Loving You is Never Second Best
a Harry Potter story
by midnight_angel_girl
Oliver stretched out in the bed, once again realizing it was empty. He and Percy had fought the night before and Percy had moved out of the bedroom. And Oliver had spent the time since then curled up on bed fighting a nasty head cold. Knowing that he needed to eat something, he dragged himself out of bed, wrapping a bathrobe around himself. Shivering slightly, he was grateful that he had been given the robe for Christmas. Usually, he was content to move about the house in his shorts, but given his cold and argument with Percy, he appreciated it.
Oliver stumbled to the kitchen to make a cup of tea and some toast. When that was finished, he took his small meal and settled in the armchair. Percy was on the couch, working, surrounded as usual by rolls of parchment. Picking up a stack of papers, he turned to the side and pointedly ignored Oliver.
Sniffling, Oliver picked up the Daily Prophet and began thumbing through it, sniffling every couple of seconds. He was startled out of the story he was reading a few minutes later by the tissue box thudding against his thigh.
"Will you stop that bloody sniffling!" Percy snapped. "You are driving me to distraction."
"Sorry." Oliver snuffled, pulling a tissue from the box and blowing his nose, which only served to irritate it further. "Huh-huhuhshoo, uhshuhh." He sneezed and blew louder.
"Either take something for your allergies or go lay down."
Oliver sighed, heading for his room. Percy was still angry with him, and it would do no good to try to explain to him that it wasn't allergies but a bad cold. Laying back down, he couldn't help but think of their fight the night before. Oliver had been sniffley and sneezy last night and wasn't in the mood for much of anything. He and Percy had assumed that it was Oliver's mild hay fever that was bothering him. Percy told him to take an allergy potion so he'd feel better, and they could fool around. Oliver had declined, reminding Percy that the only time he really took anything was when he was on the Quidditch Pitch. Percy had accused Oliver of loving Quidditch more than him, grabbed his pillows and went back to his old room, leaving Oliver alone in the big empty bed.
Around two in the morning, it had become obvious that what they had assumed was allergies was a head cold and a rather bad one at that. Between 2 am and noon, Oliver had maybe slept four hours. "Huh-uhrshoo." He sneezed and wiped his nose. Oliver closed his eyes, hoping for even a little bit of sleep. After 4 more hours of tossing and turning, coughing, sniffling and sneezing, he gave up.
Looking around the room, he realized that he was going to have to pick up more tissues or handkerchiefs or both. Every handkerchief he owned was rather well used at this point, and he doubted his supply of tissues would last him overnight. Getting out of bed, he ignored the dizziness and congestion in his head and got dressed.
A chill went through his body as he stripped off his nightshirt to put on a sweatshirt, and he felt the tickle building up in his nose again. Grabbing the tissues, he sat back down and sneezed. "Hehchuhh, uhhchuhhh, chushoo, heyuhshoo, uhrshoo, urshoo, huhshoo, heyuchoo, uhchehh, chehhshooo, ehuhshoo." Drawing a ragged breath, he began coughing, not noticing Percy in the doorway or how the expression on his lover's face had changed from annoyance to concern.
"Are you alright?" he heard Percy ask when he was done coughing.
"I'b fide." Oliver responded, heading for the door. The last thing he remembered before the darkness was Percy moving toward him as the floor rushed to meet him. A few seconds later, he came to to find Percy helping him back into bed.
"Allergy potion or bed." Percy told him, assuming Oliver had simply lost his breath after an allergy attack.
"I deed to go to the store." Oliver insisted. "Ad I dod't deed ad allergy potiod." What Oliver needed was cold medicine, but he knew there was none in the house and his cold had progressed too far for Pepper-up.
"I think you should stay indoors." Percy informed him coldly. "If you're going to be this stubborn, you shouldn't go outside." A voice in the back of Percy's mind told him that Oliver had felt somewhat warm and that maybe his boyfriend was sick, but Percy pushed shoved that thought aside.
"Fide. Cad you do be a favor, though?"
"What?" Percy coughed, and then sighed. "I have a lot of work to catch up on."
"Cad you clead those?" He pointed to his pile of handkerchiefs. "I cad't say the spell we dorbally use, ad I cad't use scourgify."
Percy nodded, remembering that the faint scent left behind by the scourgify bubbles wreaked havoc on Oliver's sensitive nose. He walked over to the pile of handkerchiefs. "Limpianaba." He waved his wand as the handkerchiefs rearranged themselves into a clean, neatly stacked pile.
"Thaks," Oliver sniffled, burrowing into the blankets. "Hey-umphh." He sneezed forcefully into the covers as he heard Percy close the door behind him.
Oliver continued tossing and turning for most of the afternoon and evening, only leaving the room a few times. Before deciding to try to sleep for the night, he made one last trip out of the bedroom to get more water and snag the box of tissues from the living room since he had depleted his.
Oliver snuggled back under the blankets, preparing himself for a long night. As he had spent the afternoon and evening, he spent the night sniffling, sneezing, coughing, and occasionally dozing. Around 2 am, he ran out of tissues and clean handkerchiefs and had to settle for a roll of toilet paper until morning, then managed to doze off again around 3.
About 4, he woke up absolutely freezing. Reaching out, he confirmed that he was still wrapped in the blankets. Sighing, he blew his nose as best he could and picked up his wand. "Tebedurus." He said as clearly as he could. His wand shot sparks out but did nothing. Sighing again, he wrapped his robe around him and padded down the hall to Percy's room, stopping to grab another blanket on the way, and tentatively knocked on the door.
A few minutes later, Percy opened the door. "What?"
"Cad you check by debater? I thik I habe a feber." Oliver sniffled as Percy switched on the light to look at him. "Hey-ruhshoo, uhrushhuhh." Oliver blew his nose with his handful of toilet paper.
Percy took his first good look at Oliver in over 24 hours and gasped. Oliver was incredibly pale and his raw, red nose and bloodshot eyes stood out in sharp contrast. Oliver looked exhausted with dark purple circles under his eyes. Oliver sniffled again and rubbed his nose with the toilet paper.
Percy went back into his room, put on his glasses and grabbed his wand and tissue box, handing a few to Oliver. "Tempeturus." Percy encanted, his eyes widening at the readout. "38.8°. Merlin, Olly, why didn't you tell me you were sick?"
"I did't thik you'd listed. You dod't whed you're adgry."
Percy sighed and took the blanket Oliver was holding and draped it over his shoulders, gently guiding him back to bed. What Oliver had just said, true as it may be, was a conversation that would have to wait until he was better.
Percy watched as Oliver snuggled into the blankets, not even bothering to take off the robe. "Huhruhhshoo, ruhshoo, uhhruhhshoo." Oliver sneezed, turning his head towards the pillow in a half hearted attempt to restrain them.
"Bless you. I'll be back in a second." Percy told him. Oliver nodded, gingerly rubbing his nose with the toilet paper. "You're using toilet paper?"
"You would't let be go to the store. I rad out of tissues ad by handkerchiefs are all dirty agaid."
Percy handed Oliver the tissue box he had brought from his room and cast the cleaning spell on the handkerchiefs again. "Think that'll get you through the night?" he asked, gently.
"Dod't you deed your tissues to blow your dose id the bordig?"
"I can use a handkerchief. You need them more than I do. I'm going to get you something to bring down your fever." He returned a moment later and handed Oliver some pills. "It'll bring down your fever and help with your headache."
"How did you dow -"
"You always have a headache when you're sick." Percy reminded him as Oliver swallowed the pills. "We don't have any cold medicine." Percy apologized.
"I dow. I was goig to get sobe of that at the store, too. It's too late for pepper-up."
"It never does you much good anyway." Percy remarked as Oliver slipped back into his nest of blankets. He took the blanket Oliver had grabbed from the closet and tucked it in around him. "Olly..." he started. "I'm sorry, Olly. It's just..." He paused and sat on the edge of the bed. "When you said you really only took and allergy potion for Quidditch, I guess I got upset because it felt like you were putting Quidditch before me. And..."
"Perce," Oliver interrupted. "Lovig you is dever secod best. I dod't like takig potiods for by allergies; growig up, by paredts would bake be take stuff all the tibe, ad dow if I dod't have to, I dod't wadt to. And I did't realize I was gettig sick. Ahruhhshooo." He blew his nose loudly and groaned.
Percy looked at his wristwatch. "As soon as the shop around the corner opens, I'll go get you some cold medicine and tissues. Think you can hold out another four hours?"
"Yeah." Oliver snuffled. "Hahruhhshehh."
"Bless you. Let me grab my pillows and stuff and then I'll come back to bed."
"Do." Oliver protested.
"Why? I thought we were alright now."
Oliver sighed. "That's dot it. Percy, I've barely slept; I've beed coughig, sdifflig, ad sdeezig all dight. You deed your rest. I dod't wadt you gettig tired ad rud dowd ad catchig this. You just got over bronchitis; you're still coughig a bit."
Percy nodded. He had just gotten over a bad case of bronchitis last week which had caused him to miss nearly a week of work. Oliver had spent most of the nights sitting up with him as he tried to stop coughing long enough to sleep, finally dragging him to his asthma specialist when Percy was so sick he could barely breathe.
"I dod't wadt you gettig sick agaid. At least wait udtil I cad get sobe cold bedicide ad sleep lodger thad twedty bidutes at a tibe."
Percy nodded his agreement, smoothing the blankets around Oliver. "Got everything you need for the night?"
"Huhehgshoo, ehruhhshh. Yeah." Oliver blew his nose again, wincing at how tender it was.
"Bless you." Percy murmured, kissing the top of Oliver's head. "I'll be back in 4 hours with cold medicine." he promised, closing the door behind him.
Oliver slept fitfully; exhaustion finally won out over his nose around 6 am, and he slept soundly until Percy came in with cold medicine at 8:30.
Hesitantly, Percy reached out and shook Oliver. "I've got your cold medicine." he said when Oliver finally opened his eyes.
"Hag od." Oliver turned away from Percy. "Chushhoo, hush-hush, hehrchushh." Reaching over, he grabbed a clean handkerchief and rubbed his nose with it.
"Bless. Sorry to wake you, but I thought you'd want this." Percy helped Oliver sit up, then handed him the cold capsules and a warm cup of tea.
Oliver looked at him gratefully. "Thaks," he sniffled after washing the pills down with tea.
"Rest a bit. I'll be in to check on you. Call if you need me." Percy fretted a bit, tucking him back in. "I'll just be in the living room working."
"I will, Perce." He yawned. "I dod't thik I cad do adythig but rest. Ad you should take Sudday off of work."
"Too far behind." Percy reminded him, leaving the bedroom slightly ajar so he could hear Oliver if he needed him.
Not mine. JKR's