The Healer | Part 3: The Survivors

The Twins

Edith

December arrived and with it, a fresh wave of panic as our finals were now only two weeks away. The teachers were focussing solely on revision and kept dropping hints on what material would likely be covered in the exams. They all wanted us to succeed, and kept telling the four of us we were the best of the best, so the pressure was on to do well.

I only stayed at Falcon's Rest on Saturdays now, though it nearly killed me. But it was far too distracting to revise properly with George and five kittens underfoot. I was grateful he understood, or at least, he told me so. This was the final push, after this, things would be far more laid back and I was looking forward to moving in with him.

I woke up feeling sick to my stomach one morning. I must have had a nightmare, though I couldn't seem to remember what my dream had been about. I had to make a mad dash for the toilet and made it just in time. I hadn't had nightmares for months. It must have been the pressure of the looming exams.

The sick feeling didn't go away like it usually did. I barely had any appetite for breakfast or lunch, and I knew that wasn't helping matters. I debated popping over to Diagon Alley on my lunch break to see if George had any Puking Pastilles, but decided not to bother him. I would have hated to interrupt another meeting with Lee. I knew he enjoyed his lunch breaks when Lee came to visit.

'Good afternoon, class,' Professor Bidelspach greeted us for the final lesson of the day: Diagnostic Magic. 'Wands out, if you please. We have completed our revision on diagnosing chest troubles as well as diseases of the brain, today we will be moving on to abdominal complaints. Please split off into pairs and we will practice the Abdominal Organ Spell.'

That wasn't hard to do. Cooper and White always paired up with each other as did Meredith and I in situations like these. It had always been that way for as long as we'd been in the programme.

'Do you want to go first or shall I?' Meredith asked.

'It doesn't matter,' I replied.

'I'll go then, if you don't mind,' she said. I nodded in agreement and reached up to unclasp my necklace. We had learned early on that the Shield Charm on my necklace prevented any diagnostic spells from being successfully performed on me while I was wearing it. I put it in my pocket for safekeeping.

'Abdominalis Revelio.'

My ghostly organs began to float out of my body. I was used to this by now. I had spent much of my ten months in isolation practicing this very spell on myself. George and Fred used to joke that I knew my internal organs better than my exterior ones.

'I didn't know you were pregnant, Edith.'

'Sorry?' I looked up again, my heart stopping.

I had let my mind wander while Meredith performed the spell, I hadn't been paying any attention to what she was doing or what my organs looked like that day. As I looked at the ghostly shapes between us, I saw exactly what she was talking about. My uterus was much larger than it usually was.

'So that's why you're getting married, I had no idea,' she smirked at me.

By now, we had caught the boys' and Professor Bidelspach's attention.

My heart had stopped. Surely these couldn't be my internal organs. I had been using the Contraceptive Charm faithfully ever since George and I got engaged. I knew my period was late, but that was a normal side effect of the charm.

'Ah, something interesting, I see,' Professor Bidelspach made her way over to us and gestured for the boys to follow. I was hardly paying them any attention, I was staring transfixed at what was, apparently, my bulging uterus. 'Here, like this Ms Lewis.'