Chapter 13

"I'm going to kill that fucking bitch!" he roared as he launched himself up and dashed to his room.

With only a few minutes before Ministry officials stormed his apartment and dragged him off to Azkaban, Draco needed to get out of there so that he would have time to figure out what to do. He did not have much time and he only needed one thing from his room: Aerie's wand.

The Ministry may think he had already broken the law, but wait until they saw what he was going to do next.

Without a backward glance, Draco ran out of the building and down the street, cutting through yards and leaping over fences to get to the nearby wizarding village several streets over.

Aerie was gone again. Again!

From the village he Apparated through several towns, confusing his trail for those who would invariably follow him. It was only when he popped through six different towns that he stopped, giving himself a second to breathe and plan. He slouched against a brick wall in a secluded alley and clutched his head in his hands.

Bloody hell, could everything just stop being so difficult? What had she said? Not one moment of simplicity. She could not have been more right. He smacked the rough brick in frustration. Parkinson was going to torture her in retaliation for removing her memories. He hit the wall twice more. Did the Ministry not realize that the woman was entirely insane and should not have been released?

How was he going to find Aerie before it was too late? Parkinson may have already killed her.

No! The thought terrified him so much that when he hit the wall again he scraped the skin off his knuckles, blood immediately welling. With a hiss and several expletives, Draco dismissed the terrible idea. Aerie was the strongest person he knew. She survived two years in a coma and ten weeks under water. An hour's worth of torture she could handle. But damn if he was going to let Parkinson have more than that.

Sticking his bleeding knuckles in his mouth to stem off the sting, he suddenly remembered what Aerie had said the day before about how she found him. With nothing else to try and a heady level of desperation, Draco closed his eyes, searching within himself for the place he kept Aerie, a place that had grown from an overflowing file to a permanent fortress in his heart without his realizing it. And suddenly he knew how to find her. Just like he knew where she was when they were at school, the little light flickered awake after several years at rest. With a twist of his heart in tandem with the twist of her wand, he was gone.

He was standing in a dark room, dank with the reek of mold and excrement. Mice skittered away from his sudden appearance, tumbling over one another in their rush to hide in the furniture littering the room. It had once been a magnificent parlor, but many years of unused and solid enclosure from anything outside made for the perfect place for rodents to nest. His hand tightened around the blue wand as he quietly stepped forward toward a hall where light leaked in a weak effort to ease the darkness. A sudden piercing scream propelled him down the corridor without a moment's hesitation, and he burst into a blindingly bright bedroom.

"Stupify!" he instantly roared at the only standing figure.

Parkinson, her hands dripping in blood, flew back and cracked her head against the wall before collapsing on the floor.

Two large knives fell from her hands, the serration of the blades gleaming with red. Draco followed the trail to a pool of it at the base of chair where a bound Aerie panted with her head laying on the back of the chair, thin ribbons of blood trickling slowly down her body. Her wrists, feet, thighs, and chest were tightly lashed and were the only parts of her body not touched by the blades.

She had slits cut along almost every inch of her body, all carefully arranged to avoid major arteries. Her fingers were broken at every joint. Draco choked down the bile that rose in his throat as he came forward to untie her. She gave a little moan as he pulled away the last rope.

"I'm going to get you out of here," he whispered to her, placing a gentle hand on her cheek. She opened her eyes and peered at him dully.

"A knight in shining armor," she huffed quietly, blood seeping through her lips, and dropping her head onto the back of the chair again. "How cute."

She was not going to be able to stand. He needed to take care of Parkinson before he moved the woman.

"Don't try to move yet," he said, standing to deal with the unconscious sociopath.

"Couldn't if I tried," she hissed a chilling laugh.

Ice ripped down his spine. "What?"

"Under…" she attempted, but coughed, blood flowing more freely from the corners of her mouth. "Under my shirt."

With shaking hands, Draco lifted the hem of Aerie's shirt and forced back a gasp. Three large, heavy nails an inch in thickness pierced through her stomach; checking behind the chair, the tips of the nails cut through it and were bent to hold them in place. She could not move even if she wanted to.

A red cloud fell across his vision as he whipped her wand around with a slash and bound Parkinson to the wall. As he did, more blood arching across the white walls caught his eye and his heart dropped. The words "BITCH," "WHORE," and "CUNT" were crudely splashed on the three walls around him, and it fueled his fury even more. He was going to end this. He was going to end her!

"Ennervate," he growled, waking her up.

Her eyes opened instantly and connected with his, a slow smile creeping across her face. "It's so nice to see you so soon, darling," she simpered. "Couldn't wait for me to come back?"

His anger escalated. "I can't believe they let you out of Azkaban," he shot back.

"I've been on my best behavior," she replied, shrugging. She looked over his shoulder and her smile widened. "Until now." Her giggle was manic.

"She didn't deserve this, Parkinson," he said, his grip tightening on the wand. He was trying desperately to calm himself when every part of his being was screaming for him to kill the bitch. His rage was boiling a few more notches. "She erased your memory at my request."

"That whore tried to claim you for herself!" she shrieked, immediately struggling to free herself. "She tortured me with her mind games and used what I said to turn you against me. And then she made me forget all of it. She made my life a lie, thinking you and I were making love when it was nothing but a fake memory."

"All the while you were sleeping with my father!" he roared. How dare she make herself the victim in all this! And what she had just done to Aerie was ten times worse than anything that had happened to her. His ire was increasing exponentially.

"It doesn't matter now, Drakie," she cackled. "She can do no more damage to you and me. I have broken her."

What? Immediately, he turned his back on the psychopath, his concern focused entirely on Aerie. With a quick flick, he had the nails gently removed from her stomach. He knelt before her, touching her cheek again to bring her focus on him. Her black eyes met his slowly under heavily hooded lids, blood beginning to crust over half of her face.

"You're not broken," he said, more for himself than anyone else.

Aerie gave a half-hearted snort. "Please. Just kill the bitch and get me out of here."

"With pleasure." Having more anger in his heart than he ever thought possible, seeing the woman he loved nearly dead at the hands of this psychotic witch, the lid on his wrath exploded away and Draco pointed the wand with no hesitation, uttering two words that he never wanted to say more than before now: "Avada Kedavra."

The green flash wiped the life out of Pansy Parkinson instantly. He turned without looking back and gently gathered up the weak and bloody woman, alarming him at how light she had become. She winced as he did, head lolling on his shoulder. A twist of the wand and they were in the living room of his apartment. He had maybe two minutes before Aurors showed up to take him in. He set her carefully on the sofa and ran to his room, grabbed Aerie's healing kit, and rushed back.

"I can do it myself," she said, struggling to sit up, a rather large pool of blood collecting under her at an alarming rate. How much more could she lose?

"You shouldn't be moving," he replied, pushing her back down and pulling out the bottle of phoenix tears.

"Why," she sighed heavily, "in Merlin's name, are you helping me?"

He froze. How the bloody hell could she ask something like that? He gazed up at her in shocked confusion. "You know very well why," he replied.

And that was when he noticed how she was looking at him. She had never stared at him like she was now; without feeling, without warmth. His heart plummeted.

"What did she do to you?" he whispered.

A loud crack echoed through the apartment as six Aurors suddenly appeared in the room, one of which was none other than the famous Harry Potter. Two of the men grabbed his arms, pulling him roughly back. He did not even bother to struggle as he went back to staring in horror at the woman he loved who no longer knew who he was.

"He saved me," Aerie tried to shout, her voice coming out hoarse. "Don't hurt him!"

Potter shot him a look of astonishment. "This man?" he asked her.

Carico stepped forward, blocking Draco's view of Aerie. "That man was the one responsible for your disappearance, Miss Greengrass."

"I don't even know him, sir," she managed to say rather strongly. "But I can tell you it's not his fault that I'm like this." She coughed again, and everyone gave her a moment to settle. She continued when she caught her breath, "A woman he called Parkinson did this."

Potter again looked at Draco in surprise. Draco nodded discreetly. Potter's eyebrows dipped in frustration and he turned back to Aerie. "Where is she now, Aerie?"

Draco was momentarily distracted to find that Potter knew Aerie.

"Dead," she panted softly. "By my wand. Check it if you don't believe me."

Potter shook his head. "Not necessary. I believe you. But we need to get you to St. Mungo's. You're losing a lot of blood."

"What about him?" she asked.

Carico stepped out of the way and Draco could see her pointing at him. Carico leered at him.

"He is going to Azkaban until his trial." Carico said, giving Draco an ugly smile.

"But he saved my life!" Aerie said. "Sir, that's not fair ground to imprison someone."

"I'm sorry, Aeridia, but he's violated his probation," Potter replied. "His magic was suspended until the trial and he has performed magic to save you. Also, you disappeared shortly after seeing him after waking up from your coma. Then you reappeared with him. He is the primary suspect in all of this."

"What are you talking about? I don't know him. How can he be the primary suspect?"

Everyone looked at her in confusion. Draco felt a pain in his chest like a knife. She did not know him.

"Parkinson erased her memories of me," he heard himself saying.

Potter and Carico groaned. "Wonderful. Your key witness is now useless?" Potter moaned.

"Not unless you can restore her memories," Draco snapped back. Potter was an idiot.

And the idiot glared at him.

"I learned how to restore memories during my training," Aerie supplied.

"Perfect," Potter replied and handed her her wand.

She stared at it a moment. Draco watched her eyes slowly roll to the back of her head and he only had a chance to cry out as she slumped on the sofa and caused everyone to jump into motion. Potter rushed forward and placed two fingers at her throat.

"Her pulse is weak; we have to get her to the hospital!" He pointed a finger at the men holding Draco. "Barnes, Hepland; take Malfoy to the office and leave him there. I will be there shortly to deal with him. Send an owl to Hermione Granger immediately after and have her meet me at St. Mungo's. Go!"

"You're not in charge here, Potter!" Carico growled, grabbing him by the arm.

"Aeridia needs to get to the hospital. Malfoy needs to meet with his lawyer, who just happens to be my best friend. Do you disagree?" Potter growled back.

Carico let go of him and turned to Draco. "Bind him tightly before you leave him," he said to Barnes and Hepland. "I don't want him able to scratch his own arse."

Draco restrained himself from rolling his eyes; Potter went ahead and rolled his own before grabbing Aerie's arm and Apparating out of the flat. Draco closed his eyes, heaving a small sigh as the two Aurors Apparated with him to Potter's office.

True to instruction, Draco was bound tightly and left to sit in the rather bland office of Harry Potter while he waited for the lawyer he had not realized had been appointed to him. Granger…wonderful. She was the only one he knew who had gone back for her seventh year at the newly reopened school. On top of that, she completed her requirements for magical law within that time as well. His mother must have requested her. She was definitely someone he could use on his side.

For over two hours he sat and waited, slowly worrying himself into a frenzy wondering about Aerie's state of well-being. When the door opened ten minutes later, Draco immediately blurted, without care for who walked in:

"Is she all right?"

It was the damn Golden Trio, followed by Longbottom and Carico. The only one who smiled at him was Granger, and the rest glared with undisguised loathing. That was fine…he hated them, too. But this whole situation had nothing to do with old rivalries, and he needed answers. He waited with little patience as the five of them pulled up chairs to surround him.

He had not seen Weasley, Granger, or Longbottom since the War. Longbottom still had a dental problem, Granger needed to learn that magic could detangle her mass of bushy hair, and Weasley was still a hand-me-down redhead. Even after noting these things with the same annoyance he always possessed, Draco could not summon up the same scathing derision his comments once held. Maybe it was the passing of time, but he thought it could really be attributed to the fact that he just did not care about them anymore. He had more important things to worry about.

"She healed rather nicely, Draco," Granger said once she was settled in front of him. "Very few scars."

"What about her memory?" he demanded, not even bothered that she had called him by his first name.

"That's where we hit a bit of a snag, I'm afraid," she replied, her brows dipping in slight frustration. "I normally would be able to lift this sort of spell, but Pansy seems to have used a more complex memory charm. We couldn't do a thing."

"But she said that she knew how to do it," he retorted, thoroughly shocked that the two brightest witches he knew had not been able to break the charm.

"That's the thing; Pansy also erased her memory of how to undo the charm. Aeridia is now trying to break it naturally."

"Rather convenient," Carico spat. "That the person you kidnapped can't remember it."

Draco bit down on his tongue to refrain from answering. Granger did it for him.

"The memory charm has nothing to do with Draco, Mr. Carico," she replied in the same haughty tone that Draco remembered from school. "We went to the location of Pansy's body and her wand is the one that conjured the spell. You were there. You can't deny it. The case speaks for itself; you have nothing further to say to him until his trial. I must ask you to leave."

Weasley, Longbottom, and Potter struggled to keep a straight face as Carico turned purple with rage. Draco went ahead and smiled broadly. That's right, you plum-faced bastard. Granger was definitely proving to be useful. He snickered lightly as Carico stomped from the office, slamming the door behind him.

"You were meant for this, Hermione," Weasley said, laughing openly, a sickeningly sappy smile on his face when he looked at her. Draco hoped and prayed he did not look like that when he looked at Aerie.

"Yeah, you basically told him to stuff it," Longbottom chuckled. "Wicked."

Granger waved it away and turned back to Draco. "The Ministry moved up your trial to Monday. This will give me a few days to put your case together. Aerie is spending the time trying to get her memory back."

"Where will I be in the meantime?" he asked, hoping what Carico had stated at his apartment was false, though the cold dread seeping into his heart already answered it before Potter did.

"Azkaban." Potter at least had the shame to look chagrined. "You violated your probation; we have no other choice."

Draco could not even be mad at him. He only had one request.

"Granger, what can you do about my cell location?"

"There will be five floors between you two. No reason for either of you to come into contact," she replied quickly.

Draco met her eyes in surprise. She smiled.

"I understand your circumstances, Draco. I wouldn't be a very good lawyer for you if I didn't know every detail. Your father is in isolation and I made a point to place you as far from him as possible."

He was begrudgingly impressed.

"You will not be permitted to meet with anyone during these four days before your trial. I will be meeting with Aeridia every day to help her retain her memory, and you will find out on Monday whether or not our efforts were successful," she continued.

"You and Aeridia are brilliant," Weasley commented. "You always have been. Parkinson was too stupid to try and outsmart you two. You'll figure it out."

"She probably learned the spell from someone at Azkaban, Ron," Granger replied.

"How on earth did she get the best of Aerie?" he asked, turning to Draco. "Her reflexes have always been spot on."

"She was distracted," Draco responded vaguely, remembering exactly why Aerie's guard had been down. Before Weasley could ask why, he asked instead, "How do you know her?"

"Who, Aeridia?" Weasley questioned. How stupid, who the bloody hell would they be talking about?

"Ginny," the four of them simultaneously replied. Draco blinked in confusion.

"Ginny's the reason why we know Aeridia. My sister has been secret pen pals with her since we were small," Weasley elaborated. "She comes from the Greengrass family, so of course they hated us. But Aeridia met Ginny and wanted to be friends. They've only seen each other a few times a year, but they managed to see one another without her family finding out. The first time I met her, she had Apparated to our house to play for the afternoon and I was really confused that a seven-year-old girl could Apparate. But she was pretty, so I let it go. What I remember most about that day was her stare…I knew there was something different about her, but it wasn't until years later that I was able to put a name to it. It was so penetrating, yet at the same time, it was like she was looking at something around me. It was weird."

Draco understood what he meant. When Aerie stared at auras it was slightly unnerving.

"The first summer I stayed with the Weasleys was when I met Aerie," Granger supplied. "Ginny introduced us and then asked us to answer a question for her. She asked, 'Divination: useful or useless? Explain.' Then she left us to debate. I had never talked for so long. It was wonderful to be able to discuss such a simple topic with such depth. Aeridia brought up many things I never considered. Ginny had to come out several hours later and tell us to shut it or we would let our dinner get cold."

Draco rolled his eyes; it would only be natural for Granger and Aerie to get into an in depth magical discussion at the age of eleven and nine.

"I only met Aerie on a few occasions," Harry continued. "Each time, she was with Ginny. In Hogmeade, at the Burrow, never at school. She would smile and wave, but we never really had a conversation. We knew each other, and that was enough."

A little part inside of Draco sighed in relief to know that Potter and Aerie had not been close. He did not quite know how he would handle it if they were.

"I don't know Aerie personally that well either," Longbottom picked up. "Ginny introduced us on the train at the beginning of our seventh year. What stood out to me was that though she knew everything that was going on at Hogwarts, she still came to school. I hadn't seen anyone that happy to be stuck in such an awful situation. I was amazed. She was never upset; she never got in trouble with the Death Eaters at school. I have always admired her for that."

"You fancied her, didn't you," Weasley jabbed, a statement rather than a question, elbowing him in the ribs. Potter laughed.

Longbottom's face flushed lightly. "You would have too if you had been there. You were running through the countryside. You're the one who missed out, mate. I'll admit, though," he added, catching Draco's eye, "I was pretty jealous that you got to be the Head with her. Getting to live with her day in and day out. If I had known that she, as a fifth year, was going to be Head Girl, I would have tried harder to be the Head Boy with her."

Draco was stunned. Longbottom had been jealous of him?

"Why didn't you say anything to her?" Granger asked.

Longbottom scoffed good-naturedly. "It was obvious that she fancied Draco. Anyone would have to be blind not to see it. Malfoy, you were just as much interested in her, though you put on a good face."

Well, Longbottom was full of surprises today. Not just a mass of idiocy then. Interesting.

"Did you know Aeridia before she became Head Girl, Malfoy?" Weasley inquired, completely benign in his question.

"As your lawyer, I'm going to have to ask you not to answer that question, Draco," Granger answered for him before he could even open his mouth. "Those questions will be answered at the trial on Monday, Ron; you may hear them then if you decide to show."

"Well, I have to, don't I?" Weasley rejoined. "I'm an Auror. We're required to be there."

Granger placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. "Then you can wait."

Draco nearly gagged at the lovey-dovey looks between them. Potter stood immediately and unbound Draco from the chair.

"I guess we should take you to Azkaban," he said.

"Put me to sleep, Potter," Draco immediately demanded. Four days in Azkaban would drive him crazy. "Wake me up in time for the trial."

The four others regarded him quietly for a moment.

"It would prevent contamination of the case," Granger argued slowly.

Draco nodded emphatically.

Potter shrugged. "If that's what's best." He grabbed Draco's arm and Apparated them both to a quiet, dank, black marble hall, in front of a barred door of a deep chrome color. The door swung inward to reveal one simple cot.

Draco went and sat on the bed. "Knock me out, Potter."

And it was a quick flick of his wand that Draco passed out.