Title: 171

Author: Perpetual Motion

iwannabedonna@yahoo.com

Webpage: http://www.geocities.com/iwannabedonna

Fandom: Harry Potter

Pairing: Percy/Oliver

Rating: G

Summary: [None]

Archive: POWSN, Improv archive, WWOMB, my site, anyone else please ask.

Dis: They're JK Rowling's. I just pair them off.

Author's Notes: Answer to Improv #32 on the Percy/Oliver improv list. One of the boys had to be sick. The other had to take care of him. Ta-da.



171
By Perpetual Motion

"Oliver? Oliver!"

Oliver snapped awake at the sound of Percy's voice and tumbled off his cot to hurry to the bed. "Percy, I'm here. I'm here."

Percy looked around wildly, eyes glazed with fever and delusion. "Oliver?" His eyes seemed to focus on Oliver's face for a moment. "There you are." He smiled sweetly and then passed out.

Oliver flicked his wand over Percy and was relieved to see it glow yellow. The fever hadn't gone down, but it hadn't gone up, either. It was an improvement, at least. He looked up as Snape stalked down the aisle and stopped at the end of the bed.

"How is he?"

"His fever's staying the same, and I think he was lucid for a moment."

Snape gave Oliver a shrewd look. "You 'think' he was lucid?"

"He looked at me and said, 'there you are', after shouting for me." Oliver looked back to Percy's sweat, flushed face. "How long does the hex last?"

"We are dealing with a modified fever hex. A normal fever hex lasts between forty-eight and seventy-two hours. Mr. Weasley has been running a very high temperature for 162 hours."

"164 hours, actually." Oliver didn't see the look of impatience that went across Snape's face, but he could feel it. "He was hexed two hours before he made it here to be taken care of. He's been here 162 hours. Which makes it 164."

Snape's lips pressed into a hard line for a moment, but he did not dispute Oliver. "I'll have the next batch of fever-reducer finished in an hour. I've made it stronger than the last batch. It should bring the fever down."

"What if it doesn't?"

"Then Mr. Weasley will die soon." Snape stalked away.

Oliver watched Percy breathe and intertwined their fingers. "You're not allowed to die, you know. It'd be very rude of you to leave me here to fight the war without you, and it's your week to do the dishes. You've never run from your duties before. Don't start now." He kissed the back of Percy's too-hot hand and rested his head on the edge of the bed. He wasn't going back to his cot tonight.

*

He woke up with a crick in his neck and a hand in his hair. When he opened his eyes, he saw Percy smiling softly at him. "How do you feel?"

"Weak, tired, sore, and a little cold." Percy traced a finger over one of Oliver's eyebrows. "I don't remember what happened."

Oliver straightened up and sat on the edge of the bed. He pressed the back of his hand to Percy's forehead and felt his insides start to unknot at the lack of heat he felt. "What do you remember?"

"I was bringing information to the Headmaster from London, and then I was surrounded by a group of people in hoods." Percy's brow furrowed. "Death Eaters?"

"Yeah. They stunned you, then one of them threw a modified fever hex at you. We still don't know how you managed to get here."

Percy shook his head. "I don't remember."

"You were running a dangerous fever when you got here, and it took Madame Pomfrey and Professor Snape a long time to figure out how to make it go down. It's been a week."

"A week?"

Oliver nodded. "171 hours since you've been hexed."

Percy seemed to take all the information in, and then his eyes snapped to life again. "The information for Dumbledore, where is it?"

"He got it." Oliver trailed his fingers down Percy's arm to calm him. "You had it under an invisibility charm when you showed up. You managed to tell us that much before you passed out for the first time."

"The *first* time?"

"You passed out eighteen times."

Percy stopped Oliver's trailing fingers and held tightly to his hand. "You've not slept at all, have you?"

"Not really." Oliver let himself be pulled into a prone position on the bed. "I didn't want to wake up and find you dead."

"I'd never die while you were sleeping, Oliver." Percy kissed Oliver softly. "I'd want to say goodbye to you, too."

"I love you, you know."

"I know. I love you, too."



end