Normally Colin dealt with this on his own. Having to fight the pain on his own normally, to fight it down with quiet grimaces. With someone else beside him it was hard to hide that pain once it was all washed out in the open like this. He wished he could hide it, play it off as just a small accident and brush it aside, like he always did but as he looked up at the other for a moment it was too late. “I’m sorry..” He mumbled, embarrassment lacing his tone. He didn’t want to be like this, didn’t want the other to think lowly of him. And that was part of the reason why he had never told anyone how bad things really were. Colin didn’t want people to feel bad for him, or treat him any differently. He wanted to be Colin Creevey, not this broken shell of his former self. Although at the next question he did flinch as if the words themselves hurt him. His eyes fell down to where his left leg was propped up on its hell. His trousers must have torn when he had tripped down the stairs, revealing the marred flesh there. It was riddled with scars and fresh scratches from where he had just fallen. “Uh– no. My leg’s been like since– the war.” His throat felt like it was constricting around the words. The only people that had ever seen the real extent to his injuries was were the healers at Saint Mungos and Theo Nott from having seen his body first hand. But other than that no one had seemed the mangled skin that sat right underneath his clothing. His heartbeat was finally starting to slow, and felt like he could see straight. “I don’t really remember. I just know I started to cough– then this.”
His balance was still a little off, but his eyes were clearing of the gray fog. It seemed his fit was slowly coming to and end but that didn’t mean he was capable of moving on his own currently. It all still felt like someone had lit his insides on fire and wanted him to burn from inside out. “Yeah, that Nott. – I don’t know what he did, but the pain’s never been this bad before.” He could normally deal with pain, waking up with it every day would do that. Most days he’d wake up with a dull ache that snaked down from his back to his legs, and worse days would cause him to mostly be immobile but he pushed past that. This though, this was different. The pain that had been in his chest was now crawling up his neck and head, reminding him that there was blood seeping from his nose. With a shaky breath, Colin painfully shook his head. He didn’t want anyone else here expect Ron. A smaller, different feeling bubbled up in his chest at this thought, of being this close to Ron. This was not the time for any sort of feeling to be trying to push their way to the surface. But it would be just his luck that he’d realize his attachment to the older male at a time like this.
“No, no. I think it would be better if you stayed. – Please?” Colin gave a slight sheepish grin, as if he was trying to lighten the mood. Act as if he hadn’t just had a fit and everything was alright when it clearly was the furthest thing from that. “I should be able to stand.. the hard part is going to be getting back up those dammed stairs.” Before he could continue to think up a plan of attack, Colin’s body lurched forward another sudden round of horrid coughs escaping.
Ron was feeling confused but he tried not to let this show on his elastic expressioned face, trying to piece all of this together without being intrusive. The thing he was most mixed up about was the fact that Colin seemed to be apologizing, and he had no idea why. From what he was hearing, he’d done nothing wrong. ‘’You’re sorry? Why?’’ He asked, because he had no other choice, this would only mangle his brain more and more if he didn’t ask forward questions like these. Eyes catching sight of the painful looking scars on the other lad’s leg, Ron couldn’t help but suck in a quiet breath of sympathy at just how bad they looked under this light, knowing if that was him he’d of probably wimped out about it long before now. Unable to stop staring at the wounds for a moment, his attention was snapped back to Colin’s words as some untold truth seemed to slap Ron in the face and he looked a little gobsmacked, ‘’Since the war? That long? Jeez, mate ... that’s - why?’’ He asked again, rubbing his palm against his forehead as he started feeling even more sorry for him, but not in a bad way, he just wanted to help, and get him to at least talk about it. ‘’Why didn’t y’tell anyone? It looks pretty bad to me, n’I’m no magic Matron... you can’t keep this to yourself anymore, it needs sorting out before it gets any worse,’’ there was warning and concern in his voice as he tried his hand at giving advice.
Thinking back to Nott, he knew they’d never properly met before, but by the sight of him, Ron didn’t really like him that much. He’d judged pretty fast but most of the time he was right about people. ‘’Did he know about your leg? What if he did it on purpose? Wouldn’t put it past him, guy seems like a jerk..’’ he shunned, trying his best to keep his hold strong to stop Colin from sinking down any lower, resting the small of his own back on the stairs to keep both of them held at least a little upright. He’d read something once about putting pressure on a wound to stop it from bleeding -- or had he read it? Maybe he’d just heard it? Maybe Hermione had told him at some point, but he daren’t touch the others leg in fear of just hurting him even more. He wasn’t very graceful with his next move though, pulling up his orange sweater sleeve, he wrapped it around his own fingers and sort of pressed it against Colin’s nose to try and stop the bleeding, face full of concentration as he saw the liquid running into the fabric, ‘’This jumper isn’t one of my favorites anyway..’’ he laughed softly and maybe even a little shakily from the shock of all of this.
He felt oddly pleased with himself when he was asked to stay, like he hadn’t tossed it all up like usual, maybe he wasn’t a complete nonce all the time. ‘’Yeah, I’ll stay, s’long as you don’t keel over on me,’’ he grinned a little, thinking the same as Colin and wanting to keep the air light and tension free, though something was definitely looming. Though his eyes widened as the other began coughing again and it made him jump, ‘’Shit - s’alright... m’staying here..’’ he panicked a little, clapping Colin on the back a few times, (not too hard), to hopefully help him get the wheezes out. ‘’We definitely need to get you to a doctor, I can’t deal with this uncertainty..’’ he sniggers through the nervousness, ‘’C’mon, mate... you’re gonna have to try and let me help you up..’’