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Post by Fayre Thackary on May 12, 2009 2:21:54 GMT -7
[This thread takes place roughly two weeks after Natalie was admitted to St. Mungo's. In case anyone cares.]
Fayre sat at her desk, head in hands. The case with Natalie Armitage was not going well. She'd attempted every kind of psychological therapy in the book, to no avail. Natalie stubbornly refused to remember anything about her past - whenever she tried, according to Natalie, a little voice inside of her would tell her to hush, and she would become extremely agitated if pushed to continue.
All of Fayre's hopes were resting on what she and Gordon had planned for today. She'd never attempted anything like this with a patient before, and had no idea if it would work. If nothing else, however, she felt certain that Natalie was physically strong enough to withstand the stress of undergoing Legilimency. Looking at the girl, it was hard to imagine that two weeks ago she'd weighed eighty pounds, with her bones ready to come through her skin. Daily treatments of Weight Gain potions had done their job however, and Natalie now looked much more like the woman she'd been two years ago. Her presence of mind had improved greatly too - her personality was coming back to her, it seemed. When she'd first been brought in, she'd been distant and dreamy, almost child-like in her mentality. Fayre had been greatly amused to hear Natalie bantering wittily with Gordon a few days ago.
Yes, Natalie had certainly made improvements...if only they could unlock her memories. Fayre sighed and ran her hands over her hair in frustration. It was almost eight; Gordon should be here soon. She'd asked him to meet her in her office beforehand. Almost as soon as this thought occurred, there came a sharp knock at her door. Speak of the devil, Fayre thought with a small smile. "Come in," she called, sitting up and straightening a few papers on her already immaculate desk.
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Post by Gordon Flintock on May 15, 2009 4:20:11 GMT -7
Gordon entered the office with his usual sense of purpose, but inside he was deeply concerned. What he mind find, what he might do, what he might fail to do, what the public might think if this controversial form of treatment was discovered? Gordon recognised that he was likely on the eve of the end of his political career (or rather, he didn't so much 'recognise' as much as he was told by the papers or his peers or his advisers every day) and every move he made which was even slightly unusual had to be carefully considered.
Gordon smiled warmly at Fayre and sat down in the chair opposite her as he had done multiple times over the past fortnight. It was kind of refreshing to be on the opposite side of the desk.
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Post by Fayre Thackary on May 15, 2009 21:27:10 GMT -7
Fayre returned Gordon's smile as he took a seat. "Before we start, I think there's something you should know," she began. "We've - found Adam Armitage's body. Or at least, we think it's his. We couldn't tell...he'd been tortured so badly. We were able to ID him by the wand he was carrying, however, so we can only assume it was him. Judging by what you've told me, it would make sense that the other Death Eaters were after him. I've had a report made up, in case you needed it for your files?"
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Post by Gordon Flintock on May 15, 2009 21:55:09 GMT -7
Gordon nodded. "Yes, yes, thank-you." his voice had lowered dramatically. He had been hopeful regarding Adam Armitage. They could have learnt a lot of valuable information from him, but it would appear the Death Eaters got to him first.
"I'll head down there later, talk to whoever I have to talk to in order to conduct an independent inquiry into his death, and I'd appreciate your report. Naturally he is very important to Natalie's case. I think it's important that we don't tell her yet, either."
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Post by Fayre Thackary on May 15, 2009 22:18:54 GMT -7
"Of course," Fayre agreed. "Although I'm sure it wouldn't mean anything to her anyway..." She trailed off for a moment, frowning as once again she thought of how frustrating Natalie was becoming. "Well, let's go over the plan once more before we go in to see Natalie."
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Post by Gordon Flintock on May 21, 2009 18:13:45 GMT -7
Gordon nodded. "I'll go in, tell her that we're going to be conducting another test that could help her realize who she is and what happened to her. I'll cast Legilimency and look for what happened to her that day or before then... anything unusual, split personality trying to block me... etc."
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Post by Fayre Thackary on May 26, 2009 21:41:46 GMT -7
"Precisely," Fayre said crisply. "Although for this first experiment, I'd like you to focus mainly on recovering her memories of the day she was kidnapped. I don't want to overload her."
She reached under her desk then, her hands closing around a sheaf of papers. She bit her lip a little, as if wondering if she should say anything, and then brought the papers up. "I'd also like to ask you - if you'd mind, signing off as Natalie's guardian for a clinical trial I'm working on that involves memory loss. She could be - incredibly important to my research."
She knew that it was rather bad timing to bring this up; she'd had any number of times to do it in the past two weeks. Somehow she hadn't had the nerve, however. Still - if this business with Natalie worked, there was an Order of Merlin, First Class, with Fayre's name on it. She had to get Natalie into her trial.
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Post by Gordon Flintock on Jun 20, 2009 17:00:13 GMT -7
Gordon reached towards the papers, looking them over briefly. He seemed confused and not very pleased. "I'm sorry?" Gordon said. "Is this separate to what we're doing today?" He began to wonder if Thackary was playing him, trying to capitalize on what would (once the lid came off) become a pretty high-profile case. All he wanted was what was best for Natalie (and his public image, of course!)
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Post by Fayre Thackary on Jun 22, 2009 1:04:00 GMT -7
"No, no," Fayre assured Gordon. "You see, I'm conducting a clinical trial - I've been conducting it for several months now. Experimenting with ways of getting amnesiac patients to regain their memories. You see, up until very recently, spell damage to the mind has been nearly impossible to reverse. I've had some marginal success with Legilimency therapy - and Natalie is a prime candidate for the trial. If what we are about to attempt is successful, she could prove groundbreaking for my research. She might be able to help many other people."
She cocked her head slightly to the side; somehow she sensed that Gordon was not worried so much about Natalie's welfare in this situation, but his career. She couldn't blame him; she herself would surely be hesitant if something of the sort came her way, especially if she was in the same position as Gordon was at the moment. "And to ease your mind - if you wish, your name won't appear anywhere in my report, should you agree to sign. I merely need you to agree to put Natalie in the trial as you have power of attorney over her and she is incapable of making the decision for herself."
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Post by Gordon Flintock on Jun 23, 2009 1:46:46 GMT -7
Gordon felt it would be inappropriate for him to hesitate further. "Absolutely," he reached out for the sheaf of papers. "That's fine, but of course I'll have to look over these. When do you need them by?" He watched Fayre's expressions intently - Gordon couldn't help but be paranoid given his department's performance of late. Though of course he didn't believe for a moment that the Head Healer was a Death Eater, Gordon had a number of enemies even within their side and he wanted to be sure that she wasn't one of them.
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Post by Fayre Thackary on Jul 14, 2009 18:37:45 GMT -7
"I actually would need them before we begin," Fayre said hesitantly. "Any progress we make before you date and sign would be considered invalid and I wouldn't be able to include it in my research. If you need some time to look them over, we can postpone with Natalie for about half an hour or so." She glanced up at the clock over the door. "Would you like me to summon a notary to go over the papers with you?"
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Post by Gordon Flintock on Jul 15, 2009 0:30:05 GMT -7
"I - well, I might just return to the Ministry to review them and meet you back here in..." He glanced at the size of the stack of papers. "About fifteen minutes? Out in the ward, so we can begin right away, how does that sound?" Gordon would be sure to have his personal lawyers take a look over it and make a copy for his own records. He trusted their judgement - after all, their paychecks came directly from him, not merely through him as was the case with his Aurors and such.
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Post by Fayre Thackary on Jul 15, 2009 2:32:44 GMT -7
"Fine," Fayre said. "Come straight to Natalie's room when you're done; I'll meet you there. I've got preliminary tests to do before you get started anyway." She stood and followed Gordon to the door, shutting and locking it behind her. As he turned and began heading out of the hospital, she made her way to Natalie's room.
"Good morning, Ms Armitage!" she said cheerfully as she entered, taking Natalie's chart from the holder by the door and checking it. "Your vitals have been stable all morning...excellent. We just need to do a few quick tests and then Gordon will be in to see you, that's nice, isn't it?"
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Post by Gordon Flintock on Jul 15, 2009 2:38:58 GMT -7
Some fourteen minutes later, Gordon entered the room, looking satisfied to hand a sheaf of papers over to Fayre and looking pleased to see Natalie looking so well. He greeted her, and withdrew his wand slowly from the inside of his sleeve, turning to Fayre. "Does she understand, are we ready to go?"
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Post by Natalie Armitage on Jul 15, 2009 2:46:20 GMT -7
Natalie submitted meekly to Healer Thackary's pokings and proddings, looking around the room with wide, childlike eyes. When Gordon entered the room, her entire face lit up with pleasure and a wide smile spread across her face. "Gordon's here!" she said, quite unneccessarily, to Fayre. "Are we going to start now?"
Fayre and Gordon had explained roughly what they were going to do to her a few days ago. Natalie didn't really understand; she just knew that Gordon was going to try to find out why she didn't remember anything.
"I'm ready. Are we going to -"
Natalie froze. Literally - it was as if someone had suddenly cast a full Body-Bind on her. For a full five seconds, she was completely inert, and then, as if someone had thrown a switch, she came back to life. All traces of her childlike mentality were gone; this was the old Natalie.
"You can't do this," she said tersely, locking eyes with Gordon. "You can't do this."
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