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To my lovely reviewers, I will be moving my responses to the bottom A/N.
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Hermione cleared her mind enough to think about what Harry was asking.
"My wards only prevent someone with ill intent from finding my house. But honestly, not many people know that I live here. Though I am sure that it is on record somewhere in the Ministry." She looked at him apologetically.
Reaching out, she asked, "May I look at it?"
"Sure, there is already a containment and anti-tampering charms on it." Harry replied, passing over the parchment that not only had the words written upon it, but evidence of Malfoy's mistreatment. She briefly turned the paper over when her forefinger grazed an imperfection through the plastic containment spell. What she saw was the mirrored pattern of the fresh and slightly healed burns on the back.
"Honestly, no. I don't recognize the handwriting. But if you look at the smudges, the person looks to be left-handed. At least, they wrote it with their left hand." She suggested, handing it back to him. In her peripheral vision, she could see Ginny finishing up stabilizing both ankles for Skele-gro. She had already cleaned the open wounds on the unconscious man's chest, now came the process of preparing each break for healing. Meaning they were going to have to re-break all of the bones that had started to heal incorrectly.
Turning away from Harry, she sat down on Malfoy's left side, preparing to straighten his middle finger. Grabbing the middle knuckle, she pulled it back into place, thanking every deity that he didn't feel it. Saying the spell to splint the finger magically, she moved from the broken finger to the two next to it. Where the topmost knuckle would have been, the fingers had been severed. While the scarring was gnarly, both fingers looked to be free of infection. It was one less ailment they had to worry about.
Performing a localized x-ray spell, Hermione was able to identify which bones in his wrist had been damaged and set to air splinting those as well. The air splint spell was something of beauty. As soon as it was cast, an invisible balloon engulfed the area, preventing movement. On larger areas, like Malfoy's ankles, it was a sight to see the ankles almost hovering from where the balloon separated the ankle from the surface below.
While she tended to Malfoy's left, Ginny had seen to his right, following the same procedure she did. Unfortunately, Ginny had to re-break the bones in the healed fingers. A quick swipe in the direction of the break and a whispered "Confractus" allowed for the formally healed bones to be broken back into the original shapes, and subsequently set. At the audible cracks heard, Hermione could see Harry flinch while he continued to write down what he was witnessing.
Knowing that the wrist she had just splint, was in relatively good shape, she took to conjuring a hydration pack and arm cuff. Similar to the muggle I.V., the cuff allowed for the same general set up, without puncturing the skin. Initially taking out the adult cuff from the pack, she needed to return it in favor of the young adult size. Malfoy was so skinny from his lack of sustenance, that the adult cuff was too large around his forearm, even with the resizing charm. It made her heart drop at the small fact. Not allowing herself to get caught up, she reminded herself that this was a patient, and triaging the patient was her primary focus. Removing the never-empty intravenous bag, she connected the rest of the set up. Finally, the bag was set to levitate over his head, and she watched the flow to ensure it was dripping at the right speed.
The sound of apparition cut through the silent work of the three aware adults. Tansy had cracked into the room running as fast as she could to the makeshift bed.
"Master Draco! Master Draco! Miss Himinny! Master Draco's heart!" The elf shrieked, clambering up on to the bed next to her wizard. This spurred the two healers into action.
Hermione threw out her wand, saying the incantation to have his heart rate appear above him. 43 and decreasing.
"Harry, lift his legs! Halfway up, knees above the heart!" Hermione shouted to the stunned wizard. Harry responded by dropping all of the things he was holding and bounded over, lifting Malfoy's thin legs up. Ginny had already taken to repositioning his head to relieve the pressure off of the back, while Hermione recast the longer lasting version of the heart rate monitoring charm. The monitor hit 39 before the number started to raise back up.
"Shite." Hermione forced out the curse under her breath. She was breathing more heavily than normal.
"You can say that again." Harry said, taking a deep breath of his own. Ginny nodded in agreement.
A dead Malfoy would be a little harder to explain than she cared for. Grabbing one of her throw pillows, she configured it into a "U" shape. It was blue, and a bit lumpy, but it would do. Scooting around Ginny, she crouched down on Ginny's left and slid the pillow underneath his head, making sure to keep it away from the fracturing at the base of his skull. Ginny lowered his head back down, with his face looking up, while both she and Hermione watched for fluctuations in his heart rate. When it was safe to assume it wouldn't be dropping again, they took another deep breath while Hermione stood and went to Harry. Grabbing another two pillows, she lengthened these and stacked them on top of each other, under where Malfoy's knees would rest. She let Harry slowly lower Draco's legs down while again, she and the others watched the numbers.
There was a collective sigh of relief when the numbers stayed right around 60. Still low, but not dangerously so.
Making eye contact with Ginny, she could tell the younger witch was asking if it was safe to proceed.
Hermione nodded slightly, "Do you want to tend to his ribs, and I will look at his nose?" She asked.
"Sure." Ginny replied, sounding every millimeter of hesitant. Behind Ginny, Harry was picking up his wand, quill, and the parchment he had been taking notes on, off of the floor. Where the wand had fallen straight down, the quill and parchments were scattered.
Hermione sat down next to Tansy. The loyal elf was sitting at his side, with her little boney hand on his heart. Looking at the elf, Hermione kept seeing how absolutely dedicated she was to her master. A bittersweet thought when it came to Dobby and his idiosyncrasies. Regardless of what Draco… wait, Draco? No. Malfoy. Regardless of what Malfoy told Tansy, she did understand that her crusade in 4th year had been slightly under researched and prominently based off of the one elf she spoke to. She could honestly say, she did understand that there was a bond between the elves and their masters. She just wished they were protected. Protected from the few "Masters" that treated them more as vermin than a family member or employee.
Not looking to disturb the elf, she worked around her to get to his face. Remembering what Ginny had said, that in addition to his nose being broken, his right cheek bone also came up as damaged, she x-rayed his face, centering the image between his nose and fractured cheek bone. She cringed looking at the evidence of fractured and broken bones. It looked like a spiderweb. Like the others, she sent a print of this x-ray to Harry, watching his face as he looked uneasy at it. This was going to be a lot harder to heal than the others. She got to work, not only employing 'Confractus' but also 'Os Radi', or the bone shaving spell. Used mostly for enhancement procedures, it worked well on heavy bone masses. It took several repetitions, but his nose was at least straight, if not a bit thicker.
Turning to look for her counterpart, she found Ginny speaking quietly with Harry. Both looked severely uncomfortable. She was so focused on her task; she hadn't realized that Ginny had finished. Breaking into their conversation, she saw a flash of relief cross Harry's face before he schooled it away.
"Ginny, we have addressed all the broken bones, correct?" She asked, ignoring the slightly guilty look on the redhead's face.
"Yes, we have covered all of them."
"Great, can you please administer the Skele-gro?" She asked with a hint of irritation. Ginny would have never made it in Emergency if she stopped what she was doing to talk to the attending Auror, ex-boyfriend or not.
Sensing the agitation, Ginny pursed her lips and grabbed the needed Skele-gro from her bag. Measuring out the required dose, ignoring that Hermione was watching her closely, she poured it in to the comatose man's mouth. Placing the cap back on the skull shaped bottle, harder than necessary, she turned to the others in the room.
"Well, if you can handle the rest, I will just be on my way." The witch dismissed herself. "The Harpies have an early practice and I am the attending Healer." During this, she was packing the items that were left out after use.
Hermione deflated a bit. "I am sorry, Ginny. It has been a long day. Thank you for all of your help, really. I truly appreciate it."
Throwing her satchel over her shoulder, Ginny responded "You are welcome, good night." Grabbing the floo powder from the bowl on Hermione's mantel, she threw it in and disappeared.
Hermione felt bad. Turning to Harry, he was just watching her. "Sorry Harry." She couldn't keep the tears from her voice.
"Hey, it's ok. Really." Hermione quickly found herself wrapped up in a hug, only to find that the tears she managed to keep at bay all evening, came in earnest as Harry comforted her. "Hermione, it will be ok. You actually saved me a bit. I really didn't want to talk about everything."
A snort was his only response. "Really, it would have been a tad awkward considering I was thinking about asking Tracey out."
"What?!" This got Hermione to lift her head off of his chest. Her eyes were red and puffy, and he was pretty sure there was evidence of her crying all over his front. Hermione wasn't a clean crier. It didn't matter though; his comment got the tears to mostly stop. "But you and Ginny, just this past weekend? What?"
"Well Ginny and I haven't been doing well for a while. I didn't want to say anything, you have had enough on your plate." Harry responded sheepishly, shrugging.
"Harry James Potter! I would have still listened! What happened? Really?" She chastised only as much as her red face would allow without looking ridiculous.
"You know that bottle of wine you have hidden in your pan cupboard?" At her bewildered look, he chuckled. "Yes, I know it is there. Who makes the food when I am here? Me. I saw it."
"It's a that kind of story?" She asked him, only for him to nod. "Completely fine, it's been that kind of day." She disentangled herself from him.
"Do you mind if we sit in here? I…. I am not ready to leave him on his own." She asked hesitantly, gesturing to their former classmate.
"No issues Hermione. You get the bottle and I will expand our favorite recliner." He said with a half grin that showed the laugh lines by his eyes.
Grinning back at him, she turned towards her kitchen to retrieve the bottle she thought no one knew about. Not one to drink often, especially on a work night, she took to making the alcohol she did have, not easily accessible. She forgot that Harry often went into her baking cabinet. Chuckling, she grabbed it and 2 glasses. On a second thought, she summoned one of the few basic nutrient potions she had, for when she forgot to eat when involved in work research. Taking her wares into the living room, she handed Harry the bottle and glasses. Already in the enlarged chair, he placed the glasses on the floor and worked at getting the cork out.
Raising the vial to Harry, all she said was "nutrient potion for Malfoy," before turning to the wizard and coaxing it down his throat. Tansy had already tucked him in with blankets that looked suspiciously like her bathroom towels. Seeing that she was gone, Hermione had to wonder if the elf went back to the bedroom-slash-potions lab.
Banishing the now empty vial to her sink, she climbed into the chair next to Harry, leaning her head on his shoulder. Holding up her hand, wordlessly asking for the bottle, she took a large swig of the Rosé, passing it back to Harry.
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Please review and let me know what you think! I always love to hear from each of you. If anything, follow or favorite! Chapter 12 will be coming soon.
To my reviewers, can I just say you are the best?! Thank you from the bottom of my heart!
LillsBills - I am glad it was worth it, and I hope this one is too! Thank you for your kind words 3
- WELCOME TO THE PARTY! I hope you like this chapter as well!
Ditte3 - Thank you for your review as always!
SLYNNR - Well let's hope against Bellatrix crazy. You can do this!
Buddybuddy96 - No kidding. The pantry is sooo close. And I have ice cream in the freezer… and all the junk food. You can do this too. But it isn't easy, writing this story gives me a much needed break.
