Chapter 6
He followed after her, hardly feeling the shoulders and elbows that jammed into him as he worked against the crowd. His eyes drifted to the Dark Mark as he went, the serpent slithering grotesquely out of the skull. It loomed over them, casting the once beautiful room an eery green colour. The crowd thinned as most of the party goers fled, until only a handful remained. Granger crashed into a gaggle of partygoers near the window, their wands all drawn.
“Hermione, did you see anything?” One of them shouted, grabbing at her arm and scanning her for injuries.
“There were seven of them. Harry, I think one of them was Malfoy. It can’t be a coincidence this happens on the same night he returns!”
Draco moved to step forward and reveal himself. She would hate him, and likely herself, when she realised who she’d just shagged, but it would give him an alibi.
Theo gripped his arm and tugged him back into the crowd and through the maze of rooms until they were in his study.
“Show me your arm!” He commanded. Draco lifted his left sleeve immediately. The Dark Mark stared up at them, grey and faded and ugly. It did not move.
Theo breathed a sigh of relief. “They were imposters then.”
“Of course they were imposters!” Draco snapped. “Granger and her Golden Idiots think I was leading the charge! I have to go back and prove I wasn’t!”
“Surrender your wand. They’ll see you weren’t the one to cast the Mark.” Theo suggested.
“All that will do is prove I didn’t cast the Mark. There were still six other Death Eater decoys that didn’t cast it either. For Salazar’s sake! This is why I didn’t want to come back here!”
“You avoided the Wizarding world for ten years because you suspected a revivalist movement would try to frame you as their leader?” Theo asked, staring at him.
“No, of course not!” Draco snapped. “I just didn’t want to be sucked into the blood supremacy shite anymore. I thought that, the war, the constant suspicion…I had hoped, foolishly, that it was all behind us.”
“Which is it that upsets you more, Draco? That there’s a revivalist movement, that you’re being framed as their defacto leader, or that Granger believes it?”
“I don’t know what you mean.” Draco said neutrally.
“So you deny shagging her in the Gazebo room?” Theo asked, one eyebrow cocked.
“I plead the fifth,” Draco said neutrally.
Theo grinned. “I had wards for that sort of thing. I may have a recording of it,” he said, using an errant letter opener to clean his nails.
“A recording? Of the Gazebo room explicitly, or anyone shagging?” Draco asked incredulously.
“Illicit sex tapes make for great leverage, Draco, don’t go soft on me now. Besides, now you have proof of your whereabouts during the little demonstration,” Theo said, as if he’d done Draco a favour.
“Theo, mate, that’s highly illegal and inadmissible in court.”
Theo rolled his eyes. “That may be true in the Muggle world, Draco, but the Wizengamot doesn’t hold the same standards. Especially when I have tapes of most of them with witches besides their wives, or tapes of their wives with wizards other than themselves. Don’t worry! I’m sure your sex tape was the naughtiest. Shall we have a movie night and compare them?” He grinned knowingly at Draco.
“You are a truly despicable person with no moral code.” Draco sighed.
Theo beamed and placed a hand over his heart. “That’s quite possibly the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.”
“It wasn’t a compliment.” Draco groaned.
Theo patted his cheek. “Whatever you say, Dear. Now if you’ll excuse me, the Aurors have just arrived and I have a few artefacts I’d rather them not find.” He hurried off, and Draco sighed. He went home to await the Aurors that would surely come for him. He needed to wash the sex off his face first, at the very least.
It wasn’t long before they appeared at his house, Potter and Weasley leading the charge and looking exceedingly smug about it.
Weasley stepped forward first, brandishing a shiny Aurors badge. “Mister Malfoy, my partner and I are here on behalf of the Department for Magical Law Enforcement to complete a raid on your lodgings for materials related to a Death Eater Revivalist movement that surfaced this evening.”
Draco sat casually on his sofa, running a finger against the frame of it while Weasley talked and looked up only when he stopped. “Am I to understand that you have all the necessary paperwork? Warrants? Itemised lists of suspected artefacts and probable cause?”
Weasley stepped back, looking at Potter who met his eyes warily.
“The Minister has granted special permission based on your history,” Potter said uncomfortably, rubbing the back of his neck.
“So you have records of the Wizengamot’s special hearing, to grant the Minister’s request for a raid without a warrant?” Draco asked, eyes raised. “I may have been in the Muggle world for quite some time, but I haven’t forgotten how these things work,” Draco said, leaning forward to rest his forearms on his knees and smirking at them.
“I’m sure we could obtain - ” Weasley began, only to be cut off by Draco’s chuckle.
“I’m sure you could try, but the fact is that the Wizengamot did not have a special hearing. I still have a family seat and my appointed lawyer that holds my seat did not inform me of one. So either you’re lying about the Minister’s special permission, or the Minister is attempting to grossly misuse his title and power. So, which will the Daily Prophet be reporting on tomorrow?”
Weasley swallowed thickly, his ears red and his brows furrowed.
Potter sighed. “Look, Malfoy, it will only confirm suspicions if you fight this.”
Draco’s eyebrows rose. “Whose suspicions? The Minister’s, or Hermione Granger’s? Who really sent you here this evening? Are Aurors barging into the home of every former or suspected Death Eater to raid them? I didn’t realise your department was so well staffed.” He smiled coldly at them, standing from the sofa and straightening his cufflinks.
“You may search my home when you have the proper paperwork. That being said, I have nothing to hide, and I’ll be happy to provide you with a vial of memories collected after a dose of Veritaserum to further validate their authenticity, to prove my alibi and my innocence.”
Weasley and Potter looked surprised but appreciative of the statement, likely because it meant they wouldn’t have to return to the DMLE empty handed and with a potential lawsuit and Prophet expose on their hands.
Draco gestured to the Floo and allowed them to escort him to the Ministry and the DMLE, to offer his memories to aid in their investigation. He stood up after they were collected and turned to go, before thinking better of it.
“One last thing,” he said, turning back to them. They looked up at him expectantly, expressions wary. “Granger can’t see the contents of that vial, nor can she read a transcript, summary, or report about their contents. She can be told I have an airtight alabai, but she can’t be informed in any way what, or rather who it was.