4. Diagnosis
There is a room in St. Mungo's that only five people have keys to. They are the top five diagnostic Healers on the Curse ward. It's called The Room of Obscure Curses, and inside it is a huge card catalog of rare Curses.
Healer Derwint had never been in the room before. As an Obstetric healer she had never had to deal with a cursed pregnancy before.
"How does it work?" She asked Healer Collins, head of the Curse Damage Department.
"Say the symptoms, and the cards that correspond to it will come to you."
Healer Derwint began with what she considered the rarest symptom. "Chartreuse aura streaked with black." What looked like hundreds of cards shot upwards. "Not so rare then?"
Healer Collins shook his head. "Actually that's a fairly common mark of a really nasty curse."
"Miscarriage." Most of the cards shot back into the card catalogue.
"No fetus." Three cards were still hovering above the catalogue.
"No fetus?" Collins looked appalled.
"Just blood. Almost as if the poor child had been liquefied." Both of the Healers looked disgusted.
"Now, what?"
"Take the cards and read them. If it looks like the curse, then we'll get the book."
Derwint took the hovering cards and read them quickly. "I think I want to know more about this one."
"Dagmar's Desolation. I've never seen that before."
"The card says the last recorded case was in 1953."
"Well, that explains it. I didn't take over until '67. Let's see the file on it." Collins took the card and went to the door on the far side of the room. He passed the card through a small slot on the door, and it opened. "This is the Obscure Curse Library. It has the files on all of these curses, and in some cases the only known books to contain them." The book shelves around them were filled with alphabetical paper files and ancient books. Each shelf was also locked.
"Don't touch any of the shelves. If anyone who doesn't have a card and the key to the outside touches one of the shelves something very bad happens."
"Define very bad," Derwint said.
"I'd really rather not. Just let it suffice to say that no one has every successfully stolen anything from this room." They walked in silence for another minute. "Ah here it is." Collins touched the key to the shelf, and then inserted the card into a slot. The shelf opened and he lifted the file, a very thin file, and a small book from the shelf. "There's a table in the middle of the room. We can read this there."
"Can I touch the file?"
"Sure, it's only the shelves that are dangerous." Derwint rose an eyebrow in question.
"It's only the shelves that are dangerous to the touch." Collins amended.
The two of them sat at the table and Healer Derwint began to read aloud from the file.
Winter Solstice, 1365
The curious case of Dagmar Dulense. Mistress Dulense has at this point suffered three miscarriages, one stillbirth, and the death of three children, each at different stages of development.
The first miscarriage occurred upon her first noticing the movement of the child.
The second miscarriage occurred around the time of her seventh month of pregnancy.
The third miscarriage occurred after two hours of contractions.
Upon her fourth pregnancy she was delivered of a still born baby boy.
The fifth child lived to the age of six weeks. He smiled at Mistress Dulense for the first time and then died in his sleep that night.
The sixth child lived to the age of walking. He took his first few steps, and then died in his sleep that night.
The seventh child lived to the age of three, and then died in his sleep.
After the seventh child she came to me to be sterilized. She did not wish to lose another child. Upon examination I noticed the mark of a grave curse upon her. She did not remember being cursed at any point, but she did recall one of her suitors had vowed revenge upon her for choosing another.
Healer O'Brein
New Year's Day, 1366
Jonathan Rourke has been convicted of the curse placed upon Mistress Dulense, and the murder of her seven children. We recovered his spell book, but he refused to reveal how to reverse the curse. He killed himself in his cell while the interrogator went in search of Veritaserum.
Mistress Dulense has agreed to use a contraceptive spell while we attempt to find a cure for this curse.
Derwint flipped through the next five pages and then looked up. "Five pages of attempts to cure this curse, and no luck." She read the next ten pages silently. "Eight additional cases in the last seven hundred years. The last one was Cassandra Livenly. She was cursed by Cornelius Burke in 1953 when she left him for another man. The recommended course of action is sterilization."
"Seven hundred years and no one has found a cure?" Collins was looking at the book in front of him.
"At one case a century it's not like there's been a lot of chances for experimentation. What I want to know is how this keeps getting out if we've got the spell book."
"Obviously this isn't the only book in which this spell is located. Maybe that Burke fellow is still around and the Aurors can try and find the spell. If we can't cure it maybe we can contain it."
"Can I take this file? The Snapes will want to read it I'm sure, and so will the Aurors assigned to their case."
"Certainly. I'd rather the book stayed here though. I'll make myself or one of the others available to anyone who wants to read it. Do you want to read it now?"
Derwint nodded. "Do you want to stay with me?"
"Not necessary. Just call me and I'll be back as soon as I can."
Derwint sat down and began to flip through the book in her hands. It appeared to be a diary of some sort. The early pages told of a blossoming romance between a young witch and a much older wizard. Rourke must have been close to fifty years older than the object of his affection.
Reading carefully it looked like he romance was all on Rourke's side. What he had considered perfectly restrained respectable behavior looked like a lack of interest to Derwint. Of course, she already knew how the story ended, so that may have colored her view of what she read.
Finally after close to fifty pages of insipid prose about the beauty, perfection, purity, and chastity of Dagmar came the crux of the issue. Rourke had asked her father for permission to marry. Her father had said he was in favor of the match, but the he would have to consult his daughter before giving his permission. Rourke left and a day later received an owl with a message saying that not only was permission not granted, but that Dagmar would greatly appreciate he cease calling immediately in that she had another suitor she preferred.
To say that Rourke had taken it badly was an understatement. What followed was another fifty pages swinging from despondent whining about the loss of her love being the end of the world, to long horrific rants about his plans for revenge.
Finally after revenge plans ranging from kidnap and torture, to murder most foul, to the killing of the other man, he came up with his perfect plan.
Pain. What I want for the bitch is pain. Pain like what she's given to me. Unending, unendurable pain. I want her to hurt. I want her man to hurt. I want her parents and friends and everyone who's ever looked upon her with a smile to feel my pain and my wrath.
And I think I've found it. She wants children. She's one of twelve children and she wants to do her mother one better. So that's where I'll strike against her. She'll lose her children. Each one later than the previous. I want her to fear, and then relax, begin to enjoy each new child, and then be torn by pain again.
She will marry the whoreson a fortnight hence, and when she does I will strike.
The spell had been cast on an item, and during the wedding, while everyone was enjoying the party; he had slipped into her new home and buried the broken cup under her hearth.
There were very few entries after that. The first one dated almost three years later and Derwint could almost hear him cackling with joy that she had lost one child during labor, and he was even more pleased when a year later the next baby was stillborn. At that point the journal ended.
Derwint contacted Collins. He joined her shortly. "Did you find anything useful?"
"Maybe. Mostly I just want to get a shower and clean off this feeling of revulsion."
"I understand."