Chapter 51 - In Recovery

When Scabior woke up a few hours later, he was still feeling nauseous and tired. And on top of everything else he also had a throbbing headache.

Lucius had instructed Violet to have Scabior drink small amounts of water throughout the day. But when she offered him a glass of water shortly after he woke up, Scabior got sick and threw up in the bucket Violet had set beside the bed for him.

"His stomach is empty, and he is sick from hunger," said Lucius. "What he needs is food to help settle his stomach."

"'Ow the bloody 'ell do you expect me to eat something?" Scabior groaned, his head still hung over the bucket in his lap. There was bile dripping from his lips and he was shaking slightly. Violet sat beside him on the bed, holding his hair back as he gagged and vomited into the bucket. The only thing he brought up was a bit of water mixed with greenish bile, but at least he had stopped vomiting blood.

"I'm going to have Silis make you some soup for breakfast," said Lucius. "If you don't get a decent meal in your stomach you're going to keep getting sick. In fact now that I think of it, you would probably benefit from taking a dose of the nutrient potion I gave you while you were asleep."

Scabior's fingers gripped the sides of the bucket as a long string of obscenities spilled from his lips. He was furious at being reduced to this, at being brought so low by Bellatrix Lestrange. It was like no matter what he did or where he went she was always there, tormenting him as she attempted to either kill him or ruin his life by murdering everyone that he cared about.

Violet looked at him with concern. "Scabior, are you alright?"

"Oh yes, pet," he said, a hint of sarcasm in his voice. "Everything is just fucking lovely."

She could see that he was upset. And considering everything that had happened to him, he had every right to be. But when she tried to tell him it would be alright, he pushed her away and told her to leave him alone.

"I don't want you to see me like this," he spat out irritability. "It makes me feel..." His words trailed off. He couldn't bring himself to finish his sentence.

"Scabior, you aren't weak," Violet insisted. She knew what this was about, and she refused to let him beat himself up over something that wasn't his fault. "You were poisoned. Poison kills even the strongest of men. It has nothing to do with being weak. And you're still alive so that has to count for something."

Her words seemed to calm him down and helped ease his mind, but he still wouldn't speak to her. All Scabior could think about was that it was Bellatrix who had done this to him. It had always been Bellatrix, taunting him, stalking him, haunting him like some kind of ghost or demon. She was always there, reminding him of his mistakes, reminding him of how he had failed.

A few minutes later Silis entered the room, carrying a tray with a bowl of soup and a few crackers.

"Sir, I have something here for you," he announced as he entered the room.

Scabior sighed and rolled his eyes. He didn't know how he was supposed to eat anything while his insides were still squirming and twisting uncomfortably. What he felt was a strange mixture of wanting to eat but being concerned that he wouldn't be able to keep anything down. Still, he figured he should at least give it a try. He didn't make it this far just to die of thirst and starvation.

"Well?" said Scabior, sounding rather impatient. "Wha are you waiting for? Give it 'ere, Silis."

Silis hesitated. "Mr. Malfoy said you may need some assistance."

Scabior shot him a look of outrage. "'E thinks I'm incapable of feeding myself?!"

"Well, given your current condition, sir, he thought perhaps - "

"I SAID GIVE IT 'ERE!" Scabior shouted with as much strength as his tired body could muster.

Silis hurried to bring his master the tray, while Scabior struggled to ease himself into a sitting position in bed, and after a minute or two he finally managed to sit himself upright. Violet tucked her pillow behind Scabior's back to help prop him up, and Silis sat the tray on Scabior's lap.

Scabior raised a trembling hand and slowly dipped his spoon into the bowl of soup. The soup was nothing more than simple chicken broth with some dried herbs in it that would help soothe his upset stomach. He raised the spoon to his lips, and managed to eat without spilling any of the soup.

He paused, waiting to see if his insides were going to rebel against him. Nothing happened, so he ate a few more spoonfuls of soup then paused again, thinking his stomach might turn on him any minute now. He felt a mild wave of nausea pass over him, but it was gone as quickly as it came.

Eating the soup was making Scabior feel better. He'd had nothing in his stomach for days, and the feel of the warm broth filling his belly was helping to quell the nausea he'd felt since waking up that morning.

He picked up one of the crackers, and dipped it into his soup to moisten it a little before eating it. He had difficulty swallowing the cracker when it was dry because he had little to no saliva from being dehydrated. So he simply dunked it in the soup until it was moist enough that he could chew and swallow it.

Violet watched Scabior while he ate. She was expecting him to get sick again, and was relieved when he managed to keep everything down.

"How are you feeling?" she asked once he had finished eating.

"Better," Scabior replied. He then handed the tray to Silis.

"Do you want anymore, sir?" asked Silis.

"No," Scabior whispered hoarsely, his blue-grey eyes half closed as he began to drift off to sleep. "I'm tired. I want to go to sleep."

It felt good to finally have some food in his belly. It warmed his insides, relaxing him and making him drowsy. It wasn't long until Scabior dozed off, sleeping peacefully and resting well now that he was finally beginning the long road to recovery.

.oOo.

As the days slowly passed, Scabior continued to rest, eat and recover. He slept on and off throughout the day, sometimes napping for an hour or two, while other times he slept for several hours. Violet was there whenever he woke up, gently urging him to drink more water or eat some soup.

Scabior ate and drank, gradually regaining his strength as his appetite increased. He quickly progressed from chicken broth to chicken noodle soup, then to a thick, creamy potato soup with onions, herbs and garlic that Violet made for him.

When three days had passed, Scabior started demanding solid foods. It was a welcome sight to those around him because it meant the head Snatcher was feeling more like himself again. Silis started making him stew and the breakfast casserole his master liked, which consisted of rice, scrambled eggs, fried onions and bacon. When supplies ran low Lucius was kind enough to restock their food supplies, providing Scabior and his men with a wide variety of food to choose from that they didn't normally have.

Everything was going fine until Scabior began to complain that he was tired of sitting in bed all day. He wanted to go outside, breathe the fresh air and go for a walk in the woods. This was a good sign that his recovery was going well. But the gash on his leg was deep and hadn't healed yet. He could get out of bed for short periods of time, such as walking to the bathroom to relieve himself. But his injured leg hurt whenever he tried to walk, and Lucius knew that it was too soon for Scabior to try walking.

They couldn't use the essence of dittany to heal him, because according to Lucius the blade Bellatrix stabbed him with carried a curse which rendered the essence, as well as all types of healing charms, ueseless.

"A cursed blade?" said Violet.

"Damn bitch thinks of everything," Scabior grumbled. "It figures she'd use something like tha on me."

"We could try getting you a pair of crutches to help you walk," Lucius suggested.

Scabior was quick to shoot down that idea, using a wide range of colorful language to do so.

Lucius sighed and rolled his eyes. "If you refuse any sort of help, Scabior, then I'm afraid all we can do is wait until your leg is healed."

"Right. Well, we'll just see about tha, won't we?" said Scabior, glaring at Lucius as he spoke. "I don't care if I 'ave to get out of this fucking bed on my knees an crawl through the snow. I need to be outside in the open air, an I won't tolerate being stuck in bed any longer."