Chapter 17. An Accidental Release of Magic.

It was amazing how everything had changed in a few days. There had been Voldemort's sympathizers in the Ministry, but no one had known exactly how many. It turned out that there had been enough, both there and in the wizengamot, to quickly put the Aurors and the rest of the government in Voldemort's hands. There had been chaos for a couple of weeks and then months of terror had followed. The Order had been quite busy trying to help people. The first priority had been St. Mungo's. The Aurors had invaded the Hospital in search for "dangerous criminals" and with orders to take into custody any member from the families that still opposed the Dark Lord openly. Fortunately, by then most of the patients had been evacuated, and taken to secure locations under fidelius. Many mediwizards and mediwitches went into hiding with their patients, same as the entire Order of the Phoenix.

Without a spy on Voldemort's ranks the light side lost territory quite quickly. A law was passed which forbade muggleborns from owning a wand and forced them to register and have a pureblood family willing to answer for them. The muggleborns would have to be in the pureblood's service without the benefit of any payment. The ones that failed to find an acceptable family to serve were to be confined in a new prison somewhere underground London.

Many had tried to escape to the muggle world or to other countries, only to find out that the Death Eaters had tampered the wards protecting the magical world to track the person trying to leave and were immediately surrounded by Aurors and taken into custody.

Also, Voldemort was using very powerful ancient and archaic magic to ensure that no one with a magical core would be able to escape the wizarding world. Apart from the modified wards in all the places where the muggle world and the wizarding one met, there was the simple fact that now no wizard was able to have any kind of contact with a muggle. If a witch or a wizard tried to talk with one of them they were ignored, as if they didn't exist. It was as if a repelling muggle charm had been cast over every wizard and witch. In addition, there was a new kind of wards that prevented magical people to leave or enter Britain. Whoever tried it the muggle way was immediately apparated back to the new Government's offices. Portkeys, floo, brooms and even apparition would not work if one wanted to cross the sea, and the experience was quite painful.

And there were the dragons.

Everyone had been quite shocked to see that the Death Eaters were able to control dragons. They used them to attack ancient wizarding manors of families that had attempted to recluse themselves in their states. And the magical beasts were also patrolling the border of the island, making sure that no courageous soul would try and swim out of the country. By the time the New Year came around, the Britain had been effectively isolated from the rest of the world.

The Order had spent a miserable Christmas helping to evacuate a town mostly inhabited by squibs that had gotten trapped between the magical and muggle world. The Dark Lord had just declared squibs as a nature's mistake that had to be corrected.

Another thing was that every magical creature was to be registered and considered under the new law as subservient to the wizards. So far the only creatures that were safe from the Dark Regimen were the Goblins, and that was because even Voldemort wasn't so fool as to attack the very creatures that held the financial sustain of the whole magical world in their hands.

Facing the impossibility to leave, many families had been forced to adapt to the new government and many others had been pushed into hiding, servitude or death.

In Grimmauld place reigned the uncertainty and desolation. Molly Weasley was inconsolable. Percy was dead, and there had been no way to retrieve his body with the New Regimen's Aurors and the Death Eaters supervising the dispose of the corpses left after the fall of the old Ministry. Ron was safely in hiding along with other St. Mungo's patients, but it was too risky to go visit. Charlie was stuck in Romania with no means of communication. The poor woman's nerves were at their very limit.

McGonagall, Mad Eye, Bill and Fleur had moved to the house too. Madam Pomfrey was in one of St. Mungo's secret locations and reported every once in a while. Shacklebolt was dead and the entire Order had a price on their heads.

Alastor had been furious because someone had betrayed the fact that he was the secret keeper of the Order's Headquarters and that Harry Potter was hiding there. So now Minerva had forbidden Moody to take any stupid risks. Meaning he was technically confined to the house. Harry thought that McGonagall was exaggerating, but the reality was that the situation was too much for the witch to handle, and she was slowly letting the pressure overwhelm her. The rest of them however got to help in the missions more often, even Harry. McGonagall had been pretty pressed to get the Gryffindor boy out of Grimmauld place, but Bill and Moody had reasoned that if he were seen in many places the Death Eaters would be lead into false tracks. Besides, Harry had to train. The ability to fight was not just going to suddenly appear when he attempted to face Voldemort. So McGonagall had grudgingly accepted that Harry had to aid in the war effort.

Remus had taken to be the scout of the group. Been a werewolf meant that he was a dark creature and was entitled to go around with more freedom than the other Members of the Order. He was investigating all he could, trying to infiltrate various zones where some magical creatures had been confined, and had even found a group of rebels that were accepting his support to plan certain attacks to the Dark Regimen. He was the one of the Order with more activity, but that meant that he was no longer residing in Headquarters.

Harry was getting desperate. Each day that went by without finding the last horcrux was one more day of Voldemort's rule. McGonagall had considered prudent to wait until things had settled down a little and in the meanwhile gather all the information they possibly could, before risking a search to one specific location. Especially when that location had to be important to You-Know-Who, and their quest was bound to be noticed by someone.

The group had also been trying to find a way to destroy the horcruxes safely without success. There were some references to dark ancient rituals that could be of use, but they were too complicated and required a sacrifice to be made. Often someone's death was the price. Draco had found a mention to "mythical fire" to be able to purify and destroy evil souls. They had decided that it might refer to the Fiendfyre, though they were dubious at the "purifying" part. They had tried the spell on the attic. They had even found a way to contain the fire of the spell in a magically enclosed area. But even when the fire burned for quite a while, to the extent of almost getting out of control, the horcruxes had remained untouched. The group had however felt an awful lot of dark magic permeating the attic and had to fight against the lure of the horcruxes to use their power. The lot of them had been irritable and angry for several days after that.

January passed by and it was February before McGonagall agreed to let Harry go in search for another artefact in company of Hermione, the twins and Moody, who was getting quite intolerable to live with. The rest stayed in the house, worrying. It was not very comfortable, and Bill soon regretted having accepted to stay behind to appease his mother. But there was nothing he could do, so he endured being babysitter of a bunch of nervous women and a slightly irritable Draco Malfoy.

The blond Slytherin was aghast with Harry's recent departure. He was starting the sixth month of pregnancy already and had been extremely anxious the previous months. Apparently there had been no change in his physical aspect. Moody had put a glamour on him so no one would notice his growing belly. Apart from that, the elves had put several protection spells all over the place to prevent accidents. Malfoy felt like an old woman being taken care of, and it was annoying. Fortunately the danger of his magical core depleting had diminished, even with Harry absent many times over the last three months. Sally had mastered the trick of borrowing magic from Draco's environment, which at the moment consisted of the House. That lessened the strain from the pregnancy in a considerable amount, but Sally came and went from Draco's consciousness quite a lot. Even so, the blond still needed Harry's magic to be stable and the baby felt upset if both its parents weren't around.

Also, Draco had already decided that all the grown ups were idiots. He didn't know why Moody bothered with the glamour. It wasn't as if the entire household hadn't noticed that something was wrong with him. Besides, the only ones who didn't know what exactly was happening were the teenagers, Bill and Fleur! And that was only because the war had taken precedent! Everyone else was well aware of his situation and did no effort to hide it! He had seen McGonagall discussing with Moody and Mrs. Weasley. He knew that the professor wanted to tell the youngsters about the situation, but Alastor and Mrs. Weasley consistently refused. The blond Slytherin knew that the Weasley matron was trying to protect her family and that she still considered everyone under Bill's age to be just children, but Moody was only being a prat!

It was stupid. Draco had no idea of why Alastor had forbidden him from telling Harry and his friends the exact same tale the adults knew. As ridicule as said tale was to Draco, it was better than nothing! The situation was getting very difficult for him. Fleur and Hermione kept looking at him speculatively, no doubt trying to solve the problem of what was wrong with him. Bill was mostly avoiding him, and the twins questioned him from time to time. Harry just looked at him with that worrying frown on his face that made Draco want to strangle him.

He was tired of not having an explanation for Moody banning him from every activity that might imply the sightless bit of effort. Or for the constant inquiries about his well being from both Mrs. Weasley and McGonagall, the last with some rancour. Much less could he explain Madam Pomfrey's constant visits, seeing as his magic seemed to be perfectly fine, and he even had been allowed a borrowed wand to start practicing again. There was so much fuss around him! Why they insisted in keeping the reason of the constant Draco-worry from the youngsters was a mystery to the blond. Harry was the most entitled to know about it! Draco had spent the last two months feeling indignant and angry at the low respect for Harry's opinion that everyone was showing.

The problem was that he didn't seem to gather enough courage to tell him either. He had been trying. And always something happened that prevented him from explaining his predicament. Either someone interrupted them or Harry started confiding his own worries to Draco, and the blond would simply shut up and wait for another time. Apart from that, he was always nervous around Granger. The girl was looking more suspicious every time she saw Draco. The blond feared that she'll find out the truth by her own before he had the chance to tell Harry himself, but he couldn't find the appropriate way of telling him and avoid an angry reaction.

There were times at night when Draco felt he could talk more freely, but then Harry will tell him all about the war and the resistance that some people were trying to put together. Their few escapades to help the Order and to throw the Death Eaters out of path were a matter of worry too. Harry seemed to worry at just about everything. From where Remus could be at the moment to what they were going to do if they couldn't find the last of Voldemort's artefacts.

Then, to top it all, there was Ginny.

Fortunately, she was no longer living with them. It had been quite a battle, and much pressure on Molly, but Harry's comfort was first. Ginny had no place anymore in the same house that Harry was living in. She had been furious, but McGonagall and Moody got her out of Grimmauld place and sent to the Longbottom's state, which had been one of the few that had been put under fidelius before the Death Eaters had attacked with the dragons. Bill and Fleur had been notified of the situation, much to Harry's embarrassment, and had decided to stay neutral. Though Ginny was his favourite sibling, Bill wasn't at all pleased with what she had done and had been pressed to not give her a good trashing. Molly visited her frequently, though her sons didn't like that because each time she returned more depressed. Everyone knew that Ginny was still refusing to see a mediwitch, insisting that Harry should go with her because it was his child too.

Truth be told, Mrs. Weasley was deeply worried. Despite everything that she had done, Ginny was still Molly's only daughter. And it hadn't been the child's fault to be conceived, and it wasn't its fault that Ginny was so... stupid. Harry was aware that Mrs. Weasley was restraining herself in order to not to go and plead him to talk with her daughter. He didn't want anything to do with the bitch, but he felt sorry for Molly. Harry was starting to feel guilty for not caring more about the health of the child. Well, for not caring at all about it. He had been talking about it more frequently with Draco.

And Draco would ease his worries the best he could and decide that maybe the grown-ups had a point in not wanting Harry to know about his own pregnancy. It was not fair to add more problems to the boy's, already heavy, burden. Deep inside him, Draco just knew that Potter would end up returning with the Weasley girl out of misplaced guilt, and there was nothing he could do to prevent it. If Harry knew about Draco's child the conflict would be much worse. The blond was not going to be the cause of more pain for Harry. So, he convinced himself, night after night, that Potter was better of not knowing about his pregnancy. Night after night he reminded himself that the Gryffindor boy was going to hate him, and give him the same treatment he gave to the Weasley girl, as soon as he knew the truth.

The bond between them made keep the secret more difficult. The constant flow of magic between the two boys made Draco long for confidence in his child's sire, for full support and acceptance. The untold things between them were slowly killing him. He was not going to take it for much longer.

He lay on his bed, thinking morosely about the mess that was his life and rubbing circles over his stomach. Even with the glamour, he could feel his belly getting bigger and the baby moving inside. The discomfort had grown exponentially over the last two months. He had not really experimented morning sickness, thank the Gods, but he had been dizzy and cranky on occasion and his lower body ached in the evenings. He felt weird. And heavy. His feet usually complained if he dared to remain standing on them for too long. In fact, all the parts of his body had some form of ache. He couldn't remain laying in any position for long, and his hips and lower back complained if he sat in anything harder than cushions. His insides churned every once in a while and he had grown fond of blackberries and chocolate.

He was keeping his discomfort to himself and was trying to act normal, which was getting increasingly difficult. He had already had a close call when one morning everyone had looked funny at him because he had put honey syrup on his scrambled eggs. The day before that he had bathed his roast beef with whipped cream, but no one had noticed due to some interesting discussion about the Dark Lord's regimen. That morning though, everyone seemed to be looking at him. And from then on they had noticed all the strange little things that Draco had been doing with his food. Like refusing to eat anything that had cheese on it, or tending to put chocolate over everything at dinner. Harry had even asked him why he got up at night to go to the kitchen. Draco had not noticed that he had been experimenting cravings until Hermione had commented that it was as if Draco was channelling Ginny's pregnancy. Draco had been horrified and had consciously tried to eat normally when the other teenagers were around. But every time he was alone, or the others were in training, he asked the house-elves to bring him his honey syrup with a soup or a big glass of chocolate milk.

The mood swings were also a pain in the ass. Harry was constantly checking if he felt all right, and that annoyed him. He wanted to be left alone. But then, when he was alone, he felt bored, walked to the potions' lab, realize that he was banned from there, and started to cry because he felt so useless. At least no one had discovered him doing that yet.

Fortunately for him, the war was demanding most of Harry's attention and it was possible to keep his secret somewhat safely. But Draco was no fool. He knew that the Gryffindor would discover it sooner or later and would demand an explanation. The blond cursed Moody under his breath. It would be so much easier if the bloody ex-auror would help him with Harry! But no! Harry should not know anything because 'its easier that way'! Easier for whom exactly? It certainly wasn't Draco the one benefited from Harry's ignorance!

The blond sighed in resignation and Sally nuzzled his back, her magic going up and down his spine in a comforting pattern, massaging it at the same time. The boy let Sally ease his aches a bit. It was almost dinnertime and Mrs. Weasley was sure to come drag him to the kitchen. Hopefully this time he would be able to convince her that he was not hungry.

It was a desperate situation. Harry was holding his own very well, barely managing to protect himself and Hermione from the multiple hexes thrown to them. The girl was unconscious, with an open gash along her right flank oozing a slimy green substance. Alastor was nowhere in sight and the twins were busy keeping the inferi at bay. Harry looked desperately around him, hoping to spot an escape route.

Someone grabbed him from behind and pulled him towards what looked like an ancient tree. Before he could comprehend what was happening, the tree's bark cracked and opened and he was pulled inside it.

Lord Voldemort was listening with growing fury how his imbeciles Death Eaters had managed to loose Potter again. They claimed that the boy and his companions had received help from a group of rebels and they had been unable to track them. He cursed them all with a few crucios for their incompetence and sent them to continue searching for insurgents and mudbloods. He put Lucius Malfoy in charge of the planning to start the purge of Britain and then retired to his chambers.

He sat in a comfortable armchair in his study and started to think. There had been very little information of value in the Death Eaters' report, but there had been something that had attracted the Dark lord's curiosity. Potter's little party had been found near the Lestrange's state. At the very border of the forest where the entrance of a system of underwater caves was located. Those caves had once been used for ancient rituals. Voldemort himself had once explored them, fascinated by the amount of magic stored in the stones.

What could Potter be doing in those caves? They hadn't been used for decades. They were now bereft of any magical energy since he and his Death Eaters had used it to bind the common dragons under their control. Bellatrix had said that Potter's group seemed to be searching for something. What could that possibly be? He turned idly to look at a particular spot before the fire where Nagini had used to rest and he growled.

He was still furious over Nagini's loss. It shouldn't have happened at all! And that stupid Lucius playing with his diary and provoking its destruction! Two horcruxes lost in fruitless accidents!

Mmm... Voldemort continued looking at Nagini's empty spot. He had been close by when it had happened. Had apparated there as soon as he had felt Potter's presence on the battlefield and had sent Nagini to find the brat. The incompetent fools at the ministry never knew what had happened, but he did. He had seen it all through the deceased serpent's eyes. She had been ready to attack a young man who had been standing in her way to Potter, when a woman had pushed the boy out of the way and had attacked with a staff. It had been obvious that the fool witch hadn't had a clue of what exactly she had gotten in her hands. She had been manipulating the powerful artefact as if it had been a crude muggle weapon! Outrageous!

Voldemort knew about staffs. Only the most powerful wizards and witches could use one of those. Merlin and Morgana had had one, and Dumbledore himself had possessed his own before...

The Dark Lord had laughed at the witch's idiocy and had prompted Nagini forwards, going for the kill. He had never expected that the contact with the serpent-horcrux would activate the staff's magic. With no one to control the direction and the power of such magic, it had simply exploded, destroying everything in close proximity. Staff and horcrux included. The pain had been unbearable. Voldemort cursed the fates once more. The Potter brat had an unbelievable amount of luck to have destroyed two horcruxes in such accidents!

He thought about it a bit more. Perhaps they had not been exactly 'accidents.' The witch had brandished the staff in a very purposeful manner, and based on Snape's reports, the Potter brat had got into the Chamber of Secrets with the very intention of destroying the thing that had been controlling the basilisk. Not at all an accident.

He remembered then that one of his contacts had informed him that Dumbledore had been seen around the old orphanage where Tom Riddle had grown up. And after that, near his mother's childhood home...

Could they possibly... know?

It was very difficult to destroy the horcruxes, but not impossible, as demonstrated by his two lost ones. Dumbledore had been seen messing about in places that Tom Riddle had dwelled in. Potter also seemed to be following his trace. Could they be searching in every important location? And, had Dumbledore had an objective in mind?

Enraged, he got out of the study and went to a room dedicated specifically for his rituals. There he had recovered from the damage caused by Nagini's destruction and there he had cast the curse over the wizarding world that prevented any contact with the muggles. There was where he once had sealed the door to the Rainbow Dragons' realm.

He prepared an ample area in the centre of the room and magically traced some runes around it in a complicated pattern. Then he sat in the middle and started a chant. Words were flowing in a rhythmic cadence from his mouth. The air stilled, heavy with magic, and his mind began to search.

There was... a weird feeling in the house. Something that shouldn't exist. Corrupt magic, trying to permeate the walls.

Sally stirred inside Draco's mind. She had felt the corruption since it had entered the house. It had been dormant then, but still powerful and unstable. The humans had disturbed it some days ago, apparently trying to dispose of it. In retaliation it had tried to destroy them, though no one had really noticed. Regardless, every inhabitant of the house had been very close to be infected with the corrupt magic. They had barely managed to seal it again and had let it lay undisturbed since then. But now it was awakening, stronger and hungry.

Sally's senses were very perceptive, even if Draco's were blocked. She tried to move the boy's body without disturbing his mind's much needed rest and Draco's eyes opened.

All around her vessel, Sally could feel the corrupt magic. It was answering to a calling. Draco's body sat up on the bed and his head moved around, golden eyes focusing on the door. The boy got out of bed and stood awkwardly, trying a few steps to test his equilibrium. In a few moments he managed to get to the door and out of the room. Sally could now sense the whole house. The other humans were sleeping. Their dreams were starting to be disturbed by the waves of magical energy. The house elves were awakening, sensing something wrong in the house that was their very existence and immediately trembling in fear. They would not approach the source of the disturbance. It was too powerful for them and it'll only corrupt them more easily.

Draco's body started to walk towards the attic. Through his eyes, Sally looked at the wave of the house's magic changing to a sickening putrid gray colours and snap in some places as the corruption infected it. Draco's consciousness started to stir as they reached the attic and opened the door. The boy's drowsy brain tried to wake up and started to perceive that he was not in the bed, but Sally barely acknowledged him. She was too busy focusing on the foul magic emanating from a sealed trunk in a corner of the attic. Those things must be vanished. They should not exist. They had destroyed the very magic that had created them and would do the same with everything they could reach.

Draco's anguished whimper didn't distract her. She needed to do this for him. She had to protect her human, and Draco and his cub would not be safe while these things existed. Suddenly feeling as if she was back in her own body, she pulled back her head and opened her mouth. Ready to attack.

Draco was afraid and mighty confused. He didn't know what was happening. He could perceive he was in the attic, but it was as if he was walking through a dense fog. Faintly he could sense that Sally was wide-awake and in control of his body, but why? How had she managed to do it? And what the hell were they doing in the attic?

Through the haze and confusion he saw something in front of him. A trunk. The very trunk where Harry and the others had put the things that they wanted to destroy.

'They must be vanished.'

Draco was dimly aware of Sally's thoughts and was growing afraid by the second. He didn't want to be there. He wanted to turn around and get out. Those things were evil and already he could feel their magic trying to pull him, to make him hold them and use them. He tried to regain control of his body, but found out that Sally's will was just too powerful for him. He tried to protest, but suddenly something really weird happened. He could perceive Sally's thoughts with perfect clarity. The corrupt magic should be destroyed before it infected the entire house. Draco felt his body changing. He felt as if he was suddenly bigger and stronger. His sharp eyes focused solely on the threat in front of him. His talons affianced him on the floor. He itched to slice the things with them, but it was not necessary to approach them. He was dimly aware of two little presences at his back, easily ignored. He pulled back what now felt like his enormous head, and did what every dragon could do. He spit a column of fire.

Voldemort got pushed out of his reverie by the intense pain. He screamed inhumanly and took his hands to his face, turning around in the floor at the same time. Burning. He was burning. He could see flames all around him. With intense effort he collected his mind and broke the connection he had established with his horcruxes. He lay semi conscious on the floor for long minutes. When he finally recovered enough to get up he did so with an enraged cry. He started sending curses all around him, destroying the entire room in mere seconds. After a while he collected himself and started to think.

How could this have happened? Who was responsible for this? He had felt clearly how two of his horcruxes were destroyed. They had been together, of that much he was certain. The surroundings had not been familiar, and they were certainly not in the same places he had left them. They had been protected behind strong wards, but not ones of his making. He had been trying to break through the wards, to disclose the horcruxes' location when the fire had come. It had not been part of the wards; at least it hadn't felt like it. He doubted that the magic had triggered some kind of defence. It hadn't been a common fire either. It had been eerie and flashed purple. Someone or something had deliberately destroyed his horcruxes, but how?

Of the others, only one had answered to his mental call, the one hidden in Hogwarts castle. Granted, he actually didn't know how exactly the horcrux had ended in the castle. He had confided it to Lucius with strict instructions to keep it in his vault at Gringotts. However, he had also instructed him that if there was ever the opportunity to get it inside of the school that he didn't doubt in take it.

He raged again and blasted some hapless stones. That Potter brat was responsible of this! He was sure!

Now more than ever Voldemort felt certain that the boy had his prize. Somehow the dragon he had been hunting eighteen years ago had managed to hide her dragonling with Potter! That dragon was the last of its species and should be his! The Potter brat was going to pay!

Far away, in an underground refuge made by the rebels, Harry woke up with a scream. The twins approached him somewhat drowsily.

"What's up mate?"

"Bad dreams?"

Harry gulped and took a deep breath.

"Yeah... Riddle is very mad... Something important happened, but I don't know what. I think it has to do with the artefacts."

The twins looked at one another and then returned to look at Harry.

"Do you think he knows that we are looking for them?"

"I hope not! We only have to find one more! If he retrieves it before us things are gonna get awfully complicated."

The three teens lamented the lack of information they had. Resignedly they decided that for the moment it was better to sleep and analyze things in the morning.