𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐆𝐎

Chapter 1

Title: Vertigo
Category: Romance
Rating: R for adult language and situations
Summary: When a mission for the Dark Lord goes completely wrong, Draco Malfoy ends up in the very last place he expected. Post HBP, Harry/Draco Romance.
WARNINGS: This story is based on a premise that results in sexual tension and potential situations between a teenager and an adult. The subject is treated very carefully (and legally), but if you find this sort of situation squicky you should pass on this story. Also, the main pairing is Harry/Draco, who are both BOYS. If slash (i.e., relationships of a homosexual nature) bothers you, again, please don't read. 

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Vertigo

Chapter 1: The Hourglass

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June 4, 1997

BANG BANG BANG!

"This is Auror Shacklebolt with the Ministry of Magic! We know who you are: the wards have identified you as Draco Malfoy, known fugitive and suspect Death Eater."

BANG BANG!

"On behalf of the Ministry of Magic, I order you to open this door!"

Draco Malfoy stood, frozen in fear, as a growing cacophony of shouts and thumps escalated on the other side of the door. His heart leapt into his throat, its erratic beats as loud as the pounding on the door. His lungs constricted painfully in panic even as he clutched his precious burden with desperate, sweaty hands.

He frantically scanned the room, seeking any kind of escape - a door, a window, anything - but there was still nothing but row upon row of hourglasses, sparkling in the candlelight. Nothing separated him from certain arrest but a feeble locking charm, and his stomach lurched in dread.

He'd been caught.

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It was a suicide mission; Draco had known that from the start. Two of Dark Lord's Death Eaters had heard that the Department of Mysteries was rebuilding its Time Vault after its destruction the previous year. The Time Bubble had been mended, Time Turners were being reconstructed, and - of the most interest to the Dark Lord - new experiments were being conducted.

It was no secret that the Dark Lord had his sights set on immortality, to cheat Death by any means that he could. The idea that new experiments with Time were going on in the Ministry of Magic had him most intrigued, and he had decided to send a Death Eater to investigate.

Thanks to war time regulations and the previous year's fiasco, however, security within the Department of Mysteries had tightened. Additionally, trespassers were subject to severe penalities, guaranteeing a captured Death Eater a long sentence in Azkaban. Naturally, then, the Dark Lord would send the Death Eater he considered most expendable, and so the task fell to Draco.

"This is your last chance, young Malfoy," the Dark Lord had sneered at the cowering Draco. "Find out what they are doing in the Time Room. Bring me back something useful, or do not come back at all."

"But…but my Lord," Draco had said, trying not to quiver in fright. "There is security everywhere. If I should be caught -"

"Then you will join your worthless father in Azkaban, and I will be able to kill you both simultaneously," the older wizard had replied coldly. "Now get out of my sight. To think I once considered the Malfoys among the highest ranks of my servants."

The Dark Lord's fingers had curled more tightly around his wand at that point, and Draco had scrambled out of the room as fast as he could. He'd known the mission would almost certainly result in his apprehension by Aurors. That might even have been the Dark Lord's intention.