Chapter 2
Hermione woke up to her alarm blaring as early morning light was streaming through her home office window.
She blearily raised her head, peeling her cheek off the page it had inadvertently stuck to when she fell asleep in the night.
Ugh. Falling asleep at her desk was the absolute worst. Her neck ached. And something had gone awry with her right trapezius. Oh well, no time to tend to it now.
Hermione took a moment to make a plan of action. Her late night research had been mostly fruitless. She scoured every text she had on hand that pertained to merpersons and the kraken variety in particular. Beyond the refresher, it wasn't much to work off of.
She planned on running by the library this morning before work to see if they had any literature that might be at all helpful. She had already come up with a list in her head of possible contacts that had more experience with aquatic magical creatures, but she had never even heard of an actual kraken sighting and doubted the relevance of such contacts' experience.
In any case, she had to hurry to get everything done in time for her shift. The flurry of owls she needed to send would have to wait until lunch.
Hermione ran in to the ward, one minute late, hair free and floofed out more than normal since she didn't have time for her usual careful plait. She juggled a cup of breakfast tea and a half-stale cauldron cake for sustenance.
"Oh, Hermione, thank goodness you're here."
Susan intercepted her before she could step foot into her office.
"Is there a problem?" Hermione seized the opportunity to listen and took probably the only bite of food she'd get that morning.
Getting immediately dragged into healing wasn't so strange an occurrence, but the other witch was typically calm and collected. Today, Susan seemed harried.
"Just Malfoy. He's been a nightmare all night. Won't let anyone near him to change out his bandages or even perform a simple diagnostic. Healer Raskin nearly lost an arm trying."
Hermione's eyes widened. Malfoy was far from their first dangerous patient, but the prospect of him causing an incident was still sobering.
"Is Raskin okay?"
They didn't know if Malfoy's malady was catching. The last thing they needed was a second kraken running around before they even figure out how to fix the first. Or a badly wounded healer. That would look terrible to the board.
"Yes, he moved away just in time, barely even a scratch."
Susan hesitated, like she wanted to say something.
"What else?" Hermione asked.
"Just that Raskin- He's not on shift again until tomorrow night, but Raskin said even if it cost him his position as a lead healer, he wasn't going back in there with him."
Hermione groaned internally, but overnight coverage a worry for tomorrow.
"Thanks, Susan."
The other witch nodded and made her escape; Hermione's day was just beginning.
She stepped into the private room her patient had been moved to, taking Narcissa's absence to mean she had started to make arrangements. As her patient had not spontaneously reverted overnight as she had hoped, it might not be such a bad thing to let Narcissa take him home. They couldn't keep him here if he continued to present a danger to the rest of the hospital.
"Good morning, Mr. Malfoy," Hermione greeted like she would any other patient.
Malfoy responded with that strangely interesting rattling hum in his chest.
It was better than a screech, at any rate.
"I understand you've been troublesome overnight. I know you must be frustrated but you can't take that out on my healers. We're doing our best to help you."
Hermione warily stepped closer. The containment ward had worn off before she had even left last night. She could refresh it later, after she finished.
"I need to change your bandages, Malfoy." She held up the materials in her hand and pointed to his bandaged arm in the hope of conveying what she was about to do.
He simply watched her approach like a predator watches its prey. Not at all unsettling or anything.
He stayed completely still as she unwound the old bandages, though his eyes burned into the top of her head.
Then he did something completely unexpected. Before she could react, Malfoy reached out and gave one of her wild curls a gentle tug, watching with a faintly amused smile as it sproinged back into place.
This was a far cry from trying to take someone's arm off. Hermione was curious, though. The fact that he wasn't screeching at her and trying to attack as he seemingly did to the other healers was interesting. Why her? What made her different?
Perhaps it was simply because he knew her in a social context before? And while it would be a stretch to call her and Malfoy friends, they had not been actively antagonistic in years.
Hermione blinked when he did it again, his mouth definitely curved in a smile this time, newly sharpened, shark-like teeth briefly glinting through his parted lips.
Right.
He seemingly recognized his mother, after all, and he hadn't been at all aggressive toward Narcissa. Prior association had to be the reason.
Regardless, the non-aggressive action of playing with her hair threw her off kilter. While it was something of a relief that her patient was allowing her to help him, it Hermione simply hated it when things ran counter to her expectations.
She cleared her throat and went back to the task at hand, ignoring him as he repeated his self-appointed amusement with her hair several more times. She made a mental note to not skip the plait tomorrow, but for now, at least, playing with her hair kept her patient suitably distracted and not screechy.
The bite was healing nicely, and though she worried about it being the injection site of what made him into this strange sea creature, it was better off healed than open and weeping.
His skin was damp but warm under her hands as Hermione applied more ointment. The low rattle in his chest turned into something akin to a purr.
For no discernible reason, her heart sped up and her middle felt fluttery. Hermione continued to ignore him and her own body's inane reaction. She began wrapping the charmed gauze around his bicep, when one of his appendages started creeping out of the water, angling to wrap around her hip.
Hermione gave it a sharp slap and a firm, "no." Punctuated by looking into those strangely silver eyes.
His answer whine was pleading.
"None of that. I don't want you to accidentally- or on purpose- drown me, so you just need to keep those tentacles to yourself."
He whined at her again, turning the sound into a grumbly rattle at the end. If she had not witnessed Malfoy violently fighting off half a dozen aurors yesterday, she would have thought the other healers were having her on with how dangerous they claimed him to be.
She finished bandaging him up and cast the diagnostics. Stepping back, not quite out of his reach, but hopefully far enough away to do something useful if he tried reaching for her again. His hands in her hair had been distracting, and she'd had enough distraction for one day.
"Have you eaten anything?"
Malfoy tilted his head at her.
"You probably don't actually understand a word I'm saying right now, do you?"
His chest rattled in agreement and Hermione gave a brief laugh. He was definitely responding to her tone and inflection more than anything.
"Right, well, I'll have one of the others bring something up." Hopefully, he wouldn't try to bite off anyone's fingers in the process. "Now, behave. I have other patients to tend to."
He screeched as she walked away, drawing her attention back to him.
The look of annoyance and frustration on Malfoy's face was unmistakable.
Hermione's stomach flipped as his expression settled on determination, and he began pulling himself out of the water.
Was he trying to follow her?
She spun back around, holding up her hands placatingly.
"No. No, you," she pointed at him, "Malfoy, need to stay here." Hermione held up her hand in a stop motion, willing her patient to understand.
"I'll be back to check on you in a little while."
His answering screech-rattle was angry, but to her amazement, he stayed.
"He won't eat. Even Mrs. Malfoy has tried."
Hermione reluctantly pulled her eyes from A Complete Ethology of Merish Populations of the British Isles.
Though she doubted its complete-ness, with the section on krakens taking up a mere half page and saying nothing more than they were an effectively extinct subset of the mer-population. She had already skimmed through the tome's general sections on diet, habitat, and completely skipped over mating habits.
Though they were essentially flying blind as Hermione had yet to find any documented case of a wizard turning into any sort of merperson, much less a kraken, it would still stand to reason that a kraken's diet should be similar enough to a more common merman.
"I think… we need to try fish," Hermione told Hannah. "Raw fish."
Hannah's nose scrunched up. "Like… sushi?"
"Not quite."
He was completely submerged in the tank once Hermione returned from her impromptu shopping trip.
Fresh fish to the specifications she required was surprisingly difficult to find in central London, and it had taken three apparitions to coastal fishing villages to finally find good stock.
Upon seeing her enter his room, Malfoy pushed up out of the water, his hair slicked and plastered against his head, though somehow artfully framing his face. Water droplets rolled off down his neck and chest as he folded his arms over the edge. His brows slashed down as his lips turn up in a smirk.
He looked hungry.
Hermione shivered, assuredly from the coolness of the room and not for any other reason.
She would be starving too if she'd gone a day without eating, though she sincerely doubted she would look quite as sinful.
In fact, were Hermione anything less than a consummate professional, she might have ogled her patient.
In addition to her impeccable professional standards, there was also the fact that his mother was once again seated a mere two feet away, completely disregarding any danger he might present in his current state.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Malfoy, Mrs. Malfoy," Hermione greeted, "I heard your son has been refusing meals."
"Yes," Narcissa confirmed, faintly.
Ever the healer, Hermione noted the stress and exhaustion that hung over the older witch but didn't comment.
"I've been studying everything I can find about Mr. Malfoy's present condition, and I'd like to try something a bit unorthodox, with your approval, of course."
Hermione lifted the cooler she'd been carrying, and Malfoy perked up further when she pulled off the lid.
Narcissa's pallor turned noticeably green at the sight of various whole fish in the container. Her face twisted angrily.
"He's not an animal!"
"Of course not," Hermione said in her most patient tone, "but given his current presentation, his diet more likely aligns with those of the mer-population."
Malfoy's eager gaze had completely shifted from her to the fish, further confirming her theory. His tentacled lower half had nearly cleared the top of his tank before Hermione had the presence of mind to step forward and offer the cooler to him.
Well, she had intended to get Narcissa's approval. That counted for something, right?
A tentacle shot out lazily, grasping one of the fish by the tail, as he met her eyes. Tilting his head back slightly, he brought the fish to his mouth and swallowed it whole, never breaking eye contact with her.
Hermione shifted uncomfortably. Her mouth was unaccountably dry, and she felt an entirely inappropriate, completely unprofessional heat in her lower belly.
Malfoy's smirk only widened.
"Oh my," Narcissa's soft exclamation broke the odd moment. She held a delicately embroidered handkerchief to her mouth and appeared quite ill.
Hermione attached the cooler to the side of the tank, letting her charge have free rein with the fish.
"Perhaps we should step out for a moment," Hermione offered, and Narcissa blanched when the next fish was large enough to require two bites rendered by shining rows of his pearly shark-like teeth.
"Yes, lets."
The older witch's color returned to a more normal range once they stepped out the door.
"That was- he- I can't-"
"Let me get you a calming draught," Hermione offered, flagging down an orderly.
The draught worked quickly, but the underlying worry and increasing desperation were not completely abated.
"I understand how distressing his condition is," Hermione said, not wanting to express the next part, but wanting to keep Narcissa's expectations realistic. "I must admit that I am concerned he has not yet come back to his normal self, despite his physical alterations. This is the point where I would normally appoint you to a specialist for further care, but to be blunt, your son's case is a singularity."
Hermione had some vague notion when he had been brought in that his case would be like some mer-person version of lycanthropy, but with more tentacles and less howling at the moon. Something transient, perhaps an occasional reoccurring inconvenience, but manageable.
The fact that his changes weren't reverting after a full day rendered that theory less likely.
"Are you saying he's going to be like this permanently?"
Narcissa's voice was shrill and bordering on panicked, even with the calming draught in her system.
"That's not at all what I'm saying. The magic that enabled his transformation is complex, and it's likely not going to be the case of a simple spell or potion to get him back to normal. We simply need to accommodate his current needs while I work on devising a solution. Such as the oversize tank we discussed yesterday."
"I… see," Narcissa said, socialite façade neatly back in place.
Hermione hesitated for a scarce moment.
"After further consideration, I believe that being in a familiar environment might indeed be beneficial. He does recognize you as family. I believe he recognizes me to a degree as well. Perhaps being home and visits from family and friends might speed the mental aspect of his healing."
Hermione looked away, biting her lip before coming to a decision on what she wanted to say next.
"I would normally never ask this, but most of the literature I can find on krakens relegates them to near mythical status at best. I once read that the Malfoy family library has one of the most impressive collections in Britain. Is there any chance you might have resources on krakens? Anything at all would be helpful."
"I will have the house-elves check," the blonde witch nodded determinedly. "And I'll make expedited arrangements for the… the tank."
"Has your family healer had a chance to examine him?" Hermione asked.
Narcissa sniffed, "Yes, in fact. As you might suspect, he has no experience with this. He spoke quite highly of your reputation for resolving difficult cases and recommended you to take the lead role in Draco's care."
"Ah."
That was rather unexpected. She knew healer Bliedwel was old-school of thought in his approach, and Hermione had rather been convinced he hated her. Then again, if Malfoy had reacted to him the same way he'd reacted to all the other male healers thus far, well, she could understand Bliedwel not wanting to spend an extended amount of time in the patient's company.
"I'll do my utmost to live up to his recommendation," she replied politely.
Hermione could easily envision this patient taking up more than his fair share of her normal case load. It might even require a research sabbatical from her position, but the sheer challenge in solving the puzzle Malfoy presented was unaccountably tempting.
That's not the only thing that's tempting- A thought she swiftly quashed.
14