Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter franchise, nor anything affiliated with it.
Draco's POV
It's been around a week since Hermione and I first started working on the semi-formal dance. We've planned out most of it and we just need to decide on the exact times for it and finalize the menu. We've had to reschedule our meetings a couple of times because our partners for projects have always pulled us away to work on them. It's a miracle we've actually gotten anything done at all, the only reason we have this much done is that we can drawn off our plans from the Halloween ball.
We've set a theme of musicals and musical films so you can come dressed as your favourite character from one. We also have a karaoke theme once again in terms of music, but the songs all have to be from a musical. Ginny recommended that theme since she has a particular soft spot for muggle musicals. She keeps telling me that I have to listen to one called 'Hamilton', but I have absolutely no idea why.
I'm currently working on getting a collection of karaoke tracks for all of these musicals and its taking quite a lot of time. We drafted a list of the musicals we want songs from, but will be able to do recommendations on the night of if we're given advance notice. The list currently includes songs from Hamilton, High School Musical 1-3, The Greatest Showman, Newsies, Wicked, The Sound of Music, Grease, West Side Story, The Phantom of the Opera, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, Annie, Singing in the Rain, Mary Poppins, Cats, The King and I, Hairspray, Mamma Mia, and The Book of Mormon. I'm personally worried that some of these will be too obscure for people to recognize, especially since they're all muggle.
I check my watch and see that it's almost 8:20. I should probably go get Hermione so we can head to McGonagall's office and travel to the Auror department. I was in my room yesterday when I got the letter about today.
I get up from my desk and stretch my legs for a bit. I walk around my room, as steadily as possible without my crutches, and just before I can sit back down again I hear something pecking at my window. I groan and walk over to the window to let in a rather fancy looking Great Horned Owl. It swoops in and lands on my desk where it deposits a letter. I quickly rummage in my desk to find a treat for it. Once I give it to him he swoops back out leaving me alone.
I pick up the heavy manilla envelope and open it with the letter opener lying on my desk. Inside is a formal letter from the Ministry, signed and approved by Kingsley Shacklebolt.
To Mr. Draco Malfoy,
Your request delivered to the Head of the Department of Aurors, Harry J. Potter, has been approved as of February 18th this calendar year. You have a visitors time slot for two people from 8:30am to 9am on February 19th. To avoid any accidents or incidents, your time slot cannot be moved and you must be ready at the time indicated.
At your time slot, please arrive at the Department of Aurors on the third floor of the Ministry of Magic 10 minutes before your time slot. This will allow time for check-in, verification of identity, and registration. You and your guest are to register at the front desk of the Department where you will be met by Auror Potter who will escort you to Azkaban.
In Azkaban you be taken to a visitors room where you will be given half an hour to speak to Mr. Lucius Malfoy. Auror Potter will be stationed outside the room and you will be recorded. Should you wish to leave earlier than the end of your time slot, simply knock once on the door and you will be escorted back to the Ministry of Magic.
Inside this envelope you will find two tickets to confirm your appointment upon your arrival at the Department on February 19th. You are required to bring your wand which will be used for identification and will be held until your return after the visit. In addition, you are both required to bring a seperate piece of identification (e.g. birth certificate or wizarding registration card).
Cordially, the Department of Aurors
Signed and approved by
Kingsley Shacklebolt,
Minister of Magic
I then reach into the envelope and pull out a simple ticket with details on my appointment. My first thought is that I've finally had my request approved. I sent in the request on January 6th, the first working day after Hermione and I went on our date to muggle London. I was honestly beginning to think that they hadn't approved it and had just dismissed it out of hand. My second thought is that Hermione and I will have to inform Headmistress McGonagall about this so we can get permission to leave. Hopefully she'll grant it without too much trouble.
In the end she was happy to let us do this as she thought it would be good for both me and my father. I make sure to grab the tickets and leave everything but my crutches, ID and wand behind. I walk out of my room and see that Hermione is already downstairs. When she sees me walk down the stairs, she just nods at me and we walk towards McGonagall's office.
We knock on McGonagall's' office door and she calls for us to enter. She motions for us to go and use the fireplace while she continues writing on her parchment. Hermione goes first since she's been to the Auror Department before. After throwing the floo powder in and stepping into the emerald flames it's my turn to go through.
I step through the flames and appear in a white hallway with black tile. Hermione is standing just off to the side and she joins me once I'm through. She leads me to the front desk where we sign in and hand over our wands to man sitting there. I give him our tickets and he stamps them. He asks to inspect my crutches and I comply. Once he's done with all of that, he pages Potter to come to meet us.
I look up when I hear a click to see Potter striding towards us with his Auror robes billowing behind him. Of course, because even as a well respected and working adult, he still has to be overly dramatic in everything he does. He walks over to us and moves to shake hands with me before giving Hermione a big hug which makes me feel a little awkward.
"Alright, we better start moving so you can make the most of your time here Malfoy." says Potter.
We then walk down a side hallway, with him in the lead, that takes us to a room with a small apparition platform. He grabs both of our hands and guides us with side along apparition. We arrive in a white chamber with a platform just like the one in the room we were just in. Potter then opens a door to our left and we walk out into a grey hallway.
We walk down a series of corridors until we reach a set of rooms with a window looking into each so that the Aurors can supervise visitors. We reach one near the end and I see my father sitting inside of it. To my surprise, he's wearing a set of rather clean basic robes as opposed to the regular prison uniform. Potter opens the door for me and I walk in. My father looks up when I enter and for the first time in 5 months I'm staring right into his cool, grey eyes.
"Hello Father. How have you been?" I say as I take a seat opposite at the metal table.
"I've been quite alright. It turns out they switched out using the Dementors in Azkaban and replaced them with Aurors. It's a lot nicer in here now, at least that's what the people who have been here since before me say." I can see that though he sounds calm, he eyes are a little haunted. "How's life at Hogwarts been? Getting along with the Head Girl?" He asks me with a bit of a teasing smile on his face. His behavior is quite surprising since I assumed he'd be completely dead inside by the time I'd get a chance to visit him.
"School has been going very well actually. I've made some better friends this year. Hermione, the Head Girl, has been quite helpful in studies and we've become quite close now. We got the opportunity to teach a class for the last few weeks of semester one and marked all the final activities in it." I say. There was more than that, but I don't want him to worry too much about me.
"Wow. Draco, how are the affairs of the Manor and the business going?" He asks me.
"Well, I don't spend much time dealing with anything to do with the business as the replacement CEO of the company has been doing well enough based on the reports I've received. The Manor is all taken care of, I've hired a house elf to deal with cleaning while I'm away since Mother is…" I can't bring myself to say dead. I've made peace with the fact that she's gone, but that doesn't mean I like saying it.
"That's right, I received a notice when she passed. I trust the Ministry helped you deal with the affairs and our lawyer did everything as correctly and as efficiently as possible?" He asks.
"Yes, we managed to get everything sorted within just a couple of days actually." I reply.
"Alright then. May I ask why you're using those…?" He then gestures towards my crutches. "Does it by any chance have anything to do with a field trip to Heathrow Airport in muggle London and being attacked by a group of Death Eaters? They attacked with muggle explosives am I right?" His statement makes me very suspicious. Though he could probably find this information out through prison gossip, especially since the captured Death Eaters would brag about it later, I'm surprised how much he knew about it.
"Yes it does." I say, carefully and slowly, making sure to gauge his reaction. He merely nods.
"Do you know what curse was used?" He asks me.
"Yes, well... Madam Pomfrey does, I actually never got a chance to ask her what it was. However like most dark magic, there is no known cure or counter-curse for it." I say.
"But that isn't the only reason you're still using them though, am I right?" This makes me even more suspicious. There is no way he would have heard about the attack at Hogwarts. The ministry shut the story down immediately and no details were provided on the case to the media. I highly doubt he would have heard about it from the other inmates here either as none of them were involved in it.
"You are correct once again father, though I must ask how you came to know about this information. It was not exactly public knowledge. I was attacked shortly after our incident at the airport while at Hogwarts." I say. I don't give away too much information because my father is starting to creep me out.
"Do you really want to know how I got that information?" He asks. "If you choose to know why, you have to promise me you won't tell anyone else unless its necessary." This bothers me even further and I wonder if I'd actually want to know why, but my curiosity gets the better of me.
"I'd like to know how you got that information father, if it's a security breach then I'll have to inform the Auror Department."
"I can tell you that it isn't a security breach at all and the Auror Department, at least the top ranking members of it, already know all about it. Perhaps it would be best if we call in Mr. Potter and your companion Ms. Granger." I'm becoming more and more confused with every sentence he speaks.
At that moment, Potter steps in followed by a confused Hermione. He's holding a small folder that I didn't see before.
"Mr. Lucius Malfoy, would you like me to help explain?" says Potter.
"Yes please. It'll probably make more sense if you do, though I may cut in every now and then to help with certain parts." replies my father.
"Alright then, everybody better take a seat because this'll take quite a bit of time. Also, don't worry about running over time, the time slot was merely for show and so that you'd have an excuse to leave Hogwarts and come here. The simplest explanation for this situation is that your father is now a contract worker with the Auror Department in exchange for cancelling his sentence. I'm sure this has raised multiple questions for both of you, but please let me finish explaining before you interrogate me."
He's quite right, I have many questions now but I'll let him finish in case he answers my questions in his tirade. Also, it'll probably make more sense if I hear the story in chronological order.
"Your father arrived in Azkaban and stayed clear of many of the other Death Eaters as, to my knowledge, he didn't want to get involved with that stuff again and had decided he was done with those ideas. They saw that as a betrayal and many fights ensued during the time they had outside of their cells."
My father then cuts in. "Those fights went unnoticed however since most of the guards didn't really care what happened to lowly Death Eaters." Potter nods and then continues.
"Well, later on he found out about the plot to attack Heathrow Airport but he didn't have that many details on it. He tried to report it to the Aurors on duty, but they didn't believe him and the attack happened anyway." That makes sense, I probably wouldn't have believed him either if I had been in their shoes.
"When we received the call about the attack from Hermione, I realised that perhaps it would helpful if we had someone with enough expertise and experience with dark magic and Death Eaters so that we could capture them more easily. Someone who would have been quite close to most of them, and that's when Lucius' situation was brought to my attention. Not to mention he could probably help identify the ones he knew about.
The other reason I wanted to recruit him was that our side was dealt a heavy blow during the war. We lost many good Aurors and we haven't been able to keep up numbers even with students who fought during the war being allowed to train without NEWTs. We're spread too thin especially since we now have Aurors guarding Azkaban and not Dementors."
While he explains this, I notice how tired Potter looks. He looks fine at a first glance, but then I notice the weary look in his eyes and the way his face is all creased, presumably due to stress.
"I planned everything with the contracts bound by magic and proposed the job to him." I'm not surprised he accepted, my father would do anything and everything to make sure he was in the good books of whoever was in power. However something about what my father said next made me think that wasn't the only reason why.
"I was quite happy to accept the job as I'm sure you can understand. However, I also believe that it's important to assist in the undoing of some of the atrocities and damage I helped commit against our society. I had plenty of time to reflect on that during the summer." says my father.
"So since then, he's been helping quite a lot with our investigations. He's pretty much replaced Ron on my field team. The reason why we have to keep this a secret is that we don't want Death Eaters being suspicious of him if he's ever caught. Most of the prisoners here are under the impression that he's still in prison but has been moved to maximum security holding cell due to an attempted escape that resulted in the 'death' of several Aurors." I gather that he's finished his explanation, but I wait just a little longer before asking my father a question.
"Father, how much do you know of what I've been doing at Hogwarts?" It's a rather simple question, but something that I need to clear up.
"Well I know a great deal about the more important things. For example, I helped conduct the investigation around the attack from Mr. Weasley and I assisted Madame Pomfrey with researching your curse and how the attack may have affected it. I'm very sorry that we couldn't find a counter curse for it. I also know all about your Muggle Studies work. I must say I'm quite impressed at all the work you accomplished, this goes for you too Ms. Granger. I don't quite approve of you selling almost 30% of your mother's art collection, but I do understand that it went towards a good use. By the way I must say that Bipsy is most kind and quite friendly, you made a good choice by selecting her for the Manor. All in all you've been up to quite a lot at Hogwarts and I'm very proud to call you my son. I know I have not said that nearly enough times in the past, but I hope that you'll believe me when I say this." My father's words make me want to hug him right now, but I keep my composure in front of my friends.
"I just have one more question, what does this mean in terms of the future? Will you be coming back to the Manor? Will I be seeing you in the future and how can I contact you?" It's actually a jumble of questions, but it all comes back to the same root of the future. I don't quite know what to do with all of this information and I feel kind of overwhelmed.
My father doesn't answer directly, but turns to Potter as if to ask him instead. Potter then sighs before responding, "Well, he's been given permission to apparate in and out of his cell here in Azkaban directly to my office. From there he's been apparating to wherever necessary and has gone to do some research in your Manor's library. I try to only visit him every now and then to avoid word getting out about this. Perhaps you should only meet in the Manor and maybe you could send letters there as well for him to read. Bipsy is quite trustworthy and I trust that the wards on the Manor are quite secure." I nod to him and gratitude and he offers a small smile back.
I then remember that Hermione has been here the whole time and I've barely acknowledged her. "Since we've gotten all of that official stuff out of the way, how about we talk about some lighter things. I'll start with this. Father I'd like you to meet Hermione Granger, my girlfriend. We've been dating since November." I'm a little scared of how he might react, but to my surprise he merely nods and reaches over to shake her hand.
"Ms. Granger, it is a pleasure to meet you. From what I've heard about you from Potter, you are quite a remarkable young woman with a very good head on your shoulders. I'm sure you'll be a fine match for my son." She looks a little lost but recovers quickly.
"Mr. Malfoy, a pleasure to meet you in a better situation for both of us than last. I'm glad to hear about your role in keeping the wizarding world safer. Don't worry too much about Draco's safety, he's been getting much better and he's made a lot of progress since the last incident. I won't let anything else happen to him while Ron's at Hogwarts as well." She says. Her words are more sophisticated and planned than when she usually speaks with me, but her tone is still quite warm and polite.
"I must confess, the circumstances of this meeting are much preferable compared to our last." replies my father with a hint of a smile on the corner of his mouth. I can tell he quite likes he humor and I hope they get along since one day they may end up spending time in each others presence on a regular basis.
Hermione laughs and it seems that the two of them have bonded over a small joke that may have been considered insulting to other people.
I glance at my watch and see that it's almost 10 am right now. We could go visit the Manor now and have lunch there instead if Potter was right about us being excused from school for the whole day and not just for our appointment slot.
"Potter, could we perhaps visit the Manor with my father?" I ask. He seems a little surprised by the question but recovers quickly enough.
"We'll have to find a way to conceal Mr. Malfoy from the sights of everyone else here, but we could use my invisibility cloak for that. I'm free for the rest of the afternoon as well because I wasn't sure how long this might drag on for." I take that as yes. He then reaches into his robes and pulls out a silky cloak.
"Are you all okay with having lunch at the Manor?" I ask my father and Hermione, and they both nod.
My father then takes the cloak and drapes it over himself so we can no longer see him. We go over and exit the room. We get to the apparition platform and as we grab each others hands I can feel something grab my free hand, presumably my father under the invisibility cloak.
We arrive in the Auror Department apparition chamber and exit to the front desk of the department so we can get our wands back. Once we're done there, we take the floo down to the Manor and arrive successfully in our living room.
My father hands back the cloak to Potter while I call for Bipsy. When she arrives, I ask her if she could makes some tea cakes and sandwiches for the group of us. She nods and runs off to the kitchen to prep everything. I motion for us all to sit on the couch and settle down.
We spend the afternoon chatting and telling my father about different things that happened this year. About the more mundane stuff like the muggle games we've learnt. About different muggle tech and how I've started using some of it. About what teaching was like. About how the Halloween ball went and how the Semi-Formal ball is coming along. We all loosen up and soon we're all laughing and talking like equals even though there are many differences between each of us ranging from gender, to age, to blood.
We end the afternoon by watching a muggle film called The Book Thief on a TV I had installed in one of the more empty rooms in the manor. Once we finish, Harry and my father leave for the Ministry and Hermione and I floo back to Hogwarts. Just before we leave however, my father pulls me to the side.
"Draco, thank you for visiting me. It means more than you can imagine. I'm so glad to call you my son. You've made so much progress in the last year alone, more than I could ever hope to accomplish. It was so nice to see you today. Also, make sure to keep Ms. Granger. She's a special one so take care not to lose her companionship." He then hugs me and for the first time in ages my thoughts go silent. I'm too stunned to think or come up with any words in response. Instead I just hug him back. There is so much emotion behind this hug that wouldn't be obvious to anyone else. I feel loved by him for the first time in years and I feel so much lighter right now.
When he finally lets go, the feeling doesn't go away though and I'm very grateful for that. Potter and Hermione have finished saying goodbye this point and instead Potter has come over to say something to me.
"Malfoy, I didn't say this earlier but one of the other reasons I offered your father the position is that I think he has lots of potential. I know he was right hand man to Voldemort, but I think he could do a lot of good. I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and he's been great so far. You really should be proud of your father for changing so much. He's great to work with and is quite knowledgeable. I'm glad he wasn't part of the Heathrow gang otherwise I doubt you guys would have survived." His little speech is a little awkward and he jumps all over the place but I still grateful for this. If Potter can see some potential in my father than perhaps he really has changed for the better. I really hope he has.
"Thanks Potter. See you later then." I say. He nods and steps towards the fireplace to go back with Lucius to the Ministry. They leave and then it's time for Hermione and I to leave.
"Hermione, I just want to say thank you for coming today. You don't understand how glad I am that I got to see my father. Thank you for staying and sitting through all of that." I say to her and hug her.
When I pull away she responds. "It was no problem Draco. It was nice seeing you sort things out today. Your father seems much nicer than when we last met and I have to concur with him about our last interaction not being the best. Anyway, let's head back before the Headmistress sends a search party for us."
I smile and we enter the floo to go back to Hogwarts.
Author's Note: So sorry about the late update, I've been really busy with stuff at home, not even school work or anything. I've also had a lot of issues with stringing my ideas together and formulating everything, a.k.a. writer's block (or some modified version of it). Thanks for the support, but please review! Feedback of all types is welcome. I hope you guys have a great week, till next time.