Disclaimer: I'm just borrowing J.K's brilliant characters!
“Ginny, please speak!” Harry whispered fiercely. “Are you alright?”
Silence. Harry was growing panicky. She was staring right at him with hurt in her eyes. Not hurt as in physically, but something was wrong. And was that love in her eyes, too? Could she hear him speaking? Why wasn’t she answering? Why wasn’t she speaking? She was looking at him and her eyes were flooded with tears. His face was still damp with tears as well, but he wouldn’t start to cry again. She could see him, he knew, and because of that, he needed to stay strong.
Ginny wanted to answer, she really did. She wanted to reach up and grab him around the neck and kiss him hard. She wanted to tell him that everything would be okay now. She wanted to explain that no matter what she would always love him and that they could be together for real now. She wanted to explain to him that she would always be in danger; her family was blood traitors and she was the only girl in the family not to mention the youngest. She tried to move her hand up to his face again. Nothing happened. She tried to move her lips to form a word, any word. Still, nothing happened. She could only cry harder with fear of what was wrong with her. She hoped with all her might that Harry could sense that something was wrong.
He did
“HEALER HANSON! I NEED YOU! SOMETHING IS WRONG!” Harry screamed.
He knelt next to Ginny’s bed and held her hand with both of his up to his face. He closed his eyes, tears streaming down his face again.
“Please,” he pleaded, “Please don’t leave me. Be strong, baby! Please…I can’t…hang on…we’ll figure it out…I know, Gin, I know something’s wrong…hang on…I love you…we can get through this.”
He was still mumbling when the Healer entered the room.
“What, what’s going on?” Healer Hanson, Ginny’s Healer, asked.
“She’s up, she’s awake, look. But she can’t speak or move. Something is wrong and she is scared. Please help, please figure it out!” Harry was hysterical.
He didn’t know how he knew what Ginny was thinking or feeling, he just knew. When he looked over at her face, he could tell that he’d said and done the right thing.
“Okay, Mr. Potter, okay,” said the Healer as he grabbed Harry’s arm. “I need you to leave for a little while, okay?”
It was more of a statement than a question and Harry was leaving so the Healer could fix Ginny. But then a thought crossed his mind that she wanted him to stay with her. He looked over at the bed Ginny was lying in and saw a look of pleading and worry mixed with fear and alarm. Once again, he knew what she wanted.
So he looked over at the Healer and told him that Ginny wanted him to stay with her. The Healer was in too much of a hurry and in the middle of a thought, so he ushered Harry out of the room and closed the door behind, apparently unaware that Harry had spoken.
“Harry, what’s going on? Is she alright?” Hermione ran up to Harry and put her hands on his shoulders.
She noticed that he was upset and had been crying. When she’d heard Harry yell for Healer Hanson, she’d known something was wrong, but she didn’t dare interrupt them.
“She…she’s awake,” Harry stuttered, still in shock of everything.
Hermione gasped. “Merlin, Harry, that’s wonderful! So what are they doing in there, then?” she asked.
“She…she can’t move…or talk…she wants…she wants him to help her…she wants to tell me something…but she can’t move…or talk,” Harry was mumbling again.
“What? Okay, wait-Ginny is awake, but she can’t move or speak. She wants Healer Hanson to help her because she has to tell you something?” Hermione re-capped.
“Yeah, I ‘spose so,” Harry said.
“How do you know that she needs to tell you something if she can’t talk?” Ron was suddenly on one side of him.
Hermione and he were helping Harry walk to a seat in the waiting area not far from Ginny’s room.
“I don’t know. I can just feel it, I guess,” Harry said. He looked over at Hermione. “I told her everything. I thought she was asleep but I think she was awake and heard it all,” he told her.
Hermione smiled. “She has a right to know. I told Ron as well. We wanted them to find out in the end anyway,” she said.
Harry nodded. “Just not this soon,” he said.
“None of this was supposed to happen, so no, not this soon,” she told him.
He nodded again. He was tired.
“I’ll go get us all a cup of tea,” Ron said after a few minutes of silence.
Harry and Hermione nodded, and Ron set off. A few more minutes past with silence still.
“Harry, please talk to me,” Hermione said.
Harry continued to look at his hands. “I knew something would happen to her. I love her,” he said without looking up.
“You tried to stop it! And you saved her from him again! Don’t blame yourself again, Harry. She won’t want that,” Hermione told him wisely.
Harry looked up and stared straight into her eyes. I can’t lose her, ‘Mione! If I do, I…I just can’t,” he said. “I can’t lose her the way I lost Sirius and my parents!”
“You won’t, Harry, you won’t,” Hermione told him.
Ron came back with three cups of tea. Hermione could tell he had been crying but didn’t say anything. Ron, just like Harry, had to get through it himself. Ron’s sister, Harry’s love, Hermione’s best friend. Ginny couldn’t die, and Hermione would make sure she wouldn’t.
Healer Hanson kept messing with different spells and had a book of potions in his hand. He was pacing the room and mumbling things to himself.
Ginny lay in shock and horror of what was going on.
’The numbing potion’ she thought, ’He needs to undo the numbing potion!’