Breaking All the Rules

Chapter Twenty

Breaking All the Rules

...Is My Friend

~*~~*~~*~

Draco stood stock still as he watched Ginny probe through the pantry in her mother's kitchen. He had never seen her behave like this. So indifferent and relaxed, it was a far stretch from her hot temper and typical overreaction. The whole, 'I'm going to kill Girard because he ruined my life,' thing, that was like her because it all fell into the, 'overreaction,' category. The broad smile while she killed him, not so much overreaction, more insanity.

"Where the hell did you go? Ginny, why are you soaking and - don't touch those, mum was saving them for Christmas!" Ron said as he went over and tried to fight the special biscuit tin out of her hands.

As soon as he reached her, she spun on him and pointed her wand at his throat quicker than he had a chance to breathe.

"Okay, perhaps you can have just one."

She narrowed her eyes at him before smiling cruelly and then went back on her scavenger hunt.

Ron backed away slowly. "What's wrong with her?" Hermione asked going to stand next to Draco. Harry joined them, closely followed by Ron who was rubbing at his throat.

"I don't know but I don't ever want to get between her and a snack again." Draco nodded in thought.

When he spoke it was almost as if he couldn't believe what he was saying. "She went to Thomas. She went to Thomas and confronted him."

"And?" Ron prompted. "Well, did you do it?"

Draco looked at him with an indescribable stare. "I didn't do anything." He looked back at Ginny. "I didn't have to."

Ron pointed at his sister. "You're telling me she-." Draco nodded.

"Yeah, she did."

"How?"

"Ever heard of a muggle power source called electricity?"

"Yeah," Harry and Hermione said. Then Hermione gasped. "She electrocuted him?"

Just then the pantry door slammed shut and they all jumped. "She, has a name, you know." Ginny emerged sporting various items of food in small bags, wrappers and boxes. "You know, it's funny how you talk about me as if I'm not here," she laughed. "It's funny because I'm actually in the room." She turned as another person came into the room. "Falcroft, what's up?" she said cheerfully. She ignored all other people in the room and the strange looks they were giving her.

Falcroft cocked an eyebrow at the woman before him. "I see it worked then," he said monotonously.

She smiled, "Like a charm."

"No errors, no... side effects?"

She thought for a minute, then shook her head. "No, not that I'm aware of."

"Wait," Ron said. "Wait just one minute here. What the hell are you talking about? Ginny, what is going on?"

It was then that Draco stepped forward. The weird behaviour, the somehow massive force she had to almost push him over the banister of the veranda. The direct quote that she used. The sudden case of a bottomless stomach. "She's not Ginny."

Ron frowned along with the other two in the room. "What? Of course she's Ginny. Look at her."

Draco gestured to Ginny, happily eating her way through most of the Weasley's kitchen supplies. "Yes, Weasley, look at her."

Ron bent down to carefully study his sister. He went over her hair, her eyes, the way she sat. Everything about her was identical. "Ginny?" he said.

She stopped eating, sighed and glared at him. "What?"

Ron stood up. "No, she seems the same to me."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Move Ron." He took Ron's place and Ginny stared at him instead.

"What am I, an artifact at a museum?" she said coldly in a tone he had never heard her use before.

He narrowed his eyes at her. She matched his stare and raised him by a scowl. "Who are you?" he said quietly.

The scowl was removed and replaced with a smirk. He looked up at Draco. "Just a friend of a nemesis." She stood up and walked around the table to stand next to Falcroft. The kitchen was now divided in people by the kitchen table alone.

"Blaise?" Draco and Harry said.

***

Leveret sat down calmly and stared point blank at the catalogue in front of him. He raised his hand casually in thought. "Are you telling me, he actually killed Thomas?" He couldn't help the smile from his face. It seemed his marker was not a lost cause after all.

"Yes sir. By... electrocution."

He frowned. "Electrocution? What, he stuck him with live wires? I thought they taught them to be subtle on the island, isn't that why we trained them with muggle weaponry?" He sighed. "Isn't that what my money has been paying for?"

"Yes sir, but... you see it seems he has taken after his friend. He went creative on us sir. He rigged a live wire to fall on water while Thomas was standing in it. He even made sure that his wife wasn't hurt."

Leveret tutted and rolled his eyes. Just like them. "Always careful, those two."

There was a moment of silence before Matthew thought it was safe to speak. "There's more sir," he said quietly.

Leveret looked up. "More," he said incredulously. "There is more to this tale?"

His secretary nodded. "Yes sir." He shifted feet. "It seems he has also collected a soul."

This made Leveret listen. Really listen. "What?" he said in an astonished whisper. He gestured his arms around trying to find a possible answer as he thought. He came up with nothing. "How is that possible? He has never done that before. Has he?" he asked. He looked back down at the catalogue and then froze. It was true.

Matthew obviously knew what he was looking at. "We know sir, it's driving us crazy. We have our best trying to work it out but even the know-it-all diviners have nothing."

"Well try harder. I want to know how this happened and I want to know now."

***

"Yes, Malfoy?" Blaise answered as he went to sit back down.

Draco cocked an eyebrow. "Back to Malfoy is it?"

Blaise looked at him before going back to eating. "For now," he said.

The look on Ron's face was indescribable. "How? How did you - are you even - ." Then something dawned on him. "Where's Ginny?" he asked with the straightest face he possessed.

Blaise gestured toward himself. "Right here."

Draco stepped forward. "So she's not-."

"Dead?" Blaise interrupted. "Merlin no," he said bluntly. "I think there's been enough death here for a while, don't you?" He nodded. "Besides, I don't exactly know how much longer I can hold on." He looked at Draco and smirked. "It's more of a test drive really to see what I can do with her."

"What?" he said heatedly.

Blaise laughed. "Oh please. The whole time I've been in here I'm under your watch, his watch, his watch" he said pointing at Ron and Harry. "Her mother's watch, and Weasley's watch," he said pointing at himself. "I haven't had time. Not that I would touch her anyway."

Ron, not taking it anymore, ran for him but was restrained, not by Ron or Hermione but by Blaise. His arm was outstretched in his direction and it was preventing Ron from moving.

Blaise rolled his eyes. "I may be angry right now but I don't let anger cloud by judgement." He sighed openly which probably sounded more bored than he intended with Ginny's voice to emphasise it. "If I came here as myself," he said obviously, "don't you think I'd know you'd try to hurt me?" He cast a weary glance at Draco. "Please tell me you gave me more credit than this, Malfoy."

"It's Weasley, what do you expect?" he shrugged.

"What, you're on his side now?" Ron almost shouted.

"No," Draco said as he went to stand by Ginny... or Blaise, whatever. "He's on ours."

~**~*~~*~*~*~~*~**~

TWO DAYS AGO: JUST AFTER JULIA'S FUNERAL.

Blaise stood up and practically ran upstairs. Draco followed him closely with his eyes and finally got up to see where he was going. He followed him to the bedroom that he and Julia had slept in the night before. As he reached top step, Blaise had already entered the room and slammed the door.

He opened the just slammed door and stared Blaise down. He was ready for a war of words with him, empath or not. For some strange reason the man wasn't talking. If he bottled it up anymore, he was going to burst at someone. It had better be him than anyone else. He knew what to expect and how to deal with it. No one should have to go through those kinds of verbal abuse unprepared. When he reached the room, though, there was no dramatic pacing; there was no punching of walls or smashing of furniture. Blaise was picking up his clothes, as if he was getting ready to leave.

"Where are you going?" he said as he witnessed his friend picking up everything he had brought with him.

"I'm going home," was all he said.

"What?"

Blaise continued as if he were thinking of a million things a second and far to busy to register anything Draco had to say. "I knew that something like this would happen," he rambled. "I have done since I left that island. She was put up as a mark the second she left. She knew it and she still came with us." He fished in the pocket of his coat.

Draco frowned. "What are you talking about?" he asked between Blaise taking a breath.

Then Blaise noticed his existence. "I want you to do something for me." He held out his hand and let drop a thin chain. It looked so fragile like it would break at any given moment. Draco furrowed his eyebrows looking at it. He recognized the amulet; it was given to every student who had ever passed through the camp. He didn't think he'd need it so he gave it to Blaise who had seemed really interested in it.

Blaise pocketed it again and looked determinately at his friend.

Draco shrugged. "Anything," he said hoping it would comfort. "But first tell me where you're going."

Blaise shook his head vigorously. "I can't tell you but I need you to take this." He fidgeted around with his coat. "I have to stop it all. They can't keep doing this to us, Draco. Punishing us for not doing what they said to do. They themselves said that we aren't owned. It's our fucking motto for Merlin's sake."

Draco sighed and closed his eyes. Here it came, the blowing of the lid. "I know that you're hurting Blaise and I cannot tell you that I know how you feel. Just don't be so rash about this."

Blaise nodded and put a hand on Draco's shoulder. "I'll contact you later. But don't try to find me and, if you see me, don't try to get my attention."

Draco had no idea what he meant but nodded anyway. He was now certain his friend had gone insane. "What are you going to do?"

Blaise smiled despite his former mood. "Nothing rash." Draco raised an eyebrow and followed Blaise with his eyes to the door before following him. As they reached the stairs Blaise turned around. "I can't have them knowing. It would be better if they didn't know."

Draco nodded following his friend's line of thinking. "Okay." As Blaise turned to go down the stairs Draco grabbed the crook of his elbow. "As I obviously won't be able to say later, be safe alright? Even if you won't be rash," he added as an afterthought.

Blaise smiled. "That goes without saying, Malfoy." He turned to go down the stairs and they both proceeded to yelling at each other until Blaise left giving Draco the necklace he had almost forgotten to leave him with. As he couldn't just give it to him, he threw in the snow at his feet instead giving him the first clue to how he could help him when he was done with Thomas..

Gather some old friends together.

~**~*~~*~*~*~~*~**~

"Ours," Ron said sedating himself somewhat. "As in he's good?"

"I can never be 'good,' Weasley. Look at my profession; I'm sure it will answer your question." He turned to look at Falcroft. "Can I please get this over with and go back?" Falcroft nodded.

"Back? Back where?"

"Leveret's unLtd, I work there or," he said chancing a glance at Harry, "hadn't you heard?" he smiled. Harry shifted uncertainly at having Ginny smile at him in such a cruel way.

"How did you do this?" Draco asked.

"You gave her this didn't you?" He held up the amulet that Draco had given Ginny as a gift yesterday. "Frankly I would have thought you'd have better judgement but," he smiled, "it worked out in the end. You got your mark after all, didn't you?"

Then Draco realised something. "You killed him in her body, if she remembers-."

"Oh," he laughed, "she'll remember," he nodded enthusiastically.

Draco narrowed his eyes at that. "She's going to be scarred for life with what you did." He glared at him. "It's not right; she's not like us Blaise."

"She did."

"What?"

"What she did," he corrected him. He began listing off on his fingers. "She cut the wires, she made the wife put on the tap, she ended the holding charm on the cable." He looked up from his fingers. "All I did, was provide inspiration. Creativity for a conquest long a-waited."

"She's not like you, Zabini."

He feigned fear. "Ooh, Zabini, so you're angry at me? Oh I'm shaking in her shoes." He threw down his napkin and sat back. "Ask her yourself, I'm going home." He closed his eyes.

It was then that Falcroft had to intervene. "Oh no you aren't. You didn't send them all those things to leave them in the dark. You have others coming here, they'll be here any minute."

He kept his eyes closed. "They're smart. They can figure it out by themselves. I don't even want to be here." He sensed Falcroft's retort and opened his eyes glaring at the demon before him. "I did not return for this interrogation," he said sternly cutting off any kind of conversation. He sat back again and spoke softer as he closed his eyes. "If they can't listen, I'm not talking. Goodnight." With that he was gone. Ginny blinked various times and looked around the room. One look to all of them said not to bother explaining. She knew everything that happened.

They continued as if nothing happened. "He sent us those things? He's the common enemy? So what, he's playing both sides?" Ron said but he didn't get an answer. Suddenly they saw as well as heard the fireplace flaring. They all turned to see people coming out of it. It was the people that Falcroft had said were to arrive any minute.

Ron looked at the group of people that were now following Falcroft into the kitchen. One look at the amulets around there necks made him fume. "Who the hell are they, now? Why are all these people coming into my house?" He paused when he realised no one was bothering to listen to him. "Where the hell is mum?" he said loudly when he realised there was no one that was going to back him up on this.

"Ron," Harry said. "Calm down."

"You bloody calm down if you have tens of assassins going in and out of your home like a bloody train station, Harry. When you can do that, I can too."

"Well I can do that. Calm yourself," Harry said sternly. Ron sat down and began to breathe. He looked around warily when the other four were told to sit down.

"This is Jonathan, Cole, Andrew and Paul." They sat down at the table respectively. Falcroft continued as if they had been there all the time. "Blaise Zabini has been browsing around the building and found a room in particular that was interesting. As it turns out these amulets of yours," he said holding up one from around the person sitting in front of him, "work as some sort of homing device to find you. When they couldn't find Draco Malfoy here, they went after Julia Raymond thinking you took her with you because you cared for her. When Blaise Zabini turned up angry the marker they sent thought he was you. So the man killed her to teach him a lesson. When he summoned me, we exchanged stories about what we knew. He began to ask questions on how Ira Leveret was repaying the souls to the washers. When I went to ask they told me he hasn't been repaying them."

"So why don't they just take away his soul?" Hermione asked edging closer to the kitchen table eyeing the strange men that sat there.

One of them spoke up in the silence so suddenly that it made her jump. "We can't get to him, he's grown powerful over the years because of the protection he has."

"Protection from who?" she said.

Falcroft stepped forward. "The people he's killed."

***

"Okay, now you're bordering on insane."

Falcroft shook his head. "Afraid not. Those amulets you own, they do more than just track you down. They have been taking the souls of those his assassins have been killing and storing them in the building where he resides. When the washers noticed he wasn't re-paying his debt, they went to take his soul back but found they couldn't because he was heavily protected by a magic they could not penetrate. Souls house a great deal of a person's energy, if they are magical beings they will house a great deal more and then some. After all the various classes and types of wizard and muggle he has had killed, he has become extremely powerful. It is the only reason he rarely ventures out of the building. Without the building he is nothing." He paused for them to take this all in. "Mr. Zabini found the link when he realised you were the only one who's 'Captured,' number was not the same as your number killed."

"Well that makes sense. If he can't find me, he can't get anything from me, can he?"

Falcroft waved his hand at the table and the catalogue appeared before him. "Open the catalogue and look up your name." Draco did it and read through it. Under his captured mark had the number one. "See, whether he can find you or not, he won't let any souls get away."

Draco looked up suddenly understanding something. "Julia's soul, he has it doesn't he?"

"Yes."

He laughed knowingly. "So, he's gone to take him down alone?"

"Yes. He has to; if you go you won't be able to stand it. The power alone could kill you."

"So why are you all here then?" he gestured to the rest of them. He recognized three of them, empaths from the island. He knew them. The fourth one, Paul, he did not know.

The fourth one is the one who spoke. "We're here to give him that power. There are a lot of people in that building, where he keeps them we don't know even though we have a hunch he keeps them in the walls, but if they supply energy to him he's more powerful than we think. The only way to counter it is to supply the same amount and then some. Blaise needed to find out what he could but he couldn't just waltz in and say, "I want to destroy your company can you point me in the direction of main operations so I can shut it down?" They'd kill him and send him home."

Ron didn't even want to question that comment.

"So how are you going to do it?"

Falcroft answered for them. "Like he did with Ginevra here." Ginny looked away from them.

"Enter his body?"

"No, channel."

"Channel his body?"

"Channel us," Andrew answered.

"While we channel the other markers," Cole finished. "They will have to help after what he told us."

"And what is that?" Draco said cocking an eyebrow.

"See under your 'Immediate family,' it says 'complications?'" Jonathon questioned.

"Yeah," Draco said as he scanned it. He looked back up at them. "I guess it describes my family situation quite perfectly."

"Hmm. Well, look up his."

He wrote the letter 'Z,' and scanned through the pages. "None? We saw them a few years ago."

"Three years ago, he told us. They're dead now."

Draco's mouth opened wide. "What? How?"

The men shrugged. "I don't know. See every other person there?"

He read down the columns. None, None, None, None, None, filled the pages. He looked up with a frown.

"It's the same for the rest of the book. He checked already."

"He went through every name?" Hermione piped in.

"Thorough, he can't help it." Cole looked at Draco. "You are the only one who never put on his amulet. You are the only one whose family Leveret hasn't killed. You're either the smartest or luckiest person I have ever met. Can't believe I never liked you. I usually like smart people. Anyway, that's why they have to help us. He killed their families if they went to see them."

"But we were teenagers when he took us. He kept us for four years without any outside communications." Then Draco nodded knowingly. "He knew we would go back eventually."

The men opposite him nodded right back. "He knew it so well he put it in the contract," the fourth man said.

"Where?"

Jonathon laughed. "Exactly. When we signed them, did you see any fine print except for the one block of writing in the center?"

"No."

Cole leaned forward. "Neither did I, but when I got my contract it was there. So were a lot of other things."

"He can't do that! You don't add things after it's been signed, isn't that like... illegal or something? He can't get away with it."

The four of them smiled evilly. All other sin the room save Falcroft and Draco shrank back. "We know," they said. "We're prepared for that," Cole continued. "When he told us he gave us enough time to think and look up everything and gave us this place and time to meet."

"What, tonight?" Hermione asked incredulous.

They shrugged. "No time like the present."

Jonathon leaned forward this time. "We need a few things from his apartment."

***

"We can use every port key in this room." He took out a pair of gloves from his pocket. "Here," he said giving them to Ginny. "Put these on, don't want to end up somewhere on the other side of the world do you?"

She smiled and took them sliding them onto her hands. The other three reached into their pockets and did the same. "This is how we're going to get a connection with every assassin on the planet?"

Cole looked around. "Yeah, the maps give us locations and the port keys give us a link to the places on the map." He pointed to the maps that covered the walls. "It will work, if the markers are in their locations." He then proceeded to ripping them off the walls. "Forgive me Blaise, but it's for your own good."

Ginny then moved to the front of the room and peered at the huge map of the world that covered one whole wall. "Why don't we just take this one?" she said turning to them.

They all stopped and looked at her and then at the wall. Draco made a compromising face. "You continue to surprise me." She smiled and helped him take it off the wall.

"How will they all know when to help?"

Draco paused and looked at her. "Well, that's up to Granger, isn't it?"

***

"Have you had the urge to visit any of your family since you started?"

"No, there was no need from the last time I went." Hermione struggled to stay put and not listen to just one person. It was hard being part of time. He seemed to be everywhere and seeing as she had all the addresses she had to go with him. Being in these many places was getting to her though, she had no idea how the guy could stand it. She stood in place, even though the one place she was standing was about Merlin knows how many places in reality, with her eyes shut as Falcroft had told her and just listened as he spoke to them separately but all at once. It was strange, hearing all those voices but one at a time seeing as, bizarrely; they all said the same thing. In the end they didn't believe he was telling them their families were dead so, Merlin help her, he had to go back in time to show them.

All of them.

"Hermione, perhaps you should hold on to me. It would be much better for you." She nodded and did as she was told feeling a sudden grounding as she grasped a hold of his robes. He had a lot more control than she did and it was extremely less dizzying than she had felt on her own.

"Curtain of Time and all's that concealed, open the past and its secrets reveal. Past into present, show yourself to me, as I will it, so must it be."

They were traveling, through so many pasts but at once. She saw millions of deaths and heard torrents of screaming. It was so loud she covered her ears with the lot of them. When it went silent and she removed her hands, all she heard was, 'I'm in. What do I have to do?'

The time was given and so was the spell that had been created in order for them to complete the task. Really Assassins were quite organized, she would never have thought it. When she felt brave enough to ask if it was all over and had received a nod as response, she braced herself for the journey back.

***

"What the hell took you so long?" Ron asked when they crossed back.

"Do you know how long this thing is?" Ginny said as she came out of the fireplace holding one end of the world map. Ron continued to stare at it as she dragged it through. One more of them came through, then another one.

"Where's Malfoy?" he asked her as she continued to walk to the other end of the room.

"He's at the other end."

"And that would be when?"

She exhaled out of breath. "A long time from now. Could you lengthen the living room, we have to fit it all in if this is going to work." She watched as he said the spell and then continued walking to the end of the room until two more and then Draco came through the fireplace.

He dusted himself off. "Took you long enough."

She sighed. "We had to make to room bigger."

He looked at her and frowned at the room's sudden increase in size. He looked as if he were about to say something. Something so much like a Malfoy to say. Ginny gave him a warning look and he decided against it.

"To easy anyway," he shrugged and proceeded to unrolling the map across the floor.

"Put on a pair of gloves," he said to Harry who then began looking around for a pair anywhere. He dug in his coat pocket eventually and emerged in the living room again with his hands covered. "Put one of these on each country here. Don't worry they're labeled."

Harry frowned but did as he was told. 'What are these for?"

"We need to channel every living marker in each of these countries. If Granger and Falcroft are doing their job with the catalogue, they'll have the location of every unknown they can find. Hopefully that will be enough to get the power we need to bring him down."

"Could Leveret really be that powerful?"

Jonathon spoke for him. "Weren't you listening before? He has millions of dead people in that building and, willfully or not, they are protecting him from being harmed. If Blaise is going against him on his own, he won't get past round one." He laughed emptily. "You think you had it bad with Voldemort, even with Malfoy's help?"

"You know about that?"

"Err, yeah?" he said obviously. "It was Voldemort and it was his first assignment, of course everyone knew." He shook his head. "The point is, Voldemort doesn't hold a Machaera luminum to Leveret, mate."

Just then Hermione and Falcroft materialized into the room. Hermione stood for a few seconds before wobbling and moving straight to a sofa.

"I think I'm going to be sick."

"What's wrong with her?" Ron asked.

"She's just experienced being in more than... lets just say a lot of places at once. She's a little light headed. Being time, I'm used to being everywhere at once."

"Right..." He looked down at Hermione. "You okay? How many fingers am I holding up?" he asked her.

Hermione looked up at him prepared to scold him on his stupidity, that she would be fine. When she did look up she found merit in answering his question. "Which one of you is asking?" she said desperately trying to focus.

Meanwhile in the now spacious living room, the damn map from Blaise's house refused to fit along the floor.

"Well, take it outside," Harry suggested. So they did. At least it wasn't raining anymore, which was a plus compared to the painful form of rainfall it had earlier. They repeated the action of putting a port key on every country. If everything was going well in those countries, they had enough to go against Leveret. All they had to do now was wait until midnight. Draco however, was still hung up on his contract and what else could possibly have been added to it.

"When you said you saw your contracts, where were they?" he asked Cole.

"Sarah gave them to me; she's quite nice to you if you ask in the right way." Harry snickered but continued matching port keys to their respective countries.

"Where did she get them from?"

"From the place they keep them I guess, which I don't know 'cos I have a feeling that's what you're getting at. The only places I know in that building are the offices, the bathroom and the Comms Bay upstairs. Apparently Blaise went all Mission Impossible when he went exploring, he stole some poor girl's ID card and somehow convinced her to give him her number. It's how he found out how they find us in the first place. He said there was nothing in there but a large amulet, a glass map and a desk with a drawer that wouldn't open."

Draco stopped at that. A drawer that wouldn't open? Why would Leveret have a drawer that he can't open? "The Comms Bay did you say?"

"Communications. On the forty first I think he said."

"Thanks."

***

He really hoped he was doing the right thing here. He walked into the building and smiled as he passed Sarah to the elevator. Then he paused. He needed an ID card and a number. He walked back toward her only to see her holding up an ID card to his face.

"And how badly do you want this?"

"Number," he said snatching it from her hand.

She smiled. "He's going to kill you if he finds you, you know."

"That's why I want the number, now."

"7-2-5-1-8-4-9." She stared at him before tearing off the corner of a piece of paper and wrote it down. "Here, honestly you people can't do anything without me. It's like it's contagious or something."

He patted her head. "That's why you sit down here, so you don't catch it." With that he walked to the elevators and stepped inside pressing the button that said forty-one.

***

The doors opened to a pure white corridor and Draco stepped out and walked down it to stare at the plaque with small letters that said, 'Communications Bay: unauthorised entry is prohibited.' He looked down at the slit that must have meant that he had to slide in his identification card. He did so and typed in the numbers Sarah had given to him. Large locks came undone and the wall began to move backwards.

When it separated from the adjacent wall and into a room, the wall stopped. He walked in but spun around as the wall began to move back to its previous place. He watched it go all the way in to make sure no one else came in after him and then turned back to the room. He looked around the immaculate white and saw a large item on a podium surrounded by a glass case. Next to it stood a large glass screen that showed a map of the world engraved into it. He ignored it as it was obvious to him now what it did. His interest instead peaked at the other corner where a large desk stood. It stretched out through a whole length of the room and on it stood a fax machine almost identical to the one he owned in his apartment. He went to it and saw containers of stationery from muggle stationery to the normal quill and ink. He then noticed a drawer with a blank label.

Curiosity got to him and he attempted to pull it out but found that it wouldn't move. He, unlike his friend who had gone through this same ritual, did not let it go and move on. He continued shaking wanting to know what was in it. He had come in search of the drawer that couldn't open and now he had found it he was going to open it. It was then he noticed the quill stuck in the corner of the drawer. He pulled it out. As he did, four words spread across the label.

SPELL NAME FOR FILE

So, he spelt his name.

There was a rustling inside the drawer and then a shaking. Suddenly. FILE FOUND was written into the label to replace his name. Draco went to pull out the drawer but it still wouldn't move.

"So how am I supposed to read the damn file then?" he said to himself.

FILE FOUND disappeared. It was then replaced with. FILE FINISHED LOADING, WRITE UNLOCK TO OPEN. Draco smiled. It was a long file, he couldn't escape the pride. He wrote unlock and pulled out the drawer. The file took up half of it and it was too heavy to pick up. He closed the drawer going through a mental pattern. The drawer goes with the desk, the desk... He pushed it. Okay the desk doesn't move. How do I move the desk? Or can I just take the drawer? He pulled at the drawer again but it wouldn't open. Shit. He wrote unlock again and pulled. It opened thankfully, but there was no file in it. He pulled it all the way and eventually it came out of the desk like any desk drawer did.

But will it work out of the desk? Only one way to find out.

"I'm not sure you want to be doing that."

Draco spun around to find Leveret watching him in contempt.

He smirked and looked at the drawer before setting his eyes back on him. "Why? So that I don't take my contract and burn it?"

"Well there is that." He snapped his fingers. Suddenly Draco found himself in Leveret's office standing by the window that stretched the length of it. He moved away for good measure and walked back to the other side, desk drawer in hand. He had thrown the quill in the drawer just in case it didn't work without that either. "I also just don't want any marks getting a hold of their files. It's terrible when they find out just how many people they've done in, because then they have to send themselves to therapy. Excruciatingly pricey, plus I haven't the time for a mark like you."

Though he was trying hard, Draco could still see Leveret trying to catch a glimpse of the amulet around his neck and the frown when he realised it wasn't there.

"Looking for something?" he said turning toward him and making it obvious he knew what Leveret was searching for.

Leveret had the grace to look embarrassed at being caught. "It has come to my attention that something has happened that never occurred before, I am merely curious."

"Oh, about what?"

"Nothing, it doesn't matter. What are you planning to do with that drawer?"

Draco began to move backwards to the door. "Take it home, I have a desk in need of a good drawer. I've been missing it for weeks now, yours matches perfectly." He continued walking but stopped when he bumped into something.

Leveret smiled. "I don't think you'll be doing that. It matches mine a lot better." He was looking somewhere behind him, as if he knew something Draco didn't, which was probably true. Draco turned around to look Blaise in the eye. "Have you met my newest employee, Draco? He was a friend of yours I think, until you got some dear friend of his killed. Funny that isn't it?" Draco could see the pain still in Blaise's eyes even when it was mentioned as a passing comment. Blaise pushed past him and stalked into the room.

"We've met. He's changed though, since I last knew him. So much I don't think I know him anymore."

Blaise narrowed his eyes at him and then smirked. "Until now." Draco stopped and looked at Blaise fully registering what he had said and how it sounded so much like what Sarah had said this afternoon. "How are things with you? Having a good time with the love of your life? Sad to hear that I can't kill her because you went and killed her husband. Maybe I should go and get someone to put a mark on her so I get another go," he said as he sat down.

"After all the things I've done for you, you had better not try anything."

All Blaise did was nod curtly blandly acknowledging the comment. "What's with the drawer, decorating are we?"

"I found it lying around upstairs. It had no label; I didn't think it was very important."

"Everything here is important."

"Hmm, even the walls." Blaise furrowed his eyebrows and tried to decipher Draco's meaning behind that. All Draco did was cock an eyebrow and smile.

"I don't know what you think you're doing but you aren't going to succeed. You have walked blindly into a place where you cannot escape. A place full of enemies. I have no idea how anyone can be so stupid. Apparently it's true, the people here are contagious."

Draco looked directly from Blaise to Leveret. "Are you sure about that?" He looked at his watch. It was five to twelve. If he was going to make this work he had to get back by twelve or else this was not going to happen.

"Unmistakably sure."

"I have a right to see my own file. You have no say in telling me what I can and cannot do. You do not own me. It's in the motto, or didn't you make that?" He took a step back. "Then again you have the habit of forcing people do what you want them to. What is it you do? Oh yes, kill off their family and friends." He looked pointedly at Blaise. "Or our girlfriends." He noted Blaise's constant glare at the man before him. "I'm sure you've even killed people's pets," he said joining Blaise's glare.

Leveret didn't seem to notice. "If they were put before their jobs, yes. They were a distraction. One that was not needed anymore. Every person is expendable, especially if they are distracting my employees."

"So, just like that. Poof." He elaborated with a gesture. "Gone."

"Yes. They are nothing to me, they are noth-." Draco stood back as Blaise grabbed a hold of Leveret's head and bashed it into his desk. He then looked down as Leveret bent over and received a hex thrown at him from Blaise's hand. He hadn't seen that coming.

"Draco. I think it's time you left," he heard Blaise say. He looked up to see his arm extended to the place Leveret was bent over. The walls suddenly started shaking, the building was reacting to the hex Blaise had thrown. He nodded and left.

***

"Well?" Cole frowned as he looked at the drawer in Draco's hand. He was holding it as if it contained the greatest secrets of the universe. "What's with the drawer?" he said with a slight smile indicating he thought Draco was a bit off-side.

All Draco could think about was the shaking walls and how it felt like the whole building was going to collapse. "Long story." He swallowed hard. "You have to start now."

Cole nodded. "Alright. Put this on." He held out Draco's amulet.

"Me? I don't want to wear that. If it's capable of what you say it is, forget it."

"It won't be for long. If this works, it should fall right off." Draco took the chain and put it on feeling the clasp fuse together and disappear. He walked straight outside where he saw everyone else gathered around the map, they looked nervous.

"How long now?" Draco asked.

Jonathon looked at his watch. "Ten seconds."

"I hope this works."

"It better had. If not, Blaise is dead." They stood in silence ready to begin.