SPELL DAMAGE AND THE CLOSED WARD

Spell damage

The spell damage department may be the most 'weird and wonderful' place in St. Mungo's, simply because of the sheer variety of problems a Healer comes face-to-face with in an average day. Patients who might visit this department include a man wearing jinxed shoes that are becoming very tight and uncomfortable, a child with large wings sprouting out of her back, a woman whistling like a tea-kettle, and victims of badly- or hastily-performed transfiguration.

Treatment varies, as do the patients, but the underlying principles are the same: the aim is to restore the patient to his or her former state. For the transfigured patient, a photograph of their original state is the most valuable aid you have in treatment, along with a 'witness statement' from someone who can tell you what happened, since the circumstances of a botched transfiguration are important in deciding how best to approach a reversal.

For incorrectly applied charms, jinxes or hexes, depending on the effects, sometimes the best treatment is time, i.e. the spell may wear off eventually without assistance. Your patient may need to be kept in hospital until this happens, however, especially in cases of hexes that may put your patient at risk of injuring themselves or others. In cases such as the toddler with big feathery wings, however, active intervention on your part will be needed, as the spell has caused a physical change to the victim, and such things do not usually spontaneously resolve. Chances are, by the time you (as a spell-damage specialist) see a patient like this, a Healer in the emergency department (and possibly a member of the patient's family, or a friend) will already have tried to reverse the damage, but only partially succeeded at best. This might just be because of a lack of time (since the emergency department is always very busy), or it might be that the spell, charm or hex is particularly complicated, and perhaps unfamiliar to the Healer. Often, a slow, careful application of a counter-charm, along with transfiguration to reverse physical changes if necessary, are enough to restore normal form and function.

The Closed Ward

We do not hear a lot about the closed ward, but we know that it is home to patients suffering serious and often permanent magical damage. Notable patients include Gilderoy Lockhart, who suffered a complete memory wipe as the result of a backfiring memory charm, but who was recovering and was expected to regain some semblance of normality eventually. Frank and Alice Longbottom, who were tortured by Death Eaters and are 'insane' as a consequence, also live in the closed ward, as does Agnes, who has the furry face of a dog, we presume because of an irreversible or very slowly reversing transfiguration or polyjuice potion. Broderick Bode was also a patient, having been under the imperius curse, and during his stay in St. Mungo's, he thought he was a teapot. We can assume that patients in the closed ward are not capable of looking after themselves, whether or not they need any immediate medical treatment, and so the ward is more of a residential place than a hospital ward.