Harry was dancing with Achara; surprisingly left alone in the excitement of the Christmas cheer, though probably because it was clear Achara was causing everyone a lot of amusement at Harry's expense. She was trying to teach him vogue hands and she was laughing hysterically at his efforts.
The only thing was, Harry wasn't feeling the Christmas cheer in the slightest. Draco had stood him up without explanation. As Harry was expected to give a speech he found himself in a position of extreme anxiety; unsure what had happened but unable to leave to find out.
Achara stood behind him, pressed against his back and far taller in her enormous heels, trying to direct his arms and bend his hands in directions he was sure they shouldn't be going in. 'You're very distracted, Harry,' she said, concern dancing in her dusky voice in his ear. Her floral perfume seemed to cloud his mind and he was finding it unsettling.
'Draco hasn't turned up, I'm surprised, that's all. I'd have thought he'd let me know if something was wrong...'
Achara frowned but didn't say anything, as if waiting for Harry to say more.
'Maybe things are just moving a bit fast between us and I need to back off and give him space.'
'I'm sure it's not that,' she said. 'He's clearly besotted with you.'
'I've been a bit wrapped up in work. Maybe I missed something. It's just been a bit intense and hopelessly frustrating this past month with dead-end after dead-end'
Indeed, despite Ron finding out that Lucius and Abbott were at Hogwarts together, in the same House, even, their other investigations had proved unfruitful. Bill confirmed that the bank records showed no unusual transfers or activities involved in Abbott's and Langello's accounts and Harry still hadn't made it to Azkaban due to his work commitments. There was a lack of movement in the feelings from the book, just anxious anticipation. And Langello had remained unofficially missing. That is, missing until five days previously when he'd been picked up staying in the small seaside village of Staithes, just ten miles south of Whitby. The locals reported his strange behaviour to the muggle police; his guest house was concerned their visitor might have dementia as he seemed lost and unsure who or where he was.
Turned out his mind was completely Obliviated and Langello was currently in St Mungo's in the same wing as Gilderoy Lockhart in a very similar state of mind.
On top of the mystery of Langello, Hannah Abbott had approached Harry in the Atrium of the Ministry the previous day.
'Harry,' she'd called after him as he was just leaving to grab some lunch. 'Harry!'
He stopped in surprise, 'Hannah, how are you? It's been a long time...'
She looked close to tears. 'It's dad, I've come in to see if his department know anything. He's not been home for three days... Harry, I know you two don't see eye-to-eye but I'm really worried, it's not like him not to vanish like this and no one seems to know where he is...'
Harry immediately took Hannah to his office. 'When did he go missing?'
'Tuesday, he had a meeting outside the office but his diary doesn't show where.'
'And is there anything that you know of, in his private life, that might cause this?'
'You mean like a new woman after mum...' her bottom lip wobbled. 'No...'
'Are you reporting him missing, officially?'
'I was told to wait until Tuesday, until it had been a full week because he's an adult in sane mind and might have just taken himself off for a holiday. Harry, I don't believe that, he wouldn't do that without telling me first.'
'And has his behaviour been any different recently, anything noticeable?'
She shrugged, 'it's all been different since mum was killed. He's been more distance, more... I don't know, just going through the motions, more robotic.'
'Might he have had a break down?'
'I don't think so, I thought things were starting to improve slowly. Like he had a purpose again.'
Harry'd done some poking around and got Ron on the case too. The result had finally pushed Harry into the trip to Azkaban to talk to someone there. He'd had to do that outside office hours because it wasn't an official investigation, which meant the going on the Saturday he and Draco had originally planned together in the build up to the Ministry's Christmas Ball. Draco had agreed to meet him directly at the Ministry.
Visiting Azkaban was exhausting, which was partly why he'd procrastinated over going. He couldn't Apparate because it was unplottable so it meant a difficult low-level broom-flight under Disillusionment Wards and invariably getting soaking wet by the tempestuous and cold North Sea.
The results had been productive but not conclusive. No doubt he'd be making the same trip again early the following week. He'd found out that both Langello and Abbott had visited Azkaban on numerous occasions in the past three and a half years, what's more, both had visited Lucius Malfoy more than once. This wasn't so surprising for Abbott, considering he worked for the Criminal Probation Department; Langello, well, it could be argued that as a solicitor, he could be visiting clients, but it was rather vague and unlikely considering he'd retired. The two things that got Harry's blood tingling was, firstly, as well as Langello visiting Azkaban a week ago, he had been there on 31st October, the day that Harry registered that Curses Moste Horride had been moved and was surrounded by water, second, Abbott had visited Lucius on Tuesday and had gone missing after the Guards saw him leave. His arrival back on mainland was recorded in Whitby but then the trace went cold.
Harry had tried to get to see Lucius. He didn't particularly want to see the man but there seemed to be an awful lot of connections pointing his way. The guards wouldn't let him, despite being an Auror and in uniform; he wasn't there on official business and he didn't have the correct paperwork.
Of course, Harry couldn't tell Achara all this, it was sensitive and confidential information, but as they danced and, as Harry thought about it, an awful thought occurred to him.
'Achara, I need to leave, I need to find out about his wand...'
There was a tap on his shoulder and he turned to see an official-looking Ministry guard standing rigidly upright and still and out of place in the middle of twirling carnivalesque dance floor.
'Mr Potter, sir, there's a Mrs Narcissa Druella Malfoy at the door. She says she needs to talk to you, she says it's urgent. She has presented me with her wand.'
'Narcissa? Give me the wand!' Harry snatched the wand from the outheld hand and strode towards the door. His heart was in his mouth.
'Harry,' she looked in a state of panic. 'I've... I've been at Dromeda's all afternoon. I just tried to Apparate back to the Manor and the Wards wouldn't let me through. I can't get home. Where's Draco?'
'He's... I don't know, he didn't show... Wait a moment.'
He felt like he couldn't catch his breath as he pushed the wand back into her hand. He turned and his wolf-whistle cut through the noise to Ron. People stopped and stared but he didn't care. Ron, Mione, Peanut, Pansy, Robards, and Shacklebolt all immediately headed towards Harry and Narcissa.
They stepped out of the ballroom and Harry broke the locks on the nearest room and ushered them all inside, Warding and silencing the room after.
'We may have a problem; the Wards at Malfoy Manor have just refused to let Narcissa through...'
It was at that precise moment that Harry sensed, with every nerve-ending and every fibre of his being, that somewhere, some distance away, Godelot's book of Curses Moste Horride had been forced open. He staggered briefly, unable to focus momentarily as his connection with the book meant words ripped through his head, he saw the index, he felt gnarled fingers run along the parchment, he felt the pages being turned. He battled to throw up an Occlumens shield and shake his head clear, he was being summoned; by the book, not by the person trying to control the book. It appeared that whoever had opened the book hadn't yet started on a curse proper. The book told Harry they weren't ready, but the book wanted him there. It knew that who was doing this intended harm to Harry and his own.
'It's started,' he said, his voice chillingly calm. 'Mione, Pansy, take Narcissa to Godric's Hollow, she'll have to stay there. Peanut, get to St Mungo's, I need to know if Langello's wand was on him or amongst his belongings. Use the coins. Ron, you and I are going to Malfoy Manor, Draco is missing. Gawain, Kingsley, you're on your own here, sorry, no speech tonight, I'll debrief you as soon as I know what to report.'
'Gawain, you'd best go with Harry too,' Kingsley said. 'I'll hold the fort here.'
Harry pulled Ron and Mione aside and muttered, 'the book's been opened. It's begun, I'm being summoned, and the call is from Malfoy Manor...'
Harry reached out briefly, feeling the Ministry Wards, feeling the layers, then he grabbed Ron and Robards arms, said 'we're going!' and side-alonged them straight to the co-ordinates outside the manor's gates.
'Did you set the alarms off,' Ron grinned.
'No idea. Guess we'll find out later.'
The manor was in darkness bar a single light in a window in the east wing.
'Not good,' muttered Harry, wiping slightly sweaty palms down his Auror dress robes. He vanished his dress cloak, it would be liable to be an inconvenience, and unclipped the medals that decorated his chest; he didn't need them making a sound and giving away his presence.
'Why "not good"?' Robards whispered.
'Lucius's private apartment was in the east wing. It's heavily Warded and there's some complex curses layered within them too.'
'You worked on them?' Ron said hopefully.
'Never got a chance, I was trying to cleanse the rest of the place and neither Narcissa nor Draco wanted to go near Lucius's rooms. Right, I'm going to prod these boundary Wards, see if they've been changed and if I can get through.'
He reached out, just as he had done just over three years earlier. The tingling at his fingertips was confused slightly by the magic he could feel from the book. He pushed the feelings aside, drumming the air, feeling the new layers, and finding the signatures.
'Oh! Lucius's...' he breathed.
'In the new Wards?' said Robards.
'Yes. We have to assume he's inside. Gawain? Do I remember rightly that Lucius was particularly skilled at the Imperius?'
'Yes, one of the best.'
'Thought so. Any chance he could do it wandlessly?'
'Doubtful, maybe a mild strength.'
'Enough to persuade someone impressionable to hand over their wand?'
'Possibly.'
'Langello?' Ron asked.
'That's what I'm thinking.'
'But if Lucius has escaped, then surely Azkaban would have notified us immediately.'
'They probably don't know. There's probably someone else in his cell, bit like what happened with Barty Crouch Jnr. Gawain, can you get someone to check immediately. I think they'll probably find Giffard Abbott in his place, probably also under the Imperius Curse.'
'How, though?'
'I'm guessing Polyjuice, seeing as Abbott left there on Tuesday and hasn't been seen since.'
He felt the old DA coin in his pocket buzz and withdrew it, Ron mirrored his actions at the same time.
'Langello's wand is definitely missing then,' Ron muttered as he studied the letters on the side of coin.
Robards sent off a Patronus as Harry continued to explore the layers of Wards around the Manor.
'Aha!' he exclaimed. 'It's still there. Thank Merlin, I can get us through without dismantling the Wards or setting off any alarms. It's going to be harder once we're in.'
As he stepped through the Wards he suddenly bent over as if he'd been punched in the stomach. Lucius, he assumed, must have begun to incant a curse in preparation. Harry knew, intuitively, it was the 'Curse of Poisoned Obsession', an old curse, a curse who's only escape was death. There was also an innate feeling that it was a dactylic spell, it wasn't a simple one swish and a few words but far more complex: a layered, three-part spell. He could taste the metal of runes being aligned for a second part. Despite the sense of urgency, it also gave them a bit of time.
Harry breathed slowly and deeply, slowing his heart rate to below normal just before they entered the manor. It was a trick Severus had worked on with him so he was calm but incredibly alert. It was all about balance. Everything was about balance and it meant he could act fast without having to battle with his nerves or anxiety but using the adrenalin that coursed through his veins to enhance his responses. As he pushed open the door he sent an immediate spell through all the portraits, filling them with grey smoke and silencing the inhabitants.
'So that we can move without an alarm being raised,' Harry said in answer to the silently questioning raised-eyebrow that Robards gave him. 'As the light is minimal in the room being used, I'm hoping it won't be noticed.'
He led the way into the main hallway, feeling constantly for a sign of Wards or traps.
'Wait here, high alert,' he hissed and he sprinted up to Draco's room. He wasn't surprised to find it empty, his dress robes still hanging on the cross-beam of his four-poster. Harry was beginning to fear the worst.
'This way,' he commanded when he reached Ron and Robards.
When they reached the boundary in the east wing, he knew immediately; he felt the waves and ripples of toxicity and poison. Poisoned Obsession, he thought. Belladonna and digitalis... It was instantly apparent.
'I need Rosemary, Lavender, and Camomile,' he muttered. 'Lots of it...'
'I'll go and see if they've got any,' Robards said quietly.
'Hopefully something retrievable in December. It'll be in the formal gardens, to the left side of the house, nine o'clock as you look out. Ron, get me a flask of boiled water too, if you go back to the main hall and then head in the mirror direction of where we are now, you'll get to the kitchens.'
'Do I need to ask how you know the manor so well?' Robards muttered.
'Probably not...' Pain shot through Harry's fingers and he hissed. 'Go, now,' he inhaled as he took a deep breath. 'He's started the second phase.' He felt the murmuring of words and heard Draco's name amongst the chanting.
'What about Draco?' Ron said quietly, delaying as Robards disappeared in a flick of his dress robes.
'He's in there too.'
'You trust him?'
'Emphatically. I don't think it's good, he's on the receiving end of what's going on.'
'Keep it together, Harry.'
'I know, my emotions are not in this equation.'
Ron squeezed his arm. 'It'll be alright, mate.'
'I fucking well hope so. I'm trying to second guess Lucius's moves so I'm not sure what role Draco's playing in all this. I don't know how the spell works that he's conjuring.'
'But you know what the spell is?'
'Yes.'
'Can you stall, can you get the book to stall?'
'I don't know, but I'll try.'
As Ron disappeared off, Harry dropped his Occlumens shield slightly and reached into what could only be described as the mind of the book. He focused on the book, his book, it should answer to his command, not that of Lucius Malfoy. Harry quickly gathered it was surrounded by the five elements, that Lucius was trying to block Harry from reaching it using fire, water, air, earth combined with magic but it wasn't enough. It wasn't going to stop Harry. He fought with the layers of magic which were trying to stop him connecting. It was incredibly painful, hinting at the days when Voldemort's emotions would soar intensively through his scar.
As Harry broke through the layers, he found the page, the ripple of letters and runes and ancient ink embedded in the old pages. Harry also felt the book stir, it knew Harry had answered its summoning, that Harry was here for it. He felt it try to resist Lucius.
'I'm here,' Harry muttered. 'We need to stop him,' he whispered.
He felt the book answer his call.
Harry didn't realise he'd fallen to his knees from the overwhelming power of what he was trying to achieve but he felt the book slam closed, shutting Lucius out.
There was a scream of frustration from within the apartments.
'The herbs,' he rasped as Robards and Ron reappeared. 'Ron, equal amounts into the flask, finely macerated and infused with heat for as long as possible.'
'How much?'
'About the equivalent of two teabags, like you're making tea. I'm going to need some and once we're in, get it into Draco.'
Harry was aware of Ron moving away to what looked to probably be an eighteenth-century antique console table to use it as a potions bench. If the circumstances had been different he would have laughed at the irony.
'The rest?' Robards asked.
'Sprinkle it out across the width of the corridor, a solid interlinking line. I've brought us some time.'
He worked on the Wards, dismantling them enough so that he could drop them completely in a second once they were ready.
'Priori Surgito Kedavra Evanesca,' he muttered, certain that the potency of the curse-breaking incantation would break anything in its path. Ron came to his side, doling the flask out and Harry gulped down several mouthfuls of the near boiling concoction. It wasn't pleasant but he knew it would protect him enough if Lucius had succeeded to any degree with the curse.
'Ready?' he hissed to the other two. They flanked him with their wand held ready and Harry had already cast shields up around the three of them when he said, 'Finite!'.
The door burst open inwards, hanging limply off its hinges.
There was another cry of frustration as Lucius turned on them. He looked dishevelled and wild. He was heavily stubbled and his long white-blond hair matted and dirty as it hung around his sunken face and excited eyes. He wore black trousers and a black shirt which was misbuttoned and open to his mid-chest; they were lose fitting, too big for his sunken frame. His feet were bare and filthy.
Lucius's immediate reaction was to grab at a glass paperweight on the table in front of him. Harry flicked the weight away from his grasp, sensing the imbalance of the object, the fumes of Absinthe and cigarettes hidden amongst coffee and expense perfume. A portkey, he thought grimly, as the weight crashed through the glass of the window. To Paris.
Lucius screamed animalistic high-pitched noises incoherently at the Aurors and began firing uncontrolled spells at them in chaotic disorder and, as he repeatedly shouted a pointless 'Expelliarmus' at Harry, Harry waved him away is if he were no more than a nuisance fly, slamming him backwards into the wall. He crumpled to the floor but still tried to fight desperately. He had nothing to lose and everything to gain. Robards could deal with him and Harry caught Ron moving to his left, to the blond-haired man invisibly bound by a Petrificus Totalus on the floor. Harry muttered 'Finite' but turned away to table where Lucius had been trying to force open the book.
The book remained stoically shut within a circle of water and then a circle of earth which emitted a low blue flame. Harry banished the five elements from a round it and there was a sucking of air, like air rushing into a vacuum, as if the book were taking a deep breath. Harry summoned it and, as it flew through the air towards him, he shrunk it and buried it deep into the inside of pocket of his dress-robes.
The wand Lucius held failed to perform to any level that could match the onslaught he faced, but then it wasn't his wand and he didn't have its allegiance. He still fought to survive, viciously, desperately, savagely but a severely weakened Lucius was no match for an angry Head Auror Robards alone, let alone a surprisingly calm and controlled Harry by his side. Between the two of them, Lucius was easily disarmed with his wand wrenched from his hand before he was effortlessly stunned and an Incarcerous bound him securely. Harry turned away, only now all threats were neutralised could he focus on his boyfriend.
Ron was bent down beside Draco on the floor. Draco was recoiling away from Ron's outstretched hand as much as possible. He was repeatedly ordering, 'don't touch me! don't touch me! He's tried to curse me!'.
'Ron! Step away!' Harry commanded. 'It might not be a good move. Has he drunk the infusion?'
'Some.'
'It's foul, Potter,' Draco moaned.
'I know but it doesn't matter, down it all!' he demanded.
Draco obeyed and picked up the flask, grimacing as he swallowed the concoction down. Harry ran a diagnostic and sighed in relief as he watched lights around Draco fade from bright green to white.
'No traces of any curse,' he said, reassured. 'It failed.'
'Thank fuck for that,' said Draco, heaving himself up from the floor. 'He's mad!' he sneered at his father. 'Utterly mad!'
Harry ignored the false bravado, he could see Draco's hands shaking. 'Come here, you prat!'
As Draco gripped him tightly in their hug, Harry felt his shoulders suddenly drop, releasing the rigid tension he'd been holding. 'It took you bloody long enough to come and find me,' he muttered.
'You can thank your mother that I came at all,' Harry said softly. 'Come on, I'm taking you home.'
'Ron and I will clear up here and get this one back to Azkaban,' Robards kicked Lucius slyly who grunted in response. But Robards was also watching the two men closely, a sparkle in his eye. 'I'll inform Kingsley of progress too and that Draco is at yours so you don't have the probation team hammering down your door. Obviously neither he nor Narcissa can come back here for the time being now it's the scene of a crime.'
'Draco...' groaned Lucius from the floor. 'Don't leave me... Son...'
'Shut up!' snapped Draco. 'Let's go, Harry.' He turned his back on his father to march out of the room.
'Draco, I'm sorry...' Lucius's voice was pitiful.
Draco turned slowly back to his father, stepping closer so he towered over the cowering man. 'I doubt it,' he sneered. 'You've never been sorry for anything in your life. Everything you've ever done has been out of your own selfish desires. You have never considered what mother and I wanted. You never thought of the hell you put us through. Even now, this wretched plea is only because you want my help. Well, I will never help you. And it's time you realised that no one else will unless, unfathomly, you manage to cast another Imperius. And doesn't that say it all – that no one would ever help you willingly. You're a pathetic man, Lucius Abraxas Malfoy, and a disgrace to your name and this family. I'm ashamed to bear your name.' Draco pulled himself up as tall as possible, turned on his heel, and marched out of the room.
Harry couldn't resist crouching down beside Lucius, the man's dirty face pale with shock at the rejection and fear of the stoically calm Harry leaning over him. 'Of course,' Harry leered quietly. 'As you have so severely broken the law and escaped from Azkaban again, the punishment is enforced injection with 'Squib Potion', that will certainly ensure you can never cast an Imperius ever again.' Harry rose and turned his back on Lucius, leaving him with the eventual realisation that no one would help him again, that no one could.
When Harry finally caught up with Draco, he was in the main hall, hunched over with a hand against the mantlepiece over the cold hearth, lit only by the moonlight that flooded through the huge tall windows. When Harry gently turned him around to face him, he found Draco was crying silently.
'He's a bastard!' he muttered into Harry's shoulder as they hugged again.
'He won't be able to bother you again,' Harry said softly.
They remained like that for a moment until Draco felt he could straighten up. He pulled away from Harry and glanced him up and down. 'And you've trashed your dress-robes...' he drawled.
Harry smiled at his boyfriend's reaction, 'well, thank heavens I wasn't wearing the ones from Mr Cargador. I would have been quite upset if your father had managed to put a hole in those.'
Draco smiled wryly and Harry held out his arm for Draco to take so they could Apparate home.
*****