Time was a problematic matter these days. Not knowing whether the way the seconds rolled quickly by was for the greater good or for the destruction that was going to take place when that time was up added to the scheme of it all.

If time kept speeding up that meant more of a chance of finding the answer—of finally being able to drop all the files scattered around them and put them back in the archives where they belonged: in the section of resolved cases.

But what if that time kept speeding and nothing came of it? What if all their hard work and concentration was for nothing? What if those eight days of digging deep and searching high were just useless? What if they just wasted all that time to end up where they had begun?

It was maddening, every second that ticked by mockingly on the clock, but Draco couldn't lose himself in that. He couldn't stop and ponder whether his work was going to help or be utterly useless. All he knew was that he had to keep trying. He had to keep his focus completely submerged into every minute that passed, especially because he had everything riding on it.

And that everything was his daughter.

"Are you ready?" Looking away from the photograph of his children on his desk, Draco was met with a pair of intense brown eyes.

It had been about a week and something since he was lifted from the bind Tanya Rowle had placed him under. It had been a week since he’d finally got the rhythm of his walk back, the function to his brain, and the control over the venom he spilt.

"Well?" Hermione repeated, looking warily at the man.

Taking one last glance at the photograph and taking a file of records off his desk, Draco headed towards the door where his wife waited for him. "Let's go,” he replied simply, something internally hurting as she gave him a blank stare in return and turned away from him.

She started walking ahead of him with a fast pace to her steps as she proceeded to leave him behind. She was unwilling to walk beside him like husband and wife or two worried parents. All he could hear between them was the clink, clink, clink of her heels and the breathing of their bodies from the distance. All he could see was the back of her head, her brown waves falling beautifully and sending the scent of cinnamon towards him. It was the smell of home that invaded his senses.

There were things that were still left unresolved, vital things, but what Draco knew this far was the reason why Tanya had lifted the spell during the moment she had. She knew perfectly well that it’d be more wasted time for Draco and Hermione and for the entire department that was subjected into this case if he tried to make amends to his marriage.

But that was the thing Tanya Rowle hadn’t counted on: that Draco would choose to ignore to fix things with his wife. He couldn’t, after all, because there was no time. Tanya had vanished with his daughter and Rose Weasley, and that was top priority than to explain to Hermione that she’d bewitched him.

Hermione was still unwilling to be around him unless it meant business. Draco could see that depression, that anger, that ineptitude that burned in her eyes every time he allowed himself to glance at her without shouting his truth. He knew what he had to do, then. Draco couldn't attempt to fix things while she suffered. Time passed by even more and that meant risking another one of their daughters. Especially when they had recieved terrible news about Demetria the night before.

Dean had notified them that Demetria's condition went from a neutral comatose state to something even worse. The charts started showing that Demi's barely-there signals of life were withering away and no Healer had a clue what to do next. And with a deep sympathetic expression and a few technical terms, Dean told the Malfoys that their youngest daughter did not have enough energy to sustain her own life, and that any minute now it’d be the end.

Draco was not—unbelievably to his teenage memory—selfish enough to try and fix what gave him a reason for existence during those wrenching moments. He would have time later, he hoped, to mend the wrongs Tanya made him do. But for now, to erase that broken look on his wife's face, Draco needed to be completely submerged into this case every passing second.

"Draco, Hermione."

Arriving at the isolated headquarters that the Ministry had granted the Auror Department for the occasion, both Malfoys nodded curtly at the Head Auror that met them at the end of a very long, lonely hall. "Potter," Draco was the only one to speak as Hermione stared at the door where the three stood. "When did he get here?"

"Five minutes ago," Harry replied as he closed a case of files in his right hand. "We've researched a few names that he let slip during the interrogation with the Wizengamot already and we're hoping he'll give us more insight during this interrogation."

Draco nodded again, his ears perking up as he heard footsteps marching down the marbled ground and he rolled his eyes in annoyance of who it might be. "I thought we were the only ones allowed in the interrogation?"

"Didn't expect you'd have all the fun, right, Malfoy?" Appearing behind Draco and Hermione were the Weasleys. Both looked extremely put-out as they glanced at the door with a sort of hate and then back at their friends.

"Not at all," Draco said without snark as he looked between the married couple. "How's your brother, Weasley?"

Sighing a little, Ron shook his head at the memory, like he hoped it would slip away forever. He hoped that chill he felt when he thought that another one of his brothers had been murdered viciously could vanish like a bad nightmare, but the damage was done and he had to accept reality. He hadn't woken up in time.

"Percy's doing better. The Healers managed to repair him as much as they could and Mum’s doing as much as she thinks will help, but…" Ron paused, taking the chance to swallow the knot in his throat as he remembered when Percy woke up at St. Mungos. He recalled all the pain that seeped between all his siblings and his parents like a link of an invisible bond that held their family together. "They don't think he'll ever walk again."

"He's alive and that's what matters," Harry continued, knowing that Ron wasn't going to be able to explain further. "Mrs. and Mister Weasley are currently visiting France as much as they can to be with his family."

"Mum practically has settled herself there," Ron added with a huff, shaking his head again. "But it’s good for Lucy and Molly to know that they have strength around them as Percy and Audrey pretend to be okay."

Blinking past the conversation, Hermione cleared her throat to grab the Aurors attention. "We should get this over with, and the sooner the better. We’ve no time to keep wasting."

As Harry and Ron nodded in agreement, the woman that’d arrived quietly with her husband finally made a sound. A sort of sob escaped her lips as Draco reached for the doorknob of the secured door.

"Pansy? What is it?" Ron asked automatically.

Pansy inhaled roughly through her nostrils, her cheeks turning red as she tried to compose herself. "I-I…I just,” she stopped, shaking her dark locks as she looked away from her husband and towards her oldest friend. "I want my daughter back."

Staring at Pansy for a few silent seconds, Draco inhaled roughly as he could see the hurt she was in as well. Not knowing what to say to her, the blonde Auror pushed open the door and marched into the marbled-made room.

"Head Auror, we've been waiting."

As they entered, the three Aurors and the one special agent found that the long room was nothing but bare walls. There were no windows or any kind of escape inside of it, just a table plastered in the middle with a flicker of a candlelight hanging over it. There were two chairs: one occupied and the other free. At every corner of the marbled room was a specialized Auror with their wands at the ready in case a problem arose.

Nodding once at Auror Johnson, Harry turned to another one of his men. "Lopez, guard the door on the outside. Make sure no one else enters the room; Auror badge or not."

Just as the Auror was making his way out of the  room, Harry threw Draco a sign to step forward  to proceed with the interrogation.

"Under the jurisdiction of the Ministry," Malfoy began, not sparing a look to his wife as he pulled out the empty chair from its place, “you were informed about your rights and the lack thereof being convicted Death Eater almost two decades ago." He placed his files onto the metallic surface of the table, looking up at the person staring back at him with nothing in his eyes. "You’re to answer all questions during this interrogation with complete honesty. If the Head Auror dictates that you are lying, Veritaserum will be issued to gain the truth."

There was silence in the room; that kind of cold, tensed silence that presses down on your shoulders and even makes your collarbone hurt from the strained atmosphere.

Clearing his throat from the back, Harry Potter stepped towards his Auror and the prisoner. "State your name and location of living before being apprehended by Ministry Officials."

Chained and locked-down, the prisoner looked up at Harry for a second before proceeding. "Gregory Goyle. State of Victoria, Australia."

At the sound of the voice of his childhood friend, Malfoy had to press his mouth into a tight line. Something undefined, like betrayal and guilt mixed oddly inside of him began to throb. He wanted nothing more than to kill the man before him, to erase any memory of their bizarre loyalty for one another. Like their childhood and everything Draco got himself into, everything that Goyle protected him from, never happened.

"Spouse, children and their age?" Harry continued, knowing that Malfoy was not about to chime in at any moment.

Goyle's eyes flickered down for a second, a brooding taking over. "Parvati Goyle, spouse. Layla is fourteen and Garret’s six."

"Are you notified of your family's whereabouts, Mister Goyle?" Harry asked a little less harshly than he’d been speaking before as he caught a glisten to the man's eyes. (Harry had to be a man of iron during interrogations, but Parvati was a friend and he couldn't help but to feel grief.)

"No," Goyle responded, clearing his throat.

"Your home in Australia was searched and we found traces of magic."

Goyle looked up instantly, fear seeping through the cracks of his expression.

"It seemed to be a struggle rather than any average house-hold magic for a homemaker,” Draco finally spoke, opening one of the folders and taking out a photograph one of the Aurors had taken. "Various items were broken and shattered, and the bedrooms of your children seemed to have gone through the same struggle."

The prisoner gaped at the photograph, his chained arms fighting to reach for it but failed in every attempt

"Your family’s missing, Mister Goyle," Harry said, leaning towards the table and pushing the picture towards the man. "And unless you don't tell us what you've done to your wife and children, you will have another severe charge onto your criminal record."

In the background Ron glared with all of his boiling hatred. How could a man get rid of his own family? How mental did a man have to be to make his wife vanish and whisk his children away from their little lives?

Shaking his head, face turning pink, Goyle gripped the photographs with a sort of rage. "They…promised,” he muttered, his chest hurting. "They promised!" He crumbled the picture.

Draco and Harry shared a look, both of them turning to the prisoner with confused eyes. "Who exactly is 'they'? And what was promised, Goyle?"

"Tanya Rowle and her bloody army!" The man replied to the Head Auror as he shook his head furiously as he could see the acclaimed struggle in his head. It tortured him. "She said…She said if I did as she ordered she'd spare my family." Goyle looked at his old friend, his glittering eyes full of tears piercing the blonde. "She had taken my little boy…She took my Garret and threatened to kill my daughter if I didn't listen."

"If your child was missing, Goyle, why did Pavarti not report it?" Harry questioned, raising his eyebrow. "What exact terms did Tanya Rowle give you? When had all of this begun?"

"Because Pavarti didn't know," Goyle whispered, a tear falling. "I was apprehended by Rowle for the attack in France when I was with my son,” he explained. "We were closing up shop. Parvati was home with our daughter. Layla was going on a date that night and…Garret and I left to do some investigating. The little bloke that fancies my daughter works for me. Garret and I wanted to question him without Parvati knowing." He paused to chuckle humorlessly at a memory that flickered past his head with another tear falling.

"I knew they were following me and I tried to stay in the muggle crowd as much as I could. I knew they couldn't risk getting caught. But in my hurry I lost them and then they had us cornered…And one of them took my son."

"Why were you approached by Tanya Rowle?" Draco asked as he felt no sympathy whatsoever for the man. "What exactly was your part in this, Goyle?"

The prisoner looked back down at the tabletop due to the indifference in the blonde Auror's face. "She sent men after my family. She slowly scared me into listening to her since….She never exactly told me what she wanted me to do in her scheme, but that I needed to be ready for when she needed me.

“I wasn't frightened into it. I knew that she couldn't get very far with whatever she wanted to do. Until I had files of the people gone dead because of her; people that I used to know. Your father, Draco, was on it." He made himself look at his old friend. "Finnegan, Zacharias Smith and his family, and Michael Corner and his pregnant wife."

"Michael Corner?" Harry asked, snapping his fingers at one of the Aurors in the corner of the secluded room. "That name’s not on the list we have, Goyle. Are you absolutely sure?"

Goyle nodded solemnly. "Marietta Edgecombe has been missing for months now and the last list I had received from Tanya marked her name, too. She keeps these things on record, I reckon."

"Johnson, give the two new names to the other Aurors involved in this case,” the Head Auror told one of his men after jotting down the names in a scrap of parchment. "I want an instant search."

"Padma, Potter." Goyle turned to the Boy-Who-Lived. "Padma and her family have been missing too."

Bang. Bang.

"—Let me in!"

"—Leave the premises, Trainee!"

"—Look at the badge, idiot! I'm an Auror!"

As the supposed-to-be secured door banged open, everyone inside the room turned to see Teddy Lupin fighting with Auror Lopez.

"Auror Lupin!" The Head Auror hissed, bewilderment crossing his features as he adjusted his spectacles. "This interrogation is closed off to other Aurors. Leave the room immediately."

"Yeah, I'm really sorry, but I can't leave," Teddy retorted back, shoving Lopez back as he attempted to drag him out the room. "As all of you are in here chatting away, I’ve information that can't wait!"

"Leave the room, Lupin!" Ron snapped at the younger Auror. "We have no—"

"Oi! Wait! Wait!" Teddy shouted, kicking his legs in the air as Auror Lopez grabbed him high by the collar of his robes and lifted him off the floor. "I know where they are!"

"Wait! Let him speak." Hermione pointed her wand at the Auror before looking at Teddy with a racing heart at his previous shout. "Explain. Now."

Shoving Auror Lopez roughly as his feet touched the ground once more, Teddy said, “We got a tip-off. Someone said they saw Tanya Rowle and her men taking over an abandoned house."

"What abandoned house?!" Ron went to the plunge as the Malfoys looked at Teddy with a fast growing hope.

"Malfoy Manor," Teddy said in a low voice.

"Johnson, hand the names to an Auror and gather the rest of the men!" Harry began to order as he collected his files and handed them to his son. "Teddy, here you go."

Narrowing his eyes at his father, Teddy groaned. "You're actually going to make me file archives at a time like this? Come on!"

"You're in charge of the interrogation, Auror Lupin," Harry said with a smile on his face as Teddy dropped his jaw. "Brilliant work."

"Malfoy—" And right before Draco could follow the male two-thirds of the Golden Trio out the door, Goyle called out for him. "My family…Please, find them."

As Hermione quickly filled Teddy in on what Goyle had already confessed, she stopped to give the prisoner a solidified stare. "We'll find them, we promise,” she said without resentment towards the man she thought was responsible behind everything as her husband refused to answer his plea.

"Goodbye, Goyle," Draco responded after a second, turning on his heels and signaling Hermione to follow after him.

Gregory Goyle looked down at the tabletop without paying attention to Teddy as he introduced himself properly. "Goodbye forever, old friend."

                                                                                X

"—Stop it!"

"—Silencio!"

"Maybe you should consider making the spell permanent." Still gripping onto the roots of a young witch, Tanya Rowle blinked her eyes smugly at the man pointing his wand at their redheaded hostage. "That way she'll shut up for good."

The man—who looked to be around his early twenties—slowly lowered his wand away from Rose Weasley's face. "I don't attack children, Tanya. It's not a liking a share with you,” he said tauntingly.

Pulling the long caramel-colored waves from the top of Ariana Malfoy's head, Tanya tugged on a little smirk. "We have different definitions of low patience that's all, Yaxley."

Aries Yaxley narrowed his eyes at the woman, no sense of humor in his body as she continued to trace the burning tip of her wand alongside the pale skin of the Malfoy girl’s neck.

"I know it hurts," Tanya whispered teasingly to Ariana, a hand still lost in her hair to force her head back. "I'll stop if you just admit it does."

From her seat, where she was tied down like a common deer on top of a muggle hunter's truck, Rose filled with a deep anger as she could see the bright patches of crisp skin on the visible parts of Ariana's body. She’d been yelling for ages it seemed, screaming for the bastards to stop hurting her, to stop torturing Ariana like she was to blame with whatever was going on. But she couldn't do anything. Rose was completely useless in the help to end Ariana’s suffering.

"Come on, Ana." Tanya continued pressing her wand-tip deeper into the hallow area where the girl's neck and collarbone met. "Just say it."

Gritting her teeth as she could feel all the layers of skin burn in that spot, Ariana held her composure and pride. "I will never ask for your mercy,” she spat to the mental woman with her silver eyes pooling with unshed tears.

Yaxley crossed his arms. A shadow of awe passed through his face as he could see all the will on the girl's face; knowing perfectly well that she was burying all those shouts inside her. She silenced those sobs any common person would let out during torture.

Turning his head slightly to the left of the crumbled ballroom they were in, Yaxley's impression of the Malfoy girl grew a little more as he could see a blonde woman in a fetal position, holding a little limp figure to her chest. There were silent tears racing down her cheeks; the same rings of burnt skin on her, too. He wondered how much spirit could be in Ariana Malfoy if she held in what the blonde woman couldn't—all that weakness.

And as she rocked herself and the little body, the woman looked up with wet eyes to see Yaxley staring at her. Her lip trembled even more, the slice on her bottom lip hurting from the action. Wanting to sink deeper into the destroyed marbled floor, the woman kept crying into the sides of her arms. Her tears mixed with the scabs of her burned skin and fell on the clothes of the child pressed into her.

There's no room for weakness, Yaxley thought to himself, turning away from Eliz Wilkes without sympathy. Especially in my family, he added in afterthought for the cousin he’d forced into this. (If she would’ve kept her mouth shut in the confrontation in France with the Aurors she wouldn't have had to suffer anything. He’d no time to pity fools.)

"Say it!" Tanya hissed in frustration as she wanted to break through the strength that the teenage girl had. But as nothing came, Tanya refused to be beaten by the little brat, so she decided to turn the dial up by removing the wand from her skin and pointing it at her chest. "Crucio!"

And just as her skin was adjusting to the flames just consummating spots on her skin, Ariana felt the searing fire ignite all over her body deep inside her. It gripped her bones, shattering them with an electrifying force that sent her on her back as Tanya kept the spell over her.

"Crucio!" Tanya held her wand tighter, determination on her face.

Opening her mouth, Ariana let out a silent scream. Nothing came out of her lips, but her expression shone with the pain that she was feeling. Her brain wasn’t willing to give in to Tanya's demands, even as she leaked tears of scorching pain.

"That's enough," Yaxley snapped at Tanya, distracting her from the Unforgivable she was keeping over the girl. "Unforgivables are traced, Tanya. Use your head,” he added, looking away from the quieted shouts coming from the redheaded hostage as she looked outraged in her silence.

"They're going to find us eventually, Aries," Tanya retorted back. "Why not let me have my fun while we wait?"

Yaxley kept his blank stare as he lowered himself to an empty chair, he could see other recruits trying to peek into the scene inside the ballroom. "In time, Tanya."

Holding on to large fragments of the once-marbled floor, Ariana let her tears spill onto the ground that held many warm memories. It had been a place that she loved so dearly inside Malfoy Manor, where she’d learned many traditions of the Malfoy family and of the long and gone noble Black family.

"I remember I thought you looked like an angel wrapped in pink, so soft and warm,” Ariana sang in a broken voice to herself, her body aching as she continued to cry as the memories kept playing in her head. "You've had me wrapped around your finger since the day you were born."

She saw Lucius in shades of grey looking out the giant window of the ballroom, reminiscing about the past, about things he’d done and mistakes that he would never admit or could take back. A look of misery and shame in his silver eyes accompanied him throughout the rest of his life.

Ariana saw her mother decorating the ballroom by putting up bright banners that proclaimed what the celebration was for. All the festivity was for Scorpius' eleventh birthday, marking the coming-of-age moment when he was officially eligible to go to Hogwarts. There was a look on his face like he was so special and better than everyone else.

She saw little Demetria take her first steps, trying her hardest to get her wobbly feet to cross the room as she and Scorpius fought with each other. Their Grandmother Narcissa had left Demi on the floor to attempt and stop the fight between her two oldest grandchildren.

Ariana saw her father moving in a way she never had before. She’d been peeking through the half closed door, mesmerized as he danced elegantly with her mother. And as he twirled her in beautiful circles, she couldn't resist the urge to dance with them. She approached , demanding that she get a try. And with a small smile but firm expression, Draco gave in. Hermione took the chance to look over the moment like a proud mother as eight year-old Ariana climbed on her father's feet and let him guide her in one of the most majestic dances she'd ever seen.

"You're beautiful from the outside in. Chase your dreams, but always know the road that'll lead you home again,” Ariana continued to sing in her broken tone, her eyes threatening to close in exhaustion as she couldn't possibly handle any more of the hurt inside of her. She was sure she was dying little by little.

Disgust and defeat drilled into her mind as she imagined this was what the monsters made Demetria go through; what sent her to a comatose state in the first place. It had been all the dark magic that no one's system can handle.

"Go on, take on this whole world, but to me you know you'll always be my little girl."

Inside her memory, Ariana could see her five year-old self smiling sleepily at the man sitting on a rocking chair next to her bed. The sounds of her mother scolding her brother across the hall slithered their way inside of her room, but instead of laughing triumphantly at her brother's punishment, the little girl kept attention on her father.

“When you were in trouble, that crooked little smile could melt my heart of stone,” her father sang softly to her, patting her ringlets as her eyes drooped. "Now look at you, I've turned around and you're almost grown." Ariana blinked a tear away from her eyes, feeling it trace down painfully on her cheek as it ignited the cuts on her chin. "Sometimes you're asleep and I whisper 'I love you'."

But just before she could let the exhaustion inside her win and close her eyes for what felt like forever, sounds of explosions echoed around the once prestigious Malfoy Manor.

"—Drop your wands!"

"—You're surrounded!"

"—Hold your fire!"

With a small smile on his face, Yaxley watched as all of the recruited wizards and witches scrambled their way into the ballroom. Most of them were completely petrified as people started apparating inside the manor and from rooms above. (All of them obviously not informed that the next phase of the plan was to get captured.)

 "Finite," Yaxley murmured expertly to his bound hostage, letting Rose Weasley's voice come back to life.

"Dad!" Rose shouted immediately after Yaxley dropped his wand, hands in the air as an Auror pointed his wand at him. The ballroom filled with armed Ministry officials.

Sprinting across the room, Ron Weasley made his way to his daughter. "Rose! Are you all right?! Rose, are you okay?!" He bombarded his daughter with questions as he held her face to inspect her.

Without responding to any of her father's concerned questions, Rose hazel eyes widened as she caught sight of her Uncle Harry and the Malfoys charging into the room. Their wands buried deep behind some of the culprits backs, forcing them into the room as they tried to escape.

"Get Ana!" Rose shouted as soon as they were close enough, her arms springing free as Ron untied her from her prison. "She's hurt!"

"—Hold it!" Just before Hermione or Draco could spot their daughter in the mess of bodies, Tanya Rowle pulled her torture victim off the floor by her hair. "Don't move or I'll curse her brains out."

"What’d you do to my daughter?!" With knees going weak from the beaten figure of her daughter, Hermione's heart broke even as it thumped with a rush of fear.

Tanya smiled pleasantly. "I knew you'd find us, Mrs. Malfoy." Her voice was as friendly as it had been all the times Hermione had visited her husband's office when Tanya worked for him; when she was pretending to be a common secretary. "After all, your husband knows every entrance to this place more than anyone so it was just a matter of time."

"Let go of her, you bitch!" Rose hissed at the woman, shaking away her father's protective arms around her. "Can't you see you're surrounded?! You're not going to get out of here in once piece."

Feeling a spark of intense annoyance, Tanya glared at the members of the Auror Department with a deep hate as they stood in front of her with a conquering expression."You're mistaken—all of you are,” she snapped, her wand-tip illuminating itself as it pressed into Ariana's neck. The sounds of her sizzling skin echoed around the room like a harsh scratching on a chalkboard.

Gritting her teeth from the new wave of flames, Ariana felt trickles of blood passing her closed jaw as she held in her screams. She could see her mother's tortured gaze, could see her opening her mouth and shouting what had to be a plea of mercy for her child, but Ariana could not hear it. She could hardly see her, could hardly make out the blonde figure of her father in the crowd. Her vision was spotting and all that invaded her ears was a long whistling sound—the sound of death coming.

"Dad," Ariana muttered with a voice that was unheard by everyone, her eyes threatening to shut as she thought she saw him coming closer.

"Evening, Mister Malfoy." Tanya flashed a smile at her ex-boss. "You've already interrogated Mister Goyle, have you not?" She asked, looking happy. "In that case, I’ve something for him. I do hope you pass it along."

At the direction that Tanya pointed her finger in, Harry Potter was the first to turn and find the body of a blonde woman and a child huddled together that went unnoticed by everyone else.

"Garret Goyle?" Harry whispered, kneeling beside the woman and the kid.

"He needs a little patching up, but he'll be good as new," Tanya called sweetly, holding onto Ariana a lot tighter as Draco took another step towards them. "Not that Mister Goyle will ever get a chance to see his son again, right?" She kept her smile. "He’s implicated in this as much as anyone in this room. He has to serve a sentence in Azkaban for his crime."

Draco glared, his heart thumping with rage. "He's innocent."

"Which is a shame," Tanya shrugged, “but you shouldn't fret, Mister Malfoy. After all, from the mail exchanged between you and him, you gave promising information to Mister Goyle on orphanages. I'm sure little Garret will be perfectly taken care of.

“Mister Goyle wasn't half as stupid as I figured," Tanya continued. "I found his letters in your drawer. And believe me, I do not like to be mistaken. I only planned to get rid of Mrs. Goyle, but her husband had to get in my way,” the ex-secretary explained. "So he had to go too, but in a much different way. Now their son will grow up without a mother, without a sister….He'll be waiting for years to reunite with a father that will rot away in Azkaban."

"And you'll serve the penalty along with him, Miss Rowle," Draco hissed.

Tanya scoffed lightly. "Arrogance, Mister Malfoy, runs in your family like a disease." She took a few steps back, dragging Ariana with her. "Let me show you how I got rid of it for your daughter—Crucio!"

And finally with a voice, Ariana let out a wretched scream that pierced the ears of her parents like daggers.

"Expelliarmus!"

"Impedimenta!" Throwing off the spell that Hermione had sent her way, Tanya grinned more triumphantly as Ariana slummed to the floor from the torture curse. "This is what's going to happen—" Looking up at the Aurors, the woman narrowed her eyes as she knelt down causally by Ariana's body. "I'll give you the girl back, Mister Malfoy, in exchange for something else."

"Your freedom is not up for bargain, Miss Rowle," Harry spoke, a hand around Hermione's arm as she threatened to fall to pieces on the floor. "Surrender now. You’re surrounded."

"You might imprison us, Mister Potter, but we’ve done the destruction we set out to do." Speaking for the first time since the invasion of Aurors, Yaxley looked simply at the Head Auror.

Not bothered by the man's statement to Potter, Draco asked, “what do you propose?”

Tanya eyes brightened instantly. She knew perfectly well that whatever it took to get Ariana away from harm the Malfoys would do. "In exchange for your daughter's life I want yours."

"What?" Hermione gasped loudly, pushing Harry's hold from her as she took a step towards her husband. "What…What's that going to prove?!"

"It's not supposed to prove anything, Mrs. Malfoy," Tanya responded, her smile wiped off instantly. "It's supposed to level the playing field."

With all the strength she could muster, Ariana lifted her head so she could face her father. "Dad, no."

"That’s my only proposition," Tanya said before Draco could respond to his daughter's broken plea. "You will imprison us, you will attack very soon, and a battle will break out, but I still have your daughter's life in my hands. By the time any of you decide to disarm me, I'll still have time to end her life." At the silence that took over the Aurors, they knew she was right. "You're life, Mister Malfoy, for hers."

"No." Shaking her head furiously, Hermione took another step. "Not Draco. You can have me. Take my life and let my daughter go."

The ex-secretary shook her head with a little leer on her face as Yaxley laughed at the Brightest Witch's comment. "Your life is not of value for me, Mrs. Malfoy. It's your husband's death that I wish to see completed, or you shall morn another daughter."

"Why him?" Hermione asked loudly, a wave of anger radiating off of her skin. "Why Draco? Just take mine—"

"Revenge, Mrs. Malfoy, revenge!" Tanya yelled. "Your husband killed my father!" Her voice rose an octave, but she collected herself quickly from the confusion appearing from face to face. "Thorfinn Rowle, remember him?" She spat at Draco who turned two shades whiter; taking a step back as he could feel his dark mark burn from the memory. "You do, don't you? You remember what you did to my father."

Draco narrowed his silvery eyes, his hair swaying from side to side as he tried to shake away the memory. "It was an order, Tanya. Voldemort ordered it." The people shivered from the forbidden name. "I had no choice. It was my punishment."

Hermione's eyes filled with shocked tears, bewilderment taking over her. How could he have not told her? How could have he kept a murder hushed up?

"And your punishment caused me my father!" Tanya replied heatedly. "Every one of us in here, everyone involved in the silent destruction taking up your precious Wizarding World, lost something when the Death Eater era ended…When you so-called reformed Death Eaters were spared, but the rest of us shun forever." Inhaling in, Tanya stopped explaining. She didn't owe them explanations. "You’ve a choice now, Mister Malfoy. Do you choose to save a little girl's father and let her die? Or do you take away her father and let her live?"

When he was fifteen, Draco never thought once about anyone else but himself. He walked on the road of the world like it was a catwalk, like he was the almighty one and everyone else around him was nothing more than dirt. He pushed them down, letting them know their rightful place in the scale. He was a Pureblood—practically royalty to the scum around him.

When he was sixteen, he was still a king, but for a kingdom that wanted to behead their royalty. His jeweled-crown was not going to save him from the dark forces, from the evil that did in fact exist out there. He was starting to learn the meaning of redemption, of guilt, of a shaking fear that paralyzed him every day. He knew where his loyalties lied and that was with his family. He tore himself down emotionally to save them, to spare them, just so they could prove that their blood was the purest.

And when he turned seventeen, he was an entirely different person. He’d been pushed out of the throne, away from all those lies that he helped spread once-upon-a-time-ago about his kind being the perfect ones and was made to live like a commoner. Like an average person who was nothing greater than the person next to him on the street.

He was thirty-four now and he was in a place in life that he never imagined he’d ever be. He had a family of his own. A family that he dedicated himself to with blood, sweat and soul. They were untouchable to him, his own little family of royalty. They were what he lived for, what he served for like a faithful servant. And that girl that was tossed on the floor like a worthless animal was his daughter. She shared his blood, the same metallic-eyes, the same spirit inside—and he couldn’t let them push her from her rightful place in the world. She was going to be the greatest witch of them all, he knew.

So was there any doubt of what he would choose?

Nodding once at the woman he’d once trusted, Draco Malfoy lowered his wand on the ground and took a step closer to Tanya Rowle by forcing his feet to point her direction as his wife protested in the background; his friends and coworkers shouted at him to not give in.

As they screamed that they'd find a way, that they were not going to lose, Draco stared at his daughter. Their eyes conneced and he smiled at her. That kind of smile that he doesn't tend to show the world; something that she inherited from him. Because their bond of father and daughter was something not visible, but when it was, it came in the form of that smile.

"Sometimes when you're asleep, I whisper 'I love you'." He kneeled beside her, grabbing Ariana's hand as she sobbed, shaking her head and pleading him to get up and go. "In the moonlight at your door,” he whispered to her that bedtime melody that Ariana loved to hear since she was three. Those caring words in a form of a song that always made her feel loved, that always made her smile when she missed her father. "As I walk away, I hear you say…"

Tanya raised her wand, a foot slamming down on Ariana's scattered hair to keep her in place as she pointed her wand at her father’s back with a determined expression pulling on her face as she could hear Hermione scream in the distance.

Ariana squeezed her father's hand with all of the might she had left over, crying endless tears as he smiled at her for the last time in her tortured presence. "As I walk away, I hear you say, 'Daddy, I love you more,'” she sang back to her father as the deadly emerald light shut her eyelids closed and  she heard death come.