"Who do you reckon Barnaby is?" James whispered, leaning toward Lily the moment Constance Merriweather was out of ear shot.

Lily shrugged, "Dunno, but it sounds like somebody got to Anne Veigler's Mungo's records before you did... and to Constance, for that matter."

"Reckon anything she says about the case is trustworthy then? She may have had her memory altered."

"I hadn't thought of that," Lily said with a frown.

James rubbed his chin. "Unless Barnaby really is a uni student."

"Don't be thick!"

"Alright then. So if I'm the Ministry's agent on this, then whoever Barnaby is, he's got to be on the villainous side, yeah?"

"I'd reckon," Lily said. Then, "Also - Con-Con?!"

"Hufflepuff?!" he retorted.

Lily laughed, "That would certainly have been your secondary house."

"Bugger off!"

"Whatever is the matter with Hufflepuff?" Lily demanded, "Some of my favorite people were from Hufflepuff."

James said, "But your very favorite people came from Gryffindor."

"Yes, Sirius and Remus both," she agreed.

He cleared his throat.

Lily smirked. "But Jasper Odair was a Hufflepuff."

"He was a knock off of somebody else you know who was a Gryffindor, though, wasn't he?"

Lily cocked her head to one side, "Whatever do you mean?"

"Well, Evans, of course your very favorite person is. Gryffindor."

"You mean Dumbledore?" she asked. "Ohh no, of course, Professor McGonagall!"

"Evans, I -"

But at that very moment Constance Merriweather returned and James and Lily abruptly dropped their bickering. The woman's eyes were watery, as though she had been crying, or else about to.

Lily jumped up. "Mrs. Merriweather, let me help you with those." She took up the tea cups from the old woman's arms and guided her to the couch again. Even the slightest touch to her arm and Lily could feel the weight of guilt and sorrow - regret? - flooding from the woman. She looked at James with helpless eyes as she eased Constance into the cushions.

"Thank you dear," Constance murmured. "You are such a sweet girl." She looked up at Lily as she set the tea cups on the table. "I don't know what it is about you, but you're so very... comforting."

James smiled at Lily. "That's my Con-Con."

Lily glanced at James at the sound of the name, then turned back to Constance. "I'm glad I'm able to help in anyway. Is something the matter?"

Constance drew a deep breath and then looked between James and Lily. "Well. Well I suppose I must be completely honest with you. I do hope it won't change how you think of me - or moreover your aspirations to become a mediwizard, Tibirius."

James was surprised at this comment, then, "No m'am, it won't, I assure you - whatever it is."

She nodded as Lily sat and Constance poured the tea into the cups. She handed them each a cup and she looked down at hers for several long moments. Lily glanced uneasily at James, who shrugged - and, for good measure, took another cookie from the tiered tray.

"Are you alright, Mrs. Merriweather?" Lily asked tentatively. She held her cup, but hadn't taken even a sip yet, she was so focused on the old woman.

James chewed his cookie, but also stared at Constance Merriweather intently.

Constance drew a deep breath. "Now as I tell you this, please... Please remember that I quit the unidentified damages department - retired, they called it, since I'd been there so long, because I - I came 'round." 

"Came 'round?" James asked. He lowered the cookie from his mouth and laid it beside his tea cup.

Constance nodded. "And perhaps you uni students are precisely the ones that can try at making a change in the processes... the future is meant to improve upon the past, isn't that right?"

"Absolutely," Lily nodded back.

"You see, the department of unidentified damages - they would have a really important case that they would positively have to solve at all odds. They've seen Ministers for Magic that have been struck with unknown curses and loads of witches and wizards who have prominent positions in our world that have had spells backfire. Even very skilled mediwizards have had potions gone wrong or had damages due to uncontrollable magic from patients in other wards and the like. You'd be surprised how often we saw our own colleagues in the beds in the ward I worked at, having been struck by some patient or their families after delivering less than the desired news."

Lily's eyes were wide, "Really? That happens?"

"Oh loads of times," Constance replied.

"So what do you do?" James asked, "How do you solve what's on in their heads?"

"Well, like I said before, it's mostly about observation of the traits and behaviors, the symptoms will usually allow the mediwitch or wizard see precisely what's going on just comparing prior cases... but, and I will say it was rather rare, now and again we'd come across something that none of the case notes of the past matched. We'd usually have a couple of guesses at what the diagnosis would be, but we couldn't be sure. Even then, usually the treatments could be similar to one another, but sometimes you'd have a particular case which could be one of two things and the treatments were night and day apart. You understand?"

"Yeah, like you couldn't just guess?" James prompted.

"That's right. We couldn't just guess," Constance said, and her voice trembled. "We had to experiment." 

Lily's blood suddenly ran cold. A thought had occurred to her, and she could feel the remorse of the woman still trickling through her, and an idea - a picture in her mind of what Constance Merriweather was building to appeared in her mind... and she felt the horror rise up in her belly.

"There were folks classified as Unhealables, you see, folks whose conditions were incurable, I mean," Constance said, "And - like I said, mind, I left the department on my own, see. The very first time I found out what was being done... Please remember that."

Lily's voice was barely a whisper, "You experimented on the Unhealables."

"Not me personally, no," Constance's voice was a creak. Her eyes welled up, "There were specially trained wizards who cast the spells on them, to check what the symptoms of the damaging spells were... and from their reactions we could tell what the patient had... and... we could test the suggested healing therapy." 

James felt his stomach flip over in disgust. "Wait... You mean... there are actual patients that are tested, like guinea pigs?"

Constance looked very remorseful now. "I found out about it and left the moment I'd seen it."

"Bloody hell," murmured James.

"That's why I have to tell you, Tibirius, the most important thing to remember about medicine is that the patients are not just case studies or projects, they're people. And every one of them is someone's mother, father, brother, sister or friend. They all have stories. No one, no matter how Unhealable they may be classified, is beyond the dignity of being treated correctly. No matter how horrible their condition."

James stared down at the table. He could think of nothing nice to say, and he figured it was best to stay quiet in that case. 

Lily asked, "How could they?" She had covered her hands with her mouth in surprise.

"As I said they used the excuse that they were unhealable," Constance said, shaking her head sadly. "They said that by using those people to experiment on they were making their lives matter. They were being sacrificed for the greater good... But I say that sounds a good deal like Grindelwald thinking to me, rather than right."

Lily nodded.

"Is that what Barnaby asked you about?" James asked.

Constance nodded.

James hesitated, "What, er, sorts of conditions qualified for the unhealable status?"

Constance dabbed her eyes with the corner of a handkerchief. "Many, really. Any that there's no hope of curing... Complete confundus, for example, or lycanthropy."

"Werewolves?" he asked.

Lily gasped.

"Only in extreme cases," Constance replied.

Uncomfortable silence fell over them.

James shifted in his seat. "Do you remember a woman named Anne - surname either Veigler or Grant?" he asked point blank. He felt he was quite finished with the conversation with the woman, and despite her remorse and his promise otherwise, he most certainly had changed what he thought of her after all.

Constance looked thrown off by the question, "Why, yes, of course I remember Anne." Her brow furrowed.  "She was the special case that I had taken on that set me to learning about the Unhealables."

"She was a special case?" Lily asked.

"The wife of a top Ministry official," Constance answered.

"Did you know that she had a daughter?" James asked.

Constance nodded. "Sweet little girl. Meghan or something of that sort?"

"Marjorie," James corrected.

"Yes, that's it," Constance agreed. Then, suddenly, she said, "Why? Surely the Anne Grant case isn't declassified and a part of a school assignment?" Her eyes flashed from James to Lily with concern. "What was the Professor's name whose class you've been assigned this project? Professor... Leg.. was it?"

"Yeah that's it," James said, though he couldn't remember, really, what name he'd made up.

Lily stood up, "Tibirius, I believe it's time to go."

Constance stood, too. "Well hang on," she said, "I want to know where this Professor Leg got his authority to declassify the Grant case."

James blurted, "He's mates with an auror, Underhill. The cases he obtained came right from Underhill."

Constance's eyes widened at the name. "Oh," she said.

"You know him?" Lily asked.

"Of him," Constance answered.

"Was he involved in the case?"

"He was a good friend of the official who was married to Anne Grant," Constance explained.

"Oh, so then I suppose that it makes sense then that Professor Leg got the case file from him, then, doesn't it?" James was flushing.

"Yes," Constance agreed, "I suppose it does."

"Did Mr. Underhill visit Anne Grant frequently?" Lily asked. When Constance gave her a funny look, Lily explained, "Since you knew he was a good mate with her husband."

"Oh.. No, no, he didn't frequently, no. I only recognized it as he worked on my husband's case as well once. No Anne Grant didn't get many visitors... she had a terrible amount of damage to her mind. We thought it may be backfired, but we determined somewhat early on it was more likely the result of dark magic gone wrong." She paused, thinking back, and said, "No, rather, we were planning to experiment to come to a conclusion on the diagnosis and --" 

A funny look came into Constance's eyes.

"Mrs. Merriwearther?"

"Why, I've completely lost my train of thought," Constance said. "Oh do have some cookies, young man, you're positively bone-thin." She held up the tea service.

James looked at Lily, bu he took another cookie and turned back to Constance. "Do you remember a visitor by the name of Veigler coming?"

"Coming where, dear?"

"To see Anne Grant?"

"Oh, right, Anne Grant. She didn't get many visitors. She had a terrible amount of damage to her mind."

James paused, then pressed on, "Ned Veigler. Do you remember?"

"No dear, her name was Anne."

"But did anyone named Ned visit her?" Lily tried.

"Anne Grant didn't get many visitors," Constance repeated. "She had a terrible amount of damage to her mind."

"Yeah," James replied, eyeing the tea service warily as Constance held it out to him... "You mentioned."