Sighing as she carefully made her way down the mahogony staircase, Charlotte pressed a pair of fingers to her temple as she felt the throbbing ache of what she only predict, regrettably so, would be her second headache of the day. Perhaps, she surmised, the first had never entirely left her. It wouldn't have been surprising after all, the nap she'd taken that afternoon to ward it off had been rudely awakened at the tapping of an owl beside her window, scratched parchment in talons. She had lain in bed for minutes before finally dragging herself from the sheets with the mild mental assertion that before she was thirty she would see to it that all owls in Great Britain were banned. Forever.

Stepping down the stairs, she could only think of the various things needing her attention before the day could be considered finally over. Her mother had announced just a bit earlier they were expecting a guest to join them for dinner, and since this was a common practice to which Charlotte had been accustomed to from a young age, she had not thought to ask anything of the company. After all, why would she have? Her mother could be trusted to not make a collosal mistake and invite her former fiancee and more recent terror for dinner, right?

Wrong.

Hearing the loud collapse before she saw it from her spot at the foot of the stairs, Charlotte rushed forward, her eyes widening as she neared enough to discern the very human frame crumpled in the parlor. Turning, she cried in a frantic rush, "Water! Millie, bring some water!"

Falling to her knees in the next instant and sliding the hair from the face of the young man, Charlotte's heart stuck in her throat when she recognized the face as instantly as she would have perceived her own. Her fingers trembled as it brushed over the side of the face, and somethig near-panic stilled her breathing for the entire duration until the house elf entered once more.

"Now, here, give it," she demanded in a rush, bending closer to blow gently over the sweat-sheened forehead, manuevering the head into her lap. Whispering in a hushed tone incoherent consolations, she trickled a touch of the water onto her fingers before sprinkling it over Elphias's face, her voice barely above a whisper.

"Come, love, please.. it's all right."