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Bloody But Unbowed	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 36009 -:- Recommendations : 3 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or movies. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 1
- 2
- 3
Thank you again for all the reviews!

Chapter Two�Calmness Is
a Virtue

�� Um. Ginny?�
Ron shook his head a moment later, however, and crunched through the chicken
and ham sandwich he was eating, vigorously enough so that small bits of meat
flew in several different directions. �No, it can�t be. I would have had a
letter from Mum wailing that I needed to come down to St. Mungo�s before now.�
He swallowed, stood up, and reached to take another sandwich from the plate
that was poised precariously on the nearby table between two red candles with
bright golden tassels. �So I reckon you�re right, mate, and I give up. I don�t
know which patient you could have and not want to treat.�

�� Harry
leaned back against the wall, nursing his single sandwich and trying not to
grin at the way Ron was contentedly plowing through his second one. This room
behind Weasleys� Wizarding Wheezes was the testing and storage room for
products that weren�t ready to release to the public yet, and it was so filled
with candles, biscuits, powders, vials, and jars of threatening shapes and
sizes and colors that Harry was just waiting for the day when Ron bit into one
of his products into his lunch. �Lucius Malfoy,� he answered.

�� Ron inhaled
a large chunk of chicken and began coughing. Harry flicked his wand and cast a
handy charm that he�d used more than once when a patient was startled by news
of what disease he had just as he was drinking a potion. Ron sighed in relief
as the chicken dissolved into thin liquid and ran down his throat, but demanded
immediately, �What? And you didn�t refuse?�

�� The man�s
in pain from a dark curse that he knows the origin of but not how to cure,�
Harry said. �What was I supposed to say? �This is my chance for revenge ten
years too late?�� He envisioned Lucius standing in the Department of Mysteries,
but the thought of Sirius could only bring him a dull ache. He�d had his share
of nightmares and mourning, but he had to get over that, just as he�d had to
get over losing Ginny. The day when he looked at her and realized he couldn�t
be passionate about her unless someone else was chasing her was a dull ache,
too. �I�m a mediwizard, and��

�� Should
have been a Healer,� Ron said stubbornly. He eyed his sandwich mistrustfully,
then took another bite. He mumbled through the resulting mouthful, but Harry
had some experience in understanding that language. �You know more about how to
heal nicks and cuts and spattergroit and poisoning than half the Healers in
hospital.�

�� They did
allow me to sit the NEWTS a second time,� Harry reminded him, smiling a little
at the look of indignation on his friend�s face. Ron�s fundamental character
trait was an inability to get over anything
he felt was morally wrong. Harry was
glad he had a friend whom rage didn�t exhaust. �And I only got an Acceptable on
the Potions practical that time, too.�

�� A Healer
isn�t all Potions skills.�

�� But it�s a
big part of the job. And that exam tests other skills, too, like your
concentration.� Harry rubbed his face; he�d been up late last night listening
to Emptyweed�s complaints and threats about the Malfoy case, and in a short
while he would have to go back to that. The man was tireless in the worst way. �I�m
still best when I can attend to my patients in short bursts of time and attention
rather than spending hours with them.�

�� I�d want
you to treat me before that horror you�re saddled with, mate.�

�� Harry
clapped Ron�s shoulder and ate the last bit of his sandwich, then took a swig
from the glass of pumpkin juice standing beside him�first taking a careful
glance to make sure it hadn�t picked up any yellow or pink debris from the stack
of pastilles on the other side. �Thanks. That means a lot.� And it did; Harry
sometimes doubted he would have got through the last few years if not for his
friends. He swallowed the last of the pumpkin juice and stood up, dusting off
his cloak.

�� Did you
see the ferret?� Ron asked.

�� Yes.�
Harry rolled his eyes. �It�s still Hogwarts as far as he�s concerned. He wants
me to cure his father, but he thinks I need to be threatened into it, and he
doesn�t seem to understand that throwing a hex at my back is not the best idea
these days.�

�� Which one
did he get stung with?� Ron looked as gleeful as a second-year.

�� Just a
simple Stinging Hex, I think.� Ron made a face. Harry clapped his shoulder
again. �I promise, if he does anything else amusing, I�ll tell you, but I�d
rather focus on treating his father.�

�� A pity he
couldn�t have been swallowed up by that diary,� Ron said, eyes hard.

�� Harry
nodded. Like Ron, he found it harder to forgive Lucius for hurting Ginny with the
diary than for being in the Department of Mysteries when Sirius was killed.
What kind of man would hand a Dark artifact to an eleven-year-old girl, even
the daughter of a family he didn�t particularly like? Mr. Weasley had never had
a good word for Lucius Malfoy that Harry had heard, but he couldn�t imagine him
attacking Draco.

�� As a child, at least. He might be fair game
now.

�� I�ll have
all the horror stories you could wish for in the next few weeks,� he said, and
waved to Ron as he walked towards the door from the storage room.

�� It�ll take
that long to cure the bastard?� Ron�s voice was filled with revulsion.

�� Harry glanced
back over his shoulder and nodded. �I think so. I recognize the general outline
of the curse�it�s a combination of a Cutting Curse and a Permanency Spell�but that
combination shouldn�t open cut after cut and then heal portions of them. It
should simply keep on tearing wider and wider wounds until the victim drops dead,
but that would take a long time, thanks to the Permanency Spell.�

�� Ron
shuddered and turned green. �Someone has to know about these things, I reckon,�
he muttered. �I also reckon I�m glad that it�s not me.�

�� Harry waved
as he slipped out the door. His watch said he would be late if he didn�t hurry,
as much as he would have liked to stay and tease Ron about his skittishness
with medical details. �Give my love to Hermione, and tell her that Kreacher
will be cooking our dinner tonight.�

�� Harry, you
know she hates that��

�� Sorry,
what was that, Ron?� Harry asked, over the din of customers in the outer part
of the shop. �I didn�t quite hear you.� He shut the door, grinning, and
threaded his way to the front, nodding at George on the way. George nodded back
without taking his eyes off the red-haired toddler in front of him who was making
a top spin. It was amazing to Harry that George could run the shop and take
care of Bill and Fleur�s son Louis at the same time, but Bill and Fleur trusted
him, and there�d never been an accident.

�� Besides, it
was good for George�s mind to be as occupied as possible.

�� Harry
closed the door softly behind him, checked his watch one more time, cursed
beneath his breath, and Apparated.

*

�� I doubt
you can tell me anything about Mr. Smythe I do not already know,� Lucius remarked,
leaning back on his pillows. Harry hid a smile. The man already looked better�it
was probably easier to sleep and eat when one didn�t have to worry about a cut
opening through one�s heart at any moment�and of course that meant he sounded
more arrogant. �He accused me of raping his daughter. That is patently untrue,
but he believes it, and it gives him motivation to work extra malice into the
curse.�

�� Why is
your raping his daughter impossible?� Harry asked as he checked the notes
Hermione had owled. She might have come to visit him herself, but work at the
Ministry was keeping her as busy as always. �Because you can�t rape the
willing?�

�� There was a
pause. Harry knew Lucius was staring at him. He failed to see why this should
make him look up, especially as he had studied these notes late last night,
just before he fell asleep, and he wanted to make sure he was remembering
things correctly. Both Lucius and Emptyweed would make him pay for a mistake.
At least neither Narcissa nor Malfoy were here to badger him further.

�� Because I
have never had sex with anyone except my wife,� Lucius said at last, in a
chilly tone.

�� And she�s
probably never had sex with anyone except you,� Harry said, and clucked his
tongue as he looked up in mock concern. �Both of you virgins the first time?
That�s always painful, and never fun.�

�� You speak
from experience, I trust.� Lucius hissed out the words, leaning forwards in his
bed, his hand twitching. Harry could read his wish for a wand as vividly as
though he had actually mastered Legilimency.

�� Oh, yes,�
Harry said, stepping forwards and frowning down at the cut on Lucius�s chest.
It had continued to expand, though slowly, and though thanks to his
stabilization spells, he knew it would only cut through flesh and muscle and
not through a vital organ. �Try being a virgin the first time you have sex with
your girlfriend when your notion of sex is still vague enough to be �feels good�
and her notion of sex is vague because everyone thought she didn�t need to know,
as the youngest girl in a family of boys. Both embarrassing and painful.�

��

�� Lucius was
silent for some time. Harry kept his eyes off his face as he studied the
dimensions of the cut. A new hypothesis occurred to him, and he nodded to
himself. The expansion of the cut didn�t make much sense if it was only the
combination of the Cutting Curse and the Permanency Spell as he had thought it
was, but a third spell could easily have been cast, masked under the first two.
Lucius would have dismissed any effects he felt from it as further side-effects
of the first unknown curse. Now Harry only had to discover what that third
spell was.

�� You are
quite an unusual mediwizard, Mr. Potter,� Lucius said at last, in a voice
drained of all expression. �Do you have conversations like this with all your
patients?�

�� No,� Harry
said, meeting his eyes this time. Lucius�s were narrowed, studying him as if he
were looking down a Muggle microscope. �Only the ones who need it.�

�� I have no
need to be insulted.� It was only too obvious what tone Malfoy had been trying
to imitate in school, Harry thought. He�d never heard so much cold, curdled
pride tucked into so few words.

�� It takes
your mind off what you�re suffering and finds a target for your anger and
frustration,� Harry said. �That�s especially important in a situation like
this, where otherwise you might spend too much time thinking about your
helplessness and stress yourself further�or do something desperate. If you can
be angry with me for petty insults, it might also prevent you from thinking too
much about our shared past.�

�� Lucius was
once again silent whilst Harry tested his pulse, listened to his breathing, and
cast the diagnostic spell that was a series of silvery frogs. This time, when
the large frog turned into a pool of water and the cool voice spoke in his
head, the news was more cheerful. Malice
field stabilized. Pain lessened. Chances of survival increased.

�� You could
not have known me well enough to realize I would need such a thing,� Lucius
said at last, his voice muffled.

�� I have
known people like you,� Harry said. �I haven�t had to treat someone who tried
to kill me before�� he smiled serenely back at the look of outrage on Lucius�s
face ��but I�ve had to treat people who thought I was mad, or on the way to
becoming a Dark Lord myself, or who despised me for not doing something more
with my celebrity. The combination that suits you is absolute honesty about
myself, so you can despise me if you like, combined with petty stings that keep
your mind focused on the present.�

�� Clever,�
said Lucius. His tone was utterly inflectionless, and Harry couldn�t tell if it
was sarcasm or not. He decided to accept it as a compliment, since he received
few of those on a day-to-day basis.

�� Thank you,�
Harry said, and glanced one more time at the notes Hermione had sent him. �Smythe
did refuse Veritaserum, but one of the Aurors presented himself as a scholar in
esoteric magic and pretended such admiration for the spell he cast that Smythe talked
to him.� His smile would have twisted if he was having this conversation three
years in the past. He knew exactly how well Julius Adoranar could lie. �The
curse is one he took from a book but modified extensively, which makes this
harder. And the Auror who questioned him reported that it didn�t have exactly
the effect he intended. He wanted it to open multiple painful wounds, including
ones through your major organs, but keep you alive. That was part of the point
of the malice field.�

�� And why
did it fail?� Lucius still spoke without emotion.

�� That�s
what I�m trying to figure out.� Harry spoke without fear. He�d had a few
patients he couldn�t give any bad news to because they would immediately panic
and injure themselves with their flailing about, but he knew Lucius had endured
worse things. �My best guess at the moment is that Smythe also cast a third
spell buried under the two that seem obvious, and that spell didn�t go exactly as
he planned.�

�� Your best
guess,� said a voice from the door.

�� Harry
glanced that way, glad he hadn�t been holding a delicate potions vial, but more
irritated with himself for not hearing the footsteps than at the person who
spoke. He ought to be more watchful. Some
of the tactics he used to handle such patients as Lucius could get him sacked
on the spot if the wrong person overheard. �Yes,� he replied. �I can�t be sure
as yet, and I won�t commit myself to some definite claim without proof.�

�� Malfoy
swaggered into the room, his gaze fixed on Harry. That gaze was more
calculating than it had been last night, and Harry wondered if he had seen the
man�s worst face then. Harry doubted he would have been a model of calm and
graciousness himself if he had just seen his father cursed. If he had a father,
anyway.

�� I thought
you would have made the claim by now,� Malfoy continued. �I�ve been talking to
some of the other mediwizards. They say it�s almost supernatural, how swiftly
you make a diagnosis.�

�� In most
cases where I can do that, I�m dealing with known spells or diseases,� Harry
said. Calmness is a virtue, said
Healer Pontiff�s voice in his head. It
encourages your patients to remember they are real people, not simply victims,
and it keeps you grounded. Harry was determined not to lose his temper with
Malfoy again, especially a Malfoy who had managed to speak four sentences
without saying something actively offensive.
�In this case, there�s a modified spell plus�I believe�a third one. It will
take some time to figure out what has gone wrong and what consequences that
wrongness will have. It would take some time even with the book in front of me.�

�� Malfoy
stared at him, then snorted and turned away from Harry as if he didn�t exist,
gazing at his father. His face softened when he did, Harry noted. That
satisfied Harry. He didn�t have to fear that Malfoy�s visits would only be a
source of extra stress for Lucius. �And how do you feel?� he asked quietly.

�� Harry moved
towards the door of the room so that they could have some privacy for their
conversation. Then he wished he hadn�t, because he caught a glimpse of a white
robe and realized Emptyweed had been lurking in the corridor, waiting for a
chance to speak to him.

�� No one ever got anywhere by hiding from
their troubles. That wasn�t Healer Pontiff�s advice, but a bit Harry had
come up with on his own. He stepped out and shut the door. �Yes?� he asked
simply. Hard for even Emptyweed to find much disrespect in a single word.

�� How are
you progressing with the case, Mediwizard
Potter?� Emptyweed demanded, leaning near enough that Harry suffered a momentary
delusion the man�s eyes would leap at him like the frogs of the diagnosis
spell.

�� Harry hid a
sigh. Of course Emptyweed had found the disrespect in the single word after
all; Harry had forgotten his title. �I�ve identified a potential answer for the
strangeness of the curse�s effect, Healer,� he said, and didn�t even give the
word much more emphasis than it deserved. �A few more days� study should enable
me to identify the third spell involved, and a few more days after that will
tell me how to part the Cutting Curse and the Permanency Spell that,
intertwined, are causing most of the trouble at the moment.�

�� A week,
perhaps?� Emptyweed leaned nearer, and Harry had to work to keep from reaching
up and turning his nose aside simply so it wouldn�t poke him in the forehead. �I
could give you a week.�

�� Give me one?� Harry asked. Even
Emptyweed didn�t normally try to hurry the speed with which Harry worked; if he
wanted to take credit for the healing Harry performed, he needed good results. �This
will take as long as it takes, Healer, as it does with all the cases we have on
the Spell Damage ward.�

�� There are
elements in hospital who want Lucius Malfoy gone now,� Emptyweed said, and leaned even nearer. Harry canted his head
to the side so that the dangerous nose would pass him by; he was not about to
take a step backwards when Emptyweed would make capital out of it. �Some of
them believe he should never have been admitted. I can give you the week I told
you about. After that, I can�t promise your patient�s comfort or safety.�

�� Harry
grimaced. In part because of all the other cases Emptyweed had piled on him, in
part because of his social life, in part because he still tried to study when
he could and learn about the more complicated spells and tricks Healers used,
he relied on other people to bring his patients food, enforce visiting hours,
and clean their rooms. Anxious, angry attendants could make things more uncomfortable
for Lucius than a Healer could.

�� Tell me
who they are, Healer,� he said. �I think I can�dissuade them.�

�� Emptyweed
stepped back, his arms dropping to his sides and stiffening. �I don�t know what
you think this place is, Potter,� he said with great dignity. �But to me, it is St. Mungo�s Hospital, and I
won�t have you lording your name over other people simply to get your own way.�

�� Protecting
a patient��

�� Is a task
for a full Healer, and not a mere mediwizard. You have a week,� Emptyweed
repeated in flat tones, and swept off up the corridor.

�� Harry
contemplated throwing away his loose black mediwizard�s robe and storming
through hospital shouting obscenities. That ought to get him sacked fairly
quickly. Or perhaps he could do himself in by banging his head against the wall
and somehow manage to place the blame on Emptyweed.

�� But as
always after his first seconds of violent fantasy, he pulled himself back to
the present. He was a mediwizard, and that was an honor, if not as much of an
honor as to be a full Healer (as Emptyweed would remind him). He had overcome
worse things than this before. He was not a helpless child, and he was not a
sulky teenager anymore, who screamed and threw accusations because not
everything went exactly his way. He would make
things work, because that was possible if you wanted them to badly enough.

�� He stepped
back into the room. Malfoy flicked him a hostile look. Harry ignored him and
spoke directly to Lucius, who was sitting up and scanning him gravely. �I just
received a warning from my immediate superior. There are certain people who don�t
want you here and might well attack you.�

�� And you�d
simply let them, is that it?� Malfoy�s hand dropped to his robe pocket.

�� Don�t be
more of an idiot than you can help,� Harry told him. Yes, calmness was a
virtue, but better he vent his feelings with a petty insult than explode from
trying to keep them in. �This is a matter of practicality, Mr. Malfoy,� he
said, turning his head towards the bed and making it very clear that he was
addressing Lucius and not his son. �I have other patients and can�t spend every
hour here with you. I also can�t guarantee that I�ll have the curse reversed in
a week, which is the time span of safety my superior gave me. I won�t hurry it
and possibly hurt you. Nor do I have the authority to set up wards around your
room. If I tried, someone would find out and use that as an excuse to have me
removed from your case.�

�� Lucius
nodded shortly.

�� What do
you think the best solution is?� Harry finished. �Can you arrange protection on
your own? Is there someone you want me to contact?�

�� I can take
time away from my training,� Malfoy said softly. Harry shot a look at him and
saw his face open, his hand almost trembling as he rested it on his father�s
shoulder. �I�m still a year away from my mastery, you know that, and I�m at a
point where pausing my studies won�t hurt me.�

�� I would
not want you to have to live in hospital, Draco, when I am the one who is sick,� said Lucius.

�� I want to,�
Malfoy said earnestly, and Harry felt his throat close up. This scene wasn�t
very different from some of the ones he�d seen play out in the Burrow,
especially just after Fred died and everyone was volunteering to sit up with
George, to play chess with him, or to walk with him and make sure he didn�t go
near brooms or high cliffs. �Please say you�ll allow it? You know Mother isn�t
as good with the sight of potential death as I am.�

�� Harry
frowned�mentioning potential death was not something he would have done, at
least not without more details to comfort his patient�but Lucius had already
nodded.

�� I have one
condition, then,� Harry said. Malfoy sneered at him; Lucius looked politely
attentive, which was enough for Harry. �I insist on some respect from you,
Draco.� Malfoy looked a little startled that Harry had dared to address him by
his first name. �If you�re continually questioning me in the midst of delicate
operations and insulting me, you�ll take up valuable time I could be using to
cure your father.�

�� Malfoy opened
his mouth. Because Harry was watching closely and thought he had some idea of
how their family dynamics worked, he saw the warning finger Lucius pressed into
his son�s wrist.

�� Malfoy
bowed his head a moment later. �I don�t promise not to ask questions at all,�
he muttered sulkily.

�� Reasonable
questions are fine,� said Harry. �Unreasonable ones can wait.� He smiled at
Malfoy. Why not? He had got what he wanted.

�� Malfoy�s
mouth dropped open, and he blinked. Harry raised an eyebrow. He obviously doesn�t see enough sincere
smiles directed at him. I wonder why that could be?

�� He turned
to Lucius. �Combined with what you told me yesterday about Smythe and the Aurors�
report, I�m confident his motive was revenge. We know he wanted your death to
be painful and lingering. That gives me a few ideas about what spell he could have
used. I�ll return tomorrow and let you know what I�ve found.�

�� Thank you,
Mr. Potter,� Lucius murmured. He was using the same keen gaze he had when Harry
insulted him. �You have proven yourself more competent than I could have dreamed.�

�� You
dreamed about me often?� Harry raised an eyebrow at him, grinned, and then
turned away.

�� Malfoy�s
face had darkened into a scowl again, he noted on the way. He probably thought
any flirtatious remarks addressed to his father entirely inappropriate. As long
as he kept his promise not to interfere in Lucius�s treatment, Harry didn�t
particularly care.

�� He could acknowledge
that they�d got off on the wrong foot yesterday. Malfoy had been concerned
about his father. Harry had judged him more than was warranted; he was a
worried idiot, not an idiot plain and simple. Worried idiots, he could work
with.

�� If only because they don�t receive their
fair share of pity.

*

�� js: Thank
you! This story does have a pretty well-defined plot, and won�t be that long
compared to some of my others, so I think you�ll like the path.

�� Jilliane:
Thank you! As you can see, Draco is deeper than he initially seemed (though
Harry still has the more adult attitude to life in general, because he�s had to
go through more disappointments). The relationship with Lucius of mutual trust
and respect will also come more easily to Harry than the bond with Draco will.

Harry�s made a lot of mistakes. The most important thing to
him is moving past them, now, rather than not making them.

�� Thrnbrooke:
Thanks!

�� Black
Padfoot: Thank you! I hope the story lives up to expectations.

�� LexieMalfoy:
Thanks for reviewing!

avihenda: I will! This one is a WiP
now, like the others.

��

Mangacat: Thank you! And who knows?
Even Emptyweed may turn out to be deeper than he seems.

SP777: Happy birthday!

Well, the stories I�ve written so
far about Healers only have Draco in that position, so I wanted to try
something else. And I don�t think I�ve seen a story yet where Harry has to
treat Lucius instead of Draco.

Christabell: Thank you! Originally
I did plan to have this be a one-shot, but I don�t think I could have packed
the relationship I wanted into 25,000 words or so.

yuzuhira27: Thank you! Draco has
been a privileged person for the last seven years, really, while Harry has had
to struggle, so he knows more about what it�s like to get along with people you
don�t like much.

Yume111: Thank you! No, in this
case, it will be from Harry�s POV only, so Draco is more opaque.

And you�re right. Harry does wish
things had worked out better, that he�d been able to marry Ginny, have children
with her, and become a full Healer. But he�s quietly contented with what he
has, if not happy.

Lucius is reserving judgment about
Harry so far.

feltonslover: Thank you! I hope you
continue to enjoy it.

hachan: Thanks for reviewing!
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Bloody But Unbowed