Magical Twins – Chapter 6
"Where do you want to sit?" Julian whispered, leaning against the wall in exhaustion.
"I don't mind. Shall we choose the Gryffindor table tonight to please Minerva? Severus promised to take us to his House meeting afterwards anyway," Dudley suggested, worriedly observing his twin brother, who gave him a small nod. "Julian, shall I take you to Aunt Poppy? You're definitely ill."
"I know," Julian replied hoarsely, "but I want to attend the Feast. I want to see the Sorting, and I want to get to know the new first-years."
"Very well then, if you feel worse, tell me and I'll fetch Aunt Poppy."
"Thanks, but I'll be fine," Julian whispered back.
Dudley and Julian entered the Great Hall together with the older students, sitting down at the opposite side of the Gryffindor table from where the others sat, knowing the first-years were going to sit next to them. They watched in amazement as Minerva led the first-years into the Hall and conducted the Sorting ceremony.
'Oh, I wonder where Julian and I are going to end up,' Dudley mused as he followed the Sorting, worriedly observing his brother from the corner of his eyes. 'I hope he'll be all right tomorrow. It's not much fun to have classes alone, but he seems so ill that I'm surprised Minerva, Severus and Aunt Poppy haven't noticed yet.'
After quite a while, the Sorting was finished, and the last students had taken their seats right next to Dudley and Julian. 'Oh, twins,' Dudley realised in surprise as two redheads sat just opposite of them.
"Hello, we're Fred..."
"... and George," the redheads introduced themselves, looking at Dudley and Julian with interest.
"Are you twins as well?"
"Yes, I am Dudley, and that's my brother Julian," Dudley replied, knowing that Julian, who normally was the more talkative of them in conversations, was hardly able to speak. "We're not first-years yet though. We're only nine, but we live at Hogwarts."
"We already have three older brothers here, Bill, Charlie and Percy Weasley," Fred explained.
"And we couldn't wait coming here too. We brought lots of interesting pranks," George added, smirking mischievously.
"Oh, I'd love to attend classes together with you," Julian said longingly, causing the twins to throw him a surprised look.
"Oh, he can speak," George said to Fred.
"I thought he couldn't," Fred replied, grinning.
"Leave him in peace. He's not feeling too well," Dudley said in a small voice, unobtrusively pointing to the nearby Head table, causing the twins to nod their understanding.
Julian liked the twins immediately; however, he felt so ill that he only wished he was in his bed sleeping. He wearily listened to Dudley's conversation with the twins, lazily pushing the food around his plate at the same time, until he nearly fell from his chair startled when Severus' voice suddenly penetrated his foggy mind.
"Mr. Taylor, tell me, did the house-elves throw a huge party this afternoon?"
Julian threw the teacher, who was standing behind Fred and George, a confused glance. "No sir," he replied in a hardly audible voice, causing the man to give him a sharp look and motion him to follow him.
"Yes sir," Julian whispered and slowly left the Hall behind the teacher, who walked ahead, his robes dramatically billowing behind him. 'If he walks so fast, I'll just pop me into my room,' Julian mused, realising that he wouldn't be able to keep himself on his feet much longer. However, to his surprise, Severus was waiting patiently in front of the Great Hall, looking at him in concern.
"Julian, are you ill?" he queried, causing the boy to nod. "Why didn't you tell anyone? You could have told me, and I'd have given you a potion. Well, let's head back to your room. Can you walk so far?"
"No," Julian whispered, holding on to his guardian's arm. "Sir, may I just pop to my room? No one is supposed to know, but I can pop myself. The house-elves taught me."
"Do that, lie down, and I'll come to check on you in a few minutes," Severus replied softly, watching in amazement as the boy vanished from the spot.
Julian popped straight into his room and scrambled into bed, sighing in relief as he was able to rest his achy head on his pillow. 'I hope Severus comes soon; it's getting difficult to breathe,' he mused, noticing that his throat seemed to be swollen inside and outside.
Only a few minutes later, Severus strode into the room, sitting down on the edge of his bed. "What exactly is wrong?" he queried as an ice-cold slender hand found its way to Julian's forehead.
"My throat... so sore, can hardly breathe or swallow," Julian whispered, causing Severus to feel around his neck.
"Everything is swollen; it could be tonsillitis," Severus said thoughtfully as he pointed his wand at a tissue on Julian's night table, transfiguring it to a thermometer. Waving his wand at the boy, he changed his clothes to soft pyjamas, before he pulled the top down over Julian's shoulder, easing the thermometer under the boy's armpit. "Try not to move," he instructed the boy, pulling his covers up to the child's chin as he noticed that he was shivering violently.
While they were waiting, Severus lit the tip of his wand and, motioning the child to open his mouth, closely examined his throat, noticing that his earlier diagnosis seemed to be correct. "I'm sorry," he apologized to Julian, noticing that he once more shivered violently as he touched him with cold hands to take the thermometer back. "Thirty-nine point four," he stated. "I believe that is quite high, even for tonsillitis. We better call Poppy, just to be sure. Misty," he called Poppy's elf, who appeared within seconds, "please ask Poppy to urgently come to Julian's room."
"Of course," Misty replied and hurriedly popped away.
While they were waiting for the Mediwitch to arrive, Severus transfigured another tissue into a cold cloth and gently bathed the boy's flushed face. Suddenly, Julian noticed in surprise that Misty popped into the room. She seemed to be invisible, but he was still able to see her faint form. She waved her hand over him, causing Julian to feel much better. "Thank you," he whispered, causing Misty to pop away and Severus to slightly incline his head, apparently thinking Julian had talked to him.
A few minutes later, Poppy hurried into the room and, after a glance at Julian, waved her wand over him. "A bad case of tonsillitis," she said thoughtfully. "Julian, is this the first time?"
"Yes," he replied, throwing the Healer an anxious look.
"Very well, then we'll try to heal you with potions," Poppy said gently and turned to Severus to instruct him which potions Julian would need.
"Poppy, I'm sorry, but could you fetch everything from my personal lab? I need to return to the Great Hall," Severus replied, glancing at his wrist watch.
"Of course," Poppy replied, nodding her understanding. "I'll stay with Julian until one of you returns." She called Misty and asked her to fetch the potions for her and stay in the hospital wing and call her in case she was needed.
Minerva was the first to return to her quarters, but by then Julian was already fast asleep, unaware of the fact that the adults took turns looking after him during the night.
HP
In the morning, Julian woke up by Dudley's alarm clock. He sat up to see if his brother had woken up, noticing immediately that he was still sick. He could breathe properly, but his throat was still very sore, and he still felt hot and cold at the same time. His ears felt as if they were filled with cotton wool, and the world around him was strangely foggy. 'Aunt Poppy said it wasn't contagious, so maybe they'll allow me to attend our classes,' he mused, just when Minerva entered the room.
"Good morning, Dudley and Julian. Dudley, it's time to get up, Julian, how are you feeling?" she said briskly, causing Dudley to sigh in exasperation, mumbling something about 'very early.'
"Better," Julian replied in a small voice, causing Minerva to snort.
"I believe that immediately. You look extremely healthy today," she replied, throwing him a stern look as she proceeded to take his temperature, once again causing Julian to shiver at the cold touch. "Your fever is still very high, and you'll need to stay in bed today," she told him a short while later, before she gently helped him to sit up and drink his potions. "I'll inform Barney that you can't attend classes today. I'm sorry I can't stay with you, but I have to give out the time tables at breakfast and to teach my classes. Poppy will look after you as soon as breakfast begins, and I'll come and check on you after lunch. Take care and try to sleep as much as possible, child."
Minerva placed a kiss on Julian's hot forehead, before she swiftly left the room to hurry to the Great Hall.
"Is it all right to leave you alone and go to breakfast?" Dudley asked hesitantly, feeling very sorry for his brother.
"Of course," Julian replied, throwing Dudley a sad smile that didn't really reach his eyes.
"Shall I bring you anything from breakfast?"
"No thank you, I only want water, and I've enough here," Julian replied absentmindedly, deep in thoughts. "Dudley, listen. Can you tell..." He quickly interrupted himself as Severus strode into the room, giving him a sharp look.
"Not much better it seems," he said softly, placing an ice-cold hand on Julian's forehead. "Did Minerva already make you drink your potions?"
"Yes sir," Julian replied, smiling, feeling very grateful that both of his guardians took the time to come and check on him, although he didn't like them to make a fuss. "It's all right, sir. I'm sure you'll be needed at the Great Hall."
"That's true," Severus sighed, promising to come again during lunch break.
"All right, now listen, Dudley," Julian began once more, glad when he managed to give his twin his instructions, before Poppy entered the room.
"Very well," Dudley promised and hurriedly left the room to be in time for breakfast and do Julian the favour he had asked for.
tbc...
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I'm not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes or help me to correct them.
All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.