Blood Felony
A Harry Potter Fanfiction
"Life; a cycle. A series of events, meetings and departures.
Friends discovered – others lost, precious time wastes away.
Big droplet tears are cried for yesterday,
But are dried in time for tomorrow.
Until all that remain are foggy, broken memories,
Of a happy yesteryear.
~ Daniela Gallo
Chapter One: A Series of Events, Meetings and Departures
Hermione
May 2 2002.
Today marks the fourth anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts, a day which we had both won and lost. It was the day that the Order Of Phoenix combined with the DA had rid the world of one of the most evil wizards to have ever crossed the planet – Voldemort, otherwise known as Tom Riddle. The resulting death eaters had either fled quickly after this plight or had been subsequently captured or killed. That day was a victory but it was also a defeat. We lost Remus. We lost Tonks. We lost Fred; and later, Ron.
Ron's death had come as a tragic surprise to all of us. He had been cursed by Lucius Malfoy – struck by a deadly incantation that rendered him dead, some seven weeks after the battle had actually ended. The funeral was a quiet affair, attended by only his close friends and family. And when the mahogany coloured coffin was nailed shut, I felt like a piece of my heart had died also.
Ron and I had resumed dating after the Battle of Hogwarts as did Harry and Ginny. We had kicked off with a passion, unrestrained by the pressure of living in a war. I found myself letting loose to my wilder side, prepared to spent hours on a couch 'snogging' him rather than divulging in knowledge and books. I will admit that as I consumed more and more time with Ron, I saw less of everybody else but not so much as to forget them altogether.
So, when Ron died...I felt myself falling.
For the first couple of months, Harry and the Weasleys allowed me to recede into my bedroom (for we were all living at the Burrow); they believed that I only needed some time to readjust to life without Ron and vent out my despair. But when December rolled around, and I was still acting like a ghost, they became extremely concerned. Ginny tried to get me around to meals and Harry coaxed me into going outside but I remained, like a statue in my room, unable to stop thinking about Ron. I was aware that Molly and Arthur were fretting about my welfare; I knew that I as causing them additional pain but I couldn't face the rest of the world anymore.
So, I didn't.
On Christmas day 1998, I received a visitor who knocked on my door and ignored my mumbled request for her to go away. That said visitor presented herself in the pearly blonde form of Luna Lovegood. While I had been hunched up in my room to drown in my own misery, Luna had been dealt quite a rough hand in life as well. Xeno, Luna's father had been murdered by rebellious death eaters back in September. More recently, she had fled from her abusive boyfriend, Rolf Scamander, whom had attempted to rape her after a night drinking with his friends.
By talking to Luna, I felt as though my pain had begun to fade – as though a burden had been lifted from my shoulders. Luna had somehow managed to convince me that Ron would not have wanted me to be miserable and that no matter how difficult, life had to go on. She told me that "moping about all day long wouldn't bring Ron back from the cemetery, no matter how much I cry". Luna told me to be strong.
For Ron.
She inspired me as I started to slip back into a daily routine, encouraging me to eat and interact with the others (for Luna had also moved into the Burrow). And I'm glad to say that by March the following year, it was as though I was a completely different person. I was prepared to smile again and even went to play Quidditch with Harry, George (who had actually coped reasonably well with Fred's death) and Ginny. While I failed to stay in the air for more than five minutes at a time, I managed to enjoy myself. Although Percy chose to remain living in London, he was seen around the Burrow quite frequently and I relished arguing with him about the issues of the day. Bill and Charlie – I spoke to them as well.
May 2 1999 marked the one year anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts. I cried myself to sleep that night. Because if it weren't for the battle, I would never have lost Ron. That day was sombre as Mrs Weasley's low weeps and wails resonated around the house; even George's cheery presence was missing for he had spent that day alone beside the pond. And the same repeated itself on June 25 when we turned to mourn Ron.
Life was more or less the same for the rest of the year. Christmas was a quiet gathering, interrupted only by Muriel gatecrashing to say that 'Easter is a time for all the family'. And in February the next year, we were shocked when Dedalus Diggle was found dead in his home, having been murdered by the Avada Kedrava. The ministry later arrested a former death eater, William Jugson for the crime.
May 2 2000. Two years after the Battle of Hogwarts, the wizarding world was hit with yet another horrifying shock. Led by the sadistic cow, Lucius Malfoy, a band of reformed death eaters (who has escaped from the Battle of Hogwarts) decided to attack the ministry, vowing to 'complete the task that the Dark Lord had begun.'
That was the same day where the Order of the Phoenix regrouped as well. Backed by the ministry's auror department and led by Professor McGonagall, we were once again forced to fight our hearts out to eradicate death eaters from our world.
The first few months were difficult. I was disheartened with the prospect of more violence and fighting, having already lost so much as a result of the previous wizarding wars. Thankfully, Luna and Harry were faithful in their support for me and eventually I found myself able to begin assisting the Order. In November, as the number of killings suspected by death eaters increased dramatically, I took on the Animagus form of a flighty pigeon, which would allow me to spy on suspected death eaters.
Throughout January and February, I started tailing John Mulciber, a death eater who had been released from Azkaban recently because he had 'surrendered himself and not been a large contributor in the second wizarding war'. We had noticed that Mulciber was frequently making suspicious visits to Borgin & Burke as well as being sighted attaching a note to the owl famous for belonging to the Malfoys. And, on March 14, I had a breakthrough.
That day, Mulciber had been in Diagon Alley where he met Draco Malfoy in a deserted side street parallel to Knockturn Alley. Disguised in my animagus form, I was able to eavesdrop on the conversation, discovering that the death eaters were attempting to recruit the fairies and nymphs into their campaign. Knowing that nymphs and fairies were loyal fight to the death creatures, we had to try to stop them. I was astonished to discover that Luna was an open book about fairies because she would frequently reel off their likes and interests.
Knowing that Mulciber was involved with the death eaters, the Ministry attempted to arrest him at his seaside home. However, this was flawed by the apparent appearance of further death eaters and in the struggle a young auror was killed.
On May 2 2001, we mourned the third anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts.
But while we grieved, the bastard death eaters had no difficulty in increasing their chaos. They struck at magical villages while some shops were burned down within Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley. Fortunately, we were safe at the Burrow, with strong wards across the property, similar to those used on the Tonks' house in July, 1997.
To our credit, we managed to defeat Fenrir Greyback, ruining his plans to create a werewolf army; and in September we began to make headway into breaking down the complex security and concealment charms surrounding Malfoy manor, where the suspected death eater HQ lay. On the downside, an attack on Delacour Place, in France caused the death of Fleur's mother, Apolline and subsequently, Monsieur Delacour drowned himself in the channel, three weeks afterwards. The orphaned Gabrielle abandoned her education at Beauxbatons – moving in with Bill and Fleur in Shell Cottage.
Despite having a tenuous relationship with the elder Delacour, I found Gabrielle was a pleasant person to converse with. Aged 14, Gabrielle was intelligent and held fascinating insight into some of my favourite wizarding and muggle novels. I also discovered that whenever the boys' intrigue with Quidditch or Luna's obsession with peculiar creatures became too much for me to handle – I could rely on Gabrielle for conversation that I did enjoy.
And in the middle of one of the craziest war footings yet, that little piece of normalcy that I could understand was beyond valuable.
In early January, we discovered that the fairies had chosen to assist the dark side. Our hearts plummeted a little but ever optimistic Harry told us to 'screw the fairies, let's kick some Malfoy ass instead'.
Throughout February which quickly rolled into March and April, we continued breaking down the spells protecting Malfoy Manor, as inconspicuously as possible. Harry and I succeeded in countering one of the invisibility charms around the property, thus allowing us to see a hazy outline of the house but not the people within. Soon after this, I reconciled with Neville Longbottom who gotten a job as a herbologist in Canada where he ran into one of our old schoolmates, Hannah Abbott who informed him about the death eater scenario back home.
So, Neville joined us at the Burrow. And just last week, he assisted us to successfully capture Marcus Flint – the Slytherin Quidditch captain turned death eater.
And so we come into a full circle. Today, on the fourth anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts, Harry has advanced an attack on Malfoy Manor with around half of the reformed Order. I was at the Burrow with Ginny in order to help with coordination and in the case of injuries, be on hand to help out. The house was quiet apart from the low drool which came from the ghoul.
For every half hour that passed, Ginny became even more nervous and agitated, almost delusional with worry about Harry and I frequently had to assure her that 'No news is good news'.
But it was after three hours that anything changed at all. When Hestia Jones apparated to the Burrow, she was dragging a struggling blonde haired boy by the throat. Dressed in fancy fabrics and scowling disdainfully, it could only be one person.
Draco Malfoy.
How in the hell?
Hello, thanks for reading the first chapter of my first Harry Potter fanfiction. I hope that you enjoyed it and will be kind enough to offer me feedback in the form of a review. Tell me: what do you think of the events which have occurred since the Battle of Hogwarts? Because I'll be alternating chapters between Hermione and Draco's perspective, Draco's life in the last 4 years will be elaborated on in the next chapter. So, please REVIEW! If you have any questions about the timelines in this fic, feel free to ask. Criticism welcome. On a side note, this fic was inspired by one of my great friends dubbed 'Nicola ' and wouls just like to give her my thanks.
~alicecullen5.