Competition/Challenge Block
Written for/Stacked with: Monthly Challenges for All (Year 5); The Houses Competition (Year 9)

MC4A: ER (A Long Dog); ToS (Nightingale; Spinning Plates; Unwanted Advice); BAON (Sneeze Weasel); FPC (Not a Lamp; Persistence Still; White Dress); Fence (Machismo; Peddling Pots); Star (Pocky Pockets; Wabi Sabi); T3 (Terse; Toad); Fireworks [Speak Now; Family Matters; Not Cookie Cutter]; SuB (4D-Rope); TrB (1E (Blue & Orange Morality); SpB (4A-Flexiblity); Hunt (Su Items [Quilt]; Sp Items [Quilt; Candle]; Sp WD [Mobility Impaired; Heart Condition]); Gift (Family; Grey); Garden (Chores [Arguing/Debating]; Tools [Blanket]; Mixed Bag [Dusk]); Harvest (Actions/Behavior [Reading]; Items [Vial]; Relationships [Doctor & Patient]; Settings [Hospital Room]); Ship War (Stellar Legends [1D-Hand Feeding]; Su Mic 2 [Transparent]; Sp Med 2 [Hand Feeding]; Sp Big [Book]); Chimera [Hurt/Comfort; Deception]); Link [Same Bingo Card]; ICs (Old Shoes (Y); In a Flash (Y); Bucket Listing (Y); Two Cakes (Y); Eating Cake (Y); Zed Era (Y); Ship Sails (Y); Disabled (Y); Slytherin MC; Ravenclaw MC; Magical MCx2; Red Wave (Y); Rouge Element; Happy Birthday; Liar Liar

Houses: Gryffindor, History of Magic (Stand-in); Drabble ([Potion] Draught of Living Death)

Word Count: 748

Beta: Bailey, Jetainia, Ash, turanga4

Warning Tag: Terminally Ill Character; Medication Switched Without Consent

Author's Note: And here we go again with the angst and the tragedy of torturing my OTS. To avoid confusion, Draco is he/him, Astoria is she/her.

Until You Wake Again

Draco slammed his fist hard on the desk in the privacy of his office; Astoria's test results glaring back at him with a taunting warning about just how little time his wife had to live.

Ever since he became a Healer twenty-two years ago, he vowed to be the one to find a way to mitigate her lifelong battle with the cursed illness plaguing her family. Ideally, he would cure it completely, but Astoria always told him he tried too often to reach the stars and only caught air. He loved her dearly, but there were times he wished she would stop being okay with her dreadful circumstances.

Taking a deep breath, he pinched the bridge of his nose, contemplating his options and hers. His team only needed a few more months, if that, to get a sample of the potential cure ready for consumption. Astoria did not have that long. They were out of time… He was at the end of his rope.

Sinking down to his chair, Draco sighed, sliding papers over one another absently, thoughts racing for a solution, any solution, that could prolong her life so that he could help her…

The flexibility of the situation was nonexistent; the path he walked with this was very narrow; mistakes could not be made.

One of his team's papers came into view, and Draco froze, staring down at the list of recommendations from his team that he had dismissed so long ago because they lacked proper ethics. They treated the situation more like a scientific experiment rather than a life and death circumstance.

Draco wanted to fire them for their lack of morality and proceed solo, but the facility required a team or they'd halt funding.

But now… now he was desperate.

Draught of Living Death.

Astoria would never accept the idea.

Draco quietly entered the bedroom that had been converted into a hospital room Astoria now lived in. He took a calming breath, allowing the sterile environment to fill his senses before approaching.

Scorpius was asleep beside her, as he often was these days, yet she was surprisingly awake, tucked under her childhood quilt and reading under the soft glow of candlelight. Draco easily found his way to the chair on her side of the bed and settled down in complete silence.

"You are fighting that internal battle again," Astoria whispered.

The book closed and rested on her lap. Her attention was now on him, but he could not look at her.

"I warned you some time ago that this would torture you." Draco felt the tears form at her words; he had to close them to stop them. "I wish you listened then, because seeing you this way hurts me more than everything I have suffered through up to now."

Draco opened his eyes to meet hers. "I—I am close to finding a way to help you. I am. I just need—"

"But at what cost, Love? My time is limited. What more can you do? Please, please just spend what is left here with us, your family. That is all I want," she said.

She wasn't pleading, already knowing his answer. It stabbed him deeply.

"It is time for your potions," Draco said, getting to his feet and turning away to the table lined with countless vials.

Every color of the rainbow glimmered in the dim light, but nothing there really did anything useful. One dulled pain, one helped with sleep, another helped the body cope with spasms and seizures…

He pulled a different vial from his inner robe, the clear liquid unassuming aside from the purple label. Draught of Living Death.

Draco measured and poured various vials into thimble-like cups. Lining them up on a small tray; he turned and placed it on the nightstand. Astoria sighed, looking at them with disdain.

One by one, he handed her a cup, memorizing the order by now. His hand hesitated over the Living Death draught that substituted for the sleeping one this time. Hopefully she wouldn't notice the color wasn't blue.

He leaned in and gave her a kiss before administering the potion.

"Until you wake again, my Star Maiden."

She gave a weak smile before accepting the cup. She made a face at the taste of it but made no comment about it. Draco watched with tear-pricked eyes as she quickly drifted into a death-like sleep. Only Scorpius' breathing could be heard.

He closed his eyes, swallowing hard.

He just needed more time…