THC/The Houses Competition

House:Gryffindor

Category: Standard, Themed

Class: DADA

Prompt(s): Food: The inclusion and significance of food. [Object] A quickly melting ice cream

Word Count: 1967

Summary: During breakfast in the Great Hall, Harry has an allergic reaction.

Title: Strawberry and Coconut Ice Cream

The Great Hall was crowded this cold October morning. Students flooded the open space, excited for the Quidditch match between Gryffindor and Slytherin. The tables were filled with a delicious breakfast spread as the House Elves decided to make a traditional English breakfast. Plates were filled with crispy bacon, fried eggs with the yolk a little runnier than usual, and bangers. To accompany them were beans, grilled tomatoes, mushrooms, fried onions, hash browns and of course toast with a variety of spreads. Students piled their plates up, stuffing their faces before the day even started. Ron was enjoying a mountain of bacon that he piled on his plate, while Hermione enjoyed a simple breakfast of eggs, bangers, and toast with a little bit of jam spread on top. Everyone in the Great Hall was enjoying breakfast this morning, except for the Gryffindor Seeker, Harry.

Harry sat, hunched over, in front of a small bowl of strawberry and coconut ice cream that was quickly melting the more he ran his spoon through it. He would scoop a portion on his spoon and hold it over the bowl, watching as the ice cream dripped off the spoon as it melted. He watched as the chunks of strawberries and coconut swilled together at the bottom of the bowl. Once the spoon was clear of ice cream, he would repeat the process. This went on until Hermione finally spoke up.

"Is that all you're going to have for breakfast? Ice cream?" Hermione said, in a judgmental tone. Sometimes she hated the charms placed on the tables. Whenever someone didn't like the food that was served or was in the mood for something else, that food would appear on the table in front of them. This caused loopholes when students realized that they could conjure up a bowl of jelly beans for dinner if they wished.

"It has strawberries in it," Harry answered, his voice sounding tired and weak as he continued to move the melted ice cream around with his spoon.

"Harry!" Hermione scolded as she placed her cutlery down beside her plate, getting ready to begin one of her many lectures.

"Look, I didn't get any sleep last night. I don't feel like eating much. I haven't even eaten the ice cream…I've just been playing with it," Harry explained, before letting out a long sigh and closing his eyes for a moment.

"Perhaps you should go back to bed?" Hermione proposed. "Get some rest?"

"You do look awful, mate." Ron agreed, with a mouth full of bacon.

Harry flicked his eyes up at Ron, noticing the eye roll that Hermione gave at his statement out of the corner of his eye. "I can't lie down; I have Quidditch," Harry said as he pinched the front of his uniform and puffed it out to show that he was ready for the match that would be starting in thirty minutes.

"Quidditch? Harry, you can hardly keep your eyes open. Do you really plan on playing Quidditch?" Hermione asked, surprised.

"I'll be fine. Once I get up on my broom, with the wind in my face. I'll wake up in no time," Harry assured her as he did another round with his spoon along the edge of his bowl, scooping the ice cream off the side and moving it to the middle to make a little mountain in the middle of the bowl with the melted ice cream surrounding it.

"...why didn't you get any sleep last night anyway?" Ron questioned, his mouth filled with bacon once again as he reached over and grabbed a handful of small breakfast sausages off a plate that was floating by.

Hermione leaned forward across the table and whispered, "Does it have something to do with…Voldemort?"

Harry looked up at her through his fringe, giving her a small nod, before looking back down at his bowl of ice cream. For the past week, Harry had been having trouble sleeping. Everytime he closed his eyes, visions of Voldermort plunged into his dreams, turning them into nightmares. For the past week, he was forced to watch Voldermort kill his friends over and over again, laughing as he enjoyed Harry's suffering.

Each time, Harry would scream and cry, begging Voldermort to spare his friends and take him instead.

Harry had to rewatch the death of Cedric, forced to watch as Voldermort was given a new body. He had to watch Sirius's death, watch as the last remaining family he had (that cared about him) slipped through the veil. It got to the point where Harry would force himself to stay awake just so he didn't have to go through the horror of watching people that he cared about die.

Hermione frowned at Harry's confirmation of her question. She hated watching her friend suffer and she hated it even more when there was nothing she could do. Ron had told her of the nights where Harry would toss and turn in his sleep, speaking Parseltongue. When the nights got really bad, Ron would cast a Silencing Charm on Harry to keep Neville, Seamus, and Dean from finding out what was going on with their friend. During those nights, Ron would stay up, making sure that Harry got through the night alright.

"At least eat something, please," Hermione begged, as she continued to watch Harry stir around his melted ice cream. "It would make me feel better if you ate something before Quidditch. I won't worry so much," Hermione said with a small smile.

Harry let out a small moan of displeasure at the request, but nevertheless, he picked up a spoonful of the melted ice cream and brought it up to his mouth.

"I promise I will try to get some rest after the match," Harry said, as he took another mouthful of ice cream in an effort to make Hermione happy.

Hermione smiled as she went back to her own breakfast, taking a sip of her orange juice before starting back on the food that was left on her plate.

Minutes passed in comfortable silence between the three, but as Harry ate his seventh spoon full of ice cream, he started to feel a little hot and uncomfortable. Bringing his hands up, he loosened the strings on his uniform and pulled at the collar of his shirt, finding it difficult to breathe. It didn't take long after that until it felt like his body was on fire, as if someone had suddenly placed him in a pot of boiling water. He started to sweat and shiver and his breathing became wheezy and uneven.

"Mate?" Ron asked, his food forgotten.

"Harry?" Hermione said, concerned with a hint of panic in her voice. "Harry, are you alright?"

Both friends feared that Voldemort was attacking Harry. Both of them had been there as Harry was possessed by him at the Ministry and if Hermione and Ron had to guess, they would say it was happening again by the wheezing and unevenness of Harry's breathing.

Harry shook his head when he felt his throat close. He brought his hand up to his neck, eyes going wide when he realized he wasn't able to get any air no matter how hard he tried. Tears formed in his eyes as his lungs screamed for oxygen. He opened his mouth, but no words came out as he continued to fight off the reaction his body was suddenly having.

Both friends looked in horror as small red spots started to show up on the corners of Harry's mouth and lips.

"OH MY GOD!" Hermione cried once she made the connection to what was happening. She jumped up and made her way around the table to Harry's side just in time to catch him as he fell backwards to the floor, his eyes rolling back into his head.

"Madam Pomfrey!" Hermione screamed as Harry continued to shake on the floor, his lips turning blue as more red spots started to form on his neck.

Hermione was pushed aside as Madam Pomfrey, along with all the other professors, rushed to Harry's side. Students from all houses stood up to see what was happening as Pomfrey conjured up a thick plastic tube that Hermione, along with other muggle borns, recognized to be an epipen and jabbed it into Harry's thigh.

…

The first thing Harry recognized as he came back to his senses was the strong, unpleasant smell of disinfectant. The second thing he recognized was the whispers of his friends who sat beside him. The feeling of uneasiness he felt disappeared once he knew he wasn't alone. He realized that he was in the Hospital Wing, judging by the smell and the uncomfortable bed he had been placed on. Taking a moment to gain the motion of his body back, he slowly opened his eyes to see the blurry figures of his friends.

"Wh…what…happened?" Harry asked, noticing his throat to be raw, feeling as if it was made out of sandpaper.

"Harry?!" Hermione said in relief, as she looked up from what she was doing to find that Harry was now wide awake. Grabbing the glass of water from the bedside table, she brought it up to Harry. "Small sips," she instructed as Harry slowly sat up and took the glass from her.

Harry took a small sip of the water as he was instructed, letting out a sigh of relief as the ice cold water eased the soreness in his throat. "What happened?" Harry asked once again as he set the glass down on his lap.

"Ice cream," Hermione said with a bit of a smile. "You had an allergic reaction. Apparently you're allergic to coconut. Madam Pomfrey says it's very uncommon for wizards and witches to have allergies, but not unheard of."

"Out of all the things, a bowl of ice cream almost killed you," Ron joked.

Harry brought his hand up to rub at his sore throat as he nodded in agreement. After all the things he had faced, all the things he had overcome, a small shred of coconut almost took him down.

"Quidditch?" Harry asked once he saw his uniform laying on the dresser.

"Ginny took over as Seeker; Gryffindor won." Ron explained. "She's just as good as you, if not better."

"Madam Pomfrey will want to keep you for the rest of the day and probably the night as well to make sure you are completely recovered, to give you some time to rest," Hermione said.

Harry let out a small chuckle. "You really want me to rest, don't you?" he said, forcing a small smile to reassure his friends that he was, indeed, alright.

"Yes I do," Hermione answered. "You need your rest!" She said just as Madam Pomfrey came bustling over carrying a tray of potions with her.

"Mrs. Granger is right. You need your rest," Pomfrey agreed as she handed Harry two potions. "One is a dreamless sleep and another is to help you get to sleep. I want you to take both of them!" Poppy instructed, using her 'stern so don't mess with me' tone of voice.

Harry shrugged. He couldn't argue with a dreamless sleep; not to mention that Hermione was right, he needed to rest, he needed to sleep. Taking the corks off the vials, he downed both the potions, then handed them back to the nurse.

"That's a good lad," Poppy praised before making her way back to her office.

Harry could already feel the effects of the potions start to work as Hermione grabbed the glass of water from him and set it back on the bedside table before getting Harry to lay down again and tucking him firmly into bed.

Harry was already off to sleep before his head even hit the pillow.