Harry shifted nervously as the rest of his team arrived behind him just outside the imposing black iron gates of Malfoy manor. He could feel the tug of the Dementor, one of the last three left under Ministry control, against his mind even caged as it was behind special wards, but at least the echoes of his mother's death were faint enough to put to the back of his mind this way.
"I can't believe we finally got permission to bring the Malfoys down," Ron gloated, watching as two Aurors went to work picking apart the defenses on the gate.
"Enough, trainee Weasley; if you expect to pass your final assessment, you will act in a professional manner, no matter what your personal feelings toward those we investigate. Tell me, now, the reason we have waited so long for clearance for this raid?" Kingsley Shacklebolt, their assessor for this mission barked at the red-head.
"Because there has been no proof that the Malfoy's did anything wrong, the sighting of the Dark Mark on Draco Malfoy's arm was classed as circumstantial as there had been no clearance to check for it," Ron recited, flushing as red as his hair, he knew he was at serious risk of failing to qualify, and either being kicked out of the Auror program all together, or held back to repeat part of the course while Harry qualified without him.
Harry watched quietly as Shacklebolt reamed Ron out, four months after the Order had finally brought Voldemort down; the 'untouchable' Malfoys were the last of the suspected Deatheaters left to be brought to 'justice'. Harry didn't particularly see it as justice personally, the new administration in the Ministry had brought in tough new laws, if you wore the Mark, you were fed to one of the Dementors as soon as the existence of the Mark was proven, no appeal, no claims of Imperio unless you were physically under it at the moment you were arrested, in which case, you likely wouldn't be in a position to claim it, just execution. They had even tried to execute Severus Snape, it had taken a lot of threats and wrangling from Dumbledore, Shacklebolt and Harry himself, trading on his 'killer of Voldemort' title to get the potions master/spy cleared and allowed to live his life without restriction.
"We're through," one of the Ward-breakers reported, interrupting Shacklebolt's lecture on not bringing the Auror corps into any more disrepute than Fudge's now defunct administration had already managed to do, even two years under the new regime hadn't managed to polish off all of the dirt that had stuck.
"Right, form up," Shacklebolt ordered with one more sharp warning glare at Ron.
"Huh, it isn't as if everyone doesn't already know the Malfoys are guilty as sin," Ron whined, pissed off at being lectured like that.
"Ron, we don't know any such thing, the only one the Mark has been seen on is Draco. We may suspect Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy of being Deatheaters, but until we see the Dark Mark on their skin, suspicion is all it is, you know that."
Ron snorted and started grumbling under his breath, and Harry knew he was bitching about that bloody diary again, that, coupled with his family's hatred of the Malfoy family was going to get him kicked out of the program at the last hurdle if he wasn't careful.
"Just do your duty Ron, do your duty, and one way or the other, it will all be over by nightfall," he sighed, falling silent once more as the squad of Aurors reached the ornately carved doors of Malfoy manor.
Kingsley stepped forward and hammered firmly on the door as the squad arrayed themselves on the steps in neat formation. If Kingsley was surprised to see Narcissa Malfoy opening the door herself, he hid it well, and hid at the same time whatever his response was to the cold sneer that graced her face at the sight of them.
"To what do I owe this dubious honor, Auror Shacklebolt," she asked haughtily.
"Narcissa Malfoy, you and your family are ordered to submit to examination under suspicion of being Deatheaters, by order of the Wizengamot, and Minister of Magic Anton Prewett. Where are your husband and son?" he demanded, handing her the parchment he carried and brushing past her into the foyer.
"Mother, who…" Draco stepped out of one of the rooms down the short corridor leading deeper into the house, just past the staircase, took one look at the squad of Aurors and made a break for the stairs.
Harry felt like smacking Ron for the smugly satisfied look on his face at the stupefy he hit Malfoy with, bringing him tumbling back down the dozen steps he had made it up.
"Potter, Tonks, start searching upstairs, Levin, Drake, start searching down here, I want Lucius Malfoy found before he has a chance to make a break for it. Carmine, you will take Willis and Trent with you to make your examinations of the two we have in custody," Shacklebolt told them.
"What about me?" Ron asked as Harry and Tonks started up the staircase.
"You will be staying right here with me," Shacklebolt told him coolly, and Harry sighed, shaking his head slightly.
"Harry?" Tonks queried quietly.
"He's blown it, he's gotten himself booted from the program for sure now, after already being warned once today, he used a spell that could have seriously injured or killed a suspect he couldn't know for sure was guilty, there were better, safer ways that he could have corralled Malfoy after he made a break for the stairs."
"You don't seem very upset at the thought," she said, not disagreeing with his assessment, he was right after all, Kingsley had given the redhead more chances than he ever gave anyone else.
"Come on Tonks, he's judgmental and more short tempered than I can be on my worst day, he was never cut out for the corps in the first place. Besides, I'm not 100% sure I intend staying myself, in fact, I'm pretty sure I'm not going to stay" he told her softly.
"What? I thought this was what you wanted?" she gaped, almost tripping over the top step.
He steadied her and stopped walking, shaking his head.
"I joined because Dad and Siri were Aurors, I joined because it was expected of me, I joined because I needed the training to fight Voldemort, I joined because Ron wanted me to. I hate what the new Ministry is classing as justice, I hate that we're killing people without a trial. How many more reasons do you need to know that I'm no more suited to this than Ron is?" he sighed.
"What are you going to do?" she asked him.
"I was offered an apprenticeship at the school; I'm going to take it, if it's still on offer to me. I can't do this any more Tonks."
"Well, you know I've got your back, whatever, right?" she asked.
"Sure Tonks, just as long as you're not carrying anything sharp while you're watching it," he joked.
"Humph, come on, let's get this done," she sighed.
The two of them pulled their wands and started searching the rooms for any sign of the Lord of the manor. They easily adopted a pattern of one of them throwing open the door to a room from the side to make sure they weren't in the path of any stray spells, while the other covered the corridor to make sure they weren't snuck up on, but when they finally found Lucius Malfoy, they found they needn't have bothered.
The pale, blond aristocrat lay on a lounge or daybed near the window, clad in black silk pajamas, barefoot, with a magic dampening band clamped around his ankle. The man's eyes were glassy, unfocussed, staring unseeing out across the gardens, and he was quite obviously pregnant.
"Well, I guess that explains why no-one has seen Lucius Malfoy since before the final battle," Tonks squeaked.
"This isn't right, Tonks, even a dampening band shouldn't cause this reaction in a wizard as strong as him, and they are not safe to use in pregnancy. Go get Carmine and Shacklebolt, quickly," he told her, looking at the blank, lifeless eyes.
Tonks hesitated for a moment at the thought of leaving him alone here, but then nodded and hurried from the room, heading back to the staircase. Harry cautiously approached where Lucius lay, crouching down at the side of the lounge.
"Malfoy? Can you hear me? Lucius Malfoy?" he called, snapping his fingers in front of the grey eyes.
"Master will not speak, or move, without orders from Mr. Draco or Miss Narcissa."
Harry jumped out of his skin at the voice, but managed to avoid pulling his wand on the house elf that had popped up beside him.
"What do you mean?" he asked.
"Miss Narcissa has bad spell on Master, since Master tried to kill himself. She was not allowed to use the potions or the darker spells any more because they would damage the baby."
Imperio Harry realized, Narcissa Malfoy had her husband under Imperius, in place of darker magics she had apparently been using prior to him getting pregnant, and he suspected he really didn't want to know who had gotten the man pregnant if that was the reason for the suicide attempt the elf had mentioned.
"That isn't safe either," he pointed out, waving one hand at the band on Lucius' ankle.
The elf's face took on a pinched, disapproving look, and Harry realized that this elf actually cared about her master, which really, really made him wonder what the hell the problem had been with Dobby, that elf had loathed Lucius Malfoy.
"Tibby know that, Master too strong for Miss Narcissa and Mr. Draco to hold otherwise," she told him.
"Potter?" Kingsley's voice from the doorway cut into the conversation.
"Yeah, we have a problem," he told the big man, waving a hand at the still blond.
"Merlin's balls," he hissed, glancing back over his shoulder.
"Carmine, you're up," he told the team's medical attachment.
"All of you, wait outside," the medic said, chasing them out with a hard look when it looked like Kingsley, Harry and Tonks were all going to argue.
Harry leaned against the wall as the door shut firmly behind them.
"Mrs. Malfoy, and Malfoy Jr?" he asked quietly.
"Both Marked. Their sentences have been carried out," the big man told him, and Harry snarled softly, gesturing angrily at the closed door.
"And if we need to question them on what the fuck they've done to him?" he growled.
"There's nothing we can do to change it now," Kingsley said pragmatically.
Harry snarled again, folding his arms and not speaking again as they waited for Carmine to finish examining Lucius Malfoy. Things couldn't carry on this way, Anton Prewett was going to end up causing more strife in the wizarding world than Voldemort and Fudge put together if he wasn't stopped. Now that the last of the long list of suspected Deatheaters was dealt with, was he going to turn his attention against the Werewolves, or one of the other magical minorities?
It was forty minutes before Carmine came out of the room, looking shaken and outraged.
"He isn't Marked, the Dementor can go back to the Ministry holding pen with whoever is going to take the bodies back," she told Kingsley, her voice tight, angry.
"Carmine, how is he?" Harry asked, putting a hand on her arm.
"He's under deep Imperius, he's 24 weeks pregnant, and his magic is being suppressed, how do you imagine he is?" she demanded, then sighed as she shook her head.
"He's going to need proper medical care, the fact that the Imperius didn't break when the caster was Kissed is very worrying, and I have no idea how to get that band off, or even if it is safe to do it, his elf says that the Imperius and the band have both been in place since he was five or six weeks pregnant, the backlash of releasing his magic after it's been suppressed that long could kill him, and would almost guarantee him miscarrying."
"Well, un-Marked or not, he wouldn't live long in St. Mungo's, it isn't nearly secure enough if someone takes it into their heads to go after him," Tonks pointed out.
"Hogwarts infirmary is secure, and Sev…Professor Snape, might be able to break the Imperius with Legilimency," Harry suggested.
"All right, Tonks, you take the rest of the team, the bodies, and the Dementor back to the Ministry. Ronald Weasley is on disciplinary suspension, but he isn't to go anywhere until I get back, you can keep an eye on him. Carmine, Potter and I will take Malfoy to Hogwarts, and then I'll head back and give our report to the Minister."
"Prewett isn't going to be pleased Lucius Malfoy didn't get the kiss, is he?" Harry asked.
"Nope, but the man doesn't have the Dark Mark, and there's nothing he can do about that," Kingsley shrugged, he knew that Prewett had been making plans for the dispersal of the Malfoy fortune and holdings, it would serve the man right for 'counting his chickens' as the muggles put it.
The three of them headed back into the room as Tonks headed back downstairs to take care of the things Kingsley had put her in charge of, and found the helpful elf had already managed to wrap her master up in a soft blanket.
"You be taking my Master to make better now?" Tibby demanded.
"We're certainly going to try," Kingsley nodded, eyeing the pregnant man thoughtfully.
The dampener would possibly make levitation spells unreliable, and he didn't want to risk dropping the man and harming him or his unborn child, if for no other reason than that Carmine would eviscerate him. Sighing he stepped forward, slid one muscular arm under Malfoy's shoulders and the other under his knees, and picked him up.
"I assume a Portkey is safe enough?" he asked Carmine.
"As long as you're sure enough of your balance not to drop him, yes."
"Potter, you still have your Portkey to the headmaster's office?"
"Yes, he told me to make sure I kept it in case of emergencies," Harry nodded.
"Then you bring Carmine," he told him, using his thumb to twist around the rung he was wearing on the middle finger of his right hand, and activate it.
/x/
Albus Dumbledore looked up in surprise as Shacklebolt and his blanket swathed burden portkeyed into his office, followed a moment later, and much less gracefully, by Harry and a young woman in Auror robes that wasn't familiar to him.
"Sorry to bust in on you unannounced like this Albus, but we ran into a bit of a hitch," Kingsley rumbled.
"What has happened Kingsley, I thought you were raiding Malfoy manor today, was one of your team injured?"
"No, Lucius Malfoy needs medical attention, potentially long term, and St. Mungo's just isn't safe enough."
"Lucius? I would have thought…." Albus trailed off delicately, not really needing to say 'I would have thought he would be dead by now'.
"No, even if he were Marked, which he isn't, I wouldn't have executed him without a special directive from above, the man is pregnant, and they might be willing to kill him in that state, but I wouldn't."
"Then by all means, let us take him to the hospital wing, classes are in session now, so the corridors should be empty enough."
"If you don't mind, I think I'll go down and speak to Se…Snape, he has a free after the class he's in now, and I want to ask him about trying to break that Imperius," Harry said, blushing faintly at Dumbledore's knowing look, even Shacklebolt was smirking at him, that was the second time he had stumbled on the potions master's name.
"Why don't you do that, Harry," Dumbledore nodded, eyes twinkling.
Harry rolled his eyes and left the office, heading down to the dungeons, he might have known there was no hiding his relationship with Severus from that meddling old coot, he thought irritably. He had found some level of peace with the dour man before he had left school, while he was helping to train him, but in the two years since leaving school, when the training had intensified, so had their relationship, and they had started seeing each other when Voldemort had fallen. He leaned against the wall outside the potions classroom, trying not to think about his old school nemesis and his mother being kissed by the Dementor, he had vaguely known some of the others Kissed of course, but none that had been such a constant presence as the thorn in his side that Draco had been, and it was weird to think of him being dead, he knew it would upset Severus too, he had been the brat's godfather after all.
The students streamed out past him a moment later, and he slipped into the classroom once the last of them was gone, looking at the dark man sitting behind the desk.
"Severus," he said quietly.
"Harry? Is something wrong? I thought you were raiding Malfoy manor today?" he queried, sadness flitting through his eyes briefly.
"We did, Lady Malfoy and Draco Malfoy were proven to have the Mark within minutes of us getting there," he told him.
Severus took a deep, breath, closing his eyes, and a single tear ran down his face before he got himself under control, he might cry for his godson, but not here in his classroom, where anyone could walk in and see him.
"And Lucius? Did he slip the net?" Severus asked.
"No, Lucius Malfoy is not Marked," Harry said, and Severus looked up sharply.
"He was Marked the same day I was, Abraxas Malfoy had to Imperius him to get him there without him causing a scene," he said.
"Yeah, but he isn't Marked now, and I'm not going to provide the Minister with proof otherwise so that he can slaughter him without trial the same as he's done to so many others, I know that at least three others who were killed were forced by family members to take the Mark, but they were killed regardless. Anyway, Lucius is upstairs in the hospital wing, we need your help, he's under deep Imperius, they made him completely unresponsive, completely overruled his free will after he made a suicide attempt, going by what his house elf said. The Imperius didn't break when the caster was killed, they had a magic suppression band on him, he's also about five months pregnant," he told him.
"Damn, you know the child is more than likely his, don't you?"
"Yeah, I figured that when the elf said her Master tried to kill himself."
"That would be the most likely reason he is no longer Marked," Severus sighed.
"Oh?"
"The Mark was the most likely cause of Bellatrix Lestrange's inability to carry a child to term; she miscarried four times, and suffered two stillbirths before she gave up. He didn't give a damn about his servants, but he would not risk his heir. Narcissa was loyal, she always had been, he would have trusted her to continue to keep Lucius under control without endangering the pregnancy," he sighed.
"The elf also mentioned darker spells and potions that had formerly been used on him."
"Wouldn't surprise me in the slightest, Lucius used to be headstrong, stubborn, and Abraxas was a bastard, he deliberately picked a bride who could keep him under control by whatever means necessary."
He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed tiredly before looking back to Harry.
"You said you wanted my help?"
"We were hoping you could Legilimize him, break the Imperius," Harry said.
Severus sighed again and pushed to his feet moving to stand beside Harry.
"Very well," he nodded.
"Oh, by the by, Albus knows about us, or at least he twinkled knowingly, so I suspect he does," he warned him.
"I'm sure we can put up with his insufferable smugness."
"Even if I'm around more?" Harry asked hesitantly.
Severus stilled and looked at him for a long moment.
"You're going to take the apprenticeship?"
"If I'm still wanted, yes. Today was pretty much the last nail in the coffin of any Auror ambitions I did have, aside from my loathing of Prewett, and the way the Ministry handled the disposition of the Marked, Ron stepped over the line once too often today, Shacklebolt is probably going to give him the boot, and he was the last reason I was hanging on at all, so as not to disappoint him, and leave him there alone."
"I'm glad, and I'd be glad to have you around more too, I know you weren't really happy there," he told him.
They started walking again, finally reaching the hospital wing, and stepping inside. Albus and Kingsley were standing out of the way, watching quietly as Poppy and Carmine treated Lucius as best they could considering the state he was in.
"Ah Severus, I'm glad you're here, we're going to be needing some specialized potions if we're seriously going to keep him here long term," Poppy said, clearly not in love with the thought.
"If having him here is going to be an issue…" Kingsley started, and she waved him off with a glare.
"I don't mind him being here, but this is a school hospital wing, we're not exactly set up for a pregnant, potentially severely traumatized, patient. He should be somewhere he feels secure, and I honestly doubt he is going to feel secure here, especially with his magic suppressed," she said irritably.
"We should worry about crossing that bridge when we come to it, seeing if we can break the Imperius should be the first step, and it is entirely possible that with a little research, we can get that band off without the rebound killing him or the child. He is, however, apparently a suicide risk," Severus said calmly, moving to the bedside.
He sat on the edge of the bed and leaned over to look into the glassy, lifeless eyes, slightly unnerved to see nothing in them, Lucius' quicksilver eyes had always been so expressive to people who took the time to learn how to read them, that this deadness was just wrong. He cradled the blond head lightly between his palms, took a deep breath and intoned softly.
"Legilimens."