Neville's Sacrifice

Chapter two

Two orderlies, dressed identically in pale blue wizard robes, were pushing a large rectangular cart down the gleaming hallway towards Ginny's room.

"Ever since the last battle, I've been ran off my feet. I haven't seen my family for days," complained Sebastian, a young thin orderly.

The other one, Fenella, was a middle-aged stout woman, with greying hair and a kind face. "Aye," she replied. "I unnerstan' how ye might be missing your wee bairns. But we nowt got a choice. These pitiful creatures need all the help they can get."

Sebastian turned to face her. Pushing his rump against the door, he pushed it open, and together they managed to manoeuvre the heavily laden cart into the small hospital room.

"Well, at least most of the wounded have been brought in. We couldn't have handled having to take care of many more people. I am on a double shift as it is!"

They positioned the cart next to the bed. They began to put the potions and the brightly coloured salves on the nightstand.

"Look at the wee one 'ere. Do ye know, they say she'll never put foot on the ground again?" Fenella looked at Ginny sadly, lying so still and pale against the whiteness of the pillowcase.

"You know," said Sebastian, rubbing Ginny's legs with a sweet smelling lotion made to prevent pressure sores, "she was brought in the same day as Harry Potter."

"Ye don't say?" said Fenella, looking up from where she was rubbing lotion on Ginny's arms. "I wish I'd'a seen 'em. I always wanted ta meet Harry Potter."

Sebastian was rubbing Ginny's calf vigorously, trying to get the blood circulating into the lower limbs. "I was right there when they brought him in," he responded. "A girl came screaming into the hospital admitting area. She was crying and said that her friend was lying hurt outside. You see, he was too heavy for her to carry. So a few of us go out there, and who do you think we see lying on the pavement?" He paused to draw out the drama.

"Go on then, don't leave me hangin'!" pleaded the other orderly, her eyes round as saucers.

"Well, we go out there, and there he is, in the flesh! Harry Potter! 'Course, we didn't recognise him at first, but then, when we put him on the stretcher, well, his head flopped back, and that's when we saw the scar. Nasty looking piece of work, it was. Well, when we saw that, we nearly died! I mean, what was he doing here? He was supposed to be fighting You-Know-Who! We get him on the stretcher and are almost to the emergency room door, when he starts convulsing something terrible. He almost tossed himself off the stretcher! We manage to grab him before he falls off entirely, and take him in the back where they got to work on him. Later, I was talking to Stanley, you know that guy that use to drive the Knight Bus but now works here as a cleaner? And he said that he'd heard from someone that heard it from someone that You-Know-Who is dead, and that Harry Potter killed him!"

"Merlin's beard!" gasped Fenella. "Ye don't say? Dead, is he?"

"That's what I heard. Can you believe it's FINALLY over? I also heard that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was blown into about a million bits, so he won't be coming back again like last time!"

"It's a blessing, it is!" said Fenella, wiping tears of happiness from her eyes.

Sebastian glanced up at the clock, and a bolt of shock went through him. "We'd better finish her off quick. We've got three more patients we've got to take care of before lunch."

They quickly finished the massage and, packing up their salves and lotions, headed towards the door. As they left the room, they could see three young wizards walking towards the room they had just left.

"Look at these three youn'uns here," Fenella said. "I bethere they're here ta see the young miss. Shame it is about her legs." She shook her head sadly.

"She got off easier than most...did you hear that...."

The voices of the two orderlies slowly faded as they walked out of the room.