Edited: 1/12/22

This took longer, but I have a good 2 hour freetime for a good month, so there's a good chance that updates will become more frequent.

Chapter 16: Secrets & Plotting

Malfoy Manor was decked with more decorations with several strands of white lights that created a subtle glow along with several ice statues, some of which was lightly covered in a small dusting of snow. The pavement was cleared of any remnants of ice, and snow; although a sprinkling of snow escaped and fell onto the pavement.

Harrison made sure that he looked presentable in his midnight, black robes and made sure that the madness in his eyes was purely limited. Tonight was merely about making another name for himself, making sure that he looked presentable and brought out the pureblood manners that he was taught all so well. He replaced his mask with a pureblood one- blanked face, never letting anyone know what he could possibly be thinking.

"You look presentable," Draco commented, as Harrison made his way down the stairs where Draco was leaning on the marble railing, watching some of the pureblood wizards and witches make their way inside the ballroom. "At least I know someone else here, instead of all the adults hoping for a ledge up in the political field…"

Harrison ignored his comment and asked his question, "Who is all coming?"

"Mainly purebloods, several members of the sacred twenty-eight families like Notts, Parkinson and Greengrass to name a few…. I heard Black was coming for once, and several Ministry members are here like Fudge."

Harrison raised his eyebrow at the mention of Black and Fudge. He knew the minister was most likely going to be here since he also knew that Lucius was practically Fudge's right hand man. Sirius Black was sort of a surprise, but that also meant that he had several things to discuss with the man.

He turned away and was about to head down the stairs before Draco grabbed his arm, and his sleeve- preventing him from going any further.

"Where are you going?" He hissed.

"Let go of me, Draco… I have business to attend to."

Draco's pale hand let go of his black sleeve. Harrison turned away, but paused briefly once he heard Draco say in a low voice,

"Please don't terrorize them like you do to our classmates,"

"Relax… You have nothing to fear… Besides, don't you know who I was raised with?"

"That's what I'm afraid of."

Harrison let out a small smirk as he heard that. It seemed that Draco didn't forget who he was practically raised with. He headed down the stars, his black dress shoes thudded across the marble staircase. Many pairs of eyes looked up as he walked down, and heard the whispers of how it was possible how he was invited, his troubled past, something like that. He couldn't, but giving them a Cheshire cat-like grin as he walked passed them.

He opened the double doors belonging to the ballroom. Many pureblood witches and wizards were dancing in the middle of the ballroom, in a couple of customary pureblood dances that he had no idea how to do. Waltz music, along with several other types of dance music was playing loudly, that blocked out several conversations. Other witches and wizards who were not dancing, were off to the sides- getting refreshments or talking. He noticed that Lucius and Narcissa were off talking to Minister Fudge in the back.

Harrison dodged witches and wizards who were gliding across the floor, his face remained impassive as he approached the three. Lucius was in matching black robes, with Naricissa by his side, her arm lightly touching Lucius's right arm, wearing a light blue princess ball gown, her blonde hair curled at the ends.

"Mind if I interrupt? Lady Malfoy, you look stunning," Harrison complimented her.

Naricssa bowed her head slightly in appreciation, "Have you seen Draco? I haven't seen him anywhere and I don't want him to be antisocial."

"He's leaning on the staircase," He told her.

"Excuse me gentlemen." Narcissa turned her back, her heels making a clicking sound and headed out in search to find Draco. Harrison returned his attention.

"Harry! My boy! How are you?" Fudge asked, his voice rising to a high pitch.

Harrison flashed him a smile, "I'm doing well, minister."

"That's good to hear! How is Hogwarts? I assume it hasn't been too difficult to adjust?"

"It hasn't been that difficult, sir."

"Lord Malfoy, have you met Mr…"

"Peverell-Slytherin," Harrison suggested flatly.

If Fudge had any reactions towards Harrison's change of surname, he didn't show them.

"I have… In fact, he's made such good friends with my son and he's staying with us over the course of the holidays," Lucius answered.

Fudge's smile brightened. Harrison looked over his shoulder and saw the dark curly hair, and the dark onyx eyes that belonged to Sirius Black. He headed over there.

"I'm surprised to see you here," Harrison commented.

"I thought I'd rather get involved with the pureblood customs, seeing how I'm representing House Black, and the lord of the house."

"Why are you not dancing?"

"Not a fan of it… The amount of times my mother made me require doing it, I grew up distasteful of it and of course, I met Potter…"

Harrison silently casted a silence charm over them wandlessly, to prevent anyone with prying ears to eavesdrop in their conversation.

"How did you remove yourself from Potter, anyway?"

"It was right after you were sent to Azkaban… I came to drop by Potter Manor, in order to reassure James… Unexpectedly, I didn't know that James took the news harder and decided to kick me out and didn't want to be seen with someone who was a Black."

"He was always prejudiced against anyone who didn't fit in what he thought was right…"

"True."

"Anyways, after the holidays.. Can you come over to Grimmauld Place, so we can talk more?"

"Of course."

…

Harrison packed up several of his robes, books, and several of his school things inside his trunk. The diary packed away, underneath several charms, and locked the trunk in parseltongue. No one would be able to rummage and grab anything that may markup him as dark. Any thieves would try, but simply wouldn't get too far.

He heard the door open, but didn't hear a knock on the black door. He grabbed his wand, and pointed at whoever decided to barge in.

"Why are you packing? We're not going back to Hogwarts for another several days," Draco asked.

Harrison set down his wand and spoke coldly,

"Do you not know how to knock, Draco? I was busy with something…"

A light pink blush formed on Draco's cheeks and he responded,

"Sorry… I forgot… I came to ask if you want to play Quidditch with me?"

"Maybe some other time… I have some business to take care of."

"What type of business? Why is it so important that you have to leave the manor for several days?"

"That would be telling… Besides, you'll find out soon enough."

Draco rolled his grey eyes in response.

Harrison shrunk his trunk down to pocket size,and pocketed it as he walked out of the room that the Malfoys gracefully let me use during the duration of the break. He headed into the parlour, ignoring the many portraits with Malfoys expressions and the statues and decorations that decked the manor. His footsteps were muffled as he headed into the parlour, turned the gold door knob and picked up a handful of silver floo powder.

"Number twelve Grimmauld Place!"

Harrison ignored the whirling feeling and the rush that it gave him until his feet landed on a dark grey carpet. He opened his eyes, and saw the place. It was less fancy than Malfoy Manor, and made it look practically abandoned. An umbrella stand was right next to where Harison was standing and almost knocked it over. He managed to catch it and looked around the grey, empty corridors.

He heard footsteps soon coming down from the corridor, and Sirius Black was wearing dark green robes, his hair looking like it hadn't yet been brushed.

"You made it alright," Sirius greeted. "What do you think of it?'

"Not to bead… Different from Malfoy Manor."

"It's getting slowly refurbished."

"Oh," Harrison murmured, "So what did you want to talk about?"

"Fred and George sent me news."

"About what?"

"They sent me a letter that Dumbledore is up to no good. He wants to make his move soon, and is already bringing several aurors and having several meetings."

"He's desperate," Harison mused. "That'll make him more dangerous, but also means- there's something up his sleeve."

"Exactly… It also means that we have to strike before…" Sirius explained to him. "We should do it by the end of February."

"That wouldn't be too hard in figuring out the obstacles…"

"Just be careful."

…

The manor was completely dark with the fireplace lit up by a flick of a wand. He threw the logs into the fire, and tucked into the armchair. It was otherwise so quiet that he could possibly hear a pin drop if one fell.

"What a day," The wizard murmured to himself. "It just feels like there are more and more appearances I need to do."

The wizard was in such deep thoughts that he didn't notice someone, who was wearing all black robes, their face covered by the shadows that hid the figure quite well. The figure pointed their wand at a recededing, greying head that belonged to Cornelius Fudge, and whispered,

"Avada kedavra."

Bright green light filled the room, and the mysterious figure left the room and outside of the manor, leaving behind a recently deceased Cornelius Fudge."

…

The red and black train of Hogwarts Express disembarked from Kings Cross Station. Harison sat alone in a compartment, watching the fields, trees and mountains that quickly disappeared from the train that kept going. His mind was occupied with something else that was pressing on in his mind.

Ella.

She was going to be turning nine in a couple of days. It was going to be probably another birthday behind bars, unable to taste the freedom that it brought. Surrounded by her family, but unable to bring her comfort while the dementors constantly lingered and constantly tormented them. Unable to experience any of the joy that he was experiencing. He would change that.

A small part of him wished that someone, possibly sane enough, to see that a child was still suffering in Azkaban, save the child and bring freedom. He knew he was being ridiculous, but he hoped.

He didn't notice the compartment door opening with a loud thud, as it hit the wall. He didn't notice who it was before, so they stepped inside the compartment and sat down across from him.

It was Hermione Granger.

Her bushy brown hair pooled around her face, and she smiled brightly, showing her buckteeth. She sat there riddigly, and kept watching the compartment door as if she was expecting more company or was hoping a certain someone wasn't going to come and find her. It was obvious by the way her body language practically screamed that she didn't know that she was with him, alone in a train compartment.

"How was your holiday?" She asked, breaking the silence that filled the compartment.

"Fine…" Harrison replied coldly. "Why did you come in here?"

Granger bit her bottom lip, before she replied,

"I needed to get away from Saeviour and Ronald. They're being pricks and deciding a good way to prank you or ruin you… I didn't get too much detail before I walked out of the compartment as an excuse to use the bathroom… Be careful with them."

"I'm not worried about them. They'd probably use jelly legs or something. They can't do much, not with Potter's IQ."

"Still… I don't want to see you hurt."

"I feel like you're leaving something out."

"Have you read the Daily Prophet?" Hermione inquired.

"No."

Harrison didn't really bother reading up the Daily Prophet. He knew there was going to be some politics, some bills that were and weren't passed, or any childish antics. Besides, he didn't had too much time over the last several days as he was busy brushing up on his reading, and his research.

"The minister of magic is dead."

There was a pause before Harrison smiled- darkly. He let out the madness that was hidden in his eyes, and brought for. A small giggle escaped his lips as he looked like he truly lost his mind. As much as Fudge was an idiot, he wholeheartedly deserved what he got.

"Is that so?"

"This is serious… It means that the wizarding world is in shambles while they get through the elections, and there's no leader."

"Okay… He still deserved what he got."

"Harrison!" Hermione chided.

"Granger… He was also one of the ones that locked me up for five years. Five years later, he appeared and tried to make amends."

"That's what adults do? It's called politics."

"I know what politics are? Is it also politics if he purposely ignored the matter of hand if they sent children to Azkaban?"

"They only sent you because you killed a whole bunch of innocent people."

"It's not me… Currently there's a nine-year-old in Azkaban, but let's just ignore her because of her family's actions."

"Who?"

"Elladora Lestrange. Before you ask, she killed muggles from a burst of accidental magic."

Hermione looked horrified as he said this which she should be.

"Let me tell you this, Granger. While you were playing with toys. Ella and I were suffering. That just shows how incompetent the Wizarding World actually is as she was accused of doing that because she had to protect herself and she never got a trial while I did."

"That's impossible," Granger breathed.

"It isn't impossible, Granger."

"Is Britain really this cruel?" Hermione panicked. "People could go insane in that place and children aren't the expectation of that. They deserve to be loved and cared for…. Why didn't Dumbledore stop this from happening?"

"Dumbledore let it happen. He did it to me at the trial. He took Ella away from her home after her parents were apprehended, placed her within an orphanage where they tried to cleanse her from her magic… Didn't bother giving her a trial, just threw in there. Do you think a powerful wizard like him is that innocent, if he let that happen?"

Granger remained silent, chewing on her bottom lip, looking down at her lap, fiddling with her hands.

Harrison got from the seat, and headed out of the compartment, before he looked over his shoulder and said,

"Think about what I just said."

A lot cleaner chapter, and a lot of things happening... Who do you think killed Fudge? Let me know in a review down below!