Luna walked slowly up to the Astronomy tower and came over to where Draco was standing, looking out at Hogwarts Grounds. It looked like he was swept away in memories of the past and she knew that it couldn't be that easy on him to be here. At the place where Dumbledore had died and to know that he was the one who had let the Death Eaters into the school in the first place.
"I'm not changing my mind, Luna. I'm going after Creevy and make him wish that he had never started his little killing spree. He has taken and wants to take too many people that I care about to let him get away with this." His voice had taken on a hard edge that reminded her of the cold and sarcastic boy that she had gone to school with.
"I understand why you want to rip Dennis apart, I do and if I wasn't pregnant, I would be right there beside you, hexing the little jackass until he begged me to stop. You have Scorpius and Bree to think about, they have lost their mother, they can't lose you too." She stepped up beside him and touched his arm gently while glancing out at the school grounds. "Ask Harry about how it felt to lose both parents at a young age and how he wished that they had been around to raise him. Do you want to do the same thing to your children?"
"No, but I am so angry at that little bastard, I could kill him!"
"I know but we need to let Harry handle this and stay somewhere safe." Tears filled her eyes as she continued to speak. "Besides I refuse to lose another baby! I can't bury another child because Lila's death almost killed me and I won't go through that again. If I have to hide until after I have this baby, I will because this child, Lorcan, Lysander, you, your family, and my friends safety are all that matter to me."
"Will you tell me what happened to Lila? Unless it is too difficult for you to talk about, I would really like to know." He had turned to face her and lifted his hand to caress her cheek. The sight of her big, blue eyes filled with so much pain and sorrow made him wish that he could use his wand to make all of it go away for her.
"Lorcan and Lysander were five when I found out that I was having another baby. I was happy and hoping this one would be a little girl. My marriage was already pretty shaky by that time and Rolf really acted like he didn't care if I was having another child. When we found out the baby was going to be a girl, it got even worse. He had his sons and in his mind, we didn't need another baby." She paused and looked up at Draco, whose Grey eyes had taken on a hard edge to the point they were almost sliver.
"That prick!"
"Exactly. In fact, Ginny called him a sorry son of a bitch to his face a few times when she realized how he was acting."
"What happened to your baby girl, Luna?"
"I was about 34 weeks along, six weeks away from my due date when all of sudden, Lila stopped moving around inside of me like she was supposed to be. I sent a message to Rolf and when straight to St. Mungo's. That is when I was t..to...told," She started to stammer as the story became more and more difficult for her to tell. "That my baby was dead and that I would have to go through labor to get her out of me."
By that time, she was to the point of sobbing like her heart was breaking. She clung to the front of Draco's robes, soaking them with her tears.
"You don't have to finish the rest of the story."
"No, I need to talk about this and maybe I can start to move on past this. Rolf wouldn't talk to me about what happened. He never even showed up at the hospital until after I had delivered Lila. Ginny and Hermione sat by my bedside and held my hand through the worst moment of my life. I pray and hope that you will never have to suffer through the death of an child, Draco. It is the worst heartbreak that you will ever have to face."
"Did they ever find out why Lila died?"
"She had twisted a knot in her umbilical cord and cut off her own oxygen supply. There was a healer in the delivery room, who specializes in both muggle and wizard births and said that he had seen it before with muggles. That this was the first time it had ever happened to a witch."
"That sounds like it was a very cruel twist of fate and wasn't anybody's fault."
"Yes but after I came home from the hospital and I had to watch my husband pretend to his grandfather that he had actually gave a damn about Lila, I could have killed him. That was the moment I really and truly regretted ever marrying him and wished I would have called off my engagement that night at the Ministry. The only good that came out of my marriage was my babies. I wouldn't trade Lorcan and Lysander for anything in the world and I won't lose them or this baby I carrying. Dennis Creevy will just have to hunt me down and we'll have to hope that Harry can prevent anybody else from dying because I won't give into him."
The determination in her voice made Draco fall more in love with her than he ever had been. He wrapped his arms around her and held her against his body. She continued to cling to his robes, finally starting of feel some peace after the death of her child and not wanting him to let her go.
Harry and Neville, who had heard the last part of their conversation and hated to interrupt them, but it was time for all of them, including Neville, to go back to Malfoy Manor. So they could get everybody situated, and to distract the children so the adults could discuss what they were going to do about Dennis. Each hoping that by the time everybody was situated Amber, Ron and Hermione, who had been asked to help, would have some information about him. To give all of them a clue as to his motivation for doing this.
"I'm sorry, Luna but we have the children ready and it's time to go," Harry said quietly.
Draco and Luna pulled away from each other and followed their friends down the stairs into the corridors that would take them back to McGonagall's office. As the four of them got to right outside of her office, a curse came flying at them that would have killed one of them if Harry and Draco hadn't of noticed it coming and pulled Luna and Neville out of the way.
"Think about what you are doing, Luna because the next victim will be your fault for not giving into what is your destiny!" Dennis called out from down the corridor as he ran out of sight. Harry quickly pulled out his old Marauder's map that he had taken back from his oldest son, James before he had went to find Draco and Luna. He saw that Dennis was moving down towards one of the passages that Harry had used in third year to get into Hogsmeade.
He took off down the hall after Colin with Neville right behind him, each pulling out their wands. Draco wanted to follow them but he needed to make sure Luna got into McGonagall's office safely and then get her and their children back to Malfoy Manor. He said the password the he had heard the headmistress use earlier and got both he and Luna into the office just in the nick of time. Because Dennis had come back around now that he had Harry and Neville away from his two targets.
What he hadn't counted on was Harry had seen him double back and he and Neville had split up to see if they could cut him off. The psycho had to dodge a stunning spell and had managed to evade them by the time the two wizards had gotten back in front of McGonagall's office. When Harry had glanced down on the map, he saw that Dennis was no longer on it and had somehow found a passage that even the Lead Auror had never even known about.
"Somehow he got onto the grounds before the wards were put up to keep him out. I'm going to talk to the Headmistress about having a teacher or faculty member escort students to their classes because this cheeky little bugger is not going to hurt anybody else." Neville sounded like he could strangle Dennis with his bare hands for having the audacity to even try and come onto Hogwarts grounds to get at Luna and Draco.
"I'll send some Auror's to patrol the school, along with the ones at the Gates because I want the passage he is using found and cut off. Although I think now that the children of the people he is threatening are out of the school, Dennis might leave Hogwarts alone."
The two men gave the password for the stairway and went into the office just in time to see Draco going through the floo with everybody else having already left. Minerva was standing there, anxiously waiting on her two former students to get there to explain what had happened.
"Dennis got onto the grounds before the wards were put up to keep him out. I think we have chased him off but I am having some more Auror's patrol the halls and search for the hidden passages to get in and out of the school. I am giving them the Maurader's map so they can see him and I think I might to talk to Amber and Kingsley about getting access to and charming a muggle device called a walkie talkie. So we can communicate with each other while we are patrolling the grounds and halls."
"It sounds like we are going to have to do somethings the muggle way if we are going to catch him. It's a good thing Amber is here, along with Hermione and other muggleborn witches and wizards that have knowledge of the muggle world that can help us. I say that we have needed to change our way of thinking towards muggle technology for years. Hannah bought one of those computers to save important records for the pub and Hermione charmed it for her and taught her how to use it. It has been the best thing that has every happened to the Leaky Cauldron and Hannah. She can do her paperwork and take care of her customers without having to be there all bloody night figuring out what her profits were for the night."
"I agree, Neville," Harry commented, turning to look at Minerva. "Maybe that might be something to think about implementing at the school as well. I'm not saying that we should allow the students to use cellphones and text messaging each other. James is a pain in the ass" He turned and gave the Headmistress an apologetic look before continuing with what he was saying, "with his when he is home from school but maybe teaching about computers in Muggle studies or hiring a new instructor who has knowledge of computers and can teach the students about them."
"Well until we get a younger Board Of Governors who isn't afraid of everything Muggle, than that is something I would have no problem with happening in the school."
"Maybe I will talk to Lucius Malfoy about what we could do about that."
McGonagall glanced at Harry, shocked at what he had just suggested. It took a few seconds for her to find her voice and not say something she would regret.
"Why would you ask him to advise us on anything about the school?"
"Because his grandson's love of all things muggle has rubbed off on him. You should have seen the computer set up he had in his office when I was there earlier today. That man was bragging that his profits had tripled at his business holdings just because he had computers installed in his offices and had his employees trained to use them. I think the lure of making more money had made him change his opinion on muggle technology. Mrs. Malfoy even told me that despite his complaining about Draco and Scorpius bringing a telly into their home and watching muggle shows and films, she has caught him watching them with his grandson."
"Hannah dragged me to one of those films when we first started dating. It was called How The Grinch Stole Christmas and that was one of the most amazing things I had ever seen."
"Talk to him but don't promise him anything until I can meet with him myself and get some ideas as to how we can modernize the school for the benefit of our students."
After she finished speaking, Ginny came through the floo and gave her husband an impatient look. Her famous Weasley temper was on the verge of being thrown in his direction.
"Harry James Potter, we are all waiting for you and Neville and your three children won't calm down and do anything else until they see you. Are you coming or what?"
McGonagall and Neville had to fight not to laugh at the sight of the Hero who had save them all showing fear at his wife's famous temper.
"Were coming now. We were just discussing measures that needed to be taken to protect the school and it evolved into talking about making changes to bring the school into the 21st Century."
"Well all of you can discuss that later, now we need to focus on stopping that psycho and making sure that he doesn't harm anybody else. Luna told us that the cheeky little bugger actually got onto the grounds and into the school and threw a curse at her, Draco, you and Neville. The Malfoys and my parents are actually getting along because of how angry they are about this situation." Ginny grinned. "Although Mr. Malfoy's computer set up has got my Dad wanting one of his own."
"I'll inform the Ministry to send more Aurors here to the school and let them know about what has happened. Thank you for all of your help, Professor McGonagall."
"You're welcome, Harry. I can handle things from this end, go and take care of the children at the Malfoys before your wife throws a hex at you," Minerva stated, smiling at her former students before watching the three of them disappear through the floo. She turned and left her office and walked down the hall to the sight of Dennis Creevy getting ready to throw a curse at her so he could get access to her office and the floo to leave the grounds and avoid the Aurors. Only her years of experience and quick thinking led her to hitting him with a stunning curse that knocked him on his ass but it didn't last long. He got up from the floor and ran past Minerva into her office and used the floo to go to Diagon Alley before she could stop him.
Ron looked over at where his wife and Amber were sitting in front of the computer in their study. He smiled at how Hermione and Amber had taken to each other and that they both were very good at research. All he'd had to do was get some records for the Ministry for them, the rest Amber and Hermione were taking care of.
"I knew it!" Amber called out.
Ron got out of the chair he was sitting in and walked over to where Hermione and Amber were at. He glanced over their shoulders and saw the picture of a petite blond who resembled Luna on the screen. "What did you find?"
"I knew that I had heard the last name Creevy before, so I had my boss email me records of an unsolved murder from two weeks ago. It seems Dennis was married to a woman named Melinda and two weeks ago she was found murdered in their apartment along with the man she was having an affair with. They were both paralyzed so they couldn't fight back and stabbed twice in the chest with a Bowie knife. It is known by its curved point and straight edge and I bet if I got a look at one of the bodies in St. Mungo's morgue, the same type of knife was used here as well."
"We can take care of that as soon as we brief Harry on what you have found. Let me make sure the printer has enough paper so we can get this information to Malfoy Manor. They are waiting for us there and I have a feeling if I know Rose and Hugo, they are giving Ginny grief and we will have to calm them down." Hermione stated, walking over to one of the newest 4-in-one printers on the market and checking how much paper was inside it.
As soon as the papers started printing on the machine, Amber continued to talk about the particulars of the murder of Melinda Creevy with the wizard and witch.
"We never could figure out how the killer had immobilized them because there wasn't any sign of Paralytics in the tox screens. We just assumed the husband, Dennis had access to a new drug that couldn't be detected but what if it wasn't a drug that paralyzed his wife and her lover? What if it was the same thing that happened with the victims here.? He hit them both with this body bind curse that Seamus told me about and then proceeded to stab them. He wanted to make them suffer for the pain they had caused him."
"What type of job does Dennis have in the muggle world, that he would have access to new types of drugs?" Hermione asked, curious as to how the sweet little boy she remembered could know about things like that.
"He's a medical doctor. According to his background check, he and his family moved to the US from England in the summer of 1998. They resided in the city of Kernersville, NC and he finished his last two years of school at Glenn High School there in Kernersville before graduating in the year 2000. He then received a full scholarship to Wake Forest University in nearby Winston Salem. After obtaining his degree there in 2004, he went onto the medical school that was close to the University he attended, Bowman Gray School of Medicine, where he intended to become a Cardiac surgeon. After leaving there in 2008, he received an internship in Cardio Thoracic Surgery at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center that lasted seven years. Dr. Creevy was then offered an job on the staff at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City where he worked from 2015 until he disappeared two weeks ago after the death of his wife."
"Amber, I know my wife already has an idea of what you are talking about but I don't. So what does that type of surgeon specialize in?" Ron asked, having a bad feeling he wasn't going to like her answer.
"He knows all about the heart and can save your life when you are in heart failure. Or in this case, knows just where to stab someone in the chest that won't kill them instantly but cause them to bleed to death within minutes and can inflict the most pain while he is doing it. This man is scary as hell and sounds like he needs to spend the rest of his life in a psych ward."
"Is there a picture of the wife's lover in the case file?" Hermione asked, looking like something had occurred to her while Amber was answering her husband's question.
Amber turned back around and looked for the picture of the second victim, Ryan . When it came up, Ron and Hermione gasped in shock when they saw the image on the screen. His hair and eye color closely resembled Draco Malfoy's and they now knew why Dennis has fixated on Luna and Draco. The two of them closely resembled Dennis' wife and her lover and in his warped mind, he was trying to recreate the life he'd had with his wife and eliminate the competition so he wouldn't be cheated on again.
The report had just finished printing and the three of them were putting it together to take it to Harry. When that was done, Hermione went first through the floo to Malfoy Manor and Ron followed with Amber. When they got there, it was chaos as children were running around everywhere and acting like they didn't have any sense. The adults in the room looked hopeless as to how to calm them down and get them situated. Even Lucius Malfoy and Molly Weasley who weren't pushovers by any means, seemed ready to pull all of their hair out in aggravation.
Hermione saw the her two were the worst of the lot of them and it made her very furious at Rose and Hugo.
"Rose Jane Weasley, Hugo Arthur Weasley!"
AN: The next chapter will start where this one left off, where Hermione deals with her children's behavior before helping Ron and Amber report what they had found to the other adults.
The schools and hospitals that I wrote as Dennis going to are real places in those cities. I wanted to make the details of this story as realistic as possible. I also hope I did a good job with showing Ron's confusion about the medical profession and his fear that what she was describing was not a good thing. That it was about to get more scary in their world because of how smart and deadly Dennis is.
I had McGonagall survive her encounter with Dennis because he knows she is one of the few that could stop him and he wasn't going to take her on. He just wanted to get past her and into the office so he could escape. There is a reason the stunning spell didn't effect him for too long and it will be explained in a later chapter.
