Thicker than Water (Marauders Era)

3 January, 1981 - Trust

Lavinia was right. Not that she felt particularly good about it, but she was right all the same. By the beginning of the new year, the Order was falling apart. Their attacks were now fewer and farther between. Their coordination was failing and the Death Eaters were gaining ground. The Ministry wasn't being particularly helpful either. After an onslaught of muggle killings, they were tied up desperately trying to keep the muggle world in the dark and protect the International Statute of Secrecy. On top of all of that, multiple Ministry employees had started acting strangely and after a couple of very messy attacks, it became clear that the Death Eaters were using the Imperius Curse even more after it had proven to be a success the past months.

This created a new and somewhat frightening problem for the healers of the Mungo Bonham Ward as there was no counterspell for the Imperius Curse, but it was, theoretically, possible to fight it off. Lavinia had had a flash of inspiration and called on Miriam for help. Miriam, who worked in long term spell damage, was far more versed in what Lavinia would term psychological healing than anyone who worked in the Mungo Bonham Ward and with Miriam's help they had found ways to try to get people to fight the curse. The problem, of course, was that it was very difficult to tell when someone had done so successfully and until they had, they were a risk for rather violent escape attempts, more than one of which had resulted in minor injuries for the healers of the ward.

This did nothing to improve the inherent stress of working in the ward and yet, it seemed to be far from the worst of Lavinia's worries.

The world seemed to be in disarray. It wasn't just the Order who didn't know who to trust, it was everyone. Even at the hospital, people were afraid. Visitors were being screened, giving gifts to patients was banned after a woman being treated for scrofungulus nearly had her nose bitten off by a cursed book. One of the welcome witches was given an extended leave after a piece of paper handed to her by a mute patient had started trying to shred her hands. And those two incidents had turned out to be far from isolated.

There was no discernable reason for the resurgence of cursed objects as far as anyone seemed to know, other than the sheer terror inspired by it. And on that front, it was highly effective. No one had trusted strangers for a good long while now, but suddenly even coworkers were suspicious, acquaintances couldn't be counted on and even shopkeepers might sell you a cursed product and whether it was intentional or not was immaterial.

Put simply, the wizarding community was in utter chaos and didn't seem likely to pull itself together anytime soon.

And yet, in the middle of it all, life went on. Less because anyone wanted it to and more because it had to.

Lily and James sent Lavinia, Sirius and Remus baby pictures of little Harry, which they cherished because they could no longer visit very often. Shortly after that first battle involving Inferi, Dumbledore had asked the couple to go into hiding to protect their son. Lavinia didn't have the faintest idea what the Dark Lord of his Death Eaters could possibly want from a two month old baby, but she wasn't about to complain if it kept her friends and godson safe. If offered her some small peace of mind to know at least two of her friends were laying low. And she needed all the peace of mind she could get.

In mid November, Mr. Hayes pulled Lavinia aside at the end of her shift and told her that he had filled out the paperwork for her to become a full healer and that all he needed was her signature. Lavinia had signed happily and on the first of December, she celebrated her promotion alone in the little house by the sea, the others off on Order business that she knew nothing of because Dumbledore had insisted that all news these days was on a strictly need to know basis. And apparently, Lavinia did not need to know.

Even so, that quiet, lonely celebration was perhaps the only truly good day of those last few months of the year. Lavinia had stopped visiting both Miriam and Bertie because it was simply too risky when the Death Eaters were getting bolder. Though Rowle and Mulciber seemed to have mostly given up, Lavinia wasn't stupid enough to believe that they wouldn't jump at the first chance to catch her alone and unprotected. Besides, a few Death Eaters always lingered outside the hospital's staff entrance and Lavinia didn't think they were just for her. More likely, Voldemort recognized that healers would be a valuable addition to his army, as well as a useful source of information if he managed to nab the right sort.