Nothing Compares 2 U (Albus)

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The year should have been off to an excellent start. After the Yule Ball, Lucy felt that her life couldn't have gotten any better; she just hadn't entertained the possibility that it could get worse. She had survived Anna's having been selected as the Triwizard Champion for Hogwarts over her; that was old news now. She had finally entered into an actual, official relationship, and it was now 2024—the year she would be graduating Hogwarts and (hopefully) getting hired at the Ministry of Magic to work in the Department of International Magical Cooperation.

Lucy might have wanted a career that involved dealing with other countries, but she didn't want a long-distance relationship. Hearing that Asa had taken a new job all the way in France was a heartbreak that she didn't want to face. It felt like a betrayal. Relationships rarely lasted time and distance, and she knew how connected Asa was to the French part of their heritage. They would find somebody else in France, forget all about her, and that would be the end of it.

She couldn't take it, and she didn't care when she left the Great Hall in the rush that she had that she would be missing the day's classes for what she was about to do, either. As much as she didn't care for most of her family members at times, the one upside to being a Weasley was that Lucy had quick access to her Uncle George's line of products. The embarrassment of years of being given product samples from his even more embarrassing range of items had proved itself useful.

Once back in her dormitory, she rifled through her trunk. There must have been a Skiving Snackbox buried somewhere far below everything else. Her first choice wouldn't have been the one she had, but a Fever Fudge would have been too subtle. Besides, the Puking Pastille gave her a legitimate excuse for having run out of the Great Hall. Everyone would think that she had just gotten sick, which was better than being questioned about the letter she'd received. Lucy Weasley wasn't supposed to get heartbroken.

Sliding the Puking Pastille into her sleeve, she walked back out towards the entrance to the Great Hall. Her timing needed to be effective, so she waited against the wall until she could hear that students were beginning to leave breakfast.

When a few people came through the doors, Lucy decided to take her chance. Pretending to double over in discomfort, she quickly fished out the sweet, nibbled the orange end, and slid the purple end back down into her sleeve, praying that she wouldn't lose it. She groaned a little—genuinely, this time, because of the Pastille—beginning to feel the taste of sick in her mouth and wondering why she couldn't have had a Nosebleed Nougat instead.

Retching, she cringed. Uncle George had come through, but it wasn't pretty.

@al

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@lucy

al pushed his hand through his hair as he walked up the steps from the dungeons. he'd come from the common room, he'd wanted to check on dusti and see her that morning before heading up to get something to eat before the day really started. he was still feeling like he was failing to support her in the wake of her parents death but she seemed to be better. that was the main thing, her coping. if she was okay then that was the main thing and he knew she was worried about her siblings too. he greeted a few of his friends as he stopped to talk to them in the hall for a little while. small talk mostly, al wasn't one for deep and meaningful conversations unless it was with certain people and they certainly didn't fit the bill. he bade them a goodbye as he turned to leave, rounding the corner of the hall that led to the great hall and he came across quite a sight. had it been anyone else and he might have felt it was a bad one, but lucy? well he could afford to be cold to her. they were cousins but he wouldn't call her family and he was well aware of the trouble she and some of the other slytherin girls had been causing dusti. "well lucy .. if this isn't a wonderful look for you. i don't know what is." he said as he folded his arms and looked at her, a safe enough distance not to get covered in whatever was coming up out of her mouth. "i mean .. you've never looked better."

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Lucy looked up when she heard the sound of her name and immediately wanted to roll her eyes as far back into their sockets as they could go without winding up stuck like that. Of course Albus had to chime in. She knew that she should have expected as much. It wasn't as though word wouldn't get around to him, anyway; they were cousins in the same year and House, not that they ever actually treated one another with the civility usually expected of two people who were related by blood.

“I mean… You've never looked better.”

That was a stretch, and they both knew it. She hadn't had the sense to tie her hair back before she had taken the first half of the sweet, so there was no telling what had gotten into the hair that had fallen over her face. “Oh, f**k off, will you?” she groaned, wiping her mouth with the hand that wasn't protecting the other end of her Puking Pastille from falling out. Didn't he have his little girlfriend around somewhere? “You act like you've never seen someone vomit before.”

Had she been genuinely ill, her reaction would have been even worse, not that she would have been in any position to act on that anger. Still, the taste that had been left in her mouth post-emesis wasn't at all pleasant, and she wasn't sure that had been the end of it, either. “Ugh,” she moaned, trying not to look at what was already on the floor as she debated whether or not she needed to throw up again. “Just get me to the Hospital Wing.”

@al

[Deleted]

@lucy

“Oh, f**k off, will you?” he laughed loudly and folded his arms over his chest, tilting his head a little as his laughter died down and the smirk stayed on his face. "and miss the show? oh i'm not going anywhere." he said as he watched a group of scared looking first years edge their way around and into the great hall. he did know this would end soon, someone would tell a teacher and they'd come and do what they could to help. which he didn't think they should, it was lucy after all but they were bound by a duty of care or some crap like that. “You act like you've never seen someone vomit before.” he shrugged his shoulders and kept his gaze on her. "well it's always great to see someone you don't like suffer." he said as he raised an eyebrow. "you should know that feeling lucy." after all she had a habit of making the people she didn't like miserable, like his girlfriend.

“Ugh, Just get me to the Hospital Wing.” his eyebrow raised again and he looked at her almost with something of shock. "what? no please?" he said as he stepped forward. "i think it's amazing how you think i'm going to help you just like that." he said as he dropped his arms from his chest and he walked so he was standing next to her. he patted his hand on her back lightly and shrugged his shoulders a little. he was sure something was amiss here and she wasn't deathly ill. if she was dying she'd act different than this, she was still so calm and her usual self so he was coming to the conclusion she had done this to herself. he if thought she was seriously in trouble he'd help her. he might not like her but he was a better person than she was, or he liked to think anyway. "say please and i might consider it."

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Having to keep up her side of besting Albus was challenging, but Lucy wasn't about to let her cousin have the last word just because she had actually supported the joke shop for once. She couldn't argue with him when he said that it was great to see someone he didn't like suffer and that she should “know that feeling”; neither of them could pretend it wasn't true.

If it made him feel the slightest bit better—as though he had gotten some payback on behalf of his little girlfriend—Lucy didn't care if he had that “advantage”. What he didn't know wouldn't hurt him, though Lucy also couldn't pretend as though she had given it out of her generosity towards him. Admitting that she might have been caving might as well have been admitting total defeat, and she couldn't do that.

“What? No please?” Why did he have to be so asinine?! They weren't five years old; she wasn't going to force herself to be nice to him just because he thought that she needed to be. “I think it's amazing how you think I'm going to help you just like that.”

Yet, Lucy noted that there he was, walking over to her. Albus really couldn't deny moving one foot after the other, unless he wanted to claim that she had put him under the Imperius Curse, which would have gone over swimmingly with Professor Malfoy.

He was actually touching her shoulder when he next spoke, yet he still requested that stupid word.

Lucy straightened herself back up, praying that the Puking Pastille had some sort of ability to pause itself until necessary. She pushed her hair out of her face—nearly vomiting again because of the odor it had taken on thanks to its having gotten in the way of her vomit—and cringed. “Please.” Albus didn't need to know how close she was to actually begging.

@al

[Deleted]

@lucy

“Please.” and just like that anyone watching would have simply assumed that albus potter had given up the fight with his cousin. he hadn't but he would give her a break right then. he'd wore her down enough that that dreaded word had been ground from her mouth and contrary to popular belief he wasn't cruel. he didn't want to help her but something in him really wouldn't let him walk away from her like that. as much as he might like to think it, she was his cousin, even though there was no love there between them, to him at least the blood they had pumping through their veins meant something. "see, wasn't that hard was it." he said as he forced a bright smile onto his face, mainly because he knew it would annoy her more than a lot of words he could have said to her. he cringed when he caught a scent of the smell. "geez lucy .." he muttered as he lifted his hand and cast a spell to clean her hair for her and for himself too if he was being honest. if he was going to help her he was going to make it as pleasant as he could for himself.

he stood next to her and he moved to wrap his arm around her waist so she couldn't topple forward as he walked with her to the infirmary. he couldn't say he was too thrilled about being so close to her when she was obviously sick but he had some decency about him, besides he'd never live it down if his parents found out he'd just left her. he sighed and turned his head to look at her. "you puke on me and i swear i'll push you out of a window." he said. he wasn't joking, they were on the first floor so it wasn't like pushing her out could kill her but there was some things he wouldn't deal with and being puked on by his lest favorite cousin was one of them. "ready to move?" he asked her, hoping she was feeling well enough to walk the distance between here and the hospital wing without much delay.

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“See,” Albus began cheerfully, clearly relishing in the fact that he had gotten her to do something.

That only lasted until he could smell the remaining traces of her emesis in her hair. It was just as revolting for her as it was for him, thought Lucy, who was admittedly relieved that Albus couldn't tolerate it and went ahead and cleaned it up for her. She hadn't intended to end up so disheveled—just believably ill—and she had reached that point already.

Now, it was mostly the taste that had been left in her mouth, probably not helped by the fact that Albus had put his arm around her. “You puke on me,“ he warned, “and I swear I'll push you out of a window.”

The defenestration of Lucy Weasley at the hands of her insufferable cousin Albus wasn't something that would be happening that day, if she had any control over it. She wanted desperately to smirk at him for that comment, though the effect of the Puking Pastille on her and the news from Asa that had sparked the whole ordeal to begin with spared him that.

“Ready to move?”

Lucy nodded, not saying anything verbally at first in case she would vomit for a third time, although there couldn't have been much left. She had to give her uncles credit; they had been very thorough with their product. “Yeah,” she told Albus. “Ready.”

@al