Located on the first floor, the Hospital Wing was where Hogwarts residents went to have their medical needs met.
The entrance had double doors and within it were many rows of beds with white sheets, privacy screens, and bedpans.
Just outside of the Hospital Wing stood a copper statue of a unicorn over a fountain.
The fountain was said to give an air of serenity and calm to the Hospital Wing.
The infirmary was designed for proper rest and relaxation.
The light breeze rustling through the sheets covering the comfortable bed made for the perfect conditions required for a recovery.
The constant sound of water flowing right outside the door served as a comforting background.
The lice medicine Madam Pomfrey provided made a person feel calm throughout their whole body and especially around the head, providing for the most perfect sleep anyone could ever ask for.
Arthur would have loved to sleep in such a serene environment and he would have too if not for the ongoing discussion among his friends.
He tried to ignore it for some time but that was made impossible by Cedric popping his head from between the sheets and asking, “Arthur, the twins say that we should properly finish the adventure so we’re going to visit Professor Kettleburn. Do you want to come?”
Arthur was up before he could finish the sentence.
What kind of person would sleep midday on a Saturday?
…
As the Professor of Care of Magical Creatures, Silvanus Kettleburn was highly knowledgeable and proficient in the field of Magizoology, the study of magical creatures.
He was particularly fond of dealing with dangerous beasts, such as Chimaeras, but was more than capable of handling and teaching his students about non-violent beasts as well.
This was information anyone would tell you.
What people didn’t usually talk about when mentioning Professor Kettleburn was the fact that some of his limbs were missing because those facts were irrelevant.
During his time as a professor, Kettleburn had received a blanket ban on bringing overtly dangerous beasts to class and gathered no less than sixty periods of probations.
It was well known that Professor Kettleburn owned a small house in the village of Hogsmeade from where he would walk up to Hogwarts for work every day.
The Professor also frequently bragged that he had won Hogsmeade’s Most Maimed Award for eight years running.
According to the Hufflepuff rumor mill by the time Albus Dumbledore had taken over from Professor Dippet as Headmaster, Professor Kettleburn had calmed down a considerable amount, though this was likely because he only had one and a half of his original limbs left: one arm and half a leg.
In spite of this some of his most recent exploits were still talked about in the common room.
For example, during the previous school year, he spent a considerable time asking for students’ help in locating a Chimaera loose some where on the grounds of Hogwarts.
A Chimaera.
Just to drive home how dangerous the creature was, it was rated 5X on Ministry of Magic Classification, meaning they are known to kill wizards and are impossible to domesticate.
Their eggs are classified as Class A Non-Tradeable Materials.
They are also very hard to kill with only one wizard recorded, emphasis on the recorded, to have ever successfully killed a Chimaera, but that victory ended in tragedy when the exhausted wizard fell off his winged horse.
In the same school year, Professor Kettleburn and Rubeus Hagrid had also been transporting a large number of magical creatures to the school for teaching purposes for the Care of Magical Creatures, when they accidentally lost control over them and they escaped and overran Hogwarts Castle, and got injured while in the process of rounding them up.
Arthur also knew that at some point during his tenure at Hogwarts, Kettleburn authored the internal Hogwarts guide Kettleburn’s Classification of Chompers, which detailed magical creatures that should be avoided by Hogwarts students, including Hippogriffs.
He knew that because Perfect Levi always carried it around the common room showing it to whoever was interested, which was usually everyone.
Their group story time sometimes involved incidents regarding creatures from the very guide.
All that to say, Professor Kettleburn was an experienced, battle-hardened and excellent teacher for Care of Magical Creatures, who had at some point during the early to mid-1920s or earlier met and befriended the famous Magizoologist Newton Artemis Fido “Newt” Scamander, whom he helped with his best-selling book Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by providing some of the information it contained about Chimaeras. Find the original chapter at novelping.com.
So, where would you look, for this almost legendary professor at 12’o clock on a Saturday?
That’s right, The Hospital Wing.
Madam Pomfrey had a bed permanently reserved for the man.
His credibility was also the reason why Arthur and his group of treasure hunters believed him when he said, “That’s wolf, dog, rat, and stag hair.”
“Now off you go.” Madam Pomfrey said shooing them away, “Don’t disturb my patient.”
….
“Well that was fun.” Arthur said exiting from the infirmary, “But we really have to train our spell casting.”
“Don’t you want to know what a wolf and a stag were doing at the Shack?” Fred asked separating the hairs into distinct groups.
“As riveting as the mystery of why a predator would bring its prey to a safe location and what other scavenger animals could possibly be doing there…” Arthur said pausing for the dramatic effect, “Cedric and I have bigger things to do. Isn’t that right Cedric?”
Arthur looked at his room mate who was considering his point.
After a moments hesitation Cedric said, “There was no blood though?”
The twins perked up at that.
They had found a leg to stand on.
Arthur could just feel the argument coming as they walked out of the infirmary.
…
It turns out there was no need to have an argument.
They split into two groups.
Anna went with the twins to find out why those four animals could possibly spent time together, their best guess was that they were part of some ritual.
Arthur took Cedric with him to the common room to practice.
He didn’t want to tell the kids that maybe some students had just brought exotic meats for a meal.
The place had a ‘Haunted’ ambiance going on and he knew from Tonks that Hufflepuffs did know how to get in there.
It wasn’t so far as to think someone went for a date there.
Hard to know just what the ladies were interested in these days.
If the Internet had taught him anything…never mind.
…
Arthur and Cedric made their way back to the common room.
It was nearing lunch time and they met Flora at the entrance as she was going to the kitchen to whip something up.
Patricia was sitting in the couch and knitting with a ball of yarn on her lap.
Seeing them arrive she nodded and concentrated on her knitting.
“What are you doing?” Arthur asked the girl focused on her work.
“It’s almost December.” Patricia said, “I’m trying to knit scarfs for everybody. These are your Christmas gifts by the way.”
“Thank you in advance.” Cedric said with a thankful tone, “We’re going to practice our spells here. We won’t disturb you, will we?”
“No, you won’t.” Patricia said without even looking up, “Just don’t hit me with anything.”
“Alright we’ll be careful.” Arthur said as he pulled Cedric away from the girl to put some distance between them.
Addressing Cedric he asked, “What do you want to start with?”
“Can we try our wand lighting charm during the duel?” Cedric asked after some thought.
“No, we can’t.” Arthur said wincing slightly, “They must have carefully considered the conditions. We’re restricted to only the ones taught in class.”
“We can try Transfiguration.” Cedric said hopefully, “It’s very versatile.”
“Sure.” Arthur said and asked back, “If you can transform anything bigger than a feather.”
Cedric slumped at that.
Everyone’s progress at Transfiguration had been slow lately, as the class had increased in complexity.
Seeing him being discouraged Arthur gently suggested, “How about the spark spell?”
“The one Professor Duke taught us?” Cedric perked up considerably and said, “We could aim it at their eyes.”
Who knows where Cedric had picked up this particular new obsession from.
Arthur for sure didn’t know.
Anyways, he didn’t want to tell the boy that he had already researched that.
A book in the library revealed that the Verdimillious Charm actually had several uses.
They could be used offensively in duelling, if one waved his or her wand in a circular motion overhead whilst slowly saying the incantation, an orb of glowing green energy could be thrown from the wand tip, exploding several feet away in a blinding flash of emerald light and illuminating the entire room for a short period of time.
So long as the emerald light from the spell lasted even objects such as platforms or doors that had been hidden by Dark magic would be revealed, so that they were temporarily visible and tangible again, until the spell’s effects ended.
But they weren’t taught that in class.
Professor Duke hadn’t gone into that much detail regarding the spell and Arthur didn’t know whether there was a specific type of motion required.
If potions had taught him anything it was that clockwise and anticlockwise motion mattered.
The book was vague on that.
As far as Arthur knew they were only taught a basic version of the spell which wouldn’t be of much use because when he tested it on himself the spark only felt like a minor tingling sensation.
He guessed that was by design so the children that were taught the spell, wouldn’t go burning the school down.
It was a pretty good guess because the first thing Arthur did after learning the spell was to try and sneakily burn down the potions assignment Snape had returned to him… speaking of which, DID he complete his new potions assignments?