Chapter Nineteen
After Harry sent his letter to Flitwick, his next visit was to the Minister of Magic. To no one's surprise, she wasn't particularly pleased to see Harry after he had skipped the better part of four days of work.
Needless to say, he doubted that she would be much happier once this meeting was over.
"Sit," Penelope ordered, glaring at him as he took the chair opposite her. "Care to tell me what the hell you've been doing?"
"Well, for the most part, I've been trying to figure out exactly what Voldemort has been doing."
"For the most part?"
"I slept for two hours and ate a meal somewhere in there. But, I also met with Professor Flitwick. I had some questions about Time-Turners, questions that only someone like him would be able to answer since the Unspeakables refuse to talk to me."
"I hope he answered your questions."
"He did," Harry replied. "He also offered me a job."
Immediately, Penelope's eyes narrowed.
"I thought he was leaving. Aren't they getting ready to announce his successor?"
"They are," Harry said. "He had the permission of his successor to make me his last hire."
Penelope smirked at him and then shook her head.
"You took the job, didn't you?" Penelope said, a mix of frustration and disbelief evident in her voice. "I haven't been in this job for a month and I'm already losing people."
"People?"
"A couple of assistant Department Heads. One of them got hired at Gringotts and another decided that I was the worst Minister of Magic he'd ever seen."
"He knew that after a month?"
Penelope chuckled. "He was an old, Pureblood man. I'm going to assume that I could be our best Minister of Magic and I was never winning him over."
"Probably not," Harry admitted. "Listen, I know that I helped get you here and I know that you wanted me here for support."
"Don't worry about it," Penelope replied. "I'm just disappointed that I'm out five Galleons."
"What?"
"Hermione, Cho, Tonks, and I had a pool running to see how long you would last. I bet four months."
"Who won?" Harry asked.
"Who do you think?" Penelope asked knowingly. "Hermione bet that you wouldn't last a month. She was off by a day."
"Yeah, I suppose she really does know me best."
"That she does," Penelope replied. "Defense Against the Dark Arts?"
"Yeah," Harry said. "Honestly, if it had been anything else, I would have turned him down."
"I understand. You were good here; when you were here, that is. But you'll be the Defense Professor at Hogwarts until they drag you out of that castle kicking and screaming. They'll bury you behind that desk."
"You really think so?"
"I might have been a bit old for Dumbledore's Army, but I know some of the people who were in it," Penelope replied. "Before that year, everyone assumed that you'd become an Auror. After that year, the betting money was on you becoming the Defense Professor. From everything that I've heard, you're a natural. You'll fit right in."
"I certainly hope so," Harry replied. "If you want, I can stick around through August. That's when I've got to report to the school."
Penelope shook her head. "Don't worry about it. Find and catch Voldemort. I'll ensure that you retain your legal protections so that when you do it, you don't spend the rest of your life behind bars."
"I do appreciate that."
"And I appreciate the faith that you've shown in me, Harry," Penelope said earnestly. "I'm hoping that I can earn my own reputation someday, outside of just behind Harry Potter's pick. But if I don't, that's not such a bad thing."
"I have confidence that you'll be your own Minister sooner rather than later, especially since I won't be around," Harry replied.
"You'll still get letters asking for advice. I hope that's alright."
"I'm here whenever you need me," Harry said. "By the way, if Ron and Hermione are at work a bit less than usual, I'm enlisting their help."
"Are you close to catching him?" Penelope asked.
"I'm as close as I've ever been," Harry replied. "In a couple weeks, we might know where he intends to act and once we know that, then we can watch it to ensure that he never gets a chance to execute his plan."
"Good. I'll need Hermione on a pretty regular basis, but Ron is yours until you kill him."
With that in mind, Harry, Ron, and Hermione got to work. They tore down all of the information that they had on the walls and started new. With the idea that he was both looking for both a shatterpoint and a mechanism that would allow him to create the energy required to survive a trip back in time, the trio began to isolate locations where that would be possible.
According to Ji-Soo Chung, the Korean researcher who specialized in shatterpoints, there were roughly two dozen shatterpoints spread all over Great Britain and Ireland. For a moment, Harry had considered looking elsewhere before he had decided against it. As far as they knew, the rift only created a passage in time, not space, which meant that he was going to have to be close to whatever he wanted to change. It was likely why he had returned to Britain in the first place As expected, most of the shatterpoints strewn throughout the British Isles were in the wilderness and the exceptions to that rule were in places that the magical world had claimed for their own, places like Hogwarts, Ottery St. Catchpole, and Diagon Alley.
However, the second part of the equation was that the location likely needed to have a structure that Voldemort could modify to better manipulate the magical energies there. While it was entirely possible that Voldemort could create something from scratch, it would certainly be easier to start with something that had already existed.
Through the weekend, Harry and Ron, with Hermione's assistance when she could be spared, cross referenced the list of shatterpoints across Britain with the list of existing structures that could easily be altered to help Voldemort's cause.
By the middle of Monday, Harry, Ron, and Hermione stood back from the corkboard in Harry's office and admired their work.
"So, let's recap: we started with twenty-six shatterpoints including this one here in the Channel and this one here in the North Sea, which we can likely assume is Azkaban," Harry said. "We can immediately rule out about a dozen including those two since they're in the middle of the ocean."
"Or Azkaban," Ron replied.
"And while it's possible that he could claim Azkaban to go back in time..." Hermione admitted.
"It seems unlikely that there is an event that occurs at Azkaban that he would want to go back and change," Harry added. "That leaves us with thirteen shatterpoints left. Three of those are in highly Muggle areas of London, Glasgow, and Manchester which makes them unlikely candidates."
"That takes us down to ten," Hermione said. "We can rule out this one here and this one here since the structures on those sites are very close to Ministry safehouses."
"Are we sure about that?" Ron asked. "Why do we think that he would care?"
"Because he doesn't want to be interrupted," Harry said. "I think the more remote the structure, the higher the likelihood that he'll use it. Plus, we know that he has to know that the Ministry is there. Even he's not stupid enough to try and build something like this in the Ministry's backyard."
"I suppose," Ron replied. "That brings us down to eight."
"It does," Hermione said. "Now, which of these sites stand out the most since we can't rule them out?"
"Well, we're guessing a bit here," Harry said, "but this one is likely Hogwarts."
"It's important to him."
"There's a lot that happened there that he could change."
"But it also is basically impossible," Harry admitted. "He'd have to take control of the school and the Death Eaters just don't have that kind of firepower anymore. At least, not with the garrison in the way."
"Glastonbury Abbey is another option," Ron said. "It's a large enough structure that Voldemort could probably manipulate it for its purposes."
"It's also the supposed resting place of Godric Gryffindor," Hermione said. "However, the structure is in ruins. Even though the magic of the area has kept the abbey itself largely intact, it's unstable. Voldemort might be able to secure it-"
"But it's likely more trouble than it's worth," Ron admitted. "What about Stonehenge? Rumored resting site of Salazar Slytherin?"
"It might work, but the structure there, while magically significant, is not going to cut it either," Harry replied. "The stones are solid, but there just isn't enough there. He would have to make some rather significant alterations to the formations to make them do what he wanted them to do. Personally, I think Llyn Ogwen is a better choice. It retains its connection to the founders since Hufflepuff was born there, but the watchtower on the lake is a sturdy enough structure."
"But if we're picking it because it's significant, do we think that Voldemort values Hufflepuff enough to make that the place where he goes back in time?" Hermione asked.
"Especially when we know that there's another town with connections to a founder," Ron added.
Harry looked up at the map and saw that one of the points was in the plains of Dover. He was intimately familiar with the area.
"Godric's Hollow," Harry muttered. "If we're talking about founders-"
"And if it can't be Slytherin," Hermione added.
"Then it might as well be Gryffindor," Ron said. "Plus, we know that he's suffered some pretty...significant defeats there."
"Would he go back there?" Harry asked. "He's so afraid of admitting his own defeat. It seems like going back would just remind him of those defeats."
"But it would also give him the best chance of rectifying the mistakes that he made there," Hermione replied.
"We can't narrow it down," Harry stated as he dropped into the chair behind him. Harry had thought that once he figured out the nature of Voldemort's plan, the three of them combined would be able to easily figure out where he would be going back in time. Unfortunately, it hadn't narrowed things down far enough to get a concrete answer.
"Stonehenge and Glastonbury Abbey seem like they would be more work considering the nature of the structures that are there," Harry reasoned. "Godric's Hollow is more of a graveyard than a town at this point. The only major structure that was there was a church and I'm fairly certain that he burned that to the ground."
"Do you think that he'd just disappear?" Ron asked. "What if we never figure it out?"
"Oh, we'd know that it was happening," Harry replied. "He could have chosen anyone's blood to come back. He chose mine. He could have come back in secret. Instead, his plan was to use my blood and then have me disappear, creating a spectacle even more dramatic than Cedric's death. I have absolutely zero doubt that he'll want me to know that he's won."
"But he won't do that until there's no way to stop him," Hermione added.
"Correct," Harry agreed. "If we find out from him, then it's too late."
The trio sat in silence for a few minutes, all of them considering the information on the board in front of them.
"I'm going to have Tonks keep an eye on these areas," Ron said. "At the very least, we might be able to catch him preparing the ritual."
"Thanks, Ron," Harry replied. "We can only hope."
Ron walked out of the room, leaving Harry and Hermione to sit and stare in silence.
"We'll catch him," Hermione assured him.
"I don't know how," Harry admitted. "I trained for four years, but I trained for a fight, a duel. Neither Dumbledore or I ever thought that he might try something like this."
"But you said that you think that he'll let you know when it's about to happen."
"Yeah."
"That'll give you time to stop him."
"Will it?" Harry asked. "He might let us know, but that doesn't necessarily mean that he'll give us a chance to stop him."
"Do you think that he'd want you to be there when you do it?"
"I do."
"If he's created a rift like we think, then there's your chance," Hermione replied. "He wants to come back once he's done. In order to do that, he has to leave the rift open."
"Assuming that I'm right about him wanting to come back."
"You don't think that he'd want to live in the world that he created?" Hermione asked. "Personally, I think he does."
"But if he goes back and changes things, couldn't that change him?" Harry asked. "What if he changes something and it affects him before he can come back?"
"Does that really matter to us?" Hermione wondered. "If he's changed things, then we're likely screwed anyway, aren't we?"
"Good point."
Hermione stood, crossed the room, and kissed Harry on the forehead.
"I have faith in you," she whispered. "I know that you can stop him. You know that you can stop him. So, we don't know all the answers today. Then we'll keep looking for them."
"Right."
Hermione smiled. "I have a meeting with Daphne. Since you're gone, all the coordination with the SAF is going through me."
"Tell her I said hi. You can let her know where we're at."
"I already planned to," Hermione said with a smile. For the next several hours, Harry skimmed through the information that they had gathered, hoping to have an epiphany of sorts. Unfortunately, nothing came to him.
He was packed and ready to leave Potter Manor when he noticed a letter sitting on his desk. No owl had flown into the room. Was it something that Ron or Hermione had meant to give him? Harry gave his wand a wave, checking the letter for any sort of dangerous enchantments that might have been on it. However, the letter was clean and Harry picked it up and opened it.
Potter,
Come to Trafalgar Square at nine tomorrow morning. Come alone.
I know where He's hiding.
Harry was immediately conflicted. This could be the thing they needed to break everything wide open. If they knew where Voldemort was now, then it wouldn't matter that Harry hadn't figured out where Voldemort would be creating his rift. They could cut off the head of the snake before anything even happened.
Of course, it could also very easily be a trap, likely one designed by a lesser Death Eater to try and trap him. It didn't seem like the kind of plot that Voldemort himself would hatch but that didn't make it any less dangerous.
Harry knew that he should tell Ron and Hermione about this. He knew that going to Trafalgar Square alone was a bad idea, even if it was one of the most crowded spaces in London. But, the letter said to go alone. If the sender really knew where Voldemort was hiding, then Harry had to see it through despite the potential dangers that came with it. If he found Voldemort, the reward would be worth the risk.
And so, the following morning, Harry said goodbye to Hermione and then went to Trafalgar Square where he waited alone. At this time of day, the Square was heavily populated with people walking every possible direction, all of them ignoring the bearded man who stood in the middle of the square, his eyes darting in every direction. His wand was prepped in its wrist holster, waiting for someone to attack him, when he suddenly heard a voice behind him.
"You can relax, Potter."
Of all the voices that Harry had expected to hear in such a blatantly Muggle place (more than one person in the immediate vicinity was talking on one of those new mobile telephones), the nasally tone of the last scion of the Malfoy dynasty was close to the bottom of the list. Harry turned around to see none other than his childhood nemesis standing behind him. The last few years had not been kind to Malfoy. After Harry had released Malfoy, he'd returned to Malfoy Manor and, if the rumors were true, he more or less had stayed there since then.
Public appearances for Malfoy were almost non-existent these days and those that had previously called him a friend hadn't heard from him in years. Of course, part of that was because the Malfoy name meant nothing at this point, but more importantly, Malfoy had no money to back up his name. While he'd been able to negotiate his way out of Azkaban, part of those negotiations had meant paying rather sizable sums of money to the Ministry as punishment for his crimes. At this point, the Malfoy fortune, which had been the largest in the country for decades, was reportedly no more than a single, half-filled vault in Gringotts and Malfoy Manor, the ancestral home of the Malfoy family.
As part of his plea deal with the Ministry, he was subject to random checks from the Aurors. Tonks had performed those checks in the past. Afterwards, she'd told Harry that the house was rapidly falling apart. In the past, it had taken an army of house-elves to maintain the home, house-elves that Malfoy had been forced to release in order to cover his debts. Now, he lived there alone and the house was decaying along with its sole inhabitant.
"Pardon me if I get nervous about being ambushed by a Malfoy."
"If I wanted to ambush you, I would have picked a less public place," Malfoy sneered. "Also, I think we both know that no matter how prepared I was, a plan to ambush you would likely end in my death."
Harry was reminded of The Battle of Hogwarts when Malfoy had begged Harry to kill him. In the past, Malfoy might have had an overinflated sense of his own abilities. Now, it seemed that he was painfully aware just how much Harry outstriped him.
"Probably," Harry admitted. "Now, I'm here. You sent me a letter suggesting that you knew where Voldemort is. Tell me now or I'm walking."
"Fine. The Dark Lord is hiding in Malfoy Manor."
"What?" Harry replied, resisting the urge to draw his wand. "You let him take refuge in your home?"
"Hardly," Draco replied. "About two months ago, I was approached by Rabastan Lestrange, one of the few Death Eaters who has remained in contact with The Dark Lord."
"He has?" Harry asked. "The last time I heard, Rabastan Lestrange was missing."
"More like hiding," Draco said. "Rabstan has no illusions of grandeur unlike men like Greengrass or Yaxley. He understood his place and so The Dark Lord had a use for him. Anyway, Lestrange approached me and informed me that The Dark Lord required my services once more. Needless to say, I was not pleased."
"Really?" Harry scoffed. "I figured that you'd be ready to jump back into his arms considering your life as it is."
"My life today is of my own choosing," Draco snapped. "I choose to remain at Malfoy Manor. That will be my home until the day that I die, at which point, the world will finally be free of the Malfoy name."
"What?"
"The only people that would have me are Death Eaters or their progeny," Draco replied. "They're the kind of people that got my mother and father killed. I have no interest in them and no one of any real value would dare associate with me. So, I will likely exit this world having sired no children. It will be an inglorious end to the Malfoy family, but an end, no doubt."
In the past, even after Harry had captured him at The Battle of Hogwarts, Malfoy had been relentlessly arrogant. He had talked with an air of superiority that was so consistent that Harry assumed that Malfoy had practiced it in front of his mirror at home with his mother and father standing by, offering pointers on how to be more condescending.
Now, he spoke plainly. The arrogance was gone, replaced by a cold indifference that almost made him seem more machine than man. Harry was reminded of their former Potions Master and Harry's least favorite Death Eater, Severus Snape. However, while Snape used that indifference to hide his true thoughts and feelings (outside of how he felt for Harry, that is), Malfoy had no mask left. His fall from grace had left him painfully aware of just how little power and agency he had in the world. Harry imagined that seeming indifferent to the world around him was the only way to defend himself from the disappointment of his life's path. Once thought to be the successor to their world's wealthiest political influencer, he now stood a poor, broken man living in the ruins of his family's former glory.
"In any case, I refused Rabastan's request from The Dark Lord. The next day, Rabastan returned to my home and ordered me to turn it over to The Dark Lord. Again, I refused and this time, Rabstan informed me that there would be no choice in the matter. Only a few moments later, The Dark Lord arrived. He informed me that if I allowed him to use my home, he would consider my debts paid. I knew what that meant. My father had the same debts and he paid for them with his life. I knew that I had a choice. I could remain at Malfoy Manor and likely be killed for my fealty or I could flee with the understanding that I would likely never be able to return to my ancestral home. In the end, I chose life over death. I fled Malfoy Manor two weeks ago and have been living in a Muggle hotel in Surrey since then, waiting for the opportunity to reach out to you."
"How long were you there while Voldemort was there?"
"Two days," Malfoy replied. "Enough time for the Death Eaters to take over. Enough time for them to lock me in my room. Thankfully, there are several hidden passages inside the Manor that I was able to use to escape."
"Do you think that all of the Death Eaters are there?"
"All of them? No," Malfoy said. "In fact, I would say that it's unlikely that any of the Death Eaters are there permanently. Dolohov and the others will likely visit with The Dark Lord on occasions to receive orders, but I doubt they would be allowed the opportunity to stay. Even Lestrange, who has been The Dark Lord's point of contact for the last several months, is likely forced to live elsewhere. No, I imagine that The Dark Lord has taken Malfoy Manor for himself."
Understandably, Malfoy looked upset at this turn of events. Harry, on the other hand, struggled to find sympathy for the former Slytherin. If it were up to Harry, the Malfoys might have been left with nothing. Even for a family as dark as the Malfoys, their money and influence had kept Malfoy from being thrown on the street, a fact that Harry wanted to remind Malfoy of, but elected not to.
"I need to talk to Ron and Hermione," Harry said.
"I expected as much," Malfoy replied. "Do hurry before you make up your mind. I doubt that The Dark Lord has missed my absence. While I might not be a top priority for him, he does not tolerate betrayal."
"I know," Harry replied. "You'll know in the morning what we plan to do."
Harry returned to Potter Manor and spent most of the next few hours pacing around the mansion. On one hand, this was a perfect opportunity, a chance to potentially take Voldemort down before he could enact his plan. On the other hand, Harry was very aware of the saying about something seeming too good. While Malfoy himself might not have much of a motivation to harm Harry, Harry had little doubt that he could be properly motivated to assist someone if he could get back to something that resembled his previous life.
In the end, it all came down to one question: how much did Harry trust Draco Malfoy?
That was the first question that Ron asked when he and Hermione arrived at the Manor that night.
"First off, are you fucking insane?" Ron shouted when Harry told them what he'd done.
"Ron!"
"No, I'm serious. You get a letter that just magically lands on your desk in your incredibly well-warded home and you just do exactly what it tells you to do!"
"It was because it got in that I went in the first place," Harry argued. "Someone went through a great deal of trouble to get that to me."
"I can think of a lot of people that would go through a great deal of trouble to get you alone."
"Alone in the busiest part of London in front of a bunch of Muggles?" Harry fired back. "That's not a plan to kill someone."
"You said they were trying to kill you?"
"No one was trying to kill me!"
"Alright!" Hermione finally shouted, shutting Harry and Ron down. "Ron, you made your point. Harry, Ron's point is valid and it was stupid for you to go on your own."
"Hey!"
"I'm your girlfriend, not your yes man," Hermione countered. "You want one of those, I'm certain there are only a thousand girls that will do the job for you."
Harry wanted to argue with her, but he knew that she was right.
"Point taken," Harry replied. "I promise that if I plan to do something stupid again, I'll tell you about it first."
"I would prefer that you not do the stupid thing, but I don't think we're going to get that, are we?" Hermione asked.
"Probably not, no," Harry admitted.
"Fine," Hermione said. "Now, there's one other matter to consider: can we trust Malfoy?"
"No," both Harry and Ron said simultaneously.
"No?" Ron said in confusion. "You're asking us to believe what he's told you, but you don't trust him."
"I'll never trust him," Harry replied. "I firmly believe that he does what he does to benefit himself. In this particular instance, he wants Malfoy Manor back and if Voldemort is there, he has no chance of doing that without our help."
"Is it possible that he's luring you into a trap?" Hermione asked.
"Sure, it's possible," Harry said. "But betraying us gains Malfoy nothing. I think he's probably right that Voldemort will kill him. Malfoy failed in every regard as a Death Eater and Voldemort punishes failure. Taking his home from him won't be enough and Voldemort will never trust him again."
"What if this is Voldemort forcing Malfoy to do it?" Ron asked. "He could be under the Imperius Curse."
"That's true," Hermione replied. "We also have no way of knowing if what Malfoy will tell us has any truth behind it."
"You're both right," Harry conceded. "Trusting Malfoy is not a good plan of action. I hate the idea of it. But what if he's right? What if Voldemort is sitting at Malfoy Manor alone?"
"What if he's lying?" Hermione countered. "What if we get there and it's an ambush?"
"Mate, why are you so intent on this?" Ron asked. "There's no plan here. The information comes from a notoriously self-interested and unreliable source. It would lead us to a home that has been held by some of the darkest wizards our world has ever seen where one of two things will happen: we'll either face the single most powerful wizard of the last millennium or we'll be ambushed, captured, and killed by Death Eaters, having walked into a trap. I understand that you want to get Voldemort, I really do, but there has to be a better way."
"Then find it," Harry snapped. He stood and pointed at the board of ideas. "Find out where he's going to create the rift and I'll tell Malfoy to shove his wand up his ass. Can you do that, Ron?"
Ron glared at Harry. "No, I can't."
"Can you?" Harry asked Hermione. She shook her head.
"I can't find it either. We've narrowed it down, sure, but we're not close. I'm not asking that you Apparate with me to Malfoy Manor right now. I'm saying that we listen to what he has to tell us. Because if there's a five percent chance that he's right and that Voldemort is sitting in Malfoy Manor, alone, and we do nothing, then the only people that we can blame when Voldemort resets time itself is the three of us."
Harry knew that the pressure of trying to hunt down Voldemort was getting to him. He could feel it. For twenty years, this was where his entire life had been pointed: ending Lord Voldemort. Now, the end was in sight, but they were falling behind. He knew that, given the opportunity, he could kill Voldemort. The last thing he wanted was to get so close, only to stumble just before the finish line.
"The Malfoy that we knew growing up was exactly as you described, Ron: self-interested, unreliable, untrustworthy. But you didn't see him today. If I hadn't known who it was, I would have never recognized him. He is a broken man. He spent his childhood idolizing a man who he ultimately killed. His mother was killed for following the same man who ordered him to kill his father. He lost his fortune, his family, and his friends in a matter of months."
"Do you want us to feel sorry for him?" Ron scoffed.
"No, I don't," Harry replied. "But I do want you to understand that, just like the rest of us, he's not the same person he was a few years ago. I don't feel sorry for him, but I...want to believe him."
"You what?" Hermione asked.
"I want to believe that he's telling me the truth. I want to believe that he has finally realized that there's a third choice outside of being a Death Eater or dying. Do I think he's a good person? No. Do I think I'll ever trust or like him? No. But I'm the reason he's not sitting in Azkaban right now. I did that because I wanted him to have a chance to choose for himself. Maybe it took him a few years to figure out what that meant, but I'd like to think that this is about more than just getting his house back."
Ron laughed. "And I'd like the Cannons to finish mid-table this year, but I know better than to ask for impossible things."
"Ron."
"Listen, I'm not going to trust him," Ron replied. "But I do trust you. I trust your gut. If your gut tells you that he might know where Voldemort is at, then I'm behind you. But I will be keeping an eye on him. If he does anything that even resembles something shady, he'll regret it."
"I understand," Harry said, turning to Hermione.
"I agree with Ron on both counts," Hermione replied. "But we're not bringing him here."
"He's already been here once."
"And if I remember correctly, he spent his time here chained to a wall," Hermione pointed out. "I'm not interested in having the meeting in a place where we held him against his will."
"He's lucky he was only chained to a wall," Ron growled.
"I know that," Hermione said curtly. "But if we're expecting Malfoy to tell us what we want to know, maybe reminding him of that time that he spent as our prisoner isn't the best way to start that."
"I agree. Where do we meet then?"
"Why not the Ministry?" Ron asked. "Then there'll be about a hundred Aurors waiting around to murder him when he betrays us."
"Do you really want to broadcast that we're meeting with Draco Malfoy?" Hermione asked.
"No, not really."
"Then maybe we do it somewhere a bit less public," Hermione replied. "How about Grimmauld Place? It's private, protected-"
"And it's creepy as hell. He'll fit right in," Ron grumbled. "But, Hermione's right. Grimmauld Place is kind of perfect. Is Daphne still living there?"
"She is," Harry said. "But that's probably to our advantage anyway. If we need any extra assistance, Daphne is there already."
"And you think that we can trust her?" Ron asked, although Harry could tell that he was joking.
"Who do you trust, Ron?" Harry asked sarcastically.
"Outside of those who are blood related to me, but excluding my stupid brother, I think the whole list is the two of you."
"That's healthy," Hermione replied, rolling her eyes.
"Right," Harry said, shaking his head. "I'll send a letter to Daphne and Malfoy letting them know about the meeting. You guys can head straight there. I'll meet Malfoy somewhere and take him there separately."
The following morning, Harry met Malfoy in the square just outside Grimmauld Place. Of course, Malfoy didn't know that. Harry smirked as Malfoy approached, knowing that Ron and Hermione were watching out the front window of 13 Grimmauld Place.
"I assume that we aren't meeting the others in the middle of the square."
"No, we're taking you to my godfather's house."
"The Black ancestral home?" Malfoy replied. "Aunt Bella was quite upset that your godfather somehow managed to keep the house during his stint in Azkaban. She was certain that it would have been given to my mother."
"Well, be thankful that it wasn't," Harry said, "because this meeting might not be taking place if it had been."
"Granger and Weasley wary of meeting with me, I assume?"
"You could say that," Harry said. "I'm going to grab your arm and take you there now."
"Do what you must."
Harry did exactly as he said. He grabbed Draco by the arm and then turned, Apparating from the square to the front hall of 13 Grimmauld Place. To no one's surprise, when they landed, Ron, Hermione, and Daphne were all standing in front of them.
All five of them stood silent, waiting for someone to say something. Finally, Ron turned to Hermione.
"He still looks like a slimy fucking git."
"And you still look like your parents bought you at a flea market," Draco snarled.
"You think that you get to make fun of me about being poor?" Ron growled, stomping towards Malfoy, only to be stopped by Hermione and Daphne grabbing his arms. "You have nothing. Nothing. Don't talk to me about being poor, you two-faced, duplicitous piece of shit!"
"Did Ron just use the word duplicitous?" Daphne asked.
"Shut up," Ron barked at her as he tossed Hermione and Daphne off him and marched up the stairs. Hermione gave Harry a knowing look before she followed him.
"I can see that this is going to go wonderfully," Malfoy remarked. "I know that you're not the brightest person here, but you couldn't have possibly foreseen that the two of them weren't going to accept my help?"
"Well, you'd better get them on your side," Harry said. "I brought you here. It's your job to convince them that you aren't lying."
"And how do you suppose that I do that?"
"Tell the truth," Harry said plainly. "But, you are in luck. At least Daphne's here. She's not likely to hate you."
Although, as Harry said that, he noticed that Daphne had a less than pleasant look on her face.
"Right?"
"I may or may not have led a push to ostracize Greengrass when she joined your Legion," Malfoy said emotionlessly.
"He did," Daphne growled. "I ended up locked outside our dormitory more than once because the prefects kept changing the passwords without telling me."
Just when Harry thought that there was at least one possible connection for Malfoy inside Grimmauld Place, he was proven to be terribly incorrect. Of course, that's what he got for assuming that all Slytherins were friends.
"If you want to leave here alive, I would suggest being very informative," Harry said to Malfoy as he led him up the stairs and into the study on the third floor. Ron and Hermione were already waiting for them; Hermione seated in one of the four chairs that surrounded the coffee table in the middle of the room while Ron stood as far away from them as possible, staring out the window. When they entered, Ron offered them a passing glance over his shoulder before he returned his focus to the window. Harry knew that Ron was paying attention, even if he was making it look like he wasn't.
Harry and Daphne sat in the chairs on either side of Hermione which left a seat for Malfoy directly across from Hermione. Malfoy sat, suddenly looking nervous.
"Alright, Malfoy says that Voldemort has taken over Malfoy Manor," Harry said, informing Daphne what exactly they were all doing there, although Harry knew that Ron and Hermione likely updated her. "We're here to determine whether it would be possible for us to attack the Manor and kill Voldemort there."
Harry turned to Malfoy.
"Start talking," Harry ordered, "and keep talking and when you think you're done, tell us more."
Malfoy looked at Hermione before his eyes tracked to Daphne, Ron, and then finally to Harry. There was a look of fear in his eyes that Harry had never seen out of a Malfoy, not even when Harry had Malfoy chained up in his house. Not even when Harry had interviewed him at Azkaban.
Finally, Draco Malfoy took a breath and began his story.