Ginny's body was still for a moment and then gradually stirred. She cracked one eye and glanced around blearily.
“Ngghhh,” Ginny groaned and rolled over and buried her head in her pillow.
After another moment she lifted her head and glanced around. Her hand immediately darted up to touch her bald scalp and then moved to her face. She fingered the wide scar that now lay there.
“What happened?” Ginny asked. Her voice sounded dry.
Hermione handed her a glass of water.
“Lucius Malfoy hit you with a necrosis curse on your cheek,” Hermione said as gently as she could. “Ron saved you by cutting it off before it could reach your brain.”
Ginny's fingers ran along the length of the scar. It started near her hairline. The gash's topmost edge began at the top of her forehead and all the way down to her jaw. It was wide and cruel looking, and it caused certain spots on her face to divot and pucker slightly.
Ginny sat up slowly and put her hands in her lap. Staring down at them as she clenched them into fists and then opened them. She was quiet for a minute.
“Can I have a mirror?” Ginny finally asked.
Hermione had a mirror ready for Ginny, but she paused before handing it over.
“It will fade. In a few months, with treatment, it will fade to silver.”
Ginny's lower lip trembled, and she pressed her mouth into a hard line. She held her hand out for the mirror.
“Do you want me to go while you look? Or stay with you?” Hermione asked.
Ginny hesitated. “Stay…” she finally said.
Hermione handed the mirror over and said nothing while Ginny took a deep breath and then turned it over to survey her face.
There was a long silence.
Ginny stared, growing paler, turning her head slowly to take in the entirety of it. Her fingers rose up slowly, tracing over it, as though she couldn't believe it was her face she saw reflected.
After a few seconds, Ginny pressed her lips together and jerked her head as her eyes welled up with tears. She stared for a moment longer, running her fingers along the scar before pushing the mirror away.
Then Ginny took a sharp breath in through her nose like she was trying not to cry. Her lips twisted slightly and she kept pressing them together harder as she rocked in the bed.
Ginny kept drawing sharp, quick breaths through her nose. Her head jerked up with each one.
Finally her shoulders slumped.
“Oh Merlin, I'm so shallow!” she said with a slight sob. “I'm alive but I'm crying because I've got a scar."
Hermione felt her own jaw tremble as she rested a hand on Ginny's shoulder.
“Scars are hard…” Hermione said, and her voice faded away as it tightened in her throat. “Anything that changes how we see ourselves is hard. You can be sad about it. You're allowed to grieve for yourself. You don't need to pretend it's okay.”
“I know,” said Ginny in a thick voice. “I just want to be. I want to be fine with it. I don't want to care. Or see it as changing me. But — I feel like part of me has died. Like I'm ruined somehow. And that feels so shallow and selfish. George lost his whole leg and I'm crying because I have a cut on my face.”
Tears streamed from Ginny's eyes and she smeared them away with the backs of her hands.
Hermione waited for several minutes and when Ginny's breathing and trembling finally started to ease slightly, she reached out and took Ginny's hand.
“Harry and Ron are waiting outside,” Hermione said. “But you can take as long as you want before you see anyone.”
Ginny jerked.
“Have they — did—, Ginny stuttered and shifted uncomfortably. “Has Harry already seen it?”
Hermione nodded.
“Harry has been with you the whole time. I forced him to leave. I thought — you might want some time.”
Ginny nodded.
“Maybe five more minutes,” said Ginny after a moment.
Hermione sat down on the edge of Ginny's bed.
“You're still one of the prettiest girls I know,” Hermione told her.
Ginny snorted. “Shut up. You'd say that even if Ron had cut off my nose.”
Hermione rolled her eyes. “I wouldn't. The redness will fade. If you let me treat it regularly. And use a few potions. It will become more elastic so you won't feel it. And it will fade a lot. But if you'd like, I can help you glamour it.”
“It's fine. I always wanted to be a badass when I was little. Can you imagine how scary I'll look now on a battlefield? All bald and with this crazy thing on my face,” Ginny joked weakly. The frozen hospital smile curled across her face for a moment. Then the forced humor faded from her expression and she looked almost childlike.
“I miss Mum,” Ginny said in a small voice.
Even when her children were injured, Molly could rarely afford to come see them.
Hermione hugged Ginny and Ginny sniffled into her shoulder.
“Do you want to go there today?” Hermione said.
“No. She'll just feel awful,” Ginny said, shaking her head. “I'll go see her when it's faded a bit. Do you have a hair regrowth potion?”
“Sorry. Not on hand. I had Padma start brewing some though. It will be done in the next hour.”
“Well, that's a relief. At least I won't have to be both bald and ugly forever.”