A/N: So the Casey Anthony Trial has ended. And this is in honor of the killer that is now free in our streets. Fantastic.
In much happier news! this is the last update before the Harry Potter final movie! I have decided that I will be off fan fiction for a week so that I can make my next updates even better! The next update will be a 12,000 word update :) Be happy!
Also thank you to voldyismyfather for reviewing! Your reviews have made my day really! :) Be prepared to cry during this. I tried my hardest to make it heart breaking :( kind of...
Now onto the story!
31 days. Draco couldn't believe that it had been 31 days since he had heard that beautiful laugh. Or seen that beautiful smile. 31 days. That was too long for Draco. He wanted to hold that angel in his arms. He wanted to see the face that had been his for 5 years. He was furious at the person who had taken his angel away.
Potter walked towards Draco, a serious look on his face. He knew Potter was going to tell Draco the worst. Draco tried to prepare himself, but it wasn't working. He could feel the tears rolling down his face. He knew that whatever Potter had to say, was going to destroy his mind.
"Draco Malfoy, I need you to come with me. We have a body for you to identify." Draco couldn't hold it back any more. He allowed Harry to lead him under the caution tape and towards the crime scene. Draco wasn't holding back the tears. He couldn't. This was his angel, his baby, and yet he was here, identifying a body.
Draco looked down at the fragile body, he keeled over on the ground, crying loudly, sobbing even. How could this have happened? How could things have gone like this? His world was completely turned upside down, and everything he knew and loved was gone. Out of his mouth came the most anguished and heart breaking scream Harry had ever heard. Harry knew how hard this was for Draco. He knew that he had been drug down this road at a terrible speed and had been in pain for the last month.
But they hadn't had any information. They had no leads, nothing to go off of. Draco knew very little and they hadn't been able to talk to Pansy, who was the main suspect in what was now a murder investigation.
Harry nodded to an intern. The intern ran and got a blanket and some warm tea for Draco. Harry slid down on the ground beside his old schoolmate. If anyone had told him that in a few short years he would be comforting Draco Malfoy as a friend, he would have hit them sent them directly to St. Mungo's and had them checked out.
But here he was. The intern came back and Harry wrapped Draco in the blanket and gave him the tea. This was going to be a long day. A very long day.
"Can you think of anything that would help us?" Harry asked quietly.
Draco then relayed all the information he knew. There were a few things Harry hadn't heard before. And when he asked Draco, he just shook his head and said they didn't seem important before. Harry wrote down all the stuff Draco had said. The things he knew, and the things that were new. Draco sat there on the floor, still crying. Harry had made a motion to another Law Enforcement employee to remove the body to Autopsy. They were going to find out how this innocent life had died.
The more they knew about how they died, the more they would know about who killed them and where they were killed. Harry handed all that Draco had relayed to another employee who took it to examination. This process would take awhile. Harry knew that, and Harry knew that Draco knew that.
Draco was one of the best detectives in England. He was definitely going to be the head of the Department of Law Enforcement some day. Or everyone thought he was. Harry was sure that he would one day get back on track. But others in the Department were not as sure. They thought this was the end of Draco Malfoy. They all knew how badly he was affected by this. The worst part was, Draco couldn't do anything about it.
No one blamed him for how bad he was taking this. He was taking this kind of news just like any of them would have taken it. They all knew that he was brave, continuing to show up every day, doing his work as best he could, making it his duty to find that missing person. But now that they had turned up dead, Harry knew it was going to really take a while for Draco to get back on the horse. It wasn't normal if it didn't.
"Harry, we have to find out what happened. I won't rest until I find out who did this to my baby. And neither you nor anyone else will stop me from making sure this person has the worst possible ends. Are we clear?" Draco said, his voice dangerous and low. Harry nodded, completely understanding. He wasn't going to get in the way of Draco's duty. This was his life and his lost life to take revenge upon.
"Mr. Malfoy." It was the Minister of Magic. Draco looked up, knowing the voice when he heard it. He stood up, not wanting to insult the Minister of Magic by remaining on the ground. Harry noted that Malfoy's behaviors were becoming more and more like a military man. Perhaps he had actually watched some of those Muggle movies Hermione had suggested to him.
"We have found Ms. Parkinson. She is being brought in for questioning. Though we are quite certain she did it. We don't have enough proof yet, but we are going to hold her and eventually charge her. She will be tried in front of the Wizengamot and they will decide whether she is to blame for this death or if there is another we are to question. Thank you for your cooperation. I will allow you to take as much time off as you need. I understand that this will not be easy to recover from." The Minister said very closely to Draco. He and Draco had had many encounters and were on very good terms.
"Sir, I am ready to go back to work. I want to help catch this murderer." Draco said looking the Minister straight in the eye.
"I'm sorry son, I can allow you back to work, but you are not permitted to work directly on this case. You are too close to it, and it could cloud your judgement. We don't want to convict the wrong person, we want the right person behind bars." The Minister said. He was being very gentle with Draco's feelings. He was trying hard not to put him down.
"I understand sir. I believe, then, that I will take your offer of leave from work. I fear I will need quite a long time."
"Take as long as you need, Draco. You are our best detective and I don't want your future being harmed by this. I want you to be fully recovered before you work again. You understand that a Psyche evaluation will be required before you start work again." Draco nodded. He understood the process. The Minister nodded, and without another word left.
"Harry. Please keep me in the loop. I want to know everything that's going on." Draco said not moving.
"Drake, you know I will. Hey, head on over to the Burrow. Mrs. Weasley will cook up something hot for you, and the Twins will give you something to think about. You're gonna be ok. I'll Floo as soon as we get more information. You should go."
"Harry. You're a good friend." Draco whispered quietly before Apparating away. Harry watched his friend and partner disappear. This was going to be hard. He looked over at the doors to the Autopsy room. He wasn't going to be able to go in there. He couldn't. It was too painful. For five years that body had been Draco's whole world. For five years, this had been all Draco talked about, thought about. He breathed and lived for that body. And now, the future they had held, the memories they would have had... they were all gone. Harry started to cry as he thought about how such an innocent being had been ripped out of it's life and thrown into this.
Harry wasn't going to be okay after this. He would keep it together until they caught the asshole who had done this, and then he was going to take his own leave. No one would deny him of it either. They all would need awhile.
Harry thought about poor Toby. He had been so young. Toby Malfoy, was Draco's son. He had been missing for a month, his mother out partying, his father worried sick. They had finally found him. Wrapped in duct tape, in a trunk, at the bottom of a lake. No fingerprints, no blood, nothing to identify a murderer. But they had the parents alibis. They had an Autopsy about how Toby was killed. Or they would within the hour. They would have enough, they would find enough to convict someone.
"Harry." It was Neville. He was the interrogator and seemed to have some information.
"Pansy said that after she had left Toby with the Nanny she had gone to a bar and partied. And she partied the next day. On that third day the Missing Persons went out. She said she never went home or anywhere else other than clubs and bars for two days."
"Then the only window is that she did it before she went partying. Question the Nanny. It's possible Toby wasn't with the Nanny." Harry said seeing the lies in the woman's alibi. Pansy Parkinson. The pug faced slut who had gone and gotten herself pregnant after drugging Draco. But when Draco found out, he told Hermione everything and even shared his memory with her. Which was of Parkinson drugging him. Hermione forgave him, never doubting for one second that he would never cheat on her.
But Parkinson hadn't thought about her being a single mom. She thought Draco would marry her when he found out she was pregnant with his kid. In reality he was totally prepared to fight her in court for the child. They agreed on a system so that Toby would be with both parents. Draco got the good end of the deal and had Toby most of the time. However Toby would spend a week with Pansy. During the last week he had spent with his mother, she had pawned Toby off on 'the Nanny' and gone partying. Harry had a hard time believing that.
True enough, when Neville came back he said that the Nanny hadn't seen Toby since February. The month was now May. Harry told Neville to go back and question Pansy about who she really left Toby with. Harry was nearly positive that she would have no name to give and would say that she gave the kid back to Draco.
Everyone knew that Pansy was a terrible mother. She was trying to frame Draco for the murder of his own son and half the Department of Magical Law Enforcement knew it. Harry especially knew it.
"Alright, she says that she left him with her boyfriend. She said she was too scared to tell us before because she wasn't sure how we would react to a new man in the equation. I think it's bullshit Harry." Neville said rolling his eyes. Harry nodded.
"Go and find out who the trunk belongs to. We should really find that out. I'll go talk to Parkinson."
Harry knew this was going to be interesting. The last time he saw her she was ignoring her son and smoking. He had always hated that woman.
"Miss Parkinson." Harry said stepping into the interrogation room.
"Mr. Potter. Can I go now? I just lost the love child of me and Draco. And I want to go comfort him. I know he'll be needing it." She said not sounding one bit sad.
"No. Sit down. We have sent Draco home. It's just you and me, Pugface. Now. Can you tell me what really happened the day before you went partying. This would be about three days prior to your filing of the Missing Persons Report. I am eager to hear your alibi for this." Harry said sitting on the table in front of her.
As Parkinson gave some bullshit answer about how she was giving her son a bath, Harry saw it. He knew they would find the death a result of drowning. He knew they would find some bruises on the neck and maybe the chest. He knew that when they came back with the Autopsy report, he would point to Parkinson. Every thing she said contradicted something she had said before.
"Miss Parkinson, I hold in my hand, the report you filed when Toby went missing. Can you tell me what you dressed him in before you gave him to the Nanny? Or your boyfriend as you have revised?" Harry asked, knowing she wouldn't give the right answer.
"I dressed him in a blue polo and jeans with blue Converse sneakers." Pansy said staring Harry straight in the eye. Harry smiled.
"You said in your report that you dressed him in his pajamas because you left late at night."
Pansy fished around for words, trying to save herself.
"Mr. Potter." Harry looked over his shoulder and saw Neville with a small file folder in his hand. It was the Autopsy report.
"Excuse me, Miss Parkinson. I'll allow you sometime to figure out your next story." He said before walking out of the interrogation room, making sure to take the file with him.
"Please tell me that Toby was drowned and that they found oval bruises on his neck and upper chest." Harry said, truly hoping it would be that easy.
"Harry... how on earth did you know?" Neville asked his eyes wide. "Did she?"
"Yes. She told me how she gave him a bath right before she left to give him to her boyfriend. And who did the trunk belong to?"
"It belong to Pansy's grandmother. It was an heirloom treasured by the family. She gave it to Pansy when she passed away. Does this mean it's over?" Neville asked, sounding as relieved as Harry felt.
"Yes, Neville. I think it is. We have enough to prove to the Wizengamot without using Veritaserum. And we can use as a last resort." Harry said feeling thankful that this was all over. Or would be soon enough.
"Harry." It was one of Harry's interns. Harry looked at them, hoping they had more good news.
"The boyfriend does exist. And he says he had Toby for two days. Before his father came and picked him up."