magical maladies solo healer internship

The Spring Soirée was officially one day away and everyone Costanza knew was furiously preparing for the biannual Hogwarts tradition. Of course, the Hufflepuff barely knew anyone beyond their last name, but everywhere she went, the castle was busier than during exam week. It made her feel much more lethargic than she usually was. But she couldn’t stand being in the dorms or common room right now with all that noise and excitement because of the constant reminder that not many people were like her, unenthused and only mildly intrigued by the tavern escape room thing.

The sun was just setting when Costanza decided to make use of the surely empty library to get a start on her presentation for the healer internship. The signup list came as a shock to the honey badger as she was not expecting to be allowed to join until she became a third year. But the new nurse was switching things up and Costanza applied without thinking.

It was true that the witch wasn’t a part of much at Hogwarts. She went to her classes, did the bare minimum for her assignments, ate, and slept. That was all there was to her life. She couldn’t find a reason to do more and every time she tried, she always chickened out. But Costanza had been interested in the healer internship for a long time. She was raised by two muggle medical professionals and for her entire life, she knew she was going to follow in their footsteps. Then things got rocky and she stopped paying attention to her future.

Despite her dejection at her current place in life, Costanza couldn’t help but be mesmerized by wizard healing. Magical illnesses were fascinating and she felt like she could write a whole book comparing them to muggle diseases. So while the Hufflepuff was disappointed that she had to do actual work as a healer intern, she didn’t mind that her first assignment was a research project.

Once she was settled as a table, Costanza unfolded the list of diseases that she’d scribbled down from Baird Senior. She hadn’t yet picked the one she wanted to present, so she came prepared to read up on all of them today. All except Umbridge-itis which she couldn’t find any information on. A couple weeks later, Costanza would learn from some of those living portraits in the halls that Umbridge-itis was a disease faked by students not long after the start of the Second Wizarding War. For now though, she focused on the illnesses she could find books on without going up to Librarian Sáez’s desk.

Narcolepsy was easy to pass on. There was nothing very magical about it. Costanza excepted there to be some wizardy causes at least, but there was nothing concrete. Next on the list was Black Flu, and she was actually excited to read up on that one. Unfortunately, the only information she found was a journal of case reports from a 1996 epidemic. Not much else was presented other than numbers and the conclusion that the flu was believed to be spread by black cats. Gah, maybe she should become a researcher instead of a healer.

Things started getting interesting after that. Spattergroit was next on the list and Costanza spent a long time reading about the strain that caused memory loss in addition to the nasty blisters that were synonymous with the main disease. Apparently, the entire wizarding world forgot about one of the Quidditch World Cups and the strain of Spattergroit attacking the cerebrum was one of the probable causes. But Costanza thought differently as it was unlikely that an illness could spread across all wizards in the entire world like that. Unless they weren't vaccinated. She set aside an autobiography of a man who claimed he attended that very World Cup so she could read it later.

Last on the list was Mumblemumps and Costanza immediately drew a connection to Mumps, the muggle disease. Even one of the symptoms, swelling of the jaw, was the same. The only difference was that Mumblemumps also caused its victims to mumble. The badger wondered what deep, dark secret she would spout if forced to mumble like that.

She traced a spot on her upper left arm, at the site where she was injected with the MMR vaccine. Did wizards have vaccines to prevent their magical maladies? Or were they so confident in their treatments that they didn’t need them? Had she just found her research topic or was she extending herself too far?