Inevitable

6 | Who'll Be Your Hero When Your Hero is Broken?

"Healer Malfoy?"

"What is it, Hewitt?"

Draco was dipping the knife blade in a bubbling cauldron. The blade turned red, then blue, then returned to its original metallic silver.

"Interesting." He wrote a note on a piece of parchment that was already covered in a neat list of scribbles and notes.

"I'm worried about Harry."

His head jerked around to look at her. "Is he okay? Has something happened?"

"Not exactly. I was just talking to him, and... I think he's under the influence of a Love Potion. Or a spell, maybe not as serious as Imperius, but..."

"Potter can throw off the Imperius Curse. A lesser spell wouldn't hold him long," Draco said distractedly, "He seems fine to me. What makes you think something's wrong?"

Her eyes widened. "He can throw off... Seriously?"

Draco nodded and pulled out his wand. He murmured a spell and the knife glowed magenta for a moment. "Harry is more powerful than he lets on. Tell me what's got you so concerned."

"I was talking to him about his relationship just now, and he just seemed confused. About why he's still in it, I mean. He said sometimes he feels he's in love with his boyfriend, and sometimes he just wants to get away. He couldn't explain why. It felt like he'd been Confunded, or something. But they've been together for six months, so it couldn't be a Confundus Charm. That's why I'm thinking Love Potion."

"I guess it wouldn't hurt to give him a general antidote for LP's, just in case."

"There's definitely something off, Healer Malfoy. I can feel it."

He smiled at her. "I trust your intuition, Hewitt."

Draco grabbed a small vial of lime green potion from a cabinet. "Give him this, but be careful. Being controlled for that long would make any witch or wizard a bit volatile. Harry is powerful, and," he hesitated for a moment, "he's extremely passionate and strong-willed. If your theory is correct, he won't respond well. He also won't take the antidote if you tell him what it is, so you may need to lie."

"Okay," She set her glass marble on the table beside him. Can I leave this here? In case something goes wrong? Harry has the other one."

"Of course, I'll just be working here for the next few hours. I'm waiting on a couple of potions to finish before I go home for the night."

"Thanks."

•••••

Five minutes later, Draco didn't need the marble to start vibrating to know that something was very wrong.

The floor began to shake and the lights started to flicker.

"Bollocks, she was right," he gasped.

He placed a few stabilization spells to keep his potions from spilling over and took off running. As he approached Harry's room, the shaking and flickering intensified. An alarm blared in his ears. Other hospital employees were also racing toward the room.

"YOU BASTARD!"

Draco heard a loud crash.

"YOU'VE BEEN DOSING ME WITH A LOVE POTION FOR SIX BLOODY MONTHS? WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?"

"Not six, just since—" there was a gagging sound.

"SHUT UP!"

"HARRY! Please stop! You're scaring me!" That was Hewitt.