Capítulo 60: The Dark Lord's Offer
Draco Malfoy quailed as the Dark lord strode into the small room. He had received an emergency signal early in the morning that indicated he should immediately leave Hogwarts and make his way to the secret cabin that his family had always relied on for refuge from the Ministry.
He quickly bowed to Voldemort who had stopped and was now observing him as a Death Eater, Wormtail, entered the room in a very servile manner. "What is it, my lord?"
"Your father met his end in battle last night, child." Voldemort said neutrally, showing no sympathy, remorse, or joy at the fact. "He fought for our most noble cause and fell honorably. He will always be remembered."
A flood of emotions shot through Draco's cold veins. Mostly hate and fear. Had he loved his father? Maybe. It didn't matter. Pride and honor dictated that he should seek revenge, especially for an offense against the Malfoy name. "Who killed him?" he growled, all while showing Voldemort the proper respect.
"The Count of Trazkaban who was acting on the orders of Harry Potter." Voldemort stated.
"What do you mean?" Draco whispered in shock.
Voldemort briefly informed Draco of the exact events of the battle to the best of his knowledge. It wasn't out of courtesy to the deceased offspring however. It was for his own purposes. "Potter has become the Lord of Polairix and is responsible for your father's death. If you come with me, I can help you get revenge."
"Wouldn't it be better for me to stay at Hogwarts and go on as normal? It would be good to have someone on the inside if you know what I mean, my lord."
"There are others." Voldemort stated in a dismissive manner. "You could be useful though, and at this point I must use you or lose you."
"What do you mean?"
Voldemort twisted his lips in what could best be described as a scowl. "Your mother's actions have complicated things and your father's death has made them worse. None of your Malfoy relatives have legal standing at this point in time. Harry Potter, who is now the Head of House Black could easily take you into custody if he was so inclined. That old fool at Hogwarts could certainly thing up of something to keep his claws in you."
"So I have to escape before anything happens?" Malfoy said, completing Voldemort's thought.
"Yes."
Draco nodded and pointlessly considered Voldemort's proposal. There was obviously no other choice in the matter. There was one question though. "You said that Potter is the Lord of Polairix, that could turn the tide in this war against us if the Ministry allies with us. How will you prevent that?"
"You will find out shortly." Voldemort sneered. "I'll see to Potter's further ostracization. In fact, the wheels are in motion as I speak.
...
"These two are here because they are Harry's former friends." Dumbledore said to Snape, Kingsley, Arthur Weasley, and Professor McGonagall, in order to validate Ron and Hermione's presence at the small meeting at Hogwarts.
Snape rolled his eyes. "If you say so."
Dumbledore ignored Snape's caustic mood. It was probably a side effect of the events he had been involved with for the past twenty-four hours. "Harry is the Earl of the North and that means he now has great power. Enough power to destroy Voldemort, or us. Maybe even both. We must make plans to deal with this situation."
"Well, we could always manipulate him so that we can force him to blindly do what you want him to do." Snape suggested idly.
"Severus!" McGonagall said tersely. "We realize that you aren't feeling well, but could you please keep your comments to yourself?"
Arthur leaned forward and spoke to everyone in his most convincing voice. "I think that we should attempt to reason with him. Listen to his story, tell him ours, and then make some sort of compromise that at least gets You-Know-Who out of the way."
"We already tried that, Mr. Weasley." Hermione said practically. "He won't listen to us."
"We can hunt him down and attack him!" Ron declared. "Then we can worry about You-Know-Who."
Kingsley shook his head negatively. "You should have enough sense to realize that wouldn't work, Ronald. One, we don't even know where he is. Two, the Ministry isn't strong enough to adequately face those sorcerers, and three- we have no formal grounds on which we can accuse him of any crime thus far."
"Attack his influence." McGonagall said dryly. "It's easier to fight an enemy if he can't affect you on the inside. His control of the Daily Prophet is a problem. In fact, his money is a problem."
"Only for Death Eaters thus far." Snape added.
"I think you may be right, Minerva." Dumbledore commented. "I have a meeting with the Minister of Magic scheduled. I should probably depart now to be on time. This meeting is dismissed."
Andy Cargney studied the final version of the next morning's edition of the Daily Prophet. It seemed rather strange to have the final draft ready so early in the day. However, the owner of the paper had specifically provided all the content for the next morning's paper.
He looked up at his assistant. "This looks perfect, Willy. I guess we can run it."
Willy nodded and took the copy back. "Yes, I guess we can. It sure seems odd to be defending Harry Potter and accusing the Ministry of corruption while the Wireless Network accuses him of high crimes and misdemeanors."
"We don't have much choice." Andy replied dryly. "I don't care. It's just the business. Besides, I'm not so sure that the WWN has their information right anyway."
"Oh?"
Willy was about to ask what his boss meant when an explosion rocked the Prophet building and all the windows that looked out to Diagon Alley shattered inward. All the staff members screamed and dove for their desks, fully expecting the Dark lord himself to appear and begin shooting of Killing Curses.
However, this belief was contradicted when the dust settled and they found the room filled with Aurors holding drawn wands and aiming them at anything that moved. They were all further shocked when Percival Weasley, one of the Minister of Magic's top aides entered the building.
With an arrogant flourish, Percy Weasley withdrew an official piece of parchment from his cloak and began to read in a pompous voice. "Be it known to all that on the grounds that Harry James Potter, the Lord of Polairix is guilty of high treason against the British Ministry of Magic, all of his commercial property and money is hereby forfeited to the Ministry. By command of the Minister of Magic, the Daily Prophet is to be shut down and the press and all copies of the Daily Prophet are to be burned."
"You can't do that!" Andy screamed defiantly, more out of loyalty to the paper rather than to Harry Potter.
"I just did." Percy said smugly.
...
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