Chapter 4:

[Flashback July 1991, Draco]

I spoke to Draco. "Draco, I have some detailed information about the future which can still be changed. Some of it as memories, some as descriptions."

I then showed him the scene where Voldemort demanded Lucius's wand. After that the scene of Draco being distaught when trying to fulfill his missions in his sixth year.

"The Dark Lord gave you two difficult missions, saying that he would kill all three of us if you failed.

Draco, this mark is the mark of a slave. My only freedom is in the permanent death of the owner of this mark. In that future, you took the mark, at first thinking it was a mark of honor and power, and later finding that you were just another slave."

I showed Draco the fire letter spell, with "Tom Marvolo Riddle" becoming "I am Lord Voldemort".

"Riddle is a muggle name. While he was a descendant of Slytherin on his mother, Merope Gaunt's side, his father was a muggle. We followed a half-blood expecting him to restore blood purity. It also showed that the two most powerful wizards, him, and Albus Dumbledore, both being halfbloods, that maybe blood purity is not as important towards ones power as we thought.

You will be giving these explanations, and will learn this spell. The difficulty is in holding the concentration needed while being distracted by your audience. We will practice it every day.

You will be learning how to be a snake, and we will go over dialog the other future you had, and we will analyze how to be better.

Read this, about your first meeting with Harry Potter at Madam Malkin's. What do you notice?"

Draco said, "Why was Mother looking at wands?"

I answered, "While you have been learning spells for the last three years, your wand presents some problems in your use at Hogwarts. Mother is going to delicately explain to Ollivander that you had some experience with another wand, describing its details. That will help him find a wand that will work for you when you go there later in the day, since you will need to bring an Ollivander wand to Hogwarts with you.

What do you notice about your discussion about Hagrid?"

Draco said, "It looks like I was trying to distance him from Hagrid, since Hagrid is a follower of Dumbledore."

I answered, "Perhaps, but saying insulting things about Hagrid had the opposite effect. Hagrid was one of the first people who was nice to Harry Potter, and you could see that Hagrid got ice cream for him and should have assumed that Harry Potter likes him.

Saying a negative, does not mean that the listener will agree with you, and might instead make them dislike you, which happens later in that scene.

Here is another scene where you meet Harry Potter on the train to Hogwarts. What do you notice?"

Draco considered the scene and hesitantly said, "I insulted Ron Weasley and somehow led to Harry Potter becoming his friend and not mine."

I answered, "Yes. Instead make him look like the mean one. Be polite, offer to shake Ron Weasley's hand, let him refuse and Harry Potter will tend to like the one being nice, you, instead of the one being mean, Ron. Also, don't try to bully, it is unbecoming and counterproductive. That is not to say that there aren't times and places to make threats, but they should be well thought out, not done out of petulance.

Here is a scene where you take a Remembrall out of the hand of Neville Longbottom. What do you notice?"

Draco said, "I was showing that Longbottom is a squib and can't fight back?"

I answered, "That is neither here nor there. It shows you as being a bully and thief. Publicly challenging the one perceived as being the weakest hardly improves your image. There can be a time and place where challenging the apparent strongest in a group can be useful, but only if you know you can beat them, that way you can sometimes get them to agree to a duel instead of their group fighting together against you. That would serve no purpose in this example.

Actually, there was a time when James Potter, Harry's father, had a group. The weakest of that group was Peter Pettigrew. The Dark Lord sent an agent to befriend Pettigrew and offer him protection, and maybe subtly threaten him. It was well thought out and strategic. Bullying the one you think is weak only drives them to seek protection. Besides, don't assume who is weak and who is strong based on early impressions.

We are going to rehearse each of these scenes, and others that might happen in your first year. By the time you start Hogwarts you will be a true Slytherin who uses cunning and ambition and manipulates situations to his advantage, leaving aside momentary impulse and emotion."

Draco asked, "What about Weasley,"

I answered, "Weasleys and Malfoys are always enemies. There is not much we can do to prevent that. It is important that you prevent Harry Potter from being a close friend of Ron Weasley or other Weasleys. You will do that by being a nice person as Harry Potter would understand that concept, and letting Ron Weasley reveal himself as being not a nice person as Harry Potter would understand.

At some point you will need to deal with the Weasley twins. They are pranksters. You can use authorities and your own innocence as a tactic if they target you. You should only go directly against them if you have a group that can outmatch them.

Percy believes in rules. Don't violate them in front of him. He actually could be helpful to you if others do, even his own brothers.

Regardless of the specifics, do not insult the Weasley's poverty and assume others would agree with you. Some would be more likely to be jealous of our wealth than agree with you that they should feel contempt for the Weasleys. Wealth is power. Use it, don't brag about it."

[Flashback Narcissa]

I told Narcissa that I had something to tell her. "I have had the most extraordinary experience. I have had two personalities merged together, one the original Lucius Malfoy, the other from a different universe. That part of me has been told by a somewhat omniscient being that my mission is to improve the future of the Malfoy family. I have been given knowledge of the future that would have been. In addition, myself, you, and Draco have been given unbreakable mind barriers."

Narcissa contemplated what I said. Our marriage was a political arranged marriage. The Blacks wanted Narcissa to be the Lady of a wealthy pureblood family. The Malfoy's wanted the alliance with the Blacks. They got along well enough, but Narcissa was never that comfortable with Lucius's activities as a Death Eater.

I showed some canon memories to Narcissa. I focused on some movie scenes of Draco narrowly surviving the Fiendfyre in the Room of Requirement and Harry Potter saving him, and then Narcissa saving Harry Potter. Then I showed the earlier context of Draco refusing to identify Harry Potter. Then I showed the same scene I showed Draco, of him being distraught of having a seemingly unwinnable mission to complete or all three of us were threatened with death.

I said "I pledge that I aim to improve the future of the Malfoy family." and performed a magical oath.

Narcissa said, "Allright. I won't even care to what extent you are the original Lucius or someone else. We need to save Draco from that fate, and I am your partner."

[Flashback Snape]

When Lucius told him "Similarly he would not be pleased to know about your true motivations of pledging yourself to Dumbledore and wanting to save Harry Potter.", Snape realized he was being blackmailed by yet another person. When Lucius said that they should jointly prevent Voldemort from returning, Snape saw that it was the best pathway forward for himself. Since Lucius was going to work with Dumbledore the oaths that would be required would ensure that Lucius was not going to double-cross Snape. He still would need to watch Lucius's intentions towards Harry Potter, due to his own oaths.

[Flashback Dumbledore]

When Lucius described his plan, Dumbledore thought that this was the type of redemption that was possible for even the worst of offenders. Of course, similar to when Snape offered to change sides about 12 years earlier, he would need oaths. Double-crosses were a tactic that Death Eaters could use.

Once the agreements were made, Dumbledore was astonished by the level of knowledge that Lucius Malfoy had. Things Dumbledore thought were iron-clad secrets, even things that Dumbledore didn't know, Lucius Malfoy knew. Dumbledore was very happy that Lucius was on his side, at least for the battle against Voldemort.

Later after the destruction of the Locket, Dumbledore did realize that after defeating Voldemort, Lucius Malfoy might be a formidable opponent of his. He hoped that they could continue their spirit of cooperation and limit their areas of conflict to narrow disputes that would not turn into all out war.

Losing control over Harry Potter was something that bothered Dumbledore, but he could see that he would still fulfill the prophecy even without being under his control. He would watch his friendship with Draco and decide to intervene only if he found reason to.

[Flashback Sirius]

He was in his cell in Azkaban and guards opened his door and carried him out. They didn't expect prisoners to be able to walk. One of them told him, "You are getting a trial." The other said, "They found Pettigrew alive."

Sirius was in a state of shock, as they got him in shape for his trial. During his trial he was suddenly a free man. He was brought to St Mungo's Hospital for further recovery.

Dumbledore told him what happened the last 11 years and helped him get back to his ancestral home at 12 Grimmauld Place. He faced insults from the portrait of his mother and his elf, Kreacher. He went to Hogwarts to see Harry Potter who was happy to see him. Harry looked like James, but was more studious, more like his mother Lily.

When Lucius Malfoy requested a meeting with him and Dumbledore, he was suspicious. He was also upset, how the actual inner circle member of the Death Eaters managed to avoid prison, while he was sent there without a trial without being guilty.

Then, Sirius could not understand why his cousin Narcissa and her husband Lucius seemed to be going out of their way to help him. He couldn't even see what the plot could be if there was a plot. He accepted the explanation of Dumbledore that they wanted to get out from their fate if Voldemort would return, and that also his own brother Regulus tried to do the same thing. Dumbledore explained that they needed Sirius both to get rid of the Locket, but also to try to find a way to get the Cup from the Lestrange vault.

[Flashback Draco talking to Harry Potter]

I had showed Draco information about Harry's upbringing and some techniques to get him to talk about it.

Draco said to Harry, "I do not understand why you were raised by muggles. Your parents had many friends who would have taken you in."

Harry said, "I do not know. At least I do not have to go back, with Sirius getting out of jail and being my godfather."

Draco said, "My father would like to help prosecute your relatives for any mistreatment. That can be in either or both of the magical and muggle courts."

After a while, Draco got Harry to talk about the Dursleys. Draco was angry that a wizard could be left with muggles to be mistreated like that.

Draco said, "Trying to punish the magic out of a wizard could lead to becoming an Obscurial. They do not usually live past age 10. I want those muggles to face justice."