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After the Triwizard Tournament, Hazel Potter goes through an early inheritance brought on by now being considered an adult through the tournament. Through this, she learns secrets Dumbledore never intended for her to know and she vows...
Hyacinth looked at the woman before her shyly, with an impending sense of dread settled in the lowest part of her stomach. The woman was a healer and was there to talk about Hyacinth's eating or lack thereof.
The woman was friendly, Hyacinth couldn't pretend she wasn't, and she didn't make her feel ashamed for her complicated relationship with food. Still, there was just something so uncomfortable about talking about it in such a clinical manner.
The woman, whose name Hyacinth had not been given, had already weighed her and taken her measurements. Now was the tricky, sick-inducing part of discussing her eating habits and why they were so complicated—everything from the abuse to the forced eating from Molly. The healer had been sworn to secrecy about what would be revealed to her, so Hyacinth told her.
The healer had the grace to hide her shock behind a mask of professionalism, but Hyacinth could still see it in her eyes. The healer scribbled in a notebook, spider-like handwriting across a page that Hyacinth had no hope of reading the right way up, let alone upside down from where she was sitting across from the healer.
Silence permitted the room while the healer wrote, and Hyacinth distracted herself by watching the dragon tattoo on her thigh dance and shift, sometimes hiding behind her thigh, its tail flicking across and around her knee.
She had taken to wearing clothes that put her tattoos on display, simply so she could watch the magic tattoos move across her skin like water. The downside of this was that she finally noticed how thin she really was, how her ribs jutted out just slightly too far and how she could wrap all her fingers around her wrist and still have some room. It was what prompted her to ask for a healer.
She looked away from her leg to fight back the urge to dissolve into tears like she had done previously while looking in the mirror. Instead, she looked out the visitor's tea room window and watched as the peacocks hopped around each other in a beautiful flurry of pure white feathers.
Her eyes were drawn away from the window, hearing the soft voice of the healer begin to speak.
"Miss Riddle," she started, "I want to begin by saying how sorry I am that you had to go through this and how proud I am of you speaking so candidly to me about it. It couldn't have been easy for you, and I thank you for putting your trust in me. As for treatment, I believe that the best thing for you now would be to build up your appetite." She explained, voice as level and professional as it had been since she walked in.
Hyacinth nodded, prompting the woman to continue; "there are a few ways we could do this, but the most successful way I have seen personally is through an appetite potion", she said, noting the concerned look on Hyacinth's face rushed to continue. "It's nothing to be concerned about; taking this potion has no other consequences than improving your appetite for food and bringing your weight up. Once we have some therapy sessions together and you have a better approach to food, we can slowly reduce the number of potions you take until you can stop them altogether," she explained, quelling Hyacinth's anxiety.
Hyacinth considered for a while. The thought of regular potions left her stomach twisting uncomfortably, but what other option did she have? It was either that or never having a healthy relationship with food and slowly wasting away. Besides, her mother was a potion's master and was damn good at it, too; he wouldn't allow her to take a potion that could harm her in any way.
Hyacinth took a deep breath before she nodded; "Ok, I'll take the potions. What do I have to do?" She asked, and the healer smiled, pulling a medical bag from the side of her chair and opening it before checking her watch.
"Has the household had breakfast yet?" She asked, looking up at Hyacinth from her bent position over her bag. Hyacinth shook her head 'no', and the healer nodded, pulling three medium-sized vials and two smaller, all containing the same milky white liquid.
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The healer held the potions out towards Hyacinth, and she took them with hesitant hands. The healer pulled out a slip of parchment and a quill, explaining as she wrote.
"The larger ones are to be taken before every main meal; breakfast, lunch and dinner; the smaller ones are for in between the meals and are for snacks. It's important that you snack between meals, nothing too fancy or extravagant, maybe fruits or vegetables and hummus," she explained, handing Hyacinth the slip of parchment with what she could only assume was instructions. She would have to try to remember the spell that would make handwriting legible.
The healer checked her watch once more, clipping her bag shut again and making to stand up.
"I will talk to your parents about the therapy sessions and organise for tomorrow's potions to be delivered via early morning owl post tomorrow morning. Before I go, though, Miss Riddle, I am legally obligated to watch you take your first potion. This will be the first and last time I will need to see you take it, as after the first potion is taken, it will automatically go into our records every time you take it," she explained gently, and Hyacinth sighed slightly. So much for having her mother check the potion over before she takes it. Although, the healer had come at Narcissa's suggestion, and she trusted her even if she was only there through portrait alone.
She shrugged and uncorked one of the larger bottles, pausing to take a cautious sniff, surprised at the cinnamon scent that invaded her nose. Shrugging once again, under the watchful eye of her healer, she brought the vial to her lips and drank it down in one big gulp.
