Spells and Surprises

"Get the wands, Harry," Draco cried. Potter's green eyes flashed as he wrested free of Blaise's clutching fingers to tear at the man's robes. Then Harry screamed and Draco thought they were howls of pain until he made out words. "Get… Albus!"

Draco shoved as hard as he could against Blaise and raised his head to look across the room. Albus Potter was gone. Ginny still lay on the floor before the chair. The other girl was motionless in the window seat, slumped as if unconscious. Draco indulged in a moment of fatherly pride as he turned back and grabbed for Blaise's wrist.

The distraction had only taken a moment but in that time Blaise had cast another spell. Harry's scream was genuine this time and Draco watched in horror as the Auror fell back and lay still. Draco stopped wrestling with Blaise's wrist to claw at his dark-skinned throat.

"What have you done, Blaise?" he yelled.

"Backup plan," Blaise said hoarsely before Draco's hands tightened. Blaise's wand dug into Draco's ribs, but he could not get breath enough to speak again. Draco partially lifted him by his neck and slammed his head into the floor. The pressure of the wand lessened.

"What. Spell. Did. You. Use?" Draco thundered, punctuating each word with a blow against the floor. Blaise's head lolled and Draco relaxed his hold on Blaise's throat to grip the neck of his robes.

Behind them a loud splintering sound followed an explosion. Draco did not bother to look, assuming the troops had arrived.

"Tell me, Blaise," he gritted through bared teeth.

Blaise's dark eyes slid open. "Draco," he said in a rasp. "Fuck… you."

Draco thought he must have gone slightly mad then. He vaguely recalled using his fists and snarling with rage, but it was all a blur until he heard Teddy Lupin bellowing at him to stop. Three Aurors dragged him away from Blaise's still form.

Draco met Teddy's concerned eyes for only a moment before shrugging off the Aurors and turning to Harry.

"Merlin, please," he begged softly as his fingers felt Harry's neck, desperately seeking a pulse. A weak flutter met his questing touch and he gave thanks for Harry's endless Gryffindor stubbornness. Potter would not die so easily. Whatever spell had taken him, he was fighting it.

"I'm taking him to St. Mungo's," Draco snapped. "Find Albus and Scorpius."

"Scorpius is here?" Teddy asked in surprise.

"He took Albus out under Potter's invisibility cloak."

Draco wrapped his arms around the still Auror and Disapparated. At the hospital, Harry was taken from Draco's arms and whisked away, possibly forever.

Draco fought despair and went back to force some answers from Blaise Zabini.

Blaise was gone when Draco returned.

"They took him to the Ministry," Teddy replied to Draco's enraged question. "We'll be lucky if he lives. You beat him nearly to death."

"If he wakes up I plan to finish what I started."

"Which is why you can't see him."

"I need to know what spell he used on Harry."

"Zabini will be questioned when he regains consciousness. They'll use Veritaserum, Draco."

Draco sneered to let Teddy know what he thought of the Ministry's questioning methods.

"Did you find my son?"

"You've only been gone five minutes. I sent Harris and Jameson to look for them." Teddy's attention was on Ginny as he spoke and Draco felt a moment of remorse. He relented, knowing Teddy had been close to the Ginger… well, to Harry's wife. Draco had little doubt Ginny Potter was dead. Blaise had meant the field to kill Harry Potter, and Ginny had been weak before they had arrived; no doubt Blaise had treated her to a Cruciatus session before their arrival. She'd had the look of it.

"Who is the girl?" Draco asked. The dark-haired girl was slumped in the window seat. "Is she alive?"

"We don't know," Teddy said. "She's unconscious. We couldn't rouse her, even with an Ennervate. I'll take her to St. Mungo's in a minute." The Auror knelt and turned Ginny over gently.

"I'll go find Scorpius and Albus," Draco said softly and squeezed Teddy's shoulder. The young Auror nodded and then caught at Draco's robes when he turned.

"Here is your wand. And Harry's."

Draco took them and hoped to hell that he would be able to return the holly to its owner.

In the corridor, he found an Auror standing in front of a door. Her brow furrowed in concentration. She glanced at Draco.

"It's magically locked. I can't open it, and I've tried a dozen of the usual spells."

Draco lifted his wand and cast a spell at the door, which clicked open, proving Scorpius had locked it. Only the Malfoy family knew certain locking spells. Draco pushed the door open and strode into the dusty bedchamber.

Scorpius and Albus were on the bed, locked in a heated embrace and a kiss worthy of any torrid novel. Draco's brows shot up in surprise as he halted. The boys broke apart and both faces reddened guiltily.

"F… Father," Scorpius stammered and eased himself off the bed.

Draco blinked at him for a moment longer, until veracity trounced his preconceptions. Hell, he should have seen it coming, really. If he and Harry had been boyhood friends, would they have found each other sooner? His son's eyes were beginning to go wide with panic.

"I got Albus out safely," Scorpius whispered in a tone thick with dread.

Draco smiled gently and made sure it reached his eyes. "So I see," he said teasingly. Scorpius inhaled sharply. Draco turned his attention to Albus. After the initial blush, Albus had not seemed disturbed. His chin lifted in a defiant attitude that Draco recognized all too well. Hufflepuff House or not, the boy was all Gryffindor.

"Hi, Mr. Malfoy," Albus said placidly and then his brow furrowed. "Where's my dad?"

Draco sobered. "I'll take you to St. Mungo's," he said as he strode forward. "Come, Scorpius."

His son grabbed a length of silvery cloth from the bed—the invisibility cloak, no doubt—and stood next to Draco, who leaned down to slide an arm beneath Albus Potter. Draco put his other arm around Scorpius's shoulders.

He Apparated them to St. Mungo's, where the younger Potter was also taken away. One of the medi-witches gave Draco a stern look, as if he were the one responsible for the Potter maladies. He looked at Scorpius and wished he had told Albus about Harry. It would not be right for the boy to hear it from a stranger.

Scorpius watched them take Albus away with a worried expression.

"Will he be okay?" Scorpius asked.

"I'm sure of it. Why don't you go with Albus while I check on his father? I'll join you in a few minutes."

Scorpius nodded and started away, then he darted back and threw his arms around Draco's waist. Draco hugged him tightly, feeling his throat close up with emotion. Scorpius released him and hurried after Albus Potter.

The waiting room for the wing containing Harry was crowded to say the least. Teddy and James were present, as were several Aurors and, of course, an assortment of gingers and a bushy-haired ex-Granger. She glared at Draco. He silently dared her to ask about his presence. She looked away without speaking after a moment.

"Ted, how is he?" Draco asked.

Teddy gave him a miserable look. Beside him, James was pale and silent.

"They haven't given us any word. Harris said you found Albus?"

Draco nodded. "He's awake and seems fine, if tired. The staff took him away to make certain."

The door opened and those seated leaped to their feet. The mediwizard looked at them sadly. "Mr. Draco Malfoy?" he asked.

"Yes?" Draco stepped forward.

"Please come with me."

Draco allowed himself the indulgence of looking at Ron and Hermione. As expected, their faces were taut with disbelief. Draco was too worried to look smug, especially when he entered the room to find Harry lying still as death, surrounded by a Stasis Shield.

"Can you tell me what happened to Mr. Potter?" the mediwizard asked as Draco moved forward and looked carefully at Harry's face, searching for any sign of life. He explained the circumstances that led to Harry's current state.

"You have no idea what spell—?"

Draco shook his head. He had already gone over and over it, trying to recall the words Blaise had snarled, but they had been too soft and unintelligible.

"Only Blaise Zabini knows."

The mediwizard sighed. "Perhaps the Ministry can persuade him to reveal it, then."

Draco suppressed a sneer. Blaise would never talk. Now that Draco was no longer blind with rage, he knew it to be true. Even Veritaserum would be wasted. Blaise was too much a Slytherin not to have set up measures for his alternate plan. Any attempt to wrest the information from his mind would result in its permanent Obliviation.

"Mr. Potter regained consciousness for a short time. He directed us to give you a message."

Draco cringed, hoping to hell Potter had not confessed his love in a burst of dying Gryffindor nobility. If those words were ever forthcoming, Draco wanted to hear them directly from Harry—an awake and alert Harry, preferably.

The mediwizard surprised him. "It was very odd, so we wrote it down. Mr. Potter repeated it twice and said to tell you specifically. The message is 'visca penetralum' and 'perilous malium incantorum', does that mean anything?"

The words meant nothing to Draco. He looked at the still Auror in bafflement.

"Perilous malium incantorum… that sounds like a…" Book. Draco's mind went back to his meeting with Potter so long ago in the bookstore.

Looking into Archaic Magic, then?

I like to research obscure spells. You never know when they might come in handy.

That's quite a coincidence. I have a huge library full of obscure spell books.

"What are his symptoms?" Draco demanded. The mediwizard blinked at the harsh urgency in his tone.

"The spell—it seems to be degrading his tissues, especially the organs. We've slowed the process as best we can, but we cannot stop or reverse it, especially without knowing the original spell. We were forced to put him into Stasis to keep it from killing him quickly. As it is, we've only bought him some time. We think the spell was attuned to him as a specific victim. Mr. Zabini intended to cast the spell on Mr. Potter alone, is that correct?"

"Yes." Draco's mind raced. Target-specific spells. Visca Penetralum. Obscure spell books. "I'll be back."

He entered the waiting room. "Harry is in Stasis. We're not sure what spell Blaise used on him. Granger, if you want to help, go look for any spell with an incantation containing Visca Penetralum or a variant. Specifically look for a book titled Perilous Malium Incantorm."

"It's not Granger, it's—"

Draco's vicious glare cut her off. "Teddy, Scorpius is with Albus, where I'm quite certain he prefers to stay. Please see that he gets home. James and Lily may stay with me, of course. I would prefer that someone else inform Lily about her mother… she does not know me, obviously, so I would be small comfort. I'll be at home in my library until further notice."

Draco Apparated to the Manor and cast a Seeking Spell. He tried several variations and finally located an ancient book with a title similar to Harry's message: Perilous Maleficorum Incantaticus. Draco set his jaw when he saw it, surprised that Harry had even seen such a book. It was full of Dark Spells. Very Dark.

Draco cast several Protection Spells to keep insidious hexes from harming him while he read—most authors of Dark Magic possessed nasty senses of humour that lingered long after their deaths.

He began the enormous task of looking for an unknown spell in a book never designed for ease of use.