As Draco drifted into consciousness he was aware of a throbbing in his side. In fact, he just felt achy in general, and he certainly wasn't in his own comfortable bed with his wife snuggled beside him. Slowly cracking open his eyes, Draco was confronted by plain white walls and the fact he was in hospital, having narrowly avoided dying, rushed back to him.
Not wanting to dwell on the reason for his current situation, Draco shifted in bed, trying to find a more comfortable position. Although there didn't seem to be a more comfortable position as the hospital bed itself was too hard for Draco's liking, and he was still aching from his wounds and the subsequent treatment that had saved his life.
He was still trying to find a more comfortable position when a medi-witch bustled into the room, and even though he automatically tried to hide his discomfort, the medi-witch was experienced enough to know he was in pain. Assuring him that some discomfort was normal, and his injuries were healing nicely, the medi-witch gave him a top up of pain relief potion along with the other medication he needed.
"Next time you're in pain, let us know," the medi-witch scolded as she headed towards the door. "Hiding your pain isn't going to help us treat you."
Just as the medi-witch reached the door, it swung open and Hermione entered the room, Scorpius and Lyra following behind her. Brightening at the sight of his family, or at least part of it, Draco greeted his wife and children as the medi-witch headed off to deal with her other patients.
"How are you feeling?" Hermione asked as she gave her husband a gentle peck.
"Still a bit sore, but at least I'm here," Draco replied.
"Thanks to Lyra," Scorpius said, grinning at his sister. "Who knew she was such a hero."
"You would have done the same," Lyra countered with a shrug, not entirely comfortable with the hero role she seemed to have taken on within the family. "I'm not important here, Dad is. We need to focus on him and getting him better. Do you know how long you're going to be in here?"
"The Healer said at least a week, but I'm hoping to be home sooner than that," Draco replied. "Although I doubt I'll make it home before you head back to Hogwarts."
"You could always ask for a few extra days off and start school later," Scorpius suggested.
With a sharp intake of breath, Lyra turned to look at her brother as though he'd suggested something terrible. The look on her face was pure horror, and it caused both her parents to chuckle at the exchange between their youngest two children.
"Don't look at me as though I've murdered your cat," Scorpius protested. "It's a valid suggestion."
"Missing school is not a valid suggestion," Lyra retorted, sounding spookily like her mother. "Unless, you think there's a reason I need to be here," she added, her head whipping around to face her parents. "Things are not more serious than we've been told, are they?"
"No, sweetheart, they're not," Hermione assured her daughter. "Your father will be just fine."
"I will," Draco confirmed. "You can go back to Hogwarts as planned. Once I'm out of hospital, I'm sure we can arrange for you to pop home for a few hours on a weekend."
"Now that sounds like a good suggestion," Lyra said smirking at her brother.
Scorpius rolled his eyes and was about to retort when the door opened and a different medi-witch informed Draco that a pair of Aurors were there to see him. While Lyra and Scorpius headed back to the relatives room, Hermione stayed with Draco until the Aurors arrived, and informed them that she would be staying with her husband. Although the Aurors were perfectly fine with Hermione being present, and they assured Draco that if he wasn't up to speaking with them, they could return later.
"No, I want to get this done," Draco said. While he knew Hermione would have told the authorities what he'd told her the previous evening, he also knew they wouldn't be able to do anything official until they got the facts from him.
"We are aware of what you told your wife yesterday," the first Auror said. "But we need to hear the facts from you, Mr Malfoy. In your own words, tell us what happened yesterday."
"It was lunchtime and I was in Diagon Alley. I'd dropped some wedding pictures off with George, and was heading for the bookshop," Draco began. "Suddenly Weasley appeared from nowhere and dragged me into the small alleyway beside Flourish and Blotts."
"Which Weasley?" the second Auror interrupted.
"Ron Weasley," Draco confirmed. "As usual he was ranting about Daniel, claiming that he was family."
"Daniel is your stepson?" the first Auror checked.
"Yes," Draco replied. "I'm sure you're aware of how things stand between my family and Weasley."
"We are aware of the history," the second Auror confirmed. "So how did things escalate?"
"I don't really know," Draco admitted with a slight shrug of his shoulders. "Weasley was doing his usual deluded ranting, and I snapped back at him. Next thing I knew, I felt a burning in my side and when I looked down, I had a knife sticking out of me with Weasleys hand wrapped around it. He pulled the knife out and backed away and I fell to the ground. I can remember thinking that I needed to get to safety, and that I needed help, but I can't actually remember leaving the alleyway. The next thing I can remember is waking up in hospital and been told how close I'd come to dying."
"There was no threats with the knife before he stabbed you?" the first Auror checked.
"No, I didn't even see the knife before it was in my side," Draco said.
"And how did he react after he'd stabbed you?" the second Auror asked. "Did he gloat, or anything like that?"
"He didn't say a word," Draco answered. "In fact, he seemed almost as stunned as I was."
"Did he seem as though he was going to help you?" the first Auror asked.
"I don't think so," Draco said with a thoughtful frown. "I think I have a vague memory of him backing away. My recollections are hazy by that point, but I think he was just going to leave me."
"Now are you going to bring Ron in?" Hermione demanded. "Now you've heard it from Draco, you can do something, can't you?"
"We can," the first Auror said, sharing a look with his colleague.
"What was that?" Hermione asked, spotting the look the two Aurors had just shared. "What's going on?"
"After we spoke yesterday, we made some enquires about Mr Weasley," the second Auror admitted. "He was due at work yesterday evening, and he didn't turn up. He also doesn't seem to be at home."
"You mean he's ran?" Draco snorted. "Now why doesn't that surprise me."
"That might not be the case," the first Auror said, not sounding at all confident. "Until we'd spoken with you, Mr Malfoy, our hands have been tied. But now we have your version of events, we can officially investigate Mr Weasley. And given the seriousness of the situation, we can assure you that no stone will be left unturned to find him and bring him into the Ministry."
Given he was stuck in a hospital bed, Draco knew there was nothing else he could do but trust the Aurors to do their jobs and track down Weasley. For the moment there was nothing he could do but recuperate, and hope that justice would be done and that Weasley would pay for almost killing him.
Sat in his small office, Arthur toyed with the paperwork on his desk, his mind on more important matters than witches and wizards misusing muggle artefacts. All he could think about was Ron, and the ultimatum he'd given to his son. He knew that Ron leaving the country was for the best, but that didn't mean he felt good about the way things had happened between them. He knew that before Ron left, which he was hoping he did chose to do, he needed to make things right with his son. He needed Ron to know that no matter what had happened, he was his son and he loved him.
A knock on the door disturbed his musings, and he was surprised when a couple of Aurors entered his office, asking for a word. It was rare that his work crossed with the Auror department, but it never occurred to him that the pair would be there on an issue that had nothing to do with work. Even when they first mentioned that Draco Malfoy had been stabbed, Arthur didn't think it had anything to do with his family.
"We're looking for your son," the younger of the two Aurors said. "Ronald Weasley."
"In connection with the stabbing?" Arthur asked hollowly.
"We have a victim statement from Mr Malfoy, naming your son as the one who stabbed him," the other Auror informed Arthur.
"No, that can't be," Arthur muttered, shaking her head.
"We do need to talk to your son, Arthur," the older Auror said. "He didn't turn up at work yesterday, and there's no answer at his house. Do you have any idea where we might find him?"
"No," Arthur whispered. He was barely taking in what the Auror was saying as all he was thinking about was if it was all his fault. Had it been his ultimatum that had pushed Ron over the edge and caused him to do the sort of stupid, reckless thing that Arthur had been trying to prevent?
"We need to talk to him," the second Auror persisted. "Avoiding us isn't doing him any good. If you have any idea where he might be, you need to tell us."
"I don't know," Arthur said with a shake of his head. "He certainly never came to us yesterday."
"Could he have gone to one of his siblings?" the younger Auror asked.
"Possibly Ginny," Arthur offered. Given the state of Ron's relationships with his brothers, the only conceivable member of the family Arthur thought he might have gone to for help was his sister. But he doubted even Ginny would cover for him if she knew just how serious the situation was and how much trouble Ron was in.
Reiterating that he hadn't seen Ron, and didn't know where he was, Arthur handed over Ginny's contact details to the two Aurors. However, even once they'd gone he'd found himself unable to focus on his work, and decided to leave early. Although part of the reason he wanted an early finish from work was because he wanted to speak with Molly before she discovered that the Aurors were looking for Ron.
When Arthur returned home, he found Molly slumped on the sofa, looking as though she hadn't moved all day. It had become habit since learning that Victoire and Daniel had married without them, and Arthur feared that it was only going to get worse when she learnt about the mess Ron had landed himself in.
"I don't suppose you've seen Ron today, have you?" Arthur asked his wife, even though he was pretty sure no-one had set foot in the house since he'd left that morning.
"No," Molly replied listlessly.
"I need to tell you something, Molly," Arthur said with a sigh as he sat down beside his wife and braced himself to share the bad news with her.
At hearing the news, Molly gave in to the tears that had never been far away since learning about their granddaughter's wedding. She was insistent that the Aurors had gotten in wrong and that Ron would never do such a thing.
"It's that Malfoy bastard," she hissed. "He's just trying to get Ron into trouble."
"He wouldn't lie about something like that, not when his memories can be checked," Arthur pointed out.
"I won't believe it," Molly screeched. "Ron is not violent."
"I wouldn't have said so either," Arthur admitted with a sigh. "But we can't deny that Draco is in hospital after been stabbed, and he's claiming Ron did it."
"I still won't believe it," Molly repeated, the tears still rolling down her face.
"Maybe we'll get the truth when the Aurors find Ron," Arthur muttered. "If they find him," he added.
"Maybe they won't find him," Molly said, seemingly brightening at the thought. "Maybe he can get a fresh start."
"That was what he was supposed to be doing," Arthur snorted. "I told him to leave. I told him to get away and make a fresh start. And what does he go and do, he lashes out and is likely going to end up back in Azkaban."
"Azkaban?" Molly gasped in horror. "He can't end up back there."
"I'm not sure how he can avoid it, Molly," Arthur said with a sigh. However, before he could say more, the back door slammed open and their daughter's voice called out for them.
"Ginny," Molly cried, jumping to her feet and rushing into the kitchen. "Oh Ginny, it's so horrible. You'll never believe what's happening."
Arthur arrived in the kitchen in time to witness Ginny removing her mother's arms from around her neck. She did not look at all happy, and she certainly didn't seem to be giving Molly the sympathy she clearly expected from her only daughter.
"I've just had two Aurors at my house, questioning me about Ron," Ginny stated, not sounding at all happy. "Tell me there's been a mistake. Tell me he hasn't been so stupid."
"It's all a mistake," Molly insisted.
"No Molly, it isn't," Arthur insisted. "It does appear that Ron nearly killed Draco Malfoy."
"We only have his word for it," Molly protested. "We don't know what the full story is. Not until we hear Ron's side."
"Is there really another side to stabbing someone?" Ginny scoffed. "I'm not exactly Malfoy's biggest fan, but I don't think he deserved to be almost killed. Just what was Ron thinking? When I spoke to him the other day, I thought I had convinced him that Dad's idea was a good one. I thought he was going to make a fresh start and put all this Daniel rubbish behind him."
"Daniel rubbish?" Molly screeched. "Fighting for Daniel isn't rubbish. And what is this idea of yours, Arthur? You said something earlier about telling Ron to leave, what did you mean? What have you done?"
"After what happened with Victoire, I thought it was for the best if Ron left," Arthur admitted. "I didn't want all of this fuss to start up again, not when it could cost us Victoire. I thought it was best all round if Ron made a fresh start. It's what he should have done years ago."
"You drove him to this," Molly hissed, glaring at her husband. "You made him think we didn't want him. You made him think we were siding with those dreadful Malfoys. And now look what's happened. Ron is in trouble, and it is all your fault, Arthur. I will never forgive you for this."
Without another word, Molly whirled from the room and stomped off upstairs, leaving Arthur staring after her in bewilderment. He just hoped that Molly wasn't serious, and that when she calmed down she would see that he wasn't to blame for anything that was going on with Ron. Their reckless son had brought all the trouble on himself, and any consequences he faced would be well deserved.