Mira Katz walked towards the woods, bright blue eyes half-lidded with sleep. Mira pushed her long, brown, tangled hair from her face just as another gust of wind sent it back to its former position. Mira was considering cutting her hair short.
Mira thought of her old house in the U.S. and missed it terribly. She had called it home for thirteen years before her family had moved to England that summer. Her parents wanted her in the school system so she could go to college there. The family included Mira, her parents, her sister, and her dog. They had all moved to a little house with a forest at its back. Mrs. Katz, in an attempt to make Mira feel more at home, had begun a garden of all of Mira's favorite flowers. First however, Mira's mom had to hack at the extremely hard ground with a hoe until it was soft enough to plant. The hoe still leaned against a table near the garden.
It was early August but chilly at night nonetheless. Mira's white nightgown brushed against her habitual bare feet. This way, by the time she was a few feet from the back door, she was thoroughly awake.
Mira reached the forest and searched for a good tree to climb. She spotted a maple with sturdy braches and started climbing. A little way up Mira found a sweet spot between the trunk and another branch and jammed herself in.
Enjoying the view of the full moon's first appearance of the month and the usual night sounds, Mira suddenly heard rustling. Thinking it was a rabbit or deer, she yelled "Hey!" Mira laughed as she waited for something to go running off. She stopped laughing when she realized that it had only gotten quieter. Feeling nervous, Mira climbed down and started walking back to the house.
As she got down Mira again heard rustling in the woods. Noticing her increase in pace, she jokingly scolded herself for being such a coward. This was probably a little rabbit hopping around in the brush. Reaching the middle of the yard Mira heard a snarl and spun around.
Stepping out of the woods was what had been following her. A gigantic, grey dog that was of a type Mira had never seen before. Terrified she froze as the dog advanced slowly at first then faster. As the dog neared it was running flat out. Mira, too out of breath to scream, flinched and raised her arms to protect her face.
She got lucky; the dog leaped and bit her on the arm where her neck would have been a minute before. Mira slowly started backing up, eyes never leaving the dog. The dog fell back. It looked for another opening and found one. The dog rushed in and slashed her right leg with its claws. Mira shook it off and continued to back up. Just as the dog charged again, she reached the table. Mira grabbed the hoe and whacked it on the back of the head with the shaft. The dog ripped at her gown but missed the skin.
It yelped, gave one last snarl, and ran back into the forest.
Mira was feeling dizzy and sick. Much of the lower half of her white gown was now red. With whatever humor she had left Mira thought that someone ought to call the dog catcher. She took one step towards the door; and fainted.
Mira woke up, feeling distinctly nauseous. When she looked around she found that instead of being outside or even in her room she was in a completely unfamiliar setting. Her leg and arm had been bandaged and she was lying in bed. It appeared to be dusk outside the window. Feeling confused she said aloud "What happened? Where am I?"
A blond nurse had been standing next to the bed, unnoticed by Mira. The nurse exclaimed "Oh! You're awake! You fainted and we had to bring you here. You've been out since yesterday night. But on the bright side, you have a private room." Seeing Mira opening her mouth to speak she said "Stifle your questions for now okay sweetie? We're just going to give you some food and medicine to help you sleep."
Mira thought she saw the nurse give a nervous glance out the window as she propped Mira up. The nurse placed a bowl of chicken soup into her lap and made sure Mira ate it all. She bustled out of the room and, to Mira's surprise, came back in less than a minute. The nurse was carrying a glass full of purple liquid. Maybe they had a person waiting outside? thought Mira.
The nurse gave her the glass and told her to drink it all. Mira took a whiff of the contents of the glass, scrunched up her face, and drank as much as she could. She felt herself going to sleep immediately. The last thing Mira was aware of was the nurse leaving the room, and to her further confusion, locking the door.
Mira had an odd dream. She dreamt that she ached all over and she was angry enough to rip her room to pieces. In fact she did just that. She demolished all of the furniture and the wallpaper. The glass with the purple liquid had smashed on the floor. Dream Mira then discovered she couldn't get out of the room. In the dream her rage died a little once there was less to destroy and nowhere to go. Dream Mira went over to a corner, curled up, and went to sleep.
Lucky me, thought Nancy as she closed the door, I get to take care of the most dangerous cases in the whole department. She then bolted the door shut and, just to be sure, pulled out her wand and muttered colloportus.
As she stomped downstairs to the brewery, the assistant healer rethought her career choice. I should have been a secretary, but no, I wanted to be a healer.
Reaching the right door, Nancy composed her face into a fairly pleasant smile, and entered. Resisting the temptation to cough, she waded through the multicolored smog to the right cauldron. "Will you have that ready anytime soon?" she asked the man at the cauldron.
"Yes, I think so," he said "it should be ready by tomorrow."
"I should hope so," she snapped.
"I'm sorry Nancy," he said sympathetically "I just couldn't finish wolf's bane potion on such short notice."
"Just make sure it's ready on time," she said cooling a little, "I really don't want to cut it this close again."
Nancy went back to her office and packed up for the night. As she prepared to disapparate she thought she heard faint howling.