A Cold Trip to Hogsmeade

A Cold Trip to Hogsmeade

Everything here belongs to JK Rowling. I own none of this. I'm not an English native speaker. Please excuse my mistakes.

Minerva sighed as the alarm, which she used to cast on the clock tower, alerted her to the fact that it was time to get up. 'I thought classes were already over,' she thought when she remembered that on this Friday the students were allowed to go to Hogsmeade, before they would travel home for Christmas tomorrow, and since all the teachers except for Severus, her, and Poppy had succumbed to the wizard's flu, the two of them had more or less willingly agreed to chaperone. None of the students had come down with the flu so far due to the immunizing potion the house elves had mixed under their food as soon as the first teacher was taken ill, but unfortunately the house elves had forgotten to mix the same potion under the food for the Head table.

'Even if we didn't have to go to Hogsmeade, we'd have to help Poppy look after everyone,' she mused while she showered and dressed and finally strode to the Great Hall for breakfast.

In spite of the babbling of several hundred students, the Great Hall felt very quiet to Minerva's ears due to the absence of all her colleagues and friends. Not even the Headmaster with his always happily twinkling eyes was there since Poppy had put him to bed with a forty (one hundred and four) degree fever the evening before, and Poppy, who was responsible for all the remaining students as well as the sick teachers, didn't have time to come to the Great Hall for breakfast, although she had promised to attend lunch, considering that she was the only healthy adult present in the castle.

'Let's just hope that Poppy, Severus, and I don't fall ill; otherwise, we'd have to send the five students home, who wanted to remain at Hogwarts over Christmas.'

"Don't forget to eat, Minerva; it'll be a long day in Hogsmeade," Severus suddenly spoke up, nearly causing Minerva to choke startled.

She had been so wrapped up in her thoughts that she neither noticed that the man entered the Great Hall nor that he took the seat to her left side. "Good morning to you too, Severus," she replied briskly, putting both hands around the mug with the hot tea she was nursing. 'It's cold here,' she thought and resolved to put another thick layer of clothes under her winter robes before leaving for Hogsmeade.

Thirty minutes later, Minerva and Severus released the older students to the village, following them through the heavily falling snow in a moderate speed. By the time they arrived in Hogsmeade, Minerva had the impression as if she had just played Chaser in a three hour lasting Quidditch match. She was absolutely exhausted and shivering violently in the cold winter air in spite of the additional layers she had put on.

"Minerva, shall we separate or stay together?" Severus suddenly asked, looking at her expectantly.

"Can we stay together please?" she replied, shocked at how hoarse her voice sounded. "It's really cold today," she added, shivering.

"It is," Severus confirmed and threw her a sharp look. "Are you feeling alright, Minerva?"

"Yes of course," she replied a bit too quickly, causing her colleague to raise an eyebrow, before a violent shiver shook his tall body. "Are you feeling alright, Severus?" she returned the question and gave him a close look, seeing dark rings under his eyes. "Severus, please tell me the truth. Are you getting the flu?"

"I don't think so," her colleague, who had already noticed that she wasn't her normal self, replied calmingly. "Let's slowly walk up and down the main street, and if it gets too cold, we can take turns and have tea at the Three Broomsticks."

Minerva agreed, and the two teachers dragged themselves up and down the main street, watching over the students, who busied themselves buying Christmas presents. All of a sudden, three sixth year students were standing in front of them.

"Professors, are you alright?" Hermione queried, causing the two teachers to reply positively.

"I don't think so, Professors," Harry objected, pointing his wand successively at their heads, causing the Potions Master to let out an angry hiss. "I won't do anything to you," Harry said in a soft voice, but I've been taking a Healing class with Madam Pomfrey, and she taught me how to take a temperature. You're both running a high fever and need to go to bed."

"Thank you so much for the information, Mr. Potter, but unfortunately at the moment there's no chance that we could do such a thing," Severus sneered.

"Professors, please either head back slowly or sit down in the Three Broomsticks for a while. We'll inform the students that the Hogsmeade trip needs to end earlier and make them return to the castle," Hermione promised, hurrying away with her friends in tow when the teachers promised to wait in the pub.

Twenty minutes later, Hermione and Harry entered the pub. "The head girl and head boy are still taking five students to the bookshop. Everyone else is on their way back to the castle."

"Thank you very much, Ms. Granger, Mr. Potter," Minerva replied gratefully. Feeling absolutely awful, she wanted nothing more than to be back in her bed.

"Excuse me for asking, Professors, but are you well enough to walk back?" Harry enquired. "I'd suggest that we take the secret passage that begins at Honeydukes, so we could take you through the passage on stretchers." Seeing that Severus was summoning all the power he had left to object, he added, "Professor, I know too much about Healing. You can't hide from me how you feel."

The teachers wearily followed Harry to Honeydukes, where Hermione placed invisibility charms on the four of them, before they unobtrusively headed down into the cellar and through the trap door into the passage. To Harry's relief, Minerva and Severus felt so ill that they couldn't care less what was happening and didn't protest when he asked them to lie down on the quickly conjured stretchers.

When they arrived at Hogwarts, Harry and Hermione were exhausted. It had been very difficult to let the stretchers float through the small passage. Nevertheless, they helped the teachers out of the passage and into the hospital wing, where Madam Pomfrey put them to bed, clucking disapprovingly.

Later that day, Poppy's voice could be heard all over the school. "Dear students, since all the teachers have been taken ill, all students have to return home over the holidays. If you need to contact your parents through the Floo, please come to the Headmaster's office after dinner. If you know that your parents are not at home over the holidays, please ask your friends if you can stay with them. Now I need the head girl, the head boy, Ms. Granger, and Mr. Potter to come to my office for a moment. I'm sorry, but I need your help today."

Minerva relaxed on her bed next to Severus. The potions Poppy had given her made her feel much better and very sleepy. Like from far away she noticed that Poppy ordered the head girl and head boy into the Headmaster's office and that Hermione fainted in Harry's arms and was brought into the bed next to her, before she drifted off to sleep.

When she woke up in the hospital wing filled with all her colleagues, she noticed that Poppy had obviously kept Harry over the holidays as assistant. While Poppy did most of the medical tasks like casting diagnostic spells and handing out potions, Harry often sat on the edge of the teachers' beds when they were delirious and captured in fevered nightmares. Unfortunately, the bug they had caught was a very bad case of the wizard's flu, and a week into the holidays, most of the teachers were still very ill. One day, Harry sat on the edge of Minerva's bed.

"Professor, I need your help. I noticed last night that Madam Pomfrey was getting ill too, but she denies it and she won't listen to me. I took her temperature last night when it was her turn to sleep for a while, and it was over forty (one hundred and four) degrees. Could you perhaps tell her to go to bed?"

Minerva looked over to her friend, who was just checking on the Headmaster, telling him in a stern but slightly hoarse voice, "No Albus, you will not get any lemon drops unless you eat a few spoonful of soup for me." Ignoring a violent shiver shaking her body, she turned to Rolanda, running a diagnostic spell on her colleague, before she sat on the edge of the bed and exchanged a few words with her patient.

Minerva gave Harry a nod, who gently steadied her as she dragged herself out of bed and walked over to her friend. "Minerva, go back to bed this instant," Poppy told her off strictly.

"No Poppy, you're ill as well and according to Harry you're worse than me. Therefore, you're going to bed right now, before I'll make you." She pointed to an empty bed, glaring at her best friend.

Obviously knowing better than to test Minerva's temper and feeling awful enough not to protest, Poppy grudgingly obeyed. Minerva transfigured her clothes into light blue pyjamas with an all over pattern of tiny green dragons, who silently roared from time to time, before she let Harry teach her what exactly had to be done.

During the next three days, Harry spent the whole day looking after his patients, while he only let Minerva help if he couldn't manage everything alone. She also kept vigil through the nights so that Harry could get a few hours of sleep.

It was on the day when the first victims of the flu, Rolanda Hooch and Remus Lupin, were nearly recovered and allowed out of bed for a few hours, that Minerva began to feel absolutely awful again. Knowing how busy Harry was, she didn't complain, but Harry noticed quickly what was wrong and sent her to bed immediately, before he hesitantly asked Rolanda and Remus to help him instead. Unfortunately, none of them knew anything about healing, and before Harry could even show them the easiest diagnostic spells or the spell to take a temperature, Rolanda noticed that he was burning up and shoved a magical thermometer into his mouth that let out pink letters stating, 'A dangerously high fever. Needs absolute bed rest.'

By the time the students came back at the beginning of January, only Minerva, Poppy, Harry, and Severus, who had a setback like Minerva after getting up too early to help the others, were left in the hospital wing. Since all four of them were still very ill, Rolanda and the Headmaster took turns looking after them, and as much as Minerva had always despised Poppy's fussing and protectiveness, she couldn't wait for her friend to recover and be able to check on her the magical way.

"Thank God you're back, Poppy, you're the best," she mumbled tiredly, feeling her friend's magic run over her body one morning.

"Well then I expect you to do exactly as I say," the Mediwitch replied in her usual strict voice, causing Minerva to cringe.

FIN