Draco Malfoy and The Aeternum Caput | Drarry

Guilt and Anger

TW: Full and detailed depiction of a panic attack.

After the busy and quite crazy Thursday that marked the beginning of May with Harry and Malfoy's excursion to the fourth floor of the Heston Blumenthal, Friday seemed quite uneventful, especially if one considered that it was May 2nd. That day was a complicated day for anyone involved in the Battle of Hogwarts, but neither of the four people that assembled in Malfoy's Obsidian Safe Room commented on that fact, and they all tried to pretend it was a day like any other. However, none of them was in the right spirit for solving a complicated case like the one they had in hands.

Harry and Malfoy started the day retelling Ron and Hermione all the things they discovered while listening to Merula Snyde and Harvey Burke conversation. They all agreed that conversation had many useful clues, and yet it could not get them much closer to find out who Aurum Papilio really was. But it gave them somewhere to start, so they had to consider it a win.

Aurum Papilio was a woman, and a woman who did not take active roles in the activities of the Golden Butterfly.

"She is the head, and we are the wings. And we have to help her fly."

That was their major new clue. Aurum Papilio was only a strategist. Whoever she was, she planned out the movements of their organization, as the head, but Harvey Burke was the one in charge of the effective operations, the general that made things happen. That matched with all things Malfoy had uncovered so far, and with the fact that nobody, even inside the Golden Butterfly, seemed to have a clue of who AP was. Even the fact that it was a 'she' was already a lot of information.

Harry stared at his notebook a bit dispirited. He read the words he wrote last night, after he got home from that restaurant, over and over again, feeling his eyes begging for some sleep.

Aurum Papilio: Profile

Woman, strategist, unable or in avoidance to take part in the activities of her own organization.

Person above any suspects?

Trustworthy/innocent figure?

Political or public figure? Someone in a position of power?

Fugitive? Someone already guilty or charged with something?

Another disability that prevents her to take action?

Prisoner? No communication with the outer world in Azkaban. No way of passing down orders.

Does she need to hide? Does she choose to hide?

Why is she hiding?

Harry stared at that question, but he had not come any closer to the answer in the last two hours. There were still far too many possibilities.

- I think she chooses to hide. - Malfoy said behind him, startling Harry a bit. He had been looking at Harry's notes over his shoulders.

- Why? - Harry asked, looking away from him and back to his notes.

- I don't know. It just feels more 'right'. But I can't give you a proper reason yet. - Malfoy answered, and turned to stare back at is board.

Harry got a bit distracted again, staring at Malfoy staring at his board. Malfoy seemed completely focused and unbothered, as if all their interaction at the restaurant had been completely normal. Harry was the one struggling with the huge amount of Malfoy filling his mind. The images of teared-eye flushed Malfoy in that fake argument, the feeling of Malfoy's hasty breath against his hand, and the strong beating of Malfoy's heart against his chest, when Harry pressed him down against the bookshelves. Oh, and that soft and sweet citric-wooden scent of him...