Chapter Twenty-Eight

The Fate of Brothers

Harry stood with Draco and watched the Aurors taking Max Cross away. He'd be tried and convicted quickly, Harry had no doubt. Cross hadn't made any big secret of what he'd done. He was worried about Draco, though. Draco looked stony and unforgiving—sort of like his father. Harry told himself he couldn't understand, being an only child himself. But still . . . Draco had called him "brother" only a minute ago.

"Draco?"

"What?"

"You're sort of scaring me."

Draco looked away from Cross and looked at Harry. "Sorry."

"You're shutting down, or something."

"Look, I'm sorry, Harry. I just don't really know how I should feel right now. Would I sound really stupid if I said I wish Vianne were here?"

Harry smiled. "No. However, if you pause for a moment to consider that, you'll probably change your mind. You really want her to see this? Or to see you acting like this?"

Draco managed a small smile back. "Yeah, probably not."

Harry clapped him on the back. "Besides, you said it yourself. Your real brother is standing right here."

Draco made a face. "It sounded way less corny when I said it."

"It's a little weird, is all. I mean, after the number of times we tried to kill each other."

"Apparently, that's pretty normal for brothers. Besides, we haven't even fought recently."

"Leaving aside all the snippy comments everybody's been making lately."

"We've just been tired."

"Yeah, and now this part is over."

Draco watched the Aurors going around modifying the memories of a large number of the policemen present. Dudley was corralling the officers who hadn't been gotten to yet and were looking very upset over what was happening.

"Yeah, Cross is finally going to prison, and Jack's okay." He shook his head as he watched Kingsley trying to stay in control of the proceedings. "I hope the Ministry recruits some new Aurors, though. They're a little understaffed."

Harry frowned. "Yeah."

Draco looked at the man who'd chosen to call him friend despite everything that had made it so impossible, that he had chosen to call brother while watching his blood relation be taken away in restraints. He needed to have a talk with Harry about what Harry was doing with his life. As soon as he got a minute.

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Jack clutched the blanket Greg had draped over his shoulders and stared at the floor with haunted eyes.

"I'm sorry."

"You've been saying that for two hours," Greg said. "I know you are."

"What's going to happen to Max?" Jack asked, looking up at Draco.

Draco's jaw tightened. "He's going to rot in jail."

Jack looked amazed. "He's your brother."

Draco snorted. "Look, I was raised with even more family pride than you were, Jack. I know what he is. Merlin, boy, he had you under the Imperius Curse for close to a year, why are you defending him?"

"I'm not," Jack answered, sounding dazed. "I mean, I'm not trying to. But it's hard to think of him in jail. I know what he sounds like when he snores."

Harry, nearly forgotten at this point, laughed at that.

"Shut up, Harry," Draco snapped. He looked miserable. "I don't care what he sounds like when he snores. I assume you know the colour of his pyjamas and the relative state of health of his toenails, too. I do not care. He kidnapped Matt, he tried to come after me, he broke into my house and stole from me, and he used you. To kill people. I wasn't kidding about seeing to it he had my father's old cell. Lucius would have been proud of him."

"Maybe he deserves another chance," Harry suggested. "You know, like you got. Lucius was proud of you at one time, remember?"

Draco made a sour face. "Does that mean I can beat on him with a pipe and force him to change his identity?" He raised his eyebrow. "I'm starting to like this plan."

"Um, guys?" Jack broke in.

They all turned to him.

"As much fun as it is to contemplate great bodily harm to the guy who did this to me . . . do you mind telling me why you're all here and have to talk to me right now?"

"Yeah," Harry said, coming forward and taking charge. "We need to ask you something about your time at Hogwarts."

"Um, okay."

"I know your memory is going to be a little fuzzy right now, but hopefully not too fuzzy. This is important."

"Okay."

"Does he have to do this right now?" Greg objected.

"Do you think we should leave those kids under that curse any longer than absolutely necessary?" Harry replied.

Greg shut up.

"Jack, when you were at school, did you ever work on a spell that could not only hold a person in sleep, but cause them to have nightmares the entire time they slept?"

"Yeah," Jack said, and a small smile flitted over his face. Then he frowned. "I know it's not a very nice spell. I just sort of . . . wanted to see if I could do it. You know, just an experiment."

"Did it work?"

"Yeah. It was really complicated, too. I tied them together really intricately. You can't stop the nightmares or wake them up without breaking the connection."

"Merlin, Jack," Greg said in surprised consternation. "That's awful."

"And exactly what we've known this whole time," Harry sighed.

Jack shrugged. "I knew it was a dangerous spell, so I didn't teach it to everybody like I did with some of my spells."

"You know how to break the connection, right, Jack?" Draco said anxiously. "You know how to put a stop to your spell?"

"Yeah, of course."

All three men looked at each other and sighed with giddy relief.

"Jack, somebody's been using your spell, and we couldn't do anything for the victims. Quentin Waverly's been under for seven months, nearly the whole time Cross had you. Kim Townsend just happened yesterday."

Jack's eyes flew wide and he paled. "Oh, no." He stood up. "Let's go, I can wake them up."

They all stood up and made for the door, but Harry frowned, and looked at Jack again. "Did anybody work on that spell with you?"

"Yeah, I had—"

"Harry!"

Dan burst into the room.

"Dan, what is it?"

"Harry, it's your son."

"What?"

"He's missing."

Harry went pale and put his hands to his head and moaned.

"Oh, not this again," Draco whispered.

"He's not the only one," Dan said, his face lined with worry. "He and Basil Townsend went missing from your rooms. They went to ask Berengaria Talbott if she'd seen him, but she was missing, too. Their friends started forming up to start looking for them, and it turned out that Ferris Forsythe wasn't there, either. None of them are in the hospital wing. Everybody's getting ready to start searching the forest."

"Ferris Forsythe is missing, too?" Jack spoke up.

"Yes."

"Shit," Jack whispered.

"What?"

"Why would he hurt his own . . .?"

"Jack, what are you talking about?"

"Fayne Forsythe. He's the one who helped me develop that spell."