The Apparation point. The Apparation point. Where is it? Draco's mind demanded as he pushed through the sea of people at the gathering. He needed to get back to his place before Nigel decided to come and find him, or Kingsley used Legilimency again to congratulate him on a fucking awful job of being sly. He finally spotted it and practically jogged to the designated area. Turning too quickly, he crashed into the foyer of his London flat.
He screamed out as a blinding pain radiated through his hip. Had he splinched himself? Falling to the ground with blurred vision, Draco tried to think of what he could have possibly hit as he had returned to his flat. Nothing was kept in the foyer for situations just like this; he was a careless Apparater and he knew that. Regaining his eyesight, Draco looked up to see what looked like a cement birdbath. "What the fuck?" he called out, grasping his hip and standing up. The top of it was covered in an elaborate glass dome that looked like it couldn't be removed. It looked familiar, like something he had seen in Dumbledore's office during his time at Hogwarts. A small slip of paper sat on the top.
'Maybe this will help. I often found him with his head in this. –KS'
He couldn't get a break. It was just another thing he had to do for the case. Great, now he had some huge cement thing that he had to deal with. He didn't even know what it was let alone how it could help him with the case. "His head in it?" Draco read from the card with question. Why would Potter put his head in a birdbath? He reached out to trace the intricate design on the glass dome, and pulled his hand back quickly as the glass retracted, revealing a basin filled with what seemed to be water. Concerned with the possibility that it wasn't actually water, Draco dropped Kingsley's note in it and studied how it reacted. The ink from the card lifted some, but that was to be expected. The card looked to be fine, aside from soaking wet. So Harry sometimes bathed his face in a water filled basin?
The huge thing could not stay in Draco's flat. He had people who came over, and the eyesore could not remain there. Draco wrapped his hands around it and attempted to pick it up. "Holy fuck," Draco cursed through clenched teeth. It had to weigh five times as much as he did, and even using all of his strength, he couldn't even lift it a millimeter. He pulled his wand out with a smirk, ready to put the thing in a near by coat closet, and waved the piece of wood lazily. Draco's face turned red with anger as the cement stayed in its place. "What the fuck am I supposed to do with Potter's stupid watering trough?" Draco yelled out, kicking the cement stand that refused to move.
The blow seemed to cause the thing to respond. A click echoed through the hall and a rectangle of the column popped out. Draco reached down and pulled it out, revealing three long shelves lined with phials of three different colors: red, black, and blue. Picking up one of the red ones, Draco studied it, removing the stopper and observing the contents. It looked neither liquid nor solid. Pouring it into his hand, it just floated above his skin before flowing away slowly in a swimming motion, and inhabiting in the water. 'I often found him with his head in this,' the smeared card read beneath the white threads that had settled in the water. Draco looked around before holding his breath and sticking his face in the water.
He drifted gently down to a wooden floor. The surrounding walls were mint green and covered in pictures and paintings. A sob came from someone on the bed in the middle of the room. Draco recognized her immediately as Ginny. The many covers and pillows all surrounded her, allowing only her head to show. She looked different, and sadder than she had been at the event that evening. Her hair was shorter, barely reaching her shoulders, and her fringe was chopped across her forehead in a blunt cut. She shook, her sobs becoming louder.
"Ginny," Draco called cautiously, stepping forward and reaching out for her. He was about to touch her when someone reached her first. Draco jumped back as he watched Harry Potter, as alive as Draco was, sit on the bed next to Ginny.
"Ginny, the healer called me. Are you alright?" Harry demanded thoughtfully, pushing the fringe from her reddened face. He seemed concerned about her, but his tone made him sound more like he was dealing with an important business transaction. It was the most in control Draco had ever seen him.
Her face was covered in tears and snot. Her eyes looked up to meet Harry's and she opened her mouth slowly, "I lost it." Her voice was broken and raspy.
"Ginny," Harry whispered, leaning down to engulf her in a hug.
"I lost it," she repeated, tears welling her eyes as she began to sob uncontrollably. Her hands reached up to cover her face as she shook. "Not it," she corrected with a sniff, "him or her."
Harry stood up and unhooked his maroon Auror's robes and kicked off his dress shoes before getting back into the bed. Pushing the many covers away, he laid beside Ginny and pulled her to his chest, placing kisses on the top of her head. "It's going to be okay, Gin," Harry assured her, holding her tightly.
"Maybe," she choked. "Maybe, I'm not supposed to be a mother," she cried out, her hands gripping his hold on her.
"Shh…" Harry rocked her slowly. "It's going to be okay. You will be a mother, and you'll be amazing," he assured her, his voice calming and deep. While his voice told Ginny to be calm, she could not see his face. His own tears were falling, and his eyebrows were pushed together at an attempt to control his emotions.
Her hands flew down and cradled her stomach, her face distorted in pain. "It hurts so much," she told her husband.
Draco's eyes were wide as he stepped back. His cheeks were wet with tears he didn't know he had created. Searching the room for something that might tell him what was going on, he spotted a calendar that hadn't been changed in a few months. A few years, he noticed upon closer inspection. 2003? He stepped back farther this time, almost running backwards until he hit a wall and felt a drop in his stomach. He fell to the floor, his butt connecting with thick carpet. "What's going on?" he yelled to the two on the bed, but he was no longer in their home. He was back in his foyer, sitting in front of the cement birdbath.
As soon as he caught his breath, he began digging through the many different colored phials. Some had small labels on them such as 'GP 20/3/02' and 'JB 12/9/02.' The phial he had first extracted and dumped in the basin was only labeled as 'X 03.' Frantically looking for clues as to the labeling system, Draco found one other phial labeled with an X. 'X 04' it read, and with what the other threads had shown him, he was worried about what this one held. He dumped it in and tried not to think about anything before dunking his head into the water.
He was transported to a new location that was bright, almost blindingly so. It was on a lake somewhere. The ground was covered in grass and small flowers. To his left he spotted Harry, leaning against a tree trunk and writing in a small black notebook quickly. Ginny walked out of a large, unstable house nearby, and Harry shoved his notebook underneath himself and into his back pocket. "Gin, how are you?" he asked, reaching out for her.
She fell easily into his lap, but she looked unhappy. "I'm having bad pains in my stomach and back," she complained, holding herself tightly. "I'm scared, Harry." She leaned back against him. Draco noticed her hair had grown a lot and she no longer had fringe. "I can't tell Mum, though. I don't want her to know."
"How bad is it? Do you want to go to the Healer?" Harry asked, his eyes worried. "I can take you now." He made to stand up, but Ginny stopped him, her hand gently taking one of his.
"I don't want to leave my family," she told him. She fiddled with the hem of her yellow dress. "Do you think something is wrong with me?" she wondered aloud. "Maybe it's because of…because of Tom."
"Gin," Harry began quietly.
"No," Ginny interrupted quickly. "I'm serious. I think maybe I should talk to a spell damage specialist. Don't you see one?"
Harry looked shocked and his chest began to rise and fall rapidly. "Wha-at?"
"Why are you hiding it? Is something wrong?" she asked, turning around in his lap and then she cried out in pain. Her left hand gripped his thigh tightly while her other wrapped around her stomach. She cried out again, her eyes squeezed shut.
Harry's eyes widened and he moved her gently in his arms, picking her up easily. "We're going now," he said, his voice stern and controlling. His hand underneath her bum wiggled slightly, trying to get a better hold on her legs and then he froze.
"What?" Ginny questioned breathily, confused at his sudden stopping.
Then Draco noticed the red patch soaked through the bottom of her dress. Harry had just felt the blood and quickly realized how serious his wife's pain was. He turned with her in his arms and a crack echoed loudly. Draco's hands went up to protect his ears just as the world around him began to pull and morph, spinning around him chaotically. He felt he would be sick if he didn't leave, but he didn't know how to leave. Feeling as if he would pass out, Draco leaned backwards and fell a long way down. Where was the ground, he wondered, and he opened his eyes to see everything had stopped spinning. Once again he had returned to his foyer.
Draco rushed into his home office and grabbed a handful of parchment and a spelled-refilling quill. He sat back down in front of Kingsley's gift, and began to take notes. 'X=miscarriage,' he jotted down. 'One in 2003 and one in 2004. HP hid visits to Spell Damage Healer.' He pulled out a new phial, another red one. The label was even more vague than others, which drew Draco to it. It only read 'proof.' Draco stood quickly, leaving his parchment on the floor, and dumped the threads into the water and dunked his own head in.
With all his practice, Draco landed gracefully this time, only slightly tripping as his feet hit the tiled ground. He was in a Healing room in St. Mungo's, and given the deep blue walls, he was in a Spell Damage unit. A calendar on the wall read July 2004. Draco watched Harry as he lay on a bed against the wall. "Hello?" Draco asked, still unsure about what was going on. Harry sat up on the examination table, his eyes staring through Draco. Then the door opened and a Healer came in.
"Sorry, that took longer than I thought," the Healer excused himself, closing the door behind him. His cloak was embroidered with 'L. Jenson.' "I made sure your name's not on the record for anything but visiting."
"Thanks," Harry smiled. He fixed his glasses, which had been slightly askew. "What do you reckon?"
Jenson looked over his notes thoughtfully and sighed. "Well, I checked upstairs and your wife is fine. I just…we can't ignore all the coincidences. I don't know exactly what to make of it, but if you're feeling better…" the man trailed off, clearly still unsure of his own thoughts. "I mean there are no traces of anything in your blood. No poisons, no residual charms that I can see. It has to be something very carefully thought out or something that was a complete accident."
Harry looked concerned. "An accident could be this covered up?" Harry questioned with a forced laugh. "I'm sorry, but I am confused about why I keep getting so sick and you can't find anything wrong with me."
Jenson closed his file and set it down on the counter next to him. "Mr. Potter, I can see how this is disconcerting, but I think we both know there are only two possible problems, and only one of them is plausible."
"So it is Ginny?" Harry asked, his face straight and his voice no longer angry. "She's making me sick?"
Jenson nodded solemnly.
Draco blinked and he was home. He remained frozen, bent over the water basin with his face dripping. His breath was shallow as he tried to figure out whether or not he had just watched a confirmation that Ginny was Harry's killer. But why would she kill him?
The grandfather clock next to him rang out alerting him it was midnight. "One more," Draco said, almost promising the clock that he would go to bed soon. "A black one," he said, reaching into the cabinet and procuring a random phial that had nothing but the date on it. "It's from this year," Draco told the clock. Holding his breath again, Draco couldn't help but think that he had to learn how to extract his visions or memories or whatever these were.
Harry was hunched over his desk at home. He was once again writing in his black journal and his pace was just as frantic as it had been when he was outside with Ginny.
"Harry," Ginny called, breaking the silence. She was in another room, but could be seen through the open door. "Do you want to go to bed?"
"Just a second," Harry answered, huddling over his writing even more. He was hiding something from her, obviously.
"You think she's poisoning you," Draco said to the oblivious Harry.
"Harry," Ginny called, this time from the doorway. She was wearing a small, green dressing gown that was tied tightly around her waist and stopped before her knees.
Harry jumped in surprise and closed his notebook shut quickly. It illuminated before returning to normal. He had some sort of privacy spell on it to keep Ginny from seeing it, Draco assumed. "Ginny," Harry breathed, turning around in his chair. "I'll come in a second."
Ginny pouted and pulled the clip from her hair, her waves tumbling down. "I want you to come now," she purred.
"I just," Harry started, rubbing his eyes and slouching in his seat. "I just have a lot of work to do, Gin."
Cocking her head to the side, Ginny sighed over-dramatically. "I guess I'll have to go alone," she hummed, shaking a bare shoulder free from her robe.
"Gin," Harry warned her.
"Yes?" she asked innocently, her hands going to the tie around her waist and slowly undoing it.
"Don't."
"Don't what?" she asked, the tie falling to the ground and shortly after the whole robe went with it.
Draco gulped. This was not a memory for everyone to view. This was a memory just for Harry. This was… this was naked Ginny Weasley standing in front of him. She had absolutely no clothing on and Draco couldn't look away.
"Ginevra," Harry scolded, but a smile was slowly taking over his face.
She bit her lip and then smiled. "Mr. Potter," she answered, walking towards him, her hips swaying as she walked. She pushed him back in his seat and straddled him. "You're always working," she frowned, removing his glasses and setting them on the desk behind him. Ginny leaned forward, almost kissing him before backing away and pressing her lips against his neck. "Work, work, work," she mumbled against his skin. Her hands left their place on his shoulders and began to undo his belt.
"Gin," Harry breathed out. Draco supposed Harry had meant to be warning her to stop, but Ginny's hand had just unzipped his pants and all thought had probably left him.
Leave now, Draco's brain screamed at him, but he couldn't help but stare at the slight movement of Ginny's hips and bum. His own breath was shallow as he watched. Each hum and mew that escaped the redhead's mouth echoed in his ears.
All pleasure he was getting from the scene was gone as soon as Ginny had exposed more of Harry than Draco had ever wanted to see. The blond practically jumped out of the memory.
"Oh, Merlin," Draco groaned. His face was distorted with disgust as a shiver radiated through his body. Nothing good had come from watching that one. He picked up his parchment and took notes. 'Harry's secret black journal. Black phials contain personal memories. Spell Damage Healer: Jenson—Admitted sickness was caused by GP.'
The clock chimed again. It was 12:23, an odd time for the clock to be making noise, but Draco knew why. "I'm going to bed!" he yelled at it. He looked back down at the open phials standing along the edge of the basin and watched as all of the threads returned to their correct containers. "I have got to get one of these," Draco said, putting the phials back in the shelves below.
