Sunday morning came and Ginny woke up promptly considering it was a weekend. She had arranged to meet Hagrid, and so just as she had done the day before, she went down to Madame Pomfrey to get her Esben treatment. But she decided to lie and said she was still feeling a bit ill, and she would probably still need to have the procedure for another few days. Madame Pomfrey knew the procedures were unpleasant so she didn't query Ginny for needing more. Ginny knew that if she went a day without having it done, then being pregnant she would probably have a breaking episode and die, so it was vital to get the treatment. Ginny was becoming more aware of how it was done, and she had got some books on specifically how to do it. She was cross to discover that it had to be done by someone else, and she couldn't do it to herself, but she had to gather the information for when that time came to give it someone else.
Once Madame Pomfrey was done, Ginny went back to her room and put on her Karakil uniform. She was almost jogging down to Hagrid's hut threw the morning sunlight. She had, had such fun the day before se couldn't wait to start. But when she got there Hagrid answered the door,
"I'm sorry Ginny love we cant do any training with Fru Fru today"
"What? Why? Is she ok? She hasn't hurt herself has she?"
"No no it's nothing like that Ginny love, its you."
Oh dammit Ginny thought, he has found out about my CMBD and now he is never going to let me play. Hmmm sound innocent and uninformed!
" Me? What's wrong with me? Why can't I play?"
"Well you cant play with Fru Fru today Ginny because you and I are going to go and meet the British Karakil team!"
"WOW really! Oh that so existing! Why didn't you tell me!"
"Well it was kinda a surprise I didn't want you ter be disappointed if the plans fell though. So u ready then?
"Yes of course!"
"Right we have to walk out of the grounds and then we will go on the bike!"
"Wow ok!"
The journey was very quick the place was clearly not far, and when they got there the stadium was amazing. There was what looked like stables and stalls to one end and the seating was so raked that it was almost vertical. The walls that Ginny had read about were much bigger than she had imagined, which made the playing space look much smaller. They walked down to a place in the wings and a man walked over.
"Ginny this is Korus Samson the British Karakil Captain, I introduced him to hippogriffs at Hogwarts same way as I'm doin fer you!"
Ginny looked up at this man, he was tall and he had broad shoulders, he looked incredibly strong and he had scars on every bit if skin visible. But the shape of his face was very handsome none the less. He had a strong chin and high cheekbones. than he spoke
"Hello Ginny, Hagrid tells me you might be a rising star of the Karakil field!"
"I hope so,"
Said Ginny. She was a bit star struck, this man had a really impressive presence and standing between him and Hagrid made her feel very small.
"That's a nice uniform you've got. Do you like it? Is it comfortable"
Korus had a really strong dirty Scottish accent that made Ginny feel a bit melty.
"yer its beautiful I love it was a very nice unexpected present."
"Well that's good coz I designed it! I owed Hagrid a favour or too! He takes on my
Retired hippogriffs and keeps them for me"
"You designed it? Really? Its wonderful thank you!"
"Well its not often we get to design for women, so it has a certain novelty. Anyway we are just about to start a mock match you can take a seat and watch if you like"
At this point Hagrid piped up
"That's what we are here fur! common Gin lets go get a good seat."
Hagrid thumped her on the back towards the seating; they had to climb up several floors to get to the prefect height to watch and although all the seats were empty the stadium still looked crampt.
Ginny looked down and she could see a set of 7 hippogriffs on the ground at the bottom of the walls, 4 on one side and 3 on the other. She could see Korus going into the middle and standing with the people congregated there, they all seemed to be men. And the hippogriffs they were riding were much bigger than Fru Fru.
"You see you would be the smallest member down there wouldn't cha!"
Hagrid joked
"yer I would be, by a long way"
Said Ginny slightly worried
"But that's gonna give ya an advantage! Your a smaller target!"
This made sense to Ginny, but she was captivated too much to continue a conversation. Then a horn was sounded and all the men lined up about 10m away from their hippogriffs. Ginny knew what was going to happen next. This was often the most dangerous part. The players had to bow and the hippogriffs bow back and than at the sound of the 2nd horn they had to sprint towards them to get mounted. Often the hippogriff would meet them in the middle. But 8 men, and 8 hippogriffs all running towards each other in a small space. All it takes is for 1 player to trip and that is often the end of them.
Ginny watched as all the players bowed, then korus looked up at Ginny and she could swear she saw him wink at her. Then suddenly the 2nd horn went and all mayhem broke loose Korus was clearly the fastest and so he was the first to get on and in the air. They were all doing flat out running mounts, which Is hard on a creature with wings. These hippogriffs were amazing some didn't bother to take off from the floor instead they ran towards the walls and dug in there hooves to run vertically up the sides. Ginny was quite shocked the hippogriffs looked small on the ground but 7 hippogriffs with there wings fully spread in a small space was confusing.
"You watch Korus now hes gonna do a dive!"
Hagrid said excitedly
"A WHAT?!"
Ginny said astonished. But before Hagrid could answer it was already happening. Korus had hooked his knees over the front of his hippogriffs wings and they were in a full flat dive hurtling towards the floor! He had his arms out as if he himself were a bird and his hippogriff hurtled down so fast, wings flat against its self, and when the ground came up Ginny was so sure they were going to crash but the hippogriff spread its wings at the last minute put all 4 feet on the ground and pushed off into the air again. It was incredible! What manoeuvre a! And then Ginny noticed that he had 3 gold rings in each hand! That was clearly the pulpous of the manoeuvre he colleted them from players flying past on his way down! And Ginny hadn't even caught him doing it! He really was amazing.
The match really was quick and Korus of course won he had a total of 30 rings when he had started with only 5! Ginny and Hagrid went down to the pitch to chat to the players. One man had a large gash on his back that a teammate was running his wand along to heal it. Ginny and Hagrid got to talk to almost all the players they all seemed to be really nice guys. One thing that did put Ginny off was that they were all very scared and she didn't really want to end up looking like that. One player came up to them and she recognised him but she couldn't out her finger on where.
"Hay there I am jack wood"
He shook Ginny hand vigorously Ginny smiled a bit bemused at this friendly welcome
"Gin this is Oliver woods brother! Jack"
Said Hagrid
"Oh hi I knew I recognised something about you."
Yer well you know the handsome younger version of me ha ha ha"
Ginny beamed it was good to see someone a bit familiar
"I bet you are thinking 'oh dear god I don't want to look all scared like this lot'!"
Said jack jokingly
"You read my mind"
Said Ginny
"You don't have to look like us lot, its all like a trophy thing, tells others that you play seriously, but realistically we could heal the bumps and bashes much better we choose not to ha ha"
Ginny laughed with him and she could kind of see where he was coming from the scars did make them look tough and a bit intimidating.
Then Korus came over and put his arm round Ginny squeezing her quite hard
"So you staying for the training then?"
"I have nothing to ride this trip was surprise to me"
"That's not a problem my dear you can borrow Arrow."
"Arrow?"
"Yer that's my hippogriff mare that I retired from competition but I still use her for training sometimes. She didn't like the travelling from match to match so I had to retire her a bit early."
Ginny looked up at Hagrid with pleading eyes she needed his permission she knew that. After all she was Hagrid's responsibility and if she got hurt then he was the one who would have to take her pieces back to Madame Pomfrey probably in a shoe box
"yer alrit' but you be careful you hear!"
"I will thank you!"
Before Ginny knew it she was all set up and having the time of her life with the British Karakil team. Arrow was really nice but Ginny missed Fru Fru. Arrow was a bit hard to manoeuvre and Fru Fru was really responsive. They did all sorts of moves together one exercise was to cork screw in sequence with someone else and swap all your rings before you hit the wall.
The day came to an end and Ginny said good bye to all the players she had had the most fantastic time and she couldn't keep her mouth shut all the way home on the bike. Hagrid was just laughing at Ginny's enthusiasm most of the time. When they got back they sat down with a cup of tea in Hagrid's hut and had long conversations about tactics and matches. Then it got late and Ginny went back up to the castle.
When she got up to her room Ginny started to take off her uniform and get ready to go down to supper. Luna walked in as she was taking off the jacket.
"Where have you been all day? I've been lonely!"
"Oh sorry Luna I spent the day with Hagrid looking after the hippogriffs."
"U huu that's a really unusual jacket, hang on… is that a Karakil uniform?"
Ginny looked down for a second then she realised that Luna was her best friend and if Ginny said it was a secret then Luna would understand.
"yer it is. That's what I've been doing Hagrid is training me and today he took me meet the British team"
Luna just stood silently for a minute and then said
"Oh ok then"
Ginny was pleased that Luna just accepted this so easily.
"Of course the CMBD makes you more venerable to serious injury but I am sure you know that."
Said Luna as a throw away comment, she then said
"You ready for supper?"
"yer" Ginny replied "just give me a min"
Ginny put her uniform back into its box and slipped it under her bed. She then puled on a t-shirt and she and Luna went down to supper.
Ginny ate a good supper that night and she felt relived that the people closest to her were able to support her and she could share her problems with them. When it came to time to go to bed Ginny slept quite well despite the fact she was running over in her mind how she was going to tell Harry on Tuesday. She ran different scenarios over in her mind and none of them went the was she wanted or sounded good so she just went to sleep knowing she had another day to think about it.