Wild At Heart (Bek, open)

[Ingrid Regan]

The noise and chatter of the common room was too much for Ingrid. It seemed to her that far too many of her classmates had far too much to say about nothing at all. They were always giggling and gossiping about the most meaningless things. Ingrid, always silent, heard it all. Many of the other students no longer even noticed her anymore and would start up the most intimate conversations right in front of her without regard to what she might think.

Perhaps they thought she was stupid and wouldn't understand what they were saying, or maybe they just figured she could easily keep any secret because she didn't speak. And in a way, the latter was true. She knew all kinds of secrets about her fellow classmates--who liked who, what "friends" secretly hated each other, who was cheating on whom, and all sorts of other secrets that Ingrid actually couldn't have cared less about. It all only reinforced her belief that most people were not to be trusted.

Winter was a particularly trying time for Ingrid, because it was too cold to walk outside most of the time. On cold days, she often found herself wandering the castle alone, just seeking some sort of solace from all the chatter. Because of her wanderings, she actually had found a number of secret rooms and passageways that only she knew about.

But today was a relatively warm day for early March, and Ingrid took advantage of the weather and went ouot for a walk. The sun was warm as it shone down on her, lighting up her vivid red hair. But, as was typical for March, a strong breeze was blowing and she had to walk carefully so as not to be blown over.

She had no destination in mind as she wandered the grounds. She thought about going to the lake, but because it was the first nice day in a while, she suspected that there would be a few students there already and she wasn't in mood to listen to the gossip. So she stayed in the middle of the grounds and walked toward the Whomping Willow. As she approached the large tree, however, she saw a bird fly up toward the tree. The Willow, always on the defense, swung one of its branches at the bird, striking it and knocking it out of the sky. It plummeted toward the ground in an arc, falling a few feet away from her just clear of the tree. Horrified, Ingrid ran over to the bird and began to examine it to see if she could help it.

[Rebecca "Bek" Caldwell]

Bek was on her way back from her Care of Magical Creatures class. She was slowly unwrapping a gauze tissue from her hand, examining the effects of what happens when you anger a gang of bowtruckles. there were now several splinters in her hand and she winced as she rewrapped the hand.

She was on her way to the Hospital Wing when she saw Ingrid walking past. "Ingrid!" Bek called, but Ingrid kept walking, probably unable to hear Bek. She quickened her pace and when she got to the red-head, she noticed that she was tending to a bird laying awkwardly on the ground. "Oh no," Bek said, she had always had a soft spot for animals. She caught up to Ingrid and knelt beside her. "What happened?" Bek asked Ingrid.

[Ingrid Regan]

Ingrid knelt on the ground, trying to help the bird. It was bleeding from a hole in its side, which she assumed was caused by a sharp branch. Its wing was also clearly broken, but first she was trying to stop the bleeding by holding a torn piece of her robe on the bird's side and compressing lightly.

When she heard Bek's voice, she looked up at the seventh year. Ingrid didn't have many people she could call friends (if she ever called anyone anything), but she considered Bek to be a friend. She was kind and sincere and not too chatty.

In answer to Bek's question, Ingrid pointed to the Whomping Willow.

[Rebecca "Bek" Caldwell]

Bek looked to the Willow and then to the bird. "Ouch," Bek said. She watched for a while as Ingrid stopped the bleeding with part of her robe. Bek noticed the wing of the poor bird. She pulled out her wand and looked at Ingrid. "It works on people, Episkey should help the bird too, right?"

[Ingrid Regan]

Ingrid shrugged lightly. She didn't use healing spells, mainly because they generally required spoken incantations. She worked with a tutor to help her do some necessary spells without speaking, but the healing spells weren't among them. In situations like this, she generally did what she had to do by hand, and simply hoped it would be enough. She had been about to look for a couple of sticks to fashion a sort of splint for the bird's wing, but Bek's suggestion was worth a try.

She nodded and moved aside for Bek to give her some room so that she could give it a try.

[Rebecca "Bek" Caldwell]

"Okay," Bek said. Ingrid sat back and Bek looked at the bird with consentration. She had learned healing spells toward the end of sixth year, and they had been very useful since. Her friend Gage, like her, was an utter klutz, and she often used it to patch up scraped and twisted ankles.

But would the same spell would work on animals? It was worth a shot. Bek pointed the wand at the bird. "Episkey!" she cast. The bleeding hole quickly closed up, and the bird squawked loudly. Bek wondered if the wing had fixed itself as well. It was shapped normally, but when she touched it lightly, it squawked again. "It's probably tender..." Bek said. "What do you think?" Bek looked at the sixth year and smiled.

[Ingrid Regan]

Ingrid smiled as the bird seemed to get better. She gave Bek and nod, then leaned in closer to the bird, trying to examine the injured wing. The shape of it did indeed look normal, but it also seemed to be rather tender. Maybe the poor thing would need some rest to allow it to recover fully.

She frowned and ran a finger down the bird's back. Looking up at Bek, she nodded toward the far end of the castle grounds, where Hagrid's hut was. Ingrid was friendly with Hagrid, since they both shared a love of animals. But while Hagrid loved big, monstrous creatures, Ingrid loved the small and defenseless ones. As a result of her love of animals, she often tended to sick or injured creatures such as this bird, and Hagrid had set up a series of crates and cages there for her, so that she could tend to the animals. Right now, she had no animals that she was tending to, but this bird would at least have a safe place to stay while it regained its strength.

Ingrid scooped the bird up in her hands and stood up, motioning to Bek for her to follow.

[Rebecca "Bek" Caldwell]

"Okay, I'll follow you," Bek said. It had taken her a while to learn to understand Ingrid's silent language. At first, when they were younger, Bek just assumed it was a lot of pointing and jestures. But it was actually very intricate, a language all Ingrid's own that Bek found she was lucky enough to understand.

They walked toward Hagrid's Hut, and Bek wondered if she was going to see if Hagrid could help. Bek was about to say, somewhat jokingly, that the bird was so tiny that Hagrid may accidentally crush the poor thing. But then she saw the array of crates and cages nearby to Hagrid's. "Oh wow, I didn't know this way here." Bek said.

[Ingrid Regan]

Ingrid smiled and nodded. That was the point, really. No one was supposed to know it was there. Hagrid had set it up for her when they had bonded over the fact that they both loved animals. Despite his enormous size, Hagrid was a gentle soul, and he was another one of the few people with the patience to learn how to understand Ingrid. He often joked about how their names even rhymed.

She walked over to one of the empty cages and gently set the bird inside. Here it would be safe, and could take a little time to recuperate from its injuries.

Then she moved over to another cage, the only other one that was occupied, and took out a small rabbit. The creature was the only surviving member of its litter; its mother and siblings had all been killed by wolves. Ingrid had found the carnage, along with the tiny rabbit cowering under a fallen log. It was unhurt, but too small to survive on its own. She had brought it here to take care of it and raise it until it was ready to go back into the wild.

In her mind, she called the male rabbit Angus, after her father.

Smiling, she held the rabbit out to Bek, offering to let her hold him.

[Rebecca "Bek" Caldwell]

Oh, so this was Ingrid's secret place. Bek understood and smiled at Ingrid. She understood the need to have a place that was all your own, especially in a place so crowded as Hogwarts. Occasionally, Bek would wander he way up to the Owlry and just shut herself off from the world and school and everything. She was glad that she wasn't the only one like that.

Bek followed Ingrid to one cage where she put the bird that was now recovering its battle with the Whomping willow. Then she watched Ingrid go to another cage and pulled out a rabbit. "Oh how cute" Bek said. The little creature in Ingrid's hands seemed so harmless and innocent, and it made Bek grin. When Ingrid offered the rabbit to Bek, she took him gently and held him in her arms, "Well hey there," she said to the rabbit.

[Ingrid Regan]

Ingrid stood back and smiled while Bek held the rabbit. She would have to let Hagrid know that the bird was there later, and he would get some flobberworms to feed the injured bird. He also kept a stash of lettuce leaves for the rabbit nearby, and Ingrid went over to the little tray near the cage and put a fresh stock in there for Angus. She tore off a piece of one and held it out to Bek, so that she could feed him.

[Rebecca "Bek" Caldwell]

Bek was cuddling the rabbit, loving how soft it's fur was when Ingrid handed her a piece of lettuce. "Thanks," Bek said with a small smile. She fed small pieces to the rabbit. "How long have you had this all set up?" Bek asked curiously, nodding her head toward the cages.

[Ingrid Regan]

Ingrid smiled as the rabbit took little nibbles from the piece of lettuce. She had first come to Hagrid in her third year, when she was taking Care of Magical Creatures. She had found an injured squirrel and brought it to Hagrid, who helped her take care of the squirrel, then set up the little area for her to take care of animals.

She pointed to herself, then held up three fingers.

[Rebecca "Bek" Caldwell]

It took Bek a minute to decipher that one. "Third year?" Bek asked, impressed. "This is really impressive Ingrid." The rabbit in her arms finished the lettuce. Bek smiled for a moment, and then handed it carefully back to Ingrid. "You know, you should consider going to study some sort of Magical Vetrinary or something like that." Bek said. "I think you'd be really good at it." She smiled at Ingrid.

[Ingrid Regan]

Ingrid liked the sound of that idea. She didn't really like people all that much. Sometimes they surprised you, and there were some genuinely wonderful people out there.... but even her beloved father had had his dark side. And it was that dark side that led to his death.

But animals were innocent. They were pure. They never set out to hurt others just for the sake of hurting... they only did what they had to do to survive. They never robbed or cheated or lied, and when they killed, it was just for food. Everything was black and white; there were no gray areas. She wished people could be more like that.

Taking the rabbit from Bek, she held it for a moment and pressed a kiss to its soft fur. Then she smiled at Bek. This was where she was truly in her element.

[Rebecca "Bek" Caldwell]

Bek smiled at Ingrid as she watched her care for the rabbit. Occasionally, she'd wonder what wasd going on in that head of Ingrid's. But Bek knew that if she needed to know, Ingrid would tell her. Show her.

"Yea," Bek said. "Definately your thing." Bek was glad that Ingrid had an element, somthing she knew she loved that she was good at. Bek didn't have that. She was good at a handful of things, but nothing stood out. Bek didn't know what she wanted to do once school ended. And that was creeping up on her quickly.

[Ingrid Regan]

Ingrid carefully replaced the rabbit back in his cage, closing it behind him. Then she looked back in on the bird, which seemed to be trying to flex its wing inside the cage. The healing spell seemed to have worked well, and Ingrid didn't think it would take longer than a week for it to be ready to fly again. But in the mean time, she knew that the bird needed something to eat. There were some seeds that Hagrid kept in a shed on the other side of the house, and she was sure he wouldn't mind if she took a few to feed to the bird.

Turning back to Bek, she nodded to the other side of Hagrid's hut and motioned for the girl to follow her.

[Rebecca "Bek" Caldwell]

Bek followed Ingrid to the Rabbit's cage as she put him away. Then they went over to the bird's cage and Bek smiled as the bird slowly flexed its wing. "Well would you look at that," Bek smiled. "It worked!" Well, it worked well enough for now. She was sure it would be maybe a week before the poor little thing could fly again.

All of the sudden, Ingrid motioned for Bek to follow her. "Where to now?" Bek asked with amusement.

[Ingrid Regan]

In response, Ingrid simply placed her finger on her lips and kept walking around to the other side of Hagrid’s house. There, built into the side of the house, was a large shed-like structure. It was really almost like a closet, but it was very high, in order for Hagrid to be able to reach everything that he needed. It wasn’t wide enough to walk into it, rather, Ingrid simply opened the door to reveal many shelves stocked with supplies that Hagrid would need as the groundskeeper.

The seeds, luckily, were on a lower shelf, but it was still high enough that Ingrid could not reach it by herself. Not without magic, anyway. Taking out her wand, she concentrated very hard and used a summoning charm to bring a container of seeds down from the shelf. She turned to Bek and smiled, waving her over to where she was standing.

[Rebecca "Bek" Caldwell]

"I'm comming I'm comming," Bek laughed as she followed Ingrid over to the other side of Hagrid's Hut and into the shed. She was about to offer to help Ingrid get the seeds down when she watched her summon them with a silent summoning charm.

"I've always been impressed that you can do that," Bek said. "I mean, silent spells aren't even taught until our sixth year, but you've been doing it ever since I met you," Bek said with a little bit of awe in her voice. She walked over to Ingrid and took the seeds from her. "Okay, where to?"