Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

Unstoppable	By : Thunderbird Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 14476 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 3
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any affiliated characters. I make no profit from this story.

Chapter List
- 25
- 26
- 27
A/N: Thank you for the reviews!
Fair warning, I'm about to bonk you over the head with some plot this chapter. Vesper's Auror work is going to make her storyline in a bit darker for most of the rest of the fic. But there will still be romance and other good things for her in the future as well.
Please keep the feedback coming! Reviews are the biggest motivating factor for me as I write.
Warnings: References to violence, blood, and death.
Chapter 26: Insidiously
(Vesper)

Vesper chewed on her quill and looked over her report. This was the part she always dreaded the most: writing. She could articulate her thoughts aloud just fine, but putting them on the page was always like pulling teeth, which was probably why she’d always strived for passable work at school, rather than exceptional, when it came to essays anyway. Getting them done in the first place felt like a miracle, sometimes.
She’d never had to write anything like an essay or a report when she was a duelist, she remembered wistfully. Then she flicked the hair tie on her wrist, making it snap against her skin, and reminded herself that she wanted to be here, and writing up a report on what they had discovered about Edmund Troyer’s intimate connection with the head of the Fearon smuggling ring was a small price to pay for doing work that meant something.
“Kemp.”
Vesper looked up into the face of her partner as he stood over her, noting how uncharacteristically grave it looked.
“What’s wrong?” she asked him.
“Nothing is wrong, exactly,” he replied. “But we’ve been requested for a consultation on another case. A big one.”
“The Green Adders?” Vesper’s stomach did a little flip.
“Yes.”
Vesper looked down at her report. “I…” The Green Adders? This was big. And it’s not like she was going to refuse. But taking down this smuggling ring was her first real case, and she was having a hard time imagining letting it go. “Ok, well… is someone going to be picking up the Fearon case in our absence then? Because we’re so close already, and it would be a shame-“
He shook his head. “It’s not like that. For one thing, the entire department is being requested for the consult.” Vesper raised her eyebrows at that, and McInerney gave her a wry smirk. “Like I said, it’s big. They want all of us working on it. Which means each team has to manage their current caseload while consulting on the Green Adder case. We will likely be looking at some overtime, here. Do you think you can handle it?”
“Yes,” Vesper said immediately. “Of course.” It’s not like I have a social life anymore. She’d seen to that by dumping Declan.
“Good, then,” McInerney said, and Vesper thought she saw something in his eyes that might be approval. “Robards wants us to convene in the main conference room to present the case in about fifteen minutes.”
Vesper nodded. “All right. I’m almost done with this report. I’ll send it in and join you there.” She could hurry through it. She always worked better when she was on a deadline anyway.
McInerney looked down at the half-written report with a knowing smile. “Why don’t we finish that up together?”
Vesper huffed a surprised laugh, feeling both grateful and embarrassed. “If you’re willing, sir, I could use the help.”
McInerney rolled his eyes. “Don’t call me ‘sir,’ Kemp. I’m your partner, remember? Not your boss.”
Vesper nodded once, sharply. “Right.” There was still a lot in this job she was getting used to.
***
The Auror Corps conference room had to be temporarily magically expanded to accommodate everyone inside, Vesper thought idly as she and McInerney entered and looked around for seats. There had to be at least four different whole departments squeezing into one room. She looked around, seeing a couple of Aurors she recognized from the Murder Squad and another from Organized Crime. Her stomach flipped when she spotted Declan and his partner, a stocky, no-nonsense looking witch with piercing dark eyes. So, the Unlicensed Magic department was involved as well. Vesper swallowed, glad her ex hadn’t spotted her yet.
McInerney nudged her with his elbow, getting her attention, and pointed to a couple of seats with the rest of their department, near Dempsey and his partner, Sophie Moreau. Vesper hardly would volunteer to sit with Dempsey, but she wasn’t about to argue now. The place was filling up and the presentation was about to start. She nodded and followed him to the seats.
When she sat down Moreau gave her a friendly nod and Dempsey the smallest of sneers, what he could get away with in this crowded room. She was sure he was reserving his bigger sneer and snarky comments for when no one was watching.
Her eyes flitted to Declan again. He had been completely ignoring her since the breakup, which was understandable and better than the alternative. He could, if he wanted to, make things very difficult for her at work. But he wasn’t that kind of guy. He was taking the high road.
Vesper felt a stab of regret. Not for breaking up with him - that had been the right thing to do - but for starting to date him in the first place. She’d utterly ruined their friendship, one that she had come to value in its own right and one that she had really been relying on as she was initiated into the Corps. It was important to have allies, and she had lost her most important one through her own lack of foresight.
Declan caught her eye, then, and she saw his face harden a moment. He looked away. Vesper sighed, her heart going double-time and a slight nausea squirming in her gut. Yes, she had burned that bridge pretty thoroughly.
Vesper was relieved when Robards called the meeting to order and she would have something else to focus on. He had his deputy, Auror Chopra, pass out copies of a case file to everyone in the room while Robards made an introduction.
“As you all know, finding out what the terrorist organization known as the Green Adders is plotting and then thwarting them has been Priority One for the Corps since their attack in our retreat last month. Interrogations of the captured members have gleaned some information, but, at this point, it’s still spotty. Those who were captured are younger members, newer recruits to the cause of blood purity and wreaking havoc on the Ministry, the two main driving forces for the Adders, so much as we can surmise. They were zealous, as new recruits often are, but not very informed. They revealed, under Veritaserum, that the Adders are indeed planning another attack, though none of them knew either the target or the method of the attack. All they knew was that it was meant to be large scale and was meant to make a statement. ‘Magic is Might,’ the motto adopted by Voldemort and his followers during their time of control over the Ministry, appears to be a watchword for this organization as well, and it is likely that their so-called ‘statement’ with this next attack will be related to that message. Not surprising, given that their roots are deeply embedded in the Death Eater organization, though it’s clear now that there are too many new members, with their own agendas, to really call them former Death Eaters anymore. The Green Adders are their own organization, and, so far as we have gleaned, they are more fixated on the ideology of blood purity than they are on fanatically worshipping or following one powerful leader. Hardly any of the members we captured mentioned Voldemort at all, nor another specific leader that they are now rallying behind. The organization may be more democratic than that.
“For that reason, we are not spending our energy at this point trying to track down and neutralize their leader. We believe our time is better spent destroying the Adders’ plot to attack us before it can begin. The Organized Crime department has spent the last few weeks combing through current and unsolved cases to find anything that might be connected to the Green Adders and their plot, and, after some consultation with the Murder Squad, we have a very promising lead. If you would open the case files that the Deputy Head Auror distributed.”
There was a collective shuffling of papers as each Auror opened their file.
“What you have in front of you is an ongoing serial murder case that the Squad has been working since the summer. The first assumption was that the murders were perpetrated by an individual with some kind of psychopathic need to kill in this specific manner. There were only three victims known to us until last week, when a mass grave was discovered that included over a dozen bodies-“
There was some murmuring around the room at that, and Vesper could hardly be surprised. Over a dozen? All by one person? That was a disturbing thought.
“Each victim,” Robards went on, raising his voice to be heard over the sounds of surprise, “had injuries and a cause of death that matched the other three known victims. There is no doubt they are connected, and there is no doubt that whoever is doing this is much more prolific than we thought, and may even have a purpose beyond satisfying the need to murder. Though the bodies were in different stages of decay, none of them were over six months old, meaning that our murderer or murderers unknown have been killing at a rate of nearly three people per month, and are showing no signs that they will be stopping any time soon.
“All of this is troubling, yes, and we have every reason to put multiple departments on the case as a means of preventing more murders. But, after consulting with a magical theorist about the specific injuries the victims sustained, we have also gained insight into the purpose of the murders and how they are connected to the next attack the Green Adders are planning. If you would now take a look at the photographs provided…”
There was more shuffling of paper as the Aurors lifted the case notes and looked underneath, where a series of wizard photographs showed a detailed look at each of the victims and their injuries.
Vesper had to avert her eyes and swallow, taking a couple of measured breaths before she could return her gaze to the photos. She had not been faced with much death in her life, except in movies and TV, and to know that these were real…
She made herself look again, with some effort.
The victims were different genders, different races, and, as she had seen from the case notes, different blood statuses. But they had one thing in common: a gaping, circular hole carved out of the center of their abdomen. For the older corpses the circle was less defined, as decay and animal activity had been working away at the body. But there were a couple of fresh ones, the victims who had been discovered only a few days after their murders, and their wounds were clean, though bloody, and perfectly circular. In one she could actually see shadows of internal organs through the hole, and she had to clench her jaw hard to keep from gagging.
She looked around the room, mostly as a means to distract herself, and saw that she was not alone in her reaction. Many of the faces around her had paled, though the more experienced Aurors were taking it in stride. Her fellow Junior Aurors, like Declan, Morgan, and Dempsey, looked positively green with disgust.
“Yes,” Robards said soberly. “It’s a disturbing means of murder, made all the more disturbing when you hear the true purpose of the method. You’ll notice that holes in the abdomen of each victim are the same size and shape, and are located in exactly the same place: between the kidneys, just a little below the stomach, the exact place where the magical core resides.”
There was more murmuring at this, and one Auror from Declan’s department spoke up. “They’re destroying magical cores? Why?”
“Not destroying them, no,” Robards replied. “They’re… removing them, intact.”
The noise around the table was more than murmuring now, with Aurors leaning into their partners and speculating, or, in some cases, outright refusing to believe it. Vesper heard one of them say, on her right side, “That is not possible.”
“That’s enough,” Robards said mildly, calling the attention back again. “I’m sure many of your are skeptical, and I wouldn’t blame you. But there appears to be no other explanation. Extensive autopsies of each body, both physical and magical, have revealed no trace remnants of a core in any of the victims. Normally, when a witch or wizard dies their core drains its magical energy before disintegrating. It leaves behind a shell of its former self, as well as a distinct magical signature, an imprint, if you will, of its former presence. But nothing of the sort was found. The cores of each of the victims appear to have been – for lack of a better phrase – scooped out, and, based on the bleeding around the wound, the procedure occurred while the victim was still alive.”
“Sweet Merlin,” whispered an Auror on Vesper’s left, sounding nauseated.
“The most logical conclusion we can come to is that the murderer wanted the magical cores intact and functioning, to use for their own purposes.”
“And what purpose could they have for the cores?” Moreau asked.
“Wait,” said another Auror from Unlicensed Magic, talking over her, “I’m still stuck on the procedure here. How is removing an intact magical core even possible? Do we know that it is?”
“We have no way to know for certain that it is,” Robards answered. “It is theoretically possible, but as testing such a procedure would be deadly and unethical, it’s never been tried. Neither Healers nor magical theorists can tell us definitively whether or not a magical core can exist intact outside the body. But we must assume that it is possible, given what these murders entail. This case is unprecedented, and we are forced to make a few logical leaps.” There were more Aurors wanting to get their own questions in now, but Robards cut them off. “Auror Moreau’s question is the one I want to focus on now, as the how of this situation is still being determined. The why, though, is the truly central issue here. For what purpose would someone need a magical core? I’d like to introduce Zelda Nadharia, the theorist who is consulting with us on this case, to talk more about our understanding of the magical core. Ms. Nadharia?”
A thin, regal-looking black woman stood then, nodding to Robards. “Thank you, Head Auror,” she said steadily. She looked around the room. “I have spent my entire professional career studying the magical core, and there is still much to learn about its nature. What I can tell you is that the magical core is, in its essence, a concentrated and self-replenishing orb of raw magical energy. Any human who possesses a magical core can tap into this raw energy most easily through a wand, using the magical substances contained within that wand as a conduit to hone and focus that magic.”
Vesper found herself nodding automatically. Her uncle talked about this all the time, the fact that the wand was a conduit, and that true power came from the core itself. That was the thing he always emphasized. You want a powerful wand, she could hear him say inside her head, as if he was right there. You want the right wand for you. But it is nothing but a stick of wood if you are not concentrating on the power that comes from within you.
But the theorist was continuing her explanation, and Vesper made herself focus again.
“It can also, as we know,” Nadharia went on, “be tapped into in a more instinctive way and without a wand, and wandless magic is certainly common, though much more unruly. In either case, what we see normally is that magic is siphoned from the core and used to suit the caster’s purposes, and is then replenished naturally by the body. This is how the magical core of a healthy adult functions day to day. Our understanding of how a magical core might behave outside of a body… well, it is only theoretical. However,” she said, in response to the stirring of the Aurors around her that made it clear they were gearing up to ask some questions, “I believe that I can theorize with a good degree of accuracy, in this case. A magical core without a conduit is likely to be unstable. The body uses the magical energy of the core regularly, not just through spells, but for the daily function of keeping a witch or wizard alive and healthy. The energy wants to be used, and if it is somehow being stored without a means of release it could… explode. It’s essentially a bomb waiting to go off.”
She looked around, waiting for that to sink in. The Aurors were not murmuring and shifting anymore. They were staring at Ms. Nadharia in horror.
“Perhaps you already see where I’m going with this,” she said. “All to the better. The key issue here is that we have every reason to believe that a magical core on its own can be shattered easily and when shattered will release a burst of magical energy powerful enough to be immensely destructive. How destructive… is impossible to say. We cannot know without seeing it in action. But suffice it to say that the number of magical cores that have been collected so far from these murder victims could, with their energy combined, wipe out an entire city the size of London.”
There was silence in the room, not a cough or a gasp or a sniff. It reigned for a moment or two before one of the Senior Aurors from the Organized Crime department spoke into the quiet. “We believe this is what the Green Adders intend to do,” he said, his expression grave as he looked from face to face. “This is why we believe they are behind the murders. They want to collect magical cores in order to build a weapon of unprecedented power, which they will then unleash, most likely right here in London.”
“Why?” said another Auror. “Why would they want to do something so dangerous, that could destroy them as well, not to mention a staggering number of magical lives? I understand the ‘Magic is Might’ message. This would certainly fit the criteria, showing the raw power that a magical core can unleash. But to kill so many people? So many magical people? Is that really what they want?”
Robards joined Nadharia at the front of the room. “We have reason to believe that it is Muggles who would be most affected. Most magical people, healthy ones anyway, would survive it.”
“He’s right,” Nadharia said. “Most magic does not kill those who have magic themselves. There are exceptions, of course, like the Killing Curse, but those require intense concentration and a will to kill. Raw magic, like what would come directly out of a core, wouldn’t have any intention; it would just be pure energy, and we have natural defenses to protect ourselves from that. It could kill some magical people, those who are weak or ill, but not most of us.”
“That may in fact be the Adders’ intention,” Robards added. “To destroy Muggles, but also to destroy the lives of anyone the Adders see as ‘weak,’ which, given their ideology, likely includes Muggleborns. They might believe that this will weed them out as well. It won’t, of course. There is no connection between the power of one’s magical core and their blood status, as we know. But the Adders believe differently, and we have to consider their beliefs and motives when we theorize about how they might attack us. This, the building of a weapon using collected magical cores, is our best working theory, which is why we have asked the departments who work with unlicensed magic and dark artifacts to join us on this case.” His dark eyes scanned the room, lingering on the two departments he just mentioned. “The Murder Squad will continue following their own leads in the murder investigation, and the Organized Crime department will be continue to track the Adders movements and try to thwart the attack before it happens. What we need from the Unlicensed Magic and the Dark Artifacts departments is for you to determine the forms this weapon could possibly take, based on what we know about magical cores and raw magic. We need to know how this weapon functions and what we can do to safely disable or destroy it.”
Vesper couldn’t help it; she gaped. The task sounded impossible. How could they figure out how to disable a weapon that didn’t yet exist? She looked at McInerney to see that he was watching Robards and Nadharia with his mouth set in a grim line. He glanced her way, and she could see her own incredulity reflected in his eyes.
“We will now be taking questions.” Robards said.
A dozen hands shot up, each Auror eager to understand more. But Vesper was not among them. She had no idea what to ask.
Where do we even begin?
***
“My concern,” Moreau said in her light French accent, leaning back in her chair, “is that we have no proof that the serial murder case is connected to the Green Adders. There is only the strong possibility that it is.”
“That’s your concern?” said Thomas Shelby, a pale, wispy-haired Senior Auror from Unlicensed Magic. “You think that’s really more troubling than the fact that we’re expected to conceive of, from theory alone, a weapon that may or may not be possible to invent and then determine how it theoretically might be destroyed? Because to me, that is the much bigger issue here.”
Vesper had to agree. And, looking about the room at the nodding and raised eyebrows, she could see that she wasn’t alone.
The two departments had been encouraged to convene after the presentation was finished, in order to develop a plan action to begin the assignment Robards had just handed them. But everyone seemed to have a different opinion on the approach, not to mention a need to complain a bit about the impossibility of the task in the first place, now that Robards was no longer listening in.
“I only mean,” Moreau replied, her accent becoming more pronounced as her chin tilted upwards in annoyance, “that the work itself may be for nothing, if this is not in fact what the Green Adders are planning at all.”
“Maybe it isn’t the Green Adders,” said Declan’s partner, Auror Kaine. “But someone is extracting magical cores for some nefarious purpose, and I for one am perfectly willing to do everything I can to stop them. This is murder we’re talking about, on a scale that we haven’t seen since the war. It is our duty to do what is asked of us.”
There was some murmuring of agreement, and Moreau turned away to roll her eyes. “We are fools,” Vesper heard her say under her breath, “to dive blindly into an assignment simply because we don’t know what else to do.”
But most of the people in the room didn’t hear her, as they were already starting another argument about where the assignment should start.
“It’s a thought experiment,” said Auror Decker, from Vesper’s own department. “We put ourselves in the Adders’ place and imagine the ideal weapon they would want to build. Then we design it to those specifications. Once we have the design, we’ll know how it functions and how to destroy it.”
“How can we really know what sort of weapon they want if we don’t understand their motives?” asked the wispy-haired Auror.
“The Head Auror explained the Adders’ motives,” Kaine said impatiently.
“We know his theory on the motives,” said Moreau. “A patchy theory, at best, in my opinion. It doesn’t even account for why the Adders were apparently willing to take magical lives to collect the cores, but want to preserve magical lives when they carry out their attack. That seems like quite mixed motives to me.”
“They believe in a sacrifice of a few for the betterment of the many,” said Kaine, sniffing.
“There were purebloods among those victims,” said Moreau. “Surely they never would have-“
“Never mind that,” said Auror Hammond, Morgan’s partner, effectively cutting off the disagreement. “The greater issue is that there are infinite possibilities for the design of such a weapon. How will we know what it is the right one?”
“They want to build a bomb of some kind, that much is obvious,” said Decker.
“Is it?” questioned Hammond. “There are many forms that the weapon could-“
“The magical theorist said that magical cores outside the body are designed to explode-“ Decker cut in.
“She said they were likely to explode, not they were designed to,” said another Auror.
“Same thing, as far as I’m concerned,” Decker spat.
“That’s not really-“
“Don’t you think we should-“
“We haven’t-“
“Enough!” McInerney said sharply. “Enough. This isn’t getting us anywhere. Mainly because the way we’re used to doing things, our normal procedure, isn’t going to work in this case. We’re used to dealing with unlicensed magic that’s already been performed or artifacts that have already been created. We’re not usually expected to deal with the theoretical. But now we have to, which means we need a fresh approach. Now, I notice we haven’t heard from any of the Junior Aurors yet, likely because they don’t think they have enough experience to add something. But new perspectives could be very useful to us here.” He looked from Declan to Morgan to Dempsey, his eyes finally landing on Vesper sitting next to him. “Kemp,” he said. “Any thoughts?”
Of course, he has to pick me. Vesper knew that McInerney was likely trying to give her a vote of confidence rather than put her on the spot, but this was hardly the moment she wanted it. She was aware of all eyes on her, including Declan’s and Dempsey’s, which she felt most palpably.
She took a deep breath. She didn’t have some brilliant solution for them, but then, she realized, neither did the Senior Aurors. They just had opinions. So, what was hers?
“I think there’s too much we don’t know,” she said. “There are too many questions. We’ve already raised some important ones. If this is really the work of the Green Adders, why are their motives so confused?” She nodded at Moreau. “If they are building a weapon, what form would it take?” She looked at Hammond. “How can we understand something in theory that we have no way of knowing will work in practice? These are all legitimate questions. And I have some more of my own. Like what method did the murderers use to extract the magical cores, and how are they storing them so they will remain stable until they are ready to be used? Robards seemed content to gloss over those ‘how’ type questions in the presentation but I can’t help but think that they might inform our understanding of what this weapon is or what it could be, not to mention what kind of knowledge or expertise our murderer has. I realize the Murder Squad is following some of those leads but I think they are relevant to us as well.” She looked around to see that there were a number of Aurors that were nodding in agreement, which spurred her on. “So I think… I think we all have questions we want answered, and before we can do anything we have to get answers. If we can’t answer these ourselves than we need outside consultants. I for one would like to talk to a Healer about what it would actually mean to extract the magical core from a living body. And I’d like to talk to a magical engineer about what kind of materials can stand up to the raw magic exuded by a core. And I’d also like to talk to Ms. Nadharia more about the kind of damage the raw magic could specifically inflict and what it might look, sound, or feel like. I think, until we have a better grasp on all of that, there’s no way we can move forward on speculating on the design of the weapon. We just… we need more information.”
“I agree,” said Declan, and Vesper found her gaze flicking to him sharply. Her heart pounded painfully in her chest as she saw him regard her for a moment with an impassive expression. “I have a lot of the same questions, and basically no answers. I thought maybe that was because I’m new to this, but…” He gave an apologetic smile to the room at large. “It seems to me all of us are out of our depth here. Auror Kemp is right; we need some expert help.”
“So maybe that’s our first plan of action,” McInerney said. “We go our separate ways and reach out to those we know and trust in the fields of Healing, engineering, theory, etc to answer our most pressing questions. Then we reconvene and share what we’ve learned. Once we have more information, we may have a clearer path ahead of us to move into the design phase of this theoretical weapon. We may even have some pertinent information to share with the other departments on the case. What say you?”
There was a general nod of assent, and the meeting came to an informal end.
“Good work, Kemp,” Mcinerney said in her ear. “You said exactly what we needed to hear.”
She appreciated the praise, but she couldn’t help but feel that her partner had handed her the victory. “If you wanted those things said, why didn’t you say them yourself?”
McInerney gave her an odd look for a moment. “I was still rolling around Moreau’s initial point in my head. I wasn’t thinking the same thing you were thinking. I didn’t have anything to contribute, other than the fact that I knew we weren’t getting anywhere. That’s why I asked you.”
Vesper stared at him, dumbfounded. McInerney smirked.
“Fresh eyes,” he said. “Never underestimate the gift of fresh eyes. That’s why I love Junior Aurors so much.”
Vesper huffed a laugh. McInerney surprised her constantly, but that was part of what made him such a good partner.
“You coming?” he asked her, standing up. “There’s still a bit more we can do on the Fearon case before we head home for the day.”
Vesper glanced at Declan, who had just finished up a discussion with his own partner. “I’ll be right there. Just give me a minute.”
“All right,” said McInerney. And with that he left the office.
Vesper approached Declan. He was watching her with a wary gaze.
“Thanks for having my back just now.”
“What you said was valuable,” he said neutrally. “And I happened to agree.”
“Well, even so, you could have…” Vesper bit her lip. “I just appreciate you backing me up, that’s all.”
“You think I’m the kind of guy to try and humiliate you in front of both our departments?”
“Of course not. That’s not what I meant.” Vesper grit her teeth, making an effort to even out her tone. “I just appreciated you speaking up. It was an intimidating situation to be in and it was nice to see that someone had my back.”
“Your partner seemed to have your back just fine.”
“Yeah, he’s good about that.” She searched Declan’s face, finding it hard to read. “What, does your partner not have yours?”
“She’s fine. She’s great. A little intense, but… look, I…” His eyes carried a lot of pain.
“I miss talking to you,” Vesper said, deciding to go for broke. “I miss our friendship. Do you think… Is there any chance that we can be friends again?”
He wouldn’t look at her. She waited. “I miss you too. But it’s more than the talking and the… Look, I just miss you. But I’m also pissed off.” His jaw tightened. “And I think I have a right to be. I try to be a good guy and not let is affect how we work together but you’ve got to give me some space, all right? I’m doing the best I can.”
Vesper took a step back. “I know that. I know you are. I’m… sorry.”
“I know,” he said, his eyes catching hers for a second. “But that doesn’t help me, much.”
Vesper sighed. “Right.”
“I need time. Our departments are going to be overlapping and I’ll do what I have to do about that but… I need time.”
Vesper nodded, knowing she had no right to ask more of him. She also knew she had no right to express what she was feeling, how much she really missed him. That would only make it worse.
“What I really wanted,” she managed, finally, “was to thank you for being such a good guy. And to tell you that the Corps is lucky to have you. That’s all.”
That was met with silence. Vesper peeked under her eyelashes and saw that Declan was staring at the floor and she couldn’t read his face.
“Just go,” he said softly. “I can’t do this right now.”
Vesper had no choice but to turn, an acute pain in her chest. She was trying to make things right, but it looked like she was only making things worse.
Just concentrate on the case, she told herself as she made her way down the hall, towards the lifts that would take her back to the Dark Artifacts office. Just make work your life, for now, and everything else will sort itself out.
Up Next: Harry has an important lunch with Narcissa.
goddess-of_dragons: Yay, glad you’re giddy! Hopefully there will be more of that next chapter with Harry. And hurray for remembering the aborted pregnancy! That will come up again down the road when I reveal all that happened between Vesper and Blaise.
Mila is the pregnant girl that you couldn’t remember. There will also be more on her in Draco’s chapters in the future.
- 25
- 26
- 27
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

Unstoppable