“I’ve left the champagne at home.” Elixa admitted. “Didn’t seem the time to celebrate.”

Head Healer Storm had summoned her before she was due to start her shift on the third floor of the hospital. Broken the good news of her qualification, and then the rather unexpected that she was to pack her bags immediately.

Hogwarts. Pack her bags and come to Hogwarts for the next week at least. It was a residential post, and between the school and the hospital the Swede would be suitably remunerated.

The champagne had been a gift to congratulate her for finally qualifying as a healer after resuming and completing her training over the past year. A generous touch, which Elixa wondered was just to soften the news about the school. Pity she’d not get to drink it until she got home again.

Here she was, at a school in Scotland, in her St Mungo's uniform and cloak, trunk stood on end beside her in the corridor. On the way up the many staircases, she had made introductions to Headmaster Greyfriar, and it seemed, an assorted number of wisened school governors who had been drafted in to help. There was the smell of food hanging in the air. Dinner time somewhere in the castle.

Explanations of who she was and how Miranda Storm had come to send her now hastily aside, Elixa met Knox’s gaze properly outside the Hospital Wing’s door.

“Headmaster, are you able to bring me up to speed on what to expect once we’re through that door?”

The Headmaster was all smiles in meeting Elixa Mordent and managed a 'välkommen'. All it took to get his help wanteds answered was apparently a potential catastrophe and an 'in' with the top healer in the country. There was an art in leveraging worried parents and guardians into staff recruitment and Knox had stumbled into it. Even if Elixa Mordent was temporary, she was absolutely välkommen.

He opened his mouth to describe the scene that awaited them but a sudden thump against the closed door behind him, followed by muffled laughter began to answer the question for him. The laughter, in turn, was followed by a few annoyed shouts. Then came the clatter of a tray of food falling to the floor. More laughter, more shouts. Knox lifted his eyebrows as to present the soundscape as demonstrative of the situation.

Knox laid his hand on the large handle. "We are twenty-two students with fevers, chills, running noses, nausea, sore throats, and a complete lack of magical capacity. And one embedded journo. It looks like the flu," he said, then strung a baby blue facemask over his nose and mouth.
 
"But it isn't."

He opened the door to lead the way in. The kids ranging from age 11 to 17 filled every bed plus a half-dozen extra that had been brought down. They were pushed around into clusters and forts. There were dinner trays both touched and not, books and trunks, and teddy bears. Some of the students were snoozing with pillows on their heads, others playing cards, others quietly trying to eat. A rowdy knot who weren't entirely sick enough seemed to be in a stand off with a set of goodniks over who should be shushing whom. There was a quaffle in the main walkway.

"Now, only five actually arrived at school yesterday magic-free," Knox said pointing towards Frank Sellaphix and Eirene Antonopoulos as an example. "Eight more came with the flu symptoms and lost the magic about twelve hours later. And the rest of them have been punted here by their professors and heads of house over the course of the day.

"Professor, who's that!"

"Healer Mordent's been sent from St. Mungo's. She'll be milking your glands for use in secret experiments," he announced. "I hope you're all full up on yellow bile because they'll need quite a bit."

Knox smiled behind his mask. "We're keeping them hydrated," he told Elixa.

Miranda Storm had sent her to a dormitory of orphans led by a bear of a man. This wasn’t so much a test of her healing capabilities, but of her abilities to wrangle teenagers. The ward was full of more mismatched beds than a St Mungo’s standard. They were a rabble.

The quaffle came to a stop under her boot. Healer Mordent surveyed the scene with hands on hips.
“Healer Mordent’s been sent from St Mungo’s. She’ll be milking your glands for use in secret experiments.” The Headmaster informed them. Unconventional, but she could work with that.
“I’ve brought the extra large needles for the job.” She announced, and patted her trunk. It had obediently followed her into the infirmary, still stood on end.

“We’re keeping them hydrated.” She nodded sharply.
“I will need the admission records, access to your apothecary and linen stores first off.” She eyeballed the doorway, the governors not yet straying beyond the threshold. “And who have you let in and out of here?” She asked, turning back to Knox. “If you’ve already contaminated the school there’s not a whole lot I can do.” She wiggled a finger up and down at him.

Knox smiled with Healer Mordent went along with his teasing. He'd give them a straight answer shortly, but everyone was feeling so crummy better a joke to keep things light.

"Give me more credit than that, Madam," Knox said with feigned indignance in a loud voice.

"There's been not a soul in or out other than myself and a house elf or two. Students stay within, is that not right, my young wretches?"

"For the herd!" came a call from Frank Sellaphix, echoing the frequent reminders. He was echoed by a few others. Then someone started mooing. Some rebels bleated like goats.

"Most of us haven't been up for school work, so it's been more of this more or less. Tell me, has St. Mungo's cracked the fever?"

Knox would have heard, he was sure, if there had been any breaks in the case, but it was worth asking to get the update.

They were mooing. Glorious. This was as offbeat as a Knockturn Alley club on a Friday night.

“… has St Mungo’s cracked the fever?”

“Now that, Headmaster, would be telling.” Healer Mordent flexed a dark eyebrow. Truth being, that they hadn’t at all. They were only treating the symptoms, and as for wherever this magical malady had come from, the jury was still very much out.

“Right,” the newly qualified healer said a little more loudly, as much to stir herself into action as it was to announce to the others she was taking charge. She slipped her winter cloak off, and draped it over the top of her upturned trunk to reveal her new green healer’s robes[1]. She lifted her pear wand above her head, gesticulated carefully, incanting under her breath and tapped her crown. A golden shimmer dropped over her, renewing the precautionary magical barrier. Whether it would keep her from the illness, she could only hope.

“Best meet the herd.” She gave Knox a smile that was more of a determined smirk. Notebook and self-inking quill came to her outstretched hand. “Will you assist me with introductions, should the darlings feel they have also got amnesia or adopted second identities?” Children were mischievous at the best of times. Ill children cooped up in a single hospital ward with herd mentality all the more…

“Who have we got here?”

1.	Neon’s amazeballs designs here

"Shhhh! Quiet down!" Eirene shushed frantically at all of the mooing and bleating, picking up the fallen tray and frowning at the student who had dropped it. "Some of us are trying to study, some of us still care about class, and can't you see the Headmaster himself is here and he's brought a - a Healer!" Eirene's voice brightened at the end. A proper Healer! Wearing the green robes of St. Mungo's! Healer Mordent!

Eirene hurried to sit primly on the end of her bed (the only area not covered in books she'd borrowed from other students). She dabbed at her nose with her handkerchief and then quickly hid it in her pocket. She'd written to her parents last night, after getting over the shock of being stuck in the infirmary indefinitely, and they'd promised to send a trunk with clothes and books and other essentials this very night.[1] Until then, she was wearing her classmate Cosima's old uniform, which Cosima's mother had gifted to her in Slandermouth.

“Who have we got here?”

"Hello!" She chirped. She rose to her feet and inched forward and then inched back, remembering to keep some distance.

"I'm Eirene Antonopoulos," she emphasized her last name, waiting for a glimmer of recognition from the witch. Her mother was a Healer who worked on the Potions and Plant Poisoning floor.

"Baaaaa - tonopoulos," a student started.

"Moooooo- poopoulos!"

"My mother, a healer-"

Eirene turned around to glare, then faced the Healer with a smile.

"Fourth-year Ravenclaw. Praecantatio Deliquus," she emphasized once more, "sufferer and survivor."

The article had come out this morning and she'd spent several minutes instructing the students on the proper pronunciation. Not that they paid attention!

"May I be of any help?" She clasped her hands in front of her and glanced at the Headmaster.

1.	Eirene lost her luggage in the sea

Knox was appreciating Healer Mordent already. Time would tell if she had the knack for coping with this lot, but portents were hopeful so far. Eager, earnest, and erudite Eirene Antonopoulos assisted immediately from one of the nearer beds and persisted despite the peanut gallery. There was always a risk to very helpful students, but Eirene walked that line mostly successfully. In her ilk was her housemate Frank Sellaphix who was sitting nearby and took her lead.

"Frank Sellaphix, Ravenclaw third year. Also Praecantatio Deliquus, actually. And a nasal collision." 

The Headmaster clasped his hands behind his back and nodded two the two Ravenclaws.

"Thank you. And yes please, Miss Antonopoulos, thank you for asking. Would you be so kind as to take notes? I'll need a recounting of this evening's events and have quite forgotten my spectacles."

Confident she'd be up to the task, the Headmaster began to make his way down the walkway a little gesturing to each student in turn. He wasn't particularly concerned that they weren't in their own beds. There were twenty in addition to Frank and Eirene.

"And this is Cosima Early," Knox said finishing with a Ravenclaw who looked perfectly well. "She's here for posterity. Snuck in and is now stuck here."

The young witch nodded. "Cosima Early, Hogwarts Howler. What's your name and position for the record?"

“I’m Eirene Antonopoulos.”

“Aha!” Healer Mordent’s features lit up. “Cecily's daughter, yes?” Her third floor colleague had mentioned her daughter had an adventure and a half getting to Hogwarts, but Lix had somehow managed to avoid meeting Eirene until now. Some might call it a blessing.

“Fourth-year Ravenclaw. Praecantatio Deliquus. Sufferer and survivor.” Lix humoured her with a laugh and nodded at her precise pronunciation of the newly defined condition.

The Headmaster and student consulted each other, and Lix quickly inked a page into the notebook for Eirene, and looked to the next face before them. A younger boy.

“Frank Sellaphix, Ravenclaw third year. Also Praecantatio Deliquus, actually. And a nasal collision.”

“Any relation to Zelda?” Lix asked, recognising yet another surname. It was true that the British wizarding families were more like three degrees of separation than six.

The two adults made their way through the ward, shadowed by Eirene who took more notes than the St Mungo’s healer. More than thorough, perhaps.

“.. What’s your name and position for the record?”

“Ah, the ‘embedded journo’.” Lix identified with a smirk. “You know what they say, fake it until you make it… It’s Healer Mordent, currently upright.” She gave Cosima a wink and added her name to the list.

“Well, quite the party,” she remarked to the Headmaster, hands on hips. She surveyed the scene from the other end of the ward to where they had entered.

“Right, you rabble!” She addressed them all, “St Mungo’s has sent me up here with grave news.” Her jovial expression from Cosima’s introduction had vanished. “Praecantatio Deliquus is a serious condition, and like you, we’ve isolation wards full of magic-free witches and wizards. While we believe most will recover, those who defy the exact instructions of St Mungo’s healers have not seen their magic return. If you don’t want to spend the rest of your lives as squibs, you’ll follow my prescription to the letter.”

She fixed Cosima and then Eirene with her dark gaze and a crooked smile. “I can assure you, your Deputy Headmaster is following the Head Healer’s treatment to the letter.” She glanced up and pointed to a half-eaten dinner. “So eat up, drink up, and slippers on. You don’t want to catch your death.”

"Her only daughter," Eirene nodded at Healer Mordent, smug at the recognition.

Eirene's face lit up at the Headmaster's request. She unfurled a blank scroll and readied her auto-ink-quill (which she'd given up her dessert to obtain), jotting down her name first, then Cosima, then Frank, complete with flourishes and curlicues at the ends of the letters. Cosima Early got a pretty crescent moon for the first letter of her name, and a note in the margins about the etymology (the feminine form of Cosimo/Cosmo, and Greek for 'order, decency'). Frank Sellaphix got a grand snakelike 'S' to start his last name, and a note in the margins that read 'floo survivor'.

Eirene nudged Frank's arm and showed it to him with a smile.

When Healer Mordent addressed the students so ominously, Eirene looked up from her scroll in surprise.

Was she joking? Merlin help them all! No magic! Not like squibs! She couldn't think of a worse fate. Worse than death, even!

If... if! They didn't follow the rules!

Mordent must be exaggerating, Eirene told herself as she caught her crooked smile. But still! RULES.

Her scroll flopping in her hand, Eirene paused for a long moment. She glanced at the Headmaster, and then at the Healer, encouraged by the blessed silence in the room. A silence that she could not resist filling with the sound of her own voice.

"You heard her!" Eirene piped up primly. "Finish your supper, Bertwistle! If you make another mooing sound it will be your last. And pick up the quaffle you threw, will you?" She pointed at another miscreant. "I've only told you a thousand times."

The Headmaster was pleased that not only could he leave the  healing of these wretched children in the hands of Elixia Mordent, he could also trust her to be suitably grave. Merlin knew the good cheer and giggles would take care of themselves with this particular set of patients. It wouldn't be long before comforting letters from home and housemates would be arriving either. It was good to know the practical reminder of mortality would be carried through.

"Clearly, you have this well in hand," Knox said to Elixia. "I'll leave you in Eirene Antonopoulos's capable attentions.  I've become vestigial, but I do have all the keys so call on me for anything you might need."

Then, out of the corner of his mouth, he mumbled a warning to Eirene who was beginning to crescendo.

"Be kind to them, Miss Antonopoulos," he said out of the corner of his mouth. "They're all very tired."

After making sure he had her acknowledgement, he straightened up and bade farewell to the hall.

"Good night, everyone. Eat well, sleep well, and we'll see you all better soon. Hogwarts is hobbled without you."

Exit Knox

Healer Mordent was serious and Frank wasn't yet sure if that was a comfort or not. Eirene seemed to take to her. Frank appreciated Eirene's artful note-taking, especially how she'd done his surname, but he felt a touch of envy that the Headmaster had given her a task and not him.

"I'm good with potions, Miss," Frank said, speaking up after the Headmaster was gone. Frank's socks were in his own bed, so he crossed past the Healer to retrieve them.  "My parents have an apothecary and they've taught me everything, actually. So if you need any help with anything. Don't need a wand to-"

He paused, his face screwed up as if he was going to sneeze, but then it came out that awful cross between a sneeze and a cough and he felt like he might have died slightly. "Oh, gad."

He'd been about to say it didn't take a wand to measure and count things, a parroting of his parents. (Although it was more often 'push a broom'.)

"Sorry," Frank recovered. "I know about reagents. Just let me know."

“You heard her! … I’ve only told you a thousand times.”

Oh joy. She’d have to write to Cecily when she got a chance, let her know how young Eirene made quite the impression. As long as she kept that energy in the right direction. She had a horrible feeling the younger Antonopoulos could quite easily rub others up the wrong way.

“Clearly, you have this well in hand.”
“Thank you Headmaster.”

Fake it ’til you make it, Lix thought as the Headmaster made his retreat. If he didn’t believe her, he at least made out to the students he did. Healer Mordent was already beginning to believe she would enjoy this Hogwarts team with Knox Greyfriar at the helm.

“Be kind to them, Miss Antonopoulos. They’re all very tired.” With fatherly words to them all, he was gone. Students were moving to pick up dinners, quaffles, blankets and books, forming some semblance of order. This was her ship now, after all. She was the captain of this wayward vessel. Hands on hips, she gave sharp, approving nods of those who obeyed.

A small, nasally voice addressed her. It was the Sellaphix boy from earlier.

“I’m good with potions, Miss. My parents have an apothecary and they’ve taught me everything, actually. So if you need any help with anything. Don’t need a wand to-.” his face creased to sneeze. Lix readied her wand to stop the tickle but it dissipated by itself. “… I know about reagents. Just let me know.”

“I’m sure you are, Zelda’s a knowledgeable woman.” She gave him a friendly close-lipped smile in reassurance. “Let’s get that nose sorted, shall we?” She leaned over and touched her fingertips to Frank’s chin, lifting it so she could examine him. “Hmm, hold still, this might be a little uncomfortable but it’ll be done in a heartbeat.” In a well practiced movement, she tugged the tip of his nose and swiftly pointed her wand with a furious look of concentration across her brow. Instantly, Frank’s nose felt rather ordinary again - apart from the flu-ey symptoms beneath. 

“There!” Healer Mordent proclaimed, hands back on hips, wand stuck out behind her hip. “That’s done it. Give it a wiggle and a good snort in.” She glanced to her second shadow, “can show you that when you get your magic back,” she suggested, lifting her eyebrows.

Eirene's zeal was curtailed only slightly by the kindly Headmaster's reminder. She nodded, watching him leave with some regret. How was he to write letters of recommendation for her if he couldn't see her helping? As the door shut behind him she turned a stern frown upon a student who had stuck her bare.feet. out into the aisle. Barbaric! Put some socks on!

Because Frank was so nice, Eirene didn't begrudge him the opportunity to learn from Healer Mordent alongside her. Because Frank was so nice, she had no qualms about leaning in close to watch the Healer expertly fix his nose.

Wow! The Healer fixed it so efficiently. Eirene stepped back and beamed at her.

"Oh, I know it in theory," she said quickly. "But I've not had any - many chances to practice."

One chance. Then scolded by her mother.

"Your face looks much better, Frank," she informed him, ignoring the snort of laughter a few rows down. What? He didn't have a mirror.

Who was next? Eirene readied her parchment and quill.

Oh! Healer Mordent knew his mother! That was a good news/bad news situation. On one hand, his mum wouldn't trust just anyone in her close circle. On the other, Zelda's remedies tended to be stinky - he hoped Healer Mordent didn't know any of them.

Everyone flinched when someone pointed a wand at your face, and Frank braced himself as the Healer prepared to cast a spell on his only nose.

"Ungh!" Frank grunted at the manual/magical adjustment and he felt a tingly wave of relief. The ache that had been bothering him all day dissolved away. He touched it gently as if to confirm it was the right shape. He had a good nose and he wanted it to remain that way.

“That’s done it. Give it a wiggle and a good snort in.”

Frank did as told and made like a rabbit. All day he'd been trying to keep his wiggling and sniffing to a minimum, but this time even a thorough go at it didn't hurt at all, actually.

"Thanks. Feels much better, actually."

"Your face looks much better, Frank," Eirene said.

"Thank you, Eirene," Frank sad primly with a tight dimpled smile. Someone snickered but Frank didn't hear.

Frank got down off the bed and pulled his robe closer around him. The chatter in the room had grown a little louder now that the Headmaster had gone. Looking past the Healer, a few hands had gone up. A boy spoke up.

"Are we squibs now!? Because my brother's in muggle school and they get a whole month holiday in March and maybe I could just go there? I dunno!"

A girl followed his lead. "I know my magic's supposed to be gone, but I took a quiz in Witch Weekly and found out I'm a Seer and well, miss, I've had four visions already today. Can I go?"

“Oh, I know it in theory…” Eirene hastily assured Healer Mordent, who gave her an amused look in return. She remembered Zufrieden at Durmstrang like Eirene. They’d been so desperate to make Oberteil they’d boast anything in the hope of promotion.

“Thanks. Feels much better, actually.”

“Good! That’s the purpose of us healers, you know.” She gave Frank a wink. No sooner had she done that but a forest of hands went up like it was a classroom.

“Are we squibs now, because…”
“No, no you’re not squibs. Don’t be silly, and they only get two and a half weeks,” she corrected without hesitation.
“… I took a quiz in Witch Weekly and found out I’m a Seer…”
“No, no you can’t. Those weren’t visions, but the flu or an overactive imagination.”

She could see that hand going up again and intervened.

“RIGHT, now, the bad news is that our rather magical potions don’t seem to respond quite the same when you’re suffering from-“
“Praecantatio Deliquus” Someone, probably Eirene, spoke from nearby.
“But I came prepared.” With a tap of her wand her upright trunk lid creaked open, like a portable wardrobe. Inside were a multitude of brightly coloured boxes, which were not as first suspected, Honeydukes sweets, but rather a broad variety of Muggle flu remedies, straight from several London chemists. “If you be as Muggles, then Muggle magic be our cure for all.”