Hallo my dear readers!

I hope that you are all healthy and safe during these trying times.

As there are tons of misinformation around right now, I list a few reputable sources in the English language that I use to stay informed, perhaps this might help some of you:

1.) World Health Organization (WHO)

2.) Robert Koch Institute

3.) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

4.) Medmastery (also Channel on Youtube).

[5.) Doctor Mike (who basically just uses the WHO and the CDC as sources and breaks it down so that normal people can understand it.)]

Chapter 24

Soft steps could be heard. Somebody was cautiously stepping down the worn wooden steps descending into the deep cellar paved with a cement floor with mildew cracks snaking across it. Draco working on another potion at the opposite side of the table perked up while Snape observed their work with hawk-like precision. Harriet added the Alihotsy leaves to her potion and carefully let out her breath which she had held in anticipation. Her potion slowly turned orange, just like it was supposed to be.

"Mother!" Draco greeted her affectionately and almost spilt his porcupine quill into her potion. "Oi, careful, Draco." Harry quickly caught it to prevent any calamity. The last thing they needed was to blow up Snape's personal, private laboratory at home.

"Ms Potter is correct Draco." Snape drawled. "That porcupine quill could have devastated her Potio refectionis. Do not get distracted by your mother."

"Sorry." He murmured, throwing his mother a sheepish grin, which she affectionally returned.

"I'm sorry, Severus. I know I'm early to pick Draco up, but I just wanted to see his progress personally." She told him.

"So, you don't trust my judgement on that." He stated wryly turning back towards the blond boy, but Harry could spot a barely noticeable gleam in Snape's eye that told her that he was baiting Mrs Malfoy. She did a double-take. He was jesting. The big oversized bat was making a fool on Mrs Malfoy's behalf.

"No, I do trust your judgement on that, but second-year potions at his age is just something that I wanted to see for myself. I couldn't believe it when Draco told me." She beseeched him.

"We began second year's potions with Draco today. That is correct. If I had at least a handful of students like him or Ms Potter, then I'd be blessed indeed." Snape concurred.

"Nous sommes un baume sur son cœur lourd."(=We are a balm on his heavy heart.) Harriet winked putting her right hand over her heart, causing Draco to snort before he could stop himself.

"Seulement dans tes rêves, jeune femme," Snape responded dryly setting off the two young children as they burst into laughter. She had no idea that Snape understood French. So, had he known all of their banter. Ups.

"See that's what I have to put up with if I teach both of them at the same time." he nodded in their direction.

Neville groaned. He was exhausted. Not only had he been on mind-numbing patrol duty, but his squad leader had forced extra training sessions afterwards. And those sessions were brutal. Due to his training in the Imperial Army, he was used to it by now, but what his superior put them through was a whole new level. He wanted to show up other squad leaders, and that meant constant exercise. Now, just as he came back to his cot from a much-needed shower, he was informed that he had to report to Med bay, together with Colin and Seamus. So, something was up, and that meant that he had to postpone his mirror call with his grandmother again, but he took the little mirror with him, just in case.

"Why do you think it's just us three who have to report to Med Bay and none of the others of our squad?" Colin asked nervously wringing his hands behind his back, and Neville had to calm himself from losing his temper.

"For the third time, Colin, I. don't . know." he ground out. "They didn't tell me, but I find it a bit suspicious that it is just us three Earthlings."

"Perhaps Potter squawked to save her own skin," Seamus suggested, and Neville shook his head.

"Doubtful, she may be a wild card, but the secrecy of you know what protects her just as much as her." He argued. Neville sighed as he felt the lift stop and open to the Med Bay.

"Troopers LS-2085, 2086 and 2087 reporting as requested." he took the lead addressing the greying medical officer, who appeared tense.

"Thank you for coming troopers." The Chief Medical Officer greeted them with a weary look on his face. "Admiral Thrawn suggested that you are somewhat familiar with Lt. Potter and her family?" he inquired.

He frowned. "Yes, we know her from association. I'm the one with more personal knowledge about her family." Neville stated. "May I ask what this is about?"

"You may, Trooper." The officer said with a heavy sigh and gestured towards a closed-off section of the deck. Neville cursed under his breath when he recognized the familiar unruly Potter hair on the daybed. "It pains me to admit, but I'm out of my depth. She has a high fever that we are struggling to get down, no virus, bacteria, toxins or allergies are causing it. The only possibility that is left is perhaps a genetic predisposition that can give her bouts of fever. Her DNA, however, doesn't suggest such a disability."

Neville shook his head. "No. I've known her family for as long as I can remember. None of them had what you described, Sir and her family is known to be one of the healthier ones in our wo…ahm…community."

Now it was on the Medical Officer to swear. "Tell me, trooper, what does the word Scorpius mean in your language? She keeps uttering it."

Neville's eyes widened processing the information.

"It's a star constellation seen from our planet," Colin explained eagerly with an equal worried glance at their fellow wizard.

"Well, technically it's the Latin term for predatory arachnids. They have eight legs and are easily recognized by the pair of grasping pedipalps and the narrow, segmented tail, often carried in a characteristic forward curve over the back, ending with a venomous stinger." Seamus supplied with an equally eager grin drawing the creature in the air. "I mean she was down on the surface. Perhaps they have similar species, and she got stung by one."

The medical officer nodded at him, rubbing his chin. "That's a possibility. We did check for entry wounds. Perhaps we missed something."

"We-certainly-did-not." The medical droid interrupted him swiftly.

"There's only one problem," Neville remarked, "You found no toxins in her system and Scorpions are often poisonous." Telling the Medical officer that Scorpius could also be a name was on the tip of his tongue, but he stopped himself in the nick of time. She had told him that she somehow had a connection to Malfoy's son. What if it wasn't her that was ill? Perhaps something else was causing this? He had to get in contact with his grandmother. Fast. His hand itched towards his pocket.

"Can I talk to her, Sir?" Neville asked tentatively.

The medic snorted gesturing towards her. "Be my guest. The last thing I need is the Grand Admiral's personal aide dying on my watch. He's already breathing down my neck and isn't even in the system."

Longbottom quickly crouched closer to her and frowned. Why was she wearing a bracelet with the deathly hollows? Hold on, she also wore a simple necklace with the same symbol and one additional one carrying a potently charged rune, that he recognized as warding off evil spirits or instead protecting the wearer from being found by dark entities? Was she fighting against a sinister entity? Was this the reason why she was weak? Perhaps it wasn't Scorpius that was the problem. Maybe she was being attacked.

"Hey, Potter". Neville whispered carefully stepping closer to her. Her complexion had turned pallid with cold sweat coating her face, her dark hair was an unruly nest sticking in pretty much every direction.

Harry groggily locked her glassy eyes with him, the sweat of pearls on her glistening front. "Scorpius is unwell," she whispered hoarsely casting a vary glance towards the medical officer who had turned away from them to read something on a nearby panel. "He is in danger."

"Come again," he asked attentively, stepping closer to her. So, it was Scorpius? That connection became stranger by the second.

"Something is wrong with Scorpius," she repeated weakly, not able to find the strength to raise her voice or her head or any of her limps. "You need to warn … them."

"Don't worry. I'll look into it." he promised. Her face contorted for a second. "Potter?!" he asked quickly, but she didn't react to him.

"Potter, Harry!" he repeated again, more forcefully, touching her hand. It had an effect, yet not one that he had anticipated. "It's searching again." she murmured weakly.

"What is?" he reluctantly drew his gaze away from her face towards her necklace, whose rune shortly flared up. "The darkness." he heard her whisper.

"What darkness?" he inquired wearily. Was she hallucinating? She seemed to be hallucinating, but what about that rune? Perhaps it had been a trick of the light? "Potter, come on…"

She could hear that he was speaking more, tapping her hand, but she drifted off again.

The familiar darkness was encircling her again. She had to find her way out of here. It was dangerous. A pitch-black fog trying to capture her. Scorpius depended on her escape. She knew it. But it became denser. Thicker. Clinging to her. It was hard to breathe. The mist tried to suffocate her. She stumbled over something and shrieked as she fell and landed on her back, something hard, knocking the breath out of her lungs. She had to remain calm, couldn't lose focus. She needed to get out of here. There were dark shadowy outlines of a large hall.

Calm yourself! A baritone voice reached out to her. It was a calm voice, but not calm enough. That fog was drowning her. Killing her. Slowly.

Find your centre, find the light within you the voice reached out to her again. Her centre! What?! How? She had no form. She was lost. She was… No, she wasn't alone. The calming presence was somewhere nearby. She could sense it. No, it seemed to come from everywhere around her. Was this a trick? She had to be hallucinating. Harry closed her eyes. He had told her to find her centre, she had no idea where her centre was, but perhaps if she imagined it, she could picture it. The last thing she could remember was that she had drifted off again. So, this had to be a dream. So, she basically closed her eyes in her dream.

This isn't real, she said wishing the fog to go away, but it felt real. Harry cast out her mind feeling the other's amusement. This entity was benevolent towards her? It felt like a balm against the darkness trying to reach her.

Reality can take many forms the baritone voice answered her and then she felt it. He was part of the light! How was that possible?! She had lost it.

No, there is one reality, but everyone has a different perception of that reality, making them believe that there is more than one reality. She countered still searching. Focusing on his presence. The light felt warm, inviting, peaceful and…? Yet there was a storm raging at the periphery of her awareness. A dark and malevolent tornado threatening to devour every living thing. The fog was part of that tornado.

One's perception can still create different realities for everyone. Good, don't lose focus. Concentrate. The voice urged. Harry stepped closer towards it. She could feel the steady current of the light engulf her, caressing her like a long-lost friend. She knew that light. It felt familiar, welcoming, tingling. She was pretty sure that she had to be high on something. But what a trip that was. Her gaze was drawn to the voice again. She couldn't see him, only the outline of a tall man with long hair in a tunic and a robe. That was some progress at least.

The Living Force connects everything in the universe, every living thing is intertwined with each other. Yet some beings can share a deeper understanding of the world.

She sighed in understanding. What he said resonated deeply within her. It felt correct. The Force? You're a Jedi! Her heart accelerated. She was talking to a Jedi! No, it couldn't be. Could it? This was her chance to find out more about his order. Perhaps some truth that the empire had hidden by rewriting history. She had so many questions but didn't know where to begin, and although she wanted to blab them all out, she understood that they weren't important right now. So, she kept quiet. Or this was just another hallucination. It had to be.

A lifetime ago, yes, I was. He told her. Now I'm part of the Force, who exists in two forms: The Living Force and the Cosmic Force. The Living Force represents the energies of all lifeforms, and those energies are fed into the Cosmic Force which is responsible for binding the galaxy together and communicating the will of the Force. Because of this Force sensitives can feel disturbances in the Force whenever there is a significant loss of life.

She gulped, remembering the utter terror and coldness she had felt in the Academy which she now knew to have been Baton. Batonn, she whispered in sorrow.

Yes, for you to have felt it from so far away shows that you are strong in the Force. the voice told her, radiating understanding. She swallowed hard fighting back tears.

It's a curse. she ground out dejectedly. All that death. Why am I only feeling all that death since the Empire attacked my planet? Her heart constricted; it became hard to breathe again. Washington, Berlin, Beijing and Moscow. So many people died when those cities were almost wiped from existence. Batonn. It tore through my entire being. As if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. So much life lost. So many possibilities, chances that were taken from them. Their cries and voices… she drew in a breath. She couldn't lose control now. Reverberating echoes of the pain, terror, and suffering of the people who had lost their lives. Why did I have to feel that? We fought back against the empire. Downed their fleet. And with that, I doomed them all.

The voice was silent, yet she still could feel his presence. She felt an invisible touch of a large hand on her right shoulder. Calm yourself. What has happened was not your fault.

Yes, it was. she shot back clenching her fists. It was my idea to defend ourselves against the first fleet, that was holding our planet hostage. It was my company's technology combined with other tech companies and military operations from around the world to down that fleet. We should have realized that it would doom all those cities.

Would those operations still have continued without your involvement? the voice asked her. She nodded. Probably, yes.

What you are describing sounds like a wound in the Force. he explained. Wounds in the Force are created whenever a massive loss of life occurs. All life in is interconnected and when a significant number of lives are suddenly ended, the Force sustains a localized injury much like a sentient who had lost a limp. The epicentre of that wound becomes a dark place, filled with the reverberating echoes of the pain, terror, and suffering of the life forms who had lost their lives. They course through the Force like a scream that only Force-adepts, such as yourself, can hear.

Hot tears streamed down her cheeks. But I'm only a witch. Not a Jedi. Why do I feel them?

You are strong in the Force, yet you never were properly trained. Magic is just one supernatural technique that allows a practitioner to wield great powers connected to the Force.

Harry wanted to protest. Magic was complicated and it certainly wasn't just one supernatural technique. There were dozens of different techniques. It can't be just one technique.

It is. The technique may vary within, but the use of the Force remains the same. You are untrained in any other use of the Force and yet you are instinctively relying on it. Using it. You are creating small unique waves in the Force, that can be detected by other Force users if they are listening.

Her breath hitched. She must have attracted that dark entity searching for her! Is that how you found me?

Yes. The man answered her calmly. The capital ship you are on is current present near a focal point of the Force, which did assist me as well.

Harry frowned. But I used a protective rune to mask my presence. she wondered. It shouldn't have been possible to find me.

There was that warm amusement again. You are concealing your presence, yes, but your actions using the Force can be detected. As I said. You are untrained. Would you have been born in the Republic, then you would have been brought to the Jedi Order and been trained properly.

Harry shuddered. On the one hand, all her earlier questions about the Jedi Order came back to her, but again she didn't dare to ask them. But on the other hand, she assumed that somehow, she must have been lucky not to have been born in the Republic. Then I'd be dead right now. There aren't many Jedi left and if the Inquisitors find me...

Not if you learn to conceal yourself. There are still enough Jedi. There is hope for you still. You must learn to control your emotions, to calm your mind.

"Blimey, I have no idea what she's doing, but I'm startin' to freak out," Seamus whispered towards his colleague wishing that Neville would hurry up with his conversation. "Not sure if I can hold that cloaking spell for much longer."

"Hey, you've got the easy part. Imagine holding the Imperious without a wand" Colin muttered gritting his teeth. "Why what's she doing?" casting a hectic glance backwards.

"She's floating," Seamus mumbled under his breath. "Not much, but enough to be concerned."

What?! Then add a sticking charm." Colin suggested raising his voice a bit, causing Seamus to groan.

"Sure, why not? Because casting to spells without my wand is soo easy. What was the spell again?"

"Epoximise". Colin grumbled, patting him on the back. "Just don't blow anything up."

"I haven't blown anything up in years." he hissed back in agitation casting the additional spell and flinched.

Behind them, the Med-droid whirred, smoked and rattled and a few moments later, fell apart, still sizzling.

"You were saying?" Colin remarked dryly.

"So, what you are saying is that she has fallen ill and there is no indication to why?" Kingsley repeated sitting at his office desk with Augusta opposite to him. Both were talking towards the communication mirror on his wall. Longbottom was standing in a dark corner occasionally glancing at something out of their visual area.

"Exactly. She is feverish, clearly hallucinating and the others have trouble hiding her bouts of magic right now. I mean she is floating slightly. Not much, just half a centimetre, but that can still be too dangerous if they see it." he whispered hastily. "It could compromise everything."

"She keeps uttering the name Scorpius and when I talked to her earlier, she was convinced that he was unwell or in danger somehow. Do you have any idea what could be going on?"

He saw Augusta shaking her head. They had agreed that they wouldn't speak of their suspicion if they didn't have evidence for it. But her grandson did appear to be desperate. "The Malfoy's were seen with their youngest heir Scorpius at St. Mungo's yesterday." That much he decided to disclose. "I saw Tonks sending them to a Muggle hospital due to the circumstances."

"What circumstances?" Longbottom inquired impatiently. "I mean come one, stop beating around the bush. This is serious, Minister!"

"I understand perfectly, Mr. Longbottom and I will immediately send someone to the Malfoys to find out more, but you will have to stay patient a little bit longer."

The young man growled in anger. "Send somebody to the Malfoys and tell them to give him something to get the fever down. We need a lucid, fully functioning Harriet Potter and not one that loses control of her powers. Especially not now. Now get a move on!" With that, he ended their conversation.

He quickly sent an interdepartmental memo to Tonks sending her to inform the Malfoys about finding out more about the child's condition and report back to him.

"You didn't tell him about what happened to his parents." he finally remarked at a blurry-eyed Augusta.

"Neville is dealing with enough right now. Burden him with the knowledge that the empire took his parents to Merlin knows where wouldn't help him at all." she quickly dried her tears with her handkerchief. "I have nobody in the Muggle World who could find out anything about their current whereabouts and that wonderfully brilliant new law that your fearful Purebloods in the Wizengamot have cooked up hinders any progress." she spat standing up. "I'm not getting younger and this separation will make us lose everything that we hold dear."

"Augusta, that law was not my doing." he pleaded. "I'm working towards undoing it and I have agents who try to make contact with the Muggle's resistance, but they have no idea where to begin."

"Then get one!" she snarled angrily and slamming the door behind her. Great! Today was not his day.

A moment later a few house-elves of the cleaning squad made themselves known to tell him about their currently two least favourite Aurors.

They informed him sourly with high-pitched voices, that his two Clobberfield and Winston had come from St. Mungo's reeking after smoke, bile and grime, but hadn't allowed anyone in to clean their offices and had stayed in there working through the entire night. So, he was curious about any new developments. They surely wouldn't require even more secrecy if there wasn't some new development. And he desperately needed some good news.

"Judging by the state of your clothes, you must have come directly from St. Mungos," Kingsley stated entering their office doors with raised eyebrows at his two investigators quickly tried to brush off ash from their clothes at hearing his voice. Scourgify had apparently not been enough.

"Not quite, Sir. St. Mungo's in fire had to take precedence, and it really was all hands on deck" Clobberfield explained taking another glance at a strange box sitting on his desk. Another box connected to the first rattled and shook, spitting out what looked like paper.

"Well, when we were informed that a fire had broken out in St. Mungo's, we wanted to offer our help. That they have lost their patient's archives in the blast is disheartening." his partner Winston clarified taking the stacks of paper off the rattling box, clipping it together.

"Not, to say dangerous for their patients." Kingsley nodded dejectedly wondering why they thought about the archives first and the patients second. That was quite unlike the two diligent Aurors.

"But as you probably know two simultaneous small blasts destroyed other offices and also one of our two healers," Winston told him taking off his horned glasses to clear them.

"Very convenient and technically not possible." his partner clarified.

"You believe that somebody purposely started the fire?" the minister asked narrowing his eyes. He knew already that the fire hadn't been an accident but perhaps these two had a different take on things.

"Well, as you are undoubtedly aware. That was the verdict of the Auror's on scene. The pyro-experts are still trying to find out about the source, but their first verdict concurs with our colleagues.

"That doesn't mean that your case and the fire are related." Kingsley mused but Auror's always considered their case first.

"That's right." Clobberfield nodded sitting back down at his chair and lifted his index finger. "But as it happened, we did have an appointment today. It's highly suspicious that the day before the healers planned to give all their medical data about Astoria Malfoy over to our investigation, their archives go up in flames, together with their offices.

Kingsley sighed verily. Yes, it did sound suspicious "It could still be an unfortunate coincidence. Can the healers recall what was in those files?"

"No, one of the healers died in the blast and the second managed to hand us this stick before passing out." Clobberfield pointed towards a USB stick sticking out from the box on the desk. "but we had no idea what exactly this was. Some Muggle device that we didn't know yet. She murmured that they had saved everything on there. So, we went to the Ministry's expert on Muggle technology in Surrey, and he identified it as a USB flash drive, which could store large amounts of information.

Kingsley's eyes widened. Now that was interesting news. Augusta was right. They did miss out on a lot of things.

"And yes Minister, we are aware of the law that we can't be in contact with any Muggles and more, but with all due respect, I rather prefer to solve this case than leave it as a cold case," Winston added acidly in their defence, but he just brushed it off with a shrug. "I won't complain about that. So, we might have the exact copies of those files on there?" he clasped his hands behind his back.

"It's possible, yes. We don't know as we don't have the printed versions who have gone up in flames. Both healers are Muggle-borns. And Muggles are on the way to become "digital" or were according to our expert. Anyway, their files are all saved on small hard drives and their personal laptops, which they always carry with them. Whoever started the fire only destroyed physical printed paper or parchment files. It tells us that the perpetrators must have been purebloods or wizards unfamiliar with Muggle technology. I'm only familiar with it because my ex was a half-blood introducing me to Muggle technology." Clobberfield explained with excitement brushing his hand through his blond mop of hair.

Kingsley smiled. "So, they didn't accomplish anything. Finally, that's the first good news I've heard today. So, what's in those files that are so dangerous for them?".

"We don't entirely know yet. Our technical contractor in the Muggle world managed to decrypt the stick and saved the data onto a second stick, just to make sure that we can't accidentally delete evidence and have spare copies. We made sure that he couldn't get privy to the information."

"Are you certain about that?" Kingsley inquired. After all, they weren't experts in Muggle technology themselves.

"Yes. Well, we are still trying to make sense of it. We've been using the spare laptop that he gave us to access the files, and we are slowly working through it. The records suggest that as Astoria Malfoy had carried a hereditary curse, it meant that it was genetic" Winston explained crossing his arms sitting onto his desk with one leg drawn.

"Ok?." Kingsley said in a questioning tone.

"We didn't understand either, and the files are a lot of medical gibberish, but the healers explained it like that: DNA is the material that carries all the information about how a living thing will look and function. For instance, DNA in humans determines such things as what colour the eyes are and how the lungs work. Each piece of information is carried on a different section of the DNA. These sections are called genes. It is in every cell of every living thing. Quite remarkable really."

"And we also found out that a few years ago a former Ravenclaw was even able to prove that the ability to do Magic hinges on one single gene combination, that every human has. If the gene is active, then the individual can do magic. That's why Muggles can have Muggle-born witches, and long lines of Wizards can have Squibs." Clobberfield clarified further.

"The Muggles are more advanced in that area and are working towards fixing genetic errors." The minister could feel the growing excitement of his two Aurors. But this information seemed vaguely familiar to him. He had heard something of that sort before from a former order member who had experimented with something like this. The very former order member that had been on his mind earlier.

"So, as nobody knew how to stop this disease, they wanted to find out which gene was affected. So, they commissioned DNA tests on Astoria Malfoy and her son as they share relation." Clobberfield resumed.

"That didn't turn out as well as they thought it would. Something in that DNA test didn't make sense to them. Their first assessment was that the illness was rewriting her genetic code, but then the thought what if it was something else. So, they asked Mr Draco Malfoy for his DNA to match it with their son. That did fit with what they knew. Draco's DNA showed that Scorpius was his son. 98.75% match. They checked with the laboratory to see if they might have accidentally switched the samples of Mrs Malfoy, but they haven't. So, they asked the entire Greengrass Family for a DNA Test. Her DNA wasn't so much different than her sister's." Winston continued the red thread.

"I still don't know what you are getting at," Kingsley remarked, yet his suspicion grew. It dawned on him that Augusta's own doubt could be all too accurate. Especially, as her friend, Andromeda also had developed a similar interest lately.

"Well, Boss, we didn't either at first. Eventually, we figured out from the files that the curse wasn't rewriting her DNA. But the healers heavily implied that Scorpius Malfoy might not be Astoria Malfoy's son. Which is technically not even a crime. Some purebloods are sometimes using surrogate mothers to conceive. There is even an agency in Diagon Alley for that. The hostess provides fertile witches for pureblood families which are paid to have intercourse with the male until she carries their spawn."

His jaw dropped. It seemed that there was a lot that he didn't know. And he was the Minister of magic, for Merlin's sake. Why had he never heard about that one before? He would certainly have to look into yet another problem. Perhaps Augusta's theory was correct, or the Malfoy's had employed such a surrogate. But he tended to lean towards Augusta's theory.

"You are right. It isn't illegal if the mother relinquished all rights to her child. Why did they not voice their suspicions before?" he sighed.

"Probably, because nobody would have believed them. Their words against the words of old purebloods families. Old Wizarding families that have lost prestige due to their allegiance to You-know-who, but they still rank higher in society than our two healers. They wanted to focus on saving Astoria Malfoy's life first. But after her death, they did not want to immediately confront Mr Malfoy with it during his mourning period because he would probably not believe them either. Or he might have known about it anyway but kept quiet due to the stigma that comes with using a surrogate mother in our society." Winston elaborated dispassionately.

"And only a few Muggle-born know about DNA, or its possibilities so, the Wizengarmot would not even take a second glance at that. Especially after they rejected the outcome of the only study that was done in that direction. In any case, they might have accused them of helping Astoria Malfoy die earlier." Clobberfield added.

"But that does not mean that they just let go of it. No, they managed to track down a misfiled file on Astoria Malfoy's pregnancy, which we also have a copy of on here. Apparently, she had a complicated pregnancy and was rather close to miscarrying several times."

"Then we need to talk with her former healer," Kingsley told them eagerly. "Does he still work in St. Mungos?" Both shook their heads simultaneously.

"No, here comes the next 'coincidence' boss," Clobberfield said conspiratorially. "He came into some inheritance from a long lost relative a few years back and retired early to spend more time with his family."

"We found out an hour ago, that he passed away in his sleep yesterday evening." The Winston one lamented.

"Convenient," Kingsley remarked sarcastically mentally deciding to put another Auror to investigate this healer's demise. Somebody was three steps ahead of them. Was this one person or a collective of individuals? It almost appeared to be a very opportunistic collective.

"Well, we do not quite know how to proceed right now," Clobberfield told him. "We do not know who exactly is responsible for starting the fire. We don't even know for sure if it is related. All we have are suspicions. And if we confront the Malfoys or the Greengrass about our suspicion, then we might put Scorpius Malfoy and the last remaining healer in danger. Because if they perpetrators realize that he is the only link to their possible crime, if there is a crime at all, they might make him and the surviving healer a target."

"Then, we need to build a solid case first. If he is not Astoria Malfoy's son and she was pregnant, then where is her baby? Who exactly is Scorpius Malfoy's mother then?" Kingsley urged them believing to know precisely who the mother really was, but he could not influence his investigators.

They had to find it out themselves. He needed physical evidence and for Merlin's sake protect the boy. If the perpetrator was going to such length,…

"Well, we know that Healer Fallus delivered her child, but he destroyed all his files when he retired and as he died, it's a dead end.

"You said that the DN ahm… whatever proved that Draco Malfoy was the father. Then perhaps he knows about a second potential woman who he could have impregnated in the critical time. You know to find the surrogate."

Stay safe and healthy everyone!

And I'm looking forward to your comments.