Chapter 20 - Healing Disgusting, Pus-filled Fungal Lesions Can Be Surprisingly Inspiring
As he left Daphne's side and they went to their respective house tables on the following Monday, Harry's smile was fully in place. She'd waken him up again for the third time this week with one of her excellent blowjobs. He truly didn't know how he could be so lucky. She'd told him multiple times that it was only because she hadn't been able to relieve any of her own tensions this week and because she'd felt guilty for being on her period when they could've been doing more. She'd loved going down on him but with his throbbing cock in her mouth it only made her more frustrated as she imagined it elsewhere.
Either way, Harry was on top of the world. He had a beautiful, brilliant girlfriend. His studies were going well both in class, in his personal training and in his reading from Madam Pomfrey, and there even had been a decent atmosphere around him in the Slytherin Common Room in the last few days, though some people were understandably still wary of him. True, they'd only had three days of lessons so far, with the Hogwarts Express arriving on a Tuesday this year, but he'd gotten a lot done over the weekend and he, Daphne, Neville and Tracey had spent their lazy Sunday by the Black Lake, chatting while gradually making their way through their homework.
Harry sat down at the table opposite Ron and Hermione. Ron was happily scoffing away at everything he could get his hands on and Hermione was lost in a book, a forkful of bacon hovering forgotten, halfway to her mouth.
"Hi guys," Harry said as he sat down, "How's it going? How was your detention last night with Professor Malfoy?"
Ron glowered at him but kept chewing.
"That well, huh?" Harry said with a frown, I hope she didn't have you scrubbing the toilets or something."
Swallowing a forkful of beans, Ron sneered and said "It was just lines, but the worst lines ever. She made me copy out most of this book on wizarding genealogy and its place in the world. Completely pointless."
"Well, she was clearly trying to teach you something, Ronald," Hermione said, remembering her bacon and then turning the page.
"Like what? That I'm a blood traitor? All this heritage stuff is pointless, family magic is pointless. It's just a way for one family to say they're better than another."
"No it's not and I'm surprised and kind of insulted that you said that," said Neville, "Don't you know that your great-grandparents were responsible for adapting their family magic to make the biggest improvements in Wizarding fertility in the last two hundred years?"
"Oh shut up Neville, you pureblood snob," Ron snapped, "My great-grandparents did no such thing."
"They did, Ron," Harry said, "I've read the book you're talking about and if you'd bothered to get to "Weasley" you'd have found that out as well. And you don't get to talk to Neville like that, don't be so bloody ignorant."
"Piss off," said Ron with a scowl, sliding slightly down the bench and turning away from them before looking over his shoulder "Clearly Slytherin is rubbing off on you."
"Whatever," Harry said with a roll of his eyes and grabbed his Anatomy and Physiology textbook from his bag. He was nearly finished with it now, finally getting to a section on Maternity. He turned to his bookmarked page and began to read. A few minutes later he saw a word he recognised - 'Eclampsia…wait…Eclampsia!' Harry thought 'That was what Astoria said the curse did to her, Magical Eclampsia'. But then he frowned, what did maternity have to do with the Greengrass curse? He put the book down in the space next to him and read while he buttered some toast. When he'd finished the page he tried to wrap his mind around it.
'Seizures usually the main cause of lethality… and what happens in the seizures is…toxins often caused by the placenta get into the bloodstream and the kidneys can't filter the toxins out. The blood vessels swell and burst and those that burst in the brain leak the toxins into the skull and so the brain swells against the meninges, which causes the brain cells that are crushed to receive too many stimuli…and that's what causes the electrical energy to start the seizure. But the placenta isn't going anywhere unless they deliver, right? So the seizures could just go on forever…well that's scary. But Astoria isn't pregnant, I'm pretty sure'
"Hermione," Harry asked, looking up from his book and turning it towards her "Have you ever heard about this? Eclampsia?"
"Oh yeah," Hermione said, "Well, my mum had pre-eclampsia when she was having me. They had to keep testing her wee and put her on meds to lower her blood pressure."
Harry nodded. Not the kind of answer he was looking for. He looked down at the page to see if he was missing something when the hoots of nearly a hundred owls echoed around the Great Hall. He looked up and saw his first friend, Hedwig, gliding down towards him with a letter clutched in her talons.
"Hiya girl," Harry said, tearing off a piece of toast for her as she dropped the roll of parchment in front of him, "Who's this from? Looks like Sirius by the handwriting."
Hedwig bobbed her head up and down in an affirmative.
"Thanks, Hedwig, I'll write a reply and come and see you this afternoon. If you're good I might bring you some more toast."
Hedwig gave a happy hoot and gave him a playful nip on the ear while he gently stroked the back of two fingers on her feathers. She stayed a bit longer to eat a couple of rashers of bacon before taking off again.
Unrolling the parchment and breaking the seal with his wand tip, Harry rolled out the parchment and began to read.
Hiya pup,
Hope things are going well.
Just a quick letter bearing some news. Two bits that have to do with the Minister, actually.
First, I don't know if I ever told you that Amelia and I - I call her Amy - were together for a while, right up until I took my stint with the Dementors. It's taken a while for her to talk to me again but we've started dating now, and things are going well, so just a warning that she and Susan might be around the pad around Christmas. After what you told me about the party I hope Daphne won't be too jealous. Tell her hi from me.
Secondly, Amy told me she's approved for you to purchase a second wand. She's informed Ollivander and has promised me that she'll get me the documentation by Friday. Be ready for eight on Sunday morning and we'll head straight down to Diagon. Afterwards, we can head back to the chamber and you can give duel-wielding a try. The portrait of Salazar told me he did it himself, so I'm sure he'll be able to give you a few tips.
Have a good week at school and try to get into some mischief.
Love,
Padfoot
Lunchbreak, in a bathroom in the Dungeons
"I told you Sep, I don't need your help and I'm pissed you stopped me having a lunch for this conversation" whispered Theodore Nott leaning against the dimly lit bathroom wall.
"Don't be daft," said Septimus Rookwood loudly, his horned glasses gleaming in the pale yellow firelight, "My Dad's taught be loads of cool tricks, let's make Potter pay together."
"Will you keep your voice down!" Nott said, glaring at the young man opposite him before looking around frantically, "You know the portraits can hear you, it can't get back to Potter,"
"I get it," Septimus said more quietly, sitting on a bank of sinks. "You're scared of him, he's powerful, I get that, but I can help."
"I don't want your help, Sep, I need to do this alone. After he killed my Dad. I need revenge. You guys were too brash in the Common Room. Not Slytherin at all. I have to redeem myself, my family's standing before the Dark Lord."
"Oh, come on, I just want to help, I'll just maim him a bit, you can be the one to kill him," Rookwood replied.
"I said no. And that's final. And I'm not going to kill him. If it turns into a duel I'm a goner and I know you get that too. This has to be slow…Calculated," Nott said with a dark smile, "He took the one person I cared about the most from me, so I'm going to do the same. I'm going to kill Daphne Greengrass."
Septimus Rookwood jumped off the sink unit and onto his feet and made to leave the bathroom. At the last second, he leaned his head back into the room and said, "Not if I kill her first."
Daphne had rather enjoyed her lunch, she'd had fish and chips and was currently on her way with Tracey to Charms. As they stepped onto the Grand Staircase, she caught a glimpse of her boyfriend's arse, a couple of staircases above her.
"Why does he always have to take off his robes and just wear those trousers?" she muttered under her breath, sighing.
"Are you on about Harry again?" Tracey said with a smirk, looking to see where her friend was looking, " It is a great butt. Must be all that training."
They turned onto the third floor and lagged behind a bit so their other classmates heading to the Charms corridor could get past them.
"I just hate my period. I've had a room alone with him for nearly a week and it's been never-ending." Daphne moaned
"But you said it finished now right? You found out just before class, that's why you practically bounced into Transfiguration."
"I know, I'm just frustrated."
"You're frustrated? Neville and I haven't done it in over a month, and I'm not a virgin, I know how good sex is. At least you've got a room. I wish Neville was in Slytherin, I might've asked Harry to borrow it for a Saturday afternoon." Tracey said with a grin.
"I wouldn't let you anyway," Daphne said with a smirk, "It's Harry's room and mine, now."
"Ooh, moving in already are you?" asked Tracey with a teasing smile.
"I'm considering buying a second toothbrush next time we visit Hogsmeade, what do you think?" Daphne replied with a sly expression that made Tracey chuckle.
"Stop here," Tracey said, "Just so we're definitely out of the way, we've still got another five minutes and I've got an idea."
Daphne stopped walking and they moved completely out of earshot of anyone else.
"What?" she asked.
"Well, you're planning on shagging him tonight aren't you?" asked Tracey.
Daphne blushed and looked down before replying with a drawn-out "Yeeeeees."
"Well…. Have you got anything special planned? It'll be his virginity too, you know, and you wanna look extra special."
Daphne chewed her lip, Tracey did have a point.
"I have that little green set I bought at Hogsmeade?" she suggested.
"Nothing muggle?"
"No."
"Okay, Daph, I tell you what," Tracey said, a mischievous look in her eye. "After what happened with Neville over the summer I bought some stuff from this muggle place called Ann Summers, super sexy. But you know me, I don't pack light and Mum ends up sending me an extra suitcase I've before school via owl when she gets round to it. Her letter yesterday said that it's coming tomorrow morning. There are like three outfits I haven't worn yet all incredible lingerie. Hold off for tonight and you can have one of them. Just resize them to fit your body."
"That's an amazing offer, Trace," Daphne said, trying to show her friend how grateful she was, "But I wanted to do it tonight. I don't think I can be in a room with him now without…you know. I'm just so…"
"Horny?" Tracey added with a grin.
"Yeah!" Daphne replied with obvious frustration.
"Trust me, it will be worth the wait. Imagine the look on his face. Come to my room tonight and try them on, you can tell him you're behind on an essay or something."
"Like he would believe that." Daphne snorted.
"Honey," Tracey said, patting her friend on their shoulder almost patronisingly as they set off again, "I think that boy would believe you if you told him the moon was made out of cheese."
"What?"
"Just a muggle expression."
Daphne shook her head while they walked around the corner and into class.
As much as she enjoyed charms, the class today was on something rather boring, the Colour Change Charm, which was something Daphne had learned in her third year during Arithmancy. Getting things to change colour was one of the first things that she had learned and with the Charms lesson also being mostly theory, the class began to drag. Luckily she and Harry had taken to bringing their Memorandus tablets into class and she knew that he had History of Magic right now so he was probably bored out of his brain.
Monday 7th September
Hey, I'm bored. How's History of Magic?
Hi! I'm so glad you're writing. Should've thought of it first. I was literally just dropping off.
That's exciting eh?
Oh yeah. The post-revolt Goblin-Ministry Proliferation talks of 1304 were a truly riveting time.
Ugh, I've got the same class tomorrow.
Well, you're in for a treat. How's charms?
Colour-changing charm, I know it back to front.
Of course, you do my little brainbox.
Aww, you're weird.
In more interesting news though, Sirius is taking me to get a second wand on Sunday and then coming back to Hogwarts to train me in the Chamber for the afternoon.
Yes! I'm so glad the second wand permit came through.
Helps if your Godfather is shagging the Minister for Magic, I think.
What? Sirius and Amelia Bones?
Yep, apparently things are pretty serious, they used to be a thing before he went to Azkaban.
And she hasn't been with anyone else since. Aww
It does mean that Susan will likely be over for Christmas, though.
Oh for fucks sake, I thought I'd got you away from her
You did, I'm not going anywhere.
How do you feel like having a Greengrass Christmas this year?
I'd love to, as long as you aren't just inviting me because you don't want me to be at Sirius's house with Susan. You could come as well?
Nah I'd rip her head off before Christmas morning. I would like you to come anyway though. It would be nice for you to feel like more…part of the family.
Daphne, are you asking me to marry you? Hahaha
No chance pal. I haven't even sampled the goods yet. What if you're awful in bed?
What if you are?
Touche, though you seemed to enjoy it this morning.
I'm saying nothing.
When will you take me to the Chamber? You said you were gonna help train me.
Straight after class if you like.
Oh hold on, I promised Hedwig I'd post this reply today, so I'll meet you in the common room afterwards.
You promised your owl? Thats adorable.
Shut it.
Right, Flitwick is giving me funny looks. Better stop talking before he reads out our conversation.
Okay bye!
Harry always enjoyed the stroll to the Owlery in the late summer/early autumn. The leaves hadn't quite turned yet and it was still quite warm, for Scotland anyway. He walked behind the Hufflepuff Quidditch team on their way to practice, who were talking quietly, occasionally glancing back at him, probably wary that Harry might try to eavesdrop on them to learn about one of their plays for the upcoming season. But Harry wasn't that bothered about Quidditch anymore, he had more important things going on. Right now it was sending a letter to his Godfather to congratulate him on his new relationship and to tell him he was looking forward to seeing him on Sunday. He'd also scrawled a quick letter to Amelia Bones, just to thank her for allowing him to purchase a second wand and for confirming the next edition of his column would be published in the Prophet on Friday.
He imagined what it would be like trying to cast two spells at once. It would certainly prove to be a challenge. Sure, he was now able to maintain a number of channelled spells with one wand while diverting his focus, but he was still ironing out the creases on the Unassisted Flight spell. He imagined a day in another world where he could hold it constantly. With one hand he would soar above Little Whinging and with the other he would shoot down Jelly Legs Jinxes, Bat Bogey Hexes and an array of other spells designed to cause mayhem at all of those who had been awful to him during his formative years. He smiled at the thought of his invisibility cloak tied around him tightly while he did this, imagining Uncle Vernon tearing half his moustache off in rage as Harry made his prize Ford Escort float away like Aunt Marge had.
He was so lost in the daydream that he didn't even realise he was at the Owlery until he stepped into the shade of the lowermost level. Hedwig was friends with lots of the other owls, and lots of them boys, so Harry never had any idea which level she would be on. She was always at a different one whenever he'd visited when he was younger. He often wondered whether she had her own little nest on one of the many perches and if there might be several other little Hedwigs flapping around somewhere. Still, she often liked to huddle up in a remote corner that was difficult to find and there was no way Harry was gonna traipse up another four flights of stairs only to find out she'd been on the bottom floor the whole time and he'd been too blind to see her.
"Hedwig! Come here, girl!" Harry called. Sure enough, from high above him he heard her take off and then he watched her snowy form soar down towards him from outside the Owlery before she swooped in through an open arch and landed next to him.
"Hello you, how are you? Had a good day? Nice sleep?" Harry asked his owl, softly stroking her feathers.
Hedwig gave a "prek" and pushed head onto his hand.
"That good huh?"
"Aren't you two just adorable?" Daphne asked from behind him.
Harry smiled in recognition at her voice, he didn't turn towards her but reached into his bag to pull out his letters.
"We are indeed, aren't we Hedwig?" Harry said affectionately.
Hedwig gave an affirmative hoot.
"Right girl, one of these is going to Sirius and the other is going to the Minister, reckon you can get both done in one night for me?'
Hedwig looked at him as if he were stupid and let out an indignant squawk.
"Alright, I know, dumb question." Harry said, "Now 'cause there's two you can pick them up, but I'm gonna tie them to your leg too, okay?"
"Hoot."
Harry finished attaching the mail to Hedwig and she gave another soft hoot and flew away.
"Writing to the Minister are we? Impressive," Daphne said with a smirk and leaning against the wall, "What about?"
"It's a secret," Harry replied with a grin, "Something I'd tell my girlfriend but she's meant to be meeting me in the common room."
"I couldn't be arsed waiting down there and thought I'd just come find you. Faster I found you the faster you could whip me into shape " Daphne said with a mischievous smile.
Harry laughed, "I didn't realise you were into that sort of thing."
"Lord Slytherin-Potter, if I didn't know you were a gentleman I would have thought you were being quite dishonourable with me" "Daphne replied in mock-protect
"I'll be dishonourable with you any time you like."
"Is that so?" Daphne replied, seemingly unfazed in tone, but with a slight blush on her cheeks" "Well, I'm afraid you'll have to woo my delicate little heart first."
"As much as I'd love to win your heart I need to warn you, Heiress Greengrass," Harry said, stepping forward to her "Being with me could be…dangerous."
"Ooh I like dangerous," Daphne replied, stepping forward to kiss him on the lips.
"Come on," Harry said, smiling genially as they turned to leave, "If we're going to the Chamber, I'm gonna take you the way I went the first time."
Then there was a pop, it was a Hogwarts house-elf.
"Lord Slytherin-Potter, Madam Pomfrey is sending Tilly for you, she needs immediate assistance."
Harry nodded while he heard Daphne sigh next to him, "Thanks, Tilly. Tell her I'm coming now."
Tilly nodded and popped away.
"Sorry Daph," Harry said, "Can we do it tomorrow?"
Daphne smiled softly, rubbed his shoulder and said "Course we can."
Harry ended up near-sprinting to the hospital wing because he had no idea how long Madam Pomfrey would wait for him and the hospital wing was on the complete opposite side of Hogwarts to the Owlery. In the end, it took about ten minutes before the doors came into view and eleven before he saw the sign on the door that said "Magical Contagion Zone. Please knock for entry."
Harry rapped his knuckles three times on the door and waited, wondering what on earth was going on in there, after a good thirty seconds Madam Pomfrey opened the door.
'Oh good, it is you," Poppy said with a kind smile, "I was thinking we might have to send a search party."
"No, I was just all the way over at the Owlery when the elf showed up.'
"Ah." Madam Pomfrey said in understanding holding the door open for Harry to step through, "You made jolly good time then."
Harry was initially taken aback by his entrance to the hospital wing, before he worked out what it was he was looking at. Around one particular bed space (the one that should've had Harry's name on it by now) grey shimmering opaque walls had been raised, floor to ceiling and completely sealed the area off from the rest of the room.
"Right, Harry, out of my way, out of my way," Poppy said, pulling over a pre-prepared equipment trolley from her back office and placing it next to one of the strange, shimmering walls, "I told you I'd call for you when I got an unusual or interesting one, and having an extra set of hands will be useful and good practice for you, so here you are. However, before we see the patient I need to know you understand what is going on here. What that is around the bed?" Madam Pomfrey asked.
"It's a vacuum field. It lets air in and is keyed so that only healers can get out and only clean air gets in," replied Harry.
"Correct." Pomfrey said with a nod, "And if I told you that this is a Level 2 transmission risk, what do you need?"
"Muggle latex gloves and full-head bubblehead charm," Harry replied confidently.
"Good. Why do we use the full head variant rather than the one that covers just nose and mouth."
Erm…when the… pathogen or whatever it is can enter the bloodstream via the eyes and ears as well?
"Excellent. Right then," Madam Pomfrey replied with a smile. "Can you cast the bubblehead?
"I can do the basic one, but not the full-head one," Harry replied sheepishly.
"No problem, I'll cast it for you this time but I want you to prove you can cast it next week, alright?" said Madam Pomfrey before casting the bubblehead charm variant on him.
"Sure," Harry said with a nod while he pulled on a large pair of latex gloves from the trolley, making a mental note to practice the charm and wishing he had a mirror he could look into to see how much the charm was making him look like a muggle astronaut.
"Right, so he's already given me permission to bring you in there, so now we enter and remember with is level two, so you don't leave until I say, alright?."
"Got it," Harry replied as he stepped through the vacuum seal like he had at the entrance to Platform Nine and three-quarters.
"Hey, Ritchie," Harry said, recognising his fellow Gryffindor, Ritchie Cootes lying face down on the bed, looking quite peaky with only a thin white sheet covering him, "What happened?"
Ritchie sighed and said "Hi, Harry. I went picking some of these shrooms my cousin told me about, but apparently I got the wrong ones."
"Wrong indeed," Madam Pomfrey said with a grimace. It's gonna be a rough evening Mister Cootes. Harry, what Mister Cootes was trying to forage for were Spicebrain Shrooms, a rare magi-psychedelic that messes with the senses. It allows those that consume them to see sounds and taste colour, but unfortunately in Scotland, they are often confused with the much more common Lurgiescale Fungus. It's native to the highlands, but I always end up with two or three patients like Ritchie each year. Ritchie I'm just going to lower the sheet, okay?"
Madam Pomfrey waved her wand and the white sheet lowered, revealing Ritchies bare back that was covered in what looked like boils, except they were a deep moss green and had the surface texture of cracking scabs. They looked distinctly uncomfortable. The rancid smell coming off them was incredible, somewhere between rotting flesh and week-old spilt milk.
"Right Harry, so in order for us to be able to cure this, we need to remove all of these lesions one at a time, and then Mister Cootes has a night's worth of potions to make sure everything is out of his system. Now as you can see the swellings are close to bursting. We will pop the boils with a hot silver needle. This will release thousands of tiny spores in the air, hence the bubblehead charm. Ingestion of the spores will give us the same symptoms. Once the spores have been released the scabbed skin will be much easier to break down and I'll use the Water Knife charm to lance the rest of the flesh away with hot water. While the rotten flesh is cut away, I want you to simply grab the piece and pull it taut so I can excise the whole scab rather than having to make lots of little cuts. Once it's all off you just put it in this bin. You do this all with your right hand only. Then with your left hand, and never your right so you don't cross-contaminate, you dip a cotton wool ball in the essence of Dittany, dab it around the recent incision and then bin that as well. One cotton wool ball per dip, if you need more on the same wound, you get a new cotton wool ball. Got it?"
"I think so," Harry said.
"Right then, Mr Cootes. I need you to take this, this isn't something you want to be awake for," said Madam Pomfrey, handing him a small trapezoid vial of a blue liquid. Ritchie popped the cork and gulped it down gratefully, and not even five seconds later he was out like a light.
"Okay," said Madam Pomfrey, clapping her hands together before raising her wand. "Now we need observations; a baseline of what his body's state is like in his sedated state in case anything goes wrong. As you can tell I've got a dicta-quill ready, so I'm going to cast the spell and it will write down the results I tell it. Oxygen is 100 percent, Pulse is 86, Temperature is 38.1 degrees c and he's breathing 16 breaths per minute. Their blood pressure is 128/80 and their MCBP is at 90%. I'm not happy with that. Pulse and temperature are a bit high but my main problem is this MCBP so we need to be moving quite quickly here. Let's do this biggest one first."
She leaned forward, picked up a long thin needle and cast Incendio on it until the tip was glowing white hot.
"Right, ready?" Pomfrey asked looking up at him. He nodded and not a moment later she pushed the hot needle onto a large cracked green swelling on Ritchie's backside which promptly exploded, instantly fogging up the room with millions of the tiny green spores.
"Won't Ritchie just breathe these in Poppy?" Harry asked through the green haze/
"Yes but it's already in its system so it won't make any difference now, he'll be fine once he's had his antifungals. Right, so let's get sloughing, as you can see the flesh is rotting now quite quickly so let's get rid of it all and once the infected skin is gone you'll dab it with the Dittany to regrow the healthy skin."
It was slow and disgusting work, but Harry found it fascinating. Once they'd finished the first of the boils, which were all over his back and legs, Pomfrey started asking him questions.
"Right, so why wasn't I happy with the MCBP?" she asked
"Erm…I'm not sure…MCBP is Magical Core Body Perfusion, right? So the illness is affecting his core too much? I'm not sure about what the numbers mean." Harry replied.
"Sort of. MCBP is what percentage of the body is currently being sufficiently flooded by the patient's Magical Core. In a healthy person, it will be 100 percent and we get worried about 92%. The main cause of issues with MCBP is magical exhaustion, like people using too much magic at once, but rarely and usually from external sources, MCBP is affected by illnesses and diseases. In Lurgiescale Infections, the spores accumulate because the lesions act as fungal parasites that steal from their hosts' magical core to manufacture the spores. This can sometimes be very dangerous. If you lose all MCBP to one area of the body, the wand arm, for instance, it is very difficult to get magic to flow through it again. Some patients who had been exposed to the Lurgiescale Fungus have had to learn all their spells again with their other hand. Luckily it hasn't spread to enough of Ritchie yet for that to be an issue and it's not particularly concentrated."
"Yikes, I'm glad you put the bubble head charm on me now," Harry said.
Towards the end of the minor surgery, she was quizzing him more on infections.
"Right, so give me an example of a Direct Transmission." requested Poppy.
"Dragon Pox," said Harry, "You don't catch it unless you touch someone with it."
"Good. Indirect?"
"Mumblemumps, usually caused by the afflicted coughing mumblemumps and you breathing it in.
"Okay, Vector-based transmission?" Poppy asked, smiling.
"Like this," Harry replied, anything passed from another organism, like a Werewolf Bite."
"Exactly, the lycanthropy is in the bite or the scratch, it then spreads, even though it's also technically a direct transmission too because the person is technically human."
"Fascinating! So what if a werewolf in human form bit someone?"
"I guess you'll have to find out when you read this week's book on infectious diseases. It's only ten minutes til the feast, so go and wash your hands while I finish up and then grab the book from my desk in the office. It's from my personal collection so please look after it and return it in its current condition, will you? After today I'm confident you can behave in my wing so from now on you're on call for all fractures I triage within school hours, I'll observe and critique your first three and after that, if I'm happy they're your patients. I've written you a note, which is on top of your textbook, take it to classes. Thursday nights you're gonna be in here brewing with me, skip the feast, food will be brought up here. Got all that?"
Harry nodded.
"I'll see you in a few days then, oh, and you won't be on call tomorrow - I'm going to St Mungo's for a few meetings. They're sending someone to cover for me in my absence" Madam Pomfrey said.
"Thanks, Poppy," Harry said stepping out of the vacuum bubble, "It's been great."
Harry couldn't wait to get down to his room to start his new book after the feast. He wanted to read it during, but the table was so heavily laden that there was nowhere to put the large thick tome. It would have to wait, he needed brain food and instead, he told Hermione all about his session with Madam Pomfrey. She was fascinated, but he quickly was made to change the subject by Dean who said he didn't like hearing about exploding fungal pustules while he was having his dinner, thanks. That was fine, it just meant Harry and Hermione slowed down a bit with their desserts so they could chat, knowing that they would soon have to part ways for the night, Hermione heading to Gryffindor Tower and Harry to the dungeons. At least Ron was in a better mood. He always was when he hadn't managed to lose any points for Gryffindor in a whole day.
Belly full, Harry waved goodbye to Ron and Hermione and walked to the Slytherin Common Room. On his way to the tapestry, he overheard Draco talking to Blaise and Theodore Nott by the fireplace.
"Of course, he wouldn't get it, he's a mudblood. They have no respect." Draco said.
Harry rolled his eyes. Should he say something? He decided against it. One thing he was trying to learn was deciding which battles to fight, so he just shook his head absentmindedly and carried on towards his property.
"Heard you eavesdropping there, My Lord," said Theodore Nott patronisingly, "Were you going to tell us off?"
"Did I say anything?" Harry replied, narrowing his eyes as he stared at the boy.
"No, but I'm sure you wouldn't like it if we talked about your little Mudblood friend Granger," Nott replied with a goading smirk.
"You're right, I wouldn't," said Harry, feeling his necklace getting hotter.
"He isn't going to hurt us for talking about blood purity Draco," said Nott to Malfoy who had turned whiter than a sheet, "Chill out."
"No, but I'm going to give you detention with McGonagall for goading me, Nott," Harry said before using parseltongue to unlock his room, "Draco, I'm just going to say that you know the conversation we had this summer. Think about it. Have your opinions, but you're meant to be becoming a politician. Using slurs just weakens your arguments and makes you seem uneducated. I'm going to bed. And yes, Nott, I can give you detention - same powers as the head boy now, so bite me."
Harry rolled his eyes at Notts face contortion of anger and just slammed the doorway to his quarters behind him.
After a quick shower, he fished his tablet out of his bag and after examining Daphne's most recent message, scribbled back a reply saying it was okay that she was staying in her and Tracey's room tonight to get Snape's assignment done and that she shouldn't worry about being a bit behind from time to time
Happy for the peace and quiet, it meant that Harry could sit at his desk and get stuck into the book Madam Pomfrey had given him. By the end of his little study session, he had been feeling jittery with excitement.
He'd just been looking through the contents and decided to turn to the pages on Lycanthropy, just to see if there had been an answer to his question. While looking for the answer, he'd found himself reading about medicines used in conjunction with the Wolfsbane potion that Werewolves used to lessen the effect of the curse. He found out that before the wolfsbane potion was created, Werewolves used to drink Lunar-Harvested Fluxweed draught instead.
At first, Harry was confused, that was what Pomfrey had given Astoria, the plant Daphne had picked, but Astoria didn't have Lycanthropy so what was he missing? Did he have another book? He ran to his trunk and pulled out "One Thousand Magical Herbs and Funghi, by Phillida Spore" and turned to the entry on Fluxweed.
"Properly prepared, a draught of pure, lunar-harvested Fluxweed will create a sort of shield around the meninges of the brain, both reducing swelling and mitigating a variety of neurological issues caused by the shield blocking many external magics - e.g. lunar light." he read.
'So this is it,' Harry thought, 'It must be something to do with the moon right?' or some kind of external magic causing the seizures? Like the book said - seizures - caused by pressure on the brain - eclamptic seizures - seizures brought on by a toxin inside the body, the placenta,' but Harry was willing to bet the curse meant the toxin was coming from or being activated by forces outside the body. He was sure something external was causing it, some kind of astrological event energy or magic seventy-seven days before the solstice that Astoria was receiving and made her start those terrifying seizures.
It was just a theory, of course, but it had his mind buzzing with excitement and he was half glad Daphne wasn't there tonight or he might have gotten her hopes up as well. Two days and Poppy would be back from St Mungos and he could tell her all about it. 'Just imagine', he thought as he drifted off to sleep that night, 'Imagine if I'm able to cure her. If I could cure all bloodline curses, forever.'
