It was eleven in the morning when Narcissa arrived at the south side of Diagon Alley. This place had many shops, but while the North side had most of the shops related to Hogwarts, wands and books, this South side was more focused on restaurants, cafes and such. Many people came to the South side after shopping on the North side; they would rest while chatting with friends over coffee or eating a nice lunch.
And although the atmosphere was more relaxed and calm, Narcissa couldn't help but feel nervous as she moved her eyes observing the people walking down the street or those sitting at tables outside a restaurant or cafe.
She walked carefully, but trying not to draw attention to herself with her nervousness. It didn't take long to arrive at the place that the menu told her: Morgan's Cafe. It was a cafe that wasn't too big, but it seemed popular with the people that could be seen inside from the windows or some sitting at tables just to the side. When she walked in, she saw the decor and the purple walls, it looked a little extravagant, but it gave it a rather original feel compared to other cafes in the area. The tables were neatly arranged and there were quite a few people.
"Good morning, what would you like to drink?" a waitress walked towards Narcissa, catching her eye with her pretty, yet old-fashioned dress, even by the current standards of wizards in Britain. It looked a little like something out of a fairy tale.
"I'm waiting for someone. She told me she'd be at the last table on the right."
"Ah..." the waitress blinked before nodding and extending her left hand to the side. "She's already sitting at the table waiting. You can go, but are you sure you don't want anything?"
"A cup of tea would be nice."
The waitress nodded with a smile before turning around as Narcissa walked to where the waitress pointed. The tables on that side were a little different, there were three in a row right next to the wall, but divided by thin walls, like cubicles. The table where a woman was sitting was right next to the window, so it had a view of the street outside.
Narcissa walked towards the table, but stopped when she saw who the woman was.
"Madame Bones?"
Amelia Bones turned her head and was surprised to see Narcissa walking towards her.
"Mrs. Malfoy, what are you doing here?"
"That's my line, Madame. I received a letter from you to come here, right to this specific table," Narcissa frowned and spoke coldly. Her fear had disappeared a little when she saw Madame Bones.
"Letter?" Amelia looked at the table, more specifically a letter right next to her coffee cup.
"It seems someone else planned this, Mrs. Malfoy. Like you, I received a letter to come to this specific place and table," Amelia narrowed her eyes as she looked in front of her, where another cup of coffee was sitting.
Narcissa frowned and looked over at where Amelia was looking, noticing the cup of coffee, and widening her eyes in surprise to see it stand up on its own before it leaned over slightly, as if someone was drinking from it.
"It seems like it won't show itself if you don't sit down, Mrs. Malfoy," Amelia commented.
Narcissa looked around the seemingly empty place, before deciding to take a seat. She grabbed a chair before picking it up and moving it back a little. She used her hand to move her dress a little and sit more comfortably.
The moment Narcissa sat down, the table fell silent. No one said anything. Only the voices of the people around them could be heard. Narcissa was getting fed up with waiting, but was interrupted when a hand placed a cup of tea in front of her.
"Your tea, ma'am."
"Thank you..." Narcissa looked at the table and nodded before thanking. She was about to take the cup of tea, but noticed that all the sounds coming from the surroundings disappeared completely. Her hand stopped halfway to her mouth and she looked at Amelia immediately, noticing that she also seemed a little surprised.
"No one will hear us now, ladies," the third person's voice sounded, drawing the attention of the two women. Turning their heads, they were now looking at a young teenager. He was dressed in a black suit, white shirt, and black tie. On his shoulders rested a black coat that looked to be of very good quality. His hair was a little messy, but combed a little just seemed to add a little charm to it. However, his green eyes were the most striking thing.
She placed her hand gently on his chest and with her fingers slightly outstretched, she lowered her head slightly.
"Harry James Potter, ladies. It's a pleasure to meet you."
"Harry Potter..." Amelia said, repeating the name of the boy-who-lived, as if she was making sure that the person in front of her was really him. Amelia hadn't seen him personally, but her niece had described him a bit, although those descriptions seemed a bit off.
If Amelia was a bit surprised, Narcissa was even more so. The letter she received clearly let her know that the one who sent it knew about the things that had currently happened in her home.
"You... it was you... that man in black..." Narcissa said with clear disbelief. Her eyes seemed to tremble a bit as she looked at Harry Potter's figure.
"Man in black?" Amelia asked curiously.
Harry simply smiled before answering, "Ah, I was a bit disguised when I attacked Malfoy Manor. But it was necessary, I didn't want Voldemort to realize who was attacking him in his lair."
Narcissa turned completely pale at that moment. She could feel Amelia's gaze on her.
"What does that mean, Mrs. Malfoy?"
Narcissa simply looked away.
"Don't blame her too much, Madam Bones. Her foolish husband is responsible. And you have very little to no options when the Dark Lord is living in your house and causing fear with his presence alone. And if you add to that the fact that his son is being pressured to join him, then you're going to be pretty desperate and at a loss for what to do."
"You heard that..." Narcissa said as she closed her eyes for a moment. She wasn't stupid, every word that came out of Harry's mouth told her that he had overheard her conversation with Draco.
Amelia frowned as she looked between Narcissa and Harry, who looked very calm as he drank some coffee.
"Why did you attack Malfoy Manor? You walked right into the Dark Lord's lair," Amelia asked a little forcefully, clenching her hand into a fist under the table.
"The main objective was to take out Peter Pettigrew. The secondary objective was to scare Voldemort a little," Harry answered without holding anything back, but from the corner of his eye he noticed Narcissa's body trembling a little at the word Voldemort.
"You lied to me. You sent your house elf saying that you were attacked by Voldemort."
"And if I had told you the truth, then you wouldn't have acted so quickly with the rat thing."
"I'll be honest with you, Madame Bones," Harry narrowed his eyes a little as he looked at the head of the DMLE.
"I don't care if they suffer or die. They've each done terrible things, and they have thoughts you can't even imagine."
"For example..." Harry raised his hand and extended it towards Narcissa, "You know that Lucius Malfoy is not a good person and uses money to profit from many things. But what you don't know is that he is guilty of the deaths of some members of the Black Family. Poisoning and murder, extortion, rape, torture and more."
"The worst of all is that Lucius Malfoy could be considered a good person if you compare him to the most depraved Death Eaters."
"Why would I stop my life to mourn the deaths of these people?" Harry asked coldly.
"When I made my visit to Malfoy Manor, I had no intention of killing anyone, but I would defend myself without a problem. And by the way, how are those guys? Jugson and Nott were their names, right?" Harry looked at Narcissa as she spoke of this.
"That other guy also died from your husband's killing curse. What was his name again... Purrta? Pyrrta? Perrty?
"Pyrite?" Amelia asked as she clenched her hands tightly under the table. She understood Harry's feelings, as his family was killed in the previous war. She especially remembered the death of his brother and his wife, the parents of Susan, his niece. But the ease with which Harry spoke left her a little angry.
"That's it! That was the name!" Harry nodded before taking the coffee cup and drinking some more.
"Why did you call me? Why did you want to meet?" Narcissa asked through slightly clenched teeth. "Do you just want to mock me? Threaten me?"
"Of course not!" Harry shook his head.
"I told you just now, didn't I? Your husband killed members of the House of Black, and that wasn't Voldemort's order. Voldemort's order was for Bellatrix to kill Arcturus Black."
"Do you want a house to live in with your son without being hunted? I can offer you that, I can even put wards on that house. I'll give you something for Draco to protect himself from as well. But in return, I want you to tell Madame Bones everything."
Harry placed his forearm on the table and leaned slightly towards Narcissa.
"The names of all the Death Eaters you know. The plans you've heard from Voldemort, locations, things that happened in the first war. Tell him everything and I'll help protect you."
"You can't just promise things without asking me!" Amelia exclaimed angrily.
"But you know it's useful information. Let's not even talk about the possibility of catching these people, you could even get Cornelius Fudge removed from his post, so that someone much better could be Minister. That would not only make things a little better, it would also give you the possibility of getting a bigger benefit in terms of the money that is distributed in the DMLE."
"Better equipment for the Aureors, better pay for them and therefore better working conditions. If you do things right, you could make the upcoming war not even happen."
Harry raised his hands to Amelia.
"What more do you want? Isn't this a good thing? People will not have to die or cower in fear at the mere name of the Dark Lord."
Gritting her teeth, Amelia stared at Harry as if she wanted to devour him. While the things he said were good, it didn't feel good when Harry seemed to have everything within his sight. It was as if he knew that she and Narcissa would agree to his terms and ideas. No, it wasn't exactly like that. Amelia realized that the choice Harry was giving was too good, so much so that it would be hard to refuse.
And that made her feel even worse!
Narcissa, who had been listening while looking at the tea in her cup, raised her head and looked at Harry.
"You are very different from what Draco has told me."
"Draco is so blinded by his fear of Voldemort and his father's expectations that he only sees what he wants."
She couldn't deny that; it was the pure, painful truth.
Her logical mind told her that she needed to be more careful with the teenager sitting next to her. Not only had he been present at the battle inside the manor, she could now see what Harry was truly capable of. He had entered the manor undetected, defeated several of Voldemort's followers, caused the death of another, and also seriously injured the Dark Lord himself. But now he was proving that he was also intelligent.
Narcissa's eyes moved to Amelia, and then moved down, seeing his clenched fists.
"With Madame Bones here, Harry Potter made sure that she knew the truth of the Dark Lord's resurgence. While also handing important information to her (me) on a silver platter, but that also makes him himself difficult to judge, because he was attacking the lair of extremely dangerous people who have committed a great deal of crimes. If she refuses on all of this, she would be disregarding the safety of the wizarding world's society."
"And even if she were to leave right now, she would likely still offer me protection. That way, the information I possess would stay with me and Harry Potter himself... The only way for that information to be handed to her is here and now. Because even if she decides to move against Harry Potter, I'm sure she has ways to protect herself in such a case."
"And the addition of Sirius only makes things worse for her. If she were to decide to stop Pettigrew's trial, Potter would simply have to have a little talk with Dumbledore to move things along. The innocence of a pureblood wizard from a family that was once prominent and still has some weight would cause many people to raise their voices. In fact, we wouldn't even be talking about a pureblood wizard anymore, but an innocent person sent to be tortured by dementors."
"She's in a worse situation than me. It's better for me to stay silent for now. Only when she decides something, will I decide whether to release all the information I have."
Narcissa closed her eyes as if she was thinking, not noticing the short look that only lasted a second. Harry had observed her and smiled inside.
"What makes you different from them? You lie, you harm, and you extort. Not only that, you ignore the laws so you can take justice into your own hands... or is it revenge?"
Harry looked up and looked at Madame Bones with a certain level of contempt.
"Revenge? If I wanted revenge, Voldemort would have already been destroyed. I know ways to kill him, but I won't, not yet. What do I gain from defeating him? Fame? It wouldn't do me any good with how stupid most of the magical people in this country are. One minute they adore you, the next they're hurling insults behind your back."
"Woman, I'm giving you what you need to do your job right. Make those aurors sit on their asses and actually work. Judge them how you want, lock them up how you want. You can send them through the veil for all I care, but do one damn thing!"
"I'm tired of having to deal with the goings-on around that dark bastard."
"Therefore, I'll only finish him off when you're done with his followers."
"Damn, this boy is too ruthless. He's telling you straight up now. If Madam Bones doesn't do her job, then Voldemort can never be sent to his death," Narcissa thought with a little fear. The more she listened to Harry, the more she thought he was too scary. She knew he was speaking more directly now, but he was also leaving certain hints and small important words.
He had now told her, "I'm the only one capable of defeating Voldemort, no matter what you believe."
"And by the way, don't use that speech about harming people when you throw criminals through the veil. Some even have families, aren't you throwing parents, siblings, and children to their deaths?" Harry raised an eyebrow at Amelia.
"Oh wait... That's justice..." Harry's smile wasn't pleasant at all when he said that.
Amelia closed her eyes tightly as she gritted her teeth, but ended up nodding.
"Fine. I'll take all the information to stop the Dark Lord's followers. But when I mean it, I really mean everything. I want even the things that might sound absurd."
"Before I talk about what I know, I have a question," Narcissa said and looked at Harry, who simply nodded, indicating to continue with what he had to say.
"Ever since I had the... misfortune of meeting the Dark Lord personally, I've never seen him so angry and hurt. What exactly did you do? How could someone so young hurt him to such an extent?"
Harry shrugged a little.
"Even if I told you, you wouldn't be able to cast the spell, much less find a solution. Neither would other people. Okay, I'll tell you."
"Do you know what Avada Kedvra means?"
".... No"
Harry sighed a little
"People should study a little more... Well, Avada Kedvra isn't really the exact way to write it, or even say it. But it was originally an Aramaic word and it means 'let the thing be destroyed', the thing being a person in front of you."
"The curse takes your deepest killing intent from the heart to kill your target. In a way, it's kind of the opposite of the Patronus Charm."
"The spell I cast that night is called Ruach Hakudesh, which means 'holy spirit' in Aramaic. It's a spell that takes the love from your heart and also the desire to face darkness and death. Not only is it able to remove dark magic from the surroundings, but it damages everything that is 'dark' and 'evil'."
Harry closed his eyes for a moment and continued, "For someone like Voldemort it's poison in his body. It will stay with him until his death, he'll feel it burning from the inside out." "In and out as long as I'm still alive"
"And why couldn't we cast the spell?" Amelia asked with a frown.
"Because if they can't even cast a Patronus Charm, they can only dream of casting this spell. If the first one had a difficulty rating of 10, then the second one is 100."
"Well, it's best to drop that subject," Harry smiled and pulled out two small pouches like the one he wore around his neck. One was blue and the other was green.
"The green one is for Draco and the blue one is for you," Harry said, handing them to Narcissa.
"What are they?"
"Protection charms. They won't be able to find you with these, unless you decide that you want them to. You shouldn't underestimate the magic of other lands, they are quite useful."
"Inside is a small piece of paper with the address of the house where you can live without problems."
Narcissa took it before nodding: "Thank you... for everything."
"You're welcome," Harry stood up, drawing the attention of the two women.
"Where are you going?"
"Home, of course. Narcissa will tell you everything you need to know."
"Don't you want to listen?"
Harry simply waved her hand as he began to walk away.
"Why would I stay any longer when I already know everything?"
Amelia gritted her teeth, feeling like hitting Harry Potter.
In the end it had all been part of his plan. He already knew all the information and was simply using it to keep them from running away. Amelia now had a lot of work to do and free Sirius, while Narcissa had no other choice if she wanted the safety of herself and her son.
The worst of all was that she might not be able to know if they would be watched in the future.
Harry had enjoyed the coffee, but Amelia felt that it was the most bitter coffee of her life.
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