Disclaimer: All places and characters belong to JK Rowling and WB and various publishers. No money is being made off of this piece of fiction.
Chapter 5: The Harvesting
He was panting as he strode quickly along the path that connected Hogwarts to Hogsmede. It was past 1 am. The castle stood dark and silent against the star filled sky.
He spat roughly on the ground; his mouth still full of the acrid taste of bile.
He got to witness the "harvesting". They had awoken the Chimaeram and after ensuring the creatures submission, drugged it and moved it into a side room much like the one Draco and the Unspeakable had entered through. Draco and the Unspeakable had watched through glass as the creature was strapped to a table. Arms, legs, and 5 tail-like appendages were stretched out and restrained.
Draco had witnessed many difficult to watch things before, this may have been the worst. The Unspeakable surprisingly kept up a steady dialogue describing with clinical precision each step of the procedure. Her emotionless voice was barely above a whisper, but in the now deserted room (cage?) it was the only sound. Draco was careful to commit everything to memory.
The creature was naked as far as he could tell, but the sex was not evident. The lack of human breasts implied maybe a male, but he could not see the genitals as the thing had been strapped down on its stomach. The thing had looked like some odd hybrid. The hands and feet were clawed, the skin scaly and difficult to penetrate (going by the difficulty the other Unspeakables had in sticking their sharp metal devices into it).
The largest, central tail-like appendage was unmistakably similar to a male Scorpian tail, thick and ending in a bulbous venom sack, the lethal stinger held close. Draco had seen milkings of other Scorpian men, their collected venom used for the cause. He had also seen what it did to a person when said venom was injected or sprayed on exposed skin.
But the other four appendages were strange, they looked like those of female Scorpians, flexible and tipped with a dexterous 5 taloned claw on the ends. But female Scorpian usually only have two and never alongside a venom sac.
Draco spat on the ground again, he would not throw up again he told himself.
The creature's face had been hidden. At first Draco thought maybe a bag or cloaking spell had been used on its face, but he was wrong. It was hair. Thick black hair wrapped and clung tightly to the thing's face, shrouding it.
He held out his palm at the gates, and the Hogwarts wards recognized him, allowing him passage. He began the trek up to the school.
If only he had seen the things face.
The strange woman had given him lots of information. Too much information. But why?
In the elevator that would take Draco back to the Ministry's new hideout ground floor he asked the Unspeakable, 'Why have you shown me this?' spoken barely above the sound of the elevator moving through the earth.
The Unspeakable remained looking at the dials of the elevator wall, 'They never did find Harry Potter's body, did they?'
This abrupt change in subject threw Draco off completely, he was standing at the precipice again, vertigo threatening to topple him.
A chime rang and the lift's door opened to the noisy muggle metro.
'Goodnight Mr. Malfoy, I believe it's best you go tell Albus Dumbledore what you saw here.'
She was gone the moment Draco stepped off the lift.
He'd thrown up in a side alley of Hogsmede after apparating away from the muggle metro. The bile had risen up unbidden and unstoppable. It was impossible. That thing did not look like Potter, it didn't even look human and Potter was human. What game was this?
But he couldn't quite pin down the angle. Let the Order believe it was Potter and they may or may not choose to cooperate with the Ministry, they could very well abandon them, condemn them publicity…but with no real evidence... It could very well force them into action, but against the Ministry?
That would be disadvantageous to both sides. Was the woman Unspeakable an agent of the dark, meant to sow discord amongst the warring Light sides? Or perhaps she was a lone agent. Or Rufus figured this would spurn the Order's cooperation, by allowing them close to this source?
This was all impossible. Was there anything in that contorted, unnatural body that reminded him of Potter?
No…. but what about the Stòr, it had felt vaguely familiar when he held that dagger…but more in the sense of having felt it before, did no one else feel it?
Surely Weasley who had slept beside Potter for years would recognize his signature?
'Bollocks!', he ran his hands through his hair and roughly down his face, nails scraping at his cheeks. He really hoped Severus had some of that brandy ready, this was going to be a long night.
- page break —-
Severus and Weasley were already seated in the office, a glass of the desired brandy in front of each of them.
Without greeting either man, Draco headed past them to the ornate pensieve left on the far table, taking a deep breath he touched his wand to his temple and pulled out the memories, pooling them carefully in the bowl. An image of the creature strapped to the table as the knives sliced through one of its "tails" floated across the surface.
Draco shivered and joined the table, taking the proffered glass from Severus, downing it and sliding it back for another.
'Rough night?' Weasley grimly said. He was fiddling with the Stòr dagger Draco had taken from the Ministry.
'The secondary source,' Draco nodded to the dagger, 'It's biopsied muscle, tendon, hell they've probably used skin, teeth,bone, nails.' Draco let out a harsh bark of laugh as Weasley dropped the dagger in disgust.
'What creature is it from?' Severus' eyes bore intently into his godson's.
Draco stared back at his godfather, Severus always knew it would be something like this, 'I don't really know…', with his eyes he tried to convey some of the horror that was running through him. It might be Potter, where's Potter? Where's his body? Potter. Potter. Potter! Severus' eyes widened, his fist tightening around his glass; there were some benefits to being a Vampire after all. 'Call Albus.'
Draco poured both of them another drink, ignoring the cracks that had formed in Severus' glass.
— End chapter —-
