A Few Days Later

"Hey Chase!" Bran called. "I think they listened to your suggestions." It had been a few days since he had first met Chase, but their friendship had grown exponentially. They already had their own inside jokes about the guy in the office next to her and about their boss, Zoe Gould. For the first time in a long time, Bran was happy, very very happy. Today had been an exceptionally good day. He had started his first research today and had just finished when he called out to Chase. It was on the properties of garden gnome saliva. It seemed preposterous to Bran that there would be anything special about gnome spit, but that was what he had been told to do, so that was what he did. He found the little creatures quite annoying, and remembered when he had first taken a picture of one.

It was during the summer after his sixth year at Hogwarts. He had finally turned 17 and could use magic at home, so, like most 17-year-olds, he was using magic to do just about everything. He knew that gnomes were drawn to wizarding homes, but unfortunately he didn't realize how long it would take for them to get there. The first gnome appeared within a week of him being home. He took its picture and, knowing that the pest would draw more, seemingly disposed of it. Apparently, he didn't know how to properly dispose of a garden gnome, because he was awoken the next morning by an unhappy mother complaining of pests in her begonias. Bran smiled, because once his mother knew the cause of the gnomes she had forbidden him of doing magic. It hadn't worked, of course, and she knew it wouldn't. She just wanted someone to blame for the problem. They eventually left once Bran moved to London, but he knew that mother would gladly take them back if Bran went back home. He missed his parents. He would have to go visit them soon, as he hadn't seen them since January.

Once Bran had finished with the day's research he took a quick look at the augurey that Chase had looked at a few days ago. Convinced that his medicine prescription was wrong, she had changed it on his chart, hoping that the healers taking care of him would listen. It seemed they had, as he looked much happier than before, and a glance at his chart said that he had made a full recovery. Chase was definitely in the right place.

Pulled back to the present, Bran walked over to her at her little cubicle, one of many in the large room. She had so many pictures that he was surprised she had room to do any work. He leaned over towards her on one of the short "walls" that marked her cubicle. "I've finished with my gnome research today," he told her. "I can't ignore the monster that is my paperwork any longer," he said, laughing. "Here;s something you'll like hearing. I checked in on our augurey pal on my way back. He is now, amazingly, in perfect health, so his caretakers must have listened to you. Hopefully they're smart enough to come thank you." Bran smiled, knowing that she would be very pleased. Chase was very passionate about her work. She loved animals and cared enough to sacrifice her time to keep them healthy, even if it did mean staying at work a little later than she would have preferred.

Chase heard her name being called by her friend Bran. It had only been a few days since they had met, and already they were really close friends. They shared inside jokes, and made fun of the fact that they often made these inside jokes standing by the water cooler, making it feel like they were muggles, and laughing the entire time. During the time she was at work though, it was as though every other worry stopped. Calvin was at work too, and she would often sneak up to his floor to say hi and get him some lunch, though it was obvious that something wasn't quite right with Chase, and even though she made sure she looked extremely happy and pleasant, it was obvious that she had started to lose weight. In a few days she had dropped a couple of pounds, and it looked like she wasn't getting very much sleep, but at the same time, her personality didn't change, and she appeared to be fine, just, thinner, and had dark bags under her eyes.

Glancing up from her paperwork, she grinned when her friend came waltzing over to her. "That's great!" She said and brushed a strand of hair out of her face. Her clothes had a slightly burnt look to them, and she appeared to have a couple of burn marks. "Can you believe it though? I just got back from a call about a Dragon with a tooth ache.. a TOOTH ACHE! Do you know how big those teeth are?! I had to practically sit in it's mouth and pull out what looked like sheep fluff." She made a face. "It was nasty, and it didn't take very kindly to me sitting on it's tongue.. if there hadn't been a squad near me at the time, I'd be toast right now!" She said laughing. "But I'm happy that my suggestion worked on the augurey." she said and quickly signed her name on the bottom of a document before putting it aside. "you still got a lot of paperwork? I took my folders home last night and read them all! Every single one of them.. it was actually very interesting to be honest.. but there was a lot there.. and they even suggested I go look in the library for more information." She rolled her eyes. "They are nuts." She said giggling as she leaned back in her chair and looked at him happily. She really enjoyed work, and she was happy she had made a friend, because otherwise she'd be dead bored here.

Bran's eyes widened in amusement when she spoke of her outing. A dragon with a toothache? It seemed like a completely ridiculous situation, and Bran couldn't help but laugh. "You sat in its mouth?!" The very idea seemed scandalous, and extremely dangerous, and he was both shocked and amazed that she had lived to tell the tale. "You are one tough old bird!" Bran said, laughing. In his head he pictured the scene and thought it similar to the story of the lion with a thorn in its foot. Chase was, of course, the mouse. This job was definitely a good one.

Chase mentioned talking her paperwork home with her and Bran raised his eyebrows in surprise. "I could never take that home," he said. "I don't mind doing all of those reports anymore, but I still need to have some time away from them, for my sanity." He smiled. Chase worked hard, perhaps too hard. "Oh! Thank you," he replied after she told him of the library. "I need to stop by the library and find out all I can on mooncalves. There's a full moon next week and I'm planning on hunting one down to snap a few shots of. It's a shame we don't have one here," he said, half frowning. "It does make sense, though. It would be hard to mimic a moon in a cage. And I guess it would hide every day that didn't have a full moon, so it wouldn't be much use to have anyway." Despite what he said, Bran still looked hopeful, as if there was a rumor going around about a new mooncalf coming to stay

"So," he asked, "what are you doing for the rest of the day? Just filling out the paperwork for your expedition?" He didn't think it would take that long, but then again he'd never actually watched her do a healing report. "I've only gotten half as much paperwork to do today as yesterday, so there's a plus. I might even finish before tomorrow!" Bran laughed again. The workload was indeed large, and if he started working immediately he might actually finish and still have time to run another test on the gnome saliva. He really only had to do one more and then he would write his conclusions down and send them on to his supervisor.

Chase laughed. "Yeah! It was crazy, got a little burnt." She said giggling slightly before shaking her head. "I think he liked the fact that I helped it.. it didn't kill me after I got it out, that was for sure.." She said grinning and looking at him happily. "Getting in the mouth was the hardest though... trying to convince a dragon to open it's mouth and let met sit in it... yikes. "She said and laughed running her hand through her hair and smiling up at him. She shrugged when he commented about the paperwork. "I don't have any sanity, and it helps to get my mind off... other things." She said cryptically. But she didn't make a move to explain, and hoped he wouldn't press it.

The truth of it was, she was still healing. No matter how much she told her she and Calvin were doing well. She was happy whenever he was around, she was always happy, but the moment he was gone, even just out of the room, she found herself having a hard time concentrating. He came back in, and she was fine. She was getting better though.. even though she had lost her appetite, in fact she never took lunch at work, deciding to work through it instead. One main reason she was losing so much weight so quickly. The food she ate was what Calvin forced her to eat. She listened as he spoke enthusiastically about the mooncalf and grinned at him. "There's bound to be information about them in the library! We should head over there sometime." She said smiling at him.

"Yeah.. I was thinking I'd finish my paperwork, and then head over to library... There's bound to be a lot of information that I'll need to know about healing." She said with a grin, before glancing at her paperwork. "At least I actually have started to fill out the paperwork for stuff I've actually done.' She said with a laugh before pushing the paperwork away. "What about you? Anything exciting for your day?"

"I've got absolutely nothing to do today," Bran said, slightly disappointed. "I mean, I need to do one my saliva test, and then write my conclusions, but that will take at most an hour. Then all I have to do is paperwork. It's almost cruel that they make us do it. Oh well. I have to call my parents when I get home though." Although his words may have implied that he was dreading the call,, his tone did not. He was happy to talk to his parents. They had always been close, and he was looking forward to scheduling a get together this weekend.

"Are you sure you want to wait until you've finished your paperwork?" Bran asked, hoping she'd prefer to go to the library. "There's always time to do paperwork, and besides, you can't take the library home with you." He hadn't even been in the library yet, and it had been days since he started. He had been told that there were hundreds and hundreds of books about any kind of magical creature you could ever dream of. He couldn't wait to get in there, and figured that if they were both going to go, they might as well join each other.

He looked at Chase. She looked like she had lost some weight, and not in the good way. She often went to see her boyfriend during lunch, but on the occasions when she didn't, she hardly ate anything. Bran was worried about her. He knew that her experience with Felix Barker, may he burn in Hell, had happened recently and wondered if that was the reason for her heavily decreased appetite. Whatever it was, something had to be done. Bran, unfortunately, didn't know what to do, and hoped that her boyfriend would be able to help her. Bran could only help her at work, when he was with her.

Chase made a sympathetic face and smiled at him. "Yeah.. once we get into the swing of things, I'm sure it'll get exciting, besides, I hear Ms. Gould is going to put up the first project for new people in the Beast Specialty! Once those go up, I'm sure you'll be able to get something more exciting to happen." She said grinning at him. "Oh, big get together planned with your family?" Chase asked with a grin. She wasn't sure what she thought about him being able to talk to his family. She had her own family, and even though they weren't her parents, she had her own family and she was content with that.

Chase looked down at the paperwork on her desk, before frowning and sighing. "Okay." She said and then smiled, pushing herself away from the desk. "Lets go up there." She grinned at him and put her paperwork off to the side, "Come on." She said grinning at him, and making a face as she stood up and made her way around her desk to him. "Erm.. where is it anyway?" She asked suddenly, glancing around and then pointing. "Over there! Lets go!" She said grinning and started off towards the library, checking behind her every so often to see if he was following her to the large double doors set on the wall on the opposite side of the Creatures room.

"A new project?" Bran was excited. This would be the first new project since he started working, and he was practically shaking with excitement. "I can't wait! I wonder what creatures will be involved...." He stopped talking and sank into deep thought. He hoped that the project had interesting creatures, like nundus or acromantulas, or maybe even a manticore! This was unlikely of course, as all three were classified XXXXX and would be well above the qualifications of a new employee. One could dream though, one could dream.

Bran glanced up and realized that Chase had left to go to the library and ran to catch up, pretending to tie his shoe when she turned around. She seemed to think he would get lost though, as she glanced back at him every few seconds or so. The office wasn't THAT big. They soon came upon the double doors that marked the library, which was situated opposite the Creature Containment and Research Center. "Well," he said, obviously excited, "here we go!"

He opened the massive doors and looked inside. His breath caught. There weren't hundreds of books, there were thousands of books on dozens of shelves that lined the room. There were also chairs and tables in the center of the room where Bran assumed people would sit down to read the books they found here. It was like a little section of Heaven's library had been placed here, and the best part? Every book was about magical creatures in some way. He realized that he had stopped breathing and almost forced his lungs to move. The sight before him was just too breathtaking. He took a few steps forward and grabbed the first book he saw. This one was about Uric the Oddball. Glancing at the first page, it stated that it talked about his experience with the augurey and the fwooper.

Bran replaced the book and grabbed a second. This book described the diricawl, which muggles referred to as the dodo bird. That was another XX that the ministry did not have. There was an obvious reason, as the diricawl had the ability to disappear and reappear wherever it wanted, so there would be no way to contain it. Bran smiled, remembering his quest to capture it on film. It took him seven tries to approach a diricawl close enough to take its picture. The other ones kept getting scared and disappeared.

He grabbed another book. This one was about acromantula venom and its uses in potions. The library seemed to have an endless supply of knowledge. Bran knew that he would be spending a lot of time in here now, and was angry with himself for never coming here before. It didn't matter though. He was here now and was going to make the best of his time.

Chase watched as he freaked out about the project, and she grinned. "I wonder if there will be anything for me to do in the projects... or is it just for the beast section..." Chase said nervously, before shrugging and looking at him happily. "Maybe the project will have to do with something that spans across all of the divisions!" She said grinning at him and running her hand through her hair again.

When the door opened to the library, and they stepped in, Chase was gaping. He automatically moved to a shelf, but Chase was rooted to the spot. Staring up at the books, her mouth having dropped open. There were so many books, the chairs looked heavenly, and the smell of the place was just perfect. She took a few halting steps into the library, and then froze, and her gaze turned to Bran. He was taking book after book from the shelf, opening them, and then putting it back and taking another one. She slowly walked over to the bookshelf he was at, and took a book down, and opened it carefully, reading a few pages before putting the book back, and looking back at Bran in excitement. "This place is crazy!" She gasped, looking at him and picking up another book, and looking through it, before putting it back, and going in search for a section she liked, the one on the healing of creatures.

Bran looked up and spoke to Chase as she went off to explore the library. "Yeah, this place is absolutely insane!" This was one of those times when insanity was a good thing. He put back the book he was holding and, finally remembering why he came here, went off to find a book about mooncalves. He walked through row after row searching for anything about mooncalves. Unfortunately, the books were organized by a system that Bran didn't understand. Finally, after what seemed like hours, but was more likely just a few minutes, he found what he was looking for. He wondered what Chase was thinking, as he had walked past her about a dozen times in five minutes in his quest for the mooncalf.

Bran opened the book and was disappointed at what he found. This book was not about mooncalves, but their feces, which, if harvested before sunrise, acted as a very potent fertilizer for magical plants. Bran returned the book and continued looking. He turned down the next aisle and found a book that looked promising. He took a closer look and smiled. This was the right book for him. He walked over to the nearest table, sat down, and started flipping through the book, searching for a section on where to find a mooncalf. He found it about 30 pages in, after a very long description of what a mooncalf looked like. He took note of where he could find it and began planning a midnight trip.

In just a few days there would be a full moon. That night he would leave the city and sneak onto a muggle farm. He would then wait close to a hill where, hopefully, a mooncalf would go to the peak of the hill to dance, as mooncalves do on full moon nights. The only thing he would have to worry about would be werewolves, but he doubted that he would see one on a muggle farm in the middle of nowhere. Then again, the middle of nowhere seemed like a likely place. He'd keep a lookout. Bran could deal with werewolves if need be, but what he didn't want to do was scare away the mooncalf. There seemed to be a recent mooncalf sighting on a farm about 30 miles northwest of London. That was where he'd go.

Chase was lost in her own books for a long moment, until she saw Bran walk past her with a determined look on his face. She giggled and watched him as he made his way across the library and to another section, before finally pulling a book down and searching through it frantically. She giggled and bringing her own book, went to sit next to him and looked over his shoulder at the book he was reading. "Mooncalf's?" she asked softly, trying not to startle him to badly, but giggling all the same. "How pretty." She smiled at him and then opened her own book. It was about how to best cure creatures that lived underwater. Chase hated water.. and for good reason, but she knew she'd have to get over that fear eventually... running water scared her the most, but she figured if she learned to love and help the creatures inside it, maybe it wouldn't scare her so badly.

"I hate water.." she said aloud, not really paying attention to her train of thought. "Running water... it's horrid.." She said shuddering. "But they say.. sometimes you gotta tackle your fears before you can get over them.. and that's what I plan to do.. if I learn about creatures.. underwater.. maybe water won't feel so scary.." She said and shuddered. Somehow she didn't think that would work, mostly because it wasn't the creatures in the water that scared her, but the water itself... but it might work. She was chewing on her lower lip, staring at a picture of a weird carp like thing that had been reported by muggles, it looked like someone had been breeding it with something above water, and it had a very weird appearance to it, almost.. like a horse. It was swimming in a current of fresh water, that was rushing past it. "I hate water." She whispered again, closing the book with a snap.