The Healer & The Ghost

by brandy01

On All Hallows Eve a ghost helps a Healer save her patient from a terrible death... LMHG.

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author.

--

The day had been a relatively normal one at St. Mungo's. Various patients with small problems would come through the clinic looking for a doctor to cure a spell gone wrong, or after touching an object that had been jinxed. Other times, pregnant witches ready to give birth would be wheeled in along with their entire immediate and extended family following closely. That day, however, a young man had Apparated right into the middle of the foyer and went straight to the front desk and demanded to see the finest Healer that was on duty that day.

'I need the finest Healer you have on staff to come with me right now,' the young blonde man said, slamming his hand down on the front desk.

'Sir, we need you to be calm and tell us why you need a Healer,' the reception lady told him, pushing a clipboard folder towards him. 'You'll just need to fill out all of the details there while we wait for the Head Healer on duty to finish with her current patient.'

'I don't have time for this stupid nonsense,' he sneered, tossing the clipboard aside. 'Don't you know who I am?'

'I am well aware of whom you are, sir, but that does not entitle you to special favoritism over any of the other patients…' she began to reply, watching as the man grew red in the face.

'What seems to be the problem here?' asked another female voice from across the other side of the foyer.

'Ah, Healer Granger,' the receptionist said, walking from around the front desk towards the younger woman. 'This man here seems to be rather distraught over something and refuses to cooperate with hospital policy.'

Head Healer, Hermione Granger looked over to the front desk and was surprised to see a red-faced Draco Malfoy standing there with his arms crossed, looking distinctly unimpressed at having to wait. She knew what Malfoy was like. He had been a spoiled, selfish little brat at school when she had gone to Hogwarts with him, and it didn't seem like he had changed all that much in the seven years since then. He was taller and his face was a lot sharper than it had been, but otherwise, he was the same old Malfoy.

'Mr. Malfoy, how can I help you?' she asked, approaching him.

'Granger? You're the Head Healer on duty?' he asked, looking down his long, pointed nose at her.

Hermione held back a biting remark and remained calm. 'I am,' she said simply. 'Now are you going to tell me what your problem is, or are you going to continue wasting my precious time?'

His expression went from annoyed to angry in a second, but Hermione could see that Malfoy was trying to control his temper. 'My father is dying,' he said as calmly as he could. 'I need you to come with me to help him – he was bitten by something.'

Hermione debated with herself for a moment. As a Healer, she was bound by her oath to help any patient who was in need. But the Malfoy's had always been against her and all the other people of the same background who had one or more Muggle parents. While it used to cause her a lot of distress during her younger years at Hogwarts, as an adult, she felt sorry for their ignorance. As much as she wanted to turn away though, she would not be untrue to herself and her values. She summoned her medical kit to her and put it into the pocket of her robes.

'I'll come,' she said simply before turning to the receptionist. 'Please have Healer Blunt assume the position as temporary Head Healer.'

The older witch nodded and went back to the front table, while Hermione walked over to join Malfoy. 'Lead the way,' Hermione said, gesturing over to the foyer Apparation point.

Malfoy nodded and the two of them walked over, before he put a hand on her shoulder reluctantly and Apparated them both out of the hospital and to the entrance hall of Malfoy Manor. Without saying a word, Malfoy gestured for her to follow him, and they walked up a few flights of stairs until they finally arrived at a large set of oak double doors that were ornate with carved patterns and of course, the traditional Slytherin serpents intertwined on both doors facing one another.

'I will just let you know before we enter the room that no Muggleborn or half-blood has ever passed through these doors before,' Malfoy said seriously. 'I'm not sure if there are any sort of jinxes on the room or not, and my father was unconscious when I found him on the grounds earlier so we will not be able to ask him.'

'I am well able to defend myself against those sorts of spells,' Hermione answered. 'I am, after all, used to spells and jinxes of that kind.'

Draco nodded and pushed open the door, allowing Hermione to enter the room before him in an amazing and unexpected show of chivalry. She kept her wand in her hand the entire time and turned her head from side to side as she walked from the door towards a huge, ornate four-poster bed that dominated the room and was draped with green velvet. She approached the bed with caution, casting a few charms to ensure that the room didn't seem to be jinxed, before sitting on the edge of the bed in order to examine Lucius Malfoy properly.

'I tried a few small healing spells, but I there is poison in his system, but I don't think that it should have spread too far,' the younger Malfoy explained. 'I'm fairly certain that he must have been attacked by a large snake.'

Hermione flicked her wand causing the sheets to move to the foot of the bed so that she could do a full body scan to determine the points where the poison had entered his body. His leg seemed to have suffered the majority of the damage, and when she cut off his pants to just above his knee, the bloody wound was exposed and was discoloured from the poison infecting the entry wound and infecting it already. She pulled a few vials from her pockets and applied a disinfectant to the bite holes and gashes with a medical cloth and examined it a little more closely.

There was no doubt in her mind that it was a snake bite, and that this particular snake had been very poisonous indeed. She prodded the end of her wand into one of the holes and cast her next spell to determine how far the venom had spread. She was sad to discover that it had gone almost all the way to his knee and that it had already done irreparable damage to the muscles and nerves. She had a bad feeling that the only option would be to amputate from the knee down to prevent the spread of any more toxins.

'Malfoy, I'm afraid there may be only one option here,' she said, turning to look over her shoulder at the younger Malfoy. 'There isn't an antivenin around that could cure it. This bite is not from a normal snake.'

'You want to amputate my father's leg?' he said incredulously. 'Do you have any idea how he would respond to something like that? He's a very proud man. If you cripple him that way, he would be forever shamed.'

Hermione forced her face into a neutral expression, fighting against the urge to sigh in frustration at Malfoy's words. Purebloods were all so stupid when it came to pride, money and power. So he would be losing a part of his leg? Did one leg really matter that much in the overall scheme of things? In comparison to retaining his life, Hermione thought that Malfoy losing half a leg was a fairly reasonable sacrifice.

'Look, I will give it to you as plainly as I can, but I can't stress how serious I am about this,' she began carefully. 'Either your father loses half of one of his legs and learns to use a prosthetic leg in the near future, or he dies a painful, poisonous death. Take your pick now before it becomes too late. '

Malfoy frowned deeply in consideration. He might have been a great many bad things, but he cared about his father, and that made the younger Malfoy seem more human to her than he ever had before. Hermione knew that it would be difficult for anyone to have to deal with the responsibility of deciding a loved-one's fate. And while Malfoy tried to look like he had to give it some serious contemplation, she knew there would only be one answer.

'Do what you have to,' he said, sighing in resignation. 'But you will be the one taking full responsibility for removing his leg when he wakes up.'

Hermione chuckled dryly. Of course Malfoy wouldn't want to stand around and take the blame for any of it. 'Very well, Malfoy,' she said, pulling a big load of white bandages from her robes and laying them out on the bed.

Hermione prepared everything and unrolled the bandages manually, before taking up her wand and marking around the older Malfoy's led in red where the severing would need to be. She didn't want to do it, but from his knew down his leg was already dead, and she wanted to save the rest of him if she could. Touching her wand to the pale, marked skin, she began to cast the most careful and strongest severing spell that she knew while also casting a spell to stop the blood from flowing out of the wounds that were created. It was a long, tiring process, and by the time the leg was totally severed, she was nearly to the point where she might faint.

She used a spell to heal the flesh and pull the skin to cover muscle of the remainder of his leg which left it looking pink and raw, but it was the best she could heal it with magic – the rest would have to be done naturally. Covering the raw skin with the bandages she had put out on the bed, she stood up from the bed and removed the rest of Lucius Malfoy's leg, casting a stasis on it so that she could take it back to St. Mungo's with her so that she could examine the snake venom.

'I'll need to take his leg with me so that I can look at possibly creating an antivenin for this particular poison,' she told Draco, who only nodded.

After conjuring a bag with a cooling charm lining the inside of it, she placed the leg inside and went back to Malfoy Senior. She fed him a healing potion to speed up the process of healing his leg, and gave the younger Malfoy a set of five vials of a special herbal potion she had created specifically to cleanse the system of any remaining poisons. She gave him strict instructions to ensure that his father ate a full meal before taking one each evening for five days before saying goodbye and making her way out of Malfoy Manor as quickly as possible.

--

A week passed and Hermione had not heard from the Malfoys again. She had been tempted to contact Draco to see how the older Malfoy was faring, but knew that it would most likely be undesired contact. However, as she had no read of Lucius Malfoy's death in the paper, nor had she been contacted, she assumed the best had occurred and that Malfoy Senior had recovered and that nothing was amiss. She hated to think of his reaction when he woke to find half of his leg missing.

With the part of his leg that she had saved, Hermione had been researching extensively on the properties of the venom that entire week. She hadn't been to St. Mungo's for three days while she had been brewing the antivenin that she had come up with as a result of her research. Much as she disliked harming creatures, she had arranged with Hagrid to have two large forest rats to test the venom and antivenin on once it was complete. Her first test was scheduled for that afternoon as soon as the potion settled in the cauldron for three hours.

'Hermione!' boomed a voice from outside.

She went to the window and looked out to see Hagrid sitting on his motorbike in her back yard, holding up a large cage and waving at her. Smiling, she left the room and ran downstairs and down the hall to the kitchen before exiting the house through the back door. She ran up to the half-giant and gave him a hug.

'Thank you for bringing those along to me!' she exclaimed when she saw the rats.

'It' weren't no problem 'Ermione,' Hagrid told her, hoisting his legs off the bike and placing the cage on the ground.

'Would you like to come in for some lunch?' Hermione offered, knowing that Hagrid wouldn't refuse a meal.

'I'd like tha' thanks 'Ermione,' he answered, following her to the back door.

Hermione cast a charm that would allow Hagrid to enter and exit through the small doorway before transfiguring one of her chairs to accommodate his size. She then set about making a wonderful lunch of sandwiches and tea, leaving Hagrid to a whole platter of his own while she nibbled at hers. She was far too nervous to eat a whole meal. In just an hour she would be testing her antivenin to see if it was a success, and if she was, it was another new creation she could add to her list of patented healing potions.

Another tray of sandwiches and a jug of milk later, Hagrid made to get on his way, taking off on his big, noisy motorbike, most likely headed for Hogwarts. After all, Hermione knew that he still had many animals that he needed to care for and have fed and watered before dinner time in the Great Hall that night.

Hermione sighed as she took in the mess before her. With a flick of her wand, her kitchen magically began to set itself to rights and she walked back outside into the cool autumn air so that she could see the two rodents that Hagrid had brought over for her. They were large, extremely furry creatures, with long yellow teeth prominent in the front and long brown tails. They were practically the same as ordinary rats but were at least three or four times the regular size.

'Well you two,' she said, addressing her test subjects. 'I don't want to have to do this to either one of you, but if all goes well, there won't be any problems at all.'

The rats stared at her blankly and she shrugged. Walking back inside, she found the kitchen clean and the chair and table had returned to their regular size. Heading upstairs, she went straight to her potions room and collected a vial with some of the snake venom she had extracted from Malfoy's leg, along with a flask of the newly-brewed antivenin and some syringes. Heading back downstairs and out into the yard, the placed her vials and jars on the porch and went over to the cage, releasing one of the animals from it and quickly casting a charm to bind it and stop it from running away.

Collecting the syringes, she carefully drew the correct amount of venom and antivenin into two different needles before heading over to her subject. She kneeled on the ground beside it and used her wand to create a bald patch where she would be injecting the creature. Her throat was constricted and she felt her eyes warming with tears, but she knew it had to be done.

'I'm so sorry about this,' she told it as she carefully inserted the needle and slowly pushed down on the venom, injecting it into the bloodstream.

Nothing occurred initially, but soon enough the creature was shaking before it eventually passed out as the venom spread further. Hermione chose that moment to inject the antivenin, and did so quickly so that if it worked, the rat would have a better chance of surviving the test. She sat for a few minutes and noted that not a lot had changed. Quickly, she ran a diagnostic test over it and found that its vitals were fine, and that the creature was simply sleeping.

Relieved, Hermione summoned her journal and wrote down the test results. That afternoon, she re-did the rest a dozen more times, each time successful as the first, before she declared her potion a success. She knew that she would have to fiddle around with the dosage depending on the size of the creature, but it appeared to have been a fruitful week of research and brewing.

That night, she went to bed with a small smile on her lips, glad to have found a cure.

--

'Hermione Granger?' asked a calm, quiet female voice.

Hermione tossed about in her sleep a bit for a moment then, pulling her comforter over her head just that little bit more. For some reason, the room was suddenly five degrees cooler than it had been when she had gone to sleep. She knew she was now floating between the realms of sleep and wakefulness, but she so desperately wanted to cling to sleep as she was so very tires from the day before. A nagging in the back of her head, however, refused to let her get any rest. She turned and her eyes flickered a little as she moved from the grey area and woke herself up slowly.

She rubbed her eyes and blinked, noting that it was still mostly dark, but that there was some sort of light that seemed to be illuminating one part of the room. She sat up then and turned to investigate, but what she saw there, was not at all what she had expected at all. After blinking rapidly a few times, she looked to see if the apparition had gone away, but alas, it was still there. She didn't even know if she was scared or not, as the first thing that had popped into her mind had been; why on Earth was the ghost of Narcissa Malfoy floating by the end of her bed?

'This isn't a dream, is it?' Hermione asked.

'I'm afraid that it isn't,' the ghostly woman replied seriously. Even as a ghost, Narcissa Malfoy was quite a beautiful woman.

'Strange things have been happening to be a lot more often of late, so I'm not as surprised to see you here as a would have been two weeks ago,' Hermione commented, sitting up in her bed and pulling the covers up to her neck to ward off the chill.

'I'm not surprised. My son's arrival at St. Mungo's came as a shock to many I think,' Narcissa replied. 'I am glad that he was able to see past his upbringing and bring you into our home. I appreciate what you did for Lucius.'

'It was nothing,' the younger woman said. 'I'm a Healer – its part of my job description.'

'Well I am glad nonetheless. Out family was terribly rude to you for many years. I would not have held it against you if you had refused Draco that day,' she said. 'In any case, this is not why I am here to see you this All Hallows Eve.'

'Why are you here?' Hermione asked curiously. 'Didn't you already pass over? How is it that you are a ghost before me now?'

Narcissa nodded at the logic behind her questioning. 'It is true – when I died, I passed over because I had no unfinished business. But on All Hallows Eve, people that have passed over get the chance to return as ghosts for a few hours to that they can go and see their loved ones and let them know that we are fine.'

'If you are back to see your husband and Draco, then what are you doing here?' she questioned.

'I wanted to tell you that your work is not yet done,' Narcissa replied. 'I know it appeared as though the venom did not go further, Lucius is, in fact, still very much ill. His condition is slowly growing worse, and only you can help him now.'

'I'm not sure I can do that,' Hermione began.

'Your antivenin potion,' the ghost said simply. 'I can see things that will and will not work from the heavens. Your antivenin is the real thing and if you give it to my husband a few times, you can save him.'

'How can I be so sure that this whole thing isn't just a dream and that I am still sleeping contently?' she questioned, looking at the ghost curiously.

'I love my husband,' Narcissa said simply. 'I want you to save him in more ways than one, because I know you have the capacity to do so. I need you to teach him ways other than the ones he had learned as a pureblood and a Death Eater.'

'I don't know if I am capable of doing more than just saving his physical self,' Hermione said quietly. 'I know your husband well enough that he would just sneer in my face if I tried to make a difference in his attitude.'

'Lucius is already a different man than the one you knew before the final battle,' Narcissa said simply. 'He's already changed as much as he can on his own. Perhaps this time, his own impending death will make him realize even further, how precious the gift of life is, and make the changes he needs in order to keep it.'

'I had no idea you were like this, you know,' the younger witch admitted. 'Of course, everyone care about their family, but this is something special I think.'

Narcissa nodded. 'I am going to visit with my son and husband now,' she informed Hermione. 'Please come to Lucius' rescue…'

As Narcissa's ghost faded out of sight, Hermione pushed the bedcovers back down and clambered out. Quickly throwing her Healer's robes over her pajamas and securing it shut, she went to her potions room and put together a kit of everything she would need. Once she had the antivenin vials secured within her robes, she went downstairs and out the back door before Apparating. Unlike the last time she had been to Malfoy Manor, this time she did not have a Malfoy with her, so she assumed that she would probably end up somewhere outside their gates. Apparently she had assumed wrong, as she ended up right back in the Malfoy's entrance hall.

As soon as she appeared in the manor, a house-elf appeared alongside her.

'The mistress tells us to let you come to the big house,' the elf whispered to her. 'Master is sick and needs your help.'

Hermione nodded in understanding and followed the elf all the way up the flights of stairs to where those ornate double doors were. Taking a deep, fortifying breath, she turned the handle and opened it, walking inside. What she found was much more saddening than she ever thought it would be. Draco Malfoy was on the bed beside Lucius, who still had his eyes open and was conscious, but was sweating heavily and looked far paler than she had ever seen him. Narcissa was floating above her family looking solemn, but when she saw Hermione approaching them, she smiled a little.

'So, have you come back to take my other leg?' Lucius croaked out quietly.

Hermione almost laughed at that, but shook her and head and looked to Draco who raised his eyebrow at her and shrugged. 'I don't intend to take any more of your body parts at all, Mister Malfoy, but I am here to complete your treatment,' she answered. 'It appears that a pocket of venom in your veins was missed and it is now slowly releasing the toxins into your system.'

'And this is supposed to thrill me, why?' he said snarkily.

'Lucius, this young Healer is here to save your life,' Narcissa snapped. 'The least you could do is being polite and agreeable for a while.'

He sighed heavily and closed his eyes. 'Please, Healer Granger, this is becoming quite painful for me and I have been very ill all day,' he said seriously. 'I realize that alerting you of this sooner would have saved me some of the pain, but I was…'

'Stubborn,' Draco said, cutting off his father's spiel. 'You were damn stubborn is what you were, and I was trying to convince you for hours to call her back.'

Hermione cleared her throat before the two Malfoy men began to argue any further. 'I have an antivenin that you will need to have injected into your bloodstream directly for a whole week to clear any of the remaining poison from your system,' she announced, seeing the relief immediately on the older Malfoy's face. 'I will be the only one able to administer this, however, so you will have to expect me at approximately this time every night until your treatment is completed.'

At this, Hermione expected both of the Malfoy men to be disappointed and make a fuss about her having to attend to Lucius every day. But she was surprised to find that neither of them seemed terribly bothered by it. In fact, Lucius was terribly pale and still rather sickly-looking and was about to pass out from exhaustion. She bid them goodnight, but when she went down the many staircases and re-entered the entry hall, she could see first light even though the skies were grey.

--

Lucius Malfoy stared at the double oak doors of his bed chamber. He was unsure of why it was that for the past few days of his life, he always stared at the door at around three o'clock in the morning. He knew the reason for the door being so fascinating to him was that his Healer, Hermione Granger, would come bursting into the room very shortly. What had him so confused was that he was looking forward to seeing the Muggleborn witch. It saddened him slightly, that this was to be her last injection visit she would be paying.

Earlier that week, she had procured a prosthetic leg for him to wear during the day and could remove at night. It had taken two days to get used to, but with magic, it worked almost exactly like a real leg ought to. Despite being upset initially at having his leg amputated without his permission, he had come to accept that it was the only option and that it would have been useless to him in any case.

The door to the room opened, and a small, petite brunette entered wearing the dark blue robes of a healer, with her curly hair up in a messy knot and a tired smile on her face. She was exhausted, he could tell, but she still made the effort to come at the exact time every night to deliver his treatment. He liked the young woman. She had grown up a lot since the war and had matured into a beautiful, if a little plain, witch. Her intelligence rivaled his own, and he knew that she would be a powerful opponent in a duel.

Lucius knew that he had to make it clear to her that night that he wanted to see her again after his treatment.

'Good morning, Mister Malfoy,' Hermione greeted as cheerfully as she could.

'You are tired,' he commented. 'You needn't try to act so cheerful if you are not feeling cheerful.'

She smirked at him. 'Well then,' she said. 'Are you ready for your last injection?'

He looked her in the eyes and nodded. 'Jab me with that needle if you must,' he said a tad dramatically, presenting his left arm to her. 'I should have known that Muggles would invent something like these torture devices and pass them off as medical apparatus.'

Hermione chuckled a little and then shifted to sit on the bed, pulling out the syringe and taking the protective cap off it before squeezing a little of the liquid out and replacing it with air. She swiped Lucius' arm with antiseptic before lining the point of the needle with a vein and pushing the end into his skin. He made a slight hissing noise as she pushed all of the antivenin into his bloodstream before she finally pulled it out and rubbed the antiseptic over it once more to cleanse the entry point.

'There you go, Sir,' she announced as she banished the used syringe with her wand. 'You won't have to see me again after today and I won't be intruding in your house any longer.'

'Is that so?' he said, raising a perfect eyebrow at her.

She smiled. 'You know it is so,' she answered.

'Perhaps, Hermione Granger, I would like to see you again after this,' Lucius said, allowing his most sincere expression to show clearly on his face. 'What would you say to that?'

Her smile broadened. 'I would have to say that I was feeling quite the same way,' she replied. 'I have found our early morning conversations over the past few days to be very interesting.'

He smiled wickedly then. 'I found that it was mostly your exemplary beside manner that has made me curious if you are so thorough and tender in any other situations,' Lucius said deviously, leering at her.

'Well, you will just have to wait and see,' she said, standing from his bed and collecting her things together before making her way towards the doors.

She paused at the doorway and looked over her shoulder at him, flashing him an impish grin before disappearing through them. Alone once more, Lucius Malfoy smiled. Getting to know Miss Hermione Granger looked like it would be very interesting.

--

Terminus.