Veritas Vos Liberabit [Drarry Fanfiction]

Mercedes

So it was the mother's estranged sister, Andromeda Tonks, and the baby must be that werewolf child.

"Draco, meet your aunt and your little cousin Teddy," Narcissa said with a smile.

He greeted the lady, kissing her hand, and came up to the blonde to look at the baby. Little Teddy was wearing a tiny hat, but you could see locks of bright blue hair. A magical child in the muggle funeral home, they must be out of their mind bringing him here.

"Erm, Vernon Duddley!" the babysitter outstretched his hand in a greeting.

"Pleasure," said Draco coldly. Something about this fellow was suspicious, he didn't look like any babysitter he might have known. He was a bit too young and too poncy for the job.

"Everything is ready." the funeral director, Mister Smith, announced and ushered them into the viewing room, decorated lavishly with all sorts of fresh flowers and black ribbons.

Lucius Malfoy was lying in the coffin and looking surprisingly very much like himself and as though he was merely sleeping. It seemed muggles had their own sort of magic.

* * *

After everyone said their goodbyes and the pallbearers took his father away, Mr. Smith rolled in a big muggle screen for them to watch. Draco saw his father's coffin slowly moving into the chamber engulfed in flames. He stared at the fire, completely frozen, his heart suddenly beating so fast and his palms sweating.

... Draco was in the room of hidden things again, everything was burning... and he couldn't move...

He felt dizzy, his head was painfully heavy and there was a knot in his throat that was slowly preventing him from breathing normally.

"It's okay..." Draco felt long fingers of the babysitter on his hand, Vernon looked at him with eyes full of worry and compassion.

His eyes... they were blue for a moment and then something shifted in them, and they became emerald green. Vernon Duddley was not who he seemed. Draco definitely remembered those eyes from somewhere, he just couldn't shake off that fog in his head for some reason.

"I think Mister Malfoy needs some fresh air" said the blonde and gently took him by the elbow and walked him outside.

They were still in the muggle neighborhood, so he couldn't cast any spell on the man to see if he was actually Pollyjuiced. So Draco just sat on the bench in front of the funeral home and nervously lit a cigarette with a muggle lighter.

"It happens to me sometimes, as well," said Duddley sympathetically. "We all have terrible memories of the war."

What could he know about the war? That man was probably an Auror or a journalist waiting to take a salacious story of Lucius Malfoy's muggle funeral to print. How come neither Andromeda nor his mother hadn't noticed anything off about him. Maybe he had bewitched the poor woman.

Malfoy huffed and offered a fag. The man refused, looking a bit taken aback.

"Don't smoke, huh?"

"Little Teddy wouldn't like the smell", the babysitter answered.

"Right... so you are telling me that you are really his babysitter and not some twat from the ministry that was sent to spy on us?" Draco asked dangerously, palming his wand in the pocket of his muggle three-piece suit.

"No... Nothing like that," the blonde smiled apologetically.

"Hate to break it to you, Vernon," Malfoy gritted angrily and grabbed the man by the collar of his shirt. "But your Pollyjuice is showing."

Green eyes widened in shock and before Draco could press his wand to the bastard's throat, he Disapparated.

* * *

The first meeting with his probation officer was scheduled on the 31st of August, the day before Draco was supposed to board the Hogwarts express. He decided to take a ride in the Mercedes to calm his nerves and get a bit distracted. He couldn't Apparate anymore, it was one of the conditions, and since the flu network was under surveillance the car was the best option for him to have some sort of privacy. His father had bought it for Christmas in the fifth year of Hogwarts in hopes that one day his son would become a ministry official with a fancy car. The next week the Azkaban break-in had happened and his life had never been the same.

Draco still remembered aunt Bella laughing madly at the muggle vehicle in the driveway when she came over to visit, prison robes still on her, looking like death herself.

... Pathetic little ponce... He could still hear her sneering voice in his head when she saw the memory of him snogging one of his French cousins in the backseat of that very Mercedes, while they were practicing Occlumency.

... Ponce ... Right, so I am not straight, Draco understood suddenly and slammed his foot on the break.

He was in the middle of nowhere, some road stretched through the countryside when the realization hit him. Somebody'd definitely modified his memory. A moment ago he couldn't even remember that he preferred men.

Draco was even more determined to get to London now. He needed to speak to Auror Baelish, that cunt. He was almost certain she had something to do with it.

* * *

"I want my memories back!" was the greeting when Elise saw angry-looking Draco Malfoy in her favorite muggle coffee shop.

"Do you mind taking a seat first?" she offered simply. "Look, Draco, I am sorry that it went like it did, but it just had to be done. If the members of the council had seen your real memories you would most likely be in Azkaban now."

"This is tampering with evidence!" he wasn't giving up. "This is tampering with my fucking brain! You..."

"Mister Malfoy, this is not the way you should be speaking to your probation officer, is it? Besides this tampering had saved your stupid arse, so I would kindly suggest for you to take a seat and shut your bloody mouth."

He huffed, pouting, and nervously flicked his fringe away. She was glad that she'd cast a couple of privacy spells before this shouting match began.

"I demand them back!"

"And you will get them. After our meeting... Do you really think I would be putting my memories in the vial in front of a whole coffee-shop of muggles?" Elise was getting more and more irritated with the brat. "So, Draco, how have you been?"

She had known most of the things he was about to say already. There was his father funeral, the Malfoy Manor was set up for the auction and his Mother was briefly confined to St Mungo's with a nervous breakdown. Auror Baelish wasn't the one who easily took pity on anyone, but she felt that poor sod had too much on his plate.

"Excited about Hogwarts?" Elise asked teasingly when she sat in the passenger seat of a posh black car Malfoy was driving. "Let's park somewhere discreet, so I can give you back your precious recollections."

"About bloody time," Draco spat, making a sharp turn and pulling into a narrow alley between two houses.

He didn't even manage to shut down the engine when a silvery crow appeared in front of them.

"CODE CRIMSON. ALL AURORS REPORT FOR DUTY!" the Patronus announced in a strict urgent voice of Gawain Robards. They rarely got code crimson anymore. Not after the war.

"Shit! Draco, I gotta go... Some other time, okay!" Elise quickly got out of the Mercedes.

"Wait!" he protested, panicing .

"I'll meet you at the King's Cross tomorrow, I promise!" she said before disappearing.

Draco waited for her at the platform 9 and three quarters until almost every student boarded the Hogwarts Express. Nobody showed up.