Fire, fire, fire… he was on fire!
No… it just felt like it. He was hot, burning… why was Harry so hot?
Harry kicked at the blanket that was holding him in the furnace and he opened his eyes.
Water… water, there! He saw the bottle from last night sitting on his nightstand. He tried to reach for it, but found that he barely had the strength to move. He took a couple of breaths… oh it hurt. His throat was so sore. He concentrated on the water and weakly reached out. His arm shook and he only succeeded in knocking the bottle to the floor.
He couldn’t hold in the small miserable whimper of frustration. He needed that water or he swore he would just burst into flame right there and then the bed would start on fire and spread around the room and eventually the whole house would burn up and Snape would be so mad at him but it wouldn’t matter because Harry’d already be dead. Wait… what?
He sighed and tried to ignore his own confusing thoughts. He gathered all his strength and pushed himself away from the bed and rolled onto the floor with a loud thud and a groan.
The hardwood floor was cold against his skin and it sent chills throughout his body. He still needed the water for his dry and hot throat, but the burning sensation in his body had been replaced with aching cold.
He lost track of the bottle, which had rolled under some piece of furniture. He couldn’t find the strength to pull himself back onto the bed so he tugged at his blanket, letting it fall over him and he curled into a small ball on the floor.
----
Severus awoke with a start. He looked around his room and saw that it was still before sunrise. He was about to fall back to sleep when he heard a thud that came from the direction of Harry’s room. Deciding to investigate the noise, he got out of bed and wrapped a night robe over his pajamas and went across the hall.
He knocked politely and waited a few moments. There was no answer and so he turned to go back to his room, but a soft cry stopped him. He opened the door this time without a knock.
“Lights,” he commanded softly. The room lit up and he saw the bundle on the floor with black hair sticking out from under a blanket.
“Harry?” He approached and pulled the blanket away from the child’s face.
“No, ‘m cold…” Harry muttered, looking up at him with glazed eyes. Severus pushed a lock of hair away from Harry’s face and gasped at the heat radiating from the skin.
“Child, you’re burning up!” Severus gathered the boy in his arms and set him on the bed, tucking the blanket around him. “Harry, can you tell me what feels bad?” he asked as he looked Harry over. He noticed what he’d originally thought was a fevered flush was actually more of a rash. He put his hands to the sides of Harry’s throat and the boy flinched away.
“Don’t… it hurts. Make it stop, please,” Harry pleaded, the fever sending his mind to a place where he didn’t care about sounding childish or weak and where adults were just supposed to know how to fix things no matter what.
“I’ll try, Harry. I promise. Just let me look you over so I can figure out what’s wrong.” Severus’s voice was soft and gentle. It was the same soothing tone he’d used when he would talk to his wife’s stomach, trying to make an imprint on his child’s memory before he was born.
After double checking Harry’s symptoms with his own memory, he was sure of what was wrong. It would have made him feel better except that there was no potion or spell to cure Scarlet Fever. He’d have to get the proper muggle antibiotics from Madame Pomphrey who always kept a stock of muggle medicines along with her usual potions.
“I’ll be back. I need to make a firecall.”
He used the fireplace in his office and Pomphrey assured him that she’d owl the medicine right away. Since magic (including magical transportation) diminished the effectiveness of muggle medicines. Until the owl arrived, he’d have to keep Harry’s fever as low as he could without magic.
He grabbed a bowl and a cloth from his bathroom and filled the bowl with cool (but not cold) water. He brought it to Harry’s room and set it on the nightstand. Harry seemed to be somewhere between sleep and awake so he wet the cloth and laid it on the boy’s head.
The bright green eyes startled open and Harry gasped.
“No… too cold. Please,” he groaned. He swatted at Severus’s hands.
“No, Harry. You have a fever that needs to be brought down.” He was soft but stern. Harry started to cry softly.
“Please… I’ll be good. Please…”
He didn’t know what to do. He needed to cool Harry down, but he hated seeing him cry like that.
“You’re not in trouble, Harry. You’re sick and that is why you feel so miserable.” He took Harry’s hands in his own to keep them from pulling the cloth away and he began to massage them lightly to calm Harry. The tears eventually stopped and Harry was staring at him.
“Would you like me to tell you a story?” Severus offered, hoping it would soothe him to sleep. Harry nodded with a small sigh.
“Alright….
Once there was a half-blooded prince who fell in love with a beautiful pure-blooded princess. There was a problem though… the princess’s brother was the enemy of the half-blood prince. For years they hated each other. The two played terrible pranks on each other and almost killed one another on more than one occasion.
When the brother found out about the romance between the half-blood prince and the princess, he forbade his sister from seeing the prince ever again. The half-blood prince was heart broken. He believed that he would never love again and he decided to throw his life away and he joined a dark lord’s army.
It wasn’t long after that when he received a letter from the princess. In it, she told him that her love for him would never die and her brother could never change that. The prince realized that he’d mad a mistake and that not everybody he cared for would leave him.
The prince wanted to turn against the dark lord, but nobody was allowed to quit that army. Instead he became a spy against the dark lord. Then the prince and the princess had a secret wedding. Only their closest family and friends were informed of this marriage.
When the brother was informed, he saw that their love was true and he rejoiced for his sister’s happiness. The brother and the half-blood prince mended their differences for the sake of the princess.
Time went by… The brother found a wife of his own. Soon both women became pregnant. The half-blood prince was very happy that he was soon going to be a father. He created a beautiful nursery and he built a crib with his own hands.
Near the end of the pregnancy, the prince was sent away on a spy mission. He was sad to leave, but he looked forward to coming home to his wife and their new child.
Soon it was time for both women to give birth and the brother was there to help them, but something went wrong. The brother’s wife gave birth to a stillborn child… a girl. He put his wife to sleep, knowing that he couldn’t tell her while he still needed to help his sister, the princess. But things got worse. The princess died while in labor, but her child was alive and healthy.
In his grief, something snapped in the brother’s head. He stole the healthy baby and claimed the boy as his own. Nobody knew, not even the brother’s wife.
Weeks went by and the prince returned home. He was greeted with the news that his family was dead. It was too much for the prince… he swore he would never care about anyone ever again because it hurt too much when he lost them. He turned into a cold and bitter man whom nobody liked.
A little over a year later, the brother and his wife died and left the baby alone. The prince, still consumed with bitterness, could not take in the child. He didn’t want to… whenever he looked at the baby, he was reminded of all that he’d lost. The baby was sent away.
Years later, the prince and the baby who had grown into a child met each other again. But they grew to hate each other just like the prince and the brother had hated each other.
But… one day the prince found out the truth…. The boy he’d hated was actually his son. The betrayal of the brother hurt him, but he was able to find the small part of himself that was capable of caring and loving once again.
So the prince found the boy where he’d been living and he rescued him…”
Severus’s voice trailed off and he couldn’t take his eyes away from Harry, who looked to be asleep. He almost jumped when Harry’s eyes then opened slightly.
“Did they live happily ever after then?”
“I don’t know, Harry. Time will tell.”
Harry closed his eyes, accepting that answer, and he drifted off to sleep.
Severus breathed in shakily, wondering what had possessed him to tell that story. He could only hope that Harry was too feverish to remember it, though Severus doubted he would connect it to himself even if he did remember.
Severus also reminded himself to check the locking spell on the room that had been intended as a nursery. He’d never gotten around to actually cleaning it out. No, that wasn’t true. He’d never had the strength to.
----
An hour or so later, Severus had dressed and brought a chair over to Harry’s bed so that he could care for him more comfortably.
Harry had been sleeping fitfully when he awoke screaming and backing up against the headboard of the bed.
“Harry! Calm down, it’s a dream. Whatever it is, it’s just a dream.”
Harry wasn’t looking at him though. His attention was focused behind Severus and Severus turned, expecting to see what had terrified the boy. There was nothing.
“Harry?”
“There’s too many of them. I can’t… I can’t… why am I so hot? They’re supposed to make you cold, but they’re burning me!” Harry’s panicked voice grew to a hoarse shout as he tried to press himself into the headboard, practically clawed at it.
“Harry, please lie down. It’s not real.” Severus gently pushed Harry back down on the bed and Harry was too weak to fight him. Instead, Harry grabbed at Severus’s robes, clinging to them with all his strength.
“Please don’t let them get me,” he whispered. Severus pulled the child to his chest and let Harry hold onto him.
“Of course not. Nobody will take you from me. I will keep you save.” He ran a hand through Harry’s sweat-matted hair, trying to will some calming magic into Harry.
He’d heard about parents being able to calm their own babies with subtle magic, but he’d never had the chance to try and Harry was hardly a baby anymore. Surprisingly, Harry’s body did begin to relax and his breathing evened out. Severus didn’t know if it was from the rumored magic or the comfort of being held. He indulged in his own paternal wants and kept the boy in his embrace even though it was no longer needed. He sat like that until the heat from Harry seeped through his robes and reminded him of the fever.
He gently laid Harry back onto the pillows and put the damp cloth back on his head.
At that moment there was a tapping on the window and he pulled his wand to spell it open. The owl that entered the room was Harry’s own owl, Hedwig. Severus berated himself for not noticing that the bird had not been with Harry this whole time. He’d totally forgotten about the bird.
Hedwig brought him an envelope that contained a plastic pill bottle and a short note that contained directions to make sure Harry took one pill three times a day until the bottle was empty.
“Thank you, Hedwig. There is a small structure to the right side of the house where I keep my owls. Please treat yourself to a meal and stay. I’m sure that Harry misses you.” He sent the owl away.
Before waking Harry, Severus made sure he had one pill out and the bottle of water that he’d found knocked on the floor earlier.
“Harry, wake up. I have medicine.” Severus tried to wake Harry gently, but he slept deeply this time. When verbal prompts failed, Severus had to gently prod the child out of sleep by shaking him. This resulted in a terrified Harry who batted away the intruding hands and curled himself into a ball in the corner of the bed.
“Harry… Harry, look at me.”
The little ball shivered slightly, but made no other movements to indicate he’d heard of understood. Severus reached out to Harry, laying a hand on one knee and Harry jerked back, almost falling off the bed if Severus hadn’t grabbed him quickly.
“I’ve got you. You’re alright. I know you’re scared… you are miserable and confused. You are hot and your mind feels muddied. I’ll take care of you… I’ll keep you safe and help you get better.” Severus wrapped the unresponsive child in an embrace once again and rocked him gently for a while.
“Snape?” A muffled voice finally asked. Harry pulled away from the robes where his face had been buried.
“Yes, Harry. I’m here. I have your medicine.” Severus let Harry pull away and he retrieved the pill and water.
“Medicine? For what?”
“You’re sick.”
“Oh, okay…” Harry, while more lucid than before, was still not himself. He took the pill without further question or complaint and drank the water, emitting a soft sigh at the cooling sensation the liquid brought to his throat. He smiled, pulling the bottle away.
“Water… good.”
“Yes but drink slowly so you don’t sick up.”
“Mmmkay…” Harry was already drifting again, slowly falling back against the pillows and Severus caught the water bottle before it could fall from Harry’s hands. He guided the small body in the right direction and gently tucked the blankets around Harry as the boy slept on again.
To be continued...