Title: Friendship
Author: Aewyn
Fandom: Harry Potter
Rating: NA
Spoilers: NA
Disclaimer: NA
Summary: NA
Notes: This was written for the Sneezefic Halloween-themed challenge bunny #1: write a story using the words/phrases ‘trick or treat', ‘but he's so pale', ‘haunted', ‘raining', and ‘but I'm afraid of the dark'
Feedback: Please send some

Friendship

"Remind me again why we're standing here in the freezing cold? I seem to have forgotten, somehow."

Ron pulled his scarf a little closer and tucked his hands further down into his pockets. He hadn't been feeling his usual self when he woke up this morning, and he was deteriorating faster than he wanted to admit to himself.

Harry sighed, his breath visible in the cold air in front of him. "Your sister insisted that Hermione show her muggle traditions, and you insisted we tag along." It was the fourth time he had answered the same question, and frankly, it was getting to him.

He cast a quick glance at his best friend and frowned; Ron with his flaming red hair wasn't known for sporting suntans, but he was looking pale now, even by his usual standards.

"Ron, are you all right? You look a bit on the pale side." Now that he thought about it, he'd heard Ron snore early this morning. Snoring was reserved for Neville - not Ron.

"Yeah, I'm fine..." came the slightly hesitant answer from the tall boy. "It's probably just the cold; I should have taken another jumper, I suppose."

Harry said nothing. As he had seen Ron put on three quite warm jumpers before they had left for Hogsmeade and muggle village close to it, it was quite clear that he was somewhat economical with the truth. He watched Ron turn away from him and utter a muffled sound into the folds of his Gryffindor scarf. It sounded suspiciously like an attempt to stifle a sneeze. An unmistakeable sniffle followed. A surprisingly wet one at that.

Harry narrowed his eyes and green met blue for a moment before blue broke eyecontact and looked down at his shoes.

"Alright, I haven't really felt like my usual perky self this morning. Let's move on to another topic now, please?" He was clearly coming down with something, probably the same something that had flourished among the inhabitants of Gryffindor Tower for about two weeks. Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnegan been in bed for an entire week before they had been able to attend classes again; Harry had been immensely glad for escaping the bug. So had Ron. Until now, apparently.

"E-tchh." He didn't bother to hide it this time; a sort of confirmation that Harry had been right in assuming that we was, indeed, getting sick. 'Getting' was, of course, a relative term; now that he thought about it, the tickle in his nose had been there for a few days, and his throat had felt a bit scratchy for about the same amount of time.

He took a deep breath through his nose, sniffling wetly in the process. He could see Ginny and Hermione in the distance, talking and laughing as a band of muggle children dressed up as anything between witches in pointy McGonagall-like hats to little furry animals.

Ginny had been immensely curious when Hermione had told her about the muggle custom of dressing up in costumes and walking around knocking on neighbours' doors asking for sweets. "Trick or Treat", she had called it.

Ron's thoughts were interrupted by another sneeze, "Heh-tch!" and another, "hetchoo." He was getting worse and he knew the Halloween Feast was looking increasingly unlikely to him. The mere thought of food made him feel a bit queasy.

Harry had kept an eye on his friend for the past fifteen minutes, and he had noticed a glossiness in his eyes that he hadn't seen before. The roses on Ron's cheeks -could- be due to the cold, but odds were that it wasn't; he was probably developing a fever.

Ron snuffled again, his nose running more and more as the minutes ticked on. It was getting a bit harder to breathe as well, he noticed with disgust. He hated being sick, especially around people. He didn't want the attention he always seemed to get as soom as he sneezed, sniffled or had to blow his nose because of congestion. In a way, he was happy he had gotten sick when at Hogwarts; his mum never had left him alone had he had the bad timing to get sick at home.

His nose tickled again and he quickly brought his hands up to prevent the spray he knew was inevitable. "Hah-tchii, heh-tchh! Heh-TCH!" He was right. He snuffled thickly, not wanting to ask what he knew he had to. "Harry, you dod't happed to have a hadky od, do you?" Another thick snuffle before Harry had fished a crumpled napkin our of the pocket of his jacket. Ron nodded a thanks before turning his back to his friend and proceeded to blow his nose thoroughly. It resulted in a wet, gurgling sort of sound that made him wince, and behind him Harry's face frowned in sympathy.

At about the same time, Hermione and Ginny, happily chatting and giggling about how some muggle traditions seemed so crazy when you were looking at them from a wizard point of view, approached the two boys.

"Harry! Ron!" came the voice of their bushy-haired friend, " we have to hurry now, or else we'll be late for the Feast!"

"I'm sorry it took so long," came the calm voice of Ginny Weasley, "but there were so many things I wanted to ask Hermione about. You two should have come with us instead of staying back here! Come on now; Hogsmeade isn't far, and we can't afford to miss the carriages back to Hogwarts!" Ginny let her action follow her suggestion and set off with a smiling Hermione behind her. Hermione half-turned towards her friends and urged them to follow.

It was a mere twenty minute walk from the muggle village back to Hogsmeade, but as Ron was feeling steadily worse and dark clouds were gathering in the velvet sky, blocking the stars, the pace was slower than expected.

Harry took a quick look at his friend while Hermione quickened her pace to catch up with Ginny, and he saw him battling with fatigue and increasing stuffiness. Ron was sniffling every other minute now; he was forced to keep his mouth open to be able to breathe properly, and judging by the pinkness of his nostrils, Harry's discarded napkin was being used perhaps more than it should have.

Ron rubbed his sleeve against his nose to try and will away the tickle that was building, but it was no use. He stopped for a moment, wriggling his nose to try and coax the elusive tickle to come out, then his head bobbed forward with the force of the sneeze, barely making any sound at all. This continued every so often during the entire walk back to Hogsmeade and the awaiting carriages.

At least they had presumed the carriages were waiting when they arrived at the outskirts of the magical town. As cold wet drops of rain began to fall, it became evident to all four of them that they were too late. The carriages had already left for a warm, entertaining evening with Halloween Feast at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry without them.

They were all more or less stunned; the carriages and the rest of the 6th and 7th years were gone; on their way back to a warm meal

"- and a warm bed" as it was added in Ron's increasingly fuzzy mind. He was beyond cold now; more closer to numb, actually, than cold. The napkin was soaked, both with rainwater and the wetness of his uncooperative nose. For the past five minutes or so, he had had to resort to wiping his nose on his gloves; the only dry patch he could find at present. This had resulted in his nose turning a shade more crimson than pink, and each wipe was becoming nothing short of torture.

"Eh-ddh," he sneezed quietly. His sinuses weren't too fond of the treatment he was giving them, and as a result they paid him back the favour by giving him a splitting headache, which seemed to be getting worse with each stifled sneeze. He groaned as he unsuccessfully tried to snuffle back the wetness that was slowly creeping out of his sore nose.

"Well, " Harry finally said, "I suppose there's only one thing we can do now. Let's head for the Shrieking Shack. It's not far." Hermione and Ron both nodded, Ron perhaps a little more slowly than he usually would have, but Hermione didn't notice - her eyes were fixed on the younger of the two Weasleys. Ginny's eyes had grown to the size of teacups and the fear emanating from them was obvious.

"The Shrieking Shack?!" Her voice had risen about an octave, Harry realised. "That place is haunted! Everyone knows that! Are you insane?!?"

"Relax, Gin," Harry said in a soothing voice; he had realised a few seconds too late that Ginny hadn't been told of the -real- purpose of the Shack and who the presumed ghost haunting it really was. He put a hand on her shoulder and started to explain the whole story about the Marauders' Map and about Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs, and how they all were connected to that small building, which was nearly beginning to fall apart where it stood on the small hill.

It took nearly the entire walk from the town square to calm Ginny down enough to stop hyperventilating. The cold rain was unrelenting, as well as the tickle in the sneezey nose belonging to Ron. Now that Harry instead of Hermione was preoccupied with his sister, it meant a double effort for him to try and hide his cold-fast-becoming-flu to the bright witch that was his other best friend.

When they finally reached the boarded-up building and Hermione had mumbled a quick 'alohomora' to open the door, Ron's knees decided it was time to buckle under his tall frame. He was totally unprepared for it and fell in a heap on the cold floor, hearing the gasps and worried cries from his friends and family somewhere in the distance before he blacked out.

The next thing he heard was the anxious voice of Hermione Granger as she spoke to Harry.

"But he's so pale! And he's so hot he's burning up!"

"He'll be fine," came the calm voice of Harry Potter through the rattle of the falling rain on the tin-roof. "He just didn't want to worry you both and probably pushed hiself too hard in the process." He didn't sound particularly worried; he had seen Ron sick before and knew this had been bound to happen sooner or later. It was only bad luck that made it happen here and not in the dormitories, which were a lot closer to the warmth of his bed.

Ginny, who had been sitting next to her brother on the floor, piped up her voice. "He's waking up now!" and, turning towards him, "How are you feeling, Ron?"

He tried to force some air through his clogged nose, resulting in a thick snuffle, before answering. "I'b okay dow, I thigk..." his voice faded as his breath quickened and resulted in a forcefull sneeze. "Heh-CHOO!" Another thick sniffle.

Ginny rummaged through her bag, coming up with a small package of tissues. She handed him one, then thought again and handed him another. He, in turn, nodded a thanks as he drew himself up into a sitting position with the help of the near-by wall, already wearing a pre-sneeze expression on his face.

Ron sneezed three times in quick succession into the tissues before blowing his nose into them, a wet gurgle that made both Ginny and Hermione wince in sympathy, while he himself winced in pain as his sore nose protested to having to go through that process again. When he had finished, the tissues more looked like soggy pieces of confetti than their original form, and he smiled sheepishly when he saw the expressions on his friends' faces.

"Thags Gid," he said, still sounding horribly congested. "I really deeded thad." He attempted one more sniff before he gave up completely and went over to breathing with his mouth slightly open. At least they were out of the icy rain, but they still needed to get back to Hogwarts, most of all for Ron's sake.

Harry then spoke for the first time since Ron came back from wherever he was when he had fallen in a heap on the floor. "Ron, do you think you can walk all the way back to the castle?" He spoke quietly, almost quiet enough to prevent the two girls from hearing him, but not quite.

Ron didn't have time to answer before Hermione cut him off. "Don't be ridiculous, Harry. Ron just passed out, possibly both from fever and exhaustion; there's no way he's fit to walk back to the castle!"

"Herb...."

"No, Ron. Don't even try to be macho and do everything by yourself." Her voice softened before she continued, "that's what friends are for, Ron. Let us help you, and don't feel ashamed about it. Please...?"

Ron looked into those brown puppy-dog eyes and thought about it for about half a second before his expression changed. Hermione took his sneezy-looking face to signal a 'yes' and started ordering people (well, Ginny) around almost immediately. "Ginny, could you start ahead through the tunnel and prepare his bed for him! Oh, and some tea... with honey, I think, for that throat."

"Hah-Chh! Hup-tchh!" Ron sneezed behind her, blowing his nose with another one of Ginny's rapidly disappearing tissues. As they were outside of school, they weren't allowed to use magic (well, Hermione was, but she was too busy ordering Ginny around), hence, when the tissues were out, they were out. Not that Ron's nose cared about such trivial things; it seemed as soon as they were out of the worst rain and cold, it had decided to act up for real. The tickles were relentless and Ron rubbed furiously at it in attempt to make them go away. The other problem was that it was so terribly congested that each breath he took, each sniffle in attempt it clear it only made the tickle worse.

"Hah-Tchoo! Heh... hETCHOO!!" He didn't even try to stifle them now; he sneezed freely, too exhausted to care anymore. All he wanted right now was his bed - to hell with the feast.

Through watering eyes, he watched as Ginny tried to protest before Hermione pushed her through the opening that led to the Whomping Willow and Hogwarts. The last thing he heard before she disappeared in the darkess was a desperate "But I'm afraid of the dark!"

His legs were surprisingly steady when Harry helped him to his feet a few minutes later. His right arm was put around Harry's shoulders, while Harry's left arm grabbed his waist. A head full of bushy brown hair emerged from under his left arm, and he could feel Hermione's arm joining Harry's around his waist.

His left hand was clutching the remainder of the tissues Ginny had provided him with, and he kept them close to his runny nose in case of emergency.

The walk back was a slow one, but Ron was still panting with the effort when they emerged into the cold October night by the Whomping Willow. As it connected with the icy air, Ron's nose started running again, visibly, before he had time to catch it in a tissue and an incredibly stuffy blow. When he was done, it only took a few seconds before he was as congested as before, struggling to breathe. No air would pass through his reddened nostrils, no matter how hard he tried.

Half an hour or so later, he found himself in his own bed in Gryffindor Tower, with a cup of steaming blackcurrant tea on the table beside him and an infinite supply of tissues on his lap. Pillows had been stacked behind his back in order to make it easier for him to breathe, but it didn't work very well.

Harry sat beside him, a silence spell cast on the bed and its surroundings so as not to disturb the rest of the inhabitants with his coughs, sneezes and blows.

"Thags Harry," Ron snuffles into a wad of tissues. His nose was bright red now due to the rough handling it had been subjected to for the past several hours.

"Whatever for?" Harry asked, genuinely puzzeled, it seemed.

"For helping be add all..." he blushed a little under the rosy fever- warmth. "I bead... I'b dot sure I would have beed able to ged back od by owd... I bust've beed worse thad I thought..." He paused and blew his nose for the umpteenth time since they got back. "Ughh..." he groaned, "Dow I dow how Dead and Seabus felt last weeg... this is horrible!" He tried to sniff and added, "I had doe idea it was possible to get this stuffed ub."

Harry smiled. "You do realise you'll have to return the favour when I come down with the same thing, don't you?"

"Thad's whad frieds are for, Harry. Thad's whad frieds are for."