Somewhere Deep In The Jungle…
Chapter 3
When the going get's tough…
Night Five – approximately 1am.
Harry poked at the campfire in the vain hope that the light might last a bit longer, he needed firewood but could not leave Ginny's side, for fear of what was lurking in the forest. He had summoned all the firewood in the area, using a handy spell, but now there was none left (that wasn't damp) and he needed light.
Choosing a clean T-shirt from his rucksack, he started tearing it in to two, dropping both halves into a large saucepan of water, which was slowly heating over the low fire. Next to him, lying unconscious was Ginny, muttering non-sense and shifting about in a fever, looking deathly pale. He started carefully attending her again, reaching for a piece of T-shirt, and swearing loudly when the water burned his hand.
Her skin was burning, and while wiping her face and neck gently, he pulled the thermometer out of her mouth, attempting to read it by the light of the small campfire.
It read;
'Too Hot!! Seek medical assistance immediately!'
Dropping the thermometer hastily in to his bag, he started to rip Ginny's robes off her in a desperate bid to cool her down. When she was in only her underwear, he picked her up easily in his arms and ran into the open tent, into the small bathroom. He gently laid her on the floor of the shower and switched it onto cold. Without any thought of his own robes getting wet, he sat under the freezing water, stroking tendrils of hair out of her face and wiping her forehead.
When she seemed to have cooled considerably, he took her back to the stretcher and threw his favourite thick blanket over her, to stop her temperature dropping too much. He replaced the thermometer back in her mouth, just as a small brown snake with strange makings on its head slithered up casually.
Harry knew the snakes name was Gaboon and that it was running a sort of security patrol around Harry's hastily built camp. A network of snakes seemed to be building through out the jungle, as word stretched of Harry's ability to speak to the scaly creatures. Which Harry discovered could work to his advantage - Gaboon informed him that there was a lot of noise in the North of the jungle, although their perceptions of distances were obviously quite different, Harry was hoping that once Ginny was in better health, that they go towards it in the hope of finding civilisation.
But the way Ginny's health was looking, that was not going to be anytime soon, if at all. Harry tucked Ginny up in the blankets, and folded another to sit on to watch her through the rest of the night, but he didn't make himself too comfortable, in the fear that he might fall asleep. He reached under the blankets for Ginny's hand and held on to it, as if holding on to her hand tightly might keep her alive.
He rested his forehead on the blanket, he been attending her constantly for more than several hours, days in fact. He tiredly reached for the thermometer in her mouth; he let out a sigh of relief when he read 'Normal Temperature.' He relaxed next to her bed, letting himself feel the familiar torment of lack of sleep. He looked at her calm face, the gentle in takes of breath and felt a little respite of fear.
Harry wasn't sure how long he sat staring at her, his eyes tracing the familiar freckles, fiery hair and small nose that made up Ginny Weasley.
'Ron's little sister, your best friend's little sister' he kept repeating to himself, almost like a mantra, in an attempt to bury feelings he thought he had no right to have. Nevertheless, he came to wonder what his life would be like without her, certainly a lot quieter he mused smiling, but not nearly as pleasant. He wondered who could want to hurt such a giving person – powerful, yes – but so kind-hearted. His thoughts turned very dark as anger and adrenaline rushed through him at the thought of someone hurting Ginny, the idea that someone could make Ginny ill, tormenting him and feeling of helplessness returned full force.
But while his thoughts span out of control, his body demanded rest and before he knew it, he was asleep.
* * *
Day Six – 12:22 pm
Harry felt a hand brush through his hair gently, and a smile tugged at his lips. He was quite content to lay there resting, his body waking slowly from it's deep sleep but the sound of running water and the heavy patter of rain on his head roused him. He opened his eyes and blinked, pushes his glasses up his nose to discover that he'd been laying for sometime on Ginny's stomach. He looked into her tired brown eyes, and the smile that had been tugging at his lip grew at seeing her awake.
"Ginny," he said gently, "How are you feeling?"
"Like I ran a marathon," she said, her voice cracking with disuse. Chuckling he looked up through the gap in the canvas, and using his wand stopped the heavy rain from falling on them. He pottered around happily tidying up and drying things off, the combination of rest and the health of Ginny lightening his mood significantly. Although on some level he recognised that he had failed her slightly by falling asleep, and he also knew that if he had ever got his hands on the culprits of her illness he'd do some serious damage.
It was almost three days since she had fallen ill and he realised that the week long celebrations would have started by now. He thought about sending another signal in to the sky to alert the old members of the Order of Phoenix to his presence, but if his gut feeling was right and someone was out to get them… Would a signal lead them straight to them?
Over the next day, Ginny's health returned rapidly, surprising Harry and leaving him a little wary. He kept waiting for her to keel over, resulting in him constantly watching her like a hawk, much to her eternal annoyance.
"If someone is after us, we should start walking," she argued.
"Ginny, less than twenty four hours ago you were on your death bed!" he said, voice rising, "Do you seriously think I'm going to just let you work yourself to death again?"
"I'm fine! It was some sort of spell or potion that has worn off, and we should keep moving!" she said voice rising too.
He couldn't argue with that train of thought, but nevertheless, he was not giving up that easily. He was starting to wonder what happened to the quiet passive Ginny from yesterday, but was silently enjoying sparring with her again.
"Ginny, look…" but he was interrupted, by the arrival of a very large snake. As they'd argued they had unconsciously started moving towards each other, and the sudden appearance of the snake next to her, caused Ginny to jump slightly and clutch hold of Harry's arm.
"Sssomething wrong?" asked the snake, raising it's head level with Harry's.
"No," answered Harry, moving in front of a hypnotised Ginny.
"Sssnake friend'sss mate isss well again?" asked the snake, indicating Ginny with a nod of its head.
"Mate? Oh yesss," said Harry, a grin spreading across his face, "Ssshe'sss fine thank you. Wasss there anything else?"
"Sssnake friend make lot'sss of noise,"
"Oh, we were just having a minor disssagreement," answered Harry, slightly embarrassed that they had been over heard, "but we're fine thanks."
"Ssstrange human's," said the snake, shaking its head and sliding away with a quick nod at Ginny.
Harry chuckled and Ginny stood there looking shocked, "Did that snake just nod at me?"
"Erm, yes" said Harry.
"What did it say?"
"Oh it just wanted to know if we were alright,"
"What? Why?" she asked watching Harry.
"Well it heard a lot of noise from someone that should be taking it easy," said Harry, raising an eyebrow.
"Why would you need to be taking it easy?" she countered, causing him to shot her a disapproving look.
Eventually they settled on starting off tomorrow if Ginny hadn't shown anymore signs of illness. And Ginny didn't show any signs of getting worse.
*Disclaimer - It's not mine, Never will be!*