Chapter 4

The social worker—Helen; her name was Helen, he reminded himself—and Hermione sat with the Memory-Specialist Healer on the sofa in Draco and Harry's living room. Alex was across from them, cuddled in Draco's arms with Lyra sitting next to them, holding the boy's hand.

"Are you sure the girl should be here? It seems very strange," the specialist said, addressing Draco. The man's bald head reflected the sun streaming through the windows, but Draco did his best not to be distracted from the matter at hand.

Alex squeezed Lyra's hand tighter, but she just narrowed her eyes and gave the Healer the glare she'd learned from Draco. It was generally quite effective, but with Harry's green eyes and her light-blonde curls, it was almost scary.

He realised everyone was waiting on him to answer and replayed the question in his mind. Right. Lyra. "Yes, quite sure. Both Alex and Lyra have asked for her to stay."

"His memory is going to save my daddy, just like my daddy saved him," Lyra said, her voice sounding cold and imperious. "And I'm going to help by making him know that he's not alone, so you can start now, okay?"

Draco felt the urge to laugh bubble up in his stomach for the first time in what felt like aeons, even if it was only a couple of days.

Hermione didn't stifle hers, though, and she chuckled. "I quite agree, Lyra. Healer Morrison?"

"Yes, all right. Sorry." He cleared his throat and moved to perch on the edge of the coffee table, closer to Draco and the children. "Okay, Alex," the Healer said, his voice gentler now, "I just need you to close your eyes and lean your head back on Draco's shoulder. Listen to my voice."

Alex did as he was told, but his thumb found its way into his mouth again, and he used his free hand to hold onto Lyra tightly.

"Now," Morrison continued, "I want you to remember what happened when Harry came to save you. You don't have to think of the bad stuff, just remember what Harry looked like when he came in the first time." The Healer swirled his wand close to the boy's temple. "Good, Alex. You're doing really great. Think about what Harry's shirt looked like."

Draco heard Hermione and the social worker talking quietly in the background.

"How long is he taking?" Helen asked.

"About thirty minutes on each side of the memory of Harry's entrance. That should cover everything adequately, we think, without causing Alex to relive the event."

At least there was that. Draco couldn't imagine making Alex relive the moment he lost his parents.

"He looks calm enough for this to work, thank goodness." It was Helen again. "It's so hard when they have nobody to comfort them, and they fight it."

"Draco is good with kids, no matter what he thinks," Hermione said, then she caught his eye and winked, obviously aware he was listening. "He likes to consider himself a grumpy Slytherin, but he's really a big softy. My kids adore Uncle Draco."

Helen chuckled, and Draco tried to keep from blushing. The room sat in silence for several more minutes, Lyra surprisingly quiet, as though she fully understood the magnitude of the situation. Which, Draco realised, she might.

"All right," the Healer said, standing up. "I think I have it." He looked down at the boy who had fallen asleep in Draco's arm. "He'll probably sleep for a while now. It's hard on a child so small."

Lyra kept her hand wrapped around Alex's. "He can sleep on my bed."

Draco leaned over and kissed the crown of her head. "You're a good girl. Auntie Angie is on her way over to stay with you both, and Alex hasn't met her, so you make sure you're there when he wakes up, okay? And tell him I'll be back. I just have to go see Daddy for a while."

Lyra put her hands on Draco's cheeks and made him look at her in the eye. She did that when she wanted him to know she was serious about something. Usually, he had to try to keep a straight face, but this time, he only had to hold back tears. "Daddy is going to be okay. I know he is, and then you can come home and take a nap too."

"Yes, ma'am," he said, his voice thick. "I love you, Billywig."

She smiled at the use of Draco's pet name for her. "Love you, Papa."

From there, everything seemed to move at the speed of light. The memory was examined and entered into evidence. The curse appeared to be something the Healers had never heard of, some Spanish invention, but the memory of the casting allowed them to study the wand movements and incantation, and they went to work. Hermione called in favours from the Department of Mysteries, and it was only a matter of hours until the Unspeakables and Healers developed a counter-curse.

And if Harry's name sped things along, Draco didn't mind. He wasn't as self-effacing as his husband was.

Only a matter of hours... Everyone kept repeating those words, as if they made this all better, as though those few hours weren't still an eternity in Draco's life. Hours of watching Harry lie practically dead in a hospital room while Draco was separated from his daughter. Hours worrying about the small boy who Lyra decided to attach herself to, wondering what would happen to him, who would come to claim him. Hours of wondering if this so-called counter-curse would actually work.

But it did. In the end, it did, and the danger was passing. The Stasis Charm was lifted, and Harry was going to recover.

So why now? Why was it that now, after the immediate threat was over, Draco felt as though his chest was constricting, and he couldn't catch his breath? Why did he feel like his entire world was spinning out of control?

"Draco."

He vaguely recognised the voice trying to get his attention through the rushing sound in his ears.

"Draco, are you all right?"

Why couldn't he breathe? What the hell was wrong with him? He wasn't the one injured? He wasn't the one who nearly died. He realised he was sweating, the rivulets tracing down his face, pouring from his neck.

He felt the floor crash into his knees, which was odd, but not nearly as odd as the feeling of the world closing in on him. He vaguely felt hands on his shoulders, holding him up.

"Look at me. Breathe with me. Match me."

"Harry," he managed to get out, trying to explain to whomever it was holding him that they needed to worry about Harry, not about him. He was fine, even if a voice in his head told him he wasn't.

"Breathe in, dammit. Look at me."

Draco managed to focus on the face that was suddenly inches in front of his own. Chocolate-brown eyes, bushy, brown hair. "Her—" he managed to get out.

"Breathe out." She let out a long breath and Draco automatically matched it as well as he could. "And in," she said again, and he focused on the pale freckles on her nose. Strange, that. He'd never noticed she had freckles before. Maybe she caught them from her Weasley children.

His senses began to clear, and Hermione eased him onto a chair he'd not noticed until that moment. She stayed with him, slowly breathing, no longer speaking.

"Sorry," he finally managed, his voice weak. He still felt short of breath, but it was hard to pay attention to that with the immense wave of embarrassment that was washing over him. "Sorry," he repeated.

"Stop that. Merlin, I'm surprised you didn't do this sooner. This has been…difficult."

"Ha!" he laughed, his voice sharp and high. "Difficult."

Hermione gave him a crooked smile, but it didn't meet her eyes. "Yes, well, it is Harry."

He leant forwards and dropped his head into his hands. "I need to check on Lyra, but I can't leave. What if he wakes up?"

"It's after ten; Lyra will already be in bed, and from what I'm told, Alex is tucked in next to her. What you need is sleep, as well. When he's awake, you'll want to be here."

He jerked up so she could see his scowl. "I'm not going home."

She sighed. "No, I imagine not. Come on. I came to tell you they said you could go in. I'll conjure you a sleeping chair in the corner. Will that work?"

He gave a little nod. "Yes. Yes, it will."

"And," she added, this time the smile becoming more full, "I also wanted to tell you that Teddy's awake. He's asking for you. Andromeda already told him about Harry, but he wants you."

Draco's heart twisted. Their Teddy. He nodded. "Do I look all right? I don't want to upset him or anything."

Hermione looked him over, then adjusted his shirt and ran her hand through Draco's hair, pulling a few locks down around the sides. "Yeah. You'll do, I think."

"Peasant," he said with a tired little laugh, then turned to make his way to Teddy's room.

Teddy, the boy who'd tried so hard to be like Draco when he was small. Teddy, who brought Harry and Draco together, who taught Draco what it was like to be a family. Their Teddy, who—

Draco stopped in the doorway.

—who was busy snogging his girlfriend in his hospital bed.

"Edward Remus Lupin," Draco bit out, relieved and amused and a little bewildered. "What do you think you're doing?"

Teddy held up a finger, gesturing for Draco to wait while he finished his task. It did more for Draco's equilibrium than all of the previous words of comfort from their families had done. He suppressed a smile and tapped his foot impatiently.

"Oh, hey, Mr Malfoy," Charlotte said, pulling away from Teddy and standing up straight, her normally pale face turning pink under her dark-blonde curls. "I, uh, was just checking on Teddy."

Checking on Teddy, indeed. "Yes, well, he clearly still has all his teeth, so I suppose you did a good job of it. Do you mind if I talk with him for a bit?"

Charlotte's face turned fully red, and Draco was satisfied. If the kids were going to snog in public places, even if Teddy had been hurt, they could reap the consequences.

"Yeah, sure. I'll come back later, Teddy," she said, walking to the door with a wave before she paused and looked at Draco. "I hope Mr Potter gets better real soon."

Draco's eyes drifted to Teddy then back to Charlotte. They were good kids. "Me too. Thanks, Charlotte."

She left, and Draco took the seat next to Teddy's bed.

"I told you, you can call her Charlie. She prefers that."

"It makes her sound like a Weasley. I have more respect for her than that."

Teddy rolled his eyes, and Merlin, it was good to see him looking so well.

"Obviously you're feeling better," Draco started, his eyes flitting up to Teddy's monitoring spells. "Your blood pressure is still a bit high, though. Are they giving you anything for it?"

"Gram already brought it up, actually. Evidently, it's normal after what I've been through, and they think it'll be back to normal tomorrow. So tell me what happened? After Harry sent me away? No one will say much, only that Harry's hurt, but that they've figured out how to help him." He paused, and he sounded very young when he continued, not at all like a young man in his second year of Auror training. "That makes it sound like they didn't know how to help him at first."

Draco took a deep breath. Harry was going to be okay, and it'd not do to make Teddy fret about what was past. "He was hurt pretty badly. They couldn't identify the curse, and it was making his magic behave erratically. They had to keep him in stasis for a couple of days until they could figure it out."

Teddy looked thoughtful. "They said the little boy helped."

"Did they? Who are 'they'?"

"Aunt Hermione. Gram. Aunt Cissy."

Draco gave him a small smile, amused. "Well, you've had all the women doting on you already, it sounds like."

Teddy scowled. "Moaning over me, more like. But I'm glad you're here now. You'll scare them away."

"Right," Draco said, his voice dry. "Yes, the boy helped. His name is Alex. He gave us his memory of what happened so they could see the spell and come up with a counter-curse." Draco considered it, and the gratitude he felt towards the child flooded his stomach. "Without him, I'm not sure they would have been able to do it in time."

"In time?"

Teddy's voice sounded sharp, and Draco replayed his words in his head. Fuck.

"In time? What the hell does that mean?"

"Watch your tone, young man," Draco admonished, trying to distract the boy.

"No," Teddy growled, leveraging his body up and off the other side of the bed, then losing his balance and nearly falling before he caught himself on the mattress. He pushed himself back up and stood, his eyes fierce. "Where's Harry?"

Draco stood, ready to rush around and catch Teddy, if necessary. "Get back into that bed. You're too weak to be up and around yet."

"I said, no. Take me to Harry. And explain what you meant. What was this kid in time for?"

Draco stared Teddy down, the boy's eyes now a steel grey, matching Draco's own.

He was mimicking Draco. And why wouldn't he? Draco was the one who taught him how to use the Black family imperiousness to get what he wanted. It was only fitting that this child, this man, turned around and used it back on him.

"Fine, I'll take you, but you'll use a wheelchair. I'll not have you falling and hurting yourself."

Teddy narrowed his eyes, looking for a trick, but when Draco moved the chair he, himself, had been sitting in and transfigured it into a wheelchair, the younger man finally relaxed and nodded. "Okay, then." He sat down in the chair when it reached him, then looked up at Draco, his voice barely audible now. "Please tell me. I need to know."

Draco sighed. "The curse—the one they couldn't figure out how to reverse for a while—it was turning Harry's magic back upon him. Every piece of magic he used hurt him more."

Teddy sucked in a breath. "But Harry has so much magic."

"I know," Draco rasped. He cleared his throat and pushed Teddy into the hallway, heading towards Harry's room. "And he uses it instinctively, often without realising. They had to put him under a Stasis Charm before he killed himself."

"Oh, God," Teddy gasped. "And this boy?"

"Alex. Harry saved him and took him to a safe house, but the Apparition almost killed him. They were there most of the night, Harry trying to calm the child and unable to get word to us."

Teddy gripped the arms of his chair tightly, and Draco let him consider as they approached Harry's room.

"He's okay now. He's going to be okay. We're going to go in there and reassure ourselves, and then you're going to go back and rest. When he wakes up later, he's going to be asking about you. The last he knew, you were hurt badly."

"Yeah," Teddy agreed. "Yeah, just let me see him."

"Okay." Draco took a deep breath. Less than thirty minutes before, he'd been hyperventilating on the floor, and now he was here, pushing Teddy into the room. He ruffled the boy's hair, causing some reassuring growls. Merlin, he loved this kid.

Harry looked better when they entered the room. The monitoring charm was steadier, and Harry's breathing was even and deep.

"How long is he going to be asleep?"

"A few more hours, probably, but they're going to keep him here to monitor for a couple of days to make sure there are no side effects."

Teddy rolled his chair over by Harry's bed and ran a finger over his godfather's wrist. Draco thought he saw them trace the lines of Harry's old Umbridge scar; Teddy had been obsessed with that as a child, his righteous anger being one of the early reasons he'd wanted to follow Harry into the Auror corps.

"Thank you, Uncle Harry. I'm sorry I couldn't help you, but I'm glad the kid could." Teddy's voice was barely audible. He stared at Harry's vitals for a bit, then turned back to Draco. "They were the real heroes, you know."

"Whom?" Draco was a little lost. Teddy often did that to him, his mind jumping from topic to topic faster than Draco could follow.

"The Healers. Harry and I went in there, and those people were already dead. And then that man, he looked insane; he started hurling curses and there wasn't anything we could do. Even if those people had been alive, though, we couldn't have saved them. We didn't have the skills. Instead, we just got ourselves hurt, and then tried to get away. The people here, the Healers, they saved us."

Draco put his hand on Teddy's shoulder. "They are definitely heroes. But you both did what you could, and you saved Alex."

"Harry saved Alex. I couldn't move; I just froze. I don't think I'm cut out for this."

Draco squeezed, hoping he'd reassure him. "Take some time with it, but not everyone is Harry. You've had your mind set on this for a long time, but there are other paths out there."

Teddy nodded and shoved the wheels of his chair back towards the door. "Yeah. Yeah, there are, aren't there?"

A/N: Teddy's awake! 💛 What do ya think he's thinking? Those of you who read the final chapter of That Christmas might have an extra clue.

I also posted another story tonight outside this series. It's a one-shot with a Squib OC (no pairing), but there's a baby Harry involved, and I'm a little bit proud of it. It's called listen to your heart bleed, and I hope you might check it out.