The Safe Wizards

39: Entering the Ministry

The golden trio landed about a hundred yards from the Burrow. The winter gray made the place gloomy as rain fell on the ruins of the Weasley house. Harry felt sick, extremely sad at the sight. He held back his tears and turned to his best friends, who were unable to. He hugged them both, holding them close for a moment.

"We shouldn't hang out here," Harry whispered.

The other two nodded and wiped away their tears.

"Do you know how to get to Malfoy Manor?" asked Ron.

"Yes, I went there once after the war, Narcissa wanted to thank me for keeping them out of Azkaban." replied Harry before hopping on his broom.

Ron followed suit, taking Hermione behind him. The young woman cast a spell of disillusionment on them and they took off. They traveled in silence, each lost in thought. Harry realized that Gestand had gone too far. He had tried to destroy his life, Teddy's life, his family's life and the lives of hundreds of wizards across England. Like Hilter with the Jews, the man was planning the genocide of magical creatures, arming himself to eliminate thousands of lives. Harry realized that he had not returned to England just to save Charlie. He had come back to fight a new war, to stop a despot. He thought about Jasper, he knew that his companion would resent him for changing his plans and replacing a rescue mission with a coup, but his conscience forbade him to do otherwise.

They had to fly for about thirty minutes before they saw the gates of the mansion. They stopped right in front of it. An elderly elf immediately appeared on the other side.

"You wish?"

"Tell your mistress that we wish to speak with her about Draco."

The elf disappeared for only a few minutes before returning and opening the gates for them. They walked briskly up the driveway, peering at the place from behind the scenes. The mansion was far from the image of power it had before the war, it even looked ready to fall apart.

Narcissa was waiting for them just one step past the open front door. She too had changed, her dress looked worn and her face aged.

"Do you know where Draco is?" she asked by way of greeting, her concern evident on her previously so cold face.

Harry nodded and she led them to a small sitting room.

"No one can know they're here," she said to her house elf before sitting down with them. "May I offer you some tea?" she asked, suddenly remembering her manners.

"I'm afraid we don't have time for that," Harry replied.

It was clear to him that his friends would let him talk as much as possible. Hermione's eyes were haunted by memories of her last time in this house and Ron was not comfortable with the idea of being in the home of those who had been his family's enemies for so long.

"The Weasleys' house was attacked last night, if it wasn't for Draco's intervention they'd probably all be dead or imprisoned. Molly and Ginny are dead, everyone else there was injured, including Draco."

Narcissa put her hand in front of her face to hide her shock, but her eyes were slightly moist. At that moment a great pain took Harry in the heart. The young man was immediately afraid that something had happened to Jasper, but his pain passed as quickly as it had appeared. The dark-haired man focused on his bond, but other than it seemed to tug at him a little more than usual, Harry didn't notice anything in particular.

"How's he doing?"

It took the Survivor a few seconds to remember who they were talking about.

"He was badly injured, but was taken care of, when we left he was stable and conscious."