A Bad Case of the Cooties

[Michael Harper]

Out of Character:

Continued from Don't Do Sadness

Michael was confused. Incredibly so. He had next to no idea what had just happened in the Forbidden Forest, all he did know was that his lips were burning, as were his cheeks which seemed to go along with a pounding headache. His best friend, Karah Love, had kissed him on the lips and the only thing on the Ravenclaw's mind was how silly she had been, she had given him cooties! He was only in the beginning stages of it, as far as he had worked out, so there was still time. But Michael's palms were growing sweaty and he was in fear for his life. He didn't want the terrible cooties, it was all her fault for kissing him! But the twelve year old was beginning to feel guilty for running off like that, there was an equal chance that his friend had them too, and would need the medicine also, but he had only thought of himself, because he hadn't given any thought to what he would say to her for what had just gone down.

So Michael ran and ran, through Hogwarts, his hands on his head and a sick expression plastered across his face. As he reached the third floor corridor and rushed into the Hospital Wing, his beady eyes spotted the Nurse and he made a dash for her, before standing with his mouth wide open, stammering. What was he even supposed to say. From what he knew, since it wasn't talked about often, the cooties were an embarrassing illness to have, so what if she judged him. But he had to say something, he wanted to recover. So with Gryffindor-like courage he opened his mouth and spoke a rush of words. "I did something terrible a girl kissed me and I feel sick and I think I have cooties and please don't let me die" he finished, catching his breath from both the sentence and the run he had to endure to make it to the nurse. He was so embarrassed. Just as he thought it couldn't get any worse, Michael turned around and found himself face to face with none other than Karah Love. They both seemed frozen in place, statues that the nurse was staring at, what was he going to do! ​

 

[Nina Patrokov]

Nina sat in her office, humming to herself as she stirred a potion expertly. This would be the simple cure to a cold one of the students had come to her with, it just needed to more minutes of stirring and to be settled for an hour and all would be fine. So the young woman finished up before she stood from her seat gracefully and walked out into the main part of the wing to check on the other children but was interrupted by a little boy running in. Instantly she became concerned for him and urged him to speak and once he did the young woman had to stop from laughing quietly to herself by putting her hand over her mouth and clearing her throat. She knew that her two year old daughter feared cooties but she was not aware that a child who was old enough to be at Hogwarts would worry about something like this. Just as she opened her mouth to tell the boy that this was not real another girl looking equally as disturbed stepped in to the Hospital Wing and she asked simply, "Cooties?"

The word resonated between the group and the other children who were in their sick beds managed a laugh which was hushed by Nina with a warning frown in their direction. As the laughter subsided, Nina turned back and waited for the children to respond to her because she had to finish with this foolishness so she could get to the children who were actually sick.​

 

[Karah Love]

Karah had rushed up to the Hospital Wing, concerned that she would die from the sickness that her friends had told her of. It was, of course, her fault that she and Michael might have this illness but she did not have the time because what good would do for two people to get sick because that could only hurt the nurses more because they would have to focus on two different people at the same time. But she hadn't expected Michael to go to the Wing too because her parents hadn't even known about cooties when she had told them so as she came face to face with Michael, Karah's face became beet root red and her mouth opened and she tried to stay something but she was confused and scared. Thankfully the nurse had interrupted her and she nodded her head softly, ignoring the older children who were laughing at them.

"I do not want to die," the Gryffindor mumbled quietly as she looked back up to the nurse pathetically, for the first time trying to use her charm to stun the other children to silence so that even if they were in pain or something sudden happened she and Michael would be the soul attention of the nurse. She couldn't say it worked but all the boys in the wing seemed to pay a little more attention to the red head. The only person that Karah could not bare to look at was Michael Alexandra and he was the person that most would assume she would try to charm first as she had kissed him. They would be wrong because at this moment the pang of guilt made her unable to look into her best friend's eyes for longer than a second when she would quickly look away. She flattened her sweaty palms over her dress and frowned to herself as she plead, "I don't feel very well. Please help us." Karah looked up to the woman with her big blue orbs and batted the lashes gently just the way Jai said she could to get anyone to do whatever she wanted. The girl wasn't even sure if it would work but she was willing to lower herself to get fixed.​

 

[Michael Harper]

</COLOR>

<COLOR color="black">Michael's dark eyes darted around the Ward as he took in the laughs of the older children that surrounded him, obviously they weren't as afraid of such an ailment, probably because they hadn't been stupid enough to kiss someone of the opposite sex. He feared the end, but his frozen body seemed to melt a little when the nurse began to address them both, it looked like he would have to suck it up, so moving to stand next to his friend, Michael looked down at the floor, making an effort to keep a little amount of space between them, it seemed like they needed it. Many would have thought that Michael was used to being laughed at, or even bullied, he sure was the victim type. But this was not at all the case, in fact Michael had hardly ever had a bad word against him as he was so quiet, almost like a mouse, so people simply let him pass by unnoticed usually. So standing in a room being laughed at for not wanting to be seriously ill was something entirely new to him. And no matter how weird it sounded, he was a little glad that Karah had turned up so that he didn't have to go through the scrutiny alone.

Now that is seemed the young pair were getting help with their ailment, it seemed that the next problem at hand was addressing the actual kiss and why it had happened. Surely his friend hadn't wanted to infect him, because she had sacrificed herself for it. Michael seemed to know nothing about girls, living with his father was the root of that problem, his parents had divorced and he had no idea about anything to do with the fairer sex, only drawing light to the fact that he had little to no idea what he was even doing being Karah's friend. The only conclusion he could draw (since his twelve year old mind had no idea attraction and dating existed) was that she wanted to marry him. It seemed a little rushed, they hadn't known each other for long at all. So with a sigh he decided he should consider being with the beautiful girl stood next to him. Taking his mind off of it for a few seconds he looked up at the nurse and nodded, he did have the cooties. "You can help us, can't you?" he asked desperately, looking for Karah to back him up. ​

 

[Nina Patrokov]

Nina sighed softly as she looked at the two children who had both been given very wrong information about kissing and relations with the opposite sex. At the young boy's question, Nina smiled calmly and said soothingly to the two children, "Don't worry dears. All will be fine." Nina took out her wand and summoned the potion from her office and handed it to the child whose vitals she had just been checking because his condition was far worse than the pairs even if he seemed very distracted at the moment. "Drink that up and I'll be back in a moment," she instructed the child before turning back to the poor confused dears. Tucking her wand smoothly away, Nina straightened her dress and calmly looked back down at both children before she said, "Let's go into my office and we'll get this all sorted out." Hoping that this would get the children to at least calm down enough to understand that they were both perfectly safe because they were in her presence, Nina lead the way and flashed all the children a motherly grin, nearly an exact replica of the way Nina looked at her own daughter when she was sick or the way she could only assume their mother's did. All she knew was that it normally was placating and this was what a sick child needed... and sometimes a sick adults.

Just as Nina opened the door for the children she glanced back at the young red head who was looking fairly pale and she smiled. It was almost an exact replica of herself when she had her first kiss... except she hadn't assumed it was cooties because she had been fifteen at the time. It was the anxiety of the unknown of the relationship at that point and even though this little girl didn't know it, Nina was sure this was exactly what her problem was. But the girl was going to figure this out on her own, Nina was just here to tell the two that cooties did not exist but there were things that did like mononucleosis and they would still have to be careful when kissing people because things still could make them sick, even if there was a fairly fast remedy to that in the wizarding world. One could never be too careful because it could still be something that would kill you if you did not recognize it as that and were of a weak immune system which she could only assume neither of these children were.

Once they were all seated Nina asked, "Now what are your names, houses and years?" It was standard procedure, even if this would probably be put in the bin quickly after everything was spoken about. So the woman simply waited for a response with a pert smile​

 

[Karah Love]

Karah Love was frustrated that this nurse did not seem to be taking this situation very seriously but there was nothing she could do but listen to what she said and prey that not all hope was lost. The damage she had done was large and she was scared for herself and for Michael. She knew that whatever had gone through her mind at the moment when she had pressed her lips to his had been very wrong but she had to accept it anyway. She had done something harmful and like an 'adult' she would accept whatever came to her. All she hoped was that Michael would be fine because his crime was only being a good friend to her in her time of need... well that and entering the Forbidden Forest which pretty much every student who had ever attended Hogwarts was guilty of. It hardly was a reason to hold out on an antidote.

Following behind Michael slowly, Karah glimpsed up at the nurse and swallowed her anxiety hard because she could do nothing else. When the Gryffindor heard the question she answered quickly, "Karah Love, second year Gryffindor," before she glanced over to Michael through a curtain of her hair to make sure that he did not also catch her gaze. The girl's stomach began twisting more as she looked at Michael and her head was pounding and she groaned inwardly because the cooties had to be getting worse and worse now and she knew that at any moment she could die. That was how cooties worked after all. One day you were fine, then someone kissed you and then you were six feet under with everyone having cootie shots to prevent an epidemic. Or that was how it was rumored to have happened but Karah had never thought to question the children back in Clovelly because it seemed so frightening and she did not know why anyone would lie about that after they had all gone through the trauma of Santa Claus not being real. The only person Karah hoped would suffer out of this was Jai because he was the reason she was crying in the forest and was the reason she was now here with Michael and feeling like they were both going to die at any moment.​

 

[Michael Harper]

Michael could sense just a little that the nurse could be making fun of him and Karah, but he was far to anxious to care about any of it. Even if she wasn't taking this seriously, he sure was. But luckily for him she offered her office to the two children, presumably to talk to them about how wrong they were in what they had been doing. He sure hoped that his Head of House wasn't going to be notified because this surely was a most embarrassing matter that he didn't want anyone outside of Karah, the nurse and himself to know about. Michael watched Karah swallow deeply and he did the same thing, what else could he do? He was swallowing down all of his fear, just like he had in the Forbidden Forst when he had sat desperately trying to comfort his weeping friend. With a look of endearment on his face, the flushed young boy awaited the return of the nurse as he took a seat on one side of a large desk, Karah taking the seat next to him. It was silent in the room and so Michael considered what he had been before, he was supposed to be with Karah wasn't he? At least that was what he thought happened when you kissed someone. You were together forever, right?

So Leaning over in his chair he whispered to Karah through the curtain of hair she was hiding behind, "Are we going to get married now?" his voice had a sense of uncertainty in it, rightfully so. He assumed people usually didn't start kissing until much later, when they knew how to avoid getting the cooties, and when they were ready to get married. At twelve years old Michael wasn't sure he was ready, and he certainly wasn't ready to wish his life away for one silly little kiss that could have him dead and buried. When the nurse returned he sat back straight on his seat and replied quickly Michael Alexandra, Ravenclaw second year." he said, the nurse really was going to notify the Heads of House, he and Karah were probably going to get a nasty detention. He only hoped the nurse would let them off. The kiss had been a mistake. He was sure Karah couldn't love a silly little boy like him. Michael dared to reach his hand across the parting between the seats, perhaps his Gryffindor girl wanted some support, wanted to take his hand so that the burdon felt a little lighter, even if she didn't, he offered it anyway. It felt cold now, a sensation he didn't like much. He wanted her palm to fill his so that he would feel safe. ​

 

[Nina Patrokov]

]justify]indent]Nina smiled softly at both children as she wrote down their information before she put down her quill and asked with the gentlest of voices, "Now one at a time, please tell me what you are feeling?" It was unlikely that they had anything but anxiety but one must be certain of these things before she told them that everything they knew about having relations was a lie. At eleven she was informed about most things because muggle schooling had made it so because of the sexual education classes that had been taken. Nina, however, wasn't going to talk about that today because it really was not her business but she might just suggest them talking to their parents when they next saw them or if they had any specific questions talking to her. There were worst things than cooties after all.[/justify]

 

[Karah Love]

Karah looked at Michael as he asked her if they were supposed to get married now and her mouth opened in shock. She hadn't even considered that. If they could be saved they would have to, wouldn't they? It made sense, she didn't see any married people get sick with the cooties so maybe that would be the only way to keep her permanently free of cooties. Sure the ritual would work but a situation like the one that had just happened could occur once more and would saying 'circle, circle, dot, dot now you have your cootie shot' really work? She truly doubted it so she guessed that it was necessary to marry her friend. She just didn't know that her sisters would be okay with Michael living with them even if they were married. Before she could respond to him the nurse returned and all attention was directed to her and just as she opened her mouth to answer she saw Michael's hand being offered to her through the corner of her eyes. A nervous glance back at the nurse and Karah spoke and held his hoping that he didn't mind that her palms were a sweaty mess.

"I feel dizzy, my head hurts, my palms are sweaty and I think I have a fever," Karah answered the nurse, hoping that it could be fixed. She really did not want it all to end now, it would be too hard for her to think of something to say to her family and she couldn't just leave the world without saying anything to them. She would have to tell them she loved them and warn them about cooties and how they could die if they were not careful enough. She looked over to Michael apologetically before looking back down to he floor and letting him answer the nurse so she could listen to the comforting hum of his shy voice and feel the warmth radiate from his equally clammy hand. It was sad that this was how their friendship would end because Michael had been so nice and she repaid him back by giving him a disease that could kill him.​

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