Summer Picnic

"My guess is you're an auror who needs help," she said quietly, reaching over and touching the bite wound to slow the bleeding and draw off the pain. It felt to her like he hurt in more places than just at the bite wound, but that made perfect sense with what she could see of his symptoms. "This should make it more bearable for the moment."

Robert was just finishing the pint he'd had with the fish and chips. A perfect lunch with his son in law, and all without Kate's harping on him about his cholesterol for eating greasy deep fried foods. A win/win, for sure. Cholesterol was a muggle disease, not something most wizards seemed to get, not at Robert's age, anyway, but that didn't stop Kate from being the Snack Police. And there it was, the interruption that always seemed to come on his time off. This time it was Jess, and had Abbey with her. That made both him and Brian perk up at the first sight of her.

"I didn't bring my bag with me," Robert looked up at Brian. Well, of course he didn't. He didn't plan on doing surgery on his fish and chips. His only plan was to smash through them.

"I'll go get it," Brian said. "Jess, I'll leave Abbey at the farm with her Gram when I get the bag."

"And you can come with me back to the Shrieking Shack," Robert said. "You have Khaat's portkeys? Do you know how to use them for a return trip? Michael's been tinkering with them. They'll either work, or we'll be splinched, probably upside down and backwards."

"Now, that's going to make her feel so much better about traveling with you," Brian scowled at him. He looked at Jess. "The biggest thing you need to be brave about is his dry sense of humor. If Michael weren't sure they were going to work, he'd never given them to Khaat. You can be sure of that."

"Do you have your portkey to the farm?"

"Of course," Brian said.

"I would hope our ministry would not get rid of an injured auror just for being injured," she said. "I'm glad you're feeling a little better. From what I understand bites change everything because they alter the physiology of whoever was bitten. I can't speak from any experience..." she didn't feel like elaborating yet. "But it's just what I've been told from people whom I would trust about that." She picked up the flask and handed it to him. "Sure. Here. Help yourself."

"Oh, good girl," Robert said, more than a little impressed when she could still distinguish the proper key in all the keys on Khaat's keyring. He glanced up at Brian. "We're fine. Go." Brian nodded and ported out. Robert looked at Jess. "Let me teach you something. You need to know how Michael Tremaine works. He always has some weird logic to what he does, so that won't be any different here. Now, I have figured out how these little keys of his work but when he gave me my set, he purposely did not tell me which key went where. He doesn't ever give me any bloody directions to these little gadgets. He makes me figure them out. That's his little way of making me crazy. The only way for me to find out where they went was to use them and find out. Let me tell you about Michael's sense of humor where I'm concerned. The man has a boggart in a box in his basement--or is it in his attic now? Anyway, he keeps this darned thing because, every so often it's apparently funny to let it out and scare the poop out of his very dear friend. The man can be a bit of a loon. So, let me teach you how to think just a wee bit like Michael thinks. Take a look at the keys and think. When you use a key, you turn it in a bit of a circle, don't you, like turning the hand on a clock. To go forward, what do you do? You turn the hands to the right, clockwise, right? And to go backwards, you turn the hands to the left So, if you want to go back Hogsmeade, you twist the bit on the key to the left, not the whole key, just the bit. Now, with your permission, I'll travel with you. You're driving." He took her arm to let her use the portkey for both of them to take them to Hogsmeade.

"He's g Ifoing to have trouble if he's on his own," Khaat said, "at least for awhile. He needs to get this stabilized, and we need to make sure that his wolfsbane dose is right for him. He might need it adjusted a little."

"I can take care of that piece," Robert said, making sure he talked to Jack and not about him. "I can calculate your proper dosage without trouble, but its going to take you a bit to get your energy back, and then there's the whole business that it's the first time you've changed. That's going to take you a bit, and then there's the wound you have. I'm guessing it's going to take you the better part of a week before you're going to feel like yourself again. So, what's your living situation? Got any mates that you trust that might help you for a few days? If not, we could let you stay in St. Mungo's, just until you get the worst of this behind you."

Khaat cleaned Jack's wound, and took the blue jar and did as her father asked and tended the wound and taped a thick surgical bandage over it so that if it bled or seeped, it would not bleed through any time soon. In the meantime, he was tinkering with a few of the bottles he had in his bag, making a hasty potion into an otherwise empty vial.

"Well done," Robert said, approving. He swirled the little vial around and held it up to the light to check it. "That should do it. Here, Jack. This will stop those withdrawal symptoms. At least you'll be all done with that nonsense, and it should help you feel better." He handed the vial to him. "Sorry, it isn't going to taste good, but, it should do the trick."