Chapter 39

Hermione felt her body grow numb as she heard the words from the floo. She couldn't breathe as she felt the terror slowly set in her bones.

Draco was quicker as he stood to his feet. She barely even noticed as he summoned his house elf.

"Druin, something's come up at the hospital, and I need to leave immediately. Can you watch over Scorpius for the night? If something happens, please go to either my mother, or Theo," Draco addressed the elf as Hermione immediately grabbed her bag.

"What are you doing?" Draco asked her in confusion as she packed her supplies.

"I'm coming with you," she said firmly. "That's my son in that hospital bed. I will be there for him, and nothing you say can convince me to stay here, so don't even bother trying."

He shook his head, "Of course," he said as he grabbed some floo powder. He walked to the fireplace and dropped the powder, disappearing in the emerald smoke. She followed after him, doing the same.

The hospital was filled with people rushing in opposite directions. She felt lost as she looked around, trying to make way of her surroundings. She could see Draco making his way toward the emergency room, so she followed after him. There was no way she would be left to the side.

When she tried to follow him through the doors, she felt a hand on her shoulder, preventing her from entering. She looked up to see a middle aged mediwitch looking her up and down, "Only Healers are allowed in there," she politely informed Hermione.

"My son's in there," she insisted, "I need to be with him. He needs me! He's probably scared out of his mind. Please just let me go," she said, her voice pleading by the end of it.

She saw a look of sympathy cross the older woman's face, but her body did not shift, "I know it's hard, sweetheart, but you have to trust them to take care of your child. They'll do the best they can; especially Healer Malfoy, the main Healer on your son's case. I've never seen a Healer so invested in the wellbeing of one of their patients. You won't be able to help your son by going in there, trust me. You just need to wait out here and hope for the best."

Hermione's body dropped slightly as she nodded in understanding.

"Now, is there someone I can call for you?" she asked Hermione gently as she brought her over to some chairs for her to have a seat in. She nodded as she rattled off an address from memory, not really paying attention to what she was saying.

As soon as the lady walked away, she felt herself just break. All the emotions she had been holding in for so long flowed out as her body shook with sadness. She could feel her cheeks grow damp as the tears streamed down her face. She didn't really care who saw her or what the thought; her mind was only thinking of one thing.

What if something went wrong during the surgery? She had known for as long as she knew Jamie that this day would come. She was so scared that something bad would happen. She loved him so much, and she couldn't bear it if she lost her son, not after everything. She hadn't even managed to find a cure for her son after all the research she had done. The one time when she needed for her ability, her profession to help her, she failed. What kind of person was she? How could a mother fail their child so badly?

She deserved this. She deserved the loneliness she felt. It was unfair for her to ever be hopeful. Ron had left her, and when she had she thought that would never be happy ever again. It was the worst feeling in the world to have known happiness, and then have lost it, as opposed to never having it at all. Her relationship with him had its flaws from the beginning, and it was always doomed to fail. Draco walking into her life had given her a new beginning; a family. She knew that there would be the chance of losing Jamie from the very beginning. But she had let herself grow hopeful. She had let herself hope that maybe, just maybe she deserved the perfect happy family she had with Jamie, Scorpius, and Draco. She should have known better. Since when was her life ever perfect?

She cried harder as she thought about it. For as long as she knew, she had only cried on certain occasions. She cried when she learned that her beloved Crookshanks died after being her fateful companion for eight long years, and she had cried when her parents refused to come home the first time. She cried when Ron broke up with her, and a few other times throughout her life. But she rarely cried to the extent that she was now. She had never faced a situation such as this.

"Hermione?" she heard the soft voice ask her. She barely looked up as Harry sat beside her and wrapped his arms around her and brought her in tightly. She clutched on tightly as she cried into his chest. "I came as soon as I heard. I'm so, so sorry about this. I don't know what I would do if it were James in there right now."

He rubbed her back soothingly as she slowly stopped crying. She felt so grateful to have him with her, knowing she wouldn't be able to handle the wait on her own. She stayed in his arms, no wanting to let go.

"I'm so scared," she whispered. "I feel like I failed him somehow, Harry. I should have found a way to protect him. I should have done something, anything. I wasted so much of my time when I could have been trying to make the potion correctly. I don't know what I was thinking. I shouldn't have been attempting it at all. I should have just found a professional; at least they wouldn't have failed like I have."

"Hermione," Harry said as he nudged her chin upwards. She looked at his face as he continued to speak, "I've known you thirteen years, and not once in that time have you ever failed anything. You didn't fail Jamie by not finding the correct potion. Being a parent isn't about being perfect; no parent ever is. They make mistakes, and if you punish yourself for this, then you'll never forgive yourself. Did you know I dropped James? The floor's been charmed since Ginny was four months pregnant, and he bounced right back up, but I was devastated. Ginny told me that it was why we had the charm in the first place when she found out. You cannot blame yourself for this; none of it's your fault. Besides, you know as well as I do that you were the best in our year at pretty much everything, potions included. You didn't even have a book giving you all the proper instructions. If anyone would be able to brew the potion correctly, it would have been you. Now, while we wait here I don't want to hear you blame yourself once more."

She nodded slightly as his words sunk in. He had managed to ease her guilt slightly, and for that she was grateful. She was so lucky to have him in her life. He always managed to put her first when she needed him, and he would always find a way to use his words to make her feel better.

When she had first been broken up with by Ron, she took an entire week off of work. Not that there was work to begin with, seeing how it was during the Christmas holidays and she got that time off. She refused to leave her room, and cancelled her Daily Prophet subscription so she didn't have to hear all about how he had moved on with a newer, better model. So she spent the entire time in her room, and refused to answer any of the several letters Harry had sent her. Finally, he came over (which to be fair was less than a day later) and said nothing about it as the two of them watched muggle movies on the television. When she decided to talk about it, he didn't interrupt once, and had even spent the night on her couch after to make sure she was okay. Ginny came over later and the three of them just hid out from the world together. And when she finally re-emerged into the world, the two of them helped her fend off the press that had been hounding her eagerly for an interview.

He had always helped her out through her roughest moments, and while he may not even be close to biologically related to her, she loved him like he was the brother she never got to have.

They sat like that without moving. Harry didn't try to talk to her, knowing that nothing he said would be able to ease her worry, so he just held her. She wasn't sure how long had passed; the seconds, minutes, and hours, seemed to all have stood still as she waited. She wanted to keep her eyes on the door, but she couldn't bring herself to look, fear that someone would come out and give her terrible news about Jamie.

And so she chose not to look at anything at all other than a spot on the ground. She barely paid attention to the people passing her by as they rushed to various rooms and to complete different tasks. Everything was a blur.

After what seemed to be an eternity, she looked up as Harry nudged her softly. She saw Draco coming out of the room, looking exhausted out of his mind. She tried to study his face to try and determine what happened. He walked over to where she was sitting and took a seat beside her as well as took her hands in his.

"What happened?" she whispered fearfully. She saw the grim look on his face as her heart began to sink slightly.

"We managed to stabilize him," Draco said softly.

"That's a good thing right?" she said, allowing herself to feel hopeful for a moment.

"Hermione, he's fine for the time being, but it's not a long term solution. While we were working on him, each time we managed to stabilize him, he kept coding, nearly crashing several times. He's fine for now, but it's only a matter of time before he codes again, and when that happens I don't know if we'll be able to save him," he told her carefully.

A few tears fell down her face as she listened to his verdict, "Is there anything you can do?" she asked, not wanting to resign herself to the fate that she could lose her son.

"We can try giving him the potion that we've been working on," Draco told her.

"But we didn't find the proper mixture yet!" she cried out, "It could kill him if we're wrong."

"Hermione, we only have two choices at the moment. The first is that we do nothing, and he succumbs to the same fate that his father had. The second is that we try and give him the potion, and either it works and we save him, or he dies as well. With the first option we have no chance of saving him, but with the second we have the possibility. But at the end of the day, you're his mother. Whatever you chose to do is the path we will take," he said as watched her carefully.

She closed her eyes as she thought about each option carefully. "Can I see him before I start making the potion?" she asked.

He nodded, "Of course. We don't have long however, so I'm going to have to say that you need to keep it as a short visit."

She stood as she followed him to the room where Jamie was resting in his unconscious state. As she sat on the bed with him, she held his hand gently. He looked so young and so fragile laying there.

"I love you so much, Jamie, and I promise that I'll do everything in my power to save you. I won't let you die here," she whispered as she pressed her lips to his forehead.

She wanted to stay there with him so he wouldn't have to be alone, but she knew that she had to go if she wanted to have any chance of being able to succeed.

Draco led her to one of the potions rooms, and she immediately grabbed the books she had in her bag. She had packed them on the odd chance that she could use them, and felt lucky that she turned out to be right. She looked at her notes as she fetched the ingredients that they needed.

"We don't have time for any more testing," Draco said grimly. "We have maybe an hour tops, and that gives us exactly enough time to make one potion. We'll have to do it all theoretically based on the conclusions we've made so far. We've managed to narrow the amounts of the items to the point where there's a slim range that we can use, but we still need to be extremely careful."

She nodded as she carefully weighted the hazel, trying to get the amount right in between what would clot the blood and what would thin the blood based upon calculations, while Draco did the same with the Pomegranate juice, but in turn for figuring out what would get the blood to be the proper temperature.

She checked her work three times before she finally accepted that she had gotten it right as she gave it to Draco to stir into the potion.

It wasn't like in school anymore when the worst that could happen was the possibility of getting a failing grade. This was the difference between life and death, and a potion that didn't work would do her no good.

Hermione added some murlap essence followed by stirring the cauldron three times clockwise and once to the left. Draco added the dittany and she the dragon blood. The continued like that to add the remaining ingredients before both of them stepped away from the cauldron.

"It's done," she said carefully. "Draco, it's done."

"I know," he said, as he poured it into a vial.

"What if it doesn't work? What if I end up killing my son faster? I don't know what to do," she said in a whisper.

He placed it down on the bench as he took her face in his hands, "Hermione, we've done everything we could have done. The only thing left is for us to give it to him and see if it worked. I wish there was another way and that I can guarantee to you his life, but I can't. We have to give it to him and wait."

She nodded in understanding as he picked up the vial and walked out of the room, as she followed. They made their way back to where Jamie was, and she saw he hadn't changed in his condition. Harry had entered the room as well and he held her as he watched Draco administer the potion to her son.

At first there was nothing, and she felt her heart sink. Had they failed? Would he lose her son regardless? She was about to reach out for him, when she saw him begin to convulse.

Half a dozen Mediwitches burst into the room as they all began to try and cast spells to help her son. Draco was instructing them on how to proceed as Hermione felt herself get pushed to the corner of the room. She turned to cry into Harry, unable to watch. His face was frozen, but he immediately wrapped his arms around her and drew her in tightly without a word.

She heard them talking quickly, and she tried to listen to what they were saying, but she couldn't understand.

All she had to do was this one thing. All she had to do was make the potion properly, but she had failed, and now her son was going to die. She had caused his death to come sooner.

"Hermione," Harry said, and she turned to see Jamie completely still. Half of her was terrified that he was gone, but she saw his body move up and down gently as he took breaths.

She rushed to her son's side as she held his hand and kissed his forehead. He was alive. She felt herself crying out of relief as she saw Jamie's eyes open.

"Mom?" he asked quietly, "What happened."

"You're better now," she said as she smiled. "Jamie, you're better."

She knew that they probably had to run several more tests to be sure that he was indeed cured of his disease, but she knew that since the potion didn't kill him, it must have in turn saved him of the illness he had.

She saw him smile back at her, "I knew you would be able to help me. Ever since you came into my life you've been making it better in so many different ways. You too, Healer Malfoy."

Draco held his hand on her shoulder as he grinned at her son, "I'm glad you are back with us, Jamie. I can tell you that we need to keep you for a bit longer to make sure that you are a hundred percent cured before we can let you go, but I can promise you that once we do, you can finally go home."

"I can start getting your room ready," Hermione said with a smile, "Then the two of us can go furniture shopping later to pick up some things for you."

"Actually, I've been meaning to talk to you about that," Draco said as he sat beside her. "Hermione, I love you so much, and I love you too Jamie. I know my son adores the both of you as well. So how would you two like to move in with me and Scorpius? That way we can be a proper family."

Hermione felt her smile widen as she nudged her son softly, "How does that sound, Jamie?"

Her son grinned as well, but she could see the fatigue on his face, "I think it's a brilliant idea."

"I do too," she said as she pressed her lips to Draco's before turning back to her son, "Now get some rest. I promise I'll be here in the morning when you wake up, but you've certainly had a long day and I want you to be well rested.

He looked like he wanted to argue but didn't get the words out as his eyes began to droop; he was out of it in seconds.

"Thank you," she told Draco softly, "Thank you for saving my son."

He brushed her cheek with his thumb, "Of course," he said as he turned to give a nod to Harry. She saw her friend give her a wave goodbye, as he told her that he would come by in the morning. She smiled at him as he left the room. "I did mean it when I asked you to move in. I can't imagine living with anyone else. You, me, Jamie, and Scorpius are a family of our own, and maybe one day we'll make it larger, but I love our family more than anything. I'm not saying you have to give up your flat, or move in right away."

She kissed him tenderly, "And I meant it when I said I wanted to move in with you. I love you so much more than you could ever know, and I want nothing more than to live with you."

He held her tightly after they pulled away as she relaxed into his arms as her son slept. There was so much that she knew she would have to face in the upcoming days but for now everything was perfect.

A/N: And Jamie lives! Thank you so much for everyone who has been following along on this journey of a story. It's not quite over yet as there are still a few loose ends that need to be tied up, but it means so much to hear back from you week after week. As always, see you next week!