Chapter 8
Fix You

It took weeks for Parvati to finally be moved out of Intensive Care. The injuries that she had suffered had been extensive and needed more time than was necessary to heal than most magical injuries.

Dean had had to fight to keep his face void of disgust when the healers told him, Terry and Padma what exactly had happened. She had six broken ribs that had punctured her lung in multiple spots, a fractured arm and broken leg and cuts all over her body from where he had hit her both with his fists and with all manner of nasty spells that Dean didn't even want to fathom. The healers told him that it was a miracle that she was still alive. They had told him that one more day and she would've been dead.

Dean had only left Parvati's bedside when visiting hours were over and he was booted out by unwilling healers. He knew that they could see that he cared more about her than he did about his sleep or even their bloody rules. He always put up a fight when they asked him to leave, but eventually after much begging, yelling and pleading he apparated back to his flat for a restless nights' sleep and was back at the door to Parvati's ward by eight o'clock the next morning, waiting for visiting hours to start again.

"I've never seen anyone so dedicated to a person," Padma said softly as she and Dean sat around Parvati's bed, watching her sleep.

Dean shrugged, "I just want to see her get better."

Padma smiled at him, "Me too," she said, taking his hand. Dean could only smile back at her. He admired her dedication as well. She and Terry lived in Bristol and had come all the way down to London and had remained there. Padma had stated her firm intent over and over to stay there until Parvati was well enough to leave the hospital. Dean had opened up his home to them so that they could have somewhere to stay, but Padma didn't want to leave Parvati alone in the hospital at night, so Terry, Padma and Isaac remained permanently at St Mungos.

Parvati was rarely awake and when she was she was so loaded up on painkillers and anti-depressants that she was very hard to talk to most of the time. Dean didn't mind though, her being awake and trying to communicate was fine with him. It showed him that she was recovering.

Mostly, he and Padma sat there in silence while Terry taught Isaac to walk and talk on the floor beside them, but today seemed like an exception as Padma seemed especially chatty.

"Do you like being an auror?" she asked him completely out of the blue. Dean looked up, pleasantly surprised that she was talking to him for once.

"Sometimes," Dean shrugged. Padma looked at him inquisitively, as though she was silently willing him to go on. Dean relented with a sigh. "I like it when nothing serious happens, when it's just creating a cover story for something that some wizard has done which threatens to expose us, but I hate it when things like this happen." He gestured to Parvati who had fallen asleep about half an hour ago. Padma nodded sadly.

"It can't be easy."

Dean shook his head, his eyes still glued to Parvati, "It's not."

He glanced at Padma to see tears forming in her chocolate brown eyes and couldn't help but feel sorry for her. After all, it was her twin sister that this had happened to, not his. It was then that he realised that even though he loved his three sisters with all his heart, he had never gone to any kind of lengths to be with them when they were in danger, he just assumed that they could take care of it themselves and it was only now that he saw what proper sibling love was, being there even if nobody else is and Dean saw that in Padma. Parvati was extremely lucky to have her.

"Mr. Thomas?" A voice jerked Dean out of his thoughts.

Dean turned to face the speaker, "That's me," he said.

"We have reason to believe that you may have information about the rescue of Parvati Sukhvinder Patil?" The speaker, who had turned out to be an old man with wispy white hair said.

"You assume correctly," Dean said coolly.

"Then you won't mind if we borrow you for a few minutes, just to get some details. Is that okay with you?"

Dean glanced at Padma and Parvati and gave a small sigh, "Yeah, that's fine." Dean said, getting to his feet slowly. The man with the white hair looked considerably shocked that Dean had agreed to talking to them so easily.

Dean followed the white haired man out of the room and into the corridor where there were three healers standing with notepads, "What do you need to know?" he asked. The white haired man gestured to a young, blonde healer to ask him the first question.

"Firstly, we're doing research on how Parvati Patil managed to survive for three days with no food, no water and several broken bones without getting a muggle disease known as gangrene," she said. Dean nodded slightly, too tired to care what they were asking him. The second healer, a brunette in about her mid-forties, stepped forward and said.

"What position was Miss Patil in when you discovered her?" she asked.

Dean fought to keep the tiredness from clouding his brain as he tried to form a coherent answer, "I don't know…" he said uncertainly, "she was sort of tied up by her wrists and slumped against the wall." He attempted to demonstrate how Parvati had been seated when they had found her.

"Well," said the blonde healer, "That solves the punctured lung problem. Her seating position and the fact that she was hunched over compressed the hole in the lung, which is great because if that hadn't been the case she would be in a lot more pain right now, or possibly even dead." The other healers nodded in agreement and everyone started scribbling down notes on their notepads.

Dean, who normally would've pressed the matter, couldn't have cared less what they were going to ask him next or what they were writing down on their notepads.

"Is that it?" he asked.

"No," the grey haired man said, stopping Dean in his tracks as he turned to go back into the ward, "We would also like to know when it is possible to go ahead with the case of prosecuting Theodore Nott?"

Dean shrugged again, "That's not my decision, I'm just a friend. You'll have to talk to Padma and Terry concerning that kind of stuff."

The grey haired man nodded in understanding, "Stay here," he told Dean, "There's still some more questions we need to ask you."

Dean watched him go back into Parvati's ward, presumably to get Padma. He wished that he could be the one to tell them to go and chuck the bastard in jail straight away, but unfortunately everyone got equal treatment under the law and everyone got a fair trial before being thrown to the dementors. Dean didn't like that idea too much right now. He had seen the significance of it before, but when something like this was involved he wished that it was revoked. Some people didn't deserve equal treatment under the law.

The grey haired man returned seconds later with Padma at his side. She didn't look happy at all.

"Mrs Boot," the grey haired man said, "We have compiled enough evidence against Theodore Nott to be able to convict him in a fair trial in front of the Wizenagamot, we would also like to use Parvati's memories, is that okay with you?"

Padma hesitated and Dean could see that she was completely split. She didn't want to say yes because that would be invading her sister's privacy and she didn't want to say no because that would give Theodore a greater chance of getting off.

"Yes, that sounds perfectly reasonable," Padma said hesitantly, "but on one condition." The grey haired man nodded, telling her to go on, "That as soon as this court case is over, you destroy them. Parvati should never find out."

"That sounds reasonable too," said the grey haired man, "We will inform you when we have a set date for the case. You both may be required to attend."

"Alright," Dean said, having had enough of talking about court cases and prosecutions.

The healers thanked them both and walked away. The grey haired man lingered for a second longer but with a wave and a wink he turned and walked away too.

Padma and Dean glanced at each other. This was not going to be easy.

Parvati found it increasingly hard to stay awake for long periods of time.

She knew that Padma and/or Terry was always there beside her, but sometimes when she had opened her eyes, Dean was there and sometimes he wasn't. She sometimes thought that it was her mind playing tricks on her.

Parvati's eyes flickered open, her eyelids heavy from exhaustion and looked up at Dean and Padma who were sitting at the end of the bed. She could just make out their conversation.

"Dean , I really can't wait any longer, Terry's really upset and we know that Parvati will pull through, I need to go and be with him."

"But then she'll be alone at night," Dean protested, "Part of the reason that I actually go home is that I know that you're here with her."

"She'll be fine Dean, she sleeps most of the time anyway." Padma said and Dean fell silent. She saw him bite his lips slightly and relent.

"You're probably right," he said with a shake of his head, "I'll just hide under the bed or something when visiting hours are up."

Padma laughed, "That's the spirit."

And with that, Parvati watched her sister disapparate from their midst. She was shocked and confused; Padma had told her that she would never leave no matter what. She saw Dean's eyes flicker back down to her and see that she was awake. She saw his stony expression break and be replaced by a smile filled with warmth.

He got up and moved to the chair beside her bed, taking her hand in his.

"Hey," he said softly, his face filled with happiness, "How are you feeling?"

"Sore," Parvati managed to reply and saw a hint of grimness behind the smile, "and tired."

"That will go away eventually," Dean reassured her, and then seeing her attention flick back to the spot where Padma had just disapparated, he said, "Terry's mother has just died, they've gone over to Wales to be with the family, they'll be back as soon as they can. They promised me."

A ghost of a smile appeared on Parvati's face, "You and your promises."

Dean laughed, "Me and my promises." He agreed.

"Dean," Parvati mumbled as she started to get drowsy again.

"Yeah," Dean said.

"Do you think you could get them to take me off the sleeping medication?" she mumbled as she slipped back into unconsciousness, "All it does is make it an effort for me to open my eyes."

"Sure," Dean said with a smile as her eyes fluttered shut and her breathing became steady. As he watched her lying there, a malnourished, beaten version of her former self he felt so many different emotions: Hate, anger, sadness, despair but most of all love. He had never loved her more than he did now. It was only when he had come so close to losing her had he finally realised that he was still harbouring feelings for her.

He released her hand, and called for a healer, requesting that she be taken off sleeping medication.

After much yelling, pleasing and demanding, Dean finally got what he wanted, to stay overnight in the hospital with her.

He had played the 'she shouldn't be alone' card and the healers hadn't been able to put up a good fight to refuse him since then.

He didn't know how Terry and Padma did this time after time, sleeping on little camp beds alongside Parvati's. Dean was tired, but he couldn't sleep. What if something happened to Parvati and he wasn't there to help her or call a healer? What if, despite all odds, Theodore managed to escape and take her away again? Dean shook his head, he was just being stupid and scaring himself silly with these thoughts, but still he found it impossible to sleep.

He found himself sitting in the chair beside the bed, watching Parvati sleep. She flinched every now and again but otherwise nothing happened until one in the morning. Dean had just been dropping off, his head lolling onto his chest when he heard her whimper.

His eyes flew open and encased her hand in his own again as she began to write, whimpering louder and louder until they weren't whimpers at all, they were full on yells and screams of pain and terror.

He grabbed her shoulders and shook them, hoping to wake her up, but all that did was make her yell and scream more.

Frantically, he leant over and pressed the button which summoned the Healers and went back to trying to subdue her. He tried pinning her down so that she wouldn't rip any of her tubes out but she just shrieked and he tried yelling her name but she didn't wake. She seemed to be stuck in her sleep.

Dean was confused as to why this was happening, Padma had never mentioned anything about this at all.

The lights clicked on and the healers burst in looking concerned, "What's happened?"

"She's having a nightmare?" Dean said, gesturing to Parvati, "I'm sure of it."

The healers sprang directly into action, checking her tubes and bags of liquid and located the source of the problem pretty much straight away.

"She's been taken off the sleeping potion," one of the healers said, "It has the ability to eradicate nightmares as well, that's why this has never happened before. We'll just put her back on it and she'll be fine."

Dean nodded frantically, wondering if she hadn't asked him to do that, they wouldn't be in this situation now.

The healers fixed Parvati and left. Dean sat down by her bed again, taking her hand and made a vow, a promise, an unbreakable commitment to Parvati.

"I promise that someday, somehow, I will fix you."

AN: I'm sorry for the crappinesss. This was a little rushed cause I kind of have to go to a party in five minutes so this will be short.

If you like, you can leave me a review telling me what is good/not good about the story :)

Until Next Time

~The Original Horcrux~