Posted 8-May-2022

Disclaimer: I don't own HP. None of the characters are mine save for Jas. The Healers mentioned were all students at Hogwarts in the 90s.

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Chapter Six

St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Illnesses

St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Illnesses, London, England

6th July 2015

Four days after the surprisingly enjoyable dinner with the cheerful and funny Potter family, Dudley and his daughter found themselves looking dubiously at the red-bricked department store "Purge and Dowse, Ltd." It had two bare mannequins in the display window and a large, condemned sign stamped on it. According to what Lea had told Dudley in the letter she'd sent about Jas' Mind Healing appointment, it was the entrance to the magical hospital. Despite knowing that it was a magical façade hiding the true building, Dudley's instincts still struggled to believe they weren't in the wrong place.

"Are you sure this is the right place, Daddy?" Jas asked softly, clutching nervously at her father's hand.

"It's the right address," Dudley promised, hiding his own scepticism for her sake. "Auntie Lea explained it to me in her letter. This is it, it's just hidden. Don't worry, Auntie Lea will be out soon to show us in."

They had decided over dinner the other day that the best thing to do was to have the kids address the adults as 'Aunt' and 'Uncle', rather than 'Mr.' and 'Mrs.'. "Too formal," George had grimaced dramatically, making a face to make the kids giggle. Made him sound old. On being assured that he was old by his twin sons, he had feigned horror and weeping, making even Jas laugh at his dramatics.

As if he had summoned her with his thoughts, the window, to the Dursleys' shock, rippled, and Lea stepped out. Her hair was tied in a slightly messy bun and her lime-green (of all the colours! Were Wixen colour-blind or something?) robes were slightly askew. Dudley couldn't help but notice the bone and wand symbol emblazoned across her chest.

"Oh, you're here already," Lea said breathlessly. "I'm so sorry, I got caught up with a patient. I hope you haven't been waiting too long?"

"No, we just arrived," Dudley assured his cousin. "Everything alright?"

"Fine, just busy," Lea replied, adjusting her robes. "As always. We really need more hospitals. This is the only magical hospital in Great Britain, and we have less than fifty fully-qualified Healers, so everyone's always run off their feet." She shook her head, waving absently. "But you don't need to hear my rant. We have an appointment to get to. Now, Dudley, keep hold of Jas' hand so the wards don't stop you getting inside, and just step through. I'll go first to prove it's safe." With that, she stepped back inside.

The father-daughter duo exchanged looks, squared their shoulders in unison, and stepped inside. Within they discovered a large reception area, filled with moaning patients in rows of rickety chairs and bustling doc- that is, Healers wearing the same robes as Lea going from person to person and examining them, waving wands over their heads and scribbling notes on their clipboards. (Or in some cases, watching as quills scribbled away on their own, copying the Healer's verbal notes.)

"Ho, boy," Dudley whistled softly, taking in the sights with wide eyes. Some of the patients looked perfectly normal save for the strange, mostly brightly coloured, clothes, reading copies of magazines titled things like 'Witch Weekly' or the 'Quibbler', but one woman let out a jet of fire when she coughed while another was vomiting slugs into a bucket. A man was groaning in pain, a bloodstained bandage wrapped around the stump where the remainder of his left arm was, and the woman beside him held the rest of the hand, showing it to a frowning Healer. Another man had a duck bill instead of lips and was quaking when he tried to speak and a little girl was coughing out different coloured bubbles.

Dudley was so overwhelmed by it all, it was almost a relief when Jas shrunk closer to him. She looked alarmingly pale when he glanced down at her, and her wide blue eyes were enough of a signal for him to pull himself together to wrap an arm around her slim shoulders and rub her arm comfortingly (as well as turn her gaze away from the bloody man missing a hand).

Lea gave them a sympathetic smile. "I was quite overwhelmed the first time I came here too, and I had known about magic for five years by then," she informed them. "Even after all these years, it's still shocking to see the things silly wixen do to themselves when they decide to make up their own spells or don't enunciate properly."

"Is he going to lose his hand?" Jas asked shakily, gaze still fixed on the bloody man despite her father's efforts to make her look away. Lea gave a smile of assurance, shaking her head.

"No, don't worry, but you're very sweet to worry about him," she said as she guided them through the crowded reception. "Splinching is very easy to fix. He won't even need to stay the night once he's had a Blood Replenishing potion."

Dudley felt his eyes widen. "You can really do that?" He asked in amazement. Lea smiled again, nodding as they passed by the reception desk where an irritated looking woman had her hands full of a line of impatiently waiting people twelve rows deep. Dudley couldn't help noticing the wall behind her. It was covered in notices and colourful but peeling posters saying things like: A CLEAN CAULDRON KEEPS POTIONS FROM BECOMING POISONS and ANTIDOTES ARE ANTI-DON'TS UNLESS APPROVED BY A QUALIFIED HEALER. There was also a large portrait of a witch with long silver ringlets which was labelled:

Dilys Derwent

(b. 1700, d. 1768)

St Mungo's Healer 1722-1741

Headmistress of Hogwarts School
of Witchcraft and Wizardry 1741-1768

Beside the door was a floor guide that Dudley scanned quickly as they passed by the line into the corridor behind it.

ARTEFACT ACCIDENTS: Ground floor

Cauldron explosion, wand backfiring, broom crashes, etc.

CREATURE-INDUCED INJURIES: First floor

Bites, stings, burns, embedded spines, etc.

MAGICAL BUGS: Second floor

Contagious maladies, e.g. dragon pox, vanishing sickness, etc.

POTION AND PLANT POISONING: Third floor

Rashes, regurgitation, uncontrollable vomiting, etc.

SPELL DAMAGE: Fourth floor

Unliftable jinxes, hexes, incorrectly applied charms, etc.

CHILDREN'S WARD: Fifth floor

Accidental magic, long term illnesses, etc.

CLINIC: Sixth floor

Check ins for long- or short-term illnesses

MIND HEALING: Seventh floor

Mental/Emotional trauma, Dementor exposure, etc.

VISITORS' TEAROOM / HOSPITAL SHOP: Eighth floor

IF YOU ARE UNSURE WHERE TO GO, INCAPABLE OF NORMAL SPEECH OR UNABLE TO REMEMBER WHY YOU ARE HERE, OUR WELCOME WITCH WILL BE PLEASED TO HELP.

"Magic is capable of wonderous things," Lea responded simply, glancing briefly at Jas, who stayed silent, clutching her father's hand tightly.

"Right," Lea went on as they reached a large marble staircase and began to climb it. "We're going to the seventh floor. Your Healer's name is Sally-Anne Entwhistle and she's lovely. Was in the same year as me back at school and is one of the pioneers of Mind Healing in Britain. You couldn't ask for a nicer Healer. She's also a Muggleborn, so she understands the shock of learning about magic and will be able to understand you better than a magical-raised Healer."

Jas nodded silently, her insecurity about the whole thing shining from her little face. Dudley felt a pang and yet again cursed himself for not stepping in to put an end to his parents' viciousness earlier.

"I'll have to go and see to some patients while you're at your appointment, and she may want Dudley to go off after a while to let the two of you chat alone. You can stay in the waiting room or else go upstairs to the canteen," she went on. Dudley thought he noticed her huffing a little and wincing as they trudged upstairs, but didn't want to say anything with Jas there.

"So, uh, what's your speciality?" he asked instead as they climbed. "I noticed that ah-there's different reasons for wixen to go to the hospital than a reg- a muggle."

Lea smiled at him, looking amused. "There really are," she agreed. "I'm a Spell Damage expert, and I also take two days a week for research. I'm searching for a cure for lycanthropy."

"What's that?" Jas asked tentatively, not looking certain that she wanted to know.

"A lycanthrope is a werewolf," Lea replied calmly. "But I promise you, they're not the feral monsters you read about in scary stories. They're regular people like us, but it just so happens that they have a very painful illness that affects them once a month. And even then, they're required by law to drink a potion called the Wolfsbane Potion before the full moon. It allows them to keep their minds when they're transformed."

"Oh," Jas said faintly, her grip on Dudley's hand tightening.

"Here we are," Lea declared. "Seventh floor, the Sirius Black Ward for Mind Healing." Just beneath the plaque there was a handwritten sign saying 'Healer-in-Charge: Sally-Anne Entwhistle. Trainee Healer: Rose Zeller'. Dudley couldn't deny it was a relief to see that his daughter would be attending sessions with the leading Mind Healer. His father was wrong about a lot of things, but he was right when he said that it paid to know the right people.

"Sirius Black?" Dudley echoed. "Isn't that your godfather's name?" Lea's smile turned down at the corners into a brief look of sorrow before she put on a cheerful look again.

"It was," she confirmed. "Mind Healing is quite new in the Magical World. This ward is only thirteen years old. They had to choose a name for it and so they chose to honour a fallen war hero who had his own struggles with mental health and was a huge supporter of helping those with mental illnesses."

"Oh," Dudley replied, at a loss as to what else he could say. 'I'm sorry for your loss' always seemed more annoying than helpful to him.

"Anyway, in we go," Lea said cheerfully, guiding them into the ward. They passed three closed doors, each labelled with a Healer's name. Sally-Anne Entwhistle had the first office, then there was one for somebody named Grace Nutley-Bagby and Michael Karume. Several cosy-looking armchairs surrounded a large coffee table with a pile of magazines and newspapers on it. Just after the waiting area was a reception desk with a young woman in blue robes was scribbling away at something while sitting at it, and just past that were five rooms with numbers on them, presumably for inpatients.

"Hello, Rose," Lea greeted the younger woman, who nearly jumped out of her skin and flushed in embarrassment when she looked up.

"Healer Potter!" She squealed. "I uh-I was just-"

"Doing a crossword?" Lea said mildly with a raised eyebrow. Rose's flush deepened and she glanced down sheepishly. Lea smiled kindly and leaned forward to pat her shoulder. "Don't worry dear, we've all done it," she told her gently. "Just try and save it for your break, huh? Exams are coming up soon. If you've a spare moment, it needs to be spent studying. Believe me, those exams are no joke. They're as bad as NEWTs, and I speak from experience."

"Yes ma'am," Rose nodded hastily. "So, what can I do for you? You aren't booked in for an appointment today." She glanced down at a book open beside her with a list of names and times scrawled in it.

"No, not me," Lea confirmed. "I'm dropping off my cousin's daughter, Jasmine Dursley, for her first appointment with Sally."

"Oh!" Rose exclaimed, seeming to spy the two Dursleys for the first time. "Yes, here we are. Jasmine Dursley, age 11, appointment time of 13.46. Yes, right. If you take a seat there in the waiting area, Healer Entwhistle'll be done soon. She's just with a patient."

"Okay, thanks," Dudley said with an awkward smile, before guiding his little girl to the chairs. Lea followed them, but didn't sit.

"I've got to run," she told them apologetically. "But I'll come back and collect you afterwards. Dudley, I'd recommend going for a tea at the café. It's at the top floor."

"Will do, thanks," Dudley nodded. She nodded back, gave one last encouraging smile to Jas, then hurried off, her dark braid slapping gently against her back.

A few minutes later a plump, mousey-haired woman Dudley's age came out of one of the back rooms and came over to them. "Jasmine Dursley? I'm Sally-Anne, your Mind Healer. Shall we go into my office?"

"C-can Daddy come too?" Jas stammered as the father-daughter duo stood.

Sally-Anne gave her a kind smile and nodded. "Of course dear. Whatever makes you feel most comfortable."