Changing Seasons Fic
Title: How The Quest Was Won.
Author: kateanguapotter
Pairing: Harry/Ginny
Rating: teen
Length: 1889 words
For: thistlerose
Summary: Hayfever isn't the most exciting affliction, but Harry finds a way to turn it in to an adventure.
Author's Note: After four stabs at this fic, and changing the plot entirely twice, I finally wrestled it into submission. I quite enjoyed it. :oD I hope you enjoy too, Thistlerose!
The masterlist for all of the Changing Seasons stories can be found here: http://r-becca.livejournal.com/579018.html
The seasons changed. And with them, so did Harry’s ability to breathe. The world was green, things were shooting into life, hope was springing (indeed!) eternal. And as these were happening, Harry’s eyes got itchy, his nose started running and he started each day with a fit of twenty sneezes. Kreacher spent all his time running about alternately with handkerchiefs and a bin. Ginny thought it was funny. Harry would have felt annoyance about that, if he could feel anything other than the despairing pain and odd muffling of severe hay fever. As it was, this particular morning it was all he could bring himself to do to glower at her as he sneezed violently ten times in a row. Ginny giggled to herself a little before shaking her head and saying,
"Why don’t you just go to the Healer and ask for a potion? You don’t have to put up with it, you know." Harry sneezed one last time, then shook his head slowly.
"The stuff he makes never works, and he always asks me about Quidditch. I think he has a crush on you, whenever he calls out ‘Potter’ and sees me sitting there, I can feel his disappointment, he looks all hopeful then deflates. In fact, I think you should get a different healer." He added with a twitch, and a blow of his nose. Ginny rolled her eyes.
"It does work, you just carry on as if it doesn’t because you like being a sick, whinging, cantankerous old fart." Harry looked wounded.
"I’m only 24, that’s not old! And you’ll be 24 soon anyway. You’re old."
"Oh, how mature, Harry, and you know you’re a whiny old man when it comes to being sick, you’re just after attention."
"Oh, that’s totally uncalled for! How many times have I been mortally wounded and whinged on and on about it? None! That’s how many!"
"That’s completely different, Harry, those were serious injuries, for things that don’t matter you milk it for all the sympathy you can get." Harry had no reply to that, but gave her doleful look, melting her resistance, although Ginny would have died before showing it.
"Hrrumph." She replied. Harry looked sheepish.
"I’ll go and get some Muggle drugs for it, ok love? We’ll see how they go." Ginny opened her mouth to ask why he didn’t just go to the Healer, but closed it after a second.
"Go on then," She said, "See how they go. And don’t tell Mum that you’re playing around with that." Harry laughed.
"Do you really think I have a death wish, my lovely? After the stiches?" He laughed a little to himself, then smiled at Ginny. "Ok, I’ll go in a minute. Do I get a kiss before you head off to training?" Ginny smiled, and leaned over and kissed him.
"Now behave yourself, young man, and I’ll see you at lunchtime." Ginny grinned before turning around and walking out the door. Harry enjoyed the view of Ginny’s bottom for a moment, then allowed himself to get a bit excited about visiting the Muggle world.
It was a rare sunny day in London, and even the stern old buildings in Grimmauld Place looked as if they were enjoying a good bask in the sun. The trees in the street were spattered with a bright new green and there was a lick of warmth in the air. Even through the mug of his hay fever, Harry couldn’t help but feel happy about the onset of spring. He stepped out onto the doorstep, then rather than apparating, decided instead to walk to the chemist. He stepped out onto the cobblestones and set a relaxed pace down the street, stopping only twice for sneezing fits and to blow his nose.
By the end of his walk, however, his sneezing and watering eyes had increased in severity and it was with great relief that he saw the chemist coming into view. As he got closer that relief turned into trepidation. It had been a long time, over fourteen years since he had last been in a chemist and even then he had just looked at the sweets at the counter, he hadn’t been watching Aunt Petunia to see what she did. He told himself that he was being silly and that it was bound to be self explanatory when he got in there and with that thought he stepped confidently in the door.
It wasn’t self explanatory. The store was huge. Harry couldn’t even see anything that looked like Muggle drugs. There were checkouts, yes, that made sense, but what was everything else? He wandered over to the closest row. There were a lot of bags, why would you sell bags at a chemist? There were little bags and big bags and some came with stuff in. Well, that wasn’t what he was looking for. He wandered across to the next row. There were a lot of girl related things, hair clips, hair brushes, small wiry things that looked a little like torture instruments… Nope, that wasn’t it. Next there was a large row of something called ‘sanitary napkins’, as well as an entire row of shampoos and conditioners. Surely you didn’t need that many different varieties? He looked at the prices on some of them and blinked. You could buy quite a nice meal for the amount of that bottle of shampoo! He hurried on further into the store. There was a large section of little boxes with pictures of men and women on them, he peered at them and then blushed violently as he realised what they were. Thank heavens they had charms for that sort of thing! He turned the corner in a rush and bumped straight into a tall blonde woman.
"Harry!" Harry rubbed his eyes and shook his hear to clear it and realised that Luna was standing right in front of him, with a happy look on her face.
"Oh, Luna! Thank Merlin! I am really lost in here, I don’t know where everything is and all I wanted to do was pick up some sort of hay fever treatment..." Harry paused, then added, "But what are you doing here? This is miles from your flat." He paused again, and was going to add that it was a Muggle shop into the bargain, but then he was there too, wasn’t he?
"Oh, I’m just here to observe the behaviour of Loftpanters." Luna smiled at him and twirled her butterbeer cork necklace around her fingers.
"What are Loftpanters?" Harry asked before he could stop himself, then sneezed.
"Oh, they live in Muggle shops," She said, "Particularly ones like this, they feed on scented lotions, like shampoos and moisturisers, then as the lotion goes through the digestive system and gets passed, they gain magical properties. My father and I are seeing if there is a new colony in Britain. They have great value as potions ingredients. Particularly for anti-allergic potions like the one for hay fever, I could make you a batch if you like." She stared at Harry in a concerned way as he gagged a little and filed this information away to tell Ginny.
"No, that’s quite alright, Luna, I’m sure I’ll find some drugs in here that can help me." He looked around in renewed interest, "I think the drugs may be at the back of the store, I’ll leave you to it." Luna beamed.
"Thank you, Harry, it is rather time consuming and I need to look in three more chemists before the hour is out." Luna stuck her head between some of the bottles and started rifling around. Harry watched her for a second, then headed straight down the row towards the back of the shop.
As he reached the area at the back of the shop, he finally saw a large row of shelves holding little boxes that did indeed seem to contain drugs. Thankful it wasn’t more of the other kind, he joined the end of a long line that was queued up in front of the counter. And waited. And waited. And waited. And when he did reach the front of the queue he sneezed explosively.
"Hay fever?" Asked the chemist, looking faintly bored.
"Yep," said Harry, mopping up his nose. The chemist went to the shelf and picked out two different boxes.
"These," he said, indicating the first box, "are pills that will stop the itching eyes and running nose. And these," indicating the second, "are eyedrops, again for your eyes, obviously."
"Thank you," Harry muttered fervently, and clutching the boxes he took them through the long, long rows to the counters. Luna emerged from a shelf unexpectedly and Harry nearly bumped into her again, but a neat swerve stopped that.
"Seeya, Luna, have fun with the Loftpanters." Luna shook her hair out of her eyes and gave Harry a hug.
"Get better soon." She said, and dove off into another shelf.
He reached the counter where he paid, and with great relief stepped back out into the sun. All in all it had been a bit of an ordeal. But better than going to the Healer? Harry wasn’t sure, he’d have to see how the pills and eyedrops went before he made up his mind. He opened the packet and took a pill. No change immediately, but that was expecting too much. He opened the tube of eyedrops and dropped a couple of drops into each eye. He blinked and… relief. The itching was gone. He could see! He wasn’t rubbing his eyes! It was brilliant. He set off back home with an extra bounce in his step. He could feel the pill working too, his nose was drying up even as he walked. Magic! But not magic, obviously. With not a small of amount of smugness, he thought about what he’d tell Ginny when he saw her at lunch. He breathed in through his nose! Oh, how long it had been since he had last managed that! Heaven! People took breathing in through their noses for granted. He positively ran up the steps to Grimmauld Place.
When Ginny stepped in the door she found herself being swept up and into the arms of Harry, who beamed down at her. She giggled but was puzzled; this wasn’t quite the Harry she had been expecting.
"I bumped into Luna down at the shops, actually." Harry said, after he had kissed Ginny. Ginny’s surprise was forced and she hoped that Harry wouldn’t notice. "You don’t seem that surprised…" He paused, and a calculating expression came onto his face.
"Hang on, you didn’t send her down there did you?" He looked at her shrewdly, "You did! You sent her down there! What did she do?" Ginny blushed.
"She was supposed to jinx your medication so that when you took it, your nose fell off." She said sheepishly. Harry snorted.
"Of course you did. Why am I surprised? Well, it didn’t work, I feel fine, in fact I feel rather… energetic…" He raised his eyebrows suggestively, and then his face became a model for dawning realisation.
"Bloody hell, Luna!" Both of them were giggling now, and as he pulled Ginny up the stairs, Harry thanked his lucky stars again that he had no need of little boxes with pictures of couples on them.
Author: kateanguapotter
Pairing: Harry/Ginny
Rating: teen
Length: 1889 words
For: thistlerose
Summary: Hayfever isn't the most exciting affliction, but Harry finds a way to turn it in to an adventure.
Author's Note: After four stabs at this fic, and changing the plot entirely twice, I finally wrestled it into submission. I quite enjoyed it. :oD I hope you enjoy too, Thistlerose!
The masterlist for all of the Changing Seasons stories can be found here: http://r-becca.livejournal.com/579018.html
The seasons changed. And with them, so did Harry’s ability to breathe. The world was green, things were shooting into life, hope was springing (indeed!) eternal. And as these were happening, Harry’s eyes got itchy, his nose started running and he started each day with a fit of twenty sneezes. Kreacher spent all his time running about alternately with handkerchiefs and a bin. Ginny thought it was funny. Harry would have felt annoyance about that, if he could feel anything other than the despairing pain and odd muffling of severe hay fever. As it was, this particular morning it was all he could bring himself to do to glower at her as he sneezed violently ten times in a row. Ginny giggled to herself a little before shaking her head and saying,
"Why don’t you just go to the Healer and ask for a potion? You don’t have to put up with it, you know." Harry sneezed one last time, then shook his head slowly.
"The stuff he makes never works, and he always asks me about Quidditch. I think he has a crush on you, whenever he calls out ‘Potter’ and sees me sitting there, I can feel his disappointment, he looks all hopeful then deflates. In fact, I think you should get a different healer." He added with a twitch, and a blow of his nose. Ginny rolled her eyes.
"It does work, you just carry on as if it doesn’t because you like being a sick, whinging, cantankerous old fart." Harry looked wounded.
"I’m only 24, that’s not old! And you’ll be 24 soon anyway. You’re old."
"Oh, how mature, Harry, and you know you’re a whiny old man when it comes to being sick, you’re just after attention."
"Oh, that’s totally uncalled for! How many times have I been mortally wounded and whinged on and on about it? None! That’s how many!"
"That’s completely different, Harry, those were serious injuries, for things that don’t matter you milk it for all the sympathy you can get." Harry had no reply to that, but gave her doleful look, melting her resistance, although Ginny would have died before showing it.
"Hrrumph." She replied. Harry looked sheepish.
"I’ll go and get some Muggle drugs for it, ok love? We’ll see how they go." Ginny opened her mouth to ask why he didn’t just go to the Healer, but closed it after a second.
"Go on then," She said, "See how they go. And don’t tell Mum that you’re playing around with that." Harry laughed.
"Do you really think I have a death wish, my lovely? After the stiches?" He laughed a little to himself, then smiled at Ginny. "Ok, I’ll go in a minute. Do I get a kiss before you head off to training?" Ginny smiled, and leaned over and kissed him.
"Now behave yourself, young man, and I’ll see you at lunchtime." Ginny grinned before turning around and walking out the door. Harry enjoyed the view of Ginny’s bottom for a moment, then allowed himself to get a bit excited about visiting the Muggle world.
It was a rare sunny day in London, and even the stern old buildings in Grimmauld Place looked as if they were enjoying a good bask in the sun. The trees in the street were spattered with a bright new green and there was a lick of warmth in the air. Even through the mug of his hay fever, Harry couldn’t help but feel happy about the onset of spring. He stepped out onto the doorstep, then rather than apparating, decided instead to walk to the chemist. He stepped out onto the cobblestones and set a relaxed pace down the street, stopping only twice for sneezing fits and to blow his nose.
By the end of his walk, however, his sneezing and watering eyes had increased in severity and it was with great relief that he saw the chemist coming into view. As he got closer that relief turned into trepidation. It had been a long time, over fourteen years since he had last been in a chemist and even then he had just looked at the sweets at the counter, he hadn’t been watching Aunt Petunia to see what she did. He told himself that he was being silly and that it was bound to be self explanatory when he got in there and with that thought he stepped confidently in the door.
It wasn’t self explanatory. The store was huge. Harry couldn’t even see anything that looked like Muggle drugs. There were checkouts, yes, that made sense, but what was everything else? He wandered over to the closest row. There were a lot of bags, why would you sell bags at a chemist? There were little bags and big bags and some came with stuff in. Well, that wasn’t what he was looking for. He wandered across to the next row. There were a lot of girl related things, hair clips, hair brushes, small wiry things that looked a little like torture instruments… Nope, that wasn’t it. Next there was a large row of something called ‘sanitary napkins’, as well as an entire row of shampoos and conditioners. Surely you didn’t need that many different varieties? He looked at the prices on some of them and blinked. You could buy quite a nice meal for the amount of that bottle of shampoo! He hurried on further into the store. There was a large section of little boxes with pictures of men and women on them, he peered at them and then blushed violently as he realised what they were. Thank heavens they had charms for that sort of thing! He turned the corner in a rush and bumped straight into a tall blonde woman.
"Harry!" Harry rubbed his eyes and shook his hear to clear it and realised that Luna was standing right in front of him, with a happy look on her face.
"Oh, Luna! Thank Merlin! I am really lost in here, I don’t know where everything is and all I wanted to do was pick up some sort of hay fever treatment..." Harry paused, then added, "But what are you doing here? This is miles from your flat." He paused again, and was going to add that it was a Muggle shop into the bargain, but then he was there too, wasn’t he?
"Oh, I’m just here to observe the behaviour of Loftpanters." Luna smiled at him and twirled her butterbeer cork necklace around her fingers.
"What are Loftpanters?" Harry asked before he could stop himself, then sneezed.
"Oh, they live in Muggle shops," She said, "Particularly ones like this, they feed on scented lotions, like shampoos and moisturisers, then as the lotion goes through the digestive system and gets passed, they gain magical properties. My father and I are seeing if there is a new colony in Britain. They have great value as potions ingredients. Particularly for anti-allergic potions like the one for hay fever, I could make you a batch if you like." She stared at Harry in a concerned way as he gagged a little and filed this information away to tell Ginny.
"No, that’s quite alright, Luna, I’m sure I’ll find some drugs in here that can help me." He looked around in renewed interest, "I think the drugs may be at the back of the store, I’ll leave you to it." Luna beamed.
"Thank you, Harry, it is rather time consuming and I need to look in three more chemists before the hour is out." Luna stuck her head between some of the bottles and started rifling around. Harry watched her for a second, then headed straight down the row towards the back of the shop.
As he reached the area at the back of the shop, he finally saw a large row of shelves holding little boxes that did indeed seem to contain drugs. Thankful it wasn’t more of the other kind, he joined the end of a long line that was queued up in front of the counter. And waited. And waited. And waited. And when he did reach the front of the queue he sneezed explosively.
"Hay fever?" Asked the chemist, looking faintly bored.
"Yep," said Harry, mopping up his nose. The chemist went to the shelf and picked out two different boxes.
"These," he said, indicating the first box, "are pills that will stop the itching eyes and running nose. And these," indicating the second, "are eyedrops, again for your eyes, obviously."
"Thank you," Harry muttered fervently, and clutching the boxes he took them through the long, long rows to the counters. Luna emerged from a shelf unexpectedly and Harry nearly bumped into her again, but a neat swerve stopped that.
"Seeya, Luna, have fun with the Loftpanters." Luna shook her hair out of her eyes and gave Harry a hug.
"Get better soon." She said, and dove off into another shelf.
He reached the counter where he paid, and with great relief stepped back out into the sun. All in all it had been a bit of an ordeal. But better than going to the Healer? Harry wasn’t sure, he’d have to see how the pills and eyedrops went before he made up his mind. He opened the packet and took a pill. No change immediately, but that was expecting too much. He opened the tube of eyedrops and dropped a couple of drops into each eye. He blinked and… relief. The itching was gone. He could see! He wasn’t rubbing his eyes! It was brilliant. He set off back home with an extra bounce in his step. He could feel the pill working too, his nose was drying up even as he walked. Magic! But not magic, obviously. With not a small of amount of smugness, he thought about what he’d tell Ginny when he saw her at lunch. He breathed in through his nose! Oh, how long it had been since he had last managed that! Heaven! People took breathing in through their noses for granted. He positively ran up the steps to Grimmauld Place.
When Ginny stepped in the door she found herself being swept up and into the arms of Harry, who beamed down at her. She giggled but was puzzled; this wasn’t quite the Harry she had been expecting.
"I bumped into Luna down at the shops, actually." Harry said, after he had kissed Ginny. Ginny’s surprise was forced and she hoped that Harry wouldn’t notice. "You don’t seem that surprised…" He paused, and a calculating expression came onto his face.
"Hang on, you didn’t send her down there did you?" He looked at her shrewdly, "You did! You sent her down there! What did she do?" Ginny blushed.
"She was supposed to jinx your medication so that when you took it, your nose fell off." She said sheepishly. Harry snorted.
"Of course you did. Why am I surprised? Well, it didn’t work, I feel fine, in fact I feel rather… energetic…" He raised his eyebrows suggestively, and then his face became a model for dawning realisation.
"Bloody hell, Luna!" Both of them were giggling now, and as he pulled Ginny up the stairs, Harry thanked his lucky stars again that he had no need of little boxes with pictures of couples on them.