Chapter Twenty-Seven

Time was a problematic matter these days. Not knowing whether the way the seconds rolled quickly by was for the greater good or for the destruction that was going to take place when that time was up.

If time kept speeding up that meant more of a chance of finding the answer - to finally be able to drop all the files scattered around them and put them back in the archives where they belonged. In the section of resolved cases.

But what if that time kept speeding and nothing came of it? What if all their hard work and concentration was for nothing? What if those eight days of digging deep and searching high was just useless? What if they just wasted all that time to end up where they had begun?

It was maddening - every second that ticked by so mockingly on the clock - but he couldn't lose himself in that. He couldn't stop and ponder whether his work was going to help or be utterly useless. All he knew was that he had to just keep trying, he had to keep his focus completely submerged into every minute that passed, especially because he had everything riding on it.

His daughter.

"Are you ready?" Looking away from the photograph of his children on his desk, Draco Malfoy was met with a pair of intense brown-eyes.

It had been about a week and something since he was lifted from the bind Tanya Rowle had placed him under; a week that he had finally got the rhythm of his walk back, the function to his brain, and the control over the venom he spilt.

"Well?" Hermione repeated, looking warily at the man.

Taking one last glance at the photograph and taking a file of records off his desk, Draco headed towards the door where his wife waited for him. "Let's go." He replied simply, something internally hurting as she gave him a blank stare in return and turned away from him.

She started walking ahead of him, a fast pace to her steps as she proceeded to leave him behind. Almost like she was unwilling to walk beside him - like husband and wife; or two worried parents. All he could hear between them was the clink, clink, clink, of her heels and the breathing of their bodies from the distance. And all he could see was the back of her head, her brown waves falling beautifully and sending the scent of cinnamon towards him. The smell of home invading his senses.

There's things that were still left unresolved, vital things, but what Draco knew this far was the reason why Tanya had lifted the spell during the moment she had. And that was because she knew perfectly well that it would be more wasted time for Draco and Hermione, for the entire department that was subjected into this case. He didn't have the time - from the moment she vanished with their daughter and Rose Weasley - to really explain to anyone that he had been bewitched by her.

The biggest concern was to find the girls, and Hermione was still unwilling to be around him unless it meant business. (And Ministry-related business at that for his luck of things.) And because he could see that depression, that anger, that ineptitude that burned in her eyes every time he allowed himself to glance at her without shouting his truth, he knew what he had to do.

He couldn't attempt to fix things, not while she suffered. Time passed by even more, and that meant risking another one of their daughters. It was more weight onto their shoulders, plus something more.

Dean Thomas had notified them days ago that Demetria's condition went from a neutral comatose state to something even worse. (As if it were possible.) The charts started showing that Demi's barely-there signals of life were withering away; that no Healer had a clue what to do next. And with a deep sympathetic expression and a few grammatically correct words, Dean told the Malfoys that their youngest daughter did not have the enough energy to sustain her own life. That any minute now… it might be the end.

And Draco was not - unbelievably to his teenage memory - selfish enough to try and fix what gave him a reason for existence during those wrenching moments. He would have time later, he hoped, to mend the wrongs Tanya made him do. But for now, to erase that broken look on his wife's face, Draco needed to be completely submerged into this case every passing second.

"- -Draco, Hermione."

Arriving at the isolated headquarters that the Ministry had granted the Auror Department for the occasion, both Malfoys nodded curtly at the Head Auror that met them at the end of a very long, isolated hall. "Potter." Draco was the only one to speak as Hermione stared at the door where the three stood. "When did he get here?"

"Five minutes ago." Harry replied, as he closed a case of files in his right hand. "We've researched a few names that he let slip during the interrogation with the Wizengamot; we're hoping he'll give us more insight during this interrogation."

Draco nodded again, his ears perking up as he heard footsteps marching down the marbled ground. "- -I thought we were the only ones allowed in this department?"

"- -Didn't expect you'd have all the fun, right, Malfoy?" Appearing behind Draco and Hermione, came the Weasleys. Both of them looking extremely put-out as they glanced at the door with a sort of hate, and back at their friends.

"Not at all." Draco said without a tone, looking between the married couple. "How's your brother, Weasley?"

Sighing a little, Ron shook his head at the memory; almost hoping like it would slip away forever. That the chill he had felt when he had thought that another one of his brothers was murdered viciously could vanish like a bad nightmare, but the damage was done and he had to accept that. He hadn't woken up in time.

"Percy's doing better. The Healers managed to repair him as much as they could, and mum is doing as much as she thinks will help, but…"Ron paused, taking the chance to swallow the knot in his throat as he flashed-back to when Percy woke up at St. Mungos. All the pain that seeped between all his siblings and his parents like a link of an invisible bond. "…They don't think he'll ever walk again."

"He's alive, and that's what matters." Harry continued, knowing that Ron wasn't going to be able to explain further. "Mrs. and Mister Weasley are currently visiting France as much as they can to be with his family."

"Mum practically has settled herself there." Ron added with a huff, shaking his head again. "But it's good for Lucy and Molly, to know that they have strength around them as Percy and Audrey pretend to be alright."

Blinking past the conversation, Hermione cleared her throat to grab the Aurors attention. "…We should get this over with. The sooner the better, we have no time to keep wasting."

As Harry and Ron nodded in agreement, the woman that had arrived quietly with her husband finally made a sound. A sort of sob escaping her lips as Draco reached for the doorknob of the secured door.

"Pansy? What is it?" Ron asked automatically.

Pansy inhaled roughly through her nostrils, her cheeks turning red as she tried to compose herself. "I-I…I just." She stopped, shaking her dark locks as she looked away from her husband and towards her eldest friend. "I want my daughter back."

Staring at Pansy for a few silent seconds, Draco inhaled roughly as he could see the hurt she was in as well. But not knowing what to say to her, the blonde Auror pushed open the door and marched into the marbled-made room.

"Head Auror, we've been waiting."

As they entered, the three Aurors and the one special agent found that the long room was completely secluded. There was no windows or any kind of escape inside of it; just a table plastered in the middle and a flicker of a candle-light hanging over it. There was two chairs, one occupied and the other free. And at every corner of the marbled room was a specialized Auror, with their wands at the ready just incase a problem arose.

Nodding once at Auror Johnson, Harry turned to another one of his men. "Lopez, guard the door on the outside. Make sure no one else enters the room. Auror badge or not."

Just as the Auror was making his way out of the closed-in room, Harry threw Draco a sign to step forward; allowing him to proceed into the interrogation.

"Under the jurisdiction of the Ministry- -"Malfoy began, not sparing a look towards his wife or the redheaded man behind him. Just a simple nod to the Head Auror as he pulled out the empty chair from its place. "You were informed about your rights and the lack thereof being convicted Death Eater almost two decades ago." He placed his files onto the metallic surface of the table, looking up at the person staring back at him with nothing in his stare. "You are to answer all the questions during this interrogation with complete honesty, and if the Head Auror dictates that you are lying, Veritaserum will be issued to gain the truth."

There was silence in the room - that kind of cold, tensed silence that presses down on your shoulders; even making your collar-bone hurt from the strained atmosphere.

Clearing his throat from the back, Harry Potter stepped forward towards his Auror and the prisoner. "State your name and location of living before being apprehended by Ministry officials."

Chained and locked-down, the prisoner looked up at Harry for a second before proceeding. "- -Gregory Goyle. State of Victoria, Australia."

At the sound of the voice of his childhood friend, Malfoy had to press his mouth into a tight line. Something undefined - almost like betrayal and guilt mixing oddly inside of him began to throb. Like he wanted nothing more than to kill the man before him, to erase any memory of their bizarre loyalty for one another; like their childhood and everything Draco got himself into, everything that Goyle protected him, never happened. Yet, he needed Goyle to speak.

"Spouse, children and their age." Harry continued, knowing that Malfoy was not about to chime in at any moment.

Goyle's eyes flickered down for a second, nostalgia taking over. "Pavarti Goyle, spouse. Layla, fourteen; and Garret, six."

"Are you notified of your family's whereabouts, Mister Goyle?" Harry asked a little less harshly than he had been speaking before; catching that glisten to the man's eyes. (He had to be a man of iron during interrogations, but Pavarti was a friend and he couldn't help but to feel something for the ex-Gryffindor.)

"…No." Goyle responded, clearing his throat.

"Your home in Australia was searched, and we found traces of magic."

Goyle looked up instantly, fear seeping through the cracks of his expression.

"- -It seemed to be a struggle rather than any average house-hold magic for a homemaker." Draco finally spoke, opening one of the folders and taking out a photograph one of the Aurors had taken. "Various items were broken and shattered, and the bedrooms of your children seemed to have gone through the same struggle."

The prisoner gaped at the photograph, his chained arms fighting to reach for it but failed in every attempt

"Your family is missing, Mister Goyle." Harry said, leaning towards the table and pushing the picture towards the man. "And unless you don't tell us what you've done to your wife and children, you will have another severe charge onto your criminal record."

In the background, Ron glared with all of his boiling hatred. How could a man get rid of his own family? How mental did a man have to be to make his wife vanish; his children whisked away from their little lives?

Shaking his head, face turning pink, Goyle gripped the photographs with a sort of rage. "They…They promised." He muttered, his chest hurting. "They promised…they promised!" He crumbled the picture.

Draco and Harry shared a look, both of them turning to the prisoner with confused eyes. "Who exactly is 'they'? And what was promised, Goyle?"

"Tanya Rowle and her bloody army!" The man replied to the Head Auror, shaking his head furiously as he could see the acclaimed struggle in his head. " She said…She said if I did as she ordered, she'd spare my family." Goyle looked at his old friend, his glittering eyes full of tears piercing the blonde. "She had taken my little boy…She took my Garret, and threatened to kill my daughter if I didn't listen."

"If your child was missing, Goyle, why did Pavarti not report it?" Harry questioned, raising his eyebrow. "What exact terms did Tanya Rowle give you? When had all of this begun?"

"Because Pavarti didn't know…" Goyle whispered, a tear falling out. "I was apprehended by Rowle for the attack in France when I was with my son." He explained. "We were closing up shop, Pavarti was… she was home with our daughter. Layla was going on a date that night…she wanted it to be perfect and…Garret and I left to do some investigating, the little bloke that fancies my daughter works for me…Garret and I wanted to question him without Pavarti knowing…" He paused, chuckling humorlessly at a memory that flickered past his head, another tear falling. "- -I knew they were following me, and I tried to stay in the muggle crowd as much as I could. I knew they couldn't risk getting caught…but before I was aware, they had us cornered…and one of them took my son."

"…Why were you approached by Tanya Rowle?" Draco asked, feeling no sympathy whatsoever for the man. "What exactly was your part in this, Goyle?"

The prisoner shook his head slowly, looking back down at the tabletop from the indifference in the blonde Auror's face. "She sent men after my family, slowly scaring me into listening to her since….She never exactly told me what she wanted me to do in her scheme, but that I needed to be ready for when she needed me.

I wasn't frightened into it, I knew that she couldn't get very far with whatever she wanted to do - until I had files of the people gone dead because of her. People that I used to know…Your father, Draco." He blinked, willing himself to look at his old friend. "Finnegan, Zacharias Smith and his family…Michael Corner and his pregnant wife."

"Michael Corner?" Harry asked, snapping his fingers at one of the Aurors in the corner of the secluded room. "That name is not on the list we have, Goyle. Are you absolutely sure?"

Goyle nodded solemnly. "Marietta Edgecombe has been missing for months now, and the last list I had received from Tanya marked her name too…She keeps these things on record, I reckon."

"Johnson, give the two new names to the other Aurors involved in this case." The Head Auror told one of his men, jotting down the names in a scrap of parchment. "I want an instant search."

"Padma, Potter." Goyle turned to the Boy-Who-Lived. "Padma and her family have been missing too."

Bang. Bang.

"- -Let me in!"

"Leave the premises, Trainee- -"

"- -Look at the badge, idiot, I'm Auror!"

As the supposed-to-be secured door banged open, everyone inside the room turned to see Teddy Lupin fighting with Auror Lopez.

"Auror Lupin!" The Head Auror hissed, bewilderment crossing his features as he adjusted his spectacles. "This interrogation is closed off to other Aurors, leave the room immediately."

"Yeah, I'm really sorry, but I can't leave." Teddy retorted back, shoving Lopez back as he attempted to drag him out the room. "As all of you are in here chatting away, I have information that can't wait!"

"Leave the room, Lupin!" Ron snapped at the younger Auror. "We have no- -"

"Oi! Wait! Wait!" Teddy snapped, kicking his legs in the air as Auror Lopez grabbed him high by the collar of his robes; lifting him off the floor. "I know where they are!"

"- -Wait, let him speak." Hermione pointed her wand at the Auror, looking at Teddy with a racing heart at his previous shout. "Explain, now."

"We got a tip-off!" Teddy explained, glaring at the Auror as his feet touched the ground again. "Someone said they saw Tanya Rowle and a few of her men taking over an abandoned house."

"What abandoned house?" Ron practically shouted, winning the Malfoys as they both looked at Teddy with a fast growing hope.

"Malfoy Manor." Teddy said in a low voice.

"Johnson, hand the names to an Auror and gather the rest of the men." Harry began to order, grabbing the files and stacking them together. "Teddy, here you go."

Narrowing his eyes at his father, Teddy groaned. "You're actually going to make me file archives at a time like this? Come on!"

"You're in charge of the interrogation, Auror Lupin." Harry said, a smile on his face as Teddy dropped his jaw. "Brilliant work."

"Malfoy- -" And right before Draco could follow the male two-thirds of the Golden Trio out the door, Goyle called out for him." My family…Please, find them."

As Hermione quickly filled Teddy in on what Goyle had already confessed, she stopped to give the prisoner a solidified stare. "We'll find them, we promise." She said, no tone of resentment towards the man she thought was responsible behind everything as her husband refused to answer his plea.

"Goodbye, Goyle." Draco responded after a second, turning on his heels and signaling Hermione to follow after him.

Gregory Goyle looked down at the tabletop, not paying attention to Teddy as he introduced himself properly. "…Goodbye forever, old friend."

X

"- -Stop it! Stop it!"

"Silencio!"

"Maybe you should consider making the spell permanent." Still gripping on to the roots of a young witch, Tanya Rowle blinked her clear-eyes smugly at the man pointing his wand at their redheaded hostage. "That why she'll shut up for good."

The man - who looked to be around his early twenties - slowly lowered his wand away from Rose Weasley's face. "I don't attack children, Tanya. It's not my liking, like you'd understand." He said a little sarcastically.

Pulling the long caramel-colored waves from the top of Ariana Malfoy's head, Tanya tugged on a little smirk. "We have different definitions of low patience, that's all, Yaxley."

Aries Yaxley narrowed his eyes at the woman; no sense of humor in his body as she continued to trace the burning-tip of her wand alongside the pale skin of the Malfoy girls' neck.

"I know it hurts." Tanya whispered teasingly to Ariana, a hand still lost in her hair and forcing her head back. "I'll stop, if you just admit it does."

From her seat, where she was tied down like a common deer on top of a muggle hunter's truck, Rose filled with a deep anger as she could see the bright patches of crisp skin on the visible parts of Ariana's body. She had been yelling for ages, it seemed; screaming for the bastards to stop hurting her, to stop torturing Ariana like she was to be blamed with whatever was going on.

But she couldn't do anything, she was completely useless in the help to end her suffering.

"Come on, Ana." Tanya continued, pressing her wand-tip deeper into the hallow area of where the girl's neck and collar-bone met. "Just say it."

Gritting her teeth as she could feel all the layers of skin burn in that spot, Ariana held her composure. "I will never…ask for your mercy." She spat to the mental woman, her silver-eyes pooling with unshed tears.

Yaxley crossed his arms, a shadow of awe passing through his face as he could see all that will on the girl's face. Knowing perfectly well that she was holding all those shouts buried inside her, not letting those sobs pass her throat like any common person would during torture.

Turning his head slightly to the left of the crumbled-down ballroom they were in, Yaxley's impression of the Malfoy girl grew a little more as he could see a blonde woman in a fetal-position, holding a little limp figure into her chest, silent tears racing down her cheeks; the same rings of burnt skin on her. He wondered, how much spirit could be in Ariana Malfoy if she held in what the blonde woman couldn't - all that weakness.

And as she rocked herself and the little body, the woman looked up with wet-eyes to see Yaxley staring at her. Her lip trembled even more, the slice on her bottom lip hurting from the action. Wanting to sink deeper into the destroyed marbled-floor, the woman kept crying into the sides of her arms - her tears mixing in with the scabs of her burned skin and falling on the clothes of the child pressed into her.

There's no room for weakness, Yaxley thought to himself, turning away from Eliz Wilkes without sympathy. Especially in my family, he added in after thought for the cousin he had forced into this. (If she would have kept her mouth shut in the confrontation in France with the Aurors, she wouldn't have had to suffer anything. He had no time to pity fools.)

"Say it!" Tanya hissed in frustration, wanting to break through the strength that the teenage girl had. "Say it!" But as nothing came, Tanya refused to be out-beaten by the little brat, so she decided to turn the dial up. "- -Scream for me, little Ariana!" She snapped, removing her wand from her skin and pointing it at her chest. "Crucio!"

And just as her skin was adjusting to the flames just consummating spots on her skin, Ariana felt the searing fire ignite all over her body; inside of her. Gripping her bones, shattering them with an electrifying force that sent her on her back; her chair falling backwards as Tanya kept the spell over her.

"Crucio!" Tanya held her wand tighter, determination on her face.

Opening her mouth, Ariana let out a silent scream. Nothing coming out of her lips, but her expression shone with the pain that she was feeling. Her brain not willing itself to give in to Tanya's demands even as she leaked tears of scorching pain.

"That's enough." Yaxley snapped at Tanya, distracting her from the Unforgivable she was keeping over the girl. "Unforgivables are traced, Tanya, use your head." He added, looking away from the quieted shouts coming from the redheaded hostage as she looked outraged in her silence.

"They're going to find us eventually, Aries." Tanya retorted back. "Why not let me have my fun while we wait?"

Yaxley kept his blank stare, lowering himself to an empty chair as he could see other recruits keeping guard peeking to see the scene inside the ballroom. "In time, Tanya. In time."

Holding on to large fragments of the once-marbled floor, Ariana let her tears spill onto the ground that held many warm memories. A place that she loved so dearly inside Malfoy Manor; where she learned many traditions of the Malfoy family, of the long and gone noble Black family. "… I remember I thought you looked like an angel wrapped in pink, so soft and warm." She sang in a broken voice to herself, her body aching as she continued to cry as the memories kept playing in her head. "You've had me w-wrapped around your finger since the day you were b-born." She saw Lucius in shades of grey, looking out the giant window of the ballroom. Reminiscing about the past, no doubt, about things he had done, mistakes that he would never admit. That look of misery in his silver-eyes that accompanied him throughout the rest of his life.

She saw her mothering decorating the ballroom, putting up bright banners that claimed what the celebration was for. All the festivity for Scorpius's eleventh birthday, marking the coming-of-age moment when he was officially illegible to go to Hogwarts so special.

She saw little Demetria take her first steps, trying her hardest to get her wobbly feet to cross the room as she and Scorpius fought with each other; their Grandmother Narcissa leaving Demi on the floor as she attempted to stop the fight between her two oldest grandchildren.

She saw her father - she saw him moving in a way she never had before. She had been peeking through the half-way closed door, mesmerized as he danced elegantly with her mother. And as he twirled her in beautiful circles, she couldn't resist the urge to dance with them. She approached them, demanding that she get a try. And with a small smile but firm expression, Draco gave in. Giving Hermione the chance to look over the moment like a proud moment as eight year-old Ariana climbed on her father's feet, letting him guide her in one of the most majestic dances she'd ever seen.

"…You're b-beautiful from the outside in. Chase your dreams, but a-always know the road that'll lead you h-home again." She continued to sing in her broken tone, her eyes threatening to close in exhaustion as she couldn't possibly handle any more of the hurt inside of her. She was sure she was dying little by little, disgust and defeat beating inside her mind as she imagined that is what the monsters made Demetria go through; what sent her to a comatose state in the first place. From all the dark magic that no one's system can handle. "Go on, take on this whole world, but to me you know you'll always be my l-little girl."

Inside her memory, Ariana could see her five year-old self smiling sleepily at the man sitting on a rocking chair next to her bed. The sounds of her mother scolding her brother across the hall slithering their way inside of her room, but instead of laughing triumphantly at her brother's punishment, the little girl kept attention on her father. "- -When you were in trouble, that crooked little smile could melt my heart of stone." He sang softly to her, patting her caramel-colored ringlets as her eyes continued to droop. "Now look at you, I've turned around and you're almost grown." Ariana blinked a tear away from her eyes, feeling it trace down painfully on her cheek; the small drop igniting a burn of the cuts on her chin. "…Sometimes you're asleep, and I whisper 'I love you'."

Boom. Boom. Boom.

But just before she could let the exhaustion inside her win and close her eyes for what felt like forever, sounds of explosions echoed around the once-prestigious Malfoy Manor.

"- -Drop your wands!"

"You're surrounded- -"

"- -Drop your wands!"

With a small smile on his face, Yaxley watched as all of the recruited wizards and witches scrambled their way into the ballroom; all of them completely petrified as people started apparating inside the manor and from rooms above. (All of them obviously not informed that the next phase of the plan was to get captured.) "Finite." Yaxley murmured expertly to his bound hostage, letting Rose Weasley's voice come back to life.

"Daddy! Daddy!" Rose shouted immediately after Yaxley dropped his wand, hands in the air as an Auror pointed his wand at him; the ballroom filling with armed Ministry officials.

"Rose!" Sprinting across the room, Ron Weasley made his way to his daughter. "Are you alright? Rose, are you okay?" He bombarded his daughter, holding her face to inspect her. But without responding to any of her father's concerned questions, Rose hazel-eyes widened as she caught sight of her Uncle Harry and the Malfoys charging into the room. Their wands buried deep behind some of the culprits backs, forcing them into the room as they no doubt tried to escape. "- -Get Ana!" She shouted as soon as they were close enough, her arms springing free as Ron untied her from her prison. "She's hurt!"

"- -Hold it!" And just before Hermione or Draco could spot their daughter in the mess of bodies, Tanya Rowle pulled her torture-victim off the floor by her hair. "Don't move, or I'll curse her brains out." She said to the wands being pointed at her.

"What did you do to my daughter?" With knees going weak from the beaten figure of her daughter, Hermione's heart broke even as it thumped with a rush of fear.

Tanya smiled pleasantly. "I knew you'd find us, Mrs. Malfoy." Her voice was as friendly as it had been all the times she had visited her husband's office when she worked for him; when she was pretending to be a common secretary. "After all, your husband knows every entrance to this place more than anyone, so it was just a matter of time."

"Let go of her, you bitch." Rose hissed at the woman, shaking away her father's protective arms around her. "Can't you see you're surrounded? You're not going to get out of here in once piece."

Feeling a spark of intense annoyance, Tanya glare at the members of the Auror Department with a deep hate; all of them standing in front of her with a conquering expression. Like they thought they were better than her - like they've always thought they were. "You're mistaken - all of you are." She snapped, her wand-tip illuminating itself as it pressed into Ariana's neck. The sounds of her sizzling skin echoing around the room like a harsh scratching on a chalkboard.

Gritting her teeth from the new wave of flames, Ariana felt trickles of blood passing her closed jaw as she held in her screams. She could see her mother's tortured gaze, could see her opening her mouth and shouting what had to be a plea of mercy for her child, but Ariana could not hear it. She could hardly see her, could hardly make out the blonde figure of her father in the crowd. Her vision was spotting, and all that invaded her ears was a long whistling sound - the sound of death coming.

"…Dad." Ariana muttered with a voice that was unheard by everyone, her eyes threatening to shut as she could make out his feet coming closer.

"Evening, Mister Malfoy." Tanya flashed a smile at her ex-boss. "You've already interrogated Mister Goyle, have you not?" She asked, looking happy. "In that case, I have something for him. I do hope you pass it along."

At the direction that Tanya pointed her finger in, Harry Potter was the first to turn and find the body of a blonde woman and a child huddled together; going unnoticed by every one else.

"Garret Goyle?" Harry whispered, kneeling beside the woman and the kid.

"He needs a little patching up, but he'll be good as new." Tanya called sweetly, holding on to Ariana a lot tighter as Draco took another step towards them. "Not that Mister Goyle will ever get a chance to see his son again, right?" She kept her smile. "He is implicated in this as much as anyone in this room, he has to serve a sentence in Azkaban for his crime."

Draco glared, his heart thumping with rage. "He's innocent."

"Which is such a shame." Tanya shrugged. "But you shouldn't fret, Mister Malfoy. After all, from the mail exchanged between you and him, you gave promising information to Mister Goyle on orphanages, so I'm sure little Garret will be perfectly taken care of.

Mister Goyle wasn't half as stupid as I figured." Tanya continued. "I found his letters in your desk-drawer, Mister Malfoy. And believe me, I do not like to be mistaken. I planned to get rid of Mrs. Goyle, there was just no room for Pavarti, but her husband had to get in my way." The ex-secretary continued to explain. "So he had to go too, but in a much different way. Now their son will grow up without a mother, without a sister….he'll be waiting for years to reunite with a father that will rot away in Azkaban."

"…And you'll serve the penalty along with him, Miss Rowle." Draco replied back, his fists shaking in his anger.

Tanya grinned, scoffing lightly. "Arrogance, Mister Malfoy, runs in your family like a disease." She took a few steps back, dragging Ariana with her. "Let me show you how I got rid of it for your daughter - Crucio!"

"Argh!" And finally with a voice, Ariana let out a wretched scream, piercing the ears of her parents like daggers.

"- -Expelliarmus!"

"Impedimenta!" Throwing off the spell that Hermione had sent her way, Tanya grinned more triumphantly as Ariana slummed to the floor from the torture curse. "This is what's going to happen- -" Looking up at the Aurors, the woman narrowed her eyes as she kneeled down causally next to Ariana's body; still holding her hostage. "I'll give you the girl back, Mister Malfoy, in exchange for something else."

"Your freedom is not up for bargain, Miss Rowle." Harry spoke, a hand around Hermione's arm as she threatened to fall to pieces on the floor. "Surrender now, you are surrounded."

"You might imprison us, Mister Potter, but we have done the destruction we set out to do." Speaking for the first time since the invasion of Aurors, Yaxley looked simply at the Head Auror.

"…What exactly do you propose?" Draco asked, not bothered by the man's statement to Potter.

Tanya eyes brightened instantly, knowing perfectly well that whatever it took to get Ariana away from harm, the Malfoys would do. "Exchange for your daughter's life…I want yours."

"- -What?" Hermione gasped loudly, pushing Harry's hold from her as she took a step towards her husband. "What…What's that going to prove?"

"It's not suppose to prove anything, Mrs. Malfoy." Tanya responded, her smile wiped off instantly. "It's supposed to level the playing-field."

"Dad…Dad no." With all the strength she could muster, Ariana lifted her head so she could face her father. "No."

"That is my only proposition." Tanya said before Draco could respond to his daughter's broken pleas. "…You will imprison us, you will attack very soon and a battle will break out, but I still have your daughter's life in my hands. By the time any of you decide to disarm me, I'll still have time to end her life." At the silence that took over the Aurors, they knew she was right. "You're life, Mister Malfoy, for hers."

"No." Shaking her head furiously, Hermione took another step. "Not…Not Draco. You can have me, take my life and let my daughter g-go."

The ex-secretary shook her head, a little leer on her face as Yaxley laughed at the Brightest Witch's comment. "Your life is not of value for me, Mrs. Malfoy. It's your husband's death that I wish to see completed - that or you shall morn another daughter."

"Why him?" Hermione asked loudly, a wave of anger radiating off of her skin. "Why Draco? Just take mine- -"

"Revenge, Mrs. Malfoy, revenge!" Tanya yelled. "Your husband killed my father!" Her voice rose an octave, but she collected herself quickly from the confusion appearing from face to face. "Thorfinn Rowle, remember him?" She spat at the blonde Auror who turned two shades whiter; taking a step back as he could feel his dark mark burn from the memory. "…You do, don't you? You remember what you did to my father."

Draco narrowed his silvery-eyes, his hair swaying from side to side as he tried to shake away the memory. "It was an order, Tanya. Voldemort ordered it." The people shivered from the forbidden name. "…I had no choice, it was my punishment."

Hermione's eyes filled with shock tears, bewilderment taking over her. How could he have not told her? How could have he kept a murder hushed up?

"And your punishment caused me my father." Tanya replied heatedly. "Every one of us in here, every one involved in the silent destruction taking up your precious Wizardying World, lost something when the Death Eater era ended…When you so-called reformed-Death-Eaters were spared, but the rest of us shun forever." Inhaling in, Tanya stopped explaining. She didn't owe them explanations. "…You have a choice now, Mister Malfoy. Do you choose to save a little girl's father but let her die, or do you take away her father and let her live?"

When he was fifteen, Draco never thought once about anyone else but himself. He walked on the road of the world like it was a catwalk, like he was the almighty one and everyone else around him was nothing more than dirt. He pushed them down, letting them know their rightful place in the scale. He was a pureblood, practically royalty to the scum around him; to those people who considered themselves true witches and wizards.

When he was sixteen, he was still a king - but for a kingdom that wanted to behead their royalty. His jeweled-crown was not going to save him from the dark forces, from the evil that did in fact exist out there. He was starting to learn the meaning of redemption, of guilt, of a shaking fear that paralyzed him everyday. He knew where his loyalties laid, and that was with his family. He tore himself down emotionally to save them, to spare them, just so they could prove that their blood was the purest.

And when he turned seventeen, he was an entirely different person. He had been pushed out of the throne, away from all those lies that he helped spread once-upon-a-time-ago about his kind being the perfect ones, and was made to live like a commoner. Like an average person who was nothing greater than the person next to him on the street.

He was thirty-four now, and he was in a place in life that he never imagine he would ever be. He had a family of his own. A family that he dedicated himself to with blood, sweat, and soul. They were untouchable to him, his own little family of royalty. They were what he lived for, what he served for like a faithful servant. And that girl that was tossed on the floor like a worthless animal, was his daughter. She shared his blood, the same metallic-eyes, the same spirit inside - and he could not let them push her from her rightful place in the world. She was going to be the greatest witch of them all, he knew.

So was there any doubt of what he would choose?

Nodding once at the woman he had once trusted, Draco Malfoy lowered his wand on the ground. Taking a step closer to Tanya Rowle, forcing his feet to point her direction as his wife protested in the background; as his friends and coworkers shouted at him to not give in.

As they screamed that they'd find a way, that they were not going to lose, Draco stared at his daughter. Their eyes connecting, and he smiled at her. That kind of smile that he doesn't tend to show the world; something that she inherited from him. Because their bond of father and daughter was something not visible, but when it was, it came in the form of that smile.

"…Sometimes when you're asleep, I whisper 'I love you'." He kneeled beside her, grabbing Ariana's hand as she sobbed, shaking her head and pleading him to get up and go. "In the moonlight at your door…"He whispered to her that bedtime melody that Ariana loved to hear since she was three. Those caring words in a form of a song that always made her feel loved, that always made her smile when she missed her father. "As I walk away, I hear you say…" Tanya raised her wand, a foot slamming down on Ariana's scattered hair to keep her in place as she pointed her wand at his back; a determined expression pulling on her face as she could her Hermione scream in the distance.

Ariana squeezed her father's hand with all of the might she had left over, crying endless tears as he smiled at her for the last time in her tortured presence. "…As I walk away, I hear you say, 'Daddy, I love you more.'" She sang back to her father, the deadly emerald light shutting her eyelids closed as she heard death come.

AN: Well! That was the LONGEST chapter, by far, that I have written for this story. Yep, yep. I am proud.

Although, I didn't thoroughly explain everything in it, or else it would have been 30-pages long, but I do plan to get further into detail in the upcoming three chapters. (The last of the story, by the way.) But anyway, thanks for reading!

Don't hate me. (: