Three days passed without another sight of his supposed wife, and Draco had begun to think of her as an illusion, ignoring the white wedding band on his finger. She'd wisely been missing from his lunch time routine with his mother, allowing him the short, peaceful hour each afternoon that he had with the one person who calmed him.
During the mornings and nights he poured his time into reactivating the watch and working on the code for hours at a time, given he still had an exceptionally strict range of motion. There was now a fat stack of parchments next to his grandmothers bed where he was forced to sleep begrudgingly until he could climb the stairs.
The doctor visited daily and the thirty minute evaluations were extremely agitating, leaving him in a sour mood just before he went to bed.
It was on the fourth day that he was surprised very early in the morning by Narcissa petting his cheek to wake him. "Darling I must apologize, they've moved your father's court hearing to today and I must leave immediately. I may be gone for more than one day as this will be a lengthy process. Madeleine has agreed to check in on you throughout my absence." Then she was gone, and he laid his head back onto the pillow feeling sick at the thought of Madeleine coming into his room just to make fun of his helplessness and dependence on her.
He watched the rain with dread until he succumbed to the fact that he wouldn't be able to go back to sleep with the heavy thunder outside and the impending embarrassment of the day.
Draco pushed to a sitting position, finally able to move enough to do so with only half the screaming as before. He slumped into the multitude of fluffy pillows around him and tapped his wand to start deciphering code manically again. After about forty minutes had passed the glitch happened again and a holographic image began playing in the air, and this time he sat forward with intensity, clearing his vision.
His jaw dropped low at the scene before him. Although the quality of the memory was slightly blurry there was no question that he was staring at Madeleine in his own arms in lingerie. They were in a strange, lavish room and he had thrown her onto a bed, then bound her wrists above her head.
It was still before eight in the morning but he was now more awake than he had ever felt, his blue-grey eyes widening with lusty concentration, his spine straightening. He was still a virgin in his current mind, and if he'd been intimate with her or anyone else than the memories had been erased completely.
His memory self pulled her lingerie down exposing just her breasts and started gently choking her as he sucked on her nipples. It was explicit in every manner and he was paralyzed, trying to memorize what he was seeing knowing that he wouldn't have the ability to replay it again until he completed decoding the watch.
It quickly escalated to passionate kissing and then even further as they moved across the room to a chaise and she was grinding on him, her panties down around her ankles, and before long there was clearly penetration as she bounced rhythmically in his lap. He was scratching her back and her groans of pleasure were loud enough that he actually heard the sound coming from the watch before it crackled and faded away halfway through the memory. The watch face went black again, having been once again burnt out by the arduous decoding efforts. Several of the old paintings in the room complained in distaste.
He sat back in silence with his hand over his mouth, snickering in disbelief. He replayed the image of her naked body and her light moaning in his mind over and over, unable to stop it from popping up as he recharged the watch.
It was, suffice to say, exceptionally humorous when she opened the door to his grandmother's room without knocking at noon, brimming with confidence. Her dark eyes trained on him as he jumped and gathered up the piles of paperwork covered in runes and laid them face down on his table. "You know in civilized cultures it's rude not to knock," he shot at her.
She shut the door and looked around the dusty room with an odd look of reminiscence, "'ello Draco, I am 'ere to see if you are doing alright. Your mother-"
"Is gone to London for my father's trial, I'm aware," he cut her off. They stared at each other and he raised his chin to stare at her through hooded eyes with a sly grin.
"What es so entertaining?" she eventually quipped at his smug face. His eyes slid over her body, applying what he'd seen earlier against her tight blue dress. The substitution of the messy-blond for the long white hair was an interesting alternative.
He shrugged, still grinning shrewdly at her, "Wouldn't you like to know? Too bad you never will. Regardless, I don't need you. Leave."
She stepped further into the room and her dark eyes narrowed at him suspiciously, "Why do I get de feeling you're enjoying something too much right now?" She reached the bed and ripped up one of the sheets before he could stop her, but the look on her face suggested she didn't understand what she was seeing. The parchment was covered in runes from the watch, which to most eyes would look like gibberish.
"What de fuck is dis Draco?" she combated in her French accent, furrowing her eyebrows as she flipped through yet more sheets in confusion.
He snorted, "I felt like making up my own language."
"I don' believe you, dat's ridiculous," she fumed, but placed the sheets back down carefully in their original order.
She rolled her eyes and gave up the argument, "I'll call Nibs to bring you food, and maybe we can give you a bath too? You look sick. And your hair," she reached forward a tiny hand to pull at the long strands near his neckline, "dis is... yikes. Not like you at all. Nibs!"
With a pop the little elf had appeared in a yellow sundress made for a posh little child. She ran and hugged Madeleine's leg affectionately and Draco shook his head at the absurdity.
"What can Nibs be helping with Misses Madeleine?" she eagerly piped in her petite voice. Madeleine instinctively pet her head with a blank face, like a Russian gangster babysitting a child. Her kind behavior seemed forced or at best, calculated as appropriate. Draco noted that there was something off behind her eyes, as though the lights were on in her mind but her heart was shut down for business.
Madeleine looked at him as she spoke, "Draco needs 'is 'air cut and let's give 'im a bath. Dat seems decent, doesn't et? You can do dat on your own, right?" She looked down at the tiny elf that looked more like a child strapped to her leg.
"No," he interjected brusquely, "I have never permitted an elf to cut my hair. This isn't some kind of barber shop for interns."
Madeleine groaned lightly in aggravation and the tone of it caught his attention as sounding similar to the video he'd watched earlier. "Well, den enjoy de long 'air. You look more like Lucius every day wit' it. Nibs, take care of Draco, will you?"
Nibbles began nodding but Draco shot his hand out to her arm, "No, you're staying." She shot him a surprised glance at the intimate touch. He didn't want to be left alone with just an elf to help him bathe. The pain in his body was so severe it wouldn't take much to accidentally drown, and Nibbles was known for being a panicky and indecisive elf during a crisis.
He could see the immediate desire in her face to yank away from him but she clearly had the foresight to know it would physically hurt him. She resigned to her better judgement, and instead switched gears.
She pulled the covers off of him without hesitation, "Fine. Let's get dis over wit' - I 'ave somewhere I want to be later."
She lined the wheelchair up with the bed but he waved it away, "I don't need it I hate that thing, just hang on to me." He tried to simply grimace proudly through the pain of slipping off of the bed but uncontrollable gasps and whimpers escaped as his socks hit the floor. Her hand guided his arm around her neck and she snaked hers tightly around his waist to support him.
He pushed his forehead into the side of her face trying to fight back tears, "Fuck. Just wait a second."
She waited, and Nibbles tried to comfort him by uselessly rubbing his leg on the other side. Despite the preposterous amount of agony he was experiencing he couldn't help but note that she smelled sweet and fresh from where he was clinging so closely to her.
"Okay, any day now Draco," she drawled impatiently, taking a small step forward to coax him. He reluctantly walked stiffly with her, his bones felt like they were all snapping with each use. By the time they'd reached the tub he was fully crying silently.
Nibs turned on the water, set the plug, and threw in far too much bath soap than was necessary. The bubbles began building at an alarming rate. Madeleine ignored the chaos building up next to them and paused on the spot to consider what to do next, "Can you support yourself in de water?" Her eyes scanned his teary face for answers and he found himself caught on their design, finally close enough to evaluate them. A dark ocean blue core with a hint of yellow in the strands, that eventually faded to a thick, black outer edge. No wonder they were so startling. In the center there were in fact very slight, light colors he hadn't noticed before, giving her a sliver of humanity in her appearance.
"What do you think? Should we play Russian roulette with my life?" he sarcastically grunted back.
She looked down at the bubbles emerging already higher than the edge of the tub where Nibbles was gleefully playing with them, "Okay, step in. I'll come in wit' you."
He popped his eyebrows at her teasingly, "Didn't know you wanted me that badly, let me at least heal first Madeleine."
Her gaze darkened and he felt a shiver run down his spine with the calamity that rested there, his flirty grin faded almost instantly. She reeked of power and evil. "Get in de fucking tub, Draco, and watch what you say to me next." She apparently didn't like to be hit on.
"I can't in my clothing, or was that your intention all along? How far did we think this through?" He replied shortly, now slightly embarrassed.
She took a deep breath and slowly moved his arm from her shoulder, calling Nibs to come over and help hold him. Her fingers trailed up the bottom of his sweater and started pulling it up as they locked eyes. She lifted one of his arms and he cried out and shut his eyes harshly, and she brought it back down in defeat.
"Okay, we're cutting you out of dis garb." She took out her new wand and his eyes shot to the rarely wielded Yew wood. She muttered under her breath and dragged the wand down the seams of his hoodie, carefully cutting it away from him and finally he was shirtless, leaning his head on her shoulder as he fought to stay standing. His heart was pounding dangerously in his chest and her hand was flat on his back, holding him against her.
She put away her wand and held him carefully for a few moments letting him breathe against her. Then her fingers tugged at the hem of his sweatpants to pull them down and his mind went to places it shouldn't have with the sensation of her pulling at the band.
She then guided him into the tub with just his boxers on, pausing in shock to look at his chest before he'd sat down. His eyes wandered down as well trying to see over the bridge of his nose. Square in the center of his chest where the stone had lay was what looked like a dark explosion radiating from a center point. A large lightning bolt stretched out from either side North to South and black, vein-like tendrils also fanned out from the point of impact. It looked like a poisonous bullet had hit him.
He laughed lightly. "This gives Potter a run for his galleons. His scar looks like a toddler's scribbling compared to mine," Draco snidely remarked.
Her fingers reached out to trail along the war zone on his skin, her eyes looked faraway. His eyes flickered between hers wondering what she was thinking. For a minute as she was transfixed on the scar he thought she might cry before him. Finally she snapped out of it, and encouraged him to rest in the bath, "'old on for just a moment, I don' want to ruin my dress. Don' drown."
He watched eagerly as she unzipped the dress from where he was hardly holding onto the slippery edge of the tub, revealing her undergarments brazenly. He knew he was staring but it was impossible not to wander over the black lace that clung to her thin body. The dark mark of Voldemort shone along the underside of her left arm, the same as his. A huge claw-shaped gash sat bright red over her ribs amongst other barely noticeable white scars in other areas. And underneath the feet of white wavy hair must've been the Malfoy Crest against the back of her neck, signifying their union.
She'd been a real warrior, she'd seen things that he couldn't even remember. All he'd remembered being through was terrifying Death Eater meetings in the dining hall, only to run back his room afterwards. And of course, stalking Harry Potter around school on a pathetic mission to gather information and slow him down.
She climbed in behind him and wrapped her legs around him, bringing her knees up out of the bubbles. She supported him so he could relax and stop fighting with shaking arms to stay up. She took a fresh sponge from Nibs who was intently bustling around as if reading her mind.
The warm water was relieving against his aching body. He hadn't been able to bathe since waking up and it was welcomed, especially with a half naked girl straddling him from behind. She slowly rubbed the sponge over his shoulders and back, and then pressed her soaked body against his to smoothly run it in circles over his chest.
At first it had been severely calming and he'd leaned into her with his eyes closed, bubbles piled up to both of their chins. But then her fingers had wandered to too many places, and his heart rate spiked again nervously. He could feel her breasts on his skin and her breath on his neck as she cared for him slowly. The bath was now too much and there was nothing he do could to escape.
She laughed lightly in his ear where she was resting her chin on his shoulder. She was running the sponge along his legs, "Are you comfortable?" The mockery in her voice told it all. She knew exactly how he was feeling from the way his breath was coming out short and rapid.
His pride stepped up to the plate, "Yeah, just dandy. It's almost like I didn't just survive a killing curse. I'll probably go for a jog after this."
She stopped moving and dropped the sponge somewhere to float in the water, and then she was moving up onto her knees and dumping water over his hair to scrub it out, all the while rubbing herself against his back without realizing it was in a way that gave away too much detail.
He swallowed, trying not to see the unavoidable image of her body in the watch memory from earlier. He momentarily wished he hadn't seen it.
"I suppose that's well enough," she eventually said, standing behind him. She had Nibs bring over towels, and then she helped him to his feet. It was a long process of then getting him back into clean clothing without making it awkward for either of them, using Nibs as a middle man for the worst parts of it. Then she quickly cut his hair before putting him back to bed with food.
When she left, the room suddenly felt too quiet, and he realized she wasn't that bad after all. He slept peacefully for the rest of the day feeling clean and cozy from her care.