Chapter 5 – Grimauld Place

Potter found me asleep in the park that night. I felt something nudging me. I swatted at it and rolled over. It nudged harder, and I ignored it, then I felt a stinging curse in my foot. Angry, I sat up and glared at the offender.

"Malfoy, go home." He said warily.

"Do you have perpetual park duty Potter?" I spat at him, "I'd really have thought after taking on the Dark Lord you'd have a better title then park night guard."

He sighed, "We all switch off. You just seem to be here the few times a year I actually am on duty here." I glared at him. "Go home Malfoy." Potter said. He sounded exhausted.

I rolled my eyes, "I don't know if you remember this potter but I'm drunk so I can't apparate. Therefore I'm stuck here. So just go home and let me sleep."

Potter ran his hands through his hair, clearly frustrated, "Malfoy, if I leave you here and you die of exposure I will feel bad. A little less so when I remember how you treated Hermione tonight, but I'm sure the sight of Narcissa weeping will pull on a few emotions. You're sleeping on my couch."

Before I could react Harry grabbed my arm and apparated us to his house. I crashed down in the entry way. I was about to yell but Potter covered my mouth with his hands and said, "One of the black ancestor's portraits will screech bloody murder if you wake her. And if you wake the baby Ginny will kill you and I won't be able to stop her. Got it?"

Memories of the weaselette's hexes from school made me hold my tongue. I shoved Potter off me and stood. I wobbled a little but followed Potter to a room with a couch. He transfigured me a blanket and left for bed without another word. I considered leaving but I had no place else to go. I couldn't apparate in my current state and I had no idea where Potter lived. I could be miles from anything. Irritated but not seeing another choice I laid down with the blanket. It didn't take long before I was out cold.

I woke in the morning to something grabbing my nose. Startled, I shot awake with my wand in hand. And saw a baby. It was barely able to stand and was holding onto the couch to support itself. Calming down I placed the wand back on the couch. I remembered Potter saying something about a baby last night. This must be his. The black hair was certainly a good indication.

"Hello." I said to it. It just stared at me, then plopped back onto the floor and started to crawl away.

"James?" I heard a female call, a little worriedly, "James? Where have you crawled off to?"

Assuming she meant the baby I yelled back that he was in here. I winced at the volume of my voice. I was rubbing my head when Ginny entered the room. I saw her smirk at me and then go scold James for wandering off.

"Any chance you could keep your voice down? Or bring me a hangover potion?" I groaned and rubbed at my temples.

Ginny smirked, "I'm sorry Malfoy but we're out." She purposefully spoke loudly. "Harry told me he found you passed out drunk in the park last night. In my opinion, if you're going to drink like an idiot then you should suffer like one."

"Luckily I don't need your opinion." I muttered and I stood up, intending to leave, and felt my pulse pound through my head. Feeling nauseous I sat back down and groaned.

I was distantly aware of Ginny cooing to her son. I felt intrusive, I didn't belong near this happy family. Unfortunately, my stomach was doing some threatening rolls and I couldn't leave quite yet. I was so focused on breathing and trying to keep all liquids inside my body that I didn't notice when Ginny left the room. Suddenly a bowl of beige goo was under my face. I looked up to see Ginny offering me the bowl. Afraid the effort of talking would make me sick I looked back to the floor and shook my head. I heard a deep sigh.

"Look at all the trouble mommy goes through for riff raff like him." Ginny said to James. He gurgled happily on her hip in response. "This is oatmeal. Harry used to make it for me when I got drunk at a party after a game. I've added honey and ginger, it makes it taste better and will help settle your stomach."

I glanced at it and mumbled, "It looks like it came from my stomach." Ginny grumbled something about hard work and carried James off. The bowl was left beside me, and I honestly was hungry. I took a few tentative bites. It didn't take long before for the whole bowl was gone and my stomach was actually settling down. Wanting to thank Ginny for her generosity, I wandered out of the hallway and realized I was in the old black house. Potter had said something about it last night but I recognized it from mother's stories of the elf heads on the wall. I assumed they were put up with a permanent sticking charm, otherwise Potter would have taken them down by now. I wondered briefly how he'd inherited it while I looked around.

Remembering Potters warning about the portraits I walked quietly through the hallways. I finally found some stairs down to the kitchen and arrived just in time to see James fall off his chair. He hit the floor with a hard thud and immediately started crying. Ginny whorled around, panic clearly evident on her face. She saw James on the floor and rushed to pick him up.

"Wait!" I said just as she reached him.

She glared at me with her hands on the sides of her son, "Give me one good reason I should."

"I'm a healer." She looked sceptically at me while I came over and crouched down beside them. I grabbed my wand from my pocket.

She grabbed my arm, "You do anything that hurts my son in anyway and I will dance as I bleed you onto this floor." Her look didn't waver.

I swallowed and nodded, "Noted." I ran some diagnostic spells on him. "It looks like he'll be fine. Just a bump to the head. You can pick him up now." I added.

The second I finished the words her hands shot out and wrapped around her son. Cradling him to her chest. Potter rushed in then with his wand out. He stopped as he surveyed the scene, "What happened?"

Ginny was upset, "James got out of his chair again. But this time he fell."

Potter rushed over to check his son, "Is he hurt?"

"Malfoy says it's just a bump, I'm gonna take him to St. Mungo's for some extra tests though. Just to be sure."

Potter nodded and kissed his wife on her head, "Use the flew, I'll come as soon as I can. Shacklebolt has asked to see me this morning, so I have to pop by his office quickly." Potter looked sternly over at me, "How sure are you that it's just a bump?"

I rolled my eyes, "Relax Potter, kids fall all the time." His fist tightened over his wand so I quickly continued, "He cried right away, a good sign. I did some spells and nothing bad turned up. If he's anything like you he's got such a hard head that a few bumps won't hurt anything." I stood with my arms crossed.

He glared at me before turning to his wife. The Potter's had a gushy good bye, I suppressed the urge to gag, and then wife and child were gone. Potter got some food and asked, "So what are you still doing here?"

Feeling annoyed I snapped, "You're welcome for making sure your child wasn't dying."

Potter looked up, clearly annoyed, "You're a healer, you took an oath to help people. Or does that definition not extend to blood traitors like my son?"

I flinched at the accusation and deflected, "How do you know I'm a healer?"

"Hermione told me."

"Oh," I felt like an idiot for not realizing she'd have told him, "How-" I hesitated, unsure if I should ask. I sighed and plowed on, "How is she?"

Potter froze and looked up from his breakfast, "You want to know how Hermione's doing?"

I put on a sneer and threw his words back at him, "I'm a healer Potter I took an oath to help people."

Potter glarred at me for a minute, watching me tense under his gaze. He put down his oatmeal and crossed his arms, "She's doing okay. She wasn't particularly happy after last night when you basically bit her head off for touching you. Still can't stand to get mudblood germs on your jacket can you?"

I flinched, "Don't say that word." Potter stared at me, shocked. I could see him thinking, trying to understand my behaviour. "Listen, the only reason I'm still here was because I wanted to thank you and your wife for giving me a place to crash, and the oatmeal this morning." Potter really looked floored now, "But next time you have a visitor make sure to close your living room door. Not everyone appreciates being woken up by a toddler sticking their finger up your nose."

Potter burst out laughing. I rolled my eyes at him, turned around and left the house.