Indago:Reborn

AN: Sorry. This was much longer than the "couple of days" I was promising. I would not have posted such an evil cliffie if I had thought I couldn't conclude it really soon. I had this chapter ready to go by Sunday afternoon, but got hit with a nasty cold.
Once again, this chapter was, thankfully, betaed by deathangelgw.

Chapter twenty-six


Time seemed to stop as Draco watched his baby daughter tumble in the air. He felt the air circulating around the hairs on the backs of his hands. He heard a dog barking somewhere far off. He could smell the aroma of their dinner still lingering about the kitchen. Everything seemed to be unreal.

NO!

With a snap, Draco’s instincts kicked in. “Accio Maia’s clothing!” he shouted and flung his arms out toward the falling infant, his magic flooding the house as he ran toward the stairs. With his next indrawn breath, Maia’s sleeper wrenched toward him, flying back up, and narrowly missing the railing, thankfully bringing the body inside its velvet folds with it. The baby landed in his arms with a small cry. Had she been any further away, Draco knew her clothing would not have held. There were several rips along the seams due to the material’s rapid change of direction to his arms. Verifying that the child was safe, Draco looked back at Harry with a growl.

Harry was ducking and Draco’s vision was filled with cloth as all of Maia’s sleepers and outfits flew out of her room and over Harry, hitting Draco and knocking him down, covering him. He held the baby tight as the small weight of the material settled on him. But the faint sound of running feet had him quickly struggling free. When he looked for Harry, he saw that the brunet was gone.

“Harry!” he roared. He could not fathom ever being so enraged. With a bitten off curse, Draco scrambled to his feet and cautiously listened. There was only silence and the soft sounds of Maia’s breathing and her occasional whimper. Draco held his daughter close as he silently slipped down the hallway. He peered into her darkened room, but no scent or sign of Harry could be found. Quickly, Draco placed Maia back into her crib. “I’m sorry, my love,” he whispered. “Stay here and be quiet, will you? I have to go kill your dad!”

“Don’t ever let that happen again,” Maia’s eyes seemed to say.

“I won’t, love. I will never let you be hurt!” he whispered fiercely. Leaning down and quickly kissing her soft forehead, Draco knew in the very depths of his soul that Maia was his. Harry could tell malicious lies, but he could never make Draco believe that he wasn’t Maia’s father.

Draco’s eyes nearly glowed in the dark as he quickly moved out of the baby’s room and shut the door. “Compingopactum!” he rasped out and sealed his daughter’s room with the strongest ward he could conjure. The magic snapped into place like iron bars and Draco turned with murder in his eyes. He would find that bastard and kill him. It was his right. To endanger his child, his young, merited the penalty of death whole-heartedly.

Listening with every step he took, Draco focused everything he had into hunting Harry down. He searched each of the bedrooms and, finding nothing, he stepped down onto the stairs. Stalking silently below, he used his vantage point of height to search the hall and what bits of the kitchen and dining room he could. Finally, he reached the bottom and, again in a sick replay of their game the other day, went into the sitting room. Everything was still, but Draco’s instincts told him that this was where Harry was hiding.

A flash of movement was all he caught before a book came flying at his head, which Draco batted away as he ducked in time to avoid the armchair that came sailing at him a second later. It crashed into the wall, creating a large hole. The blond growled and reached for the legs that ran past him as he lay on the floor. He wasn’t fast enough, but he quickly surged to his feet and chased after. He stopped right before a dining room chair came crashing through the doorway.

“You think you are so mighty, do you?” Harry snarled and leapt at Draco. The blond grabbed him just before the fist could connect to his face. He spun around and threw Harry down. The brunet was growling and showing his teeth in a show of aggression. Draco grabbed him by the arm and punched the smaller man in the face as he brought him up, causing the wire rim glasses to go flying. Blood ran down Harry’s face but he kicked viciously at Draco’s knees, causing the blond to go down. Harry was on top of him, hands around his throat, but only for a moment as the two men rolled on the marble floor, desperately trying to gain an advantage. Finally, after knocking the side table over, Harry grabbed at the silver vase and brought it down hard on top of Draco. Draco blocked it and the room echoed with the sound of his bone breaking. His left arm was useless, but he used Harry’s precarious position sitting on top of him with his hands full of the vase and bumped up to unseat the brunet. Draco then kicked hard, landing a blow to Harry’s abdomen. Harry gasped desperately in an effort to breathe as Draco quickly stood and grabbed Harry by the hair with his good hand, dragging the spitting scrambling man behind him.

In the dining room he pulled Harry up and threw him onto the table. Harry tried turning over, but was quickly stopped by a punch to his jaw. For a moment, a stunned Harry didn’t fight back as Draco began to choke the life from him. Then, with several blinks, the realization that he couldn’t draw breath seemed to revive the brunet and he desperately began kicking and clawing.

“You deserve this,” Draco rasped. “You deserve this. You won’t go and find someone else, Harry! You’re mine! I would have locked you in this house for your whoring. But you hurt my child. You’ll die for that!” Tears ran from Harry’s green eyes and his struggles became more frantic. Draco realized that his own eyes were blurry and wet. “I hate you! I hate you for making me do this!” he shouted.

Draco gasped in pain as one of Harry’s feeble hits connected with his broken arm. Finding a weakness, Harry began to hit out again and again at the broken bone. Draco finally pulled away and Harry coughed and gasped as he rolled off the table and stumbled toward the kitchen. After his pain-filled vision cleared, Draco followed him. He knew that he had to be cautious since Harry had moved into a room full of possible weapons. He cautiously opened the door and scanned the interior. A pot sailed through the air and Draco quickly pulled back into the dining room, and then charged into the kitchen. He was just in time to see Harry disappear through the other door that opened into the hall. Draco ran after him, rushing through the kitchen, and burst through the door.

He skidded to a halt.

The front door was wide open and Harry was gone.

*-*-*

“Where is one of your masters?”

Ably seemed pale even for a house-elf and trembled as he looked up at the imposing figure of Professor Severus Snape. Black eyes pinned the creature to the floor, then, thankfully, rose and took in the sitting room. It was in shambles.

Snape stepped away from the fireplace. “What has happened here? Where is Draco?”

“M-master Draco is with the little mistress in her room, sir,” Ably murmured. Snape quickly stepped through the wreckage of the sitting room and again halted at the sight of the hall. Taking a deep breath, he stepped over the puddles and smears of blood and quickly went upstairs. He reached the open doorway of the nursery and looked in. Draco sat in a rocking chair holding the infant in his arms, his clothes completely worn and bloody.

“Draco?” Snape called quietly. Silver eyes looked up at him, red-rimmed and tired.

“You came.”

“Yes,” Snape answered, although the weary tone had not meant for it to be a question. “Where is Harry?” Snape was almost afraid of the answer.

Draco looked down at the baby. “He left.”

Snape stared at him. “He left?” Moving further into the room, Snape looked about and then again at Draco. “What do you mean, he left?”

“I mean that he vacated the premises. He is no longer here. The door was his friend.” Draco still kept his eyes on the baby, but his voice showed how tired he was.

“Draco, explain to me what happened. Why is there blood in the hall and on you?”

“We fought. I believe I broke his nose, hence the blood. He broke my arm,” Draco replied and nodded toward his forearm which was purple and black and bent at an odd angle under the baby. Snape immediately moved forward as he pulled his wand out.

“Show me your arm,” he ordered and Draco obligingly pulled it out from under the blankets that were wrapped around Maia. With a quick spell, Draco’s arm began to heal. After a moment it looked as if nothing had happened. If only that were the case, Snape thought.

“He tried to kill Maia,” Draco murmured quietly.

“Tell me.”

With hardly any emotion in his voice, Draco relayed what had happened the night before. With every new horrifying detail, Snape’s mind scrambled to make sense of it. Draco appeared to be in shock and after the disturbing events of the previous night, Snape really couldn’t blame the younger man. But now was not the time.

“Do you know where he may have gone?” he asked in a business-like tone.

“No. But I suspect either one of his friends’ or a whorehouse,” Draco said bitterly, the first signs of emotion coming through. The silver eyes stabbed into Snape. “Did you sleep with him while you were here?”

Snape raised an eyebrow at the direct question. “No, Draco, I did not. You were present at the one and only time I ever shared a bed with Mr. Potter, if you would care to recall,” he answered in his teaching voice. It seemed to calm Draco down and finally rouse him from his apathy.

“Yes, I know. He was lying.”

“Yes, but why?” Snape asked no one in particular. “It seems he was deliberately trying to cut you deep.”

“He wanted to leave. He left. I have my daughter,” Draco growled.

“It isn’t as simple as that, Draco. You must know there is something at work here other than a marriage falling apart.”

“My marriage did not fall apart!” Draco shouted. “It was destroyed by that lying, whoring, foul murderer I married!”

“Draco, in all the years you have been together and have known him, could you ever conceive of Harry doing anything like this? Just a week ago, could you have believed him capable of harming his own child?” Snape asked calmly.

“It doesn’t matter!” Draco stood abruptly from the chair, the back of it slamming into the wall as it rocked violently. “This is what he chose. I refuse to pine away in misery! My daughter and I will be better off without him!”

Snape laid a hand on Draco’s shoulder as he stepped up behind him. “As loathe as I am to say it, you must not hide your feelings. You are running away and this does no one any good.” Draco refused to turn around and his shoulders stiffened. “You are afraid and hurt. But you can’t run away. We have an obligation to Harry. He is ours. It is our right and responsibility to find him and help him.”

Draco shrugged the hand away violently. “Don’t talk to me of running away! You are nothing but a sanctimonious hypocrite! Hiding away from what you are…denying it until you were forced into the light! Even now you cover it up and pretend you are not something different! You’re pathetic!” he snarled.

Snape stood still and allowed the words to settle into the walls. The two Superos stared into each other’s eyes, neither one backing down. Finally, Snape took a deep breath. “Yes, perhaps you are right. But that is not important now. What is important is finding Harry. The inhibiting potion is clearing from my system now. We must find him and bring him back here. What you describe seems to go in a cycle. Or at least, he seems to be going in and out of … what ever it is. If that is true, I imagine he is hiding and is very afraid right now.”

Draco closed his eyes and swallowed hard, the image Snape painted obviously affecting him. “Fine,” he answered in a low voice. “But I do not vouch for my actions if I see him again. I will not have him near my child. He will need to go to St. Mungo's if he is unsafe to have near her.”

“Very well. I will collect the blood in the hall and perform a few tests. I am glad you had the sense to stop the elf from cleaning. Harry may be deficient in something more profound than dominant pheromones.” Snape stepped toward the door but was stopped by a hand on his arm. Slowly, he turned and faced Draco. His Indago senses were strong enough now to provide what was needed. He moved closer and allowed Draco to rub his face on his shoulder. Snape in turn ran a hand through the baby’s scant amount of hair and over Draco’s arm and back. They were healing touches, touches from their own. Touches to help each other through grief and anger.

Pulling back, Draco spoke with an emotion-roughened voice. “I’ll contact his friends and find out where he is.” Snape nodded and both men strode from the room.

*-*-*

“There was an old woman tossed up in a blanket,
seventeen times as high as the moon.
But where she was going, no mortal could tell it,
For under her arm she carried a broom.

‘Old woman, old woman, old woman,’ said I,
‘Whither, ah whither, ah whither so high?’
‘To sweep the cobwebs from the sky.’
‘May I come with you?’
‘Aye, by and by.'”

Snape had stopped at the sound of Draco’s voice before he moved further into the master bedroom where Draco sat with the baby in his arms. “I haven’t heard that rhyme in ages,” he commented.

Draco looked up from the book he had balanced on his knees. “Yes, I was quite surprised when I found it in this Muggle nursery book. Harry said he hadn’t heard it before.” The book shut and he carefully stood up and carried Maia to her crib, which Draco had moved into his room. He laid her down and made sure she was comfortable before moving back towards the Potions Master.

“I have the tests going now. It will take some time to break the blood down to its base elements,” Snape said as the two walked out of the room and down the stairs.

“None of his friends have reported seeing him,” Draco reported quietly as if speaking the words were taboo. “The stupid Mudblood is, of course, blaming me. But then she always is. Weasley is using his Auror connections to discreetly search for him. Although, being a Weasley, I doubt he knows what discreet means.”

Snape nodded as they entered the newly cleaned and repaired sitting room. “Have you spoken to your father?”

Draco snorted. “That is not something I would do right now.”

“It is possible Harry has gone to the Manor. He did have a tendency to want to run to Lucius when distressed.”

“Yes, well, if that were the case, I assure you we would have heard of it. My father would appear on my doorstep, Harry hanging by the scruff of the neck, and say, ‘Did you lose something, Draco?’” The young man’s impersonation was dead on and would have been amusing in a different situation. As it was, the two men were tense and obviously running out of ideas.

“Did he have many connections in the Muggle world? Could he be there?”

Draco shook his head. “No. We would venture out, but Harry had no real ties to Muggles.”

“He may not be in a stable mental state and could have returned to his relatives,” Snape pointed out.

“No. Even deranged, Harry would never go to them. He hated them and even still fears them to this day. The bastards,” Draco hissed. “I made sure they lost their home and last I heard they were living in a run down flat on the east end of London. I doubt Harry knew that or where they lived.” Draco stopped pacing and looked into the slowly burning fire. “But, even still, I’ll send someone to check around their former neighbourhood.”

“If he is not found by morning, we will need to think of alerting the press. All of Wizard-kind will be looking for him. It will greatly enhance the search,” Snape offered. Draco nodded absently as he stared into the fire. “Lucius will need to be told or he will be livid after reading it in the paper. If you like, I will inform him.” Again, Draco nodded absently. Silence reigned in the small room. Snape watched Draco from his seat in the one remaining armchair. “Shall I call for our dinner?”

“I’m not hungry. But you go ahead,” Draco murmured. Snape stayed where he was.

“Draco, we’ll find him,” he assured.

“He could be dead,” Draco said quietly with no emotion.

“I doubt it. The boy has an annoying title that he enjoys living up to.”

“I hit him hard,” the blond continued. “He was bleeding heavily. I could have severely damaged his throat.”

“Draco, wallowing in these maudlin what-ifs is counter-productive,” the Potions Master snapped. “You need to think of places he could have gone.”

Draco turned and finally looked at Snape. “He wouldn’t have. He has no place to go other than the few places I have already checked. Harry liked being at home. He liked spending nights in with me. He enjoyed working with his snakes. That’s it. Harry is the most un-complicated person I have ever met. He just enjoys where he is and who he is with, with the exception of my father, of course.” Draco hit the mantle over the fireplace. “Gods! This is ridiculous! For such a simple man he has this extreme knack of always getting himself into trouble! He should be home right now with me!”

Snape pursed his lips in thought. “We will find him. His friends are out looking now. He could walk in through the front door any minute. We will find him.” Draco nodded wordlessly then turned again to stare out into the night through the window. Snape called for their dinner and both men moved into the dining room. Neither spoke through the entire meal.