Draco Malfoy had spent untold hours discussing plans with his father over the past few days, but nothing was entirely certain yet. Durmstrang had welcomed him back like a regular hero, confirming his suspicions and putting him far ahead of Evan. Alas, I remind myself he could never have been a true threat; he knew nothing of the workings of nobility in his upbringing, and it should surprise no one he still needs help getting up to speed.

Academically, he had no shortage of help doing just that. It was no secret he had been responsible for the defeat of both Tõnisson and Lysenko, and these were no small achievements to his fellow students, including those older than himself. After learning that Lysenko and Kamotsky were both going after the Heir of Slytherin, their failure to make any headway due to his ability to tear through virtually every threat they sent his way embarrassed them greatly, and the vassals he left behind for the sake of convenience, Davis and Bulstrode, were quick to denounce their weakness. Older students were asking him about blood purism; it seemed especially those of a low quantum wondered where they fit into the designs of the Death Eaters.

Associating with the older students who were inclined to catch him up on everything he had missed made him more popular with the teachers than he would have been, though some of them continued to resent him for being able to skip as long as he had and come back. He delighted himself imagining Snape's expression upon finding out that the Dark Lord, about whom he had been warned to no end, was quite forgiving when it came to those who procured results. Perhaps it was so that he had only been offered the mission of freeing Grindelwald as a punishment, but if it were that no one had any expectation he would succeed, the pleasant surprise of it all only made his victory sweeter.

He was not without concerns, of course; he knew that the Lord Voldemort could reveal his true identity at any time, and though he still wondered what the plan was for dealing with the dark wizard he had recently freed, he at least had an idea about the first mystery. Not three hours earlier he had heard from his Aunt Bellatrix that there was a plan to send in a small amount of investigators ahead of the finalization of the Ys conference, with only a handful of countries still holding out on their decision. She knew not the purpose of the investigation, but he could guess it had something to do with finding out how Nurmengrad had been infiltrated and what the resurrected Dark Lord had to do with it. Macnair having infiltrated their operation as long as he had was enough for them to know that the enemy knew he was back from the dead, but with his exposure as a Death Eater, it was almost certain the Ministry had most of their secrets out of him.

As much as it seemed like things were going well for Draco, things seemed to be the worse for the world. He continued to suspect that his master truly did not understand the havoc that Grindelwald would wreak on various magical governments, not all of which were necessarily bad for the interests of blood purism. It was also worthy of note that scores of innocent witches and wizards would be killed in the process, but he knew from the start things like that were required. Unlike sleeping with Tracey. I fail to see why that was required, and as we approach the end of the term and such a time as when I see her again, it will make things substantially more awkward.

It was not as if he did not care for Padma at all, but at some point he must have decided it was unlikely for him ever to see her again, and they would have to break it off. Additionally, as he had discussed with his father, staying with her would not be the most helpful thing for the Death Eaters. He could tell himself he would rather do that in person, and that was why he had not broken up with her, but the more likely explanation was that he had taken to discounting 'little things' like being honest with witches and restraining himself. It seemed preferable and even wise to allow himself a greater latitude in his personal life, the better to focus on 'big things'.

The whole thing, to his chagrin, was starting to remind him of a conversation with Longbottom.

"I was thinking, Malfoy." At some point he had stopped using the nickname. They were in a library, where he was making Crabbe and Goyle read for a change.

"Truly?"

"Yeah, I do it a lot. The way my grandmother told me what each House represents, it was a little weird. It didn't really match. Gryffindor was courage, Ravenclaw was being smart, Hufflepuff was loyalty, and Slytherin was ambition." He had heard something to that effect before.

"What of it?"

"Well, courage and being smart are strengths, while loyalty is a virtue, and ambition is just kind of a driving force that might be good or bad."

"Has it occurred to you that the great Longbottom matron might be biased?" he remembered asking. "Of course, I suppose that there is a more disturbing possibility, one that even I had not considered, not caring about these things. The Houses are just not equal. I have always favored my own, after all."

"I don't think that's what it is. I've been friends with or I've tried to be friends with people from all four Houses, and I've never been under the impression they weren't equal. I think you were right the first time, Gran just had it wrong. I mean, maybe I have it wrong too, but I think some of the people I know are basically the best their whole House has."

"Oh?"

"Well, let's start with Ron." Draco resisted the urge to snort. "It's not that he's the best there ever was, or I don't know if he is, but it doesn't seem like there's anyone braver. I never got the impression he wasn't afraid of something, and he still rushes in. I've asked him, here and there, why he does it and he just says there isn't any choice; it's just the right thing to do. Seems to think his life just isn't worth more to him than his obligations."

"I suppose that if your life were worthless..."

"I mean, I wasn't done. I was thinking about it, and it's got to be that the virtue of Gryffindor is having your priorities straight. Courage isn't a virtue in and of itself, it's a strength. When other people are planning or preparing, he'll be acting."

"Very well, suppose your model works with one student in the whole castle. Who would represent Ravenclaw, the mudblood?"

"Well, yeah, but I'd prefer you didn't call her that. It's not just because she's smart- most people in that House are. It's because she cares about knowledge and the truth. She's always seeking out what's true no matter how complicated it gets or whatever else is false."

"Funny you should mention the truth-" He thought he had already told Longbottom about how the free exchange of information represented a raw deal for the truth.

"Well, I was getting to that. You seem to think blood purism is the truth, and because you can't discuss it with anyone cleverer than I am, you'll never be proven wrong. Hermione can't argue against you or the conspirators, because you wouldn't listen to anything she had to say and they would just label her as a blood purist. You don't really think things'll be better if it's the other way around, you just think it's necessary for everyone to believe what you do, whether or not it's true."

Draco scowled. He had arguments in favor of his positions, of course, but the primacy of the muggle threat was precisely why they needed to be believed by the magical populace at all costs. Before he could respond, though, the Hufflepuff continued.

"That's why I think the virtue of Slytherin is consequence. You're someone who cares about the wizarding world and its peoples and you're going to do whatever needs to be done to... have the result that magic continues. It's not that you don't care about virtues, it's just that yours is a little different. Your strength is ruthlessness."

"Mean you to tell me what your own House believes?" he asked, his scowl deepening. Somehow he was unhappy Longbottom had been able to come up with a virtue for his.

"Well, it's supposed to be loyalty, but what everyone's getting wrong about that is- well, they're being loyal to the wrong people and the wrong ideals. I guess I'd have to say they're making good use of their strength, which is alliance and trust, but what got me started on this was that they seem to have mixed that up with their virtues. Some of them are going all the way around to arguing they need to use dark magic to kill the blood purists like you, and some of them are going around the other way and saying they need to get the purebloods on their side in order to beat out dark magic."

He remembered how the rest of the conversation went, but it was mostly annoying him because, on top of things at last, he had almost grown accustomed to having a severing charm readied at his neck. Before, he did all he could just to stay within the toleration of his father and the Dark Lord and whatever other master he had to pretend to serve at the time, and his actions were only consequent of their whims, or that had always been a serviceable excuse. Reaching the top of the ladder at Durmstrang, I can hand down policy to more subordinates with more authority than ever before.

It was rather like being let out of a cage to find himself in a different kind of cage. If Longbottom thought that Slytherins were ruthless, that was all well and good, but it was not as if they were without restraint. Being in command was like riding the back of a dragon, it called for nothing but the greatest restraint and control.

After classes were over, he found himself looking around the dining hall as if for the first time, as his assembled force filed in. He had left Nott's punishment to the Death Eaters, as the boy's father was meant to suffer as well, but he looked twice to see him among the vassals before shaking his head. For a school with so dark a reputation, it was odd that the room was not dreary at all, but a bright design of white and gold, the walls the same immaculate hue as the tablecloths on every table. I do not believe in the short time I have been here that anyone has ever asked what happens if a student were to spill something.

"I believe everyone is here, Malfoy."

"Thank you, Goyle. I believe you are right." He waved his wand and chairs came out. It was a simple spell and he had expected there would come a time or two that he could use it, and it showed the proper magnanimity for a lord's son. "Either you have joined us today because you celebrate the return of Grindelwald, or by hearing my words, you plot to destroy him." There were whispers throughout the tables, accusations of disloyalty. "Worry not about the distinction. I respect any wizard who sees his betters as a threat, whether or not I agree with him. From whence I have come, whether you are here to aid or to injure you would be counted as a Slytherin."

They had heard the term before, which was well enough. Lord Voldemort had been a supremely controversial figure among the students, and it was no surprise that he had again returned to the nearly constant discussions. It seemed everyone either wanted to kill him in favor of some other figure or become his ally. When I was in first year, I might have thought those were meaningful choices.

"I am aware of the many failed attempts of those who have risen to become the next Dark Lord. Only thirty years ago there was a Hungarian calling himself the Lord of the Greater Bull who seemed intent to destroy magic itself. His failure and defeat alone were not enough for him to lose the respect of the aspiring dark wizard; it was his failure to return from failure. Had Grindelwald become content to rot in his cell as no more than a memory, he would have lost my respect sooner even than the prior wizard, if he had some way of escaping his current predicament."

He paused, allowing his message to sink in. The better-informed in the audience of wizards would be aware that the self-appointed Lord had been obliviated and had his wand snapped. Much of his soul had been eaten by a dementor, and the Black Sea Sorcerers were still on the hunt for him, wandering in the muggle world, unaware of who he was. Unlike his former followers, who had mostly estranged themselves from his meager memory, they intended to punish him in a manner they believed more fitting. At least, I suppose, he shall not have to spend the rest of his life dreading what is to come.

"Will Grindelwald return to us?" The question came from Lysenko. He had lost most of his following, but it was no surprise he preferred to side with Grindelwald than the blood purists. Mudblood. Your time comes quickly.

"Karkaroff will serve as Headmaster. Having drawn the ire of the Lord Voldemort, he has no other choice but to cower behind these walls, and I would presume I have demonstrated that what we need to do is to return to him." There was a hum of agreement, but he glowered at it all the same. It was distasteful, responding before someone else was done speaking. "This time, I can assure you our master will take greater care than he had as a young man. He acknowledges his mistake of drawing the ire of magical governments by flaunting Secrecy; first he will have the wands to conquer the nonmagical before revealing himself to them."

Draco was aware that what he was saying was entirely false and not based on any kind of conversation he had with the dark wizard. He was also aware that his mental shields were perfectly resistant to the touch of Legilimency that he felt every few minutes.

"When do we return for service?" It was Kamotsky. The larger wizard made no secret of his admiration of Grindelwald, nor had he ever.

"We return when he calls. Now is the time to sort out the loyalties of his former school. He knows the blood purists have freed him from his prison, and he has made amends with his former enemies. It is only the most desperate of times, of course, that can call such forces to fight under the same banner." Whispers passed through the crowd. This, I shall allow. "Our greatest concern is one we share with the dark wizard we have freed- the conference at Ys."

He expected those assembled to be following along or at least pretending as much. It was easy enough to see why the Death Eaters would oppose the decision; the fear that Crouch would expand his crusade outward once the tipping point had been lost was a large part of what had driven them to take up residency on the continent and elsewhere. We should have assassinated him, but the Dark Lord forbade it- he could have done it himself last year without anyone noticing. Does he truly underestimate his enemies to such an extent?

"We have heard of the blood purists rallying forces elsewhere in Europe." It was one of the Estonian's old friends. Lysenko had a brief look of disdain, but nothing more.

"Rallying forces where subtler approaches would likely fail, yes. My father has been in France the better part of the year. There is some chance of the monarchists overturning the country, but the loudest expressions of sympathy for a pan-European jurisdiction can also be found there." Draco found himself grateful, not for the first time, that he had been looking into magical Russian books for Evan's benefit since the end of second year. Since then, he looked over them in the summers here and there, and the language came as fluently to his mind as the Queen's English.

"Who is disloyal to Grindelwald?" Everyone turned to see from whence the obvious question came, and it was the Heir of Slytherin, standing at the back with the few people who remained loyal to him specifically. It stung a little that Crabbe's younger brother numbered among them, but ultimately he counted for little more than sentiment. He would have liked an ally in him, but eventually he would have an ally in Evan, and it would be all the same at that point.

"You ask a question you can answer yourself," the Malfoy heir responded, speaking on more or less equal terms.

"I am for the Dark Lord."

"Perhaps he will be content to share the world with the dark wizard Karkaroff had me free," Draco suggested. "Like you, there are many who are not for Grindelwald, and as long as they are not against him, I expect he shall have no issue with them. There are those, however, who would oppose him and the dominion of the magical over the nonmagical world."

"I am for the Dark Lord, even if he opposes Grindelwald."

"I would suspect a wizard who brands arms would command such loyalty. What he has not done, however, is make himself an enemy of his old hero, the dark wizard who inspired him. Consider this, however. The elder of the two has spent decades in a cell reading whatever book he chose, a punishment of his own design meant to tantalize the imprisoned with knowledge of a world he could never explore. He would not be defeated by the soft-hearted Albus Dumbledore a second time, not even by him who successfully repelled Lord Voldemort from the grounds of Hogwarts."

Evan's scowl deepened as he turned and walked away, taking a few of the students with him, though perhaps fewer than he had to start. Once more the heir to the House of Malfoy waxed sympathetic; there had been a time he too had been trounced as badly by superior wits and wills. It was true, undeniable even, that the Heir of Slytherin was powerful, able to speak to snakes and walk up walls, and knowledgeable of quite the array of dark curses, pursuant to the teaching of some unknown father as well as the Dark Lord himself, but it was not the powerful that would win the war. On a greater scale, one could expand the idea to his father and men like him who ended up in favorable positions after the war, having opened them up by killing the people who previously inhabited them, and letting their powerful master take the fall for it.

It was inevitable that both Grindelwald and Voldemort would fall again, and they would fall because of their arrogance, their inability to perceive threats around them. Draco had thought much of himself once, but having every possible punishment visited upon him was enough to correct that notion. In truth, it did not matter whether it was Dumbledore or some other old legend, any wizard determined to conquer the world by his own power set himself against an endless amount of obstacles, and it followed logically that eventually he would encounter one he could not overcome.

There were no more questions. Eventually Davis and Bulstrode could pass the message on to the witches, who were equally interested, though he supposed he could have done it in real time, had he so desired. Having realized the two halves of the school were actually one, the two of them had taken to communicating by Legilimency every so often. He knew how to reach out to her without invading her mind, which it seemed she appreciated, and he was effectively able to direct her study in shielding herself, even helping her practice. Perhaps there was some amount of guilt to be felt over never having officially ended things with Padma, but, as always, there were greater concerns.