Alarm clocks. World's worst invention in my opinion, along with 5:30am starts. Mixed together they're my worst nightmare as well as my usual start to the day.
I mean, what really went through my mind when I decided to take up a job that worked me 7 hours a day, and started at such a ridiculous time in the morning? Apart from the fact that at the age of 18 I was 100% sure it was my dream job and having every weekend off was also a bonus but bar that, my work life was shit.
At 20, I was situated under the over-worked/under-loved category of women, which wasn't exactly to my liking if I'm completely honest but it could be worse, I could have idiotic ambitions like my younger sister Harriet and be clinically depressed after 11 rejection letters from muggle universities. After graduating from Hogwarts instead of taking the recommended rout of applying for the usual wizarding based jobs, Harriet decided to 'further explore the muggle world' which evidently wasn't working in her favour. But that wasn't my main concern as of right now, getting to London in the next 10 minutes however was.
Travelling obviously wasn't a difficult task as a witch considering I could easily apparate the 300miles from Dublin in a matter of seconds but getting ready in complete silence to delay the anticipated waking my flat mate - who was anything but morning-friendly, wasn't a ten minute task.
So as a result of my Alarm-clock hatred and love for my bed, I was as expected, late for work. Again.
"This is the Last straw Miss Tuck! If you're late again, that's it. There are plenty of budding young healers who would appreciate this placement a lot more than you do."
I could see the vain pulsing on her forehead, like it had its own little life outside the perfect, pristine bubble of Healer Cassidy. It was repulsing, yet captivating considering my attention was drawn to it so easily. I think I could actually see the blood pulsing through it, maybe I should tell her to get it checked out.
Ahh, another of my traits thoroughly hated by my boss- Day dreaming.
"Merlin Emma! Are you even listening to a word I'm saying?"
"Yes, I'm on Artefact Accidents today. Got it." I casually sipped my coffee as I went to make my exit in hope she wouldn't realise that she had mentioned nothing of the sort, or maybe she had and today was to be my lucky day but that was wishful thinking.
"NO! I didn't say that. I just gave you a bloody lecture on punctuality!" she screeched, the pulsing vain making a second appearance of the morning - a new record, I should make a note. "You know what, I don't care anymore. Just go to the ground floor then, and stay out of my hair for one damn day."
And I did. The day got busier and busier as patients were admitted and discharged every minute, meaning I hadn't had chance to leave the ground floor wards never mind make it to the 4th floor where dear old Catherine Cassidy was stationed. After a hectic morning of 7 backfiring wands, 11 cauldron explosions amongst many other bizarre injuries acquired in ways I didn't want to know, I was taking advantage of my lunch hour. A nice stroll down to Diagon Alley to pick up some treats to add to my minuscule lunch of a half hearted salad(dieting sucked) was about as interesting as It got for me though. But I couldn't complain anything was better than sitting in the on call room, munching on a salad, alone, watching episodes of the cheesy sitcoms they show on T.V these days.
Lunch hour. This is the point in my day which would improve dramatically if my social life existed, however considering at the age of 18 I idiotically devoted my life to the age old career of healing, my friends were to the minimal, and most of them lived in Ireland.
Neither to my disappointment nor satisfaction, my lunch hour was dragging and I wasn't prepared to spend it in the on call room like every other day of my oh-so-exciting life, so I rang Harriet. Merlin only knows why, I didn't think it was humanly possible to sit through another minute of her moaning, never mind half an hour. But my loneliness had other ideas and before I could change my mind, we were tucked neatly into the corner of The Leakey Cauldron.
"So..." I didn't know how to start a conversation with my own sister, pathetic. Well I did, I just genuinely wanted to avoid the topic like the plague. "How's University hunting going?" Damn you awkwardness!
"Not too bad." Well that was a surprise. Wait; was that a smile on Harriet Tuck's face? My God a miracle! "I got a conditional place at a University in Manchester, apparently muggles don't get their results until August, that's why I kept getting rejected they thought I was giving in phony results, because I was a month early."
Harriet's voice was annoyingly British in comparison to my Irish accent, see when we were younger our parents got divorced and we were given the option to live with either parent, I chose my Dad and Harriet chose Mum. My Dad was originally Irish, so after the divorce was finalised he, along with me, moved back to his home town Dublin. My Mum and Harriet in turn stayed in our family house in London. My sister and I stayed relatively close considering we both attended Hogwarts together and therefore were in the presence of each other most days; however I am anything but close to my Mother and the same goes for Harriet and Dad.
"That's great!" I beamed trying to sound as delightful as my acting skills could stretch to, which wasn't very far. My enthusiasm was dismissed by her with a shake of the head though. Ungrateful cow.
"Anyway, if I don't get the placement I have other plans with Bradley." A smile crept onto her face as she mentioned this 'Bradley' giving me the impression that another boyfriend was on the scene. This, unlike the University offer didn't surprise me in the slightest, Harriet switched boyfriends more than a light-switch.
Throughout Hogwarts she always had a boy carrying her books around, swooning over her every move, she merely enjoyed the attention until she got bored in which she would find another desperate boy wandering the corridors. It sickened me during school, I never understood how she could tread on people's feelings so easily, and when she had a 'long lasting' (I'm using the term very loosely) boyfriend how she could let him into her life so easily. She was the opposite of me, an open book willing to let anyone who could get close enough read every detail. I could never do that, people who got close scared me and I instinctively pushed them away, my love life was ultimately doomed from the beginning.
"And these plans are?" I inquired half-interested.
"We're going travelling in South America."
I snorted, choking on my drink as I heard the words fall from her mouth. I was using all of my will power to refrain myself from bursting into laughter.
"Yeah, and I'm running for Minister of Magic this year." I laughed sarcastically but Harriet never was one for understanding sarcasm. "How do you plan to pay for that, Harry? You don't have a job, and I doubt Mum or Dad will pay for it."
"Bradley will pay." She smiled sweetly. She really was clueless, but I only had 3 minutes until I was due back at the hospital and I wasn't willing to lecture her on the prospect of financially supporting herself in such little time, so I stood up placing a few galleons on the table to pay for our drinks as I did, before bidding my farewell and leaving.
On my way in I mentally prayed that the last hour and a half of my shift would be less strenuous than the morning had been but that fantasy was swiftly crushed by the crowd of reporters huddled in the entrance. What the bloody hell had I missed in the last hour?
"You can't go up, I'm sorry but you don't have any authority here. If you would please leave that would be appreciated." The sweet voice of Melody the receptionist sounded exhausted and my heart pined for her as she tried to control the rowdy reporters. I couldn't just walk past. I shoved through the crowd until I was stood by the reception desk; I shot Melody a smile before impulsively clambering onto the desk and using 4 fingers to whistle as loud as possible. That caught their attention.
"Listen up. You have two choices, either get the bloody hell out of this hospital in the next 5 minutes or Magical Law Enforcement will be taking you to the Ministry along with a nice big sue from the hospital for disturbing the peace! Do you understand?" I shouted over the now silent reporters.
I didn't wait for a reply my part was played, I just jumped down from the desk with as much elegance as I could muster, so not much, and strolled down the corridor towards the Artefact Accidents ward a headless chocolate frog in my grasp.
"Emma!" A heaving breath echoed my name as I was pulled awkwardly into an alcove off the main corridor. "Thank God you're back, I have a job for you, see it's not got any quieter, since you left and I really need you to go to the Private ward and treat our newest patient, see nobody's had chance to check him over yet and it's going to look bad if the pr... find out.. And... And... Oh just go." The concentration I had to use to figure out what had been said throughout that bombardment of words was level 10 on a scale of Tuck concentration. Right, Private ward, treat patient, really busy. Sounds fun.
Turning on my heel; I walked in the direction of the private ward chucking the remainder of my chocolate frog into my mouth as I went. As I neared the main private room of the private ward (where I'd been informed the whereabouts of my patient was) I tied my hair into a pony tail on the top of my head before pushing against the grey doors which lead me into the room.
"This better not take long, my shift finishes in." I peered at my watch "just over an hour." I finally looked up to see who I was dealing with. "Oh." I hummed as realisation kicked in; it made sense now, the press, the rush to treat him.
"James Potter." I stated in a smug tone, this was the first time I had seen him since graduation, well in person, I'd seen him plenty of times in the newspapers for a variety of reasons. I walked towards his bedside, biting my lip to stop myself from smiling at the idea that James Potter needed MY help. I knew I needed to keep it professional so putting on a serious face I turned to face him, picking up the clipboard off the bedside table. "Quiditch accident makes sense." I mumbled, looking him up and down.
"So Mr Potter, Where does it hurt?" It was too damn difficult not to smile at this precious moment. At least now I could try to pull it off as a friendly, helpful smile of a kind.
"My left leg and my back." He groaned, oh the satisfaction that he was in pain, I was truly loving this, maybe I could be appointed his official Healer, and I would happily stay a few extra hours to witness his pain.
"Right." I mumble before moving to his left side and performing an X-Ray spell to check of breaks, which were inevitable. His left leg was shattered to pieces, and his spine had dislodged disks. I could mend his back with a five minute spell, I'd have to vanish and re-grow the bones in his leg, he'd be here for a day or two.
"Okay, Potter. Sorry, Mr Potter You'll be here for a few days I'm afraid. You see, I can easily repair the disks in your spine which you've dislodged to the right slightly, I'm guessing you landed on your left side?" he nodded in response. "You're lucky you got away with only bone damage it could have been a lot worse. However your left tibia is completely shattered so you'll have to re-grow the bone, it is possible but it'll be a painful process and will take up to three days max. But you're James Potter so I'm sure you can handle that." I added a sly, sarcastic dig at the end just to get at him. I highly doubted he remembered me from school, so most likely thought I was just a rude Healer, so just to make sure he didn't complain I introduced myself. "How rude of me, I'm Healer Tuck by the way, Emma Tuck." I added my full name sharply with a smug smile.
I watched his eyebrows shoot up his angular face as he began to recognise me, but of course I didn't give him the honour of making it known to others that we knew each other.
"I'm going to need you to keep as still as you possibly can Mr Potter as I heal your back, it may hurt, but if you squirm or try to move away it will take twice as long." I recited the incantation for the specific healing spell, keeping my concentration focused on the disks in his back was a difficult task when if I moved my eyes to the right and up only slightly I could witness the beautiful sight of James Potter in utter horrific pain, but I wasn't cruel enough to lose my focus as I know the consequences on the patient are dire and I value my job however much I might moan about it.
"All done" I sing-songed as my wand automatically ceased the magic being poured into his back which signalled complete healing "That should feel a lot better, your leg will still be painful though, I'll give you..." I peered at my watch, 30 minutes until my shift ended "10 minutes and then I'll come back with some skell-o-grow and vanish that messed up tibia of yours. First I need a coffee."
As I neared the door to leave a croaky voice whispered behind me words I never thought I would hear from a person such a James Potter. "Thank you Emma." I turned, nodded in his direction and left.
Once I knew I was out of audible distance I burst into a fit of laughter keeling over and grabbing my stomach for support. I wasn't entirely sure what out the situation I found particularly hilarious, but I knew that the feeling of joy welling up inside of me was because someone as high and mighty as Mr James Sirius Potter was in need of my help, ME! Emma Tuck! Who would have known?