Draco stared at the semi-detached house he had just Apparated to. He had to transform his clothes, before leaving so that he would not look odd as he was in a Muggle neighborhood. When he sent the owl off earlier he had not expected this to be the outcome. James Evans was too busy to come to the Ministry of Magic, so Draco had to make a social call. The house looked promising, somewhere he could envision a successful writer living. For he had done a fair bit of research into Mr Evans - three books, so far published, just like Weasley had told him. All of which had made the man a fair bit of money. Even though the book itself had quite a few grim details within its pages, Draco thought it was most likely witches who had brought the series ... well, who wouldn't want to read about a tall, dark and handsome Auror whose mission in life was to solve cases? For that was what Kai Mason was. The character in the book as at least six foot, dark brown hair, piercing blue-grey eyes, he had a rugged look about him as he often had stubble. Oh, Draco could envision many witches swooning over James Evans's character.

Draco knocked lightly on the door and waited patiently. A young woman may be a few years older than himself answers the door. Her blonde hair falls messily, there are bags under her brown eyes. She looked over his appearance and opened the door wider.

'You must be Auror, Malfoy,' she said. 'I'm sorry I made you come all the way here. I know you must have other things you need to be doing.'

Draco blinked at the woman, he had not expected this. Why would she reply to his letter? Did she work for this James Evans? Her appearance said otherwise. She was dressed in a plain blouse and skirt.

'I had some free time,' Draco replied smoothly. He felt like smirking and half wishing Weasley had been here to see this. 'It was no trouble, Miss? Mrs? ...'

'Mrs Perkins,' she said rubbing her eyes. 'Thank heavens,' she sighed, 'because I'm afraid my father is in no fit state to be moved.'

'Moved?' Draco repeated.

She blinked up at him. 'Yes, that's why I asked you to come here, you see -' she stopped herself, her eyes tearing up. 'Well it's best you come in and see for yourself -'

Draco stepped over the threshold and followed Mrs Perkins up the stairs. The inside of the house looked like a right state, there was laundry everywhere, papers scattered about. The pictures and portraits upon the wall were covered with thick dust.

'I'm sorry about the mess,' Mrs Perkins said, 'I haven't had much chance to clean - not now I've started to look after my father full time -'

The question Draco was about to ask, was answered for him, as she opened a door to one of the bedrooms. The bedroom would look like any other, if not for the added arm chair in which had a folded blanket upon the arm. In the middle of the bed lay a frail sleeping man ... his skin discoloured he looked oddly grey. His breathing was laboured.

'You can see now why I asked you to come here,' Mrs Perkins said. 'I did wonder why an Auror would have written an urgent letter to him - but then you weren't to know.'

Draco not knowing how to respond to this asked. 'How long has you're father been ill?'

'He's been battling whatever curse hit him for the last three years,' she said, shaking her head. 'Healers have no clue what it is. I'd figured I might as well bring him home if they could not help him. He's been steadily declining over the years ...' she turned her head towards him. Her expression was fierce though she had tears in her eyes. 'It hasn't been easy. I'll tell you that Auror Malfoy. I know you would have been death before ... considering your line of work, but have you ever had to watch everything you know and love about a person vanish from them? Have you had to watch as they slowly slip away into nothingness and know that there isn't a thing you can do to stop it? This is the hardest thing I've ever had to do ... watching someone I love die.'

'I can't say I have Mrs Perkins,' Draco responded softly. 'I'm sorry I wasted your time - the owl I sent clearly got the wrong person.'

Mrs Perkins laughed, a hand wiped away her tears. 'Sorry I needed that - you were after the author James Evans weren't you?'

Draco frowned.

'Oh, we used to get a lot of his fan post,' she explained, 'It used to annoy me - I even tried writing to him myself, the owl just came back here - had to get hold of the Wizarding Publishing Company, the publishers that print the book.' she pointed to the bedside table on which one of James Evans's book lay. 'All of them signed and they came with compensation - he did not need to but he still did something, he is a good man when you get hold of him - tell him that.'

'Thank you,' Draco said softly, 'for your time Mrs Perkins.'

Draco Apparated to Diagon Alley, ten minutes later, just outside the premises of Wizarding Publishing Company. Feeling irritated with himself. He should have done this straight away. But then how was he meant to know the owl would go astray. Stupid James Evans. To make matters worse as he goes to open the door to the publishing company, he finds to his annoyance that the publishing company is closed. He rubs his temple and forces himself to take a deep breath as he looked at the opening times. It was closed for the whole weekend, he would just have to come back first thing Monday morning. He checked his watch, it was almost six o'clock, Weasley was expecting him to show up at The Burrow in a hour and a half's time. At least Weasley was giving him a good excuse to be away from his mother.