Harry Potter - Series Fan Fiction ❯ Behind the Fog (Backup Upload) ❯ Behind the Fog (Backup Upload) 6th Chapter ( Chapter 6 )

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Anything you recognize is property of JK Rowling. Additionally this is not my story. I am uploading this to my own account in support of the author the story belongs to who has been struggling with hackers.

The thing I've most been dreading as a fan is that the story would be removed from the site by the hackers and the author wouldn't have access to their old chapters when the situation was eventually brought under control in the event the site moderators wouldn't be able to give the author their account back.

For anyone interested the author goes by Hancock23 on Fanfiction -dot- net. I will remove the story from my account when Hancock23 has gotten the story safely uploaded elsewhere or has been safely given their account back on Fanfiction -dot- net. Without further ado I give you a backup upload of: Behind the Fog by Hancock23.

PS: This Backup Upload contains minor edits for grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Plus some rewording/restructuring of sentences so they make better sense and flow better. Hope you don't mind me becoming something of a Beta Reader for this Backup Upload Hancock23.

Chapter Six - Suspect

The next day dawned as usual, but everything turned from bad to worse with the arrival of the Daily Prophet, and his father's owl. He probably should have checked the Prophet right away since the decision to read his father's letter first, meant Draco was the last person in the hall to find out that he was once again the main story.

His father's letter was simple. He demanded to know why Draco had not gone to Hogsmeade as agreed. He wanted Draco to make sure he was there the next weekend or face dire consequences. Draco chose to ignore the threats; Lucius would find out sooner or later about his changed status when the bonding papers were registered at the Ministry.

Putting the letter aside, he lifted his head, ready to take a sip of his coffee before checking that day's Prophet. It was then that he noticed everyone was looking at him as if anticipating something he couldn't quite figure out. Without a miss of a heartbeat, he took a sip of his coffee and then lifted the paper, only to be confronted by a picture of himself walking down Knockturn Alley with his father, a few years back. He still wore his hair gelled back in the picture, and the resemblance between father and son was striking.

"The menace that is Draco Malfoy" The title reads.

"Draco Malfoy, son of death eater Lucius Malfoy and lover to Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, has once again shown the extent of his taint by performing dark magic in Hogwarts. A witness to the event says that the boy performed unknown magic in the presence of ex-auror Sirius Black, Curse Breaker of Gringotts Bill Weasley, former Hogwarts Defence Against the Dark Arts professor Remus Lupin, Ministry official Arthur Weasley, and several fellow students including The Boy Who Lived.

The close source who was present at the time says that the magic was foreign even to the experienced adults in the room. We can only conclude that the Malfoy heir has learnt at his father's, and master's heel, the most obscure and dangerous dark arts known to wizard-kind.

It is my deepest hope that the school will take action against this dangerous influence before he becomes a menace that strikes down our children."

Draco's blood boiled although his face did not show any of the turmoil within him.

"Are you okay Draco?" Pansy asked from his left, as he put his paper down in favor of his coffee.

"I will be." He answered.

"What's the plan? Surely you won't let them get away with this?" Blaise asked, and when Draco gave a particularly evil smile, he couldn't help but smile back.

"I will be needing a quill and parchment." He said and Pansy reached into her bag to produce the required items. "From now on, there will be no need to pull punches." Pansy laughed and watched over Draco's shoulder as he made out a letter to his solicitor.

Marina,
It's barely a day and I am already in trouble. How are you?
To business, by the time you see this, you will probably have seen the prophet and I am done taking punches without retaliation. Prepare a suit. I will be suing for defamation and any other charge you can think of. Those named in the suit will be the prophet, Rita Skeeter, and whoever the informant is. You already have a list of suspects since you were there, ask for a formal investigation or something.
Contact me with updates when you have any.
Work hard, and good day.
Draco.

As if it had sensed its master's need, Draco's elegant eagle owl appeared the moment he was done sealing the letter. It was all black, with wide majestic wings and when it landed on his shoulder, it did so with the utmost grace, just like its master. He tied the note to its leg and gave it a shoulder of bacon from his plate.

"Fly with the wind Aristotle, and wait for the response before you come back." The owl nodded its head as if it understood its master, and took off.

"This is definitely going to cause some marital problems darling." Pansy said, and Draco and Blaise could not help laughing.

The day went downhill from there. The older students sneered and some went as far as to throw hexes at him while the younger ones looked at him like some sort of monster looming the halls. The teachers looked at him with suspicion and even Snape tried to give him a lecture about being discrete with his actions. The only redeeming factor was that he managed to go back to his room without receiving a summons from the headmaster.

Potter was not there when he arrived so he took the chance to take a shower and dress in a Japanese yukata before going back to the living room to find Potter sitting at his area. He was just about to head to his library when Potter stopped him.

"Can we speak for a minute Malfoy?" He asked, and Draco turned to him with a raised eyebrow which was all the acknowledgment he was going to give.

"I am sorry about what was in the paper today. Remus and Bill said it was not dark magic, but someone must not have believed them. I asked them in here so I feel somewhat responsible."

"Don't be. The rules allow for visitors and I agreed to the rules. It is not your responsibility."

"Either way, I am sorry." Harry said apologetically.

"Well, the world would be a place of sunshine and rainbows if everything could be solved with an apology." Harry frowned at that comment, but he had no chance to say anything, as Malfoy went back to his area and began to look through the shelves for a specific volume.

Deciding to do his homework, he forgot all about the conversation. It took three days for the prophet to put Draco back on the front page, this time with the news of his bonding with Harry Potter and the circumstances surrounding it. Even Harry had never received as much mail as Draco did, and all of it was angry. The first came from his father who was furious and threatened him with poverty among other tortures he had never even heard of, despite spending a considerable amount of his childhood as a resident of the Malfoy dungeons.

He also mentioned that the dark lord was angry and that he should not expect mercy for his latest actions. It was at this point that it hit home for Draco that he would be staying at Hogwarts for Christmas for the first time in his life, and that he had no place to go in the summer after his sixth year. His mandatory stay with Potter would all but be over so he would need a place of his own before the summer holidays. The thought made it more urgent for him to make money.

His father's letter was followed by howlers from random people who thought he did not deserve Potter and that he had used some sort of dark magic to bamboozle Potter into thinking that he was his mate. Then there were the letters filled with insults and derogatory remarks, but the worst were the ones filled with curses and portions. He managed to evade all but one filled with bubortubor pus that dripped all over his hands causing his skin to erupt in angry boils that burst so painfully he was hard pressed not to howl in pain.

"This is getting ridiculous." Professor McGonagall lamented, as both she and Professor Snape approached the Slytherin table to assess the damage that had been done.

"Head to the Hospital Wing and have your hands sorted out Mr Malfoy." The transfiguration professor said, as she performed a spell that confiscated all of his mail.

"Blaise, Pansy, come with me to my room, I will need you to be my hands for a while." Draco stood up as his friends nodded, and did the same.

"Go to the Hospital Wing right now Mr Malfoy." Snape insisted.

"Thank you Professor Snape, but I am fully capable of taking care of this by myself." He said, and left without another word.

Draco hated the Hospital Wing. Madam Pomfrey was kind to the students, but that kindness never seemed to extend to him. She would always treat the others before him, even when his injury was more serious; and she always blamed him irrespective of who started the fights between himself and Potter.

Harry watched as Malfoy left the great hall and despite himself, he followed. Severus seemed to have the same idea storming after his godson, a frown deeply etched on his face. He could not understand Draco anymore, and he had begun to sense that this change was not a temporary and new way to sulk. Draco was genuinely distancing himself from them all; cutting them out of his life like a cancerous tumour, and now Severus began to feel the first stirrings of fear over that.

He had always viewed his godson as a spoilt brat, but now that the boy had turned completely against him, he felt a sense of loss, and he felt it keenly. Draco noticed the two followers, but he did not acknowledge them. He was in too much pain right now to care, and kept his silence as Blaise opened the door allowing them into the room.

"Do you have a potion for this Draco?" Pansy asked.

"No. I have the ingredients for it in my potions kit. Don't worry it's not particularly hard. Either one of you should be able to make it." He answered as he sunk into one of the arm chairs.

He noticed that Snape and Potter took the couch on his side of the room, but he did not have the patience to argue with them, not now, when the pain in his hands was causing his entire body to hurt. "The kit is on the bottom shelf of the bookshelf, left side."

Blaise located the black monogrammed case and from within it, removed a collapsible potions set complete with a cauldron, stirrers, burner, vials, cutting tools and ingredients.

"This will take too long." Snape insisted. "Go to the Hospital Wing."

"I said I will take care of it myself professor." Draco snapped. "You can sit there and continue doing whatever you are doing, or you can leave, because I am in no mood to deal with you." Snape did not say another word, not even when he noticed Draco giving Zabini the wrong directions for making the damned potion.

He realised that the best way to deal with this, was to let Draco ask for help himself, but what he didn't realise was that Draco never would; at least not from him.

"Pansy, put some water in a basin from the bathroom." The girl left to do as she was told, and returned with a silver basin filled with water half way.

The potion had been sitting for almost ten minutes before Draco declared it ready, and asked Blaise to pour a vial in the water. Severus winced when he saw his godson dip his hands in the water and prepared his wand to take action for when something less than stellar happened, but nothing did.

In fact, the boils disappeared within seconds and five minutes later, Draco removed his hands from the water. All the boils, redness, and likely the pain itself were gone leaving his hands as perfect as they had been before the incident.

"Feel better?" Pansy asked, inspecting his hands.

"Way better." He answered with a smile. "Thanks darling." He kissed her cheek, before taking the basin to empty its content in the sink.

No one was speaking when he came back to the living area and began to clean and put away the extra potion and the kit. "I wonder if I shouldn't make a batch of emergency potions in case something like this happens again." He thought out loud.

"You probably should, there is only so many potions I can make under such short notice." Blaise warned.

"What we need to do is prevent harmful mail from reaching you." Pansy suggested. "Something like a filter."

"I will speak to Professor Dumbledore about scanning your mail before it is delivered to you." Professor Snape offered.

"Isn't that an invitation for the lot of you to read my mail? No thanks." Draco said with a sneer. He knew that his mail was already being scanned, but there was no reason to make their work easier by giving his permission.

"Is there something you don't want known Malfoy?" Draco looked at Harry as if he was daft upon hearing that question. "Out of curiosity, why are you here Potter? Shouldn't you be out there figuring a way to help your girlfriend mount a defense against my suit?"

"What are you talking about?" Harry asked snidely.

"Didn't you know, Ginevra Weasley is the Prophet's informant? I have named her in a suit for defamation, the papers should have arrived by now." Harry stared at his 'husband' in shock. What the hell? Why would Ginny do that, and why would Malfoy take it so far?

"You wouldn't dare." Harry intoned, almost warningly.

"I dare Potter. I dare very much." Draco said, as he stood to leave for class. "Make no mistake, you all may think you have a free pass to kick me when I am down, but don't expect me to just sit back and take it till it's over. Ginevra Weasley is a casualty of her own stupidity."

Harry wanted to defend Ginny, but at that moment words escaped him. This was a whole new side of Draco Malfoy, one that he had never seen, and this side of Draco Malfoy unexpectedly scared him.

Uploader's Note: This Has Been A Backup Upload of Chapter 6 of Behind the Fog by Hancock23.