Blood Vengeance

Chapter 2

Harry sent Terry and Ron to Diagon Alley to start at Gringotts, tasked Mike with securing the crime scene and asked Savage to get more help. The he Apparated straight to Wiltshire and to the front door of Malfoy Manor, setting off a lot of alarms.

The door opened to a raised wand. "Mr. Potter!" Narcissa Malfoy cried, lowering her wand.

"Draco's missing?" he asked, immediately.

"Yes! Please come in! There's no reason why he wouldn't come home, Mister... I mean Auror Potter," she said, and he entered the beautiful atrium. 

"Harry is fine. I have it from Auror Savage that he was going to Gringotts?" Harry went right to business. There was a slim chance that Malfoy was still alive. They had to figure out where DEK had taken him.

Narcissa nodded. "Yes. He had a standing meeting once a month with them."

"Was he going anywhere else? Potion supplies? A book? Robes?"

"I don't know. His robes were fine, but maybe he wanted a tonic for his nerves? He had a lot of damage from the war."

Harry didn't ask why. "Does he prefer Slug & Jiggers or...."

"Yes. They haven't refused his business."

Harry nodded. He supposed that many refused known-Death Eaters their business. It wasn't completely legal, but it was more of a headache to report it. "Anything else that you can think of? Anything small Draco might have mentioned?"

"He said his owl was a bit off... maybe he...."

"Yes... Eeylops Owl Emporium?"

"I imagine. There really isn't another place he would go."

"Alright, do you have a recent photo?"

"Yes," she summoned it and handed the framed photo to him.

Malfoy didn't look much different, but he was thin. Terribly thin and had a haunted look in his eyes. It had been five years since he saw him as Malfoy never came out of his manor anymore, regardless that Harry had testified for all three of them. Narcissa and Draco were let off on probation, which was now over. Lucius was in Azkaban for another five years. The younger Malfoy had offered a terse thank you before disappearing from public life altogether. 

Harry had had no reason to call upon his former rival, and he had been fairly curious to what the Slytherin was doing this whole time. But now was not the time for curiosity. "Mrs. Malfoy... did you receive a notice from the Ministry? I thought I had ordered a message sent that you two could be targeted."

"About not leaving the house and being on guard? We do that. But we do need things, and not everyone is willing to come to the house that Voldemort made residence. We can't even sell if we wanted, too."

Harry nodded. "I will do my best to find him, I promise."

"Auror... Harry... is he dead? I heard... this DEK person... kills them... slowly," Narcissa asked, fear in her voice.

"I can only hope he's still alive. It's getting close. Can I ask why you didn't know he was missing sooner?"

"He locks himself in his room... for days sometimes. It's just us... he needs a mind healer... but he won't leave the house and no one will come here."

"But he left...."

"He does his duty, Harry. Lucius told him to keep on with the finances and take care of me and the house. He will do it... and only that. I honestly broke into his room. I couldn't sense him. I thought he had... ended it."

Harry grimaced. "I see. Alright... I must go. Sorry about the alarms." He Apparated straight out of the manor and to Diagon. He met Ron and Terry and gave them a copy of the photo. Malfoy had made his appointment and left walking out into Diagon, but that was all they had. Harry told Terry to continue toward Slug & Jiggers, sent Ron there and then apparated to Eeylops.

The desk clerk hadn't seen Malfoy, and she was very sure as she remembered the eagle owl Malfoy had bought over a decade ago. He stopped by nearly every month to get supplies and treats for him. She also reported that he was very down and depressed every month, but was very polite and kind. Harry asked if he ever had any other shop bags with him when he came.

"Oh... he stops at Jiggers... and sometimes he has a few books and quills with him. I saw him once standing in front of the quidditch store. He likes looking at the new firebolt. Poor thing... he probably misses flying," she said and then he thanked her, leaving.

Harry ran off toward the Quality Quidditch Supply store and went in. The shop keeper hadn't seen him in years and said that he didn't usually pay attention to who stares at the Firebolt X in the window. Harry went out and saw that Twilfitt and Tatting's was across the street. It was not a busy place, due to the cost. He walked into the store, and the clerk eyed him up and down.

"Yes, Auror?" he sneered. Voldemort supporter, Harry was certain.

"I'm investigating the disappearance of a customer of yours, Draco Malfoy. Have you seen him?"

"And how do you know he's my customer?" the snobbish man said.

"Because I heard his mother say she goes here, years ago. Now, please, he was abducted yesterday near this time. I heard he likes to look at the broomsticks... did you see him?"

The man grimaced. "What is this about?"

"It's about Draco Malfoy, being possibly abducted by the DEK killer... so unless you want me to haul you in for obstruction, or better, let Narcissa Malfoy know you wasted my time in the search for her son, who might be being tortured to death as we speak!" Harry growled and the man paled.

He dropped his plush attitude immediately. "I saw him yesterday... he was across the street... he turned and went that way, and I thought I saw someone talk to him, but then they were gone. I didn't see where they went."

"What did the other person look like?"

"Medium height, short hair... brown."

"Robes?"

"Black. I couldn't really see his face."

"Point to the spot that you last saw him, please," he said, and Twilfitt pointed to a spot between the quidditch shop and the bookstore next to it.

"Thank you. I will return or I will send someone to ask more questions," Harry said and left the shop.

He went to the area and cast the detection spell. Diagon had jump points practically every other meter, but he could tell one was newer than the others. He was almost trembling and sent a Patronus to Ron, before he made to follow. Procedure said to wait for backup, but it was nearly a full twenty-four hours since Malfoy had disappeared. He activated a Tracker that Hermione had given him and Ron to help find each other. He was going to hear from both of them, as he Apparated into the jump stream.

His wand was ready as he took in his surroundings. It was a muggle house, empty and cold. The scene was horribly familiar as he walked quickly toward the door to the next room. He just saw a figure vanish as he shot a stunner at him. Malfoy was staked out like the others, fresh blood caked the floor, words craved into him. Malfoy's body was cold and not moving. He was too late. Harry left his tracker there and Apparated into DEK's jump stream. He followed him to Hogsmeade, then Diagon and then to a muggle mall. But DEK had blended in with the crowd, changing his clothes, and had no doubt slipped into a shop or something.

Harry scanned the crowd for ten minutes, before ducking into an alcove and heading back to Malfoy's body. Ron and Terry were already there.

"You left your tracker here?" Ron growled and smacked him upside the head.

"Sorry. But you needed to find him. DEK knows how muggles works, that's for sure. Disappeared into a herd of them. Short of breaking the International Statute of Secrecy, I wasn't going to capture him," Harry said, as he looked at Malfoy's naked, blood-covered body.

Fuck... he was too late. He asked too many questions as he went, but if he hadn't... he might not have even found him this quick. Savage had missed the Eeylops hint on her visit and, if he hadn't known the Malfoys frequented Twilfitt's, he might not have gotten the cooperation he had. Why hadn't he been a little faster?

Ron sighed. "I never liked the git, but this was a shitty way to go."

Harry nodded. Malfoy was thin, but he had a great body, though it was covered in cuts, blood and burns. It looked like DEK had skinned his Dark Mark off his arm with a knife. A couple of his fingers had been cut off and the same tent pegs had hammered through his hands and feet. There was more damage than the others, Harry could tell. Whatever DEK wanted, Malfoy hadn't given it up... or at least easily. Harry scanned the room and saw that there was a flask left.

Ron picked it up and smelled it. "Healing Draught."

"He kept him alive longer. Malfoy was strong and didn't give in to the pain," Harry remarked.

"What?" Ron said, but Harry shook his head.

"Nothing. Twilfitt saw at least the side of DEK. You better go get the memory and...."

A noise coming from Malfoy's body made him stop and all three of them look.

"It's just a death rattle, Harry," Terry said.

Harry knelt down at Malfoy's side. His chest wasn't moving, but Harry brushed his bloody hair aside with his fingers and he looked down at Malfoy's face. Grey eyes stared back at him for a second before closing.

"Bloody hell, he's alive! Vanish the pegs, Ron!" Harry growled as he got the ones in Malfoy's hands. Once they were gone, he placed a Stabilization Charm and gently picked up Malfoy's underweight body. He turned on the spot and landed in the spell damage ward at St. Mungo's.

"Help! He needs a Blood-Replenisher, now!" Harry snapped to a junior healer and found an empty bed to place him in.

Three healers came into the room and started casting healing spells.

Harry backed into the corner and tried to stop panicking. What if he didn't survive because he hadn't bothered with a Vitals Spell? But after several bracing minutes, Malfoy's chest started rising higher and higher. The healers syphoned the blood out of it, which was why he hadn't seen his chest rise and fall. It took a few hours before the last spell was cast, but Draco Malfoy was breathing normally, his cuts and broken bones were pretty much healed and his fingers were regrown. The healers left, but Harry conjured a chair and waited. He trusted Ron and Terry to examine the scene.

He wasn't going to leave Draco's side.