Deciding to take less shifts at the tea shop, Parker was able to dedicate more of his time towards volunteering in the hospital wing. He certainly enjoyed it more, but just like at the tea shop he was making all these stupid mistakes when there was really no excuse for it anymore. Sure it was still his first year, but he wasn’t all that new to it anymore... he should be better at working with and tending to patients. His bedside manners should have improved, his reactions more calculated and thought out. So why did it seem like he was just getting worse at this? Was he just not cut-out for it like he thought?

Maybe it was because it was so hard to focus on anything lately, maybe it was because he was so easily overwhelmed - especially when it was busy. Parker sighed as he walked out of the break room, knowing well that he couldn’t keep making excuses for his poor performance. He needed to get better at setting aside his own personal issues so he could actually do his job here. He couldn’t afford any more write-ups as it was.

Parker shared his hours today with a few of the older trainee healers, so perhaps they’d be more willing to help him out when he struggled… The last thing he wanted was another incident like he had a few days ago, where a couple of students had ingested some sort of trick-candy and Parker had accidentally induced vomiting instead of suppressing their nausea like he was supposed to.

Unrolling the sleeves to his robes and stopping briefly to look around, he felt his stomach sink when he saw how filled the wing was. Not necessarily busy - but still enough people to make him dread the next few hours until his next break. How could he expect himself to make it as a healer when being around a lot of other people was so physically and mentally trying on him. Maybe he needed to go see someone about that himself… If he was lucky though, he’d just be dealing with backfired glamour potions/charms, botched love potions, and minor physical injuries received from trying to impress a crush. Typical things he’d expect as it neared Valentine’s Day.

Not exactly knowing where his help was needed, Parker took the typical first-year role of observer. In all honesty, it was probably a role that he needed to be more comfortable in taking. His instinct was always to jump right into it, always be doing something, and maybe that’s where part of the issue lay. And besides the actual Healers on duty, the 3rd and 4th years were a great second best when it came to watching and learning how they went about things.

Taking in a deep breath, Parker stuffed both hands into the pockets of his robes, walking over to one of the 3rd years he had worked with before and watching as she went through the process of lessening the allergic reaction some poor girl had to a glamour potion. He didn’t know if he’d ever understand the appeal of that class of potions, especially given the consequences when they were prepared wrong or when the chance of an adverse reaction was so high. Why did they feel the need to alter their appearance just to impress some stupid person that only cared about looks? Sure, Parker didn’t feel too great about himself/his looks either, but potions and charms like those were temporary, and once people started with the more extreme and long lasting ones, they tended to get hooked.

Once the girl was taken care of and left to rest, Parker and the third year talked over the patient’s chart for a few minutes. He made sure to ask careful questions about how he should approach similar situations, how to talk with patients and give them proper warnings and advice about their actions - and she told him there was only so much they could do, how it wasn’t really their job to lecture the patient on what they decided to take or not so long as what the patient did was legal.

After that was finished, Parker made his way over to one of the 4th years that was dealing with a broken arm. He made sure to stay out of the way, mentally noting how casual and natural he seemed to interact with the patient. He’ll be a great Healer for sure, Parker thought to himself.

With the off-handed comment from the 4th year and the patient’s embarrassment, Parker tried to stifle an amused smile, knowing it would be unprofessional to laugh. “Is it just me or do Quidditch players always seem to hurt themselves more often during the holidays? Always trying to so hard to impress someone, aren’t they?” Parker commented conversationally as he watched the patient made his way out. He looked back over to the 4th year. “Oh, uh, I hope you don’t mind that I was watching. Was that the usual bone-mending spell you used?”

David smirked slightly. The smirk would be barely noticeable to most people. Another great sassy comment to add to his list. David turned around. He had noticed a younger healer had been watching him.

“Is it just me or do Quidditch players always seem to hurt themselves more often during the holidays? Always trying to so hard to impress someone, aren’t they?”

David smiled a bit more. "Yup. Although I'd say that statically their attempts don't work very often." He said. It was true. Most of the people that ended up in the hospital wing were Quidditch players and majority of the time they were trying to impress someone. In the end though they'd just be injured and farther away from that special someone. Quidditch players need to learn logic.

“Oh, uh, I hope you don’t mind that I was watching. Was that the usual bone-mending spell you used?”

"No I don't mind that you were watching." David said. He wasn't quite used to people watching him though. Most of the time people minded their own business. Not many younger healers have watched David before and let alone ask him questions. "The spell I used is pretty close to the usual bone-mending spell except it doesn't hurt the patient as much." David said. He recalled when he was younger and broke his wrist. Evan and Hugh were busy at the time so a different healer helped him out. That healer was less experienced and to say it was uncomfortable would be an understatement. "I'm David Wilson-House by the way." David said to introduce himself.

Parker felt himself get a little bit nervous as the older wizard turned his attention to him, a pleased-looking smile on his face. "Yeah, you'd think they'd learn by now," he chuckled. These kinds of back-and-forth comments about general patients weren't uncommon, Parker learned. At first he found it odd, something healers shouldn't do, but later learned it was almost like a coping mechanism to deal with the common frustrations that came with being a healer.

He was relieved that the older man was so friendly, since he had heard there were some almost-graduated trainees that just didn't want to have anything to do with first years. It made him hesitant to approach and work alongside those he knew were older than him.

Nodding, Parker's interest was definitely piqued when the differences in the spell were explained. Alterations, general experimentation, and improvements in healing practices were something that Parker was fascinated with. He always wondered if healing advancements were anything like how muggle medical advancements were. "That's really cool. Where did you learn it from?" he asked, curious since he'd never come across it before in all his studying.

"I'm David Wilson-House by the way."

Parker smiled and held out a hand to shake. "I'm Parker Emery, nice to meet you."