Disclaimer: I don't own shit. And I'm poor. The end.

Jumper

Chapter Two

Temptation's Angel

After a week of toying with the idea of going to see my mother after so long, I finally made up my mind to take that trip to St. Mungo's. I breathed deeply as I packed the last of my clothes in my overnight bag. I wanted to stay the night with her if I could. Ron looked apprehensive.
"You know you don't have to do this right?"
"Yes, I do. I haven't seen her in years. Not since she was admitted."
"You don't know how she'll be. She may be completely unstable. She might not be able to handle seeing you."
"That's a chance I'm going to have to take. Now that the opportunity has presented itself, I don't know if I could live with myself if she found out from someone else. I have to go and I have to tell her. There's just no other way."
"Well, if you're sure."
"I have never been more sure of anything in my life." He looked almost sad. "Well, almost anything." He smiled. I had recovered.
"Do you have everything you need?"
"I think so. You?"
"Yeah. Pretty much."
"So we're ready to go?"
"I'm ready when you are. Got the floo powder?"
"Right here. Well, let's do this." Ron went first. He threw the power into the fireplace, stepped in and called out loud and clear,
"St. Mungo's Hospital."
I took a deep breath again and followed closely behind him. I stumbled out of the fire onto the white marble floor of the pristine hospital. Personally, hospitals had always given me the creeps. This was no acceptation. I had no idea what was about to happen. We walked up to the reception desk. I opened my mouth to respond to the elderly witch behind the counter, but no words came out. I just kind of stuttered. Thankfully, Ron was there to recover.
"This is Draco Malfoy here to see Mrs. Narcissa Malfoy." The woman looked through some papers then gave us the number of her private room. I may never visit my mother, but I still want her to be comfortable. I felt cold on our long walk to her room. Ron kept trying to say encouraging things, but I couldn't really hear him. My ears felt clogged. When we arrived at her door, I stood, frozen in fear of what I might find on the other side. I couldn't hear any screaming from the other side, and I took that as a good sign. I put my hand on the cold knob, unable to turn it. After a minute or so of just standing there, I gathered the strength and slowly turned it, pushing the door open. When I first saw the room, it looked normal. There was a bed, and a desk, and a comfortable looking arm chair. There were some knick-knacks on the desk along with some papers, a copy of The Daily Prophet, and a nice jewelry box. There were more papers and some pictures on the floor in front of the desk. The walls were a comfortable shade of red, and there was art on the walls. The bed had silky looking sliver bed sheets and big pillows. The room really did look normal. Until I saw my mother. She was sitting on the floor in front of a closet. She wore an evening gown, but her hair was disheveled and covered most of her face and was pulled out in places and her makeup ran down her face. She was holding a small flamed picture, but I couldn't see what it was. She looked up after we had been standing in the room for some time. I don't think either of us wanted to say anything for fear of scaring her. She was smiling when she looked up and she slowly got up from the floor. She walked slowly at first, but then she began to almost sprint toward us, I kept taking steps backward until I hit the now closed metal door. She hugged me tightly and I was so happy that she was so happy to see me. And then she started speaking in a rushed whisper.
"Oh, Lucius, you've come back for me. I knew you would. I knew you wouldn't leave me here." But then before I could correct her, she fell to the ground and started screaming and crying. "No! Please, no! Don't hurt me! Don't hit me, please! I'm so sorry! Please don't hurt me! I'm sorry, Lucius, don't hurt me! Please, don't hit me! OH GOD, PLEASE STOP! I'M SORRY! I'LL DO BETTER I SWEAR JUST DON'T HURT ME ANYMORE. HELP! HELP! HELP ME!"
I knelt down next to her, to try to make her see that I was not my father and I wouldn't hurt her. But she just kept crying. So I held her. I just held her until she stopped crying.
I started slowly, "Mum, it's me, Draco. I'm not going to hurt you. I promise. I won't hurt you." Her breathing eventually got more steady. She pulled back and looked at me very closely. She reached up and touched my face.
"Draco?" Silent tears were still streaming down her face. It took all I had in me to keep myself together.
"It's alright, mum. I'm here now." And she started crying. Not a moment later, an orderly opened the door and looked around. He looked at me holding my mother and then to Ron who had been cowering in the corner the whole time.
"Is everything alright in here?"
"It is now. She thought I was my father."
"That's nothing new. She thinks everyone that comes in here is Lucius come back to hurt her again."
At that point, she had started petting my hair and saying my name over and over again very softly. I looked at the orderly. "Is she alright?"
He looked back at me sadly. I took it that he had seen her like this all too many times. "She's hurt, sir. That man did a lot of really horrible things to her. They put her in therapy for a few months when she had just arrived, but anytime they would try to get her to talk about what happened at the manor the night she set it on fire, she would just start screaming and crying and begging him not to hurt her even though she hadn't seen him in months."
I never wanted to think about what kinds of things he had done to her. I had blocked out the fire. At night, when I still lived at the manor, when I would hear her screaming, I would sing to myself to block it out, so I didn't have to listen. At the time, I just thought she was crazy. As I looked at her then, I realized how much she had really aged. She was still a beautiful woman, but she looked so tired, worn. I hated having to see her like this. At some point, the orderly slipped out of the room, leaving us. I wanted to make it better for her. I didn't want to have to tell her what I had gone there to say. I didn't want to break her. She looked at me with eyes that I knew weren't really seeing. "Mum, there's something I have to tell you."
"I love you, Draco."
"I love you, too, Mum. But I have to tell you something."
"Is it good? Did you meet a girl?"
"No, Mum. I'm already married. Don't you remember? We sent you an invitation. We would have loved for you to have been there."
"Who is she?"
I tried not to laugh but I couldn't help it. I motioned to Ron for him to come over. " There's no girl, Mum. You remember Ron Weasly, don't you?"
"Yes, of course. Hello, dear."
"Hello, Mrs. Malfoy."
"Ron and I have been married for almost three years."
She looked very confused but said, "Oh, how lovely."
"Listen closely, ok, Mum? I have something very important to tell you. And I don't want you to get upset."
"Alright dear." She seemed like she was in a trance.
"Look, Da is getting out of Azkaban very soon. And we're afraid that he might come looking us. And we don't want that to happen."
"Lucius? Oh, Draco, no." And she started to cry again. I was so afraid she would start screaming, too. But she just sobbed softly into my hair.
"We're not going to let him hurt you. I'm going to arrange for there to be extra security here for you, and if you want, we can transfer you somewhere else."
"Don't let him hurt me, please."
"I won't. Don't worry. I'll keep you safe." I didn't know what else to say, so I just held her.
Ron still looked like he was stunned. He barely breathed.

End chapter two.