Chapter Five
Another two hours of being quizzed and examined and prodded later and Harry had finally had enough. He had snapped at Pomfrey's repetitive testing and the same batch of questions circling like some infuriating Merry-go-round. She had tested Draco for anything and everything she could think of.
There was no charm, curse, spell or physical wound that she could find. There was no magical signature beside Draco's own, and she couldn't find any proof of Legilimency or that he'd been Compelled in any way shape or form. At the end of their visit, they'd gleaned no new information, Harry was beyond irritable and Draco was falling asleep. Harry bid the Healer goodnight, with the promise to bring Draco back in the morning.
He ignored her suggestion that Draco would be welcome in the Hospital Wing. Small hands had clenched in his robes and he hadn't yet regained his previous ability to refuse what the Slytherin wanted. It seemed, Harry thought wearily on his way back to Gryffindor tower, that there must be some sort of spell on Malfoy that made it temporarily difficult to hate him. He didn't want to think about the implications that worry raised.
He ignored the staring and the whispering as he climbed awkwardly through the portrait hole in the Gryffindor Common Room, and was halfway across before anything caught his attention. Hermione appeared in his path as though she'd Apparated there, and held out her hand with a bashful redness in her cheeks. He looked at her properly, and couldn't help returning her smile. Hermione was, with Ron too of course, his very best friend, and her support at dinner had been the only thing holding Harry together. She glanced at the child in his arms before meeting his gaze again, and offering the item in her hand.
"The early years are fundamental in building strong teeth for life." she said, her blush increasing at an alarming rate. The object in her hand was a toothbrush, and the banality of such a thing forced Harry to look at it properly. It was a child's plastic toothbrush, the type with a fairly chunky handle to make it easier for younger children. It was an almost clear material, in a deep, warm green, and there looked to be a small blue oval inside. The toothbrush bristles themselves were small and striped in green and white, and sprouted from the caricature head of a snake. Harry smiled as he met her gaze. The bushy-haired girl shrugged, looking uncomfortable.
"I thought maybe he'd like a reminder, you know. If he's still Malfoy trapped inside his own younger self, then maybe something Slytherin-y might be comforting…"
She trailed off with a cough, and Harry took the toothbrush from her gratefully.
"You're a wonderful person, you know that, Hermione?"
She shook her head and brushed his words aside with her hand, but her eyes gleamed at his words.
"Make sure he brushes, okay?"
Harry grinned, and tapped the toothbrush to his forehead in a mock salut, startling himself when it began to flash. Looking at Hermione worriedly, he watched bemusedly as she giggled.
"It lights up. It's a Muggle thing, it flashes for the length of time children are supposed to brush for. To keep them engaged, you know."
With a sudden jolt, Harry remembered her telling him that her parents were Dentists. He frowned.
"Your parents send you kid's toothbrushes?"
She laughed, and then smiled sheepishly.
"No. I transfigured it out of one of the cushions."
Harry laughed, and thanked her again. Thinking on the toothbrush as he made his way up the staircase, Harry marvelled that Hermione had transfigured an object with moving, electronic parts and several textures, out of a simple suede cushion. Would her wonders never cease? Stepping into his dorm room, Harry stopped short.
There was an extra bed right next to Harry's, his second beside table moved around next to the far end so that the two beds were so close together they were almost touching. The drapes on the new bed and the covers themselves were suspiciously neutral in colour, and looked pale and quiet amidst the loud reds and golds filling the rest of the room. Harry sat down on his bed, turning the sleepy child around to face him as he unbuttoned the small shirt after a moment's hesitation. Hermione would probably have been a better choice for this, being motherly as she was, but Harry knew she'd be uncomfortable with it, and Draco would freak out anyway. Thinking about Draco's behaviour during the course of the whole thing made Harry feel both inordinately special and worried at the same time. Draco's social skills seemed totally under-developed, and Harry wondered just how often the Malfoy heir had ever actually been allowed to talk to other people. Again came that little pang of understanding empathy that had been surfacing all day.
Draco's bleary grey eyes barely opened as he helped Harry wriggle him out of his black slacks and his tiny black socks. It wasn't till Harry was holding Draco upright again, as he slipped in and out of sleep, that he realised they hadn't collected any of the Malfoy's clothes yet. Settling the small child on the bed, he retrieved the most presentable pair of his own pyjamas, shrinking them down to tiny Draco-seized using the spell Hermione had taught them over summer. He looked at the dozing child and reluctantly woke him again.
"Hey, Draco. I know, i know you want to sleep, but first you need to go to the toilet, and put on pyjamas and then brush your teeth, kay?" Draco nodded sleepily, climbing into Harry's lap when he sat next to him.
"Then i can sleep?"
Harry smiled.
"Then you can sleep, promise."
"Okay, Harry."
He told himself that it was perfectly okay to smile at the reply, and forced the thoughts of this being Malfoy out of his head as he carried him to the bathroom. Draco whimpered only slightly as his bare feet met the cold floor, and Harry felt instantly guilty that he'd already taken Draco's socks off.
"Sorry." he whispered, and Draco only yawned in reply.
Finishing in the bathroom, and smiling again at the light-up toothbrush Hermione had transfigured, Harry dressed Draco for bed and carried him over, almost to drop him when he pulled back the covers on the pale bed. Where Harry's hand had made contact with the soft material, there appeared a pool of colour, spreading out from his palm. He managed to swallow his yelp and only hissed in surprise, his tension however woke Draco fully and the child pressed against him as he took in what was going on.
"Wow." breathed Harry, as the entire cover swirled in colours for a second before settling to a deep yellow that darkened into a golden colour towards the foot of the bed, the entire thing streaked with shades of reds and blues, depending on which way you tilted your head. Draco seemed equally fascinated, reaching out to touch the soft material. As he did, it instantly began to change again, deepening into a midnight colour, with a starry silver trim and speckles of white silver all over. Draco squealed suddenly with delight, and Harry gaped at him.
"They're magic, Harry! I've got special magic covers!"
His voice was thrilled and eager and unrestrained and Harry's surprise soon melted as he placed the child upon the bed. Draco scrambled into the centre of the bed, touching the pillows and watching with sparkly-eyed enthusiasm as they softened into a silvery colour, and as Draco settled himself in the bed under the drapes, they began fading too, to a slightly lighter blue, a moon and stars in baby yellow starting to slowly drift across the top in a lazy fashion. Harry was transfixed. Draco breathed out again in wonder, his eyes reflecting the blue and silver and looking at Harry with a free excitement that Harry was relieved to see. So the little Malfoy did know how to let go and act like a wonder-struck child, he was just usually trained not to. Well. For the time Harry would be looking after him, he would need to change that.
Draco smiled drowsily, curled in the centre of the bed with his sleepy gaze following the nonsensical patterns of the moon. Harry watched as the eyes dropped shut, and the breathing of the child evened out before putting out the light to head downstairs. He was further pleased to see that the moon and stars on the drapes and starry flecks on the bed covers glowed softly in the fading light from outside. Smiling to himself, Harry shut the door and headed down the winding staircase to his friends in the Common Room.