Chapter One

It was the summer of 1996. The battle of Hogwarts was over. Somehow, at just 16 years of age, the great Harry Potter and his loyal friends had accomplished the impossible. They had found and destroyed all the horcruxes and defeated the Dark Lord. The wizarding world owed Harry an enormous debt of gratitude, and is was only right therefore that the ministry workers, the Aurors, did the work following the battle.

The clean up. The round up of the escaped death eaters. They needed to be caught and bought under control to prevent any uprising or vengeance attacks. There was no real fear of this, the worst of them were already dealt with. Bellatrix had flung herself into the great lake and drowned herself the moment she saw the Dark Lord was defeated. Greyback had been killed in battle. Many of the other key players had been quick to cry they had been under the Imperius curse the moment they saw their leader fall. However it didn't hurt to be sure. Round them up, try them all and throw the guilty into Azkaban. Not that their lives would be any better if they walked free from Azkaban of course. They would be outcasts. Shunned by society. They were the cowards who had not been strong enough to fight against the Dark Lord. This would be the new class system in the wizarding world. Those who had been loyal to Harry Potter, and those who had not.

The 'clean up' began right away. It was fairly straight forward. Teams of aurors were deployed to the key hide outs of the Dark Lord. His defeated followers were keen enough to indentify the locations in a feeble attempt to win favour. Alastor Moody, Nymphodora Tonks, Remus Lupin and Caraban Sadler took Little Hangleton to carry out a search of The Riddle House.

They apprehended three, hiding in the basement. Low, servile types, it was doubtful the Dark Lord would even have known any of them by name. They were no doubt hiding there until they could either find passage to the continent or slither their way back into the underground.

'Reckon that's the lot of 'em.' Sadler barked, as he dragged the last snivelling suspect from the cellars, pointing his wand at the three of them, holding them safely in the corner.

'Mad Eye's checking upstairs.' Tonks replied, adding her wand to the guard on the death eaters. It was hardly necessary, they were already bound with magical ropes.

'Remus with him?' Sadler asked.

Tonks nodded.

Lupin and Moody reached the top of the grand stair case. The house was dark, dusty and covered with cobwebs. To the untrained eye, it would have looked unused, but to those with the knowledge there were signs. There were tracks in the dust and polished places on the woodwork where people had regularly passed. There were traces of magic, which the experienced eye could detect. There were echoes of spells, as well as physical signs of habitation, crumbs of unspoiled food dropped on the floor. The place had been used. Recently used. It was likely there were more people hiding here. Somewhere.

'Let's split up.' Moody whispered. 'If there is anyone here, they're hiding. They're frightened. We have the upper hand. Nothing to fear.'

Easy for him to say. Even for a werewolf, it was scary, Remus thought. The house was old, sinister. Dark things had happened here. Very dark things. The house rang with memories of the screams and sobs of the damned. Remus pitied anyone who had chosen here as a place of refuge, whatever their reason. He tiptoed down the dark corridor, each step taking him further and further from his colleague.

Alastor Moody walked to the right. There was a dark door looming at the end of the corridor and somehow it was calling to him. It could have been his experienced auror senses or his magical eye, but he almost knew, this room was important. The moment he arrived at the door, his suspicions were confirmed. The room was warded. However, the ward was weak. The spell caster was dead and the spell could easily be broken. It was light work for one of Alastors experience to dissolve the spells which sealed the room.

The door creaked open. Moody raised his wand, casting a lumos charm. What was waiting inside? Whoever, or whatever it was, had been locked in the room by one who was now deceased. Had a suspect secured themselves inside and then committed suicide? Was he going to find a body? Or had the room been sealed by someone who had then left and been killed in the battle? Was the room sealed to protect what was inside, or to prevent it's escape? Did the room hold a weapon, or a prisoner? These were the thoughts in Alastors head as he stepped gingerly over the threshold.

'Who's there?' He called into the darkness, his eyes growing accustomed to the gloom, his lumos charm lighting the space. A small room. A bed. Little more.

Something moved.

Someone.

Someone jumped from the bed itself and now stood, cowering at the end, half hidden behind the footboard.

'Aurors.' Moody barked. 'The place is surrounded. Put down your weapons.'

He heard no reply. No words at least, only frightened gasps from the thin, pale figure. The figure clearly had no weapons. This was no death eater. It could only be a hostage.

Alastor raised his wand a little higher to allow himself to properly see the person he confronted.

He looked closer, to size up his potential opponent. For even a hostage may try to fight if they were frightened enough! He was hardly prepared for the sight that met his eyes.

A child! Well, a youth at least if not a child. A boy. Thin, pale, dressed in little more than rags. He was white as a sheet, with hair to match his skin. He had blue-grey eyes, and they were wide with terror. He shook, visibly, which could be from cold, from fear or from both. He griped the bed as if for strength and stared at Alastor like a mouse stares at a cat who has cornered it and is about to kill.

'Woah, there!' Alastor said, wanting to comfort the boy somehow, yet oddly frightened himself at the same time.

He lowered his wand slightly to appear less threatening.

The boy looked like he were about to run, he was glancing around jerkily as if looking for an escape.

Alastor stared at him. He was not wearing rags after all, he was wearing lace. Scraps of lace. Lingerie! He was barely dressed, but he was dressed. Dressed for one thing only. A sinister chill swept over Mad-Eye Moody. He'd seen some things in his time but this was something else altogether!

'Tonks!' Alastor shouted. 'Tonks! Get up here!'

Downstairs, Tonks jumped, and checked with Sadler that she could leave him with the prisoners before she bolted up the staircase.

'Easy there, boy!' Alastor spoke as if he were talking to a frightened horse. 'I'm from the ministry. You're safe now.'

The boy cowered, tears in his eyes, he raised his hands to his face as if for protection.

'You ok, Mad-Eye?' Tonks asked, breathless as she appeared at the door.

'Think we might need your feminine sensitivities in here...' Moody whispered and gestured towards his frightened captive.

'Fucking hell!' Tonks breathed, almost silently as she saw the cowering boy.

'I don't know who he is. Or how he got here.' Alastor clarified in a hushed whisper. 'The room was warded. He was locked inside.'

'It's ok.' Tonks whispered, approaching the boy slowly. 'You're safe now. We're here to help you.' She stepped closer. 'Will you let us?'

Tonks paused, she put her wand away. The poor child was unarmed after all. She took off her long red coat and held it towards the boy.

'Here...' She offered gently.

The boy did not take it. He did not move. She stepped nearer, and nearer still, holding out the coat until she came alongside him. He did not run. He couldn't. There was nowhere to go.

Tonks gently placed the jacket around the boys shoulders. He trembled. She kept her arm around him.

'There now...' She whispered. 'You're safe. We're taking you away from here.'

Remus appeared in the doorway, having heard Moody's shout.

'What the...' He began, and then stopped, the words frozen on his lips. 'Merlin's beard!' He exclaimed in utter disbelief. He looked as though he had seen a ghost. 'It can't... It can't be!... Draco Malfoy?'

Moody looked at Remus like he had gone crazy. Draco Malfoy was dead! No one had seen Draco Malfoy for over a year. He was lost. Gone. Dead. He had been missing so long the ministry had pronounced him deceased and any investigation into his disappearance had been closed. Yet now Remus spoke his name. Remus had known the boy, had taught him at Hogwarts, only a year before his disappearance. It was possible, it was probable that he would recognise him now.

Tonks had frozen in her tracks too, and she looked at the boy. She could feel his bones, even through her jacket.

'Are you...' She began. 'Are you... Draco Malfoy?' She whispered, her eyes as wide as his. 'We, we looked for you...' She started, and then choked on her words.

The boy did not speak. These people, they were staring at him. They were asking him questions. they were speaking to him. He couldn't remember the last time a stranger had spoken to him. He did not know how to reply. One of them he recognised. Recognised from what seemed a long time ago. He nodded his head. They knew him. They had called him by his name.

'Gods above!' Remus whispered, rushing forward to Tonks and the frightened captive. 'Draco, we thought you were dead!' He exclaimed.

The boy said nothing but he breathed sharply, his eyes no less frightened than before. Tonks and Lupin stood at either side of him.

'Let's get him out of here.' Moody spoke at last. This was bleak. Bleak in ways he hadn't expected. It was time to leave.

They walked towards the door.

'W-where is he?' A timid, shaky voice uttered.

In unison, they stopped in their tracks. The boy could speak.

'Where is who?' Tonks said gently with great concern.

'The, Dark Lord...' The boy continued. 'He said...' He stopped.

They were all looking at him again.

'What did he say, Draco.' Tonks said, stroking his pale face with a careful hand.

'He said he would come back.' The boy uttered.

Tonks looked at Moody, and then at Remus. All was not as it seemed here.

'He... He was defeated.' She replied, not sure if she was comforting the boy or apologising to him. 'Draco, he was defeated at the battle. He's dead. You're safe now.'

Draco said nothing. The Dark Lord was defeated. And he was now in the hands of these people. It would be stupid, oh so stupid to speak, no matter how much he had longed to speak to someone.

'You're safe now.' Tonks repeated, gripping the boy tightly.

'Remus, you and Tonks can take the boy...' Moody instructed. 'Sadler and I will take the three prisoners.'

'Where do we take him?' Remus asked.

Moody stopped in his tracks. Where did they take him? What was he? A prisoner? A hostage? A follower? A criminal or a victim? Take him to Azkaban, or to St Mungos? They could take him to the ministry to ask for asylum? However, it was unlikely the boy would be able to ask for anything, he spoke very little. He couldn't defend himself.

'Take him to the ministry cells.' Alastor proclaimed. 'Take them all there. House them separately as that's how they will be tried. Take him to the cells, but see that he is safe. We need to let people know we've found him.'

Tonks held Draco tightly.

'I'll take him to a cell.' She said. 'And I'll find help. I'll not leave him. He's my cousin, after all!'

Draco took little of this in. He had quite forgotten he a had family.