A/N: Chapter warning for mild torture in the first scene.

Last Time

Rodolphus looked at him with gleaming eyes, excited at the thought of what was to come. Rabastan just looked vengeful. For him, this was for Harry, and only Harry. It would help get some of the energy out and take the edge off of his rage as Harry recovered. It would keep all of them distracted as they waited for Harry to be well enough to be released from the hospital, at which point they would be able to see him and help care for him. It wasn't just Rabastan who needed this distraction either, they all did and as Xerxes sat in the chair behind his desk, pulling out a hidden compartment underneath a false-bottomed drawer, he knew they would be pulling out all of the stops for Councilman Barney Kent. The meddling mudblood would deserve every moment of it.

Chapter Forty-Seven - Outrage

Xerxes rolled up his shirt sleeves as he stared down at the blubbering mess at his feet. Barney Kent, a pathetic excuse for a man, was trembling already as he stared up at the three of them. They hadn't even gotten started yet…not truly.

"I'm sure you know why we're here, Councilman." Xerxes said casually.

He shook his head, speechless with fear and Xerxes felt a frisson of pleasure as he saw it.

"Don't lie." Rodolphus snapped, stalking around the back of the councilman, who tried to keep him in his vision but didn't want to let Xerxes out of his sight either. With three of them in the room with him, Kent couldn't keep them all in his sight and his eyes were showing too much white, like a terrified animal. Xerxes always loved that look on his targets.

"Your plans with Lord Potter-Black, what were they?" Rabastan demanded angrily.

"What does that have to do with you?" Kent asked, quivering on the floor. "I would have…would have thought you'd be pleased that I am…"

"That you are…?" Rodolphus prompted with a smirk when Kent shut his mouth before incriminating himself.

"You might as well tell us as we already know." Xerxes said, staring down at this inferior man who had been planning to ruin Harry's reputation. "We just want to corroborate a few details, that's all."

"Why do you care what I do?" Kent asked. His question lost a lot of its strength as Kent was still quivering on the floor like a trapped mouse.

"Lord Potter-Black is a member of the Wizengamot. Do you think you can do as you please to a lord and face no consequences?" Xerxes demanded.

Kent remained silent this time, perhaps realising the danger he was in, but Rabastan lost his patience. Harry was still unconscious. He hadn't woken up as the healers had thought. It had been three days…technically four as it was now gone midnight, and Harry had not woken once in that time and Rabastan was at his limit. He was ready to exact some pain from someone and it just so happened that Councilman Kent had offered himself up on a silver plate with his plans to attack Harry and to tarnish his reputation and ruin his future plans.

"Secare!" Rabastan hissed and, where he had aimed his wand, a deep cut appeared, spurting blood onto the floor.

Rodolphus grinned widely, angling his head to inspect the cut, even as Kent collapsed to the floor and sobbed in pain and shock at the sudden wound, which he was fruitlessly trying to hold closed with his other hand. Blood was seeping out from between his fingers.

"Please, I wasn't the one to hurt Potter. I just wanted him out of the way…out of the Wizengamot. I never hurt him! I never put him in the hospital."

"Do you have any evidence of that?" Xerxes asked, smirking, making a play that this was a polite debate in court.

Kent was trembling and speechless with fear. His watering eyes kept going to Rabastan and Rodolphus…who were known escapees of Azkaban. It was amusing to see the thoughts showing through his expressions as he realised exactly what it meant that he was being allowed to see Rabastan and Rodolphus' faces. He wouldn't be allowed to live.

"Please…I won't tell anyone you were here. I swear it, just…don't hurt me."

"Tell us what you planned to do to Lord Potter-Black." Xerxes coaxed, gentling his tone, but the councilman was not going to be allowed to live. He could swear all the vows he liked, but truth serum existed and so did pensieves, rare though they were.

The councilman swallowed and then licked dry lips in a nervous gesture.

"It wasn't us who put him in the hospital." Kent insisted.

"You've said that already." Rodolphus growled. "Answer the question."

"Start with who the 'us' are." Rabastan all but snarled, his wand still in his hand.

"We just wanted him out of the Wizengamot." Kent sobbed.

"Because Lord Potter-Black is a trailblazer and he's carving his own path through the political world." Xerxes offered.

"He's trying to change everything!" Kent insisted, his eyes bulging. "There's even rumours of him wanting to dismantle Azkaban prison!"

"He never wanted to dismantle the prison." Rabastan snapped angrily. "He only wanted to be rid of the Dementors. He wanted human guards for the prisoners."

Kent mouthed wordlessly, likely wondering how Rabastan Lestrange, of all people, knew the ideas and plans of Harry Potter. Oh, it was all very amusing and Xerxes smirked.

"It seems you are misinformed of all of his plans, but who told you of them in the first place?" Xerxes asked.

Kent waffled and mouthed wordlessly, and Xerxes was the one who lost his patience this time.

"Crucio!"

The screaming was cathartic as his rage drained out of him as he watched Kent roll around the floor, writhing and screaming in agony. He took a deep, cleansing breath and then lifted the curse.

"You need to start answering our questions or I'm going to start plucking pieces from your body." Xerxes warned. "Who told you of Lord Potter-Black's plans?!"

"It was anonymous." Kent said, then quailed when Rodolphus growled behind him with dissatisfaction. "It was! I swear it was, I still have the letters. They're in the top drawer!"

Rabastan turned to the large desk in front of the bay window. He stalked over to it and ripped out the entire drawer, tipping everything out of it before carefully searching for these 'anonymous' letters.

"Found them." Rabastan grunted. "How many were there?"

"About six." Kent cried quickly, desperately. It was beginning to sink in who they were and why they were here. Good.

"How many exactly?!" Rodolphus snapped.

Kent waffled in fear and he actually started counting on his fingers, and Xerxes had to choke back a disdainful laugh.

"It was six." Kent said, trembling down on his knees, almost flat to the wooden floor.

"Rabastan?" Xerxes asked.

"I've got five." He said, still searching through the mess, checking letters and pieces of parchment.

"Where is the last letter, Councilman?" Xerxes demanded.

"May…maybe it was only five." The man sobbed.

"You said six…so where is the sixth?" Rabastan snapped, still going through the piles of parchment.

"Flagrate!"

Kent screamed when Rodolphus lashed him with fiery whips.

"You need to learn to answer when we ask you questions." His grandson demanded.

"There's a false compartment." Kent whimpered, trying to curl up away from them. "It's under the desktop."

Rabastan abandoned the piles of parchment and reached under the desk, his arm moving as he felt for the false compartment. With a triumphant smile, something made a quiet click and he pulled out a small box. A wave of his wand and the lock was torn off and he dumped out the contents.

"It looks like we have correspondence with his associates too." Rabastan said, smirking. "They've signed their letters with their real names."

"Fools." Xerxes spat, though that was good for them as they could check the names that Kent gave them with those in the letters.

"Do you have the anonymous letters?" He asked his younger grandson.

"Yes, it seems he was telling the truth about that. These all detail Harry's plans and law reforms." Rabastan said. "There's no signature."

"We'll take them with us." Xerxes said. "They can be tested in other ways to reveal the sender."

"It includes everything Harry is planning. His associates are going to know all of this as well. We need to keep this contained." Rabastan said, skim-reading the letters.

"We will." Xerxes assured him.

"Half of it is just lies!" Rabastan snarled. "Twisting what he's actually doing to show it in a negative light. If this gets out before Harry is ready, Father, everyone will be against his reforms before he's even submitted them. I will not let that happen!"

"We will keep it contained, Basti. I swear it." Xerxes assured his grandson gently, before turning back to the councilman. If he had to kill every single friend and associate of Kent's, he would do just that to protect his family.

"What…what are you planning to do?" Kent asked feebly.

"Harry is my fiancé, you know." Rabastan said and Xerxes chuckled as those already wide eyes bulged out again.

"N…no. But he's…he's…"

"Harry Potter?" Rabastan asked, his blue eyes glinting.

Kent was even more terrified now and Xerxes was vindictively pleased.

"He'll be a Lestrange in a few months." He said, smiling viciously as Kent's fearful gaze darted back to him.

Xerxes watched as that throat bobbed and Kent once again licked his lips nervously. His eyes darted to the door and Xerxes wanted him to try his luck. He'd never get past them. He wouldn't get away from them or their fury. This man thought he was superior to them, to Harry, and he was going to find out just how wrong he was.

"Tell me about your plans for Harry." Xerxes said again, staring at the councilman.

"I didn't put him in the hospital. I didn't!" The man cried out desperately.

"That wasn't what I asked. Crucio!"

Xerxes held the curse for a few seconds longer than he had previously.

"Please, I was just going to have him removed from the Wizengamot." Kent sobbed breathlessly, tears dripping from the end of his chin.

"Who are your associates?" Rodolphus demanded, sneering at the emotional display.

"Please, don't hurt my family." Kent said, looking up at him with defeated eyes. He'd already accepted what was going to happen and it made Xerxes smirk.

"We have no interest in your disgusting, mudblood family." He told the councilman. He'd already gone and cast a sleeping charm over them all. They weren't the target tonight, they would sleep through this and wake to the horror of it in the morning.

"This is taking too long!" Rabastan burst out, slamming his hands into the desk before he moved around it, stalking the man on the floor. "You had better answer our questions, stop stalling as if anyone will come to help you. We've already ensured that they won't."

"All the wards on your house were removed before we entered it." Rodolphus informed with a nasty smirk. "All of them."

Xerxes had the utter pleasure of watching Kent's face fall so drastically that he couldn't help but chuckle.

"Do you think this is the first time we've done this?" Xerxes asked conversationally, he made a play of looking down at the wand in his hand, twisting it gently. He laughed mockingly.

"P…please." The man begged, trembling.

"Answer our questions." Rodolphus demanded. "I'm getting impatient and I'll take that out on you."

"We…we were going to start small." Kent said, finally answering some of their questions. "We decided we had to get that boy off the Wizengamot."

Xerxes saw Rabastan bare his teeth at the disrespect shown to Harry, but he waved a hand at his grandson. They were finally getting somewhere and Kent would not be coming out of this encounter alive, so it didn't matter. They would repay the disrespect to Harry with pain…after they'd gotten the answers they wanted.

"You used the idea of an age cap that the Prophet threw around last August." Xerxes prompted.

Kent nodded. "It would have excluded anyone under the age of thirty." He explained, as if they didn't already know. "To give a boy not even out of school such power and privilege is shockingly negligent and many of my peers agree with me."

Xerxes laughed. "Harry is one of the better members of the Wizengamot." He imparted, glaring at the man who was struggling to climb to his knees. He was still shaking from the curses that had been cast upon him. "He is all for fairness and justice. He has the passion of youth on his side. He's the one trying to clean things up and you…" Xerxes laughed at the irony of it. "…you're trying to get rid of him to make the Wizengamot better!" Xerxes laughed again. "You might as well curse your own foot off while you're at it."

"Just because he made you look a fool." Rabastan added. "That's what this is truly about. It has nothing to do with what he's planning or his age, those are just convenient excuses. It was because he wasn't afraid to debate with you, to point out how stupid you were, and he made everyone else see how stupid you were too."

Kent looked to have bitten his tongue over something, as he mouthed a moment before swallowing hard. It made Xerxes smile as he knew it was likely something derogatory about Harry.

"Lacero."

Xerxes watched as Rodolphus' curse ripped a chunk out of Kent's body and sprayed blood over the floor in a long arc. The councilman started screaming then, holding the ripped, ragged skin of the wound closed, blubbering like a child as blood soaked into the knees of his cheap, generic pyjamas.

"Those associates you mentioned." Rodolphus said darkly. "Name them. I am getting very impatient. You truly do not want to know what I'll do to you if you test my patience for any longer."

"You'll do the same to them."

"Of course." Xerxes said simply. "We can't have members of the CML getting ideas above their station and trying to interfere with the Wizengamot. You don't have that sort of power and you never will."

"Then why do this?" Kent demanded, tears and blood smeared over his face. "Just what are you afraid of if this is the reaction?"

"It's the principle of the matter." Xerxes explained with narrowed eyes. "You have no power and we're not afraid of your little plans, it's about respect and you've shown none to a lord of the Wizengamot and you need to pay for that. The names of your associates, now, or we'll rip them right out of your mouth."

It took them four more hours to extract everything they needed from Councilman Barney Kent…he'd sung like a bird after they had gotten bored and, all it had taken was one mention from Rodolphus of going to wake up his family so that they could play with them in the same manner and he had folded like a piece of parchment. He was weak, terrified, and barely recognisable once they were through. Rabastan had gotten the honour of ending the miserable display, to avenge Harry.

The names of his associates they had extracted from him matched with the letters that Rabastan had found, along with a few others who hadn't been on the letters, which was a bonus. They would go after every single one of the associates and they would corroborate the names with them to make sure they got every last one of them. But, when their work was done, they left the man's modest home, everything in place and untouched except for the study, where the mangled, mutilated body of the councilman awaited his mudblood wife when she awakened in an hour or two.

"We could burn the house down." Rodolphus said, almost giddy with the long night of torture and abuse. "Get rid of the mudblood wife and kids too."

"Dolphus, rein yourself in." Xerxes warned. "We did what we came for and we have a long list to get through to keep Harry safe. We need to leave before we're seen."

Rodolphus took a deep breath and gave a longing look to the ordinary house before turning on his heel and apparating to Lestrange Manor. Rabastan had already left, eager for news on Harry and his condition, no doubt.

Xerxes followed quickly, knowing that the councilman's torture and death would be in the evening paper and he planned to clean himself up and make himself public today at the Ministry. He would need to push aside any tiredness and carry on his day as usual, though a side effect of his age was that he slept less.

He was incredibly worried about Harry and his continued unconsciousness. The healers had assured Lucius and Narcissa that Harry would wake shortly after he'd been admitted to the hospital. It had been four days and Harry hadn't so much as stirred according to the reports from Lucius and the healers kept fobbing both Malfoys off with generic insistence that Harry was still out of danger and on the mend, that he was just resting and healing. Xerxes wasn't satisfied with that as an answer and he had shouted at Lucius to demand more answers from the healers, but Lucius was steadfastly defending them, insisting that they had no more answers until Harry woke. But no one could say when Harry might wake up from this.

Rabastan was beside himself with worry and wrath, they still had little idea of what had happened, and they didn't know who had done this. It was a massive worry.

He looked at the list in his hand and he turned to put it in the secret compartment under his desk. His was better hidden than Kent's had been, given the nature of the material inside it.

Taking out Kent had helped to ease some of the immediate tensions in him and his grandsons, but he wouldn't rest easy again until every name on that list was crossed off, the person behind it; dead. He wouldn't rest easy again until Harry was awake and truly on the mend. He hoped that it wasn't much longer because Rabastan was starting to unravel and when Rabastan became unstable, it only made Rodolphus worse.

---

Harry didn't so much wake, but drifted into consciousness slowly, every speck of his body aching; inside and out. He grunted, groaning, trying to move, trying to open his eyes. He felt weak and vulnerable and he didn't like it. He wanted to wake up, he wanted to get up to help himself, protect himself. It was never a good sign when he couldn't move.

He tried to speak, tried to open his eyes to look around to see where he was, or who might be around him. He couldn't manage it. He didn't remember what had happened to him.

"Harry, darling, it's alright, you're safe." A very familiar voice assured him. He associated the voice with safety and he settled down a little. He only realised then that he was trembling in the bed like a leaf in the wind.

"What is wrong with him?" A stronger, but no less safe, voice demanded.

"It is the stress of regaining consciousness." A voice he didn't know commented and Harry stiffened up again, making the trembling worse.

"It's alright, darling, we won't let anything happen to you." The first voice told him.

Harry tried to settle. He tried to speak, but everything seemed wrong. His own body felt wrong. His mind felt wrong.

"Can you open your eyes, darling?" The first voice coaxed gently, patiently.

Harry tried, but it was a monumental effort to force any part of himself to move and he was so tired. He ached so badly that it was painful. His mind became patchy, spotty, then it went black and he sunk into darkness as the voices trailed off, sounding further and further away.

---

Narcissa let out a soft, ragged breath as Harry went still again in the hospital bed. She looked worriedly at the healer, who started casting spells quickly.

She wished that she had the privacy to seek out her husband's comfort, but, for the last two days, there had been a Law Enforcer in the room with them, waiting for Harry to regain consciousness to get his side of the story for their records. It had taken longer than they'd expected for Harry to show any signs of waking up and the healers were worried, even if they wouldn't say so.

They had expected Harry to wake up the night he had been admitted, or even the day after, but Harry had been firmly unconscious for four days now and this was the first sign he'd given of waking up, but he hadn't even opened his eyes before slipping back into unconsciousness.

"He is still stable." Healer Benton told them calmly, making notes on the folder with a self-inking quill. "We will keep a closer eye on him now that he's showing signs of waking, but he is not in any immediate danger. The potions are doing their job of healing the damage caused."

It was a relief to hear, reassuring, but they were just words and Harry still hadn't woken up properly. The Law Enforcers wanted to speak to Harry, question him, their investigation had stalled somewhat and they wouldn't give them any details on the case, insisting that they needed to speak to Harry first.

It had been impossible to keep a secret. On the second day, the morning after Harry's collapse, the Daily Prophet had reported the incident, though they didn't know Harry had been poisoned. They claimed that he had been attacked and almost killed at Hogwarts.

Lucius had been bombarded with questions and well wishes since, from pureblood families, members of the Wizengamot, fellow Death Eaters, and even members of the wizarding public who were concerned for the Boy-Who-Lived.

Worse still was that fellow students were hounding Draco, who was barely holding himself together in the aftermath of Harry's collapse and his continued unconsciousness. He refused to tell anyone the information they'd given him and he'd gotten given a detention yesterday for cursing another student. She didn't know the exact details of that, only that the student who had been cursed had cornered Draco in a bathroom and had been demanding answers to personal questions about Harry. She didn't blame Draco for his actions and neither did Lucius.

The most frustrating part of all of this, however, that even had her rage flaring, was that there were those who believed that her family was the cause of Harry's hospital admittance. Whispers and rumours that she or her husband, or even Draco, were the cause of Harry's collapse. It was infuriating.

The healer left the room, but they were not alone and they couldn't speak or act freely with the Law Enforcer standing in the corner like a spectre.

Narcissa went back to holding Harry's small, clammy hand, watching his eyes twitch under closed lids. He was murmuring to himself, nothing that she could make out, just soft noises, almost croaking, and now and then his fingers would spasm in her hand, but he slept on, struggling to overcome the poisoning and the damage done to him. It was a miracle that he was alive and every sign of life was welcomed wholeheartedly.

They had not found the one responsible. The Law Enforcers wouldn't tell them anything, but the Lestranges and the Dark Lord had not yet been able to find the one who had tried to murder her youngest son. She hoped that Lucius would go to find more news today, and to reassure Draco as well. She had left the hospital only a few times, to snatch a few hours of sleep and to bathe and change her clothes. She had gone to see Draco herself, to comfort and reassure him, but most of her time was spent at Harry's bedside, waiting for him to wake up.

Harry's fingers twitched in her own and she looked at his face critically, but he was still lost to his unconsciousness.

Lucius stiffened and she looked at him, knowing exactly what that body movement meant. He had been summoned by the Dark Lord.

"Can you go and check in on Draco, dear?" She asked, looking up from Harry's gaunt, pallid face.

Lucius inclined his head in a sign of agreement. "Of course, dear. I will check for news as well. I will be back shortly. Is there anything that I can get for you?"

"No. I will send word if Harry stirs again."

Lucius nodded and then left the hospital room. Narcissa was uncomfortably aware of the Law Enforcer off to the side of her, trying not to be intrusive, but doing so just by being there when she wanted to be alone with her family.

She just wanted Harry to wake up so that she could take him home and fuss over him as she needed.

The room was quiet without Lucius to speak to. Harry's breathing was laboured, but the healers weren't as concerned as she was over it. She had gotten used to the shaky, almost rattling noise in the past four days and three nights of being almost constantly at Harry's bedside. She reminded herself that any sign of life was to be welcomed. She didn't know what effect it might have had upon her if Harry was completely still and silent in his bed. It would have been too corpse-like.

Harry made the soft, mumbling noise again, his hands trembling as if he were frightened.

"You're safe, darling." She assured him quietly, angry that she had an audience, but Harry was more important than the Law Enforcer scrutinising her every move from the corner. "I am here with you."

Harry quietened down again, his trembling lessening. She was absolutely certain that he could hear them. That he was, on some level of his consciousness, awake and listening.

She spoke to him of mundane things. The wedding planning she was finalising for 'a friend', how Draco was missing him terribly and wanted him to wake up, how many get well soon cards had flooded their home for him because he was so well loved.

Harry's hand clenched in hers, balling into a fist and Narcissa shifted forward to ease whatever fears or pain had caused it with both of her hands, stroking and comforting. Harry did not calm and she fretted.

"Send one of the Aurors to fetch the healer." She commanded the Law Enforcer, who nodded his head and went to the door.

She turned back to Harry, whose mouth had twisted into a grimace of pain. His eyes were fluttering again, as if he were trying to wake.

"That's it, darling. Wake up." She coaxed softly. "Just wake up, Harry. Please, darling. Please wake up now. We have missed you and we need you to wake up."

---

Harry managed to flicker his eyes open to the soft coaxing of a voice beside him. He couldn't understand the words, but he liked the tone of them. He couldn't see anything, it was all blurred and indistinct.

"Oh, his glasses."

Something was pressed gently onto his face and colours and shapes sharpened, but his vision was still blurry.

"Can you hear me?" Someone was saying.

"Yes." Harry croaked out, his throat was so sore it felt swollen and tight.

"Oh, Harry, darling." Someone almost sobbed beside him.

"Mo…mother." He choked out, trying to turn towards her to see why she sounded so upset.

"Lie still. Lie still." He was chastised.

"What…?" Harry stopped and swallowed hard, his throat was too dry and the action was very painful. He felt breathless, as if he had been running for hours. "What happened?" He asked fearfully.

"What do you remember?" Someone he didn't know asked him.

"Nothing." He said. "My head is blank."

"That's alright, it might take some time." The unknown voice told him.

Harry blinked several times in rapid succession and his vision cleared a little more. His head was still curiously blank, as if his brain couldn't comprehend anything. There was nothing in his head. No thoughts, no memories, but when he fully saw the woman sitting beside him, he smiled at her. He knew her.

She wasn't crying, but he knew the expression on her face. He knew the soft, wet glint to her blue eyes. She loved him and he loved her.

"Mother." He said instinctually, trying to move towards her.

"Shush, lie still, Harry." She said gently, shuffling forward on her chair so that he could reach her easier.

"What happened?" He asked. "Where am I?"

"You're in Saint Mungo's, Harry." His mother told him gently. "As for why, the Law Enforcers want you to remember that on your own."

He could tell from her snide tone that she didn't agree and wasn't pleased with complying. He was confused and he closed his eyes, trying to remember what had happened. He couldn't even find what his last memory was. His head was still blank.

"Everything's blank." Harry said, his voice was hoarse and weak.

"What is the last thing you remember?" A man in lime green robes asked him. A healer.

"Nothing." Harry said honestly.

"Can you pick out any memory?" The healer asked, looking very worried.

Harry shook his head. "No. I'm so tired."

"You remember Lady Malfoy?" The healer prodded him, indicating his mother by his side.

"My mother." Harry said.

"So you have memories of her?" The healer asked.

"No. But she's safe. I know she'll look after me and that she loves me. I love her. She's safe." He tried to explain. "I'm so tired. Please, let me sleep."

His mother's hand was in his hair, stroking and tugging so gently that it was soothing. His eyes fluttered closed and he exhaled heavily.

"Just rest, darling. Though, don't leave us waiting as long this time, we're very worried about you."

"What happened?" He asked, slurring slightly.

"I'm not allowed to tell you, Harry, just let yourself rest."

Harry hummed tiredly, his mind already slipping away again. He didn't know what was going on, he just wanted to sleep.

Narcissa rounded on the healer the moment she thought that Harry had drifted off again.

"You made no mention of memory loss in your list of possible afflictions!" She hissed at him.

"Lady Malfoy, I believe this is merely a temporary effect of his recent unconsciousness. Now that he has woken, we would like to conduct more testing, but he should wake again soon."

Narcissa inhaled and remembered that she wasn't alone. The Law Enforcer was perked up in the corner of the room, watching interestedly and listening to every word.

"Do whatever tests you feel are necessary to help Harry recover." She said turning back to Harry. She gently took his glasses back off and folded them up.

Knowing that Lucius, and the Dark Lord, needed the information of Harry's waking, she conjured a piece of parchment and a quill and, using the small table beside Harry's bed, she wrote a quick note to Lucius, making sure to include all the details the healer had told her.

"Pimsey."

A soft crack, that didn't disturb Harry, and the house-elf was standing in the room awaiting orders. The elf looked sadly at Harry before looking at her.

"Take this to Lucius."

"Yes, Mistress." The elf curtsied low before leaving as quickly as she had come.

Narcissa turned back to Harry and took his hand back in hers. He was back to lying in his bed, unresponsive, his breathing still laboured, but he had woken properly this time. He had spoken, even if he couldn't remember anything. His mind was blank, he'd said, which was worrying. Just what had that poison done to her soft, affectionate son?

---

Lucius entered the parlour and immediately bowed before the Dark Lord.

"Lucius, take a seat."

He turned and sat beside Xerxes, feeling the hard stares of Rabastan and Rodolphus.

"How is he, Lucius?" Rabastan asked, almost pleading.

"There has been minimal change. He woke briefly this morning, though to call it waking is generous as he couldn't open his eyes and he couldn't speak. He fell unconscious again very quickly. The healers are worried, though they won't admit it."

"Have they identified the poison?" The Dark Lord asked.

"Yes, my Lord, and you were correct. It was dragon poison, specifically from the Peruvian Vipertooth. The healers collected so much from Harry's blood that they believe they'll even be able to identify the exact dragon the poison was made from, which could help narrow down who took the venom and, perhaps, the one who made the poison as well. The Law Enforcers are already on the Peruvian reserve questioning the dragon handlers."

"It should have killed him regardless of those runes." The Dark Lord murmured, almost to himself. None of them spoke. "In addition to being a Horcrux, yes, I believe it was that which saved him."

"My Lord, what do the Law Enforcers have to say?" Xerxes asked, taking excessive care not to interrupt.

"The source of the poison was found within Harry's rooms at Hogwarts, but they remain tight-lipped about what it was found in until young Harry answers some questions. I believe they know how he was poisoned, but not by who. Not at this moment."

"So, it was by someone who got close enough to him to be within his rooms?" Lucius asked. "That is a very short list, according to Draco."

"I would have names, Lucius." Rodolphus growled.

"It is too soon for names, Rodolphus." Lucius insisted. "You will put Harry at risk if you start killing off schoolchildren who might, or might not be, to blame for this."

"You have your orders, Rodolphus." The Dark Lord said coldly. "You will put your focus on the associates of Councilman Kent."

"Yes, my Lord." Rodolphus answered obediently.

"The councilman has been taken out, then?" Lucius asked.

"A few hours ago. Before dawn, though we were with him all night." Xerxes said with grim satisfaction. "We got a list of associates who were also planning to try to ruin Harry's reputation and his future and we will be glad of the distraction they'll cause until Harry is released from the hospital."

They were interrupted by a soft crack and the sudden appearance of a house-elf.

"Master, a note from the Mistress."

"Leave." Lucius ordered sternly, taking the note. The house-elf nodded her head and then left immediately.

"Is it Harry?" Rabastan asked desperately as Lucius read. "Has he woken up? Tell me he hasn't worsened, Lucius."

"He hasn't worsened." Lucius replied reassuringly, reading the relatively short, brusque note. "He finally woke up for a few minutes. He is speaking. He doesn't remember what happened or where he is. He is suffering severe memory loss. He didn't recognise Narcissa."

Rabastan looked devastated. "He won't recognise me?" He asked worriedly.

"It is not that simple." Lucius said, finishing the note and handing it straight to the Dark Lord to read. "He couldn't name her, but he knew he loved her and that he was safe with her. He couldn't give her name, but he named her his mother. He knows her, but he doesn't seem to have any memories. The healer thought this was only temporary and only because of his long period of unconsciousness. We will have to wait to see what he remembers when he wakes again."

"This is good news." Xerxes said after a brief period of silence. "Harry is awake. He is showing an improvement, he is recovering. He's protected and we're removing several threats to him in the process. We will find who was behind this poisoning and they will be taken out also."

"Yes, this is some good news." The Dark Lord agreed, folding the note and handing it back to Lucius. "We will carry on as we have been, my friends. I will get another report from the Law Enforcers later today. Xerxes, you, Rabastan, and Rodolphus make plans to remove the councilman's friends so that they cannot harm young Harry further. Lucius, keep me informed of Harry's recovery."

"Yes, my Lord." Lucius answered. "I will go to see Draco and then I will be back at the hospital."

The Dark Lord just looked at him through ruby eyes and, knowing a dismissal when he was on the receiving end of one, Lucius stood and bowed, before leaving the parlour. At least he had some good news to share with Draco, at last. Harry had woken up for the first time in four days, putting an end to one stressor, at least. His lack of memory was a worry, but as long as it was temporary, as the healers believed, no harm would come of it. Narcissa had insisted in her note that Harry had called her 'mother' and had known she was safe. It was just that he could not remember any memories, or, perhaps it was merely that he just couldn't put them into words.

Lucius apparated from the grounds of the manor to his own home, and then he flooed to Hogwarts to speak with his oldest son. It was a Tuesday and Draco would be in lessons.

"Point me Draco Malfoy." He said, holding his wand and casting an advanced directional spell that wouldn't take him through walls.

He was led through the castle to a classroom, it seemed that Draco was in Ancient Runes. He knocked on the door before opening it.

"Forgive the intrusion, Professor Babbling, I would like a word with my son." Lucius said curtly.

Draco was already standing and hurrying from his desk as the Professor nodded her head.

Lucius shut the door behind Draco and moved them away slightly, just in case anyone tried to eavesdrop.

"How is Harry? Is he alright, Father?"

"Harry has woken briefly this morning. He has spoken a little, though it seems he has some issues with his memory, but the healers are not overly concerned and insist it is likely because of his four day period of unconsciousness."

"He's awake?" Draco asked, heaving out a massive sigh of relief, sinking into himself a little.

"He is and the healers believe, that now he has woken once, he will do so again very soon."

"Have you found who poisoned him?"

"No, not yet, but the Law Enforcers are searching." Lucius assured him. "They want to question Harry, and now that he is awake perhaps they can move their investigation on."

"Will Harry be going home now? I want to see him. It's been four days, Father. I…I need to see him. I can't stand it here any longer."

"You will be coming home for the Easter break at the end of this week, can you not manage four more days, Draco?"

"I can't concentrate. I can't focus, everyone keeps coming up to me and asking about Harry, and some are even laughing about it, or accusing me of doing it, or you or mother, and I can't take it anymore."

Lucius considered what Draco was saying, looking at his son critically, who looked unrested and sallow. He looked like he had lost weight also.

"Can you manage another day or so, until Harry is released? Your mother and I are living at the hospital with Harry."

Draco swallowed, but Lucius could see him steeling himself. He nodded. "Yes. But my conduct is…not commendable."

"These are extenuating circumstances. I will not have your behaviour held against you, though, try to retain as much decorum as possible, it is not an excuse to lose all form of control and behave how you please. I will pull you from school early if Harry is home. Now that he is awake, as long as all his tests come back positive, we expect that he will be home soon."

Draco nodded and Lucius saw him inhale deeply, calming himself down, absorbing the news that Harry was now awake and that they expected he would be home soon.

"He will regain his memories, won't he? He's seventeen, if…if he doesn't remember, then Dumbledore could use it to take Harry away from us."

"I wouldn't allow it. Harry has already accused Dumbledore of neglect and that will be advancing towards a trial soon enough." Lucius said firmly. "But Harry's memory loss is not as simple as he doesn't remember anything. He has some sort of memory as he called Narcissa his mother. He said that he knew she was safe and that he loved her. He just cannot express any memory in to words. The healers believe it's temporary and I am sure he will recognise all of us, you and Rabastan included. He just cannot put memories into words."

Draco nodded. "Please, keep me informed if anything changes. I just want to hold him."

Lucius snorted a soft laugh through his nose and laid a hand on Draco's shoulder. "You take after your mother, she too has not let go of Harry through this. It will not be for much longer, Harry is improving by the hour today. I will settle Harry at home once he is released and then I will come to bring you home early too."

"The Daily Prophet is still saying that Harry is close to death after being attacked."

"You know that is a lie." Lucius comforted. "I know your schoolmates are likely harassing you for information, or taunting you over it, but you know what has happened. We haven't found out who or how just yet, but it's coming, Draco. Then the public will know the truth, but not before. Not before we've had a chance to exact justice first."

Draco nodded, lifting his chin, looking a touch more settled. "I will endure this as best as I can."

Lucius smiled proudly and pulled Draco into a brief embrace.

"I must go now, but keep in mind that Harry is doing much better today, Draco. Everything is in hand."

Draco nodded and, with a last touch, Lucius saw Draco back to his lesson and he left the school, back to the hospital. He hoped it did not take very long for Harry to once again wake.

---

Harry felt like he was drifting. He blinked and squeezed his eyes tighter a moment, before opening his eyes to make sense of everything around him.

People were speaking around him, distracted, and he took a moment to observe the blurry human-shaped images at his feet.

"All tests are coming back positive, as long as Harry keeps taking the potions he should fully recover in a few weeks." A lime green blur was saying.

"Will there be any repercussions from the type of poison?" A woman asked.

"We don't believe so. The Vipertooth is highly venomous, that venom usually kills anyone outright, but Harry had some protection and it has saved his life."

Harry frowned at that. Poison? Venom? Saved his life? Just what was going on?

He couldn't move, his mouth was too dry to make a noise. He could only lie there, listening, his eyes open but not really seeing anything.

"How many more potions will he have to take?" A man with long, platinum blonde hair was asking.

"Until we've fully cleared him. The last thing we want to do is take him off those potions too soon and have him suffer any pain. It could be a few more weeks, but he is going to fully recover with no adverse effects or any lingering damage. He's very strong and he's fighting very hard."

"The memory issues?" The woman asked again.

"We are all but certain it's temporary." The lime green blur said firmly.

Harry's mind was finally starting to sputter to life and he recognised the platinum blonde people.

"Mother. Father." He choked out, his throat dry, tight, and swollen.

The group of people spun around and the woman hurried to his bedside, picking up his hand and holding it.

"Harry, darling, how are you feeling?"

"Tired. Sore."

"What is hurting, Mister Potter?" The lime green blur asked.

His father turned from the bedside table and something was pushed onto his face. Oh, that's right, he needed glasses. He blinked and everything came back into sharp focus. There were four people in the room with him. His parents, the healer, and a small man standing in the far corner, away from them, but watching and listening avidly.

Harry frowned at the question, considering the answer.

"Every…everywhere. Head, back, here." Harry laid a hand over his middle, indicating his whole belly area.

"We will run some tests, but everything is looking positive."

"What happened?" He asked, very confused with everything.

"What do you remember?" The small man in the corner asked him.

Harry frowned at the stranger but still gave the question his full consideration.

"I was…at breakfast?" He said, but it came out more questioning.

"What happened then?" The stranger asked.

Harry squinted his eyes as he thought, prodding his sluggish mind to sort through his memories. It took a while.

"I was talking to Draco. I wasn't feeling well and I admitted that I maybe needed to get checked out, but…" Harry frowned as a stream of memories inundated his brain. Something wet on his lip. Blood on his fingers. Draco's terrified, horrified face. "Did I collapse?" He asked. "I…I remember…Draco, his face, blood on my fingers from a nosebleed. Then, nothing."

"You did collapse." The healer told him. "You were brought here."

Harry's hand went to his throat without his conscious thought. The healer smiled thinly.

"We were told about your runic protection and it was removed by the expert, Marcus Flint, but you are very protected here. There are two Aurors on your door, your parents have not left you alone, and a Law Enforcer has been in the room with you."

Harry settled a little and he turned to his mother, reaching out to her. She shifted forward and, letting go of his hand, she wrapped both arms around him, cradling him, stroking his hair.

"I'm sorry I worried you." He told her softly.

"This is no fault of yours, darling. May I tell him now?"

Harry blinked as Narcissa venomously asked the question of the Law Enforcer, who nodded his head seriously, watching them closely.

"Harry, darling, I need you to listen closely."

Harry frowned further. He nodded and tried his best to gather all of his focus together.

"You were poisoned, Harry." Narcissa told him.

Harry reared back to look at her face, trying to make sense of that.

"Food poisoning?" He heard himself ask, as his brain refused to put the pieces together about venom and almost dying and being poisoned.

"No, darling, no. You were deliberately poisoned, but we don't know how."

"Is that why I've been feeling so bad? I thought it was stress. Mother, I swear, I thought it was just stress."

"A lot of your symptoms do overlap with chronic stress symptoms." The healer told him. "It was easily missed."

Harry's brain was trying to make sense of everything. When did these symptoms start? What had changed at that time?

"Was it…ingested?" He asked, his hand once again going to his throat. If the runes had saved his life, it could have only been from ingesting the poison. What had he been eating that could have possibly been poisoned?

"It was."

"Do you know what you ingested that could have caused this?" The Law Enforcer asked him and got sneers and sharp looks from his parents.

"If I'd even thought that anything I was eating was poisoned I wouldn't have eaten it!" Harry snapped. "Of course I don't know what it was."

"We know that, Harry." Lucius assured him, still glaring at the Law Enforcer. "This is not your fault."

"Well, your memory seems to have recovered, you're doing much better, and you're healing nicely." The healer said.

"When can he come home?" Narcissa asked.

"Well, we will run some more tests now that Mister Potter is awake, but if everything remains positive, later today or tomorrow." The healer said.

That eased Harry down and he turned to lay his head on his mother, tucking his face into her neck. She fussed over him and played with his hair.

"I would like to question Mister Potter and give him some information on our investigation before he is released." The Law Enforcer said.

"No one is stopping you." Lucius said pointedly.

"I will do this alone." The Law Enforcer insisted.

"Is that alright with you, darling?" Narcissa asked him.

Harry nodded, staring at the Law Enforcer who, for some reason, wanted his parents out of the room.

"We will be just outside the door, Harry." Lucius told him.

The Law Enforcer approached the bed and Narcissa split away from him. Harry mourned her loss as he had been very comfortable and it had been easier to forget his aches and pains as she fussed him. Those pains came back all too soon and he grimaced as the healer left also, closing the door behind him.

"We have been investigating thoroughly, Mister Potter." The Law Enforcer told him.

"What is your name?" Harry asked, trying to settle against the pillows so that he was slightly propped up, but his back ached and he grit his teeth to endure it.

"Oh, my name is Niall Mills. I am part of the team investigating your case and also coordinating with the Aurors to protect you."

Harry nodded. He swallowed, his mouth still dry and swollen feeling. "What did you want to tell me?"

"We found the source of the poison within your private rooms at Hogwarts."

Harry's heart thumped harder…only things he had taken into that room were kept there. No one could get in without him and only those he implicitly trusted were welcomed into his private rooms. He couldn't pick any one of them who would have done this to him. Draco? Luna? Astoria? Theo or Blaise or Pansy? He couldn't pick any one of them or pinpoint one of them who might have done this to him…and he certainly couldn't think of a reason why.

"I want to show you some photographs, to see if you recognise where the poisonous substance originated."

Harry nodded and grimaced as he shifted a little further upright.

The Law Enforcer had a case with him and he unlocked it with a complicated wave of his wand…it was warded against tampering or unauthorised access.

Harry schooled his expression as he was shown a glossy, high-quality photograph of a very familiar box of chocolates.

"They were poisoned?" He asked, his heart hammering even faster. They were the chocolates that Rabastan had been sending him.

"Yes, do you know where they originated?"

"I'm so stupid!" Harry cursed, trying to make up something believable on the spot when his brain felt like cement.

"Mister Potter?"

"They were a Valentine's present." He lied. The first box had shown up in early January. "Three boxes of them, I checked them! I swear, I cast several revealing charms to check for anything dangerous and…what exactly was I poisoned with?"

"It wouldn't have shown up with a revealing charm." The Law Enforcer told him. "It was a poison brewed with the venom of a Peruvian Vipertooth. Very difficult to make, very expensive to make, and the venom itself, naturally, comes with no small amount of danger in procuring. My colleagues are investigating the Peruvian reserve, questioning the dragon handlers to see if it has come from them, if one of them might not be making some extra Galleons on the side."

Harry trembled to hear that. He had been poisoned with a potion made with dragon venom. He should be dead. His hand went to his neck, massaging the place where the runes had been carved. They'd saved his life. He owed Marcus his life.

"You don't know where the chocolates came from? Or who might have sent them to you?"

Harry shook his head. "No. I'm sorry. They were waiting for me on Valentine's Day, I thought I'd checked them. I did check them! Extensively. I thought they were harmless, safe. I can't believe I was so stupid."

"I will take this information back with me and we will run the line of investigation."

Harry nodded. "Thank you. I feel so foolish."

"You couldn't have known that dragon venom repels all revealing charms. We only found it by checking with potions. We were suspicious of it as, after cutting open one of the chocolates, the liquid in the centre had a slight green hue to it when subjected to bright light."

"You won't be able to find who did it because they were given anonymously, will you?" Harry asked, looking up at the Law Enforcer with a feigned worried, fretful look.

"We will do everything we possibly can to trace the origins of these chocolates. We are already investigating the supplier and the manufacturer. We have places to start and, now that you have said there were three boxes, we can add that to the list of questions we ask."

Harry nodded, swallowing.

"Do you think that they could have been sent by your parents?"

Harry gave the man a sharp look for daring to ask.

"No." He snapped. "Is it so difficult to believe that an adopted child can be loved just as much as a biological child? They aren't hurting me or trying to kill me. They love me and they will be doing their all to make sure I am safe. This has not come from my family. Though, I have no lack of political enemies. I would look in the Council of Magical Law before you looked at my family, if I were you."

The Law Enforcer looked a little abashed. He nodded. "Now that you are awake, I and my colleagues will leave you in peace, but we will keep in constant contact with any developments in your case."

Harry nodded. "I appreciate that. I want to know who did this to me, but mostly, I want to know why."

The Law Enforcer, Niall Mills, nodded his head in understanding.

"I will make sure to pass this along to our team leader and she will keep you informed, Mister Potter."

"Thank you."

The Law Enforcer left and his parents came striding back into the room, fussing him from either side.

"Are you alright, darling?" Narcissa asked.

"Yes. They wanted to accuse you of doing this to me without you present."

"We are well aware of people's views of us." Lucius assured him. "Did they tell you how you were poisoned?"

"Yes, but I'm still absorbing the information. I'm still very tired."

"How was it delivered, Harry?" Lucius asked seriously. "Tell me so that I can investigate myself and then you can rest."

"I ate it. I was so stupid I can't believe it, but, why would I question something that he had given me?" He asked sadly. "It had to have been a Death Eater, someone in the know about my fiancé. I didn't even suspect!"

"This isn't your fault." Narcissa assured him, her hands fussing in his hair, pulling him to rest against her again, soothing and comforting.

"Are you saying the poison came from your fiancé?" Lucius asked, his grey eyes wide with rage.

Harry nodded. "He's been sending me chocolate. He always has. The last three boxes were poison. That's why I started getting better when I was at home. I was only eating those chocolates in the evenings, as I did my work. I'd only eat a couple at a time. They were very expensive, very rich, so I couldn't stomach too many of them, but…they were signed 'from Aceline', but it was in the same manner as he would sign it; it had to have come from someone who knew! Of course I wouldn't question or suspect a gift from him, I feel so foolish." He said, the tears coming.

"Oh, Harry, darling, this isn't your fault, of course you wouldn't question the gift, that is why it was sent to you in such a form. We will find who did this."

"I told the Law Enforcers that it was a Valentine's gift as I couldn't tell him the actual truth." He said, crying softly into Narcissa's blouse, making sure not to wipe his nose on her. "But the first box came in the second week of January, I don't remember the exact date, but I thought he'd sent it to cheer me up as it was shortly after my first appointment with Healer Vasey. I've lied to the Law Enforcers because I couldn't drag Ra…Basti into it."

"The room is warded, sweetheart." Narcissa assured him. "You don't need to censor yourself."

Harry sighed, feeling absolutely terrible. His head was throbbing, his entire body hurt, his back ached, and he was a complete and utter fool for not questioning those chocolates.

"You've done well to distract the Law Enforcers." Lucius told him. "This gives me more room to find out who this was and get justice for you in our way."

Harry nodded. "I want to go home."

"Soon." Narcissa promised. "Let the healers finish whatever tests they have left to do now that you're properly awake and then I will fight to get you home."

"I just want to rest, it doesn't feel like resting here and I want Rabastan."

"He has been very worried about you." Narcissa assured him. "He had to be stopped from coming to the hospital and he only held himself in check when reminded that it would put you at risk."

Harry nodded and he let himself relax as much as his aching body could. He was so tired, but his mind was now too alert for him to sleep. Who would do this to him? Who knew about Rabastan and 'Aceline', and the most important question, why would someone do this to him?

---

Harry was settled into his bed at home and its comforting familiarity helped to ease him down and he felt that he could finally relax.

He had been getting better in the last day. All of the tests the healers had put him through had come back positive, showing that he was well and truly on the mend. He had a stockpile of potions to take, but, that was nothing new to him. He'd been off the potions to heal the hypocalcaemia for about nine months. It was not so long that he had forgotten how to take the vile potions without throwing them back up again.

"Cissa, I am going to Hogwarts to fetch Draco." Lucius announced as he watched Narcissa smooth Harry's bedsheets out obsessively.

"What day is it?" Harry asked, frowning.

"It's Thursday the second of April." Lucius told him.

"Term doesn't end for two more days." Harry pointed out with a frown.

"I'm pulling Draco from school a few days early. He has been very worried about you, Harry."

Harry nodded his understanding. "Can Rabastan come too?"

"Once your brother has had his fill of you, yes." Lucius said.

"Just rest, sweetheart." Narcissa told him. "You will be reacquainted with your family, and your fiancé, very soon."

Harry settled back in the bed, which wasn't making every inch of him ache as the hospital bed had.

"Can I get you anything, Harry?" Narcissa asked.

Harry shook his head. "No, Mother. There's nothing I need. I just want to rest."

"You are safe in our home. This is your home too and you are safe here. We don't need Aurors or Law Enforcers here, watching or staring at you."

Harry hummed, letting his mother speak as she needed.

"Rabastan will have to be aware, the Law Enforcers said they'll keep me informed of every step of their investigation. I don't want him to be caught."

"We would not allow anyone to enter your bedroom for any reason. We would keep the Law Enforcer downstairs and bring you to them. Rabastan will be quite safe here. The Law Enforcers will be coming merely to relay information to you, they have no cause or legal right to search our home."

Harry settled further and he smiled.

"I was frightened when they said it was poison, Mother." He said softly.

"Anyone would be." Narcissa assured him firmly, fussing his hair again.

"I can't figure out if they used Rabastan to lure me into eating the chocolates or…or if whoever it was wanted me to blame him. It could even be both, but I know Rabastan. I know him, Mother, he would never have done this to me. Not even Rodolphus would have done this to me. Not poison. But…if they knew about the runes…" Here his hand went to his throat unconsciously. "…then, maybe they knew I'd survive, but they wanted me to blame Rabastan. Is that what this is? Are they trying to break us up, either through death or me blaming him? I don't know."

"You need to rest and stop twisting your mind around this, Harry. Let us figure this out for you while you recover. We will get to the truth of it and then tell you the whys and the hows."

Harry nodded, but his mind wouldn't let it lie, wouldn't settle. He needed to know, both who had done this to him and why.

Pounding footsteps over hardwood made Harry smile as he heard the door to his private sitting room being thrown open, then muffled steps over thick, plush carpet, then the bedroom door was opened and then Draco was there, still in his uniform, green and silver tie askew, robes lopsided on his shoulders, and he stopped and stared at him, silver eyes drinking him in, then Draco started crying as he launched at him, clambering onto Harry's bed to wrap him in gentle, protective arms.

"Gently, Draco, darling. Gently." Narcissa chided softly.

"Are you better?" Draco asked him tearfully.

Harry hummed. "I'm getting there." He assured his brother, his voice soft and husky. "I've got to take potions for a while, but I'm going to be fine, Draco."

"When I saw the blood and you just collapsed like that. It all happened so fast and I was so scared for you."

Harry nodded. "I'm glad it was at breakfast, at least."

"What do you mean?" Draco asked, frowning at him.

Harry gave a wry smile. "If it had been the night before, I might not have survived the night until I was found in the morning."

Draco inhaled shakily and held him tighter. Harry patted his brother and then held on tight when Draco refused to let go of him.

"Let us not think of such things." Narcissa coached them. "Nothing of the sort happened."

"Quite." Lucius said as he entered more leisurely than Draco had into Harry's bedroom. "Do not rile yourselves with what could have happened. Harry is recovering well and will make a full recovery with some more time."

Harry was grateful for that too. The reassurance that he was going to get better and be himself once again. He'd been told it could take a week or two, with the potions he'd been given, which meant he could potentially be fighting fit before he went back to Hogwarts for his final term. He would be better in his final term than he had all of last term, because he'd been being poisoned. He had struggled through, waving off the symptoms as mere stress, fighting his sluggish brain and his aching body, but this next term would be better. He wouldn't allow whoever had been poisoning him to win. Whatever reason they had for doing this to him, whether it was his law reforms or his upcoming marriage to Rabastan, but then, he didn't know anyone who had an issue with that, only…only Rhadamanthus. Rhadamanthus, who knew he was marrying Rabastan and knew about the ruse engagement to Aceline but didn't know about the runic protection on him. Rhadamanthus, who had the motive, the means, and the information needed to do this. Harry's fist clenched tight and he looked at Lucius.

"Can you bring the Lestranges, please?" He asked, giving nothing of his thoughts away. "I want to see them."

"Are you feeling up to such excitement?" Lucius asked him.

Harry gave a dirty little chuckle that had Narcissa narrowing her blue eyes at him.

"You are not so injured that you cannot still get a stinging hex to your bottom." She warned him.

"I want to see them, I don't want them worrying so much about me when I'm home and feeling better."

"I will be back shortly." Lucius said, once again leaving. Harry heaved a breath and tried to gather his thoughts. It was still difficult, like trying to keep water in his cupped hands, his thoughts trickling out slowly but surely, but it wasn't as much of a struggle as it had been in recent weeks.

"Everyone is worried about you." Draco was saying, needing to speak to dispel his fear and anxiety. "Astoria and Blaise, Theo, Luna, and even Pansy. Your little boy, Felix, asked me how you were too, though I almost slapped Granger when she tried to ask, as if she actually really cares."

Harry hummed sleepily, more to acknowledge that Draco was speaking than anything. His mind was racing, trying to keep the thread of his thoughts together, trying to fit Rhadamanthus into everything, but it did fit. He tried to play his own devil's advocate, thinking logically about ways that Rhadamanthus didn't fit into the puzzle, but all the pieces fit and Harry was getting increasingly sure that it had been his would-be father-in-law who had tried to kill him.

He wondered what Voldemort would do in such a case. Rhadamanthus was one of his most loyal, valuable Death Eaters because of his job in the Department of International Magical Cooperation and his continued meddling in the International Magical Office of Law on Voldemort's orders.

But, on the other hand, Rhadamanthus had gone against Voldemort's express orders to protect Harry at all costs. He had, in fact, almost managed to kill him, one of Voldemort's Horcruxes. Voldemort had killed Death Eaters for much less.

Perhaps he should meet with Voldemort himself and talk this out. In Harry's view, Rhadamanthus had proven himself too dangerous to let live, he wanted to impress this onto Voldemort. That it would satisfy his plans for revenge, on his own and Rabastan's behalf, only sweetened the thought of handing Rhadamanthus over to his master.

Harry thought, that if it was anyone other than one of his most loyal, then Voldemort would have done it in a heartbeat. If it had been Philip Nott or Harvey Greengrass or Corban Yaxley, it would have been done the moment Harry gave voice to the one responsible, but one of the Lestranges? A valuable asset to his cause who could, and did, influence international laws? No, Harry would need to set up a meeting with Voldemort and talk this out and stress to the maniac that Rhadamanthus was too much of a threat, too much of a liability, who had gone against Voldemort's express orders. He would have to press for death and not just torture as a punishment. He needed Rhadamanthus out of his life, out of Rabastan's life, for good. Before they married and had children for Rhadamanthus to threaten or try to kill. Harry's heart wouldn't survive it if one of his own children was murdered by Rhadamanthus, the man who should have been that child's grandfather. He couldn't allow it to happen. He had to remove the threat, once and for all.

Harry had been drifting, but a large, gentle hand on his cheek had him blinking open his eyes. Rabastan was crouched over him, looking hollow and haunted, but his fiancé smiled at him as he opened his eyes and Harry smiled back.

"Hi." Harry greeted in a soft croak.

"I am so happy to see you, my love."

Harry's smile widened and he tugged weakly, but insistently, at Rabastan until his fiancé laid down with him and Harry could cuddle up, trying to ignore his aching body. Large arms wrapped around him, making him feel safe and secure and a large hand stroked over his back, easing the aches.

"I missed you." Harry said.

"I'm just glad you're alright, Harry."

"Getting better." Harry said, clinging to Rabastan.

A rough hand in his hair made Harry smile as thick fingers tugged and scratched.

"Hi, Dolphus." He greeted without needing to look at who it was.

"We will find who did this to you, I swear it." Rodolphus promised him.

Harry hummed tiredly in agreement.

"Let him rest." Xerxes fretted nearby.

Harry let out a weak chuckle. "Better now. I'm not going to drop dead. The poison is gone."

"You look dreadful." Xerxes pointed out.

Harry hummed disinterestedly. "I suppose I will until the damage is fully healed, but it's not life-threatening. Not anymore." He added.

"Do you know how you were poisoned yet?"

Harry knew then that Lucius hadn't told the Lestranges about the chocolates.

He groaned and rolled onto his back, just so that he could see Rabastan's face.

"I thought you were sending me chocolate."

Rabastan frowned at him. "I have been."

Harry shook his head. "I know it wasn't you." He said firmly. "They came from someone else, I was tricked into eating them."

"Are you saying that someone used me to poison you?!" Rabastan demanded furiously.

"What chocolate were you sending to Harry?" Lucius asked.

"The little bars that he likes. Narcissa includes them in her packages sent every month so I don't bring undue attention."

Harry sighed and threw his arm over his face.

"Were they poisoned?" Rabastan demanded. "I buy them anonymously via owl order, it couldn't have been meant for you, my love. I would never do this to you."

"That wasn't the chocolate that was poisoned. Someone sent me more and I thought they were safe, I ate them because I thought they were from you."

Draco hissed through his teeth as he realised what was being alluded to. "The expensive ones?" He asked.

Harry dropped his arm and looked at his brother. He nodded.

"The runes saved my life. I'm so glad I never shared them with any of you because you'd have died."

"Why didn't you share them?" Narcissa asked, looking torn over pulling Harry into a hug or clutching at Draco.

"I thought they were a gift from Rabastan, I wasn't going to share my gifts with anyone. That, and, in the end, it was fun to tease Blaise by keeping them out of his reach. I was playing along in the end. I could have killed all of us."

Draco had gone grey and Narcissa did go to comfort him then.

"This wasn't on you." Lucius told him. "It is the fault of whoever sent you that chocolate."

"It wasn't me, my love. You must believe me." Rabastan begged.

"I know it wasn't you. You knew about the runes, you knew I was protected and that ingesting potions, medicine, or poisons wouldn't kill me. The chocolates were signed 'from Aceline' in the same manner that you sign that name. It could have only been someone who knew about you, about the Aceline ruse and your signature of that name, who didn't know about the runes."

"It is not as short a list as I would have hoped." Xerxes said musingly. "But, it's a starting place."

"Could it be someone who only knew about Aceline?" Draco asked. "Why did they have to know about Rabastan? You don't need to burn anything with her name on it, so anyone could have stolen a letter or a gift tag with that name and used a transfer spell to put it on the box of chocolates."

Harry inhaled deeply. "Every gift, every letter, is stored in my private rooms. Only someone I'd invited in personally could have gotten their hands on them, which is why I believe it's someone who knows about Rabastan as well as the Aceline ruse."

"It couldn't have been taken from your bookbag or dropped?" Narcissa asked carefully.

Harry shook his head. "No. I treasure my letters and gifts. I'd have noticed if one had gone missing."

"Dumbledore?" Rodolphus asked, sounding a little too eager.

"He's a little too busy to bother with me at the moment and he'd also know that poison wouldn't kill me."

"He couldn't have known about the runes, Harry." Narcissa said gently, likely thinking he had just gotten confused. "They were put on you in the first place to protect you from him."

Harry shared a look with the Lestranges and with Lucius. He was alluding to himself being a Horcrux, of which Dumbledore knew he was. Poison wouldn't kill him, it had always been the threat of potions to control him, to force him back into Dumbledore's sphere of influence.

"He would have no reason to try and kill me." Harry said. "He still thinks we can work together and this started happening…actually, I think the governor meeting happened a few days before the first box showed up."

"First box?" Rabastan asked with dread. "How many boxes did you receive?"

"Three, and I'd almost finished the third box too. I know I'm a fool for it, but I trusted them because I thought they were from you. I didn't think not to."

"I swear to you, I'll kill the one who dared used me, and your trust of me, to hurt you."

Harry held Rabastan's arm around him tighter and he heaved a massive sigh.

"So, it could have been Dumbledore?" Rodolphus asked, prodding Harry back onto track.

"It doesn't fit with the pieces I know." Harry said. "Someone else fits the puzzle more."

"Who?" Xerxes demanded, his entire countenance darkening.

"Daphne Greengrass?" His mother asked.

Harry blinked at her, the rapid shift in topic confusing him. He lost his train of thought. "Daphne?" He asked. "Not likely."

"She has been threatened with a marriage to Lucan Selwyn." Narcissa told him. "I fear her father has put her up to this with the promise of taking that marriage away if she does as he says."

Harry frowned as he considered that, and all of the implications it would have. He had to struggle to gather his thoughts back into order.

"I say we pay Harvey Greengrass a visit and see what he has to say about all of this." Rodolphus said vindictively.

Draco had gone slightly green as he realised that, if it was the Greengrass' who had done this, he could kiss goodbye to Astoria.

"It doesn't fit." Harry said, trying to ease everyone down and get everything back on track. He didn't do well with such rapid topic changes. He needed more time, and potions, to heal.

"Darling, she knew about Rabastan and the Aceline ruse. She had the means and the motive to do so." Narcissa said gently.

"She's never been in my rooms. I've never lost a letter or a gift. She wouldn't have known how Rabastan signs Aceline's name."

"She couldn't have seen it at the table?" Narcissa prodded.

"And recounted it perfectly, down to the last embellishment of the signature, from a mere glance?" Harry shook his head. "No, this is too sophisticated."

"Who do you believe has done this, Harry?" Lucius asked, seeing that he had someone in mind.

"Rhadamanthus." Harry spat the name. "He knows about my betrothal and upcoming marriage. He knows about the Aceline ruse and the signature could have been gotten from one of Rabastan's letters at Lestrange Manor. He had the means, the motive, and the wealth to support three months' worth of the poison I've ingested. He also doesn't know about the protection I had against such things. Not the runes Marcus gave me or the protection Voldemort gave me." He said alluding to himself being a Horcrux.

Xerxes shook his head. "The Dark Lord has forbidden anyone to harm you, Harry. Whatever else he might be, Rhadamanthus is loyal and wouldn't disobey a direct order."

"I believe his personal vendetta against me and Rabastan gives him a significant motive." Harry said as firmly as he could manage. "He would do anything to prevent our wedding from going forward, to stop the next generation of the Lestrange family coming via me. Even if it did mean disobeying orders."

Rabastan was trembling with rage, his eyes too wide and dark as he tried to control his spiralling emotions. Harry kissed him, breaking him free.

"Believe me or not, but he is the only one who fits in nicely, without having to force pieces to fit the information I know to be true. I will be taking my concerns to Voldemort. He can deal with it and if it's not Rhadamanthus, feel free to throw the Greengrass' to him then, but, despite my brain feeling like mush, I've reasoned it out well. It's him." He said with surety.

"If it is, I will kill him myself." Xerxes said, looking almost deranged. "He has been hiding in India for the past week. Looking at his actions now, he has been making very frequent trips to India, and to other countries as well, since the beginning of the year."

"The first box arrived near my first therapy session back in January." Harry said. "A lot was happening at the time, so I don't remember the exact date, but it was only a matter of a few days."

"You had your session on the tenth." Rabastan told him.

Harry smiled at him for remembering such a detail and he bent forward to kiss Rabastan gently.

"It was a few days after that, three or four, maybe. It was after I had the meeting with the governors."

"That was on the eleventh." Lucius told him this time.

"I just remember it came mid-week, it was a lovely surprise and I was happy to receive it. I had a few initial doubts, but I talked myself out of them because I thought they were from you, love."

"I would never have endangered you by sending excessive gifts or letters to you." Rabastan said, his face crumpled in distress as he tried to explain himself, without blaming Harry for his stupidity.

Harry gave a wry smile. "It makes it worse as I remember thinking that you wouldn't, but I just reasoned it away like an idiot because I wanted to believe you'd sent them. My own love and trust in you was used against me, which is why I believe it was Rhadamanthus. He knows how much I love you and he hates it. He hates it enough to kill me over it even if it meant disobeying orders."

"If it was him, he will lose his life over it, I assure you." Xerxes reiterated.

"I honestly don't know who it would be if it's not him. I don't think Harvey Greengrass would take the risk, Daphne might dislike me, but she wouldn't think to kill me on her own and she's been really quiet this term, ever since Theo proposed to Luna. Apart from a really embarrassing scene where she tried to crawl over Theo and beg his forgiveness on the train, that is. I haven't had much contact with her. Dumbledore would know he couldn't kill me and there's no reason he would think to break me and Aceline up because he doesn't know she's actually Rabastan. Rhadamanthus is the only one who fits properly, unless it's someone unknown with a grudge."

Harry frowned as he thought of that. He might have pointed fingers at Giovanni, but not after what Pansy had told him about him mellowing and how he was excited to become a father and was getting closer to Pansy, that the blackmail and the terrible, forced start to their relationship was actually turning into true love.

He didn't lack enemies on the Wizengamot or the Council of Magical Law either, but he'd been poisoned at Hogwarts, an exceptionally difficult thing to manage, but whoever had sent those chocolates had used Rabastan to do it. They'd known just how close he was to his fiancé, that he would trust a gift sent to him by his fiancé, and that he wouldn't ask questions. Those who weren't in the know about Rabastan would have no reason to believe he loved Aceline so much as to not question random chocolate sent to him when, as far as they knew, his fiancée didn't send him anything during term time. For all they knew, he only saw her during the summer break and only wrote some letters back and forth during term time and they didn't send gifts.

Harry sighed again and slipped his hand into Rabastan's lacing their fingers together and squeezing gently.

"It's him." He said softly. "I know it."

"I'll take this information to the Dark Lord." Xerxes said. "I will help him uncover if it's true or not. You should rest, Harry."

Harry hummed, turning slowly, painfully, towards Rabastan and cuddling in. His fiancé shuffled him a little, getting comfortable, and then Harry was drifting. His body still ached, he felt too heavy, but just smelling Rabastan, feeling him, it made him start to feel better.

"I'm going with you." Rodolphus insisted.

"No, stay here." Xerxes ordered. "I will speak to our Lord first, and then, if he wishes to demand answers from that waste of space, you'll be called. I wouldn't let you miss out."

"It's been a very long time coming." Rodolphus growled.

"If I find out he is behind this…" Xerxes trailed off a moment and Harry started drifting again. "…it'll be more than overdue. If he is behind this, I can only apologise, Lucius, Narcissa."

"The fault will lay with him." Lucius said firmly. "I cannot regret the decision to enter Harry into a betrothal with your family when he is so happy and has found love with the union, so the blame will have to be laid squarely on Rhadamanthus alone."

"If it is him, I will make sure he's taken care of. Him and any accomplices he might have had. He's not a good enough brewer to have made this poison himself and he'd have needed to have bought someone off at the Peruvian reserve to collect the dragon venom also, he wouldn't have done that himself…too much risk."

"The Law Enforcers are likely to find the perpetrator on the reserve, they are already there looking for them." Lucius pointed out. "Leave that one to the legal system and pray that Rhadamanthus, if it was him, didn't deal with them personally."

"No. Let me go and find out more, Lucius. It's time we found out if it actually was Rhadamanthus."

"I will walk you out."

The two men left and his bedroom was quiet.

"Draco, darling, come, let us settle you back in. Harry is very well taken care of, he needs to sleep to heal."

"Yes, Mother." Draco answered, allowing himself to be taken from the bedroom.

"Rodolphus, Rabastan, if you are up to it, lunch will be served at one. Harry wouldn't be happy to hear you were skipping meals."

"Thank you, Narcissa." Rabastan said courteously.

The room was silent for a moment, and then Harry heard the chair that had been placed at his bedside creak a little as Rodolphus sat in it.

"I can't believe I came so close to losing him, Dolphus." Rabastan said quietly, his hands fluttering over Harry's back, gently, so it didn't disturb him. "If this was him…" Harry felt Rabastan shaking his head violently. "…I want him dead and I'll do it myself! He used me to get to Harry. ME!" He hissed angrily.

"He knew that Harry was your weakness, and you are Harry's. He knew that Harry would eat those chocolates because he'd thought they were from you and he knew that Harry's death would break you, which is what he wanted."

"I will kill him if that is the case."

"What Harry said makes sense. He's right that, with the information we currently have, Rhadamanthus being the perpetrator fits the best."

"He has no right to hurt Harry or interfere with my marriage!" Rabastan hissed angrily. He was trying to keep his voice low and his body relaxed, but he was very angry and Harry could feel it.

"He's an arrogant prick, of course he thinks he has that right." Rodolphus waved off. "If this is him, I won't let it go any further, Basti. I'll kill him, finally. We'll be free of him permanently. Perhaps I should do it anyway, even if this isn't him. Harry is clearly worried about him, enough so that his mind jumped to him for this. That portrait comes to my mind."

Rabastan growled and Harry hummed and shuffled closer to his fiancé. He also remembered the gift he'd been given, the painting of Harry, naked and dead and hanging in a tree by his own entrails.

"Do it, Dolphus. I need him to be safe. Someone tried to fucking poison him and they almost killed him. I won't stand for it." Rabastan said, after remaining quiet for a time, to make sure Harry hadn't woken back up, but Harry was already awake. He was drowsy and tired, but his mind was alert.

"Neither will I." Rodolphus assured his brother. "Settle with him now, I know you haven't been sleeping yourself."

"How did you expect me to sleep when I was kept away from Harry, knowing he'd been poisoned and that he might die? Dolphus, he was unconscious for four days! He was in the hospital for six days and they've only just released him and he still looks like he might…that he might…of course I couldn't sleep."

"Sleep now." Rodolphus said bluntly. "Harry is better and he's in your arms. Just sleep with him, you're going to wake him up if you keep moving about and holding yourself so stiff."

Harry snorted a laugh at the innuendo. "Too late." He said, squirming. "You're so loud."

"Harry, I'm sorry." Rabastan said sincerely.

"You should sleep with me soon." Harry said teasingly. "When I'm better, though. I'm too tired now."

"I will leave you both to sleep." Rodolphus said, getting out of the chair. He ruffled Harry's hair. "Make sure all you do is sleep too, if I'm relinquishing my chaperone duties."

"Believe me, I am absolutely not up for anything." Harry said seriously.

"Ignore him, just get some rest, Harry. I'm sorry we woke you." Rabastan said.

Harry hummed sleepily and he let himself drift again. He was exceptionally tired and Rabastan was warm. They were separated by the duvet, but his fiancé didn't seem to mind. Harry preferred to be extra warm.

The door closed and Dolphus was gone. Rabastan laid down properly and, without them talking over his head, Harry was able to fall asleep very quickly.

---

Xerxes apparated to the quiet, darkened manor house, knowing where he was going from memory, despite that his lord moved from manor to manor to keep from being discovered, though they had been afforded the luxury of staying in one place for longer than usual while Dumbledore dealt with the neglect allegations that Harry had brought onto him.

He found the man he had known since their Hogwarts days in the library.

"Xerxes, old friend, how is young Harry?" The high, cold voice asked from the chair before the fire.

"He's finally home and he seems to be recovering well enough."

"You are angry, Xerxes, I can sense it. What has Harry said to you about this?"

"He was poisoned by three boxes of chocolates that he believed had been sent by Rabastan. The person who sent them knew about the Aceline ruse and knew exactly how to sign the name to ease away Harry's suspicion. Harry believes that my son, Rhadamanthus, is to blame and, given his logic, I can't say I disagree with him, my Lord." Xerxes said.

The Dark Lord waved him into a seat and Xerxes took it gratefully.

"Tell me of his thoughts on this matter."

"Harry has reasoned it through; means and motive. Rhadamanthus has long since threatened Harry and Rabastan both and he has not kept silent on his opinion that they shouldn't be married, that the Lestrange line should continue through Rodolphus, not Rabastan. Harry has figured out that the person who sent the chocolates knew about Rabastan and Aceline and how Rabastan signs the name. He doesn't believe that any of those he trusts at Hogwarts would do this, which leaves Rhadamanthus."

The library fell into silence. Xerxes could feel the anger and tension.

"A dragon handler at the Peruvian reserve has been found dealing in large quantities of Vipertooth venom." The Dark Lord said, looking at him through ruby eyes. Xerxes didn't flinch, nor did he look away. "It has been sold all around the world, Xerxes, to numerous buyers. He has made himself very rich, though the Peruvians have now confiscated all of his gold and assets and he is facing a life sentence once he is extradited to the British Ministry. The Law Enforcers have extracted everything they can from him…including a man who bought a large quantity of venom which was sent to him in India."

Xerxes' fists clenched and the rage was immediate. He controlled his emotions with a lifetime of experience.

"The Law Enforcers do not know the significance of that, paired with what you've told me about Harry's suspicions. They are wholly focused on the single buyer in this country. They are wasting resources on tracking that one person down and ignoring the others, which is to our advantage."

The room once again fell into silence and Xerxes came to terms with the information he'd received. Harry's logical deduction and now the evidence from the Law Enforcer investigation…Rhadamanthus was the one behind this, his son had gone against their Lord's express orders to not harm Harry, something he wouldn't have thought any of his family members would do. The Lestranges were known as wholly loyal, Xerxes had raised them that way, and Rhadamanthus had destroyed that. Xerxes was ashamed of his son.

"My Lord, I will make no excuses for Rhadamanthus' behaviour." He said, looking at one of his oldest surviving friends. "He has ignored your orders and acted in his own interests and I will not abide it. Whatever you choose to do, I will support it."

"I made my orders very clear." The Dark Lord said softly. "No harm was to come to Harry Potter. He is to be protected and supported. I am angry, Xerxes. I will listen if you wish to argue for leniency given our longstanding friendship, but he will not come from this unpunished."

"I will not argue for him, nor do I want leniency on his behalf, my Lord. He has proven himself a danger to Harry, a stain on my family…to think that my own son would disobey a direct order from you…"

"You would advocate for death?" The Dark Lord asked him.

Xerxes considered his words carefully. "I am sure that only your direct order will stop Rodolphus and Rabastan from killing their own father, my Lord. I, too, do not want to see anything happen to Harry. Rhadamanthus has gone too far and has proven himself to be untrustworthy. If even your orders will not stop him, I fear he will do his all to kill Harry to remove his tie to our family. I fear that he will try again regardless of your orders. It'll mean the end of the Lestranges."

The Dark Lord remained silent, thinking over what he'd said and Xerxes tried not to let his own anger show. He hadn't killed Rhadamanthus before this, despite his cruelty to his own sons, and now Harry also, because he was valuable to the Dark Lord…now it was a consideration of which was more valuable to their cause; Rhadamanthus or Harry. Which would be for the best, Rhadamanthus dead or alive. But could he be trusted now that he'd proven himself untrustworthy by breaking orders? If he was allowed to live under the condition that he didn't try to kill Harry against orders, could he even be trusted to hold to that vow after he'd gone against their lord's orders once before?

"This will be investigated fully." The Dark Lord said coldly. "If Rhadamanthus has disobeyed me and tried to kill young Harry, and you will not offer an argument for him, I will have him taken care of, Xerxes."

Xerxes relaxed slightly, his relief was palpable. He couldn't risk Harry. The future of House Lestrange.

"Thank you, my Lord." Xerxes said, sighing. "I don't know how this happened, or what went wrong with Rhadamanthus. I raised him to obey your orders. To think that he acknowledged your order and then went against it anyway…I'm ashamed."

"I will find out, one way or another, Xerxes." The Dark Lord told him, ruby eyes flat and serious, threatening violence. It made Xerxes' spine straighten reflexively. "Go, be with Harry and protect him from any further harm. I will recall you when I am ready to question Rhadamanthus on his part in this."

"Please consider allowing Rodolphus and Rabastan to be present, my Lord. I know they would wish to avenge any harm put upon Harry personally, even if all they do is watch."

The Dark Lord inclined his head, just slightly, in agreement and Xerxes stood, bowed deeply to his old friend, and then he left the library. He would go and make sure that Harry was settled and resting. He would need to spend some significant time with his grandson-in-law to allow it to sink in that Harry had survived. That he was alive and well, especially considering he still looked a fraction away from death.

They would move now to take out Rhadamanthus, and all those who had been involved in this, to secure Harry's safety. That was a priority given Harry's status as a Horcrux and as a very influential ally to them on the Wizengamot. Harry had submitted the long-awaited creature law reform that the Dark Lord wanted passed through already, but he needed to be able to debate it and argue for it in the meeting rooms and he couldn't do that if he was too poorly.

Xerxes apparated to Malfoy Manor, and from there he was received by Lucius.

"Harry is sleeping." The other man assured him. "Can I offer you a drink?"

"You don't have to ask me twice." Xerxes sighed. "Not after all of this."

"What has the Dark Lord said?"

Xerxes was taken to the parlour, but only Rodolphus was there, with his own drink.

"He's going to take Harry's concerns seriously and look into the matter. A damning piece of evidence has come to his attention."

"What is it?" Rodolphus asked him angrily, those dark brown eyes, so much like his own, glittering with malice.

"One of those people who bought large quantities of the dragon venom was from India." Xerxes said pointedly, accepting his drink and sitting in the seat offered to him.

"It was him then." Rodolphus growled.

"It is looking more likely, however, the Dark Lord will confirm if it's true or not before you make a move, Rodolphus."

The noise of frustration his grandson emitted was more animalistic than human and Xerxes gave him a warning glare.

"We do not move unless it is on our Lord's orders!" Xerxes ordered himself. "If this is Rhadamanthus, then he has already disobeyed a direct order and I will not have a second member of my family humiliating me by doing the same."

"I wouldn't!" Rodolphus snapped. "I am loyal, to our Lord and to my house!"

"We will all follow the orders we are given." Lucius cut in smoothly. "The Dark Lord will confirm who is behind this and, can I assume he will eliminate the threat to my son?"

"Yes." Xerxes said firmly, nodding. "He is not a person to accept disobedience and, no matter how useful Rhadamanthus is, he has disobeyed a direct order and placed Harry, a protected person, at risk of death. It will not be allowed to stand, Lucius. Not for the personal, petty reasons we know Rhadamanthus has done this. All because of his hatred for Harry and his ongoing cruelty to Rabastan."

Rodolphus' hand started to shake where it held the small glass of firewhiskey as his rage and frustration grew.

"Dolphus, we'll keep them both safe." Xerxes assured him.

"Harry almost died." Rodolphus said furiously. "It would have killed Rabastan too. I know it."

Xerxes did too and he took a steadying drink from his own glass. It would have ended the Lestrange family. He was too old now to think of remarrying and dealing with babies again at his age. He was seventy-six and he had done his duty to his family. He did not want to be in the same position as Lucan Selwyn, trying to pay through the teeth for a wife who wouldn't want him, just to get an heir for his family, but what other option would he have if Rabastan were killed? He offered the only advancement for their family and Rodolphus was not wrong in his observation that losing Harry would kill Rabastan also. They were too deeply bonded to one another.

Rodolphus was trapped in a marriage with a woman he hated, a union that would never produce children. Xerxes couldn't see anyone putting up with Rhadamanthus, despite Xerxes' little joke to Lucius about him having a second family in India. His son was still obsessed with Rosia, despite that she was thirty-eight years dead. There would be no children from any of them, their only hope of another generation was Rabastan, and Rhadamanthus was a fool if he couldn't see that past his own hatred of his younger son.

Rabastan was their future. Harry was their future. They had to be protected at all costs and if Xerxes had to take out his own son to ensure that the Lestrange family endured, he would. Rhadamanthus had gone too far. To purposefully disobey a direct order from their Lord to advance his own self-serving plans, no, Xerxes knew that Rhadamanthus would pay for this with his life and he certainly wouldn't shed a tear for his disappointment of a son.

---

Everyone was fussing around him and Harry found he was getting tired of it. The Daily Prophet had found out that he'd been poisoned and it was the top news article every single morning, each day with a new angle on it, a new theory on why he'd been poisoned, and by who, but it was now public knowledge and the sympathy cards and gifts had been flooding in ever since. The only ones he actually cared about were the ones from his friends. Lucius and Xerxes didn't let him touch anything until they'd cleared everything, just in case.

Harry was sitting at the table for breakfast, Draco hovering to one side of him and Rabastan fussing on the other as Harry made himself a cup of tea.

"Let me do that for you, my love." Rabastan insisted.

Harry shook his head. "I can do it myself." He said, his voice still hushed by tiredness, but he was feeling better.

"Please, let us help you." Draco piped up.

"I don't need help, Draco." Harry said with a sigh.

"Leave Harry be, Draco darling." Narcissa said.

Draco sulked like a child at not getting his own way, but Harry smiled, even as he picked up his teacup and took a sip. It was just how he liked it.

Rabastan hovered a hand over him, but Harry didn't mind. He liked Rabastan having a hand on his back.

"Remember not to touch anything you may receive this morning, Harry." Lucius warned him.

Harry hummed in agreement and drank some more tea, his stomach not protesting anything that was put in it anymore. He could eat light and drink as he pleased, which was good as the potions he had to take were foul and he liked having something to wash the taste out of his mouth afterwards.

At seven in the morning, almost on the dot, a flock of owls took over the dining room. They all came streaming for Harry, but they merely dropped their packages or letters and then left again, all except for the postal owl, which hopped in place, offering the rolled-up newspaper to him.

Harry scratched the little owl on the head and smiled tiredly.

"You made a very good delivery." Harry praised, showing the owl the knut before slipping it into the leg pouch.

Harry shook open the newspaper and he wasn't surprised to see his assassination attempt on the front page. It was the biggest news story at the moment and the Prophet was going to milk it for as long as they could to sell papers.

Harry read the first paragraph of the article and then he laughed. It was a little wheezy, it hurt, but he didn't care.

"What has happened, darling?" Narcissa asked, smiling at him gently because of his amusement.

"The Daily Prophet has accused Dumbledore of my poisoning today." Harry said, giggling.

"What possible evidence could they have offered up for that accusation?" Lucius asked, smirking at this new development.

"My negligence case against him." Harry said, still giggling. "They're calling the timing into question. I accuse Dumbledore of negligence, then all of a sudden I've been poisoned."

"That truly is grasping for a story." Xerxes said, but then he smiled. "Though I will not shed a tear for Dumbledore being accused of this. He'll be torn apart in the court of public opinion, which only helps us."

Harry huffed a laugh but continued to read the article.

"Oh, allegedly the Law Enforcers are following up on this lead." Harry said interestedly. "Surely, they must know it's not true?"

"How do you know it's not?" Draco demanded.

"Really, Draco? Of course this isn't him. He still needs me. What does killing me off get him when he wants me to kill Voldemort for him?"

Plus, Dumbledore knew that Harry was a Horcrux and that poison wouldn't kill him, though…though Dumbledore knew that the basilisk venom had taken out the diary Horcrux…had he been hoping that the venom of another magical creature, a dragon, would do the job and kill him and destroy the Horcrux? But, on the other hand, Dumbledore did still need him. He had no hope of killing Voldemort if Harry was dead. He could take out all the Horcruxes if he wanted, but Harry was the only one who could kill Voldemort, if the prophecy was actually real, and Harry knew that Dumbledore fully believed in it or why else would he cause such a fuss over it? His money was still on Rhadamanthus.

Harry finished reading the paper and he passed it over to Lucius, who shoved the mountain of letters and gifts over to him, after declaring them safe.

Most of what he received were 'get well soon' cards from people he didn't even know, but it was nice, he supposed, that they were so angry over what had happened to him. He didn't want to meet the people who thought it was acceptable to poison a student in school, no matter their political views or their personal feelings about him.

He recognised a lot of names on the cards though. Most had come from the lords of prominent families who had seats on the Wizengamot. He'd received a very tear-stained, scrawled letter from Adrastos Carrow, who demanded to see him to make sure he was truly alright. It made Harry smile, the poor boy was only nine.

Those who hadn't sent him messages or cards, though, were just as telling as those who had. He'd received nothing from the Weasleys or any of his former friends in Gryffindor. Those bridges, it seemed, were well and truly burnt, to the point where they didn't even care if he'd been poisoned while at school. He'd been hospitalised for six days and four of those he'd been unconscious. He could easily have died and they didn't care about him any longer.

He took a breath and shoved those thoughts from his mind. The Law Enforcers were running themselves ragged to investigate his poisoning and to find those responsible. They'd already extradited the dragon handler on the Peruvian reserve to face trial in Britain. Those people he had sold the Vipertooth venom to were awaiting questioning and charges in their countries of origin. One had already been dismissed, Harry knew, as he was merely an eccentric collector of magical venoms and poisons. He was a known tinkerer and he had created several anti-venoms from his 'work' and was left in peace, for the most part. The Law Enforcers were looking for potioneers or potions masters, those who had the means to turn the pure venom into dragon poison, which is what he had been poisoned with.

"Harry, sweetheart, do you want to go and rest in the parlour?" His mother asked him.

He nodded. "Yes. I want to do a bit of light reading, nothing too taxing or complicated. My brain still isn't healed."

"It will, though, won't it?" Draco asked worriedly.

"Afraid I won't be able to help you with Defence and Runes anymore?" Harry teased.

"I'm worried for you, you arse!"

"Take care with your language, Draco!" Narcissa scolded.

"Sorry, Mother." Draco said.

Harry chuckled tiredly. "My brain will heal, as will the rest of me." Harry assured his brother. "It's mostly just sluggish, so if anything's too complicated, it just doesn't sink in and I can't grasp the concept. Honestly, I think I'm just exhausted. I'm sleeping and resting more than ever, but what my body went through…I just need to take things easy for a while."

Rabastan helped him up from his chair and wrapped strong arms around him to help him hobble to the parlour. It wasn't that Harry was unstable on his feet, it was just that sometimes, if he did too much, then he collapsed in a heap on the floor, like when he was on the potions for the hypocalcaemia and the effects had been overwhelming. Rodolphus had helped him from the floor more times than Harry could remember just after his diagnosis. His fiancé was not taking any risks this time and kept an arm firmly around Harry's waist.

He was settled gently in a seat and Rabastan fussed around him, fetching the book he wanted, making him a cup of tea and placing it on the side table right by Harry's hand.

"Sit with me, please." Harry said. He was getting dizzy trying to watch Rabastan hurry back and forth.

Rabastan immediately stopped fussing and sat beside him, letting Harry curl up against him. Harry yawned and wiped his watery eyes.

"If you are tired, you could sleep a while." Draco said, still looking so worried and fretful.

"I've just woken up." Harry pointed out. "It's not really tired tired…I mean, it's not a tired that can be cured with sleep." He clarified, after realising he wasn't making any sense. "My body is exhausted, but resting will help. I'm tired, but I honestly wouldn't be able to sleep anymore at the moment."

"Rest on me." Rabastan said and Harry gave him a sleepy smile, cuddling in.

"How are you feeling?" Draco asked him.

"Tired, but otherwise, not that bad despite how I look." Harry insisted. He'd seen himself in the mirror yesterday and that morning and he had hardly recognised himself. He, at least, had more colour to him today than he had had yesterday, when he'd looked grey and dazed, with black and purple bruises around his eyes and chapped lips.

Narcissa came into the parlour, immediately checking where he was and nodding approvingly that he was sitting down and resting. She went to 'her' seat and sat down, picking up her book from the side table.

"Your father has had to go into work." She told him. "No doubt he will have to field off hundreds of inquiries about you."

Harry snorted a laugh. "He will be in a bad mood when he comes home, then."

"There has been an outrage within the community after your attack, particularly after it was revealed that you were poisoned at school." Narcissa told him. "No one wants to be seen as not asking after you, lest the accusations fall onto them."

Harry frowned as his sluggish brain repeated that. People were asking after him and making their concern known because they didn't want to be accused of poisoning him or of wishing him ill. That was understandable.

His mind was working, even if it was slowly. He'd already submitted his creature law reform and he'd been invited to a dinner party at Albert Runcorn's house to mingle with some of those from the Council of Magical Law who would vote on his proposal. Runcorn had set that up purely to support him in his endeavour, but, of course, that had been before Harry had been poisoned. If he rested a bit more and felt well enough to go to that dinner party…perhaps he could use his poisoning, and people's unwillingness to be linked to his poisoning through disinterest or ill will, to his advantage. That idea had merit and Harry prodded his brain to think it through properly, but, truly, if he could use his poisoning to his advantage, then he was going to do it. He'd do just about anything to get his creature reform to pass into law.

Pleased, and now with an idea to use this situation to his advantage, Harry settled against Rabastan and just listened to Draco talk to Narcissa about school and his plans for after he graduated. He needed to regain his strength. He wasn't going to allow this to drag him down or stop him from enacting his plans. He had a law reform to get through the Wizengamot and the Council of Magical Law too, though he was planning on giving his rings to Lucius, as his proxy, to vote on his behalf in the next few trials relating to the botched potions of Mr Rutherford. One of those was going to start in just a few days and Harry would not have the energy to sit through a trial, he already knew that. He was going to do what was necessary and pass off what wasn't to others, mainly to Lucius as his legal proxy.
Harry inhaled deeply and smiled as Rabastan's arm tightened slightly around him, his fiancé tilting his head to look at him, checking on him. Harry smiled up at him and pouted his mouth, Rabastan chuckled softly but dutifully bent to kiss him. Harry was going to heal from this. He would come back stronger.

If it was Rhadamanthus who had done this to him, though, Harry knew the man wouldn't live for much longer. That could only be counted as a good thing.