Unofficial Portkey Archive

Chapter 11 - Healing

An: I do not own Harry Potter. I'm back!

Hermione quickly approached her friend and did a quick scan of his body. There were four large puncture wounds on his torso, two on the front and two on the back. It was as if an animal had bitten him. Blood was dripping from his fingertips forming a pool of blood on her wooden floor. She checked Draco's pulse and was relived to discover that it was still faintly there. Her first course of action was to close the wounds and then work on replenishing his blood supply. She also had to treat for infections because she was sure that by now, his wounds would be infected with all sorts of bacteria. She gently levitated him off her window sill and placed him on her floor as she started scanning his wounds. The two punctures in the front were deeper than the others in the back but one of his kidneys had been punctured from the wound in the back.

She summoned all of her healing books to her and quickly searched for spells regarding the kidneys. She found a relatively simple spell that would function like a band aid on the kidney and she casted that quickly and then began working on closing his wounds. Once she had him stable, she ran through the house to her father's office where their Owl would have been during the day had she not gone out to hunt. Fortunately, Hermione knew how to summon her back. In the few minutes that she waited for her return she wrote a quick note to her aunt letting her know that she needed her immediately. She tied the note quickly and sent her off.

"Hurry girl." She said desperately.

-*-

Harry awoke that morning to a cloudy sky and cold winds blowing in from the North. It would definitely rain he thought and he was not fond of rain. He dragged himself out of bed. Kingsley wanted him to report at eight sharp and he really didn't want Draco showing him up. He headed to the shower only to find that all the hot water had been used up. His brothers and sister were obviously up before him. He had a quick shower and dressed in his Auror robes. He arrived at the breakfast table to find only his siblings.

"Where's mum?" He asked as it was not uncommon for his father to leave early in the morning to deal with urgent matters.

"Don't know. She and dad left early this morning." William answered.

"Both of them?" Harry asked.

"Charles, I'm speaking English right? I swear I said mum AND dad left early this morning?" William said looking at their younger brother.

"Yes you did." Charles answered before biting a piece of bacon off of his fork.

Harry glared at both of his brothers.

"Oh relax Harry, you did walk straight into that one." Ana said from behind her large bowl of porridge.

"How do you and mum eat that stuff?" Harry asked his little sister.

"It's an acquired taste." She answered primly.

Harry arched an eyebrow at her. "What do you know about acquired tastes?"

"Plenty! Mom is always teaching me new things." She boasted to her brother.

"Yeah, well I think you're trying to eat yours and mum's porridge and she won't be too pleased with that.

Anna stuck her tongue out at him.

"Real mature!" William commented.

"You're one to talk when you let the hot water run so Harry, Charles and me had to bathe in ice cold water." Ana retorted.

When Harry and Charles stared at William with murderous looks, he dropped his fork and quickly exited the room mentioning something about an early training session he had to get too.

"I'm going to get him back for that." Harry said as he sat at the table and helped himself to a nice serving of eggs and bacon.

"Mum would not approve of that." Charles said.

Harry opened his mouth to respond to him when Ana suggested a brilliant idea for revenge. Suddenly the day was looking much better.

-*-

Mr. Granger paced his study back and forth while three pairs of eyes watched him.

"So let me get this straight, after all the time that I thought my daughter was studying her work at home by herself, she's been off cavorting around with Draco Malfoy and Luna Lovegood."

"I was not cavorting around" Hermione protested.

Her father gave her a stern look and she dropped her gaze back to the plain wooden floor boards of the study.

"Hermione what trouble have you gotten yourself into!" "Did you notice the large blood stains in your room or the near dead Malfoy that's resting on your bed now."

"He's not near dead. Aunt Lilly said he's going to be fine but the next few hours are critical to his full recovery."

"I don't care! I want that boy out of this house." Mr. Granger insisted.

"Edward, he cannot be moved. I've seen Hermione and Harry with Draco and he is not like Lucius or Narcissa. His heart seems purer than most people from Slytherin Manor." Lilly protested.

"Really, then what was he doing to end up in his current condition." He retorted.

When there was no response, Edward reiterated that he wanted him out.

"No," Hermione said standing up. "I am not throwing him out. If he goes, I go. Draco will be awake by tonight and then we can find out what happened but I can assure you he did not end up in this state because he was doing something nefarious!"

An owl from the Auror office interrupted them when it flew in through the window. Edward glanced harshly at the owl, "James, owl for you,"

James reluctantly went to the owl and with no treat to offer it, suffered the consequences on his hands as he tried to retrieve his letter. That owl delivered a few mean pecks.

"It's from Kingsley, apparently, Mr. Malfoy has reported Draco missing." James said

"Excellent, report him found and tell him to come collect his son! Problem solved." Edward said.

"Something doesn't sit right with me. If Draco were injured, why didn't he seek help at Slytherin Manor, why seek Hermione out?"

"Maybe she was closer?"

"Perhaps, but what was he doing out here if he wasn't with Hermione." He turned to his Goddaughter, "You said he only leaves Slytherin manor at night with you and Luna?"

"Yes, Draco would never leave by himself unless he had to."

"Well let's assume he had to leave and it was something at Slytherin Manor that made him leave. That would be the last place to send him now. Draco stays here. No one is to know he's here. I'll send Harry out to keep guard. No one would question Harry's presence especially in light of the troll you two faced a few weeks ago."

"Lilly, I'll escort you back home and we can come back for afternoon tea to check on Draco. It's imperative that we hear his side of the story first."

-*-

At the other end of the town, Peter Petigrew trembled in front of his master who was in a terrible mood. The transfer ceremony had failed because of the intervention of a house elf and everyone but Peter had been ordered to find the young Malfoy.

"I want you to go to Granger Estate," Salazaar hissed.

"Granger Estate?" Peter queried,

"Yessss, must I spell everything out for you! You said the girl did not show at the ball. From the rumours that I have heard there was only one girl unaccounted for, the Granger girl that lives on Gryffindor estate. You will go to the Estate and confirm that she is the one!"

"But I can't visit without an excuse," Peter said,

"Must I do all the thinking for you, perhaps your best use is as an appetiser for Nagini," Salzaar said. At her name, his snake uncoiled herself from below his chair and slowly started to approach Petigrew. Her tongue flicking out to smell her prey.

"I'll go as a rat!" Peter said backing away from his master and the pet snake.

"Get out of my sight then and do not fail me."

Peter wasted no time in scurrying out of the room and to the nearest horse.

-*-

A distraught Narcissa and an angry Lucius were the first persons to greet James as he entered Aurora headquarters.

"It's about time, our son is missing and you choose to come to work late!" Lucius bellowed.

"I was occupied with some other Auror matters. I came as soon as I received the missive." James told him.

"What other matter? What could be more important than the well being of my son!" Lucius said angrily.

James ignored him. "We will need to interview you, if you could please step into interview room 1 and Kinglsey will interview your wife in the other room."

"You're separating us? Why? We are not the criminals here."

"That is not why you'll be in separate rooms. If interviewed as a group, individuals tend to leave out details that the group has deemed not important when in fact these minor details are important. Your wife may know something that you have said is insignificant when it could be the most important piece of information that we require to find Draco."

"We are not separating. It is a simple matter. When we arrived home from the Auror graduation we had a small celebration and then Draco went to sleep. At breakfast when he didn't come down, we went up and we found him gone."

"Could something have happened at the celebration that would have caused him to consider running away?" James asked.

If looks could kill James would be dead already. "Malfoy's do not run away." Lucius answered through clenched teeth.

"Really, I remember a different story from when we were in Hogwarts." James said scratching his chin fondly.

Lucius was going to react but Narcissa stopped him.

"Auror Potter, I can assure you our only interest here is our son's. I think perhaps its best if we leave now and head home."

James watched them leave before summoning Frank. "Keep an eye on the Malfoy's. I think something's up."

-*-

Harry was assigned a little cubicle far in the back and he didn't hear the commotion going on in front between his father and Lucius. He had the case file on the troll open in front of him. In the two weeks since the attack, the aurors working the case had found nothing. An anaylsis of the physical features of the troll indicated that it was from Bulgaria. He wondered if the troll was connected to the Krums in any way. Hermione had told him Mr. Krum traded in exotic creatures. The coincidence between the Troll's arrival and Mr. Krum also being in Hogwarts was too strong to ignore but how did you get a troll from Bulgaria into England. There were wizards that patrolled the borders.

Mr. Krum had moved over to Slytherin Manor, did that mean the troll was supposed to be delivered there? What would they want with a troll? He looked at the time and was frustrated that Draco was late. He could have asked him about Mr. Krum's presence at the Manor.

"Harry," he looked up to see his father.

"I want you to go interview Hermione for your case." His father said to him.

"But I thought you .."

"I am not going to repeat myself. Follow your orders."

"What about Draco?" Harry asked.

"Mr. Malfoy has reported his son missing. There are several aurors on the case and I need you to attend to yours urgently."

Harry grudgingly closed his file and headed for Firebolt.

-*-

Harry had several theories floating around in his head as to why he was ordered to go to interview Hermione. At first he thought that maybe his father thought that Hermione would be upset with Draco's disappearance and she needed some support but his father was a professional Auror and he always stressed keeping personal matters away from the job. The next thought that occurred to him was perhaps since Draco was supposed to be his partner on the case that Harry himself might be a suspect in the disappearance. He quickly discarded that theory. His next theory was that perhaps they thought he had too little experience to participate in the search for his partner and this order was a way to get in out of the way.

By the time he arrived at Granger Estate he was on the verge of forming a new even more ridiculous theory. He lead Firebolt to the stable and tied her up. He briefly stopped to check on Europa before heading up to the house. The head housekeeper answered and announced his presence loudly through the house.

Hermione appeared on the balcony overlooking the foyer, "Harry!" Before he knew it he had an armful of brunette witch and said witch was a lot stronger than she looked because it was becoming very difficult to breath.

"Hermione, I need air," he rasped out.

"Oh, sorry," she said stepping back.

She had tear streaks down her face and Harry absently started brushing away the streaks with his thumb. The loud clearing of a throat distracted him and he broke away from her quickly. Mr. Granger was glaring at him.

"Has your father briefed you on the situation?" he asked angrily.

"Uhh, I was sent to interview Hermione about the troll." Harry said.

"Unbelievable!" Edward said throwing his hands up in the air.

"Father, he probably couldn't tell him because the Malfoy's were there." Hermione said. "Plus there are other aurors from Slytherin Manor."

Her father glared at her. "Harry, you are assigned here to protect Draco."

"He's here?" Harry asked. "Everyone's looking for him."

"He's upstairs," Hermione revealed. She slid her hand into his and started pulling him up to her room.

She stopped in front of her door and knocked twice, "firewater," she said and then opened her door slowly.

"You've charmed the door to have a password?" Harry asked her.

"No, but I could have done that, why didn't I think of that?" Hermione muttered the last part to herself.

"Hey mate," Ron greeted him with his wand drawn. Luna and Ginny were also in the room standing in front of the bed with their wands drawn.

"What's going on?" Harry asked, "I thought Draco was up here?"

"He is," Luna said sadly.

She and Ginny parted and it was then he realised that Draco was on the bed. He looked a lot paler than usual and Harry knew that was a bad sign. There was a sheen of sweat on his forehead and he saw the ice packs that they had situated around him.

"I found him this morning when I got back to my room. It was bad Harry. I did what I could and I summoned your mom. She did the rest of the work but an infection has set in and we're trying to break his fever now. We don't know what happened. He hasn't said anything since he fell unconscious. Your dad hopes he'll be awake by this afternoon. My dad thinks we should just tell Mr. Malfoy but your dad thinks something is up. He doesn't think Draco would have come all the way here if Draco wasn't attacked at Slytherin Manor."

Harry nodded. His father's logic made sense. This was not one of the theories that Harry had but he realised his father assigned him here to protect Draco and the Grangers.

"Your dad is sending the Aurors out to search everywhere and subtly distract the investigation from here. Fred and George are also going to run a little interference and say they saw Draco limping out of town." Hermione said.

"So the Weasley's know?" Harry asked.

"I needed Luna to help me because my dad is keeping up appearances downstairs and none of the housekeepers or other help know that Draco is here. The only way I could think to get her here was to send Ginny for her so I told Ron and Ginny. Fred and George apparently like to read their siblings mail so they found out first but they are supposed to be trustworthy."

"My brother's may be gits but they aren't traitors." Ron said.

Harry agreed. Fred and George could keep a secret. Percy was a different story.

Ginny picked up another ice bag from a basin on the night stand and placed it gently on Draco's forehead.

"Is the prognosis bad?" Harry asked.

"No, he'll make it. It's just the fever that has us a little worried now. Your mom was able to replenish his blood supply. Apparently fevers can't just be spelled away and we have to let it take its course."

"I'm supposed to be interviewing you about the Troll attack, I guess I should do that." Harry said to Hermione

"But I was already interviewed," she said.

"I know but we should keep up the rouse and I do actually have some other questions based on some information that I discovered this morning." Harry said.

"Ok, let's go downstairs then. It's not standard practice for an Auror to interview a witch in her bedroom is it?"

"No, but I could make an exception," Harry grinned.

Hermione blushed slightly before turning to the others in the room,

"You'll be fine?"

"Yeah go on. We got him." Ginny said.

"Ok same procedure as before but I'm also going to add a charm to the door to add some extra protection. If you need anything one of you come and get us." Hermione said.

-*-

Peter Petrigrew rode to the edge of the forest closest to Granger Estate. He kept looking behind him the entire way to make sure Nagini hadn't followed him. That snake was always hungry! He looked at the distance between the forest and the main house of Granger Estate. It was a long way to scurry as a rat! No one ever appreciated the effort it took to go anywhere as a rat, not to mention the threat to his life. In his journeys he had almost been stomped on by horses, killed with brooms and attacked by eagles and owls several times. He glanced into the sky to check for birds. It was a long run to the house with no cover. He had no desire to be caught in the talons of a bird of prey again.

He transformed himself into a rat and started the long journey towards the house. He tried to find overgrown bushes to hide behind but the grass was short and well kept. He only hoped the Granger's Owl was on the other side of the estate and would not see him approach.

-*-

Lucius bowed before his master.

"Did the Aurors find your son yet?"

"No,"

"Good,"

"Why did we inform them that he was missing if we don't want them to find him?"

"Are all of my subjects idiots? He was an Auror that was supposed to report to work today. How would it have looked if he didn't turn up and you didn't know where he was?"

"I see my lord,"

"Good, now Severus has followed the house elf's magical signature to Hufflepuff. We suspect the house elf and Draco are trying to get to Hogsmeade. I want my vessel back alive. Feel free to terminate the house elf. An elf that betrays the Slytherin house is not an elf we want."

-*-

James Potter was getting ready to leave the Auror office and head back to Granger Estate with his wife when Lee Chang entered his office.

"This is an order from Governor Fudge indicating that you are to step down as head Auror and proceed on immediate leave without pay," he said arrogantly slamming the order down on his desk.

James picked it up and calmly reviewed the document that dismissed him and assigned Lee Chang as a temporary head of the Aurors.

"If you think this means I'm going to sell you Godric's Hollow, you are sorely mistaken."

"You have no job now James. Let me see you take care of your family with no galleons to your name."

"I could always get Hermione to beat you at poker for me and split the winnings. That should be more than enough to keep us afloat," he goaded

"Get out!" Mr. Chang bellowed.

James calmly picked up his coat and headed to the door.

"You should take the rest of your stuff as well." Mr. Chang pointed out.

James smirked. "I don't need it. I'll be back in this office within a week."

-*-

Peter arrived safely at the perimeter of the house and circled around looking for an opening to slip inside. He heard Harry's voice drift out through an open window followed by that of a girls. He needed to get inside. The sound of horses interrupted his thoughts and he saw James and Lilly arrive. He realised his task got infinitely harder as James might recognise his rat form. He hid in some bushes by the entrance and he heard Mr. Granger talking about tea on the back porch.

As soon as they were gone, he darted out of the bush and decided to head around to the back. He had a feeling that all was about to be revealed to him. His master would be very pleased with his report this evening.

-*-

Harry and Hermione were in the parlor discussing the troll case.

"So you think the Krums are connected to the troll?" Hermione asked.

"Yes,"

"You know Draco did tell me that his father met with the Krums to discuss business. Something about ingredients for a rare potion, he wasn't really paying attention."

"There are potions that require trolls?" Harry asked dumbfounded.

"Not the whole troll but parts of a troll. I read about a few but those were powerful potions that require experienced potion masters to brew them." Hermione told him.

"Severus Snape is an experienced potions master. I don't think there is a potion that he couldn't make." Harry said remembering his foul potions professor.

A soft knock at the door interrupted them and a house maid informed them that Mr. and Mrs. Potter had arrived for tea that would be served on the back porch.

"We should probably head outside." Harry suggested

"I don't feel like joining them for tea." Hermione complained.

"Maybe we don't have to join them for tea. Have you given any thought to how you're training Europa yet? I could give you pointers."

"I'm going to train her the way I trained Comet. I don't need pointers," Hermione responded primly.

Harry smirked, "We'll see about that my lady,"

They both exited the main house and started making their way towards the stable when Hermione thought she saw movement out of the corner of her eye.

"Was that a rat?" she muttered to herself.

Harry heard her, "a rat?"

"I thought I saw a rat scurry into the bushes over there," she said pointing to a hedge that lined one side of the house.

Harry walked over and inspected the bush.

"You have rats here?"

"No!"

"Then it wasn't a rat. There's nothing here."

-*-

Lilly sat with James and Edward as they watched Harry and Hermione attempt to train Europa.

"She certainly is as spirited as Hermione. Harry chose well." Lilly gushed.

"You approve of them," Edward said bitterly. He was not a fool. He saw what was developing between his daughter and Harry.

"Edward, think of it this way, you're not losing your daughter, you're gaining a son as well. Hermione will always be your daughter, there is nothing that will ever change that. It's time to accept that fact that your family will grow soon." James said

"Soon?" Edward queried.

"Not too soon, a few years, I'm too young to be a grandmother." Lilly quipped.

"What are we going to do about the young Malfoy upstairs?" he asked them.

"He'll be awake in an hour or two and then we'll get to the bottom of this." James said.

Edward nodded. None of them noticed the rat that ran across the back of the porch they were seated on.

An: So the good news is that this story has two more chapters and an epilogue left. The bad news, the next chapter won't be up till next month.

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