AN: You all have been super loving the world building and character development. I love that.
New work on Deviant art: search Omnenomnom
"Please let me put you under." Hermione pleaded for the third time. Draco had woken early in the morning, much to his annoyance, and set up the study while they waited for Blaise. He could still smell the cinnamon every time he touched his hair.
"Not on your life." Blaise responded from the cold slab of wood that had at one point been his desk. Currently it was serving as a surgeon's table for the strange bone camera that Hermione had found. She was holding it above his arm briefly before moving him in random configurations.
"Let me go a bit more into detail then. We will be snapping your bone. You know, the thing that has turned you into a pain potion junkie? After that we will be yanking it apart and rummaging around inside your skin until we can figure out where it was supposed to go. Then we will be shooting a thick pin though both parts of the bone to make sure it stays together through your asinine penchants for pissing off husbands and boyfriends. Again. Let me put you under."
"No."
"Why not?"
"I don't trust you."
"You trusted Mia." Hermione shot back as she set aside the machine. She handed it off to Theo with instructions to return it and tell a receptionist to have it printed. The glowing light blue of the portkey was barely there before he disappeared in a swirl.
"And she was lying to me. Besides, after your choice in dance partners I hardly consider your judgement credible."
"Draco. Do something about him!" She pleaded pulling off some sort of heavy smock.
"He's not my father. He can't make me do anything."
"You'll spasm all over the place."
"Tie me down."
"You'll scream bloody murder."
"Gag me."
"Kinky." Draco commented, breaking up the same argument they had been having for ten minutes.
"Cram it you." Hermione growled.
"So that's what you two are planning for Valentines day? I didn't need to know." Blaise bit out.
"Oh actually. I was thinking of a hot night on the town, hitting up all the places to be seen. It's been awhile since Rita has had an excuse to visit us." Both of their ire now directed at him, the room fell into a broiling silence. It remained that way until Theo reappeared with a stack of papers.
"Finally. " She huffed, grabbing the papers from Theo. "As expected it's a nasty compound fracture. The radius is not properly aligned with…."
She stopped with her face schooling in confusion before huffing in aggravation. She ripped the paper away from the stack and pushed it into Theo's chest. "Is this really the time?"
Draco and Blaise both chuckled as he smiled and waved a paper with thick back ink containing a floo address.
"Well if you are all done fiddle dicking around; Theo, you will have to do it. I am too tired and Draco will need to focus." She huffed pacing over to where Draco stood on the other side of the table. She shoved the papers to his chest. He had seen a human bone before of course but the bright white Hermione had indicated to be bone certainly didn't look like the skeleton in the potions lab. Little flecks of thick shards were embedded in the surrounding tissue like a sort of macabre confetti. The break was horribly aligned and had overlapped just enough to touch, a milky, white growth patching it together in a bulbous crooked prominence.
"What am I doing?" Theo asked brightly, skipping over to Blaises arm and poking it. He was met by a yelp. Blaise hadn't gotten his pain potion today. They didn't want it to interact with anything that they were doing.
"Body bind and silencing spell. It's important because-"
"Okay!" Theo supplied cheerfully casting a spell that secured Blaise to the table as if he had been glued to it. Whatever expletive Blaise had intended to throat at the cheerful wizard were devoid of sound.
"Okay so. This part here." She said turning back to Draco and pointing at the paper in front of him. "The smudy bit is where the body had tried to glue the two halves together. It's weaker than the usual bone and thus didn't hold it very well. It's why it kept snapping. When the bone regrew it came back with it."
"So we need to re enforce it?" Draco asked as he studied the black and white photo. It felt strange that it wasn't moving.
"No. You are going to vanish it and the small shards that are still free floating. After it's gone I am going to realign the bone so that these ends connect. We'll tack it in place with a screw just to be sure it doesn't go back when we try to regrow it." Draco winced, wishing for the umteenth time Blaise had just let them put him in a magical induced coma.
"Alright. And that should fix him?" Draco questioned instead. It seemed so easy. Entirely too easy in fact.
"Yes. Although I can't be sure how much nerve damage was done. It may be possible that he has pain the rest of his life, but at least it won't break constantly, and he should have most of his movement still."
"Let's get on with it then," Theo supplied from where his wand was trained on Blaise. "We wanted to go out tonight to celebrate."
"We don't even know for sure that it will work." Hermione shot back with an exasperated groan.
"Then we will go out to commiserate." He finished the statement with a smile.
"Your positivity makes me sick." Draco responded flatly as he joined Hermione where Blaise's right arm was stretched out. He cast a quick ragdoll spell on the arm allowing it to flop listly on the table. Blaise would still feel it but he had no control over it.
"Okay." Hermione carefully levitated the paper next to Blaise's arm. An exact one to one of the limb below it. "Start with this shard."
And so it went for the next hour. They started with the smallest shards since they would take the most concentration. After slowly working their way up Draco was unable to feel any chips floating around in Blaise's flesh.
"Okay this is the hard part." Hermione prompted as Draco glanced at Blaise for the first time. The man was grimacing and sweating. He looked in pain but it was manageable.
"I need you to start taking this bulbous bit here. Keep grinding it down until you get to this thick white part here. If possible try to leave a zig zag pattern that matches up on each end. It doesn't have to be a perfect fit but it should be close."
Draco did as directed, slowly shaving off layers of the thin plaster. When he edged off the thick surface of Blaises natural bone he felt a muscle twitch desperately. He quickly glanced at Blaise only to see the man's eyes scrunched together with his mouth pulled so tightly together Draco thought it may split. Why couldn't he have just taken the coma?
"Keep going. Once you've broken that open we only have a limited time before his body goes into calcium shock." And so Draco chipped away at the edges making twin jagged surfaces that fit together like puzzle pieces. When he was finally done, he was exhausted and out of magic. Hermione waved her wand over the arm, seemingly checking the feel of it before gripping the two seperate parts of his arm.
"Draco, go on the other side and hold him down. I am going to break it and once I start I can't stop." Draco nodded before heading off to the other side and leaning heavily on Blaise's shoulders. Theo was sitting in a chair at the foot of the bed, his wand trained on Blaise, a noticeable tremor wavering the tip. They were running out of time.
When the audible crack came he felt the slighted twitch under his right palm. His glance at Theo showed a sudden increase in control as Blaise fought against the charm. He couldn't look at the man's face. If the crack was bad the crunching was worse. Hermione grunted as she dragged the bone back and forth trying to line it up appropriately. It sounded akin to chalk on concrete and made his stomach turn. After what felt like an eternity Hermione sighed, a gentle green glow sprung to life on her wand as she checked her work.
"Draco. Come take a look. Does this feel normal?" He cast brackium emendo digging around for any sort of anomaly or missed fragments. It looked wholly like a regular bone and as his magic touched it, it lit up with pale green, a slow healing began. The bone began to shift back to the left.
"Stop!"Hermione hissed with a shove breaking the spell. She winced as she repositioned it back with a slight crunch. Draco saw Blaise's face this time. He was ashen and clammy. His eyes looked a million miles away as his face contorted into a silent scream.
"Sorry, it looks fine." He finished quietly. Hermione nodded, pulling out a thick screw with heavy threading. The thing was probably five centimeters and Draco winced at the thought of it appearing in his arm. Before anyone could react she shot the metal at Blaise's skin with spiral movement. There was a slight burning smell as his arm started to bleed from the entry wound. She muttered a quick episkey spell and the wound healed over, as if nothing was there. They were done, all Blaise had to do was drink the skele-gro and let it heal.
"Let him go." She whispered to Theo. The mahogany haired boy collapsed against his chair with a great sigh. His hands shaking violently.
"Fuck." Blaise breathed out with barely a whisper.
"It may scar." She added tiredly to the man on the table. "Probably not, but maybe."
"Great! Then Draco and I can be matchies." He spat out. "Like I give two shites over a scar. They hardly matter."
"Nice to see you're alive." Draco responded, feeling his own exhaustion creeping in. The last few days had been horrendous.
"That was by far the worst treatment you've come up with."
"I know I am sorry. I wanted to put you out for it." Hermione whispered kindly patting at his forehead with a damp cloth. "Stupid boys and their bravery. You remind me of a set of Gryffindors."
"Kicking a man while he's down. Classless Granger. Real classless. Is this for calling you a mudblood?"
"I did warn you. But-"
"Does anyone ever listen to me? No." They boys all finished in unison. Tired smiles drifting on their faces. Hermione for her part looked equally a mess. Her body wreaked of pepper-up potion and her hair stuck out in every which way. "I hate you all."
"That's not very professional, Healer Granger." Theo tutted from his chair as he sipped on a glass of brightly flashing glass of fire whiskey.
"Still going out tonight?" Hermione scoffed. She was rewarded with a grimace.
"Maybe a quiet night in is in order after all."
"Well did it work? Am I cured?" Blaise responded sarcastically from the table. He hadn't even tried to move it, not that Draco would blame him.
"Not quite. You need to drink some skele-gro. It will try to go back to the previous set up but the screw will hold it in place so it may hurt. If you want we can just cast it for a month and let it heal naturally."
"In for a knut, in for a galleon." He shrugged, wincing at the movement. "Alright bottoms up then."
Hermione simply grabbed the potion and helped him lift his head up. Her hand shook as it snaked around the base of his neck while the other lifted the sickly green vial to his lips. Draco grimaced.
"Well, still tastes like shit." Blaise responded as he lowered himself back to the table. "How long until we- ow."
He winced as Blaise's whole body contorted around his injured arm. The dark man scowled at the appendage.
"How bad is it? I can still send you to sleep." Hermione responded fiddling in her bag for something.
"Not bad. At least comparatively. Just some pressure. It's fine." He growled as he forced his body back to a less defensive state. Draco took the cue to settle into his desk chair that had been pushed in the corner. Hermione collapsed on the loveseat, fighting off the impending crash.
"Right then. I propose a rest for everyone. Blaise if it hurts, scream. We will get up… probably." Hermione muttered, her eyes already drifting closed. Draco was surprised to find his doing the same.
"It'll be fine. You all catch up on sleep. I will be expecting bright and sunny faces for my grand debut later." When Draco closed his eyes Blaise was still scowling up at the ceiling.
Hours later he woke with a start. Everyone else was still recovering in various uncomfortable positions through the room. The late afternoon sun pawed dust motes around the air like a sleepy kitten. It was quiet, peaceful.
He knew Blaise's arm was fixed, even though the man was still asleep on Draco's desk. He knew it was healed because he saw the last golden threads escape his wrist and drift off into the sun beam like they were returning home.
He was expecting something more dramatic. Something like a loud crack or a scream. At least a bolus of magic that would wash over him like a cold shower. Instead it was barely a quiet hum, only waking him up because he was listening for it. It was gone.
A muffled sound from Hermione slipped into the air. It was soon joined by the sounds of clothes shifting and breaths of people coming to consciousness.
"Did it work?" Theo questioned sleepily as he rubbed his eyes. Draco felt awful he had to be the one to hold Blaise down through all that. He and Hermione had other places to look. Theo had to stare the man in the face as they ripped his bones apart. He would probably have nightmares.
"I don't know." Hermione mumbled back stumbling over to the rousing Blaise. He was always the worst one of the bunch when it came to getting up and he was clearly trying to dive back into sleep. "Blaise…. Blaise… get up. We need to see if it worked."
"Hrg." Blaise threw his arm over his eyes trying to block out the sun.
"It worked." The words were his, though he didn't remember saying them.
"Blaise...We need to check." She reached out for his shoulder but he rolled away. Unfortunately the desk did not make a very wide bed. He slipped off before she could catch him and landed with a yelp.
"What are you five?!" Blaise responded as he stood with a glare aimed at his abject savior. "Why in the hell did you push me off the table?"
"You rolled off, git." Theo responded shaking out his arms. His shoulders looked tense and uncomfortable.
"Well she snuck up on me. You figure she would know better than anyone not to surprise people like that." Blaise grumbled as he cracked his neck. "Bint could have killed me."
"Blaise." Draco responded as the other man leaned on his desk.
"God. Give me three seconds to wake up. I just fell off a damned table."
"You're leaning on my desk."
"Well so sorry to leave fingerprints. Hopefully you won't notice them under all my sweat and blood." He hissed.
"You're leaning on my desk with your right arm." The room jumped and heads swung to the frozen wizard who was indeed putting his full weight on his bad arm.
"Oh." Blaise responded pulling his arm up, flexing his fingers. He flinched, waiting for the expected pain but eventually relaxed. "I didn't notice."
"Any residual pain?" Hermione asked scratching something onto the parchment. Notes probably.
"Well…" Blaise grabbed the back of a chair and pulled it towards him. It took a moment before it shifted on the floor. "No. It's stiff. It's weak."
"Makes sense." She murmured. "You haven't used it for five years for anything heavier than a glass. It'll take some time for you to build up the muscle mass… it may never be like it was before."
Blaise stared at his own hand like he had never noticed it before. He twisted his wrist watching the muscles move. The corners of his mouth twitched. "I don't even remember what it was like before."
"You'll still have to be careful with it. At least until the end of the day. Broken bones will always be weaker than intact ones. You'll be able to use it like a regular arm but any injury that could break your other arm will definitely snap this one."
"Sure." Blaise's smile began to creep up his face.
"And I will give you some restorative potions to take over the next few days. You will need a lot of vitamins to recover what we used. You were a chaser right?" When Blaise didn't respond she looked at him. Draco found himself nodding. "Right well I would say a month until you do anything strenuous like quidditch. But knowing quidditch players you won't last more than a week. So a week and I need to be there to repair any damage."
"I can play quidditch again?" Blaise finally snapped from his revelry.
"You can but you need to question if you should. There is no reason to fly around at death defying speeds to smack a ball around." She responded tartly.
Blaise openly laughed. It was an absolutely uproarious one that Draco wouldn't have found out of place on one of the Weasley twins. Blaise was always so controlled Draco wasn't sure he had ever heard him laugh like that. Sure a chuckle here or there, even a tickle jinx or two. But never the raw uncontrolled joyous laughter that was echoing through his study.
"You haven't changed one bit Granger." He finally responded in between laughs. The room remained mostly silent as she waved her wand in complex motions around him.
"You sent us the sphinx, didn't you?" Blaise responded, causing her to jump. "I figured. Draco isn't half as smart as he thinks he is. I knew he couldn't have come up with it himself."
"Yes. I ran into one once who mentioned they needed help finding homes." She murmured stepping back to dig through her bag.
"Still have that hero complex, eh Granger?" The comment made her wince as she unloaded a variety of bottles. "Well I guess it worked in my favor. That line has been flying off the shelves and I have a new arm to spend all the money with. So thanks for being such a bleeding heart."
Draco hadn't realized he was holding his breath until she responded. "Was that sorry diatribe supposed to be an apology?"
Blaise's shoulders released their tension and he began waving around his wand, conjuring little lights in and out of focus. "It's the best you are going to get. I don't do gratitude."
"I do!" Theo jumped up and threw his arms around the witch, hugging her powerfully. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"
Hermione was laughing as Theo moved on to spinning her around singing praises to her abilities. Blaise chuckled lightly conjuring pink hummingbirds and sending them whirling around the two. It may have actually been the most beautiful sound he had ever heard.
World Building with Om
Ragdoll Curse:
A mostly harmless curse that results in a target losing all control of their voluntary muscle. They are still capable of feeling but cannot react it it. Released by a standard Finite Incantatem.
A Bond Completed:
With the vow completed the bond dissolved into little wisps of magic, released into the air. Most of the power to maintain the oath is drawn from the wizards who cast it thus when it is released the only magic present is the magic used by the bonder.