Thanks for the comments/subscribe/favorites, I have reached 500 kudos and I couldn't be more thankful.
I'm sorry this chapter took so long, I knew what I wanted to include in it, but I wasn't happy with it, I'm still not sure if I am, I never suffered from an abusive relationship or learning disability, so I wanted to talk with someone I know and took some time to do more research and get more feeling across. I hope I have done it justice.
I hope you all like this chapter!
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In the next day after the rape scandal, all students were reunited in the Great Hall early in the morning to hear Snape's speech over what had happened the day before and a reassurance that it would not happen again and, if it did, it would be severely punished now that everyone was fully aware it was not in any way an acceptable behaviour. People were quiet as he talked, but many looked at Draco or at Weasley, who was sitting surrounded by her friends on the Gryffindor table, some of Pansy's make up still on her face.
By the end of it many people seemed surprised Snape had any morals, but there were whispers that maybe he wasn't that serious considering Draco was still there. But no one surprised people as much as Alecto, who not only had sent her own brother to the infirmary, but who kept on showing her displeasure by making Draco's life harder during her classes, failing him for the smallest mistakes and mocking him at every chance she got, making clear to everyone how little she thought of a man who felt the need to force themselves in a woman for dominance.
But no matter what, many people still thought Draco's punishments had not been enough and they tried to do justice with their own hands by attacking him in the corridors. In general, Draco didn't get too bothered, his punishment gave him excuses not to be seen around so much and even Pomfrey, despite knowing the truth without them ever talking about it, took Draco away from his activities in the infirmary.
"People need to trust their healer and right now no one will trust you, or at least they shouldn't" she said.
"A lot less people comes here anyway" said Terry "most of them knows me now, so they just search for me"
"Sorry to give you more work" said Draco
"Don't be, it's more practice for me and you saved Ginny from those bastards"
Draco felt a bit embarrassed that his actions were seen as him being a "saviour", but he couldn't help but to enjoy the little bonding he and Terry had made throughout these months working together. The boy hadn't heard Weasley's version of the story, she was smart enough to lie even to the other DA members so the story would not get out, but Terry still believed Draco when he told him and Pomfrey what had happened.
Unfortunately, Draco was sent back to the reality of his action when someone tried to hurt Daphne and Theo beat up the bastard until his own hand was bleeding. Draco could not hide from people forever or his friends would be the targets, but he also realised that he would need to take some other kind of action to calm things down.
It was with much persistency that he was able to corner Longbottom and Michael Corner in a bathroom. It was not ideal, but it was the best deal so far since Longbottom was never alone these days.
"What are you doing here you rapist?" said Corner with his wand raised as soon as he caught Draco, but Longbottom didn't so much as reach for his, so the Slytherin ignored Corner.
"Since you have turned into such an influencer, please tell people to stay clear of Daphne, she and Theo might be fighting at the moment, but he proved he will hurt anyone that so much as look her wrong"
"It's not like I can tell people much" Said Longbottom very emphatically and Corner looked between the two of them with a very confused expression.
"I'm sure you will think of something" and the other boy just rolled his eyes in exasperation.
"You can't just do what you want and expect us to follow!" said Longbottom frustrated.
"I expected you people to keep your head down which you obviously don't even know the meaning of!"
"Because you are doing a spectacular job at it" Longbottom ironically and Draco thought that was the first time he ever heard the boy talk like that.
"I'm not the one covered in blood and bruises!" And recently that was how Longbottom always looked like, in fact it looked like he entered the bathroom they were in to wash his bleeding hand.
"I'm confused" said Corner out of the blue and looking at the two boys as if they had lost their minds, but Draco and Longbottom just looked at him like they had forgotten the Ravenclaw was even in the room.
"No one has heard anything about Harry since december" said Longbottom ignoring Corner "Ginny said all Ron told her was that they were walking with no direction for a while, so we don't know how long he is going to take with whatever he is doing, so it's up to us to fight on this side"
"Getting ridiculously hurt is not fighting, learn to pick your battles, Longbottom"
"I won't let them hurt the younger kids!" the boy almost screamed in frustration.
Draco took a deep calming breath, this discussion was pointless because neither of them were going to agree with each other.
"Whatever, if you die it's your own fault. Can you get people to back off of Daphne and Theo or not?"
"I will see what I can do!" said the boy exasperated "The Weasleys are in hiding by the way, Ginny send up a message to them, she is not coming back after Easter"
"How are you getting messages out?" asked Draco frowning.
"The coins and the Potterwatch"
"Potterwatch?"
"It's Lee Jordan's pirate station, Fred and George are doing it with him, give us a lot of updates, next one should be on friday, password is Vance"
Draco shook his head, with a name like that, he should have predicted Fred and George would be involved.
"Thanks, but I can't, Crabbe is breathing down my neck, he can't wait for an opportunity to 'take my place', I have to keep it down for now,but I will check Lovegood over the break"
"Do you know how she is? if anyone else is there?" Longbottom asked avid for some information.
"Only Ollivanders as far as I know, but I haven't got any news from home, but you know the saying, no news is good news"
Longbottom nodded, but he seemed disappointed anyway.
"Out of everyone to be passing out information Malfoy wasn't someone I would expect… what actually happened to Ginny?" said Corner once again trying to get information and looking at the other two. He was no longer pointing his wand.
"He is not passing information" said Longbottom "he is a git that does nice stuff every now and then but it is so full of coverups we just lose track of it" and then he turned to Draco with a smirk, which looked completely weird on his face and almost made Draco lose the track of the conversation "Harry says he is a sweetheart, but I haven't seen it yet"
"No he doesn't!" said Draco, but he could feel his cheeks burning a little.
"You didn't hear him after christmas last year"
Draco knew Harry had been a bit too smitten after christmas, but he was sure those weren't the exact words, because Harry would have to be mad to call him sweet.
"Anyway I have to go" Draco said, took his wand out and turned to Corner, who was not expecting it and took a step back, but before Draco could cast the memory spell he intended, Longbottom put himself in front of the boy.
"The hell…?"
"I'm just gonna obliviate him"
"You can do that to people!"
"There is too much at stake here and I don't trust him!" said Draco exasperated, Longbottom couldn't be serious.
"I know that, I was there that day, but we have to at least trust each other"
"People betray each other all the time, Edgecombe did it to you before, as did Pettigrew, as did Snape, if he talks you know what can happen"
"Then trust my judgment" said Longbottom looking Draco in the eyes "trust me"
Draco took a moment to consider, because so far Longbottom had never said a word of the things he heard, not only about the bond, but all the things before too, like Fred and George, and at that time he had no reason to keep his secrets. Draco vaguely remembered the boy gaining some points over being a good friend or something, so maybe he too should give the boy some credit.
"Fine, but you know what can happen if you're wrong" he said looking deep into the boy's eyes.
"I'm not" Longbottom said with no hesitance in his voice.
Draco snorted and shocked his head.
"Look at you all grown up"
"Had to happen sometime" said the boy with a smile and they both nodded in acknowledgement of each other before they parted.
Draco spent the next few days worried about the outcome of letting someone he didn't know go around carrying one of his secrets, but in the end nothing happened, no one started to suddenly look at him different and apart from cruel jokes about their three way relationship, no one bothered Daphne or Theo, so all in all things were going really well and they kept on being steady until the break finally came.
Theo could not go home, but Daphne wanted to check with her parents how the plans of escaping were going. Pansy and Blaise were the only ones with no immediate worries, but Blaise still invited Pansy to stay with him instead of going home, Mr. Parkinson was not a very important Death Eater, but considering the little plot they made to save Weasley, it was better to keep Pansy out of that social circle.
Draco however had to return home to the Dark Lord and this time he didn't even feel afraid, he felt just tired. As soon as he got out of the train and was coldly greeted by his mother, he knew she had already heard about his little mess at school and she was not happy with him, but nothing compared to the slap on his face he received from his father. There were many times where Lucius Malfoy had been strict, but that was the first time he ever laid a hand on his son, mad with both anger and disappointment.
While his parents' anger hung in the air, the Lestrange brothers seemed nothing but amused, although for different reasons. Rabastan just gave him knowingly amused looks, but his uncle clearly enjoyed the idea and actually treated Draco way nicer than he had done before.
"So I gave you the wrong fruit after all" Rodolphus said to him very quiet and Draco was almost afraid to ask.
"What do you mean?"
But the man did not answer and just gave him a smirk that sent shivers through Draco's body.
His aunt was, as he expected, disgusted both by the act and his choice of girl, Draco was barely able to convince her that the girl had been provoking him, but all that did was set his aunt's incessant questioning over contraceptive charms, for she was convinced the girl wanted to disgrace Draco through a pregnancy.
If the Dark Lord had ever heard the story, Draco did not know his opinions on it, because he was nowhere to be seen, apparently focused on finding something he wanted and that he believed would give him great advantage against Harry.
Without the Dark Lord, the house was quiet and they didn't get any visitors, so Draco was hoping to get a look at Lovegood, but soon noticed it would be hard to do it without getting caught by Pettigrew.
"He follows me too" said Rabastan when Draco finally got him alone in the kitchen and asked about the prisoners "he is really annoying actually, keeps trying to hear our conversations behind the doors"
That explained why everyone was always casting silence charms whenever they entered a room, Draco thought his parents didn't want Bella and Rodolphus to hear them, but he had seen Bella casting it too.
"But is Luna alright?"
"She is fine for now, Ollivander is the one I'm worried about, he is quite sick"
Draco nodded, but he knew there wasn't much he could do for the man.
"Also, if you don't mind me asking, what was the thing with Weasley about? 'Cause I know you didn't rape her"
Draco looked at the man for a while, he was casually drinking his disgusting drink again, but he had a little smirk on his face
"Carrow was out of line"
"Still,…a lot of trouble for a random girl"
"I kissed her brother Fred once, he dumped me, but we were friends" said Draco, he didn't think the man would care much.
Rabastan chuckled in good humor
"Which one is Fred?"
"One of the twins"
"Hummm… you Blacks and your Gryffindors... " Rabastan shocked his head but he was smiling fondly.
"I suppose" and Draco couldn't help but to smile too, because it was true, just not the way the man imagined, he wondered what the man would say if he knew the truth. This topic however reminded him of James Potter and all the questions he still wanted to ask Rabastan at some point.
"It's going to be complicated to get rid of the bad stuff people will say over what you supposedly did, even if you claimed she like it or she wanted it, Carrow told everyone you were quite violent with her" and Draco snorted
"Ah come on, who doesn't like a bit of violence in bed?" said Draco joking with very dark humor, it wasn't like he could do something about it now and it seemed to have pleased some people, his uncle included.
"I never did" said Rabastan a bit quiet, with fake nonchalance and Draco froze, he had to hold himself not to stare at the man, it was better to pretend he didn't hear it or wasn't making a big deal of it, ever since their last conversation, Draco had come to realise there was a nasty can of worms on Rabastan's relationship with Crouch.
"I will deal with it as it comes" said Draco moving back to the topic which Rabastan accepted gladly, looking relieved they were not going to talk about his comment, he probably didn't even mean to say it.
"Probably not until the summer then, the Dark Lord is busy, no one should be around here for the next few days and then you will be back at school"
"Sounds great for me, but what has been going on here then? What have you been doing? Just staying here?"
"Without Potter most of the stuff we're doing is bureaucratic or catching people on the run, so I have been putting my family's things in order, father didn't trust Rod to take care of anything after that stuff with the Longbottoms, so he left everything for me. I wanted to stay at home to get father's portrait to help me out with it, but I didn't want to leave Luna"
"It was quite bold of your father to make you the heir even though both you and your brother were in prison" said Draco, when a second son was the heir, it usually meant the first was being cast out, which wasn't really what happened with Rodolphus, so it was just a big offence from his father.
"I reckon he thought I had a better chance of getting out… Bella and Rod weren't happy they had to go through me to do anything, they have access to our vaults now that no one cares if we are around, but there's some financing the Dark Lord needed for his international campaigns and that needs to be with me, but since I can barely read, it's been taking too long"
Draco thought for a moment, not really understanding what he meant until he remembered the Lestrange's business nowadays were mostly in Germany.
"Can't your brother help with the german?"
"What do you mean?"
"He could translate the contracts for you, would make things easier"
"Oh… I know german, I can speak it at least, I just have a hard time reading anything… I… the letters get mixed up, so it takes me longer to actually read them, it's why I almost failed school… I wish we had self-writing quills back then…" the man said seriously before turning to him with a teasing smirk "if you ever see Fred again, you can say thanks for me"
Draco frowned at that, he had heard a lot about how "stupid" the man was, but had not thought it was in such a deep level he didn't know how to read properly.
The Lestranges are rich, why didn't he get a better tutor?
"So you're doing the Dark Lord's international relations?" Draco asked instead, he didn't want to offend the man, but he was confused why he had been selected for this task.
"Kind off… both your family's business and the Greengrasses' are in France and they are our biggest opposition in Europe, so the Dark Lord wants to see if he can get some deals in Germany, I don't think he will, the guys had Grindelwald, they won't fall for this twice, but he wants to try, so I will try. I think he will have more luck with Portugal and Spain, but Bulstrode is not the most influential guy, especially not in the circles our Lord wants to hit, he got less power since he decided to keep his half-blood daughter. Our best bet would be if we got Prince, but they already left England to stay away from all this, so I don't think we'll hear from them"
"I don't even know how my family's things are doing" said Draco thoughtful.
"Probably less messy than mine, technically I need to actually go to Germany, but the Dark Lord wants everyone here until Potter is dead, so I'm trying to get Gringotts to help, but the goblins are not very happy at the moment. Rod is going there with me tomorrow to set some stuff, but it's going to be a pain, he is insufferable recently"
"Why?"
"Cause Bella couldn't have any kids now even if she wanted to and Rod was avoiding have a bastard because even with the insemination spell it would cause conflict with the Black's inheritance Bella has, so he wants me to have a child, but I don't know anyone, I spent years locked up! But all that stuff with you and Weasley have been giving him ideas, so he brewed a few fertility potions. I already told Luna not to eat anything Pettigrew gives her, but I'll send her to school with you after the break whether I have permission or not"
This time Draco did stare at the man, none of them said anything and Draco felt like he was under a cold shower, so he closed his eyes and took a deep breath, there were times that being here was harder than what he could take.
"Yeah… don't know what Rod might do, so I've been trying to sweet talk Alecto when she is around, but she 'doesn't want to be inferior to Bella' so she doesn't want to have children… like...when the fuck did children invalidade your fighting power?"
"I'm surprised Alecto would say something like that, she has been repeating non stop about how powerful women are and how they should not bow to the desires of men" Said Draco trying not to sound as annoyed as he really was, it wasn't that he disagreed with Alecto, but she had been using that to punish him over what she thought he had done to Weasley.
"Well… Alecto has always been fighting against her own brother, she is smarter than him and even more powerful I would say, but her family always put Amycus first. She said she feels a bit vindicated he only had two daughters, she fights for those girls more than their actual mother"
"Didn't know you and Alecto were friends" said Draco getting curious.
"Not exactly friends, but we like each other well enough and I understand her struggles better than most. She actually tried to be friends with Bella for a while, they get on, but eventually Alecto just got frustrated, she was never as desirable nor could she get the same respect Bella always gets from everyone"
"Bella never gave me the impression she was against marriage and children" said Draco, it was the first time he was actually curious about his mad aunt.
"She isn't, the only reason Bella didn't have children was because she wanted to wait a bit more until the war was won, which back then seemed really soon. The thing is, the Blacks were always about family, so even Bella felt the need of a traditional one, but even before the Dark Lord, she never had to make her place, she knows where she belongs and she bends everyone in front of her to her will"
"But the Dark Lord has a different relationship with her doesn't he?" Draco asked, he knew the man had his favourites, but Bella always seemed more special.
"Bella and Rod were the first to join him, feels like she has two husbands every since"
Draco nodded, he had heard about them being the first before, but despite the remarks here and then no one had ever affirmed there was a relationship between Bella and the Dark Lord, none of them really knew if it was real or just Bella's wishful thinking.
"How did they meet?"
"At their wedding, our Lord was invited by your great aunt Walburga and he took a liking to Bella and he got interested on my brother, father thought it was his way of getting revenge"
"Revenge?" Asked Draco confused.
"Father knew our Lord in school and they had some issues" the man said clearly not wanting to elaborate.
"But didn't the Dark Lord say he was looking after you or something as a favour to your father?"
Rabastan snorted quite loudly as he shook his head.
"He is doing what my father asked of him, but not because he wants to, he wouldn't keep me around otherwise. Although I do believe he likes Rod"
"You think the Dark Lord would have… gotten rid of you… if he could?" Draco asked quietly.
"Not unless he had a reason to, he just doesn't care about me, much like he doesn't care for Pettigrew, but he can order that idiot around, with me he just wants to make sure I won't cause him any trouble, he has long surpassed my father's expectations, so killing me won't cause him permanent damage, but it would be a bother"
"Why didn't you just get out then?" Draco asked trying not to show his irritation at the statement, he would have done anything to have the freedom Rabastan apparently had.
The man looked down and he looked pained in a way Draco could not really describe.
"I was going to… I…I had finally accepted help and I was going to break up with Barty… but I took too long and then everything went wrong right before I could"
At that, Draco frowned once again.
"If you were going to break up with him and he wasn't… good… to you… why did you lie to protect him? You could have gotten rid of the charges with the Longbottoms, couldn't you?"
"To explain everything that happened that day… it would raise other questions… I wasn't going to tell on him, but it wasn't Barty I was protecting…"
Draco tried to think for a moment what kind of questions the ministry might have asked and he could see how questions about the Potter's death might have led to a revelation of Regulus' secret.
"But the war was over and Potter was dead, who would have cared if Regulus loved him?"
Rabastan looked at him with a surprised face and was quiet for quite some time, almost making Draco believe he wasn't going to say anything else, but then the man took a deep breath and looked at him with sad eyes.
"Oh Draco… The Dark Lord once killed an entire family because he heard me comment that Sirius was kissing his girlfriend in Diagon Alley. With no one to punish, what do you think he would have done to your family?"
Those words were like a bucket of cold water being turned on the top of his head. He always knew how afraid his mother was of Regulus being found out and he assumed it was the fear of the Dark Lord finding out they were covering up a traitor, but in reality, no matter their involvement on it, they were always going to pay the price if Regulus was caught.
"But how would you know then that the Dark Lord was going to be back? Almost no one believed it" Draco asked quietly
"Bella believed it and she might be a daffy bint, but she knows him well, I didn't think she was bluffing"
It was madness to think Rabastan had spent years in Azkaban just to keep a secret and it made Draco wonder why the man even put himself in that position to begin with.
"Why did you even go to the Longbottoms' house?"
"I went after Barty" said the man and Draco frowned
"But you said…"
"I know… but I still thought I loved him and I didn't want to believe he was capable of… or even my brother for that matter…"
There was a pained look on his face, a haunted expression of someone who had seen too much and Draco could only imagine what kind of horror he had seen at the Longbottoms.
"It was stupid to go, but I'm glad I did… I couldn't do anything for Alice, but I saved the kid at least"
Draco nodded and smiled a bit remembering the last conversation he had with the boy.
"He is in some of my classes…"
"I heard, Amycus thinks he is a little prat… so was his father I suppose" said Rabastan with a small smile as he shook his head.
"You knew them?"
"Kind of, I never really interacted with Longbottom, he was older and in another house, but he was after my family for a while, I think it's part of the reason Rod and Bella decided to go there… I knew Alice though, she was… really nice"
"I heard she was close to Potter"
Rabastan looked at him and gave him a knowing smile as he shocked his head, he knew Draco was after information.
"His little sister he used to say… although she was actually a bit older than him"
"I'm assuming Potter really wanted siblings" Draco said with a bit of amusement
"Yes… used to get Sirius a little jealous in the beginning" said Rabastan with just as much amusement.
"He probably wasn't very happy to know about Regulus" Said Draco, bluffing a bit to get a bit of information.
"I think Sirius never found out about it" Rabastan said thoughtful
"How come? He was Potter's best friend"
Draco tried not to sound off, he didn't want Rabastan to question where he got all his information or to figure out he had talked to Sirius once, but he wanted to understand if the man had kept that secret or if he indeed never knew about it.
"He was never willing to hear it when they wanted to tell him and then he ruined their relationship… Potter had a hard time admitting, even to himself, that he blamed Sirius for all that happened to Regulus… at the end he wanted to tell him… it was hurting him too much to keep it quiet, but I don't think he manage to do it with all of that stuff with the fidelius or Sirius would have said something when we were in Azkaban, his cell wasn't far from mine"
"So it was because of Sirius that Potter broke up with Regulus?" Draco said unimpressed.
"Yes and no…. He didn't break up with Regulus, it was the other way around… things were messy and we were too young to deal with those kinds of decisions…"
"But Regulus loved him!"
"Yes, which is why he wanted to protect him more than he wanted to keep him. And he hurt himself doing it and he hurt Potter and Evans too… we all made mistakes on this… we wanted love to be enough, but sometimes it isn't and we have to deal with it"
Draco was quietly thinking about it all, he was so tired of all these games, he just wanted to know what happened. What did Sirius do after all and why the fuck was Potter still friends with him if he was responsible for all that happened with Regulus.
Maybe he just didn't care, he moved on after all… maybe he just wanted to tell to be free to get on with his life…
…
Wait… fidelius?
"You said you stopped talking with Potter later on, so how did you know he was going to tell Sirius right before he died?"
Rabastan seemed surprised and thoughtful, he probably hadn't realised he had mentioned something quite incriminating.
"You told them! You told them to hide, that the Dark Lord was going after them!" said Draco, having a moment of inspiration.
"No I didn't!"
"You're lying!" insisted Draco, he was not letting Rabastan get away with this.
"I didn't tell them, I'm not that stupid, don't you think someone like Dumbledore wouldn't want to know how they were getting information? I never told them anything and they knew not to ask" the man said exasperated and looking around even though they had cast a silence charm on the room.
"So you were talking to them!"
Rabastan looked furious, but Draco couldn't help but to smirk.
"Yes, but I never told them anything that would be traced back to me, I'm dumb, but I was never suicidal. I told… another idiot that I knew would go to Dumbledore"
"But you didn't know about Pettigrew" said Draco and it wasn't a question.
"No… we knew there was a spy, but we didn't know who… Thinking back I was lucky, I could have gotten caught when I went to their house"
"You went to their house?" asked Draco gobsmacked.
"Yeah"
"The Dark Lord was after their kid and they just let you in?"
He expected Rabastan to give him a quirky reply, but the man just looked sad.
"Potter made his life goal to take over Reg's mission to make me break up with Barty"
Draco looked at the man, took a deep breath and asked the question.
"How did you and Barty even start?"
Rabastan was quiet and for a moment Draco thought he was not going to answer, he knew it was a sensitive topic for Rabastan, but the man took a drink from his forgotten bottle and looked back at Draco.
"As any other relationship in school… he was after Reg actually, but obviously Reg didn't want him and kind of threw me on him. He said it was one of his biggest regrets, but we were young, we didn't imagine Barty had plans… He was really nice in the start, I thought we were going to be like Reg and Potter… I wanted us to be like them… I hated being jealous of what they had and even when they broke up Reg was still so in love, I thought the hardships were part of it"
"Why not date someone else? You could have dated Regulus, Potter was getting married anyway"
"But Reg still loved him, he was never going to love me like that…" There it was again, the sadness and longing that had first given Draco the impression the man had loved Regulus as more than a friend "And who would want me? I am stupid!"
"No you're not -" Draco tried to say, but the man cut him off.
"Draco, I couldn't even talk right when I was eleven, couldn't learn the spells because I couldn't talk! At eleven! And it's not because I didn't try hard or because I was lazy, I'm fucking defective on the head!" the man said frustrated and it was obvious he was trying to hold in his tears.
Draco frowned, he never heard of such a thing, he knew Crabbe and Goyle were slow and they didn't like studying, but most of their school problems was because they were not very powerful, which was not Rabastan's case. He also wasn't disfigured as people said happened to the Gaunts.
"If you were defective, you wouldn't have learned anything, I know you can cast alright and you're doing your family's books" said Draco trying to be nice, but not really knowing how to help, he had never heard of a case like that.
"Yeah, after I had to learn how to cast silent spells… but I only passed in Aritmancy, for whatever reason I can do math on charts… couldn't even get my charms and transfiguration N.E.W.T.s after all the effort McGonnagall put on me" the man said bitter as a few tears finally fell.
Draco could not imagine what it was like to have a lifetime of failure, to be so miserable to the point of accepting a relationship that was clearly not good for him, but considering even his own brother treated him like an idiot, it shouldn't be a surprise that Rabastan had no self esteem
"What were you going to do if the breakup had worked out?"
"I was going to our house in Munique, but Potter thought it was good I stayed away from my brother too, he said I could stay in his cousin's old house in Greece… They told me they were going to move to Spain after the war so Lily could study, so I think I would have moved there, at least I would have a friend and I could help look after the baby if Potter decided he wanted to work on something"
Draco was surprised with the answer, he didn't realise how close the man had been to the couple.
"What did she want to study?"
"Lily wanted to do pharmacology"
"That's pretty ambitious" said Draco surprised and impressed with her "Why didn't she complete her healer credential in St Mungus?"
"She wasn't planning on the baby, so before Potter was going to stay and she would come and go, so it was easier to do the two years of alchemy first and then return and finish on Mungus. When they had the baby, Potter said he didn't want to ruin her dream, so he would quit the aurors and move with her for those two yeas, half of the department hated him and he was already on leave anyway"
It was both interesting and sad to hear of such mundane plans, none of which came to fruition, but he was sure Harry would like to hear about it.
"Potter… Harry, he wants to be an auror" said Draco
"I don't know him well enough to have an opinion on his choice, James only wanted it because of the war, he found out in no time he didn't have the social aptitude to deal with the politics involved. But it's been many years, if Harry survives long enough to make it there, I don't think he will find any aurors holding a grudge like Snape does"
Draco was silent absorbing everything and for a moment he wondered if he should ask about the bon, if Rabastan had met up with the Potters so close to their deaths, he might have heard something about it,
No, after years in prison to protect us, he would have said something if he knew...
Wandless and silent, Rabastan vanished the bottle he had abandoned on the table and stood up.
"Lets go before someone comes looking for us"
Draco looked at him and remembered the last time he had been talking to Rabastan in the kitchen, he liked to hope they were closer now than before.
"You didn't give me an answer before... if you think he can win"
Rabastan looked at Draco with a thoughtful expression.
"Well... I would like to think I didn't spend half of my life in prison for nothing"
It wasn't really an answer, it was actually a very smart way to leave things open to interpretation and Draco shook his head, he wasn't sure he would even understand that man, but he hoped they would live long enough for him to try.