AN: I actually haven't even started Chapter 37 yet, so I can't promise regular updates anymore, especially with Halloween coming up, but I figures seven days was long enough to make you guys wait since I did have this chapter ready. (I've lost my work three times now... and finally decided that I was going to start using Google Docs instead of wordpad...) Anyways, big thanks to Aciolympus for the great review and the biggest thanks in the world to Foreveradreamerinlife for not only her wonderful words, but also her help in getting me back on my feet and writing again! Thank you so much guys.

AN2: Also, would you guys like this fic to stay nice and T rated with only a mild curse here and there, or would you prefer if I upped the fic to an M rating and added some "Steamy smut" As Foreveradreamerinlife called it in her review? Let me know. Love you guys!

When I finally came to, I had been in a coma for the remainder of June and nearly all of July, according to the nurses. They bustled in and out of my room every five minutes for no less than two hours, ignoring my requests to leave or see the doctor in poked and prodded at my tender body. They forced large amounts of water down my throat. When one of the more timid ones came in with a tray of food, I sat up.

"I want to speak with the doctor in the next five minutes or I'm going to get up and go looking for him." I demanded, glaring the poor girl down. I felt bad taking advantage of her nervousness, but the last thing I remembered was a terrible pain and what felt like an unending darkness.

"Yes, Miss Malfoy. I'll let him know right away." She squeaked. I wondered idly if she was related to Peter in any way. "Just please don't get up. I don't want you to hurt yourself."

I nodded my reluctant consent and took the tray of food from her. I set it on the side table the moment she left the room and leaned back against the headboard. All that sitting and staring had been harder on me that I had expected. I studied the room silently while I waited. It was a large room with a second bed, though the other bed was empty. It was probably empty because my father demanded it to be. The room was pristine, white, and nearly empty. It was unusually cold and smelled of disinfectant. A room at St. Mungo's, I assumed. I'd never been inside the hospital myself, but only because Father had never allowed it before. It felt like nearly an hour before there was another knock on the door. I had just been steeling myself to follow through with my earlier threat.

I sighed in relief that I wouldn't have to try and stand and nodded to the man standing at the door. He must be the doctor. "Hello, sir. You must be the big guy in charge?"

"I'm your doctor, yes." The man nodded and came to sit in the rolling chair by my bed. "I hear that you were demanding my presence?"

"Yeah," I groaned tiredly. "Can you tell me why I'm here? Father always calls doctors to the house..."

"You and your father, Abraxas Malfoy, were admitted the same day." The man nodded. "Do you know what day that was?"

"It was June... The sixth, maybe?" I frowned. "It was the day the train came back from Hogwarts."

"Yes. It was actually very early in the morning of June Seventh, But that's an understandable time lapse. You were unresponsive on arrival." The doctor nodded. "Do you remember what happened?"

I thought back to the fight Father and I had that day. I closed my eyes and chose the simplest lie. The lie my father most likely used. "Yes. Father and I... were attacked... in the entrance hall of our manor."

"It's alright to tell me the truth, Miss Malfoy." The doctor assured me. "The Ministry already conducted an investigation and your father's wand was seized."

"Okay." I frowned, wondering how badly father was going to punish me this time. It hadn't been my fault, but he'd find a way to spin it anyways. I decided to do some quick damage control. "My father and I argued. I provoked him, and he was understandably angry. When he brought up a rather tender subject, my mother's death which I've always felt guilty about, I raised my wand to attack him. He was faster than I."

"You don't have to lie." The doctor insisted. "It only hurts you to lie to doctors. You teacher stepped forward in the investigation, as well as several unnamed students, and told the aurors that you were scared of you father and he'd done this before. The ministry then pulled the memory of the event, and you were removed from his custody. In fact, you were emancipated completely."

"I was?" I frowned. I didn't have anywhere to go if I couldn't go home. Besides, father would know which students had come forward, even without their names. "That was a horrible decision."

"Your brother instructed me to give you a letter when you woke up." The doctor said, patting my head. "I'll give it to you as soon as I finish my examination."

"Okay." I whispered, still in a bit of shock.

"Okay, Miss Malfoy." He chuckled. "Do you know what day it is now?"

"No. The nurses wouldn't tell me anything more specific than 'late July'." I mumbled.

""That's alright." He smiled. "It's the 21st, Miss Malfoy. Now, I'm going to touch a few places and you tell me if you can feel it. Also tell me if it hurts more than to be expected."

The doctor touched each of my toes, waiting for a nod between each one. Then he touched each of my finger tips. He touched my face, my legs, my arms, my collar bone. Each time he moved his fingers, I forced myself to nod.

"Very good, Miss Malfoy." The doctor smiled. "On a scale of one to ten, with one being a mild discomfort and ten being the worst pain of your life, did any of those feel like more than a three?"

I shook my head silently. Nothing would ever feel like a three again with the memory of the curse Abraxas threw at me in my mind. "No, but my collar bone was slightly more sore than anywhere else."

"That's to be expected, Miss Malfoy." The doctor frowned. "The curse your father hit you with cut through much of the flesh and even dug into your ribcage."

"Can you help me stand so I can look at it?" I asked, feeling exhausted and terrified at the same time.

"I can," He said, but didn't move. "Or I can have one of the nice, female nurses come help you. Surely that would feel more comfortable?"

I blushed and nodded. I hadn't even thought of him being a male when I had asked. I hadn't really realized anyone's gender since I woke up.

"Okay, I'll send one of the nurses right in." He said, standing. "I have to go check on another patient now, but I'll be back later tonight. I want you to get some rest and maybe eat a little before I check on you again, okay?"

I nodded and grinned. "Okay, but if you don't wake me up when you come by, I'll come hunt you down to talk." I said teasingly, but there was a hint of seriousness under it.

"Of course, Miss Malfoy." He smiled, setting a thick, yellow envelope on the table and picking up the tray of cold food to take with him.

"I want to discuss when I can go home when you return." I warned. He just nodded and slipped out of the door.

A tall, beauty of a woman in white medi-robes entered just a moment later. She came over to the bed in two long strides. "The doctor says you wish to see the scar?" Her voice a thick, russian accent.

"Yes." I said, sitting up a bit so she could help me stand. "Thank you."

"Do not thank me yet." She frowned. "You have not yet seen the mark."

The tall beauty helped me to my feet and supported almost all of my weight as she shifted me into a wheelchair and pushed me into the in suite restroom. The bathroom was also pure white and adorned with a sink, a bathtub that had a chair for sponge baths, and a mirror that covered a whole wall.

My body was skinny and frail-looking, even under the baggy paper gown they had me in. The nurse helped me remove the top half of the gown, revealing baggy yellowed skin covered in scars as she went. Most of the scars had healed well, becoming pretty silver stains on already pale skin. The scar in question, though was a nasty red scar that wrinkled the skin around it and left a disfigured line across my chest.

"Will I ever be pretty again?" I asked, as I stared in horror at the terrible reflection staring back at me in the mirror. My hair was matted and greasy. My cheeks had sunken in. Even the usually glowing blue eyes stared back at me with a dull, greyish tone that reminded me far too much of my father's.

"You might." The nurse shrugged noncommittally. "You will regain much of the weight when you begin eating again. Your body rejected the nutrients we tried to give it for several days after your arrival. Much like drug patients." Her eyes met mine with a knowing stare.

"Yes, I suppose it would appear that way. I had been sick for a few days before the fight." I muttered dismissively.

The nurse remained silent as she fixed the gown back onto my boney body. She wheeled me back to my bed and helped me get comfortable without saying a single word.

I sighed and pulled the yellow envelope into my lap. Inside, I found a heap of legal papers, a short letter in Lucius's hand writing and two keys. One silver and one gold. The keys and legal pages were shoved haphazardly back into the envelope and I read the short letter.

Desari,

Arrangements have all been made. Don't worry yourself about Father. He is very ill and without a wand. I am taking care of him now, so I won't have time to visit. I hope you are well.

Gringotts: 273 (Gold Key)

Apartment: SW16 Buckleigh Road (Silver Key)

My appologies,

Lucius.

I frowned at my brother's obvious, half-hearted attitude. Sure, he had made the proper arrangements for my care, but I had expected more than 37 words from the man who was once the most important person in my life. I supposed he could rot in hell right next to father.

I went to sleep slightly after that, leaving the legal pages for later. An elderly nurse woke me up a few hours later for dinner, which I forced myself to eat a bit of. Then I waited... and waited... and waited. It was gettine dark by the time the doctor returned to my room.

"Will the scar ever fade?" I asked, before he'd even managed to sit down.

"I'm afriad it probably won't." He sighed. "I called in several different collegues to try and help, but it seems that the curse that was used was meant to disfigure, so there wasn't much we could do. It may fade some in time, but you'll likely live with it the rest of your life."

"Okay." I nodded. I didn't have the energy to be mad, and it wasn't his fault anyways, I supposed. "Do you know why I was in a coma for two months? It seems you've repaired almost all of the damage."

"No, I don't." He sighed. "You should have woken up weeks ago, if not immediatly following the surgery. There's nothing wrong with you that we could find, excluding a bit of curious problems with your body rejecting nutrients. We found no cause for that either."

"Probably just a bug of some kind." I shrugged. "Last question, when can I go home?"

"Well, as I said, there's nothing wrong with you physically," The doctor chewed his lip. "But, we would like to do a few more tests, including a recomended trauma consultation. Basically, that means we bring in a muggle psychiatrist, which is like a brain doctor, to come in and talk with you about what happened. We find it usually helps patients who have expirienced something like what you did."

"And if I don't want to see this psycho-dude?" I asked, clutching Lucius's letter in a fist.

"We can't force you." The doctor concded. "It's all up to you."

"Can I go home tonight?" I asked, softly.

"I'm afraid not." The doctor frowned. "The earliest I can get you home is tomorrow morning, if you have someone who you can stay with."

"I have my own place." I frowned. "Why would I need to go anywhere?"

"Well, you don't technically, but you'll need someone close by to help you move around. You're going to be weak and sore for a few days."

"Can you get me a floo fire so I could ask a few people?" I sighed, admitting defeat.

"Unfortunately, that's not allowed." He laughed. "I can get some messages out or you, though."

"Yeah, that'll work." I sighed. "If you get me a quill I'll write a couple names."

"Sure thing, Miss Malfoy." He smiled, pulling out a muggle pen and a scrap of parchment. "This is a muggle instument... It's called a pen, but it's basically-"

"I have several in my trunk." I interupted. "My brother and uncle buy me muggle things all the time."

"That's great. Most witches have no clue what it is." He grinned, handing me the items.

I write out a short list.

Miss Hope Lupin

Mr. and Mrs. Fleamont Potter

Mrs. Enid Pettigrew

I left Sirius's house off the list because I didn't want to deal with Walburga or Orion. I'd just gotten away from racist purebloods, and I never wanted to look back. Besides, he was probably with one of the others by now anyways.

"Just start at the top and work your way down, yeah? One of them is sure to let me stay for a few..." I frowned, hoping that one of them would. I wanted to get as far from St. Mungo's and it's strange smells as possible.

"Of course, Miss Malfoy." He smiled, standing up.

"Desari." I said with a yawn.

"Excuse me?"

"My name's Desari. I hate hearing the name Malfoy." I frowned. "It makes me from like he's standing over me... all the time, hovering just behind me, where I can't quite see him..." I closed my eyes agaist the unwanted fear welling in my heart.

"Of course, Desari." He nodded. "It was thoughtless of me not to realize."

"Don't worry yourself over it. No one knew until now." I shrugged, flinching as the movement irritated the new scar.

"Please, get some rest, Desari." The doctor smiled as he left the room. "Tomorrow's going to be a big day."

I smiled softly and fell asleep moments after the good doctor left the room, Lucius's letter still clutched in my hand.