Looking After Poppy
For Healer Pomfrey, for her writing contest on her newsgroup page. Please enjoy, Healer Pomfrey, and thanks for betaing!
Everything here belongs to JK Rowling. I own none of this.
"Please lie down here on the bed, Mr. Potter," Professor McGonagall instructed the boy and after a last glance at his feverishly flushed face went to fetch her best friend, Poppy Pomfrey. She entered her friend's office, shocked at the sight that greeted her. Poppy, who normally came out of her office as soon as she heard the door to the hospital wing open, was sitting in front of her desk with both arms on her desk and her head resting on her arms. Since their school days Minerva hadn't seen Poppy sit anywhere like that.
"Poppy, what's wrong? Are you ill?" Minerva asked in concern, stepping over to the Mediwitch to get a close look at her friend.
"I don't feel well today," Poppy mumbled, turning glassy eyes to Minerva.
The professor gently laid a hand on the Mediwitch's forehead and gasped. "You're boiling hot, Poppy. Let me take you to bed." She forced her friend through the connecting door to her quarters and helped her into her bed, quickly transfiguring her hospital clothes into soft pyjamas.
"Poppy, I'll be back in a minute. I just have to call Severus and ask him to look after Harry Potter, who is in the hospital wing with 40 (104) degrees of fever."
"What!" Poppy exclaimed in horror and struggled to get out of bed.
"Stay put, Poppy. I'll be back immediately," Minerva ordered her sternly and headed to the fireplace in her friend's office. A minute later she was back at Poppy's side.
"Poppy, are you able to check on yourself?" she asked, frowning when Poppy shook her head. Minerva took a tissue out of her robe pocket and transfigured it into a Muggle thermometer, smirking. "I'm sorry, Poppy, but I still have to get some revenge for what you always do to us," she apologized, while she stuck the thermometer into the Mediwitch's mouth.
Seeing that her friend was shaking badly, she transfigured another tissue into a cold cloth and gently wiped her burning face.
"Poppy, do you think you have the wizard's flu?" Minerva asked, seeing that her friend had a dangerously high fever of 40.3 (104.5) degrees.
"Probably," Poppy croaked. "I need a fever reducer and a flu potion, and then I have to look after Harry. He probably has the wizard's flu as well."
"You will not get up, Poppy, do you understand me?" Minerva said threateningly, and Poppy felt ill enough not to contradict.
"I'll ask Severus for your potions." Minerva hurried into the hospital wing, where Severus was just checking on Harry.
"The wizard's flu," Severus stated, giving Minerva a questioning look.
"Poppy probably has the same; she needs a fever reducer and the flu potion. And perhaps if you're just here you could quickly check on her?"
"Yes, I'll do that. Now Mr. Potter, absolute bed rest until I'll tell you otherwise. You are very ill." Severus made the boy drink a few potions, which made him fall asleep immediately. Then he followed Minerva into the Mediwitch's quarters.
"The same, and it's even worse," he said, frowning. "How long did you have that fever, Poppy?" Severus asked sternly.
"I had to wait until the students went home," Poppy croaked, shivering badly.
Severus spelled two potions straight into his colleague's stomach and noticed in relief when she slightly relaxed. "Minerva, you have to check her fever and give her these potions every four hours. Call me if it gets worse. I will take turns with you during the night."
"Poppy, try to sleep for a while," Minerva told her friend, while she gently stroked her hot cheeks. "I'll wake you up in time for your potions."
"Minerva, I can't sleep. I have to look after Harry. He and Severus hate each other so much. They'll kill each other," Poppy replied hoarsely, trying to sit up in vain.
Minerva sighed and pushed her excited friend down on her bed. "Poppy, calm down please. Harry is nearly as ill as you are, and I don't think Severus has any ambitions to aggravate his condition further. Harry is asleep right now by the way."
To Minerva's great relief, Poppy complied and even drifted off to sleep. However, after a short time she began to have fever induced dreams.
"No, Rolanda, you can't fight that bear. He's riding a Firebolt, and that's much faster than your Nimbus. Let Minnie transfigure him into a mouse, before you fight him. Rolanda, listen to me! Look, I knew that he would kick you off. You have five thousand degrees of fever; that's more than mine. We need Minnie to transfigure us into polar bears, so that we can lie down in the snow to cool down."
Minerva gently brushed Poppy's hot face with her cool cloth. "It's all right, Poppy. Minnie's here. You'll be all right, and Rolanda is fine."
"No, she is on fire, Minnie. I took her temperature, and it was five thousand degrees. You must keep her in bed."
"I'll look after her, Poppy. Try to sleep a bit more," Minerva replied calmingly and was glad when her friend drifted off to sleep again.
While Poppy was peacefully asleep for once, Minerva spent a few minutes at Harry's bedside, knowing that the boy was very ill too. However, seeing that Severus was busying himself in Poppy's office to be there in case the child needed him, she returned to Poppy's side.
"Minnie, it hurts," Poppy all of a sudden whimpered. "The potion was boiling all over me, and now my skin's boiling. Look at Potter and Malfoy. They're fighting with fire spells making me even hotter," she complained, kicking her covers away only to shiver violently and tell something about penguins the next instant.
Minerva calmly tried to talk her friend out of her fevered dreams each time and woke her up every four hours to take her temperature, which afforded a lot of persuasion each time, before Poppy opened her mouth or let Minerva stick the thermometer under her armpit. It was equally difficult to make her swallow her potions.
In the evening, Minerva transfigured her chair into a very comfortable one, in which she could spend the night. She called Winky, one of the Hogwarts elves, and asked her to wake her up every four hours, so that she could look after Poppy right in time.
In the morning, Poppy's condition wasn't any better yet. Her fever remained extremely high, and she was hallucinating the whole time and drifted from one fever induced dream into the next. Only late in the evening, her fever finally came down a degree.
Minerva was just drifting off to sleep in her comfortable chair when Severus showed up and ordered her to go back to her quarters and sleep.
"I slept a few hours during the day, and Potter's fever came down nicely, so that I don't have to spend the night with him. I'll look after Poppy over the night," he promised.
Minerva gratefully retreated to her quarters, feeling absolutely exhausted from watching over her sick friend for two days. When she walked back to the hospital wing in the morning, she noticed that the halls had become extremely chilly over night. 'Well, it's Christmas day; no wonder that it's cold,' she mused, while she entered the hospital wing.
Severus worriedly looked at his older colleague and noticed that her cheeks were deeply flushed and that she had dark rings under her eyes, which looked glassy and ill this morning. He quickly pointed his wand at Minerva's head to take her temperature. "I'm afraid you'll be the next one on bed rest," he said sternly, motioning her over to the bed next to Harry's.
"No, I have to look after Poppy, and I'm fine. I'm not a student, whom you can send to bed," Minerva contradicted, although she noticed horrified that her voice was beginning to fail.
"Minerva, you have the wizard's flu along with a fever of 39.7 (103.5) degrees and belong into bed," Severus said in an upset voice, causing Minerva to shudder.
"Shut up, both of you! Minerva, get into bed this instant! Severus, we need another batch of the flu potion."
The two colleagues shut up instantly hearing the Mediwitch's strict voice, even if it still sounded hoarse.
"Thank God you're back to normal, Poppy," Minerva croaked, ending up in a coughing fit, while she obediently scrambled into bed.
Fin