Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Harry Potter or any other places or ideas from the mind of J. K. Rowling.
Setting: Post war (Deathly Hallows Spoilers), Mental Institution
Summary: All those involved in the war are considered mentally unstable. They must pass a test to avoid being placed in a mental institution, but what happens if they don't pass...
A clean-shaven man with long dark hair and vivid black eyes stood up in his place at the circle.
"Hello group," he said, his large white teeth shining in his false smile, "I am Dr. Baldune and this is Dr. Ochere." he nodded towards a much older looking man standing behind him.
Dr. Ochere looked to be in his late fifties, but had a warm smile that denied his deep wrinkles.
"Dr. Ochere will be in charge of improving the mental instability of your young minds and will be reporting to me every evening." He took a pause and scans the room, searching every face with his plastered smile never faltering.
"We deem it best that you have your own wing to yourselves as you all are already acquainted, and this way, you may avoid our more dangerous guests. However," he continued, "It is necessary that we remove all weapons from our guests, so if you will, stand up one at a time and introduce yourselves before turning your wands over to Dr. Ochere."
At this a wave of complaints rolled around the circle of new patients.
"Now, now," Dr. Baldune reprimanded, "even war heroes must follow the rules and at this time you are all considered mentally unstable, therefore you must believe that it is a necessary-"
"Excuse me miss," interrupted Dr. Ochere with a kind expression on his face, "would you like to start?"
"My name is Luna Lovegood; I am here because I am able to believe in more than what I see. There is no other reason. They just call that crazy." Reluctantly she handed over her wand, and the next person stood up.
"I am Ronald Weasley and I suppose that I am here for depression or something. Anyways I failed the test so here I am." He refused to look at Dr. Ochere as he forced himself to hand over his wand.
Rolling her eyes, the next young lady stood up. "I'm Hermione Granger and I am here supposedly because of my obsessive nature." She walked over to where Dr. Ochere was standing and placed her wand squarely in the palm of his hand before turning abruptly on her heel and striding back to her seat.
Dr. Ochere moved behind the next person's chair as he stood up. "I am Neville Longbottom and I am here because I just love following in my parents' footsteps." The sarcasm did not go undetected, but neither the pained expression on his face. He gave his wand one last look of disgust and handed it over easily.
The next patient stood up, one hand on her hip, and loudly announced, "Pansy Perkinson, dumped here by my parents, in case you hadn't noticed, I wasn't even in the stupid war so I don't know how I ended up failing that stupid-ass test but I don't belong here. My parents just don't want to have to deal with me."
She casually placed her wand into Dr. Ochere's hand without another glance in its direction and blew a kiss to the next person before sitting back down.
Ignoring Pansy, the next patient stood up, a young man with a lightning scar on his forehead. "My name is Harry Potter and I don't see any reason to give up my wand to someone I don't even know. You could be runaway Death Eaters for all any of us know about you."
Both doctors proceeded to roll up their sleeves, revealing bare arms, no dark mark in sight.
"Mr. Potter", started Dr. Baldune, "with all due respect, you should really be more concerned with the status of the young man beside you. We are of little threat to your personal safety until you start refusing to follow our rules. That is when we hold you down and sedate you."
Harry didn't flinch as all this was being said, but finally sighed and passed his wand along, satisfied that no one was out to get him.
The last patient stood up, his head bowed and hands in his pockets. He spoke in an undeniably sad voice, the usual arrogance completely absent. "Draco Malfoy. I am here because the rich always get off easy. This is what I get for being on the wrong side of a meaningless war."
He sat back down but stood back up just as quickly. "And if anyone wants to know", he glanced quickly at Harry, "I am not, and never was, a Death Eater, though I must confess, I wanted to be one once." He flung his wand over to Dr. Ochere who just managed to catch it with the tips of his fingers.
Dr. Ochere scanned the circle, but seemingly unsatisfied, searched again, slightly more frantically.
"Sir, there should be eight wands in my hand, we are missing one."
As if on cue, in stumbled the last of the "war heroes", claiming a spot between Hermione and Neville. "I'm Ginny Weasley and I had to use the bathroom, but I didn't want to interrupt so I waited. I think my test results said that I am here because of some big word that begins with psycho. I'm psycho."
She fought off the urge to snatch her hand away as Dr. Ochere began to reach toward her wand.
Seeing that the meeting was coming to a close, Dr. Baldune excused himself and Dr. Ochere took his place. "Look, I don't really care for all this formality, so why don't you just call me Ben and we can all be on a first name basis."
Nobody responded.
"Well, I will take your silence as consent. Our Group meeting is over for today so if you would like, I can show you to your rooms, or we can stay and talk... about our... never mind." He gave up on his sentence as his words were drowned out by the sounds of eight teenagers rummaging through piles of luggage for their bags and throwing aside the useless parcels and suitcases of others.
In a few seconds, all were lined up at the door of the library, which had been chosen for the first meeting of the "Hogwarts War Victims".
Ben directed the group to the hallway on the east wing.
"You may all choose any room to your liking," he began," except for you Mr. Malfoy." He turned towards the young blonde. "Your bedroom is the last door at the end, complete with its own bathroom and a considerably large closet."
Draco, with the same sheepish look on his face, replied, "Just because I paid for a better room doesn't mean that I want special treatment". You can call me by my first name just like everybody else."
"Uh, right," responded Ben, surprised at the reprove. "Well in the next hallway over, there is a kitchen, a large dining room, and two other bathrooms." With a wink he added, "Just ask Ginny if you can't find them."
Ginny blushed and opened the door to the room directly beside her and peeked inside.
"If you find a room that you like, there is a key in the bedside dresser," Ben continued, "It's your own fault if somebody else takes your room because you left that key lying about, so be careful with it, we aren't allowed to replace it unless you have locked yourself out of your-"
"Excuse me," Hermione interrupted while cracking open the door to a room with teal-colored walls, "what is the purpose of the keys, we are all quite old enough to apparate."
"Well you will find that apparition is quite impossible within these walls and besides which, I haven't met many seventeen or eighteen-year-olds who were so skilled at wand-less magic."
"Oh sorry, I forgot I don't have one anymore, carry on."
Well if you have all found the room that makes you feel sane, I'll be off."
Nobody laughed at his attempt at humor, they all just settled into their new homes for the next six months.