Two days before Harry was set to return to Hogwarts was an important day, but not for Harry himself. It was an important day because it was the graduation ceremony for all the qualified graduates of the Auror Academy. This included Neville and Ernie, as well as the class's highest scoring graduate, Ron Weasley.
Ron had already commented that neither Bill or Percy had been the highest scoring student in their Hogwarts class, which had earned him an eye roll from Bill and Percy threatening to kick him out of their apartment.
The graduation would take place at the Academy itself, the one day every six months that the building was open to the public. The Academy was hidden inside a building that housed the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London, just across the street from the permanent residence of the British Prime Minister along with several other high ranking Muggle politicians. Years ago, the Academy had been placed there, along with a station of Aurors, to protect the Prime Minister in case of an emergency that involved the magical world. Thankfully, that day had never come but the Academy remained there.
At least, the entrance to it remained at that location. Because when Harry walked in the door of what was supposed to be the Auror Academy, it was clear that the Academy itself wasn't actually in London. Looking out the windows of the gothic-like structure of the building, instead of the city life and close buildings that Harry expected, he only saw forests, trees that reached so high they seemed to touch the clouds.
The building itself reminded him a bit of Hogwarts, despite the fact that it had clearly been built after the school. It was also much smaller with one great central area that served as a communal eating area and practical instruction space. Four hallways connected to this main area, each running about one hundred meters in length with classrooms on either side.
According to Ron, there was also an outdoor obstacle course and dueling platform but they never had the opportunity to see that.
The central room had been redesigned as an auditorium of sorts today with hundreds of chairs lined up in the center of the room, facing a stage set up at the far end. The graduating candidates sat on a platform on top of the stage, putting them far higher than anyone else in the room.
In front of them sat a "who's who" of the most influential members of the Ministry of Magic. Seated in the middle was Kingsley, who had barely had time to breathe due to the number of old colleagues that had approached him prior to the ceremony. On either side of the Minister of Magic was Gawain Robards and Meredith Breckinridge.
Harry also noticed her Senior Adviser sitting in the front row.
The last person on the stage was someone that Harry didn't recognize. Thankfully, she was the first person to stand up and speak during the ceremony. She was a short, stocky woman with horned-rimmed glasses that seemed just a bit too large for her face. Her robes were a dark red color, the color of the Aurors, but her robes were slightly different. Instead of the solid red, her robes had a blue stripe down the center and she wore a white stoll around her shoulders.
Harry guessed that it had something to do with her relationship to the Academy rather than being a full-time Auror.
She appeared to be somewhere between Molly Weasley and Minerva's age, although her black, curly hair made it difficult to place her age exactly.
"Thank you all for coming today." she said, her thick Scottish accent ringing through the room. Harry could tell that this person was a teacher immediately. Her voice cut through the crowd and while it was magically amplified, he could tell that she probably wouldn't have needed it for the candidates themselves.
"My name is Isobel Scott and I am the Chief Administrator here at the British Academy for Aurors and Hit Wizards. Today, I have the proud honor of declaring that twenty-two students have qualified for graduation, the record of qualified candidates for a single class." she said to a round of polite applause. "The Academy is also proud to state that we saw five students reach the Elite ranking. They are Landon Ivers, Neville Longbottom, Davena Sexton, Shaw Taggert and Ronald Weasley."
Each of the five graduates stood and were recognized by a raucous round of applause with some cheers from their families for their efforts.
"Before we announce the top scorer of the class, I would like to invite Minister of Magic Kingsley Shacklebolt to say a few words."
Isobel moved to side, allowing Kingsley to step up to the podium.
"Good morning everyone." Kingsley said. "I joined the Auror Academy six months after graduating from Hogwarts. For years, I had been uncertain with what I wanted to do with my life. I had considered returning to teach at Hogwarts or join the Ministry of Magic. I had even been offered a job working with the Gringotts Curse Breakers. But none of those jobs appealed to me."
"Then, Alastor 'Mad-Eye' Moody, the man who would one day become my mentor, approached my father about the Auror Academy. Apparently, some professors from Hogwarts, including Albus Dumbledore himself, had passed my name to Moody, who had taken some interest in me. I had never considered being an Auror before. While my Defense grades had been good during school, it was not due to a particular love of the subject. Still, the more I thought about it, the more the job seemed to appeal to me."
"So, in September, I joined the Auror Academy for the hardest five months of my life. Each and every day, I was tested to the end of my limits and then some. I was given tests that would have made NEWTs seem like the first quiz you took on your first day at Hogwarts. I was bruised, beaten, bloodied and bandaged nearly the entire time that I was here."
"But it is also where I began some of the most formative relationships in my life. I became close friends with John Dawlish and Moody himself, relationships that would last until Moody's unfortunate death and to this very day with John. In just five months, I was transformed and my life has never been the same since then. For those of you that will never experience this, you cannot understand what this will do to you."
Kingsley turned and spoke directly to the graduates behind him.
"But you know, right? You know that you have been changed by this time. You have formed bonds, forged in fire, that can never be broken. From now until the day you die, the members of your graduating class will be your closest friends, your most trusted confidantes and the people most likely to jump into the fire with you. Now, you walk into service as an Auror of the Ministry of Magic, one of the greatest honors that can be bestowed on anyone and the highest honor of my life. My only recommendation: make sure that you take care of yourself. The life of an Auror will be hard and sometimes lonely. Find people who care about you, people who are not Aurors, and confide in them. Tell them what is bothering you, tell them your fears and tell them what you want from your life. Let them know that you are safe. Without that balance, your life will be hard. With it, the life of an Auror is immensely rewarding."
Turning back around, he now addressed the friends and families of the graduates once more.
"The rest of you have an important role to play as well. Be understanding. There will be things that your loved ones cannot tell you. Be understanding. There will be days where they want to simply be alone with their thoughts. Be understanding. There will be days where they don't want to leave your side. Be understanding. If you do that, if you give these men and women your support, they will be able to do their job, knowing that they are coming home to an environment that will help them recover from the stresses of the day. No one is more important to the success, safety and well being of an Auror than their family."
"I would like to congratulate this year's graduating class. May your years at the Ministry be fruitful and I thank you for continuing a proud tradition of protecting our great country from threats at home and abroad."
The crowd stood and applauded both Kingsley and the graduates, which had been instructed to stand by their instructors. Harry could barely see Ron, standing in the center of the front row, with a big smile on his face. While Harry knew that Ron wasn't interested in becoming an Auror because of the fame and fortune (There wasn't any), he also knew that Ron would love being the center of attention, even just for a few moments.
Isobel and Kingsley whispered something to each other, which caused Kingsley to laugh as he took his seat, while Isobel returned to the podium.
"Each year, the Academy recognizes two people in each class. The first award goes to the Most Distinguished Graduate. In order to receive this award, the graduate must score in the top ten percent of both the academic and practical scoring systems. However, they must also be an effective leader and a willing teammate. Previous winners of this award include Gawain Robards, Kingsley Shacklebolt and Rufus Scrimgeour. This year's winner is finished third in the class in academic testing and second in practical testing. I am pleased to announce that this year's Most Distinguished Graduate is Neville Longbottom."
Almost instantly, the room exploded with applause as Neville stepped down from his place in the back row. As he made his way forward, Harry was happy to see that his classmates seemed to be incredibly supportive of Neville's success, clapping him on the back as he marched down to receive his award.
When he reached the main stage, he was quickly greeted by both Isobel and Kingsley, who congratulated him before posing for a picture that would certainly make the Daily Prophet the next day.
It took nearly three minutes for the crowd to finally quiet down, so overzealous was the reaction to Neville's award. Harry was happy for Neville. That kind of award was a long time coming to someone like Neville and he was glad that someone had finally officially recognized him.
"Our final award is for The Alastor Moody Memorial Award for Excellence, which goes to the highest scoring witch or wizard in each class. This year, however, special mention has to be made to our winner. Since the start of the Auror Academy in the early nineteen hundreds, only three graduates have ever scored a perfect score in their time at the Academy. The first to perform the feat was Alastor Moody himself, the second was Gawain Robards and the final graduate was Alice Longbottom."
"Today, we can add a fourth student to that list." Isobel said with a slight smirk. Around Harry, the Weasley family was already starting to lose their minds. They had already known that Ron had been the highest scoring student in the class, something that had apparently been the case for quite some time now.
But for Ron to be put in such a historic group? The Weasley family had likely never been prouder.
"Our winner scored over one hundred percent on both his academic and practical finals. Throughout the course, over two dozen tests and quizzes were given. Our winner scored a perfect score on all of them. During that same time period, six practical examinations were given. Three of them were given in a team environment and three individually. Our winner, and his teams, achieved perfect scores on all six examinations."
"As an instructor as The Academy, I have never seen a student more prepared for his duties as an Auror than our winner. Today, I am pleased to announce that this year's winner of The Alastor Moody Memorial Award for Excellence is Ronald Bilius Weasley."
While the audience had gone wild for Neville, Harry didn't have words for the reaction of the audience for Ron's award. Looking around, Harry saw that a fair number of Order members, along with half a dozen member of Dumbledore's Army were present and each of them were cheering as loud as possible with Seamus Finnigan even standing on his chair.
Looking down the rows of chairs, Harry saw that both Arthur and Molly had burst into tears and were barely being held up by Percy and George, respectively. Harry took a moment to look at each member of the Weasley family. Only seven months ago, this family had been broken, rubbed down to the bone, by the loss of one of their own. While that wound wasn't any less fresh, Harry could see that they had clearly started to recover.
A day like today would be helpful for that. Ron stepped forward and, like Neville, posed for a picture before being invited by Isobel to step in front of the podium. He did so and paused for a moment, clearly looking for his family roughly twenty rows back from the front. When he finally saw them, he waved and then lifted his award and pointed at it, which caused another round of cheers.
"I don't know what to do." Ron admitted, causing the room to laugh as they took their seats. "My life has been full of crazy things but this might just be the craziest. I've known for awhile now that I wanted to be an Auror and I wanted to be good at it. I have a lot of really wonderful people in my life and I wanted to do them proud. To Mum and Dad, Bill and Fleur, Charlie, Percy, George and Ginny: thanks for your support. I know I was probably a git at some point in the last few months and for that, I'm sorry."
"My classmates over the years have been the best." Ron added. "It's been awesome working with Neville again along with all the other graduates. But I can't even begin to tell you how much I have learned from my two oldest classmates and closest friends. Without Harry Potter and Hermione Granger, I never would have got here. Harry was the one who really taught me how to use my wand. He took all that terrible teaching we got from some of the worst Defense Against the Dark Arts professors ever and he made it make sense. Then, somewhere along the line, Hermione's constant reminders that I should study and do my homework must have finally kicked in, just eight years too late."
Ron found Harry and Hermione and gave them a wave, which Harry and Hermione returned, having never been prouder of their oldest friend. When Ron looked back down at the award in his hand, however, his smile faltered slightly.
"But most of all, I'm doing this for my brother, Fred." Ron said, his voice cracking gently. "Fred was a wonderful person and I miss him every day. When I decided to go to the Academy, it was Fred's memory that told me that I was doing this right thing. When things got tough, Fred would remind me that I could succeed. When I wanted to quit early or take a night off, I was reminded that Fred would never have another night off again. Fred Weasley has been my inspiration and without him, without my friends and family, I never would have achieved anything even close to this. Thank you."
When the ceremony finished up, Harry, Hermione, Luna and the rest of the Weasleys raced up to the front to congratulate Ron. Unfortunately, Ron only had a few minutes to spare. Some of the graduates had arranged a party and Ron was going. It was strange, knowing that Ron had spent months forming all of these relationship without them.
That was until Harry realized that he had done the same. He was friends with Daphne Greengrass now, albeit in a slightly formal way. His relationship with Luna and Ginny and even Hermione had changed and Harry was happier now than he had ever been.
It was clear based on how universally Ron seemed to be loved by the rest of the graduates, superseded by only Neville it seemed, that the same was true for Ron.
They hadn't done it together but somehow, someway, they had all found happiness after The Battle of Hogwarts again. In the end, that was all Harry needed to know.
While Harry didn't get to spend any time with Ron that night, he was able to catch an evening with his oldest friend the night before Harry went back for his last few weeks as a student at Hogwarts. Rather than sit around Grimmauld Place and drink (which had been Harry's suggestion), Ron suggested they get out of the house and drink. Specifically, they went back to Hogsmeade and grabbed a corner table at the Three Broomsticks where Madam Rosmerta spent the next several hours bringing them some of her private batch of Butterbeer, which had a much higher chance of knocking you unconscious than regular Butterbeer.
Harry had never been to The Three Broomsticks when school wasn't in session. Not surprisingly, the place was nearly empty, even on a Saturday night. Considering that Hogsmeade only had a population of a few hundred people, this shouldn't have been a surprise. Still, Harry found it a bit strange that he could actually hear what Ron was saying and didn't have to shout his replies.
For most of the night, both Harry and Ron avoided work and school. Instead, they chose to talk about Quidditch, a subject that neither of them had followed recently, considering they had each spent the last four months locked away at a school of sorts. Still, they knew enough to spend roughly an hour on that before the conversation shifted to something more serious.
"So, who are you being assigned to?" Harry asked, slurring his words slightly after his fourth of Madam Rosmerta's special batch went down the hatch.
For a moment, Ron looked apprehensive before taking a rather large gulp of his drink. Once he was done, he looked off into the distance, his eyes not meeting Harry when he answered.
"I can't answer that question." Ron said. While most people would consider Ron's behavior rude, Harry knew that he was nervous. People keeping secrets from Harry was notoriously aggravating to the Boy Who Lived.
"Really? Why not?" Harry asked, genuinely curious. He knew that Ron still would likely not be able to tell him but that didn't mean that he couldn't ask.
"I've been assigned to an undercover international unit." Ron replied. "I can't tell anyone where I'm going. The only thing I'm allowed to reveal is that I will be leaving the country and I should be back sometime this spring."
"Wow. That's incredible." Harry said. "How many other graduates got that kind of assignments?"
"None." Ron revealed. "I'm the only Junior Auror on the team. Hand picked by Gawain Robards himself."
Normally, Harry would have expected Ron to be proud of this fact. Instead, he sat and blankly stared at the far wall, his eyes glazed over as he spoke.
"Ron, is everything okay?"
Again, Ron took a minute to speak. When he did, he spoke softly and with such a deliberate pace that Harry wondered if he wasn't picking each word one at a time from a jar somewhere deep inside his brain.
"I'm off the edge here, Harry." Ron said. "For years, I could always rely on you and Hermione. Now, I'm going to be heading off to Merlin knows where, doing Merlin knows what and it won't be the same. I was always the third fiddle."
"Ron, that's not how-"
"It's okay, Harry." Ron said, his eyes finally turning back to Harry. "In the past, I would have been upset about that fact. But I've learned a couple of things over the past few months. First, I'm pretty damn exceptional myself if I apply myself. Second, almost everyone in the world would play third fiddle to the two of you, so I'm glad it was me."
"We always knew that you could be exceptional."
"Hermione did." Ron admitted. "But now, I'm not the third fiddle. I was selected for this mission by the Chief Auror himself. The next youngest Auror has six years of experience. This is a huge step for me. If I do this right and do it well, my stock in the Aurors will shoot way up. If I don't-"
"You will." Harry interjected. "I have complete confidence in the fourth person to ever get a perfect score at the Auror Academy."
"I know." Ron replied. "I don't know when I'll be back. Hell, I don't even know what I'll be doing or when I'll be able to get a letter back home. I just want you to know that I'm sorry for how I acted this summer."
"Ron, your brother had just been murdered. You were trying to deal with that."
"Yes, but there are plenty of people that I could have lashed out at other than one of few people that has always stood by my side."
"That would have been nice, yeah." Harry replied. "Listen, it's in the past. It's over and we need to move on. Let's focus on getting ourselves really drunk so that I can be hungover on the train tomorrow."
"Can't you just walk up to the castle and stay the night?"
"I have to provide supervision as Head Boy." Harry said. "McGonagall would be pissed if I wasn't on the train."
"Maybe not the best idea to piss off your future boss?"
"Exactly."
Ron raised his glass. "To being hungover on the train!"
Unfortunately, being hungover on the train was not as fun as it sounded, mostly because the train, despite being magical in nature, still made all the same scraping noises of a real train, likely to give the effect of being a typical Muggle train. This meant that by the time the Head Boy and Girl meeting was over, Harry had a splitting headache.
That was not helped by the fact that once all of the Prefects were out of the room, Minerva McGonagall suddenly Apparated into the compartment.
"Headmistress?" Harry asked in confusion.
"Potter, Granger: have a seat." Minerva said, pointing to one of the chairs around them as she took a seat in one of the chairs that the Prefects had just abandoned.
Looking at the Headmistress, Harry could see that Minerva hadn't been sleeping well in the few weeks since he had seen her last. The skin around her eyes was dark and drooping. Her eyes themselves were red and veiny. It looked as if the Headmistress could benefit from a nice long nap.
"I wanted to tell the both of you before we got back to school."
"Tell us what?" Hermione asked.
"Over the few weeks that we have been out of school, I have received no less than two hundred letters, mostly from the parents of first and second year students, that have withdrawn their children from Hogwarts...permanently."
"Where are they taking their children for school?" Harry asked.
"Most of them have decided on homeschooling their children." Minerva explained. "Until we can guarantee the safety of our students, I fear that, without Albus, this will be our future."
"Are you saying that Hogwarts may not stay open?" Hermione asked.
"It is a real possibility." Minerva admitted. "Enrollment has been dropping for decades. Most of that is due to the decreasing number of children being born as families got smaller and potential parents were murdered by Voldemort but it still raises the issue of enrollment. Hogwarts is not equipped to remain open for so few students. Eventually, the Governors will decide that the only course of action will be to close the school."
"That's awful." Harry muttered to himself.
"Something will almost definitely rise up in its place." Minerva replied. "Exactly what that is, I'm not certain, but I've already heard rumors that there are former students in Exeter looking to open up a new school."
"We've got to do something." Hermione replied. "Hogwarts has stood for a thousand years. It's a tradition."
"I agree and thankfully, I have something that might help us." Minerva said as she held up a copy of the Daily Prophet.
"The paper?" Harry asked.
"All year long, Barnabas Cuffe has been begging for an interview with the two of you."
"Wait, just the two of us?" Harry asked. "Not Ron?"
"Ron didn't choose to come back to Hogwarts. The two of you did and Cuffe would love the inside story as to why."
Harry immediately saw the draw for Minerva. Any story with Harry and Hermione's names in it that mentioned Hogwarts in a positive light, which they would surely do, would be a great form of publicity for the school. In fact, Harry couldn't think of anything that would be better for it.
There was only one problem, which Hermione articulated perfectly.
"We can't do this interview without Ron."
"Why? He's not here and the two of you are." Minerva replied.
"Yes, but that's not how he'll see it." Harry countered. He knew they needed to do the interview. But he also knew that Ron would be upset if he felt like the two of them were getting publicity for their time at school. Ron had been a part of six of their seven years. It felt wrong not to include him in a conversation about why they returned to school, even if he didn't choose to return to school himself.
Suddenly, an idea formed in Harry's head.
"What if we offered them a series of interviews?"
"What do you mean?" Minerva asked.
"I mean what if they got a one-on-one with each of us? We could each tell our story of Hogwarts that way. Then, they could get a three person interview at the end. We would spend most of that time talking about Hogwarts. But we can also give them some more information on what we did last year. Before we agree to the interviews, we ensure that Hogwarts will be played in a positive light. If he agrees, then he gets four surefire front page interviews and we get more publicity for the school than we know what to do with."
"It wouldn't convince the people who blame you for the war." Minerva replied as she thought aloud.
"Do we really want those people at Hogwarts anyway?" Hermione asked, only half-joking.
"What do you mean?"
"These are people that can't see that Voldemort was clearly to blame for the war. Do we really need those kind of people at Hogwarts?" Hermione said, posing the question to Minerva who didn't initially react. When she did, it was just to give a slight smirk and a shrug of her shoulders.
"I'll talk to Cuffe and see what he says. In the meantime, we need to be thinking of other ways to promote the school and boost the student population again." Minerva said as she stood from her chair. "Keep that in mind and I'll talk to you again about all of this once I've heard from Cuffe."
With that, Minerva Apparated from the train, leaving Harry and Hermione alone. Harry decided that, rather than being social, he would prefer to sleep off the rest of his hangover. Thankfully, finding an empty compartment wasn't a difficult task anymore. With the dwindling population of the school (and the fact that some students had undoubtedly remained at Hogwarts), almost the entire last car of the train was empty.
Harry had been asleep for nearly an hour when he heard the door to his compartment open. Opening his eyes, Harry saw Ginny sneaking into his compartment.
"What are you doing?" Harry asked, causing Ginny to jump in surprise.
"Gah! I thought you were asleep!"
"I was and then someone opened the door." Harry replied. "What are you doing?"
Ginny took a seat across from Harry and placed her head in her hands.
"We have to talk."
Harry sat up quickly. He didn't like the tone in her voice at all.
"About what?"
"About the other night."
"The other night?"
"When you helped me into bed." Ginny said. Immediately, Harry knew exactly what she was talking about.
"We don't have to talk about a thing." Harry said. "You were struggling with...something."
"I was."
"Have you talked to anyone about what it was?"
"I haven't." Ginny admitted.
"You know that you can talk to me." Harry said. "Or Hermione. Hell, you can probably still talk to Neville."
"I know." Ginny said. "I just...I, uh, wanted to thank you for helping me that night. I don't remember much but what I do remember was…"
"Not flattering?" Harry suggested.
"We'll go with that." Ginny replied. "If you were anything less than the perfect gentleman, you could have done whatever you wanted to me. But that's what I love about you. That's what everyone loves about you is your decency and your respect for your loved ones."
"Well, I know that I've been in a bad way before and others have helped. I'm just trying to return the favor." Harry said. "You have no need to thank me."
"But I will anyway. Thank you again." Ginny said softly. Then, just as suddenly as she had entered the room, she stood and left, leaving Harry alone with his thoughts. Of course, that didn't last very long because less than ten seconds later, Ginny returned and kissed Harry gently before racing out of the room again.
Harry treated that as a good sign but the fact that she hadn't been brave enough to stay and talk about what she had done confused Harry. Did she think that she owed Harry some sort of strange sexual favor for his actions? Did she want to date him but was too afraid to ask? Thousands of questions racked Harry's mind as they returned to Hogwarts.
Even as he sat down for dinner in the Great Hall, Harry found himself unable to look at Ginny for fear that a thousand questions would come pouring out of his mouth. Instead, he focused all of his attention on Hermione, hoping that would keep him from thinking about the redhead seated just two seats down from him.
Harry and Hermione enjoyed a brief dinner before heading back to their Common Area. While Hermione intended to stay up and work on a study guide for her Ancient Runes NEWT (something that Harry couldn't fathom so far away from the exams), Harry was tired and planned to go to bed.
That was until he got into his room and saw an unmarked envelope on his bed. Looking around the room, Harry withdrew his wand and cast a series of detection charms. There was no one there and it didn't appear that any of the wards in the room were damaged in anyway. This meant that it had been shipped to Hogwarts via the owl post and that even though it was unmarked, someone had placed it in his room.
Knowing that there was the potential for this letter to include some dangerous hexes, Harry cast another series of detection charms, this time on the envelope itself. Shockingly, there was nothing that Harry could detect on it.
The envelope was clean.
Still, it was with some trepidation that Harry opened the letter.
To Harry Potter:
I write you this letter under the most dire of circumstances. This evening, I received a letter from the Ministry of Magic, asking for both my son and I to come and testify in open court against my husband and several other Death Eaters. I know that this is something that we must do. My husband did hundreds of terrible things over the years and I must pay for them in some way.
But the Ministry of Magic has refused to grant us protective status until the trial is over. They have placed us in a home in London with round the clock protection but we are not being hidden, our names are said repeatedly by the Aurors and we are known as "The Malfoy detail" among the Aurors themselves. All it would take is a single ally loyal to my husband or Antonin or any one of the imprisoned Death Eaters to look at the forms or overhear a conversation and we would be found.
I do not expect pity from you. My family, and my son in particular, has been the cause of much pain to you over the years. I know that even asking you for assistance is a risk but it is a risk I must take. I am asking for your help in getting myself and my son out of the country after we have finished testifying against my husband. I ensure you that if we make it out of the country, you will never have to worry about seeing our faces again.
I am also prepared to ensure that the seat that the Malfoy family currently holds in the Wizengamot pass to you upon our safe passage. My family will no longer have any claim to them and as the Black family representative, they will fall to you.
If you have any mercy in your heart, then I beg you to meet with me and discuss this further.
Narcissa Malfoy
Harry sat with the letter in his hands, silent as he thought about what to do next. If this letter had been written to literally anyone else, he knew what they would say. They would say that Narcissa and Draco had earned their place in hell and if they were discovered and murdered by Death Eaters or even those that had been killed by Death Eaters, then good riddance.
But part of the reason that Harry had given them the opportunity to testify against Lucius was because he believed that they hadn't been given the proper chance at a life outside of Lucius's sphere of influence. If he allowed them to be killed before they got that opportunity, then why did he even go out on a limb for them in the first place?
Even by magic, changing their appearance and identity enough so that they would never be discovered would be nearly impossible. They were among the most famous people in the country. Like Narcissa had said, sooner or later, someone would find them. He also knew that, despite their warming attitude towards him, they would never accept a placement in a Muggle environment where they were sure to be safe.
No, the only way to ensure their safety was to get them out of the country where they could live lives away from their reputation and become new people entirely. There, they would be able to use magic and still be themselves but without the burden of the expectations placed on them by the Malfoy name.
Harry went to his desk and took out a quill to pen his reply.
Narcissa,
I will meet with you this weekend in Hogsmeade. Be at the Hog's Head Inn with Draco and your Auror protection detail at noon. Tell your Aurors who you are meeting and they will agree to let you go.
I do not need to tell you what happens to you or your son if you are attempting to use this as an opportunity to attack me or the school.
Harry Potter
Harry immediately left the Headmaster's Tower and marched the length of the school to the Owlery where he used one of the school's owls to send the reply. Harry stood in the tower, watching the owl disappear over the horizon. The only thought in his mind was the realization that Harry had just gone out of his way for a second time to help Draco Malfoy, the boy who had spent most of their time together terrorizing him.
But, Draco had also had Lucius as a father which, all things considered, may have been worse than having no father at all.
