A/N: The spaces in the name of her disease are only there so that it all shows up and isn't blinked out like a URL or something.

Chapter 12:

When Celeste woke up, her head was throbbing. She held a hand to her temple and woozily sat up. Gentle hands stopped her and gently pressed her back down. She cleared her head and got her bearings before blinking rapidly and glancing at the person taking care of her.

Draco Malfoy was towering above her, his eyes focused on something. She flinched, but he prevented her from asking any real questions or saying anything in general, for he shoved a glass at her and ordered her to drink it. Obediently, she held the glass to her lips and swallowed the entire glass. Once that was done, he took the glass and swapped it for one filled with water. Since she had a serious case of 'cotton-mouth' going on, she appreciated it and greedily gulped the liquid down. She handed the glass back to him and asked "Where am I?"

"St. Mungo's." he replied. "When you collapsed and Madame Pomfery was unable to wake you for over 10 hours, they sent a team of Healers to retrieve you. You've been unconscious for about two days."

"I missed two days of school?" she demanded, sitting upright really fast. Suddenly, the world tilted and twirled at 360 degrees and she slowly sat back down.

"Quit trying to sit up!" he snarled. "You've been unconscious for two days and are sick! You'll only make yourself worse! I'd have thought a girl who wants to be a Healer would know that."

"What's wrong with me?" she asked impatiently.

"You have disease." He began slowly, "that hasn't been seen in centuries."

"What disease?" she demanded irritably.

"There is a vessel in the back of your neck that carries blood to your brain. When there is irregular pressure applied, the blood supply to your brain is shortened or cut off and you faint." He replied.

"I don't get it. Why does that make it a disease and one that I should be concerned about? And how was crying irregular pressure?" Celeste asked.

"Once the blood flow is cut off to your brain, you can't get it back. It took all of Madame Pomfery's skill to keep you alive long enough for us to pick you up. My team of Healers has been working around the clock to keep you from becoming a vegetable." Draco said quietly. "It wasn't crying that was the irregular pressure. Remember, you and James Potter collided. If James Potter hadn't been there to sound the alarm and carry you to the Hospital Wing, you would have been dead ten minutes later, probably much sooner."

Celeste's world suddenly stopped turning. "I what?"

He looked at her. "You owe your life to James Potter right now."

"I heard you. That 'what' didn't mean 'what did you say' it meant 'I'm giving you a second chance to tell me what you just said and it'd better be something different.'"

"You want something different? Fine. How about the fact that it's incurable since it technically isn't a disease, it's a biological disorder. You keep stressing yourself out like this and you'll be dead within a month."

"And this won't stress me out?" Celeste demanded. She could feel hot tears welling up. This was deadly? Muggles passed out all the time and it wasn't life threatening for them! When she mentioned this, Draco shook his head sadly.

"It's directly linked to your magic somehow. We've taken samples of your blood, but we make no promises." He replied. "Some people have been waiting for you to wake up. If you would like to see them now, I'll go let them in."

She nodded. She really needed some company right now. He turned and cracked a door, whispering "She's awake now. Don't stress her out, but you can come in and see her."

When he stepped out of the way, James barged through the doorway, closely followed by Jenny, Mairead, Rowan, Albus, Lysander, and to her utter surprise, Scorpius. After them, in filed the adults: Harry and his wife, Hermione and Ron, the Carters, Luna and her husband, and George. They all swarmed her bed. Draco ended up having to shove and elbow his way through the crowd that had formed around her in order to see his patient.

"Great Merlin, what happened to you?" demanded James. Celeste's throat constricted and she looked at Draco. He dropped his gaze for a moment before looking at them all and saying "Her disease is known as Steno poikilo ankylo vaso tensive steno sisrr stasis. It means that when blood supply is cut off to her brain, it's cut off for good. She's lucky to be alive right now."

James looked at Malfoy, then at Celeste in amazement. "Is that true? You would have died?"

"Apparently." Celeste shrugged, embarrassed. "I guess I owe you my life, huh? Can I give you a thank-you hug?"

In a daze, he nodded, but had to kneel down to her level, for she couldn't sit up. She turned her attention to Jenny, who was glaring at her with the utmost anger she'd ever seen.

"Jen?" Celeste asked nervously. Jenny shoved James out of her way and hugged her fiercely.

"Don't you ever scare me like that ever again!" she snapped. "I was so scared." Jenny choked up and Celeste could feel her crying.

"Shhhh. I'm fine now." Celeste soothed her. Then what she'd said hit her and she looked at Draco Malfoy. "I am fine, right?"

He cocked his head slightly. "For now, perhaps. We don't know when this will happen next, so I think it's best if you stay for a day more and have a few more tests. And when you go back to Hogwarts, I'd like to accompany you so that if it does, we can at least keep blood flowing."

"Does that mean I can go home?" Harry asked. Draco shot him a 'look,' but never the less nodded and said "Yes, if I'll be there, I don't see why you must be there." Harry looked relieved, but when he looked at Celeste, his face quickly became concerned.

"You don't have any Wizarding family, do you?" he asked softly.

Celeste shrugged. "I have Hermione, who's my second cousin, but that's it."

All of the adults began to murmur at the same time and Harry motioned for them and Draco to take this conversation outside so the children could be alone. Celeste watched them go and then turned her attention to her friends. None of them spoke, worrying too much about Celeste. Eventually the silence became too much and she snapped "You know you guys, I'm not going to shatter if you talk to me. I'm not a porcelain doll."

"It's entirely possible." James said seriously and no one contradicted what he said. Instead they all agreed with him.

"I'm not going to break!" she yelled. "You all act like I'm on my deathbed, when if I wasn't in here, you wouldn't hesitate to start a brawl with me. Quit acting like you're trying to save your best piece of china and act like I'm a human being!"

"She has a point." Scorpius said suddenly. "We're treating her like she's already dead and not a person who's just dizzy. We should treat her like we would any other day."

"Kay, Scorpius, I don't know about you, but I didn't miss the 'she has a life threatening condition' speech your father just gave us a moment ago. It is an entire possibility that she will break. Normal people don't just pass out from hitting their heads. James certainly didn't." Jenny said.

"Quit talking about me like I'm not here!" she exploded. "Yes, I'm bedridden for another day and need special health attentions, but that does not mean that I'm going to snap in two when the wind blows over me. Knock it off or so help me, I'll slap you all so hard you switch blood statuses!"

They all just looked at her, uncomfortable with her sudden outburst. Celeste realized that their was something that they were all reluctant to tell her, though it seemed that after a moment or so, Scorpius was the only one with enough balls to say it out loud.

"Celeste, there's something else." He said gently. "My dad says…he says that almost any type of physical activity could trigger it again. He says you can't play Quidditch, horseback ride, play football, none of it. If it could stop flow to your brain or at least reduce it, then it could potentially kill you and his job dictates that he can't let you do it."

"What?" she demanded frostily.

"You can't play"-

"No, I heard you. That 'what' wasn't a 'what did you say' it was a 'I'm gonna give you a second chance to tell me what you did and it'd better be something different.'" She snapped. "Now, wanna run that last one by me again?"

Scorpius took a deep breath, and then said "My father is asking Professor Baird to suspend you from the Quidditch team. He's also contacting your parents via owl and informing them of what he's found. I'm sorry Celeste."

"Scorpius, you'd better take it back right now!" she ground out.

"I'm sorry Celeste. I can't." he looked like he was in physical pain as he told her this.

"No. He crossed a line. I was fine when he told me I had a life-threatening disease. I was fine when he asked me to stay another day. I was even fine when he told me I'd be bedridden for the next day, unable to even sit up." She whispered, glaring at Scorpius' slate-gray eyes with such intensity that he was sure that they would burn out. "But he crossed a line when he did that. I don't care if it does end up being the death of me, I will die happily on a broomstick or a horse's back."

"Celeste," Scorpius said, his voice low as if speaking to a child, "You can't. You could die Celeste. You would literally die. Not pass out and end up here again because you were lucky that someone who cared about you deeply was there to sound the alarm. You would die, as in pass to the world beyond this one."

"I understand that Scorpius, but I don't think you understand me." Celeste said, gritting her teeth. "I don't give a rat's ass what your dad says. I'm going to play Quidditch."

"No, you aren't." Scorpius said.

"Yes, I am." She snapped.

"Maybe you didn't hear me correctly Celeste!" he snapped, jumping to his feet and towering over her. "YOU WILL DIE. As in a one-way journey, non-refundable ticket. You will die on the Quidditch field and leave all of us here, mourning your absence. Every single person in this room will have a broken heart, MYSELF INCLUDED! Do you honestly want to do that? Are you honestly that selfish that you would risk your own life just so you could play some stupid game?" His eyes were on fire like Celeste had never seen before and quite frankly, it scared her. To have him outright admit that he would be wounded by her passing made her do a double take, but not one that lasted more than a milli-second. She ignored her dizziness and hopped up, glaring at him with real irritation.

"Yes. I am that selfish. You may not ever understand it, but that is the one thing that is mine. That title, which I've held since I was eligible for the team. I've been Celeste Kiasco, the Ravenclaw Beater that whups ass on the field. I've taken my team to runner-up for the House Cup twice!" she yelled, her body quivering from the pent up adrenaline that it had no way to get rid of. "To you I may just be some stupid Mudblood who is willing to risk her life for some stupid sport, but you know what, to me, it's different. I'm not the only idiot out there on the field willing to face death or more! Every player on every team does it, even you and Jen! I have no more of a death wish than any other player on the field. You're forgetting how many stories circulate about your dad taking a header off of a broom from thousands of miles in the air! How many stories circulate about playing in the fog and the ice and rain and storms! We all face the same risk out there on the field and my disease does not add or take away from that risk! If you're asking me to step down from my position, then you all might as well do the same, because you know that there is just as much of a chance you could be knocked off of your broom as me."

"Celeste, you need to"- James began, but she cut him off.

"I don't need to do anything. Just shut the hell up and sit the fuck down. And while you're at it, why don't you get over your petty crush on me as well, because that's never gonna happen James!" she snapped at him. He fell back, injured by her words, but she was pumped up now and nothing was going to distract her from tearing Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy a new one.

"Get over yourself!" he snarled at her.

"Why don't you? You walk around like you own the damned place, where ever you are! News flash: you don't. Neither does your daddy!" Celeste yelled at him.

"You know, for someone who's supposed to be the sweetest girl in school, you sure can be a awful big bitch!" he snarled at her.

"Take it back!" she demanded.

"Or what?" he challenged.

"OR I'LL TEAR YOUR FUCKING BALLS OFF YOU PALE TWAT! TAKE IT BACK!" she yelled.

"Alright, that's enough!" boomed Draco Malfoy.