As our saga progresses: Draco still hates teaching, Tabitha blushes a lot because of too many feels, an unlikely friendship blossoms, and Neville is living large.


As the junior-most apprentice on the ward, Tabitha was getting stuck with the majority of the grunt work her first few weeks on the job. So far she'd been taking almost all of the quick emergency outpatient cases — spell damage cases that required bones to be reset or a few quick waves of her wand to seal up gaping wounds. Most of the cases were quick, but horrendously boring. It got to the point where working as a Healer was becoming like working in a Muggle factory. She felt like she was on an assembly line. Magic sutures here, potions to revive memories there. She rarely even had to meet with patients for more than five minutes.

There were two other apprentices on the ward, both men, meaning she was often left feeling left-out of the boys' club. Draco didn't particularly pay any of them mind other than to assign duties, but it would have been nice for the other two apprentices—Regulus McLaggen and Alexei Cronk—to treat her like a colleague rather than an assistant. There was only one person on this ward to whom she was required to assist and that was their boss Draco. But Draco seemed to prefer to do things on his own anyhow.

Still, he was supposed to be teaching them. Were they to ever be experienced enough to be promoted from the apprentice level to actual full-blown Healers, they'd need his instruction. Regulus had dared ask once and was promptly put in his place.

They'd all been excited when a Muggle woman was admitted having been effected by a sleeping curse. She'd, apparently, been cleaning out her attic when she'd found an antique decorative mirror amongst her late grandmother's belongings. The woman had had no idea, of course, that said grandmother was a witch. Upon looking in the mirror, she'd fallen dead asleep. Her grandmother had enchanted the mirror in her old age, so senile she likely hadn't even known what she was doing.

Luckily woman's brother, who had inherited their grandmother's abilities, found his sister and brought her straight in, wrapping the mirror up carefully and bringing it with him. Tabitha was never sure what possessed families of mixed magical ability to hide their powers from the rest of their family. She supposed it must have had something to do with Muggle prejudices which could be every bit as strong as Pureblood prejudices, so she'd heard.

"Sir, Healer Malfoy," Regulus had begun, running to keep up with their supervisor's long strides. She and Alexei followed behind closely, "Shouldn't we be watching you? Curses are so rare, we might not get the chance to see this-"

"Curses are not some exciting opportunity!" Draco had shouted, stopping so suddenly Regulus almost slammed into him. He towered over the poor apprentice, glowering down at him. Tabitha felt a pang of empathetic fear and anxiety stab at her own stomach just from watching the whole display. "I will let you assist on important cases when I decide you are ready to assist on important cases, now get outof my way!"

Regulus took a shocked step backwards, despite the fact that Draco was continuing on in the opposite direction and Regulus had never really been in the way. He turned back to Alexei and gave him a shrug with eyes still wide. Tabitha opened her mouth to commiserate but the two boys were off together without giving her so much as a second glance.

Well, okay, there was a second glance.

"Oy!" Alexei called back to her, "We forgot to clear out the files from rooms two and five. Can you get on that?"

Tabitha rolled her eyes and let out an annoyed huff as loudly as possible. But if they heard, they made no acknowledgement. She headed over to room two anyway.


Draco wasn't sure why he'd agreed to take on a total of three apprentices. He'd always hated teaching, he'd learned that from Miss Tabitha Dolohov herself. Well, now that life had improved, he looked back on that memory a little more fondly. She'd been such a funny girl. He could still see traces of that younger girl in this new woman, particularly how easily she embarrassed.

But, now in his employ with actual cause to seek him out, she seemed more than willing to leave him alone. It was what made her his favorite out of the three apprentices.

Regulus and Alexei were both smart, to be sure. Regulus McLaggen had gone to Durmstrang, a fact Draco still inherently respected. Alexei Cronk had been a Hufflepuff just a year younger than himself, but he'd proved himself shrewd at his first position with the ministry as an Auror. The only reason he switched professions, so he proclaimed, was due to the fact that Potter's presence within the department was making chances for career advancement increasingly difficult. Well, Draco could certainly empathize with that. Looking back on it, he may have hired Cronk out of pure sympathy.

But as smart as those two were, they were terribly annoying. They had been quite nagging at first; persistently looking to him for training. It wasn't until he'd finally lost it on his way to break a sleeping curse that they finally let up.

But Tabitha had never given him a problem. From day one she'd simply come in and found a way to quietly make herself useful. It reminded Draco of himself in some respects… the basic instinct to keep one's head down and remain focused despite all odds.

And there were odds, to be sure. His apprentices may have thought he was too self-involved or busy to see what was going on but he was constantly aware of everything on his ward. He'd seen how they snubbed Tabitha and how she was left with the worst assignments. It must have been unimaginably frustrating for someone who had just left a career in ancient curse-breaking to suddenly have their skills so underutilized. Part of him wanted to see how long she could take it. Most of him wanted to see what she'd do when she inevitably cracked.

In the meantime, he was transferring one of the boys to Creature-Induced Injuries. A request for staff had been put out and Draco couldn't handle three apprentices anyway. He really was going to have to start teaching them one of these days, and two students sounded much better than three.


Tabitha couldn't help but feel relieved when Regulus was reassigned to Creature-Induced Injuries. Rumors of how short staffed the ward was had been going around for over a month and, as Draco had the most apprentices, they all knew one of them was going to have to go. She was pleased it wasn't her. After the attack of the tarantulas at the Mayan ruins, Tabitha didn't want to have anything to do with creatures, of any kind, ever again.

Also, she wanted to work on the Spell Damage ward; it had been her first choice, after all.

And, fineyes, she was getting another crush on Draco. There must have been something about one's first real crush, she decided, something you never really let go. Not to mention, he was just endlessly attractive. Returning female patients always requested him when they came back for check-ups. And they were always disappointed to find out that check-ups — while mostly not even necessary — were outsourced to apprentices.

Draco was a very busy man. The Longbottoms, while almost entirely cured, continued to experience night terrors and residual stress of such severity that they still could not live at home. They could, however, finally recognize and hold conversation with their son. Tabitha could have sworn she saw Draco get somewhat misty-eyed the last time Neville had come in for a visit. His success seemed to make him only more determined to perfect to Moly potion he'd created. He wanted to eliminate any and all residual signs of insanity from Dark Magic spells. He wanted the Longbottoms to be able to go home.

It was all very touching and heroic and it just made Tabitha like him even more.

But Draco, unfortunately, did not seem to like her or Alexei. Even reassigning Regulus didn't help. He was too focused on his research to see his apprentices as anything but a burden.

But, even for Draco, there were slow days. The refined steeping process he used to create his healing elixir took several days. Once he had a batch going, there was nothing for him to do but wait and make his normal rounds. Most of the time, he busied himself with extremely dangerous emergency cases but those didn't always pop up.

It was on one of the slow days that Tabitha caught him idly leafing through the files of all the patients on their ward that day. She had just finished up an exam on a half-blood who thought he'd been hexed by a friend to increase mucus production — What kind of joke would that be? she'd asked herself at the time — only to inform him that he had the common cold and could either seek out a Muggle doctor or wait it out like most people. Though she was finished with the patient file, she busied herself with it a bit longer to avoid having to make eye contact with Draco.

"Dolohov!" Draco snapped at her, abruptly pulling her away from the chart she was reading. He was holding a file from the top of the out-patient box. Suddenly, a smile began to creep onto his features. "Nine-year-old in room six needs the antidote to his father's wit-sharpening potion. He can't stop screaming multiplication tables. You should be able to handle that, right?"

Tabitha blushed furiously. That was the very potion she'd had Draco "tutor" her on back in her fourth year. "Yes sir, of course," she said.

"Are you sure?" he asked, still smirking and speaking with greatly exaggerated concern in his voice, "If I remember correctly, you used to have a bit of trouble with wit-sharpening potions. I can always send Alexei in with you."

She swallowed thickly, annoyed that he was teasing her so terribly. She'd been fourteen for goodness sake! Still, he was her boss now. "No, that's quite alright. I can handle it," she said and strode past him, head high, and into exam room six.

"Three times three is nine! Forty-seven times sixteen is seven hundred and fifty-two!" a small boy with curly hair was screaming when she walked in. He was sitting with his very tired looking father.

"He's been at it for hours," the man said, "I only keep the potion around the house to take in small doses before I need to give presentations at the ministry… but he took the entire bottle!"

"Ten times thirteen is one hundred and thirty!"

"No worries, sir!" Tabitha chirped merrily, "We keep the antidote in house. Now we don't want to dumb him down too considerably, so he'll just need a few drops. That'll leave him a bit smarter than normal for the next few hours, but he'll be back to his typical intelligence in a day or less after the potion leaves his system."

"Thank you," the father breathed out, heavily. He put his head in his hands and Tabitha got out her dropper.


Boy was she a sensitive little thing! Draco laughed to himself after she entered the exam room with the screaming child. She did get terribly worked up; no wonder she hadn't been able to handle her last job.

That was unfair, he realized. If there was one thing that could be said about Tabitha it was that she had a strong constitution — for blood and bile, anyway. Socially she was a bit iffy. Then again, so was he.

He had been meeting Neville in London every month or so for a drink, though. Occasionally, he would even make his way up to Hogsmeade and they'd grab a Butterbeer or Firewhiskey together. Neville seemed perfectly happy to put old-times behind him. And, as thankful as he was to have his relationship with his parents restored, Draco didn't think that was the only reason they were becoming friends. Neville seemed to recognize that Draco had genuinely changed. He got the sneaking suspicion that, even if he hadn't been able to cure his parents, Neville still would have forgiven him. He was a good bloke, that Longbottom.

A curly-haired man exited room six with a small boy who was no longer shouting mathematics. Behind them was a very satisfied looking Tabitha.

"Thank you again," the man said and Tabitha smiled.

"Of course," she said and handed the man a slip of paper, "Here's an enchantment you can put on… well anything you don't want him to be able to open. It prevents any child from opening whatever bottle the enchantment has been placed on. Use it sparingly though… you never know when you might be incapacitated and need him to retrieve something for you."

The father nodded. "Yes, well, normally I leave matters that require this sort of good judgement up to his mother," he said, "She's going to be quite angry when we get home."

"Surely not father! Mother is quite benevolent!" the little boy said.

"See what I mean? I won't be able to hide it from her," he said with a sigh and led his son out of the ward.

"You could have given him another dose," Draco said, stepping up beside her.

Tabitha was still smiling after the two. "Even another half dose would have dropped his intelligence a noticeable amount," she said, "His mother would definitely notice that. Mother's are surprisingly willing not to question a sudden increase in intelligence. She'll probably see it as proof that her baby was a genius all along."

Draco let out a short laugh and looked Tabitha over, causing her to meet his eyes for the first time since her interview for the position. "I agree," he said, "Good instinct, Dolohov."

"Thank you sir," she said, smiling broadly. Draco was appeased to see her genuine appreciation; he did not hand out compliments lightly. He was about to engage her in a bit of conversation about her first few weeks on the job when something caught his attention in his peripheral. Neville was here.

"Excuse me," he said abruptly and immediately left her side to meet with his new friend.

Neville had stopped bringing in plants and begun bringing in things his parents could now officially handle, like pictures. Before they would attempt to break the glass in the frames or tear the pictures apart if he left the glass out. Draco could see a scowling picture of Neville's gran from the top of a pile in brown box of things.

"Hullo, Draco!" he said cheerily as the Healer strode over with a pleasantly affable expression. Neville wasn't quite sure he'd ever get used to it.

Tabitha watched him walk away simultaneously annoyed at the interruption but, once again, floored by admiration for her boss's dedication. She liked being a Healer, even doing the grunt work, but she had yet to find a case she was truly passionate about. Hopefully one day she would be so lucky. In the moment she thought that, though, she immediately felt guilty. Tabitha doubted very sincerely that Draco found himself lucky to have a case such as the Longbottoms' to obsess over. Everyone knew it was his aunt that put those poor people in their insane state; he must have felt terribly guilty.

"Well, someone must be feeling very special," a voice said from behind her. It was Alexei.

Tabitha sighed before turning around. "Oh? I assume you're referring to me. Why do you say that?" she asked.

"A compliment from Malfoy? He's barely even spoken to us at all since we started, much less hand out a compliment," Alexei looked her up and down as she said it and Tabitha resisted the very strong urge to roll her eyes. She had the distinct, disgusting feeling that Alexei was implying that she had gotten the compliment simply because she was a woman. She declined to press further into the conversation and, instead, picked up a new file from the outpatient box, preparing to enter room seven where the patient was waiting.

Across the hall Neville was exiting his parents room with Draco. "I really only wanted to drop off some things," Neville said, "I'm meeting Luna for dinner in half an hour."

"Lovegood? Still?" Draco asked, being as nice as possible in tone. He really couldn't understand that attraction.

Neville smiled sheepishly. "I know, I know…" he said, "But, it's true what they say, you know."

"What do they say?" Draco asked.

"You know, about the strange girls," he continued with a pointed look.

Draco frowned for a moment before his eyebrows shot upwards in understanding. "Really?" he asked, and then couldn't hold in a guffaw, "Well Longbottom, it appears congratulations are in order!"

Neville punched him lightly on the arm. "Oh shut up, Malfoy," he began, but stopped when he saw that Draco's attention had alighted on a female apprentice with long whitish-blonde hair talking to a male apprentice. "Ohhhh so you're interested in someone too then? About bloody time!"

Draco scowled. "You have it backwards," he said, "She's got the crush on me. She went to Hogwarts with us, five years behind, a Ravenclaw. Tabitha Dolohov."

"A Death Eater?" Neville asked.

Draco shrugged. "Her father tortured me," he said absently, "She never knew him, though. Grew up in Sweden."

"You know an awful lot about her…"

Draco fixed a pointed glare at his friend but turned back when he heard Alexei speak.

"So, you know… we're off in about an hour. Fancy going out for a drink?" he asked her.

Neville sensed Draco instantly tense. "You going to do something about that?" he asked him, "Seems kind of like you want to."

"Dolohov!" Draco barked at her. Tabitha and Alexei both jumped in surprise and she left Alexei's side without even a second glance.

"Yes sir?" she asked, jogging over to them. Neville took a step back to let them speak.

"I realize the work day is almost over but I need someone to stay late," he lied, "I'm finishing up a new batch of my Moly potion, I need an apprentice around to help me with a few steps."

Tabitha's eyes widened. She felt genuinely honored. She was going to have the opportunity to work on a refined version on one of the wizarding world's greatest inventions in decades. "O-f course!" she answered instantly, "Yes, I can stay as long as you need."

"Good, find me at the end of your rounds," he said and looked over her shoulder were Alexei was waiting for an invitation himself. "Cronk, you can leave early today. We'll see you tomorrow."

Cronk scowled but slapped his patient files down onto the counter and began to make his way out of the ward.

"Thank you," Tabitha said, "Thank you so much for this opportunity." Luckily he didn't have to say anything in response because she rushed back over to the outpatient file she'd been holding to finish up her remaining rounds as quickly as possible.

"Yeah, great job, not what I meant," Neville said.

"Huh?" Draco asked, redirecting his gaze from Tabitha.

"When I asked if you were going to do something, to break up that date?" Neville reminded, "That's not what I meant."

"I wasn't breaking up the date!" Draco said.

Neville rolled his eyes. "For someone who had way more success with women while we were in school… you sure are clueless about dating these days," he said, preparing to leave.

"I'm not trying to date her! She's my apprentice!" he insisted.

"Sure, well… see you around!" Neville said and left Draco standing there with a barely noticeable blush creeping onto his own features for once.


Sorry for the delay everyone! Hoping to have part four out within this next week as I've hit a major stall in my Avengers fics. But words of encouragement (or critical suggestions) always help to keep me on track, if you want to make sure I get the next chapter out in a week or less. ;) *nudge* In the next chapter, our favorite heros return!