When Harry once again apparated onto the far end of the Malfoy Manor walkway he felt less disdain for the distance than he had felt just a few days prior. While his exhaustion was probably justified, the cross-country apparition from central London had done nothing to soothe his already growing headache; the walk up to the house did at least allow the world to stop spinning before Malfoy would, certainly, cuss him off his property once again.<br/>What Ministry officials had classified as an attack on the state, targeting Harry specifically, had to him felt more like karmic justice, only fuelling the concerns he had tried to express to both his superiors and Malfoy.<br/>Upon arriving to work Tuesday morning, Harry had been caught travelling through the Floo from Grimmauld Place to his office, blocked not from entering but from arriving. When he had finally tumbled out through one of the general entries at the Ministry foyer, the enchanted fire in his office several floors down had erupted, spilling over, and licking dark marks up his mantlepiece. Harry had immediately been hospitalized, kept there for observation the last two days.<br/>To Harry, the notion that someone had managed to interfere with the Floo network to that extend had been ludicrous. Having tried to argue that point to the Auror investigating the issue, Harry had been dismissed, kindly and as if to reassure him, that it wasn’t a matter of interfering with the network, but with Harry’s fireplace specifically; they were looking into who would have had access to his office. It had left Harry fuming, knowing it wouldn’t have mattered, finding that entire line of questioning to be utterly useless.<br/>Harry had spent he last two days restlessly pacing the observation room at St. Mungo’s, nothing to observe besides the scorch marks on his fingertips, attributed to long exposure to the Floo. The timing had frustrated him, knowing the DMLE was reluctant to see any correlation between the house in Towthorpe a month ago and the supposed tampering of his fireplace, and too narrowminded to interpret the latter as anything else.<br/>When Harry had been discharged with the explicit order to go home and rest, Harry had apparated to Malfoy Manor, needing to talk to the only who might know what Harry could only suspect.