November Scorpius’ third year at Hogwarts in cabin near Oxford Maine
The dense cloud of acrid smoke from the short, violent battle filled both the large room and Draco Malfoy’s lungs, but he could do nothing to clear it from his throat. If he didn’t stay hidden, Harry Potter’s heroic sacrifice would be in vain. Draco watched as the American security team took Harry Potter, Hoyle Grindus, and the other two surviving members of the rescue team into custody. Potter didn’t stare into the corner where he knew Draco was, but he looked across the room towards the others in the cabin.
On the far side of the room, a burly, yank wizard, wearing a black leather jacket with the letters N. A. M. E. D. on the back, was being pummeled about his head and shoulders by the fists of a distraught Ginny Potter. She was trying to get past him to reach her husband before he could be lead away in chains to jail. Ginny looked quite mentally unbalanced as she shouted and spat into the face of ‘her protector’. Draco wondered if the poor American knew what half of the names she was calling him were. He doubted that the man did know. He wouldn’t have been so calm if he had.
A pair of other members of the North American Magical Enforcement Division wizards was restraining other members of the team: Geoffrey Grindus, Albus Potter and his brother James. The three boys were also struggling to either reach their grandfather or their father. A fifth wizard blocked the Jones cousins, thirteen-year-old Rose Weasley and her cousin, Lily Potter, from the melee. Lily had her head buried into her Cousin Rose’s arms so she could not see what was happening to her daddy.
What the children would do if they got to the family members without any wands, they did not know. Draco knew that if Scorpius was here, he would be doing the same to reach him.
However, Scorpius’ location was the real issue. No one alive in the cabin could, or would, tell where Scorpius was or if he was still alive. After a quick, thorough, and frantic search was completed, the rescue team realized that Scorpius and the ring leader of the kidnapping plot, Ares Pyter, were both missing.
Draco turned toward the only surviving adult amongst the kidnapping victims. –Scorpius, where is he?â€
Ginny Potter seemed to be in shock or drugged. Staring down at the floor, just past him at where the bodies were laying, he could see her slowly gather her thoughts. –Pyter…he took him into that room.†She pointed behind and to the left toward a room they had already searched. –He told Scorpius that he had some special questioning for him.†She turned toward a lightly sobbing Rose Weasley. –That was around sunset, right?â€
Still clutching her cousin and attempting to control her sobbing, Rose nodded in agreement at her aunt’s recollection.
Draco ran through the four room building, blasting doors and walls looking for hidden passages or rooms. When he returned empty-handed back to the team, he felt his knees grow weak and leaned against the door frame of the room Ginny had pointed to for support. Suddenly, he felt two arms take him into a hug. The person hugging him was Rose.
The girl’s sobs were enough to mask the sounds of his own. As he absent-mindedly caressed Rose’s head, he searched out Potter. Harry Potter, who had just finished a passionate kiss and hug with his wife, returned his look with one of pity and empathy.
Potter’s look cut into him like a knife. Draco Malfoy was not a man who needed to be pitied. He had been raised to be in control, to be respected and, at times to be feared. Turning to look at the two captured kidnappers, who were kneeling on the floor under the watchful wands of the pair of hired security wizards, Draco was just considering which one of them he would first take into the back room and ‘Cruciatus’ his son’s location out of when he heard a banging noise from outside of the cabin. He gently moved Rose aside and stepped between the girl and the noise so his wand arm could be ready for anything.
A voice filled the cabin and it rattled the windows with its volume. The voice was a deep, male one which spoke in the accent of a southern American.
–We have the building surrounded and we have placed charms that will stop y’all from escaping us. You will surrender to stand trial or face your fate at our hands.â€
–No!†shouted Draco, as he felt the world collapsing in on him. They couldn’t stop him from rescuing his son. He readied his wand to fight them all off, no matter how many there were. However, Potter had taken the time to walk over to him and step in front of his wand. Potter reached into a small bag he had hidden under his cloak and pulled out a long, spangled cloak.
–Take this. I want you to put it on and sit in the corner until you can escape. I need someone to get messages back to England for me and you need to hunt for Scorpius.â€
Draco looked down at the cloak in Potter’s arms. As Potter draped the garment across his wand arm the heaviness of it surprised him.
–Potter, I can’t take this, it’s your cloak. If they take me captive, I’m just a man who took the law into his own hands to save his child. You’re a member of the Ministry. If they take you, it’s an international incident.â€
–I know. I’m counting on that.†After he gave the invisibility cloak to Draco, Harry Potter turned back to his wife and took her into his arms.
Draco turned away from the couple to give the Potters a moment of privacy. He focused on his son’s young teammates; they were now just beginning to get over the shock of the battle and were beginning to give comfort to each other.
The Americans announced their presence again and demanded the instant surrender of the kidnappers. Harry helped Draco on with the cloak. As Harry finished making sure he was totally covered, he whispered a set of specific instructions that Draco needed deliver to friends, family and co-workers. Draco repeated the names and instructions.
Potter waved his wand over Draco and his hiding spot. –It’s a charm to mask your presence, if they do a revealing spell.†Potter’s calmness and certainty seemed to have an affect on all of them in the cabin.
–Ready,†Harry said to the room at large. Hoyle Grindus walked over to Harry, extended the big palm of his hand and the two men shook hands. Potter nodded back to Hoyle and put his wand to his throat. He spoke softly, but his voice seemed to boom into the American forest night.
–We have already rescued the kidnap victims. Come in, but there is no need for any more violence.â€
Draco squatted in the corner with a view of the three bodies lying on the floor in front of him. The body closest to him, his arms frozen in death agony, was one of the rescue team, Gwayne somebody. He was a hired wand that Hoyle had contracted.
The middle corpse was one of the three remaining kidnappers; the man had been used like a cast pawn by Lucius who, so coldly and calculatingly, had sent him to his death.
The last body lying face down lifeless on the floor was Bobby Devon; he had been the Head Coach of the U.K. national under fifteen Quidditch team. Devon, a short stocky man with overlong arms perfect for a Keeper, had a smile and an enthusiasm that could have animated a rock into playing winning Quidditch. He had died because he had launched himself to block the Killing Curse cast at his team by the now dead kidnapper.
As Draco crouched in the corner, the minutes the Americans took to get a handle on the complex situation seemed to pass like hours. Draco wanted to shout for them to hurry it up, but he remained as quiet as the three corpses in front of him.
He saw one of the black coated Americans roughly push a surviving kidnapper’s head up against a wall before they led the two suspects out of the cabin. Two of the Yanks, both wearing gold emblems of multiple crossed wands on their shoulders, kept talking as they pointed to the rescue party. The security men were not ready to deal with two distinct sets of foreigners that they were taking into custody.
Draco couldn’t let the fear and grief get to him. He had to slip past the N.A.M.E.D. officers, get out of the cabin, and back to the camp. Once back at the camp, he must get the Portkey and return to England. Draco had to get to Ronald Weasley, his ‘Aunt’ Grindus and Astoria to let them know the fate of their loved ones.
The majority of the instructions Harry had given him were to be delivered to Ronald and Hermione Weasley. Draco silently repeated the two separate and very cryptic messages over and over again to keep them straight in his mind. Draco considered just delivering the messages to Hermione, who he considered naïve, but trustworthy in her judgment and actions. While, he wouldn’t trust the ‘dolt’ Ronald with anything important, Potter did trust him. In this case, he would bow to Potter’s wishes.
Lastly, he had to go to Wimborne and visit Victoria Devon and tell her how her father had died protecting the young players in his keep. He owed that to the man.
By the time he had finished all of that, he would spend the next day making love with Astoria. If in the second morning, he was still free, he would present himself to the authorities at the Ministry and trust them to find his son. He could not go out on his own. If he did go it alone, he would be on the run with both Lucius and the Ministry hunting for him. He had to trust that Astoria, the Weasleys and their ‘friends’ would do what he couldn’t to get his son back.
As he waited for an opportunity to slip past the agents and leave the cabin, he couldn’t see how Harry, Hoyle and he would not end up going to an American jail. And if they didn’t end up in American jail, Azkaban was still a possibility for all five surviving members of the rescue party.
A wizard with two gold pair of crossed wands on his lapel walked over and began to address Assistant Coach Ginny Potter.
–Please get your team ready for transport. Any clothes or luggage in this cabin will have to stay here until our investigation is done. However, we do have the luggage that was teleported to the clearing when you were abducted. You will be able to change when we’re done with you. I’ve arranged for a special Portkey to take you and your team to safety. A wizard from the Magical State Department will meet you at the offices of the school in Salem, Massachusetts. You will each have to give statements to our team so we can piece together what happened and when. Your Ministry will have at least one representative there to observe our treatment of you, to help you get the families notified and help sort the entire thing out.â€
–What about the World Championship? Is it too late for us to play?†asked Kaitlin.
Ginny Potter, at the end of her patience, turned on the girl, venting a steaming cauldron full of bottled up frustrations. –How can you be worried about playing a game after-–Ginny’s arm flung in the general direction of the corpses.
The girl focused on the bodies and pulled her head in. –Sorry, I didn’t think.â€
–No, you didn’t!â€
Kaitlin Jones for the first time in anyone’s knowledge broke into tears. She began to sob uncontrollably at her coach’s rebuke.
–Mum!†James said in response to his mother’s broadside of bitterness. Ginny turned her back on the team and tried to get control of her emotions. Draco saw the odd pair of James Potter and Rhys Jones move over to comfort the distraught Kaitlin.
When the officers organized the rescue team into a queue to lead them away, Draco dropped in behind the last of the officers. Walking softly, he was able to slip out of the door. The line turned to the right toward a large black, brightly-lit armored Muggle lorry. Draco stepped carefully to the left and paused to see if his movement was noticed. It had not been.
Creeping around the edge of the cabin, he was walking carefully to not step on a pinecone or break a twig, which might alert the others to his presence. He also kept ducking at the windows (even though he was invisible) until he got to the north east corner of the cabin. It had been here that only an hour or two earlier, the confident six rescuers had gone over their last minute assignments before their attack.
Draco shook his head to release the unnecessary thoughts. He had to keep a clear mind. So many lives were at stake, and Scorpius’ life was the one at most risk.
He began to walk back up the way he had come earlier. Once he was fully hidden in the pine forest, Draco pulled off the robe and shoved it under his own robe. Without having to worry about snagging the borrowed garment on a branch, he was able to increase his pace until he made it to the clearing near a small, bubbling spring where they had arrived and set up camp the day before. He paused just inside the first line of trees where he could see the tents, but he would be out of sight from the camp. Pulling his wand up, he was ready to do the spell to reveal the existence on any humans and paused. What if the Americans (or worse his father’s agents) had already discovered their camp? If they had found the camp, they would have probably left behind alarm spells that would be triggered if he cast any spell!
No, he would have to reach the box in the largest tent where the deflated Quaffle was stored. The ball was his ticket home.
As he reached the grassy clearing, he paused. Draco walked just inside the tree line completely around the edge of the clearing looking for signs of any foot prints in the tall grass which would have signaled someone had searched the campsite. He did not see any signs of intruders. When he reached the starting point of his circuit, he looked up at the sky and waited as the half moon approached a large cloud. As the moon went behind the cloud dimming the area, he sprinted toward the tents. He slipped into the main tent and pulled out Potter’s rucksack. He performed a summoning charm, all of the items in the campsite disappeared as they entered the bag.
All that was left in the meadow was Draco with the bag in hand and the tub containing the Quaffle. Just as he reached for the Quaffle, he saw both the faces of his son and Bobby Devon; they were both smiling at him.
Why had he not told Scorpius, before he left, that he loved him? You can’t think that way. We will get Scorpius back! They had to get him back, or else his father would have to add his and his wife’s names to the growing list of those Lucius killed in his latest bid for power.
–No, you can’t think on that. It will work out. It must work out,†he thought, whispered, or maybe, prayed. Fatigue was now fighting the adrenalin for control of his mind and body. He had to focus on the tasks.
He saw the old man again in his mind. Devon had a lively smile once…
Draco reached down and lifted the rucksack on his shoulder. He picked up the Quaffle, his stomach seemed to pull back to his spine, and the Maine forest disappeared.