The Girl Who Lived Chapter Sixteen: St. Mungo's

Daisy's mind was a foggy white haze. Now and then, she could hear soft snippets of a conversation, but she had no comprehension of what they meant.
"She doesn't have a lot of time, Albus. The poison is setting in."
"Is there nothing we can do, Poppy?"
"What she needs is a bezoar, but we couldn't get our hands on one unless we took her to St. Mungo's. That would take days to set up."
"There is another option. We could petrify her, and then Portkey her to St. Mungo's."
"Of course. She couldn't die if she was petrified."
"The mandrakes should be able to travel with her. Professor Sprout says they will be ready any day."
"But how would we petrify her?"
"I know the spell."
"Do it now. She looks even worse than a minute ago. I'll send an owl for a Portkey."
"Yes."
"Should I send it to the Ministry or the Order?"
"The Ministry. Their Portkeys are more reliable, for now."
"Do it now, Albus. Hurry."
"Petrifico!"

Daisy's eyes fluttered open to a room full of light. Her vision was fuzzy, as her contacts were gone. She was lying in a soft, comfortable bed, but she could tell already that it wasn't hers. She wondered where she was and snuggled into the pink striped bedding. She had no desire to get out quite yet.
She was rather contented, but she did want to know what was going on. This place wasn't Hogwarts. She thought back to how she possibly could have gotten here.
Her memory was blurred. She could remember breakfast yesterday. The owl had given her detention. She couldn't remember the detention, but she was sure it didn't involve waking up in a comfortable bed. What she knew was, somehow, things were all right with Fred. He liked her, not Angelina.

She wearily sat up and looked around. Her glasses were on a bedside table beside her so she put them on. She was in a small room with windows along one wall. A single door stood in the center of the opposite wall. Daisy was slightly reminded of... a hospital room?
She scooted up a bit more, and was about to get out of the bed, when the biggest house elf Daisy had ever seen burst through the door.
"Good morning, Miss Daisy. I is Jingly," she said. Daisy gazed at the chubby elf. She had been to the kitchens with Fred, but she had never seen a fat house elf. It was very strange.
"We're so glad you've finally woken up," Jingly continued. "I was thinking you never would. Here you are, eat this up."
Jingly shoved what looked to be a slab of chocolate into Daisy's hands. Daisy realized that she was famished. She eagerly took an enormous bite, but nearly spat it out.
"What is this?" Daisy exclaimed, her mouth full of the vile substance.
"Medicine refined with chocolate," Jingly said. "Now that you are up to it. A few days ago, you could barely drink a potion."
"What do you mean a few days ago?" Daisy asked, finally swallowing the pasty chocolate. "Where am I? How did I get here?" The reality of the situation was finally sinking in.
Jingly looked at her comfortingly. "This is St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. You got quite a bite off what appears to be a runespoor. Of course, no one is quite sure how that is possible."
Daisy was now thoroughly befuddled. She didn't even know what a runespoor was, much less remember being bitten by one. "What's going on? What day is it?"
"It's April the 19th."
Daisy thought back to her breakfast. That was the 5th. Was it possible that she had been out for two weeks?
"I don't understand. What is wrong with me? Why couldn't Madam Pomfrey have taken care of this?"
"You almost died. Runespoor is deadly poisonous. Dumbledore had to petrify you so that you could come here for treatment, a bezoar. We couldn't give you the potion to revive you until the mandrakes were ready.
Something hit Daisy. If she had been here all this time, then she had missed loads of class. "Jingly!" she exclaimed. "When can I go back to Hogwarts? Can I go now?"
Jingly laughed. "You aren't going anywhere for a few days. We need to arrange a Portkey and you need to recover."
"I'm fine, Jingly. I need to go back." But Daisy suddenly felt very tired. Apparently, she had been sleeping for some time, but at the moment, she felt like she'd just stayed up all night. She lay back gently.
"Miss," said Jingly, "is you alright?"
"Just a little tired," Daisy said groggily. Her eyelids began to feel heavy and then close.
"Rest then," Jingly said softly. She pulled the covers up to Daisy's chin and smoothed them over. "Sleep well."

Scritch, scratch. Srittttch, scratch. Daisy's eyes blinked open. The room was dark and something wasn't right. She remembered she was at the hospital.
Scritch, scratch. What is that? The nervous scratching was coming from below her. She donned her glasses, peered over the edge of her bed, and saw a small white-gray rat scratching at her bedside table. She looked at the table and saw an untouched sandwich. Her dinner, probably.
The rat continued to scratch at the post in hopes, Daisy assumed, of getting at the sandwich. She had once owned a pet rat, Rosie, and she knew that they have a keen sense of smell. She picked up the rat by the middle and set it on her lap. It stayed calm, which surprised Daisy. Rosie usually got jumpy around new people.
"What's your name little guy?" Daisy asked, scratching the fur behind his ear. He looked very old and a bit hungry. Daisy wasn't a bit hungry anymore so she broke off a piece of her sandwich and offered it to the rat.

He quickly took it in his paws and began to nibble at it.
"You're a hungry one aren't you?" Daisy said laughingly. The rat continued to gnaw away at the bread. Daisy noticed that one of its paws was gray, slivery even. She reached out to examine it, but it scurried away from her hand, abandoning the bread.
"Wait," pleaded Daisy. She felt lonely all at once. "Come back little rat, I won't hurt you." The rat froze near her feet, and turned around. He carefully treaded back to the area around her knee.
"You're smart, aren't you?" Daisy cooed. "What should I call you, then?" She hoped the rat would stay around. She felt extremely friendless, and though he was only a rat, it was something.
The rat scratched its ear with his hind leg. "You look like a Scratchy to me," Daisy said. "Well hello, Scratchy. My name is Daisy Peterson."
The rat went back to its bread, but its ears were perked up.
"Well, I suppose my name isn't really Daisy Peterson," Daisy said. She thought about what she was saying. There wasn't anyone else around. What harm would it be to tell a little rat? She always told Rosie her secrets.
"My real name is Daisy Potter," she whispered. "You know, Lily and James Potter were my parents. Sirius doesn't want me to tell anyone, though. He thinks Voldemort would somehow find out and come after me."
Scratchy was sitting motionless on Daisy's lap. It felt good to be truthful, even to just a rat, after she had lied all this time to Harry and Dumbledore and everyone.
"I didn't even know until last summer. That was when everything really started to happen. My adoptive muggle parents died and Sirius showed up at the funeral. Then I got my Hogwarts letter. It was late though, I'm a squib, but I guess someone at Hogwarts wanted me there, so I went. Then I met Harry and Sirius told me he was my brother. I've been lying about who I am ever since." Daisy slowed down. She hadn't realized how hard it had been, how hard it had felt to keep the truth until now.
Her throat tight, she looked down at Scratchy. His beady eyes gazed up at her.
She continued on, "But not to you Scratchy, you know who I am." The rat dashed away suddenly. Off her bed and through the door. "Darn!" Daisy said. She really wanted that rat to stay, though she didn't know why. She felt good about telling the truth, but suddenly she also felt a pang of guilt. Maybe she shouldn't have told it after all.

"Jingly?" Daisy said a few days later.
"Yes, Miss Daisy?" replied the motherly elf as she placed Daisy's lunch on her table.
"When can I go home?" Daisy asked for about the tenth time.
"Soon," Jingly assured for the tenth time. Daisy looked at her pleadingly for more specifics. She liked Jingly, but she was going mad in this place. She needed to get back to her lessons. She wasn't sure how she would catch up.
Jingly sighed heavily. "You know, Miss Daisy," she said. "I think I heard some talking and perhaps you'll be leaving as soon as tomorrow."
"Really?" Daisy asked hopefully. "Who did you hear it from?"
"The supervisor," Jingly said quietly. The supervisor, Mr. Higuard was a wizard who looked after all the elves at the hospital. Jingly told Daisy that St. Mungo's elves were considered some of the best treated house elves in Europe. All the elves loved Mr. Higuard, but they referred to him only as "the supervisor."
"Do people talk about the patients?" Daisy asked.
"Only the famous ones, like you," Jingly replied.
"Why am I famous?" Daisy asked.
"Because you're the first Hogwarts student we've treated for fifty years," Jingly told her.
"That can't be right," Daisy said slowly. "What about Lavender Brown? She came here only a few months ago."
"There's no one named Lavender Brown here," Jingly said. "Certainly not a Hogwarts student."
Daisy stared at her puzzled. Where was Lavender if she wasn't here?

Indeed, the time for Daisy to leave was the next day. Jingly helped her get ready and explained the basics of Portkey travel.
"I'll take you to the supervisor's office and there will be an old hat. You just need to touch it and then at the right time it will take you back to Hogwarts. It may feel a little uncomfortable, but it will all be over soon enough."
Daisy smiled at her caregiver. "Thank you for all this, Jingly. You took such good care of me."
"Oh, it was nothing. I'm just glad to see you've pulled through." Just then, something moved in the corner. It was a white ball of fur.
"Scratchy!" Daisy said, picking him up as Jingly shrieked. "What's wrong?" Daisy asked.
"Is that a rat?" Jingly asked.
"Yes," Daisy said, stroking its fur. "He's my friend, Scratchy."
"St. Mungo's has never had rats in its history," Jingly declared. Scratchy jumped from Daisy's grip into the pocket of her robes.
"Looks like he wants to come with me," Daisy said.
"One less rat," Jingly said, shrugging. "Well, come with me, your Portkey leaves in five minutes.
Daisy checked her watch. 8:15 PM, it said. Daisy realized that it was actually Hermione's watch. She had never returned it. She guiltily took it off and stuck it in her inner robe pocket next to her wand.
They journeyed through the halls towards Mr. Higuard's office, Scratchy sort of squirming all the way. Daisy had been out of her room a few times, so the strange art on the wall didn't surprise her as much. As always, the paintings moved around in their frames, but the subjects of these paintings were wildly abstract and colorful.
Daisy walked through Mr. Higuard's office and sure enough, on the desk sat an old baseball cap.
"Hello, Daisy," Mr. Higuard said. "I've just spoken to Dumbledore and he's expecting you in his office any minute now. Just a finger will do."
"Bye, Jingly. Bye Mr. Higuard." Daisy placed a finger in the center of the hat and felt Scratchy moving more than ever. She waited a few moments and then there was a sudden jerk at her belly button. The office was gone and colors swirled all around her. She felt as if she was about to be sick and then she dropped to the floor.
She got to her feet shakily, looked around, and realized there had been a terrible mistake. This was not Hogwarts. As she looked around the very dark room, she could tell, with a sudden burst of exhaustion that she was in Muggle London.