Chapter 6: Time for a doctor

It was already close to 11 o'clock and Carlisle and Emma still sat on their Table in the three broomsticks where Emma had her breakfast hours ago. Caught in rather interesting talks, as Carlisle thought. They were discussing the upcoming project they would work on, well he would work on. Emma wasn't really part of the researching team, just someone they could afford to send away for one or two days, to help him settle in here and show him around. It hurt him a bit to see that her talent went so unnoticed by her coworkers, but he would not meddle with that.

They also talked about things, he should check out during his days off. The Plan was, to give him 3 days off to roam the town and visit the school, before the work starts.

Emma explained to him what a portkey was, and how he could travel to the Hospital with it. They discussed just letting him use the floo, at the hospital, but then decided it maybe was too tricky for a newbie, so they prepared a personal portkey for him. At first he was skeptical, how an old, rusty spoon was supposed to bring him to work and back, but the explanation as to how it worked changed his disbelieve to pure interest.

Up to this point, the tavern was a really quiet and cozy place. There only were 3 other guests in the big room, all minding their own business. It felt nearly like a perfect place to work in silence. If he were a student he would have loved this place. It was then that a trio of kids entered the establishment. They were rather noisy but Carlisle couldn't be angry at them, because they were laughing and stumbling into the door exhausted and obviously fighting off the cold from outside. He smiled at their carefree display and decided to ignore them, as they sat down rather far away. Emma didn't react at all, she was focused on a map, marking places that were worth visiting, for him.

Here and there Emma would ask about his family, between business talks and he happily told her whatever she was curious about. He enjoyed talking about them and Emma obviously liked hearing about a happy family life. Bringing Carlisle to the assumption, that she was somewhat lonely. Their talk carried on for a while, Emma having one Cup of hot Chocolate after another and sometimes the waitress would stop by and exchange a few sentences with them. She was a short, blond woman. Old enough to be someone's grandmother, but full of life and energy. Carlisle learned that her name was Darla Gibson, and she was what they call a squib. Something else he learned today. A magical person, that can't work magic. As Carlisle discovered that, he wondered if there was a nickname for vampires without special powers too.

Despite tuning out the kids, he noticed that they got a bit louder, but not in a funny, carefree way anymore. It sounded as if they were arguing. But he didn't want to spy on them so he tried to keep ignoring it and focused on Miss Bright instead. But as one of the boys slammed his hands against the surface of the table, he couldn't quite ignore, that they obviously were fighting. And then he just was unable to focus on anything else anymore. The harsh smell of blood caught his attention and he instinctively jumped up and walked over to them, as fast as possible without revealing his true nature.

Emma, first confused when her companion left, yelped as she saw him walking over to the kids that had been fighting. One of the boys was holding his face and blood dripped through his fingers. Emma feared the worst and focused on Doctor Cullen. What would he do? Would he just attack the child and drink his blood? How does that work with Vampires? Can they control their actions or would he just follow his hunger as soon as he smelled blood? She panicked! How could she stop him? She set off to run after him but then noticed how he calmly laid a hand on the boys head and helped him sit down. And then she blushed. Oh my, how stupid. She felt utterly ashamed of her thoughts. How could she have such poor faith in this awesome, nice man she spent the past 2 days with. He didn't act upon his instincts as a Vampire, when he decided to walk over, but his instincts as a doctor. Emma wanted to just vanish, her cheeks burning bright red. She would have slapped herself, for her dumbness, if it wouldn't have looked absolutely crazy. Taking a calming breath she walked over as well.

As Carlisle helped the boy to sit back on his chair, while keeping his head back up, so the blood wouldn't run everywhere. He spoke to the remaining girl. He didn't take his eyes off of the boy while he spoke. "What happened?" He asked in a calm tone that left no doubt that he got the situation under control.

The girl was obviously a little shocked. It took her a few moments to find her voice. "Our friend got angry and wanted to leave. But Harry grabbed his arm, wanted to sort things out. As our friend pulled free he must have hit Harry's glasses against his face." Her voice was shaky and she sounded as if she would burst in tears at any moment.

Suddenly hands wrapped around her shoulders and pulled her back on her own chair. A friendly and calm looking woman with red hair was rubbing her arms. "It will be okay. No worries. This is Dr. Cullen and my name is Emma. We are from St. Mungo's." She smiled encouraging at the girl. "Looks like this is you lucky day, well except this accident obviously."

Confused but relieved Hermione watched as the red haired woman told everyone that there was nothing to see and that the show was over.

Carlisle pulled the boys hands off his face. "Your name is Harry, did I get that right?" he asked friendly.

"Yes…." Harry groaned, obviously in pain.

The man looked careful at the wound. Obviously the glasses broke and cut him right under his eye. But he wasn't sure if there was any glass left in the cut. "I fear this has to get cleaned out, to make sure there are no splinters in the cut." Carlisle explained to Harry. "and you will need new glasses." He added dramatically, as if this was the bigger issue.

This reminded Hermione of something and she snapped back into her usual self. She pulled out her wand and aimed at Harry's broken glasses. "Oculus Reparo!"

First curious then delighted, did Carlisle watch the broken pieces fly off the ground, to meet midair and magically melt back together, before landing on the boys lap. "Just amazing" he breathed, nearly forgetting that he was about to clean a cut.

Emma snickered as he watched Carlisle witness the girls spell. It was a simple one, but still Emma was surprised positively. "That was really good for a witch your age" she said, praising her. "This thing was pretty wrecked." Hermione put on her 'I know the right answer'-look that she often wore during classes.

"Its one of the spells recommended for practicing charms" Hermione said, as if quoting a school book. Forgetting Harry for a moment as well.

At least Emma stayed focused. "Should we bring him to the hospital?" she asked, turning her attention to Harry.

Doctor Cullen shook his head. "No we just clean it and tape it, then it should be fine. It's no deep cut."

Harry sighed relieved. "Sorry Hermione!" he said. "Prof. McGonagall will be angry that we didn't make it home without an incident." He stopped talking when the blond man started wiping his face clean with a wet cloth and sent the woman to go get his things from his room.

Hermione had the same thought, but didn't want Harry to feel bad. "It wasn't your fault Harry." She tried to make him feel better. "I should have known Ron's temper."

Carlisle felt as if he was caught in a private moment that wasn't meant for his ears, but being a part of the situation he felt the need to say something. And even though his children were all well grown up, he didn't lack the experience of a father to add some nice words here. "Whatever it was that made your friend angry, I am sure he will still be your friend when things calmed down. It surely wasn't his intend to hurt you, the way he did." And with his, he finished inspecting the cut. "Looks good to me. I can't see any splinters. It will heal in no time."

As soon as Emma was back, Carlisle fished some tape out of his emergency bag and fixed Harry's cut with it. Hermione and Harry thanked both of them with all honesty and introduced themselves properly.

The four of them spent a little while sitting together and finishing a good lunch, before Hermione and harry decided that it was time to go back to Hogwarts and check on Ron. Emma offered to walk them back and explain to their teacher what happened, to make sure they didn't get into any trouble, but Darla assured that no teacher will hear of the little scene. They said their goodbyes and thanked again for the help and the nice lunch and left.

…

Until they were already on Hogwarts ground neither Hermione nor Harry spoke. Then he took the first word. "I can understand why you want to do this Hermione".

She was scared to pick the topic up again, after it ended so bloody the last time, but was surprised of the reaction her friend showed now.

He continued when she didn't speak. "You know I felt the same back in School. I mean before Hogwarts." He took her hand as they walked " For a while it was so much better when I got here, everything was new and I was someone else." Hermione listened truly interested. "but then I noticed that I already was marked here as well, even more than I was in the muggle world. If I had the chance to escape all that and start over somewhere else, I would do it too." Now he stopped walking and looked at her, turning her around to face him. "So please Hermione do it! We want you to be happy and eventually Ron will understand it as well. He just doesn't have any experience with this." Harry hugged her. "We will still be your friends…..I will still be your friend and we can still see each other at holidays." He let go of her and smiled "Then we have a place to visit during those times, just like everyone else." Hermione was crying like a waterfall already, but had to giggle at the last sentence. For the first time now she felt like she truly had a friend again. And she was happily crying it all out as they went back home.