Chapter 8: The Marked

It was a wonder that Ron could still stand upright. Adrenaline was the only thing he could attribute it to; his body must have pumped loads of it through his system in the last sixteen hours, because it was the only thing that could explain how he had managed to get through the whirlwind of the past day since he had gotten word of another child being taken from a wizarding school, and he'd had to leave Hermione at the inn in Edinburgh to head to the Teague Academy of Magic in Wales.

Last night he'd finally let his guard down with Hermione, but he knew he would have to steel himself again if he was ever to get through this. There was no way he could falter now, not when this much was at stake.

His mind was still elsewhere by the time he'd arrived at the Ministry building. Distracted by the avalanche of information that had been thrown at him in the span of only a few hours, he walked into his office without even noticing that the door had been wide open, and that a person was already sitting at his desk.

"What the... Harry?!"

Harry got up from the chair, as if the seat had suddenly gone on fire, and approached him.

"Thank God, you're here..."

"Wait a minute, what're you doing here?" Ron said, tossing his cloak onto the coat rank by the door. "Look, no offense mate, it's not that I'm not happy to see you or anything, but this really isn't a good time..."

"Ron, I need to talk to you-"

"Harry, really, I mean it. Crazy things have been happening lately, and I've much work to do, so-"

"Ron, listen to me-"

What was he playing at? Couldn't he see Ron had things--very important things--on his mind?

"Harry, I haven't slept in almost forty-eight hours. I just got back from Wales, where a little girl's been taken from a wizarding school--a little girl!"

"I know."

"So if you don't mind-" Ron stopped mid-sentence. "What... what do you mean you know?"

Harry motioned for them to sit, but Ron couldn't move from his spot. Finally, Harry gave up, and both remained standing.

"They told me you were investigating the Krum kidnapping," Harry said.

"Why would they tell you that?" Ron said. "That's classified information... No one outside this office is supposed to know I'm working on it..."

"Because I told them I might be able to help, that's why. And I told them I might be able to help with this one."

Ron blinked back at him. Perhaps it was just his weary mind playing tricks on him, but he thought he had just heard Harry say he would be able to help.

"Wait a minute," he said, trying to get his bearings. "Let's back up a minute here, what're you talking about?"

"She disappeared into the lake, didn't she?"

Ron stared at him for a while, then finally nodded. "Found her wand at the shore."

"I knew it," Harry murmured, "I knew it..."

"Her parents are going crazy," Ron said. "They're Muggles... couldn't understand why an Auror was the one in charge of trying to find her. They wanted to bring in the Muggle police, even--as if the Muggle police would know what to do with a dark wizard..."

He sighed, then shook his head.

"'Course, I'm not so sure I'm doing any better at this point than the Muggle police would..."

"C'mon Ron, don't say that."

Ron looked up at Harry.

"So what is going on here, anyway? How do you know so much about what happened?"

"I... I've been dreaming about it."

For the second time today, Ron wondered whether he was suffering from sleep deprivation and hearing things that weren't really being said.

"You've been... what?"

"Don't look at me like I'm nutters, Ron-"

"I didn't--I'm not... Look, Harry, would you mind not being quite so cryptic and just telling me what the hell's going on?"

Harry brought a hand up to his hair--which, as per usual, was messy beyond belief, and getting even messier, now that he was running his hand through it--and sighed.

"A few days ago, I had this odd dream. I was at some forest, and I was taking out my wand, only it wasn't my wand, and it wasn't my hands..."

This was making no more sense to Ron than it did a few minutes ago.

"I woke up knowing it wasn't some ordinary dream, Ron," Harry went on. "I wanted to think it was, but I knew it wasn't... And then... a few days later, I came across this..."

He shoved a newspaper into Ron's hands. Curious, Ron took it, noting the date on it.

"It's from last week," he said.

"I know, but look at page 3."

"The article about Viktor's son being taken..."

Harry nodded. "I can't explain it, but I... I think I dreamed about what happened to him... And... I think I dreamed about what happened to Sian Price too."

"You... what?"

"Last night," Harry said. "I had the dream again, only this time, I wasn't in a forest. I was at the shore of a lake! And something was calling me towards the water... Before I knew it, I had dived in and... something was there, Ron... Something was calling out to me, and if I could just figure out what that was, I could help you with this..."

"You saw something?"

Harry nodded.

"Do you remember anything about it? Anything at all? A face? A voice-"

"Yeah, I heard its voice."

Ron felt his eyes widen. "You heard it?? Blimey, Harry, talk then! Tell me what it was you heard-"

"I... can't really remember what it sounded like anymore, only that... Look, all I can remember at this point is what it said."

Ron clenched his fists. So close, and yet... But at least, this would be something. It would be something.

"What did it say?"

"It kept saying, 'You came... I knew you'd come...' It said that to me in the first dream as well..." He shook his head. "I dunno, whoever this is... whoever this is seems to have known the children..."

"How is that possible?" Ron said. "You've got one kid in Bulgaria, another one all way over here in Wales! How could that person have known both of them at the same time?"

"I... don't know..."

Ron tossed the old Daily Prophet issue onto his desk.

"This is just getting messier and messier by the minute..."

"I tell you one thing, though," Harry said. "I'm going to talk to McGonagall about tightening security at the castle. With this happening in two different schools, we can't be too careful."

"Good, I'd feel better if you did that-"

"Guess Hogwarts would need tighter security than at any other school. God knows with the people in charge there, it's a wonder it hasn't already been wiped clean before now..."

Both Ron and Harry turned their heads in the direction of the door at the same moment. Draco Malfoy was standing just outside, smirk well in place.

"That's what I get for leaving the door open," Ron muttered. He started to close the door, until Draco stuck out his hand and pushed it back open. "Back from holiday already, are you? All rested up now?"

"As a matter of fact, I did have quite a nice getaway, Weasley," Draco said. "And it's nice to know I can always come back to your inane goings-on here."

"I can't believe you!" Harry said. "Your own son's school was affected by this, and you act as if you don't give a damn!"

"That's because I don't."

Unbelievable, thought Ron. It'd be a wonder if there really is a heart inside that man's ribs. He doesn't deserve to be anyone's father, let alone Alexander's...

"How touching," Ron said. "Fatherly love at its best."

Draco gave him a withering look. "My son's not in danger," he said matter-of-factly.

"And what makes you so sure?"

"You've got to be joking..." Draco made a choking sound, as if laughter was caught in his throat. "You mean you haven't figured it out?"

Ron was fast losing his patience with this conversation. "Figured what out?"

"God, how in the world you ever managed to dupe the Ministry into thinking you're the world's best Auror when you can't even see what's right in front of your face, I'll never know..." He clucked his tongue against the roof of his mouth, then strode up confidently, coming closer to them. "Think about it, Weasley. What do those two children have in common?"

He paused dramatically, an affectation that served only to annoy Ron all the more.

"Did it somehow escape your attention that they've both got Muggles for parents?"

Ron's blood went cold. Muggles... Of course... Bloody hell, how could that not have jumped out at him from the very beginning?

Draco was eying him closely, and Ron could tell that he was getting a little too much pleasure from watching the comprehension dawn on him. He had to turn away from that bloody smirk, but even when he did, Draco still managed to find a way to plunge the dagger that much further into him.

"They were marked, Weasley. Both of them. Marked for a fresh hunt..."

It took all of Ron's strength not to grab Draco by his skinny throat in that moment. He held his breath, then turned around slowly, feeling Harry's eyes on him as he did; no doubt Harry was more than a little apprehensive about what Ron might do. Not that he blamed him in the least.

He was this close to murder.

Or at least, hexing this no-good git--and as an Auror, he knew all the best curses too.

"My son is quite safe," Draco went on silkily. "His blood's untainted... unlike some others..."

Ron balled his fists at his side, a gesture that apparently did not go unnoticed by Draco, because a smarmy grin slowly spread upon his face in the next instant.

"Guess you'd better keep an eye on those little brats of yours, Weasley," he said, coming up to Ron so that he was almost at Ron's face. "After all... their mother's a Mudblood-"

He felt Harry's hands grasp his shoulders before he even had a chance to connect his fist to Draco's jaw.

"You son of a-"

"Ron, no!"

Harry's grip was surprisingly firm, somehow managing to hold him back, though the rage in Ron should have been enough to render any such gestures of appeasement useless.

"Let go, Harry!" he growled. "Let me at this bastard!"

He managed to wrench somewhat free of Harry's hold and was able to reach forward--enough to grab a fistful of Draco's robes, until Harry pulled him back again.

"Come on! You know he's not worth it!"

Draco merely laughed, nonchalantly smoothing out the front of his robes as Harry managed to restrain Ron once more. "Listen to your friend, Weasley," he said. "He always was the brains in your little operation..."

He slinked away as Harry managed one final tug at Ron, and by the time Ron finally was able to shrug Harry's hands off his shoulders, it was too late. Draco had already left the office. Ron thought for a moment about going after him; blood was still throbbing in his ears after those searing words about his wife and children, but in the end, he settled for slamming the door shut and whirling around at his best friend.

"What the hell did you hold me back for??"

"Ron, calm down-"

"Bloody hell!!" Ron shot back. "I won't calm down!! He was bloody asking for it!!"

"Yeah Ron, just what you needed," Harry said, "a scuffle with Malfoy--who's so far up the brass, he could piss on your career with just a few pulls of the right strings!"

He was right of course. Blimey, leave it to Harry to be rational in the face of all this. But the last thing Ron wanted to be at the moment was rational.

"Did you hear what he said about Hermione?? Did you??"

"Of course I did-"

"Swear to God, if he so much as utters any of the kids' names-"

"Would you listen to yourself??" Harry said. He walked over and placed both hands on Ron's shoulders, shaking him slightly. "Come on, you know you need your wits about you..."

Ron shrugged him off again, then walked to his desk and leaned over it, gripping the edges of the desk with his hands. "Problem is, Harry," he said, "I'm at my wits' end..."

A heavy silence followed; both of them knew the question begging to be asked, but Harry was the one to finally voice it.

"Do you... think it's true?" he said. "Do you really think this is because those children had Muggle blood? Could this actually be some sort of a Death Eater revival?"

"I dunno, Harry," Ron said. "I really don't..."

He straightened, then absently reached for the small sneakoscope on his desk and turned it over and over in his hand.

"All I know is that I obviously haven't done my bloody job because not only have I not been able to find Viktor Krum's kid--but now another child's gone missing. Another bloody one!! And if I don't get my act together soon..." He shook his head and said softly, "Who the hell knows how many other ones are going to disappear under my watch..."

"Ron, this isn't your fault, you know that. You're doing your best-"

Ron let out a bitter laugh. "Well... my best isn't quite good enough then, is it?"

He stared at the sneakoscope in his hand, then without warning, drew back, and with all his might, chucked it clear across the room, and it dented the back wall upon impact. Harry said nothing; Ron was grateful that he didn't, that Harry knew him well enough to know that all he needed was a chance to get this out of his system. From the corner of his eye, Ron saw Harry turn his head towards the empty space by the door, where Draco had stood just a few moments ago. Ron had seen this look on his best friend's face before--many times. He knew what it meant.

But he had other worries plaguing him, as Draco's words echoed in his mind, haunting him.

You'd better keep an eye on those little brats of yours, Weasley...

God, if anything ever happened to them... No. No, he was not going to even think it. Whatever it was he had to do--whatever it took--he was going to get to the bottom of this, and he was going to make sure whatever dark wizard was behind this was going to pay.