An hour later Freddie had finished her potion. She cleaned up her workstation while she waited for it to cool, then cleaned out the cauldron she'd been using for the Wolfsbane Potion. She was relieved to know she had about 24 hours before she needed to start the next batch. As glad as she was to help Lupin – and by extension, the Order – brewing the Wolfsbane really did take a lot of attention.
As soon as the Acromantula Antidote was cool enough she bottled it to take upstairs. When she stepped out of her office she saw Master Hawkins was checking the work of some of the interns.
"You have the antidote for Healer Smethwyck?" Hawkins asked when she saw her.
"Yes ma'am, I was about to take it up there. Do you need anything?" Freddie asked.
"Would you mind grabbing me a cup of tea and a scone from upstairs before you head back down? Then you can take off if you like. I'll be here until late, I'm working on something in my office."
"Sure, no problem. Cranberry scone?"
"You know me too well, Gray," Hawkins said with a grin. "Thanks."
Freddie made her way through the lobby where a few patients were waiting to be triaged by the tired-looking witch at the front desk and went up the stairs to the first floor. She went through the door into the Dai Llewellyn Ward, a small room with only one window directly across from the entrance. It was a place for the most dangerous of magical animal bites. When people were first bitten by werewolves they were brought here...but not this time of month. At the moment there was only one occupant of the small, dingy room. A large bearded man lay on one of the beds, unconscious, and Healer Smethwyck was sitting in a chair at his bedside, charting. Smethwyck was the Healer-in-Charge of the Dai Llewellyn Ward. He was an older gentleman with long gray hair and a beard that rivaled Dumbledore's. He lowered his spectacles to look at Freddie as she approached.
"Ah, Miss Gray. Do you have the antidote?" he asked, setting aside his clipboard and getting to his feet.
"Yes sir. How's your patient?" she asked curiously. She could see the man's arm sticking out from beneath the hospital blanket and it was nearly twice the size as his other arm. The bite itself was bandaged but blood was seeping through.
"I've had to change his bandages every hour," Smethwyck said, shaking his head. "And I had to give him a dose of Dreamless Sleep to knock him out, the Pain-Relieving Potion alone wasn't enough. Acromantula venom is caustic stuff."
Smethwyck used his wand to remove the bloody bandages and Freddie cringed at what she saw beneath. When she'd seen the bite earlier it had been two small holes with blistered red skin around it like a burn. Now the bite marks were Galleon-sized and oozing pus. Several inches of flesh around it had turned black and it smelled like rotted meat.
"I know Acromantula venom is worth a lot of money but you couldn't pay me enough to get near one of those things!" Freddie said as she handed over the potion, shaking her head.
"I agree," Smethwyck said, uncorking the flask. "But people do desperate things for money."
Freddie watched as the healer poured the potion onto the man's arm and the wound began to smoke. The flesh around it began to bubble like something was alive beneath his skin and the man woke screaming, thrashing around wildly.
"You're alright, Mr Samuels!" Smethwyck said, trying to hold him down. "You're in the hospital. Miss Gray – the Draught of Living Death, can you get it?"
"Yes sir," she said obediently and hurried to the store cupboard. She was shocked that the man was conscious after being dosed with Pain-relieving Potion and Dreamless Sleep. She couldn't imagine the pain he must be feeling. She rushed back to his bedside with the potion where Healer Smethwyck was using his wand to paralyze Samuels. His blue eyes were wide, nearly bulging out his skull, and his mouth was frozen in a silent scream.
"You'll be just fine, Mr Samuels," Smethwyck assured him, quickly uncorking the bottle Freddie handed to him. He poured a small dose into a spoon he'd had on the bedside table and poured it into his open mouth. "You'll be just fine. You'll sleep and when you wake up you'll feel much better."
Freddie watched as the patient's eyes grew hazy and his pupils dilated. When Smethwyck released the spell his eyes closed and he crashed onto the bed, unconscious.
"Is it safe to give him that many potions at once?" she asked curiously as Smethwyck checked the man's pulse at the wrist of his uninjured arm.
"It's generally not recommended but in the most extreme cases it's warranted," he said with a sigh, letting go of his wrist. "It won't kill him, but I imagine he'll sleep for several days until it clears his system. By that time his arm should be good as new."
The bite mark was still smoking but the holes seemed to be getting smaller and the flesh was no longer black. Smethwyck used his wand to redress the wound with clean bandages.
"I'll have to stay here all night to monitor him, after giving him that much medicine, and I have to reapply the antidote every six hours," he said, sinking back into the chair at his patient's bedside.
"What about Pye?" she asked, referring to Smethwyck's Healer-in-Training.
"It's his day off. I should probably send for him, he'll be disappointed to have missed something like this, but he works enough hours as it is. If Augustus Pye had it his way, he'd never leave. He'd just live here in the hospital."
"I know the feeling, sir," Freddie said with a smile. "Is there anything else you need before I go? I'm getting tea for Master Hawkins from upstairs, I could bring you some?"
"No thank you, Miss Gray, I'll be fine," he said, picking up his clipboard and quill. "And thanks for brewing the antidote so quickly. Another few hours and Mr Samuels here might've lost his arm."
"Just doing my job, sir. Glad I could help."
"He's lucky to be alive. Most Acromantula bites don't survive."
"Yes sir, he's lucky they got him to you so quickly. Hopefully he'll think twice before going near one of those creatures again."