Living in Darkness

AN/ Okay, I'm really sorry I took forever with this chapter, but I have been iffy about it for awhile. I think it is terribly boring but necessary nonetheless. I finally decided that this is the direction I want to take in the story and I really hope you guys like it!! Draco, in my opinion, is going kinda soft which I was trying to avoid, but this is how it will have to be. He is restructuring how his mind works because Hermione... everything he does now is for her. This is a key thing to remember throughout the rest of the story. It is what will determine all of Draco's actions from here on out.

Thanks sooooooo much to those of you who reviewed!!! I love them so much!!! Many of you guys have influenced the story by your input!! The big one being how the story will end... Dreamingstar somehow rewrote that one for me, lol. But all of you guys are awesome and I can't believe you are reading my fic when there are ones out there that are so much better!! For all of you guys who like dark Draco a lot, I just HAVE to recommend the dramione fics by Krya4 (she's in my favorites) and over on AdultFanfiction.net the story Contrast. It is very long, but worth the read. I love Draco in that story. I wouldn't take the time to recognize them here if I didn't think they were awesome!!! So check them out!!!

Okay, here it goes...

Chapter 18: The Advantages of Dark Magic

Hermione,

Ever since I stepped foot inside Hogwarts, my life has only been a false ideology. I justified my actions through this façade and committed acts that only one in my position could have. I never truly understood that life could be different until you were thrust into my own. I wasn't even alive until I was with you... and now I leave you so that I can right the wrongs I have created. The world is in chaos because of my actions. Before my father died, he left with me a very interesting bit of knowledge. I am going to take full advantage of this and try to make things right.

There is a vial on your nightstand. Drink this, and just maybe you will remember me.

Draco

Hermione looked over to her nightstand. A small glass vial sat full of purple shimmering liquid. She felt a tear slide down her cheek as she pulled out the cork and drained the contents without question.

XXX

Draco looked around. The bank was enormous. He didn't even know it was here. "The Swiss Wizarding Bank," was emblazoned in gold lettering across the wall. He ignored the strange attention he was receiving from the staff as he made his way into the vaults. After several minutes of walking he finally found vault 625369. He pressed his hand into the door and it vanished.

Once inside Draco glanced around. He looked at the table in the center of a room with bookcases lining the walls and stepped up to it. There were numerous ancient scrolls lying about the table. Each looked to be thousands of years old. Just like his father's memory.

While he vaguely knew what they said, Draco still spent hours reading the scrolls and could hardly believe it. This was how dark magic brought back people from the dead. He knew his father had a lot of ancient dark items, but never would Draco have guessed he had this.

These documents dated back to the early days of wizardry and Merlin himself had actually signed one of the scrolls. Draco had heard of this before, that Merlin developed a way to bring people back from the other side, but deemed it too risky and from that point on it was considered dark magic.

Draco let out a hollow laugh. All it looked like to him was time travel... just slightly different. Instead of turning back time, this was simply restoring a specific time and recreating it. All matter would be forced to return to exactly as it was at that point in time, therefore, bringing back the dead and killing the new living. Draco's thoughts turned to his son. He hated it, but it had to be done. He had created too much pain... he had to change it. And if things went right... he would still have him...

He picked up a vial just like he had left Hermione and swallowed it.

Here goes nothing.

XXX

-Three Months After Dumbledore's Death - The night Arthur Weasley died-

The sudden cold air of the night caught Draco off guard as it pierced his lungs. He opened his eyes to look down a dark alleyway.

"Do you see them?" Draco asked Blaise.

Blaise shook his head as he continued to peer down the alley.

"There they go," Blaise muttered, casting a shield charm.

"You get the son... I'll take Arthur out," Draco said steadily. He had planned this after all; he should be the one to take out that annoying muggle lover.

Blaise nodded and stepped out of the alcove and shouted a curse at Bill Weasley, hitting him in the back causing Molly and Arthur to turn around, suddenly alert. Draco raised his wand, the killing curse on the tip of his tongue, when he felt his head begin to ache like he had been hit with a bludger. He had an invisibility cloak on and thankfully wasn't hit by Arthur's curses. Draco stared in disbelief as Arthur and Molly grabbed Bill and disapparated.

Draco continued to stare at the spot he so vividly recalled Arthur Weasley lying dead... Every memory from his life that had transpired after that point flooded his mind.

It worked...

Blaise was staring at him, his eyes full of anger as he slowly became irate.

"What the hell were you doing, Draco? Now we are both in deep shit... SHIT... Damnit Malfoy what the fuck were you thinking?!?" Blaise shouted, looking at him like he was the biggest fool he had ever seen in his life.

Hermione's face appeared before his eyes, his son... everything was coming back to him...

As Draco continued to ignore Blaise in his revelations, he punched him hard in the shoulder.

"What the fuck was that for?" Draco said, finally looking over at him. As soon as Draco's eyes hit his, he recalled that night... that night he had taken Hermione from his grasp... He had the urge to kill him on the spot... but he had to maintain control. He had to do this right, or he would fuck up everything.

"Draco, the Dark Lord is going to be furious... What happened?" Draco looked down at his hands, trying to come up with something convincing.

"Blaise, what would you say if I told you that I knew for a fact that Potter will defeat the Dark Lord?" Blaise simply stared at Draco dumbfounded for several seconds before answering.

"I'd tell you, you have completely lost it... Draco, you're going to get yourself killed saying things like that aloud..." Blaise said, walking off down the alley.

"I'm off for now, I will meet you back at the castle. I at least need a few drinks before we get Cruciod to death."

Draco watched him walk off with a smirk on his face before he touched his portkey.

XXX

Ginny sat on the couch at Grimmauld Place admiring her shining engagement ring. She simply couldn't believe how Harry had changed his mind and asked her to marry him. It wasn't as if she was going back to school. She felt herself begin to smile widely at her upcoming wedding. It was going to be a quiet, small affair of course. Harry was rather busy. He was actually gone right now with Ron and Hermione retrieving memories to find a horcrux.

Her smile faded. Everything was so unfair. This war was simply overbearing to them all, especially Harry. He was always so tired now. Ginny heard the door open and smiled thinking they were finally back.

But she couldn't have been more wrong.

Bill, carried between Arthur and Molly came into Grimmauld Place looking very stressed indeed.

"Mum, what happened, is Bill alright?" Ginny asked, standing up, her face falling when she saw Bill unconscious.

"Ginny, find Hermione... she may be able to heal him. We are going to take him to St. Mungo's," Mrs. Weasley said hurriedly. Ginny nodded and grabbed her cloak as she ran out the door. She had a vague idea where they had gone as she tried to get out of the main street when she felt someone grab her forcefully and place a body bind on her.

"Long time no see Ginny. You could have at least owled me afterwards," a dark voice chuckled.

Ginny felt her blood chill as she recognized that voice. It was Blaise. She tried to struggle out of his grip, but couldn't move. A tear slipped down her frozen face as Blaise disapparated with her tightly in his grasp.

XXX

Harry, Ron and Hermione stumbled into Grimmauld place chattering amongst themselves.

"That guy was such a tosser Harry,why did you think he would have any useful memories again?" Ron said as he laughed, recalling the day's excitement.

"Yeah, really Harry, he was a bit odd..." Hermione said, a grin plastered on her face.

"Oh come on guys, I'm trying here," Harry said, laughing for the first time in several months.

So far, since Dumbledore had died, things had been pretty smooth. They had made progress on the horcrux search and there hadn't been any attacks...

Harry walked into the kitchen and found a note from Mrs. Weasley. He read it quickly and the grin slid off his face the more he read.

"Ron, Hermione, get in here..."

"What is it Harry?" Hermione asked as she entered the kitchen, looking around for Ginny.

"Hermione, Bill was attacked in London... Mr. & Mrs. Weasley took him to St. Mungo's..." Harry handed her the letter.

She took it and scanned the letter quickly looking back up to Harry just as Ron came in the door.

"We have to get to St. Mungo's," Hermione said and Harry nodded.

"What's going on?" Ron asked, seeing the grave looks on his best friend's faces.

"Ron, Bill has been attacked and is at St. Mungo's," Hermione said, already grabbing the floo powder and shoving it into his hand.

"Come on."

Within moments they arrived at the front desk in St. Mungo's and found Bill's location.

As they approached the room in the white corridor, Mrs. Weasley rounded the corner and spotted them.

"Oh, kids, I'm so glad you got here... Where is Ginny?" she asked, looking around for her.

Hermione shook her head saying, "We thought she would be here with you... She's not here?" Mrs. Weasley shook her head.

"She went to find you. She wasn't at Grimmauld Place?"

"No... she must still be trying to find us. I'm sure she'll turn up soon. How is Bill?" Mrs. Weasley frowned as she gestured them into the hospital room.

Bill lie on the bed with Mr. Weasley at his side.

"Hermione, can you do anything?" Hermione looked up at her.

"What curse was he hit with?" she asked.

"I don't know, we couldn't hear them, they came out of no where," she said, looking over at Bill.

"Did you see who it was?" Harry asked. Mrs. Weasley frowned as she looked over to Arthur.

"Arthur thinks he saw one of them... but he must be confused," Mrs. Weasley said, receiving a glare from her husband.

"It was Malfoy... Lucius's son. I saw him very clearly; he had his wand pointed right at me and for some reason he lowered it just as Molly grabbed me and disapparated. It was the strangest thing... he could have killed me easily," he finished, looking back over to Bill.

Hermione found that very strange... she hadn't heard much about Malfoy since him and Snape fled that night three months ago. Snape had seemed to just disappear too.

XXX

Draco felt the familiar jerk behind his navel and opened his eyes when he felt the ground beneath him.

New York wasn't all it was cracked out to be, he decided. He much preferred London...

Draco's thoughts were verified as someone slammed into his shoulder and walked past without a word.

"Damn Americans," he muttered, glaring at those near him.

Draco managed to make his way to the wizarding part of New York through a pub he found strangely charming called Yesterday's.

He went past the barstools and ascended the stairs and went to the window which Draco touched the tip of his wand to and muttered, "Faction Alley."

The window disappeared and was replaced with a door that Draco pulled open. Once he stepped through he was pleased to see things looked relatively normal.

He recalled how Hermione told him that New York was the first to fall under control of the Death Eater Organization. It had only been a month since Draco had began the Serpent's Lair, it was currently growing steadily... but he was about to change that.

Draco discreetly made his way to Ministry of Magic and entered the enormous building.

"I need to speak to the Minister, it is urgent," Draco said to the receptionist.

The witch smiled at him and replied, "You mean, the President."

Draco looked at her with a dry smile.

"No, I mean the Minister. If you American's so ridiculously insist that the muggle revolution had any effect on the wizarding society, then go ahead, I could care less, but rest assured, I know more about your own nation than you do. Now, if you don't mind, direct me to the Minister's office."

The witch shifted uncomfortably in her chair as she grimaced at Draco.

"He is busy at the moment, you will have to wait."

"Do you want to be responsible for the deaths of several innocent muggles who are currently herd against their will in this city."

She looked at Draco with nothing less than a scowl.

"Fine, you can explain to him why you are barging into his office. Down the hall. You can't miss it."

Draco left without another glance in her direction as he quickly made his way to the office.

There were very few witches and wizards in the America's before the British muggles decided to go there. The wizarding government set up an establishment there to control the wizards who decided to go to America.

Draco rolled his eyes as he saw a gold label on the door that read, President. At some point, the British Wizarding Ministry had decided to become their own government, something that irritated the pureblood society severely. He opened the door without knocking.

The President looked up from his desk surprised that Draco had entered his room.

Draco walked into the room and stood in front of his desk without sitting down and started to pace.

"There is an organization within this city that has been started by the same organization fashioning themselves as the Death Eater's," Draco said looking at his directly now, "You have heard of them?"

The man nodded, still in shock.

"This organization is going to strike and overturn this, if you really call it this, government. This (Draco pulls out a memory ball) will detail how to get into the Serpent's Lair. If you strike unexpectedly, you should cause an immediate panic and disbanding of the organization, preventing any attacks that are sure to happen if you ignore this. Do you understand?" Draco asked, stopping his relentless pacing and looking at the man. The second he nodded, Draco touched his portkey and disappeared.

The man sat in shock for several moments staring at the space this strange young and obviously very British man stood before him. He picked up the memory and saw it flash before his eyes.

Fear danced in his eyes as he picked up his quill and wrote a message to his secretary ordering the Head of the Auror Department to see him immediately.


XXX

AN/ Review!!!!! And check out my new story, "Break You Down." It's going to be WAY shorter than this. Like not over 6000 words maybe.

Okay, hope everyone is enjoying Order of the Phoenix. I am pathetically trying to download it on the internet. Sigh, lol. I CAN'T see it here!!!!!! It sucks!!! I will get to see it on the 20th though. And then, holy shit, Deathly Hollows comes out!

I don't know about you guys, but I just like all of a sudden, got REALLY psyched about it coming out. All I can think about now is what is going to happen to Draco!?!

OMG, I'm so pumped!!! Can't wait to talk to everyone about it after it comes out!!

See ya! Hopefully next update won't take forever, but I do have a horrible 20 hour trip coming up on Monday I have to pack for. I hate trips, I just like getting to where I am going, lol. Long flights suck!