And here you go! I hope you enjoy it! The chapter is a bit long, as from before the Yule to the end of the year is covered in here.

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Also, have you heard this short story recounted by W. Somerset Maugham in 1933. It is originally a story featuring in Babylon in Talmud, and later popularised by the Islamic Sufi Saints and Authors. The Somerset Version, who popularised this tale in the west, and later was paraphrased in the TV show "SHERLOCK" goes as follows:

The speaker is Death

There was a merchant in Bagdad who sent his servant to market to buy provisions and in a little while the servant came back, white and trembling, and said, Master, just now when I was in the marketplace I was jostled by a woman in the crowd and when I turned I saw it was Death that jostled me.
She looked at me and made a threatening gesture, now, lend me your horse, and I will ride away from this city and avoid my fate.
I will go to Samarra and there Death will not find me.
The merchant lent him his horse, and the servant mounted it, and he dug his spurs in its flanks and as fast as the horse could gallop he went.
Then the merchant went down to the marketplace and he saw me standing in the crowd and he came to me and said,
Why did you make a threating getsture to my servant when you saw him this morning?
That was not a threatening gesture, I said, it was only a start of surprise.
I was astonished to see him in Bagdad,
for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra.

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In case you didn't get the reference for chapter 15. In the Talmud version the city or place where the servant gallops to is not Samarra, but the district of Luz, and in the Islamic version, the servant crosses the dunes to the very edge of Hind, or present day India.
I enjoyed the short tale, which sounded like pre-destined fate which worked in a circular logic like self-fulfilling prophecy. I thought you would enjoy it!

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Chapter 19. Repercussions!

I just turned the page of my textbook in library, when I heard the commotion outside the library. Like a curious and innocent bystander, I went to see what the fuss was about.

Naturally, I roped in Daphne to accompany me, who was doing her private reading after the talk with Flitwick. She squealed when I buried my head on her shoulder from behind, and shuddered when I blew in her ear.

She turned around with rage, and when she saw me her rage was poured out with icy water, "Draco, what are you doing?" I whispered in her ear, "You were so cute, when you squealed Daph."

She mumbles incoherently and turns her face away from me indignantly. Her blonde locks brush my face, tickling me and hide her red cheeks which I get a partial view of.

"Are you blushing Daph? Or are you catching cold? The weather got chilly these last few days, no?" She blanks out a little, so I approached her and shortened the distance between us.

"If you want we could do the steaming together, you know? I know the potion works fast, but steaming under a sheet is relaxing and good for your sinus and also your skin."

She stutters, "U-under a s-sh-sheet, just y-you and me..." I think I short-circuited her brain with that thought.

I string her along, getting bored of teasing her, to the front of the crowd. The caretaker's office is near the library, so we got to see the action first-hand.

The squib was looking dishevelled and his normally groomed hair looked tousled. He was positively red with rage, and mumbling curses to somebody's ancestors. I saw teachers walk in the room, then some more loud noises, and raging temper, before the teachers started discussing something at the door.

Just at that, the Slytherin Prefects and Marcus Flint walked in with Nott and Zabini in painted faces, shaded rainbow hair, torn clothes and stinking so much, even I could smell from about 50 paces. Then there was some loud complaining, "My father will hear of this." "I will not take this lightly and some other raging promises.

We never found out what happened, but apparently one of the Zonko products I used in the prank on Nott was a faulty one, and it exploded lightly and singed Parkinson's hair. The Slytherin compatriots like the closely bunched cunts they are, left on a mission throughout the castle to find the criminals Ron, Seamus and Dean.

They were found exiting an empty corridor on the second floor discussing how much fun the prank would be. Hearing this, Parkinson used a particularly dark curse on Seamus, skinning his back. This was heard and seen, and there was a duel of sort in the corridor, where now curses and hexes were flying a plenty.

Marcus came with older year Slytherin to find the Weasley brothers, because they assumed the twins were a part of the prank. And the twins exited the corridor groggily, only to find their brother losing a duel with the Slytherin.

They joined in, casting some borderline dark hexes and jinxes too. And Flint and his company walked in on one such loose spell flying towards them.

They joined in too, quickly turning the tide on the twins, and after body-binding the gryffindors, they cast some dark spells like nail ripping curses on the five of them.

They quickly came to the professors explaining how they were attacked by the gryffs and incapacitated them. The teachers followed the Snakes, found the five bloodied and bound, found Ron's bulging pocket and took the planted stuff out to examine it.

Filch screamed bloody murder, and told the teachers how the goodies in Ron's pocket were the Zonko items he confiscated. Then, Nott and others spoke of how they were ambushed in the corridors by Zonko products.

And Minerva decided to inform the Weasleys, Finnegan and Thomas of their charges' misconduct, their punishment of never receiving permission to visit Hogsmeade, or play Quidditch.

The Gryffindor Quidditch team was disbarred from playing this year, the twins were of the roster permanently, and this act would go in their academic records as assault, theft, intention to harm, maim or disfigure and attacking a Hogwart's employee.

There were more punishments imposed but snakes also didn't get off lightly. For using the curses on their fellow students, they were suspended for a month, and their records would also receive the use of dark arts in school.

Naturally, I had father informed, and told him to expedite the plan and had Adrestria drink Amortentia. Nott Senior was imperioused into signing off father as the godfather for Theodore, and then, he was caught in a scandal of being fucked by a muggle man.

Homosexuality was viewed in Magical world, just as worse as patricide, and being found consorting with a man and that too a muggle, and found by aurors coming with a search warrant, was a socially and politically fatal event, equal bar none. So no one questioned the blight of the event being erased, when Nott senior was made to drink Nightshade Drops, a potion which was odourless and tasteless and killed immediately.

After his death was declared as suicide to escape humiliation, Nott's assets were handed to us, to 'care for them' till Theodore grows of age. He had his uncle try to contest, but he was 'accidently' bitten by a werewolf and didn't want to suffer the curse of lycanthropy.

Theodore was then withdrawn from Hogwarts, citing homeschooling for lone survivor of a house, and then paper trail was created to show that Theodore decided to take up the heirship, and travel abroard. In the meantime, like power of attorney, we were 'given' full control of the assets to do with as we please, till Theodore can be handed his property back.

After the paper trail was finalized, Theodore was offed and handed to a hag to feed upon. Hags were human-like, but only in their appearance. They ate human beings and particularly loved eating children. She was happy with the arrangement. And some months later, the 'accident' would be revealed to the public adding more stock to the curse to the family from resorting to homosexuality and copulating with muggles at that.

On the other hand, Adrestria was isolated from her son and started her sordid affair with Sirius. The Amortentia used on her was for father, and not Sirius. She agreed to do anything for father, as long as he escapes with her and leaves his wife and son behind.

Adrestria was to bewitch Sirius with her charms, lure him into prospects of marriage, and rob of all his possessions. She was to also have Sirius sign off Potter's wealth and assets in her name.

While the Nott was being dealt with, Adrestria was openly seducing Sirius into signing off on anything, any pleasing him lasciviously in return as reward.

We contested Sirius' actions, and antagonized him to an extreme. The tension between us was palpable, as even in school just before the Yule holidays Harry was tense and retaliatory towards me and my friends. With Ron, Seamus and Dean in suspension, Harry was all alone to face the ridicule of others. He was growing antsy and acted like a teenager with angst and anger issues, like he did in Goblet of Fire and Order of the Phoenix books.

After the last paper trail was signed off by Sirius and Adrestria handed off the Potter estate and all the assets to one of our aliases in Spain, Adrestria was disappeared within the night, raising claims of her fleeing scrutiny.

Lucius accused Sirius of line theft and stealing from the Black family. The serious allegations led to Sirius sobering up, who by now had come off the high of fucking the beautiful delectable witch.

Aurors conducted an investigation, Sirius' unregistered Animagus form was brought to light, his embezzling money and signing off Potter estate to a foreign entity was revealed and all the evidences were presented in court.

Lucius rallied against foreign encroachment into British politics, and raised hackles for Line-stealing. He further accused Sirius as being an accomplice to plotting to hand over Black and Potter estate to the foreign countries, and was forced to hand over all his controlling estates to Narcissa, my mother.

We showed that we performed some manoeuvers to get the Potter Estate in our name, and since we were already seen as richest and most powerful, nobody doubted our motivations.

Sirius was officially removed from the Black family, and sent to prison for a year, for conspiracy to commit line theft, and being unregistered Animagus and fraud.

Harry's power of attorney was handed to mother, since Harry's grandmother Dorea was of house Black, and thus we were his only eligible magical guardians.

His godmother Alice Longbottom was incapacitated, his godfather is a criminal now, and Andromeda was married to a muggleborn, and thus ousted from Black Family.

And now, Lucius and Narcissa, together hold the Nott, Malfoy, Black and Potter votes in Wizengamot. We were pushing aggressively for profits, and by having Adrestria in our possession, we were gaining a lot of blackmail material, and contact and location for all her underhanded dealings.

Harry was very angry, and tried one day to confront me about it. I put him down and coldly beat his inferiority in his mind. He was getting worse, but it could be fun. I knew he was plot armour guy, so nothing would happen to him.

So I came back after the holidays with a renewed vigour to get the Quirellmort down. I slipped it out while talking outside DADA classes of NEWT year, how dogs can hear even the minute sounds, and how music on any string instrument will be soothing and relaxing for them.

Quirell intercepted me one day, to ask me if what I said was true for all dogs, and I told him it should be. He asked me if I had one, and I told him I do, and if I feed a heavy meal to my dog and play a slow piece of music, the dog goes out like a light.

That night when I saw Quirell walk out of his quarters after curfew, I knew it was time to play out. I was grooming Hermione to support Harry while I was adding fuel to a non-existent fire by adding gossips about his animosity against me, and had her become one of the support structure in Harry's life, since he was all alone again, by himself.

I had performed legilimency on Harry, to make him seek out the perpetrator of various crimes, and pinned it all on Quirell, making Quirell the focus of all his angst, anger, ire and suspicion. I even convinced him and edged him to seek the professor out and confront him.

When Harry left and met Hermione on the third floor, I knew it was all going according to plan. I had my cloak with me, and followed the two inside. I cast a spell on the harp, to keep playing. The Cerberus was sound asleep, as we made past the Devil's Snare, and the different obstacles in the way. They were not as simple as chess and charmed keys however, but Granger was well-equipped.

Finally Harry went to face and confront Quirell, and then moments later, there was a howling sprite rushing out of the room. Since, I was under cloak I was not seen by Riddle. Harry was unconscious, and the plan was successful.

The next day, my father got to know, that Volemort had been possessing Quirell the entire year, and we had a private discussion in Selene's floo. We laid out a few details, and I left for my room. The rest of the year went smoothly without a hitch, the sprite of Voldemort was found hiding in Albanian forest.

After the spirit was located there, the forest was isolated and locked, the edge of the forest was bounded with spirit warding, and other old enchantments, and we were free to plan Riddle's demise.

In the meantime, I told my father to sell all the profiting businesses from Nott, Potter and Zabini in our name quietly, and encroach on all their assets, by buying off the titles at a very steep price.

The following days leading up to July, went smoothly. Harry was back in his company, but trusted me too, after nothing untoward was done by me. After seeing that 'Hermione was right all along', and Quirell may have been trying to isolate Harry from his friends, he cozied up to Neville, and spoke in a neutral tone with me.

I had gotten very well with the girls and even Selene, who had me practise partial transfiguration wandless and silently. Minerva was guiding me when she could, and apologized for being busy. She enjoyed teaching me, as she saw me as an out from administrative duties and into teaching which she loves.

I suggested getting board recommended assistants and an Administrator to assist her, and offered to seek help from father. She was a bit wary at first, but when Lucius called on floo, saying to accept the help without any favours owed, she accepted. He offered her a list of good candidates, all of whom were either half-blood or muggleborn, and were from Hufflepuff or Gryffindor.

She selected a team to help her, and now she was more free to pay close attention to her work. As thanks, nearly all weekends from late afternoon till dinner, she coached me in transfiguration, and despite me putting up a show earlier, I was genuinely learning from her the last few days.

She shifted from Partial Transfiguration, to autonomous manipulation like golems and snakes. When she saw my fire elemental spells, she started to actively teach me transfiguration of elements, the highest school of the subject.

She was a perfectionist, and on the last day at the classes before the break, she called me to her office. "Come in Mr Malfoy, have a seat." I didn't know what she planned for me, so I was curious.

"In the last few days of teaching you Mr Malfoy, I saw how far ahead you are for your age. You may not realise it, but the last few days, we were not strictly within the bounds of NEWT syllabus. I saw your reserves were far greater than even adult aurors, and that too at such a tender age. I wanted to test you, but without informing you. I thought if we kept on going, you may reach the end of your capabilities, and I would ask you to polish your skills during the break.

But as it happens, the last few days made me rethink my decision. I see in you, a potential to be greater at transfiguration, than even Dumbledore was at his prime. Dumbledore was taught by Armando Dippet, who was more than 400 years old, when he took the position of headmaster in Hogwarts.

As for his long life, it was his personal skill, and experience in transfiguration and alchemy, that gained him notoriety against the dark lords of 17th and 18th century in Europe. He was so good at transfiguration that he was said to have become as powerful as the warlocks and sorcerers of old only with his transfiguration and alchemy skills.

And I believe you have almost the same potential with Transfiguration. Lucius told me you are a master Oclumens, and so your mind would be organised and fortified enough to bear the load of advanced spells. That is why, I wanted to push you with the more draining and tiring spells.

But I think we have not even tapped into your potential yet, and I can help you a lot in achieving that potential. Seeing you grow leaps and bounds in transfiguration and learning from both me and Selene, yes I know you take extra lessons from her, and I appreciate you taking the effort, both of us decided that, we know you don't want to master just one school of magic and are looking equally into elemental magic, runes and charms.

But I suggest that you stay here in the castle, and since I and Selene are willing and free during the break to teach you for a few hours, we suggest you use this break to learn from us both. I believe by the second year, we could have completed your transfiguration classes till the NEWT level, and polished your skills, so that you not only become as good as a NEWT level student, but can easily secure an Outstanding in it, which would be very difficult, as O in Transfiguration NEWT is very rare.

I am asking you to forfeit your vacation, and I know it is a lot to ask for from an 11 year old boy, but I believe you will benefit tremendously from it. And if you want, twice a week, you could approach Prof Flitwick and he would be willing to help you with charms and spells typically not taught as part of curriculum.

I would hesitate to offer tutoring a student during vacation, as it is counterproductive to teach a child during the vacations. Children tend to lose their focus and concentration during vacation, as they have earned the break, but I feel you would much rather like to study even during breaks, and I would like to foster such a talent, which could help you to become the youngest Transfiguration master in history. So what do you want to do Mr Malfoy?

I would understand completely if you want to take the break as the holiday you very well deserve. All teachers have high expectations of you, and you are undoubtedly at the top of your class, even excluding the extra-curricular academic work you have undertaken with me, Selene, Flitwick and Babbling. So think of it as your extra-curricular offer."

I was surprised at this blatant favouritism, but who am I to argue. As she went on to explain, I weighed the pros and cons of the offer. I would gain legitimate reason to improve, and it is not like I can deny the help.

Watching memories in pensieve is tremendously helpful, but having teachers correct you and advise you in real time has no real alternative. And having both McGonagall and Selene to teach me was the icing on the cake, plus having access to Flitwick and other teachers, and I can always go home using Floo in the evening.

"Prof McGonagall it would be my gravest mistake to reject such a generous offer. If teachers are willing to take time to teach a single individual during their vacation, despite no prospects of fame or money, simply to foster a potential talent is noble. It would be my honour to be taught by you and all who are willing. I simply ask for the permission to use the floo at either your or Selene's quarters in the evening, so that I may have dinner with my parents. If you so wish, I would have my breakfast and lunch here in the castle. Otherwise, I don't think my mother would allow me to return here for the second year."

I joke at the end, as almost everyone knows how much my mother dotes on me. She personally comes to Hogsmeade and hogs my time during my Birthday week. She made the teachers make an exception and invoked the Heir rights for the Ancient and Noble Houses in the Hogwarts charter, only to grant me Hogsmeade permission for my Birthday week. On the day itself, she keeps me all to herself, taking me to the Manor, for a private affair, saying that I owe her the time, I spent away from her.

In her own adorable way, she turned up at the castle through Selene's floo, and had me take her shopping for the Yule ball, after the prank incident. Some teachers were laughing and giggling at me, and Selene was outright teasing me. There was a gossip of me being Momma's boy, but I ruthlessly crushed it. But when my girls started teasing me, all I could do was swallow my pride, and repeat to myself, as this my balancing factor. All the power I desire to be free of everyone's influence, and in the end I am shackled in love by my mother.

I worked out the kinks of the routine, and we decided that I should go home for dinner every evening, and return after breakfast for my lessons. Learning every day for about nine hours with due diligence only two subjects with a singular focus for a period of two months is enough time to gain an adept level skill and knowledge for an average wizard.

For me, with my Oclumen mind and intellect, let's just say I am bound to surpass all expectations the professor have of me. And that brings me even closer to my goals! I think a generous donation from our personal coffers for the school is due. I am greedy, but I truly desire more than money, is the power the wealth brings, and new avenues this power clears out for me. And if donating more money is helping show my gratitude, and improving our reputation, then all the more for it!

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Ciao! Read and Review!