I.
A story can be told in a thousand different ways. These versions entwine with one another, creating a web, a diagram, to the point at which sometimes you can't distinguish the original. And yet, there are thousands versions of the stories you hear.
In this original, redemption is almost never possible. You are either good or bad and the Slytherins have been put into a box before your story was even created.
But loyalty isn't evil. Ambition isn't evil. So.
What if after Voldemort's rise Narcissa Malfoy packed her bags and ran?
One of her sisters was taken from her by a burn on the tapestry and hushed voices, the other by madness; both were taken by war. It was long ago that she decided it wouldn't take away her only blood left as well.
The Slytherin House nurtures ambition in its students to last them a lifetime, but Lucius's ambitions rose so much above being the loyal lieutenant ever since he tasted the control he could have (the Minister would dance if he wished him so; the Ministry bowed down before him so low he almost tripped over their heads). In no way did he change his views, but he began to despise the very thought of working under an inbred half-blood – after all, who were the Gaunts next to the Malfoys? Who were they next to the Blacks?
During the ten years that Tom Riddle was banished from the land of the living Lucius sat in his own palace playing the king instead of the old soldier, and he grew comfortable with the thought of Voldemort being gone forever. His past was proud but it was the past, and he realised only a young boy hungry for the world would join Voldemort's ranks. Malfoy was no longer hungry. His son already looked at the world from above.
In the story that you were told Lucius Malfoy welcomed Voldemort back with opened arms, wanting to continue their fight. Lucius was not a fool. He knew how these games were played. He was one of the first to Apparate and welcomed the monster he despised with open arms and memories hidden deep under the veil of Occlumency he mastered in the last ten years.
Ten years is a long time to revaluate your believes. Ten years is a long time to decide you preferred to drive people out by political influence rather than blood on your hands. Violence is violence but blood is for all to see and minds are not.
Ten years is a long time to build a family. It is a long time to decide what your first priority is and for Narcissa there was only one thing she would give her life for.
Slytherin means ambition, means cunning, yes, but it also means unwavering loyalty to your family and using any means necessary to achieve your goals, so Narcissa Malfoy nee Black had no problems with showing up in Dumbledore's office with her son, her suitcases in the corner and a demand for protection in exchange for information.
While Harry Potter was laying on a tombstone in a dark cemetery Lucius's mark started burning many miles away. Putting a mask on once a year in a drunken crowd is one thing. Dedicating your son to a madman is another. While Harry was attempting to free himself from the spells binding him, Narcissa kissed Lucius hard and gathered long hidden bags and left Malfoy Manor one last time. (Those were the bags Narcissa painstakingly packed by herself over the years) (she did it slowly; even the house elves couldn't know about this) (once the Malfoys heard the rumours of what Harry Potter met in the basements of Hogwarts in his first year they sat down and agreed on the only thing they were willing to give their lives for).
Before the victors of the Triwizard Tournament returned to the Qudditch pitch Draco Malfoy was taken away from the stands by his mother and gently asked to say goodbye; they were leaving for holidays earlier than they anticipated.
When Dumbledore reached his office that afternoon in order to tell the Ministry who they found to be hiding in someone else's body, he found a much-needed source and two souls to save.
You would wonder why Lucius stayed, instead of running with the family he felt he could sacrifice himself for. You might say that Lucius was a proud man. Lucius also had a tattoo on his left arm that would kill him if he disobeyed.
Narcissa was a proud woman, too, but this was war and she saw what war did to her family (her mother went mad long before Bellatrix did).
In the story you heard Draco was brought up wanting to be a Death Eater. In the story you heard Draco would flaunt the knowledge Voldemort was back. (Lucius's past was proud but it was the past) and his son would learn that quickly in every version of this story. Voldemort didn't come back full of ideology; he came back resentful, vengeful, angry. He came back from barely living, from scratching at the surface of the world; he came back from the very low and he was no longer interested in being followed but in ruling. There is a difference, see: he no longer cared if you agreed with him. After the First Wizarding War many people claimed Imperius, and they lied. This time there were more Imperius curses than people willing to cast them.
Draco didn't know why his mother lead him to the headmaster's office looking over her shoulder or told him to sit straight and quiet, but he sat straight and quiet when she looked into the eyes of the man who wielded the Elder Wand and said she wanted him to protect them. Not needed, not asked; wanted. There is a difference, see: she had other options. She chose this one. (Narcissa looked deeply into some Death Eaters who avoided Azkaban and she saw who vouched for Severus Snape and where the man worked and remembered this outcast kid's dedication to catching flashes of auburn hair)(Narcissa didn't tell Lucius any of this – the less he knew the safer he was). Narcissa knew she held enough in her memory to warrant lifelong protection by this old fool who was not a fool at all.
In another version of this story Narcissa needed his help but the thought of approaching her never crossed Albus's mind. This time it was her who crossed his desk and looked him straight in the eyes (she wore high heels; if she was to walk into the house of her ex-enemies she would not be looked down upon).
When Draco appeared at Grimmauld Place Kreacher claimed him as the rightful Black heir while Sirius Black scoffed at him and left the room. Draco has still not raised his eyes from the moment Dumbledore sent for Arthur Weasley to ensure he and his mother arrived safely. He has not even begun to understand what was happening, especially when a woman with pink hair eyed him suspiciously and dropped several items with quick succession after she saw them standing in the corridor.
II.
Narcissa started meeting up with Dumbledore twice a week in the little kitchen which was closed and guarded with spells. When the twins tried to listen through at the first touch of the door their Extendable Ears started burning. They wore blisters on their hands for the following week and Dumbledore didn't deign as much as to look at them.
Sometimes, Albus went on evening escapades after their conversations. Sometimes, he came back from a social call and a child was taken from Hogwarts the next day. A house was left in a state of mess. Fear is a strong thing and Dumbledore didn't stop Grindelwald by handing out lemon drops.
Sometimes anonymous sources dropped off decade old evidence at the Department of Magical Law Enforcement at night.
Azkaban is so much more filled than it ever was.
III.
Draco was given Regulus's old bedroom to sleep in (same to same Sirius said with malice when he showed Draco the room. someone has to finally clean up this family mess). He was given bags with his clothes to wear. He was given the books his mother packed. He was not given explanation for two weeks. The next time Narcissa closed the kitchen door with the headmaster inside Draco walked in right through the door and his hands didn't burn. This was a test – most of what Dumbledore did was a test.
Draco had his opinions moulded by hatred and his father. He was made to think everything that lived in this house was beneath him, and yet his mother looked to these people for help. He did not adjust easily. He yelled. He threw books away. He sorted through Regulus's mess and carefully collected everything which bore Slytherin colours. He counted the elves' heads on the staircases and the corridors and then he destroyed them in alphabetical order. Kreacher murmured about tradition and Draco looked at him in the way he used to look at the people who called Goyle or Crabbe a waste of space.
IV.
The Golden Trio thought the Malfoys were selfish. They schemed. They lied. There was no way they could be in danger in any way, not with Lucius holding his head high and tightening his hold on the Ministry even more.
They only believed it once Hermione found a card in her pocket in Pansy Parkinson's unmistakable handwriting, which on one side read Draco and on the other Help.
See, Pansy wasn't born a bully either. Pansy was formed by high society's expectations and pureblood ideology and a defence mechanism which turned to aggression. (If you bit first they would know to stay away). Pansy Parkinson did not believe in the blood purists' nonsense but she wasn't stupid. She knew how this game was played. (Slytherins were not cynical; they were experienced. Most Hogwarts children weren't even aware of the game by the time Draco and Pansy excelled at it). Draco was the leader of their year, and Draco's father told him to believe in it and so they all did. But in this story there is no Draco to tempt Harry at every step. In this story Draco isn't there to convince his friends to join the Inquisitorial Squad; he's reading up on silent teleportation on the floor of Grimmauld Place after Sirius took away all of the books with Dark Curses he could find in Draco's room. (This doesn't change: the Order never thought that fighting fire with fire was a good idea, but Draco wasn't a part of the Order).
In this story, Pansy's father wears a mask most of the week and Pansy's mother has taken Narcissa's place in the society. Pansy knows what is going to be expected of her. She styles her hair every morning and smiles at Tracy Davis and Theodore Nott and only cries once a day.
V.
How did Lucius Malfoy survive the deflection of his own family? With rage. He has been abandoned, my Lord. This Black had kidnapped his son and fled no one knows where. She must have been good at lying; he had no idea. Look into his mind, my Lord, he would never lie to you. The Blacks have proven to be quite mad, just look at her sister and her cousin, both Muggle lovers. What a shame. What a shame.
VI.
Crabbe and Goyle circled Ron Weasley once on his prefect rounds and asked him if Draco was still alive. They were stupid, but they were not that stupid, and so far their lives have been dedicated to Draco. Their parents told them Draco Malfoy was a liar; he was a fraud. Slytherin means loyalty to your family, but what do you do when you have to choose between people who always called you slow and too pure to be that stupid, and a person who patiently explained to you all the mistakes in your potions essays?
Every time Snape came round Grimmauld Place he had potions ingredients in his pocket and a recipe and an essay requirement. This was his way of loving; Draco always had a perfectly brewed potion and a ridicule about Sirius Black and that was his way of loyalty. (Severus Snape never favoured Draco in class because of his last name).
One night when Draco and Tonks were sitting in the living room, both too stubborn to be the one to leave, he asked her if she became an Auror because of her mother's first last name or despite it. She turned to look at him incredulously and asked why he wondered. He said that Aunt Bella must have made sure they both were just as burned from the family tree.
The next time Ron sniggered about having Malfoy in the same house as Harry Tonks called him out on it.
This is important: Draco Malfoy was not the king of the Slytherin House because of who his father was. That might have been enough for Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle to follow him around and for Pansy Parkinson to cling to his arm but it wouldn't make Blaise Zabini sit in his compartment. It wouldn't make Daphne Greengrass believe his words. Malfoy reigned because he was sharp and he looked after his own. Draco was heard not because his father owned the world but because he could stand up to Warrington and Warrington would crumble.
Pansy joined the Order's main base around Easter, silently moving into the Weasleys' carriage when the Hogwarts Express moved back to London, and leaving the platform hidden by glamour charms and red hair. No parent of her would ever look this way. It was bold, it was dangerous, it was not thought through, yet Pansy arrived in front of Grimmauld Place untouched.
The moment Pansy walked into the house Draco was waiting until she came and hugged him tightly. He didn't let go. He didn't care; they were already at the Order's mercy.
This is more important: in the first days of April Pansy made a list of all the Slytherins she wanted to ensure made it out of Hogwarts before the school year ended. Draco ran over that list and crossed out three names he was certain were already attached to movable tattoos. Narcissa took the list and held it in an outstretched hand the next time Minerva McGonagall arrived at the Black's house. Those were the children to look at. To look after. To hide.
Draco finally decided to go through all the things Regulus Black left in his room in a hurry and found himself wondering about who the other boy was running from. He looked through enough notes and read enough books hidden in the double bottoms of the drawers to gently ask Kreacher to tell him everything the next time the house elf appeared with Draco's meal. Regulus's order was clear but Draco was a Black too and he could be very persuasive using nothing but his voice.
The next night Draco approached Sirius Black, who was hatefully going through a photo album, and held the locket by its chain. The sway of the locket was always unnoticeable at the start but if Draco learnt something from his last DADA teacher it was to recognise when someone was magically trying to make him act against his will. He dropped the locket (same to same) and left. Dumbledore tried to thank him the next day but Draco had Pansy engrossed in a book on horcruxes and they didn't leave his room.
Narcissa Malfoy put two and two together and the next night over old whiskey explained to Remus Lupin how to best break into the Lestrange's vault. The goblins adored Mrs Malfoy regardless of the outside world's opinion as long as she was still half of the owner pair of the Malfoy fortune (no one noticed that Lucius never bothered to cut Narcissa or Draco off). The goblins were great at secrets if you paid them and Narcissa came up with a wonderful business proposition.
There was no Inquisitorial Squad in the year after Voldemort returned. Draco Malfoy was stubborn in his beliefs and difficult to change but if his mother took his hand at the first whisper of Voldemort's return and stuck them in one house with blood traitors then none of them were really blood traitors. If his mother deigned to hand the Prophet to Hermione Granger then maybe there were more important things than blood. (Later: if Hermione Granger dared to erase her Muggle existence to save the wizards depending on her then how do you establish blood status when parents are unknown).
There was no Malfoy to lead his entourage into Umbridge's office and no Pansy for either of her roommates to follow; there was Warrington and Millicent but neither could lead a group on their own. Umbridge's fight was lonely. But no matter how lonely it was, Marietta would come crying every time, as long as the smiling headmistress held a rope to hang her parents with. Every time Fred and George would leave Hogwarts in one final act of their play and every time the only unmonitored Floo would be in her office. The Inquisitorial Squad was handy, but not essential; Umbridge was good at this kind of violence (blood is for all to see but minds are not). She didn't have students to hold their peers down but she did have triple wards on her office and a mass Petrificus Totalus mastered for this kind of situation.
This time when Dumbledore called the Order Sirius was not the only person at Grimmauld Place and Narcissa Malfoy would not let a Black die. She allowed him to go because Harry was his family but she put a Portkey in his pocket and took a promise he would stay away from Bellatrix at all costs.
Narcissa would have as many Portkeys around her those days as her son daily read books on teleportation theory.
Sirius Black did not die in the Ministry of Magic that night. Sirius Black threw a knife at Bellatrix Lestrange and she was transported to a field in East France when she touched it.
Lucius Malfoy still lead the group of Death Eaters who were supposed to retrieve the prophecy, but this time his head held twelve ways to fail to save it on the way out. He didn't expect those children to be that brave or that angry or that many. During the fight he ran after Potter and tried to break the prophecy ball but the boy failed to understand the concept of cooperation. He dropped the ball later on his own.
When the Order showed up he paired off with Neville Longbottom; killing curses mixed with various petrification spells were flying around them while they silently exchanged head migraines. Guilt is powerful. This boy's future was shaped when Lucius pronounced his name in front of his sister-in-law fourteen years earlier as the second child fitting Lord Voldemort's mysterious preferences. Lucius didn't choose his sparring member by accident that night.
But this Lucius Malfoy was not the brash devotee your story paints him as. This past king had to protect his family and it would be an impossible feat to accomplish from behind the Azkaban's bars. While Lucius saw the newcomers, they never saw him. Glamours are easy when they're practiced and the invisible man went through the open doors into the Atrium and Disapparated.
The Death Eaters needed a Vanishing Cabinet hidden inside the castle to storm Hogwarts but they arrived in the most secret place in the Ministry without any problems and that is the only prove you need that Dumbledore was the best at protecting what he deemed important. The Ministry had money and information but Hogwarts had Harry Potter and those are different levels of importance.
Lucius might have also once known the pair who designed the Ministry wards.
Voldemort deemed the prophecy important enough to show up in the Ministry himself and Narcissa Malfoy watched Severus Snape even before she decided to go to Dumbledore for shelter. She was not stupid. She found Molly Weasley and told her what her husband almost died guarding.
Molly Weasley was fierce and had sharp edges and Narcissa never underestimated her as the stay-at-home mom like even some of the Order members tended to do. (Narcissa had healed people that Molly Prewett had scarred before either of them changed their last name). The two of them fought Dumbledore late into the night. Once he decided that lemon drops and grandfatherly glances would not calm those lionesses he dropped his smile and asked them to make an Unbreakable Vow. (It was one of the rare times Dumbledore wasn't playing at least one person in a room).
Even though it was impossible for them to share this information with anyone because of their vow, Narcissa still told Draco to ensure Harry Potter didn't die before they found all the horcruxes. And so Draco came into the living room every time the Order members were there to hear anything important and sat by Nymphadora, and wondered what his father would say. (He had his family ring always in his pocket because it was the only thing he had of his father. Lucius handed it to Narcissa so that Draco would know his father was in on their escape).
It was impossible for them to share this information with anyone because of their vow so Molly mourned this boy all by herself. She stopped speaking to Dumbledore unless it was completely necessary, but her tears at his funeral were real.
Severus Snape appeared on the doorstep of the Burrow the day after that funeral and Kingsley Shacklebolt almost cut him on the spot but Molly Weasley stopped his hand and offered Snape some warm tea.
VII.
Dumbledore dies in this story too. If you haven't figured this out yet, I'll tell you a secret: he dies in every version of this story. He has to. When he destroys the second horcrux, when he destroys the ring, his clock starts ticking. Dumbledore has to die so that Harry Potter can raise the Elder Wand against Voldemort. Sometimes it's Voldemort who raises it, but nonetheless it always kills him.
However, it doesn't take a year from Dumbledore's fall for the Battle of Hogwarts to commence in this story. The Order already has two horcruxes; they already destroyed two as well. Snape watches Nagini every time he's called in front of Voldemort because McGonagall believes she is one too and it's only Rowena's diadem that they're missing.
It's only Rowena's diadem and Harry, but this time there will be three people able to share this secret.
VIII.
The summer before sixth year Narcissa laughed darkly when Harry Potter mentioned Horacy Slughorn's name, and wished the boy good riddance with a man who talked with exactly equal enthusiasm to Lily Evans and Lucius Malfoy.
The summer before sixth year Lucius Malfoy did everything to keep himself from fleeing the Manor and joining the Order.
The summer before sixth year Dumbledore sat in the Black's library with Draco and Harry talking about horcruxes. He didn't intend to, but every time Albus appeared at Grimmauld Place Draco would push a book from the Forbidden section of Hogwarts library into his hands and start asking questions. When he finally decided to have a short conversation with the boy to get him off his back, he was met by Draco and Pansy with several books and lists of notes. He sat down sighing and suddenly it became a routine. One day Harry was already sitting down with a determined expression when Albus arrived, and he decided to stop questioning the actions of these children who weren't children at all.
Severus Snape denied providing any Forbidden books to these children but then Severus Snape didn't consider Draco a child.
IX.
This time there was no eavesdropping on the train in Slytherin's compartments because Draco Malfoy had explained to Harry Potter exactly which portraits to intimidate to learn the access password to the Slytherin Common Room and Pansy Parkinson taught him the spells to open the safe under the corner armchair. In her time it held hoarded Weasley's inventions and chalk for the poltergeist but she hasn't been home for half a year. These months Pansy was occupied with the growing population of Grimmauld Place.
(This is a base, not a safe house for your stray Slytherins). (This started out as a safe house, Black).
Pansy had a hobby, too. She had her observations and a list in the Prophet from the recent trial of Death Eaters. She wrote down her own list and gave it to Draco's mother. His mother doubled the list and updated some of the addresses Pansy barely remembered from having to write invitations to for her thirteenth birthday party. They showed the list to Sirius and when Sirius bared his teeth in the appreciation of their plan Narcissa could understand why lone dogs were considered dangerous.
They burned thirty empty houses that summer. Entire family histories and artefacts gone from the world. It didn't cancel the deaths their owners caused but it did render them homeless even if only for a night and you took what revenge you could.
This time the Hogwarts train took Theodore Nott with Crabbe and Goyle at his sides and Tracy Davis on the opposite seat. It took Blaise Zabini silently tapping his fingers the entire journey and it did not take Millicent Bulstrode (some parents were lucky enough not to have gone to a tattoo parlour in their youth). It did take Daphne Greengrass proudly chatting to Nott about her holidays and Astoria Greengrass slipping a note into Parvati Patil's skirt on her way to the bathroom. (Daphne would sneak into Astoria's bed the third night after they arrived in Hogwarts and tell her not to trust Tracy Davis. Astoria would tell her to make sure no one was in the common room that Friday after dinner because Harry Potter wanted to pop in. Daphne would sneak sleeping potion into the Slytherin's punch and write to Pansy again).
Voldemort didn't have Draco Malfoy but he had other families whose fathers were in Azkaban. He had families who were devoted to him because of their ideals or their fear and Theodore Nott would do just fine, even better. Harry Potter did not have a history of antagonism with him.
Katie Bell did not go to Saint Mungo's. Horacy Slughorn did not receive poison. What was the point of killing the headmaster before the plan was finished?
Harry Potter didn't notice Nott's behaviour but Daphne did. Daphne wrote Pansy and Pansy shared letters with Draco and really, there was no better expert on being a leader in Slytherin. When Goyle also started disappearing on a regular basis Draco sighed and went to talk to Sirius Black. In the end, it didn't matter which Slytherin boy let the killers in, because Harry ended in exactly the same place every time. This time, Snape had no Unbreakable Vows binding him, but he did make a vow to a boy with platinum hair in a corner of Grimmauld Place and that boy was all that mattered in every version of this story. (In one version this boy is dead but Snape is dead too so it doesn't really matter). The Astronomy Tower was never just about an old man's pretence.
Theo was quiet. Theo was a strategist. Theo shook awfully standing at the top of that Tower with a werewolf to eat you if you failed, a maniac to find your father if you withdrew and two witnesses so that you could not change sides. Severus Snape appeared in front of him like a miracle he didn't deserve and his relief couldn't be greater because everyone on that Tower knew Nott was incapable of killing a person. Everyone knew because Nott couldn't even disarm the headmaster he truly loathed.
That is important. This is more important: Dumbledore was not disarmed by a Death Eater the night he died. The Elder Wand was not forcibly taken by Theo.
Draco Malfoy spent two years learning about transportation not because he wanted to be ready to flee but because he wanted to be ready to save his friends like his mother saved him. To appear in the midst of the war and smuggle children out of their bed unnoticed. When the Order flocked to Hogwarts Grimmauld Place turned into the base of operations and if you thought Malfoy and Parkinson would not go back to barricade the doors to Slytherin Common Room you were wrong. (In another version of this story Pansy had to do this alone because it was Draco whose hand shook at the top of the Astronomy Tower).
Bellatrix Lestrange had a loud laugh that reverberated through the ancient halls. If you thought that after biweekly letters from Daphne Draco's blood would not turn to ice in his veins at the sound of it, then you were wrong. In the end Pansy had to barricade Slytherin all by herself in this version as well.
This war was always about blood, but not the blood you think about. Tom Riddle murdered his father and his grandfathers for a crime none of them committed. Long ago, a Malfoy and a Weasley started a feud over a stolen wife. The Blacks and the Bulstrodes, the Malfoys and the Notts, the Potters and the Weasleys and all the families who married into each other this time or another. This war was about blood and ages-long quarrels. This was about mothers and sons and the Muggleborns were unlucky enough to stumble in the middle of everything when people started looking for scapegoats. They were different; they were from the outside, but not the outside of the magical world. From the outside of this family. (When Bellatrix Lestrange killed Sirius Black – an Avada square in the heart – this was about family. When Augusta Longbottom killed Bellatrix Lestrange – a slow enunciation of the spell and a quick stab from the back - it was about family too because of her son but also because of a Longbottom who would marry a Lupin someday in the future).
Severus Snape was no fool. He knew what would happen once Dumbledore were dead and he was unsure if he would be able to finish this war by himself. (Snape didn't know how convincing Molly Weasley could be after raising all those sons). He heard Bellatrix's laugh and a part of him wished he could turn back and pretend there was nothing to hear. Another part saw platinum hair turning the same corridor as the voice and history was never more ironic.
In the end, it was still Draco Malfoy and Severus Snape that Albus Dumbledore saw last.
Draco emerged from the shadows of the staircase and called the Death Eaters' attention to him from the shaking boy on the other side of their outstretched hands. It was nothing, this moment in which he disarmed all of the people on that floor. After Voldemort rose Draco learnt how much he disliked being in a room with people who pointed their wands at him so he made sure these couldn't.
The Elder Wand wasn't taken forcibly, it was taken by surprise.
Draco Malfoy seemed to be in a habit of surprising Albus Dumbledore.
Snape ran onto the top of the stairs in this moment and the rest went by the same way it does in almost every version of this story except for Draco, who Disapparated from within the castle walls. (He reappeared in a broom closet near the Ravenclaw tower and waited in Anthony Goldstein's dormitory until all the Death Eaters left. He looked at the wands in his hands and at his hands and he wondered how he actually managed to pull that off. Hogwarts listens to all who ask as long as they have scars on their foreheads and the headmaster's attention and Draco never had either before).
Luna Lovegood will flaunt her necklace that summer in the Weasley's house where they will move Draco in a month, and something will click in his head.
(Where is the cloak? What is the stone?)
Spoiler alert: even the children's bedtime story said the stone was a curse.
In the story you heard Pansy proclaimed her readiness to give away Harry Potter to save the hundreds of students within the walls. You see, they painted her a coward and a bully when she was a bold protector. You see, Draco Malfoy left Hogwarts in your story too and who did you think took over the care of the Slytherin House? Pansy had children who depended on her the entire year standing frightened at her back and you thought she wouldn't stand up to the Order who seemed to forget not every child was ready to fight. Not every child was raised by Dumbledore. She taught those children how to pass the corridors unnoticed but to stand out just enough to not be thought of as expendable during Carrows' lessons. Pansy's midnight lessons were of gritted teeth and forced smiles and really, the girls' dormitory was taught these tricks from the day they were born. This was the first year of their life they blessed etiquette lessons. Pansy's nursery rhymes sounded of wary and raised heads and silent steps but her steps were loud. She would take the attention away from her crowd.
In this story Draco Malfoy was just a fourth year when he left Hogwarts; he didn't rise to be as important. Pansy, however, did rise to be as scared. She learnt which children's parents appeared at that cemetery and hushed them to sleep promising no one will take their families. She saw which students were approached by Death Eaters and smiled pleasantly at them while cataloguing all their habits and allergies. She noticed those like her, with twitching hands and too bold make-up, with perfect hair but craning necks. She approached. She talked. She made connections. These children, who weren't childish at all (in Slytherin you learnt to be afraid before others heard of the threat) became hers as well. They become hers in every version of this story because Draco will be tormented in one way or another in every version of this story. Daphne Greengrass will conspire with her sister in one of the dormitories with hushed voices under silence spells every time we retell history. Blaise Zabini will have to realise there is no Switzerland in Hogwarts. There is no outside the war inside these walls.
So this time Pansy Parkinson still walks out of the crowd and offers Harry Potter on a golden platter. However, when Ginny Weasley goes to stand between the two, she does not look at the girl with malice. She looks at the Slytherins and makes note of every mouth that sniggers. This Pansy has five Portkeys in her pockets and Draco Malfoy waiting in the basement with the Elder Wand and the knowledge of the science of teleportation ingrained in his very being. This Pansy will be given a list by Filch shooing her out and the names on it will be led by him. The rest will follow her to the basement.
(Filch dislikes students but he dislikes blood purists more but he loathes Tom Riddle and Hogwarts was the only place he ever felt a tiny bit magical as well)(McGonagall made sure he was reminded of that).
X.
The Elder Wand was not taken by a Death Eater. Let that sink it.
Voldemort didn't acquire it.
He raged. He planned. He was not stupid. An hour after Kingsley Shacklebolt's voice proclaimed the fall of the Ministry at a wedding celebration, ninety minutes after Draco Malfoy started wondering about the wand he took from his headmaster, Voldemort drew Lucius Malfoy in front of the crowd and told the world that if the Elder Wand wasn't delivered to him, the man would die.
Lucius's heart sank. Narcissa's heart hardened. Draco's heart broke.
Each of them knew that from that moment Lucius was a dead man. It didn't matter if the wand would be delivered or not; Lucius was a dead man walking.
The Order immediately flocked to Grimmauld Place to ensure neither Malfoy would leave with the wand, but they were met by blank stares. Neither Malfoy would bring the death weapon to the madman who would probably kill the messenger too.
XV.
Narcissa Malfoy was the only person who followed Harry Potter after he left the castle, and the only thing she did during that escapade was pocketing the snitch.
Standing unnoticed next to the circle of Death Eaters wasn't a feat for Narcissa; she learnt Occlumency and Invisibility Spells in her spare time. She stood unmoving when Voldemort attempted to kill Harry. She didn't go there to stop a murder but to witness one, and to have proof.
She watches spellbound when Snape proclaims the boy dead. (Severus found himself unable to breathe in that moment).
She runs back to find Molly Prewett (Molly Weasley) and tells her that Harry is dead. Molly doesn't cry. She's already mourned that boy ever since she's learnt.
Instead, Molly goes up to Minerva McGonnagall and tells her everything. Dumbledore was no fool. He considered the fact that he might die before Harry does, and so that's what he had them promised. They wouldn't say a word unless the horcrux in Harry was already dead.
XI.
Voldemort generously gave Draco a week to return the Elder Wand; a week which Draco spent diligently in the Hogwarts' library under Harry's Invisibility Cloak learning about the wand which belonged to him.
Then Voldemort angrily gave Draco another week to return the Elder Wand, torturing Lucius and Bellatrix every day and publicly killing a Mudblood every day. Draco spent that week in the kitchen at Grimmauld Place surrounded by Pansy, Astoria and Blaise, eating Molly Weasley's cake, hiding under the Cloak every time he felt anxious.
The Weasleys moved into the Grimmauld Place right after the wedding. The Golden Trio was not lonely.
Harry spent it in the Headmaster's library with Snape, reading about horcruxes and learning about his fate. Daphne spent it silently at home mourning with her family her sister's deflection to the other side; Pansy needed Daphne in Hogwarts next year.
In the middle of August, Voldemort killed Lucius Malfoy in the man's own dining hall.
XVI.
After Harry's death Minerva called the Order to tell them that Voldemort was mortal again. There would be a sign.
All of these people felt defeated. All of them were tired. And yet, all of them stood tall and ready to die staring into Voldemort's face.
Draco runs out of the castle filled with these people into the empty space, looks at Harry, looks at Voldemort and laughs.
Voldemort sees the Elder Wand laying flatly on Draco's outstretched hand and he sees the fear on Ron Weasley's face and laughs.
Voldemort calls Draco to him.
Draco goes.
He hands the wand over and while Tom Riddle realises it's a fake, he lifts the fang he had hidden in his robes and stabs Nagini with it and Disapparates.
(This was the signal).
Narcissa Malfoy doesn't wait for this war to end. Ending Death Eaters was never her mission. She grabs her son and one of the Portkeys in her pocket and leaves Hogwarts one last time.
History repeats itself.
Later, the Prophet claims someone saw Draco Malfoy in magical Portugal but nobody believes those rumours anymore. Draco Malfoy had been proclaimed dead at the Battle of Hogwarts, after all.
Fear is a strong thing; you cannot kill an ideology, you can only limit its power and its followers. How much would you bet Death Eaters had wanted posters of Draco and Narcissa?
Besides, this was a world after a war and those weren't nice memories. Narcissa was good at new beginnings.
XII.
Once the news of Lucius's death reached Grimmauld Place the Malfoys locked themselves in a room and didn't leave for a couple of hours. After, they went out to discover almost all of the Order waiting for them. Draco and Narcissa's faces betrayed nothing. Draco gripped his father's ring.
They also mourned Colin Creevey, who was the last Muggleborn killed by Riddle in the hope of getting the Elder Wand.
So many people died.
And yet, so many more people were saved.
XVII.
Later, someone spotted Narcissa Malfoy and Andromeda Tonks in a café in magical London two years after her son came back to England.
Slytherin means loyalty and Draco needed to make sure his friends were safe. His mother grudgingly followed.
XIII.
The Order did nothing for the last two weeks before the new year at Hogwarts. At least nothing that could be seen by the general public. In the meantime, Voldemort and his Death Eaters tightened their hold on the Ministry and installed themselves as teachers at Hogwarts. Severus Snape, the man who killed Albus Dumbledore, became headmaster.
Still some things don't change.
The Order was actually very busy, but busy in a way that no one cared for. They got a hold of the list of children who were supposed to get to Hogwarts for the first time that year, and they got to the Muggleborns before the Death Eaters. Sometimes, they would meet burning houses. Sometimes, they would leave with a couple more people and leave burning houses.
Harry, full of the knowledge Dumbledore shared with him during his sixth year, and then full of the knowledge they forced out of the headmaster last summer, and then knowing what the man saved from him thanks to Snape, was so much more grown up than he should be. He was so much smarter.
Harry realised what the last horcrux was after a month of independent study in the headmaster's quarters, and he ran around the school among the Carrows under his Cloak with Draco and the boy's wand at his side. While the pupils were sitting down in the Great Hall for dinner one day Harry and Draco emerged from the Room of Requirements with a burned diadem in their hands.
They were ready.
XVIII.
In the end, the fact that Narcissa Malfoy took her son and ran didn't change that much if you are interested in the order of history. It changed everything if you're interested in souls and this war was obsessed with them (Voldemort had seven horcruxes and Harry Potter was a mixture of his own soul, Riddle's fragment and his mother's essence and if Ron Weasley had a different soul then Harry Potter would not have reached the Sorcerer's Stone or the infirmary in his first year).
It changed everything.
Spoiler alert: it was Hermione's dad's knife that turned in Bellatrix's back. It was Draco who turned it.
XIV.
The Battle of Hogwarts began on the 30th of September, 1997.
(Hermione gave the knife away to Ron who gave it to Ginny who decided Luna might need it more who wanted a third year boy she found silently crying to know the devil was not going to take him away and eat his bones and was quickly confiscated by Cho who didn't want the boy to ruin his bones himself and who gave it to Padma who gave it to Susan who enchanted a message onto its blade and put it in Zabini's bag during Charms who gave it to Anthony to encode who saw the confusion on Draco's face when he appeared with the seven wands in his hands in the Ravenclaw Tower saying Dumbledore was dead)
Thanks so much for reading! It's my first time writing in this one long format so please leave a comment. Obviously I don't own any of the characters nor the original Harry Potter story. Also, my Pansy and Narcissa were influenced by dirgewithoutmusic's 'in defense' series - go check her out on AO3, she's brilliant. She also does alternative stories for HP which gave me an idea to do this. Basically, I probably wouldn't think about writing this thing if I didn't find her writing.