Written for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry (Challenges & Assignments)

Calligraphy with Professor Lizzy - Task 5: Write about someone recovering from an illness or injury

Word Count: 1345

When He's Ill, Run

'Oh no,' Draco said under his breath.

Hermione's head shot up at his quiet utterance, the newspaper forgotten at seeing Draco's horrified face. 'What?'

'If there's any advice I can give you about my father, Granger, it's this- when he's ill, run.' On that note, Draco swiftly stood up, leaving the dining room by way of the door behind them leading to the kitchen.

Hermione sat staring at the swinging door with a deep frown.

'Where's the coffee?' a voice that marginally sounded like Lucius Malfoy grumbled behind Hermione.

Turning in her seat with a slight jump, Hermione stared up at the man who had been letting her stay in his home for the better part of a month while she used his library. Lucius looked like he'd gotten dressed in the dark and skipped his ablutions altogether. His usual suit jacket was missing, the shirt misbuttoned, his cravat not even tied but shoved inside his shirt, and his hair hung lankly around his paler than usual face. There was even a sheen of sweat on his forehead.

'Are you okay?'

'Coffee, Granger,' was his reply.

Giving him a hard stare, Hermione maintained eye contact as she grabbed the pot holding the coffee and slammed it in front of the empty seat to her right, where Lucius was stood. The noise made him flinch, causing his hair to swing into his face.

'Hungover?' she asked, turning back to her paper.

'One does not allow oneself to become hungover,' he said sharply, his voice cracking in the middle of the sentence.

When he still hadn't sat down, she glanced back at him. He was gripping the back of the chair, eyes tightly closed, swaying slightly. 'If you're not well, shouldn't you be in bed?'

'Stop telling me what to do in my own home- you forget your place,' he said, scraping the chair back but not taking a seat.

'I beg your pardon,' Hermione said, unable to hide the disbelief in her voice. These were not the words of a man she had become close friends with in the last year. Maybe ten years ago, but not now.

Standing up before Lucius could sit, Draco's words ringing in her ears, Hermione grabbed Lucius' elbow tightly. 'I think not,' she said, 'you're going back to bed.' Hermione Granger didn't run from a petulant man-child when he was ill. Harry and Ron had given her plenty experience on that front.

Lucius gave her the kind of look that would have made her wither as a young girl, but having had a number of volatile arguments with him over the years, it no longer phased her. In fact, if he hadn't been so pathetic looking, she'd have relished starting an argument with him now.

'I don't need mollycoddling,' he snapped, trying to take his arm back.

Hermione snorted, starting to pull him back up the room. He walked without much of a fight, leaning a little heavily into her than she was expecting.

Thankfully she got him back to his room without one more word out of him that would make her think again about not getting an argument out of him- ill or not. At this point, he was becoming slightly incoherent, muttering about duelling her at sundown due to her audacity of manhandling him. Keeping a tight grip on his wrist, she flicked her wand at his bed, pulling the silk silver sheets back, and sat him down.

Lucius seemed to crumple into himself, his hair completely covering his face. Sighing, Hermione gently lifted his head with both hands. His skin was clammy and hot, his eyes glassy and unfocused. 'Be honest, Lucius, how are you feeling?'

'I'm not marrying you,' he said, pulling her hands down with an unexpected strength. The sudden movement made her fall forward and nearly headbutt the man.

'For goodness sake!' she snapped, standing up, yanking her hands out of his.

Quietly fuming, Hermione pulled his shoes off, the socks too, then took great pleasure in roughly pulling off his cravat and shirt.

'This is most indecent of you, Granger,' Lucius said, trying to push her hands away.

Hermione gave him a hard shove, and he fell sideways, his face getting buried in his pillow. 'Listen, Malfoy. I'm not your mother nor your wife, and yet here I am, looking after you.' Lucius didn't appear to have anything to say to that as he flailed about to lie on his back.

Hermione placed a Cooling Charm on him before pulling a silk sheet over him. He'd have to sleep in his trousers, as she wasn't touching those. Kneeling down by the bedside cabinet, Hermione grabbed a Sleeping Potion she knew he'd kept to hand since Narcissa had died, and didn't give him time to fight her off as she poured the lot into his mouth, almost making him choke.

'Narcissa wasn't gentle either,' he slurred as he drifted off.

XXXXXX

With Draco gone, no word on where he was staying, Hermione had no choice but to look after Lucius. She knew she'd have to think of some way to thank him for allowing her to stay, but this was not it.

It took two days for Lucius' fever to come down. He was also constantly lucid enough to keep fighting her about staying in bed. Twice she'd had to leave the library to put him back to bed, after undressing him again. In the end, she'd taken the books she'd been using for her research to his bedroom and threatened him with a number of curses if he didn't stay put, and resumed her research there.

Every so often, the house-elf would come in to leave soup and water, but from past experience, wouldn't stay to help Hermione. When Lucius wasn't fighting her to get out of the bed, he was verbally fighting with her, almost cruelly.

She was savvy enough to not bite, instead making a note of all the apologies she was going to extract out of him after this. And apologise he would.

By the third day, exhaustion had set in as the evening arrived. Hermione's body was aching, her head splitting, and no amount of coffee could keep her eyes open.

'Go to bed, Hermione,' Lucius said sleepily, spotting her head shoot up again for the third time. 'I'll be fine.'

Hearing the friendliness in his voice, Hermione felt herself relax at knowing her friend Lucius had returned, and she was not dealing with the demonic Lucius she'd been living with for the last forty-eight hours. She gave Lucius another painkiller potion before leaving him for her own room.

XXXXXX

Waking the next morning, after nearly twelve hours of sleep, Hermione's body still ached, and she felt like a Blast-Ended Skrewt was trying to escape her head. She'd barely sat up, or rather slumped over, in the bed when Lucius shuffled into her room without even knocking.

He was in pyjamas she hadn't put him in, with a healthier look to his skin, the hair neatly tied back with a ribbon, and eyes that focused when he looked at her.

'If you've given me the flu, Lucius, I'm going to kill you in your sleep.'

Lucius gave her a bemused smile. 'Shove over,' he instructed, his voice still hoarse, gently nudging her to the other side of the queen-sized bed. Not having the energy to fight him, she did as instructed, struggling with the green cotton sheets that made her feel hotter than ever.

'We'll be ill together,' he said, pulling out a potion from his pyjama shirt pocket, holding it to her.

'I thought you weren't ill,' she muttered, snatching the potion off him.

'I wasn't,' he said simply.

'You're a terrible patient. No wonder Draco ran.' Hermione drank the potion in one go, feeling the effects of the Sleep Potion immediately.

The last thing she felt was Lucius' take the empty bottle off her, with a kiss to the back of the hand. 'Thank you for staying,' she heard him whisper. Or did she dream it?