Ucky Medicine
by PadfootBlack4Ever
Ginny sat nervously in a chair beside the hospital bed. She stared fearfully at the body laying under the covers and hoped that he would be okay. She leaned forward slightly in her chair and reached out to hold his hand that was on top of the blankets. Letting her thumb slide back and forth across the back of his hand, she thought back to what had happened.
Before her mind wandered too far, a nurse entered the room. "Mrs. Potter?" she called to Ginny. Ginny still had to smile at being referred to this way. Letting go of Harry's hand, Ginny stood up and walked to the nurse who was standing in the doorway. She held out a small goblet which Ginny took. "Make sure Mr. Potter drinks this when he wakes up," she explained to the now wife of Harry Potter as of a couple days ago. Ginny nodded and walked back over to Harry's bed. She put the medicine on the table and held Harry's hand again. As she did so, Harry let out a groan of pain. She looked at his face and saw it contorted in pain.
"Harry," Ginny whispered and gripped his hand tightly. Harry's eyes fluttered open and he blinked a couple times before his eyes found and focused on his wife.
"Ginny," he said giving her a weak smile. He then winced as though this action caused him pain. "What happened?" he asked slowly. Ginny thought about lying, but when she decided to tell the truth, she wondered how bluntly she should phrase what had happened.
"Well," she started slowly, still deciding which way to take this conversation, "do you know where we are?" she settled on asking.
"We're- oh, we're on our honeymoon," he said smiling at her.
"Yeah, we're on our honeymoon. And do you know what you did on our honeymoon, Harry dear?" Ginny asked smiling, but Harry could tell that she was getting at something specific. She was excellent at masking her voice and he couldn't tell exactly what her tone meant at the moment.
Harry blushed suddenly as he thought of the things Ginny and he had done so far on their honeymoon. Ginny noticed immediately and snapped at him, "Not that! I mean do you remember what got you in the hospital?!"
"You mean it wasn't that?" Harry asked timidly.
"No!" Ginny yelled as she closed her eyes and placed her palm on her forehead while shaking her head.
"Oh, good," Harry said letting out a sigh of relief. He paused for a moment before adding, "So why am I in the hospital?"
Ginny sighed and looked carefully at Harry. "You accidentally ran into a pole," she said simply. Harry glanced at her expecting her to go on.
"And that was all?" he wondered. Ginny shook her head.
"No, that was what caused you to take a couple steps backwards in pain." Harry again looked at her expecting to hear more.
"So…" Harry prompted her.
"So you took a few steps backwards in the direction of a staircase."
Harry then glanced at her fearfully. "Our room was on the 20th floor. What floor exactly did this happen on?"
"This would have happened on the 20th. And you fell down all those stairs. And you screamed like a little girl all the way down," Ginny said answering all of his next questions before he could ask. "And yes, there were lots of other people around," she answered seeing the look on his face.
Harry was left speechless. "I-I-wow. Really?" he asked making sure she was telling the truth.
Ginny glared at him, "Harry, do ya feel like you just fell down twenty flights of stairs?"
Harry scratched the top of his head nervously, "Yeah, I suppose I do."
"By the way, you have to take this. Nurse said so," Ginny explained nodding in the direction of the goblet she had taken from the nurse. Harry glanced at the goblet then stared at her wide eyed.
"Does it taste bad?"
"How should I know? Just drink it and get it over with. You'll probably feel a lot better."
Harry nervously gripped the goblet and lifted it to his lips. He glanced at his wife over the rim and said, "It doesn't smell very good."
"Will you just drink it!" she said getting impatient with him. Harry did as he was told and poured the liquid into his mouth. Ginny could immediately tell that the taste was unpleasant as Harry grimaced when he swallowed the liquid.
"It's ucky!" he said with his eyes squeezed shut as if this would help get rid of the awful taste in his mouth. Ginny stared at him for a moment before bursting out laughing.
"I'm sorry," she said through bursts of laughter, "did you just say it was 'ucky'? How old are you, Harry Potter?"
"Shut up," he snapped at her. "I don't see you drinking it," he added moodily. He was still grimacing and was moving his tongue around a rather lot as if that would help.
"Harry, dear, I'm not the one who walked into a pole then fell down twenty flights of stairs." Ginny received a glare for saying this but she reached forward and gripped his hand. He smiled reluctantly at her.
She held onto his hand until he fell back asleep. Ginny smiled at him and softly shook her head. The nurse checked back in to make sure that Harry was doing okay and that he had taken his medicine. Ginny almost snorted as she thought back to how Harry had described the medicine. 'Ucky medicine,' she thought. 'That's ridiculous.' She looked over and saw that the nurse hadn't taken the goblet with her when she left. Glancing around nervously as though she was about to do something she wasn't allowed, she picked up the goblet. She held it just under her nose and sniffed slightly at it.
"Ugh, it is ucky!"
Ginny didn't see, but Harry smirked from where he was laying. He refrained from saying 'I told you so,' because he didn't want to be in any more pain than he already was in. And Ginny would hurt him for saying that no matter how true it was.
AN: Hello! This story is based on an idea from Wondering What Breakfast Is (Julia). We decided to take the same starting idea and each of us would kind of write our own take on it. For this story, all I was given to start was "Ucky Medicine (Harry and Ginny)" so this is what I came up with. I haven't read Julia's take on the idea yet but I urge you to read that as well since she's an excellent author. Let me know what you think! This was my first non-SBHG fic.
PadfootBlack4Ever