Disclaimer: The characters (at least all the good ones) belong to JK Rowling. This is the mere scraps from her table.
A/N: I was inspired by a scene in DH. Harry sees Draco, and Draco gives him kind of a curt nod. What if this nod meant something more? A sign or a signal for a meeting. The rest flowed out from there. Chapters 1 and 2 finished, rest are underway. Happy hunting!
Chapter 1: Meetings
Not for the first time in his life, Harry Potter was questioning his choice of a career. It was two days before Christmas, and his entire extended family was gathered at Godric's Hollow celebrating. Yet here he was in an abandoned Muggle warehouse with his godson Teddy, waiting to meet one of his least favorite people in the world, Draco Malfoy. Further, due to the need to keep this meeting a secret, Harry had to lie to his own family, an art to which he had become far more skilled than he felt comfortable with.
"Did he give a reason as to why he wanted to meet us here?" Teddy asked him. "Usually he's just content to drop us a message in the usual way. I'm not too sure how good I feel about a face to face meeting."
"I'm sure he has his reasons," Harry said, though in reality he shared the concern. Malfoy had cooperated with them for years now, but rarely happily and Harry often felt Malfoy was holding back information. The fact that Malfoy had specifically requested they meet in person meant that he had something significant. Suddenly, both men heard a pop and Malfoy appeared beside them.
Casting a suspicious look upon Teddy, Malfoy said, "What is he doing here, Potter? I specifically remember asking to meet you, and you alone."
"And I specifically remember telling you, Malfoy, that Teddy would be coming along to all our little meetings in the future. It's not safe anymore to limit the information flow to just me. If something happens to me, I need someone else who knows what is gohappening to carry on the work. Besides that, I trust Teddy with my life."
"Really says something about your department Potter, that your most trusted man is the son of a werewolf."
Teddy reached for his wand, but Harry held him back. "Come on Malfoy, we don't have all day here. Why don't you tell us what you want so we can all get out of here."
Malfoy smirked. "You should start appreciating me more Potter. I'm risking a lot by helping you. And besides, what I've got to tell you, you'll want to hear. Does your office have a file on a wizard named Andrew Hayden?"
"I can't say the name rings a bell."
"I suspected it wouldn't. He's been keeping a pretty low profile. By now his name is fairly well known among former Death Eaters and their children, but he hasn't done much to merit any attention by the ministry."
"So what's so special about this guy?" Teddy asked. "Our entire job is tracking dark wizards. Why should we focus on this guy who hasn't even done anything yet?"
"I didn't say he hadn't done anything, I said that he hadn't done anything to raise the attention of the Ministry. Do you remember that witch out in Yorkshire who got kidnapped, Julia Cochran?"
"Yes," Harry said. "Do you remember that we already brought Macnair in for that? He confessed to the kidnapping and later killing her. Life sentence in Azkaban, as you well know."
"It's the truth, about the kidnapping," Malfoy said, "but not about the killing. Hayden was responsible for that one. One of the most brutal murders I've ever seen."
"You saw it personally?"
"We all did. That was the point, Potter. It was a demonstration."
"A demonstration of what exactly?"
"A demonstration of his power. He wanted to show that he had power beyond that of an average wizard. Because that's the point. He doesn't consider himself a normal wizard. He was born on a day I think you're very familiar with. May 2, 1998."
"The Battle of Hogwarts…"
"The pivotal point in our history," Draco said. "It means a lot of things to a lot of people. To you it was the day of a major battle. To the junior wolf over there, it was the day he became an orphan. But most importantly to most Death Eaters, it was the day the Dark Lord died."
"So what does this Hayden have to do with any of that?" Harry asked. I know the Battle of Hogwarts as well as anyone, I know the names of every person who was there, every single person that died. No one with the name Hayden was there."
"Potter, how you've managed to make it so far in society despite being so thick disturbs me. You're missing the point entirely. It has nothing to do with the Battle of Hogwarts, and everything to do with the Dark Lord dying. Because he was born on the day that Voldemort died, he's declaring himself the Dark Lord reincarnated."
Both Harry and Teddy stared at him blankly. Teddy spoke what they were both thinking.
"That is possibly the most absurd thing I have ever heard."
"Of course it's absurd," Draco said scornfully, "but it plays on the wishes and fears of so many people. For over two decades now, there's been a power vacuum among Death Eaters. They need a leader to rally around. Hayden provides them with that leader, whether they believe his story or not."
"But I would think," Harry said, "that a key to gaining power by claiming Voldemort's identity is to instill fear in the public. He can do some damage with his Death Eaters, but realistically he should know our department will catch up to him."
"Why are you so certain people won't buy his story?"
"Because hundreds of people watched him die," Harry said. "There were witnesses that all saw what happened."
"Potter, I was one of those witnesses and I can't even tell you what happened," Draco said. "Here's what your observers saw. They watched you come back from playing dead, argue with the Dark Lord, then attempt a disarming spell while he attempted a killing spell. Then he dropped, and everyone called you the hero of the day."
"I can testify that he's dead though. I know what was keeping him alive, and…"
"Exactly," Draco said. "You know that he's dead, you know what was keeping him alive. You and Weasley and Granger. But no one else does. Every time someone asked you why the Dark Lord was coming back, you clammed up. Even when you finally started telling stories about the second war, no information. No one knows where you were that entire year before the Dark Lord went down, no one knows why you broke into Gringotts. So here's how the world sees it. You tell them that everything is fine, and that the Dark Lord is dead, and they are more than happy to believe you because they want it to be true. But scratch at the surface of that and see what happens. If someone claims that the Dark Lord is back, people are going to start taking notice. Add to that all the business going around back then about pieces of Voldemort's soul being loose, and it all adds up to danger. Your average person is going to start panicking. When it comes down to it, even your brother in law isn't going to want to turn into the next Cornelius Fudge.
Harry looked at him and considered what he was saying. He knew Draco was right about this, that someone claiming to be Voldemort could cause a lot of damage. "Do you have any more information about this Hayden?"
"At the moment, no. He's keeping a low profile. Even among Death Eaters, he's staying pretty quiet. That murder was really the first time he's shown himself. I'll keep my ear to the ground though, and let you know what else I hear." With that, Malfoy Disapparated.
Teddy turned to Harry. They looked at each other, not really needing to express what they were both thinking. "Should we just return to Godric's Hollow?"
"You go on ahead," Harry said. "Jenkins is watching the Auror's office for tonight. I'm going to stop by and tell him to open up a file on Hayden. Just some basic research for now, where he comes from, get some people watching him soon to see what Death Eaters he's associating with. We'll start hitting the case full on the day after Christmas."