Through the Dark

Chapter 4

Draco stood in the bathroom of the Burrow, looking languidly into his reflection and feeling so completely foolish. Guilty, perhaps, for a better word.

Downstairs he could hear Ron, Hermione, Harry, Ginny, and Molly Weasley discussing that their children would be arriving soon.

Draco found himself praying to a God-Entity he didn't quite believe in that his son would remain safe here, under the protection of Harry and his family.

Three days ago Harry had Apparated to Draco's office telling him of a dream of a woman who wanted to kill Scorpius as revenge for Draco having killed her son a couple years back.

He gripped the sides of the sink and closed his eyes hard, as if that would make him feel less sick to his stomach. Draco was nauseated by the fact that he wasn't even able to immediately recall what Harry was talking about. He had killed an innocent boy and for over two years it hadn't even pained him... until three days ago. The memory of that day was so vague... so blurred...

It was right after Astoria's death. Harry, Draco, Ron, and newly-trained Auror Teddy Lupin were searching for the evil witch, Zamara Kozlov, alleged distant cousin of Antonin Dolohov. There had been a few reports to the Ministry of Magic of the woman using the Unforgivable Curses somewhere in Scotland. It shouldn't have been anything more than their usual cases. It should have taken a week at most.

After two days of trying to track her down, they managed to find her well-protected house in a nice open countryside. It was a dark, tall, and very narrow building that reeked of mildew and old borscht. Parts of the building weren't very well supported, and the highest room looked like it was only attached by a single rod.

Draco vaguely remembered Harry and Ron calling to the woman, demanding her wand. His mind had been in a fog, thinking of the last time he saw Astoria. His wife... his true love... gone before their son had even finished growing.

The four Aurors were standing on all sides of the house, waiting for Zamara to appear. The house, they had quickly realized, had several layers of protective spells on it which they did not have enough time to break before she appeared from the rickety room at the top of the building and began shooting spells down at them. That was when Draco made his mistake.

He shot back up at her, and the red beam of light that came from his wand hit the rod that was supporting the top room to the rest of the house. It fell and caved in upon itself, crashing down story by story until only a pile of ruins remained where the house once stood. They searched for Zamara, but she had already Apparated elsewhere before the house fell.

Draco hadn't known there was a child inside...

He shuddered, feeling the bitter bile rising in the back of his throat. Sloppy work, he thought angrily at himself. You should have been paying better attention.

Draco regretted having gone into work at all that day. He should have known it was too soon. He was still in mourning of his wife. All of this was his fault.

He sighed looking into the mirror. His pale hair was slicked back like usual, with few gray hairs in it, and his black suit was clean and sharp like always. But his face looked so exhausted. His under-eyes were such a deep purple and his skin had an almost grayish tint to it. He felt so old, and so stupid.

A thud downstairs stirred Draco from his thoughts and he heard what sounded like a punch and an "Ow!"

He headed back down the stairs and saw Scorpius and the Weasley girl– Rose–sprawled on the floor in front of the fireplace, Scorpius's hand clutching his shoulder.

"What was that for?" Scorpius asked in pain.

Rose rolled her eyes. "You were supposed to get out of the fireplace as soon as you landed so this," she said, gesturing to them on the floor, "wouldn't happen."