A breakthrough of magical proportions
As he expected, the first words from his mothers mouth were a question about his dating life.
“Yes, I am seeing someone.” He didn’t know where the words came from. It was almost like they just fell out of his mouth. He remembered the day before Granger had mentioned him doing it, and he cursed her for putting the lie in his head.
“What?! That’s amazing Draco. You must tell me everything!” Narcissa was practically buzzing with excitement. He was sure if he read her mind right now, he would see the idea of grandchildren.
“Calm down Mother. It’s very new. Casual. We’re just having some fun.”
“Oh that’s not enough. Do I know her? What does she look like? What’s her blood status?”
Draco flinched at the last question. “I’m not sure if you know her mother. It’s not like you frequently interacted with witches my age. And what does her blood status matter? You know that doesn’t mean anything to me.”
His mother sighed. “I know dear. I’m sorry. Old habits die hard. It may seem silly, but sometimes I feel like your father and his ideals haunt me. Then I remember what those ideals cost. I promise I’m trying to be better. Whoever makes you happy would make me happy too.”
Draco sighed in relief. This was not a fight he wanted to have. “Thank you Mother. I promise if this goes further I’ll tell you more. I’d like to just have fun for now.”
Narcissa smiled and began to tell him about her recent trip to Japan. Draco found himself zoning out. Thought of a certain brunette witch and peaches dancing across his brain.
That’s how the rest of the weekend went. The only difference between this and a normal weekend is that his mother didn’t badger him with eligible young witches. It was a welcome change. He would have to thank Granger when he saw her on Monday.
He hugged his mother Sunday night before preparing to apparate back to his flat. This time though, his mother pulled back and smiled at him. It had been a long time since he’d seen his mother with a smile that met her eyes.
“I’m so happy for you Draco. I don’t know what’s going on with you and this girl, but I can tell you’re different because of it. Your eyes aren’t lonely anymore. I hope she makes you happy.”
Draco blushed. “Thank you Mother. I’ll see you in two weeks.”
Monday morning he entered the lab and was disappointed to find himself alone. He took the time to glance at Granger’s desk. It was a mess. What wasn’t covered in books was covered in loose pieces of paper. All of them about merfolk, bodies of water, and muggle diseases that cause brain lesions.
“I hate to break it to you, but I don’t keep any bras on my desk,” Granger said as she walked in. She took a sip of her tea.
“Sorry to intrude, I was just trying to figure out how you get anything done with your desk so messy. You can’t even see the desk itself!”
“Everything makes perfect sense to me. It’s all exactly where I left it, and I can pick anything up at a moment's notice.”
Before he could give a rebuttal, the cell phone chimed. He still didn’t carry one personally, so Granger had been leaving hers out so he could communicate with Theo.
He frowned reading the message. “The rest of the attack victims are dead and one new one came in this morning.”
Granger frowned as well. “I guess we better get to work then.”
Draco set about doing some advanced labs on the blood. He couldn’t help but get distracted by Granger this morning. He had missed her. Part of his chest ached with the knowledge that she didn’t miss him. Oh well.
“How was Potter and the Weaselette spawn party?” Draco was genuinely curious about how her weekend was.
“It was fine. He got a toy broom from me. His name is James by the way.” She didn’t even look up from her book.
“What a nice name for demon spawn,” he said, while watching her. He was rewarded with an eye roll.
The phone chimed again. This time Theo conveyed that the autopsy of one of the attack victims only showed the brain alterations the merman had. Interesting.
A thought occurred to him. “Granger, I know it wouldn’t solve the problem, but couldn’t we get blood from a different group of merpeople to save Amy?”
“I thought of that too,” she frowned. “I made some calls to some researchers I know in America. Their merfolk went dark when ours did. Apparently they can communicate in some way. The whole world is going without until we figure this out.”
He sighed. “Ok, it was just a thought.”
His lab values were finished. He looked over them a few times before something caught his eye. “Hey Granger. Come look at this.”
He felt her come up behind him. “Look at this advanced blood panel. His acetylcholine is low. It’s showing as 0.1, and the lowest normal is 0.2.”
“Okay, so what does that mean? I haven’t even read about acetylcholine in years.” She walked off towards a bookshelf and started pulling some texts down.
“It means I have narrowed down to two diseases, Granger!” He got up and practically ran to the cauldron, throwing in ingredients on top of the blood sample.
“Well, share with the rest of us!” He could hear the excitement in her voice.
“Depending on this lab result, it’s myasthenia gravis or Alzheimer’s.”
“Alzheimer’s? But none of the victims have been old?”
“It doesn’t matter. Any age can get either disease,” he answered as he stirred with his wand. “If they have the antibody, it’s MG, if not, Alzheimer's .”
They watched with bated breath as the sample was transferred onto a piece of parchment. Slowly, the results appeared in front of them.
“No antibodies!”
“So that means….”
“It means all the victims, the merfolk and the magical, are dying from Alzheimer’s disease.”