Plot Twist [GEORGE WEASLEY]

James, Alone

Saint Mungos was a wreck. People were coming in and out every minute. With some injury or spell gone wrong. Interns were roused from their corners to help the healers. The ward capacity was going to overflow.

Why would people do such idiotic things before Christmas?

Lucky James was to have arrived amidst the havoc in the evening. He went up the stairs to his assigned ward on the third floor. The one that dealt with plant poisoning and potions. Somehow, with his history of potion disasters, he had gotten accepted.

An onslaught of voices rushed his ears as he came to the third floor. He stopped by the reception desk for this ward. The forty-old receptionist, June, was directing a man whose teenage daughter had a case of uncontrollable weeping. She handed the girl a couple of tissues. "Doctor Moore will be with you as soon as he can. You've one patient before you. Please take a seat."

Her professional smile collapsed to the exhaustion she was overwhelmed by. James knew there were things to get to. This floor was scattered with miserable patients. Still, it was his routine to ask how June was doing.

"You okay, June?"

"A bit tired. A bit dehydrated. I haven't gotten a chance to relax in the lounge," she raised a perfectly plucked eyebrow. " Where are your water bottles?"

James laughed. "You all were making fun of me for doing that," he remarked.

"It was funny but also endearing."

"Good to know," James reached into his messenger bag and took out three bottles from it. "Does Healer Chen need me?"

"He won't admit it but yes. A patient came in with scorpion blood poisoning. It's not a severe case but the patient needs a Knock-Out Potion for the cleansing procedure and..."

"...we just ran out of our ready made stock," James drawled. Oh, he really despised making the multi-step, exasperating potion. "I'll go make a fresh batch."

---

Life at St. Mungos wasn't free of its thorns. Nevertheless, it distracted him from the fact his father was recovering from his last cancer treatment at home. He had been having bad dreams and waking up in lawless hours to vomit his guts out.

It was promising, though. The healer they went to had told following the treatment there was a brilliant chance James' father could enter a phase of his life where his body was free of it and it won't return with a vengeance. It was the miracle James had hoped for.

He poured some Knock-Out Potion into a cup and added some sugar. It tasted sour as lemons. For this reason, it was quite unpopular amongst the patients they administered to. Frequently, it was hard to administer without adding sugar. He hurried to Healer Chen who waited in the patient's ward.

The doctor greeted him with his winning scowl. James gave the patient, a man with purple hair and tattoos, the potion. The man downed it like a shot and puckered his lips. He relaxed on to the bindings that held him.

Then, he was out like a light.

Healer Chen baulked at James. "Took you long enough. He just entered stage one of the madness. He couldn't speak a proper word."

Healer Chen was a man in his late fifties who had given up a long time ago. James knew it and could loathe him like the other interns in his ward. In spite of it being justified, he didn't. Some people are born assholes and some act like they're one. Regardless, there was that silver peeking through the cracks in their exterior which toppled fickle assumptions.

He was certain Healer Chen was the latter.

The day the two met had been a bad one. James, being the klutz he was, knocked an entire shelf of Numbing Potion. It all smashed with a deafening crash. Healer Chen had scurried in, enraged and anxious. He had demanded who was responsible and James gave himself up. From then on, there was lingering distrust from Healer Chen's part.