Poison Ivy || Draco Malfoy

55 - Harry

Harry trudged wearily towards his office, nodding at his attractive dark haired assistant, who greeted him with her usual warm smile.

"Hullo, Annie," he murmured, trying his hardest to keep his eyes upwards. The last thing he needed was a sexual harassment charge slapped on him. "Any messages whilst I was out?"

"Yes," Annie answered at once, rifling through some notes on the desk in front of her, "The Minister has called an emergency meeting to be held immediately after clocking off hours, and has pre-warned it will be a lengthy one."

"Did he indicate what about?" Harry sighed, he loved Kingsley, he really did, but this obsession with holding marathon meetings was a getting a bit much.

"I'm afraid not," she shrugged apologetically, "Oh, and your wife called again, it's pork chops for dinner tonight and she told me to inform you that if you're late home again, she's filing for a divorce."

"Well, better get onto my lawyer then," Harry muttered dryly as he stepped over to his office, "just make sure to bill it to Kingsley, would you?"

"Right away, sir!" Annie said enthusiastically, instantly bringing the phone to her ear.

"Annie, I was jok-" but Harry stopped himself. He was too exhausted to get into this right now. Besides, Ginny'd understand.

Closing the door behind him, Harry's eyes swept over his desk, sighing at the jumbled mess upon it. He really should have got Annie to organise it whilst he was out; he couldn't keep working in these conditions.

Retrieving his wand from his pocket, he moved to the back of the room where he kept a securely locked cabinet. After murmuring a string of incantations; the door finally gave a soft click and swung open to reveal the thing Harry was after.

Lifting his wand to his head, he withdrew from it a silvery substance which he quickly placed in the shallow stone basin before him.

As he looked down into the Pensieve, Ivy's face swam into view. He raped me.

Harry swallowed, bending down to retrieve the box on the bottom shelf. On the side of this unremarkable looking box, the word 'Percy' was scribbled in Harry's untidy scrawl.

No one else knew about this box. Not even Annie.

It was full of notes and files that Harry had been collecting for some time now.

He had to be careful, of course. The Weasley's, after all, meant so much to him and he owed them everything.

But something about Percy hadn't been sitting right with Harry, and so he had started to do some off the books private investigating.

He couldn't let anyone know what he was doing, not even Ivy. It was too risky.

And he needed to be sure; once he had collected the evidence he needed, he would be able to put the case forward officially and finally be granted permission to use Veritaserum.

New wizarding laws had meant that the recreational use of such potions were forbidden and were only allowed after a vigorous amount of tedious paperwork had been filled out and approved by far too many officials.

And Harry was determined to do this by the book so as not to give any reason for the case to fall through. It was, after all, going to effect the Weasley's, and may even destroy his marriage in the process.

But he had a strong instinct on this one. He could read it in Ivy's eyes that she was telling the truth.

But this pregnancy had Harry highly concerned. It had the potential to stop the whole investigation in its tracks. What he had said to Ivy was true, that the courts could make it look as though she were being manipulated by Malfoy; in which case no amount of Veritaserum could prove otherwise.

The only thing Harry could think of to do was sit and wait to see who the father was. If it does indeed turn out to be Percy's, then they had a case and needn't bring Malfoy's involvement into it at all.

However, if the baby was Malfoy's...

Something was niggling at the back of Harry's mind and he couldn't figure out what it was.

Of course, if the baby turned out to be Malfoy's then it would be much trickier to prove that Percy had ever raped her. But Harry would try his best, and pray that Pansy wouldn't turn her back on her sister for what she might look upon as a betrayal.

Ivy would need all the support she could get seeing as Malfoy wouldn't be able to be a part of her life...

Harry frowned. There was that niggle again.

Reaching across his desk, he pushed a button down on his phone. "Annie, could you please send in the files of Unbreakable Vows made over the past twelve months?"

Less than a minute later, Harry was thanking her as she stepped into the office, handing him a large folder.

He quickly rifled through it, until he got to the file he was looking for.

Unbreakable Vow of August 2nd 2003

Participants: Draco Malfoy and Ivy Parkinson

Bonding Agent: Harry Potter

The Agreement: Draco Malfoy must attend each and every class held by Ivy Parkinson for one complete term, to become her muse and model. Upon completion Draco Malfoy must stay from Ivy Parkinson and not step foot in her workplace furthermore.

Harry was confused, this was indeed what he thought the vow had been, and it was definitely clear cut in the way it was worded. But yet, something was still niggling at him.

Scratching his head, he turned back to the Pensieve and had a lightbulb moment. Of course; his memory.

It didn't take him long to locate it and soon enough, he was plunging into the stone basin and found himself back in that small room, standing in front of Ivy and Malfoy whose hands were entwined as his memory self loomed over them.

"Do you swear, Draco Malfoy," Memory Harry said as thick bonds of fire began to encircle around their linked arms, "to attend each and every class held by Ivy Parkinson for one complete term, to become her muse and model?"

"I swear."

"And do you swear, that upon completing this term of classes, you, Draco Malfoy, will stay away from Ivy Parkinson and not step foot in her workplace ever again?"

Ivy looked up, startled. "Wait- that last one won't be necessary-"

"Nonsense!" Percy roared from the back of the room, "of course he should agree to stay away from you- look what he just did to your work!"

"I'm afraid it is necessary in this case," memory Harry shrugged. "Protocol for repeated offenders. It's for your safety, you see."

The room went silent as everyone stared expectantly at Draco, who nodded, allowing memory Harry to continue.

"Draco Malfoy, do you swear, that once your debt has been repaid; you will stay away from Ivy Parkinson and not step foot in her place of work ever again?"

And there it was. The very thing that had been niggling at the back of Harry's mind.

Malfoy hadn't sworn to the original wording; the vow that would have been water tight. Instead, he'd sworn to only stay away from her once his debt had been repaid.

Which means that if he is indeed the father of Ivy's unborn baby, then he would be forever in her debt.

Unless he was very much mistaken, Harry Potter had just found the loophole that Draco Malfoy was so desperate to find.

*****