Hogwarts in Ruins

Branko deffinately did not want to be cared for. She'd studiously ignored his attempts to avoid her, just as she did with Kristof when he didn't want to be fed, pr have his face washed. Looking up from her notebook at some odd noises coming from the headmaster, Eilir looked at the headmaster with an odd mix of concern, sympathy and patience in her expression. If there was one thing the girl excelled in it was her patience. She took in the man's white fingers and pressed her lips together. "You need to get better." she said softly, pulling out a soft cloth from her bag and looking at the man with an almost pained expression. This had to be a degrading experience for him.

Returning to the man again, Eilir pressed one hand atop his head to keep him still and with an air of long practice, dried his face swiftly before rinsing the cloth out with cold water and dabbing it gently on his face and neck to cool him slightly. She rinsed the cloth again and washed her hands before returning to her chair. She looked at him sadly. "It's not like anyone's going to know about this. You should try to...concentrate on something else...maybe I could find you something to read?" she said, looking around the room for inspiration. If it had been Alex, she'd have offered to read to him, but Branko....she'd rather sit and turn the pages fpr him than make him feel like she were babying him.

His eyes opened wide in shock as, at his point of view, she started treating him just the same way she did with Kristof. It was embarrasing, and somehow annoying. Not simply because a girl like her was taking care of him, things were beyond that indeed...

Since young age Josef Branko had taken care of himself, even before his parent's dead; he just could not stay there doing nothing. And the war and the following years had only build up this attitud of him, not depending on anyone, but quite the contrary, have people depending on him. People tended to claim the man was hard and too strict with everyone, but few realized he was even harder with himself.

To be in a situation like this was just frustrating, not being able to move or do any magic, not able to find his own way through solve problems... Lead the situation, command people to do things his way...

And 30 years later, only Debbie had been able to get some of her ways through him. And now this girl. It was amazing how brave... or perhaps stupid, she could be. Unexperienced for sure, he thought, nobody besides the closest to him dared this kind of situations with him... or perhaps she DID counted like one of his closest, trusted people?

"maybe I could find you something to read?" She suggested and made him think harder about her. Since when she was part of his closed circle, the first one that had not been invited to join for sure.

He thought for a second about her words now, and then turned his eyes down to the desk as trying to point the papers all over the furniture. They were all work of course, not relaxing readings, but something had to be done more than wasting precious hours sitting there like a baby!

Eilir's eyes skimmed the desk but didn't focus on the papers scattered on it at first. She was a bookworm herself, delighting in tucking herself away and reading all manner of material. It had been an escape when she was younger, and now she had the castle library to trawl through. She hadn't made much of a dent in the reading material available and had concentrated mainly on spell books and ones to help in animal care. Eilir naturally assumed that Branko would rather use the time during his recovery to read something enjoyable. She turned to her bag, always having a collection of books available for when Kristof was sleeping.

The girl frowned at the titles of the books she had with her at this moment in time. Hippogriff breeding had been something which caught her eye, she'd been wondering if wizards bred the magnificent creatures selectively for certain traits but hadn't found time to even open the book. So you can see thestrals? was a book she'd picked up idley, driven by a slight need to learn more about her less demanding charges. The hippogriffs tended to desire her attention more than the skeletal creatures. Embarressingly the other two books were probably collections of fairy tales. Eilir had read lots of those growing up and was intruiged to discover the wizard equivalent. With a perplexed expression she turned to the headmaster again and blinked at his focused attention.

Drifting over to his side, the girl examined the papers on the desk and hummed thoughtfully. "I hope there's not specific order to these." she said almost to herself as she gathered the errant papers together and knelt beside Branko's chair. Looking at him she smiled a little. "I should have known you'd want to get some work done!" she said lightly before focussing on the small stack of papers in her hands. "Um, I guess....nod when you see the one you need to read first. And, I'll check to see if there're any more that belong in the same package." The girl started to sift through the papers, piling ones that seemed to belong together in small stacks on the man's desk whilst waiting for him to show a specific interest. She was surprised that she didn't feel more uneasy caring for the headmaster. She knew he resented having to be cared for, that was why he was a difficult patient. But this didn't have to be a horrible experience for him, and Eilir was oddly comfortable in the caring role. However, she knew this was very likely to change when the man recovered his voice.

Branko grunted at her suggestion in agreement. He was not really thrilled at the idea, indeed it wasn't an idea he like at all, but there was nothing bether... he could not do magic, he could not move his f***ing arms and the only thing that seem to be still on his control were his own eyes!

His sight went through the papers she was holding in front of his nose. The writtings swimmed over the paper before his eyes though. The fever did not make things any easier, but he was to stubborn to admit that even this method was hard for him. He was not ready to declare himself useless! No way!

He narrowed his eyes to focus better on the inky words onthe parchments and felt silence as if reading, trying not to demonstrate the difficulties he was having already.

"Mmmm..." he grunted again nodding at the paper as finally he could catch up on some words that identified the document.

Eilir noticed Branko struggling to read. However, she decided to keep quiet on the matter. There really wasn't much the poor man could do at the moment other than try to read, and there was the strong likelihood that Branko would drive himself to distraction with nothing to do at all. When he nodded his interest at a specific parchment Eilir improvised a stand for it on his desk and moved him closer, hoping that it would help him. She then sorted through the rest of the parchments, ordering them until she was satisfied they were all in the relevant groups they had originated in. Pursing her lips slightly the girl wondered whether the headmaster would benefit from something to drink.

Fevers dehydrated you, and drinking water help to flush the body of toxins, so it would make sense for her to offer him a drink. And she had chilled water in her bag. The only problem would be getting him to drink it. Either Eilir would have to hold the cup and tip in to his lips or she could offer him a straw. The girl wasn't sure which option the man would find less attractive. Wrinkling her nose slightly she pulled out a bottle of ice cold water from her bag and a clear plastic tumbler that Kristof often liked playing with. She eyed a curly blue straw dubiously and chose not to offer it first. Returning to the desk, Eilir swallowed down any hesitation and showed Branko the bottle.

It was visibly cold, beads of water running down the outside. She smiled slightly. "I was wondering if you were thirsty at all?" she offered.

"Shht!!" he hushed her not even taking his eyes away from the reading, getting redder on the face as felt the whole situation was indeed embarrasing. Her voice was distracting enough to add to this have to stop reading and glare at her...

Wherther he was being rude or not, he did not really know, and honesty did not care either. Indeed if he would have stopped to think about it, probably he would have thought he was indeed being nice. He had tried to hex Debbie out of the room the last time something similar to this happened. Although, of course the only reason he had not done that already was because he couldn't.

"Mmmmph... NOmmmph.. NO!" He yelled out finally with effort, yet it was glad for him to find out he was recovering some voice. Ahh... he could not wait for be able to curse her off the place!

Eilir blinked at being hushed and watched with concealed amusement as the man's face lit up redder than she'd ever seen it before. Her eyes widened and she smiled at him when he managed to get a word out and simply said. "Ok." before leaving him to his reading. She knew that Branko would likely not ask for a drink, but she couldn't just leave it within reach because he couldn't move his arms. With a small shrug the girl returned the drink to her bag and peered at Kristof over the side of his cradle. Assuming that Branko was occupied and not watching her, Eilir let a esotted smile shine on her face at the sight of her small charge. He really was worn out from their earlier outing. Kristof liked you to hold his hands and help him walk around and he was surprisingly sturdy on his feet. Although it would hurt most people to have to lean over and help a child walk, Eilir was small enough to be able to stand as she usually did.

They'd walked around the grounds a little bit and up to put Kristof down for a nap. The only times Eilir had scooped the child into her arms was when they'd had to go up any stairs or where there were a lot of people. Eilir watched the baby sleep for a minute or so and then sat beside the cradle and pulled out one of her books on hippogriffs and a small notebook and quill incase she felt the need to write notes....or doodle.

Kristof opened his eyes suddenly and looked cranky around while yawned and rubbed his eye. This was not the place he had been in before fall asleep! This was not the last place he remembered have been in!

The kid looked around till recognized Eilir, then his interest decreased and dropped his head back on the pillow grunting slightly. With Eilir there it did not really mattered to him where he was... and anyway the place did not look unfamiliar, though he still had not yet recognized entirely the place, the smell of it made the kid relate it with mommy and daddy somehow.

He stayed lied there for some seconds yet, and as his senses woke up, his interest slowly returned. And now he recognized the place fully, he had been there before a lot of times, though it was the first time he remembered have woken up in there. Why were they there?

Kristof peeked his head around. If he was in the office, daddy would be there for sure! And he was right! Ohh there he was!... and he dropped his head back once again rubbing his eye again with that frown so familiar of the Brankos.

Eilir resisted the urge to chew on her quill. Having made the mistake before, she knew she didn't want to be spending the next few hours spitting out fluffy pieces of feather. But the book was so very confusing. The girl couldn't figure out what was going on with the complex diagrams showing resessive and dominant character and physical traits. The lines meshed into a big jumble and made her head hurt. It was infuriating. The introduction had lulled her into a flase sense opf security but the very first chapter demanded that she understood the diagram before she'd be able to make any sense of what was written. Her notebook was filled with attempts at understanding and crossings out which got progressively darker and more gouged out of the parchment than drawn across it.

With a sudden huff of exasperated breath, the girl glowered darkly down at the book and shoved it into her bag. And then pulled it out to place it back in neatly. The girl had a thing about treating books well. Even if she hated them with a vengance. Capping her bottle of ink and cleaning off the quill, Eilir placed them away and pressed her lips together thoughtfully. Recalling hearing a quiet grunt as she'd been packing her book away, Eilir allowed her attention to be drawn to the cradle. She knelt and slowly poked her head up to see into the baby's bed and smiled at Kristof's frown, waiting to see what he'd do.

Kristof raised an eyebrow moodily at Eilir, cranky as he always was when he wakes up and waited for her to do something as well. There was she looking at him with that smile he really did not understand, he wasn't in the mood to smile! Why was she? He did not seem to find anything funny at the moment, why was she smiling then?...

The baby looked around again as if trying to catch any reason for what the woman could possibly be so cheerful... but found nothing... Then he looked back at her but there she was STILL DOING NOTHING!! HELLO!!???

"Mpph..." he mumbled in signal of exasperation then he rolled over his belly and with his arm and legs helped himself in four and into a sitting position. Then looked at Eilir again and held his arms up at her. What was she waiting!!?? what was she looking at that was not attending him already! The baby wondered.

Eilir watched Kristof's little moody face, waiting for him to wake up properly before she interfered. She tried not to disturb the baby when he'd first woken up, it seemed the best way to avoid any screaming or loud expression of grouchines. She couldn't help but smile at the little boy's mumble of exasperation, it made her wonder what he expected of her. When he held up his arms, wanting to be picked up, Eilir melted a little inside and cooed softly before scooping him into her arms and nuzzling his cheek fondly.

Eilir made sure to keep her voice quiet, hoping to avoid the headmaster hearing her 'baby talk'. "Hey there sleepy head! Did you have a nice nap?" she asked him, giving him a little squeeze of a hug before sitting on the floor with him on her lap. "We're going to keep daddy company today, he's ... a poorly boy." the girl pouted slightly before hooking the baby bag closer to her and peering inside. "Are you hungry sweet pea?" she asked the child, pulling a banana from the bag and waving it at him. "Want to try some banana? It's yummy!"

Kristof looked around and as the minutes passed, the frown on his forehead softened. Once he considered he had gotten the proper attention, the baby was now more interested in what was going on out of his world.

"Want to try some banana? It's yummy!" Suddenly a banana started dancing in front of his eyes, and the baby's atention was soon caught by it. He held his hand to take the banana and looked at Eilir with a smirk. Oh it looked like something funny to play with.

"Da! mmm... nana!!!" he called out to his father as tried to wave the banana at Branko, inviting him to play together with the fruit. But his moves where still too clumsy and he just caused the banana to lose from Eilir's hand and fall off to the floor.

"Nana!!" he said to Eilir as pointed out at the fallen fruit "Nana! mmmph! nana!!" the boy insisted as if asking the woman to pick it up, he wanted to play with daddy and the 'nana'.

Eilir couldn't help but grin at Kristof widening vocabulary. "That's right Kristof! Banana." she encouraged the child, eyeing Branko sidelong to see if he was going to get angry about his son's attempts at talking, especially since they were sure to disturb him. The girl smiled as the baby waggled the fruit invitingly towards his father but wasn't expecting the sheer force of his movements. She stared at the escapee banana for a second but Kristof's increasingly louder demands made her reach out and grab it.

"Here you go honey, now shhhhh." she placed a finger softly against Kristof's lips in hopes he would quieten down slightly. "Daddy's working." She decided to give the banana to Kristof first, letting him examine it thourighly before offering him some to eat.

To read was proving to be aharder than he had expected it. And it was somehow infuriating for him to admit that even that simple tasks was so out of his capabilities at the moment. Focus his eyes on to the words and follow on the phrase was difficult on his condition, even though he kept trying... till the baby's voice disturbed his attempts to read.

It was not basically anger though what his eyes showed as looked up and toward Kristof. It was a mixture of surprise perhaps, looking at the little one trying to make coherent phrases now. He missed so much of Kristof's activities and improvements that little things like those were like discover a new world. How long since the boy had started to name things out besides calling them 'da' and 'ma'? He did not know...

And he leaned back on the chair just watching the boy now playing with a banana, trying a conversation with him or with Eilir, trying to make himself clear... That was amazing, how old was he now? he wondered...

Eilir blew a soft raspberry on Kristof's cheek and captured one of his hands in hers, getting him to run his fingers along the skin on the fruit. "Nice and smooth yes Kristof?" she said, not expecting the baby to react much to her words, but children were never too young to start learning. "And, what colour is the banana? Is it yellow?" she prompted, watching the child with smiling eyes. There was nothing more exciting to her than to watch the little boy learn and grow. From speaking word sounds to refer to his parents, Kristof was now imitating some of the things she was saying and the girl found it delightful.

She glanced up at Branko and saw him watching them with a rather shocked expression. Eilir felt sorry for the boy's parents, they missed out on so much of his progress because they were so busy. The girl smiled sympathetically in the man's direction and turned her attention back to the baby. "You want to try eating any yet hmm? Or are you having too much fun?" she teased the baby softly, poking his little nose lightly with one finger.

Branko watched them with some curiousity at first, amazement perhaps, delightful... at the baby at least, but also clearly having some words to say about the girl's antics. True it was cute to watch Kristof playing with food... but in a big picture encourage this behaviour wasn't something he was fan of.

"S-stop! Stop! y-you... f..." he spat finally at the woman. His face was glowing red... and part of that reaction was clearly not because of the fever. And he pushed his arm hard trying to freed it from the chair. ARGHH just wait for him to achieve that!! She would have something real to play with!

Oh Debbie would hear a couple of words about this Eilir girl, he thought wildly taking on her every single frustration of the day.