As Draco joined the little group on Platform Nine and Three Quarters, he looked around to see that he was the only adult male present. He stood in between Hermione Weasley and his wife Astoria. On the other side of Astoria were the Potter girl, Lily, her mother Ginny, Gwenog Jones, and Jones’ French girlfriend. The absence of both Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley, well known dotting fathers, was unnerving.
Draco thought back to the long Sunday evening he had spent with both of them at Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place, discussing his father’s possible plans. He remembered the startled look on their faces when he told them about his conversation with his father at that very table. The conversation in which his father told him that Voldemort’s cause was not over and that blood-status would matter one day.
–Maybe he was just trying to impress you. The two of you were scheming together, after all,†said Ronald.
–He was scheming. I was listening.†He had enough of Weasley already, so he locked his eyes on the red head before he spoke. –Lucius even came up with a scenario in which Harry kills you in self-defence.†In the corner of his vision, he saw Harry’s head jerked back in surprise.
Weasley looked flustered by the comment, but quickly covered it up. –You’re joking,†Weasley said. The tone of the dolt’s voice suggested he thought Draco was making it up.
–While you can never rule out the possibility that anything he says is designed to leave a false trail or mask his real intention, he did go out of his way to bring up Astoria’s inferior blood status.â€
–She’s not a pure blood?†asked Harry.
–No, she’s only seven-eighths pure blooded according to him and so she’s an inferior.†Draco sat for a second, thinking through the ramifications of what he just said and how the meaning had changed since Lucius spoke it.
Ronald looked over at Harry. –So, we just get a couple of our people to infiltrate his organization and in a month or two we bag the lot. After that, we all leave for a relaxing holiday on the Rivera.â€
Draco looked at Weasley. Did he think this was going to be that easy or was that some more of the man’s humour that he never understood?
–No, any attempt at infiltration of his organization will likely be fatal to the infiltrator. My father recruited Snape into the Death Eaters and vouched for him to the Dark Lord. Snape’s betrayal has my father even more paranoid than in the old days. He knows that this is his last chance for power and he will be more devious than ever. He will also be more deadly. He has nothing but a return to Azkaban to lose and everything to gain.†Draco could see that this analysis was not what his audience wanted to hear.
He realized that Hermione was staring as he stared toward her. He blinked and gave an exaggerated jerk of the head to show all that he was not looking at her, per se. He turned to his right to see Astoria giving him, the little pouty face that meant he had been inattentive longer than she would allow while they were in public.
He smiled at her, took her gloved hand and kissed it like Hoyle had. Her returned smile meant he had avoided whatever punishment she had planned for him.
Ginny, Giselle, and Gwenog Jones were locked into a deep discussion. Giselle, the tall Quidditch agent, handed Potter what looked to him like some sort of legal documents. Ginny gave the first page of the document a quick look and said something too quiet to hear before she pursed the ream of paper out of sight of prying eyes.
Draco looked to his left to check for the train. No train was coming. As he turned back to say something to Astoria, he saw Weasley close her eyes like in deep thought. For the first time in months, he truly looked at Hermione. She looked tired and little wrinkle lines appeared around the corner of her eyelids.
Everyone he knew was still on edge from the robbery attempt at the Leaky Cauldron, in which the barman had protected Hannah and little Alice Lorelei Longbottom against two robbers. The vicious attack had put the barman into the St. Mungo’s Long-term Care ward. While the robbery was bad enough, the fact that the fiends had searched the private rooms of the Cauldron for Hannah and the child gave it a feeling of an assassination or kidnapping attempt, not just a crime for treasure.
For over a month, the Daily Prophet had been full of stories about a wave of robberies that were occurring in both the magical and Muggle worlds. The Minster of Magic was quoted as saying he had warned the Auror office about the possibility of this crime wave months ago and his office was investigating why his warnings had gone unheeded. Potter and Weasley were under pressure to end his father’s first round of attacks now.
Draco knew that all of this was a first wave. Petty crime was not his father’s style. He was using them like Peruvian Darkness Powder to screen his real operations. He was using the crime wave to see whom of his minions he could trust and whom he could remove from both the organization and their lives.
However, they had decided that they would not share all of these troubles with the children. Besides, most of them would only be home for a week before their trip to the Isle of Mann for tryouts, to see who would go to the first ever Under-Fifteen World Quidditch tournament to be held near the Salem Institute in America.
Draco felt the rumble of the steam engine in his gut before he heard it. A few seconds later, others picked up on the approaching train and the small talk on the platform ceased. The waiting adults seemed to lean forward up the platform like they were needles before a lodestone.
As the train began to disgorge its passengers, Draco began to look for any of his son’s friends. After ten minutes, Scorpius appeared out of the second carriage. However, he did not leave the carriage with Jimber Dokes or any of the Weasleys or Potters. He stepped out the door with a group of six other students. All of them were older than his son, four of them were girls and he was talking freely with them. He peered closer at the members of the gathering and noticed one girl had a red flower stuck in her hair, with a small white heart design in the larger, heart-shaped bud.
From the third carriage, Kaitlin Jones, Rose Weasley, Jimber and the Potter boys all exited together. While the rest of her group wandered toward the adults, Rose walked over to join Scorpius and his other friends. The ease with which the others accepted Rose, showed that she was part of their clique of students also. After some parents of the others in the group called, the other members waved goodbye. The last one to leave, the girl with the flower in her hair actually hugged Scorpius in front of Rose. As the final member walked away from him, Rose, giggling at the red faced Scorpius, accompanied him over to the parents.
They passed Draco, who was trying to fill the void caused by the absence of the other fathers, by magically pulling three trolleys to the where the Porter was pulling out the luggage. Draco levitated the bags to the proper trolley. When the first trunk for Kaitlin Jones was pulled out, he looked at his trolleys to figure out which one had room where he could place it. However, the trunk floated past him and landed on a trolley piloted by the girl’s Aunt Gwenog.
Draco, who had never spoken to the retired Quidditch hero, smiled over at her. Jones ignored him as she adjusted her niece’s second trunk onto the cart. –So, Ms. Jones, are you going to be the Captain of the U15 team?â€
Jones, still concentrating on the luggage coming out of the train, shook her head in the negative. –No, Bobby Devon, the former Captain of the Wasps and the United Kingdom team, will be the leader. However, Ginny Weasley Potter will be his assistant.â€
–Really, won’t that be a conflict of interest? She could have two sons on the team!â€
–Knowing Red like I do, she’ll be twice as hard on her boys as she will be on anyone else’s children,†replied Gwenog, still focused on the porter. –Will your son be trying out? I heard he didn’t play at all this year.â€
–My son will be ready, if he still wants to play. And I think as long as Miss Weasley is there, he will want to play.â€
Gwenog and Draco began to pilot their four trolleys back toward the returned students. Jones came to an abrupt stop about five yards away from their group. Draco followed her gaze toward the man standing next to an uneasy Ginny Potter. The man was someone that he didn’t recognize.
The stranger turned from Ginny, wearing a smile that disappeared when he saw who approached them with the noisy carts. –Gwenog,†said the man. Draco heard from him the same tone that his father used whenever he discussed Astoria.
–Ioan, I see you came to pick up Rhys,†she replied in a flat voice.
–Well, we couldn’t have the Hogwarts’ Champion Seeker walk all the way back to Llanilltud Fawr could we? Besides, Mother is throwing a party for him. She has invited the whole family to her place to celebrate.†The way he emphasized the phrase ‘whole family’ was strange. Draco could feel a wall of ice forming between the two speakers.
As the two people just silently glared at each other, Giselle walked over to the stranger. –Hello, I’m Giselle LeClaire.†She extended her hand toward him. The man looked down at the proffered hand, but did not take it. He turned and began to walk away.
Giselle did not let him escape. She quickly took a hop to the side and stepped in front of his cart. –You can ignore me. How can you ignore your sister? She’s is your only sister!â€
He looked up at the tall woman and with distain. –I have no sister!†he said. Then, Ioan moved around the obstacle and pushed the trolley toward a distant waiting boy and woman. When he joined them they walked toward the pillar.
–Giselle, let him go. I’ve got Owain. One brother out of three isn’t bad. And you know that I’ve become immune to Mother’s barbs by now,†said Gwenog, a weary sadness in her voice.
–Liar,†Giselle said, as she walked over to take Gwenog in her arms and kiss her forehead.
Ginny looked over at her old mentor and Giselle. –Ioan always was a world class git.â€
Gwenog and Giselle both gave her a smile in appreciation. All of the Jones family drama was lost on the children, who were saying goodbye to friends and getting their first verbal shots in on their younger siblings.
Suddenly, coming out of the last jet of the steam from the train engine walked two tall adults and a young woman. Jimber, who had just tossed a Quaffle over a jumping Hugo Weasley’s arms to Albus, looked over at the noise of the steam eruption, did a double take and shouted at the top of his voice, –Mum! Dad!†He ran up the platform to greet his family.
Rebekka, dressed in a flowing, flowery kanga, reached out to hug and kiss her son on the cheek. After his wife was done, Isaac looked at Jimber from head to toe. Then he wrapped his long arms around the boy and said, –You’ve got fat. We will have to work that off you when we get you home.â€
Jimber’s smile froze. In the excitement of the reunion with his family, he had forgotten about the fact that, with their arrival he would be leaving England to return to his Caribbean homeland. He would never see Hogwarts again.
Jimber turned to see Scorpius, who was wearing a melting grin on his face, as the news sunk in. Scorpius walked over to Jimber and gave his friend a bear hug worthy of Isaac. They just held on for a long minute.
Avoiding the two boys, Draco walked over and shook Isaac’s big hand and slapped his friend’s broad shoulder with his free hand. Rebekka and Astoria clasped hands and air-kissed, as usual.
While Albus focused on Scorp and Jimber, he knew that he too would miss his friend. He felt a tap on his right shoulder. He turned to see a dark brown-skinned girl wearing a multi-colour dress like Jimber’s mother. The girl was almost his height. She turned her head to the side like some sort of bird. She had a disappointed look on her face.
He did not recognize Bethany Dokes until she spoke to him. –How are you, my future husband?â€
He gulped. Somehow in the year since she’d left Britain to return to the Island, she had grown at least five inches and lost about twenty-five pounds of baby fat. And the green, yellow, and brown wrap she wore showed that she was no longer a little girl. –Uhh! I mean, I’m fine, Bethany. When did you get in?â€
–We arrived about an hour ago. We must have just missed the Malfoys at their house,†Bethany said, as she moved her hands behind her back and slightly twisted her body back and forth, as if in time to some unheard music. Albus was dumbfounded by her very presence.
Lily Potter ran over and hugged her desperately missed friend. The two talked for a couple of minutes about letters and boys.
As the reunited Dokes and the Malfoys gathered their boys’ belongings so they could begin to leave. Bethany ran back to the Potters and Weasleys to practically jump on Albus, wrapping her arms around the neck to give him a big kiss on the lips. She and Lily ran giggling back to the Malfoys and the Dokes, while James began to tease his little brother.
–Albi’s got a girl friend! Albi’s got a girl friend.â€
Rose bumped her elbow into Kaitlin and whispered something. Kaitlin made a face like she had bitten into a tart fruit or pickle. –Not if my life depended on it,†shouted Kaitlin into Rose’s face. Rose just focused on James and kept wearing a knowing smile.
When the families got to the pillar, Auror Broomwright stopped them. She walked through, got an all clear from her partner, and returned to tell them it was safe to leave.
Draco wondered what his father had planned for everyone. He was certain that his father had planned for himself and Astoria would not be pleasant. He could only hope the old man would miscalculate or that the Aurors would get lucky. Draco doubted both. He had not had two back-to-back night’s of good sleep since his father’s little coup d’état. The nightmares that awoke him were filled with his father hurting Astoria.
A couple of days after the dreams had begun, Draco had arranged for Hermione to add an array of protective charms and spells to their house. He knew that the Trio had once spent months on the run undetected by the Death Eaters, who had all of the resources of the Ministry at their command. He also knew that the author of such precise, skillfully crafted magic had to been Hermione. She was the one Weasley he trusted with a wand. He had made it a point for Hermione to teach Astoria, not him, all of the new spells. The reason was so that she could always be safe, just in case Lucius did something to him. He also knew she would teach Scorpius all of the spells as soon as he returned from school.
As they walked up the platform and in the Muggle world, Draco shivered. Anyone he saw could be an agent of his father. He doubted the old snake would attack here. It would show his hand too soon. However, he would speak to Potter about using the Floo Network or Portkeys at the beginning of the next school year, and not risk being such easy targets on the platform.
He spied an advertisement, on the side of a kiosk, for a life insurance firm talking about buying security. Draco knew that with his father in charge of Fletcher’s old criminal organization. Security was an illusion that the unprepared tried to hide behind. He would not let his family be unprepared.