So I just need your opinions on something. Are you guys okay reading up to chapter fifteen, chapter sixteen, chapter seventeen, etc? Or should I end this story soon and start a sequel, or just a whole new one altogether? I really am not sure what I want to do.
I'd love to hear what you have to say about this! Thank you!
Chapter Eleven: DTs
…
Draco woke up the next morning with heaviness in his chest as he thought about how he'd have to go the day without a drop of alcohol. This thought almost made him not want to get out of bed and knowing how pathetic that thought was, he forced himself up and got in the shower. The only thing that was helping him do this was Hermione. He knew that she could help him but first, he had to get back on her good side.
After he showered and got dressed, he grabbed his bag with his books and papers that he'd need and then apparated on the Grounds of the school before he opened the door into the Entrance Hall and started towards the faculty lounge. He ignored the uneasy looks from the other professors and was grateful when he finally made it inside the lounge.
"Hey, you showed up!"
Draco looked up to see Harry walk inside with Hermione at his side, her arm no longer in a cast but the shoulder brace was still on. Guilt started to eat away at him again and he made sure that he didn't look at her for too long.
"Yeah, I made it. Do you think we could do without the patronizing?" Draco gave a small smirk so Harry didn't think that he was upset at him.
"Alright, I'll stop. How are you feeling? Do you think you can teach your class today?"
Draco shrugged and sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I kind of have to, don't I? If I want to keep my job and all…."
"Well I just want to make sure that you're not going to break out into delirium tremors or anything midway through the class."
Draco chuckled and shook his head. "Please, give me some credit. I wouldn't say I'm a full blown alcoholic yet. I don't have DTs; I just have urges now and again for liquor. I think I'll make it."
Harry smiled and patted his hand on Draco's back encouragingly. "Great. I'm going to drop Hermione off at the library and then I'm going to sit in on your class. Afterwards, I figured we could go down to Hogsmeade and stop at The Three Broomsticks for lunch."
Hermione smiled softly at Harry, nodding and then glanced at Draco before biting her lip nervously. She missed the old him and wanted him back, but she didn't know if he might fly off the handle at any given moment because of his alcohol withdrawal.
"Sounds like a plan. I'll meet you in the Dungeons."
Harry nodded and then led Hermione out before starting down the corridor towards the Library. Draco poured himself a cup of coffee and took a sip before he took a deep breath, already thinking about using magic to conquer a small bottle of firewhiskey to add to his morning brew. He pushed the thought out of his head and then finished his coffee semi-quickly before making his way down to the Dungeons.
He listened to the passing students discuss their worries about the upcoming Defense Against the Dark Arts test and other students were already talking about who their date would be for the Christmas Ball at the school. Draco entered his classroom and got out his book and the papers he had graded, mentally making a note to re-teach how to make a Deflating draught.
"Still feeling alright?"
There were still a few minutes before class was supposed to start so Draco was surprised when he heard a voice but then realized it was Harry. He looked at him skeptically. "Are you going to ask me that every time you see me?"
"I'm sorry for caring, Draco. Would you rather I just ignore you for the entire day? Cut me some slack. I'm just trying to help you," Harry replied, sitting down on the bench in the first row.
"I know," Draco was quiet for a few moments before he spoke again. "What about your class? Don't you have it at the same time as mine?"
"I have a substitute filling in for me, Neville, to be exact."
Draco laughed softly and shrugged. "Well, I have to say he's gotten better and he's not as clumsy with a wand as he was in our first year."
"He's really good now. It's amazing how far he's come. Well, I'll just sit over here in the corner and let you do your job," Harry said as students starting piling into the classroom. "If you need me, let me know."
"Okay, thank you, Professor Potter," Draco smirked.
Harry smirked back and rolled his eyes before he walked over to Draco's desk in the corner of the front of the room and sat down.
"Alright, settle down now. Class is about to start. Now, your tests were average but some of you still need to work on your Deflating draught. We'll practice doing that in class today…"
Harry watched Draco put everyone into groups of three around cauldrons and listened to him talk to each group individually. As Draco walked over to another group, Harry noticed that his hands were shaking slightly and even though the dungeons were chilly, there were beads of sweat on Draco's forehead. He was wrong. He was having delirium tremors from the sudden withdrawal. He sat back in the chair, sighing to himself now, unable to wait until Draco finished his class but somehow managed to.
"Hey, are you feeling okay, man?"
Draco wiped his forehead on his teaching robe sleeve now and looked at Harry. "No, I really don't. I'm feeling a bit nauseous and my hands won't stop shaking…"
Harry watched as the classroom began to empty and then looked at Draco. "Alright, I have a new plan. I don't think this is going to work if you try to stop drinking all at once, so… I'm going to moderate your alcohol intake, a little each day until we can wean you off of it for good."
"That sounds great and all but I feel like I'm going to die right now. Why don't you go get Hermione and I'll meet you in the Entrance Hall?"
"Are you sure you don't want me to come with you?"
"Yeah, I'll be okay. I won't take long," Draco promised before he gave Harry a gentle squeeze on his shoulder and then hurried out of the classroom before he made it into a staff bathroom and headed for one of the stalls just in time to empty his stomach of the coffee he had had this morning.
Harry watched his friend leave and ignored the pit of worry in his stomach to go find Hermione in the depths of the library. He looked around, seeing books magically floating in the air and being put in their proper place on the shelves.
"Hermione?" He called out in a soft whisper.
"Over here," she answered but walked over to Harry before he could reach her first. "How did he do?"
Harry sighed and rubbed the back of his neck and looked at her. "Well he didn't drink. He's starting to have tremors from withdrawal. He said he wasn't feeling well, like he was going to going throw up."
Hermione looked at him in confusion. "Withdrawal symptoms? It hasn't even been a full day since he had alcohol…."
"I know, but the symptoms usually don't take long to start for an alcoholic. Their body has grown so tolerant of the alcohol that it just craves more."
"How do you know so much about alcoholism and withdrawal? Are you a doctor too?" Hermione half joked.
Harry shrugged and smiled. "It helps to have friends who are doctors. Dean went on to work as a doctor at St. Mungo's Hospital. I visited him just about every other day up until… I stopped by your place."
Hermione bit her lip and looked down, suddenly feeling guilty. "Umm… where did you tell Draco we'd meet him?"
"Oh, right. The Entrance Hall… we should probably go and see if he's there yet," Harry replied, not caring that she had ignored what he had just said. His worry for Draco grew and he figured it'd be a good idea to see how he was faring.
When they arrived in the Entrance Hall, they saw Draco leaning against the front doors, his hair matted in sweat and his skin color looking several shades paler than normal. He hurried over to Draco and gently tugged on his arm to see his whole body.
"Were you sick?"
Draco nodded and swallowed hard, his tremors getting worse by the minute. He saw the fear in Harry's eyes and he looked at him in the eye. "D-Don't take me to hospital. T-Take me home…"
"No, you don't understand. I… I don't know where to go from here. You need a doctor!"
Draco held his stomach in pain now and let out a groan. "H-Hermione…."
She looked from Draco and then up to Harry. "Take him to his house. He has a personal doctor we can call!"
Harry heard the distress in her voice and could tell she was just as fearful as he was so he didn't argue. He wrapped his arm around Draco to support him and walked out of the castle before he apparated the three of them inside Draco's house.
Hermione felt her heart pounding a mile a minute as Harry had to pretty much carry Draco down the hall to his bedroom. She followed him and helped Harry lay Draco down on top of the covers, feeling scared for him.
"Oh… t-this is great… I'll b-be on my death b-bed…"
"You're not going to die from the tremors. We're going to call your doctor. Where's his number?"
Draco struggled as he pulled out his cell phone with shaking hands and handed it to Harry. Hermione anxiously started to pace and then started to see terror fill Draco's eyes as he held his chest and looking like he was struggling to breathe. She ran over to him sat down on the bed.
"What's wrong, Draco? Are you having trouble breathing?"
Harry was preoccupied talking to Draco's doctor on his phone to know what was going on.
"I-I don't know… a-a little… my chest… it feels really tight…"
Hermione looked over at Harry now, having no idea what to do. "Harry! Help me!"
Harry held up a finger to say "one second" and then went back to describing Draco's symptoms to the doctor. He finally hung up and then hurried back over to him.
"What's going on?"
"I don't know but he said he's having trouble breathing and his chest feels tight."
Harry stood up again and then walked into the bathroom before he grabbed a washcloth and wet it in cold water before going back over to them. He started to gently pat Draco's face with the cool washcloth and watched his friend begin to relax again.
"How's that? Are you feeling a bit better now?"
Draco's breathing returned to normal and he nodded, grateful to feel the cold cloth on his hot skin. He relaxed against the bed except for his trembling hands that were by Hermione.
"What happened?"
Harry glanced up at her as he continued to pat Draco's face. "He's having panic attacks. It's another symptom of delirium tremors… the doctor will be here shortly."
Hermione nodded in understanding and tried to calm herself down by taking Draco's quivering hand in her own. "Did you hear that, Draco? The doctor's going to be here soon and he'll help you…"
Draco just nodded weakly and gently squeezed her hand with his, feeling hope fill his soul again just knowing that she was there with him. There was silence between the three of them for several minutes before they hear the doctor apparate inside the room.
Harry stood up and got out of the way so the doctor could look at Draco. He gently touched Hermione's shoulder and leaned in to whisper in her ear.
"Come on, Mia. Let's go make some tea."
She whimpered slightly as she forced herself to let go of Draco's hand and stood up as the doctor started to examine him. Harry led her out of the room and sighed as they closed the bedroom door behind them.
"How long will the tremors last for? It's like… he's suffering…"
Harry filled the kettle with water and lit the burner underneath it. "He'll be okay. The doctor will probably give him something and the symptoms will go away. I was thinking at first that we had to slowly wean him off the alcohol but now I'm thinking that we should just keep him sober as long as possible so he doesn't end up having more tremors, and we have to make sure he doesn't take the meds with alcohol."
Hermione hopped up and sat on the counter, her small body hardly taking up any room. She rubbed her eyes tiredly and ran her fingers through her long hair. "So we'll have to watch him twenty-four hours a day?"
Harry nodded slowly and gently put his hands on her knees to comfort her. "Pretty much. It'll be okay though. You'll always be here when I'm at the school - "
"Wait, what about his job? Is he going to be fired?"
"He hasn't drunk while he was teaching and I think it can be filed under medical reasons. I'll talk to the Headmaster and see if he can find a substitute to teach Draco's Potions class until he gets better again. I'll make it work out."
Hermione smiled softly at him. "Thank you. You're a really great friend, Harry."
"It helps to have another great friend to support you," Harry smirked and then shut the burner off when he heard the kettle start to scream and then poured the hot water over two teabags just as the doctor walked in.
"Well, Mr. Malfoy does have delirium tremors most likely from his recent alcohol binges. I'm prescribing him diazepam and lorazepam. The diazepam will treat his anxiety, any insomnia he might have in the upcoming days, and the alcohol withdrawal; the lorazepam is similar but it will also act as a sedative to calm him down as well, which goes hand in hand with treating the insomnia."
Harry watched the doctor hand him two orange bottles with small pills in them. He took them and set them on the counter before turning back to the doctor. "Any side effects I should know about?"
The doctor sighed to himself now and nodded, both gestures not giving Hermione or Harry a lot of relief. "For the lorazepam, there's the possibility of increased aggression in individuals, addiction of the drug itself, an increased risk of depression and suicidal behaviors. For the diazepam, depression can occur as well, dizziness, nausea… but the side effects are worth it. Without these drugs, he can die from delirium tremors. It will literally drive him insane and he'll see things that aren't even there. I should also tell you that the hallucinations are more likely to happen at night, that is, without the drugs. He'll hallucinate that he's seeing insects or bugs when there aren't any. It's a common symptom of DTs. The bottles should last you two weeks. I don't suggest continuing to give him the medications for more than three weeks. After your bottles run out, call me and I'll come and check him out."
Hermione was about to say something but Harry shook the doctor's hand goodbye and watched him apparate out. He turned to Hermione who looked like she might cry from all this new information and searched her eyes.
"What's wrong?"
"What's wrong? Draco's being given these medications that could actually give him depression, if he doesn't have it already, and he didn't even give us anything to counter his depression from these medications? The side effects seem worse than what he actually has!"
"I know… but he's not going to be on the medication for a long period of time or anything, only a couple weeks, so we'll just have to monitor him and keep an eye on him. If we see him becoming depressed or suicidal, we'll tell the doc. We have to get rid of his DTs, and these meds will help him."
Hermione wanted to object more but she honestly felt too exhausted from worrying about Draco to argue with Harry. She just nodded and looked down at her lap. Harry handed her mug of tea to her and then took a sip of his before he set it back down.
"I'm going to get our things from my place and I'll be right back, okay?"
"Alright," Hermione sipped her tea and held it in her hands, a part of her wanting to stay with Draco to help him. She set her mug on the counter and then got off of it before she looked up at Harry. "When do you think we should give Draco his medication?"
Harry picked up the orange bottles and read the labels. "We'll give him two milligrams of lorazepam in the morning and about four milligrams of diazepam tomorrow afternoon. He might be sedated for most of the day unless the side effects kick in but at least it'll help his withdrawal, and thereby it will also help his tremors."
"What about tonight? What if he can't sleep?"
Harry sighed, unsure what to do but also not wanting to endanger Draco's health in the process. "We can give him one milligram of diazepam and that will help his insomnia."
Hermione seemed satisfied with this answer and Harry took this chance to go to his place to gather his things. She walked down the hallway towards her old room Draco had let her stay in but she gently opened Draco's bedroom door slowly and peeked inside to see if he was okay. He didn't lift his head up but he waved weakly to her. She smiled at him and waved back.
"I'm sorry; I didn't mean to disturb you. I was just heading to bed."
Draco shook his head and forced himself to sit up even though his body felt exhausted from all the trembling and being sick. He smiled weakly at her. "I'm sorry that I've been scaring you lately, Granger. I never wanted you to see this side of me."
Hermione walked in closer to him. "I just want you to get better… it hurts me to see you like this. I want you back to your old self so we can go places and… hang out again."
Draco smiled at her a bit brighter and reached out to her, his hand still trembling. Hermione took his hand in hers and held it. "Harry and I will help you through this," she said softly.
He chuckled now but gently squeezed her hand affectionately. "Oh for Merlin's sake, I'm not dying yet. You guys can stop treating me like I have cancer or something," he laughed softly.
This made her chuckle now and she brushed her hair out of her eyes. "If you can't sleep, go see Harry. He'll give you something to help you."
"Alright, Granger. Get some sleep and stop crying on my behalf," he half kidded, just wanting her to smile again. He let go of her hand when she did smile a little and lay back down.
She waved to him and then shut his door behind her before she walked into her room. Hermione didn't have anything to change into so she just laid on her bed in her clothes and closed her eyes, wanting all of this to be over.
