Harry Potter and the Ancient Shrine of Providence
The rest of the Story of the Boy who Lived
Book 8 Chapter 36 'The Malfoy's Debts and Obligations'
Chapter 36: The Malfoy's Debts and Obligations
"Harry… Harry can you hear me?"
It seemed to be a familiar voice that was calling out from a far-away place. For Harry, his body seemed like it was floating, weightlessly. As he curiously glanced below himself, the mirrored surface looked as if he was flying over a large tranquil body of water. A loch, the ocean… Harry wasn't sure on what happened but everything felt surreal to him. Then his mind heard that subtle voice, again. So, distance, so beautiful, and it was like a smoothing song in Harry's mind. He knew it was a familiar one, but for that moment, he just couldn't place it…
Her worried face that she now had was hidden in the dimness. Harry!" Ginny yelled with concern as she nudged his side. "What's wrong my love?" There was a short pause as she began to choke on her own emotion… "Please Harry…" She said as her eyes began to fill with wetness. "Please say something to me."
Several tears now slid off her cheek and landed on his forehead as she suddenly shrieked out, "Mum! Dad! Something has happened to Harry!"
Arthur and Molly had just retired for the night to their room. When they heard their daughter's scream, her shrill voice was enough to tell them everything that they needed to know.
It was around a half-hour before the bells of midnight would be heard tolling across the countryside. It was north of London and deep within a thick forest of old growth trees. If one would casually view the area, they at first would see nothing unusual. If one would look closer, he would notice the murky and dusty gravel trail that was mostly hidden within the thick underbrush.
It was at this moment, if one carefully looked, he might notice something within the flickering moonlit shadows. For tonight, one could observe the rat like movements from what appeared to be twin-cloaked figures. Silently, they proceeded onward as if making sure that nobody would hear or see them. Finally, when they emerged into a clearing, they approached several granite markers that the waning moon had cast its long shadows across them. Only now, it could be seen that one of them was larger then the other. The one in front also carried a cane, and it appeared that he could be the leader.
They continued on in silence until the one who appeared to be in charge said, "We must be careful tonight for we both know that we find ourselves in difficult times. Now listen to me carefully for it would be imprudent for you to ignore anything that I tell you. Most importantly, you must beware of those in the past that you have called your friends. You must also remember to keep tract of those that you have called your enemies."
"But why father?"
"Because now you must decide on just who they really are. The winds of change have taken an unexpected course correction. Now we can only wonder on where they will lead us, and with who that will be at our sides."
For a short time there was silence until the one continued, "For me Draco, what I have believed in is no longer a viable option for our family. Your forefathers had always survived and succeeded by choosing wisely, on just whom they had confided in. Tonight, you must understand that our survival as the Malfoy family is at stake."
"But father, I still don't understand why it was I that had to accompanied you. Why not mother?"
"Precisely why is good reason enough that I have not told you everything. Son, you have read the letter that was sent to you. Now if you had understood why we both had to come, I feel you would have chosen not to attend here with me. Our family must use this golden opportunity and make a show on why we should live. For now, it will seem to everyone that we have played both sides of this struggle. I think it is best that we don't try to persuade them, but just let them all believe in whatever they want too. For tonight, all I want to hear is of your hatred toward Potter. Showing them of anything less will make sure that both of us will never see a sunrise again."
"But… Did we actually have to come here, father?" Draco asked questionably. "I thought you were no longer a part of them. I thought you were even working with the Ministry. Have you not just lied to mother and me?"
Lucius put his hand up and Draco stopped. As soon as his father was able to turn around, he ask, "Is that what you really believe Draco?"
"I don't know what to believe in anymore," Draco truthfully answered.
"Then it is what you really believe in that is most important tonight, my son."
"Damn you father! I have cut off all ties with my friends and now I believe that most of them hate me. I have always tried to do what I thought you had wanted me to. Now everything you have been telling me sounds like gibberish tonight. So answer me, be truthful father, and stop talking in riddles." Now Draco's voice also showed a pleading tone. "Please tell me exactly why we are here?"
His father responded in a most demanding voice. "Then pay attention like you have never done before. Your close friends mostly were idiots. How you ever could have befriended them in the first place is something that this old Slytherin has never understood. I must stress to you again that on whatever happens tonight, it will determine if our family lives beyond this week. Yes, most of them believe that all of our family is traitors. Maybe we all are, but I have decided that this is best direction for us all to proceed."
Then Draco acted as if he didn't believe him. It was a bout of pent up anger that burst forth toward his father. This even surprised Lucius when Draco told him, "I think that you are doing this for yourself, father. Mother and I are just an added benefit if we end up living and besides, I don't think that my life is the one that you really want to save tonight."
"No Draco," Lucius replied, understandingly. There was now a pause as he looked at his son. Lucius' face now looked pale as he replied in a fatherly voice that Draco had not heard for years. "You must listen to me for I am telling you the truth. I have done many things in my life that some would call inexcusable and unforgivable. I am sure they are to some but for me, I stand by my decisions. It is now in my own belief that I fear on where this Ministry will be taking us. I do not question the aspirations of those who now control it, but just the direction that they are planning to lead us in. Whether this will be a contribution or not in our own society, I fear that some will exploit it and force this abominable way of life upon all of us."
"Then why are you doing this?" Draco asked.
"Although I cannot agree toward much of what is now happening, I must do this in order to save both you and your mother. You must trust what I do here for I only do this to keep you and your mother alive. I have no other choice because I feel that I am walking on a thin rope and either way I am probably doomed." He paused while looking at Draco and then in a wrenching voice said, "I'm cautiously optimistic that you will survive this night and in time not have to fear for your life anymore."
As Draco gazed back into his father's face, he realized that he had been honest with him. This moment had become an epiphany and he knew he must do whatever his father would ask.
Quickly Draco replied, "I'm sorry father on what I just said." Then in a quieter voice he added, "You have been telling us the truth about saving our lives."
"Yes son, I know that my actions have been hard for both of you to understand, but your survival is precisely the reason why we both had to be here. This is the one best opportunity for our family to get out of this quandary that we find ourselves in. Now we must hurry or we will be late for our departure."
As they started moving through what had become a meadow, Draco was still puzzled on his father's behavior. He had never been this open to him or even showed this type of understanding. He actually was quite surprised on what he had said earlier to his father but he now believed that he had already forgiven him.
Then just a short time later and some distance away, Draco saw movement that was next to a tree. As they approached what soon appeared to be a short lump of a man, Draco nervously realized on just who it could be.
Just before they reached him, a familiar and hateful voice rang out in the cool night air, "I should kill you both right now. It's because of your son's ineptitude Lucius, that my own has lost his life. Now both of you have proved what blood-traders your family really is."
As the man pulled his wand out, he bellowed, "Give me a reason not to kill you both, you cowards."
"Crabbe, you're still my old friend," Lucius replied in as friendly of a voice that he could muster. "As usual, you have thought with what you hear and not with your brain. Yes, we both know that our numbers have been greatly depleted. We have lost the Dark Lord himself, but there is still hope that our true aspirations have not been destroyed. His plans all failed because he always underestimated young Potter. I too must admit that I also made the same mistake each time our paths crossed, but never again." Then his voice took on a more condescending tone as Lucius gave his condolences, "I am sorry about your son, but next time I anticipate it finally will be Potter's turn to miscalculate."
As Crabbe stared back at him, his face now showed as if he was hoping his words rang true. Then in a distressing voice, he replied, "He was my only son, Lucius, and now he's gone." Crabbe then slowly tucked his wand back inside his robe.
The night air grew very quiet, as both men now remained silent. It appeared to Draco that old friends knew not what to say to each other.
Then a few moments later, the sounds of gravel crackling were heard as additional footsteps were now noticed in the distance. Soon two dark silhouettes approached them, and Lucius turned to his son and whispered in a cautious voice, "Draco these two, I think I know…" There was a pause, and it appeared to Draco that his father was thinking. Then Lucius spoke as if Crabbe was not even around and said, "You have never met them, but I think it would be best that we assume tonight that they are both quite dangerous for our livelihood. Unless they ask you first, don't say anything to them. If they ask you a question, it would be wise to keep your answers as short as possible."
"Can I ask why?" Draco asked.
"Because killing you in front of me would give both of them great pleasures tonight."
"So who are they?" Draco asked in a worried voice.
"If I'm not mistaken, these two are Zeller Goreman and Celesta Arnold," replied Lucius, whose own voice was showing some hesitation. "Both of their spouses were killed just days after the Dark Lord had first tried to kill young Potter. Since then, each of them has kept a low profile. Their families have been longtime financiers and have a number of contacts with unknown bankers in London. They also have a very special relationship with the goblins at Gringotts."
When the two arrived, Lucius welcomed them in what sounded as a friendly voice, "Zeller, Celesta… I see that both of you were among the lucky few that escaped our most unfortunate demise."
Then the lady approached him. As she began raising her hand, Lucius reached out and grabbed it before she could slap him.
"You really disgust me, Lucius," she replied. "You could have done more in convincing the Dark Lord that Potter was not worth the effort. Both my sister and I, only have contempt for you and your son. Just why Narcissa hasn't decided to leave you, I'll never understand."
Lucius now let go of her hand as if he knew she would not attempt to strike him again. Then as a smirk appeared across his lips, he told her, "Then I guess that I am lucky that you don't get to decide that my Slytherin friend. As for the Dark Lord, he was always convinced that he only was the one to take Potter's life. It was his own egotistical ignorance that allowed young Potter to kill him; most likely, it was nothing more then that.
"At first, several of us did suggest that this was only an unnecessary risk. His retorts taught us quickly by feeling his wrath or for some, even worse. So finally, for our own salvation, we all just stopped trying. If you would have been around these last two years and listened to his ramblings, you would have also understood our actions."
Shaking her head, she shrieked, "Lucius, you should have been the one that died that night! I know that you had suspected that Potter had some type of unusual connection to him; yet all you did was run around trying to save your excuse of a son." She now looked over at Draco and gave him a livid and disgusting look.
"The Dark Lord chose his own destiny Celesta," Lucius replied. "No one else could have convinced him otherwise for it seems that he had turned a death ear to all of us about that. I am convinced now that he was always destined to fail. Even Severus, my friend and who the Dark Lord had most trusted, was not who we all thought that he was."
"Yes Lucius," Zeller replied. "If I remember correctly, he was your own protégé. It seems that you were the one that had always spoken so highly of him."
"Yes I did, didn't I?" Lucius replied in what appeared to be an outspoken but sarcastic thought to himself. "I was just surprised as anyone when Potter said he was a spy. Not in my wildest dreams, I could have imagined that he had turned traitor. It just proves that when events revolve around Potter, nothing can be assumed as ordinary."
"So are you saying that the boy has some type of special powers?" Celesta asked.
"I know of nothing that he has directly," answered Lucius, "but I do warn you that you better be prepared for the unexpected. That is if you do decide to confront him."
"Hah!" She shouted. "I happen to find that hard to believe Lucius," Celesta now yelled in a spiteful voice. "He's only a Half-Blood! That means he can't be worthy of the credit that you seem to be giving him."
Draco, who all along had been quietly listening, could hear the loathing in her voice for his father. He knew his father wisely was trying to warn her about Harry. As much as he wanted to yell at her to shut up, he heeded his father's warning to just silently stand by and listen.
Lucius now spoke in a calm and straightforward voice, "Celesta… I think you might want to reconsider what you just said. I watched as Potter received the Killing Curse. Just after it that, Voldemort seemed to have had a fit or something. Something in the realm of the unknown had happened and I think it had to be due to Potter. Then later that night, he was able to defeat our Lord. Even as a toddler and then for a number of times at Hogwarts, he has been able to survive the Dark Lord's curses. Obviously, he has had help from his mother, Dumbledore and others. What this really means or what power really is behind this, we can only wonder why it has happened. We only know him as Harry Potter, an average half-blood that for all practical and reasonable thoughts, tell us that he couldn't have done what he did. But in the end, it is Harry Potter that is still the one living in our world."
Celesta now was giving him looks of misgivings before Lucius remarked, "Oh, don't look at me like that. We both know that he's dead now and he not coming back. Potter knew things about him and I don't think he had learned it all from Dumbledore; at least not everything while he was alive. Half-Blood or not, there is a true mystery about Potter that I think we must find out about before we can succeed. Only then, we can be assured that there won't be another unexpected surprise when we finally can attempt to have our day of reckoning with him."
"He is just a lucky boy to have made it all the way to manhood, Lucius," she told him. "It's nothing more then that."
"And that exactly is the same type of attitude that both I and the former Dark Lord had in our oversight," replied Lucius, in even a stronger and firmer voice.
Celesta, Zeller, and Crabbe, were all caught off-guard with his remarks. Now they all found that they could only silently glare back at him, quite unable to think of anything to retort with.
After the lull that followed, Lucius asked, "Speaking again of your sister; where by chance is she tonight?"
Draco, who had been staring at Celesta, now looked questionably at his father. Lucius' gray stone face was showing no emotion, but Draco thought that he could see in his eyes of his growing contempt toward the sharp-tongued Celesta.
When there was no reply, Lucius added, "Well by your silence, I will assume that your sister is not coming again. It appears she's the same as usual. Ever since the Dark Lord left us the first time, she continues to hide her face."
"My sister is still proud of who she is Lucius," Celesta replied in an agitated voice. "I mean your wife's family no disrespect, but my sister and I have always been far more reliable assets then Bellatrix or you ever were."
"Yes," Lucius replied. "I will agree to your feelings about her, Celesta, but then again your sister never seemed to return to his side, did she?"
"It was only because the Dark Lord himself commanded her to stay unseen. He all along had his own special plans for her in the future."
"Strange that he did not mention this to any of us," replied Lucius.
"No one else was to know for she was the one taking care of some very special needs for him," Celesta replied. "If I'm right then you already know that he took little interest in managing his own financial affairs."
"I accept that the Dark Lord may have chosen someone to manage his investments," Lucius replied, but his voice had showed his surprise.
"Someone had to manage his personal fortune, Lucius. The Dark Lord chose her and then commanded her to go deep underground to insure each of his investments were safe and always available. Then once he had succeeded in his plans, she would have been reintroduced when the proper time had arrived."
"Celesta, most of us have always thought that she has been long dead," Lucius remarked. "Since he had never talked about or even mentioned her name, I actually must wonder if you're just making this all up in order to hide something from me."
"Oh Lucius, you have never stopped to amaze me," she replied. "I know exactly what I had been made privy to. It was you that weren't as important as most everyone thought that you were. It's quite obvious to me on why you fell from disfavour so easily. It was because of your own arrogance. You always felt that you were so trusted, but you were only a man on the outside to the Dark Lord. On this one issue, he trusted no one that was in a position like yours. So I repeat to you, it was by his own orders that she has done this and stay hidden for all of these years."
As Draco observed his father, he could see the look of utter contempt now shown across his face. He was surprised that he didn't even care to hide it. His father then forced an obvious fake smile as he replied in a slightly bitter voice, "Well we all could just stay here and continue our friendly discussion, but if we linger much longer, we all risk being late."
A short time later, one would find the five of them proceeding down what was a deserted gravel road. Soon they approached and then forged a small stream. They then turned and proceeded up the hillside and at the top was a large ornate and grated iron fence. They followed it for a short distance and then was able to pass though it where a number of the slats were missing.
Once he had passed through the fence, it appeared to Draco that they were now in what appeared to be a dilapidated graveyard. He could tell that it was quite ancient for many of the misaligned headstones were eroded and no longer readable. As they proceeded to walk past the old stone markers, Draco noticed his father and the others were looking around making sure that they were still alone.
They had only taken about a hundred steps from when they had first made ingress. Suddenly, Lucius yelled at Draco, "Stop!"
Draco's body froze in place but his eyes were still looking around. It was then that he noticed that the five of them were gathered around a much-weathered tombstone. When he looked closely at the well-worn letters, even in the dim moonlight, he was able to make out the name of Selwyn across it.
He then looked at the rest of the chest high granite slab in front of him. His curiosity was now making him wonder why they had even stopped there. As he continued to stare at it, his attention was drawn to a small bronze cup that had a twisted snake around it that served as its handles.
Lucius did a final visible scan around them and then after making a final check in the direction they had come from, announced, "It is time and it appears that we are all that remains of our group." He then looked over at Draco and told him, "Grab the vase on the count of five. Then hold on and do not let go."
When his father started counting, Draco reached out and then held onto the snake the same way as the others did. All at once Draco had a strange feeling of weightlessness, before suddenly feeling a jerk inside his body. Then the feeling of being twisted merged everything into a blur in the moonlight. This was how Draco was introduced into what traveling by Portkey was like.
A short time later, Draco had found that they all had been transported to what appeared to be another and even larger graveyard. Lucius said nothing but motioned for Draco to follow him. After walking for about a minute through the crowded rows, Draco saw they were approaching what appeared to be a mammoth mausoleum.
Here there were several other cloaked individuals that were barring their way. It wasn't until after he had stopped that Draco had noticed a curtain behind them that in the scant moonlight was almost impossible to see. Nothing appeared to be supporting it as its darkened gray colour was just shimmering in the light breeze.
His father was the first to approach the shadowy figures. Draco saw him raise his sleeve to show what was now left of his fading Dark Mark. After the two of them had waved their wands around Lucius, they nodded for him to pass on.
One of the veiled figures then motioned for Draco to approach them. When he reached them, he pulled up his sleeve to show his own mark. They waved their wands around him and Draco felt a tingling feeling begin to pass throughout his body. Along with that, he could feel a slightly burning sensation within his forearm.
Whatever they were doing was over, quickly. Then one of them waved him on as they had done his father. Now as he looked around, he noticed that his father had just seemed to disappear. As he began to walk forward, Draco passed through what seemed to be the hidden curtain and then a brilliant light suddenly blinded him. As he had to squint, he saw the outlines of several more figures in front of him. Then two hands suddenly reached out and roughly pulled him though what he thought might be a door.
Once inside, a familiar voice told him to remove his hood. When he did, two Death Eaters, he occasionally had seen at his father's manor, now began casting spells upon him. The spells felt like invisible hands checking for items within his clothing. With each of these new levels of heighten security, Draco was becoming more worried by the second on what exactly was going to take place. Even with everything he had seen in the past two years, procedures like this had never been practiced in such an obsessed way.
Now adding this information to everything else his father had told him about earlier, he knew he must be quite careful on how he conducted himself.
Suddenly, one of the Death Eaters told him, "Malfoy, you're clear… Go." Another then shoved him on through a doorway into a hall.
After several more steps, Draco realized that he was now entering what was a very large cathedral-sized room. It was lit with torches that were placed around the walls. Hanging across the middle of the beamed ceiling were six large iron chandeliers. Each of them held several hundred burning candles that were each placed around a central spoke.
He had only taken a few steps inside when his eyes finally located his father. As soon as he reached him, Draco looked into his father's face for reassurance.
His father reached out and pulled Draco close to him. In a quiet voice, that seemed to be in a carefully managed tone, Lucius told him, "Draco, don't be afraid. They only are looking for anyone that might be using any type of a concealment charm. Anyone found not being who they appear, will be dead before they know it. For practically everyone here, our hopes and ambitions have become a matter of life and death. No one is going to be allowed to hide on who their true identity is."
"But why father… He's dead isn't he? They can't be hoping to resurrect him… or can they?"
"My son, if we or any of his prior supporters did not attend tonight; we surely would have been put on a list for elimination. As I told your mother today, we had no choice in this decision, because all of us carry the baggage of what we had done that night."
Draco then nodded back to his father in understanding. Then the two of them proceeded over to a corner to wait.
For several minutes, Draco looked around and studied the others around them. He noticed that most of the ones in the room were giving them looks that showed their utter contempt for him and his father. Draco had noticed though, how his father still proudly walked as he held his head up around them.
Soon a man approached them that Draco could never remember seeing before. His hair was blond with a well-groomed mustache and beard.
When he reached them, his face showed that pleasantries were not on his mind.
Lucius was the first to speak and said, "All yes, my Auror friend. It has been awhile since we both have seen each other. It seems that none of you have had any luck in getting to him, have we."
"You are a collaborator, Lucius!" He bellowed. "Give me one reason why I should not kill you right now."
"Because it seems that none of you have figured it out yet," Lucius replied. "I am the only one that can give Harry Potter to you."
When he said that, Draco stared at his father wondering on what he had meant.
"So why do you think you're so special?" Replied the man as he laughed. "You and your son have had many chances to kill him. You're just hoping to save your own skins tonight." His voice had now turned quite hateful and then he just spat on Lucius' robe.
Lucius flinched but as he did, he still stood his ground, proudly. "Oh yes," he replied as the man continued to now sneer at him. "I've had to appear to cooperate, but I have been careful on what I've told the Ministry. If you and the others haven't realized it yet, nobody has been arrested except for the Aurors that were detached to Thicknesse. I know you were one of them, but I really had no choice about doing what I've done. Now it has served our needs by gaining their trust at the Ministry."
"Well it would have been nice to have somehow warned my partner and me," the man loudly replied in an angry voice. "He showed up to work and in less then ten minute's time, he was dead that morning."
"I must repeat that I had no opportunity to contact any of you," Lucius replied. "It is not my fault that you and none of your associates had been marked yet; you only can blame Yaxley and the Dark Lord for that. If I had tried to use my borrowed wand before they had taken it away, the Ministry would have known when they had checked it. If I had tried to leave in order to warn you, no one in the Ministry would have found reason to ever trust me again. We had all gone there with the Dark Lord. At first, it appeared that we had nothing to loose. We risked everything, and yet Potter has somehow survived again."
"Humph," Hunkle replied as he now spat again at Lucius' feet. "You have always been a smooth talking character, Malfoy… Your family history has already proven that."
"Well Hunkle…" Lucius paused as he quickly was mulling over in his mind on what this wizard was planning to do. Then hoping for the best, he told him, "It appears that Cross and Fention totally were unprepared that night for whatever Potter could somehow do. So naturally, they have also failed as everyone else has done around the boy."
"Yes they did fail," replied the former Auror. "All we know is that Potter himself was somehow able to kill Cross. Just how exactly is the question that we would all like to know?"
"Well it appears to me that many of you have been finding out just what it has been like to be in my shoes," Lucius told him.
"On Potter yes," Hunkle replied. I agree that there could be something unusual about him."
"Then listen to me before you get yourself killed," Lucius replied. "Dawlish's appointment has now proven that he is quite more resourceful then we would have ever expected. Shacklebolt and Weasley definitely are not the fools that we once thought that they were. Under all of their guidance, the limited numbers of Aurors have done a remarkable job. They have all made sure that none of us can get close enough to even try to curse Potter again."
"I agree Lucius, but even with what I have considered as good luck, Cross was just too good of an assassin to have failed unless something he had not expected took place that night."
"Then we must find out what did happen," replied Lucius. "If not, we may all again suffer from the same fate from Potter. It has been a real mystery on how he has always been able to pull an unexpected surprise when we least expected him to do so."
There was another pause as the man began to glare back at him. Then as his bearded face turned redder and more hateful looking, he said, "From what I've learned Lucius, you're the one that has tried to pull the slip and played both sides against each other. I see a traitor of a snake from our House that is standing in front of me. I think it is time to finally cut off its head." The man quickly had drawn his wand and then he loudly yelled, "Avada Kedavra."
Next Chapter: 'Dark Reflections'
4-13-11 'Pottercomplete' WBW