Broken But Beautiful~Dramione

Chapter fifty six

A.N. So sorry for the late update! School and work have been insane. I hope you enjoy!

Although the rest of the school was buzzing with residual excitement and happiness for the new relationships that had budded at the ball the previous night, those that knew of Hermione's situation could not match their enthusiasm. Draco couldn't even bring himself to go to the Great Hall to eat. He stayed isolated in his dorm room.

By the afternoon, he was on his way to the place he used to proudly call his home - Malfoy Manor. Harry, Ginny, and Luna had left for Azkaban earlier that morning, and Ron decided to go too. The remaining members of the Order of the Phoenix and those of age from Dumbledore's Army had been notified of the danger and agreed to help at Azkaban.

Draco hesitated at the gates. Was it worth it to bring back horrible memories when it was quite possible that he would find nothing there? No. If there was even a shred of a chance he could find something, he would do it.

He took a deep breath, and opened the gate. The cold winter's wind circled around him, and he experienced an unexplainable feeling of his heart clenching as he got closer to the manor. He twisted and pulled the brass handle of the front door and walked in.

As he walked around, chilling memories of what his father did to him came flooding back. He passed the room in which he got his first beating. The living room in which Hermione was tortured, and the stairs leading down to where Olivander and Luna were imprisoned. Everything was just as it was since the last time he had been in there to get his things for Hogwarts.

The grand staircase up to the second floor was covered in cobwebs, and he made his way to his room. Bed still unmade, and clothes spread across the floor, nothing in there looked out of the ordinary. But it appeared as though papers on his desk was messier than they were when he left. Draco sorted through them, and found exactly what he was looking for. A wave of adrenaline and fear flooded over him as he scanned the letter. It was from Theodore.

Hey Malfoy,

Looks like you had the common sense to come to your home. Enjoying your time here? I hope you didn't think this would be easy for you. The coven put me in charge of Hermione, and I'm truly enjoying my time with her. She's such a naughty clever girl. I hope I don't decide to do something to her. You have until sunset until I change my mind, but you have to find her first. You have some thorough searching to do. And just to make this fun, why don't you go on a little hunt around your house? You'll find more papers like these, but only one of them will give you our location. See you soon...or not

Nott

Draco angrily tore up the letter, and stormed out of the room to the largest room in the house. There was only one option to do this as fast as possible. There was no way he would be able to go through every single room and through all the books before sunset.

"Accio loose pieces of paper." Draco said clearly. It sounded dumb, but that was the most specific he could get with a summoning charm. A hoard of papers flew through the house and fell to the floor. "Guess I better get started." he muttered.

Back at Azkaban, preparations were being made for an attack. Protective enchantments were fortified, and more people were coming in to help.

"Hey Gin, can you help me with this?" Harry called. He was trying to organize all of the new people and make a patrol schedule.

"Sorry I'm busy." Ginny called back.

"No you're not." Harry sighed.

"You're right. I'm not sorry." Ginny grinned and walked over to talk to Tonks.

"I'll help you." Luna said simply.

"Thanks Luna." Harry smiled.

"I think we only need three people patrolling inside at a time. After all, they will come from outside." she reasoned.

"That's true. And then maybe we can have a few patrolling the perimeter as well." Harry nodded.

"You should probably make them rotate every hour so nobody gets too tired."

"I can work with this." Harry nodded.

"Let me know if you need anything else." Luna said happily, and skipped away to introduce herself to the newer people.

Harry conferred with Remus, and they posted the patrol schedule inside the main room where everybody could see. The few that were scheduled for that time left to go to their posts, and the others went home and would come back at their assigned time. There was nothing anyone could do but wait.

Draco had gone through three-quarters of the papers, but still hadn't found what he was looking for and time was running out. It appeared Voldemort had left many papers behind about previous attacks, with the planning and death counts. It made him sick to his stomach. One would think that he would be able to tell which piece of parchment is newer with darker and fresher ink, but he couldn't. The only way to do it was read each piece individually.

Watching the sun begin to sink was the same feeling as the deadline for a school assignment coming up as he was trying to scribble down some work before class. This was before he matured, of course. He tore through papers that he honestly had some interest in reading. There was a letter to him from his mother when he was at Hogwarts, but it appears his father had hidden it instead of sending it. There were photographs he had never seen, pictures of his grandparents he never met, but there was no time for reminiscing. At last, when the sun had begun to sink out of view, he found the piece of paper. It held the address to one of the old underground bunkers for Voldemort's followers.

At a sprint, Draco ran out of the house and was about to disapparate when he saw a familiar patronus sprinting towards him. It's gaze looked panicked, and Harry's voice came out. Only two words. "They're here."

"NOTT!" Draco yelled. He didn't care who heard him. Theodore clearly planned it out this way. Putting Draco through a day of anguish and giving him a carrot but start to drag it away. His heart began to ache, and he closed his eyes in thought. He knew Hermione would never forgive him if he came for her instead of helping all of their friends, but he knew she would suffer. If there was indeed an attack on Azkaban, Theodore would have sent almost all of his numbers leaving him vulnerable. Draco knew what he had to do. He took a deep breath, and disapparated.