It was a communal ward.
Zhang Xiao looked around. The signs in the ward made it unmistakably clear that this was the patients' permanent home.
Compared with his own ward, there were more personal touches around the beds;
for example, a pale, sorrowful-looking wizard lay in the bed opposite, staring at the ceiling.
He was muttering to himself, seemingly oblivious to everything around him.
A woman lay in the second bed from the front, her entire head covered in thick black hair.
The two beds at the far end of the ward were screened off by a curtain. Spells had been cast on it to effectively block sound, giving the patients some privacy.
"Here you go, Annie!" a healer said cheerfully to the woman with the hairy face, handing her a small pile of sweets.
"See? You haven't been forgotten, have you?
"Your son sent a letter by owl saying he'll come to visit you next week. That's lovely, isn't it?"
Annie let out several loud roars and struggled desperately. To Zhang Xiao, she looked more like she wanted to lunge at the healer and take a couple of bites.
The healer seemed unconcerned. She placed the sweets on the little cabinet beside the bed, then hummed as she moved over to the sorrowful-looking wizard.
Neville pulled back the curtain screening the two beds at the end of the ward, a heartfelt smile on his round face.
"Dad, Mum, I've come to see you."
Zhang Xiao stood silently behind him, holding the flowers he had bought on the fifth floor. Two people lay behind the curtain. They slowly struggled to sit up, looking at them with bewildered, vacant eyes.
"They were both Aurors. Zhang, you know how highly respected Aurors are in the Wizarding World!" Mrs. Longbottom said proudly as