Private message to Madam Pomfrey

[alt_sally_anne]

I don't suppose you're going to be around St Mungo's at all this summer? Healer Korotkova has me running all her errands for her, as part of my internship, and that means I'm in and out of St M's at least twice a week, usually more. (Obviously if there's a patient who needs to be seen, she goes herself, but quite often people come in and drop off malfunctioning spectacles or something and she sends me to get those and then to deliver them back. Also, the dispensary at St M's is where she gets certain supplies.)

Anyway. If I happen to have a chance to run into you, that would be lovely. Otherwise I'll see you in September.

My internship is going quite well. So far I've learned quite a lot about the craft of making eyeglasses and artificial eyes and a little about eye diseases and reversing curses on eyes and eyesight. I think Healer Korotkova is quite pleased with me so far, because for simple problems with spectacles I can nearly always fix them now, and that frees her up to work on things she finds more interesting. (She is a little impatient about the fact that I can't read any language other than English, but Professor Sinistra helped me read the journal article in German she particularly wanted me to read.)

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[alt_sally_anne]

So if anything goes wrong with Rhymes with Rudy's unusual eye, I might be able to set it right.

I was really hoping she'd teach me how to make things like it -- do you know it sees through walls? And under disillusionment charms and it does loads of other things. (I found a long article discussing it in one of the old Healing journals. Old enough that they talked to Moody about it.) So far the main thing I've learned is that my skills aren't anywhere near up to that level (and probably won't ever be -- but then again, she only ever made ONE.)

(She sort of hinted today that I should write to you, so I wanted to make sure I did it where she could see.)

Re: Order Only

[alt_poppy]

I'm certain Mad Eye rues the day he allowed that information in print.

I hope you have an opportunity to inspect that magical eye one day. It is absolutely a marvel. And quite right, it would require long years before you could achieve anything of that calibre, but that's not to say that you will not master extremely useful skills in the remaining weeks of your summer.

How is it, really? She's challenging you, I gather, but not leaving you feeling dismayed, I hope.

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[alt_sally_anne]

No. Well, at least, not dismayed by how I'm doing as a summer intern. I am sort of wondering whether it would have been more useful to the Order if I'd insisted on an internship that was more oriented toward patient care, because nearly everything I've done has been fixing spectacles.

Healer Korotkova is DEFINITELY pleased with me. The thing is, I already knew how to do basic repairs that'll fix a lot of things that aren't working. My father's a magical mechanic, and I used to watch him fix things, when he had work. The first step is to reproduce the problem (because sometimes just being touched by a magical mechanic -- or opthalmancer, if it's spectacles -- will fix the problem). And then the second step is TLC (it stands for 'Tender Loving Care,' because it works better if you talk kindly to the object while you're working). But you look at all the parts that aren't magic and see if any of them need something, like maybe a little rivet's broken or bent, and maybe you take it apart and clean everything really carefully and put it all back together. It's only in step three where you actually fix the magic, and that's what I wouldn't know how to do with eyeglasses and other ocular magical objects and Healer Korotkova's been teaching me. But you know, probably nine out of ten of the things she gives me, all they need is TLC. Like some glasses I got today had a big scratch on them and I polished that out, and the edges of the lenses had gotten all grimy and the nose piece was bent, and I cleaned them up and fixed the nose piece, and after that the charms on them worked beautifully again even though I hadn't done a thing to the magic.

Anyway she's REALLY pleased at how good I am with the repairs and so on and how quickly I've caught on to the basic charmwork. Professor Headmaster Dolohov told her I was excellent with that sort of thing, I guess, because she's told me I'm living up to his glowing recommendation.

And that's really good BUT the thing is how often does the Order need someone to fix glasses? Also she's supposed to write me a recommendation for St Mungo's (apparently she's mates with some of the people on the admissions committee) but if she tells them I'm brilliant at fixing THINGS rather than PATIENTS that's not so good. (I probably shouldn't worry about that; if Headmaster Dolohov thinks she'll do well for me I think it's unlikely he'd pick someone who'd make a mistake like that.)

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[alt_poppy]

You might try asking questions which lead the topic back to patients. That might eventually lead her to involve you more with her examinations and treatments of people. You might begin with questions about how magical spectacles act on their wearer, how and why people's optical deficiencies change over time, how she examines her patients, what instruments she uses, how she trained her eye for detecting abnormalities.

I'm certain you can think of a productive line of questioning.

Re: Order Only

[alt_sally_anne]

That's a good idea. I'll try it.

[alt_poppy]

Hello, my dear. Good to hear from you.

I will be in and out at St Mungo's, yes. Mostly on Fridays or at weekends. The occasional late afternoon is possible, though my weekday schedule is rather full.

I'm most pleased to hear that your time with Healer Korotkova is proving productive, and it will be reassuring to have someone with a bit of fresh training in eye issues on hand this year, though let us hope we will see nothing so pernicious as Mr Ackerly's corneal boils proved. I will be sure to call you if anything interesting or instructive presents itself.