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Forgive Those Who Trespass	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 20650 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or movies. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

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Chapter Two�The Mute
Malfoy

�� Harry was
glad that he had the Invisibility Cloak over him, because all he did for
several seconds was stare like an idiot, and Malfoy would surely have made fun
of that if he could have seen Harry.

�� Malfoy had,
so far as anyone else knew, vanished a year ago. His family had steadily been
losing prestige and money, as they spent Galleons like water to keep Lucius and
Narcissa out of prison. When Draco went missing, everyone had assumed�and Harry
had had no reason to think differently�that he simply couldn�t take his loss of
status anymore and fled Britain. Random sightings of him from time to time in
other countries confirmed that.

�� And now�

�� He had to
have been here for at least a year, Harry thought, eyeing the way Malfoy�s skin
hung on him like a Muggle sack for carrying food. The clothes he wore weren�t
that old, but Harry had begun to learn from his instructors what the victims of
long-term abuse looked like. Malfoy had spent a lot of time in the care of
someone who didn�t like him, or at least didn�t treat him particularly well.

�� His hair
was dull and lusterless. His face was coated with old, worked-in grime. His rolling
eyes had a lack of sense in them that made Harry fear he might actually be mad.
Since Malfoy was the only possible source of information he�d found so far on
what had happened to Ron and Hermione, he hoped not.

�� But no, he�d
started when Harry made that sound, hadn�t he? And he�d looked in more or less
the right direction. That suggested he still noticed the world around him, and
still managed to connect cause and effect. Both good signs.

�� Harry
doubted he would get much more information just from observation of Malfoy,
unless he could walk behind him and study how the chain cut into his flesh�but with
Malfoy�s back against the wall, there was no chance of that. He would have to
chance this being a trap. With a deep breath for strength, he pulled the Cloak
from over his head.

�� Malfoy�s
stare oriented on him at once. Harry waited, wondering what the reaction would
be. Would he doubt his eyes? Call for help? Sneer at Harry and demand to know
why he hadn�t been rescued earlier?

Malfoy began to tremble instead. He
shut his eyes, shaking his head, but that didn�t dam the flood of tears from
them. He stretched out a pleading hand to Harry, and his mouth formed the
shapes of whispered words. They might have been help me, but Harry wasn�t entirely sure, as he was too busy staring
at the extended hand.

The fingers were just�not there
anymore. All of them were stumps. It looked as though someone had cut them off
near the knuckle and sealed the wounds with utterly bloodless magic, leaving
smooth, rounded protrusions behind.

In horror and pity, Harry looked at
Malfoy�s face. He had already crouched down, though he wasn�t sure if that was
a strategic move to bring his eyes to the same level as Malfoy�s or just his
legs giving up their strength. �My God, Malfoy,� he whispered. �What happened
to you? Why did they do this?�

Malfoy gave him a sharp look, and
slapped his tongue against his teeth. Harry concentrated, wondering if he�d
lost his voice through screaming, and then realized that no sound was coming
out of the other man�s mouth at all. Not even his tongue could click; he ground
his teeth together, and they were silent. Someone must have placed a powerful Silencing
Charm on him.

Harry lifted his wand�and he didn�t
miss the hungry way Malfoy�s gaze followed it. �Finite Incantatem!�

The chain around Malfoy�s leg let
out a weak blue spark, and Harry thought the links dulled a little. The robes
lost a faint shimmer of magic that had hung around them, and Malfoy began to
shiver; Harry thought he had just ended a charm that kept him warm. But Malfoy
simply shook his head and flapped his tongue again to show that he still couldn�t
speak.

And Harry thought he knew, now, why
Malfoy�s captors had rounded off his fingers like that. Partially so he couldn�t
write to communicate, either, and partially so that he couldn�t hold a wand to
reverse his own silence.

�Can you wield a wand?� Harry
asked, extending his to Malfoy. He could practically hear Auror Gillyflower
scolding him in his head, and Hermione joined her. Never help someone who could potentially be an enemy!

But this�Harry really didn�t think
Malfoy would have gone through this just to set up a trap. No one could have
known that Harry had come down, for one thing. And for another, Harry had no
proof that any of this was deliberate. The Unspeakables� torture of Malfoy must
be, but would they have sealed their Department after them? It still could have
been a magical accident.

Malfoy just gave him a longing
look, though, and shook his head. He motioned from Harry�s wand to his eyes and
back again several times before Harry understood what he was asking.

�No. Sorry. I�m pants at
Legilimency.� This was the first time Harry had ever wished that wasn�t true.
He had always enjoyed the fact that he couldn�t summon up the will to invade
another human being�s mind, but at the moment it would have been damned useful
and he sensed that Malfoy would have welcomed it.

Malfoy gave him a frustrated look,
as much to say, What good are you? Then
he sat up with a patient expression, and took a deep breath. Harry could see
his chest inflating even if he couldn�t hear him breathing. He knew what that
meant. Malfoy was committed to getting the truth across to him, in whatever
form he needed to do it and however long it took.

Harry chuckled to himself. He
should have found Malfoy�s arrogant attitude off-putting, but after what the
poor bastard had suffered�he simply couldn�t.

�Do you know what happened here?�
he asked quietly.

Malfoy nodded at once, his eyes
narrow and assessing. He didn�t volunteer anything else, though, and Harry
reckoned he probably couldn�t. What had happened was likely a magical accident
so theoretical that Hermione would have a hard time understanding it. Harry
would have to proceed to the heart of the matter by simple questions.

But there was something he had to
ask first, because his heart demanded that he do so.

�Have you seen Ron or Hermione?�

Malfoy blinked at him, his eyes
widening with something that looked like bafflement, before he shook his head
once.

�Did you know that they�d come down
here?�

Another head-shake.

Harry cursed softly to himself.
Malfoy probably had some information, then, but it could hardly be complete, if
he didn�t know about the Unspeakables� most recent recruitment efforts. On the
other hand, maybe if Harry told him about the symptoms of the disaster, he�d be
able to recognize something he�d heard his captors discussing.

�Ron and Hermione were both
recruited to become part of the Department of Mysteries,� he said, staring into
Malfoy�s face. He reflected for a moment how odd it felt, to be having a
serious discussion not peppered with insults with this particular man, but then
discarded the idea. The only reason it was possible was because of Malfoy�s
inability to speak. He�d be throwing insults about Harry�s lack of taste in
clothes and sneering at Hermione�s heritage otherwise. Harry felt irritation
rising in him, and pushed it away with a sharp shake of his head, which Malfoy
watched curiously. �The Unspeakables have been calling anyone who�s interested
to them, in fact, for a good while now. And then�two days ago now, it was, the
Ministry lost all access to this floor. The lifts wouldn�t travel to it, the
stairs wouldn�t lead to it, and the Minister and all his cronies are doing their
very best to pretend that nothing is wrong, so that the public doesn�t panic.�
He licked his lips, tasting salt and bitterness.

Malfoy pointed at Harry with two
blunt stumps and raised his eyebrows.

�I went to the end of the stairs
and jumped.� Harry shrugged.

Malfoy gave him a long, complex
look with so many emotions packed into it Harry couldn�t hope to identify them
all, but he could read the general gist of it anyway.

�No one else was doing anything!�
he snapped. �I couldn�t let Ron and Hermione rot down here when I had a chance
of rescuing them.�

Malfoy clapped a fist to his chest.

Harry blinked. �Of course I�ll
rescue you, too,� he said. �But no one knew you were here. As far as the world above
knows, you went abroad a year ago. Some people even encountered you in other
countries, supposedly.�

When he saw the way Malfoy�s face
paled, Harry winced and wished he had found some way of introducing the news
more gently. But then, how was to know that Malfoy didn�t already realize that?
He had no idea what Malfoy�s experiences had been like here, what he might have
thought of passing time or what the Unspeakables had told him.

After a few moments of
uncomfortable silence, Malfoy looked at him. There was a drawn hollowness to
his face that made Harry decide to keep a sharper eye on him. He had no
guarantee that Malfoy would help him, now that he knew Harry�s intentions were
to delve deeper into the Department of Mysteries. He might want to go up the
staircase immediately. And really, after a year of captivity, he had the right.

Harry did intend to get all the information he could out of Malfoy first,
though.

�That�s why I need to know
everything you know about what happened,� Harry said, softening his voice now. �To
the rest of the world, this looks like something the Department of Mysteries
controlled and did on purpose. All attempts at communication with people behind
the magical barrier failed. And I have to admit, I don�t think the geography of
the tunnel outside is all natural.� He looked up at the corner of the room from
which the sunlight-brightness came, squinting. �This isn�t either, is it?�

Malfoy shook his head one more
time. He was sitting bolt upright now, with his hands clasped in his lap. Harry
wondered what that meant.

�So.� Harry shifted, stretching his
legs out in front of him. He had no idea of how long this conversation might
take, and he wanted to be comfortable while he had it. �What happened to you
here?�

Malfoy touched the chain on his
leg, tapped his tongue against his teeth, and extended his fingerless hands.
Then he hesitated. Harry waited. He couldn�t force Malfoy to reveal anything.
Maybe he was lying. But the best way to get him to tell the truth would be to
show patience and a willingness to let him �speak� at his own pace, which Harry
knew worked well with nervous witnesses to crimes.

After several dozen heartbeats,
Malfoy seemed to decide he had nothing to lose. He shrugged and shifted about,
clanking the chain and curling his hands into odd shapes as he dragged the
upper part of the robe over his head. Harry could see now that the garment had
been cut in half, more like a shirt and trousers than robes, though it still
resembled ordinary wizarding clothing to someone who wasn�t looking closely.

And then Harry�s attention switched
from Malfoy�s clothes to Malfoy�s skin, and he couldn�t think of one damned
thing to say.

The skin hung slack on his torso,
as on his arms, but it was also covered with scars. Harry could make out the
faint white lines of old injuries and the fresher pink of wounds barely healed.
One enormous scar encircled his heart; Harry didn�t know how he could have
survived such a wound. And there was a ridged, waxy-looking area near his navel
that Harry knew from experience to be the result of a burn.

Malfoy visibly swallowed. Then he
reached out, clasped Harry�s wrist�Harry shivered at the unfamiliar sensation
of fingers that couldn�t curl all the way around his hand�and drew him in until
Harry was touching his ribs. Harry ignored both his own pity and the unwashed
smell that hung faintly but persistently around Malfoy, since the other man
seemed intent on having Harry count his ribs.

Harry could find only two on the
left side and only one on the right. His fingers after that sank into puffy
skin that felt too much like fungus for his taste, and made him want to jerk
back. He didn�t, though, reminding himself that this was probably the first
friendly touch Malfoy had felt in a year.

�How is that possible?� he asked quietly, staring into Malfoy�s eyes. �How did
you survive when they removed most of your ribs?�

Malfoy shrugged and shut his eyes,
his expression infinitely weary. Of course, Harry knew the answer in general,
if he didn�t know it specifically. Magic.

�Harry shivered. He hated to ask the next
question, but it might be a way into the more general mystery of what had
happened to Malfoy, and to Ron and Hermione, and to the Department. �Do you�do you
know what they used your ribs for?�

Oh,
yes. Malfoy�s lips formed the soundless words with a vengeance, and then he
said something else silently, but so fast Harry lost the sense of it. He waited
until Malfoy was done, then shook his head.

�I�m sorry, but I�m not good at lip
reading.�

Malfoy clenched his fists and
probably growled under his breath, all but telling Harry that someone more
useful and with talents more appropriate to the situation should have come
instead. Harry�s hand still remained on his torso, though, and he only needed
to move his fingers to remember that Malfoy was probably impatient because of
his suffering.

�Just tell me slowly, all right?�
Harry murmured, when Malfoy had relaxed enough to glare at him instead of
trying to speak. �Maybe I can understand if you emphasize each word.�

Malfoy stretched his lips out
grotesquely as he began the sentence, which Harry had to smile at. After that,
he watched intently, but still only got one word in every four or five that
Malfoy was trying to show him�especially when Malfoy got caught in his own
story and started to speed up.

Unspeakables�research�think
they� discovered� depends� rituals� mutilation� killing�truth�

Harry sighed and held up a hand at
last. �Maybe we should do this one word at a time,� he said. �What did they seek when they took out
your ribs? Did you ever hear them talking about it?�

Malfoy quite clearly said, Immortality.

�Not again,� Harry said. �Doesn�t anyone learn from Voldemort?�

Malfoy blinked.

�Never mind,� Harry said hastily. �Figure
of speech.� He didn�t want to mention anything about the Horcruxes, especially
since the Unspeakables could still be listening and Horcruxes would probably
turn out to be the one route to immortality they hadn�t tried. �And you�re sure
about who did this to you?�

Unspeakables.
Malfoy flexed one hand out, which reminded Harry irresistibly of a lobster�s
claw grasping after food.

Harry nodded. �All right.� He
rubbed his sweating hands on his knees. Maybe it was silly of him, but he
simply couldn�t keep touching Malfoy�s soft, spongy flesh where bone should have
been. �Do you know why they kidnapped and used you, specifically? Did you have
something they wanted? Did they ever talk about why they captured you?�

A headshake answered every
question. Harry frowned. �Then I reckon we have to assume for now they wanted
someone they could use, and that you happened to be the best, or the only,
candidate they could snatch on short notice. Until we run into something or
someone that can tell us otherwise.�

He sat in thought for a moment,
wondering what the next question should be. Perhaps there was only one that
mattered, though, based on Malfoy�s reactions so far, Harry thought he already
knew the answer. �You don�t know anything about what lies further on? Behind
you, further into the Department of Mysteries?�

An even more emphatic headshake
this time.

�I thought not,� Harry muttered. He
racked his brains again. Hermione would undoubtedly think of all kinds of intriguing
and important questions to ask, but Harry wasn�t her. He felt an intense stab
of loneliness and fought it away. He couldn�t allow it to damage his
priorities. He was going to find Ron and Hermione and get them out. That was what he did.

But he had another person to
rescue, first.

�Come on,� he told Malfoy, and
stood. �I�ll get that chain off you, and then I can take you back to the
staircase. It won�t be easy to get through the mist, I know, but we can at
least try. And then you�ll be among people who can start doing their best to
heal and cure you. Show them you can�t talk right away; it will save lots of��

He stopped, because Malfoy was
shaking his head so hard that his hair whipped around his cheeks. Harry frowned.
�What�s the matter? You can�t tell me that you want to sit here and think. A
year underground doesn�t make anyone that philosophical.�

He received a look of painful
longing, which made him think that Malfoy missed the sun with a force Harry
couldn�t even understand. But then Malfoy pointed to Harry�s wand, to himself,
and to Harry again.

�I won�t come back with you, no. My
friends need me.�

That resulted in more pointing.

�You�want to come with me?� Harry
stared at him. Malfoy was a coward and a Slytherin. Neither one volunteered to
walk into danger. �It�ll hardly be a picnic, you realize. I expect the
Unspeakables who took out your ribs and your fingers and your voice to be after
me. Or, if they aren�t, then whatever magical accident cut them off from the
Ministry will be. And that might be even more dangerous. Magic without anyone
to control it.�

Malfoy glared at him, folded his
arms, and sat back on his heels. This message was clear: unless Harry gratified
him by taking him along, he wouldn�t move, even if the chain was shattered.

Harry eyed him thoughtfully, and
especially the way that the skin hung slack over the muscles. Malfoy had been
no weakling, the last time Harry had faced him in the Room of Hidden Things,
but that didn�t mean he was strong now. He might even be overestimating his own
strength, since he wouldn�t have spent much time running about while the
Unspeakables had hold of him. �You�re certain you can keep up?�

A look he recognized in the
original crossed Malfoy�s face, even before he nodded. He�d seen it often
enough at school. Anything you can do, I
can do, Potter.

�I have food that can get you back
on your feet,� Harry said. �But I don�t have time to nurse you every step of
the way. Unless you�re absolutely
sure, it would be better for everyone involved to send you back up the stairs.�

Sure,
Malfoy mouthed.

Harry spent some more time studying
Malfoy. A fire burned in his eyes that hadn�t appeared once throughout this
long and painful conversation. Maybe Malfoy didn�t want anything more than
revenge on his captors, but still, that was something Harry understood,
something that he might have delayed his own escape for. Or maybe he had made
friends with someone else among the Unspeakables� prisoners�he couldn�t have
been the only one�and wanted to rescue them, too.

�All right, then,� Harry said, with
a small nod of his head. �Hold still.� He aimed his wand at the chain. �Relashio!�

The incantation should have made
the chain around Malfoy release its hold, or perhaps dulled its luster a little
more; since Harry�s Finite hadn�t destroyed
it completely, he knew its magic must be more resistant than normal.

He did not expect the explosion of white light that rebounded from the
chain and hit him, landing him flat on his back.

Harry gasped for breath, and then
smelled singing flesh and realized it was his own. He rolled over twice,
smothering the flames that were creeping up the front of his robe. He heard a
sharp clank as Malfoy tried to reach
after him and was brought up short by the chain.

�I�m all right,� Harry murmured,
though he winced when his hand probed the tender flesh on his chest. Luckily,
he knew a minor healing charm that would numb the area, if not take away the
pain permanently. �And I�m stupid.� He turned around and stared at the chain
again. �I don�t suppose you know anything about the protections the chain has?�

Malfoy grimaced and shook his head.
Harry shrugged to let him know it was understandable; his mind had already
grasped hold of an idea that he remembered, dimly, from a lecture on
Transfiguration he�d had six months ago.

Sometimes,
Auror Donaldson, who had blond hair even fussier than Malfoy�s and a
high-pitched, nearly squeaking voice, had said, a murderer will Transfigure the body of his victim in order to hide his
crime. However, the object will not react to various ordinary spells as a
non-enchanted object should. For example, trying to Levitate a table that was
once a corpse usually results in the table flying very fast at the caster and
knocking him over. The most common reactions to manipulation of a Transfigured
human are strange motions, deformation of the object into something else
entirely, and a blast of white light that may be sufficient to set clothing and
hair on fire. Be cautious.

Eyes narrowed, Harry once again
aimed his wand at the chain. He wondered if he would find a second person to
rescue, or only a corpse. But there was no way to be sure without casting the
spell.

�Stay back, Malfoy,� he murmured,
even though it was unnecessary; Malfoy had pressed himself towards the far
corner of the room, from which the light came, the moment he saw Harry
gesturing with the wand. �Homenum reverto!�

He was prepared, this time, for the
flash of light that consumed the room; he flung an arm over his face, even as
Malfoy scrambled frantically about. Harry didn�t smell anything burning,
though, and reckoned that the light must have done what Auror Donaldson had
said it would and flown off in a random direction when the reverse
Transfiguration succeeded.

A moment later, he dropped his arm
and stared at where the chain had been.

He had thought he was prepared for
anything. Even so, he came near to vomiting.

What lay on the floor was a human
being literally made into a chain.
The hair was lifted from the head and twisted together, strand by strand, into
a thick, chunky block. The arms had been�Harry thought, anyway, since he kept
wanting to avert his eyes�tied together behind the back, manipulated together
until the elbows broke, and then lifted high enough for the tips of the fingers
to touch the hair. The spine itself was a tortured curve, with the bone
breaking through the skin in a few places. The chest had warped so that Harry
couldn�t be sure if the person had been male or female. The legs were bound
together and broken like the arms, and some spell had probably been used to
remove the bones finally, so that they could be braided around and over each other to make as thin a set of links
as possible.

And the whole person had been bent
around again, so that the legs were tied to the hair in an enormous circle.

Harry could only hope that the
victim had died soon. He had to take several steps nearer, and look carefully,
to be sure they were dead now.

He swallowed, and told himself that
he would not be sick, and bile and
dry heaves weren�t permissible, either. He wondered for a moment what to do
with the body, and then shook his head helplessly. Burial was impossible, in
this stone. He didn�t want to burn it just in case it could be brought to a
family member who could identify it, later. And taking it with them was�

Was�

No.

Harry turned his back, finally,
gratefully, and looked hard at Malfoy. His hand was over his mouth, his eyes
wide with horror. Harry doubted he had been holding back on this. He probably
hadn�t known the truth about the chain holding him.

�It�ll be all right,� Harry began,
strangely desperate to reassure his former rival.

And then all the light in the room
went out with shocking suddenness, and Harry heard a soft clicking of claws
near the door he had come in by, followed by a loud, deliberate, sniffing
sound.

*

SoftObsidian74: Yes. Harry and
Draco are edging towards a romantic relationship throughout most of the fic,
but (circumstances being what they are) it�s hardly an ideal time for
full-blown romance.

Graballz: Thanks! There�s worse to
come: Not everything that happened to Draco is revealed yet.

Thrnbrooke: Can�t explain that yet.

Ramandu, paigeey07, Lilith,
Mangacat, CourtneyLala: Thanks for reviewing!

Myra: As you can see, Draco�s been
there a year (or so Harry thinks, anyway). The other questions can�t be
answered until later.
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Forgive Those Who Trespass