Chapter 39: Entering the Ministry
The golden trio landed about a hundred yards from the Burrow. The winter gray made the place gloomy as rain fell on the ruins of the Weasley house. Harry felt sick, extremely sad at the sight. He held back his tears and turned to his best friends, who were unable to. He hugged them both, holding them close for a moment.
"We shouldn't hang out here," Harry whispered.
The other two nodded and wiped away their tears.
"Do you know how to get to Malfoy Manor?" asked Ron.
"Yes, I went there once after the war, Narcissa wanted to thank me for keeping them out of Azkaban." replied Harry before hopping on his broom.
Ron followed suit, taking Hermione behind him. The young woman cast a spell of disillusionment on them and they took off. They traveled in silence, each lost in thought. Harry realized that Gestand had gone too far. He had tried to destroy his life, Teddy's life, his family's life and the lives of hundreds of wizards across England. Like Hilter with the Jews, the man was planning the genocide of magical creatures, arming himself to eliminate thousands of lives. Harry realized that he had not returned to England just to save Charlie. He had come back to fight a new war, to stop a despot. He thought about Jasper, he knew that his companion would resent him for changing his plans and replacing a rescue mission with a coup, but his conscience forbade him to do otherwise.
They had to fly for about thirty minutes before they saw the gates of the mansion. They stopped right in front of it. An elderly elf immediately appeared on the other side.
"You wish?"
"Tell your mistress that we wish to speak with her about Draco."
The elf disappeared for only a few minutes before returning and opening the gates for them. They walked briskly up the driveway, peering at the place from behind the scenes. The mansion was far from the image of power it had before the war, it even looked ready to fall apart.
Narcissa was waiting for them just one step past the open front door. She too had changed, her dress looked worn and her face aged.
"Do you know where Draco is?" she asked by way of greeting, her concern evident on her previously so cold face.
Harry nodded and she led them to a small sitting room.
"No one can know they're here," she said to her house elf before sitting down with them. "May I offer you some tea?" she asked, suddenly remembering her manners.
"I'm afraid we don't have time for that," Harry replied.
It was clear to him that his friends would let him talk as much as possible. Hermione's eyes were haunted by memories of her last time in this house and Ron was not comfortable with the idea of being in the home of those who had been his family's enemies for so long.
"The Weasleys' house was attacked last night, if it wasn't for Draco's intervention they'd probably all be dead or imprisoned. Molly and Ginny are dead, everyone else there was injured, including Draco."
Narcissa put her hand in front of her face to hide her shock, but her eyes were slightly moist. At that moment a great pain took Harry in the heart. The young man was immediately afraid that something had happened to Jasper, but his pain passed as quickly as it had appeared. The dark-haired man focused on his bond, but other than it seemed to tug at him a little more than usual, Harry didn't notice anything in particular.
"How's he doing?"
It took the Survivor a few seconds to remember who they were talking about.
"He was badly injured, but was taken care of, when we left he was stable and conscious."
Narcissa was unable to hide her relief.
"Where is he?"
"Safe."
Harry and Draco's mother stared at each other for a moment. The young man had no intention of telling her exactly where the injured were, especially since he hoped they had moved on and had no idea of the new location.
"I see. I take it you didn't come here just to give me news about my son."
"Indeed, one of the Weasley's sons is being held at the Ministry. We need to get to him before they kill him too. Draco has assured us that you could help us."
Narcissa looked Harry in the eye for a long moment, before answering.
"You will take me to Draco's side when you get your friend back?"
"I promise."
"Wait here, I'll get what you need." she said as she stood up.
As soon as she was out, Ron called out to the dark-haired man.
"She shouldn't do the same thing to us as Xenophilius."
"No, she wants to see Draco."
"Harry, I don't trust..."
The redhead couldn't finish his sentence, interrupted by his friend's cell phone.
"Bill?"
"Harry? It's George!"
The young man yelled into the phone so loudly that the dark-haired man had to pull the receiver away from his ear. He glanced at his friends who were obviously hearing the conversation without concern. The inventor was panicking, making the brunet fear the worst.
"Harry, I'm sorry, so sorry. They attacked us before we all left."
Immediately Harry thought of Teddy, wondering if they had done something to him.
"What's going on George? Calm down."
"Jasper... he's dead."
The information had a hard time making sense in Harry's mind. At first he was relieved that it wasn't Teddy and confused about what George was telling him about Jasper. He knew Jasper was dead, he was a vampire, and he couldn't be dead, dead, or else he would have felt it in their bond, he was sure.
"No, he's not dead," he replied.
"I saw him fall under the Avada, he took it instead of me, he fell, his eyes were empty, he was still."
Harry made the connection to the pain he had felt earlier, but no, he was sure of it, he could still feel Jasper via their link.
"George, you can't kill a vampire with that spell." interjected Hermione as Harry was in shock.
The dark-haired man couldn't make sense of it all, even though his friend's words reassured him and confirmed his feelings.
"George, put it on speaker," Edward's voice rang out. "What are you saying? Is he alive?"
Harry realized that the Cullen family must have believed in the empath's death as well, especially Edward who must have seen his brother's 'death' in the redhead's mind.
"The spell can't work on vampires, Jasper is spinalized, he'll recover in an hour or so depending on if he's fed recently before or not. On the other hand, he will need to feed as soon as he has completely recovered," the young woman explained.
"How do you know that?" Ron whispered, earning a smile from Harry.
"Oh, by Merlin, thank you!" exclaimed George, but more sighs of relief echoed.
"Is he with you?"
"No, they took his body…"
"He's probably at the ministry by now," Hermione assumed.
"I have a bad feeling about this," Ron whispered.
"Oh no!" exclaimed the brunette.
"What?" asked Harry and several voices on the phone.
"They're going to make him kill Charlie!"
Silence answered that statement. Harry wondered if Jasper could really do such a thing, and then he remembered the last meeting between the two men, that the entire Cullen family had come to make sure that Charlie would stay alive. If his companion's condition was going to be anything like what Harry had seen or heard about when Jasper was losing control, that meant Charlie had no chance of surviving without help. They had to get there before Jasper was in control again.
"Harry," called Carlisle. "If you find him before he feeds, give him some animal blood with a few drops of your blood, that should bring him back."
Narcissa's footsteps echoed down the hallway.
"We have to leave you, is everyone else okay?"
"Yes, the others are fine. Bring them back to us." concluded Carlisle.
Narcissa entered the room and handed them a pendant.
"It's a portkey, it goes directly to Lucius' old office. Say 'scrouts' to go there and 'unicorn' to come back here."
The three young men thanked her, took the pendant, put the invisibility cloak over them and activated the artifact.
They arrived in a large, richly decorated, and mostly empty office. Harry called for Kreacher, who arrived immediately. The elf led them through the corridors, stopping them from passing other people as much as possible. The group moved slowly, cramped under the cloak that had become too small for them, but they preferred it to polynectar. At this rate, it took them almost twenty minutes to get to the cell level. Hermione quietly stunned the guard. They hid his body, stole his keys and unlocked the door. Kreacher led them directly to the right door, but it took them several minutes to find the right key from the thirty on the jailer's key ring. When they finally opened the door, they saw a sight that chilled their blood: Charlie was tied to a chair, covered in dust and blood with fresh blood running down his torso. Jasper was standing, one step away, facing him.
