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CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHT

-: fifth year :-

── IN WHICH JANE STEPS BACK

. . .


"Who are those people?" Harry asked, after they had spent a few moments gathering themselves following the abrupt entrance to St. Mungos and gazes landed on several witches and wizards wearing matching lime-green robes with the same embelm embroidered on their chests and taking notes of those sitting in the rows of seats. He had noticed Jane's confusion as she side-stepped out of the way of one wanting to speak to the witch with an extra nose and, feeling just as confused as her, decided to speak up. "Doctors?" He added, because he couldn't really think of what else they might be.

"Doctors?" Ron repeated, startled. "Those Muggle nutters that cut people up? Nah, they're Healers."

"The first family I was placed with before Flora had a doctor." Jane commented, her eyebrows raised. For some reason, which Harry didn't understand given the more than commonplace trait within his girlfriend akin to immense kindness, given the circumstances that those people had left her in, Jane looked mildly offended.

"Were they really?" Ron seemed interested in this. "Did they cut people up? What did they do? Was it dangerous?"

"No - no, she wasn't dangerous. And she didn't cut people up... at least I don't think she did. She just looked at broken bones and stuff." Jane waved him away, a thoughtful tone to her expression. "Besides, Hermione's parents do more dangerous stuff than her." 

Harry and Ron stared blankly at her. 

"They're dentists?" Harry nodded, understanding. Ron however, looked even more confused. Jane continued. "Doctors of teeth, I suppose. They could get their hands bitten off... bacterial infections." There didn't seem to be any change in his demeanour, not quite understanding what was so dangerous. "They pull people's teeth out, okay?"

"Only when necessary." Jane interjected, looking mildly nonplussed Ron's jaw dropping. "That woman has one nose too many, Ronald, having to take out an infected tooth for the sake of another person's dental hygiene is nothing."

"Right, right, okay." Ron rolled his eyes as he turned away, followng the calls of his mother to where she was stood with Ginny and Tonks by the queue in front of a plump blonde witch seated at a deskmarked inquiries. Behind her were multiple notices and posters, much like that seen in a Muggle doctor's office, describing simple ways to keep healthy, including the proper way to clean a cauldron. 

Alongside the cauldron-cleanliness advice was a carefully painted portrait of a witch with long silver ringlets that was named Dilys Derwent. It was a moving portrait because Jane could see her blinking, and she found that woman with a small smile fit her description perfectly. Dilys, as it said on the plaque below her picture, had been a Healer there from 1722 to 1741, the same year she became the Headmistress of Hogwarts for a further 27 years. Jane watched as Dilys winked at Harry before disappearing into the frame.

They waited in the queue for a small while, a man who had received a pair of shoes from his brother and put them on without knowing they were jinxed was dancing around in front of the worker, hopping from one front to another as though the soles of said shoes were made of hot coals. The blonde witch looked irritable, despite the fact she was supposed to provide some kind of reassurance to those looking for help and pointed the man towards the large sign, which read and described the different floors of the hospital, to which he needed to go to the fourth.

Then went an old man, who was warned the man he wanted to visit (Broderick Bode in Ward 49) believed he was a teapot and then a man and what was assumed to be his daughter, who he was holding by the ankle as she flapped around his head usingthe immensely large, feathery wings that had sprouted rightout the back of her romper suit. The blonde witch, without asking anything, pointed them too, to the fourth floor.

Mrs Weasley was next, and had hardly gotten her husband's name out and the fact he was supposed to have been moved to another ward that very morning before the blonde was pointing them towards the first floor, second door on the right. Molly gestured them to follow and they did just that, shuffling along the rest of the reception in one rather large group.

They followed through the double doors and along thenarrow corridor beyond, which was lined with more portraitsof famous Healers and lit by crystal bubbles full of candles thatfloated up on the ceiling, looking like giant soapsuds. Morewitches and wizards in lime-green robes walked in and out of the doors they passed; a foul-smelling yellow gas wafted into the passageway as they passed one door, and every now and then they heard distant wailing. They climbed a flight of stairs and entered the "Creature-Induced Injuries" corridor, where the second door on the right bore the words 'Dangerous' and then, 'Dai Llewellyn ward: serious bites'.

"We'll wait outside, Molly," Tonks said. "Arthur won't wanttoo many visitors at once.... It ought to be just the family first." Jane nodded in agreement and stepped back to stand with Tonks and Mad-Eye, pushing Harry forward although he initially tried to stay back  - something that Mrs Weasley certainly didn't agree with.

"Jane - Jane, come on." Molly gestured with her hand, already pushing Harry inside. 

"With Harry, Mrs Weasley, that's certainly too big of a crowd." Jane replied, all-too diplomatically. "Besides, I don't want to take away time with Mr Weasley from everyone else, who've known him far longer and don't get to see him every day." In all honestly, she felt plainly out of place amongst the other crowd, who, in most aspects, were related to the invalid and otherwise had known him a lot longer than she had.

At that moment, it wasn't her place to interrupt, and instead, she sent a smile and reassuring nod towards Harry as he disappeared into the ward. 



a/n
sorry this is a little 
late, i spent all of yesterday 
travelling


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