Chapter 17

Draco had been playing with the children when the call came in. It's strange to think about how everything can be so seemingly normal one moment, and the next, be tossed into a chaotic frenzy. But that was exactly how it felt to him. In his few years of serving on the force, he had gotten his fair share of calls while he was at home, for a case or another which required several Aurors to be present due to the severity of the case. But lately it seemed as if every call he got was related to one thing, and one alone.

Which was why his first instinct was to immediately jump up and grab his wand, ready to go charge into battle. The logical part of him knew that he was being unreasonable; that there were plenty of possible reasons for the call, other than that in relationship to the reason why their children came back. It wasn't as if all other murderers and fanatics were simply going to pause temporarily until they solved their case. But with that said, he couldn't ignore the sinking feeling he felt in his chest as he heard about the body, wondering why all of this was even happening.

Harry and Ron had gotten the same floo call, so he knew the extent of the damage was bad, but he hoped it wasn't something that would bring panic to the masses.

When he arrived on the scene, there was a crowd surrounding the body. Those who hadn't fled in the mass panic which he knew had occurred, had stayed back to watch the aftermath. He looked around the crowd, scanning them to see if anyone looked particularly pleased with what had happened; after all, it was logical to assume that the person responsible had stayed behind to see what the extent of the damage they caused was.

He saw Hermione standing over the body, as a crowd of Aurors held back the masses from coming too close. When she saw them, she looked up with a grim expression on her face.

The body was burnt pretty badly, and he knew that there would be no chance of an identification through simply looking at the body. There were spells that one could cast to help undo the damage, but then it would prevent you from identifying what spells had been cast over the person to result in their demise.

"You shouldn't be here," Harry told her softly, as he pulled her into a hug. She was visibly shaken from the body, and he couldn't help but wonder if half the reason she never became an Auror, despite helping Harry bring down Voldemort, was due to trauma she experienced in the war. "What happened to Oliver?"

"I sent him home," she said shakily into his chest, "He didn't want to leave, but I told him that I was assisting you in an investigation, and that I was more than capable of taking care of myself."

"Did you see what happened?" Ron asked her, placing a hand on her back.

He watched on as they interacted. During his years at Hogwarts, he often knew that the trio were close in their friendship, but there was something about witnessing it up close (without attempting to make a snide remark about something or the other) that made one realize just how much they cared about each other. Despite none of them being blood relatives, and the old relationship between Ron and Hermione, the three of them were family, through and through.

She shook her head in response, "I was at a nearby restaurant when I heard the commotion, and came outside to see what happened, and saw the body here. I sent a patronus to Kingsley, so he could inform all of you about what had happened. But the victim was already dead when I got here; there was nothing I could do to save him."

"Do you know who the victim is?" he couldn't help but ask for the first time since he had arrived. She stiffened up as he talked to her, and he could tell she was still annoyed by his reaction earlier, so he made a mental note to apologise when they had a moment alone.

"Clarence Bigby," she said softly, "I cast an identification spell. I can't tell you any more about him, without having access to a lab, with potions and such, but even then, I'm not the most qualified for this sort of stuff anyways."

He nodded in response, as he jotted down the name onto a page of spare parchment.

"I'll organize getting a few Aurors to look over the crime scene, and see if they can find any sort of clues left behind, but it looks more like this was the dumpsite for the body, than the place of death based on the lack of scorch marks on the ground surrounding the body," Harry informed them. "Ron, clear out the crowd so we have full, undisrupted access to the scene, and Draco, get Hermione home safely, then come into the lab," he said, giving him a meaningful look.

While they all knew the case was probably related to the same one they were privately working on, they would have to go through the proper channels, keeping the information they had about the earthquake private. It wouldn't do them any good to release that information. But with that said, solving homicides wasn't exactly in Hermione's job description as much as it was in theirs.

Draco nodded in understanding, as he started to lead Hermione away from the crime scene, only to have her pull away from him in anger.

"I don't need you to get me home like some sort of hopeless person," she said, eyes flashing. "I can do it myself."

"I know," he informed her. "I was just hoping I could talk to you, and to apologise for what I said earlier. I had no right to say what I did, and that you would ever endanger Scorpius. I know you're far more responsible than that; you're probably the most capable than I am. Nor did I have the right to imply you simply wanted to, well, you know," he trailed off uncomfortably, referring to her only wanting to get laid. "It was insensitive of me."

She gave him a small smile, "I appreciate it," she said softly. "Besides, you were on medication and injured, so I shouldn't have been so harsh in my reaction. It wasn't completely your fault."

He grinned at that, "Let's blame the drugs then, shall we?" causing her to laugh aloud, before sobering up. He held up an arm to her to hold on to while the two of them apparated to the house.

"The attacks are getting worse," she said softly when they arrived, "First there were the attacks, simply causing the victims to lose their memories of what happened, and now this?"

"It's escalading isn't it?" he said. "In the other timeline, there were a few more years before bodies started appearing. So what happened to cause it to start now?"

"The earthquake," Hermione said, eyes widening, "It was why they tried to break in to the office to steal the files. So what if they got frustrated when they tried to find something, and couldn't, and that was why the body turned up?"

His eyes flashed protectively to where Scorpius was blissfully and ignorantly playing in the other room. It wasn't as personal before, because while he knew there was a good chance he would have died in the other timeline, his child was never in explicit danger. And it still hurt knowing he would never have that child who Hermione was pregnant with.

"They won't get him, she said firmly, "They won't get any of our children. I'll sooner die than let any of them get hurt."

He nodded in agreement, "I know," he said agreement. "Now, take it easy, for a little while, okay? I need to go back to the office and help them out in any way I can."

She started to protest, and he knew that she wanted to do something to help, for it was in her nature to do so, but he raised a hand to stop her. "There's nothing you can do," he said softly, placing his hands on her shoulders. "I know you want to help, but the best way you can do that is staying at home with the children. Besides, if something ever happened and someone was hurt, I would be in the same predicament as you are, because while I might have some knowledge on how to help, I'm nowhere near as qualified as you are in saving their lives."

Hermione sighed in defeat, "Fine. But owl me if you find out anything, okay? I don't want to be left in the dark, and I know Ginny doesn't want to be either."

"I promise, I'll owl you the moment I know enough to give you a good amount of details. But I'll do you one better, and stop by the house and let you know about anything and everything I find out, okay?"

She nodded in agreement, "Good. I'm going to hold you to that. And if you don't keep your promise, well Ron and Harry can tell you how I'll probably react."

He grinned at that, "I'll take your word for it, Granger. I'll see you in a little bit, okay?" and with that he headed to the floo.

When he arrived back at the Auror's office, the entire place seemed to be filled with motion. There were several Aurors gathered around the briefing board, where they placed information they deemed to be relevant to the case. When Harry saw him enter, he gave him a nod of acknowledgement before starting to speak.

"Today at 6:45, Clarence Bigby was found murdered in the centre of Diagon Alley," Harry started. "He was already dead when the first witnesses came onto scene, describing it as the body simply appearing out of nowhere. This could be through using an invisibility cloak or a disillusionment charm to go undetected."

"Do we have a cause of death?" one of the nearby Aurors who was bulging at the waist, Jenkins, asked Harry.

While Draco didn't know very much about the man, Jenkins, he knew that the Auror was one of the first to give him a chance when he first joined the field. And for that, Draco had always been grateful. He remembered the Auror telling him that blood was blood, but it didn't determine who you were as a person, unless you let it.

"We just received the preliminary autopsy results, and it seems as if the victim was tortured brutally first, probably through the use of several unforgivables from initial examination, but after was burned alive," Harry said grimly.

"That's just horrible!" A younger female Auror said with a gasp, "I was just talking to him the other day!"

"You knew the victim?" Ron said sharply, causing the girl to look at him with wide eyes.

"Yeah?" she said in confusion, "He worked here part times as a clerical assistant on weekends, and some nights. I thought you knew."

Harry's eyes met his partners, and instantly he knew what Harry was thinking. It couldn't be a coincidence that a file goes missing at work, and a day later, a body turns up, an employee, tortured and murdered. The only question was whether Clarence was in on it, or if he had been imperiused into doing so.

"I'll do a full background check on the victim," Ron said, catching on, "See if I can find out what made him a target, or if it was a random selection."

Harry nodded in agreement, "I'm not sure there's much else the rest of us can do tonight. If a couple of you could stay back and help us run leads, it's safe to say the rest of you can go home and get some rest."

Draco walked towards the front to get a better look at the board; it appeared that it was going to be a very, very long night

Hermione made her way down the stairs after tucking in the boys. Ginny was upstairs resting with them as well, seeing how both the stress of what had been happening lately, and the pregnancy were taking their tolls on her. Hermione had assured her friend that she didn't mind getting the boys to bed, seeing how she had done it several times when Hermione and the guys were working, and insisted that Ginny get some rest herself.

As she entered the sitting room, she turned in surprise as she heard the floo sound, to see Molly standing on the other side.

"Hermione, dear, are you okay?" Molly asked her frantically, as she stepped out of the fireplace to pull Hermione into a tight hug. "I got a letter from Ron letting me know what happened, and I needed to check on you to make sure you were alright. From what I understand, you were in Diagon Alley when it happened!"

Hermione smiled at the matron, "I'm fine, Molly, thanks for asking."

While the Weasley family had always been there for her as she was growing up, after her parents had given her that ultimatum, she had noticed the Weasleys insisted on being there for her and had somehow found a way to treat her more of a daughter than before. She never minded it; it was rather nice to have a family that accepted both sides of who she was, without treating her any differently for it.

"Good," Molly said, as she reached into her purse and brought out several tiny containers. "I thought I would drop off some food for the next few days; I had a feeling that it was about to get much busier here, and that it would be of some help if you didn't have to worry about cooking on top of everything else."

"You didn't need to do that," Hermione protested, as she accepted the food. "But thank you so much, Molly. I don't know what we would do without your help."

And it was true. For Molly had dropped by several times already, not only to meet all her grandchildren, despite Scorpius not technically being her grandchild, but to also help the rest of them out every now and then.

"Nonsense," Molly said with a shake of her hand as she placed the food in the fridge after resizing it, and turned to face her. "Hermione, dear, are you doing alright? No just physically, but you look like you could use someone to talk to."

Hermione debated it for a few seconds before relenting, "I guess it's just the stress of it all," she started softly, as Molly ushered her over to the table before heading to the stove to place a kettle over the heat to brew some tea.

"Oh?" Molly asked her softly as she sat down beside her.

"I started seeing someone," Hermione confessed. "Today was our first date. And the thing is, it was going really well until we were interrupted. For a few brief moments, I saw a future with him."

"So what appears to be the problem?" Molly asked her, once she paused.

"This," she said, gesturing to the general air around her, "That if we ever got serious enough, then I have to tell him everything. About the children, about why they're here, about Draco. And what if he doesn't want to stick around through all of that? It's a lot of baggage to ask anyone to take on."

"And if someone cared about you enough to want a future with you, then it is something they would gladly take on," Molly said wisely. "After nearly four decades of marriage, if there's one thing I learned, it's that one person's burdens are never their own. You share it with your significant other, for better or for worse. And if this gentleman you went on a date with doesn't accept it, then he's not the right man for you."

"But I could also be putting all the children in danger if I tell him," she said softly. "What if it somehow gets hurt? Draco owled me about the body; they think there's a connection between a break in at the Aurors' office and the person who was murdered. If someone went to that extent simply to find out about the earthquake, what are they going to do when they find out about the children? I can't let that happen."

Molly nodded in understanding, "I know what you're feeling, Hermione. I had nine months to prepare for being a mother, but it was thrust to you overnight. And you're doing a wonderful job already. Trust yourself, and your gut. If you don't think this man is trustworthy enough to tell him, then he's probably also not trustworthy enough for you to have a future with. But at the same time, if you feel like he is, then take a leap of faith. Everything that happens always happens for a reason, and if for some reason, he turn out not to be the man for you, then there is another wonderful man out there. And who knows, he might be closer than you think."

Hermione took in the older woman's words of wisdom as she spoke, realizing just how right she was. She leaned forward and gave her a hug.

"Thank you for being here for me, Molly. It really means a lot that despite Ron and I not working out, you never treated me any differently than if I was your own blood daughter."

Molly looked slightly caught off guard, but hugged her back nonetheless, "My sweet child, always. And if your own parents can't ever see what a brilliant daughter they lost the chance of having in their lives, you should know that you'll always have a family with us."

She smiled at the older woman, as she stood to steep the tea. For one of the first times since the children had come back, Hermione could say that she was able to look to the future hopefully, and that maybe, just maybe, everything would turn out okay.