Draco cringed, as he walked up to his ancestral home. He had always loved the beautiful Manor, but after sixth year, that feeling had turned bitter. He hoped, that given time, the shadows would lift, and he would see the beautiful gardens and halls again. At the moment, all he could see were bodies littering the grounds, blood smeared everywhere, and Death Eaters patrolling. He could even feel the putrid stench of sweat and vomit from the torture victims.

He supposed it wasn't so bad for him. He could leave, whenever it became too much. His mother didn't have that luxury.

He had seen so many people suffer and die, that it was hard to remember his first broom ride, or the apple tree he would crawl up in, to hide his annoying nanny. The horrors were still too close. Some of the patches of grass still had scorch marks.

He was just about to walk through the front door, when a giant black ominous looking owl swooped down and landed in a nearby tree. Tied to its leg was a small roll of parchment.

Draco approached the bird with caution. Its menacing eyes followed his every move. It ruffled its feathers, and scowled at him. In a way, it reminded him of his late godfather. He carefully untied the parchment, and read

Ferretface.

We should probably meet up, right? Right. We've got some interesting things to discuss.

You can find me tonight, at number twelve, Grimmauld Place, London.

- Scarhead.

PS: Please burn this after reading, and give Sparkles a scratch on the head. (Ginny thinks she's great at naming birds)

Draco laughed out loud, and dug out his wand, muttering "incendio", setting the note alight.

"Sparkles?" The owl turned its menacing scowl towards him, clearly reacting to the name. He opened the door, and summed a quill and a spare piece of parchment.

Scarhead.

I'll drop by around nine. There better be firewhiskey.

- Ferretface

He tied the note to Sparkles' leg, and told it to fly back to Harry. Internally, he felt rather disturbed by the sudden camaraderie he found with The-Boy-Who-Was-Too-Stubborn-To-Die, but he figured it would drive his father mental. Points for that. Besides, he supposed Boy Wonder could be okay, even if he would never be a member of the fan club.

He walked inside, and up the staircase. There were still scratches on the walls, and the marble was cracked in some places. Many carpets were torn, but most of the ones with questionable stains had been burned in a big bonfire in the courtyard. He kept finding things though. Sometimes it was something innocent, like a shoe. Other times it was a dangerous dark artefact, that the ministry had missed on their raid. Every time he found one of those, he packed it away carefully, and sent an owl to the ministry, to send someone to pick it up. The trash, he just threw out the window, into the courtyard. He would need to build a new bonfire soon.

He hoped to be able to persuade his mother, that maybe it would be smartest to just throw out everything. He found the thought of starting over appealing, but his mother was clinging to her old furniture, as if hoping that the memories they held, from better times would somehow erase the horror they had witnessed, while sitting in those same couches.

Two days ago, they had had a very loud argument about the drawing room. Draco wanted to torch the entire place, but his mother wanted to try to save the chandelier. He had told her, in no uncertain terms, that unless she wanted to go down on her own knees, and wash Hermione Grangers blood off of every single crystal, it wasn't happening.

She had taken offence to that. She found it perfectly acceptable to pay someone to do such a menial task. He hadn't spoken to her since. He was just postponing the inevitable though. He needed to speak to her about the Manor, and he had other questions for her, as well.

"Mother?" He called out sofly, as he knocked on the door to his mother's private living room.

Narcissa Malfoy was sitting, majestically as ever, hair in a perfect bun, perfect stature, perfect silk robes without a single crinkle on them.

"Draco. So kind of you to join me" she replied frostily, not even looking up from her book.

He winced, but held fast anyways. "I haven't changed my mind about that chandelier"

Her head snapped up.

"Your father-" she started

"Isn't coming back" Draco gently interrupted.

"It was his mother's. Your grandmother's" she tried pointing out.

"Then thank Merlin it's gone, along with that old hag."

Narcissa gasped, and held her hand to her mouth, but didn't manage to completely hide the amused little smile.

"We should not speak ill of the dead, dear." She said carefully, trying to regain some of her cool composure.

Draco rolled his eyes.

"I have some plans tonight, Mother. I don't know, when I'll return, so don't wait up."

"Well, that sounds interesting." She said, with a coy smile.

"It probably will be, but not the way you hope. I have an appointment with Harry Potter."

Her only response was a lifted eyebrow.

He sighed "It's about a case, Mother. The minister wants me working as an auror" He said, with ill hidden pride.

"Are you sure about this, Draco? It won't be easy for you."

"I know. And it wasn't my first choice. I'd rather be a curse breaker, but I suppose this is a way for them to keep an eye on me for a while. I could use it as a stepping stone." He mused.

Narcissa nodded. "I suppose. But what is the case?"

"Well, that's where things get complicated, and there was actually something I wanted to ask you."

Her eyes narrowed suspiciously "Yes?"

"What do you know about the McKinnon family?"

That was not the question she had expected, and her eyes widened.

"Well. They were a very powerful pureblood family. Not Sacred 28, but powerful nonetheless. They had been neutral, until their daughter Marlene openly declared herself as a member of the Order of the Phoenix. Of course, they lost more power, when the girl got pregnant out of marriage."

"Did they ever have ties to the Black family?"

She looked at him calculatingly. "There was talk of that Marlene-girl and Sirius. Everyone thought the baby was his, but nothing was ever confirmed. Why?"

"Do you know how they died?"

His mother sighed. "I believe there was a raid. Your father would obviously know more, but I think Avery and Rosier took point. I remember, I thought it was horrible. The baby was no more than a few months old, and they came, bragging that they had burned the house to the ground with Fiendfyre. Are you going to try to capture Avery? I heard he escaped. Rosier is dead, thank Merlin."

"No, I'm not on Avery's case, but he just made my priority list as well. I'm working another sort of mystery. Well, it's solved now, I supposed. The baby was a girl, and she escaped. I can't tell you who the father is, but it isn't Sirius black."

"You found her?" She asked, surprised

"The girl was Hermione Granger."

He smirked, as his mother's jaw dropped.

…

After dinner at the Burrow, and the obligatory cup of tea, and cookies, Harry made his way to Grimmauld Place. He went directly into the kitchen, where his owl sat, scowling at him.

He had chosen an owl, that would be the complete opposite of Hedwig. When he saw this one in Eeylops Owl Emporium, sitting in the corner, scowling menacingly at all the patrons, it immediately reminded him of his old Potions professor. Which just made it even more hilarious, when Ginny decided on the name "Sparkles" Luckily the owl seemed to like the name well enough, and at least it wasn't as bad as "Pigwidgeon"

Sparkles was sitting on top of the cabined, impatiently waving the note on his leg at him, as if to say "Get this stupid thing off me"

He untied the string on the parchment, and gave the owl a treat and a scratch on the head. Sparkles closed his eyes contentedly, ruffled his feathers, and took off, flying through the house, presumably to find the attic, where Harry had made a cool space for the owl. He called it the Bat-cave.

According to the note, he had about half an hour till Malfoy's arrival. He sighed and made his way into the study, where he slumped in a chair near the fire, dozing off.

He woke up, when the fire roared.

"Hey, mate. Were you sleeping?"

"What? No, no I wasn't not" Harry slurred, making Draco's brows rise.

"Too late for you, old man?"

"Tosser." He mumbled, making Draco laugh.

"Whatever. You speak with Mrs. Weasley?"

"Yeah. Didn't learn much, except that Marlene was close with– "

"Sirius Black." Draco finished. "I know. It was him, who left Hermione at that orphanage."

"Really?" Harry frowned "Then, why didn't he tell her, in fifth year? Mrs. Weasley said Sirius was really close to the both of them."

"He probably had his reasons. Maybe he thought she didn't know she was adopted? Maybe he didn't want to butt in, or maybe it was safer for her not to know. After all, everyone thought she was dead."

"It's just hard for me to process."

"I get that. I also learned something else. The raid, in which the McKinnons were killed, was apparently lead by Avery and Rosier. Rosier is dead, but Avery is still loose, isn't he? We should probably keep an eye out for him-"

Draco was interrupted, when the fire roared green again, and Hermione's face appeared in the hearth, screaming

"HARRY! HELP!"

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Btw; That thing with Rachel and Apollo? You cannot convince me that it hasn't been happening. How else would Apollo know Rachel's cave so intimately?