Potions & Charms

Caring

He slowly approached the shape and reached out, carefully brought his hand up to the wet hood and pushed it down. "Avi?" he asked in surprise and crouched down. Scott wasn't sure if he was just resting, sleeping or unconscious and lowered his wand to touch his shoulder. "Avi, are you okay?"

The Potion Master drew his brows together before he started to blink. He flinched when he realized how close Scott was to him, hit his head on the stone wall behind him when he pulled away and let out a pained whine.

"Shit" Scott mumbled. He brought this hand to the spot and gently rubbed it, realized how cold Avi's scalp was. "For long have you been sitting here?" the wizard asked while he pushed his wand back up his sleeve and wrapped his arm around his colleague.

Avriel shrugged and allowed Scott to bring hip up on his feet. He swayed until Scott held him closer and almost hugged him. He usually despised physical contact but right now he had to admit that he was thankful for the help and might've leaned closer to feel the heat coming from the man's body.

"Let's get you to the infirmary, maybe Poppy can-"

"No" Avi said immediately and gripped Scott's cloak. "Not Poppy." He tried to find his balance and then took the first step. His knees buckled and had Scott not been there he would've for sure fallen all the way down the stairs to the dungeons.

But Scott reacted quickly and held him while he stepped in front of the man. "Slowly, Avi. Where do you want to go? To your rooms?"

"Mhm."

"Alright, c'mon. I'll help you." And much to his surprise Avi didn't talk back. He leaned on Scott while they slowly made their way downstairs to the humid dungeons to the password protected door. Avi felt like a dead weight against his side when they walked past the potions classroom and finally approached the teacher's private rooms. Both men were out of breath by then and Scott realized that both the side of his pants and half of his sweater were soaked by the water that was coming out of Avi's cloak. "Avi? Your password. I can't hold you much longer."

But the dark haired man slid out of Scott's embrace and crashed down, hitting the side of his head on the floor.

"Merlin's beard" Scott cursed, took off his cloak and carefully guided Avi's head on it by putting his hand under his neck. Then he started patting his cheeks until the man regained consciousness just a few moments later.

"Sco'?" he asked confused and tried to sit up but Scott held him down by putting pressure on his shoulders. "Hey, stop" Avriel tried to argue but he was overwhelmed by exhaustion and placed his aching head back down on the soft fabric. "Ow.."

"No, you stop. Stop fainting. What is your password?"

The teacher frowned and brought his hand up to his head to touch the spot where it had made contact with the floor. "Why do you want to know?" Avi looked at his bloody fingertips and sighed.

"Because you can't sleep in the hallway. You are soaking wet, hurt and-" Scott stopped when he noticed not only the blood on the man's fingers but the blotchy, red spots on his shaking hands and the way his veins seemed to be almost purple, drawing a pattern on his skin. While he immediately started to go through his memory and tried to find some sort of spell or potion that would treat these symptoms Avi just pulled his sleeve over his hand and closed his eyes again.

"You're invading my privacy.."

"No, I am trying to help you. You can either tell me your password or I will take you to Poppy."

"Are you threatening me?"

"I am."

"Bowtruckle" he mumbled. The door swung open with a barely audible squeak and revealed the cozy living room with its large couch, the fireplace and lots of stacked books.

Scott bent down and reached under Avi's neck before his hand slid down his back, until he was able to wrap it around his upper body. Then he placed his other arm around the bend of his knees, feeling the cold and wet fabric soaking his sweater, and picked up the man with a grunt. Much to his surprise the bearded man didn't say anything but allowed Scott to carry him inside until he carefully placed him down on the couch and shut the door with a flick of his wand. With another quick flick the bearded man's clothes changed from his usual black button up and his dark pants to a surprisingly comfortable looking pair of dark red flannel pajamas in the blink of an eye.

Avriel seemed to relax immediately and almost melted into the couch in front of the fireplace. The heat coming from it felt so good and soothed his aching body and while he was tempted to fall asleep he forced himself to stay conscious, not trusting Scott enough to be unsupervised in his private rooms.

"Can you tell me what happened to your hand? Your-" he stopped when he gently turned the Potion Master's head and saw the purple colored veins standing out from the pale skin, emerging from under the collar of the flannel shirt. "Are you taking any potions? Any experiments you're working on?"

Avi froze. Scott was smarter than he had thought. "No" he just said and closed his eyes. "Keep your nose out of my things."

"I am trying but since you fainted almost three times in barely half an hour I am beginning to worry." He kneeled down, gently turned the man's head until he was looking at the ceiling and parted his wet hair to have a better look at the wound. "It's not too deep. Episkey." The gash closed in front of his eyes, Scott ran his thumb over the spot where it had been and then, as gentle as before, fixed Avi's hair before he dried it with a spell. He couldn't help but admire how beautiful the color was, how perfectly well braided the little braids were, how full the curls and how moisturized and soft the ends were.

"You care too much" Avi shot back and brought the tall man back to reality. "Caring is not an advantage."