Chapter 3:

Draco was reading in the Slytherin common room when three upper year students walked up to him, "Heir Malfoy, there is a matter we will discuss with you."

They brought up chairs and put up a silencing field around the four of them.

"We have not called a formal house meeting. This is informal. You have been seen consorting with the mudblood Granger."

I had expected this would happen, and I had Draco rehearse what to say. Draco answered, "I'm not actually sure about her blood status. I might help her revive the defunct house Dagworth-Granger. In any case she is useful to my family's interests."

"Explain this. Even if she is descended from some generations of squibs and the rest of her ancestors are muggles, she would still be a mudblood."

Draco said, "She is closely associated with Heir Potter who is also Heir Black. Whilst we could insult them both and drive them into being our enemies, we can also work on educating them to engage in mutually beneficial arrangements."

"Do you think she will marry Harry Potter?"

Draco answered, "Too soon to tell. Her background does not give any say to her family once she is an adult in the muggle world. Harry Potter's magical guardian, Lord Black, does not believe in arranged betrothals. It is certainly a possibility to be ready for, with Miss Granger eventually becoming one or more of Lady Potter, Lady Black, and Lady Dagworth-Granger."

"You appear to be planning a realignment against what many of us have stood for. Why should be support you?"

Draco answered, "First, I have information, the source of which I cannot share, that the Dark Lord will not be returning to life. The Dark Lord himself was born as Tom Marvolo Riddle."

Draco took out his wand and pointed it away from anyone else and did the fire letter spell to show Riddle's name and rearranged the letter to spell "I am Lord Voldemort". I had intensively trained Draco to do that spell during August. Since it is so far advanced from what a first year student with less than two months of classes would be expected to be able to do, it would give the impression of someone very advanced in all areas of magic, and give a reason not to try to go against Draco.

Draco knew that he was expected to get the highest grades possible, but I cautioned him that Granger would likely do better than him. When Draco prevented Ron Weasley from being Harry Potter's best friend, and was instead often with Hermione Granger, I explained that Harry Potter might be among the top of their class, but if Draco studied with them it wouldn't be clear to outsiders who was learning from whom and that they would probably each be in the top five. Everyone expected Harry Potter to do well, since it was assumed that it was his own magical power that defeated Voldemort when Harry Potter was 15 months old.

Draco continued "The two most powerful wizards of recent time were half-bloods. Muggleborn need to learn their place, and I am not going to use the other word for them. That said, it would be foolish to ignore their existence or the fact that they and half-bloods can be useful. We need to guide them instead of insult or reject them. We, in the leading families need to remain pure to provide that leadership over the rest of the wizarding world. However, if families such as Potter and Black do not maintain that purity, they can still be useful families to work with.

We Malfoys are doing a high risk maneuver, but so would trying to maintain the status quo. There are forces at work that will chip away at that, and at us, if we failed in that endeavor.

I would recommend that you neither support nor oppose us at this time, but observe and see how an association with my family will benefit you. Under Malfoy leadership, we do not expect you to risk yourself for us, unlike some other leaders. We expect mutually beneficial arrangements that will safeguard our place in the world for the long term.

When you plan what to do, think of the results you are expecting when your generation and even your children's generation is in charge."

A few days later the three older Slytherins visited Draco again and said, "We have discussed this with others. We'll observe how your strategy plays out. We sent out word that you, and Potter and Granger will not be bothered at this time."

The Halloween feast happened with no unusual occurrences. An auror became the defense against dark arts professor for remainder of the term. He insisted that the contract say that he was a substitute teacher and clearly end on the last day of classes, so that the rumored curse against the position would not take effect against him.

Dumbledore felt that events were getting away from him. While the cooperation with one of Voldemort's top inner circle members was invaluable to removing the threat of Voldemort, he had an uneasy feeling that the cost was of having Malfoy's vision of the future prevailing instead of Dumbledore's. Dumbledore's influence over Harry Potter was much more limited that he wanted it to be.

Dumbledore could see that the prophecy would play out as expected. It could have been the opening of the locket and Harry Potter's ability to speak parseltongue that was referred to in the prophecy, or it could be the horcrux in his scar. Dumbledore would have liked to have seen Harry Potter more tied to the Weasley family, but Ron Weasley wasn't a very good representative of that family. Maybe Ginny will do better in a few years. On the other hand, maybe Harry winding up with Hermione wouldn't be such a bad outcome, with a muggleborn being in a prominent role in society, and apparently showing talent that exceeded almost all purebloods. Draco's ingratiation with both Harry and Hermione was probably at the instigation of Lucius, but there was nothing he was doing that Dumbledore had cause to complain about. If anything, Draco seemed to have held back negative behaviors on the part of members of the Slytherin house.

The two remaining horcruxes were being studied over a long time with no deadline. How to remove a living horcrux without killing the host, and how to negotiate with the Goblins. Meanwhile, Quirrell could be kept on ice indefintely. In a way it was so obvious, why didn't anyone think of it before? If you cannot kill an immortal, maybe you can keep him frozen and contained.

At the end of 1991, I was building new business links to Malfoy enterprises. In the muggle world, 15 new nations were being created from the Soviet Union. There was wonderful chaos going on, which means opportunity. The magical authorities were not on top of things, and many squibs and muggleborns who lived in the muggle world were looking for opportunities to make some money and do some business. My old colleague Antonin Dolohov, who might not approve of my new methods, was safely in Azkaban.

I also sold some enterprises that I did not see having good long term prospects and invested in the muggle internet companies in the US. My plan was to heavily invest in the general US stock markets at the start of 1995 and sell in early 2000. I bought options betting on the price of gold declining over the next few years.

I met with Severus Snape again and said, "The risk is not zero yet, but low."

Snape said, "I hope you are not intending to cut your risk by killing a walking horcrux."

I said, "No, that would not be in my planning. We will solve his problem, and you would become aware if his horcrux were to take over his mind."

Unstated was that Snape was sworn to protect Harry Potter, and he knew that I would need to kill Snape before Harry Potter, if that was in my planning. I needed to reassure him that I had no such intentions.

I said, "After this issue is solved, I was thinking that perhaps we might combine business interests. I can source potion supplies uniquely, and tap into global potions markets. You could concentrate on inventing potions, brewing potions, and training apprentices to help scale up production. We each do what we do best and come up with an equitable distribution of the profits."

Snape said, "That is an intriguing prospect. My teaching job is due to being beholden to the Headmaster. Without an external threat to myself or to Harry Potter, being in the potions business may well be preferable for me, and I am not adverse to generating wealth for myself."

Another long term issue to deal with is my bribery of Minister Fudge is tiresome, and is a drain on my income. However, it is still preferable to have someone to bribe than have an honest person like Amelia Bones in charge. I'll try to hide how profitable my enterprises are from Fudge, so that my bribery level would seem reasonable to him without having too much of an impact on my wealth. So my goal is to keep Fudge in charge, and to increase my income flow without him knowing that.

As the Christmas or Yuletide break approached, Granger was ahead in grades, Draco second, and Potter third. To be fair, it was the unfair grading by Snape in potions that had Draco ahead of Potter. The school noticed that Hermione, Harry, and Draco were a trio who studied together. Snape had a slightly higher impression of Harry Potter than in canon. He wasn't involved in rule breaking activity, nor yet in Quidditch, but was quite studious, more like his mother than his father.

As the train was about to arrive, Narcissa and I actually had a civil discussion with Sirius Black. We also talked to Hermione's parents. As our kids were friends, we made arrangements for them to meet during the holiday. I also invited them to the Malfoy ball and offered to provide the Grangers with expected attire. I gave them books on wizarding etiquette. I also arranged a time to meet them in Diagon Alley to bring them to Gringotts.