Chapter 16
While their eventual relocation to the Hospital Wing was a welcome change to Rebecca, Madam Pomfrey was furious with them all regardless. "You drink at a pub!" The healer scolded while fussing over Ron's potion adminsterence. "Not in a school!" When the potions had been given, Madam Pomfrey assured Harry and Rebecca that Ron would sleep deeply until morning.
"And quidditch?" Rebecca asked, oblivious to the look Madam Pomfrey have her. "Will he be able to play?"
"I'll pretend you didn't ask me that."
Harry pulled the sheets down on the bed next to Ron and laid on it, fully expecting Rebecca to do the same when she was ready for bed. Hermione had told Fred through the mirror that Rebecca was probably spending a late night in the Room of Requirement, and although Rebecca had wanted to go get the others, Madam Pomfrey didn't want any more students wandering through the corridors than necessary and forbade it.
When Rebecca failed to come back at all, Hermione and Ginny began to worry and knew that they would be going to the Hospital Wing before breakfast to make sure no one was hurt. They saw Rebecca bent down on the side of Ron's bed while Harry slept on in the bed adjacent and both girls called their names as they ran.
"Good morning," Rebecca sat up and rubbed the sleep from her eyes, still tired and far from rested. "I tried to go get you, Madam-"
"What's happened?" Ginny asked, pulling Rebecca to her feet and wrapping her into a tight hug. This way, Ginny was able to look at the person actually in the bed and to hold the person she thought would have been.
"Love potion." Harry said. He sat up and ran his fingers through his hair the best he could to try and flatten the bed head he could feel standing tall. "First, at least. Then it was poison."
Hermione had taken the chair on the other side of Ron as soon as she made it to them, but at the mentioning of poison she looked Rebecca over. "Poison?"
"I didn't bloody drink any this time." Rebecca turned her head to the door as it was opened with a clatter by a line of professors entering--Dumbledore at the head of the group.
"Quick thinking on your part, Rebecca, for using the bezoar." Dumbledore complimented Rebecca and nodded his head to Slughorn. "You must be very proud of your student, Horace." Snape, knowing that this was a factoid taught in his beginning classes, glowered darkly.
Slughorn had remained in his thoughts since he almost had a dead student on his floor, but he looked up and spoke as absently as he felt. "Oh yes, very proud."
"I think we can all agree upon the heroic qualities of her actions," Professor McGonagall interrupted. "The question is why were they necessary?"
Dumbledore turned to Slughorn. "Why, indeed?" Dumbledore lifted the bottle of mead that had been confiscated to the light and studied the ribbon tied around the neck. "This appears to be a gift, Horace. You don't remember who gave you this bottle?" Slughorn shook his head. "Which, by the way, contains hint of licorice and cherry when not polluted with poison."
"Actually," Slughorn explained as Snape was given the bottle for inspection. "I had intended to give it as a gift myself."
"To whom?" Dumbledore asked.
Rebecca walked around Ron's bed so that she stood beside Hermione while the adults continued to talk. Harry had Ginny, and the still-sleeping Ron had Rebecca on one side, but Hermione was on her own and Rebecca knew that she could at least change that.
"To you, headmaster."
McGonagall looked up in alarm first at Slughorn's statement and then because of the screeching coming from the hall. Harry's head turned towards the door as well, staring in concern at the growing-closer noise.
"Where is he? Where is my Won-Won? Has he been asking for me?" Lavender barreled past Snape and Dumbledore without care and her hand shot to her mouth as she saw Ron in the hospital bed. At the sight of Hermione in the chair beside him, and Rebecca only just beside, Lavender's eyes narrowed. "What's she doing here?" To Rebecca alone, Lavender scowled. "I should have known it had something to do with you."
"I ought to ask you the same!" Hermione snapped, standing up and grabbing Rebecca's wrist in case any thoughts of fighting were to come to any minds.
"I happen to be his girlfriend!" Lavender retorted.
Hermione countered with a raised eyebrow. "I happen to be his...friend."
"Well," Rebecca scoffed. "I happen to live with him so piss off, Brown."
Lavender didn't find any help when she looked to Professor McGonagall. "Don't make me laugh, Granger!" Lavender sneered. "You haven't spoken in weeks! I suppose you want to make up with him now that he's suddenly all interesting."
"He's been poisoned, you daft dimbo!" Hermione raised her voice further. "And, for the record, I've always found him interesting!"
Rebecca and Ginny made eye contact at the undertones of Hermione's admission, but it ended when Ron stirred.
"See!" Lavender crowed. "He senses my presence."
"So says a priest in a damn exorcism, means nothing you nutter." Rebecca rolled her eyes.
Lavender pretended she didn't hear her, though Harry had to turn his head as a string of 'coughs' escaped him. "I'm here, Won-Won. I'm here."
Ron turned his head to the side, his lips moving with no audible sound yet making its way out. When he was finally able to be understood, he was calling for Hermione. Hermione sat on the edge of his bed and laid her hand under his gently.
Lavender, the second choice still while Ron was unconscious, turned and ran from the room in tears.
Dumbledore let out a heavy sigh. "Oh, to be young and feel love's keen sting." He offered Rebecca a slight bow of his head as a final recognition for her thinking. "Away, everybody. Mr Weasley is well tended."
When the professors had stepped a ways off, Rebecca trailing behind them in case any other information was given, Ginny glanced up at Harry boldly. "It's about time, don't you think?"
Harry forgot how to breathe a moment. Was she talking about getting rid of Lavender or Hermione's hand still in Ron's? "Yeah."
Rebecca, disgruntled at the failure of her reconnaissance, returned to them and returned to them all. "So," She asked Ginny. "You and Anthony are through?"
Ginny punched Rebecca in the arm and began to walk the two of them towards the exit of the Hospital Wing, the day ahead still needing them to be in their robes. Ginny's reaction was an answer of its own and Harry smiled at the news as he stayed with Hermione and Ron a moment longer.
Hermione looked up when she felt him looking at how she still held Ron's hand. "Shut up." She told him, a small smile of her own creeping across her face too.
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"Potter!" Shouts followed Harry down the hall. "Potter!"
Harry turned back with a disgruntled air about him. He had to leave Charms in the first minute after classes were excused if he was to get to the Transfiguration corridor before Ginny left her class, and he had to do this if she was going to have the opportunity to give him the same smile she had every time before. He sighed and turned back at whomever was keeping him and stifled a grown. "McLaggen."
"Weasley's out, words going around now. He can't play in the match." Cormac smirked. "I'm in then, right?"
Rebecca, between Neville and Luna as all three were on their way to Magical Creatures, gave Harry the chance he needed to get out from underneath the weight of solo responsibility. "I have to double-check, co-captain rule."
Cormac nodded. "Okay." He took a breath and raised his voice over the din of conversing, traveling students. "POTTER!"
Rebecca caught Harry's eye as she reached into her pocket and continued to walk with her friends. Cormac's mouth continued to move as he tried to shout for Rebecca more, but he couldn't make a sound.
"What, McLag?" Rebecca tilted her head cockily. "If we're going with half names, that'd be you, right?" Neville grinned as Cormac's lips failed to still a second. "It's Potter Weasley or nothing at all, remember that." A squeak left Rebecca's pocket and Cormac's voice returned.
"-I'm the back up, so I'm playing aren't I because I really thought I was and I really think-"
"No one's going to be playing if we're all in detention for being late." Rebecca interrupted boredly. "But, yes. We don't have a choice since we put you on the sheet as Keeper backup."
Harry looked over Rebecca's shoulder and Rebecca pushed him on so that he could get to his eye make-out session with Ginny. "I'll tell him the schedule." Harry ignored the look she was giving him but hurried off down the hall all the same. "Be on the pitch at six, McLaggen. Get there after and you'll field quaffles."
"I'll be there." McLaggen looked Rebecca over and grinned. "You won't regret it."
Rebecca rolled her eyes and looked to Luna as they began to walk on their way out of the castle once again. "I already do."
Neville motioned for her to take out whatever was in her pocket.
"Thought you'd like these, I thought of you when I made it." Rebecca pulled out a little squeaker toy, almost like what you would find in a pet store. "Silence-Squeakers, no one'll talk over you again with this on hand."
Neville blushed. "Thank you."
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"Here we are." Luna's voice was magnified in its softness over the span of the quidditch pitch. "Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff."
Nigel had been permanently removed from the position after he had run away from Professor McGonagall with the megaphone to curse the entirety of the Slytherin team, their families, and their future children for their blatant cheating in the last match against Gryffindor. The position wasn't one coveted by the student body and, as a result, only Luna volunteered when no one else would.
Nevill and Hermione were standing in the crowd with Ron between them, all three pretending that they didn't notice the daggers Lavender was glaring at Hermione.
"An interesting match today, I'm sure of it." Luna reassured the crowd as if the tension wasn't nearly palpable.
Hufflepuff was lined up opposite Gryffindor, glares apparently a part of their uniform.
"They've been pulling this shite all week." Ginny spoke only so that the chasers on either side of her could hear. "Zacharias Smith thinks he's got some sort of claim to the cup since it's his seventh year."
"Not a chance." Ryan, the newest chaser, scowled.
"Brilliant, we're all on the same page." Rebecca grinned. "Let's get this match going!"
Luna spoke over the opening remarks with a handful of ad-libbed remarks. "That cloud looks just like a hippogriff!"
Professor McGonagall's sigh and following scolding could be heard faintly through the megaphone and, by extension, the spectators. "Miss Lovegood, the match please."
"Yes, yes. The match!" Luna continued as loftily and happily as she was before, though she did refocus. "That's the quaffle released and immediately taken by Smith of Hufflepuff. He commentated last match, quite rude towards Gryffindor."
Ginny slammed into Smith and knocked the quaffle directly into Ryan's waiting hands as they had practised.
"Ginny Weasley flies into Smith, I think on purpose. I expect he regrets his comments from last match now that he's against him and-Oh, Smith tries to recover but can't. Ryan still has the quaffle. I do like Ryan, they're very nice..."
Harry circled around the top of the pitch, alternating between scouring the air for the snitch and watching how Rebecca zipped around the Hufflepuff chasers. He might have to find the smallest, arguably fastest component of the game, but how Rebecca and her chasers could pass exactly where the other needed to be--seemingly without even checking they were there--impressed Harry far more than Rebecca knew. She, Ginny, and Ryan flew in synchronised perfection.
Ginny sank the first score of the match and in the stands, Hermione and Ron cheered loudly. When they returned to their seats, Ron's hand brushed against Hermione's and left both of their faces blazing. With the clear ending of Lavender and Ron's partnership, the two tiptoed around each other. Ron had yet to insult Hermione since he was let out of the Hospital Wing.
"Now Hufflepuff had the quaffle again. I can't remember who that is. Bibble? Maybe it's Buggins-"
"It's Cadwallader!" McGonagall shouted. The crowd laughed for a moment, but returned to cheers and boos as Cadwallader scored.
Rebecca tore across the field as the laughter returned at a renewed strength. Hufflepuff had scored without difficulty as McLaggen had left his position to shout orders at Ryan. "McLaggen!" Rebecca flew her broom directly in front of his, pointing to where he should have been while she shouted. "Pay attention to what you're supposed to be doing and not everyone else!"
"Yeah, you're setting such a great example!" Cormac shouted back.
Rebecca turned around and called for a time out, waving for the beaters to make their way in as Harry was. Rebecca grabbed the handle of Cormac's broom and kept him from trying to go anywhere. "You direct my chasers again and I'll have your arse on the bench and keep myself!" Cormac fumed and jerked his head once to acknowledge that he had heard her. "You will not throw this match!"
Harry took the role of the diplomat, outlining what the other players were to do. "Keep the bludgers in motion, I'll keep searching for the snitch. Cormac-"
"Now the captains are arguing with their teams." Luna commentated the time out. "I don't think that will help them win, but maybe it's a ruse."
Rebecca took a slow breath and counted to five. "She's right; we're a team." Rebecca put her hand out into the middle of the circle they formed. "Let's act like one. Gryffindor!"
Harry laid his hand on top of the pile, shouting with the others. "Gryffindor!"
Luna clapped as the teams left their sides of the pitch. "The teams are heading back into the center! I'm not sure what the score i-"
"Seventy-forty, Hufflepuff ahead!" Professor McGonagall snapped.
"Ah, that's a shame." Luna sighed. "Zacharias loses the quaffle again. I wonder if he's suffering from Loser's Lurgy. He hasn't been able to hold onto it any longer than a few seconds today!"
Neville paled beside Hermione as the Hufflepuff grouping nearest to them turned with glares rivalling that which Lavender had directed towards Hermione near constantly. Zacharias didn't take the public mentioning of his failure well and dropped onto Rebecca from above in an attempt to dislodge the quaffle. Rebecca held on the best she could, and Zacharias began to try and wrestle it away from her by wedging his elbow into her side until she was forced to let go.
Zacharias flew off and headed straight down the green towards the Gryffindor posts. Rebecca waved off Ginny's concern and sent her off into the mess of the game. Harry, having seen how near-foul the other chaser had been, leveled out near Rebecca. "Y'alright?"
Rebecca looked up quickly and pulled her shirt back down. "Fine. The snitch, Harry! Stop getting distracted."
"You sound just like Oliver." Harry laughed before turning his attention back to the sky. "Oh damn, I'll deal with him this time."
"Look, the Gryffindor keeper has one of their beater's bats!" Luna remarked, the most aware she had been all match.
Rebecca turned her broom towards the other end of the pitch, leaving Harry to deal with Cormac this time. She was close enough to provide support without having to get too much closer which was probably good considering she wanted to strangle him.
"Would you give her back her bat and get your arse back to the goal posts!" Harry shouted as he flew towards them. "McLaggen!"
Cormac flinched at the strength of Harry's uncharacteristic scolding and mishit the bludger just as Rebecca told herself she would have to bench McLaggen and put Ryan and Ginny on scoring. Though she had gotten enough practise over summer matches and playing around, Rebecca didn't love to keep like she loved to chase.
Hermione grabbed on to Ron's arm as the bludger made its mark.
"Rebecca?" Luna asked over the megaphone, the stands as silent as if they were empty.
The bludger filled Rebecca's head with a crack that reverberated between her ears as a flash of blinding, sickening pain devoured her thoughts. The wind brushing past her as she fell was the last thing she would remember.
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After the first wave of pandemonium had been handled, the match was ended as a draw. Zacharias knew that Cedric would have his arse if Hufflepuff took another win after a Potter injury and even though the older boy had graduated, the fear of his fury was enough to make Zacharias entirely adamant on the draw.
Madam Pomfrey had attended the match and found that the look on Harry's face was as good a crowd-parter as anything. The procession of Gryffindor teammates left Cormac at the very back, wisely on his part. Harry hadn't fully understood the phrase 'seeing red' until he had seen Rebecca fall through the air unconscious.
"Harry?" Ginny asked, her tone as grey and stony as his expression.
Harry stopped as Ginny did, McGonagall and Madam Pomfrey turning the corner ahead with Rebecca levitated between them. Ron and Hermione had yet to leave either women and Ryan--whose advantageous ability to seemingly disappear and reappear on the pitch also existed on the ground--appeared behind Cormac who turned to run at the look of Ginny and Harry.
Harry stepped forward and grabbed Cormac by the collar, eliminating the difference in their sizes. "You're done. Give McGonagall your kit, you won't play again."
Cormac's eyes widened. "It was a mistake!"
"No, it was you being a twat!" Ginny took Harry's spot and swung at Cormac, leaving what would become a brilliant shiner.
Before Ginny could land another hit, Harry pulled her back. Cormac shook his head and tried to leave again, once more blocked by Ryan. "You're a nutter! The whole lot of you!"
Harry was in front of Cormac again before either boy realized and Harry's fist swung with a power that surprised even him. The punch landed on Cormac's jaw and set the bigger boy into a half-spin before slumping to the ground in a pile. Ryan stepped over Cormac boredly and shooed Harry and Ginny back on their way to Rebecca. "That's that. Anything more is overkill."
Harry eyed the child warily. He had had reservations about letting them play, so much smaller than some of the other players not just on the Gryffindor team, but others. But even know, Harry couldn't deny that they spoke sensically.
Harry wiped his knuckles down the front of his kit and walked alongside Ginny to the Hospital Wing. Outside the door, the beaters were lingering. "That's all for today." Harry dismissed them as they were clearly wanting. "Go on and change out."
The beaters whispered to each other quietly, one speaking for the other before they left. "He took it. She didn't give him the bat...just so you know."
Harry nodded once and entered the infirmary without a spoken word. Hermione and Ron were speaking with McGonagall at the foot of the bed Rebecca laid on; Madam Pomfrey felt different spots around Rebecca's head gingerly.
McGonagall, eyeing both sets of bloodied hands, said nothing on the topic. "Cracked skull. Poppy's remedying the best she can."
"But?" Ginny demanded, sensing more lurking under their professor's hesitation.
"It was a hard strike." McGonagall looked behind them at the noise growing behind the door to the castle. "The kind that requires contacting and-"
"Somebody had better tell me what the hell is going on." Fred demanded cooly as he stormed into the Hospital Wing ahead of Molly. His work uniform was crisp despite his loosened tie and the greatest indication to the depths of his anxiety was his messed hair and how he couldn't stop pushing it back. "Now."
"It was a bludger." Harry answered darkly. "And a piece of-"
Madam Pomfrey tutted and wagged a finger at Fred. "One thing thrown and you're out of here."
Fred made no indication that he heard her and sank into the chair beside her bed. "What have you found so far?"
"Cracked skull." Madam Pomfrey knew that despite the fact that Fred hadn't acknowledged what she had said, he had heard her. "They are difficult, but not impossible."
Fred moved his chair closer and took Rebecca's hand in his. It was cold and limp, frighteningly so. Hermione laid her hand on Fred's shoulder and squeezed it, trying to reassure him as she knew Rebecca would have wanted to at the look on his face. "She'll be fine. Few days in here and then right back on her feet."
"And?" Fred looked up at Hermione. "I can tell there's something more."
"Madam Pomfrey is concerned..." Hermione worded herself carefully. "About afterwards."
Fred turned back to Rebecca and brushed the hair away from her cheek, not saying anything else on the subject. Until she woke up, it didn't matter anyway. Fred took one of the rags on the table beside the bed and wet it in the bowl of water. Fred saw the split on Harry's knuckles and frowned further. "Madam Pomfrey can fix that. She's done mine and George's enough."
Harry waited a moment. He had considered leaving it as a reminder, whether of what he was capable of or that it was exactly what Rebecca would have done, Harry wasn't sure. But, as Fred began to wipe away the grime of the match from Rebecca's face and the depths of how pale she was became clear, Harry turned and went to where Madam Pomfrey was speaking with Molly. "Madam?"
Both women whirled at the sound of one of the children approaching them. Molly pulled Harry into a tight hug and left a kiss on his forehead before stepping back enough so that Madam Pomfrey could see what had brought him away from the bedside the others stayed around.
"It's nothing massive." Harry held out his hand, finding that it smarted a lot more when he looked at it. "Fred said you could help."
"Of course I can." Madam Pomfrey shook her head. "I hope you walloped that boy well. A keeper taking a beater's bat? Why...I've never seen a such a disgrace!"
Molly snapped her fingers and pointed at Ginny. "You too, come get them fixed. The last time you stood with your hands behind your back, you were four and Ron was bloodied up!"
Their skin stitched itself back together neatly and smoothed out as if nothing had ever disrupted it in the first place. "Better?" Madam Pomfrey asked, though only for their benefit. She knew they were as fixed as could be.
"Much." Harry clenched and unclenched his fist before turning back to look at Rebecca's bed. "She'll be alright, won't she?"
Madam Pomfrey stood at Harry's side as Fred stood and replaced the bowl and rag on the table before tucking the blankets around Rebecca gently. "She has a lot of people who will make sure she will be. That's all I can say for now."
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Rebecca's head hurt so badly for a moment she was ;eft blind. Stumbling through nothing, grasping for a hold to right herself in the endless, dizzying fall she was in. Rebecca didn't know where she was until something caught hold of her and slowed her descent.
The pain left slowly, and in waves.
When it had abated enough that Rebecca could open her eyes and see where she was, the clearing of Wilhomena awaited her. "Where-What's happened?"
No answer came. The face in the tree trunk remained as still as ever.
"Wilhomena? Why am I here?"
Rebecca remembered before, how power had been transferred from herself to the Woman in the Wood in order for Wilhomena to appear in this dimension. Rebecca laid a hand gently on the twisting roots nearest to her and funneled in a portion of herself.
Wilhomena was ripped out of the struggle she wrestled in to keep Rebecca from tumbling any further into the realms of premonitions and dark spirits into the land of the living. "Child!"
"I'm here. Are you alright? Is that why you brought me here--something happened?"
Wilhomena's eyes opened. "Oh, of all the heroes of the forest, you have been the most to trouble."
"I never try, it just-" Rebecca was interrupted by Wilhomena's urgent warning.
"You cannot borrow from the power within you, not as freely as you do." Wilhomena looked at Rebecca with eyes that saw into her and not just at her. "The tides come in and out of the sea on their own volition, but always apart of the one. What can be started cannot always be ended, what you can hold can not always be set down."
"Why the bloody hell is it always riddles?" Rebecca frowned and crossed her legs beneath her as she sat in the tall grass she was all too familiar with after the nightly visits to the clearing through the summer. "It couldn't ever be a list of step-by-step instructions, or maybe a map, could it?"
Wilhomena didn't answer. The power Rebecca had given was fading already and to ask for more would put them both at risk. Pleased with the warning she had managed, Wilhomena eventually gave up the fight to stay and sank back into the darkness that hardly constituted as existence while Rebecca remained in the shelter created by the clearing.
As long as Rebecca didn't leave, she would be shielded from the bulk of the pain.
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Fred had yet to leave Rebecca's bedside for anything longer than the minutes necessary. Molly and Professor McGonagall stayed with him in alternating shifts, though nearly a week after the match, Fred had been left alone for the first time.
Fred found the waiting to be a torture in itself, and he didn't know if holding her hand as he had been worsened it or not. Fred studied them just as he had the slow, sadistic metronome of her breathing. He had never taken the time to note just how perfect her hands were; how they fit exactly into his, how they held the remains of some of their most cherished memories in their scars. She still had the slightest divot on the side of one palm from the Chomping Chimps they had experimented with over the summer.
Fred dozed intermittently through the nights, especially after George or Cedric arrived to sit with him. Fred made them both go back and open the shop for the days--knowing that the Hospital Wing didn't need any more people to distract Madam Pomfrey from what, or whom, was truly important.
Cedric's hugs had become a measurement of time passing to Fred. For a few moments, he felt as if his worst fears were acknowledged and comforted, seen and soothed. Then they sat in silence and Fred felt everything crashing back down on him.
Fred looked away from Rebecca's hands when the sun began to reflect off the metal of a nearby bed into his eyes. He had no recollection of how the hours had passed, but it was now nearing mid-day. He sighed and scanned her sleeping face. The scar around her eye, the very one that Fred had come to love and revere, was the strongest sign of life that looked back at him.
Fred pushed himself to his feet and pressed his lips to Rebecca's forehead, to her lightning bolt. He thought of the fairytale with the princess who would sleep until her true love came along and Fred wondered if the knight had to wait and wonder if he was enough as Fred had been. Fred gasped as Rebecca's eyelids fluttered, as her mouth twisted as she tried to move.
"Love?" Fred leaned closer, speaking softly.
"The fuck happened?" Rebecca whispered. "How did I see anything? Thought I w-was too old now." Rebecca held a hand to the side of her head and squeezed her eyes shut. She felt as if her head was filled with molten agony. It rivaled the headaches that accompanied her old visions, the very ones she was supposed to have been freed from with maturation.
"I don't understand." Fred spoke gently, looking to the desk in the back for the keeper of answers. "Madam Pomfrey?"
The clicking of the healer's heels sounded out faster at the awakened patient. "Rebecca?" Madam Pomfrey bent down and looked into her eyes, concerned by the lack of awareness of clarity behind them. "Do you know what day it is?"
Rebecca tried to sift an answer out of the fog she was in. "Today?"
"Does your head hurt, dear?" Madam Pomfrey's attention flitted to Fred momentarily in case of an undesirable reaction. "I can get you something for that."
Rebecca closed her eyes and nodded once, all the movement she could manage. "What did I say?"
"Say?" Madam Pomfrey echoed as she opened the drawer next to the bed and rummaged through the glass vials inside. "What do you mean?"
"It was a vision, wasn't it? A premonition?" Rebecca looked to Fred, her hurt growing stronger with the addition of confusion. "I must not have outgrown them yet."
"No, dear. There was an accident on the quidditch pitch." Madam Pomfrey thought she could see a flicker of remembrance behind Rebecca's eyes, but it was quickly masked by evident pain. "It can all be talked about and dealt with later. Drink, Rebecca."
Rebecca went to raise a shaking hand for the vial. Her struggle was ended before it could truly begin by Madam Pomfrey bringing the potion to Rebecca's lips and tilting it back gently until it had all gone.
Fred wiped at the little remnant of the purple potion at the corner of Rebecca's mouth and watched as the effects took hold of her. Rebecca's body relaxed as the pain lessened and her eyes glazed over and didn't appear to focus.
"F-freddie-boo?"
"It's a common side effect." Madam Pomfrey spoke from the foot of the bed. "That was a very strong draught. She will tire herself out eventually." The healer looked to the door and frowned. "I must find your mother."
Fred turned back to Rebecca and tried to manage a smile for her. "Are you okay, RJ? Can I get you anything?"
Rebecca's head rest back on her pillow heavier than it had moments before as the room had begun to spin slowly. "Come up in bed. Plenty of room for a stringbean!"
Fred kicked his shoes off and humoured her by lying on the very edge of the bed so that there was a distance left between them.
Rebecca's hand reached for Fred and seemed miles away from her body instead of the little it really was. "Where are you?"
"I don't want to smother you, or bump-"
Rebecca reached up to cover his mouth with her hand and smushed him. "Oh no, mister-man! If you-if you dom't lub wif-" Her speech started to slur beyond his understanding.
"Okay, love." Fred scooted closer to her so that he was against her and his arm lay around her middle. "Better?"
Rebecca's eyes were heavy now; so heavy she was fighting to keep them open. She understood somewhere inside of her that Fred had asked her a question, but she couldn't understand what it had been or how to answer it.
"If you're tired, close your eyes." Fred tucked her blanket better. "I'll be right here, love." Rebecca returned to the darkness with a stronger sense of peace than she had because Fred was now beside her.
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"McLaggen's fault, you saw him!" One student whispered to another as the corridor flooded with students moving between classes.
"I did!" The young students were forced apart as the subject of their whispers stormed through them. "Did you see his-"
McGonagall had forbidden the healing of his eye or jaw under the justification that they would serve as a reminder for the boy to mind himself in the future. The swelling around his eye had gone down tremendously, though it was still ringed with a dark purple that would last much longer. The point on his jaw where Harry had made contact was a similar purple that faded into sickly greens around the edges.
The school and its inhabitants only spoke of two things: the fact that Rebecca was still in the locked-down Hospital Wing a week later and that Cormac was entirely to blame.
Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Ginny had been forced to attend their classes after the second day had passed without change in her status. Their teachers, except for one, excused their absent-minds and wandering-thoughts.
"Mr Potter!" Snape shouted, pointing up at his board where a diagram was posted. "What are the ten points of weakness on a grindylow?"
Harry looked at the illustration but didn't see it. All he could remember was how the grindylows he had come into contact with in the Black Lake had torn his leg to shreds and forced him to propel Rebecca to the surface before he intended to. "Its ten toe nails?"
"No." Snape sneered. "Does your mirror image do all the thinking? Is that the explanation for this dimwittedness?"
Harry blinked slowly. He was still underwater, trapped in the memories of another time he had to consider what his days would be like without his twin. "The what?"
Snape's cheeks reddened. He didn't consider, not for a moment, that Harry wasn't being obstinate. "Granger? Ten points of weakness are?"
"Nose, left ear, third vertebrae from the..."
Snape nodded sharply as the list was finished. "It's good to see that there is at least one brain in Gryffindor house."
Hermione was shocked that Snape would stoop so low as to compliment her to insult Harry. The rest of class passed in a similar manner, Harry was picked on until another student was selected to answer the original question.
Harry would have liked to be angry. The blip in the difference of his constant state of concern would have been a welcome reprieve. But Defence Against the Dark Arts was his last class of the day and he only wanted it to end so he could get to the Hospital Wing.
"Twelve-inch parchments on the importance of the Red-Toed Sling-Gnawers by the end of the week." Snape directed harshly as the bells tolled.
Harry tapped the table in front of him impatiently as he waited for Hermione to put her supplies away, but stopped as soon as he realised that that was what Rebecca always did. "Will do." Harry corrected. "What she will do."
The three of them--Harry, Ron, and Hermione--hurried through the paths that opened for them through the masses of students. Ginny joined them closer to the Hospital Wing and instantly felt calmer. The girls' bedroom had been far too empty and, every night since the match, Ginny had climbed into Hermione's bed before the lamps had been shut off. Neither girl needed to say a word and both appreciated having someone beside them who understood how they were feeling.
Until, that is, Harry learned that Rebecca had woken earlier in the day. "What do you mean?" He demanded. "Why didn't anyone come get us?!"
Fred was woken up by the sound of Harry's anger. He hadn't meant to fall asleep, not when he wanted to hear what Madam Pomfrey and Molly had to say and certainly not when he was beside the very person he felt he needed to protect most at the moment.
"She thought she had had a premonition, Harry." Fred eased his arm out from under Rebecca slowly as to not disturb her and set his feet on the floor beside the bed. "That's how badly she hurt. Madam Pomfrey gave her another draught almost immediately so she could rest more."
"The vision pain?" Hermione asked.
Fred's jaw rippled as he grit his teeth. "As bad, maybe worse." And there was nothing he could do to help her.
"And this is all we can do? Wait?" Ron asked from beside Harry.
Madam Pomfrey sighed. "The potion from earlier should wear off soon. I added a derivative of Skele-Grow to it to speed up the healing, but you are correct--waiting is all we can really do when it comes to the head."
"Wait how long?" Harry asked as he sat into the seat opposite that which Fred had been in every other visit. Something inside of Harry cried out as he realised it had been so long since he had heard a horrible joke.
"Soon." Molly soothed, running her fingers through his hair. "Soon will be soon."
Soon was exactly as Molly predicted as Rebecca was stirring within the hour. Fred was relieved to find that when she opened her eyes, the pain reflected within was far less than it had been before.
"Did we win?" Rebecca asked first, remembering that there had been a match.
"Draw." Harry shook his head. "That's not important. How do you feel?"
Rebecca frowned. She thought it was important, especially as her mind felt jumbled and uncertain how much time had passed and what had happened before. While she was certain she had ended up with Wilhomena, the details of her warning was slipping away between the potion and the head trauma.
"Does it hurt as badly as it did?" Fred asked quietly. He was treating her softer than Harry was but Fred had been able to spend a week by her side. Harry had been forced to classes and spent every minute they were apart painfully aware of it.
"No, no." Rebecca tried to sit up and eventually leaned back against the pillows Fred adjusted to help her right herself. "It's not as bad as it was."
"But it does still hurt?" Hermione prompted, sensing the half-truth.
Rebecca didn't say anything. Ron leaned forward as Harry did, Harry's hand going to see if there was any lasting damage to the side of Rebecca's head. She hissed and jerked away from him at the sharp pain that shot thought her. "I'm not going to bloody touch it, am I?"
Harry's hands were in his lap instantly and guilt filled him. "I'm sorry. I didn't think it-"
"Oh!" Madam Pomfrey caught sight of Rebecca awake, sitting, and scowling and hurried over to the bed. "You're awake!"
"I think so." Rebecca's expression softened and she held her hand out for Harry to take it. "I'm mostly sure."
"What do you mean?" Madam Pomfrey asked.
"I don't remember what happened." Rebecca winced. Trying to drag up the memories that seemed out of her reach brought the pain behind her eyes. "I can't."
"Are you hungry?" Molly had followed Madam Pomfrey over and stood at Fred's side. "Arthur's going to be furious he wasn't here."
"I'm not going anywhere." Rebecca tried to jest, but the weakness of her voice made it fall short.
"No, no you are not." Molly laid her hand on Fred's shoulder and gave it a little squeeze so that he remembered that he was not alone. "Let's let Madam Pomfrey give her a look over, come on this way."
Rebecca's eyes widened as Fred went to stand and follow Molly and she reached for his hand before it could leave her bed. "Please. Let him stay?" Molly didn't think it wise, but the need in Rebecca's eyes was stronger. "Thank you." Molly herded the others to the beds across the way and began to ask questions about how their classes went.
Fred sat back in his chair and watched as Madam Pomfrey cast diagnostic spells and asked Rebecca questions about where the pain was the worst. When she used a light from the end of her wand to check Rebecca's eyes, Madam Pomfrey frowned. "You won't be leaving here just yet, I'm afraid."
"What do you see?" Fred asked.
"Residual healing needed internally. Nothing to worry about just yet, but another day or two for sure and certain."
Rebecca sat further back against the pillows as Madam Pomfrey left to go over what she thought with Molly. "Will you stay?"
Fred took Rebecca's hand and kissed the back of it. "Love, I'm not going anywhere yet."
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