MC4A Challenge Block
Stacked with: Summer Bingo; StL; ER; FPC; BAON; Star; SF
Individual Challenges: Short Jog; The 3rd Rule (Y); Lovely Triangle; Gryffindor MC (x2); Ravenclaw MC; Slytherin MC; Red Moon Quindrabble; Witches Coven 2; Flags and Ribbons (Y); Inks & Stinks (Y); Trio of Silver (Y); Letter of the Day; Times to Come (Y); Shipmas (Y); Themes and Things A—Secrets (Y); Themes and Things B—Alienation (Y)
Representations: Luna Lovegood/Ginny Weasley; Blaise Zabini; Neville Longbottom
Bonus Challenges: Clio's Conclusion; A Long Dog; Unicorn; Second Verse (Bechdel Test; Not a Lamp; Nontraditional; Zucchini Bread); Chorus (Endless Wonder; Odd Feathers; Wabi Sabi; Peddling Pots)
Tertiary Bonus Challenges: Satisfaction (FR); Liberation (FR); Thimble (T3); Poppy (LiCK); Yarrow (LiCK)
Word Count: 2568
Summer Bingo: Space Address: 1A — Prompt: Sacrifice
Warnings: Extensive discussion of needles and other tattoo paraphernalia; actual depiction of piercing process; discussion of head trauma/chronic illness and canon torture
Author's Note: Just a heads up, this chapter's going to be kind of cheesy and heavy on the exposition, but I thought you guys deserve to know why Ginny's life took the turn it did. And a giant thank you to everyone who has followed and favorited this story! I love knowing that other people like the ideas rolling around in my head. Hope you enjoy this one too!
.oOo.
Ginny watched yet another client follow Luna behind the beaded curtain, and her heart swelled. Things were really looking up for Third Eye Tattoo, even if Ginny hadn't had any customers of her own yet.
The small silver bell over the door tinkled, and a man walked in out of the rain. Though his face was obscured by the hood of his cloak, Ginny assumed he'd come in for a tattoo consultation.
"Luna's with another customer at the moment, so you'll have to wait a bit if you want to talk tattoos with her," she called out, going back to the advertisement she was drawing up.
"And what do I need to do if I want to have a talk with you?"
Ginny looked up into a pair of dark, expectant eyes. "I only do piercings, Zabini. Looking to add another hole to your head?"
"Maybe I do." He grinned and turned to study the jewelry in the glass cabinet beneath his hands. "What kinds of enchantments am I looking at here?"
She carefully explained all the different charms the studs and hoops were imbued with, and Blaise seemed to pay close attention to what she was saying. Still, she couldn't quite shake the feeling that he'd come to the shop looking for more than a new piercing.
When he'd selected a small silver stud, Ginny asked, "And where exactly would you like this? Your ear, or perhaps your eyebrow?"
"I want a Medusa piercing."
Ginny cocked her head. "You're joking, right? Surely you want something… I don't know, different?"
"Of course not, Weasley." He arched an eyebrow at her, and she swore he could see straight through to her soul. "I always know exactly what I want, and I always get it in the end."
That settled it, the man definitely had another agenda in coming here. She shook her head and gestured for him to follow her back to her work area.
Blaise settled onto the padded bench, and Ginny began gathering the necessary items on a small metal tray. She could feel his gaze follow her around the small room, and she wished she'd remembered to turn on the wireless or that Luna would start working on her client already. Anything to make the quiet less awkward.
"Why?" Blaise asked, shattering the silence.
Ginny couldn't help but flinch. It was the one thing she didn't want to talk about, so of course that's what he'd come here for. She stayed quiet, hoping he'd just give up.
He tried again. "Why are doing this instead of playing Quidditch?" He asked, gesturing around the shop. "Not that it's not a nice place, but I doubt it's what you always imagined doing with your life."
She turned back to him and picked up her marker.
"So, here's how this works. I'm going to put a dot to mark the site of the piercing. If it's not where you want it, let me know and I'll adjust it. If the worst happens and you realize it's not what you wanted until after I've pierced you, don't worry, I'll just heal it and go again—that's what Numbing Charms are—"
Blaise reached up and caught the marker-laden hand reaching toward his face. "Not so fast, Weasley. Before you start stabbing my face, I want to know why you're doing this."
"Because you're paying me to?"
"You know what I mean."
"So? I fail to see how that's any of your business."
"Despite, or perhaps because of, my cunning nature and manipulative tendencies, I'm a very curious man," Blaise explained, releasing her hand. "I work in the Department of Mysteries, and it's the kind of career that's less of a job and more of a lifestyle. My world has come to revolve around information and stories and secrets. I need to know the why's behind the what's. Let's just say your recent life choices have intrigued me, and I can't walk away without knowing the reasons behind them."
She stiffened. "I don't see how my personal life is any of your business."
"There's a reason for everything I do, every question I ask. Sometimes it's not readily apparent, but my information always come in handy for my work eventually. So, look at it this way—you've got an opportunity to help an Unspeakable on a project. It's really an honor, if you think about it."
Ginny rolled her eyes. "You're not going to let this go, are you?"
"Nope," he said with a pop. "But I gather that this is a part of your life you don't particularly want to share, so I'll sweeten the pot. Tell me about your reason why and I'll explain one of mine."
She plopped down on her stool and thought for a moment. "Fine. Tell me why you picked the Medusa."
"I didn't say you'd get to pick which one," he argued.
Ginny set her jaw and looked him straight in the eye. "Then you'll leave empty handed. You walked in here and knew exactly what you wanted. It's not a piercing known for being all that popular or intimidating, which is what I'd expect from you. I want to know why."
"Stubborn witch, aren't you?" Blaise muttered under his breath. "All right, I'll give you the short version. It reminds me of someone I loved and had to walk away from."
"And is that the kind of detail you want from me?"
"Ugh, fine. I'm not sure if you remember, but I left Britain after Sixth Year. I knew we were headed for war, and I didn't want any part of it, so I spent the year at the villa in Greece. It's a beautiful place, lots of light, great food, and gorgeous locals. I met Iliana at a wizarding pub my first night there. She was stunning and vivacious and uncommonly kind, but she also had a rebellious streak I had to admire—hence the Medusa piercing that her family hated. I did the most idiotic thing I've ever done by falling in love with her. I knew it was stupid and did it anyway. When you lot finished off the Big Bad, I tried to convince her to come back to Britain with me, but she didn't want to leave her home and her family. I couldn't really fault her for that, but I had to come back here. I'd wanted to be an Unspeakable my entire life, and I knew that I could get my foot in the door if I came home just as the Ministry started to rebuild. So, I left Iliana and Greece behind me."
"Wow. That… Blaise, that's so sad."
He waved her pity away. "It's been years, and I've got a life I enjoy. I just want a little reminder of her and the sacrifices I've made to become who I am. Now let's get on to the more important topic—you."
"I could just stab you and refuse to answer."
"But you won't. All that Gryffindor integrity and other rubbish."
"I suppose you're right," she sighed. "Let me just find the right place to start."
As she thought for a moment, she marked a spot halfway between Blaise's septum and the top of his lip.
"Let me help," he said. "Why did you quit playing Quidditch just before the start of last season? There were no press releases, no comments in the coinciding preseason reports, no hints of anything. So how did the Ministry and the wizarding world let you, the Quidditch superstar and vaunted war hero, fade quietly into the background?"
Ginny sucked in a deep breath and turned away from Blaise's intense stare. She busied herself with unwrapping all the sterile implements and slowly began to tell a story she'd rather forget.
"I'm not sure how much you know about Quidditch pitches, but there are certain safeguards built in—Cushioning Charms, automated Slowing Charms, the like. About a month before last season started, I fell off my broom at practice. Normally that wouldn't be a problem, thanks to those safety features. But for some reason, the Cushioning Charm failed that day. I suppose I'm lucky it was just the Cushioning Charm, because the Slowing Charm did its job and probably saved my life, but I still hit the ground hard. I spent the next few weeks at St. Mungo's. I had quite a bit more damage than expected, and when it was all over, the healers essentially told me that another fall or even another good hit to the head would likely kill me. I've since found that I can't really stand for long periods of time without getting dizzy, and sometimes I get phantom pains that feel like I'm recovering from the Cruciatus Curse. But I could really deal with all that if…
I tried to go back to practice right before our first match, but I… Damn it, I was afraid to get back in the air. Here I am, this brave, fearless war hero, and suddenly I'm too scared to fly, something I've been doing since I was big enough to hold onto a broomstick. The Harpies wanted the whole thing kept quiet to avoid the bad press. The Ministry agreed to help me keep it out of the papers so that the world wouldn't see what a coward I've become. I still needed a job, so Luna and I opened the shop."
Blaise snorted. "I don't think it's cowardice to choose between your job and staying alive. Personally, I think it was the only truly intelligent decision I've known one of you lot to make. You Gryffindors have a strange personal code, you know that?"
"I didn't just give up a job. I gave up something that was a part of me, something that made me who I was."
She lined the needle up with the purple dot and quickly poked the needle through Blaise's upper lip, "accidentally" forgetting the Numbing Charm. He hissed in pain and shot her a dirty look. She muttered a half-hearted apology, threaded the small stud through, and handed him a mirror to check out his new piercing.
"It looks perfect," he said. He passed her back the mirror and gently caught her wrist. "And even if you did literally stab me with a needle, I meant what I said. You don't have to stare down every single fear you have to be brave. And I know it sucks to give up something that was so much a part of you. But maybe, in sacrificing one piece of yourself, you might uncover another that makes you even happier."
She felt the urge to slap him for being so self-assured about her life and her choices. What did he know of her sacrifices? But then she thought of his Iliana. She thought of Luna and how happy she finally was. She thought of her closer relationships with her family and friends, and she mentally conceded that Blaise might actually know what he was talking about.
Not that she'd ever admit it. "Sweet Merlin, you're starting to sound like Luna—at least she has some Seer abilities as opposed to your tripe. But I suppose I appreciate the thought."
They walked back to the till to settle the bill, and Blaise tipped her quite handsomely.
As he tucked the receipt in his pocket, Ginny couldn't help but ask, "So did you get what you came here for? Have my answers sated your curiosity?"
He chuckled and nodded. "I suppose now that I'm including your information in the project, I can let you in on the details. We know there's a connection between the Cruciatus and brain damage, but there are surprisingly few cases where victims had any kind of brain scan done after the fact. We would use Potter's from after the whole TriWard Tournament debacle, but unsurprisingly he got a concussion during that fight, so they're not a lot of use for us. What we can get is your scans from Hogwarts before and after you were tortured by the Carrows during your Sixth Year—and before you ask, yes, the DoM was read into pretty much everything that happened that year, good, bad, and ugly. We can compare those to your scans after the fall. If my suspicions are correct, they'll show signs of damage in similar parts of your brain, which means I'm on the correct path to finding a treatment for the Cruciatus Curse."
Ginny somehow managed to pick her jaw up off the ground. "So, let me get this straight—you're going to use my brain scans? To try to find a treatment for the Cruciatus Curse?"
"Pretty much," Blaise replied, tugging on his cloak. "There are a few others too, but we thought yours would be the most comprehensive. No one thought you'd be willing to come to the Ministry and give us the necessary background information. That's why I had to come down here and confirm what happened, so we would know whether to pursue this line of investigation or try another route."
"You manipulative bastard! Did you even want that piercing? Was that stupid story even true?" Ginny cried.
Blaise flipped his hood up and shot her an odd look, somewhere between a smirk and a grimace. "Like I said, Weasley, we all make sacrifices."
He stepped back out into the rain, passing Neville in the doorway.
"Was that Blaise Zabini?" he asked, staring after the retreating figure. "What was he in here for?"
"He wanted a piercing. Said it reminded him of someone he once knew," Ginny whispered, her own eyes glued to Blaise's cloak.
Neville frowned. "Seems a bit out of character from what little I know, but I guess I don't really know the guy."
"Neither do I," she said. Ginny shook herself from her reverie and finally turned to face Neville. "What brings you here today, Nev?"
"Just here to check on things," he said, examining the leaf between his fingers before rotating the geranium pot. "Do you two need anything?"
"I think we're good. We've got dinner at the Burrow tonight, so we're going to be headed out soon."
Neville licked his lips. "Merlin, I don't remember the last time I had a real, home cooked meal. Enjoy it for me."
"Why don't you just come with us?" Ginny asked.
"I can't come to dinner with your family. I'm covered in dirt!" he exclaimed. "I'll never get all this off with just a Cleaning Charm, so I'd have to go home and change, which would make me late. I appreciate the offer, but I don't want to track in a ton of dirt or cause a delay. You know how Ron gets when he has to wait on food."
Ginny snorted. "Yeah, I do. Really, you'll be fine as you are. Like my family is going to care. My brothers and I brought in much worse than a bit of potting soil, I promise."
"Gin, I would hate to make a mess—"
With a roll of her eyes, Ginny threw her arms around Neville's dirt smattered torso. He felt stiff and probably slightly uncomfortable in her arms, but she needed to get a point across.
"My family pretty much considers you family, too," she said. "Luna and I certainly do. And trust me when I say none of us will mind a bit of dirt. See?"
Neville relaxed a bit and gently returned the hug. "Okay then, if you're sure. What time should I be over at the Burrow?"
Luna's voice drifted over from the corner, where she stood smirking at the pair. "About half an hour."
Neville quickly extricated himself from Ginny's arms but smiled down at her. "Then I'll see you two there."
He ran back out the door toward his own shop, and Ginny sagged down onto her usual stool.
"Long day?" Luna asked.
Ginny blew a piece of hair out of her face and muttered, "You have no idea."
"Well, did everything turn out alright in the end?"
She slipped her hand into Luna's and smiled. "I think it has."