A/N: Thank you for all the lovely reviews and support! Also a big thanks to FanofBellaandEdward for proof-reading this for me!
Chapter Nine:
Thailand and Tea
"Cousin Draco! Cousin Draco! Hurry up it's time to watch Dr. Who!"
Draco grumbled and turned away from the high-pitched excitement of his little cousin bouncing around his bedroom, Seeker barking along with him. If dogs could grin, Seeker was wearing a shit-eating one right now. Draco grunted again and burrowed further under his covers. "Go away you little brat or I'll get rid of the TV!"
Teddy gasped and stopped bouncing on the end of the bed. Draco smirked under his covers before the air was knocked out of him by Teddy collapsing down next to him. Seeker huffed and settled back down onto the floor. The air was silent until Teddy spoke up in a quieter voice, "Cousin Draco are we going to take Harry to the new healer today?"
Draco sighed softly before pulling the covers down and rolling over onto his back. He stretched his arm out so that Teddy could wriggle over and rest his head sideways onto Draco's chest. He wrapped his arm around Teddy's shoulders, hugging him close. "Yes, love, that's what we plan on doing. This new healer thinks he can make Harry better."
"Not like the last ones?" Teddy grumbled.
"No," Draco smiled thinly, "Not like the last ones. You like this healer, don't you? He looks after you and your Grandmother."
Teddy nodded with renewed vigour, "Yes he's nice to us. He makes me feel good."
"You see?" Draco smiled pressing a kiss to the child's dull blonde hair, "He knows not to mess with us. I promise you Harry will be better."
Teddy turned up to Draco with those eyes -Harry's eyes. So familiar and yet so solemn in the face of a ten-year-old. His breath caught in his throat. "Uncle Harry always said to never make promises you can't keep."
Draco nodded, "I know, love." He wrapped his arms around Teddy and cuddled him close, rocking gently. He gave one final squeeze before leaning away, "Why don't you go put on 'Dr Who' and I'll make us some breakfast?"
Teddy gave a small smile, "Okay. Come on Seeker!" his hair flashed bright blue as he hopped off the end of the bed, Seeker hurrying after him. Draco watched them go with a small smile before heaving a heavy sigh and shifting to get out of bed. He'd agreed to look after Teddy on this particular day whilst Andromeda talked things over with the family lawyer. She would be coming over around midday to get Draco to sign the necessary papers before they went to meet Dr. Jacob at the hospital. He couldn't wait to see the look on the healers' faces when they took Harry out of St. Mungo's.
Raking a hand through his hair he padded through the apartment to the kitchen where he started to make dippy eggs and toast soldiers. Harry had loved making it for Teddy's breakfast, and Draco refused to break with their little tradition. He was just pouring himself a cup of black coffee with two sugars -he needed it for the day he was going to have -when there was a knock on the door. Glancing at the clock he frowned. 10:10am. Andromeda was far too early.
"Here you go, Teddy. Don't spill anything on the sofa," he warned as he carried Teddy's breakfast to him and set it down on the coffee table with a glass of orange juice.
"Thank you Draco!" he chirruped, his eyes instantly glued back to the TV screen. Draco ruffled his hair and went to answer the front door.
As soon as he opened the door he was almost forced back as Hermione strolled through the door without an invitation. Ron edged inside looking as though he didn't know if he should be there at all. He caught Draco's eye and gave a sigh and a helpless shrug before giving the blonde enough room to close the front door.
"Please come in," he drawled before closing the door with a firm slam. He came to the end of the hallway where Hermione was standing with her hands on her hips. Her few fly-away hairs were clearly the result of a firm wind. The smell of cold air clung to both of them. "To what do I owe this displeasure?" he finally asked when it was clear that Hermione was simply waiting for him to bait her.
Hermione huffed as though he'd just observed something pathetic. "You know perfectly well what. A certain healer has told me that you had another doctor come in to check on Harry."
"So what?" Draco said, looking between the two of them; Hermione looked offended and Ron just looked as though he was defeated in the matter. 'At least one of them learns,' Draco thought bitterly. He folded his arms across his chest, "I am allowed to get a second opinion on my fiancées health, Hermione."
"Why do you need a second opinion? The healer's know what they're doing, Draco!"
"Do they now?" he asked calmly, frowning over at her. His tone had clearly stunned her, making her clamp her mouth shut. She didn't know what he knew. Of course she didn't. "Well then would you like to tell me why it appears since he was put into the coma that they haven't checked on him? They've given him a cursory glance at best!"
"You're exaggerating!" she cried.
"I AM NOT!" He hadn't meant to shout, not with Teddy in the next room, but her attitude was really grinding on his nerves, especially at such an early hour. "Harry is in the hospital day after day; he's not getting any treatment, he's just THERE! No medication, no treatment, no CARE! So I'm sorry if I've offended you, Hermione, I truly am that I give two shits about what state of life my husband is going to have!"
"Are you saying I don't care!" she snapped back, her shrill voice ripping through the air.
"Hermione enough!" Ron shouted, his loud voice stunning her into silence. Draco let himself deflate a fraction as all eyes turned to the redhead. He was frowning heavily between the two of them, before turning to his wife. "Hermione, let's be realistic here. Maybe Draco has a point."
"I do?"
"What?" she asked quietly, her voice showing just how angry she was.
"Well let's think about it; we haven't even seen him since he was last admitted. We haven't checked his charts or been there day after day, like Draco has. Maybe it's not such a bad idea to get a second opinion on how to care for him."
"Ron, we don't need more help or opinions!" she stressed, "If there was more we could do, the healer's would have told us by now!"
Draco rolled his eyes at that. Even Ron looked close to doing the same. "Hermione, don't you think that this is the logical solution? When you trial a new medication or try to pass a new law, do you make just one strategy? No; you have a plan A and a plan B and C just in case the first one is wrong, or doesn't go as planned."
"But ..." she stopped and dropped her eyes to the floor. Her eyes looked shiny but from his current angle Draco couldn't be certain. He was still in shock that Ron had said something logical for a change. Normally he cowed in such situations.
The heavy atmosphere was shattered by a meek little voice saying, "Draco?"
All eyes turned to see Teddy peering around the corner of the hallway, his hair a shock of glossy white hair. His large eyes were wide and blue, making him look even younger. Draco felt his anger get stamped down as he brushed passed a guilty looking Hermione to crouch down in front of the young boy. "Sorry, love, did we disturb your show?"
Teddy nodded before giving a dark look over at Hermione. "Yes," he replied tightly. He looked back to Draco and bit his lip before asking, "They're not coming to see Uncle Harry, are they?"
Draco gave a stiff smile before shaking his head, "No, Teddy-bear, they won't."
"Good," the boy sniffed, "I don't want Uncle Harry getting upset." He turned with another dark look up at the two Weasley's before returning to the living room and his TV show.
Draco sighed and ran a hand down his face before he cast a silencing charm around them. He turned back to look at Ron who looked as though he felt horrible whereas Hermione had shed a tear. "Draco, I'm so sorry I had no idea he was here!" she wept.
"Get out," he replied darkly, his voice low and menacing as he lifted his eyes to glare at her.
"Draco I'm sorry! It was an accident! I didn't know you were looking after him again!" her lips trembled and tears hurried down her pink cheeks.
He rolled his eyes, "Why would you? The last few weeks have been nothing but you barging into my life this way and that and trying to insist that you know what's best for Harry. You need to accept that those days are long, long gone."
"He's right, Hermione," Ron murmured agreeably.
"But he can't be!" she stressed in a softer tone, her cheeks flushing pink and her eyes watering even more.
"Why not?" Draco asked stiffly before frowning deeper, "Why are you so desperate for me to be wrong?"
She raked a hand through her hair, "Because if I'm wrong about ... about ... Well everything, then that means you were right!"
"Y-e-s," he answered slowly, glancing briefly at Ron to try and gauge what she meant. "I still don't understand."
"Don't you see?" she rubbed at her eyes, "If I was wrong then that means I've made you waste precious time that could have been used to get him proper help and care!"
Ron reached over and pulled his wife into a hug against his chest. She curled herself into him and unleashed the tears and wailing that she'd clearly pent up for a while. Draco was suddenly very glad he'd cast the silencing charm. He leaned against the wall, his temples throbbing a little as he let Ron calm her down. After another while she finally stood up on her own, wiped her cheeks and eyes down before inhaling deeply to try and properly calm herself.
"Would you like a cup of tea?" he finally asked, the fight leaving him.
"I think we all need one," Ron finally said as Hermione nodded and sniffed through what could have been a very awkward laugh.
Draco waved his wand and removed the silencing charm. He waved the two of them into the kitchen before turning to go back into the living room where Teddy was slouched over, empty plate in front of him, and glaring at the end credits of 'Dr. Who'. "I'm sorry you had to hear that, kiddo," he finally said, slouching down beside the child.
"It's fine," he grumbled.
"I know it's not, but I want to say sorry anyway. How about tonight we watch a movie with some ice cream? Your choice." Bribery, the lowest of the low, but he was desperate.
Teddy shrugged a shoulder before muttering, "'Kay." Draco was about to leave when Teddy wriggled over and settled against Draco's chest under his arm. He wrapped his arm around Teddy's shoulders and hugged him close.
He buried his nose into the kid's soft blue hair and sighed, "I promise it will get better, Teddy-bear." Teddy didn't reply, he merely squeezed Draco back as hard as he physically could.
~0~
"I feel ridiculous!" Draco's voice resounded from the other side of the curtain.
"You don't have to buy them!" Harry called back as he idly plucked at a price label on a nearby item and mentally trying to convert the currency. "I just said it would probably be a good idea for you to get at least two pairs!"
"They are idiotic!" snapped the blonde.
Harry rolled his eyes and wondered away from the changing rooms. They had gone to a shopping centre as soon as they'd gotten to Thailand a few days later. There was a small part of him that was just as bored as Draco; however he did need to do something. He needed to buy some extra things for himself, even if it was just a silly t-shirt. Harry had googled things on his phone and had found some beautiful botanical gardens and thought it would make some lovely memories to send off to Narcissa.
"Either buy them or don't buy them!" Harry finally snapped back, his face splitting into a dopey grin, most likely due to the heat wave Thailand was currently experiencing. "Can you just make up your mind so we can go? Lot's to do and very little time to do it in!"
"Fine!" came the grumpy response. There was the sound of clothes being thrown around and finally, the curtain snapped back to reveal an incredibly irate and pink Draco Malfoy holding two pairs of beach shorts in his hand. His knuckles were flashing white. Harry almost felt sorry for the shorts. "There, these are the two least offensive," he tossed the shorts over at Harry who, luckily, caught them before they got dirtied on the floor.
"Least offensive?" Harry eyed the shorts he was holding, "What did you leave behind?"
"Something that looked like your Weasel's had vomited on them," the blonde sneered under his breath.
Harry rolled his eyes but didn't rise to the bait. Instead he took the shorts over to the counter and, after a lot of awkwardness, managed to pay for the shorts and left with what he hoped was the correct change. The heat outside was stifling. Harry felt as though his breath had been ripped from his chest. Draco on the other hand looked like he had been dropped in boiling water.
"Can we stop somewhere?" Harry finally tugged on his arm, pulling the blonde to a stop.
"What for?" he asked as they came to a stop in the shade of a large apartment complex.
"Sun-cream, obviously. You might want to look like a sunburned strawberry, but I'm not prepared to have any memories like that going to your mother."
Draco eyed him shrewdly for a moment before relenting and taking the rucksack off his back, "Fine, I don't exactly want my mother to look at me like that. I don't like the idea of her seeing me in these hideous shorts," he sneered, holding the bag with the offending garment aloft, "However, I am prepared to make that sacrifice. Having my skin turning red is another matter."
Harry snickered lightly as the blonde rubbed cream into his skin. The brunette snickered as he did the same, "Not to mention it would clash horribly with your hair."
Draco glared down at the brunette before he rubbed cream into his face. "There, I'm ready. Let's get a move-on. We have a lot to do today and I want to make it to Turkey by at least seven tonight so we can relax."
Harry nodded, "I think that sounds like a great idea. Do you want to shrink the bags down smaller with a weightless charm?"
Casting a quick look down either end of the alley, Draco pressed up against the side-wall and hissed, "Alright but quickly. Let's try not getting caught okay?"
The brunette boy was cautious as he deftly added a weightless charm and shrunk the back a little more to make it more manageable for the blonde. "There all done," he patted the rucksack, slipping his wand in the holster he kept strapped to his leg out of sight under his chinos, and together they walked out of the alley and headed towards the bustling wide strip of glowing shop windows, tall, shining buildings and flashing billboard images.
"Bloody hell this is all so bright!" Draco stated, his eyes roaming over all the bright images flashing back and forth on the sides of the buildings.
"I wasn't expecting this," Harry said as he pulled a face, the brightness and tightly packed crowd of people making him feel like he was about to be trampled to death. Glancing over at Draco's perplexed face, he decided to take charge. "Alright come on, the train leads down to the gardens should be down this way, and if you want we can stop off to get something to eat down there?"
"What will we eat?" Draco asked, wrinkling his nose.
"We'll find something for you. We can get something ... Like noodles. It won't fill you up but we can have a bigger meal tonight."
The blonde man didn't say a whole lot as they made their way over to the tram-stop and waited for one to take them to the botanical gardens. Once they got there they bought an afternoon pass for the gardens and spent their time enjoying the large, whimsical plants that didn't even breathe the same air as British plants. The koi ponds that were dotted around the greenery were accompanied by the gentle sound of trickling water. It truly was breath taking.
Harry even took the camera out of his bag and snapped a few muggle photos of Draco crouching down in his quarter-lengths and dipping his fingers into the pond. He looked truly happy. It was a sight so rare that Harry needed to preserve it forever.
Later that afternoon, once they'd walked around the majority of the gardens, they stopped off at a small cafe on-site and decided to try some of the safest sounding foods. Despite the fact that they ended up eating squid and tuna which Draco was not too fond of. Salmon, he would've preferred but he tried not to complain too much since Harry was the one paying.
By the time they had snacked, paid, eaten and seen everything they'd wanted to see, they decided to get the tram back to where they'd apparated in to. They returned to the same alley with the new co-ordinates for their resort in Turkey. As the sun cast long, bloody shadows long the roads a little way away from them, Draco smiled down at Harry, "That was certainly an adventure ... But I can't wait to get into a nice, soft bed!"
"We'll be there soon. Grab onto the port-key. One ... Two ... Three!"
With a crack they were gone.