Chapter 1
The sky was dark and threatening, and the frigid August wind was blowing the rain straight into your face. Your numb fingers were curled around the wet wood of the broom you were desperately clinging on to in order not to get blown off by sudden gusts. Thunder crackles trough the sky sometimes accompanied by lightning beams eliminating the quidditch field beneath you. The goggles you were wearing had lost their use hours ago when the rain became a big blanked obstructing your view.
''Alright'' Someone yelled, making you look around for the person the voice belonged to. ''Everyone to the ground.'' It sounded again, and you tipped your broom downwards, ordering it to lower you to stand on your feet. The Gryffindor quidditch team gathered around. On the muddy area beneath the field that was once a giant sandpit.
''You did well today, but there is no point in continuing this training if we can't see each other.'' Your captain sighed and started tucking all the quidditch gear back into the suitcase. ''I'll see you guys over two days'' they spoke again.
''You did well tonight (Y/N)'' your friend, James Potter smiled which you happily returned.
''You weren't that bad yourself, James'' You returned the compliment, patting him on the shoulder. ''I am glad to get to my bed tho, I'm freezing.'' You sighed, hugging yourself to keep some warmth in, but your clothes were cold and sticking to your skin since they were absolutely soaked. James gave you an empathetic smile and signed for you to keep walking. The two of you discussed some quidditch tactics and strategies, something you loved doing since you were both chasers. When you eventually arrived at the Gryffindor common room, James turned to you once more.
''Well, I will see you tomorrow.'' James smiled, giving you a slight wave and made his way up the stairs that led to his dorm. You waved back at him and made your way up the curling stairs to enter your own dorm. To say that you were excited to finally take off your heavy, cold, quidditch uniform was an understatement. You quietly peeled the sticky fabric off of you. You slipped into your pyjamas, trying not to wake any of your roommates before finally laying your head on your soft pillow. Closing your eyes, you could still hear the sound splashing down on the old roof of the castle, it was a very calming noise.
''Why did the captain insist on training so late at night, it was twelve o clock, and you had classes early in the morning'' You thought to yourself. ''There wasn't even a Gryffindor quidditch match planned for another three weeks, so there was no urgency when it came to training.'' You decided to just let it be, turning on your side and trying your best to fall asleep.
A loud noise startled you awake, making you sit up straight in bed immediately. Looking around the room, it was faintly lit by the light of the beautiful moon, you noticed that all of your roommates were still sleeping. None of them must have heard the noise. You looked to your left at the window you slept right next to when you found out it blew open by the sheer force of the wind slamming into it. You reluctantly got out of bed hoping to close the window again, but after trying a couple of times and failing, you gave up and got back in bed. Too tired and cold to even bother trying it a bit more, you were just going to have to sleep with the window open for tonight. After some tossing and turning trying to warm yourself up again, you eventually fell into a restless sleep.
''(Y/N)'' You heard, as you felt someone shaking you awake. Groggily opening your eyes to have some words with the person who interrupted you from your sleep. You turned around to be met with fiery red hair and kind eyes.
''Lily'' you muttered slightly, lifting your pillow to put it on your face. ''Give me five please.''
''I already gave you five minutes extra'' she laughed, shaking your shoulder again you let out a long groan.
''No, I meant five years. Shoo'' You waved your hand up and down at the red-haired Gryffindor to make her leave, but she just ripped the pillow from your grip and placed it on her bed: Traitor. You sighed and sat up straight, feeling a slight pounding in your head. ''What's the time?'' You sighed as you shook your head, trying to wake yourself up, but it just worsened the pounding in your head.
''It's half past 8, you ought to get up and have some breakfast, Potter and the others are waiting on you in the common room, they asked me where you were. Imagine the surprise when I found you still in bed!'' She smiled, ripping the blankets away from you, making you curl up in a ball to protect yourself from the cold morning air. ''Did you sleep with the window open with that awful weather?'' She asked, confused, you nodded in response.
''Couldn't get it to close, so I gave up.''
Lily got up from your bed and took a look at it. ''Reparo'' she chanted, the window suddenly fixed itself, and she closed it. ''There you go, it was broken.''
''Figures, you sighed, slowly getting up from bed to get yourself dressed and ready for breakfast. As you gathered your clothes and slowly made your way to the bathroom, Lily made her way to the stairs. ''I'll tell those boys you'll be down in a second.'' You just gave her a thumb up.
Taking a good look at yourself in one of the many bathroom mirrors you smiled and straightened out the grey sweater you were wearing over your white blouse. ''This is as good as it's going to get'' you muttered, walking back to the dorm to put on your shoes and get your bag before you made your way downstairs to the common room where your friends were already waiting.
''Well good morning Princess'' James winked, making you roll your eyes. ''Did you sleep well?'' you shook your head.
''I'm a little sore from training, I wasn't able to find a comfortable position to sleep in.''You answered. The soreness was a nagging pain in the muscles of your underarms and lower back that seemed to tense up every couple of second.
''Oh you should join me then, I'll show you a comfortable position to sleep in'' James winked jokingly, James and Sirius rolled with their eyes. Still, Peter laughed heartily, probably thinking this was actually a good joke.
''Gross Potter, don't do this to me before I had anything to eat.'' You joked sarcastically, earning a laugh from James. The five of you made your way to the great hall to finally get some breakfast. Upon arrival, everyone took a seat at the Gryffindor table to start their first meal of the day.
''Could you pass me the bacon, mate?'' Remus asked James who sat across from him at the Gryffindor table.
''Sure thing, Rem!'' The black-haired boy smiled and picked up the big bowl of Bacon that was standing to his left. Remus gratefully accepted it and sprinkled some of the savoury snacks on top of his cereal earning some disapproving glances from James and Sirius.
''How far along are you?'' Sirius joked, looking disgusted at the concoction in the bowl in front of their friend.
''Har-Har'' Remus fake laughed. ''You should try it, honestly.'' The rest of the group made a disgusted face while staring at their friends' bowl one more time. Remus was known for having the eating pattern of a pregnant person. Still, sometimes he was truly exceeding expectations with whatever he decided to stuff his mouth with, it was something his friends could never understand, even if they wanted to. (Which they do not.)
''Not hungry?'' Peter asked you from your left, noticing how you had been playing with your food ever since you put it on your plate. You shook your head, finally putting your fork down.
''I'll have some chocolate milk instead.'' You muttered mostly to yourself as you reached for te can full of the chocolaty goodness.
''How was the training yesterday?'' Remus asked, looking between you and James. ''The weather was horrid.''
''Score any goals?'' Peter asked, enthusiastic. James nodded proudly, slightly puffing out his chest to boast a little.
''Of course, I did, my dear wormtail. Did you expect anything less than that?'' The brown-haired wizard smiled, stuffing his face with a bread roll.
''It was tough tho, couldn't see a thing because of the rain pouring down on me!'' You interrupted. ''Almost fell off my broom, twice.''
''Thank Merlin you didn't'' Sirius smiled from across from you. ''What would we ever do without our (Y/N)!'' He winked. You smiled at him, Sirius was such a sweetheart, all of them were of course. They were the best friend a person could ask for, of course, they were the biggest dorks a person could imagine too, but you love these boys dearly.
''We'd better make our wat to potions,'' Remus announced as he stood up from the table. The rest of the group followed.
''Good morning, class,'' Slughorn announced as he placed his book in the desk that was standing in front of the classroom. ''Today we will be making the potion for dreamless sleep.'' Slughorn smiled, not getting any reaction out of his students, so he just continued. ''It is a potion used to cause drowsiness and provide a dreamless sleep for the drinker. It's fairly easy, so we will be working on our own for the day, gather your ingredients and look up the recipe in your books. I will answer questions if there are any.'' And with that, the big classroom filled with the noise of benches being pushed over the stone floor. Some students immediately went for the ingredient table. In contrast, others made sure their instruments were all present before they started gathering whatever they needed to put into the potion.
''Let's just wait a moment before we get trampled to death.'' Sirius laughed as he turned around, leaning his back against the back of his desk.
''This is going to be easy, I expected him to give us draught of living death this late into the year,'' James, who was sitting next to Sirius muttered, rubbing his hand over his chin as if he were in thought. Remus lifted his shoulders.
''It's his class, he must have a good reason. You won't hear me complaining tho, this is way easier.'' Remus took a glance over at the table that was still crowded with lots of students fighting over ingredients.
''Professor, I think we're out of ingredients already'' James yelled over his shoulder.
''Already? And I made sure there was more than enough!'' Slughorn responded confused, but he went back to his office to get some more non the less.
''Merlin, it's hot in here'' you muttered, shaking off your black school robes which slowly slid onto the bench you were sitting on.
''Really now?'' Remus asked, he was sitting next to you this lesson, and he gave you a weird look. ''Can't say I noticed it too, (Y/N).''
''Maybe it's a girl thing'' Sirius shrugged.
''Mooney would have had the same problem if that were the case'' James cackled loudly, Sirius and Peter joined him. You winced at the noise the three of them produced, you crossed your arms on the table and rested your chin on top of them, growing loudly.
''You alright?'' Remus asked.
You simply nodded before looking over your shoulder. ''I think we can get those ingredients now.'' After gathering everything needed to make the Dreamless Sleep potion, you got to work. While you were stirring the potion for what felt like the umpteenth time, you noticed how the classroom had gotten even hotter. You figured it was because of the fires that was being used to warm up everyone's cauldrons. You simply took off your grey Gryffindor sweater putting it to the side too. While turning back to focus on your potion again you swayed a little, you looked down at the purple concoction in the cauldron that was giving off sweet scenting fumes. You figured it must be the potion having some side effects while it was boiling in your pot.
''Nearly finished, nice going (Y/N!)'' Remus smiled as he took a look at your potion. ''Mine's still green, how many time did you stir yours to become purple?''
''A million times, Rem, why do you asked?'' You laughed. ''My arm hurts from stirring this potion for what feels like years.'' And it was true. The annoying and dull pain from the morning had gotten worse, it had transformed into a nagging stinging pain. You really wanted to just sit down and wait for the lesson to be over. Still, you had to finish your subject, Potions was definitely not your best lesson, and you could use a good reputation with Slughorn.
''Hey (Y/N)'' Remus stopped stirring and turned to you entirely. ''Are you sure you're alright, you're not looking so well.'' You looked up to him, you felt horribly tired and shakey, your arms hurt, and it felt burning hot in the classroom. Remus was right, you felt horrible, and you were scared you could only blame half of it on the potions side effects. ''Do you want to sit down?''
You nodded at him as you slowly lowered yourself to sit on the bench behind you. You looked down at the ground for a moment, your head felt like it was swimming and you couldn't form one coherent thought. A dull pain started to form in your chest. You could feel the temperature in your classroom start to rise, it felt as if you were suffocating, and panic started to creep its way into your foggy mind.
''(Y/N)?" You looked up to see none other than James, Sirius, Peter and Remus. They were all sitting on their haunches as they looked at you with concern painted on their faces. Remus lifted his hand to place it on your shoulder, you felt his cold hand against your neck. ''Merlin, you're hot!''
''Not the time, Mooney. She's obviously not feeling well.'' James sighed, clearly not understanding what Remus mend.
''I am aware James. I was trying to tell you that (Y/N) has a fever and a pretty high one.''
''Guys it's okay, let me finish the potion so that I can try and salvage my grade this semester.'' You spoke softly, still experiencing the dull pain in your chest. You stood up a little too quickly, and you could feel the clouds in your head thicken, making you dizzy again. You started feeling heavy, and as if everything around you wasn't even in the same world as you were. It felt so horribly out of touch., you couldn't concentrate. You glanced over at Remus who was closest to you, you wanted to tell him what was going on, but the warmth came flooding back, and you felt too short of breath to even begin to explain.
''It's alright love, just sit down.'' Remus coed. Trying to push you back to the bench. You noticed James and Sirius rushing off. Before your vision turned black for a moment. You could feel yourself taking place on the bench, someone put his hand on your back and pushed it down. When you opened your eyes again, you could see your shoes and the ground of what you figured must he the classroom. Some placed his hands on your knee, making you look up slightly. Staring straight into the beautiful light-brown eyes of Remus made you calm down a little. ''Hello (Y/N). Miss Pomfrey will be here pretty soon to take you to the hospital wing, do you think you can stand up to get moved to there?'' You stared at him for a moment, the very thought of getting up from your position felt impossible, to be fair: even moving a finger felt like too much effort. You lazily shook your head to the side as Remus took place next to you. Guiding you to lay your head on his lap. Too tired to fight him, you complied and laid your head down. Your head felt heavy, and your entire body was aching, your skin felt as if it was on fire, but the feeling of someone stroking your hair calmed you down enough to let yourself finally fall asleep.