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

III

The girl walked away from the hall with the ball--the Ball Hall, she wondered...?--and was planning on returning to her quarters when she spotted a curious pair rushing down the corridor:

"No, please! Let me come with you!" said one of the pair, a beautiful lady with bright red hair, who was wearing a long dressing gown and who looked more than a little sick.

"I can't," said her partner, a black-haired man who happened to be dressed in shining armour. He appeared to be a knight. "I have to go, you can't come with me--"

"PLEASE?" the lady begged.

"Where are you going?" the girl asked the knight.

He looked at her in surprise, and so did the lady--they hadn't noticed her.

"To fight the dragon," said the knight.

"Oh, so you've noticed it?" said Luna.

"What?" said Ginny, looking up with heavily-lidded eyes and a handkerchief halfway to her nose. "Yes, I've noticed that I'm sick, Luna, yes, I get it, I'm sorry I didn't listen--but I'm still not going to Madam Pomfrey..."

"What?" said Luna, blinking and looking at her friend, confused. Then she recalled what was going on, and said, "Oh. Oh, no, that wasn't what I meant."

"What did you mean?" There was utter confusion upon Ginny's face--the kind of confusion that only comes from being lightheaded and sick and not feeling good and trying to make sense of things.

"Nothing," said Luna, shaking her head. "Just rest."

Ginny lay down again--she had the couch to herself now, because she didn't think it was smart to have Luna hold her so close when she was sick--after all, she didn't want Luna to get sick as well...

Luna didn't care, and she'd tried to tell Ginny so, but it was no use. Right now all Luna wanted to do was hold her crybaby and do absolutely anything within her power to make her feel better... it was killing her to stay in the comfy armchair that had appeared next to the couch.

Luna wished Ginny had listened before. Then she would have gone to bed and rested and not gone back to revising and she wouldn't have gone outside and she wouldn't be feeling so utterly, detestably icky right now, if only she'd believed her...

Ginny had started with that one sneeze--and from there it was most precipitously downhill. She'd started sneezing again and again, and her throat hurt, and she was all achy... Luna absolutely despised seeing her like this, but then she could never leave, of course.

Ginny's eyes were closed now, but she was obviously awake.

"How are you?" Luna said gently.

Ginny smiled slightly and said, "Icky."

Luna beamed--"I love that word. I mean, I hate feeling it, but it's a wonderful word, isn't it? Icky. It makes you feel like a little kid again...."

"Ugh, I already feel like a little kid," said Ginny. She opened her eyes and propped herself up on the edge of the couch, so she could look at Luna. "You'll make a good mum someday."

"Really?"

"Yeah," said Ginny, nodding.

"Yech?" Luna asked, an eyebrow quirked.

Ginny frowned. "I said... yeah... I'm sorry if I can't talk very well... like I said, icky..."

"It's OK," said Luna. "You don't have to talk if you don't want to."

Ginny looked at her a moment, and then: "But I do kind of want to talk... I dunno if I'll be understandable, though..."

"I'll figure it out," said Luna. "I always do."

"OK, then," said Ginny, nodding. She laughed a little: "So what to talk about...?"

"Harry?" suggested Luna.

"That's always a fine candidate," said Ginny approvingly. She let her head fall back again and looked at the ceiling. "Harry... I love Harry. Harry is great."

"You deserve each other," said Luna.

"Yeah..." said Ginny, sounding rather delirious, either from being sick, being tired, being in love or all three.

"I'm going to marry Harry," said Ginny, nodding in her semi-conscious state. She sniffled. "Hey, that rhymes. Marry Harry..."

"Yes it does," said Luna, smiling.

"That's going to be nice. Being married, I mean. Being a mum, and everything... it must be great... my mum certainly enjoyed it, didn't she? Seven... I don't think I could have seven kids. I'd go barmy..."

"Who, you?" said Luna, smirking. "You, barmy? Never..."

"Ha, ha, ha. Very funny. I'm sure I sound just perfectly sensible right now..." A sniffle, and a long breath: "What was I saying? Oh, yes, kids. I love kids. But not seven of them. Maybe... maybe three. Two girls and a boy. I'll name them... I'll name them..." She seemed to be grasping about for names for a while before finally saying, decisively, "Well, I dunno, but one of them's Luna..."

Luna sniffled, and she didn't think she was exhibiting symptoms...

Ginny continued rambling deliriously:

"...and me and Harry, we're going to get married right here on the grounds, you know, a big Hogwarts wedding. I thought about it at Dumbledore's funeral. Right on the same spot, you know... a happiness out of sadness sort of thing?"

Luna nodded. "That makes sense. It will be lovely."

"It will... and you know, that's where it happened, too. That's where we left off. Last year... at the funeral. Damn, that was a bad day. I felt like the world was ending, I was grieving Dumbledore's death and letting go of my beloved, all at once..."

"Your beloved?"

Ginny nodded, that silly, feverish smile still plastered on her face: "Yes. My beloved. That's what he is...."

Luna couldn't help beaming at her--she felt somehow inately proud of her, even if it was just the sickness talking. She'd said it, and that was what mattered... she was finally making sense.

Neither spoke for a long while, and it was very peaceful... Luna rather wished it could stay so peaceful forever, but it couldn't.

After a while, Luna began:

"Ginny...?"

"Yes?"

Luna hesitated one moment before saying it, and then: "Are you still scared?"

Ginny nodded fervently, her expression not changing. "Terrified. Horrified. Absolutely quaking in my boots... if I was wearing them..."

"What are you afraid of, Ginny?"

"I'm scared that I'll lose him," said Ginny simply. "I'm scared he's going to die and I'm not going to be there and the rest of my life won't be real. I'm scared that I'll never kiss him again, that I'll never hold him... that I'll never tell him how much I love him. I'm scared I'm going to lose him and there's nothing I can do about it..."

"Ginny... there is something you can do about it."

The smile was gone. Ginny's face, as loopy as it had looked a moment before, was suddenly all seriousness. She sat up straight upright on the edge of the couch and looked Luna right in the face.

"Wha--a--AAACCHHOOOOOO!"

"Bless you."

"Thanks... Wha... what? What can I do?"

Luna took hold of Ginny's hand, and held it tight between both of hers--it was all sweaty, she noticed, but didn't really notice.

"You can tell him," said Luna. "You can tell him how much you love him, you can tell him everything... you can hold him, you can kiss him, you can be with him, if you just tell him how you feel. If you just do something about it... he won't turn you away, I know it."

Ginny swallowed, and sniffled once again. She stared at Luna for a long time, and her hand hung limply between Luna's.

Then, her face scrunched up once again, and she looked like a little girl--That face can't be older than six, thought Luna. She started to cry once again, slowly at first...

"But I'm scared," she said, her voice so weak it was barely a voice at all.

Luna sniffled once again, and squeezed Ginny's hand. "It'll be OK, Ginny. Everything will be OK."

There was about three seconds between the moment Luna said "OK" and the moment Ginny launched herself off the couch and into Luna's arms. During that three seconds, Luna saw, in Ginny's eyes, every fear and every doubt, every worry and every bad thought, she saw everything that plagued the girl. And she saw something else as well.

Luna had never ever been hugged so tightly in her entire life, and she doubted she ever would be again. Ginny probably would have toppled the chair over if she were any heavier than a sack of large potatoes, and Luna couldn't technically breathe, but she didn't mind. Everything was OK, because she was holding her little crybaby, and she was going to be OK.

"Thank you, Luna," whispered Ginny in her ear.

--|--

They didn't let go. If anything, they both tightened their grip. They didn't speak anymore--they knew very well what was going to happen, there was no use communicating it out loud.

After the stupid demonstration thing was over, Luna would go out and find Harry, and bring him back here, to the Room of Requirement. Ginny would tell him everything, every little thing, everything she felt for him--and she would explain how damned stupid they'd been, to break things off.

It was all very well and good, to put things off for later... "after the war," yes, after the war they'd get back together and everything would be OK. They'd get married, have a family, just like Ginny had always dreamed...

But they couldn't put things off for later, because there was no certainty that "later" would ever come. They had to make the most of the time they had, or they'd regret it forever--they couldn't just sit around and prepare, they had to do something, now.

There is no telling what the future holds, Luna knew that very well.... For all she knew, this would be the last time she ever held Ginny like this, the last time she was a mum--perhaps she'd never really be a mum at all, there was no way to know. Perhaps her crybaby was the only one she'd ever hold....

Luna sniffled, and the tears fell. The thought that this may be the end, that soon Ginny wouldn't need her like this at all, wouldn't need her to cry on or to ramble to or anything... she knew it had to happen, but...

Luna felt like she was going to be sick.

Finis.