Epilogue - Forced Recognition

Harry slept fitfully. He kept waking up and looking at the bed across the room from him, where Hermione lay unconscious. The Healers said that she'd lost a lot of blood and had serious psychic trauma, but they seemed to think that she would recover. They had asked him to sleep here for now under observation, his exhaustion evident to anyone who saw him.

Harry sighed loudly, and gave up on sleep, despite how desperate he was for it. He loved Hermione. The thought felt good. He couldn't believe that it had taken this long for him to realize it, or that it had almost taken her death for it to happen.

She sighed, and moved slightly in her sleep. Harry sat up. Could she be waking? The Healers hadn't volunteered when asked how long it would take. Harry stood up from his bed and walked over to her side. He knelt by her side, tousling her hair.

Her eyes opened slightly, and she looked up at him. Then her eyes opened farther. "Harry?"

"Shh, you're alright now," he said softly.

"Oh, Harry, it was so terrible. Those people... they weren't human!"

"I know, I know. It will all be all right. You're safe now."

"No, none of us are safe! Unless... tell me you didn't give it to them, Harry. Tell me that they don't have what they wanted."

"No, it's somewhere safe."

"They said you were going to trade it for me, that they'd kill me if you didn't give in, but I knew you wouldn't do that. I knew you wouldn't let people like that have anything that they wanted, even for me."

"If it had been the only way... I would have done anything," he admitted. "But we couldn't have trusted them anyway. They would have just turned on us the second they had it."

"What did you do?"

"Well, we transfigured my neighbor's Volkswagen so it looked like what they were looking for."

"You did what? Isn't that, well, slightly against the rules?"

"I would have done anything, Hermione," Harry repeated, "I just hope they didn't catch on. We destroyed it before we ## Port-Keyed away. Carnifex might be angry with us, but he doesn't have the rock, and he doesn't have any reason to expect that it's still intact."

"So, where's the rock?"

"Well, I figured Albus might be able to help with that. He was pretty surprised to hear from me," Harry said, "but he agreed to hide it for us."

"Are you sure that's safe? What if Carnifex decides to get it?"

"I don't think Hogwarts is going to be found by the likes of him. Besides, even if he gets to Hogwarts, he won't get the Stone. It's hidden just like the Sorcerer's Stone was, back in our first year."

"And we managed to get to it. What makes you think he won't be able to?"

"It's inside the Mirror of Erised. Carnifex can't look at mirrors. Most of his followers can't. He can't get it out without someone who wants do it for him, and I don't think many people would agree to that."

"That's brilliant!" she exclaimed, with more feeling than he would have thought she would have been able to muster. He smiled tenderly.

"There's just one more thing I'm wondering about, Harry."

"What's that?"

"Why are you playing with my hair?"

---------------------------

The door to Draco's office door opened slightly, then closed. Draco looked up from his desk, looking into empty space. "Whomever you are, you aren't welcome without an appointment. Please vacate my office at once, or I will be forced to make you leave."

There was a shimmering in the air, like a heat haze. Black blotches formed from the air, coalescing, and then there was a person. He was of middle height, with a fairly non-descript face. He had a passive expression, one that seemed almost without life. Dark sunglasses hid his eyes. He wore a dark single-breasted, two-button suit, pure black, with a black silk shirt. His cufflinks were black opals, and a black pin held his collar together at his neck. He didn't carry a wand, in contrast to Draco, who had his wand pointed straight at his intruder. His hands were out slightly from his waist, palms facing out, in a symbol of surrender.

The intruder spoke, his voice showing a neutral American accent, "I was a business associate of your father's, Mister Malfoy. Or should I call you Draco?"

"You may call me nothing. I have no business with any friend of my father's."

"I did not say I was a friend of your father's, merely that I had some business with him. He made certain payments to our association, in exchange for certain assurances." There was a certain nasal quality to the man's voice. Draco was relieved by it; it was one of the few aspects of the man that seemed other than pure vanilla.

Draco thought for a moment, and cocked his head as he replied, "What sort of assurances?"

"Non-aggression. Our... association... has historically been opposed to many that you call Magicals," the man's expression turned into a sneer. "We consider most of your kind to be a waste of valuable energies, that we could better use in other ways."

"I'm not sure that I understand..." Draco responded, caught off-guard by the man's statements. "You seemed to have nothing against becoming Invisible."

The man looked impatient. "That has nothing to do with magic. Now, to the point. We are willing to continue to leave your kind alone in Britain, in exchange for your continued isolation from those that you consider non-Magical. We understand that it may be politically impossible for you to continue to push for the sort of isolation that your father obviously desired, but we will expect you to make it viable in the near future. We will also expect the usual payments. I'm certain that the contract will explain everything to your satisfaction." He gestured at Draco's desk.

"What contract?" Draco looked down. There was a tall stack of papers on his desk, cut in Muggle fashion. The writing was fine, barely readable, made up of small, typecast letters. "That document wasn't there before."

"Your grasp of the obvious is exceeded only by your father's," the intruder said dryly.

Irked, Draco looked down at the contract. He pointed his wand at them. "Incendio! You may tell your people that I am not interested in your contract."

The man's face twisted in anger. "Mister Malfoy, you have a choice. Do you want to continue to be the successful businessman that you are today? Do you want to continue to wear fancy clothes, to hold a position of power in your society? Or do you want to be remembered as the man who agreed to let your people fall?"

Draco sneered right back, "I have been threatened by better people than you."

The man's hands moved faster than Draco could see, and came up with a pair of Muggle pistols. Draco waved his wand, not even uttering an incantation, and a blaze of fire shot from it, burning the flesh across the man's face. The man didn't seem to notice. He raised his guns, firing at Draco in quick succession. The bullets bent sideways as they approached the desk, going around Draco and shattering the huge plate glass window behind him. He was glad that he had invested in a one-way permanent shield charm.

The man's face was burning, but he seemed oblivious. "Even if you survive me, more will follow," he said, his voice sounding unnaturally calm. Draco realized why as the flames sputtered out. The flesh was gone, but what was underneath was a passive skull of solid metal, with gleaming red eyes. Draco swore, but he realized that he had an out.

"Avada Kedavra!" Draco shouted, and the flash of green light from his wand was wonderful. The Killing Charm worked on almost anything, and the strange man was apparently no exception. He toppled over, his guns, their ammunition exhausted, toppling from his hands.

Draco sat back in his chair, and ran his hands through his hair. He knew the Aurors were already on their way, and hoped that the remains would satisfy them that he hadn't used the Killing Curse on another human.

A doubt still gnawed at him, though. Not about the curse -- he was still alive, and that was all he could ask for. About the contract. Should he have signed it? He wasn't sure, but looking at the strange intruder, he hoped that he hadn't made a terrible mistake.