Disclaimer - I own nothing you recognise.
Challenges listed at the bottom
Beta'd by the lovely Gus-Gus
Word Count - 1057
WARNING - The kidnapping and death of a child.
Guilty
It was dark and cold. He clung to the wall, trembling violently against the chill. He didn't know why we was here, but he didn't like it.
He just wanted to go home to his mummy and daddy.
…
Draco saw his son's face everywhere. Mostly because of the missing posters that marked every lamp post in the area around his home and Diagon Alley, not to mention the Ministry.
Three days. It had been three days of silence and searching, of waiting for a phone call asking for money or some dark artifact that Lucius had once owned. Of praying to every deity he could think of, even the Muggle ones, that his son would be returned to them, unharmed.
Astoria had fallen apart. Scorpius had been with her in Diagon Alley when he'd been taken and she blamed herself.
Draco blamed her a little bit too, in his head. Of course, he hadn't said as much, but he thought that perhaps she could see it when she looked at him.
Maybe that was why she wouldn't look at him.
…
"Your parents will pay, kid, and then you can go back home. I don't want to hurt you. There was no other way."
Scorpius stayed silent, chewing on the stale bread he'd been given. He didn't know who this woman was, but he was a smart boy. He didn't want to anger her.
She said he'd be able to go home, and he had no choice but to believe her.
…
It was midnight of the third day since Scorpius had been abducted when the phone finally, finally rang.
The Aurors were there while Draco and Astoria spoke to the caller.
"A million galleons," Draco murmured when he got off the phone. "We can do that. We can get that."
"Erm, Sir? We don't give in to the demands of kidnappers," a young Auror said, shaking his head.
Draco scoffed. "This person has my Son! You lot have been useless, not a single lead on who has him, or where he is or what's happening to him. I will have him home safe, no matter the cost to me - or to anyone else for that matter!"
"But -"
"But nothing," Astoria growled. "My husband is right. We need our son home with us where he is safe."
"With all due respect, Ma'am, if you'd been keeping more of an eye -"
Draco cut him off with a roar of anger as one of the senior Auror's dragged the rookie from the room.
"I want him gone!" Draco shouted. "Out of my home and off my son's case immediately! How dare he?"
"It'll be dealt with, Mr Malfoy," the Auror remaining with them assured him. "Now, if you are determined to make this payment, there are things that can be laid in place to help us catch the person who's taken your son."
Draco took a deep breath, and with a glance at Astoria, who'd returned to the sofa, clutching Scorpius' jumper, he nodded to the Auror. "My office."
They left her with her tears, but Draco brushed her hair from her face on his way past. He might hold her to blame personally, but he would never desert his wife.
…
The Malfoy fortune was legend - and she'd been to the home enough to know that there was truth in that legend. No matter that most of it was dirty money from generations back, when fraud had been the Malfoy's middle name, she didn't care.
Money was money, and at the moment, she desperately needed it.
Sipping the cheap beer—the horrible swill the only alcohol she could afford—she raged internally.
Why was it taking so long? She'd expected to be paid within hours of making her demand. She'd hoped to be out of the country by now.
Glaring at the boy huddled in the corner, she felt a stab of hatred for herself and what she'd become. She'd only ever wanted to survive.
Look at where that had landed her. Life was a cruel joke.
…
The money had been counted. The drop off point agreed.
Now all Draco and Astoria could do was wait.
Astoria clung to his robes like they were her lifeline, the only thing keeping her grounded, and Draco stroked her hair almost absently.
His mind was whirling a mile a minute. His son should be in his arms in a few minutes at most, his boy, his heir, home and safe where he should be.
The minutes—the seconds—ticked by so slowly, Draco wondered if time had stopped to taunt him.
And then the door opened. And the Auror walked in. And the look on his face told Draco all he needed to know.
…
"Come on, Kid, your parents have paid up," she said, walking over to pull him up from the floor.
Except…
When she touched him he felt like ice. And when she pushed at his shoulder, he slumped to the side like a rag doll.
"Kid. Kid, wake up, I haven't got time for this."
But he didn't wake.
And his chest didn't move.
And the air around him didn't stir with breath rising up in the cold basement.
…
"Pansy Parkinson, you've been charged with the kidnap and murder of Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy. How do you plead?"
"Guilty."
…
Draco sat in front of the gravestone, a locket with a picture of his wife in one side and his son in the other, hanging from his fingers.
"I love you both. And one day, one day I will join you both here and in Heaven, but first, first I still have some making up to do to make sure I make it up there at all."
He sighed and then let the locket fall onto the gravestone, casting a sticking charm to hold it in place.
Running his fingers over the writing one final time, he stepped away. He had work to do before he could join his family.
Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy - January 13, 2006 - October 14, 2013
Astoria Malfoy - June 11, 1982 - October 21, 2013.
...
Pansy sat in the corner of her cell, her arms wrapped around her legs as she rocked, forwards, backwards, forwards, backwards.
"I never meant for him to die. I never meant for him to die. I never meant for him to die."
Written for;
Character Appreciation - 46. Joke
Disney - S4. Write about a mother
Book Club - Whiskey Jack - Fraud / Legend / Beer
Showtime - 12. Locket
Days of the Month - Husband Appreciation Day - Write about a husband
Ami's Audio - 1. A Character is abducted
Scavenger Hunt - 15. Tragedy
Auction - Not deserting someone.