Incuratus
Chapter One
By Mell8
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A.N. I blame House for this one…
A lot of the detailed doctor-ly information comes from Google and the hp-lexicon so if it's wrong please don't blame me. Rather, I would prefer that you tell me so I can fix it!
Also, this is technically not DH compatible. There might be some information from DH used but I'm completely disregarding the entire travesty. I'm also not sure how much HBP is going to be in this either. I guess you'll just have to read and find out!
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"Internal bleeding, his liver was punctured in the attack. Healer Weasley?"
Ginny looked up from where she was busily casting blood clotting spells on a fifteen year old boy who had been caught in the crossfire. It was lucky he was unconscious or the spells that reattached his dismembered arm would have sent him into shock.
A healer in training, likely one of the few advanced enough in his classes to be allowed to help out with triage, was hovering over a bloody and mangled man. His wand was spewing colored dots that hung in the air in ominous red and black colors.
"Do you know the spell for sutures?" Ginny snapped as she stood and pulled off her bloodied gloves.
"Yes, Miss," the boy nodded his head eagerly and wasn't looking too green around the gills from all the blood and death surrounding them. If she didn't collapse from exhaustion, Ginny would have to remember to write a good recommendation to his supervisor.
"Good, find a clean pair of gloves and scourgify your wand. I want you to finish the stitching of the major wounds and give him a blood-replenishing potion. Send him to the intensive care children's ward once he's stabilized," Ginny said in a rushed voice as she found clean gloves and swapped places with the younger healer.
This new patient was male, about six feet or so, and was covered head to toe in blood. Ginny quickly cast cleaning charms to disperse the blood and got to work extracting what looked like someone else's wand from the patient's stomach and liver.
It was a slow process, much like an arrow wound except without the sharp point to contend with. She pressed one hand on his stomach around the embedded wand for pressure as spells fell from her lips. More colored dots swooped around her head and she carefully watched the red one beating in time with his pulse and the blue one that flared every time he took a breath as she slowly muttered the spell that inched the wand out of his flesh.
She made sure not to aggravate the injury and found herself holding her breath to steady her hands until the tip of the wand was safely free. Then she was quickly casting stasis spells and blood clotting spells to help halt the deluge of blood and blacker fluids that spewed from the wound with the absence of the wand.
Once she knew he was somewhat stable Ginny forced a blood replenishing potion down his throat and cast a few quick spells that froze the wound as it was. It wouldn't get worse now that the wand was out so this patient could safely wait until the more serious cases had been taken care of.
"Mary!" Ginny called even though it was so loud from the sobbing and spell casting filling the room that the older woman didn't hear her at first. "This one needs more treatment. Could you please have him brought to a private room in my ward? Once I'm done here I'm going to have to finish sewing up this puncture wound."
"That's a right nasty one, Healer Weasley," Mary said primly as she shucked her gloves and pulled on fresh ones. "I'm guessing it'll be a couple layers of stitches before you can even think about closing the wound?"
"Something like that, Mary," Ginny nodded tiredly. "I've got to go, there's a man by the door coughing up blood."
"That might have something to do with the fist sized hole in his chest," Mary quipped as she gently Wingardium Leviosa-ed the John Doe and guided him out the door.
It was three hours later when Ginny was finally able to get to the patient with the puncture wound.
The man with the hole in his chest had died before she had finished closing the wound and she had been forced to leave him for the coroner, especially when a pregnant woman with a split skull had gone into serious labor on the blood soaked floor.
She had apparently been having contractions for the last few hours but, since she was stable, no one had noticed the contractions and she had been forced to wait until the immediate cases had been taken care of. The blow to her head had masked her contractions as well and no one had thought to check on the babe in the rush to take care of the other, truly serious cases.
Ginny had been forced to run alongside the stretcher casting healing spells on the woman's head as she was rushed to maternity. Both the woman and her babe had been fine but it had been a close call.
Exhaustion warred with common sense as Ginny swiftly made her way past her office and a comfortable couch and into the private room of the man who had mysteriously gotten himself punctured in the abdomen with a wand.
Luckily he was still unconscious and the colored dots said he was stable. All she had to do was spell together the lining of his stomach, his liver, and a few layers of muscle and epidermis before those horrid black dots would fade away.
She started slowly and was relieved when both the stomach and the liver knitted themselves back together. It was a picky spell that only worked at the best of times. The fact that it had worked now meant that this man had a good chance of surviving and not being forced to eat only applesauce for the rest of his life.
While she had the chance, Ginny quickly poured a few more potions down his throat: another blood replenishing potion and one potion to stimulate the regrowth of skin and muscles.
Then Ginny settled into the chair for the long haul. She had a couple hundred stitches to set into the wound and one mistake could mean his death.
She had better be getting paid overtime for this!
III
"Healer Weasley?"
"Mmmph?" Ginny moaned as she cracked one eye open.
"It's nearing four in the morning, Ma'am," the healer in training from triage was hovering over her looking worried.
Ginny cast a quick eye on her surroundings and shook her head ruefully. "I guess I fell asleep when I was making sure this patient didn't have a relapse," Ginny moaned as she sat up from the uncomfortable slump she had fallen into on the hard backed chair at the bedside of the puncture wound patient.
The healer in training winced as she cracked her back and watched with interest as she prodded the colored dots with her wand.
"There, now if something goes wrong one of the dots will go and inform the closest healer." Ginny groaned loudly as she forced herself to her feet. "Now, what are you still doing here…er…"
"Taylor, Miss, Taylor Blanche," the boy blushed. "I was actually finishing the last of the morning shift when Diagon Alley was attacked. I volunteered to help out since they were short of hands until the next shift arrived."
"But what are you doing here at…is it really four! Oh, Ron's going to kill me!"
He laughed. "Mr. Weasley is busy at the Ministry, last I heard from the wireless. I'm here because trainees get the worst hours and I drew the short straw this week."
Ginny laughed as she passed her wand over the patient for one last checkup before turning towards the door. "I got the graveyard shift quite a few times myself when I was in training. I found it to be a great time to snog Robert Jenson in the supply closet."
Taylor blushed a bright red that let Ginny know that that particular tradition had not ended.
"Who's your supervisor?" Ginny asked suddenly as she led the boy to her office.
"Healer Jenson, Miss," he said, blushing again.
"Ahh," Ginny said delicately. "Well, tell him that I want to speak with him when he comes in. I like your tenacity, kid, and I feel like taking on an apprentice."
"Oh! Really!" Taylor looked shell-shocked and Ginny laughed at his flabbergasted expression.
"Really!" Ginny chirped back as she held the door open to her office. "You kept your head on straight at the triage disaster and you didn't complain too much about getting stuck on double duty yesterday and early morning duty today. Besides," Ginny looked ruefully at herself in the full-length mirror beside her cluttered desk. "I need someone to run my scrubs down to laundry since I'm far too lazy to do it myself. Flattering you seems to be the best way to get you to do it for me."
She was covered head to toe in other people's blood and it was drying in hard maroonish-brown patches and flaking off her skin and previously green scrubs. Her red hair, a color similar to what the blood had been when it was fresh, had been tied back in a tight but functional bun but was now a mass of dirty fly-aways and knots.
"Help me out of this?" she asked gently.
The boy nodded and carefully helped her pull off the shirt and pants. The white t-shirt and boy-shorts underwear she had on underneath were just as stained but would have to wait until she apparated home for a shower before they could be tossed.
"If you'll take those to the laundry?" she asked tiredly. "I just need to write up and submit a quick report about my patient and then I'm afraid that I'm going to leave you to the tedium of the early morning hours in favor of some sleep."
"Of course," Taylor said with a smile. "And, umm, I'll have Healer Jenson find you once you come back for your next shift?"
"You're learning already," Ginny smirked with a nod. Taylor smiled happily and practically bounced out of the door.
"I'm getting too old for this," Ginny groaned as she eased herself into the hard desk chair usually reserved for visitors. She didn't want to stain her leather chair nor did she want to fall asleep before a shower and a change of clothes, so she chose functionality over comfort.
Luckily the report was easy enough to fill out. She had no clue who her patient was so was able to leave all pertinent information blank. She made sure to note that the dots would alert the closest competent staff if an issue arose before spelling the paper into a bird shape and sending it on it's way.
III
Home was home and it was boring as hell but it had a shower and a bed so Ginny was happy. She apparated into the den, half naked and covered in dried blood, and was relieved not to hear screaming. That had happened once when Harry and his girl of the week had been taking advantage of her absence and a very comfortable couch when she had popped in after a bloody surgery gone wrong.
The flat was silent. Harry's door was open, as was Ron and Hermione's, and both rooms were empty of their occupants. Ginny guessed they were still at the Ministry, arguing over what had gone wrong at Diagon Alley that had allowed the Death Eaters entrance.
Either way it meant that Ginny had the place to herself and she couldn't help smiling happily.
She washed her hands and arms as best she could in the bathroom sink before running a bubble bath in the oversized tub Harry had installed for her twentieth birthday. She hopped in the shower while the bath was filling and used the cold water to quickly wash away the flaking blood. She flicked her wand with a quick accio spell as she carefully stepped into the hot bath.
A cup filled with tea, two slices of toast, and a slice of cheese made their way out of the kitchen to the bath where Ginny quickly made herself a cheese sandwich and luxuriated in the warmth.
When Ron came home an hour later he gently helped her slumbering form out of the tub and into pajamas before tucking her into her bed.
III
"We had almost two hundred people rushed to St. Mungo's yesterday, Harry!" Ginny hissed at lunch the same day. She had woken up to find herself in her own bed, curled around the stuffed dragon Charlie had gotten her when she was three, to see Harry, Ron, and Hermione hovering at her bedside.
"Two hundred people! And half of them were children! Harry what happened?"
Harry groaned and leaned his elbows on the kitchen nook that comfortably seated two but was now surrounded by all four occupants of the flat. "I have no idea," he said softly. "I'm in charge of Hogsmeade and Hogwarts. My team was checking the wards in preparation for the new school year starting next week. By the time we got the call from Diagon it was too late."
"The Death Eaters were aiming for the families specifically," Hermione gasped out sadly. "No one knows how they got into Diagon, maybe through Knockturn Alley even though it's warded too, but they were definitely aiming for the people shopping for school supplies."
"And it's only a week before school. Everyone would be there with their kids!" Ginny gasped. "No wonder we had so many Portkeyed into the hospital!"
"Yeah," Ron groaned. They all looked disheartened for a second before Ginny happened to glance up at the clock.
"I've got to be at work in five minutes!" she shrieked as she stood from the table and rushed to her room to get ready.
She apparated right into her office and knew that downstairs her time card was turning over to announce to the receptionist that she was in and ready to take any patients.
An hour and a few cases of missing limbs via dangerous houseplants and irritated beasties later and Ginny was wondering why she had wanted to be a healer in the first place.
Her specialty was missing limbs and serious wounds and was the best in the hospital at regrowing fingers and stitching up gaping injuries. That wasn't even her pride crowing; she was the best.
Maybe her love of healing people had stemmed from when her own father had been in St. Mungo's for that snake bite quite a few years back. She remembered watching eagerly as Healer Smethwyk cast spell after spell over the bleeding hole in her father's flesh only to have it barely heal. Then when her father and Trainee Healer Augustus Pye decided to stitch her father back up using the Muggle method and failed miserably, she had watched again as Healer Smethwyk had to recast all those spells just to get the flesh to close again. But what surprised Ginny the most was the fact that the stitching would have worked if it hadn't been for the snake venom preventing the wound from healing at all.
Her final thesis paper for becoming a Healer had been written on complementary medicine, specifically that of incorporating Muggle stitching into healing as a way to augment the spells and, once she had put her ideas into practice, it lifted her to the high position in the hospital she held now. She had spent two years working at both St. Mungo's and the local Muggle hospital until she had perfected her technique. Now it was almost unheard of for a Healer to close a major wound without at least perfunctory stitches.
Ginny walked into the waiting room and up to the receptionist. She carefully walked around the woman with two flobberworms lodged in her ears and made sure to duck when a man with a dog snout sneezed and spewed fire across the room.
That was so not her area of expertise.
Sure, she knew how to extricate imbedded animals and how to reverse what was clearly a potions mistake because of the fact that his ears remained human rather than the usual charms incident where his ears would have become canine as well. Every healer had to be competent in all forms of healing to get a job at the hospital. But it just wasn't as engaging as missing limbs and bloody bodies.
Okay, so maybe she loved her job. She just hated tedium.
"Anyone bleeding uncontrollably, Alice?" Ginny asked the receptionist with a nod hello and a smile.
"I had one man a few minutes ago who was bleeding green puss out of his nose and ears; but that goop would've needed to come out anyway so I just sent him on up to poisons."
"I guess I'll take a break then," Ginny said with a shrug. "If you desperately need me I'll be checking on my newest patient or I'll be hiding in my office."
Alice leaned closer. "I've heard that your patient is a Death Eater," she whispered conspiratorially. "Does he have the mark? What's his name?"
Ginny laughed. "You know it doesn't matter whether he's a Death Eater or not. We heal all those in need despite their political or social standings. I heal Aurors just as well as I heal Death Eaters. But to be honest," Ginny said as she leaned closer to Alice. "I have no idea who he is or what side he's on. I've been waiting all day for him to wake up just so I could ask."
She left Alice with that juicy bit of gossip and strolled out of the waiting room and up towards her office. Healer Jenson was waiting for her just outside of her office and Ginny couldn't suppress a groan. The man was scowling which invariably meant he was unhappy about something.
"Ginny," he said tensely the moment she was within earshot. "Why has my best trainee just informed me that you are trying to steal him away from me?"
"Do you mean Taylor Blanche?" Ginny asked as she led him into her office. She collapsed into her cozy chair and gestured for him to take a seat. "Robert, you must know why I want him."
Robert's scowl deepened. "He has a steady hand and so much potential. He could work anywhere in this hospital easily. Why are you taking away his chances at working somewhere else? Maybe he would prefer poisons or spell damage instead of your little brand of mayhem."
Ginny sighed. "Robert, I'm getting too old for this."
He snorted. "Ginny, you're twenty five, only two years younger than me. That's hardly old."
"Fine," she frowned petulantly. "He was at the triage yesterday and I didn't see him lose his cool once. Most younglings would take one look at the carnage and bolt to the closest toilet. Instead he was busy assessing the critical injuries. He finished stitching up a boy for me after calling me over to deal with a patient with a wand imbedded in his gut. If I hadn't seen that Egyptian mummy fiasco a few years back I probably wouldn't've been able to handle that, but your Taylor Blanche didn't even flinch. You specifically need that sort of tenacity to work my job and I want him."
"I already know that he has a strong stomach. What does that have to do with you taking him from all the other options open to him?"
"I can't keep doing my job alone. I take dozens of cases a day and that's not even counting the people who come in when I'm off work and have to be put under stasis spells until I can get to them. I know it's selfish, but if I have another day like yesterday I want to know that if I die from exhaustion there'll be someone to keep my knowledge alive."
"I just don't want him to specialize before he knows what he really wants. It would be terrible if you forced him to practice a job he hates for the rest of his life." Robert leaned forward to pierce Ginny with a glare.
"How about we compromise," Ginny said finally. "Until he makes a decision and begins research on his thesis he will continue to study all forms of healing under your tutelage. But I get him for two hours every day."
"Can't you wait until after he's decided his thesis, Ginny?" Robert asked with a frown. "If he decides to follow in your footsteps, as you seem to think he will, then he's all yours."
"Mmmm, yes, but since you're so concerned about his future why don't you think about all the doors that will open because he's studied under award winning Healer Ginevra Weasley."
Robert sighed and shook his head. "You want him so much that you're even willingly bringing your medals into this conversation?" At her nod he sighed and closed his eyes sadly. "Very well, you can have him two hours a day. But once he starts on his thesis he gets free reign."
"Lovely," Ginny smiled. "I'll expect him tomorrow. If you would go inform the boy?"
Robert sighed and stood from his seat. "You're still a manipulative bitch, Ginny," her muttered under his breath as he strode to the door.
"Yes, yes," Ginny waved her hand dismissively. "That's why we broke up, if I remember correctly. But," she paused and Robert turned to look at her through the open doorway. "Thanks."
He smiled and left and Ginny slumped down in her chair in relief for a second before pulling out some new energy so she could go check on her patient.
The private room still smelled of blood and antiseptic and the patient was still unconscious. She quickly walked over and began checking all the colored dots.
His breathing was steady, as was his heart rate. All but one black dot had faded over the course of the day but the last one wouldn't fade until the stitches had dissolved and he was fully healed. She tapped the dot feeding nutrients into his blood system with a finger and watched as numbers began to roll across the small area until she was satisfied with the results.
She gently prodded the wound with the tip of her wand and watched as the magical sutures turned colors. Red and orange meant that the wound had not healed in those places yet while the green and blue colors showed that he was healing well.
"You still have a ways to go," Ginny told the unconscious man with a sigh. "You're stuck in this hospital bed until all those red and orange stitches turn green."
She sat down in the same hard backed chair she had slept in the night before and pierced the man with a look. "I suppose I should find out who you are so I can pull your medical records," she mused.
Now that he was clean she could see his dusky colored skin and black hair. His face was young, perhaps he was around her age, but the lines were hard from stress or just from seeing too much. That happened often with people who were fighting in the war. Ron and Harry already had lines embedded in their foreheads from worry and they weren't even thirty!
"Alright," Ginny groaned and stood. "It'll just be a little prick of the finger, you won't even feel it. Then I'll just match your magical signature to your file and we'll know who you are."
She opened the man's hand and positioned her wand only to freeze when she felt a wand tip prod her in the back.
"Don't," a voice hissed. "No one needs to know he was even here let alone who he is."
Ginny slowly let go of her wand and watched it clatter to the floor. The wand's pressure on her back lessened but didn't leave.
"Sit in the chair," the voice snapped. She obeyed with a sigh and didn't even flinch when ropes sprang out of the wand and tied her to the chair.
Ginny recognized a disillusionment charm when a hazy form stepped in front of her. She could just barely make out a male figure before she noticed just what this semi-invisible man was doing.
The colored dots sprang from her patient and flew to the closest competent healer, her, screaming alerts. Her patient was now gently floating above the bed at the wand of her attacker.
"No!" Ginny yelled, straining against her bonds. "You can't move him! I just put in those stitches and moving him could rip them out. He'll bleed to death before you even get out of the hospital."
"What do you care?" the invisible man snarled. "He's just another Death Eater. Why heal him when your Aurors are only going to have him executed as soon as he can open his eyes?"
"I wouldn't allow it! Euthanasia is strictly against St. Mungo's policy!"
"It wouldn't be euthanasia," he snapped. "It would be politically correct murder. Your Hippocratic Oath doesn't protect Death Eaters from the Ministry."
"I didn't swear the Hippocratic Oath! It's outdated. I swore to the Declaration of Geneva. "I will not permit considerations of age, disease or disability, creed, ethnic origin, gender, nationality, political affiliation, race, sexual orientation, social standing or any other factor to intervene between my duty and my patient,"" she recited while glaring up where she assumed the head of the almost visible man was. "No one will be committing any murder under my watch so PUT MY PATIENT DOWN!" she yelled causing the man to jump and the colored dots to scream at an increased pitch.
"Healer Weasley! I heard the alarms. Is everything o-" Taylor rushed into the room and froze at the sight that met him. "Umm, what's going on?"
Ginny kept her glare focused on the disillusioned man as Taylor froze by the door, undecided whether he should run for help or stay to protect Ginny.
"A Weasley!" the invisible man hissed. "You've probably already alerted your lover, Potter. Blood traitors can not be trusted."
Suddenly Ginny recognized that voice. How often had she heard those words sneered at her or one of her bothers over the years they spent at Hogwarts.
"Malfoy," she sighed. "And that must mean my patient is Zabini. Put him down please."
The disillusionment spell dropped and an exhausted Draco Malfoy loomed over her with a threatening glare on his face. His blond hair was long and desperately in need of a cut and his face was gaunt and aged, just like everyone who fought in the war. Only his grey eyes were unchanged in their intensity.
"Merlin!" Taylor gasped. "A Death Eater!"
"Taylor," Ginny snapped. "Come in and close the door behind you. Malfoy and I have something to discuss and it would be safer for you to be here."
Taylor brushed his mouse brown hair out of his eyes and complied. He hurried over to her side and began prodding the dots with a finger to get them to stop shrieking.
"Healer, his pulse rate!" Taylor gasped as he caught sight of the red dot Ginny had been closely monitoring out of the corner of her eye.
"I know," she moaned. "But I can't do anything until Malfoy decides to stop killing his best friend."
"Look, Sir," Taylor said soothingly to Malfoy. "Your friend's heart rate is dropping dangerously low. Soon he won't be getting any oxygen to his brain. If he has a stroke on top of his already serious wounds…" He held his hands out in the universal 'I'm unarmed' gesture and took a slow step forward. "Please, let us heal him. Once he's stable you can take him."
Ginny looked at her apprentice with shock. What was he doing healing when he was such a smooth talker? He could have a promising future in politics.
"Look, Malfoy," Ginny said finally when it looked like Taylor had run out of things to say to placate him. "You can stay and watch him for as long as you like. Just let me do my job!"
The pulse dot began to beep with ominous deceleration as it tried it's best to alert a healer that the patient was fading fast.
"He's dying, Malfoy!" Ginny snapped.
She watched as Malfoy grimaced and gently deposited his friend back down on the bed. Taylor quickly undid her bonds and stepped aside as she scooped up her wand and began to hurriedly cast healing spells to bring his pulse back up.
"Taylor," she snapped and the boy rushed to her side. "Watch closely. This black dot," she said pointing to a new one that had appeared over the course of their argument, "shows that he has internal bleeding. Poke it with your finger, go on," Ginny said as she called an orange dot into existence and spelled it to force his heart to pump.
Taylor poked the dot and gasped as it flashed red and showed a distorted picture of the liver.
"The jostling opened the stitching in his liver?" Taylor asked. "He's bleeding pretty heavily inside?"
"Unfortunately. Go to the cabinet and get out two blood replenishing potions and one flesh regrowing one."
As Taylor hurried to obey her, Ginny began undoing the stitching she had spent hours putting in last night.
"Tilt his neck down so he doesn't choke," Ginny instructed as she worked.
"Done," Taylor called once the vials were empty.
"Good, come over here and watch what I'm doing carefully. It's not every day you get to see internal stitches removed and replaced." She continued to teach as she finished removing her stitches and began casting spells to close the bloody hole in the liver. Taylor helped immensely and Ginny was glad that she had decided to take him under her wing by the time all the new black dots and the orange one had faded.
Then she turned on Malfoy.
He was slumped down in the chair watching his friend with a helpless look on his face.
"He was hit with shrapnel when a spell made a building explode," Malfoy whispered in response to her look. "I didn't know what to do and the Aurors were closing in fast. I hid and whoever was sweeping the scene for live victims Portkeyed Blaise here. I figured that no one would recognize him until after he was healed enough for me to get him out, so I waited."
"Look, Malfoy," Ginny said softly. "My Healers' Oath includes patient confidentiality. Morally, I can't disclose any information if the patient doesn't want me to. He's safe here, as are you, as long as neither of you try to attack or kill anyone while you're in the hospital."
"And the boy?" Malfoy sneered at Taylor. "And that's besides the fact that you're a Weasley. If you had any morals you'd be fighting alongside the Dark Lord like all purebloods ought to be."
"I'm a healer!" she snapped. "There is no such thing as sides, only bodies and blood. And let me tell you, blood is just as red if the body has a skull tattoo or wears Auror robes."
"This isn't the first Death Eater you've healed?" Malfoy raised an eyebrow in surprise and disbelief. "A Weasley, helping Death Eaters? What would your oaf of a brother think?"
"I really don't care what Ron or any of the rest of my family think. And I've already told you, I don't discriminate. When I was in the field I healed whoever needed me most."
Malfoy turned from her and cast the disillusionment charm on himself again. "I'll be watching you, Weasley. If either you or the boy breathe a word about Blaise or me, you'll die."
Ginny just shook her head. "Of course. I wouldn't expect anything less."
"Healer Weasley, emergency ward two. Healer Weasley, emergency ward two."
"Well, I guess it's back to work for me," Ginny grumbled as she shucked her gloves and tossed them in the biohazard bin. "Taylor, your shift's over. Go home and get some rest. I'll see you tomorrow."
Ginny cast one last look over the slumbering Blaise Zabini before turning and rushing from the room to go to her next patient.