Plots
Molly Weasley did not trust Draco Malfoy. She expected he knew this by the way she glared at him from across the kitchen at Grimmauld Place.
It was quite frustrating no one questioned him. They should have really. But no one listened to her or her poor Fred.
The twins had never been good boys, but they were still more trustworthy than a Malfoy. And hadn't Malfoy’s name on parchment been the cause of all this?
Still. Kingsley had assured her the Order could not survive without the limited galleons Malfoy still had access to, Flitwick, as terrible a legilimens as he was, had assured them there was no way Draco could have known, and Sirius had vouched for the Malfoy brat too.
She was outnumbered. For the first time in too long to count.
_____
“Well,” huffed Sirius Black when Nott returned with Draco and Moony. “Took you long enough.”
“They were under near-undetectable warding,” Theo huffed right back.
“It should have been completely undetectable,” Draco muttered.
Theo shot him a glare, “Well if it had been undetectable, I wouldn’t have been able to find you.”
Sirius looked to Remus, but Remus just shook his head. “Nott found us an hour ago. We spent twenty minutes trying to convince Malfoy not to go running into headquarters half-cocked.”
“I stunned him!” Theo chimed in gleefully.
Sirius closed his eyes and let out a calming breath. Not sure whether to laugh or cry.
“I’m assuming they saw the letter,” Draco said. Despite being somewhat dizzy from the half-dozen vials of calming draught Lupin had forced on him, he was determined to form a plan. Now, preferably.
“I convinced them not to throw you out of the Order,” Sirius responded. “There was a meeting last night. Harry vouched for you, I did too, most of the rest did as well.”
“Except?”
“The Weasleys.”
“Bloody hell.”
“Is it safe to get her out?”
“Can you keep it together enough to pretend to interrogate her?”
“I am perfectly calm,” said Draco.
Three sets of raised eyebrows were his response.
“Heal her uncle first,” Sirius said. “He needs to be healthy enough to re-set the wards. Voldie and his lot made them get rid of the blood wards, too much work for them to get the owner of the manor every time they wanted to bring someone in. I don’t know what to do with all of the prisoners - some of them are too sick, too mad to leave. They don’t know who they are or how they got here. Got plenty of wounds too.”
Nott slapped Draco on the back. “So much for you to do, Healer Extraordinaire. That’ll cheer you up.”
—
Hermione was officially tired of being a prisoner. In her weakened state, she tried to scope out escape routes when her vision wasn’t too blurry. She plotted an uprising when her pain wouldn’t be so bad.
It was a fantasy, but one thing was clear: The Order were not her friends.
—---------
Harry ran his fingers over the worn book he'd kept under his mattress. It'd taken time for Neville to sneak it to him without anyone noticing and even more time for Harry to be left alone long enough to read it.
Now that he had, he felt at war with his disbelief.
The book contained a children's story. Ethereal fae beings worshiped as gods until a group of them met and married humans, inadvertently creating magic and the wizarding world in the process.
The fae princesses granting magic as a gift to anyone they wished, passing on the gift over time, while wars and danger loomed in the background. Each princess and her line, slowly dying.
It was fantastical and stupid. But it wouldn't be the first time Harry Potter put his faith in a children's book, now would it?
—--
Draco Malfoy had had a long night. But now he was at Grimmauld, raising a condescending eyebrow at the Weasel matron. Remus made a point to distract her.
Granger was going to be alright.