Neville's Sacrifice

Chapter Twelve

"Wha...what did you say? Ginny questioned, her eyes wide, her heart beating wildly as she stared up at the Healer in disbelief.

The Healer looked up from the clipboard where she had been jotting down her diagnosis and repeated, "You're pregnant. From the colour the wand turned, I'd say your about four months along."

Images flashed through her mind. Her parents, Neville...how happy they'd be if only...if only it were true! A bright flare of hope began rising in Ginny's chest, but she pushed it down, too afraid to believe, too afraid that the doctor might be wrong.

"How...how did this happen?" She asked in wonderment, not daring to believe that a miracle had really taken place.

The Healer gave a small chuckle then replied, "In the usual way, I'm sure."

Ginny could feel her face going hot as a scarlet blush crept over her cheeks.

Feeling embarrassed at her verbal slip up, she clarified, "I didn't mean HOW did it happen. I meant...I mean, the healers told me that I'd never be able to have children."

The Healer, seeing Ginny's confusion, squatted down until she was at eye level. She reached out and, taking Ginny's hand, said "Even we Healers don't know everything. The human body is an amazing thing. Sometimes it's very fragile, sometimes it's resilient to even the worst of traumas."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Ginny entered the emerald green of the floo fire, her mind spinning more than her body. Pregnant! She was actually pregnant!

As the cool flames lapped her skin and multicoloured brickwork flew before her eyes she daydreamed about Neville's face when she told him the happy news. She'd wanted a big family, and she knew he had too, but after she'd been told that she'd never have any children they'd resigned themselves to it being just the two of them. But now! Now...they might be able to have the family they'd both dreamed of.

The spinning of the Floo slowed down, the wheels of her chair landing with a soft thud upon the earthen floor. The wood of the chair felt cool in her hands and she pushed herself hard forward, eager to get to Neville as soon as possible. She tried to imagine how Neville would feel when he heard the miraculous news that they were going to have a baby and her heart began thudding hard inside her chest with excitement.

A heady potpourri of fresh soil, green leaves and flowers greeted her senses as she left the coolness of the fireplace and entered into the hot, misty air of the greenhouse.

Ginny wheeled herself into the main greenhouse, once again amazed at how something so vast could be so delicate. Even in her rush to get to Neville, she couldn't help but pause to marvel at the beauty before her.

She looked up, her eyes tracing the intricate iron fingers of the greenhouse that seemed to rise up from the fresh black soil like living things, narrowing as they rose majestically upwards, gothic arches without need of flying buttresses to sustain them. Her eyes followed the intricate ironwork down the ceiling until they rested on the nearly endless glass of the walls. Condensation from the mist had painted the transparent walls with diamond beads of glistening moisture that danced and sparkled in the sunlight, throwing rainbows of colour across the greenhouse that dazzled her with their brightness.

Small jewelled creatures swirled round her head as she pushed herself down the crazy quilt of mottled red and black brick that jigsawed its way through the centre of the greenhouse.

Dark and light green striped plants towered over her as she wheeled herself down the worn brick pathway, their aroma of cinnamon and apple making her stomach give an involuntary growl of hunger.

She could see Neville's office ahead, the light cutting a small swath in the surrounding shadow. He sat at his small wooden desk, bent over a large blue green book, his face creased with concentration as he added up his takings for the day.

She didn't stop to wonder why part of the greenhouse was kept in semi-darkness, what sort of plant might be kept there. All she thought about was the look on Neville's face when she told him the good news.

In her hurry to see him, she accidently brushed across a large, undulating mass of vines and tendrils that swayed and shook snakelike in the darkness that surrounded it.

Before she knew what was happening a ropey tendril had slithered from the depths of the plants, up her shoulder and coiled painfully around her neck. Other tendrils shot out, wrapping vicious green tentacles around the spokes of her wheelchair and began reeling it in towards the writhing depths within.

Ginny screamed as the plant tightened its grip against the soft flesh of her throat, squeezing till no more sounds escaped.

As the coarse abrasive tendril tightened its lethal grip upon her, the edges of her vision blurred as she opened her mouth to cry out to Neville for help.

Arms thrashing, she tried to get the plant off of her. She clawed at the vine around her neck, digging her nails into it until her fingers were bloody, but the more she struggled the stronger the plant became.

|The air was filled with the sounds of choking, then the sudden harsh dragging noise as the wheels of her chair scraped against the cold brick path as the plant dragged Ginny closer and closer to it. More and more tendrils wrapped around her, until she was almost invisible under the constricting mass of green.

Ginny's eyes began to grow dim as the last of her oxygen left her body.

Her last thought before she passed into unconsciousness was about the baby that grew inside of her and of how close they'd come to having what they'd always wanted.