章節 382: Hospitalized

"If I ever catch you bullying my little sister again," wheezed Daphne when she finally caught up to Astoria and the twins, "Fidelius Charm or not, Trace or not, guest or not, I will make you regret it…"

The Weasley twins had spent the past minute chasing Astoria around the house, gleefully shouting the top secret codeword that activated her runic tattoos at the top of their lungs and making the runic patterns on Astoria's skin blink on and off again.

Thankfully, Mrs. Weasley had quickly put a stop to their reign of terror.

Her eyes were still moist from crying about her son Percy returning his Christmas gift and basically turning his back on his family, so it hadn't taken much for her to fly into a rage and threaten to incinerate the twins' entire stock of Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes.

With Astoria out of bounds for their pranks, the Weasley twins then spent the rest of the morning following Daphne around and reading aloud from a dictionary in the hopes of happening upon Daphne's codeword, but their brute force method didn't work out for them, thankfully.

That's pretty much how Astoria's Christmas morning went, and before long, the time to leave the house to visit Mr. Weasley had finally arrived. The Weasleys weren't going to be leaving Mr. Weasley all alone on Christmas, so they were planning on returning to visit him in the hospital one last time before he was discharged; and Astoria would be joining them, at the behest of her sister.

And so, right before lunchtime ended, Mundungus Fletcher turned up on Sirius's doorstep; he had been put in charge of securing a car for them to ride to the hospital, since public transport had grinded to a halt for Christmas Day. Curiously enough, he had arrived just in time to get some dessert, which consisted of Christmas pudding and treacle tart.

At any rate, this time around, Arthur's hospital visitors would consist of Harry, Ron, Hermione, Mrs. Weasley, Bill, Fred, George and Astoria; and they would be escorted by Lupin and Moody. In total, eleven people would be riding in Mundungus's 'borrowed' car, but thanks to the Undetectable Extension Charm, there was plenty of space inside the Muggle vehicle for all of them to sit comfortably.

One could even say that there was more to this car than met the eye…

Since there wasn't much traffic outside on Christmas Day, the car ride to the hospital was short and to the point. Upon hopping out of the vehicle after having reached their destination, Astoria noted that St Mungo's hadn't changed much from her last visit. She was all too familiar with the ugly dummy in the fake Muggle shopfront which opened the way to the hospital, having spent many a lonely night in St Mungo's before coming to Hogwarts…

"Are you okay?" Hermione asked her gently, and Astoria nodded slightly.

The ugly dummy behind the large display window beckoned for Astoria to come through, so she stepped through the large windowpane; space shimmered, and Astoria found herself in St Mungo's reception area. In her opinion, the Christmas decorations did little to cover up the depressive nature of the place…

Having already visited him a few days ago, The Gryffindor Trio and the Weasleys already knew where to find Mr. Weasley, so they headed for the first floor straight away, while Astoria walked over to the welcome desk, behind which a bored-looking Witch was sitting.

"Pardon me," Astoria asked politely. "I was wondering if my sister had been admitted here; her name is Oleandra Greengrass; she's a bit older than me, our faces are almost identical— oh, but her hair is dark brown, almost black…"

"Does it look like I take note of every single person who stumbles in?" the Welcome Witch grumbled in a quite unwelcoming manner, but she still lowered her eyes to a piece of parchment on her desk, and skimmed rapidly through the list of patients. "Look," she said wearily, "if your sister's name isn't on the list, then she's probably not here."

The Welcome Witch then tapped on a large sign to the left of her desk:

ARTEFACT ACCIDENTS. . . . . . . . . Ground Floor (that's the first floor for you, American readers)

(Cauldron explosion, wand backfiring, broom crashes, etc.)

CREATURE-INDUCED INJURIES. . . . . . . . . First Floor

(Bites, stings, burns, embedded spines, etc.)

MAGICAL BUGS. . . . . . . . . Second Floor

(Contagious maladies, e.g., dragon pox, vanishing sickness, scrofungulus)

POTION AND PLANT POISONING. . . . . . . . . Third Floor

(Rashes, regurgitation, uncontrollable giggling, etc.)

SPELL DAMAGE. . . . . . . . . Fourth Floor

(Unliftable jinxes, hexes, and incorrectly applied charms, etc.)

VISITORS' TEAROOM AND HOSPITAL SHOP. . . . . Fifth Floor

"We do have some unidentified patients," she continued irritably, "so if you have any idea of what might have hospitalized your sister, you can go take a look for yourself."

Astoria was slightly surprised that she'd be allowed to wander aimlessly through the hospital without having someone specific to visit, but it seemed like allowing random people to visit the wards was the least of the receptionist's concerns.

At any rate, if Oleandra had been attacked by Death Eaters, then Astoria rationalized that she must have taken damage from spells, which meant that her current destination was the fourth floor. Astoria already knew the hospital's layout pretty well, so she directly pushed through the double doors behind the welcome desk and took the stairs to the fourth floor, ignoring the portraits of Healers recommending folk remedies for her imaginary ailments.

Seeing as no one was coming to stop her from poking her head in places where it didn't belong, Astoria began casting the Unlocking Charm on every locked door she came across on the fourth floor. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, Astoria failed to discover her elder sister in any of the wards she visited.

"There you are!" came Hermione's voice, giving Astoria quite a start. "We've been looking for you!"

Astoria had been in the process of testing the Janus Thickey Ward's doorknob when Hermione had pushed open the double doors that led from the stairs to the fourth floor to call out to Astoria.

The door to the Janus Thickey Ward, as it turned out, was already unlocked.

"They wouldn't happen to serve tea on this floor, would they?" said Ron as he followed Hermione through the doors, glancing around at his surroundings curiously. "So, have you found Oleandra yet?"

"Not yet," Astoria admitted. "I was about to try this door…"

Astoria opened the door a sliver and peered through the crack, before opening it wider. Curtain dividers had been drawn between the beds at the back, so she would have to look at those beds individually if she wanted to check their occupants' faces.

And having nothing better to do, the Gryffindor Trio followed Astoria in as she stepped into the ward.

"Merry Christmas!" came a sing-song voice behind them. "Guess who's got gifts!"