No Place Else (HP - sick!Harry + Remus/Tonks)

[The Kneezle]

A/N: Why do I do these things? Because I've got to waste that extra time from daylight savings somehow!

Anyway, so quick summary: bit of an early Holliday theme for you. Set in HBP, Harry comes to the Burrow for Christmas with an awful cold, and while the Weasleys attend a family Christmas party, Tonks comes to stay with Harry. Remus arrives for Christmas early and finds himself stuck alone with her for hours save for a very sniffley and miserable Harry. As they wait for the Weasleys to return, some important issues are forced to the surface.

Hope you enjoy!

“I don’t know, dear, I don’t like to leave you here all by yourself,” Mrs. Weasley said fretfully. She leaned down to press the back of her hand critically against Harry’s forehead, then cupped his a-little-too-warm cheek in her palm. It was a very light fever, but a fever nonetheless.

“Itd’s finde Mbrs. Weasley,” Harry assured her for the tenth time. “I’ll probably just sleep the whole time andyway – Hih-xt!” He turned his head quickly to stifle into his shoulder. “Sorry.” He sniffled and rubbed his nose vigorously with a knuckle.

Mrs. Weasley clicked her tongue and handed him a handkerchief. He took it and blew his nose sheepishly. “huh-tch!”

“Bless you, dear.” Mrs. Weasley said kindly, then she looked at the clock and sighed.

“Molly, we ought to get going if we’re going,” Arthur called from somewhere downstairs.

“He’ll be fine, Mum,” Ron said assuredly, wrestling his way into his jacket. “Harry’s had the most dangerous lunatic in the world trying to kill him his whole life. One afternoon alone in an old farmhouse with a head cold will be cake.”

Harry appreciated the effort, but rather thought reminding Mrs. Weasley of the many people out for his life wasn’t a great way to convince her to let him stay on his own for hours in the middle of nowhere.

“I think I ought to stay with you. Your fever could go up at any moment, and I’ll only be worrying if I go,” she said.

“Oh, ndo, Mbrs. Weasley, it’s your fambily, you’ve got to go.” He held his breath, his lungs tickling horribly, but breaking into a deep, hacking cough right now would seal his fate. He hated to think Mrs. Weasley would miss out on seeing her mother and aunts and uncles for Christmas just because he had a bad case of the sniffles.

“I could stay,” Ron offered, flopping down on the camp bed next to Harry with a great creaking of springs and flinging his arm around Harry’s shoulders.

“No, dear, you haven’t been home for a proper Christmas since you were ten, Gran wants to see you. I would have Arthur stay, but he was going to take a look at that ridiculous coffee pot he gave her last year – it’s been spraying steaming water at everyone who gets near it. Maybe Bill and Fleur could stay,” she said, looking suddenly delighted.

“Bill wanted to introduce Fleur to everyone before the wedding,” Ron reminded her, and her expression fell dramatically.

“The twins then, maybe,” Mrs. Weasley said, although she sounded doubtful. “They saw everyone three years ago, at least. And they could visit Gran in the lull after the seasonal shopping rush.”

“They were kind of hoping to promote the shop to the family. They had stockings for all the munchkins,” said Ron, shaking his head.

As he listened to them, Harry had been scrunching up his face against the flutter that had planted itself at the back of his nose last night and seemed to only be getting more wedged in. He pinched his nostrils hard between his thumb and fingers, but that didn’t stop a sharp, “Ch!” getting out. It did nothing to alleviate the tickle. He could feel congestion flooding his face already.

“Bless you,” Ron and Mrs. Weasley chorused.

“Thangks,” Harry said stuffily, wrinkling his nose uncomfortably. A shiver ran up his spine and Mrs. Weasley took the extra quilt folded at the foot of his cot and wrapped it snugly around his shoulders.

“I know, I’ll see if Tonks is around today to sit with you. Even if she’s working, she’s assigned to your guard, so she should be able to come.”

Ordinarily Harry wouldn’t have minded spending a few hours with Tonks, but the thought of sniffling and sneezing and blowing his nose in front of her made him redden with mortification. In all honesty, he was beginning to feel quite wretched and disgusting and wanted nothing more than to be left alone with his cold.

“Mbrs. Weasley, I cand really look after mby self,” he tried one more time.

Mrs. Weasley smiled kindly at him, rubbing his shoulder gently. “I know you can, Harry, dear, and if we weren’t in the middle of a war, I wouldn’t insist on this, but if anything were to happen with you on your own and ill to boot…” she trailed off anxiously. “We just can’t take risks like that, alright?”

Reluctantly, Harry nodded. He supposed he could stay up here and pretend to be asleep and not have to talk to her at all. But Ron’s attic bedroom was rather drafty, and he had been hoping to curl up before the blazing fire.

“Good,” Mrs. Weasley said, satisfied. “And while we’re out, I’ll stop by the apothecary and order some Pepper-Up to pick up on our way home so we can get you feeling better.”

She brushed her fingers through his fringe and felt his cheek one last time before chivying Ron out of the room.

“See ya later,” Ron said, waving sympathetically over his shoulder.

“I think we have some cough potion, I’ll bring it up before I leave and let you know if Tonks is coming or not,” Mrs. Weasley promised.

As soon as the door was shut, Harry slid down beneath the cool sheets, huddling into a tight, shivering ball. Almost as soon as his muscles had started to relax, though, the itch he’d staved off earlier made its reappearance and he hurriedly brought the handkerchief to his face, glad that at least now he didn’t have an audience.

“Hishoo! Huhkshoo!... hih… hih-ishoo!” He sniffled miserably. “Atchoo!” The last one snuck up on him and brought him jackknifing up in bed with its force. He whimpered and rubbed at his chest and throat, which both ached painfully, and even more so after the sneeze.

He’d been feeling like he might be getting sick since the train ride from Hogwarts two days ago, but he’d hoped he was wrong. Last night, as he was climbing the stairs to bed behind Ron, he’d sneezed quite suddenly and with that action, the damn must have broken. Before he’d crawled under his covers, he’d sneezed five more times, each one wetter than the last, and each swallow had his throat burning worse than before. He’d known, as Ron blessed him tiredly for the twelfth time, that he was going to wake up feeling utterly miserable, and he’d been right. His chest ached, he was too hot then too cold, he wasn’t nauseous, but he didn’t feel like eating anything, and he was so stuffed up and sneezey, every breath was difficult and uncomfortable.

It was only eleven in the morning and he’d barely left his bed, but he was exhausted. With the handkerchief still pressed to his face to stem his dripping nose, he closed his eyes against the pounding that had started up in his temples, and before Mrs. Weasley came back up to let him know who his babysitter was for certain, he’d fallen asleep.

…

A/N: If you wanted to leave some prompt words or phrases, that might be fun

[irishsneezeandkisses]

My god this is amazing! Please, please continue!

[silentdreamer789]

Great start!

[musiclover90]

This is great, please keep going.

[Salamander]

Wow, I really, really enjoyed this. Please do keep going! It gave me such a rush of nostalgia for the series, I'm feeling all warm and fuzzy inside (unlike poor Harry.)

If you were serious about prompt words or phrases, I'd love to see Tonks being sweet and distracting, comforting in her own way, ineffectual without being over-the-top klutzy. Bonus points for worn-out, parent-mode Remus. Forehead feeling and fever is my favourite, and having Harry admit he's feeling really poorly would be great too.

No pressure, I'm sure I'll love whatever comes next though xxxx

[Melody]

I love this i hope you continue it!

[HPG]

How have I not seen this yet? It's wonderful :-)

And a random word for today - moss.