Hi everyone :)

I'm back with Chapter 2. Woo hoo! (sets off a party popper) Thank you to everyone who reviewed last chapter, I'm glad you all enjoyed it. Due to new policy of not allowing review replies in chapters, (shakes fist angrily at whoever thought of that idea) I haven't replied to anyone's reviews. However, I will in the future if anyone asks a question or says something I really can't help but comment on :D

Okay, because it just doesn't look right without a lot of writing here, I'm going to babble on a bit. This chapter's babble theme is the latest Harry Potter movie. Hands up who's seen it? I saw it the first day it came out in Britain, dragged my two best friends with me. Anyways, the point I wanted to make here is that a lot of people have been complaining about how much they skipped in the film like Hermione's SPEW project. In some ways, I agree, it does suck that they skipped it out but in other ways it's totally understandable that they skipped it. I mean, can you imagine how long the film would've been if they had included every little detail? It just wouldn't be possible to fit it all in. And that's my reason why you can't hold that particular fact against Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

It's still looking weird but I've gone on for long enough. On with the chapter :D

The moment Harry woke up, he really wished that he hadn't. As reality seeped into his sleep-addled mind, he made a horrible discovery. He was ill; really ill. He felt absolutely awful. His head was pounding, he felt completely congested, his throat was so raw he wondered if he'd accidently eaten a length of barbed wire and he was freezing cold even though there was a heating charm on his bed. As he woke up a little more, the knowledge that he had two projects to hand in that day caused him to groan. He couldn't even have the day off.

After retrieving his glasses and reluctantly pulling off the sheets which had covered him, Harry stood carefully. However, he had only taken one step when a wave of faintness washed over him. He fell forwards suddenly and only just managed to grab hold of one of the posts of his bed to stop himself from hitting the floor.

For several moments he just stood there, clinging to the post in order to stop himself from crumbling to the floor in a limp heap. His eyes were shut lightly and his breathing was rather uneven. He frowned stubbornly as a little voice told him that he wasn't going to make it through the day. Of course he could make it through the day. It was just a little cold, nothing he hadn't had before. He could, and would, ignore it.

Once his breathing had evened out and his vision had cleared, Harry straightened out and began to support his own weight again. He began to walk forward, towards the door to the dorm room, quietly, so he didn't wake the other boys, with unsteady legs and his arms held out to the sides very slightly in an unconscious bid to try and steady himself. Every muscle in his body ached and felt like jelly and there was a heavy thumping in his head.

But that wasn't even the worst part. What was the worst part? Draco had been completely right.

It was Breakfast time at Hogwarts and the whole school had gathered in the Great Hall to all fill their stomachs before their day of lessons began. However, filling his stomach was the last thing on Harry's mind. He was too busy trying to control the waves of dizziness which hit him every few moments to think about the lack of food in his stomach. If he was completely honest though, he wasn't particularly hungry anyway. It wasn't the kind of not hungry where any food would spend all of two minutes in his stomach before "magically" reappearing again. He just didn't feel hungry in the least; there was no desire to eat at all.

"Really Harry, you should try to eat at least a little something." Hermione encouraged from where she sat across from him.

"Yeah, keep your strength up and all that." Ron agreed from his left, giving Harry's arm a nudge of encouragement.

"Please Harry? Even just one slice of toast? Dry toast, no butter or anything." Hermione tried. Harry merely shook his head gently, screwing his eyes shut and bringing his right hand up to press against his forehead as another dizzy spell clouded his vision.

"Maybe you should reconsider going to classes today mate." Ron suggested sensibly.

"Can't, got those projects to hand in remember?" Harry pointed out, his voice coming out as a harsh croak which surprised even him.

"You should go and see Madame Pomfrey before our first class at least." Hermione told him.

"There's no need to bother her, it's just a cold." Harry insisted. "I'm fine."

"Harry, we learnt a long time ago that "I'm fine" coming from you means very little. You'd say you were fine if you lost an arm and half of your spleen was hanging out of your stomach." Hermione chided causing Harry to have to bite back a laugh. He wondered how his best friends would react if they ever discovered that Draco had said the exact same thing to him the night before.

Reminded of Draco, Harry was suddenly aware of the gaze which felt like it was drilling into his mind. Lifting his eyes to look up, he saw Draco, just as he thought he would, glaring at him. However, it wasn't just an ordinary I-don't-like-you glare. To Harry's well trained eye, it was very clear that the glare was half worried and half a silent taunt of I-told-you-so.

"Ugh, Malfoy's sunk to a new low. Can't he see that you're not up to a staring contest right now?" Ron muttered, turning to glare at the blonde Slytherin on Harry's behalf.

Draco's nose wrinkled in distaste at the attention from Ron and turned away, going back to listening to Zabini who sat next to him, or at least pretending to listen to him. Harry looked away as well and his eyes were caught by Hermione's; she obviously wasn't about to drop the subject of his health.

"Look, if it'll make you feel better, I'll take the afternoon off and spend it in bed." Harry offered, holding back the urge to cough half way through the sentence.

Hermione sighed at him tiredly. "If that's the best that we're going to get out of you then I guess it'll have to do. But we'll keep you to that Harry."

"I don't doubt that you will." Harry told her with a weak grin, touched by the concern of his two best friends.

Draco was annoyed. No, scratch that; he was beyond annoyed. He was angry. He was angry with Harry for being too stubborn to look after himself properly, he was angry at Ron and Hermione because they were allowed to fuss over the ill boy publicly, he was angry with Fate for making him a Malfoy and therefore a (supposed) enemy of Harry Potter from birth and he was angry with himself for not insisting that Harry went to bed last night. He should've tried harder to get the Gryffindor to co-opperate but his own selfish desires had stopped any real protests; he had wanted to be there with Harry as much as Harry had wanted to be there with him.

"If the wind changes your face will get stuck like that." The voice of Pansy came from his right suddenly.

"Shut up Parkingson." He growled.

"Now, now Draco, just because he's ill is no reason to be mean." She chided him easily. Draco sent a scathing glare her way and she shook her head at him lightly. "Don't worry, it's not common knowledge, as far as I know I'm the only one who's noticed. Don't know why though, you can be terribly obvious sometimes. Right now for example."

"I'm surprised you haven't blackmailed me or told my father or your father." Draco murmured, going back to staring across the hall at Harry.

Pansy wrinkled her nose. "And I'm surprised you think so little of me." Draco raised a delicate eyebrow at her. "Okay, so I'm not that surprised about that. I am surprised you think I'm some sort of mindless Dark Lord server though."

"You're not?" That was news to him.

"Of course I'm not." She scoffed. "Anyone with half a brain cell knows that Potter's going to come out of this war shining. I plan on staying neutral or at least privately supporting "The Light"." She made little air quotes with her fingers as she said that. "I've no interest in spying, fighting or anything the least bit noble. I'll keep myself to myself and won't bother anyone and in return I should hope no one will bother me. I take it you're not up for the passive role in this war?"

"I don't know." Draco admitted quietly, looking down at his plate. "I want to be at Harry's side and fight for him but...I don't know if I'm strong enough...Or brave enough for that matter."

"I think you under-estimate just how brave you are Draco." Pansy revealed, patting his hand which was closest to her. "It takes a lot of courage to stand up to someone like your father, it takes a lot of strength to stand against everything you've been raised to believe and say it's not true. And if anyone can do it, I think it's you."

"What if I'm not strong enough in the end though? What if I lose my nerve? I know I'd fold like a piece of paper under any number of curses my father could and would cast on me."

"You will be strong enough." Pansy assured him simply and confidently.

"How can you be so sure?" He asked, looking up at her.

"Because whatever you do, you'll do it out of love and not from fear." She told him gently before standing and patting his shoulder encouragingly. "C'mon, we've got Ancient Runes first."

Draco nodded and stood gracefully, looking back over at the Gryffindor table as he did so; Harry, Weasley and Granger were also getting ready to leave at the moment. He saw that as Harry stood he wavered uncertainly before sagging forward slightly, his hands coming down to support his weight on the edge of the table. Finnigan, who was passing when it happened, paused to help steady him and they appeared to exchanged a few words before the Irish boy released his grip on Harry. The two boys smiled at each other before Finnigan moved on and Harry righted himself completely.

Draco made sure to add Finnigan to the list of stuff he was angry with.

Urrrrrgh...

That, in all it's articulate glory, was exactly how Harry felt. His head throbbed, his throat felt like it had been shredded by blunt razors, his nose was so stuffed up he had no choice other to breathe out of his mouth and every muscle in his body felt as though it had a twenty pound weight attached to it. His vision swam and everything was kind of in a surreal haze. Maybe this wasn't just a cold...

He still had another class to get through before he could go back to bed, curl up and promptly die. Yes, he supposed he could give his work to Hermione or Ron to give in for him but it was a matter of principle now. He had insisted that he would be able to get through the two lessons and that was exactly what he was going to do. Besides, neither of his friends were taking that much notice of him, they were too busy with each other at the moment. Not that he minded too much, it was understandable, he'd be doing the exact same thing if Draco was there with him.

Thinking of Draco, he had looked really cheesed off that morning at breakfast. He hoped the blonde Slytherin wouldn't yell at him too much. In his own opinion, he didn't deserve to be told off anyway but he knew that was too much to hope for. He might get a little mercy because he was ill but the seocnd he was feeling better the yelling would start. At least it showed Draco cared about him...But that was little comfort when he was being scolded.

Harry quickly caught the banister when he almost tripped over a step of the stairs, not realising it was there. He was seriously out of it, he was barely aware of anything really. That morning at the end of breakfast Seamus had apparently said his name three times before he even realised the Irish Gryffindor was speaking to him. He had to admit, it was seriously doubtful that this was just a cold. Maybe it was more like flu or something...

His vision clouding again, Harry paused in his climb and brought a hand up to press against his forehead. He felt really faint and there was a quiet ringing in his ears. He felt himself sway and found that he was powerless to steady himself. Slowly, his balance left him along with his consciousness and he slipped into darkness as his body fell backwards...

Draco stood alone on the stairs as he waited for it to stop moving. Everyone around eyed him warily. They all knew that the Sixth Year Slytherins currently had Potions down in the dungeons so the presence of Draco Malfoy on a flight of stairs which was going up rather than down was more than a little suspicious. Draco was past caring though. He knew where Harry was heading and he was intent on snagging him before he got into class to give him a piece of his mind.

He could see the dark haired Gryffindor from where he stood. He was standing just behind his two friends, also waiting for the stairs to stop moving, looking pale, tired and generally un-well. Harry's stumble as he almost tripped over the stairs when it was time to move again wasn't lost on Draco. When he continued on again, Draco knew Harry was not going to last a whole lot longer. With that in mind, he began to climb the stairs at a steady place; he was going to put that stubborn Gryffindor to bed if it was the last thing he ever did.

"Move." Draco ordered in a hard, quiet voice, shoving his way roughly past those who didn't make way for him in time.

Everything seemed to slow down for Draco as he saw Harry begin to crumble and he doubled his efforts to reach the boy he loved before he could pass out completely and possibly end up hurting himself as he fell. He mentally cursed Harry's two friends who were ahead of him, holding hands, oblivious that their friend was on the verge of collapsing. It was only when Harry actually stopped and began to sway that either of the couple noticed the boy's dilemma

"Harry!" Hermione gasped, turning as Harry began to fall backwards, his eyes rolling back in his head. She and Ron went to make a clumsy grab for him but they froze when they saw him being caught by someone else.

"Get your bloody hands off him Malfoy!" Ron demanded angrily as the blonde Slytherin tenderly scooped Harry up in his arms, cradling the limp form to his chest protectively.

"Shove off Weasle." Draco practically spat, turning away swiftly and, almost at a run, made his way back down the stairs, calling back over his shoulder: "If you can't be arsed to look after your own best friend that's your own problem, just don'tthen stopsomeoneelse from doing it."

"Expelli..." He heard Ron start and acting quickly, knowing Harry wouldn't hold it against him later, turned around so that Harry's body blocked his own.

"No Ron, you'll hit Harry!" Hermione gasped, knocking into the red haired boy so that his aim was jolted. The spell shot off to the side and Draco didn't bother to wait to see what effect it had on anything else. It was just the distraction he needed in order to get far enough away.

He heard rather than saw the chaos which broke out among the students who had seen everything. Cries that Draco had hexed Harry and was on his way to take their hero to Voldemort echoed around him and he sneered and the stupidity of them. Running footsteps and calls to various professors soon followed and Draco picked up his pace, not needing to be delayed. Although he wasn't a doctor, it didn't take a genius to figure out that this wasn't just some common cold Harry had picked up. Maybe it was just the flu; worse than a cold but still not deadly...

...Oh my...What if it was deadly? What if it was pneumonia? Or meningitis? Surely Harry would speak out if he found a rash on him. He wouldn't be that stupid to hide the fact he had something that serious right? Draco suddenly had the urge to take Harry to his own room and check his skin for the tell-tale rash which would indicate the serious illness. However, he also knew that if it was meningitis, Harry needed medical attention as soon as possible and even just an extra hour could do so much harm. Then again, what if it was a wizarding disease? Some of those could be pretty serious as well...

To get his mind off of such panicked thoughts, Draco turned his attention back to where he was andnoted that everything was oddly quiet around him now. There were no signs of anyone following him or even being anywhere near him. He wasn't complaining or anything; far from it. He was infinately grateful that there was no one around to get in his way. It was just curious; very curious indeed.

It, expectedly, didn't last forever, although it did take quite a bit of time for things to pick up. It wasn't until Draco had made it half way up the stairs which led up to the Infirmary that people began to catch up to him.

"Mr Malfoy!" Professor McGonagall's voice. Draco totally ignored her.

"Mr Malfoy!" Professor Snape that time.

"What?" Draco yelled irritably, not stopping his climbing but having enough respect for his Head of House to not completely snub him.

"What exactly do you think you're doing?" The Potions professor called after him.

"Taking Potter to the hospital wing, what does it look like?" He answered.

"Why?"

Draco gave an annoyed sigh. "What else do you do with someone's who's just passed out?" He asked rhetorically, finally reaching the top of the stairs, finding Madame Pomfrey waiting for him at the entrance having already been alerted by all the yelling.

"What happened?" She demanded harshly, ushering Draco in and directing him over to one of the beds near the back of the room.

"He fainted on the stairs. I managed to catch him before he could fall and hurt himself though." The Slytherin explained, setting Harry down on the bed delicately, adjusting his limp limbs into comfortable positions for him.

"You caught him?" Madame Pomfrey inquired, raising an eyebrow at him slightly as she neared Harry's bed to check him over. Draco found he couldn't quite voice a reply to that and only blushed lightly in slight embarrassment.

Now that most of the drama was over and he was sure that Harry was in good hands, the reality of the events which had just occurred started to creep up on Draco. Their relationship was public now. It didn't take a genuis to figure out that something was going on between him and the Gryffindor by the way he had reacted. He mentally sighed; there went Harry's assurance last night that when they did make their relationship public it would be in a controlled, thoroughly planned, way. They'd have had to make their relationship public knowledge soon anyway, but the way it had happened wasn't exactly what they had both had in mind.

While Madame Pomfrey cast various charms on Harry to check his condition, Draco watched silently, not really seeing what the nurse was doing even though he was staring straight at her. He hoped that Harry wouldn't be too annoyed with his actions. Admittedly, he should've tried to exercise a bit more self-control than he did but he felt totally justified in his actions. When he saw Harry start to wobble, his blood had run cold as various, horrible scenarios began to play out in his head. He'd been entitled to freak out a bit; it was his privilege was a loving, if a little possessive, boyfriend.

"Well," Madame Pomfrey suddenly spoke, pulling Draco out of his thoughts. "He'll need to wake up before I can give him anything to help, but it doesn't seem to be anything life-threatening; a bad case of the flu is all. Now, in the mean time before he wakes up, I need to reassure the Headmaster of the situation. You can stay here with him until he wakes if you wish." The school nurse offered, moving to make her away out of the room.

"Thank you." Draco said politely, perching gracefully on Harry's bed and taking his sickly pale, cold and slightly clammy hand in his own naturally pale, warm and dry one. Madame Pomfrey saw the simple gesture of affection and her gaze on the two boys softened somewhat.

"I take it no one else knows of your relationship with Mr Potter?" She inquired in a surprisingly gentle voice which, if he hadn't been so worried, Draco would've been surprised at.

"Parkingson, but no one else. Besides, it doesn't really matter, anyone who didn't know before probably does now; practically the whole school seemed to be on those stairs when it happened. And those who weren't there have probably been told by those who were." The blonde Slytherin sighed slightly bitterly.

Madame Pomfrey said nothing but nodded despite the fact Draco wasn't even looking at her. She swiftly and quietly left the room to go and speak with the professors which she had just heard finally arrive at the scene. Draco didn't even notice her leaving.

And there we have Chapter 2. That wasn't a paticularly fluffy chapter was it? The next one will be. It'll be fluffier than a cotton wool ball doing an impression of candy floss, (aka, far too fluffy for any language to be able to adequately get across)
Take care all and I'll see ya next chapter :)

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