Chapter 4
St. Mungo's
That evening, Mr. and Mrs. Lupin took their son to St. Mungo's for treatment. Once they arrived and went to the receptionist, she looked a bit nervous when the whole ordeal was said and done.
"Dai Llwelyn Ward..." she said quietly, pointing them in the direction.
The Lupin's took their pallid, shaken child to the Dai Llwelyn Ward, finding a mediwitch that immediately got them a bed and said it would only be a bit longer until a Healer came. Remus sat upon the large and sterile bed, looking wide eyed at the others in the ward: a lady with her face bandaged, a young man with his leg in a cast that frequently let off steam as if it were a kettle, and an old man who looked very frail and like he was going to pass on at any moment.
The room scared him, but he didn't cry, or shake, he looked around with wide, intelligent eyes, trying to understand something about this place. His mother rubbed his shoulders soothingly and looked at Xavier with a quiet nervousness.
The Healer walked in, face down, reading the report on the little boy in her file, a frown line of concentration on her brow. She looked up to see the family waiting and she smiled brightly. Long mousy brown hair was pulled up into a messy but efficient enough bun, and her hazel eyes were warm and amiable.
"Hello there! You must be young Master Lupin, I'm going to be your Healer while you're here, I'm Denise Harrington." she said cheerily, taking Remus' good hand and giving it a gentle shake. "And you two are the lovely parents, pleasure." she said, again, warmly shaking their proffered hands.
Remus immediately felt a little more secure in this alien, white, pristine place, and smiled nervously at her. She's got a way with kids, this may not be too bad, Clara thought with relief.
"Now, seems like you had a bit of a run in with a big bad wolf, hmm? Well, there's no problem in that! We'll get you patched up good as we can and you'll be home before you know it." she said, genuinely honest. "First thing, lets get that... thing off your wrist. I say, what are those?" she asked in amused confusion as she gestured to the little tan strips stuck to Remus' skin.
"Abe called them band aids...He put some sticky stuff on my cuts and then put those over them." Remus replied in an unnervingly composed voice.
Healer Denise looked up at him with a quirked eyebrow and merely nodded, then sat down on the bed, opposite to him. She deftly took out her wand and as she removed the little band aids from his skin, and used simple spells to heal up the scratches, not even leaving scars. She then gently removed the wrapping around his wrist, and Remus couldn't stop from flinching. That was his wrist mangled up like that... The thought made him shiver a little.
"'S alright hun," Healer Denise said, rubbing his shoulder encouragingly. "looks mighty bad doesn't it? I know, but no worries mate, we'll have it looking like new right soon." she said, giving him a warm, small smile.
Remus startled himself by smiling back "'Kay..."
"That's a mate! Now, lets go over here," she said, helping him off the bed and to the wash basin, where she rinsed the salve off the cuts, ("What odd ways Muggles have of healing... Honestly!") and then laid his hand and wrist on the counter top.
"Now, this is going to hurt a bit, I won't lie. You want to hold someone's hand to get your mind off it?" she asked, and gave Remus an understanding look.
Remus straightened his little back and set his jaw, shaking his head a little. He wanted to do this on his own. Healer Denise shot a look at Clara and Xavier, as if showing them she tried. She always gave children a choice, let them make their decisions.
"Okay, now, on the count of three, I'm going to say a spell and that's going to make your wrist straight. The next will wrap it up, keep it in place for the night to be sure it heals nice and neat. Okay?" she told him, explaining what was going to happen. She found that the more the child knew in this instance, the less frightening it would be for them. When Remus gave her a nod of understanding, she said the spell.
"One... two... three... Romparase!" she said quickly, making it as painless as she could, then, "Ferula." and bandages wrapped around the newly set wrist.
The sharp splitting pain shot through Remus' arm to his spine, making him go rigid but he didn't cry out. Once it was done, he opened his eyes (which he had shut tightly unconsciously), and gave a shuddering sigh as he looked up at Healer Denise.
"There now, fell a little better?" she asked softly, crouching down to be his eye level, hazel eyes concerned.
Remus swallowed and nodded. Remarkably, the dull throb in his wrist was gone, only a sharp sting here and there even reminded him it was reset. He smiled up at the Healer in thanks.
"That's a way to be, come on," she said, smiling broadly at him, ruffling his hair and leading him back to sit next to his mother on the bed.
"Now that that trivial little matter is out of the way," she gave Remus a good-natured wink, who grinned. "we can get to what is serious." she said, becoming a bit more sober.
"Do you think we should discuss this... now?" Clara asked the Healer, meaning with Remus in the room.
Healer Denise nodded. "Of course, don't put off something for later when now will suffice. We are going to do one test, to be certain he was indeed bitten by a werewolf, and not a large alpha male wolf-" she started but was interrupted by Xavier.
"I know what I saw Healer!" he said, a bit indignantly, but not without some respect for the woman.
Healer Denise raised a brow at him but nodded. "I believe you, but unfortunately it is Ward Policy to be absolutely certain before making any actions. I am sorry, I wouldn't do this unless I have to. We are going to test the effects of silver against his skin, as soon as it shows sign of burn, I will remove it. Believe me, I'm not wanting to do this to Remus anymore then he wants to go through with it. I'll be as easy as I can with it, but, like I said, it has to be done." she said regretfully.
Remus shifted nervously at the mention of "burn" and "silver" in the same sentence.
"As soon as that test is finished, he will be kept here until he is fully healed, and if we could ask you, if he does test positive, we would like to test our findings of a possible cure on him. Of course," she added hastily, noting the spark of fire in Clara's eye. "it will be yours' and Remus' final call."
Clara promptly took up the silence as a chance to strike. "You're asking me to submit my son to testing for a cure? like some human Guinea Pig?!" she hissed, arm tightening around Remus' shoulder.
"Clara-" Xavier began, trying to calm his wife, who, though passive in nature, couldn't control her irritation and anger as well as he.
"Wait! I want to know this. Tell me, what are the chances of these tests," she spat the word as if it were some filthy creature's name. "will be turn out effective, or positive, or whatever it is you want to call it?" she asked the Healer, eyes flashing Challenge.
The Healer shifted her gaze a bit, and gnawed on her lower lip a little before answering. "No one is sure how they will effect him, nor how they will turn out. I hate to say this, but we have had no cases of lycanthropcy to test these on. I was only asking, you don't have to consent..."
The parents were silent a moment, and Remus shifted uneasily under his mother's tight hold around his shoulders.
"Is there a chance it might help him? The testing?" Xavier asked finally, ignoring his wife's dagger like stare.
"There's always a chance.. and we've been improving it over the years... " she said, letting it hang.
The conversing between the three of them (which Remus kept thoughtfully silent throughout) continued for an hour more. In the end, Xavier talked his wife into letting them run two different tests on Remus should he prove positive (which they were already sure he would). They settled on the longest they would allow him to be there was a month, shortest two weeks. Remus wasn't sure what exactly to make of the whole situation, but only knew he wasn't going to enjoy the testing.
After his parents unnerved goodbye, Remus found himself having to come to think of the sterile bed in the foreboding Ward room as his home for the remainder of time he was there. And he was right about one thing: he didn't enjoy any of the testing in any way shape or form.
The silver test was simple, but painful enough, Healer Denise had indeed removed the small rod of silver from slightly above his skin as soon as the skin showed signs of irritation and Remus complained of a burning feeling. The light burn did not scar, but some of the other tests did leave scars.
Some of the tests weren't painful at all, the test which included the testing of a weak form of what was to be known as Wolfsbane potion proved to be one of those, but some of them were just unbelievable. Remus somehow forced those from his memory before the time he went home, but the lasting memories were to be what followed soon after, in after effects of what had happened at St. Mungo's.
Author's Note: Meheh, and for those of you pondering about the last line, it probably doesn't mean what you think ;) And I for one am proud of myself for using a Spanish verb "to break oneself" (I do believe that's what it is, correct me if I'm wrong, Spanish II ended in may and I gladly forgot most of it ;] ) romparse, as the spell that was used to knit Remus' broken wrist bone back together. XD I never fail to amuse myself. ;) Hope ye enjoyed. ^_^
