Disclaimer: Harry Potter and his world belong to J. K. Rowling
Chapter 28:
Callum, the American Ministry healer, had been longing for months for a chance to do a very thorough examination of Harry Potter. It was purest curiosity for Callum, and he didn't deceive himself that it was anything else. Two highly respected specialists, however, put their own curiosity down to disinterested scientific research, of enormous potential value to wizardry. Callum agreed to call them if he had the opportunity, but refused indignantly when it was suggested that an opportunity be arranged.
It was two days before Christmas, and nearly all the students were off on their Christmas break, when Harry was called urgently to New York for some spell-breaking. Pumpkin-heads. Several of them, all at once. Someone had been celebrating Christmas, it seemed, in the most wicked way he could imagine. Five muggles, two wizards.
By the time, Harry was flown to the city, there were two more muggles, and an auror turned into monsters. The culprit had not yet been apprehended. Callum came too, as the healer assigned to Harry, and two of his regular bodyguards, Evie and Craig. Two more aurors were to meet them. Callum sent a message to his two colleagues. He didn't really expect an opportunity to have a close look at the great wizard, but he knew they'd be interested in watching him work.
Pumpkin-heads were luckily rare, and Harry used the plane trip to explain to Callum and the aurors, what he'd be doing, and what they needed to be alert for. He explained that he would want two in the room with him, and preferably a third when he did the auror. That in his previous experience, muggles would immediately faint, and be as if drugged for hours after, and wizards would generally go berserk and try to kill him. He wasn't going to bother trying to teach anyone to conjure the barrier, but told them about it, and that it would vanish in a half hour if, for any reason, he was not able to do it himself.
"They can be dangerous, then," said Craig, who was about forty.
"Oh, yes, very dangerous," said Harry, and wished he could have Patrick with him, who was so quick. Still, the muggles were unlikely to be dangerous, and even wizards were a lot safer since his telepathy had improved sufficiently that he could use a barrier between himself and the patient.
They arrived at the place, the square where he'd worked the previous year, and had to remind himself sternly that the Dementor was now quite definitely dead - exploded into about a hundred pieces. He had a fit of trembling as they crossed the square.
They argued with him as he stated that he'd do the muggles first. There was the view that muggles were insignificant compared to wizards. But Harry was adamant. Muggles started to die straight away, and were difficult compared to wizards. He would do the muggles first.
The muggles, as expected, were tedious and difficult. A dozen observers, sitting safely behind a see-through wall, watched as he struggled with them. They included the two specialist mediwizards, friends of Callum's. One by one, the rescued muggles were taken off by ambulance.
Seven muggles done, and Harry rose, stretching. It had been hard work. He glanced at the last three, and then did a double-take, now there were five.
"Maybe I should leave these for the moment, and go get the bastard myself," he observed.
They firmly discouraged him, and Evie asked if he wanted a break. Harry nodded, adding that he'd also like something to eat before tackling the last ones.
He went and leaned against the wall outside, to the pleasure of the gathering crowd. He ignored them, and only did a scan of the sky. There were still those vague rumours. An assistant presented him with cake and coffee. Harry had done seven slow and difficult patients, and, as always, it made him hungry.
He asked for a bread roll or some sandwiches as well, and the witch hurried off. It was the great wizard, and he should have what he wanted.
The auror in charge introduced himself, Hugh. Harry hadn't met Hugh before, and perhaps because he was already very tired, took an immediate dislike to him. The man was balding, but obviously thought he was very attractive, and appeared as if he had his mind more on impressing Evie than on doing his job. But Harry felt no threat, and only leaned against the wall, cane leaning beside him, as he ate and drank.
But pumpkin-heads were urgent, and he didn't linger.
He reminded Evie and Craig again that wizards were likely to go berserk, as the next pumpkin-head was led in. He didn't need to touch this one. He could feel straight away he was alive, and directed where be should be placed, erected the barrier, and concentrated. Compared to the muggles, he was quick and easy. He even managed to keep him relatively calm until he was taken away by the ambulance crew.
The next was similar, but the concentration needed to keep him calm was greater, and afterward, he had a severe trembling attack. He was accustomed to this, and just leaned against the wall as he waited for it to pass.
Callum saw an opportunity, and insisted that he should be checked before he continued, and when Harry refused, threatened to cancel the work.
Harry was irate, turning on him furiously and asking how he would like to be a prisoner like that, indicating the next pumpkin-head that now stood placidly, waiting.
Callum stood his ground, "Your welfare is my duty - and I only want to do the Niscos, it'll only take a minute."
Harry paced the floor, furious, but not wanting to delay the work. Pumpkin-heads were urgent - it was such a dreadful imprisonment. He conceded, "Only the Niscos, and in private!" as he glanced at the observers looking very interested.
And when they went off to a private room, Harry glanced at the monitor, and made the readings indicate perfectly normal, both the LV and the energy.
Callum was suspicious, he had heard rumours of an abnormal LV, and Harry was looking very tired, depending much more heavily on his cane that he'd ever seen, and beginning to tremble again for about the fifth time since he'd begun to take notice. But everyone knew that the monitor could not be influenced by uncooperative patients. He nodded, and Harry went back to work.
Harry knew he was becoming very tired, and didn't make the effort to keep the next patient calm with his telepathic skills. Once restored, the man hurled himself against the barrier, trying furiously to get to Harry, whom he knew had done something unimaginably awful to him.
Harry wove a calming spell, which was easy, but looked around for the ambulance team. Craig was talking to the patient, calling him Tom, saying that he was all right now, that he was cured. Tom was the auror, and Craig had trained with him.
Harry poked his head out and asked where the ambulance team were.
"On their way," said Hugh, interrupted as he told a witch how he'd defeated a vampire. The witch was listening, full of admiration.
Harry suspected Hugh had never even seen a vampire. Harry had never seen a vampire himself - they were extremely rare.
Tom was taking no notice of Craig, pacing up and down on his side of the barrier, looking balefully at Harry.
"Stay with him," Harry said, "I'll take myself out of his sight."
Callum asked Harry what the delay was. "No ambulance team. They should be waiting before I start. There's been some inefficiency," a rare criticism from Harry, and he went back into the waiting room, and sat, leaning his head back and closing his eyes, making the most of the break.
He rose after ten minutes, and briefly checked the last two pumpkin-heads, frowning as he felt immediately that they were muggles, and seemed to be in the process of dying.
"I'll do the next two in the waiting room," he told Callum. "They're muggles and might take a while, but they're unlikely to be dangerous."
Craig stayed behind in the workroom, he thought that Tom was calm, and he tried to vanish the barrier in order to take him outside to wait. He couldn't, of course - it was one that was conjured by Harry.
Evie joined Harry. "Be ready," he said to Evie, "You can never relax with these."
He set to work. He was getting better and this one only took a few minutes, the easiest muggle that Harry had ever done, and as soon as restored, he just fainted, as was standard for muggles.
Two mediwizards, the friends of Callum's, came from the observation room, and watched as Harry tackled the last. He was looking very tired, trembling yet again as he worked.
In the other room, the barrier vanished. Craig continued to talk to Tom, who seemed calm and rational. Craig was thinking that Harry had over-stated the danger of pumpkin-heads, and remembered that he wasn't really very brave. There'd been a lot of talk about his state after seeing the Dementor last year.
Harry was sitting in front of the last muggle pumpkin-head, deep in concentration, holding her hand for better telepathic contact. The pumpkin melted away and a woman sat, looking around, dazed.
Harry was not yet fully alert - it always took a moment to come back when he entered another's mind, and it was always harder with muggles, as if their minds were not quite compatible with his own.
Craig started to walk through, the ex-pumpkin-head wizard next to him, Callum following, a little behind.
The wizard saw Harry, his rage came rushing back, he seized Harry, lifting him straight up out of the chair by the neck and one arm, and swung him around, crashing him into the wall.
Harry blasted him off with his magic, but only stayed on the floor, coughing, and finding it hard to breathe. He expected the aurors to deal with the berserk man, as was their job.
Craig was slow, Evie, too, and Tom, with the lightning speed and berserk strength of a madman, picked up a chair, and crashed it down on Harry's head, before belatedly being stunned by Evie.
Even then, Craig had hesitated, and now apologised, "Sorry, Tom."
Harry now bled heavily from a scalp wound as well. He focussed on Craig, "Incompetent," he got out, and lay back down, closing his eyes.
His head was spinning, and his neck hurt, although he seemed to be able to breathe again. He wished he had Catherine. She'd fix him without fuss. Callum only gaped.
Healers Davies and Breedon joined their young colleague. Belatedly, Callum came to Harry's side, instructing him to turn his head, and close his eyes, so he could fix the cut on his head.
Harry obeyed, and Breedon took the opportunity to work a very quiet stun spell. Even Callum didn't notice what he was doing, although Davies did.
Harry had some very expert care then, the various bruises and cracked ribs being cured, quickly and easily, with spells and lotions.
Davies said, "He'll have to spend a night or two in hospital, I'll treat him myself."
Callum thought that Harry was lucky to have the best, and went to Hugh to organise it. As soon as he was gone, Breedon took something from his bag. Craig was helping load Tom into an ambulance, although Evie was still in the room, supposedly protecting him. But she hadn't expected him to need protection against the unprincipled curiosity of a mediwizard.
Evie watched, but what was done was discreet, and Harry would be unconscious for hours. There was going to be ample opportunity for the distinguished and highly regarded healers to have their way, and satisfy their curiosity.
For several hours, in the small wizard hospital that Davies ruled, three healers took the opportunity to do every test imaginable, working late into the night. Healer Ironside very quickly discovered that the Nisco readings he'd taken earlier had been falsified. It made him feel better about all the unauthorised tests they were doing now.
Their Nisco monitors required modification before they could get a true reading, as did a few others. The LV was not the only thing that was abnormal.
The healers were overjoyed. This was fabulous. The man was unique, but they were careful. There was a small sensor taped to Harry's forehead, and they kept a close watch on the consciousness indicator. Harry Potter was known to be a bit paranoid.
When he woke, there was Callum Ironside, whom he knew, and Evie in the room with him. They were tired, but they had their orders. Harry Potter should not wake to find himself with strangers, in a place he didn't know. They didn't want accidents. It was a pleasant hospital room, with its own bathroom and toilet, even flowers.
Harry was feeling tired, dazed, but he was quite hungry again, and ate the snack they brought him without hesitation.
Not long later, he was woken, and cooperated as Breedon and Davies made use of a monitor he hadn't seen before. Callum was looking on. They were being very careful and precise, holding the sensor to various parts of his head, sometimes telling him to think of certain things, and then writing down figures, even touching a button, to make pictures appear.
Harry could feel their curiosity, but also there was concern for their patient. There was a comment from Breedon, "There's undeniably damage, but something might be able to be done," a perfectly appropriate thought for a healer.
They finished, and told him to go back to sleep. Harry lay down again, beginning to wonder at his own obedience, but went straight to sleep anyway.
In the morning, he declined his breakfast, and looked for his things. Craig was in the room with him, and he asked where his clothes were.
"Being cleaned probably," said Craig, who was feeling cross and tired. He remembered Harry calling him incompetent, too. He was not much in charity with Harry Potter.
"My shoes, my wand, my wallet," Harry said, "All being cleaned?"
He was frowning at Craig. "Surely they wouldn't be so abysmally stupid as to try and keep me against my will!"
"Of course not. Healer Breedon said they'd come in early and have a talk with you."
Harry was still frowning. He was also hungry and thirsty, but he was suspicious. "What happened yesterday? That pumpkin-head..."
"Tom!" interrupted Craig.
Harry nodded, corrected, "Tom! He hurt me, but he didn't knock me out. So why am I here?"
Craig answered, "The healers said it was concussion, but also exhaustion."
It was a reasonable explanation. Harry knew that he'd been very tired, and there had been times before when he'd simply fainted from exhaustion, and not revived for hours, though it hadn't happened for many years.
"May I borrow your wand?" asked Harry.
It went very much against the grain for a wizard, especially an auror, to hand over his wand. But Harry's suspicion had been obvious, and after all, his bodyguards were supposed to be on his side. Reluctantly, Craig handed his wand to Harry. Harry relaxed a lot. He was obviously not a prisoner, and he used the wand to make himself a comfortable chair, to conjure some clothes, no bright colours, in case he had to be inconspicuous, and a glass, before handing the wand back to Craig with a brief thank you.
Craig was surprised when he had a drink of water from the washbasin, rather than from the tempting breakfast on the tray, but when he commented, Harry simply offered him the breakfast if he wanted it, and had a shower and dressed. He may have been suspicious, but he didn't seem to be in danger, and he was now fully alert. He was the great wizard. No-one could beat him in anything like a fair fight.
When he came back, Craig asked him if he really didn't want his breakfast. Harry shook his head, briefly, and went to the door but found it locked. They didn't seem to realise here that his wand was irrelevant, a state of affairs he quite enjoyed, so refrained from simply opening the door with his magic.
Craig poured himself some orange juice from the breakfast tray, and Harry warned, "It might be drugged!"
"Nonsense," said Craig. "Your meals are watched carefully. There's been a lot of fuss having you here."
He started eating the now cold toast. Harry was a bit concerned, frowning at him.
Craig looked up. "I told you, you're being paranoid - the food isn't poisoned and isn't drugged!"
Harry paced up and down the room for a moment, and glanced at Craig, "I don't think you should eat it, and I want my things back, if you can get hold of them."
Craig sighed, and put the tray on a table. "We're not incompetent, and we are looking after you!" he stated.
Harry apologised, "Sorry I called you incompetent yesterday." It had obviously rankled, and he admitted, "Ex-pumpkin-heads have taken me by surprise often enough!"
Healers Davies and Breedon entered the room, with Callum Ironside. Breedon glanced at the breakfast tray. He thought enough had been taken to ensure compliance, though more would have been better.
Harry was watching, waiting, very aware, but he was not searching their minds, and missed the thought. There were greetings and they asked him how he felt. Breedon was taking the lead, Callum holding back respectfully.
Harry was polite, if rather distant. Breedon got to the point, saying that their examination had uncovered areas of brain damage that were probably responsible for his disabilities, and also another area of damage that was likely to have been caused by repeated use by Dementors.
Harry was expressionless, but Craig looked up, surprised. Repeated use by Dementors? He hadn't quite realised that.
Harry held out a hand for Breedon's results, and Breedon, to his own surprise, handed them over. Harry spread them out, and allowed Breedon to explain them.
"You must have an improved monitor," observed Harry.
"Developed it myself," nodded Breedon, proudly.
Looking at him closely, Harry said, "I'm surprised at myself, I don't like being examined..."
Breedon looked away guiltily, and Harry dropped his polite reservations about searching his mind.
Docility Potion on that night time snack. That was the first thing. Harry went and leaned against the wall, regarding the three healers coldly.
"What happened yesterday when I was knocked about?" he asked.
They started to lie, and he repeated his words with a touch of magic. Both Callum and Craig were open-mouthed when Breedon admitted to a stun spell, and also to use of drugs.
"Breakfast?" Harry asked.
"We wanted you to agree to be treated, so there's Docility Potion mixed with it."
Harry spoke calmly to a stunned Craig. "You'd best tell your supervisor. You won't be fit for duty for a few hours."
He turned his attention to Callum then, and asked how much he'd known of it. It appeared not much. Harry ordered the healers to hand over their wands, overcoming their initial resistance easily.
He raised one of the wands, and a sparkling field surrounded the two august mediwizards, decorated with flashes of light and sparks. There was a gentle muttering, too, like distant thunder. In a voice that condemned, he accused them of treachery, and of violating their oath as healers.
Craig watched, but he was under the influence of a drug, and didn't interfere. The mediwizards were sure they were about to be killed. And for the first time, they fully realised what they'd done; they'd attacked the great wizard!
Callum tried to tell Harry that he shouldn't hurt them, but Harry only extended the field, so that he, too, was held helpless, in the middle of magic that appeared both potent and terrifying. There were brown sparks flying now, suddenly, frighteningly, centred on the middles of Breedon and Davies.
Harry wasn't even very angry, just making it quite clear that he was not a subject on which to make their experiments.
He left then, using a wand to open the door, and leaving the mediwizards still surrounded by a field of magic. With a thought, he ensured the aurors at the door would not notice him leave, and flew as a hawk from a window. He wasn't going to bother with explanations. He was just going back to his wife, leaving behind the incompetence and the treachery he'd found in New York.
Breedon's wand was found left on the floor, the field that had prevented anyone from approaching the mediwizards faded away after a short time, and both Breedon and Davies bolted for the toilet. It may have been fright, or it may have been Harry's revenge. Neither of them knew. They didn't complain to the Ministry, even though the acute diarrhoea lasted over a week.
It was Christmas Eve. Harry left behind him a terrible fuss, especially when Julie refused to admit that he was home for two days, though she did say that he'd been in contact. Harry's possessions were left with her. Briony Williams, the head of the American Auror Department, was furious, and as soon as they were well enough, both Breedon and Davies discreetly left on an extended trip to Europe.
The wizard responsible for the pumpkin-heads had too much to drink, reeled unsteadily onto the road, and was mown down by a semi-trailer. The driver didn't notice.
**x**
Three days after Christmas, Harry was having a glorious time, on a sailboat with Ben, Joe and Seth. At first, he'd tried to help as they manipulated sails, pulled ropes, and generally fussed around, but after he'd nearly fallen in twice, and did fall in once, he was firmly placed on a seat, and told to stay there, absolutely not to try and help.
So Harry sat where he was put, drank beer with the others, laughed and told sometimes bawdy stories. The boys were in their nineteenth year, Harry was ninety. They had a wonderful time together.
Mooring the boat on their return, and packing away sails, was quite a business. None of them were sober. Ben seemed to be very drunk indeed, and was almost as useless as Harry, who could not cope with even the very gentle rocking of the moored boat.
Jebedee and Franz looked at each other in disbelief as Joe and Seth hauled him onto the pier, all of them winding up in a heap, and still laughing. Harry was never drunk! Briony Williams was with them, but she didn't know Harry as well, and only thought they'd chosen a bad time.
Joe and Seth staggered off together, and Harry held a swaying Ben firmly on his right arm, trying to keep his balance with his cane on the left. They were having so little success that Jebedee and Franz went to help.
"Jebedee!" called Harry in pleasure, abandoning his swaying friend, and giving the big man an uninhibited hug.
"Franz," gripping his hand hard with pleasure, but this time it was reserved Franz who pulled him into a hug.
Harry was still grinning all over his face, as he smiled at Briony, "Briony," and then suddenly concerned, "You're not here to arrest me, are you?"
Briony shook her head, "Of course not! You were treated very badly. That's what we came to talk about."
But Harry was looking back at his swaying friend, and swaying quite considerably himself. "We can't talk now. I think Ben might have had a bit too much to drink. I'm taking him home."
They watched the pair go, laughing uproariously together as they swayed and staggered all over the footpath and onto the road.
"Think we'd better help?" grinned Franz to Jebedee.
There was a lot better progress made then, although Ben's mother was not very pleased with Harry. She knew he was a teacher and had expected better of him.
Afterward, they sat together on a park bench, overlooking the sea. Franz was asking Harry about his friends. He seemed to be a lot more sensible now, out of the company of the youngsters.
"They're having what they call a gap year," explained Harry. "Just an excuse for loafing really, but it's a wonderful place to loaf!" He laughed again, "I tried surfing, it wasn't a success!"
Jebedee raised an eyebrow at Briony, who took it as a signal to get to business. She was apologising abjectly to Harry that the aurors had failed to protect him, even watching as he was stunned and drugged.
Harry was in no mood to be serious, and just called her attention to the dolphins playing out past the waves, scarcely seeming to take notice of what she was saying.
Briony looked in despair at Jebedee, who took over, "What Briony needs to know is if you're willing to continue with the spell-breaking."
"Oh, yeah," said Harry, "I suppose - it's not the first time that healers have seized the opportunity to have a look at me when I'm in no state to resist," and he cocked a humerous eyebrow at Jebedee.
Briony stated, "I won't roster Evie and Craig on again, of course - they let you down badly."
But Harry said, "I prefer people I know with me when I work - I'm willing to continue with the same team - they might not be, of course." And he said, repentant, "Poor Callum didn't deserve to be frightened half to death, and Craig was annoyed with me even before that."
"It's all right then?" asked Briony, surprised. Maybe her emergency trip to enlist the help of Jebedee had not been necessary.
Harry rose, swaying, walked around to the tall and dignified women, and raised her hand, kissing the back of it with drunken courtliness. "You worry too much!"
Harry was not as unaffected as he pretended. He'd been reminded that it was not really all that difficult for others to render him helpless, and he'd been up twice since then, walking in the dark, after nightmares that Julie couldn't soothe.
The routine weekly spell-breaking stints resumed in early January. Callum, Evie and Craig waited for him, all looking rather embarrassed. Harry was embarrassed himself, but greeted them as if nothing had happened. They apologised to him, the three of them together, as they'd planned. Harry shrugged and said not to worry about it, suggesting that they were late, and had to get started, though they were not.
Afterward, though, he asked Callum to relay to his mediwizard friends that if anything was published about his health or abnormal readings, he would be very upset. Healer Ironside hastened to say that he'd let them know just as soon as he could.
**x**
