"Forgive me Father for I have sinned.

It is Her image.

She is the reckoning,

The end of all religion.

For She is a God,

And She is real.

And I have forsaken everything,

Except Her name."

— B. L. Cortez

The safehouse by the lake was in horrible shape with moss sprawling across the moldy wooden panels and paint peeling as if recoiling from the structure. The only benefit Draco supposed was that the only other person stationed there was an old ex-Auror who, from what he had observed during Order meetings in passing, was an odd fellow that kept to himself.

"Daddy, how many sleeps we be here?" Scorpius whispered as he eyed the overgrown lawn.

"Three sleeps only, Scorp."

"I'll make some lunch, then we'll check out the lake. What do you think?" Hermione asked, poking the boy's nose. Scorpius giggled in response and nodded enthusiastically.

Once they finally settled into their rooms, Draco and Scorpius sat on the rickety kitchen table as Hermione finished up the cooking. The ex-auror, Callum, was out on the porch, tinkering with a magical object that whirled and whizzed. The man had reminded Draco of Professor Slughorn — an odd childlikeness to him. He had simply nodded at them when they arrived, continuing to talk to himself and twitch. Hermione had assured him that he was a kind man and had explained that was hit by a curse that addled his mind a little, causing him to believe that inanimate objects could speak. He was still able to fight but was only asked to join missions that needed backup. Her assurances however did nothing to settle Draco when he caught the wizard reprimanding a clock.

"Here you go." Hermione hovered a plate of pasta for each of them before settling in her own chair.

"Mini, can you pwease gimme more veggies?" Scorpius said, puffing up his little chest proudly. Draco rolled his eyes, not needing to see Hermione's proud reaction.

"Yes, of course!" the witch beamed as she scooped more tomatoes onto his plate. "Such a good boy, eating veggies!" Scorpius grinned at her looking very pleased with himself, if not a bit smug.

"Have you found any more information on the location?" Draco asked as they ate.

"Nothing much," Hermione frowned. "It's not owned by any wizarding folk. From muggle public records Kings was able to retrieve, all we found was that it was an abandoned muggle building. They detected the Death Eater activity only a week ago. Moody suspects it's likely a training ground for new recruits."

"I agree with Moody," Draco said grimly. "From what I read in the Weaslette's report, more and more Death Eaters have been recruited."

"Well, we'll find out tonight won't we," she sighed.

"Done!" The little boy smiled with sauce smeared on his face.

"Scorpius..." Draco raised a brow.

"Oh!" he jolted, grabbing his napkin then dabbed his face. Draco ruffled the boy's hair.

"Ah, I actually also made a little something!" Hermione left her seat and pulled out a plate of cupcakes. She had been in a rush so they were uneven, the frosting tilting precariously.

"Cuppa-cakes!"

Hermione placed them in the middle. "I haven't made them in a while — my mum's recipe. They're not perfect but the frosting should be alright... "

"I don't know, Granger," Draco said, eyeing the platter suspiciously. "Death by cupcakes?"

"Is good," Scorpius chirped as he licked the yellow frosting. Hermione smiled as she took a bite of one — she sighed in relief. Scorpius was right; despite its shoddy appearance it was actually moist.

"Really, Malfoy, they actually turned out fine." Hermione took a chunk of the desert between her fingertips and offered it for him to take. Draco's eyes flickered from her face to the desert in front of him.

Hermione's lips parted in surprise when he bent his head then his lips, softer than she expected, brushed against her fingertips. His tongue darted out, just grazing the pad of her thumb as he took the piece into his mouth. He pulled back, chewing slowly as he watched her from beneath heavy lids.

"Is yummy, daddy?" Scorpius asked passively as he concentrated on licking the frosting off his little palms.

"Delicious."

***

The day had descended quickly into twilight, leaving nothing but silence and the sound of hummingbirds calling for their way home. They had arrived hours earlier but there was no sign of life in the building. Neither were there any indicators that people had been going in and out.

"There are wards, but they're just basic security ones. Other than that there doesn't seem to be anyone inside," Hermione murmured from her perch beside Draco, disillusioned behind a bush.

"According to the scout's report, they should have appeared an hour ago."

"It's getting late and the building doesn't seem to be in use at the moment. Perhaps they haven't properly set up the place for use yet."

"Perhaps. Going inside could still give us some information — at least on what the facility is used for," Draco replied.

Hermione agreed and moments after dismantling the wards, they crept towards the building, keeping their guards up for any sign of movement.

"All clear," Draco signaled. The inside was damp and barren except for a single table in the middle of the room with an object glinting on it.

Hermione took one step towards the object but was jerked back by a firm hand as Draco stepped in front of her, trying to shield her from a glowing red ring of light that suddenly emitted from the object. It didn't do much however as the ripple passed through him then to her. Hermione stilled, waiting for something to happen but didn't feel anything. She went to ask Draco if he felt anything but he had walked closer to get a better look at the object. He paled.

"Fuck," she heard him curse, pure terror in his voice. "We need to get back to the safehouse! Now!" Draco grabbed her arm and disapparated.

They appeared with a crack, the world a blur of dark colors until it settled into familiar shades of gray. Nothing appeared out of place with the safehouse except for the starkness of blood splattered across the front steps.

No.

Draco ran ahead of her and she followed, her heart beating frantically. Not Scorpius, please not Scorpius.

"Callum!" Hermione gasped as they came across the old man in the living room. His eyes were unseeing, blood pooling from his lips. Dead.

"Scorpius!" Draco growled, running up the stairs. Hermione ran behind him, wand up and waiting for any sign of movement. When they finally got to the room, Hermione choked as Draco knelt before a small bloody figure on the ground.

"Watson! Are you alright?" Draco rasped, muttering healing charms over the elf.

"Watson — Watson is alright," the old elf coughed out. He was beaten to a pulp, the sight sickening and enraging Hermione. "They've taken the young Malfoy."

"Where!" Draco yelled, eyes wild with panic.

"Watson is sorry. Watson doesn't know." The elf's eyes began to flutter as he coughed out more blood. "Watson tries to stop them, Watson try to Diapparate, but they is using Dark Object to stop elves from apparating."

"You did your best Watson." Hermione's voice shook. She crouched down, fingers trembling as she whispered more healing spells to stop any internal bleeding. "I'll have backup coming to fix you up."

"Yes but young Malfoy, young Malfoy," he choked desperately, his eyes wild and unseeing.

"We'll find him, don't worry," Hermione's voice quivered as rage filled her veins. Whoever did this was going to pay. She couldn't let herself think of what was happening to Scorpius right now, she couldn't.

"It was a trap — earlier in the warehouse," Draco said just as she sent her patronus to Kingsley for back up. "I know that Dark Object — it wasn't working when I was a Death Eater but I believe it works now. It's a device that alerts the owner of any trespassers. They must have set us up and lured us away while they attacked the safehouse and — "

Hermione looked to where he was staring. On the wall was a message written in blood.

The Malfoy line shall be made pure again.

"Fuck!" Draco hissed, smashing his fist against the wall.

Hermione quickly waved her wand, casting a charm on the blood along with a drop she pulled from Draco's bleeding knuckles. "It's — it's not his blood," she said with slight relief. "I can also track the owner of the blood with blood magic."

Draco nodded sharply and remained silent. Hermione could tell he was trying to occlude but she could see he was on the brink of shattering. With shaky fingers, she twisted her wand movements harshly, muttering a spell under her breath. Blood magic was an old kind of magic, one of its first forms as it was born from life itself. Blood and magic — the only lead wizards had in seeking the answers to where their magic came from. And who deserved it.

Moments later, the words written in blood formed together into a circle then separated in rivulets to depict a map.

"There!" Hermione pointed to where a red triangle was painted. It was one of the Death Eater locations not too far out that she had scouted very early on. From what she could recall, it functioned as a rendezvous point. "I know where it is."

Draco grabbed her arm and they Disapparated outside an abandoned dirty warehouse. There was no light hinting of any presence but they heard two low voices inside. On her signal they snuck up to one of the windows with broken glass.

" — would have loved to give that brat a good beating. A shame the Dark Lord wants those kids unharmed..." Kids. There were more of them, Hermione shuddered. But the warehouse was empty except for the two Death Eaters. The kids must have been transferred off here.

"Hermione," Draco whispered, his eyes dark as storm clouds before they screwed shut. His occlumency walls were breaking, she could feel his control hanging by the very edge.

Hermione clutched his face between her hands, forcing him to look at her. "We'll find him, I promise." She glanced back at the two Death Eaters. "Let's have a little chat with the two in there."

"Incarcerous!" Thick robes bound the two Death Eaters who didn't have time to even lift their wands. They snarled and spat in their direction.

"The mudblood and her bitch," one of them sneered. Before Hermione could reply, the man who spoke was dangling with his feet off the ground, two bruised fists holding him by the collar.

A cold smile painted over Draco's lips. "Where is my son," he whispered dangerously. The air prickled like static energy waiting to be released, waiting to strike.

"We'll never tell you," the man rasped. Suddenly, he flew across the room and smashed into a crate. Draco's eyes burned with a cold fury as he waved his hand and curled it. The man clawed at his own neck and choked as an invisible force closed around it. Hermione conjured a chair, levitating the other struggling man into it.

"Draco, do you mind if I have a go?" she asked calmly, her eyes boring into the Death Eater bound before her. From her periphery, she saw the blond nod in assent and release the other man who passed out not shortly after.

"Tell us where he is now or I promise I won't make it easy," Hermione said as she circled the Death Eater on the chair.

"I'm not telling you anything you filthy mudblood!" Draco stepped forward but she held her hand up. "Oh, you don't want to know what they're doing to those kids," the Death Eater snickered. "The Dark Lord wants them, you see. So breakable, so pure. And because you and your bitch have been messing around in places you shouldn't, the blond little brat will pay for your consequences."

White-hot rage seared through Hermione's veins. The image of Scorpius' sweet face and grey eyes. Mini! Mini!

"One more chance," she whispered. Her magic was already flaring up, as if hungry for what was coming next.

"Never," he snarled.

"Very well," she smiled. "Legillimans," she hissed sharply, tearing into his mind and leaving every memory she went through into shreds.

***

Draco's eyes widened as the man screamed. The other Death Eater on the ground, now conscious, looked horrified, struggling to get away as the witch tore into the other man's mind. Her eyes were dark and focused, and Draco watched in both horror and fascination as she ripped his mind apart.

"I found him." Just as the words left her lips, the man slipped off the chair and crashed to the ground, a glazed look in his eyes as he twitched and mumbled incoherently. "They keep the kids in another area — I can Apparate us there."

Hermione turned her head and looked at Draco, her eyes burning with a wild fire. She lifted her hand out to him. A part of his magic trembled, feeling the danger, the threat as it did the very first night he had joined the True Order. Yet he found himself walking towards her, as if compelled as another part of him called back to her.

"Let's bring him home," he whispered, entwining their hands together. In the next moment, the world disappeared.

***

"Backup should be here any moment," Hermione murmured, as they eyed the manor house. Upon arriving, she sent Kingsley and Moody a patronus updating them on the whereabouts of the children. From what she gathered from the Death Eater, it was a facility that housed the children they kidnapped. It was mainly occupied by healers and the Dark Lord's experimenters. There were a couple of guards.

Children. The flashes of innocent faces she had seen forever carved itself into her skull. She had almost lost control then, almost giving in to the desire to completely destroy his mind. But she didn't. She stopped when she found what she needed. But she would be lying to herself that the urge wasn't there.

Pops of apparition alerted Hermione to the presence of several order members arriving.

"Hermione!" Ginny frantically approached them. "What's the plan?"

Draco and Hermione filled them in, sending squads of teams around the perimeter. Once she destroyed the wards, she sent up a signal and they attacked. She and Draco moved on the front lines. The rest of the team had their backs as they focused on getting past the guards and into the building.

"Protego!" Hermione cast a shield as Draco shot a curse back at their first attacker. The inside of the manor was in chaos as healers rushed in panic. There were no children in sight however.

"The dungeons," Draco said as he led them to a dim staircase in the back, leading away from the fight that erupted in the foyer.

"Lumos." Hermione's heart pounded as they descended the dark damp staircase, praying the slippery liquid along the steps wasn't blood. As they neared the ground level, they heard whimpering and crying.

"Scorpius!" Draco yelled. They cast their lights around the cells and, in horror, found dirtied small faces staring back at them in fear.

"Daddy! Mini!" a shrill cry echoed through the walls. And there he was, his pale hair matted with dirt, his face streaked in tears as his little fists grasped the bars.

"Shh Scorpius, we're here," Draco's voice cracked. Hermione choked on a sob as the little boy kept trembling. In the wandlight she could see minor purple bruises on his face. "Such a brave boy. So brave. We're here now. We'll get you out of here — all of you."

More children started sobbing, looking frightened — all so young, Hermione was sure they didn't understand what was happening.

"Ginny, the children are in the dungeons. Our priority is to evacuate the children — get here with the teams when you can. I'm sending another patronus to Kings for the house-elves. There's more kids than we expected." The silver otter bounced out of the room as another one followed not long after intended for Kingsley.

"Almost there," Draco gritted, keeping his wand steady as he cut the bars. Once they were cut open, Scorpius rushed to them. Hermione and Draco circled their arms around him.

"Home! I want go home now!" he wailed.

"We will, love, don't worry," Hermione soothed him with shaky fingers. Once she recovered, she looked up into the terrified eyes of the other children huddled in the cells.

"We're here to help you," she said gently. Draco cut the other bars as Hermione coaxed the children out. There must have been around twenty of them. Some clung to her legs and others cried and flinched when pops of apparition resounded through the room.

"It's okay," she hushed. "They're here to help."

One by one, elves and True Order members gathered the children into their arms and Disapparated. Draco, who was holding Scorpius, stayed with her until the last of them were safely out.

"Mini, let's go." Scorpius reached out for her and, without hesitation, she took him into her arms. He buried his head in her neck and she held him tight as solid arms wrapped around them and they disapparated.

***

The headquarters was in chaos as they navigated towards the ward. Luckily, aside from some bruises and minor scrapes, Scorpius and the children were unharmed. And untouched to Hermione's relief. The children were too young to provide any useful information on where they were from and who their parents were, some even unable to speak.

"You guys alright?" Draco and Hermione looked up to see a tired looking Blaise Zabini followed by Pansy in a ridiculously fluffy emerald robe.

"A little shaken, but no severe wounds," Draco responded, tightening his arms around a sleeping Scorpius dozing on his shoulder. The boy refused to be away from both him and Hermione, panicking when one or the other had to leave for a while to sort things out. After a while, he had finally tired out despite his furious attempts to keep his eyes open. His steady breathing and heartbeat calmed Draco. He was supposed to protect him and he had failed.

"We're here to bring the kids to our place," Pansy said, placing a worried arm around her husband. "Kingsley said he could spare a healer but we should have everything taken care of from there."

Pansy's expression was grim, her face pale with evident stress but a deep determination in her eyes that made Draco glad she was now on their side. Pansy, for all her hard exterior, felt emotions even if she refused to admit it.

"Thank you," Draco replied. It seemed only yesterday they were lounging in one of the Zabini estates in the south of Italy, sipping prosecco and teasing Theo about admitting he thought Loony Lovegood was cute. Now they were older. Changed, in ways Draco did not think possible.

"Granger, what is this?" Pansy ticked, letting go of Blaise's arm and heading towards a confused Hermione. Pansy wrinkled her nose and, with pinched fingers, lifted a section of entirely burnt curls.

"Got grazed by a hex. Nothing serious." Hermione tried to shrug it off as she attempted to pat down her hair uselessly in that way she always did that amused Draco.