PCA - Chapter One: The Best Laid Plans...
Title: Power Corrupts - Absolutely
Pairing: Arthur/Draco
Author: mangobiscuit
Rating: NC17
Summary: In war there are no winners. Everybody loses, victors and vanquished, both. Power is intoxicating and even for the sanest of men it can be hard to resist the pull of corruption.
Warnings: Minor character death, violence, non-con, BDSM, blood-play, torture, insanity.
The attack had been meticulously planned out, every detail worked on
over and over until no creases were left. Each loophole had been
knotted and blocked and the chance for failure had been brought down
to zero.
Every Death Eater had been given a task, and each Death Eater had
gone over their task a thousand times until there was no doubt in
their minds that they would come out of this victorious.
Draco's task was to act as a diversion, or distraction as it were.
It was well known that the Ministry would be swarming with Aurors,
Order members and general do-gooders this evening and their
attention needed to be elsewhere if this plan was to go ahead.
Destroy the Ministry and destroy one of The Order's main defenses.
It was perfect.
* * * * * *
Draco could feel the excitement turning to big fluttering
butterflies in his stomach as he waited to make his move. A few
Death Eaters were looking nervous, wiping sweat from their brows as
they paced the floor. The old abandoned house that had been chosen
as their hideout before the attack was very much muggle and quite
small, but no one seemed to care. Least of all Draco. He was focused.
He knew what he had to do and he wasn't going to let
a case of nerves stop him.
When given the signal, he made his way out of the house and across
the street towards the Ministry. His father had told him how to get
into the building via the telephone box down the back street and had
made him recite the process several times in order to make sure he
stamped it firmly into his brain. It would not do to forget it now.
Stepping into the booth, Draco picked up the phone and dialed
62442, taking a deep breath, keeping his hand from shaking as he did
so.
"Welcome to the Ministry of Magic." A voice said from the other end
of the phone. Draco clutched at the phone wire as he spoke.
"Draco Malfoy. Please, you have to let me in. I need to speak with
the Minister, there's going to be an attack in Diagon Alley tonight.
I need to tell the Minister all I know before it's too late."
He hoped that would be convincing enough to get him in. For a
stomach churning moment it seemed as if he had been ignored, then
out of the coin chute popped a badge. Draco had been told about
this too and he put it on as he saw the ground outside the phone
booth rising up above his head. He was being let in. Instantly he
fixed a fake desperate expression on his face and ran his fingers
through his hair slightly, messing it up and pinching his cheeks to
make them looked flushed.
Soon the lift stopped and he was in the Atrium. Satisfied with his
now flustered and panicked appearance he darted out of the lift and
dashed through the large and near empty room.
"MINISTER!!! WEASLEY, PLEASE!" He cried as he rushed past
fireplaces, eyes darting from one side of the room to the other as
he ran. "MINISTER, PLEASE!!"
He was so caught up with trying to look terrified that he didn't
see Kingsley Shacklebolt step out in front of him. He bumped into him
hard and nearly fell backwards. This only served to help his case,
as it actually had caused him pain and it showed on his face.
"Calm down, boy." Came Kingsley's booming voice. "What's wrong?"
"I need to speak with Weasley. Now! Please, it's important." Draco
replied, out of breath now from running the length of the hall.
Kingsley looked a bit dubious. He eyed Draco for a while, through
slightly slitted eyelids.
"What is so important that you have to go running through a work
place screaming and shouting, hmm?"
Draco mentally cursed the man for asking questions. Did he not look
scared enough? "I overheard my father.... there's going to be an
attack. Diagon Alley... Sunset." He spluttered out, catching his
breath now that he was no longer running. "You have to get people
down th..."
"An attack?" Came the Minister's voice from behind Draco.
The blond would have smirked would it not have given the game away.
Instead he turned, putting on his best 'puppy-dog' eyes and
approached, reaching out to clutch at Arthur's robes, almost like a
frightened child.
"You-know-who has planned an attack on Diagon Alley. I don't know
what's going to happen, I only heard a small part of my father's
conversation, but it's going to happen tonight." He said breathlessly
having decided that he should probably be a bit more flustered than
he was currently pretending to be. "He is sending all of his Death
Eaters, you have to stop them!"
Arthur looked on in shock as the boy grabbed the front of his robes
in what appeared to be some great distress. His brow quickly furrowed
though when he deciphered what young Malfoy was saying. "An attack
on Diagon Alley?"
He thought for a moment. What he really wanted to do was kick the
little shit back up onto the street, then make sure the Death Eaters
knew who had tipped them off. A bit of payback for all the times
he'd had to listen to his kids complain about the horrible things
that he had done to them. And Harry of course. Harry was a part of
his family now. And Malfoy's behaviour had been worse where Harry was
concerned.
Still, despite the fact that this young man was the son of a death
eater, he looked so desperate that Arthur believed him. Now he had to
take action. Once he had grabbed Malfoy's hands off his robes, he
glanced up at Kingsley with concern. "You know what to do Kingsley.
Take all the top Aurors; this could be our chance to strike a severe
blow to Voldemort."
He was determined to mark his entry into the top position at the
Ministry with a stunning coup. This just might be the thing. After
years of being overlooked and left to rot in the Misuse of Muggle
Artifacts Department, he had finally been given his due. Fudge had
resigned eventually over the whole not admitting to Voldemort being
back debacle. It had taken a year, but the constant harassment by The
Daily Prophet and the continual berating in the form of howlers from
wizards all over the country, had finally taken its toll on the man,
and he had gracefully bowed out.
As it turned out, Arthur was the only one available for the job, a
fact he conveniently overlooked. The Heads of all the Departments had
approached Dumbledore to take on the position, as they had done once
before. And once again he had refused. Arthur knew that Dumbledore
still felt extreme guilt over not being able to help Tom Riddle when
he was at school, thus enabling him to become Voldemort and the most
evil wizard of the Century. Dumbledore wanted to ensure that no other
prospective dark wizard of that calibre ever came from Hogwarts
again, and so was content to stay where he was, and look after the
future of the wizarding world.
The other Department Heads had decided that their positions were too
important to entrust to someone else at this time due to the furore
that Voldemort being back had created in all facets of their lives.
Arthur's position was less important, and therefore could be
entrusted to Perkins, Arthur's assistant, leaving him free to take up
the reins of Minister of Magic.
Yes, Arthur Weasley felt he had good reasons to feel important. He
now had the top job in his world. No longer would he have to endure
the teasing, the ridicule of his fellow wizards. No longer did he
have to put a brave face on when dealing with anyone. He was no
longer poor, having received a huge increase in his salary to go with
his new position. He could look people in the face without fear of
seeing `that' look on their faces. He was the one in charge now. What
he wanted, he got, and damned quickly too.
Oh, Arthur knew what people thought of him. A kindly dodderer. A
nice man. Good family, shame he wasn't more assertive. Could have
gone far, but for his obsession with muggle artifacts, and that
unfortunate incident with a flying muggle car. Probably do an okay
job as the Minister, but he was an interim only. Arthur snorted.
Well, look at him now! He hoped they all choked on their words.
A coup like this one would cement forever his place in history, and Arthur was
determined to ensure that he did indeed have a place in history.
Watching Kingsley speed away to organise the Aurors, Arthur turned
once again to the Malfoy pup in front of him, who seemed to have
settled down a bit. He composed his face to the kindly, fatherly
face, the world knew and loved. "Well, Young Malfoy, we'd best see
you safely taken care of hadn’t we? I think it best not to send you
home just yet. We can’t have you placed in any danger of them thinking
you tipped us off, now can we? Come along, and wait in my office,
until we hear the all clear. Hmm? I can show you my collection of
plugs. Amazing people, muggles, did you know that? Come up with all
sorts of ingenious ways to live without magic."
Draco inwardly sneered when the old man started babbling on about
muggles and how 'amazing' they were. The man really was incredibly
dull. Draco was willing to bet his whole family was sick of him and
the way he seemed more interested in filthy underlings than what was
really important in life, like the purity of wizarding blood and the
fight to secure its survival.
Arthur shepherded the boy along the Hall, past Eric on the enquiry desk,
through the golden gates, and into a lift. Just as the doors closed,
Arthur saw with satisfaction that his teams of Aurors were swarming
out of the other twenty or so lifts and on their way to Diagon Alley
through the fireplaces. Those Death Eaters wouldn’t know what hit them.
With a gentle smile, he turned to Malfoy and asked why he had tipped
them off at all. It was a pertinent question after all. Malfoy had
never given any indication that he was going to go against his father
before. Arthur was willing to admit, that maybe he had made a mistake
assuming that this young man was anything like his father.
Draco kept the same frightened look on his face as he allowed
himself to be ushered along the hallways and into the lift. As
Arthur spoke, he turned to him and gave him his best 'I've always
just been scared of my father' look and replied. "I needed a way out.
I was scared... scared of my father… of becoming a Death Eater, but
I didn't know who I could go to. When I heard about the attack..."
He trailed off, straining his voice to sound as if he were trying to
hold back tears.
Realising there were no actual tears in his eyes, he quickly brought
his hand to his face and wiped at his eyes, to hide the lack of
true emotion. "I just hope it's not too late." He added softly,
watching as hoards of Aurors rushed down the corridors. He hadn't
ever felt this good about something in his life. Fools! All of them.
God, it was almost enough to turn him on, watching as one by one,
each of the Ministry's protectors vacated the premises, leaving the
place utterly helpless and open to attack.
As the lift stopped, Draco waited for Arthur to guide him out and
along the hallway to his office. He had taken to trembling now,
making sure his breath came in small shaky gasps as he once again
wiped at the pretend tears in his eyes.
Arthur offered him a seat and he sat, the older man then handed
him a glass of water, which he took and sipped slowly, keeping his
eyes fixed at a point on the floor, wanting to avoid eye contact as
much as possible.
"What exactly did you overhear?" The Minister asked, sitting on the
edge of his desk, looking at the young man with concern.
Draco's stomach tightened at that. Damnit! He hadn't thought about
that, he'd just have to make something up. He'd bluffed his way
through most of this so far he could pull this off. He ran his
fingers run up and down the side of the cup and took a deep breath.
"I can't remember everything that was said... I think my father was
talking to Macnair." He said, giving the very first name that popped
into his head. "I was on the stairs and they were both in the living room
I think, which is down the hall, so most of what they said was
lost... I..." He sniffed, and forced real tears into his eyes. Yes, he was happy
with the way his vision went all blurry. This was going smoothly so
far.
"I heard my father mention something about an attack, something that
had been being planned for months. I tried to get closer, but I was
scared of being caught. Macnair agreed that it should be done
tonight and that he would be the one to inform the others..."
He stopped abruptly as he felt one of his fake tears spill down his
cheek. Perfect! "I ran back to my room then..."
The room was silent for a while, and Draco could hear that all the
commotion outside had died down. The Aurors were gone. The Ministry
was a sitting duck. Before he realised what was happening, he felt
Arthur scoop him up into a fatherly hug. Oh God! Was that
necessary??! Instead of doing what he really wanted and pushing the
older man away in disgust, he simply leaned into him and sobbed into
his shoulder, feeling an intense tingling in his groin.
So this was what power felt like.
Arthur had listened carefully to the story of what the boy had overheard,
slightly sceptical in the beginning, but becoming both more convinced
and angry at the same time as the story wore on. Damn Lucius Malfoy,
he thought. This mere boy was almost beside himself with worry and
fear. It was incredibly brave of him to chance being exposed in his
desire to warn the Ministry. But what pulled at his heart strings was
the tear that rolled down his face. He was touched by the obvious
sincerity Malfoy displayed and when the boy had finished his story,
it seemed a natural thing to do. He would have done the same for
anyone in distress like that.
Even so, as Arthur enfolded the Malfoy boy in his arms, he recognised
that he was probably over reacting. The boy's initial reticence
indicated that he was unused to being hugged very often, if at all.
But, if he felt he needed further proof that the youth was telling
the truth, then it came when Malfoy began to sob quietly on his
shoulder. The kindly, fatherly expression he had composed his face
into initially, softened into a real one.
The Ministry would protect Ma… Draco, he must remember to call the
boy by his name now. The Ministry would ensure that he was returned
safely to his parents quietly, with no hint of his duplicity. He
sincerely hoped that Lucius was one of the Death Eaters assigned to
lead the attack. Arthur knew his Aurors were good, the best wizards
available in fact, and a personal debt would also be settled if they
could only catch Lucius in the attack. Yes. Lucius Malfoy in Azkaban
in the possession of the Ministry and being taken care of by the
Dementors would be sweet revenge indeed for Arthur.
He stood there with the boy still sobbing in his arms. Then a loud
clanging rang through the building, startling him and draining the
blood from his face. The breach of Security alarm bell! In all his
years at the Ministry, it had never rung, never been needed. It was
reserved for only the gravest emergency, and especially for attacks
on the Ministry premises.
In dawning fear and realisation, he shoved the boy away from him
harshly. It had all been diversion. Every word out of Malfoy's mouth
had been a lie! A ruse to lure away all the top Aurors from the
Ministry and enable the Death Eaters to attack a weakened
Ministry.
As soon as Draco heard the alarm sound, he dropped the facade. It
had started and he no longer needed to pretend. He knew that the
older man was too much of a wimp and a goody-goody to do anything to
him. As he felt Arthur push him away he smirked, knowing The
Minister had worked it out.
"You…stay here." Arthur ground out from between his
teeth. "I'll deal with you when I get back." Turning swiftly, he ran
from his office as fast as he could, locking the door over his
shoulder as he ran towards the lift, which luckily was open for him.
The only thing on his mind was to stop this attack before it ruined
him. Young Malfoy would pay for this; Arthur would make sure of it.
Draco simply watched and laughed as Arthur fled from the room to join
the battle. No mere locked door was going to stop him from
participating in this event. Oh, his father would be so proud of
him. He was proud of himself, he had convinced the old fool so
easily that he was the sweet little innocent, and now, because of
his diversion the Ministry would fall. The Wizarding world was well
on its way to belonging, once again, to Lord Voldemort.
* * * * *
Chapter 2
Pairing: Arthur/Draco
Author: mangobiscuit
Rating: NC17
Summary: In war there are no winners. Everybody loses, victors and vanquished, both. Power is intoxicating and even for the sanest of men it can be hard to resist the pull of corruption.
Warnings: Minor character death, violence, non-con, BDSM, blood-play, torture, insanity.
The attack had been meticulously planned out, every detail worked on
over and over until no creases were left. Each loophole had been
knotted and blocked and the chance for failure had been brought down
to zero.
Every Death Eater had been given a task, and each Death Eater had
gone over their task a thousand times until there was no doubt in
their minds that they would come out of this victorious.
Draco's task was to act as a diversion, or distraction as it were.
It was well known that the Ministry would be swarming with Aurors,
Order members and general do-gooders this evening and their
attention needed to be elsewhere if this plan was to go ahead.
Destroy the Ministry and destroy one of The Order's main defenses.
It was perfect.
* * * * * *
Draco could feel the excitement turning to big fluttering
butterflies in his stomach as he waited to make his move. A few
Death Eaters were looking nervous, wiping sweat from their brows as
they paced the floor. The old abandoned house that had been chosen
as their hideout before the attack was very much muggle and quite
small, but no one seemed to care. Least of all Draco. He was focused.
He knew what he had to do and he wasn't going to let
a case of nerves stop him.
When given the signal, he made his way out of the house and across
the street towards the Ministry. His father had told him how to get
into the building via the telephone box down the back street and had
made him recite the process several times in order to make sure he
stamped it firmly into his brain. It would not do to forget it now.
Stepping into the booth, Draco picked up the phone and dialed
62442, taking a deep breath, keeping his hand from shaking as he did
so.
"Welcome to the Ministry of Magic." A voice said from the other end
of the phone. Draco clutched at the phone wire as he spoke.
"Draco Malfoy. Please, you have to let me in. I need to speak with
the Minister, there's going to be an attack in Diagon Alley tonight.
I need to tell the Minister all I know before it's too late."
He hoped that would be convincing enough to get him in. For a
stomach churning moment it seemed as if he had been ignored, then
out of the coin chute popped a badge. Draco had been told about
this too and he put it on as he saw the ground outside the phone
booth rising up above his head. He was being let in. Instantly he
fixed a fake desperate expression on his face and ran his fingers
through his hair slightly, messing it up and pinching his cheeks to
make them looked flushed.
Soon the lift stopped and he was in the Atrium. Satisfied with his
now flustered and panicked appearance he darted out of the lift and
dashed through the large and near empty room.
"MINISTER!!! WEASLEY, PLEASE!" He cried as he rushed past
fireplaces, eyes darting from one side of the room to the other as
he ran. "MINISTER, PLEASE!!"
He was so caught up with trying to look terrified that he didn't
see Kingsley Shacklebolt step out in front of him. He bumped into him
hard and nearly fell backwards. This only served to help his case,
as it actually had caused him pain and it showed on his face.
"Calm down, boy." Came Kingsley's booming voice. "What's wrong?"
"I need to speak with Weasley. Now! Please, it's important." Draco
replied, out of breath now from running the length of the hall.
Kingsley looked a bit dubious. He eyed Draco for a while, through
slightly slitted eyelids.
"What is so important that you have to go running through a work
place screaming and shouting, hmm?"
Draco mentally cursed the man for asking questions. Did he not look
scared enough? "I overheard my father.... there's going to be an
attack. Diagon Alley... Sunset." He spluttered out, catching his
breath now that he was no longer running. "You have to get people
down th..."
"An attack?" Came the Minister's voice from behind Draco.
The blond would have smirked would it not have given the game away.
Instead he turned, putting on his best 'puppy-dog' eyes and
approached, reaching out to clutch at Arthur's robes, almost like a
frightened child.
"You-know-who has planned an attack on Diagon Alley. I don't know
what's going to happen, I only heard a small part of my father's
conversation, but it's going to happen tonight." He said breathlessly
having decided that he should probably be a bit more flustered than
he was currently pretending to be. "He is sending all of his Death
Eaters, you have to stop them!"
Arthur looked on in shock as the boy grabbed the front of his robes
in what appeared to be some great distress. His brow quickly furrowed
though when he deciphered what young Malfoy was saying. "An attack
on Diagon Alley?"
He thought for a moment. What he really wanted to do was kick the
little shit back up onto the street, then make sure the Death Eaters
knew who had tipped them off. A bit of payback for all the times
he'd had to listen to his kids complain about the horrible things
that he had done to them. And Harry of course. Harry was a part of
his family now. And Malfoy's behaviour had been worse where Harry was
concerned.
Still, despite the fact that this young man was the son of a death
eater, he looked so desperate that Arthur believed him. Now he had to
take action. Once he had grabbed Malfoy's hands off his robes, he
glanced up at Kingsley with concern. "You know what to do Kingsley.
Take all the top Aurors; this could be our chance to strike a severe
blow to Voldemort."
He was determined to mark his entry into the top position at the
Ministry with a stunning coup. This just might be the thing. After
years of being overlooked and left to rot in the Misuse of Muggle
Artifacts Department, he had finally been given his due. Fudge had
resigned eventually over the whole not admitting to Voldemort being
back debacle. It had taken a year, but the constant harassment by The
Daily Prophet and the continual berating in the form of howlers from
wizards all over the country, had finally taken its toll on the man,
and he had gracefully bowed out.
As it turned out, Arthur was the only one available for the job, a
fact he conveniently overlooked. The Heads of all the Departments had
approached Dumbledore to take on the position, as they had done once
before. And once again he had refused. Arthur knew that Dumbledore
still felt extreme guilt over not being able to help Tom Riddle when
he was at school, thus enabling him to become Voldemort and the most
evil wizard of the Century. Dumbledore wanted to ensure that no other
prospective dark wizard of that calibre ever came from Hogwarts
again, and so was content to stay where he was, and look after the
future of the wizarding world.
The other Department Heads had decided that their positions were too
important to entrust to someone else at this time due to the furore
that Voldemort being back had created in all facets of their lives.
Arthur's position was less important, and therefore could be
entrusted to Perkins, Arthur's assistant, leaving him free to take up
the reins of Minister of Magic.
Yes, Arthur Weasley felt he had good reasons to feel important. He
now had the top job in his world. No longer would he have to endure
the teasing, the ridicule of his fellow wizards. No longer did he
have to put a brave face on when dealing with anyone. He was no
longer poor, having received a huge increase in his salary to go with
his new position. He could look people in the face without fear of
seeing `that' look on their faces. He was the one in charge now. What
he wanted, he got, and damned quickly too.
Oh, Arthur knew what people thought of him. A kindly dodderer. A
nice man. Good family, shame he wasn't more assertive. Could have
gone far, but for his obsession with muggle artifacts, and that
unfortunate incident with a flying muggle car. Probably do an okay
job as the Minister, but he was an interim only. Arthur snorted.
Well, look at him now! He hoped they all choked on their words.
A coup like this one would cement forever his place in history, and Arthur was
determined to ensure that he did indeed have a place in history.
Watching Kingsley speed away to organise the Aurors, Arthur turned
once again to the Malfoy pup in front of him, who seemed to have
settled down a bit. He composed his face to the kindly, fatherly
face, the world knew and loved. "Well, Young Malfoy, we'd best see
you safely taken care of hadn’t we? I think it best not to send you
home just yet. We can’t have you placed in any danger of them thinking
you tipped us off, now can we? Come along, and wait in my office,
until we hear the all clear. Hmm? I can show you my collection of
plugs. Amazing people, muggles, did you know that? Come up with all
sorts of ingenious ways to live without magic."
Draco inwardly sneered when the old man started babbling on about
muggles and how 'amazing' they were. The man really was incredibly
dull. Draco was willing to bet his whole family was sick of him and
the way he seemed more interested in filthy underlings than what was
really important in life, like the purity of wizarding blood and the
fight to secure its survival.
Arthur shepherded the boy along the Hall, past Eric on the enquiry desk,
through the golden gates, and into a lift. Just as the doors closed,
Arthur saw with satisfaction that his teams of Aurors were swarming
out of the other twenty or so lifts and on their way to Diagon Alley
through the fireplaces. Those Death Eaters wouldn’t know what hit them.
With a gentle smile, he turned to Malfoy and asked why he had tipped
them off at all. It was a pertinent question after all. Malfoy had
never given any indication that he was going to go against his father
before. Arthur was willing to admit, that maybe he had made a mistake
assuming that this young man was anything like his father.
Draco kept the same frightened look on his face as he allowed
himself to be ushered along the hallways and into the lift. As
Arthur spoke, he turned to him and gave him his best 'I've always
just been scared of my father' look and replied. "I needed a way out.
I was scared... scared of my father… of becoming a Death Eater, but
I didn't know who I could go to. When I heard about the attack..."
He trailed off, straining his voice to sound as if he were trying to
hold back tears.
Realising there were no actual tears in his eyes, he quickly brought
his hand to his face and wiped at his eyes, to hide the lack of
true emotion. "I just hope it's not too late." He added softly,
watching as hoards of Aurors rushed down the corridors. He hadn't
ever felt this good about something in his life. Fools! All of them.
God, it was almost enough to turn him on, watching as one by one,
each of the Ministry's protectors vacated the premises, leaving the
place utterly helpless and open to attack.
As the lift stopped, Draco waited for Arthur to guide him out and
along the hallway to his office. He had taken to trembling now,
making sure his breath came in small shaky gasps as he once again
wiped at the pretend tears in his eyes.
Arthur offered him a seat and he sat, the older man then handed
him a glass of water, which he took and sipped slowly, keeping his
eyes fixed at a point on the floor, wanting to avoid eye contact as
much as possible.
"What exactly did you overhear?" The Minister asked, sitting on the
edge of his desk, looking at the young man with concern.
Draco's stomach tightened at that. Damnit! He hadn't thought about
that, he'd just have to make something up. He'd bluffed his way
through most of this so far he could pull this off. He ran his
fingers run up and down the side of the cup and took a deep breath.
"I can't remember everything that was said... I think my father was
talking to Macnair." He said, giving the very first name that popped
into his head. "I was on the stairs and they were both in the living room
I think, which is down the hall, so most of what they said was
lost... I..." He sniffed, and forced real tears into his eyes. Yes, he was happy
with the way his vision went all blurry. This was going smoothly so
far.
"I heard my father mention something about an attack, something that
had been being planned for months. I tried to get closer, but I was
scared of being caught. Macnair agreed that it should be done
tonight and that he would be the one to inform the others..."
He stopped abruptly as he felt one of his fake tears spill down his
cheek. Perfect! "I ran back to my room then..."
The room was silent for a while, and Draco could hear that all the
commotion outside had died down. The Aurors were gone. The Ministry
was a sitting duck. Before he realised what was happening, he felt
Arthur scoop him up into a fatherly hug. Oh God! Was that
necessary??! Instead of doing what he really wanted and pushing the
older man away in disgust, he simply leaned into him and sobbed into
his shoulder, feeling an intense tingling in his groin.
So this was what power felt like.
Arthur had listened carefully to the story of what the boy had overheard,
slightly sceptical in the beginning, but becoming both more convinced
and angry at the same time as the story wore on. Damn Lucius Malfoy,
he thought. This mere boy was almost beside himself with worry and
fear. It was incredibly brave of him to chance being exposed in his
desire to warn the Ministry. But what pulled at his heart strings was
the tear that rolled down his face. He was touched by the obvious
sincerity Malfoy displayed and when the boy had finished his story,
it seemed a natural thing to do. He would have done the same for
anyone in distress like that.
Even so, as Arthur enfolded the Malfoy boy in his arms, he recognised
that he was probably over reacting. The boy's initial reticence
indicated that he was unused to being hugged very often, if at all.
But, if he felt he needed further proof that the youth was telling
the truth, then it came when Malfoy began to sob quietly on his
shoulder. The kindly, fatherly expression he had composed his face
into initially, softened into a real one.
The Ministry would protect Ma… Draco, he must remember to call the
boy by his name now. The Ministry would ensure that he was returned
safely to his parents quietly, with no hint of his duplicity. He
sincerely hoped that Lucius was one of the Death Eaters assigned to
lead the attack. Arthur knew his Aurors were good, the best wizards
available in fact, and a personal debt would also be settled if they
could only catch Lucius in the attack. Yes. Lucius Malfoy in Azkaban
in the possession of the Ministry and being taken care of by the
Dementors would be sweet revenge indeed for Arthur.
He stood there with the boy still sobbing in his arms. Then a loud
clanging rang through the building, startling him and draining the
blood from his face. The breach of Security alarm bell! In all his
years at the Ministry, it had never rung, never been needed. It was
reserved for only the gravest emergency, and especially for attacks
on the Ministry premises.
In dawning fear and realisation, he shoved the boy away from him
harshly. It had all been diversion. Every word out of Malfoy's mouth
had been a lie! A ruse to lure away all the top Aurors from the
Ministry and enable the Death Eaters to attack a weakened
Ministry.
As soon as Draco heard the alarm sound, he dropped the facade. It
had started and he no longer needed to pretend. He knew that the
older man was too much of a wimp and a goody-goody to do anything to
him. As he felt Arthur push him away he smirked, knowing The
Minister had worked it out.
"You…stay here." Arthur ground out from between his
teeth. "I'll deal with you when I get back." Turning swiftly, he ran
from his office as fast as he could, locking the door over his
shoulder as he ran towards the lift, which luckily was open for him.
The only thing on his mind was to stop this attack before it ruined
him. Young Malfoy would pay for this; Arthur would make sure of it.
Draco simply watched and laughed as Arthur fled from the room to join
the battle. No mere locked door was going to stop him from
participating in this event. Oh, his father would be so proud of
him. He was proud of himself, he had convinced the old fool so
easily that he was the sweet little innocent, and now, because of
his diversion the Ministry would fall. The Wizarding world was well
on its way to belonging, once again, to Lord Voldemort.
* * * * *
Chapter 2