Harry Potter and the Year After

Chapter Seventy-four: A Walk on the Grounds

Chapter 74: A Walk on the Grounds

Harry taught his classes in a half-asleep stupor. For the first two classes, he threw an essay question up on the chalkboard and had them write for the entirety of the period while he sipped Pepper Up potion and tried not to fall asleep.

For third and fourth period though, the fourth years were a little better at dueling, and so he had them practice protective spells.

He was relieved when his free period rolled around before lunch. He thought about catching up on sleep, but he wanted to check on Ginny more.

Walking into the hospital wing, he was nervous. He'd not been thinking about the fact that they'd Obliviated Madam Pomfrey until he saw her standing at Ginny's side. He closed his mind as he came nearer, just in case.

"How is she doing?" Harry asked the nurse. Ginny was sleeping, as he'd expected.

"Ginny no longer has that dark curse on her heart. I won't be transferring her to Saint Mungo's." She eyed him. "I don't know how do you did it."

"What? I didn't do anything. Maybe you healed her with that charm you did."

"My logs, Potter, in addition to my patients' charts, are also kept magically," she whispered, clearly angry. "It charted that Ginny was missing from approximately nine-fifteen in the evening until approximately one-thirty in the morning."

"Is that all? I thought we'd gotten back no earlier than three."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "And it charted that she left with you, Mr. Weasley, and Mr. Malfoy... and that I was unconscious at approximately nine-ten in the evening, though of course, I have a very quaint memory of getting ready for bed by putting on cold cream, which I've never done in my life, and taking off a pair of white fuzzy slippers, which I do not own, and then going to bed around midnight. Needless to say, I avoid staying up that late if at all possible because I rarely know when I'll be woken in the middle of the night."

Harry tried not to laugh. "Well, I suppose Malfoy may have embellished a bit too much."

"It's not funny," she said.

"Sorry."

"But, as it's you," she flicked her hand at him. He was glad she wasn't holding her wand. "And we all owe you one, so to speak, I suppose I'll let this one slide. Especially since you were able to heal Miss Weasley when I was not."

"Thanks," Harry said, surprised. He started to turn back toward Ginny.

Madam Pomfrey grabbed his arm again to stop him. "If there's a next time, just be honest. I'm a nurse, not a teacher," she said quietly.

"Alright."

Harry passed the next few days by visiting Ginny as much as possible, though she was very tired and usually was either sleeping when he visited or else fell asleep while they talked.

After promising to take a potion every day for the next week to help her heal from her rebounded curse, she was allowed to leave the hospital wing on Saturday morning. Harry was pleasantly surprised when she sat down next to him at breakfast and explained this.

"Hermione, could I borrow your notes from yesterday's Potions class that I missed?"

"Sure," Hermione said, glancing up from her newspaper.

Harry slid his hand into Ginny's. But she pulled her hand away. He wasn't sure if it was because she just needed her hand so she could eat breakfast or it was because she didn't want to touch him. Either way, he didn't want to ask her about it so he simply acted as though nothing happened.