A certain Hogwarts professor of runes

Chapter 210 The Patient

Half an hour later, Felix and Mrs. Longbottom stood in front of an old-fashioned red brick department store. The sign above it read "Tao Tao Limited." The store looked dilapidated and deserted, with a large sign that read "Closed for Renovation" hanging on the dusty door.

Felix was peering through the shop window at the several tattered plastic mannequins in front of him. One of them was the ugliest; she was slouching, her eyelashes were stuck to her face, and she was wearing a green nylon dress.

"I bet this place has never been open?" he said with certainty.

"What nonsense are you talking about? The Ministry of Magic has put a lot of effort into finding a suitable place," said Madam Longbottom absentmindedly, her hands clasped together, constantly twisting the thin string of the large red pouch in her hands. "Are you really sure, Professor Hyp? I've experienced far too many disappointments over the years."

"I cannot give a definite answer, madam. This is a compensation measure I came up with on the spur of the moment; after all, my request may seem... not so humane," Felix said.

Old Lady Longbottom pursed her lips: "The magical disturbance you mentioned... are you sure there's no danger?"

"Is there any danger in the magical outbursts that young wizards experience during their growth?" Felix asked rhetorically.

Old Lady Longbottom said with a serious expression, "You've asked a question that's outside my area of ​​knowledge. My experience tells me that every young wizard goes through this stage; it's actually worrying if they don't. But to artificially create a magical upheaval..." She shook her head, seemingly finding it unbelievable.

Felix explained, "Madam, perhaps it's because of my unique constitution. I myself have experienced magical outbursts more than once. Although the process is very uncomfortable, I have also benefited from it."

In fact, I recognized its value quite early on and even offered some possible speculations. However, this experience was purely personal and lacked corroborating evidence. It wasn't until this summer that I finally encountered a very rare example.

Mrs. Longbottom pursed her lips. "If you can cure him... no, I won't ask for more, but I need Dumbledore to be there. I trust him."

Felix smiled and said, "No problem at all, madam."

Mrs. Longbottom said to the particularly ugly mannequin, "I've come to visit Frank Longbottom and Alice Longbottom." The mannequin nodded slightly and waved to them.

The two then passed through the shop window and entered the St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Injuries.

Felix found himself in a waiting room, and he looked around with interest: a dozen or so wizards and witches sat on rickety wooden chairs, and two healers in green robes were taking notes on their symptoms.

To the left was the information desk, with a blonde woman standing behind it, and a long line in front of her. Behind the woman was the symbol of St. Mungo's, with crossed wands and a bone emblem.

The surrounding walls were covered with portraits of therapists and some labels.

At that moment, a middle-aged male wizard showed the healer his right hand, a black water jug ​​clamped tightly around it, dark green blood seeping from the wound. He roared angrily—

"Can't you tell? — Curse, I'm cursed — An anonymous birthday present — Don't let me know who it is! Ouch — This stupid kettle —" He kept swinging his arms.

"Don't move, you're making me unable to see clearly." The young therapist holding the whiteboard looked at it carefully for a moment, "You need to go to the Curse Damage Department on the fifth floor."

Felix read the sign: Accident and Accident Division – First Floor (Cauldron Explosions, Wand Misfires, Broom Collisions, etc.);

Biological Injury Department – ​​Second Floor (Stings, Burns, Spikes, etc.);

Department of Odd-type Infectious Diseases – Third Floor (Draconis, Disappearance Syndrome, Lymphomatitis, and other infectious diseases);

Department of Pharmacy and Plant Poisoning – Fourth Floor (Skin rash, nausea, uncontrollable laughter, etc.);

Spell Damage Department - Fifth Floor (Unremovable spells, incorrectly used spells, etc.);

Tea room and shops – sixth floor.

"We're going to the fifth floor," Mrs. Longbottom said to him. They went up a crooked staircase to the fifth-floor platform, passing some double-door wards, until they came to a long room—all the doors of which were locked.

A therapist wearing a gold and silver floral wreath emerged from the closed ward, smiling and greeting her: "Mrs. Longbottom, have you come to visit your family? Let me show you in."

"Thank you, Melanie."

The therapist, Melanie, chanted "Open the Arameanor" as she led them into the room, past several beds, to the innermost part—where two beds were enclosed by floral curtains.

She lifted the curtain and said cheerfully, "Frank, Alice, your mother has come to see you again."

This was the first time Felix had seen the Longbottoms. Both were wearing pajamas, their faces thin and haggard, their hair half-gray. Neville's father sat blankly on the edge of the bed, seemingly able to sit there forever, his eyes occasionally darting around; Neville's mother, on the other hand, reacted more noticeably, holding a bag of snacks in her hands, reading it carefully.

The two did not respond to the therapist's words at all.

"She was actually just looking at the patterns on it," the therapist explained. "Most of her memory is gone, you should understand."

"Melene..." said Mrs. Longbottom, "Could you give us some time?"

"No problem." She closed the curtain and left.

Old Mrs. Longbottom walked to the bedside, took Neville's mother's hand, and stroked her dry hair. "This is also one of the side effects of the Cruciatus Curse. It makes people age faster than normal. I'm worried they'll leave before me..."

"If you don't mind, madam?" Felix asked softly.

"What, oh, of course, is there anything I need to do?" Old Mrs. Longbottom asked nervously.

"Nothing is needed..." Felix snapped his fingers lightly, and suddenly the world spun around, everything in the room twisted and distorted, colors and shapes intertwined, like some kind of abstract painting.

But soon, everything returned to normal—no, not normal. Felix's expression was serious as he tried to pull Neville's father into the thought chamber, and he did partially succeed—

In his half of the space, there was no problem whatsoever, but in the other half, there was nothing but emptiness, a broken world: his vision was filled with a blackness as tranquil as the cosmos, darker than the thickest ink, with large swaths of memories suspended in mid-air, fragmented like a curtain torn to shreds.

Felix stood at the edge of the room, watching this extremely bizarre scene. The dim, fluorescent light occasionally flashed across fragmented images of men and women—

A baby with a round face, Mrs. Longbottom, several fierce faces, Dumbledore, an ugly man with a false eye, Lupin, a man who looks a lot like Potter when he grows up...

The woman who appeared most often was a round, friendly-looking woman. She looked very young and had a gentle gaze. Even though her appearance had changed, Felix recognized her at a glance—Alice Longbottom, sitting on the hospital bed next to him.

(End of this chapter)