Chapter Thirty-Five of 'I Give You a Wondrous Mirror'- Meetings
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Chapter Thirty-Five-Meetings
Harry had just finished easing a combination of milk and mash into Lily’s mouth in the morning-prepared by the house-elves, who seemed to have no problem caring for a baby who still nursed-when Narcissa stepped into the dining room. Draco had already carried Scorpius off for a bath, and to be distant from James, who had thrown fruit at Draco’s son and looked sulky when Harry scolded him. Now James and Al were with the house-elves, playing and possibly being bathed themselves. Harry stood up when he saw Narcissa, absently patting Lily’s back, wondering if something had happened between his boys.
“We have another visitor at the front gates,” Narcissa said quietly. “Ronald Weasley, I believe.”
Relief flooded Harry. Even though Ron might be coming with bad news about Ginny, Harry still felt he’d rather see him than Hermione right now. “I’ll go,” he said. “Would you mind watching Lily for me while I do?”
Narcissa took the baby from his arms without a word, her eyes avid. Harry concealed a small smile. No, Narcissa never minded watching Lily. She might never have a daughter or a granddaughter of her own, but Lily was a good substitute.
And I hope she’ll learn to look on Narcissa as a mother, or a grandmother, or an aunt, Harry thought, as he walked towards the gates.
He wouldn’t stand in the way if his children didn’t want to forge relationships with the Malfoys. If they all made the decision to go back and live with Ginny the moment they were old enough, he would just have to accept that. But he couldn’t deny that he hoped they would learn to value Draco and Narcissa and Scorpius.
Not as replacements for Ginny. Not as replacements for him, or each other. But purely and simply because they were themselves, and they were the people Harry would spend the foreseeable future living with.
And he had finally learned it wasn’t selfish to hope for something.
*
Ron was leaning casually on the wall around the gardens when Harry came up to the gates, but he stood up straight and smiled at once. His eyes widened a bit, though, when Harry lowered the wards and stepped through them onto the white cobblestone path that ran around the wall.
“I didn’t know you could do that, mate,” he said.
Harry blinked at him, wondering what he meant, and then flushed a little as he remembered that Draco had given him partial control over the Malfoy defenses. The gift seemed so natural to him now, given what he and Draco represented to each other, and so many things had happened in the last few days, that he no longer spent much time thinking about it.
“Yeah, well,” he said quietly. “He loves me. Trust comes along with that.” He shrugged, not sure he liked the intent way his best friend’s eyes were studying him.
Ron smiled a moment later, though, and nodded. “That answers my final question,” he said. “I was telling Hermione that you were better off without Ginny, but I wasn’t sure that the best person for you was Malfoy. I see now that it must be.”
Harry coughed, feeling a blush stain his cheeks. He didn’t really want to discuss his love life with Ron. “Is everything all right?” he asked. “Did you find some evidence at the Tonks house that you need to discuss with me?”
Ron’s face darkened at once. “That’s one of the things I came to tell you, mate,” he said. “Dragons came again, last night after we left. They burned the statues of the Inferi and the rest of the house to pieces. If there was any evidence we failed to uncover, it’s gone now.”
Harry hissed, his fingers driving into his palms. He wondered, for an irrational moment, what he had done to the Masked Lady that she would pursue him like this, to the point of making it harder for him to rescue her most innocent victims.
And then he shook his head. He knew the reason. It wasn’t personal. The Masked Lady wanted the Savior of the Wizarding World incapacitated if she couldn’t kill him, and she knew the best way to do that was to make him fear for the safety of those people closest to him. Harry was a bit surprised he hadn’t received a threatening note after she took Teddy and Andromeda, warning him to back off, but then he realized she probably would have considered a note redundant. The message written in ash and flame should have been bright enough.
“But Hermione did have some evidence,” he said. “What she found before the Inferi rose, and those ceramic pieces or whatever they were that Draco and I found on the battlefield. Right?”
Ron nodded. “She’s still analyzing them. The whole of the Blood Reparations Department has been pulled in and told to focus on that, over tracking down supremacist groups or making peace with the Muggleborns. Hermione thinks the Masked Lady is the greatest threat to the wizarding world we have right now.” He paused. “And she wanted to know if you would come in, since you do work for the Blood Reparations Department.”
Harry considered protesting for a moment. But it was true that he’d ignored his obligations to his work recently, and now that the emotional storm of his personal life had partially settled, he should do what he could to make the wizarding world safe for everyone, not just his children and Draco’s family.
“Let me tell them I’m going,” he said.
*
“It would have been nice if I could have finished bathing Scorpius, I admit.”
“Well, but you didn’t have to come along.”
“Of course I did,” Draco said calmly, making sure that he kept pace with Harry as his irritated lover strode along the Ministry corridors. “Did you really think I was about to let you go into a hostile situation alone?”
“It isn’t a hostile situation-“
“Granger hasn’t proven herself enough of a friend where I’m concerned,” Draco said airily, enjoying the way Harry glared at him. It was much better than the tragically noble expression he’d worn when he’d come to Draco and tried to convince him to stay in the Manor while he went out and fought evil. “She carried the letter for that bitch she calls your wife, and she didn’t do quite enough to interfere between you two last night.”
Harry made a chuffing noise under his breath, as though inaudibly calling all the people in the Ministry to witness what a trial he put up with, listening to Draco, and then reached out and squeezed Draco’s wrist. “I shouldn’t have tried to leave you behind,” he muttered. “Thank you for coming with me.”
“You’re more graceful about admitting the truth now,” Draco said. “That’s a talent I didn’t ever think you’d have.”
Harry turned to face him with a soft laugh, and just held Draco’s face still for a moment, raking his fingers through Draco’s hair and peering into his eyes. Then he leaned forwards and kissed him lightly on his mouth, his nose, and the ends of his hair. Draco held still, enjoying, even more than the attention, the feeling behind it, the sensation that Harry was totally and completely concentrated on him.
“I love you,” Harry whispered.
Someone cleared her throat down the corridor. Harry jumped like a scalded cat, but Draco turned to face Granger slowly, looping one arm around Harry’s shoulders so he wouldn’t get any silly ideas about pulling away. Harry went still and quiet at once, leaning his head on Draco’s shoulder, perhaps so he wouldn’t have to meet his friend’s eyes.
“Yes, Granger?” Draco asked. “Did you have something to say to us? Is showing affection to one’s partner against the mandate of the Blood Reparations Department?”
Granger’s arms folded more tightly as she glared at them. Draco watched her thoughtfully. He was coming to know her as the kind of person who would do what she thought was right, but who wouldn’t necessarily do it with a glad heart. She seemed to accept, now, that Harry really shouldn’t have been married to the Weasley bint. But she would have been happier with just about any new partner for him other than Draco.
“If you will come to my office?” she said in a clipped voice. “I have to tell Harry where the Blood Reparations Department needs him the most at the moment. Malfoy, you can wait outside.”
Harry shook his head. “Draco wants to help, Hermione. And I think he should be able to. You saw how brilliantly he fought the Inferi the other night.” He lifted his head and gave Draco a patently adoring smile, which made Draco feel as if he could charge into battle and curse a dozen enemies at once.
Granger shut her eyes, as much to say that she was giving up on dealing with them, and then nodded curtly. “All right,” she said. She turned her back and began marching up the corridor. Harry followed, but kept himself in contact with Draco at all times, his hands gently fluttering over his shoulders and hair.
Draco smirked at Granger’s back. He knew the woman was stubborn, but he and Harry could be just as stubborn, couldn’t they? Eventually, they would outwait her and she would come to accept his presence in Harry’s life.
If only for Harry’s sake.
*
Harry watched as Hermione Levitated one of the glittering white pieces of-something-he and Draco had found on the battlefield onto her desk. It didn’t look any less strange now than it had, though it bore red edges which Harry suspected probably came from the testing Hermione’s people had done to try and discover what it was.
“We had to go through dozens of spells before we finally received a match,” said Hermione. “It was made harder because it had been through the fire, and that had changed its magical properties without destroying it.”
“But you know now,” said Harry, because she wouldn’t have been showing it to him if it was irrelevant to whatever mission she wanted them to perform.
Hermione nodded. “It’s a bit of dragon’s egg shell.”
Harry blinked. “So you think that’s how the Masked Lady has been taming dragons? Stealing them young? Raising them from the egg?”
“Dragons can’t be domesticated no matter what you do,” Draco drawled before Hermione could answer, which Harry knew would irritate Hermione. “The experiment with young dragons has been tried before, and it always results in dead hatchlings or roasted Dragon-Keepers, never anything else.”
“If you’d let me finish before judging, Malfoy?”
Harry stifled a sigh. Hermione’s lip was drawn between her teeth, and her eyes were practically staring out from her skull. She probably hadn’t slept since last night, and was using Pepper-Up Potion to stay awake. That made her less than amenable to Draco’s rudeness. Harry dug a subtle elbow into his lover’s side, telling him to stop it.
Draco grunted, but gave him a small nod a moment later. Message received, at least. Harry faced Hermione again. “The Masked Lady did something with the eggs and managed to tame the dragons she got from them,” he said. “All right. I accept that. But what does this have to do with my mission?”
“I want to know why the eggshell was there at all,” Hermione said. “After all, it was full-grown dragons that they used to fire the Tonks house, not hatchlings.”
Harry flinched a little. “Yes,” he said quietly. He felt himself standing on the edge of an abyss, but refused to plunge into it, or into despair. He had as yet seen no evidence of what had happened to Teddy and Andromeda. They might be dead; they might as easily be captives of the Masked Lady. “And you want me to investigate what’s left of the house and try to find evidence of that?”
Hermione shook her head, her eyes smug. “There’s something I suspect the Masked Lady doesn’t know about dragon eggshells, no matter what else she knows, because I only recently discovered the spell myself. Dragon eggs tend to pick up characteristics of the most powerful beings around them. It’s a kind of protective coloration, so they can survive if they’re rolled into the nest of another dragon. In this case, I think the eggshell should have been exposed to either the dragon the Masked Lady was riding or to the Masked Lady herself. What it was doing at the house, I don’t know. Maybe one of the dragons she rides is a mother and just happened to have the bit of shell clinging to her. But you can perform the spell on this-“ she nodded at the bit of shell on her desk “-and use it to track down the most powerful being the shard was last close to. It’s very simple.” She scribbled for a moment on a piece of parchment, and shoved it across the desk to him. “This is the spell that you need to cast on the shard.”
Harry rubbed his forehead. His scar wasn’t aching, but that didn’t matter when his head hurt enough from Hermione’s “simple” concepts. “What?” he said at last. “I don’t understand what you want me to do.”
“She’s putting you on the most direct hunt for Teddy and Andromeda,” Draco said, his sharp, thoughtful eyes on Hermione. Harry was again grateful he’d brought him along. “You should be able to use the shard to create a map that would lead you towards the Masked Lady or one of her dragons-or at least something like a tracking charm. And she’s giving it to you because she knows that you need to be doing something towards their rescue.”
Hermione pursed her lips, but she didn’t speak to contradict Draco.
“Thanks, Hermione,” Harry said quietly, and waved his wand to Levitate the shard. He could still see crawling iridescence in it, and, now, feel the heat from it that echoed the dragonfire.
Once again, he had a vision of Teddy and Andromeda suffering and dying horribly in the flames. Once again, he made himself cease to see them. If all he could have was vengeance, he would have that. But he hadn’t yet seen conclusive proof that they’d died when the Masked Lady attacked their home. Until he had that, he would maintain hope.
“I’ll come with you, of course,” Draco said, and put a hand on Harry’s shoulder. His voice was oddly challenging. Harry looked at him in surprise a moment until he realized that Draco was looking at Hermione.
“Fine,” Hermione said. Her voice was still clipped. She looked away from them as they rose to leave, as if she couldn’t bear to watch Draco walk out of the room side-by-side with Harry, in the place that should have been Ginny’s.
Harry studied her in silence. Hermione had become a harder person with the Blood Reparations work, but until recently, Harry had always believed that she was still a sincerely good one at heart. She just did what she needed to do to maintain peace in the wizarding world, and if no one else appreciated that, it made her work all the more valuable.
Harry, though, was starting to wonder if she had become too hard, delved too deeply into the operations of necessity. She had supported Ginny even when she knew what a mess the other woman had become, and said that the marriage vows should hold until she found out Harry had no intention of honoring them. And even now, she seemed determined that he understand the life-debts and marriage vows both had to happen, so the struggle that might pull him apart would continue.
She was so willing to face reality that she might not be able to understand when that reality changed for someone.
Harry had told himself it was better to work in the Blood Reparations Department than become an Auror. He wasn’t in as much danger, and he could be home with the children more frequently than Ron could be home with his. But now he wondered what his life would have been like if he had become an Auror instead. He would have had a partner, someone to watch his back, someone outside his family who could have understood when this mess began to happen with Draco and Ginny. And he would have been in danger, but not the peculiar and highly personal danger he was in working under Hermione.
There are costs to every choice we make-all the choices we didn’t make, for a start.
Draco’s hand on his shoulder pulled him from his reverie. “Harry?” he asked quietly. “We really should be going.”
Harry nodded once to Draco, and let his partner guide him out of the office. If Hermione turned to look at them, he didn’t see it.
*
Harry studied the spell on the parchment carefully, then handed the piece of paper to Draco. “Let me know if I perform the wand movements or pronounce the incantation wrong,” he said, and turned to face the shard of dragon eggshell.
Draco looked from the parchment to Harry as he spoke the words in slow, steady tones. But neither they nor the sharp movements of his wand were wrong. Harry disparaged his own intelligence sometimes compared to Granger’s, but when he really wanted to do something, it got done.
They were standing as close to the outskirts of the Tonks house and gardens as the lingering heat and Harry’s own discomfort with the place would let them approach. Draco could see the shimmer of the ground when he looked. Granger’s people hadn’t discovered anything noteworthy before the Inferi attacked, or at least they had trouble understanding what they found. But there must have been something important here, mustn’t there? Or the Masked Lady wouldn’t have burned it so thoroughly.
She could have done that just to keep Harry on the edge of wondering whether his godson was still alive. I reckon we can’t know.
“-veritas!”
Draco glanced up sharply as the incantation finished. Harry had encircled the shard with a variety of crosshatched invisible motions, which so far had produced no effect that Draco could see, other than increasing the heavy, thick feeling of magic in the air.
Now all the invisible lines came to life, flaring with intense blue light. Draco watched them turn, drifting above the shard as if they were seeking to suck it within themselves. And then they seemed to find their direction, and settled with an almost audible pulse.
For a few moments more, all that Draco could see was the blue-and-white glow; the shell still shone pearly under all the magic Harry had layered on top of it. Harry fell back from the light, staring at it doubtfully. His hand found its way into Draco’s.
Draco leaned his head down, sniffing quietly at Harry’s hair, and snaked an arm around his waist for extra reassurance.
The net of blue lines rose into the air a moment later, and began revolving. And then, so brightly that they left afterimages on Draco’s retinas, they dissolved, revealing a piece of parchment etched with blue lines instead. Harry gave an exclamation and snatched it, turning it so Draco could see.
It was a map, Draco realized with some disbelief, and in the center was a tiny, broken bit of eggshell swinging about like a compass needle. It ceased its swing a moment later, and pointed steadily to the northeast from the Tonks house.
“How did you do that?” he demanded.
Harry glanced at him from the corner of his eye. “Well, see, there was this spell,” he started to drawl.
Draco punched him in the shoulder, which made Harry grin at him. “I reckon I should have said, how did Granger do that?”
“Hermione has patience and an eye for detail that most people don’t.” Harry turned to the map again. “She’ll keep on the track of a useful spell long after others give up and go have their tea. And she’s a genius at figuring out how to adapt spells that were once used for something else so they give good results.”
Draco squeezed the shoulder he’d just punched, on hearing the faint tinge of sadness in his voice. “She’ll be your friend again,” he said. “I think she’s already starting to accept us, but she doesn’t want to admit it.”
Harry glanced at him with an unexpectedly bright smile. “Really?”
Draco nodded. He left out his own discomfort with the idea of having Granger continually around. Like it or not, she was aunt to Harry’s children and had somehow remained one of his best friends. Draco could learn to tolerate her. He’d put up with far worse from Marian over the years.
“Thanks,” Harry murmured, and kissed him. He turned to face the map again. “Now, instead of walking all the distance, which looks as though it’ll take us through several Muggle areas, I suggest we Apparate to the northeast and then check the map again, to see if the needle’s still pointing in that direction or if it’s changed. Agreed?”
Draco nodded. “And if we haven’t discovered anything by the time that evening falls, we return to the Manor.”
Harry started to open his mouth to protest.
“Harry,” Draco interrupted quietly. “She’s carrying them fast as a flying dragon, and I don’t know if we can cover the same amount of distance in one day, especially if we have to go out of our way to avoid Muggle areas. And what happens if she’s removed them from the British Isles to some other country?”
Harry exhaled slowly. “All right,” he whispered. “I know the children and Narcissa need us, too. I just-I really want to find Teddy.”
Draco ran a gentle hand through Harry’s hair. “I wouldn’t mind seeing them both alive myself,” he said, earning another wan smile from Harry. “But the way to do that isn’t mindless dashing around. The map lasts more than one day, doesn’t it?” When Harry nodded, he finished firmly, “Then we can mark the spot where we finish and return to it. I know the Manor should protect our children and my mother just fine. But that doesn’t mean I’m comfortable spending days away from them.”
“What happens if we rescue Teddy and Andromeda, and have to flee?” Harry asked. “Will the Manor provide a strong enough protection against the Masked Lady?”
“We have wards against dragonfire,” said Draco. “They haven’t been raised in a long time, but either I’ll tell my mother to do that when we return home tonight, or I’ll Floo her when we know where the Masked Lady is. And yes, Teddy and Andromeda would be more than welcome. They’re both Mother’s blood, and Mother has been an accepted part of the Manor’s defense system for longer than I’ve been alive. I won’t even have to tell the wards to always let them past the way I did for you. If they had to flee ahead while we covered their retreat, they could enter.”
Harry nodded for a moment, his eyes shut. Then he opened them and leaned in, kissing Draco hard. His hands rose and linked together around Draco’s neck. Draco could almost sense Harry gathering up his determination. He didn’t know if they were going to find his godson and Teddy’s grandmother, but they were damn sure going to try.
Draco returned the kiss with interest, and kept his hands on Harry’s back when he pulled away. Harry gave him a harsh smile.
“What are we waiting for, then?” he asked. “Let’s hunt.”
Chapter 36.