Briefly, Bellatrix hypothesized that someone may have been stabbed in the stomach by a dark artifact. She also hypothesized that said person was now in a coma, but had been given basic first aid. She then followed up her statement of the hypothetical situation by placing a handful of galleons on the table.
Madame Madidus grabbed the galleons and pocketed them quickly before leaning forward toward Bellatrix. "Now tell me, hypothetically, was this dark artifact designed as a weapon? I mean, is it supposed to stab people for the purpose of killing them?"
"No," Bellatrix said, "but it seems to use blood to do what it does."
"Hypothetically, dearie. I need plausible deniability in the event that someone comes looking for someone injured in a specific manner."
Bellatrix rolled her eyes. "Yes, hypothetically, if this artifact existed it wouldn't be a weapon. Hypothetically, if it were to end up stabbing someone, it would be a freak accident," Bellatrix iterated.
"Right," said Madame Madidus. "The thing with that type of injury is that the dark artifact will have drawn energy from the victim's blood to perform the magic. That won't be helpful in the recovery process, especially if the artifact is prone to doing spells that require a lot of magic."
Bellatrix winced internally. It was a good thing that Harry seemed to be a very powerful wizard.
"The other thing is that dark magic artifacts can give people a dark magic infection of sorts," the drunk mediwitch informed Bellatrix.
"I've never heard of that," Bellatrix said disbelievingly.
Madam Madidus shrugged and signaled the barkeep for a mug of ale. "It is what it is. Someone injured in such a way as you have hypothetically described will suffer magical exhaustion for being drained to perform whatever magic the artifact attempted. They will probably get an infection from the physical injury. They will probably get a magical infection from the uncontrolled dark magic. Furthermore, the pure energy required to overcome the injury and resulting infections will also be draining. This person will probably get worse before they get better. In all honesty, even under the care of a professional hospital, the person has a fifty percent chance of dying."
Bellatrix felt the blood drain from her face. "I don't think I can take him to a hospital," she mumbled dejectedly.
"If he's a non-entity, taking him to a hospital can't hurt," Madame Madidus said sympathetically.
"He's not a non-entity," Bellatrix replied vaguely, wanting to know more about the stay-at-home option all while wondering whether she could risk taking Harry to the hospital. It was risky. Glamour charms would be useless, and all it took was for someone to observe within earshot of the wrong person that Harry looked like their old potions professor.
Madame Madidus nodded. "You'd better keep him away from St. Mungo's then. It's too easy for people of either persuasion to get in there and target their enemies. Here's what you do."
Madame Madidus then outlined a regimen for Bellatrix to follow in caring for the hypothetical patient. Bellatrix retrieved a small piece of parchment from her bag and took careful notes, grateful for the systematic directions given to her.
Madidus eventually finished. "You should probably stop at the bookstore and buy yourself some books," she advised. "Hypothetically, you could be sitting by this patient's bedside for a long while."
"Hypothetically speaking," Bellatrix observed, tucking away her notes.
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