Always Something - Dramione

Chapter Fifteen

The Malfoy family sat together on the large bed in the guestroom Hermione had been using while at Malfoy Manor. It was late at night but they were all wide awake and ready to upset each other. It was also chilly enough that the house had set a fire in the hearth, and Cassie had crawled underneath the covers of the bed, making herself as cozy as she could against the still slightly awkward frame of her mother reclining beside her.

The family meeting began with a speech shared by the parents about Dr. Huang and his risky proposal to boost Hermione's brainwaves to a level that might repair her damaged memory by diverting magical energy from Draco which might or might not leave his magic permanently depleted. They explained the judgment they would have to make, the decision of whether they could live without Draco's magic, if it came to that, or whether it would be better to accept what had already been lost, and let Hermione's memory of the past seventeen years slip away.

"That would mean your mother would never remember being pregnant with either of you, or your births, your baby days, and childhoods, every first you ever had -- "

"Every nasty thing we ever said," Paul added. "Every time we were sick or hurt."

"Yes, it would all be gone," Draco finished.

"So," Paul continued, "she'd stay this awkward fake ironic step-mother-like person forever -- which would be whatever if she really was our step-parent, but she's not. She's the only mother we have. And at least a step-mother would have actually chosen this in order to be with you, Dad. But she's basically a prisoner here, as far as she knows." He waved his arms, gesturing to the manor itself. "She truly WAS a prisoner here at one point, wasn't she?"

"Paul, I'm sitting right here."

He glared across the bed at her. "Then what about your marriage, Mum? What did I see in the hallway just now? Did he bring in the help of Nana and Grandfather and finally get you to crack?"

"I am not a prisoner, Paul. I like him," she confessed. "He's good to me and he loves you both. What I don't remember from my past life with him may be unrecoverable, but we've agreed it's not insurmountable. I want to stay. I will. But..."

"But it's not the same as it was," Draco said. "We can rebuild something, something good, but it won't be the family we once had, not without Dr. Huang's procedure."

"Right. So without this doctor, the old Mum, the one who raised us and knows us better than anyone -- she's just gone forever," Paul said, getting to his feet, pacing in front of the fire. "We may as well put up a monument for her, with the rest of the old Malfoys out there in the garden."

Draco winced, and Cassie, rising to her knees, out of the blankets, clambered across the bed to console him with a hug. "It's so wonderful that you'd give up magic for all of us, Daddy."

He patted her head. "Yes well, magic isn't everything. We've all heard that. I don't think I fully understand what it means to say it, but we can only hope it's true. Magic is not everything."

Hermione crossed her arms. "No. We're not doing it. I can't let you. If we do it, we could very well end up putting up a monument to the old Dad -- "

"It is not up to the two of you alone to decide," Paul said.

"Yes, it is," Draco answered. "We've asked for your thoughts and feelings, and we will certainly consider them, but in the end, whether we go through with Dr. Huang's procedure will be up to us as a couple."

"Alright, enough," Paul hissed. "I need to know something. Gris has this theory -- a joke, mostly, a plot device for her crazy stories -- but I have to ask, just once, to be sure. Is our family descended from Veelas? "