Harry Potter - Series Fan Fiction ❯ Behind the Fog (Backup Upload) ❯ Behind the Fog (Backup Upload) 19th Chapter ( Chapter 19 )

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 Nineteen - Interventions

Harry had not been sure about restarting the DA when they came back for their sixth year, but despite that, all the members still carried the coins wherever they went, and most were surprised when they felt them warm against their bodies. Normally Harry would be the one to call the meeting, but given that he was practically attached to Malfoy, it would not do for him to be present; so Hermione had asked for the summoning coin and called the meeting herself.

When Luna finally arrived, it was to find a roomful of DA members who did not bother to keep the hostility in their eyes hidden when they saw her enter the Room of Requirement. Hostility was not a sentiment that the dreamy girl was used to being directed at her, but she shrugged it off and made to take an empty chair beside Neville, but Ginny stopped her and instead directed her to a chair at the front facing the other members. She took it without a fuss.

"Are we resuming the DA?" She asked.

"Not right away Luna." Hermione answered, a pitying look in her eyes. "We are here to talk to you."

"Talk to me? About what?" The girl seemed genuinely surprised, and that look cemented Hermione's conviction that Luna had really not known what she was doing when she agreed to join the so-called Grey Faction.

"The Grey Faction Luna." Hermione said. "We don't think that you truly understand what you have done. Malfoy's faction is misguided."

"Misguided?"
"She means that it's bloody disloyal of you to join The Grey Faction." Ron spat, a vein pulsating visibly on his forehead. "How can you abandon the light like this?"
"I am not abandoning anything." Luna said.

She did not understand what this was about, because as far as she knew, she had a right as an individual to fight or not to fight. For her, the decision to accompany Harry to the Ministry the previous year, was based on the fact that Harry was her friend rather than the fact that she supported the light. The distinction between light and dark had never been simple to her.

"By joining Malfoy's faction, you will be in direct opposition to Harry." Ginny told her in an impatient voice, that implied that Luna should already know this.

"I don't think so." Luna refuted. "Harry is my friend, but friendship does not mean that I should espouse every thought and belief he has. Don't get me wrong, I will always support Harry on a personal level, but the fight between the light and dark is very political, and I have no intention of taking any sides, because I don't think that the ideals of the light and dark sides are mutually exclusive of each other. I intend to take a neutral stance in this war."

"Don't be fooled Luna, Malfoy is an evil git, and I am sure this faction is really for You-Know-Who." Ginny said knowledgeably, and several DA members nodded their heads in agreement.

"Maybe it would have been the way you think if anyone other than Malfoy led the Grey Faction." Hermione supported the redhead, and Luna began to get angry; an emotion that she rarely felt.

"I am a Ravenclaw, and I did not get sorted into that house by mistake; I am smart enough to realize when I am being had." She said, her dreamy voice a thing of the past. Most of the gathered rolled their eyes, to indicate that they did not believe a word she was saying.

"You may not understand this, but I only joined the Grey Faction because Draco Malfoy is the leader." She continued, shocking the members of the DA even more.

She did not say them, but she knew things about Malfoy that made her trust him. Luna had a gift; a gift that sometimes could be a burden, but a gift that was truly a blessing sometimes. She didn't know how, but she was able to read peoples' emotions from their auras, and Malfoy had always been surrounded by pain, but something must have happened over the summer because pain was all there was to him, and then it had all disappeared in the immediate days before he married Harry.

Luna knew what she knew, but she did not understand why; and although she had always wanted to speak to him, she couldn't. Malfoy was proud, strong, and she had known that attempting to speak to him when she probably couldn't help would not be the best thing for him. Malfoy had a pure soul, a soul battered by life's worst cruelties, but still somehow pure.

She felt something, deep within her that told her she could trust him; and she knew that a person who had known such pain from both the dark and light sides, would be able to take care of people. He would not take people for granted if they followed him, and that was exactly the kind of person she wanted to throw her faith behind.

"What are you saying Luna?" Neville asked.

Neville Longbottom was gentle, kinder than even she was, but his timidity made it hard for him to break away from the herd. Luna had no doubt that he would eventually see what she saw in Draco, but that could not be expected to happen right away when he had always been on the receiving end of Draco's insults and mockery.

"It means that I am in The Grey Faction to stay." She said as she stood up. "I will be leaving now."

"I you're serious; Leave your DA galleon behind." Hermione said, and Luna did not hesitate, she did not think that her life would be easy from now on, but when had it ever been easy? As she walked to the Ravenclaw common room, she felt no regret for the decision she had made. For now, she needed to let Draco know that she knew The Faction was not a joke, and she was ready to do her part. After all, she had seen the excitement and determination in his aura in the days since he had jokingly formed the faction.

Technically, Draco was the one that Dumbledore summoned to his office, but since they could not be apart, Harry went along. It had been only a few days since the faction business began, and things had become tense between them, so much so that they rarely talked despite being joined at the hip and even then, the silence was mostly uncomfortable.

At least now they could be a foot and a half apart, but that was not something to be happy about since it did not afford either of them the privacy they so desired. They wanted to be away from each other more than anything. Harry wanted to be with his friends and girlfriend so that he could try to make sense of the mess that his life had become; and Draco wanted to be more involved with his business. The only thing Draco could be glad about was that the nightmares that had started right after Potter and he returned to the East tower had disappeared like a smoke and mirrors show come to its conclusion.

The gargoyles sprang open the moment the couple approached them, and they hastily took the stairs to the headmaster's office. Every time Draco had been summoned there, Lupin, Black, and Snape were always there; but this time, he recognised most of the Order of the Phoenix who he had met at Grimmauld place over the Christmas break. He raised a questioning brow at no one in particular, but otherwise took to the chairs Dumbledore waved them towards.

"I believe you know why you have been called here today." The Headmaster said, his voice full of disapproval. Neither of the boys spoke or even acknowledged the headmaster's words in any way. "The declaration you made in the Great Hall was quite inappropriate Mr Malfoy."

"Was it?" Draco sneered. "Or was it just inconvenient for you? And what about the declaration about my "unnatural existence" that the Weaselette made?" Draco saw several narrowed Weasley eyes stare at him, and he felt sorry for Bill.

He didn't want him to be caught in the middle of this, and he made a mental note to talk to the man later.

"Mr Malfoy, you must admit that your actions at the very least, have been quite unnatural." The headmaster smirked discreetly, and Draco only noticed it because he was observing the man keenly.

"Your existence?" He shrugged, "Who are we to judge?" Draco was not going to take that lying down.

"Certainly not more so than your "unnatural affair" with dear old Grindewald." Not many people knew that Albus had been in love with the dark wizard before he went on to defeat him, and Draco's statement stunned the room into silence. As he watched Dumbledore twitch in a way that suggested that the older man was fighting against himself to keep from hexing his student into the next century, Draco was glad that at least his father had taken the time to share some of the dirt he had on many influential figures in the Wizarding World.

The Slytherin knew that he had removed the boxing gloves on their interactions, and neither of them would pull their punches from then on, but he wasn't worried. He now had a purpose that extended beyond taking care of himself, and as such, he needed to establish that he would no longer allow himself to be bullied by the headmaster or anyone else for that matter.

"Show some respect boy." Moody growled, and he was evidently not as good at self-controll as the headmaster, because he did attempt to hex Draco, but was stopped by Snape who reminded him that Hogwarts did not punish students by hexing them.

Draco knew that he was treading on thin ice, but for the first time in a while, he felt like he was in control, and he relished it.

"The headmaster could be a millennia old you know, and I would not show him respect. Not because he is not a great wizard, but because I will not show respect to anyone who does not extend the same courtesy to me." He said imperiously.

"Give me something to respect, and I will show you respect in kind, but as of yet, I don't see anything worthy of my respect old man. I don't see why I should be persecuted for deciding to start a faction that does not want to fight."

"I am not crazy enough to risk losing my life for a Wizarding World that will persecute me every second of whatever life I have left to live, from the day after Voldemort falls. The best outcome for me, is if you all killed each other in this war; Then maybe, just maybe, there will be hope for a better world for the few left standing."

"I believe it is truly a pity you feel that way Mr Malfoy." Arthur Weasley said, and he seemed genuinely perturbed that one so young, could be so disillusioned with the light when all they wanted was to rid the world of the monster that was Voldemort.

"My slogan may be 'Safe whichever side wins,' but I am not naïve enough to think that that is how things will go." Draco argued.

"I am more likely to survive if the dark side wins, but it is a given I will not live long enough to see peace return to the wizarding world if the light wins. The moment the light wins this war; I will probably be killed or sent to Azkaban, because I will no longer be of use to Potter, and you all agree that I am not good enough for him."

"The Saviour of the Wizarding World should marry his childhood sweetheart, Ginevra Weasley; and have a horde of brats who look just like them. The poster couple for the coming generation is Potter and Weasley, not Potter and Malfoy. Like something out of a stupid child's fairytale." No one spoke, and some of them even looked guiltily away, but most of the others held to their resolve; and Draco confirmed with that, that his speculation was right.

Only Potter, Tonks, Arthur and Bill, seemed surprised that everyone thought Draco should be killed when they won the war.

"Then you are smart enough to know that even if you manage to survive when the light side wins, you will be brought in front of the Wizengamot for your crimes as the dark lord's paramour." Kingsley Shakelbolt said; and Harry was surprised that the gentle-man he knew did not bother to refute Malfoy's statement and instead was confirming it.

Harry had always thought that he would live with Ginny after the war and although he could not marry her, they could have a life together. He had always pictured Malfoy living his own life somewhere with some unlucky person, and this new revelation made him uncomfortable in ways he had never known before. To him, being light was synonymous with goodness, but no matter how he looked at it; he could not see any good in killing or imprisoning Malfoy after he has outlived his use as Harry's bonded. It seemed dangerously similar to something Voldemort would do.

"Yes, I am more than smart enough to realize that." Draco smiled. "I am also smart enough to realize that the only reason that I am not currently dead is that none of you is sure what will happen to Potter upon my death. This is not a soul mate bond; so he won't die, but he could lose all the power he has gained recently, and it is not guaranteed that another mate will appear." No one refuted his reasoning.

"My Grey Faction will not lend aid to either the light or dark side. From now, I will start thinking about how to survive when the war is over, because I have no intention of being remembered as one of the vanquished by future generations."

"Well said, but good always wins, Mr. Malfoy." Dumbledore said solemnly. "And you have already turned your back on what is good. You will be remembered as a traitor, but you should not allow your fate to touch other people."

Bill was flabbergasted, this was not something he had signed up for. The adults in the room had planned to use and murder a boy of only sixteen, and no one seemed to be very bothered by this fact. No one had ever bothered to ask Draco his side of the story, and even though Bill hadn't asked either, he had known something was off the moment he had met the Malfoy heir for the first time.

Draco was arrogant, there was no denying that, but he had an innocence about him that should have been visible to everyone who came across him, yet it somehow wasn't. He remembered what Snape had said that night at Grimmauld Place and realised that Draco must have really suffered with no one to help him, because everyone already had many misconceptions about how a Malfoy should be.

The boy had no one, and no one was interested in truly knowing him; So he had stopped trying to make them understand. All he was thinking about now was making a world in which he was allowed to exist. A world where he was not rejected by the dark because he was not dark enough for their liking, and a world where he was not rejected by the light because he was supposed to be dark, and no one saw that he wasn't in fact, evil incarnate.

Bill finally understood the meaning of Dragon World. It was Draco's World, and his role in Draco's World began to take on more meaning as he perceived the fatal similarity between the reasoning of both the pre-existing sides of the war. There was no place on either side for people that did not completely espouse the ideals of the factions and for the first time, he began to see the danger for the Wizarding World if either side emerged victorious.

Draco smiled before answering the headmaster latest piece of dribble. "That approach would work on a Gryffindor or on someone more ignorant about the world at large, but I am Slytherin to the bone, and there is nothing ignorant about me. I am ambitious and loyal to those I call friends; and I can promise you this: We will not be remembered as traitors."

"By the end of it all, we will have a place in this world that will allow for our existence, and you will attempt to take that away, but your endeavours will be a practice in futility. The world isn't black and white like you all imagine it to be, like you all pretend it to be, and contrary to the lies you tell yourselves, it needs all sorts of people. Not just the ones who follow Headmaster Dumbledore and Harry Potter or the ones who follow Lord Voldemort."

"There is no point fighting amongst ourselves at this juncture." Remus Lupin spoke surprising everyone. Remus had maintained his silence and to be truthful; he wanted the Malfoy boy to succeed. The situation was not the same, and even though he fought for the light, he still had a lot of resentment against them. It seemed petty, but he wanted someone to succeed where his fellow werewolves had failed.

He wanted someone to challenge the entitlement that the light and dark wizards advocated for at the expense of all other magical beings. "Malfoy and his faction are not an issue at this point; let's not focus on a small battle and end up losing the war." There was reluctant agreement from the others, and Dumbledore dismissed Draco who left with an unhappy Harry in tow.

"Can I speak to you for a moment Draco?" Severus Snape asked when he caught up to him and Harry on their way to the East tower.

Draco motioned for him to enter the tower and Harry moved a foot and a half away to give them as much privacy as could be accorded with the situation as it was. Snape cast muffliato around himself and his godson.

"Is something the matter?" Draco asked, wondering if something had happened with the potions. He knew that Severus must be tired, what with the Order, the Dark Lord, school duties, personal projects, and now even Draco's business.

"Nothing like that." Snape assured. "I am keeping up just fine with the help of Zabini and Parkinson. I must commend you on what you have done with most of those potions."

"Thank you." Draco said with a smile.

"But you are not making any friends Draco." The man said to his godson. "You must be very careful. There was talk about confining you until the bond began acting up." Draco had neglected to think about that option.

"I will be careful." He answered, and he actually meant it.

"Call on me if you need anything." Draco nodded in acknowledgement at that, as Severus cancelled his spell and left the tower after wishing the two boys a goodnight.

Uploader's Note: This Has Been A Backup Upload of Chapter 19 of Behind the Fog by Hancock23.