A plan well casted
Draco was looking around in fascination and awe when he realized Theo had turned a nasty shade of green.
“We’re…actually…underwater?!” He gagged out. “Oh shit.”
Draco looked at him for a moment before it dawned on him. “Theo, do you have thalassophobia?”
“Well I bloody guess. I’ve never been under the damn ocean to find out. I think I’m going to pass out.”
“Theo, why don’t you go home. After that we can set you up in a research lab at St. Mungo’s. You can be our man in the chair.”
Draco had no idea what that meant, and if Theo knew, he didn’t stick around to explain. He apparated out so quickly Draco worried he would splinch himself.
Hermione eyed him warily. “How about you? Any hidden phobias I need to worry about?”
“What are those muggle face painted people? Cloons? They kind of freak me out. Oh! And spiders. Nasty buggers.”
Hermione chuckled. “They’re called clowns. I’ll be sure to keep face painted spiders out of our research. Come on, I’ll give you the tour.”
The room they had started in had apparently been built for safe apparation in, hence the lack of windows. If you accidentally landed in a wall, at least you wouldn’t flood the whole base. Draco was amazed at the sheer size of the place. It was built like a giant T, with a pod at the end of each of the three points. One for the labs in the top left, the medical wing in the top right, and the living quarters in the bottom. With the exception of some small rooms here and there, the long hallways were entirely made of windows.
“How long have you worked here?” Draco asked. He was genuinely curious. He could see how someone could spend every day here and never get bored.
“A few years. Everytime I finish a project the ministry assigns me a new one. My last one was creating a synthetic blood product for the vampires that no longer wanted to feed on humans.”
“That was you! Our vampire attack victims went down by 50%. That’s amazing Granger.”
She blushed and murmured something to herself so low Draco couldn’t hear it.
After touring the living quarters and the medical wing, they made their way to the lab. It was amazing. The main room had several desks in it, some with cauldrons, some with books, and some had computers.
“How do you get the computers to work all the way down here? There’s no way there’s internet.”
“There is WiFi, but it’s not always great. I mainly use them to run programs or cross reference data.”
Draco nodded. He was cataloging everything so he knew where it was in the future. Microscopes on the shelf with their supplies. Potion ingredients in the cabinet. Centrifuge on the desk on the right. He finally came to something he didn’t recognize. “What’s this Granger?”
“Oh, that’s scuba gear. In case of an emergency base flood you can’t make it to your wand in a timely manner.”
“That’s smart I guess. Is there more in case you’re not right here when it happens? That would defeat the purpose.”
She rolled her eyes, and Draco pretended it didn’t turn him on a little. “Yeah of course. There’s one in every pod. The pod doors are watertight and close in a breach to give you time to put it on.”
Draco nodded. “So, are you the only one that works down here? I noticed the living quarters had room for several people.”
“Technically I’m the only one here full time. Perkins drops by once a week on Fridays to bring a copy of my progress back to the ministry. Franks brings supplies on Mondays. Collins pops in to do some research when he has time from his own project. I’m also allowed to bring anyone I want on to the project, or have family or friends come stay with me to keep from going stir crazy.”
“Well alright. I think now is a good time to bring me up to speed on your progress so I can lend you my genius.” Draco did it on purpose. He knew she would roll her eyes, and he was promptly rewarded.
She led him over to a desk covered in papers and started talking.
“About 3 months ago, the ministry noticed their primary contact with the merpeople was reporting back less and less. Finally, at one of these meetings, Auror Johnson asked our contact what the deal was. The merperson, who went by Garlk, became openly hostile and defensive. He said he had no idea what Johnson was talking about. Johnson let it go, but at the next meeting, he brought it up again.
Garlk this time looked defeated. He told Johnson that his people were dying. Seemingly out of nowhere they were becoming angry and violent. Then they would calm down, but become sickly. After that, they would go to sleep and never wake up. Garlk himself actually died last month. Our new contact is his son, Svarn.
We were immediately given blood samples from healthy merpeople, and Garlk was able to secure us some samples from some of the folk who were in the sickly stage. Other than that, we do have a corpse of a merperson in cold storage. That was pretty hard to acquire.
About 2 weeks ago, our connection with the merpeople went dark. We can’t reach them anymore, and they don’t reach out to us. Coincidentally, that’s also when the attacks on people started. If I had to guess, they are keeping away due to the fear of retaliation or legal action. Which I understand, but it has made my job more difficult.
In terms of research, I haven’t really gotten far. I’ve determined that the cause of the violent tendencies is an issue with acetylcholine, but that’s pretty much it.
So this is where you and Theo come in. I’m great at producing or replicating things, but I could really use some help with how this is affecting the merpeople and humans. I think the virus can be linked to whatever is most similar in the anatomy between our two species. It’s just a theory but it’s what I have.”
Draco stared at her in awe. The knowledge that he was probably looking at the smartest person he would ever meet occurred to him, but he realized he already knew it. He knew it every day at Hogwarts when she would beat him in every subject. The way her honey eyes shined when she talked about her research….
Draco cleared his throat. “I think it’s best I start right away, but I have to sort Theo out first. Can you make me a copy of everything you want him to have? I’ll drop it off at his flat for him. Then I’ll go to St. Mungo’s and book a research lab for him for the foreseeable future.”
Hermione nodded and set to work compiling anything Theo would need and making a copy of it. Draco explored the lab some more. He came to a heavy metal door that he assumed was cold storage and a thought occurred to him.
“Wait, if you have healthy merperson blood, couldn’t I just cure Amy’s cancer now?”
Hermione became still as a statue. “You can’t use refrigerated merperson blood for any cures. The cold ruins the healing properties. But, who is Amy?”
“Oh sorry, that’s Mrs. Watkins’ first name. She asked me to call her by it since we’d probably be seeing a lot of each other.”
“Mmhmm,” Hermione said, still with an odd look on her face. “She must like you a lot.”
Draco was confused by her actions, but decided to try something. “Yeah, but I think she likes her husband and son a little more than me. They’re the reason she’s so bent on living.”
Just as he thought, Hermione visibly relaxed. Draco smiled to himself. So she had been jealous of his patient. Interesting.
His gloating was interrupted by Hermione handing him a massive stack of papers. “Get these to Theo and set up his lab. I think we’ve covered enough today, so meet me back here in the morning when you’re ready.”
Draco nodded, said his goodbyes, and apparated to Theo’s. The man himself was passed out on the couch with an arm over his face, which was still a little green. Draco left the paperwork on the table with a note telling him he would have a lab at the hospital.
St. Mungo’s was next. He filled out the form for Theo’s lab, and then headed to his boss’s office. It was a little past 9, but Healer Vaughn frequently stayed late. Tonight was one of those nights.
“What can I do for you so late in the evening Draco?”
“I need to take a leave of absence, Terry. Not because I want to, but because I have to. There’s a project that’s going to require my full attention. I’m going to divert all of my patient load to my assistant, he’s more than capable.”
“You’ve got to stop calling him your assistant Draco. He’s been your protege for almost two years.”
“But assistant is much more fun. It really reminds the git who’s in charge around here.”
“Whatever you have to tell yourself Draco. I’ll see that everything else is taken care of. Just let me know whenever you’re ready to come back mate.”
Draco nodded, thanked him, and apparated home. Before laying down for the night he packed a bag with some clothes and essentials. When he laid down, thinking of curly hair and freckles, he realized this was probably the last night in his bed for a while.