With a week of classes and practicums behind her, Hermione was beginning to settle into to her new routine. She enjoyed all the lectures, and had naturally read ahead in each one. Her favourite class was Introduction to Spell Damage, taught by Professor Strout, who also worked as a healer on the spell damage ward. Hermione liked spell damage because she thought it required the most amount of creative thinking. Patients suffering injuries from spells were often incapacitated, and could not explain what spell had caused the damage. Curing the effects of spell damage then required looking for clues in the patient's symptoms. The treatment, sometimes a counter-jinx, or a potion, had to be administered quickly because some effects of spell damage were, as Professor Strout explained, permanent.
While her classes were going well, the practicums were far less enjoyable. She liked helping patients and figuring out their ailments, but her practicum partner did not make things easy for her. Malfoy alternated between completely ignoring Hermione, or being insufferably rude, neither of which helped Hermione with her goal of figuring out what he was up to. He had not said anything else during their practicums to make her suspicious, but she figured he was smart enough not to let anything else slip. Tonight she would have another chance to try to get some information out of Malfoy - they had their Antidotes practicum tonight. The Antidotes ward was on the third floor of St. Mungo's. It was a dark and quiet ward, except for the occasional moan from a patient, with odd smells from various potions and tinctures wafting through the air. There was a large sign on the wall that said ""Antidotes are anti-don'ts unless approved by a qualified Healer."
"Mr. Malfoy, Ms. Granger." a large wizard in lime green robes motioned for them to approach him.
"Your resident healer is not available today, he's been called away on an emergency poisoning case and I will be following him shortly. So today you will be working on your own, attending to the Lightly Poisoned Unit." Said the healer in a matter-of-fact way.
"On our own?!" Cried Hermione "But- but it's only our second week! Should we be seeing patients on our own?". Hermione felt conflicted. She felt apprehensive about treating patients on her own, but she could not deny the rush of excitement she felt.
The healer looked confused. "What is the problem Ms. Granger? The Lightly Poisoned Unit only has patients who have been lightly poisoned. You should have enough knowledge by now to deal with every case presented there."
"Lightly poisoned? How can one be lightly poisoned?" Asked Hermione.
"All the patients there have been assessed to be suffering from the effects of a poison, but their injuries are non-life nor limb threatening. You will identify the poison and call a house elf to fetch the antidote. Make sure the antidote is taken properly and watch the patient for an hour after administration. Then you can discharge them."
Hermione looked at Malfoy to see if he was at all worried about treating patients without a qualified healer there, but he seemed unperturbed.
"Oh one last thing, work together on each patient. You must agree on a diagnosis before administering the antidote. Two heads are better than one." With that, the healer in the lime green robes left the ward.
"Let's go Granger." said Malfoy briskly and walked to the Lightly Poisoned Unit, Hermione, still shocked, followed suit.
The Lightly Poisoned Unit was just one very large room with patient beds along the side. Hermione estimated that there were about 30 patients in the beds waiting to be assessed. From what Hermione could tell, none of the patients looked particularly ill - they were all conscious, and many were talking with their accompanying visitor, or to each other. She looked around the room wondering where they should begin, but Malfoy was already walking over to their first patient.
Hermione following behind, walked over to the patient, a wizard, who she thought she recognized from Hogwarts. He was sitting up in his bed, talking with his friend standing near him, who Hermione instantly recognized as Fred and George's friend Lee Jordan.
"Hi Hermione! I didn't know you worked here!" said Lee excitedly.
"Hi Lee, I'm just an intern for now." said Hermione.
Malfoy turned to the patient in the bed "So? What's wrong with you?" he said briskly.
"Excellent bedside manner Malfoy." said Hermione, rolling her eyes. Then turning to the patient she said "What happened? How can we help?"
"Oh this should be good. Tell them what's wrong, Anthony." said Lee with a big smile.
Anthony turned as bright red, looked as if he was holding back vomit, then blurted out all at once - "I took Veritarserum by accident and now I can't stop telling the truth and it is really destroying all of my relationships because I can't stop telling the truth!" then turning to Hermione he yelled "Also you're very beautiful!"
Hermione blushed.
"He just can't stop blurting out the truth. It's hilarious. He's already told his girlfriend that he thinks she's gotten a bit fat. Told me he thinks my ears are too big for my face." said Lee laughing.
"I'm sorry!" cried Anthony.
"And I know you're being honest!" said Lee, "As fun as this is for me, he's a pretty miserable bloke. Is there anything you can give him? I brought in the Veritaserum he drank, I don't know if it was a particularly strong brew." Lee handed a vial of colourless liquid to Hermione.
"Well the effects will wear off eventually, but given how much damage this has done we can give him the Veritaserum antidote - Mendaserum." said Hermione.
"I agree." said Malfoy. He motioned for one of the house elves walking around the ward to approach. "We need one dose of Mendaserum antidote."
"Please." Hermione added quickly to the house elf. Malfoy rolled his eyes. With a loud crack the elf was gone, only to re-appear moments later carrying a small glass vial with bright blue liquid.
Anthony hurriedly gulped down the liquid.
"How do you feel?" asked Lee.
"Fine, I think." said Anthony.
"What do you think of the size of my ears?" asked Lee, snickering.
"Your ears? They're normal, why?" said Anthony, then smiling he cried "It worked! I can lie again!"
"Where did you get this anyway?" said Hermione looking at the vial Lee gave her, "Veritaserum is a restricted potion!" Lee and Anthony exchanged looks.
"We just found it." said Anthony.
"Ah, you should've asked him before he took the antidote, Granger." said Malfoy, smirking.
"Fine. You stay put for now, we'll come back in a bit to check on you, make sure the antidote hasn't worn off." said Hermione.
"Well that's interesting." said Malfoy as they walked away from Lee and Anthony.
"What's interesting?" asked Hermione curiously.
"It seems Veritaserum only forces the drinker to say subjective truths rather than objective ones." said Malfoy.
"What do you mean?"
"The drinker can say things that are not true as long as he believes them to be true."
"Why would you think that?" asked Hermione.
"Because he called you beautiful." said Malfoy.
"There's nothing you can say to offend me Malfoy." said Hermione without missing a beat, then drawing the vial of colourless liquid out of her robes she added, "And you know what, I would like to know what you would say if I slipped a bit of this in your pumpkin juice." The colour drained from Malfoy's face. Hermione had an idea. Perhaps they could use the Veritaserum to figure out what Malfoy was up to. It would be highly unethical, possibly illegal, but if it can save someone's life or stop Malfoy, Hermione figured it might be worth it. She would need to discuss it with Harry and Ron.
"CAN WE GET SOME HELP OVER HERE?" yelled a booming voice from across the room.
Malfoy and Hermione ran over to the yelling wizard.
"There's no need to yell." said Malfoy
"We need help now!" cried the wizard, coming towards Hermione and Malfoy. He was wearing navy robes and looked frantic. On a patient bed beside the wizard sat a middle-aged witch in a bright purple sweater. She had a dreamy, far-off look in her eyes.
The witch, noticing the wizard cried "Nigel darling! You've returned! I've missed you so my love!"
"I am NOT your love!" said the wizard named Nigel angrily, "I'm your neighbour. Your love is your husband Walter who is going to kill me!"
"Husband? Walter?" said the dazed witch a little confused, "Oh pish posh, forget about him. I only love you Nigel." The witch tried reaching for the man who ran several feet away from her bed.
"Let me guess, you gave her love potion?" said Malfoy lazily.
"I didn't give it to her on purpose. My daughter bought some at the Weasley Wizard Wheezes shop in Diagon Alley, and left it in our kitchen. It looks just like water, see I brought it with me." said Nigel handing a vial to Hermione.
Hermione examined the vial. "Hmm, it does look just like water, which is a bit unusual, but let's see here." she uncorked the vial and smelled it. "Ah yes, I can smell freshly mown grass, and new parchment, and-". All of a sudden the witch lunged from the bed, pushing Hermione into Malfoy, and the uncorked vial into Hermione's face.
"Nigel, my love! Come back!" she yelled, as she chased after Nigel, who was desperately trying to get away.
Hermione was covered in the clear liquid from the vial. She felt it drip down her hair, her nose, and- "Oh no" she thought as she felt the warm liquid slowly make its way down her throat.