Piece of Your Heart ✔️

Chapter 6

Harry landed rather harshly, but Arthur steadied him.

"Thank you."

"I'll try to buy you as much time as possible Harry. Be careful. We'll only have a very small window of time to make the switch. You'll know when."

"I appreciate it Arthur."

He nodded and led Harry over to speak to Kingsley. Harry had to stop himself from rolling his eyes. He shouldn't have been surprised the Minister or Magic would be overseeing the operation. With his head up and shoulders back he went to greet the Minister. He was doing this for Draco.

"Mr. Potter, I do have to say I'm very surprised you took me up on one of my offers. I was worried my letters weren't getting to you."

"I've been a bit preoccupied since the trials."

"Mr. Malfoy, is he alone?"

"Hermione is with him."

Kingsley nodded. 

"I assume this will not be a conflict of interest?"

Harry made a face.

"I hope you're not implying that I would sabotage your investigation Kingsley. Do remember my friends and I were tortured in the dungeon here. I want anything dark and malicious cleared out and stored away properly and safely so no one else will be harmed."

Harry stared the Minister down, a challenging look in his eye.

"Of course Mr. Potter. Do not take offense to my question please, I've been interrogating all of my Aurors here. You can never be too safe. I've heard you in particular have a... side effect from your... connection."

"I do. But it wears me out rather quickly when the dark magic is strong."

"How does it work?"

"Basically like a muggle metal detector. When I'm near dark and powerful magic my scar begins to burn. Not as badly as with Voldemort but I can feel the magic pulsating. I can only imagine how high the levels will be in this house. I have to slowly build up a resistance to it."

"Very well. I would like for you to just walk the Manor today and detect which rooms you feel have the highest concentrations of dark magic. If it gets to be too much for you at any point in time please find either myself or Auror Weasley."

"I will."

Kingsley handed Harry a set of what appeared to be post it notes. He raised an eyebrow.

"Magically enhanced post it notes. They are color coded appropriately. Green meaning the room is free of dark magic, yellow is a small amount, blue is higher traces, and so on until red is extremely painful."

"Understood."

"Most of us will be down in the dungeons. That is where we have been concentrated. The rest of the house remains untouched."

"I'll start on the top floor and make my way downwards. I'll see how far I get. I'm only promising a good half hour to an hour out of me. I've been distancing myself from all of this trying to rebuild my strength."

"We appreciate your talents Mr. Potter."

Harry nodded and made his way towards the Manor. He stopped at the doorway, took a deep breath, and made his way in.

The first thought on his mind was the green sweater on the back of Draco's door. When he climbed the staircase, he immediately opened all of the doors on the top floor, already getting hit with the presence of dark magic. It would be harder for someone to figure out which room he was in if every door was open. And Harry had a feeling he wouldn't last very long here.