The rain was coming down in sheets and it was all anyone could do to keep their broom flying in a straight line. You couldn't even hear your own thoughts over the howl of the wind. With robes soaked completely through and the near pitch black sky it was becoming increasingly difficult to tell which player was on which team. The only light came from the flashes of lightning that lit up the sky and the field. Ginny's goggles were fogged and she was franticly searching for the bloody snitch so she could work on being properly warm again. Visibility was complete shite so it was going to take quite the miracle to end this game before the rain let up.
A bludger went speeding past her and it was only sheer luck that the wind pulled her broom to the left causing her to narrowly avoid being hit. She couldn't tell who hit it but if it was someone from her own bloody team she'd be having words with them later on. She took a deep breath to calm herself down and refocus. She didn't even know the score of the game anymore. She'd just have to catch the snitch and hope for the best. She had to worry about her objective and trust that the rest of the team was doing their jobs.
There was a glint of gold after a flash of lightning and Ginny's eyes lit up. Gripping her broom handle tightly, she sped off for it desperately trying to track it with her eyes. It was getting lost in the rain and was more unpredictable than the wind. Still the redhead was relentless and determined to end this. When she was sure she was close enough she reached out a hand, just as another bludger came flying out of nowhere. Her hand hadn't quite gripped the snitch when she was hit hard in her ribs. The hand holding the wet, slick broom handle slipped and the redhead went freefalling towards the ground looking like a tossed aside ragdoll.
There were voices. Muffled and distant but there were voices. Everything was black with a sort of eerie glow as though from some far off too bright light. She felt vaguely like she was falling or floating. She couldn't tell which. She felt like she was suspended in liquid. She couldn't tell where her center was. She felt suspended in time. Moving in slow motion. The pain didn't come yet for another moment. It wasn't completely unbearable pain, she'd been in worse, but it was enough to reassure her that she was in fact alive. There was no way that death hurt this badly. There was some sort of block in her mind and she kept trying to move it. Something was keeping her from being able to think clearly. She still couldn't make out the voices and the effort to try only made the pain worse. She kept trying to push herself towards what looked like a warm glow, but she felt like she was moving through quicksand and was growing tired and heavy. The voices were getting more and more far off and the warm glow was cooling off and dissipating as the darkness swallowed her up.
"Excuse me?" A blonde woman in healers' robes gave a soft knock on the door as she stepped into the chilly hospital room. It wasn't as though she could just hear about what had happened and stay away. She might've been a relatively new healer in the department, but she was damn good at her job and she wasn't going to sit by and not try and help. Part of it was because of her friendship with Teddy Nott, and the other part was because of the time she'd spent with Ginny in the time after leaving Hogwarts, the redhead wasn't anything what the former Slytherin expected her to be. Turns out old house stereotypes weren't quite what they were cracked up to be. In any case, when she'd heard about what had happened to the Weasley girl, she got herself put on the case. "My name is Tracey Malfoy and I am the healer assigned to Ms. Weasley's case." She introduced herself, though when she saw the dark haired man sitting at the bedside, she knew it was silly.
"Hello dear." Arthur said quietly. "What can you tell us about my baby girl here?" He glanced down at the broken form of the very strong woman that he'd raised. "She's going to be alright, yeah?"
"Well, she hit her head pretty hard when she fell." Tracey started.
"I thought there were charms on the pitch that prevented major injuries, these days." Molly interjected, not bothering to look up from her daughter's face.
"There are, however, when Ms. Weasley was flying she was an estimated four hundred meters in the air and no one even saw her slip until she was too close to the ground to stop her momentum." Tracey explained. "The charms were what kept her alive. If they hadn't been in place, she would've been killed." That was rather blunt and she probably should've censored a bit, but they needed to know the truth no matter what. This wasn't a case where minced words were going to help anything.
"So what does that mean then?" Molly asked, glancing up for just a brief moment. "Is she going to be alright?"
"It means that she is alive and will likely make a recovery, if she wakes up. What remains unknown at the moment is just how much damage there is and how long that recovery will take. Most prob-"
"If?" Harry spoke up for the first time in hours. "You said if she wakes up." He gave a panicked look to the healer, his hand still holding firmly onto Ginny's. He'd been sitting in the same spot beside her bed ever since she had been apparated there. "That implies the chance of her not waking up." He reasoned aloud, eyes darting between the faces in the room, waiting for someone to tell him there had been some sort of mistake and this was all some sort of horrible joke and Ginny would open her eyes and flash that brilliant smile of hers and everything would be fine.
"Well," Tracey stated taking a deep breath and frowning slightly. "With this kind of head trauma there is always that chance. However, Ginny is a young, perfectly healthy woman and so she is expected to wake up. However I am not able at this time to rule out that possibility and I do want you to be completely aware of the risks involved. Because it was such a hard hit, we do need to be prepared for any outcome." This was not Tracey's favourite part of the job. Not with any case, but especially with this one. It was painfully obvious just how worried the three there were. Plus, she knew that there were half a dozen more Weasley's in the waiting room and undoubtedly Hermione and Teddy would be stopping by.
"So what more can we do now?" Arthur asked sensing the high anxiety and feelings of helplessness in the room. Tracey gave a small sigh and stepped over to Ginny's bed to check the vitals.
"Right now, there isn't much we can do aside from wait for her to come out of this. We've mended her broken bones and fractures. We've also gotten the internal bleeding under control. Her ribs will need to be regrown when she wakes up, but the damage that they did when they shattered under the force of the bludger was repaired already." Tracey made some notes on her bits of parchment which would go into Ginny's file.
"When she wakes up? Why can't you do it while she's already out so she won't have to feel it?" Harry asked. He knew all too well what it was like to regrow bones and he wasn't all too keen on Ginny having to deal with that sort of pain. Ever.
"I don't think it's wise to put the body under any more stress than completely necessary just yet. Not until we at least know a bit more about any damage that could have been sustained. Regrowing bones takes a lot out of the body and just right now, I think she should be a little bit more stable before we proceed with that." Tracey gave a small smile. "Mr. Potter, I know that you are worried about her, but I assure you she is in excellent hands and we're going to do everything we can." Turning her attention to Ginny's parents she let out a small sigh. "I think the best thing for everyone is to get a bit of rest. There's no sense in worrying yourselves into one of these beds and just as soon as we know anything we'll let you know straight away." With that Tracey left the room and headed toward her office where she could review a few of the test results.
"Molly, love, why don't you come with me to get something from the cafeteria." Arthur said, shifting to move from his chair, which wasn't particularly comfortable. "We can give the boys and the children an update and stretch out our legs a bit." He stood and gave Harry a small wink.
"Arthur, I don't want to--" Molly started looking at her darling girl.
"Harry will be right here with her. C'mon. This room isn't helping your nerves and I'm afraid after the twins left you agreed to go a bit easier on the nerves, yeah?" He took his wife's hand and gave a small tug. Molly was torn between the two, but eventually gave it, giving her daughter's face a gentle stroke before she left.
"If there's anything…" Molly trailed off and gave Harry a worried look. Harry could only nod.
The older couple left the room and Harry found himself alone with just the unconscious Ginny there beside him. He held onto her hand, careful not to squeeze it too hard, but not daring to let go for fear of her slipping away if he did. He kept trying to take deep breaths, but without really concentrating on it, he only succeeded in making himself a little dizzy. He let out a sigh and moved a strand of hair from her face.
"C'mon, Gin." He murmured. "C'mon, you're stronger than this. You need to make it through this. You need to. I'm not giving you the choice here. Mostly because you've got too much living left to do to let this beat you, but because I'm selfish. Because I screwed up bad but I need another chance. You have to be there to give me a second chance. Or a third chance. Or whatever bloody number we're on now because I'm a bloody awful to you but I need to make it up to you. I have to. Somehow I will. I have to make it up to you so that I can forgive myself for how I hurt you. I've got so much planned for the pair of us I need you around so that I can do that for you. I need to be able to spoil you and treat you the way I ought to have been able to since the beginning of all this. The way you deserve to be treated. I need to be able to give you my Mum's ring like I'd planned on. So you have to wake up. You have to wake up and get better and never ever, bloody ever get hurt like this ever again because I'm not sure I can go through this again, and your parents can't go through it either. So if you're doing this just to spite me and make me mental, you're doing a bloody brilliant job of it, but everyone else too. And I probably deserve it, but they sure as hell don't. So wake up. Please. Please. Please, Gin." He gave her hand a squeeze and pressed it lightly to his lips.
The warm glow was back. Warmer than she remembered and she was swimming and floating in suspended liquid. She could see colours now. Or two at least. She could see bright, emerald green, mingling with rich, fiery red. Swirling and entwining with one another. The voices were back, but they were still a distant muttering. It was slightly easier to move now. The pain was there, but a shadow of what it had been when she last remembered. A dull ache. Her eyes couldn't focus on the swirling colours which were all around her. The voice got clearer and she could make out a single voice. It sounded familiar and made her feel like home. Unable to pin it down though, she gave up on trying to decipher the words. Instead she concentrated on the familiar speech pattern, the stress on each syllable and the gentle rhythm it created. It was lulling almost. Comfortable. She felt herself moving towards the sound of the voice. The glow was getting warmer and the colours were getting brighter. The colours were so bright and she could hear certain words. She heard her name. She moved ever closer to the sound. Still unable to put a name to the voice. The warmth grew and when she reached it, it was like coming up for fresh air.
"Harry…" Ginny breathed, stirring slightly, but not enough to open her eyes. She was halfway between consciousnesses. Her head lulled to the side and she tried to move her body, but was unable to for the broken ribs. "Harry…" She mumbled again.
"Ginny?" Harry sprung up from the back of his chair which he'd sunk into at one point or another. "Gin? C'mon, love. C'mon. Ginny, I'm here. I'm right here. C'mon. Open your eyes. Just open your eyes. Please." He was on the edge of his seat, holding her hand tightly in his, eyes never leaving her face. He searched frantically for any sign of her being there inside this odd, broken and defeated looking body. He just needed to see the light in her eyes and then he'd know that she was alright.
The redhead's eyes gave a small flutter and she gave a helpless look around the room, unsure of where she was. "H-Harry?" She murmured softly, as her eyes met his emerald green ones. After a moment, as reality began to slowly set itself in she frowned. "Oww." She moaned.
Harry broke out into a smile and took a moment to catch his breath as he ever so gently brushed a hand against her face. "I'm here. I'm right here." He said softly, his voice cracking slightly. "I'm right here and I'm not going anywhere. Try not to move." He said, relieved just to have her there, back and awake and alive and…Oh bugger, Molly and Arthur. Reaching up he hit the call button beside the bed and within ten seconds there was a younger witch in training robes standing there. "Get Healer Malfoy and if you see a bunch of redheads out there send them in." Harry said before looking back down at Ginny.
"What…Ow…What the hell happened?" Ginny asked, having a significantly difficult time breathing or thinking. She was on so many potions that it was hard to string words together. Plus the stress on her ribs was helping nothing.
"You fell. During a match and…I thought that…I mean they said that we might…" Harry broke off and shook his head. That wasn't the point any longer. She'd woken up and that was what mattered. She was there with him now and all that worrying, the panicking and the feeling nauseous at the thought of losing her again was all for nothing.
"Knock, knock." Tracey said quietly before entering the room. "Welcome back, Ms. Weasley." She smiled at her patient. "I'm afraid that we'll have a few things to do before I can allow everyone in just yet, but I'm glad to see you're awake."
"Molly and Arthur will want to see that she's alright." Harry said, not taking his eyes from the redhead.
"Of course." Tracey obliged, just as the older couple walked through the door.
"Ginnikins!" Molly squealed as she hurried over to the bed and gave her daughter a gentle hug. "Oh goodness, you're alright. You had me ten shades of worried, young lady." The older woman was now crying and had to take a few deep breaths to regain a bit of her composure.
"I really do hate to do this right as you're all being happy and what all, but she needs to be taken for some tests. You're going to have to wait in with everyone else until we get her back in here for the night. I promise we'll go quickly." Tracey said in a vain attempt at getting everyone to move from the room.
"What tests? How many of them?" Arthur asked, able to worry about the logistics now that he was sure his daughter was alright.
"Some tests for her brain to make sure it's alright. Also, getting her prepped for bone regrowing. Nothing major and nothing that is going to harm her in anyway. Just something that is going to help us know a bit more about where we're going to go from here. Now, I need everyone out so that I can get her all set."
Molly and Arthur took another few minutes to fuss over her before finally exiting the room. Harry hung around for an extra few seconds pressing a light kiss to her forehead. "I'll be back, mind you. What do you want me to bring you?"
"I…Er, I'm not…" She was confused and her eyes gave a blank blink as she tried to sort through everything that was going on. Harry gave a concerned look.
"She's going to be fine, I promise." Tracey said softly. "That's the potions and all talking. By the time she's back from this, she'll be fine to talk and carry on a conversation and we can see just how bad the damage is."
"Thank you, Tracey." Harry said softly. "Please…Just…don't let anything happen to her." He added as he stepped from the room.
"I won't."