When Doves Cry

Chapter 10: Paradise

Disclaimer: Don't own any of it.

A/N:

As darkness quickly steals the light
that shined within her eyes
she slowly swallows all her fear
and soothes her mind with lies
well all she wants and all she needs
are reasons to survive
a day in which the sun will take
her artificial light... her light

And it's one more day in paradise
one more day in paradise
it's one more day in paradise
one last chance to feel alright... alright

-Vanessa Carlton, Paradise

            Draco exited his bedroom through his study and was startled by the site of a small boy standing on his desk chair with a quill in his hand.

            "James?" Draco exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"

            "Shh," James scolded. "Mummy's sleeping," he whispered.

            "Sleeping? Here? Did you spend the night here?"

            James nodded, keeping his eyes on the paper he was scribbling on.

            "Mummy got in a fight with Daddy," he revealed innocently. Draco was suddenly even more alert than before and James continued on. "Mummy's mad at Daddy 'cause he broke her favoritist music box."

            Draco wished that he could believe that Ginny had brought her children to stay with him over something stupid like a music box, but he knew very well that it was something much more serious. Not allowing James to see any of indication of his concern Draco quickly smiled at the boy.          

            "Are you hungry James?"

            James nodded in response.

            "Do you want to go get something from the kitchen?"

            James nodded again and hopped down from the desk.

            "Uncle Draco? Can we put my picture on your frigerator?" James held up the doodle.

            "Sure thing little bud. Sure thing."

As soon as Draco had James comfortable in the kitchen, he excused himself saying that he had to use the bathroom. He quickly headed for the bedroom next his and burst through the door. Inside Ginny was taking things out of her bags and putting them into drawers. Hope was asleep in the cradle that Draco had bought when James was born.

            "Draco!" Ginny looked up. "What are you doing awake so early?"       

            "I don't sleep till noon Ginny.  I'm not an immature 17-year-old anymore."

            "You sure about that?" Ginny teased, however her grin faded when she saw Draco's face was completely serious.

            "What are you doing here Ginny?"

            "I left," Ginny said vaguely before returning to unpacking her things.

            "I'm aware of that Ginny. Why?"

            "My marriage is over Draco. It's over," Ginny spoke sharply, looking him straight in the eye. She was clearly fighting back tears. Draco softened at the sight of her distress and advanced towards her.

            "What happened Gin?" He placed a hand on her back.

            "Last night… I… I don't even know what happened Harry. He was so cold, and so angry. I've never been so scared of him before. I've never been so scared of anything before. His eyes…I didn't know what he was going to do. He was yelling and he had me up against the wall…and then the music box…" Ginny was rambling almost to herself more than to Draco.

            Draco's heart broke at her words. It was his fault that she was here. It was his fault that she was going through all this. It was his fault that her paradise had been lost.

            "Gin calm down. Everything will be okay. You just need to go home and…" Ginny shoved Draco's comforting hand away from her and shook her head.

            "Don't," she stated firmly. "Don't take his side. I need you right now."

            "Ginny I just…"
            "Did I mention that Harry's having an affair?" Ginny interrupted again.

            "You're not talking about that stupid Daily Prophet article are you Gin?"

            "I saw him with her that night. I just convinced myself it was nothing. Harry however informed me last night that it is in fact something."

            "What?" Draco exclaimed, truly shocked. "Ginny I can assure you that…"

            Draco was interrupted yet again, but this time it was by the other red head in the room. Ginny sighed in response to Hope's wails before she spoke.

            "Draco I know this is hard to accept, but please just trust me, and help me."

            "Of course Gin. You know I'd do anything for you."

            Ginny smiled appreciatively. "I know," she replied, kissing him softly on the forehead.

            With that Draco left Ginny to attend to Hope, and went downstairs to check on James, and figure out what he was going to do.

As soon as Ginny was busy occupying James and Hope, and Draco was sure that she was okay to be left alone, he told her that he had a few things to do at the Ministry but that he'd be home soon.  He then immediately apparated straight to her and Harry's house.

            "Potter?" he called out from where he had arrived in the living room. The house was silent and Draco wasn't sure if Harry was even there at all. Maybe he was out looking for Ginny. Between seven brothers, her parents, himself, and Sirius and Remus, there were a number of places to which she could have fled.

            Draco's head perked up when he heard a bang from the direction of the kitchen. He made his way there and opened the flapping door to find Harry in front of the stove, cooking.

            "You're cooking? Of all the times to learn a new talent…" Draco said dryly, taking a seat at the kitchen table.

            "Draco! How nice of you to visit," Harry said not turning around. His voice sounded slightly peculiar.

            "Your wife is at my manor," Draco announced bluntly, giving Harry no hints to his distress over the situation.

            Harry turned around and cocked his head. Draco became uneasy at the slightly mad look in Harry's eyes.

            "My wife? I don't have a wife," Harry stated.

            "Ginny? Ginny Weasley. Remember her Potter?" Draco tried to hide his rising feeling of alarm.  

            "Ginny?" Harry gave a short chuckle and shook his head. "Ginny's dead Draco."

            "Dead? What the fuck are you talking about Potter? Ginny is at my house right now. She not dead."

            "Yes she is. She's dead. She died. He killed her. She blames me too. She blames me. It wasn't my fault, but she says it is. And now, now she and he, she and he are torturing me. They're torturing me so I'll be weak and then they can kill me. I won't let them though. I won't let them. Last night she was here haunting me, trying to make me upset, but I scared her away. I scared Ginny's ghost away. She won't be back. She won't. And I'll tell you what Draco she's evil. She didn't used to be evil, but he made her that way. Tom changed her Draco. He changed her and if she's at your house then you've got to scare her away. I can help you."

            "Harry!" Draco finally stopped his friend. "Ginny is not dead. Last night; that was her. It wasn't a ghost."

            Harry froze and his face grew very cautious. "You're on their side aren't you? You want to torment me to don't you?" Slowly Harry backed away from Draco. "Get out!" he commanded. "Get out of here. Just leave me alone." Harry quickly exited the room, eager to get as far away from Draco as possible.

            Draco sat still for a moment, in shock from his friend's disturbed behavior. This had gone much to far, and it had to end.

Draco stormed into Lorcan Nepot's office slamming the door behind him. The old man looked up from his desk and smiled at him.

            "Draco, what a pleasure to have you stop in."

            "Sir Harry's in trouble. Something's wrong with him." Draco didn't bother with any sort of greeting.

            "What's wrong with him?" Lorcan asked, but didn't seem too concerned.

            "He's gone mad! That's what's wrong with him. He thinks his wife is dead, and that Voldemort is still after him."

            "How is Mrs. Potter?" Lorcan inquired.

            Draco's eyes bugged out.

            "She's not good sir!" Draco stated. "She's left Harry and brought herself and the children to stay at my house."

            Lorcan smiled a little. "Are you sure that's a good idea Draco? You two do have a history together…"

            "I'm not really concerned about that at the moment," Draco's eyes narrowed at the man. "Harry needs help, and he needs out of this mission."

            Lorcan shook his head sadly and looked directly at Draco.

            "I'm sorry Mr. Malfoy but that just can't be arranged."

            "Sir it's the island. The island is doing this to him. If he doesn't get out now, I don't know what's going to happen to him."

            Lorcan sat in silence for a moment before saying, "Sometimes, the sacrifices of one, must be made for the good of the whole." He then added with a suggestive, almost dirty grin,  "As for Potter's family, I'm sure you'll a way to keep Mrs. Potter  perfectly content."

            Draco thought he was going to throttle the older man, but instead he made the decision and apparated back to his house.

           

"Ginny! Ginny!" he called out, dashing through the house in search of her. He had to tell her. She needed to know everything. "Ginny?" he called as his busted into his study. No one was there, but on his desk he found a note written in Ginny's tiny script.

            Draco-

                        I had to get out of the house for a while. I've taken the kids to the park down by Diagon Alley. I shouldn't be gone too long.  I want to thank you for your support right now too; it's made all the difference in the world.

                                    -Ginny

Ps: James asked me to leave this picture for you too. He says it you beating Harry to the snitch and just not to tell Harry about it.

            Draco looked at the picture and frowned. James was clearly upset with his father. As much as he knew James loved him, Draco knew that under normal circumstances James would never even conceive the thought of Draco beating Harry at something.

            Draco buried his head in his hands. What was he going to do? Who could possible help him?

            That's when it hit him. Quickly Draco stood and grabbed his cloak of the back of his study door. Grabbing a fist of floo powder, he stepped into his fireplace. As he threw down the powder he called out, "Hogsmeade!"

Draco grew wary of the fury in his old professors eyes as he finished telling him his story.  As soon as he stopped speaking, Snape stood from his chair and rushed towards his store closet.

            "I'd expect something this idiotic out of Potter but not out of you," the professor spoke from the closet.

            Draco frowned.

            "I know I shouldn't have let Harry stay on the mission…"

            "Mission," Snape scoffed. "A highly important ministry mission being run by a group of early twenty-something's. Old enough to think they know what they're doing, still young enough to actually not have a clue. Honestly Draco, did you really believe that the ministry would compose a team to investigate the first sign of death eater activity in years, and not call in experts from the war?" Draco opened his mouth to speak but Snape cute him off.

            "And by experts I do not mean Potter and yourself Mr. Malfoy. I'm referring to people like myself, Alastor Moody, Remus Lupin, Sirius Black…"

            Draco was quickly seeing the professor's point, and was beginning to feel very foolish for never thinking about it before.

            "But Nepot is a ministry employee…" Draco was still beyond confused about what was going on.

            "Lorcan Nepot is a Death Eater," Snape spoke bluntly, coming back out of the store closet, his arms full of bottles, and a carry bag. "He received his ministry job as part of law suit he filed after he received inhumane treatment in Azkaban while he awaited his trial after Voldemort's first fall. Nepot's son was also a death eater, and was killed by Voldemort himself after he failed to bring Harry Potter to his Lord as a part of a mission."

            Draco pondered this for a moment, and suddenly things started to come together.

            "It was all a set up," he declared and snorted. "All just one last attempt to kill the boy-who-lived, and avenge the death of Nepot's son."

            "Like Potter needed something else to make his head bigger," Snape shook his head and headed back into his storeroom.

            "It still doesn't explain why the dementors are having such a strange effect on Harry, and not the rest of us," Draco pointed out.

            "What dementors?" Snape inquired from within the storeroom.

            "The dementors on the island."

            "Dementors? There are no dementors on Debilitor Island."

            "I've seen them!" Draco defended his statement.

            "I'd expect more out of a Malfoy when it comes to knowledge of dark beings." Snape came out of the storeroom and headed for his bookshelf. After running his fingers across the spines of several of the old yellowed books he pulled a large black one down and flipped it open.

            Handing the book over to Draco he said, "There are no dementors on Debilitor Island."

            Draco looked down at the page and saw and intricate drawing of what looked like a dementor. He frowned when he looked at the caption below it.

            An ancient depiction of a Dirottamenta. The creature has an appearance strikingly similar to that of a dementor; however its behavior is innately different. 

            Draco quickly jumped the being of the article on the creature and began to read.

            Rare, but powerful, the Dittromenta is thought to be the magical descendent of two. Hypsipyle (the Amazon queen) and Ariel (half siren, half vela, known for her indescribable beauty and silver eyes). The union is now believed to be an attempt on the part of Amazons and Sirens, to combine their great powers and create a breed of women powerful enough to take power out of the hands of men, and into the hands of women.

            While the details of the union are not certain, many experts believe that the two female tribes enlisted the help of Miriam Hildegard, an ancient dark witch known for her deception and tricks, in addition to her phenomenal powers. Its held that in her uniting of Hypsipyle and Ariel, Miriam included her own contributions into the descendants powers. As a result, the Dittromenta has very few of the humanlike qualities its mothers have, but do have strong magical powers. Like Empathites (witches who can grant emotional cleansing to troubles wizards and witches through strong empathic powers) can find holes in their patients protective auras and enter them through, Dittromentas are capable and both finding and widening this hole, destroying a person's aura without ever coming in physical contact with the person. Once the aura has been destroyed, the Dittromenta can then begin to slowly take over the victim's mind, controlling their actions and thoughts. Eventually, the Dittromenta will have enough power over its victim to distort his reality to the point where he is no longer the person he once was. This "high jacking" of the mind is where the Dittromentas, which were once called Mirabellas (derived from Latin and meaning "of extraordinary beauty"), get their name.  There is currently no known treatment for bring the victim back to his normal state. Exorcism spells have been attempted with little success and no potion has been discovered that has proven to be successful.

            The Dittromenta's only weakness is, that due to its feminist origins, they are only able to take men as their victim. A Dittromenta has not been seen by a witch or wizard in many years, but are believed to inhabit an island similar to that of Gynaikokratumene.

Draco put the book down on the desk and looked up.

"I still don't understand. Even if they're not dementor, why didn't they affect anyone else?"

"None of you have been on the island long enough for the Dittromentas to have a sizable effect on your auras."

"But Potter hasn't been there more than anyone else!" Draco defended his question.

"If you recall Mr. Malfoy, Potter spend nearly three years on the island. Exactly how much of a protective aura do you think he has?"

"Not much I suppose," Draco finally bowed his head in defeat.

"Try none."      

Draco watch as Snape stared into his bag, taking inventory of its contents. After a moment of contemplative silence Draco decided to ask his question.

"The book said, there's no cure…"

"The book is outdated. Notice it makes no mention of Voldemort's use of the Dittromenta's."

"So you can fix him?"

"We'll see, Mr. Malfoy. We'll see."

            Snape zipped his bag and grabbed his cloak off the back of his chair.

            "Let's go."

Draco rubbed his face with his hands as he collapsed into a chair in Harry and Ginny's living room. Snape sat down across from him, a slightly sad look on his face. Emotion on Sererus Snape's face would have been odd to anyone but Draco. He understood why his old professor was so cold and neutral all of the time: the same reasons he was cold and neutral to everyone but his closest friends.

            They had found Harry in his office with books about haunting and then undead all about him. Pages were torn out and drawings were tacked up against the whole wall above his desk. He hd sworn at Draco and Snape and demanded that they leave. He had been calling Death eaters and reaching for his wand when Snape used a spell to knock him out.

            "I could use a potion and put him into a comatose state. I don't know how I'd be able to treat him otherwise. Potter's much worse off than he was the last time," Snape confessed.

            Draco could hide his distress.

            "Do you know when Potter's wife should return home? She's probably like a say in how I treat her husband."

            "She's not coming home. She's staying at my manor. She's left Harry."

            "Then I'll come speak with her there."

            "No. You won't. You won't make this harder on her then it already is. Ginny'd trust me with her life, and I say do whatever you need to fix him. Just do it."

            Both of the men stood up and went back to Harry's office where the black haired man was still passes out.

            Snape tilted Harry's head back and gently parted his mouth. Slowly he poured the red contents of an unlabeled glass bottle down his throat. The two men then worked together and carried Harry up to his bedroom and placed him in his bed.

            "When he awakes he'll be aware of things, but he'll be completely unresponsive. Don't let it concern you. I'll come during evenings to start him on his treatments but you'll have to find someone to stay with him during the days. And Malfoy, I suggest you work on better concealing your affections for Miss. Weasley. They won't help you when all of this begins coming out in the press."

            With that, the professor dissaparated out of site.

            Draco stood there a moment, watching Harry sleep, and knew what his next job had to be.

            Draco looked for any sign of emotion of her face, his heart tightening as he saw none. She had been silent through his entire story and still hadn't spoken.

            "Is he going to be ok?" she asked flatly.

            "Snape is going to treat him. He thinks that he can do it."

            "Well then. That's good. I'm going to go up to bed now. Goodnight Draco."

            And she left the room without another word.

            Ginny closed her bedroom door and muttered a silencing charm before a choked sob escaped her. She slid against the door down to the floor, hot tears burning down her cheeks as the sinking feeling in her heart overtook her.

A/N:  Sorry it took so much longer than expected. I lost my muse for awhile, and this chapter was simply too important to even attempt to write without it. A like I said in my livejournal, I had to find a copy of Microsoft word before I could post again because I lost all of the formatting on my last chapter…..ew. So I hope you liked it. If you did, REVIEW! Pleaaasseeeee? It would mean so much. Good, bad, or neutral comments I'd love to hear from you, just even so I know about how many people are reading this! Next chapter…..two weeks? I guess? Haha. I'll try and keep you updated on it with my livejournal, which if you read…could you please let me know? Like reviews help me post faster. Knowing people read my journal would help me update more often. Anyway. Hope you liked it! Cya around!

Love,

Bella