CHAPTER 5
"Dammit! I'm doing the best I can!" Draco said as he banged his fist on the table and looked at the women standing in front of him. He sighed and walked across the familiar room to the window, which gave an enchanted view of the forest that bordered the property.
The women slowly rose from the table with an unfamiliar worried look etched on her aristocratic face and walked over to where the young man was now pacing in front of the window. Sighing heavily she placed a tentative hand on his shoulder and looked into his troubled silver eyes.
'I know," she said softly, "but you have to try harder Draco. You have no choice." She pleaded.
At that moment Narcissa Malfoy saw the scared boy her son had been in his sixth year, after being handed that blasted task by the dark lord. And scared he was, but this time it was not for his own sake.
"I know, but it feels hopeless now. We've tried so many different things and none of them have worked yet…"
"Yes but that's why you're here. That's why you came back Draco. And now that you're home we'll find a cure." Narcissa said almost desperately, as though if she said it enough times it might be true. That everything would be okay.
Draco sighed once more and moved to the table, poured himself a generous amount of firewhiskey and sat back down at the table, as Narcissa took her seat opposite him. Drinking at 10 o'clock on a Monday morning was not how Draco planned to start the week, but here he was; sitting in his mother's library at the Manor, glass in hand.
His mother was right, of course. He didn't really have a choice. He had to find a solution. He'd loose the most important thing to him if he didn't. Scorpius.
At three years old Scorpius was exceptionally smart and knew things far beyond his years. He also knew that he was not like other boys. He was sick, very sick actually.
And they had no idea why. It started almost a year ago and it just got worse.
It was the most painful thing for Draco to watch, to see his son, so helpless and defenceless.
After countless healers, potions and late night hospital visits, it had become clear that Scorpius was not getting better. Draco made the arrangements to move back to London. Something told him that being here in London was where he was going to find his answer. He just hoped it came to him soon. He didn't know how much time he had left, and that scared him more than anything.
Narcissa looked at her son, and saw the fear and love he held in his eyes for his son. Draco was always able to keep a calm face void of any emotions (something that was no doubt taught to him by Lucius), but it was his eyes that always gave him away.
"You will find something Draco, I know you will." She said quietly, and after a moment she asked what she had been dying to ask from the moment he walked through those doors.
"How is he Draco… he's not in any pain is he?" she asked with worry.
Draco smiled slightly before answering, "He's doing well mother, and no he's not in any pain …anymore. He asked about you yesterday."
At this a soft smile grew on Narcissa's face. But there was an underlying guilt hidden in the smile. Yes, she would have to visit him very soon.
"Will you be joining me to lunch dear?" she asked as she walked over to him and took the almost finished glass of firewhiskey from his hand. This only earned her a glare from Draco before he too rose from the table.
"Unfortunately I can't mother. I'm meeting Blaise and Scorpius for lunch at Diagon Alley soon."
With that he kissed his mother on the cheek and walked out the study but not before making her promise to visit her grandson soon.
He walked through the usually busy streets of Diagon Alley, towards the restaurant that he had told Blaise to meet him for lunch. Once seated, Draco noticed he was ten minutes late and there was no sign of either Blaise or Scorpius, but perhaps the pair were just delayed.
Lord knows Zabini's no good with time Draco thought as he continued to look for his son in the crowd that was getting busier.
With twenty minutes passed and still no sign of them, Draco grew very nervous. While Blaise was almost always late, Draco had an unsettling feeling in his stomach. Something was wrong. As he was getting up to leave, a silver wisp in the form of a familiar fox jumped into his path.
The voice of a very worried Blaise Zabini spoke to him, "Draco, something's happened. At St. Mungo's. Hurry."
"What on earth could this be about?" he wondered as he dashed out the restaurant onto the now busy streets on Diagon alley. Blaise's message was far too vague and it only left space in Draco's mind for all that could be wrong right now.
What was so serious, for Blaise to be at St. Mungo's for? It was unclear to Draco at the moment who was hurt and it caused a greater fear to set in as his son came to mind.
"Please let him be okay…please…" Draco silently prayed as he hurried towards the apparition point.
He arrived at St. Mungo's and hurried to the information desk. He quickly realised that he didn't know who the patient was but nevertheless proceeded to slam his fist onto the desk to get the attention of the uninterested young witch seated behind a stack of files.
Noticing he got her attention as planned, he said, "Uuh … a patient was brought in, not too long ago, either under the name Zabini or Malfoy." He finished giving her his best intimidating look which prompted the young witch to jump off her seat and shuffle around the mess of papers on her desk in an attempt find what was needed.
Draco was about to go off at her again when he heard his name being called.
"Draco! Finally" Blaise shouted, looking more than relieved to see his best mate.
"What happened?" Draco demanded as they both walked towards the lifts, "Are you hurt?"
"No mate, it's not me, it's Scorp." Blaise answered sadly.
"What happened?" Draco asked his voice rising in fear, " is he okay?"
"I don't know mate." Blaise answered truthfully. "One minute he was fine, getting ready to go for lunch, and then the next minute he goes all quiet and his nose started bleeding and he went all pale ...Well more pale than usual and then… well then I think he fainted. I didn't know what to do … I was-"
Draco stopped him there. He knew it wasn't his fault, "Blaise you did the right thing bringing him here. Where is he now?"
Blaise nodded and quietly lead the way to the young Malfoy's room. It was not what Draco expected.
His son, lying pale faced on the sheets, had at least five, maybe six different machines hooked up to him. He looked at the heart monitor and saw the small unsteady heartbeat of his son. He barely noticed the healer in the room, taking notes as he walked slowly towards the bed.
Touching the small hand that was placed above the blanket he noticed how cold he was.
Behind him he heard Blaise speak, "He's going to be alright now isn't he?" and he knew the time had come to explain to the young Italian what was going on. He didn't know how he was going to sit his best mate down and explain to him that his godson was very sick indeed, and nobody knew why. But it had to be done.
They were lucky in fact; to have gone through the last couple months without any incident. But their luck had run out and now they were back where they started.
How they managed the last year without Blaise finding out, was truly beyond him.
"We'll keep him overnight for observation and perhaps do a few tests and see from there" replied the healer. Draco noted, with curiosity, that the voice belonged to a female. A voice he had heard not too long ago.
And sure enough when he looked up he saw Hermione Granger looking back at him with a very concerned look in her eyes. How did he not notice her in the room before?
"Wha- …what are you doing here Granger?" he asked and noticed she was wearing the traditional navy blue robes that head healers were usually given. He noted too, with surprise, how good the robes looked on her and a moment later realised he was staring.
"I work here Malfoy." She replied softly as a tiny blush crept up on her cheeks. She had not missed the look Malfoy had given her and she found it strange that a small interaction with a man she once considered her enemy, caused her to react in such a way.
Blaise too noted the small exchange and felt the need to explain the situation, "I called her," he said as he walked to the foot of Scorpius' bed, "I knew you'd want the best healer possible…and I didn't know what was wrong. So I brought him here and demanded they send Granger. Only the best for a Malfoy, right?" He added with a small chuckle. Hermione smiled at this and saw that a ghost of a smile was on Malfoy's lips.
"I would like to speak with you, Malfoy" Hermione said in her best doctor voice. This was not a conversation she wanted to have, but being a doctor, well it came with the territory.
She noted when Blaise first brought him in, that Scorpius seemed to be fighting the medication. It was almost as if he did not want to be helped. She didn't mention it to either Malfoy or Zabini but they had done tests and they all came back negative. It baffled Hermione that there was no reason, no cause as to why Scorpius Malfoy was this sick. There was no medical cause as far as she could tell. Whatever was making Scorpius sick was not making itself known. But she had a feeling that Malfoy might know more than she did right now.
He simply nodded and followed her out the room down the hallway to her study. He couldn't be sure how far it was from Scorpius' room as he was too distracted to take note.
Once in the quiet confines of her office she intended to get the answers she needed but as they stood there she took the moment to carefully watch the man that stood before her. She had to admit that he was more than just averagely good looking. The last 7 years had been good to him, clearly. He stood at least a head taller than her and she noticed with secret delight, the way his Quidditch-fit body become more so gorgeous. But it was his facial expression that threw her.
The usual better-than-you smirk was lost and in its place, worry and fear had etched itself on his face. His blonde hair fell into his eyes as he seated himself in one of the two chairs opposite Hermione's desk and turned to look at her.
Hermione saw that his once rigid form was now less than straight as if he'd been carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders for too long. Sighing heavily she moved closer and spoke as softly as she could:
"We've done all the tests we could and … it all came back negative. Medically there's nothing wrong with your son but as you can see that's not the case it is." Draco said nothing; he'd heard all of this before, countless doctors had told him over and over again that there was nothing wrong with Scorpius. But perfectly healthy boys don't just go deathly pale and start bleeding all over the place, before fainting for no absolute reason.
"Judging by the lack of surprise in your reaction, I take it you've been told this before." She said shoving her hands deep into the pockets of her healer robes.
This surprised Draco, he didn't realise she was watching him that intently. He shuffled his feet as he looked into her brown eyes. He always assumed they would be a dark, muddy colour. It was stupid to assume that, yes, but he had never really taken the time to look at her properly. He saw that they were not a muddy brown, but a beautiful chocolate colour. He also saw that her eyebrows were knitted together, waiting for his response.
"Yes, I've been told this before." He sighed dejectedly. "It's no news to me that my son is sick."
"We've done the normal tests, I think we should look at testing for things out of the box" she said.
"No thanks Granger, if it's no trouble to you I would like to take my son home tomorrow." He said a little severely. He was tired of his son being poked and prodded. "I don't think more tests have the answers I'm looking for".
"You're …you're giving up?" she asked appalled at the lack of fight in the man who would never back down from a fight. "You can't give up!"
"I'm not giving up! Dammit granger you don't understand a lot right now" he said harshly. He was in no mood to fight with know-it-all Granger.
"Yes you are! He's your son, you can't just give up! How can you not have any faith that your son will get better?" She countered, growing slightly annoyed. It was her job after all to care in the best way possible for her patients and Scorpius was her patient.
"I am well aware of the fact that, my son is gravely ill! I don't need to be reminded of that every five minutes! I'm doing the best I can." Something inside him snapped and he continued, "Who are you to judge me? You have no idea what it's like being told time and time again by people like you that you'll have no idea what's wrong. That you people can't help him. You're supposed to have the answers! How do you expect me to have faith when you don't even know what's wrong?" he said angrily.
They were quiet of a moment as Hermione sat there in shock and Draco caught his breath before he spoke again, this time so quietly Hermione wasn't sure she heard him correctly "how can you ask me why I don't have any faith Hermione, when you're suppose to give it to me?"
Hermione stood there, now more shocked than ever. It might have been the defeated looked on Malfoy's face that helped her realise how right he was right. How could she expect him to have faith, if she didn't even know what was wrong? And for that she felt extremely guilty. He was right when he said they were suppose to have the answers and it hurt to think the number of times he's had to hear that there was nothing that could be done for his son.
Perhaps it was the thought of being another healer having to tell him that she didn't know what was wrong, or perhaps she didn't like the idea of failing so badly that a little boy was going to suffer. Or maybe it was simply because she was Hermione Granger and stubborn as hell. But she knew that she wasn't going to tell him what he was so used to hearing now. She was going to give him faith.
She rose form her seat behind her desk and walked over to where was sitting. Placing herself in the chair next to him, she placed her hand on his cheek, prompting him to look at her, "okay Draco," noting with surprise how easy it was to call him that, "I'll give you the faith you need."
With that she removed her hand from his face which held a deeply shocked expression, whether it was because she called him Draco or because of the promise she made, she didn't completely know, and walked back over to her seat behind the desk. With that Draco rose quietly, gave her a small appreciative nod and made his way back to join his son and best mate.
Hermione didn't have time to reflect on what had happened. After Draco left she was called away for another two emergencies and finally after what seemed like an eternity of grumbling patients, fumbling medi-healers and stubborn healers she was on her way home.
After preparing supper and finally relaxing back on the soft couch in her home, she thought back to the events that had taken place earlier that day.
It should have been strange for her to see Malfoy act that way, but it was his son after all. She really couldn't expect the man to have no emotion what so ever. That would be harsh, even for him.
But it was Scorpius she was most worried for. It bothered her to no end that there was nothing, medically, that could be done for him. That answer did not sit well with Hermione at all. She meant what she had said earlier that, she would give Malfoy faith. She just didn't know how yet.
Malfoy's confession had truly shocked her. She had been right, he was carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. It took a lot of strength to keep going, after having been told time and time again it was no use. She only hoped that she would be able to keep her promise and give them some faith.