10 – Experience
The Christmas break came around just in time to give George the distance he needed and I was sent to St. Mungo's for my first internship there as a part of my training. It took my mind off things and I was terribly excited as I stood before the fireplace in Professor Dumbledore's office. Today, most students would be taking the Hogwarts Express back to London while I would travel via the floo network to St. Mungo's for my first day.
When I stepped out of the fireplace and into the lobby area of the hospital I was overwhelmed by the bustle of people there. This would be ten times more stressful work than our hospital wing. I stepped up to the counter to ask where I had to go, but the young man behind the counter seemed to be very busy and hardly paid me any attention.
"Excuse me." I tried again. He handed a nurse a clipboard and finally turned towards me. He was actually quite handsome with piercing blue eyes and dark blonde hair.
"Yes?" He said, already turning back to the notes flying in as small light green and red birds. He opened the red one first, his eyes slightly widened and he sent the bird into the elevator behind his desk with a wave of his wand. The others seemed to not be of a high priority because he just unfolded them and put them on a stack.
"I'm here for the training program for future healers, but I don't know where I have to go." I said with a nervous voice. He looked up in slight interest and sifted through some application sheets.
"Your name?" He barked.
"Katrina Rigby." I said, sounding a bit more confident. He just had a lot of work and didn't mean any offense when he spoke so harshly.
"You seem a bit young." He mused, as he pulled one of the sheets out and checked its contents. "Here you are. Rigby, Katrina. Hogwarts student." He read, a small smile appearing on his lips for the first time since I stood there. "A great place. I graduated there two years ago." He scanned the sheet in his hand once more. "Ah, I have seen you before. It says here that you were the Gryffindor seeker. You always beat our team. I was a Hufflepuff." I blushed at this explaination. "You have to take the elevator to the third level and then go to your left. It will be the third room on your left. You're early so there probably won't be anyone there yet. Today's a crazy day, so good luck. You'll need it. The first day is always tough." He said with a compassionate smile.
I thanked him.
By following his instructions I found the door labeled "Assessment"and took a seat in front of it. I sat there for several minutes before an instructor came up and shook my hand. He had a shock of white hair that stood up in all directions, his eyes were so dark they were almost black and his face held an elderly charm.
"I'm Elias Brock and I'll be your instructor for the day. You must be Miss Rigby. You'll be the only trainee today because the other schools the trainees are from have another week of school going." He held the door open for me and we entered a strange room. The walls were lined with three hospital beds on each side, but instead of patients there were some kind of puppets lying in them. "Today, we will assess your capabilities of healing with the help of these MAPs, short for Medical Assessment Puppets. It won't be about speed, not yet, it will just show me what knowledge you have acquired up until now."
He steered me towards the first puppet and said. "Begin."
I approached the patient and was unsure of what to do. Was I supposed to talk to the puppet like with a normal patient? When I stood right next to it, it transformed into a slightly more see-through version of a small child. She was crying and cradling her arm in her hand which sported a sizeable burn. I was instantly reminded of Seamus Finnegan and I relaxed.
"Hello there. Can you tell me your name?"
The little girl blinked and stared up at me with eyes shiny with tears, as I examined her body with a slow movement of my wand. Being careful not to startle her, I edged closer.
"My name is Katrina and what is yours?" I asked with a small encouraging smile on my face.
"I'm Rose." She sniffled.
"Rose, will you let me see your arm?" She nodded shyly and I laid her arm onto a tourniquet careful not to touch the burn. She winced slightly.
I took the salve that would cool the burning and asked her. "How did this happen, Rose?"
I started applying the green paste with a wooden applicator as she explained. "I was playing around the stove and a hot pan fell on my arm. It hurts."
"It won't hurt much longer." I ensured her. "In the future, you should be more careful around the stove. Okay, Rose?" I started healing the burn as she nodded her head.
"Probably." She watched her arm get better with awe on her face. "Wow, thank you. It's much better now."
I smiled. "That' good. You'll have to stay in bed for a moment longer until a healer in charge says that you're allowed to go because you're wound has healed properly. The skin will be a bit tender so you should still be careful."
She nodded and the doll went slack, no longer taking on the form of the girl. It was white again with its face and body featureless.
My instructor's face was unreadable when he told me to move on to the next bed. We only went to the three beds on the one side of the room, where I treated an old lady that had fallen down the stairs and sprained her ankle and a young man who had been attacked by a flock of pixies but had only attained exterior wounds, yet I had to be especially careful to avoid infections. I made sure to explain to the older people exactly what I was doing so that they didn't feel scared by the potions or spells I used on them.
"That will suffice." My instructor said and brought me to his office.
I sat across from Mister Brock and tried to wait as patiently as possible while he took notes on my application sheet. When he looked up a wide grin stretched across his face.
"You're pretty ambitious, aren't you? It's tough to get a read on you. Right now, one could think you're impassive but when you are in contact with patients your face lights up and you handle yourself exceptionally well. The healing spells you used were simple but effective. With a bit more training, you'll be a great healer. But in which department should I put you?" He mused to himself. "Better somewhere where the patients are actually conscious sine your communication skills are well pronounced and this will speed your education process as well." He checked a schedule on his wall, which I realized listed the different departments and who was working there at the moment. "Hah!" He exclaimed and I jumped at the suddenness of it. "Creature-induced injuries, first floor." He stated.
I nodded and got up. "Thank you, sir."
"I'll accompany you downstairs, Miss Rigby." He said with a kind smile as he got up as well, handing me a lime green coat. He held the door open for me and we stepped outside. When the elevator doors opened Mister Brock and I flattened ourselves against the wall to let a stretcher pass accompanied by two healers. The patient was a sickly purple color with green pustules covering the parts of his body that were visible.
"What kind of poisoning is that?" I uttered astonished to Mister Brock.
"Must be some sort of new breed. Illegal magical breeding is a dangerous feat, I'll tell you. You'll see for yourself soon enough."
Mister Brock left me to fend for myself after he introduced me to the healer in charge, Ibrahim Yale. I was assigned to another healer in training in the form of a tall, lean girl with straight black hair that went to her shoulders and kind brown eyes named Alice Winstor. She explained that I would be encountering mostly burns, bites or stings and lead me to a man with a broken shoulder from a hippogriff. I fetched a vial of pain reliever from one of the cabinets that were spaced out regularly on the walls. She nodded in thanks and the rest of the day passed in a blur.
We treated patients that had been kicked by an Abraxan horse, stepped on by a troll or burned by a fire crab. There were minor scratches and infected bite wounds, some injuries made me want to stop and stare but I controlled each of my actions meticulously to not offend any patients. I was shocked and overwhelmed by the variety of wounds, yet at the same time I was incredibly proud of myself that I didn't once freeze up becoming completely dysfunctional but it wasn't without effort.
At the end of the day, I collapsed into my bed in our London flat exhausted after ravishing in a nice meal my mother had prepared. I contemplated what I had achieved today and felt very lucky to have found an activity that made me so happy. This was what I wanted.
A week passed and I was dumbfounded at all the new spells and potions I learnt about. There was still so much to learn and Alice was a great teacher, which I told her constantly. She let me do as much as I could and didn't just explain the spells she was performing but also let me try.
We were working in companionable silence on some cuts when she looked up at me and smiled. "You've got quite the talent, Katrina."
I blushed. "Thanks, but I think that I just work hard enough to perform well."
She shook her head. "You're too modest. There are people that train for years and are still incapable of performing a proper healing spell. It's a matter of concentration. Believe me, I can tell that you have a talent. So keep it up." She said as we turned to the next patient. I gasped when I saw a shock of red hair. I glanced onto the entry form in Alice's hands and saw my suspicion confirmed.
"I'm sorry for being so bold, but are you related to Fred and George Weasley?"
The man before me chuckled. "Yes." He said and pointed to his hair. "A dead giveaway, right?"
"You could have been some sort of cousin." I noted with a twitch of my shoulders.
He nodded and looked at me curiously. "You know my ridiculously childish pair of brothers?"
A chuckle escaped my lips before I could stop it. "Now since you're not a girl from what I see, you must be Bill. I thought you worked in Egypt as a, wait a minute, oh yeah, a curse-breaker so why are you here with a giant burn mark covering you're arm and parts of your chest the way you're squirming as well?"
He winced at the pain as he sat up straighter. "Yes, my name is Bill Weasley and everything else is also just like you said. I was visiting my brother Charlie in Romania and apparently a Chinese fireball does not like it when you turn your back to it. I face it again and raised my arm just in time to shield my body as good as possible. Charlie tried to shield me but it didn't quite work."
"Charlie? How is he?" I asked excitedly at the mention of my former quidditch captain. Alice tapped on my shoulder at that moment and I hadn't even noticed that she had been distracted the whole time, otherwise she probably would have stopped my babbling immediately.
"Healer Yale wants to speak to me. Can you handle this one on your own? I'll be back soon."
"Sure, go." I encouraged her.
I turned back to Bill and handed him a vial of silver fluid that he seemed to really be in need of. "I'm sorry, Mister Weasley. Here I am gnawing an ear off you with my questions while you're in pain. Drink this, it will help. You'll get a bit drowsy, no need to be alarmed."
He nodded thankfully and after downing the potion, he accentuated. "It's no problem. Actually nice for a change. Healers usually aren't very amicable. Charlie's fine…" He said with a yawn. "Loves his dragons. A girl would be better for him thought." He added, already dozing off.
I buttoned open his shirt and winced as I saw the nasty burn on his chest. The skin was only slightly red were his arm had protected his body the rest of the skin was burnt and raw. I generously applied the cooling salve to all areas and started working on his arm with the healing spell. It took achingly long and when the skin was a glowing pink I moved on to his chest just as Alice came back and assisted me, shortening the time spent on healing him tremendously.
When we were finished and moved on to the next bed I asked her what had happened, my curiosity getting the better of me. "What did Mister Yale want?"
She sent a mischievous grin in my direction. "Just wanted to know how you were doing. When he saw you heal that man's arm, he was rather impressed. I think you can be sure that you'll keep your scholarship even if your results at school aren't as flattering."
A joyous smile crossed my face. "Really? That's great!" I exclaimed. The rest of the day I was practically bouncing through the ward with glee. It was great to be complimented about something I took lots of pleasure in doing. Healing was great as it was but I was ecstatic by the fact that I seemed to really be good at it.
Christmas came around and passed faster than I would have expected and before I knew it I was back on the Hogwarts Express. My parents presented me with a new Nimbus 2000 and I was keen on flying around the pitch in secret. It would be the perfect reward for my efforts. Puddle was trailing behind me and jumped into my lap as soon as I sat down in an empty compartment, early as usual. Dana, Leila and I were going to exchange gifts on the train and I was elated to see them again. Alice had given me one of her old medical books for Christmas and in exchange I had given her a violet scarf that looked great with her black hair. Fred and I had sent each other a bag of chocolate frogs, which was quite amusing. I had sent Penny a journal adorned with dragon scales, since I knew that she kept a diary and she had sent me a dark blue notebook for the intense medical studies I would be indulging in this year since there were no special exams this year. I had bewitched a speckled quill for Dana that worked similar to mine because she always admired mine and constantly told me how practical it was. For Leila, I had charmed a purple lily to never wither. It was her favorite color and she loved Herbology so it seemed appropriate enough.
Dana hugged me happily when she finally found me in my compartment and gave me a small wrapped box. She was thrilled by the quill and I was likewise in awe because of the beautiful necklace she had gotten me. It was silver with a tear-formed dark green pendant, matching my eyes. We both hugged each other again and chuckled when we felt a third pair of arms wrap around us. Another round of presents were tossed around. Dana received a homemade purple scarf and I dark brown mittens.
"You started knitting, Lils? I didn't think you were the type." I said in wonder as I put the warm mittens on. They matched my beige trench coat perfectly.
A soft knock on the glass startled us and I was startled to see Oliver there, waving for me to join him outside. Puddle meowed when he fell from my lap as I got up. Outside of the compartment, Oliver gave me a clumsily packaged rectangular gift. He urged me to open it, visibly nervous. It was a new copy of Quidditch Through the Ages. I thanked him and gave him a quick hug.
"Thank you, Oliver. I'm so sorry but I didn't really think of getting you something." I said, abashed.
He just smiled. "That's fine. I just thought you might want something to remind you of your quidditch times. You'll have to keep yourself updated if we're going to talk about the team's strategy again sometime soon." He said with a wicked grin.
I mock punched his arm and grinned back. "I will, don't you worry about that. Actually, I do have the perfect gift for you, but you'll just have to wait for the right opportunity to come before you get to know what it is."
"That's mean." He said in mock horror.
"You'll just have to live with that." I said, laughing, and returned to my compartment with my friends.