The Leaky Cauldron

Bella sat at the bar of the leaky cauldron, trying to wave down the barman to bring her another drink. Tom came over and eyed her suspisiously, he wasnt completely convinced she was of age yet, despite the extreemly heavy make up and the tight, short, revealing red satin mini dress.
''Can I have... another drink?'' Bella asked, slurring her words slightly. She was totally smashed, having made her way through at least 5 firewhiskys and a whole bottle of champagne. Apparently, this wasnt a good combination.

Emmalynn to a seat next to Bella at the bar. She had just gotten off of a 48-hour shift on call at St. Mungo's. Tom glanced at her and shook his head.

"Another all-nighter, Lynn?" he asked, bringing her her usual black tea with a shot of firewhiskey. She had come here many times after work to relax a bit.

"Two, Tom..." she mumbled. "First, some idiot first year set himself on fire at school. It was so bad, Pomfrey had to send him to the burn ward..." She took a rather large drink of tea before continuing. "Then, three women decided to give birth in the last," she glanced at her watch, "twenty-eight hours." Tom let out a low whistle.

Bella looked over as another person appeared next to her at the bar. Bella thought she looked vaguely familiar, but she was awared she was so drunk that she was probably mistaken.

''Hello...'' Bella giggled, the word barely understandable. Bella was obviously a very happy drunk. She took another sip of her drink, spilling more of it on the bar counter. The sight of this made her laugh even more.

Emmalynn considered the girl next to her at the bar. She was obviously hammered and Emmalynn wondered if she should offer her a hangover potion for the morning. She decided that she would, but only when one of them was about to leave.

She finished her drink and Tom came over with another. She smiled gratefully; the bartender knew her too well. Emmalynn knew that if she had any more drinks after this one, he would stop putting alcohol in them. So she turned to the girl again. "Hello. I'm Healer Snape," she said, reaching out a hand.

Bella looked up as the girl next to her introduced herself. She lifted her arm of the counter to shake the girls hand, but since Bella had been using to bar counter to support herself and her balence was more than slightly off, she ended up using the extended hand to steady herself.

''Sorryyyyyy'', Bella laughed. ''Heeeealer Snapppppe'', Bella repeated, empasising the words in odd places so it came out oddly. ''That sounds really''-Bella paused for a moment to find the right word-''proffessional like. Are you proffessional?'' Bella asked her, giggleing slightly through the whole thing, except for the last question which she said in a dead serious tone, as if this was of the utmost importance. ''I'm Bella'', she stated, winking at someone on the otherside of the bar as she said this, before turning back to the healer.

Emmalynn was slightly shocked to see just how drunk Bella was. She analyzed her movements and didn't miss the girl's obvious instability. She inwardly smiled sadly; this one was in for a bad hangover, that was for sure.

"Yes, I am a professional, Bella," she said, smiling slightly. "I work at St. Mungo's." Emmalynn had spent a good part of her early life after Hogwarts in school to become a Potions Master and Healer. It had taken her almost five and a half years, but she'd managed. "You may call me Emmalynn or any shortening of that if you wish."

''Emmly'', Bella shortened, still impressed, drunk as she was, at Emmalyn's proffession. ''So you like... fix people?!'' Bella said, somewhat awed. You had to be smart to be a healer. Really smart. Bella doubted that she herself was intelligent enough to be allowed to clean the floors at St Mungos. Bella grinned happily and took another drink from her now empty glass. SHe frowned slightly as the room began to spin. ''So what are you doing here Emmly?'' Bella asked.

Emmalynn laughed at Bella's description of her job.

"Yes, I fix people. I'm mainly an on-call Healer, meaning I go in whenever they need me and do whatever needs doing," she explained. "Mostly I do emergency work, like spell damaage, burns and poisons, and emergency births..." Most Healers had a specific category of work, but she just did anything and everything.

She tuned in again just in time to hear Bella's question. "Huh? Oh, the bar," she said, forgetting for a moment where 'here' was. "Well, I've been on duty for the last 48 hours, and whenever I have a long shift, which is often, I come here to wind down." She lowered her voice to a whisper, "Tom the barman knows what I get and stops giving me alcohol after the second drink. He witnessed how low my alcohol tolerence is..." she trailed off, smiling slightly.

Bella's eyes grew wide as Emmalyn decribed her job. ''W-o-w!'' She said, making the word into three sylabules despite it being slightly slurred. ''Thats, thats, thats...''Bella said, struggling to come up with the right adjective to describe what she thought of what Emmalyn did, ''Thats wow...''

Bella was clearly impressed, and was still marvelling over the intelligence and skill one would be required to posses to be in that line of work when Emmalyn began talking again.

Bella laughed pleasantly as Emmalyn mentioned her low tolerance for alcohol, as this was something she herself suffered with. It probably had something to do with her age, her short stature, not being able to reach 5 feet without the help of stillettoes, and her tiny petite build. ''Don't worry, im a total lightweight!'' Bella gushed, ''It only takes a couple of drinks for me and I'm totally trashed...'' Not that that stops me from keeping on going till I actually pass out, Bella thought.

Emmalynn just smiled as she sipped her tea. She was quite used to people being speechless when she explained her job. It wasn't an easy one, but she had needed the non-stop movement after the war. "Yeah, I was planning on being an Auror, but... I just couldn't do it after the war. Too many people important to me were killed, so I decided to live my life saving people instead..." she said under her breath, not realizing she was speaking out loud.

She quickly directed her attention back to Bella and laughed at what she had said. "Yes, I understand," she said, sliding off her seat and showing Bella how un-tall she was herself. "I'm barely five-two and heels are not an option in my workplace!" she joked. "I've always had a slight frame, too, so I definately know what you're saying..."

Bella was still in a semi-drunken awe, so she didnt really catch much of what Emmalyn was mutttering under her breath, but just a few key words were enough. Bella's eyes grew wide, ''Emly what war?'' SHe asked, slightly worried but more confused. Her head tilted slightly to the left, like it always did when Bella didnt know what was going on. Bella smiled when Emmalyn stood up, showing that she herself was no giant. Bella was glad that someone knew where she was coming from at least.