Chapter 5

The palace of Lord Voldemort, which was once the ministry building, was full of hustle and bustle. Minor functionaries to big nabobs were hurrying from one room to other shuffling parchments and handling scrolls. One might think it to be almost strange that while on the pursuit of this kingdom, the reigning king was feared and his home had been a veritable fortress. Now, it was reduced to a high secured zone where all sorts of wizard kind came in pursuit of their business.

Inside his personal wing, the king had not even slept last night. In a far away country of Mongolia, the minister of magic had been assassinated and the deputy minister had taken over. It was rumored that some kind of upstart, very powerful dark wizard, was in pursuit of the throne of Mongolia. Voldemort gave a vague smile. It was a strange smile with a bit of vanity intermixed with a bit of irony.

He had sort of become and icon of the dark wizards. Although he hated being compared to any mere mortal, he prided himself on his achievements. He could also not overlook the irony of the situation. Here he was, signing a diplomatic letter, condemning the act which he himself had used to take over his own country.

Finishing his morning diplomatic function, he was after all running for the Le SIG, he looked back at the strange feeling he had had in the night. In the very late night, he had felt a kind of magic hit him slightly. It seemed very familiar. But before he could think much about it, his secretary came in and reminded him of his appointment for his speech at the congregation of a few world leaders. Putting aside the odd feeling, the dark lord moved forward to his attempt at diplomatic rule of the world.

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Ginny had fainted.

She was a mother and seeing the one thing which had made her life livable, close to death had breached all her mental defenses, and as soon as she heard the huge crack of thunder, her faint heart gave away. Presently, she felt a soft cool hand putting a dash of water on her face to rouse her. She slowly opened her eyes and saw Artie smiling back at her with a concerned look.

Her motherly instincts took over and less than an instant later, Artie found himself in a bone crushing hug. He didn't know it, but there not very dissimilar to the hugs, for which his grandmother Molly had been famous.

Some time later, as Ginny stopped her tears, she looked at Artie and asked, "What happened?"

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Three minutes ago.

As soon as Harry appeared in the garden, his senses picked up the young child throttling down at break neck speed. Fact be told, this was not a time for thought and there was none. Almost of its own accord, Harry's raw magic leapt from his very being with a huge crack. Had he had even a little bit of time, the sound would have been nearly silent. However, he was not consciously controlling his magic. But the results were just the same.

In a split second, a cuboid shaped mass of energy appeared directly beneath the point of impact and Artie went right into it.

The huge mass of energy was like a magical gel. It acted as a break and absorbed all the speed and energy. A few seconds later, Artie was completely immersed in it, his arm askew. Clearly, his bone had been broken. Harry realized that the boy was safe and withdrew his magic and now Artie was lying down on the ground, apparently fainted.

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Harry strode forward towards the small boy. As he looked closer, he looked about ten or eleven with flaming red hair. Even more so, his face reminded him a lot of Ginny. Bushing aside the thought, he leaned over the fainted child and took out his wand, muttering a few spells. Artie was enveloped in a soft blue halo and just over his arm, where it was broken; a small patch of red could be seen. Guiding his magic to the red patch, Harry slowly initiated a mending process. In less time than believable, the arm was as good as new.

Getting up, he decided to look about and see where he actually was. It all had happened so fast that he didn't even know where he was.

So Harry got up and looked about and the first face he saw shook him to the core. It was Ginny.

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A few meters away, Blinky was looking amazingly at the young man in front of her. When she had seen the young master hurling to death, she had nearly apparated mid-air to save him but was hurled back by some very powerful magic. As she stumbled back, she saw everything that had happened from far away.

Harry was torn. He felt the love which had long been suppressed in him for the red haired girl clashing with the facts of her being married to Draco and being the mother of his child. Feeling anguish, he did the only thing possible and apparated away to his new house.

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As soon as Blinky saw the unknown but powerful wizard apparate, she popped next to the young master and enervated him.

Artie slowly opened his eyes and saw the worried looking Blinky standing over him.

"What happened?" Artie asked of Blinky. The last thing he remembered was a sharp pain in his arm and hitting something. He looked over at his arm and saw that it felt good, a bit too good. Fact be told, his body was feeling a lot better than it did just a few moments earlier. Without waiting to hear the reply, he ran towards his mother who was still lying down the ground.

Still unable to use magic, he did what he had seen several times in muggle movies. He took a napkin from the tray which was on the table just besides a glass of lemonade and a glass of water. He wetted the napkin with the water and slowly put the napkin on his mother's face.

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Harry had just reappeared in his new house. As he disapparated, he saw all three of his friends waiting for him. There were several parchments which needed to be signed and several decisions that he had to make. However, at the moment, he was quite shaken. He had not expected to meet Ginny, at least not right now. But his luck always held true. If something could go wrong, it did go wrong. In the meanwhile, there were several other reports that were coming in. he had not been satisfied with the information which had been acquired and had asked for more. In that respect, he was quite like Voldemort. His wish was an unspoken command and several wizards were already on the job.

He looked up at his friends and this time, it was stout who came forward. He had a scroll in his hands and a grin on his face. Seeing the smile on stouts face, Harry smiled as well. It could mean only one thing. Phase 1 of his plan had started. He took the scroll and opened it. It read,

"To From

The Count of Azkaban, the Island of Azkaban. The office of Lord Draco Malfoy, Chairman, the Malfoy Bank.

Sir,

We are in receipt of a letter of credit in your favor from Le Beau. You are requested to visit the bank at your earliest convenience."

The letter was a simple business memo and it was as expected.

Setting aside the previous event, he sat back and began to go over his plans mentally. He needed to arrive properly and it required a few leaks. He set about making them.

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Ginny was glad beyond her life at seeing Artie alive and well. Tears couldn't stop flowing from her eyes as she hugged her son with all her might. It is a natural instinct of all mothers, especially after a near calamity. Slowly, coming to her senses and getting over the relief, she asked Artie, "What happened?"

"I don't know mom." Artie replied, just as oblivious. "I was waving to you and saw you pointing at the ground. When I saw the ground, I knew I would break a few bones this time. After that, I seemed to hit some gooey thing and felt a sharp pain in my arm. The next thing I remember is being woken up by Blinky. The odd thing is that I did not have any pain in my arm. Rather, I feel fresher and more energetic than ever."

Ginny was perplexed. How was her son saved? She was sure that she had fainted. Maybe it was accidental magic. After all, Artie was a very powerful wizard. Suddenly she remembered Blinky. She looked around and saw her hiding behind a tree, almost fearful. Although Ginny had never ever punished any house elf, Draco was not all that humane with them.

"Blinky. Please come here." She said very softly. She did not want to scare Blinky any more than she already was.

Blinky popped just behind her an instant later. She looked fearful of punishment. She feared because she wasn't able to save the young master and another wizard had to do it.

Hearing Blinky pop up behind her, Ginny turned, bowed down and looked directly into the eyes of the scared elf. She said, "There is no need to be scared Blinky. I just need some information from you. Can you tell us what happened?"

Relieved that no one was angry with her, Blinky started to give all the information she had, "I is waiting behind you when I see young master fly broom. Then, you mistress faint and young master about to hit ground. Blinky try to get young master but pushed back. Another wizard, strong wizard, come in and save young master. Young master broke arm. Stranger wizard use heal magic and set arm right. He looked Blinky and then whoosh away"

Ginny could understand everything but was even more flabbergasted. The entire estate was under several charms and wards. Apparation was not possible. Only she or Draco could do it. How could some one just come in and get out without tinkering with the alarms. It was not that she was ungrateful to the unknown wizard for saving Artie, but it was still a mystery as how he had entered the estate. She looked at Blinky and asked, "Did you see him? Did you see the wizard who saved Artie?"

Blinky nodded and a scroll appeared in her hands. She handed it to Ginny. Ginny opened and saw a sketch of a tall, young and powerful looking man. Had she been totally honest with herself, she would have also accepted that he was a very handsome man, though a bit young for her. He was no more than twenty two-twenty three and she was a bit older. Setting aside the feeling of gratitude towards the unknown wizard, she strangely noticed that she felt that she could trust this man. She had had such feelings before and she had learnt to trust them. She decided to find more about the young wizard. She also decided to keep the incident to herself for the moment. This again was as is some strange power was guiding her thoughts. She turned to Blinky and said, "Don't mention this incident to anybody." Blinky nodded and popped out.

Ginny was lost in her thoughts as she thought about the strange incident.

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Ron was in his office at the moment and he was pulling his hairs. His team, the Chuddley Canons had been on a loosing streak for straight three years. A new team had come in and was beating the hell out of everybody. They had taken his best members and also of many other teams. Since then, he had been on a loosing streak. Slowly, many of his sponsors had ebbed off. But still, he had felt that it was a temporary phase. He took loan from Draco and kept on keeping up the appearances. After all, it was show biz and appearances were all.

It didn't help that Cho herself was no miser. Though, even he had to accept that she was independently rich and her long term affair with Theodore Nott was an open secret. Neither his liaisons with many socialites and/or groupies were unknown nor was the money he spent on them. But now, looking at his previous year's accounts, he was surely in a mess. He had to meet Draco ASAP.

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It had been more than four hours since the letter had been sent to the count and Draco was fidgeting. He was not used to it. Despite all the political ramifications of his meeting with the count, Draco was very disturbed by the wording of the letter. 'An unlimited letter of credit.' This was totally unheard of. Though his bank dealt in billions of galleons a year, he had never heard of such a thing. He was going to use the count and impose upon him the superiority of the Malfoy clan. Once the count was suitably impressed, his project would become quite easy. He again went deep into thoughts making several scenarios regarding his meeting with the count.

Draco waited and waited. He waited till the end of the day but no response or even acceptance of his communiqué reached him. All his plans were shriveling up. He decided to go to the count's place himself tomorrow. He called Scattermigger for the umpteenth time today and asked for the counts place of residence and floo address. He was amazed at both. The residence was simply stated as 'Azkaban Castle, Azkaban' and the floo address was simply, 'Azkaban'. At approximately midnight, Draco left his office, all his daily correspondence still where it was since the moment he had touched the letter of credit.

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The Azkaban castle was truly a marvelous view in the moonlight. It looked even more beautiful than it did at dawn. The milky white light reflected off the marbles and shone like heaven. There were no similes to even explain the bliss it exuded. In the middle of this all, Harry was smiling at the report he had gotten from his people. He was smiling as he saw that Ron was in financial straights and Draco's plans to meet him. He gave several other instructions to blade regarding his business and went to his personal home.

As he lay down to sleep, he couldn't. The image of Ginny's son as well as Ginny herself did not escape his mind. She still looked so beautiful. It took his breadth away. He still loved her. Though his last many years had left him unable to get in touch with them, he had always loved her. And despite learning of the things Ginny had done, somewhere in his heart, he wanted to forgive her or to find reason for her actions. He also wanted to meet up with Hermione. He would really love to meet his remaining best friend.

As he tried to sleep, he thought again of the circumstances that had brought him here.

Author's Notes:

Riyushi Nigami: I have made the appropriate changes. Thanx.

To everybody else, thanks a lot for reviewing. I hope you liked this chapter as well.

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