Chapter 4
They followed her further into the hospital. A lot of people bustled up to them, all hurried to see their patients or beloved ones. It took Parvati a lot of energy to walk. A few times, she suddenly clutched to Tonks's or Lupin's arm ('Sorry!') to prevent she would collapse.
Her blood left a darkred trace through the corridor. It was a long, narrow corridor.
It was lit by the crystal bubbles full of candles, and the walls were lined with portraits of famous Healers.
Finally, they turned left, and walked into a yellow-painted room.
It was full of open closets, all crammed with potions. The bottles had all the possible sizes and colours Lupin could image: round, tiny bottles of just three or five centimeters, filled with gasslike, green potions; long bottels that looked like wine bottles, but filled with white liqueds; enormous bottles with scarlet potions, in which were black strings running very quickly from the top to bottem... The Healer walked to a closet on their left side, and began to examine all of the labels on the glass bottles. She finally took a small, hexagonal bottle, which was almost completely fulled with a pale, orange liquid. She walked back to Parvati, Lupin and Tonks, and took a really tiny golden bowl out of her robes. She put a few drops of the potion into the little bowl, and gave it to Parvati. 'Drink this,' she said merely. And without saying a word, Parvati took the tiny bowl, and drank the potion in one absorption.
Three pairs of eyes stared at her, to see what would happen. Then, a wonderful miracle happened: her wounds began to heal. The cuts in her cheeks closed, the large scratches in her arms disappeared, the damaged skin of her neck recovered. Her hands moved from her tummy to her legs, to check if her skin underneath her clothes, was also recovered.
Then she began to laugh, and wrapped her arm around the small Healer.
'Thank you!' said Parvati. She released the Healer. 'Wow… this is amazing…' said Parvati, examining her healed arms. The Healer seemed to be relieved, too.
'You were very lucky, actually,' she said. At the end of the corridor, they turned left and took the stairs. 'It doesn't help anytime. And the potion is exposed just three months ago…'
She frowned. 'I'm wondering why it helped this time, and not with the wizard before you. People are saying that the Death Eather who uses the spell, changes the spell a little, everytime he uses it. But the effects remain the same...'
They entered the corridor 'Creature – Induced Injuries'. 'I think it is impossible, though... ' mused the Healer. People were walking in and out of the different rooms, the green robes of the Healers swirling. Lupin saw that there were bits of parchment hanging over the regular signes on the doors. 'Here,' said the Healer, when they had come to a door on their right side.
'Werewolf bites, children' said the piece of parchment on the door.
The Healer saw Lupin reading the note. 'Yeah,' she said, 'normally, this was a room for little accidents, made by pets.' She lifted the parchment up.
''The Impossible' Johosp Whedwarp Ward: Injuries by Pets'.
'There are so many werewolf bites, so we just took another, larger room,' she said. They entered the room.
It was a good-lit room, with three big windows and several portraits of Healers on the walls.
All of the patients were children: the youngest of them was two, three years old; the oldest probably sixteen or seventeen. 'Here they are,' said the Healer. They were standing for two hospital beds. In the left one slept a small, cute-looking girl with long, curling black hair in two braids. Her little head stick out the heavy white blankets, her mouth half open, and she clutched a fluffy, brown teddybear. Lupin thought she must have been seven, or eight years old. In the other bed, lay a bigger figure. He had thick, black hair and small shoulders.
He lent on his tummy, his elbows on his pillow, reading a book or a magazine.
'David?' said the Healer, looking at the back of the boy's head. He turned around and looked at Tonks and Lupin, smiling. He had bright, dark eyes and was about twelve years old.
'You two?' he asked, quietly, so that his sister wouldn't wake.
The words had been a bit of rude, but he sounded friendly.
Tonks smiled back. 'Yeah,' she said, 'we're the two.' Tonks's hand was searching Lupin's. He was a bit of suprised, but didn't shown it. He felt her warm fingers around his.
Then, David saw Parvati, who was standing behind them. 'Parvati!' he said happily, but still quietly. Parvati laughed, walked to him and gave him a hug. Lupin saw that David's arms were full of bloody scratches. 'How are you doing?' asked David Parvati. 'What happened?'
'What happened, is O.K. right now,' asked Parvati vaguely. 'But you have heard of the rest of the family?' David nodded. 'Yeah,' she said merely, his voice bitter, and a little afraid.
'Stella?' The Healer talked quietly, and shook the arm of the girl gently. There were two large cuts in her upper arm. After a few moments, she slowely opened her eyes and yawned.
'Did I had nightmares?' she asked to the Healer. 'You couldn't remember?' asked the Healer.
'No...' Stella answered, and frowned. She sat down at the edge of her bed and saw her three vistitors. 'Hi, Parvati,' she said. Parvati hugged her too. 'I'm happy you're O.K...' said the little girl. Parvati did not replied. 'And hello to you two,' said Stella, looking at Lupin and Tonks at the corner of her eye. They both nodded at her.
The Healer revolved to Tonks and Lupin. 'Can I have a word?'
They followed her out of the room, leaving Parvati and the two children behind.
Lupin felt how Tonks's hand let go of his.
Lupin, Tonks and the Healer walked into a small room. It was pretty bedraggled: there were a few old desks, a lot rolls of half wrote off parchment were lying on the floor, some broken crystal potionbottles and more litter. Straight in front of them stood a enormous, acient wooden closet. The Healer opened it. She took out a small, crystal bottle, filled with a swirling white substance, and an old stone bowl, decorated with strange signs.
Lupin knew what they were going to do before anyone could tell him.
'We often keep thoughts of our patients. It is very clevery to see them before the we start to operate our patients,' said the Healer. She emptied the bottle into the bowl. The sunlight from the small window next to the closet, fell upon the white substance. It made the surface shine like thousends of diamonds. She putted the bowl upon a desk. 'I think it will good for you to see this,' she said. 'I have to tell more things, but it can wait. And this one' – she pointed to the gass-like matter – 'would prevent a lot of unnecessary questions.'
She smiled at them. 'Please,' she said simply. Lupin nodded at her and bend above the bowl.
He let his head sank into the bowl, until his face touched the surface...
And he began to fall, through nothing but darkness...