“You alright, Pads? You’re looking a bit pale.” The concerned voice of his best friend pulled Sirius out of the daydream that he had fallen into, making him realise that he had been staring down at his plate, which was almost full. He had hardly touched it, only taking a bit of this and a bit of that. He had absolutely no appetite and was feeling weak and shaky, struggling to keep his head up and his eyes open.
“Yeah, ‘m fine.” He mumbled before clearing his throat and nodding his head, attempting to sit up straighter as he repeated his previous words a bit clearer. “I’m fine. Just a bit tired, is all.” He sighed. Which, technically, was not a lie. He hadn’t slept that night but only because he had felt like he could hardly breathe with his blocked nose and clogged throat. He had been sweating so much during the night that his bedsheets were soaked, although he had’t felt it and had shivered all through the night, meaning that his body now ached from the constant shivering.
“Being tired doesn’t give you swollen glands, a cold sweat or an upset stomach.” Remus spoke, causing Sirius to silently curse. He had been sick that morning but he thought that he had hidden it so well. He mentally cursed Remus’ ‘werewolf senses’. “If you’re sick, you need to go to Madame Pomfrey.”
“I’m not sick, I’m just tired.” He insisted. Truthfully, he hated Pepper-Up Potion. It just reminded him of his parents forcing him to drink it when he was ill and younger so that they wouldn’t have to care for him. He had eventually just stopped saying that he was sick and had started hiding it. One time he had been unable to hide it but his parents had been furious with him at the time so had locked him in the loft until he was better so that he wouldn’t get any of them poorly. He had been up there for just over two weeks, having Kreacher appear once or twice a day to bring him food. After that, he had gotten rather good at hiding it but this one had hit him like a train. It had come out of nowhere as well - as far as he was aware, none of the other had had colds or even had so much as a headache.
He was too busy looking down at his plate to see the look shared between his friends. “You know, I’m not feeling very well to be honest.” Pete said. Sirius looked up with a frown, concerned that his illness had passed onto his friends but he noticed that he looked fine. Perhaps he was hiding it like Sirius was. Which was strange because he knew that Pete could be quite a drama queen when he was sick, although he was nowhere near as bad as James. Being the old child of quite a wealthy couple, James would whine and huff, demanding extra attention from anyone and everyone.
“Me too. It’s rather cold, isn’t it?” Remus said and before Remus could look at him, he felt the werewolf drape an arm around his shoulders and Remus pulled him close. Sirius looked up at his boyfriend and noted that Remus looked fine as well but didn’t comment on it. Remus was like a human radiator so he was grateful for the warmth. He leaned his head on Remus’ shoulder and wrapped both arms around his waist. Despite his reputation, when it came to Remus, Sirius wasn’t a big fan of PDA, which made their position unusual. Whilst he enjoyed hand holding and short and sweet kisses, he didn’t do much else with Remus in public, not wanting everyone else to think that Remus was just some plaything. He respected his boyfriend too much for that. Besides, Remus had always been rather reserved.
“Maybe there’s something going around. Shall we have a lazy day?” At James’ suggestion, Sirius expected Remus to say no. They all had quite a bit of homework that they needed to at least start. Remus always insisted that they all at least started their homework, even if they didn’t finish it. Although they usually did but at least by telling them that they just needed to start it, they still felt like they were in control of their choice. They weren’t and Remus had them all wrapped around his fingers. But no one else realised that.
“That sounds like a fantastic idea.” Remus announced and Sirius could vaguely tell that he was smiling but soon realised that his eyes had drifted shut. “Padfoot? Darling, come on.” Remus murmured, his voice a lot softer than it had been before as he gently nudged Sirius, whose eyes often and he blinked sleepily up at his boyfriend, who smiled gently and adoringly at him. “Come on, let’s go upstairs. We’re all rather tired.” He spoke quietly, now carefully pulling Sirius up. He managed to stand up, becoming slight dizzy as he did so but thankfully, Remus wrapped an arm around him at the same time so it didn’t show. Or at least, he thought it didn’t.
Sirius didn’t seem to realise how awful he looked. His skin was dry, his lips cracking, although he was sweating heavily. His hair was tied up in a knotty bun, his eyes bloodshot and swollen. He looked awful. Thankfully, he was too out of it to see that about 60% of the people in the hall kept glancing at him, mostly in concern, others with curiosity. It was strange to see the perfectly messy Sirius Black looking so painfully messy and sick.
The trip up to the common room felt a lot longer than it usually did as Sirius appeared to be falling asleep whilst they were walking and was almost completely leaning on Remus but refused to let the werewolf carry him, insisting that he was fine and just kept tripping. But they eventually made it and instead of going to the dorm as planned, James and Peter pushed the large sofa as close to the fireplace as they could, having to move a coffee table in the process. Remus then laid down on the sofa on his side and pulled Sirius to lay in front of him.
“Don’t get too close, Rem.” Sirius mumbled, reluctantly and weakly attempting to get out of Remus’ grip, who only held him tighter.
“Why? You’re not sick, right?” He questioned teasingly, grinning fondly down at his sick boyfriend who looked adorable with his flushed cheeks. “I’ll be fine, Pads. I can take a potion if I get sick.” Remus was aware that Sirius hated the potions, although he didn’t know the reasoning behind it. He could guess it was something to do with Sirius’ childhood though. “Let’s just focus on getting you warm and getting some sleep.”
“But ‘m not even tired.” Sirius insisted, although he was beginning to become limp in Remus’ arms already as his eyes fluttered shut.”Feel fine.” He added, although was dead to the world a few moments later.
“So damn stubborn.” Remus chuckled, pressing a kiss to the top of Sirius’ burning and sweat forehead. He looked up and saw James and Peter both sat on separate armchairs, appearing to be moments away from falling asleep themselves. Clearly he hadn’t been the only one that had been kept up by Sirius’ heavy breathing and wheezing coughs that he had attempted to muffle into his pillow. He smiled fondly. His boyfriend was so stubborn.