Broomsticks and the Big Apple

Broomsticks and The Big Apple

Chapter 15

“With just one day ‘till Christmas, Scorpius and Persephone’s love was true, but with chattering teeth and fevers, they both caught the flu.”

“Which side of the bed do you like Scorpius?” Persephone asked, trying to sound sophisticated, like she imagined a married to be.

“I dunno, I kinda just sprawl out everywhere,” he said stripping all his clothes off and dropping them in a heap on the floor. Persephone’s mouth fell open.

“Scorpius, what are you doing?”

“I’m getting into bed, babe. “

“Yeah, but you’re… naked.”

“I know. I sleep naked.”

“Oh, I see. Well, I don’t sleep naked.” Persephone grabbed her nightgown and closed the bathroom door. When she came out, Scorpius was ready and waiting for her, his chest peeking out from under the covers, his arms behind his head and a sexy smirk playing over his face.

“I don’t know why you bothered changing. I’m just going to take them all off, as soon as you get into bed.” Persephone sat on the bed nervously, tapping her foot on the floor and biting her fingernail.

“So, you want to….do it, then?”

“It’s out wedding night sweetness. Of course I want to do it. Don’t you?” Scorpius sat up and tried to pull his wife back into the bed with him, but she resisted.

“I’m not sure I’m ready Scorps. I mean, I thought I was but…” Scorpius fell back against the pillow and let out a loud sigh. “Now you’re mad at me?”She asked.

“I’m not mad at you babe. Come on, let’s go to bed. We don’t have to do it tonight if you really don’t want to.” Persephone crawled into bed at that and turned the light out. She was nervous and while she didn’t want to go all the way with Scorpius, (or maybe she did, she herself was not sure) she did want to hold and kiss her husband. Husband? The words were too strange to fathom. A panic started to set in as she remembered taking her vows and slipping the rings on each other’s fingers. It seemed so right at the time, but now? Now she worried she had made a mistake. Just about the time she started thinking she was going to hyperventilate and pass out with worry, Scorpius rolled over on top of her and kissed her.

“I love you wife. You are the most beautiful witch in the whole world and you’re mine.” With those words, Persephone remembered why she married Scorpius. He was strong and sexy and he made her feel like a queen. She felt safe in his arms and she loved his sense of humor. The more she thought about it, the more she realized that she loved everything about him. Except the snoring…Scorpius had fallen off to sleep, sprawled all over her and was snoring like a mountain troll. She rolled him over on his side and then drifted off to sleep herself.

“No, don’t take her from me!” Scorpius moaned in his sleep. Persephone turned the light on and roused Scorpius.

“Why is it so cold in here? I’m bloody freezing!” Scorpius said through chattering teeth.

“You were dreaming,” she said laying a hand on his forehead. He looked paler then usual and his brow was sweating. “Baby you have a fever. I think you have a bug or something.”

“Go wake Luke. Potion…he has one for the flu,” Scorpius pointed and in his weakened state, he fell back against the bed.

“I’ll wake Luke. It’s going to be okay Scorps. I’ll take care of you.” Persephone walked down the hall of the cabin. The carpeting in the upstairs was a hideous orange shag, but it was warm under her feet. She knocked on Luke’s door, but nobody answered. Frantic, she knocked a little louder. Scorpius was burning up. He didn’t just have a little fever, no, his entire body was on fire. His skin was hot to the touch and he had been delirious in his sleep, no doubt dreaming of Dale taking Persephone away. She shuddered at the thought of her stepfather and thanked Merlin that she was safe with Scorpius and his family. Still no answer at Luke’s door and Persephone walked into Luke’s room. The bed was empty. She spun around, intent on gong back to her husband, when she ran smack into Hermione.

“Oh, you scared me! I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you. Scorpius is sick. He’s burning up with fever.” Hermione turned on her heels and bounded into their room. He may be married, but he’s only fifteen years old and married or not, she was still his mother.

“Mum, I feel awful,” Scorpius wailed. “I need a potion.” Hermione went to the bathroom and brought back several cold, wet towels and placed them on her son’s head and neck and chest. She hid her eyes as she pulled back the blankets and covered him with only a thin sheet, before grabbing a watchful Persephone by the arm and dragging her with her. The girl seemed confused as to why Hermione was dragging her back into Luke’s room. Hermione took a quill and scrawled a quick note, passing it to her.

Watch and learn. You have to take care of my son now, and simple potions such cold and flu are elementary for all wives and mother’s to know. And stop looking at me like that. I’m not mad at you for marrying my son...daughter.

Persephone, folded the paper after reading it and smiled warmly at Hermione. Hermione set to work making the potion. Dandelion root and eucalyptus oil and several other common ingredients. She stirred it twice clockwise and then once counterclockwise and then dropped a throat lozenge into the potion. The concoction turned red and then she poured it into a cup and handed it to Persephone. Persephone smiled and thanked Hermione and set off towards their bedroom again. Hermione tugged the girl backwards again and began to write on the parchment again.

He has to drink this once every hour for six hours. Goodnight!

Hermione waved and smirked at the girl and then went back to bed. Where were Draco and Luke? Hermione hadn’t wanted to worry Persephone, as she had her hands full with Scorpius’s influenza, but Hermione was worried. Draco hadn’t said anything about going out and as she crept back to bed, she saw Narcissa sitting by the fire in a rocking chair, reading a romance novel. She hid the book when Hermione approached.

“Yes, you’re up too, I see. Lucius is also gone. I sometimes wonder why on earth I married into this family,” Narcissa whispered. Hermione nodded in agreement. She really did like Narcissa Malfoy. She hoped that Persephone would one day feel that way about her. She would have to remind herself not to over step her boundaries. True, they were still kids and needed some looking after, but Hermione knew she was doing the right thing by showing Persephone how to brew the potion on her own. It would help their relationship to grow. She knew Scorpius and Persephone hadn’t considered all of the facets of marriage, but like it or not, they were about to get a crash course on marriage 101. Sickness was just one of the many events you don’t consider, when you take that ‘for better or worse vow’. Hermione smiled at that. Draco had proven that he would love her no matter what her ailment. He loved her despite her not being able to speak. She secretly wished though, that she could tell him from her heart how much she truly appreciated him.

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They stood silently on the pavement of the back alley, outside the Auror’s station. It was cold and Draco raised his collar and hunched his shoulders, with his hands in his pockets in order to keep warm. Lucius, was going to bail Nathaniel out of jail. That was the plan. Draco felt something hard and square in his pocket and he pulled out a new pack of Marlboro Lights. He had quit smoking with the help of Luke and his potion, but holding the pack of smokes in his hand made him crave one. He lit one up.

“What are you doing?” Luke said taking the cigarette and puffing on it. “If you smoke, then I smoke.” Draco plucked the cigarette from his mouth and stomped it out on the ground.

“That was so wrong, Luke,” Draco chuckled. “You win.” Luke smiled, feeling victorious.

“ We really need a place to go. I can’t bring him back to the cabin, or to the Dragon Witch.”

“I know a place we can go. The manager is a drinker. He will be passed out drunk by this time of night.” Draco shot Luke a questioning glance but remained silent. A minute or two rolled by as they waited for Lucius.

“You know, you really are very good at quidditch. I wasn’t placating you or being facetious. You should join the school team. You could probably go pro even, like your brother.”

“Thanks Dad. It means a lot you saying that, but I don’t want to be a professional quidditch player.” Luke said and Draco smiled. Luke was too much like him. Draco had never wanted to play professionally either. Sure, during quidditch season, he probably fantasized about it, but the fantasy was just that, a fantasy and nothing more. He wanted a lot more out of life then to chase a ball around a field with a bunch of blokes. Not that there was anything wrong with it. Scorpius was phenomenal at quidditch. Probably better then even Draco was, and he lived and breathed quidditch and music, and Persephone. His life was simple and Draco envied that. Lately it felt like Draco’s life was split and fractured, in so many different directions, that he had so many balls in the air. No sooner would he throw one ball in the air, then another one would fall. This had been going on for a couple years and he wanted it to stop. He got Luke back, but now Hermione couldn’t talk. He sometimes felt like a rain cloud was following him around.

Lucius rounded the corner with Nathaniel in tow. The four men greeted each other and then set off for the Notell Motel. Luke still had his key, so he let them into the dingy motel room, closing the door quietly behind him.

“Thanks for getting me out Father. Looks like we have a family reunion of sorts. Or crisis, as the case may be,” Nathaniel said.

“We need your help. I need to know about reversal potions and spells, but first…I’d like to ask you to remove the glamours that you are wearing Nathaniel. I’d like to see your real face and I’d like Luke to see you too. I don’t think any of us should hide behind masks. If anyone has any secrets they need to divulge, now would be the time to do it. My wife has been seriously injured and this isn’t a joke to me. I need to feel that I can trust every single person in this room. I feel vulnerable enough already,” Draco said with a seriousness in his voice that every man in the room knew was no laughing matter.

“As you wish …brother.” Nathaniel removed the glamours and there standing before Draco was the face of the monster that had attacked he and Hermione so many years earlier. He looked older now and the shallow wrinkles made him look more benevolent. His hair was dark brown and long and his face looked much like Lucius’s. He was actually a handsome guy, once you got past all the scars allover his arms and chest and back.

“I have a secret. I was going to wait until Christmas to tell everyone, but I was moved by your speech about trust, Draco.”

“Make it fast Father. We have a lot of work to do. So long as I don’t have any more brothers or sisters running around, then I think I can handle it.” Lucius became very quiet at that. Draco suddenly felt sick.

“It’s not THAT is it Father?” Nathaniel was now eyeing Lucius.

“Oh my God, it is Draco,” Nathaniel said loosening his tie.

“Fucking Christ sakes Father! How many illegitimate children did you have? This is some sick joke right. A Christmas April Fools prank? Because this really isn’t a good time, Father.”

“I invited her for Christmas. She only found out recently,” Lucius explained with a heavy heart. Draco could see the embarrassment written all over his face.

“Does mother know? You said her, so now I have a sister too?” Draco lit another cigarette. He was feeling extremely stressed out as he inhaled deeply on the cancer stick. “So, is this sister of mine trying to fleece you out of your money? Just give it to her and let’s go on with life.”

“Hey now…I never wanted Father’s money,”Nathaniel stated flatly.

“No, Nathaniel, you never once asked me for money, though you do have an inheritance that is yours to do with what you want.” Nathaniel looked pleasantly shocked to find this out.

“Your mother always knew about your half sister, Draco. It isn’t what you think though. Narcissa and her mother were great friends. You were such an adorable young son Draco and this witch, your mother’s friend, could not get pregnant by her husband. So one day Narcissa talked me into, in a most lascivious way I might add, giving the witch my seed. She was a bit of an eccentric witch, always experimenting with odd things. In any case, she conceived a child by artificial means, and once the baby was born her husband asked that she cut off all contact with our family. I was not allowed to see my daughter and Narcissa, was not allowed to see her best friend either. It was a sad day, but we always assumed that the relationship would be repaired eventually. Unfortunately, your sister’s mother died in a freak accident. The Father never told her who her real dad was…and then when Voldemort came back, I knew that I must keep the secret, not that I did anything to protect because I didn’t. I was a terrible father back then.” Lucius said as if he may cry.

“Did she attend Hogwarts with me Father?” Draco asked, now aware that Luke was taking this all in and looked interested in Lucius’s revelation.

“Indeed she did, though she was a year behind you I think.”

“Father! Did I date her? Do you know how sick and twisted this is?”

“I daresay that you would have never dated her. She’s cut from the same cloth as her mother, a bit eccentric.”

“It’s Mum’s friend, Luna Lovegood, isn’t it?” Luke said in a breezy voice, as if it was no big deal. “Luna is my aunt isn’t she?”

“No! Not her.” Draco said.

“Yeah, Dad, she has the same misty, silvery eyes as you. Her hair is blonde too. Yeah, it has to be her. It makes sense.”

“Father it isn’t Loony Lovegood is it? That woman is certifiable!” Draco looked at Nathaniel now. “She’s nuts I tell you!” Nathaniel laughed. It wasn’t so long ago that he was considered the nut by Draco.

“Yes Draco, Luke is a smart boy. It is Luna Lovegood. She wants to get to know us. I invited her here for Christmas.”

“And she knows, I’m her brother?” Draco asked.

“Yes, she knows and was quite excited. She said something about her and Hermione finally being family. She’s a delightful girl. Your mother adores her, says she reminds her of her best friend.”

“I’ll add her to the family counseling list,” Nathaniel said with a smirk, and Draco actually laughed for the first time with his older brother.

“Aunt Luna…Well our holidays just got interesting. Have you heard how she sees all these strange things? Once she told Scorpius after a quidditch match, that he was lucky he escaped the harletdangles that had attached itself to the snitch Scorps was chasing,” Luke laughed great belly laughs at that and Draco too began to laugh. Finally all the men were in hysterics. After the laughter died though, they all got to work.

After an hour of discussing and rehashing and going over it again, Draco finally came to the only conclusion he could.

“Right, so we have to dig up the bastard then. It’s the only way.”

“We need the stone from his ring, so I’m inclined to agree with Draco. The noble pureblood families always wear their family crest on a ring that they wear on their right hand. I saw it the day he attacked your wife,” Nathaniel stated.

“Yes, you mean like this ring?” Draco held up the onyx and emerald ring with a diamond encrusted ‘M’ for Malfoy on it, that he wore on his right hand. He had worn it since he was fourteen, when he received the family heirloom. Both Lucius and Scorpius wore the ring as well and Luke would receive his on his fourteenth birthday. Draco knew that the ring had wards in place that were supposed to protect him, but honestly the ring had never worked at all, and he wore it merely because he liked it. He stated his opinion and Lucius piped in.

“Draco, the Malfoy’s have always had a strong tradition of…well..for lack of a better word, the Dark Arts. My ring alerts me to the presence of Auror’s. That’s how I escaped them, during Voldemort’s reign.”

“Mine too alerted me to Hermione’s attack,” Nathaniel quipped, pulling the Malfoy family crest, ring out of his shirt, where it dangled from a chain.

“Well mine is defective or something, because it’s never helped me with a god damn thing. Pardon my French. Daddy shouldn’t have said that Luke. Don’t ever speak that way.” Draco said and Luke rolled his eyes at his father.

“Draco, not to insult you or anything, but you are more of a lightie,” Nathaniel said and Lucius nodded.

“A lightie?” Draco laughed aloud. “Is that what we are calling it now?”

“He’s right Draco. Since becoming Minister, you have turned away from the Dark Arts. That Gryffindor you’re married to is probably another reason why. Regardless, the ring’s do work.”

“Alright then. So we get Stratton’s ring off his cold, dead finger and do what with it? How do we perform the reversal?”

“Assuming that he was right handed, that would mean that he choked Hermione with the hand that the ring was on. The act was recorded in the stone in his ring. The rings remember Draco,” Nathaniel explained.

“I remember reading about a polarity potion. Once brewed, the potion acts as a counter or opposite of whatever ingredients you add to it. So say you were making a simple hair-lengthening potion. The counter potion is what you would start with as your base. Then you would add the hair lengthening ingredients and the potion, once done, would look and smell exactly like the hair lengthening potion. But when you drank it, your hair would shrivel up and die, instead of growing longer. I’m not saying I’ve brewed it or anything…but…it’s a good way to ruin a classmate’s potion, so they get a failing grade, especially if they stole a girl that you had liked since you were nine, right out from under your nose,” Luke said.

“Yes, because that would be cruel to do that to a person, wouldn’t it?” Draco raised an eyebrow at that and smirked at his son. “I’m sure you’ve never brewed that particular potion.”

“Yes, Father,” Luke said with a wicked grin rising.

“So then what? We drop the ring into the potion base? Will it be safe for Hermione to drink?”

“Yes, so long as she drinks at the right moment. I’ve only ever heard of this reversal potion. I’ve not actually seen it in use. There was a warlock in Budapest once that told me that he saw a mage use this potion on his dead wife. She had succumbed to cancer and he wanted to bring her back to life. To bring a person back from the dead, is quite unnatural and he went insane from what he saw in his wife’s ring as he brewed the potion. In the end, he jumped out a fourth floor window and never found out if the potion worked. It’s dangerous business messing with reversal potions of this magnitude. Especially from a man like Stratton, who probably has many skeletons in his closet. We don’t know what’s liable to come out. You have to make a decision,” Nathaniel informed.

“I have…We go grave robbing tonight, before first light.”

“Grave robbing, on Christmas Eve! I love this family! This is the SHIT!” Luke said with wild excitement.

“Luke!” All three men scolded at the same time.

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Hermione heard Persephone up out of bed, for the third time, making the potion to heal Scorpius. Suddenly, there was a thud and Hermione raced up the stairs to find Persephone passed out in the middle of the hallway with a potion bottle in her hands. The poor girl had come down with the fever and was still trying to take care of Scorpius. Hermione helped the girl up and laid her down in the bed next to her sleeping son. She held the cup to Persephone’s lips and watched as the girl sipped the potion. Suddenly, Scorpius awoke, leaned over and puked allover the floor. Persephone was next, and so Hermione’s night went. She made the potion, cleaned up the vomit and repeated the process. She felt like a mother again and she was happy as she catnapped in the rocker next to the sleeping newlyweds. How awful for them that they both came down with the flu on their wedding night. As she recalled though, she and Draco didn’t make love on their wedding night either. The second night though, was pure unadulterated fire. They were in for a rough ride, Scorpius and Persephone, but Hermione and Draco would help them along the way. As long as they loved each other as much as they claimed, they would get through it, and come out the other side all the better for it. Scorpius rolled over and pulled his wife closer to him. They wrapped their virus infected, coughing and feverish bodies around each other and embraced one another. Hermione started to cry. Scorpius was really married!

Review!?

Thanks to all the really nice readers and reviewers! Keep reviewing and I’ll keep writing! And while I did kind of rush this marriage (intentionally) it isn't all peaches and cream hehehe They are getting a crash course in what being married is really about.