In an isolated system entropy can only increase

Shylock liked control, but whether he was going to be good at handling it was something yet to be seen.  

"I keep a food diary," he said.  "Actually, I have two.  One for Monroe to check up on me and the other for myself.  Mine's just full of wank, really."

"Otherwise, I don't eat regular meals.  I snack a lot, but I don't care much what I snack on.  I don't calorie count or anything like that."  

"I drink a lot of smoothies, 'cause, you know it's kind of like food and drink in one."  

"I avoid eating anywhere where I feel like people might watch me.  Family dinners and events and things.  Unless I absolutely can't get out of it."

"And obviously, I indulge in that other stuff that I expect you'll have me in front of a psychiatrist about," he said.  "When all else fails."

"I'm fine with the snacking," Robert said.  He prefered Shylock to snack rather than to eat meals because it was better for Shylock's physiology. "Actually, what you're doing, for now, is better for you than trying to force yourself to eat meals. I'd rather you not try to please someone else at a big meal right now. 

"There are a lot of good things you're already doing, so I'd like to build on those.  If the diary you keep for yourself isn't helpful, don't do it.  The smoothies are a smart thing, too. My first concern is to make sure you're geting the nutrition that you need, not necessarily calories, and I'd rather do that in whatever format feels familiar and easy for you.


"There are a couple of different potions that you can add in small doses to your smoothies that, when taken properly, will ensure you get the vitamins and minerals you need. The downside to them is that they don't add any calories or weight, but I'd rather not focus on that today anyway. The most popular one is colorless and odorless. It needs to be added 4-6 times a day to a beverage. 


"There is another, though, that is much more concentrated. It only needs to be added a couple of times a day. It has a caramel coloring to it, and it has a signficant sweet taste to it. Some patients don't choose it because they feel the use is more limited. They get a bit cheesed if they try to toss it into a pint and it buggars a perfectly decent ale, not that I advise that in the first place.

"You can try one or both of them if you like and see if it helps. It would certainly improve some overall systems functioning. Or--the other option we have is for me to assess where your systems are actually functioning at and to taper a potion that is more custom designed for your particular needs.


"If we do that, though, we'd have to monitor that because over time, with slow diet changes, you should feel better, and the potion would need to be tweaked from time to time to meet your needs. That choice is certainly yours, though."


He thought for a moment. "How open minded are you to new sorts of snack foods? The reason I ask is that I've dealt with several other folks, and, like you, they did better with snacking than meals. I found a chef that developed a number of snacks that were jam packed with the nutrition they needed in smaller amounts.  He's made salty snacks, crackers, cookies, candies, basically any number of alternatives.  If you're open to it, he could taper some of those recipes for some samples for you to try.

"Can't promise it will please your family if they think the snacking is what we're focusing on, but they're not my concern."

That actually brought the smile back to Shylock's lips. It seemed Lupin had somehow got the wrong end of the stick.

As the man naively? No, probably not naively. Blindly. As he blindly went on to explain about potions and keeping Shylock healthy, Shylock felt a shiver of anticipation as his skin suddenly became hypersensitive.

He sat up straighter.

No. Sh¡t. No, no, no, no, no.

"It's all fine," Shylock found he couldn't moderate his voice into its usual apathetic tone. "I don't mind being monitored."

Even to his own ears, he sounded unreasonably excited at this prospect.

"Will you need me to take notes?"

Robert watched the first glimmer of excitement come to Ashcroft. If Ashcroft believed he didn't see some familiarity in the look, then Ashcroft underestimated him.  Robert merely kept a bit of a stonefaced look and remained matter of fact. He was now at the unpleasant part of this business. Once he'd gotten past the window dressing, then there was the matter of dealing with the darkness within Ashcroft. Much as he could provide medical support, he could not fight Ashcroft's inner battle for him. All Robert could do was to provide support for his body's needs.


"Good, then," he said, continuing, his words careful and deliberate. "Because, as I said, this is an agreement between us, between you and St. Mungos. We'll do our best, but there are parts of this that are in your hands if it will work. 


"We'll do some baseline assessments, and then monitor things in your follow ups. That means your weight, how you're absorbing the nutrition or not, how the potion functions in your body, or whatever we can offer for you to try to be as physically healthy as possible.

"As you said earlier, though. This is a disorder, and I can't change your thinking for you. That's not my job.  I'm sure you know as well as I do that nutrition potion is a small part of what needs to happen if you want to do this correctly. It does nothing to reduce your risk of problems if you find you can't manage to follow it, and I'm sure you already know compliance is easier said than done. And I'm equally sure you know that compliance is critical. If that becomes difficult for you, we'll look at what we need to do to change directions," Robert had chosen his words carefully. "And you know I have to do this set of instructions.

"The psychological component will need to be managed by a qualified mental health provider because that's not my area. My job is to try to help you repair your body. Not the whole package that goes with it. We can refer you to a provider for that if you don't have one.

"Now, what questions do you have for me before we do the baseline assessments?"

Fortunately, it didn't seem that the healer had noticed anything out of the ordinary. Shylock was a little surprised; ever since he'd caught that hex in the eye his physiology betrayed him at every turn. Certainly enough for a healer to pick up on it.

Lupin began speaking about an agreement between himself and the hospital, which barely gave Shylock time to regain his composure before he was off on another tangent about assessments and follow ups.

The part about how the potion functioned while he was on it sounded interesting, and he regretted that they couldn't get to that part immediately.

The rest, though, he had little interest in and only listened well enough to understand what would be expected of him.

The fact was, Shylock didn't really think he had a proper eating disorder and thus didn't wish to have his thinking changed.

But he would visit this psychiatrist if that would make Lupin content. And if it would get him access to more medical testing. This was turning out to be far more fun than he'd anticipated.

"You sound like you have it all under control," Shylock replied cheerfully.

"When will the baseline assessments be?"

"Those are fairly simple, actually," he replied. "I don't know what assessments you've done before, but I gather my information perhaps a bit differently.  I work mainly through touch.  Not that I can't use the standard methods, and I will use some of those However, touch, for me, is just more accurate. If you will permit...."

The request was more rhetorical for Robert by this point.  Since Ashcroft had moved a couple steps away, Robert got up and went over to him and touched Ashcroft's forehead for a moment to make his assessment.


The moment his fingertips made contact with Ashcroft, he felt an uneasy dark sensation.  It always registered with him the same way.  It felt like ice in his veins.  The darker the energy, the colder it was.  Ashcroft had been exposed to more dark energy than was healthy for anyone.  It struck Robert that part of the issue was an imbalance between normal bodily functioning and Ashcroft's magical system.  He'd seen such things cause all sorts of different symptoms. Everyone experienced that imbalance a bit differently.


He could certainly feel the malnutrition and how it affected Ashcroft's body, the things he expected to find. What he did find odd was that it didn't feel to him that some of Ashcrofts bodily systems were "hardwired" like they needed to be. 


He withdrew his hand and looked at Ashcroft. 


"You have secrets, Mr. Ashcroft," he said. "Some dark things here.  Care to share?"

"Touch?"

It wasn't that Shylock objected to people touching him, simply that he doubted he'd get any gratification from such a method. He'd known magical diagnostics would be far less invasive than muggle ones, but at least with the usual methods, he'd be on the receiving end of some sensation.

However, before he could voice any real concern, Lupin had placed a hand on his brow while Shylock stared at him in a mix of alarm and resentment.

It was as he'd thought. Whatever the healer was doing, Shylock could feel none of it. Finally the hand was removed and Shylock turned his face away so Lupin would be left speaking to one devastatingly sharp cheekbone.

"Everyone has their dark secrets, sir," he replied. "Isn't that why you're sending me to a psychiatrist?"

Ashlock's attempt at denial was at least an effort, transparent as it was.  Nice try, he thought. Didn't work, but it was a nice try all the same.


"Really?" Robert cast him a trace of wry smile.  "Let me tell you how this works.  I'm not a seer, but I can tell, by touch, whether your magical systems have been damaged by dark magic. Its much the same as I can feel the presence of a closed fracture or some organ dysfunction.  


"White light presents itself with one sort of vibration that I can feel. Dark magic presents itself as a polar opposite.  I can also tell whether that level of dark magic is something your body is capable of producing..." he hesitated deliberately, focusing in on Ashcroft. "or not. Some of the damage in your magical system is old. You would not have been even remotely capable of producing that sort of powerful magic as the age of those damages, whether it had been white magic or dark either one."


He wasn't intending to make Ashcroft uncomfortable, but the young man was uncomfortable to some extent when he arrived.  


"I'm not necessarily interested in causing you more pain," he said. "But someone used dark magic, and your body--particularly your magical system is still paying the price. If I am to help you, I need to know more than I know now. Not to stand in judgement of what happened. I don't think you're here for my opinion on what happened in your past."

"I've been my sister's keeper since I was nine years old," Shylock told the wall woodenly. "She's not a Death Eater but only because she doesn't like sharing her toys."

"I'm the same age as her so I used to get her out of trouble when she was careless," he explained. "Or make sure her trouble affected less people. Or, well, she's related to me, sir. She's not stupid. She knows how to manipulate people. I had a bit of a reputation at Hogwarts."

He turned his gaze back to Lupin, so the man could see he wasn't lying.

"I can only imagine that all the crap Destrey made me pull must have built up over time. I certainly haven't performed any dark magic. Or had any performed on me."

Ashcroft didn't appear to be used to such confessions.  Robert did understand that. He didn't ever reveal much about himself either, not on a personal level anyway.  It was something he'd developed long ago for his own self preservation reasons.  A year older than his adventure seeking brother, Robert had felt the need to try to rescue Remus all too often.  Sometimes it worked, and more often it had not.

It hadn't been enough to save him from the curse. Nor had it been enough to save him from being murdered in the second war. He didn't have the same experiences as Ashcroft did, but what he was saying had a ring of truth to it.

"Thank you," Robert said.  "I'm sure you've probably figured this out, but because all our bodily systems, including our psychology,..." he said intending to be just ever so slightly pointed, "are interconnected, it is possible that, as you said, what you experienced could have created this, whether it a number of incidents or a singular incident. At this point, its hard for me to tell.

"Likewise, it is possible that the damage could affect your magical abilities--perhaps how much magic you find you're able to do, which sorts of spells you have a proclivity to or perhaps do not. I've seen it happen.  I've seen what someone's natural abilities become limited by injury. 

"Some damage to the magical system is reversible. Some is not. Sometimes, it becomes a matter of developing some medical management plan to help you maximize your own comfort and functioning.

"What other physical symptoms are you having, besides the food things? And--what would you--not anyone else--like to see happen in the long run?"