Sarah was loitering in the entrance as the call box descended from the alley down into the Ministry of Magic. Although Harry knew she would be waiting for his arrival, he made a show out of greeting her and made sure to formally bow and shake her hand for all to note their accidental meeting. He avoided making any small talk with her, because any congeniality could cause damage to her budding career. They both knew that in the milling crowd of the Ministry Atrium, someone was watching and would report all they saw back to the Minister. The pair walked by fits and starts against the flow of the arriving employees to get to his next stop. Having arrived at the Security Desk, Harry pulled his wand out of his vest pocket so it could be registered.

When Harry started to hand his wand over to the grey-haired security officer; he found a hand was already reaching for his. â€�“Welcome back, Mister Potter. It has been too long, are you just visiting?’

Harry felt almost embarrassed by the warmth of the greeting, but he replied. â€�“I’m just here to visit my sister-in-law, Hermione Weasley, and maybe take her and her husband, Ron, to Hannah’s Bistro. You look fit, Willie. How’s your wife, Natalie?”

â€�“She’s been a bit under the weather, the damp you know. It’ll do her good though to know you remembered us, sir?”

Harry smiled at the man as he wrote down the magical components and size of his wand. When he returned the wand back to Harry, Willie added, â€�“Looking forward to the day you can just pop in, as always.”

Harry nodded and turned to join Sarah.

She added, in a whispered tone, â€�“He’s not the only one who feels that way, but they won’t say anything.”

Harry shook his head. March Lee’s threats of dismissal had almost the same affect of controlling the lower level Ministry workers as Voldemort’s reign of terror had. Funny, he thought there are different layers of oppression and each has its way to crush the spirit out of a person.

Sarah led him over to the closest bank of lifts. As they stepped in, Harry noticed Elwyn Hogg, a Deputy Assistant to Lee, slip into the lift just as the gate was closing and he bullied his way through the crowded car until he stood next to Sarah.

Harry called out the floor of Hermione’s office, Sarah spoke Auror Office’s floor and Elwyn stood silently next to her. Sarah’s floor came up first and she stepped out at the Auror’s floor. He saw Elwyn start to follow Sarah out of the gate, until he noticed Harry had not joined Broomwright.

Hogg made a bad show of being befuddled and said, â€�“Oh dear, almost got off on the wrong floor. I must pay closer attention.”

Harry didn’t buy it for an instant. Hogg was tracking him and would report every move and conversation to his boss. As the lift jerked and started its journey to the next floor, Harry decided to act like he was unaware of the spy’s mission. He turned to the man as if just seeing him for the first time and said, â€�“Elwyn, how are you? Is you grandson still at Hogwarts?”

Hogg didn’t need to act flustered this time, he sputtered in reply, â€�“No, he just finished last year. He got a job working for Gringotts as a curse breaker.”

As Hogg stammered out his replay, the gate opened on to Hermione’s floor and Harry walked out. Elwyn did not realize what Harry was doing until the gate closed with him still in the lift. As he turned away, Harry couldn’t help but smile at the frustrated look on the Hogg’s redden face as the elevator pulled away.

Harry walked down the hall to the small office that Hermione shared with another advocate: Emma Crisp. Crisp was not in today. She was interviewing a client at Azkaban and would be out all day.

Harry knocked on the smoked glass door and opened it when he heard Hermione bid him enter. Harry stepped into the unusually crowded office. Sitting behind the desk was Hermione and next to her was Ron. Across the desk from Hermione sat Rory Smythe and Draco Malfoy. Harry sized up Draco, it had been the first time since the cabin he had seen Malfoy. Harry noticed a couple of new worry lines and a new gauntness showed in his face and hands. Draco, always thin, looked like he had dropped almost two stones in the intervening months.

Draco looked up and said, â€�“Potter.”

â€�“Malfoy.” It was all that needed to be said between them. The bond that had driven both to America to rescue the children was still in place.

Rory stood up and offered his seat to Harry. Harry, at first, declined, but Ron intervened as he said, â€�“Rory has to hurry back to the office. We can’t have him be seen too long on this floor, especially after his little run-in with Lee.”

Harry nodded and took the seat next to Draco.

Smythe rushed through the preliminaries about how the children had spent the morning and how Scorpius had gone to the loo. Harry drank in every word, his mind painting a picture of the whole scene. Rory opened a satchel stenciled with the word ‘Evidence’. He pulled out a clear bag that contained the green stone found on the lavatory floor.

Harry took the bag and held it up to the light. He stuck his index finger next to the emerald and did a rough estimate of the size. After he was done he offered the bag to Draco, Malfoy waived his hand as if the stone was unimportant.

Harry thought back to the Tower of London heist and the missing items and asked, â€�“So, this is Rowena Ravenclaw’s gem that was stolen from St. Edward’s crown?” Rory nodded. â€�“Why?”

Ron spoke up, â€�“According to Luna, and confirmed by Professor Binns, Ravenclaw owned certain gems of mental prowess. Luna said the majority of them were in that bloody Diadem of hers, but two of the other stones existed. The stones of influence and defense were given to the royal family and placed into the crown.”

â€�“Luna said?” asked Draco.

Hermione nodded as she picked up the narrative. â€�“The stones were in the crown so that the heads of Hogwarts could influence the crown to ignore or forget the existence of magical folk. The second stone was there to keep an evil wizard from possessing the ruler. Lucius left that stone in the crown.”

Draco leaned forward now engaged in the conversation. â€�“So my father or one of his minions took that stone and what? He used it to hypnotized Scorpius. To what end?”

Hermione and Ron looked at each other. Smythe just shrugged.

Harry caught Ron’s eye, glanced at Rory and jerked his head towards the door. Ron caught the meaning. â€�“Thanks, Rory. You best slip that bag back into the safe before someone on the Wizengamut wants to look it over.”

Rory nodded, took the bag with the stone and slipped it inside. He next took his wand waved it over the bag and the satchel was sealed. The Auror placed the bag under his arm, nodded toward Ron and secondly toward Harry. He crisply turned on his heal and exited the room.

Draco waited for the door to latch before he spoke. â€�“If you are going to wait to discuss this case until after I leave, you’ll have to wait till Hell has a hockey team.”

Ron snickered and even Hermione smiled at the image.

Harry looked at Draco and smiled before turning to face his successor. He asked, â€�“What did the investigations that I suggested turn up?”

Ron looked up at the ceiling for a second before he said, â€�“Willie was late because he had to take his wife, Natalie, to St. Mungo’s. We’ve confirmed the story. The third investigation is still underway. We have placed spells around the area. It was the conduit that was used during the time the ministry was under the rule of Thickness and the Death Eaters.”

â€�“Conduit?” asked Harry.

â€�“The area, under investigation, leads to certain public lavatories that you might be familiar with.”

Harry nodded in understanding. Draco was confused. Ron turned toward Malfoy and said, â€�“During Thickness rule Ministry workers had to flush themselves into the floo network to come to work at the Ministry.”

Draco gave the others a disgusted look of disbelieve. He looked to Hermione for the truth. She sighed and nodded in confirmation.

â€�“And Fulton?”

â€�“We’ve been keeping tabs on him. He had no memory of where he had been or what he had been doing that morning.”

Both Harry and Draco shifted forward in their seats; Ron reached into the filing drawer in Hermione’s office and pulled out a folder. Harry looked at Ron and back to Hermione.

She raised an eyebrow and replied, â€�“Since you got the sack and Ron was gone, if March Lee found any excuse, it made sense for the files of the investigation to be stored and the activities to be planned in my office. After all, even if he was fired, he could still visit his wife and talk to old friends.”

â€�“Good thinking, Hermione,” said Draco.

Harry noticed that Ron looked tiffed. Hermione chimed in, â€�“Actually, It was Ron’s idea. I found the plan to be very intuitive.” Draco nodded in agreement with her, but did not seem to be able to bring himself to compliment his old adversary.

While Draco and Ron acted like they always did when they get together, Harry read about ‘The Unspeakable’ Horace Fulton. Fulton had worked in the Ministry of Magic for almost three decades. He had begun his work in the Department of Time, until they had destroyed the section on their attempt to flee the Department with the prophecy and escape from Lucius and company. After the mayhem, Fulton was transferred to a position in the Arch of Eternity room.

Harry tried to match the name with a face. He had no recollection of ever meeting Fulton. â€�“Why would Lucius want a man who works in the Arch Room? Do you think something he stole in the Crown Jewels that might unlock the Arch? Could he be trying to bring back Voldemort or Bellatrix?”

The weight of Harry’s comment took all of the air out of the room and its four inhabitants all fell silent.

After a moment or two, Draco broke the silence. â€�“I don’t think he would bring back the Dark Lord. At the end, we were more afraid of him that you can guess. He took my father’s wand, taunted us, and allowed his minions to trash the Manor. Father is in charge now and he has learned to like the taste of being in total control. If the Dark Lord comes back, he will try to assert power again and my parents will be back under his thumb. Now, if he could bring back Bellatrix or Crabbe…maybe.”

â€�“Your parents were that afraid of him? Why didn’t the help us?”

Hermione answered her husband. â€�“Remember, Draco did not turn Harry over to Bellatrix when he could and his delay bought enough time for all of us to escape, but Dobby.”

â€�“Well, he didn’t try and help you when his Aunt started to hurt you. Did he?”

From the corner of his eye, Harry saw Draco’s head drop. Ron’s habitual and unnecessary bringing up the past annoyed him. â€�“Bellatrix was in a room full of Snatchers, and a werewolf. That’s enough to make anyone pause. And as for his parents, Narcissa did come to my aid, if you recall. She loved her son more than Tom Riddle’s new order. ”

Hermione, as always, returned the men back to the issue at hand. â€�“So, we must assume that Lucius has his grandson. Now, what do we do?”

â€�“Well, we’ve already sent a detail of senior Aurors to the Manor and it’s totally empty. All of the furniture, clothes and valuables are missing. They even removed all of the family portraits off of the walls and judging from the dust it’s been that way for weeks.”

Draco nodded. â€�“Bugger my father’s ultimate plan; I want my son back!’ He paused and saw only three nodding heads in reply. The other three seemed to have no ideas of their own. Draco search back through all he knew from the little his son had told them about the abduction. He was mentally grasping at straws, when an idea came. â€�“What about the place he held Scorpius the first time?”

Ron replied, â€�“We never found where that was. All we know from Scorpius’ testimony is that he was held in an old tall manor-like house on a small knoll with the cemetery and stone groundkeeper’s cabin inside rock walled grounds and a farming village was barely visible in the distance.”

Harry found himself standing as if a lightning bolt had shot through him. He shook his head and said to the room at large, â€�“Ron, what you just described could be the Riddle Mansion. If he used that building, it would fit Lucius’ compulsion of proving himself to be worthy of being the new Dark Lord.”

â€�“I’ll send a pair of Aurors. Maybe Teddy and Sterling…”

â€�“No,” said Draco. â€�“Potter and I will go. Our rescue mission is still on. Do you think Hoyle can help us out with a couple of sell-wands?”

Harry shook his head. â€�“No, that would take time. I’ve a feeling that with my trials being over and the things I’ve set in motion, he will move up his time table and move now.”

The two men stood as one and walked out of Hermione’s office without saying anything more.

Harry and Draco appeared just beyond the wall of the Riddle Mansion. He looked over at Harry and said, â€�“This is either a trap or a wild goose chase.”

Harry shrugged, â€�“Knowing your father it could be both.”

Draco just nodded as he turned his wand towards the wrought iron gates with the fancy ‘R’ on top. Draco blasted the gates and they flew into the courtyard having been blown off their hinges. He looked at Potter and got a shrug in return. â€�“No time for subtlety, he either knows that we are here or he’s already gone.”

As he and Draco strode up the path from the gates to the Manor, he kept sneaking peaks at the graveyard to his right. He could see the chipped and shattered headstone that he had hidden behind waiting to die. He swore he could still see an indentation in the grass where Cedric had fallen all those decades ago.

â€�“Potter,” hissed Draco and Harry realized he had stopped on his way to the manor. He nodded back at Malfoy and returned walking up the drive.

An hour later, Harry and Draco met back in the great hall of the Riddle Mansion. Draco was holding something on the extended on his fingers. Harry looked at the thin, gold triangle that was formed by a chain and a ball that hung in between the fingers.

â€�“Scorpius’?” asked Harry.

â€�“Yes, it was a birthday gift from Rose. He would have never let it go. He even bathed and played Quidditch with it on; even after, the Weasley girl’s fling with the Russian boy.”

â€�“So, he could have taken it off as a clue? Or-â€�“

â€�“Or my father removed it to lead us on a false trail.”

â€�“I found a lot of ashes in the fireplaces. The burning was too well done; I couldn’t phrase a spell to restore the parchment or the writing.”

Draco palmed his son’s keepsake and placed it in his pocket. He walked over to the wall, beside the large grandfather clock wracking his brain for the clue that they had missed. Lucius would never have left this place without some clue to misdirect him and Harry. For he knew that his father didn’t give a brass Knut about the Aurors or the Wizengamot, he was playing with his ‘turncoat’ son and, Harry Potter, the boy who had destroyed his world.

He thought back to a year ago as his father sat in his kitchen, at Number Twelve Grimmauld Place, plotting dozens of scenarios to humiliate and later destroy Potter. Had his father mentioned this scenario and he had missed it? He had a mental image of his father, hair freshly re-colored blonde smiling a larger and more self-satisfied smile growing by the second. He tried to remember each layer of intrigue, but the hour had been packed full of his plotting. He saw Lucius’s sour look, when Kreacher interrupted on the hour as he had been ordered. Nothing!

He thought about his hour long conversation with his son in the room flanked by Ron Weasley asking his insipid questions. He ran through all that his son had communicated to them. He thought about Lucius taking Scorpius on a trip to the Lincoln University, the experiments, and the charming of the Muggle girl.

â€�“Oh my, Gawd!” he swung around to locate Potter.

At Draco’s exclamation, Harry had also stood and peered into his face hoping to get some clue before he could speak. Draco realized that they had been wrong and Lucius had made it so easy to take that mis-step. He knew what his father planned, he did not know why or the real end-game.