Chapter 6
He shifted in his seat a little and his hands were clasped in front of him under the table. Was he nervous? How strange, she had never seen Malfoy nervous like this, he looked as though he wanted to jump out of his own skin just to avoid whatever came next.
“Ok” he started, looking in her eyes “I guess I should start at the beginning… but please try not to interrupt too much so I can get it all out in order without missing any bits”
She nodded in agreement and stayed silent in indication that she would try not to interrupt.
Nodding, Draco began…
“So, you know my parents, they were purists through and through. I was raised to believe that having pure blood meant I was better than nearly all other witches and wizards. My father was… not kind. He would not accept a son who was sensitive or compassionate in the least. I learned from a very young age how to behave to please my father, what to say, how to act when in a group of other purebloods, and how to act towards anyone he perceived as below us. My mother, she held a lot of the same values but when my father was away she showed kindness to me and to our house elves. I’m honestly not sure if she held the same pureblood beliefs or if she was just going along with it to please my father. Theirs was an arraigned marriage, see, as most pureblood marriages are, so it wasn’t as if she had fallen madly in love with him. She had no choice as pureblood women are seen as little more than breeding stock for the next generation. Well, she’s out of it now so there’s at least that silver lining.” He looked away and whispered the last part as if he didn’t necessarily want her to hear the pain in his voice as he said it.
Looking back to her, he continued “When I went to Hogwarts I knew I was expected to act a certain way, associate with a certain crowd, and I knew I would be watched. Pureblood families talk, a lot, lots of events with time to spare and silences to fill. So, I knew my actions would be reported on whether that was through the teachers discussing me or by a classmate telling their parents about me. So, I always had to be on my best pureblood behavior which included bullying those who were not at my blood status level. I had to act like a stuck up prat because if I didn’t I would have my father to answer to come Christmas and Summer holidays.”
“So, I bullied people like you, Weasley, and Potter because its what my father would have expected and it was the best way to get enough people talking about me, and word of my actions to get back to my father. The only time I could truly be myself was around my friends, the ones I grew up with, they all understood because they were in the same position I was. We were all expected to act in direct opposition to what we felt was right. I really believe that had I not had them to lean on throughout my childhood I would have turned into the exact person my father wanted me to be. With them, though, I was able to learn that compassion, love, honor, and kindness in all forms were actually strengths and could go hand in hand with the Slytherin ambitiousness.
All, that to say, I know how I behaved in school towards you and your fellow Gryffindors but know I did not want to act that way, I had to out of necessity, and for my own safety.
When the Dark Lord returned my father was thrilled to finally regain an upper hand over all the “lesser” witches and wizards. He was very eager to align our family with the Dark Lord as quickly as possible to gain favor. As a show of the Malfoys unwavering support, and to gain favor, he told me I was to take the Dark Mark and be the first of the next generation of Death Eaters. I didn’t want to take the mark. I tried to push it off until after I graduated, but my father, he does not take the word no well and in the end I had no choice; just as my friends had no choice. None of us wanted the mark, but marked we all became”
“I was instructed to kill Dumbledore but failed at my task, as you know. My entire household was punished for it but none more than my mother. She was never the same after what happened in the months following”
Draco’s voice cracked and this time Hermione was certain those were true tears pooling at the corners of his eyes. Her hand twitched as if it wanted to reach out and provide comfort to him but she reigned it in, keeping them clasped in her lap. She was still unsure what all this was leading to, why he had sought her out.
Letting out a shuddering breath he continued.
“Then as you know the war truly started and the Dark Lords singular goal was to find and kill Harry Potter. Aside from a few slip ups you three were good at hiding out all those months and we, my friends and I, became hopeful that you were gathering allies or working towards defeating him. Then you showed up at the manor and you all looked to be in rough shape. I could barely recognize any of you so I played that up even though I knew, I knew it was you…”
“I immediately messaged my friends using your clever enchanted coin idea and we were trying to think of ways to set you free when Bellatrix saw the sword and things went very bad. Thankfully Dobby saved you. He was always the bravest elf and losing him was like losing a friend, but I’m so glad he got a chance to be free for however long it lasted.”
“During the final battle my friends and I were trying to take out as many Death Eaters as covertly as possible. We would hex them or immobilize them from behind so others would be able to capture or kill them. I had been instructed to locate Harry Potter and capture him to bring to the Dark Lord and I did look for him, but not to capture, to tell him to run. It was so clear we were all way out of our league, so many of the students stayed to fight and so many died.” His lips moved into a hard angry line but he continued.
“Then it was the end of the war, the battle was won, but good did not defeat evil as it should have and instead of being free we were all still trapped under the thumb of the darkest wizard ever known.”
“So, my friends and I took up the cause and started to plan. We started to undermine the missions given to others when we could. We helped prisoners escape, set up safe houses, made sure prison cells were left unlocked, used the imperius curse on other Death Eaters to make sure they didn’t complete their missions, and were generally a thorn in the plan for world domination.”
“We went on like that for two long years, trying to build the new revolution back up through freeing allies and tearing down the Pure World Order from within. Until one day, a new prophecy was received… It was by pure chance I was there in my fathers office at the Ministry to hear it brought to his attention. The Unspeakables that brought it up believed it to be important but in the end my father dismissed it. But I knew, I knew that prophecy was going to reveal my true nature and I also knew who the prophecy was referring to.”
He recited the prophecy and looked pointedly at Hermione. She shook her head in disbelief, a prophecy about her? He was mad, absolutely out of his mind, if he thought that was a prophecy about her. They would have to discuss the prophecy and how it could be about any witch later once she had the time to come up with a more sound argument than “It can’t be me!”
“How did you know the prophecy would out you as a traitor?” she asked “unless you were named in it as well, how would your father have known?”
“Ah, well… Because the seer that spoke that prophecy was none other than Sybil Trelawney, whom I was instructed to hunt down and kill a year past but instead set her up in a safe house on the Isle of Wight with another rebel I had freed.”
“How many rebels have you freed? And, are they not considered Order members anymore?” There were too many questions bubbling up in her head and every time she popped one with an answer 10 more cropped up.
“I have freed over 20, but between my friends and I we have freed well over 100. Of course most still died because they just couldn’t stay hidden, they couldn’t just wait until the time was right” He looked irritated then and ready to brood on this topic, his mouth set and his jaw clenched, but she still had questions.
“And the Order?” she prodded.
“The Order is dead, defunct, its gone the way of the Dodo. The Order was very set on honorable fighting and keeping a code of high morals to defeat evil. The remailing rebels that are left, the ones smart enough to stay hidden, are much more of a grey area lot. We fight in the shadows and aren’t afraid to get our hands a little dirty to achieve a world without a Dark lord’s wand at our backs.”
“Who are these rebels? Pansy? Zabini? Theo? How many of you are there?”
“I’d rather not reveal their identities here, my muffliato spell work is excellent” Here he gave her a wink to which she scowled at “but there are several cunning listening spells that can circumvent a muffliato. Lets leave that discussion for later when we are camping out in some wooded wasteland.” Here he made an act of shuddering as if camping was the worst thing that could happen to someone. “Aren’t you going to ask me what happened after I heard the prophecy? Or ask any more questions about the prophecy?”
She shrugged “the prophecy cant possibly be about me, I am no one, I’ve been in hiding for 7 years and haven’t done anything to warrant a prophecy being foretold about me. It must be about some other witch, one of your cohorts perhaps? And as for what happened after, seeing as your face is on the front of the daily prophet I assume you tried to outright kill he-who-must-not-be-named, mucked it up and then went on the run. That’s basically what the paper indicated anyway.”
“Well you aren’t entirely wrong, but it was a little more involved than that. We tried a surprise attack during a meeting with all the senior Death Eaters. Most of us were included in those ranks so we set a signal to be ready and tried to Avada him while he was comfortable within his ranks of followers. We believed the only way to kill him was to attack at the most unexpected moment when he was supposedly “safe.” It went horribly wrong, Bellatrix must have smelled that something was going on because she was quick enough to throw someone in front of the curse to protect her precious master. Then all hell broke loose and we were all fighting to escape with our lives. We lost Crabbe in the melee and my mum jumped in front of the killing curse that was meant for me.” His head hung low and she saw a single tear drip from his cheek onto the scratched and worn table.
Her hand and her heart lost the battle and reached out to rest on his hands now trembling fists set upon the table. At her touch the tremble eased and his eyes raised to look into hers. In them she saw real pian and loss, the kind which only showed true grief for a loved one so dear it felt like a hole had been ripped in the worlds tapestry as they left it. Hermione knew that pain all too well and squeezed Draco’s hand in understanding and comfort.
Having heard this tale didn’t make her immediately turn into a puddle of understanding goo but it did warrant some thought and analysis. The best way to see if he was telling the full truth, and that past Draco was all an act, was to continue to keep him close and see what else she could discover.
She waved her own wand under the table to dispel the enchantments surrounding their small table. As soon as the spells dropped their waitress arrived and handed them their ticket to pay. It seemed she also didn’t even realize they were the same customers who had been sitting at this small table in the back corner of the diner for over two hours. ‘
“Did you confund her?” She got a slight bit shrill, she knew, but honestly there was no need to addle the poor muggle’s brain.
“I’m just being overly cautious now that I’ve found you. I’ve been searching for you for half a decade after all and I’d hate for a skilled legilimens to walk in and see both of us meeting together in her mind” he shrugged and pulled some muggle money out of his pocket saying “Do you think they take the British pound here?”
“No, they only take American money in America. Hand it over, I’ll convert it.” She held her hand out and he placed the money into her waiting palm.
She cast a quick transfiguration spell and set the proper amount on the table leaving a very nice tip for them having squatted at one of her open tables for so long.
“Well” she said “I suppose I should invite you to stay with me while we figure everything out from here, unless you have a safe house we can stay in instead?” she finished hopefully. A bath would be lovely, and a loo that wasn’t so cramped she could wash her hands as she was using the facilities would be a nice change.
“Sorry, no. Safe houses aren’t where we need to be at the moment. We will need to be on the move a lot if we are to defeat the Dark Lord and set everything back to rights.”
She gave him a look that said they’d discuss that bit about defeating the Dark Lord later and asked if he had a place in mind to camp. He did, so they set off back to the alley and she held on to his arm once again as he apparated them away.