Chapter 4: Points of View

Draco let go of his father moments after the two side-along apparated back to Malfoy manor.

He glanced at his father's face, mild unease in his gut. Father wouldn't get angry, but Draco knew he might have foiled some plan that hadn't been shared with him.

"I hope today was a success?"

Lucious frowned. "It was. You did well. I… I shall be in my study, I need to think on some things. If I'm not out by dinner, have Dobby fetch me."

He turned and headed for his study, leaving Draco relieved, yet anxious. His father was almost always confident and composed. It was disquieting to see him this way.

••••••••••

"Just what happened, today?"

Dan had directed the question at his daughter as they drove home from the car park nearest the entrance to Diagon Alley.

Hermione winced. "I'm not entirely sure myself. Where to start? Lockhart is obviously a celebrity author."

"Obviously. Why was he so keen on being seen with your friend?"

"I did tell you Harry is the Boy-Who-Lived, right?"

"You did, but what is that supposed to mean, anyway?" Emma asked.

"So, there was an evil wizard,"

"Seriously?" Dan interrupted.

"Yes. It happens apparently. You'll remember Morgana from the stories of Merlin. The chinese story of a wizard who kept his soul in a needle in an egg in a duck in a tree or something to that effect. Baba Yaga. Those are some of the ones famous enough that wizards couldn't erase them from muggle history. More recently, my headmaster defeated Grindelwald, who was working with the axis during the second world war."

"Oh good grief!"

"So there was an evil wizard who running a sort of terrorism campaign across the magical UK. One night, he went to Harry's parents' house, and killed his mum and dad, then vanished. The house burnt down, but they found Harry, who was barely a toddler, alive and well. No one knows what happened, but the wizard is assumed dead."

"So he's treated like national hero then?"

"Basically. He represents a deus ex machina, Voldemort's reign of terror ended literally overnight, for unknown reasons, somehow involving Harry."

"And then he bought you a library."

"You need to get over that, dad."

"We'll see."

"So who are the… Malfoys?" Emma asked.

"Draco is another student in my year. He and Harry are… not exactly friends, despite appearances. His father is old money. Wrapped up in politics. Mr. Weasley works for the wizarding government, and the two are on opposing ends of the political spectrum. On top of that, Lucious was allegedly a member of Voldemort's forces, but pled that he was controlled against his will. People say he bribed his way out of jail time."

"This man is allowed on the school board? How lovely... And you want to live in a world with all this craziness?"

Hermione rolled her eyes. "It's only more crazy because you aren't accustomed to it. If someone woke up out of a twenty year coma into modern Britain, they wouldn't recognize it. It's not as if I came home and announced I'm going vegan. I am a witch. Even if I snapped my wand and never cast a spell again, I would still be magical. I'm probably going to live to see my 100th birthday. How will I explain it to people when I'm 7o and look 45?"

The car drove in silence for a while.

"Hermione, we love you." Emma stopped, finding the words. "It's just scary for us. There's an entire world out there that we never knew about. And we don't know how to help you."

"I love you too. You know that I'm not going anywhere, right? I mean, Scotland, but… There aren't any rules that say I have to live as a witch after school. I'm smart. I could get a degree afterwards. It wouldn't be easy, but I could graduate Hogwarts and still get a BA. A doctorate is probably out of the picture, but I could still get a professional job. Or maybe even learn a trade. All your friends are always complaining about how expensive plumbers and electricians are. I could literally magically fix a customer's plumbing."

"You would really give up living in that world?"

"Maybe. It's a possibility. I've got six years before I need to make a decision, and I could always change my mind later."

"That's fair. You're still young yet, honey."

The car drove on.

••••••••••

"So Harry and Draco are friends?"

Ron frowned. He was getting a snack from the kitchen, and his father had just shown up out of nowhere.

"I guess? Well, I'd say they're friendly to one another, but not really friends."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. I think they met in Diagon Alley last year before term."

"And now Draco buys you all fudge?"

Ron blinked. "Seems that way."

Arthur started to say something, before trying again. "Has anyone told Harry about the Malfoys' past?"

Ron smiled, finally getting why his father was being so curious. "Several of us. I think he said something like 'Just because his father was an arse doesn't mean he has to be one too.' Honestly though, Draco's been fairly pleasant all year."

"Lucious is all smiles until he stabs you in the back too."

Ron shrugged. "Harry is smart. And he's got his godfather watching out for him now. What do you think they're going to do, ask him to come to a sleep over and kidnap him?"

"That's not…" Arthur stopped, and chuckled. "Maybe I'm overthinking this. Thanks."

Ron watched his father walk out. "I hope you know what you're doing, Harry," he thought.

••••••••••

Harry bounced off the section of floor in front of the fireplace that Sirius had spelled to soften his travels.

Harry ran a hand through his hair and grimaced. "Well, fuck."

Sirius frowned. "What's wrong? You're worrying me."

"I don't know what's wrong. That's the problem. This is a major diversion. Lucious never went near Ginny's things. I looked through all the books, no diary to be seen. Damn it, one year in, and we're already in uncharted waters!"

"Calm down and let's think this through. What happened this summer last time?"

"I was with the Dursleys, obviously. Ron and the twins broke me out of there with the flying car."

"Broke you out?"

"They'd literally locked me up in my room. There's a reason I killed my uncle this time."

"Huh. Okay, so you stayed with them, then today happened, but differently, then what?"

"Ron and I flew to school in the car because Dobby-" Harry's eyes grew large. "I'm such an idiot. I haven't met Dobby yet. Term starts in a few days and he hasn't tried to keep me away even once! I thought he might not get to us while we were in America, even house elves have limits, but we've been back for weeks now!"

"Now we're getting somewhere!" Sirius grinned. "So Lucious didn't give Ginny the diary, and Dobby isn't trying to keep you from school. Dobby doesn't want you hurt, but if Lucious isn't planning to kill you, Dobby wouldn't 'warn' you."

"There are other options. Dobby might not know, for example. But yes, that sounds right. But why would there be such a large change so soon?"

"I don't know, maybe because Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy are bestest friends in this universe? Lucious thinks you could be more useful as an ally than in a grave, apparently."

Harry blinked a few times before face palming. "Smegging Lucius Malfoy! Now that I'm friends with his son, the bastard won't try and kill my other friend's sister like he's supposed to. I can't believe making friends with Draco backfired like this. I mean, I kind of expected trouble sooner or later, but this?"

"Calm down. Where does this leave things?"

Harry ran his hand through his hair. "I… I don't know. This is why I couldn't do anything when I came back. I'm… I need a nap and an hour of meditation, then I guess I'll need to floo Dumbledore. You want to come along?"

"I don't think I really should. Dumbledore was the one person I would have expected to notice and care that I didn't get a trial. If only to get a better picture of what was going on. And I certainly don't want to meet Severus."

"Fair enough."

••••••••••

Draco had ended up needing to have Dobby fetch his father after all. Mother was away having dinner with some of her friends, so it was just himself and Father.

Lucious took in the aroma of the venison stew before spooning a morel and bit of carrot into his mouth and nodding in satisfaction.

"Draco, we need to have a serious discussion."

The bottom seemed to drop out of Draco's stomach. "Yes?"

"When I was in the full bloom of youth, a very charismatic man gathered a number of individuals such as myself, and explained that he too saw the problems in our society. He said that he saw a way forward, if we came together and helped him."

Draco swallowed another spoonful and nodded. Father was always vague about these matters, for understandable reasons.

"He offered us power. Not just political or economic power. Personal power. You know I'm no slouch with a wand."

"Of course not."

"I'm nothing as I once was. We took part in rituals. Not what you are thinking, probably. He showed us. For every ridiculous, melodramatic ritual requiring the murder of a virgin at midnight under a full moon, there are at least three practical, rather simple practices requiring nothing more than a knowledge of runes and a chicken or sheep. I could show you one that takes nothing more than chalk, a fertilized chicken egg, and a drop of blood. But there is always sacrifice. The greater the sacrifice, the larger the effect."

He stopped for more soup.

"That's why everyone remembers the murders under full moons, I suppose?" Draco asked.

Lucious nodded. "Of course. As silly as they are, the ones that work have dramatic results. The simpler ones have much smaller gains. And what most forget is that it isn't a sacrifice if you are not giving something up. Making a sheep bleed to death for you is not enough. You must lose something in order to gain something.

"We used to be powerful. At the height of my ability, I once single-handedly allowed us to retreat from Dumbledore." He grinned. "If that doesn't sound impressive, I've failed to explain what a monster lurks under that placid exterior your professor wears. Make no mistake, if he lacked the morals- bizarre and skewed as they may be- Dumbledore could do by himself what either Grindelwald or He attempted and failed. There is good reason they both respected and feared the man."

His soup had gone lukewarm, Draco noted. He ate it anyway.

"When He vanished, almost everything we had gained went with him. But the prices remained. I had been very selective about what I went through. Others had seen 'easy' power up for grabs, and their fall was all the greater.

"Today I was provoked by Arthur Weasley. Make no mistake, Draco. He is not a stupid man. If he was, I'd have crushed him, or put him in my pocket long ago. But he should not have been able to provoke me, in public no less, so easily."

Lucious looked at his son. "I think that part of my sacrifice, for the ability to be a man of action, was to more readily seek it out. I no longer have the discretion, the guile, I once did."

"That's not so, father-"

"Draco. Reality does not make way for hopes and wishes. When presented with a setback, don't pretend it doesn't exist. That just makes things worse. Accept it and work around it."

Draco nodded.

"Think about the plan. Are there any holes in it? Don't just say no automatically. I'm asking you, are there any bits you think could go wrong? Am I making a mistake, being too bold, leaving loose ends?"

Draco took several spoons of soup and thought. "Nothing should be traced back to us. The only thing I can think of is that... we don't actually know what it will do. You're taking the word of a man who let you sacrifice your cunning for power. And unless you held back something from me, he was awfully vague with what, exactly, the book was."

Lucious nodded. "It was a gamble. Perhaps it was made poorly. I want you to be careful this year."