Chap. 24: Draco at his new home, Greenhill, Hogwarts and Hogsmeade, Snape, and they're off.
Draco Malfoy was not having a fun day, as the weather where he now was, was considered springtime, and it was chilly. While Britain was within its fall, Argentina was having its spring.
Draco's grandfather, Abraxas, had purchased a horse farm in Argentina, which was passed onto Lucius, who gifted it to Narcissa. Now, he found himself in a different country where he knew nobody, and he could not boss them around as he once did those in Britain. However, the alternative was to be snubbed by everyone in society, in Britain, and serve Voldemort, who he knew was using him to gain revenge on his father.
After the article came out exposing his family, they were now considered mud, and beneath everyone they met's feet, except for the Goblins, of course, who only put up with them over their gold. They had lost every drop of respect within Britain's polite wizarding society, and it was to the point that Pansy even refused to speak to him, the harlot!
His mother had traveled to Gringotts on August 21st, a Wednesday, secretly, and had transferred half their wealth to the Gringotts branch in Buenos Aires by routing it through the Bahamas branch. Next, and in the dead of the night, while his aunt and Voldemort slept, his mother had woke him, and had him to get dressed in front of her, where she then fooled him into taking hold of an international portkey to Paris. Next, they left Britain behind.
They spent one night in Paris, and took another international portkey to the wizarding quarter of New York City, and then another illegal portkey to the Bahamas, at Nassau, that afternoon, where they spent two nights. Next, they were in Kingston, Jamaica, for a night after another portkey, and then they took a wizard-only ship to Brazil, which arrived five days later. There, they stayed the night at the wizarding quarter of Rio de Janeiro, and the following morning, they took another portkey to Buenos Aires.
They stayed in Buenos Aires for a week, while having their farmhouse readied before they took a muggle bus outside the city, and into the farm country, where they stopped at the Complejo Penitenciario, a large prison, and apparated from there to the farm.
It was now September 7th, and Draco was bored out of his mind, but he did have some of their horses to ride, and he would probably spend his day doing just that. However, his mother had a wizard of both German and Nazi heritage coming by, who was rather adept at dark magic, to look at his Dark Mark. He had been tied to Grindelwald's old crowd, she said. She was hoping to have the mark removed, or blocked from being traced since they had heard of what happened to Igor Karkaroff. He had felt the call, with the burning, but it was very weak now, what with the long distance his mother had put between them and the Dark Lord.
He had received word that Theodore Nott had also fled, who was unmarked and was now living in Greece. Teddy had become persona non grata like he had, over his father, as well.
Since Daphne was back at Hogwarts, Harry had published four more newspapers exposing several other Death Eaters since it was now Sunday, September 29th. He was at Greenhill Manor and was waiting with Cyrus and Helen to have supper with Daphne and Astoria at Hogsmeade, and then travel to the ministry to catch their international portkey to New Orleans. Their portkey would leave at 9:00 PM, which put them arriving in New Orleans at 4:02 PM.
At the moment, he was sitting in the library, by himself, and had been reading a book, but he couldn't stop thinking of the supposed exposés that they run, which made him snort.
The first had been an article on Rodolphus and Rabastan Lestrange, who they accused of liking little boys, and that Bellatrix was only a marriage of convenience. They also stated that Rabastan had such a tenor voice because his bollocks had never dropped during childhood and that they both had a relationship with another Death Eater named Philip Pyrites, who was "quite the dandy." Together, the three liked threesomes with the rentboys that they could pick up around the large cities in Britain.
The second had been an article on Mulciber, who they had painted as the darkest of sadistic wizards, and who had participated in rituals using muggle children, and bathing in their blood. They had also exposed him for trying to molest Mary Macdonald while at Hogwarts, where he was trying to use the Imperious Curse to control her. Mulciber was "extremely dangerous," their paper had reported, and the ministry had a secret assassination order ready for him, if he escaped, which they didn't report, as Voldemort used him as his Imperious Curse specialist. Harry said that they should just slip him some poison in his cell, and call it death by natural causes. A little Monkshood in his water, perhaps?
The third had been Jugson, who they labeled as an unstable lunatic and psychopath, but in this case, he really was. They said that he enjoyed raping very heavy and elderly women, witch or muggle, who he seemed to enjoy more than those his own age. He also, they claimed, supposedly had a fetish for "Dwarfs or Little People," and those that "performed in Paris' magical freak shows."
The fourth had been Dolohov, who they outed for the murders of Fabian and Gideon Prewett. They also said that he was behind a human trafficking ring, where young witches from Eastern Europe and Russia were brought into his prostitution ring, much like slaves, which was run from several British city's wizarding districts. If they tried to flee, their paper claimed, he killed them, and he kept them locked in their rooms. Finally, they claimed that he was a regular dinner guest of Macnair, who hosted "guess the meat" meals.
No slur or slight was above him, Harry thought, and he would destroy their character before they were ever freed, which he was sure would happen. Also, with every blow, it painted Voldemort in a much darker light. Now, over his paper, which he had sent copies of to the French, Belgium, and Netherlands wizarding governments, they were now up in arms about any of Tom's lackeys being on their soil. The ICW was even considering assassinations, as well, if they were caught outside Britain, and the US was also looking at stopping any of them from traveling there "by any means possible."
Here, Harry gave out one of his Muttley sniggers, shook his head, and placed the book back on the shelf, where it came from, just as Cyrus stepped into the room.
"Ready, Harry?"
"Yup," Harry said as he picked up his grey tweed flat cap, and followed Cyrus from the room.
Harry, Cyrus, and Helen apparated to just outside the Hogwarts' gates at 6:45 and were greeted by not only Hagrid but by Professor Slughorn as well, who had escorted both Daphne and Astoria outside.
They all watched Hagrid do a double-take at Harry, who he didn't seem to recognize at first.
Harry was wearing a very expensive and bespoke three-piece suit in grey twill wool and cashmere, with a fitted white shirt and burgundy tie, and he was wearing a black cashmere overcoat that was knee length, and a grey herringbone tweed flat cap as well. He was also wearing a pair of new glasses that fit his looks and face, and he had a pair of new Oxfords on his feet.
"Harry? 'At you?" Hagrid asked.
"Hagrid," Harry said with a nod, as he walked up to the giant of a man, and tried to shake his hand, but was grabbed in a bone-crushing hug instead.
Finally, Hagrid held Harry back at arm's length and looked him over. "Look at ya, all grown up and the like. Didn' know what ta think when we noticed ya hadn't come back, bu' wha' with ya bein' busy with the ministry an' such, I can see why. Where ya lot goin', anyhow?"
"Oh," Harry said as he held out his hand to Daphne, who latched onto it, "I'm taking my fiancée off for supper in Hogsmeade before I have to leave for the states for a few days.
"Hagrid, I'd like to introduce you to my soon-to-be wife, Daphne Greengrass, and Daphne, this is Rubeus Hagrid, the man that flew me away from Godric's Hollow that night, and brought me to safety."
Here, Daphne gave a curtsy and looked up at the half-giant with a smile. "Thank you, Hagrid, for saving my husband that night. I'll never forget it."
"I knew you were a good lass." Hagrid said while tearing up and reaching inside his huge and hairy overcoat for his handkerchief, "and I'm glad tha' Harry has found 'im summun tha'll treat 'im right."
Finally, Hagrid had fished out a huge handkerchief that looked like a small tablecloth, which was dark orange with yellow spots. Next, he turned his back, blew his nose loudly, and wiped at his eyes. Horace was left gaping at the huge man, and Cyrus had a bit of a grimace after the nose blowing, which could put one a bit off of an upcoming meal.
"Harry!" Slughorn exclaimed. "My boy, it's so good to see you again!" Here, he started rapidly shaking Harry's hand. "Of course, I missed you on the train when I held a little luncheon for Hogwarts' up-and-coming, which your soon-to-be wife and her sister were gracious enough to attend.
"I'm going to have a Slug Club get-together before long, too, which I would love for you to attend if you could, and then a party close to Christmas. I expect a lot of important people to be there."
"Wouldn't miss it for the world," Harry replied. "Now, if you'll excuse us, we have a private room reserved at the Three Broomsticks for supper at seven, and we do have to be going if we're to make it on time."
"Good, good," Horace said with a nod while standing back. "I do hope to be seeing you soon, and young Daphne will let you know the time and date."
"Thank you, Horace," Harry said, as he held out his arm for Daphne to hold onto, which she took.
Cyrus did the same for Astoria, and he side-along apparated Astoria to the street in front of the Three Broomsticks. Harry arrived next, with Daphne, and then Helen, last. Once ready, the five made their way inside the pub, and found Madam Rosmerta, who led them upstairs to the private room, where the table was already set.
On the way up, Daphne began quickly whispering to Harry about what had gone on during the train ride with the Carrow twins, and her and Astoria receiving a detention for it, even though she had already told him some of it. However, Slughorn had stepped in, she explained, and the detention was simply sitting together in the classroom while discussing potions and their career choices post-Hogwarts. He had even allowed them to leave early.
"Well," Harry said as he pulled out her chair, "that was nice of him."
"It was, wasn't it?" Daphne replied. "Oh, Harry, I'm so worried about your trip, and about the ritual."
"No need for that, daughter," Cyrus reassured her, "since they know what they're doing. Your uncle Gareth witnessed them do a similar one several years ago, and everything went fine, though he did say that Harry might be sore for a few days, but that's nothing that a few potions won't cure."
Here, Daphne sighed out in relief, and her shoulders slumped. "Thanks, Da'."
"Now," Cyrus said, "what will we be ordering?"
"What about some good comfort food?" Harry said. "I've not had that in a while, and I see that they have toad in the hole and bubble and squeak with an egg and tomatoes. I think I'll order the toad in the hole, myself, and some treacle tart for dessert."
They were all having a polite conversation while they dined after they had ordered, where Daphne leaned over toward Harry while she was making him a cuppa for after their meal.
"Harry, Professor Snape isn't here."
Harry gave her a raised eyebrow at this, so she continued. "The headmaster is teaching his class while he's gone."
"Hmmm," Harry replied, "I'll look into it."
Severus Snape was not having a good day as he fought the hot tropic weather of Road Town in the British Virgin Islands. He had tracked the company that owned The Magic Eye to here from Belfast and visited the building in question, where he found an empty office on the third floor of a run-down office building. After he stormed out of the building, and after some more investigation, he found that the company, Raven Enterprises, was owned by another company in Panama called Sirius LLC, an investment and wealth management company.
He was a man of limited means, and the Dark Lord would pay for none of this excursion, so he was dreading purchasing another portkey to take him to Panama City. Plus, he had to be saving on his meager funds if he were to eat and pay for a place to stay. Worse, the headmaster was looking for answers as well, and he didn't offer to cough up any funding, either.
Here, Severus paid for the portkey the next morning after a small breakfast and was off to Panama.
"Harry, little brother, how are you this evening?" Gareth asked while shaking their hands at the Portkey Office at the ministry. They would be some of the last to leave that night, by the looks of it.
"Fine," Cyrus said as he looked around at the few waiting to leave. "I'm just hoping that everything will run smoothly during the trip."
"It will," Gareth assured him, "and how are you holding up, Harry?"
"I'll be better once this is all over," Harry remarked. "However, I do look forward to seeing New Orleans, as this will be my first time outside Britain."
"Oh, you'll love it," Gareth said, "since October 1st will start off the Creole Death and Mourning exhibition at Gallier House. One can tour the Victorian townhouse in the morning, and learn about a time period when death and the macabre were prevalent. For Catholic Creoles in New Orleans, mourning rituals were an integral part of 19th-century life to remember departed relatives and friends. The Wizarding Quarter still has the mourning ritual, which we'll be witnessing, along with the Voodoo practitioners."
"Sounds like fun," Harry said with a grimace.
"Oh, it is, what with the brass bands and all the rum drinking," Gareth said with a wink.
"One about has to be drunk to make it through it," Cyrus remarked as he accepted their portkey. "All right, everyone, grab on."
Harry and Gareth placed their hands on an old bicycle tyre, and within a minute, they disappeared in a flash.
A/N: This is a short chapter to set up what will happen with the Voodoo ritual and Snape's unhappy adventure. The next chapter might take a couple of days to write.