Poppy wakes up with a groan of pain as someone shakes her, carefully pushing herself up she looks at Reginald, "Madam Pomphrey, the sky is lightening and the sun will be rising soon. Airmed asked me to suggest that you return to the school before it does, as they can't guarantee your safety if you stay. I myself will be returning home as I am not yet a full Chosen of Airmed."
Poppy blinks at him a few times as she processes what he just said, "Not until I have run some diagnosis charms over her."
Reginald sighs, "Madam… no Poppy, you are in no state to be casting anything more than a lumos with your wand, let alone doing wandless diagnostic spells even with Airmed's aid."
"Mr Greengrass, I would be betraying my oaths if I didn't at least ensure that she is stable before I leave. Besides, what of the two students? Don't think I can't hear them in there, my oaths to the school would prevent me from leaving if they are in danger."
Reginald sighs, "How do you discharge that duty when they need to go to St Mungo's?"
Poppy hangs her head, "They have to be released from my care by the Head Master, The Deputy Head, or a more senior Healer. Why do you think I'm still a mediwitch even though I have more experience, and possibly more knowledge than even the Senior Healers at St Mungo's?"
Reginald shakes his head, "At least ask the Goddess Airmed if you can join her chosen, it may save your life."
Poppy shuffles into the cottage, her legs so painful she can barely lift them. Behind her Reginald shrugs in a 'I tried' way. As Dora sighs, Poppy turns around quickly enough to catch a flash of red before the world goes dark.
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Poppy wakes up as the sun streams through the tall windows in the hospital wing. Blinking blearily, she reaches for her wand to cast a tempus before dropping it as pain wracks her body. Now completely awake she looks around from one of the infirmary beds rather than the bed in her own suite off of the ward. Swearing at interfering busybodies, she hobbles to the floo. Taking a pinch of floo powder, she winces as it's activation pulls on her magic and calls out, "Hogsmeade Clinic."
When the fire turns green, she carefully kneels down and pushes her head through.
A slightly groggy healer answers the Floo, "Good morning mediwitch, how can we help you?"
"I may have strained my magic, and I'd like someone to visit to take a look please."
"You have, strained, your magic?"
"Constant, low level ache, and increased pain when you use the affected muscle?"
The healer snaps, "I am aware of what a strain is."
"Well, that's what I feel like with my magic." Poppy carefully doesn't explain that someone else told her that she'd strained her magic the night before.
"Fine, I'm coming over, please open the Floo."
Poppy can't help hissing as she activates the magic that allows Floo travel to the Infirmary.
As soon at the Healer steps through, they hit her with a battery of diagnostic spells. After a good 5 minutes, they stop casting, "Well, I can't find anything wrong with you."
Poppy looks at the ceiling and back, "Did you do a magic flow diagnosis?"
"Of course?"
"Did you bother to hold it while asking me to try casting a spell?"
"I don't need a mediwitch telling me what to do."
Looking aggrieved, Poppy forces herself to remain calm, "Young man, I have been the mediwitch at Hogwarts longer than you have been alive. The sole reason I have the title of mediwitch is due to my healing oaths and oaths to the school. Now, if this was a muscle strain and your diagnosis didn't turn up anything, what would you do?"
The Healer grumbles before he responds, "I'd ask them to move the part that hurts. Fine, can you cast a Lumos please?"
Poppy does so with a wince, and almost drops her wand in the process, "That queer, your magic flows seemed to spasm, though everything else seems fine."
Poppy nods, "I thought as much. I'm going to drink a pain potion. I need you to monitor me and administer aid if it doesn't work the way it should."
"Are you sure?"
"I'm in no condition to monitor myself, and I'm going to need you here to manage the diagnostics while I provide instructions for treatment."
"Why would you need instructions for treatment?"
"Tell me, what is the correct procedure for treating someone who has accidentally eaten transfigured food?"
"Um, look up the counter spells and then use them?"
"You've just lost a patient. Put them under stasis and then do a detailed scan from head to toe looking for every bit of transfigured material. Switch out any large bits for saline and catalogue the exact location and organs the rest are in. With that catalogue locate the potions that will replace the material that should be there before you start switching it out with pure glucose. Once that's done, spell the potions into the patients stomach and release the stasis spell. Monitor for 24 hours to ensure that the glucose isn't causing problems."
"How do you even know that?"
Poppy shrugs slightly, "It happens at least once every couple of years."
The healer blinks.
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Skye unobtrusively slips into the back of the Charms classroom before the first years get there. Filius looks up from his preparations, "Professor Harris! To what do I owe the pleasure?"
Skye smiles, "Professor Flitwick, I hope you don't mind. However, I am not familiar with the styles of magic taught in this school. So I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone, and observe the first year classes this term to see what they're taught, as well as seeing how they get on with each other, especially for those who don't get on with each other."
Filius nods, "I see, a logical concern. I presume this is about the class you will be teaching from the new year?"
"It is indeed. I want to be able to choose those who are there to learn, and won't cause problems for the other students. I don't have my cou… Morgana's advantage of being from unknown providence."
"Indeed, I rather think that word will have soon spread from the older students to the younger. They in turn will inform their parents, who will urge them to join, if only to learn your marvellous ability to travel through our post potent protections."
"While I may pick a couple of students to teach, it is not something that they should expect. Indeed, initially Morgana taught it as a reward for applying without knowing how powerful she was magically. I personally feel that the knowledge and insights this education will bring are more than reward enough."
Flitwick nods, "You would do very well in my house. Now, do you need parchment and quill?"
Skye laughs, "Not at all," she leans her staff forward and twists a ring on her finger to reveal a chisel shaped edge. "I am very practiced with imprinting Ogham on staves."
"How fascinating, how do you read it?"
Skye shrugs, "Eyes or fingers, from top to bottom."
Their conversation is interrupted by a Ravenclaw prefect leading the first year Ravenclaws through the door. A young blond wearing jewellery made from bottle caps looks at Skye curiously before taking her seat. It doesn't take long for the Gryffindor students to arrive, at which point Filius begins the class.
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Harry yawns as he trudges from breakfast to Defence with the rest of his class. While he got to sleep at a normal-ish time, he was up from before sunrise, and had to spend a lot of energy stabilising Kate because she'd come out of the tree late. Not that they knew that would be the case until she woke up and walked outside to bask in the sun and her return to humanity started to reverse.
As Harry slumps in her seat, she's momentarily jealous of Marianne after her response to getting the timetable this morning. It would be nice to get some more sleep…
Harry jerks awake as the door to Professor Lockhart's office opens with a bang. Blearily looking around, he smiles slightly when he realises that someone guided him to a seat at the back of the class. Everyone's eyes are drawn to Professor Lockhart, as he strides out of the office with perfectly coifed hair, the lightest touch of makeup to ensure that his blue eyes stand out, and wearing a set of tailored robes that look more like an explorers outfit from the old films set in Africa combined with wizarding robes. A fuscia cravat finishes his outfit. As he reaches the desk he turns to face the class and give a smile with brilliant white teeth.
"Good morning everyone, and welcome to Defence Against the Dark Arts. I'm sure that introductions are hardly necessary, but I am Professor Gilderoy Lockhart. Now before we begin the lesson, there seems to be some mistake with the register. Harry Potter, I'm afraid they have your name down as Harry Danann." Harry blinks slowly, "Don't worry, I'll correct it here and see that it's corrected by the Deputy Headmistress."
"Um, professor? My mother is Dr Danann, by blood."
"Of course, of course, however the Potter family is an ancient and prestigious name, and takes precedence over a name like Danann."
Harry screws up his eyes as he tries to think, fortunately Millicent comes to his rescue from across the room, "With all due respect Professor, I have seen evidence that the Danann family have been magical for over 2,000 years. Apart from the odd adoption, they have never had a squib or non-magical member of the family."
He might be imagining it, but he thinks that Nott and Malfoy send glares Millicent's way.
Lockhart continues, blithely ignoring Millicent's statement, "With that bit of business out of the way, we shall move on. I thought that a good way to start off the year would be with a quiz. This way I can assess how much you have all read the assigned books."
Rather unusually, Lockhart walks around the class handing out the sheets. As Harry looks at his, he shakes his head before looking at it again, "Justin, does your quiz start with 'what is my favourite colour'?"
Justin frowns and checks his own quiz, "Yeah, it does."
Harry reads through every single question before he starts to answer. When he reaches the end of the quiz he rubs his eyes and yawns, "What's the point in this quiz? It's got nothing about the Wagga Wagga Werewolf, banshee, selkies, vampires, or even the fae. All of which feature in his books."
Justin shakes his head, "I don't know mate, just do your best."
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With the lesson mostly over, Lockhart collects the tests and thumbs through them quickly, "I will be marking these later, however it seems that all of you need to re-read the books. Miss Parkingson, 2 points for correctly answering that I want world peace for my birthday. Miss Zabini, 2 points for correctly answering how many times I won Witch Weekly's most charming smile award, five times."
Putting the papers on the desk he walks over to a covered birdcage, "The next part of our lesson is Cornish Pixies." He sweeps the cover off the cage to reveal 10 blue skinned winged fae.
At the word pixies Ephis looks up from Harry's hair and flies over to the cage to look at the creatures curiously. When they see her, they all back away from the bars.
"They're not pixies, I know what pixies look like and it isn't that."
Lockhart looks taken aback, "I'm sorry, those are most definitely Cornish pixies. Their blue colouring sets them apart from other pixies."
"Nope, they might be draxie's."
"I assure you that they are Pixies."
Ephis rounds on Lockhart, "Look, I may be a Sylph, but I know what a pixie looks like, and they're not pixies. They're too small for a start."
"Hagrid assured me that these are indeed Cornish Pixies. So how would you know that they're not."
"Grr, I'll show you what a pixie looks like. Give me a sec."
Ephis starts to glow with magic, and a cocoon seems to appear inside the glow, which rapidly ages over the next couple of minutes, before it cracks open at the top and a small figure around 18 inches tall struggles out. As this is going on, Lockhart steps back until he bumps into his desk and shakily draws his wand.
When the light dims and the cocoon disappears into wisps of magic, Ephis puts her hands on her hips, "See, I'm now a Pixie. See the difference?" as she sags slightly in the air she continues, "Bugger, I did that too fast, I need a nap." As she flies back to Harry, she looks down at his head and wails, "Why did I do this, I can't sleep on your head anymore."
Harry smiles, "You could sit on my shoulder."
Ephis considers it and then turns around to sit on Harry's shoulder and pulls his hair around her, "Hmm, that works. Sleep now."
Pulling himself together, Lockhart walks back over to the cage and opens it, "Well, after that educational interruption, your task for the rest of the class is to learn how to corral Cornish Pixies, the spell is Peskipiksi Pesternomi."
Much to the professors consternation, the Cornish Pixies look over at Ephis and stay right where they are.
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After the class, Millicent walks over to join the Hufflepuffs before looking at Harry, "Harry, are you all right?"
Harry yawns loudly, "Sorry, I was up before dawn, and I had to use a lot of magic to stabilise Kate. I think we have," he pulls out his timetable, "a free period until after lunch. So I'm going to try to…"
Daphne and Susan grab an arm each while Ernest catches his bag, "We're just going to put him on his bed, you're welcome to meet in the common room if you want."
Millicent nods, "Thank you."