Rumor Has It...right?

[Patricia Styx]

Patricia was sitting in her office, aimlessly swinging side to side on her swivel chair, playing with her quill in one hand with her head in her other hand. It was a slow day for the young Healer and unfortunately it was a 12 hour day that was only four hours young. Now Patricia loved her job as a Healer, it really had been her dream for years and now that she was a fully fledged Healer she was happy with her life. Although she was a bit upset that she didn’t see her friends as much as she would of liked, not that she had many friends now-a-days. Luna was hardly ever home and she missed little Adele but she saw them every once in a while. After graduation Patricia lost contact with her friends from school that had made it through Hogwarts at least so she could focus on her career. Although there was her friends like Becky, Ava, Kate and Bianca that she hadn’t seen in absolute years and occasionally she would wonder what they were doing with their lives. It surprised her how quickly people seemed to lose contact once they weren’t forced to see each other every day; it actually upset her quite a lot thinking that the bonds of friendship that she thought she had built weren’t as strong as she once thought. She did have some people she went to school with working in St. Mungo’s with her though and there was even some that were in her year so they were good to keep her going during the work day even if most of the time she didn’t see them due to not working in the same ward. Then again on a good day Patricia didn’t have much time to socialise with fellow Healers because she would be too busy doing her own job. She enjoyed her speciality fields within her job. While she was a general Healer where she’d work with patients who weren’t sure what was wrong with them or just needing a check up she also specialised in Potion and Plant Poisoning and Potion and Medicine making. Of course these only grew from her love of Herbology and Potions in school and it was helpful that she had a knack for both subjects. People used to think that she only did well in the classes because her father and her uncle were the Professors but Patricia wasn’t aware of that until well half way through her schooling career so she just ignored the people’s comments.

Hearing a knock on her door Patricia came out of her daze. Turning around she saw the receptionist with a board in her hand; she had a patient in one of the booths waiting for her. Oh well, this should keep me busy for a short while at least. she thought as she got up and made her way to the room where her patient was waiting for her. Quickly reading over the patients chart, skipping the name by accident, Patricia read the person’s symptoms and their assumptions. Ahh, pregnancy. she thought to herself. Making a quick stop at the potions lab she picked up a small vial and put in her pocket before continuing to the patient. “Hello! My name is Patricia and I’ll be your Healer today! So what seems to be the problem?...” she paused a moment as she scanned the page she was looking at for the person’s name. Recognising the name she smiled softly to herself. “Professor Kingsley!” This was probably the last person she had expected to see in St. Mungo’s, it was slightly awkward looking after one of her old Professor’s, even though Professor Kingsley was quite young, but even more so because she may be pregnant.

 

[Professor Cyndi Kingsley]

As Cyndi Kingsley sat on the examination table, waiting for a healer to come and assist her, she uneasily wondered if she should have mentioned the fact that she had an appointment at St. Mungo's to her husband sooner than she had. The young woman had had the appointment booked for nearly two weeks, and yet, she'd only mentioned it to her husband in a very brief note that she had sent him via owl moments before she'd left the castle for the hospital. It might not have even reached him yet. Part of the woman did not want her husband to come to the appointment, especially if it turned out that she wasn't pregnant. She didn't want to go through that again. Running a hand through her loose, wavy brown hair, the woman thought back to the appointment she'd had a couple of months ago when she had first thought she was pregnant. The signs had been there - the nausea, the lack of appetite, her missed menstrual - but it had been a disappointing false alarm. And, Cyndi didn't want a healer to give her husband that disappointing news again, especially because she had the feeling that he had been far more excited at the prospect of a child.

This time around, there weren't as many signs. She wasn't nauseous in the mornings which she thought was the most blatant sign. The checklist they'd made her fill out was confusing too. Are you tired most of the day? "Of course I am..." she'd muttered as she checked off that item. Her job was a stressful and tiring one and with it being near the end of the term, she didn't really get much time off to simply relax. Do you have backaches? "What kind of questionnaire is this?" she'd grumbled as she checked that item off as well. Finishing off the rest, she'd handed it over to a nurse. Digging in her bag for her water bottle, Cyndi's eyes fell on a copy of the Rumor Has It magazine that she'd confiscated from a student in her class. She rolled her eyes as she recalled the tiny blurb about herself being pregnant. When she'd read the mention of herself, the idea had seemed laughable but now only a few weeks later, Cyndi couldn't help but wonder if the student who had written the magazine was a Seer. That could help the professors narrow down who it was. Hearing the healer finally making her way towards where Cyndi was seated, she sighed. She'd know for sure soon. That voice, it sounded awfully... "Patricia?" she said as she came face-to-face with her former student. This is awkward, she thought to herself as she forced a smile. "No need to call me professor anymore...unless you want me to call you Healer Styx" she smirked.

 

[Patricia Styx]

Patricia usually liked having the patients that came in and thought that they were pregnant because more times than not they were right and she enjoyed giving them the good news and seeing the happiness on their faces. Then again there were the times where she had to let them know that they weren’t pregnant and then she had to deal with the disappointment in their faces, it was even harder for the older couples that had been trying and trying with no success but thankfully with magic there was so many options to help them, unlike the muggle world and having grown up in it she knew that it was much harder. Then the rest of the time there was the people who weren’t happy they were pregnant because it was unplanned, they didn’t know who the father was and a whole case of different reasons why they weren’t happy. Some of them were decent and valid reasons but for those people, some younger than Patricia herself, that came in, not planning on being a parent with little or no financial income and all that jazz, well that just annoyed Patricia. She was annoyed that people could be so silly and careless to let it happen in the first place. Of course there was Luna, who was in the same situation a few years back, and she was still in school but Patricia couldn’t find herself to be angry at her best friend no matter how against that type of thing she was. Then again, not everyone was like her – a 21 year old who hadn’t even been kissed before. Although now really wasn’t the time for Patricia to dwell on the fact that she was 21 and still single, sure she always told herself that she was happy with that and when it was the right time she would find the person for her and that she was in no rush as she wanted to focus on her career; but other times she got worried that she would end up alone, her number of friends was already starting to become minimal.

With that out of her mind she started to deal with her patient. Patricia tried to maintain her professional stance as she stood there in front of Professor Kingsley. She had had a problem where she would always call a teacher, no matter how long ago they taught her, Mr, Ms, Professor – whatever the case may be, out of respect that she just couldn’t quite kick. Laughing to cover the awkwardness, “No need for that. Sorry, it’s just a habit of mine..” she had tried to say Cyndi’s name but it seemed to weird, maybe during the session it might be easier for her. It wasn’t as if Patricia and Cyndi were strangers after all, the woman had taught her a few years ago and she had taught one of her favourite classes, they had actually bonded a lot during those Ancient Runes classes and it wasn’t all that had as Cyndi was only a few years older than herself; plus she had attended the young woman’s wedding for Merlin’s sake. “So how is everything?” she asked, meaning in general and in terms of symptoms but let Cyndi pick it up whichever way she wanted, as she picked up Cyndi’s questionnaire to give it a quick glance before giving her the potion.

 

[Professor Cyndi Kingsley]

The woman allowed a nervous chuckle to pass her lips as she listened to her former student. She knew that it was silly to be nervous. She'd known Patricia for years now even if they hadn't seen each other in a while. In fact, she'd known Patricia since she had been a student herself. Patricia had been one of her first students and Patricia had been at her wedding. They had a long and friendly history. But, Cyndi wasn't sure she would want to hear bad news from the young woman or anyone for that matter. She wanted to be able to go home and tell her husband the good news. With her sister-in-law having the twins, Cyndi had found that her own maternal instinct had kicked in something awful. She found herself purchasing clothes for the babies and offering to babysit. It was good practice for whenever she and Cameron ended up having a kid of their own.

Crossing her legs at the ankle, the professor looked down straight at the Healer as she answered her question. Patricia had always had a kind demeanor about her, which made her extremely easy to speak with. "Everything is...fine" she said, glad that it was an honest answer. It was nice that things were going right in her life. "I haven't been feeling well, especially in the mornings, which is why I'm here. I want to know if it's something more than a cold or stress or...I dunno"she shrugged. The professor wasn't going to say the 'p' word. She didn't want to jinx things. "How are you doing? It looks like you've been doing pretty well for yourself" she said, a smile crossing her face. It was always nice to see that other people she knew had done well for themselves.

 

[Patricia Styx]

Patricia could only hope that this was as slightly awkward for Cyndi as it was for her. She was sure it couldn’t be easy for a Professor to have her health put in the hands of one of her past students. She was sure that some would only ever be able to see a student as a young, naive person and not really trust them. Heck, now at 21, the amount of times that she would see an old teacher from her muggle school before Hogwarts and they would say that they remember her as a kid – didn’t help. Then again, Cyndi only started teaching Patricia half way through her schooling years at Hogwarts, and even then she was somewhat mature for her age but she found herself having to grow up quickly especially after finding out that Kalif was her father, but that was a long time ago now that she didn’t use it as an excuse for anything. Apart from that Patricia and Cyndi always had a good relationship, it wasn’t always exactly a student and professor relationship, in her mind she had seen them almost as friends, but when you were a student the same they were a student, Patricia could only imagine that was somewhat normal.

Taking a chair over to where she was standing Patricia took a seat, she spent most of her day standing and liked to remain so when with a patient, but she knew Cyndi so she figured it wouldn’t be seen as unprofessional. Making a few notes around Cyndi’s questionnaire and a few other sheets she listened to what the older woman had to say, nodding her head to show she was still listening. Patricia had always wondered how magical hospitals handled when someone thought they were pregnant. It was easy in the muggle world where they could just get an ultra sound, but because nothing electrical liked to work in the magic world she was always curious, but of course with her training came the answers; magic never seemed to surprise the young girl. Standing up again and putting her things down she moved over towards Cyndi. “Well everything sounds pretty normal. So let’s just do a few things to clear up some grey areas.” she said, taking the small vial out of her pocket. “Take this for me, all in one go, and tell me what it tastes like.” she said. She wondered why other Healers told the patients what sweet and what sour meant, obviously if someone wanted to be pregnant they would say sweet and visa versa, so Patricia just left it up for the patient to tell her. “Things are going great. I love my job, everyone is really nice, but I don’t seem to find a lot of time to socialise. At most I see my colleagues, some of which were from my class, Hadan and Alyssa and a few others that I know from Hogwarts – so it isn’t too bad.” she said, remaining happy even though she got upset from time to time that she had practically no life outside of work.

 

[Professor Cyndi Kingsley]

Cyndi was glad when Patricia took a seat before beginning to speak some more. The young woman never quite liked when someone was standing while she was sitting. It always made her feel as if she should stand up too and it reminded her of when she was a student. Seeing Patricia sit made Cyndi think less of the fact that Patricia was a doctor and more like she was seeking a friend's advice. Of course, she appreciated that her friend knew what she was doing and had received the necessary training to help her right now, but that one little action, her friend sitting down, made her feel more at ease. Cyndi didn't realize she'd been holding her breath until she heard the healer say the word 'normal.' Normal meant fine, good, nothing to worry about in the woman's mind. A weak smile crossed the woman's face as she folded her hands in her lap.

As she took a look at the vial that the woman took out, Cyndi eyed it warily. She knew exactly what that was and she wasn't sure if she wanted to take it. Taking it would mean that she would have an answer, which was a good thing unless it came back with an answer that Cyndi didn't want. And, since she wasn't sure what she wanted, she didn't know what to do. You came here for a reason, Cyndi thought to herself. She reached up her hand slowly and took the vial, but she didn't drink it right away. The last time she had come to the hospital, the drink had tasted incredibly sour and Cyndi had almost thrown up. "I don't remember Hadan. I heard Alyssa got married though and that she has a baby" Cyndi replied a small smile on her face. It seemed that many of her old classmates, at least the ones she could remember, were married and either had children or were having them. She lifted the vial and then paused and lowered it. "You should go to New York and see Katheryn some time. She's on Broadway performing" she added, a proud smile on her face as she spoke of her sister-in-law who she knew to have been in Patricia's year. Lifting the vial once more, Cyndi chuckled. "I've stalled long enough, right?" she grinned and then tilted the liquid into her mouth. Once again, the taste was nearly unbearable. "How gross! It tastes like pure sugar" she uttered and then gasped. If sour meant not pregnant than its counter had to mean..."I'm pregnant aren't I?"