St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries
11 July 1970
"Bellatrix, Sanke Howden needs her dose of Skele-Gro."
"Yes, Madam Carte." Bellatrix straightened her Mediwitch's smock and tugged at her black woolen skirts. She cleared her throat and dabbed her fingers at the matron's hat that she'd tucked into her normally-wild curls, which had been pulled into a bun. She was only a month into her work as a Mediwitch at St Mungo's, still in training. She had been an outstanding Potions and Herbology pupil at Hogwarts, and she'd been advised by Professor Slughorn that she should pursue a career in medicine. She'd been a troublemaker at school, and Professor Slughorn thought that a healing career would put Bellatrix on the right path.
Bellatrix had wanted to go to Healers' School, but her parents had insisted that she would need to find a husband and settle down, that any job as a Mediwitch would be temporary and that soon enough she'd be a good Pureblood wife and mother. Bellatrix had sent angry letters from Hogwarts telling her parents that she wanted nothing more than to work, and they'd finally agreed to keep her inheritance intact if she worked as a Mediwitch at St Mungo's until she found a husband.
"Bellatrix! That Skele-Gro!"
Bellatrix jolted and dashed over to the bedside of Sanke Howden, an old witch suffering from a magical form of bone degeneration. She was in pain, Bellatrix knew; her joints ached and throbbed when she moved and walked. She was here for a five-day course of Skele-Gro to heal her bones. Of course, regrowing bones was just as painful as not having bone density in the first place, and these days in hospital had turned Sanke Howden into a cantankerous witch.
"Mrs Howden," chirped Bellatrix with false cheer as she neared the woman's bed on the third floor. "Time for your Skele-Gro!"
"Oh, damn it." Mrs Howden squirmed beneath her blanket and kicked her foot roughly.
"Seems like you're moving better," Bellatrix noted, raising her brows. "Just a few more doses."
"Right." Mrs Howden opened her mouth and folded her hands over her stomach. Bellatrix smirked and uncorked the bottle of Skele-Gro on the table beside Mrs Howden's bed. She Scoured the spoon that was lying on the table, and she cleared her throat as she poured the healing potion into the spoon. She brought it to Mrs Howden's mouth, and the old woman winced and made a noise of disgust as she swallowed.
"You'll continue to improve," Bellatrix told Mrs Howden. "Soon enough you'll be just fine."
"Bellatrix! New admission in Bed Five," called Madam Carte from behind Bellatrix. She whirled around and then quickly flashed a farewell smile to Mrs Howden.
"Do let me know if you need anything, Mrs Howden," Bellatrix said. "Dinner will be up in fifteen minutes."
She walked away from Mrs Howden's bed and hurried toward Bed Five, which was hidden behind pale blue curtains. There was a Healer at the foot of the bed, murmuring quietly to the patient. Bellatrix peered around the curtains and curiously examined the wizard lying on his back with his eyes shut.
"Ah. Miss Black. Your duties on shift will be shifted full-time to caring for this patient," said Healer Comstock, and Bellatrix frowned. Usually a Mediwitch was only assigned full-time to a patient if their condition was very grave. Bellatrix studied the man's face and then gasped softly. She recognised this wizard. He was a friend of her father's, someone Cygnus Black III had known in school. This was Tom Riddle.
"Mr Tom Riddle," said Healer Comstock, "was brewing a potion - specifically, a poison - and inhaled its fumes on accident. He has been rendered unconscious, and it is unknown for how long he was in this state before his friend Rickard Avery found him."
"Will you wake him?" Bellatrix asked Healer Comstock. The Healer shook his head and said,
"Emergency response tried Invigoration Draught and other potions to rouse him. Rennervate did nothing. He is in a magical coma. We must provide him with comfort and nutrition until he wakes on his own. If after a month, he's still unconscious, we will move him into Janus Thickey."
Bellatrix stared at Mr Riddle and noticed the pale scars criss-crossing his chipped and jagged face. His chin and cheekbones jutted roughly forward, and there were grey threads in his black wavy hair. He looked rugged and prematurely aged for a school friend of Bellatrix's father.
"I want you to keep him clean, use nutritive potions - intravenously, of course - and watch him to see if he wakes," Healer Comstock told Bellatrix. "This is a… very high-priority patient."
He turned and walked away then, and Bellatrix was left alone with the sleeping Mr Riddle. She gulped and remembered what her father had told her about Tom Riddle. The man had gone to the Continent and had learnt extraordinary Dark Arts, or so Cygnus Black III said. Mr Riddle had aspirations for wizarding Britain, Cygnus Black said.
Bellatrix prepared an intravenous line so that she could get fluids and food into Mr Riddle. She didn't have loads of experience placing lines into patients, but she'd been put in charge of Mr Riddle, and she was determined to do right by him. She assembled her kit on the table beside his bed and Scoured her hands. She pulled at Mr Riddle's arm until it was straight, and she examined the inside of his elbow. There was a good vein there, she could see. She touched at it, feeling his warm skin pulsing beneath her fingertips. She Scoured the area, chose her gauge, and murmured,
"Just a little pinch, Mr Riddle."
Mr Riddle didn't move at all when Bellatrix poked the needle into his flesh. She watched for the hint of blood indicating she'd hit the vein directly, and she smirked a little to herself as she realised she'd done it right. She hung a bag of Ellen Summers' Nutritive Fluid on the hook beside Tom Riddle's bed and connected it to his intravenous line. She watched as the pale yellow liquid, almost buttery in appearance, worked its way into the vein. Still, Mr Riddle did not move. Bellatrix sighed and cleaned up her mess from placing the line, and then she pulled up a chair beside his bed.
"What shall we talk about, Mr Riddle?" Bellatrix asked quietly. She stared at him and pursed her lips as he just lay there in silent stillness. "What potion were you making when you inhaled the fumes? They said it was a poison. My father said you're very intelligent. Why weren't you more careful?"
Still she got no reply.
The next four days were all the same. Bellatrix came in in the morning, placed a new bag of nutritive liquid in Mr Riddle's line, cleaned him up, drained his bladder and emptied his insides with spellwork, and massaged his muscles to keep them from atrophy. Then she sat beside him and mindlessly told him about what school had been like, about her sisters, about her parents.
"I got three weeks of detention in my sixth year because I Hexed Tia Rowle. It was all over an illicit bottle of firewhisky; she tried to get me in trouble for it, and… anyway. I got two weeks for Hexing Tia and a week for the firewhisky. And then my father and Mr Rowle got into an argument, and our mothers didn't speak at social events for six months."
"I had a boyfriend at Hogwarts. Titus Malfoy. I'm sure you know him; his father is Abraxas, and his younger brother is Lucius? Anyway, Titus cheated on me with this Hufflepuff girl, and now they're going to get married. So I suppose that's good for him."
There was never any reply. Mr Riddle just lay, silent and still, his nutritive liquid dripping into his vein.
"My mum says Andromeda's going to get herself disowned," Bellatrix said on the fifth day of Mr Riddle's coma. She studied a fingernail and looked around before saying in a hushed voice, "Andy's got herself a Mudblood boyfriend, you see, and my parents just won't stand for that. So. What do you think of Mudbloods, Mr Riddle?"
She got no answer from him. She sighed and whispered gently,
"You must wake, Mr Riddle, or they'll move you to the Janus Thickey Ward, and you don't want that. None of us wants that. My father says you were meant for greatness."
Suddenly Mr Riddle's eyes fluttered a little, but he fell back unconscious quickly. Bellatrix scowled and rose from her chair, walking over to where he lay. She bent down and shook his shoulder somewhat roughly.
"Mr Riddle," she said loudly. "Wake up, Mr Riddle."
"I think," croaked his voice through dry lips, "that you… that… I think…"
"Mr Riddle!" cried Bellatrix. She snatched at the chest of his pyjamas and snared her fingers through his hair, surprised at herself for grabbing him so roughly. "Wake up!"
Mr Riddle's eyes opened slowly, and Bellatrix released him, staggering backwards.
"Bellatrix Black," muttered Mr Riddle, staring at the ceiling. "What an intriguing young witch you are."
"Healer Comstock!" Bellatrix yelled, dashing away from Mr Riddle's bedside. "Healer Comstock, Mr Riddle is -"
She ran smack into the Healer, who stared down at her and narrowed his eyes.
"Miss Black."
"M-Mr Riddle is awake, sir," Bellatrix stammered. She followed Healer Comstock then, who wordlessly stalked back to Bed Five. When Bellatrix reached the bed, Mr Riddle was sitting up, examining the intravenous line in his arm. He stared at Bellatrix as Healer Comstock said,
"Mr Riddle! You're at St Mungo's."
"I know." Mr Riddle nodded. "I've been kept company by a very interesting Mediwitch for the last few days."
"You could hear me?" Bellatrix's eyes went round, and her cheeks seared with embarrassment. She'd spilled her soul to Mr Riddle over the last five days. She couldn't believe that he had understood a single word of what she'd said, much less that he'd been listening the entire time.
"Oh, yes," Mr Riddle rasped. "I heard you, Miss Black."
Bellatrix touched her fingertips to her mouth and closed her eyes. Healer Comstock snapped,
"Have you been saying inappropriate things to unconscious patients, Miss Black?"
"On the contrary, Healer Comstock," said Mr Riddle, "she has been a most attentive Mediwitch. May I recommend a promotion for this young woman?"
"First thing's first; I need to examine you now that you're awake." Healer Comstock took out his wand. "Lumos. Look at the light, Mr Riddle."
For the next few minutes, Healer Comstock checked Mr Riddle's eyes, hearing, taste and smell, and sense of touch. He used his wand to amplify Mr Riddle's heart and breathing sounds. After a while, Healer Comstock tucked his wand away and asked starkly,
"Why were you brewing Suffocation Draught? That's what the Aurors found in your home."
"I confess to having an infestation of Flobberworms in my garden," Mr Riddle said in a slick voice, "and I thought I would put the Suffocation Draught on the plants they were eating. To poison them, you know."
Healer Comstock shook his head in confusion and scowled. "There are far better ways to fix a Flobberworm infestation than to suffocate them with a dangerous poison, Mr Riddle. The Aurors are going to want to talk to you about this now that you're awake. I'm sure they'll investigate this Flobberworm infestation of yours."
Mr Riddle pinched his lips and nodded. "Hmm. Healer Comstock, I have a… personal need… that requires the skilled attentions of a Mediwitch. Could you give me a moment with Miss Black?"
Healer Comstock looked sceptical, but he nodded and turned to walk away as he said, "I'll let the Ministry know you're awake."
Once Healer Comstock had gone, Bellatrix stepped up alongside Mr Riddle's bed and whispered, "How may I assist you, Mr Riddle?"
He eyed her for a long moment, and she felt a pulse in her mind. Suddenly she saw memories flooding her consciousness, one after the other like someone was flicking through the repository of everything she'd done. She saw herself plucking wings off a fly. She saw herself trip a Ravenclaw girl in the corridor at Hogwarts. She saw herself screaming at Andromeda about her Mudblood boyfriend. She licked her lips and stared back at Mr Riddle, who murmured,
"I need you to help me handle these Aurors, Miss Black. And then I need you to help me get out of this hospital."
Bellatrix nodded firmly and said, "Yes, sir."
Author's Note: Dipping my toe back into the waters of writing, in the ship I love above all others. I'm in Isolation, like most of us, and I should be able to update daily. I hope you'll follow along, and I'd really appreciate any feedback.