章節 106: Raids.
"Guess who I saw in Borgin and Burkes?" Harry said to Ron and the Weasley family after Hagrid disappeared.
"Who?"
"Vincent Crabbe and his father," Harry said.
"Did they buy anything?" said Mr. Weasley sharply behind them.
"No, he was selling —"
"So he's worried," said Mr. Weasley with grim satisfaction. "Oh, I'd love to get them for something… After so long, finally, the rats are coming out of their hole."
"I think that's just a misunderstanding," Draco said walking in along with Hermione and the others.
Hermione waved to Harry.
"And who might you be?" Mr. Weasley asked looking at the boy in front of him.
"Oh, I forgot to introduce myself." Draco said removing his hood, "Its a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Weasley."
Recognizing Draco, Mr. Weasley was slightly shocked along with the rest of the Weasley family. Ron and Harry, on the other hand, had already figured it was Draco, after seeing Theodore and the girls but they were still shocked by his appearance. Ron had seen the newspaper before but he just brushed it off as a fault in the camera but seeing him in front he was totally weirded out. Same goes for Harry who had been locked inside his house the whole summer, but after he got out, he learned that a lot of conspiracy was brewing against him and Draco, after Dumbledore himself sending a letter assuring that everything was taken care of to the Weasley family, they finally let him go out and relaxed. All this time Harry had many questions and all this could be only told by the person in front of him.
"It's nice to meet you, Mr. Black." Arthur shook Draco's hand.
"Please just call me Draco." Draco said kindly, "I have been reading about your work on the bans of muggle items and dark items, and I really appreciate you helping clean our wizarding community."
"It's nothing really, nothing special compared to your deeds." Arthur said humbly.
Arthur Weasley was a wizard known for being a well-meaning, reasonable and competent every-man, trying to take care of his family and do the right thing. A man of principle, he was strongly opposed to the discrimination of Muggles, Muggle-borns, half-bloods, half-breeds, and cursed beings such as werewolves, and did not think highly of those who subscribed to such intolerant beliefs, despite it being the prevailing views of so many of his fellow pure-bloods. While this earned him the respect of his friends and family, others, such as his father who considered him to be a "blood traitor." and a "disgrace to the name of wizard". The latter, however, he never truly took to heart, as his opinion about what disgraces the name of wizard differed greatly from theirs.
Since they shared common beliefs Draco didn't have any problem with Arthur, instead, he respected the man for not swaying with beliefs and being strong enough to stand up for what he thought was the best. Unlike Draco, Arthur was a man of this world, who was raised with similar beliefs from his peers, but unlike them he stood up to become the man he wanted, instead of falling for greed, even though his family suffered, he didn't choose the dark path to gain benefits. If Draco wanted support from muggle wizards, and half-bloods, keeping good contact with people like Arthur was necessary. Even though due to Draco being here, Lucius and Arthur didn't crash like before but they still hated each other none the less.
"It was just a moment of recklessness on my part." Draco said with a slight smile as he turned to face Harry, "So you saw Vincent and his Mr. Crabbe in the Knockturn alley, did you?"
Seeing Harry nod, Draco sighed, he knew something was going on with the Crabbe family but he didn't know what. For Dark family such as them coming to the Knockturn Alley wasn't a new thing so this could mean anything. If it was just any other day, Draco could've just ignored it as the Crabbe family trying to avoid current raids that have been going on but with the whole situation, he couldn't just believe that it was so simple.
"Mr. Weasly, I ask you to leave that thing to me and not interfere with it." Draco said.
"Why?" Arthur narrowed his eyes, even though Draco was the son of Lucius, one of the men he hated the most, he still considered Draco to be a good seed. Even before he heard about all this drama, he knew that Draco was a good kid. From his random act of kindness to Lucius's changed behavior over the years, Arthur believed that it was all due to Draco. With his talk with Dumbledore before, he knew Draco was in a very sensitive situation, being so young, his mind could be molded into anything but according to Dumbledore, there wasn't anything to worry, at least for now.
"I know how much you hate Dark items, along with the current raid but this isn't going to help anything at all." Draco clearly said, "You might've caught a few people with surprise raids but now the element of surprise has been removed, People are already aware of the raids and have already begun hiding their stuff somewhere else, unless you come across wizards who have a mind of a troll, you aren't going to find anything."
"So what do you suggest, we do?" Arthur asked, thinking things carefully. He knew Draco was right since during the last two raids they didn't manage to find anything that will lead to them being caught.
"It's difficult." Draco said grimly, "The wizarding world is very hard to change and doing it forcefully isn't going to bear any fruit either. Even in a perfect society, we can't manage crimes from rising as they will happen one way or the other. These forceful raids would just keep pushing the pure-bloods again and again when they have already tried to remain as calm as they could, the recent incidents prove to be the case of pushing us again, didn't it?"
Arthur knew Draco was talking about the whole training program lead by Pius which resulted in the death of more than 60 wizards and could've been much more serious.
"I've managed to reduce somewhat of the pressure due to how the current situation took place but if people keep pushing it, then the wizards won't even hesitate for a second to turn to the path they have retreated from, and you and I both know, how badly some people want to do so."
"Then what do you suggest we do, just sit there while these dark wizards roam freely, destroying our peace."
"Capture the ones who do it." Draco said directly, "Punish those wizards who do so. I can see how people connect all these incidents with the pure-bloods due to our history but I can assure that ever since you-know-who disappeared, all of us have gone quiet."
Arthur, Mrs. Weasley along with all the Weasley family and Hermione's parents were keenly listening to both of them. Since Draco had a different standing now in the wizarding community, his opinions mattered. When Draco bought out you-know-who, all the Weasley family, shivered a little. Mrs. Weasley wanted to drag the other kids away from this, especially Harry but he wouldn't budge. Mr. and Mrs. Granger didn't have a clue as to what was going on but looking at other people's serious face, including their daughters, they remained silent and tried to understand what was going on.
"Mr. Weasley, I can understand why you would think that all these crimes are related to us and I won't lie to you, some of them are... but the pure-bloods aren't willing to do anything extreme and dangerous as that will be just digging a hole for ourselves. All things take time and I would really appreciate it if you think about all the consequences of things before you do something." Draco said sighing, he knew this topic wasn't as simple as he described but for him to rule, he needed to gain control of the chaos first. "I just realized that it might be inappropriate to talk politics in the middle of the Alley when we have guests here..."
Arthur snapped out of his thoughts and looked at the Granger family, he knew if they learn about their chaotic situation, it might make them unnecessarily afraid so he calmed down as well, "True, I really think, the words you said do contain some truths to them, so I wish we can talk on this topic some other time in a bit more appropriate place."
"Sure." Draco nodded as he went over to the Granger family, "Nice to meet you, Mr. and Mrs. Granger."
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