Jennie Potter and the Half-Blood CT Scan

Jennie and Sean apparated onto the front steps of the Utah Valley Regional Hospital. Jennie knew then that there would be no turning back. They would do what they had to do. Sean was glad to have left behind Ron and Hermione: they might have gotten hurt wandering into such a dangerous place. They were playing right into Doctor-who-must-not-be-named’s hands.

The hospital-fortress looked impenetrable. “How do we get inside?” asked Sean. “Perhaps we’ll just have to go back.” Jennie walked to the solid but oddly transparent doors, murmured some incantation, and the doors slid aside, as if by magic. She was certainly the greatest professor at Hogwarts Shores Elementary, and no wonder that she was the only Kindergarten teacher Dr. You-know-who ever feared.

They crossed the front hall where an enchanted pillar demanded a name. “You must give yours, Jennie,” said Sean. Jennie gave the pillar her name and waited, her heart pounding. The pillar gave a chipper beep, “Entry accepted!” They sat down to wait for the spell to work its way through the hospital.

Soon a wizard in blue scrub robes came to greet them. “Jennifer?” Jennifer, hesitating, gave a nod. She and Sean followed the wizard through a portal into the very catacombal depths of the hospital, and the wizard disappeared. Sean stomach growled: he missed the great hall and longed for a treacle tart.

But Dr. You-know-who had laid a trap for them. The wizard reapparated before them. “Jennifer, you must drink six poisonous potions, one every ten minutes.” He let out a high, mirthless laugh. “Would you like it in Sprite, Diet Coke, cranberry juice, or pineapple juice?” The ends of his mouth curled into a sinister grin.

Jennie sighed: no pumpkin juice? “Pineapple.”

“Very well,” said the wizard before he disapparated, then returned with a tray of the potions.

Jennie turned to Sean. “Whatever happens, Sean, promise me this: you must give me every potion. No matter how much I protest, you know I must drink it all.”

Sean nodded, tears streaking down his cheeks. “But why, professor?”
“It is the only way to defeat the Doctor,” replied Jennie, gravely. “You know the CAT Scan horcrux requires it.”

Jennie gulped down the first potion and scowled at the foul aftertaste. The minutes passed, and they could hear nothing from the hallway. She picked up the second potion and downed it without complaint. Well, almost. “I don’t like it, there’s too much sugar!”

Sean was all-encouraging. “You can do it, professor.” Ten minutes passed, and he offered her the next potion. She pushed it away, but he brought it to her lips. “You must, Jennie!” She took it by sips, grimacing from the pain it caused her.

Two potions left. He urged her to drink the next. “No! I hate pineapple juice!” Jennie protested, but Sean insisted. “It’s awful stuff!” She writhed in her seat, but took the potion, and shuddered with every swallow.

With one potion left, the wizard reapparated to their room. “Are you ready for the trials, Jennifer?”
She looked at his eyes, searching for pity, and found none. “Do I have to drink it all?”

“I’m afraid so,” he said, looking not at all sorry.

She drained the last cup, gasping and retching as she did. The deed was done; with the prick of an IV they defeated the evil CT horcrux, and Jennie and Sean reapparated back home, where Jennie collapsed, peacefully, onto their four-poster bed.

Stay tuned for our next episode of the series: “Jennie Potter and the Deathly 100th Day of School Party”