Note To Self (Harry Styles AU)

Chapter Forty Four.

Harry emerged from his slumber early the next morning feeling much less rested than he had before he'd fallen asleep. His nose clogged, throat dry and raw from spending the night breathing though his mouth, and a headache that left him feeling woozy as he climbed out of bed for school. He could've cried as he forced his body out of the warm covers that shrouded his body from the cold air in his bedroom.

He begged the night before to be allowed to stay home from school, and he begged even harder that morning, but to no avail. He hardly made it to the bus stop in time with his sluggish steps in the damp Tuesday morning air, cuddled into a sweatshirt as his body shook with the cold, but his forehead somehow dripping with sweat. He allowed himself a nap with his head leaning against the school bus window.

First period of the day dragged on longer than it had ever felt before. In a dimly lit room with a projection screen running for notes to be copied, he sat front row struggling to copy the words quickly enough before the slide would change. The strain on his eyes only seemed to increase his already excruciating headache, along with the roar of chatter in the hallways after the bell rang.

Anatomy class came, the light streaming in through the windows next to his seat still dull and lifeless. Grey clouds hid the sun away, threatening to downpour any minute as students began to fill their respective seats. He watched with his head resting on his books the seat two spots in front of his own, envious of when class started and the familiar body never filled the chair.

He never fully sat up when the lecture began, his energy rapidly draining as he sniffled and coughed in his little corner of the room. He watched his teacher write on the board with his chin resting on crossed arms and hooded eyes. She taught about the cortexes of the brain over the past days, and that day she focused on the parietal lobe and its functions.

All he could think about his how much his parietal lobe hurt.

Soon she began handing out worksheets to the class, his row being the first to receive theirs. As she passed by, she leaned down to talk to him quietly. "Would you like me to write you a pass to the nurse?"

He nodded as he cleared his throat, voice weak when he spoke. "Please."

She handed him his paper and wordlessly continued on passing the sheets throughout the room before she headed back to her desk. Harry watched as she pulled a pad of hall passes out from the drawer in her desk and silently filled it out with the same fluffy pom pom pen she always used.

She flicked her wrist at him to beckon him over when she was finished and he collected his things as well as the pass before heading out to the nurse's office.

As he entered, the same woman that had been working there for over thirty years greeted him with a smile. An incredibly sweet person, she was, and she invited him to take a seat. "What brings you in?"

Harry leaned back in the cushioned armchair, lacking the energy to keep himself from slouching. "I just need some Tylenol, I should've brought some from home but I forgot."

She stood from her chair in front of the computer and reached into a drawer, "What's wrong?"

"I have a headache."

"And?" She pulled out a few things from the drawer and placed them on the counter. "Sneezing, coughing, fever?"

"Yes, yes, and probably."

She faced away from him so he couldn't see the knowing expression on her face as she grabbed a face mask and turned to give it to him. "Put that on."

He felt rather silly, though he did it away.

Wordlessly she ran the thermometer across his forehead, reading his temperature in an instant. She looked at the screen, "You're not going back to class today, sorry Harry."