Miss Joy

"So Dumbledore was preparing to go to war?" Tom asked excitedly. He was already looking forward to the magical war to come.

"Who knew?" Aberforth swallowed his third sausage, raised an arm to wipe his mouth, and instantly smeared grease all over the gold-trimmed cuff of his expensive-looking crimson silk robe. "What great Albus Dumbledore did was ever for other people to understand?"

"Since Professor Dumbledore was preparing to act, I suppose this would be resolved quickly." Nelson was somewhat puzzled. "Did he have some reservations in the past few years?"

"Because Dumbledore was here, Grindelwald and his lackeys didn't dare reach into the United Kingdom. That was pretty much common knowledge in the wizarding world." Aberforth shook his head disdainfully. "Just wait and see. We'd have a show to watch for at least a few more years!"

His pessimistic remarks plunged the ward into brief silence. Even Tom fell quiet, seemingly planning how he would turn the tide after Dumbledore's defeat.

"Still, they were clever this time. They attacked the Hogwarts train while both the Headmaster and Albus were away. If they'd really managed to sneak in, that would have been serious trouble... Luckily, they had an expert like me aboard, someone they never expected." Aberforth said smugly. "Didn't expect that, did you, Grindelwald? No matter how carefully you plotted, your men still ended up in Azkaban."

"You still needed our help to ambush that man," Tom interrupted his self-congratulation.

Aberforth widened his eyes. "How could you slander me out of nowhere—" "What slander? Before I came in, I saw you hiding beneath the meat rack after getting beaten into a sheep!" Aberforth's face reddened, the veins on his forehead bulging as he argued, "I was afraid my magic would be too powerful and accidentally hurt you!... I was protecting you!... A teacher's most important duty is to protect his students, understand?" This was followed by a string of incomprehensible remarks, things like "an Animagus has to keep transforming or they'll get rusty" and "tactics are more important than spells," making everyone burst into laughter. The ward, inside and out, filled with cheerful air.

"Professor Dumbledore, the patients need rest!" Miss Joy's voice drifted in from the doorway. "You're too loud!"

"Oh, all right! I'm leaving right away." Aberforth answered loudly. He reminded the two of them to rest well, then, before leaving, stared solemnly at Tom and slowly said, "Boy, I believe I said I'd assign you some extra advanced homework, didn't I? (Tom: No, you didn't!) You're in luck."

Before long, Miss Joy entered carrying a silver tray filled with bottles, jars, and all sorts of medical instruments, then began examining the two of them.

"My chest feels a little stuffy, Miss Joy." Nelson opened his robe and lay on the bed, groaning softly.

"That's normal when your ribs are growing back." Miss Joy jabbed his chest hard. "Call me Miss Joy. Do I look that old?"

"Hiss... All right, Miss Joy!"

"The public safety these days is getting worse and worse. Even the Hogwarts train can be attacked now." She complained with a frown as she pried open Nelson's mouth and poured a small bottle of pungent green liquid down his throat. Only a second later, Nelson felt his blood surge upward, as though all the heat in his body had gathered in his forehead and his brain was struggling to burst out through his nostrils and mouth.

"Don't move around, or I'll have to make you drink another cup." Seeing Nelson lie flat obediently, Miss Joy took a small pair of tweezers from the tray and pinched his nose shut. One hand covered his mouth while the other gripped the back of his head and shook him violently. Nelson truly had not expected the twentieth-century British Empire to possess such unusual medical methods, but it was too late for regrets. Just as he was about to vomit up half a bowl of the soup he had drunk, Miss Joy stopped. Strangely, a cool, comfortable sensation soon flowed from Nelson's head to The Heart, then quickly spread through every limb and bone, leaving his whole body wonderfully relaxed.

"What miraculous medicine." Nelson praised her sincerely. He squinted in comfort and rubbed his hair against the pillow, preparing to let out a long breath, only for the tweezers pinching his nose to make him blow a snot bubble instead. The crisp pop startled him awake, and he suddenly realized that, really, anyone who had first been tortured by having their head shaken around would feel utterly relaxed once it stopped.

"Thank you. By the way, I liked the pattern of your radial rib fractures, so I specially used custom-colored Skele-Gro on you. It'll make your newly grown bones a faint gold, just like a tattoo—if you're thin enough, you might even see your ribs glowing through your chest at night." Miss Joy seemed pleased by his heartfelt praise. Satisfied, she fed Nelson another bottle of Drug, then asked curiously, "Mr. Williams, I heard you came from a Muggle family? Do you know anything about Muggle medicine? Is there anything we can learn from it?"

"There... probably is..." Nelson had not expected someone to repay thanks with such hostility. The second bottle of Drug she fed him was the complete opposite of the first: a thick orange liquid that was sickeningly sweet. He felt as though his taste buds had split apart, and even his entire tongue was beginning to disobey him. Forcing himself to leave behind only, "Muggle medicine is gentler with patients," he plunged face-first into his pillow and fell asleep.

"Gentle? Healing someone is what counts as gentle." Miss Joy walked toward the trembling Tom, her expression hidden beneath her mask. "Muggles can't heal someone whose The Heart has shattered, but I can. So I'm gentler."

"Don't you agree, Mr. Riddle?"

"Yes!"

Early the next morning, Nelson woke Tom and prepared to leave the hospital. The instant they stepped out of the Hospital Wing, both of them felt as though a great burden had been lifted.

"I never want to go to the Hospital Wing again!" Tom said, still shaken.

"I never want to go to a hospital again!" Nelson's trauma ran far deeper.

"That would be wonderful." Miss Joy's voice came from around a corner two steps ahead. Holding a meal she had brought back from the dining hall, she looked at the two of them with a smile. "Honestly, the people who most hope their work stays quiet are probably doctors~"

"Sorry, Miss Joy." Nelson and Tom lowered their heads in apology. Last night, all they had been able to tell through her mask was that she was likely beautiful: under thirty, with long eyelashes, a high nose bridge, carefully curled short golden hair beneath her nurse's cap, and lake-green eyes sparkling with a love for healing the sick and saving the dying. Yet when Nelson saw her again that morning, he finally understood why she was never at the staff table. She always went to the dining hall early and brought food back—beneath the mask, this young doctor's cheeks were covered in large and small crisscrossing scars. With her mastery of limb-regenerating magic, scars on the skin should have been easy to erase with a wave of her hand. There were only two possible reasons they remained: either they were magical injuries difficult to heal, or they had inflicted pain on her far greater than losing hands or feet... Either kind of pain would be enough to destroy a fragile person.

"What's there to apologize for? I wish Hogwarts were safe enough that my position didn't even exist." Miss Joy was still smiling.

"Sorry, I meant..."

"You mean my face?" Miss Joy smiled and pointed at her cheek. "I'm used to it already. I just hope I didn't scare you two. Don't learn from me—take good care of your bodies."

"Professor Dumbledore asked you to go to his office after dinner tonight to pick up a camera~~~" Miss Joy's voice carried from afar, but Nelson could no longer face that light, cheerful voice directly.

"Nal, I got your homework." At the dining table, Alphard clattered a teaspoon around in his cup of milk, looking thrilled. "You saved me. My sister said that if I couldn't hand in my Christmas holiday homework, she'd write home and have the family take me away."

"I remember my homework being at the very bottom of my trunk." Nelson swallowed a mouthful of creamy soup and secretly let out two satisfied little burps. "How did you find it?"

"Didn't you know? Your cat spread everything in your trunk all over the floor." Alphard looked at him sympathetically. "When I got to your dormitory, it was trying to dismantle your trunk and lay that flat on the floor too."

"..."

"It's fine. Alphard will help you clean up." Tom handed Nelson a plate of cherry tomatoes and patted his head like a dog's. "Isn't that right, Alphard?"

"I—ow!" Turning his head to see his sister smiling kindly at him, Alphard helplessly twisted his neck. "Fine. Who told you to be a patient?"

"Tom, I heard you stayed in the Hospital Wing last night." Walburga flashed Tom eight gleaming teeth at a perfect angle that had clearly been practiced countless times. "Did you sleep well? I have a sleep pillow my family sent me, and I had Alphard put it on your bed. Remember to use it tonight!"

"Thank you." Tom displayed perfect manners. "I appreciate the thought, but I don't use pillows when I sleep."

"Ah..." Walburga's face flushed as snickering rose around her. She glared around the room, struggling to find something to change the subject. "You spent the night in the Hospital Wing. Did you see what Miss Joy looks like? I heard no one has ever seen her face beneath the mask."

"Miss Joy..." Tom's expression went dazed for a moment, as though he had recalled an unbearable experience from the night before. He had just opened his mouth to speak when Nelson grabbed the back of his hand.

"Miss Joy is the most beautiful woman I've ever seen." Tom slapped the hand on the back of his own with his other hand and spoke with absolute certainty.

If the room could only be heated with air conditioning, then no matter how cold it was, they still had to open the windows for ventilation. Air conditioning really couldn't compare to central heating...