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CHAPTER 5

"Hello darling" Draco drawled. He was standing on the balcony on the ninth floor of The Maple Apartments, leaning over the railing and enjoying the view below.

"Hello Draco!" Claire screamed from the other side of the phone . "Are you alright?! "

Draco was sure that one day he was going to rupture his eardrums from just speaking to her. He had learned to use a phone only a couple months back and he was much better at it than this hideous muggle girl. He might be living with muggles for the past nine months but he still loathed them...except for Claire and Mrs. Dopkins. Whatever he might say, he had a soft spot for these two people but he will never admit it openly .

"You know, some people are pretty fond of their ears and will like to retain their auditory perception." he dragged.

She didn't seem to hear that. "What exactly happened today?! " she screamed again.

"Nothing much." he sounded bored.

"Draco..." she said in a warning tone.

"Alright, alright. I fainted."

"Again?!" she pretty much shrieked this time and Draco rubbed his ears and checked his hearing before replying.

"Yep."

"Don't sound so cheerful, Draco! When are you going to learn to eat?"

"You are talking as though I'm starving myself deliberately. You know I don't have the money to buy food for myself. What with the rent of the flat and Scorp's potio...medicines." he finished a little harshly than necessary. He had almost said 'potions'...he needed to be careful while talking.

"You spend all your money on Scorp's medicines and don't even tell me what exactly is wrong with him..." she accused him.

That's because I myself don't know, he thought. "The doctors are not sure yet." he replied instead.

Scorpius had been on these potions for the whole of last month. Since the healers were not ready to assist him, Draco had had to help himself. He was glad that he was proficient in potions, it had always been his favourite subject. He wasn't sure what was amiss with Scorpius but he had been working on a few brews to stabilize his condition. There was just no pattern for these symptoms. On and off he gets a fever which doesn't stay for more than a day, inexplicable bruises and cuts, internal bleeding for no apparent reason which was too much to handle for a one year old and just last week Scorp had been taking his afternoon nap when he had fractured one of his fingers in his left hand.

Draco had invented a potion called Atenuo Poculum which helps to reduce the effects of these symptoms, so if something happens, there will be some discomfort but Scorp won't have to suffer the worst of it. He had also been administering some of the more usual ones like the Strengthening Solution, Vitamix Potion whenever necessary. Unfortunately, potion ingredients cost a fortune and now Scorpius' condition seemed to have worsened. The Atenuo Poculum was not working as well as it used to and Draco had realized that it was time for professional medical aid which is why he had approached the Golden Trio.

"So, when are you planning on returning to work, Draco?" Claire asked.

"Who said I am?"

"You realize you can't keep hiding from Graham forever, don't you? It's better to just apologize, he might forgive you..."

He snorted. 'Forgive' and 'Graham' can never fit into the same sentence. "Don't fool yourself, Claire. As soon as he sees me, he's gonna skin me alive."

"What are you going to do for money then?"

"We'll see."

"Fine!" she snapped and then suddenly her tone changed to one of sauciness. "Anyway, I have been wanting to ask you...who was that girl?" Draco could hear her smirking from the other side of the phone.

"Keep your dirty thoughts to yourself, will you? She is just a classmate from school. Besides, you know I am more into guys than girls." he finished with a smirk of his own.

"Pity that...I have been working so hard to seduce you and you never seem to notice me." she said with an exaggerated sigh.

Smiling, he turned towards the doorway to see a distraught Granger running towards him.

"Mal...Malfoy!" she panted like she had run a marathon or something.

"Granger."

"It's Scorpius." she said and Draco's blood ran cold. He disconnected the call without so much as a bye.

"What happened?" he asked, urging her to continue.

"He was coughing up blood... Harry has taken him to St. Mungo's... He..." she was still panting but Draco was already running to the fireplace. He quickly threw the floo powder and said 'St. Mungo's', in an unsteady voice.

He reached the hospital using the visitor's fireplace and looked around. He didn't know which ward Scorp had been taken to, so not having a choice he approached the receptionist.

"Not you again!" the receptionist shouted as soon as she laid an eye on him.

"Where is my son?" he demanded.

"Have you gone barmy? Why will we have your son? If you have come to cause a commotion again then I think I will have to call the aurors this time. The guards don't seem to work out." she said, already reaching for the floo powder.

"That won't be necessary, Miss...Kaylee" Potter said, glancing at her badge.

"Mr. Potter!" she gasped.

"You see, the kid that was just admitted here was Mr. Malfoy's son. Scorpius Malfoy." he said, looking down on her with a fierce glare.

"Oh!" she sounded surprised.

"Do you have a problem with that?" he asked with the same grim expression.

She seemed to curl in on herself. Draco had to admit, Potter did look quite intimidating with that dangerous look plastered on his face.

"Of course not!" she said, quickly shuffling a few papers on her desk. "He's on the second floor- Magical Bugs and Diseases, Mr. Malfoy.

Draco sprinted to the lift, not waiting for Potter. The second floor appeared to be empty except for one lone occupant of the waiting room. Draco approached Weasley as soon as his legs could carry him.

"Where's Scorpius?"

Weasley looked up. His face was chalk white, like he had seen a ghost.

"In the emergency ward. The healers haven't said anything yet, just asked us to wait here." his voice was barely above a whisper.

Draco nodded. Deep breaths...deep breaths...don't panic...don't panic... he repeated like a mantra. But saying was much easier than doing.

He was unable to stand still, so he began pacing the room.

Weasley seemed to have recovered a little from his ordeal and he was watching Draco as he was pacing, his eyes moving like a pendulum.

"Can you calm down, Malfoy?"

"No I can't." he replied without a pause, in his no-nonsense tone.

Weasley opened his mouth to say something else but thought better of it.

Just then Potter appeared with two cups of coffee. "I brought coffee." he said, as though it wasn't obvious. He offered one to Weasley and then slowly proceeded towards Draco, like approaching a dangerous animal.

"Coffee, Malfoy?"

"No thank you, Potter."

"It might help to-"

"I said no thank you Potter." he spat the word like it tasted bitter on his tongue, topped with his renowned Malfoy sneer. And it worked. Potter backed off.

About fifteen minutes later, a healer came into the cabin.

"Mr. Malfoy?"

"Yes."

"I'm Healer Allen." he said holding out his hand."Your son is fine now but you cannot meet him yet. It was a case of pneumothorax, more commonly known as lung collapse. We have fixed it and he should be okay by tomorrow afternoon." he paused. "What is odd is that pneumothorax doesn't usually happen without a reason. A lung collapse is not very common, it only occurs when the chest experiences a severe trauma like a fractured rib or some external injury like a knife wound. So, we don't know what caused it in little Scorpius." He sounded thoroughly confused.

"That's basically the case for everything that happens to him nowadays." Draco muttered.

"Pardon?"

"It's been like that for a month now... fever, bruises, fractured bones. They happen for no reason whatsoever and your hospital didn't want to find out what the problem is." Draco scowled.

Allen looked disconcerted. "And how have you been managing it?"

"I have concocted a potion called Atenuo Poculum, it's a brew that minimises the effects of anything that happens to him so he won't have to endure the full extension of the affliction. But it's not of much help now. His condition appears to have worsened. A lung collapse...that has never happened before."

"Mr. Malfoy-" Allen began but Draco wasn't finished yet.

"And if you are going to talk about the legality of administering an unregistered potion, then you can save your breath. I wasn't going to sit there and watch as my son was waning away."

"I wasn't going to say that. I merely wanted to ask you to submit the names of the ingredients and details of the said potion as it may help to diagnose his ailment... because I haven't heard of anything like this before."

The last sentence successfully managed to dispirit Draco. He just nodded.

It had been three hours since Draco had come to the hospital. He had given all the details of the potions he had used on Scorpius and everything that his son had suffered for the past month. All the paperwork was done. Now all he could do was wait. They weren't allowed to see Scorp yet as he was still in critical care. So Harry, Draco and Ron were seated silently in the waiting room. It was so quiet that they appeared to be hardly breathing.

It was then that five healers entered the room along with Healer Allen. They introduced themselves and got down to business without wasting a minute.

Healer Allen was the first to talk."We tried all types of detection charms on Scorpius and every medical record has been perused. We haven't seen anything like it before."

"The research department has been working on his case for the past three hours but they haven't found anything of worth yet." Another healer, a short woman with light brown hair spoke up. Draco thought her name was Taylor or something. "Your potion was very efficient in maintaining Scorpius' health the whole of last month but as you suspected his condition has indeed worsened."

"Tests are still being conducted to identify his ailment but until then we have come up with something to avoid such afflictions in the future." Healer Davis was the next to speak.

They handed him two potions. "The purple one is a stabilizer. As the name suggests, it will help stabilize Scorpius' condition for the time being. The grey one is a stronger version of Atenuo Poculum. Apart from these potions we are also of the opinion that we should probably conduct a few monitoring sessions every week that will apprise us prior to any further prolapse. These sessions will include casting of advanced and complicated spells using some special equipment. It will only be a fifteen to twenty minute process."

"So now all you're saying is that nothing can be done about it and we just have to wait for further deterioration of Scorpius' health?" Draco asked. His face contorting in ill humour.

Harry can see that the situation was getting out of hand. He walked over to Draco and placed his hand on his shoulder to be shrugged off.

"We didn't mean that, Mr. Malfoy. You must realize that Scorpius' ailment is an unusual occurrence. There has been nothing like this before." Healer Allen said.

" I don't care! I just want my son treated!" he screamed.

"Malfoy..." Harry called, placing his hand on Draco's shoulder again which he immediately threw off.

"The research department is analysing his case round the clock." said Healer Davis.

"Well, fuck the research department. My son is dying dammit and I can't just sit and watch!" he screamed again.

"Malfoy, please calm down!" Harry pleaded.

Malfoy turned to him with a murderous look. "Just stay the hell out of this, Potter." he warned.

"Please mind your language, Mr. Malfoy. You should be grateful for what we have done till now. You know very well that a death eater spawn doesn't deserve it." Healer Taylor said carelessly.

"How dare you!" Malfoy spat, gritting his teeth. He advanced towards her but was quickly held back by Harry.

It was at that moment Ron decided to intervene. "Excuse me! You have no right to say that!" he said.

"But Mr. Weasley-"

"I'd like to continue this outside." he said, ushering the healers out of the room and following behind.

Draco was trying very hard to spring apart Harry's hands and sprint towards Taylor. Eventhough Draco was not as strong as him, Harry was finding it very difficult to hold him back.

"That bitch!" he sneered.

"Malfoy-"

"Let me go, Potter!" he said, struggling.

"Malfoy, please listen-"

"Unhand me or you are going to regret it!"

"No."

"I'm warning you Potter, just release me!

"Malfoy..." Draco didn't seem to hear. Harry tried again. "Malfoy!" Draco was still trying to wrestle him down.

"DRACO!" Harry yelled and he immediately stopped struggling. They stood like that for a few minutes, both breathing hard.

Harry was still scared to relinquish his hold of him. Then Malfoy looked up with tears clinging to his eyelashes. He looked so small and broken at that moment that without thinking Harry just pulled him into his arms. Draco tried to weakly push him away but Harry didn't give in. After a moment, Malfoy started crying. Wracking sobs escaped his chest and Harry could feel the wetness of his tears creeping into his shirt.

"Shhh." he whispered. "It's going to be okay, Draco. Scorp's gonna be alright." He kept murmuring soothing words into his hair. "We will soon find out what the problem is. I'm sure Hermione will help. Don't worry, Draco." he said, while holding him tight against his chest.

"I can't lose him." Draco whispered, his voice hoarse from crying.

"You won't lose him." Harry assured.

After a while his sobs died down. He peeled himself away from Harry and walked to a nearby chair. His eyes were puffy and his face was a blotchy red. He sat staring at the floor.

Then Ron came in looking agitated. "I spoke to the senior consultant and that woman has been sacked. He also assured me that Scorpius' case will be given full consideration. You will have to sign a few more papers, Malfoy and pay in advance for those sessions. The bill is roughly around five thousand galleons."

Harry watched as Draco's face was drained of all colour. He was still staring at the floor but Harry could hear those cogwheels turning as Draco's brain got to work. Ron and Harry exchanged a knowing look. They knew he was thinking from where to obtain such a large sum of money. Before either of them could say anything, Draco stood up.

"Weasley, can you please take care of Scorpius for now? I have some important business to attend to."

"Sure." said a confused Ron and Draco walked out.

As Draco walked to the exit, he was thinking. His brain was working faster than a bullet train.

Five thousand galleons...five thousand galleons...that's almost equal to twenty five thousand pounds! Where the hell was he going to go for that much money. He will have to think of something. It concerns Scorpius afterall. Even if he does find another muggle job, he couldn't earn twenty five thousand pounds so fast! Not to mention the fact that Graham was sure to find him as soon as he steps out into the muggle neighbourhood. His men were everywhere for god's sake! Hang on...Graham! That's just it! Maybe it was time to take Claire's advice into consideration...Maybe it was time to meet Graham himself.

And he strode briskly towards the exit.

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