Speechless

Bella was more than versed in the fact that the world was so much more than the black and white that most laws and practises seemed to think it was, she knew it was full of gray and circumstances that varied with the person. That didn’t mean that she had any idea what was happening in the world today and why people thought magic should be introduced via murder and she’d never understand such a rule. She was all too familiar with the feeling of loss, losing her parents and now losing someone she had thought of as a sister made her so familiar with it she could teach a class on the stages of grief having had to go through each one three times and then a whole different set of stages after finding her husband in their marriage bed with his best man and learning that not only had he had an affair that affair had gone on longer than their marriage had been like losing a part of her again. It made throwing herself into work that much easier, it made her want to drown herself in the world of the black and white that had always been her favorite images and crave the simplicity of a world where everything was black and white. These days there was a lot of red from the blood of injuries coming through the hospital in droves and tested her limits on her control over spirit even through the warning texts from Summer who reminded her she was quickly approaching that line and another when she passed it and reading all the worry in her tone and then hearing it when she got a phone call scolding her. Those phone calls had to be the most ironic thing to happen given Summer was the picture of reckless with her own health, drunk quidditch and other reckless flying to release her own grief but Bell had long ago learned to take the high road when calling out Summer for her irony knowing it came from a place of care and compassion for her.

Besides Summer was right about that line of spirit and when she crossed it there were times it felt as if she’d wandered in front of the Hogwarts Express and let it hit her, but given the stream of patients it was hard not to push that line, though she knew she was no good to anyone laying in a hospital bed so she reluctantly settled for the typical healing rather than the combination she did reserving the spirit for the critical, for the young. She was on a strict anti-spirit as she left the hospital in search of food as she lacked the energy to cook her own food and hoped Summer noted that line of spirit was reached and let it control her own recklessness lest she have to cross the line for the very person who would scold her for it when she crossed it. If spirit worked on herself she’d have used it to bring some life back into her, ease the ache in her feet from standing on them so long, ease the throbbing in her head that was akin to a drum thudding a steady beat against her skull and she hoped it was food she was in search of as she pulled open the door to the Three Broomsticks and picked a seat with only a cursory scan at the area. She hadn’t cared if she had company, but she hadn’t imagined it happening either until someone joined her offering to buy her a drink. She’d noticed the accent first, it was hard not to when she heard so much of it from Mia back when she was in the country constantly that she’d practically developed her own version of it before her death. Still she offered him a smile that felt as tired to her as she was sure she looked as he joined her and offered her his name. “Very long day. Lots of them these days. I’m a healer at the hospital.” She told him figuring that would be all the reason she needed for what brought her here. “I came for the food because I don’t feel like cooking and then thought the idea of a strong drink couldn’t hurt either. So here I am. What about you? Waiting on someone or here alone like me?” She asked returning his question as it seemed as good as any for a conversation starter. She hadn’t had many of these random conversations lately outside of patients at the hospital or her coworkers but she wasn’t sure those counted given she was being paid to have those interactions. It was good for her to talk to new people in a setting outside the hospital she decided.