Title: The Puller
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. I am not making any money from this fiction.
Chapter 1
Poppy Pomfry sat in her office about to have a nice cup of tea and a couple of biscuits. If she had caught any of the other Hogwarts staff eating such a lunch, at two thirty in the afternoon no less, she would have harsh words for them. "Do as I say not as I do," the tired healer thought to herself. The last Quidditch match had lasted seven hours, in the pouring rain. Ravenclaw won, but injuries among the players and sniffles for fans and players alike were almost universal. She felt worn out.
Perhaps it was time to consider an assistant healer. She had seen twelve apprentases through their training, an impressive number. Never had Hogwarts had another trained healer during her tenure there. If she was honest with herself, it was not help she needed but company. She had only a few distant cousins whom she rarely saw. She got on well with faulty but did not truly feel she was more than a colleague to any of them. Minerva was about the same age but their two strong personalities precluded close friendship.
The door to the infermary opened. She supressed a sigh.
"Madame.." called a timid voice.
"In my office."
A small face peered around the door.
"Are you ill or hurt?" Pomfry asked, taking care to make her voice gentle.
"I, um… need to talk to you, please?"
The child was obviously a first year student. Pomfry could not recall a name. She often didn't know students who had not been ill or injured. She kept an eye on the new Ravenclaws to see if there were any potential healers but rarely noticed other students. She tried to remember the sorting, five moths past. A Hufflepuff, she thought, but the girl had been a bit plump and very healthy looking in September.
The girl in front of her now was thin and pale. Her hair looked dry and brittle. Her hands shook a bit.
"Would you like some tea and something to eat." The question was equally to offer comfort and test for a potential eating disorder.
"Yes, please. I'm Ariel Spinnet."
After the child has been provided with some very sweet tea and several biscuits, the healer asked what the girl needed. Poppy noted with some relief that the girl seemed to be eating readily enough. "What can I do for you?"
Ariel sighed and the pinched look returned to her face.
"Just start at the beginning, dear. I've heard it all before so nothing is a bad as all that."
"I'm a Puller," the girl stated confidently. "The first in my family for four generations."
Pomfry almost dropped her cup in shock. "That's not possible. I have only met one in my career. Its so rare! Are you sure? How..?"
"I found out when I was three."
"That young!" the puzzled healer exclaimed.
"I went to visit a cousin in a muggle hospital. There was a boy crying in a room down the hall. He was about six, very sick and in a lot of pain. The tears were pouring down his face and he was alone. I went into the room as soon as my Mom was distracted. I hugged him. I fainted from the pain. I don't know how he stood it. When the nurse came, he was smiling. He was too little to be worried about me. He was pain free for almost a week. I came to, tired and aching but not in agony, about three hours latter."
"Did anyone in your family know?... what you were?"
"My mom had some veg memories of her Gran but even she hadn't really under stood or controlled the gift."
"I am surprised to hear you call it a gift. The other Puller I knew called it a curse. She wore gloves all the time and never got close. To anyone." And the healer added silently to herself, she was committed to the Psychiatric ward at St. Mungos.
"I have learned to touch others in pain without pulling their pain, physical or psychological into myself. Actually that why I came too you. I need to learn more."
"If you know how to block that transfer of pain, what can I possibly help you learn? According to my reading, most pullers can't prevent the pain of those they touch from entering their bodies. That you can do that at eleven is miraculous."
" I want to learn to take some pain but not all from another person. I need to help someone but I think the pain he bares would kill me if it all flooded in."