Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter (even if I wish I did). JK Rowling is the owner, and this story is based on characters and situations created and owned by her and her publishers. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. This is all for fun.

Change in Life, Change in Love

Chapter 2: Change of Life

A silent dance that we did into this hospital bed

Hear voices from another room

"It happens all the time"

… the leaves fallen

counting down, days to live

Thursday "Cross Out The Eyes"

Black robes billowed in the wind caused by the figure who was walking quickly towards the Headmaster's office. Not bothering to knock, he stormed in, making the door hit the wall loudly causing the Headmaster turn around and the portraits of the past headmasters to stare towards the door.

"We have a serious problem" Snape said before the Headmaster could say anything. "Draco is missing and the Dark Lord is after him."

The twinkle left Dumbledore's eyes as he took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Why don't you tell me everything from the beginning, Severus" Dumbledore sighed.

Snape went on to fill in the Headmaster about the agreement Lucius Malfoy and Voldemort had made regarding Draco. He continued filling in the story of how Draco took off, and no one knows where he is. It was initially thought Draco was in France, in one of the Malfoy homes. Voldemort had sent Death Eaters to each of the homes in the search for Draco. The houses had been torn apart. The Dark Lord also tried tracing Draco's magical signature, but much to his surprise, the trace had turned up nothing. The only lead Severus had was that Draco had withdrawn all the money from his private/personal account.

"We can't let him find Draco..." Severus said softly.

"We'll find him Severus; I'll get the Order on it as we speak." Dumbledore stood up walking to the fireplace to contact everyone he could.

Ren sat in the white sterile room, watching the figure who was laying in the bed. It had been two days since Draco had been brought by ambulance to the hospital following the accident and he still hadn't woken following the surgeries the doctors did to try and fix his injuries. Even though she had only known Draco for several days, she felt obligated to be there when he woke up. Having experience of being in hospitals, she knew what it was like waking up in the hospital alone, confused, and not knowing what was going on. Ren didn't want that to happen to Draco. The repetitive sound of the ventilator and heart monitors attached to Draco, created a steady beat in the background.

Ren had been uncertain of what to do. The night of the accident and the next morning, they weren't letting visitors in to see Draco so she went back to the store and up to Draco's flat. She knew Draco was probably running from something. A 16 year old living by himself; not mentioning anything about family or friends, not associating with many people, the signs were there. She had known many people that had been in his place, including herself and Aiden. Ren had thought even if Draco is running from something, there has to be at least one person out there looking for him. One person who would want to know what had happened to Draco. She felt guilty for going into Draco's flat, but she wanted to find anything that would indicate who she could contact on Draco's behalf.

But what she had found raised even more questions. Once in the flat, she was surprised to find a lack of personal objects on the walls, or on display. Not even any posters or artwork. By the bed there was an old wooden trunk sitting open. In the trunk sat wizarding robes with the crest of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. As she saw these things, other things started making sense. How naïve he had seemed to be about the most basic of things. She knew what she had to do, but she didn't know at the time if she could do it.

This was what she ran away from. This was why she was no longer in contact with her family. Her parents were Muggleborn wizards. Her brother was a wizard, but her? She was a squib. All her life she felt like she was out of place/ She felt like a burden and didn't feel like she belonged in her own family. Her parents were proud to be wizards, and put their Muggle past behind them, immersing themselves with magic and the wizarding world. This left Ren feeling completely alone and unwanted. Her parents had consistently ignored her, leaving her to do the work of house elves. She had had enough, and at the age of 15, she left home and made a life for herself and she hadn't looked back until now. She wasn't about to contact her parents, but she could contact her brother. He had helped her whenever he could at home.

Ren had gone to her flat to look deep in the bottom of the box she hadn't opened since she left her family 12 years before and found what she had been looking for. She pulled out the small wand her brother had given her for emergencies only. She stood in the middle of her living room and spoke the spell her older brother had taught her when she was young, hoping what little magical core she had would make the spell work. Ren started pacing back and forth while waiting for her brother. She had begun praying that it would work and her brother would show up. After 20 minutes of pacing she had given up and decided to go back to the hospital vowing to help Draco with everything that layed ahead of him. Just as Ren had gotten to her front door she heard a loud pop behind her. She spun around, startled by the noise.

"Lucas?" Ren asked softly as she looked at the person in front of her.

"Lauren, its been so long..." Lucas replied. "What's wrong, what has happened?"

Ren took a deep breath and told him about Draco, and what she found out about him. Lucas looked at her with concern clearly on his face. Lucas had an idea who she was talking about based on the description she gave him. It was the person he and others in the Order had been looking for on Dumbledore's orders. The person that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was looking for as well. He had to get back and inform the other members of his location so they could get him to safety.

"Have the Muggle doctors done anything for his injures yet?"

"His injuries were pretty bad" Ren said sadly. "His arm was broken pretty bad and they had to put a plate and screws in to fix the bones. He has some bruised ribs and they had to..." Ren trailed off, feeling sad and semi-guilty about what happened to Draco. Lucas lifted Ren's chin slowly and carefully.

"They had to what?" He asked kindly

"T-They had to amputate his leg" Ren replied as the color drained from Lucas' face. Lucas knew what that meant. He knew Medi-wizards could not fix what Muggle doctors did. This would be a complete change in life for Draco. If they could have gotten him to St. Mungo's earlier, they could have repaired the injuries to Draco's leg. They Could have used Skele-Mend on his leg to heal the break, no matter how bad. But since Muggle doctors removed the leg, the only thing Medi-wizards could do was speed the healing process along.

"Thanks for contacting me Lauren," Lucas said. "You go stay with Draco so he has someone there when he wakes up. I'll be back with others"

Ren walked back to the hospital, and sat in the chair next to Draco's bed. In the four hours since she arrived back at the hospital, there was no sign of her brother or the 'others' that he mentioned. She was beginning to wonder again if she had done the right thing. Something about how he spoke made her feel Lucas knew more about Draco and what he was running from then he had told her.

As she sat there thinking and pondering things over she heard a soft moan. Ren looked up at the hospital bed, and saw Draco's eyes slowly flicker open, followed by another moan.

"Shhh... Draco, hold on let me get a doctor" She said to him as his eyes focused on her with a look of pain and confusion.

Draco stared up at the ceiling as Ren left him all alone. He was confused. Everything seemed really cloudy and he couldn't focus his thoughts in order to figure out what was going on. He felt his whole body throbbing, a dull pain in his leg and arm slowly getting worse. There was a pounding in his head and the sound of the door being opened didn't help. He saw Ren as she sat down next to him, gently grabbing his hand, and softly glided her fingers along the back of his hand. It was then that he noticed small tubes going into his arm just below his elbow. That made him even more confused and scared.

"How are you feeling?"

Draco snapped his head toward the sound of the voice, wincing and moaning at the pain that had shot down his neck. He looked at the woman confused, not knowing who she was and still not knowing what was going on and where he was. As if she sensed Draco's thoughts she continued.

"You are in the hospital. You were in a very bad car accident. A doctor will be here in a minute to talk to you about your injuries. How is the pain?"

Draco tried to reply but all that came out was a hoarse whisper. Before he could try again, there was a glass of water and a straw next to his head. Draco took a few small sips, before he tried speaking again.

"My arm and leg hurts and it is hard to breath" He said slowly.

The nurse simply nodded and turned a dial connected to one of the tubes going into his arm. Seeing this Draco panicked, trying to pull the tubes from his arm, only to find his arm wrapped in bandages and immobilized. Draco panicked even more, looking over at Ren with a look of confusion, pain and a little betrayal. What was dripping down the tube into his arm? Was it some kind of potion? Is that why he was feeling lethargic? Draco's mind was spinning. He didn't know what to think. Draco closed his eyes and tried to get control over this thoughts and how he ended up in this place. Draco heard the door open again and looked at the man who walked in wearing a white coat.

"Draco is it?" The man said "I'm Dr. McAllister, I am just going to check and see how injuries are healing and Nurse Tanya here will re-bandage the injuries, okay?" Draco slowly nodded, as he eyed the doctor critically.

"Good," the doctor continued. "First I am going to check your arm. Your arm was badly broken and we had to do surgery to put in a plate and screws fix the break."

Draco watched as his arm was unbandaged. He saw the long deep cut on his arm that looked like someone had taken a needle and thread to it and sewed the skin together. He was stunned. In what he has experienced up until then in the Muggle world, things were advanced. Devices that allowed people to talk to each other where ever they were, the car things that people drive to get around, but this was barbaric. Surely there were other ways to fix his arm other than sewing the skin together like it was some sort of fabric. Draco turned away from looking at his arm as they were wrapping it up again. He felt sick. He felt scared, and he felt upset. He blinked away the tears that were welling up in his eyes. Ren saw this and leaned over to Draco, as she wiped the few tears away. She felt protective over him. He looked so young, so innocent, so vulnerable laying there in the hospital bed. Draco closed his eyes, and wished this was all a bad dream that he could wake up from. This can't be happening, can it? He thought to himself. When Draco opened his eyes again, he saw the doctor standing by his waist.

"Now the injuries to your leg were much worse than those to your arm. Forgive me for being blunt, but your leg was almost completely severed at the scene of the accident. When you arrived here, we had no choice but to do amputation surgery. I'm really sorry. But with time and practice, you should be able to use a prosthetic leg with no trouble..." Dr. McAllister said looking at Draco with a look of encouragement.

Draco was in even more of a shock. The words of the doctor were running through his head: Leg, Severed, Amputation, Prosthetic. What did the doctor mean. His leg was gone? It couldn't be, Draco thought. It couldn't be because he could still feel pain in his leg. He could feel pain in his toes, so how could his leg be missing. Draco shook his head. Stupid Muggles he thought, how can he not know what he is talking about. Draco smirked at the doctor.

"If my leg is gone, why the bloody hell can I still feel it?" Draco asked bitterly

"That is what is known as phantom pain or phantom sensation." The doctor replied nicely, ignoring the bitterness in Draco's voice. "The brain thinks the leg is still there and misreads the nerve impulses. The phantom pain should die down as the leg heals, but phantom sensation will come and go. How often it does, varies for each person."

Draco just rolled his eyes, ignoring the doctors explanation. Dr. McAllister knew that Draco didn't believe him. Draco was in denial. Most of his patients who go through things like this are at first. He adjusted Draco's hospital bed so Draco was propped up more. He watched Draco with concern as he pulled down the sheet so he could check on Draco's residual limb, and allow the nurse to rebandage it.

As the sheet was pulled away, Draco looked down in shock. His mouth opened and closed wordlessly is terrified shock. What he saw when he looked down, all that was left of his leg was a bandaged 'stump'. It ended upper mid-thigh. It was all true, Draco thought. They really did take his leg... The anger started to build inside him.

"What the fuck did you do to me you stupid Muggle," Draco spat heatedly at the doctor. "What gave you the right to disfigure me? I'm a fucking cripple." Draco continued to scream lividly at the doctor. Ren tried to calm Draco down, putting her hand softly on Draco's arm. That had only made things worse, as it pulled Ren into his anger.

"How could you let them do this to me?" Draco asked her with hurt and anger clearly etched on his face. "I thought you were my friend. How could you let them make me a freak? How could you let them..." He pleaded to her. He saw the nurse approaching him. "Stay the fuck away. Don't even think about touching me. You have all done enough damage as it is" Draco yelled, face turning red.

When the nurse still continued to approach him he started struggling in bed, ignoring the pain it caused in his arm chest and leg. Draco kept yelling despite the fact his voice was going coarse. The yelling turned into sobs. He was scared. Scared that he was now vulnerable. Scared he was an easy target. How can he fight back? How can he stay on the run from the Dark Lord. He knew this was it. This was the beginning of the end. He knew that he would be found soon. Draco started counting down his days to live. He started to get drowsy and the pain started to fade away. He looked and saw the doctor removing a needle from one of the tubes connected to his arm.

"I just gave you a mild sedative to help you calm down and take the pain away," Dr. McAllister replied to the questioning look in Draco's eyes. Draco just wanted it all to be over. He was ready to let the sedative take over him, until the door to his hospital room burst open. A black cloaked figure walked in and Draco heart sunk in despair. This was it. He would be taken to the Dark Lord and be killed, especially since he would be of no use in his current condition.

"Step away from him" The figure darkly demanded, causing the people in the room to jump in fear. Draco met the face of his Potion's Professor, who was also his godfather, and who was also a member of the Dark Lord's inner circle. Draco closed his eyes and prayed. Even in his current condition, he didn't want to die by the hands of Voldemort. He prayed for safety. He even prayed for Potter's help. Anything that would help him out of this mess.

Draco didn't hear the reassuring words Snape drawled to him. He didn't hear his godfather tell him he was taking him to the Order's Headquartes, to Dumbledore. Draco didn't see the soft look of pity Snape gave him, after doing a once over of the permanent injuries that will change Draco's life forever, thanks to those Muggles. He just felt the tug and pull of the Portkey, thinking for sure he would be entering certain death, as the sedatives had taken over pulling him into a dreamless rest.