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Hermione woke to the sound of coughing. And not the ‘swallowed my water the wrong way’ type of coughing. The bad kind. The kind that hurt your lungs just listening to it. Andromeda was sound asleep next to her, lightly snoring. She was exhausted after a long day of work. Not wanting to wake her girlfriend, Hermione slid out from under the blankets and padded down the hall to Teddy’s room. The toddler was laying on his side, his face scrunched up in discomfort.
“Hi, sweetheart. What’s wrong?” Hermione asked softly.
“I feel sick.” Teddy groaned. “My mouth hurts. And my nose is sniffly.”
“Okay, here let’s get you all comfortable.” Hermione fluffed the pillows and tucked the toddler in. She grabbed a box of tissues to place on the bedside table. “Which friend would we like today?” She asked, picking up two stuffed animals. “Would we like Mr. Penguin, or Ms. Turtle?”
Teddy seemed to be thinking very hard. “Mr. Penguin and Ms. Turtle!”
“Okay! Both it is!” She put the penguin on Teddy’s left, and the turtle on his right. “Now that you’re all cosy, how about I read you a story. Stories always make me feel better.” She picked up a book, and settled herself on the end of the bed. As she read, the pile of tissues in the garbage grew and grew and grew. Until, it was practically overflowing.
When she finished the story, Teddy was sitting straight up again.
“I have drink, please?” He asked.
“Of course! Would you like some tea to help your throat?”
“Yes, please.”
“Okay, I’ll be right back! Stay right there.” Hermione hesitantly grabbed the overflowing garbage and brought it with her.
Hermione looked down the flight of stairs. After a few years of living in the small cottage, she knew that the first, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh stairs would creak. She skipped the first one quietly, and stepped onto the raised base of bannister to avoid the last four. She stepped gingerly on the wooden floors. The planks were no doubt as old as the cabin, which was older than Andromeda and Hermione’s ages combined. She disposed of the tissues and washed her hands three times, before beginning to make the tea. It only took a few minutes for the water to reach a nice temperature. She picked a nice teacup — but not too nice, in case it slipped out of Teddy’s little hands. She was careful not to clink the spoon against the side of the cup as she stirred the honey into the tea. The honey dissolved slowly, as Hermione didn’t allow the water to get too hot, out of fear that it would burn Teddy’s mouth.
It was harder to go up the stairs now that she had a cup full of tea. Maybe, if she stepped very carefully on the creaky steps, they would make no sound. Hermione knew that this would not work, as they creaked horribly even when their cat, Huckleberry, stepped over them. But, with no other option, she gave it a try. The first step, surprisingly, didn’t creak. And neither did the next ones. Once she was away from the four creaky steps, she sighed in relief. She was so relieved, in fact, that she forgot about the fifth creaky step on that flight of stairs — the one at the very top. So, she stepped on that step with all her weight. The noise it made was so loud, that Hermione thought she could hear it bouncing off the navy blue walls in the hallway. She hoped that Andromeda was too deep in sleep to hear.
Creak.
Andromeda shot up from her spot in bed, sending Huckleberry flying onto the floor. He hissed and scampered out of the room. The woman looked wildly around for the source of the creak. The door was open a bit, spilling light over the very flat bedsheets next to her. “‘Mione?” She whispered. She got no response. Because, the only way that Hermione could’ve been in that bed, was if she got transformed into a speck of dust.
The woman climbed out of bed, slipping her slippers on as she left. The source of the light was Teddy’s room. The door was wide open, and the lights were on. Andromeda readied herself to tell Teddy that it was too early to play with toys, as she’d had to many nights before. But, when she stepped into the room, she discovered that tonight wasn’t one of those nights. Teddy was sitting against his pillows, drinking out of a teacup. The garbage next to him was half-full of tissues. Hermione was sitting at the end of his bed, reading a story that —due to the stacks of books around her— looked like neither the first nor the last story that of that night. The two were so enthralled in the book, that they didn’t notice her standing there. She wondered how long they had been awake for. Hermione had taken very good care of Teddy while he was sick, which was something that Andromeda was very grateful for. She knew that Hermione hated whenever someone was sick. It always disgusted her greatly when the older woman would talk about her day at the hospital. But, it seemed Hermione put that aside to help Teddy. Andromeda smiled warmly.
“Hi nana!” Teddy said. His voice was slightly scratchy.
“Hi, sweetheart. Are you not well?”
Teddy shook his head. Andromeda sat on the bed next to Hermione.
“I’m sorry. Do you need anything?” She asked her grandson.
“Nope! ‘Mione got tea and stuffies and stories too!”
“Wow! Looks like Hermione’s taken such good care of you!” Andromeda smiled, looking over at Hermione.
“Yep!” Teddy said, cheerfully.
“Thank you, my love.” Andromeda whispered to her girlfriend.
“Don’t thank me.” Hermione said, softly. “It’s as much my job to care for Teddy as it is yours.”
“I know. Just, over these past few years, you’ve helped me more than you could ever know.”
“Another story, please!” Teddy said.