The sky was not quite black overhead, and Draco could not yet see the stars, that he might know precisely how they scorned him, yet his fate was nonetheless clear.
Ever since Goyle had told him about the situation in New Mississippi, the fact that the majority of the Death Eaters had been waiting there only for nothing to happen was treated like his blunder, since the information was coming from his vassal, who could not explain how he knew. It had been an almost instinctive decision to trust him; he had never lied before, and now he was basically on a tribunal for his failure. Efficiently, Lestrange presided alone, insisting that his sister-in-law was biased.
"Perhaps the damage has been limited," Ephraim Harper, governor of the secret state, began to argue. "Our most skilled duelists were merely forced to idle behind a barrier due to some ghost of an all-out assault, as in your verbiage, while our citizens and allies, coming to aid us, were cut down by a large, spread out force that could only have been the entire Order of the Phoenix, most certainly not attacking New Mississippi- a fur piece away." He shook his head. "The damage has been done, even if it comes in the wake of some success of the defendant; I am sure he has something to say for himself."
"If it would please the presiding," Draco interjected. "Goyle has almost certainly suffered from the Imperius Curse. He is unable to remember exactly how he knew that the enemy would assail this boundary, and he immediately checked with the wardens, who found that spells had been cast all around it, and he interpreted this as an effort by scouts to get in and survey the staff we had already moved here."
"Perhaps, then, the servant of the defendant had a justifiable reason for his failure and perhaps he should be forgiven," the governor apparently conceded. "However, he may be forgiven after the war is already over, and what remains to be seen is whether or not he will be punished for his failure, that other men may understand it is not to be tolerated." He looked around to the crowd. "Is success not the standard in your operation? After we failed to negotiate an alliance with the Americans, your Dark Lord ordered the deaths of two of my own children."
There was apparently widespread sympathy among the assembled. Lestrange was supposed to be ignoring it, and he was enough of a lapsed blood purist that kin and kind would not be supremely important to it, but suffice to say, things were not looking good. As advised, Goyle did not say a word in his own defense.
"I have come to respect the wizards of the Americas," Draco said. "Perhaps they lack long family lines, and perhaps for this reason they recognize that no authority can be suffered to rule over them by name alone." There seemed to be moderate approval. "If anyone can be suffered, it is only one who by his own merit achieves the respect of the people. We are the people." His words dared contradiction. "It is for this reason that I must ask the people, where is the Lord Voldemort? He has consistently pursued a policy that is not clear to any of us, and almost certainly leads us to our ruin. Under blood purists, we would never have been forced to leave our island home; following the death of Albus Dumbledore we had over a year to lead a direct assault on the Ministry and under the leadership of my father or any other venerable aristocrat, that is precisely what would have happened." He took a breath as his own client and vassal looked at him with the first shocked expression he had ever seen him make. "If we are to punish failure and the Americans would like to rebel against their masters, what then, should be done about the Dark Lord's failure?"
If he had turned the presiding authority against him, he had turned the prosecution to his side.
Lestrange was saying the remarks were out of order and not germane to the discussion, but the people of New Mississippi and several of the old guard Death Eaters were in support of a rebellion against the Lord Voldemort, and voices were already saying that if he wished to continue to support them he could support them with an esteemed role, but there would have to be a change in leadership.
The Dark Lord, of course, would not take kindly to any such change, but if the Death Eaters announced that they had appointed a new commander for military purposes and were universally in support, he would be without any option but to go along with it, as it was impossible to keep them all under the Imperius Curse and torturing them all into obedience would take entirely too much time. As powerful as he was, he could not kill them all at once, and as loose as he had been with his followers lives, if they were all joined together, there was nothing he could do. Whenever he intended to move to the next phase of his master plan, he had to have their assistance; there was simply no way for a single wizard to command the entire world, even if he only had objective purposes for them. Perhaps, one day, he would even thank them for taking command of the war effort and winning it. Perhaps, one day, he would even reward them for demonstrating true initiative rather than slavish obedience.
All of this and more was being established around him as the trial seemed to fall apart. Goyle had no questions for any of the Death Eaters restructuring the chain of command. Instead, he only looked to his immediate leader.
"You turned on the Dark Lord to get me out of punishment?"
"Consistently, you have been more loyal to me than any of my other vassals, and it is my belief that loyalty should be rewarded. Allow the others to think that I simply used this as an opportunity to restore power to the blood purists."
Goyle nodded and said he would inform them.
Regarding his question about the current position of the Lord Voldemort, he truly had no idea. In Europe, the coalition had effectively started to offer bribes in the form of time tax relief for any information regarding his whereabouts, and it was not that there were too few leads, there were too many. There was no way to process them all at once and the governments involved simply could not hand out the time to everyone, so they handed it out to no one, causing it to collapse, as well as mass striking, specifically in Greece and Italy.
If indeed the great dark wizard was simply hiding and waiting for the battle to be over, he would not notice that the vast majority of his followers had decided that going forward, Lucius Mafloy would be crowned as the head of the magical royal family, an ancient tradition that desperately needed to be resurrected. Credited with arranging a way out for innumerable dark wizards in Western Europe as the coalition was still in spreading in its early days, as well as the current patriarch of one of the most distinguished and most pure families in the entire world, he was an appropriate candidate for anointment, and it worked out coincidentally that the principality his only son would receive would make him a most attractive mate for the only known heiress to one of the longest known families in the world, with whom he already happened to be entangled.
I should put Davis down whilst I have the chance. Her continued life could complicate things on that front as well as many others.
Having said to Goyle that he rewarded loyalty, he practically already implied that he would punish disloyalty, and a witch who was almost certainly spying on him for Evan was bound for the chopping block. Though he had not wanted to kill Nott for the same crime, since his family tree was rather distinguished, he had both the boy and his father placed under house arrest, and that proved to be ineffective.
Lestrange and a few of the other loyalists were effectively promised that they were only taking command to help the Dark Lord, that he would eventually approve of their actions, as soon as the war had been won, and they would be more loyal to go along with the change in leadership because there was no way he would win the war with the way he had been waging it. While it was entirely possible he had some truly brilliant scheme up his sleeves, whatever it was had reduced them to a state where defeat was all but guaranteed. The Lord Voldemort had long described himself and had long been respected for his achievements as an academic, and he would achieve even more in a role that truly suited him, while mundane military matters were better left to others.
It was with these and many other arguments that Draco spent the better part of the afternoon helping the blood purists currently in New Mississippi, along with its citizens, persuade the loyalists there to at the very least hear them out. There was an ideal that the Death Eaters were not meant to lie to one another, but the necessity of lying to the public to protect the pure of blood could be applied to lying to those who loved only the Dark Lord, at least until they understood after there were no falsehoods to lead them astray. When naught but the truth remains, they will see it clearly, as if for the first time.
Such were the words of his ancestor, Hydre, among the greatest in the distinguished line chosen by magic itself, as evidenced by its longevity. None else could claim the history and accumulated wealth of the Most Noble and Ancient House of Malfoy, and it was fitting that soon none else would be able to claim royal blood. Any honor, of course, was fitting for his line, though- second only to the family motto, the most oft-repeated line was that they really could have it all.
Draco went to assemble his vassals, content for the moment that Longbottom was back at school, though he would have need of his services soon enough. Parkinson, Davis, Goyle, Derrick, and the other one were talking when he found them, though they were silent when he approached, as if all of their doubts and thoughts of turning against him were at once silenced.
"Six of us, then?" he asked. "Perhaps that was why our attempt to establish the Golden Circle was ill-fated and fraught with danger. If only Bole had survived Nott's treachery-" He looked away, to the east.
"Mafloy, we only just heard from Goyle..." Parkinson started. "Are you going to expect us to start calling you 'your highness'?"
"Titles and formalities are all well and good for the common folk, but my loyal vassals are nothing if not uncommon. Each from a line of its own manner of distinction, you have been loyal to me and none other in a long hour of hardship that will soon come to an end. Under wiser command this war will start again in earnest as if for the first time. If still your heart fears the wrath of the Dark Lord, consider that we are his allies who are helping him, and if he treats his allies half as well as his enemies, he will let us have half of Europe with impunity. I truly doubt he ever desired to rule or even lead; the school was his one desire, and in its absence, he wanted to extract revenge with his own wand." He shook his head slightly. "Though I did not mention this, because I wished not to upset any of you, he counted all of us as failures, especially myself, as your leader, when the castle was lost, though we truly could not have done anything against as many Aurors as were there."
"I see," Derrick said. "I'm not one to fail to recognize the importance of this occasion, but we should focus on the war yet to be won. Night is here. Are we on the night shift?"
"I'm afraid so," Bulstrode said. "Most of us managed to get a few hours of sleep before this, so we're going to have to fight."
This is going to be a challenge.
"We need to expand our numbers, going forward," Draco said. "I would really like to have it at seven, whether or not the figure includes myself. That figure, however, will not include- one of us," he said. "This is a matter that must be decided before we join the battle."
Everyone looked to Davis.
"Kill me if you must," she said. "Evan will not so much as shed a tear for my demise. He will bring ruin to all of you."
"With the Dark Lord having taken on a new role in the war to rescue the magical world, he will almost certainly focus more on training the Heir, and we intend to bring ruin to neither of them. You, however, have proven that your loyalties are not the sole property of the salvation of magic. If as in your own words it is true that you would be useless as a bargaining chip, then you will serve to fertilize the ground."
If any of their numbers remembered that they were all minors with every right to be in school, their expressions did not indicate it. They were quite aware that their leader was perfectly capable of killing people and perfectly serious when he spoke of it. Parkinson had an objection.
"Malfoy, as the heiress from such a distinguished line as hers, other uses remain. Can she be faulted for having a beating heart? Let her marry Evan and endear him to us with the passing hour-"
"The Heir of Slytherin desires only revenge; the flesh is nothing to him but a pleasant distraction. Those who have attempted to use him will suffer a fate worse than death; I fail to see why I would not die before joining them. Perhaps, Draco, you have made your peace with being the enemy of much of the magical world, but if you ever sleep again after turning against Evan, it is only out of the most foolish pride I can imagine."
"The Heir," he started back. "will be hated by us only as much as he hates us, and he will hate us only as much as he hates victory in war. Have you asked him what he thinks of the Dark Lord's leadership? If anything, I would think he would be pleased that we have taken these measures, at least if we were to speak to him about it. Excepting military command, we would be amenable to offer him any position he desires in the new command structure; he need not be known only as the master's student, or his horcrux, for that matter."
Silence arrived and seemed to wait around before disappearing again.
"Very well. I presume the reason you have decided to address me is because you are not sure whether or not I would curse you in the back."
"Whatever you say now, I am almost certain that such is your intention. Because you have heard and chosen to respond by announcing vengeance, I can be quite certain that your loyalty is not only due to Evan and not to me, but misguided. If, however, as Parkinson claims, there is some use for you, I would be content with an Unbreakable Vow."
"I swear that the Heir of Slytherin will kill you," she said, jutting out her hand. "I swear that this is not in his best interest, and you will lose this war. As a result, I shall take no action against you if only you allow me to leave."
It was his turn to say 'very well'. Parkinson had her wand out and silently volunteered to act as witness. Their hands joined by flesh and magic.
"As you wish. You are no longer my vassal and your discontinuation of service will not be treated as a betrayal. You will be allowed to leave and I personally guarantee that no harm will befall you."
When the ceremony was over, there was nothing left for Davis but to be on her way. She had been effective as a vassal and perhaps Derrick would not say it was the most strictly practical time to let her go, but it was better to turn his face to the enemy if he could only know he was not turning his back to a traitor. She walked out of the ward boundary and disapparated.
"I wonder if she's been in contact with him," Goyle said almost immediately after.
It is all but certain.
"Does that mean the mudblood knew anything about Evan's position?" Parkinson asked.
"I doubt she did anything with the information in the time she had left to live. As much as I am sure you wish to fight here, I need you to persuade the Heir to join us," he said. "You have heard well enough what we intend and I trust you with this task. Though he has disappeared from Durmstrang, I am quite certain you will run into him if you were to take our message to Death Eaters scattered abroad. I believe Travers is still in Turkey after completing some unknown task the Dark Lord asked of him."
She nodded and said nothing more before leaving.
"Well, that leaves four of us, Derrick observed. "Where are we joining the battle?"
"Because we know the area, we were asked to investigate around New Mississippi," he lied, coming up with it on the spot. "We do not yet know precisely how our enemies manufactured a distraction that nearly cost Goyle his life, but if we find magical traces of them, it could lead us back to their base."
"How will this help us?"
"At the moment, I fear nothing else will. Spread out as they are, we have no choice but to keep playing their game, and it is a game they will mostly win unless we change it. If we were to go back to their base, we could pull the same trick on them that they only just pulled on us, assuming the inventors of it are no longer alive." It seemed like a reasonable assumption, since he had no idea who in the Order would have done such a thing. Truly, he still wished the entire force could be returned to Eastern Europe, since it seemed the coalition was allowing them to wipe out the Order, but it might have been that the Dark Lord finally succeeded in making something he simply presumed come true; that the continent of their birth was almost entirely lost and if there was any hope left for their side to take a stand, it would be overseas. Various criminal and dark organizations in both North and South America had already spoken with them, and it seemed that whatever position the Death Eaters gained within their coalition, their cause was one.
They set out to the ward barrier without another word.
With their combined expertise, Draco allowed himself an amount of confidence that they could trace the disturbance back to its surface. Anyone who could have organized the elaborate feint had to have been of rank, someone he could capture. Their intelligence suggested that the Order had already moved in the opposite direction, so it was still a mystery what exactly had happened, but as soon as someone recovered Dennis Creevey the battle was practically won. Whenever they start dying, he won't want to get caught in the crossfire. He may have been sorted into Gryffindor, but valor is simply not in his blood.
When last he checked, the boy's older brother was carrying out menial tasks back at Durmstrang. He was not a leader, and not the most competent follower, but he was as ardent as any other in his work. I have no particular regrets with his failure. He merely found a task that suited him.
For perhaps the first time in his life, he felt a completely unadulterated, luxurious, pride. It was rather like what he expected when he would eventually succeed his father as the head of the family. There was no need, however, to succeed his father to claim his own place; the Malfoy line was one long and distinguished, and there was no shame in being in one branch or another; it was a matter of what a wizard did with his position. Once again, it would be a poor decision to relate to the vassals how close I was to execution.
Goyle would not reveal it, he knew. A capable follower was ever aware of his position and how to use it, and a loyal follower was all a born leader needed, however short the supply that he might lament.