Chapter 14 - Shockwave
“Yeah, that’s right, Weasley, welcome to America,” taunted Kayla. “Dueling’s legal here, didn’t you know? The way you were creeping along out there, you must’ve thought you were breaking some rule, huh? Well, surprise, surprise. You gonna put up now, or run off?”
Silently, glaring poisonously at her rival, Ginny resumed her stance and raised her wand.
Esmerelda produced a black handkerchief from somewhere (might have conjured it up) and held it up. “When this drops from my hand, the duel will begin.”
A long, portentious silence as sixteen pairs of eyes watched the fragment of black cloth. Then, it fluttered downward, and both duelists reacted.
“Stupefy!” screamed Kayla.
“Expelliarmus!” Ginny barked.
A flare of scarlet light shot straight toward Ginny, who spun sideways. The Stunner missed, but Ginny felt it fan her robes. Thankfully, Kayla had been concentrating on speed, not accuracy. Ginny’s disarming spell, darker red and not as bright, was accurately placed, but Kayla deftly spun aside as well. The latter’s face darkened with anger as she realized that she would not be able to end the duel with one hit. “Dodge this! Concussiunda!”
“Expelliarmus!” Ginny yelled again. But it was already too late.
A brilliant golden shockwave exploded from the wand tip,hemispherical and rapidly expanding. It swept Ginny up like a windstorm taking a leaf and flung her backward, past the edge of the table, over the four feet of space between it and the wall, and into the wall itself. Had it not been for the cushioning charm placed there, she might have been seriously hurt. As it was, she bounced off and forward, striking the edge of the platform. Winded, head in agony, she clung there, dimly aware that no part of her had touched the floor. She could feel something warm gushing down over her lips and had a bad feeling that it wasn’t water.
Steven was going to fetch Kayla’s wand; Ginny’s second Disarming charm had winged her, just enough to send the weapon flying. Kayla accepted it, then turned to Esmerelda. “Well, what are you waiting for?” she demanded. “Declare the duel ov. . . .”
“Wingardium Leviosa!”
It was barely a croak; since Ginny was stunned, had a badly broken nose, and barely had any air in her lungs; but it was good enough. An unseen hand plucked Kayla off her feet and pulled her irresistably skyward. With a shriek of rage, she whipped her wand in front of her,shearing through the invisible force that bound her to Ginny’s wand. But she was a good twelve feet above the platform by then, and gravity took its inev itable toll. She tried to cast a spell as she fell, but a human body only requires .87 seconds to fall twelve feet, and that wasn’t enough time. She struck the edge of the platform with her arm, and the horrible CRACK of breaking bone seemed to shake the walls.
“You little cheat!” Steven Smith raised his own wand and began shouting something, but before he could, Esmerelda almost idly jabbed her own wand at him and a lance of brilliant blue light hit him in the chest and blew him from the platform. A second hex, a the scarlet flare of a Stunning Spell launched by Irma, was too late to hit anything but the wall.
That was the last thing Ginny saw before she blacked out.
* * * * * * * * *
She rose slowly from blackness to darkness, and then from darkness to dimness, and then looked around. The room was unfamiliar, and lit only by a small lamp. She was lying in a bed. Twenty feet away, in the pool of sallow light cast by the low-wattage lamp (she had heard enough Mugglespeak to know that meant dim, though she had no idea why), there were shadowed figures. She could hear muffled cursing.
“Oww. Damn it, that hurts! When’s that potion gonna kick in?”
“Soon,” said a serene voice she recognized as Red Cloud’s. “And watch your language.”
“That stinking Weasley brat cheated! I had her beaten and she. . . .” Before Kayla could finish her sentence, Red Cloud grasped her arm and did something with it. “YEEEE-OUCH!! Why’d you do that?!”
“You had a compound fracture,” Red Cloud explained. “I either set it, or just let you spend the rest of your life with your arm bent like a question mark.” He took out a beaker of Skele-Gro, poured her a spoonful. “Now take this and quit whining.”
Kayla downed the medicine, her face contorting horribly in disgust. For a moment, Ginny thought she was going to throw up, but she managed to keep it down. “Ugh,” she said.
The healer dumped water in a pot and added something from an emerald green bottle. “Now put your arm in this solution here.”
Kayla did as told, and when her arm came out, it was encased in something resembling green glass. “What is this?”
“Cast potion, something I developed. It will take about six hours for your arm to completely heal, and until then, it must be immobilized. Come in tomorrow, and I’ll remove it.”
“Thanks,” Kayla said, if a little grudgingly. As she headed for the exit, she saw that Ginny was now awake. “Next time I see you, Weasley, I’ll. . . .”
“Be silent,” an icy voice said from the shadows. “You’re in the infirmary, Miss Anderson. Many behaviors permitted on the dueling floor are not tolerated here. This includes threatening remarks.”
Ginny turned to look. Professor Grayson was there. Either he had been present all along, or he had just apparated in.
Kayla was not silent. “Yeah, because this little brat put me there by cheating. Or didn’t you happen to notice that she attacked me after I’d already beat her. She passed completely over the plane of. . . .”
“Esmerelda already informed me of what transpired, just prior to my arrival,” Professor Grayson said, his voice still dangerously soft. “She said that you told Miss Weasley that ‘the duel ends when your butt hits the floor’, am I right?”
“Yeah, but. . . you know the rules!”
“Yes, but she didn’t. Esmerelda was trying to make her aware of them, but you interrupted her, didn’t you? Even though you were quite aware that she didn’t even know dueling was permitted, never mind the rules.”
“But. . . .”
Inexorably, Professor Grayson went on. “Enough. You picked a fight with a seventh-grader. You altered the rules, albeit inadvertantly. She followed the rules that you set. She is blameless; your injuries were your fault. Good night.”
It was a dismissal, and Kayla knew it. She stormed out.
“Is Ginny free to leave as well?” Professor Grayson asked the healer, who had watched the discussion unblinkingly.
“She hit her head, rather hard,” Red Cloud said. “I’d like to hold her overnight, for observation.” He tossed Professor Grayson a pale blue flannel nightshirt with the Silver Grove crest on it. “She can put this on, at her convenience.” He indicated the curtain that could be pulled around the bed, allowing privacy. “And I’ll be giving you some Counterconcussion Serum as well, Miss Weasley.”
“Potions, yuk,” Ginny said, wrinkling her nose.
“Serves you right for dueling with a student two years above you. I’m surprised she didn’t flatten you with the first hit.” Professor Grayson patted her shoulder. “I suggest staying out of duels for awhile. Defensive magic isn’t your strong suit yet.”
“Tell me about it,” Ginny said, starting to sit up in bed, then changing her mind and laying back down. “I feel awful.”
“Be glad you weren’t awake for when I fixed your nose,” Red Cloud commented. “You wouldn’t have enjoyed that much.”
“You’ll be better by tomorrow.” Professor Grayson sat down next to her, in a chair that had been provided for that purpose. “And for your information, under standard dueling rules, a duel is over when one combatant falls or is propelled from the rear of the dueling table, whether they actually hit the floor or not. That’s why Miss Anderson was so upset with you.”
“Oh. What did she hit me with, anyway? I’ve never seen that spell before.”
“That was the Shockwave spell. I normally cover it at the freshman level, but it’s not uncommon for older students to teach it to younger ones.”
Ginny remembered the expanding circle of golden light, smashing into her like a tidal wave. “Is there any way to stop it?”
“Shield spell. It’s very simple; if you’ve been studying our text, you probably already know it.” Grayson turned to go, then started. “Oh, I almost forgot the reason I was looking for you in the first place.”
Despite her misery, Ginny felt a surge of interest. “Why were you?”
“Professor Chance had a long chat with myself and the other teachers. They all agreed that you should be moved up.” He withdrew a folded up class schedule from his pocket and lay it on the nightstand next to her bed. “Congratulations, kid.”
Ginny grinned, then became serious as something occurred to her. “What about History? And Defense?”
“Professor Nacht says that most of what he teaches in seventh is American history. You’ll be returning to Britain after your schooling, so we’re not really concerned about you missing that. And as for Defense. . . well, you can read it on your schedule.” While speaking, the professor took a small silver object from his pocket and lay it next to the class schedule. Ginny saw that it was a rank pip, a twin to the one she already wore. Grayson gently patted her shoulder. “I’ve got to go. Get a good night’s sleep, all right?”
Ginny nodded, then rose laboriously and flicked her wand at the curtains. They slid swiftly shut. There was a mirror within the area they enclosed. Ginny looked at herself and shuddered. She had been wearing her usual school clothes, consisting of simple skirt, white blouse, and the required robe. The front of her blouse was now a damp crimson. Worse, her nose was just a teensy bit crooked. A muggle doctor would have considered it a fine fix, considering the severity of the damage, but Ginny was used to magical healing, which left no signs. Well, she supposed, she could visit a healer on her next trip home.
She changed into the nightgown and flopped on the bed. Red Cloud, hearing the springs jounce, spoke from outside. “Are you decent, Miss Weasley?” he asked. Upon Ginny’s affirmative answer, he opened the curtains, a vial in his hand. “Here. I’ve mixed it with a mild sleeping draft.”
Ginny accepted the vial and drank. It was orange-flavored, but still had a nasty bitter aftertaste. But it was swift; she felt her head beginning to swim. Immediately, she lay back in bed, and her next-to-last thought before oblivion hit was that it would be a good idea for her to avoid any more duels in the near future. Her last thought was that it would also be a good idea to practice her shield charms, just in case.
THIS ENDS BOOK ONE OF “GINNY’S JOURNEY”. DUE TO THE PROHIBITIVE TIME INVOLVED IN SUBMITTING CHAPTERS PIECEMEAL, I AM OPTING ONLY TO POST BOOK ONE.
TO READ THE REMAINING CHAPTERS, GO HERE.
ALERT - GINNYPOTTER.COM IS TEMPORARILY DOWN, AND THE FULL TEXT OF THIS STORY IS NOT CURRENTLY POSTED ANYWHERE ELSE. PLEASE CHECK BACK LATER: EITHER G.P. WILL BE BACK UP, OR I WILL RELOCATE THE STORY.