In which Tabitha has a long afternoon

Or

In which Tabitha's stomach turns green.

Chapter Four:

"I think that Quidditch would be a fine idea!"

I raised an eyebrow, "Quidditch? Oh, you mean the board game that you were playing yesterday?"

Ginny smiled, "It's a game played outdoors. On brooms."

"Oh."

"I think it's time to show miss Tabitha here how to play Quidditch!" Fred said, agreeing with George's earlier statement.

I nodded my head, "Uh… alright then. Let me just go get my…erm…broom."

"Are you sure you can stay up on that thing?" Ron asked my warily, eyeing me as I pulled my broom into the air and threw my leg over it.

I nodded, "I'm sure. It's not like It's my first time or anything."

"Yeah, your second, but your first was with me. You weren't exactly riding it."

"No, my second time was for an hour outside, in the middle of the night, all by myself.
I smiled warmly at Ron, "I think I can handle it."

He shrugged, "Whatever. Just be careful."

I looked over at Ginny, who was grinning wildly and had a wicked gleam in her eyes.

I raised an eyebrow, and she gave me an innocent shrug and trotted off, whispering something in Hermione's ear as they made their way on foot to the 'Quidditch Pitch'.

I shook my head, closed my eyes and slowly leaned forward.

-crack-

I hate trees. Because, I swear that tree wasn't there when my eyes were open. I swear.

It couldn't have been. Because Ron flew off right in front of me.

"Tabitha! Are you okay? Oh no, I should've warned you about Forg."

"What?" I asked, still woozy from the quick fall and confused as to is this was the twins talking to me, or Ron just decided to make two of him.

"Forg. Fred and George charmed a tree when they were tots, with Dad's wand, and it's never been the same since. It moves constantly, and we always have to be on the lookout if we're flying. Or even sitting for that matter."

One of the Ron's disappeared and I sighed, glad that my vision was back to normal. "Oh."

He helped me stand up, and get back on my broom. He flew beside me all the way to the 'Quidditch Pitch' though, just to make sure.

The Quidditch Pitch was about 15 yards long. It had 3 hoops at each end, each in different height.

"Real Pitches are much larger than this one. This is only about ¼ of the Hogwarts' one."

I nodded, mentally comparing the Quidditch Pitch to a Football Field.

Harry was the 'seeker', Hermione didn't play, she just watched. Ron was the 'keeper', Fred and George were the 'beaters' and Ginny and I were the 'chasers'. Ginny started out with a ball. She flew down to the end where Ron was guarding the hoops, and threw the ball past him into the tallest one.

Harry suddenly shot past me, heading towards the ground.

"He's not going to make it!" I yelled worriedly at Ginny.

"Oh, he'll be fine. This is nothing compared to what he has to do during the real matches. In first year, he made the youngest seeker ever. He's been the seeker ever since. He'll probably be selected to be Captain this next year."

True to her words, Harry straightened up with only a foot to spare, holding a small golden ball with wings clutched in his right hand.

I sighed with relief. This was some game.

We played for some 4 hours, but it was then that I had my accident. Er- half…accident.

We had split up into mini teams, and we had done without bludgers. I was still acting chaser, when one of the bludgers came loose from the trunk and started following Ginny and I. Ginny hadn't noticed it until Harry yelled out, "Ginny! Behind you!"

She had quickly swooped down, slightly grazing the grass and it had turned to catch up with me. I didn't know what it was doing, until I flew up high into the air and it collided with me. I was already having trouble with balance from being on the broom so long, and it was an easy hit as I fell from, oh, 50 feet in the air.

The last thing I remembered was it falling onto my stomach before I blacked out.

"She's coming to!" I heard a muffled voice yell, and I slowly pried open my eyes.

I was in Ginny's room, apparently on my bed, with everyone crowded around me. I blushed as I realized my shirt was pulled up to the bottom of my chest, revealing my bruised stomach.

"Are you okay? Does your head hurt? I know your stomach does. What about your back? Any limbs hurt?"

It was Mrs. Weasley who was cooing over me. She ran her wand over my body, frowning as she reached my stomach, but turning to Fred as she reached my knee, "Fred? Go get me a bag of Ice. Her knee is starting to swell."

It made enough sense. It hurt every time I tried to move it.

She stood up and wiped the hair away from my eyes, "I'll be right back. I'm going to get some potion."

I nodded, and as soon as she left my side, Ginny, Ron, Harry and Hermione were taking up her space, all talking at once.

"… know it hurts."

"…done that…"

"…… Get used to it…..a lot when….play."

There were many more unfulfilled sentences I'm sure, but that's all I could make out.

I closed my eyes and covered my ears, "I can't understand you when you all talk at once like that!"

They smiled, "Sorry."

I grinned.

Ginny grasped my hand, "It was so scary when you fell like that! It was like seeing it all in slow motion, and I couldn't do anything. I should've warned you as to what bludgers do. Maybe you wouldn't of gone up so high then."

I shook my head, "It wasn't your fault Ginny. It would've happened sometime. I mean, It's not like It's inevitable to get hit by a bludgers. I imagine everyone gets hit by one, at least once in their life!"

"What about muggles?"

"Oh, we have bludgers too. But ours aren't in the shape of a ball. They're shaped like a girl. Everybody meets one."

Ginny laughed, "I know what you mean."

Ron and Harry exchanged confused looks, "Uh, we don't"

"You shouldn't." I replied, slowly swinging my legs over the side of my bed. Even in the sitting position, everything throbbed, and especially when I stood up.

"Tabitha! Where in the world are you going?"

"Bath-er-Loo."

"The loo? Why didn't you just say so?"

Suddenly I was being picked up. As I was slowly settled into the bride position, I turned my head around and saw Ron's smiling face, and I suddenly felt at ease.

The loo was only 5 steps up, so I didn't get jumbled too much. The ride there was virtually painless, but when Ron set me on the floor everything came back.

I quickly shut the door and waddled over to the toilet, and suddenly realizing that I didn't have to use the loo anymore. I flushed and washed my hands, just to keep up appearances, and opened the door. I was carried back to my bed, and sighed with comfort as I was laid back on the bed.

Mrs. Weasley was just coming back into the room as I stacked another pillow behind my head.

"I've brought up a pain soother and a dreamless sleep potion. You'll have to take both, and once she does," She turned to everyone else, "I want EVERYONE out of here, and she's better be left alone for the remainder of the day, Do you hear me?"

They nodded, and I suddenly smiled as I concluded that everyone was scared of her.

The first liquid tasted awful, more like a sour grapefruit then anything else. But the second was…dreamy. It tasted like chocolate, and marshmallows, and caramel, and peanut butter, and…

When I woke up it was barely light outside, and Ginny was making up her bed.

"why make it up before you get into it?" I asked, slowly sitting up.

She looked at me strangely, "Erm, Tabby? It's eight o'clock in the morning."

Oh.

She walked around Hermione's empty bed and sat at my feet. "Do you feel any better?"

I nodded, taking a look at my stomach, "It's less purple today, and more green. I think I remember that being a good sign."

She laughed, "Yeah, I think I do too."

"Is she up yet?" Came a voice from the hall.

"No!" Ginny called, "I'm talking to myself!"

The door opened and Ron, Harry, and Hermione trotted through.

"Y ay! Sleeping Beauty has awoken!" Hermione chided, giggling as she looked at Ginny, "Why Ginny! I didn't know you were a prince!"

Ginny had a very confused expression on her face as she looked from Ron, to Harry, and back to Hermione.

"Uh, what? I'm not."

I smiled and looked at Hermione, "Wow. These people really are clueless, huh?"

Hermione laughed, "No, they just weren't taught the fairy tales."

I poked Ginny, "You have the magic touch Ginny. You're a prince!"

She shifted her eyes, "Uh… yeah…. Tabby? Are you okay?"

"Is that what we call her now? Tabby? Like a cat? Hmm… Tabby. Alright." Ron said thoughtfully, laying on Hermione's bed.

Suddenly an owl swooped through the window, and landed on Hermione's leg.

She patted the owl's head and pulled a small treat out of her bedside table. "Thank you Areman. Tell him I'll be sending Ginny's owl, so leave the north window open."

"Who's the mystery guy, Mione?" Harry prodded, taking a swipe at the letter in her hands.

She quickly pulled away, "no one. Just an old friend. Mind your own business, will you?" She said prudishly, standing up and walking out of the room.

I turned to Ginny, "What does that door in the corner lead to?"

She walked over and opened it up, "It's an emergency floo/apparition center. In case of an attack. We have one in almost every room."

I looked around, "are we really that worried about an attack? I mean, why would he come all the way out here?"

"It's not that far really. It'd only take a few seconds longer than going anywhere else. And besides, there's charms and spells on this house so heavy, I doubt that anyone would be able to find it unless they were looking for a house that looked exactly like this." Harry assured me.

"Okay. But why does everyone have a floo? Couldn't you all just use one or two?"

"Only two people can floo somewhere at a time together. With one in every room, there's a better chance of getting out safely. These floos are linked so they can only go one place: Dumbledore's office. And you can only use them if you're a resident of this house. So the death eaters or even Voldemort himself couldn't follow us." Ginny answered me, pointing to a long line of engraved initials on the mantle of the fireplace. "Hermione and Harry's initials were engraved on there the first summer they spent here, and your initials are right here on the left side. They appeared there the minute you set your bags in this room."

I nodded, and started to yawn, realizing I was unexplainably tired.

"You should probably go back to sleep." Ron commented, Sitting up on Hermione's bed.

I shook my head, "I don't want to. I don't feel like sle-ahh-ping."

Ginny giggled, "Yeah right. You just don't want to be alone."

"So what if I don't?"

"Yeah, there's no problem with that." Ron spat, turning to look at Ginny.

Ginny grinned and looked at Harry, who also started to turn red with uncontrollable laughter.

"Yeah, whatever. Ron, you stay in here and keep her company until she goes to sleep." She said, dragging the now shaking Harry out of the room and closing it behind her.

"I'm not GOING to go to sleep!" I yelled at the door.

"At least not now," I muttered, pulling my shirt down to cover my bruise.

There was an awkward silence, until Ron started to ask questions.

"So, do you miss the states?"

I shook my head, "The only things I miss are my friends and my laptop. Well, I have my laptop, but I don't want to turn it on and it to go haywire, like my phone did."

Ron picked up my phone and started looking at it, flipping it open and pushing buttons. His eyes widened as he saw the screen light up.

"Ah! Why did it do that?"

"So you can see it."

"I saw it already! It didn't have to change colors for me to notice it! Hey… is that a picture of you on there? Why are you in your phone? " He asked, very confused as to why my cell phone was making sounds and colors all by itself.

"And what's a laptop."

I sighed, realizing this was going to be a very long afternoon.