Illness and Romance
He awoke the morning after the tournament feeling as if he had been hit by a truck despite the fact that he had not been woken up by nightmares due to Draco’s presence. Every muscle in his body ached, his head was pounding, and it felt like his lungs were being crushed by a huge weight. He weakly tapped Draco but got no response, so he tried again, a little harder and only received a grunt. He went to push a bit harder on the boy, but the more aggressive movement made him groan in pain. Although, thankfully, this woke Draco up because he didn’t think he had the energy to move his arm again.
“Are you alright, you sounded like you were hurt?” Draco asked immediately despite still looking groggy with sleep.
“No, it hurts and it’s hard to breath.” He struggled to say.
“I am just going to go get Severus, he might have something to help you. Will you be alright alone for a moment, or do you just want me to shout?”
“I’ll be fine for a moment but please be quick.”
“I promise.” Draco leaned over and placed a gentle kiss on his head before rushing out the room.
In record time Draco returned with the three adults trailing behind looking worried.
“Where does it hurt.” Severus asked gently sitting on the edge of the bed.
“Everywhere, it’s as if my body is being crushed.”
“This must be a side effect from the water pressure. I think we should go back to the hospital wing to see if Madam Pomphrey can help you or if she wants to keep you for observation. I know you hate the place but I want to make sure you are not at any risk.”
“I don’t think I can move though.”
“That’s alright, we have Remus who due to having lycanthropy is incredibly, freakishly strong so you will be the weight of a feather for him.” Severus said lightheartedly as Remus moved over to the side of the bed.
“I’m really sorry but this is probably going to hurt. I will make it as smooth as possible for you but let me know if it becomes to much for you at any time.” Remus then slowly manoeuvred him until he was cradled in the man’s arm like a child. The movement had caused the pressure to become worse though so he didn’t complain about the position, merely buried his face into the man’s chest, bracing himself for the journey.
By the time they had all made it to the hospital wing, he could barely breath due to the increased pain levels and the increased pressure in his lungs. Severus had called for Madam Pomphrey immediately and when she saw the state he was in, she quickly started ordering people to collect potions and turn down beds as well as already starting to cast diagnostic charms.
“His body is recreating what it would have went through at that depth of water. The worst of it should pass within the day but he may still be in pain for the rest of the week. Today I will give him a high strength pain relief as well as a dreamless sleep so he can hopefully miss most of this. The other champions will most likely also be facing this so it looks like I’m going to have a busy hospital wing.” He heard the mediwitch say to the group before he was given the potions and gratefully slipped into unconsciousness.
***
“Why is it that all the champions are feeling like this but me and Draco aren’t. We were also at the same depth?” He awoke to Hermione’s voice.
“The spells you guys were put under to keep you down there safely sort of shut down your body until you next reached oxygen meaning the pressure couldn’t affect.” Madam Pomphrey spoke from his other side.
“So pretty much we were part dead down there.”
“Technically yes.”
“How is that even allowed?” He asked with a scratchy voice blinking his eyes open.
“Because idiots in charge don’t take my advice. How are you feeling?”
“Slightly better, maybe like I have been hit with a car instead of a truck.”
“Well improvement is improvement, I guess. I can give you another pain relief potion, but you will need to eat first, I will go get you some soup.”
He looked round the hospital wing as he waited for the Medi-witch to return. The only occupants of the room where the four champions, Draco, Hermione, and Severus. Krum was the only other champion awake, although the older boy looked to be feeling rather rough like himself. He turned back to the people beside his bed who were looking at him in concern.
“What’s wrong with you guys, I was just a bit tired it’s not like I was dying.” He joked when they didn’t say anything.
“You have been asleep for 4 days.” Severus exclaimed.
“And he hasn’t moved in 4 days.” Hermione added pointing at Severus. “Me and Draco were forced to go to classes and got you notes but he didn’t attend any of his classes and refused to move from here until you awoke.”
“Severus, I was fine, you can’t keep putting everything else on hold when I am in here.” He groaned to a grumbling Severus who didn’t appreciate Hermione’s rattling.
“No matter how small or big the reason is that means you need to stay in here, I will always be here. I will continue to put everything else on hold because you are more important than any of them, making sure you are safe is my number one priority and that will never change.”
“But what about your classes?” He protested weakly, the conviction in Severus’s voice and face letting him know there was no chance for him to be able win this argument.
“They were fine without me for a few days, probably happier because I convinced Dumbledore to let Remus and Sirius be the cover teachers. So, how about you stop fighting against me and just accept the fact you are my priority and that it isn’t going to change.” Severus said finally just as Madam Pomphrey returned placing the bowl of soup on the table with a potion.
“Eat all of it before you take the potion, this one won’t knock you out, but it will make you rather loopy. Severus, can you monitor him and contact me if anything goes wrong, the other champions will be waking up in a couple of minutes and it will help me if I know he is in good hands?”
“Of course, I will not be going anywhere till he is healthy enough to leave the hospital wing.”
“I am going to end up smothered.” He groaned half-heartedly before tucking into his soup ignoring the glare Severus sent him. It was a while before he spoke again, remembering the events that had occurred after the tournament. “What happened with Crouch?”
“He’s dead.” Severus said solemnly. “Had been for quite a while by the time you guys had found him, must have been right at the start of the task. Moody and Dumbledore couldn’t find signs of foul play and Percy Weasley had said that Crouch had been getting increasingly sicker over this past while. We haven’t ruled out that something was done to him but for right now, it’s most likely he died of natural causes.”
“Will we go back to things when we thought Sirius was a threat because we can’t rule out foul play?”
“No, we will be keeping an eye on things around here to make sure nothing else strange or suspicious happens but we won’t be having lockdowns or dementors again.” After Severus’s the words they all went quiet again not knowing what to say now but after what looked to be a long internal struggle Draco spoke.
“We have sort of good news for you.” Draco said awkwardly trying to changing the subject to something happier. “The valentines elf’s won’t be making a reappearance this year because Dumbledore doesn’t want to end up with the students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang to end up getting hounded by them.”
“Oh, so he cares when the other students will get accosted by elves but not when I do?”
“Pretty much.”
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but I couldn’t help but overhear. What, may I ask, are Valentines elf’s.” Krum asked from across the room.
“For the past two years, on Valentine’s Day we have had a tradition where the house elf’s can be used to send anonymous love confessions. Harry has received multiple songs and poems from this day.” Hermione explained giggling at the last sentence.
“That sounds like my own personal hell, I already have enough people pretending to like me because of my fame neverminded a day dedicated to it.”
“I get you on that one, I hate Valentine’s Day because of that. No one actually likes the real me, they just see the scar and the fame and want to be a part of that.”
“Well, I guess the death tournament has brought a slight positive for the both of us.” Krum joked.
“I guess.” He smiled.
“Your dark humour scares me sometimes.” Draco said looking between them, he simply smiled wider before going back to his soup.
***
It had been another 4 days till he had been allowed to leave the hospital wing, he and the rest of the champions had been ready to leave after 2 but Madam Pomphrey had not been convinced of that so they had passed the time talking about random topics such as the differences between the schools. Both he and Cedric agreed the other schools sounded better if you wanted a complete education, or simply didn’t want to go through a death defying experience each year but they did have the bonus of not having Voldemort in France or Bulgaria. They had all had a good time together and had promised to have at least a couple study sessions together before the third task, but they were all incredibly thankful when they could leave the bright white walls of the hospital wing and join the rest of the castle.
The one downfall was Valentines Day being tomorrow, they may not be getting elf messages and he didn’t have to attend classes just yet due to his energy still being low but with the way the girls were smiling at him he knew tomorrow still wouldn’t be a fun experience.
He woke up the next day to a note beside his bed and the rest of his dormmates already having left. He grumbled slightly at not being woken up for breakfast as he sat up and opened the note.
Harry
Don’t be annoyed that you weren’t woken up, I have something planned that you will much prefer over being in the Great Hall. I want you to get yourself up and ready and then go up to the 7th floor corridor in front of the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy and the trolls doing Ballet.
Draco xx
He sat confused for a while, Draco would be attending classes today so what could the blond have planned for him? Deciding he would just find out once he got upstairs to the room of requirement he quickly got up, washed and dressed then left the common room and walking quickly through the empty halls till he reached the 7th floor in front of the specified tapestry where Draco was standing next to a door he had never seen before.
“Good afternoon sleepyhead, I was beginning to think I would have to come and wake you up.”
“Haha very funny, it’s only 10am and my dormmates decided not to get me up for breakfast.”
“Well in my note I told you there was a reason for that so stop being grumpy and come inside for your surprise.”
He followed Draco inside and stopped dead as soon as he saw the room. It was like he had just walked into a park, a sunny sky above them, grassy hills all around them and a small pond off to the right with a huge picnic basket next to it. He had no idea how they had got from Hogwarts corridors to here but he wasn’t going to complain.
“Where are we?”
“We are in the room of requirement, it changes into whatever you need it to be.”
“How did you find out about it? Why did you need it to be a park?” He asked curiously.
“After everything that has been going on this year, I thought I could give you a good Valentine’s Day, where there is no one giving you poems or songs and I am not getting jealous. A Valentine’s Day of just us. It was obviously out the question to leave the castle but I asked the elf’s if they knew a good private place for a picnic and because we are always nice to them they mentioned this place. I told it I really needed the perfect place to have a relaxing picnic at the park and it came up with this. So, Harry will you come on this date with me?”
“Of course I will because I have the most amazing and thoughtful boyfriend in the world.”
Draco grinned and took his hand, leading him over to the picnic basket where they placed a checkered blanket on the ground to sit everything out on. Draco had got all of his favourites including treacle tarts and all he could do was kiss the blonde trying to show how much he appreciated this.
“Thank you, really thank you so much for this.”
“You would do the exact same for me if I was having a rough time, now let’s tuck into this food and enjoy today.”
“How did you get out of classes?” He asked picking up a sandwich.
“ Severus gave me the day off when I told him what my plan was, something about me being an awesome human being and perfect for his son.” Draco puffed out his chest dramatically.
“You definitely are both of those thing and more, although I find it hard to see Severus using those exact words.”
“I may have paraphrased slightly but the sentiment was the same.” Draco blushed.
They sat silently for a while, just enjoying being close to each other as they ate and enjoyed the warm sun shining down on them. Once he was done he lay his head on Dracos shoulder and relaxed while he waited for the blonde to finish eating.
“What else could this room create?” He said quietly not wanting to disrupt the comfortable silence they were in too much.
“Not sure what the limit actually is, why is there something specific you want?”
“Maybe some clouds but in cool shapes so we can try and figure them out? I saw a young couple doing it in an animated movie once, it was the only scene I managed to see before I had to clean the next room but it always stuck with me as something I wanted to do. Also the logo of the movie had a house flying with balloons on it and I used to imagine that something like that would come save me from the Dursleys so the memory always gives me comfort, especially now that I have been saved. I got my happy ending like hopefully they did.”
“I can try and see if it will work, give me a second.” Draco looked to be concentrated hard for a minute or two before a cloud appeared above them and then more and more joined it until the fake sky was full of weirdly shaped clouds. He grinned at the blonde as they both lay down and stared up at the fake sky.
“That one there looks like a snake.” He said pointing at a cloud to his right.
“Oh yeah so it does, that one over there looks like a rabbit with a hat on it.” Draco was pointing to one just above them.
“The one next to it looks kind of like a person with wings, like a fairy.”
They continued like that for ages, pointing out shapes to each other, and it was exactly like the young couple from that scene he had managed to watch. He wondered if they had a happy ending, if they grew old together like he imagined him and Draco doing.