Timocleia Gwilym
First Year
Gryffindor
This time for Owl Club I decided to talk to a Healer. Because they are very important. They heal us. Obviously. And they can be very friendly. I also thought it would be good to talk to the other people here at Hogwarts too, not just the new Professors like Professor Shadoan and Professor Keene and the really really old ones like Professor Banks. So I talked to Melisande Flutterby, and I hope I spelled that right. I sent Wobble to her to ask if she could talk, and she said yes so I went to the Hospital Wing and asked her questions. We sat in very big chairs and she gave me tea. That was nice.
What is your first name?
She said it is Melisande. Now, this is a long name, like my own name Timocleia, so I asked her:
Do people call you Melly?
She said that they do call her Melly, and they also call her Mell. Or maybe Mel. Anyway, people call her that.
Where are you from?
She said she was born in the Cotswolds in England. But she grew up in Ireland because her mother is Irish and she thinks she is Irish too. She went to Ireland when she was eight years old. I thought it weird that she was born in the forest, but I did not ask if she was raised by wolves or something because some people are very sensitive about stuff like that. In Ireland, she has a house in the forest near a place called Dollywood or Dollysomething. I’m not sure I got that right. But she really likes forests. She lived in Dollywood when she was a kid in Ireland. Maybe with wolves. Because wolves like forests. Dollywood is in northern Ireland near a new castle, but not near an old castle.
How long have you been a Healer at Hogwarts?
It will be two years in January, but she was here a long, long time before that. Because she did other things at Hogwarts. She had to think about how long she has been a Healer here, because she thinks time flows together or something like that. She must be very old. Maybe even as old as the goose.
Why do like being a Healer?
She likes it because she can help students. She was a Professor here and taught students, and was also the groundskeeper here and kept things safe. But she likes healing because she can show students that pain is not a big deal and things can get healed. And if they can’t get healed then it is still okay to live with the pain and injury. She lends people ears and shoulders, which sounds painful and difficult, and she had both ears and shoulders still, so maybe she grows them back. Maybe there’s a Saesneg thing about shoulders and ears. Anyway, she says she gets lots of rewards in the work, so if she loses ears and shoulders I suppose that is okay.
What did you teach before you were a Healer?
She taught Herbology.
What is your favourite sweet?
She forgets the name of it. But she likes it very much. But there is thin soft milk, and something crushed maybe. She used weird words. And it tickles her. She said it is laughter and sunshine, but those are not sweets, so I was confused. Healer Flutterby is sometimes confusing, even though she is very nice.
Where were you before you were at Hogwarts?
She asked if I meant before she was a Healer or before she was at Hogwarts the first time, and I asked if she went away and came back and she said yes. But she said she got married and left Hogwarts the first time as a Professor. She came back as a groundskeeper after her husband died. Or at least missing. He went on trip for work and never came back. I think that is very scary. I am glad my nain and my taid have their work right at Caermynydd, so they do not have to go on many trips for work. But sometimes they do. Maybe I need to worry about those trips more. I do not want them to die on a trip for work. Anyway, before she was a Professor she went to a big Muggle school called a Universe City. She was an Herbologist and boat-ist (or something like that), so maybe she did plants on boats. But she was also a degree of doctor at the Universe City, so she was a Muggle Herbologist Boat-ist Doctor. But then she was a Teacher and she taught Herbology to Muggles for eleven years. I wonder what they thought about Puffa Pods and Mandrakes.
What is your favourite colour?
She said she loves green most. But she likes dirt colours like green, brown and orange, but I do not know where you see orange dirt. Maybe Dollywood. She likes wearing dirt colours too, so that’s good because all she has to do to wear dirt colours is go and rub dirt in her clothes.
How long ago were you a student here? Was it a very long time ago?
She said she is very very old. There was a big battle here a long, long time go, like in the last century or maybe the one before it, and she was here for that. It was the Battle of Hogwarts, and she said she graduated that year. She was in Hufflepuff.
What was that like?
She said it was lovely, but there were parts that were bad, like when Voldemort came at the end. It was very scary. There were emotion storms, but the students used supports. They lost many friends and family, but they learned they could survive. And I suppose maybe go find the people they lost. I did not ask what an emotion storm was, but it sounds dangerous and scary. I wonder if that means it’s when rain or snow hates you. It always feels like rain and snow hate me. Well, sometimes. Sometimes, it can be nice.
What do you like most about Hogwarts?
She likes the cheese, but she likes the people too. It is like a big family that is connected, but that sounds a little difficult to get around if everyone is connected like that. But she said nobody leaves Hogwarts alone, so at some point people will be connected to other people before graduation. I hope it does not hurt.
What do you think about detentions? Do you give any? Can you even give them?
She said she never gave a detention. Ever. Not even when she was a Professor. She can run a detention if a Professor gives them, but she thinks they are very nice. I do not know because I have not gotten a detention. But I do not want to because everyone says they are bad. So do my nain and my taid. She said she did a detention with a student long ago where they worked in the gardens and talked. But now we have Garden Club for that so maybe something else needs to be done for detention. But that does not sound bad for a detention. So maybe if you get detention you can ask the Professor if you can do it with Healer Flutterby and then it will not be so bad.
Do you have anything you want to say to the students of Hogwarts?
She said that Hogwarts makes you grow up very fast, but that does not sound right, because there are a lot of kids here who have not gotten tall yet. Maybe I will get taller here. I would like that. I have not gotten taller since I got here, though. But she said to enjoy my time as a child, and do not be in a hurry to grow up, but I do not understand how I could be in a hurry to do something like that. Or how can I not hurry if Hogwarts is making me grow faster? It was confusing, but then again she is very old. And she said that if we battle someone, that we should not do it alone, and she will help us defeat them, even if it is a Prefect or a Professor or Head of House. But I do not know if I got that right, because I had to look up the word in my English-Welsh dictionary and it did not make a lot of sense to me. But I think she meant battle or something like it. I have not seen any battles at Hogwarts yet, so they must be very rare. But remember to have Healer Flutterby with you if you have to do that. Or another Healer.
Do you have a pet?
Yes, she has a pet. It is a colourful bird called Calleigh. But she does not know what kind of bird it is, so maybe she never studied Care of Magical Creatures, just Herbology. It has many colours. And she has her magic butterflies too, but if they are magic, I do not know if they are real. Butterflies are very pretty, but they die very quickly. Maybe they are zombie butterflies.
Healer Flutterby is very short. Everyone who has seen her knows. And many people think that very short people might be related to Goblins. So I asked her: Are you part goblin?
She said no. But she said if she was she still would be happy to talk about it, even though lots of people hate Goblins right now and want to hurt them. And she said that even though some people want to hurt Goblins, not all people want to, and anyway people will hate you for something, and one thing is as good as another. She thinks that people would hate her anyway for being half-blood, or because she is a ginger, or even for being a woman which sounds very weird. I do not know why someone would hate someone for being a woman, or being a ginger, or any of the rest of it. She said she would rather that people hated her for something that she is instead of for something she is not. But anyway, she said that all the women on her mother’s side of the family are very small, but she is smaller than any of them. I looked very close, and her ears are round. So she is not part Goblin at all. She just stopped growing in Second or Third Year. So if you are a Second or Third Year, you might be that size for the rest of your life. Maybe eat a lot to see if you keep growing.
So then I asked her if I could make a picture of her, and she said yes so here it is. But when I made the picture with the camera, I saw her freckles and everything, and so I asked her…
How do you look so young? Do you take potions?
She said she does not take potions. She said that witches do not get old as fast as Muggles. But she also said that she uses nature and beauty in life and it helps. Maybe she sucks the beauty out of things? But she seems very nice so I do not think that is how it works. She also said that love keeps her young, and that healing magic helps too. So maybe she uses spells or something, but she does not take potions.
So that is Healer Flutterby. Maybe you can call her Mel or Melly. She is very very old, but she does not look very very old. Because she is a witch. But she does not take potions. She is very short, but she is not part Goblin. She likes healing, and she likes to make detentions fun, so if you get in trouble for something then ask to do detentions with her and maybe it will be kind of like Gardening Club. She was married but her husband died on a work trip, so be careful of work trips. And she used to be a Professor and the groundskeeper, but she likes being a Healer a lot more. She taught Muggles a long time, but she likes Healing better. So if you go up to the Hospital Wing, remember that she is there and that she can heal you and she is very nice.
