For Mortal Stakes: A Malfoy Files Story

A/N: Thanks for your patience with this while I worked on some personal issues. I finally have my head back right and the writing is coming back.

As always I own none of this except the story. Thank you JKR.

Chapter Three

The next morning found me still lying on my office floor, when Gertie had come in to open. My ribs and head had hurt so badly that I had decided to close my eyes, just for a minute and the next thing I knew Gertie was waking me up.

"Do I even want to know," she asked helping me into my chair.

"It was a visit from The Jehovah's Witnesses. Someone had let slip I was willing to be saved but could only be reached here after hours. Three of them showed up and attempted to gang-save me," I smirked as I sat wincing in the chair.

Gertie cast a cooling charm on a wet cloth and applied it to the back of my head.

"Lucky for you they hit you I the head. Not much to hurt in there."

I winced again. "You should have seen me I did a great job of crashing my ribs into their boots."

Gertie smiled and handed me a small linen envelope.

"This came in the morning post," she said leaving my office. "I have tea out here if you want some."

I nodded and looked and opened the envelope.

The card had an address and the name Santiago. I knew this lead was from Astrid Parker and decided I should probably run it down before it blew away like so much smoke.

After the previous nights occurrences, I figured I would need back up. Fortunately I knew exactly where to get it.

-OOO-

"So, can I count on you to have my back?" Blaise looked at me, as if I had grown a second head. "Yeah... Stupid question I know."

"Who are we supposed to be meeting with?" he asked, sitting across from me in our regular booth.

"The guy I need to see is named Santiago, and it's not so much a planned meeting. It's more of what you might call an impromptu encounter," I answered sipping my drink.

"So, It's a snatch and shake down?" I nodded. "Sounds like fun," Blaise's smile never quite meeting his eyes.

Corrinae was cleaning off a nearby table and I caught Blaise watching her.

I cleared my throat and said, "So how is Katie doing?"

Blaise had been dating Katie Bell since the whole ordeal with Ariana. His face took on a pained expression.

"I guess she's OK. We don't talk much anymore. She got a job offer with an Italian club. Neither of us are long distance people," he shrugged.

"She clean?" Katie had a problem with Pixie Dust.

Blaise nodded, "Just celebrated two years clean." I noted a tone of pride in his voice that Blaise doesn't usually have.

"That's good," I nodded.

"When are we going to facilitate this meeting?" Blaise asked, changing the subject.

"I figured we would head out as soon as you're done ogling my sister," I smirked swallowing the rest of my drink.

"Relax man, we've been over this," Blaise reassured me. "I care to much about her to subject her to me. But that doesn't mean I won't look."

I winced and sighed. "Fine just try not to drool around me, OK?"

Blaise smiled and finished his drink in one swallow, standing up. "Let's go break some laws."

I stood and followed him out of the back room.

-OOO-

Blaise and I went to the address that I had received. The site as a large Muggle housing complexthat looked as if it had been abandoned since the latest rounds of urban renewal projects had ended. The building was dark for the most part and I could hear the scurrying of unseen creatures in the halls. The was one floor that seemed to have power and I could see some light coming from the boarded windows.

We climbed the stairs as quietly as possible avoiding the rubbish and rats as best as possible. I had my wand out and so did Blaise. I didn't know what to expect but after my head had been used as a pinata I wasn't taking any chances. Blaise and I stopped on a landing below the floor the light was coming from. We could see a shadow moving back and forth in front of the light as if someone was standing guard. We locked eyes and both nodded.

The man standing in front of the door was one of the thugs who had paid me a visit. Blaise silently cast a stunner and the man slumped to the ground in front of a large door. Without wasting anytime I pulled the door open and the stairwell was flooded with yellow light.

We quickly made our way through the door into a long hallway with multiple multiple doorways. Most of flats did not have doors and were dark. Towards the end of the hall, there were several closed doors and I could hear music coming from behind one of the doors.

We checked the first door and it opened into a small one room flat with several piles of blankets on the floor no one was here. The second door opened into another room like the first this one had several children asleep on the blankets and a man sitting in a chair looking very bored. Blasie moved faster than I thought was possible.

"Silencio," he breathed coming out almost a whisper. He bounded across the floor and kicked the man hard in the crotch before he had managed to get to his feet. I looked at the sleeping girls and they all appeared to be between the ages of 5 and 15 years old. I shuddered to think why they were being kept here.

The last room in the hallway was a large double door and the music could be heard coming from there. I stopped and listened at the door.

"No, dammit," I heard a smack "You need to smile." I heard a small voice cry and the man laughed cruelly. "Or you can cry to. That always sells."

I could tell from Blaise's eyes he had heard the same thing. I leaned forward and whispered, "Leave the leader able to talk."

Blaise nodded ticked off three on his fingers and cast a Bombarda on the door. Inside the room there were three beds and three separate camera set-ups. On each bed was a girl no older than 12. There were several men standing around in various states of undress and several others running the cameras. The man I assume to be Santiago was standing next to one of the girls, holding her arm tightly. The girl was crying. Because of our surprise entrance Blaise and I were able to quickly dispatch the men. Blaise might have been a bit over zealous using a very specific slicing hex on the men standing around. The girls all screamed and bolted for the door. I made my way over to Santiago. He was a large man but looked decidedly soft. His face was red with anger .

"Do you know who I am?" he screamed.

"Yeah you're a piece of shit parasite who should count himself lucky I don't you over to my bloodthirsty friend here," I growled pointing to Blaise who was still dispatching the other men.

"I have friends in the ministry. You will be fucking sorry," the man blubbered.

"You know," I said pulling the man up by his ponytail, "I don't think you quite grasp the situation here."

I slammed my elbow into his face feeling his nose break.

"I don't give a shit who your friends are. All I care about is this." I held him up with one hand and showed him the pictures of Audrey Weasley with the other. "Is this your work?"

The man shook his head.

"Whose?"

The man shook his head again. "If I tell you, they'll kill me."

"If you don't tell me then I will kill you. So, you've gotta decide who you're more scared of," I elbowed him again to prove my point.

"Alright they look like the work of the Russians. Yuri Nievsky, he runs most of the girls outta London. He is a bad guy," Santiago said. I let him slump to the floor, a crying whimpering mass.

When I left the room in search of the kids to make sure everyone was OK. I pretended not to notice the look on Blaise's face nor the green light that filled the room as soon as I left.