Chapter 17
Ada woke up slowly to someone gently smoothing her hair and saying her name. She cracked one eye open to look at Draco and then buried her face back in her pillow with a small whine.
Draco laughed gently and pulled her away from her little nest and into his arms.
“Come on, sleepy head! It's time to eat a little bit and then go see Aunt Cissy! She’s gonna help fix your hands so that we don’t have to keep unwrapping and rewrapping them forever.”
“I’m tired though, I don’t want to get up.” she mumbled.
“What about this… if you drink your bottle then you can still lay down and have your eyes closed. Or if you don’t want your bottle you can still keep your eyes closed but you’ll have to sit up as one of us feeds you. It's up to you, little love.” Blaise said and kissed her forehead.
“May I please have the bottle?” she asked after a moment.
Draco and Blaise grinned at each other over her head, thrilled that she actually chose the bottle.
“Of course you may! Thank you for asking so politely too.”
Blaise summoned a full bottle since it was replacing the snack and cast a quick warming spell on it to make sure it was perfect before handing it over to Draco. He had rearranged Ada so that he was almost cradling her with her head tucked against his shoulder.
“Here you go,” Draco said. “Do you want me to hold it or do you want to?”
“I don’t wanna, I’m too tired,'' she mumbled and opened her mouth to receive the teat.
Draco happily obliged and held it for her until she finished, all the while praising her softly, not sure she was even conscious enough to register what he was saying. When she finished Draco passed her up to Blaise who had already stood up. Draco made his way to his feet as well and offered his arms to Ada who thought about it, then consented to being switched. Draco wondered what had come over the girl but was glad for it. He would soak up every sweet soft moment like this before she changed her mind again like she was sure to do. This said, he held her tightly as they walked to find his mother.
They found her downstairs in what young Draco had dubbed the family room- because they had spent most of their time as a family there- and she immediately waved them over to sit on a couch. She had a tray of things on a low coffee table next to where Draco had Ada on his lap and she looked at it warily.
“Don’t worry one bit Ada, none of that will hurt you in the slightest.” Narcissa assured, catching her worried looks at the tray. “And I’ll explain everything I do first so that you know what I’m doing before it happens.”
Ada just nodded and Draco felt her relax ever so slightly.
“Can you hold out your hands for me? I’m going to unwrap them so we can get a good look.”
Ada did as requested and shakily held her hands out. She frowned slightly, willing them to still but to no avail. It didn’t seem to matter to Narcissa, however, who quickly and skillfully unwrapped the bandages on both. She was much faster and gentler than either of the boys had been.
When the burns were exposed to view she winced in sympathy. The burns didn’t look like they had healed at all. They were possibly even more red and angry looking than before.
“It's very interesting, the burn paste I sent Draco should have healed your hands in just a few days. And nothing in the numbing gel would counteract the effects. Have you been applying it every day?”
The boys nodded and Ada started to but hesitated.
“I didn't bring it with me when I left.” she said softly. “And I accidentally spilled a fresh cup of tea right after I got to the hotel, all over my hands. I couldn’t really feel anything because we had just reapplied the numbing and ointment but it did soak through the bandages. Did it reburn me?”
“Oh you poor, poor thing.” Narcissa said and clucked in sympathy as she further examined Ada’s hands. “I can see now that there are two layers of the burns. Why didn’t you tell us earlier?”
Ada just looked down ashamed. Against her will, tears sprung to her eyes and she tried to pull away from her aunt's gentle hands.
“Hey, hey. It's okay! I’m not mad at you, I’m just sad that you had to endure even more pain and I didn’t know sooner! And now that I do know, we can get it fixed up right away, okay?”
Ada nodded and relaxed slightly in Draco’s arms. He whispered encouragement to her as she closed her eyes, too scared to watch her Aunt Narcissa touch her hands. True to her word, Narcissa walked her through every step of what she did, from cleaning and sterilising the burns with a spell, to soothing them with cold water, to reapplying the burn ointment and rebandaging the hands again.
“I’m going to avoid using numbing cream since it makes you unable to feel any warning signs that something might be wrong. Pain, while unpleasant, is your body's way of telling you something needs to be fixed, okay? And if you feel any sort of new or increasing pain, you need to come talk to me right away so I can fix whatever’s wrong. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Aunt Cissa. Thank you for helping me with my hands again.” Ada said while her aunt stroked her cheek softly.
Ada was quickly coming to realise that she craved the affection she was receiving. She couldn’t remember any time in her life when she had received so much as a kind word, much less a hug or a gentle touch.
“Ada bug, I was thinking. I know you’re hesitant to go by your given name but what if we combined them? Do you like how Ada-Elizabeth sounds? Or not really?” Aunt Narcissa asked.
She considered it for a moment and then shyly suggested “What about Ada-Beth?”
Narcissa beamed at her niece. “I think that's wonderful! Look at my smart girl!”
Ada blushed and hid her face in Draco’s neck. He smiled softly at her and stroked her hair until she felt brave enough to reappear.
“Well, Ada-Beth. How about we ditch these nasty smelly boys and we go eat a quick lunch and then take a nice long bath before your afternoon nap, hmm?
“I guess… but may I please feed myself?”
“You might not want to today, love.” Blaise said. “It might hurt your hands.”
Ada looked crestfallen but before she could say anything else, Narcissa had cast a feather light charm on the girl, picked her up from Draco’s lap, and was carrying her into the kitchen.
“I figured you’d want a little bit of autonomy today and had the house elves prepare all foods you can eat with your hands. We have little sandwich squares, sliced peppers and ranch, apple slices, and if you eat everything else, a cookie!” Ada spotted her plate at the high counter and lit up at the idea of feeding herself. “The counter is a bit high though and the stools a bit short since we have such a tall family so I do hope you forgive me but I had to pull out a high chair. I hope you don’t mind.”
Ada didn’t say anything but did grimace as she was placed in the chair with the bar across her legs. As soon as her plate was placed in front of her she began grabbing for the food, excited to finally be feeding herself. Narcissa laughed softly and pushed her chair in so she could be closer to the counter.
“Hungry today, hmm?” she said and smoothed back Ada’s hair. “After your bath, I’ll brush out your hair for you and braid it back as well. That way it’ll stay nice and out of your face. No more getting all tangled either.”
Ada simply hummed in response, not looking up from her plate once. Narcissa observed and noticed she hadn’t touched the sandwich yet but had devoured the pepper and apple slices. She held the cookie now and looked up hopefully to her aunt.
“Do you not want your sandwich?”
“I- well it's got bread. I don't really like bread. I’m sorry.” Ada- Beth said and looked down at her plate, setting her cookie down.
She looked forlornly at it but pushed it away with her plate to show she was done.
“Hey sweet girl, it's okay! You don’t have to apologise for not liking something, everyone has foods they don’t like. Next time I’ll figure something else out, okay?” Narcissa soothed. “Now if you don’t tell anyone that I let you do this, you can still have your cookie. I’m proud of how much you ate and you ate good, healthy food too!”
She blushed but accepted her cookie back and happily munched into it as Narcissa cleared away the plate. As soon as Ada-Beth was done, Narcissa picked her up and carried her up to her room and set her down just in front of the bathroom.
“Will you pick out a new nightgown to wear while I start the bath?” She asked, already moving into the bathroom.
Her niece dutifully nodded and opened the wardrobe. She internally sighed at having to wear another long nightgown but Narcissa was so sweet and kind to her that she couldn’t disobey. To her surprise and great relief, the nightgowns she found in the drawers were all very plain and devoid of frills. She instead saw many different shades of blue and purple with various types of cloth and textures and smiled. Someone here knew what she liked and it made her feel warm inside. “To be known is to be loved.” she thought.
“Almost ready?” Ada-beth heard her aunt call.
Ada-Beth quickly grabbed a dark blue nightgown made of the softest material she’d ever felt and hurried into the bathroom, hugging it to her chest.
“Good choice, my love-bug! That one is so pretty!”
“Thank you Aunt Cissa.” Ada-Beth whispered and let herself be pulled toward the massive tub.
“Hand me that and get in while I put your other gown in the hamper.”
Ada-Beth did so and let out an audible sigh as she sank into the warm water. It felt so nice and soothed any soreness her muscles had gained from sleeping curled up in the window the night before. She was careful to keep her hands above the water however, wary of getting the bandages wet. Narcissa quickly took care of that however, and with a quick spell had airtight bubbles around both hands.
As Ada-beth let her body fully relax, Narcissa carefully and gently wet her niece's dark hair and began to work shampoo into it. By the time she rinsed out the shampoo, Ada-beth’s eyes were half closed and she was completely asleep before Narcissa had rinsed out the conditioner. Moving carefully and gently, Narcissa pulled her niece from the tub and dried her off with a spell and clothed her with another. Ada didn’t stir once, exhausted from a poor night's sleep and so Narcissa chose to skip the braiding of hair for putting her niece straight to bed. Right before she left, she turned on the monitor charm that would let the nearest person know when the child would awake. Ada slept soundly, tucked beneath her yellow quilt.