Basilisk Eyes

Chapter 85: Sea glass

Molly and Arthur had transfigured beach towels from palm fronds and everyone had dried off and laid out in the sun on the sand. Molly was fussing over her children who had already started showing signs of sunburns and she was applying essence of dittany to their shoulders and backs. Harry slipped his sunglasses back on so he didn't have to squeeze his eyes closed so hard against the sunlight. He pressed his arms to see if there was a sting of a sunburn and felt a twinge. "Harry, it looks like you're getting burned, too," Molly said. "Can I rub some on you, too?"

"Sure, thanks, Mrs. Weasley," he said.

"Harry, thank you so much for talking with Ginny," Molly said in a low voice as she rubbed the cooling liquid across his shoulders. "Whatever you said made a world of difference! She has been so sad and down since the Chamber of Secrets. First, you save her and now you bring her back from the depths of despair."

She squeezed his shoulders for emphasis and Harry was glad for the dittany.

"The Healer said that coming here and talking to you would help her and, goodness, it has been better than I ever imagined. This place is astounding. And everything that you're learning how to do! You get along so well with that staff of yours... I keep forgetting that you can't see," she said.

"Er. Mrs. Weasley? She's going to keep working with the Mind Healer, right?" he asked.

"Yes, Harry. Why?"

"Just some things she said... made me really worried... for her," he said.

He wasn't sure he could say what was worrying him. Ginny hadn't asked him to not say anything, but he didn't want to betray her trust. And saying that she should have died was bigger than that. It had scared him to hear her talking that way.

"Yes, she's been having some dark thoughts. It was so good to hear her laughing and playing in the water. And with the dolphin and the mermaid. It was something that only Morgana herself could have imagined," Molly said.

"Er, Mei doesn't like to be called a mermaid," Harry said.

"Oh, so right; I'm sorry. I hope she didn't hear me say that," Molly said, her voice directed behind her, toward the beach.

"I thought she went back out to sea?" Harry asked.

"She did, but she came back. She's sitting in the surf talking to Ginny now," Molly said.

"Oh, that's good."

"Harry, you're looking very thin. Are you eating enough here? And getting sleep? There's something about your pallor that makes me think of Ginny. You're working with a Mind Healer, too? Right? I mean, goodness, you and Ginny look like you've been set on by Dementors," she said as she rubbed the essence of dittany into his arms and chest. "I imagine you have... in some ways... "

"Yeah, I'm eating and Healer Jordan's been giving me a nutrition potion. And I'm sleeping okay, I guess. It has just been rough. I am working with a Mind Healer. She's all right."

"Yes, it has been rough. Well, I'm glad you're here and not with those Dursleys," she said with a venom that made him start. He felt his breath hitch—what if the Weasleys started going after the Dursleys, too? He tried to push the thought away.

She patted him on the back, "You're all done."

"Thank you," Harry said and he hugged his knees. The salt was making his skin feel like it was stretched taut. He felt too nervous to sit now. He dug his staff out of the pocket of his trunks and stood up and carefully shook it out.

"Where are you going, Harry?" Ron said.

"I thought I'd go talk to Mei and Ginny," Harry said, muttering "Navigant Mei."