The Blood At Dusk (HP AU)

Chapter 20: He's okay. More or less.

1:40am. After 3 grueling hours of waiting for Harry to emerge from the surgery, a surgeon came out, wiping his sweat covered forehead and mumbling about the heat. His mask was resting on his chin, covered in a bit of blood. His surgical apron was in similar condition, blood was splattered on it and he subtly took off a pair of completely blood covered gloves and disposed of them in the bin outside of the room as well as his mask. Why it was outside was probably for health reason etc. 

The three pureblood's attention was quickly but subtly directed at the surgeon, Draco's lungs took a breath of relief as he saw a look of bliss on the surgeon's face. Hopefully, the look of bliss was for Harry surviving and not for being released from a gruesome and humid room.

Another surgeon exited and threw away her gloves and mask, she also had a look of bliss on her face, though she looked more tired than the previous surgeon. Three more surgeons came out and removed their masks and gloves, and again, a look of relief and bliss was spread across their faces.

Lucius was watching them with subtle glances now and then, Narcissa doing the same but more frequently. However Draco was staring right at the last surgeon coming out of the room, doctor Lucas, the man who had been called to retrieve Harry. He had started walking over to the three purebloods after taking off his gloves and mask.

A large smile was spread across his face which made Draco's heart beat rapidly, waiting for those five words he knew was coming. "He's going to be okay." Draco smiled slightly, remembering that he was in public and he had to keep up the Malfoy appearance, although it wasn't really effective as he was on the edge of his seat with an optimistic looking reptile slithering around Draco's arms. 

Narcissa smiled at her son and asked quietly, "Are we able to see him yet?" Doctor Lucas looked surprised that the prestige, pureblood Narcissa was asking to see the boy who lived. It was apparent it was him by the time they had finished and were clearing his body of excess blood. The scar was as clear as day to every surgeon in the room, as soon as they looked over his whole body, did they only realise the fact that Harry Potter's blood was splattered on their clothes, Harry Potter's heart had stopped three times during surgery, once as they were quickly preparing the surgery, another time when they were trying to clear the lungs of blood, and the last when they were trying to stitch up various organs and put metal rods in the bones. Three times, Harry Potter's heart had stopped and they almost lost their one chance at living a full and free life. 

When they looked at Harry from a step back at the end, they saw a sunken and dull face, ghostly pale skin littered with scars from head to toe, an unconscious, thin and scrawny body and a pale pink lightning scar. It separated him from the normal treatment he could've been offered, but they suddenly realised that this abused boy was thrusted into the spotlight without a single clue of what to do.

Doctor Lucas reached for his wand holster and casted a tempus charm. 

1:48am. "Give it a few minutes, a few nurses are getting Mr. Potter comfortable in his room. I'll clean up the surgery room quickly and then I'll get you and take you down there." He calmly informed them. Lucius thanked him and stood up stretching and cracking his back, Draco and Narcissa doing the same. 

2:02am. Doctor Lucas walked up to them in long strides and beckoned them to follow him with a wave of his hand. Narcissa kept hold of her son's hand, him gripping back and smiling unconsciously. 

Room 469. An oak wood door silently opened and a white room was revealed, a neatly made bed with a fragile sleeping boy laying in between the mattress and the sheets. Doctor Lucas closed the door after all four had entered, he started to explain the details and extents of Harry's injuries, clearly seeing that this family, although not clearly shown, deeply cared for the child for an unknown reason. Draco sat on a chair next to Harry bed eyeing the bags of medicine hanging on a stand. Narcissa and Lucius sat down on nearby chairs as well, holding each other's hand.

"Going from the outside to inside. His skin was pierced multiple times and quite severely, so many scars will appear as you can tell from the large amount of stitches. His throat was pierced from the back of his neck damaging several nerves and harming his vocal cords, oesophagus and trachea. He will have trouble eating for a while, but we have him on a tube so he'll be fine with eating. Breathing will become painful for a while, my guess is a few weeks, he should be fine before getting to school. Talking is a different matter, it may take two or three months for him to start talking, the bottle shard had gone right through his vocal cords and had slightly broken off in it. We managed to take it out but we had to cut right through the cords, and it's left to heal by itself now." Draco looked at Harry with sympathy in his eyes and tears clouding his vision but not too badly.

"Several bones had cracked through the skin and most were in his legs and arms. His left forearm had two pieces of bone sticking through it from a strong impact, his arm should be able to heal a bit faster than usual because of his magic, but because he has had many injuries on his bones his body has adjusted to this being normal, so whenever he is given medicine to heal, it wont work because the body just wants to heal the wrong way. Both his arms had cracks in so many places, it's a miracle he could still move them, they looked like they had been cracked since the age of 10 or 11. His legs were in horrible condition, many cracks were detected, three bones had split through the skin and so many breaks were seen, his ankles had been cracking every time he walked and his feet have so many breaks." All the information was overwhelming to everyone even doctor Lucas, but he had to keep going. 

"Every one of his ribs were broken, cracked or bruised. Three were pointing towards his lungs and that is where the blood was seeping in from. One had completely stabbed through and was only keeping him alive because it hadn't moved completely out, acting as a plug until we had to move it. His spine was cracked and a few discs had moved out of place but are healed now thanks to one of our advanced medics. He will experience chest pains throughout his life spontaneously because of his body being tricked into thinking that the previous state of his broken body was normal." Solemn looks were thrown at the unconscious boy in front of them, breathing shallow and pain filled breaths. They could all see how much the stab to the trachea and the lungs was affecting his breathing. It was a sporadic pace and was gravely as if he hadn't drunk any liquid for his whole life.

"Now the organs; they were grazed, cut, split and bleeding so his immune system will be interesting for a while, as well as getting stomach pains and cramps for the next few weeks. Besides from that is his mental state" Lucius, Narcissa and Draco looked up at doctor Lucas, he took a deep breath and swallowed the lump in his throat.

"Due to his suspected childhood abuse, he will have trauma, even worse than before. Did he or does he flinch at the slightest of movements?" Draco nodded, the only one who has seen Harry for a long period of time, nearly everyday. 

"I would see him flinch when Weasley and Granger would raise their hands above the table to pick up cutlery, also during class he would flinch at Granger raising her hand even at a really slow pace. And it's not just Weasley and Granger, everyone who would raise their hand or move even slightly would make him panic for a second before composing himself" Draco answered, a sad and embarrassed tone ringing in his ears. His ears turned pink slightly when he realised how much he would pay attention to the boy.

Doctor Lucas nodded, "Yes, he will flinch harder most likely or even go into full fledged panic attacks. I only know this from experience from other patients, so this might be different slightly. Everyone acts out in their own way so I can't be sure if he will react like that. From medical history and pure guesses for now, he will have PTSD for sure, ADHD, agoraphobia, anxiety, depression, eidetic memory, trust issues, panic disorder, insomnia, nightmare disorder and he may develop selective mutism but I think he'll only be silent until he can speak again. Many of those are developed over the years so not much has changed despite the fact that they may be more severe."

The Malfoys looked shocked and stared at Harry's struggling form and tears began to fall from Narcissa's eyes as she walked closer to Harry's side opposite of Draco. She gently put her hand against Harry's head and doctor Lucas walked out with a sympathetic look and a nod to Lucius. The boy who live isn't living his best life.