Chapter 5: Marathon of the Monkeys

Medea woke up in the hospital wing hours later. She yawned and stretched lazily as though she had just awoken from a deep and comforting slumber. By looking at her one would not have guessed that she had pushed herself to her limits just the night before. Only her surroundings would suggest that she was not as strong as she appeared. Medea herself seemed oblivious to the events of the previous night as she snuggled into her blankets even more. She had no intention to give up her well-deserved laziness.

Medea had not, in fact, forgotten what had happened and why she was in the hospital wing. She remembered it all in her analytical way. That is, everything that her current half-asleep state allowed. She knew she was recovering fast. It was her pride in her family's quick healing abilities that allowed her to smile to herself in triumph. Most other people would not be able to wake after such a short period of time. But she knew that she must not act too soon. It was not the first time she had worked herself to exhaustion and she knew that if she did not let herself recover fully now, she might regret it latter.

With a last stretch Medea prepared herself for additional sleep but was surprised to find something weighing down her blankets towards the end of the bed. It was then that she became aware of the soft rhythmic breathing sound that came from the same direction. Medea reached out and gently pulled the silky material of the sleeping body at the foot of her bed revealing a head of wavy hair the color of rust. Medea smiled to herself and decided to wake the girl.

"Ginny, you have a bed of your own, dear, I'm sure you'll be more comfortable there," Medea said softly.

Ginny sighed slightly but did not wake up. Instead she turned her head to the other direction. Medea tried again and this time was a little more successful. Ginny opened her eyes slightly and tried to locate the source of the voice she was hearing. When she saw Medea wide-awake she sat up suddenly letting the rest of the invisibility cloak fall to the floor.

"Well that's better," Medea said cheerfully, "I can see you are more than a head. And those are really nice pajamas."

Ginny blushed. "I was worried," she said in a small voice, "I couldn't sleep until I can here to see you."

"I'm perfectly fine." Medea's expression changed into a worried one, "But how are you doing? That must have been a horrible fright."

Ginny shuddered and looked down. "I wanted to thank you. You saved my life."

Medea sat up but as she did her blanket slid down to reveal a red nightgown. With a shriek Medea was out of bed. "What is this?! It's red! I don't wear red!" She snapped her fingers in an attempt to change her clothes but her powers were not back yet.

"I guess Madame Pomfry saw that Gryffindor students brought you in, so she gave you a Gryffindor nightgown." Ginny found it hard to conceal her amusement.

Medea ran to the closet where the gowns were kept and snatched a Ravenclaw one. "She wouldn't!" Medea said in horror, "She would know better." Going behind a curtain she switched as fast as he could and threw the red gown away, barely noticing its similarity to the blue gown she wore just the night before. She walked back to the bed with dignity and sat down heavily, enjoying the bounciness of the mattress.

"I did nothing of the sort," she continued the conversation as though nothing had interrupted it. "You should thank Crookshanks, I had nothing to do with it." Medea's voice was stern, "And Harry would have saved you anyway."

Ginny just stared at Medea. She did not believe a word Medea said. True it was Crookshanks who got rid to the snake but Hermione tended to keep Crookshanks in her room and he was not found in the Common Room often. And Ginny could tell that Harry had been too scared to hit her and would not have dealt with the snake. Even more than that, she knew that Medea could tell as well.

Medea was surprised by Ginny's disbelief, then a look of understanding crossed her face.

"Tell me, Ginny," Medea broke the silence, "How much do you know about my family?"

Ginny shrugged. "Only what they tell little kids before bedtime, not much."

Medea nodded. "I bet you remember every word. Tell me what you remember."

"Not much," Ginny lied. She did in fact remember everything. She loved the stories; they were the only ones she loved to hear, but she was so surprised by Medea's statement that she did not know how to react. Now it was Medea's turn to stare at Ginny and Ginny shrunk back from her gaze.

"I remember always being told that you are not one to anger and mother always said that your stare could probably crack stone," Ginny said softly and Medea laughed. "You are descendents of the five spirits of creation who helped your ancestor to marry the prince, the love of her life. It was very romantic. When they agreed to help her they merged into her or something like that and so all her children have powers. Am I right?" Ginny looked up, and Medea nodded. Ginny took a big breath and continued, "Boys have strength and girls are telekinetic, meaning they can move objects without touching them as long as the object is not alive. The girls need to use some kind of movement to release this power; it doesn't come from thought alone. That's how you brought the basket last night. Other than that you all have very acute hearing and you have a lot of the animal characteristic you represent. You can talk to your animal too. There was also something about flying but mother was never very sure about it. I didn't believe what she told about that." Ginny stopped to take another deep breath and then looked up at Medea for approval.

Medea was silent for a moment and then she spoke softly. "You forgot something. You forgot that we have the ability to hide what we do not want to be known. In a way to make people see things the way we do, but not exactly. It's more like, if I don't want someone to know something, mainly about me, they will be unaware of it. I guess you can say it's a talent for secrets"

"I didn't know about that."

"I didn't think you did," Medea said reassuringly, "It's not very well known. People would not trust us at all if it were." Ginny nodded her understanding. "We only use it when we feel it would be best, such power should not be used lightly," Medea continued, "Mostly we use it when we do not want our identity known, people would recognize us otherwise. A detailed description of our appearance isn't hard to find, I bet you knew who I was when I walked through the door of the great hall, you just weren't completely aware of it. We do not always want special treatment. Sometimes we want to be treated like any other person would be. That's why I used it today."

Ginny looked into Medea's eyes. Medea was telling the truth, but she couldn't be. Dumbledore had recognized her. And now that Ginny thought about it, she may have recognized her too. She shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts. "But then how did Dumbledore recognize you?"

"When we were given the capability, the spirits foresaw how it might be used for evil. They could not leave such an imbalance. So they created the Listeners. These are people who among other things can see through our skill. We do not know how the skill is passed, it's not through the bloodline like our skills, but we do know that at the time one of them dies, a new one is born. We do not keep track of them and do not know who they are. There are a few known ones. Dumbledore is a strong one. What I do know is that I intended you to believe it was not due to me that your life was saved last night."

~*~

A few small notes:

*first of all I would like to thank the people that reviewed my story. I love you all! And I love reviews. Good ones, bad ones, one's with much randomness… anything goes.

*Second thing is that would like to appologize for the Msness, but since Medea is a real character for me (though I had to make a few discrepencies from the actual girl because of age issues) and I know who she's going to marry, how many girls she's going to have, her whole life basically, she is not going to fall madly in love with Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Draco Malfoy or any other random character that belongs to JKR. yeah... I just had this weird vision of her landing on the Hogwarts roof after something that will be explained in the next chapter I believe and this is what developed. Oh and she doesn't fight Voldemort.... her family is supposed to be nutral... (yeah! like the UN... ouch!)