A/N: Hello my Loves! I super hope you guys love this chapters it may be my favorite so far. Lol. We are getting to then end here, and wrapping this thing up! Thank you for sticking with me this long I didn't think this fic would be 30 chapters but here we are! Please enjoy, and let me know what you think! I love you're reviews and input they are sooooooo wonderful!

Chapter 32

Harry pushed open the doors to the Auror's department again, he had been doing this so often to the point that no one even blinked this time when he came stomping through the door. "Jamison!" Harry roared.

The tall man popped up from a desk. "Sir?" he called back.

"Where are you on those Malfoy properties?!" Harry bellowed back, storming to Ron's office.

"Few possibilities," Jamison responded.

"I want them in my desk ASAP," Harry yelled over his shoulder as threw open Ron's door, to find Ron pouring over a folder. "What do we have on Yaxley?"

Ron's eyes sprung up from his folder. "Yaxley?" Ron questioned.

"Corban Yaxley," Harry confirmed.

Ron stood up and walked to his file cabinet, kneeling down to open the bottom drawer. "Yaxley, Yaaaaaaxleeeeyyyy, aha." Ron pulled out a rather thin looking folder and opened it up. "Not much," he muttered looking at the paperwork. "He was Voldy's minister puppet, wife died of pox, no living relatives," Ron grimaced, "and he's missing." Ron looked up at Harry. "You think he's got something to do with the rebellion?"

Harry frowned, he was hoping there was way more information on Yaxley. "He's running it."

Ron gave Harry a confused look. "Erm, and how do you know that?"

Harry closed the office door and cast a silencing charm around them. "Draco," Harry breathed, "was at the press conference and he used legilimency to show me what happened when he was captured."

"Merlin's beard." Ron sighed. "Good thing you're a miserable occlumens. You think that this will lead us to them?"

Harry nodded. "Hopefully. I needed you start checking Yaxley properties, and pray he didn't stray to far from home."

Ron nodded. "You know what this means, though," Ron said as Harry turned to leave the room. Harry stopped and looked over his shoulder. "If we find him because of Malfoy's tip off, we'll owe the guy."

Harry sighed. "One catastrophe at a time."

A loud slam awoke Hermione, she had been trying for hours to unlock her cell with no avail. The constant focusing had thoroughly worn her out she curled up in the corner of her cell and tried to sleep. It had been unrestful, painful sleep, but at least sleeping she was able to pass time. She had no idea how long she had been here, food appeared inconsistently, there were no windows to track that passage of days. It was just her, alone, in a dark, dank cell with only the scurrying of rats to keep her company. She heard brisk loud steps approaching her. She slowly, achingly sat up and turned to see the cell bars. A flustered Draco stopped in front of the cell in peered at her. "Draco," Hermione's voice whimpered, as she slowly stood, using the wall to brace her steps.

A broken look came over Draco's face as he reached through the bars to grasp on to her as she approached "Hermione," his voice wavered.

Hermione leaned in to his grip and pressed herself into the bars, they were thick and cold, but this was the warmest she had felt since she had been here. "Draco, where am I?" she asked, her voice trembling as she tried to hold herself together. She had not let fear and despair take her yet, but her strength wavered with his touch.

Draco pressed his face into the bars, he couldn't touch her but for the arm that he had pushed through the bars, but he could smell her, he could feel her presence soothing the raging the monster inside him for days now. "I'm not sure, could be a Malfoy property."

Hermione nodded, the Malfoy estates hadn't been on the radar for possible headquarters since neither Malfoy was suspected of being part of the rebellion. That, however, was when everyone assumed Lucius was dead. "How long have I been here?" She asked with as much control as she could manage.

Draco's jaw locked, clearly contemplating if he should answer her truthfully. "A few days," he whispered.

A few days?! Hermione felt the panic surfacing, how had so much time passed without her knowing? "Why are you here and not locked in a cell like me?"

Draco's knuckles clenched around the bar her held as a hesitant look glinted in his eyes. "They need me to bring down Shacklebolt and Potter."

Hermione brow furrowed, did she even know this man? Had he been working for them the entire time? "Draco." Hermione slowly pushed away from the bars rage and embarrassment pricking at her skin.

A scared look washed over Draco's face. "Hermione," he gripped her arm harder not letting move away from him, "it's not like that!" His voice was desperate. "They're blackmailing me with you. Yaxley says that he'll murder you if I don't do exactly as they want."

Hermione's eyes widened. "And you're giving into that!?" she snarled at him, "Fuck my life, Draco! Save every fucking one else! Get the Aurors in here and take them out! If I die, so be it! It's better than the thousands that will die if they come back to power!"

Draco's face hardened. "Do you honestly think it's that easy? Just because it's a Malfoy property doesn't mean I have any fucking clue where it is! You and that fucking Gryffindor zeal think barging in and self sacrifice will fix everything. I got news for you, I won't let you throw yourself on the blade this time." Draco looked over his shoulder, ensuring they were alone. "I'm working on it," he hissed. "Potter knows about Yaxley and Lucius, I legilimencied him and showed him everything I've seen." Draco released her arm and cradled her head in his hand. "I've been trying to get alone with him but fucking Alecto is stalking me everywhere I go."

Relief washed over Hermione, Draco was on their side. "Alecto?"

Draco sighed in frustration. "Yeah, Alecto is taking Polyjuice to impersonate you. She's been hovering over me since..." Draco swallowed, "I left you here." His eyes becoming apologetic.

Hermione cupped his face. "You did what you had to. If you had refused they would have just killed both of us and there would be no one to stop them." Hermione paused for a moment. "Why are they letting you see me?"

Draco grimaced "It's a reward, I made Potter look like a fool at a press conference today." Hermione was about to scold him, when he continued, "but it gave me a chance to use legilimency on him, thank Merlin that Potter is a terrible occlumens." Draco smirked.

Another loud bang startled them. "That's enough, Malfoy!" the raspy voice of Amycus called.

Draco let out a slow breath, and gave Hermione a longing look. "I'll be back. I'll get you out of here," he promised.

Tears started to well up in Hermione's eyes as fear and worry filled her, all she could do was nod fighting back the tears. "Okay," she managed, her voice trembling.

Draco traced her lips with his thumb, his eyes watching his movement, but then they flicked up to meet hers. "I love you."

Hermione's breath hitched, that was the first time he said it, and the impact of the three words in this moment hit her like a ton of bricks. "I love you," she whispered, tears now caressing her cheeks.

"Now, Malfoy!" Amycus roared.

Draco kissed the palm of her hand and let go of her, leaving her to the darkness and his parting words.

Draco felt a weight lift from him as he declared his love for her, it had been on his heart for a while. He had been waiting for the perfect moment to say it, a moment when he would look into her eyes, see her love for him, and just whisper the words softly as if it were only a secret for the two of them. But this fucking disaster had ruined everything. He was hoping this could redeem himself from his past mistakes, that if he was able to help bring down this rebellion he would be worthy of Hermione. Instead, he landed her in a dungeon because he was fool enough to believe that maybe he could be a good guy. Draco ground his teeth in irritation. Fuck me, he berated himself. Fuck me for ever thinking I could good do something good. He probably shouldn't have told her, but he broke when he saw her behind those bars. Everything that he ever thought he was -strong, proud, important- snapped at the sight of her locked in that cell, when there was nothing he could do.

He needed her to know that he loved her more than anything on the face of the planet, that he loved her so much that he was going to put his entire life on the line to get her out of here. He took a deep breath fighting back the trepidation that edged at his mind. Draco had an idea, it wasn't a great one, it wasn't a particularly clever one. There were several unknown factors that would have to land in his favor, but if there was ever Gods, Draco would need them now.

"Hurry up!" Amycus bellowed once again as Draco approached the stairs out of the dungeon.

Draco sneered at the jailer. "You better fucking watch yourself, Amycus," he threatened.

Amycus scoffed. "And what the fuck do you think you're going to do?"

Draco walked passed him and into the long dark hallway out of the dungeon. "Tear your throat out," he breathed to himself.

Harry looked over the reports that had been sent from the stakeout of the known Malfoy properties, they all came up with nothing, but that was unsurprising. Now that he had Ron checking on the Yaxley estates, he had a gut feeling they weren't far off. Harry looked up at the clock, it was approaching five, and he was rather hoping that Ron would have something before they took off for the day. It had been several hours since the press conference. It was then as if Ron had been reading Harry's mind, Ron burst into Harry's office.

"Mate, I think I got something," Ron's face excited.

Harry pushed up from his desk. "Well, what is it?!" Ron had always wanted to be in the newspapers for catching the latest dark wizards growing up. Once he got in to Auror training however, he found he was much better with the leg work that came with dark wizard hunting.

Ron grinned ear from ear. "So," he laid out some papers on Harry's desk, "I was checking into Yaxley's estates but, as one would imagine, all of them were seized after the war, along with all the family assets being frozen." Ron pointed to some ministry paperwork showing the seizing and freezing of accounts. "But here's where it gets interesting. If, after two years, no one of the direct family comes forth to unfreeze the assets, then the next living kin can petition to take control of them. So then I checked with Gringotts to see if there had been any petitions put in for the Yaxley vaults," Ron gave a frustrated huff, "but you know how the goblins are about their information, after some threats and bribery, I found out that Marcus Flint put in a petition eighteen months ago, and fifteen months ago it was approved."

Ron looked up at Harry, very proud of himself. "Seems like nothing, eh? That's what I thought at first too, just another pureblood getting his hands on dirty money. Except, three months after he acquired the Yaxley vaults, he made a very large, very exact withdrawal of 214,843 galleons. I thought that was rather odd, it almost completely wiped out the vaults, so why not just take the lot of it and be on your way? Well, because he must be buying something, and since brooms don't cost anywhere near that, I figured he must be purchasing an estate. So I checked with one of Sara's realtor friends to see if she could find anything that had been sold in the last year for that price. And, lo and behold, there was a sale of a fifteenth century castle in Scotland that was sold for that price shortly after Marcus took out the gold."

Harry looked over the paperwork that Ron had been showing him. "I mean, it could just be that Marcus wanted a castle."

Ron deflated only slightly. "Could be, but I think it's work a check."

Harry nodded, the good feeling in his belly swelling. "I'll send out a surveillance team for tonight." Harry looked up at Ron. "Good job, mate." Ron gave him a very proud and satisfied grin.

Draco flicked the butt of his cigarette, it was a dirty habit that he had quit since he was in Germany. Blaise had introduced it to him as a way to calm his nerves. Ever since then he had always had a pack just in case, and, thankfully, he had thought to bring it with him when Alecto was summoned back to the headquarters. He took another long drag, letting the nicotine absorb into his bloodstream as the cool night air prickled at his skin. Draco opened his eyes, he was standing in the gardens, to get away from everyone. He looked up at the moon, to anyone else it looked to be full, but to Draco, he knew this would be his last night before his transformation. His joints and muscles ached, it was going to be a rough transformation. He had been taking his potions up until tonight, but if he hoped to get the job done tomorrow night he needed his wolf as full strength, though the thought of complete loss of control made Draco tremble. He took another deep drag, trying to alleviate his pain and stress with a cigarette, and then bent over and snubbed the ember on the bottom his shoe, discreetly picking up a stick that he had come to find and shoving it in to his robes pocket.

"Draco!" Amycus called, he was on Malfoy watch. "Come on! I'm bloody freezing out here! And Yaxley wants you."

Draco sighed in irritation. Gods, he hoped this plan worked, he hoped that the Amycus would never again complain about the night air. He turned back to the castle and stalked back inside, to the main dining hall where Yaxley spent most of his time. Draco glared at Alecto as he entered the room, she was stirring a large cauldron with what Draco could only assume was Polyjuice. Yaxley called his name, Draco locked his jaw and approached the man. "What?" Draco asked gruffly.

Yaxley smiled. "You've done well, an owl just brought me the evening prophet and your face made front page." Yaxley handed Draco the paper.

Minister Incompetent, Says Malfoy Heir. Draco ground his teeth, everything was falling into place for Yaxley.

"You'll stay here for a few days while we finish the Polyjuice potion. Until then, there is a room upstairs where you will stay, Alecto will escort you." Yaxley gestured towards the doors, but grabbed Draco's arm as he tried to walk off. "And, may I remind you, Draco, that if you try anything, we still have that mudblood in a cell."

Draco narrowed his eyes and tore his arm away, he wanted to say a plethora of vile things to the man. He wanted to tell Yaxley how he planned to rip open his rib cage and tear out his still beating heart, but Draco knew better. Instead he just left the hall to retire to his room for the rest of his stay.

Harry made it early into the Ministry the next morning. He had been up all night thinking about the stakeout, desperately wanting to pop in and see if they had anything, but ultimately that would blow their cover and that could be disastrous. Instead, he waited eagerly by the apparation point, waiting for Clucks and Ceullar to come back from their post. Harry was deep in thought about the possible plan that he would implement if this turned out to be the headquarters when two pops brought his attention back. Harry stood up looking at the two men expectantly. "So?" he asked.

Ceullar spoke first. "Well, there's something going on there, I did spot Draco and he was being watched by Amycus Carrow, who has been on the run with his sister since the war."

Clucks cut in. "I saw a number of individuals in the windows, not Yaxley himself, but Nott Sr. and Rookwood for sure. So there's at least three there, but we think it may be closer to ten individuals based on the thermals we got.

"Brilliant!" Harry smiled. "I want you two go home and get some rest, I want you back here at 2200."

Harry was bubbling with excitement. After a year of being on the run, it sounded like most of the Death Eaters were held up in the same location, which, if he played his cards right means he should get all of them behind bars. He jogged to Meaghan's desk. "Meaghan, I need you to send out owls to all of the Aurors, ASAP, tell them to rest up today there's going to be an op tonight and to report at 2200. But let Ron, Jamison and Finnigan know that they're leads and I want them here at 2000."

Meaghan nodded. "Do you wanted these encrypted?"

Harry nodded, the more layers of security the better chance of it actually staying under wraps. "Thanks, and if anyone comes in looking for us today, give them the usual."

Meaghan smiled sweetly. "Of course! Now go home and get some rest. I'll hold down the fort."

Harry laughed, gathered his things and went home, and for the first time in a long time he felt hopeful.