♦ 057 ♦

                                    

                                          
The Order of The Phoenix
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
The dummy gave a tiny nod and beckoned with its jointed finger, and Tonks had seized Ginny and Mrs. Weasley by the elbows, stepped right through the glass and vanished.
Fred, Cassie, George and Ron stepped after them. Sadie thought it felt like a sheet of cool water, emerging quite warm and dry on the other side.
There was no sign of the ugly dummy or the space where she had stood. They were in what seemed to be a crowded reception area where rows of witches and wizards sat upon rickety wooden chairs, some looking perfectly normal and perusing out-of-date copies of Witch Weekly, others sporting gruesome disfigurements such as elephant trunks or extra hands sticking out of their chests. 
The room was scarcely less quiet than the street outside, for many of the patients were making very peculiar noises: a sweaty-faced witch in the centre of the front row, who was fanning herself vigorously with a copy of the Daily Prophet, kept letting off a high-pitched whistle as steam came pouring out of her mouth, a grubby-looking warlock in the corner clanged like a bell every time he moved and, with each clang, his head vibrated horribly so that he had to seize himself by the ears to hold it steady.
Witches and wizards in lime-green robes were walking up and down the rows, asking questions and making notes on clipboards like Umbridge's. Sadie  noticed the emblem embroidered on their chest,: a wand and bone, crossed.
"Over here!" called Mrs. Weasley, above the renewed clanging of the warlock in the corner, and they followed her to the queue in front of a plump blonde witch seated at a desk marked Enquiries. The wall behind her was covered in notices and posters saying things like: A CLEAN CAULDRON KEEPS POTIONS FROM BECOMING POISONS and ANTIDOTES ARE ANTI-DON'TS UNLESS APPROVED BY A QUALIFIED HEALER. There was also a large portrait of a witch with long silver ringlets which was labelled:
Dilys Derwent
St. Mungo's Healer 1722-1741
Headmistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
1741-1768
Dilys was eyeing the Weasley party closely as though counting them. When Sadie caught her eye she gave a tiny wink, walked sideways out of her portrait and vanished.
Meanwhile, at the front of the queue, a young wizard was performing an odd on-the-spot jig and trying, in between yelps of pain, to explain his predicament to the witch behind the desk.
"It's these, ouch, shoes my brother gave me, ow, they're eating my, OUCH, feet, look at them, there must be some kind of, AARGH, jinx on them and I can't, AAAAARGH,  get them off." He hopped from one foot to the other as though dancing on hot coals.
"The shoes don't prevent you reading, do they?" said the blonde witch, irritably pointing at a large sign to the left of her desk. "You want Spell Damage, fourth floor. Just like it says on the floor guide. Next!"
As the wizard hobbled and pranced sideways out of the way, the Weasley party moved forward a few steps and Sadie read the floor guide:
ARTEFACT ACCIDENTS ........................ Ground floor.
Cauldron explosion, wand backfiring, broom crashes, etc.
CREATURE-INDUCED INJURIES ........................ First floor
Bites, stings, burns, embedded spines, etc.
MAGICAL BUGS ........................ Second floor
Contagious maladies, e.g. dragon pox, vanishing sickness, scrofungulus, etc.
POTION AND PLANT POISONING ........................ Third floor
Rashes, regurgitation, uncontrollable giggling, etc.