NOTE: Today's the Winter Solstice (all bright blessings to those who celebrate it!), and more significantly to me, it's my wedding anniversary. In celebration of both, here's another chapter!

10 April 2015

Tony didn't think he'd ever feel comfortable in Augusta Longbottom's home. It was certainly decorated well - by Late Victorian or maybe Gilded Age standards - and Augusta was always a proper hostess…but it was exactly those factors that made him uncomfortable.

He was a modern guy - the ultimate modern guy, according to a lot of tabloids - and as a result, Augusta's home sometimes felt more like a living history museum than an actual home.

He'd never liked museums - not even the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. He preferred looking to the future, not the past.

Right now, he sat too straight on a wingback chair in what he assumed was the parlor. A cup of tea and plate of cookies sat untouched on the table beside him. A house elf had told him Augusta would be with him shortly, whatever that meant.

For now, Tony sat and rehearsed what he'd say to her. Augusta reminded him a lot of Aunt Peggy, so he'd approach the topic with her the way he would with Aunt Peggy.

He'd just reached that conclusion when Augusta strode into the room, dressed in what probably passed for wizarding casual - a robe cut short enough in front to expose trouser-clad legs. The outfit resembled something he might see in India, and even as he stood to greet her, he wondered if the British magical world had colonized India the way non-magical Britain had.

"No need to stand on ceremony," Augusta said briskly, though she gave his hand a firm shake before taking a seat across from him. "Has something gone wrong with Neville's training? Is he all right?"

"Perfectly fine when I saw him this morning," Tony answered immediately. "He's really taken to Gibbs as his instructor - much better than he ever did with DiNozzo."

"Then again I thank you for finding him," she said. "Though by all reports, Harry and Hermione both are doing well in their studies with Agent DiNozzo."

"They are," Tony agreed readily. "But they're equally at home in both worlds, and DiNozzo relates better to them because of that. Gibbs - doesn't care about any of that. He just cares if you're working hard, and Neville is. And he has a real soft spot for kids."

Augusta smiled as she reached for her own cup. "That's good to hear - but if it's not about Neville's training, what is your visit about?"

Tony met her gaze. "About the other members of your family - your son and daughter-in-law."

Her cup rattled against its saucer, and her mouth thinned. "How do you know about them?"

"When Harry came into my life, I realized I had a lot to get caught up on. I bought ten years of back issues of the Daily Prophet, and-" Tony broke off with a shrug.

"I - see." Augusta forced herself to take a sip of her tea before carefully setting cup and saucer back on the table. "What about them?"

Treat her as if she were Aunt Peggy. Direct is best. "I wondered if you'd consider having a non-magical doctor examine them."

"A Muggle doctor?! You want me to allow a barbarian to examine my son?"

"The healers haven't been able to do anything," Tony pointed out. "You have nothing to lose."

And possibly everything to gain. Tony let the words hang unspoken between them.

"I doubt leeches will help them." Augusta Longbottom didn't sneer, but her tone conveyed her disdain equally as well as if she had.

Tony stared at her. The magical world - at least the British magical world - seemed convinced that the non-magical world had stagnated around the Victorian era, but surely Augusta knew better by now? She'd seen non-magical New York and London, and…

…and hadn't seen a medical facility. Those weren't exactly top of the list of tourist attractions in any city.

"We've come a long way since leeches," Tony said after a moment. "Though I know veterinarians - animal doctors - still use them sometimes for hematomas. I don't know that non-magical medicine can help, but we can find out."

"How?" Enough suspicion to fill a dozen Agatha Christie novels colored Augusta's tone and expression.

"The first step - which we can take at your convenience - is to visit them and get some readings." Tony pulled a pair of sticky-foamed leads from a pocket and held them out for her inspection. "Leads similar to these will be put on various points on their heads and will measure brainwaves and other things. Not my specialty, so I don't know details."

"How are these attached?" Augusta asked. "Will it hurt?"

"Not at all. Watch."

Tony peeled the covering off one of the leads and stuck it to the underside of his wrist, then held his wrist out for her to see.

"I can put one on you, if you want to feel for yourself," he offered. "You take them off like this."

He peeled it off his wrist - then, at her apparent interest, stuck it back on and took it off once more.

Then she offered her arm, her expression resolute, and Tony took a second lead to attach to her arm.

"The stickiness fades with each application," Tony said, "so the first time is the worst, and even it's barely noticeable."

Augusta lifted her arm to study the little square piece of foam more closely. "What are the metal things?"

"That's where wires are attached - the wires transmit the readings to another device so the doctors can see and study the readings. No, the wires don't hurt, either - they're attached with tiny clips, like clothespins."

It had been a long time since he'd had to simplify anything he talked about to anyone, much less a subject he wasn't familiar with. Tony found the experience both frustrating and enlightening, and thought that maybe giving the occasional lecture to a high school physics class wasn't as stupid an idea as he'd thought when Pepper originally suggested it.

Oh, her reasoning could be considered stupid - why did he need more publicity, after all? - but the action itself…might be helpful.

"What then?" Augusta asked, peeling the lead off her arm, apparently fascinated by the process. "After you take these readings - what then?"

"Send them to neurologists and neurosurgeons-" Tony interrupted himself with a smile. "Those are types of doctors - healers - who specialize in treating disorders of the nervous system and the brain."

"Surgeons - they cut people up, don't they?"

"Eh." Tony made a so-so motion with one hand. "I'd quibble with cutting people up, but they do cut into the body to address issues that can't be addressed any other way, or to remove a diseased organ, like I had my appendix out when I was in high school."

"Would they want to cut into Frank and Alice?"

Tony shrugged. "Depends on what they find in the readings. There might be other therapies that could assist - I'm not a surgeon, much less a neurosurgeon, so I can't be more specific than that."

Augusta frowned. "I don't like the idea of someone cutting into them."

"It's entirely your decision," Tony said. "But it's not one you should make without more information - the information we'll get with the readings I want to take, and then a consult with people who know more about it than we do."

"I find it difficult to believe that Muggle - mundane - medicine is so much better than healing."

"Not better so much as different. You magic-users have largely stopped asking how things work because magic just fixes things," he said. "You wave your wands and poof, it's fixed - whatever it is. But, because you don't know the details of how things work, you can't fix something rooted in those details."

Augusta fixed a narrow-eyed gaze on him. "Explain."

"From the descriptions I've read of the Cruciatus Curse, I think it might affect the nervous system directly. Do you know what the nervous system is?"

"No, but I'm not a healer," Augusta pointed out.

"Fair enough," Tony allowed, though the conversation was taking a decidedly bizarre turn. "Though pretty much every high school kid in America can tell you at least the basics. It's the parts of the body that coordinate actions and sensory impressions - the brain, spinal cord, and nerves that connect those to the rest of the body."

Augusta nodded slowly, and Tony silently cursed himself for not bringing a doctor with him. Still, maybe it was good that he hadn't - his basic explanations might be easier for the witch to understand. Maybe.

"This is my point, really," he said. "Magic is great for healing the obvious things - broken bones, cuts, that kind of thing. You can see it and affect it easily. But nerves - you can't see those, even though they're all throughout the body. Neurosurgery is very delicate work, and it takes an immense amount of skill and study to become one - twelve years or more."

That startled Augusta more than anything else he'd said. "So many?"

"And it never stops, because they have to keep up with changes and advances in medical knowledge throughout their careers."

Augusta nodded slowly, her expression thoughtful. Tony picked up his forgotten tea, not entirely surprised to find it still warm, and sipped it, unwilling to interrupt the witch's thoughts.

Tony's cup was nearly empty before Augusta spoke. "Who will take these initial readings?"

"I will," Tony answered, setting his cup aside once more and pausing to watch it refill. "Or rather, I'll attach the leads, and JARVIS will take the readings. He'll also get them ready to send to neurologists and neurosurgeons for an initial review before consulting."

"Very well. When?"

The suddenness of her declaration probably shouldn't have surprised him.

"I'm available now," he answered. "Anytime between now and four."

"I do not wish this to go any further than consulting, as you put it. Not until the Tournament is over."

"Of course," Tony said.

"Then if you'll give me a moment to change, we can depart shortly."