Neville's Sacrifice

Chapter Eleven

Ginny gripped the arms of her chair, the spinning causing her already nauseous stomach to clench unbearably. She doubled over, willing herself not to get sick.

Her chair finally came to rest in the fireplace of the St. Camillus clinic.

She straightened up from where she had sat doubled over, and began brushing the soft grey ash from her robes.

Ginny smoothed her clothes down with the palms of her hands, then began wheeling herself across the lilac tiled floor until she reached the

Reception desk that sat in the middle of the room, an oasis of white in a lavender and lilac sea.

"Excuse me," Ginny said to the middle aged woman at the desk, "I have an appointment for 8 o'clock."

The woman looked down her pince-nez glasses at Ginny, then replied, "Last name?"

"Weasley...Ginny Weasley."

The woman ran her quill down the long list of appointments that she had laid out on her desk.

"Weasley...Weasley...we don't have a Weasley listed here." She said, raising her head, to stare at Ginny.

"Oh...um..." Ginny sputtered out, her face flushing with embarrassment. "Actually, I'd forgotten...I still say Weasley automatically...but it's Longbottom now."

"Oh yes, here we are. Ginevra Longbottom. Please take a seat Mrs. Longbottom and the Healer will be with your shortly."

Ginny rolled herself back over to the low burgundy tables that were littered with outdated copies of Witch Weekly and Wizard's Digest.

She turned the pages without really focusing on what the words were saying. Although she'd scoffed at Neville and told him it was nothing to be worried about, she had a niggling doubt in her mind that this could be something serious.

She's only sat a few minutes when a small woman with cropped dark hair and a clipboard in her hand came into the room. The Healer glanced at the clipboard, then said, "Mrs. Longbottom?"

Ginny rolled herself forward. "I'm Mrs. Longbottom."

"Well then," said the Healer, smiling kindly, "will you please follow me?"

Ginny followed the Healer down a long corridor until she stopped and opened a door leading into a small examing room.

They went into the room, the Healer closing the door behind her.

"So, what symptoms are you experiencing?" the Healer asked, quill in hand ready to write down what Ginny told her.

"Well...I've been feeling really sick to my stomach. Quite a lot actually. I'll feel really sick for a few days, then it'll go away and then I'll feel sick again."

"And when you feel sick, is there a particular time of day when you feel nauseous?"

"It seems to happen mostly in the mornings, when I first wake up. It usually gets better as the day goes along."

The Healer scribbled busily on her clipboard, writing the details of Ginny's illness.

"Do you actually vomit when you feel sick, or do you just feel like you might? How long have you been having these episodes?"

Ginny shifted uncomfortably in her chair, and then admitted, "It's been going on for about three months now. I know I should have come to a Healer earlier, but I thought it would go away on its own. But it hasn't."

The Healer finished writing her notes then pulled a golden wand out of her pockets.

"I am going to use this wand to do a scan on your abdomen. The scan will help us diagnosis just what the problem might be."

Seeing the worried look on Ginny's face, the Healer continued in a soothing tone, "Don't worry. It won't hurt. It'll just take a few seconds then it will all be over."

Ginny gripped the sides of her chair as the wand was slowly moved down her waist. As the wand moved across her stomach, it began glowing a bright blue colour.

Ginny said fearfully, "The wand, it changed colours...it began glowing. What does that mean?"

"One second. Just let me do it again to make sure." The Healer replied, again moving her wand slowly across Ginny's abdomen.

The wand stayed gold until it got to Ginny's stomach, then it again turned a bright, neon blue.

Ginny looked into the Healers face, trying to glean any information that she could. Was the news good? Was it bad? She looked as hard as she could, but the Healers face remained impassive, giving no sign of what the glowing of the wand meant.

Finally the Healer leaned back up, satisfied that what the wand had shown was the correct diagnosis.

She looked at Ginny, and then, smiling, said, "Mrs. Longbottom. Let me be the first to congratulate you. You're going to have a baby."