Harvest Moon

Sorry this has taken so long to post. Thanks to everyone still reading.

***

Draco gritted his teeth and swore as one by one the layers of cable started to snap. His hands and wrists were bloody from the cables hitting them, making it hard to hold on.



“Potter! Get your arse up here and help me!” Draco snarled at him.



Harry clambered up the ladder next to Draco. Yanking a handkerchief out of his pocket and wrapping it around the cables so he and Draco could hold on better without being cut up so much.



“Blood hell, hurry up, Hermione. This thing won’t hold together much longer,” Harry said.



Hermione clenched her teeth on a scream as another cord in the heavy cable snapped and she sank a little more on the line.





Lucius edged down the hallways toward where the castle joined the caves below. Thanking every aspect of the Divine he could think of that they hadn’t tried getting in through any other place on the grounds. He kept glancing around warily, half expecting Liren to pop up at any inopportune moment.

He breathed a heavy sigh of relief when he finally reached the door leading to the caves. That was before he heard Harry shout “Hermione, move!” Though it was muffled by the heavy door it was quite clear that she was I some sort of danger. He tried the door and found it locked. Glancing down at Dobby, one eyebrow lifted.



Dobby shrugged and put out both hands. The door blew open just as the final thread in the cable started to unravel. Lucius dived for Hermione’s hand while Draco and Harry struggled to hold on to that last bit of line.



Lucius managed to grab Hermione’s sleeve first before shifting to get a better hold on her. Taking her first by the hand then wrist to get a better grip.



“Let go of the cable and grab on to me, Mine,” Lucius said, leaning further over the edge.



Hermione let go of the cable, trusting Lucius would not let her fall to her doom. If he did, she swore she’d come back as a ghost and he wouldn’t sleep again for the rest of his life. She grabbed onto his arm with bothe hands and let him haul her up. Lucius teetered slightly and overbalanced, sending them both sprawling, with Hermione landing oddly on top of him. With her head in his lap.



Hermione raised her head and glared at him. “You somehow orchestrated this, didn’t you,” she said.



“I can assure you that is not the case, dear Mine. I can think of far more interesting ways to get your head into my lap. Some days the gods just inexplicably love me,” he said, moving to sit up properly and pull her with him.



She snorted. “I’m supposed to be rescuing you, not the other way around,” she grumbled.



Lucius sighed happily, glad she was safe. “We’ll just have to take turns saving one another then,” he said, kissing the top of her head.



“As much as I’m certain you’re wildly entertained over there, Father,” Draco drawled. “We still have a slight problem.” He indicated himself and Harry stuck on the other side of the chasm.



“Draco, why didn’t you just go around on the inner walkways?” Lucius asked, looking oddly at his son.



“What inner walkways?” Draco asked, looking around at Angus, who was floating near him.



“Forgot those,” the ghost said. “Sides, wouldna been near as much fun if ya’d gone thataway.”



Harry looked at Draco and shrugged. “This was sort of fun,” he said.



Draco laughed at that. “I guess so. We’ll be around as soon as we can, Father,” Draco said.



“Make it quick, son. We don’t know when your uncle will spring up again,” Lucius said.



Draco nodded and looked askance at Angus. “If you would be so kind and lead the way?”



The ghost chuckled and led them off to the side to where there was a very well concealed gap in the stone. Then he, Harry and Draco disappeared into the stone wall.



Lucius looked Hermione over. “Are you certain you’re all right, Mine?” he asked, looking worried.



“I’m fine, Lucius. A few bruises and scratches but those will heal. What about you?” she asked anxiously.



“As well as can be expected,” he said, moving to hug her tightly.



At that point in time, Bubble wandered through the door. “Master of the house should see this,” he said. “Mistress should not.”



That statement, of course only made Hermione all the more determined to see whatever it was that Bubble wanted to show Lucius. She stood up and dusted herself off, looking expectantly at the house elf.



Lucius levered himself up from the floor as well. He shrugged when Bubble looked at him oddly.



“Mistress really should not see. Gooey mess, it is,” Bubble said.



“Bubble, I am a law enforcement officer. An auror with murder investigations divisions. I doubt anything you’ve managed to find would frighten me in the slightest,” she said firmly.



Bubble shrugged. “Bubble warned Mistress,” he said before shuffling back out the door.



“Coming, Dobby?” Lucius asked the house elf.



“Dobby will wait here for Master Draco and Harry Potter.”



Lucius nodded and took Hermione by the hand. “Thank you, Mine,” he said. “I’ve never had anyone attempt to rescue me before.”



“I would always try to rescue you, Lucius. Gods know you seem to attract trouble,” she said with a smile.



Lucius smiled and brushed her hair back from her face. “I don’t know what stunningly good thing I did in this lifetime to deserve you but I have to thank the gods for sending you to me.”



“That was a beautiful thing to say, Lucius,” Hermione said.



The noise of disgust from somewhere around their knees made them both glance down at Bubble. The house elf was looking disgruntled and impatient to be moving.



Lucius chuckled, “Yes, yes, we’re coming. Lead on.”



Bubble snorted and marched off down one of the hallways. Finally stopping next to a door that was slightly ajar. He glanced at Hermione.



“Bubble is warning Mistress,” he said.



Hermione glared at him and stepped inside. Before she even got through the door the smell of death came to her. She shook her head and went in further, Lucius right behind her. She stopped in her tracks when she saw what Bubble had brought them there to see.



Hermione was profoundly thankful for her study at the Body Farm, otherwise she wasn’t certain how she might have handled this. As it was, she was fairly certain that even the staff there had never seen anything quite like what was in front of her.



The corpse was something straight out of a horror movie. Strips of skin hung raggedly from what had once been a person. Looking at the floor around the body, there seemed to be blobs of skin and muscle literally dripping onto the wood.



“I’ve never seen anything like this before in all my time as an auror,” she said.



“I have,” Lucius said grimly, moving toward the body.



“You have? What would cause someone to decompose in that manner though? It’s as if he were melting,” she said.



“He is after a fashion. It comes from being removed from a stasis room for too long. Everything starts to break down and decompose in clumps,” Lucius said.



“Then this body was in stasis?” she asked, moving closer to get a good look at it. She stood in speechless horror as she saw the unmelted side of the face. “Oh, gods! Lucius this is . . .”



Lucius nodded. “Yes. This is Liren’s body.”



“But . . . Lucius we just saw him moving around quite well. What does this mean?”



“It means,” Lucius said slowly. “That the situation is vastly worse than we first surmised.”