Yes, the Spell Damage Ward on the fifth floor was the real reason Tver had come to St Mungo's today.
So after parting ways with Harry and the others, Tver went straight up the stairs to the fifth floor.
As Britain's only hospital for magical illnesses and injuries, St Mungo's could not exactly give its Healers and patients a holiday, even at Christmas.
Of course, they had thoughtfully added plenty of Christmas decorations everywhere, miniature Christmas trees, mistletoe, and reunited families.
"Professor, you're here!"
Sharp-eyed Draco spotted Tver at once as he approached Janus Thickey Ward, where Draco himself was waiting.
That shout also pulled the attention of the rather awkward-looking Lucius and Narcissa away from whatever they had been focused on.
"I didn't think you'd really come. Draco wasn't all that confident, after all. This is his first attempt," Lucius said, quickly putting on a smile.
But the remark meant to leave Draco an escape route did not win him any gratitude.
"It may be our first attempt, but Longbottom and I are fully confident we won't have made the professor come for nothing!" Draco lifted his chin proudly, like a peacock about to spread its tail.
Yes, this was the ward of Neville's parents, the Longbottoms.
Ever since the Longbottoms had been driven mad by Death Eaters using the Cruciatus Curse, they had been living in this ward under the care of Healers.
But clearly, all the Healers had managed over the past decade and more was to preserve the status quo and stop their condition from worsening.
And yet today, after a full year and a half of focused study into the Cruciatus Curse, Neville and Draco were claiming they had found a way to treat them.
To that end, the two of them had specifically asked Lucius to contact Tver and make sure he came on Christmas.
"Come to think of it, this is partly my fault. I've been away from the school for the past six months and haven't had the time to continue guiding you."
To be honest, Tver did not have much confidence himself.
It was not that he did not trust the boys' ability. It was that the Cruciatus Curse itself was extremely difficult to research, let alone the damage it caused.
The professional Healers at St Mungo's, and even Tver himself, had thought about the problem and still failed to come up with any really good method of treatment.
He had taught Neville and Draco the Cruciatus Curse only because it could help improve their magical control as a whole, while also giving Neville some outlet for the feelings he had been repressing for so long.
So he had also made sure to leave them a retreat. At least if they failed later, they would not have to feel quite so crushed.
Lucius immediately looked satisfied. Draco was a little displeased, but merely pouted and secretly vowed to make everyone look at him differently.
Only Narcissa looked conflicted, both angry that her son had spent so long learning the Cruciatus Curse, and relieved that it had at least been Tver teaching it.
"I heard someone shouting, so Professor Fawley must be here. Come in quickly. Neville has been ready for ages."
An elderly lady stood in the doorway of the ward. Her expression was as complicated as Narcissa's, though in her case there was more relief in it, relief for Neville.
Though Tver had never met her before, one glance at the way she dressed was enough for him to know this was Neville's grandmother, Augsta... no, Augusta Longbottom.
But hearing the impatience in her voice, Tver immediately gave up on trying to warm up to her.
"Of course, Madam Longbottom."
"Don't mind her. She's in a bad mood because of me. She'd just thrown us out of the ward," Lucius explained quietly.
He had already grown much more indifferent to his past as a Death Eater. He no longer minded bringing it up, nor did he care much about the hostility it drew.
It was almost like being rich enough not to bother stooping to the level of ordinary people...
Still, the fact that Madam Longbottom had only thrown them out of the ward already counted as restraint, considering her son and daughter-in-law had been reduced to this state because of Death Eaters.
So Tver nodded in understanding and led them inside.
This ward looked more or less like Mr. Weasley's, but the biggest difference was the number of personal belongings piled around the beds.
"This is a long-term ward. Once people stay here for years, they naturally accumulate quite a lot of things like this." Noticing the curiosity in Tver's eyes, Draco eagerly explained.
In fact, there were not many patients in the ward. Aside from the Longbottoms in the corner, there was only one sallow-faced, miserable-looking wizard, and a witch whose face was covered in hair.
Both lay still on their beds, as if already accustomed to life in a ward where no one paid much attention, not even at Christmas.
"I take it you're the professor who teaches those two?" A woman with a gentle face and an even gentler voice stepped up to Tver.
"I'm the Healer for this ward, Miriam Strout, and I've been the Longbottoms' Healer for over a decade."
"I hear that under your guidance, Neville has found a way to treat his parents. Is that correct?"
Though she was doing her best to keep her anger in check, Tver could still hear the displeasure in her voice.
In her eyes, Neville had likely been misled by his irresponsible professor into making such outrageous claims about curing Cruciatus damage.
"That's right!" Draco, completely oblivious to that, lifted his chin with pride because of the professor's teaching.
"The professor has taught us for more than a year, so we've genuinely learned every aspect of the Cruciatus Curse. And together with some old books I found at home, that's how Longbottom came to have the ability to heal his parents!"
"A year?! You taught students the Cruciatus Curse?!" Miriam Strout's eyes went wide in shock.
"You managed to teach students to understand the Cruciatus Curse in just one year? No, more importantly, you actually taught students the Cruciatus Curse?!"
Her astonished voice nearly blew the ceiling off. Even the two people lying in the beds turned their heads and stared blankly in this direction.
Only then did Draco realize he had apparently let slip something rather serious. He threw Tver a guilty glance and could only mutter under his breath, "But this is Professor Fawley. And with our talent, what's so shocking about a year..."
That little menace of a child. If Tver had not known Draco did not mean it, he might have thought this was revenge for forgetting to save him during the tournament.
"My research into Dark Magic runs deep. Dumbledore can vouch for that. And there was also another wizard as powerful as I am who helped them a great deal. Besides, they only learned the theory behind the Cruciatus Curse. A year is entirely possible."
At moments like this, Dumbledore's name was very useful. At the very least, as soon as she heard that Dumbledore could back Tver up, Miriam Strout stopped pressing that particular point.
But her anger did not disappear.
"Then do you know that because of the Longbottoms' disordered memories and souls from the Cruciatus Curse, every time they try to retrieve a memory, it causes them tremendous pain at the level of the soul?"
"The child may mean well, but for the patients, this is a second injury!"
Neville had come over excitedly the moment he saw Tver, but hearing Strout's words, the happy smile on his face froze instantly. The food tin in his hand fell straight to the floor.
Clatter.