Blood Trials

15. Apples & Sandalwood

After Hermoine had placed a hand on Harry's arm - he had calmed down somewhat and had taken him to her office so they could talk.  She wanted to show him the note, and maybe with his keen senses, be able to tell where the men were.

Harry was still seething, because he knew what men did when someone said no to them.  And he would hate it if Draco ever had to go through that.  When he was calm enough, Hermoine told him about the note and handed it to him to read.

Harry

Apples and sandalwood!

DLM

Harry frowned.  "Do you know what it means?", asked Hermoine.  

Harry knew what it meant, but he also didn't know what it meant.  He was breathing harshly, trying to figure out what the hell he had to do.  Had David taken him somewhere where there were apples being grown?  Like an apple farm, or an apple store?  A warehouse maybe where the apples were being stored in wooden crates?!

"Potter", said Snape, bringing him out of his own mind.  He held out his hand to read the note, and after he had done so about four times, he scowled and knelt down in front of Harry where he was sitting on a chair.

"Potter", he said again.  Harry looked at him with angry eyes.  His eyes were no longer pitch black, and his nails had receded back into his fingers.  But his hair was still longer and his shirt buttons hadn't made a comeback.  His powerful magic still pulsing off his body like a speaker that has no sound left - just the vibrating aftershocks.  

"Apples and sandalwood Potter - is that what Draco smells like to you?", asked Snape with concern.

Harry nodded and closed his eyes.  Then he  opened them wide and stood up.  He realized what he had to do now.  He had to follow Draco's scent - he was sure that he could do this.  "I have to follow every move that he made today - that way I will be able to pick up where they are", he croaked out.

"Thank you Professor", he said to Snape.  Snape who was reeling because Harry bloody Potter was in love with his godson, and that he had been taken somewhere by a very dangerous man, nodded at him, thankful that Potter still had some faculties that were working.

David Boshoff, it seemed, like to play with fire.  

But at least the three of them knew how to handle the flames.  They started making arrangements, so that they could start their journey on trying to find the blond.  Harry was freaking out, he really hoped that they were not too late.  But he didn't want to think like that.  Harry's heart would not allow it.

Hermoine gave him a vial of blood, knowing that he was going to need it going forward.  He opened it but didn't drink it.  He sniffed the vial, and felt as his fangs lengthened again, and how his cock started paying attention.  Then he corked the vial, and started moving - tracking Draco's movements since he had arrived that morning.

The scent took him to the medical center and the lab where he brewed potions.  Then it took him to the bathroom.  Back to the office and then to the Floo network.  Every once in a while Harry would sniff the vial, and become angry from the start again.  He traced Draco back to his office, and then to the staff room.  There was one more bathroom visit, and the last place that Draco had been was in David's office.

Then Harry lost the scent.  He stood inside the office and sniffed the vial one more time.  He was starting to get very agitated.  Where the fuck would he have taken him.  Hermoine called for the other Aurors, and sent them on their way.

Two Aurors were to go to David's house and see if they were there.  Two others were sent to the last place that David had been in the field, working on catching some death eaters.  Two others were sent to Knockturn Alley, where perhaps they might find some clue as to where the men were.  Two others were sent to Malfoy Manor.

But Harry wasn't going to sit around waiting for answers.  He wanted to be in the field as well.  He was trying to formulate a plan on how he was going to slip past everyone and do his own thing, when Hermoine stood up and slapped herself on the forehead.

"Oh my god!", she exclaimed.  Everyone looked at her with hope in their eyes.

"Granger?", asked Snape.  "If you know something please share it, before Potter decides to obliterate this office", he sneered.

"David has a second house - I know because he asked me to sign as witness when he purchased it", she cried out and ran to go to the filing cabinets that were located on the third floor.  Harry in the meantime was pacing in David's office, not listening to how Ron and Snape kept telling him to sit and calm down.  

She came back a short while after and slammed a file down on the desk.  Harry opened it and read the contract.  Where he had purchased it, when he had signed the final paperwork, where it was situated, and how much he had paid.

Biting on his jaw, he closed the file and rushed out of the office, not giving one hoot about the calls from his friends and colleagues that he had to wait for them.

Harry was a hero in every sense of the word.  There was no way that he would ever live with himself if he let David harm Draco in any way.  The bastard was going to pay with his life, there would be no redemption for him.  The more Harry ran, the more they shouted at him to hold up, they needed a plan.

He came to a stop at the Floo network.  Panting he turned around, and waited for one of them to speak.

"We can't use the Floo Harry", panted Hermoine.  "That will give him warning - what we can do is apparate a little way from the house.  Then we make our move", and she waved her wand to cast her Otter Patronus, calling all the Aurors back so that they could accompany them to where they thought Draco was being held against his will.

It seems that David Boshoff had a thing for forests, and his second 'private' home was on the outskirts of a town called Bibury.  Surrounded by a huge forest he had purchased a cabin.  But that wasn't the problem.

The problem was that this particular cabin had a basement.

A very large and very dark basement.

Hermoine had shown them the blueprints - and Harry was going home with Draco, even if he had to blow the fucking house up.