The Healer II- The Patient (Draco Malfoy Fanfiction)

Chapter 19- The Patient's Ghost

As promised, I returned to the Chateau the next day. I wasn't able to give Draco a warning in advance when I'd be arriving because using the portkey was contingent on Len's work schedule and my parents' availability to watch my daughter. Once I was free to take the portkey, I wasn't expecting Draco to be waiting for me when I got there.

But when I arrived, a little face was staring at me.

"Scorpius?" I called to the boy hiding on the staircase. He had grown so much from when he was a little baby. He had a round face with features that echoed Draco's and observant heather grey eyes that matched the color of his collared shirt.

I began to approach him. "Scorpius, you probably don't remember me. But I took care of you when you were a baby-"

As soon as my feet hit the stairs, he bolted to the second floor.

"Oh, dear," I sighed. I hurried up the stairs after him, worried that I had scared him. Children do tend to be scared of strange women holding giant medical bags.

I stood at the intersection of hallways on the second floor and looked around. "Scorpius?" I called again, but he was nowhere in sight.

"You saw Scorpius?"

I jumped a little at the sudden appearance of Draco behind me. A coat was draped across his shoulders that was as black as the dark corners of the mansion. This gloomy Chateau really puts me on edge, I thought as I adjusted my long white jacket.

"I caught a glimpse of your son," I said, calming down a little. "But he ran from me."

"He does that lately," Draco grumbled.

"I shouldn't be surprised. Even though I took care of him when he was a newborn, I might as well be a stranger now."

Draco nodded for me to follow him to the dining room. "Don't expect him to warm to you anytime soon."

I chuckled. "Hm. Typical Malfoy." Draco glanced back at me, and I expected to see venom in his eyes- but instead I saw depth, like I had barely touched the surface of a bottomless ocean. Like there was so much he wanted to say to me but couldn't. I decided to keep any further teasing remarks to myself.

I examined Draco's arm again at the dining room table. Since yesterday, the table had been cleaned and polished, and the cloth chair covers had been removed. I laid out my testing supplies on it and began my screening procedure on his arm. I was going to start with a curse detection charm; then do a series of toxicity tests. Once that was done I was going to re-wrap Draco's Dark Mark with proper medicine and a better sling. I explained it all to Draco, to which he replied a gruff "fine".

The tests all came up bad. Really, really bad. I had to consciously fight the disappointed facial expressions I wanted to make and worked in silence. It was incredibly tense.

When I was applying diluted white ivy poultice and murtlap essence to the wound before re-wrapping it, Draco finally said something.

"Are we going to talk about what happened between us?" He asked bluntly.

I blinked in disbelief. "...Your wife is freshly buried and you want to rehash our one night stand?"

"You know better than anyone that she was barely a wife to me."

I focused on wrapping his forearm in a new cast, and did not look at him. "What we did was disrespectful to her. I... I did not return here so that we could resume our relationship. If that's what you're thinking," I said sharply.

"I made no such assumption," he replied. "Cearly, things have improved in your marriage now, if you have a child."

"Well...A child doesn't fix things," I muttered. "...Apparently, nothing I can do will fix things." I glanced at Draco's puzzled expression. "I am getting a divorce," I confessed quietly.