#18 Feeling Good

The doors opened and a confused Madam Pomfrey stood there. The fact the doors were closed at all was strange, but figured if someone had the courtesy to knock then they probably hadn't visited often before. After a few duels or Quidditch matches, older students just strolled right in as if it was their second home.

She tsk tsked at the state of Saoire's hand, having noticed it immediately.

'What happened here?' Pomfrey asked, leading the Gryffindor towards a bed. She was welcome to sit down, but it wasn't requested. She just needed a place to tend to her, and get a better view of what's going on.

'Exactly how hard were you scrubbing?' Madam Pomfrey asked, peering at the girl's hand. 'It's a good thing you came to me. This could have gotten very serious, very quickly. Do you feel any burning or nausea? 

Saoirse had said it wasn't that deep, and Pomfrey suspected the girl wasn't used to taking injuries seriously or else was used to manual labor and didn't have the same pain tolerance or reaction as some of her peers. Either way, small or big, the wound was contaminated with traces of who-knows-what and needed to be treated immediately.

She prepared a bowl of lukewarm water and some sort of bitter-smelling potion that was diluted in it.

'Soak your hands here. Yes, both of them, just to be sure,' Pomfrey instructed. 'Count to sixty, slowly, then remove them.'

It was no easy task, as the liquid was quite sharp against her hands -- and stung quite badly where her injury was. But it was necessary to clean it all out and remove any traces of the potions. Madam Pomfrey carefully monitored the process, to ensure nothing more dangerous popped up since it wasn't known what sort of potions were involved in those cauldrons.

When Saoirse lifted her hands out of the liquid -- which suddenly began to dry on their own, Madam Pomfrey retrieved a small potion bottle with a dropper. She had Saorise tilt her head both ways, so she could administer two drops of the potion in both of her ears.

The metallic taste faded, though left her feeling a bit thirsty.

Pomfrey inspected Saorise's hands, which looked good. She tapped the wound with her wand, and it sealed itself. It looked several days old, not as if she'd just hurt it.

'Be gentle on your hands for the next day or so; no harsh soaps or otherwise,' Pomfrey said. 'I'll be having a word with Professor Snape later, but you're free to go.'