Harry Potter One-Shots

Sick Day (Neville Longbottom)

WORD COUNT: 720

When I woke up this morning, I knew automatically that today was going to suck. I felt really nasty, all chilled and runny-nosed and achy, but I had an important exam in Potions right before lunch that I couldn't miss, so I pulled myself out of bed reluctantly and threw on my thickest sweater underneath my robes before traipsing out to the greenhouses in the snow for Herbology.

When I got there, shivering like a scared dog, I took my usual spot beside Neville, my boyfriend. He looked me up and down, frowning a little.

"Woah, Y/N, are you okay? You don't look too good," he whispered as Professor Sprout strode into the room and began her lecture about the Nightshade blooms we had sitting in front of us. The stupid miserable plants only bloomed in the dead of winter, generally overnight, which seemed fitting for such a terrible poison and rare ingredient to make the gatherer so uncomfortable while they were harvesting it.

"I'm fine," I sniffled, wiping my nose on the sleeve of my sweater. My eyes were burning every time I blinked, signaling to me that my temperature was rising.

"Are you sure?" he pushed, reaching for the shears to carefully snip the new growth off the plant to save for Professor Snape. I nodded, feeling slightly faint. The cold outside wasn't helping, as the greenhouses were often quite drafty, and by the end of the lesson I was feeling absolutely terrible. I could barely focus on what was happening around me, feeling like I was walking around in a feverish haze.

"Y/N, I think you need to go to the hospital wing," Neville pulled me out of the mind fog I was stuck in. I shook my head, trying to focus on putting one foot in front of the other to walk up to the castle for Potions.

"No, I can't miss this exam," I insisted. Without saying anything, Neville grabbed my arm and redirected me back toward the Y/H/N common room. I tried to yank my arm out of his grasp but I was too weak to protest.

"I'm going to put you to bed and then tell Snape you're sick," he stated as we stepped through the common room door. He walked me up to my dormitory and I collapsed into the bed, feeling simultaneously relieved to be back in my bed to rest and anxious about missing the Potions examination. We only had a week before the end of the term for Christmas break, I had to stay on top of my work!

I lost track of the time Neville was gone, drifting in and out of a hazy sleep... or honestly, a feverish trance, I couldn't really tell anymore. I was only distracted when the door softly creaked open and Neville's round, kind face appeared in the crack.

"Oh," he breathed softly, pushing the door open wider. "You're still awake. You're supposed to be resting." He came and settled down gently on the foot of my bed, handing me a steaming mug of soup.

"Drink this, I got it from the kitchens," he insisted, pushing the mug into my hands. I shakily lifted the cup to my lips and took a small sip, feeling slightly better as the warm liquid slid down my throat and into my stomach. Neville stayed with me to make sure I drank the whole cup, chatting lightly about anything and everything to distract me from how miserable I was.

When I was finished, he took the mug back and set it on the bedside table.

"Now rest," he demanded gently, in a caring tone. I laid back on my pillows and he pulled the blankets up around my shoulders, even grabbing the extra one from my trunk and layering it on top of me. He gave me a small, tender kiss on my forehead before leaving for his next class, promising to be back as soon as he was done the whole time he walked out the door. I drifted into a dreamless sleep thinking about how lucky I was to have a boyfriend as caring as Neville in my life to go out of his way to make sure I was as comfortable as possible, even when I was so extremely ill.