Lucius Malfoy turned to the reporter. His voice was snooty and slightly hissed as he spoke from the steps of the Gringotts Bank in Diagon Alley. His hair was blonde and he wore a black form fitting suit and a cane with a silver head. Purely for decoration, of course, no upstanding pureblood would allow themselves to be crippled and show any weakness for long. Lucius waved the cane around for emphasis as he answered the reporter’s question.

“Why, I say the ministry ought to investigate Dumbledore in how he’s running that school. My own son was attacked on his first day at Hogwarts! Now, Harry Potter was cursed so I do not blame him of course. It was so severe that he is back at St. Mungo’s yet again. Another failure by the headmaster. How could such a boy have this mysterious curse applied under the headmaster’s watch? Was the boy not entrusted to the man as legal guardian? How could he let his negligence of the school extend to his ward as well?"

"And finally, the vicious attack on that very same Harry Potter three days ago," Lucius Malfoy continued, "I’ve been told he was practically tortured before the professors arrived to intervene. I have spoken to my fellows on the board of Governors, and let me tell you that none of them are happy with the lapses and negligence coming from the administrators of that school.”

The reporter asked another question.

“And what of the ministry? What is your opinion on the upcoming trial of Trevor Drendo and his accomplice?”

Lucius Malfoy sniffed.

“The ministry will uphold justice. But it is unforgivable for a seventh year to attack a first year this way. As purebloods, it is our duty to show and lead the rest of the wizarding world by example. This stains the image of the boy's family and all purebloods by extension. I do not think you will find many sympathetic ears for Trevor Drendo in the Ministry. That will be all, I have business to conduct.”

The reporter bobbed his head.

“Thank you for your time, Mr. Malfoy. Good day.”

With that Lucius Malfoy made his way into the bank. Yet another incident at that school was severely damaging Dumbledore's credibility, and Lucius was pushing his advantage with everything he had. He cursed his boy Draco for provoking Harry Potter yet again. Lucius Malfoy had been able to cover his boy’s tracks for the most part, but if the connection was revealed then Lucius’ whole campaign against Dumbledore would collapse and all the ire of the wizarding world would be redirected towards the Malfoys.

Lucius had commissioned a few professionals to apply the relevant memory charms to Trevor Drendo before he made a statement, but there was still a chance their work would be detected by someone that couldn’t be bribed.

But Draco had only sent the letter with his confession after Lucius had already started making his public statements, so he couldn’t back down now. At least his boy seemed to realize the consequences for him if he was discovered. Expulsion would be the best case in something this severe. Draco was lucky he had made a deal with Harry Potter to hide Draco’s involvement, Lucius was honestly surprised that his son had been able to accomplish it. Perhaps Harry Potter was more cunning than he believed. One did not hold such significant blackmail over a Malfoy often after all.

Lucius followed behind one of the filthy subhuman goblins running this bank into the minecart. Lucius didn’t want to be around any of them any longer than he had to. His lips turned down into a sneer. The cart began to move as it moved towards the Malfoy vault.

Now Harry Potter… Harry Potter was one to watch for now. The boy who defeated the dark lord Voldemort. Perhaps the next dark lord if some in the dark faction were to believed. If Dumbledore had truly been negligent and allowed the boy to be cursed, perhaps the boy could be persuaded to join the dark faction in time. The light faction had certainly done the boy no favors so far.

Not even Lucius was able to discover the exact nature of the boy's curse, St. Mungo’s was bolted down too tight after the Longbottom's recovery. Even the people Lucius had sent to bribe the workers had been rebuffed. Some of the more expendable had even been arrested.

Harry Potter’s blood was mixed, but he still carried the weighty Potter name. If it was framed the right way, he could easily join the dark faction and be accepted by most. Hopefully under the Malfoy family’s wing. But Lucius was getting too far ahead of himself. Draco had to repair their strained relationship first. Harry Potter likely wouldn’t be receptive to any persuasions for years yet.

The goblin opened the Malfoy vault. Lucius went inside and withdrew a large amount of funds that he swept into a moleskin bag. The things were highly useful and could hold almost any amount of currency without growing in size or weight at all. Lucius left the bank and made his way to the ministry. The bag at his side felt heavier, even if he knew it wasn’t really. It soon would get lighter. Lucius had a lot of bribes to pay after all. A smear campaign didn’t fund itself.

— — —

Luckily, Harry didn’t sleep for multiple days this time. It was the morning after the attack that he woke up confused in the hospital wing. Unfortunately, the first faces that Harry saw were not his friends, but Draco Malfoy. Harry pulled out his wand and pointed it at him.

Draco shifted and spoke before Harry could cast a spell.

“Wait! I didn’t mean for it to go that way. I just thought they’d scare you a bit, not… do all of that. They were crazy. I can’t be discovered to be involved or I’ll be expelled at least.”

Harry shrugged. Why should he care about this? Things would certainly be easier if the boy was gone.

Draco continued swiftly onward as he saw Harry’s indifference.

“One of your friends betrayed you. Just don’t say I was there, and I’ll tell you who it was. And I won’t bother you again. I won’t be able to with you holding this over me.”

Harry considered. He didn’t believe that any of his friends would betray him now. Draco had to be lying. It would be much easier to just tell the truth and get him expelled. Harry gave Draco a thumbs down. The boy began to panic.

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“Er, look! I have evidence, a note…”

He pulled it out and handed it to Harry.

Draco continued.

“Someone slipped that into my pocket without me noticing. Granger is good enough at the levitation charm to do it if she wanted to. I didn’t want this to happen, I’m telling you!”

Harry read the note. He crumpled it in his fist. How could she tell Draco those things? Had everything up to this point been an act? But he had to focus on the current situation first. Harry mimicked writing something down.

Draco handed him some parchment in confusion and Harry wrote his response. Draco stared at it for a second.

“Not enough? What else do you want? I still have enough time to tell everyone what is in that note before I get kicked out, you know?”

His tone was nervous and his voice broke a little at the end, not seeming confident in his threat.

Harry tapped his chin and thought about it. What did he want? It really was easiest to get Draco expelled. Draco had handed over the note without any agreement to a deal by Harry, so Harry didn’t feel obligated to help him at all. And Draco was desperate now, but would he still be later? Harry considered more before he wrote down his demands.

Draco looked at them for a long second.

“Are you serious? The first two I get, but what even does this third one mean?”

Harry took back the parchment. It seems Draco didn’t know the word ‘Kowtow’. That was fair, Harry had only known it because he had seen it in one of those old samurai movies at the Dursley's. He had been curious and had his Uncle explain it to him. Harry wrote an explanation for it along with the apology chant and handed the parchment back to Draco.

Realizing what Harry meant, the boy’s face grew red and he gritted his jaw. After some hesitation, Draco sank to his knees and leaned forward to put his head on the stone floor so Harry could hardly see him from the edge of the hospital bed.

“I apologize to Harry Potter, the greatest wizard alive. How idiotic of me to dare attack someone so perfect. I was small minded and foolish.”

He raised his head and sat up, it looked like each word was being physically dragged from his lips.

“I apologize.”

His head touched the floor again. “I apologize to Harry Potter, the greatest wizard alive. How idiotic of me to dare attack someone so perfect. I was small minded and foolish.”

Heh.

Harry couldn’t resist a slight smile as Draco repeated the process seven times. No wonder they shouted so much about honor in that movie if they had to do this any time they messed something up. Draco looked so humiliated even if it was just the two of them and a very confused Madame Pomfrey eying them from the opposite side of the room. Eventually, Draco was finished with the apology and got to his feet, his face bright red. He brushed some dust from the knees of his robes.

“Happy, Potter? I can’t believe I actually did that.”

Harry widened his smile and gave a big thumbs up. Revenge was sweet, and it had been pretty cool to see the whole kowtow thing in real life versus just a movie.

Harry held up his two fingers and Draco nodded.

“Fine. Now you’re done humiliating me, I can do those other two things. I’ll tell you if anyone in Slytherin wants to attack you again. And I won’t tell anyone what’s in that note. So, will you forget I was ever involved with that thing now?”

Harry considered. Should he have asked for more? But he really couldn’t think of anything else other than money. And Harry had plenty of money already. Harry gave Draco a thumbs up and the boy sighed in relief. He stood there for a moment.

“Is there anything else, Potter?”

Harry shook his head and then Draco left, taking his parchment with him. Harry could only unfold the note in Hermione’s handwriting and read it again. What should he do?

— — —

Harry’s friends had been very worried and came to visit him later in the day. After class though, it was Monday and classes didn’t get canceled. It seems that Draco hadn’t cared about that when he came to visit Harry. Dumbledore had given some sort of speech at the morning feast explaining the situation to the school.

Oddly enough none of Harry’s friends mentioned anything about the thestrals. Unfortunately, none of his friends seemed to have remembered that he didn’t have a pad of parchment on him right now so he couldn’t ask or tell them anything. Hermione was the one that finally noticed his problem. Harry was still conflicted about what he should do with the note burning a hole in his pocket.

“Oh! Sorry Harry, we should get you some parchment.”

She rustled around in her bag.

“That would be good. It is quite irritating being unable to respond properly.” Harry said.

Everyone looked up.

“What?” Harry said.

Ron gestured at Harry,

“Mate, we can understand you. You’re speaking English again.”

Harry blinked.

“That’s good," He said, "I guess getting randomly attacked at school led to something good after all. It seems I can’t be in Hogwarts for even a few days without something else happening.”

Ron shook his head.

“It’s not that bad, mate. You had a quiet two weeks after school started. And that whole curse stuff had nothing to do with you anyways. And the bloke that attacked you was a criminal. They’re having a trial and everything. Apparently he did all sorts of other nasty stuff too once the Aurors started looking. He was arrested this morning. What happened anyways? People are saying all sorts of things…”

Harry was about to speak but suddenly the Headmaster walked through the doors. Everyone turned to look at him as he strode towards Harry.

The man peered down at Harry’s friends,

“Now, I’d like to speak to young Harry about last night's events myself if you don’t mind. I’m sure you all have some homework to do or enjoy the great weather we're having today. Harry will be just fine here after getting some well deserved rest.”

Taking the hint, Harry’s friends left.

Dumbledore stood next to Harry’s bed. “How are you feeling, my boy? Ah wait, I have it right here…”

The headmaster was about to draw some parchment from his cloak before Harry spoke.

“Just fine Headmaster. It seems I have recovered my voice.”

“Oh my.” The headmaster responded, “This is wonderful news. I’m sure you can’t wait to sing loud for the world to hear. But let’s get the unpleasantness out of the way first. Tell me what happened last night.”

Harry told the story as much as he remembered. Only leaving out the parts when he understood the thestrals somehow and Draco’s role in everything. Harry had a deal after all. When he finished, Dumbledore was stroking his beard.

“Quite disturbing, disturbing indeed. To think older students would abuse their knowledge to take advantage of a first year. I suspected this was the case, but thank you for the confirmation. The ministry has already been informed as of this morning. How unfortunate, yet another incident… Ah, well. A speedy recovery to you, Harry.”

Dumbledore went to leave before stopping and clearing his throat and turning back to Harry.

“Ah, Harry. Could you leave out any mention of the thestrals to the Ministry? No matter the reason, a beast attacking a wizard can be a cause to put them down. We wouldn’t want that to happen when they only appeared to be defending you.”

Harry nodded vigorously.

“Of course Headmaster. I would never do anything that would harm them after they helped me like that. Thank you for the warning.”

Dumbledore frowned at Harry,

“Hmmmm. Is that so? Well, anyways. Time for me to be off.”

With that, Dumbledore strode out the doors to the hospital wing.