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Disclaimer: see previous chapter.
Thank you to Merlin, GoldenSunnyGrl, and Malombra for being such great BETA'S.
AU.
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CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Draco sighed in relief as the last patient was injected with the asegeuitum potion. Now, all they had to do was wait for the vomiting, shaking, and all over pain to hit. Some of these kids were eleven years old!
Draco watched Harry as he paced between the beds, fluffing pillows and smiling and joking with the kids. Harry was good with kids, Draco realized. With his soft voice and calm demeanor he was putting these kids at ease before the pain was to hit. He stood at the table that had all the healing potions on it, waiting for the time to pass them out.
It was an hour later that the vomiting started. Draco vowed to himself to always have anti-nausea potions as close as possible, especially if he and Harry decided to have kids. He lost himself in a daydream of Harry, ripe with another one of his kids as he sang another one to sleep.
A scream of pain brought him out of his daydream and he rushed a pain potion over to Harry and the first year he was attending to. After that the hours seemed to bleed one to another. He didn't remember the small catches of sleep he got between tending to the patients. For three days he, Harry, Pom, and even Gualt tended to the sick.
On the third day, the last potion was given to the last patient and all of them breathed a sigh of relief. It was over.
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Harry slept for 20 hours after he had discharged the last patient. He actually didn't remember the walk from the infirmary to his room but he woke up in his bed. Harry sighed heavily. Now that there were no more patients, there was no reason for him to stay.
Groaning he got up slowly, as every muscle in his body was sore. Deciding to take one more day to rest, he called for a house elf to bring him something to eat. He spent a leisurely breakfast in his rooms. He showered and then walked down to see Hagrid. He found him outside, tending to his garden.
"Afternoon, Hagrid," Harry called out in his gentle voice.
Hagrid turned to see Harry coming towards him and smiled. Harry had been with him each time the potion had been given to him, because of his size, he had had to have the potion twice as many times as the others, as a result he had been the last to leave.
"'Arry!" Hagrid called out happily, "nice to see ye awake!"
Harry blushed. He had fallen asleep at Hagrid's bedside once and had drooled all over the half-giant. "Everything okay here?"
Hagrid motioned to a row of plants, "animals got the one but the others are okay. I'm bout to pull them up."
"I will help." Harry said and against Hagrid's protests he helped pull the half-eaten plants up. The manual labor helped him to clear his mind. As he worked in the hot sun, he thought about what was going to happen in the next few days. Gault was already gone, he had left before the last patient was gone. Harry hadn't been sorry to see him go. And by the smug look on Draco's face and the feeling he got down the bond, Draco wasn't either.
Of course, he didn't understand the last parting comment that Draco made as there was no way Gault would have been in Slytherin house, he had gone to Durmstrang. He wouldn't have 'played the game'. Harry had thought the smirk on Draco's face cute although he didn't understand what they had been talking about in the least.
The fact that Gault had thrown him an absolutely vicious look was funny. He had stormed out of the infirmary before Harry could say goodbye. Not that he cared, really, but it was unprofessional of him to just leave like that. A few words to Orion and Gualt was put on processing, something he hated to do, for a few months.
Harry was free to go. But he found himself reluctant to leave. He had seen a side to Draco that he hadn't dreamed possible. He had been caring and helpful to those that had been sick. He hadn't scowled, snarled, or snipped at any of the patients, even when they vomited on him. And what had happened in his office right before they administered the potion? He had kissed Harry's neck, bitten his ear, and moaned as he massaged his shoulders. But Harry still didn't know what it meant?
And without Draco coming right out and saying something he doubt he ever would. Though he would like a repeat. As a matter of fact he wanted, needed, a repeat. Harry shivered as a wave of lust wafted over him. He didn't know if it was his or Draco's, and frankly he didn't care.
It took a few moments to get his body back under control and another few moments to figure out that Hagrid was talking to him.
"I am sorry, Hagrid. What did you ask me?" Harry asked quietly as he wiped the sweat from his forehead.
"I was wondering when you was leaving?" Hagrid asked. He knew his part of 'The Plan' was over and he wanted to know if anything that they had done had helped.
"Oh," Harry said quietly, "well, I was going to wait until the morning to leave. After another night's sleep." He wiped his sweaty, dirty hand on his jeans and reached down to pull up another plant. He missed Hagrid's look of panic. Harry wasn't suppose to leave. He was suppose to get with Draco and stay here where he belonged.
"Oh." Hagrid said. He knew he had to get the information to someone so that they could form another part of 'The Plan', though Hagrid thought it was complicated enough as it was. "Can you keep doing this so's I can go get us some good water?"
Harry looked at him funny but then shrugged. Maybe he was taking his health seriously and wanted fresh water from the kitchens. "Sure, Hagrid."
Hagrid hurried away, intent on finding someone more knowledgeable about 'The Plan' and letting them know Harry had plans of his own.
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Draco had just woken up from a long sleep when he heard pounding on his door. He scowled as he crossed to open it. Who the hell was pounding on his door when he had left instructions not to be disturbed until he himself left his rooms? He swung the door open with a curse on his lips that died the minute he saw who was standing there.
"What's wrong?" He immediately said.
"We have a slight problem." Pom said as she stepped into the room and closed his door quietly.
Only the ghosts and the house elves cleaning the adjoining rooms heard the anguished cry seconds later.
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For all of you that asked, FFN deleted my story 'I Understand'. The reason given was not one I understood as it made no sense. I do not know if I will repost the story here. I lost almost 1300 reviews, 52 chapters, and three years of my life when they did this.
I got no warning that this was going to happen. I had no chance to fix whatever it was that they considered wrong about the story. Now, I don't know what their criteria is when they delete a story, but I am going to assume it's not a lot.
I am sorry for all of you that were waiting for the last few chapters of that story, honestly, I haven't even felt like finishing it. I had to force myself to get this chapter done and to you so it may not be as good as the previous chapters. I apologize for that.
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LMG