Chapter Text
Harry leaned back in his chair and stretched, moving his head to the left, then the right. A small crack was his reward for doing so as he returned his attention to the several forms still on his desk. He chuckled while shaking his head as the door to the bullpen opened and a very familiar, muscular red-haired man walked in, causing Harry to grin.
“Hey, Ron! Wasn’t expecting you back until tomorrow.” Harry stood up and embraced his brother as Ron laughed.
“Yeah, well, you know Mione. She wanted to make sure her office was still standing after the month we were away, so I thought I'd come with her.” Ron gazed at the desk that was beside Harry’s and groaned; it was overflowing with paperwork to the point he couldn't even see his in and out baskets.
“Maybe I should have just stayed home…” Harry laughed at the horrified tone of Ron’s voice before shaking his head.
“Sorry, mate, no sympathy from me. My desk was in the same state when I returned from my honeymoon two years ago. And I seem to recall A few of the forms having the name Ronald on them.” Harry watched as Ron sat down, lifting his quill.
“Yeah, yeah, I should have expected this. Don’t suppose you might find it in your heart to give me A little help? I kinda would like to see my new wife sometime before the next century?”
“Fine, fine. Hermione would never forgive me if I were responsible for you being trapped by paperwork.” Harry levitated half of the paperwork over onto his desk. “Mind you’ll owe me for this.”
“Anything you want, mate!” Ron chirped happily as both men started in on the mountain of paperwork, hoping to get out before the sun rose, when the door to the bullpen was flung open.
Both Harry and Ron looked up to see a man with brown hair panting in the doorway.
Harry got up and walked over to him. “Dennis, what is it?”
Dennis Creevey shook his head. “Harry, you have no idea how relieved I am to see you here.” His eyes caught sight of Ro,n and he nodded. “You too, Ron.” He turned back to Harry. “Draco didn’t show up for his check-in, Harry. Astoria hasn’t reported him missing yet, what with the past and all that, but she's frantic.” He shook his head, “I don’t know what to do, Harry. I should report him missing. I am his parole officer, but. Something just doesn’t feel right.”
Harry ran his fingers through his hair with a sigh. “We’ll give Draco the benefit of the doubt for tonight, Dennis. Technically, since you just told Ron and me you did report it. We’ll go and speak with Astoria tomorrow, and depending on what she tells us, we’ll issue a warrant or a search party.”
Dennis nodded, brushing his fringe from his eyes. “Thanks, Harry, I really appreciate this.”
Harry waved the younger man off. “Don’t mention it. I mean that, Dennis. Go on home, Ron, and I will take care of this.”
Dennis nodded to Ron before he turned to leave the two Aurors, who retreated to their desks. Ron was rubbing the bridge of his nose, cursing under his breath.
“Bloody hell, Harry, what are you even thinking? You know how Draco’s release works, no checkup, and he’s supposed to be sent directly to Azkaban.”
Harry leaned back his chair, resting on the two back legs. “I know that Ron, I do, but I dunno maybe I’m doing this as A favor to Narcissa. She did save me after all. Look, we’ll go to speak to Astoria right after breakfast. Maybe she knows something she doesn’t think she does.”
“Yeah, I guess,” Ron said after a moment before standing up, summoning his cloak into his hands. “We'd better get home and put off this paperwork for later.”
Harry considered for a moment before summoning his own cloak. “Yeah, I think you’re right. Besides, Ginny is going to get home from Bulgaria tomorrow.” His lips curled into A smile simply at the thought of his wife.
“Oh yeah, that's right! How’d the match go anyway?” Ron asked, pulling his cloak on.
Harry snorted. “Do you really have to ask? They won, of course. Gin was the star score, 280-40 Harpies. Hopefully, we’ll be able to make supper on Sunday. I know Molly is eager to see Ginny.” He shook his head as he flipped off the light. “Hardest thing about having a famous Quidditch player for a wife is the separation.”
Ron shrugged, following Harry out. “Pretty hard when it’s your baby sister to Mate.”
Harry laughed, throwing his arm around Ron’s shoulder. “Do me a favor, mate. Don’t call her that to her face, or she is liable to shove a quaffle where the sun doesn’t shine.”
A blush covered Ron’s face, causing even his ears to turn red. “Duly noted.”
At nine AM, Harry and Ron knocked on the door to the small manor Draco owned along with his wife, Astoria. Ron glanced around as Harry knocked again. “I gotta say, Harry, I never expected Draco to wind up in a place like this. What with his er… personality?”
Harry shrugs. “He has changed since we left Hogwarts, Ron.” Harry turned back to the door as a pale woman answered it. Her eyes were red, and it was obvious to both men that she had spent a great deal of time crying. Her black hair fell loosely down her back, making her appear fragile as a doll.
“He-hello?” Her voice was soft, kind even as she trembled at the sight of the two Aurors.
“Hello, Mrs. Malfoy, Mr. Creevey reported to us that Draco missed his parole check-in. We were hoping that you’d allow us into your home. We only want to ask you a few questions about his disappearance.” Harry smiled at the slight woman in a manner he hoped was disarming. It appeared to work as Astoria paused before nodding, opening the door.
“Come in, we’ll speak in the den. Tea? Coffee?”
“Tea, please,” Harry replied as he sat down, looking around. He was impressed; he would have thought any home of Draco’s would be covered in Slytherin colors. But the den was nice and open, creams and pale blues and greens. Ron sat beside Harry and pulled out some parchment and a quill as Astoria poured the three of them tea, her hands shaking.
“You don’t have any house elves?” Ron asked, taking the cup with a nod of thanks. Astoria shook her head.
“Draco says he has bad memories of owning house elves. We employ a squib woman to assist me with the housework, though.” She sat down with her own cup of tea after handing Harry his.
Harry took a sip of the tea before setting it down on the saucer. “Mrs. Malfoy-”
“Astoria.” The woman interrupted. “Please, I know I am A Malfoy, but it makes Draco… uncomfortable.”
Harry nodded after a moment. “Alright, Astoria. Mr. Creevey Draco’s parole officer told us that Draco didn’t show up for his check-in yesterday. Did he come here to talk to you?”
Astoria simply nodded.
“After which he came and informed Ronald and me. Astoria, as of yet, we four are the only ones to know your husband is missing.” Harry watched as Astoria’s eyes widened with something that almost appeared to be hope. “We want to give Draco the benefit of the doubt. So please. If you know anything you need to tell us.”
Astoria stared into her cup before she set it down. “I haven’t been well lately. Draco knew immediately why, and so did I; he refused to accept it. You see… My family is cursed. It doesn’t show up in every generation.” A single tear ran down her cheek. “Lucky me, I guess. The healers at Saint Mungo's confirmed it without any doubt. I am dying due to my blood curse. Once we were certain, I stopped my contraceptive potions.” She smiled sadly at the two men. “It’ll lessen the time I have left without a doubt, but at least Draco will have someone after I am gone.”
Harry swallowed hard. “And there isn’t anything to be done?”
Astoria shook her head. “Sadly, no, it is inevitable. I think the longest someone lasted with the blood curse was twenty years after diagnosis.”
Ron frowned. “But Draco isn’t one to take this sitting down. What happened, Astoria?”
She bit her lip. “That’s just it. Ronald, is it?” Ron nodded. “Once I told him I wanted to have a baby so he’d have someone after I was… gone. He pulled away from me! He has never been like that before. I truly didn’t understand. He locked himself in his office and came out only to meet Dennis or to eat. But…” She trailed off, her brow furrowed. “The day after he saw Dennis last week, he finally came out of his office. He was beaming as if he had been hit with a powerful cheering charm. He lifted me into the air, laughing, and spun around in a circle. He was so happy it was contagious. Even I was laughing. We made our way to the bedroom and...” A light blush covered her cheeks as she cut herself off. “Then I woke up the next morning, and he was gone. The only thing I found was this.”
She pulled a torn piece of parchment from her robes and handed it to Harry, who read it aloud.
“Tori, I will save you. I love you forever. Dragon. Is Dragon a nickname you call him?” Harry asked, handing the note back to her as she nodded.
“I don’t know where he went, Harry. I’m terrified he might be trying dark arts to save me. Harry, I love Draco. But, I couldn’t live if he turned back to save me. Please, please find my Dragon. Save him from himself.”
Harry took another sip of his tea, thinking over everything Astoria had told him. Before he nodded. “Alright, Astoria. Ron and I will do whatever we can to try to bring Draco back to you. Would you allow us to look around Draco’s office?”
Astoria quickly stood up and nodded, “Of course, please. And feel free to take anything you feel might help you find him. I-I’m not stupid, Harry. I know you are doing us A great favor. I will owe you for this until my dying day.”
Harry stood up, followed by Ron. “Well, I’m just repaying my own debt, Astoria. So let's just call us even?”
Astoria smiled and nodded after a moment, leading them to the door to Draco’s office. “I’ll leave you to it then. Thank you again. Feel free to allow yourselves out once you are done. I have some errands I need to run.” Astoria unlocked the door with a touch of her wand and turned to walk down the hall.
Harry reached out and opened the door. It was a mess, bits of parchment covered the floo,r and there was a cauldron set up on Draco’s desk. “Watch where you step, Ron.” Harry carefully stepped over the parchment as he made his way to the cauldron and peered down into it. It was almost full of a dark red potion.
“Bloody hell…” Harry turned to see Ron holding one of the pieces of parchment.
“What is it, Ron?” Harry was slowly and carefully ladling the potion into a container in case it was helpful.
“Harry, I’d know this handwriting anywhere, and it isn’t Draco’s.” Ron walked over to Harry, holding up a piece so Harry could see.
Harry finished transferring the potion and set it next to the cauldron before he took the parchment in his hands. “Blimey, you’re right, Ron. This is Snape’s handwriting… Are they all?”
Ron nodded, “Yeah, every piece I’ve looked at was written by Snape.”
Harry shook his head. “Gather every piece you see. Draco made some kind of potion. My gut says the reason is somewhere in this mess of parchment and Snape’s thoughts.”
Ron nodded as he quietly began to gather the parchment into a pile. As he was doing that, Harry looked around for anything else in the office that might be helpful, but quickly came up blank.
Harry took one final look around before scooping up the container. “I think this is all we’re going to find, Ron. Let’s get back to the office.” Ron simply nodded, holding the large pile in his arms. Harry gently shut the door to Draco’s office behind him, and they apparated back to the ministry, opening the door to the bullpen to hear A set of feminine voices laughing and chatting.
Harry smiled, seeing his wife perched on the top of his desk, still in her Quidditch robes, laughing and shaking her head, her hair falling into her eyes. Hermione was laughing just as hard, though she was dressed in a business suit, her robes open as she sat in Ron’s chair. They seemed to be looking over a pile of pictures Ginny held in her hands.
Harry set the container on one of his coworkers’ desks before wrapping his arms around his wife’s middle and kissing her neck as she squeaked.
“Harry!” She giggled before resting her hands over Harry’s
“You’re home earlier than you said you’d be.” Harry smiled, brushing her red hair behind her ear. Ginny shrugged.
“I may have ditched practice.” Ginny laughed at Harry’s worried expression. “Don’t worry, the captain saw me leaving and gave me a thumbs up. Hermione and I were just looking over their pictures of America. A good mix of Muggle and Magical. We need to go on A trip like that sometime.” She captured Harry’s lips with her own, pulling back after a few moments to see Hermione welcoming her new husband in roughly the same manner, though her shirt was more than a little mussed up from their snogging.
Ginny shook her head. “So, where were you and Ron? We expected you to both still be here with all the paperwork we figured that Ron would have found on his return.”
Harry frowned and turned to Ron, who shrugged. “They are going to find out one way or another, Harry, not to mention four sets of eyes are far better than two.”
Hermione raised her eyebrow. “Tell us what exactly, Harry?” Both she and Ginny looked at their husbands expectantly as Harry sighed, running his fingers through his eternally messy hair.
“Draco missed his parole hearing and has gone missing. Ron and I went to speak with his wife; she’s frantic and terrified that he is doing something to save her. She is dying of a blood curse. She let us into Draco’s office, and we found parchment all over the room and an almost full cauldron of an unknown potion.” Harry nodded over to the container. “And every piece of parchment was written by Snape.”
Hermione reached out to take some of the pile from Ron. “Well, if this is our only clue, let's get busy reading. It’s all out of order, I imagine, so be certain to have your own parchment and quill to take note of anything that seems important.” With those instructions, they all got comfortable and began to read.
It was slow going for several hours. When Hermione had deduced that it was out of order, she wasn’t wrong. Snape seemed to ramble on one sheet, then be precise down to the punctuation on the next. Finally, after a brief lunch break, it was Ginny who found the first clue.
“Lily… Harry, this is talking about your Mum, listen! ‘If I close my eyes, I can almost smell the strawberries from her shampoo. I can hear her voice, her laugh. I can see her tucking her hair behind her ear as the breeze was determined to blow it all over her face. If I truly sit there, I can feel the tentative touch of her lips from our first kiss. I’m so close, Lily…’ Harry did Snape and your Mom date?”
Harry shrugged, not looking up from his own sheet of parchment. “I couldn’t tell you, Gin. But good, somehow this involves my Mum. Search for any other mention of my Mum’s name.”
It didn’t take long after that before Hermione swallowed hard. “Harry, I think I found something. ‘The potion is complete. If everything works as it should, I should wake up in my younger body with all my memories and self. I’ll be able to save her… Even if she winds up with Potter, in the end, her being alive and still my friend is enough. It’s enough.’ A potion to go back in time?” Hermione frowned as she glanced over at the container and began searching the parchment she had left for the recipe he must have created.
“But, it obviously didn’t work… I mean Mum and Dad are still dead, Mione…” Harry bit his lip as Ginny gave him A gentle squeeze. He smiled and kissed her. “Keep looking. Any mention of time travel or my Mum.”
Ron spoke up only minutes later. “I think I found it, Harry, and I think this is the final piece.” He held the piece of parchment out to Harry. It was tear-stained, and the writing was messy. But it was, without a doubt, still Snape’s.
“The potion failed, not because it won’t work… I know it’ll work, but it just will not work for me. I’m too old. My brain lacks the plasticity to be in my younger form. I am too old. Maybe if I were still a young man… But no, anything over twenty-five and it just won’t work. I’m sorry, Lily...I’m so sorry.”
All four of them sat silently before Harry broke the silence with a simple question. “Mione? Did you find the recipe for the time travel potion?”
Hermione nodded once, holding the recipe in her hand.
Harry licked his suddenly dry lips. “Am I to assume that this is the result of the potion I found in Draco’s office?”
“Yes, Harry. I’m certain it is.” Hermione bit her lip as she felt Ron’s arms encircle her. “Draco went back in time… I am certain of it. Being twenty-three, he is under the age Snape felt able to go back.”
“But why? Why did he leave his wife to use a time travel potion? It doesn’t make any sense.” Ron frowned as Harry chewed his bottom lip.
“Astoria said she was afraid that Draco would look to the dark arts to save her. What if he went back… to save Voldemort?”
Ginny narrowed her eyes. “Harry, I don’t think Draco is that desperate.” Her eyes softened, and she sighed, “But if it was to save his wife…”
Harry nodded, “He’d do just about anything for her. Not much choice then.” He stood up, summoned a glass, and poured some of the potion into it. Ginny stood up, eyes wide.
“What the bloody hell do you think you’re doing, Harry?”
“I have to go after him and bring him back, Ginny. It’s my job as an Auror, and I promised Astoria I’d do everything to save him from himself.” Harry held the glass up. “Well then, bottoms up.”
“Hold on a moment there, mate!” Ron stood up along with Hermione. “You aren’t planning to do this as a solo mission, I hope?”
“Well, I was…”
Hermione interrupted Harry as she summoned her own glass. “I don’t think so, Harry. We didn’t let you go on your own when we were hunting the Horcruxes. Whatever gave you the idea we’d let you go back in time on your own?” She poured the same amount of potion into her own cup, followed by Ron.
“What she said, mate, remember we were called the golden trio for a reason.”
Harry swallowed and turned to Ginny to see her holding her own glass, a glare aimed directly at him. “Harry James Potter, if you think I’m going to be the good girl and stay behind this time. You have another thing coming. I’m not a little sixteen-year-old girl anymore, I am a grown woman, a powerful witch, and more than that, I’m your wife.”
Harry simply nodded as he poured the potion into her glass. “I’d rather not have you pissed at me for the next ten years or so. Well then.” He handed her the glass and held his own out. “See you in the past.”
With that, all four swallowed the potion simultaneously and closed their eyes due to the taste.
When Harry opened his eyes, he barely dodged away from certain death as he heard the voice that still haunted his nightmares.
“KILL THE BOY! LEAVE THE BIRD! THE BOY IS BEHIND YOU! SNIFF… SMELL HIM!
Harry took proper hold of the sword of Gryffindor and winced. Oh, goody… fighting the Basilisk again. Just what I always wanted to do. He caught sight of Ginny lying alongside the diary as if dead, and his lips became pencil thin before he turned. The first time, he had no idea. This time. This time, Fawkes wouldn’t need to save his life. He looked over at Tom and grinned before he ran towards the blind monster.