Comments | aww_rpg: A Not-So-Promising Breakfast...

scarlettsdesire in aww_rpg

A Not-So-Promising Breakfast...

Mar 08, 2008 22:48

After Draco had not been at dinner, Scarlett had had a rather unexpected visitor. Appearing in her suite, Tippy, Draco's most personal elf, had relayed a message from her husband. He'd had an exhausting day, which was not so unusual; but what had caught her attention, even in the emotionless tone of the elf, was the suggestion in the remainder of ( Read more... )

morning, draco, scarlett, harry, rp, severus, draco's bedroom, complete, malfoy manor

Comments 111

hjp_saviour March 8 2008, 23:34:09 UTC

Harry was not yet dressed, and when Tippy told him the Mistress had requested he come help Draco, he nodded but darted back upstairs, taking the clean clothes nearest to hand. He pulled on a jumper and mismatched socks, left a note for Ginny, and on a hunch took the potions text with him as he popped through the Floo.

"Scarlett?" Harry called out, rapping on the open doorway between bathroom and bedroom. It was the merest nod to politeness as he did not break his stride. "Draco?" he asked in his loudest not-a-shout, reaching the bed and shaking his shoulder. He looked past the unconscious man to his wife. He couldn't help but see that even now, she was beautiful. And in great distress. Draco's kiss of the night before popped into his mind with a new layer of disbelief attached, and he shoved it right back out again. "What happened?" he asked, moderating his tone.

scarlettsdesire March 8 2008, 23:41:21 UTC

"I don't know," Scarlett said, relief flooding through her at the sight of Harry. "Draco asked me to join him this morning. I came in a few minutes ago and he won't wake up." Her tears were evident in her voice, and her eyes pleaded with Harry for answers.

"Draco's a terrible sleeper...he wouldn't sleep like this unless something was wrong. I called for Tippy and Draco told her to fetch you if he was having a nightmare."

hjp_saviour March 8 2008, 23:45:56 UTC

Harry nodded thoughtfully. "He had something of a waking nightmare yesterday, and I was able to talk him out of it. And he was worried about getting trapped in it again, so I said Tippy could call for me. But this...." He stared at Scarlett, then at the elf. "Have you seen this before, either of you?"

scarlettsdesire March 8 2008, 23:52:51 UTC

Still puzzling over the idea of Draco having a waking nightmare, of being trapped in one, of being scared of becoming trapped again, Scarlett didn't respond before Tippy did.

"No, Mr Potter, Sir, Tippy has never seen this. Master Draco is very easy to wake..."

Scarlett nodded, looking from the elf as she stopped talking, back to Harry. "I've never seen this either," her breath quickening, she spoke again, "What's happening? I don't understand any of this!"

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scarlettsdesire March 9 2008, 01:17:49 UTC

"Scarlett Malfoy," she confirmed with a nod of her head. "I wish it were under more pleasant circumstances that we had made our acquaintance, but being what it is, please forgive me the rush."

She couldn't help but wonder, even as her mind whirled, just what it was that Draco had told the other man about her.

"I don't believe it's a potion, though I can't be sure. He has never been like this, not once, not even when we were first married and life was so much more difficult." She shook her head, walking closer to Draco and rest her hand on his head, feeling the nothingness that came from him. "And yesterday he was trapped in a waking nightmare, a delusion if you will, and Harry snapped him out of it. It would be too coincidental..."

hjp_saviour March 9 2008, 01:25:05 UTC

Harry chimed in. "He was quite overcome by delusions yesterday, which he said were very like what Andromeda must experience under the curse he's been trying to treat. He ended up in the Manor room Bellatrix used to occupy, though he had no idea where he was. He sent me a Patronus messenger. A house elf and I got him out. But then he realised that room might be the hiding spot for the book he's been looking for which Bellatrix would have used to cast the curse. We undid her booby traps and got it. It's right there." Harry indicated the foot of the bed where he'd left it.

Snape obviously had several questions on the tip of his tongue, but Harry wanted to give him a complete answer first. "And at least when he first went to sleep, he had taken no Dreamless Sleep and did not plan to. He was afraid of being trapped in delusions, though, so we arranged that Tippy would check on him periodically and Floo for me if he seemed to be having nightmares." He frowned and looked down at Draco. Not nightmares exactly, but he certainly looked unhappy

painted_snape March 9 2008, 01:32:09 UTC

Severus wanted to snarl at the man in the bed. Foolish boy. Had grown up very little in the intervening years. In too many ways. But he had two main concerns. "Just to be sure, before we jump to any conclusions," he said in a low voice. "Check the corners of his mouth for any hint of the potion and his tongue for excessive purpleness."

He sighed and settled his robes. "But you are right, madam. It would be quite a coincidence for the cause to be other than something related to the curse. It was well within Bellatrix's twisted logic to potentially destroy her entire family line. But please do not be too hysterical yet." Not that Mrs. Malfoy looked at all hysterical. "It is possible he is suffering sympathetic effects, and not the curse itself. Much like if one witnesses someone vomiting and then experiences nausea. The book..." He longed to hold it in his hands, to page through it! "May hold the answers."

noir_malfoy March 9 2008, 01:35:18 UTC

( ... )

Thread 16

scarlettsdesire March 9 2008, 23:27:28 UTC

Scarlett hurried back to the bedroom from the lab, refusing to let her mind focus on the problems ahead, or the very real risk that none of them could do anything and they would just have to wait it out.

Her mind blank, Scarlett had picked up what had been requested, sparing a quick wish that it did indeed help, and rushed back.

Arriving at the bedroom, she could see Harry and the Professor poring over the text. "I have it," she annouced as soon as she entered. She went over to them, showing them both the small sample.

painted_snape March 9 2008, 23:33:16 UTC

"Excellent, Mrs. Malfoy. May I call you Scarlett?" Severus asked. The poor woman. Draco couldn't have been easy to live with, not given what he'd said to Severus so far. At least the Valentine's Day exertions had gone satisfactorily. Draco had revealed that much. "Just separate his lips if you can, and half a teaspoon. He needn't swallow, just get it on his gums."

scarlettsdesire March 10 2008, 00:11:23 UTC

Scarlett nodded. She moved over to Draco, saying as she went, "Please do call me Scarlett." It was absent-minded, but she was sincere.

She opened Draco's mouth, her fingers trembling on his skin as she did. She placed the measured amount on his tongue and rubbed the spoon over his teeth and gums, hoping both would take effect quite quickly.

"Is that right, Professor?" she asked nervously, wanting to do all she could.

hjp_saviour March 10 2008, 00:13:52 UTC

Harry looked up from the book, anxious for the potion to get a response--really, any response would do. But he wasn't exactly hopeful. The more he'd thought about Andromeda's curse the night before, the more he realised exactly how cruel it could be. And now Draco...

Thread 14

scarlettsdesire March 10 2008, 15:07:34 UTC

Sure that Severus was getting somewhere, Scarlett left him to argue it out with Harry. Her priority, her attention, was all for her husband ( ... )

painted_snape March 10 2008, 16:36:06 UTC

"This book is a bloody damnable pain," Severus said, drawing his wand and attempting a charm. Nothing happened, of course. "It's a wonder Bellatrix even understood any of it with her mind in the state that it was."

He read on, wondering if Potter were absorbing any of it at all, or if his mind were elsewhere. The set of eyes it might have been most helpful to have looking over the text with him, of course, was closed in cursed slumber. Bloody hell.

hjp_saviour March 10 2008, 16:43:55 UTC

"Did you want me to cast something?" Harry asked, looking between the book and the painting. The text was impossibly dense, and, judging by how long it had been since Snape had asked for a page to be turned, Harry wasn't the only one who found it so. He read anyway, trying to understand... and trying to give Scarlett a bit of privacy.

He wondered, though, whether he should take a turn at talking to Draco. ... time enough for that if she tired.

scarlettsdesire March 10 2008, 16:50:10 UTC

Scarlett wondered what on earth was going through his mind as he lay there, what sort of horrors were plaguing his every moment...

Her throat tight and her eyes stinging, she looked back over at Harry and Severus, hoping for distraction. "Is there anything useful?" she asked, not wanting to be a bother, but wanting to be as involved as she could, "Is there anything I can do? Beauxbaton's and my parents home in Belgium have some rather obscure texts...?" she offered. Her hand was tight around Draco's, trying to let him know that she was here, that she wasn't planning on leaving him alone with this curse.

Thread 17

hjp_saviour March 10 2008, 23:29:13 UTC

"You're right: if it does work there's no reason not to tell her. You're so sure it will?" Harry said sharply. "I was telling her the truth, you know... I've not done this before." Next time? Whatever... it didn't matter right now.

Dismissing Snape from his mind, he perched on the side of the bed. He knew Draco had some kind of attraction to him. He knew they'd forged a friendship in, really, a surprisingly short amount of time considering... all their past. Was that enough? Which of them had to care, and how, for this to work? Surely if friendship, caring, were enough, Scarlett's kiss would have worked.

He frowned, then gingerly ran his fingertips through Draco's hair to cup the back of his head. His face was so still. Not restful. Just... still. Harry wanted very much for that to change. He wanted Draco safe and well. He realised it went far beyond 'saving people'. He wanted Draco to be safe and well. And despite the uncomfortable consequences if this were to work, he would do his best to see that he was.

( ... )

noir_malfoy March 10 2008, 23:37:04 UTC

( ... )

hjp_saviour March 10 2008, 23:47:16 UTC

"Yes," Harry said softly. "We tried--" But Draco was already sleeping again, it seemed. He stroked Draco's hair once, ruefully. This was not something from a Saturday visit that they could pretend hadn't happened. Not at all.

"I'll be back," he promised Snape as he left--and Draco, if he could hear it. He called Tippy and asked her to lead him to Scarlett. The elf took him to a closed door. Harry made sure he was in no way rumpled, and knocked several times, softly.

"Scarlett?" Presumptuous indeed. He was sure he was demoted to "Mr. Potter" at absolute best.

scarlettsdesire March 10 2008, 23:52:56 UTC

Scarlett heard the knocking at the door and ignored it. When she heard her name, she sighed and opened the door with a wave of her wand.

"Is he awake?" she asked dully. "Did true loves kiss work?" She refused to look at him, instead she stared at her reflection in the mirror, contemplating whether she could face a few weeks at home with her parents; parents who had warned her what seemed a hundred years ago that no good would come of her marrying a Malfoy. They were right, but in the last way she or they had ever expected.

Thread 16