A/N: I am sure everyone has seen the warnings. They still apply.
In case you live under a rock, Harry Potter and associated characters belong to J.K. Rowling. Chapter title is from The Slip, Nine Inch Nails.
Harry was relentlessly pacing the office. It had already been forty minutes, and they hadn't even gone through half of the maps yet. He was tempted to ask if there was anything he could to help, but the last time he did that, Basil had threatened to hex him.
He turned to pace back to the door when a silvery wolf came barreling towards him. Tonks.
"Harry, meet me at St. Mungo's. No hurry." The silver wolf disappeared.
Harry turned back to see the man bent over yet another map. "Basil, I am going to St. Mungo's. Find me as soon as you know."
Basil did not answer him. Without looking up from the map, he waved his hand in acknowledgement.
He Apparated to St. Mungo's and quickly made his way to Hermione's ward. He met up with Tonks and the Randalls outside of her door. He greeted them all and was just about to ask what was going on when the door opened and Madam Pomfrey stepped out.
"Oh, Harry. Good, you've arrived just in time," she said as soon as she saw him.
"In time for what? Is Hermione alright?"
"She is fine. She is resting. I have just come to check her for any experimental potions that may have been in her system. We wanted to make sure that nothing would interfere with her treatment. The Healers are going to start rebuilding her memories tomorrow. Harry, if I may, I would like to speak to you in private."
Harry agreed and led her down to the waiting area. Tonks and the Randalls were left outside of Hermione's door, talking quietly.
"Why are you checking for potions? Don't they have someone here that can do that?" Harry asked.
"Severus and I worked together quite frequently on many of the potions he was developing for both healing and for Voldemort. During my examination of him this morning, I found traces of one of the last potions he had developed. It is a nasty little control potion he was supposed to make for Voldemort.
"I called the Healers here and asked them to check over Hermione, but they felt that since I had the most experience with his experiments that I should come and check her. I am happy to give her a clean bill of health. I can detect no traces of any of his experiments in her system."
"Were you able to ask Snape who was responsible for his and Hermione's condition?" Harry asked.
"The potion I found in his system acts like a liquid Imperius. Severus has been under the control potion for a very long time. I imagine he is still trying to make heads or tails of his memories at this moment. He is still only speaking to Albus' portrait and can only manage a few words before he gets too exhausted. Albus has refused to tell us much of what they discuss. I believe Minerva is about ready to threaten him with turpentine.
"The other reason I asked Tonks to send for you was because we performed the paternity and maternity spells on Perdita. Since we were in agreement that Severus and Hermione were her parents, it was a fairly simple charm. The results were exactly what we expected them to be."
"I thought that Snape was being controlled by someone else. Why would this person want Hermione to give birth to a child? We all saw the potions in her flat. It could have been taken care of at any point in time," Harry said.
"My only guess is that they wanted another way to torture Severus. By giving and then taking away one of the only things that man has ever wanted, a family."
Harry did not know what to say to this. How similar his and his ex-professor's lives were. That had been his dream too. He was so happy when it finally came true. He could just imagine how the stern man must have felt to see his dream and then have it taken away.
"Now that I think about it, there were very few people he ever told this to. Albus and I were among a select few he actually trusted to tell about his hopes and dreams. If I had to guess, I would say whoever did this to them was at one time a close friend of his."
Harry was lost in his thoughts for a few moments. Finally, Poppy managed to get his attention again.
"Harry, I ran the charm on Hermione to test the baby she is carrying against Severus, and it does not match."
"What exactly does that mean?"
"Severus is not the father of the baby Hermione is currently carrying."
Lucius' day was going from bad to worse. His wife was conveniently away, and now he was having trouble finding his elf. He had been calling his irritable little elf for nearly five minutes.
"Mot."
The elf never went this long without coming when he called. Even if he just popped in to say he would be back, he always came. Maybe he was sick. Do house-elves get sick? It was something he never considered before. He knew that when a female gave birth, they were often missing for a few hours.
Maybe there was something wrong with one of his toys. No, Mot would definitely come if that was the case.
"Mot."
His mind was wandering. That was never a good sign. It meant he was stressed. He hated being stressed. He would have to make sure to spend some time using Severus' mouth to ease his tension before lunch.
"Mot."
He made his way from his office to the drawing room where Mot maintained his residence even though the rest of the elves were located in the kitchen quarters. Mot claimed it was too crowded in those quarters for him. The staff had doubled since Draco had got married. His Daughter in Law insisted on having two of them to manage the child. It was ridiculous. Any perfectly good nanny elf could watch a small child twenty four hours a day. They did not need time for rest.
"Mot, damn you, elf. I need you," Lucius called as he passed his son's office.
"Father."
Closing his eyes and quietly cursing, he turned back to enter his son's office. He did not have time for this. Seven more years, just seven more years, and he could petition the court for his title of Lord Malfoy and stop taking orders from his son.
His son was sitting at his desk, writing what appeared to be a rather long letter.
"Draco. I am in a hurry. If you don't mind, we can catch up after lunch."
Lucius turned to leave, when his son stopped him, once again.
"Yes, I can see you are extremely busy. It looks to me that you have just spent several weeks in the Canary Islands. Now, I was under the impression that you were inspecting the vineyard and monitoring some of our rental properties. Since neither the properties nor the vineyard are on a volcanic island off the coast of Spain, I would like to know what you were doing there. You did not have permission from the Ministry or me to go on vacation."
Draco said all this without looking up from the papers in front of him.
"I am no longer under Ministry control and do not need their or your permission to go anywhere."
Draco looked up and grinned.
"That, Father, is where you are wrong. You are free to come and go anywhere in the British Isles. You need permission to go anywhere else and will continue to do so for another seven years. Or did you forget that small part of your punishment?
"When you left, you left with my permission to visit those two places. Imagine my surprise when I find out you have been traipsing across Europe."
Lucius was furious; of course he had forgotten. It was not something that came up that often. He rarely left to go to the continent.
"Fine, I will be sure to notify you in the future if I have any changes to my travel plans. Now if you will excuse me, I really need to find Mot."
Lucius turned to leave. Draco's voice stopped him. He turned back to see his son once again speaking to him without looking up from his work.
"You won't find him. I killed him." Draco paused as he was thinking. "I think it was a little more than two weeks ago."
Draco looked up just in time to see what little color his father had leave his face.
"You what?"
Draco looked directly at his father.
"I. Killed. Him."
Lucius glared at Draco, a murderous look on his face. With a flick of his wand the entire contents of Draco's desk crashed to the floor. Draco stood up and brushed invisible dust from his robes.
"How dare you. Mot was my elf. You had absolutely no right to touch him."
"Father, I am surprised. It is so unlike you to be wrong twice in one, day but you forget, yet again, that I do have the right. I am the current Lord Malfoy. Any and all elves that reside within the Manor properties are under my control.
"That deranged little thing tried to kill my son, your grandson. Fwendy found him trying to strangle Scorpius and informed me, but not before he managed to kill two other elves. I did what any parent would have done in my situation."
Lucius raised his wand to curse his son. The word was at the tip of his tongue when Fwendy popped into the room and silently called away his wand. Lucius' anger only seemed to multiply. He grabbed the desk and physically threw it towards his son and his elf.
"He was my elf. Mine to deal with. You should have informed me right away. Mot monitored several things that could not be left alone for this long."
Lucius was shouting, his normally immaculate hair had escaped its clasp and fell onto his face, and repressed rage had caused his eyes to darken considerably.
"Had I known you would be this upset, I would have informed you earlier. Have you finally found something that is just as evil as you are? Or are you afraid whatever little secrets you had the elf protecting will slowly start to reveal themselves?" Draco said calmly, trying not to show that his father's anger was affecting him.
"I don't know what you are talking about," Lucius replied, silently telling himself to calm down before he gave anything away.
"Come now, there is no reason to lie to me. I know you are up to something, and I intend to find out what it is. Have you not found it strange that we are the only two in residence?"
Lucius looked up at this. Had his son found out about his extracurricular activities?
"Mother is somewhere where even you cannot find her. I sent my wife and son to her parents. I did not want them exposed to you any longer. I know you are up to something, Lucius. I am just not sure what exactly it is yet. I also know that Mother does not have some unknown illness. I recognize the symptoms of poison. I was very good at Potions.
"I also know that you were not. So I assume you must have an accomplice of some kind. I thought, at first, it was Mot, since he would have been able to remove the Malfoy Family Dark Potions book from my office. But he would not have had the ability to make those potions. In fact, the only person I could think of that had even heard of the book, let alone been capable of brewing the Potions contained within it, was Severus, but he is dead, which leaves me at a loss as you are far too paranoid to allow someone else to brew them. So tell me, am I wrong to suspect you of trying to poison my mother?"
"I have no idea what you are talking about. I would never harm her or you. What reason would I have for doing such a thing?"
"Fine, I will let it go, for now. But I will be watching you. Until I am satisfied that you are not causing harm to anyone, you are restricted to the grounds."
"You cannot do that. I am your father…" Lucius stopped speaking as Draco held up a hand. Glaring at his father, he asked, "What did you do?"
"I have no idea what you are talking about? What is wrong?" Lucius replied.
"Harry Potter and a team of Aurors have just come through the gates. I ask you again, what did you do?"
Harry was just about to leave St. Mungo's and head back to the Ministry to see if Basil had found the point of origin for the Portkey they'd taken from Professor Snape's body when he saw the man running through the hall towards him.
"Mr. Potter, I am glad I found you. I have the information you requested."
Harry looked around and saw that Tonks was watching the conversation between the two of them. He led Basil down the hall so they could speak in private.
"What did you find?"
"The Portkey came from a property in Wiltshire."
"The Malfoys?"
"Yes, though it did not come from the Manor. It originated from somewhere near the forest. I am not familiar with the Malfoy property so I am unsure if this is one of the tenanted farms or something else. I cannot detect any buildings in that area."
"Thank you. Do you have the coordinates for me?"
Basil handed Harry a piece of parchment and said his goodbyes. Harry turned and saw that Tonks was still watching him. From the look on her face, he knew he was not going to get out of there without explaining the last two conversations to her. He also knew he was going to need her help. He did not want to try and take down the Malfoys on his own. He hoped that they would not be involved. He had come to like Draco in the last couple of years.
"What was that all about, Harry?"
She had to know who the man was. She worked at the Ministry.
"Does it have something to do with Hermione?"
"It may. We probably should find someplace else to talk."
Harry led the way down the hall to the family waiting room and cast a few privacy spells.
"How many Aurors do you have on staff that can be trusted to keep their mouths closed?"
Tonks looked at him for a moment before answering.
"Ten. If I went to Kingsley, I could probably get another six or seven. Why?"
"Last night when Minerva and I returned to Hogwarts, we were summoned to the hospital wing. Hagrid had found a man outside of the gates and taken him to Poppy. He was badly beaten, malnourished and had been violently raped.
"From what little he told us, or rather, what he told Albus' portrait, we came to the conclusion that the man and Hermione had been held by the same people. Somehow the magic that had been binding him began to fail a few weeks ago and he'd managed to chew through his bindings and use an emergency Portkey he had. I asked Basil to trace it this morning. These coordinates show where he Portkeyed from," Harry said, holding up the parchment he had been given.
"Who was it? Where are we going?"
"Tonks, this has to be kept absolutely secret. I do not want to put anyone at risk."
She nodded that she understood.
"It was Professor Snape. He came from Malfoy Manor."
The shock that Tonks felt showed on her face.
"Let's get to the Ministry and get a team together. If they are involved, we are going to need everyone I can get."
The two of them quickly made their way to the Floo and on to the Ministry.
A/N: My thanks to Sempra for reading through this, time and time again, until I got it all right. Fwendy was a nickname given to author J.M. Barrie by a young friend, possibly the beginnings of the name Wendy. Fwendy has been Draco's elf since he was born and is very loyal to him.