Improvised Friendship? pv Saskia Closed

Now that the school year was on its way, the weather seemed to grow a bit cooler. Summer was coming to an end and it was only a matter of time before the days started feeling shorter. It wasn't something Saskia would complain about, though. As much as she enjoyed basking in the warm sunlight and the summer breeze, autumn was beautiful in its own right. Of course, it was still far too early in the month to truly be considered an autumn day, but the chilly weather was proof that autumn was underway. Soon enough, the leaves would transition into various shades of sepia, and the ground would be surrounded with fallen leaves from the trees.

As usual, Saskia was outside. Her hair, which she didn't even bother to tie up, gently swayed against the wind. Appropriately enough for the weather, she wore a dark green jacket along with a shirt and jeans with a pair of ankle boots. Though she usually found herself walking alongside the grounds after school, it was becoming more of an occurring thing now that she had to practice for Quidditch with her team. But as much as she enjoyed the sport, she also felt that she barely had any free time to herself, considering she had to juggle between homework, studying, and now Quidditch. Even as a person who didn't mind burying herself in work, it was relaxing to simply wind down and let her mind wander once in a while.

And that was when she saw something that perked up her curiosity. While she was walking, she caught glimpse of a dark haired girl in a leather jacket reading a book. On a simple glance, it shouldn't have been a big deal. There were plenty of people who liked to read outside, but what the girl was reading in particular was what intrigued the Hufflepuff. It was somewhat difficult to see from a distance, but it vaguely looked like she was reading up on some kind of diagram. Was it a Muggle contraption of some sort? Even if Saskia didn't know too much about Muggle concepts, there was something about it that was familiar, or at the very least, it still caught her eye.

Now, Saskia knew what it was like to be interrupted. It might have been in a conversation, or if she was studying and some kid wanted something from her, but either way, they all succeeded at annoying her. It might have had to do with the fact that once she was invested in something, it was difficult for her to get out of that mindset, and while she did try to work on that temper of hers, it was one of the harder things to truly get over. But now that she was looking at the girl, her curiosity burned even more. Even if she decided to walk away, she knew it would have been something she would continue thinking about for the rest of the day. As ridiculous as that sounded, it was true, nevertheless. This was a one time opportunity, and she wasn't sure whether she'd be able to talk to this student again or even ask her about this specific subject.

Resolving herself, the girl walked up to the girl, keeping as much of a calm expression as she could. There was no need to be embarrassed, and even if she really was bothering the girl, all she could do is apologize and leave her alone. It would have been a simple misunderstanding, and hopefully, the girl wouldn't take it against her for approaching her in the first place.

"Can I ask what you're reading?" the girl asked, eyeing the book intently. "It seemed interesting, which was why I asked. I didn't mean to act like a creep or anything," she quickly added, looking up at the girl as she spoke once again. She didn't want to come off too strongly, and she she didn't know how tolerant this stranger was at having some random person interrupt their private reading time. But she couldn't help it. Her curiosity outweighed any embarrassment she might feel about this situation.

Although the book was in front of her and she had been thinking about the context of the book, she hadn’t actually been reading it. Her thoughts had drifted off to the Gryffindor prefect that she had splinted the ankle of using part of her favorite shirt and pieces of bark. That had been a very interesting day indeed and it was even more curious as to many people she had met that were hurt. Someone with a slightly less optimistic outlook might not see that as a right time right place scenario. Good thing for her that although her exterior seemed a bit distant and cold, she was a silver lining kind of girl.

A voice pulled her from her thoughts, and she shifted her head slightly laying those sharp sapphire eyes on a dark brown haired girl dressed in a green jacket and admittedly pretty cute ankle boots. She thought momentarily that she might have a pair similar but wasn’t completely sure about it. A small smirk appeared on her lips as she, for just a moment, contemplated giving the young girl a smart reply by telling her that she already did ask. Maybe Rook was rubbing off on her so much that she would forget decent manners. The smirk shifted into a polite smile instead before her silvery voice escaped her lips in an answer. “Don’t worry about it and of course, you can. This is a book about muggle healing techniques. Standard first aid kind of stuff like how to bandage properly, splinting sprains or broken bones, and other things like that.”

Santario was not one to be easily embarrassed by much of anything, but what she was braced for was ridicule. The girl seemed like she might be nice enough, but from what she had seen from some of the other students here at Hogwarts she wouldn’t be surprised. It had seemed so far out of everyone that she had met, albeit she didn’t know most of the other people well, only three of them weren’t total snobs. She at this point dreaded meeting other pure-bloods and in fact went out of the way to hide her own status as one. The last thing she needed was to be hunted down by those bloodhounds thinking that they were better than everyone else just because they were ‘lucky’ enough to be born into certain families. Just the thought about the ones that did act and thought this way filled her with contempt.   

Although it might have not been an obvious fact, Saskia was an observant girl. It was one of the perks of socializing with different people and being accustomed to the way they talk and act. Over time, it was easy to tell the difference between a forced smile and a genuine one. Even if the girl was slow to show sympathy, she knew when it was the right time to shift the conversation or even back out one. When the other student gave her that subtle smirk, the Hufflepuff couldn't help but narrow her eyes. Was she about to make fun of her for what she said? Did she want to insult her or pick a fight with her? The last thing Saskia wanted was to get in an argument with a complete stranger, but if that was where this was headed, then she wouldn't hesitate to fight back. Of course, if the girl only intended to tell her to leave her alone, Saskia would have to oblige with her request and leave without any complaint. But she wasn't a pushover, and if the girl in front of her was about to act hostile, then she would react accordingly.

Then the girl's smirk shifted into a calmer smile, any hints of malice quickly dissipating like it never appeared to begin with. This made the second year's guard raise up even more than it should have, a confused frown forming on her face. What did she want now? Did she decide to put up a front instead just so she could judge her silently? Did she think she was that stupid to be deceived by such pleasantries? As if she didn’t already give it away that she held her at such a low regard? Saskia could already feel her blood boil just by looking at her. It wasn't even fair. She couldn't do anything if this girl was going to play nice instead. All the Hufflepuff could do for now was keep this nice act until one of them broke whatever act this was. It occurred to her that she might have been overthinking this situation. Perhaps this girl didn’t want an argument as much as she did, and wanted to be polite about making her leave. It could have been something else entirely. And just like that, Saskia forced herself to keep a calm expression, waiting to see what else the girl would say.

Soon enough, the next girl's words distracted her from her internal rage. As it turned out, the younger student was reading about Muggle techniques, although more specifically, she was reading about healing techniques. Admittedly, the concept of healing wasn't something the Hufflepuff was fully invested in, even in the magical sense. Saskia never felt like she could be a great healer, and even if she had the talent to pull it off, she was too impatient to stay still to tend to people’s wounds and illnesses, and that wasn’t mentioning the idea of dealing with irritating patients who weren’t grateful to be treated in the first place. But that was also why she always admired her father's work as a healer. She didn’t know how he did it, but he was one of the calmest people she knew. She didn’t remember the last time he raised his voice, and even when he was under the pressure of having to deal with so many patients at a time, he never lost his composure. It was what made him an efficient healer, and for someone as impatient as Saskia was, she looked up to him for it.

But the girl was talking about Muggle healing, of course. It wasn’t the type of healing where someone would cast a spell or force a potion down someone else’s throat and call it a day. It was, as far as she knew, the kind of healing that took a lot more time and effort to work. It wasn’t something she would readily admit, but Saskia did have a bit of knowledge on Muggle medical treatment. It wasn’t worth boasting, however, as the only times she ever put that knowledge to use was when she accidentally injured herself climbing up trees or tripping over rocks when she was much younger. When magic wasn’t an available option, there was always the reliable way of applying pressure to the wound, or at least waiting until professional help came around when worse came to worst.

"Oh. I’m familiar with some of the basics of Muggle healing, but other than that, I don’t know much about it. I only know a bit about first aid, but not a lot beyond that,” she explained, politely smiling at the younger girl. She didn’t know if she could trust her enough to give the specifics of how she knew, but she could at least assume that this conversation wouldn’t be as antagonistic as she first thought it would be. For now, at least.

“Do you know a lot about first aid? Have you treated other people in the past?" she inquired, giving her head a tilt as she glanced at the girl with curiosity, waiting to see how she would react to her questions. Would she react poorly to them? Would it be even more of an invasion of privacy? Would it be the moment she snapped? It was a risk Saskia would have to take.

Santario would place her bookmark back into the book and gently close it laying it in her lap. Stretching her legs out as the girl asked her questions she would just give her a pleasant smile one that touched her eyes. “I have, not everything of course, but my father is very clumsy so I often got to practice on him before my mom would heal him. He was such a good sport about everything too. My mom is a Head Healer at St. Mungos so she wanted to teach me everything she could. She said that it’s best to know about the muggle way because what if you don’t have potions or a wand? Better safe than sorry.” She would shrug a little and motion to the ground near her.

“Care to sit with me? My name is Santario by the way.” She realized that she hadn’t introduced herself yet and she had hoped that the girl wouldn’t take it badly or think badly of her for forgetting her manners. “Oh There is also a Gryffindor Prefect named Gris, I actually splinted her ankle a couple of days ago. Would you like to borrow the book?” Santario realized that she was starting to dominate the conversation and left it like that, to not talk the poor girl’s ear off.

She had a point. Magic was incredibly useful, but there were certainly some limits to it. It wouldn't always be available, and magic had an odd way of backfiring sometimes. Not to mention, it might not have been entirely reliable, especially when handled under wrong circumstances. Saskia only had a small hint of what Muggles were like, but from what she had gathered from them, they were rather resourceful, contrary to what other wizards might think about them. Wizards had magic, and while it might have been incredible to an outsider, Muggles had something just as useful in her opinion. Not only did they have first-aid, but they had complex systems of technology that they use in their everyday lives. Having used magic more frequently in her life, Saskia wasn't very knowledgeable on what kinds of technology there were, but since she came to Hogwarts, she had been learning more about Muggle culture from some of her friends. It was unfortunate that wizards had the side effect of never being able to handle technological devices. Then again, it might have been for the best. Merlin knew what would happen if dark wizards got their hands on those things. It was a scary thought.

But one fact did stand out to the Hufflepuff. This girl's mom is also a healer. Head Healer, in fact. Could her dad have possibly known her? He might have, considering her mom is a Head Healer. Her dad also happened to have worked at St. Mungos, although he tended to jump from place to place depending on where he was needed. But now it begged the question of whether Saskia had actually seen her before during the times she visited her dad in the hospital. She certainly wouldn't have known who she was at the time, and she wasn't sure if she had even talked to her before. She was told that it was impolite to bother the healers when they were doing her job, and as a result, she usually ended up talking to the patients instead. It wasn't a bad thing either- many of the patients were quite easy to talk to, although there were the occasional ones who simply didn't want to talk at all. The ones who were willing to talk usually made for good company when she had no one else to talk to, and it was definitely a refreshing experience to talk to those people.

"That's pretty cool. My dad is actually a healer at St. Mungos too. I'm not sure if my dad and your mom met before, though, but it'd be interesting if they did. And yeah, you're right. Better to be safe than sorry. You never know what could happen." She smiled again, although this time, it seemed to reach her eyes. She didn't seem too bad for now. Maybe she was a bit too quick to judge her the first time.

At the girl's invitation to sit with her, she placed herself on the ground, facing towards the other girl's direction. She wasn't really comfortable sitting directly beside her at the tree, if she could even do that, but she was close enough that they could still engage in conversation, and that was good enough. "I'm Saskia. It's nice to meet you, Santario."

Saskia's eyes widened in surprise when Santario offered the book. She couldn't have possibly taken it while she was still reading it, right? "Oh, well, only if you're done using it. I can wait until you've finished. But if you don't mind, I'd still like to ask some more questions and know more about first aid, at least from your experience since you seem like you know a lot about it. It's been something I've been thinking about from time to time, especially since my dad is a healer, but I've never gotten the time to really think hard about it until now."

San’s eyebrows raised up in surprise when Saskia mentioned that her father was a healer there as well. “That is really cool, small world isn’t it? I know my mom works a lot with potions there so it’s a possibility they have met I would suppose.” She would smile as Saskia decided to sit down and introduce herself in return. “It is a pleasure to meet you as well, Saskia.”It hit her then when she heard the girl’s name. She was talking to the captain of the Hufflepuff quidditch team. It was official she knew 3 out of the four now, granted of course she knew her own captain. When Saskia mention that she would take it if Santario was done with it San removed the red bookmark from it and set it down on the ground between them without hesitation.

“I’ve actually read it already so I don’t mind at all. Knowledge is nothing if we don’t share it.” She did enjoy sharing knowledge with people especially if they were about subjects that they both enjoyed. Books weren’t meant to sit on shelves and get dusty if it was no longer any use to you and someone else could benefit why not pass it on? “I’d be happy to answer what I can. Or just talk, muse, and be a sounding board.” This was the first time she had found someone who seemed to be at least somewhat interested in something that she was.

Dale and she could kind of bond over potions because he seemed to enjoy muggle chemistry, but it just wasn’t the same. They were a bit the same but worlds apart at the same time and they just couldn’t talk about things as inadeptly. Whereas with this knowing how to do first-aid she felt was still extremely important in the wizarding world. Magic is amazing, yes, but you just couldn’t become completely self-reliant on it all the time. 

It was enough that San accepted the invitation to answer her questions on first aid, but she didn't necessarily have to give her book away either. Saskia still felt kind of bad for taking it, but San's comment on how she already read it assuaged most of her worries. In all fairness, if Santario was okay with being randomly interrupted by a passerby who wanted to know what she was reading, then she shouldn't have felt so distressed about borrowing a book that she had already freely offered in the fist place. "Thank you. I'll make sure to put this knowledge to good use," she beamed, taking the book off the ground and putting it on her lap.

Where exactly could she begin? There were definitely a lot of things she wanted to know, but there was simply too much to tackle all at once. She could start slow, try to ask for the basics and move on to the more advanced topics, but that didn't help the fact that there was just so much she wanted to cover. There were so many things she could have asked her. She could have asked how Muggles dealt with animal bites, stings, or poisons and how they differed from how wizards handled them. The answer was obvious, of course, but there had to be more than just wizards casting a spell or applying some kind of potion and Muggles using their tools. She could have also asked more extreme things, like how Muggles treated stab wounds. Having read about it a long time ago, she had a faint understanding, but even most of the information she should have known was already fleeting from her brain.

There was something about Santario that made it seem like it was okay for her to fire a barrage of questions her way. She seemed patient enough, and she seemed well-informed enough that she might be able to answer at least most of her questions all at once, but Saskia figured she would have to save those questions for later. There were some other things she had to know first, just in case.

"You said you have a fair amount of knowledge on first aid. What aspects of first aid are you most familiar with? Is there anything in particular that interests you the most?" she asked, lightly tapping her fingers on the cover of the book. Yes, Saskia didn't exactly go with a question that challenged the other girl's knowledge, but perhaps asking this question first would save herself some trouble in case there was something she asked later on that she wouldn't know very well. She did remember her saying she didn't know everything, but she trusted that she still knew a lot. Still, it might have also been a good opportunity to know San better.

Santario thought about the girl’s question as it was a harder question to answer in general for her. “I wouldn’t necessarily say that the techniques interest me so much as it is just the want of the knowledge to make me a better healer in general.” She tapped her lower lip with her index finger as she thought more. “As far as familiarity I guess you could say all of the basics and some survival first aid. That’s where splinting Gris’s ankle with tree bark came in to play.” She wanted to be an effective healer possibly unparallel to her peers when she reached that level and she felt that the only way to do that was to know about all forms of healing.

“I don’t plan as going far as learning how to be a muggle doctor or surgeon or anything, but I do plan on knowing everything I can to stabilize people so that we can get them to people who can help them if they cannot be helped at that time or for minor injuries such as bites, stings, and burns.” She wasn’t sure if she had answered the girl's question adequately but she had never had to answer that question before and having to think about it on the fly made her answer somewhat disjointed. “If that made any sense anyway.” It did in her head for the most part but she was also still weighing whether being a healer or being a potions master was more important to her. She, of course, would want to be a master in both of them equally but if she had to choose one which would she choose?

That was good enough. From her words, she had the basics down, although she had also said she wasn't looking to be a Muggle doctor or surgeon either. She had enough interest to study it in her own time, but it wasn't something she would completely dedicate her life to, since she had other interests. That was perfectly understandable as well. It wasn't that Muggle culture in itself was inferior, but the girl did have magic. There were so many other things to do with magic, and she surely would have wanted to explore a career path where she could use something she was used to for a long time. It was an uncommon sight to see a wizard fully commit to a Muggle career, much less permanently integrate themselves in the Muggle world, although it still happened. Personally, it was admirable of them to abandon their previous lifestyle of using magic, especially when it was such a useful tool that sometimes served as a crutch for others. Unusual and somewhat questionable, maybe, but it wasn't something she'd see everyday.

Even then, Santario was smart. Aside from the fact that she seemed to know a good amount of first aid, she wanted to learn enough about it so she didn't have to constantly rely on magic when something did go wrong. It would have been incredibly useful in dire situations, where even spells or potions weren't an option for whatever reason there was, whether that was due to time constraints or lack of availability. First aid was very useful for that reason, and that was why Saskia had decided to learn more about it in the first place. Or at least she took the initiative to do it now when she had the time.

"No, don't worry about it. It made sense to me." She nodded to further confirm her statement. For the most part, she understood what the other girl had to say. She wanted to know more about how she wanted to be a better healer, and by learning first aid, she would perform better in different situations where specific techniques might be more useful than others. It was simple enough to comprehend.

Now that she got a better understanding of the girl's knowledge and motives, she had to think of an actual question she wanted to ask. She could try to ask more personal questions concerning the girl, but she also realized that she might need to ask questions that related to the topic of first aid instead. That was what she was here for, after all. It would have been awkward for her to continue on asking about the girl's life when she could have been learning more about first aid from another person's perspective. But maybe by listening to her own experiences, she could also learn about first aid that way? Maybe she shouldn't have been thinking too much about it. It was true that there were so many questions she could have asked, but that didn't mean she had to ask them all at once. Besides, Santario didn't seem like the type to mind about what kind of questions she asked, as long as they were respectable enough.

"Have you ever had to deal with any serious cases before, aside from relatively minor wounds or injuries? And how were you able to take care of those cases in the past?" That seemed like a reasonable enough question to ask. She was curious, though. The girl mentioned that she often practiced on her father, but she wasn't sure if that meant she only practiced on him or if she managed to practice on others. And even so, she would have liked to know how she dealt with any serious problems as well.