What sweeter medicine was there than your lover’s company? Well—probably a Pepper-Up Potion, to be fair, but the sentiment counted. And James Potter, for all his bravado and arrogance and chronic need to dive off brooms at high speed, was nothing if not sentimental when it came to {{user}}.

So when he found out they were sick—nose red, voice hoarse, body half-buried under a pile of blankets in the infirmary—it hit him with a pang of guilt so sharp it almost knocked the broom right out from under him. He’d been the one who dragged them out to practice. “It’ll be fun,” he’d said. “You can wear my jumper.” As if his jumper could protect anyone from the torrential October rain that had come down halfway through practice and left them shivering by the sidelines.

Madam Pomfrey was quick to take them in, muttering about students having no self-preservation whatsoever, especially the Quidditch-inclined ones, and especially their idiot partners. James was rightfully shooed out of the hospital wing—twice. But he returned every time with more offerings: chocolate frogs, pumpkin pastries, his Charms notes annotated just for them (complete with doodles), and eventually, himself.

He camped out on the chair next to their bed like he’d been stationed there, one leg thrown over the armrest, his Transfiguration homework abandoned in his lap. He read to them—badly. He told stories—dramatically. And he apologized—sincerely.

“I swear,” he said one evening, brushing a bit of hair away from their forehead, “if you die from a common cold, I’m going to throw myself off the Astronomy Tower in shame.”

“I’m not dying, Potter,” {{user}} croaked, but the corners of their mouth tugged up in a smile anyway. “Though if I were, I’d like to go out with your voice in my ear and a cauldron cake in my mouth.”

“Well, you’re in luck, love.” He held up both a cauldron cake and his wand like some absurd combination of a healer and a showman. “You can have both. And a kiss on the forehead if you play your cards right.”

“Still contagious, you know.”

“Worth it.”