The rest of the weekend was fairly uneventful. I worked a bit on Saturday before coming home to do a deep clean of the flat. Even though I had just moved in, it was something I had always done on the weekends to help stay on top of things. Oliver came over again and having the company was a nice change from my lonely nights at my old flat.
Sunday arrived and I spent most of my day in my office on the first floor. All of my records were magically duplicated so I didn't have to bring them back and forth between there and the stadium. There was a lot of work to be done coming up with individual meal plans for all seven players. While I hadn't completed all of my intake exams, there was plenty to get started with.
I made sure to head back upstairs to my flat with plenty of time to cut up some vegetables and make some hummus to bring to the weekly potluck.
By the time Monday hit, I was ready to tackle the week. The work I had put in over the weekend was worth it to be ahead of the curve. My first task of the day was doing the intake for Sophia Rose.
Our appointment was off to a rocky start when she came waltzing in twenty minutes late.
"I can't imagine coach tolerates tardiness and neither do I. The next time it happens we will have to reschedule." I had learned long ago that I need to assert myself if I expect respect. Allowing people to walk all over me and treat me as if my time is worthless isn't acceptable.
Sophia flipped her long blonde hair and rolled her eyes, but otherwise ignored my comment. "Let's just get this over with. Practice starts soon."
I wanted to tell her that if she had been on time, she would have had time to spare before practice. As it was, I would have to rush the exam to get her there on time and I'll be damned if I'm the reason she is late.
"For starters, come on over here and let me confirm height and weight. I need to keep records of these to be able to administer proper potion dosages in case of accidents."
She does so and I record the results. I take a few other baseline records before having her come sit on the table. Taking my wand I perform the necessary movements to run further diagnostics to gather her overall health. The last thing I have her do is raise her shirt in the back so I can check her spine. Back problems are a common issue in Quidditch players and monitoring the spine along with watching their posture is an important part of my job.
"We're just about done here. Do you have anything you would like to discuss or that you feel I should know?"
This was the first real conversation I had had with the woman, but something about her attitude towards me made it clear that she wasn't a fan.
"No. Can I go now? I need to get changed."
I nodded. "You can go, but I want to inform you that I will be putting together a recommendation for physical therapy on your back. Your upper spine is beginning to hunch from your current broom posture. With a few exercises we will be able to correct that and strengthen the muscles to prevent injury."
She huffed, but otherwise gave no reply as she left.
Well, that was a wonderful start to the day.
The rest of my day went moderately better. One of the many perks of my new job was the view. At St. Mungos I spent most of my time inside towards the interior of the building. That meant no windows and a lot of candle light. Here, I have a whole wall of windows and I get to see the team practice.
They clearly work hard and I was finding watching their different styles to be helpful in developing an outline for each of them.
Because it was Monday, practice ended early for the potluck. However, I still had one more appointment of the day. Oliver must have taken a quick shower before the exam because his hair was still wet.
"Hey Hermione." His Scottish accent was thick and I could tell he was tired from practice.
I smiled warmly. "Hi Oliver. I'll try to make this as painless as possible."
He simply nodded as I began my examination.
I had my back to him as I recorded a few items on his chart as I said, "Do you mind lifting the back of your shirt so I can examine your spine?"
He hummed a response and I heard a rustle of fabric. I turned around expecting him to just be holding the back of his T-shirt up, but instead he had removed the whole thing. I couldn't help it, my eyes roamed.
In his time since Hogwarts, Oliver Wood had certainly been working out. He was strong and muscular, but not overly so. I always thought there was a difference between well-defined and uncomfortable looking. He definitely fit the former category.
Shaking my head a bit to clear it, I walked around him and performed my assessment. As I did so, I noticed several bruises.
"Oliver, have you been injured recently?" I asked concerned.
"Practice can get rough sometimes. I also put in a lot of hours on my own as well. I got hit with a rogue quaffle I had charmed yesterday."
I could see the large bruise on his left ribcage. "Why didn't you tell me? I could have easily healed this."
He shrugged, "I didn't want to be a bother."
"It's literally my job Oliver. If this happens again, you need to come see me right away. There's always a chance for internal damage with hits this hard." I was trying desperately to keep the frustration from my voice, but wasn't succeeding.
He agreed reluctantly.
"I need you to be careful. It's only Monday and I can already tell you're exhausted. Being committed and practicing is great, but you need to take care of yourself, too. How many hours of sleep do you get each night?"
"Roughly four to six."
My teeth snapped together to prevent an outburst. I took a deep breath and thought about what I wanted to say first. "I know you're new to the team and there is a lot of responsibility on your shoulders as captain, but you're no good to the team if you get injured. Sleep is important for both your focus and your reaction times as well as your healing. You should be getting no less than eight hours a night. Practice isn't usually more than four hours a day and you shouldn't be practicing much beyond another hour or two. And you need to take a day off at least once a week. Your body needs to be able to recover between the intense training you put it through."
I felt a little naggy, but in this case it was my job to keep the man before me healthy and I didn't feel the need to sugar coat it.
Oliver put his hands up defensively. "Ok, I hear you. I'll try. How about I promise to cut down my hours a little during the week and I come over again this weekend to watch some more of that program? I seemed to be able to watch it and not think about practice."
I was glad to know that he had enjoyed our time together. It would be a lot less lonely if I can make a friend or two on the team and obviously Sophia would be out of the question.
"Deal." We shook on it. "Now let me take care of that bruise and then we can get going to the potluck."
I placed my hand on the injured area. His skin was warm and firm and sent a slight shiver up my spine. Using a bit of wandless and wordless magic, I allowed the spell to flow through the palm of my hand and heal his injury."
"That's a cool bit of magic you did there, Healer Granger." He said with a wink.
I couldn't help but smile. "Hopefully I don't have to use that one too often on you. Try not to get hurt. Ok?"
He agreed and we made our way to join the others.
