Outtake – A pure family

(Between Chapters 13 and 14)

"Mr Malfoy, if you would please?"

The blond boy dropped his bag next to Miss Parkinson's, and with the self-assurance of a twelve-year-old marched to the corner of the teachers' table.

"How were your holidays, Mr Malfoy?"

"I duelled against Father twice!" Draco happily exclaimed. "And both times I bested him!"

"So he refused to let you a third time."

"How do you know about that, professor?"

"You only duelled twice."

The young pureblood proudly nodded. "Father says he's very proud you're teaching me. The only good idea of the headmaster, that's verbatim what he said."

"Oh, the headmaster is a brilliant wizard, Mr Malfoy, I knew him before your father was born. He just compensates his brilliance, overcompensates, if you've noticed."

The young Malfoy grinned victoriously; his (father's) views were eventually agreed with. 'Wohl' smiled smugly, too, because he was aware that through his pendant Dumbledore couldn't help but overhear the entire conversation. His employee (former friend) (captive) (trophy) (rescue) (partner) was talking with a student in private, after all, although they were standing in the Great Hall, waiting for the others to arrive for lunch.

"Anyway, Albus is not the only one with strange faults," Grindelwald stated. "Here, I found this in the school archives. What do you see?"

The young Malfoy was given a photograph which he took in both hands, and immediately noticed that it had been taken from the exact same spot where they were now standing. "That's mom here," he pointed at a very young witch. "And this must be Aunt Bellatrix. Or maybe this one, it's hard to tell, she and Andromeda looked very much alike. And this is Father here!"

"What difference do you see?"

"You mean, between this and now?"

"Yes. It shocked me when I found that picture..."

In fact, it was the date that had shocked him. Now the Great Hall was only halfway filled with students, in 1974 it was almost at its full capacity. Until finding this photograph, Grindelwald had been blaming himself for the horrifying reduction of the numbers of wizarding people, but apparently at least Britain had recovered from the war in less than thirty years. Life had been back to normal, or at least close to it, when the picture had been taken.

He wished he could get the statistics of attending students for Durmstrang, too, or at least an approximation.

"Well, there are more Slytherins here than we are now," Draco Malfoy said. "It must be quality against quantity, right?"

"That's possible. What happened between then and now?"

"A lot of mudbloods and blood traitors were killed!" the young wizard cheered.

"From your house? I thought Slytherin doesn't take just anyone."

"No..." Malfoy replied, understanding the contradiction now. "Well, Andromeda is a blood traitor. She married a mudblood!"

"And bore a spectacularly talented witch, if I heard it right. What happened to your aunt?"

"She is not my aunt, she is no longer family!" Draco declared.

"No, I mean this one, who's holding that knife right now."

"Oh, Aunt Bellatrix. She's in Azkaban," the boy replied, much more reserved. "She's crazy. When the Dark Lord fell, our family claimed to have been misled and got away with everything. But then she took three other death eaters and tortured two aurors insane, only for the glory of it."

Gellert looked around, because he had a feeling Albus was now watching them from somewhere close. Maybe the headmaster was only disillusioned and not moving, or he was utilizing the school wards to get a better look at the two of them from afar. But no, Albus wouldn't forego a chance to use Legilimency in a situation like this, and no school ward would channel that. He had to be close.

"So you and your father are of the opinion that sticking to fallen views isn't worth a life sentence in Azkaban."

"Pureblood supremacy isn't a fallen view!"

Oh, he remembered, a few decades prior it was 'wizarding supremacy'.

"But it isn't worth a life sentence. Not when it only leads to further losses." For a moment, he darkened half of the photograph, so that it was showing the Slytherin table with its current numbers. The people in the picture were looking around confused before he ended the slight modification charm. "Do you want to keep that photo? Your mother looks dashing here."

"Thank you, Professor Wohl."

.

"Thank you, Professor Wohl," Albus echoed a minute later, patting the newer old teacher's shoulder. "How much of that was improvised?"

"The young Mr Malfoy has yet to learn not to be predictable," the Defence professor declared. "But my aim wasn't a lecture."

He steadied himself and looked Dumbledore in the eyes, allowing him to enter his mind with only minimal, instinctive resistance. He could tell Albus was thoroughly going through his thoughts, marvelling at the plan that's first step was sending Narcissa Black the photo in which all three sisters are visible.

"You are irreparable," Dumbledore finally stated, retreating from his captive's mind with a relieved smile. "Old meddler."

The Defence teacher replied, ignoring the sudden coughing of both Aurora Sinistra and Filius Flitwick in the background, "I thought you had faith in my redemption."