Ch 3 The "Escape"
Harry went into the office at seven in the morning. Cho Chang was sitting at her cubical, and as soon as she saw him she told him, "I am going home."
Harry went into his office, and looked at his copy of the map that showed the Ministry. The witch and wizard that had captured Cleo and Scorpius were not in the holding cells.
Hermione and several other strained looking staff members were just arriving as Harry stepped out of his office.
"I don't like this," Hermione sighed, biting her lip in agitation. "The more time that passes from an initial kidnapping the less of a chance of finding the people kidnapped. A couple of the leads looked promising, but nothing amounted to anything. Those two could be anywhere in the world by now."
"I know," Harry replied, giving her a one armed hug.
Albus, Cleo and Scorpius Apparated to the chosen spot on the banks of The River Otter. Albus burned Cleo's arm right at the wrist first. She rushed into the river and put her arm under the water, agony on her face. Albus proceeded to do the same to Scorpius, who almost passed out, before rushing into the river. The two ran into the brambles, their clothes and skin tearing. Cleo kicked her shoes off, and Scorpius did as well, removing one sock in the process.
The two looked a mess, and were obviously in agony.
Albus waved his wand, doing something to make both of them even dirtier and messier.
"Can you still Apparate?" Albus asked, very worried that he had burned them too deeply.
"Yes," Cleo replied, as she grabbed Scorpius and disappeared.
Albus destroyed both pairs of shoes and the one sock, and collected what was left. He put the remains in a plastic pouch, and then walked into the New Burrow.
"You never saw me," he told his grandmother as he took the Floo to thirteen Grimmauld Place. She blinked at the Floo, was that Albus?
Ginny walked out of twelve Grimmauld Place at Eight. Sue Shook was there to meet her. Cindy Hudson and her photographer and husband Henry were also there. "I'm trying to document what people are doing to try and find Scorpius and Cleo," Cindy told Sue as several other people peered out of their homes trying to see what the commotion was about.
Henry had not finished setting up his camera when Cleo and Scorpius appeared, collapsing on the ground in pain and exhaustion. As a result, the images he recorded were a little shaky at first, as he tried to focus in on what was happening.
"Mum, Mum Ginny," Cleo yelled. "St. Mungo's. We're burned."
Ginny looked in horror at the shape of the two. "Let's take the Floo right now!" she exclaimed. Ginny and Mitzi levitated the two into the kitchen, Ginny yelled, "St. Mungo's, Emergency," and threw Floo powder into the flames. She pushed Cleo and then Scorpius through the Floo, before she and Mitzi followed.
Henry took his camera and panned around the entire large garden area between Grimmauld Place and NewBright Street, recording as many of the beings looking on as he could. Then he packed up his equipment, and he and his wife rushed into twelve Grimmauld Place to take the Floo to St. Mungo's.
Ginny was standing at the entrance of the Emergency Department of St. Mungo's when Cindy and Henry arrived. Scorpius and Cleo were nowhere to be seen.
Ginny saw Cindy and Henry, and conjured her Patronus. "Harry, they have escaped, but they are seriously hurt," Ginny exclaimed. "We are at St. Mungo's."
Henry recorded Ginny as she conjured her Patronus and sent it to Harry.
Harry was looking at one of the more promising leads when he received Ginny's Patronus. He called his most trusted memory witch into his office, closed the door, and darkened the windows. Then he told her, "I am going to take you to St. Mungo's to get memories from Cleo and Scorpius. I do not want you to try and examine their memories, and when asked about what you found you need to say that everything you found is confidential."
"There is obviously more going on than you are going to tell me," the witch noted.
"Obviously," Harry agreed. The two left his office at a quick run.
"I need two guards to come with me. Scorpius and Cleopatra have escaped, but Ginny is with them at St. Mungo's," Harry yelled to Hermione and the other people in the office. "I need to go there right now! It does not sound good."
What do we do now, Harry," Hermione asked, noticing the two running.
"You are vice-Minister, and Kingsley is here. You are my bosses. Figure it out," Harry replied. "I'm going to try and find out what happened to Cleo and Scorpius."
Just then Kingsley walked in. Harry left with the memory witch.
"Cleo and Scorpius are at St. Mungo's, hurt," Hermione told her boss. "I expect we should tell the Wizard Wireless Network. Ginny will make sure it is in the Daily Prophet tonight."
Kingsley turned to an assistant. "Get me an all hands airplane." The witch handed Kingsley a piece of paper. He wrote, Cleopatra and Scorpius have apparently escaped, and are at St. Mungo's. More information will be forthcoming as we learn more.
Kingsley touched the paper with his wand, and it duplicated itself numerous times and took off through the Ministry.
"I can Apparate to the Wizard Wireless Network," one of the DMLE officers volunteered.
"Come back after you are done," Kingsley replied firmly. The witch left for a Ministry Apparition point at a jog.
"I think we should continue to receive these leads," Hermione proposed, motioning to the papers that still fluttered around the office. "There may still be something useful in all this trash. We will have a better idea what we are looking for after Harry talks to Cleo and Scorpius."
"I agree," Kingsley responded.
"I will assign a couple of DMLE administrative staff to tend Hermione's file," Arthur volunteered.
"I think that is a good idea, Arthur," Kingsley replied.
Harry Potter, with the Memory witch and a couple of Aurors who were to guard Cleopatra and Scorpius, walked into the Emergency Department of St. Mungo's, and told the triage healer, "I need to see Cleopatra and Scorpius right now."
"But they are with a healer!"
"NOW! Lead me to them!"
Harry told the memory witch, "Wait here," then walked past the triage healer and strode into the department, Ginny and Mitzi following.
A couple of healers saw Harry, and pointed to a room. Harry walked in, the guards taking up stations outside the door.
Two healers were in the room, working on the burns, which were resisting healing. "Do you know what caused these burns?" one of them asked Harry.
"Everything that goes on with these two is confidential," Harry insisted. "I will be back shortly."
Harry took the Floo to twelve Grimmauld Place, and found Albus. "Can you tell the healers how you burned Cleo and Scorpius, so they can better heal them?" he asked.
"I think I burned them deeper than I intended to," Albus replied. "I probably ought to go with you."
"Get under the invisibility cloak," Harry told his son. Albus did, and the two of them went back to St. Mungo's.
Harry told the healers, "I want any information about Scorpius and Cleo's injuries to be kept strictly confidential. There must not be any files on what you did, or what caused the injuries, except for files that are going to be kept at the Ministry. I want you to promise me that, and I want to perform spells to prevent you from speaking about your treatment or what you found out except in the vaguest ways.
"Why?" one of the healers wondered.
"I'm not going to tell you why, but eventually, if everything works out, you should understand. If we are successful, I will let you know, and if we are not I am afraid that many people will die," Harry stressed.
"Let us heal these burns first," the healer proposed.
Albus told the healers how he had burned his friends. "I needed to make it appear that they burned off a metal handcuff right at their wrists," he explained. "It takes a lot of heat to melt steel."
The healer was horrified. "We can restore all the function of the hands, but both of them will have scars on and around their wrists."
"Badge of honor," Scorpius scoffed, grateful for the numbing salve that they were now putting on the burns.
"I've never been any ravishing beauty," Cleo volunteered, through her tears, Albus went over and touched her foot, which was the only safe place of hers to touch that wasn't surrounded by healers. "We need to make Jezebel think we escaped."
"That explains the nature of some of the scratches, and why you don't look like people who have endured two days of capture," the healer proposed.
"Everything is confidential," Harry stressed.
Harry walked out of the Emergency Department. He found Cindy and Henry, and nodded in agreement as Henry took out his camera to record what Harry was going to say.
"Scorpius and Cleopatra have escaped, but both are severely burned and have other injuries," Harry announced. "I am going in with a memory witch to see if we can figure out what happened. I will let The Daily Prophet know when Cleo and Scorpius are ready to be released from the hospital."
He and the memory witch went back into the Emergency Department, and entered the room where Scorpius and Cleo were being treated. Ginny was scowling in a corner of the treatment area, and Albus was obviously very concerned.
"Did you really have to burn them that badly?" Ginny asked Albus.
"If they had burned off the handcuffs, probably," Albus replied, guilt all over his face and voice. "I should have burned them a little less, though. I'm sorry." Albus and Ginny were both looking at Cleo and Scorpius with concern.
"Remember, everything you hear and see is confidential," Harry told the witch. He waited as the witch and wizard healers worked on Scorpius and Cleo.
After about half an hour, the two healers told the assembled group, "We have done the best we can to heal these burns. The rest of the injuries are really very superficial."
"Will the burns leave a scar?" Scorpius wondered as he stared at the bandages on his wrist.
"Very minor ones," the healer responded. "You will probably be able to notice the difference between your two arms, but it will not be very noticeable. It will take a couple of days before your hands work quite as well as before, but functionally they should be totally better."
"Can you leave a rather ugly looking one, and heal it later?" Scorpius asked.
"I cannot, but we have a healer her who works with the Department of Magical Law Enforcement on disguises. He might be able to. I can call him for a consultation, since he is rather good at healing scars as well."
"Yes, please," Harry told the healer.
"Breaking News, Breaking News," the Wizarding Wireless Network announced. "Scorpius Malfoy and Cleopatra Smith have allegedly escaped. They are injured, and are being treated at St. Mungo's. More information will be released as we receive it."
Word spread quickly through the community of Magi in Great Britain and beyond.
"Scorpius and Cleopatra can leave now," one of the healers announced.
"Can you keep them in a secure room, telling people they are healing from injuries?" Harry asked. "You are not going to comment on what or how badly their injuries are."
One of the healers replied, "I can have them moved on stretchers." The disguise wizard added, "I can make them look reasonably rough when they are moved."
"May I have Henry Hudson photograph them being moved?" Harry asked.
"That can be arranged."
Scorpius and Cleopatra were levitated out of the treatment room, each with an ugly looking arm visible, looking like each had lost a fight, bruised and exhausted. Henry Hudson took photographs as they left the treatment room, making sure to focus on the wrist where it could give the appearance of the handcuffs being burned off. Ginny and Mitzi followed, and Harry told the camera, "Ginny is going to be spending the night with Cleo and Scorpius."
The two were taken to a secure room, with four beds, the Auror guards standing vigil outside the door.
Harry took the memory witch back to the Ministry. "You are going to spend the rest of the day in an office recording the memories that you did not get," he told her, "and then when anyone ask you anything say it is confidential.
"I understand," the memory witch replied. She went to her cubical, performed some privacy spells, and wrote a lot of nothing in a rather large document.
"Narcissa is in the waiting area, and wants to see you," Mary Lou told Harry as soon as she could get his attention.
"Send her into my office," Harry replied. "Have someone take a photograph of her going into my office. I want to document that I spent some time talking to her."
"Yes, Harry," Mary Lou replied.
Narcissa was led into the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and into Harry's office. Harry closed the door and again darkened the windows.
"How are they, Harry," Narcissa asked.
"The children look worse than they are," Harry replied. "They are going to stay in St. Mungo's overnight. Ginny is with them, along with Frerin. Dis and WJ are in the Elf area of St. Mungo's. They will recover, but from what I can gather the portkey that took the children to the holding area in the ministry went through anti-Apparition spells and it was rather rough on the Elves.
"I want to keep Scorpius and Cleo at Grimmauld Place until they go back to Hogwarts. From what you know of your obligations, is that acceptable."
"Trying to kidnap my grandson voids any agreement I may have made," Narcissa growled. "I don't know what type of agreement Lucius and Draco made, but that's not my problem at the moment. I will visit them at Grimmauld Place before they go to Hogwarts. Meanwhile I will leave you here. I am sure you are busy."
Scorpius Malfoy and Cleopatra Smith Escape the Thursday headline in the Daily Prophet read.
Yesterday morning, about eight, Scorpius and Cleopatra appeared in the garden area of twelve Grimmauld Place. They were both badly injured, and were immediately transported to St. Mungo's. This paper has attempted to find out where they were, how they were injured, and how they escaped. Harry Potter and the entire Ministry is being exceptionally reluctant to reveal any details of their capture, their escape, or their injuries. The best evidence we have is the photographs.
As far as we know, Scorpius and Cleopatra are still recovering at St. Mungo's.
We also know that two Elves disappeared from the Malfoy living room at about the same time. We do have a source that has told us that the Malfoy Elf WJ is apparently still not back at Malfoy Manor. We have been told that the Elves are recovering at St. Mungo's, but beyond that we have no idea what took place. Harry Potter and the Ministry will not reveal any more information.
The article included a couple of photographs taken in the garden area behind Grimmauld Place, a photograph of Ginny sending a Patronus to Harry telling him that the children were at St. Mungo's, and two photographs of the two children being transported out of the emergency department towards the room where they spent the night. One of the photographs was a close up of the wrist scars.
"Our editor is rather upset that neither Ginny nor I would give the paper any more details," Cindy told Harry Potter mid-morning. "We ended up with several suggestive photographs but almost no facts."
Cindy scowled, "Rita has a page three piece saying that there are apparently a wanted witch and wizard that the Ministry has not been able to capture. I made just enough fuss about not publishing failures of the Aurors, when they were still working on it, that I think Rita believes the witch and wizard escaped."
"I am going over to St. Mungo's to accompany Ginny and the children to Grimmauld Place," Harry told Cindy. "I will let you know, so you can photograph well-guarded children being released."
Late morning Harry left for St. Mungo's. He first went up to the Elf floor, where he talked to the Elf Florence.
"They will recover," Florence told Harry, "but we want to keep Dis another day and WJ over the weekend."
"Their job is to recover, not to serve," Harry confirmed. "Let both of them know I was here, and thank them for their help."
Harry then went to the room where Cleo and Scorpius, plus Ginny and Mitzi, were staying.
"I talked St. Mungo's into giving all of us a good meal before we leave," Harry told the rest. "You are staying at Grimmauld Place until it is time to go to Hogwarts," he told Cleo and Scorpius.
"I'm a prefect, and need to ride the train," Scorpius insisted.
"You and Rose will be guarded, but you will ride the train," Harry responded. "I have the disguise healer coming after lunch. He will make it look like your walk out of the hospital is rather painful, and I am going to send you to Grimmauld Place in a Ministry automobile."
A rather rough looking Scorpius and Cleopatra limped out of St. Mungo's, Henry Hudson and several other photographers there to take photographs. Both of them had one arm in a sling, and other indications of healed scars. They and their guards walked to a Ministry automobile, entered it, and the automobile drove away.
The Automobile eventually arrived at Grimmauld Place, drove into the underground garage, and parked next to twelve Grimmauld Place. All but the driver exited the vehicle and entered the underground level of the Potter's home. Harry led Cleo and Scorpius upstairs, where Albus and Rose were waiting for them.
Albus looked in horror as Scorpius and Cleo took off the slings, and each revealed a rather nasty looking scar. "Did I really do that much damage?" he wondered.
"A healer who is a master of disguises did this," Scorpius explained. "I intend to keep this on until we confront Cleo's great-grandmother Jezebel, but after that it the healer can remove almost all of the disguise. Someone looking closely at our two wrists will be able to see a little difference, but there will not be any big scarring or anything."
"I would like to get your memories of the capture," Harry told the pair. "We still have no idea where you were taken. Dis should be back sometime this weekend, but WJ will not be released from St. Mungo's until sometime next week. I am not sure if either of them will be able to tell us where they went, which is very unusual."
"When WJ grabbed the portkey and we Apparated to the Ministry it was very rough," Scorpius confirmed. "What happened to the wizard who came along with me?"
"A wizard came along with you?" Harry asked. "I don't remember any wizard coming along with you, and you should not remember that either."
"Yes, sir," Scorpius replied.
Albus practiced until he could unlock the handcuffs with the wand in his wand pocket. He and Cleo also developed a spell so that only the owner of a wand could remove it from the wand pocket. Scorpius and Rose learned the spell as well.
Dis was released from St. Mungo's on Saturday, but WJ was not back at Malfoy Manor until August thirty-first. Neither of them could remember where they were taken between Malfoy Manor and the Ministry, which was unusual.
Monday mid-morning Ginny went over to the New Burrow to drop off Minerva.
"Time for a cup of tea?" Molly asked her daughter.
"Please," Ginny replied as she sat down. "I'm getting very worried, scared. Is this how you felt before the Battle of Hogwarts?"
"We had a number of very scary years, Ginny dear," Molly replied. "Your father and I have had more good years than bad ones, more good times than bad, but sometimes your worse fears do come true. Losing two children during the troubles, then having Charlie die on us. I guess I should be very grateful for five living children and all the grandchildren, and now great-grandchildren, and I am, but still …"
"Every time I go to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and see Dennis and Mary Lou I am reminded that Dennis lost his brother and Mary Lou lost parents and a brother," Ginny reflected. "Harry feels we are not going to defeat Jezebel and the Lord of the Dementors without major loss of life.
"Mum, I'm scared."
Molly came over and hugged her daughter, both fighting back tears.
2022