keegan delaney has always been a part of george weasley's life. they were never close, though they both were always there for the important moments. it's only after hogwarts when keegan gets a job in a cafè right across from weasley's wizard wheezes...
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CHAPTER TEN: WHEN ROME FELL
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THE WORLD WAS SPINNING in and out of focus when Keegan woke from her nap. It had been an awfully long day that day. First, she had an early morning shift to juggle at a surprisingly busy Emery’s while the owner herself went on a coffee date with a Muggle girl she’d met the previous week. Then, after a quick lunch, she had afternoon classes to attend at St Mungos followed by a study period with a few of her classmates for an upcoming test. Keegan hadn’t caught a break for what felt like forever, so she decided to take a quick nap when she arrived back at her apartment, waking up around tea time to a grumbling stomach and her blood pressure through the floor. It had happened before, it was just part of living with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, but that didn’t make it any easier for her to bare.
She stumbled out of bed with pixelated vision, her heart thudding so fast that the sound made her stomach lurch. She wanted to be sick, but she hadn’t eaten anything since lunch to throw up. Slowly, she made her way into the kitchen, using the walls and surrounding furniture to keep herself upright. She went straight for the fridge, grabbing out a cold bottle of water before she haphazardly searched the nearby bench for the emergency jellybeans she left out for situations like this. Then, with shaky limbs, she dropped to her couch and laid down, her feet elevated on her cushions in the hopes of assisting her blood flow.
Breathe in, breathe out.
Panicking, that was the worst thing someone could do when they were having a dizzy spell. Keegan knew that first hand. Her POTS first developed when she was eleven-years-old. She didn’t know why, there was no clear answer for how someone developed this disorder, but it happened. She was in Potions class, the heat rising from their bubbling cauldrons making her head spin. She’d raised her hand, her face awfully pale, but Professor Snape refused to acknowledge her as he continued to guide a group of Slytherins with their potions. Keegan was afraid. She’d never experienced anything like this before, this strange feeling in her head. It was hard to describe, kind of like all the blood in her veins was travelling too slow and so rather than pumping to her brain, it slowly pooled at her feet. She gasped for air, hands hastily searching her bag for some water, then the world went dark.
She woke up ten minutes later in the Hospital Wing with Cedric sitting beside her and Madam Pomfrey checking her blood pressure. According to her best friend, she’d fallen off her chair and alerted the entire class of her state. It was embarrassing to say the least, but Keegan was more focused on the worried expression Pomfrey wore in that moment. Whatever the result was seemed to concern her so she brought in the first Healer specialised in cardiology that was available from St Mungos, and they later diagnosed her with POTS syndrome.
Keegan had long since gotten used to the dizziness, the passing out. She was lucky. In the seven years she’d had POTS, she only passed out twice. That one time in Potions and another in the holidays between her fifth and sixth year. She was over at Cedric’s house for a week and the two teens had decided to watch one of Cedric’s horror movies. Keegan wasn’t a fan of gore, it made her squeamish and she tried her best to avoid that feeling to keep the dizziness at bay. However, Cedric had looked at her with so much hope when he held up the Muggle DVD for her to see. How could she say no to him? Well, she paid the price for it in the end, passing out midway and waking up twenty minutes later with a wet cloth on her forehead and a useless feeling in her gut.
