Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter not his wzarding world. That's JKRowlings job
It had taken almost a year for me to understand how to work this ridiculous muggle contraption and I still had a blunder with it every now and then. Hermione had picked and prodded at me for ages about the damn thing. Normally I wouldn't have given in to such a ridiculous request, but when she assured me that it was for the safety of our son, I had no choice but to begrudgingly accept the useless rattling piece of muggle technology. I was sitting at my desk in my office, spreading out a few days' worth of parchment that I would be spending the rest of my afternoon and probably some of my evening with. I was tired and grumpy already from the amount of meetings I'd attended that morning. If I hadn't agreed to take on that blasted magical creature's rights company that she insisted I invest in I probably wouldn't be in this mess. However if I'd rejected the contract I would probably have to suffer far worse consequences at home. I was already irritated, exhausted and annoyed when the blasted contraption started to ring.
I jumped at first, forgetting what the high pitched noise belonged to. I scowled as the realization dawned and swallowed a nervous lump in my throat. In the four years I had the device it had only rang 3 times and each call was for something as equally stupid as the last. However when I thought about what the telephone had originally been intended for I couldn't stop the onset of anxiety. I frantically searched my desk, desperate to get the bloody thing before someone else heard it and decided I'd gone mad. Rummaging through my belongings, destroying any sense of order that my work space had previously possessed I spotted it. I found the small black muggle cell-phone in my third desk drawer and hesitated before I remembered which button I needed to press to get it to answer.
"Hello?" I coughed, holding the thing an inch or two from my ear.
"Hello, is this Mr. Malfoy?" A throaty woman asked.
"Erm, yes." I rolled my eyes, irritated by her need to ask, she was the one who sought me out.
"I'm here at the elementary school, it seems Scorpius had a bit of an accident." She drawled lazily and my breath hitched. A dozen scenarios that would have us banned from the wizarding world raced through my mind. I knew I'd been right, I never should have let Hermione enroll him in that blasted muggle school.
"He was playing on the outdoor equipment and fell. We think he broke his leg so we called an ambulance. We just got a hold of your wife and she said she'd meet him there." She continued. I groaned inwardly, but was slightly relieved. He could have used magic involuntarily, he could have hurt someone, or worse himself. I muttered for directions and as the woman gave them to me I felt my stomach pinch and tighten with anxiousness. The thought of my son in pain shook me to my core. I barely trusted his muggle teachers with his schooling, much less his health. There was no way we'd be able to get him out of the muggle hospital without those doctors trying to sew him up or whatever other barbaric means of medicine they tried to pass off. I didn't bother with a goodbye and jammed my finger on the end button when I'd gotten enough information from the useless woman and apparated directly from my office without a word to my secretary. In retrospect that was probably not the best idea, she tended to overreact when she couldn't get a hold of me, and I hardly ever left without letting her know first. If she came in and saw me missing I wouldn't be surprised if she contacted the ministry to report me missing.
I had to not only apparate into the muggle part of town, but then I was forced to walk what was probably a mile to the hospital. It wouldn't have normally been such a feat, but my anxiety was getting the better of me, my son was in there. My only son, my only son who was hurt was away from both his parents in some muggle butcher house. I shook the thoughts from my mind and after impatiently waiting for another secretary to search for Scorpius' name in her muggle contraption I hastily made my way to what she described as the pediatrics floor. I grimaced upon passing the colorfully painted walls, full of animals, geometric shapes and whimsical sceneries, this was certainly nothing like Saint Mungo's.
I grew more annoyed by the second as I surveyed the waiting room, realizing that there was yet another secretary desk I'd need to approach to make it to the next set of rooms. I didn't bother with normal pleasantries before nearly demanding the information from the woman across the desk. She obliged but made it obvious she would take her precious time. I clenched my fists, taking a deep breath in through my nose.
"Draco." My head snapped in the other direction, the sound of her voice instantly sending a wash of calm over me. She'd just come through the doors I sought to enter, and judging by the look on her face, everything was under control. Hermione met me halfway across the waiting room and returned my tight embrace.
"He's fine." She whispered in my ear and although I would see for myself in just moments, her voice soothed me more than I'd known possible, it always did. Feeling her slender body against mine made my anxiousness subside for just a moment as I came to grips with the fact that one of the two most important things in my life was with me, completely unscathed. I pulled back first and she seemed to understand in an instant, sliding her hand into mine and intertwining our fingers in a swift familiar motion.
"He broke his leg, but he's fine. He was playing on the monkey bars—
"What is a monkey bar?" I hissed in outrage. She paused her walking for just a moment, and looked up at me with a tiny smirk that I knew she only could have obtained by spending so much of her time with me. Normally I would have been amused at the adaptation she had of the Malfoy smirk but today I had no patience for it. She'd inadvertently annoyed me far too much today.
"It's a children's toy. It's a series of metal bars that are kind of high up that you swing across, like a monkey." She answered, continuing to lead me down the small and obnoxiously decorated corridor.
"Figures as much." I mumbled, and she shot me a warning look as we entered the small examination room. Quickly my eyes swept over Scorpius and I nearly choked in outrage, he was absolutely filthy. He was covered in dirt. I barely recognized the original color his clothes had been. His lip was split, with a little dry blood smeared across his cheek; I would have gone into a fit of rage if his expression didn't imply anything less than his normal cheerful demeanor.
"Hey Dad!" He grinned at me, only adding to my apparent confusion. Before I could respond my eyes were glued in horror on the contraption that appeared to have been built around his little leg.
"Just finishing up here Mr. Malfoy." My eyes shot to the man in the white coat who was wrapping some dark green…thing over a large white case that seemed to be bracing my son's left leg.
"What the bloody—
"Thank you doctor." Hermione elbowed me in the ribs before I could speak. He nodded warmly, and looked at her, smiling.
"My pleasure." He replied, his eyes lingering over Hermione for far too long. I gritted my teeth, further annoyed by this absurdity and snaked an arm around her waist pulling her even closer to me. She blushed, but smiled in what could almost be portrayed as appreciation. I looked back to Scorpius who seemed almost uninterested in the whole ordeal.
"Sorry about this." My eyes shot to Scorpius' face as he said it, with shame that made my chest ache in the slightest. He was avoiding eye contact, as though he'd done something wrong. I was momentarily confused by his guilty conscious until the muggle doctor opened up a folder and held it in front of Hermione.
"Just a minor break, right along there as you can see." He pointed out what appeared to be a picture of Scorpius' bones and brushed the side of Hermione's arm, testing my patience once more. She nodded and leaned into me further, before the man took a step back. The situation was weighing on my last nerve and if we didn't leave soon, this man would probably end up in St. Mungo's as well.
"It should be all healed up in about 6 weeks and I'll see him back so we can cut that cast off, stay out of trouble." He winked and then left, shutting the door behind him. I blinked again in confusion on his word choice. I knew that muggles could be barbaric but cutting it off? This was the last time I'd ever set foot in a hospital like this.
"Are you okay?" Hermione was at Scorpius' side in an instant, hugging him tightly to her body. He nodded vigorously.
"Yeah Mum, I'm fine. Sorry, I forgot that their grass isn't like ours." He shrugged. Hermione shot me a questioning look.
"I may have enchanted the grass on our personal quidditch pitch." I said as suavely as I could. She opened her mouth, probably to argue with me so I cut her off.
"How in the name of Merlin is he supposed to walk around with that…that…thing on him?" I sneered, no longer trusting the muggle's tactics in the slightest.
"He has to use these, they're called crutches." Hermione held up the two triangular poles and demonstrated but crouching down over the child sized walking sticks. I frowned again disturbed by the nonsense these muggles intended for him.
"Am I going to have to really use those for that long?" Scorpius looked to me for support and I nearly laughed.
"No." I smiled, ruffling his hair. "But that is going to have to be our secret." I finished and Hermione pursed her lips yet again.
"What makes you think his school will believe that he didn't really break his leg?" She asked me, crossing her arms.
"Nothing a white lie and some of the Malfoy charm can't fix, right son?" I smirked.
"Right Dad." He grinned back. Hermione looked from Scorpius to me, and sighed in defeat.
I watched intently as Hermione helped him off the bench and settle into his crutches, he nearly tipped over every time he took a step and just as I suppressed a scowl both he and Hermione began to giggle about it. My expression softened in the slightest as she slipped her hand into mine, letting Scorpius lead the way out.
"What are we going to do about this?" Hermione's voice was low in my ear as we walked outside keeping slow pace behind Scorpius, who was out of earshot.
"Take him to St. Mungo's and get that blasted boot off him." I replied with haste.
"We can't they'll know at school." She argued again, apparently we had not settled this argument effectively.
"You can't honestly say you're thinking of keeping him in that muggle death trap can you?" I raised an eyebrow at her. She seemed deep in thought, not sure how to respond. As angry as I was, I couldn't get mad at her, I was more relieved than that.
"We can't teach him that you just quit something if it gets hard, besides its his last year, I mean blimey it's almost the end of his last year. I wouldn't be surprised if his letter was waiting at home for us right now." She grumbled, smoothing out her skirt with her free hand. I considered that for a moment, but found it difficult to just accept the circumstances. I mean the muggles had him playing on something made for monkeys, no wonder he got hurt.
When we'd had this same argument almost six years ago it'd been much more volatile. Hermione insisted that we enroll him in a muggle school. After she accepted that we'd be living in the magical community she ensured me that it'd be best to have a child that was well versed in both muggle and magical situations. Although I'd been more than hesitant, she eventually persuaded me to see it her way. I'd never regretted that decision as much I did today, however I saw her point.
"I will not having him walking around in that boot. If you want him to stay at the school, fine. But we're going to St. Mungo's this instant to fix this." I seethed. She gave me a small smile and squeezed my hand reassuringly.
"I'll have him tell a few white lies around school then." She sighed, biting her lip.
"That's rather Slytherin of you." I smirked.
"Shut it." She nudged me, grinning.
"And rather Slytherin of our son as well, if I do say so myself." I chuckled proudly, but Hermione shook her head and bit her lip.
"You know he got to choose the color of the cast." She sighed. I glanced down to the boot that he was practically dragging behind him as he walked and my chest swelled with pride at my house colors.
"Looks like I might be winning our bet, love." I grinned and she smiled, placing me a chaste kiss on my cheek.
"You might be right about that." She muttered. "However, he did jump off those monkey bars rather courageously." She tried but I just laughed.
"If you want to try for a Gryffindor you know I'd be happy to do my part." I grinned. She took it into consideration for a moment.
"I might take you up on that, but I think we ought to wait until Scorpius has been away at school for a little while. I've been waiting eleven years to have you all to myself again." She flashed me another famous Malfoy smirk and this time I was more than amused by it. As stubborn as my wife could be it worked out in my favor more often than not.
"I think the way you think Mrs. Malfoy." We stopped, reaching the apparition point and I pulled her in for a quick but thorough kiss.
"Gross. This time I might throw up before we apparate." Scorpius muttered and Hermione let out a loud laugh that I joined in with, ruffling our son's hair before getting a good grip on the most important two people in my world and holding on tight.
A/n: Just a little Dramione family fluff for you! I thought I'd try some out and get a break from the usual angst. Hope you like it! Please read and review :)
-Onalee