The black hallway that led from the lifts on Level Nine to the door at the far end looked no less ominous to Harry than it had when he was just a boy. He'd had little reason to come down here since then, even as an Auror. The Unspeakables seldom needed anything from the other departments, being largely self-sustaining and, frankly, bloody mysterious and creepy. To Draco's obvious relief, Pansy Parkinson stood near the door, tapping her foot with impatience.
"It's about time."
Draco hugged her tightly. "Christine?"
"She's safe. We spent the night covering our tracks—and yours. You're welcome and you owe us big."
"Shopping in Paris. I guarantee it."
"I suppose that will work. For starters."
"How'd you know we'd be down here?" Ron beheld Parkinson with a suspicious stare.
"For an Auror, you're pretty thick, Weasley." Parkinson plucked a note from her robes and waved it in the air. "You left Granger's memo on your desk. No one batted an eye when I marched straight into the Auror Department and took it. Honestly, I don't know how the Ministry functions sometimes."
Ron scowled and Harry hoped he was making mental notes on how to improve departmental security in the future. Draco muttered something about "Pansy's tits allowing her access to places from which ordinary people would be barred". It was a failing of the heterosexual male, Harry figured.
The entrance to the Department of Mysteries was the same as it had ever been; a circular room that contained twelve doors. A man stood in the centre of the room. He looked at them curiously when the door shut behind them. The walls began to spin, and although Harry logically expected that the door to his back would lead to the exit, he knew the glassy floor rotated as well, leaving everything in confusion. He'd always thought it to be a stupid way to enter a department, and had voiced his disgust to Kingsley more than once.
The man lifted a hand at the same time Draco lifted his wand. "Hello," he said just as a Stunner sailed from the tip of Draco's wand and knocked him for a loop.
"Draco!" Harry shouted just as Ron yelled, "Malfoy!" Harry threw himself between Draco and Ron, just in case, and he grabbed at Draco's wrist to stop him from doing anything else unexpected. Draco did not resist.
"While it is entirely possible that he is merely a poor sod from the Department of Magical Transportation, he might also have been left here to warn Chang in the event that we turned up. I prefer to be safe than sorry."
Harry sighed heavily and let go. "Merlin, I hate it when you're utterly unscrupulous, but correct. Ron, tie that guy up and let's move along. The sooner we find Hermione, the better."
Ron bound the unconscious man, muttering the entire time about "bloody Slytherins" and "best not be suspended for this" and "got Harry by the balls". The last one might have upset Harry a couple of days ago, but now he simply remembered Draco's hand on his balls and felt warmth bloom in his cheeks. He didn't dare look at Draco as he shifted to ease the resulting tightness in his pants. Now was not the time.
"Which door, Draco?"
"Any of them. I'll know where to go once we open it." With that, he walked to the nearest door and yanked on the handle. It opened to reveal such brightness that they all had to blink and cover their eyes in order to adjust to it. Once he could see again, Harry stood next to Draco and peered through to what seemed to be a large, open plain of grass, yellowed from heat, extending away into a great distance where a tiny jutting of mountains broke the horizon line. "Right, then. We need the third door to the left of this one. Go open it now or the room will spin again when we shut this."
Harry hurried over to open the door, and was relieved to see an ordinary-looking corridor. Draco shut the door on the vista and they all crowded into the corridor before closing the door behind them. Several other portals appeared on each wall, but Draco marched ahead until he reached the room at the end of the hall.
"Chang's office," he explained and then stepped aside with a dynamic gesture at Ron. "Aurors first."
Ron muttered under his breath, but he pushed open the door and barged inside, wand ready. Harry followed him in and stopped short, uttering a startled word.
"Eddie?"
Eddie leapt from the chair in which he'd been seated. "Harry! By Rowena, Harry! I've been so worried! I came home and saw your note, and it looked like you'd— Well, I couldn't believe it!" He launched himself forwards as though to throw himself into Harry's arms, but he came up short against Draco's chest, suddenly superimposed between them.
"I will thank you to keep your hands to yourself, Carmichael," Draco said in a tone that Harry had only heard a couple of times before. The dangerous quality to it was a ridiculous turn-on and he had to grip his wand tightly enough that the wood nearly hurt in order to drag his mind away from memories of the previous night, and Draco's sexy voice growling his name. The timing was inappropriate.
"What the hell are you doing here, Eddie?" Harry asked.
"Yeah," Ron added, "last I heard, Magical Games and Sports was on Level Seven. Not much call for Unspeakables from people who sell Quidditch supplies."
Harry glanced at Ron, surprised at his tone. Unless Hermione had shared Harry's vague suspicions about Eddie, Ron should have had no reason to mistrust him.
"I didn't know where else to go! You had vanished and I was so worried! The Aurors wouldn't help me! You know they hate me up there, Harry—"
"That would be almost believable, Carmichael, except that you never went to the Auror Department today." Draco's tone was matter-of-fact and Harry dared not look at him after he uttered the statement. How had he known? Was it a bluff? If so, it worked, because Eddie flushed and looked at the door as if praying for escape or rescue.
"I… I meant to, but I came here first."
"Why? I didn't even know you knew Cho."
"Of course I know Cho. Surely I've mentioned it before."
"Not once," Harry countered. "Where is Hermione?"
"How would I know? Harry, come home with me and we'll straighten this mess out."
Harry frowned and wondered what he had ever liked about Eddie. Knowing that he'd been lied to, and was being lied to now, if the nervous twitch of Eddie's jaw was any indication, did not sit well with him. Small things that he'd noticed since Draco's first warning came back to him, and the dossier file was chief amongst them. "Did Cho hire you to keep watch on me? If so, why?"
Parkinson slung an arm around Ron's shoulders. "Hey, Weasley. How about we stand out in the corridor for a minute and see if Chang comes back?"
Ron tried to squirm away, but she only pressed herself closer, to such a degree that Ron's face went scarlet.
"You might as well do as she asks, Weasley. She can be rather cephalopodan when she sets her mind to something."
"What does that even mean?"
"It means like an octopus. Would you like to feel my other six hands?" Parkinson grinned at him.
"We'll be outside and I don't want to know why this is necessary."
Parkinson dragged him through the door and it shut with a bang behind them. Eddie's eyes widened and he looked from Draco to Harry. "You're an Auror," he said in a tone tinged with fearful accusation.
"Not officially. I'm on indefinite leave, remember?"
Draco's Cruciatus Curse caused Harry to wince, until he remembered how Draco had looked after escaping from Crabbe. If Eddie had been involved with that nightmare, Harry wanted to know. If Cho was, indeed, the one behind everything they'd been dealing with, they needed to discover what she was planning to do with Hermione.
Eddie screamed and fell to the floor, writhing. Draco let up immediately and Eddie moaned and curled into a fetal position. "Why, Harry? Why are you doing this? I love you!"
Draco snarled and lifted his wand again. Harry reached out a hand to stop him, but Eddie cringed back with a yelp, scooting nearly under Cho's desk to escape.
"Just tell us where she went, Eddie, or I'll have Harry leave the room and the two of us will have our little chat alone. Won't that be fun?" Despite Draco's conversational tone, his smile was vicious.
"Harry, don't leave me alone with him!"
Draco stalked forwards and crouched before Eddie, looking menacing. "How can you dare to ask him for anything after what you've done to him?"
"What I've done? I'm the one that ended up in St Mungo's, nearly killed in my own flat! I'm the one here being threatened by a madman!" Despite Eddie's fear, his protest was strong and Harry felt a queasy twist of guilt. What if he was innocent? Harry would never forgive himself.
"I found the dossier, Eddie. The photos and clippings. What I don't understand is why. Why would you pretend to be in love with me? What could you gain from it?"
Draco's wand tip pressed against Eddie's chin and dug in. "Think carefully before replying. Harry doesn't know why, but I do. And if you lie, I will make you wish you had died at Rosier's hand."
Eddie had been about to speak, but his mouth slowly closed and then opened again. His wide eyes flicked to Harry and then back to Draco. One more prod of Draco's wand seemed to deflate his resistance.
"I did it for money, all right? I was up to my bloody neck in gambling debts. I lost a mint on the last World Cup and Notus would have happily used my innards for braces. Cho saved my arse, as long as I did as she asked. It wasn't difficult, I just had to keep an eye on Harry and report his activities."
The words felt like stones, dropping into the pit of Harry's soul. Even though he'd suspected, he found that suspicion was very different from confirmation; everything he'd felt for Eddie had been real, and it hurt like an open wound to discover he'd been duped, that none of it had been honestly returned.
"She told you to keep an eye on him. But that's not all you did, Eddie." Draco's voice was a low coil that sounded like sheathed rage.
Eddie swallowed and shook his head. "No. It worked too well. My flirting led to…Harry wanting a relationship. He wanted something permanent and Cho suggested I ask him to move in. It seemed harmless!"
"Harmless. Pretending to care about him, convincing him to leave the Aurors, playing his emotions and using him? Do you really call that harmless?"
Eddie's eyes widened until his irises were surrounded by a sea of white. "I didn't use him! It was his idea to leave the Aurors! She said to encourage him, that's all! I never planned to—!" Eddie broke off and his wild gaze fixed on Harry. "Harry, please—"
"Are you even gay, Eddie, or was that a lie? You never pushed, and although I was grateful at the time, now I can't help but wonder if any of it was real."
"I… I…" Eddie took a deep breath and then he shut his eyes and his head dropped back to bang against the desk with the sound of defeat. "No. I mean, I'm not homophobic, or anything. I could have…you know, if it came to that. I would have. I would have, Harry."
Harry turned away. If Eddie's words were supposed to make him feel better, they had the opposite effect. He felt sick.
Draco sounded shaken when he spoke again. "Salazar, you're a bigger piece of shit than I suspected. As much as I would love to Crucio you into raving madness, unfortunately I don't have the time. Tell us where Cho went."
"I don't know! She said something about leverage before she left! That's all I know!"
Draco pulled his wand away from Eddie's face, but he tapped it menacingly against his palm. "What did she say exactly?"
"She said… She said 'isn't leverage a curious thing' and then she told me to wait here. That's it! I don't know what it means!"
Draco looked at Harry. "I know where she is." He levelled a Stunner at Eddie, who toppled over without a sound. Several additional spells left him bound him tightly.
"Draco—" Harry felt wrecked. In a heartbeat, Draco had enfolded him into a tight embrace.
"Harry." Draco's lips brushed against his forehead and Draco's chest moved as he inhaled slowly. "Harry, he was never worth your time."
"It felt like he was. I was duped so easily. Draco, what if I'm wrong about—?" Harry stopped before he could utter the words. He felt like a big enough fool; if he was wrong about Draco then he would never be able to trust his own feelings again.
Draco pulled away and held Harry at arm's length. His fingers—and the handle of his wand—dug into Harry's shoulders. "Never apologize for feeling what you feel. Do you understand? It doesn't matter that none of it was real to him, it was real to you. Do not think for one moment that you need to lock away your heart and base your future relationships on mistrust, or the expectation that everyone is trying to mislead you. Harry, part of what makes you you is the fact that you give in to your emotions so freely, that you live in the moment and express joy when you feel it and anger when you feel it, and everything in between. Do not let some money-hungry charlatan cause you to doubt the brilliance of your emotions and deny someone the gift of your future devotion, because that's what it was, Harry. It was a gift, and he was too bloody stupid to recognise it. That loss should be his alone, not yours."
Harry stared at him, shaken not only by Draco's words, but by the vehemence with which they had been delivered. He had no idea what to say, and wasn't certain he could speak at all through the growing lump in his throat. With the clarity of bright sunlight, he realised that what he'd felt for Eddie had been a candle's flame compared to the brilliance of what he felt for Draco. It was electrifying.
Unaware of Harry's emotional vortex, Draco only smiled at him and pressed a gentle kiss to his lips. "Now, come along before I say anything else incriminating. Let's go and find Granger."
Ron looked at them owlishly when they exited, and Harry noticed he was stood across the hall and several feet away from Pansy, who studied her nails with apparent indifference.
"We are likely walking into a trap," Draco said and strode with his usual confidence back to the main entrance chamber. He held the door open as the others entered the circular room. "Harry, open that door over there. Yes, straight across."
Collecting himself finally, Harry flung open the portal and then stepped back in surprise, but he caught the door before it closed. He stared into what looked like dark, star-filled space. A moment later, Draco joined him.
"The Unspeakables have a revolting sense of humour, for the most part. Try to stay behind me in a single file. The floor might be illusion, but it might also be a narrow bridge over an abyss. I would rather not discover the latter to be true." With that, he stepped out into space. Harry reached for him with an instinctive gasp, but instead of falling away, Draco's foot touched down on something solid, though unseen. He glanced back at Harry with a smile and then reached up and caressed Harry's fingers for a moment before turning and continuing on.
The four of them walked through space and Harry tried to focus on Draco's shoulders rather than gawking at the visual display around them. It was as though they stood in a remote location with nothing to block their view of the night sky. The sheer number of stars was mind-boggling, and threatened to reduce all of his problems to the insignificance of a speck of dust.
After what seemed far too long a walk through the cosmos, Draco halted and then groped out in front of him. He took a step back, nearly treading on Harry's toes, and opened what seemed to be a door into pitch darkness. He walked inside and Harry followed, anxious to escape the disturbing vastness of space.
They found themselves in a dim chamber, so dark that at first it seemed to be nothing but plain blackness, but when his eyes adjusted, Harry saw that it was a circular room filled with windows that looked out on the stars they had just left.
Draco led them straight through the chamber and Harry saw a man seated at a bench. He did not stir, nor did he seem to notice their presence at all. His eye was pressed to the lens of a large telescope.
"Pay no mind to Copernicus, there. He hasn't left this room in four years. He's so obsessed with studying the variations of the Crab Nebula that he's completely forgotten the outside world. His wife left him a year ago; I believe she's filed for divorce in-absentia. He probably doesn't recall that he ever married."
Harry gaped at the unmoving Unspeakable, and then hurried after Draco, who had opened another door and walked through. They didn't move far into the next room, mainly as it took them several minutes of blinking to adjust to the sudden brightness. Multiple, gleaming torches lit the long, rectangular room before them and Harry felt a sense of disquiet as his vision focussed on the objects decorating the huge space.
"Leverage," Draco said in a dry tone.
"We have to cross this?" Ron asked with a near-squeak.
"I'm afraid so. Judging by the glowing sigil on that door, just there," Draco pointed, "we need to figure out how to get over there. By the look of the floor, it's a dimensional portal. Like a giant Portkey. If we fall, we'll be teleported to Merlin knows where."
Harry looked into the swirling mist that made up the floor beyond the platform where they stood. Above the mist floated a bewildering array of slowly ascending and descending levers. They reminded Harry somewhat of the moving staircases at Hogwarts.
"Can't we just use spells to hold them steady?"
"Try it," Draco said. They immediately cast an array of spells, none of which had any effect on the levers. "Nullification field."
"The problem, of course, is that stepping on the end of a lever, such as that one, will cause it to tip, unless there is an equal and opposite weight at the other end."
Ron stood next to Draco and frowned. "Unless you time it right and catch one on the downswing. Might have time to make it to the centre. Let me think on this a moment." Ron walked back and forth on the platform, mumbling to himself and crouching down to peer into the room of moving levers. They resembled children's seesaws, although they all seemed a bit wider, perhaps have the width of a staircase.
"Why even have this room? This is stupid!" Parkinson burst out.
"Why have a room full of brains in jars, or a big chamber with nothing but an archway leading to death—sorry, Harry." Ron shut his jaw with a click and then went back to studying the problem. "Okay, I think I've got it. This will take some coordination, so when I give the orders, you lot jump. Okay?"
Harry nodded immediately and Draco followed suit. Parkinson looked dubious, but she shrugged.
"All right. Stay here for a minute. I'll get on this first one." With that, Ron walked a short distance down the platform and then leapt up and into the hovering levers. He caught an edge of wood and it began to descend quickly. He clambered onto it and then threw himself forwards, ending in a crab-crawl in the middle of the lever, which stopped its dangerous tipping. Ron inched onward until the plank evened out. Then he raised himself onto his knees and turned back, balancing on the centre of the lever with his hands outstretched. "Okay, Harry, I'm going to slide back a bit. When it starts to lift, grab it and I'll balance it to keep it from tipping."
Harry did as Ron bid and it was only a short jump onto the platform. When it started to descend, Ron scooted backwards until his weight cancelled Harry's. Draco went next, and Harry hopped to the middle portion of the lever whilst Ron stayed where he was. The three of them balanced carefully.
"Do we really need Parkinson?" Ron asked.
"Shut up unless you want your balls hexed, Weasley. I'm coming!"
Ron growled, but the others carefully manoeuvred until Parkinson joined them. Harry and Draco stood close together near the centre of the platform whilst Ron and Parkinson balanced on the ends.
"Harry, reach up and grab that one above you. If you and Malfoy hold it steady, we should be able to climb on easily."
Harry and Draco both took an edge of the next lever, which was perpendicular to the one on which they stood. They held it tightly and used it to steady the one beneath their feet as Ron and Parkinson moved closer. Taking a close grip on one another, they climbed into the second platform; Parkinson first, then Ron, then Draco. Ron moved to the other end with Parkinson and Draco helped Harry to climb aboard.
In that awkward fashion, they slowly crossed the room. At one point, they had to leap down onto a platform, with the first of them landing as close to the middle as possible, and then scrambling to adjust as the second person landed nearby. It was nerve-wracking and exhausting. At one point, Parkinson nearly slipped off the edge and away, but a quick dive by Ron, followed by a frantic scramble by the others to straighten the lever, caught her by one arm. He hauled her up, using muscles that might have impressed Harry had they been on anyone but Ron.
"Nicely done, Weasley," Draco murmured and Parkinson added a grudging thanks.
Finally, they reached the platform before the door with the glowing sigil and they all dismounted, with Ron hopping off from near dead-centre of the last platform.
"I never want to do anything like that again," Ron growled and put his hands on his knees to catch his breath. They were all drenched in sweat. Parkinson fanned herself.
Harry pulled Draco close, using both fists bunched into his damp shirt. He spoke decisively. "Draco, I am going back on active duty. I don't want to stop being an Auror."
Draco smiled. "All right."
"And I don't want you to disappear somewhere warm. I don't want you to disappear at all."
Draco's smiled seemed to soften and widen at once. "All right."
Harry felt something turn into warm jelly in the region of his heart and he pushed Draco against the door and kissed him soundly. He dimly heard Ron squeak like a stomped rat, but he didn't care. The feel and taste of Draco was heady, despite the urgency to move on through the door and find Hermione. When Draco pulled away from the kiss, he said, "You owe me, Weasley, so I don't want to hear anything about it."
"Just open the damned door and let's find Hermione!"
~TBC~