Chapter 2

Draco had been asleep when the ground beneath him began to shake. He bolted up into a sitting position, and winced from the lingering pain in his side. He had to admit the work Granger had done on his body had healed a lot of the damage that had been done to him, but even magic had its limits. While pain potions would help relieve the remaining pain, though it was never a good idea to take too much as it could be addicting.

He sighed; it wasn't really anyone's fault that he was here in the first place, other than the suspect in a series of illegal operations that they had been investigating. After a number of reports of violent deaths in Knockturn Alley, the case had come to Harry and his desk. They had looked into it and found that each victim had bought a pendent from a merchant in the sketchy alley, which according to the Aurors who looked into the deaths, was the cause. The dark magic in the pendent was promised to boost one's magical energy, however it seemed to absorb all the power from the user, and drained their life force.

When they had gone undercover, trying to find the perpetrator, he had caught on that the two of them were Aurors, and sent several hexes Draco's way. While he had blocked them, he hadn't been expecting curses from the partner that neither he nor Harry knew he had. Thankfully it hadn't been for nothing, as the two schemers were safely locked away in Azkaban awaiting their trials.

It wasn't to say that he hadn't been in worse type situations in the past. Being an Auror had a lot of risks, but the fact that he was also a Death Eater in the past didn't seem to help. There were a lot of people that believed that he belonged behind bars, especially the people he was after. In fact, the culprits were far more likely to curse him over Harry. Unfortunately for them, Draco was well versed in dueling and it was very rare that one of the hexes thrown at him made their target.

It was bloody infuriating at times. There were days where he just wanted to say 'screw it', and run off to some tropical island and live out the rest of his days with his fortune. After all, he didn't need to work. The Malfoy fortune was raking up interest on its interest, and it was clear that several generations of the family line could live happily and extravagantly without even putting a dent into the fortune.

He could hear the commotion in the hall outside his room as the lights kept flickering around him. Whatever was happening was not normal. He sat up straighter in the bed, trying to make out what was happening. He grabbed his wand from the nightstand by instinct.

The entire thing lasted for maybe five minutes or so, but despite the minimal amount of time, he could tell that the damage it would have done was devastating. Areas closer to the origination of the source would have been hit far harder.

The wizarding world had been relatively calm over the last several years; there was the occasional thing that would cause the media to go on a frenzy for a few weeks, such as a string of large scale robberies or a few murders here or there. He had no way to assess the damage from the bed he was currently confined to, and it frustrated him beyond words.

It had barely been twenty minutes since the earthquake when Granger walked back into the room. She looked frazzled and tired. She had probably been in the middle of dinner with Potter when the entire thing had gone down and she had been called back into work. She had dark circles under her eyes, and he could tell from the stressed look on her face that she probably wouldn't be getting sleep any time soon.

"How bad is it?" he asked her as she made her way over to him.

She had his charts in her hand, as she flipped through a few pages. From the grim look on her face, he could tell that it wasn't looking too good. She grabbed her wand from her robe and cast a few spells on him wordlessly, and he figured she was checking his vitals.

"I don't know a lot about what's going on out there, but I do know that we've had more people checked into the hospital in the last ten minutes than we've had in two weeks. I know I wanted to keep you here until tomorrow, but I just can't afford to do that right now. I checked your charts and you're not showing any serious signs that imply that you need to stay here. Once I have some free time I'll catch up with you to make sure you're still doing fine, but for now I need to discharge you. Besides, Harry needs all the help he can get, and you're his partner," she said, looking worried for her friend.

"I'm free to go?" he raised his eyebrows at her sentence. He wasn't complaining, mind you; he was just really surprised that she was releasing him given how adamant she had been that he stayed in the first place. However given the current situation, he couldn't say he blamed her.

She nodded, "Just be careful, Malfoy. You're not completely healed yet, so don't run straight into the face of danger or anything like that. I know I can't stop you from going onto the field; Merlin knows the number of times I would have prevented Harry from doing something stupid if I had the chance. But be careful, okay?"

"Of course," he said, standing up slowly. She used her wand to summon his clothes, and handed him a neatly stacked pile of them. As she turned to leave, he couldn't help but call out to her, "Granger?"

"Yes?" she asked, sounding a bit surprised at his outburst.

"After all of this, can we talk? I haven't been able to clear the air with you after everything that's happened, and I would like a chance to do so," he said carefully. After all, he was working alongside her best friend, so it was only natural that they would run into each other every now and then.

She nodded, "Sure. I'll swing by the office one day, and we can talk then. But for now you should go. Harry needs you."

After Hermione had discharged Malfoy, she stared at the stack of files she had in her hand. What she didn't understand is how something that lasted for the span of five minutes could have caused so many people to wind up in the hospital. There were so many injuries; more than she had seen in her entire career as a healer. There were people with severed limbs, objects punctured through their bodies, broken bones, and internal bleeding. Not to mention the number of casualties that had occurred.

She was stressed out; more stressed out than she had been when she wrote her NEWTs. Despite all the on-call Healers at the hospital, there were so many patients, and she had no idea how they were going to attend to everyone on time. It had gotten to the point where they had to assign the training healers the lighter cases, just so they would be freed up to take on the heavier, more life threatening ones.

After the earthquake had struck, she knew it was a matter of time before she was called back into work. Harry and Ron had left almost immediately, to go assess the level of damage and figure out what needed to be done. She had stayed a while longer to talk to Ginny and make sure her friend was okay, and to check on the baby quickly to make sure the magical phenomenon hadn't caused the baby and harm. Luckily enough, both Ginny and the baby were fine, leaving Hermione free to go work. She had sent her friend over to the Burrow, so that in case anything did happen, her mother would be there to tend to Ginny.

It was times like these when she was both grateful and annoyed that she wasn't getting the firsthand experience of the action. Being on the sidelines meant that she had no firsthand knowledge of what was happening in the world. She hated not knowing what was happening out there, and it scared her. For all she knew, the world could be ending, and she was stuck in this hospital.

But at the same time, she couldn't handle seeing anymore war. It had nearly devastated her to live through the first time, which was half the reason she couldn't be an Auror herself. All the loss and the pain had hurt her incredibly. And she really did enjoy what she did for a living.

"Healer Granger, we need you in Operation Room 4," a training healer called out for her as she popped her head into the room to talk to her.

Hermione placed her files down on the table and began to prep for surgery. It was going to be a long, long day.

Draco entered the meeting room, carrying two cups of coffee in his hand. As soon as he had been discharged, he came straight to the office to try and figure out what was happening all around them.

"Malfoy! Oh good you're here," his partner said with relief as he spotted Draco. He approached his partner and handed him one of the cups of coffee, "I wasn't quite sure Hermione would spring you, but I guess given the current situation, there wasn't a lot she could do."

"How bad is it?" Draco asked softly as he sat in one of the chairs. The room was filling in, with all spare Aurors who weren't out on the field.

"It's not looking good. I don't know the full details at the moment, but from what I've heard there's a lot of devastation out there," Harry said grimly.

Draco was about to respond when Kingsley called the room to order.

"As you all know, a few hours ago, an earthquake hit the British Isles causing damage to several parts of England. It was not a naturally caused phenomenon, as in the past those have been nowhere at the level that this incident was. On top of that, the magical activity surrounding the even was off the charts. We've had reports of surges of magical power in some witches and wizards, while others were left temporarily without any powers at all," Kingsley's low voice rumbled out.

As the former head of the Auror department, and the current Minister of Magic, Kinglsey took on the role of supervision during devastations such as these. There was a silent air to the room as he spoke with aurthority.

"What is the current damage report?" Kingsley asked, directing his question to one of the senior Aurors.

"Several buildings have collapsed from the quake, the Thames river has flooded, wiping out the nearby streets completely. The Muggles have lost their electricity completely, and the latest report claims that they don't know when they'll have everything working again. According to my contact at St. Mungos, there's been at least thirty deaths as of this moment, and several others in critical care at the hospital. In addition to this, there's a wide spread panic as no one knows what is happening, so we need to issue a statement in the near future to prevent fear from overruling the country," the Auror said, looking up from her papers as she spoke.

"I want you to get on a press release," Kingsley directed her, "Something that confirms that we don't know much as if this moment, but also assures the masses that we're working on figuring out what's happening and preventing further damage from occurring. Work with the public relations people to make sure the wording doesn't cause further panic. We need to keep the public calm, as their distress could only serve to further hinder us from figuring out what is happening."

The Auror nodded as she walked out of the room to complete the task that had been assigned to her.

"Have we seen anything like this in the past?" Kingsley asked another Auror.

"In 1382, there was a report of an Earthquake with damage on a level less than this, however the surges of power were reported to be a thing during the quake as well. There are a few other cases, but again, nothing has been on this level in the past," an Auror across from Draco stated as he ran his fingers through his hair. He could see the exhaustion on the man's face, and knew personally just how tired he felt at the moment.

"Do we know the causes of those earthquakes?" Kingsley inquired.

"No," the Auror shook his head, "The aftermath was the only thing recorded in each case, as they never did find a source.

"Do we have an originating source for the Earthquake?" Kinglsey asked, the stress seeping through his voice as he spoke.

One of the Aurors at the back responded, "I measured all the points that were impacted to see if it could be used to trace the source, and found a pattern I plotted the data, as the areas closer to the origination source seemed to have been hit the hardest. I triangulated the source and found the location," he said, hesitating slightly as his eyes flickered to Draco.

"And?" Kingsley prompted, somewhat impatiently.

"The source seems to be at Malfoy Manor," the Auror said, shirking away from the table.

A bunch of angry mutters began to fill through the room, as silent accusations began to spread.

"It wasn't me," Draco protested, "I was in the hospital since yesterday afternoon. Harry personally checked me in, and I came straight here once I was released."

"No one's accusing you Mr. Malfoy," Kingsley tried to get the room back into order.

"Like hell we aren't," a younger Auror stated, "We all know his position in the war. Maybe he's been biding his time since then, and decided to strike now. He probably got himself admitted to the hospital to give himself an alibi for the crime."

There were quite a few shouts of agreement in the room, causing Draco's stomach to drop. It hurt slightly to know that even after all his years of service, people would be able to turn on him easily for the mistakes he had made as a child, and that the people he worked with didn't really care to know him at all. The one thing that gave him hope was Harry's annoyed face through all of it.

A large portion of him was tempted to snap back and make some sort of remark that they were all a bunch of idiots. Who the hell did they think they were to keep questioning his motives after all the bloody years he had put into his work. They were a bunch of lunatics, that's what. He could see Potter stiffen beside him at the remark, and a semi-silent look from his partner kept him quiet. After all, there was a larger picture at play.

"Silence!" Kingsley's voice called out through the room, quieting everyone immediately. "I do not believe Mr. Malfoy was involved, and any problems you have with him, you either get over it, or find somewhere else to work. I will not tolerate such disrespect for you again. Now, Mr. Malfoy, that being said, something has occurred at your home. I would like you and Mr. Potter to lead a small team of Aurors to the site and try and find the source. This is to be an observation only mission. Do not engage with the source unless you are certain it is harmless, and even then take caution. I expect you back with the details shortly."

Draco stood alongside his partner as they left the room. Harry summoned a few other Aurors before he left, including Weasley to come with them.

"We can't apparate directly to the Manor because of wards, but we can apparate to the grounds outside the perimeter," Draco informed the team. "Once we get there, we'll proceed with caution."

The Aurors nodded, as they held onto their wands and apparated onto the premise. Once there, Draco began to head up the house. Since the war, he and his mother had redecorated the entire grounds, hoping to brighten up the place, given it's dark history. He lifted a few of the wards to allow the present company onto his land.

"I hope you know that Auror was out of line," Harry said, catching up to him. Weasley wasn't far behind, but he nodded in agreement. While the two of them still weren't on friendly terms, they respected the other.

"It's fine," Draco said, not really wanting to talk about it.

"No it isn't," Harry disagreed, but he didn't push it any further, and for that Draco was grateful.

The charms around the house seemed to keep it from being affected by the quake, but the grounds weren't as lucky. The further he walked toward the gardens, the darker and drier the grass began to look. Several of the shrubs had been uprooted and the flowers had looked as if Dementors had sucked the life out of them. It would probably take weeks to restore the gardens to their former glory. Draco was just relieved that his mother had been away from the house at the time.

"Do you see that?" Weasley pointed out, and Draco followed his finger with his eyes. He saw what appeared to be a large pit at the middle of the gardens.

"Stay here," Harry informed the Aurors behind them as a precautionary measure. Draco held his wand tightly in his hand as they slowly approached the hole, not quite sure what they would find inside. Somehow, in that pit was the reason for all the desolation that had occurred a short while ago.

As he, Weasley, and Potter stood at the edge of the pit, they peered in to see what was inside. What he was not expecting was to see three small children appearing to be arguing inside. However once the children saw the three older men above them, they stopped arguing immediately. He took the opportunity to study the children's features, causing him to gasp as realization hit him hard in the chest. The three children in the pit appeared to be younger versions of the three older men standing above them. It appeared as Harry and Weasley hit similar conclusions as he saw their eyes widen.

He didn't have a lot of time to draw conclusions, but he could tell right away that the children weren't past versions of themselves. He would remember if this had happened to him. In addition, there were tiny features on all of the children that didn't quite match what the older men had.

Before he could make any more assessments, the blond child that appeared to have been a mini version of him to look directly at Draco, locking eyes with him, before saying, "Dad?"