Chapter Text
When they got to the hospital, they were immediately greeted and taken care off. Two nurses made their ways to Molly and Arthur who were each carrying a twin in their arms.
Soon, they were led to a room which was already equipped with two beds, even if the parents had no real intention of letting their son down any time soon.
“Mom” whispered Fred, his tiny hands playing with her scarf, trying to hide his face in it. “Why are we here? The bad people will hurt us. Last time George cried! I don’t want him to cry anymore Mommy”
Arthur who was swooping a sleeping George in his arms sighs, remembering that terrible moment when the twins had last been seen by a medical professional. They still regretted this decision to bring them there and they probably would for the rest of their lives.
“Don’t worry Fred, don’t worry. All is going to be alright. Relax. I’m not going to leave you alone. Nor is dad going to let go of George. But you must behave okay little prankster. You need to relax and be good for the mediwitch.”
Just as she was saying this, an old looking wizard made his way in the room. He was tall and had a small hat on his head.
A wide smile appeared on his face at the sight of this cute little family- little did he know-
“Greetings, my name is Erikson, Teddy Erikson. What seems to be the problem with these two little guys. They both look terribly tired, and rather alike?” he questioned. “Are they twins” he soon inquired
Molly nodded as she brought Fred to sit on her knees though the boy kept hiding his face away, despite not usually being the shy type.
“Yes, they’re five. We think they have magic fever”
“Magic fever you say” frown the doctor as he crouched in front of Molly, looking at Fred’s eyes.
Seeing how scared the little sorcerer seemed, he softened his look, definitely having experience with dealing with children.
“And what happens to be your name dear little sir?” he asked, his voice changing g a little, now definitely addressing the kid.
Fred thought for a second if he should answer the man who, against all odds seemed trustworthy, not yet having poke George or him with needles. He so decided that he could trust him as he looked like an okay fellow.
“I’m Fred Weasliii” he answered, the family name still not being that well pronounced as the kid had a slight problem with his diction, problem Molly was trying to solve. “He’s Georg, he’s sick. Could you do a thing with your wand to make him all better?”
“Well first off I would like to look at you since your brother seem to be quite content in his sleep. Would you mind sitting on the bed here for me? Your mother can keep holding you if you’ll like”
“m…..nah!” the Weasley almost screamed suddenly really aware of what they were here for. “Last time Georg cried, and I hurt. NO!”
“Fred common you need to listen to the nice man. He only wants to make you and George feel better” pressed the young mother
“No, no Mrs. Weasley, Fred is right. Sometimes before feeling better, it can feel unpleasant. But I promise you that if I have to do anything that could hurt you I would tell you. Plus, for now we’re just talking here. All I want to do is to look at your belly and look up a few other things with my wand using a few spells. I’m sure your parents use lots of spells around the house. Plus, if you want you can lift your shirt yourself, so I don’t even have to touch you”
For a few seconds, the boy didn’t seem convinced though you could see that he was paying attention to the man’s inquiries.
“Okay how about this then” continued Erikson “I’m sure you’re going to go to Hogwarts in a few years right? You already look so big. You must be great with spells!”
This change of subject seemed to ravish Fred who, despite looking and sounding exhausted tried to sit a bit more upright, eager to tell the man his craziest magical adventures.
Although this kind of talked could seem completely irrelevant for the kid, medically speaking, it was not as such. Indeed, magic Fever only attacked children with magical abilities, therefore with a magical core.
The level of development of that core varied from children to children. In order to determine the severity of the sickness and how at risk the kid was to lose his magic, the doctor had to know about the advancement of sorcery in the boy.
“Well, I did many things but last week I turned Ronnie’s teddy bear into a giant spider” answered the kid excitedly. “He was really scared” he said while laughing tho this laughter soon transfigured in him coughing intensely.
The doctor was soon on it, making the boy bend a little bit and pathing his back, both parents could see how worried he seemed at seeing more symptoms on display. Yet he really was trying to keep a straight face up in order not to scare the child:
“Well well you seem to be quite a prankster. Is your brother as funny as you?”
Fred could only nod tho as he was still recovering from his harsh coughing.
He looked up to his mother, his eyes asking her if she would tell Erikson about George own little pranks:
“George is a good joker too, really funny. What is it he did last month? Oh yes he accidentally tricked his older brother’s book so that there was only the word quidditch written in it instead of the story of toys for wizards.” Molly said smiling at the fond memory of Percy’s deputed face as he had attempted to read his book.
“It looks like you two are going to be great wizards someday! Yet to be, you have to be healthy right? Would you let me lift your shirt up so I can look at your belly?” asked the doctor now thinking that he had gained enough of the small sorcerer’s trust.
Fred who suddenly looked weaker than ever before nodded tho he did made a point to be the one to lift his shirt himself.
As he was doing that, he for the first time looked down at his belly and was shocked to discovered that his skin was covered with small red buttons. The whole of his skin red, a rash spreading rapidly over his whole chest. Furthermore, the skin looked burnt at some places, indicating that the small kid had probably been scratching himself.
The adults could not blame him though. For all they knew, Fred had most probably not even been aware that he was doing it.
In silence, the medic got his wand out, pointing it to the boy’s forehead, whispering an incantation. Once the fumes from the wand had dissipated, the doctor frown, regretting what he had learned, hoping that he had been wrong:
“Are you done now? Can I go home?” inquired Fred, his eye lids starting to feel heavy, his head slowly falling on his mother’s chest, all energy seemingly having left the boy.
“Not quite yet little one, soon I promise” Erikson smiled before moving to Arthur who was still holding the sleeping form of George.
The doctor performed the same spell and lifted the twin’s shirt to look at the rash that was present on his stomach. It seemed like George rash was more widely spread than Fred’s, maybe why he seemed more took by the sickness at the moment.
“So, doc? What do we do?” soon inquired Arthur, breaking the heavy silence that had fell over the room.
Erikson sat down on one of the vacant beds, looking at both parents, unable to hide his worry:
“Well, they definitely have the fever, both of them. I’m afraid that it has already spread a lot and, going by the way they are both coughing… yes I think they are definitely at risk of loosing their magic if we do not act soon”
Embracing Fred further, Molly soon followed with the burning question:
“How do we treat them? Surely there is something that can be done”
“Well… yes there is tho it’s still pretty experimental and… risky I’m not going to lie. First, we’ll put an IV on both. There is a potion that will be given to them through it that can stop the sickness from spreading any further. Once the progression is stopped, we can start thinking about the following process”
“Witch is?” pressed the worried father
“Well…. Since there are twins, there is something we can try tho there is no guarantee it will work. You see, by what I can tell, George magical core is more affected than Fred’s. If we merge the two together it could result in a full grown one that, split in two once more would make both Fred and George get their own magical core intact, it being pretty much grown as it should be for a three/four years old.”
“Wait wait I’m not sure I understand. You want to merge their magic together? How is that even possible” said Molly as she was tightening her old on her son
“As I said it’s experimental. We would extract both of their core and use magic to merge them to form just one. Once that one is fully grown, we would split it in two again and it would result in two small magic cores who would then be replaced within your sons’ bodies, all that using magic of course”
“It must be extremely dangerous! I’ve never heard of such a thing myself!” kept on Arthur
“It is new, there has been a few try outs and the results have been quite promising. It can ensure that your son’s cores remains safe. Of course, the result would give a smaller core but since they are young and seem to already be showing extensive magic I am hopeful that it will grow back fully soon”
For a moment the room was entirely quiet, Arthur and Molly sharing looks together trying to think what would be best for their twins. Who would have thought that they would be faced with such terrible decisions tonight?
“If we don’t go with that treatment, what other options will we have?”
“Well the potion will stop the fever from progressing any further but the damages to their magic will be irreversible. It is likely that Fred will be able to practice magic but definitely not to the extend of a normal wizard. As for George… I would say he would definitely be sensible to magic, but it is unlikely he would be able to use any spells or even master the use of a wand. He wouldn’t be a squib per say but the use of magic would be very difficult for him”
“What about the risks of your other proposition?”
“well… there has been one case reported where the cores have not been able to be reintegrated in the bodies of the children, but the two children were not twins, and had no family link. All other procedures that have been done on twins have been a success. I know it is not an easy decision but we have to act soon. How about you put these two to bed, I can ask my nurses to come and put the IV in their arms so that we can start the treatment with the potion. All the while, you two can think of what you want to do and I can have the specialist come here to talk to you?”
And with that he left, letting the two parents clueless as to what they should do…