Chapter 13

The minute Harry reached his quarters he collapsed on his bed. He felt the exhaustion of the day all at once, he felt the pain of the whippings stinging his back, and he felt the magical exhaustion cut like a limb.

Whimpering quietly against his pillow he tried so hard to maintain the facade of serenity that he was known for but couldn't quite hold it. Hermione was at his side actually crying because Harry himself refused to do so. She had a cold towel pressed gently to his forehead to relieve the fever that had overtaken him, he tried to smile at her reassuringly, but it came out as a grimace. He knew that if she looked and felt as bad as he did, he would not be reassured by a forced smile either.

The healer came shortly after Harry had reached his quarters. As soon as he entered bed chambers the healer asked Hermione all that ailed her mistress, he was shocked to find that the young concubine had been whipped. He quickly sent his servant for extra medicine and salves and he asked Hermione to remove his upper body clothing so that he could check his wounds.

Hermione nodded and tried to remove her mistress's clothing but found it stuck to his skin, she did not know that her mistress's skin had broken so when she gave a harsh tug, Harry cried out in pain, the wounds reopening and starting to bleed again.

"What are you doing girl, be careful with the young changzai, do you not know that he is already in pain?" the healer scolded Hermione. "Forgive me healer I did not know that the mistress had bled." "Do not give me your excuses go and get warm water and strips of cotton cloth to wash his wounds, hurry." The healer's servant returned with all his requirements, he took out the salve for the young changzai. He saw that his back was in a pretty bad shape though the wounds had not bled a lot, welts had formed already, their color changing to purple. Hermione came back with water and rags that the healer had asked for and started assisting him in treating Harry.

After the wounds had been disinfected, medicinal salve applied on his back, Harry was made to sit up so they could feed him a potion for fever and pain. He was laid back on his stomach so as to not to disturb his wounds and Harry slowly sank into a dark and inviting darkness, he barely felt the healer dressing his wounds.

Thomas, Lucius, and Severus made their way out of Malfoy's palace after seeing Draco sleeping and the prince being taken care of. It was already night but they still wanted to check on Harry before retiring to their chambers. As they stepped out of Draco's residence, they found consort Delacour prostrating on the ground, no doubt waiting for the Emperor and his lovers.

Before she could say anything Thomas raised his hand to silence her, called for his guard, "Take her back to her residence and see that she has no contact with anyone until I say so. I do not want to see her until I get all the details of today's events," saying this he started towards Harry's residence.

"What a day! Thank the Goddess that everything is alright with Draco and the prince, there were so many things that could have gone wrong. Thank the Goddess that Harry was there with Draco encouraging him all the way. Did anyone check on Harry yet? I did not see him after Draco's delivery", Lucius asked a hint of disbelief in his voice at the favorable outcome of today's events, he shuddered to think what would have happened if Harry was not there. "I sent a royal healer to look at Harry, he looked so pale after Draco's delivery, I hope that he is alright," Severus said sighing softly. They quickened their pace to Harry's palace. They had realized that Harry had been giving his magic to help Draco and the prince the entire time that he was in the waiting room and they couldn't be more thankful.

When they reached the entrance to Harry's quarters they noticed Hermione coming out with bloodied rags; seeing the blood Thomas let out a terrifying growl and his magic snapped out, forcing Hermione to her knees, "Why is there blood on those rags? Servant answer me," He asked her angrily.

"F-forgive me Y-your Majesty but mistress was whipped today….." she trailed off, Hermione couldn't continue with the sudden influx of angry magic in the air.

Thomas knelt and forced her head up asking her "Do I need to read your mind or are you going tell us everything that happened today" Hermione closed her eyes, steeled herself, "Your Majesty, t-the Consort Delacour was displeased with Imperial Concubine Malfoy as he had arrived late for today's meeting at her residence. She asked him to kneel outside on the hard ground in the sun and read the book of etiquette, seeing this, my mistress and Noble Lady Zabini pled his case as he was pregnant and should not be kneeling. But Consort Delacour did not listen to them! She asked her head eunuch to push Imperial Concubine Malfoy on his knees, my mistress tried to stop him but he was pushed away and because my mistress tried to help Imperial Concubine Malfoy he was also asked to kneel as well."

She took a breath and continued, "Consort Delacour then asked the incense to be burned near them to negate the smell of sweat as the sun was high in the sky and it was hot. It made them cough and Imperial Concubine Malfoy started to tire and read slower. Seeing this, she ordered him to be whipped but then realized she could not harm him so she asked mistress to be whipped instead, but My Lords! He was already hurt from when the consort Delacour's head eunuch had pushed him away. I tried to get help from the Empress Dowager but her eunuchs turned me away stating that she was not well. When I got back I tried to stop the head eunuch from whipping my mistress but I failed to protect him. I am sorry I failed….." Hermione hung her head before continuing "when Imperial Concubine Malfoy started feeling very ill my mistress couldn't take it anymore and ordered eunuch Dobby to call for the royal healers and then Noble Lad Zabini and mistress left with Imperial Concubine Malfoy despite Consort Delacour's protests..." she broke down in sobs.

Seeing that she couldn't continue they left her crying on the ground. Thomas, Severus, and Lucius entered Harry's bed chambers, of all the scenarios that they had imagined of them being in Harry's chamber for the first time, they had never thought they would have to see this first, Harry unconscious, back bandaged and body flushed with fever.

They controlled their rage as this was not the time to give into anger but to help Harry in any way they could. The royal healer was still in the chambers packing his equipment when he saw the Emperor and Kings he knelt to the ground, "Greetings Your Majesty, My Lords"

"How is changzai Potter" asked Lucius "He is in bad shape my lord, he already had weak immunity and the whipping made him bleed, we just have to make sure that the wounds do not get infected and get his fever down." The healer replied. "I have given changzai fever and pain relief potion and instructed his head maiden when to give the next dosage, change his bandages and what to feed him when he next wakes up, he should be alright in a week or two your Majesty." Thomas nodded at that, gave him 10 silver ingots, and gestured the healer to leave. When they were alone the three of them knelt next to an unconscious Harry, Thomas ran his hands through Harry's hair and started giving his magic to help Harry's magic recover.

"He helped Draco today, protected him, took his whipping, despite Draco never being kind to him, he exhausted his magic helping Draco and the prince, and never once complained." Lucius bit out. "We have never stopped Draco's behavior, even when he was rude to Harry in front of us, are our concubines humans or a pack of hyenas? They fight and kill each other for a scrap of power, today a pregnant person was made to kneel in the sun for more than an hour, an innocent sickly boy was whipped for protecting said pregnant person, all just because the consort was jealous that she couldn't get pregnant. This has to stop, the politics, the backstabbing, the jealousy, the racial purity. We have to put a stop to this" Severus stated. "I had……." Lucius started saying but Thomas interrupted him, "Now is not the time to discuss this, let us concentrate on helping Harry." They sat there for some time petting Harry lending their magic to him, Severus moved Harry's hair out of his face and stroked his cheek. He let out a surprised noise, "His fever has reduced….." Lucius and Thomas looked up surprised at that and checked themselves, only to see that the fever had actually reduced, "Do you think this is because we are all giving our magic to Harry?" questioned Lucius "It must be, never has a fever gone down so quickly, maybe it is because you are both supreme, I have never seen this with regular alphas and omegas" "I……." Harry whimpered in pain and opened his eyes, he looked up at Thomas and said in a heart-breaking little voice "Alpha….." "Oh Harry go back to sleep, your Alpha is here, so are Lucius and Severus, we will take care of you," Thomas said softly.

At that, Harry closed his eyes and drifted off content that his alpha was here. They had failed at protecting their omega today and because of their past inactions an innocent had been hurt simply for standing up for what was right. No one would have blamed Harry if he had stayed quiet like the rest of them, no one expected him to stand up to the consort who was so much more powerful than him. How many times had he been bullied or insulted before of which they had no knowledge at all, as Severus pointed out.

Thomas thought that if Draco could insult him in front of them and interrupt him interacting with his concubine what did he do behind his back?

Lucius could see the rage building in Thomas' eyes "Harry's fever has gone down, he is better now than when we had come in, let us retire to our chambers before Thomas blows this room apart with his rage." "Yes let us go, Thomas, you are getting angry now and that is not good" Severus added, seeing Thomas reluctant to move away from Harry's side but thankfully he agreed, he did not want to add to the omega's suffering. As they came out they saw Harry's head maiden still on the ground, Severus gestured to the guards standing nearby to help her up, "You did well today girl, you did not fail in your duties today after all, you did everything that you could. You will be rewarded appropriately for this, go and look after your mistress, we will come by tomorrow again. If Harry wakes up by then inform him" handing her 5 silver ingots, the three left the quarters and went back to their chambers.

Hermione wiped her tears and went into the room to check on her mistress. She was surprised to see that the fever had reduced and he was sleeping a little bit easier. She made her bed on the floor next to her mistresses' bed so that she could be here to look after him if he woke up in the night and laid down to sleep.

A/N: Hello everyone, thank you for coming this far with me in the story. I just want you to know that if the story does not get updates for sometime, then there is a reason. I am going back to university after the new year and it's my final year so no pressure (ꏿ﹏ꏿ;), it is going to be hard, but I will try and post updates as much as possible. Thank you for reading, bye.

Edited and updated on 21/12/2023.