"Hermione, I swear if you take any longer..."
"Patience, Harold. Draco is fine, he won't be harmed."
They're in the third floor corridor, with a charm that alters the walker-by's memory and makes them turn around. Hermione's drawn a circle on the floor with chalk and set four candles around it with other ingredients along the line.
The only thing missing is Draco's artifact.
"You don't know that," Harry snaps. "He could already be hurt."
"You would have felt it," she says calmly, ignoring his hostility. "And you haven't, which means he's still in one piece. Have you tried the communication channel again?"
"He's in a warded space, the wall won't break. If I knew where he was, I wouldn't be here."
"I just need Blaise and Ron to come back with something of his, the spell is almost done."
"I don't know why I couldn't just go get a shirt of his."
"Because it's not that simple," Hermione explains, laying the necessary objects down around the summoning circle. "It needs to be something dear to his heart."
"Like what?"
Ron comes through the door, holds it open for Blaise, who's holding a small chest in his arms. "We're back."
"Why do you have that?"
"Because Draco is a cold-hearted fool with a secret fat heart and I didn't know what to bring so I brought several things," Blaise looks down at the chest, shrugging. "There's bound to be something in here that'll work."
Hermione walks to him and takes the chest to set it on the floor next to the circle of candles, opens it and digs through it. "It must be something that he holds dearly, something with a deep connection to him."
She pulls out a leather journal with a small dragon etched onto the cover and lifts it to Blaise. He winces. "That's the potion journal he received at his coming-of-age. It's a pure-blood tradition to gift the wizard a journal so he can make his own potions."
The Gryffindor girl purses her lips at it. "Not good enough."
"Wha--!" Blaise splutters, his eyes widening when she tosses it aside. "He's never let anyone near the book, he's set a Disillusionment spell on the damned thing!"
"Draco would have everything memorized," Harry says, agreeing with Hermione. "He may be protective about his own creations, but the journal itself isn't worth much."
Blaise frowns and walks to the journal, picking it up and holding it against his chest. Hermione digs through the box again and pulls out a silver ring of a coiled snake, the head of it pointing northward with green emeralds for eyes glinting in the firelight.
"What's this?"
"The only gift from his aunt."
"Bellatrix Lestrange?" Hermione makes a face. "Why would she have given him a gift?"
"No, not her. Pandora Lovegood."
"A story for another day," Hermione nods. She sets the ring on a small table. "But that's also not powerful enough."
She pulls out several things. Draco's shrunken broom, his first Potion's essay with an O, a tie that Blaise swears is sentimental but won't explain why, and a comb.
Hermione gives him a look.
"What," Blaise says defensively. "Have you seen the man's hair product collection? If anything is dear to him, it'll be that mop of corn hair on the top of his head."
Ron laughs somewhere in the background while Harry rolls his eyes.
"Why not just use Harry?"
Everyone stops moving and turns to Ron, who looks up with wide eyes.
"What?"
"What did you say?"
"Why not use Harry? He's dear to Draco, now that they're bonded. And he has a deep connection to him."
"Brilliant, Ron," Hermione blurts out, her eyes wide. "Why didn't I think of that?"
"We can do that," Harry asks, turning to the bushy-haired girl. "That's possible?"
"Technically, the item placed in the middle has to have enough magical charge to power the connection between it and the host. So, yeah. It would work, technically."
"Well, come on! What are we waiting for?"
*******
It had only been minutes. Maybe just short of an hour of being kidnapped. But Draco's mind was running a mile a minute; where was Harry, was he stable, was he still trying to find him?
The one thing that was bothering him the most is that this boy looked so eerily familiar, the type of familiar that he had seen as a pass-by, for a very short moment, but his face was recorded in Draco's mind nonetheless.
"What is your name?"
The boy turned deliberately, his eyes steady and his mouth pressed into a line. Draco took this time to map his face out; with a mop of dark curls and green eyes, very sharp cheekbones and a slim face.
"Why would I tell you my name?"
"Curiosity," Draco murmurs, his eyes closely trained on his captor's features. "Your first name will do."
The boy laughs, his shoulders shake and he throws his head back. "So regal for someone who's tied to a chair."
"I have no need to be of disrespect. You have not harmed me or insulted me, so I shall do the same."
"Hm," the boy shrugs.
"So," Draco asks patiently. "What is it?"
"Are you going to give me something in exchange?"
"Why would I do that?"
"Because it would be an even trade. My name is valuable information."
"I suppose you would want something valuable in return."
"Of course."
"Like what?"
"You have a journal," the boy says immediately, sounding giddy. "That never leaves your book bag. It's bound in leather..."
"No. Pick something else."
"You are in no place to make demands," the boy laughs. "However, since I am generous, I ask instead for your quill."
Draco gives him a side look. "My quill?"
"Dipped in silver, adorned with red stones. The last quill your father gave you."
"Oh," the blond thinks for a moment, and then he frowns. He doesn't know how the boy knows that, but he also does not want to push his luck. "Sure. That is of no use to me."
"It's an antique," the boy says, sniffing. "And it's very valuable."
"Your name."
"Kai," the boy says. Then his eyes glaze over and turn distant as he stares into space. "My parents named me Kai."
"I commend your honesty, Kai," Draco says slowly, watching the boy with cautious eyes. "And I also wanted to express my gratitude for withholding any violence from me."
"My intention isn't to hurt you," Kai says, sounding disgusted with the idea. "I am an evolutionist. I simply want to know more."
"About Harry?"
"About Veelas. Magnificent creatures, they are. Never exist twice in the same generation. Not anymore. They're practically extinct, on the verge of it. It's been rather difficult finding the next heirs, but I found the pattern," Kai cackles manically. "I might not be a genius but I cracked it. And I found you. And your mate! Two mated Veelas!"
"You were looking for us?"
"Oh, yes. Yes, yes. I've been searching for a Veela for years. Waiting for the right moment, always waiting. Calculating, reading the signs. The book. The book! The most important asset! Oh, oh, without the book, I wouldn't have gotten here."
Draco watches with hesitant curiosity as Kai twists his back to him, mumbling about the book, the book as he starts digging around the clutter of his desk. He jumps when Kai slams both palms on the desk, his shoulders coiled tightly and rising with each breath he takes.
His eyes move down to Kai's hand, which curls and crumbles the parchment under it, and suddenly he's turning back around. Draco's body seizes up.
Kai's shoulder twitches, the entire left side of his body curling uncomfortably while the other side is completely still, serene. And his eyes. His right eye is consumed in darkness, not an ounce of green or the white of his eyes, trained on Draco like prey. Kai's left eye is still very green, in pain.
"I need," Kai's right side starts convulsing, and Draco watches in terror as he starts morphing into something else. "The book."
The boy drops forward on his hands and knees, and Draco tugs at his restraints, pushing his feet on the ground to get his chair to move back.
Draco shuts his eyes tightly and turns away when he starts to hear the crunching, Kai's bones breaking and rearranging themselves inside his body, tearing the muscle as the shards move from within.
Kai's morphed human half gargles, and then it's like he gives in because the creature consumes him, and he becomes part of it. There's black smoke everywhere, swirling aggressively, blowing Draco's chair to the side.
He falls with a puff of pain, still staring wide-eyed at the thing becoming in front of his eyes.
It roars. The lights flicker and one of the three lanterns in the room shatters, encompassing them in a dim orange glow. The thing twitches, twisting its neck and looking around the room curiously through the fog of the black cloud.
The Slytherin gasps in his throat when it goes to move closer to him, the noise it's emitting sounding like a deep hum, a buzz of pain. And even when his heart is trying to beat out of his chest, and his shoulder is most likely dislocated from the way he fell, he remembers with extreme clarity where he's seen Kai's emerald green eyes.
He jerks away, his eyes narrowing at the thing before him while he remembers. And then his eyes widen.
"Scamander," he yells in surprise. "Newt Scamander was the magizoologist on the case of the Obscurus in 1926 when it terrorized New York."
The black clouds stopped swirling immediately, at a standstill, and a pair of eyes made way through the fog.
Draco gulps. "You are an Obscurus?"
It groans in front of him, spasming to the side.
"But Scamander was not the Obscurus," Draco murmurs thoughtfully. "It was a boy. An adopted boy. But what was his name?"
The Obscurial sways from side to side, almost in a calming manner, the eyes never moving from Draco.
And Draco remembers where he's seen Kai's striking raven hair.
"Barebone...the boy's name. Credence Barebone."
In the span of a second, the black cloud twirls, and then disperses, revealing a tired Kai with his head hanging and his shoulders sagged. "You know them?"
His voice sounds worn and tired, most likely exhausted from such a scene, but he looks up to Draco with a gleam of wonder in his green eyes.
"Do you," Draco counters, his neck twisted uncomfortably from the position he's in. "Do you know them?"
Kai nods, a dreamy smile on his face as he looks up. "Scamander. Kai Scamander. That's my name."
All of sudden there's a pop, and Draco's vision of the tired boy is blocked by jeans and sneakers, and Draco's chest swells inexplicably large with relief when his eyes meet Harry's.
Harry growls and his eyes flash red, making the rope around Draco's wrists disappear with a pop. He hauls Draco up, and when he turns he growls again. Draco puts a hand on his chest when he goes to move forward.
"Leave him be. I am not harmed."
"He took you!"
"I want to go home," Draco says, smiling despite the situation, when Harry whips his head to look at Draco with wide eyes. "Let us go home."
Harry swirls to look at Kai with narrowed eyes, pushing Draco behind him. "Don't come near us again."
"Dont worry," Kai answers breathlessly as he slumps to the floor. "I won't bother you again."
In a flash of grey smoke, Kai's eyes roll back and black encompasses the entirety of them before he disappears. Draco suppresses a shiver and tightens his hold on Harry's shirt.
"Who was that," Harry asks, staring at the empty space where Kai once was. "What did he want?"
Draco clears his throat silently, his eyes moving up to look at Harry through his lashes when he turns and takes Draco into his arms. He lays his head on Harry chest when he's hugged, and makes a decision.
"I do not know," he whispers. He closes his eyes and inhales Harry's scent. The outside wind and leather. "I do not know."