When Ginny went back to work after Christmas it seemed that the number of wounded became heavier everyday. "Are we losing Poppy, and everyone is afraid to tell us?" she asked Madame Pomfrey, who had finally insisted that she call her by her first name, since Ginny was no longer a student at Hogwarts.
"No, we're winning, but it's always darkest before the dawn, Ginny. I don't look for things to slow down anytime soon."
The biggest surprise came when Hermione announced about three months later that she was pregnant. Evidently, Ron's visit at Christmas for just a few hours had been more than enough.
"Isn't there some way you can get word to Ron, Arthur?" Molly asked on one of Arthur's rare nights at home.
"Molly, believe me, if I could, I would. It's just too dangerous. We'd be endangering the whole division if we dared send an owl. We want the boy to come home to see his child, don't we?" he said.
So Ginny and Molly offered all the love and support they could for Hermione as stomach grew and Ron remained blithely unaware that he was about to be a father.
One good thing happened though. Cho Chang, who had signed on to be a courier for the troops, and Ginny became friends. Things had always been awkward for the two of them. First Ginny had been besotted with Harry when Harry was besotted with Cho. Then Cho had become enamored of Harry the year that Harry had noticed Ginny was alive. It had all worked out fine in the end, Ginny had Draco now, and Harry and Cho had finally managed to get together, but things were still a bit tense for the two girls. Then one day, when Cho was picking up first aid supplies from the hospital to take to a division that was about to go out on mission, she and Ginny had run into each other.
"Cho! Good to see you! Here let me help you with all that." Taking some of the packages Cho was trying to balance in one hand while she attempted to tie another stack to the back of her broom with the other.
"Ginny, thanks. I guess they don't realize that a broom can only carry so much weight." Said Cho, gratefully.
"Cho, I don't mean to be nosy, but have you heard from Harry" Ginny asked.
"No, I haven't." said Cho, turning around to face Ginny. "Have you? Or from Draco or one of your brothers?"
"No, not a peep from anyone. Hermione either. I was hoping, with you being a courier that maybe you had some connections the rest of us didn't. We really need to get a message to Ron. Hermione is pregnant." Said Ginny to the dark haired girl.
"Pregnant! How wonderful! Oh how awful too, for Ron not to know! Oh Ginny, I wish I did have some connection to them. I'd tell you if I did. I know things have been... odd for the two of us but Harry thinks of all of you as family, and I'd really like to be friends." Cho said to Ginny.
Ginny smiled. "We consider Harry family too Cho. And I'd like to be friends too. What do you say we put the past behind us? After all, it looks like you'll be marrying into the family anyway, sooner or later!"
Cho leaned over her broomstick towards Ginny and said conspiringly. "Just between you and me, I intend it to be sooner than later, Harry Potter just doesn't know that yet!"
Ginny laughed and watched the other girl speed off on her broom.
About five months afterward, Ginny and Hermione were in the lab one day, eying a vial of green fluid.
"I can't think of anything else we could possibly do." Hermione said, hand on her rather large stomach.
"Me neither "replied Ginny. "If this isn't it, we'll never have it."
"There's only one thing left to do" said Hermione, looking at Ginny.
"Yes. We have to test it on a person." Said Ginny, nodding.
"But who?" asked Hermione.
"I don't know." Said Ginny. "We can't ask a patient to take our experiment. If it did something horrible, Poppy'd throw us both out on our ears."
"It worked fine on Felix." Said Hermione, eyeing the large black cat in the corner of the room.
A very mean little wizard had subjected Felix to the Cruciatus curse. By the time he had been caught, Felix was quite mad. That's what happened when someone was subjected to Cruciatus for extended lengths of time, or repeatedly. You went mad. That was why Neville Longbottom's parents had lived in the metal ward of the hospital for the last twenty years.
"There's only one thing to do." Said Hermione, determinedly. "One of us will have to take the potion."
"What good will that do?" asked Ginny. "We haven't had Cruciatus used on us."
"No, but Felix proves it works on the curse. We just need to be sure it doesn't kill people. Even if it doesn't have the same effects on people for the curse as it does on cats, nothing will have been lost. We just need to make sure it doesn't kill anyone." Decided Hermione, out loud.
"Nothing lost?" Ginny said indignantly. "Only months of research and sleepless nights in this lab."
"I'll take it." Hermione said, reaching for the vial.
Ginny snatched it out of her hand. "You most certainly will not! Hermione, really. What about the baby?"
"Well someone's got to take it! I didn't spend all this time in this lab with swollen ankles and an aching back for nothing!" said Hermione.
"I'll do it!" Ginny said and turned up the vial of green liquid to her mouth before she could change her mind.
The girls looked at each other.
"Well, I'm not dead. I don't feel funny. Do I look peculiar in any way Hermione?" Ginny asked after a moment or two.
"No," said Hermione. "We should both stay at the hospital tonight. So we can record any side effects you may have. And.... just in case."
A few days later, Ginny was standing in the reception area of the hospital, talking to the family of a patient. There was a loud popping sound and Ginny looked up from her clipboard and saw Severus Snape standing in the middle of the room, and at his feet was a bleeding unconscious Draco Malfoy.
"NURSE!" Ginny screamed, dropping her clipboard and running to the two men. Quickly a stretcher was hovered out and Draco was loaded on to it as Ginny examined him to find out where all the blood was coming from. Another nurse hustled along Professor Snape behind them.
Once they had gotten Draco onto the examining table, Ginny rolled him onto his stomach, as it seemed that he was bleeding from his back. She quickly cut away his shirt. Then she sucked in her breath. Draco's back was a mass of bloody meat, with no skin visible.
"They wouldn't stop with the whip. I got him out just a soon as they turned their backs long enough. They would have killed him. I had to get him out." Severus Snape said, then he quietly fainted.
Ginny stopped long enough to call for another nurse to get Snape up off the floor and into a bed, then she took out her wand and began to work. She chanted spell after spell, charm after charm, and mixed potion after potion. Madame Pomfrey came running when she heard and together the two of them worked through most of the afternoon, till Draco's back had been healed and the blood he lost magically started regenerating.
When Severus Snape awoke, he found Ginny standing over him, administering a spell to his arm. She smiled when she saw his eyes open and said, "Professor, glad to have you with us. In all the bloodiness of Draco's back, no one noticed your arm had been hurt. You should have said something. Did they hit you with a bone crusher?"
"Yes, I believe so." Snape said, looking over at Draco in the bed next to him, still unconscious. "Is Malfoy going to live?"
Ginny smiled, glancing over at Draco's sleeping form. "Yes he is. He's lost a lot of blood, and his back is going to hurt for quite a while, but he'll live. Thanks to you."
"The imbecile! He managed to bungle his way into getting captured. Zabini had no intention of letting him go. If I hadn't been afraid they were going to kill him, I'd have left him to rot."
"Yes, Professor." Ginny said, mocking seriousness. She grinned at Snape.
"Miss Weasley, I am compelled to ask. Why is it that you seem to... like ....me, despite the fact that most of your fellow students and friends think of me. ...Unkindly." Snape asked, watching her closely.
"Perhaps Professor, you remind me of someone else." Ginny said, glancing once again at Draco. "Someone who just needs someone to love him as he is. Someone whose bark is much worse than their bite."
"I assure you Miss Weasley, my bite is just as vicious as my bark." Said Snape, looking affronted.
Ginny grinned at him again, causing him to snort. "Yes Professor."
"Let me ask you a question now, Professor." Ginny said, as she finished her administrations to Snape's arm. "Why do you seem to like him?" She nodded towards the sleeping blond. "Most folks see him as a nasty little ferret. What do you see?"
Snape looked over at the young man. "He reminds me of someone else too Miss Weasley. Someone I knew a long time ago."