I didn't move from Charlie's bed for the entirety of the next two days. Draco was forced to work around me as he continued to scan for progress and monitor any changes in his vitals. I had been firm and told him I didn't want anyone in until we knew what we were dealing with and I didn't want his family notified. People at the reserve obviously knew that he was injured and Draco was keeping Jasper in the loop, but his family, our family, was another story.

If we told them now, they would flood this room and it would be suffocating. Charlie wouldn't want that. He loves his family dearly, but he's learned in his time away from home that small doses are better and what he needs now is rest and time.

Oddly, Draco was the one there to comfort me. Remind me to eat and take care of myself even just a little bit in my grief. My mind was too preoccupied with the what ifs to even attempt to remember those little things. Luna came by as well to give me updates on Kayda and her progress. I hadn't had much opportunity to spend time with her since she had arrived months ago, but she was skillful in her word and I valued her assessment and care of our favorite little dragon.

At first, I spent my time alternating between tears and endless whispers to Charlie. Though I tried to be strong, my internal thoughts were filled with doubt. What would happen if he didn't wake up? Was the baby I now knew I was carrying going to be ok? What if I had to raise this child to never know her amazing father?

By the second day, I was murmuring encouraging words to Charlie and basically demanding him to come out of this unscathed.

"Charlie, I don't know what's going on in there and I know that Draco has you drugged this way and that, but you need to fight. Whatever your body is doing right now, you need to heal and be ok. You promised me forever and two months doesn't come close to fulfilling that promise. And we've got this little bean in there that is going to need you to show her how to be safe around dragons and explore the lands and get into all sorts of trouble. Oh, and fly! Because you know I still hate that. And I need you,

Charlie. I can't do this life without you. Fight Charlie. Fight like hell and come back to me."

Draco cleared his throat and I hastily wiped my eyes as I backed away. It should have been mortifying to be caught by my former nemesis in such a state, but at this point I didn't have spare energy to care.

"I'm going to try my hardest to make sure he's ok Hermione. His scans are all moving in the right direction. I'm just going to look one more time at his swelling and if it's gone down enough, I'll be closing up the hole."

I nodded hopefully and backed away. Draco unwrapped the bandages and performed several complicated wand movements.

"Everything looks like it's back to normal in terms of swelling."

I let out what felt like my first breath of relief in days. Draco moved his wand a few more times in a complicated pattern, muttering under his breath, and the wound on the side of Charlie's head was sealed up.

"So, what happens next? Do we just wake him up and everything is fine?"

He paused at my hopeful tone. "I don't want to over promise here. The first step is to stop the potions that are keeping him in the coma. I'll discontinue their use and it should allow him to wake up. He's going to be pretty groggy and out of it at first and likely won't remember what happened. You're going to need to be really patient with him and try not to overwhelm him."

I nodded vigorously. "I can do that. How long do you think it will take? What do we do after he's awake?"

Draco made a sound of hesitation in his throat. "We won't know the full extent of the brain damage, if any until he wakes up. It's likely he will struggle with some motor functions at least temporarily while the damage heals. Thankfully, now that the swelling is down, there is more that I can do to assist with that magically. A normal brain injury recovery in the muggle world could take months or even years, we are looking at days to weeks and, if I've done my job, hopefully he won't have any lasting reminders."

I couldn't help myself. I got up and threw my arms around Draco. "Thank you. We made the right choice in seeking you out. I have complete confidence in your work and I appreciate everything you've done so far."

Draco seemed a little unsure of how to respond. He simply straightened his robes and cleared his throat. "Thank you for that. Just doing my job."

But I could tell the words struck a chord deep within him. There was a time he wasn't able to help people and he was doing his best to make up for it now.

It was several hours later when the potions finally began to fade from Charlie's system. I was lying next to him, holding his hand when I felt a twitch.

My eyes snapped to his and for the first time in days I saw his baby blues staring back at me. "Good morning, Charlie. Don't try to strain yourself or move just yet. Draco will be here in a second and we'll explain everything."

I could see the confusion on his face but thankfully he listened and didn't try to speak. Grabbing my wand, I sent a notification to Draco who came rushing in just a few minutes later.

"Welcome back to us Charlie. I'm sure you're quite confused on what's going on." Charlie tried to speak and Draco stopped him. "Not just yet I'm afraid. I promise we will fill you in, but let me run a few tests so I can accurately answer your questions. Does that sound fair?"

Charlie nodded and Draco began his work. He worked up and down my husband, checking how his eyes followed his finger, having him squeeze his hands, even tickling the bottom of his feet. I sat back and watched it all, hoping beyond hope that everything was just fine and we could skip anything difficult.

After a few notes on his chart, Draco stepped back to address us. "Alright Charlie, now I want you to try and tell me how you're feeling. We'll get to the explanation part, but I need to know if there is anything I need to address first. Just take it easy. It's been a couple days so your throat may feel a little raw."

Charlie swallowed thickly. "I feel like I've been run over by the night bus."

His words weren't as crisp as normal, but we were able to make out what he was saying. "He's awake. He's talking." I told myself. Just the sound of his voice caused tears to roll down my cheeks.

"No night bus this time, just a powerful spell and large rock. Didn't even get properly taken down by a dragon. Honestly, I had higher expectations of reasons why I would see you in here."

A throaty chuckle escaped Charlie's throat, then he cringed in pain.

"Yeah. Take it easy. I expect you to be quite sore and stiff for a few days. Do you remember what happened?"

"Brie attacked us."

"That's a very brief description of what happened, but I'll take it. She got you pretty good, but that damage was undone fairly easily. Falling head first into that boulder was what really did you in. Do you have any specific areas of pain or concern?"

"My vision is a little blurry and my legs feel funny."

Draco nodded. "That fits with my tests. You had a lot of damage and you're still healing. Your eyes are tracking at about 80%, but that's something I expect to continue to improve over the next several days. I didn't get much response from your legs just now. I have a few potions for you to take. Those combined with some physical therapy should help resolve any lasting effects rather quickly. I'm confident you will make a full recovery in the next 5 to 7 days." He put his quill and parchment down. "Now, I'll leave the two of you alone for a bit while I go prepare the potions."

Charlie turned his head to look at me. "Hello beautiful. I'm so glad you're ok."

"Charlie Weasley, if you weren't hurt, I'd smack you. You know full well I can take care of myself. If that curse had hit me, I would have been fine. The only reason you were so hurt is because of how you jumped in front of me and fell." At least that's what I told him. I had no way of knowing what that curse may have done to our unborn child if I had been hit, but I imagine I could have dodged it and come out better than he had.

"Sorry, love. I hope you know by now that I would do anything to protect you. How about you? Were you hurt?"

I scooped up his hand in mine and the feel of him squeezing back, though weaker than usual, had my eyes welling with tears again. The relief of the gesture and to simply be having a conversation with him was indescribable. "I'm ok. She got me with a small curse and I lost a lot of blood, but I was good as new within a day." I knew I needed to tell him the news, but I wished I had been able to do so in a more celebratory way. "Charlie, there's something I have to tell you."

Panic washed over his face. "Is everyone else, ok? Kayda?"

I was quick to put his fears to rest. "Yes, as far as I know everyone else is fine. Luna gave me Kayda's update yesterday and she will be just fine. Harry will be here later this week to give us the full details. I have been focused on you so I don't know much of what's going on from that standpoint. But that's not important right now." I began to wring my hands in nerves. If this experience had taught me anything, it was that time is precious and I couldn't stand Charlie not knowing for another minute. "Charlie, do you know how I hadn't been feeling well the day of the attack? You were trying to convince me to come see Draco?"

He seemed to think on that for a minute. "Yeah. I do remember that. You had almost agreed when the alarm went off. What is it? Is everything ok? Are you sick?"

"Everything's fine Char. More than fine really." Being I was still right next to him in our conjoined beds it was easy to grab his hand and place it over my still flat belly. "Turns out we have a bit of a souvenir from our wedding night. I'm pregnant."

Charlie's eyes went wide as my words registered. "I'm going to be a dad?" I nodded and his eyes closed tight for a second. "I can't believe how close I came to not ever hearing you say those words."

Tears were streaming down his cheeks. "It's ok sweetheart. You're going to be fine. I'm fine. The baby is fine. We're all going to be ok. And we are going to figure out what on earth happened the other night and make sure it never happens again. Then, we are going to raise our baby on this amazing reserve that we built together."

"We're going to be parents!" Now that the news had sunk in and he knew that everything would work out, a grin spread across his face.

I pushed away the fleeting thought of how close he had come to never smiling again. We would have to have a conversation about that, but that time wasn't now. Our immediate focus was Charlie and his continued healing.