How To Find Horcruxes

A/N: Thank you, Lady Ryu, for your review. I'm glad you picked up on that bit of irony in the 1st chapter. I have to admit, irony is by far my favorite literary technique, right after parallelism. Once again, thanks so much for reviewing!

What is done out of love always takes place beyond good and evil.
-Friedrich Nietzsche

How To Find Horcruxes

Chapter 2

“Mum?” Draco whispered, his voice shaking with fear. “Oh my fucking Gods, is that you?” Fumbling on the ground, he picked up his wand and raced over to the small cell his mother was locked in. Draco fell sharply to his knees, ignoring the pain, trying desperately to Alohomora the rusty lock open while keeping his composure.

“Draco! Oh, my baby. What are you doing here?” Narcissa asked, her parched voice barley above a whisper.

”What am I doing here!? What the hell are you doing here, locked in this dungeon like an animal?” Did Father do this to you?” He asked, his voice rising in anger.

Finally unlocking the cage, he threw the door open and rushed into the cell, wrapping his mother tightly in his arms. Upon closer inspection, Draco could see that every bit of skin not under her thin, muslin nightdress was bruised, bloodied and deathly ashen in color. Hugging her, he could feel every single bone in her back, barley enough skin left to stretch over her spine. Releasing her, he looked into her usually bright face only to discover that her once beautiful blue eyes had turned a musty, pale gray, sunken deep within her eye sockets. Looking down, he saw that her legs were covered in dried, gritty blood and her feet were completely black, from dirt or something much worse, he couldn’t tell. She didn’t even have the energy to sit up on her own, slumping back against the dirty stone wall once Draco released her.

“Mum……Oh my gods. Tell me who did this to you,” he whispered, his eyes welling with salty tears.

“That’s not important now. What’s important is that you leave, now, before they find you here,” she replied, smoothing his blond locks away from his face.

“No, I’m not leaving you!” Draco yelled, clenching his fists, the tears falling rapidly now.

”It’s too late for me, Draco. You need to get out of here. I….I tried to make a deal with Dumbledore before. You father…..he told me what happened on the astronomy tower, Draco,” she whispered tenderly, tears spilling down her face. “I’m so proud of you. You’re a good person, Draco,” she said, wiping the tears from his face. “You need to get out of here. Voldemort, he’s going to send you to collect one of his horcruxes and when you arrive back with it………he’ll kill you, Draco! Can’t you see, you’re nothing but a pawn to them!”

“NO! Mum, no. I’m not going to leave you here to die at the hands of Father. I can heal you. It’ll take some time, but I know I can heal you,” Draco responded, his voice cracking, trying desperately to convince himself.

Narcissa sighed, her body becoming weaker by the minute. “Look at me, Draco. We both know I’m not going to last another day. You need to leave. Leave and never look back. If you can find a member of the Order, you tell them everything you know about this place, about everything. At least then you’ll have a chance. You can have the life I never had. A loving spouse to take care of you, a house full of children…….,” Narcissa’s breath hitched, as she willed herself not to dissolve into tears. “I didn’t protect you from your father all this time for nothing,” she laughed, tears spilling out of her eyes.

“No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,” Draco repeated, over and over like a mantra, his whole body shaking with fear and uncontrollable rage.

“Listen to me, Draco. I loved your father,” she spoke, holding his face gently into her shaking hands. “But the man Lucius has turned into. The man who would chain his wife up, torture her on these muggle contraptions, that’s not the man I fell in love with. He loved you, Draco. He did. But he’s not the same person. He’s a shell of his former self. Don’t think for one minute that he won’t kill you right here, right now if her finds you here with me. Your father, he was going to kill you, Draco. Right after the incident with Dumbledore. It was Voldemort who convinced him you would still be useful.”

Draco clenched his fists, his steel gray eyes burning with pure hatred. “That fucking bastard,” he whispered, trying to control his anger for his mother’s sake.

“There’s a tunnel, right behind that contraption in the corner,” she whispered, pointing to the pear of anguish. “Follow it to the surface and once you get past the bounds of the forest, use this portkey,” she said removing the gold wedding ring from her left finger. “Do you understand?”

“If you had a portkey right here the entire time, why the hell didn’t you use it!”

“It isn’t meant for me!” Narcissa sighed. “Draco, when I went to Dumbledore, he told me that if you ever had the courage to take a stand and if something ever happened to him, that I was to give you this ring. I honestly have no idea where it will take you. No one can use it, except you.”

“Why your wedding ring?”

“It’s the only thing I could keep with me that wouldn’t arouse suspicion. Lucius locked me down here with absolutely nothing, yet I still have HIS wedding ring on my finger. Your father has always been a possessive bastard.”

“Why did you never escape?” Draco questioned.

“How do you think I got here?” She replied, bitterly.

Draco stood abruptly and headed to the bloodied pear of anguish sitting in the corner.
“Locomotor Pear of Anguish”, he said, pointing his wand at the device. Moving his wand, he gave it a quick snap of his wrist, sending the contraption smashing into the nearest wall.

Walking quickly back to the cell, he gathered up his mother gingerly in his arms and headed for the tunnel.

“Now just where do you think you’re going?” A raspy voice called out from the darkness. “Incarcerous!”

Suddenly, Draco felt his whole body being bound with rope. Lucius, the cold bastard that he was, aimed the wand at Draco until he could barley breath, the rough rope breaking the skin as it was so unbearably tight. Unable to move, even speak, Narcissa fell from his grasp into a tiny ball on the cold, stone floor.

“Lucius, don’t”, Narcissa pleaded with her husband, seeing the tell-tale evil glint in his eyes. “Don’t hurt him, please,” she gasped out, her breath coming in short pants.

Lucius sauntered slowly over to Draco and leveled his face directly with that of Draco’s.
“Hurt him? Why no, Narcissa. I wouldn’t dream of it. You’ve always been so good at taking his punishment for him,” he sneered quietly, turning around to face Narcissa.

“CRUCIO!” He bellowed, pointing his wand directly at Narcissa.

Draco’s eyes widened in horror as he watched his mother wither in unbearable, white hot pain. Lucius, standing right above her shaking form, laughed. The bastard emitted the most cold, heartless and evil laugh Draco had ever heard. It burned his eardrums, got under his skin and churned his stomach until bile came up into his throat. The memory of his father’s maniacal laughter would haunt him for years to come.

Looking down from his suspended position, Draco saw the what little skin she had began breaking at the seams, almost like a pillow that contained too much stuffing, fresh blood oozing out from her hands, torso, legs and from behind her eyes. The thin nightgown that covered her body suddenly became saturated in the coppery smelling substance all the while her bloodcurdling screams echoed off the stone walls. Draco shut his eyes, unable to watch the torment unfolding in front of his eyes.

This is not happening. This is not happening. This is not happening. This is not happening. He thought to himself, willing himself to wake up from this unbearable nightmare.

“Open your eyes, boy,” Lucius boomed, his voice drowning out Narcissa’s constant cries of anguish. “Look and see what you’ve done to your precious mother. You were always a coward, my dear son. Look what your weakness has cost you now,” he finished, ending the Crucio on Narcissa and kicking her battered body against the wall with all the strength he could muster.

Draco’s eyes welled up once again as he tried his best not to vomit all over himself and his bonds. Unable to move a muscle, he let the tears fall rapidly down his face, the intense hatred he possessed for his father building up inside of him until he was literally shaking. Suddenly, Draco felt himself falling to the floor, finally released of from the rope. Silence echoed in the dungeon. Draco was shell shocked, sitting on the floor, shaking with rage, tears falling like heavy raindrops from his eyes. Lucius was beaming; a cruel smile on his face and Narcissa, barley able to breathe, was hanging onto life by a thread, bleeding out of ever crevice of her body.

Without even thinking, Draco leapt up from his seat on the floor, pointed his wand at his father’s empty heart and bellowed, “AVADA KEDAVRA,” with every ounce of hate he could possibly muster.

Lucius dodged the curse, throwing back various hexes of his own.

“You sick son of a bitch!” Draco spat at his father, aiming another unforgivable at him. “Don’t you DARE say that mother died because of me. You’re the one who put his whole family in jeopardy to serve your dried up cadaver of a leader. You hate muggles with a dying passion, you round them up and have your sick jollies torturing them, yet YOU SERVE A HALF-BLOOD!”

Lucius narrowed his eyes at his son. “How DARE you speak to me in such a way,” he yelled, corning Draco by the edge of a cell.” Voldemort has big plans for you. I gave you a chance to have a wonderful life. When the war is over and Voldemort wins, your life will be spared! You would have more power than you ever dreamed possible!”

“I refuse to be you fucking pawn any longer,” Draco whispered, backing up against the wall, desperately trying to think of a way to escape.

Lucius advanced on him, pointing his wand flush against Draco’s forehead. “Mobilicorpus,” he sneered, spit flying into Draco’s face.

With the flick of his want, Lucius propelled Draco’s body to the stocks and deftly imprisoned him. “As much as I would take great pleasure in killing you right now, Voldemort must be notified of your…..behavior.”

“Go run to daddy and ask his permission, eh?” Draco tossed out sardonically.

Instead of replying, Lucius muttered a curse under his breath and Draco suddenly felt the wooden stockade tighten against his wrists and neck, cutting off what little circulation he had. “Enjoy your stay down here, my dear son.” And with that, Lucius disappeared from the room, his black robes swirling out behind him as per usual.

It was in the silence of the dungeon that Draco finally let everything sink in upon him. His was suddenly overwhelmed with the sickening, coppery smell of blood. If death had a smell, Draco was certain he smelled it right then. The light from the exposed tunnel proved to be the only light the room offered. Searching the dungeon, he tried desperately to find his mother’s body, tears welling up in his eyes when he spotted her mangled corpse lying against one of the rusty cells.

“I’m so sorry, Mum. I’m so sorry. You were always there to save me. But I was too weak to save you,” he whispered into the darkness, his voice completely broken.
In the silence of the room, only Draco’s heart wrenching sobs could be heard, echoing throughout the room.

“Draco?” a voice called out softly into the darkness.

“Mum?” Draco asked, his heart stopping in his chest, not wanting to believe what he was hearing.

“Draco. I’m……going to…..to try to……get up.” She rasped, her breath coming in short pants.
Slowly, she lifted her body from the pool of blood she was immersed in and ever so slowly, crawled the three feet to Draco’s prison, grunting as flashes of pain shot through her body.

“Mum. I thought….I thought….you….”

“Shhh,” she whispered, “I’m always…..here to save you”

Narcissa clawed her way up the stocks and with all the energy she had left, flipped the lever that would release her son.

Draco freed himself from the stockade and hurried to his mother’s side. She has slumped by the device, lying helplessly on the floor. Draco gathered her in his arms, settling her head in his lap.

“Draco,” she gasped, “you’ve got……to leave.”

“Mum. I can carry you with me. It wouldn’t be th-“

“You did save me…….from your father….you gave me….love….you gave…..me….something to…..live for. Draco…….you’re a good person,” she breathed. “Never ever forget that.”

And with those final words, she slumped into Draco’s lap, the life completely gone from her body. Draco desperately hugged her to him, rocking back and forth as his chocked sobs made it harder and harder for him the breath.

After what felt like eternity of cradling his mother on the cold stone floor, Draco heard loud voices coming from the floors above. Wiping the tears from his eyes, he laid his mother’s body aside and searched for his wand. Grabbing it from the floor, he levitated her body and quickly made his way out through the tunnel, running as fast as his legs would carry him.

When he reached the opening, he discovered himself to be at the bottom of the hill on which Voldemort’s headquarters were stationed. Seeing the lush, green forest ahead, he pushed on, the sharp thorns and bushes of the forest cutting into his pale skin. An hour later, at the brink of mental and physical exhaustion, Draco reached a small clearing in the woods. Settling on a small tree, Draco conjured up a casket for his mother’s body. Placing her gently inside, he dug a hold in the earth, just big enough for the coffin. Closing the lid, he lowered the casket in the ground, and gently covered it up with the damp earth. He then conjured up a small, white, granite tombstone, and placed it over the mound of soil, at the foot of the tree. After a moment of though, Draco carved the words:
Narcissa Malfoy
Beloved Mother, Friend and Savior
May She Rest In Peace

“I’ll make them pay, Mum. I promise they’ll pay for everything they put us through”, Draco whispered, touching the outline of the words, tears tracking down his face.

Startled out of his stupor by lights flashing in the forest behind him, Draco looked one last time at the marker and took off running, his body aching from the stress of everything that had happened that day. When he finally reached the edge of the forest, he hurried out into the daylight and reached deep into the pocket of his muggle jeans. Pulling out the small, gold band, he lowered it hesitantly onto his pinky finger. It’s now or never, he though, his heart pounding in his ears.

“Portus!”

Suddenly, the air around him hummed with energy and he felt the familiar pull on his navel, whizzing him off to an uncertain future.

A/N: Betcha wanna know where he’s being portkey-ed to, eh? How about you click that Review button down there and I’ll tell you. The more clicks, the faster I update. Oh, and +10 cool points to those of you who can catch The X-Files line in there. It should be bluntly obvious, even if you’re not one who kept up the The X-Files, like yours truly.