Malicious Intent - Part 9 (H/D)
Title: Malicious Intent - Part 9
Author: sesheta_66
Pairing: Harry/Draco
Word Count: 4.2K
Rating: Eventual NC-17
Warning: none
Summary: Harry’s world is upended when he’s asked to investigate a break-in and threats levied at Draco Malfoy. He’s never told anyone about their short-lived but intense relationship, and now, five years after it ended, doesn’t seem the time. He’s a professional, so he will investigate, find and arrest the culprit, and get on with his life. What else can he do?
Disclaimer: Harry Potter characters are the property of J.K. Rowling and Bloomsbury/Scholastic. No profit is being made, and no copyright infringement is intended.
To start at the beginning, click here.
Or to read at AO3, click here.
[Malicious Intent - Part 9]
Malicious Intent - Part 9
Harry sat down to work straight away, scanning the various devices. There were two clear sets of magical signatures - one residual on the old, no longer working ones that oddly matched the clear one contained within Draco's ring. The second was all over the remaining devices, including the video enabled ones. The newer ones had evidence of tampering, an unsuccessful attempt at wiping, or at least obscuring, the signature, but enough remained to match to the others.
Now that he'd isolated the signatures, the hard work would begin: matching to those on file. Ordinarily, Harry would have handed this work over to the lab for analysis but he opted to do what he could himself for now. If he couldn't narrow it down - he was no Albus Dumbledore after all - Harry would get Draco's okay before involving others. But he'd done this work before and the signatures seemed pretty clear, so he was reasonably confident he could manage.
He decided to start with known Death Eaters. A mere two hours later, he'd hit pay dirt. And found himself quite ill at the results: it seemed Lucius Malfoy knew no boundaries when it involved controlling others, even his own son. Perhaps especially his own son. It explained a lot, though. Harry had wondered who could possibly have placed something inside Draco's Malfoy family ring. But that also meant the bastard had been the one spying on his son for two years.
This made Harry both furious and relieved. Relieved because it likely meant that the person after Draco had started his or her campaign relatively recently. Furious because ... well. The man never ceased to amaze Harry with his utter contempt of others and his inflated sense of self-worth and importance. It would give Harry great pleasure to knock the smug bastard down a few hundred notches. Again. If it weren’t for the fact that he was Draco’s father. Still. A few well-placed spells to make his life utterly miserable couldn’t be that bad a thing, could it? It was times like these Harry regretted - just a little - the anti-corruption measures he’d helped Kingsley implement at the Ministry. And yet ... he doubted anyone would come after him for doing to Lucius what he well deserved.
Fuck. He didn't cherish being the one to tell Draco that his dad was an even bigger dick than they'd already known. Though Harry didn't honestly believe Lucius meant any real harm to Draco, he didn't doubt for a moment that he wanted to control him. Even after everything he’d put his family through, he had the nerve to do something so intrusive. The man was a loathsome human being. Harry ran his hands through his hair in frustration, no doubt leaving it more of a bird’s nest than usual. The inability to dole out the punishment that fuckwit deserved threatened to drive him mad. He shook off his anger for the moment to focus elsewhere.
Now, on to the more problematic discovery: Thorfinn Rowle. Assumed dead after the war, efforts to find him had gone cold and had dwindled to an occasional revisit of his file when a sighting of some Death Eater or another came in. Harry looked forward to the day they might have enough resources to pull all the cold DE files and close them properly. No body, no closed file, no rest until all Death Eaters at large were incarcerated or in the ground.
He pulled Rowle's file and briefed himself on all the notes made. He'd been one of the Death Eaters that Voldemort had broken out of Azkaban, so his crimes dated quite far back. There were cursory notes on known associates, family and prior addresses. He saw his own statements about how Rowle had been one of the Death Eaters to break into Hogwarts, and had set Hagrid’s hut alight with Fang still inside in their sixth year. And again his notes from the Battle of Hogwarts.
Harry also remembered Rowle - though there were no notes about this on file - as one of the Death Eaters that had attacked him, Ron and Hermione in the Tottenham Court Road cafe after the Ministry had fallen. And he saw Rowle's face once more, through Voldemort's eyes, watched again as Draco had Crucioed him. Watched as Rowle had revelled in Lucius' humiliation at Voldemort's hand.
Oh, yes, Rowle had ample reason to want either or both of the Malfoy men punished for moving on with their lives while he - no worse in his own mind, and no doubt leagues above them, in his estimation, for remaining loyal - was relegated to living his life in the shadows.
Harry spent the rest of the day studying Rowle's file for anything he might be able to use to catch the Death Eater that wanted Draco dead. Frankly, he'd be more than pleased if Rowle caught up with Lucius, though he doubted Draco would appreciate that sentiment. Such that he was, Lucius remained Draco’s father. Besides, Harry wouldn't want to see Narcissa hurt and he doubted Rowle would hesitate to kill her to get to Lucius. Or just for the fun of it. He’d been the one to kill his own fellow at Hogwarts, flinging curses around carelessly, so what was the wife and mother of his enemies worth anyway? Harry didn't think Draco would suffer much for the loss off his dickhead dad - would likely be far better off for his absence - but his mother was another story.
When finally his trace came back, Harry was so deeply immersed in the file, he didn't register the soft buzzing right away.
"What's that you're working on?" Ron asked, bringing him out of the criminal life and times of Thorfinn Rowle.
Harry resisted the urge to cover up the file. He'd been careful not to leave open anything that made reference to Draco, and he had his cover story ready. Truth be told, he was surprised Ron hadn't come nosing around before now.
"Cold case."
"Oh, yeah? New leads?"
Harry nodded. "Not much. Just a magical signature detected for a presumed-dead Death Eater." Ron looked excited, so Harry derailed him quickly. "No indication it's recent, so just the usual follow-up. Probably a dead end. No pun intended." He closed the file casually. "You still on the Muggle baiting case in Yorkshire?"
"Yeah. Heading for an overnight soon. That's why I came by. Hermione's been looking forward to seeing you and Gin tonight." Harry cringed. He'd completely forgotten their plans. Ron laughed as he caught Harry’s reaction. "Thought it might've slipped your mind. No worries, mate. With me gone, 'Mione asked if she thought you'd mind if the two of them made it a girls' night instead."
"Oh, yeah. Sure." He was beginning to wonder if he’d even see Ginny before she left again. "I mean, no, I don’t mind."
"I won't tell a soul you forgot."
Harry grinned sheepishly. "Thanks." He looked at his watch. "Time for a coffee before you go?" He could use the caffeine before diving into the trace results and - what promised to be even more trying - heading over to break the news to Draco. He'd prefer to delay that a while longer.
"Sorry. We leave in ten and I still have to pack my kit. Rain check, though."
"Sure. Good luck. Hope the trip is worth it."
Ron shrugged. "There's that pub with the great shepherd's pie over there, so it won't be a total loss, even if we don't catch the guy."
"Silver linings," Harry agreed, amazed that his friend probably knew a pub with a great something-or-other in every town in England by now.
"I'll pass along your sincere disappointment to Hermione."
Harry laughed. "Bit much, mate."
"Right. I’ll tell her you’re okay with her stealing Gin away for the night."
"Thanks."
Once Ron left, Harry abandoned his idea for coffee and dove back into the case. He followed the trace where it led and now he had a neighbourhood to go with the rest. As he’d expected, there was no mention of a family home in that area, but perhaps Draco would know more. His stomach clenched. He really, really didn’t want to be the one to tell him about Lucius. He made a duplicate of Rowle’s file and returned the original to cold case storage. Now out of excuses to delay any longer, he spelled "Now okay?" onto the coin and pressed his thumb to it. Before he’d even finished clearing his desk, he felt it burn in his pocket. "Sure."
Steeling himself for the unpleasantness to come, he Apparated outside Draco’s door and knocked.
The door flung open and Draco said, "Taking this politeness a bit far, aren’t you?"
"What?"
"You already warned me. You could have Apparated inside."
Harry shrugged. "Force of habit, I suppose. We don’t exactly Apparate into people’s places."
"Well, come on in, then." He waved Harry past, closed the door and followed him into the living room. "What do you have?"
"Could we maybe have a cup of tea?"
Draco’s face fell. "Is it that bad?"
"Maybe some firewhiskey for you?"
Draco sat down. "Just spit it out."
Harry removed the file from his pocket at returned it to regular size. "Do you want the bad news or the really bad news first?" Not that he knew which was worse overall.
"Just tell me already."
Harry ran his hand over the back of his neck. "Well, there were two distinct magical signatures that I found, and both were a match to known Death Eaters."
"No big surprise there."
"One was presumed dead. Thorfinn Rowle."
Draco’s back stiffened. "Fuck."
"Yeah. Sadistic bastard, from what I’ve read on his file."
"And he can probably still feel the Crucio I threw at him."
Harry nodded, unsure how he could soften the next blow. Deciding he might as well do it all at once, like removing a plaster, he went for it. "And the other was ... your father."
"My ..." Draco went pale. No, that wasn’t quite right. He turned an unhealthy shade of grey. Not that any shade of grey would be healthy, but ... well ... he looked ill.
"Your father," Harry repeated. "Your ring."
Draco clenched his teeth. "Of course."
"And the old ones, the ones that don’t work anymore."
Harry couldn’t tell if Draco was going to throw something or throw up. It could go either way. "So what you’re telling me is ... my father has been spying on me for two years?"
Harry rather thought it was more like his entire life, but he didn’t see the benefit of pointing that out just now. "It appears so."
Draco jumped to his feet and began pacing. "The one fucking time he came over here. The day before I moved in. I’d shown them the place. I’d told Mother about it and she showed up with him in tow." His eyes flared as he looked at Harry. "I didn’t want to let him in, but Mother had him by the arm and was ushering him past before I could stop her." He paced the room a couple more times. Harry didn’t say anything. "The bastard must have planted them that day without either of us noticing." He stopped in front of Harry. "Who does that?"
Harry scrambled for something to say, but obviously it had been rhetorical, because Draco resumed his pacing without waiting for an answer. He mumbled under his breath and Harry caught a few expletives coupled with bastard and arsehole. Harry neither disagreed nor added to the conversation. Instead, he got up and poured Draco a finger of Firewhiskey. Draco took it, swigged it back and slammed the glass onto the table as he sat down. "That fucker!"
"I -" Harry began.
Draco stood up again. "I need to go see him." He grabbed a travelling cloak and put it on. "Find out what the fuck he was thinking." He looked at Harry. "Do you have the ring?"
Harry nodded and pulled the evidence bag out of his pocket. He withdrew the ring. "I should keep the rest of this as evidence."
"Fine. Whatever." He put on the ring with a look of disgust on his face. "But I think I’d like to shove this - along with my fist - down his throat right now."
Harry stood up. "Do you want me to go with you?"
"Why?" He whirled on Harry. "Are you going to protect him?"
Harry didn’t want to, but suspected duty might require exactly that. "I was thinking more along the lines of providing moral support." Draco snorted. "Or stopping you from committing patricide and landing yourself in prison." Draco glared. "Or, if that’s not possible, help you hide the body?" he ventured.
"I may laugh about that someday," Draco said. "And I’m sure I’ll amuse myself by replaying this memory in my Pensieve from time to time." He steeled himself. "But for now, I’ll just respectfully decline your offer of assistance and assure you that I will not rid the earth of my father’s presence. Not today, anyway."
"We could discuss Rowle?"
"Nice try," Draco said, closing the clasp of his cloak and smoothing the material. "But I think I need to confront him now. While I’m good and mad. Mother too, for being so stupidly naive as to continue to trust him and push for us to get along."
"Are you sure?"
He gave Harry his don’t be a fucking idiot look. "I’m so bloody tired of playing nice around him. It’s high time I give him a piece of my mind, and right now I’m likely as mad as I’ll ever be. And I think it’ll do me some good to unleash on the fucker while I’m in this state. And it’s also likely to be the only time I’m mad enough not to let Mother stop me."
"Okay," Harry said warily. "But if you need anything ..."
He rolled his eyes. "You can’t save me from my idiot father, so don’t even try. Especially since I do realise how you feel about him yourself."
"I’ll just be on my way then, yeah? Let me know when you’re ready to talk about Rowle. Meanwhile, I’ll keep trying to work out a plan to catch him."
"I’m not sure I’ll be ready to talk about anything before tomorrow, but I’ll let you know."
"Fair enough." With more than a bit of trepidation, Harry Apparated home, hoping that he wouldn’t get called out later that night to investigate a murder in Wiltshire.
He’d locked away his work files, changed into his favourite jeans and a t-shirt and had just put the kettle on when Ginny came in. "I’d kill for an Earl Grey right now," she said in greeting.
"Hello to you too," he said, giving her a peck on the cheek. "Rough day?"
"Coach is working us like mad for this weekend’s match. I hurt where I didn’t even know I had muscles." She rolled her neck back and forth and rubbed her hand over it.
"Why don’t you go have a long, hot shower and I’ll have your tea ready for you when you get out?"
"Sounds perfect. What time do we have to go round to my darling brother’s?"
"Ah," he said, presuming she’d not received an update yet from Hermione. "Ron has to head out of town on a case tonight, and Hermione thought it’d be nice if the two of you made it a girls’ night."
"Oh, she did, did she?"
He rolled his eyes. "Sent Ron to do her dirty work and see if I’d be okay giving you up for the night."
She grinned widely, clearly pleased at the change in plans. Harry tried not to feel offended. "Oh, don’t get all pouty on me. It’s been a long time since Hermione and I spent quality time together."
"I know." He didn’t point out that it had also been rather a long time since the two of them had done so. "And I’m sure you’ll have a great time."
"Yeah, it’ll be nice. But for now, I need to wash away the day and let the water soothe my muscles."
"And I’ll make the tea."
After her shower, Ginny fell asleep and Harry didn’t have the heart to wake her until shortly before she had to leave for Hermione’s. "Still want that cuppa before you go?"
"That’d be brilliant." She stretched and yawned before dragging herself out of the bed. "Thanks for letting me nap. I didn’t know how knackered I was until my head hit the pillow."
"No problem. Come fill me in on your day over some Earl Grey before you desert me again."
She smacked him playfully and they made their way to the kitchen. She filled him in on the latest gossip surrounding her teammates and complained about their relentless coach and before long, it was time for her to leave. "What are your plans for tonight?" she asked.
"I’ll probably catch up on some work."
Her smile faltered. "Of course you will." It was always a sore spot between them, how much time he dedicated to his work. But she apparently wasn’t going to press the issue. "Don’t wait up," she said.
He kissed her on the cheek. "Have fun and say hi to ‘Mione for me."
"Will do." And she was gone.
And once more, Harry was left alone with his thoughts. And once more, they returned to Draco. He wondered how things had gone with Lucius. What possible excuse he might have come up with. No doubt he’d say that he’d done it to protect Draco.
A short while later, the coin in Harry’s pocket burned. He removed it and saw Home on it. Taking that as an invitation, he Apparated once more to Draco’s door and knocked.
As he followed Draco into the living room, the scent of firewhiskey wafted back to him and he saw that the bottle had considerably less in it than earlier. Though he wasn’t visibly inebriated, Harry suspected that Draco’d had a couple already.
"Alright, then. What can you tell me about Rowle and what are we going to do about it?"
Harry didn’t know what to make of Draco’s composed demeanour. It was rather unnerving, considering when he’d last seen him. "You seem calm."
He sighed. "Yes, I am. It’s called compartmentalising. We Slytherins are rather adept at it. First I was angry. Then I vented that anger. Now I’ve put it aside so that I may focus on something else."
"But ... are you okay?" Harry couldn’t help asking.
"Of course I’m not okay," he snapped. "But I’ll cope. As you well know, I’ve coped with worse." As Harry made to speak, Draco sighed. "And I don’t want to talk about it."
"Okay, then." Harry pulled out the file again and put it on the table. "The trace led to a neighbourhood in Romford. I don’t have any record of a Rowle owning property there, at least not in the wizarding pockets of the area. Do you know of anyone living there? Any Death Eaters or Voldemort sympathisers?"
Draco considered the question for a few moments. "Not that I know of, but I may have heard a street name or a landmark mentioned without knowing where it was. Let me think about it for a while."
Harry handed him a bundle of paper. "Notable landmarks and a list of street names in Romford." At Draco’s surprised look, he grinned. "Not my favourite part of the job, but I really do research when I need to."
Draco’s lips twitched but he suppressed a full-on smile. "Point taken. Is there anything else?"
"Not right now. Unless you want to - and don’t bite my head off for suggesting this; I’m just doing my job - do you want to pursue something against your father?"
"No, of course not."
"So he’ll get away with this, like he gets away with everything?" He couldn’t help the disdain seeping into his voice.
Draco shrugged. "I can’t be the one to bring him down. Not that something like this - compared with everything else he’s done - would go far in accomplishing that. But still. I do have a sense of family loyalty, even if that family includes Lucius."
"I get it." He didn’t like it, but he understood. Lucius would always be Draco’s father. "But I had to ask."
Draco nodded. "If it’s any consolation, my mother is pissed."
Harry smiled widely. "Yeah," he said, "it is, actually." At Draco’s raised brow, he added, "Don’t fuck with a woman’s child. Even if you’re that child’s father." He chuckled. "I’d be willing to bet his life won’t be quite so cosy for a while."
Draco smirked. "Agreed."
Harry watched a scowl form slowly on Draco’s face - the one that meant he was troubled by something and struggling to put it into words. "What is it?" Harry asked.
"Why did you tell me?" Draco asked. "I mean, I know you’re an Auror and all that, but ... well, you have been known to bend the rules from time to time, if memory serves. Surely you could have kept that morsel to yourself."
Harry shrugged. "I didn’t want to tell you, but ..." Harry shrugged. "I’d want to know if it were me."
"Would you really? I mean, if your father ..." He didn’t finish his thought.
"For what it’s worth, I’m sorry your dad’s a dick. I get no pleasure out of telling you this."
"Even if you probably should."
Harry ignored that. "I might not want to know, because it never feels good to find out your parents aren’t the people you always imagined them to be."
"Says Saint Potter with the mother who died for him."
"And your mother risked her life to get to you, too." Harry let go the Saint Potter comment. "I always imagined my dad as this great guy, but he was a bit of a jerk back in school. More than a bit. At least where Snape was concerned." He remembered how James had preened for the girls. "Bit full of himself, too."
Draco snorted. "Like Snape always said you were?"
Harry nodded. "Exactly like Snape said I was. He could never see me, he only saw a younger version of him."
"But how do you know your dad was really like that? Surely you didn’t take Snape’s word for it."
"No, I saw it in his memory when he was teaching me Occlumancy."
"When he what?"
"I’ll tell you all about it another time," he said automatically, forgetting that they weren’t friends and that after this case they might never speak again. "Anyway, then I asked Remus and Sirius and they confirmed it." At his confused look, Harry added, "Lupin and my godfather and my dad were friends in school. They knew him better than anyone."
"So your dad was a bit of a tit. Need I remind you that mine was a Death Eater?"
Harry sighed. "It’s not a competition." And he certainly wasn’t comparing James to Lucius. "I’m just saying that I understand wishing some things about your dad weren’t true. That’s all."
"But this is a whole new level of fucked up."
No shit, it was. Harry couldn’t imagine James - or any father, really - doing what Lucius did. "I can’t deny that. But how can anything change if you don’t even know what he’s done? You can’t call him on his behaviour or protect yourself from it if you don’t know about it."
"I could’ve lived my whole life without ever knowing this about him." He took the last sip of his drink and then got up to pour himself some more. He raised his now half-full glass in a mock toast. "Blissful ignorance."
"I don’t know how blissful ignorance is." Harry shrugged. "I think it’s always better to know the truth, don’t you?"
Draco swirled the liquid in his glass and stared at it. "Even if the truth hurts?"
"Especially if it hurts." Harry thought about that day five years ago. Fuck, that had hurt. But how much worse would it have been if Draco hadn’t said anything? If Harry had gone on, building up hope that they might’ve been able to make a life together? Because, as hard as it was to admit it, and as short a time as they’d been together, that’s exactly what he’d been thinking at the time. However foolish that was now in hindsight. How would it have felt if he’d let himself get even closer to Draco, only to have him come home one day and announce his engagement to some pureblood witch? Working with him now was hard enough; he couldn’t imagine if his heart had been totally ripped to shreds. "Because the longer you live the lie, the more it’ll hurt when you find out the truth."
"You really believe that?"
"Yeah, I really do." He looked at the pain on Draco’s face and wanted to reach out to him. To comfort him. To tell him everything would be okay. But that wasn’t his place. He couldn’t promise something like that. Because he wouldn’t be around to pick up the pieces.
Continued in Part 10
Author: sesheta_66
Pairing: Harry/Draco
Word Count: 4.2K
Rating: Eventual NC-17
Warning: none
Summary: Harry’s world is upended when he’s asked to investigate a break-in and threats levied at Draco Malfoy. He’s never told anyone about their short-lived but intense relationship, and now, five years after it ended, doesn’t seem the time. He’s a professional, so he will investigate, find and arrest the culprit, and get on with his life. What else can he do?
Disclaimer: Harry Potter characters are the property of J.K. Rowling and Bloomsbury/Scholastic. No profit is being made, and no copyright infringement is intended.
To start at the beginning, click here.
Or to read at AO3, click here.
[Malicious Intent - Part 9]
Malicious Intent - Part 9
Harry sat down to work straight away, scanning the various devices. There were two clear sets of magical signatures - one residual on the old, no longer working ones that oddly matched the clear one contained within Draco's ring. The second was all over the remaining devices, including the video enabled ones. The newer ones had evidence of tampering, an unsuccessful attempt at wiping, or at least obscuring, the signature, but enough remained to match to the others.
Now that he'd isolated the signatures, the hard work would begin: matching to those on file. Ordinarily, Harry would have handed this work over to the lab for analysis but he opted to do what he could himself for now. If he couldn't narrow it down - he was no Albus Dumbledore after all - Harry would get Draco's okay before involving others. But he'd done this work before and the signatures seemed pretty clear, so he was reasonably confident he could manage.
He decided to start with known Death Eaters. A mere two hours later, he'd hit pay dirt. And found himself quite ill at the results: it seemed Lucius Malfoy knew no boundaries when it involved controlling others, even his own son. Perhaps especially his own son. It explained a lot, though. Harry had wondered who could possibly have placed something inside Draco's Malfoy family ring. But that also meant the bastard had been the one spying on his son for two years.
This made Harry both furious and relieved. Relieved because it likely meant that the person after Draco had started his or her campaign relatively recently. Furious because ... well. The man never ceased to amaze Harry with his utter contempt of others and his inflated sense of self-worth and importance. It would give Harry great pleasure to knock the smug bastard down a few hundred notches. Again. If it weren’t for the fact that he was Draco’s father. Still. A few well-placed spells to make his life utterly miserable couldn’t be that bad a thing, could it? It was times like these Harry regretted - just a little - the anti-corruption measures he’d helped Kingsley implement at the Ministry. And yet ... he doubted anyone would come after him for doing to Lucius what he well deserved.
Fuck. He didn't cherish being the one to tell Draco that his dad was an even bigger dick than they'd already known. Though Harry didn't honestly believe Lucius meant any real harm to Draco, he didn't doubt for a moment that he wanted to control him. Even after everything he’d put his family through, he had the nerve to do something so intrusive. The man was a loathsome human being. Harry ran his hands through his hair in frustration, no doubt leaving it more of a bird’s nest than usual. The inability to dole out the punishment that fuckwit deserved threatened to drive him mad. He shook off his anger for the moment to focus elsewhere.
Now, on to the more problematic discovery: Thorfinn Rowle. Assumed dead after the war, efforts to find him had gone cold and had dwindled to an occasional revisit of his file when a sighting of some Death Eater or another came in. Harry looked forward to the day they might have enough resources to pull all the cold DE files and close them properly. No body, no closed file, no rest until all Death Eaters at large were incarcerated or in the ground.
He pulled Rowle's file and briefed himself on all the notes made. He'd been one of the Death Eaters that Voldemort had broken out of Azkaban, so his crimes dated quite far back. There were cursory notes on known associates, family and prior addresses. He saw his own statements about how Rowle had been one of the Death Eaters to break into Hogwarts, and had set Hagrid’s hut alight with Fang still inside in their sixth year. And again his notes from the Battle of Hogwarts.
Harry also remembered Rowle - though there were no notes about this on file - as one of the Death Eaters that had attacked him, Ron and Hermione in the Tottenham Court Road cafe after the Ministry had fallen. And he saw Rowle's face once more, through Voldemort's eyes, watched again as Draco had Crucioed him. Watched as Rowle had revelled in Lucius' humiliation at Voldemort's hand.
Oh, yes, Rowle had ample reason to want either or both of the Malfoy men punished for moving on with their lives while he - no worse in his own mind, and no doubt leagues above them, in his estimation, for remaining loyal - was relegated to living his life in the shadows.
Harry spent the rest of the day studying Rowle's file for anything he might be able to use to catch the Death Eater that wanted Draco dead. Frankly, he'd be more than pleased if Rowle caught up with Lucius, though he doubted Draco would appreciate that sentiment. Such that he was, Lucius remained Draco’s father. Besides, Harry wouldn't want to see Narcissa hurt and he doubted Rowle would hesitate to kill her to get to Lucius. Or just for the fun of it. He’d been the one to kill his own fellow at Hogwarts, flinging curses around carelessly, so what was the wife and mother of his enemies worth anyway? Harry didn't think Draco would suffer much for the loss off his dickhead dad - would likely be far better off for his absence - but his mother was another story.
When finally his trace came back, Harry was so deeply immersed in the file, he didn't register the soft buzzing right away.
"What's that you're working on?" Ron asked, bringing him out of the criminal life and times of Thorfinn Rowle.
Harry resisted the urge to cover up the file. He'd been careful not to leave open anything that made reference to Draco, and he had his cover story ready. Truth be told, he was surprised Ron hadn't come nosing around before now.
"Cold case."
"Oh, yeah? New leads?"
Harry nodded. "Not much. Just a magical signature detected for a presumed-dead Death Eater." Ron looked excited, so Harry derailed him quickly. "No indication it's recent, so just the usual follow-up. Probably a dead end. No pun intended." He closed the file casually. "You still on the Muggle baiting case in Yorkshire?"
"Yeah. Heading for an overnight soon. That's why I came by. Hermione's been looking forward to seeing you and Gin tonight." Harry cringed. He'd completely forgotten their plans. Ron laughed as he caught Harry’s reaction. "Thought it might've slipped your mind. No worries, mate. With me gone, 'Mione asked if she thought you'd mind if the two of them made it a girls' night instead."
"Oh, yeah. Sure." He was beginning to wonder if he’d even see Ginny before she left again. "I mean, no, I don’t mind."
"I won't tell a soul you forgot."
Harry grinned sheepishly. "Thanks." He looked at his watch. "Time for a coffee before you go?" He could use the caffeine before diving into the trace results and - what promised to be even more trying - heading over to break the news to Draco. He'd prefer to delay that a while longer.
"Sorry. We leave in ten and I still have to pack my kit. Rain check, though."
"Sure. Good luck. Hope the trip is worth it."
Ron shrugged. "There's that pub with the great shepherd's pie over there, so it won't be a total loss, even if we don't catch the guy."
"Silver linings," Harry agreed, amazed that his friend probably knew a pub with a great something-or-other in every town in England by now.
"I'll pass along your sincere disappointment to Hermione."
Harry laughed. "Bit much, mate."
"Right. I’ll tell her you’re okay with her stealing Gin away for the night."
"Thanks."
Once Ron left, Harry abandoned his idea for coffee and dove back into the case. He followed the trace where it led and now he had a neighbourhood to go with the rest. As he’d expected, there was no mention of a family home in that area, but perhaps Draco would know more. His stomach clenched. He really, really didn’t want to be the one to tell him about Lucius. He made a duplicate of Rowle’s file and returned the original to cold case storage. Now out of excuses to delay any longer, he spelled "Now okay?" onto the coin and pressed his thumb to it. Before he’d even finished clearing his desk, he felt it burn in his pocket. "Sure."
Steeling himself for the unpleasantness to come, he Apparated outside Draco’s door and knocked.
The door flung open and Draco said, "Taking this politeness a bit far, aren’t you?"
"What?"
"You already warned me. You could have Apparated inside."
Harry shrugged. "Force of habit, I suppose. We don’t exactly Apparate into people’s places."
"Well, come on in, then." He waved Harry past, closed the door and followed him into the living room. "What do you have?"
"Could we maybe have a cup of tea?"
Draco’s face fell. "Is it that bad?"
"Maybe some firewhiskey for you?"
Draco sat down. "Just spit it out."
Harry removed the file from his pocket at returned it to regular size. "Do you want the bad news or the really bad news first?" Not that he knew which was worse overall.
"Just tell me already."
Harry ran his hand over the back of his neck. "Well, there were two distinct magical signatures that I found, and both were a match to known Death Eaters."
"No big surprise there."
"One was presumed dead. Thorfinn Rowle."
Draco’s back stiffened. "Fuck."
"Yeah. Sadistic bastard, from what I’ve read on his file."
"And he can probably still feel the Crucio I threw at him."
Harry nodded, unsure how he could soften the next blow. Deciding he might as well do it all at once, like removing a plaster, he went for it. "And the other was ... your father."
"My ..." Draco went pale. No, that wasn’t quite right. He turned an unhealthy shade of grey. Not that any shade of grey would be healthy, but ... well ... he looked ill.
"Your father," Harry repeated. "Your ring."
Draco clenched his teeth. "Of course."
"And the old ones, the ones that don’t work anymore."
Harry couldn’t tell if Draco was going to throw something or throw up. It could go either way. "So what you’re telling me is ... my father has been spying on me for two years?"
Harry rather thought it was more like his entire life, but he didn’t see the benefit of pointing that out just now. "It appears so."
Draco jumped to his feet and began pacing. "The one fucking time he came over here. The day before I moved in. I’d shown them the place. I’d told Mother about it and she showed up with him in tow." His eyes flared as he looked at Harry. "I didn’t want to let him in, but Mother had him by the arm and was ushering him past before I could stop her." He paced the room a couple more times. Harry didn’t say anything. "The bastard must have planted them that day without either of us noticing." He stopped in front of Harry. "Who does that?"
Harry scrambled for something to say, but obviously it had been rhetorical, because Draco resumed his pacing without waiting for an answer. He mumbled under his breath and Harry caught a few expletives coupled with bastard and arsehole. Harry neither disagreed nor added to the conversation. Instead, he got up and poured Draco a finger of Firewhiskey. Draco took it, swigged it back and slammed the glass onto the table as he sat down. "That fucker!"
"I -" Harry began.
Draco stood up again. "I need to go see him." He grabbed a travelling cloak and put it on. "Find out what the fuck he was thinking." He looked at Harry. "Do you have the ring?"
Harry nodded and pulled the evidence bag out of his pocket. He withdrew the ring. "I should keep the rest of this as evidence."
"Fine. Whatever." He put on the ring with a look of disgust on his face. "But I think I’d like to shove this - along with my fist - down his throat right now."
Harry stood up. "Do you want me to go with you?"
"Why?" He whirled on Harry. "Are you going to protect him?"
Harry didn’t want to, but suspected duty might require exactly that. "I was thinking more along the lines of providing moral support." Draco snorted. "Or stopping you from committing patricide and landing yourself in prison." Draco glared. "Or, if that’s not possible, help you hide the body?" he ventured.
"I may laugh about that someday," Draco said. "And I’m sure I’ll amuse myself by replaying this memory in my Pensieve from time to time." He steeled himself. "But for now, I’ll just respectfully decline your offer of assistance and assure you that I will not rid the earth of my father’s presence. Not today, anyway."
"We could discuss Rowle?"
"Nice try," Draco said, closing the clasp of his cloak and smoothing the material. "But I think I need to confront him now. While I’m good and mad. Mother too, for being so stupidly naive as to continue to trust him and push for us to get along."
"Are you sure?"
He gave Harry his don’t be a fucking idiot look. "I’m so bloody tired of playing nice around him. It’s high time I give him a piece of my mind, and right now I’m likely as mad as I’ll ever be. And I think it’ll do me some good to unleash on the fucker while I’m in this state. And it’s also likely to be the only time I’m mad enough not to let Mother stop me."
"Okay," Harry said warily. "But if you need anything ..."
He rolled his eyes. "You can’t save me from my idiot father, so don’t even try. Especially since I do realise how you feel about him yourself."
"I’ll just be on my way then, yeah? Let me know when you’re ready to talk about Rowle. Meanwhile, I’ll keep trying to work out a plan to catch him."
"I’m not sure I’ll be ready to talk about anything before tomorrow, but I’ll let you know."
"Fair enough." With more than a bit of trepidation, Harry Apparated home, hoping that he wouldn’t get called out later that night to investigate a murder in Wiltshire.
He’d locked away his work files, changed into his favourite jeans and a t-shirt and had just put the kettle on when Ginny came in. "I’d kill for an Earl Grey right now," she said in greeting.
"Hello to you too," he said, giving her a peck on the cheek. "Rough day?"
"Coach is working us like mad for this weekend’s match. I hurt where I didn’t even know I had muscles." She rolled her neck back and forth and rubbed her hand over it.
"Why don’t you go have a long, hot shower and I’ll have your tea ready for you when you get out?"
"Sounds perfect. What time do we have to go round to my darling brother’s?"
"Ah," he said, presuming she’d not received an update yet from Hermione. "Ron has to head out of town on a case tonight, and Hermione thought it’d be nice if the two of you made it a girls’ night."
"Oh, she did, did she?"
He rolled his eyes. "Sent Ron to do her dirty work and see if I’d be okay giving you up for the night."
She grinned widely, clearly pleased at the change in plans. Harry tried not to feel offended. "Oh, don’t get all pouty on me. It’s been a long time since Hermione and I spent quality time together."
"I know." He didn’t point out that it had also been rather a long time since the two of them had done so. "And I’m sure you’ll have a great time."
"Yeah, it’ll be nice. But for now, I need to wash away the day and let the water soothe my muscles."
"And I’ll make the tea."
After her shower, Ginny fell asleep and Harry didn’t have the heart to wake her until shortly before she had to leave for Hermione’s. "Still want that cuppa before you go?"
"That’d be brilliant." She stretched and yawned before dragging herself out of the bed. "Thanks for letting me nap. I didn’t know how knackered I was until my head hit the pillow."
"No problem. Come fill me in on your day over some Earl Grey before you desert me again."
She smacked him playfully and they made their way to the kitchen. She filled him in on the latest gossip surrounding her teammates and complained about their relentless coach and before long, it was time for her to leave. "What are your plans for tonight?" she asked.
"I’ll probably catch up on some work."
Her smile faltered. "Of course you will." It was always a sore spot between them, how much time he dedicated to his work. But she apparently wasn’t going to press the issue. "Don’t wait up," she said.
He kissed her on the cheek. "Have fun and say hi to ‘Mione for me."
"Will do." And she was gone.
And once more, Harry was left alone with his thoughts. And once more, they returned to Draco. He wondered how things had gone with Lucius. What possible excuse he might have come up with. No doubt he’d say that he’d done it to protect Draco.
A short while later, the coin in Harry’s pocket burned. He removed it and saw Home on it. Taking that as an invitation, he Apparated once more to Draco’s door and knocked.
As he followed Draco into the living room, the scent of firewhiskey wafted back to him and he saw that the bottle had considerably less in it than earlier. Though he wasn’t visibly inebriated, Harry suspected that Draco’d had a couple already.
"Alright, then. What can you tell me about Rowle and what are we going to do about it?"
Harry didn’t know what to make of Draco’s composed demeanour. It was rather unnerving, considering when he’d last seen him. "You seem calm."
He sighed. "Yes, I am. It’s called compartmentalising. We Slytherins are rather adept at it. First I was angry. Then I vented that anger. Now I’ve put it aside so that I may focus on something else."
"But ... are you okay?" Harry couldn’t help asking.
"Of course I’m not okay," he snapped. "But I’ll cope. As you well know, I’ve coped with worse." As Harry made to speak, Draco sighed. "And I don’t want to talk about it."
"Okay, then." Harry pulled out the file again and put it on the table. "The trace led to a neighbourhood in Romford. I don’t have any record of a Rowle owning property there, at least not in the wizarding pockets of the area. Do you know of anyone living there? Any Death Eaters or Voldemort sympathisers?"
Draco considered the question for a few moments. "Not that I know of, but I may have heard a street name or a landmark mentioned without knowing where it was. Let me think about it for a while."
Harry handed him a bundle of paper. "Notable landmarks and a list of street names in Romford." At Draco’s surprised look, he grinned. "Not my favourite part of the job, but I really do research when I need to."
Draco’s lips twitched but he suppressed a full-on smile. "Point taken. Is there anything else?"
"Not right now. Unless you want to - and don’t bite my head off for suggesting this; I’m just doing my job - do you want to pursue something against your father?"
"No, of course not."
"So he’ll get away with this, like he gets away with everything?" He couldn’t help the disdain seeping into his voice.
Draco shrugged. "I can’t be the one to bring him down. Not that something like this - compared with everything else he’s done - would go far in accomplishing that. But still. I do have a sense of family loyalty, even if that family includes Lucius."
"I get it." He didn’t like it, but he understood. Lucius would always be Draco’s father. "But I had to ask."
Draco nodded. "If it’s any consolation, my mother is pissed."
Harry smiled widely. "Yeah," he said, "it is, actually." At Draco’s raised brow, he added, "Don’t fuck with a woman’s child. Even if you’re that child’s father." He chuckled. "I’d be willing to bet his life won’t be quite so cosy for a while."
Draco smirked. "Agreed."
Harry watched a scowl form slowly on Draco’s face - the one that meant he was troubled by something and struggling to put it into words. "What is it?" Harry asked.
"Why did you tell me?" Draco asked. "I mean, I know you’re an Auror and all that, but ... well, you have been known to bend the rules from time to time, if memory serves. Surely you could have kept that morsel to yourself."
Harry shrugged. "I didn’t want to tell you, but ..." Harry shrugged. "I’d want to know if it were me."
"Would you really? I mean, if your father ..." He didn’t finish his thought.
"For what it’s worth, I’m sorry your dad’s a dick. I get no pleasure out of telling you this."
"Even if you probably should."
Harry ignored that. "I might not want to know, because it never feels good to find out your parents aren’t the people you always imagined them to be."
"Says Saint Potter with the mother who died for him."
"And your mother risked her life to get to you, too." Harry let go the Saint Potter comment. "I always imagined my dad as this great guy, but he was a bit of a jerk back in school. More than a bit. At least where Snape was concerned." He remembered how James had preened for the girls. "Bit full of himself, too."
Draco snorted. "Like Snape always said you were?"
Harry nodded. "Exactly like Snape said I was. He could never see me, he only saw a younger version of him."
"But how do you know your dad was really like that? Surely you didn’t take Snape’s word for it."
"No, I saw it in his memory when he was teaching me Occlumancy."
"When he what?"
"I’ll tell you all about it another time," he said automatically, forgetting that they weren’t friends and that after this case they might never speak again. "Anyway, then I asked Remus and Sirius and they confirmed it." At his confused look, Harry added, "Lupin and my godfather and my dad were friends in school. They knew him better than anyone."
"So your dad was a bit of a tit. Need I remind you that mine was a Death Eater?"
Harry sighed. "It’s not a competition." And he certainly wasn’t comparing James to Lucius. "I’m just saying that I understand wishing some things about your dad weren’t true. That’s all."
"But this is a whole new level of fucked up."
No shit, it was. Harry couldn’t imagine James - or any father, really - doing what Lucius did. "I can’t deny that. But how can anything change if you don’t even know what he’s done? You can’t call him on his behaviour or protect yourself from it if you don’t know about it."
"I could’ve lived my whole life without ever knowing this about him." He took the last sip of his drink and then got up to pour himself some more. He raised his now half-full glass in a mock toast. "Blissful ignorance."
"I don’t know how blissful ignorance is." Harry shrugged. "I think it’s always better to know the truth, don’t you?"
Draco swirled the liquid in his glass and stared at it. "Even if the truth hurts?"
"Especially if it hurts." Harry thought about that day five years ago. Fuck, that had hurt. But how much worse would it have been if Draco hadn’t said anything? If Harry had gone on, building up hope that they might’ve been able to make a life together? Because, as hard as it was to admit it, and as short a time as they’d been together, that’s exactly what he’d been thinking at the time. However foolish that was now in hindsight. How would it have felt if he’d let himself get even closer to Draco, only to have him come home one day and announce his engagement to some pureblood witch? Working with him now was hard enough; he couldn’t imagine if his heart had been totally ripped to shreds. "Because the longer you live the lie, the more it’ll hurt when you find out the truth."
"You really believe that?"
"Yeah, I really do." He looked at the pain on Draco’s face and wanted to reach out to him. To comfort him. To tell him everything would be okay. But that wasn’t his place. He couldn’t promise something like that. Because he wouldn’t be around to pick up the pieces.
Continued in Part 10