Second of all, I'd like to thank my reviewers: DarkMoonDragon, Fredrick, Dark-angel, gibson girl, Saturn's Hikari, Sache8, Josephine, elven sapphire, and Mats Forsen.
Btw, Josephine - she didn't know her before. Tom got the idea in her fourth year. It just says that after we meet Rebecca; at that point, I was just sort of writing it, and I forgot to add that into the prologue. Sorry if it was confusing.
Anyway, in this chapter...well, they get to the hospital wing, and something happens to Ginny... It might change actually, and I'm hesistant about posting it (I haven't heard from my beta yet :{), but it's been...*counts on fingers* two weeks. So here it is. *The song will be important later.
Disclaimer: In addition to Harry Potter, I unfortunately do not own "I Will Wait For You" by Astrud Gilberto. Enjoy.
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Chapter Six
Don't Cry
For the first time in what seemed like a long time, Ginny glanced over at her friend as if she were completely out of her mind.
"Becky --" she said, not daring to raise her voice. Becky interrupted.
"No," she said sharply and quietly. Kneeling down, she picked up Daphne's left arm, checking her pulse in her wrist.
"Her pulse is kind of fast," she said absently, dropping the arm abruptly to the ground and preparing to lift her shoulders. "Come give me a hand."
Quite numbly, Ginny pulled out her wand, silently conjured a stretcher, and went to help get Daphne onto it. Still, she retorted.
"You didn't mean to, Becky," Ginny persuaded silently.
"But I did," said Becky sadly, looking at her friend with a serious expression. "Yes, I feel absolutely horrible about it, believe me...but I did it. That's what matters."
"Well..." said Ginny, trying to think something to say. She couldn't just let her best friend go through this type of thing alone. Especially if Daphne really wasn't alright. They were both involved in some way or another; they were in this together, no matter who did what. That's what friends were for.
"Maybe it wasn't all you," said Ginny, voice breaking nervously. Her knees buckled slightly as they picked up the girl and put her on the stretcher. She avoided looking at her face, a serious of small scrapes and one fairly big one scattered across her cheek. "I may have accidentally...nudged her when getting free --"
"Ginny, I pulled you two apart, and I sent her flying down the stairs!" said Rebecca, seeming to get a bit annoyed. "That's what you tell them."
Ginny looked at her, somewhat shocked and displeased at her aggravated tone. But there was another thought on her mind.
"What do you mean I'll tell them?" asked Ginny curiously, using her wand to make the stretcher hover above the ground. "Where will you be? This is no time to be disappearing on me again."
Becky looked at her, seeming somewhat taken aback. "I just meant that that's the story," she explained, still somewhat put off. "Just tell them the truth, okay?"
Again, they exchanged looks for a long moment. Finally, Ginny sighed with a small nod.
Not saying anything further, they started out of the tower, looking around corners first to make sure the coast was clear. Unlike so many locations in the castle, Ginny knew the way to the hospital ward by heart, where Harry often ended up at least once a year (and at the end of the year, it was almost guaranteed, Ginny noted).
And soon enough, she saw that familiar glow coming through ajar doors into the corridor. She looked to her side to see that Becky was still there and felt a twinge of relief.
Walking into the hospital wing, they saw a few others in the beds, most likely sick from some winter illness. Madame Pomfrey was attending one of her patients when they entered and looked up when they did.
If it hadn't been attached to her face, her jaw surely would've fallen to the floor. Her hands instantly covered her mouth as she hurried over.
"Oh, dear!" she gasped, waking a few of the resting patients in the room. Fearing the worst, Ginny gently set the stretcher on the marble ground.
"What happened?" said Madame Pomfrey in utter alarm, frantically checking Daphne's pulse.
"S-she fell down the stairs --" said Ginny, unable to finish before an equally panicky nurse interrupted her.
"Quick, dear," she said, preparing to lift up Daphne's shoulders. "Help me get her onto this bed. Careful...that's right..."
Again, Ginny helped lift the girl off the floor and onto the nearest bed, cautiously setting her down. Still, there wasn't so much as one movement from the still figure, who had become even paler.
Taking her wand out of her robes, Madame Pomfrey quickly muttered "Lumos," and peeled back Daphne's eyelids, looking at her pupils.
"She fell down the stairs, you say?" said Pomfrey, moving on to the other eye and not waiting for a response. "Did she trip and fall, or...what happened?"
Ginny automatically cast a side-glance at her best friend.
She's still there.
And slowly, Becky nodded, her face completely series. Ginny sighed dismally and nervously and began to explain.
"Y-you see," she stammered, wringing her robes with languid fingers, "We were outside our dormitory, and she, Daphne, thought I wasn't...that I wasn't feeling well, and she took my hand. Then Becky pulled us apart and she...lost her balance."
Madame Pomfrey shook her head sadly, putting out her wand light and placing her wand on the table beside the bed. Carefully, she turned Daphne onto her side and began examining her neck and back. Gently feeling around the nape of her neck, Madame Pomfrey's forehead creased with worry.
"Oh, dear, this can't be good at all..." she murmured.
Ginny's eyes widened. "What is it?"
"This other girl that you speak of, who was there," asked Madame Pomfrey, looking up, "what was her name?"
She glanced once again at Rebecca, who glanced back at her, looking even paler than before. Ginny decided to speak for her. She cleared her throat.
"Rebecca Cwalino," said Ginny quietly, motioning slightly to Becky. She heard a small, inward sigh from her. "She's a transfer --" She stopped abruptly. All of a sudden, she felt lightheaded. So, so lightheaded. And then, after a few seconds, an intense wave of pain. She clenched her eyes shut in distress.
Faintly she heard Madame Pomfrey's apprehensive voice drift to her ear.
"Ginny?"
She couldn't respond. Her teeth were shut firmly together. Her pulse quickened as the room became warmer.
It only got worse. What's going on? she thought in utter confusion and shock, her hands instantly on her head and clutching her hair in a vain attempt to stop the aching inside. What's happening to me?
The pain continued to surge. It quickly spread from her head to her neck and back, her arms and legs, her chest and stomach. Something like migraines and ulcers and hernias at the same time. She was almost too numb to feel herself collapse to the ground. The new stinging in her body felt like icicles were being driven into her skin.
Make it stop... make it stop...
And then, after what was only a minute but seemed like the longest time, everything went black. She lay on the floor, as motionless as Daphne.
Hours passed. Still, she was unconscious to the things happening around her or to her, aside from those that took place inside her own mind. What happened was news to her; she later guessed, after the nurse told her what happened, that she had hit the ground pretty hard and hit a nerve.
But right now, her head was empty. Blissfully empty. And then, there was a soft, distant humming sound. It slowly became clearer. It was a young girl's voice, and it sounded strangely familiar. Ginny realized the girl was singing, slow and sad. A little while later, the words were more distinct.
If it takes forever, I will wait for you
For a thousand summers, I will wait for you
Till you're back beside me, till I'm holding you
Till I hear you sigh here in my arms
Still without sight, Ginny's mental eyebrow raised. She'd been terribly confused for a good portion of the evening, and this made things no different. The girl continued.
Anywhere you wander, anywhere you go
Everyday, remember how I love you so
In your heart, believe what in my heart I know
That forever more, I'll wait for you
The time will tick away the hours, one by one
And then the time will come when all the waiting's done
The time when you return and find me here and run
Straight to my waiting arms...
Her voice seemed to morph into a deeper tone as it faded back into the darkness. Ginny lay in silence for the rest of the night, never waking meanwhile.
"Is she okay, though?" said another distant, familiar voice much later.
"She seems fine, but I still don't know what's wrong," said another voice, a woman. "Fainting can be applied to almost any illness or condition, but that's really the only symptom of...of anything that we can detect right now. But if you could please just..."
The woman trailed off as Ginny's eyes began to flit open. Gradually, she managed to finally open them against the bright afternoon sun. Her vision was blurry at first, her eyelids drooped lazily over her eyelids.
Where am I? she thought, feeling tired out and dreadfully heavy. She could barely move onto her side to view her surroundings, when she then became aware of several particularly sensitive spots on her body. She winced somewhat and lied back down again.
Looking toward the direction in which she'd heard the voice, which was near the door, she saw a rather flustered Madame Pomfrey and an aggravated Harry. It took her a few moments to process her location and why she was there, nonetheless what was happening at the other end of the hospital wing.
But now that she was waking, the other people in the hospital wing peered at her, a look of surprise on both of their faces.
A surprised look came over her own face as she watched Harry push past Madame Pomfrey and hurried over to her. The nurse threw up her hands in surrender, shaking her head, and tended to another one of her ill patients.
"Ginny," he said in profound relief, placing a hand on hers. Ginny winced at the sudden sharp pain in her wrist, and Harry immediately withdrew.
"Sorry," he said quietly with a kind smile. Weakly, she returned it and gave him a dismissive shrug.
"It's probably nothing," responded Ginny, her voice out of tune.
"Really?" replied Harry with a slight smirk. "It looks like it's been bandaged pretty heavily."
Ginny's eyebrow scrunched as she picked up her hand and looked at the thick wrapping around it, her fingers looking stubbier than usual as they poked out. Her eyebrows then rose in mild interest.
"So it is," she groaned, gently lowering it back down to the bed. "Why am I in here?"
Harry stared at her oddly. "I was about to ask you that," he said quietly. "You don't remember?"
She looked up at him. "Do you know?"
Harry frowned and shook his head slowly. Ginny then looked away toward the ceiling as if it held the answers. Momentarily she closed her eyes, trying to remember back to when she and Rebecca brought in Daphne. And then there was Daphne.
"I remember," she began, "bringing in Daphne with Rebecca last night. You know, Daphne Trent, one of the Prefects for fifth year?"
Harry didn't really answer the question but responded. "You brought her last night?" he said in a low voice. "You've been here since yesterday, Gin."
Ginny's eyes widened. "Yesterday?" she whispered in disbelief.
"Mm-hmm. I came by three or four times. You were sleeping."
She didn't respond immediately, taking in that she'd been sleeping for over a day. She'd never even fainted before.
But what about everyone else?
"Is Daphne alright?" she asked softly, not expecting Harry to wince and motion a few beds down. But that's what he did.
Oh, my God. That can't be her.
She turned her head to look at poor Daphne, still unconscious. Her neck was in a cast; oxygen tubes trailed from her nose into an automated breathing device, though the scrapes on her cheeks had eventually become scabs. Ginny's bandaged hand flew to her mouth, her heart sinking in guilt.
"What's wrong with her?" she asked.
Not answering right away, he walked up to the bed and looked at the chart. He winced again, this one more dramatic than before.
"Concussion and a spinal injury," he said glumly. Her heart sinking even lower, she buried her face in her hands. In simple denial, she shook her head, horrible feeling sweeping over her. Harry, seeming to sense this, returned to her side, putting a hand of her shoulder. Before she knew it, she had begun to weep.
But she soon felt a pair of warm hands tugging her hands away from her face. Through her silent tears, she could see Harry staring down at her.
"The chart says 'fair condition'," he said reassuringly. "She should be out in no time. Don't cry."
She continued, and this time, she spoke. "I never liked her," she said almost incoherently with a trembling voice. "She was always Ms. Popular, Ms. Perfect. Now look what I've done." Her shoulders shook as her hands went back to her face. She could feel Harry's inquiring eyes.
"You pushed her down the stairs?" he said cautiously. And just like that, she paused.
No. No, she hadn't pushed her down the stairs. Why did she just say it was her?
"No," she said after a minute, her tone clearer. She withdrew her hands from her face. "I didn't push her. Might as well have, but I didn't. But it was still an accident, and neither of us meant for it to happen. Becky was just trying to tell her I was fine, and --"
Wait a minute...
"Has Becky come by at all?" she queried, her tears halted. "Where is she?"
Harry shrugged in answer to both of her questions. He said the exact same thing he had said in Gladrags not long ago.
"I haven't seen her around."
**************************************************************************Well, yay, another chapter. The seventh is in progress; I'm trying my hardest to keep by hand off of the game controller to the Xbox, trust me. It probably won't be that long off a wait (I almost beat the game, anyway), but if it is, just keep an eye out. Thanks for reading :).
