A/N: In honor of the three birthdays I'm celebrating this week and the fact that I discovered my Patronus today, which totally made up for the exceptionally crummy day I had at school, I'm going to give you two chapters this weekend. I don't own Harry Potter. Enjoy!

Winter Malady

December 20th, 1988

First Year

It was Tuesday, Jo was tucked in bed for the third day in a row now, and her fever kept climbing. Between classes Leili received reports from her cat, Morgan; reports that basically consisted of Morgan bringing Leili Jo's thermometer. Jo had tried to go to class that morning, but when she'd almost fainted on her way, Leili had ordered her back to bed and had given strict instructions to Morgan and Artemis, to keep her posted and Jo in bed.

When Jo's fever had first spiked, late Sunday morning, Leilani had begged, begged Jo to go see Madam Pomfrey but Jo, in her usual stubbornness, had refused. She hated the antiseptic smell of the hospital wing and wasn't overly fond of medicine, especially pills.

So, Leili had borrowed a book on medicinal herbs and brewed a tea of elderberry, rosemary, Echinacea, licorice, chamomile, goldenseal, and yarrow. It didn't taste very good but it helped some, keeping the fever under 102 degrees, if only just under. So Leilani went to class and worried.

In her Monday potions class, her cauldron burned too hot for too long and exploded. In her Tuesday charms class, they were practicing a fire-making spell on candles. Due to her uneasy state, Leili's flame went from non-existent to burning the table. She yelped and backed quickly away from the table as Professor Flitwick doused the fire. The only class that was safe was her Tuesday History of Magic class, due to the fact that it was a bookwork rather than spell work class. She was pretty sure if she tried Transfiguration on Thursday, McGonagall would send her back to bed.

During lunch Leilani bypassed the Great Hall and snuck instead into the kitchens where she begged a favor of one of the house-elves working there. "My best friend is sick, do you have any soup I can take her? And maybe a small bucket for water?" The house elf she asked was really quite accommodating, maybe it was because Leili had looked so pathetic, or maybe it was because she'd asked nicely. She'd never had a house elf growing up, they were interesting little beasties.

The house elf found a bowl and some soup, bread and ice water and put it on a tray. Leili took the tray, thanking the elf profusely and walked very quickly back to Jo. When Leili arrived in the dorm she found a bucket of cold water and a washcloth sitting beside Jo's bed. "Praise the House-elves!" she said before putting the tray down and picking up the wet cloth. She rung it out and folded it up before placing it on Jo's forehead.

Jo stirred, "Hey," she croaked.

"Hi," Leili smiled, "How ya feeling, sickie?"

"Like I was hit by a truck. Shouldn't you be in class?"

"It's lunch time; you hungry? I've got bread and soo-oup," Jo gave Leili her hands and she helped her sit up. Jo ate some and changed her sweaty clothes before going back to bed.

"Hey, do I remember Artemis and Morgan taking my temperature?" Jo asked as Leili called for her cat.

"Yeah, they've been keeping tabs on you for me; you should've seen the looks I got in charms when Morgan came in. You're sure you won't let me go to Madam Pomfrey? Your fever isn't going down. It's at 102.6."

"I'm not dying; my fever isn't anywhere near 103. I'll be fine," Jo insisted. Leili sighed, blowing her bangs out of her face. She picked up her History of Magic book and sat beside the bed to read about Emeric the Evil to Jo, dabbing at her friend's sweaty forehead with the wet cloth every so often. Luckily, Leili didn't have any more classes, as reading about Emeric the evil put even her to sleep.

When Jo's fever spiked to 103, Artemis and Morgan decided to take matters into their own hands, or, well, limbs. The pair of them made an interesting sight as they hurried down the halls towards the hospital wing. It was an even more interesting sight when a few minutes later they were seen going back the way they'd come with Madam Pomfrey chasing after them.

Madam Pomfrey quietly entered the girls' dorm and found both totally asleep, a small bomb could have gone off and they wouldn't have budged. Leilani was half curled up on the floor, her history book in her lap and her head pillowed on the arm she'd draped over the side of Jo's bed. She gently closed the door and levitated Leilani into her own bed before walking over and waking Jo.

"I told Leili not to get you…" Jo protested quietly.

"She didn't, see?" Madam Pomfrey said gesturing to Leilani asleep in her bed. "She stayed up to take care of you last night, didn't she?"

"And the night before, and the night before that," Jo admitted. She'd told Leili to get some sleep, but she'd refused. Eventually her own body had won out and she'd crashed.

"You should have come to me immediately, I can cure a mild fever in a heartbeat, this though, this is going to take all night and you're going to have to take all sorts of nasty things."

"That's exactly what I was trying to avoid."

"That's how it usually is, dear. Now, drink this," she said, pressing a bottle to Jo's lips. She nearly choked on the muddy liquid. "Good girl. Now, get some sleep and whenever you wake up, drink lots of water. And take these," Madam Pomfrey ordered, gesturing to the vials she was leaving on the nightstand. Madam Pomfrey stood, drew the curtains tightly over the dorm's round windows, picked up the history book, put it on the table and left, the door clicking closed quietly behind her.

"Bad Cat," Jo scolded Morgan. Looking up she scolded Artemis, "Bad Owl."

Morgan ignored her, going to curl up by Leili's feet. Artemis stared back seemingly saying, "Serves you right." Then again, that may have been the fever talking.

Leave me a review, please! Tell me what your Patronus is! See you on Sunday!