A/N;

Thank your for your feedback – Frost Merry Darkness Luver, CallaRose4ever, Katescats, .9 ,agheb, Scarlat Vieira Goncalves and guests!

Some great guesses for the story. Lots of clues in the previous chapters, but I am told I hide my clues!

This was not the chapter I set out to write, but my Musey is a clever girl and has these ideas...

A Medical Mystery-Girl

The hospital ward of Hogwarts consisted of two rows of beds on either side of a long chamber. During the day, the room would be lit by the light flooding into the room via a series of arched, stone-mullioned windows. Now, with the daylight well gone, the chamber was lit by a large number of lamps.

Over on the far side of the ward, Rigel Black lay in one of the beds with his back facing the door. Hearing the main door open and close behind the two girls, he turned towards the sound, his face pale and full of self-pity. Spotting Walburga, he called out to his sister and sat up.

"Walburga!" The boy's voice sounded hoarse from all the lake water he'd puked up.

His shout brought the nurse scurrying out of a side doorway that led to her office. On seeing the visitors, she nodded first to the older girl who she knew by sight and then her eyes then fell onto Buffy.

"Ah, I see that the elusive Lovegood-Summers has finally graced the hospital with her presence!" The sarcasm softened by the nurse's knowing smile. Buffy wasn't the only student she'd met with a fear of hospitals.

Buffy, her nerves already fluttering at entering the hospital ward, murmured, "Oh, joy, a comedian" under her breath. The nurse was too far away to hear, but Walburga did. The older girl smirked and swaggered off for Rigel's bed, leaving Buffy to face the nurse alone.

"You wanted to see me, Madam Bones?" Buffy asked innocently. The ward was empty apart from Rigel's bed and one other with curtains drawn around it. Buffy took the quiet ward as a bad sign, an over-eager nurse would be on the hunt for new patients to justify her wages.

"Take a seat," the nurse replied. "I'll examine you after I've dealt with a case of Densaugeo hexing, once I've finished, I'll examine you."

Madam Bones went over to the cubicle with the closed curtains. As she opened it, Buffy caught a glimpse of a red-haired boy sat on the bed with walrus-size teeth before the curtain closed behind the nurse.

"Densaugeo," Buffy repeated quietly to herself. She'd need to look up that hex, it might come in useful in her fight against demons. It would be difficult for a vampire to bite your neck if he kept tripping over his own fangs.

Walburga beckoned, and Buffy reluctantly went over and joined her at Rigel's bedside.

"Hi, Rigel. Are you feeling better?" Buffy asked. She purposely took the chair on the opposite side of the bed to Walburga. It was strange, she felt less awkward diving into the lake and rescuing Rigel than she did trying to make polite small-talk with the Blacks. Maybe it had something to do with him being unconscious at the time. The Blacks were a whole lot less irritating when they kept their mouths closed.

The young boy silently searched her face. Facing him, Buffy realised he was like his sister in more than his looks. Not only had he been belligerent and stubborn but he'd already perfected the pure-blood's sardonic curl to his upper lip.

Walburga prodded Rigel's arm. "Manners, Rigel."

The boy shot his sister a dark glare before turning back to Buffy. "Why did you save my life?" he asked bluntly.

His sister let out a hiss of rebuke. "Don't be rude! Thank her for saving your life, and be nice!"

"Thank you for saving my life. I'm feeling much better and I hope you are also," Rigel replied dutifully. The boy's dark grey eyes assessed her. "But why did you save me? You know neither me or my family. You didn't just stop me from drowning either. The merpeople told Professor Dumbledore that the Grindylows had taken me and you fought off a pack of them without using magic. He said that you had to tear them limb from limb to get them off me."

Buffy winced. After the attack, she realised that she should have used her wand to cast a Revulsion jinx to make them release her and Rigel. At the time, it didn't occur to her to use magic and she'd reverted to using Slayer strength on them - the results hadn't been pretty.

"Guess it's because I can't stand seeing demons killing people," Buffy answered. "Don't do it again. I might not be around next time for the save-age." She gave him a wide smile to show she had no hard feelings and Rigel blinked - dazzled by it.

After visibly gathering his thoughts together, Rigel reached over and took hold of her hand. With a gravitas he'd never shown before he said, formally, "Thank you, Miss Lovegood-Summers. I am fully aware of the debt I owe you."

"Call me Buffy, and you're welcome." Embarrassed, Buffy pulled her hand away. "And don't worry about the Life debt thingy. I didn't know anything about it until Lovell and Walburga told me it existed." This thing called a Life debt bothered her. She was a Slayer, protecting people from demons was part of the job description, it wasn't done to put people in debt to you.

"Nevertheless," said Walburga, "the debt exists whether you want it to or not."

"Do you think my father will speak to yours?" Rigel asked. He turned to his sister for confirmation. "What do you think, Walburga? I think he might have to, don't you?"

Walburga shrugged. She stared over at Buffy, her mouth twisting as if she'd bitten into a lemon.

Buffy was confused by Rigel's question. "I doubt it," she replied. "Dad doesn't even speak to me. We have a kinda non-verbal, non-sighty relationship going on. Why would your Dad want to talk to mine?"

"Because it's the polite thing to do," Rigel explained, looking at her as if she was stupid. "He'll probably suggest a match between us."

"A match?" And then she laughed. Rigel had to be joking."No way!"

Buffy ducked her head, trying to smother a fit of giggles. Aware Madam Bones might appear if she heard laughter, she covered her face. The mental image of two men, dressed in mediaeval armour, sitting down to draw up a marriage contract for their kids was not helping. She was only fifteen, and Rigel was...

"How old are you?" she asked between giggles. "Eleven?"

He didn't answer and Buffy looked up to see Walburga's face as sour as ever and then she noticed the hurt in Rigel's.

Her laughter died. Had Rigel developed a crush on her because she'd saved him? If so, it was cruel stamping on his feelings. "I'm sorry I laughed, but don't you think you're too young for me?" she asked.

Rigel sat up, his back ramrod straight, his small frame almost vibrating with indignation. "What's my age to do with it? What matters is that I'm a Black," he replied haughtily. "We're rich, we're powerful. Your position in society would be secure with the promise of my money and connections."

"And in return the Life debt would be cancelled," added Walburga. "It is a good idea. However, I doubt father will approve of Buffy. She isn't far off being a Mudblood, a Squib mother and a Muggle father. Even if we claim she is illegitimate, she really isn't a good enough catch for a Black."

"Hey! What do ya mean I'm not a good catch?! Rude, much?"

"Your family isn't a member of the Sacred Twenty-Eight," Walburga snapped in explanation. "The Blacks marry the purest of Pure-bloods or they are burnt from the tree."

"What tree? Who's setting fire to trees?"

"The family tree!" Walburga rolled her eyes in exasperation. "See what you have brought on us, Rigel."

Buffy glared at Walburga.

"Walburga," Rigel said quietly to get her attention. He met and held Walburga's eyes, an unspoken message in them as he said, "Father might find me someone worse."

The two of them exchanged a long look before they both regarded Buffy with silent calculation.

"Uh-no! No way! I'm too old for you, Rigel," Buffy said firmly. She hadn't known the Black family for long, but it seemed they had a penchant for coming up with crazy ideas and expecting her to go along with them.

Seeing that Rigel was about to argue, Buffy added, "You'll thank me one day, when you meet a nice girl, er, witch and fall in love."

If she'd thought that would soothe his ruffled feathers, she couldn't have been more wrong. "You aren't too old for me! Last summer, Father and Uncle Arcturus arranged Walburga's marriage to our cousin Orion. We held the official betrothal at Christmas and he was only twelve!"

Nonplussed, Buffy turned to Walburga for an explanation. The older girl kept her cheek turned to her and refused to meet Buffy's eyes.

Rigel, too distressed now to care what Buffy might think of them, ploughed on, "Tell her Walburga! Tell her that for the Blacks marriage has nothing to do with love, and everything to do with duty and family obligations!"

It sounded to Buffy as if he was repeating what an older member of the family had told him. Surely this was illegal? This was the 1940s, not the 1440s, you didn't marry partners chose for you by your parents. Was Walburga really betrothed to her twelve-year old cousin? With wide eyes, she gazed first at Walburga and then at Rigel.

"Tell her, we don't have a choice!" Rigel shouted, his face red, his eyes unnaturally bright with unshed tears. "Tell her how you tried and how father reacted. Tell her what he's done to make sure you can't back out of marrying Orion!"

"Hush!" snapped Walburga. Her face had initially blanched at her brother's outburst, now it had become mottled with shame. "We don't discuss our family's private affairs in public!"

"Whatever 'is' going on over there?" Madam Bones' head stuck out between the curtains of the cubicle. Her eyes sweeping over the trio, taking in Rigel's raised colour, Walburga's anger and Buffy's embarrassment. "Stop arguing or you'll be made to leave!"

Buffy rose to her feet.

"Not you, Miss Lovegood-Summers! But if I hear another peep from you, you can stay here all night." Buffy pressed her lips together and hurriedly sat down.

As always, Walburga Black was the first to compose herself and show her manners. "Please accept our most sincere apologies for the disturbance, Madam Bones." She shot Rigel a glare. "I promise, it won't happen again."

The nurse nodded. With a quick, "See that it doesn't," the nurse disappeared back into the cubicle.

The nurse led Buffy across to an empty bed, placed the tray of potions and bandages down onto a nearby trolley and pulled the curtains around them. "Strip down to your underwear, please. I need to check Rigel and then I'll be back to examine you."

Buffy listened to the nurse's footsteps as she walked off and then poked her head through the curtains. Madam Bones, in the process of casting a diagnostic charm, caught sight of her and gave her a stern look. Knowing she was only delaying the inevitable, Buffy went back to undressing.

Once she'd removed her clothing, she sat down assessing her injuries while waiting for the nurse. The claw marks on her legs and arms had already healed and the deep bite on her shin had scabbed over. It was the bite to her forearm that was the worst. That looked nasty. The wound seeped, and the surrounding skin was inflamed and hot to the touch.

As soon as Madam Bones saw it, she clucked in distress. "Ach, this should not have been left!"

Buffy shrugged. "It's no big. I've had worse..." she frowned. "I think."

Madam Bones frowned and gave Buffy a dubious look as she uncorked a small bottle. "Your memories still haven't come back?"

"Nope, only a few." Buffy wasn't going to tell her what few either. That way led to a long stay in St Mungo's mental ward.

"Give it time," the nurse replied soothingly. Taking a swab, she poured a few drops onto it from the bottle, placed it over the infected wound and used a sticking charm to hold it in place. A wisp of green vapour rose from the swab and the nurse moved on, to examining the rest of Buffy's injuries.

"Oh, that's working already," Buffy said in surprise. She could see the redness around the swab subsiding, her skin didn't feel as taut, and the urge to itch at it had vanished.

"Essence of Dittany," replied Madam Bones as she held Buffy's leg and checked the bite on her shin. "You'll have come across it in your studies, no doubt. It's one of the most powerful healing herbs; it destroys infections, encourages the skin to grow anew, and seals wounds."

"If I'd known you weren't gonna stick me with a needle, I'd have come here earlier."

"A needle?" Madam Bones looked perplexed for a moment before her face cleared. "Oh, aye, you've had the Muggle way of healing in the past. Very fond of needles the Muggles are. You don't need to worry about them here, it's mainly all potions and charm work."

"Cool. I'll not be so tardy next time." Buffy's fingers went to pick at the swab, and Madam Bones slapped her hand away.

"Leave it be, girl!" she chided. "And what do you mean by 'next time?' I sincerely hope you won't make a habit of this." Madam Bones took out her wand and began to make a series of complicated wand movements above Buffy's head. As the wand slowed, a spiral of golden runes appeared in mid-air.

Intrigued, Buffy tilted her head as she tried to make sense of them. Dumbledore had been amazed at how fast she'd progressed in Ancient Runes. He'd called her a prodigy in the making and she'd laughingly confessed that runes weren't new and cited a previous teacher with an interest in them. She hadn't admitted her knowledge came from Giles' demonology books, it wasn't something she thought Dumbledore would approve of.

She'd found that in the Wizarding world runes were used for far more than ancient prophecies of demons and doom. Here they were used for almost everything, from charm creation to health diagnosis, from robe-making to protective wards. One of the first things Buffy had done with her new knowledge was to apply wards to her school trunk. She wanted to make sure that no one except her or Lovell could open it and disturb Spikey.

Seeing Buffy's interest in the golden runes, the nurse explained, "I'm running a full diagnostic check. The runes here," she pointed to a set of runes Buffy didn't recognise, "show the health of your magical core. Dark magic and Dark being attacks can weaken..." Her voice trailed away, creases appearing on her brow. "Just raise your head and look at the ceiling, Buffy."

Buffy obediently looked at the ceiling as the nurse murmured another incantation and motioned with her wand once again.

"What have you spotted?" Buffy asked. She'd had similar tests at St Mungo's, but Madam Bones' tests were taking a lot longer, and more and more runes were swirling in the air. "Am I dying?"

"Och, definitely not! You can look back down now, I've finished the casting."

Buffy tilted her head, narrowing her eyes as she read the new runes hovering in the air. "What do they-. Is that the rune for evil!?"

The nurse let out a soft huff of annoyance. "It is not! That symbolises friction or a shadow. Reversed it most likely represents the shadow left on your core by a dark hex. The Healers at St Mungo's saw this and made notes in your medical files. There's no need to worry. It'll fade with time."

The nurse swished her wand some more, enlarging and expanding the wheeling spiral of runes. "These are more unusual runes. There's nothing on your medical notes about them, likely the Healers dismissed it since it isn't a case of recent magic. Do you see this?"

She pointed at one of the runes. Buffy nodded, she knew that meant 'Shield' or 'Protection'.

"It's impossible to know what spell was used to cause it but, whatever it was, it affected your core." Madam Bones moved on, reading the runes in sequence and considering each one thoughtfully.

"When you say core, do you mean my magical core?"

The nurse gave a small nod, her attention still on the runes hovering in front of her.

Buffy scowled at the golden runes, wondering who'd cast a spell on her and when. Suddenly, one of the runes caught her eye and its meaning leapt out at her. The floor seemed to tilt beneath her feet, she felt cold and sick. "That's... that's the death rune, isn't it?" She was only fifteen, she wasn't ready to die yet. 'Again,' a small voice inside her head whispered. 'Die again.'

"My, haven't we got a flare for the dramatics," Madam Bones replied sarcastically, her eyes still on the runes, her wand twirling and enlarging individual ones as she read them.

"But that's the death rune!" Buffy pointed out. "You'd be worried too if you saw it on your rune cast."

"Who's the qualified nurse here, me or you?" Madam Bones held her wand poised in mid-air. "That rune represents death, the serpent in the tree of life, and new beginnings. You need to read it as part of the series, look at its neighbours and not just take it at face value." She tapped the shielding rune again. "No, this is the interesting one. If I was a betting witch, which I am not, I'd say this is the remains of an old binding spell."

"The shield rune?" Buffy wrinkled her nose, perplexed. "Oh, it's reversed and that would mean to bind not to shield. A binding spell on my magical core? Someone bound my magic?" Aware of Rigel and Walburga waiting outside and not knowing if the curtains had a privacy charm on them, Buffy lowered her voice, "Why would anyone want to bind my magic?"

"I have no idea," the healer replied. "It could only have been done when you were a baby, before your magic grew. Whoever did this must be a powerful magic-user, it's not only dark it's dangerous. It could have created an Obscurial."

A chill ran down Buffy's spine. Someone had cast a spell on a defenceless baby to make sure their magic would lie dormant. Who would do a wicked thing like that? She thought of the mad wizard scientist Von Kendrick and his experiments to find the source of Muggleborn magic. Had Von Kendrick done this to her or did she have another enemy?

Whoever had cast it must have done it without her Mom knowing. Or had he Obliviated her Mom afterwards? Aware the nurse was still speaking, Buffy pulled her thoughts back to the present.

"...it's likely the danger you were put in during the attack broke the spell. Often children from magical families display their first magic when they're in danger. Alternatively, perhaps whatever the spell Von Kendrick used on you broke the older one?"

"Is there any way to find out who cast the binding spell on me?" Buffy asked. Privately, she thought it was Von Kendrick, but she knew any strong magic-user could have done it – even Grindelwald. Not that it was likely. Fifteen years ago Grindelwald had been far too busy turning the Wizarding world on its head to bother with a Squib's baby.

"None that I know of," the nurse replied. The golden runes faded away.

"So... I'm totally fine and good to go?" Buffy asked hopefully. She needed to get out of here, warn her Mom about Von Kendrick, and think over all she'd been told. It wasn't worth telling her Mom about the binding spell on her magic yet. It would only make her worry that Buffy wasn't safe at Hogwarts.

"Not so fast! I haven't finished." Madam Bones removed the swab covering the Grindylow's bite. All the redness and weeping had gone, and the skin was already beginning to grow over the wound as both the fast-acting dittany potion and Buffy's Slayer healing took effect. "The bite is healing nicely, but I'd prefer it if you stayed here overnight," the nurse said.

"But you said I was fine!" whined Buffy. "The runes say so!"

"Aye, well..."

The slight hesitation was enough to encourage Buffy to push for her freedom. "Please, Madam Bones, it's my first night at Hogwarts. I don't want to miss out on making friends or seeing my new dungeon."

Buffy wasn't looking forward to arguing with Walburga over her crazy schemes or living in the damp depths of a castle with a group of strangers, but it still had to be better than an overnight stay in hospital.

Madam Bones considered the request. "If I let you go, I'd want you back here early in the morning."

"No problemo," said Buffy tugging on her clothes as fast as she could.

"First thing, before breakfast, mind," continued the nurse.

"Sure."

"If you forget, I won't," Madam Bones warned her. She used her wand to vanish the dirty swab before picking up her tray. "I'll hunt you down."

Buffy grinned, knowing that she'd won. "Bright and early. You'll never know that I'd left the ward."

"Don't make me regret this," Madam Bones warned as she left the cubicle, giving Buffy a little smile. "Now go and say goodbye to Rigel, or do I need to chase you out of here?"

Before you go!

Yep, YOU! Don't forget to say hi and say if you are enjoying it.

Thank you.