A Lovely Family Reunion (Heidi)

[Julie Paige McGreggor]

Julie McGreggor cursed under her breath as she walked the corridors of St. Mungo’s hospital with a cheap batch of flowers in her arms. Of course, she just had to tell Carson about their grandmother. If she had just kept her big mouth shut, she wouldn’t be forced to come down here today. When Harriet McGreggor was admitted into the hospital for heart problems, Julie was unfortunately one of the only people her grandfather contacted. She hadn’t received a call from anyone in her family in years. They all seemed to hate her, they all seemed to think Julie was somehow screwing up her life just because she wasn’t married and staying home all day cooking for her husband and six children. Julie was single, teaching art to children and teens from her home in Northern Wales. What was so wrong about that? Why did she have to change just to make them happy? They certainly weren’t doing the same for her. People like her grandparents and her aunt and uncle were constantly trying to force their opinions on Julie, constantly trying to change her because they felt she wasn’t living her life the right way. Julie felt that as long as she was happy, she was living a perfect life.

And Julie was happy. She loved her job, she loved her students, and she loved her life. But anyway, now that Julie was done with her mental rant, she walked up to the secretary, who looked miserably overworked. “Excuse me, could you please direct me to Harriet McGreggor’s room please? I’m her granddaughter, Julia.” The secretary put a few more callers on hold before she answered Julie with an exasperated sigh. She smiled and looked up the name in a large old book. She adjusted her eyeglasses and looked up at Julie with a kind expression. “You’re grandmother is in room 23B.” Julie smiled back at the poor woman. “Thank you.” She sighed and walked away from the counter in search of the correct room.

There were people walking around everywhere, and Julie found it hard to find the correct room. She finally found it. She pushed the door open to find the ever so unpleasant sight of Daniel, Erick, and Rachel McGreggor standing around Harriet’s bed. She sighed and plastered on a fake smile. “Hello, everyone!” Julie said in a falsely cheery voice. Rachel’s smile faded when she saw Julie appear. “Oh, it’s you. Glad to see you finally made it, Julia. We were wondering if you’d come.” Rachel raised a thin eyebrow at her. Rachel wasn’t directly related to Julie, and she was glad for it. Julie would disinherit herself if she was really related to that madwoman she was raised by. Daniel had his muscular arm around her protectively, as if Julie was going to bite. Julie’s presence had obviously made the room extremely tense. Julie fidgeted a bit. She really wasn’t comfortable being here. Julie’s grandpa, who was obviously unfazed by their behavior grinned and held his hands open. “’Tis can’t be my little Julia!” He said in a thick Scottish accent, trapping her in a tight hug. She smiled awkwardly, despite not being able to breathe. “Hi grandpa.” With a glance over her grandfather’s shoulder, she noticed her grandmother was fast asleep. “So, tell your dear grandpa what’s going on in my granddaughter’s life. Am I to expect any great-grandchildren any time soon?” He looked up at her expectantly, reminding Julie of a Leprechaun. “No, grandpa. Actually, I’m still single.” Rachel rolled her eyes. “Wow, what a surprise.” Julie bit her tongue. She didn’t want to get into yet another McGreggor vs. McGreggor fight that she and Rachel were so famous for. Not here.

“Rachel, dear, maybe she just hasn’t found anyone special yet. Don’t worry darling, I’ve got a friend with a very dashing son. He’ll be more than happy to marry you, I’m sure.” Her grandpa gave her a wide grin, and she couldn’t help but think of her parents, who were now dead because of her grandfather’s idea of an arranged marriage. She swallowed hard.

“Wow, I just remembered…I haven’t had lunch yet. I’ll be right back.” Her grandfather grinned crookedly again. “I’ll come with you!” Julie smiled and shook her head. Out of all her older family members, her grandfather was her favorite. Even though his ideals where extremely old fashioned, his intentions were good. Not to mention he was the only one out of the lot who didn’t hate her. “No, you stay here with grandma. You should be the first person she sees when she wakes up.” Daniel hugged her once more. “Ah, my little Julia. Such a romantic. You have a good lunch now, you here? And bring me back some cake. This place makes some damn good cake for a hospital.” He winked at her and Julie walked out. Now all she had to do was find the cafeteria. She walked around for a few moments, before finding a familiar looking young woman in healer robes. Julie looked so out of place in her muggle clothing. She stuck out like a sore thumb in her old faded jeans and short long sleeved green shirt. “Excuse me; do you know how to get to the cafeteria? I’m starving and I have no idea where the place is.”

[Heidi Rebecca Fleming]

Heidi gave a soft sigh and leaned against the wall tiredly. It was only early afternoon, after the usual lunch hour, and already she was worn down from chasing after patients, making sure they didn’t die on her, receiving unexpected calls to aid other interns, and generally being so busy she hadn’t even had lunch yet. Heidi had to admit, she was pretty irritated. She needed her lunch break, and now! Her stomach rumbled its agreement, having put up with Heidi’s ignorance of it until this moment. Glancing at her watch, Heidi knew the cafeteria wouldn’t shut anytime soon. In fact, the hospital one never closed; even during night food was available. Patients, healers and visitors moved in and our al day, if not all night too. Not that Heidi knew, since she hadn’t done a night shift yet (thankfully, but it would happen soon and she wasn’t looking forward to it), but she had heard from other people. It was two weeks into her internship here, and already Heidi knew many of her colleagues. She wasn’t trying to get around and make herself known, establish relations and make advantages for herself… no, Heidi was just a social person by nature. She was well liked – even though the women were evidently jealous of her intelligence and attractive appearance, and especially her newfound friendship with one Miguel Taveras.

As expected, the male healers were either fawning at Heidi’s feet, or too shy to approach her. This had always been the case since Heidi entered high school. At Hogwarts, her popularity was made from not only her blonde hair and green eyes, but her witty intelligence which not many girls could be on par with. Heidi had revelled in it at the beginning, but she never overstepped the line; it wasn’t until she became pregnant with Rebecca that her life turned upside down. Heidi matured a lot in those years, and had continued to mature, even now. Right now she wondered again how Rebecca was; where she was living, how her health was, if she was happy. Heidi knew she longed to see her baby girl, but she knew she couldn’t. It was possible Heidi would never ever see Rebecca Angeline Fleming again. Frowning, she tried to cast the negative thought from her mind. The last thing she needed right now was these memories, these worries. No, Heidi had to live for the here and now – in this hospital, with these patients.

Amongst her male colleagues, aside from Miguel, Heidi also talked to Ben on a regular basis; if he hadn’t been her fellow intern in the same group and her neighbour, and they therefore conversed a lot, Heidi doubted she and Ben would have ever became friends. He was too coy, too nervous, to have approached her, and knowing herself, she would’ve barely noticed his existence. Surprisingly, Heidi was actually extremely glad of his friendship. He was a sweet person, kind and honest; he was just a little bit klutzy sometimes, was all. Heidi thought his clumsiness was cute though, really. He had a good heart on his sleeve, and that was all that mattered. In the past two weeks the two of them had apparated between each other’s homes, often Ben being invited over for dinner because he was a simple awful cook. It made Heidi laugh, the one time she watched him attempt to feed himself. How had he managed to survive all these years alone? Thinking about Ben, Heidi decided to send her friend a message, telling him she was on lunch break and therefore would not be answering any calls. Adding to that, she would divert all jobs sent to her to him. Heidi had done that for him before; they did it whenever one was on lunch and they weren’t together in the cafeteria. Heidi had just finished her message and was standing up, straightening her lime green robes, when a voice caused her to look up.

Heidi’s eyes met a familiar face as the young woman asked her the way to the cafeteria. She smiled, about to answer (noting that she was a visitor from the way she was dressed), when her mind clicked and recognition seeped in. “Julia?” Heidi suddenly asked, a smile spreading on her face. “You’re Julia, aren’t you? Julia McGreggor?” Heidi couldn’t help but grin at seeing such an old yet familiar face. Julia McGreggor was a girl who had attended Hogwarts with Heidi for seven years; they had been in the same year, but Heidi was sure Julia had been in Hufflepuff rather than Ravenclaw. Most likely had she been in Ravenclaw Heidi would have known her reasonably well, but she didn’t. She knew little about Julia, aside from her name, but it was nice to see someone from Hogwarts again. First Miguel, now this. Fate had an odd way of dealing its hand. “Oh, I’m sorry, you prefer to be called Julie, don’t you?” Heidi recalled with an apologetic smile. “It’s just been so long, my memory’s a bit rusty. I don’t know if you remember me from school, but I’m Heidi Fleming. I was in your year at Hogwarts. I was in Ravenclaw.”

Heidi smiled keenly, hoping Julie would remember her. Otherwise it would be somewhat awkward. “Oh, you’re looking for the cafeteria right? Having lunch? I’m heading there myself, I’d be pleased to show you the way.” Heidi turned and began to walk down the corridor with Julie following. “What brings you to St Mungo’s anyway, Julie?” Heidi asked out of curiosity. “Are you visiting someone?” The question was unnecessary, for it was obvious what Julie’s presence here was due to her civilian clothes, but this way Heidi didn’t need to openly ask who she was here to see. Heidi didn’t think she had treated any relative of Julie’s; the hospital was just so big.

[Julie Paige McGreggor]

Julie looked up at the familiar blonde girl. She smiled politely at the woman, who had introduced herself as Heidi Fleming. Julie knew she had seen her before; perhaps at Hogwarts. Yes, that would be it. Heidi was a fellow Hogwarts graduate. She smiled at the woman, who was only slightly taller than her. “Yup, that’s me. Julie McGreggor. And it’s fine if you want to call me Julia. All my students do. Well my older ones just call me McGreggor, but the little ones call me Julia.” She said. Oh, gosh. She was rambling again. It was a common thing Julie liked to do when she met new people. She’d picked up the habit when she’d started teaching. She’d automatically get really nervous when talking to the parents and started rambling. Ever since then, Julie rambled about nonsense whenever she met someone new. Even though Heidi wasn’t exactly a new face, she was still one Julie hadn’t seen in at least three to four years.

“I’m an art teacher now. I teach from my home in Wales. So I see you became a healer? Well, that’s great. I’m only here to see my grandmother. She’s in here for some heart condition. I’m sure she’ll be fine though.” Julie said with a casual shrug. She knew she didn’t sound too bothered about her sick grandmother, but she couldn’t help it. After all, this was one of the many older women in Julie’s life that shunned every decision she’d ever made, and constantly told her she wasn’t good enough to match the McGreggor standards. And besides, Harriet was a strong old lady. She’d make it through. “Oh, Heidi. Yes, I was in Hufflepuff. We didn’t have many classes together I don’t think.” Julie was surprised Heidi was being so polite. Most girls as pretty as Heidi hated Julie back at Hogwarts. Julie remembered her last few years. She was known by many girls like Heidi as the tart of the school. The local boyfriend stealer. Julie had to admit, she wasn’t pretty popular around girls like Heidi. Julie was wild and rebellious, and loved to party the night away at Hogsmeade. People like Heidi were studious, smart, and popular with everyone. She sighed. Hopefully, Heidi wouldn’t remember the old Julie anytime soon. She wasn’t in the mood to feel the wrath of a revenge thirsty Queen-bee.

Julie had changed, and she hoped that one day everyone would get that. She wasn’t the same wild teenager she was before. She had matured greatly. Having custody of Carson had made her more responsible and level headed. Her art class had kept a balanced head on her shoulders, but the students themselves had kept Julie’s soul alive. Her toddlers had kept her thinking on her feet, and not to mention they gave her a good workout by making her dance around the studio cleaning up paint and putting a stop to countless clay fights. Her primary school children helped her remember the innocence of childhood. They were fun to teach, and she felt a strong sense of happiness and warmth when she knew she was teaching them something positive while they were started to become surrounded by countless bad influences.

And of course, there was Julie’s favorite class. Her senior class. The high schoolers helped remind Julie of her teenage years, and she knew that she was doing a good thing by teaching them. Not only did Julie teach art, but she taught life lessons. She taught life lessons that would have helped her when she was a teenager. She sighed.

“Thanks. This place is huge. I don’t think I’d be able to find my way around by myself. I would ask my grandpa, but he’s a bit busy right now and all. You know how it is. She said as she walked. A creepy old healer walked out of a room and she noticed him checking both Heidi and Julie out as they passed by. She shivered. “Creep.” She muttered under her breath. What nerve. She rolled her eyes but sighed in relief when they approached the hospital cafeteria.