"Morrissey, McManus - you two go through the back," Sirius whispered,
crouched behind bushes. Clad all in black, he was desperate not to be seen
or heard, even though the nearest home was a half a mile away. It wasn't a
time to take chances - far too much was riding on the perfect execution of
this plan. "Finnegan and MacDougal, you can each take a side."
The group of the five most skilled Aurors in Britain was on its most dangerous mission yet - penetrate the Malfoy estate. They had received word from Severus that Lucius would be returning home today from business with Voldemort, and for those precious fifteen minutes, the wards to the house would be down. The plan was to take advantage of that time, apparating into the Manor, and hopefully taking a hostage or two. Lucius was, of course, the second most-wanted by the Ministry, right behind Voldemort himself.
The most recent addition to the most-wanted list had been Draco Malfoy, who became a Death Eater the summer after his sixth year at Hogwarts. That summer, he had been responsible for the destruction of half of Little Whinging, killing thousands of muggles, and forcing the Ministry to work overtime memory charming the lot of them. The muggle media blamed it on "a terrorist bombing." Sirius didn't know what one of those was, but he assumed that it was the equivalent of gathering a thousand Death Eaters in one spot and having them torture family after family - torture the family, kill the dog, and burn the house. Set quite an example.
Needless to say, the Dursley's house had remained unscathed. As always.
Draco had allegedly coordinated it, led it, and presumably killed the most people - at least that is what the Wizard Coroner in Diagon Alley had determined. The wand that killed over one-hundred people was dragon- string, soft wood, 12 inches - and Mr. Ollivander never forgot a wand.
Sirius had been studying the Malfoy family for far too long to not know the truth. From what he had observed over the past years, Lucius, of course, was the most dominating personality in the family. Draco was submissive with his father, catering to his every will and whim. Draco was not the type to go off and launch an entire attack on muggles - sure he had probably thought about it, Sirius assumed, but he would've never had the audacity himself to launch an attack. No, that was more his father's style.
The attacks themselves were also too gruesome, too huge. A boy who hadn't even hurt the family pet (Hercules the Mastiff was going on his ninth year) would not just choose to sacrifice his freedom by killing hundreds of muggles. It didn't make any sense.
When Sirius had arrived at the scenes in Little Whinging, they brought him back to fifteen years earlier, stumbling upon the wreckage at Godric's Hollow. He had gotten there too late - James had been dead, Lily had been dead, and little Harry had just been bawling his eyes out. Hagrid had arrived shortly after that, and he turned his distraught godson over to him. and was left with Lily and James.
The scene had been so macabre, Sirius could hardly stomach it. Whoever said the killing curse was clean was a liar. While James and Lily were mutilated, blood-soaked and unrecognizable, their house had remained impeccable. There wasn't a pillow out of place or a drop of blood anywhere. The murders in Little Whinging had been the same.
Sirius knew that it must have been Voldemort that killed those people. The Killing Curse did not react that way on its own. Only a very powerful wizard could have cast it so that it did not disturb anything around the victims. Draco, while a powerful wizard in his own right, could not have done that. Sirius knew it was Voldemort. but nobody had seemed too eager to challenge Mr. Ollivander or the Ministry Coroner. That little stint had earned Draco's place on the most wanted list, right next to his father.
Lucius, Sirius knew, wouldn't have had it any other way.
So there they sat, five formerly-retired Aurors who had been called back into duty and the onset of the war. Sirius, cleared the summer of the destruction, was called in to lead this attack, which brought them to the present. There they were, Sirius barking out orders and the others taking them, all in the vain quest to find number two and number three.
"What was that, Black?" MacDougal - the smart-mouthed one, asked.
"If you had been paying attention, Aiden, I said you and Finnegan around to the sides, and Morrissey and McManus around to the back."
"And what about you?"
Sirius cracked his knuckles in one swift movement. The men used to find the act incredibly frightening at the beginning of their partnership, but now it only mildly unsettled them - curses and dark hexes they could handle, yes, but there was something so very primitive and creepy about bones cracking that none of them much liked the sound. This resulted in Sirius stepping up the habit even more, sometimes waiting for a particularly silent moment just to freak them out.
"I, Aiden, will be going through the front."
MacDougal scoffed. "What, Black, you think you can just walk in through the front door?"
Sirius turned to him, glared for a brief moment, and then smirked. "Watch me." His watch, not the only piece of muggle 'spy' equipment that he owned, beeped. He looked at it. "The wards will be down for fifteen minutes. We are allowing a seven minute grace period for clock adjustments and whatnot." He pressed a button on his watch, setting a seven minute timer. "So, gentlemen, we wait."
For seven minutes, nobody spoke, sniffled, or even so much as breathed. Sirius knew that it was going to be a miracle if this plan could even be accomplished, let alone go off without a hitch. Severus had given them all the inside information that he could - detailed plans to the house, information about the wards, and advice on what to do. Thanks to the Potions master, the five Aurors knew what time the wards were going down and how to get past the wards on the house. Unfortunately, the house itself knew when non-Malfoy blood was in it. Lucius frequently took this ward down for parties and whatnot, but on a Thursday night in the middle of July, there would be no parties or any reason for the wards to be taken down - thus the men had come prepared. At the end of the previous term at Hogwarts, where Draco couldn't be touched, a large portion of his blood had been drawn by Poppy Pomfrey. Sirius remembered Poppy telling him just how they had tricked Draco. Dumbledore had decided to use the boy's weakness against him.
"And just what the hell is that needle for, anyways?" Poppy shot Draco a look. "Er, ma'am."
She went with the lie that was given to her. "This, Mister Malfoy, is to help protect you from Muggle cooties."
"Cooties?"
"Yes."
"You mean they're real after all?"
"Just like magic, ghosts, and dragons."
"And this is going to help protect me against them?"
"Yes, Mister Malfoy."
"Ah! Very well, carry on, then."
That blood had thence been injected into each of the Aurors, in effect, making them Malfoys. All Sirius hoped for was that it was reversible.
Sirius had given the others specific instructions to leave the boy unharmed. They could do whatever they wanted to Lucius and Narcissa, but they needed to leave the boy alone. Sirius hadn't told his fellow Aurors about his plans for Draco. Snape who had recently been discovered, suggested using Draco as a spy for the Order.
"All right, guys, let's do this," he whispered. With a faint pop, the five men disappeared into the Manor.
Sirius found himself in the front foyer of the Manor, which had not seemed quite as grand when he was in Severus' pensieve. The ceiling, thirty feet above his head, was painted a royal blue, touched with stars. Sconces of angels lined the ceiling, and the stained glass windows let an assortment of light into the room. Taking a look around the room, he had to chuckle to himself.
All in all, the Malfoys' foyer reminded him a lot of a church. Ahh, to be so sacrilegious.
Sirius took out his wand, praying that his colleagues had done the same. Although the other men were skilled, they didn't have the practice that Sirius had. 'Why take your wand out before you see danger?' Because by the time you see the danger, it might already be too l-
"Stupefy!" he yelled, whirling around to face the staircase. Narcissa Malfoy slumped down, sliding down the rest of spiral stairs. Her wand fell, Sirius noticed. She must have been watching him for more than a second to already have her wand out. He went over to her, checked her pulse, and placed her in a full-body bind. "Sorry, sweetheart," he said with a twisted smile on his face as she looked up at him. "We don't have time for anything else."
"We've got the brat! Any sign of Lucius?" he heard Ryan McManus yell from what Sirius knew was the study. It was the only password-protected room in the house - luckily, Severus had known the password and passed on his valuable information to the men. "Sdoolberup" may have very well just won them this battle.
Sirius left Narcissa and ran down the hall, passing by rooms that he knew were of no importance. If Lucius had arrived in the house already, he would have made a more grand entrance. He leapt down the half dozen stairs and into the study, not wanting to miss a second of having captured Draco. "None, whatsoever. His window of opportunity has come and gone. If Lucius was actually here, he wouldn't just be waiting in the wings for us, he'd want to make a show of -" then Sirius saw Draco.
The small and slimy brat-of-a-boy that Sirius had seen four years ago on the Quidditch pitch was replaced by an over-six-foot commanding presence of a man. Draco was physically tied with his wrists behind his back, his ankles in a bind, and a gag in his mouth, somewhat trapping a few pieces of his shaggy blond hair. Upon seeing Sirius enter the room, he lunged for him and began a much muffled tirade.
Sirius shushed the group, and claimed that he could understand Draco. The men were silent, Draco absolutely livid, and Sirius hanging on to his every word. He even placed his ear closer to Draco's gagged mouth, claiming it could help him understand.
After a minute of silence, interrupted only by Draco's muffled sounds, Brenden Morrissey had had enough. "What's he sayin' then, eh, Black?"
"I think he's saying," Sirius began timidly, "that when he and his father are both in Azkaban, and his mother is under house arrest, the five of us will receive the better part of his inheritance." A snicker, while Draco attempted to scream a denial. "Oh yes, and I could've also sworn that I heard 'Sirius Black is a cheeky fellow, but he's got a nice arse.' More laughter.
Amos Finnegan, no relation to Seamus, chortled. "As if I don't hear about your hindquarters every day, Black." He adopted a high falsetto. "Oh, honey, you're out working with Sirius Black today? You know that man has the cutest rear, I'm so glad he's not a convict anym-"
"As cute as this male bonding really is, gentlemen, I'm afraid I'm going to have to break it up." Six heads whipped around to see Lucius Malfoy standing in the doorway, the only exit to the room. "You see, this is my house, and seeing as how you all have illegally entered here, not to mention capture my son, I'm afraid that I'm going to have to kill you."
"Expelliarmus!!!" MacDougal yelled, pointing his wand directly at Lucius. The beam of magic bounced off of him, reflecting back to MacDougal instead, who was knocked off his feet.
"Impedimenta rescesita!!" This spell was meant to essentially cut of a majority of the oxygen to the brain, slowly placing the victim in a coma.
But the spell reflected off Lucius again, narrowly missing Sirius and hitting Draco. Draco immediately fell to the ground, writhing as the oxygen to his lungs was slowly cut off, as well as the oxygen to his brain. Lucius showed no sympathy for his son.
"Anyone else wish to try their magic on me?" Nobody moved. "As I thought. Mister Finnegan, please untie my son." Nothing. "As you wish. Imperio!"
Amos Finnegan stood straight, in a zombie-like trance. He was showing no signs of resisting. Sirius began to panic. We learned how to resist! They taught us how back in Auror training. if he could just have a little more time. "Lucius!"
Lucius turned to face Sirius, all the while not removing wand from Amos' line. "Ahh, Black, old chap. How are you?"
"Wonderful until you showed up, Malfoy, how bout yourself?"
Lucius grinned - that maniacal grin that a man only uses a few times in his life. It appeared to be somewhat of a permanent fixture on Lucius' face. "I'm smashing. I walk in to see my wife bonded, my house destroyed, and my son in muggle restraints. Not to mention, you're here, Black. Expelliarmus!"
Sirius' wand, as well as Brenden's, Amos', Ryan's, and Aiden's flew into the air, right into Lucius' hand. Finnegan was still standing straight, seemingly transfixed on Lucius. But Sirius knew better. After training alongside him twenty years earlier, Sirius knew when Amos was under the Imperius curse and when he wasn't. and right now he most certainly wasn't.
Sirius knew that if they were going to escape at any point, they could now. He decided to tell Amos, in a code that they had developed both in Auror training and out, to act fast. "Go for Papa Ferret's literal Achilles, Syoma... NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!"
The five men had almost developed their own language in Auror training, and it was still coming in handy today. Syoma was Amos backwards, of course; before the mission they had decided that Lucius would be 'Papa Ferret' (he had heard about some incident with Draco being turned into a ferret his fourth year), and the 'literal achilles' was meant to be taken, well, literally. Amos Finnegan lunged for Lucius Malfoy's ankles - his literal Achilles. As Lucius was staggering, Sirius brandished a dagger and threw it, aiming straight for Lucius' jugular.
It was dead-on.
Draco screamed, muffled by his gag and the fact that he was sufficating, and attempted futilely to run to his father. Ryan McManus held him back, only prompting the young man to struggle and scream even more. Eventually Ryan let Draco go, knowing there was nothing the boy could do anyway.
Sirius sat, transfixed by the events unfolding before him - Lucius, with a gold-encrusted dagger sticking out of his neck; Finnegan, breathing heavily at Lucius' feet; Draco, literally worming his way past Amos and up to his father, powerless to stop what would come - eventual death; Draco lying on top of his father, bound and gagged, crying both for his fallen father and himself.
It was a bizarre sight, indeed.
Sirius stood up, motioning the others to do the same. "Hang on to him, boys, I'm going to get our wands back." The four others picked up Draco, who was quite subdued now. almost eerily so. It was evident to Sirius that the boy had begun the lapse into a coma, but there was still a slight need to restrain him. Sirius walked over, picking up the wands and rescuing his now blood-soaked dagger from Lucius' neck. He pointed his wand at Draco. "Petrificus Totalus." Stiff. As. A. Board.
Sirius then turned his wand on Morrissey, McManus, Finnegan and MacDougal. "This is the end, boys." They stared at him with wide eyes. "As anxious as I know you all are to get your hands on the Malfoy boy, I can't let you do that. Draco is more useful to us living than he is dead. Drop him."
"Sirius what are you doing!" Aiden shouted. "He needs to be -"
"Drop. Him." They complied. "Silencio. Wingardium Leviosa." Sirius levitated Draco right to in front of where he was standing, and took out his Invisibility Cloak. Covering the immobile Draco with it, he turned his attentions back to his fellow Aurors. "Say goodbye, gentlemen, to your memories. Obliviate!!!"
The four men were stunned for a moment, then began to looks strangely at Sirius. "Sirius?" Aiden asked timidly. "What happened?"
"You boys," Sirius began, obviously fabricating parts of this story in his head, "were part of a raid on the Malfoy Manor. With my help, we captured both Narcissa Malfoy and Lucius Malfoy, and I killed Lucius. Draco, however, did not seem to be anywhere in the house. He is still on the loose. Now Minister Fudge I'm sure would like a report from all of you. I am going to take care of Lucius and meet up with you at the ministry." They stared at him. "Go on, go on." He began pushing McManus past Lucius' body and up the stairs. "There's a good boy. The rest of you go, too. There you go. Ciao, darlings!!" He slammed the door behind them.
Sirius finally acknowledged Draco, who was still somewhat conscience. "I'm going to contact the Minister with the floo. Now if you so much as move a goddamned muscle our cover is blown, that's mine and yours. Aurors are going to be swarming upon this house in a matter of minutes. Don't. Be. Stupid. It's not worth it." Sirius walked over to the fireplace, careful to shield Draco from view. He threw in floo powder - "MINISTER FUDGE!" - And a minute later the head of Cornelius Fudge appeared.
"What can I do for you, Sirius?"
"Please send several of the rookie Aurors out to Malfoy Manor," he requested. "Narcissa Malfoy is currently in a body bind, and Lucius is dead."
Fudge seemed stunned for a moment. Apparently this was not the sort of news that he was expecting. "Dead?"
Sirius nodded. "Yes, sir."
"How?"
"I killed him."
"With magic?"
"No, sir. With a knife."
"They'll want to try you, no doubt, Sirius."
Sirius' heart skipped a beat. He didn't honestly think that the killing of a Death Eater would warrant charges of any kind. "Minister, he had some sort of protection spell around him - like nothing I've ever seen before. It must be very old and very dark magic, something Voldemort taught him or something; it was as if the spells didn't even affect him at all. It was either kill him or be killed by him. I had no choice."
"Protection spell, eh? No need to invent phony excuses, Sirius, I'm sure someone from the Ministry will step in to defend you. As it is, you will be called in at some point tomorrow for a debriefing."
"I always thought that desperate times caused for desperate measure, and the problem with Lucius was certainly a desperate time, don't you think, Fudge?" Silence. "Anything else you need me for, sir?"
"No, no, Sirius, take a vacation."
"Thank you, sir. I will be there at 8 AM tomorrow."
"Oh! Sirius, there was one other thing - What of the Malfoy boy?"
A pause. "He was not here at the time of the raid, sir."
"Very well, then. Have a good day, Sirius."
"You too, sir. You, too." And with the Minister's final words, the fire was extinguished.
Sirius exhaled a breath that he didn't even know he had been holding. He had expected Fudge to ask about Draco, that was for sure, but for some reason it surprised him. Maybe it was because this time Sirius really had done something wrong, but wasn't being accused of anything.
He wasn't quite used to that.
Sirius turned to Draco, essentially unconscious and hovering in the air. "Well, well, Malfoy. looks like you're had a nasty go of it. Come on, we need to get you back together. We're going back to my place."
When Draco Malfoy woke, the second thing he noticed was just how much pain he was in.
The first, of course, was that his sheets weren't satin.
He groaned as he tried to sit up, but stopped trying after the actions winded him to the point of exhaustion. What happened? I went from Quidditch-playing sex god to this?
"Morning, sleepy head."
Oh, shit! Please don't let it be him, don't let it be him, don't let it be -
"I hope you've gotten enough sleep," the voice continued. "You're going to need all the energy you've got."
Damn. It is.
Draco finally managed to turn up and face the voice. "Sirius Black," he said flatly, as if he were saying his own name. "To what do I own this. pleasure?"
"Daddy dearest was a little too worried about protecting himself, and you got hit with a curse." Sirius sliced a hunk of apple with his dagger. "I needed to get you recuperated before I took you to Dumbledore. Here, drink this."
"What is it?"
"Poison."
"Ahh, yes. The chipper alternative to sitting around and making small talk with you." Draco swallowed the potion. A moment of silence. "My father repelled a curse? Where is he? Is he here?"
Sirius' heart sank. Draco remembered nothing of the day before, and he certainly hadn't expected to be the one to tell him. "Petrificus Totalus. Draco, I killed your father. We were at war, and it was either kill him or be killed. And I killed him. I didn't want to kill him, and I wish that there had been a more pleasant way. But there wasn't. You have to understand that. There was no other way." Draco looked stunned. "Malfoy, if I take the binding off of you, do you promise not to hit me?" Draco offered a muffled 'yes' in agreement. "Very well - Finite Incantatum!" He was released from his binding, and what did he do? The natural thing that all seventeen year-olds would do to the man who killed their father.
He punched him.
"What the fuck did you think you were doing, Black?"
"Draco, I'm sor -"
"No you're not, you pitiful excuse for a wizard!" Draco stood up, slightly woozy, but nonetheless drew himself up to his full six-and-a-half feet. "One more Death Eater to mourn, isn't that right? You would've killed him sixteen years ago, had you gotten the chance. It's your big moment, Black - you're turn to shine. Why don't you take me too, huh?" He tried to get the dagger from Sirius' hand. "Two in two days, gotta be some kind of personal best for you, eh you goddamned convict son-of-a -"
"Will you shut up and listen to me for a second?!?" Sirius wrestled his dagger away from the temporarily-insane Draco, who then noticed a slice of blood forming on his hand.
Pause. "Sev's not going to be happy. He and father were quite clo -"
"You need to shut your mouth for two seconds you smarmy little bastard. I am not taking you to the Ministry. We are not meeting up with Minister Fudge. You and I are heading back to Hogwarts."
"Oh? And do I have any say in this? You know, right about now I'd take any other option rather than be - "
"Silencio!" Draco's mouth continued to move, but no words came up. "Nope, no say. Sorry. You need to hear this. I told Minister Fudge that you weren't at the Manor at the time. I memory charmed my fellow Aurors. You see, you, Draco, are more useful to us alive than in Azkaban - so, alive you shall stay. Finite Incantatem."
Draco paused for a second, then looked up at Sirius. "You told them I wasn't here. You just lied to the Minister of Magic himself. That warrants time in Azkaban - you're willing to go back to your favorite hotspot for a Death Eater."
"Look, you just need to trust me. I'm not going to turn you into the Ministry of Magic, and I'm certainly not going to tell Fudge that you were here. I've got my own agenda for you, little one."
Draco snorted. dignified, somehow. "And just why would you risk all that for me, Black? And why the hell aren't we going to the Ministry? If you have some sort of cruel and unusual punishment planned for me, I'll have you know, you ugly mutt, that the name of Malfoy still commands some sort of respect in the world, and the results of you doing whatever sadistic thing you've got planned would not, and I repeat not be pretty."
"Ugly mutt, eh? Nice to know that you still retain your humility and respect for the hand that feeds you."
"I still want to know why you're taking me there."
"Give it a rest."
"Do you have my wand?"
"Yes."
"Give it back."
Sirius' own wand suddenly became trained on Draco. "There will be a time for that. And nothing funny, either. Don't think that just because I don't work for Voldemort that I don't know all of those charming little hexes and Unforgivable Curses that Voldy's henchmen do. And don't think that I wouldn't bat an eye if I had to use one."
"You're bluffing!"
"Try me." Draco remained silent. "That's a good boy."
"Sod off, Black, and if you hurt my wand in anyway I will come and kill you."
"With your **new** wand. Right. Too bad you don't know any Unforgivable Curses to begin with." Sirius smiled wryly, a look of triumph in his eyes. "I bet you couldn't even hurt a fly."
"And how the hell do you know -"
"Shut up. Now can you fly?"
"Come off it, Black, you know I can fly."
"I've only seen you be a fake Dementor - no flying involved there."
"Well, I can very well. hold on. How did you know that I dressed up as a Dementor?"
Sirius grinned wryly. "Enter Padfoot - lovable stray who happened to see a group of Slytherins behave very badly during Harry Potter's third year."
"Oh shit, that's right - you're the Wonder Child's godfather. And I get stuck with you. Oh this is going to turn out just absolutely wonderful. All right, let's fly back to Hogwarts and get this over with."
"Get what over with? The way you talk you'd think that I'm going to poison you or something."
"You mean you're not?"
"Unfortunately, no."
Draco stared at him for a moment. "Aren't you scared?"
Sirius laughed. "Of what. You?" More laughter. "Kid, I saw enough in twelve years in Azkaban to make you cry for days and sleep with a stuffed bunny for the rest of your life. You don't scare me in the least."
Draco couldn't believe his ears. Black was acting like some sort of damned martyr. "But you're still going to take me back there and tell Dumbledore what a bad little boy I've been and how I killed all sorts of people and dressed up like a Dementor and faked being hurt by a Hippogriff."
"I know that it wasn't you, Draco."
"Oh, believe me, I very well dressed up like a Dementor - had quite a good time of it, too, now that you mention it."
"I was talking about last summer."
Draco was noticeably thrown-off. "And what about it?"
"I know that it was Voldemort. He used your wand to kill all those people in Surrey. You weren't involved at all. If I am correct, it was your father who supplied him with your wand."
Draco's mask fell for a fleeting second, and then was quickly replaced with a look of indifference. "And what of it?"
"Why would you do that, Draco? Why wouldn't you deny that you had done these terrible things? You were on the Ministry's Most Wanted list, for Merlin's sake!! And you didn't even do anything! You didn't even try to deny all the press about you and the Ministry's Orders and everything else that happened last summer. Why?"
"Any press that summer was good press."
"But why would you admit to doing something like that when it wasn't you in the first place?!?"
"Why don't you tell me, Black - did you deny your charges at your trial?"
Sirius turned away from him. "I didn't get a trial."
"But they must have given you some sort of chance to explain yourself."
Sirius turned back around to face Draco. His hands were slightly trembling and his breath was a little labored. "I. didn't get any chance like that. Draco, you have to understand what life was like back then. You didn't know who to trust and who not to. There were witnesses, and Dumbledore said that I was the Potters' Secret-Keeper. Nothing more needed." He sat down on the sofa, needing to breathe. Even thinking about Azkaban weakened Sirius Black, and talking about it was even worse.
Draco sat down next to Sirius. "It's that bad?"
Sirius nodded silently. "Any dreams of glory - and of these grand ideas that Voldemort, you, your father, or the Death Eaters have. it's not worth it. Nothing is worth going there." He chuckled, almost to himself. "And to think that you were willing to throw it away for a bout of power and some silly little dream."
"A silly little dream. can you ever really call a dream, no matter how impossible or ridiculous, 'silly'?"
"When they put your life in danger? Don't get much sillier than that, do they now?"
"No, I suppose not."
A shift. "You know, Draco, I just don't get you. Ten minutes ago you wanted to kill me. Now we're talking about dreams. I just don't get you."
"You have my wand, Mister Black."
Sirius couldn't help but smile. "Indeed I do."
"I'm willing to follow you wherever you'd like us to go, and do whatever it takes, as long as I can get my wand back." Draco recognized that he was on his own, and his father was no longer around to bail him out. Although he would miss the protection, he couldn't honestly say that he would miss the man.
"Very well. You can fly, then?" Draco nodded. "I have a Firebolt waiting for you, if you'd like. I had brought it for myself, but I figure I might as well let you ride it."
A smirk. "Is it. Potter's?"
"Yes, Harry let me borrow it. He said that he was willing to help me in anyway possible, as long as I. 'kicked some Malfoy arse.'"
"Oh, the irony of it all. Potter lets you borrow his broom, so that you can kill me, but I, the still-living Draco Malfoy, fly his broom home. You can't script stuff this good! I should land on his front doorstep."
"Don't you dare. The muggles he lives with would kill him."
They trudged on. "They. really treat him poorly, don't they?"
Sirius visibly tensed, but kept on walking. "Yes, yes they do."
Draco had heard from Severus what exactly the muggles did to Harry. Whenever Draco would complain about Harry, Sev would remind him that in the grand scheme of things, Harry's life wasn't so wonderful either. While Draco had a complete family that at least pretended to love him, Harry was stuck with dead parents and relatives that hated him. "Your father, in his own special way, does love you." It was one of those 'humility lessons' that Sev insisted on teaching him. A lot of good that did.
"So, if you're his godfather, why doesn't he live with you?"
Sirius had often wondered that himself. Now that Arabella was dead, and the Death-Eaters knew where he lived, Harry had no reason to go back to the Dursleys. And yet, Dumbledore had insisted. He said it was 'for the best,' although Sirius secretly felt that Dumbledore was just using all of them to tend to his every whim, and this was just an extension of that power. Damn the man.
"Dumbledore. has his reasons. He knows what he's doing; we only need to trust our fates to him."
"Yes, trust your lives with him, the mental old coot that he is. I swear, Dumbledore is the worst thing to ever happen to that school."
"Well, would you want to spend time with your godfather?"
Draco chuckled. "Sev really isn't all that bad once you get to know him. The whole 'not bathing' thing can get on your nerves after a couple weeks, but really, he's a good guy."
"Speaking of 'Sev,' we would already be there if it wasn't for you yapping."
"You still haven't told me what I'm going there for."
"Draco," Sirius began, "have you ever heard of the Order of the Phoenix?"
The group of the five most skilled Aurors in Britain was on its most dangerous mission yet - penetrate the Malfoy estate. They had received word from Severus that Lucius would be returning home today from business with Voldemort, and for those precious fifteen minutes, the wards to the house would be down. The plan was to take advantage of that time, apparating into the Manor, and hopefully taking a hostage or two. Lucius was, of course, the second most-wanted by the Ministry, right behind Voldemort himself.
The most recent addition to the most-wanted list had been Draco Malfoy, who became a Death Eater the summer after his sixth year at Hogwarts. That summer, he had been responsible for the destruction of half of Little Whinging, killing thousands of muggles, and forcing the Ministry to work overtime memory charming the lot of them. The muggle media blamed it on "a terrorist bombing." Sirius didn't know what one of those was, but he assumed that it was the equivalent of gathering a thousand Death Eaters in one spot and having them torture family after family - torture the family, kill the dog, and burn the house. Set quite an example.
Needless to say, the Dursley's house had remained unscathed. As always.
Draco had allegedly coordinated it, led it, and presumably killed the most people - at least that is what the Wizard Coroner in Diagon Alley had determined. The wand that killed over one-hundred people was dragon- string, soft wood, 12 inches - and Mr. Ollivander never forgot a wand.
Sirius had been studying the Malfoy family for far too long to not know the truth. From what he had observed over the past years, Lucius, of course, was the most dominating personality in the family. Draco was submissive with his father, catering to his every will and whim. Draco was not the type to go off and launch an entire attack on muggles - sure he had probably thought about it, Sirius assumed, but he would've never had the audacity himself to launch an attack. No, that was more his father's style.
The attacks themselves were also too gruesome, too huge. A boy who hadn't even hurt the family pet (Hercules the Mastiff was going on his ninth year) would not just choose to sacrifice his freedom by killing hundreds of muggles. It didn't make any sense.
When Sirius had arrived at the scenes in Little Whinging, they brought him back to fifteen years earlier, stumbling upon the wreckage at Godric's Hollow. He had gotten there too late - James had been dead, Lily had been dead, and little Harry had just been bawling his eyes out. Hagrid had arrived shortly after that, and he turned his distraught godson over to him. and was left with Lily and James.
The scene had been so macabre, Sirius could hardly stomach it. Whoever said the killing curse was clean was a liar. While James and Lily were mutilated, blood-soaked and unrecognizable, their house had remained impeccable. There wasn't a pillow out of place or a drop of blood anywhere. The murders in Little Whinging had been the same.
Sirius knew that it must have been Voldemort that killed those people. The Killing Curse did not react that way on its own. Only a very powerful wizard could have cast it so that it did not disturb anything around the victims. Draco, while a powerful wizard in his own right, could not have done that. Sirius knew it was Voldemort. but nobody had seemed too eager to challenge Mr. Ollivander or the Ministry Coroner. That little stint had earned Draco's place on the most wanted list, right next to his father.
Lucius, Sirius knew, wouldn't have had it any other way.
So there they sat, five formerly-retired Aurors who had been called back into duty and the onset of the war. Sirius, cleared the summer of the destruction, was called in to lead this attack, which brought them to the present. There they were, Sirius barking out orders and the others taking them, all in the vain quest to find number two and number three.
"What was that, Black?" MacDougal - the smart-mouthed one, asked.
"If you had been paying attention, Aiden, I said you and Finnegan around to the sides, and Morrissey and McManus around to the back."
"And what about you?"
Sirius cracked his knuckles in one swift movement. The men used to find the act incredibly frightening at the beginning of their partnership, but now it only mildly unsettled them - curses and dark hexes they could handle, yes, but there was something so very primitive and creepy about bones cracking that none of them much liked the sound. This resulted in Sirius stepping up the habit even more, sometimes waiting for a particularly silent moment just to freak them out.
"I, Aiden, will be going through the front."
MacDougal scoffed. "What, Black, you think you can just walk in through the front door?"
Sirius turned to him, glared for a brief moment, and then smirked. "Watch me." His watch, not the only piece of muggle 'spy' equipment that he owned, beeped. He looked at it. "The wards will be down for fifteen minutes. We are allowing a seven minute grace period for clock adjustments and whatnot." He pressed a button on his watch, setting a seven minute timer. "So, gentlemen, we wait."
For seven minutes, nobody spoke, sniffled, or even so much as breathed. Sirius knew that it was going to be a miracle if this plan could even be accomplished, let alone go off without a hitch. Severus had given them all the inside information that he could - detailed plans to the house, information about the wards, and advice on what to do. Thanks to the Potions master, the five Aurors knew what time the wards were going down and how to get past the wards on the house. Unfortunately, the house itself knew when non-Malfoy blood was in it. Lucius frequently took this ward down for parties and whatnot, but on a Thursday night in the middle of July, there would be no parties or any reason for the wards to be taken down - thus the men had come prepared. At the end of the previous term at Hogwarts, where Draco couldn't be touched, a large portion of his blood had been drawn by Poppy Pomfrey. Sirius remembered Poppy telling him just how they had tricked Draco. Dumbledore had decided to use the boy's weakness against him.
"And just what the hell is that needle for, anyways?" Poppy shot Draco a look. "Er, ma'am."
She went with the lie that was given to her. "This, Mister Malfoy, is to help protect you from Muggle cooties."
"Cooties?"
"Yes."
"You mean they're real after all?"
"Just like magic, ghosts, and dragons."
"And this is going to help protect me against them?"
"Yes, Mister Malfoy."
"Ah! Very well, carry on, then."
That blood had thence been injected into each of the Aurors, in effect, making them Malfoys. All Sirius hoped for was that it was reversible.
Sirius had given the others specific instructions to leave the boy unharmed. They could do whatever they wanted to Lucius and Narcissa, but they needed to leave the boy alone. Sirius hadn't told his fellow Aurors about his plans for Draco. Snape who had recently been discovered, suggested using Draco as a spy for the Order.
"All right, guys, let's do this," he whispered. With a faint pop, the five men disappeared into the Manor.
Sirius found himself in the front foyer of the Manor, which had not seemed quite as grand when he was in Severus' pensieve. The ceiling, thirty feet above his head, was painted a royal blue, touched with stars. Sconces of angels lined the ceiling, and the stained glass windows let an assortment of light into the room. Taking a look around the room, he had to chuckle to himself.
All in all, the Malfoys' foyer reminded him a lot of a church. Ahh, to be so sacrilegious.
Sirius took out his wand, praying that his colleagues had done the same. Although the other men were skilled, they didn't have the practice that Sirius had. 'Why take your wand out before you see danger?' Because by the time you see the danger, it might already be too l-
"Stupefy!" he yelled, whirling around to face the staircase. Narcissa Malfoy slumped down, sliding down the rest of spiral stairs. Her wand fell, Sirius noticed. She must have been watching him for more than a second to already have her wand out. He went over to her, checked her pulse, and placed her in a full-body bind. "Sorry, sweetheart," he said with a twisted smile on his face as she looked up at him. "We don't have time for anything else."
"We've got the brat! Any sign of Lucius?" he heard Ryan McManus yell from what Sirius knew was the study. It was the only password-protected room in the house - luckily, Severus had known the password and passed on his valuable information to the men. "Sdoolberup" may have very well just won them this battle.
Sirius left Narcissa and ran down the hall, passing by rooms that he knew were of no importance. If Lucius had arrived in the house already, he would have made a more grand entrance. He leapt down the half dozen stairs and into the study, not wanting to miss a second of having captured Draco. "None, whatsoever. His window of opportunity has come and gone. If Lucius was actually here, he wouldn't just be waiting in the wings for us, he'd want to make a show of -" then Sirius saw Draco.
The small and slimy brat-of-a-boy that Sirius had seen four years ago on the Quidditch pitch was replaced by an over-six-foot commanding presence of a man. Draco was physically tied with his wrists behind his back, his ankles in a bind, and a gag in his mouth, somewhat trapping a few pieces of his shaggy blond hair. Upon seeing Sirius enter the room, he lunged for him and began a much muffled tirade.
Sirius shushed the group, and claimed that he could understand Draco. The men were silent, Draco absolutely livid, and Sirius hanging on to his every word. He even placed his ear closer to Draco's gagged mouth, claiming it could help him understand.
After a minute of silence, interrupted only by Draco's muffled sounds, Brenden Morrissey had had enough. "What's he sayin' then, eh, Black?"
"I think he's saying," Sirius began timidly, "that when he and his father are both in Azkaban, and his mother is under house arrest, the five of us will receive the better part of his inheritance." A snicker, while Draco attempted to scream a denial. "Oh yes, and I could've also sworn that I heard 'Sirius Black is a cheeky fellow, but he's got a nice arse.' More laughter.
Amos Finnegan, no relation to Seamus, chortled. "As if I don't hear about your hindquarters every day, Black." He adopted a high falsetto. "Oh, honey, you're out working with Sirius Black today? You know that man has the cutest rear, I'm so glad he's not a convict anym-"
"As cute as this male bonding really is, gentlemen, I'm afraid I'm going to have to break it up." Six heads whipped around to see Lucius Malfoy standing in the doorway, the only exit to the room. "You see, this is my house, and seeing as how you all have illegally entered here, not to mention capture my son, I'm afraid that I'm going to have to kill you."
"Expelliarmus!!!" MacDougal yelled, pointing his wand directly at Lucius. The beam of magic bounced off of him, reflecting back to MacDougal instead, who was knocked off his feet.
"Impedimenta rescesita!!" This spell was meant to essentially cut of a majority of the oxygen to the brain, slowly placing the victim in a coma.
But the spell reflected off Lucius again, narrowly missing Sirius and hitting Draco. Draco immediately fell to the ground, writhing as the oxygen to his lungs was slowly cut off, as well as the oxygen to his brain. Lucius showed no sympathy for his son.
"Anyone else wish to try their magic on me?" Nobody moved. "As I thought. Mister Finnegan, please untie my son." Nothing. "As you wish. Imperio!"
Amos Finnegan stood straight, in a zombie-like trance. He was showing no signs of resisting. Sirius began to panic. We learned how to resist! They taught us how back in Auror training. if he could just have a little more time. "Lucius!"
Lucius turned to face Sirius, all the while not removing wand from Amos' line. "Ahh, Black, old chap. How are you?"
"Wonderful until you showed up, Malfoy, how bout yourself?"
Lucius grinned - that maniacal grin that a man only uses a few times in his life. It appeared to be somewhat of a permanent fixture on Lucius' face. "I'm smashing. I walk in to see my wife bonded, my house destroyed, and my son in muggle restraints. Not to mention, you're here, Black. Expelliarmus!"
Sirius' wand, as well as Brenden's, Amos', Ryan's, and Aiden's flew into the air, right into Lucius' hand. Finnegan was still standing straight, seemingly transfixed on Lucius. But Sirius knew better. After training alongside him twenty years earlier, Sirius knew when Amos was under the Imperius curse and when he wasn't. and right now he most certainly wasn't.
Sirius knew that if they were going to escape at any point, they could now. He decided to tell Amos, in a code that they had developed both in Auror training and out, to act fast. "Go for Papa Ferret's literal Achilles, Syoma... NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!"
The five men had almost developed their own language in Auror training, and it was still coming in handy today. Syoma was Amos backwards, of course; before the mission they had decided that Lucius would be 'Papa Ferret' (he had heard about some incident with Draco being turned into a ferret his fourth year), and the 'literal achilles' was meant to be taken, well, literally. Amos Finnegan lunged for Lucius Malfoy's ankles - his literal Achilles. As Lucius was staggering, Sirius brandished a dagger and threw it, aiming straight for Lucius' jugular.
It was dead-on.
Draco screamed, muffled by his gag and the fact that he was sufficating, and attempted futilely to run to his father. Ryan McManus held him back, only prompting the young man to struggle and scream even more. Eventually Ryan let Draco go, knowing there was nothing the boy could do anyway.
Sirius sat, transfixed by the events unfolding before him - Lucius, with a gold-encrusted dagger sticking out of his neck; Finnegan, breathing heavily at Lucius' feet; Draco, literally worming his way past Amos and up to his father, powerless to stop what would come - eventual death; Draco lying on top of his father, bound and gagged, crying both for his fallen father and himself.
It was a bizarre sight, indeed.
Sirius stood up, motioning the others to do the same. "Hang on to him, boys, I'm going to get our wands back." The four others picked up Draco, who was quite subdued now. almost eerily so. It was evident to Sirius that the boy had begun the lapse into a coma, but there was still a slight need to restrain him. Sirius walked over, picking up the wands and rescuing his now blood-soaked dagger from Lucius' neck. He pointed his wand at Draco. "Petrificus Totalus." Stiff. As. A. Board.
Sirius then turned his wand on Morrissey, McManus, Finnegan and MacDougal. "This is the end, boys." They stared at him with wide eyes. "As anxious as I know you all are to get your hands on the Malfoy boy, I can't let you do that. Draco is more useful to us living than he is dead. Drop him."
"Sirius what are you doing!" Aiden shouted. "He needs to be -"
"Drop. Him." They complied. "Silencio. Wingardium Leviosa." Sirius levitated Draco right to in front of where he was standing, and took out his Invisibility Cloak. Covering the immobile Draco with it, he turned his attentions back to his fellow Aurors. "Say goodbye, gentlemen, to your memories. Obliviate!!!"
The four men were stunned for a moment, then began to looks strangely at Sirius. "Sirius?" Aiden asked timidly. "What happened?"
"You boys," Sirius began, obviously fabricating parts of this story in his head, "were part of a raid on the Malfoy Manor. With my help, we captured both Narcissa Malfoy and Lucius Malfoy, and I killed Lucius. Draco, however, did not seem to be anywhere in the house. He is still on the loose. Now Minister Fudge I'm sure would like a report from all of you. I am going to take care of Lucius and meet up with you at the ministry." They stared at him. "Go on, go on." He began pushing McManus past Lucius' body and up the stairs. "There's a good boy. The rest of you go, too. There you go. Ciao, darlings!!" He slammed the door behind them.
Sirius finally acknowledged Draco, who was still somewhat conscience. "I'm going to contact the Minister with the floo. Now if you so much as move a goddamned muscle our cover is blown, that's mine and yours. Aurors are going to be swarming upon this house in a matter of minutes. Don't. Be. Stupid. It's not worth it." Sirius walked over to the fireplace, careful to shield Draco from view. He threw in floo powder - "MINISTER FUDGE!" - And a minute later the head of Cornelius Fudge appeared.
"What can I do for you, Sirius?"
"Please send several of the rookie Aurors out to Malfoy Manor," he requested. "Narcissa Malfoy is currently in a body bind, and Lucius is dead."
Fudge seemed stunned for a moment. Apparently this was not the sort of news that he was expecting. "Dead?"
Sirius nodded. "Yes, sir."
"How?"
"I killed him."
"With magic?"
"No, sir. With a knife."
"They'll want to try you, no doubt, Sirius."
Sirius' heart skipped a beat. He didn't honestly think that the killing of a Death Eater would warrant charges of any kind. "Minister, he had some sort of protection spell around him - like nothing I've ever seen before. It must be very old and very dark magic, something Voldemort taught him or something; it was as if the spells didn't even affect him at all. It was either kill him or be killed by him. I had no choice."
"Protection spell, eh? No need to invent phony excuses, Sirius, I'm sure someone from the Ministry will step in to defend you. As it is, you will be called in at some point tomorrow for a debriefing."
"I always thought that desperate times caused for desperate measure, and the problem with Lucius was certainly a desperate time, don't you think, Fudge?" Silence. "Anything else you need me for, sir?"
"No, no, Sirius, take a vacation."
"Thank you, sir. I will be there at 8 AM tomorrow."
"Oh! Sirius, there was one other thing - What of the Malfoy boy?"
A pause. "He was not here at the time of the raid, sir."
"Very well, then. Have a good day, Sirius."
"You too, sir. You, too." And with the Minister's final words, the fire was extinguished.
Sirius exhaled a breath that he didn't even know he had been holding. He had expected Fudge to ask about Draco, that was for sure, but for some reason it surprised him. Maybe it was because this time Sirius really had done something wrong, but wasn't being accused of anything.
He wasn't quite used to that.
Sirius turned to Draco, essentially unconscious and hovering in the air. "Well, well, Malfoy. looks like you're had a nasty go of it. Come on, we need to get you back together. We're going back to my place."
When Draco Malfoy woke, the second thing he noticed was just how much pain he was in.
The first, of course, was that his sheets weren't satin.
He groaned as he tried to sit up, but stopped trying after the actions winded him to the point of exhaustion. What happened? I went from Quidditch-playing sex god to this?
"Morning, sleepy head."
Oh, shit! Please don't let it be him, don't let it be him, don't let it be -
"I hope you've gotten enough sleep," the voice continued. "You're going to need all the energy you've got."
Damn. It is.
Draco finally managed to turn up and face the voice. "Sirius Black," he said flatly, as if he were saying his own name. "To what do I own this. pleasure?"
"Daddy dearest was a little too worried about protecting himself, and you got hit with a curse." Sirius sliced a hunk of apple with his dagger. "I needed to get you recuperated before I took you to Dumbledore. Here, drink this."
"What is it?"
"Poison."
"Ahh, yes. The chipper alternative to sitting around and making small talk with you." Draco swallowed the potion. A moment of silence. "My father repelled a curse? Where is he? Is he here?"
Sirius' heart sank. Draco remembered nothing of the day before, and he certainly hadn't expected to be the one to tell him. "Petrificus Totalus. Draco, I killed your father. We were at war, and it was either kill him or be killed. And I killed him. I didn't want to kill him, and I wish that there had been a more pleasant way. But there wasn't. You have to understand that. There was no other way." Draco looked stunned. "Malfoy, if I take the binding off of you, do you promise not to hit me?" Draco offered a muffled 'yes' in agreement. "Very well - Finite Incantatum!" He was released from his binding, and what did he do? The natural thing that all seventeen year-olds would do to the man who killed their father.
He punched him.
"What the fuck did you think you were doing, Black?"
"Draco, I'm sor -"
"No you're not, you pitiful excuse for a wizard!" Draco stood up, slightly woozy, but nonetheless drew himself up to his full six-and-a-half feet. "One more Death Eater to mourn, isn't that right? You would've killed him sixteen years ago, had you gotten the chance. It's your big moment, Black - you're turn to shine. Why don't you take me too, huh?" He tried to get the dagger from Sirius' hand. "Two in two days, gotta be some kind of personal best for you, eh you goddamned convict son-of-a -"
"Will you shut up and listen to me for a second?!?" Sirius wrestled his dagger away from the temporarily-insane Draco, who then noticed a slice of blood forming on his hand.
Pause. "Sev's not going to be happy. He and father were quite clo -"
"You need to shut your mouth for two seconds you smarmy little bastard. I am not taking you to the Ministry. We are not meeting up with Minister Fudge. You and I are heading back to Hogwarts."
"Oh? And do I have any say in this? You know, right about now I'd take any other option rather than be - "
"Silencio!" Draco's mouth continued to move, but no words came up. "Nope, no say. Sorry. You need to hear this. I told Minister Fudge that you weren't at the Manor at the time. I memory charmed my fellow Aurors. You see, you, Draco, are more useful to us alive than in Azkaban - so, alive you shall stay. Finite Incantatem."
Draco paused for a second, then looked up at Sirius. "You told them I wasn't here. You just lied to the Minister of Magic himself. That warrants time in Azkaban - you're willing to go back to your favorite hotspot for a Death Eater."
"Look, you just need to trust me. I'm not going to turn you into the Ministry of Magic, and I'm certainly not going to tell Fudge that you were here. I've got my own agenda for you, little one."
Draco snorted. dignified, somehow. "And just why would you risk all that for me, Black? And why the hell aren't we going to the Ministry? If you have some sort of cruel and unusual punishment planned for me, I'll have you know, you ugly mutt, that the name of Malfoy still commands some sort of respect in the world, and the results of you doing whatever sadistic thing you've got planned would not, and I repeat not be pretty."
"Ugly mutt, eh? Nice to know that you still retain your humility and respect for the hand that feeds you."
"I still want to know why you're taking me there."
"Give it a rest."
"Do you have my wand?"
"Yes."
"Give it back."
Sirius' own wand suddenly became trained on Draco. "There will be a time for that. And nothing funny, either. Don't think that just because I don't work for Voldemort that I don't know all of those charming little hexes and Unforgivable Curses that Voldy's henchmen do. And don't think that I wouldn't bat an eye if I had to use one."
"You're bluffing!"
"Try me." Draco remained silent. "That's a good boy."
"Sod off, Black, and if you hurt my wand in anyway I will come and kill you."
"With your **new** wand. Right. Too bad you don't know any Unforgivable Curses to begin with." Sirius smiled wryly, a look of triumph in his eyes. "I bet you couldn't even hurt a fly."
"And how the hell do you know -"
"Shut up. Now can you fly?"
"Come off it, Black, you know I can fly."
"I've only seen you be a fake Dementor - no flying involved there."
"Well, I can very well. hold on. How did you know that I dressed up as a Dementor?"
Sirius grinned wryly. "Enter Padfoot - lovable stray who happened to see a group of Slytherins behave very badly during Harry Potter's third year."
"Oh shit, that's right - you're the Wonder Child's godfather. And I get stuck with you. Oh this is going to turn out just absolutely wonderful. All right, let's fly back to Hogwarts and get this over with."
"Get what over with? The way you talk you'd think that I'm going to poison you or something."
"You mean you're not?"
"Unfortunately, no."
Draco stared at him for a moment. "Aren't you scared?"
Sirius laughed. "Of what. You?" More laughter. "Kid, I saw enough in twelve years in Azkaban to make you cry for days and sleep with a stuffed bunny for the rest of your life. You don't scare me in the least."
Draco couldn't believe his ears. Black was acting like some sort of damned martyr. "But you're still going to take me back there and tell Dumbledore what a bad little boy I've been and how I killed all sorts of people and dressed up like a Dementor and faked being hurt by a Hippogriff."
"I know that it wasn't you, Draco."
"Oh, believe me, I very well dressed up like a Dementor - had quite a good time of it, too, now that you mention it."
"I was talking about last summer."
Draco was noticeably thrown-off. "And what about it?"
"I know that it was Voldemort. He used your wand to kill all those people in Surrey. You weren't involved at all. If I am correct, it was your father who supplied him with your wand."
Draco's mask fell for a fleeting second, and then was quickly replaced with a look of indifference. "And what of it?"
"Why would you do that, Draco? Why wouldn't you deny that you had done these terrible things? You were on the Ministry's Most Wanted list, for Merlin's sake!! And you didn't even do anything! You didn't even try to deny all the press about you and the Ministry's Orders and everything else that happened last summer. Why?"
"Any press that summer was good press."
"But why would you admit to doing something like that when it wasn't you in the first place?!?"
"Why don't you tell me, Black - did you deny your charges at your trial?"
Sirius turned away from him. "I didn't get a trial."
"But they must have given you some sort of chance to explain yourself."
Sirius turned back around to face Draco. His hands were slightly trembling and his breath was a little labored. "I. didn't get any chance like that. Draco, you have to understand what life was like back then. You didn't know who to trust and who not to. There were witnesses, and Dumbledore said that I was the Potters' Secret-Keeper. Nothing more needed." He sat down on the sofa, needing to breathe. Even thinking about Azkaban weakened Sirius Black, and talking about it was even worse.
Draco sat down next to Sirius. "It's that bad?"
Sirius nodded silently. "Any dreams of glory - and of these grand ideas that Voldemort, you, your father, or the Death Eaters have. it's not worth it. Nothing is worth going there." He chuckled, almost to himself. "And to think that you were willing to throw it away for a bout of power and some silly little dream."
"A silly little dream. can you ever really call a dream, no matter how impossible or ridiculous, 'silly'?"
"When they put your life in danger? Don't get much sillier than that, do they now?"
"No, I suppose not."
A shift. "You know, Draco, I just don't get you. Ten minutes ago you wanted to kill me. Now we're talking about dreams. I just don't get you."
"You have my wand, Mister Black."
Sirius couldn't help but smile. "Indeed I do."
"I'm willing to follow you wherever you'd like us to go, and do whatever it takes, as long as I can get my wand back." Draco recognized that he was on his own, and his father was no longer around to bail him out. Although he would miss the protection, he couldn't honestly say that he would miss the man.
"Very well. You can fly, then?" Draco nodded. "I have a Firebolt waiting for you, if you'd like. I had brought it for myself, but I figure I might as well let you ride it."
A smirk. "Is it. Potter's?"
"Yes, Harry let me borrow it. He said that he was willing to help me in anyway possible, as long as I. 'kicked some Malfoy arse.'"
"Oh, the irony of it all. Potter lets you borrow his broom, so that you can kill me, but I, the still-living Draco Malfoy, fly his broom home. You can't script stuff this good! I should land on his front doorstep."
"Don't you dare. The muggles he lives with would kill him."
They trudged on. "They. really treat him poorly, don't they?"
Sirius visibly tensed, but kept on walking. "Yes, yes they do."
Draco had heard from Severus what exactly the muggles did to Harry. Whenever Draco would complain about Harry, Sev would remind him that in the grand scheme of things, Harry's life wasn't so wonderful either. While Draco had a complete family that at least pretended to love him, Harry was stuck with dead parents and relatives that hated him. "Your father, in his own special way, does love you." It was one of those 'humility lessons' that Sev insisted on teaching him. A lot of good that did.
"So, if you're his godfather, why doesn't he live with you?"
Sirius had often wondered that himself. Now that Arabella was dead, and the Death-Eaters knew where he lived, Harry had no reason to go back to the Dursleys. And yet, Dumbledore had insisted. He said it was 'for the best,' although Sirius secretly felt that Dumbledore was just using all of them to tend to his every whim, and this was just an extension of that power. Damn the man.
"Dumbledore. has his reasons. He knows what he's doing; we only need to trust our fates to him."
"Yes, trust your lives with him, the mental old coot that he is. I swear, Dumbledore is the worst thing to ever happen to that school."
"Well, would you want to spend time with your godfather?"
Draco chuckled. "Sev really isn't all that bad once you get to know him. The whole 'not bathing' thing can get on your nerves after a couple weeks, but really, he's a good guy."
"Speaking of 'Sev,' we would already be there if it wasn't for you yapping."
"You still haven't told me what I'm going there for."
"Draco," Sirius began, "have you ever heard of the Order of the Phoenix?"