Blood.

There was so much blood. And death.

They were all dead. Staring into his soul with vacant eyes. Snape. Crabbe. Blaise. Teddy's parents. The Weasley twin. Lavender whatever her name was. Creevey with the camera. So, so many people he didn't know.

He ran from the Great Hall, wanting to get as far away as possible. He ran up the stairs to the Astronomy Tower.

Dumbledore was there. In the exact same place Draco found him that night. With the same empty eyes as everyone downstairs.

"I would have protected you, Draco. You and your family. You would have been safe, far away from the fighting. But you let the Death Eaters in here to kill me. And to kill him." The old man looked over Draco's shoulder.

Draco turned. Theo stood there. Covered in blood. With wide sightless eyes.

"I was your brother. You should have had my back. I shielded you, the least you could have done was return the favor. But you had to save a girl. And you couldn't even save her." Dead Theo pointed.

Draco turned around to see Emily Hopkirk on the floor, her Ravenclaw uniform torn and smeared with blood.

But then it wasn't Emily. Her hair wasn't brown, it was pale blond. She was much smaller. And had a baby bump.

"Draco, wake up!" Luna was shaking him.

He was on the folding cot at St Mungo's. His parents stood on the other side of the bed, his father's hand on his arm and his mother's hand pressed to her mouth.

He was drenched in sweat and shaking. Luna smoothed his hair from his face and whispered. "It's okay. You're safe."

He pulled her against his chest fiercely, burying his face in her hair. "You're not dead." He mumbled. "But the rest of them are."

There was some tea left from earlier. His mother warmed a cup and tried to hand it to him, taking it back when she saw how badly his hands were shaking.

"I think he needs firewhiskey right now," he father muttered.

"Yes, but we don't have any," his mother rolled her eyes.

His trembling gradually slowed, and he was able to drink the tea, although he kept Luna pressed against himself as tightly as he could with one arm.

"This is ridiculous," he grumbled. "We all need to go back to bed."

His mother kissed his forehead and his father patted his shoulder, both wishing him good night.

Luna tried to pull away, but he held on to her, pulling both of them off the far side of the bed. He shoved the two beds together with his leg, and then transfigured them into one big bed. He then loosened his grip long enough for her to climb into bed and him to scoot in beside her. Within moments, her back was snuggled against his chest.

"Are you sure you're all right?" she asked. "We could ask the healer for a sleeping draught for you. Or maybe some chicken soup."

"Just need to be close to you," he mumbled into her hair.

"Draco, if you get any closer, you'll be on the other side of me."

He fell asleep smiling.


Alderbourne came in after breakfast. He checked Lucius over first, proclaiming him no worse for wear and clearing him to go home. The healer then shooed Draco into the other room with his parents while he checked Luna.

Draco stopped short when he saw the looks on his parents' faces.

"We need to talk," his mother said, as if he hadn't already figured that out.

"What's on your minds?" their son asked, suspecting he wasn't going to like where this conversation was going to end up.

"Last night, during your nightmare," his mother began. "You...shouted Luna's name. You also shouted Theo."

"It was a nightmare," Draco looked at the floor.

"Son, we haven't talked about the situation since the wedding and my unfortunate injury." Draco rolled his eyes at his father's euphemism. "Well, your mother and I have discussed the matter privately, of course, but we haven't talked with you to see how you were processing everything." Lucius looked as uncomfortable as Draco felt.

"You mean how I feel about finding out one of my best friends was actually my brother?" Draco shook his head. "I haven't really thought about it. I've had a few other things to worry about."

"Draco, I know you have a lot to deal with right now, but sooner or later you'll have to face this as well. Your father and I are working through it. It's a lot for us to deal with as well, but if you want to talk about it, we want you to talk to us." his mother stepped closer to him, reaching for his cheek.

The invasion was so sudden and unexpected that it took Draco a moment to raise his mental shields. By that time, his father had seen exactly what he was looking for. The details of the nightmare.

"You used legilimency on me! You son of a bitch!" Draco roared.

"Yes, actually I was, which makes you the grandson of a bitch." Lucius replied coolly. His entire demeanor softened. "Draco, you can't blame yourself for Theo's death. It was a war."

"I do NOT want to talk about this," Draco turned back toward Luna's room, determined to interrupt whether the healer liked it or not.

Before he reached the door, it opened. Alderbourne had a grim look on his face.

"What?" Draco snapped.

Alderbourne looked at him as if he were the source of all the world's problems. "Mrs. Malfoy's blood pressure is still a little elevated. She told me that you had nightmares last night, and perhaps all of you are still a bit in shock over what happened yesterday. But the elevated blood pressure could be an early warning sign of possible complications, so I want to keep her here a little longer."

Draco felt all of his hostility drain away. "What kind of complications?"

"There is a small chance that the blood pressure could continue to elevate, which could lead to premature labor or fetal death. And possibly the death of the mother. Like I said, the chances are minimal, but the potential outcomes are significant enough that we would want to take all possible precautions."

"What can you do for them?" Draco asked hoarsely. Narcissa stepped up and slipped her hand into his.

"Well, her blood pressure has come down slightly, just not as much as I would have liked." the healer smiled. "I want to keep her here a little longer, keep her calm and her stress levels to a minimum, and see what happens over the next day or two. I want you," he fixed Draco with a piercing stare "to go home, at least for most of the day, so she can rest. But I am going to want her blood pressure monitored after she's released."

Draco nodded. "Can we do that at the hospital wing at Hogwarts?"

Alderbourne smiled. "Of course. You can even check it yourselves at home. I'll show you how."

Shacklebolt arrived at that moment, to check on the patients and the status of returning the Malfoys home.

"Don't you ever rest?" Draco asked.

The Minister shrugged. "No. Plenty of time for that when I'm too old to do anything else."

The healer excused himself to allow the Malfoys to fill him in on Lucius' and Luna's conditions.

"He's been sniffing too many potions if he thinks I'm going to leave Luna here unprotected and just go home." Draco finished.

Shacklebolt smiled like an indulgent father. "Draco, he's right. She needs to rest, and you're worked up, which is naturally going to affect her on some level. Why don't you let your mother or maybe Molly Weasley stay with her today, and I'll send someone over to watch over both of them. Then you can come help me, if you don't have anything else pressing."

Draco stared at him for a long moment before stealing glances at his parents, who both nodded slightly. "Fine," he blew out the breath he didm't realize he was holding. "But I want to talk to Luna, make sure she's okay with it, and I'm not leaving until I'm satisfied with who's going to be watching her."

"Fair enough," Shacklebolt said. "I'll have someone over here soon." He left to arrange a guard.

To Draco's disappointment, Luna was not pleased about having to stay longer, but didn't insist on him staying with her.

An hour later, Robards knocked on the door of Luna's room. Draco stepped into the hall to speak with him.

"Shacklebolt sent me," the auror said. "I'm supposed to remind you of your conversation with him at dinner last night. He said for you to see your father home and then meet him at his office."

Draco nodded. "I'm presuming you know everything that happened yesterday. And why I'm hesitant to leave my wife and my mother with anyone, auror or not."

Robards looked at him seriously. "Yeah. My wife is pregnant too. If I was in your shoes, I'd have a problem trusting anyone else with her safety."

"Really?" Draco smirked. "Someone would marry a prick like you?"

Robards shrugged. "Why not? Someone married a prick like you."

The two grinned at each other with a grudging respect.

"So what's the plan?" Draco asked.

"I'm on duty here until 3. Then Arthur Weasley is coming until 7. By then, you'll either be back, or Shacklebolt will set up someone to cover the evening."

"Thank you," Draco said honestly. "Do you want to go to the loo or get a drink or something before I leave?"

Robards left to do those things while Draco collected Lucius and said goodbye to Luna and Narcissa. Once the auror returned and everyone was settled, Draco accompanied his father back to the Manor. All five house elves were present, and agreed for at least two to stay with the master. Draco then flooed to the Ministry, where he found Shacklebolt reviewing the aurors' personnel files. He shoved a stack across desk.

"What are we looking for?" Draco asked, picking up a folder and depositing himself in a chair.

"Whatever doesn't look or sound right." Shacklebolt looked up for just a brief second.

They worked in silence for hours, other than to occasionally comment on odd facts about the aurors.

"Savage has an identical twin who's the travel coordinator for the Harpies."

"Vander Houten plays 11 different musical instruments."

After three hours they were down to the last two charts.

"Berryhill was a Slytherin," Draco commented, eyebrow arched. "Bet you don't get too many of those."

"You didn't know him?" Shacklebolt frowned. "He's not that much older than you are. You should have overlapped a year or two."

Draco shook his head. "He only went there his first four years. Then his father took a job in Germany , so the family moved and he was transferred to Durmstrang. He says he hated it and begged to go back to Hogwarts." Draco flipped a couple pages. "He left Hogwarts in June of 1989 and I started there in September of 1991. We never met, but we must know some of the same people."

Shacklebolt sighed. "He would have been there before Voldemort's resurrection and recruitment drive. But it might still be worth checking for family involvements with the Death Eaters." He held up the folder he had been reading. "Interesting tidbit in this one too. Nolan's father remarried after her mother's death. To one Letizia Vincente Andrakis Zambini Abbott Nolan. Who of course, married 4 or 5 more times after that."

"Wait, you mean Blaise's brother Thorne Nolan is her brother too?" Draco was stunned. "That certainly puts a different light on some things."

"Blaise's mother actually stayed married to Nolan's father longer than any of them. Almost five years. And he's the only one of her dead husbands she was never suspected of killing. He was struck by lightning at a Quidditch match." Shacklebolt looked at Draco over the file, eyes narrowed. "What were Blaise and his mother's sympathies during the war?"

Draco put down Berryhill's file to meet Shacklebolt's gaze. "That's something that's bothered me since the Battle of Hogwarts. Blaise and his family were notoriously neutral. He and Thorne were two more brainwashed pureblood supremacy bastards, but they never gave any hint of supporting Voldemort or opposing him. Blaise and Thorne were with the rest of the Slytherins when they were escorted out before the fighting began. But at the end of the battle, Blaise was dead in the Great Hall. I have no idea when he came back or even which side he was fighting on."

Shacklebolt tossed Nolan's file onto the desk. "Well then, I think our next step is to find out how Blaise died."