Chapter 4

Mudblood's Tale

Narcissa Malfoy shifted for the tenth time and forced herself to remain steady. The Dark Lord had decided, some time ago, that he would address the Mudblood publicly. She sat beside Lucius and Bella, the latter still furious and aggressive. Her oldest sister, so changed after those years in Azkaban, was - maybe not completely - different person to the woman she used to know. Waiting for the Mudblood to arrive, Narcissa allowed herself to take a plunge in memories.

With the Dark Lord's return everything changed. She was no fan of Mudbloods and would, of course, wish them away, preferably shunned back to the world they had emerged from, yet the current policy was, if not, slightly unnerving. The Dark Lord had changed as well, from a charismatic leader who promised them the return of the era that had been long lost, the era of balls and mansions, the era of powerful families ruling the land, the famous golden era which her parents would mourn until their last breath, he now became this terrible being, almost undead, somehow shaken - as if in his very core - by his own demise into something that no more fit into this world.

She would follow Lucius, of course. Her husband was the man who would always stand straight, chin lifted and eyes full of cold fire. She trusted him and he was something she prized beyond anything else - apart from her son.

Draco. She sighed inwardly. Draco, whose eyes had become so haunted since that night.

And now, this Draco had returned into the chamber, pale like a sheet, with almost glassy eyes, the Mudblood following him closely. She allowed her gaze to venture from her son onto her; she was also different from the girl she had seen some time ago. She had heard of her, a mousy little creature that followed the Potters' boy - with whom the Dark Lord had something that resembled a fixation, almost sick in its nature - a pesky little know-it-all, with bad manners and bushy hair. Draco would speak of her quite often, of how she was annoying and plain, silly and boring, most of the times lonely, trailing behind two boys for the lack of better friends.

This Mudblood was no more a girl, she realized. This Mudblood was a woman, quite tall, with a very straight back and defiant jaw. Her eyes were very cold and calculating, her hair, now reaching just barely above her shoulder blades was no more bushy and of the color of chestnut and red wine; with a faint scar running across her upper lip, almost indistinguishable in the light and another, even fainter, running across her left eyebrow and onto her cheek; clad in some peculiar black outfit.

She heard Bella and shot her sister a swift look; she was staring at the Mudblood attentively, disgust mixed with curiosity, her eyes squinted ever so slightly.

The Dark Lord was staring at the Mudblood, his expression unreadable. Draco bowed before him, while she remained stoic.

'Do you know not how to greet your lord, filth?' she heard her Lord speak, his voice soft but full of malice. If she was the one who was addressed in such manner, Narcissa would have flung herself at his feet immediately, beginning for forgiveness.

'You're not my lord.' the Mudblood, apparently hell-bent on a death wish, spoke in cool voice.

Her sister reacted immediately. With an angry shriek she almost flew out of the chair.

'Sit down, Bellatrix.' the Dark Lord's voice momentarily threw her back onto her seat 'I hope you are all aware I can fight my own fights.' his gaze returned to the Mudblood and now his voice was full of fury 'Filth, before you die, I will gladly teach you how to respect your superiors. Crucio.'

She saw the spell hit the girl. She flinched. Narcissa found herself emitting a very unladylike sound: she gasped. The Mudblood flinched but beside that nothing happened. The girl did not look fazed either.

'Is that it?' her eyebrow flew up 'Can we proceed or are we going to spend all evening hurtling curses all around the room?'

Bellatrix shrieked and the sound was so sharp that she shuddered and nearly leaped out of her chair as well. She forced herself calm and looked at her master who was apparently about to blow as well. He composed himself.

'Silence.' he ordered, cold fury etched onto his face like a demon's mask, as the room began to mutter and mumble at the incident. 'I said: silence. Now' as the room quieted down, obviously well aware that next sound would result in an avada kedavra in the air 'explain, filth, how did you perform that kind of magic without a wand.'

'I may let you live.' he added shortly after.

It was a lie, of course. No one could insult the Dark Lord and live on to spread the tale.

'You won't. Let me live.' the Mudblood spoke out, once again, this time however sounding almost tired, as if she had lived for a millennium and was weary 'You'll kill me first chance you get. But if you, you'll never know what's going to happen in the future.'

Narcissa stole a quick gaze at her sister, who was about to leap from her chair and simply tear the girl to shreds. She realized that the moment Bellatrix stood up, an avada kedavra would crash into her, despite the fact that she was his best lieutenant. So she reached out and did something that was out of custom; she placed her hand on her sister's forearm and gripped it tightly, trying to convey her warning wordlessly. She felt the muscles beneath her clench; as Bellatrix fingers grabbed the armrest, the Death Eater fought the instinct, probably aware now of what would happen had she lost her temper. Narcissa exhaled slowly, still forcing the woman's arm down. It did not matter whether she would bruise Bellatrix, no matter how scary and insane her sister had become, she was still a Black and Blacks stood for each other.

'Very well, filth. Entertain us with your tale before I bore of you and have Naigini claim her dinner.' the Dark Voice merely breathed.

'Very well.' she mimicked him 'How do I start? You attack a Muggle town. No casualties on your side apart from a single Death Eater who gets shot by a policeman. The Death Eater survives and is arrested. Soon there inquiries. Your pure-blood idiot begins rambling. About you and magic and your superiority. It reaches the ears of MI-7'

'And what is, pray tell me, filth, MI-7?' the Dark Lord cut in, now - from what Narcissa noticed - curious.

'The Muggles have their means of protection. No one really knows it exists. It's like a-' the Mudblood stopped and knitted her brows together, probably thinking of a best way to describe it 'It's like a Muggle Death Eaters organisation. It gathers information. There are many... subdivisions and this one, theoretically disbanded, works on what is called anomalies. The moment your pure-blood idiot starts babbling, they know that they were right. While you, oh Dark Lord, run around the country, causing havoc and mayhem and hunting for Potter and Ron and, well, myself, the Muggles are working on what will be called The Protection Act. And since you're targeting us, Muggle-borns, they rally with their side, which, at this point is only logical.'

'I hardly see a disaster.' he cut in, once again angry 'What is a rally of some flith and Muggles against me or my Death Eaters?'

She sighed. The sigh was long and deep and it almost felt like his words were a proof of some sort.

'There is seven billion Muggles out there.' she said, her voice also brimming with anger 'It's more than a thousand of them against a single Wizard.'

The room gasped once again.

'YOU LIE!' the Dark Lord screamed 'It is impossible! Now, die! Avada kedavra!'

The ever familiar jet of startling green light flew across the room, hit the girl across the chest and she fell back-

-fell back a step and straightened once again.

'WHAT KIND OF MAGIC IS THAT, FILTH?!' The Dark Lord stood up and fired another avada and another, but to no avail.

Suddenly she knew what would happen in the next moment. A curse cast with too much fury missed the girl. She saw it, the green jet making its way towards-

'DRACO!' she could no longer hold that in and she stood up and screamed.

But the Mudblood got in the way, she pushed him out of its way and once again was struck by it. This time something else happened. She pulled something from her side, it was black and shiny, then there was a bang and the Dark Lord was thrown backwards and toppled over.

'GRAB HER!' Bellatrix was up, chair flying, she pointed at Mudblood but run to her lord. They were all stunned. In a second, Bellatrix was beside him and kneeling and she cried in relief 'You're alive, my lord.'

'Grab her.' came his reply, hoarse but mad with fury 'Grab her and the boy. The Malfoys can't be trusted.'

She froze as wands shoot up in her direction. She felt someone; an arm grabbed her shoulder and a feminine voice spoke out.

'You're coming or wanna stay here?'

Another hand grabbed her and pulled her back, she turned around, it was Draco.

'Come, Mother. He'll kill us.'

'Stay!' Lucius' voice reached her ears.

'Father.' her son sounded as if he was pleading.

She didn't know what was happening. She was being pulled out of the room by Draco while the Mudblood was making those banging noises and Death Eaters were falling. Soon they were running down the stairs, their pursuit somehow slowed down.

'Draco!' the Mudblood yelled 'The brooms.'

'Accio!' Draco shouted 'Accio! Accio broom!'

There was a bang, this one much different, less sharp, more resembling a thud and suddenly three broomsticks were hurtling towards them. She found herself mounting one, as did Draco and Mudblood.

'Go!' the girl yelled and kicked off. Even airborne, she was able to fire - for it must have been what she was doing, after all - at the pursuers. They had to take cover. For a second she could see Lucius and Bellatrix, the first one in a state of utter panic, the latter beside herself with fury, then her son grabbed and pulled. They sped across the main hallway, Draco reaching out for his wand and blasting the doors away, and they were outside, the night air cold and clear, moon high in the sky. The directed their brooms upwards, flying towards it, her eyes were filled with tears, she could not tell whether they were because of the cold air or - or something else.

Their pursuers never caught up with them. They were flying for few hours, heading north, as if towards Hogwarts, then, after the Mudblood commanded so, they changed direction and went west. Suddenly some lights appeared below, far beneath them.

'Let's go.' she pointed the broom downwards and they followed in her wake.

They landed outside some Muggle town. Narcissa was almost nauseous now, sick with trepidation and shock.

'What have you done, Mudblood?' she shrieked at the girl, tempted with the idea with cursing her into oblivion. She turned her head and stated at her son 'Draco? Has she corrupted you? Why?'

'I believe she has just saved your lives.' the Mudblood spoke out, her voice brisk 'But you don't have to thank me. Listen-'

'Mudblood, what have you done?' Draco's voice was almost on the edge of snappish.

'Listen. I will be more than happy to talk to you. But how about we go in town and warm up?'

'You want us to enter a Muggle crap hole?' normally she would have chastised Draco for such wording, now, however, was not the case.

'Yes!' the girl hissed, presumably losing her patient. 'Listen. You can just hear me out and decide whether you want to join me-'

'Join you?' she felt the air leave her lungs with terrible speed 'Join you?' she spat, livid now, all dignity forgotten.

'You can either join me or end up like you do in my timeline!' the girl exclaimed.

The words caught her off her guard.

'And how do I end up in your timeline?' she hissed, truly livid now. The situation was absurd.

'Dead.' the girl answered 'As does your son, your husband and your sister.'

The silence that erupted was eerie. She staggered backwards and suddenly felt a surge of pain in her chest.

'Dead? All of them?' she forced the words out of her mouth, feeling suddenly as if her lips became wooden.

'Yes. Come, Mrs. Malfoy. Let me do the explaining.' the girl's voice was now softer, imploring her to come. She looked to her son and he was upset, eyes darting from the Mudblood to herself.

'Well.' she lifted her chin defiantly 'Lead on. But if this is a trick of sorts, Mudblood, know that you will pay.'

'I would not expect anything less from you, Lady Malfoy.' the way the girl nodded at her was somehow...camaraderie-like. She swallowed her questions and followed her into the Muggle town.

The Mudblood led them into some kind of bar. It was very small and very filthy, with white falls covered with some kind of a glassy stone, and a metal (it was truly peculiar) counter with some parts made of glass. She could see sausages rolling on some iron (maybe?) bars. The whole place was ugly and cheap and in bad taste. The Mudblood ushered them to a sit, the two of them as uncomfortable, as possible. She feared that if she should touch something, she would remain forever tainted. And so she sat in her plastic chair, very stiff and trying no to move too much.

A Muggle woman in white apron walked towards them and handed them three cards covered with some strange substance.

'Thanks.' The Mudblood shot the woman a short smile.

She could see the Muggle ogling them, her eyes traveling from herself, to Draco and onto the Mudblood, who, upon feeling her gaze, gave the woman a short, cautious look.

'I'll have a cappuccino.' the Mudblood spoke in a commanding voice. The Muggle looked shocked at her unpleasant demeanor.

'I'll have one as well.' Draco added hastily and Narcissa found herself saying that indeed, she shall have one too.

The Muggle walked off, either insulted by the treatment she received or still puzzled about their appearance. They waited patiently for the woman to return with a tray and three cups on it. She put it on the table with too much force and Narcissa thought that if her elves were as rude as her, they would be happy to escape with a crucio. The Muggle world was simply distasteful, with its overly bright lights and cheap music and bad manners. She sighed. This was by far worse than she could have ever anticipated. She looked at her son, he was staring at his cup with a very forlorn expression. She felt somebody's gaze and lifted her head. It was the Mudblood, with something that resembled pity in her eyes. She scoffed, but she did not find enough energy to address that awful creature.

'Lady Malfoy.' the girl spoke in a low voice 'Please muffle the sounds around us.'

'Can't you do that yourself, Mudblood?' Draco drawled and this was so familiar, she almost wanted to hug him right here and right now.

'No, Draco.' the Mudblood send him a quick glance 'In my timeline the magic's useless. And my wand broke during the... incident.' she finished, somehow lamely.

'Magic's useless?' she saw her son's eyes grow wide with terror. She felt it herself, too. As if a cold hand had reached for her and pushed through her chest, clenching her heart. Without any ado, she cast muffling charm and then anti-detection charms, Draco followed. Soon enough they were heavily warded, as if preparing themselves for an attack.

The woman was watching them with almost longing look in her eyes. She could not help but marvel at the girl; this silent person with scars on her face and a very tired look in her eyes, she looked like someone who has undergone real hell.

'Very well.' the Mudblood spoke out and cleared her throat 'I'll carry on from where I have been stopped.'

They nodded their approvals. Suddenly Narcissa felt as if what she was to hear next, would change everything and momentarily plunged into deep anxiety.

'So, as I've said. The moment he attacks Little Whining, we are exposed to the Muggle world. While he's chasing across the country after the three of us, they are assembling both weapons and tactics. They'll be working on the EMP, Electromagnetic Impulse, don't ask me to explain it in detail, which will in the next few years render magic useless.'

'How?' Draco breathed out.

'It somehow disturbs the magic impulse. The one that comes out of our wands. Whenever it's send, the EMP blocks our impulse in its vicinity.'

'Oh no.' she heard herself gasp.

'While Muggleborns are joining the Muggles, and he's absolutely unaware of anything, considering himself above all the fuss; while he's engaging in conflicts with the Order, the Muggles are rallying world-wide. Soon their secret organisations, such as the CIA or KGB - they're all like the MI-7 I spoke about earlier. They're planning their tactics, gathering at international level. Soon the UN, United Nations, which is an organisation that consists of every country's delegates, will make a huge strategy system, the WHO or World Health Organisation - that's also international - begins experiments on wizards, the NATO, North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, which is a huge military system, begins an operation which is called, ironically, the Cleansweap. The wizards are captured and...uh...experimented on.'

'How?' she demanded, her voice hard and eyes alight with a mixture of panic and revulsion.

'I'd rather not tell you.' her voice was cross 'Please, it's bad enough to have lost friends to such experiments, I really don't want to go through with that again.'

She nodded, swallowing hard.

'There is another movement, though. While on the official side it's the Cleansweap and it's mainly infiltration and, well, experimentation , there's also this The Protection Act. It's something of a corridor talk, nothing is official. The, uh, some of the major criminal organisations form a partnership with those who wish to enforce this Act. It's-erm.' she licked her lips and took a big gulp of her drink 'It's a major thing. See, he's acting out, hunting, attacking, killing. The Muggle governments are concealing his existence, or our existence, from the public. They control the newspapers. They are afraid that if the news goes out too early, we'll be able to undertake some steps. Their agents are, however, monitoring the situation. They're waiting for a weakness. There are two groups fighting, while they are strong, the Muggles do not act. They wait, bid their time. While the Cleansweapers wish to-erm- register us all and control the magic, the Protection Act believers, the Protectors as they will call themselves in the future, want to eliminate us.'

They all held their breaths.

'The more he goes crazy, the more Protectors appear. The Muggleborns do not know of The Protection Act, of course. They agree on Cleansweap because they believe it's the lesser evil. Registration instead of, well, him. Furthermore, they work very hard on the Cleansweap. They provide the Muggles with knowledge. Our strengths, weaknesses and so on. They expose all the schools. Probably all around the world. Dumbledore's dead - and maybe he was the one who would be able to notice that the tide is shifting. The Protectors and the mafia form a pact. Their - the mafia, the criminals'- men can snatch us at will. They're the arm of vengeance, called the Vigilantes. Whatever they snatch is their by right. Women, mostly as some men also, are usually deprived of their wands and sold...erm... to brothels. It's something of a kick of adrenaline, you know, to bed a real life witch. The-erm' the Mudbloods eyes were almost apologetic now and she found herself dying of dread 'They favor pure blood women most of all.'

She drew a deep breath, feeling as if she was about to either vomit or faint.

'We are oblivious. Just before the Battle of Hogwarts - it will occur in May - there's a major shift in the Muggle political world. The mafia money flows freely into certain parties' - or groups that have some doctrines they follow - pockets and there are takeovers all around the world. Some legal, some not. May the first, the Protection Act is implanted. The Muggleborns who worked for the Muggles are the first targets. The experiments are now not only legal, but public. The new Prime Minister of England - the Muggle Minister for Magic - declares magic is real and a threat. The public panics.'

'The next day he attacks Hogwarts. In the middle of the battle, the Muggles attack. It's a slaughter. He dies almost by accident. See those?' she took one of those strange shining objects and places it on the table. They move forwards, in its direction and lean closely with morbid fascination 'They're guns. They fire small'

'Bullets' Draco piped in 'I listened to Professor Burbage's explanation of your wound.' he added, the comment presumably addressed to Narcissa, who merely nodded, unable to speak.

'While he flows around gloating the stupid Muggles, one of them fires a gun, only it's bigger and much more powerful. The bullets hits his head, he's dead within a second. We all flee. The teachers try to protect students. Slughorn dies, McGonagall dies, Sprout dies, Madame Pomfrey gets hauled off, the older kids are butchered, first and second years are captured. You're' suddenly the Mudblood lifts her head and stares her dead in the eye 'capture alongside Lestrange' she said the last name with venom 'and your husband, Harry saves Draco.'

'We flee. We're lost. The boys don't know what to do. Soon we join the others. Majority of them is pure bloods. They have no clue. Since I'm the only Muggle-born-'

'You're in charge.' Draco looked at the Mudblood with a small smile 'I'd figured. What do we do next?'

She shot him a small smile and it was familiar and it struck Narcissa that probably, in this near future, they are friends. If not something else.

'You ask me to go on a rescue mission. Your family is, after all, lost. It takes us the whole summer to track them, just me and you, the rest in unwilling to go after Death Eaters.'

'I'd figured.' Draco shrugged but his face was slightly crestfallen.

'We find them. We find you.' she said and stopped.

'Tell.' she was covered in cold sweat, knowing, that she is about to hear something horrible.

'Listen. You were snatched by the mafia men. Listen. Your sister hates Muggles. And so -erm. While she is screaming and being her insane self, she gives them The idea.'

She felt Draco stiffen and she was about to get sick on the table.

'Is she raped?' her voice was a hoarse whisper.

'Not only her. And not only once.' the answer is very quiet and very, very sad.

'Lucius?'

'Oh yes. Him too. Him and her the worst.'

The silence was pronounced and heavy and if Narcissa was no Black, she would have fainted or wept or vomited. But she was, so instead she lifted her head in some faux pride.

'Carry on.' her tone was icy.

'Mother.' Draco began, imploring her to stop.

'While we breach the institute, we find only you and your sister. Your husband had been sold to a brothel in Dubai, I think. Bellatrix is very sick. And so are you. The three of us are on the run, using Muggle vehicles and technology. Soon we run into Severus, McNair, Mulciber and Dolohov. They join us. The Order considers this a betrayal, it's now run by the Weasleys and Shacklebot, while he's fine, they're slightly insane, having lost both Fred and George. But-but we rescue Ginny Weasley and Harry joins us. Ron doesn't, he's with his parents. While the order is in disarray and losing people left and right, we assemble our own troops. We begin to fight. Soon the rest of the world is cut off, rumor has it that Americas - both of them - have already obliterated our people. Europe assembles, since we're effective, I-'

'You're the leader. He was the Golden Git, now you're the Golden Badass of Resistance.' Draco cut in, now, however, looking like a boy that's staring at a beautiful broom 'We fight. You said we all die.' there was something going on between the two of them; the girl nodded.

'Yes. Our last stand is northern parts of Scotland. Whoever's alive and up to a fight, is there. There are also children and elderly. We know it's done for. The Muggles use their ultimate weapon. The nuclear bomb. It's so powerful it can wipe out a huge area. First they strike Ireland because, I think, it was the second most powerful place of resistance. They strike it few times. Nobody survives, I think. We have no magic. My last memory is that I'm slowly dying because of the gunshot wound Severus healed, and trying to make a portkey, to save at least some of the children. I lay on my back, trying to cast a spell with the EMP disrupting any and every signal and I see it, the missile, coming our way. The second it struck, the portkey activates.'

'And you come crashing into Miss Burbage here.' a voice spoke out and they all jumped in their seats, Granger pointing the object - the gun - towards the intruder. It was Snape with Charity Burbage in tow, who's eyes were wide like saucers.

'Forgive me, Madame Malfoy, Draco, but your wards were not very good.'

'Severus.' Granger breathed out.

'Severus?' Draco turned around. Actually they both did.

'He's working for Dumbledore. Always has and always will.'

'But the kill...' Draco stated feebly.

'It was planned by Dumbledore.' she answered smoothly.

'Yes, I am not the villain you'd all gladly mark me as. Forgive me this disruption but how do we undo this mess, miss Granger?'