|_|) This pint is for TheRimmerConnection, for another well beta'ed chapter.
(FYI, that's my best attempt at making a little pint of beer.)
Previously… He rubbed her back, soothing her as he felt his body slowly recover. At the very least, he had one moment that would forever be stuck in his head, and it scared the shit out of him just now. It was what Hermione had said as she came: "Draco."
Draco had been watching the black bird on the fire escape's rail since he woke up. The bird would shuffle from side to side, flap its wings to scare off other birds trying to share the rail, except for one bird. The one bird the black bird let stay, was smaller, a female probably. Hope he asked the other birds down at the bird feeder about her, he thought. He would hate to see that bird share his rail, make her a grand nest and stay up late at night protecting their egg, just to get dumped. Heck, the egg probably wouldn't even be his.
Draco groaned, hearing his mother's voice echo in his mind.
"Draco, when did you become so cynical? Yes she hurt you, that won't mean the next will. Now tuck it in and get me a daughter-in-law so I may enjoy some grandchildren." He knew she was half joking when she scolded him. His jaw dropped to the floor the first time he heard his refined, prim and proper mother talk like that. She told him she was trying to sound muggle. "Better for the image post-war,' she told him. He told her to stop trying. He begged her actually.
Fearing the smallest movement would wake Hermione, he lay frozen, watching the bird. He wasn't ready for the day to start; he mostly just feared that if it did, Hermione would regret what had happened. Maybe that would be better. He closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath. She said my name. Yes he had told her he wanted her to scream his name while he pleasured her, but heck, that was just pillow talk. He hadn't realized how much hearing her actually do it would affect him. His eyes popped open and a grin crossed his lips when he heard a moan next to him. Guess she doesn't regret last night, he thought happily. He rolled over and slid his arm across her waist. He froze when her moan turned to a protest. Fan-fucking-tastic, he thought. Looked like his fears were spot on. He rolled onto his back, running his hand through his hair in frustration. Just as he was rolling out of bed, he heard her moan again. He looked back at her, worried. He didn't like that moan. It was a 'right before you puke' moan.
"Pumpkin, you alright?" he asked, rolling back over. Hermione rolled over to face him. Her face flushed with sheen of perspiration across it. He moved a lock of hair off of her face. "You're hot as fire. How do you feel?" he asked, placing his hand on her forehead.
"Like crud. Oh my stomach hurts so much. Everything hurts."
"Do you think it was what you drank last night?" Hermione flinched and nodded.
"I have to get to some of my books. I need to read up on something." Draco shook his head.
"No you don't. You're staying here in bed." He slid out of bed and collected a cold rag and trash can just in case. Once he had Hermione all set up, he left to make tea for her. When he returned to the bedroom, Hermione was asleep again. He set her tea down on the night stand as he heard a knock at the door.
Opening the door, he found a tall Indian woman standing there. She had long straight hair, large almond eyes, and freckles.
"May I help you?" he asked, not trusting the women. She placed her hands on her hips and dropped her head a little, focusing her glare on him. He stepped back instinctively. He knew darn well who this was now. The last time he saw a women with that stance, was at Arthur Weasley's retirement party, when Molly scolded him for some reckless stunt he pulled with a muggle contraption called a 'Go Cart'.
"Honestly." The women groaned as she shook her head. "I rather enjoy Pygmy Puffs while I write to my mother about Yellow Bugger Drops."
Draco nodded.
"I rather enjoy my U-No-Poo while wearing my Flaming Pants," he responded. No sooner did he finish, than he saw the Indian beauty morph into Ginny Weasley. "Get in here," he hissed.
He didn't notice the young child holding onto her hand until he closed the door. "What are you doing here Margaret? he asked, addressing her by her 'code name'. Ginny rolled her eyes.
"You asked me to come yesterday! Please do not tell me you forgot. I rushed a Portkey to get us here. Do you have any idea how many meetings I had to cancel and reschedule to accommodate your request? Not that I'm not excited to see Anna." Draco grinned. Boy he must have put a fire under her bum yesterday when he contacted her and demanded that she arrange a visit for Maggie and Hermione. He looked down at the little dark haired girl. Maggie.
"Hello there." He held out his hand. The little girl smiled and accepted his hand. "My name is James," he said with a grin. She held her chin high, eager to 'play along'.
"My name is Jess, and I like Yellow Bugger Drops." He looked up at Ginny.
"Well James, shouldn't you say, 'Those are mighty fine on a gloomy day'?" Ginny prompted. He agreed, repeating the sentence that would un-charm their appearance to each other. He was in awe of how much he saw Hermione in Maggie. Baby bookworm, he thought to himself, knowing better than to say that out loud.
"James. Is there a reason you're wearing just boxers and I don't see Anna?" Ginny asked, none too pleased.
"She's sick. I just woke up and made her some tea. Haven't had time to change." He was going to leave out where he slept. Didn't need to talk about that in front of the kid.
"Is she okay? Where is she?" Draco pointed to the bedroom. He followed the lady folk in and woke her up. Hermione looked up, concerned when she saw the guest.
"Hey there Pumpkin. You have some visitors," he said, sitting her up. Ginny shifted into full mother hen mode. She checked her temperature with the back of her hand as she reached for the tea that was on the night stand.
"You need to drink this. Do you have any soup? Chicken preferably?" she asked Draco. The deer in the headlights look he gave her was all the answer she needed. She again rolled her eyes and whipped out her wand. She wordlessly flicked her wrist above the night stand. A bowl of chicken broth appeared Ginny took the bowl, and when Draco had coached Hermione to repeat the required phrases, she allowed Ginny to spoon feed her the soup and an endless hug from Maggie. Several minutes later, Ginny cursed and handed the bowl to Draco.
"Damn it. I'm so sorry! I completely forgot!" Ginny yelped, thunking herself on her forehead. Everybody in the room looked at Ginny with questioning looks.
"Magic," she hissed in a whisper. "It'll make her sicker. It was a part of your 'No magic' nonsense. I used it to make the broth, and now her body will reject it. Darn it." She laid Hermione back down. Draco felt a cold shiver of realization. He knew that, bloody hell, he knew that!
"Hand me your wand please," he asked in a cold voice. Ginny hesitated, but handed her wand over. Draco flicked his wrist and murmured. Nothing happened. He nodded and handed the wand back.
"Living muggle make you more of an idiot?" Ginny teased. He shrugged.
"Nope, just wanted to check something. No biggie." Bollocks, no biggie it was a big biggie. If he couldn't perform any magic, last night could be an issue. But the larger question was, whose magic was making her sick if it was not his?
Hermione's eyes fluttered open and looked at Ginny. She pulled her close. "I need my books."
Ginny smiled reassuringly. "Your body will work it out of its system. Don't worry. Just deal with the symptoms. I'll send your man out for soup." Hermione shook her head, ignoring the pain in her head.
"No I need them. Please bring them." Ginny didn't want to argue with Hermione. She felt responsible for the mess she was in. She nodded and stood up.
"Okay. I'll bring them over today. Which ones do you want?" Hermione told her and just as Ginny prepared to leave, her bracelet hummed on her wrist. Ginny swept her wand over the bracelet and read her message. She cursed again.
"James, a moment," Ginny said, point into the hall, leaving mother and daughter. "I have to head up to the Winnipeg office. I need to leave Jess here. I can't take her up with me." Draco watched Ginny slip a vial from her purse and pop the top.
"Don't you dare," he hissed, pointing at the vial. Ginny gave an apologetic smile and swallowed the contents.
"I'll be back by the end of the day. Just keep them safe and keep getting fluids into Anna." He nodded.
"Fine. Be back by the end of the day." Ginny made her way back into the bedroom.
"Little Miss Jess, you remember the thing I told you to do if anything bad or scary happens, right?" Maggie smiled and pulled out the Hello Kitty purse from her pocket.
"Just open it up and hold the string and think of grandmum's," she told the room proudly. Ginny leaned over to Draco.
"Her personal Portkey back to mum. She knows what to do, just tell her when." Ginny kissed Maggie and Hermione on the cheeks. Maggie scooted back under the covers with Hermione.
Draco followed Ginny back out into the living room.
"If you let anything happen, I mean anything, I will hex you so badly you will beg for death." she hissed. "I have no problem doing time in Azkaban," Ginny hissed.
"Oh stop being dramatic Ginger. You wouldn't do time. You'd have your lover boy make it look like an accident." She grinned a little.
"Yeah, he would." Ginny pulled her wand out and was gone. Draco walked to the kitchen to look through the phonebook. Hopefully he could find a restaurant close by which delivered, to bring soup. Fifteen minutes later he dropped the book on the floor and kicked it across the room. Maggie skipped into the room, shook her head when she spotted the phone book and sat down on a chair.
"Mum is sleeping. We should start cooking some soup and brew some tea and make some pudding. She likes custard too. Oh and we should make-" Draco cut the child off there. He was not a chef, nor a house elf.
"I can't do any of that."
"Why not?" Draco had a response on the tip of his tongue, but he swallowed it back seeing little angelic eyes watching him. He sighed.
"I'm sort of banned from the kitchen. My privileges end at opening the icebox." Maggie giggled.
"Why?"
"A series of unfortunate events. None of which were my fault." He leaned against the counter, letting himself get comfortable with the child.
"Like what? Did you spill the juice and it stained? Where's the stain? Your shirt? Is that why you're not wearing one? I spilled on my pretty dress once. Mum was not happy."
"Little more unfortunate than that," he said, ignoring the whole shirt inquiry. He tried tried to avoid looking Maggie in the eyes. He noticed that she used those little angel eyes to get her way. He faltered. "I, um, well I made the stove catch fire." She gasped and covered her mouth. Just like her mother. Great, even in her actions she was a Mini-Granger.
"How?" the little girl squealed.
"I was making a frozen pizza and in my defense the instructions said nothing about removing it from the box and taking it out of the plastic." He rolled his eyes when the little girl bounced up and down, enjoying his misfortunate "Luckily I had a buddy over who helped me out. I cleaned it all up and thought I would get away with your mum not knowing." Draco shook his head and chuckled. "Bob was still laughing about it when your mum and Latisha got back, so she found out. She banned me right then and there from the stove."
"What about the Microwave? You can use that, right?" He shook his head.
"Why?" she squealed, giggling more. Draco rubbed his hand over his face. He groaned and crossed his arms across his chest.
"Burned popcorn. That'll catch fire too, just for your own future reference."
"Wow. I can use the microwave," she said proudly, "I'll help you." He nodded accepting whatever help he could get. Even if it did come from a small child.
"Sure, but we need soup and all of that other stuff. Here, let's make a list." They sat next to each other and wrote their shopping list. Yeah, he thought sarcastically. Shopping.
Hermione shivered as she pulled the blankets tighter around herself. She had mentally compiled a list of several possibilities as to what she and Draco were dealing with, but she needed her books to be sure. These were not normal witches and wizards, they were advanced in magic she wasn't familiar with. She shivered again, this time more violently. Her teeth started to chatter and her body started to tremble. This was more then just her body responding to magic, she thought just as her world went black, and she drifted off to sleep.