Amelia tidied up and left pretty quickly after the second memory, and she had a lot to think about too. As when this gets out it will be a political minefield, especially when they start losing the more impulsive members of the pureblood block because they try to prove it to be wrong and are totally unprepared for it. Though, losing someone like Umbridge wouldn't be that big a loss. She pulls herself out of her thoughts as she floos back to the office.
"Healer Tonks, does a pensive work in a travel trunk?"
Andromeda looks up at Harry in surprise "I don't actually know. I know the rune work is very sensitive, if you look closely here you can see why." She unwraps a section of the pensive so he can see.
"Can you see where this line seems to cross over the other one?" Harry nods.
"That's because the pensive is made up of three layers of moonstone that are fused together using a special process where the base is spun and then a magically liquefied blob of moonstone is carefully added to the centre and it spreads out into a thin layer. Once it sets it becomes part of the body and the next layer of runes is carved. Once it's finished a final layer is added and the control runes are carved, in the centre a runic circle is added that receives a memory. It is the final test to get a rune mastery, one that I've failed twice so far. When you've completed your pensive the examiner's come to you rather than the other way round. One thing they won't tell you until you start your mastery is that enlargement charms don't change the size of things evenly which is fine for single layer work, as the end result of the charm is even, but for multi-layer projects like this it will cause cracks between the layers. The same is true for magical glasses if they're made runically, the difference is in the level of consistency needed. So back to your question, I don't know because I don't know how the expansion charm would affect an item this big."
"Before you go, I'd like to know what I'd need to do in order to be one of your patients, as I am coming to realise that I have a lot more to deal with than I thought. I think that Harry should see a mind healer too, as he was in the same house as me even if I tried to protect him. I'll be writing to Dudley's school asking if they can arrange for a psychologist. Oh god, how am I going to afford Dudley's schooling without Vernon."
"You're already getting some money for me, maybe you could get some more to pay for all the years that I was a worthless burden on you."
"You were never that! I know what I used to say, but it's not true and never was. If we'd given you a chance, if I'd been able to keep you away from him you'd have photos on the wall, you'd be part of our family." Petunia fair growls out, causing Harry to cringe away from her tone of voice.
"I wasn't angry at you, I was angry at Vernon and myself, not you, never you."
"Mrs Dursley, I can take you on as a patient, though I'd have to talk to one of my colleagues who deals with children for Harry. As for your money problems, as you're family and magical you could talk to the Titles and Inheritance department at the ministry and enquire about taking up the Regency for house Potter. If you get it, it will be a lot of work and it may also come with enough resources that you don't need to worry about money for several years."
Still not entirely convinced that he's not going to be hit, Harry speaks up quietly "You could also order packaging for things like that pensive so that they have somewhere safe to store those items when they're not in use."
"That's a good idea Harry, and in a year or two, it might even be something I could do. But at the moment I can't spend long periods in the non-magical world as I can't control my magic reliably."
Harry visibly deflates.
Andromeda steps in "Harry, look at me. Your aunt didn't say that your idea was bad just that she couldn't do it now. It was a good idea, and she's going to need more of those in the future, but you're only young. That means that you're not aware of all of the issues that can come from certain things, or stop us from doing certain things. Sometimes that's a good thing as we worry about an imaginary problem that wouldn't actually come to pass. Other times the problems we see are all too real. I know that Binns is boring, and tends to try to associate everything with a Goblin rebellion, but you'll be covering the history of the statute of secrecy soon, and I'd like it if you wrote me a letter about why it was introduced at the time, and what you think has changed socially since then. Do you think you could do that for me?"
Harry looks up and nods.
"I think that we need to get the pensive put away and the others back in here before any of us say more things that accidently hurt the other." Andromeda holds up her hand to forestall Harry.
"Both you and your Aunt have been abused for years, you have ingrained lessons from that abuse that mean that certain things make you automatically do or feel certain things. This is a natural defensive reaction, and is why mind-healers like myself exist. I'm sure that if you think back you can see times when this happened."
"Do you mean like when Ron grabbed my arm and I just started to go along with what he wanted?"
"Exactly."
Harry looks down deep in thought while Andromeda finished packing up the pensive and didn't protest when she directed him to the chair by the desk. He was surprised and flinched badly when Hermione gave him a hug as a moment ago…
Hermione steps back looking a bit upset, "Are you OK?"
"Sorry, I was lost in thought and you startled me."
All too soon visiting time was over and Petunia handed Nixie over to Harry with some difficulty and they made their way home to the Grangers.
Once they were gone, Healer Gosling came back in and reapplied the charms that had been eaten. She then had Dixy bring Petunia some food and began to explain what was going to happen.
"Once you're finished eating we're going to lay you down and immobilise you. Once you're in position we will vanish your pelvis, this will feel weird, and probably like you've just peed yourself. This is normal and it's because the normal support that your body has to hold everything in position has disappeared. We will then use magic to move your legs into the right position for when your pelvis grows back. Finally, we'll vanish your broken ribs and feed you a skelegrow potion, be warned it tastes absolutely vile and you have to drink it all otherwise we have to do this again tomorrow once the portion you have drunk has cleared your system. Once we've confirmed that it's working we'll give you a dreamless sleep potion and see you in the morning. The reason for the sleeping potion is that the process becomes somewhat uncomfortable bordering on painful as your magic reconnects your muscles and ligaments to your new bones. During this time you absolutely must remain stationary otherwise you could end up with a much harder to treat condition than just a broken bone, as we'd need to individually spell each misaligned ligament correctly. This would be chargeable as it takes up valuable time rather than just a couple of potions and bed rest."
"Does that mean that healthcare is free?"
"No, the ministry covers up to 1 hours' worth of treatment as part of general taxation. This is because the hospital has to stay open for emergencies and our community is too small to rely on patients to do that. However, non-life threatening treatments that take a while are charged separately. At the moment I'm not actually treating you, so if something happened I would leave you hear and go deal with that. It's what I was doing while your guests were here. We also treat children for free, as a healthy child becomes a healthy adult." The way she's talking makes it seem like Gosling has had a similar conversation many many times.
"Given that you're asking me this, I guess that you've probably only been out of Hogwarts for a year or two, and you've been trying to survive in both worlds. They really need to do a class on this. There's a magical market near York, this is where most people go to buy their food and daily living supplies. Go there, buy some magical kitchen utensils and buy your food from there, it will save you money given how much more expensive things are getting in the muggle world."
Petunia opens her mouth a couple of times to object to the idea that she's that young, then decides that actually, it's probably better if she doesn't correct that particular misconception as the free advice might clear up as people start to assume that she actually knows what's going on. Instead she asks.
"So how much would people expect to be paid a week?"
"Oh god, I hope you're not being stiffed wherever you're working. If you're not getting at least 32G a week they're taking advantage of you. If you've got good newts and were lucky enough to land a good job you may get 50G, but don't bet on being able to find a job that pays that well."
With that Petunias treatment starts, and it's every bit as uncomfortable and disconcerting as she was told. She's grateful when she drinks the final potion and sinks into oblivion.