Version: 1.0 (2006); 1.1 (2012)
(A/N: This is another chapter the story has been driving towards. :)
Chapter 10: All Aboard?
Sunday the 1st of September was a happy but chaotic day at The Burrow. Most of the teens had packed all but their last minute things the night before, the exception being Ron. So while he ran around after an early breakfast to get all his stuff together, the others sat downstairs with their trunks and chatted eagerly about the upcoming year.
At a little before nine, Tonks arrived in a large car, which she said it was for security purposes. Harry opened the door to allow Hedwig to fly to school and then he was ready to go. Tonks pulled out her wand and shrunk all the trunks, and Hedwig's cage too, to half size to make packing the boot of the car easier. That gave Harry an idea; after all, he did know the enlarging spell.
"Tonks, can you shrink them down smaller?"
"Sure Harry, but why? They're easy enough to handle now."
"Well, yeah, but if you shrink it down to be small enough to fit in my pocket, I won't have to bother with carrying them through the station, onto the train, and find space for them. It could stay there until I got to my room where I can enlarge it back." He thought that plan sounded logical.
"Sure, if that's what you want. Need anything out of it before I do?" She enlarged it back to normal size.
He thought about that, then opened his trunk to pull out one school robe that he'd need once he got there. That was easy enough to carry. "Can you go ahead and shrink the cage? I can put that in the trunk first, then I only have one thing to worry about."
So Tonks cleaned the cage with Scourgify, and then shrank it down. Finally she shrank the trunk until it was the size of a walnut, which Harry picked up and put into the pocket of his jeans.
The others saw what Harry had done with his trunk and decided it was a good thing and had Tonks shrink their trunk too. With that out of the way, the five of them plus Mrs. Weasley, got into the back of the car that had an enlarged interior, and they drove off to King's Cross to meet the Hogwarts Express.
When they got to the station, they saw Mad-Eye near the magical column entrance. He was securing the outside of the portal. When he saw them, he waved Molly over to talk to her. The teens knew the routine so they followed Tonks through. On the wizarding train platform, Tonks thought it all looked all right, so she sent them onward to board the train while she stood by the portal on this side.
Ron and Hermione walked side-by-side talking about the upcoming prefect meeting, while Harry paused for a moment to grab Ginny's hand. He saw her smile at his obvious public display of their relationship, before he heard a snigger from behind him. Turning he saw Tonks making the noise. "You two are so cute together."
Harry couldn't decide what to say to her, but Ginny responded for him. "Thanks Tonks. I know I like it." Her boyfriend blushed slightly but kept silent.
"Go ahead you two, you're friends are getting way ahead."
The couple turned and started walking towards the train. Without telling the other, both were keeping an eye out for Dean Thomas, wondering how that meeting was going to go. Near the halfway point to the train, Harry saw a handful of Death Eaters suddenly appear spread out in a semi-circle around the edge of the platform in front of them. The slight stumble and no cracking sound made Harry think they had Portkeyed in. His wand came out and he pushed Ginny slightly to the side as he jumped a bit himself so as not to be a standing target. Sure enough red jets of light went streaming towards where they had been.
Harry erected a shield and started trying to shoot back at the Death Eaters all the while staying on the move. As he turned and scanned for a safer place to be, rather than in the middle, he noticed that he was encircled by at least twenty Death Eaters, but he didn't have time to count. He also noticed that Ginny was moving around, but she seemed to stay near him and they formed a "V" to protect the other's back.
As he shot another stunner, he turned to their blind side to see a purple spell coming for Ginny. He jumped to the side and flicked his wand to try to interpose his shield, but he missed and the spell hit him on the left side of his chest and traveled to his side. It was like liquid fire and he was in agony. He didn't remember screaming but he must have because as he hit the ground on his back, he saw Ginny turn and lunge for him. A few seconds later, his chest began to hurt with a completely new pain.
As Ginny was firing spells and hexes as fast as she could, her shield was taking a beating from all the spells raining on it, and it was about to fail again she was sure. Suddenly she felt like she was tripping for no reason then she seemed to hit something she couldn't see. While trying to recover her balance, she heard a scream in her right ear. Turning that way, she saw Harry hit the ground and realized it had been his scream she'd heard; then she saw his chest. Not knowing what else to do, she dropped her wand in panic as she dove for him, skinning her hands and ripping a hole in one knee of her jeans as she hit the rough platform. All she could think to do was to slap her hand directly over the hole in his body that was spurting out blood almost like a fountain.
"Harry," she cried out, "no, you can't die and leave me; I love you and want you to stay with me!"
She saw him look at her with his glasses askew and weakly heard him say, "I love you too Ginny; I always will..." before she watched him pass out. Not caring about herself anymore, she put her head down and started to cry big tears that clouded her vision. She never saw the brief glow of light under her hand; nor did she see the golden dome form over the two of them.
When the fight had started, Tonks went into full Auror mode. Her shield came up, stunners were flying at every white masked figure she saw, and all clumsiness left her. The first few were easy, they didn't know she was there. However, a few saw her and then she was kept busy. As she got rid of the last one near her, she heard a scream and looked over in time to see Harry hit the ground, then Ginny diving for him. Several spells went over their heads where they had been standing. She knew the next set would aim at their position on the ground and they wouldn't be able to dodge. Only one option presented itself to the Auror though and it would be tough.
Dropping to her knees to make herself smaller, she cast a dome shield over the two students and then she did her best to hold it as long as she could, praying that help would come quickly. The spell was hard enough to do on your own person, but to cast it at a distance was very draining and usually an act of desperation, which she felt. It also left her unprotected.
Watching two spells hit her shield and bounce off, she wondered how much longer she could hold it when she saw nearly a dozen Aurors Apparate onto the platform just as Mad-Eye came through the portal. At their arrival, the Death Eaters who were still standing all disappeared within a few seconds. Letting the shield dissipate, she struggled to her feet and ran a little wobbly to her godson and his girlfriend, who had a bloody right hand pressed to his chest and two wands in her left hand now.
Through her tears, Ginny saw a fuzzy Tonks run over and look down on them. "Tonks, he's hurt so bad, there's so much blood I can hardly hold it in!"
Seeing Harry down like that in a large pool of blood with a highly distressed Ginny who was usually unflappable, Tonks decided he had to have help now and she didn't care about all the rules she was about to break. Seeing Kingsley Shacklebolt not too far away, she shouted at him, "I'm taking Harry to St. Mungo's." Conjuring a piece of rope, she turned it into a Portkey. Shoving one end of it into Ginny's hand with the wands, she gripped the rope and Harry too while she activated the Portkey.
Landing in the middle of the emergency area of St. Mungo's, Tonks screamed, "I need some help now!"
An older healer who was walking nearby came over immediately. "What's wrong?"
Tonks looked up at him as she continued to kneel by Harry. "He's been hit by what looked like a cutting spell and he's lost a lot of blood." The Healer called a colleague and a nurse over so the four of them could carry Harry to a room while Ginny kept her hand over the wound.
The younger healer was putting blood replenishment potion down Harry's throat, while the older one worked on the wound. Harry's T-shirt was already in shreds so it was just torn away. The line down his side was easy to fix, but when the healer had Ginny move her hand, he couldn't heal the wound. The blood was still pumping out of his chest so the man quickly put Ginny's hand back, which did temporary hold the blood in.
The older healer turned to the younger one. "Most interesting, Chester."
"Never seen anything like it, Lawrence."
Ginny and Tonks both looked at them with fear for Harry. The older healer looked up to Tonks, but before he could say anything, the door to the room burst open. Tonks' Auror instincts kicked back in and she shot a shield spell out so fast the person who was trying to run in hit the shield and bounced back out.
The younger healer turned to the nurse, "Close the door and make sure no one comes in." Tonks took the shield down so the nurse could leave and close the door after herself.
Only Tonks had recognized the intruder as she'd bounced out: Molly Weasley.
Trying again, the healer introduced himself. "I'm Lawrence Davies, and this is Healer Chester Gray. This is a very interesting wound. The less damaged part did seem like a Cutting Curse had caused it, but are you sure that's what it was?"
"No Healer Davies, I didn't see the spell," Tonks told him. "Did you Ginny?" The girl gave a weak no, still deathly afraid for Harry.
"Hmm, I'll have to think about this then."
Tonks was forceful. "Does he have the time with the wound unhealed?"
"That's part of what's so interesting. It seems that as long as this young lady keeps her hand there, his body can deal with it." He did yet another diagnostic spell on Harry. "Same as before: a few bruises and minor cuts are all that's there, except for the large hole in his chest. It just missed the heart, so he was fortunate there. The blood is coming from a major artery there, but as long as she keeps pressure on it, that closes the hole in the damaged artery and so the rest of his body gets blood. For some reason, the standard healing spell that should fix that doesn't work."
He also looked at Ginny and realized she was hurt too. Doing a diagnostic spell revealed mostly superficial damages; still he healed her cuts while he considered the problem. "There, all better young lady?"
"Ginny, Ginny Weasley" she had found most of her voice now. "Yes thank you; well, except for my hand, it still throbs."
"But I just healed it," he protested.
"No, my other one, the one on Harry."
"Really! Hmm, I wonder. Chester, get a sterile pad; let's try something." When the clean pad was brought he held it near her hand on Harry. "Now Ginny, here's what we're going to do. I want you to lift your hand and then I'm going to put this pad on the wound, and I want you to use your other hand to hold the pad down, understand?" Ginny nodded. Healer Gray looked at his colleague like he'd lost it. "I know Chester," he said, "but do you have a better idea? She can't keep her hand there forever." Chester didn't, so they tried it.
In the new arrangement, blood only trickled out of Harry's wound. "Good enough for the moment," Davies said. "Chester, more blood replenishment potion for him." Looking at Ginny's hand, he found that it indeed had a major gash in it. He'd suspected beforehand that she had no wound there at all and she had only been feeling Harry's blood pump. He cleaned the hand with a quick spell, and then tried the standard healing spell on her hand and it too failed. Fortunately for her, that wound bled very slowly, so it was not life threatening.
The two healers looked at each other. Gray only shrugged, but Davies looked very thoughtful.
"Well?" Tonks finally asked.
"To be honest, all the standard healing textbooks would give up at this point."
"That's NOT an option!" It was Ginny not Tonks that had shouted the objection.
Healer Davies looked at her not bothered in the least by her outburst, though Gray's look showed he thought her to be rude. "I know. I won't give up because I know who this is and though I don't believe everything I read in the paper, I know enough about him to know that he could be the Chosen One. If he is, I want to do my part by helping him to be able to do his part." That gave the older healer shocked looks from the other three, but no one said anything.
The healer picked up Ginny's hand again and reexamined it very closely. Looking at her and yet looking through her, he spoke as if far away, "I wonder..." Coming back into the present, he refocused on Ginny's face. "Do you have your wand?" She nodded and carefully reached down to her pocket and pulled two wands out, one of which she handed to Tonks, who recognized it as Harry's.
"Good, for the moment, lay your wand on the bed next to him. I want to teach you a spell." She was puzzled by this, but did as she was told. Davies gave her the trigger word and showed her the motion, as well as having her wave her hand several times until he was satisfied. "Pick up your wand, and when you're ready, I want you to pull back the pad with your left hand and then do the spell. I know it will be hard to do when you see the blood coming out, but you must ignore it and do the spell as quickly as you can. Understand?"
Ginny nodded, but Tonks had a question. "I trust Ginny, but since she's never done this spell before, what happens if she gets it wrong?"
The healer smiled. "That's one of the beauties of this spell. If it's done wrong, nothing happens; no buffalos as Flitwick used to say in class." Turning back to Ginny he did his best to give a comforting smile. "All right Ginny, I know you can do this. You've shown yourself to be an exceptional young woman, so I know you'll do this correctly. One last piece of advice: Don't think of this as working on Harry, think of this as an exercise in your Transfiguration class; that will help you. Go ahead whenever you are ready."
Ginny looked at the healer. He was old enough to be a grandfather, and looked like he would be a kind one too. Taking his words of encouragement, she thought about sitting in Transfiguration class and working on a mouse. She didn't want anything to happen to the mouse, but it was only a mouse. She mentally went through the motion in her mind one last time. Taking a deep breath and ignoring the blood dripping from her wounded hand, she pulled the pad back and tried not to focus too hard on what was in front of her as she did the spell.
When her wand came to a rest, she looked closely at Harry, as did the other three. Blood still came out, but it was a very slow ooze. "Excellent Ginny!" The healer told her. "Now do the same spell one more time, that should finish the job." Hopeful, she again did the healing spell. Everyone looked and noticed the blood had stopped oozing; it merely sat there, as the wound was still open.
"Curious. All right Ginny, a new spell for you." He showed her a different one. When she'd done it, they noticed the hole had filled itself back in and there was a very thin layer of skin there now. He smiled, "Again Ginny." Again there was progress to the point the skin over the wound was as smooth as the skin around it, though still quite pink, or maybe a light red. "Good work young lady. I'd say he owes you one, or maybe two because if you hadn't put your hand on the wound as fast as you did, he would have bled to death. However, he'll get to return the favor later."
"Huh?"
"When he wakes up later, I'll teach him the spells and have him heal your hand. In the meantime, let's wrap it up. That will hold you since your hand is not bleeding profusely like his wound was."
"I don't understand Lawrence. How did you know that would work?" Gray asked as he started to bandage Ginny's hand.
Looking at Tonks and Ginny in what appeared to be an apology, Davies said, "I didn't, but the facts made it similar to a case I once read about long ago. As we had nothing to lose if it did nothing, while everything to gain if it worked, it seemed reasonable." He turned to look at the girl again. "Ginny, I'm afraid I don't have the answers to the questions you and Harry will be asking each other soon about all this. However, I will promise you that I will research it in my off time and get back with you as soon as I can. I'll even come visit you. It would be nice to see Hogwarts again, as well as Poppy. She used to be one of my students at the school for Healers."
By that time Healer Gray was finished with Ginny's hand. "I'll get someone to move him to a room. You'll need to stay overnight as well; with a changing screen in the room, you can stay with him if you like," Davies told the girl who nodded that it would be fine. "When your parents show up, I'll explain what happened and that you'll be all right."
"Please, don't tell them about the healing problem, not if it will get better soon." She saw a questioning look on his face. "My mum will have trouble handling it."
"While I'd like to do that for you, the law says I must tell your parents since you're underage," the healer explained.
"If you must, then please talk to my dad alone, and explain my wish, and be as vague as you can."
He smiled at her, truly an exceptional young woman. No wonder the young man liked her. "I believe I can do that." Looking to Tonks, "I also need to talk to someone about Mr. Potter. Do you know how I would get in touch with his guardian?"
Tonks smiled at him, "You're talking to her now."
Davies laughed. "How convenient. Someone will be here soon to move him to another room. He should wake up in time for dinner." He looked back to Ginny. "I'll come by and we'll deal with your hand then. Assuming that goes well, I believe the two of you should be able to leave tomorrow morning." As there were no questions, the two healers went out the door. Ginny and Tonks exchanged a look of relief at Harry being healed.
A few minutes later they all went to another room, this one for sleeping overnight and it had two beds in it. Ginny's parents were not to be found, which suited Ginny at that moment. Harry was taken to the back bed and the changing screen was erected between the beds. The nurse helped Tonks get him into some pyjamas. Ginny was also given a set and allowed to change.
She'd just finished and was sitting up on the bed very comfortably when her mother came rushing to the room, but stopped and came through the door very slowly; her father was there too. Ginny managed not to laugh at her mum's caution. "Oh Ginny, are you all right? I was so afraid for you. If Alastor hadn't been talking to me I would have been there for you."
"It's all fine, Mum. I'm doing pretty well and I'll get to leave tomorrow morning. I've got to stay overnight so they can make sure, and so I can watch over Harry."
"Watch over him? He has Tonks here. And look what happened when you were with him. I don't think he's so safe to be with Ginny, even though I do still like him."
"Mum!" Ginny was barely holding her temper in check. "Yes, I'm going to watch over him even with Tonks here because two wands are always better then one. As for what happened when I was with him, I am almost sure that the spell that hit him was aimed for me. So if it wasn't for Harry, that spell would have hit me in the back and you wouldn't have found me in the hospital." Molly looked stunned.
"Molly, she's probably right," Tonks tiredly said. "The nurse told me just before you got here there were nearly twenty people injured on the platform, not just these two. Fortunately no one was killed, and while Harry apparently did receive the worst wound, the same slashing spell was used on others. They got lucky and didn't have it hit them in the chest." She had failed to mention that Harry and Ginny did seem to be the focal point. Molly didn't need to hear that, at least not right now.
Ginny saw the worried look on her mum's face, but at least she'd stopped arguing. She also saw Healer Davies step into the doorway. "Mr. Weasley," her father turned, "may I have a quick word with you?" When her mum looked like she was about to get up too, the healer added, "It's nothing special Mrs. Weasley, why don't you stay with your daughter; I'm sure she'd appreciate that. Your husband can fill you in when he returns in a minute."
Molly looked torn. "I would like it if you stayed," her daughter told her, though the reason she wanted her to stay was not what her mum imagined; but that seemed to make up Molly's mind. Her mum nodded and sat back down. Arthur patted her shoulder before he left with the healer.
They walked down the hall a little way to an empty waiting area. "Mr. Weasley, I'm Healer Davies and I worked on your daughter and Mr. Potter. First, please don't worry; she'll be fine, as will the young man." Arthur's relief was visible. "I'm keeping them here overnight as a precaution, and because I want to do another exam later this evening, so they might as well stay here."
"Why do you need to do another exam?"
Here the healer had to walk a fine line between his patient's wishes and the law. "They were affected by a rather unusual spell that no one knows. I fully believe we've taken care of the problem and reversed it, but I really prefer to be safe now rather than assume and be sorry later. It's my nature as a healer."
"I see..."
"They really will be fine. I would be extremely surprised for them not to pass the exam this evening and then be able to leave early tomorrow morning. In fact, they'll probably be upset at being released in time to make their first class," he joked. Arthur laughed with him, more in further relief than because he found it funny.
"Two small things before I let you return. Your daughter was concerned about how your wife would take all this and didn't really want much shared beyond that fact that she had some bumps and scrapes which we've taken care of." Arthur raised an eyebrow at that. "I don't want to intrude into your family, but I thought you should know so you can determine how to work with her desire."
"I see. I don't understand what would be so difficult for Molly, but the two of them have been having problems seeing eye to eye lately."
The healer chuckled. "Having had three daughters myself, I understand. It's part of their age as they finish the growing up process."
"I think that's true in this case too. What was the other thing?"
"I need you to take your wife to dinner or tea this evening when I do the exam. Ms. Tonks will not be there as well. I need to ask them a few questions about how they feel about the injuries, and I've found that teenagers generally don't give me complete answers when their parents are there. If you're uncomfortable with me being there alone with them, I can have Healer Gray join me."
Arthur thought about that for a moment. "I can do that if it will help." The healer left and a very thoughtful Arthur Weasley slowly walked back to his daughter's room. When he got there, he'd decided that it would be good for Ginny to be at Hogwarts for a while.
It took Harry nearly four hours to wake up. During that time Tonks was always there, sitting in a chair at the foot of his bed wand in hand at the ready. Remus had come by for a few minutes to check on both of them and almost got hexed when he walked in. After he got her to agree to go home to shower and change clothes after Harry awoke, he told her he'd leave "mama bear" alone until then. She almost hexed him again, but he was glad to see a smile on her face when she threatened him. Remus promised to return that evening long enough to allow her to leave and clean up.
Ginny was the first to notice he was awake. She'd been lying on her side watching him, and though she didn't know how, she knew he was awake and sat up quickly to get a better look. Tonks saw where she was looking and looked over in time to see him start to flutter his eyes.
"Harry?" Tonks rose and stood by the head of the bed. Ginny got off hers and walked over too.
"Who hit me?" they heard him croak as his eyelids tried to stay open but didn't seem to want to. The two women looked at each other and grinned. Molly and Arthur came over to join them. Ginny picked up his glasses and put them on him. As he finally got control of his eyes, he looked around and saw everyone there, and he saw a very unfamiliar surrounding. "What happened?"
"You had a little accident with a few Death Eaters," Tonks told him. "You're in St. Mungo's but you should be able to leave and go to school tomorrow."
Looking around again, he caught sight of the long red hair and put his hand out to her. "Are you OK?"
"Yes, Harry, nothing a few healing spells and a good rest won't cure." Somehow he knew that was the truth, and yet he knew there was more she hadn't told him. Finally he saw a tear streak going down one cheek.
"Why the tears, Ginny?"
"Oh Harry!" She couldn't take it any longer and all but bawled all over him. "You were hurt and it was so close for a little bit. I've never been so scared in my life."
"Is that why my chests feels so sore?"
"Yes."
He tried to think back to what happened at the platform. It had all taken place so fast, not only starting without warning, but he thought the whole fight took maybe a minute at most. Playing it through his mind, he suddenly remembered the last few seconds. "No Ginny, the scariest part was seeing the spell come at you and I couldn't get my shield there in time."
Ginny didn't say anything to that; she just stood there and held his hand. Sensing she wasn't going to let go anytime soon, her father got one of the chairs in the room and put it next to Harry's bed for Ginny to sit on. Her look was one of deep gratitude as she sat down and stayed there the rest of the day, whether he was awake or napping. Her mother looked on in concern, but for once didn't say anything.
As it neared time for dinner, Healer Davies returned. He asked the three adults to come out into the hall. There he told them that he was about to do the follow up exam and suggested they go get dinner themselves, or perhaps some tea. Tonks asked about waiting down the hall where she could still see the door; and that was cleared. Molly was not happy with it though and the healer finally had to insist, though he promised a summary when he was done.
When the adults had left them alone for the first time that day, Harry looked at Ginny. "How are you really doing?" They'd told him the details of the fight that morning after he'd been up awhile.
"I'll be fine now that I know you're going to live. Oh Harry, I can't believe how hard that was to endure; seeing you laying there with so much blood coming out of you."
"Hey, I'll be fine thanks to you and your quick thinking; but that's not was I was talking about. You still have a bandage when everyone says my injury was worse; and I've never seen Madam Pomfrey not able to heal a basic cut."
She decided she was going to have to tell him. "Harry, something happened during the attack. No one seems to know what spell was used that hurt you so badly; but your wound didn't want to heal. My hand is the same way."
"Then why aren't I still bleeding? Someone healed me."
Ginny gave him a very tender smile. "I healed you."
"You? But you're not a healer."
"I know, that's part of what's so weird. Healer Davies couldn't do it, but when he taught me the same healing spell and I did it, it worked. He thinks that if you do the healing spell to me, my hand will be healed too."
"Yeah, that is all weird. I wonder why that is?"
Ginny didn't get to answer as the Healer came in at that moment. "Ah Harry, it's so good to see you awake. I'm Healer Davies. Are you feeling better?"
"Mostly, as long as I don't have to move too much; that hurts."
"Yes of course, lots of strain on new tender flesh," the healer explained. "You will have to be careful for the next three to four days. No stressing your body in any way, and that includes Quidditch, which I hear you're very good at."
"Thanks!" Harry liked the old man; if he had a grandfather, he'd hope he was like this.
"Now, if you'll unbutton your top, I'd like to see what wonders your body has accomplished in the last seven hours or so." While the healer patiently waited, he turned to Ginny. "You don't mind seeing his bare chest do you Ginny?" he asked with a smile. Ginny blushed furiously and managed to eke out a small no. "I didn't think you'd mind." Now Harry was blushing.
Davies did a diagnostic spell with his wand and "uh hmm'd" to himself. "Yes, very good on the inside; the body is healing nicely. The outside is looking much better, not as red." He peered very closely at the wound. "Curious, but I'll come back to that in a minute."
"Your turn, Ms. Weasley." She showed her hand to him and he removed the bandages. As he did, it started its slow bleed again. "Yes, no change I see; but, let's try to fix that shall we? Mr. Potter, where did they put your wand?" Ginny retrieved if from the table next to his bed for him. "Fine, hold onto that for him please my dear. Now, here's the spell I want you to learn."
A couple of minutes later, Harry felt quite comfortable with it, and performed it on Ginny's hand. The bleeding immediately stopped, though skin did not grow back. "Amazing," the older man said. "Now here's the second spell for you to learn young man." A few more minutes later and Ginny had light red but smooth skin covering the palm of her right hand again.
"Now to return to my earlier question. May I see your hand my dear?" She offered it to him and he held it by her wrist, then slowly pulled it and her towards Harry until her hand was again over the wound area on Harry's chest. Moving and twisting it slightly, he seemed to be looking at something very interesting. "Yes, I think so. Do you see it Ginny?"
"I think so, the colors make it very hard though."
"Oh? What do you see?"
"The handprint is quite clear to me. The big hole that was from the spell dominates the area in the middle of the handprint, but there seems to be another marking in the middle of the big hole, like a hole in a hole."
"I suppose I'm not surprised, though I can just barely see the outline of the handprint. The smaller hole as you call it is not visible to me at all. What do you see Harry?"
Harry tried to look down. "What she describes, but it's harder for me to see my own chest. Other than the big mark from the spell that hit me, how did I get the smaller mark and handprint?"
"Honestly?" The two teens said yes in unison. "I don't fully know," admitted the healer. "However, I do have an idea. I read a very old article long ago that described a medical case with a few similar facts. The only reason I remember it was because it was so odd. Apparently two people had formed a bond with each other. The odd part, and why I remember it, was their bonding wounds, if I can call them that, would not heal unless they were healed by their bond mate, or whatever you want to call the other person. Unfortunately, that's all I can remember being mentioned, which isn't much to go on."
"But sir," Ginny questioned, "surely people exchange blood all the time. You make it sound like this is extremely rare."
"You are correct in both statements young lady. That means there is something else happening that isn't known; and as we do live in a world of magic, that's going to make the catalyst hard to pin down. The most obvious guess is multiple spells hitting you simultaneously and interacting in an unknown way. But as I told Ginny earlier," he was looking at Harry now, "I'll research this and see what I can come up with. If you have anything strange happen to you, or to the both of you, I'd like to know when I come visit you. If you feel it's an emergency, feel free to have Madam Pomfrey get a hold of me here. All right?" They agreed, it seemed the reasonable thing to do.
"Now, I've got a few questions for you. You don't have to answer, but it might help me help you. So if you don't mind, would you tell me how you feel about today?" They spent the next twenty minutes discussing the day, their thoughts on it, on getting hurt, what it would be like to face their friends, especially those who'd been hurt too.
When they'd finished talking, Davies told them, "I'm happy with your progress. You both may could leave first thing in the morning as long as nothing unusual happens to either of you during the night."
As the healer stood to leave, Harry stopped him with a question. "Healer Davies, why did you ask us all the other questions? No one has ever done that before."
He smiled at them. "Call me strange Harry, but I believe a person is more than just a body. They have a soul if you will, what many people call a heart, and what most think of as their brain or mental self. Many healers just treat the body and send the patient on their way again when the body is healed. However, I believe your mental self counts too. I wanted to know if your mental self was going to be all right." Harry raised an eyebrow. "Yes, Mr. Potter, I believe you'll be all right, and you too Ms. Weasley. You've both had some hard times I can tell by your answers, but you're also handling it. You could probably do better, but you'll be fine. I might suggest you talk about things that bother you to someone else you trust; that helps more than you realize." The teens thanked him and he left.
Going out the door, the healer saw the three adults down the hall looking at him. Even Tonks appeared anxious to his eye. Unsurprisingly, Molly was the one to ask how they were.
"They're doing quite well. It's simply amazing what a young body can do with some rest. As I explained to them, especially Harry, no physical activity of any kind beyond sitting in class for the next three to four days."
"What about the questions you asked them? What did they say?"
She was the worrywart he decided and could see why Ginny had difficulty with her as her father had said. "I'm happy with what I heard; they appear to be coping quite well. I did encourage them to talk to someone they trust when they had any doubts or problems."
"But what did they say about today?"
"I'm sorry Mrs. Weasley. As her parent, you are entitled to know what's happening. I've just told you that, but the details are confidential." As she was about to interrupt again, he was a bit more forceful. "I'm quite serious Madam. If I told all the confidential things I hear, that would get out and others would never talk to me again, which would severely limit my ability to help them."
At that point, Arthur put his hand on his wife's shoulder and squeezed. "Thank you, Healer Davies, we understand." Molly shot him a look that said she did not understand because it was her daughter.
"They may leave any time after six tomorrow morning, assuming they feel up to it. Good evening." He strode away from the strong-willed woman as quickly as dignity allowed.
Meanwhile back in the rrom and as soon as the healer had left, Ginny looked at Harry quizzically. "Harry, have you felt any differently lately, like having any extra feelings?"
"How do you mean?"
"I don't know how to explain it, but it's like I'm more aware of you. Also, I'd almost swear I can feel questioning coming from you right now. It's very small and I have to think or feel hard for it, but you're there. And earlier, I knew you were awake before you opened your eyes."
Harry thought about that. "Maybe, when I first asked you what was wrong with you, I knew you were telling me the truth, yet I also knew you weren't telling me something. Uh, think something hard and let me see." He watched her close her eyes and a look of peace came over her face. He was about to close his eyes and search when a deep feeling of love filled him.
"Oh Ginny, that's amazing!" She opened her eyes and looked at him. "Is that how you really feel about me?" She got a very big smile and slowly nodded. "I felt this feeling of love I've never felt before in my life. OK, try this." Harry closed his eyes and thought about flying, specifically when they were playing follow the leader on their Firebolts for the first time.
"Yes, happiness or maybe joy," she told him. "What were you thinking about?" He told her. "Hmm, so not thoughts really ... see what you get with this." She thought of a memory.
"Ouch! Hurt feelings or anger. So feelings, not thought?"
"I think so," she told him. "That was when mum and I had our row about me growing up. Harry? I'm not sure I want anyone to know about this, it's so, so personal."
"Yeah, I know. You think this is a result of the spell earlier today?"
"Not sure what else it could be." She thought some more. "Well, maybe not the spell but maybe it triggered something. What did he say? A catalyst? You think it triggered something that was already there?"
"Don't know. I think we'll have to wait for his research."
"You know Harry; I can't wait to get back to school so we can have more time alone to talk like this."
"Me too, though I can think of something else that will be easier when we get there," he grinned at her. She grinned too and leaned forward and kissed him gently on the lips.
Harry and Ginny were still enjoying the time alone whispering to each other when the adults returned. Though Harry's top was pulled to, it was still unbuttoned. He suddenly felt uncomfortable, as Mrs. Weasley seemed to be trying to look at his wound, so he buttoned his pyjama top.
Mrs. Weasley also made a big deal about Ginny's hand now that it was uncovered. When asked why it'd had a bandage on it before, Ginny smoothly answered, "To protect it for a little while." She felt a bit uneasy about telling the half-truth to her mother, but she didn't want to stir up trouble right now.
As Ginny returned to her bed a few feet away, the two teens were both thinking "tomorrow" at the other.
.