Time is an optical illusion never quite as solid or strong as we think it is.
Jodi Picoult
~~~~~~~~~~

11:15
Josie staggered back from the window. The world was spinning. Her sight was closing in. She collapsed onto the sofa bed. Cold air came in the window. Theta was coming. That news helped. She wanted to vomit. Josie lifted her arm. There was a cut healing in the flesh of her elbow. On the other arm too. The skin was sore to touch. She stared at the ceiling. It spun.

Josie had a bedsit. One room. Kitchen to the left. Friday's leftover pizza molding in the box. Plates unwashed. No fireplace. Just a stove. Books piled up the walls. Old typewriter on the table. Shared bathroom across the hall. Faded blue sofa was a bed. Magic made that easier. Magic did not bring riches when you were muggle born.

There was a knock at the door. Josie stumbled to open it. "Theta!" Josie welled up. Pale and clammy. She fell into Theta's arms. "Thank merlin you're here."

Theta’s journey had taken her from the workshop on Nine to the atrium where she could safely apparate to the shadows under the stairs of the building Josie lived in. All she had to hope was that someone hadn’t shoved their biked under there.

Thankfully she was in luck. She ducked out from the dead end of the hallway and began to climb the stairs, jogging at first, slowing as she reached the top floor. Top floor because one could pass it off that an owl might be nesting at that height to Muggles, and because it was affordable for Josie who didn’t seem to ever hold down a steady job.

Theta kept her wand close by just because the situation felt so out of sorts. She didn’t feel unsafe, just unsure. She rapped her fist on Josie’s door and waited, listening.

Eventually she heard footsteps and the door opened. Josie looked awful, all pale and unfocused. She was still wearing what Theta remembered her wearing on Saturday night at the pub.

“Josie! Oh my gosh!”

Her emotional friend fell into her arms, and the petite unspeakable stumbled to hold her friend up. “You look dreadful,” Theta confirmed. “Let’s sit you down, come on, I can’t carry you.” Theta had both hands full and couldn’t reach for her wand.

Once Josie was safely back on the unfolded sofa bed in the middle of the room, Theta hurried to fetch some water and encouraged Josie to drink while she held a hand to Josie’s forehead. She felt cold and clammy. “How do you feel? Do you think this is that magical measles?”

Phew Theta came. Josie was thirsty. Drank the water quick. Held it up for more.
"No clue." Was measles still doing round? "Did anyone else get ill?" Josie asked. She looked at the ceiling. It was wobbling. "I do not know how I got home Theta. I remember the blind dates. I am still wearing my outfit." Josie weakly pointed at her top. "Who was my date? Who was your date?" Josie was vague. "Pratt! You had Pratt!" She remembered. Thrust her hand up. Off the sofa bed. "O yeah. Look at my arms Theta. What the hell?" Josie pointed at the marks.

“Not that I know of,” Theta replied, refilling the glass. She was pretty sure she’d seen most people back at work, and nobody had particularly mentioned. Didn’t mean nobody had got ill like Josie though.

“Who was my date? Who was your date?” Theta opened her mouth to reply but Josie had her verbal diarrhoea. Maybe if she let her talk Josie might remember what happened to her.
“Yeah, Pratt, that’s right,” Theta echoed but Josie hardly seemed to notice. She was pointing at the crook of her elbow.

Theta drew closer and peered at Josie’s forearms. There were neat lines an inch or so long, below the fold of the skin. They were fresh, a thin crust of scab.

“Sorry Josie, so much for the secret signal,” Theta sighed, “I got talking to Pratt and I saw you head over to the other side of the bar. Mr Morgenthau was over that end, but he wasn’t your date was he?” Not only would it have been little and large, it would have also been a large age gap.

“Maybe someone slipped something in your drink?” Theta suggested, tentatively. Josie could talk the hind-legs off a hippogriff so it might not have been anything sinister. Just to slip away. “Or did you go out and take something? Fauna and Grace were talking about this stuff called muse…” Theta didn’t know if that would make you sleep for two and a half days or not though.

“Can’t harm to head to St Mungo’s can it? I mean, yes you’re awake, but just to check you’re really ok?” Theta worried. Josie seemed a lot calmer now than her owl had read, but maybe having someone with her had stopped her freaking out.

—

11:40

It didn’t take Theta long to find shoes and extra clothing for Josie so they could head to the apparition point at the bottom of the stairs. She clung to Josie’s arm, still staring at her friend’s washed out appearance. It only seemed to get paler for walking.

The St Mungo’s reception was not entirely sure which floor to immediately assign the witches to. Instead, the young wizard behind the desk suggested they take a seat while he sent for a healer to come and speak to them.

“It’ll be fine, probably.” Theta reassured Josie, patting her arm. She slipped her pocket watch from her coat and scrutinised the time. She would only have another half an hour before she would have to send word to her uncle Francis in the workshop about the delay. “They’ll find out…” She continued in a motherly, distracted manner, her gaze slipping from one green-robed figure to another.

Athena Marrowbone, dressed in the long green and white robes of her station, answered a memo from reception. She'd just cleaned up from an hours-long ritual to try and pull a Dorset lawyer out from under a hag curse. She wasn't meeting Vincent again until later, the pair of them allergic to sleep, so she'd rather scoop up something interesting from amongst the walk-ins than check the memos that had piled up at her desk.

Hands in pockets, she looked easily over the shoulder of a reception nurse at the case scroll.

        "She's dazed, some memory loss. Punctures at the insides of her arms," the nurse summarized.  Behind her a Valentine's decoration of an anatomical heart beat a jaunty rhythm. "Vampire, you think?"

Athena straightened up. "Strangely done, if that, but not impossible. I'll take her. We can always shuffle."

"Josie Flint, can you follow me?" Athena called the name on the scroll from the doorway. "I'm Healer Marrowbone. Can you walk alright? We'll take the lift to the first floor and find out what's going on."

Josie was wobbly. The hospital was loud. She was glad she had Theta to look after her. Josie's stomach loudly rumbled. Someone said her name. Both her names. She was so tall. Josie looked up. Blinked. "I dunno." She answered. "Hold onta me." She said to Theta. She stumbled but made it to the lift. "Is she really tall or is it just me?" Josie mumbled to Theta. Neither of the school friends were very tall. Josie slumped against the side of the lift. "Last thing I remember was going to the Witch Weekly dating thing." She raised her voice to the giant healer. "That was Saturday. Then I woke up today." Her cheeks puffed out. She was trying not to puke. "I feel like the worst hangover. The sick part and the dizzy stuff." She leaned against Theta as they got out the lift.

Healer Marrowbone did dwarf them both, not that Theta was aware her friend shared that thought at first impression. At Josie’s request Theta redoubled her grasp on the other witch’s arm as they followed the green-robed healer to the lift.

“Is she really tall or is it just me?”
“Oh anyone’s tall to us.” Theta replied in a low voice, glancing to Marrowbone in case she had heard, and offering a polite smile.

“Theta,” she introduced herself, with a bob of her knees, “Theta Pepper. Josie owled me when she woke up.”

“Last thing I remember…” Josie explained, learning against the lift while Theta kept a grip and kept quiet. She hoped Josie made it onto the ward before she keeled over. Normally it was near impossible to get a word in with Josie, so this was all very out of character.

Out they went, Theta doing the guiding as they headed to the ward Marrowbone indicated.

“We both went to the event. It was a blind dating thing. I lost track of who her date was, but she woke up in her flat. I don’t think she’s eaten since Saturday. She’s just had some water.” Theta filled in some detail, trying to be helpful.

“You don’t think it’s the measles do you?” Theta asked Marrowbone, wondering if they ought to be in close contact and walking openly through the hospital if it was.

"Good to meet you, Theta," Athena greeted the helpful partner. "We'll get her right."

Athena assisted Theta in guiding Josie along out of the lift and into the first floor's primary ward. It was a long narrow room, curved slightly to the left, and was lined with beds. The lights were dimmed and many occupied beds had the curtains drawn. Quiet murmurs from patients and mediwix provided a gentle white noise to the night.

Athena sat Josie down on an open bed in the open ward and drew the curtain. The reported nausea was easy to see so Athena passed a pan over to Josie, just in case. The healer took a seat on her rolling stool, bringing her eyeline down a good few feet.

It was always a troubling thing to hear that a young woman had no memory of a blind date, but Athena didn't want to jump to conclusions. Dizziness, amnesia, nausea, the marks on the arms: could be a vampire, could be Confundus or Obliviation, could be recreational potions, could be Runespoor.

But first, the Magical Measles question.

"Let's give it a go. Can you cast a spell for me, love?"

"You think it's the meales?" said Josie. She was wearing muddy lace up boots, jeans, sleeveless t-shirt and a leather jacket. She got her wand out of her jacket pocket. 9 inches. Rowan with unicorn tail. Her first and only wand. Had she lost her magic? What was with the marks on her arms? "Scourgify!" She pointed it at her feet. The mud scrubbed away from her boots. "That worked." Josie shrugged. She put her wand back and took her jacket off. "But look at my arms." She showed the healer. A neat straight mark. "Both arms. They were not there before. I swear."

Theta held her breath as they watched Josie's boots. Magic whisked away the mud from the leather and Theta pressed a hand to her chest in relief. Much as a little time off would have been lovely, doing so without magic and isolation would have been much less exciting.

"That worked." Her friend did not share in the excitement that it wasn't the dreaded magical measles. But, she was right, that meant they were no closer to understanding what had happened to Josie since Saturday night. Theta tapped her dainty fingers to her bottom lip and thought carefully about the evening. Trying to remember when she'd last seen Josie. What if she asked at Witch Weekly? Would they tell her who Josie was paired with? Did the pub sell some alcohol which made you forget?

"Not your jacket is it?" Theta asked, reaching for it and pulling the arms through to check for something inside the linings which would inflict such a mark. Long shot, but it was the jacket Josie had worn on Saturday.

Athena shook her head no; she didn't Praecantatio Deliquus was at all likely but it was easy enough to screen for. Luckily, Ms Flint's wand worked just fine and they could get down to business. She wanted to have a look at those arms. From a pocket, Athena produced a set of spectacles of a complicated design. There were lenses of different sizes and colors with levers to flip them up and down. She put them on, swapped out some lenses, and took Josie's hands in hers to steady the arm.

"I believe you," she assured Josie. The marks looked to be from intravenous needles sure enough and understandably cause for some defensiveness.  So, as casual as could be, Athena asked, "do you have any experiences with vampires, love?" 

It wasn't well known and rarer than a bit, but some vampires took blood the mundane way. Sometimes to build a stockpile but sometimes it was the preference of volunteers, a practice that wasn't exactly legal. But the law wasn't of much concern to Athena - she just wanted to get her patients on their way with any support they needed.

"Give to any blood banks?"

"Yeah." Josie said it uneasily. Did that mean a vampire had come to her flat? "Is my blood like really tasty or somethin'?" She was equal parts freaked and intrigued. She met vampires at Puddifoots. She met one with her own radio show. Josie still listened to it every time she was up late. "I do not hang out with them. I donate when I can like." Josie looked at her arms. "But they bite people right?" Why would a vampire come to her flat and make her forget two whole days? Did she get a vampire date? "Can vampires even sign up to Witch Weekly blind date night?" she asked Theta.

Vampires! Theta sat straight at that suggestion from Healer Marrowbone. Theta had never met a vampire, well that she knew of, anyway. She had heard something about one working in the Ministry, and there had been those awful Prophet reports about them drinking muggles. She’d taken an OWL in defences, but not a NEWT, so it had been a few years since she’d had to consider vampires.

“But they bit people right? Can vampires even sign up to Witch Weekly blind date night?”

Theta realised this question was posed at her rather than the healer and gave a start.

“I, I don’t know Josie. I wouldn’t … imagine… but …” Theta blinked rapidly, trying to imagine why a vampire would want to, and then realising the obvious reasons, and trying to dismiss the possibility that could be allowed to happen.

“But don’t they…” Theta put her hand to her neck and looked to Marrowbone, “bite up here?”

At talk of vampires, both young witches bubbled over with nerves. It was a common reaction. If you either worked in the business or had the requisite half-a-wit required to avoid them, most people never had a dealing with a vampire, let alone a blood-draw or bite.

"Aye, a vampire will prefer the neck, but they've been known to use a needle now and then," Athena explained without further elaboration. She was peering down through the spectacles at the little punctures, switching lenses in and out. She was looking for traces of a certain muggle antiseptic the local covens were known to use but found nothing.

"But this doesn't look like their handiwork," she resolved then changed the lenses on the spectacles. "Let me try sometihing. Look here?"

Athena indicated that Josie should look at her straight on. As soon as they made eye contact, Athena reached out with her mind in that steady gentle way of Legilmancy she had, the kind that looked for the truth of the heart rather than the head. She'd been taking tutoring from the youthful Virgil Carstairs on shoring up the defensive side of things, and the practice  had just made her a little more bold. When something was lost, another set of eyes was what you needed, right?

Athena only needed a light touch to see that all of Josie Flint's disorientation and worry was genuine and without guile. But also here in the blurriness was a locked box marked, 'Last Night'. Athena reached a long arm and pointed at it.

"What's that?" she asked, voicing the question in the waking world, blinking away from the link.

Josie looked. Then she couldn't look. Or instead she was looking at something else. Something inside. Not outside. It was the queerest feeling.

And then it happened. Like Healer Marrowbone had found Josie's car keys. Found them right on the kitchen table. When Josie had looked there a 100 times before and not seen them. Only Josie did not own a car. And it was not car keys. But the other night. It washed over her like a warm memory soup.

"Secret signal!" Josie piped up. She remembered her excitement. "Pepper! Or chips! Tequila!"

Josie froze. Her mouth gaped. She looked at Theta. "My date!" She squeaked. "I remember!" And with that her eyes rolled up in her head and she flopped back on the bed. Overcome for a second with the new experience and limp before that.