The Desolate Den of the Dragon

Sorry about the long wait for the last chapter. RL, you know! I hope you enjoy this chapter; it answers more questions of how others are coping with the aftermath of the war. As always, my thanks to karelia, Maria, and Beth for their beta skills and input! Please Review!

***

Harry was not through with his search for Alice's true parentage. He went to the one person left who could tell him anything before actually confronting Hermione. He nervously Apparated to Malfoy Manor where a shaky house-elf bid him entrance. Harry was directed into a darkened room where Draco sat looking into a picture frame.

"Harry Potter, sir," the creature said softly.

Draco's face looked haggard. He was dressed well, but in black. His face was pale and gaunt.

"Potter," his voice tired and shaken. "This must be a shock. The arrogant prat, Draco Malfoy, afraid of his own shadow."

Harry came closer towards him, careful not to frighten him. "It doesn't have to be this way, Draco," he whispered.

Draco laughed. "I spent one year being told what to do and another year being forced to do things I didn't want. Now you tell me 'it doesn't have to be this way.' Are you going to be the boss of me, too, Harry?"

The two former enemies sat in silence for quite a while with only the chiming of the clock in the background.

"I can't stop hearing the crying," Draco whispered. "The screaming is all one long scream... but the crying, the calling out for help, crying for mothers, God, for death...and knowing to whom the voices belonged. Knowing that they were people I went to school with. Knowing that most of the time it was me doing the torturing and couldn't stop."

Harry sat near him and whispered, "Draco, you were exonerated. We know you were forced, under the Imperius, and we know you were under extreme duress for a very long time. What that evil bastard made you do...it was horrible. He used your love for your family, exploited it for his own gain, and twisted revenge on your father. You don't need to carry that, Draco."

Draco lifted his face, and Harry saw the tears on his sallow cheeks. "My mum cries all the time. My dad is dying. His body is just giving out, and it's all my fault. If only I had been stronger. If only I had been able to do what the Dark Lord needed me to do. But I was so w-weak. I thought I knew what I was doing, and now I've lost it all."

Harry felt a sudden rush of compassion for the wizard. He hated to do what he knew needed doing, but it couldn't be helped.

"Draco," he said. "I came for a purpose."

He turned sharply to Harry, and Harry said, "No, don't worry. It's nothing bad...I mean you aren't in trouble. I just need to know if you can give me some answers about the last days before the war."

Draco's head hit the back of the neck rest. "I could go my entire life never revisiting those days again," he whispered.

Harry took a deep breath. "I would never ask you to do this if it weren't so very important."

Draco looked at Harry and asked, "What is it?"

"I need to know if you ever saw Hermione Granger among those you knew were our classmates."

Draco looked confused. "No, Potter," he whispered. "I would have recognized her. My mind was hazy; being under the Imperius makes things strange somehow. But if Granger had been here, my father, Mulciber, anyone who had been there at the battle in the Department of Mysteries back in fifth year who knew who she was would have told the Dark Lord. Then, everyone would have known. She would have been paraded and questioned extensively. He would have made me and Snape hurt her, in order to break her will. No, Harry, I never saw or heard about her."

Harry sighed. "I want you to think about the last week, the last days before the war. Tell me what you remember, even if it seems insignificant."

Draco shivered. Harry called for the house-elf and told him, "Your master is cold. Please bring him a blanket or something."

When the elf returned, Draco wrapped the luxurious robe around him. Harry helped him; he seemed exerted by the effort. "It was terrible, Harry," he whispered as he looked into his green eyes. "There was a woman...a girl...but it had been Snape's birthday, you see."

"Snape's birthday?" Harry repeated, confused.

"The ninth of January, it had been his birthday. I knew by then he was frustrated. He wanted the war over just as much as my father and I did. There were balloons, wine, and lots of food...even a birthday cake! I was so bloody exhausted. I was just sitting on a chair, feeling drugged. My parents were huddled in a corner, tired and afraid. But it had been Snape's birthday, so Avery and someone went to get a present. There were many people, but only the select few Death Eaters were allowed to see the festivities of torturing the newly captured girl. I think they took me to see it happen so they could see the shock in my face. She was naked inside a cell room in the dungeons...branded...with a muslin bag tied around her head and neck. She was Snape's present."

Harry was shocked. "Was that normal procedure for prisoners?" he asked.

Draco looked confused. "No," he replied as he looked at Harry with large, solemn eyes.

"Why this time?" Harry asked.

A sound emerged from the blond wizard, but whether it was a laugh or a sound of derision, Harry couldn't tell.

"It was joke! They all liked to tease Snape about how no woman would want him unless they couldn't see his face, so it was a laugh for them," Draco replied angrily. "I hated it. It was all so disgusting."

"What happened then?" Harry asked. His voice was full of dread.

"I remember the woman crying when he started raping her, but the jeering was so loud it just drowned her out a bit. Then Snape said he couldn't get...I dunno, excited. She had been a virgin.

"Snape left the dungeons, and Merlin, was he furious! We all followed him back to the party. The next thing I knew, he had grabbed Avery's daughter, and he dragged her right into Avery's bedroom for all and sundry to see. It was disgusting...we could hear them shagging. It sounded like he was battering her...and she loved it. Neither Snape nor Idina...Avery's daughter...resurfaced until the alarm had sounded for the battle."

"What happened when the alarm sounded?"

"The wards came down. All was open for people to come in, out, whatever."

"Draco, this is very important," Harry's voice was sober. "What happened to the girl after Snape discarded her?"

Draco looked confused. He blinked his eyes and said, "She remained in the dungeons. Her body is probably there..."

"No, Draco," Harry interrupted. "Avery Manor was searched. I talked to Savage, one of the Aurors. He said that the dungeons were empty. The search was extensive."

"Buried? Transfigured?"

"There were no graves or disturbed land on Avery's property. The only grave we ever found was the shallow grave of Hannah Abbott's body...here...not at Avery manor."

"Oh, yes," Draco whispered as he looked away towards the half-shaded window across the room.

"Did you know that my parents are asking me to marry Astoria Greengrass?" he blurted out.

Harry furrowed his brow. "Uh, no. Isn't she Daphne's sister?"

"Yeah, that's right. Daphne's parents are forcing her marry some Russian pure-blood and making her move to Wizarding Leningrad with him. Astoria told me she's been in tears about it. She's getting married on Saturday at her parents' manor. I'll have to go with my parents and make a good show of being in love with a girl I never even knew in school. I mean, she was two years behind me in Slytherin."

"Your parents are making you marry, or are the Greengrasses putting the pressure on you?" pushed Harry.

Draco shrugged. "Doesn't matter. Astoria is a nice girl. She understands the way things have to be, and I know she'll support me. We've talked. She said she'll try hard to make sure she gives me an heir as soon as possible so I won't have to worry."

"Sounds like she wants you to take it easy and enjoy life a little," Harry whispered.

Draco shook his head. "No, Harry. I'll never be free. Did you know I was forced to perform the Cruciatus on my parents?" he asked. "What kind of father am I going to be? My father looks at me with fear in his eyes. He says he's fine, but it's there, behind something. I think it's Hannah's death that's killing him."

"What?"

Draco swallowed and cleared his throat as he swiped his eyes with his long, pale hand. "Hannah Abbott's body was only found after the Dark Lord left here, leaving my Aunt Bella and some of the others who were in his sacred circle in charge. Otherwise, Nagini would have...you know."

Draco looked around the dark, opulent room with the ancient silver, sumptuous furniture, and heavy draperies surrounding them. "My father took Hannah from the group of girls that had been captured months before the end. Mother was just...insane about getting free; she was dogging the Dark Lord's footsteps, trying to do anything to get him to forgive us...gone constantly. Father was becoming unhinged. He stole Hannah away and kept her here upstairs, hidden in his bedroom. I had to keep him within earshot constantly. He was so...unstable. I remember sitting outside of the uppermost room, listening to my father beg her to having sex with him. At first she was terrified of him, but he kept telling her how pretty and lovely she was, and how he would love her and protect her. I mean, he was raving! He wanted to start over, start again after the war. She was his mistress after that, and he kept her in that room, safe from the others. Father said she had never... been with ..." His voice trailed off.

He cleared his throat and blinked his eyes rapidly. "Father was proud she came to him... untouched. He told me she would give him more children. He said he knew she would give him the daughter he never had.

"It was Bella who found them out," Draco whispered. "She hexed Hannah so badly she crushed her skull. She made me perform the Cruciatus Curse on my father while Hannah died."

Harry didn't know what to say. He felt bad for Draco, that life looked so bleak for him.

"I buried her," he sobbed. "My father was destroyed. He wouldn't stop crying over her. I never knew the meaning of anguish before that day. He must have truly loved her.

"Will the Aurors want to have me come in?" Draco's voice was calm once more.

"No," Harry replied. "We're all so tired. It just clears up the anomaly as to why Hannah was buried instead of...you know." Harry shifted in his seat. He didn't want to think about Nagini.

There was a silence then, and Harry was loath to push Draco. He seemed so psychologically damaged.

"Harry," Draco said, interrupting the silence. "Why did you ask me about Hermione Granger? The last I heard she was a smashing success in Paris with her new potions shop or something."

Harry sighed. "There just have been some things she's said that has made me think that something happened in the war. She was missing for three days: the eighth, ninth, and the tenth of January..."

Draco's head snapped up, and Harry paused. He realized that girl Snape had violated had been Hermione.

Harry continued. "I stumbled upon Hermione after the battle. Her robes weren't hers, and she looked disoriented. Then she was just so different afterward."

"I remember," said Draco softly as he gazed into the distance. "She was so pretty. Her hair was soft and curly; I touched a curl once when no one was looking. Her figure had changed, and she looked so grown-up. I couldn't stop staring at her when we were in class."

Harry sighed and rubbed his face with one hand. If this didn't feel so damn pathetic with Draco just a hollow shell of himself and knowing Hermione had been used only to humiliate Snape, who didn't even know who she was...I'd kill Snape! How long does this have to go on? What am I going to do about Alice? Shit! What am I going to do about Hermione AND Snape?

"I know," Harry replied as he lowered his head. "Now what do I do when I prove it was her?"

"Potter, if you want to know if Hermione was the girl in the mask...bag...whatever...you're just going to have to make her show you her back. Look at her right scapula. That was where they branded the captured, and it was always the same brand: a 'V.'"

"Then what?"

Draco shrugged. "So, get her help. Professor Snape violated her. You'll have to let them both know so they can deal with it."

"Draco," Harry said as he rubbed his eyes, "there is a child."

"WHAT?" Draco shouted, coming to life for the first time since Harry arrived.

Harry nodded. "A girl was born in October of 1998. Her parents are Neville and Luna Longbottom, but Draco, she has the same dimple as Hermione...not to mention her name is Alice Hermione. Hermione is the girl's godmother. She has dark brown curly hair and dark eyes, but her temper is just like Hermione's, and she has these intense eyes as if she is boring into your soul. She glares just like Snape. It is the strangest thing. And she quotes from 'Hogwarts, A History!'"

"Proves nothing," Draco said as his voice shook. "Probably hangs out far too much with Granger, is all."

"Draco, Alice has never met her godmother. Hermione hasn't been back to England since we finished Hogwarts. Let's not forget the science behind this. That dimple is the exact replica of Hermione's. Neville and Luna don't have dimples. It is genetically impossible for that girl to be the Longbottoms' child."

The former enemies stared at each other.

"You know what you're going to have to do," whispered Draco.

"Yeah," whispered Harry, in return.

"Fucking war," Draco spat.

***

Harry went home, feeling low and depressed. Not only had Draco's mood jarred him, but the fact that he was ninety-nine percent sure Hermione and Snape were Alice's real parents made him literally sick to his stomach. He knew Snape had had to do terrible things in the war. Draco's account made it clear that Snape had been forced to violate that girl...had been disgusted by the act... but what choice would he have had? Did he have a choice at all? Hermione had been a virgin. When that realization hit Harry, he hung his head and cried.

He couldn't forget their first year together at Hogwarts. She had been so small and vulnerable, cried easily, out of place, lonely, and friendless, until he and Ron saved her from that damn troll. He thought of her bravery during their attempt to stop Snape from stealing that old stone, only to find out it had been Quirrell all along. The thought of how small she was that first day in Potions when Snape first insulted her, calling her a "silly girl." He was so angry with Snape; he could go to Hogwarts now and throttle him. But Snape didn't know, and Harry was old enough now to understand that if Snape did know, he was probably feeling like a worthless shit. There was no one alive now to blame...fucking war.

"Harry?" whispered Ginny.

Harry was at the bottom of the steps that led up to the house. He stood up quickly and tried to put himself together. "H-Hi, Ginny," he said in the happiest voice he could muster. "How are you? Is James in bed?"

Ginny stopped him when he reached the door. "Harry, James is fine. I just put him to bed. Now why don't you tell me why you've been crying?"

Harry placed a firm arm around his wife's shoulder and led them inside. He warmed himself by the fire, and Ginny poured them some tea.

Harry gulped his first cup down and as Ginny refilled it, he told her about his visit with the Longbottoms, his talk with Snape, and finally his talk with Draco.

Ginny was shaking after he finished. She took out a handkerchief from her apron pocket and said, "Poor Hannah. I can't even wrap my mind...you know that Hermione knows it was Snape, you realize," she said as she sniffed.

"How do you figure?" asked Harry, confused.

"She was Snape's birthday present. You know she heard those bastards talking or they told her. And she would've heard his voice. Women are partial to smell too, so she probably could also tell it was he by the... proximity of their bodies. Oh, Hermione!" she cried out.

"Shite!" hissed Harry. "What do we do?"

"Perhaps if I go and speak with her?" she asked.

"I don't know," replied Harry. "She might get suspicious and shut down."

"Maybe we need to talk to Neville and Luna?" she offered.

Harry ran his fingers through his hair. "It could be the same all over again! They would just shut down... or at least I know Neville would. When I tried to talk to him, he was like a stone wall...just like Hermione. I just don't know, Ginny. I just don't seem to know my friends anymore."