Sick

Sick
Potter47

"Enough had been thought, and said, and felt, and imagined.
It was about time that something should be done."
-- C. S. Lewis

II

Outside the hall stood a girl, peering in the door hopefully, wondering if anyone would notice if she were to sneak in and blend in with the crowd...

But surely they would notice, for she wasn't dressed for the occasion, she was wearing her everyday things, nothing fit for a fancy ball... and so she didn't enter. It wasn't her party, anyway, what on earth did she belong there for, it was a silly party anyway, especially on account of the dragon.

"Luna? What's wrong with me? Why am I such a crybaby all of a sudden?"

Luna blinked, and became aware of her surroundings. She was in the Room of Requirement, with Ginny... she was holding Ginny, hugging Ginny and rocking her slightly as she cried. They were on an especially comfy couch, and Luna didn't mind in the slightest that Ginny was holding on rather tightly and soaking Luna's shirt with her tears.

"There's nothing wrong with being a crybaby," said Luna honestly. "I cried for ages and ages when my mum died..."

"That's different, though," mumbled Ginny. "Nobody died... And you're supposed to say you're not a crybaby..."

"But you are," said Luna. "Why would I lie?"

Ginny laughed, which was a nice sound to hear. "That's not the point."

It had been a day since Ginny had broken down in the library. She had somehow managed to make it through the day of classes--Luna would have headed straight for the Hospital Wing, if she felt like that, but Ginny was rather stubborn, and still insisted she wasn't sick.

At dinner, Ginny had asked Luna to meet her here, and when she had, Luna had been essentially pounced upon, and the couch had appeared and Ginny started sobbing and sobbing and sobbing and Luna was her personal handkerchief--"personal" in more ways than one.

It was odd, for Luna, this whole... comforting thing. She'd never been a comforter before, she'd never been there for somebody to make them feel better--usually it was the other way round, usually she needed to be comforted.

She remembered when she was little, and she went to her mum and daddy's bedroom, lay in between them and felt so much better... and when she was upset during the daytime, she went to her mum and she held Luna, and rocked her back and forth and kissed her forehead until Luna felt better, which she always did.

Luna had never really felt like her mum before. She'd never felt motherly at all. But now...

"Do you want to talk about it?" Luna said softly, stroking Ginny's hair off of her forehead. Luna had never really thought about how much smaller Ginny was than herself--how tall was she, anyway? She fit into her arms perfectly, it was... it was nice, this whole motherly thing.

"Maybe?" said Ginny, into Luna's robe.

Luna smiled. "What does that mean?"

"I dunno," said Ginny. Luna had to strain to make out the syllables correctly, even though "I dunno" was not exactly the most difficult thing to grasp. "I kinda want to talk about it, yeah... but I dunno what to talk about."

"Just ramble, then, that works for me."

Luna felt Ginny smile, which again was a very nice change.

"I'll try."

Ginny took a deep breath--and for a minute Luna thought she was going to sit up, so that it would be easier to talk--but she let the breath out and fell right into the same position she'd been in before, and began:

"I'm scared, Luna. I'm scared to death."

"No you aren't," said Luna. "If you were, you'd be a lot heavier."

When Ginny stayed silent a minute, Luna said, "I'm sorry. I'll be quiet."

"It's OK. I'm just.. thinking. I'm scared--scared of what's going to happen to him. I love him, you know I do, I love him more than I love anybody else in the world, and I'm not just saying that, I love him, I care for him so damned much, the thought of him in pain drives me barmy... the thought of him breaking a toenail drives me up the wall... if he gets hurt..."

Ginny didn't speak for a minute, so Luna filled in the silence: "He's going to be OK, you know--"

"No," said Ginny, "I don't know, I don't have any idea. He's going to leave and I'm going to be here, all alone--"

"But you're not," said Luna. "You're going to go with him. That's what this is all for, isn't it? That's why you're absolutely running yourself dry, so that you can be with him, so that you can be with your beloved." Luna felt her voice revel in those words, and knew Ginny would not protest this time. "And even if you didn't... you would most definitely not be alone--"

Luna felt Ginny smile again.

"Thank you," she said.

They were silent for a long while, and then Luna said: "Do you want to keep going?"

A moment's hesitation, and then:

"Yeah... I don't want to lose him, Luna... no matter what, and I don't want to just... I don't want to lose him. I can't stand the thought of losing him..."

"You're not going to lose him."

"But what if he goes off and doesn't come back, Luna? What if he leaves at the end of the year and I never ever see him again? I love him..."

Ginny took a breath, and Luna took one as well, and it was an odd moment of see-saw-ish motion because they didn't breathe in time with each other at all.

--silence.

Luna wondered if Ginny was finished this time. She hadn't really said much more than she had before, so maybe if Luna prompted her... but Luna didn't want to prompt her. Something in Ginny's voice, when she said "I love him," something was so tired in that voice, so worn-out and exhausted, that Luna could not say a word.

Luna let Ginny rest, she tucked her closer to her (if that was possible) and she eased her arms so that Ginny could relax a bit more.

As they both drifted off to sleep, Luna wondered for the first time if Ginny was contagious.

--|--

Ginny still stubbornly insisted that she wasn't sick, and so in the morning, after crying herself out and getting a good night of rest, she returned to the library.

Luna went with her, of course, and they settled down at the very same table they had occupied two nights before. Ginny took a deep breath before opening her first book and plunging in, but when she finally took that plunge, she did not surface again until Luna realised it was time for breakfast.

"It's time for breakfast," said Luna.

Ginny looked up from her Fortress of Non-fiction and looked around for a clock.

"No it isn't," she said upon finding one. "It's Saturday, remember, breakfast isn't for another--"

"Saturday?" said Luna.

"Yes. You know, the day after Sun--I mean, Friday. Why on earth did I say Sunday...?"

"Because you're overtired," supplied Luna. Then she added: "Today's the demonstration, did I mention it? I heard about it from Dobby the House-Elf the other day, the Ministry's demonstrating all their secrets for all the public to see..."

"Yeah, I know," said Ginny. "They told us ages ago, I don't really think I much want to go... I've got loads of work to catch up on--"

Luna blinked. "They did?"

"Yeah... why wouldn't they?"

"No, I just... I didn't hear about it until..."

Ginny smiled. "That's because things actually happen in the real world while you're off in la-la-land..."

"It's called Logica-Land," corrected Luna automatically, before returning to her point: "So... everybody already knows about it?"

"Yeah," said Ginny. "Most of the kids are really excited about it, actually... Harry's helping out with the duels. People can sign up to go against an Auror, he's helping with... stuff... I think they made him..." Ginny swallowed. "Well, anyway, like I said, I'd rather not go... you can if you want to, obviously..."

"No, I'll stay with you," said Luna, nodding. "It seems a bit silly, if you ask me, for all the Aurors to come here to show off what they can do, rather than actually doing it and fighting You-Know-Who..."

Ginny blinked now. "You know, you're right, that does seem a silly thing to do."

Luna smiled. "You said 'silly'. I'm the only one who ever says 'silly' anymore, I can't imagine why, it's a nice word, it makes me happy. Like 'yeesh.' Have you ever said 'yeesh'? You can't say it without smiling."

"Yeesh," said Ginny, smiling. "You're crazy, Luna."

"It's true, though--it forces your mouth into a smile even if a smile's the last thing your mouth wants to be. If people said 'yeesh' more often, there'd be less wrinkles in the world."

Ginny laughed, now. Luna's heart jumped a mile to hear it, it was the most wonderful sound in the world--to hear her crybaby laughing. It felt good.

--|--

Time went by, and soon enough, Luna was very, very hungry--she hadn't eaten since dinner the evening before, and it had been a long night. You're always hungrier after a long night, after all.

"Are you hungry?" she asked Ginny, hoping she would say 'yes' because it isn't good not to eat, especially when you're sick...

"Uh... yeah, I suppose," said Ginny, biting her lip as she scribbled something on her parchment and set down her quill.

"I'll get something from the kitchens for us, if you want," offered Luna, "if you'd rather rest a bit..."

Ginny shook her head. "The House-elves'll be too busy. We'd best just stop by the demonstration thing, there'll be loads of food."

Luna watched Ginny as she stood, and despite the obvious signs of sickness--pallor, unkept hair, slightly sweaty forehead--she had to admit that Ginny was looking a whole lot better than she had. And she sounded it as well, she was talking almost like normal, as though she hadn't spent the night crying her eyes out on Luna's chest. Perhaps, if it could keep Ginny healthy, Luna could play mum more often, she was rather enjoying it.

They walked down together to the entrance hall--a silent walk that was immediately disturbed upon entering the hall, for suddenly they were immersed in the sounds of hundreds of young witches and wizards screaming and enjoying themselves and having a good time... it rather hurt Luna's ears, the suddenness of it all.

The oak front doors were swung wide open, letting the bright Spring sunlight flood the hall as Luna had never seen it before--she supposed that everyone was fairly confident that with all the Aurors of the Ministry in attendance, You-Know-Who wouldn't dare try anything, so there was no point closing up the castle...

Once outside, it was no trouble to spot the food--it was distinct among all the places on the grounds in that it was overly occupied by far. It seemed half the school (as well as the visitors, the demonstration was open to the public) was gathered there, impatiently awaiting their foodstuffs.

"We'd best get in line," said Ginny wearily.

As they walked towards the food, Luna heard what sounded like a thousand different speakers at once, all saying something very different and all completely and obviously lying:

"Watch closely--this is a brand new spell, nobody's ever seen it before--we've gotten loads of Death Eaters with this very spell..."

Luna spoke close to Ginny's ear: "How can they have caught so many Death Eaters with it if it's a brand new spell that nobody's ever seen?"

Ginny laughed. "They can't have, obviously. You'd think they'd at least tell the truth, after going through all this trouble..."

This Dark Magic Detection Device--D-M-Double-D as we call 'em, this particular one is used very much like your average Remembrall, except it fills with blue smoke when it senses an Unforgivable--

--this one here's got sparks that shoot out when it senses something's been Confunded!

This spell's awful handy in dealing with the higher-ranking Death Eaters, the ones that know hows to dodge--it shoots round and hits 'em in the back before they know what's happenin'...

"Ugh," said Luna aloud. "They sound like used-broom salesmen..."

Luna looked back at Ginny, who didn't seem to be paying her the slightest bit of attention. She followed her gaze, and was not surprised to see it led to the Duelling platform, where a certain black-haired boy was instructing children the proper stance...

Luna smiled at the moonstruck look on Ginny's face.

"Will you two move up already?" said a voice--Luna looked round and noticed that they'd been standing still an awful long time while the food line had been moving up.

"I apologise," she said to the man behind them. "Ginny, let's go..."

Ginny mumbled something about in a minute but moved along anyway.

Once they'd caught up to the next people in line, Ginny sighed rather audibly. "He is so amazing... watching him like that..."

"You wonder what sort of a dad he'll be," said Luna knowingly.

"Yeah," said Ginny. "How'd you know that?"

"It was written on your face."

Suddenly, that face scrunched up violently, and before another moment had passed, and before either of them knew what was happening, Ginny exploded in a great

ACCHOOO!

It seemed to shock Ginny considerably, and once she'd recovered from the shock, her face looked rather limp and even paler than before.

She rubbed her throat, and in a rather surprised, achy-sounding voice--so that the "k" sound seemed to have an "h" in it somewhere--she said,

"Luna... I think I might be sick..."

TBC