Somewhere Deep In The Jungle

Chapter Two

 

Things Get Worse.

That Night.

During the night, Harry got up from bed to check the protective spells he placed around the tent. The feeling that they were in danger wouldn't leave him, it kept nagging him so that eventually he had decided to do a quick security check.

Ginny slept on, exhausted from the long day, but outside the tent Harry found a hive of activity continuing. Standing outside the door of their tent and listening carefully to the activity of the night, periodically swatting away bugs, Harry caught a conversation continuing in a bush.


 "You know, I knows sssomeone who sssayss their clutch brother was killed by Not-Sso-Nice-Sssnake-Friend," said one voice.

 "What? The Not-Sso-Nice-Sssnake-Friend," said the second voice.


"Yep. He sssaysss Not-Sso-Nice-Sssnake-Friend isss dead," replied the first voice mysteriously.

 "Everyone knowsss Not-Sso-Nice-Sssnake-Friend isss dead..." answered the second voice.

 "Do not!" cried the first voice disbelievingly.

"Yesss ay do. Nice-Sssnake-Friend in 'ere killed him.Didn't 'e" said the second voice.

 "You two better be watching for evil. Or elssse," entered a third voice.

"Yesss Sssnake Massster," answered two voices simultaneously.

"Sssee what you gone an done," hissed the first voice.

 "Me? You're on my ssside on the tent!" cried the second voice angrily.


Harry heard the first voice mumble something, and a very long, large snake slithered past his foot. He realised that the snakes were protecting him and, smiling made his way back to bed.

Day Two – Approximately 9:00 am

Harry woke up in the darkness of the tent, wondering what had woken him so abruptly. He stretched over in his bed to light the lamp using his wand and turning in his camp bed slowly to avoid falling out, looked at Ginny who was murmuring loudly in her sleep and fighting with her blankets. Harry thought he heard the words 'Charlie, oranges' and 'tree' before Ginny rolled over to far and fell out of her bed with a soft thump.

He heard further muttering from behind the small bed before Ginny's head re-appeared, she looked slightly dazed at first, but as her vision became more focused she noticed Harry looking at her with amusement.

"Ouch," she said flatly, to which Harry burst out laughing. Ginny sighed and shock her head as Harry continued to laugh loudly in his bed, but a small smile played across her lips as she observed him.

She picked up a pillow from the floor and threw it at Harry, then started to drag herself towards the small bathroom. She heard the pillow hit its target full force ending Harry's laughter as catching the pillow caused Harry to over balance and fall out of his camp bed, much to Ginny's amusement.

"Good Morning, Harry," she said loudly going in to the bathroom. As she shut the door something soft thumped against it, which Ginny suspiciously thought was a pillow.

* * *

Harry and Ginny where ready to leave at 10 : 00 am; after having argued over how long Ginny took in the bathroom, what they were going to have for breakfast and where they had left the map the previous evening.

Having briefly studied the map, both agreed that they would continue searching for a river so that they could follow it up stream and hopefully come across any sort of human life.

So they started to move slowly through the dense jungle, bags strapped to their backs, wand in one hand and hacking knife in the other, cutting away foliage. 

The heat made the task of moving along seem more tiresome and longer than it actually was, so that all their efforts went into continuing forward and very little conversation was possible. The smell of rotting debris on the forest floor made it all the more unbearable and the humidity caused the air itself to seem thick and heavy. Their clothes stuck to them and seemed restrictive, and with only one bottle of bug repellent between them for an indefinite amount of time, rationing had to be employed. So while they had a relatively bug free morning, the afternoon was an all-you-can-eat buffet.

Ginny was starting to feel no better then yesterday, in fact she felt a little worse, after a deep sleep followed by nightmares she was feeling emotionally drained as well as physically. She craved her own warm bed after a long hot, steamy, bubbly, herb-scented bath. She didn't think that was too much to ask for. Her muscles ached with every simple movement, her head was pounding, the heat was suffocating her, and even with a lightening charm, the bag strapped to her back weighed the same as a small rhinoceros.

But what annoyed Ginny most of all was that every little scrape or bang felt so much worse just because she was feeling a little under the weather and little movements seemed to require supreme effort. So while continuing to march on behind Harry, ignoring her protesting body, the only thing that kept her moving was the thought that just because the war was over she wasn't going to go soft. She didn't pay much attention to her surroundings, she kept her eyes fixed on her target – Harry, and trundled along unconsciously.

Which was probably why she didn't see the buttress root.

She flew forward and grabbed hold of a dangling vine. While this reduced her speed toward the ground, it didn't, unfortunately, stop it. She ended up falling face first into a pile of leaves and what ever else was on the canopy floor, the contents of which she did not want to know.

She gave a groan as the impact of the floor vibrated through her body, she rolled over and stared up at the canopy of leaves. Harry's head entered her field of vision above her, but instead of laughing, he looked worried as he gazed down at her.

"Hi," she croaked, he kept his face neutral as reached down and put the back of his hand on her forehead. He moved away and Ginny heard him curse as he fought with his pack, she heard a zip go and then something heavy clank on to the floor next to her. She didn't have the energy to get up and see what he was doing so it was a few minutes before he returned into her view and started to undo the straps on her bag.

"What are you doing?" she asked quietly.

"Can you sit up?" he asked frowning at her.

"Of course, just give me a few minutes." She said closing her eyes.

"Gin…" he muttered, "You look like Death."

"I try," she said sarcastically.

"I'm serious," he said.

"Oh please, stop." she replied flatly.

"If we make camp, you can lay down for a bit – do we have any medical supplies?" he said ignoring her comment.

"Yes, there's some in my bag, but-"

"We can't camp here, we'll find somewhere where the grounds more even. I can't believe you didn't say you were feeling ill! Can you make it to a camp? Get up." he rattled off so quickly that Ginny had trouble following.

"What?" she asked stupidly

"Do you want me to carry you?" he asked more slowly.

"Of course not! I'm not dying!" she said defensibly. The look that he gave her said he thought otherwise.

"Well then, get up." He reasoned. She gave him a dirty look before concentrating her effort on sitting up, she heaved herself up – much to her dismay she felt the earth start to spin and then Harry's arms around her steadying her. "All right, I've got you," he said softly.

She tried to sit down again, but he fought with her and made her stay on her feet; the result of which was Ginny holding on tightly to Harry for support.

"Okay, just lean against this tree, I'll see if we have a stretcher." He rested her against a tree and started searching for a stretcher, eventually he found one in Ginny's bag and was able to lie her down.

"I'm all right." She said, laying back. "Just dizzy."

He levitated the stretcher above the ground, at waist height and leaned over Ginny. To his eyes, she was deathly white, she had a temperature and she was laying back with her eyes shut, breathing lightly. He felt his heart clench; she wasn't at all well. They were hundreds of miles from anywhere, he had no idea what was wrong with her, and even scarier – he had no idea what to do about it.

Author's note – Thanks you to Amy for her beta services and to anyone who reviewed my last chapter! Much appreciated! And to Aranel for making me write chapter 2! Anyone who has ever been to the rainforest, leave a review please and help me make my fic more accurate!!