Scorpius's Request - HP Fanfic (10/?)
Title: Scorpius's Request (Chapter 1)
Author: starshinedc
Word Count: 1752
Warning(s): None
Summary: Little Scorpius comes into Harry's life very unexpectedly when Draco is kidnapped by persons unknown and just wants his daddy back. Will Harry be able to fulfill that wish? And if he can't, who will take care of the child in Draco's absence? Eventual HPDM, R/H
They appeared near the park and Harry looked around at the tunnel he and his cousin had once been attacked by Dementors in. It was oddly larger than he remembered... He'd been a kid when he'd been there last; it should've seemed smaller. But then he'd been attacked by Dementors and they could probably make any space seem enclosed.
"Where are we?" Ron wondered and Harry looked over. Right. He'd never actually had cause to show Ron and Hermione where the attack had occurred.
"Near enough to the park," the brunette replied and strolled out of the tunnel. There were no more Dementors coming after him and there was no reason to dredge up eleven year old memories.
"I don't know if we'll really find anything there," Ron mused, following.
"It'll be a good starting point. We'll look around, see what we see, and then make our way to where they were attacked."
"And the alley?"
Harry answered that one with a nod, but was frowning slightly. It was possible that the halves of Draco's wand would still be there. Muggles would've seen a broken stick; magic folk would've avoided the wand because it was broken. No use to anyone like that and better left alone lest their own wands have a bad reaction to it. Harry hoped it was still there just as he hoped it hadn't been touched and that it hadn't rained in the past few days. One Muggle technique the auror program heartily embraced was fingerprints. Through the Head Auror, they could have the prints run through both the magical and the Muggle databases and possibly, hopefully, there would be a hit.
They had to find the wand first, though.
They made their way to the park, the squeals of kids meeting them before the sight of them playing did. Harry stood away from them for a moment, tucking his hands in his pockets, and just watched. There were benches now, for parents to sit, and safety foam on the swings. The ground was still grassy, but Harry suspected that it was charmed somehow. He watched a little blonde boy shoot down a slide and found himself smiling, thinking of Scorpius.
"I don't see anyone that Draco talked to the day he disappeared, do you?"
Jarred from his thoughts, Harry looked over at Ron and then quickly scanned the benches of adults. "No. I don't see anyone familiar." He looked around, trying to see where Draco had been sitting. He went nearer, frowning to himself.
"Scorpius!" he heard in his head, picturing Draco getting to his feet. "Time to go home!" And then he'd started walking and Scorpius had scrambled after him.
Harry went that way now, paused at the edge of the park where Draco had paused, hand out and ready to clasp his son's. Hand taken, smile offered, start walking. Harry went on, stopped at certain areas. He and Ron cast spells in the places where Draco had first noticed the men following them and there were no discernible magical signatures. They continued on until Harry saw the burned out section of wall. He nodded to it, pausing. "Look."
Ron looked up, sucked in a sharp breath. "And no one's tried to fix it?"
"Maybe they can't," Harry suggested and pulled out his wand after a cursory glance to make sure there were no Muggles about. He lifted it and quickly cast several of the repairing spells he'd learned while helping with the reconstruction of Hogwarts. Sure, the magic embedded into the castle walls had certainly been a huge help, but there were chunks of stone that took their time, pieces of turret that needed to be fashioned precisely. There had always been something to do that summer before the school reopened September first.
But while Hogwarts had responded to each spell and even shaped its own will accordingly, this building did nothing. Magic seemed to ooze from it and both Harry and Ron took in the magical signature and memorized its pattern for later identification. Traces of magic were their own kind of fingerprints.
Ron frowned. "That's really Dark Magic, isn't it?"
"Yeah... What kind of people do you think we're dealing with, Ron?"
"Polyjuiced ones."
"I was thinking the same thing. People Draco knows, then?"
"The tall one was someone we know. I'm sure of it. You heard his voice? And the other one sounded like a girl..."
Harry didn't reply to that, but he agreed. That one sound Small One had made after Draco had punched him... He'd sounded way too feminine. Harry sighed as they walked, looking back for signs of Draco's magic. Scorpius's memory hadn't divulged how Draco had fought back or even if he'd really been able to. As they drew closer to the alley, though, it became pretty obvious that he had and he'd fought hard.
Harry knelt down near a section of cracked sidewalk and passed his wand over it. There was blood there and a familiar magical signature. This was Draco's spell and it had hit its mark. Harry levitated the blood carefully, magically separated it from the dirt and cement and slipped it into a vial he retrieved from his pocket. Better than fingerprints, he mused. Much better.
"He was a lot more careful about there being Muggles around here than the other two were," Ron commented, studying another charred section of building. This, too, oozed with Dark Magic, but it was a different signature. This was Mean One's doing.
Harry nodded. Purebloods always seemed to be a little more careful about Muggles than Muggleborns or even most Halfbloods. They didn't assume, as Muggleborns had a tendency of doing, to believe that all Muggles would be just fine with the revelation of witches of wizards. He'd arrested more than one Muggleborn trying to perform real magic before Muggles or bring out magical creatures.
"I can feel a lot of airborn magic with his signature, but the only real harmful one cracked the sidewalk. It can be repaired, though, so nothing too dark." It was the strongest of his spells, though. Desperation had set in before he'd cast this one. It must've come after the tarantellegra had hit him, or he'd just known that his spells weren't having any effect. There was no sign of them, so Harry knew they'd hit their targets. Apparently, it hadn't slowed them down. This one had.
Harry ran his fingers carefully over the crack, frowning to himself. The pattern suggested that whoever it had hit had... flung it to the side. But there was blood in it. Heavy use of Shield Charms, then. Auror-strength ones, from the feel of it. And once Draco had realized that, he'd gone with a spell he knew could weaken or at least combat them. Research for his book had certainly come in handy in this instance.
But who knew how to cast those shields? Just aurors and instructors and... and people who had gone through the program. Harry's eyes narrowed a fraction. There was a good angle for Hermione to dig up. People who'd gone through the program who may have a grudge against Draco or former Death Eaters in general. He quietly acknowledged that it would probably be a very, very long list. But between alibis and some legwork, the list would get shorter. Harry also quietly acknowledged that he, Ron, and Hermione may end up needing some help with it.
He sighed quietly, getting to his feet. All the evidence he could get from the crack taken, he sealed the break in the sidewalk and caught up with Ron, who had stopped before an alleyway. "Wand's still here," he said quietly and Harry stared at it for a long minute. "I can't believe he would just... break it like that."
Harry nodded, going to the broken halves. It was extremely rare, even among the darkest of wizards, to find one who would so easily break another's wand. Magic folk respected wands and even after killing the owners would usually take their wands as a backup. Hardly anyone thought to break the things. Harry squatted, scanned the halves and smiled as he came across fingerprints. Some of them were undoubtedly Draco's, which would pop up quickly in the database. They'd see who the other set belonged to.
He sealed the halves with a couple of flicks of his wand, shrank it down, and pocketed the bag. "It feels like they came back, doesn't it?"
"Yeah. Long after Scorpius left." Ron had his wand out again and was carefully scanning the alleyway. "The disilluisonment charm was still on the kid when he ran out of here and I can feel the big one's magical signature, looking for any signs of life. He didn't find anything."
"Thankfully. Anything else you can find?"
"No." Ron pocketed his wand, nodding to Harry. "We should look around, mate, see if we can't find any signs of where they live."
It was a longshot, but that was all they seemed to be dealing with in this case. They had to go with what evidence they could dig up. "Yeah." Harry rose and they walked out, scanning the area. Harry recognized the area from Scorpius's memory of the walk to the park and turned. They could walk until the point where the memory had been blurred by the Fidelius charm, and did.
Ron sighed, looking around with a scowl forming on his face. "Bloody useless," he muttered. "We need to find out who Malfoy would've used as his Secret Keeper."
"Ron, he could've used himself." The look that earned Harry let him know that Ron was aware of that, but didn't want to believe it. Harry smiled slightly, shrugged, and went very still when movement caught his eye.
Ron turned quickly, hand going to his wand. But he stilled as well but for the dropping of his jaw. Houses were sliding to the side, the street stretching out just far enough to make room for a new house that seemed to stretch from nowhere.
"Harry, is that...?"
It had green shutters. Harry felt his heart palpitate. Scorpius had told him all about painting the shutters. "I think so."
They exchanged looks, unsure of what this could mean. Unless the Fidelius Charm had been lifted... But that could only be done by the Secret Keeper or the original caster. By unspoken agreement, they started to the house with their wands drawn. It could be a trap, but they had to find out.
Previous|First|Next
Author: starshinedc
Word Count: 1752
Warning(s): None
Summary: Little Scorpius comes into Harry's life very unexpectedly when Draco is kidnapped by persons unknown and just wants his daddy back. Will Harry be able to fulfill that wish? And if he can't, who will take care of the child in Draco's absence? Eventual HPDM, R/H
They appeared near the park and Harry looked around at the tunnel he and his cousin had once been attacked by Dementors in. It was oddly larger than he remembered... He'd been a kid when he'd been there last; it should've seemed smaller. But then he'd been attacked by Dementors and they could probably make any space seem enclosed.
"Where are we?" Ron wondered and Harry looked over. Right. He'd never actually had cause to show Ron and Hermione where the attack had occurred.
"Near enough to the park," the brunette replied and strolled out of the tunnel. There were no more Dementors coming after him and there was no reason to dredge up eleven year old memories.
"I don't know if we'll really find anything there," Ron mused, following.
"It'll be a good starting point. We'll look around, see what we see, and then make our way to where they were attacked."
"And the alley?"
Harry answered that one with a nod, but was frowning slightly. It was possible that the halves of Draco's wand would still be there. Muggles would've seen a broken stick; magic folk would've avoided the wand because it was broken. No use to anyone like that and better left alone lest their own wands have a bad reaction to it. Harry hoped it was still there just as he hoped it hadn't been touched and that it hadn't rained in the past few days. One Muggle technique the auror program heartily embraced was fingerprints. Through the Head Auror, they could have the prints run through both the magical and the Muggle databases and possibly, hopefully, there would be a hit.
They had to find the wand first, though.
They made their way to the park, the squeals of kids meeting them before the sight of them playing did. Harry stood away from them for a moment, tucking his hands in his pockets, and just watched. There were benches now, for parents to sit, and safety foam on the swings. The ground was still grassy, but Harry suspected that it was charmed somehow. He watched a little blonde boy shoot down a slide and found himself smiling, thinking of Scorpius.
"I don't see anyone that Draco talked to the day he disappeared, do you?"
Jarred from his thoughts, Harry looked over at Ron and then quickly scanned the benches of adults. "No. I don't see anyone familiar." He looked around, trying to see where Draco had been sitting. He went nearer, frowning to himself.
"Scorpius!" he heard in his head, picturing Draco getting to his feet. "Time to go home!" And then he'd started walking and Scorpius had scrambled after him.
Harry went that way now, paused at the edge of the park where Draco had paused, hand out and ready to clasp his son's. Hand taken, smile offered, start walking. Harry went on, stopped at certain areas. He and Ron cast spells in the places where Draco had first noticed the men following them and there were no discernible magical signatures. They continued on until Harry saw the burned out section of wall. He nodded to it, pausing. "Look."
Ron looked up, sucked in a sharp breath. "And no one's tried to fix it?"
"Maybe they can't," Harry suggested and pulled out his wand after a cursory glance to make sure there were no Muggles about. He lifted it and quickly cast several of the repairing spells he'd learned while helping with the reconstruction of Hogwarts. Sure, the magic embedded into the castle walls had certainly been a huge help, but there were chunks of stone that took their time, pieces of turret that needed to be fashioned precisely. There had always been something to do that summer before the school reopened September first.
But while Hogwarts had responded to each spell and even shaped its own will accordingly, this building did nothing. Magic seemed to ooze from it and both Harry and Ron took in the magical signature and memorized its pattern for later identification. Traces of magic were their own kind of fingerprints.
Ron frowned. "That's really Dark Magic, isn't it?"
"Yeah... What kind of people do you think we're dealing with, Ron?"
"Polyjuiced ones."
"I was thinking the same thing. People Draco knows, then?"
"The tall one was someone we know. I'm sure of it. You heard his voice? And the other one sounded like a girl..."
Harry didn't reply to that, but he agreed. That one sound Small One had made after Draco had punched him... He'd sounded way too feminine. Harry sighed as they walked, looking back for signs of Draco's magic. Scorpius's memory hadn't divulged how Draco had fought back or even if he'd really been able to. As they drew closer to the alley, though, it became pretty obvious that he had and he'd fought hard.
Harry knelt down near a section of cracked sidewalk and passed his wand over it. There was blood there and a familiar magical signature. This was Draco's spell and it had hit its mark. Harry levitated the blood carefully, magically separated it from the dirt and cement and slipped it into a vial he retrieved from his pocket. Better than fingerprints, he mused. Much better.
"He was a lot more careful about there being Muggles around here than the other two were," Ron commented, studying another charred section of building. This, too, oozed with Dark Magic, but it was a different signature. This was Mean One's doing.
Harry nodded. Purebloods always seemed to be a little more careful about Muggles than Muggleborns or even most Halfbloods. They didn't assume, as Muggleborns had a tendency of doing, to believe that all Muggles would be just fine with the revelation of witches of wizards. He'd arrested more than one Muggleborn trying to perform real magic before Muggles or bring out magical creatures.
"I can feel a lot of airborn magic with his signature, but the only real harmful one cracked the sidewalk. It can be repaired, though, so nothing too dark." It was the strongest of his spells, though. Desperation had set in before he'd cast this one. It must've come after the tarantellegra had hit him, or he'd just known that his spells weren't having any effect. There was no sign of them, so Harry knew they'd hit their targets. Apparently, it hadn't slowed them down. This one had.
Harry ran his fingers carefully over the crack, frowning to himself. The pattern suggested that whoever it had hit had... flung it to the side. But there was blood in it. Heavy use of Shield Charms, then. Auror-strength ones, from the feel of it. And once Draco had realized that, he'd gone with a spell he knew could weaken or at least combat them. Research for his book had certainly come in handy in this instance.
But who knew how to cast those shields? Just aurors and instructors and... and people who had gone through the program. Harry's eyes narrowed a fraction. There was a good angle for Hermione to dig up. People who'd gone through the program who may have a grudge against Draco or former Death Eaters in general. He quietly acknowledged that it would probably be a very, very long list. But between alibis and some legwork, the list would get shorter. Harry also quietly acknowledged that he, Ron, and Hermione may end up needing some help with it.
He sighed quietly, getting to his feet. All the evidence he could get from the crack taken, he sealed the break in the sidewalk and caught up with Ron, who had stopped before an alleyway. "Wand's still here," he said quietly and Harry stared at it for a long minute. "I can't believe he would just... break it like that."
Harry nodded, going to the broken halves. It was extremely rare, even among the darkest of wizards, to find one who would so easily break another's wand. Magic folk respected wands and even after killing the owners would usually take their wands as a backup. Hardly anyone thought to break the things. Harry squatted, scanned the halves and smiled as he came across fingerprints. Some of them were undoubtedly Draco's, which would pop up quickly in the database. They'd see who the other set belonged to.
He sealed the halves with a couple of flicks of his wand, shrank it down, and pocketed the bag. "It feels like they came back, doesn't it?"
"Yeah. Long after Scorpius left." Ron had his wand out again and was carefully scanning the alleyway. "The disilluisonment charm was still on the kid when he ran out of here and I can feel the big one's magical signature, looking for any signs of life. He didn't find anything."
"Thankfully. Anything else you can find?"
"No." Ron pocketed his wand, nodding to Harry. "We should look around, mate, see if we can't find any signs of where they live."
It was a longshot, but that was all they seemed to be dealing with in this case. They had to go with what evidence they could dig up. "Yeah." Harry rose and they walked out, scanning the area. Harry recognized the area from Scorpius's memory of the walk to the park and turned. They could walk until the point where the memory had been blurred by the Fidelius charm, and did.
Ron sighed, looking around with a scowl forming on his face. "Bloody useless," he muttered. "We need to find out who Malfoy would've used as his Secret Keeper."
"Ron, he could've used himself." The look that earned Harry let him know that Ron was aware of that, but didn't want to believe it. Harry smiled slightly, shrugged, and went very still when movement caught his eye.
Ron turned quickly, hand going to his wand. But he stilled as well but for the dropping of his jaw. Houses were sliding to the side, the street stretching out just far enough to make room for a new house that seemed to stretch from nowhere.
"Harry, is that...?"
It had green shutters. Harry felt his heart palpitate. Scorpius had told him all about painting the shutters. "I think so."
They exchanged looks, unsure of what this could mean. Unless the Fidelius Charm had been lifted... But that could only be done by the Secret Keeper or the original caster. By unspoken agreement, they started to the house with their wands drawn. It could be a trap, but they had to find out.
Previous|First|Next