:Specimen 4.:
Created: 5th July 2005 Disclaimer:
I don't own the character Remus Lupin, he belongs to Ms JK Rowling. Don't contact me saying I spelt "colour" or something with a u in. I'm British I use British spellings. Had this brainwave whilst doing an RP and re-reading an old book on lycanthropcy and thought I will make up my own little medical views – These are mine I copyright them as my intellectual property so will be upset if someone steals without permission! p
By Werewolfgirl.
Specimen 4
"Oh thank you so very much Madam Pomfrey for taking this weekend off to come with us." Mrs Lupin said again for the tenth time today; the Hogwarts School matron mumbled again a note of acceptance and saying to call her Poppy again for the tenth time. It was nice for her to take the weekend off during term time to come to St Mungo's with me and my parents. Then again this whole hospital visit was arranged by her.
Two days ago was the full moon of course I ripped myself to shreds as per usual but this visit was not because of those injuries; nope Madam Pomfrey did another good job of patching me up once more apart from one nasty cut on my hip. Poppy said to give it a couple of days and it will heal up and became another scar that adorns my skinny body. Madam Pomfrey and my parents arranged to meet a medical colleague of hers, a Professor Pedvile. He and another healer Democles Belby; want to rewrite the medical books chapter on Lycanthropy because they are outdated and not well written, they want to help find a cure for the curse or provide better medical care for those who suffer from the affliction. In my view they are just looking to receive a First Order of Merlin in creating a miracle if they want to create the ultimate cure. I am pessimistic I gave up long ago on a cure though my parents are still remain hopeful that something will come up in their lifetime.
I stood back looking about at the muggle street where the four of us stood, looking into a window of a dusty old department store. I was surprised that no muggle building site workers had come to try and knock this place down to put in some commercial fashion shop that was in every muggle town and city. "Mr and Mrs Lupin with their son Remus Lupin and Madam Pomfrey to see Professor Pedvile."
My father spoke in a quiet but clear voice to one of the horrid looking manikins in the display window. It gave the slight nod with its head that it's red wig quivered ominously upon it's askew perch, the model's index finger made a point to the space behind it. My mum and dad with their arms linked in a couple way stepped into the shop window and vanished from view, feeling a nudge on my shoulder I stepped towards the pane of glass along side the school matron and into the entrance of St Mungo's Hospital.
I don't know what it is about hospitals but they always make you feel sick, even if you where healthy. It was the overwhelming power of disinfectant cleaning products – the smell of over cleanliness. Over half of the chairs within the hospital's waiting room where filled with witches and warlocks, sporting some odd disfigurements. One witch had gone sea green and had horns another sitting beside her had a long flicking tail that looked like a tabby cat's. Another nudge reminded me it was rude to stare and carried on walking towards the reception desk, the witch that sat behind the desk looked quite young with auburn hair done up in two pigtails the tips of which just touched her green covered shoulders. Though the sign above her head read she would be pleased to help, she certainly didn't look like it. A bored look and a frown of annoyance seemed to be engraved into her face giving the impression she would much rather be doing something else. "We are here to see Professor Pedvile?"
"The Lupins?" The healer said lazily as my father nodded to her first question she tapped a wooden box which I could not see the front of but presumed it was some sort of button. "Yeah, First Floor sixth door left and can you wait in room 4 – erm only two of you can go down though". Said the receptionist looking up at us closely with chestnut eyes that looked swollen drew to the pinkish red eye shadow she was wearing. This stare made me feel nervous, as did all stares; it was the look given to me when people knew what I really was a monster hidden behind human skin.
"Maybe you should go with Madam Pomfrey dear. She does know this Professor Pedvile." My mother said kindly brushing a few wisps of her greying light brown hair as she leant forward to kiss my cheek before looking at Madam Pomfrey with pure trust. Well they certainly trust her a lot as she looked after their only child when I was away at school. "We will wait here for you." My father said patting me reassuringly on the shoulder before taking my mother's arm once more, his grey blue eyes shining at me from behind gold rimmed spectacles.
"Come on then Lupin." The Matron said in her usual no-nuisance voice as she lead the way towards the flight of stairs that lead to where the place I was meant to be. I turned to give a small wave to my partners as I followed rounding the steps until they where away from view. I began to grow more nervous as I now left the safety of my parent's sides and was heading towards the room where I will meet Professor Pedvile. All it was going to be was a routine medical inspection or so I had been told, I don't know what there was to worry about. Other than having to sit nude in front of a doctor was embarrassing enough and still completely beyond me why you need to be naked to be weighed and have your blood pressure taken then cough. Maybe back to the whole cleanliness idea, though walking now the smell of disinfectant was being drowned out by a strong smell of burning wood coming from one of the doors we passed. This was very odd, as through the viewing window in the door there was no sign of a fire or even black smoke.
Along the first floor corridor was easy enough, the smell of burning wood lingered around in the hallway. Moans and wails of pain came from further along as we neared the sixth door; I could feel the little sensations in the pit of my stomach as though a swarm of butterflies had been trapped inside my body. Madam Pomfrey's pace seemed to had quicken as the door we where asked to go through came into sight, extending her right hand she pushed the door opened with ease and entered. I had to make a quick jog to follow her before the door swung shut back into place.
Again the over powering smell of disinfectant and a small corridor of doors each with a number painted in black on the front, the matron was already ahead and opened the door of number four and was waiting for me to join her. Each step I took seemed very heavy as I hesitatingly came to the doorframe and peered into the room to meet this doctor within the room.
There was no one in the room in fact there was hardly anything in the room. The walls where medically painted white – plain and boring, with a navy blue examining table in the middle of the room., a white towel was folded up at the foot of the table. Madam Pomfrey had lent over a small wooden stool picking up a piece of paper that had been left on it and was reading it thoroughly. "Hmm says here you are to undress and wait for Professor Pedvile. I'll let you have some privacy then Lupin. I'll go tell your parents that you are being examined."
She said in her usual stern way of a commanding officer in the army, placing the piece of paper on the stool once more. She marched out of the room closing the door behind her. She is a very efficient lady, no beating about the bush with her straight to the point. I would not argue with her maybe that was why she was chosen to be a secondary school nurse, can command the unruly adolescents. So I set to my task taking off each garment of my muggle clothes, folding them up and placing them neatly in a small pile; socks inside shoes under the table. Trousers and pants under my folded shirt and jumper. A neat pile to give a good impression seeing as the smartness of my dress was not going to do it. Picking up the white towel, it's fluffy loop fibres tickling at my skin as I carefully wrapped it around my waist; being careful not to touch the bandage that was covering the cut on my hip, making sure there was a secure knot. I might have to be naked to have this examination but there is no way that I am intending to stand there as bold as brass in my birthday suit.
I gave a small tugged on the edge of the towel checking the security of the knot I had created that the sudden opening of the door made me jump in fright and clutch the secure towel tightly as though it was about to fall off any second. The door had opened with a bang and in walked three people all wearing the hospitals green robes, the wand and bone emblem displayed boldly on their chests just visible behind two of the younger looking people's clip boards. Though it was the man in front of the two who I ended up looking at the most as one of the clipboard people closed the door behind them. This must have been Professor Pedvile though he looked nothing like I thought he would be. He was a tall man, his legs seemed to be out of proportion with his body though this might have been highlighted more by his green and pale violet vertically stripped trousers that could been seen from under his robes which where only buttoned to his waist. He was long in the face framed with curling blonde hair that covered the tops of his ears, wide shining sky blue eyes looked at me as he beamed a smile that seemed more suited for a person who was mentally unstable.
"Ah Master R.J Lupin I presume?" The Professor said in an unnecessarily loud voice and extended a light violet gloved hand towards me. Speechless by his manner I took his hand; still keeping a tight hold of the towel with the other, shook his extended hand though was only able to respond by nodding my head. He was indeed not I was expecting, I was expecting some plain looking man instead had this some what eccentric healer in front of me. I wished I asked my dad to have come and stayed with me now as this Professor's blue eyes where beginning to scare me.
"Ah excellent…a pleasure to meet you. I am Professor Vivien S.Pedvile; I hope you don't mind to have my assistants in here with us?" He said in a sickly sweet voice as he cast a gloved hand towards the other two in the room with us, both of the women where watching the Professor with their quills poised for action. I was about to say hello but jumped as two hands grabbed my shoulders, as the Professor suddenly stood behind me and was talking to the two women.
"Here is Specimen 4 of our investigation, pre-teen male – say preteen as he is under the age of thirteen. As you can see he has lots of scars caused from what I am told are self-inflicted injuries from when in his werewolf state. You can see these are very long scratches and no doubt where quite deep". I suddenly became aware from watching the assistants quills racing across their clipboards as they wrote what Professor Pedvile was saying. That one the professor had removed one of his hands from my shoulders and a velvet-gloved fingertip was tracing along a scar that ran along my collarbone and down to my chest. This touch and feeling the Professor's breath on the back of my neck began to make me feel very uneasy, as he was to close for my personal comfort. Professor Peville did not seem to notice my discomfort and instead carried on talking to his assitdents. "These are self inflicted as his transformations take place under different circumstances than those who are lose or within an institution. Remus here I had indeed been looking forward to seeing, indeed such a beautiful boy!"
Professor Peville's grip left my shoulder and sprang in front of me as though his long legs where springs, bending his knees he stared at me closely his face barely five inches away from my own.
"You see Remus this investigation has been looking at many people like you from all walks of life. From volunteers like you, to those committed into a safe house institution or the underground rebels caught by the Ministry of Magic, ah if only one day they will catch that Fenrir Greyback what a specimen he would be to study." A dreamy faraway look came to the Professor's blue eyes as he spoke, to me it sounded very much like a sort of chocolate frog card collection and he was hoping to get a very rare one to add to his list. I had not heard of this Greyback person, in fact I had not known of many other werewolves in person than outside of books. I would have to remember the name and ask my parents if they knew who this fellow was.
With a shake of his head the Professor seemed to come back once again from his dream world and with a bounce turned and stood to face his assitdents once more talking to them as those I was not there. "Now I sneaked a peek at Lupin's medical records of course and hopefully you will remember your notes from our last two specimens. That those affected by lycanthropcy from a young age are found to start puberty before their peers, mainly affecting the hormones and reproductive areas. There is a quick rush of growth then it slows down and they grow like an average adolescent, but these changes are not noticeable throughout unless the effected is not wearing any clothes."
I suddenly got a very bad feeling about this, I clutched tighter with my one hand on my towel as Peville's eyes turned on me. There was something very disconcerting about this man's stare and over friendly smile. I looked to the assistants hoping they would have noticed how uncomfortable I was beginning to feel, but they just looked on lazily as though they could not recognise emotions. I looked back at the Professor's staring eyes, shining pearly white teeth in his crazed smile; he now appeared to be some sort of crazed clown decked in green and pale violet. "May you remove your towel please Remus"
"Err n-no thank you Professor, I would prefer to keep it on." I said quickly clutching so tightly to the towel my knuckles where beginning to ache. Though as soon as I said this the smile dropped from Professor Pedville's face as though I just insulted him, though soon the smile came to his lips as quickly as it had gone.
"Oh what a bad puppy you are being, now remove your towel please" Pedville chuckled as though I was joking with him but had be called me Puppy? I was startled partly outraged to be called such a thing.
"I said no thank you." I repeated hearing my own voice with a sting of determination and angry in them.
Professor Peville's smile was now totally erased from his facial features and was replaced with a deep scowl and both of the assitdents looked shocked at my refusal to remove the only thing that was keeping me from being totally exposed. A moment of silence lapsed between all four of us, all their eyes where on me as though I was something they had not seen before. "How dare you disobey an order you filthy little half-bred mutant! Now remove that towel!"
Peville shouted suddenly pointing a violet velvet clad finger at me like I was a dog failing to obey to sit. His whole persona of a lively friendly man had changed, instead he had a face of thunder and his tall body loomed over me like a giant ready to pound me flat into the ground. He Professor took an advancing step towards me with his lanky stripped legs; I was suddenly reminded of the villains of Victorian cautionary tales the long legged Tailor from Suck-a-Thumb and the wicked and also long legged Mr Meraca who loved to eat little boys.
I was threaten by his size but I had to stand my ground, here he was daring to insult me to my face showing me his true colours. He didn't like me; he was putting on an act like most people. He thought I was as dirty as most people a half bred that did not deserve to breath the same air of speak on the same level of a wizard. This is not the sort of behaviour I would have expected someone who wanted to find a cure for werewolves. In fact it sounded as though he wanted to just step over werewolves to win something for his own means and not to help. I am not going to stand here and listen to this in fact I want to go home right now.
"I want to leave now; can you call my parents or Madam Pomfrey?" I asked as polity as I could to one of the stony face assistants. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a flash of something pale violent coming straight at my face, my reactions at once made me lean backwards as Peville's hand just skimmed pass my nose. "Don't you order my staff about you foul mutt! Now do as I say!"
Once again the pale violet gloved hand came to grab at me but missed as I stumbled backwards; one of the assistants had put their clipboard down and made a jog to catch me within her arms. This was bad they where threating me like an animal cornering me into submission. I was terrified, I was angry; I wanted to get away from these people as fast as I could back the safe arms of my parents. I backed away from the out stretched hands the corner of the examining table jabbed into my lower back stopping me from retreating. I was stuck there was no where to run other than having to suffer embarrassment by having my towel taken away from me and do what ever else they wanted for this investigation. I did not want to be a part of this anymore they had already information on me they can use someone else now to complete my age group. The female assistant was getting closer to me and to my horror so was Professor Pedville who now had his wand out at his side. Something deep inside of my brain hissed bite them, scratch them, fight them before I could full register what my brain had told me I was already acting upon it. I pushed the assitdent out of my way as I jumped away from Professor Pedville, the surprise in my won strength as I completely knocked this woman to the ground jumping over her. The other assistant dropped her clipboard and jumped in my path her arm passed in front of me to grab me around the shoulders. I pushed at her, grabbing her forearm and made a bite at the air just above the skin.
The assistant let out a scream in alarm and drew away from me at once, grabbing her arm to look if there was any mark on that I had bitten her. I had not but it caused enough of a distraction and space I was able to reach for the door handle, pulling it open a jar. I heard a shout and something flashed just passing my ear hitting the door.
Now I was trying to be hexed and all the while the same voice from my brain seemed to be hiss and growling for me to run away as quickly as possible. The whole escape scene from the examination room was becoming a blur quite literally. After the first hex I yanked the door open and ran into the small corridor, another two flashes of missed hexes shot past me as I made it out of the set of double doors into the main corridor of the first floor. "Stop that patient! …. Stop that boy!"
Shouts and cries echoed behind me from Professor Pedville and his two assitdents as I dashed past a healer who had jumped out of one of the wards to stop me. Though once again I had some how managed to push him aside with a easy swipe of my hand, I had no time to stop and apologise. Quickly down the flight of steps and around the corner, where my eyes fell upon the sight of the bright white waiting room. All eyes where on the flight of steps I had just come down from as Professor Pedville, his two assitdents and another two healer they had picked up on the way came following behind me shouting and screaming disturbing the peace of the waiting room.
Three people rose at once from their seats, the welcoming sight of my parents and Madam Pomfrey looking startled by all the commotion I slowed my pace paltry to run straight into the arms of my mother. Grabbing her as tightly as I could, baring my face into her fluffy collar of her coat as though I could bury myself and hide within it. One impulse I felt an equally tight protective hug come over me. "Remus where are you clothes?"
"What is going on here?" I heard both my parents angrily shout at once as the patting of the Healer's running feet stopped. I could hear rapid breathing coming from them where as I did not feel out of breathe at all which was very unusual seeing as how fast I must have been running to her here I was not even tired. Though my skin prickled as I felt a chill indeed I was still only wearing the towel, now blessing the fact the knot I had tired was much more secure than I was giving myself credit for.
"He became alittle misunderstood by a trivial comment Mr and Mrs Lupin, you have such a sensitive son. I apologise Remus now would you please come back to your room" I heard Mr Pedville say in a loud sugar coated voice as everyone in the waiting room had gone silent to listen. I turned my head away from my mother's to see he was smiling pleasantly at them. What a creep. "You coming Remus, you'll catch a cold out here"
"I am not going anywhere with you! You are mad I only came for a check up and you made me strip and then you tried to hex. Do all healers' here try and jinx their patients!" The words tumbled out of my mouth so fast I was unsure how my brain came up with it so fast, though the response was good. I heard gasps go around the waiting room from other people waiting to be seen and from my parents and soon whispers like the sound of flowing water filled the room. I had my say and it sounded more convincing than the Professor's. Pedville's jaw had dropped slightly and was staring at me like a goldfish without water, as the two other healers where looking at him angrily. "I'll go and get Master Lupin's clothes"
Madam Pomfrey spoke looking at Pedville with the look of up most disgust as she bristled past him towards the flight of stairs I had just come away from. "I think we are finished here we shall be going home right now, we will expect our son's clothes to be delivered."
I heard my father suddenly say as I felt the drop of his coat over my thin shoulders and a firm hand grasp my shoulder along with the protective hug of my mother I felt myself being directed to leave the building. I could hear angry mutterings coming from my mother about reporting the Professor to the Ministry and the standards of hospital staff now. I was certainly lucky to have such loving parents when some children like me would have been given up straight away. Lucky that so many people had heard me within the waiting room and where no doubt thinking to write letters to the Ministry to complain about what they heard on their visit to the hospital. I may have just brought down the career of Professor Pedville and a delay on a cure for werewolves. But at least I had stopped any other's like me getting mistreated as specimens to Pedville and hopefully his partner Demeolces Belby who I had not met would be able to find a cure without his medical partner.