Venom & Virtue

chapter 62

"Excuse me dear, I need to do your night checks."

An hour later a gentle voice tore me from my earth-shattering thoughts, bringing me back to the current reality of the St Mungo's ward.

A smiley old witch was standing beside my bed, dressed in the recognisable lime green robes of a healer, her wand tucked into the pinafore apron.

"Oh yes... sorry," I folded the parchment up and slipped it into the envelope as I laid it back on the nightstand.

"That's alright sweetie, I'm sure everything must be quite disorientating for you now that you're awake again."

"It's definitely... a lot," I offered politely, laying back down on the bed as she pulled the wand from her apron and waved it over me.

A strange hovering panel appeared, the interface split into different sections, each one reacting with a varying shade of colour as she moved her wand along my body.

When she reached the marks on my arm, there was a flicker of burgundy, prompting her to pull out a vial from the trolley beside her.

"Here, we're still working on ensuring the poison in your wounds doesn't re-emerge."

I nodded, taking the glass jar from her and downing the contents before handing it back.

"My friends said I would have to stay a week, is that true?" I asked, hopeful it might be sooner.

"I'm afraid so, you lost a lot of blood even despite the gentleman that helped you, it'll take a good few doses to get your cell count up to the right level," she smiled sympathetically, "and we need to keep an eye on your brain too, ensure the Dementor didn't do any long-term damage."

I nodded, exhaling slightly in disappointment, my concern only for Draco.

She handed me another vial labelled Blood-Replenishment, letting me drink it before raising her wand up to my forehead.

The panel flashed a murky grey in response, flickering as she moved around my skull area.

After a moment some words and numbers appeared across the panel, tiny and unreadable from my angle.

The healer leaned in closer, muttering something under her breath as she read what was displayed there, a flicker of surprise seeping across her face.

She retracted her hand from that area, taking my wrist gently and turning my arm over, trailing the faint lines of my veins with her wand tip.

A light blue tone flickered on the screen as more words and numbers appeared, causing her to frown, as if confused.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing dear, in fact you're healing very well," she discarded the panel, tucking her wand back into the apron pocket.

She eyed me for a moment, a glint of curiosity in her brown irises.

"Tell me something, is it true that Lestrange witch tortured you with the ignis venarum curse?"

I nodded, recalling the horrible memory of the agonising pain I'd felt, the sensation forcing me to writhe on the floor.