Muggle in a Wizard's World

Chapter 3

John followed Sherlock down the hall to a set of double wooden doors, which were wide open. The room inside looked like a hospital, with beds lined across sides of the rooms, curtains around them, some drawn, some not. But the room was packed beyond belief, there were beds crammed together, in the middle of the room, leaving very little walking space. There were people occupying every single bed, moaning and groaning. John saw people with bloody bandages wrapped around their heads and limbs, some with no arms or legs; one was covered in what seemed to be boils. It looked like a war hospital, nurses in old white nurse dresses running around, trying to care for everyone at once. Older looking students in black robes lined with different colors helped out, changing bandages and giving what looked like shots of colored mud. Sherlock walked to one of the helpers, telling John to stay outside of the doors. John was okay with that, he didn’t want to go in there; it was a very disturbing place. Sherlock talked, then pointed at John, and the healer shook her head sadly and walked off. Sherlock scowled at her, and walked back to John.

“They’re too busy for injuries as little as yours, but I think I could mend you myself.” Sherlock said confidently. John didn’t know if he could trust him, and mending John didn’t sound like a simple band aid. “Follow me!” Sherlock commanded.

“Why are so many people injured?” John asked.

“We’re in the middle of a war, and Hogwarts is the only safe place anymore. We send people out to save people, they come back badly injured, and we have to heal them, simple.” Sherlock said, turning a corner. There was a massive staircase in front of them, completely made of stone, but the entire staircase moved, rotating to another position like a train track. If that wasn’t weird enough, there were pictures lining the entire thing, which was as tall as an elevator shaft, but all of the pictures moved. Not like a slide show, or a movie, the painted people moved around in the frames, talking to each other, moving from picture to picture casually. John stared at one, which was several knights sitting at a round table.

“What are you looking at?” one of them asked. John jumped back in shock, the picture just spoke!

“How do they talk!” John gasped, not to really anyone.

“I already told you, magic.” Sherlock said annoyingly.

“Magic isn’t real!” John demanded. Sherlock sighed, as if disappointed in John’s stupidity.

“Just come on.” He insisted. They went down a couple of stair cases until they found themselves in what looked to be an entrance hall. There were two sets of gigantic wooden doors. One set, leading to what seemed to be a cafeteria or something, was open, and the other was closed tight with an iron gate protecting it.

“Where does that lead?” John asked.

“Outside.” Sherlock said simply, turning a corner and going down yet another flight of steps, but these were secluded. The temperature dropped as they got lower, and John shivered, pulling his thin jacket around him. Finally they reached a wooden door, which Sherlock opened without knocking. It was a classroom, filled with kids, all cutting things on cutting boards and throwing them into pots of boiling water. The class paused what they were doing to look at the two newcomers. John looked back with amazement, it seemed like they were cooking things, but whatever it was looked like more colored mud, this must be ‘potions’ class. There was a desk on a raised platform above the students, and the teacher was the creepy black haired one from the room John was first in, scowling at them.

“Get on with the potions!” He hissed at the class, sending a shiver up John’s spine. The class obeyed immediately, cutting and throwing again. They all had their books open to different potions, and everyone seemed to be a remedy for some disease, from blood loss to headaches. John followed Sherlock to the front of the room and down a small hallway. There were a couple of doors, and Sherlock opened the first one he came to, walking in without hesitation. John followed to see the weirdest room he’d ever seen. There was a fireplace with a couch on one side, but on the fire mantle was a human skull. On the other side of the room was an unmade bed and tables filled with science equipment, like microscopes and stuff, and also the pots the students were cooking in the classroom.