This is AU. Lily and James are alive, and there is no magic.
Harry becomes ill on a class camping trip. This is from when he is going back home, and all the others have left him behind because he can't keep up with them. This includes the teacher.
I hope you enjoy the story!
Harry felt awful. The sun was glaring down on him, and he felt all too hot. It felt like he was standing in an oven. But still he continued to tread on his bicycle, wanting nothing more to get home and sleep for a whole week. The others from his class, including the adults had passed away from view long ago, and he wasn't sure how long it was until he got home again. There was yet another hill to get up, and he shakily got off the bicycle to walk up. He kept his eyes on the ground, focusing on putting one foot in front of the other, forcing himself to get forwards. Time seemed to move too slowly for comfort, and the hill seemed to never end.
When he finally got over the hill, he saw that there was another hill after a few meters of a downhill. But as he felt too shaky to risk rolling downwards on the gravel in his current state, he opted to just walk the rest of the way. He supposed he was around an hour or so from the school, where he could pick up his pack and get home. So, with a heavy sigh, Harry continued to walk, trying to ignore the headache and his feeling of loneliness.
It was almost two hours later that Harry had managed to get himself back to the school. He would never have thought he would be so glad to see the place as he was at that moment. Looking around, he couldn't see anybody else. The school was deserted, and Harry felt the loneliness take hold of him again. There was only his backpack laying on the ground in the schoolyard, and not a person to be seen. Harry decided that he didn't want to use the bicycle to get home, so he parked it and went over to his things. Picking up his backpack and his sleeping pad, made his way slowly home.
The trip home, which would normally take a maximum of ten minutes, seemed to take ages. His legs felt like lead, and the headache had redoubled. On top of this, Harry suspected that he either was severely sunburned or had a fever. It was difficult to determine when he had been under the sun for several hours without water (He had given half of it to Ron as he had forgotten to bring some for himself).
When he finally got through the door of his home, he felt like he could weep. He just dumped his things in the hallway, feeling too bad to bother to put it where it belonged, even though his mother would lecture him when she saw. He made his way slowly up to the living room, where he knew the rest of the family was.
"How was the trip, honey?" his mother, Lily asked him when he entered. She turned to smile at him, only to freeze and a frown of concern coming across her beautiful face. He just shrugged, not really wanting to lie and say that it had been fine.
"Are you feeling alright, honey? You look a little pale." She asked, moving closer, raising her hand to his forehead. Her eyes widened when she felt how warm he was. She gently took him by the shoulders and guided him to the sofa, making him lay down. Her frown deepened when he didn't protest.
"You feel a little warm honey. If you'll just wait here, I'll get the thermometer" she spoke softly, noticing the sigh of relief he let out as Harry lay his head down on the pillow.
Lily didn't take long to get back with the thermometer, and made him lift his arm, as he was only wearing a T-shirt, and stuck the metal under his arm. Harry shivered as the cold metal touched his skin but didn't object.
"How are you feeling, honey?" she asked again, distracting him from the feeling of the thermometer under his arm. He just shrugged. Then, seeing the look she gave him, answered;
"My head hurts, and I feel like I've boiled under the sun." he answered, his voice hoarse. Just then there was a beeping from his armpit, and Lily took back the thermometer. Her eyes widened in surprise and horror as she saw the numbers; 40.3 Celsius! No wonder he had a headache and felt hot.
"You've got quite the headache, Harry. You will lay here while I get you something for your headache and fever." She told him, as she hurried to the kitchen, where she took some Paracet and a glass of water. Coming back, she saw that Harry was struggling to keep his eyes open. She supposed that riding on your bicycle while suffering a fever was rather exhausting.
"Here, swallow these and drink as much water as you can. Then you can sleep. You can sleep here, just let me get you a blanket." And as Harry swallowed the pills, grimacing as he swallowed, Lily took the blanked from the end of sofa and draped it over him.
"So, how was the trip? It took you quite some time to get back, I thought you were supposed to get here again two hours ago?" she asked, as her son handed ack the glass, only half of it drunk. Harry sighed.
"The others got here before me, I couldn't keep up, so they went ahead. I was the last one, and just picked up my things from the schoolyard and got home as fast as I could." Lily just stared for a few minutes, not really comprehending what he had told her for a few minutes. The others had left him behind? The teachers that were supposed to watch over all the students had just left him, when he was obviously ill? As she mulled it over in her head, she felt her anger boiling. How dare they!
But first things first; Harry. He was definitely ill, with a dangerously high fever. What could it be? She was contemplating it when it hit her; chickenpox! They had visited a friend and her children, one of whom had had chickenpox when they visited. And Harry had held him. Oh, dear God! This could get nasty. She looked back at her son, seeing that his eyes were half closed, and made up her mind.
"Harry, dear" she stared, and was relieved when he looked up at her. Though the gaze was rather glassy. He grunted in response.
"I need to look at your arms, and possibly your stomach. Is that alright?" she asked, thinking that she would like some confirmation before freaking out totally. Harry furrowed his brows at her in confusion.
"Why do you want to look at my arm, mum?" he asked.
"I think you might have gotten chickenpox from Teddy. You remember that he had chickenpox when we visited last weekend." She answered. This just confused him more. But he nodded all the same. As she lifted his arms to examine them, he continued to speak.
"I thought you said that I had already had chickenpox, mum? That was the only reason that you said that I could hold him, remember? Then how is it possible that I have chickenpox?" the words were slow, and raspy. She supposed that his throat was dry or raw. More proof of chickenpox, since they sometimes caused a kind of rash on the inside of the throat.
"I thought so, too. But I might have been mistaken. Because there is no doubt that you have chickenpox, Harry. See here" she said, pointing to a spot on his stomach, where several small, red dots was visible. Harry's eyes widened in surprise.
"Oh, shit!" he exclaimed. Normally, Lily would chastise him for his language, but for the moment she couldn't find it in herself to do so. She just nodded, agreeing with him with his sentiments.
"Now, Harry. I want you to lay here and relax. The ride home must have been very exhausting. I'll wake you for food in a while." She told him, tucking him in with the blanked. Harry grimaced slightly at the mention of food, but complied nonetheless. And it took only half a minute before his breaths evened out in sleep. She sighed and got up. The fire in her green eyes was back again.
"They left him behind, did they!?" she growled under her breath. Anger and worry evident in her voice and demeanour.
"Well, we'll see about this. If they really did just leave him alone, to make his own way home in his condition I am not responsible for my actions!" she growled, as she made her way to the phone. The anger for the teachers only overshadowed by the worry for her son. So the first person she phoned was James, telling him to get home as fast as he could, both to watch over Harry and to hold her back so that she wouldn't do anything she would regret to the incompetent teachers that had just left her son behind when he was clearly ill.
Taking a few deep breaths after finishing her call to her husband to calm herself. There was no reason to freak out and go on a rampage just yet. First: take care of Harry. Second: kill the teachers in charge. That sounded fair for the moment. So, she picked up the phone again, and called the emergency department to get advice and to hear what she should be doing for her son. The woman on the other end of the line was very professional, and knew just what to say to calm down a hysterical mother. She told Lily that there was no reason to worry for the time being, since Harry was currently sleeping and was only having a high temperature. She told her, when Lily asked if he should be picked up by an ambulance, that it was not necessary at the moment. The only thing was if the condition took a turn for the worse; like fever cramps, shallow breaths or weak pulse, and all those things Lily could easily check herself.
By the time that James had gotten home, Lily had calmed down slightly from hysterics. She was still very concerned about their son, but since the phone call with the emergency department she had been slightly reassured. She was constantly fussing over the sleeping boy, checking him temperature and vital signs.
"Hey, Lils. What happened?" he asked her as she looked away from their son and towards him. He wrapped his arms around his wife, seeing her worry and concern. She sighed, relaxing slightly in her husband's arms.
"He got home, two hours later than he was supposed to. And he had a raging fever, over 40 degrees! And the others on the trip just left him behind! Even the teacher! He had to make his own way home, and his things were just left on the schoolyard, to be picked up by anybody!" as she spoke, the rage he had been supressing was quickly returning.
"Oh, just wait until I get my hands on those people! They are supposed to be in charge when they leave on a trip! They are NOT to LEAVE ANYBODY BEHIND!" as her volume increased, so did James' own fury. He agreed wholeheartedly with his wife on this point; if his son had been so ill that he couldn't keep up with the others, then the teacher isn't supposed to just leave him!
"I agree, darling. I will personally be handling this, I promise!" he growled. Lily looked up at him, a fire burning in her brilliant, green eyes. She nodded at him.
"I know you will. And you are less likely to kill them in the prosses." She stated. James shivered slightly, he knew she wasn't joking about the killing thing. She would most assuredly at least permanently damage anybody that was responsible. So he just nodded at her. He looked over at their son, laying sleeping on the sofa. He could see that he was unnaturally pale, and sweat was glistening on his forehead.
He kissed his wife quickly before picking up the phone, determined to find out who was responsible for the trip. Thinking about it, he felt rage boil up in him again. His son had been left behind because he couldn't keep up wither the others. He could understand the other children doing that, they were only 12 years old after all, they wouldn't know any better. But for the teacher to just go ahead and leave his 12-year-old, ill son behind on a school trip like that was irresponsible and dangerous. Anything could have happened during the hours he was alone, with nobody there to help him. So, with a last look towards his son and wife, who was once again fussing over Harry, he went downstairs to have some rather angry phone calls. No reason for him to wake up Harry due to his shouting.
It was a week later, when Harry was finally well enough to leave the house. He still had a few red spots, but he was no longer contagious, nor did he have a fever. His parents had been reluctant to let him leave, but after much discussing over the subject, he had allowed to go to school again. He had missed a whole week of school, but since there was only two weeks before the summer holidays, that didn't matter much.
As he entered that classroom, he immediately spotted Ron. He was sitting alone on his spot, waiting for class to start. Of perhaps for the day to be over so that he could get home again. He had to smile a little at the thought, because it was most likely true. As he sat down beside him, Ron looked over at him. He seemed to be struggling with himself and was chewing on his lip. It took several minutes before he spoke;
"I'm sorry, mate. I know I shouldn't have left you behind. I should have realized that you weren't feeling good. I know that you have a right to be angry with me, I'm supposed to be your best mate, and I just left you! Anything could have happened! And I've missed you so much over the last week, when I wasn't allowed to visit." He had stated to rant, looking so sad and forlorn that Harry couldn't help bur smile. He lay his hand on Ron's shoulder, and smiled slightly at him.
"It's okay. I know you didn't mean it. And let's be honest; I should have said something about be not feeling well. I had stated to feel unwell already the first day when I spent the entire day on the tent, sleeping. I should have told an adult something. But I don't think I realized how bad it was myself until I got home and my mum checked my temperature and made me lay down on that sofa. So as long as you don't leave me behind next time, then I suppose we're good." Harry said. Ron smiled back at him, but couldn't answer as the teacher chose that moment to enter the classroom to start the class. But Harry just smiled, because he didn't need Ron to apologise more than he had already done, though he supposed that he would spend the next week or so trying to make up for it. Shaking his head, Harry concentrated on what the teacher was talking about.
Thank you for reading my story!
This is actually something that happened to me when I was 12 years old. I was on a camping trip with my class (one night in tent by a lake, 2 hours to get to with bicycle). I got chickenpox during the trip. And the others had just left me behind, including the teacher! It isn't until a few years later that I realized the severity of the situation. Anything could have happened on that trip! I spent the first days at home with a fever over 40 degrees, which I don't even remember. My mother had been so worried about me that she had even asked whether an ambulance should come and get me (tough that wasn't necessary, thank God).
But I hope you enjoyed the story, nonetheless. And I hope you haven't experienced something similar.
Please leave a review!