This was probably the quietest Christmas Su Er had ever spent. There was no mountain of presents, only a pure white hospital room and a quiet Hermione reading beside his bed.
To play the part of a patient properly, Su Er could only stay in his room, bored, listening to the strange giggling outside and another frequently heard voice coaxing someone like a child.
Apart from reading, this had been Su Er's best way of passing the time these past few days.
Conversations like the ones next door happened several times a day.
Incidentally, Su Er's neighbor was his second-year Professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts, a victim of the curse on the position, though he had certainly brought trouble on himself too...
Just as Su Er listened to the healer next door coaxing Lockhart down with sweets after he had climbed onto the bed frame to pretend to be a monkey, his door opened, and an elderly woman with fluffy blond hair and a kindly face walked in.
Su Er saw what was on the old woman's tray and groaned. Time for more medicine.
Hermione, who had been reading, looked up and tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear.
"Good afternoon, madam."
The healer who had entered was responsible for Su Er's long-term private room. Under St. Mungo's Hospital's rules, once a healer had been assigned to a long-term ward, they would not be replaced lightly.
Moreover, unlike in a Muggle hospital, no one other than the assigned healer and visitors would enter during that time, let alone a department head making rounds, unless the healer's patient showed improvement or deteriorated.
However, under Dumbledore's arrangements, the original healer had "nothing to do," and the best person to take her place was Tonks, who possessed an innate