Bill saw it happen as if in slow motion but was powerless to stop it. George's broad fist collided with Ginny's delicate jaw. Her head snapped back even as she went airborne, arms and legs spread gracefully. She flew for an impossibly long time, her hair fanning out around her, and landed flat on her back. Bill had a split second to register that she wasn't moving before time sped up again, and he saw Harry launch himself at George, knocking him off Percy, before scrambling up and running over to Ginny.
"You great buggering git!" Bill shouted, pulling George up by his shirt, then pushing him down again with a two-handed shove to the chest. "You bloody bullying bastard!"
"Bill!"
But Bill ignored his father and stood over George with fists clenched and raised. "Fight someone who fights back, why don't you?"
George stayed on the ground, staring not up at Bill, but past him. Ginny. He turned to see Ginny's form blocked by Harry and Ron, and Mum kneeling down beside her. A moan sounded at Bill's feet.
"Percy!" He crouched beside him. Shit. Percy was a mess—his left eye swollen and already starting to bruise, both lips cut, his nose busted and bleeding everywhere, and a mark on his right cheek. Bill pulled his wand out of his pocket and began siphoning off the blood. "Percy!" he said urgently. "Perce, can you hear me?"
"For Godric's sake, Bill, don't shout." Percy moaned and raised one hand to cover his eyes.
Bill breathed a little easier. At least Percy still recognized him, even with his eyes shut.
"Stay down," Dad said sharply.
Bill looked up to find his father standing over George with one hand outstretched. George sat back, folding his legs and straining his neck to see what was happening with Ginny. Bill felt his anger flare up again and turned back to Percy.
"Can you sit up?"
"No. And don't try to make me, either."
"Okay, just—" Bill looked anxiously towards his mother. "Just lie still. I stopped the bleeding, but I'm not that great with healing spells. I think we'd better wait for Mum. She's with Ginny right now."
"What happened?" Percy opened and closed his mouth slowly, then gingerly moved it from side to side, wincing.
"She tried to get between you two and George hit her," Dad said. His voice was tight with anger, and Bill realized Dad had told George to stay seated not because he was afraid of Bill's temper, but his own.
Percy's eyes opened for the first time, and he tried to sit up, leaning on one elbow. "Is she okay?"
"She got hit pretty hard," Bill said. "You know Gin-Gin, she's just a wee bit of a thing." He sent his stocky brother an extra glare. Merlin, George had to have five stone on her, at least.
"I didn't know it was her," George said. "I just—I was angry, and I just—"
"She yelled for you all the way across the garden," Dad said. "What, you thought she was your mother?"
"I didn't hear her," George said, his voice hoarse. "I swear, I didn't know it was her. You know I'd never hurt Ginny."
"No, you just brought her to the Battle when she was still underage," Percy said.
"But I brought her back," George retorted, and the tension between the two ratcheted up again.
Then Dad cursed.
Mum had conjured a stretcher and was transferring Ginny onto it.
()()()()
Ginny was still out cold. The family sat around the kitchen table staring at their youngest member in the tensest, grimmest silence Bill could remember all summer, and that was saying something. Mum had sent Ron into the house to Floo-call St. Mungo's and now they just sat here, waiting.
It was certainly not the first time Ginny had been accidentally injured by one of her brothers. She had rolled off the changing table once with Percy, and got her head banged on the bath faucet by Ron during an energetic water fight, and once slid clean out of her nightdress and down half a flight of stairs when Bill was carrying her. She set her hair on fire in the twins' birthday candles on their tenth birthday and blacked her eye on the doorknob when Charlie put a frog in her wardrobe that jumped right into her face. And all that had been before Bill left Hogwarts.
The fireplace flared green, and a witch about thirty stepped out. She sized up the room in one brief glance and extended her hand to Mum, who sat at Ginny's head.
"Leah Jackson," she said, setting her bag down in the space between Ginny and the edge of the table as Dad and Percy got up to make room for her. "And this young lady is…."
"Ginny. Ginny Weasley."
"What happened?" Healer Jackson said, already waving her wand over Ginny's form in a series of complicated figures.
"I hit her," George said miserably. Then, when the Healer looked pointedly from him to Ginny and back, he added, "It was an accident."
"Mmm. Well, she's got a concussion, obviously," she said, setting her wand down and running her hands over Ginny's head. "But her vitals are excellent."
"I think her jaw might be broken," Mum said nervously.
"Yes, it is, but that's easily fixed. I have some Skele-Gro in my bag."
"Oh, we have some," Mum said. "Arthur? I like to keep it on hand."
Healer Jackson's gaze traveled over Bill, Percy, George, and Ron before resting briefly on Harry. "Yes, I can see why," she said with a trace of a smile.
Dad closed the cupboard door and set the bottle of potion at the Healer's right hand.
"Thank you. How long has she been out?"
Mum glanced at her watch. "A little over fifteen minutes."
"Okay. Let me see that," she said, turning around and reaching up to remove Percy's ice pack.
"It's fine."
"The other half of your face doesn't look fine, so if that's the part you chose to ice, it must be even worse. Let me see. And for goodness' sake, sit down before I need that ice pack for my own neck."
She was short; about Mum's height, maybe, but she managed to get Percy into a chair and the ice pack off his face with a minimum of fuss. She stepped close and bent forward, leaving Percy with his nose square between her tits. Not that there was anything to see, given that her lime green robes started at her collarbones, but Percy closed his eyes. Ron caught Bill's eye and smirked.
"I'm fine," Percy insisted, his voice muffled in the Healer's dangling sleeve. "Take care of my sister."
"If she's not awake by the time I've taken care of you, I will."
"Healer Jackson—" Dad began.
"Leah, please. 'Healer Jackson' makes people look round for my dad." She continued prodding Percy's nose. "Does this hurt?"
"No."
"Frank Jackson?" Mum said.
"That's him."
"Why, he delivered Percy!"
The back of Percy's neck, which had been pink ever since his close proximity to Leah, turned a bright red.
"Was he born on a Saturday night or a Sunday morning?" Leah asked, looking up, her hands still on Percy's face, his face still in her chest.
Mum looked surprised. "Just before dawn on Sunday. How did you know?"
"Dad worked every Saturday night for years. He said the truly wild stuff only happened on Saturday nights. My mum always said he was a glutton for punishment."
"That's Percy, the family wild child," Ron said dryly.
Percy flung out one arm, which Ron sidestepped.
"What about this?" Leah said to Percy, now feeling around his left eye.
"No," Percy said, but he jerked away. "Ow!" He put one hand over that side of his face and glared up at her.
"I did ask," she said mildly.
"You didn't have to push so hard."
"You didn't have to lie," she answered. "I suppose you hit him too?" She looked at George again.
"That wasn't an accident."
Beside him, Bill felt Dad tense. Leah said nothing, just watched George for a moment, then tossed him Percy's ice pack. "Hold that," she ordered. She picked up her wand and in seconds erased all evidence of the fight from Percy's face. "Mrs. Weasley, the Skele-Gro, please."
"That's for Ginny," Percy said.
"I'm concerned you have a fractured orbit—the bones around your eye—and it's easier to give you a dose of Skele-Gro now than for you to have problems later. Not to mention your ribs are bruised." She laid a hand under Percy's left arm and he flinched.
"Easier for you, maybe," Percy grumbled.
Leah had pulled a medicine cup from her bag and held it at eye level to measure Percy's dose. She paused and looked down at Percy without moving her hands. "Don't tell me I'm going to have to wake your sister just so she can show you up."
Percy's mouth fell open in indignation, and Leah tipped the potion in. He sputtered and choked but swallowed, and Bill and Ron grinned.
"You have brothers, don't you?" Bill said.
"Nope," Leah said, using her wand to rinse the cup, then heat it and cool it for handling in quick succession. "Just a lot of stubborn male patients." She reached into her bag and pulled out a piece of Drooble's Best Blowing Gum.
Percy looked highly offended.
"It's the best thing I've found to help with the taste. Seriously."
"Ssit my turn yet?"
Everyone spun towards the table at Ginny's words, but Leah didn't look startled.
"I don't know about that, miss," she said lightly, bending over so Ginny could see her without moving. "What's your name?"
"Ginny Wea'lee."
"These brothers of yours have a nickname for you?"
"Gin-Gin."
Leah glanced up briefly to see smiles on everyone's faces.
"You mum tells me Percy was born on a Sunday morning. When would that have been?"
"Auguth twenny-thecon," Ginny said thickly. "'leven days aft' me. D'fren' year, though."
Leah smiled. It transformed her features completely. "He gave me a bit of a hard time with my exam, but you're not going to do that, are you?"
"Huh-uh."
"I know your head and your jaw hurt. Anything else?"
"Table's no' very com'f'bl." She was moving her jaw as little as possible.
"Well, we can fix that." Leah cast what Bill assumed was a nonverbal cushioning charm, for Ginny visibly relaxed. "Where are you, Ginny?" Leah used the lighted tip of her wand to examine Ginny's eyes.
"Home. Burrow. Kit-chen."
"Do you remember what happened?"
Her face clouded.
"It's okay, Gin-Gin," George said gently.
"Fight. Wou'n' thtop, 'n' I got hit. Acthden."
"Yes, I know it was an accident." She extinguished her wand. "Can you sit up for me?"
Ginny sat in one smooth, fluid movement, crossing her legs in front of her.
"Very good," Leah said.
It wasn't until Bill heard the relief in her voice that he realized she had been worried.
"Do you want the Skele-Gro first or last?"
Ginny held up one finger.
"Have you taken it before?"
"Sith brothers. Wha' you think?" Ginny didn't smile, but her eyes were dancing.
George twitched in his seat at the mistake, but Ginny didn't notice.
Leah laughed again, hard enough she had to drop her hands and calm herself before pouring the rest of Ginny's dose. Ginny swallowed the steaming potion in one gulp, made a highly unflattering face, and handed the cup back. After sterilizing it the same way she did the last time, Leah rummaged in her bag again and emerged with a Chocolate Frog. She broke off its head and gave it to Ginny.
"Let that melt in your mouth. It will help with the taste."
Leah continued her exam, asking Ginny to do everything from naming objects she put in her palm to balancing on one foot with her eyes closed. At last, she turned to Mum and smiled.
"Everything looks good. Someone should sleep with her tonight and tomorrow in case she has any problems. Him too," Leah added, jerking a thumb in Percy's direction. "But Ginny's jaw will be good as new by morning, and that injury freezing charm you performed was spot-on." She turned to Ginny. "Next time your brothers are fighting, I expect you to cast a good hex, young lady."
Ginny nodded, one hand against her aching jaw.
"Listen, we, uh—"
Bill started, having forgotten about Harry.
"We would really appreciate it if none of this appeared in the Daily Prophet tomorrow," Harry said quietly. It appeared he was trying to slip something into Leah's hand.
"If none of what appeared?" Leah said blankly.
Harry looked very uncomfortable. "You know, this." He waved his hand towards the table, then held it toward Leah again, and Bill saw the gold glint of a galleon.
"I'm sorry, sir," Leah said formally. "If you're asking me who I've treated this weekend, I can't give you that information. It's confidential." She looked Harry straight in the eye and waited, and finally, he gave her a small smile.
"What do we owe you, Healer Jackson?" Dad pulled his moneybag out of his robe pocket. "I don't carry much with me, but we have some extra stashed—"
"Oh, yes." Mum got up from the table.
"You don't owe me anything, Mr. Weasley."
Dad looked confused. "But you treated two of my children. One of whom was significantly injured. Just let me know—"
"It's nothing, really."
"But that's just nonsense," Mum said, returning with the jar that contained her household money. "We haven't had to have anyone to the house in years, thankfully, but I remember the house call fee used to be—"
"No, really," Leah said, looking embarrassed. "Please. It was my pleasure."
"It's your job," Bill said. "You deserve to be paid for it."
"How many heroes are in this room?" She paused, looking from one person to another. "You don't owe me anything."
And while they still stared open-mouthed at her, she stepped into the Floo and disappeared.
