Two candy stripers (for the uninformed - hospital volunteers) entered the ward with dinner. Everyone was quite surprised to see the author and Cyrene pushing the trolley and looking rather adorable.

"Cass! Cyrene!" Dumbledore shouted, making the girls cringe because he was jumping on the bed right next to them. "What a pleasant surprise."

"What are you doing here?" Harry shouted, and the author wished people would stop shouting right by her ear. "You're evil."

"Hey, evil people are people too," Cyrene commented, and Cass nodded in agreement but mentally rolled her eyes.

"I hate those two," a man fumed. "Everything they bring me tastes like jello." Hermione grunted in agreement. Harry thought she was making another comment about his pimple and clapped the other hand over his face.

"That's because everything is jello," Cass said apologetically. "Look, chicken-flavored jello, green bean-flavored jello, and the house speciality, jello-flavored jello." Everyone turned the same shade as the green bean jello.

"So," Ron tried to distract himself again by talking randomly with the nearest person, who happened to be the girl trying to snatch Harry's glasses. "What are you in for?" Hermione shot him a scandalized look, the effect was marred by the fact that she was gagged.

"I have this enormous rash," she bragged. "They've never seen anything like it. I'm to be in all sorts of medical journals."

Cyrene rolled her eyes. "She thinks she has a rash, so she scratches herself all day, all over her body. It's one of those psychological itches in all the places you can't reach. Nasty hex... she's been here for 2 years."

"Bloody..." Ron breathed in awe. Then he looked at Harry and they grinned. "Ron, don't swear," they both shouted in high voices. Hermione glared and the Eliters cringed.

"Well," Cass broke in, noting that pretty much everyone in the room was glaring at someone. "Perhaps this would be an excellent time for you to leave. The doctors should be finished de-hexing her tomorrow, and we'll send a kinder, gentler Hermione home to you."

"You can do that?" Ron asked.

"This is a hospital," Cass explained. "We can undo any spells, for the most part."

"Oh," Ron said to Harry as they were leaving. "I thought they were going to make a Hermione who didn't nag about homework."

"Talk about a medical miracle."