Legal Disclaimer: I own my stuff, but not the original source material. That belongs to whoever. Also, the opinions and interpretations I use here may not reflect the same in said whoever that owns the source material. Look, I'm just a poor college librarian. Suing me isn't going to get you anything but tears.
Warning: This work may be offensive to some readers. Additionally, Harry is sick and trying to hide it because the Dursleys suck, even if they aren't present in this fic. Feel free to back out if need be.
Author's Note: It's been a while since I wrote anything for the Hufflepuff Harry series that my zuke Magi started. So have something that both breaks your heart a little and makes it melt with sweetness.
Submitting Info:
Stacked with: Hogwarts 2.0 (Post-T01); RAVEN (2023); MC4A (Wi-Y6)
Individual Challenges: Red Instead; Condiment Shelf; Death Becomes; Pet Food; Vegetable Broth; Coupons; Gift Wrapped; Fruit Stand; Purple Scholar; Feather Head; Hufflepuff MC [x6]; Magical MC [x6]; Sandbox (Y); Reader; Cinematic; Gamer; Dreamers [x6]; Ethnic & Present; Neurodivergent; Rian-Russo Inversion; Short Jog; Bucket Listing; Eating Cake (Y); Exchange (Y); Greatest Gift; Green Ribbon; Two Cakes (Y); Crack Addict; Fuzzy Socks; Booger Breath; Lunar Era; Rainbow Connection; Finders; Hold the Mayo
Hogwarts House: Ravenclaw
Assignment: Post-Term 01
Subject [Task (Prompt)]: n/a
Other Hogwarts Challenges: Gather [Bonus 11 (Ranger)](Platonic Love); Case [Billywig](Floating); Web (Harry & Hannah)[Extra Str Arachnid Needles (Pink Lemonade)]
RAVEN Challenges: Colors [82](Lemonade); Items [117](Squash); Settings [58](Family Meal)
Other MC4A Challenges: Chim [Bugwort]("The Anonymous Ones" – Dear Evan Hansen; Turned Left Instead AU; Race Bend); Hunt [Fa WD (Psoriasis); Fa Set (Family Meal); Fa Con (Zucchini/Squash); Fa Items (Gloves); Wi Set (Blizzard); Wi Con (Salt)]; Fire [x3](Happy Holidays); Garden [Ouch Time (Fever); Forecast (Blizzard); Herbs (Bright); Statuary (Spoon); Feelig Trope-ical (Different Houses); Aya's Quartrern Blend (Harry Potter)]; Harvest [C&CT (Younger than 19yo); Descriptions (Lilac; Sienna); Items (Blanket; Spoon); R&E (Friends); Settings (Castle; Daytime); Tropes (Canon is Just a Suggestion; Compare & Contrast; Race Bent)]; Hang [Phrase#2](n/a); Soup [S (Spoon); C (Castle); E (Eating)]; Shop [R&E (Desi)]; Swap [Accessories (Extra Long Knitted Scarf; Fingerless Gloves; Neon Orange Tie; Rainbow Poncho; Teal Cadillac Tie; Zebra Print Stetson); Shoes (Unicorn Slippers); Knickkacks (Elephant Trinket Box); Bedding (Cat Block Quilt; Orange Sheet; Quilted Table Runner)]
Representation(s): Desi & Autistic Harry Potter with hints of GQ; Hufflepuff AU; House Becoming Family; Sick Fic; Valentine's Day; Harry Learning How People Should Work
Primary & Secondary Bonus Challenges: Hot Stuff; Jack's Jollies; Mermaid; Second Verse (Ladylike; Not a Lamp; Persistence Still; White Dress; Found Family; Nontraditional; Mother Hen; Nightingale; Spinning Plates; Unwanted Advice; Brooms Only; Deadliest Catch; Lovely Coconuts; Muck & Sime; Casper's House; Corvid Brain; Hot Apple; Snow Lemon; Bad Beans; Uncivil Obedience; Under the Bridge); Chorus (Odd Feathers; Pocky Pockets; Wabi Sabi; Machismo; Peddling Pots; Mouth of Babes; Tomorrow's Shade; A Long Dog; Larger than Life; Unicorn; Abandoned Ship; Surprise!; Piper Mix; Turtle-Duck; Forked Path; Sitting Hummingbird); Demo 1 (Over the Hills); Demo 2 (Misshapen Pods)
Tertiary & Generic Bonus Challenges: T3 (Tether); SN (Rail; Ameliorate); O3 (Oath); RoIL (Satisfaction; Volition); SHoE (Onus); AC (Tactile; Orchard; Rampant); TY (Ntaiv; Enfant); Mea (Ennui; Rampant); Share (Ameliorate; Nepenthe; Dragoman)
Space Address (Prompt): FaB [5D](Family Meal); Set [5A](Maze); Wi [4A](Hat); Vocab [3A](Assume)
Word Count: 1292 words
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Cheer Squad
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Harry didn't feel well.
He wasn't very prone to illness usually. That had been useful growing up, because Aunt Petunia would never had stood for Harry laying about when there were chores to be done. So Harry had developed the ability to power through most things. He didn't need to lie in bed with video games while someone brought him tea and soup.
Thus the first few days that he woke up feeling like a squished thing by the side of the road, Harry had just done what he always did. He had just kept going. There were still classes to attend, even if climbing the massive stairways made him feel like he was dying. Thankfully, his fellow Hufflepuff first-years had slowed down with him, even if they hadn't asked how he was feeling after Harry had put them off with vague comments about the weather.
January had been cold in the area of Scotland where Hogwarts was located, but February was shaping up to be far worse. The corridors of the dungeons and basements were freezing as was the observation platform they still had to use for Astronomy. Even the main body of the castle had drafts that would hit people unexpectedly like one of the ghosts had just floated through them. The scaly rash that Harry had developed on his knees and elbows ached every time that the wind shifted like that.
Harry might have continued in his silent misery through Valentine's except for the package. It had arrived during breakfast, like most mail did, but extra shocking due to the blizzard that had settled over the school during the night. Hedwig had been proud to deliver the thing to both him and Hannah. It was a good thing that they had sat next to each other that morning, even if it had meant that Hannah had kept sneaking things like squash onto his plate. The package being from Hannah's mother explained why Zipper, the family's pied raven, was helping the leucistic owl. The wrapped box was so big that it knocked over the salt shaker near by.
After realizing who it was from, Harry had backed off a little. He assumed that the majority if not all of whatever it was would be for Hannah. No matter how nice the woman had been when Harry had visited over winter break, he knew that he was never going to be as important to her as her actual daughter would be. It was just natural and expected. He had already learned that lesson from Aunt Petunia and he felt too poorly right then to be hurt by it.
In fact, he used the distraction to slip away from the breakfast table and back down to the dorm. Being the weekend, he could finally sleep a little extra now that he had put in a token appearance at breakfast. His itchy skin and aching bones made it hard to get comfortable. He was floating just above the edge of sleep when the door to his room burst open.
"Mum sent potions," Hannah declared as she marched into the room like it was her own. The other Hufflepuff first-years were behind her.
Harry blinked at them, trying to make sense of what he was seeing because the fever that had been hanging around must be worse than he had thought. Ernie was wearing a tie with teal cadillacs on it over his black jumper. Susan had on a matching one that was a horrible neon orange that clashed with her red hair. Justin was wearing a multi-colored knitted scarf that trailed behind him by at least half his height. He also had on cream-colored gloves which had no fingers to them. Hannah was wearing a poncho with every color of the rainbow. Most shocking of all, Zacharias had on an American cowboy hat that was patterned after a zebra.
"I think I may need to see the nurse," Harry managed to slur. "I think I'm seeing things."
"You aren't," Hannah replied very firmly. "Mum also sent fun things for Valentine's. I have yours here, too." She held up a pair of slippers shaped like lilac unicorns that each had a royal purple horn and a mane that was the same color as pink lemonade. "But first you need to take a dose each of these potions." She lifted her other hand to show what would have been a trinket box in a muggle house. It had dancing elephants on its sides and sticking out of the top was a pair of round bottles, one chartreuse and the other azure. "If they don't help, I am to take you to Madam Pomfrey and call Mum."
"They're a fever reducer and something to calm your immune system," Susan added helpfully. Of all of them, she was the best at recognizing potions. She was also aware that Harry likely wouldn't ask, even if knowing would have made him feel a little better. She did give a little frown. "Though I don't understand why she would send something that would suppress his immune system any, given how he is already sick?"
"This only calms it," Hannah corrected. She set the box on his bedside table as she sat next to Harry's hip. The dark wood of it looked weird against the yellow quilted table runner that covered the top of the little wooded thing. With only a brief look to convey what she was about to do, she then lifted his arm and shoved his sleeve down. The rash that had spread from his elbow to nearly his wrist was an ugly red against his sienna skin. It made the other first-years wince at the same time that Harry bit his bottom lip at the renewed ache of the air touching it. "Our Harry-berry has psoriasis, apparently. According to Mum's note, he's also been running a rather high temp for the last few days without telling anyone."
"Oh, Harry," Justin said, putting his hands on his hips at the same time that Susan did. It would have been funny if Harry didn't have the feeling that he was in trouble. He just didn't know what it was for. "Why didn't you tell anyone?"
"I didn't think anyone would care," Harry whispered as he picked nervously at burnt orange sheet that his bed had been done up with last.
"Well, now you do," Hannah said just as bossily as she had been since they had come back from winter break. She yanked up the thick quilt (it had cat heads on each block!) that covered his legs and slid the slippers onto his chilled feet. Then she produced a spoon from somewhere that Harry couldn't track to measure out a dose of the potion in the chartreuse bottle. "You really should listen to me, you know. Not only am I bigger than you, I'm older, too."
"Your birthday is in April," Harry said after he had swallowed the spoonful of potion. It tasted savory like herbal tea. Hannah measured out a dose from the azure bottle before she bothered replying. Harry took it as well. It was sweet on his tongue, thick like honey.
"So?"
"That's only three months."
"Still older and bigger," Hannah quipped as she set the spoon down by the bottles and squirmed her way into the bed covers with him. It seemed to signal the other firsties to find places as much on the bed as possible. Harry just looked at the growing pile in confusion before Justin finally took pity on him.
"We're here to take care you."
The words warmed his insides as much as the medicine that he had just taken. It felt a little bit like love. It felt a lot like friends.