A New Healer
Malfoy didn’t respond. He just kept walking. The two of them approached Madam Pomfrey. She led them to a corner of the wing separated by a partition. In it there were half a dozen chairs and a desk. She directed them to sit down. “Alright boys, the healer Mr Malfoy put me in contact with will be here in a few minutes. When he gets here we will do the pregnancy detection spell again and he’ll take it from there.”
The two of them sat in silence. Harry refused to speak. He’d said what he wanted to Malfoy and the rest was up to him. After a period of time that passed by slowly in the quiet, a man was led out of Madam Pomfrey’s office by her. He was dressed smartly in somewhat formal robes.
The Healer took a moment to look over the area and the people in it. Madam Pomfrey was standing beside the edge of the partition. Harry and Malfoy were now standing against the wall staring at the newcomer. The man turned to the boys. “Hello I’m Dr. Auson van der Meer. I’ve been informed of some of the details of your case but I’ll need to ask you some questions in order to best advise you.”
“I take it you are Master Malfoy?” The doctor waited for a nod and then shook Malfoy’s hand. He turned to Harry, “You would be Master Potter then, correct?”
“Yeah,” Harry answered and then stuck out his hand to shake the Doctor’s. When he did this the Doctor sucked in his gut and leaped away from him.
“You’ll have to excuse me but until we know more it would be incredibly ill advisable for the two of us to shake hands.”
Harry curled in on himself, he knew that, it was just an automatic reaction. Harry began to speak, “Right. Shall we get to knowing more then?” Harry just wanted to move on with this.
“Yes, let us. Master Potter, If you would, please hop up onto the bed here.” As Harry did that he asked, “Have you been taking prenatals?”
“Yes sir, one dose every morning with breakfast.” Harry said.
“Okay, that’s brilliant.” He turned over to Malfoy who was eyeing Harry. “Master Malfoy, do you know how to cast the pregnancy detection spell?”
“Yes Doctor.” Malfoy got out his wand as he said this.
“Alright I would like you to cast it on me.” Doctor van der Meer said.
Malfoy did the incantation, “Tooooo nay esmat uur” while waving his wand about. Nothing happened.
“That’s good but you need to speed up the first part and watch where your wand is going on my body. It need only circle from my crotch up, not my legs.” The doctor commented. Malfoy did the spell twice more, producing green smoke each time.
“Should I do it on Potter now?” Malfoy asked the Doctor.
“Yes, I think that would be fine.” He replied.
Malfoy turned towards Harry. Harry saw his wand hand shake. “Túnay esmattor.” Nothing happened. Harry thought Malfoy might have been sweating now. Harry hadn’t been very nervous before but Malfoy sure was making him tense.
The Doctor spoke to Malfoy, “Now Draco, it’s not a big deal we can do this as many times as it takes. We’re not in a rush. I want you to slow down, breathe, and give it another try. It’s not a big deal if it doesn’t work we’ll just take another minute and try again.”
This seemed to help Draco, Harry wouldn’t exactly call him calm but his body was a bit more relaxed now and he was no longer actively sweating. On his next try a mist appeared. It was white, the colour for a messed up spell, but something had happened. He proceeded to get white two more times. They were waiting for either a green for negative or a red for positive. Harry could no longer see Draco very well, the cloud distorting him.
The next time it was a light pink. The doctor said that didn’t mean anything and insisted Draco continue. The very next cloud was angry red. Everyone in the room took a moment to examine the cloud as it faded away.
The Doctor was the first to speak, he whispered, “Well, how unusual, a positive result after only a week past the conception date.”
He turned to Harry looking at him. “Master Potter, may I call you Harry?” Harry gave a nod. “Harry, you are pregnant.” Doctor van der Meer pulled over a rolling stool and sat atop it facing Harry where he sat on the bed.
“Harry, I am an elven fertility specialist. I help elves and elves’ partners to get pregnant and to have a healthy pregnancy. This situation is unusual for me, most of my days are spent with couples who have a hard time conceiving and are very happy to be pregnant. I presume that is not the case here.” His voice was soft, it kept Harry from getting fidgety.
“Now, the potion you took is not a potion I prescribe except under very particular circumstances. You see most fertility potions are very mild and don’t have many side effects so there is very little harm in prescribing them to a wide range of people. In fact some of these potions are available over the counter. They’re pretty mild and do not work on some individuals. Then there is the group of potions that require a physician’s approval for, these have a higher likelihood of conception but are more dangerous and need to be more specific to the individual. Most of my patients get prescribed one of these. Then there is the type of potion you took.
“It was activated, which means instead of boosting your fertility, it tried and succeeded to get you pregnant. Now activated fertility potions are always more dangerous. As they can keep acting on the bearer and the foetus throughout the entire pregnancy. Normally potions are targeted at the infertility of either the bearer or the sire. This potion is targeted at both. It is one of the reasons it is rarely prescribed.
“I want us to have another appointment in a week. At that time I want you both to be present as well as the student who made the potion and your potions professor. I will also bring along a pharmacist from my practice.”
He took a moment, waiting to discuss the next topic as he knew it would be hard. “Because of the combination between the potion being activated, experimental, directly against the advice of several major medical organisations, made without the intent to use and made by an unaccredited student as well as the fact that the only person we know who can safely do magic on you is a young man with no healing experience I must strongly advise against an abortion until we can get someone with proper training to be able to use magic on you.
“If your health starts to decline I will reevaluate. However, and I need you to understand this,” he looked into Harry’s eyes and held them there. “Master Malfoy performing an abortion would be a Hail Mary.”
He relaxed a little bit and let the boy look away. “We also might be able to perform a surregency transfer later on into the pregnancy if you so wish. We will monitor you through the next couple of months to determine how viable of an option that is. It is a complicated procedure with risks involved but they are minor.
“A surrogacy transfer is a procedure where we would use a potion to put the foetus into stasis. Make a connection between the foetus and the surrogate, then perform a ritual which would take the baby out of your womb and into theirs. It is not able to be done until the 18th week of pregnancy at the absolute earliest.
“I encourage you to think about it but not to make this decision until later when we can verify that it would be safe to perform this procedure.”
Harry took in all that was said.
“Now, have you experienced any symptoms?”
“No,” Harry had felt awful the whole week, though it had been because of how stupid he was not anything physical.
“As far as I know you are in excellent health. Next week the team and I will take a more detailed look and go through more things with you. For now I think that’s enough information for one day. Next week I encourage you to bring a notebook. I will go talk to Madam Pomfrey about monitoring you in the coming months and some other things." With that he left out of sight of both boys.
Harry sat on the bed. Malfoy was standing beside the foot of the bed. He hadn’t moved much since he cast the last spell that gave off red mist. "You can put your wand away." It was the only thing he could think to say.
Draco closed his mouth and put his wand away. He pulled himself together enough to make one thought. “Potter, what the hell are you going to do?”
Harry couldn’t believe the question. Just last week he had admitted some responsibility to the situation. “What do you mean what am I gonna do?!!, IT’S YOUR KID TOO!”
Draco started to back up. “No way, don't pin this on me. I had nothing to do with it. Besides I’m not pregnant I could just run away and leave you to deal with it. There is nothing that says I have to put up with this.” He was outside the curtained area now. “I could just run away. Have nothing to do with you.” At that he ran for the door.
Harry was out of bed in an instant. He grabbed his wand, he had to slow down a minute to pull it out of his robes. Malfoy was at the door turning the handle. Harry pointed his wand with the first thing he could think of, “LOCOMOTOR MORTIS!”
His legs snapped together and ceased to support him. His rear hit the floor then his hands behind him. Malfoy was dumbfounded with what to do. Then it hit him, he drew his wand and-
“WHAT ON EARTH DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?” Pomfrey’s voice bellowed. “Might I remind you that that boy is pregnant and to purposefully harm him no matter the circumstances is a crime. You should also be aware that due to the condition enforced on him by the potion he will need to be healed by you. So everything you do to him ensures hours of learning and practising complicated medical spells for you. So you should not only refrain from harming him because of every decent part of you that sees life as sacred but also because you might as well shoot yourself in the foot.”
“And as for you Mister Potter you should know not to hex other students.”
“He was gonna-”
“I don’t want to hear it! Whatever he did. The fact of the matter is that you hexed him when he was being of no danger to you. In any other case you would be serving detention with me tonight but I do believe you best just go to your dorm and think about what you’ve done. And I better not hear anything about you socialising Mr. Potter! You are to be considering the consequences of your actions and nothing else until that knowledge makes its way firmly into your skull.” As she talked Malfoy directed his wand at himself and undid the curse. He raised one leg and pushed against the floor, putting his other leg underneath him. He touched the door handle.
“Not so fast Mr. Malfoy. You and I are going to have a talk.” She directed the boy in front of her to her office. Once they were sitting down with the door closed she began to speak.
“I’m sorry Mr. Malfoy but sometimes life forces us into things. There is nothing you can do now to get out of it. I’m afraid this is your life now. You best get used to it. In nine months the idea of your involvement in Mr. Potter's life can be revisited.
“Leaving him would cause great harm to come upon him. Such a thing could lead to you being in Azkaban for years. I fear if harm were to come onto him the wizarding world would not look kindly onto a man that could have saved the very one that saved so many of them. Even if that man were just a scared boy who had no idea that this would be happening to him.”
She looked at her desk. Draco got the indication that he was not supposed to talk now. He didn’t want to look at her. Didn’t want to hear what she had to say. It was all too true. And it was Potter’s stupid fault. She looked up from her hands into his eyes.
“Healers are required to accept a code before they can get very far into their training. Part of it is that everyone, even those we would wish dead for political or personal reasons, is to receive the absolute best care that can be given to them. That if we can give care and hold back from doing so, we have committed an atrocity.”
She allowed him to look away. He inhaled and felt his chest being thumped from the inside. His lungs were heaving. His eyes were wet. His thoughts fell away from him like sand from a fist. He wanted to cry. To sob so hard he couldn’t breathe. But Draco couldn’t do that with her here. Before he could compose himself again she continued.
“This code requires accepting a belief that every human life is sacred. This is something you need to do. At least enough to extend to Harry Potter compassion and care.” She continued but Draco’s face was heating up. Potter doesn’t deserve his compassion. He is a self absorbed celebrity. The only people he cares about are his friends. If he’s supposed to be a saviour he should act more saviour like and actually help the people who need it. Not just those who are nice to him. He’s a hypocrite always acting like Draco is a piece of shite when he’s cruel right back.
He tried to calm himself down and listen to her.
“If you do this, no matter how hard it may be, it will save you boundless toil. Fighting with him only serves to provide you grief. There is no good to be found from it. And I’m telling you, it will hurt you.”
Draco was shocked, he was just doing what anyone would. There’s no reason to stop fighting him when he’s still being a dick to Draco. ‘It will hurt you.’ Every time he runs into Harry outside of class and does more than ignore him he gets house points or a detention. Except when only Professor Snape is around. Snape sees his side. He sees how Potter is to him. But Snape does that to all of the Slytherins. Draco heard he’s only taken 30 points from Slytherin in all his time at Hogwarts. That was probably an exaggeration but it was anecdotal evidence nonetheless.
Unencumbered by his internal monologue the mediwitch continues. “Be selfish Mr. Malfoy, save yourself from the pain that continuing to hate someone you will be forced to be around for hours will give you. Yes it will also help Potter, but must you rely so heavily on your basic instincts to not see into the future. This is something you can do that will be good for you. Do not let hating someone else keep you from happiness.” A tear left his eye.
“Helping him need not be worse than an inconvenience if you train yourself for it to be so. He may try to drag you back down to fighting but satisfy yourself with the knowledge that you can be better than that, and better than him.” Pomfrey saw how close to tears he was and left the room. Aware that a boy like him would not be pleased to have emotions in front of anyone else.
I don’t need to be better than him like that. He sucks in every way. Then Draco remembered something his father had said to him. “If you only wish to be better than a fool, you will not be clever.” He had gone on to explain that one should not compare themselves to the lowest common denominator when examining their skills. That they need to see what they could become and who else they could be better than. Dracos cheeks were damp. He had wiped away his tears but the dampness still remained.
Draco had hated that lesson. It was so much easier to be just good enough to not be last. Then he went to Hogwarts and watched Vincent. Vincent was a decent student; he did well in all his classes. He liked to fly and he was even good at that. But Vincent wasn’t the best. He was never the best in anything. Draco knew he could be. He saw him do assignments that took him and other classmates double or triple the time to complete. Sometimes even longer. He watched how he rarely raised his hand in class, never got into any academic discussions with the teachers and never really hung out with people outside their year.
He had all that knowledge and he never did anything with it. It would have driven Draco crazy. He was supposed to be a Slytherin but he seemed to lack ambition. Then Draco saw him hit puberty. He lacked ambition in school allright, but he had double or triple what anyone else had when it came to going after girls.
Draco thought about how Montague always pushed them to be their best selves in Quidditch. It never seemed to be enough. It was never enough for him. He always thought they could be better. He recognized progress but after that he always encouraged them to get better.
He was calmer now. Thinking about quidditch and his father had that effect on him. Begrudgingly he was now willing to accept that these three had a point. His father, Madam Pomfrey and Captain Montague were right. He could be better. He need not lower himself to the abilities of Harry Potter and fighting with him only seemed to do that. How could he have been so stupid before. Well, it’s no matter, he won’t be that stupid now. He was going to be a thousand times better than Harry Potter. Even if it killed him. Just so he could show father how he was. And he would tell Draco that he had done a good job and his self control was incredible.
Draco got up to walk out of the office wiping a hand over his face to make sure it didn’t look like he’d been crying. When he felt the metal of the doorknob a train hit him. Father wouldn’t tell him that. He would never tell him that. He’d knocked up the Boy-Who-Lived. He would never say another good word about him again. How could he? He would be that relative that people don’t bring up except to ask what happened to him. Then there would be an answer told in a hushed tone about his sad life now.
Draco didn't feel like leaving any more. He changed where he was looking and saw the chair he was sitting in earlier. He sat in the chair and pulled up his legs. He put his forearms onto his knees. And then nestled his head in the hole created. He hugged himself and let out a cry. He wailed. What else was he to do? He was alone.
He was alone in this room and alone in this world. At least here he was grateful that no one got to see him cry. He pulled out his wand and locked the door. That was the last thing he did before completely giving in, slumping on the chair and trying to comfort himself.