Veritas Vos Liberabit [Drarry Fanfiction]

The Beast Within

"Mister Potter, I am asking you for the last time... What were you doing in the hospital room of our suspect?" Gawain Robards' face was as red as uncle Vernon's would be when he was especially furious, but he tried to keep his voice as calm as possible.

There were three people in the St. Mungo's waiting room turned into the interrogation chamber – a young witch, probably still a few years after her training, an Auror, who was guarding Williamson's door and inexplicably the Head of the Auror Office himself. They were all looking at Harry who sat uncomfortably in the rickety armchair, his arms folded defensively, and his eyes burning with righteous anger.

"I have already told you... I would speak only to Kingsley!" Harry repeated irritably, emphasizing every word.

"The minister is attending other pressing matters right now..." the witch started, but Robards just waved her off.

"Don't bother, he's a stubborn one... Just send the Patronus already, or we'll be here all day!" he barked. "I wish you would cooperate, Potter. We are all on your side, for once..."

"Oh, I'm starting to doubt that," the Gryffindor rolled his eyes.

The situation was utterly ridiculous. He managed to get caught by a simple trip jinx while he was running down the corridor and away from the Yanus Thickey ward before he could find a fireplace or a spot not protected by the anti-apparition wards. He tumbled to the ground rather ungracefully, landing on his injured shoulder's side, his glasses making a painful crunch on the tiled floor. He didn't even have a chance to fix them up properly, so all one of his eyes could see was a spiderweb of cracks on the lens and his shoulder was throbbing incessantly, the bandages were getting wetter and warmer as precious time was being wasted on useless bickering.

And to make matters worse he was now surrounded by thoroughly annoyed Aurors who were itching to just beat the truth out of him. Harry being a Savior of the Wizarding World had saved him from being thrown into the ministry's holding cell and interrogated part but he didn't know how much longer he would have to drag out the inevitable if Kingsley didn't show.

There was an argument in the corridor and then Kevin, his young attractive nurse, burst into the waiting room followed by two determined-looking uniformed Aurors.

"What is the meaning of this?!" Robards was pointing his wand at the mediwizard.

"That is my exact question, er, sir," Kevin gave him an incredulous look and then glanced at Harry worryingly. "Why is my patient that is in dire need of medical attention apprehended by Aurors?"

"Your patient has walked into the restricted access room without any problems," the young witch said sternly not letting the nurse come through to where Harry was sitting on the tattered sofa.

"Is he arrested?" Kevin asked scorching the female Auror with the most disdainful glare.

"Yes!" the girl replied with a huff.

"On what grounds?" the man wasn't giving up.

"It is, frankly, none of your business, nurse!" she retorted, hastily taking out her wand.

"Amanda, that's quite enough. He is a medical staff, let him through," Robards exhaled warily, giving Kevin a room to pass through.

He hurried over to where Harry was sitting, performed a couple of diagnostic spells, and carefully peeked under the layers of bled through gauze.

"I need to take Mister Potter to the examination room immediately!" Kevin announced urgently.

It must have looked pretty bad because the nurse was alert and ready to curse every single law enforcement in the room if they hadn't gotten out of the way.

"Sir! We can't just let Potter go where he pleases," the shrill girl from before looked at Robards, scandalized, "What if he tries to flee again?!"

"Go with them!" the Head Auror barked and Amanda nodded seriously.

They were in the same wretched corridor: Harry who was gently guided by Kevin and the female Auror who was glaring at them with ever-growing suspicion.

"I would ask you to remain outside to protect healer-patient privilege," the nurse told her coldly and to Harry surprise, the man ushered him not to a standard exam chamber but some healer's office.

There were the usual potion cabinets that lined the walls, a heavy mahogany desk with various models of bones and organs on it, an examination table with various medical equipment, some of which looked muggle and... a fireplace. Was Kevin actually helping Harry escape?

"Kevin, I appreciate your concern, but I really need to go..." he whispered, his eyes darting around the room in search of some floo powder to quickly throw into the hearth.

He didn't have his wand on him, but anything was better than being stuck around people who didn't realize that Yaxley had infiltrated the force and was probably scheming something sinister at that very moment.

"Not so fast, Harry... Your wound has reopened again, I really need to take a look at it before you go anywhere," the nurse was adamant and Harry had no choice but to endure yet another painful re-wrapping.

Harry's shoulder jolted with pain yet again as some medicine was poured over the nasty gash. The wound looked even worse than it did that morning. He gritted his teeth and clenched his fist, patiently waiting for the ache to subside, at that moment he didn't notice a muggle syringe in Kevin's hand. Harry felt a prickle of the needle somewhere in his neck...

Kevin... what in the Merlin's...

The world swayed around him, as he tried to grasp for something, a couple of trays with medical supplies tumbled down to the ground, causing quite a racket. Maybe the annoying girl in the corridor would notice and come to his rescue.

Calm down ... It's going to be over soon...

The nurse's voice was distorted and sounded either too low or too high-pitched, Harry couldn't comprehend at that moment. He scrambled towards the fireplace, frantically trying to keep his mind concentrated on the escape...

There's no use running...

The surroundings became even more blurry than before until his eyelids became too heavy to keep his eyes open and everything was enveloped in darkness.



* * *

The muggle hotel they were currently staying in smelled of mold, mothballs, and stale smoke. The walls were covered in sickly beige wallpaper and the bedding had to be cleaned a couple of times with the strongest Scourgify for Draco to be able to sleep on it normally. He would stare into the darkness, his tired eyes tracing cracks in the plaster on the ceiling and his painfully sober mind trying to come up with some sort of plan. Draco might have convinced his mother that he knew what to do when he decided not to ask that Auror for help, but the truth was that he was just trying to survive at that moment.

They were on the run and it would only be a matter of time until the DMLE would trace their magical signatures to that lousy muggle abode. He dreaded the moment when he would inevitably end up in Azkaban and never able to see Potter again. There was a slim chance that the Gryffindor would have liked to see him in the first place after he had betrayed his trust and stole his potions. But Draco wanted to pretend that somewhere Harry was still waiting for him and there was some future for them. He would have sworn he saw a silver shadow of a Patronus pass the dirty window before his mother insisted on putting up all the wards and shutting the curtains tight so as not to attract unwanted attention.

The morning came suddenly and Draco didn't get a wink of sleep, he looked around sluggishly, forgetting for a moment that he wasn't in the burgundy bedroom at the Grimmauld place. Narcissa was still in her bed, wand clutched tightly in her slender fingers.

He stood up and stretched, his bones and joints cracking unpleasantly from being too long in one position. A flick of his wand erased the wrinkles in his muggle clothes he nicked from the dusty shop earlier, and he shook his head disappointingly at his reflection. Why did he even bother anymore?

There was a loud metallic screeching sound, then another. Draco whipped his head towards the noise. It was coming from a black muggle device propped on the coffee table next to a Bible and a yellowed room service menu. A telephone was ringing loudly at the ungodly hour in the morning. He picked up, blood rushing in his ears, cleared his throat, and said:

"Hello."


* * *

The sharp smell of ammonia hit his nostrils, then there was a slap on his cheeks and Harry saw blurry Kevin's face in front of him. The chamber he was in did not look like a hospital room, the ceiling was too high and the furniture was way too expensive. He tried to move but his arms and legs were bound by magical ropes and he could feel the tip of the wand pressed to his throat.

"Easy there, Harry, I don't want to hurt you," the nurse gave him a lopsided grin. He felt fingers trying to pry his clenched jaws open and then a bitter liquid on his tongue, he was being drugged yet again.

Harry wrenched his head away from his grip and spat out the potion, the taste still lingered in his mouth and he was wondering if it would still be enough to work. He was breathing heavily, too scared to swallow his own saliva. There was no way he could induce the vomiting, his hands were tied and his mind was still bleary from whatever tranquilizer that was there in the muggle injection.

"Why are you doing this?" Harry demanded, "Who's making you?... If it is Yaxley... You need to realize that he is going to kill you too afterward..."

There was a chuckle and somebody else in the room stepped towards them. It wasn't a notorious Death Eater, it was the same stern-looking old lady he saw when they visited Saint Barbara's orphanage before. She approached him without any hesitation, her eyes studying his face curiously.

"There's no need to worry, Potter, you weren't poisoned," the woman replied. "This is a rather curious concoction that might help reveal your... true nature".

With the flick of her wand, the heavy curtains were pulled away from the window and he could see that it was already sundown, dark snow clouds still lingered in the sky, covering the face of the full moon.

"It's too bad about the weather though... I guess we just need to wait a bit," the auntie tsked and continued staring at Harry as though anticipating some dramatic change to happen.

"What did you give me? What do you want?!" he demanded.

Harry's heart was beating rapidly in his chest and the goosebumps appeared on his skin, it felt as though he was in one of those vivid night terrors. He could sense the faintest sounds and smells around him: the rustle of bare branches of the trees outside, the steady breathing of people in the room, the herbal aroma of spilled potion, the light fragrance of Kevin's aftershave and suffocating smell of old-fashioned perfume on the orphanage matron. There was so much untamed energy that stirred inside him and if Harry tried he could easily break the spell on the charmed ropes and set himself free. The thing that was stopping him was the alarming realization that he wouldn't know what he would do with his captors if he was not restrained. The unquenchable desire to hurt them was bubbling in his gut and making him terrified of himself.

"You see, Potter. You should have never come here looking for answers," the old lady spoke again. "I thought that by helping Dumbledore I would avoid the humiliation of being registered as a magical creature... And it worked to some extent. Nobody batted an eye that someone like me was looking after wizarding children, until you and that Malfoy brat started to dig... Luckily I have quite a talent when it comes to being persuasive..." the auntie smirked and for a moment it looked as though her face turned into an ugly scowl and instead of the long straight nose and thin lips was a beak of some sort of predatory creature.

Veela... that woman was not a simple witch...

Harry should have realized it sooner. The auntie had been using other men to do her dirty work and it had worked way better than any Imperius Curse. Fist Williamson and then poor Kevin. He was always so nice to Harry and even his shameless flirting was too innocent. He would never try drugging him on purpose.

"We didn't try to expose you... we were just trying to figure out what happened to Elise's memories. You were the one who was using the children to keep them!" the Gryffindor shouted at her angrily.

"And was there any harm done?" the woman asked simply. " Those younglings have no recollection of their minds being meddled with... However now... after you've exposed me to the press, they have no place to go anymore... It is all your fault, Potter. And to think of it! You are an orphan as well. Have you no compassion?"

"What do you want now?! Why get Kevin involved?! Let him go... if you want to have your vengeance. It is me you should only deal with!" Harry pleaded.

"Vengeance?!" Auntie laughed and hew voice sounded like a cry of the bird of prey. "You sure have a taste for dramatics, Potter... It is just the case of a destroyed reputation. I just want others to treat you like they treat me now... as a dangerous predator, that shouldn't be around children."

The dim room was suddenly bright as day, the cold light of the full moon was streaming from the tall windows not covered by the clouds anymore.



* * *

"Fucking... stupid... moronic... dim-witted... twat!" Draco cursed loudly and kicked the tire of his car angrily.

Draco got to the parking lot in front of the hotel. He examined his Mercedes once more, there were no tracking charms, even the ones that couldn't be so easily detected and all the protective wards were still in place, and yet he had a feeling that something must have been wrong with it since Potter managed to find out where he was.

His fingers were violently fidgeting with an unlit cigarette, as he was trying to find his wand in the pockets of his muggle hiking jacket from that ruddy muggle second-hand shop. Earlier that morning he received a disturbing phone call from Millicent Bullstrode of all people.

"Draco, 's that you?" she asked over the line, "Martha and I went back to Saint Barbara's to pick up her things and we found Potter... you should get there quick!"

"How do you know my whereabouts? And how do I know it is not some sort of set up?!" he demanded, now willing to believe that somehow his hideaway was common knowledge and that Harry was in danger.

"Oh would you stop with that now?!" the girl huffed impatiently. "I found your address and this number in his pocket... he looks badly injured though... I wonder if I should call the Aurors."

"DON'T!" Draco's voice was embarrassingly shrill, "Millie, whatever you do, don't call the Aurors."

"That's what I thought too," Millicent agreed, " You need to come here though, I am not sure he will be fine by himself... There's so much blood."

"H-how do I know, it's really you?" the blonde asked as an afterthought.

"You have been mooning over Potter for so many years, it was genuinely disturbing, and Pansy was nagging me about it all the time too. Now it looks like you lads are actually... erm, involved, so... he needs you, Dray, and I need to get Martha out of here!"

Her last words were still ringing in his ears, when he quickly jumped into the driver's seat and floored the gas pedal without hesitation.