| Details for Finding Niamh |
| Summary: | The O'Sheas, Nora, and Gideon come to a horrifying realisation about Niamh. |
| Date: | 29 July, 1939 |
| Location: | MacDiarmarda Apothecary, Diagon Alley |
| Related: | Attack on the Alleys! |
| Characters |
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There's more than one smudge on Keenan's face, as he uses a mixture of good old muggle elbow grease and wizard cleaning charms to clean the front of the shop. He's cleaned up the pile of ashes in front of the counter, and the cooling potions that shattered on the floor next to it. The ashes are neatly placed in a small ceramic urn that sits on the edge of the counter. "She wasn't on tha casualty list, and I donna know what her parents' address was. If ye could look it up for me, Rue love? I should let them know as soon as possible." He rakes a hand through his hair, the lines on his face from the long hours at Mungo's not having had a chance to completely fade before he plunged into cleaning.
"Of course, love," the dark haired woman replies, leaning forward to give him a quick kiss and brush a lock of hair from his forehead. "You did all you could," she adds with quiet forcefulness.
Keenan nods. "I just want teh get everythin' cleaned up before Niamh returns. Shocks like this're nae goin' teh be good for her right now." He pauses in his work to watch Veruca go up the stairs to Niamh's apartment to look in her files for the information requested.
The apothecary has some scorch marks on shelves, and the front windows are still sooty from the fires in the Alley in front of the shop, and a couple of window panes are cracked where the wood that held them in was burned. Bottles are missing from shelves, but it appears that anything that was knocked over has been cleaned up already.
Honora Summerbee never runs, but today she's at least walking quickly, her features tense and her eyes locked on the location of her workplace. She's seen the casualty lists and not spotted any of her coworkers' names, but that doesn't necessarily mean they're unharmed.
It's not too long before she arrives. She steps into the doorway, speaking quietly, "I'm sorry I couldn't get here sooner." Her eyes are first downcast in an apologetic expression, but move up to meet Keenan's gaze as she speaks again, watching for a reaction. "…What's the situation here?" Nora doesn't enter the shop yet, lingering in the doorway hesitantly.
As Nora makes her appearance, Keenan stops dead still and just stares at her. His face pales as if he's seen a ghost. "Nora…" he says her name slowly as if he expects the slightest sound make her poof away in a puff of smoke. There's a long moment of silence, and then he looks at the floor, then at the counter where the ceramic urn lies. "But… those potions… they're kept locked in the back, customers can't go in there…" As he mulls over those words, he turns a whiter shade of pale.
Nora frowns slightly, processing the situation. She swallows before talking again, feeling dread even though she's not fully sure what's going on. "Someone's missing." That's not a question, it's a pessimistic statement of the worst possible situation, with Nora hoping to be corrected. "Niamh, Sorcha, where are they?" There's dread in her voice; begging for Keenan to reassure her they're fine. They should be, but Keenan's expression…
"Sorcha brought me a sandwich at Mungos an' made me eat," Keenan assures slowly, not wanting to finish the thought out loud, as only one other person comes to mind that could have gone into the locked storerooms for iceblood potion to reduce extreme fever. He doesn't want to say it, and so he delays. "I need teh find Gideon," he murmurs, finally pushing himself into action, going to the foot of the stairs that lead up to Niamh and Adamantus's flat.
Sorcha comes out from behind the shelves full of components and ingredients with her hair in a kerchief and none too dew smudges on her face and darker dress. Having been inventorying the bottles., beakers, and boxes containing the more volitile ingredients to ensure nothing has been spoiled that isn't accounted for. Dusting her hands off she frowns s her brother goes upstairs, "Keen?" She goes over to a ledger to make some notes, "Nettle… where is it…"
Nora comes inside now, moving closer to the center of the room and looking around slowly, observing the damage, her face grim. While she couldn't help but notice Keenan's unfinished reply she doesn't yet comment on it; what good would it do? Sorcha's here, at least, but that still leaves Niamh unaccounted for.
At hearing his name, Keenan turns halfway up the stairs, "third row, second shelf from tha top an' three from tha end," he replies automatically. "Two bottles were cracked, I threw them out. Along with five bottles feverfew, an' eleven bottles of pepperup potion." He lifts a hand to rub at the back of his neck, and then considers maybe he doesn't have to go upstairs. "Where was it Niamh said she an' Gideon were goin' again? Did she leave tha address in tha kitchen or tha register?"
"Both. She didn't want anyone to have to leave the counter to get it." Sorcha replies. She starts to go retrieve it for him but suddenly pauses when Nora enters. Her expression brightens as soon as she sees her friend and co-conspirator,dashing around the counter to throw her arms around the other girl, "Nora! We thought.. where have you been?!"
Nora returns the hug, seeming to relax a little - Sorcha's fine, and Keenan's saying something about Niamh being elsewhere, maybe everyone's okay after all. "Sorry. I came back when I could; the place has been off limits since the attack. I was out doing deliveries when it happened."
"Right," Keenan replies distractedly as Sorcha mentions the double addresses. "Just like Niamh teh think of everythin'." His expression regains some semblence of normalcy again, his healer training taking over, emotions hidden behind the mask of competent calm. He nods when Sorcha half tells Nora what they thought. "We thought ye'd been caught in tha gas an' I'd just asked Rue tae find yer parents' information tae let them know."
Giving Nora the squeeze of her life, Sorcha scolds, "Were all the owls engaged? We thought the worst! Something caused quite a mess and you know how Keenan always thinks the worst. I'm just glad it's simply a mess and not as bad as it seemed." Beaming up at her big brother, the littlest ginger keeps an arm around Nora for the moment, "What a relief to just have a mess of things."
The front door of the shop bursts open, clanging the door chime violently. "NIAMH!" The unmistakeable baritone of Adamantus Gideon fills the building, panic in his voice. "NIAMH!" He jostles a table full of potion bottles as he moves hurriedly toward the stairs. "Sorcha…God, please tell me Niamh is here," he pleads, looking frantically between the red-haired woman and the staircase, where his eyes fix on Keenan. That's when his voice cracks. "Where is my wife?"
The Summerbee girl freezes. Wait, what? Niamh's not with Gideon? And he's looking for her here? Remaining in silence since Gideon's arrival - the outsider in what is otherwise a family situation, really, even if they are her friends - Honora looks down at the floor, dreading even seeing Keenan or Sorcha's expressions now.
Carefully keeping that professional calm so as not to worry his sister, Keenan doesn't reply to her relief right away. When Gideon bursts in looking for Niamh, his 'always thinking the worst' is realized. At the Scot's last question, he can't help looking to the jar at the end of the counter. He's silent for a moment, his expression draining of color once more. "I was hoping she was with ye," he finally manages to reply, his voice hushed by the weight of what he doesn't want to admit out loud, yet.
The colour drains from Gideon's lined face, his steely eyes wide with worry. "She never made it to Brazil. I dinnae hear about the attack until early yesterday. I had to bribe two different transportation agents to use the Floo to get back here by way of New York." His voice weighs heavy with increasing worry. "You dinnae have any idea where she is? Bloody hell, man!" He flails his arm toward the door as panic sets in. "We have to check the hospital! They would'nae let me in to see the cursed victims!"
At the surprise entrance of her brother-in-law given everything else Sorcha jumps a bit. Then when she hears Gideon's question she quickly looks between the two of them as she holds onto Nora in a slightly different manner. Not having anything to add she is uncharacteristically silent until he brings up Mungo's, "Keen's just come from there." It's barely more than a whisper but it's clear she understands the implication all too well. At that she lets go of the younger girl and sinks into the torn chair next to her as her knees give out.
Nora steps away from her friend and looks around the room. She tells them all, softly, "I'll go. This is a family thing," keeping her voice down so they don't have to acknowledge her if they're too caught up in emotion. Not that she's not upset — she fully intends to just go somewhere private and quietly panic — but she doesn't belong here right now. Nora turns and heads for the door without waiting for any reply.
"I treated all tha victims," Keenan's voice remains hushed, level, almost completely devoid of all expression. "Niamh was not among them." The weary lines from the days spent at Mungo's that had almost disappeared now etch more deeply into his face, his eyes bleak. He steels himself to turn to the other man. "There was… tha remains of someone on tha floor here. With a broken bottle of ice blood potion, which we keep locked because they are very potent. Only four people can get into tha store room, which is why we thought Nora was deceased. Because we thought Niamh was with ye." Three of the four people are here in the room at the moment.
Gideon stares at Keenan in disbelief. For a few very long seconds, the only sound in the shop is Nora's footsteps moving toward the door. Gideon's hand goes to his mouth. He's trembling. He shakes his head. "She's…she's hurt somewhere. She got lost. She…she dropped the key and the potion, and ran out to help someone. That's what she does!" He voice begins to rise, filled with growing desperation. "She helps people, a-and she's out there right now…needing us!"
Sorcha lets her hand fall away from Nora's arm as the darker girl moves for the door, barely registering it. Unfortunately for Keenan the explanation that Gideon comes up with seems to perk her up as she looks to the stairs in his direction, "It's been insanity around the alley, it's been hard to pin down anyone…" She sits up as though about to stand, "I haven't seen you in days, I've been all over with the other shops…" It's certainly possible… right? Keenan's always the one who fixes everything.
"That is what Niamh does," Keenan agrees. "An' that is why she went teh tha storeroom for an ice blood potion teh help tha people she was seein' burnin' in tha alley. She didna realize that movement, exertion… runnin' around ta help people was what made tha potion spread faster… or that it was in her." He shakes his head and his voice falls further. "There's nowhere ta find her." Death is not something a healer can fix.
"No!" Gideon barks, anger rising, and unfortunately lashing toward the only targets available. "Dinnae you say that! You missed a patient! They…they kept you from her because you're related! You get down to that hospital and find her! Goddammit you find her!" It's then that he feels his knees starting to buckle. His body knows the truth that his mind won't accept. He grips the edge of the nearest table to steady himself, knocking over several bottles.
"Isn't there a charm for finding people?" Sorcha adds to the fire, "A trace or something?" She stands up and goes back around the counter to the shelf of books to pull out some of the ones their gran relied on. Flipping it open none too gingerly to look over the page without really seeming to hear her brother.
Keenan has seen the denial many times before, he knows it well in his profession. He is not offended by the anger lashing out at him, and he also knows reason is not going to make it through, only time to accept. He out a hand to forestall Sorcha's search, pulling her towards him to hold her for a moment. "It'll just bring ye back here, Sorcha," he tells his sister as gently as he can. His wand clears the table that Gideon clings to, and the healer eyes the man critically to make sure he hasn't cut anything in the collapse, but all the bottles appear in one piece. Then the wand swishes with a murmured 'accio scotch' to bring it down from Niamh's apartment, along with a glass that is also summoned. He pours it and sets it on the table next to the man. The bottle is set next to it, and a chair pulled closer. "I'll tell Mum and Da," he adds quietly, giving his sister's arm a squeeze before letting go and heading towards the fireplace.
Gideon shakes his head, clenching his teeth. "No…no spells to find someone. Not if they're not already marked with a Locator Charm." How much easier his work as a Hit Wizard and private investigator would have been if one could simply cast a spell to find a missing person. He eyes the scotch, his steely gaze hardening as if it might shatter the glass through the power of his glare alone. "You tell them what you like. But I'm going to find my wife!" He downs the glass of whiskey in one gulp, slamming it down. Snatching up the bottle, he whirls and storms out the door — the beginning of a hopeless quest.