The Rod of Asclepius
Chapter V
The Riddle house had been abandoned for many years since its occupants had died under mysterious circumstances some time in the past. Many of the windows had been boarded up, and grass grew tall surrounding the building. Most of the homes next to the property had also been abandoned as the owners of those properties moved away out of fear, unable to sell their homes. Those who remained behind on the block often reported seeing lights in the upper stories of the abandoned Riddle house, as well as hearing strange and creepy noises.
On this particular night, if any of the residents left on the block of homes near the Riddle house were watching the upper stories of the building, they might have seen the eerie glow from the corner bedroom window where the two remaining occupants were conversing.
"I knew we shouldn't have put our trust in Lucius's idiot son, Wormtail!" the voice from the large arm chair yelled.
"I'm sorry master," the hunch backed man creature replied "but I did exactly what you instructed, I left the parchment with the instructions and spells in the Slytherin house where the boys would find it. I planted the suggestion into young Malfoy's head and made sure he found the documents."
"You did well Wormtail, your devotion to the cause has been adequate," the voice continued, "But your selection of Draco Malfoy has left something to be desired. Still, the fool may have managed to have created the desired infection, and with any luck young Potter may yet fall under its influence. However I will have to call upon you to perform yet another task, just to insure that things do go according to our plans."
"What about the muggle doctor that was brought from Japan to Hogwarts?" Wormtail asked with a bit of fear in his voice.
"You fool!" The voice from the chair replied. "He is no muggle at all, and may actually pose quite a threat to me if he isn't controlled. You may have to return to Hogwarts as your rodent self to keep an eye on him, especially if he discovers the full extent of his his Mahotokoro genome."
Black Jack gently swished the wand that he still had clamped in his right hand though the air and imagined a steaming hot cup of green tea in his mind. Without warning, the desired object appeared out of thin air upon the desk of the headmaster, just two feet in front of the doctor. He reached out with his left hand and gently picked up the china cup by its ringed handle and brought the vessel to his lips. The contents smelled and tasted exactly like a premium Japanese grown Matcha green tea.
"Excellent!" Dumbledore exclaimed, "I knew you could do it! You do have a natural ability, you just need some careful guidance and instruction to discover it."
"But this is only a mere parlor trick." The doctor said. "I did what you suggested, I imagined a familiar object and concentrated on my desire to see it materialize in front of me, and then projected that desire though the wand."
"Yes, and you didn't need to resort to any form of incantation to do it." The headmaster explained. "You have the inborn talents within you. You must stay here at Hogwarts to develop your full abilities. However, first we need your help in the infirmary. I've already informed Madam Pomfrey of your arrival, she is awaiting you in the hospital wing."
Madam Pomfrey set aside a room in the hospital wing for the doctor to set up shop in. The two students that had been afflicted with the strange sleeping sickness had been moved into the room. Dr. Black Jack used his stethoscope to listen to Draco Malfoy's breathing and heartbeat. He took the boy's temperature with a glass rectal thermometer, which had the nurses in Hogwart's hospital wing giggling for a while. Madam Pomfrey carefully watched the doctor's examination of the boy, and seemed acceptive of his methods.
"Have you formed any opinion on his affliction?" she asked.
The doctor looked around him and sighed. "I'm going to have to bring back some of my equipment, and I'm going to need electrical power."
"I think we can arrange for that, Doctor," Argus Filch said. The school's caretaker had just recently walked into the hospital wing. "How bad is the boy?" he asked.
"His condition is stable, his eyes react to light, and I've observed that he is taking fluids by mouth via reflex." The doctor answered. "I'm going to need my microscope and EEG recorder if I am to perform any meaningful diagnosis."
"I actually have a microscope in my study." Albus Dumbledore said as he entered the room. "It's a bit of an antique, but I do have a weakness for such collectibles."
"I'd rather fetch my own from my clinic, along with some other instruments and my surgery equipment." Black Jack replied. "I'd also like to bring Pinoko back here as my assistant as well."
"Very well, I've arranged for your clinic to be temporarily attached to the floo network, you can return and bring back whatever you need." The headmaster explained. "Harry and Ron will escort you."
The Doctor stood in front of the fireplace in the Gryffindor common room.
"Now explain this to me again?" he asked.
"It's really very simple," Harry said. "The floo network interconnects fireplaces as a transportation system. All you have to do is toss some of this floo power into the flames and as they turn green you clearly and loudly state your desired destination and walk into the fire. You will then be transported to the fireplace at the destination. Hagrid mentioned that you had a fireplace at your home, and the headmaster's request that it be placed on the floo network for your use has been granted."
"Doesn't there have to be a fire burning at the other end?" The doctor asked.
"Not on the arriving end, only on the departing side." Ron said. "If there isn't a fire on the other end, one will flare up on its own as you arrive."
"I'm afraid that we may scare the crap out of Pinoko when we arrive if she's in the great room." The doctor laughed.
Ron held out a bowl of the black powder. Black Jack grabbed a handful and took a step closer to the fireplace. He tossed the powder into the flames and suddenly the room was lit by an eerie green glow as the fire was transformed. The doctor walked into the flames and shouted, "Black Jack's Clinic in Japan!" Ron and Harry quickly followed the doctor into the fireplace.
Pinoko sat in the kitchen eating a huge ice cream sundae she had just made. Still mad at the doctor for having left her behind, she turned to the one thing that could calm her lonely anger, comfort food. Out of the corner of her eye she caught the glint of a bright flash of green light coming from the great room, followed by the sound of a small explosion. Startled by the event, she dropped the bowl of ice cream onto the floor as she ran into the next room to see what had happened.
Black Jack stepped out of the fireplace and dusted himself off. He turned to see Pinoko with a look of surprise on her face. Suddenly there was another flash of green light as Harry Potter and Ron Weasley stepped out of the fireplace.
"Acchonburike!" Pinoko yelled out as the two boys emerged into the room.
"I hope we didn't scare you too badly, Pinoko." Black Jack said. "I've returned to fetch some of my equipment, and these two boys accompanied me since I've never traveled by fireplace before."
The four of them gathered up some equipment from the examining and operating rooms and packed several large suitcases. "You'll be coming with me this time, Pinoko." The doctor said. "I'm going to need an assistant to help me treat at least two patients."
"We'll help carry these two suitcases back through the fireplace." Harry told the doctor. "You and Pinoko go ahead first. Remember to state the destination clearly!"
Black Jack put a single log onto the fire along with some kindling. He applied a lit match and blew under the log to get the fire going. It took a few minutes, but soon the wood was burning nicely.
"Will this be sufficient a fire?" he asked.
"Yes, I think that will do." Harry replied
Ron tossed a handful of floo powder into the fireplace and shouted "Gryffindor House!" as he pushed one of the suitcase though the fireplace, and followed behind it. He vanished in a puff of green flame and smoke.
"OK, now it's your turn Doctor." Harry said. "Hold Pinoko's hand and go through with her, I'll be right behind with the other suitcase."
"Are we going up the chimney like Santa Claus?" Pinoko asked.
"Not exactly, Pinoko", the doctor laughed as he tossed some floo powder on the flames and repeated Ron's announcement of the destination, "Gryffindor House." He held Pinoko's hand in his left hand, and carried the smallest of the suitcases in his right. He and Pinoko walked hand in hand through the flames. They suddenly found themselves in the Gryffindor commons room, where Ron was waiting for them with the first of the two largest pieces of luggage.
"Where are we, Sensai?" Pinoko asked.
"I think we are somewhere in Europe, though as I understand it we might be in between dimensions." Black Jack said.
"That is fairly accurate." Professor Minerva McGonagall said. The head of house Gryffindor entered the room just as Harry flashed out of the fireplace with the last of the doctor's luggage. "Hogwarts exists in a hidden fold of what muggle scientists would call higher hidden dimensions, but it is actually hidden behind the veil of visibility from muggle eyes in a parallel space to the muggle world. And yes, we are actually within a hundred or so miles from London, England."
McGonagall smiled at the doctor and Pinoko.
"I take it that you are Dr. Black Jack." she said. "Welcome to Gryffindor. We've prepared a room for you in the dormitory." She bent down to see eye to eye with Pinoko. "And welcome to you too, Miss Pinoko-chan."
Pinoko meekly replied "Thank you." and then added. "You are a witch, aren't you?"
"Pinoko!" the doctor yelled.
"Oh, it's quite alright doctor." Professor McGonagall said. "Of course, I'm a witch. In fact, I'm an expert in the art of Transfiguration."
"What's that?" Pinoko asked.
"Why don't I show you?" the Professor replied, as she slowly shrank to a fraction of her size and turned into a black cat.
"Acchonburike!" Pinoko yelled out in surprise. The cat rubbed up against Pinoko's leg and purred loudly. Pinoko bent down and petted the black cat, which then purred even louder. Suddenly the cat backed away from Pinoko and transmuted back into the middle aged woman.
"You see?" McGonagall said. "Transfiguration is the ability to change forms."
"That's amazing!" Pinoko replied.
McGonagall turned to the two boys. "Harry and Ron, why don't you two take the doctor's equipment over to the hospital wing, while I get him settled in. When he's not working on our little medical problem, he's going to be attending classes with you."
Ron and Harry cast a lightening and reducing spell on the luggage to reduce their weight to make them easier to carry. Between the two of them, they then picked up the three large suitcases and left for the Hogwart's hospital wing.
"I still don't understand this." Kuro told the Professor. "I seem to have latent abilities as a warlock, and this wand seems to work for me." He pulled the box containing the Asclepius wand from his pocket and showed McGonagall its contents.
"That is the legendary Asclepius wand, Kuro Hazama." the Professor said. "The fact that it has accepted you indicates you truly are from a noble blood line. We are honored to have you here in Hogwarts and all of us in House Gryffindor wish to help you discover what is rightfully yours."
McGonagall escorted Black Jack and Pinoko into a comfortable double room. "These chambers are usually reserved for a family. There is a small bedroom off to the side of this master suit." she explained. "Your ward will have the smaller room all to her self. She should remain in these chambers while you are in class, as a muggle she can't be involved with any magic, except as your assistant in the hospital wing."
Pinoko quickly put on a pouting face. "I want to learn magic too!"
McGonagall patted Pinoko on the head. "I'm sorry Pinoko. You were not born with the ability to work magic, and it would be dangerous for you to get involved in the study of it in the school." The Professor waved her wand and uttered a quick enchantment. Two racks of clothes appeared in the middle of the room. "Since you will be studying magic, you need to dress the part Doctor," she said. "And I didn't want you to feel left out, Pinoko, so here are suitable clothes for you as well."
"Thank you Professor McGonagall." Kuro said. "Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to return to the hospital wing and continue my examination of the two patients with the aid of the equipment I've brought back with me."
"Please do." The Professor said. "I hope to see the two of you again this evening during dinner in school dinning hall." She waved her wand and chanted a brief incantation and then disappeared in a puff of smoke.
"Acchonburike!" Pinoko cried out.
The Doctor adjusted the focus on his microscope as he looked through the instrument.
"I think this infection might be bacterial in nature, I can see some unknown microscopic organism in the blood of both of the infected students." He explained, walking away from the instrument and motioned toward the head healer for her to take a look.
Madam Pomfrey placed her right eye over the eyepiece of the microscope and looked through the instrument. A look of wonder crossed over her face as she saw the blood cells floating in the plasma fluid for the very first time.
"I had no idea that blood looked like that on the small scale of things!" she exclaimed. "And yes, I can see something that doesn't look like it belongs there!"
"There are many different types of substances in the blood stream." the doctor explained. "Most of human blood is made of the disc shaped red blood cells that you see in abundance. They transport oxygen and nutrients to every part of the body. There are also the white blood cells that normally fight off infection. Unless there is such an infection present you normally don't see too many of them in a given sample of the blood. Once the body is infected, their number increases greatly. There are also many other small structures in a normal sample of blood, that you can spot in still smaller numbers. I have identified one that does not belong, it is probably our infection vector, a small bacterium of unknown origin."
The head healer slowly turned the knobs on the instrument that moved the stage upon which the slide sat. "This one?" Madam Pomfrey asked moving away from the eyepiece.
The doctor quickly returned to the instrument and looked at what was now in the field of view.
"Yes, that is the unknown organism under question." He replied.
"Now for the matter of the required electrical power to run my medical monitoring equipment." The doctor inquired.
"That has already been taken care of." Albus Dumbledore replied as he entered the room. "I've researched the problem thoroughly. Observe!"
The headmaster waved his wand while uttering an incantation. Several electrical outlets appeared on the wall where the doctor had stacked the EEG and EKG monitors on tables.
"But how?" the doctor asked.
"A bit of theft actually. Look out the window," The headmaster replied.
There now appeared a line of utility poles upon which were suspended two copper conductors on insulators. The very recently created power line ran off to the horizon and disappeared in the distance.
"I suspect that the nearby muggle operated utility company will eventually discover that a new feed line has been attached to their system, but they will assume that it is an error in their bookkeeping rather than an act of theft, if my spell has been accurate enough." Dumbledore laughed.
Within a few minutes the EEG monitor had been attached to Draco, the various wires clipped onto suction cup electrodes that were tapped to his forehead and shaved areas of his scalp. The doctor carefully examined the strip chart that the machine was now printing.
"This doesn't exactly look like a normal pattern, but it is far from the flat activity one would expect from a comatose patient." He said. "It's almost as if something is trying to take over his mind. I've seen similar readings from patients that were brought to me in a possessed state."
"So you believe in spiritual possession?" Dumbledore asked.
"Until today, no." the doctor replied. "Such conditions were always proven to be caused by a chemical imbalance in the patient's brain. I still believe that young Malfoy's condition is due to something like that, and the existence of the bacterium we've seen in his blood lends credence to that. However, under current circumstances it is also very likely that the bacterium has a magical origin. In that case," the doctor said removing the wand from his pocket and holding it up in the air, "I may ultimately need to use this to cure him, once I have fully learned how to use it."