Janus Thickey Ward

"My dear," she said slipping in the hall of neatly rowed beds with homey touches to them. A lamp, pictures scattered the walls, comfortable blankets of every shape and size line the beds. "Follow me."

She walked walked down bed after bed, some behind blankets giving a couple so privacy, to the back of the room, where Jason popped out the opening of the blankets.

"All done, mame," he said dreamingly, his eyes twinkling at her.

"Thanks Justin. I think Bart Suspensor is quivering. May you please cheek on him?"

"Yes. Anything for you," he said scuttling around the two of them to back in front of the Ward.

Amelia held open the blanket to allow Misery in. "After you."

Following after the woman, Misery did not look at the other patients - those, that is, that haven't been given full privacy - but offering them some of such privacy. She didn't know them or what was wrong with them, and had no desire to be found staring rudely.

Pausing a moment to glance at Jason as he passed them, Misery moved forward, behind the blankets. Her features softened at the scene before her, the man and the woman, but other than that she did not let her expression change much.

Sitting on the very edge of the chair, Misery took a moment to look at the two silently. She noticed the photos, the young Xander, but did not smile. Her eyes fixed on the Mr and Mrs, his parents, she watched them, trying not to show her worry.

"It is quite all right," she spoke quietly. One needed not apologise for such a thing. "Mr Brown, Mrs Brown... I am honoured to finally have met you."
Misery knew her words probably meant little to the pair, if anything, but she felt the need to say them nonetheless. "Though I wish I had been able to learn more... I feel as if I have failed Xander as a friend, somehow."

Once she began speaking, she was unable to stop for a while. Whether they listened or not seemed to be irrelevant. All said in a quiet, soothing voice, she told them her name, her friendship with her Ravenclaw partner-in-crime, though leaving out some details of their greater pranks. She told them many things, none much too important, about Hogwarts and Xander, and bits of her role when there. Her beliefs for the future, that, given the right opportunity, Xander would grow into a wonderful man, and be given a well-deserved happy ending, even after everything he's had or will have to face.
In the end, her voice breaking a bit, Misery stopped mid-sentence, glancing at Amelia carefully.

"I... came here today because..."

"That is, because..."

Once more she fell silent watching the two, once more questioning her choices and actions. Misery was unsure if this would even work, if she would be able to link her mind to theirs, and just try to see the exact problem at its core. The exact part that needed fixing, which may be probable through her meditation and Xander's potion.

Again, she glanced at Amelia, this time addressing the woman.
"I cannot say for sure whether Xander would approve of me being here or not... or of what I wish to do."
She explained to her the simple procedure of connecting her mind to theirs - not to intrude on personal memories locked far behind the curse, but to examine the lock itself. That way, Misery hoped to understand it better, perhaps find a better meditation if there still was time, or discover an ingredient that could be added to Xander's potion. Anything, as long as it meant something - she wanted to feel useful to him, and not just sit back, doing her own little research while waiting for him to finish the potion. She honestly wanted to help.

(TOLD YOU SO!)

Heat rushed to her cheeks, and Misery fought hard not to let a blush show on her pale features. No, Amelia misunderstood. The mere thought of it was quite-

"Of course. He is a friend I treasure, among few such others," she said quickly, then let the matter slip. "But... thank you. I shall begin, then."

Closing her eyes and taking a long breath, Misery let it out slowly, reaching out with her mind towards the notes playing in the air. Concentrating her thoughts on those of Mr and Mrs Brown, she soon found them and established a gentle connection, a bit taken aback at first just how... jumbled up their thoughts were. There was, she noted, a sequence of such thoughts, of both past memories and present thoughts. If one was to suggest a visualisation, Misery would describe great, multi-coloured orbs, inhibited by many strong chains so they could not break into a natural flow, and locked by a single lock each. Reaching out further along the minds, Misery took her time to examine the locks. What was she missing?

Amelia stood in the corner watching. Both Jason, and Linda stopped what ever they were doing, and just sat their still as the air around them. So was more worried about that stillness, than the picture frames shattering against the floor, or Jason tantrum of the pocket watch not opening. She was worried.

~~~~

Most of their memories where a old cracked Mirror. When standing in front of it, you only see glimpses of yourself; an eye, a hand a string of curly hair, but never the whole form of the memory. And with time, the pieces chipped away, fell to the floor, and washed away with the flow of their own thoughts.

Other memories where chard so badly, that it was not recognizable anymore. As if someone use the incendio spell to burn wholes in the tapestry of memories.

As Misery dig deeper into the minds of Alexander's parents, she would stumble upon a sandy desert. A howling winds kicking up sand, that was not sand. Below her feet, was the reminisce of Linda's and Jason's of their deepest hopes, the love they had with each other and for Alexander, their deepest desires, and personal beliefs grounded up into a fine powder and left their in these desolate desert.

And all the while, incomplete object and people are popping up in their minds. People with no heads, or heads without faces. A bird without any wings, soured through the sky periodically, or a Jack in the box, without the box.

Their mind was a jigsaw puzzle, but without a template to restore them.

Managing only a weak smile, Misery stood, using the chair she had previously been sitting on as support. She cast her gaze over the pair, murmuring softly, "Do not thank me just yet. This even, is too much to hope for."

She had not done anything, really. Thinking up a treatment that may or may not work, Misery felt as if she was holding on to a thin rope, and just about to fall into a dark pit, that seemed to go on endlessly. Glancing back to Amelia, she gave a slow nod.
"I must take my leave now. I-"

Whatever else she was bout to say got caught in her throat, and Misery shook her head slightly, steadying herself and moving behind the curtain, walking soundlessly over to the door and out.

Both laid in their beds, however that was the only thing that they had in common. Their actions were quite the opposite. Linda had some molding clay, and she was making thousands of little circles, even though one of her age may have been using it to sculpt a house or a design that would later be rendered in another form. Jason was in the other bed, and unlike Linda, he had a pair of scissors and paper. It looked like he was making a snowflake, but when he pulled it apart, the paper shriveled into little pieces of nothing. Jason was quick to change his tactics, and grabbed his tray of food, cutting at his banana in random and nonuniform places.