Chapter 26: Investigating

Ninety-nine percent isn't a hundred. And Ron is right, it's always good to do some field work.

I'm going to do some investigating in the Potions Section.

The first thing I do is call the works council and tell them they want to question Draco Malfoy, intern with the Potions Section, about his working hours and the safety conditions in the laboratories.I know the guys from the works council love that kind of tip-off, and that they are going to grill Draco for at least an hour.

All I have to do now is put my map on my desk and check it every couple of minutes to see when he's leaving the Potions Section.

The moment I see his little dot has moved into the office of the works council on the third floor, I apparate down to the main lab.

There's just Kendricks there, like the last time.

I tell him I was looking for Draco, then ask how he's doing. I just let him talk for a while. He seems to be grateful for the interruption. Yeah, he doesn't seem to be all that motivated as far as his job is concerned.

He's telling me detailed stories about the trip he's planning. San Francisco. Capital of gay nightlife. He saved up for ages to go on that trip. All he wants is a mini break. But Jenkins is the boss from hell, he won't give him even two days off. Keeps claiming he can't spare anyone, the old bird.

I interrupt Kendricks' complaining and ask what he was doing in the garage the other morning. He doesn't look pleased at the change of subject.

"Oh, so this is an interrogation?"

"Maybe it is," I say, not bothering to try and sound not threatening. "So. The parking garage."

"I was waiting for the delivery van? We get new supplies every couple of days. Jenkins has us working around the clock more or less, which means we go through a lot of ingredients in a short space of time. And it's not like we had extra staff for carrying boxes from the garage to the labs. So the old bird expects us to do that, too, on top of everything else."

Kendricks goes on about Jenkins being this total slaveholder for another five minutes, then gets back to what seems to be his one true passion, travelling. He tells me about the trips to Berlin and Paris he took last year. He recommends places, and advertises the kinky stuff that's to be found there, and explains to me that everything is a total frigging bargain because of the exchange rate.

Yeah, he seems to be a bit simple. But not like a criminal. Plus, he doesn't have a motive to harm Draco. And he could give me a reason why he was down in the parking garage when we arrived there the other morning. It obviously wasn't to try and snatch at an opportunity to sneak up on Draco. I'm going to double-check with Supplies, but I know they'll confirm what Kendricks told me.

He's charming, nice. I really don't like him. He's too muscly. His hands are paws, no, spades. He could do real harm with those hands.

And his hair is too sleek. Potion sleek.

Never trust a guy with perfect hair. -

Professor Jenkins is at his desk reading in a thick book when I step into his office. His red hair is gleaming in the dim light of a single oil lamp. Small wonder his eyes are watering like they do if he doesn't even use a decent reading light.

When I say I've got a couple of questions for him, he tries to brush me off. Claims he's got to attend to pressing matters. As if. All he's been doing just now is catch up on his bloody reading.

"Professor Jenkins. Draco Malfoy has been repeatedly ill over the last weeks. What do you have to say about that."

He purses his lips.

"It's too bad, that's what I've got to say. I need him on the job."

He shuts his book and sends it to the bookcase on the opposite wall with a short flick of his wand. The book is so fat it's got trouble staying airborne during its short flight and edging itself back into its space on the crammed top shelf.

"Auror Potter, are you now suggesting I'm poisoning my own intern? Or have you simply come here to threaten me some more about exploiting him? I guess it was you who set the works council on us?"

I choose not to comment on that, I just keep fixating him, brows raised.

"Well, I'm not forcing him to work all those extra hours, believe it or not," he says. "Mr. Malfoy is very driven. I couldn't stop him from doing his research if I tried to." He chuckles in a way that can only be described as fondly. Then he focusses his swimming gaze on me again. "You should know that, shouldn't you. You're his life partner, aren't you?"

I don't know if I'm Draco's life partner, but it's definitely a rare thing that a wizard of Jenkins' age would use that term. The correct term. If it is correct in our case. It's definitely a point in his favour.

Sure, this kind of thing should be normal, with this being times of tolerance and gay marriage being legally recognized and everything, but the fact is, it's not, and I find myself finding the sight of Jenkins drying his teary eyes with his wand yet again just this tiny bit less repulsive.

Would he poison Draco? Use him as a lab rat? Does he want him or his ground wings in his supply cabinet?

It doesn't seem likely.

But then you never know with potions guys. -

That night Draco confronts me, seething. Kendricks told him about my visit, and Draco put two and two together.

"What were you thinking, pulling something like that, Harry! Treating my boss like a murder suspect! Jenkins is a brilliant guy, and all he's interested in is his work! And Sam is cool, too. He'd never harm anyone. All he wants is go to SF! Do you realize how you've embarrassed me with the whole thing? And then to make me sit through two full hours of those stupid questions from that works council lady!"

I try to interrupt him, but he won't let me.

"Seriously, Harry, I don't care for you doing this kind of shit. You know what? I think working as an Auror has messed with your head. Or maybe it's your whole personal history. Like having to deal with a new villain every single school year and stuff. You've got to start to learn that not every situation is about defeating some evil, plotting enemy, okay?"

He's pacing the kitchen like the very first night we spent together in my flat. Only then he was confiding his troubles to me, and seeking my help. Trusting me. Now he looks like he'd like to rip me to pieces.

"It's important for me that this internship works out! I think you don't get it. You think it's just an underpaid job in unpleasant surroundings. And that I'm doing it because I'm related to house elves and like to be told what to do and to scrub things. But that's not it, okay?"

Again, I try to stop his outburst, but he shakes his head.

"We are onto something big, see? Something really big. That potion Jenkins is working on, it's a cure for residual effects of dark magic. Well, he gave me free reign to experiment with it. The problem is that its main ingredient is in extremely limited supply, and just recently I had this idea how to deal with that. It was inspired by a science article I had come across on the Muggle net, dealing with something called polymerase chain reaction, and... anyway, it seems to be working out. I can't tell you more at the moment, but there's been a major breakthrough. All this is of considerable personal interest to me, see?"

"Because of your heart," I whisper.

"Because of those bouts of breathing trouble, if you must know. That's got nothing to do with you cursing me with Sectumsempra and me not being the athlete I used to be. And I'm not infected with anything, either. Sorry, I disagree with your mop-haired friend."

I've told him I had Hermione examine him the last time he fell sick, and although he didn't remember anything about it, he took the information in his stride. All he seemed to really care for was that she didn't get to see his wings.

I just wish he'd come round to be as cool and forgiving now.

"I know she's good and everything," he goes on, "but what's happening to me doesn't look like what a bug would do, does it. You know I do believe my father's old curses might still be affecting me, and that's all there is to it."

"But you said you started to feel sick in your sixth year. That's when I hit you with Sectumsempra and damaged your heart…"

"It's also when my father went to Azkaban and started to have Crabbe hex me."

"But..."

"Okay, let's stop this. All I want to say is my work is really important to me. And it's not only that I have these personal hopes concerning the Light drops. Potions is my thing. I want to make a name for myself in the field. Okay? So, please Harry. Don't mess with my job."

Humbled, I apologize, and promise to stay away from his work place in the future. After all he's just told me, what else can I say?

Even if he just gave me another motive why his boss might be wanting to kill him.

If Draco solved a major problem with a potion that Jenkins has been working on for thirty years, Jenkins might very well be wanting to get rid of him so he'll be able to reap the benefits all by himself once that potion hits the shops. Only Draco doesn't want to see that, because he's part of Jenkins' team, and loyal to a fault.

Of course Draco might have a point with what he said about my personal history; me getting confronted with a plotting enemy every school year. Maybe I did develop a penchant for paranoia because of that.

I'll still keep my map.