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CHAPTER 10

Scorpius was convulsing on the floor, frothing at the mouth, muscles stiff, hardly breathing. Harry was eerily reminded of Ron, when he was poisoned in sixth year. The child was totally rigid, his teeth clenched and eyes rolling back in the skull.

It was a seizure.

A panic-stricken Draco was kneeling by Scorp, trying to hold him down as Scorpius continued to writhe on the floor.

"P..Potter, d..d..do s..something!" Draco's voice was desperate. He was shaking almost as badly as the tremors racking Scorp's body.

Harry kneeled down on the other side of Scorp, trying to turn him to one side, so he doesn't choke on the saliva.

And then Scorp went limp, his eyelids drooping shut. Panicking, Harry quickly checked for a pulse and was relieved to find one.

"We have to take him to the hospital." Harry said in an unsteady tone. Draco looked up with wide eyes as though he just remembered that there was something called hospital...maybe he really did.

He nodded his head vigorously "Yes..yes, hospital, yes." he kept repeating. Draco tried to carry Scorp but his hands didn't seem to co-operate, shaking just as badly as before.

Scorp had stopped breathing altogether. There was no more time to waste. Without warning, Harry quickly apparated Draco and Scorpius to Mungo's with a lurch.

They landed in the lobby and the sudden apparition tugged Draco down to the floor. Everything that happened after that was a big hazy blur to Draco. He just remembered mediwitches and healers rushing past him, shouts and hasty orders for different medical equipments, someone pushing past him which knocked him down again. Someone was shouting at him to move out of the way and the same someone had pulled him up from the floor. He could make out Potter's voice somewhere among the chaos but it was like Potter was talking from some faraway place and Draco couldn't distinguish the words.

When he came to his senses, he found himself standing in the middle of the same waiting room from before. He didn't even know how he got there or how long he's been standing there. He walked to one corner on shaky legs and sat down on the ground, knees drawn up tightly against the chest and arms wrapped around them. He knew he should go and find out how Scorp was but he couldn't bring himself to do it. He didn't want to know what had happened. What if it was some bad news? No. He can't hear something like that. As long as he was here, he could pretend everything was alright. Nothing was wrong with him. Everything was fine and under control...But he didn't know how long he would be able to fool himself.

Harry was standing outside Scorp's room, leaning against the opposite wall, fidgeting with the hem of his sleeve. The healers had told him there was absolutely no hope. But Harry didn't believe that. There was always hope.

According to the healers, the monitor sessions had been going well, they had been pretty sure that nothing abnormal would happen without their knowledge. So now this seizure was totally out of the blue. The healers had said it is quite inconceivable for them to grasp. They had been confident with the progress of their sessions and had not expected such an untoward incident.

In Harry's opinion, it was a lot more than an 'untoward incident'.

Scorp was in a coma.

This news had been a huge blow for Harry and he had stood motionless for sometime when he had heard it from Healer Allen. The rest of the words were drowned out until Allen had shaken him out of his reverie. That was the reason why he hadn't gone to see Draco in the waiting room.

Draco had not been himself from the time they had apparated to the hospital. Harry had screamed for help, the healers had come bustling to serve the Chosen One, it was utter chaos until the healers had stabilised Scorp enough to move him to the ward. All the while, Draco had just stood there, staring into space. His face had been expressionless which scared Harry more than the desperation and panic he had seen before. He was being jostled around for he was still in the middle of the lobby and Harry had then pulled him to his feet and led him to the waiting room. He had just followed like a victim of a dementor's kiss, whose soul had just been sucked out. Then Harry had left him there and had not yet gone back to check on him.

He couldn't pluck up the courage to face Draco now. If Harry himself was finding it so hard to accept Scorp's condition, he didn't want to imagine what it would do to Draco, especially after what he had just witnessed of him. It will break him, he knew. Draco loved his son immensely. He was too dear, too precious to him. The only one who was left of Draco's family.

No, he cannot do that to him, he cannot tell him. He cannot be the one to cause such suffering to someone who had already lost so much in life. But he cannot just stand here and not do anything either. Scorp's life was slowly dwindling. The healers had said they didn't know any way to bring him out of the coma. That was expected. Unless and until they reach the root of the problem, they cannot do anything to solve it.

Fuck! Harry scrubbed at his face. He needed to do something. There was only one person he could think of whom he could approach when everything else had failed.

Harry apparated right in the middle of a make out session on the living room floor of The Maple Apartments.

"There's a reason houses have bedrooms you know..." he said casually, throwing them a blanket from the couch to shield his friends' private parts.

"Harry!" Hermione gasped, quickly wrapping the blanket around her, not caring one bit that her husband was still exposed. She hastily retreated to her bedroom.

In a desperate attempt to hide, Ron jumped atop the couch and tumbled headfirst to ground.

"Ouch!" he groaned. Atleast he was now shielded by the couch.

Hermione re-emerged from her room in mere moments, fully dressed and not a hair out of place like she had been there all the while and not just moaning in pleasure right there on the rug a minute ago.

"And there's a reason I closed the floo tonight." she said stubbornly, folding her arms. "You could have sent an owl you know."

"I'm sorry, Hermione, but it couldn't wait." And he hurriedly told her everything that's going on.

"Oh my God!" Hermione exclaimed with a gasp, trembling hands shooting up to cover her mouth.

She walked over to him and gave him a comforting hug and Harry felt some of his worries ebb away. This is why he loved Hermione.

"Could you do anything at all, Mione? I know you're not a healer...but you always put things right, and I didn't know what else to do...I hope it won't be too much of a bother..." his voice trailed off.

"Don't be stupid, mate. Hermione would love an excuse to go to the library." Ron said from behind the couch, his head peeking from the top.

"Shut up, Ron." Hermione said exasperatedly. "Of course it wouldn't be a bother, Harry. I love Scorp as much as you do and I won't let anything happen to him. I'll contact Professor McGonagall first thing tomorrow for access to Hogwarts library and I will need to use Grimmauld Place's library as well, there are a lot of books there which are centuries old. They might have something of importance." she cocked her head at Harry in question and Harry nodded.

"Anything, Mione. Just please do something for Scorp...Draco will not be able to bear it, Mione. He will be devastated." Harry implored.

Hermione smiled sadly and gave him another hug. She knew Harry was really worried. Worried not just for Scorpius, but Draco too. But she didn't want to give him any false hopes. Afterall, Hermione hadn't a clue what was wrong with Scorpius. What could be that terrible to put a one year old's life in danger? After spending so much time with Scorp, she had started to care for him as her own. It would be truly traumatizing for all of them to lose that lovely child. And what about Draco? She knew Scorp is his only lifeline...

"I'll try my best, Harry...Now go! Draco shouldn't be left alone. I'll be in Grimmauld Place." she said, giving Harry a shove. " Take care of Rose, Ron." she told Ron and he nodded seriously.

"Ron, mate?" Harry called, turning towards his best friend, trying to lighten the mood slightly. "You don't have to hide behind the couch, you know. It's not anything I haven't seen before." Harry smirked and disapparated, narrowly missing the cushion Ron had thrown his way.

Harry knew he didn't have anymore excuses to stay away from the waiting room. And Hermione was right, it wasn't good to leave Draco alone. So he made his way to the waiting room and was quite surprised to not find Draco there. He was about to turn away when he caught a glimpse of something in his peripheral vision. The unmistakable platinum blond hair that could only belong to one person.

He found Draco curled in a corner of the room, knees bent, head bowed resting atop them and arms crossed, supporting the head. If you didn't look closely, the room appeared to be empty.

Harry slowly approached the crouched form and sat down beside him. He contemplated what to do and then slowly laid a hand on his shoulder.

"Draco?" Harry called and Draco lifted his head to peer at him. He looked so despondent and desolate but nonetheless nodded his head at Harry in greeting.

"Potter." he said.

Seeing Draco wasn't behaving in the same upsetting manner as before, Harry released a breath he hadn't realised he'd been holding.

Neither of them spoke for a long time, an uncomfortable silence pressing in on them from all sides. It was too quiet and Harry was finding it disturbing. In an attempt to break the silence he asked,

"Are you okay?" and then mentally smacked himself upside the head for asking such a stupid question. Of course he wasn't okay!

Draco shot him a nasty glare and Harry quickly muttered "Sorry."

Again there was silence surrounding them. They sat like that until Harry spoke again.

"Everything is going to be fine, you know. The healers had said it is nothing serious. Scorp is okay, you don't have to worry." Harry said, without meeting Draco's eyes.

The words sounded false and empty to Harry's own ears. He had desperately wanted to reassure Draco even if that meant lying through his own teeth.

Draco gave him a long look.

"Stop lying, Potter...I already know." Draco said, trying but failing miserably to keep his voice from quivering.

Oh no! thought Harry. He wasn't sure whether Draco already knowing about it was good or bad. Atleast it meant Harry didn't have to go through the ordeal of telling him. But who had told him?

"Allen?" asked Harry.

Draco nodded.

Draco could feel his eyes stinging and he quickly blinked to get rid of the burning. He won't cry. Especially not here. Not when Potter was just sitting not two feet away. Draco still hadn't forgotten that embarrassing night when he had cried all over Potter like some damsel in distress who had needed saving. He was fed up of Potter always finding him in miserable situations where he could hardly control his emotions. Why did it always have to be Potter?!

And Malfoys weren't allowed to show emotion. So he quickly tried to compose himself and hide behind the familiar cold mask he had perfected over the years...and failed miserably yet again. When one's child was dying, no father can stay calm... family rules be damned!

He had been trying to shut down his feelings for the past hour and had been doing well until Harry bloody Potter had to come along and ruin everything! He didn't even know what had possessed him to contact Potter of all people.

Harry could clearly see that Draco was having difficulties to stay collected and he contemplated fleeing, just to give Draco some time to compose himself.

'You're such an idiot, Harry. Now is not the time to leave him alone. Try to comfort him.' said a voice in Harry's head which sounded very much like Hermione's.

Harry hesitantly wrapped a hand across Draco's shoulders, subconsciously pulling him close.

Draco leaned into the touch before he could fully comprehend what he had done. When he did, he decided to push Potter off...but he didn't really want to. Until now, he hadn't realised how lonely he had been all along. The one-armed hug (if you could call it that) had actually helped him calm down. This comfort, this feeling of someone being there for you was what he had really needed, he realised, shocking himself. It meant he wasn't alone in this, there was someone to succor him.

Even if that someone didn't know how much this awkward hug had meant to Draco, he didn't mind. Even if that someone didn't realise how much it had reassured Draco, he didn't mind. Even if that someone was Potter, he-...yeah, he didn't mind, thought Draco, shocked by his own thoughts.

Swallowing his ego, he laid his head on Potter's shoulder, snuggling close. Just to maintain a modicum of dignity, he said,

"Breathe a word about this to anyone and I will hex your balls off and feed it to the street dog."

Potter snickered. "I don't plan to. Why will I want the world to know THE Draco Malfoy is a huge cuddler..?"

"Oh shut up, Potter." Draco said halfheartedly.

They sat in silence in the same position. Harry leaning against the wall with one hand around Draco and Draco snuggled by his side. Harry realised that this silence unlike before, wasn't awkward at all. Draco seemed at ease. Though Harry wasn't sure because he can't see his face. He maybe silently crying for all Harry knew. Hermione always said that he was crap at recognising people's reactions.

"Scorp will definitely fight whatever it is, you know. He won't let anything happen to himself." Harry said, trying to stop Draco from brooding.

"I'm sure." said Draco absently.

"That will make him a Gryffindor, don't you think?" Harry asked, attempting to steer Draco's thoughts to a more promising territory. Draco lifted his head from its resting place and gave Harry a mock horrified expression.

"Not bloody likely, Potter. My son will be a proud Slytherin." said Draco, with an air of confidence.

"Oh please! You are talking as though Slytherins are better than Gryffindors." said Harry with equal confidence, happy to have diverted Draco to a more favourable topic.

"That's because they are." said Draco haughtily,

"Don't fool yourself, Malfoy. You and I both know that your team always lost in quidditch when it played against Gryffindor" lips twitching, Harry quirked an eyebrow, trying to imitate Draco.

" And you and I both know that you always won because you had a faster broom."

"What crap! I would have won even if I didn't have the firebolt."

"Oh really? How about I challenge you to a game of seekers then?" Draco smirked.

"I don't have to prove anything to you."

"Just accept it, Potter. You know you will lose."

"You wish, Malfoy."

"Scared, Potter?"

"Of course not...hang on, shouldn't that have been said backwards?" Harry lifted his eyebrow again.

Draco chuckled.

Harry was glad he had succeeded to distract Draco from his depressing thoughts. Draco then laid his head back on Harry's shoulder. After some time,

"Potter?" Draco called.

"Hmm?"

"I know what you just did...Thanks...for everything."

"Don't mention it." Harry smiled. Trust Malfoy to detect even a distraction attempt.

"And Potter?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't try to mimic my eyebrow lift. You are pathetic at it. Not to mention, it takes years of practice to get it right." Draco grinned evilly.

"Git." said Harry.

"Prat." Draco retorted.

"Wanker."

"Twit."

And they continued like this late into the night.

The energising charm is a good way to treat patients suffering from Narcolepsy which will help them wake up from this long term sleeping disorder. This disease is not a terminal ailment and can be very easily treated as it-

Hermione snapped the book shut. The sun was rising, flooding the library with different shades of blue and violet. She walked to the window and looked out.

The sky was a mixture of violent purple and dark grey, easing out into a more peaceful light blue. The sun looked beautiful, peeping through the clouds, ready to resume its ever watchful gaze on the mysteries of the world.

She sighed. She was tired from poring over books the whole night. It had been a very long time since she had pulled an all-nighter. Her neck and back were stiff from bending over books and she wanted to soak in a nice hot bath to alleviate the pain.

She was already done with A Wizard's guide to Medicine, Are you really Sick? , The More Complex Magical Ailments, Treatments and Cures and...Disease or Decease? The last one was the dumbest book she had ever read.

She hadn't found even a single sentence in any of these books which will shed some light on Scorp's problem. There had been diseases with symptoms of internal bleeding or seizure or coma, but all of these symptoms were for separate ailments. There was just no way Scorpius could have contracted all of them at once.

She had known it wouldn't be easy to get to the core of the problem when she had agreed to do this. It will take time, she knew, but what was annoying her was the feeling of missing something crucial. There was this nagging thing in her brain telling her that she had left out something very obvious, something which is right in front of her.

Sighing again, she went back to her table which she had set up facing the medical section of the library, the chair leaning against the row of shelves holding books on Dark Arts. There were a lot of those as expected. Eventhough the Black family hadn't been outright Voldemort supporters, they had had their fair share of knowledge of anything related to dark arts. The very shelf behind her was proof of that.

She rocked her chair back and forth, accidently knocking a book down from the Dark Arts section behind her. It landed open on the floor and she picked it up and peered at it. But before she could read anything, the book started bleeding, blood oozing out from the pages. It reminded her too much of Tom Riddle's Diary and she quickly shut it and shoved it back in its place, moving her chair away from the shelf.

She decided to take a break. She will check on Rose and then visit Scorp before coming back here to continue her research. She will also have to send an owl to Professor McGonagall and borrow Scorp's case files from the hospital. But first she needed a bath.

Sorting all the books scattered on the table, she left the library, closing the door behind her.

The book was still bleeding, blood dripping to the floor and making a small puddle by Hermione's chair.

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