Heal Thy Blood
Chapter Two - Revelations
Harry pushed the wheelchair that held Draco's wife as quickly and as safely as he could given her condition, whilst the charm he cast to keep her still and stuck to the chair was strong he didn't want to aggravate her condition further by jostling her around. Draco was hurrying just to his left, his breathing heavy and his face still flush from desperation and the events in the emergency department. Harry was looking at the rune's above each treatment room, red meant surgery, amber minor treatment and green indicated the room was clear, and he spied one just ahead on the right.
"We are going into that room just ahead" he advised and within moments Draco had flung open the door and held it for Harry to wheel his wife through. The moment the door closed Harry had countered his charms and levitated her onto the treatment table in the centre of the treatment room, again he thanked magic that the rooms were magically enlarged as you wouldn't get this space within a muggle city hospital.
The treatment table was made with stone due to the runic magic used in diagnosis and the two materials paired best with one another, the "bed" itself was a thick slab of light grey stone with white veins spread across it, infused with a number of cushioning charms to ensure the patients comfort. On the top right hand corner of the table was a rectangle of stone jutting out which held five stone cubes in a line with a rune engraved on each one. The right and left walls of the square room were lined with shelves of vials, papers, quills and other obscure medical equipment that Harry would not need tonight.
"I believe I know the cause of your wife's condition but could you confirm if it is a blood malediction?" Harry asked the other man in the room as he tapped his wand twice on the treatment bench, causing the stone to release a pale green glow followed by glowing glyphs which began moving over the woman.
"Y-yes, how did you know?"
"Not many conditions in the wizarding world cause bleeding from the mouth, nose and ears, it was either a malediction or someone had cursed the hell out of her but I needed confirmation" he removed his robe and rolled up his shirt sleeves, moving over to the cubes waiting for the glyphs to access any internal damages. "I should've asked, what is your wife's name? Including her maiden name?"
"Astoria Malfoy, nee Greengrass. She is treated privately and normally we have her potion for when the condition flares up, but when she started to go down hill I found her medicine cabinet empty which is unlike her" Draco rushed out, his heightened state of agitation getting the better of his tone.
"We normally have stores of potions here so I will get you a batch once I've made my assessment. Lily!" within a second of her name being called Lily cracked into the room, thankfully without her crashing into anything on this occasion.
"Yes Healer Potter?"
"I need you to pull me a patient file on an Astoria Malfoy but she might be down as Greengrass, can you do that for me?"
"Yes I can!" she replied before vanishing again. The runes on the table began to flash and much to Harry's alarm the fourth rune on the scale glowed orange, which indicated severe internal bleeding and critical condition. Tapping his wand on the growing rune caused orange tendrils of light to snake over Astoria and flashed consistently in three areas, her chest, stomach and upper left thigh.
"I need to ask you to wait outside Mr Malfoy" Harry began as he set himself for treatment.
"I'm not going anywhere she is my wife-"
"And she will die if I do not treat her, but I need space and calm for that to happen. I understand your fear, I really do but the best you can do for her right now is leave the room. I promise you I will do everything I can and I will keep you updated. You need to trust me" he implored, he didn't have the time for this. He could see the conflicting battle in Draco's eyes as they flicked to his wife's body on the table, before a tear slipped from his eye and he nodded, much to Harry's relief and he turned back to Astoria as he heard the door open and close.
The first spell he cast was in practice simple, however given the three locations of the internal bleeding he would have to hold the spell for up to ten minutes or more.
"Prope sanguinem" he spoke, directing his wand towards his patient. Silver smoke burst from his wand and entered Astoria's mouth, the clotting charm would seek out bleeding wounds and knit them back together. It required regular practice and strict focus and healers would have to be assessed on this monthly, a momentary lapse and the healing would fail and the wounds could reopen. Given the pale pallor of Astoria's complexion she did not have that luxury of time.
The next step of the treatment would be assessing any damage to the organs with the blood loss as well as any secondary symptoms of the malediction such as lung or heart damage. Blood replenishment potions would be required also but he would need her file to understand the depth of this curse.
After what felt like hours to Harry, there was a long hum like noise that reached his ears and drew his attention to the row of runes. He let out a breath as the orange rune had faded and the rune above it glowed yellow, alerting him that the internal bleeding had stopped and that her life was not in immediate danger but that she was in stable condition yet in a threatening state of health. He allowed himself to breathe for a moment and leaned on the table with his hands, giving himself a chance to refocus. Moments later Lily cracked into existence again, holding a file in the air in victory.
"I has it, Healer Potter! Astoria Greengrass' file" she announced with glee.
Before he took the file he tapped the healing table three times to prompt the stone to check Astoria's organs for any damage from her episode, before turning back to the elf and retrieving the file from her.
"Thanks Lily, please can you inform Mr Malfoy I am still treating his wife but I have stabilised her and then come back to me as I will need you to collect some potions" he ordered, which the house elf nodded in compliance and swiftly left the room. He wasted no time in opening the file Lily had provided cycling through the details to search for known conditions, it didn't take long to find on the second page. Blood Malediction, first identified at age two and cited three years of treatment by Saint Mungo's before Astoria was discharged by her father for private treatment.
"Clearly that hasn't worked" he muttered as he read through the finer details of the curse. The family history was sparse on the matter, it just confirmed the blood curse had been in the Greengrass line for four generations including Astoria's, believing the curse to be cast on her great, great grandfather. No detail of the curse itself, the best they had to go on to identify the curse was its symptoms, severe internal bleeding at regular intervals which could be managed with a clotting and replenishment potion currently, violent coughing and extreme fatigue with exertion, likely due to slow movement of oxygen around the body. Whoever cast the curse wanted the victim to suffer slowly.
As with all blood curses, there was no known cure, only the ability to make the patient more comfortable. Sometimes. He looked at Astoria properly for the first time since wheeling her from the emergency department, she was a slender woman of five-foot-six, her hair was a deep brown and extended well beyond her shoulders, her file stated she had pale green eyes, yet he had not seen them due to her unconscious state. She was dressed in ministry intern robes, so she must have just arrived home before her episode occurred. He sighed lightly and shook his head, magic for all its good could be twisted to such evil in the wrong hands, thankfully her file contained exact details of the potion she would require.
"Healer Potter requires something from Lily?" he jumped, he had not heard the elf re-enter the room.
"Yes, can you speak to the potioneer about replenishment potion E and advise we will need to ensure a regular batch. We have a patient who will likely be here for a week or two" he asked kindly as he reached for a quill and signed a prescription note.
"Yes Healer!" and once again, she vanished from the room. A low hum rang from the table beside him to alert that the organ check had been completed, he looked to the runic cubes once more and to his relief the second cube in the line glowed, emitting a pale green glyph. The organs were strained but otherwise unharmed in her episode which would make treatment much easier. Harry did a final check on her heart rate which was low but steady, she would likely be out of it for another few hours whilst her body recovered from the shock and took in the replenishment potions. He cast an alert charm on her body so that he would be notified if she suddenly awoke or moved from the table, before stowing his wand and headed to the door to speak to Draco.
He closed the door behind him and looked down the corridor, seeing Draco sat a few doors down in a small seating area just off to the side of the corridor, the blonde was leaning forward with his head down and hands either side of his head. Harry never thought he would feel pity for a Malfoy in his lifetime, but ignoring the past he simply saw a man worried sick for his wife and was helpless to do anything about it, it was hard not to pity him. His hair was skewed out of place, his shirt ruffled underneath what looked to be a worn waistcoat and trousers, the family fortune was gone, reparations taken after the war and his father thrown in prison and it showed on his son.
Right now that didn't matter however.
"Mr Malfoy" he began as he grew closer, the blonde's head shot up so fast that Harry thought he would have another patient for a moment. Harry raised his hand to prevent the rush of questions Draco was bound to ask. "Your wife is stable, she lost a lot of blood but I have stopped the bleeding, there is no organ damage thankfully but they were put under a lot of strain during the attack" Visible relief washed over Draco's face as he put his hands on his hips and sniffed, a stray few tears escaped again, Harry did the courtesy of looking away to give him some privacy until he was ready.
"What happens now?" he managed to ask.
"She will have to stay in for a week, possibly two. I've requested replenishment potions and she will be starting on them this evening, she is still unconscious at the moment and won't likely wake until tomorrow now but she is safe, you have my word" the blonde nodded and took a deep breath.
"Can I see her?"
"Of course-"
"Where is my daughter!" bellowed a man's voice"
"Thomas, will you just calm down! Shouting isn't going to help!" came a swift rebuke from a woman seconds later. Harry noticed Draco paled and looked down the corridor. Three figures spilled into the passageway, the first was a tall wizard, with a look of apocalyptic rage on his face and was followed by a blonde witch just a head shorter than him latched onto his arm whispering to him. Harry could make out another person, a younger woman from what he could see trailing just behind them. He was unable to confirm as the wizard spotted both him and Draco and made a beeline for the blonde.
"What happened!" he snapped at Draco, who flinched at the harshness of the tone.
"She came home from work and started feeling faint, seconds later and she was bleeding-"
"Why did you let her get to this state, she had her potions-"
"Thomas, calm down it's not his fault" the witch beside him cut what Harry presumed was her husband off, judging by the wedding band on her finger at least, her eyes were red and swollen showing she had been crying.
"I tried, when I went to get them her cabinet was empty!" Draco tried to explain, "I brought her here as soon as I found that out." Thomas looked like he was about to snap again when he caught sight of Harry, seemingly in his rage he had not noticed him.
"This is family matter I would very much appreciate if you excused us-"
"I am Healer Potter, I was just informing Mr Malfoy here about the condition of his wife. Forgive me but it is you who has intruded on this conversation, not I" Harry stepped in. For a brief moment he thought the wizard was going to fly off the handle again before a look of recognition came across his face.
"Mr Potter- I apologise for my outburst, I do. I am just worried about my daughter please forgive my manners, or lack thereof" and to the man's credit he did have the decency to look contrite.
"I understand that, I would also like to point out that if Draco had not done what he did then you and I would likely be having a very different conversation now. Astoria is stable, she is unconscious and unlikely to wake for a few hours, she lost a lot of blood but I have stopped the bleeding and there is no organ damage so she will pull through"
"Thank you Mr Potter" the witch beside Thomas sobbed, her husband pulling her tighter against his side. The man looked at Draco and gave him a slight nod before turning to Harry once more.
"I echo my wife, thank you for saving our little girl. I am Thomas Greengrass, this is my wife Isabella and our eldest daughter Daphne Greengrass" the third person of the trio stepped around her father and nodded to Harry with a small smile that didn't reach her blue eyes. He remembered her from some of his classes, other than that he and Daphne had never exchanged a word during school.
"A pleasure to meet you all. You can go and see her but I ask that you make it brief. She will be transferred to the ward soon and you can see her properly tomorrow when she is awake. I will wait outside the room to give you a moment" Thomas, Isabella and Daphne didn't waste any time and moved past him to enter the treatment room, yet Draco held back.
"Thank you, I-I know we've not been friendly in the past," he said simply.
"I was saving Astoria, regardless of our history I wouldn't let that impact my job. For what it is worth, I am sorry for what Astoria and by extension, you have to go through"
Draco offered a small closed lip smile and stepped around him and entered the treatment room.
"A civil conversation with Malfoy, whatever next?" he thought.
…
When he exited the floo into his home fireplace he nearly went flying over the coffee table due to his exhaustion, if it had not been for his last minute grip of the mantlepiece he would've just fallen asleep on the floor in a heap. He noted the house was still dark, which either meant Hermione had gone out with Ron that evening or she had turned in early for the night.
He left the living room and turned left to head towards the front door where the staircase was, pulling himself up the stairs required no small amount of effort and he thanked Merlin after each one for having the next two days off. As he entered his room he tossed his robe over the plush armchair in the corner of his room by the window, and slowly peeled off his clothes, tossing them in the laundry basket by the door to his bedroom before falling into bed with a content sigh.
A long day of work, a medical plus an unintended overtime drive to save someone's life had taken it out of him. He had informed the Greengrass family and Draco he would swing by in the morning to check on Astoria before he went to meet Teddy and Andi for the day, just to see how she was doing. He wished he could do more for her and the family, the fact blood curses were still incurable bothered him greatly, like the world of healing magic had failed in its duty. However even in the muggle world and all their advancements they were still unable to cure some illnesses so it would make sense it was the same in the magical world.
As he pulled the duvet over himself he winced at the soreness of his muscles, he hadn't stopped for the last week and for once was grateful Cho was not sharing his bed tonight, he wasn't sure if he could physically perform as anything but a limp log. He slowly closed his eyes and allowed sleep to wash over him easily as his mind fixated on the days events.
…
This won't be a redemption story for Draco, he has been humbled and largely his mindset will be changed because of his wife. It's amazing what all the petty things people hold onto do when life hits you with a firm reality. Don't get used to updates being this fast, just hit a vein of form at the moment.