Harry followed Professor McGonagall into the Headmaster’s office. The other Gryffindors had been very curious about what was happening when he got back last night. But from what he had heard none of his friends had told them what was happening, which was gratifying.
Harry realized that he had been discounting his friends this whole time. They weren’t the same as the kids back at his old school, and he shouldn’t have thought that they would be. Hopefully they would forgive his mistrust, and he resolved that he should be more open with them after this. Now that his disability was out in the open, Harry could spend more time with them and stop hiding all the time to do his homework.
The headmaster was standing in the office alongside a man in blue. An Auror. The fireplace was flickering in green fire and Dumbledore gestured to the fireplace. “It has all been arranged. This fireplace will bring you to St. Mungo’s. Just step through and you’ll be there in moments.”
Harry stared into the roaring flames. “Are you sure this is safe? How often do these things fail?”
The Auror shook his head. “Don’t you worry about that. This is ministry approved, perfectly safe and maintained. Here watch.”
The Auror stepped through into the green flames and Harry watched as he vanished as the flames grew taller for a moment to cover him before dying down again. Harry waited for a few moments.
“Is he…”
The flames roared and the Auror returned and walked back out of the fireplace. “See? Perfectly safe. Now come along, I will escort you once you are there. Your teachers have to get back to their duties.”
The headmaster nodded. “Indeed. Best of luck Harry. I hope you can recover soon.”
Professor McGonagall nodded as well. “Don’t you worry about classes. I have informed your other teachers of the situation and they were more than understanding. Remember to listen to the nurses well while you’re there.”
Harry nodded. He should listen to the nurses, that made sense. “Thank you. I will go now.”
Harry turned and walked into the flames, hoping this wasn’t an elaborate murder attempt. The green flames filled his vision for a moment before dying down again and Harry was in an open lobby. There was a woman in white robes writing something at some sort of front desk.
The Auror passed Harry and walked to the desk as Harry trailed behind him. There were all sorts of people in the main lobby. There was a witch with an overblown nose the size of Harry’s hand looking miserable in the corner. Another man was nursing a rather nasty looking bite on his hand as he sat there. A final woman was groaning as blood leaked from the cuff of one of the thin lacy gloves she was wearing. Harry had to tear his gaze away from that one. It was such a contrast between the dainty glove and her bleeding wrist. The white fabric seemed to repel the blood, keeping it pristine even as the woman's arm was stained red down to her elbow.
The nurse and the Auror finished their conversation. “Alright Harry, they are ready for you. Follow after me.” The Auror said.
The two of them stepped onto the elevator and the Auror pressed the button for the fourth floor. Harry squinted and read the label as the elevator ascended. “Four- Fourth Floor. Spell – Damage.”
The Auror squinted at Harry as he read aloud. “That’s quite the curse someone put on you, isn’t it? Truly impressive, I've never seen anything like it before. But they deal with all sorts of magical accidents and curses here, I'm sure they'll fix you right up.”
He gave Harry a crooked smile before the elevator doors opened and he turned away again.
The elevator opened and revealed a desk similar to the main lobby. The Auror led and Harry followed. There was another discussion with the nurse, this one much shorter in length than at the main desk.
“Harry? Harry?...” The Auror said.
Harry shook his head and refocused. He rewinded the conversation mentally and remembered roughly what had been said.
“Yes, thank you for the help. I will go with the nurse and listen to her.”
The Auror snorted. “Huh. Didn’t think you were paying attention. Well, best of luck. I’ll be in the visitors center on the fifth floor if you need me to contact someone or if there’s any problem. You are officially under my protection while you are being treated here, and you'll come to no harm while I'm on watch. I’m Kensit by the way. James Kensit.”
“That is appreciated, Mr. Kensit. Hopefully I will not be here for long. I am missing class for this after all.”
“Well, best of luck, little one. Bye for now,” he replied
Harry followed the nurse to one of the private rooms where a plump witch stood with a tray filled with an odd assortment of objects. They must be some sort of magical measuring devices. The woman gave Harry a reassuring smile as the nurse began writing some things on a clipboard that she was carrying. The plump witch pointed some of the various objects at Harry and seemed to wait for a moment for a response before moving onwards. She finally finished and looked up after putting the last device back onto the tray.
“Harry Potter! It was a shock when I saw who I was treating, I’ll tell you that. I’ll be your medi-witch for today. I’m sure you're eager to be treated, so I’ll start right off with some questions. We can just skip all the standard ones, best to get straight to it. Now, how about we start from the beginning? When was the first time you noticed the effects of the language based curse on you?”
Harry thought back. “About two weeks back is when I first learned it was a curse. But otherwise I have had it since my first memories.”
Harry dug deeper, it took a while to recall these distant memories. “That was when I was… Three years and roughly four months old. No one said the date while I was around so that is only an estimate though.”
The nurse and the medi-witch exchanged a look. Harry assumed that medi-witch meant the same thing as a doctor, but he wasn't quite sure yet. The medi-witch responded to Harry's words as the nurse began writing faster and flipped to a new page. “You remember the exact time? Is that something that you can often do?”
Harry nodded. “I have a perfect memory. Anything I have experienced past those first memories is something I remember fully. It just takes longer depending on the memory's importance to me.”
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“Oh my. How useful. But to affect you for so long, how was it not noticed? Your speech seems unaffected so far and the symptoms described are far more severe than any known muggle disease.”
“Well, my aunt and uncle just thought I was stupid and told me to study harder. They’re both muggles. It was difficult, but I managed to at least pass most of my classes in school.”
She let out a breath, “Ugh, some people are so ignorant.” She waved her hand as if to brush away Harry’s comment, “Well, at least you’re here now. Now, why don’t you start writing? Me and my assistant here will run some more tests as you do so. The curse seems dormant right now and isn’t showing up on the scans. We’ll have to test for it while it is in its active state.”
“Alright,” He replied.
Harry was handed a paper and began to write as they scanned him. The nurse kept writing quickly on her clipboard. They finished and Harry waited as they finished writing down their observations. They did the same thing when he read something and when he wrote in the strange symbol language. After all the tests, Harry sat there while the two discussed their findings.
Eventually, the medi-witch looked back to Harry. “Whoever cursed you was very talented. I’ve never seen such a complex structure in all my time working here. I will discuss it with my colleagues but don’t you worry. I can already see a few weak points we can use to help collapse the structure and lift the curse. You just wait here for now.”
“Okay,” Harry replied. Not the most hopeful response, but it could be worse. At least they knew it was definitely a curse now. Harry sat down and took out his wand after the nurse and medi-witch left the room. Time to practice his levitation charm more. There were lots of small objects in the area that would be good practice.
— — —
It had been over a day and Harry was still lifting various objects around the room. Right now he was practicing catch with one of the quills that had been placed in the corner. Harry just flung it in the air using the levitation charm and let it fall, before seeing how close to the floor he could catch it with a spell.
It was surprisingly fun, and Harry could feel himself casting it faster and faster as the quill was caught closer and closer to the floor when he didn’t miss it entirely. He tossed the quill into the air again and watched it fall carefully. Harry began to move his wand… and the door to the room opened as he cast the spell and left the quill hovering a few inches off the floor.
“Lucky charm, Harry." The woman from before said from the door, "That quill almost hit the floor there. Sorry for the long wait. Had to treat some emergency patients before the other medi-witches and wizards were free to have a look at your case. Come with me, we have a room set up for the procedure. Our best staff will be observing to make sure nothing goes wrong.”
Harry recast the levitation charm and floated the quill back over to its place before dropping it back into its inkwell.
The medi-witch clapped. “Ah, very good! Good charms work from a first year. I remember when I first learned the levitation charm…”
As they walked down the hallways, the woman reminisced about her time at Hogwarts. They walked through a large set of double doors into a room filled with ten or more witches and wizards in white. There was a hospital bed in the center. They all turned as Harry walked in, clearing a path as he climbed into the bed at the original medi-witch’s orders. He lay down and someone handed him a notepad. The original medi-witch came over, Harry had never actually gotten her name he realized.
“Alright, Harry. You just focus on reading that thing right there and we’ll get right to work in lifting the curse.” She said.
“Okay,” he replied.
— — —
It was a very long process, and several of the wizard doctors were sweating as they cast a series of spells on Harry. They muttered amongst themselves as Harry was occasionally told to read, write, or scribble the strange language on his pad. But after an indeterminate time the wizard currently working on Harry let out a sigh of relief and Harry felt something inside him shift.
“That’s it. The curse structure is finally collapsing!” the doctor called out.
Another came over, “Don’t call it yet, one of those bloody self-repair nodes might still be active. Don’t slack off in case another one of those appears again. Keep monitoring him so we can catch it early this time.”
Yes, apparently Harry’s curse could fully repair itself even when the wizard doctors fully dispelled it. This whole process had been to go through to shut them all down one by one.
They waited for another few minutes, and Harry didn’t feel any different than before. “Finally! I think that’s the last of it. Everyone do the last checks?”
Each of the doctors cast their own spells to make sure the curse wasn’t repairing itself again. Harry stared at the ceiling wondering if it was finally over. He did feel different somehow as they monitored him.
Finally, they declared him all clear and handed him some parchment. Harry began writing… And it was easy. A sentence barely took a second. It barely took him a few seconds to write! He put the quill down and kept writing and everything came out so smooth, like it never had before. It had worked! A faint smile danced across his face as the upbeat doctors celebrated around him.
“This is amazing. I can’t believe…” Harry said.
Everyone around Harry flinched and suddenly grew serious. One of the doctors spoke as the room burst into motion, “Robert, search for any hidden failsafes! We have to find it before anything else activates, who knows what this damn curse is up to right now.”
“What’s happening? Why are you all panicking?”
The original witch came up to him and spoke softly. “It’s okay, just a spot of bother. We’ll sort this out soon.”
Harry looked between her and the doctors casting spells on him.
“Sort out what? Didn’t it work? I can write now.”
He held up the pad in a demonstration.
The doctor’s eyes lit up, “Yes! You don’t have to speak, just write it down on the paper.”
“Alright, I guess I can if you want me to.”
Harry wrote on the parchment with satisfying speed. So fast.
‘Why is everyone panicking, I feel fine. I’ve never been able to write this fast before,' He wrote.
Harry marveled at the parchment, able to read it back amazingly fast as well. He turned it around to show the room.
The original doctor frowned as she read Harry’s note. The doctors were conferring in apparent confusion on the far side of the room. She took the parchment from him and carried it over to the huddle. After some furious discussion, they broke apart and approached Harry. The same woman spoke again.
“Can you understand us? Hold up one finger for yes, two for no.”
Harry held up one finger.
“Are you feeling okay? No pain or tightness over your body? Nothing feels wrong with your magic?”
Harry wondered how it would feel if something was wrong with his magic. But he didn’t feel bad or anything. So he lowered his first hand and put his second with a finger raised.
“Can you give me a no?”
Harry raised another finger.
“Can you give me four fingers?”
Harry raised four of his fingers. What was the point of all of this?
“I can still talk fine. What’s…” Harry said before everyone flinched again. Huh.
The doctor spoke soothingly, “No, no. Don’t speak Harry. We’ll figure it out. But it’s been a long time we’ve been working, it’s about time for bed in fact. We’ll pick up where we left off in the morning, you just stay comfortable right here. Someone will be along for a meal soon.”
After that, a nurse came in and made Harry more comfortable after all the doctors left. They kept calling themselves medi-witches or wizards, but Harry thought he liked the term doctor more. It was like calling someone a healing person since everyone was a wizard or witch. It just felt strange to Harry, so he always referred to them as doctors in his mind.
Harry rolled over and closed his eyes. He still wasn’t sure what was happening, but he was just glad that progress was finally being made on his curse.