October 2008
Wizarding London, England
St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries
Thursday evening

Draco was confined to a bed on the fourth floor of the hospital, under heavy guard. His mother was permitted to see him, and spent 20 minutes of their 30 minute visit weeping on his arm. She explained to him that he had been cursed by his father and that Lucius would likely be going to prison for the rest of his life. Good, Draco thought, not wanting to burden his mother with his hatred.

She was able to tell him that Scorpius and his ex-wife were safe, but was not permitted to say where they were and that Draco wouldn't be able to see his son until he had been cleared of all suspicion of compulsion by the mediwizards. When he asked about Lyra, she was only able to reveal that the "sweet girl" was still alive and fighting the residual effects of the poison. Draco had been interrogated nearly the entire day as to which poison he used, but the Aurors hadn't found any evidence of it at the Manor and he couldn't remember. He even asked them to bring in a legilimens to help, but the wizard who read him was unable to sift through the corruption in his memories to make anything out.

By the time his mother left, he was a ball of rage and confusion. He wanted to see her. He missed his son. He wanted answers. He wanted a drink.

After being lost in his worry for an unknown period of time. Kingsley Shacklebolt, the Head Auror at the MoM and Harry Potter, acclaimed wanker, entered his room, pulling him from his thoughts. Harry excused his guards and he and his boss pulled up two seats alongside Draco's bed. They sat in awkward silence for several moments before Draco cleared his throat and spoke. "How is she? What did I...what happened to her?" he asked, looking at Potter.

"Fractured arm. Delirium from prolonged exposure to the Cruciatus Curse. The bezoar cleared the worst of the poision, but what's left is making her seize. Significant blood loss secondary to diffuse scattered cuts along the body."

Draco swallowed hard and looked down, dropping a few silent tears onto his bound hands.

"I wonder what Snape, a man who protected you, who killed for you, would think, knowing you used his curse to disfigure his own daughter?" Harry bit out cruelly.

"Harry, if you can't control yourself, you can get out." Shacklebolt commanded. "Mr. Malfoy, we understand that your attack on Miss Black was unintentional. We're here to ask you some questions to learn more about what happened," he explained.

"Go ahead then," Draco replied.

"Can you tell us the last thing you remember before waking up this morning at the Manor?"

"I was in London, getting pissed at my flat," he answered honestly.

"Do you remember the date?" Shacklebolt inquired.

"No, but it was a day or two after my flight back from Spain,"

"And when was that?"

"September, 22 or 24, I can't recall," he replied.

"Mr. Malfoy, do you know the date today?"

"I dunno. When I woke up, it felt like after a rager, I figured three, maybe four days? That would put us late September," he mused.

"Mr. Malfoy, the date today is October 29th," Shacklebolt responded.

Draco opened his eyes wide. "What?"

"We believe you've been under compulsion for approximately a month, maybe a bit longer," Potter explained.

"Tell me what he did, please. My mother, the mediwizards, my sodding guards, it's all dismissals. He compelled me, he took away my mind, he made me hurt a friend. I have a right to know," Draco spit out in a rush.

Potter and Shacklebolt looked warily between each other for a moment before Harry spoke.

"We have evidence that your father struck you with an old curse that he discovered in one of the volumes in your family archives. The curse, is an irreversible compulsion that induces the victim to kill a person that they love. It would appear that your father cast a supplementary blind over your son, Scorpius to prevent you from targeting him," Potter explained.

Draco flexed his fists wrists in his restraints.

"Based on evidence obtained through legilimency by Auror Black, it seems that your father was expecting you to target Astoria Nott and kill her. It was his plan, from there, to ensure your capture and petition the family courts for primary custody of your boy," Shacklebolt added before continuing. "Miss Black had also established that your father was angry with Mrs. Nott for what he perceived as a restriction on time with his grandson."

"Astoria hates him, I can tell you that. She doesn't like leaving Scorpius alone with my parents, because of my father. She gets along well enough with mother," Draco explained. "I supported her in that decision. My father's not fit to be around children...trust me."

"The problem with his plan, of course, was that you didn't go after Astoria Nott, you went after Lyra," Harry picked up. "She started getting strange letters in early October, threatening to expose her as Snape's daughter. She was about to just release a public statement confirming her parentage, when she received a scroll from Snape, a kind of automatic ward, that informed her that she and you were in danger and to come find me, so she did. We worked the case with a team of Aurors, leading to your father's arrest. The spell that he used to protect your son had to be recast weekly by him. Once we had him in custody, he refused to do it. That was yesterday morning. We essentially had one day remaining on the blind so we, Lyra and I, decided to draw you out to capture you to see if you could be treated. Your mother offered the Manor, since it would be away from your son and secluded. We set up there with a team, but you got the jump on us...on me really. I was supposed to be there to stop you but I had to fight your mother off first. I was supposed to be there."

"I don't remember," Draco admitted sadly.

"Your mum is quite a good in a fight. It took me several minutes and a good chase around the west wing to get her in a bind. After I did, I ran to the ballroom. I found you there and she was on the ground and I just..."Potter trailed off.

Shacklebolt picked it up from there. "This curse, Mr. Malfoy is essentially iron-clad. The compulsion only breaks if the target or the cursed is killed. From our research, when the curse is fulfilled the affected will come to, disoriented and not remember a thing. We know that it appears the curse has been fulfilled but we honestly don't know if it's because you died or she died."

"Wait, what?" Draco inquired, confused.

Harry cleared his throat and looked around the room nervously. "When I got to the ballroom and saw you with her like that I..." he paused, drawing a deep breath. "I killed you, Malfoy. I mean, I tried to. Hit you with the killing curse right in the back. I honestly don't know why you aren't dead," he said plainly.

Well, the pain between his shoulder blades made sense now. Saint Potter tried to kill me! Or he possibly did kill me! What a hypocrite, he thought to himself.

"Ok, but I don't see why this makes any difference now," Draco pointed out. "If it's over, it's because one of us died, as you say." Not her not her not her, he prayed in his head.

"To your father's case, no, but to Mr. Potter's future as an Auror it does," Shacklebolt responded as Harry looked away.

Draco laughed darkly. "I don't give a damn fig about Potter's future at the company," his mirth quickly turned to anger. "How could you let her do this, Potter? Run off and all but get herself killed. Maybe you're just better suited for housemaking and celebrity tours."

"Auror Black came to us seasoned and highly trained, young man. Not to mention that she 'all but got herself killed,' as you say, in an effort to protect your son. You would do well to show her and her abilities a little more respect," Shacklebolt boomed, in an agitated tone.

"That's...that's not what I meant," Draco said, deflating.

"This," Shacklebolt continued, "between you two, stops now. There are bigger things happening here."

"He tried to kill me!" Draco exclaimed.

"You were killing my friend!" Harry responded.

"She's my friend!" Draco fired.

"You have a real interesting way of demonstrating your friendship. Absolute bloodbath." Harry bit out, bitterly.

That silenced him.

"You also blew up my sodding house!" Harry added.

"I did not!" Draco defended.

"How the hell would you know? I was there! You did! You blew the front door off the hinges trying to get to Lyra while my wife and children hid in a bedroom upstairs!" Harry raged.

"What?" Draco said slowly, looking to Shacklebolt for confirmation.

"I don't..."

"I know, Malfoy, you don't remember," Harry said getting up and walking out of the room.

"Did I do that?" Draco asked the remaining wizard.

"By all accounts you did. Mrs. Potter and the children are fine, but all of this, it's affected him as you can see," Shacklebolt answered, clearly annoyed by the behavior of the two men.

Draco sighed, feeling crushed by the weight of guilt for so many things he had no memory of. "Right. Look, I think Potter's a right wanker, and I always will, but I will do everything in my power to see my father put in a hole for the rest of his miserable life. How can I help you do that," He said, looking up.

"By telling us whatever you can. I expect you'll have to testify as well."

"Whatever you need." Draco replied. "Can I see her?"

"At some point you'll have to," Shacklebolt sighed. "The spell-damage Mediwizard feels like you need to be exposed to her and then examined under legilimency to see if the curse has actually resolved."

"When?"

"Before midnight, which is when the blind on your son expires."

Draco nodded. "I want additional restraints and extra guards. If it's not gone I...I want her to feel safe. Also, the legilimens has to be better than the bloke they have here. I'm quite good at occlemency and Lyra won't trust a read from someone who isn't at least excellent."

"We can do that, Mr. Malfoy, but you should know that it likely won't make much difference to Auror Black. She's hardly been conscious since she arrived," Shacklebolt informed him before exiting the room, leaving Draco alone with his thoughts.


Author's Note - Thank you for reading! I'm trying to get these chapters out quickly to shed light on exactly what happened. My special thanks to Meiaideas12, Shhhh. I'm an alien and Marloweee1856 (bae) for your kind reviews. The future's open from here. I have one idea for their reunion, but nothing set in stone. I am sure Lyra will let me know what she wants, just as soon as she figures it out. :) -MM