Malfoy Manor,
23:30, 27th July
Draco was disturbed. Nothing was going his way. Even the winds seemed to sense his sad state and play along. Every now and then a chill passed through the Manor shaking the windows in the process. Draco sighed. His mother was in Askaban just because his stupid father wanted to join the death eaters. And thanks to him Draco had to move around with the Dark Mark on his left hand. He looked down at it. The Dark Mark had almost faded from his hands. The only reason Draco was in the Manor instead of Askaban was because of The-Boy-Who-Apparently-Can't-Die. Harry had vouched for Draco during his trial and saved him. The boy who was his arch rival saved him. Draco hated his father. Because of him, Draco grew up seeing the world through a blurred lens in which purebloods were superior to those of muggle origin. In which muggleborns had no right to be included into the wizarding world. Only during his sixth did he truly realize how blurred his lens was. But it was too late. Because of his father's mistake, he was handed a mission. He was to kill one of the greatest wizards in wizarding history. A mission which was doomed to fail. The consequences? Death. But Draco had managed to pull it off. Now he had gotten a chance, a chance for redemption, a chance to forget everything and begin a new life.
Suddenly, a cold chill passed through the Manor rattling the windows and lightning struck as if foreshadowing that something bad was going to happen. And foreshadow it did.
His personal house elf, Niffy knocked at the door. "The minister is here to see you sir."
The Burrow,
8:45, 28th July
Harry was sleeping soundlessly in Ron's bedroom, His Order of Merlin, First Class lying on the table, next to his firebolt and some newspapers. He opened his eyes and got treated to the vision of Ron combing his hair. "It's about time you got up sleepyhead. Its 8:45 and we need to reach Hogwarts by 9. McGonagall is gonna be very angry." Looking at the clock, Harry jumped out of his bed, brushed his teeth and quickly showered and got ready with 2 minutes to spare. He went downstairs to the dining room to find the whole Weasley clan waiting for them. "There you are. It's about time you came. Hurry up, the meeting is going to start any minute." Molly said.
They all flooed to Hogwarts and walked towards the great hall, where they were greeted by many smiling faces. Many of the wizards and witches who were once a part of Hogwarts had come from across the world and from different professions to help in restoring the castle to which many memories, good and bad, but nevertheless nostagic, had been attached. There were at least 200 people in the crowd and looking at them Harry became fully sure that rebuilding the castle wouldn't take much time. After all they were magical.
Professor McGonagall arrived at that moment and started distributing tasks to each of them. Harry, Ginny, Ron, Hermione, Fred, George, Charlie, Angeline Johnson, Seamus Finnigan and 6 other people whom harry didn't recognize were given the task of rebuilding the Quidditch stadium. Harry was saddened when he looked at the stadium in which he used to play in such ruins. 4 of the 6 goalposts were broken and half the stands were totally destroyed. The group again split up and Harry teamed up with Ginny, Fred and one other person whose name, Harry found out was Mahmood Shafiq. He had graduated from Hogwarts 9 years before and was deputy head of the auror department. He also used to play in the Ravenclaw Quidditch team as a Chaser. The quartet moved towards one of the posts and inspected the damage. "It's buried under the rubble and looks like it has broken into at least three pieces." Mahmood said. "Let's remove the rubble first and then we can simply use the Repairing Charm." Fred suggested. Magic made everything so easy, didn't it? And so they went around working and repairing the stadium. The work was finished by 1 in the afternoon and the group returned to McGonagall. McGonagall set Harry, Hermione, Ron, Fred and George and Lee Jordan to work on reopening the sealed secret passageways as they seemed to know the castle inside out. Harry summoned the Marauders map and they set off to work.
A muggle village,
7:45, 30th July.
Draco's eyes opened and he found himself in a very unfamiliar place. By observing his surroundings Draco determined that he was in a muggle house. But how did he get here? Slowly his memories returned to him. He was running away from the Manor. His feet sore and his mind dizzy. He had forgotten his wand back at the manor and was defenseless. The only thing he could do was to assure his safety by putting as much distance as possible between him and the Manor. And then the world went black. But now is not the time to dwell upon my thoughts, Draco told himself. If the minister was truly dead then the ministry would soon become confused and disorganized. It would be the perfect opportunity for…
"Are you awake?" A young girl's voice interrupted his train of thought. She looked to be about 19 and had red hair which woefully reminded him of the Weasels. "Who are you? How did I get here?" He questioned her in a fierce voice. "Whoa! Calm down. Amalie Grace, nice to meet you. My father found you fainted in the middle of the woods and brought you here."
"Oh! Sorry, I am Draco Malfoy." He said.
"Malfoy? Never heard of that family name. Do you live in these parts of the country?"
Draco's mind went into overdrive. What should he reply to her? Suddenly an idea came to him. He smiled and replied "I'm not from here. I was just here as my friends wanted to go sight seeing. But then I got separated from my group. But I must go now. I have a train to-."
"A train? Which one? " She interrupted. Draco was in a fix. He didn't know anything about trains. If only he had his wand. frantically searching for his next lie, he replied. "I don't remember, but the ticket's in my hotel room. Iwill know when I reach there."
"Which hotel are you talking about?" She asked. Draco was getting really irritated by now. The only hotel he knew was the Leaky Cauldron. so he went with it.
"The Leaky Cauldron? never heard of it. where is this hotel?" Amalie, the detective, asked.
"In London. It's not a very famous place but I like it."
"Isn't London too far away from here. It will take you atleast 2 hours to reach London. How do you intend to reach there?"
"By train?"
"But your tickets are in London!" She exclaimed.
Now tired of lying he replied "Look. Where I go and what I do is none of your business. Just let me go about my own way. I appreciate your concern but I don't need." In retrospect, Draco felt that this was very rude. But Amalie was adamant.
"Well the doctor said you won't be able to walk without excruciating pain for at least 2 days. So I know for a fact that you can't reach London on your own. You will have to stay here until you get better. So that's final." She said while emphasizing on her last two words. "Enjoy your stay" she said as she left the room.
The Burrow,
9:00, 31st July
Waking up on his birthday, Harry was astonished to find what seemed like thousands of owls waiting to deliver mail. Then Harry remembered that it was his birthday. He opened the window expecting to receive loads of birthday wishes. After all he had saved the whole of Wizarding Britain from Voldemort. But NOOOOOOO, all he got was a heap of hate mail from almost the whole of wizarding Britain. The letters ranted about he gave that filthy Death Eater the slip and how he had put the whole of Wizarding Britain interjected with many abuses and insults. Harry couldn't make head or tail of it until he read the front page of the daily prophet:
Minister of Magic Found Dead at Malfoy Manor
On the eve of 31st July when the whole of Wizarding Britain should have been celebrating the anniversary of the birth of one of its most important heroes, it is now instead mourning over the loss of the Minister of Magic. Mr. Cornelius Fudge who had been missing for the past 3 days was finally found dead at Malfoy Manor. Mr. Kingsley Shacklebolt has been name as the Minister of Magic for the time being and Mr. Mahmood Shafiq has been named as the head of the auror department. A search off the Manor by the auror department has made it clear to them that the culprit was in fact the owner of the Manor, Draco Malfoy. A letter was found near the body bearing five words, 'I will get my revenge.' Mr. Malfoy was one of the death eaters responsible for the death of Albus Dumbledore. It is a known fact that Harry Potter had vouched for Draco Malfoy during the Death Eater trials and questions are being raised over Harry Potter's judgement. The parents of Mr. Malfoy are currently serving life imprisonment in Askaban. Meanwhile, Ministry officials are being deployed near Mr Potter for security reasons. More details will be made available in a few days, but for now it seems as if the Ministry has a job on their hands. It will be interesting to see how Mr. Kingsley Shacklebolt reacts to the situation. The funeral will be held on April 5th and tight security is in place for the function. Read more on page 5.