When Hermione Fights

Pain and Diagon Alley

Pain and Diagon Alley

I Apparated into the backyard of the school, and quickly entered since I still had to change my clothes. Our training went on as usual: satisfying for the Sensei, I could see from his expression, but painful for me, my body said. Man, my ribs hurt. I had been too slow while turning and had received the blow from a particularly nasty side-kick; a very painful stroke of the foot which should hit the target on a horizontal path, in the rump region. Since I had turned at that moment and hadn't blocked it, my lower rib, slightly below my chest, had taken the brunt of the kick. I flew off the mat and landed ungently on the ground, the air slamming out of my lungs. Shit, that hurt! At first, I thought they were broken. I couldn't get any air, frantically trying to catch my breath. Phew, what an awful pain.

I blinked, seeing almost nothing, and tried to breathe more slowly. I gently pushed myself to my legs. I broke out in sweat and gasped, but there was nothing broken — just hurt. I noticed that when I pressed my hand carefully to my injured side. What would you do in such a case in the real struggle between life and death? Well, deal with it, bite your tongue if you must, and attack again — otherwise you'd be dead.

I ignored the pounding, constant pain, stepped resolutely back to the mat and took my position, feeling the adrenaline rushing wildly through my veins. I managed to ignore the protesting ribs and accepted the pain. I tried to focus my thoughts, breathing calmly, as I prayed to myself: where the body is weak, the will can move mountains. The Sensei nodded to me. "I appreciate your fighting spirit, Miss Granger! Like a true warrior, shall we continue? Or shall we finish today's workout?" he asked, worried.

"Continue," I snarled, swallowing the pain with my teeth clenched. We attacked each other again. Did I mention that I have stupid ideas and am super stubborn?

Crap! This was the worst pain I'd ever had, and lately I've suffered so many injuries like never before. Hey, I mean, I daily fought until my body was a pile of mush, and this didn't fly without any traces. But this was the most terrible pain in my life. Where the ribs had just been clinched before, they were now definitely broken. Another foot stroke had cracked the rib, and I heard it crunch deep inside me and felt it, like someone had stepped on a rotten branch, and it broke through, a disgusting sound that almost made me faint.

A cruel sound! And the piercing pain that shot through my body was nothing like the one before. I had thought I could never get up again! But had I wanted it otherwise? No! At least I wasn't defeated without a fight. I was impressed by myself how well I could defend myself, despite such an injury. I would have stretched my chest out of pride if it had been possible. Now I was glad that I could at least stand in such a bent posture. When I thought about it and wanted to drag myself into the changing room, the Sensei stopped me. "Miss Granger, you are impressive in your will, even if I find you can overdo it, if I may say so. I don't want to hurt you that much, we should have finished the workout. Don't you want to tell me what you are doing, to ... how can I say ... to ... don't you find that you overdo it, Miss Granger?" He frantically ran with his fingers through his short hair.

"Sensei, I'm not paranoid. This is about life and death. I don't just imagine that there are some people who are looking for me and I'm not ready to give them easy game. Please, don't feel guilty. My ribs are just bruised, that's gone tomorrow. If you want, write a letter by tomorrow, in which I can relieve you of the responsibility, should something happen to me in the training and I suffer a serious injury. Besides this, I'm freeing you from any guilt since I had instructed you to do so, would you feel any better then?" I asked sympathetically and with an admirably firm voice, considering that my ribs were just killing me. I was good, but I was amazed that I could still think so much, even though starlets were dancing before my eyes thanks to the steadily throbbing pain of my broken and bruised ribs.