body strength.

In fact, a strange sequence of events followed when the Nurse asked for help lifting her. The boy whom he pointed to first backed away from the idea for apparently no reason, although he did give Lucia the name of the brunette who'd grabbed her before collapsing. Opeila. Hadn't Lucia heard that name before? It was quite a rare one. Maybe Opeila was in a sports team or a prefect or something like that. Another girl turned up, a talkative blonde whom Lucia was sure she'd met before, who offered help regarding Muggle medicine. That was silly, Lucia thought. Muggle medicine would be no help in Hogwarts, and medicine was the Nurse's job anyway: it made sense for him to refuse the girl's assistance. Mind you though, the blonde's contribution was better than Lucia's (which was nothing).

Lucia was about to offer to levitate the girl (she'd done it before, after all) when Nurse Frogge did it himself. If Kim hadn't gone to catch Opeila's legs, then Lucia would have jumped up and do it herself, re-inserting herself back into the action. She wasn't needed though, so instead she would now follow the group to the Hospital Wing. She at least wanted to see Opelia to a safe bed: it was too late to do anything, but Lucia couldn't abandon this girl who had asked for her help.