January 30, 1895 — Hogsmeade Hospital

A fungus was neither a plant nor a poison, but it didn't exactly fit neatly into any of the other departments of the hospital either, so when Ezra had his accident at work he assumed that was where he would end up. He'd insisted on Hogsmeade Hospital, even though St. Mungo's was closer and the default for Ministry personnel if anything happened while they were on shift. He was gratified that Emilia Moony had accepted this without having to press for a reason. Probably she already knew it was to avoid the possibility of running into Miss Hunniford. She connected dots quickly. Fortunately, too, she had been close enough at hand that he'd been able to convey that before the full effects started hitting him. By the time she actually deposited him at the hospital, he was incapable of coherent speech. This was going to make explaining anything to the healer a bit difficult, but maybe that wasn't much of a detriment — he couldn't actually tell her what he'd been working on, or what the fungus was supposed to do, or what he'd been trying just before it had blown up in his face. All she'd have to work on were symptoms, anyway.

He was in the room for a moment before the healer came in. When she entered he turned to look at her and blinked. He expected he would be quite a sight, by now; his tongue had swollen enough that he could no longer shut his mouth completely, and he could feel the fungal spores all over the rest of his face and neck too. They were itchy. And very bright yellow.

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Victoria Hunter

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   Victoria Hunter

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If Tori was a more squeamish woman, the sight of the gentleman before her - a one Mr. Applegate, the patient’s file informed her, an Unspeakable - might have made her do a double take. Luckily, with two almost two years of healing under her belt and a wealth of experience caring for the animals at the pet shop, Tori was developing a tolerance for the more unpleasant parts of her profession, and she walked into the room with a polite smile on her face.

“Hello, Mr. Applegate,” she greeted, closing the door behind her. “My name is Healer Hunter, and I’ll be your healer for the day.” Glancing down at the swell of his tongue, it wasn’t likely that he would be able to comfortably talk. But then, given the nature of his work, she was unsure how much he would actually be able to disclose anyway. She would have to go off of yes or no answers. “I know talking’s difficult, so I’ll try to keep my questions simple.”

She began inspecting one of the bright fungal spores. “Did you take anything?” Might not be something he could answer, but it was a start.

  

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Take anything? Other than an explosion of spores to the face? Ezra shook his head. She probably meant whether he'd taken anything to address this, like a salve or healing potion. They had some of those stocked at the Department of Mysteries, but if they already knew the case was going to require a healer's attention they didn't stop to try other things first. The collection in the office was really intended for minor issues that might be handled without sending anyone out. This was... not that.

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Well, that’s good, at least, Tori thought as she continued to inspect the brightly colored spores. It would be easier to diagnose without having to work around the effects of a healing potion or antifungal treatment, though she was no closer to determining what possibly ailed him than when she first came in. The color of the spores ruled out Spattergroit (and she didn’t know a case to come on suddenly; the symptoms of the fungal disease usually took its time to appear) and the Fungiface potion. A bursting mushroom, when combined with some potions ingredients, could have wildly unpredictable outcomes when handled incorrectly - so that was a possibility, but obviously Mr. Applegate could neither confirm nor deny if that was what was used.

Tori’s brow furrowed thoughtfully. “Do the spores hurt?,” she asked, considering her next move. It was likely she may need to get a sample of one of the spores for inspection, but she didn’t wish to hurt him further in the process. She would also like to get the swelling down, as well.

  

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Ezra considered. He was uncomfortable, but he wasn't in pain... and he wasn't sure if the discomfort had anything to do with the spores at all, or was more easily attributed to the swelling. The swelling he could really do without. He shook his head and followed it with a shrug, trying to convey something like I guess not. On the other hand, he hadn't been touching his face since this had happened, and nothing else had been either. Maybe he would be in pain if she tried to scrape them off with a scalpel, or something.

Without really thinking it through, Ezra reached up to brush a fingertip against his throat at the lower edge of where the growth stopped, just to see whether it stung or not. The reaction was immediate. It felt like every part of his face swelled more, but then there was an eruption of spores in the air and the fungi on his face settled back to their normal size. Oh, he absolutely hadn't meant to do that — and unfortunately Healer Hunter had been standing close enough that she was now doused in them, too.

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Tori noticed him move reflexively to touch once of the fungal spores, and she shook her head.

"Try not to t- " she started, but the warning was too late. With growing alarm, she watched wide-eyed as the spores swelled to twice their size, and only had enough time to instinctively shield her face with her hands as they erupted, a swarm of bright yellow filling the air.

It could have only been a minute, but the moment felt much longer. Carefully, Tori removed her hands to survey the damage, taking in the scattered remains on the floor and the sight of Mr. Applegate still on the exam table, the spores having returned to their original size. Most notably, however, was the sudden itchiness of her hands, neck, and the top of her head where her bare skin had been exposed, and she looked down at the same vibrant fungi clinging to her hands - now bright red, swollen, and warm to the touch - and on her healer's robes. She imagined that the rest of her looked about the same.

Bursting mushroom, indeed, she thought unbidden, echoing an earlier thought. She would've found more amusement in her own joke if she wasn't occupied trying to tamper down the panic she was hoping wasn't showing on her face.

  

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The healer's hands and face were already starting to show signs of the fungus taking residence. If this ended up being something long-term or doing lasting damage, like leaving scars, he was going to feel absolutely horrible about this. Not that he'd intended to, and she was probably at least prepared for the general idea of this sort of thing as a healer; there were worse things a patient could have inflicted on her. Probably. They didn't exactly know the full extent of what this one did yet, but it definitely wasn't painful and it had yet to try and kill him, so that was a silver lining.

She made a remark about bursting mushroom and Ezra would have looked annoyed if his face hadn't been too swollen to show any real emotion at all. I'm not an idiot, I know how to handle a bursting mushroom, he thought, but obviously couldn't say. What he'd been working with in the department of mysteries was something entirely different, though he supposed he couldn't fault her for thinking of it since it shared at least one very distinctive attribute with a bursting mushroom. But really, if he had been working with a mushroom he had known was going to explode, did she think he wouldn't have taken even the slightest precautions against it?

It had not dawned on him at any point that he'd responded to her thought rather than her speech; it sounded identical to him, and he hadn't been looking at her mouth to clock that it hadn't moved.

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