Chapter 19

Draco pulls his robes, tucking his wand securely into its holster, before picking up his satchel and stepping quietly from his room. He pauses on the landing to listen momentarily for voices. At the continued silence, he turns and walks softly down the stairs into the entryway.

He reaches for the door handle, his movement pausing at a voice behind him. "If you're going to insist on continuing to work, regardless of the detriment to your health," Hermione's voice comes from the sitting room, "there are a few things I am going to have to insist on, as well."

Draco sighs, tilting his head back to stair skyward for a moment, before replying, "And what, pray tell, do you insist, Granger?" he asks.

She steps into the door-frame, a small vial held out toward him. "You will begin your day with an invigoration draught and a full breakfast." She gestures to the side table of the drawing room, where a breakfast has been laid out on a small table near the sofa. "I assumed that you would attempt to sneak out this morning early in order to avoid being made to see reason. So, I asked Cibney to set out breakfast for you in the drawing room. You will eat before you leave."

"I was not sneaking," Draco grumbles, ignoring the raised eyebrow he gets in return. "I merely need to arrive early this morning. There is a new shipment of ingredients arriving that needs to be sorted."

"The shipment will survive you taking a moment to eat. I've asked both your mother and Harry to remain upstairs until you have eaten and have left. Consider this a compromise."

Draco stares at her for several moments before finally nodding and walking over to take a seat before the fireplace. Hermione immediately turns to follow him. She waits until he has taken a bite before continuing, "Finally, unless absolutely necessary, I must insist that you refrain from apparition entirely. I understand that this may seem quite unnecessary to you, but taking the floo will only add a few minutes to your trip, especially for work, and it would make your mother feel much better about you going at all."

"You're a bossy little swot aren't you, Granger?" Draco states after a brief silence. I'm honestly not surprised, with how much I'm sure you had to keep the twin dunderheads in line. Rather Slytherin of you, to keep attempting to use my mother against me." He smirks at her, taking a long drink of his tea.

Hermione straightens in her seat, "Anyone who has spent any time around you can tell how much she means to you. And it's rather obvious that you mean the world to her. Besides, if it gets you to cooperate, I see no issue with using the truth to…"

"Calm down, Granger," Draco cuts in with a laugh, "I'd meant it as a compliment."

"Yes, well." Hermione picks up her own cup of tea, taking a long drink. "Once you return this evening, I think it would be a good idea for you to get started with brewing the potions you'll be needing. The sooner we have those on hand, the better."

"I'd already planned on it," He replied, setting his cup down once more and moving to stand. "If you have no more demands to make on how I live my life, Granger, I believe it's time for me to leave."

"They're not demands, Malfoy. It's…"

"Yes, yes," he interrupts with a wave of his hand. "It's in my best interest. I've got it. Enjoy the Ministry, Granger."

Before she can respond, he disappears in a burst of green flames. She sighs, dropping back to lean farther into the plush chair. She closes her eyes, taking a deep breath before reaching for her satchel and pulling out a small stack of parchments.

"That certainly went better than I expected."

She turned at Harry's voice and rolled her eyes, "He's stubborn, not stupid."

"Once upon a time, we would have agreed to him being both." Harry walked over, taking Draco's vacated seat. "I was expecting more of an argument, honestly."

"He's exhausted, Harry. I hate to say it but, I'm not sure how much fight is left in him."

"Draco, my boy," Tobias exclaims as he makes his way down the stairs at the back of the shop, "awful early for you to be in."

Draco winces slightly before standing and turning toward the older man. "I hope you don't mind. I wanted to get a start on getting the new shipment before we had to start opening for the day. We're also running low on dreamless sleep, pepper up and the herbicide so, I'll get started on those as soon as I finish up here. With the winter season coming up, I'd like to get ahead on preparing some of our stronger cold and flu remedies as well. My apologies if I disturbed you sir."

"Not at all, my boy," Tobias responded with a laugh. "It seems you have quite the list this morning."

"I simply thought that…"

"You thought that, the more work you gave yourself here, the less you would have to worry about things at home?"

Draco stares at him, wide eyed, "I…"

"You've no need to explain yourself," Tobias sits at the tall stool behind the counter. "I understand the need to lose yourself in your work on occasion. I will say, I have not forgotten what happened to you the other day. I'm afraid it will be quite some time before I can. You are under no obligation to tell me anything about your homelife but, know that I am here if you need anything. Anything at all. Even if it's just to talk." He gives Draco a knowing look before seeming to turn his attention to the log book before him.

Draco watches the older man for a moment before turning back to finish placing the valerian root carefully on the shelf. "I've left a list of things I'll need to purchase before I leave today on the counter."

"Most of these are for potions for strengthening. Are you or your mother ill?"

Draco smiles softly at the older man, picking up the empty crate and walking toward the door to the back rooms, "Haven't been feeling quite myself the last few days," he says calmly. "I've found myself feeling a little run down and thought I could use a bit of a boost. Shouldn't really require every ingredient on the list for myself but, I figure if I'm brewing a bit for me, I may as well brew enough for the shop to have on hand as well."

Tobias looks at him over his glasses for several moments before setting the parchment back on the counter. "You're planning on brewing for the shop in your own time? You'll have to let me know how many vials you're able to bring in and I'll make sure to add extra to your weekly pay to compensate."

"That won't be necessary."

"Of course it will, my boy. And you are welcome to any ingredients you need from the shop. You just let me know what you need."

Draco stares back at him, unable to come up with a suitable reply.

"Let me just reiterate for you, son," Tobias continues, "if you need anything. You just let me know."

Hermione looks up at the sound of a soft knock on her office door. "It's open," she calls. A moment later, the door opens and Theo steps in, firmly shutting the door behind him.

"I do hope I'm not interrupting anything too important."

"Request forms for the known deceased and missing persons thought to be from Malfoy Manor." She sets her quill softly on her desk, turning her full attention to the man. "I wasn't expecting you to come by so quickly. Is there something I can do for you?"

"I've been working on a way to separate the different curse strands so that we can attempt to remove them from Draco's magical core," he moves to sit in the vacant chair across from her. "Using the imprint I took from the library, I've managed to find a way to separate the individual strands from each other. However, when I turn my attention towards attempting to find a counter curse for a single strand, they immediately reconverge and form a tighter knot at their core. If I was to attempt the same thing on Draco himself, it would cause the curse to form a stronger bond with his magical core."

"Is there a way to keep them separated?"

"My hope is that, if I can find two others who can hold the strands I'm not currently attempting to remove, I can focus on one strand at a time. The problem is finding others who would be willing to help and powerful enough to hold the strands as long as may be necessary. Without being able to keep the strands separated, I cannot even begin to come up with a counter curse for any of it without risking severe damage to Draco's magical core at its removal. While I do know of several other curse breakers in the area, being a bit of a lone wolf myself means that I do not know them well enough to be able to say much about their willingness to help, though I do know several of them to be strong enough magically."

"We do have several curse breakers on staff here," Hermione cut in, resting her forearms lightly on the desktop. "I could meet with them and see if any of them would be willing. There's a couple that I've worked with before. Maybe the unique nature of the curses themselves will be enough to have them overlook who the patient is. I didn't even speak with them before calling you so, honestly, I don't even know what their opinion on Malfoy is in the first place. For all I know, they may have no problem at all to begin with."

"I'd appreciate it if you could try to meet with them today, if possible. I want to move forward as soon as possible."

"I'll contact their department to find out their earliest availability. Is there anything else you need from me?"

"I'd like to meet with Draco again to do another scan. I know that it's only been a couple of days since the initial one but I need to figure out a baseline for how quickly this is depleting his magic."

"Tonight may work best for that. Ginny comes home tomorrow and this weekend we have guests coming to the house so it may be a bit too chaotic for you to be able to get an accurate reading." Theo nods, pulling out a small book and quill and making several notes as she continues, "Perhaps you could be the one to tell Malfoy about us needing to bring in additional people to help with the case. I don't particularly see him being too happy with us for it."

"At this point, I don't really care if he's happy with me. I care that he's alive."