The Healer's Oath
Neville took a handkerchief out of his pocket and wiped the sweat off his face. Afterwards he went washing his hands and returned to his patient. The little boy was still sleeping; a result of the potion Neville had given him when he arrived so he wouldn't feel any pain.
He put a hand onto the boy's forehead sensing the magic inside the child's body. Everything was working as it was supposed to be. No taint was visible anywhere.
Neville sighed with relief. This had been a hard piece of work. The boy, Eric Crabbe, had put on a cursed ring while playing in the attic. It had burned itself into his hand and made him feel as if his blood were on fire. Sometimes, such curses were so nasty that a Healer's skills could not undo them. In these cases, the only thing they could do for the patients was easing their pain.
Eric had been lucky. The dark magic had been removed and the burned finger was going to heal. Like many dark magic wounds it couldn't be healed right away, but over time it would.
Neville knew that the boy's parents were outside, waiting eagerly for news. It was safe to leave Eric now, he could tell them, that their son was going to be alright.
Vincent and Millicent Crabbe were sitting on the corridor outside. Mrs. Crabbe got up right away. Her eyes were red as if she had been crying. Her husband was looking at Neville with trepidation.
"How is my son? Will he survive?"
Neville couldn't help feeling a certain sense of satisfaction when he saw those people looking at him this way. They hadn't given him too much respect back at Hogwarts.
"I have good news for you," Neville said. "Your son will survive and be completely healthy again. You should be more careful in future though. Such accidents can be avoided."
"Yes, of course," Millicent was whispering. "Thank you, thank you."
Her eyes were shining with tears.
"There's no need to thank me, Millicent. I'm only doing my job," Neville told her.
"Still, not everyone would do it so well. Can we see our son?" Crabbe asked.
"You can but he's still asleep. The potion's effects will last until tomorrow morning."
This didn't keep Millicent from walking into her son's room right away.
Crabbe wanted to follow but stopped in his tracks and raised his left arm to perform the Death Eater greeting. Neville looked around. Rodolphus Lestrange came walking up the corridor, wearing black Death Eater robes. This implied that he was either going to attend some official function later or had to deal with some sort of trouble which required him to play up his position.
Lestrange answered Crabbe's greeting. This too was part of the Death Eaters' etiquette. The lower-ranking members had to perform the greeting first and wait for the higher-ranking one's acknowledgement or lack thereof.
Neville had been observing these things very thoroughly, knowing about them often made it easier to judge situations. He had been asked to take the mark himself more than once but this was out of the question.
The answer Neville would have liked to give to this offer was: "I'll join you when hell freezes over." He was wise enough to keep these words to himself however and argued with the rule of neutrality applying to Healers instead. So far, this had been accepted. Neville didn't know of a single Healer who had taken the Mark. Absentmindedly, he was running his fingers over the bracelet he had been given as a visible sign of his Healer's Oath. That didn't go together with the Dark Mark.
He had never seen Lestrange wear it either even though he had been in charge of health care since Voldemort's victory. Neville was sure that once he must have worn it too.
The older Death Eater quickly looked into Neville's direction. "Good evening Neville." Ordinary citizens didn't have to follow the Death Eaters' greeting rules.
Turning back to Vincent Crabbe, he asked: "How is your son doing?"
"Fine, according to Mr. Longbottom here. My wife's with him."
Lestrange nodded. "Good. You were lucky. This could have ended much worse. It is very unwise to leave cursed objects lying around. Especially if you don't know how to undo the curse."
Crabbe grimaced. "Longbottom already told me so."
"Being told that twice can't hurt," Lestrange said.
"Is there anything you need me for?" Neville asked. "Otherwise, I'd like to start with my evening round."
"Of course," Lestrange said. "I'd like to have a quick word with you afterwards though."
"Alright," Neville said without really meaning it. It would probably simply be about some patients or something that should be optimized, Lestrange kept looking for such things all the time. Still, there was always a small doubt that it might be something else after all.
Neville said goodbye to Crabbe and walked away from the emergency room towards the wards. One of them was home to three Hogwarts students at the moment. They had gotten themselves into a fight after a Quidditch game. Some rather nasty curses had been used and three of the nine people involved were forced to spend a week at 's.
Neville couldn't remember students ever having ended up in the hospital like this during his own school time. Things had turned rougher, probably due to the greater acceptance of Dark magic nowadays.
At the moment, Neville's greatest worry was that the students would start their fight again, when they were feeling well enough. Two Gryffindors and one Slytherin had been brought to hospital together.
To his surprise, Neville found the three students engaged in a game of cards when he walked into the ward. They had assembled around the one Gryffindor who still had to remain in bed, the other two were better off.
The students' therapy seemed to have worked out well and Neville was glad that they seemed to have gotten over their fight too.
The situation in the next ward wasn't as pleasant. The people in there were victims of experimental magic accidents and so far, there hadn't been much Neville could do for them. One man still had green leaves growing all over his face while a woman was breathing out violet smoke. The other three had less visible but no less problematic conditions.
Neville shared a few words with them, hoping, that their potions would finally work.
The third ward Neville was responsible for was very familiar. He had visited his parents countless times in the Janus Thickey-ward. Some people he knew from these times were still there, among them his former teacher Gilderoy Lockhart and Agnes, a woman who was suffering from the consequences of an incomplete Animagus-transformation. At the moment, the ward wasn't hosting any Cruciatus curse patients. Neville didn't believe for a second that there we no victims of this curse anymore though. They simply wouldn't be taken here because the "Ministry" wouldn't force them into this condition if it wanted them to become healthy again.
He was glad that Lockhart did not offer him an autograph this time, being too busy with dinner. There didn't seem to be any new problems.
Neville remembered the many times he had visited his parents and the gum wrappers his mother had given to him. She had never told him why if she even knew. If he was honest, they weren't speaking too much at all, at least not about any personal matters. His mother preferred to stay alone in her room.
Neville almost felt like the middle brother in that ancient tale. The one who had brought his loved one back to life but she had never come back right. When Neville had fantasized about his mother coming home with him, he had never imagined her so sad and miserable.
Neville took a last look at the patients before he informed the night shift about the situation.
Then he walked upstairs to Lestrange's office, bracing himself for whatever was going to come.
"Do sit down," Rodolphus told Neville when he had entered his office. "You look tired."
Neville closed the door behind him and sat down. "Yes, quite. Countering this curse has been hard work."
"I'm sure it was. You've done very well. Not many wizards without any experience in the Dark arts can undo such a curse."
"Thank you," Neville said.
He didn't believe that Dark magic experience would improve his healing abilities but there was no need to argue the point.
To him, all dark curses he had been dealing with so far came down to the same things exemplified in the three Unforgivable ones: Subduing, torturing and killing in many different variants. The magic behind it was always similar.
The kind of magic Neville had dedicated his life to fight against.
"I'm very satisfied with your work. Especially your plant-based approaches are highly promising. Professor Snape and I have been working on something new as well and I'm glad to tell you that we've finally been successful. The new potion can be put to use now."
"What kind of potion is that?" Neville asked. He was sure that Lestrange was going to tell him anyway but he wanted to show that he was interested.
"A potion to undo Memory Charms," Lestrange explained. "These spells are so common that we deemed it necessary to have a more reliable method to use against them than the Cruciatus curse."
Neville flinched slightly when he heard this curse being mentioned so casually. He had read about this in Rinaldo Lestrange's book about the Cruciatus curse. The author claimed to have used the Cruciatus curse on consenting subject for this purpose a few times. Neville had trouble believing it.
"It took us longer than we had expected but by now we have managed to create a potion which has all the desired properties. Gilderoy Lockhart won't have to stay here for long anymore."
He was smiling slightly.
"Given that he's under your care, I have to ask you if you're prepared to accompany the process."
Neville had no idea what would happen if he refused, there was no reason to do so however. The use of new potions and healing spells at 's wasn't unusual. Healers were expected to come up with new approaches if the old ones didn't yield the desired results. Neville didn't doubt Lestrange's abilities either. If he was sure that something was going to work it very likely did. The fact that Snape was involved was reassuring as well.
"Of course," he said.
"You're going to have to inform Mr. Lockhart about the new political situation but as far as I know he's never been a devoted opponent of our cause. This shouldn't be too difficult."
"Yes. I don't think he's ever been interested in politics."
Working with his former teacher like that would be strange. Would Lockhart be able to remember Neville? He hoped not, the second year had been one of his worst ones.
Lestrange was looking at Neville intently. "I'm aware of the fact that you too are suffering from a Memory Charm problem."
Neville hadn't expected anything like that but it was true. Professor Lupin had found out during his third year and Kingsley had confirmed it later. One of the Aurors had used a Memory Charm on Neville after he had witnessed the attack on his parents. It had been responsible for the memory problems plaguing him all through his childhood. By now, they were almost completely gone however.
"The new potion is an option for you as well of course. Unlike Mr Lockhart, you're doing very well despite of the charm but it's quite possible that you're only able to reach your full magical potential with the charm removed. Still, it's not impossible that the changes in your magic will cause problems with some skills you already have."
Neville wasn't afraid of the magical problems the removal of this Memory Charm would cause.
He didn't know if he really wanted to see the things he was going to see if he did however. There was no way to avoid cooperating with Rodolphus Lestrange and trying to be on polite terms with his wife at the moment. Besides that Dementors were a common occurrence since the war and Neville knew that he'd be affected by them much worse if the Memory Charm was removed. He had seen this in Harry.
"I'm leaving this to your own informed decision. Maybe seeing the effects of the potion on other people will point you one way or the other. I merely wanted to inform you about the possibility."
"I'll think about it," Neville said. This reply was given in complete honesty. He was probably going to think about it a lot.
"By the way, how's Deborah doing? Has she shown some sign of magical ability by now?"
Neville swallowed hard. He really didn't want to talk to him about his family. Especially not about the family members he was worrying about and his daughter Deborah was one of them. She was extremely shy and timid. Deborah also hadn't shown any magical potential even though she was already seven years old. In Neville's case this had been very similar but there had been reasons for that, the Memory Charm among other things. Neville had no idea what could cause this behaviour in Deborah however.
"Not yet," he said, wondering what the new regime's Squib policy was. He really didn't want to find out.
"Roderic didn't have his First Magic Day yet either, did he?"
"No. Even though he did use magic as you know. Bellatrix hasn't considered this specific occurrence worthy of celebration however."
Neville knew exactly which "occurrence" he was referring to. Two years ago, Roderic had shown his magic for the first time by hurting Elsa Nott, a younger girl he had been playing with. She had made fun of him and refused to follow his rules.
It had been a very frightening scene, this six-year old boy standing over the screaming girl, able to cause pain without touching or even using a wand.
To Neville's great surprise Bellatrix had reacted the way he would have as well. She had told Roderic off and demanded that he apologised to Elsa and her parents.
Neville had been very glad that he hadn't been able to persuade his mother to join them on this particular afternoon.
He simply didn't understand why Roderic had been doing something like that. The boy usually didn't seem particularly evil and he was caring for the plant Neville had given him with a dedication few children would show. Still, even people like Pansy Parkinson or Theodore Nott had been unable to cause any serious effect when attempting to use the Cruciatus curse on other people at the age of seventeen and with their wands in their hands. Something was wrong with that child.
Neville wasn't comfortable letting his own children play with him anymore.
"Roderic's magic situation is quite worrying as well, I admit," Rodolphus said. "There's one thing it should show you though. Accidental magic can take on many different forms and some are much more subtle than others. Not everyone's jumping onto roofs or setting things on fire. I've seen Roxy use her magic to make headaches go away at least twice for example. Such things are barely noticeable if you aren't looking for them but it's still magic. Maybe Deborah is showing her magic in such a way as well."
"I'll try to look at this more closely," Neville said.
"Do that. Will you come around to our place tomorrow evening so I can tell you the details about the new potion?"
Neville accepted with little enthusiasm. He didn't really like visiting the Lestranges at home because that usually meant he'd have to deal with Bellatrix as well.
On the way to the dressing room, Neville was still thinking about Deborah. It wasn't impossible that she had already shown some kind of magic which his mother had overlooked. Somehow, he didn't really believe that though.
His worries about Deborah weren't only magic-related. During many nights, she was turning up in the bedroom Neville and Hannah were sharing, completely shaken by some terrible nightmare. She was never really telling Neville what those nightmares were about though. He had absolutely no idea. As far as he knew nothing bad had ever happened to her and she'd never been in a situation where it might have without his knowledge either.
Neville changed out of his lime-green healing robe and into his normal clothing and made his way to the Apparition point.