(1939-12-19) Getting Sick
Details for Getting Sick
Summary: Penelope comes across Angelus who isn't feeling so well and helps him to the hospital wing while they talk.
Date: December 19, 1939
Location: Castle Corridor - Hospital Wing, Hogwarts
Related:
Characters
Angelus

Perhaps Angelus should have gone to Madam Spleen when he first felt the early symptoms of a cold, but it was so mild it could have not really been anything. It’s rare for the youth to miss meals in the Great Hall, but this is his second time, and now he’s in the castle corridor taking a breather. Pringle certainly didn’t believe his story about not feeling well, and really, that does sound like Gel, doesn’t it? Trying to get out of physical work by making an excuse like that? Still in uniform, the boy stands off to the side with one hand bracing himself on the wall, his eyes closed and the palm of his other hand to his head.

It's another day closer to Christmas, and Penelope Iblis is walking through the halls, chatting with a few other girls her Year. Plans are discussed, hopes for presents are bandied about, and the girls are laughing and enjoying themselves. As they walk, Penelope sees Angelus leaning against the wall and she starts frowning. She debates on whether or not to try and be nice to him, considering how disastrously the last time went, but she just can't ignore someone that's hurting. As her group passes Angelus, Penelope says her goodbyes and waves to them before turning to Angelus. There's a sympathetic half-smile on her face as she approaches the Gryffindor student. "So, Pringle made holding up the castle walls part of your detention?" she asks him as she tries to make a joke.

The group of chattering girls brings Angelus’ head up, pushing away from the wall as he glances toward them - standing by the wall as if everything was all right. Gel watches them pass with tired eyes, and regards Penelope suspiciously. His chin lifts, and he arches a brow as he looks at Penelope as if to ask what it is he can help her with. But he turns his head suddenly as he coughs, lifting his fist to his mouth before he sniffles. “Detention?” he says, curling his upper lip. It doesn’t have very much oomph, and Gel turns to rest his hand back on the wall. “No,” he says glumly, though somehow this seems like the response he wasn’t going to give.

Penelope is one of the smartest students at Hogwarts, but it doesn't take a genius to tell there's something wrong with Angelus. She sighs with frustration and lightly puts the back of her hand on Angelus' forehead to check the boy's temperature. This leads to further frowning on Penelope's part. "You've got a fever," she says. "You should get to Madam Spleen." And then she realizes that he's missed two meals so far today. "Have you eaten anything at all today? That's not good with a fever. You need to be bundled up in bed and drinking liquids like soups."

Angelus can’t keep his eyes open very wide. Every time he blinks - which is frequently - he wants to keep them closed. Again the boy coughs, and he flinches away from Penelope’s hand, turning his head away with no success. “I know,” he says weakly, which kind of ruins the snappy tone. He pushes against the wall again to start walking without looking at Penelope. He blinks slowly. “All I need is a potion,” he explains wearily.

"Or, you could let your body fight the illness naturally," Penelope says in a matter of fact tone. Of course, Angelus being Angelus, he'd never do something sensible like that. Penelope sighs and decides the argument isn't going to be worth it. "So, shall I walk with you to Madam Spleen's office? Or would you rather try to brew the potion?" Her tone leaves no doubt that Penelope is suggesting the first option.

When Angelus stops, he winces lightly, but gives Penelope an inquisitive arch of his brow. “Why would I do that?” He stares at her in bewilderment, not sure why she would even suggest such a thing. In a disbelieving way Gel shakes his head, coughing as he continues to walk. When she mentions walking with him, Angelus lets out a sigh and nods his head slowly, reaching out an arm that he’ll drape over her shoulders. “Yea. To Spleen,” he murmurs.

Penelope doesn't shy away or look annoyed at Angelus for putting his arm on her. Instead, she just quietly lends her support to him as they walk. She's smiling gently as she looks over to Angelus and says, "You know, while I don't like seeing anyone sick, I have to say the conversation so far today has been rather agreeable." Her smile grows a bit brighter, trying to share the humor with him. "So, how do you think you did on your Exams? Professor Beery actually had some questions for Herbology that challeneged me."

Angelus doesn’t lean all that much on the girl, but he does use her a little. He murmurs a soft, “Thank you,” blinking and continuing on along the corridor. He snorts in response to the conversation being agreeable. “Transfigurations could have probably been better,” he answers.

"I know," Penelope says with a sigh. "Professor Pettigrew really put the screws to us on that exam. I should have spent more time focusing on working with different mammals. Rat, Bat, and Cat are all so easy to mix up in the language of the spell." She smiles nervously at Angelus. "But at least the transfigurations for inanimate objects were easier."

Transfigurations is just all around tough for Angelus. As he lets out a sigh, a cough follows it, and it takes a second before he responds to Penelope. “All of mine were atrocious,” he says. And they were - he hasn’t really been able to make a perfect transformation. After another cough, Gel says, “My mouse couldn’t move because it was too heavy.” It was still a brick, just chiselled in the rough shape of a mouse. Climbing the stairs wears him out, and as they wait for the connection for the first floor connection he pulls away from Penelope to slump against the railing. His eyes slowly close, and he sniffles.

"Well, my rat came out meowing and chasing other rats around," Penelope says with a giggle. Once they reach the landing and Angelus is looking tired, Penelope patiently waits with him. When the sniffle comes, she reaches into her robe and pulls out a pocket handkerchief with her initials stitched on them. "Here," she says offering him the handkerchief. "Use this. Clearing your nose will help get the illness out of you."

Angelus starts laughing to the meowing rat, but it ends up in a fit of coughing. He blinks, staring at Penelope and the offered handkerchief as he considers. He holds his tongue, and shakes his head once as he eyes the top of the staircase. When it connects with the floor, Gel uses the railing as support as he climbs to step onto the floor. “You’re helping now, but the next time one of your friends is around, will you just laugh?” He stops in the corridor to lean against the wall.

"I suppose that depends on you, really," Penelope says. She's not angry or malicious, she's just setting out facts. "If they're teasing or badgering you for no reason, then no, I won't laugh. I'd even tell them to stop it. If you're being insulting and dismissive towards them…" Penelope doesn't add any more after that. "Let's just take things one step at a time, shall we? Both the stairs and, well…whatever else." She smiles encouragingly at Angelus. "You can be quite sweet and charming, you know. Try being nice to others and see how they respond to that. Or, at least what others think of as 'nice'."

A ‘hah’ escapes the boy, which ends up into a cough, as Angelus peels himself away from the wall. “And there you go,” he says as his voice drops into a chilled tone. “Get your facts straight,” he mutters as he helps himself to the room. “And thanks again, at least for this time.” He turns into the infirmary.

Penelope keeps up with Angelus and nods at his thanks. "You're welcome," she says, giving him a smile. "And if you think I don't have the facts, then why don't you explain things to me? I'm not going to laugh or ridicule you. I'd rather understand you and understand how you see things." Penelope smiles a bit more. "You know I'm a good listener because I'm always paying attention and taking notes in classes."

Pausing by the door, Angelus gives Penelope a long look, which is interrupted by a cough. Letting out a snort, he shakes his head. “I could try, Iblis. But it seems every time somebody says they want to understand, or help, they don’t really want to. Take the bloody Auror for example.” He breaks off into more coughs, and turns to rest more against the frame of the door. “She acts all welcoming, says things like having an inviting place, and then ends up not even giving me a chance.” His tone turns bitter, and he coughs and sniffs again. “Assumes I’m lying, says nothing to Higgins when the first words out of her mouth were insults, and then gets mad at me when I finally lose my temper. Seems fair, doesn’t it?” He shakes his head and turns to step further into the infirmary, at which point Madam Spleen starts making a fuss about getting the boy to a bed.

"No, it's not fair," Penelope says. She hurries in alongside Angelus, staying behind Madam Spleen so that she can work. "Which is why I asked for you to explain things to me." Madam Spleen ushers Penelope off to the side some more, and the Ravenclaw girl sighs. "Look, I could have just kept walking in the hall today, right? I stopped to check on you and help you. Have I made fun of you or said 'you deserve this', or done anything other than try to treat you with kindness on the way up?" She crosses her arms, looking upset at the situation. "I'm trying to be a friend here, if you'd let me."

As soon as Angelus sits down on a bed he can feel his eyes want to droop. He sighs, blinking, looking downward. When Madam Spleen steps off to get the ingredients she needs, Gel looks up with narrowed, tired looking eyes. “As long as you stand with Muggle-born you can never be trusted. Because you’ll stand blind too and take the side of your friends, even when I was nothing but respectful.” He sighs out, coughing, and adds in, “But I said thanks for today. And I mean it.” He looks away, drumming his fingers against the edge of the bed.

"I don't side with anyone strictly because of their blood," Penelope says after taking some time to consider her words. "Setting aside issues of the nature of 'blood', if I considered any words you had for anyone as not being respectful, then I apologize." And she certainly sounds earnest. "This is why I'd like to hear your side, to find out where there were miscommunications. I'm sure that some of what I have said you felt like it was disrespect to you."

Angelus shifts on the bed, looking to the pillow as he truly thinks about laying his head down. But not yet - he’s sure he’ll pass right out if he did. The youth breathes deeply, sounding very congested, and lifts his hand to his head. Ow. When Gel lowers his hand again, looking to Penelope, he snorts, eyeing her dubiously. He starts of by asking, “You grew up in this world, yes?”

With Angelus looking like he's willing to talk a bit, Penelope sits down at a chair next to the bed. She nods. "In a manner of speaking, yes. My mother is a Muggle, so I grew up with both worlds. I'd like to think that I can see the beauty and the problems of both worlds, without thinking that one is necessarily better than the other."

Angelus keeps an unconvinced eye on Penelope, his tone not trusting. “I don’t need a friend who I can’t trust,” he points out, “I have Dashur.” He carries on to say, “She’s smart, lets her own eyes see the situation and is not swayed by rumours.” Angelus pauses to sneeze, lifting his fingers to rub his nose lightly. He falls silently, lifting a leg to prop his heel against the edge and wrap an arm around his ankle so he can lay his other arm on top of his knee. He considers for a time before shifting his gaze to Penelope as he sniffs. “We were born in this world, raised with traditions, what’s to be expected. Muggle-born come and can’t understand. They want to change the way this works, or that, change the way our culture is, take away something magical and make it more of a Muggle fashion. And then get upset when we get upset that we don’t want our world to be another Muggle world.” He swallows, coughing before he continues, “Look at the way Celes-“ He shakes his head. “Dashur,” he corrects himself, “fits in. She follows the rules of our world, trying to keep out the Muggle one.” A heavy sigh escapes Angelus as he raises his hand briefly to wave it. “The Muggle one may have some interesting stuff, stories, but keep it there. Don’t try to integrate it with our culture. If you don’t like our world to keep it the way it is, then don’t join it.”

“In any case, it shouldn’t matter right now anyway. We need to take care of this war in the Muggle world, instead of having every Muggle-born angry with pure-bloods for wanting to keep their culture safe.”

Penelope listens to Angelus and what he has to say. She listens to his opinion and waits until he's done before she responds. "I can understand your opinion. In fact, I think you'll find just as many Muggles that don't want the wizarding world changing their world and their traditions and there are Wizards and Witches that feel the same as you do. I know several of those kinds of Muggles; I grew up around them. Most of my neighbors in London consider my parents to be upstanding British citizens, but if they knew the truth of my father, my family would be disliked by the same neighbors." She lets that sink in a bit before continuing. "I don't think you're wrong for wanting to preserve traditions, and I don't think traditions should be changed for light or frivolous reasons. Do I think there needs to be changes? Yes, but measured and considered ones. Imagine if we only did magic the way it was originally done, if we used no spells invented in the last 1000 years, simply because the earlier spells were the way we've always done magic. Tradition. Sometimes change can be good. But change for the sake of change can be bad." Penelope shrugs some. "For my part, I just want there to be equality, everyone with magic being treated the same, regardless of birth. And if I share some of my Muggle stories and ideas with my friends here, it's because I have no Muggle friends that I can share this wonderful part of my life with."

Penelope takes a deep breath before continuing. "I do see things from your perspective. And I agree that change isn't always a good thing. But I would ask you to think about the perspective of others. It's not like Muggle-borns ask to have magic. They have these abilities that let them practice magic as we do, yet they're not accepted. In many ways, they're as shunned by the Muggle world for their magic as they're shunned here for being Muggle born. Magic scares them until they come here. They think that they finally have found a place where they belong, and they're still rejected. They face things like the SCUMS program. You don't have to answer me, but just think about how it would feel if you were in their shoes? Would you be angry? Would you be trying to get some measure of equality? Would you not do some of the things that Madeline did?" Penelope shrugs. "Again, I don't think that change for the sake of change is good. But I don't consider equality to be a bad thing, either."

In turn, Angelus allows Penelope to speak without interrupting her. Though the occasional cough and sneeze happens, he sits with his head resting on top of his arm. There’s a flash of annoyance as the girl goes on, but lets her continue and doesn’t speak until he can talk in a calm voice. “I have tried to help and be kind, if anyone cares to notice. I’ve tried to help out Evans, too. But then she expects me to abandon my beliefs and gets mad when I refuse and starts going off on how I don’t have honour because it doesn’t fit where she wants it to. It’s Muggle-born like her that frustrates us and makes us not want to share our world with the others.” Angelus coughs, and about this time he glances up as Madam Spleen enters, carrying a concoction.

“All right, drink up now,” she says, kindly but with a tone that gives no allowance for arguing. Angelus cringes, but he does, while Spleen turns to Penelope. “All right, dear. The boy needs to rest while the potion takes effect.”

Penelope nods, and she doesn't look upset at all with Angelus' reply. Instead, there's the hint of a smile on her face. "I'll talk with her too," she says. "It takes time for people to change. On both sides. But thank you for talking with me and explaining your side."

At that time, Madam Spleen arrives and starts to shoo Penelope out. "Yes, Madam," she says to the nurse as she stands up. But before she goes, she turns and quickly gives Angelus a quick, friendly, kiss on the forehead. "Get better," she says with a smile as she starts to leave. "And if I don't see you before, have a Happy Christmas and New Year’s." And she waves a bit before heading out of the infirmary.

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