A/N: So such a busy couple of weeks, instead of finding forever homes for my kittens, We have decided to keep them as they have been so beneficial for me so now we are fully training them and trying to spend one on one time with each of them. Also a bit of sad news both of my grandparents these past few months have discovered they have Cancer, thankfully my nan's had an operation and she is fine, but my grandad has been diagnosed with lung cancer. He starts chemo this week. To say I'm heart broken is an understatement. I'm coping now and remaining positive.

Anyways here is the next chapter, sorry for the lateness. I'm not going to lie, it's a risky chapter I feel as I have wanted to do it for ages and couldn't bring myself around to do it. My current mood has definitely pushed me into this risk and I just hope you guys like it. Someone asked if I have a Beta and no I don't and my simple explanation is, as soon as I finish a chapter, I post it. If I had a Beta it would take longer and I just want to get the story to you. When I am finished the story, I think I'll go back and edit it. Re-reading it makes me see so many mistakes but I wish I had time for a Beta but I can barely find time to write.

Anyways onwards to the chapter, here it goes...

Disclaimer: I wish and yet, it is still not mine.

Trouble in the Sweet Shop

Chapter 34

Meanwhile, across town, Harry and Ron had planned to investigate Zach's home, they wanted to do it whilst he was at work as this way they faced no danger and already knew where he was, should they need to make an arrest. Dawlish had Zach checking out a location, rumoured to have wizards using dark magic. It was just around the corner from the ministry, so it was well within walking distance, he also had 2 other Auror's with him.

Harry and Ron were dressed in their official Auror robes. They didn't usually wear their full uniform but today was different, they didn't want to be seen to "break in" Zach's house and have him be alerted to their presence. Either way they still cast a light charm around themselves so they appeared hazy to the public. This way, they could not be identified by anyone. They took down all wards from his home and entered, casting a quick revealing spell (of course nothing happened) they immediately searched the property. Quickly scanning each room for signs of life and after finding no immediate threat they split up and began a more thorough search.

Harry took the kitchen, pulling open drawers and opening cupboards, checking for anything at all. He flicked through a small pile of papers on the dining room table, finding only correspondence from a colleague about a current case, a letter from a lady "thanking him for a wonderful time" and yesterdays daily prophet. The pictures still moving. Harry, never being too careful, even opened the oven and microwave, very muggle. Nothing. This room was clear.

"KITCHEN CLEAR. RON?"

Ron had taken to searching the lounge, unlike Harry, he was a much messier investigator. He would throw useless things on the floor and knocked things over, it's not like he couldn't turn it back to it's previous way in a flick of his wand. Again this room seemed clear, no papers or information anywhere. Ron, wand in hand, did a manual job of searching, flipping tables with his hands and pushing chairs out of the way. He had even lay on his stomach to look under the television table, quickly jumping to his feet when a rather large black cat, ears pinned back, hissed at him aggressively.

"Clear, I'm checking the office."He said whilst entering the next room, he pulled books one by one off the shelves, opening them to see if anything fell out. Nothing, he moved to the desk and began searching through each and every drawer, again finding bits of paper from work, letters here and there but nothing to do with death eater activity. He briefly heard Harry shouting both the bath room and bedroom were clear. They were all but ready to give up, finding nothing in any of the rooms, however the house felt eerie, they didn't know if it was just because it was an empty house, or that they had heard so much about Zach, that they had convinced themselves something was wrong.

The clock chimed, causing Harry to realise they had to go, time had really flown by and they needed to go as Zach would be at the ministry soon and then would be heading home. They had to get back, they had already wasted a day on this.

"Ron, come on we gotta go." He quickly pushed some papers back into a drawer, squeezing it shut and making sure everything was exactly how it was. He heard a groan from Ron.

"This is complete rubbish, we have spent all day in this stupid house to find nothing." He had a book in his hand, to anyone else it may have looked suspicious but to Ron it was normal. However he checked it over, better to be safe. The book was based on the dark arts, but it was one that was necessary during their training. He threw the book on the floor and flicked his wand, making all of the rubbish and every little item spring back into their original places. He stumbled when he noticed a book was wedged under his foot and fell back, catching himself on the wall. He must have placed his hand funny as the wall made a funny clunking sound. He mentally kicked himself as this alerted people to his presence. At least when he up turned the house he only let it fall to the floor and not too hard, they would probably think it was the cat. However hitting the wall, alerted neighbours something was moving. Hopefully they were out.

"What was that?"

"Nothing I hit the wall"

"Do it again."

"No Harry, we could be heard."

"Ron do it again."

He knocked a second time and the clunking was the same, Harry looked at Ron in a sceptical way. He walked to the wall and lightly tapped it a few times, feeling a difference in the solidity of the wall. Some parts were hollow. Harry looked at the whole wall, seeing if there was anything added. The only thing was a small painting of a meadow, he lifted the picture and found a small hatch. Ron looked at the clock.

"Harry we're running out of time..."

"We have him, Ron we need to get in here, we need more time. Floo Dawlish, tell him to keep Richman occupied." Ron almost ran towards the fireplace, throwing the powder into the fire, yelling Head of Auror Department, Ministry of magic and sticking his head in.

"I don't see why we have to meet them here."

"Draco behave, we just need to do this, we need everything sorted already."

"What we need is for this to be done." The couple walked into the ministry after dropping of their son and straight to the Auror's office, Harry and Ron would be back soon and hopefully would bring back Zach. They were shown to Harry and Ron's office where Hermione took a seat. Draco proceeded to walk around the room, picking up random items and looking them over, ever the curious Slytherin.

"Draco will you put that down and come and sit down please."

"I mean we could have just stayed in the comfort of our own home, where it was safe and I could have a drink. Instead I have to spend my day waiting on Potty and Weasel. Like the fate of my life depends on them." His voice laced with sarcasm. All the while, he was still picking up items, lightly throwing them in the air and catching them, twisting them in his fingers and ignoring his wife.

"It's like having Scorpius here." She sighed and stood up, walking up to her husband and taking the item from his grasp and putting it down. He swiftly took hold of her hips and spun her around so her back touched the wall, leaning into her, his lips by her ear, his breath sending tingles down her spine. Her breath caught in her throat as her husband lightly kissed her neck, slowly lowering his kisses to her collar bone.

"Draco" Her whisper barely audible, like a light switched in her head, she lightly pushed him back, not enough to upset him and reject him, his body still pinned her to the wall, but enough that his lips were no longer by her neck.

"Come on, haven't you ever wanted to do it in Potter's office." She let out a small giggle.

"No, that's completely wrong. Harry's my best friend."

"I think it's kind of hot, you know being here, everyone's around and nobody knows what we're up to." She laughed and batted him on the arm. He kissed her lips lovingly and pulled back, picking the item back up and lightly throwing it up in the air again. Hermione shuck her head and sat back down.

They had been there a while, Hermione was bored and Draco was getting agitated. She was sitting, slightly slouched, reading a leaflet, he was standing against the wall, lost in his own thoughts. He huffed and kicked off from the wall.

"I'm gonna see what's going on."

"Draco wait, we don't know what's going on, just be patient." He huffed and contemplated what his wife had said before once again, ignoring her and walked towards the door, just as he was about to leave, Dawlish pushed the door open.

"We've ran into a bit of a problem, they've found something."

"I fail to see how that's a problem." Draco was really agitated, he wanted to go home and relax, have a drink and spend time with his family.

"We need to keep Zach occupied, I'm trying to get him to stay for more work at the moment so we can't have you seen. You need to go somewhere else in the ministry, it's too dangerous to have you in another Auror's office. There's an interrogation room free, we can reset the wards around it." He told them where to go and turned to show them the way.

"Dawlish, let me see him."

"What? No way" Hermione butted in.

"That's not an option Mr Malfoy."

"Trust me, I can get him to stay, he won't know a thing. I can get him to talk if I have to." Dawlish hovered and thought for a brief moment. He pulled Draco to one side, Hermione stood in silence trying to catch what they were talking about, she couldn't hear anything, just the mumbling and tones. Serious tones, septic tones, tones of warning. Slowly the voices got louder and she could make out the conversation.

"There's no assurance for your safety."

"Draco please, don't be silly"

"What's he going to do in the Ministry of Magic, in the Auror department, surrounded by Aurors?" He nodded.

"Notify me if he leaves."

"I'm staying then." Hermione blurted out, she wasn't about to let her husband be around a dangerous man.

"Hermione, I'll be fine. Just let me do this. I promise I'll be back soon. Just go and be safe and Potter and Weasley will be there soon to take him in. It'll all be worth it in the end. But if he is involved Hermione, if he is the one causing all of this then he wants to draw me in. I'll let him believe I am..." He gave her a quick peck on the cheek and smiled. She turned and walked in the opposite direction. Draco stood in silence for a moment, he straightened his jacket and run his hands through his hair, putting on his Malfoy "all powerful and serious" exterior and exited the room. Draco walked down the aisle, looking at the plaque on each door he passed, identifying each Auror's office. Two per office, except for senior members of staff. Three down from Harry and Ron, Draco read the small plaque "Zachary Richman & Charles Williamson" He poked his head in to see Zach sitting at his desk, flicking through files.

"Zachary?" He was shaken from his work from the familiar voice coming from his doorway.

"Malfoy? Hey man what's up?"

"Nothing, just here on routine checks." He sat back in his chair and motioned for Draco to take a seat, he walked in and sat down, trying to look comfortable in his presence.

"Aww Who with?"

"Potter." He snarled and Zach rolled his eyes.

"Complete Kiss-ass. Him and Weasley are possibly the most annoying people I have ever met."

"You're telling me. I told you about Hogwarts didn't I?" The Auror nodded and laughed, picked up his mug and sipped the hot drink inside. He offered Draco a cup who politely refused.

"So you work here?" Again the man nodded "...and As an Auror? Who'd you hex to get that job?" They both laughed, Draco would play to his younger, much more Syltherin side.

"Nah didn't realise you worked here? They let a Yaxley work here? Do they do regular checks on you too?" Zach stood and walked towards the door, looking out to check who was out there first before closing the door. He turned to see Draco shuffling in his seat, getting comfortable.

"Shhh, might not want to say that too loud." Zach's voice changed, it was more serious somehow, a subtle change in his tone, he was still laughing and yet his eyes were burning. Draco frowned, Zach sat back down, leaning back in his chair and putting his feet on the table. He piked up his steaming mug and slowly gulped the hot liquid. Sighing after his sip. He smiled.

"They don't exactly know I'm a Yaxley."

"How could they not?" Draco laughed.

"That's not what my father wanted, my mother raised me muggle, I knew about wizards, my father was active in my life but I didn't know much until I was 11. I wanted to go to Hogwarts but my father insisted I go to Durmstrang." Zach frowned slightly, his eyes darted towards Draco who was sitting casually and towards his cup.

"Do you believe everybody has a purpose Malfoy? That we are all aiming towards that one defining moment in our lives?"

"I'm not sure what you mean." Draco was calm, Zach walked over to a filing cabinet along the wall, he opened it, his back to Draco.

"If the Auror's knew Yaxley had a son, do you really think they'd let me become one? I'd be sentenced to a life of checks, having people watch my every move. That's not a life someone should lead."

"You think I don't know that? My father was the right hand man of Voldemort. It's not easy, but if you're not guilty you fight for freedom."

Zach turned around and casually walked towards the desk Draco was sitting at, in his hand was a large knife. Draco looked Zach in the face, he tried to stay calm but he was not anticipating this. Draco was unarmed, no wands allowed, which made perfect sense to have a knife here, undetectable for an Auror, it could easily be evidence from a case.

"Zachary..."

"Don't worry mate, I'm not going to kill you. You see, I just want what's right for you." He was slowly walking around the room, turning the knife over in his hands, it was a mimic of how Draco was doing it earlier in Harry and Ron's office.

"Which is?"

"To get you away from that Mudblood you call a wife." He couldn't react, he didn't want to startle him, Zach wasn't going to kill him...yet, if provoked, who knew what could happen.

"and is my father involved?"

"Mate, you're father planned it. We always knew there was a possibility that the dark lord would fall, they wanted the power to remain." His voice was playful, like he enjoyed this.

"You're father used you Zach, you weren't like this before." His eyes never left the knife as Zach walked across the room, scratching the knife along the table in front of Draco.

"My father trained me."

"...and your mother?"

"dead"

"How?"

"My father killed her."

"Why?"

"She was a muggle"

"She was your mum."

"She was useless."

"She was your mum."

"How is Blaise involved?" Zach laughed, tight grip on the knife he walked towards the seat and sat down, putting his feet back up.

"I was sent a letter from my father before he died, telling me what I needed to do, I visited your father as an enforcement officer and naturally we planned the whole thing. Getting Zabini involved was easy. We held his family captive. He had no choice, either you die...or his family dies."

Draco looked towards the door, considering a quick exit.

"I wouldn't bother trying to escape. You think I haven't worked this out? I never get sent on locations. I knew something was off. When Dawlish asked me to stay behind." He banged the bottom of the handle against the table twice and the door flew open. His partner 'Williamson' was standing at the door, wand to Hermione's throat, she was scared but her face was determined not to show anything.

"What did you do?"

"He's imperialised, I couldn't risk anything going wrong and this was too much of a perfect opportunity to pass up. So you're going to calmly come with me and you're not going to draw attention to yourself."

"'Mione are you OK?" He made a start towards her but Williamson turned his wand towards Draco, taking a step back, Draco bumped into Zach who held onto him by pushing the knife against his throat.

"We need to get going."

A commotion could be heard from down the hall and Zachary got instantly anxious and angry, he took Draco by the neck and pushed the knife even further into his neck, a single drop of blood dripped down his neck and Hermione jolted forward to go to him, Draco held his hand up to her.

"Hermione, calm down, I'll be fine. Baby I'll be fine. I'm going with him and I'll be back. I promise I'm not going to leave you. I'll come back." A single tear leaked from her eye and she nodded, she was pulled back by Williamson and she watched as Draco was forced forward by Zach. For a small frame, he was strong and he put all of his weight into guiding Draco out of the room, he popped his head out of the doorway. Williamson ad done his job, Dawlish's body was slumped against the wall and everyone was paying far too much attention to notice what was happening in this room. He noticed Harry and Ron were there already, trying to aid the situation and take control. Typical. He turned his head in Dawlish's offices direction. It was 4 doors down, not far at all. He just needed to get there unnoticed. Slowly he dragged Draco there, warning him not to scream.

He knew it was risk, his life was in danger but he needed someone to see him, as Zach was pulling him, he "lost" his footing, the noise drew attention to a single person who pointed out Zach to Harry. Harry began to run towards Zach who pushed the knife into Draco's throat.

"STOP!" Harry immediately stopped, holding his arm out so everyone who followed did the same.

"If you don't stop, I will kill him."

"You're bluffing!"

"Potter he's not bluffing, he's taken Veritaserum. Potter do something! Hermione is in there..."

"SHUT UP! Another word and you're dead."

"Zach, think about this. Just stop now and we can help you, we'll be lenient and we'll sort something out."

"You forget I know all of these tricks, leniency isn't what I want. I want power."

"We'll give you power, we'll sort something out but let Malfoy go." He was still, there was no way he could let Draco go, there was also no way he could leave with Draco under knife point. He needed to start up the floo system, he wasn't 100% positive Williamson had done this. He could see Harry edging closer, wand up and the other hand stretched out in a surrender. Zach panicked.

Everything happened in slow motion, Zach took the knife back and pushed Draco forward, Draco took a sharp in take of breath and let out a small scream before plummeting towards the floor, Harry noticed the man had been stabbed, he fell towards Draco to stop him from hitting the floor, quickly covering him in blood. Zach sprung towards Dawlish's office and Harry screamed for Ron to get him. Harry tried to heal Draco's wounds but the blade must have been cursed because nothing worked. After calling the small receptionist to call St Mungo's and put pressure on Draco's wound, Harry ran into Zach's office to see Williamson still under the imperius curse, he quickly stunned him and grabbed Hermione. Pulling her into a brief hug. She pushed off him, running into the hall before Harry could stop her.

"Hermione wait..."

"DRACO!" She sprung forward and fell to her knees clutching her husband, she was sitting in the pool of blood surrounding the bonde haired man, she didn't care, she just needed to make sure he was OK. She screamed a blood curdling scream and begged for someone to help. The man eyes were barely open and yet were fixed on her face. As his eyes began to close, she clutched on to him even harder and began to shake.

"Don't leave me baby. You said you'd come back to me, come back to me baby. I love you so much."

A/N: AGHHHH! Please don't hate me. I'm so sorry for this cliff hanger, it needed to happen but do not worry because I literally am typing the last part of the next chapter and I promise it will be here before the weekend. I don't think I could leave you in suspense much longer than that.

Again sorry for the lateness and hopefully you find this chapter much more juicier and the story progression much faster. I am nearing the end of this story, I don't know how many chapters are left but do you guys want a sequel?

I don't know if the story necessarily needs one anymore but I still have so many ideas, let me know what you would like to see in a sequel.

Anyways once again Thank you so much to all who favourited, followed and reviewed and thank you for just reading this story, it means so much to have support from you guys and If anyone needs anything just drop me a message.

You can follow me on twitter to know what I get up to and when updates are coming or how my writing is going. I also post a lot of pictures of my 4 little kitties. Charlmeemee

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