Dad Says (Harry X Draco)

Chapter 11

Ron looked deeply unimpressed.

"Nice one, mate. Just what he needed; to feel more insecure about his past."

"Yeah, I know, all right? And then I went on a date with Blaise Zabini and realised what a monumental twat I was being, and when I went to apologise, I found him like this!"

Ron made a face.

"What a fucking mess."

Harry nodded glumly.

The door opened. Scorpius came barrelling through it, looking tiny and terrified in blue pyjamas.

"Dad!"

He stopped short at the bed, his face working, then turned to Harry.

"He's going to die," he said.

"No, they don't know yet," said Harry. He held out his arms and Scorpius crawled into his lap.

"What if he dies?" he asked.

"He won't." said Harry, hoping he wasn't lying. Scorpius nuzzled into his shoulder, trying not to cry.

"But what if he does?"

"He won't. And I'll take care of you until he's better, okay?"

Scorpius nodded and started to cry quietly into Harry's shirt. Harry made soft noises and stroked his hair, conscious that Ron was watching him.

"We need to tell Eve and Nick and Flora," said Harry.

"You can't!" said Scorpius, jerking his tear-stained face up to look at Harry. "It's against the Statute!"

"I really couldn't care less about the Statute, Scorpius. When Draco wakes up, I want his friends to be here. And they'll be worried about him."

"They'll send him back to Azkaban!" said Scorpius shrilly. "We can't!"

"Mate, drop it," said Ron.

"Scorpius, darling, listen to me," said Harry. "Let me worry about all this. I'll go to the minister tomorrow and explain the circumstances."

"The Minister for Magic?"

"Yes"

"If he says okay, they can't get dad in trouble, can they?"

"No."

"Okay," said Scorpius. He turned tearfully towards Ron and stuck out his hand. "Hello, I'm Scorpius Malfoy."

"Ron Weasley. You can call me Weasel."

"My dad almost poisoned you once." said Scorpius, shrinking nervously back into Harry's arms.

"That was kind of an accident," said Ron uncomfortably.

"Evil can't be undone," said Scorpius.

"Ferre—Malf—your dad wasn't evil," said Ron. "He was just a bit of a prat. Anyway, we're friends now."

"You're friends?" repeated Scorpius.

"Yeah," said Ron. "He's really good at chess!" he added defensively.

"I didn't say anything!" said Harry.

They waited in the hospital for another hour. Scorpius alternated between standing very close to the bed, staring at Draco, and curling up in Harry's lap. He did not cry again. Finally, a healer told them Draco was in a stable condition, and that nothing more would be done for him that night.

"Come on," said Harry to Scorpius. "You can stay at mine."

When they got back to Grimmauld Place, Harry went to the kitchen and made pancakes.