The Marauders - Order of the Phoenix Part Three

Burning Up

It started during the night, around three in the morning, when Lily returned from the bathroom, having woken up with a nasty dream. She had gone and washed her face several times and opened up her secret little trunk and hugged the little blanket for a time, reminding herself that there had to be a way that Harry would come to them - there had to be because she'd already seen him, whatever the doctors said, whatever James now guilted himself into believing.

Despite pep-talks, he was fully discouraged now, and Lily hadn't been able to get him to agree to try since the appointment... which was entirely frustrating on quite a few levels, honestly.

She'd finally tucked the little blue blanket away in the trunk again and snuck back across the hall to their bedroom.

James lay curled in a ball, facing away, when she came back, his arms around himself, legs tucked to his chest. The blankets had fallen away when she'd gotten up and he hadn't reached to fix them, even though he was visibly shivering. She sighed as she crawled back up onto the bed and leaned over him, reaching for the blankets herself, intending to tuck him in, but he was so warm that she could feel the heat radiating off him and she frowned put a hand to his forehead.

"Oh my stars, James," she whispered, "You're burning up." She pulled the blanket up over him and got up, going around the other side of the bed to find he was awake and staring straight ahead, too chilled to move, lips chapped and his eyes red and unfocused, as his jaw quaked - literally chattering his teeth. "Oh honey," she whispered.

"L-Lily?" he murmured, voice little and shiver-lined.

Gods, he seemed so small in that instant, she felt her breath catch with worry.

"I'm here, James," she whispered, and she ran her palm over his shoulder, rubbing his skin to make him warmer, "Oh you must've caught whatever Mrs. Davies and Nessa have from the kids," she whispered and she took her wand and sent a blast of warm air through the blankets that were over him so that they were warmer against his skin.

He looked miserable.

"I'm going to get some pepper-up and some supplies. Will you be alright while I run to the kitchen really quickly?"

He made a jerky motion that she thought might be a nod, so she got up and hurried out of the room, rushing down the stairs to the kitchen. It was raining outside, the low rumblings of a thunderstorm building far off, and the pattering of the droplets against the glass in the windows was loud. Lily grabbed the large, dark-grey bottle of pepper-up from the potions cabinet, then set the kettle to heating up on the stovetop. She flicked her wand and opened the fridge with magic, and a bunch of oranges from Costa Rica came flying out, squeezing themselves into a glass. Lily meanwhile was gathering a wash cloth from a lower cabinet and grabbing the blankets from the living room couch.

Lightning flashed as she went back upstairs, all her supplies flying along with her, pausing at the bathroom to get the balm she used on her lips, she back into the bedroom, where James lay in precisely the same spot as she'd left him.

"I'm back, I'm back sweetheart," she whispered, snatching the blankets from the air and tossing them over him, giving him additional layers of warmth. She snatched a glass of water she'd brought from the air and bent the straw in it to his lips, "Here. Drink, honey, you're dehydrated."

He took the tiniest sip ever, barely able to close his mouth around the straw.

Lily sighed and climbed back into the bed, pulling him into her. He protested, his muscles sore and his bones achey from cold, but she laid him against her chest and he sank into her, "B-but you'll c-catch it," he murmured, even as his eyes closed with the comfort of being close to her and his arms closed 'round her.