(Secret Santa: glowstick03) A Hero Down

[PaperThings]

Prompt: Harry sneezing from allergies or a cold. I'd love for some Quidditch and care taking (if it fits) to be thrown in, but other than that, you have free reign.

A/N: I hope you like it!

"How about a game of Quidditch out back? Just the four of us?"

Harry looked up with surprise. It had been fourth months since the Battle, and approximately two since he and Ginny had reunited as a couple. He was still staying at the Burrow, temporarily, but only because they insisted they would not get by without him.

Some of the time, this seemed true. Though most of the pain following the Battle had alleviated some, Harry knew the Weasley's were far from alright. When he saw George walking around, one-eared and wearing anything but a smile, he had to wonder if they would ever be alright. And so he and Hermione stayed, mostly to keep Ron and Ginny afloat. Some days, it seemed like they might sink straight into the ground.

"S-sure," Harry replied, uncertain. Ginny had barely wanted to do a thing in months. While Hermione busily consumed herself with thoughts of going back to school in the fall, Ginny seemed reluctant to attend her seventh year at school. "Are Ron and Hermione around?"

"Already waiting with the brooms," she replied. She turned around and walked off, her momentary excitement evaporated. Harry sighed, wishing he could do more to help her.

He rose from the couch too quickly, and nearly fell back down again. His head had been pounding since breakfast, particularly in his sinuses. He gave his temple a pinch and sniffed twice, hoping it would clear his nose. All day his chest had hurt, and he worried he might be getting sick. He wanted to ask Molly for some Pepper Up, but could never remember at the right times.

"Harry! Are you coming?" Ron called.

"Yes. I'll be right there." He straightened his glasses and hurried out the door.

Quidditch was a relief. They played as they had two summers ago, with Hermione and Harry against Ron and Ginny. For once, thoughts of Fred and all they'd lost were furthest from their minds. At one point, after Ginny scored a particularly impressive goal and Ron hollered his enthusiasm, Harry and Hermione shared a small smile. It was the first time in recent memory they'd seen both their friends so happy at the same time. Practically a miracle.

Hermione squealed as the quaffle whizzed over her head, missing it entirely as she often did. Sighing, Harry stretched out his hands to catch it, almost having it, and then - and then -

"Hehshhht!" The sneeze caught Harry off guard, and he barely had time to catch it with his wrist.

"Alright there, Harry?" Ron asked, soaring by to catch his broom handle.

"Yeah," Harry replied slowly, sniffing. "Fine." He'd let the quaffle by of course, and it now lay teasingly on the ground.

"Our ball then." Ron zoomed down and picked it up, expertly tossing it to Ginny.

Harry tried not to grimace. His earlier symptoms - aching head, congestion - had doubled with his sneeze, and he felt the beginning of a sore throat as well. Hermione noticed his expression and flew beside him.

"You're sure you're alright?" she asked, putting her hand on his arm. "You've been working yourself too hard lately, you know."

"I'm fine," Harry insisted. As he had not grown up with parents to take care of him, he was used to dealing with simple illnesses himself. After all, colds were hardly something that warranted a trip to the Hospital Wing. Not compared to everything else they went through at school. He did not like being fussed over when something trivial wiped him out; it felt entirely demeaning.

"Harry, look out!" Ginny's cry registered a moment too late, and Harry slipped off his broom as the defunct, second-hand bludger hit him squarely in the chest. He grunted on the impact, and felt his spectacles crack the moment he hit the ground. "Harry!" The three had surrounded him in seconds, and he felt his cheeks grow red.

"You always see the bludgers, mate," Ron said, shaking his head. "What happened?"

The girls had knelt on either side of him by now, and he felt Ginny's hands on his face. Her palms were oddly cold, despite the average weather. "Harry, you're burning up," she said, moving her fingers up his cheeks and to his forehead. "Are you sick?"

"I don't - I don't thi - hih! hihhh - " The feeling toyed with him a moment. His eyes felt too exposed now that his glasses were broken - yet to be fixed by Hermione - and he blinked longingly up at the faded sun. He didn't like to sneeze much, but it was surely better than this terrible trapping of air inside his mouth. At last, when he'd almost given up, he jerked his head to the side as a spasm wracked his body. "HIHSHHHoo!"

"Bless you," Hermione said, already holding a handkerchief out to him. He took it reluctantly, muttering an embarrassed thanks. Before he knew it, she'd repaired his glasses and place them back on the bridge of his nose.

"You know, Mum's really good at healing sick people," Ron said, shuffling his feet awkwardly. "How about we go inside?"

Harry considered. He did not much want to be taken care of, but he did have to feel better if he wanted to attend to business at the Ministry in a few days. Molly's care might work wonders for him. "Alright," he surrendered hoarsely, "but I'm really not all that sick."

"Do you need help?" Hermione asked, trying to take his arm.

He shoved it away, perhaps a bit more harshly than he should have. "I told you, I'm fine. Just a little sleep and I'll be good as new." He rolled his eyes at the look Hermione and Ron shared. Only Ginny bit back her words, close to his side but not overbearing. She understood exactly what he needed, and he was grateful.

"Mum," Ron said, a bit too loudly. "Harry's sick."

Molly came bustling into the hallway from the kitchen, her red hair pulled back in a bun. "Sick?" Her hands touched his face immediately, similar to the way Ginny's had. Whereas Ginny's were the fingers Harry knew well, Molly's were clearly those of a practiced mother. "Fever," she said, at once. "Open your mouth, dear." Harry obliged, his cheeks flaming as his symptoms were put on show. "Sore throat. I'd say he has the flu, but of course a drop of Pepper Up will help him either way. Percy!"

Charlie had been staying with Bill and Fleur since the war, seemingly unable to return to Romania while his family was in such distress, but Percy had moved back home. Despite the way he'd once treated them, the others found it an odd sort of comfort to have him around.

His horn-rimmed glasses appeared around the doorway, eyes expectant. "Yes mother?"

"Will you go into Diagon Alley and see if you can't find some Pepper Up?" George was also home, but no one ever asked him to do anything anymore.

"Pepper Up? Why?"

"Harry's sick," Molly and Ron answered in unison. Harry tried very hard not to dash up the stairs, and relaxed only when he caught sight of Ginny's joking smile. She knew how much he hated attention; especially over something like this.

"Oh," Percy said, frowning. "Well, I have a few papers to write for Kingsley... can it wait until dinnertime, or so?" Molly turned to Harry, wanting his answer.

"Of course," Harry replied, shrugging away their concerned looks. "I feel alright. Really." In truth, he was beginning to feel rather dizzy. Also, it felt as if something fuzzy were continually brushing his nose, making it itch. He rubbed it as discreetly as he could, hoping to push the feeling away.

"Well, in the mean time, up to bed," Molly said, lightly pinching his cheek. "Ron, Ginny, Hermione, make sure he gets there. I'll make some tea."

Harry tried not to sigh. They were going to take care of him, it seemed. Regardless of what he wanted. He stalked ahead of them, refusing each and every attempt of their assistance. It was only when he reached Ron's door that he felt his nose beginning to get a head of him, his mouth allowing strange little gasps that hardly sounded like his own. He clamped Hermione's handkerchief to his nose, nose tightening up against his face. Then, rapid as shutters swinging, his eyelids locked down against the coming sneezes. "HehhNNCHH! HESHHH! ISHH'SHOO!" He gasped shortly, nearly doubled over onto his knees.

"You're sure you're alright?" Ron asked, and Harry remembered a moment from their sixth year in which Ron had happily gone to Madame Pomfrey for the faintest of sniffles. He liked the attention when he was sick.

"Yes," he said, through clenched teeth. "Fine." Blushing from his forehead to his neck, he tensely let them help him into bed. He refused to change, saying his robes were fine, and then quietly said that he'd like to get some sleep. It was the only polite way he could kick them out.

"You're sure, Mate?" Ron asked. Harry felt a quick pang of guilt. Ron almost seemed to want to help, and after these last four months, Harry didn't really want to refuse him anything he wanted. Besides, it was Ron's room they were in.

"Yes, I'm sure," he replied, smiling weakly at them. "I'm all set here, anyway." He held up the stack of handkerchiefs they'd given him. "And your mum said - hih... " No. No. He could wait until they left the room, couldn't he? "...Your mum said she'd bring up tea," he said, barely keeping the sensation at bay.

"Alright, then," Ron said reluctantly. He walked backwards towards the door, Hermione hesitantly following. Only Ginny stayed, her legs pushed up against the bedframe. When she noticed Harry's expression, she recoiled slightly.

"What? You didn't mean me too, did you? You didn't... want me to leave too, did you?"

"Well, I just thought I'd get some sleep," he answered, recognizing how pathetic an answer it was. Feeling his nostrils to begin to flare again, he pressed a handkerchief up against his nose and pushed down as hard as he could.

"That's rubbish, Harry," Ginny said. She stood, her eyes bright with anger. "If we're together, then - then you have to let me take care of you. No matter how much you hate it."

"Ginny..."

"No," she said, fiercely meeting his eyes. "I understand if you don't want their help, or my mum's, but you have to let me in."

He could not fight two battles at once, and so he silently surrendered by opening his mouth. "HehhSHHT!" The space between his lip and nose blurred red from irritation, his entire face tomato-like under Ginny's observant gaze. He ducked his head away from her, hoping she wouldn't watch as his face folded up into a million pores of desperation. "Hehhh'hehhihh -- " He breathed in as quickly as he could, waiting, and then at last felt his features collapse together with the release. "Hihgggshhooo! He could feel the roughness as it tugged out of him, leaving him more ragged and exhausted than before.

"Bless you," Ginny said quietly. Without a word, she climbed beside him on the bed, her hands gently going through his hair. He tensed, wishing she would go away. He loved her, of course he did, but he didn't want her seeing him this way.

"Harry," she whispered, after a long time had passed. She'd stopped stroking his hair, and instead reached over to take his clammy hands in hers. "After Fred... after Fred..." She tilted her head to imply the word 'died'. She still couldn't say it. "You were there for me during every moment."

"Well, of course I - "

"And now," she said, speaking over him, "I want to be there for you. Please. You have to let me." She looked at him so imploringly, he did not think he had the heart to say no. Though it still made him a bit uncomfortable, he let himself relax slightly into her grip. "Thank you," she whispered, giving his hands a squeeze.

"Tea!" Molly came brightly into the room, her hands filled with a tray. "Now, it might be rather hot, so wait a few minutes before you drink it. How are you feeling, Harry dear?" she asked, smoothing back the hair Ginny had rumpled.

"Fine," he replied hoarsely. "I feel fine," he said. Well, it was half true. He'd felt worse at other moments in his life.

She looked at him dubiously and shook her head. "Percy will be leaving in about an hour he said, so we should have you all better by tomorrow morning. Alright?"

"Alright. Thank you, Mrs. Weasley."

With a last smile, she hurried out and left them alone.

"You want the tea?" Ginny asked.

"I suppose so," he said, grudgingly allowing her to help him sit up. "Thank you." The tea worked wonders on his throat, reducing nearly all of the ache, but the steam made his nose tickle with the released congestion. "Gin-iny... I think..." he thrust the teacup into her hands, searching desperately for the handkerchief. Where had it gone?

"Here." She placed it over his nose and mouth, guiding his hands to hold it there. "Got it?" She barely managed to move her hands away in time, and felt the heat of his boiling breath on her hands before she did. "Here," she whispered, putting an arm across his buckling back, "I've got you."

His head reared back wildly, as if pushed by the intensity of the buildup. "HehhhnnhuhhhCHHHH!" She felt his bones quake with the resounding volume, each little muscle giving a tremor under her hand. She let go of his back, and instead wrapped both arms around him. "HehhhCHHUH! HihhSHHHUH! Hihh'XXXT'CHAA!" She moved her hand in gentle circles across his spine, moving up to massage the warm skin of his neck.

"Better?" she asked. Before he could feel embarrassed about it, she leaned over to kiss his still-trembling lips. Ignoring his troubled expression, she handed him a clean handkerchief to use for his nose. "You see, Harry," she whispered, once he'd sighed and leaned back against the pillows. "Having me around won't kill you."

Pleasantly surprising her, he smiled. "Do I get a kiss every time I sneeze?"

Laughing, delighted that he could joke about it now, she snuggled up against his chest as she considered. "Yes. I s'pose you do."

"Excellent."

She wanted to ask what had caused the change in his mood, but didn't want to ruin the moment. Lying here together, marginally peaceful, it reminded her a little bit of when they'd first gone out. Before the terrible break up at Dumbledore's funeral, before the Battle, before the invisible scarring to both their lives. This was what she wanted. And looking at Harry, the way he smiled through his labored breathing, she guessed he might be feeling the same. For whether he was sick or not, at least they were together. As it should be.

---

[meepsy]

aww, I don't normally like Ginny, but this was such a cute fic!!!

[scarlett_ohara2]

"Fine," he replied hoarsely. "I feel fine," he said. Well, it was half true. He'd felt worse at other moments in his life.

Oh, Harry. I love the timeline you chose for this, you captured the post-Battle atmosphere so well!

Well done!

[ooo]

"Fine," he replied hoarsely. "I feel fine," he said. Well, it was half true. He'd felt worse at other moments in his life.

Oh, Harry. I love the timeline you chose for this, you captured the post-Battle atmosphere so well!

Ditto!

I loved this. I never really warmed to Harry/Ginny in the books but I think you just converted me! The characters felt so spot-on and I loved the way you had Harry all uncomfortable with being cared for, and the Weasleys so public and caring about it - especially Molly having the hands 'of a practiced mother', so sweet.

[musiclover90]

Aw, this was great! I love Harry Potter, awesome job!

[dumpling]

Awwww, that was so cute

[TheCakeIsAlive]

That was pure awesomeness. You've captured the mood wonderfully and... awww, Ginny's sweet.

*smothers George with hugs*

[glowstick03]

!!! Yet another awesome one I love me some allergies, but I need some cold fics too...AND some HP!!! This one was really good! I like how it was set after the war...you did a great job with how they would have all been acting!

Thank you! This was a great gift

[Emily]

I'm a die-hard Harry/Hermione fan but goodness me. I think you've shaken my resolve a bit. Just a bit, mind you.

[VividBubbles!]

Well, because Emily has resurrected this post (thank you Emily! ) I can finally comment on it without feeling weird about resurrecting it myself! Anyway, I simply adore this fic! It's a great oneshot that really sums up the Post-Battle truama. I never really did forgive J.K.R. for killing Fred and, even though I too never really warmed up to Harry and Ginny's relationship, it's nice to find stories that make me feel like J.K.R. did the right thing in pairing them together. Loved this, Narnes!

BYE!

P.S. Best Harry Potter pairing ever totally equals Neville and Luna! I mean, seriously, aww!

BYE! Again. :bleh: