Harry Potter One Shots (Vol. I)

On Call (Teddy Lupin)

This one is long 

Also, it's got a bit of an age gap between the pairing (6 years, so just be warned) 

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Unwinding after work was always one of my favourite parts of the day. Sure I loved being with my patients and tending to them, especially because I'd long learned that often the patients needed a Healer who treated them as human and not just as a list of symptoms that needed to be fixed. My patients made my day better, but they did nothing to help me recover from a daily 10-hour shift. It was only when I got home and could shrug out of my uniform where I stood, shedding the layers like a snake around the flat as I made my way to the shower that I could feel the stress lift off of me with every piece of clothing.

After a long shower that fogged up the bathroom, I bound my hair in a towel and changed into fresh underwear, forgoing the bra and slipping into my fuzzy, floor length bathrobe. Stepping into my comfortable house slippers, I dragged them along the floor with each step and contented in the gentle scraping sound each motion brought forward; it was so different to the rapid beeping, and often loud voices of the hospital. Walking into the kitchen, I put the kettle on to make myself a cup of tea. Humming under my breath, I quickly made myself a cup and took the first sip, even though it scalded my tongue. Cradling the mug in my hand, I breathed out a deep sigh, expelling the last of my stress and letting myself sink against the counter.

But only for a moment. Turning to face the cupboard, I addressed the shift schedule I'd stuck onto the door with a simple sticking charm. I had to check, just to be certain, that I did in fact have tomorrow off and relieved that I hadn't gotten that messed up, I took another long sip. Putting my cup down, I opened the cupboard to fish out the biscuit tin when my floo activated in the living room.

Dropping my heels to the floor with a sigh, I looked at the time; it could only be one person. Only James bloody Sirius Potter would intrude in my unwinding process without so much as a single message to tell me that he was coming. Tightening the belt of my bathrobe around me, I stormed into the front room with the biscuit tin still in my hand and ready to give him a piece of my mind.

Only -

The sight that greeted me in the front room had me stilling. It was James, but he stood slumped heavily against Teddy Lupin and - Helga, just James bringing Teddy here was enough to have me contemplating hexing him. My eyes flickered around the room, horrified that my clothes were still strewn around the room because I'd been planning on picking them up after my tea and after I'd changed in my pyjamas. This wasn't fair!

I looked back to James, ready to tell him off, and I would have if he wasn't looking at me from beneath eyes that were so swollen he could barely open them. My eyes flickered over my best friend, cataloguing each of his injuries as I shifted into Healer mode, no longer caring about the state of my room, or how I was partially dressed, or even how Teddy flipping Lupin was in my home.

Wordlessly, I set aside the biscuit tin that I'd realised I was clutching as a shield on the windowsill. Silently summoning my wand into one of my hands, I couldn't even bring myself to look at Teddy as I motioned to my sofa, "Put him there, please."

Teddy obliged, thankfully without a single remark about the state of my home. This would have been so embarrassing if I wasn't so concerned about how much obvious pain James was in. I approached him, hissing when the towel slipped slightly and sharp pain burst on my scalp from the hair that was being pulled. Removing my towel, I chucked it somewhere without looking where it landed - I'd pick it up when I picked up the rest.

Approaching James and Teddy, I looked over him and realised he was breathing in shallowly like each breath took too much effort. Assisting Teddy with manoeuvring James, I asked, "What happened to him?"