Who would have thought? [Chaennie]

Chapter 5

Jennie tried to stay away and give Roseanne her space, she really did. The first day after the massage debacle, Jennie focussed on nothing but her classes and study (although she did sneak in some more research on pregnancies and Veela).

She had read that Veela would experience a more violent surge in hormones than the average human woman during a pregnancy. Given Roseanne's already unpredictable temper, Jennie was not looking forward to dealing with that.

She was still having trouble sleeping, unable to get more than a couple of hours' rest at a time. It was beginning to take a toll on her. She felt like she was being fuelled solely by coffee and anxious energy these days.

The second day after seeing Roseanne, Jennie was an agitated mess. She sat at a café with Bambam. Eunwoo was off with a tutor. He'd been holed up at St Mungo's for a week after a nasty Quidditch accident so had to catch up on his studies. Many things had changed since Hogwarts, but Eunwoo's uncanny ability to get injured definitely had not.

"Feeling calmer these days?" Bambam asked, noticing Jennie had yet to snap at him.

Jennie smiled gently. She had been biting his head off a lot. It wasn't her fault entirely. Bambam was an easy target for anyone who was angry and cruising for an argument.

"Not really," Jennie replied, "But I've just got to focus on looking after Roseanne in her state, no matter how much we might rub each other the wrong way."

"Wonder if that's what she told herself when she looked after you," Bambam commented, licking at his ice cream.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Jennie asked. She was a little lost.

"She was the one that nursed you at Shell Cottage after... You know..." Bambam and Eunwoo usually avoided referring to her torture at Jeon Manor. "After Bellatrix."

"She was?" Jennie asked. She was surprised at that revelation.

"You don't remember much from then, do you?" Bambam asked, pausing between laps of his ice cream. His hair was in a mess today. That and the ice cream cone gave him a decidedly boyish look.

Jennie shook her head.

She herself avoided thinking of back then. It made her arm sting, almost as if the scar itself remembered.

"Roseanne was the one who took after nursing you better," Bambam explained, "She fed you, washed you, sat at your bedside. I remember because we were all pretty surprised. You two had never particularly got along before then but man, she was dedicated."

Jennie tried to think of her recovery.

Her mind just conjured up shadowy blurs. A small single bed by a window. The sound of crashing waves in the distance. Nightmares that made her chest feel like it was going to burst, her heart was beating so hard. A hand holding hers tightly as she lay drenched in the cold sweat of her nightmare.

"I was on a lot of painkillers," Jennie said, squinting as she tried to remember better.

"Yeah, for good reason," Bambam said darkly, "I... I honestly thought you might die, Jennie. None of us had any real healing skills. It's a bloody miracle you survived."

Jennie's memory didn't provide much else... The first of her clear memories were from when she awoke, aching and sore, lucid after the painkillers wore off after the worst of it. By then, Eunwoo and Bambam were perched at her bedside. In her mind, she had just assumed they had been the ones looking after her and holding her hand through it all.

"Incredible," Jennie commented.

She checked her wristwatch. She figured it was a good enough time as any to visit Roseanne. She'd avoided going too early and avoided going during a mealtime.