SORRY SORRY SORRY! Please don't throw pillows at me! *wink* I promise to be a bit more prompt in updating next time... :D

CHAPTER 15

It wasn't a clean Avada Kedavra and as soon as he apparated right into the crime scene, he desperately wished it was one. The whole place was a bloody mess, both literally and metaphorically. It was clear that Harry wasn't informed immediately because he wasn't the first MLE officer on the scene. Aurors swarmed the area, some spelling barricades in place to keep out people, some were trying to collect evidence around the body while some were having serious discussions in groups.

"Harry!" sounded a voice from his left. It was Ron beckoning him towards a more secluded area at the back of the alley. Harry walked towards him, mindful of all the blood spatters on the ground so as to not disrupt any evidence.

"Oh, thank Merlin you're here! Robards put me in charge of this case. I was at Azkaban when there was an emergency call for me to come here. Some resident of Diagon alley was wandering the streets when she came across..." Ron drifted off, pitifully eying the corpse of Narcissa. Harry turned towards the scene too, looking properly for the first time. Amidst all the blood he could make out a few strands of blonde hair, the rest was in a deep brown shade due to the crusted blood.

"The witness is traumatized and is in Mungo's now. I wanted you to come because handling this alone is taking a toll on me. I've been here for the past two hours." Ron continued. "It really is a gruesome murder. Looks like there was terrible struggle. She was found with two wands clutched in her hand and her death is due to a knife wound that slashed her neck open. One of the wands was recognised as hers, the other one is still unknown. Ollivander has agreed to assist, he'll be coming to the ministry tomorrow."

At that moment, the body was levitated into a stretcher and portkeyed to the Department of Magical Forensics of the ministry along with three aurors.

Harry looked around at all the blood covering the walls and the ground. "Is all this blood hers?" he asked.

"We've been trying to determine that. Samples have been sent to the forensic department." said a female voice.

Harry turned around to find Angelina Johnson smiling at him.

"Hi!" said Harry, giving her a one armed hug.

"Hi, Harry, Hi again, Ron." she greeted. "It's been really long, hasn't it? How are you two?"

"We're doing fine." replied Ron. "I didn't find time to ask you earlier, but what are you doing here?"

"Cheeky, Ron?" Angelina rolled her eyes. "I returned from Australia two weeks back and have since been working in the forensic department at the ministry with your wife." she finished.

Angelina had joined as an apprentice in 's after the war but eventually realised that her interests lie in the forensic department rather than actual healing. So she had gone to Australia to pursue training in magical forensics, visiting Britain on and off.

"I can't believe Hermione didn't tell me! Neither did George!" Ron looked outraged.

Angelina and George were still together, maintaining a long distance relationship. Harry never really took George for a serious relationship guy, but by the looks of it, maybe they are head over heels for each other.

Angelina suddenly blushed, whispering something totally inaudible.

"Sorry, didn't catch that." said Harry, looking confused. He'd never seen her blush before.

"Oh, forget it." she waved it off and walked away, apparating to the ministry probably.

"What was all that about?" Harry asked, still looking at the empty spot where Angelina was standing seconds ago.

"No idea, mate." replied Ron. "Now, I'm going back to the ministry to figure out how to proceed with this case. I need you to do the paperwork. Knowing Hermione, she'll probably stay at the ministry overnight trying to figure out the whole thing in a day. Which means I'll have to take care of Rose too and I'm already knackered. So please can you do the paperwork?"

"Wait a minute, why will Hermione be at the ministry? She has taken two weeks off to figure out Scorp's problem, hasn't she?"

Ron raised an eyebrow, looking at him like Harry had disappointed him somehow. "Mate, I think you forgot it's Hermione we're talking about."

Yes, of course. Hermione will never miss out on work when it was such a serious case.

"Right." Harry nodded.

"Okay, see you later. Paperwork, don't forget!" Ron reminded him again before pulling out his wand to disapparate. "And Harry...?" he paused, "We've got to inform the victim's family. Can you do it?" he asked reluctantly, like he expected Harry to entirely rebuff him.

"Um...yeah, sure." he agreed hesitantly.

"Thank you! I'll buy you a drink the next time we hang out." Ron sounded relieved. Saying this, he disapparated. There were very few aurors left, trying to secure the area.

Harry couldn't bear to think of how shattered Draco's going to be. Harry himself felt like he had lost some very close relative of his, eventhough he hadn't even spoken to Narcissa after that one time in the forest. Harry took one last look at all the blood, his heart aching for the loss of another mother who saved his life, and disapparated.

"Bye, Mia!" Draco waved enthusiastically at one of his good friends before walking back to his flat. He didn't have any customers last night and had spent the entirety of his time sharing snippets of his school days (sans magic of course) and in return Mia had spoken about her schooling and how she really wished she never had to grow up.

Draco was in a good mood, he greeted his neighbours who were leaving the apartment for their morning walks. He whistled a made up tune till the fifth floor landing, entering his flat and flooing to "Potter Residence". He gracefully stepped out of the fireplace. He's been doing it since he could walk after all and it was ingrained in him that Malfoys were expected to be graceful.

As though gracefulness really helped out in the end, thought Draco, sarcastically.

He looked around for Potter, for the first time wanting him to see Draco in totally presentable attire, but Potter was nowhere.

Indignation filled Draco's mind and he pressed his lips into a thin line. For once I wanted him to be there and trust Potter to do just the opposite!

Not wanting to spoil his good mood, he walked to the kitchen deciding to cook breakfast. Potter still hadn't stocked his kitchen. He found a few eggs, onions, cucumbers and mushrooms. He decided to just do a simple sauteed mushroom sandwich and some eggs. He put the mushrooms on the stove, seasoned it with pepper and fried them for sometime before putting it on two slices of grilled bread.

Since he was making breakfast for himself anyway, it was only right that he makes something for Potter too. But why should he? He wasn't even here!

Act a little mature, Draco, he told himself and made two more sandwiches for Potter. He then put eggs in a pan, waiting for them to fry.

Cooking reminded him of potions. As a kid, he had his own potions kit with a smaller cauldron than what they used at Hogwarts, in which he made different types of potions, experimenting on a few. Once, it had gone wrong and he had almost set his room on fire at the Manor. The memory brought a smile to his face. He always wanted to be a potioneer, have his own apothecary maybe.

Of course, this was before sixth year and before Voldemort decided to hang out in the manor and change Draco's life completely. Sixth year was when everything went wrong, wasn't it? Some sort of a milestone in his life which he'll forever remember...

The eggs were burning on the stove and the nasty stench of burnt eggs was what brought Draco back to reality. He quickly switched off the stove, accidently lifting the pan off the heat in a hurry only to drop it down. He burnt his fingers.

"ShitShitShit!"

He hurriedly opened the freezer door and shoved his hand inside, hissing in pain. The chill of the freezer, a soothing comfort to his throbbing hand. It was then that Potter walked in, looking like death warmed over.

"I think I should wish you a good morning but it doesn't seem like you had anything good happen this morning... so I'll just let it be." Draco smirked, placing an ice pack on his fingers and opening the kitchen window to rid the house of the godawful stench.

When there was no reply, Draco turned around and stared at Potter, trying to make eye contact and infer what's wrong because he knew something was definitely wrong. He'd begun reading Potter like an open book just by looking at his kinesics which disturbed him a little but proved to be beneficial as well.

"Potter, spill." Draco stated bluntly.

Potter hesitated, trying to look anywhere but at Draco. After what seemed to be half an hour but could have been a few minutes, he said, "Draco, um...I think...come here." and pulled him towards the sitting room.

"Sit." he said.

Some other time, Draco would have said something about how he didn't like being ordered around but he was just too curious to know what's going on with Potter that he immediately chose an armchair and plopped himself down, crossing his legs.

Potter ran a hand through his hair nervously. Draco followed it with his eyes, wishing it could be his hand instead of Potter's. Potter cleared his throat, bringing Draco's attention back to the present.

"Draco...your mother, she has been...murdered." The last word was whispered, but Draco caught it nonetheless.

He stiffened. There was an odd ringing in his ears and he couldn't be sure if Potter continued talking after that or not. His lungs constricted, making it difficult to breathe. He felt like he was being compressed from all sides. His insides were numb, he felt totally empty except for a lump in his throat and the heart in his chest, the sound of his heartbeat loud enough to overrun that ringing in his ears.

He thought he's going to pass out from all the strange things happening inside his body when he was suddenly brought out of the stupor. He didn't know how much time had passed, but Potter was now kneeling in front of him, both his hands were grasped tightly in Potter's own and it seemed like he's been trying to get his attention for a while now.

"Draco! Are you okay? Can I get you some water?" he asked carefully, staring intensely, trying to determine if Draco really was alright.

"Where is she now?" Draco whispered hoarsely, his voice struggling to get past the lump still very much there in his throat. His eyes burned but there weren't any tears.

"Ministry. In the forensic department." said Harry, still watching Draco like a hawk. Draco had scared him for a minute there, still as a statue and not even breathing. He'd had to call his name nearly seven times to grab his attention.

"When can I see her?" he asked softly. Harry eyed him curiously.

"The bo-" Harry paused. As an auror, he was accustomed to using the word 'body' to refer to a corpse, he hadn't spared a single thought to it before, even while talking to the victim's loved ones. But now, it just seemed so rude to do that for Narcissa, especially in front of Draco.

"I'm sure Hermione will let you in." Harry said atlast.

Harry and Draco immediately flooed to the atrium and took the elevator to level three. There weren't many people around as it was still the early hours of the morning. Harry kept looking at Draco curiously.

'He's taking it rather well...' thought Harry. After that initial shocked silence at his house, Draco hadn't uttered a single word. Harry had expected a ruckus, demanding to find the murderer at once so he could kill him right then and there, similar to what had happened at the hospital with the healers when they'd found out about Scorp...or maybe he had expected Draco to breakdown...he wasn't sure. But whatever it was, he hadn't expected him to calmly walk towards the double doors of the forensics department looming in front of them.

Draco could feel Potter shooting him speculative glances but he kept walking, posture stiff and head held high. He understood the reason behind the curious gaze, he was quite surprised himself that he was not causing an upheaval at the ministry right this instant.

It wasn't like the news hadn't been earth shattering, but the anguish that was missing from his demeanor was buried deep in his heart and he was avoiding thinking about it as much as possible. Maybe it just hadn't hit him yet or maybe he was in denial...he didn't really know, but as long as it stayed that way, he was glad. He didn't want the grief to take over. Not yet.

He was so occupied in his thoughts that he didn't even realise that he was already in "the" room and Potter was saying something.

"-give you some privacy."

Potter left the place, closing the door on his way.

Draco turned around, there was a single bed amongst what seemed to be a workstation. Quills and parchment littered the tables. Shelves full of books and a computer which seemed to be charmed to work without electricity. There was a cupboard full of what seemed to be different coloured potions and Draco was willing to bet the meagre galleons he had that this was Hermione's cabin.

He took a step towards the bed, his feet as heavy as lead all of a sudden. A small part of his brain asked him to turn around and leave the place as soon as possible. He didn't want to dig up that anguish-filled part of his heart...but the more rational part of his brain urged him to go on. This was probably the last time he's going to see his mother.

He focused on placing one foot in front of the other, trying to overcome the backward pull of the imaginary strings he could feel attached to his ankles. The mere ten feet distance felt like ten miles. Finally he stood in front of her. She was chalk white, as pale as a ghost. Draco extended a hand, caressing her cheek and pushing the hair away from her face. He grasped her hand, laying a light kiss on the palm.

As soon as he touched her, he expected his mind to be flooded with memories like he'd seen in those very dramatic muggle movies, but nothing like that happened. All he could think of was how he just lost another inestimable part of his life. He should have gotten used to losing things by now, nothing ever stays, does it? Eventhough he didn't really know what had happened to his mother he'd still held onto that slender hope of her being safe somewhere, far away from all the mess he's currently in and even that had to be snatched away from him, didn't it?

He took a deep breath, exhaling slowly. He didn't really want to go into the self-pity mode. He's been doing great at avoiding mourning all that he's lost and he wanted it to continue the same way. His eyes still burning, he petted her head one last time and turned around, leaving the place as soon as possible.

Walking at a brisk pace he reached the floo, he could sense Potter hurrying to get to him. Without turning around he reached Potter's house and locked himself in his bedroom again.

In a hurry, Harry apparated home and saw Draco's door being shut. He contemplated knocking but decided he might need some alone time to get over the shock of seeing his mother dead. He quickly took a shower, brushed his teeth and went into the kitchen. He was going to call Kreacher for breakfast when he noticed four sandwiches on the counter. He ate two, deciding that Draco was indeed a better cook than him and put the other two under a warming spell to keep them fresh until Draco decides to eat them.

He went back to the Ministry, deciding to take a nap in his office when he was more or less ambushed by Robards, ordering him to go to one of the interview rooms and join Auror Zyaire there interviewing Ollivander who had arrived twenty minutes back. Sighing, a fatalistic Harry made his way to level two. Crossing the office space, he longingly looked at his cabin door before reaching the interview room where he could see Auror Zyaire's head, too small for the overlarge auror robes she wore.

He quickly nodded his greeting at Zyaire and Ollivander, took his seat across the wandmaker and tuned out the conversation that was going on. He didn't mean to do it, but his sleep deprived mind couldn't hold onto anything taking longer than two seconds. He nodded at the right places, staring intently at Ollivander and offering his "yes's" whenever Zyaire looked at him. Basically, he was sleeping with his eyes open.

When it was over, Zyaire thanked the wandmaker and raised her eyebrows at Harry when he didn't say anything. Harry caught on at the right moment, offering his thanks with a wide smile, before dropping his head on the table and falling asleep.

He felt himself being woken with a sharp nudge at his shoulder. His glasses were askew and he couldn't make out anything. He looked around with a screwed up face and felt his glasses being righted and heard Zyaire's voice saying,

"Potter, it's almost an hour. I couldn't let you sleep here anymore. Get up and go to your office. You could continue sleeping there if you want." She rolled her eyes muttering something about incompetent aurors and cursing her fate because she always ends up doing all the work.

Harry gave her a guilty smile, apologising for his substandard work and left the place, dragging himself to his office, wanting to continue his nap there but when he opened the door to his office, it was evident it wasn't going to happen.

"I believe this is when you decide to raise a ruckus and defame the Ministry for not saving your mum?" Harry enquired through a yawn. "Though the Ministry hasn't got a good reputation to de-fame it anyway." , he added as an afterthought.

Draco didn't seem to be listening though, he slowly raised his hand and in it was clenched what seemed to be a once- perfectly shaped notepad but now it was deformed due to the crushed pages. After a second, Harry realised it was his notepad and he knew exactly what Draco was showing. He could make out his irregular scrawl and in it was the boldly underlined sentence, 'How is Malfoy involved in the polyjuiced-death eaters' attack?'

"What the hell does this mean, Potter?" Draco gritted out.

"I was going to ask you the same thing too." Harry replied calmly. He knew he should give him a direct answer, now was not the time to be talking in riddles, but when it comes to Draco Malfoy, he could never keep himself in check.

"What?"

"One of the men in death eater cloaks blurted out your name before being AK-ed-"

"And you just assumed that I was somehow involved in the attack at Ollivander's! How typical of you! You might as well arrest me. Who knows, I could have killed that man too." Draco said in a mock serious attempt, shrugging his shoulders.

"For your information, I was only going to ask you if you knew anything about it. I didn't suspect you of having done anything! If I had, you would have been behind bars right now." Harry snapped.

"That's rich, Potter. What do you want me to do? Kiss the hem of your robes?"

"A simple thank you would suffice." said Harry, just to rile him up, the satire being evident in his voice.

"You bloody bastard-"

"You can't barge into my office and call me a bastard." Harry said smoothly.

"I didn't barge in! I was asked to wait here."

"By who?" Harry's face contorted in suspicion.

"Your best mate."

"Ron?"

"Hey mate." It was Ron.

"Ron! What's he doing here?"

"Sorry I'm late." Hermione came in behind Ron.

"Guys, what's going on?" Harry looked to each one in the room.

"Harry, it's about Ollivander's corroboration. Ron thought we've got to do something to keep Draco safe." Hermione said.

"Would you mind elaborating?" Harry scratched his head awkwardly. He didn't like being the only one in the room who didn't understand what's going on.

"Harry! Ollivander recognised the wand to be Draco's! Now the ministry will want to question Draco on how Mrs. Malfoy had his wand clutched in her hand and he could get into trouble!"

"No no, Hermione. They will not waste time in questioning , they'll directly arrest him." Ron snorted. "It's Malfoy afterall... the ministry just needs a good excuse to put him back in Azkaban."

"By the way, weren't you there during Ollivander's interview?" Ron asked Harry with raised eyebrows.

Before Harry could reply, Draco piped in "Knowing him, he probably would have slept with his eyes open. He's excellent at tuning out people when he doesn't have the mood to listen to them." Draco rolled his eyes and Harry stared. How did Draco know that?

"Okay now, coming back to the point, we've got to do something to prove Draco's innocent." Hermione resumed.

"Right now what we've got to do is prevent his immediate arrest. I think it's best if he goes into hiding for a while." suggested Ron.

"Before I do anything, how do I believe Potter's on my side. What if he suddenly decides to arrest me?"

" I told you I didn't believe for one second that you had anything to do with that attack, I was only going to ask you if you suspected anyone." Harry sighed.

"Alright Potter, I was just trying to lighten up the mood. Don't be so serious."

"You've got to be serious! How did someone get hold of your wand in the first place?" Harry chided.

"No idea." Draco shrugged.

"Draco! How many times did I tell you to have your wand on you at all times. You've gotten so careless with it. Do you remember when was the last time you saw it?"

"I think I left it at my flat. I'm not very sure..."

Everybody was lost in thought for a while. Draco was trying to act cool but he was seething inside. If he had indeed left his wand at his place, the only two people who had access to his flat were his house owner and Claire, and both were muggles. Seeing as he didn't have any wards put up, anybody could break in and steal anything. He was pretty sure, whoever had stolen his wand would have used it to kill his mother in a heartbeat if only they'd had the chance. He was confident his mother had put up a very good fight, though.

After the brief visit with his mother, he had been brooding in his room, when a knock had interrupted his thoughts. Assuming it to be Potter, he had opened the door, but was shocked to find Weasley there. Weasley had explained the situation concerning his wand and had sneaked him inside the ministry again, only this time he had already made arrangements so there was no blazing sound of the alarm. He was then left here at Potter's office, while Weasley tried to fetch his wife and sort out the situation. Draco was still surprised that Weasley would go to such great heights to help him.

"I guess for the time being, Draco could shift over to our house. " Hermione's voice broke in upon his musings. "Harry, you could say he ran away or something when they come to your place in search of him."

"That sounds fine, but I won't stay cooped up inside. I have work to do." Draco declared.

"You're joking right? There's a high chance of you being thrown into Azkaban if someone so much as sees a glimpse of you! And if I remember correctly, that was the one place you were trying to avoid, weren't you?" Potter demanded.

"I won't get caught. I know how to be careful, Potter."

"What is the need for that is what I'm trying to ask! What's going to happen if you miss work for a couple of days!"

"Harry's right, you know. Your safety's more important, Malfoy." It was Weasley this time.

Draco didn't know how to explain to them that his safety lies in going to work.

"You're not going anywhere, Draco and that's final." Potter commanded. Draco opened his mouth to retaliate but Hermione was already talking.

"It's okay, Harry. He'll be fine. He works in the muggle neighbourhood and it's quite far from here."

"But, Mione-"

"I'll go drop him everyday." she reasoned, leaving no room for argument.

There was a brief eye contact between Draco and Hermione, a swift nod was delivered in Draco's direction and cursory smile in acknowledgement that didn't go unnoticed by Harry. There was definitely something Hermione was hiding and Harry needed to know both what and why.

"So now how do we get him out of here?"asked Ron, gesturing towards Malfoy.

"First of all, why did you even get him here of all places?"

"I didn't know which part of the ministry you were in, Harry and I wasn't able to contact Hermione for a long time. I thought if I wait anymore, the aurors might get to him first, so I brought him here, which is the last place the aurors will think of looking in." Ron smiled pridefully.

"Leave it to me, I'll take him home." said Hermione and she practically pulled him along.

Even Ron looked confused by her behaviour.

"I'll see you later, Harry, got a lot of work to do." Ron waved him bye and shut the door behind him.

Harry stood there for sometime, trying to concoct a plan on how to get either Hermione or Draco to slip up and tell him what's happening but he knew both were too smart and waiting for them to say anything of their own accord will be a vain attempt on his side.

Sod it. He was going to follow them tonight.

Thank you all for still sticking with this story even when I'm so irregular. Don't forget to leave reviews! :) :) :)