The Allure of Darkness

Observations

Riddle Manor [August 26th]

Draco Malfoy stood in front of the closed double doors, contemplating what he was going to do. He had spent most of the night and the journey back this morning organizing his thoughts and avoiding his friends, trying to determine a way to get some answers. He sighed heavily. Hadrian had promised him transparency, and that was exactly what he was going to demand.

He raised his hand to knock on the door and waited a few seconds before the doors swung open in front of him. He tried to keep his stride confident as he walked up to the desk. His best friend was hunched over the workspace, looking frustrated as ever.

Draco cleared his throat. "Are we not going to talk about what happened?" He asked quietly, resting his palms flat on the desk and leaning forward.

Hadrian didn't even look up from the notes he was writing. "Draco, I'm kind of occupied with something else."

Draco folded his arms across his chest, "Don't you think I deserve some answers?"

"I don't know what you're referring to," Hadrian muttered, keeping his eyes trained on the open book in front of him.

His friend reached over the desk and slammed the book shut, effectively startling Hadrian from his concentration. Hadrian frowned at the disruption and a dark look came into his eyes before flickering away almost instantaneously. He clasped his hands above the table and leaned back in his chair.

Hadrian raised an eyebrow, "What is it?"

Draco shook his head, "How can you sit there and pretend like nothing happened? Did you not see what I saw last night? It was a massacre."

Hadrian snorted, "Don't be so dramatic, Draco. I'll admit, it did get a bit...out of hand, but everything went according to plan,"

His friend sputtered upon hearing this, but Hadrian continued on as if he hadn't heard anything, "The Order believes the Dark Lord was behind it. Any doubts of the Dark Lord being defeated have been put to rest. I'd say last night was a success."

"A success?" Draco repeated in disbelief. He pulled out a copy of the Daily Prophet and slapped it on Hadrian's desk. The headline "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named launches terror attack in aftermath of Quidditch World Cup" stood out prominently in bold text on the front page. There were a few blurry pictures of lifeless bodies lying around to accompany the massive headline.

"Do you call this a success?" Draco demanded. "Was this all part of the plan?"

Hadrian rolled his eyes, "Look, it wasn't part of the plan. All the Death Eaters were instructed to do was march around and spur some fear in people, not actually attack them. They were just supposed to cast the dark mark and leave after destroying a couple tents and stands, or something."

"Then how did this happen?"

Hadrian shrugged, "They got out of control. We didn't really have many days to prepare and I never gave them direct orders on what they could or couldn't do. They decided to do things their way."

"Hadrian," Draco began carefully, "I don't really think this is the right way to go about creating the illusion that your father is still alive. It's unnecessarily brutal and it's just mindless violence. There isn't really a purpose. It isn't right."

Hadrian smiled, standing up from his seat to pull another book from a nearby shelf. He ignored Draco's confused look and continued smile absentmindedly, even as he sat down and began to flip through the pages.

"What is so amusing?" Draco snapped finally.

His friend glanced up at him and Draco was taken aback at the sudden cold look in his eyes.