16th June 2003
The rest of that day he had been starting the order for the hospital, they were both simple enough potions to brew, but the volumes they were needed in required a 55 galleon cauldron and a really big stirring stick.
It was also tricky to dice and peel and cut the sheer amount of the ingredients, but Draco wasn't the best for nothing and had filled this particular order so many times he was doing it absentmindedly.
The next day, in the stasis stage of the blood replenishing potion, he made his way down to the evidence section of the department of mysteries to collect the vial for Weasel Mother's case, he stood out front of the round black door and rose an uncertain hand to knock when it opened by itself. A tall, thin man came through, and offered Draco a tight lipped grimace.
"Malfoy, you'll be here about Molly's case I'm guessing?" Draco nodded, damning unspeakables for just knowing everything. Croaker walked back into the door, motioning for Draco to follow him. Draco was in a round room with twelve identical black doors. The wall spun.
"Merlin," He breathed as his hair was whipped around his face and the wind caused by the wall tugged at his clothing, Croaker smiled at him.
"First DOM visit then? Follow me." The unspeakable seemed to pick a door at random and then Draco was in a sort of lab. There were bags labelled 'evidence' with various objects in them. There were vials of blood, and photos, magic and muggle, pinned to the walls. There were two other unspeakables in the room, the Gryffindor, Thomas, who, Draco remembered guiltily, had been locked in the dungeons of Malfoy Manor during the war. The other was Padma Patil, a Ravenclaw who he thought might have dated Blaise briefly, she was certainly attractive enough.
Thomas turned and, impressively, kept a rather neutral expression, before leaving, ignoring Draco completely. Draco tried not to sneer, he was lucky Thomas didn't hex him.
"Malfoy, I didn't think you would come this early, you're after the vial they found for Mrs Weasely's case then?" Draco nodded. She walked over to a cupboard, identical to the others in the room, and pulled out a single vial in a plastic bag.
"I need to get on with my work. If you need anything, just tell me." She walked back to the other side of the room, pulled out a telescope looking thing on a stand and grabbed a vial of blood. He turned his attention to the potions vial in his hand.
"Potter didn't lie when he said a little bit."
"What?"
Patil had looked up from her small telescope, Draco blushed a bit, "Talking to myself, sorry, I'll get going then." She absentmindedly said goodbye and he left through the door he came in, (where Croaker was waiting again).
"Got everything you need then Malfoy?"
Draco nodded, and the circular wall spun again. Croaker pointed to a door.
"That's your way out," He said, Draco didn't bother thanking him, just left the room before it made him any more nauseous. He went to his office as quickly as he could, glaring at his little desk and waving his wand, stacking the papers from his desk on the top of the stacks of paper on the floor. He looked at the teeny tiny bit of potion, opened the bottle and sniffed it.
"Yuck!" He exclaimed, jamming the cork back in the vial, he went to his paper pile and looked for something he could reuse. Vanishing the ink off a two year old Mungo's order he grabbed a quill and began scratching down his notes while he worked.
Smells like rotten flesh.
Looks like melted grey, watery metal.
Viscous. No visible vapor.
He then held it up to the window, but lowered it.
"Son of a-" he began, tapping the window and restoring his requested sunny weather.
Turns red in UV light.
"Red," he put the vial down, "Poisons don't usually have blood as a base."
He put the vial down, looking at his meager notes. Then scribbled something at the bottom of the page.
Not a poison.
He threw his quill down and went to his stack of papers, shuffling for his most recent Mungo's order, then went about completing that.
"How was your day, Dragon? Get off the lounge you're covered in soot."
Draco smiled at his mother as he jumped off the lounge and trapized off to the bathroom, dumping his robes on the floor and shaking the soot from his hair. Narcissa handed him his late dinner as he summoned a book from the bookshelf they used to cover the door to the muggle world, which was sealed shut pretty good and proper.
"How many times have I told you not to leave your dirty robes on the floor, I'm not an elf!" Narcissa called from the bathroom, Draco chuckled and flicked to the section in his book about blood based potions.
Potions calling for blood are giving of unnatural life. They can be used to cure muggle terminal illnesses, extend life, preserve it, replace it or re-house a torn soul.
Many potions involve bleeding out of a victim, or some other sacrifice, the best example of this is the flesh, blood and bone potion, a very little used potion since the use of Horcruxes was made illegal and the requirements for the emotional attachment of each sacrifice are particularly complicated.
Bone of the father, unknowingly given;
Blood of the enemy, forcibly taken;
Flesh of the servant, willingly sacrificed.
The resulting potion smells like rotting flesh and looks like a solution of burnt bone and water - a metallic huge-
"Holy crap I found it!"
"LANGUAGE DRACO!"
The very next day Draco sent off the Completed Mungo's order first, then he went to the muggle department and lied about what their rock potion was because he couldn't be bothered to work that thing out, he finally went to the ministry restricted research archive and looked for the flesh blood and bone potion, and any information about Horcruxes.
"Mr. Malfoy, can I help you?"
Draco looked at the large amounts of books he had pulled from the shelves and offered the Archive keeper a guilty look.
"I need information about the flesh blood and bone potion, and Horcruxes."
"Clearance?"
Draco rolled his eyes but handed her his wand, she nodded and beckoned him to follow her.
"This is the exit." Draco said. The keeper nodded.
"All information on Horcruxes was destroyed by the Ministry after the defeat of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named."
Draco glared at her, and stomped from the room. He angrily yanked the tacky keychain from his pocket and tapped it.
"Nimbus."
Draco landed in the middle of a basement kitchen, in the center was a long wooden table that was old, but well looked after, at the end of the room was the pantry and gas oven and fridge and such, the other side of the kitchen lead to a small staircase, going up.
"Potter?" Draco hesitantly tip-toed towards the staircase. He put his foot on the first stair, hesitating, then decidedly walked up them.
"Potter, where are you?" He called out, now at the top of the stairs, he realized where he was. "Merlin"
The House of Black; Walburga's portrait was hung on the wall. Of course he recognized it, but the rest of the house was unrecognizable, at least from his mother's memories. The carpet was faded and worn thin, but clean, the walls, instead of green wallpaper were painted with an unremarkable brown. He went towards the master bedroom, however at the first floor landing, he came across a gate.
"What in the bloody name of Merlin?" Draco was half way over the gate when he heard someone giggle at him.
"Potter?" he asked, leg still suspended in mid air.
"What?" he got an answer, though it wasn't Potter. A little boy had poked his head out of the drawing room doorway, with Potter's messy black hair, but he had bright blue eyes.
"Who 'r you?" The boy asked, a look on his face that only a young boy could pull off.
"My name is Draco Malfoy, what's your name?"
"Oh. My dad talks 'bout you, sometimes, I'm James." The little boy looked at him like he was insane, "Dad's in the bathroo' if you wanna come sit 'nd wait?"
"Is your father Harry Potter?"
"Yeah, look Mister if your not supposed to be here, you shou'd go back to your house, 'cause dad won't be happy if you're not supposed to be here."
"No, I was invited, I work-"
"Malfoy?"
Draco jumped in fright, and seeing as his leg was still cocked over the little stair fence, he fell backwards, down the stairs.
"Impedimenta!" Harry yelled, drawing his wand in a flash, then apparated to just behind Draco as he fell and caught him.
"You alright, Malfoy?" Harry asked, hauling him back onto his feet, then they both walked the short way up the stairs and stepped over the gate fully.
"Jay, go back inside please," Harry said to the little boy- his son, apparently.
"Yes Dad."
"You could have owled me before you showed up." Harry said.
"Sorry," Draco said sheepishly, "but I think you would be interested in the information I have about the potion."
"So this is about Molly's case then?" Potter asked, his interest caught, "Alright, we can talk in here, you want tea, coffee, food?" Potter stepped over the gate again and headed downstairs.
"Ugh yes please, Potter, if it's not too much trouble, I haven't had lunch yet." Draco had the courtesy to show his sheepishness. Showing up uninvited and hungry, really.
"Sure, no problem, just go into the sitting room, I'll be up in a minute."
Draco headed into the sitting room, it was mostly green, the black family tapestry was gone, in it's place photographs of Harry and different kids, various Weasleys, his aunt Andromeda and the werewolf's baby and then Draco found James on the lounge.
"So James how old are you?" The little boy looked at Draco from the corner of his eye.
"He's not James, I am, and that's my brother Sirius. We're both three!" James jumped out from behind Draco; startling him. Draco took a moment to make sure he wasn't going into cardiac arrest.
"I'm back boys, here's lunch. I'm going to talk to Draco for a while, alright?" Harry handed them a tray of sandwiches.
"Thanks Dad!" James jumped into the plate of sandwiches with a hunger to rival Ron Weasely's. The other boy, Sirius, hopped off the couch and went to sit in Harry's lap.
"I see you've met my sons." Harry said, passing Draco a sandwich on a plate whilst biting into his own. Sirius closed his bright green eyes and snuggled into Potter's chest.
"Yes, I didn't know you had kids, Potter, I thought it would have been all over the newspaper." Draco completely forgot about his previous excitement with the potion mystery and the huge lead he had, to be interested in Potter's personal life. In Hogwarts Harry couldn't keep a big zit from the press, but two kids?
"No, I try to keep them out of the paper." Harry smiled fondly, frowning slightly once observing James's table manners.
"Who's their mother?" Draco asked him.
"Ginny Weasley," Harry said with a sigh.
"She's d-" Draco started.
"Dead, I know." Harry ran another hand through his hair.
"Sorry," Draco said noticing him not looking that cut, he decided to change the topic. "Look the poison used to murder Weasley isn't a poison at all, its a flesh, blood and bone potion."
"Bone of the father, unknowingly given, blood of the enemy, forcibly taken, flesh of a servant, willingly sacrificed."
"What the bloody hell is that?" Draco said, looking at Potter with a little concern, he was very pensive.
"Sorry," Potter shook his head, "Just something from the war."
"No," Draco said, leaning forward, "You've heard of it? What's it used for? I got as far as 'to re-house the soul' in Potions Moste Potente but that doesn't make sense, and they said that all the information was destroyed after the Dark Lord-"
"You're not kidding," Potter said, and Draco was pulled from his babbling. Potter had a very serious look. "Wait here," He said, and went to the floo.
Harry was back in a second with Draco's aunt Andromeda at his heels, she smiled politely but didn't stay, she led the young boys from the room, Harry followed them out again, and was back a moment later.
"Now, follow me, Malfoy."
Draco stood, following Harry up more stairs and into a room with a small desk and lots of cupboards.
"My office," He said, "it stays locked at all times." He said, locking the door behind him. "Alright, you know how I disappeared for a year?" Harry asked, Draco nodded.
"If memory serves you were busy breaking into Gringotts and being locked up in our cellar."
Harry chucked, conjuring a second seat and offering it to Draco. Draco sat.
"The Dark lord survived the first killing curse because he had a horcrux, a horcrux is made by tearing the soul in two and housing the second piece in a material object.
"Ew." Draco scrunched his nose up. Harry nodded. "Voldemort made seven," He said, "I was hunting down and destroying them."
"And the potion?" Draco pushed.
"Flesh, blood and bone potion was what gave Voldemort his body back. His snake face body was his father's bones, Wormtail's flesh and my blood."
Draco just looked at Harry, rendered almost speechless. "Why would someone feed that to a person?"
"What?" Harry snapped. Draco placed the almost empty vial on the desk.
"That's what it is, flesh blood and bone potion."
"Motherfucker." Harry said. "It has to be someone from the first war. Inner circle. Your father knew, Bellatrix knew, Dumbledore knew, I knew, the Gaunts, maybe but they were killed, Snape,"
"It wasn't you or Dumbledore, and Bellatrix is dead, Snape is dead, the Gaunt family is long dead. My father is in prison."
"The Lestrange brothers." Harry added. "Bellatrix had a horcrux in her Gringotts vault. And the diary Lucius gave to Ginny, that opened the Chamber of Secrets was a horcrux, they might have known what they were."
"My father didn't," Draco said, "He wouldn't have given a piece of the Dark Lords soul to the weaselette."
"Don't call her that."
"I could ask him," Draco offered. "He's the only real lead we have."
"What about the Lestrange brothers. Molly killed Bellatrix."
"They're too stupid."
"Wait. No, we're not looking for someone trying to make a horcrux, were looking for someone trying to bring somebody back!"
"Bellatrix?"
Harry nodded. "Her eyes, what colour were they?"
"Purple," Draco answered.
"All blacks have blue eyes." Harry said significantly, Draco gave him a look.
"Merlin, Malfoy, basic colour wheel, red and blue make purple. Bellatrix's eyes were turning red like-"
"Voldemort's."
"Exactly!"
"So you're saying-"
"They're trying to bring Bellatrix back, she must have made a Horcrux before she died."