A Lot of Words for a Little Girl
Remus was sitting in the waiting room, nervously pulling at the tie he was having to wear on this hot August afternoon. Ophelia was playing in the play area in the St. Mungo’s Childrens Ward waiting room.
Some of the other children were playing a card game, or talking to each other, but Ophelia wasn’t talking to anyone, not even the little doll she was rocking in her arms.
‘Stop panicking Remus,’ said Mrs Diggory who was sitting next to him, ‘it will be fine.’
Mrs Diggory worked as a healer for St. Mungos in a different ward but had agreed to come with Remus and Ophelia for support, and also to provide a second professional opinion. Remus had booked an appointment to find out what was actually wrong with his daughter, why she would never talk to anyone that she didn’t actually live with.
‘Ophelia Lupin?’ asked a young healer coming into the waiting room.
‘That’s us,’ said Remus jumping up.
‘Come on princess,’ said Remus picking Ophelia up, and following the healer and Mrs Diggory into the office.
‘Good morning,’ said a slightly flustered man, with a distinctively familiar voice, ‘I’m here to see an Ophelia?’
‘Tristan?’ choked Remus seeing the dark haired boy that had looked up to Remus all those years ago.
‘Tristan Fawcett?’
Tristan looked up, and his mouth dropped open.
‘Remus?’ he gasped, ‘Remus Lupin?’
Remus nodded and chuckled as Tristan shook his hand vigorously.
‘I can’t believe I’m seeing you again,’ stammered Tristan, ‘it’s been what, four years?’
‘Four years,’ nodded Remus, ‘this is my daughter Ophelia.’
‘Hi Ophelia,’ said Tristan smiling gently.
Ophelia waved nervously at the stranger.
‘How old are you, Ophelia?’
Ophelia tried to hide behind Remus’ legs, even though Remus was sitting down.
‘She’s two,’ said Remus picking her up, and sitting Ophelia on his lap.
‘She was two last month.’
‘So, what have you been up to, apart from becoming a father?’ asked Tristan sincerely interested.
‘I’m in teaching,’ said Remus, ‘I run the Ottery St Catchpole primary school, we’ve got seven students at the moment of various ages, but there are quite a few who aren’t old enough for school yet, this little one included,’ he beamed looking at Ophelia.
‘Ottery St. Catchpole?’ asked Tristan surprised, ‘you don’t have a Felicity do you?’
‘Yes,’ said Mrs Diggory, ‘she’s Cedric’s best friend.’
‘She’s my niece,’ said Tristan, ‘Callum’s my older brother.’
‘I presume you’ve met Katia then?’ smirked Tristan.
Mrs Diggory looked terrified, and Remus just smiled.
‘My sister in law,’ he chuckled, ‘a force to be reckoned with.’
‘Now then young lady,’ said Tristan turning his attention to Ophelia, ‘what can we do for you today?
‘You don’t seem to be covered in brightly coloured spots, or floating like a balloon like half my other patients.’
This made Ophelia smile slightly, despite herself.
Tristan winked at her friendly.
‘Well that’s the thing Healer Fawcett,’ started Mrs Diggory.
‘Please call me Tristan,’ said Tristan shrugging.
‘Tristan,’ she muttered.
‘We don’t think it’s a magical illness, it’s not a jinx or a hex, it’s not even a curse.’
‘What’s the problem then?’ asked Tristan.
‘She won’t talk,’ said Remus.
‘Well, she will talk, when she’s at home, but only with people she lives with. If anyone else is in the room, you won’t get a peep out of her.’
‘Hmm,’ muttered Tristan trying to sift through his desk for something.
‘Do you think Ophelia suffers from separation anxiety?’ asked Tristan.
‘Does she get upset if you leave at all Remus?’
‘Yes of course,’ said Remus, ‘but I’m her father, I’m the only parent she’s got. Of course, she misses me, it’s normal.’
‘Or it could be a symptom,’ muttered Tristan under his breath.
‘A symptom of what?’ gasped Remus thinking his daughter was ill.
‘One of two things,’ said Tristan, ‘probably both. I need to ask some more questions first. Does Ophelia play with other children?’
‘She plays with Ginny and Luna,’ said Mrs Diggory.
‘Does she play like other children?’ asked Stefan, ‘join in lively games.’
‘No,’ said Remus, ‘she usually sits those out.’
‘I thought she might,’ said Tristan finally finding the two pamphlets he needed.
‘I think I might have a diagnosis for your daughter. She has selective mutism.’
‘What?’ asked Remus.
‘Of course!’ breathed Mrs Diggory surprised she hadn’t realised earlier.
‘Selective mutism,’ he repeated. ‘It means that Ophelia can only talk around certain people, usually the child’s household, and a few very close friends.’
‘It’s a very severe social anxiety issue, she physically can’t talk in front of most people as she is scared to.’
‘Will she grow out of it?’ asked Remus.
‘It depends on the child,’ said Tristan, ‘but sometimes no.’
‘Will she be able to go to Hogwarts?’ asked Remus holding onto his daughter tightly.
‘Arrangements would have to be made of course,’ said Tristan, ‘but I don’t see why not.’
Remus gave a deep sigh of relief, at least she could learn magic.
‘You said there were two diagnoses Tristan,’ reminded Mrs Diggory.
‘Oh of course,’ said Tristan passing the other pamphlet.
‘This often accompanies or leads to Autism, which is also a social anxiety issue.’
‘What is Autism then?’
‘Well your daughter may act quite anti-social or get scared or nervous than other children. She will probably also have some visibly strange habits. Some adults with autism even rock themselves to calm down, it’s called self calming. It’s a perfectly manageable condition, just means she’ll be different.’
‘Like she won’t already be different with the mutism,’ sighed Remus.
‘Selective Mutism,’ said Mrs Diggory putting an arm around Remus.
‘It could be worse,’ said Mrs Diggory gently, ‘she could be ill. You haven’t done anything wrong, your daughter is just nervous, and very special, but now we know that we can do something about it.’
‘Ok,’ muttered Remus.
‘Sorry about all the bad news,’ said Tristan biting his lip.
‘Hey, it’s ok,’ said Remus shaking Tristan’s hand, ‘you’ve been great, lifted a huge weight off my shoulders.’
‘Hey princess,’ said Remus crouching down, ‘do you want some strawberry ice cream.’
Ophelia nodded and gave Remus a huge hug.
‘Come on then little one,’ said Remus picking her up, and taking her home.
That evening, all the parents including the Longbottom’s and the Lovegood’s came to a meeting once the children had all been put to bed. They didn’t have long, and an alarm could go off at any moment as a warning that a child was out of bed, or there was someone out of bed who shouldn’t be.
‘So, what’s up Remus?’ asked Frank who wanted to get home to bed as soon as possible.
‘Well Cassandra and I took Ophelia into St Mungo’s today,’ said Remus.
‘Is she ok?’ gasped Pandora.
‘What’s wrong?’ asked Mrs Fawcett looking terrified for the little girl. Mrs Fawcett may act very prim and proper, as if she didn’t feel any emotions, but she did have a heart of gold.
‘She’s fine,’ said Mrs Diggory, ‘we saw your brother Callum.’
‘Oh you saw Tristan?’ asked Mr Fawcett, ‘he’s good!’
‘Ophelia has Selective Mutism,’ said Remus, ‘and possibly something called Autism.’
‘That’s a lot of words for such a little girl,’ flinched Lyall.
‘What it all comes down to,’ said Mrs Diggory, ‘is a very, very shy and nervous little girl. She loves us all very much, and the children especially, if she doesn’t always show it by talking or acting like others, it doesn’t mean she doesn’t love us all.’
‘So she’s too scared to talk in front of most of us?’ asked Mr Diggory incredulously.
‘Yes,’ nodded Remus.
‘But that’s ridiculous,’ said Mr Weasley.
‘None of us would ever hurt her,’ agreed Mr Diggory.
‘That’s beside the point,’ said Hope, ‘now we know what the problem is, we can deal with it.’
There was a loud sneeze from the next room, and Remus went through to the corridor, and sure enough found Stefan sat on the steps with Harry and Ophelia.
‘Hi Remus,’ said Stefan biting his lip, worried he’d be in trouble.
‘Get to bed,’ sighed Remus, ‘the meeting’s over anyway.’
Stefan took Harry up to bed, and Remus picked Ophelia up and took her back into the sitting room.
‘Sorry about that,’ said Remus, ‘we had some eavesdroppers.’
‘We would have told them in the morning anyway,’ shrugged Lyall.
‘We should go check on our own,’ said Mrs Weasley hugging all the Lupin’s goodbye.
Remus carried Ophelia up to her room, and tucked her back into bed.
‘Why Daddy sad?’ asked Ophelia as Remus tucked her in.
‘Daddy’s not sad,’ said Remus trying to smile.
‘He’s just worried if you’ll have a normal future, a full life.’
‘I’ll have you,’ said Ophelia simply.
‘Yeah,’ said Remus kissing her on the forehead and getting the night light, ‘you’ll have me.’