As the cousin of the infamous boy-who-lived as well as the niece of a pardoned deatheater, it's clear to say that Thalia Nott's life was the definition of a disaster waiting to happen. Unable to look after one of her cousins, she focuses her attenti...
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31st October 1991.
To say that colds and illnesses were inevitable at a school like Hogwarts was an understatement, to say the least. The Scottish autumn was colder than most of Britain and the fact that the castle was only heated by candles and fires didn't help the matter either. Even if the older years and teachers were using heating charms to their hearts' content. It didn't prevent the younger years from acquiring numerous illnesses then spreading them through the castle.
What had begun as a minor cough during the second week of October, had bloomed into a full-blown sickness with pounding headaches and the occasional regurgitating of food by the time that All Hallow's Eve had come around. Many of the first years had had a brush with the bug but all had recovered quickly after a quick pepper-up potion which left many with steaming ears for hours after.
None, however, had got sick to the extent of Thalia. She forced herself to stay in bed after that morning's disasters.
The morning of the 31st of October began with Thalia waking up with a mild headache, nothing to be too concerned about, yet enough for Thalia to resemble a hag - according to Theo at least. Most likely due to the fact that she had gotten a maximum of 3 hours sleep over the past two days thanks to her body feeling deathly cold, no matter the mountain of layers she had piled upon herself in an attempt to sleep.
She stumbled into the Great Hall and sat at the Slytherin table, not even registering that she was sitting between Adrian Pucey and Montague - both fifth years that were on the Quidditch team - neither of which had spoken a single word to her in her two months of being at Hogwarts. She didn't notice the shocked faces of her friends as they sat a little way down the table, nor the concerned faces of Theo, Harry or Draco - the former two glancing at each other, their faces plastered with worry for their cousin. The latter of the trio quickly covered his worry and wore his poised mask once more.
There, she grabbed a few pieces of toast as well as some baked beans and began to eat at a relatively slow pace. She only managed a single slice of toast before clutching her stomach, a wave of nausea rushing through her. It went away just as quickly as it came, leaving her to quickly forget about it in favour of the glass full of pumpkin juice in front of her. Unfortunately, all the drink did was bring her nausea back, leaving her to clutch her stomach even tighter. She stood up and proceeded to walk to her first lesson, only to be ambushed by her cousins, both of which grabbed her by one of her arms and started to march her toward the hospital wing.
Against her protests, they dragged her onto a bed and Harry waited with her whilst Theo went to get Madame Pomphrey. The older women swiftly walked back over to Thalia, with a pepper-up potion in hand.
"You'll be as right as rain in a minute, Miss Nott, you just need to drink this." Stated Madame Pomphrey as she shoved the vial into the sick girl's hand. Thalia clasped the vial tightly before swirling it around, looking at the contents - the colour didn't seem all that harmful and nor did the smell but Thalia had drunk enough of these potions over the years to know the effects of drinking one. She would have much preferred it if she didn't have to walk around with steam coming out of her ears for the next hour or so.
