Note: Meg is mine. Ha! an original character. see, I'm not totally uncreative.
When The Night Is Long
Professor Dumbledore;
Harry Potter has just wandered into my flat claiming that something
horrible is about to befall Draco Malfoy. He had a letter from Draco stating
that, and I quote, "He knows. I'm sorry. Don't forget about me." Apparently,
'He' is Lucius Malfoy. Harry is as I write this sitting behind me in hysterics.
Please get hold of Draco Malfoy as quickly as you can. Should you need me,
you know where to find me.
Remus
This was the second claim in less than twelve hours. First the house elf, Dobby, wandered into my office to tell me something similar, although by far more ambiguous and convoluted. The story was the same in as much as no one could give any specifics as to where Draco Malfoy was or what was supposed to happen to him but that he was indeed in danger. Dobby's urgency was enough to convince me to contact Arthur Weasley at the Ministry. He would be the one who would undoubtedly want to catch Lucius Malfoy at whatever would incriminate him in any way, shape, or form. Arthur promised to notify me if anything were to come up and I was to do the same.
With the arrival of Remus's letter, I immediately called Arthur. His head appeared in the fireplace quite quickly. Apparently nothing new had come up.
"Arthur, Remus Lupin has just sent me a letter concerning Draco Malfoy. He says that Harry just wandered into his flat with a letter from Draco himself and it sounded pretty bleak. Have you obtained a search warrant yet?"
"Now I think I may have. Can I have a copy of the letter from Remus? A piece of physical evidence would make this move much faster," he said. After magicking up a copy for Arthur, I threw it into the fire. He smiled.
"Thank you, Albus, I'll keep in touch." And with a slight pop he was gone.
This sudden concern for Draco Malfoy from multiple sources was starting to seriously alarm me. No one had ever been concerned about the boy in a positive sense whatsoever. True, I knew about Harry and Draco sneaking about at night, so Harry's concern didn't shock me so much. The depth of his concern was what alarmed me. Before now, I figured that it was just another school romance type of thing, the likes of which have gone on since the beginning of time. I wasn't concerned for either of their safety, at least they concerned me no more than any of the other young lovers drifting about.
I admit I was rather puzzled at the idea of Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy at the beginning. They were arch rivals in every way. Then I remembered Draco coming back sick at the beginning of the year. Harry had kind of adopted him in a way. There were a few occasions I caught him feeding Draco in some corner of the Hall. Or they would be in the library all weekend. It was peculiar, no doubt, but I trusted Harry to do what he felt was right. I was concerned, but I figured Draco was just going through a bad period of angst coupled with sickness. His father told me that Draco had been ill over the holiday. Bit by some odd bug or something... Draco started to improve so I put it to the back of my mind.
I looked up at the clock on the wall and found that only fifteen minutes had passed since I had spoken with Arthur. This whole affair made me very uneasy. Lucius Malfoy had all the right positions and all the right connections to maintain a clean record to the world. What he did on his home time was anybody's guess. There was of course much speculation as to where his loyalties truly lay. He was rumoured to be a Death Eater, but there was no evidence that this was fact. I was hoping that Arthur would find such evidence.
Another owl swooped in the window and landed on the desk, out of breath. I went to it and detached the letter from it's leg before giving it water. This letter was also from Remus. Apparently Harry's uncle had gotten hold of the letter from Draco and threw him out of the house. It was also apparent that there was no hope in Harry going back. This was a rather unpleasant complication. Harry was safe at the Dursleys, and now I would have to make the flat that Remus was in the same kind of safe.
There was no way I was going to get any sleep. I had to wait to hear from Arthur and instead of making myself mad by doing nothing, I decided to work on the charm to hide Harry when he was within the flat. This was a rather more delicate business than the charm I had put on the Dursley house because that was one whole area. The flat was just one piece of a whole. This was going to have to be very precise.
About an hour after sitting down to work, the door to my office burst open and in walked Arthur and a Ministry worker by the name of Meg Parika. Both were looking very flushed and worried.
"Have a seat, both of you." They sat on the other side of the desk as I magicked a pot of very strong tea for them. I poured them each a cup before sitting down myself.
"Tell me what has happened," I told Arthur.
He took a deep breath before starting. "Well, we found Draco Malfoy," he started.
"Is he all right?" I asked.
"That depends on your definition of all right. He's alive and that's about as much as I can say for him right now."
"Where is he right now?"
"He's in the infirmary. Poppy is taking care of him. Albus, I've never seen anything so horrible in all my life..." he trailed off. There was something he was holding back. I was wondering just how bad the situation really was.
"What do you mean? What happened to him?"
"We found him chained to the wall of a cell in the dungeon. He..." he choked. This was obviously very difficult. I nodded for him to continue. "He was covered in blood from head to foot. He was beaten within an inch of his life, Albus. Had we gotten there five minutes later... I don't even want to think about it." He sipped his tea and just stared at me.
"I take it that Lucius was not there, then."
"No, he wasn't. Narcissa showed us where to find Draco," Meg told me.
"Do you honestly mean to tell me that she knew what was going on?" I was in total disbelief at this latest fact. I knew that Narcissa was not a warmhearted creature by any means, but I didn't know that she would stand back and let her own son bleed to death.
"She knew, but there was nothing she could have done. Think about who we are dealing with here. At least she was cooperative," Meg said. She was quite right in this point. Narcissa Malfoy was not the one we were after. "She wanted us to get Draco out, you know."
I sat rubbing my temples. He was alive and he was safe. That was the important thing. Harry needed to know. I wrote a quick note and sent it off with the owl that was finally starting to perk up again. Arthur and Meg sat silent the whole while. They were probably trying to figure out the best way of dealing with what they had just witnessed. I was trying to deal with what I had just heard.
"There is little more you can do here tonight. Thank you both very much for all you have done. Please go home and I will talk to you in the morning. Should anything happen, I will be sure to keep you posted, but there is no sense in worrying tonight," I finally told them. Arthur nodded and stood up, Meg following his lead.
"Good night, Sir," she said quietly.
"Good night, Meg. Good night, Arthur."
"Good night."
After they left there was an odd emptiness in the air. The evening was surreal without a doubt, but it went deeper than that. Lucius Malfoy had left his son chained to a dungeon wall and bleeding to death. His only son without whom the Malfoy bloodline would die. Apparently he had no use for such things as an heir. Those who were in the service of Lord Voldemort tended to have warped ideals. Perhaps Voldemort had promised them immortality. Perhaps just a second chance. At that point none of that mattered. All that mattered was that Draco was alive and safe.
The opening of the door disrupted my thoughts. I looked up to see Poppy Pomfrey at the door. I gestured for her to have a seat, which she took. She was looking as bad if not worse than Arthur Weasley had looked when he walked into my office.
"Poppy, how are you holding up?" I asked, pouring her a cup of the leftover tea, it still being hot.
"How I am holding up is not the matter at hand," she snapped.
"Fair enough."
"He's worse than I thought...." she trailed off.
"What do you mean? Is he all right?"
"He's going to live, if that's the question," she snapped again. Now was not a time to take what she said lightly. Poppy was more deadly serious than I had ever seen her before.
"Calm down, dear, and just tell me what happened and what we can do to make it right."
She sighed as if to prepare herself. She looked me in the eye and said, "There are signs of rape all over him, Albus. I don't know by who or for that matter by how many, but..." She was trying not to cry. "But honestly this is the worst I have ever seen." With that she really did start crying.
I went around to her side of the desk and tried to comfort her as best I could. This was all more than I was willing to believe. This was all more than beyond my wildest dreams. The amount of abuse and torture that Draco had withstood was shocking. Rape, brutality, bleeding to death against a cold, stone wall in his father's dungeon... Lucius Malfoy was going to go to Azkaban if I had anything to say about it. In all honesty, that was not what I was thinking at the time. I was thinking up far worse punishments than that, but there was no point in entertaining vengeful ideas. Justice is more important than vengeance, no matter how severe the crime.
Poppy had started to relax and her breathing was returning to normal. I poured her another cup and sat in the seat next to her. She was looking very much like there was more she wanted to say. After a moment she looked up at me.
"Albus?" she started.
"Yes, dear?"
"Do you really think there's anything we can do? I mean, do you think that this will be enough to snag Lucius Malfoy for good?"
"Hmmm. That is a very good question. In fact, it is the same question I have been asking myself. If Draco is as bad as you say he is, then I think we'll have a strong case. There are witnesses, Arthur, Meg, and yourself included. Not even Lucius's positions and connections can help him out of this mess. This time he made a mistake. He left evidence and he hurt a child."
"His own child," she interrupted.
"Who is staying with him, dear?" I was wanting to change the subject. I couldn't bear to think of what horrors that man inflicted upon his child, his only son.
"Severus is sitting with him. He's asleep, I daresay."
"Severus? That's not very efficient, is it?" I was trying to lighten the situation a little, and I think it worked, for she smiled a little. "I shall accompany you to the infirmary, then, shall I?" She hooked her arm in my own and we set off for the infirmary to look in on Draco Malfoy.
He was more fragile and hurt than anything I had ever seen before. He was bruised and there were a few marks across his face, but Poppy had done a good job in healing him. He was asleep and this probably made his mending less painful. Severus was sitting next to him, a blank expression on his face. We three stood together for a long while before the silence was broken.
"I don't know how I could ever have been associated with such a loathsome group of people," Severus whispered just audibly enough for us to hear him. "I knew they were evil, but the degree... I never knew any of them had it in them to use a child as a toy like that. I guess there are fates worse than death."
"There are many fates worse than death, but I am hoping that Draco will be able to overcome what has happened to him. Given time, perhaps, and the right people... But he will never go through what he went through again," I said. He looked up at me and for the first time in many years I saw a tear in Severus Snape's eye.
"This is the last, you know," he said.
"The last what?"
"The last victim. They will never hurt another creature again and I will make it my personal mission to see that none of them get off. I will personally make it my life's mission to see Lord Voldemort fall. And he will fall like he has never fallen before," he said. There was pure, undisguised hatred in his voice. When Snape had come to me to beg forgiveness for the things he had done, he truly was sorry. He truly did want to turn the other cheek. The remorse he had then was nothing like the remorse he had now. Funny. I had never thought it would take such a thing to make Severus Snape's heart warm. He was not evil, he just didn't know how to show any kind of emotion. He never did, not since he first came to Hogwarts. And now he was telling me that he had reached the end of his rope because of what his former cohorts had done to a child. I was proud of him for leaving Voldemort. I was more proud of him now for showing simple emotion. "And Harry Potter will be there to watch it unfold. I think I owe him that much," he finished. Without another word, he swept silently from the room.
I was rather proud of Severus. He had mentioned Harry Potter in a kind way. He had never liked Harry, in fact, I always thought he despised him. Severus was growing up and leaving his pettiness behind. He was putting his past behind him and to me that said more for him than for him to come back to this side to begin with. He showed more strength in character tonight than he had in over seventeen years.
I took his empty seat beside the bed with the sleeping boy and resigned myself to a night of watchful sleep. Just because one's eyes are closed does not mean they cannot see.
*****
I tried to do Dumbledore. Did I do okay, or should I stick to what I know? Please review, I so love your opinions. Cheers!
