The small white Patronus of a sparrow flitted up into the roof of Parkinson Place and then melted through the rafters. It appeared outside the roof and sailed onward with the breeze toward Scotland. It had a long way to go. Clouds were gathering and there were many storms between there and the highlands of Hogwarts castle. But after many long minutes, the Patronus finally came in sight of the citadel and sank to a lower altitude. It dissolved through the slate roof and fell through the floor. And then it fell through floor after floor until it reached the dungeons and into a particular room where a man with white-blond hair was bent over a cauldron.

There, it alighted on the table next to him, waiting for him to notice it and receive its message. Finally, the man looked up and squinted in surprise. The Patronus, free to deliver its message and dissipate, opened its little beak and said, "HELP!" before disappearing completely.

* * *

Draco stared at the place the Patronus had sat. He certainly recognized that Patronus. It was Pansy's. But what in hell...?

A terrible feeling burned behind his heart. Harry's magic. Something was happening to it. "Harry!" He wasted no time and Apparated to Parkinson Place, but no one was there. The supper things were sitting as they were left, silverware dropped on the floor. And Pansy's wand. Draco's heart began to beat madly against his ribs. They were both gone. "Don't panic," he told himself. He sent a Patronus to Albus, to the Weasleys, to the Aurors but had no intention of waiting for any of them.

He swept the room, reaching out with his magic to feel where they had been and perhaps where they had gone. There was an Apparition signature and Draco grabbed onto it, and with every ounce of his trebled magic, he followed it and Disapparated to wherever it would take him.

It turned out to be the steep slope of a rocky hillside. He slipped a little in the scree, but held his balance and looked around. "Harry, Harry. Where are you?" His magic was slipping away. Harry's magic. It should have left him in an immobile puddle of fear. And there was fear, sunk in the pit of his belly. But there was something else as well. An overpowering sense of conviction to save him. He knew he could. He was a powerful wizard. He knew he could do it. He just didn't know if he was going to be too late.

He looked at his wand and laid it on his palm. "Find him," he told it, and like a compass needle, the wand spun and stuck in one direction. Up the hill. Draco trudged up carefully, throwing a Disillusionment charm on himself. He was terrified at what he would find.

* * *

Harry and Pansy Apparated somewhere along a rocky shore, still dragging Pansy behind him. She wriggled and pulled, but she couldn't free herself. Harry wanted with all his might to free her but he couldn't make himself do it.

Oh, stop trying, Potter. It's useless. I have the better of you. And soon I will have them, too.

Annikki! What the hell are you doing inside me?

Foolish boy. Being a powerful wizard does you little good if you know nothing of the ways of magic. There are many ancient magicks of which you obviously know not. I was counting on that. Counting on your foolishness. I knew you defeated Voldemort by chance. You couldn't really have known.

I know about Horcruxes. And so does Dumbledore.

Horcruxes? How crude. Is that what Voldemort used? No wonder he was defeated by a boy.

Harry watched helplessly as they dragged Pansy up a hill and into a cave. All right you have me. Let the girl go.

Let her go? Are you mad? She carries within her the blood children of two of the most powerful wizards on earth. I need them. I need their souls. And yours. And if your equally foolish husband comes to the rescue, then I will have his, too.

Harry panicked. What was he going to do? He couldn't throw her off. She was somehow inside him, had been ever since he followed her on that wild goose chase. That's what it had been for. She possessed him somehow. And it was that green light. Not the Avada Kadavra as he had originally thought, but something else. Something old he hadn't known about. His Hogwarts education was seeming more and more useless by the moment.

He knew it would be ineffectual to plead, but he had to try. Please, Annikki. Not my children. Not Draco. Just me, all right? I'll do whatever you want and willingly, if you just let them go. I mean it.

You know what you are, Harry? Sentimental. You allow your emotions to rule you. That is where you fail. Where you will always fail. These loved ones of yours are your crutch. Your enemies can reach you in this way. If you have no one, you are invincible.

That's where you're wrong. Harry could feel tears welling in his eyes. His throat felt constricted with a hot lump of emotion. Love is strength. What's the use of going on at all if you don't have love? What's the point?

The point is Power, Harry. Unbelievable power. No one can touch you, no one can hurt you-

No one can love you. Don't you need love?

She laughed. He could hear it in his head. No, Harry, I don't. But I will have power. Yours, your husband's, and your children's.

Harry hurled Pansy into a damp corner. She grabbed her belly when she hit and cried out.

"Pansy!" Harry managed and started toward her when Annikki seized control again and pulled him back.

You are very powerful, Harry Potter. I will enjoy using that power once it is mine.

But can't you see she's hurt.

She's not hurt. She is merely going into labour.

What?

She will deliver sometime within the hour. If it is delayed too long, I will merely cut them out.

But...but...

Sentimental again, Potter. We don't need the girl. Only the babies. And then they will soon be dead. As will you be.

* * *

Draco saw the black maw of a cave overlooking a shoreline. He looked around and saw no one was here. He sent several Patronuses again and changed the grip on his wand. He was still Disillusioned, but he didn't know if that would fool this witch or not.

He crept closer to the cave, putting a silencing charm on his feet, but it couldn't stop the rocks from making a noise when they skittered down the slope. He cursed them, but saw no one look out from the mouth of the cave.

He tried not to focus on Harry's diminishing magic. If he did, he'd fall to pieces. He had to concentrate on the work at hand. He could do this. He knew he could.

Higher he went, creeping toward the cave. He heard sounds as he approached. It sounded like someone crying...and someone talking. Or incanting a charm.

When he reached the cave's entrance he ducked down and slowly peered over the edge. He saw Pansy lying on the stony ground. She was clutching her enormous belly and crying, her face grey with dirt and tear streaks. She didn't look good. Suddenly she cried out, her face grimacing horribly. "I've got to get to St. Mungos!" she screamed.

A shadow. Someone came into view. Harry! Draco was about to stand up and greet him in relief when Harry suddenly hauled back and slapped Pansy hard.

Draco jerked back and fell on his rump. What the hell...?

"I told you to be silent. You are not going anywhere. I need those souls. Just sit back and enjoy them while you still live." Pansy sobbed again, rubbing her belly.

Those words came out of Harry's mouth. But wait. That couldn't have been Harry talking. And what was he saying? 'He needs those souls'? What did that mean?

Draco clutched his chest. Harry's magic. It was weak but still there. But Harry was walking around and casting some sort of spell...No! Not Harry. That damned witch was possessing him! Why couldn't Harry cast her off?

Harry-or the inhabited Harry-was moving about the cavern, drawing something on the floor with white powder. Draco recognized it as an energy line. But the symbols that accompanied it were very Dark magic. He recognized that, too, from Voldemort. He had had those symbols carved all over his hideout to ward off the Order and to create more forces of Dark magic around him. If that witch was doing it and talking about souls, this didn't bode well.

Souls? Was she talking about his children? Funny. Draco hadn't really thought much about the children. Not as much as Harry seemed to obsess about them. He was naturally anxious about being a father, but not as excited as Harry was.

But suddenly, the thought of anyone doing them harm began a dark pit of rage within him. How dare she? How dare this bitch threaten his family! His Harry. His children!

Pansy was obviously going into labour. And this Annikki wanted this to happen, wanted the babies for their souls-Oh Merlin! He remembered something. Something from his father's old library of Dark arts books. Something about taking the souls of innocents to absorb their power. And who better than babies-especially the babies of two very powerful wizards?

Draco stood. He had to stop her. It didn't matter anymore about himself.

He paused. Well, well. He did have a spine, after all. Self-preservation had always been his hallmark. Do anything to anyone else as long as it saved his own skin. But that just wasn't going to work anymore. It was Harry. Again. Harry had instilled this sense of selflessness in him. Damn him. Well, if he had to die, he'd rather do it saving the ones he loved the most. And there was nobody he loved more than Harry...except for perhaps his and Harry's babies.

Time to be a Gryffindor, he told himself. Funny moment to be reSorted.

But how to stop her? She was inside Harry. He couldn't kill Harry. But...Would Harry ever forgive him if he let his babies die? How could Draco be made to choose? Harry was his life, his love, his...everything. How could he kill that? "Never." No, there had to be another way, some hex he wasn't thinking of to get rid of a possessor.

Oh where the hell was Dumbledore!

Draco had to think fast. The runes and symbols were almost complete. He didn't know how long Annikki would wait. She might just...just... Draco drew back in horror as Harry finished the runes, turned, and picked up a very long and very sharp knife.

"You take too long, girl. I can't wait any longer for your labour pains. Time to put them to an end."

Pansy shrieked and put up her hands defensively. Draco moved instinctively into the cave and as he suspected, his Disillusionment charm didn't fool her in the least. Harry turned toward Draco with the knife still shining in his hand. He noticed Harry's eyes for the first time. They glittered with an unnatural dark green, far greener than they ever were before, bleeding into the whites of his eyes. "Ah," he said and laughed. "And now the circle is complete. I knew you'd come. I have lived inside Potter long enough to know your ways, boy."

And suddenly, Draco knew just what to do.

"Crucio!"

Harry was seized by the curse and dropped to the ground, back arched in pain. He screamed, losing the knife, and rolling on the hard floor.

Draco watched, horrified. It was his Harry screaming. His Harry's body in torment. But he knew it was the only way. His eyes were clouded by tears, but he aimed his wand at Harry again and shouted, "CRUCIO!"

The writhing was harder, the screams more horrific. Draco's wand arm trembled but he would not release his lover from the terrible curse. Tears ran down his face. He tasted their bitterness as the moments ticked by. Come on, come on!

When at last, Draco's nerve was about to give in, a great green light haloed around Harry growing brighter and brighter with each twist of his sore body, until something large seemed to grow from him, like an inflating balloon. The witch was emerging and when she was free of Harry, Draco snapped his wand away. The screaming stopped and Harry collapsed into unconsciousness.

The witch immediately gained her feet and her wand was in her hand. Her eyes were wide with rage.

"AVADA KEDAVRA!"


On to Chapter Twelve
"Two Souls"

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"Nine Months"

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