if youâve ended up a patient of st mungoâs hospital at any point over the last few years, youâve probably met judy... but you probably havenât thought of her very much. she mightâve been the overworked emergency room witch who tried to prepare you for straightening out your broken bone but failed to warn you she was doing it on three, not after, or the night healer who made sure your pillow was extra fluffy & didnât argue when you asked for a vial of dreamless sleep. she couldâve been the woman that brought by your evening tea, that night, and let you have an extra scone knowing itâd make you smile, or she couldâve been the one who sat at the reception desk that day the rostered witch called in sick and sent you two floors over the one you were meant to get to - though it wouldâve been hard to hold a grudge, because you could see her running to try & rectify her mistake as the doors of the ancient elevator closed. judith has done a lot of nice things, over the years, and sheâs worked very hard. she hasnât done EITHER for the recognition.Â
a hufflepuff alumnus who graduated from hogwarts in the class of â06 and went into healing like her grandmother before her, judy strout has lived a squeaky clean sort of life, and thatâs something sheâs awfully proud of. sheâs a caregiver. she stepped into the role after her parents passed : overnight, she became the one who had to make sure her younger siblings got through hogwarts alright, and that granny always had everything she needed for the week. if anyone need anything at all, it was judyâs job to get it. sheâs never complained & sheâs never really felt hard done by. itâs always been nice to feel needed.Â
her family was one that managed to fly under the radar, during the war. half bloods but in an âeasily provenâ sort of way, they got a little flack for it, but they were lucky to never have to go into hiding, or in the case of her younger siblings, leave hogwarts & their education behind. she couldâve done without the STRESS of knowing they fought in the battle of hogwarts, but they survived. that was what was important, and judith was one of the healers who helped patch everyone up at the end of the war. their limited involvement gets them an invite every year, one they never fail to take.Â
martha strout is the one to raise the alarm on saturday evening, though... calling it an ALARM would be a pretty large overstatement. it isnât exactly a shrill ring of one, so much as it is quiet acknowledgement that judith strout hadnât been seen since she said goodnight at the end of the previous days welcoming feast and headed off to bed. all it takes is a quick query to discover that the hufflepuff alums who were set to room with judith over the weekend hadnât actually seen or heard her get in - and it took even less time to pop a head around the door of the guest quarters & discover that judyâs bed was the only without the distinct muss that would indicate she had slept there, overnight. she didnât have a phone, and it wouldnât have WORKED very well around hogwarts, anyway. martha knew she wasnât home, because apparating there had been her first act. she knew she wasnât at work, because she wasnât meant to be. she didnât seem to have taken any of her things, and her path from the great hall was... hard to determine. her sister insisted that she would have gone straight to the guest rooms, however, plenty of people had been taking the opportunity to explore hogwarts castle, and plenty more were had snuck off to hogsmeade for an evening drink. it felt silly to rule anything out.Â
there was only one thing for it, really, when no one really knew what had happened - IT WAS LATE, just nearing nine pm, but if you were listening to marta strout, time was of the essence. headmistress mcgonagall decided then & there that the smartest thing to do would be to split up groups of willing volunteers and send them on a search. hogwarts could be a maze, people could do funny things in their grief, judith was too smart a girl to indicate anything unseemly... THERE WAS NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT, martha was assured, loudly enough that everyone else present at the time could be assured, too, BECAUSE THERE WERE PLENTY OF EXPLANATIONS, and they were going to get to the bottom of it. one carefully searched square inch at a time.Â
