Blind

Chapter One

Cornelius Fudge impatiently tapped his think fingers on the round wooden table he was seated at. He laughed nervously as he realized that the faces of the Aurors around him showed a mixture of impatience, boredom, and anger. He couldn't blame them, really. They had lives to tend to, work to accomplish, and he was holding them up with some God-forsaken meeting.

"It's just a matter of time 'til old Gilbert gets here. You know how it is with all those Experimental Charms folks. One wrong charm, and they're in St. Mungo's with green spots all over their faces or their legs turned into fins." He gave a small laugh, but none of the Aurors joined in.

Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody cleared his throat. "You're not very convincing, Fudge, and lucky for you, that Wimple boy is coming down the hall right now."

Fudge shivered as Mad-Eye's large blue eye swiveled away from the wooden door and landed on the Minister of Magic. "You know, I'm glad that you agreed to come here, Moody. I thought this was a matter we would want your opinion on-" but he was interrupted when the door was flung open and Gilbert Wimple scurried in.

"So sorry I'm late!" he cried, tossing a briefcase on the table and sliding into a chair next to Fudge. "We finally figured out how to remove those horns of mine, but then this woman ran into the office with an idea for a modification to the Memory Charm-" Gilbert fell silent at the looks of disgust around the table. "I really am sorry to keep you waiting," he said quickly, fumbling with the clasps on his briefcase.

"Well, let's get this meeting started!" Nymphadora Tonks said, glancing at her watch. "I have a couple Death Eaters to track tonight-"

"-And I'm about to make that job easier," Gilbert said happily.

Now the Aurors were watching him suspiciously. "What do you mean?" Tonks asked, her voice a combination of suspicion and interest.

"Okay, so You-Know-Who keeps getting stronger, as do his followers. We're in the middle of a war here and we're no closer to winning. If anything, we're falling behind." He glanced at the hushed, gloomy faces. He drew in a breath. It was now or never, really. "I'm going to give you a weapon, though, something that could speed our victory."

Some of the Aurors were now adjusting their positions, leaning in closer as if Gilbert was about to announce a huge secret and they wanted to hear.

"We've been experimenting with a new curse, a curse that would allow you to put the enemy into one of the ultimate forms of vulnerability. In such a state, you could bound them and ship them off to Azkaban."

Mad-Eye Moody pounded a fist on the table. "Well, what is it? Spit it out, son!"

Gilbert smiled. "I'm getting there, don't you worry. The curse is Ocviseo Blancia."

"And it does what exactly?" Tonks asked.

"Throws the victim into a state of blindness. Temporary, of course," Gilbert assured them. "Enough to arrest them and disarm them. Perhaps even a bit of extra time to get them to prison."

"That sounds a bit inhumane," Tonks said apprehensively. "We'd be stooping to the Dark Side's level, which I thought we'd sworn we'd avoid at all costs."

Fudge waved her comment off. "No, dear, it's not stooping to their level, not in the least bit. See, their motive is to kill. Why, a couple minutes blindness is mild compared to that. Nowhere near as severe."

Some of the Aurors murmured agreement. Moody thumped the table with his fist again. "Not nearly as bad as those Death Eaters deserve! Can't you come up with something a bit more painful, something a bit more deserved?"

Gilbert and Fudge smiled but Tonks shook her head. "Moody, we're fighting against death here, not advocating it." She turned to Wimple. "So, has this been tested on humans? You're certain it's safe to use?"

Gilbert nodded slowly. "Well, yes," he said slowly. "I'll admit, we didn't give it the extensive testing we normally would, but circumstances pending-"

"This hasn't been tested properly?" Tonks cried. "We can't possibly authorize the use of such a potentially dangerous curse if it hasn't had the proper testing. We're risking innocent lives!"

Fudge jumped to his feet and pounded the table. "Can't you see? We don't have any choice! The Death Eaters are killing more and more people everyday, and I need to find some way to combat that! If there's another less-than-flattering editorial in the Daily Prophet again, my political career is over! I have to do something!"

Tonks opened her mouth to respond, but Fudge cut her off. "And we have a list of Death Eaters to track down in the next couple of days, and we're using this curse, all right?" He handed a stack of parchment to a nearby Auror who handed them out.

"We're starting tonight," Fudge demanded. He was met with several groans. "Don't fret. You'll be paid overtime. Now, if you'll direct your attention to the top of the list..."

*************

The double mahogany doors that opened into Malfoy Manor burst open. Lucius Malfoy stormed in, his heavy footsteps thudding on the hard stone floor and echoing off the dark walls. He had just returned from bringing his son, Draco, to Platform 9 3/4 for his final year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Now that Lucius had returned home, he had business to tend to. He slid off his traveling cloak as he walked, flinging it over his arm. A small house elf passed by him, and he dropped the cloak on her head. "Put that away," he commanded.

Lucius continued through dimly lit corridor after corridor, each one lined with pictures of his ancestors.

Generations of Malfoys scowled at him and hurled insults, mostly about him having a "weak pansy of a son, hardly fit for the estate." Lucius easily blocked the words from his head. It wasn't like they said things that he hadn't thought before.

Lucius halted outside a large black door. A gold plaque on it read Lucius A. Malfoy's Office. He opened the door and entered. As he expected, a slender blonde woman was seated behind his desk.

Her feet were propped on the top of the smooth wooden surface, legs crossed at her ankles. Her blood red dress was slipping down near her knees, revealing perfectly shaped calves. Her grey eyes peered up at him over the top of the goblet held to her crimson lips. She swallowed and set the glass down.

"Ah, Narcissa, I had a feeling you'd be in here waiting for me," Lucius said, having difficulty hiding the appreciation from his voice.

Narcissa Malfoy raised her hand into the air expectantly. "Correct as usual," she said.

Lucius took the hand in his and brushed it with a kiss. "As usual, my darling? Why not 'as always'?"

"Because you are wrong on certain occasions. For example, when you disagree with me," she said softly, reaching for her goblet with her free hand.

"I married a clever one," Lucius said fondly. He looked at her slender hand enveloped in his larger one. There were the diamond and the band that claimed her his wife. The rings that told the other men to back off from this goddess. She was taken and by a man who was quite unwilling to share. Lucius simply couldn't resist the beautiful woman and he slowly started kissing his way up her arm.

"Oh, I was relaxing by the pool when you took Draco to the train station, and an owl came swooping in with a Howler. It was for you, but since you weren't here, the owl dropped it in my lap." She raised her skirt to reveal a bandage wrapped around her thigh. "It exploded on me, and I got a nasty burn from it. Anyway, it was from my lovely sister."

Lucius looked up. "What does Bellatrix want with me?"

Narcissa eyed her husband curiously. "It was something about you hadn't murdered some Mudblood, and she can't trust you with anything, and she doesn't see why the Dark Lord favors you because you're a good-for-nothing son of a b-"

"And the thing exploded?" Lucius asked, filled with curiosity for the contents and relief that he had been spared the fury at the same time.

"Yes. I'm not certain what she did with it, but it was powerful."

"What did you do about it?"

Narcissa smiled coyly. "Sent one back rebuking her for her carelessness. Told her she was risking everything by sending such information by owl, when it could easily be intercepted. I didn't put in anything that would help the Ministry, though, but it should be rather nasty when she opens that envelope."

Lucius could not help smiling at his wife. "You really are brilliant, my dear. Absolutely, completely brilliant."

"Head Girl in my day, you know." Narcissa sighed. "Well, I suppose I'll leave you. Obviously, if you were so quick to get to your office, you have some very important business to tend to. Good night."

She stood up and started to walk away, but Lucius followed her, wrapping his arms around her waist. "You know quite well what my business is, and I intend to see to it right away, with no further ado," he whispered into her ear.

*************

Tonks looked up at the looming drawing room that surrounded her. "You would think that my dear aunt and uncle would take greater precautions to keeping the homestead hidden from the Ministry. Old Lucius is a bit popular there. His wanted poster is everywhere, and he can't be so thick not to know that."

Mad-Eye Moody grunted in agreement. "Yeah, but remind me to thank the old chap. He doesn't realize that Fudge isn't protecting him anymore, and I gladly give up time from my retirement to see him back in Azkaban. Never a man who deserved it more, and yet never a man to have such a flair for always finding a way out."

"Well, you can't say the dementors' loyalty to You-Know-Who didn't help him last time," Tonks said. "But now we're prepared for that, and it won't be so easy. You know, we really must thank the people who run the whole Floo system for getting us connected here." Several more Aurors fell from the fireplace, and Tonks nodded. "All right there? Good, we need to search the house for the wonderful Mr. Malfoy. We'll go in a group, because we don't want to be spread out. If he's alone, he'll be powerful enough, but if he's with Aunt Narcissa, well, she'll fight for him, and she's a lot more powerful than she may seem. Right then, let's go!"

They crept through the dark hallways, using stunning spells on the portraits hung from the wall in order to protect their position. Not that it would matter too much since the group would outnumber the Malfoys, but it was necessary for strict precautionary purposes.

For an hour, they tiptoed throughout the manor, but there were no signs of either Malfoy's presence. Finally they arrived outside a large black door. Tonks nodded at the people behind her. "Wands at the ready, in case they're here," she whispered. She tapped the lock with her own wand. "Alohomora." She could hear the small click, signaling the unlocking of the door. She nodded at her companions once again, raised her leg, and kicked the door in.

Narcissa and Lucius looked as if they had been asleep on a large desk. They bolted upright, still entangled in each other. Tonks was secretly grateful that she had not walked in earlier, which would be barging in on a rather compromising situation, a side of her aunt and uncle she would rather not see.

"WHAT IS THIS?!" Lucius roared. "I told Fudge my family was to be left alone!"

"And they would be, if we didn't have outstanding evidence against you," Tonks said coolly.

"Expelliarmus!" Moody cried. Lucius had reached for his wand, but it was now in Moody's firm grasp.

"You are just like your mother, nosing around where you don't belong," Narcissa hissed at Tonks, jumping from the desk.

"Leave my wife out of this," Lucius demanded.

Moody shook his head. "Obviously, she's involving herself, Malfoy. If she interferes, we will blow her brains out, and don't think we won't because she's just a lady."

"Now if you'll cooperate, this will go much easier," Tonks said, inching slowly towards Lucius. She flicked her wand and ropes flew out the tip, binding Lucius and bringing him to the ground.

"Oh, how dare you!" Narcissa screamed. She didn't have her wand with her, but she didn't need it. She lunged at Tonks, and in one second, her hands were clutching Tonks' slender throat. Narcissa may seem to be a delicate flower, but as Lucius had pleasantly discovered on their wedding night, she had amazing strength.

Tonks began gasping for breath, and she struggled to fling Narcissa from her, but the woman had a catlike grip and she wasn't about to let go. Moody produced his wand, ready to blast Narcissa into the wall, but one of the younger Aurors, panicked at the sight of the struggle, screamed from behind him. "Ocviseo Blancia!"

Narcissa gasped and slumped to the floor. Everything had turned a bright shade of white. "I'm blind! I'm blind!"

Unfortunately, she was not the only one who had been hit by the spell. Moody, Tonks, and Lucius had all been in the line of fire.

Moody turned around to face the young Auror. He could not see from his smaller eye, and even the larger one was nearly useless. He saw large blobs of shadows, proving that this curse was obviously a powerful one, in order to handicap his eye like that. "You cannot panic like that! We said we would not use that curse unless it was absolutely necessary!" Moody screamed.

"Sir, she was choking Tonks!"

"Well, now we're all blind. You like that, son?"

"Moody, we'll get around to him later!" Tonks said, a hint of urgency in her voice. "We're going to need to get these two off and we'll need to get to St. Mungo's. This spell has not been properly tested and could have serious side effects."

One of the Aurors leapt forward and bound Narcissa Malfoy, who was whimpering. He ignored Lucius' shouts of, "Don't touch my wife! I may not be able to see you, but if I find out you did, I'll kick your-"

"You know, we probably shouldn't worry too much," the Auror said. "Wimple said the curse would wear off in a few minutes."

"Right," Tonks said. "Are the prisoners bound? Tightly now. We can stay until we're healed, because I don't want you youngsters trying to carry off this couple while Moody and I can't supervise it. You're too inexperienced to be grappling with these two."

They sat in silence. Tonks wanted to break the dreadful gloom, but nothing seemed appropriate to say. Who ever heard of sitting around chatting with criminals while arresting them? But she soon became restless as the time wore on. It certainly felt as if they had been around for two hours.

"How long has it been?" she asked sharply.

"Forty-five minutes," one of the men answered. Suddenly, panic filled his voice. "And you're certain you can't see? Not even a bit?"

"No," Tonks said quietly. "It's still white as ever. How about the rest of you? Any sign of improvement?"

Moody grunted a "no." Lucius let out a string of swearwords and threats. Narcissa sounded on the verge of tears. "I may never see my little baby Draco again!" she wailed.

"I'm sorry!" the Auror who had hit them with the curse cried. "I'm really, really sorry!"

"Shut up," Tonks replied harshly. She then drew in her breath. "All right, we can't sit here any longer. We need to get the four of us to St. Mungo's because we're dealing with something serious here, and it could turn out even worse if we don't seek help."

*************

The back-to-school feast had ended and the students were trickling towards their dormitories. Draco Malfoy should have been leading the Slytherin first years to the Slytherin common room. After all, he was a prefect, but he wasn't really in the mood to deal with those slimy newcomers, so he had left them to Pansy Parkinson and the other prefects.

Of course, I've been a prefect, and for longer, and Father even gave a generous contribution to this rundown shack of a school, but that Potter gets Head Boy, Draco thought bitterly, storming down the stone staircase leading into the dungeons.

Draco wasn't paying attention to the way he was going, and he ran smack into a large, dark figure on the bottom step. "Watch where you're going," he snarled, picking himself up and adjusting his robes. He looked up at the person who was blocking his way.

That familiar shoulder-length, greasy black hair. The hooked nose. The sallowed skin. The billowing black robes. Draco gulped. "Sorry there, Professor Snape, didn't see it was you."

"Come with me, Malfoy," Snape said coldly.

Draco was taken aback. Never had Snape regarded him with such a distant, cold manner. But what more could he do? He couldn't disobey Snape, who had already started down the corridor towards his office. Draco heaved in a sigh and followed Snape's trailing robes.

Snape stopped in front of his office door, swung it open, and led Draco over to his desk. "Take a seat," he said briskly. Draco plopped down into one of the small, hard chairs in front of Snape's desk.

Snape slid in across from him and picked up a stray newspaper laying on a stack of parchments. "Do you get the nightly news sent to you here?" he asked.

Draco shook his head. "No. Actually, the only time I ever get a newspaper is when there's something interesting Father wants me to read, and he'll send it along with a package of sweets from Mother." He looked at Snape suspiciously. "Why?"

Snape threw the paper over at Draco. "Read."

Draco's eyes scanned the article titled Raid on Death Eaters goes horribly wrong: New curse thought to be faulty. The headline alone made him gulp with dreadful anticipation of what he would read, and finally, one sentence caused him to drop the paper to the floor. His parents had been taken away while he had been at the feast.

"They can't do that to my parents! Why my mother, what has she done? And Father's innocent, too," he added quickly.

"You didn't read the whole thing," Snape said pointedly. "Keep going."

Draco shakily retrieved the paper and continued reading. He had to reread the article twice before he finally understood what was going on. The paper was once again dropped on the floor.

"They used some newfound curse on my parents? And it didn't work?" Draco asked, a mixture of fear, disbelief, and anger washing over him.

Snape nodded. "It was a poorly-tested spell that an overexcited Auror tried out on your parents. They, along with two others, were hit by it. It was supposed to put them in a temporary state of blindness and vulnerability. Unfortunately, it never wore off. Your parents are in St. Mungo's now, and no one is certain how to heal them. Dumbledore felt you should be told."

Draco didn't say anything, but jumped up and hurried from the room, slamming the door behind him. He could hear Snape yell, "Malfoy, you get back in here!" but he ignored him. He looked to make sure no one was watching him, and he broke out into a run. Skidding in front of the stone wall leading to the Slytherin common room, Draco panted, "Parseltongue." The wall panel slid to the side and he straightened his robes and sauntered into the common room.

Draco ignored the sparsely scattered students seated in the room and hurried up to his dormitory. None of the other seventh year boys were there, and Draco was grateful for that. He slipped his wand out from under his robes and turned it in his fingers, pondering what to do next.

He could picture his mother, bound up like some common criminal, being pushed out of her house by a group of Ministry workers. He could see his father valiantly trying to fight them off, but being outnumbered, he too was captured. Draco sighed. There was only one thing Lucius Malfoy would wish for his son to do, and it was what Draco would have to do.

Don't you worry, Mum and Dad, Draco thought, setting his wand on his nightstand. I'll avenge you. The Ministry needs to learn that the Malfoys will not tolerate this sort of treatment.

*************

When Harry Potter and Ron Weasley arrived in the Great Hall the next morning for breakfast, their best friend, Hermione Granger, was already seated at the Gryffindor table. She was picking at a plate of toast, her mouth downturned in a frown and her forehead creased with wrinkles of concentration. She had an issue of The Daily Prophet propped against the juice jug.

"Uh-oh, looks like Hermione is really getting into something there," Ron whispered jokingly. "Best proceed with caution." Harry grinned but slid into a spot across from Hermione.

"Er, what're you reading there, Hermione?" Harry asked politely.

Hermione looked up, her face rather pale. "This really is bad news," she said quietly. "We thought Voldemort was bad enough, but this war is about to get worse. And it's not even because of the Death Eaters! The Ministry is going to send themselves to their doom, really!"

Harry and Ron glanced at each other. "What do you mean?" Ron asked.

Hermione tossed the paper across the table. "Read," she said simply.

Harry held the paper while Ron looked over his shoulder. They both scanned the article and finished at the same time. They looked up at Hermione, both of them with a state of shock on their faces. "Tonks and Moody!"

"Well, I suppose I don't pity the Malfoys," Ron added quickly. "It's a decent payback for their ways."

Hermione nodded. "Awful, isn't it? Shh, though, keep your voices down. Here comes Draco."

Draco Malfoy stormed into the hall and over to the Slytherin table. His face was unusually pale, but his cheeks were tinted pink from anger. The result made him look peculiarly ill.

"You can't say he doesn't deserve that, though," Ron said.

"Ron, how can you say such a thing? What if it was your family?" Hermione asked sharply. Ron opened his mouth to respond, but Hermione cut him off. "You assume that the whole family is wretched, but that's not to say that they don't still care for each other like your family does. And the Ministry has no proof that Narcissa Malfoy is a Death Eater, from my understanding. This whole thing is a mess, really. But how...?"

"How what?" Harry asked curiously.

"Well, first, how would such a curse be authorized for use? Didn't you read A Spell is Born like Professor Flitwick suggested?" Hermione stared pointedly at the boys. She then shook her head. "Anyway, the process to creating a new curse is rather complicated, and it includes extensive testing, you know, to make certain it works properly. And this one didn't. There's some funny business going on here." Hermione sighed and bit her lip. She then rolled up the paper and stuck it in her bag. "Well, come on, you two. Get eating. We need to be ready for Potions."