Chapter 3
May 27th, 2005
Pushing any emotional stunting his mind wants to betray him with into the depths of his Occlumency, Draco orderly places down the two journals on the table in front of him. Moving his knuckles slowly down the one on the right that he hadn’t seen in so many years, witnessing how much more worn and tattered than his own. The brown leather wearing away as the black twine struggles to hold it all together, thankfully the magic held through for as many years as it did. A few louder deep breaths pass in the silence before he begins pulling Tori’s wand from his pocket, listening to the overwhelming whispers of dark magic embedded into it call out his forearm tenses, laying it across the tops of the journals on the table. Conjuring a strange unrecorded spell like this required more focus than Draco felt he count muster at the moment, but given the circumstances he really didn’t have much of another choice. Even if he didn’t care for her anymore, which couldn’t be farther from the truth, she had protected and ensured the well-being and happiness of his friends and family while seemingly doing the same sending him away.
Draco shook away his frustration and ran his hands through his hair aggressively, sturdily strengthening his walls and regathering himself. All his friends are somewhere included in the Weasley circus, safe at the burrow, Theo left about 20 minutes ago to make sure the head count would be up to Tori’s standard. His mother is with his Aunt and the boy at their home, safe. Potter went with Granger to the ministry to try to get a briefing with the teams sent out searching while also trying to gather any information we might be missing from Grangers point of view working with Tori. Theo’s sudden appearance through the flu was stammering, Draco’s mind swirled for a moment with the flame before regaining focus on his friend who ignores his gaze to dust off his jacket. “All good with Weasley and co.” Theo tries to joke but his face defies his playful words. “Daphne even got Astoria and Blaze over there.”
“Surprising, but good.”
“Yeah… yeah good…” Theo itches the back of his head. “Any progress with that elf spell?”
“Damn wand’s dark magic is going to make this…” Draco huffs walking over to the bookshelf to grab a parchment map he conjured up for the spell, unraveling it with a slight shake to his hand. “More difficult than I’d like.”
“It’s going to work, mate.”
“Potter’s optimism spills out of you.” Draco spits at him, narrowing his eyes sternly to his friend. Feeling a shiver of anger run through his bloodstream he rolls his shoulders out after a long moment of aggravated emotions swirl between them. Draco doesn’t mean to lash out so harshly to his friend, but he knows the extent of the damage that could be taking place at this very moment, and he feels the heat of the guilt of letting Tori deal with this on her own.
A deep exhale as he turns to the table, laying out the map with a journal on each top corner, leaving the elder wand to lay alongside the parchment. The silence breaks with another swirl of the flu; two bursts of green begin to appear in the fireplace as Draco realizes he should probably look less angered than he did.
The flames fly through quickly, turning into the figures of Potter and a clearly frustrated Granger pushing through his grasp and charging right towards Draco. Instinctively he throws his hands palms to her in an effort to show a white flag, not a deserving apology by any means but in admittance to being on the aggravated witches side.
“Where is she?” Grangers voice bellows through the room as Theo tries to step between them.
“I don’t know yet, Granger.” Draco tells her honestly. "You're mistaken if you think I won't do everything-"
“No. No back off Theo.” She throws her arms to keep her space from the two men clearly at odds in the situation, looking at each other then back to Draco. “No. You knew she would get Teddy out.”
“I did.”
“You knew she would have done anything to get him out safely, and you knew where to find where she left him.” She points her finger right at his face like an authoritative figure would. Not very mature, but frantically getting her point across non-the less.
“I did, Granger.”
“Then why the bloody hell haven’t you found her NOW.” Her eyes filled with frustration and worry, defying her voice.
“I’m working on it, Granger.”
“You’re not working fast enough, Malfoy!”
“I’m. Aware.” Draco’s voice remains low in admittance, raising an eyebrow at the frantic witch. “Now, if you don’t mind. I’d like to get back to it.”
This stuns Granger, the creases in her face smoothing out as she looks him over curiously.
“’Mione…” Theo’s voice cracks the tension, moving his head to Potter. “Let them work, Hermione.” Potter tries, looking to the ground right before Grangers head wiped around to seemingly stare his way with a look he clearly didn’t like.
“You.” She turns back to Draco before smoothing out her robe and hair. “You get her back, whatever it takes.” She tells him sternly, and Draco gives her one slow nod before he moves his eyes back to Potter. Surprisingly taking the hint and slowly reaching out for her hand before moving her back towards the flu, her eyes lock onto Theo before she steps into it. “Find her.” Also in a stern voice, but yet a slight softer tone to it. Theo nods quickly to her before grabbing her hand to lay a kiss on her knuckles. Potter looks over her shoulder towards Draco with a worried brow, taking a deep breath before finally guiding Granger into the flu.
Draco turned on his head before they could walk into the fire place, trying to re center his focus, he trails his fingertips along the edge of the parchment.
The spell requires a donation of sorts, but before that his focus needs to remain on one thing only, Tori.
“What do you need from me?” Theo asks breaking his concentration, and Draco lets out an annoyed exhale. “Sorry mate, I just… Let me help.”
“It’s fine…” Draco keeps his eyes in front of him down on the parchment. “Go grab that lit candle, then stand across the table from me. Hand me the candle only when I say and do not interrupt.” Theo nods agreeable and swiftly moves as Draco beings to push his magic through to the thought of what he must track.
The first thing that always stood out about Tori to Draco was her eyes, dark green with eyelashes long enough to touch her eyebrows. He focusses on the familiar gleam in them whenever he would get close to her, and the slight flicker in them when he spoke to her. Remembering how dark her read hair used to flow in the wind when they would walk around the forests or where the water met the land. Her hair was never as bright as the Weasley’s… almost more of a brown, only dark red once the sun would hit it in a certain way. Draco pushes through a memory of them sitting along the bottom of a tree together, her soft voice humming along with the wind around them, almost harmonizing. He allows a slight smile escape the corner of his lip at the sound of her hum in her mind, calming him. He takes his deep breath before finally opening his eyes to see Theo standing across from him, candle ready in his hand. Draco reaches into his pocket to pull out a small guarded knife, and lays it on the parchment in front of him before leaning onto the table with both of his hands dropping his head forward.
Allowing his mental guard to fall, he grips onto the knife with a tense hand. He takes another deep breath before standing straight and allowing the sharp blade to glide across the center of his palm, cupping his hand so it begins to pool in it. Theo’s eyes narrow at him but Draco raises his other hand in pause.
“Vestigius.” Draco squeezes his hand as he begins to outline the parchment in his blood, thoroughly covering each corner and outside border. Remembering her eyes.
“Anima.” Once his blood covers the outline he hovers his hand in the center of the map, pooling more blood in his palm before slowly tipping it over to allow it to drip onto the parchment. Remembering her hair flying free with the breeze, and the smell of lavender omitting from her.
Once the blood has piled below his palm, he slowly pulls his hand away for it to move towards Theo, grabbing the candle from him. Draco pushes through the memory of her humming calmly as the image of her stands sturdy in his mind.
“Mea.” He turns the candle for the flame to touch his blood on the map, watching carefully as his blood begins to ignite in front of his eyes and trail along the parchment. He hands Theo back the candle with a hollow breath, bringing his cut hand back to himself and pulling a wrap out from his pocket. As he begins wrapping his wound he watches the flame create trails along the outer borders of the map and traveling around the paper seemingly searching.
Merlin, it worked.
Theo’s scoff of disbelief in both the map and bloody candle still in his hands, he scrambles to put the object back on its holder before blowing the flame out and returning back to the table where Draco’s eyes haven’t stopped carefully watching the trails swirl and turn over the parchment.
“C’mon…” Draco’s voice was quiet but stern. “How long till-“ Theo starts but Draco’s hand once again cuts him off, his eyes wide and watching the flame massacre its way across the parchment. Theo begrudgingly does the same in silence, watching closely as the blood he saw drip earlier trail quickly in its movement in front of the flame, guiding it.
In due time most of the map was burnt out, leaving only the options of London, Scotland, and Ireland before the flame finally begins to slow down. It circles around a few times before aiming closer into the area of muggle London, their destination finally narrowing as Theo watches Draco’s face light up.
“I got you.” Draco proclaims in fervor, before finally turning to face his friend. “Let’s go.”