CHAPTER 15
“Fuck me.” Harry couldn’t help the words that tumbled out of his mouth as he stared up at Draco. The blonde Malfoy had grown up, his pale features and distinguished face still unmistakably Draco, but with a hardened edge about him. The weasel little boy Harry had once known was now a wizard of considerable height and stature. There were subtle differences from his father however, where Lucius had favored his hair long, his son appeared to prefer it short in a modern looking cut. Draco too had a neatly trimmed mustache and what Harry and the boys at the club referred to often as designer stubble, not long enough to be a beard but enough to be noticeable. It gave Draco a distinguished rugged kind of handsome look that Harry unwittingly envied. Edward laughed at Harry’s muttered comment but Draco merely rolled his eyes in disgust of Harry’s turn of phrase.
“Godfather, it’s nice to see you.” Draco directed his attention to Snape and Harry spared the potions professor a glance to see if Snape was as surprised as he was at Draco’s appearance. It was somewhat troubling in Harry’s opinion that Snape did not appear to be surprised at all and he watched as the potions professor inclined his head towards Draco in silent reply.
“Oh come now Severus don’t be all moody. You knew his father promised him to a Riddle, you just didn’t realize which one.” Edward laughed loudly as he looked up at Draco who dutifully smiled at his partners joke before turning his gaze back on Harry, where he had been staring at him in silence since he stepped up to the table. “It’s a tradition you know of yourself Severus, I believe you were once promised to an elder wizard by your own father were you not? You were brought up to respect these traditions Snape don’t deny it, its what’s kept you in your place for the past 40 odd years of your life. The Snape family name demands that you respect the breeding in which you have been brought up. Can you imagine a world where those values that were instilled upon you as a child were common place amongst our families once again?” Edward was smiling up at Draco, their hands still linked together on Edward’s shoulder.
“And this is your plan to reinstate a Malfoy onto the wizard council and manipulate the laws to suit yourselves? There will be outcry against you. Thousands will be displaced if you succeed.” Snape spoke coolly his gaze not leaving Draco or Edward’s. Edward huffed contemptibly and shrugged his shoulders.
“There will always be those who choose not to conform Severus; we will simply push them back onto their side of the wall where they belong. Most however will see what we do is for their own best interest, to ensure magic is preserved in its purest of forms.” Snape nodded and stood up abruptly pulling Harry up to his feet as well by a hand on his shoulder.
“And what of yourself Edward Riddle? I believe your own family tree is tainted by muddied waters? You are no pureblood like Draco here?” Snape looked his godson in the eye before glancing back at Edward in disgust.
“Indeed I am no pureblood and will make no move to hide it. That is what makes me a very good spokesperson for our cause, a mixed blood who is willing to self-sacrifice to see magic preserved through pureblood rule.” Edward smiled at Snape, satisfied that he’d gotten his message across. He was going to manipulate the wizarding world into believing the changes in laws were for their own good. Most ordinary wizards and witches would not realize what was happening until it was too late.
“I think we are done here. If this is what you are doing then my presence at these occasions is no longer required or necessary and I will ignore any such summons you demand of me. I was your father’s puppet through my own fault but to you I owe no loyalty at all. The Snape family upholds all of the traditions you speak of but we do not and will not uphold them at the expense of other people’s lives.” Snape grabbed Harry’s upper arm as he turned to walk them both towards the door and freedom. Harry stumbled as he practically ran to keep up with the strides of his elder. Glancing over his shoulder Harry watched as Edward stood calmly from his seat at the table and rolled up the right sleeve of his own robe.
“Oh my alchemist you’re very much mistaken, you are quite important to this cause. I would not have left you alive for no reason.” Harry tried to pull Snape to a stop and turn around, but by the time Snape had looked at Harry and seen the fear in his eyes it was too late. In a language Harry had never heard before, Edward grasped his right forearm with his left hand, the electric crackle of magic engulfing the room instantly. Before Harry could react Snape was screaming in pain, his body dropping to his knees like a sack of potatoes onto the dirty floor of the pub. Harry wasn’t sure of the curse that currently held the elder wizard but judging from the way Snape clutched desperately to his forearm that it was a curse that had been delivered through the dark mark. Unarmed and powerless against magic Harry didn’t know what he could do. Fortunately the Gryffindor bravery made him step forward back into the pub his fists clenched at his sides.
“Stop it! You’re killing him!” Harry yelled at the top of his voice and was somewhat surprised when Edward did as he was asking, lowering his arms and ending the curse on Snape. Snape slumped forward on his knees his head practically touching floor as he struggled to breath in the aftermath of the curse. Harry tried to keep calm as he watched Edward casually flick his hand at the table in front of him. The table and chairs flipped and smashed over against the bar, leaving Edward an unhindered path to stalk predatorily over to where Harry was standing. Harry noted with rising fear that Edward had used wandless magic effortlessly.
“You see Harry, how I can still bring them to their knees before me.” Edward gestured around at the crowd and Harry noted that all of the patrons in the pub had fallen to their knees, some in pain having experienced the same curse Snape had just experienced but most in blind submission to the powerful wizard standing before them.
“It’ll be a cold day in hell before I kneel to you. I didn’t for your father and I won’t do it for you.” Harry spat in Edwards face watching as the wizard regarded him with a cold malicious stare as he reached up with the sleeve of his robe to wipe the spit away.
“I would not expect anything else Potter, in fact I’m counting on it.” Edward paused and smiled cruelly before stepping around Harry and over to where Snape was knelt, still trying to recover. Harry’s fists tightened impossibly at his side as he watched Edward lean down over Snape, brutally grabbing the elder wizards black hair and tearing it up so that the potions professor was forced to look up at him. “But I can make him kneel Potter. I can make him doing anything I want. He is the tool which I will use to keep you in line. I need you to be just who you are Harry Potter, wizarding world’s savior devoid of magic, powerless and the muggle worlds whore. It lends itself very nicely to swaying the votes towards my choice for Minister of Magic. When the world realizes that the great Harry Potter has lost everything self-preservation and fear will drive them towards us. Us who are offering a way to save their own magic from befalling the fate of your own.” Harry looked away from Edward’s gaze into Severus onyx eyes, hooded in pain and anguish. The potions professor had given up everything in his own life to protect Harry’s, there was no way Harry would risk Severus life just to stop Edward and Draco. Edward of course knew this and dropped Severus hair allowing the elder wizard to fall forward again, after he’d seen recognition and acceptance flash in Harry’s green gaze. “I thought you’d see it my way. Stupid Gryffindor pride. Alice!’ Edward straightened his robes as he clicked his fingers again. Harry was not surprised in the least when he saw Lupin’s ex-girlfriend appear from one of the booths on the side of the pub.
“I believe you know my half-sister Alice.” Edward kissed his sister on the cheek and Harry sneered quietly to himself as wondered just how much Edward had manipulated his friends and family in the past 8 years that he’d been gone. “On my mother’s side of course. I did mention mother was Elvan, didn’t I?” Edward chuckled as steepled his hands together in front of his face, a short sharp crackle of magic a very clear indication that Edward had inherited his mother’s Elvan talent for wandless magic. “Alice be a dear and help Professor Snape and Mr. Potter back to Diagon Alley. I am sure they can find someone willing to apparate them home from there. Severus appears to be too unwell to manage by himself, and we all know magic is not Mr. Potter’s strong point anymore.” The gathered crowd laughed now, a bitter smug laugh that made Harry’s toes curl in anger. Deep within himself Harry felt it the tingle of magic he’d felt when he’d faced down Dumbledore in the entrance hall to Hogwarts earlier this evening. Edward was too busy admiring Draco across the room to notice Harry move. Blinded by rage Harry swept forward and with one almighty blow from his first struck Edward across the face. The sickening snap of bone crunching against bone echoed as Harry drew back again this time using all his strength to hit Edward again. In slow motion Edward fell backwards blood pouring from his nose and mouth as he stared up at Harry in shock. Harry managed a smile as he stared down at Edward’s prone form on the floor. No one had moved with the shock of it all.
“Without magic maybe but I can still fight bitch.” Harry breathed out carefully. The moment it seemed was broken and at Harry’s words people began to move towards him intent on violence. Harry knew better than to hang around and he launched himself on top of Snape who having seen the incident unfold had removed the wand from the sleeve of his robe.
“Now Severus Now!” Harry screamed as he clutched tightly to the elder wizard pinned beneath him. With a whispered charm and a flick of his wand Harry and Snape disappeared from the pub with a sharp pop, leaving chaos in their wake.
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A/N Enjoy :) And remember let me know what you think?
