1998 - Early 2002
Not long after the war ended, Draco had believed he could trust Pansy Parkinson. She had seemed just as lost as him, and when she had confided in him that one of her biggest regrets in life was that she had attempted to turn in Harry Potter, he had been stupid enough to buy it. Over the next three years, they worked together in secret to find the remnants of The Order of the Phoenix, offering them safe harbour until they could be smuggled out of the country.
Their ally within the Order had been George Weasley. After losing his twin that fateful day at Hogwarts, he had acted as if he had nothing else left in life to lose. And maybe he really hadn't. He had also lost another brother and his mother.
George's brother, Percy, had been rumored to be fighting on the "wrong" side during the final battle, but with no one left alive to be able to give a firsthand account of what exactly Percy had been doing, or who his spells had been aimed at, the slippery eel had settled right back into his Ministry position. As far as Draco could tell, Percy never again deviated from his vocal support of the new regime. His oldest daughter was currently Head Girl at The Heir's School in London, and you did not get that position without the right ideas ingrained into you.
When George Weasley popped up again and again, using his genius for deadly ambushes against Death Eaters and Snatchers, Draco had thought the ex-jokester reckless. But Pansy insisted George was their best bet for getting any others in hiding to trust them. The two of them had had a hell of a time convincing George they were on his side.
If being a double agent was trying, Draco could only imagine what it had been like for Pansy to work as a triple agent.
He had finally figured out Pansy's duplicity when George divulged he knew the location of Ron, and that he had started maneuvers to extradite him. The trio formulated a plan to send him to Canada. They had already sent his oldest brother, Bill, along with his Veela wife, Fleur, there the prior year. Except George could not seem to find them now.
Ron was deep in hiding, somewhere in Eastern Europe, was all George would reveal. Pansy kept trying to get George to bring him back to London. She insisted she was working with their Canadian contact on a portkey, and that Bill was a cursebreaker who had surely managed to hide himself under a Fidelius before. Ron would find his brother once he got there.
Growing suspicious, Draco set up a meeting alone with George and voiced his concerns about Pansy. They agreed on a plan to set a trap for her, with George Polyjuiced to look like his brother, Percy.
George, disguised as Percy, had "run into" Pansy at a cafe and struck up a conversation, leading to him asking if Pansy thought the rumors were true that Hermione Granger had been sighted in Perth. She had not acted surprised at the (fake) news. If only she had not been busy betraying Draco, he would have applauded her acting skills. She assured the false Percy that if it was true, then the witch would not be in hiding much longer.
However, the next step after the incident should have been for her to report back to Draco and George that one of the two biggest targets left for the Dark Lord's followers to hunt down was possibly in Australia. Instead, she continued to press for Ron to come to London.
A week later, an unfortunate accident befell Pansy while she was out on a mission… or at least that's what Draco led people to believe. He had zero remorse about what he'd had to do to the witch. Pansy could not do a non-verbal spell to save her life, quite literally, so after he had silenced and disarmed her, it had been fairly easy to dispatch her.
He had kept her alive long enough to torture her, dragging out any information he could.
Draco had begun mutely preparing ideas on how to flee the country on short notice as he yanked out her first fingernail. However, he quickly found, to his immense relief, that Pansy had kept his name out of all of it. Unsurprisingly, she had been seeking glory and a choice position within the ranks, leading to her decision to appear to be working alone.
Feeling confident enough in his combined use of Legilimency and a liberal dose of Veritaserum, he trusted the confession she gave between screams. His laughter rang out coldly upon her promise that she would continue to hide his existence as her accomplice while she begged for her life.
Soon enough, Pansy's pleas for her life turned into her hoping for a quick death.
The next answers he set upon extracting revealed that George Weasley was not so lucky as to remain anonymous. Pansy reported to Corban Yaxley, who knew exactly who George was. A well-placed Bombarda to Pansy's left ankle led to a shrieking disclosure that George was in no immediate danger. Yaxley's plan included keeping George as an unwitting contact until he brought them Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, and Ginny Weasley. Though Yaxley had not bothered to share with Pansy what would happen to George after that point, Draco had his suspicions, based upon other examples of what befell people no longer considered useful to the cause.
He pressed on, trepidation growing over what else she might reveal. Removing her shirt, Draco began the tedious process of carving runes into the soft flesh of her chest and stomach - first Kenaz for revelation and knowledge, Dagaz for home and the power of change, and Sowilo. The combination of Pansy's blood and magic leaking out through the runes gave Draco immense power over the witch.
Whimpered replies met each of Draco's next questions.
Draco chose to start with the couple George would most like to know about. "Where are Bill and Fleur Weasley?"
"No one knows where they are. Once the Portkey deposited them in Quebec, they chain-apparated away before any of the Death Eaters waiting for them could fire a single spell."
"What about Kingsley Shacklebolt?
"After his failure with the half-breed and her mongrel, Yaxley learned his lesson. There were anti-apparition wards up the next time we sent someone off. Shacklebolt managed to take out one of the four Death Eaters assigned to killing him, when the Portkey you gave him dropped him in Madagascar." Pansy hung her head tiredly after that confession.
"I suppose that means McGonagall and Lovegood are both dead too?" he snarled.
Pansy's head lolled to the side enough to allow her to see Draco from the corner of her eye.
"McGonagall isn't sipping drinks on the beach in the Caribbean in a tartan bathing suit, that's for sure," she barked out. Her laughter quickly turned to a harsh cough. When she recovered, she continued, "Lovegood has been kept alive and is being held at Zabini's manor. Someone stumbled upon intelligence leading our Lord to believe in her minor Seer's abilities. Once captured, she was considered an asset worth keeping. There's an intricate plot afoot, which includes false sightings and that published story in an academic journal you were so bloody happy to see. People actually believe she's made it to her destination in South America and is happily seeking fantastical creatures with the grandson of Newt Scamander. What a load of bullshit."
Draco's hard face matched his dark tone as he pressed on, "Need I even ask about the Patil Twins?"
"There's the beauty in Yaxley's plan. The Patil twins are exactly where we sent them - back to their grandparents in India - but they're presently under the Imperious. They're decoys meant to be seen in public just enough that Order members or sympathizers will continue to feel safe enough to come out from hiding," Pansy finished with a smirk.
Draco wiped the smirk off her face when he calmly, but with the full intent behind it, cast, "Crucio."
There were a handful of others he was wondering about, but he had already spent far too long getting this information from her. Knowing he himself was safe, but that George wasn't, he began forcing her to give up the final information he needed.
"Where is Hermione Granger?"