Fever or Fervor
Malfoy was in the middle of a set when the long-tailed hare scampered into his view. Hermione is on her way to St. Mungos. I found her seizing.
He barely had time to drop the weights in his hands before he apparated to the front steps of St. Mungos.
Malfoy found Luna sitting in the waiting area on the third floor, Willa quietly sitting in her lap with her noise-cancelling muffs on her ears.
The third floor was the poison floor.
Malfoy barked, “What happened?”
“Not sure,” Luna replied, the usual airiness to her voice subdued. “Willa and I had been searching the woods for bowtruckles. It started to get dark, so I brought her back and found her like that.”
“And where was Nott?” Malfoy tried to keep the venom out of his voice and off his face.
“No clue,” Luna replied. “They don’t think it was intentional poisoning, if that’s what you are concerned about.”
“What do they think it is, then?”
“They’re not entirely sure, but it was trace substances that were causing the convulsions. That’s all they can tell me now.”
Draco paused. He wondered if it was something Hermione had cleaned up in Flourish and Blotts earlier in the day. As much as he wanted to suspect Theo of causing her harm, he suspected that was not the case.
A moment later, Potter appeared. Malfoy looked at him. Harry was dressed in flannel pajamas and slippers. “I was putting the twins down,” He replied, as if that was an explanation for the style crisis happening in front of his very eyes.
“Were you able to see her?” Malfoy asked.
“She’s stable, but she’s asleep now. Could barely keep her eyes open when I was in there.”
“Do you think you could take Willa home with you?” Malfoy found himself asking, “It seems like Lovegood, the saint, has been with her all morning and afternoon. And well, evening now.” Draco said, eyeing his watch. “I think if Granger would trust anyone to watch Little Granger, it would be you.”
“What do you plan to do?” Potter asked, gently taking a tired Willa from Luna’s arms.
“Wait here for Nott, but also, send a team to the site formerly known as Flourish and Blotts. Send a uniformed officer or two here, I think someone should watch Granger’s door. And then an Unspeakable to the bookshop.”
“Why there? The bookshop has been closed for ages – since before the war.”
“Granger was working there today,” Malfoy replied. “Seems like she reached out to the proprietor and signed a lease for the space. Probably in the works to open a Granger’s Tale or something.”
His heart hadn’t stopped hammering in his chest, even when Harry said that she was sleeping. That she wasn’t dead. He didn’t know what the extent of the damage was.
What had Little Granger seen at that moment? How had she felt? That concerned him too. He knew what seeing frightening things at a young age could do to a person.
Malfoy banished the train of thought from his mind. “Willa?” He asked cautiously.
The littlest Granger looked up. He wasn’t sure if she could actually hear through the muffs on her ears or not.
As if reading his mind, she pulled them down to hang on her neck. “Hi,” She greeted, cheerily and sleepily. Her nose had the same little freckles as Granger’s, right across the bridge. Her curling hair was wild around her shoulders, magic sparking off the ends like her mother’s did.
“How are you doing?” Malfoy asked, unsure of how to really assess the little Granger.
“A little tired,” Willa replied, “hungry, now. Where is mummy?”
Malfoy looked back at Luna, who stood up from her perch in the plastic hospital chair. “Mummy is having a rest,” Luna said. “Like we said earlier, the game she was playing with us was a little scary, but she will be okay.”
Malfoy did his best to cover up a wince. He didn’t want to lie to her, but he didn’t want to scare her either. They didn’t know yet if Hermione was okay. Granger, he internally corrected.
“Go home with Uncle Harry,” Luna told Willa, “I will be by in the morning to check on you.” She said, turning towards Malfoy.
“Where is Uncle Teo?” Willa asked Harry as he carried her sleepy form towards the nearest floo.
Malfoy didn’t hear his response.
After a few seconds of processing, he realized was entirely alone in the waiting room. He needed to hunt down a mediwitch so he didn’t just barge into rooms unannounced.
There were still witches and wizards who reacted quite poorly to his presence.
He walked through the double doors that he had seen Potter appear from earlier and found a large desk with three mediwitches behind it. “I’m here to see Hermione Granger.” Malfoy said, authority dripping from his voice.
One of the witches raised an eyebrow, “Are you family?”
Malfoy thought about the question for a moment before flashing his Auror badge. He wasn’t going to explain his relationship to Granger to these strangers. Besides, the answer to that question was complicated.
Malfoy wasn’t sure what he expected to see when he walked into the hospital room, but he was relieved to see Hermione, sleeping. She had curled over onto her side, hospital blankets thin and pulled tight over her chest. He could see a thin white bracelet on her wrist and the Nott signet had been removed from her hand.
“Her ring?” He asked the mediwitch.
“Tainted with something, though we don’t know what. Typically, family crests protect the wearer.”
Malfoy furrowed a brow.
“Miss Granger is expected to wake in the next hour or so,” The mediwitch said. “Though, I suspect she will be groggy and maybe nauseous. Her skin has returned to the proper coloring and her statistics have looked good.”
“Can I see her chart?”
“Will it be used against her?” The witch asked, eyeing Malfoy again. She seemed skeptical about his presence here as an official. He might be, too, if a random man showed up in a t-shirt, joggers and trainers, claiming to be an Auror.
“No,” Malfoy said, releasing a soft breath. “I just want to see what I can glean about what was done to her, if anything. She was cleaning a worksite earlier today and I was worried about cross-contamination of some sort.”
“Are we to expect the Unspeakables, then?”
“If they find anything,” Though, now that Malfoy knew the ring had been tainted, he was doubting his theory about Flourish and Blotts.
The mediwitch left Malfoy alone with the paper chart and he worked his own diagnostic charm into the air in front of him.
From what Malfoy could tell, she would be okay. She will be okay.