"Would you mind telling me what exactly those unpleasant curses were?"
Lys shook her head. She feared that if she answered "Cruciatus" one moment, the Director would be calling for Aurors the next.
The Cruciatus Curse—one of the Unforgivable Curses—had a notorious reputation, especially now. It had practically become the signature spell of the Death Eaters.
The Director nodded. "Alright, everyone has their little secrets... I'm going to cast a detection spell. Do you have any alchemical items on you?"
Seeing Lys nod, the Director instructed, "Please remove your alchemical items. During the detection, we just need to watch for any flashing magical reactions—the brighter the flash, the bigger the problem."
Lys indicated she understood, then clumsily began removing a whole pile of accessories and clothing with her right hand, piece by piece. The Director watched in surprise—even Aurors on duty at St. Mungo's didn't carry this much protective gear.
The Director called in his intern and an assisting healer to help with recording, observation, and supervisory duties.
"Right, my wand will rest against your forehead. Relax, don't be so tense... just relax."
But Lys couldn't relax. She moved her head away. "No, I can't accept this..."
The Director had to settle for second best, casting the detection spell on Lys's tense shoulder instead.
Just as the Director was intently watching the magical reaction representing her head area, an extremely strong detection response suddenly erupted from the left side of the patient's body—black-orange with flickering silver.
Despite his surprise, the experienced Director's wand hand didn't even tremble as he continued casting.
After a few simple syllabic adjustments, not only did the light not diminish, but dim orange light began seeping through her entire body.
The Director adjusted his wand angle and the spell again, but it was useless. Under the orange glow, Lys's body began emanating strange colors.
For a moment, Lys flickered like a star on a Christmas tree...
After the detection ended, the Director had wanted to offer the usual patient reassurance: "It's not too bad."
But he couldn't say it... The last case like this had been an Auror who'd survived falling into Death Eater hands—Alastor Moody...
But Moody had arrived on a stretcher. This person had come on her own.
"I think we should seek some help for you. Are you sure you don't need us to find an Auror for you?"
Lys shook her head. She was more curious about what the detection spell and the light reactions on her body meant.
The Director sighed, indicated that the other two healers could get back to work, and invited Lys to sit down.
"This spell can only detect the degree of magical damage your body has suffered and how much remains to this day. I'm very curious how you managed to come to the hospital yourself after such severe magical injuries."
He sat behind his desk, hands clasped covering half his face, looking up at Lys:
"I suggest you check yourself in for treatment now. Although these injuries have stopped progressing, your body has clearly developed reactions to them. And I think you need further examination."
Didn't Lys know the state of her own body? Lucius had developed chronic problems from frequent Cruciatus Curses—how could she, who courted death daily, be any better?
What mattered was... "What about my brain? Is my uncontrollable impulsiveness related to this?"
"Yes, you should have suffered from mental magic more than once. From my experience, you've been troubled by fear during childhood, adolescence, and even recently. These fears have interfered with your ability to stay clear-headed and make decisions."
"Have you ever seen a type of fish that puffs up when frightened? You're probably similar—when encountering something fearful..."
"I also puff up?"
The Director looked somewhat helpless. "No, you bluff or hope to know everything to frighten away enemies or protect yourself."
Lys nodded. Excellent! That's exactly what she'd thought before—she wanted to master the unknown to control the future!
"And your left arm—I've never seen an arm injured by such a strange mix of spells, except for a little girl seventeen or eighteen years ago. Wolfsbane Potion, lycanthropy, and magical disruption... but yours is actually much more severe than hers. Tsk..."
He propped up his chin:
"I think you need to be hospitalized for treatment. What do you think?"
But at this moment, Lys was somewhat stunned. "You mean that little girl's arm also had magical disruption? Disruption? Not support?"
The Director assumed she was curious about a similar case and began explaining, not wanting to go back out and face that moose-headed fellow just yet.
"Yes, disruption. It seems some incompetent wizard, in an extremely emotional state, cast something like healing charms or binding spells on that arm, but they went out of control. The effect was very effective but also very tragic."
He paused. "Very tragic. Three of us healers couldn't correct it—we actually made the situation more complicated."
The Director sighed. "But her situation is different from yours. We don't need to understand it in too much detail."
But before Lys could express any opinion, the assistant healer outside interrupted them. "Director, Professor Dumbledore would like to speak with you about the patient in the secure ward."
"Sorry, you can sit here and consider whether to be hospitalized for further diagnosis and treatment. I'll go receive him for a moment..."
Lys didn't object.
She needed to digest the news she'd just received.
From fifth year until now, she'd always thought that the reason she never had magical outbursts, and why her arm, though twisted, could still function normally after all these years, was that her childhood magic had all instinctively gone to protect her left arm.
It turned out... when she was unconscious, her mother hadn't just reached out with her hands, but also with her wand...
But thinking about her mother's spell-casting level, Lys couldn't help but cover her head in frustration.
She looked down at her left arm. She really was arrogant and ignorant... Fifth year... she'd acted directly without even determining what had caused the damage.
So was I naturally bold and reckless, or did those spells affect me?
~~~~❃❃~~~~~~~~❃❃~~~~
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