A/n: Sorry that it's late! I got sick and things just did not work out time wise. Anyways this chapter is a bit more interesting, and I hope everyone enjoys! Thanks to my betas Tessa Cresswell and JDeppIsMyLovely!


The Gash

Draco had decided the moment after Hermione brushed past him that it was time to return to the unexplained woods behind his ancestral home. He was drawn there like blood to veins, constantly glancing out the massive windows adorning the walls of the Manor to glance back into the shady depths of the trees. In the daytime, light
played tricks on the mind, and he more often than not leapt from his seat someplace in the house after staring at the woods for an obscure amount of time, his eyes having picked out the shadow of the same figure from that night. His misguided impression that the figure was out there just inside the trees, laughing at his immense misfortune never proved to be true. Draco found himself staring into the forest more and more often, hoping that the creature would return searching for its lost victim. If it did come searching, he would be ready to strike and kill

If he knew exactly what it was though, the situation would be easier. Granger continued to try and play elusive the rest of the day, but it did him no good. It was nearly four hours before the Healers were to depart that he called upon an elf to watch over them- and more importantly his boy- while he went out exploring. No questions were asked of course by the loyal servant, and he quickly went on his way in search of the evil in the trees.

Initially, the plan was to fly. He had been out flying just the other day, the day Granger asked to use his library. Now he had her notes of Scorpius safely tucked into his pocket, and he intended to wander the strange land, searching for this attacker. He couldn't travel and search the entire place by any means, but he wanted to get a feel for things. He wasn't sure how many times he would need to journey in there until he found the fucking creature that did this- or at what times of the day he would need to visit- and he wanted to know the way out by heart.

The only problem was, all of his searches continued to turn up with nothing. Standing in the middle of a clearing between the trees, he let out a string of curses. Nothing was turning up, and therefore no progress was being made. He hated getting nothing done, being able to do nothing to help his son, but what could he do? The being was strange if it was posing as a vampire- something that had long since been extinct- and a part of him still thought Granger batty for coming up with this atrocious idea to begin with.

Leaning against a tree, he willed something to attack him in this vulnerable mindset. Absolutely anything at this point would be beneficial; he just wanted to see something that would give him hope in Granger's theory. He needed to have some hope still that Scorpius truly would recover from this. And as the days went on, that belief was slowly diminishing into nothing.


"Don't get too close Hermione; I've told you so a thousand times." She glanced up from Scorpius for a moment to give Adam a pointed look, for yet again he was disrupting her studying by trying to be uncharacteristically worried about her well-being when she stood close to Scorpius- who had been under magical spells to keep him still for days now, so she didn't really understand his concern.

"Shut up already Adam; Merlin knows it wouldn't be a bad thing if we actually got something done for once." She refocused her eyes, again studying the small boy before her. "He's just a child; don't treat him like a monster."

"He is a monster," he demanded, trying to pull her away. But the brunette was firm with her decision to stay close to the harmless individual, and swatted her partner away.

"Nonsense; besides, you probably scare him more when you use offensive terms like that." This time she didn't bother glancing his way, assuming that he very well didn't approve of her mannerisms around the patient. He wasn't a monster, nor a victim; Scorpius Malfoy was a patient like everyone else treated by St. Mungo Healers- even if he was an at home patient- and Adam needed to get over his childish fears and just do his job. "Quit looking at him like that will you? Grab a clipboard and take notes, or why don't you administer some potions to him? Just do something other than stare like a gaping fool! You're supposed to be a professional, one of the best in the business! Yet you're acting like a trainee. You have worked in this business longer than I, so you should be adjusted to the fact that yes, in this field you do encounter things that are completely unorthodox to other people. Now get over it and make yourself useful!"

She didn't turn around to look at him, so she never saw the wizard's grip on his wand tighten. Adam Lincoln had heard too many rumors from other Healers at St. Mungo's about the girl's famous bossy attitude, but had never really been a victim of her behavior until this assignment began. He had more than enough reasons to avoid looking at Scorpius Malfoy or helping her, and he would continue to uphold those reasons until a time came when he could no longer stand around and slide by on the lack of information possessed. He had one purpose for being assigned to this specific case, and so long as he continued to be of use he could keep his position as a Healer for the Manor; the pay for in house visits daily was excellent, and he was quite comfortable with his assignment so long as he could continue to steer her onto the wrong track of thoughts.

Oh, it would be comically easy to take advantage of her naïve mindset right now and remove the brilliant girl as an issue from the equation; he could always stage it to look like the Malfoy heir broke free of the binds on him and killed her, but instead of doing anything at all Adam shoved his wand into his pocket and walked over stiff legged. For now, it wouldn't do to cause more problems.

Although he opted to only give the appearance of working, Adam found himself studying the girl across from him more than the boy he was supposed to have as a patient. It was no lie that he was brutal with her, often neglecting the fact that he might be administering pain to her physical body whenever he was trying to simply move her from one location to another. It wasn't that he felt bad about leaving a few small bruises here and there on someone who simply could not stand to be overpowered by anyone but more so that she interested him. Sure, she was beautiful- and very much single- but it was more than that. Hermione Granger above all else was keeping secrets, secrets that his connections within the Ministry did not know themselves. She was a curiosity because not everything was known about her as one would like to assume. The girl was hiding something big- which more than likely was the reason for her constant tardiness to numerous events and meeting- and he intended to figure out what that was.

It could end up being a messy process, but it was a process Adam was more than willing to go through with. And at long last he finally came up with something to say that wouldn't seem suspicious.

"You take far too many repetitive notes Hermione," he noted, barely getting her to glace up at him. "Don't you think it's a waste of time? Nothing ever changes with this one."

"Well, we'll never be positive that something does change unless we take thorough notes," she snapped in return, again checking Scorpius with a spell.

"Or perhaps you take so many notes because you have a habit of being late?" That quickly caught her attention. She straightened up and looked at him, pointing a finger.

"Can you at least attempt to be professional Adam? I mean really. This is your job; you can at least try to give a damn. Now stop badgering me! You may not care that the Malfoy family is suffering, but I don't believe that anyone deserves this kind of misery." Rolling her eyes, she resumed watching the boy.

Her co-worker tensed, attempting to not reach down, grab his wand and tie her to something. He would do anything at this point to get some fucking answers from her! But his position would not allow him to do that, and it would draw too much attention if Hermione Granger suddenly turned up dead and bloody one night. This case was strange enough and he had been instructed more than enough times to know that failure to suppress information was not an option. The boy may not be able to hex her, but he could divert her.

"Do you know if Malfoy had decided to allow the Aurors to search the grounds?"

Hermione looked up at this, a frown on her face. "I didn't actually realize they were pressing to do so."

"Of course they are! Look at how much coverage this little story had; think of all the reporters that you shoo off on a daily basis not because you're Harry's friend but because you're one of the Head Healers on this case. The Malfoy's are rich, and with a shattered marriage as the result of this, everyone wants to know every detail. But you and I know that's not the reason the Aurors would push for the right to explore private property."

"Well, I'm certain if the Ministry decided to break the law and begin searching the grounds Malfoy would be more than happy to use those old, horrid methods of exterminating trespassers' from your property; he never was that friendly." She shrugged. "I suppose that's one reason why the Ministry isn't pushing their way in yet. Malfoy would be a force to be reckoned with."

"Indeed," he agreed, pleased to see that she saw all the same problems everyone else did. "That doesn't excuse the fact though that something on this property did cause this boy to end up in this bloody state, and perhaps if officials could simply investigate the problem something worthy could be done about it. If someone else in Britain suffers the same fate, Draco Malfoy will be sued simply for not letting things be fixed while the problem is still minor."

The brunette huffed. "I hardly think this is minor." Shoving some papers together to stack, she chanted some spells and watched the results pop up above the body. As usual, nothing had changed. "Do you have your investigation notes prepared for Mr. Williams today? I doubt he will be forgiving if we show up with rubbish."

"I do," he agreed, moving closer. When he stood just behind her he placed his hands lightly on her waist, pulling her back towards him. The alarmed witch spun around, and he locked her against him. "And what exactly have you been investigating down in that library lately Hermione?"

"Nothing," she hissed, moving herself several steps away from him. His arms dropped to his side and he watched her retreat with a darkened expression on his face. "I'll make my presentation to Williams about my progress, and you will do the same."

"Yes," he bit out. "I was only curious-"

"Something tells me Adam that you are far too curious for your own good! Now keep this professional! It's embarrassing enough that we've been arguing in front of the patient this entire time. We don't know if his brain is processing things differently or not, and he still could've understood everything we just said!" She shook her head at him, hugging herself. "Now if you'll excuse me, why don't you run some tests on Scorpius, and I'll disappear down to that library again and continue my private research, thank you very much!" She brought her stuff to her and stormed past her partner, muttering something about nerves the entire way. When the door slammed shut, he chuckled.

"She's easy to anger, isn't she?" he said, speaking to no one in particular. He knew Scorpius wouldn't reply, and turned back to pat the child's head. Instead of attempting to lash out at him like everyone else, the boy shrank back into the mattress as far as he could, fearful eyes looking up at Adam. "Don't worry boy, we'll train you soon too, when everyone realizes there's no hope left for you."


She was scrambling through books, checking all the rubbish bins and under the chairs to see if she could locate it. One of her pages of notes had recently disappeared, and she really needed it back before she presented it to her boss. It was terrifying to think that part of her long hours of work had been for nothing, and now that the paper was gone there was no guarantee that she would remember everything from it for when she presented to her boss. If she couldn't get him to at least acknowledge the idea, then she would be utterly screwed. If he didn't believe her and thought she was losing her mind, she could quickly become a patient to St. Mungo's instead of an employee.

Hermione sat down on a chair and rubbed her temples. She wanted to help Scorpius, she really did. But now she was being careless and losing things, so she was creating more problems than solving, and that wasn't her job. Every time she glanced down at the child she thought she could see pain in the depths of his eyes- and fear, instead of the monstrous physique people now pegged him with. She couldn't imagine how hard it would be for him to be reintroduced into society when things did get fixed. Considering how difficult it was for Remus to exist among the wizards and witches of Britain without being judged and shunned, she pitied the youngest Malfoy. No one deserved to be ridiculed for differences they had no control over. And although Malfoy did have the funds to educate his son from the structure of his own home, she didn't think that was the answer. He would never be social; he would never have any real friends if that were the case. Even the little brat Lizzy would grow up and forget about him if he never left his home. The child would have to overcome many obstacles when they did finally cure him- else toned down how severe his changes were- before he could exist among others, and it was sad. No child deserved to have their childhood squandered by uncontrollable forces.

She laid her head down on the table after a few more minutes of searching. That section of the notes was gone, and for the life of her she couldn't recall exactly what book those facts had come from. She had too many other things on her mind to be concerned about that.

The soft tap of footfalls on a wood floor alerted her of another presence, and she lazily lifted her head to see Malfoy stopping in front of her table.

"I don't believe you are paid to lie around Granger." As she took in his appearance, she sat up straighter. The last time she saw him dirty had only been a few days ago, but now he was filthy. It was surprising to think that Malfoy could even stand wandering into the presence of others while covered in so much grime, but for a moment she didn't question it. She was too busy staring at the gash marks on his cheek.

"Did you go see your son just now?" she asked slowly, rising from her chair. His eyebrows drew together as she scurried around the table and stopped next to him, reaching up a hand to touch his new cuts on his face. He caught her hand inches from his skin, glaring down the bridge of his nose at her.

"Don't touch me," he snapped. "We all know I don't much like that."

"Where did you get these scars though?" she continued, as though he didn't hear. Scorpius had small hands, meaning small nails, meaning he didn't leave incredibly fat gashes, just deep. But these appeared to be long and deep, and hadn't yet received proper medical attention. In fact it looked like all Malfoy had done to stop the bleeding was a half assed spell to stop the blood, but it did nothing about the dried red crusts on his skin. "Don't you at all care that you look like shit right now?"

His eyes widened a hair, but he didn't seem very offended by the comment. Now she knew for certain that something was wrong, for usually he had many things to say to her whenever she attempted to insult him. "Not at this moment."

Sighing at his reply, she pulled out her wand with her opposite hand. His eyes widened again at that, but she quickly shut him up. "Don't start complaining Malfoy, I'm just going to heal it. It is my job after all." One quick tap on his cheek and the marks were healed up. "You might consider cleaning it though so that you don't have to destroy your skin to get that dried blood off. Merlin, how long have you let that sit? The outside looks a bit infected. You should definitely let me find you a potion for-"

"I'm fine," he snapped, shoving her away. "It might be your job to baby people Granger, but I don't need it. I need you worrying about my son, not me."

She nodded tightly, just once. "I was trying to do that actually before you barged in-"

"It's my library."

"Whatever. I'm looking for a sheet of notes actually. I must've left it here last night, but I can't seem to find it. I actually needed it, and it won't do me any good to have to look for the same book again. I want to have everything in order for later."

"What's later?" he asked, attempting to sound curious. He wasn't actually, but he did wish to know if the set of notes she happened to be looking for was the sheet he had located.

"I need to see my boss later about the progress we've made with your son," she replied with a sigh, beginning to look again. "If we can't show that improvements have been made or that we have a half decent theory, then he is going to replace us with two new Healers-"

Draco stopped her there, scoffing. "More new Healers? Well that's about the last thing that needs to be done! Your fucking boss seems to assume that my son can just adjust to anything at any time, but that's not true! There are enough issues happening here right now, and if your so called boss believes that it will be at all beneficial to again try and adjust new Healers to this situation, as well as adjust my son to them, then he is unfit to be in charge. Besides, this isn't an attraction; the more people the come here, the more requests I get from newspapers to do interviews. Can you believe that? What kind of person would do an interview and report out their son's private life when he can barely move? I'm sick of new people coming here Granger. Now what are these fucking notes that we are looking for, so I can perhaps help you? I'll be damned if things get changed up again."

She was completely caught off guard by the passion in his voice. She had realized from the start that Malfoy honestly cared about his son more than anything in the world, but he had never before displayed that much emotion towards anything in her presence. He had to be extremely frustrated and bothered to be allowing her to see him display those sorts of emotions. She didn't understand what it was like to be helpless for one's child, but she did know what it was like to be helpless to help someone you love.

"Okay," she said slowly, nodding her head. "Okay then, if you would like to help, I could use it. It's on a page about this long," she continued, indicating a size with her hands, "And it's covered on both sides-"

"Don't you think it would be more productive to simply tell me what's on it?" he asked, shaking his head. "It could save us some time."

She bit her lip. Telling Malfoy that she believed his son was a vampire would probably earn her a slew of cuss words angled in her direction and a declaration that he really would prefer someone new to help his son now. "Let's just say, it reads like mythology." As she turned her back to begin looking and avoid questions, she missed his slight smirk. So she was still stuck on that delusion, hmm?

But the problem was, now so was he. The very idea of a vampire in the depths of his woods seemed irrational but not impossible once one looked at all the features that could make the place out to be an excellent home for the night demon. He could not deny that his search that day in the woods had been solely for people with the palest of skin- even paler than his own. But that search turned up in vain, and he was left with nothing but a peculiar cut on his cheek, one he didn't entirely remember how he got it. Now that was an oddity in itself. He was usually quite aware when he went exploring, so why would he forget something so blaringly obvious. He had no answer though, and instead opted to forget about that for the time being. Her notes were after all in his pocket, and moving he quickly stuck them into the cushion of an extravagant chair, one near enough to Granger that he was sure she would check it soon.

Of course he was correct, and a few moments later the woman was jumping up in relief. "Thank Merlin I found it!" She turned and even beamed in his direction, and that's when he knew they had to be fairly important to her. "I don't know what I would've done without these."

"Well, now we don't have to find out," he commended. Her eyes fell back to his cheek, and he huffed. "If it would make you feel better Granger, you can get me some of that bloody potion, alright?"

Hermione nodded her agreement to that idea. "You're going to want it by the looks of it. What did you do, throw yourself into the dirt? You're dirty, but the dirt looks embedded in your skin." She moved forward to touch him once more, and once more he caught her hand. She glanced down. "Forgot you hate to be touched," she snapped.

He let her go. "Quite. Now can we get on with this? I do have other things to do."

The brunette rolled her eyes, turning away from the boy as she shoved the notes into her pocket. "Sorry, I forgot that I'm cutting into your annual drinking hour. My mistake."

He had half a mind to spin her and scream at her for having the idiocy to speak to him like that, but he held his tongue. It wouldn't help to have them arguing, and besides, he was beginning to feel an odd twinge in his neck. Perhaps he just needed to get her out of his hair and sit down for a bit.

As they exited the library, both failed to ever get the feeling of being watched. They were so caught up in their own common banter that neither had the time to sit there and get the creepy feeling one gets when they feel like they are being watched. Neither experienced the shivers coursing down their spine, nor the odd chills. Instead, they both failed to look out the large, open windows to the haunted figure displaying itself outside the trees.

They didn't look at the dead skin, the sharp teeth, or the killer eyes. If they had only paid some attention, they could've looked into the eyes of Scorpius's attacker. But instead, they neglected to look out. And from his ideal position on the grass outside the woods, the creature laughed. It was getting away with so very many things tonight, right under the noses of the very humans who deemed themselves superior.


The meeting between Hermione and her boss did not go well. Not only did he laugh at her, he gave her a very limited window of time to present something "of use" as he put it to him before he booted her off the case. But this specific case paid in more money than any other job she had ever had because it was on a private residence, and in her financial situation the money was crucial. Now she was more stressed than ever to have some sort of major breakthrough, be it with Scorpius specifically or the research that she was doing that could be used to help the young blonde; whichever came first. She wasn't going to be picky.

And to make matters worse, Adam went just before her with his introduction of ideas to their boss and the man just loved his careful research and precision each time he attempted anything new to help the boy. To say she was fuming would be an understatement, considering that Adam more often than not stood as far away from Scorpius as possible and glowered at the child. He got all the credit, yet she did all the work and was told she would have to do more to even be considered smart enough to be on the case! Adam was snaking by with little to no work, and it bothered her to the core. But as soon as she brought up the topic, both men shushed her. If this wasn't a sign that she was being ganged up on and conspired against, she didn't know what was.

Dropping all of her notes on the worn couch of her apartment, she took off the patchwork green coat she always wore. Piles of mail adored her living room table, and she quickly headed out to find the newest letters. But of course, among the piles of muggle ads wanting her to still go to a college, were all the letters about payments that were overdue. It made her heart sink when she had collected all the letters looking for payments, horrified at the amount of debt that she was creating for herself. It wasn't her fault though, and though it couldn't really be helped it dropped her spirit. Days and days of working from dawn until dusk would do nothing to help dig her out of the whole lot, and she made more new payments to make each month. She would likely have to be kicked from her home if she decided to keep paying all those medical letters, but what else could she do? She would not let them die.

A part of her almost wanted to be like Malfoy that night, and give into the desire to drown one's sorrows in a bottle of liquor. But she was stronger than that, and didn't even have the bottle to do so. That would require going out and spending money, money she did not have. Malfoy could drink his life away, simply because he had the funds to do so. She didn't think he should, but he could if he wanted, and that was the sad part; he could do whatever he wanted with his life, even die. She couldn't die; she had too many responsibilities.

And those responsibilities were causing a headache. Now that she had verbally been beaten down at work, her confidence was not so high. Maybe she should call Ron or Harry and ask to spend the night just so she wasn't all alone, but she shooed the idea away. They had their own families, and didn't need to be worrying about her.

So she shoved all the mail away and hurried down to her room, stripping along the way. She dropped her clothes whenever she got them off, and by the time she had gotten to her bed she was completely naked. Throwing herself under the covers, she shoved her tears back.

Sometimes in moments like these, she wanted someone to be there to hold her, and lie that everything would be alright. But nothing would be alright; she had accepted that fact. She needed to stop paying the hospital, accept the fact that they were indeed gone and bury the bodies. But she couldn't do that; she couldn't fathom facing a reality like that.

And on top of everything else, she had Malfoy's family issues to worry about as well.


That night he had made the executive decision to sleep in Scorpius' room on the floor near the bed, just like he did when the child had nightmares- or he couldn't stand seeing Astoria's face upstairs. But tonight he wanted to do so simply to be close to his child, even if the boy wouldn't allow him to touch him.

But he still had that horrible headache. Before retiring to the uncomfortable position of the hard floor, he had decided it was time to shower and take more of the potion Granger had given him to help with his cut. But the gash was healed now, and the blood had been cleared away. A quick shower would hopefully calm his nerves, and then he could go lie on the floor and reminisce about times less complicated.

He noted that as he got out of the shower that the water stung his neck, and decided to check that out. It was probably just a scrape he had acquired while out and it could be easily healed. But as he brushed his short hair behind his ear to have a better look, his heart stopped.

Now there certainly had not been two puncture holes there before his departure, two holes that were slightly red still. Granger's notes popped into his mind, and a million thoughts jumped out at that.

"Well shit. Now I'm going to have to owl Granger."