The next morning, after a sleepless night of dwelling on how to make sure that things would turn out okay, Hermione approached Blaise at breakfast with her new plan: to use the Philosopher's Stone.

"You really think the Elixir of Life will help?" Blaise hissed to Hermione. "It helps you not get older, not survive a rampaging nundu."

"It's certainly not going to hurt," Hermione argued back, tired. "And who knows? If Harry gets out of the task with radiation poisoning, we'll be ready."

Blaise looked like he wanted to argue more when he was interrupted by the mail arriving, the clatter from the barrage of owls drowning out anything he might say.

To Hermione's pleasant surprise, an owl swooped down and dropped a scroll onto her lap, and she eagerly untied it. Blaise scooted closer to her to read over her shoulder, and Hermione let him as she unrolled the scroll.

.

Dear Hermione,

We are both appalled to hear of Harry's entry into the tournament, and we are very disappointed (and somewhat horrified) to hear that your Headmaster will do nothing to intercede. Is there a school board you can appeal to? If nothing else, is there a civil court Harry can appeal to for the contract to be broken? The idea of a magic cup forcing your friend to risk his life is ridiculous. Can really nothing be done?

Things here are much the same. The practice is going well, and we're enjoying the unusually good weather this year. The only new thing is keeping up with your friends' parents' tests – and there have been a lot of them so far.

We got the original MRI results for the Longbottoms, along with a list of further suggested tests. Your mother had scarcely opened it before there was a knock at the door, with two people from your Ministry asking if they could come in. They got a copy of the results too, apparently, but they didn't know how to interpret what they said. We did the best we could to explain the odd test results, and somehow, we ended up formulating a treatment plan with the two of them and calling around to schedule more tests with specialists.

The Longbottoms have had MRIs, PET scans, EMGs, and a series of blood tests. Frank has also had a spinal tap and a nerve conductivity test. The doctors are stumped, but they keep running different tests. I don't think they're likely to find anything, but the more information they can get you, the better your odds of helping them, I figure.

From what the doctors can tell, Frank Longbottom looks like he has ALS. His MRI and EMG results are consistent with this. What contradicts this diagnosis is the lack of inclusion bodies with TDP-43 protein within his motor neurons. Frank lacks the genetic mutation for ALS as well. The neurologist said that it's as if Frank had ALS – his motor neurons and motor cortex died – but then the ALS went away, which doesn't happen. He said he's never seen a stable ALS patient in his life. He and a biochemist keep testing for misfolded proteins, but I think they've gotten as far as they're able to, really.

Alice's case is more straightforward – she has visible brain damage on her CT scans. They've ruled out a stroke and neurological illness, as well as direct head trauma or any sort of tumor. The doctors asked about her personal history, and Alrick managed to talk around the issue, heavily implying she was part of MI-6 and had been forced to endure torture. Based on her personal history (what they know of it), they think either hypoxia or acute sleep deprivation could have caused this type of damage.

In either case, there's no cure or direct treatment available, only symptom management – but that's not exactly the limiting factor for you, is it? I have a few ideas for you to start with:

1. Alice's brain damage likely can't be healed, especially if it was caused by Dark magic. But there is a lot of positive evidence on different areas of the brain learning to compensate for other damaged areas. If there's a magical thing that can increase neuroplasticity, Alice would probably respond well.

2. If Alice's brain damage can be healed, she should be put into a medically induced coma during the process. I have no idea how magic healing works, but just from an anatomical standpoint, her brain will be misfiring all over the place as new places heal and reconnect. Better to shut the whole system down first, I think – much like I don't rewire an outlet without first turning off the breaker.

3. Frank is a lot worse off. While the brain can compensate for damaged areas, once a motor neuron dies, it dies – they don't exactly grow back. I remember you mentioning that wizard healers can regrow bones, though, so who knows? If they can figure out a way to grow new motor neurons, it'll likely help fix Frank.

4. Though he's not as far along with ALS symptoms as would usually be the case, I think Frank might be a case of Locked-In Syndrome – where he's fully aware of what's going on, but he has no ability to initiate or control any voluntary movement. If this is the case, a mind-reader might be able to reach him and talk with him. If there's a reverse mind-reading spell as well, that could work too – like something that would let him project his thoughts to someone else. Look up the spell Sending in the books I gave you – something like that would probably help.

Sorry it's not more positive news. I know you were hoping for something simple and fixable with modern medicine, but at least now you have a potential place to start with treatment options.

Alrick says they're going to stop taking the Longbottoms for tests after this last one – a SPECT scan for Frank – and I think that's just because Alrick wants to see what the 3D result looks like. After that, he says he'll handle the doctors remembering and make sure that all the loose ends are tied up nicely. I asked if that meant he would kill them all (as a joke), and he looked horrified, quickly reassuring me he was just going to modify their memories and confound them a little bit. I need to learn what is or isn't appropriate joking material with wizards, I suppose – I thought it was funny, but apparently not.

Sylvia says you should focus on the research you've already done for her (?) to help the Longbottoms, but she refuses to elaborate on that when I push. I don't know what research you've done for her, love, but I'd caution you with going down that route – she seems to have a personal stake in that path of action, regardless of if it'd help the Longbottoms or not. Your mother seems to think Sylvia's a fan of yours, but at a creepy level – she asked her where you were conceived. Your mother had the awkward task of explaining to her that we have no idea where you were conceived, as there were multiple times you could have possibly been conceived (to say nothing of the timing when the sperm actually met the egg, as opposed to the initiating act), and Sylvia still wanted your mother to list them all off.

This is a long way for me to say that I think Sylvia is unstable. I don't know how she got involved in this project (she said something about penance?), but I'd advise you to keep your distance as best you can.

All my love,

Dad

P.S. There's a saying amongst us muggle-wizard players: "Sometimes the sound of healing is the sound of screaming." It's meant to be a silly joke, but it occurs to me – if you're going to try healing the Longbottoms, there might be rather a lot of screaming involved; you might want to make sure they don't tear up their vocal cords in the process.

.

Hermione bit her lip, thinking, as she waited for Blaise to finish reading too. When he was done, he looked up.

"You're helping the Longbottoms?" His tone was surprised. "When was this?"

"When you weren't speaking to me," Hermione admitted. "Back in September."

An odd expression flickered over Blaise's face, but it was gone a moment later. "What do they mean, 'Sylvia'? Who's Sylvia? Please tell me it's not who I think it is."

"I can't," Hermione said grimly. "It is – she showed up as part of the team the Ministry sent to help get the Longbottoms to their MRIs."

Blaise swore colorfully and loudly enough several younger students turned to stare at him, wide-eyed and giggling.

"You know she's just saying the Elixir of Life might help them because she wants you to make more of it, right?" he said angrily, keeping his voice low. "I hardly think the Longbottoms are insane because of damaged telomeres."

"It can heal more than just telomeres, Blaise," Hermione reminded him. "It healed the nerves in my hands."

"Well. I still don't like it." Blaise sat back in a huff. "I still think we'd be better off if Sylvia just… disappeared."

"I was already wanting to make the elixir to potentially help Harry," Hermione pointed out. "This would just be giving us another reason, really. If Harry doesn't need it, we can give it to the Longbottoms."

"We give it to the Longbottoms," Blaise said emphatically. "In secret. Not with Sylvia around, got it?"

"Agreed." Hermione reread the last paragraphs of her father's letter, shuddering slightly. "What's this business of wanting to know where I was conceived? That's invasive and disgusting, really."

"No idea," Blaise said darkly. "Maybe working in the Department of Mysteries has made her go a bit mad."