To Thwart The Darkness {Book 3}

The Nargles Stole Her Christmas Card

Hogwarts

They asked McGonagall about a spell on Monday afternoon, but while she affirmed that there was a jinx she knew that could do the trick, she refused to tell them anything about it.

"While I think it's an excellent idea," she said to them, sensing their discouragement, "I also believe that it would be too high a risk for you to pull off. Death Eaters are not to be messed with. I wish you both," she said to Nico and Will, "good luck in your detention and I hope you continue to keep your fiery spirit. But I also hope you remain sensible and cautious." Her eyes lingered on Ginny sternly.

"Thank you for your help," Neville said. They all left her office with heavy hearts. It was looking like this New Hospital Wing was too dangerous to go through with.

"Come on Will," Nico said, taking his boyfriend's hand, "we have detention."

---

Will summoned the Room of Requirement that night. His left eye was bruised and the back of his neck and chest was covered in a hideous rash. But the other students had been worse and he was low on supplies. He had to get this New Hospital Wing to work, or else there'd be no hope for his peers.

He took a deep breath, taking note of the faded lyre painted on the door with a smile, and turned the handle. A rush of fresh, campfire-scented air greeted him. 

Home.

It must have been a subconscious desire, he certainly didn't ask for it, but the Room had arranged itself to look similar to the Infirmary back at Camp Half-Blood. His heart ached with homesickness.

He closed the door carefully behind him, afraid that any sudden movement or sound would disturb the magic that had created this phenomenon. He couldn't believe it. The Room had gotten it right down to the smell; everything was pretty much as he remembered it.

Will made his way through the moderately sized room, taking in the white beds with baby blue blankets folded neatly under them for when patients stayed over night. Those beds were - or at least looked - more comfortable than the ones in the real Infirmary, but they were made from the same wooden frame and they were each arranged in the same rows on the opposite walls.

There was a curtain as the back wall and Will pulled it across the metal rod, stifling a gasp. Medical cabinets filled the entire back wall; from floor to ceiling. Bandages, ointments, creams, plasters; everything had been neatly arranged behind the glass cabinet doors. There were even medicinal potions lined in alphabetical order on the top shelves.

Will turned and noticed that along the wall that had the door were long metal tables with lamps over them. And there was also a clipboard with a piece of parchment and a pen attached to a chain hanging next to the door. In elegant cursive his name William Solace had been written at the top underneath the title Doctors.

Really, the only thing it was missing were the large windows that the Infirmary had back at Camp. But the natural light that filled the whole room, seemingly coming from no where, gave off the same atmosphere.

It was perfect. 

Except for one thing: how was he going to keep it from the Carrows?

Only those who need medical attention and who I trust with the secret can know about this, he thought.

A breeze rushed past him as if in response.

---

Over the next week rumours had spread to every inch of the Hogwarts student body. Everyone, out of earshot of teachers, were talking about how the detention students always arrived at breakfast happy and healthy, if not a little bandaged and bruised, with a lollipop between their teeth. People wondered and asked, but no student in detention said a word. The New Hospital Wing had become their room of hope, somewhere where they could find solace.