Chapter 2

Draco was devastated, he felt like an inadequate father, maybe he should have secluded Scorpius, educating him at home with the best teachers in the world. Maybe then he would be safe right now. Looking at the fragile women next to him he knew that was not right. She was a wonderful teacher.

Every night he had to listen to Scorpius, talking about how great Ms. Granger was, how he had learned a new word of the day. "Do you know the word 'humongous' dad? Do you know what that means? Do you know what the Eiffel tower is, Dad? Ms. Granger said it's humongous." he had gone on for hours, just like he did every other day with a new word Granger taught him.

That day, he told his son he indeed knew what the Eiffel tower was, he promised him he would take him there one day. And he will, it's the first thing he'll do after he finds him. He must, it's the only promise he made to Scorpius that he hadn't fulfilled yet. Everyone knows Malfoy's don't make empty promises.

He looked around his lounge, eyeing Granger next to him. She was clearly shocked about the wizards and witches working, trying their best to find Scorpius. "It's has been 2 minutes, how did you get them all here so fast?" she asked, shocked, but glad to see Malfoy had a competent team to help them find him. "The emergency spell, Granger. I clearly told you to use it for the biggest emergencies only, because not only I get a signal, but every person here too. They are the best of the best. So we will find him don't worry." he explained, she definitely didn't understand him seeing how she was staring at him.

"A team, Granger. For when there is an emergency involving my son, just like now. They are healers, curse breakers and aurors, I like to be prepared, especially when it is something involving Scorpius" he explained, "when you told me about what happened they automatically got what you said on a script. They are now trying to figure out who might have done this, how they apparated in the school and got Scorpius. It should not have been that easy." he finished.

"You are prepared," Hermione stated, feeling really uncomfortable about the situation she was in right now "you know this would happen? How could you?" Hermione asked. Tears that dried of a few seconds ago were filling up her eyes again. She could not believe this. She could not understand this.

"Don't make me appear like a bad father, Granger, don't you dare." He said, his voice stone cold. She could feel the atmosphere around them getting intense, he saw her as an enemy at that moment, she knew. He on the other side was feeling attacked. As he was blaming himself for this exact reason too. He knew this could happen, but one could not blame him, as he also did everything in his power to keep his son safe.

"As I said, this should not have happened. Did you ever hear the protective spells Alexander put there every morning?" he asked, his voice much cleaner now, also much softer. As if he was trying to prove to her he was not a bad father. He didn't know he did not have to, because she knew he was not. So she answered, a soft no barely left her lips before he explained further. "It's because those spells date from 1698, it works on Malfoys only. It's one of the strongest protection spells to exist in the wizarding world, they have been trying to make similar ones for general use for over 80 years, but none of the protection spells were as strong as this Malfoy one. My father and I never got this used on us, as it sometimes can do more harm than good, but with Scorpius, I had to. I can't explain what it does right now, but feel free to ask Alexander about it, as he knows as much about it as I do. That's why I have trust in the fact that they can't physically or mentally harm Scorpius, that, however, does not change the fact I want my son back as soon as possible. You also told me they apparated in and out, not only you, Potter and Weasley had anti-apparition wards put up, Granger. While I do have trust in your abilities, I still had the best of the best people put them up around your school building also, even got the best curse breakers trying to get in to make sure they were not any loopholes. It should not have happened, it should have been impossible." he finished, letting out a big sigh, while his outer appearance didn't show any signs of weakness and angst, she could see them in his eyes. It must be true, eyes must truly be the windows of the soul.

"I apologize, Malfoy." She whispered, sincerely feeling bad about the way she made him feel. "I didn't want to make you feel bad about this, I can see you tried everything to keep Scorpius safe." He nodded, accepting her apology.

Before he could open his mouth Alexander walked up to them, "Hermione, if you can come with me for a minute." He asked quietly, she noticed he also tried his best to keep everything together. Hermione and Alexander walked up to a table were two wizards were sitting down.

"Meet Mr. Vangu and Mr. Demor." he said. His hands moving from the small man, Mr. Vangu, to the oldest man she might have ever met, besides Professor Dumbledore of course. He must be Mr. Demor she thought to herself.

Draco also walked up to the table, the two men quickly nodded to acknowledge his presence, their eyes giving them the message they were sorry for what happened. "Thank you for being here." Draco simply stated. The two old men gave him a small smile in return.

"They know about almost every curse, spell, and charm in the world. From the most ancient to the newest ones. Tell them about the darkness in the school." Draco said after they all sat down at the big table, looking at Hermione. She looked at him and then at the two intelligent men in front of her. "I didn't hear anyone, not even a whisper. I heard a pop and then everything went dark. That's when Scorpius yelled for me, but he was also quickly silenced. All the blinds were open. The lights were all on, but the moment they apparated it was complete darkness. I tried Lumos, but not even a speck of light came out." she explained, she was hoping they had an answer for them, and looking at how the two men looked at each other with big eyes, she knew that they did.

"Ms. Granger, did you feel the temperature change when all the light disappeared?" Mr. Demor asked quickly, his gaze rushing Hermione to answer.
"I don't know, I don't remember as I was panicking" she answered. Both men let out a small sigh, "Why? What is it?" Draco quickly asked.
"Mr. Malfoy, you're in trouble, the ones who did it are extremely talented, but you're lucky they are not perfect." Mr. Vangu said.

Alexander, Draco, and Hermione stared at the old men, waiting for him to explain further. "It's old magic, Mr. Malfoy, very old and dangerous magic. Tenebris Mortis." Mr. Vangu continued.
"The dark death?" Alexander asked, looking at Hermione and Draco for confirmation.
"Yes, an old spell that was originally made for prisoners to torture them. So they couldn't see who hurt them and most importantly to drive them crazy" Mr. Vangu said, looking between Ms. Granger and Mr. Demor.

Mr. Demor took this as a sign to take over the explanation. "It is not the building that went pitch dark Ms. Granger, it is your eyes and mind that were surrounded by darkness. If someone else was in the room they would see everything. You're very fortunate they didn't master the spell enough to make you blind, or to make you feel the coldness it normally comes with. So it definitely was not as strong as the spell should have been. However, it is still very impressive that however did this was able to break the apparating wand and put this spell on you so fast, you're a very strong witch." Mr. Demor finished, showing on his face he still has question marks.

"Why is it impressive they could cast this on me? What has to be done?" Hermione asked. Draco looked at her, he was grateful she asked these questions, as he was too weak to do so. He knew that if he opened his mouth his voice would crack, that he would break down.
"It's just basic flicks of the wand Ms. Granger, but the spell is long. Very long, I think I remember reading somewhere it took the strongest guards around 10 minutes to get someone blind completely. Sometimes they used to mess up in the middle, and it would fail completely. " Mr. Demor told. "Looking at how you can luckily still see and were not feeling cold, I would assume they got the wand movement wrong. Either by accident or on purpose, as the wand movements are not difficult. However, it is mind breaking how they could cast such a long spell without taking more than a few seconds " Mr. Vangu added.

They both looked at each other and turned towards Draco Malfoy, their looks at each other shows they are on the same page about whatever was going to be said next.
"Mr. Malfoy, unfortunately, I'll have to let you know that this is not magic a lot of people know about. As far as I know, the exact words of the spell do not exist anymore. The Ministry of Magic has been destroying every evidence of it for over a hundred years. These people must have been planning this for years. I'm scared they might have been looking for a counter curse for the Malfoy protection spells too. As they have shown us how capable they are already." Mr. Vangu said, looking really uncomfortable and sad.

It was when he finished the sentence Draco Malfoy broke down. In front of people, because he didn't care. He was scared, whoever these people are, they broke him, in only 15 minutes.
When his trembling hands were covered by Hermione Granger's soft ones, it felt like ice cold water was thrown over his naked body. Or like he just woke up from the worst nightmare ever. "Get yourself together Malfoy, you can cry after we find Scorpius. Now is not the time." She said, giving him a determined look. She was right.

Thank you so much for reading, please feel free to give me your opinion :) I'm sorry for the long wait, but I had a really busy week. I'll try to update more from now on.