It seems much too soon when odd movements awake Dean in his bed. It can't be morning already, it feels like they just fell asleep minutes ago. He is still partly asleep when he grapples his wand on his bedside table and whispers lumos. He shines the light on his watch. It is two thirty. Barely half an hour has passed since Seamus kissed him, and at that thought he smiles and tries to settle himself back into his warm sheets. He is almost asleep again when he hears something that chills him to the bone—a deep and rough moan from Seamus. A moan of pain. Dean quickly sits up and turns to Seamus who is still beside him, now curled up with his hands on his head and shaking. Dean tries to wrap his arms around him but Shay pushes him away. Dean realizes that the Irishman is slick with a cold sweat, and that he is shivering.

'W-what's wrong?' Seamus only moans in answer, rocking back and forth. 'Shay! Tell me what's going on!' Dean doesn't know what to do.

'My head,' Shay takes a trembling breath, 'it hurts.' Dean embraces Seamus firmly, not letting him get away. He tries to envelop Shay, cocoon him with his warmth. He whispers in his ear—you'll be okay, we'll go to the hospital in the morning—when Seamus screams in excruciating pain, a bloodcurdling shriek that shakes Dean to the core. It is reminiscent of Hermione's wails when Bellatrix was torturing her; he's never forgotten the sound. The noises coming from Seamus don't seem quite human, and the tighter Dean holds him, the louder they get. Dean has to do something and something includes frantically apparating to St Mungo's.

When they arrive, Dean is holding Seamus in his arms like a baby, desperately yelling for someone to help. The lobby is empty but for a thick-looking reception witch and a young girl sitting in the corner of the room, scratching herself everywhere.

'Help, he's ill!' Dean screams at the witch behind the desk. She looks around stupidly, as if hoping someone will appear and help them. Obviously, no one does. 'Floo someone!' The witch quickly runs out of the room, clearly frightened and confused.

She must be new.

Dean realises that even though Seamus is light, his legs are shaking and threatening to give out. He walks to a rickety chair and sits down, never once letting go of the trembling man in his arms. Dean lays his hand on Seamus' glistening forehead. It is much too hot. Shay is still moaning about his head and Dean can only imagine what it feels like. Mere minutes pass, but it feels as though time has all but stopped. Not soon enough a severe-looking Healer arrives and flicks her wand at Seamus, lightening him enough so that Dean can carry the convulsing body in his arms up to the fourth floor. The stern witch points him to a door and it flies open without any incantation or wand, showing a large ward with filled beds and empty ones. Dean runs to one of those with all he has left and drops Seamus onto one before his legs give out and he crumples to the floor. Shay is all but passed out and his breathing is shallow. Dean shakily gets up to see that his friend's eyes are fluttering shut and with one last moan of pain they close completely.

'What's wrong with him?' says the elderly witch dryly. A clipboard and quill have appeared and she is taking notes, presumably describing Seamus' condition. At the moment he is tossing and turning, crying out unconsciously. Dean nearly starts crying but he knows he must stay strong, however much it hurts to see the man who kissed him an hour ago so helpless.

'I don't know. He said his head hurts.' His breathing is heavy like he's just run ten kilometres and his hands and legs are shaking uncontrollably.

'I'll give him something for the pain, but until we know what caused his headache I can't do anything else. I'm going to get the correct potion, and in the meantime you should pull up a chair and calm down.' She waves her wand and a chair comes sliding from the shadows by one of the other patients' bed; Dean sits down gratefully. The witch waddles to a cupboard across the ward and Dean finds Seamus' clammy hand and grips it tightly.

'I'm right here, Shay, I won't leave you,' he whispers to the unconscious man, bringing the hand he's holding to his lips and kissing it lightly. When the witch returns (Healer Cassilda Edderton, her nametag says) she tips a spoonful of awful-looking green potion into Seamus' mouth neatly and quickly. She wipes the spoon on her apron and turns to Dean, eyeing their hands with raised eyebrows. Dean can't quite read her expression, but he doesn't spend too much time focusing on it, instead choosing to stare hopelessly at Seamus.

'Humph. Did anything trigger this headache?' The clipboard appears again.

'Nothing I saw, and I've been with him all day.' Dean shivers at the thought of their perfect kiss. 'Can you get me Healer Blaise Zabini? He works somewhere on this floor, though I reckon he's at home now.'

'I'll try. But I can't promise he'll be here before tomorrow morning.' Healer Edderton walks stiffly to the door, forcibly reminding Dean of Professor McGonagall.

The moans subside leaving Seamus drenched in a cold sweat and rolling around on the minuscule and seemingly uncomfortable hospital bed. Dean watches as an hour then another ticks by excruciatingly slowly on his old and battered gold watch, hoping more than anything that Seamus' fever will break by dawn. He never once stops gripping Shay's cold and twitching hand, occasionally squeezing it and waiting for a squeeze in return.

When it is nearly five am and Dean's been fighting back exhaustion for hours, a flustered Blaise runs in, breathing heavily.

'I came as soon as I could, I'm sorry, I wasn't in town and oh!' Blaise has spotted Seamus on the bed. 'What's wrong?' He frantically feels Shay's forehead and another clipboard appears out of nowhere.

'I don't know. He had a headache but he said it wasn't bad. Turns out it was.'

'What happened? Tell me everything.' Blaise flicks his wand and another chair comes tumbling from another bedside.

'He woke up in the middle of the night screaming. There's not much to tell,' Dean says defeatedly.

'What did he do? Were you with him all day?' He is using the same oversized blue quill he always uses and the swirling feathers are calming for Dean; it is normal and familiar.

'It was my birthday so we went out for lunch then went home and watched some muggle movies.' Dean sighs, remembering. It seems so long ago.

'What did he eat?' Blaise writes something on his board. 'What could have caused this?' he whispers almost to himself.

'I don't know, I wasn't paying attention. Fish and chips? I'm not sure.' Dean shakes his head and Blaise sighs.

'So you have no idea what could have brought this intense and obviously horrible headache on? He's seriously ill, as you can see. Anything you remember can help.'

'The headache started this morning after he woke me up…'

…then crawled in bed with me.

'Anything else I should know?' Dean thinks about everything they did and how the day ended.

'I don't think so.'

And so they wait for Seamus to wake up and his fever to break. The men are mostly quiet, occasionally trying to make small talk about Dean's family and Padma, but they always lapse into a heavy silence afterwards, listening to Shay's heavy and pained breathing. Sometimes his eyes flicker open but they are unfocused and glazed over, and Blaise and Dean sit at his bedside for long hours.

At one point, Healers start walking in and out and patients wake up noisily, but Dean doesn't really pay attention. Healer Edderton returns and gives Shay some more painkilling potion, but even then he doesn't wake up fully. He mumbles things every once in a while, but Dean and Blaise can't make sense of his garbled and sleepy murmurs.

They have some practically inedible breakfast and as they are chewing painstakingly on rubbery bacon, Blaise gazes at their intertwined hands, looking up to question Dean with his eyes.

'He needs to know I'm here.' Blaise nods; he'd do the same for Padma and Dean knows it.

'How was he yesterday?'

Dean is confused for a few seconds. He hasn't slept and so it feels as if the day never ended and yesterday is still today. He shakes himself.

'Great. Better than he's been in months, actually.' Dean looks at Seamus' face tenderly. 'Blaise, he… he kissed me again,' he whispers so quietly it is barely audible. Dean doesn't know when they crossed the line and Blaise became his friend, but now he feels completely comfortable admitting this to the young Healer.

At first, Blaise smiles genuinely, truly happy for Dean, then an errant and single thought flits through his mind. What if that triggered the headache?

'Dean! Why didn't you tell me this before?' Dean is confused by the rough tone of the words.

'Uh… Blimey, I didn't think it was important…' Blaise jumps up and starts pacing around, deep in thought. 'What's wrong?' Dean looks up at him nervously, and then down at Seamus. He squeezes his hand.

'I've been thinking a lot lately about what you told me the other day. How you think that this is your fault. I wonder...' Blaise rubs his face and sighs. 'When did you say the headache started?'

'In the morning. After he came to bed with me...' Dean adds quietly. Blaise stops and looks at him with wide eyes.

'Did you...?' He leaves the question hanging in the air awkwardly.

'No! No, we didn't. We just slept.' Seamus mumbled something about a monkey in his sleep and Dean giggled nervously. 'What are you thinking, Blaise?'

'I don't know yet. My thoughts are just a mess right now.' He sits down heavily with a little huff, burying his head in his hands. Dean wonders why he is getting so affected by Seamus when he's the one who should be freaking out.

'Do you think I was right?' whispers Dean as he stares hopelessly at the Healer.

'It's possible. I'm sorry.'

'If it's true than that could be why he can't remember anything that involves me in his past... Or the things that we did. He said he forgot the time we went, ah, swimming and he, um, kissed me. And he has no memory of the night after the Yule Ball even though he remembers the actual dance.' Dean shudders. What else has Shay forgotten about them?

'What happened the night after the Yule Ball?'

'I try not to think about it. It hurts too much.'

It didn't hurt at the time though, oh not at all.

Blaise looks at him questioningly but drops the subject, sensing Dean's discomfort. Dean just doesn't like to think of the night when they were so perfectly happy, and how so much has changed since then. Seamus doesn't even remember it anymore.

And so they wait for the fever to break and sit silently as Healers come test Shay's temperature and give him more potion. Dean fights off sleep; he'd never forgive himself if his friend woke up while he was asleep. Blaise nods off at one point (no one is keeping track of time) but Dean doesn't blame him, instead he looks at the peaceful man longingly almost, wishing he could do the same.