It was my partner Ford who came up with an idea to get me into the Malfoy Cave. I wrote him of my desires while discussing our upcoming plans to rescue the merpeople and he wrote back, "It's too bad you can't use underwater caves like the merfolk do to get where you want to go."
It took me a night to mull it over, but then it occurred to me that an underground lake let out onto the bottommost level of the Malfoy cave. If only I could find my way, I could use the Bubblehead charm to swim in. Thus I started keeping an eye out for maps showing the underground waterways on the island.
With the western merpeople rescued, my partners and I moved on to plans to rescue the eastern mertown. It was the most dangerous rescue of the lot, because the lake was right under the terrorists' noses. The heaviest presence of the enemy was in the east and about a mile north of the highest peak, including the eastern merfolk's territory. The rescue of the northern merfolk would be easier, because they were far removed from the epicenter of activity, but they were the last to be attacked, while the eastern had been first. The eastern ones were attacked three months before their northern counterparts, a full year ago now. It was time we made an attempt.
I snuck down in the dead of night on a particularly clear summer night. The dragons and the terrorists alike were asleep. There was only one pair of terrorists on brooms up keeping watch and being human, they couldn't detect me. I was worried that my invisibility cloak might set off their secrecy detection wards, but it didn't. I didn't know if that was because they didn't set any, if my original cloak was special in its immunity, or if all invisibility cloaks were safe, because after all, that first alarm could've been set off by Caireall's disillusionment charm and not the cloaks Ford and I were wearing.
Regardless of why, I was able to sneak east to retrieve the memory crystal with little difficulty. My Mermish must've improved, because I spoke the password and got out of there in record time. I was even able to stop at a cave on my way back and give a portkey to yet another civilian who was finally ready to leave. I saw said civilian pulled into the air with the memory crystal by the portkey. My fellow Aurors would be there waiting when he comes down to confiscate the crystal and deliver it to my partners.
The island was close to ninety-five percent evacuated now, in terms of its human population. What was left of the merpopulation was likely fifty percent evacuated and on its way to seventy-five percent. In another few months, the merfolk would be a hundred percent evacuated and with any luck, the human population would be too. I was pleased with my work as I made my way back to the Malfoy Cave.
Hopefully Ford would contact me soon with a copy of the underwater tunnels on the eastern side of the island. So far, the maps of the south and west had provided no known routes into the underground lake of Malfoy tunnel, but I was certain that there had to be a way in. I no longer held any false hopes that Draco would just let me into his cave. Obviously, he was going to play things close to the vest and keep the elusive mother of his children a secret at all cost. I only hoped I could get inside in time to help if something went wrong. A pregnant witch ought to be somewhere safe with access to St. Mungo's, not trapped on a Scottish island with little chance of escape.
A week passed before I heard any news on the eastern memory crystal. It was bad news, possibly the worst news. Ford informed me that the last entry in the crystal detailed a horrible atrocity committed on the merpeople by the terrorists. Their town was the largest of the mertowns and the first one hit, without warning. The able-bodied men fought while the women, children, and elderly hid in their stronghold. Once the warriors were decimated, the women and old men tried to rescue the injured, but were caught doing so. The terrorists entered the lake with Bubblehead charms and pursued the mermaids back to their stronghold. There the merfolk pushed the terrorists back and successfully fought back, but that didn't last long. The terrorists retreated, only to return with much greater numbers to attack the underwater sanctuary. Many terrorists were killed, but they kept coming, taking out as many merfolk as they could. Eventually there weren't enough able bodied mermaids left to defend the elderly and the children and the terrorists broke through their defenses. Once through, mass murder followed.
A few children escaped through a second exit, which led to the open ocean. There happened to have been a small mermaid hunting party out looking for food and they met up with the children upon their return. They led the children to another much smaller cave and then went to check out the situation. They were the ones to discover the aftermath of the genocide. No one was left alive, so they snuck up to the lake surface in the dead of night, left one last entry in their memory crystal, and returned to the children.
The small group was allegedly headed north to meet up with the northern merfolk on the island or possibly to a nearby muggle inhabited island. The former choice was only a possibility, depending on the state the northern town was in after their own attack. The latter choice was unlikely, particularly because merlings were unlikely to survive the long sea crossing in salt water. Still, they feared it was their only chance for survival and the muggles couldn't be near as awful as the terrorists. Their biggest concern on the muggle island was being careful not to be seen.
Since there was no one left alive to rescue, our rescue of the eastern merfolk was canceled. We'd surely go back at the end of the standoff to gather evidence of the massacre, but living merfolk had to come first. Even though the northern mertown was the last to be hit by the terrorists, they were still attacked the better part of a year ago. Those merpeople shouldn't be made to wait for rescue any longer than they had to. Thus, our focus shifted.
I went on a three-week long expedition north to retrieve the memory crystal of the northern mertown. Of the lakes, it was the furthest away from Malfoy Valley, on sort of an archipelago of the island that reached out into the Atlantic Ocean. It had been almost a year since I'd visited many of the civilians in the north, because they were among the first I rescued. As such, I took the eastern route up and the western route back, in an effort to stop by as many of their caves as possible.
Visiting with the northern civilians was more of the same. There were starving people who were finally willing to leave, who accepted my portkeys gladly, even agreeing to form up into groups to maximize the usage of my remaining portkeys. I still had about a dozen portkeys, but I'd been counting on getting a fresh batch before heading north and that wasn't the case. There were also the reluctant ones, who agreed to go only because the conflict didn't seem to be ending and had already gone on too long, but didn't really want to go. They tended to have friends of family who were ready to go and promised that said witch or wizard was going with them.
At least half of the civilians were still insistent on staying, accepting only the Protean Charmed parchments from me. Those were the deeply religious ones with plenty of food stores and something they felt they had to protect. Whether it was their cave, their books, or the dragons themselves, it was feared they wouldn't be there upon returne, so they stayed. I begged them to go, for their own safety, but to no avail. When that didn't work, I offered them what help I could along the way, sneaking into terrorist food caches and redistributing the food to the locals.
There were plenty of heart pumping chases, in which I evaded dragons, terrorists on dragons, and terrorists on brooms, occasionally narrowly escaping with my life. I was getting rather good at dodging dragons and I found the thrill of the chase exciting. It was almost disappointing when I managed to slip through unnoticed. The pattern of terrorist activity had clicked in my mind, so I tended to know when it was safe to travel. It didn't always work and sometimes I really had to travel when the terrorists and their dragons were awake, because it had been a dark and cloudy night, but more often than not, I flew without being spotted.
Probably the worst part for me was when I came across the dead bodies. There was an older man dead in his bed, possibly from a natural cause like a heart attack. There was a young woman dead in her cave, who looked like she'd starved to death, she was so rail thin. Saddest of all was a family of three, mother, father, and child, all found murdered. The father was outside the cave, burnt to a crisp, which was what alerted me to the atrocity. The mother was crumpled dead on the floor, looking to be standing in front of the child. The child was slumped over onto the table.
Each dead body ate at me. I kept thinking that I should've done more to protect these people. Why hadn't the Ministry acted already? Why hadn't the entire Auror squad forced their way onto the island? Why were the dead just left here to rot, the evidence decaying by the day? I knew the reason why; we simply didn't have enough man power, intelligence, or weapons yet. The terrorists were relatively contained on the island and there weren't all that many people left who could be harmed.
The Ministry wanted to wait until the merpeople were out, develop a complete underground map of the waterways, sneak in undetected, and throw the terrorists completely off guard. I had assurances from my bosses, the head Auror and the Minister of Magic themselves, that they were working on a plan. In the meantime, I was to hold tight, document what evidence I could, and evacuate anyone who would go. I spent about a day on each body, gathering evidence and stowing the corpses away someplace safe and cold, to minimize the decay until they could be collected.
On my way back from obtaining the memory crystal of the northern merfolk, I used one of my last portkeys to send a family of four composed of a father and his three teenage children, to safety. The father took the memory crystal, to hand over to my partners, and I went back to Malfoy Cave.
While I was waiting to hear back from my fellow Aurors, Lifton the house elf paid me a visit. It was the middle of the night when he came, which was odd, because Draco always sent his elf to me during the day.
"Mister Harry Sodding Potter, sir," Lifton said, startling the crap out of me.
I wasn't expecting him and didn't hear the stone front door to the cave move, or the elf come into my tent. I had fallen asleep searching a map obtained from the eastern memory crystal of the underwater channels and passages. Ford had sent it to me during my expedition north, but I'd yet to fully scrutinize it. There was no obvious route into Malfoy Cave, but I hadn't given up yet, because it was possible that there was an as yet unidentified way in, hidden amongst these channels. When put together with the maps from the southern and western mertowns, they made a more complete picture and revealed many more passages. One of them had to take me where I wanted to go.
"Lifton! Shite! You scared me," I said, sitting up suddenly.
"Sorry sir. Lifton is not to be coming, but Lifton had to come sir. The time is drawing near when Harry Potter must help Master Draco."
"Will he let me in then?" I asked, assuming the elf meant that I was needed to assist with the birth.
"No, Master will not. He has ordered Bonnie and Sotty to do it, but they cannot! We elves have never done such a thing before and Sotty begged Lifton to come ask Harry Sodding Potter for assistance."
"Can't Draco do it? He did it alone the last time and that was twins."
"No, it will be much harder without apparition. The twins were an apparition birth," Lifton revealed.
"And the Ministry's anti-apparition ward is still up. Just great," I grumbled.
"We elves don't know what to do. Harry Sodding Potter must help," Lifton pleaded.
"Yes, I'll help. Let me in when the time comes."
"Master Malfoy has ordered Lifton and all of the other elves not to."
"Then disobey."
"Harry Sodding Potter does not know what he asks! Lifton will already have to stick his head in the oven for this!"
"Don't do it, please! I'll try my best to find my own way in. Hopefully I can make it before the time comes. When, exactly, will that be?"
I was gone for almost three months during which the conception could've happened. I'd been sitting out on this porch for an additional month and a half now, so by my reasoning, a pregnancy would be about halfway over.
"Lifton does not know, but soon. Very soon."
"What does that mean? Like one month, or like four months?" Soon didn't exactly help me. What does an elf mean by soon?
"Lifton cannot say sir. Lifton does not know, sir. Please pardon Lifton, sir."
"Yes, er, sorry. I shouldn't be putting this all on you, Lifton. Just, if the time comes before I can manage to get in, you must disobey Draco and let me in. I can help if you just let me in."
Lifton nodded, before excusing himself and reentering the cave.
I turned back to my maps with more determination than ever. I also sent word to Hermione to stop researching dragon spiritualism and focus instead on home births. I'd need to know everything there was to know about the subject and quickly. Obviously, apparition birth was out, so hopefully a vaginal birth would be possible this time. If not, there was always the muggle Cesarean section. I would have to study up.
Author's Note: It is only a matter of time now before Harry gets back inside that cave and discovers the rest of Draco's secrets… There is only one mertown left to rescue.
As for Harry's cluelessness, one reviewer had an excellent point on his subject: If Harry doesn't know that men can get pregnant (and he doesn't, because mpreg is possible only with dragon magic), then he'll never figure it out, no matter how many times Lifton tells him. I think this might just be right. I keep wanting to sit down and write a chapter where Harry puts it all together, but it never comes and I think that may just be the reason. What do you think?
Please Review!
