Chapter 30: Frozen

Padma POV

*knock* *knock*

'Why am I such a good person, waking Ansh up? Though if I don't, who will.'

"Coming, coming, just a second." I hear from the other side of the door.

"Why are you here?" He asks with a frown.

"Seriously, we have potions class in 30 mins. Are you planning to not attend that that well?" I yell at him.

"I don't want to go." He lies back down on the bed, as if that is the end of our conversation.

"Ok, listen you spent hours on that homew-...….. why is your room so cold?"

'There is a stark difference between his room and the outside.'

"It feels really cold here- , why is half your room FROZEN!?"

"Ughh, just stop screaming."

"I will when you tell me why half your room is frozen, *splat* and wet? Ok I get the water is from ice, so just one question." I look at the obvious perpetrator.

All his furniture is frozen in ice, along with patches of wall. Even the foot of his bed is shrouded in ice. At least I know why his room is cold now.

"Look, I am hating your voice right now. So if you could PLEASE leave, then that would be wonderful."

'What did he just say?!!'

"That's it. You say you hate my voice, well let me tell you, you are not getting out of this one easily."

I come to his side to haul him up. But stop upon touching his hand.

"Ansh, your hand is hot. Your forehead is burning, you have a high fever."

"Just please, just stay quiet, I don't like noise right now."

"Okay, I will speak softly. But you have a really high fever right now, we have to take you to the infirmary." I lower my voice to a whisper.

"Noo, she will yell at me."

"Who will yell at you? Nobody will." Why would anyone yell at him?

"Nooo, she said that if I come again she will get angry *sob*."

"No, she won't. Don't cry, she really won't say anything. Please don't cry, ok if she says anything then I will scold her, okay."

"I don't wanna go."

"If you don't get any medicine, how will you get well?"

"I don't *sob* know *sob*."

'What to do, he gets really whiny and weepy when he gets sick, especially with a high fever. Let's try bribing him.'

"Please, let's go. If you come with me, I will give you a chocolate frog."

"*sniff* *sniff* a chocolate frog?"

'Yes, he's interested.'

"Yes! You like those right. I will give them to you if you come with me, and if anyone dares to say anything I will scold them away."

"*sob* really?"

I nod my head at him.

"Okay then."

With that, I am finally able to get him out of his bed.

"Hold my hand, your hand feels nice." He says when we step out of his room.

"Sure, my cold hand feels nice right?"

He just nods subtly and we head to the infirmary.

Once we reach there, Madam Pomfrey looks up at us from the book she is reading, and her eyes immediately dart toward Ansh with a steely look.

He gets behind me and tightens his grip on my hand. Madam Pomfrey's eyes soften a bit at that.

"What happened to him?" She asks me to lay him down on a bed.

"He has a really high fever."

She grabs his hand and swings her wand over him a few times.

"High fever and severe cold, what were you doing? Dunking in Great Lake or something?"

"His whole room was frozen over when I went there." I supply.

She looks at him pointedly at that.

"Sorry *sniff* *sniff*"

She sighs and gets up to get some potions from the cabinet and hands one of them to him.

"Here, take this one first, it will lower your temperature. Then after that take this one." She says placing the other bottle beside him.

He downs the first potion, after which he faints.

"Ansh!"

"Don't worry, it was just some sleeping reagent mixed in. He will wake up after 30mins or so. When he wakes up, his temperature will be normal."

Hearing that I sigh in relief.

"Okay, now what happened?"

"I don't know. I went into his room to take him to class, and when I entered I saw his room enclosed in ice, and then when I tried to get him up he was burning."

"Ice? Well, sleeping in an iced room would explain the fever and cold. This kid finds new ways to come here every time."

"*chuckle* Yeah, and he was actually scared to come here."

"Why? At this point I may as well reserve a bed for him, why be scared?"

"He thought you would get angry at him, he was weeping about it." I am soooooo going to tease him about it.

"Well, the fear didn't stop him from getting sick." She replies with a laugh.

"You should go to class now." She says after a while.

"I…. can I just stay here? I would just worry about him in class." I ask her.

"Well, normally I wouldn't allow that. But I don't think I can handle him on my own, so you can stay."

'That... is certainly a reputation.'

'But his homework, he really worked hard on it. And Snape looks scary.'

"Will you come inside instead of standing by the door?" Madam Pomfrey called out.

I look back to see Nympha-, Nympha-….. Ansh's new friend by the door, embarrassed at being called out and making her way to us.

"Now what happened to you, young witch?" Madam Pomfrey asks.

"Nothing, I just saw him being carried over here and came to check up on him." She points at Ansh and confesses.

"Well, you don't need to worry about your friend here. It is just a cold and mild fever, it will be alright in an hour."

'Hey, she has potions too. Maybe she can hand over the assignment to Prof Snape, I just hope he won't be angry over that.'

"Hey, can I ask you a favor?"

"Sure, what is it?"

"This idiot isn't gonna make it to class, but Prof Snape gave him an assignment. Can you hand it over to him?"

"He got extra homework, that sucks! But sure I can hand it over."

I take his assignment out of my bag and hand it over to her.

'Good thing I didn't hand it back to him, it would be in a block of ice right now otherwise.'

"Now hurry over, or you will miss class. And I am not letting you skip class as well." Madam Pomfrey ushers her out.

I look over at Ansh, sleeping soundly on the bed.

'Why does he always find ways to hurt himself? *sigh*'