Draco woke up in the nursery Tuesday feeling better than he'd felt the day before. His body still ached and his head was a bit sore, but his head wasn't pounding, he wasn't dizzy, and he didn't feel nauseous. He summoned a house elf for a bottle for Sev, before retrieving Scorp and Edward from their cribs and bringing them over to the spare bed to nurse.
Draco had high hopes that he was getting over his mysterious illness and that everything would go back to normal today, but then Harry came in and sat next to him. Their arms brushed and Harry put his hand over Draco's hand and the contact burned.
"Ouch!" Draco exclaimed, pulling his hand and arm away and jostling Edward in the process, since the baby was on his chest nursing.
"Still sick then?" Harry asked.
"Not as bad as yesterday, but yeah," Draco replied.
"Well then you should go back to sleep in the bedroom and I'll watch the boys."
"What about you? How are you feeling? Nauseous at all?"
"No, nothing yet."
"I'm glad; I hope you have an easy pregnancy." Draco gave Harry a small smile. "Did you tell your boss yet?"
"No, why would I tell him?"
"Because you can't work when you're pregnant and you'll get paid for your time off. You should owl him."
"Yeah, alright, I'll do it right now," Harry said.
Harry went to the study to write Auror Robards a letter, but once he had a scroll of parchment in front of him, he couldn't think of what to write. How should he tell his boss he was pregnant? He stared at the blank parchment for several long minutes, but then his stomach rumbled and he wanted to go downstairs to eat, so he finally just wrote down the bare facts.
Dear Auror Robards,
I'm writing to inform you that I won't be able to report back to work soon, because I found out yesterday that I'm pregnant. I still plan on being an Auror and I'll resume work sometime after the baby is born.
-Sincerely, Harry Malfoy
Harry called Viper for an owl and sent the message off, before going into the nursery and getting the three babies from Draco. He put the twins into their stroller and carried Teddy down to the dining room to have breakfast.
Draco thought that he could probably make it downstairs to eat, but then he thought of how bloody awful he'd felt yesterday after the one time he had gone down. He didn't want to risk that the same thing would happen again. Thus he went to his bedroom with one of his history of magic books and called an elf to bring his breakfast. He spent the day reading in bed.
By the time Harry came in with Edward and Scorp needing their midday milk, Draco was exhausted again. Harry called an elf for lunch for Draco and then took the boys back, so that Draco could go back to sleep after eating.
Draco woke up from his afternoon nap feeling surprisingly well. He went into the nursery and retrieved Scorp and Edward from Harry, taking the babies over to the spare bed to nurse, which he felt like he was doing a lot of these days. Really he was doing it no more than usual, but was spending so much less time than usual awake. After he nursed the babies, he felt good enough to risk going downstairs for dinner.
Harry didn't want to risk Draco carrying a baby downstairs when he barely thought Draco could carry himself down the stairs. He put Sev and Scorp in the stroller and carried Teddy down behind Draco. They made it alright and it seemed Draco was finally feeling better, because they had the happy family meal that they were supposed to have yesterday to celebrate the much anticipated pregnancy. But still, he worried that Draco wasn't completely better and that his touch might still burn, so he kept his hands off of his husband.
Harry kept his hands off of Draco all through their usual nightly routine, which Draco was finally feeling well enough to help him with. They even took separate baths that night, but he was relieved when his husband crawled into their bed and beckoned him forward to lie down together. Still, they kept their distance and stayed to their respective sides of the bed and didn't cuddle like they usually did.
Sometime in the night, Harry rolled over and his skin pressed against Draco's skin. Draco woke up with the sound of the monitoring charm going off and feeling like his skin was on fire. Still, he had three babies who were up needing to eat, so he stumbled out of bed in the direction of the nursery, but he didn't get that far. He took about three steps before he collapsed to the floor and started vomiting, before passing out.
"Master Harry Malfoy, sir, must be waking up now, sir! Master Draco Malfoy, sir, is very sick, sir!" Mipsy squeaked in a very high pitched voice that was indicative of her distress.
Meanwhile, the painting of Merlin had run to the third floor and entered the painting of Nicholas Malfoy, which had been moved there after scowling at Harry and Hermione. "Wake up now! It's an emergency!" Merlin called.
"What?" Narcissa asked, jumping out of bed.
"You too, Lucius! There are three babies crying and Draco is passed out on the floor," Merlin said.
"Oh dear," Narcissa said before grabbing her robe and putting it on as she raced down the stairs.
Lucius was only a moment behind his wife and then he was running down the stairs after her. Narcissa went into the nursery to pass out bottles to Sev and Edward and then struggled with Scorp trying to get the baby to take a bottle. Lucius went to the bedroom, where Harry and an elf were bent over Draco, who was unconscious on the floor.
"Step aside, I'm apparating him to St. Mungo's," Lucius announced.
Harry and the elf backed up and Lucius picked his son's body up into his arms, wishing Draco was twenty pounds lighter and that he had the strength of his youth. Luckily Harry noticed Lucius' struggling and cast a lightening charm on Draco that allowed him to redouble his grip on his son, before he disapparated, reappearing in the lobby of St. Mungo's.
"Harry, I need help in here," Narcissa called.
"Yeah?" Harry asked, still confused as he entered the nursery.
"I just handed Edward the bottle and he's never been left with one unsupervised before. Can you check on him?" Narcissa asked, while struggling to get Scorp to accept the bottle she was offering. Scorp would take a suck and then turn his head and whine or say no. Then the process would repeat.
Harry scooped Teddy up, taking the baby to the rocking chair. Teddy was clutching the bottle tightly as he sucked and never let go of the thing while Harry moved the baby. On his way to the rocking chair, he passed Sev's crib and noticed that Sev was contently sucking on a bottle. "Teddy and Sev seem fine. What's wrong with Draco?"
"I don't know, Harry. I didn't even see him; I came straight here to pass out bottles," Narcissa answered as Scorp continued to fuss at her.
"Have you ever seen anything like this happen before?"
"No, never. Draco hasn't been sick since the twins were born and even then it wasn't like this."
"I'm scared."
"I know. You can go to St. Mungo's as soon as you get Edward back to sleep."
Harry silently urged Teddy to drink faster, because he wanted to get to his husband. He couldn't believe that he was finally pregnant and then something like this happens and Draco's rushed to the hospital. It just wasn't fair.
Teddy finally finished the bottle and Harry put the baby back into his crib, not bothering to burp him; He was rarely burped anymore now that he was sitting up on his own. Harry looked to Narcissa, who was still struggling with Scorp and a mostly full bottle, before apparating away to St. Mungo's.
It was only a few minutes before a medi-witch escorted Harry to the waiting room where Lucius was waiting.
"Where's Draco? What's wrong with him?" Harry asked his father-in-law.
"The healers are in with him now trying to answer that very question," Lucius answered. "You should sit down and try to remain calm; stress isn't good for pregnancies."
Lucius' voice sounded more concerned and kinder that Harry had ever heard it before. It made him do a double take, wondering who this man was and what had been done with his Death Eater of a father-in-law.
"Sit," Lucius said again, pulling Harry's wrist to get him to collapse into the chair.
Harry and Lucius sat and waited for five minutes, during which Lucius kept up an endless stream of assurances that Draco would be fine and Harry wasn't to worry. Then a medi-witch came out and questioned Harry and Lucius on Draco's condition. Harry gave the details of Draco's mystery illness and Lucius relayed Draco's medical history.
"Madam, if it's possible, I'd like you to get Harry a cup of tea; he's newly pregnant and I don't want him to get ill," Lucius said.
"How long have you known you were pregnant?" the medi-witch asked.
"Since yesterday," Harry answered.
"The same day your husband became sick," the medi-witch said significantly.
"Does that have something to do with Draco being sick? I'm the one who's pregnant, not him," Harry said.
"It's a likely factor that is probably exacerbating his symptoms, although it's not the only issue. If you'll come back with me, I'd like to get you checked out and make sure you're not sick too," the medi-witch replied.
"Yes, that's an excellent idea. And maybe you can get him the tea while he's back there?" Lucius asked, standing up and pulling Harry with him towards the door. He had enough experience being around pregnant people to know they needed the anti-nausea tea.
Harry stalled at first, still wondering what was going on, but Lucius was pulling him towards where he thought Draco was. He suddenly realized that he was likely to get to see Draco and find out how Draco was if he went, so he did.
The medi-witch led Harry and Lucius through the emergency room and instructed Harry to sit on a bed next to Draco's bed. The medi-witch conferred with another medi-witch and a healer, before she began taking measurements. Then a healer came over and started preforming diagnostic tests on Harry, but while all of this was happening, Harry kept his focus on Draco, who was lying unconscious on the next bed over. When the tests were over, the healer left to confer with the other healer, who had been working on Draco.
Finally Draco's healer came over and said, "Hello, I'm healer Smith. It looks like you and your baby are in good, healthy condition, Auror Malfoy."
"Okay, but what about Draco?" Harry asked worriedly.
"Your husband is quite ill. He came in suffering from dehydration and magical exhaustion. From the patient history medi-witch Jones obtained, it seems that Lord Malfoy has suffered from both before, although not at the same time."
"He has?" Harry asked interrupting.
"Yes Harry, after the twins were born, Draco was examined by the muggles and they said that he was dehydrated, from the breast feeding and not drinking enough water. And during his pregnancy, Draco was magically exhausted, because his body was supporting two babies without a second father to draw power from," Lucius explained.
"Oh," Harry replied and turned back to the healer. "Is he going to be okay?"
"Yes. We are infusing fluids back into his system to combat the dehydration and rest will ameliorate the magical exhaustion. But the source of this problem needs to be watched, to make sure he doesn't wind up back here again," Healer Smith said.
"What source?" Harry asked.
"The main source is the breast feeding. His body is making enough milk to sustain three babies, at least, and from his medical history it doesn't seem like he is monitoring the amount of time he spends breast pumping or the amount of fluid he is producing. It's likely that he's producing more milk than needed for three babies. He is doing so with breasts that aren't even a full A cup and on a diet that only provides a fraction of the needed calories and not nearly enough water; his magic is making up the difference. He needs to eat and drink more and pump less. He should be taking no more milk from his body than is needed to feed your children."
"The breast feeding is making him sick?" Harry asked disbelievingly. "He always uses the breast pump that much and he hasn't been sick before."
"There is a new factor exacerbating his condition as of two days ago: your pregnancy. It is possible that he was still able to draw magic from you to keep himself from going dangerously low."
"I don't think so. He said that when he was pregnant, he could feel the magic transfer and it felt good, but after the babies were born and I touched him, there was nothing."
"Yes, well the transfer rates would be much lower than when he was pregnant. If the two of you maintained extensive skin contact during sleep every night and he was bordering on magical exhaustion, he would've pulled from you at very low levels that he probably wouldn't be able to detect. It's likely that he was only ever dipping too low at night, when he wasn't actively eating or drinking, but was expressing milk. That makes it even less likely that he'd notice than if it were to happen while he was awake.
"Oh."
"But as of yesterday, the flow of magic is reversed. Instead of Lord Malfoy drawing small amounts from you, you are drawing large amounts from him. Large amounts that he doesn't have to spare, which exacerbated his own magical exhaustion and led to the burning feeling he described. The magical exhaustion explains the headaches, general achy feeling, dizziness, nausea, and finally the loss of consciousness."
"Bloody bugger," Harry replied, dropping his head into his hands.
"The best thing you can do for your husband right now, Mr. Malfoy, is to go home. You need to stay away from him and avoid skin to skin contact with him at all costs, at least until he wakes up and possibly until the end of your pregnancy. You don't have your husband to draw on as a source of strength, so you need to keep yourself healthy and well rested. Go home to sleep and come back in the morning. You can even bring the babies with you and we'll help your husband nurse them."
"No, I can't go home. How could I possibly rest when Draco's lying there like that?" Harry asked, indicating Draco's bed with the wave of his hand.
"You need to take care of yourself, Auror Malfoy. Do you think your husband would want you to lose this new baby, because you were too concerned about him to take care of yourself?" Healer Smith asked.
"Certainly not, Harry. Draco wants this new baby, you know that," Lucius said, wrapping his arms around Harry in a comforting gesture.
Harry was extremely weirded out with having Lucius' arms around him, but he thought Lucius was probably trying to be nice, so he ignored it and just hoped it stopped soon. "If I go home, there's no way I'll be able to sleep; I'll just be too worried about Draco and wondering if he's awake yet," Harry replied.
"I'll give you a sleeping draught that is safe to take during pregnancies. You can go home and take it or you can take it here and sleep in this bed," Healer Smith offered.
"Here, please," Harry replied immediately. He didn't want to be away from Draco, even if he had to be asleep either way.
"Alright. I'll have medi-witch Jones bring it to you," Healer Smith replied.
Healer Smith made some notes in Harry's charts and then went to talk to the medi-witches.
"Harry, will you be alright here with Draco if I leave? I want to get back to the Manor and make sure Cissy is alright with the boys," Lucius said.
"Yeah, you can go," Harry replied, thinking it would be the perfect way to get Lucius away from him, because Lucius was still creeping him out.
"I'll wait until you're asleep and then go," Lucius replied. He was concerned about leaving Harry zonked out on sleeping potion and Draco unconscious, but he was more concerned about what might be happening at home with his wife left alone with three babies.
Medi-witch Jones soon came back and gave Harry the sleeping draught. Harry fell asleep and Lucius went back to the Manor, where Narcissa had all three babies back to sleep. He sent a house elf to St. Mungo's with orders to watch Harry and Draco and report back if anything happened, before going back to sleep himself.
Author's Note: Now we know what's wrong with Draco. What do you think? Please Review!