CONFUNDUS; harry potter [UNDER EDITION]

CHAPTER THREE

Poppy Pomfrey welcomes Lucca with her usual kindness and excessive protectiveness. She places him in his favourite bed, checks his vital signs with a few charms and asks protocol questions to fill the report.

Lucca doesn't complain during the process. He knows the routine, between the ages of eight and eleven Lucca hadn't put a foot outside a hospital ward and he got used to having healers around all the time.

But the difference between the healers and Pomfrey is that Lucca actually likes Poppy. She's the first friend he made when he started Hogwarts and the one who never underestimated him in his process to fight the curse. Many healers gave up in the first weeks, others took Lucca as a challenge while the rest directly lost faith in his recovery. Poppy, unlike the others, welcomed Lucca with open arms and found ways to make his mind work better and better every day.

After his first breakdown at school, Poppy didn't try potions experiments on him or used complicated charms to see inside his head. She sat down with Lucca and solved a puzzle she found in her office. She asked what he liked, if he made any friends and if he wanted her to call his mother. Lucca, small and fragile, felt safe with her and said it was alright. He didn't need his mummy, he was doing fine. They continued solving the puzzle.

By the winter break, Lucca had visited the Hospital Wing more than any other student and decided on which bed he would like to spend his time. They grew closer and Poppy wouldn't deny she had a soft spot for him. Eventually, when Christmas arrived, Lucca received his first Rubik's Cube with algorithms to memorize. That way, Lucca began to practice with it, happy with his new toy, not knowing how much it helped him to work his memory over the time. Now, with each weekly revision, Poppy would test his memory by giving him a new pattern and then watch him solve the cube.

"That's a new record," says Madam Pomfrey when Lucca shows the cube solved. "Nineteen minutes."

"What was the last one?" he asks.

"Twenty six minutes. Seven minutes of difference and with a new pattern."

Lucca grins smugly, causing Poppy to chuckle.

"Well, let me do the charms again and find your potions."

He sits patiently while Pomfrey checks on him and writes down in his file. Lucca never found it interesting to see what they wrote about him until now. With the recent events and the dreams and jokes, he is aware that the Healers know him better than he knows himself. The idea is unpleasant to him and makes him angry, but he can't do anything about it.

The healers know better because he knows nothing. That's the curse. He knows nothing.

Everyone knows Lucca Sallow is cursed. None knows how it happened, why it happened or when. There are rumours, Milan told him once, and those rumours say he was born with the curse because their father fought in the war and a dark wizard targeted him and his family. Venice says others think that his family had it over the years, an unknown sickness from their mother's side, originally from her lands. 

But that's all nonsense. 

Lucca got attacked by a witch. He can't remember the exact moment when it happened but Milan does, she was there with him. She says Lucca disappeared from her side, and when she found him unconscious with a witch holding him. Milan screamed, their parents came, chaos erupted, the witch went to prison, and now Lucca lives with a constant cloud in his brain. A damage that doesn't allow him to focus on his actions. He doesn't have a filter that holds him back and blurts what crosses his mind at any moment. He can't remember basic things like the simple spells or to tie his shoes. Muggles called it various names. Healers can't find a proper one. It's dark magic taking over him.