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The Janus Thickey Ward


Charlus Potter was still in St. Mungo’s two days after the incident on the staircase, his skin pale and mouth dry so that his lips chapped up from all the smoke coming out of his lungs. The healers tried and tried to stop it, but whatever they did, they couldn’t make the fire go out completely. He’d been hit by a particularly nasty strain, and exposed more than any of the other patients had been.

James sat fidgeting in the waiting area, Sirius by his side, flicking through a day-old copy of the Daily Prophet. The headline claimed that Minchum was dropping numbers at the polls as more and more people began to pay attention to his running opponent, Adom Tutman.

Harold Minchum’s ways have been tried, they have been tried again and again and they have failed. If Harold Minchum’s agenda is to be so successful, then why is it that the Department of Magical Law Enforcement hasn’t yet caught the Dark Lord? As second in command, Harold Minchum’s influence is already at work in combating the Dark Lord’s power and it has already failed.

Sirius sneered at the paper.

Adom Tutman, on the other hand, has the right idea about how the Wizarding World ought to work. While Tutman may seem to lack experience when compared to the nearly elderly Minchum - whose experience is measured in decades, nearly centuries - it is not to be overlooked that Adom Tutman is less likely to die in office from old age. His ideas are fresh, and he is open to making peace with the Dark Lord in other ways besides all out war…

“Yeah, by bloody joining rank, seeing as he’s imperiused by that wanker, Malfoy,” Sirius muttered under his breath.

Even as he did it, a shadow passed over him and he looked up and found himself staring into the eyes of none other than Lucius Malfoy.

Sirius stared up coldly.

Sirius nudged James, who sat beside him, kicking the side of his leg with his own. James looked up, too, his eyes nervously flickering between Lucius and the receptionist witch at her desk and all the other witches and wizards in the waiting room.

“Hello,” Lucius Malfoy drawled lowly, his eyes moving from one boy to the other. “Pleasure seeing you both.” His upperlip curled slightly. “Imagine my surprise, walking through the hall here, and I look over and spot the two of you sitting, unguarded…”

“What’re you doing here, Malfoy?” snapped Sirius.

“Visiting a friend.” he breathed.

James said, “Didn’t know you had any of those.”

Lucius grinned, “Oh. I have many. As you know.” His mouth twitched with amusement. “Visiting yor daddy, Potter?”

“Sod off,” Sirius said.

“I heard his Dragon Pox have gotten worse,” he murmured. “Would be a pity if he died.”

James glowered.

“Well. You children stay out of trouble… don’t go wandering about the hospital, mind…” Lucius glanced about at the other witches and wizards in the room, then looked back and his eyes met Sirius’s very squarely. “You wouldn’t want to be caught alone in the halls. You never know what sorts of… dangers… lurk.” And he walked away.

“I bloody know plenty,” hissed Sirius, “It’s you, you great blighter.”

James looked at Sirius, “What do you reckon he’s here for?”

Sirius muttered, “Probably just to spook us…”

“Surely not. He wouldn’t come all the way into downtown London on the off chance of bullying us in a waiting room where he couldn’t do anything anyway.”

Sirius thought about it a moment, “So let’s follow him.” Without waiting for a reply, he sprang to his feet and dashed after the direction Lucius had just gone.

“Sirius?” James sprang up, too, following him. “Are you mad? We can’t -- Sirius! You heard what he just said, about being alone!”

“Do you have the cloak?”

“Bloody hell.” James wrestled with the bag at his hip and withdrew the invisibility cloak, hurriedly they clustered together, ducked beside a large plant, glanced both ways to be sure nobody was coming, and pulled the cloak over their heads. It barely covered them.

“Stop getting taller, you’re ruining our cloak with your damned height,” Sirius grumbled.

James whispered, “I can’t help it. Perhaps you should give getting taller a try. When was the last time you grew a bloody inch? You’re like a damned goblin’s height.”

“Shut it,” Sirius hissed.

“Moony’s going to be able to use you as a bloody arm rest at this rate. Look, I nearly can myself.”

Sirius shoved James and he tripped, nearly right into a passing healer who looked about in confusion at the scuffling and sound of squeaking trainers on tile, but not seeing anything. She moved on down the hallway hesitantly.

“See what you’ve done?” asked James, “Nearly got us caught, you smurf.”

“I’ll hex you later for that,” vowed Sirius, “For now we gotta catch up with Malfoy.”

They hurried down the corridor, checking in rooms and listening closely for the familiar drawling tones of Lucius Malfoy. They finally came to a flight of stairs and they pushed opened the door and listened. They could hear footsteps echoing above them and the rushed to follow as quietly as possible, not wanting Malfoy to know they were there. Luckily, they both had quite a lot of experience with nimble stair climbing and they did an excellent job of moving quickly and silently along up them. So quickly in fact that they arrived to the fourth floor just as Lucius Malfoy was stepping through the door into the corridor. Sirius lunged forward for the door, and they squished through before it closed so that they wouldn’t need to worry about anybody seeing a door mysteriously open of its own accord.

Lucius Malfoy stood in the corridor and looked left and right, no healers were wandering the hall, however, and James recognized down to the left was the wing that he’d stayed at back at Christmas, when Severus Snape had used the sectumsempra on him. He rubbed his chest in dull memory of the agony he’d gone through in that little room down there and was caught a bit off guard when Sirius suddenly elbowed him and they started walking to the right toward the elevator carts and a lime green door that had a small sign upon it.

Janus Thickey Ward, Authorized Visitors Only Please, it read.

This was apparently no matter to Lucius Malfoy, for he stood before it, gathered himself by taking a deep breath, and he walked through the door with an important swagger about him.

“What the bloody hell…?” muttered James.

“What’s the Janus Thickey Ward?” whispered Sirius, who knew he’d heard of it at some point but he couldn’t quite recall what they did there.

“It’s the department for mad people,” James whispered, “Addled minds and the lot.”

Sirius’s eyebrows narrowed. Then. “Fuck. Bilius Weasley.”

James paled.

They both rushed forward, pushing open the lime green door to find a healer witch confunded and muttering about pumpkin pasties at the desk and they ran into the ward.

Bed after bed, separated by curtains, held people muttering or laying there staring at the ceiling. There was one bloke singing Row, Row, Row Your Boat in a hurried whisper, over and over again. Another was clucking like a chicken, and there was someone with hiccups that never ended they just kept on hiccupping again and again and again… and then, at the very end of the ward, closest to a window that overlooked the streets outside, was Bilius Weasley, staring out glumly, his elbows resting on his knees, cupping his chin with his palms.

“Where’s Malfoy?” whispered Sirius.

“Dunno,” James whispered back.

Sirius looked about.

There was a movement that caught James’s eyes. A vague shape, shimmering about the edge almost. He nudged Sirius and whispered, “Look. There. By the curtain.”

You’d have to squint real hard to see him, he blended perfectly with the things around him - some sort of chameleon spell had been used, obviously, as Lucius Malfoy moved closer, his skin turned the colors of the objects around him, perfectly camouflaging him as he crept toward the back of Bilius Weasley.

“BILIUS!” shouted Sirius loudly and Bilius turned about.

Surprised by the shout, Lucius Malfoy lost control over his spellwork and the colors fell from him and suddenly it was just pale, nasty Lucius Malfoy standing there behind Bilius, his wand raised, aimed to the ginger head. Bilius ducked just as Lucius shouted the curse and the jet of green light flew through the air, shattering a large potted plant, sending clay pot pieces every which way and soil exploding.

Bilius lay on the tile on the far side of the bed panting, his palms splayed out. He lay there staring at the black and white checks of tile and he wondered whether it was really worth fighting Malfoy to stay alive…? When life consisted of daily fighting the healers, begging them to see he wasn’t mad - he had seen the grim! - and doing nothing but staring, always staring out that window, remembering his dead mates and slowly descending into the madness everyone already believed him to have...

Lucius Malfoy’s shoes clattered against the tile as he rushed to come ‘round the bed and Bilius squeezed his eyes tightly shut.

“Expelliarmus!” James shouted at the same time that Sirius cried, “Stupefy!” They’d both torn off the cloak at the same time, revealing themselves and making the mad people behind them react with gasps and shouts. The Row Row Your Boat guy was clapping as he continued on singing and the hiccuping wizard tried to echo the spells but hiccupped midway through each time - ”Stupe-hiccup!-fy-hiccup!”

Lucius managed to duck the stunner, but the disarming charm struck his wrist and sent his wand flying over James and Sirius’s heads to the floor beyond them.

Lucius hissed and dove toward them. They both leveled their wands at him, together, their arms extended, eyes cold with seriousness. “Not another step, Malfoy,” breathed Sirius.

He stopped.

Bilius Weasley was just pulling himself up from the floor, his eyes sad as he stared at the scene unfolding before him.

Nobody knew what to do. Lucius stood, trying to decide if he could dodge their spells long enough to dive for his wand… Sirius wondered what they could do to Lucius Malfoy that would contain him until they could get Moody or one of the Prewetts there to arrest his dear cousin... James wondered if Bilius was alright, because his eyes were just so sad that they were very nearly disappointed… and Bilius himself felt a crushing realization that he’d nearly laid there and allowed Lucius Malfoy to kill him, after the sacrifice that Derek Bell had made to keep him alive. He’d nearly thrown away Derek Bell’s final act, nearly made his death pointless, and Bilius’s face grew hot with anger and he suddenly was the one making the first move, ending the stalemate by running forward, shoving his hands into Lucius Malfoy’s back, “You killed Derek Bell!” he shouted.

Lucius fell forward onto the tile, knocking James and Sirius to either side.

Bilius was a furious storm of anger as he leaned over Lucius Malfoy, “You bloody killed him! My best mate!”

“I didn’t kill him!” shouted Lucius, “No that honor goes to Bellatrix Lestrange!”

“Liar!” Bilius shouted.

Suddenly sparks flew across the ward, narrowly missing Bilius’s shouder and Lucius used the moment of Bilius ducking the spells to scramble to his feet. The Row Row Your Boat bloke had picked up Lucius’s wand and swung it, and sparks had flown out - angry sparks with no particular spell attached to them, for all the man was saying was the stupid little song and Lucius quickly slapped the man across the face, catching him off guard so that he dropped the wand and it fell to the floor as he grabbed onto his cheek in shock.

Lucius snatched his wand up from the floor and turned to Bilius, who was regaining himself. James and Sirius both had stood back up and reaimed their wands at Lucius. He looked about, grabbed the Row Row Your Boat bloke, tugging him so he was a sort of shield, and Lucius backed down the ward. “This isn’t over, Weasley,” he hissed, then glanced at James and Sirius each in turn. “Potter. Black. Both of you will rue this, too.” And, having reached the lime green door, Lucius shoved the singing man to the floor roughly, and left the ward.

James looked about. “Bloody hell.”

Bilius sank back, walking quickly back to his bed and sitting heavily upon it, his face pale and hands shaking as he pushed the red hair back from his face, his eyes wild with anguish. James and Sirius hurried over to his sides.

“Hey mate,” James said, “It’s alright. He’s gone now.”

Bilius shook his head.

Sirius put his hand on Bilius’s shoulder.

“I almost let him take my life, almost didn’t want to fight it at all. I’m truly going mad here,” he said, looking around. Then, “I swear if that blighter sings Row Your Boat one more bloody time I’ll --”

Sirius turned his wand to the man, who was wandering back down the ward toward them now, already over his trauma from Lucius, smiling merrily as he sang… “Silencio,” Sirius said and though the man continued on singing, mouth flapping away to the words, he could no longer be heard.

Bilius breathed in relief. “Thank Merlin for that.”

“You aren’t mad,” James said firmly. “You don’t belong here. Why in hell do they have you locked up in here like this?” He looked angry.

“Because I’ve seen the grim and they don’t believe me,” said Bilius. “Arthur brought me to see if they had a potion, if they could help me, but the healers… they locked me up here. Arthur didn’t mean for it to happen… he fought with them about it, he didn’t want this… but…” Bilius shook his head, “Dumbledore tried, too, but they think I’m mad. They think I’m a danger to myself if I’m released.”

“That’s dung!” said Sirius, “Absolute dung. We need to get you out of here.”

Bilius said sadly, “They’ll never let me out.”

Sirius got up and grabbed hold of the invisibility cloak, sweeping it about and James’s eyes lit up. “Who says they’ve got to let you?”