The Notorious Smith Family
Kate is going crazy. A medieval wizard is shouting that she obviously has severe dwarfism.
To that end, he chased Kate through six frames, pushing the people in the paintings aside.
"What did you say I got?" Kate stomped her foot in annoyance, making the already shaky stairs sway even more.
"This is a hormonal imbalance, miss. It will shorten your arms and legs, making you even shorter than you are now—"
"Who are you calling short?" Kate's eyes were red with anger. She suddenly stopped in her tracks and looked at the medieval wizard.
"Only by placing a toad's liver on one's chest, and standing naked amidst a bucket of eel eyes when the sun and moon are shining brightly—"
"I don't have dwarfism!"
"But you are clearly very short, and judging from your bone structure, you are over seventeen or eighteen years old, Miss—"
"I was born that way, and my dad's short too!" Kate snapped. "Go back to your own picture frame and stop bothering me!"
She turned to Ryan was trying his best to keep a straight face.
Ryan could only pat his head reassuringly to keep himself from bursting out laughing.
"Which floor are we on?" Kate asked in a muffled voice.
"We're on the fifth floor now." Ryan walked toward the platform and pointed to the double doors marked with the words "Spell Damage Ward".
Is this the place?
"Of course not, Kate."
Do you remember what that lady said?
The Longbottoms were staying in a normally locked, closed ward. "In response to Kate's question, Ryan took her little hand and led her to a room at the end of the corridor."
Just as Ryan was about to open the door, a healer wearing a gold and silver floral wreath rushed over. "Hello, are you two here to visit Frank and Alice?"
The therapist appeared very kind at first glance, possessing a maternal quality that was refreshing and comforting.
However, she looked extremely nervous at the moment, which filled her pure and holy face with worldly emotions.
"You know me?" Ryan had just noticed that the therapist's attention had been on him.
Moreover, this kind of attention is definitely not what a normal woman would feel when she sees his handsome face.
On the contrary, it was a vigilance that ran deep in one's bones.
"If you want to harm Frank and the others, you'll have to step over my dead body first!" The therapist's face was tense as he stood in front of the closed door.
"Ryan, is it because your family has a bad reputation?" Kate jumped up and down with glee.
O(∩_∩)O Haha!
Ryan had a bad day too!
"Madam, look me in the eyes." Ryan's words seemed to possess a magical power.
The healer, who had just been very resistant, looked at Ryan's silver eyes obediently the next second, as if he had lost his soul.
The therapist then stood frozen in place.
"What happened?" Kate asked.
"Rumor."
"Rumors about the Smith Family, who have always kept their existence a secret."
"The Smith Family's actions of concealing themselves, continuously accumulating wealth, and forcibly taking Magical Contract and receiving dividends in various magical industries in the Britain Wizarding World, including food, clothing, housing, and transportation, have obviously led some wizards who know of their existence to think the worst." Ryan's brows furrowed deeply.
"Is it wrong for our family to be rich!" Ryan thought to himself.
He never imagined that Smith's reputation would fall to the point where, in the original timeline, he would be mistaken for Harry, the successor to Slytherin.
The fact that the Smith Family is actually the controller of St. Mungo's's is something every healer learns upon joining the profession.
However, due to the contract, they cannot disclose this information to the outside world.
Although this contract had no other effect than preventing the spread of Smith's information.
But there are always people who feel that it is hindering their freedom.
This negative emotion spread from generation to generation among therapists.
It's fair to say that Smith's reputation is even worse than Voldemort's.
Even the room Smith left on the sixth floor was used as a laboratory for these evil people.
The reason why St. Mungo's's was almost free was that they wanted to collect information.
The wizards trapped in the closed wards are long-term experiments of the Smith Family.
If we consider a transmigrator without any special abilities, they would be speechless at this point.
Because these rumors focused on the contract from the very beginning.
No matter how much evidence you present, these therapists with a screw loose won't believe you as long as the contract isn't broken.
But Ryan is different; if there's any problem that words can't solve...
Then it was his turn to use his omnipotent magic.
"You don't believe me, but I can make you believe." A flash of golden magic crossed Ryan's eyes.
The therapist, who had been standing there in a daze, immediately snapped out of it.
"I was so stupid to believe such rumors," the therapist concluded after offering a series of elaborate apologies.
"It's nothing, just do what you're supposed to do."
"You are undoubtedly a great therapist for daring to stand up and protect your patients in the face of danger."
"Now—" Ryan gestured with his eyes.
The therapist quickly opened the door.
After entering the door, the therapist, now in his own territory, returned to his original state.
No longer that trembling, apologetic machine that apologizes at the drop of a hat.
She greeted the long-term patients in the ward with a very infectious smile.
It was like they were her family.
It's clear from those habitual, almost muscle-memory-based movements that the therapist wasn't just putting on an act because of Ryan and the others.
There were two people in the ward, and two beds at the other end, which were surrounded by floral curtains.
Presumably, the Longbottoms are behind that floral curtain.
Because the two wizards outside are clearly not.
Even though Ryan hadn't seen the photos of the Longbottoms, he knew that the sallow-faced, gloomy, muttering wizard who was unresponsive to the healer's words was not Frank Longbottom.
The hairy woman with a face that barks like a dog, sitting two beds away from this wizard, is not Alice Longbottom.
Neither of them resembled Neville in any way.
"Agnes," the therapist greeted the hairy woman gently, "I told you you wouldn't be forgotten."
Your son just sent an owl to say he'll be coming to see you tonight, isn't that great?
Agnes barked loudly a few times.
"There are fewer and fewer patients here."
Most patients choose to stay with their families when their condition does not improve.
Very few families, like Agnes's, never give up.
Others were abandoned by their families. The healer pointed to the muttering wizard and sighed in a low voice, "His family hasn't visited him for years."
Ryan nodded in agreement.
In the original timeline, two years after Harry Potter's fifth year, the hairy witch and the sour-faced wizard were still here.
"And then there's Frank and his family. Augusta Longbottom insisted on keeping her son and son-in-law in St. Mungo's."
She firmly believed that one day her son and son-in-law would recover.
"You're telling the truth, aren't you?" the therapist turned sharply. "Frank and Alice will be back to normal today, right?"
"Smith never lies." Ryan smiled slightly and walked to the bed surrounded by floral curtains.