Author's note: I know you're wondering why am I starting a new fic when I have two others going on? Well, it's Harry's birthday today.
Therefore to celebrate his birthday, I am giving a new HP fic and now here goes the Disclaimer for this fic, this applies on all chapters because I won't be typing it again and again:-
I do not own the Harry Potter franchise, it is owned by Author J.K. Rowling, Bloomsbury Publishing & Warner Bros. This is purely an art of fiction and has no real life connection with any person living or dead.
-: General info :-
A. Harry is 26 years old.
B. Kreacher is dead, Harry doesn't live in Grimmauld Place.
C. The fic has relationship, but the word relationship doesn't always mean a couple, it also means friends, protector and all others, so keep an open mind.
D. This is a pretty small fic and the ending has been decided already.
Hope you like the fanfic and leave tons of reviews because the number of reviews is directly proportional to time needed for the next chapter. Simply saying, More the reviews, the less time it will take for you to get an update. so….toodles :-D
Here's the link to my super private server on discord where I'll keep on updating new chapters, sneak peeks, Character designs, where you are free to talk and ask things regarding my fanfics:
Its a relatively newly launched server...
discord . gg / Gcbcv4dxGx (remove the spaces)
Name: Dev Black's Empire
"I am Talking."
'I am Thinking'
Medicines can cure diseases, but only doctors can heal a patient.
~Carl Jung
Palliation
-Dev Sagittarius Black
~~Chapter 1: Serendipity~~
.
"Patient in room 305 has collapsed, I repeat, patient in Room 305 has collapsed, healer Potter report to room 305 immediately. I repeat, healer Potter report to room 305 immediately!" came the announcement.
Senior healer Mathew Smith can be seen running throughout the hospital, gasping for breath. He needed a break, as his forty-six year old physique was definitely not made for this, but this was an emergency.
Someone's life was at stake here. Each life mattered and he had been taught to save as many lives as he could when he had taken up his oath all those years ago.
But maybe the same oath wasn't asked from a certain young healer because Merlin only knows where he was right now.
Mathew had checked the said healer's office, his personal chambers, the balcony where he spends his free time and the cafeteria where he goes when he's feeling hungry, which is almost all the time, now there is only one place left and he prayed to whichever deity that is listening to make this one as his final destination.
Opening the doors of the Library, Mathew came in running and looked around the large room that had tables scattered around with chairs, cabinets that were filled to the brim with medical books about different diseases and spells or some really old and some quite new methods that are used to treat them.
And….BINGO! There in the corner-most chair, reading a really thick tome is his target, sipping from his favourite coffee mug that had 'WoRLd's BEST UncLE!' written on it and was probably a gift from his godson.
"Potter! You're needed!"
Green eyes moved up from the page they were focused on reading about the seven types of amnesia that could occur.
Interestingly enough, the two most common types of Amnesia are currently untreatable by wizarding standards. And the muggle world had the theory of repetitively doing things again and again to remember or recover post-memories.
It wasn't exactly that, but that's as far as he understood it anyways. The book Potter was reading was solely focused on the variations and what makes them different from the other type, it didn't have the treatment.
"It's my break time Mathew, get someone else to do whatever you want." And the eyes returned to the book.
"I swear to Morgana, Potter, it's like you want me to kill you," Mathew said as he eyed the healer.
"Yeah well, sadly, we both know that you can't kill me," Potter said, not moving an inch.
"Laugh it up, if you weren't the best healer we have, I'd have already killed you thrice by now." Mathew said as he closed the book he was reading with an audible snap completely ignoring the 'HEY!'.
"I was reading that you know. It might save a life someday." Potter muttered as he looked to the side and picked up his healer's apron that was draped over his chair.
"Knock Knock, who's it? Opportunity. An opportunity to save someone's life right now." Mathew said as he helped Potter push his arms through the sleeves.
The emerald-eyed person stood up from his chair and looked down at his right breast pocket.
HEALER HARRY J. POTTER
ST MUNGO'S HOSPITAL
Beneath that was a small logo of the aforementioned hospital.
Harry sighed as he let his inner healer take over his mind and looked towards his senior with a certain hidden glint in his eyes "What's the condition?"
Harry moved out of his office as he flicked his wand and locked the door, activating the alert wards and protection charms sewed in it before moving towards the main door and moving out to muggle London.
Harry smiled at the old guard Johnson who dipped his head as a sign of respect. He stepped out of the hospital compound and started walking on the footpath, crossing the shops and meeting familiar faces that were rushing back home.
He thought back about how he decided to become a healer. It was actually thanks to Madam Pomfrey this happened. He still remembered the lecture she had given in his eighth year or the return year.
It was a guest lecture organised by headmistress McGonagall, based on the muggle school practice of inviting a parent and letting the kids know what they do and how they do it. He had attended a lecture from head auror Gawain Robards too for Aurors and a few other lectures for different job opportunities.
But Madam Pomfrey's presentation was too good in his honest opinion, even if he was the only one who thought so. Maybe because of his familiarity with the Hospital wing or something else changed in his mindset, he felt attracted to the words.
Later, Harry went and asked the matron for an in-depth study about her occupation and after that one night, things changed drastically for him.
It was this lecture that told Harry that he didn't need to be an auror or a hit wizard to save people. He could easily save lots and lots of people even from the simplest of wounds if he became a Healer. And if he was honest with himself, he had just finished a war and had most certainly had his fill regarding all the fighting and catching criminals.
After that, days became weeks which soon turned to months…and now at the age of Twenty-six, Harry Potter is a proud and accomplished healer of St Mungos, doing his level best to save as many as he could.
Hermione called this, the extreme level of his 'saving people thing', not so surprisingly the hunger and urge to save people made him actively learn as much as he could so that he could save as many as possible which gave him his current title of 'The Best Resident Healer' at St Mungo's, even though he was really young compared to most of the Healers.
The hours were hard, and the shifts were painfully tiring, but just one visit to the emergency ward, watching all those patients suffering from diseases, crying in pain and all those troubled faces of their close ones made his resolve to Heal stronger.
And it also acts as a motivation enough to be the best one out there. Healers are called the God incarnate in the muggle world because they give life to all those that have lost their hope. And the title is rightfully deserved by every healer who is making the world a better place to live.
Harry turned towards the darkened alley which he usually used to apparate out to his home. He looked towards the night sky before smiling softly and apparating away with a 'POP' sound.
Uneven loud rings woke him up as he is in deep sleep, imagining ways he can better save lives. Groggily waking up, Harry looked towards the window 'Still dark, what the hell happened'. He thought and still rubbing the crust from his eyes he sat up and looked at the glowing and blaring badge that was given to every healer of St Mungos.
Harry's eyes widened when he read what was written on the badge. There were only four words and they were strong enough to kick his sleep out of the window.
~~Code Red~~
Bomb Blast
Harry grabbed his clothes and within moments he was moving through the corridor leading to the emergency ward. He resigned to the night's fate. It's going to be long, there will be many who'll die and many who will cry, but as healers, they are supposed to try and save as many as they can.
The emergency ward is a mess, it looked more like a scene from a horror movie than a hospital room. Healers were scarce, the night-shift healers are actively working as the Aurors are bringing in the patients.
Patients were crying in pain, the staff can be seen readying the instruments that were required by the healers. Thankfully more and more healers were arriving and the situation will soon be under control.
"Potter, get to bed 12, they need your help there." Head Healer Lamming ordered him as soon as he noticed Harry's presence in the ward.
Harry nodded and grabbed the safety gloves from the glove box and reached bed number 12, a woman on it, her unspeakable uniform was probably damaged by the blast, it looked like she had smashed her face into a hard surface like a wall or something similar.
Thankfully her body parts were still safe and she isn't bleeding from any outside parts. But the lump that is slowly forming on her forehead along with the swollen black eye is clearly due to trauma to the dangerous area of the face.
This meant that there is a chance of internal bleeding, which is an even more tricky thing to deal with, he just prayed that the clot isn't in any major facial or Merlin forbids, the brain's blood vessels.
"Anything on her?" Harry asked the staff assistant who had been working on her previously and is now standing attentively waiting for Harry's orders regarding the patient.
"Sir, she was found outside the blasted chamber. I think the charms sewed in her uniform saved her from severe harm but since her head was unprotected, it's the only area that has been damaged." The assistant told Harry who nodded.
"I've also checked her Airway, which is still working and hasn't collapsed but her breathing is shallow and her rate is 11 per minute."
"Alright, Martin right?" Harry read the assistant's name from his ID on his left breast pocket "Martin I need an ice bag, a hypodermic needle and a syringe and prepare the IV machine, the patient will probably need a few blood replenishers too."
Martin nodded and went to get all of that, while Harry started with the diagnosis of all the internal vascular ruptures and fractures in the skull, this will indeed going to be a long night.
"Harry?"
"Yes, Mathew?"
Mathew looked at the young healer who had lately become his friend of sorts, he still remembered their first encounter.
Mathew was the head of the team of healers which Harry had joined as a novice healer that day. At first, he had assumed that Harry Potter was too high on his fame, that it had gone to his head and he'll soon come to see the cons of being a healer.
But Potter had challenged all of his assumptions and proved all of them wrong, going as far as to surpass him, the head healer within 3 years and earning his respect.
"It's nearly 9 in the morning and the situation is finally under control. I think you should go to bed now."
Harry looked up from the patient chart that he is currently reading and gave a small tired smile "And leave poor innocent people to the likes of you? Never."
"Hey! I am the head of your team, remember? Don't forget all the things I taught you, young brat." Mathew said and they laughed as he took a seat beside the man-who-won.
"I thought your patient, that woman on bed 12, you had already finished treating her? What happened?" Mathew asked as he too took a look at the chest wiz-ray.
"This isn't her report, I finished up with her hours ago. Right now I'm simply rechecking all the patients that came yesterday so that we don't have any iatrogenic cases."
Harry said as he took another sip from his favourite coffee mug.
"Others can do it, Harry, you don't need to overwork yourself. You've worked the entire night, checking all the patients and helping the healers, you need some rest now." Mathew admonished his friend, he knew he is being a hypocrite here but Harry is young therefore the boy needed to sleep more than him!
Cough "Hypocrite." Cough
"I heard that!"
"Good, it means your senses are still sharp enough even though you are crossing your sixties."
"Forty-six and I can easily pass off as your older brother, thank you very much."
"Brother? Seriously? When was the last time you checked yourself in the mirror? You look more like my younger grandfather at the very least."
"Why you-" Mathew glared at Harry, although it was clearly in good spirits while Harry started whistling the familiar tune of his favourite song while making the 'I-don't-know-what-you-are-talking-about' face and reading the reports.
Within minutes, both the healers started laughing and the tension, stress and tiredness seemed to disappear. It is still there, it is, but it seemed as if everything is normal. As if two old friends are just pulling each other's legs and cracking jokes.
It most certainly didn't seem like they were two tired individuals who had been working for more than 21 hours with a 5-hour break and will be working for the next 10 hours.
They didn't seem like they had seen people die on the OT tables, like they didn't panic when the patient they were treating started to hyperventilate and they didn't forcefully get their minds together just so they didn't end up causing any mistake which led to an iatrogenic disease.
They are healers, they are like God, the supreme entity reincarnated on earth in mortal form, they are highly respected individuals who are praised by all and every single one looked up to them in times of need.
But they are also humans. Troubled humans who saw death, who tried their level best to treat a patient one day and cried alone when they saw that the same patient didn't make it through.
They cried when they encountered a disease that couldn't be treated and they have been traumatised by many horrors, something that no normal human being could comprehend. They delivered the news of their failures to a patient's relatives and watched as the relatives cried their eyes out screaming bloody murder.
All the while, they had to stand tall and proud, with their calm heads and try to talk to the same relatives of the patient who were cursing them because they couldn't save the patient.
And this is why, these fake smiles, the poor jokes and small laughs are needed, to have a semblance of 'hope', to have some form of faith that what they were doing was good work. For every patient who lost their life, they saved a hundred more who could have died too.
For every curse word, there is someone, someone who is giving them blessings and someone who is wishing for their health too. This is the reason why these faux smiles and poor jokes are important, so that they can heal others and not end up becoming the ones on the receiving end of the treatment.
'Ding-Dong'
"Coming! Teddy, be a dear and please see who's at the door, will you? I'm a bit busy with dinner right now."
There was a loud 'Thump' as if someone just jumped on the floor and then down the stairs before the main door is flung open and a small boy with bright blue hair and bright green eyes is standing on the doorstep. His eyes widened as his face broke into a sun-shaming grin.
"HAAARRRRYYY!"
Harry smiled at the small bundle of hyperactiveness and laughed as said bundle jumped on him in a tight hug.
"Who's it, Teddy?" Andromeda Tonks came out hurriedly drying her wet hands on a small hand towel.
"It's Uncle Harry!" Teddy exclaimed before looking at Harry with the perfect imitation of a small lost puppy who is begging for something.
Harry looked at the expression and raised his right eyebrow at the little miscreant "Really Teddy? You are eight years old now, not a small kid and you weigh a ton already."
Teddy just kept on looking at Harry with those same puppy dog eyes, his features changing to better mimic one.
"You do know that it's not as effective as it used to be, right?" Harry said crossing his arms on his chest.
Teddy protruded his lower lip a bit.
"Ugh…Really Ted? I am really tired today, how about we do this next time I come?"
Harry would never know exactly how Teddy got the perfect amount of tears in his eyes, they didn't fall down but they looked like they would if Harry denied anything to poor little Teddy, it is just the right amount.
Harry sighed at that, he knew that if the boy did this with Kingsley then the Minister might even retire and give Teddy Lupin his post as the Minister for Magic…but for now.
Harry bent down on his knees with his back facing his godson.
"YAAYYY!" Teddy exclaimed happily as Harry stood up with Teddy on his back, the little man's arms around his neck and legs crossed around his waist, Teddy gave a loud giggle as Harry ran inside the house, suspiciously enough all the tears that were just about to spill, vanished.
Harry sighed as he looked at the sleeping boy in his bed, he remembered the first time Teddy was with him. Harry was telling him a story of the war but Teddy was asleep every time for the Battle of Hogwarts. Harry smiled at how cute the small kid is looking while sleeping, completely tension free and stress-free.
He bent down and gave a small peck on Teddy's forehead before running his fingers through the boy's mop of purple hairs and then leaving the boy to his world full of dreams and peace, he turned off the lamp and gently closed the door.
Harry had made sure to tell Teddy all he knew about his parents. He wanted the boy to remember his parents and remember them as heroes who gave their lives so that Magical Britain could live.
Therefore, Harry always told Teddy about the different battles as well as taught the boy to never give up, even in dire circumstances, because sometimes, something might happen that could change everything that once seemed to be immutable.
Harry joined Andromeda as she was washing the dishes, he took a dry cloth and started wiping the water from the washed dishes.
"I take it Teddy is asleep?" Andromeda asked to which Harry nodded and continued to dry the dishes in a muggle way, even though both of them knew that he could simply snap his fingers and dry them all in one go. Still, this is more comfortable as well as relaxing.
Neither of them said anything, they were content to just relax in the other's presence and go through the activity that they had taken up.
"So, what's troubling you, Harry?" Andromeda asked the man who is more like a son to her than a distant relative.
"Nothing much Andy, just…the day is too much." Harry sighed and rubbed his forehead, he could still feel the headache that he has been trying to suppress for four hours now.
"Tough day at work?"
"Did you hear about the blast that happened last night in the Department of Mysteries?" Harry asked the woman who nodded, it was all one could find for the first few pages in that day's Daily Prophet.
"Well, the victims of the blast are brought to Saint Mungo's, thankfully it was night time so there weren't many who were in the Ministry at that time, still we had five casualties and twelve are seriously wounded, rest are in various stages of trauma."
Andromeda gasped in shock at the numbers. The moment she had heard about the blast, she knew that Harry would be overworked, stressed and depressed which meant that instead of going to his lonesome house, he would choose to come meet her and Teddy.
"Harry? Come here."
Harry looked at Andromeda who is motioning him to leave the couch and sit on the floor in front of her. He knew what is about to come next when he saw her summon a bottle of hair oil.
Andromeda made some space as she sat cross-legged on the couch while Harry sat on the floor, he leaned back so that his head is properly aligned, and he felt the hair oil on his scalp that Andromeda is pouring on his head, so that she can start with the massage.
"Yes…" once satisfied with the amount of oil that the eldest Tonks poured, she closed the cap of the bottle and kept it at the side table.
"Andy! What're you doing? It's dripping down, quick!" Harry exclaimed and immediately got a small smack from Andromeda on the back of his head "Hush you, you big baby. I know what I'm doing. Now, tell me all about your day and relax."
Harry smiled a bit at Andromeda's motherly tone before releasing a contented sigh when he felt Andromeda's thin-long fingers massage his scalp and spread the oil throughout his head, from the tips of his hair all the way to the roots, and with that, he began retelling her about his stressful day.
"...And did I even tell you about my patient? The one I was assigned by healer Lamming?" Harry asked Andromeda as she finished the head massage and moved towards the wash basin to wash her hands off of the oil.
"No, you didn't. Wait, is that someone I know? Are they alright?" Andromeda forgot all about her hand-wash and instead focused entirely on Harry who is busy cracking his knuckles. Andromeda would never admit it but the war had indeed affected her both mentally and physically.
Physical illness can be cured with nutrition potions and proper exercises but the mental scars? One could never get rid of them. And Andromeda? She had too many mental scars.
Her birth family, her cousin Sirius, her little sister who went mad and killed their cousin, her husband for whom she had left everything had died protecting her and their daughter. Her little bubbling bundle of joy, Nymphadora died along with her husband Remus.
Suffice to say, Andromeda Tonks did NOT want to hear another depressing news, the day after the battle of Hogwarts, she had sworn to protect her grandson Teddy even at the cost of her own life.
Fortunately, to date, nothing drastic has happened but one could never be sure, especially with the 'Man-who-won' Mr Harry James Potter as her extended family, who she considered as the son she never had.
"No, you don't know her. She was in my batch at Hogwarts though. In Slytherin."
Harry told her as he rubbed the back of his neck and sighed in relief. You could say anything you want, but there was no one better than Andy and her head massages. He might be the best healer at St Mungo's but he is sure that Andy is the one who healed him the most with her magic massages, he didn't know how many times he came to her and she healed him simply with her massage and small talk.
Andromeda nodded and began washing her hand "Who are they?"
"We don't know much about her, yet," Harry told her as he remembered the incident regarding his mysterious patient.
-FLASHBACK-
~ Ten hours ago ~
~Saint Mungo's Hospital~
"Potter, did you get any info on your patient?"
Harry turned to look at the head healer who is frowning at him, "No sir, the only thing I know about her is that she is an Unspeakable, I've asked Martin to find out more about her he'll be here soon."
Healer Lamming nodded and moved out of Harry's office. Harry on the other hand is still thinking about the patient, for some reason, he hadn't been able to kick this patient's identity out of his head.
It is as if he should know her, as if he saw her somewhere and that he should remember her, but for some reason, his brain couldn't, just couldn't put the name to the woman's face. It is like the name was placed right in front of his eyes but is covered with a veil.
Harry is broken out of his reverie by a gentle knock on his office door and Martin's voice came from the other side, asking his permission to enter his office.
"Yes Martin, did you find anything on her?" Harry asked the assistant who nodded as he came in and stood in front of the healer.
"Yes sir, I am quite surprised that you didn't know her considering the fact that she was in your batch at Hogwarts."
Harry is not surprised by this, he had already suspected that much, "What's her name?"
"She is Daphne Greengrass, Heiress of the Noble House of Greengrass."
"Ah, Greengrass." Harry nodded, he knew that name, she is one of the four Slytherin girls in their year, but the girl never stood out of line or did anything that would be recognisable in any way.
Harry distantly remembered the girl as she was always in the background with her friend, unfortunately, he couldn't remember the friend's name, well it had been almost a decade, so he had an excuse to forget a girl who he had never talked with.
"Did you call her parents and tell them about her?"
Surprisingly enough, Martin shook his head in denial "Her father died in Vo-Voldemort's first uprising and her mother had joined the Death Eaters, she died in one of the raids conducted by the ministry after you won. She is an orphan, sir."
Harry gave a small hum at this, there were many raids conducted by the ministry after he had killed Voldemort, it seems like Daphne's mother was hiding and was killed in one of those, "Well, what about her guardians or any siblings? Cousins maybe?"
Martin again shook his head in denial "The only one left in her family other than her, was her younger sister Astoria Greengrass who died two years ago due to a blood curse that she was suffering from since her childhood."
Harry rubbed his temples trying to soothe the headache as he heard the new information, "Isn't there anyone in her house who we could contact? What about her friends?"
The ward assistant gave a small shrug, "The only one we were able to trace was a certain Tracey Davis who went to Hogwarts with her, but she left the country at the end of her fifth year and I don't think they've been in-touch after that."
"Oh for Merlin's sake! Contact her department head and ask them to send a few Unspeakables, we need someone to look after her, once she regains consciousness and her GCS score moves from 3 to 10." Harry told the assistant and went back to reading the report of a patient who was suffering from a potion's accident.
"Sir?"
Harry looked up at the assistant who is still standing there with a troubled expression on his face, somehow Harry knew that this isn't going to end well.
"Yes, Martin?"
"I am sorry sir but, the Department of Mysteries has been under emergency lockdown after the blast and no one from the department can be contacted until and unless the lockdown is removed," Martin said with a bow.
There were only two words that could perfectly described Harry's mental state right now, "Bloody Brilliant!"
-FLASHBACK ENDS-
Harry was about to go to the guest room which, by now, was his own room considering the facts that:
A. He was the only person who came to the Tonks Household and stayed for the night.
B. He has spent countless nights here, especially during the time he is in training to become a proficient healer and during his internship year.
C. Andromeda didn't allow anyone except Harry to stay for the night, so no one got a chance to sleep in his room.
D. Andromeda herself told Harry many times that this is his room and he is like her son, so to stop whining and get his ass in the bed. Oh, and he better not wake up till it's 7 in the morning.
So well, he was going to his room when Andromeda called out his name from the living room. He entered the room, only to find her lifting the fall board of the grand piano, she then turned to Harry and smiled as she patted the Piano bench that was kept near the piano.
"Come join me, let's play our favourite once again, it's been quite some time since we played this thing together, don't you think so?"
Harry couldn't help but laugh at that before joining Andromeda on the bench and playing the chords while she played the tune of We Shall Overcome Someday by Pete Seeger.
Mathew Smith is running, it seems as if the sole reason he is created for is to run in the corridors of Saint Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, he is forty-six for crying out loud! It most certainly didn't matter that wizards aged a lot slower than muggles.
The senior healer is having a moment of déjà vu. It seemed like he is doing the same thing for the same person two days ago. He started making a mental checklist of all the places he checked for said elusive healer so that he could make a list of the places that he could visit.
Mathew is running, it is an emergency, he is running to find the same person again that he found two days ago. There is just one difference, the case is different. That is the only difference that told the senior healer that he didn't accidentally jump in the past.
There is another announcement that rang through the corridors, the announcer asking Healer Potter to report to the Trauma ward as soon as possible. Mathew mentally scoffed at that 'Oh shut up! He never even listens to you'
The door to the library is finally in his field of vision, he slammed the door open and completely ignored the librarian's indignant 'HEY! THIS IS A LIBRARY!' as he searched out for that familiar mop of Raven black hairs.
Mathew found his target again at the same table, with a cup of coffee beside him in his favourite cup, completely immersed in another tome.
"Harry…em…emergency" Mathew is panting a bit from exhaustion, trying to regain his breathing.
"Mathew? I swear it Mathew, it seems like you get an emergency only during my break time, why it was only two days ago that you came in-"
"Your patient…Daphne Greengrass…she's awake."
Ending Note: A new fic, new scenario and a world full of possibilities. Time for a Healer harry.
I have recently started a p treon account, so if you want to support me and read a chapter in advance go there, it's started recently but all my stories will be 2-3 chapters ahead on it as well as there will be story and character polls for patrons.
Right now, there isn't a second chapter of Palliation on but it will be there in a week (kinda busy) and after that, p treon will always be a chapter ahead from ffn and ao3.
www. p a treon .c-o-m / DevSagittariusBlack
(Remove the spaces and delete the '-', obviously) Link is also present on my profile
Here's the link to my super private server on discord where I'll keep on updating new chapters, sneak peeks, Character designs, where you are free to talk and ask things regarding my fanfics:
Its a newly launched server...
discord . gg / Gcbcv4dxGx (remove the spaces)
Name: Dev Black's Empire
It's a new fic so do tell me if you like the first chapter or not, I've quite a few things planned for it. Constructive criticism is appreciated.
Even a simple 'Good Work Dev' is also appreciated, the more you review the sooner you'll get another chapter (imagine the devil smile)
With Regards
Dev Black