Of Stitches and Stalking
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. Any characters, places, names, and things you recognize are not mine. The plot and characters unknown are mine.
Note: So, in the one-shot there's a small scene where Draco admits that he was hit with a revolving door. This chapter contains the actual event, some mild language, and a bit of humour.
-Chapter Two-
The ministry was obnoxious most mornings and this morning was no exception. Two days had passed with no improvement in either the Parkinson case or the Weasley case. Parkinson had vanished, again, and Weasley sent the first letter back with a giant 'Fuck you. Go die' scrawled on the unopened envelope. The second letter was returned in very much the same way. Today's letter had been opened and under his signature was a hastily written reply that told him to stop mailing her or he'd break the Statute of Secrecy and they'd both be in trouble.
"Draco! Wait up! I said – Damn it, you albino ferret, slow down!"
The man paused, face scrunching into a look of utter annoyance as he stopped and turned. Harry darted around people and doubled over as he finally caught up to the Malfoy heir. Chest heaving, he straightened and sent Draco a tired smile.
"Have you found anything new on the Parkinson case, yet?" He asked suddenly and Draco grimaced, "I take that as a no. Listen, Hermione wanted to see you about something – I'm not sure what it was, but she told me to tell you."
"Thanks, mate," Draco replied before changing directions and heading to Hermione's office.
Hermione Granger Weasley was the assistant to the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Her office was a small one, but right smack next to Gawain Robards who took Department Head and allowed for Harry to take the Head of Aurors position a few years back. He knocked on the door frame and she looked up with a small smile.
"Draco, what a surprise. I didn't actually think you'd make it over to see me," She told him and motioned for him to come in, "I was going to catch you for lunch or stop by your house after work if I couldn't find you today."
"What did you want to see me about?" Draco asked and she held up a finger before she began digging in her desk.
"Well, I wanted to ask how the Parkinson's case was going, first of all."
"You didn't get my report did you?" Draco said with a sigh, "Parkinson has disappeared again. I found the little bastard, but…"
"But what?" Hermione asked, "Take a seat."
Draco sat in the only slightly acceptable chair which had very little padding and was more uncomfortable than anything else. He leaned back in the chair and rested his elbows on the arms of the chair and his chin in his palm.
"What happened? Weren't you staking out that lead over in Romford?" The brunette asked as she dug around in the desk drawer.
"I did. Parkinson was there and when I went to apprehend him… I found someone who could have been Ginevra's twin," He said and watched Hermione freeze for a moment before lifting her head to look at him.
"It wasn't Ginny?" Hermione asked, concern and hope etched onto her face.
"Parkinson caught me with a nasty spell that sent me flying into a brick wall. Knocked me clean out," Draco told him to continue the story, "I woke up in a muggle hospital with her standing over me. She was my doctor."
"Malfoy, answer the question. Was. It. Ginny?" Harry's voice came from the open door surprising Hermione and causing Draco to roll his eyes to the ceiling.
Draco turned to the door where Harry stood, anxious for the answer. He was acting less as his… tolerable friend… and more as the nuisance that was St. Potter the Chosen One with a hero complex.
"And what would you do if it was her, Potter?" Malfoy bit out, "You married Elizabeth. Stole the woman right out from under my nose, you know." He frowned for a second before laughing, "Which is fine. Although, if I had of known she would have been such a fantastic woman, I would have let you continue your pining for Ginevra, but as it is we both know she wouldn't have tolerated my behaviors as she does yours. Now, you answer my question and I will answer yours."
"I asked you first," Harry replied and Draco snorted.
"I'll walk out that door without any more details on the situation if you don't answer me," Draco said slowly, eyes flashing with irritation.
The two men stared at each other, grey orbs boring into green ones, before Hermione broke the silence in an attempt to ease the strained atmosphere. She pulled out a bag of fudge and tossed it to Draco. He let out a groan from the impact and shot the bushy haired know-it-all a glare.
"Molly wanted me to give those to you as thanks for helping her watch all the kids the other night," She said before looking at Harry, "It obviously couldn't have been Ginny. The woman was obviously a muggle Doctor, you dolt."
Draco looked at Hermione before carefully saying, "Let Harry answer my question and I'll answer his, Hermione."
It was a minute before Harry answered truthfully, "I'd hug her and tell her I was sorry I didn't wait for her. I'd tell her I was sorry for everything that happened in that year and that it was okay if she hated me. I'd tell her… I'd tell her 'Welcome home' and say I missed her. Tell her that I loved her, but like a sister. Hell, my wife picked our daughter's middle name to honor her and what she means to me. My wife did. Not me."
Harry rubbed the bridge of his nose before letting out a long breath.
"What I'm saying is, I love my wife and my family. I loved Ginny and maybe we would have worked out, maybe we wouldn't have, but I have Eliza and the kids. I have a good life and I wouldn't give it up."
Draco nodded and, seeming to like his answer, spoke as he stood, "I don't know if it was Ginny or not. The woman is a muggle healer – Doctor Molly Bennett. I'm investigating her."
Draco shrugged and a faint smile tugged at his lips, "She's… interesting to say the least. Very… fiery."
"If you find out she's Gin, you'll tell me, right?" Harry's voice caused the blonde to pause a few strides down the hall.
"Have you ever thought that maybe she just doesn't want to be found?" Draco asked back.
"Why would she…" Harry trailed off.
"She was in love with you, right? What if she panicked when she saw Hagrid carrying during the Battle?" Draco continued, "She might have been heartbroken. She might have… run away."
"Then why hasn't she come back?"
"Maybe she's ashamed. Maybe she's heard about your marriage to Eliza. Maybe… she's found happiness in another life, Harry." Draco turned to leave again and stopped again, "What would you do if that was the case?"
"She's still Ginny," Harry said as he brushed passed the blond.
"We don't know any details of Ginevra's situation other than the few clues we've found and the very rare sightings. Leave the investigation to me, Potter," Draco snapped, irately, "Merlin knows I'm honestly the only one in our department that doesn't have an attachment to this case and therefore I'm the one with the clear and level head. So you can dismiss St. Potter at any moment and return to my dunderheaded but tolerable best mate."
Then, the blonde stormed off in a flutter of black robes reminiscent of the great dungeon bat that was once the Hogwarts' Potion's Master.
-break-
Draco Malfoy was no stranger to borderline stalker behavior. However, he did have dignity, which is why he was so bloody frustrated with the target. The twenty-nine year old was the head of the Malfoy family (the only living member) and was a shoo-in for Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement at the end of the year.
And here he was, secretly stalking the missing Weasley daughter. She was resistant to his persuasion and cold towards his being. She refused to go home and, quite frankly, it pissed the blonde Auror off to no end. He had started with daily letters for the first few days after walking out of the hospital. Then, he started following her. A week and a half he'd wasted essentially stalking the redhead. In the past, Ron would have beaten him unconscious, but the ginger didn't know Ginny had even been found let alone that she was being stalked by the blonde.
Ten years had passed since she had gone missing. Three years had been spent searching endlessly for her. Then, the next two were spent looking into any leads that had been reported with occasional searches being done. The last five her family had slowly begun to accept that she was gone. Hope still lingered, but Ginevra Weasley remained a very touchy subject in the Weasley family outside of the Christmas toast and her birthday. Draco had never stopped searching.
After he saved Hermione from being killed by his bastard of a father, Hermione had begun forcing him to go to Weasley gatherings and Mrs. Weasley frequently brought him casseroles and invited him to Sunday dinners. She even went so far as to send him a Weasley Christmas jumper and a birthday gift every year. Yet, how he managed to end up with Potter and Weasley as his best male friends was beyond him.
Harry had walked up to him the second day at Auror Academy and held out his hand as a truce. He said there wasn't any need for hostilities between comrades and he apologized for being a git in their sixth year at Hogwarts. Draco had curled his lip in a sneer and told him that the bad blood between them would never be forgotten.
And yet, somehow it had been. He had been named Godfather to Potter's son, Albus Severus, while Ron had been named godfather to the oldest boy, James Sirius. Ron and Hermione had named him the godfather of their son, Hugo Draconis. Hermione and Ron had both informed him that they would take no arguments on their son's name or godfather as Draco had saved Hermione's life.
It wasn't for any of the Golden Trio that Draco casually followed the redhead into the department store she was shopping at. It wasn't even for her nephews and nieces either. It wasn't for her brothers or for the glory. No. It was (in part) for her mum and (mostly) for himself. Molly Weasley had saved Draco from being killed by his crazy aunt Bellatrix. She had sat with him while he cried over the death of his mother. She sat with him as he raged about his father, the murdering bastard, and swore that he would see him in Azkaban for murdering Narcissa. He was grateful to the woman and knew the only thing he could do for her was bring her daughter back.
So, he followed her through the department store with a bemused expression on his face. She was trying on dresses for a cocktail party that surgeon – White or whatever his name was that had healed him – had invited her to.
She had narrowed it to two. Two dresses and she wasn't sure which one she liked better. The red one… or the black one?
The red one was a strapless number that hugged every inch of her body and left very little to the imagination and ended mid thigh barely concealing her bum. Draco found his lips curling in distaste at the idea of her wearing in public. What did she want to say about herself – that she was easy?
Draco watched her twist and turn in the mirror, the skirt of the black dress twisting around her body and flaring out in a tantalizing way. He hadn't noticed it before in the hospital, but she was very beautiful. The last ten years had matured her once cute features. Or maybe it was just that black dress that clung to her body, showing just a hint of cleavage from her moderately sized breasts, and hugged her hips before flaring out loosely and stopping at her knees.
So, as Ginny turned and observed the dress in the mirror, Draco broke free from his ogling and sauntered up to the woman with an unreadable look in his eyes.
"The black one is the better of the two. The other one makes you look cheap, Weasley. And it's ghastly with your hair."
She jumped and spun to face him, narrowing her eyes dangerously.
"Didn't I tell you to leave me alone?" She snapped and he smirked.
"I don't recall. My head was feeling a little weird from those muggle drugs," He drawled and she scoffed.
"Whatever. What are you doing here?" She asked and he shrugged.
"Offering some friendly advice. The red one makes you look like a tart. Get the black one," He said and she frowned.
"What if I want to look like a tart?"
"Then I'd have to arrest you on suspicion of muggle enchantment and take you in for questioning," He countered and she scoffed.
"You wouldn't dare," She said before stepping into one of the dressing cubicles and sliding the curtain shut.
"Why don't you just try me?" He replied seriously and listened to her laugh.
"I'm just a Muggle," He heard her say before he was mesmerized by the sound of silk sliding off bare skin.
He swallowed thickly, "But you aren't and I know you are not."
More sounds of fabric on bare skin flooded his ears and the Head of the Malfoy Family shook his head to clear his mind of those dangerous thoughts. The ones imagining what was hidden behind that blue curtain before him.
Maybe he could arrest her for teasing an Auror?
He pushed the thought from his mind as she pushed aside the curtain.
"Did the red on really look that bad?" She asked with a frown and he nodded slowly, unable to form words.
"Guess I best go with the black one."
So he waited as she purchased her dress and followed her as she headed to the exit of the store. All the while, she pestered him with questions on why exactly he was following her. He didn't answer until she had stepped into the revolving door.
"I was actually following you," He replied honestly, "I wanted to figure out why you wouldn't come home."
She stopped the door and narrowed her eyes.
"Quit following me. I won't go back," She snapped, "Stalking people is illegal, or didn't you know that?"
"Is this about Potter?" He asked.
"No!" She snapped.
"Don't lie. It is about Potter. Because he got married."
In a moment of pure annoyance, she shoved the door forward, sending it flying into his back. The impact caused him to fly forward into the handle that extended from top to bottom of the door with a loud 'crack' as his forehead collided with it. It all happened as she darted from the opening and stared in horror as face met the bar. As quick as she could, she stopped the door, causing the Auror to crash into it, yet again.
"Look what you did!" Draco shouted at her and she scowled.
"You deserved it, you git!" She shouted back before she noticed the blood steadily pouring from the impact spot, "Oh God."
She reached into her pocket and pulled out a hanky before telling him to press it firmly on the wound.
"You're bleeding rather bad," She said worriedly, "Where your wand?"
"I didn't bring it with me," He retorted, "You weren't supposed to try and kill me."
"Draco, I'm sorry, okay?" She said, not realizing she called him by name.
The man froze for a moment before he glared at her.
"Fix it up!" He snapped and she scowled.
"Let's go to the ER," She said with a sigh, "I'm due at work soon anyways."
In the emergency room, she examined the head wound, which was still bleeding twenty minutes later and deduced he would need stitches. Draco glowered at her as she tended to him, hissing in pain and whining incessantly as she hurt him more.
"If you'd quit being such a bother, Malfoy, we wouldn't be here," She told him angrily as he complained that she was too rough, "My word, the Healers at St. Mungos must be all in a tizzy over you when you go in to see them. No one probably wants to heal you. Master of the complaints, this one is."
"It's your fault to begin with. You ran away. And then you smacked me with that insufferable door," He sneered and she laughed.
"Well, it serves you right for being an insufferable git. Trying to play Hermione's role. She's the only know-it-all I like, Malfoy. So stop bothering me," She told him before sending him on his way with a dirty look, "If you don't have that healed magically, then come back and see me in five days. No sooner and no later. I'd prefer never again, but that's probably too much for you to handle. Persistent arse."
He smirked arrogantly as he left and told her, "My arse is a very nice persistent arse."
She scowled at his retreating back.
- - Break - -
Many people would soon begin asking why Draco Malfoy preferred going to a muggle emergency room instead of St. Mungos. Why would he, an auror, prefer to be healed the muggle way versus the magical way? If he ever answered, he'd tell them that it was to serve as a reminder that he'd been injured in the field and it would remind him to be more careful since Aurors could not afford to be injured in a critical situation.
His friends, however, were a little more skeptical. Ron suspected he fancied someone and Harry wasn't sure what it was exactly, but merely assumed the blonde was turning into a masochist. Only one person knew of his increasing fancy for his doctor, who was his newest assignment. Hermione had figured it out after Draco came to Sunday supper at the Burrow sporting seven stitches in his forehead three days after the incident.
"Draco, why do you have those in your forehead?" Ron pointed at the thing in question.
"They're called stitches, Ron," Harry told him with an eye roll, "Mate, what happened to your face?"
Ron snorted, "Don't you know you're supposed to stitch the fabric, not your face? You great pouf."
Draco shot him a dirty look, "If you must know I was in a muggle emergency room."
Hermione tipped her head, curiously, "And why were you there?"
Draco hesitated before admitting, "I got smacked in the face with a revolving muggle door."
Surprise caused her eyebrows to shoot up as the two men guffawed with laughter. They collapsed on each other, snorting and howling at his admission while Hermione and Eliza exchanged looks. The auburn haired American slapped them both upside the head and proceeded to scold them while Hermione politely pressed the pureblood blonde for more information.
"Why?" She asked.
"Does it matter?" Draco sneered before muttering quietly to her, "I was talking to someone and she decided I was a git and shoved the door so hard I got hit in the face."
"She's right, y'know," Ron said jokingly, "Too bad we didn't have one of those revolving door thingies back in the day."
Eliza slapped Ron upside the head and the man grunted in response which got him called a Neanderthal from both Draco and Eliza.
Hermione raised an eyebrow, "And why the stitches?"
Draco turned pink slightly as he said, "She's a – a muggle doctor. She insisted that she stitch it up."
Under her breath, Hermione said, "You like her, don't you? About time you found a girl. She's a muggle?"
Draco groaned and declined answering the bushy haired know it all. She smiled knowingly.
"You should go for it, but be careful, Draco. You can't break the Statute of Secrecy."
"I know, Hermione. I'm an Auror for Merlin's sake." Draco grumbled and turned a glare to Harry and Ron, "Shut up both of you. You bloody gits."