A/N; I am SO sorry this took so long… after uni, and work, this is the first time that I have had the chance to do anything with this!! It's so disheartening to think that I let this lapse for such a long period… and I think this chap could be a lot better as well! Flame me and I'll probably try to write faster to keep you happy… lol
Harry lay on his bed, thinking about nothing. His mind was like a clear slate; he had learnt how to compartmentalise when he had been fighting Voldemort, and still would find it necessary sometimes. Back then, it had been a very real necessity along with occulemency, having the need to sit back at night and to store away the feelings and thoughts of what had happened during the day – who he had watched die, who he had killed, intentionally or not, seeing his face in front of him, leering at him with those bizarrely reptilian features as he managed each of his little victories.
It was not like he had not had the same experiences as his peers, it was the fact that in between all those normal days were the small trials that had, in the end, forced him to either become a murderer or the murdered. Normal school days at Hogwarts, the lessons that he learnt and events that happened in his school days would still come back to him sometimes, everything that was so normal and right for a teenager during the day fading into the background when evening came, with meeting with the order and the additional lessons of occlemency with Snape disguised as remedial potions, which he would then be taunted about by certain students.
Especially that one certain student.
Harry had come back to his apartment earlier that day to find Draco gone; in his place was a short note, written in a beautiful flowing script:
Thankyou for the help, but I need to go. Besides, I don't think that red-headed friend of yours likes me very much.
And that had been it. After spending a few days in his apartment, recovering from his injuries, the enigma that was Draco Malfoy had gone, only leaving behind a note that was definitely not enough for Harry. Definitely not enough at all. Making up his mind, he decided to go and pay a visit to an old friend.
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Having apparated into Hogsmeade, Harry put his wand away inside his jacket, and set off up the long road up to Hogwarts castle, the place that he had called home for seven years, and where some of his fondest memories had taken place. Reaching the castle gates, he could see some students moving around near the front entrance, probably going to their care of magical creature's lessons at Hagrid's. Harry made a note to make sure that he went and visited Hagrid before he left the castle. Walking up towards the entrance, he saw a dark robed figure step out onto the front steps of the school. Getting closer, he recognised the long white beard of Professor Dumbledore.
After the war with Voldemort had been fought, the wizarding world had fallen back to the leadership of who they believed would have been the perfect wizard for the job. But Albus Dumbledore had refused to act in the position of Head of the Ministry of Magic, and had instead preferred to become an advisor, gently pushing at his comrades at the ministry into appointing Arthur Weasley as the new minister. After offering to help as second in command, Dumbledore had carefully and slowly distanced himself from the hectic political life and retreated back to Hogwarts.
As usual, once Harry had reached the old man, he had that maddening twinkle in his eye yet again.
"Why hello, Harry. How have you been?" asked the old man, offering out a bag of lemon drops. Harry politely shook his head, a small smile on his face.
"Well thankyou professor. And you?"
"Well. Shall we go to my office then? I do believe you came here to talk about something to me, and I think that the front steps of the school is hardly the place to be doing it, don't you?"
Nodding to the headmaster, they headed up the stairs that would take them to the headmaster's office. Reaching the ornate office, Harry took a look around. Nothing much had changed since the days when he had been a student at the school. Fawkes was still sitting on his perch to one side of the large desk that Dumbledore had taken a seat behind. Walking over to the bird, he was met by a short trill of Phoenix song, while the bird cocked its head to one side, looking at the young man standing before him. Harry reached out and stroked the side of his neck, feeling the soft plumage of the bird. Turning around, he took a seat in front of the headmaster, arranging himself until he was comfortable before speaking.
"Well sir, the reason I came to see you is… well, I wanted to find what you would be able to tell me about Draco Malfoy." Looking down, Harry studied his folded hands, not daring to look in the headmasters eyes, just in case the old man saw his blush.
"Hmmm. Perhaps I would not be the best person to tell you about Mr. Malfoy…" the headmaster replied, turning around to his fireplace that was behind him. Throwing in a pinch of floo powder, Harry heard him mumbling quietly to someone in the fireplace before straightening up and looking at Harry once again. He smiled reassuringly, before sitting down in his chair once again. After a few minutes of small talk, Harry heard a knock at the door. Hearing the headmaster bid the new person to enter, he turned around, and to his surprise, was face to face with Professor Snape, who faltered sightly when he saw Harry.
"Headmaster. You wished to speak to me about something important?" he asked, ignoring the presence of the dark haired young man. Although they had been basically on the same side in the war against Voldemort, there was still a coldness that the potions master exuded when he was in the same room as him, which Harry had assumed was a throwback to the days when his own father was a tormentor of the Slytherin.
"Yes. Well, Mr Potter here has just told me a bit of an interesting story, and I thought that you would, perhaps, be willing to share your knowledge and opinion on the matter?" Dumbledore looked over to Snape, his trademark 'I know more than I am actually letting on' twinkle in his eye. "I am afraid that there a few things that I would like cleared up about young Mr Malfoy, and some other things that I think that Harry here would like to hear." At the mention of Draco Malfoy, the potions professor stiffened, his posture straightening more than what Harry thought was physically possible. Turning around, he faced Harry squarely for the first time since he had entered the headmaster's office.
"And, pray tell, why would the young Mr Potter want to know about my godson? Surely he has better things to do? After all, I'm sure being the saviour of the wizarding world still holds its own important little duties? Pulling kittens out of trees? Hugging a baby at the opening of the new wing at St. Mungos perhaps?"
"Now, now, Severus…." Dumbledore chided. Harry flushed a deep shade of red, firstly out of anger, then out of embarrassment. After all, he had been invited as guest of honour at the opening of the "Potter memorial wing" of St. Mungos, and he had never expected the over-enthusiastic witch to shove a baby into his arms, and he certainly had not meant for the moment to be caught by dozens of photographers there for the opening ceremony of the wing, and the eventual spreading of the picture, through every magazine and newspaper in the wizarding world like some kind of proverbial plague was definitely unseen, and much to Harry's embarrassment, he would still find that same picture in magazines or newspapers where his name was mentioned.
"Can you just tell me about Draco?" he asked, not wishing to have to listen to the potions professor go on about him.
"Yes, Severus, please tell Harry about Mr Malfoy. I fear that there is much that he does not know about his peer." Dumbledore leaned back into his wing backed chair, sipping on a cup of tea while raising his eyebrow at Snape. Scowling slightly, Snape cleared his throat and began his story.
"As you well know, Mr Potter, Draco's father, Lucius was well known within death eater circles; he was, as some would like to put it, Voldemort's "right hand man" and revelled in the position. I myself do not know how he was able to ingratiate himself into the Dark Lord's inner circle, but as time went on, he came to prove himself as a loyal follower of the madman. However, when Voldemort fell that night at your house, Lucius was able to, through his many powerful connections, extricate himself from any association with the Death Eaters and their ranks. Of course, by then, Draco had already been born, and from a young age was exposed to the teaching of the followers of Voldemort – many of his 'aunts' and 'uncles' were death eaters themselves, and through them, Draco was introduced to the world of what people would call the dark magics. Draco would have known more about dark curses by the time he was seven than you did after being educated about them for a year here at Hogwarts.
"But as Draco grew up, he was exposed to a different kind of world, namely here at Hogwarts. I do not know if you realise this, but your refusal of his friendship when you and he first met was merely a catalyst for what he was to become during your final battle with Voldemort. Draco's downfall, I might imagine, was the fact that he was quite regularly given his own way throughout his early life, and when it came to crux of the matter, Draco much preferred his own freedom than the alternative of being expected to marry a pureblood witch of a respectable family and to produce an heir all in the name of following a madman that had previously been defeated by a baby. His father in particular was becoming tired of the mad demands that were being pressed on him, especially since his own position as Voldemort's right hand had been usurped by that snivelling rat Peter Pettigrew.
"Using my help as an undercover spy for the Order, we were able to procure a position for the senior Malfoy as a spy, and as a matter of consequence, Draco was also used in order to secure information that was quite beneficial for the Order, and also, for you." Here, Severus paused, looking straight at Harry, gauging the brunette's reaction so far to the story that he was telling. Satisfied after seeing Harry's shocked face and the troubled and disbelieving expression in his eyes, he continued on with his tale.
"As a member of Voldemort's inner circle, Lucius was able to gather much more in-depth information than I or other members of the order were, but he was also at an extremely higher level of risk than the other spies were. The very last bit of information that he sent to us was the time and date that he had set for his attack on Hogwarts and his intentions for using the dementors in order to fight his way onto the warded grounds of Hogwarts, and to ultimately kill both the boy that had taken away his power and the man that he feared the most.
"But as you know, the Order was not the only side with spies watching their enemies every turn. It somehow became known that Lucius was somehow connected to a leak of information to the Order, and Voldemort, in his fury, personally saw fit to guarantee the silence of both Lucius and Narcissa at Malfoy manor the day that you defeated him, here at Hogwarts. Draco, the only heir of the entire Malfoy fortune and estates, as we know, went inexplicably missing after the death of both his parents, and still hasn't been located to this day." Snape trailed off, grimacing at the thought that his godson had been missing for so long, and that he, as his only family, had no idea whether or not he was safe, or even alive. Finally, the silence was broken by Harry
"Well sir, I know that you'll be glad to hear that I think I know where Draco Malfoy is…"
Well, you know what I want now…. It involves a button in the left hand corner of the screen….
You know you want to…..