Healer Studies Task #4: Floor 4; Spell Damage - Write about someone suffering from long term spell damage [Restriction; can not write about Lockhart or the Longbottoms.]
Puddlemere, BEATER 2: Write about a character suffering from amnesia (or relevant memory impairment). Additional prompts (quote) If he's dead I'll kill him. —Chas, Emmerdale. and (object) blanket
(i could never) forget about us
"She'll pull through, right?" The voice is familiar. It's a caring voice; gentle and aged well, and trying hard not to cry.
"Ginny is a tough one," another voice — this one rough, but equally distressed.
Both are intimately familiar, and yet Ginny can't quite place them. Her head hurts too much.
"Why would someone even think that throwing a curse at a Chaser mid-game is a good idea?" This one sounds both physically and mentally exhausted. As if they had being here over sleep last night.
"I do not have the slightest idea," another one responds, and the desperation is almost tangible.
She slowly figures out that these are the voices of her family.
Her parents and brothers, these are the ones she places first, and she feels so stupid when she does, because how could she forget?
(They do sound… older than she would expect.)
But her head hurts to much to think about that, hell, too much to even open her eyes.
She's clearly injured, so she should be cut some slack.
(She falls back asleep at that point.)
"You're no allowed to die, you hear me?" a girl's voice somehow both threatens and begs at once. The voice is just as familiar as the ones of her family had been, but Ginny can't place it either. This must be her best friend or something of that sort, though she does not sound like Luna at all. "I'll kill you if you do."
The voice sounds muffled, like the person in question is hiding her face in the blanket, and a slight pressure on Ginny's torso seems to prove that.
(Why does the torso feel like the end of her body? Where are her legs?)
The next time she becomes somewhat aware — she's not strong enough to open her eyes, not yet — the girl's voice is back again.
It's not Luna or even Hermione, no. It's a Slytherin. One of the Carrows, possibly?
She's not sure, and thinking hurts enough that Ginny is unconscious again before she figures it out.
(She does wonder where Harry is. Shouldn't he be by her side?)
The first thing Ginny sees when she opens her eyes is Hestia Carrow sitting down on the only chair in the room. A chair, that should belong to her parents or brothers, maybe Harry.
(She's not quite sure how she knows it's Hestia and not Flora, but she's certain in it.)
"Ginny! Thank Merlin, you're awake!" Carrow exclaims, with way too much relief for her scheme to be believable for as much as a second, even with Ginny's pounding head.
"What are you doing here?" Ginny spits out the question with as much force and disgust as she can muster, which, admittedly, is not all that much. "Where's Harry?"
For some reason Ginny doesn't understand, the girl actually looks hurt at that. "What do you mean?"
"I really don't see what's unclear about that," Ginny deadpans.
"Your questions aren't the thing that is confusing me, love," Hest—- Carrow replies.
Before Ginny can do anything more than frown, someone enters the room.
It takes her a moment to realize that it's one of the twins — George, he has these freckles that almost form a star on his right cheek — because not only does he look to be in his mid to late twenties — not the eighteen he should be — but because he is missing an ear.
(There's another thing. Fred is nowhere to be seen.)
"Gin Gin's awake!" he exclaims. "I'll have to send word to Mum immediately, if I don't want her to go mad."
"Thank Merlin you're here," Ginny states. "Can you make her leave? Where are the others, where's Harry?" Where's Fred? she doesn't ask, even though she wants to.
For some reason, every word seems to perplex her brother more and more. What has she said that's so confusing?
"He had to head back home to care for the twins, since Draco kind of has to be here now," Fred responds, but poses more questions than it answers. Then he turns to H—- Carrow. "Did you argue or something?"
"No," she answers, but then she reconsiders. "I don't think so? Frankly, I don't understand what's going on."
"Neither do I," Ginny bites back. "Last thing I know, I was walking around the Lake with Harry and now I'm here in what looks to be St. Mungo's and she's here and Harry's not and you're older and I am so confused."
It is only then that Ginny realizes another thing. Another thing she has no idea how she missed it so far.
"Where in Godric's name did my legs vanish to!?"
"I'm sorry, guys, but it looks like — in addition to the near complete destruction of her legs — Ginny doesn't remember anything past approximately her fifth year," Draco explains to the assembled Weasleys — official and unofficial; in other words Teddy, Harry, Luna, and Neville — and Hestia Carrow, Ginny's fiance.
He's just glad that his mother had agreed to take care of Aidan and Jamie for the day, that's not something they need to hear.
"So she doesn't remember me?" Teddy speaks up quietly.
"That's right," Hestia replies, and it's only because of his similar upbringing that he can see that she is holding back tears. "She certainly did not understand why I am here."
"It will all work out," Luna says confidently.
"I certainly hope so," Hestia mutters.
Draco excuses himself to get back to work and the last thing he sees is that Harry pulls Hestia into a comforting hug upon being allowed to.
He loves his husband.
Ginny wakes up once more, Carrow is in her room once again. She is sleeping on the chair, quite obviously having sat there for a while. Her hair is a downright mess — far from the perfectly straight cut she remembers from her time in Hogwarts.
(She's incredibly beautiful, an odd voice inside her suggests.
That voice clearly does not know what it's talking about.)
(Except it kind of does.)
"You're here. Again."
"I am," Hestia confirms.
(Why does she seem to default to Hestia?)
"Well, I don't like it."
Hesita stiffens. "I… I'll take my leave then."
"So you're my Healer?"
"It would appear to be so," Malfoy responds. It's the first time he's actually managed to be here while she's awake.
"That should mean you can explain what happened to my legs."
"I don't know how much you already know, so forgive me if I repeat information, since I will start at the beginning. Please at least try not to interrupt me. You were in a game for the Harpies — yes the Harpies," he adds before Ginny can actually ask.
The 'what did I just say, can't you listen?' is implied.
"Anyways, during the game, some idiot thought it would be a great idea to hit you with a modified version of the Oobliviate. I don't know what his motive was — that's the Auror's job to figure out — and if he bastardised it himself or if it's a malevolent curse I'm unaware of."
"Malevolent?"
"Dark. Harry pointed out that dark doesn't mean bad and we shouldn't say things like that. Kind of like certain… other terms." He doesn't have to say it fo Ginny to understand what he means.
"It sounds like Harry," Ginny states.
"It does," Malfoy agrees.
"I hear that you're together now?"
"Married, actually," he corrects; not icily like she would have expected, but in a way that just screams of love and pride.
Ginny can't even do anything but clutch her blanket at that.
For her, her memories with Harry might be recent, for him, however, it's been eight and a half years.
"So the curse?" she prompts instead.
"We're not quite sure of the effects, or even if it was intentional. After you were hit, you fell, and no one managed to catch you or slow you down in time — I think the Aurors are also looking into that, but I could be wrong. Either way, you completely smashed your legs and something about the curse prevents our usual techniques from working. We're trying to figure out a way to either remove it or at least find a way around it, but so far it looks like that might take a while."
Ginny swallows. "Alright."
"Why do you keep coming back here?" Ginny questions. "Why, when I have done nothing but reject you?"
"Because I love you," Carrow states as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. She's playing with a ring as she says so, too, and Ginny really doesn't like the implications of that.
(Only that she does. Very much so.)
"Yeah, sure, because that sounds believable. I don't even remember talking to you outside of the Slug Club. And while I'm told that my memory is almost a decade out of date, I don't think things would change that much."
"Really? Even after hearing about Harry and Draco."
"Please, if you tell me you did not see their pining from a mile away, I will call you out on your bullshit."
"Right.," Hestia pauses. "You thought that Harry is poly."
"Unless it's confirmed otherwise, I still think so. Harry isn't the type to play with people's feelings."
Hestia nods. "You're right."
After a beat passes, she sighes, gathers her things, stands up, and moves to the door. "I won't return, if you don't want me to."
She lingers in the door for a moment and before Ginny knows, she's asking "Carrow?"
The other girl turns back around, clearly hopeful. "Yes?"
"You can come back, if you want, I guess," Ginny says, as flatly as physically possible.
Her face lights up just a little. More than Ginny had ever expected to see from a Slytherin, but not as much as her own would. "I would love that."