Harry looked right at Hermione when he said that. He knew she would probably never be fully easy with Lucius Malfoy, and he understood that. Father hadn't changed his mind and asked Fudge to start supporting Muggleborns for grand idealistic reasons. He had only done it to make Harry happy. It wasn't easy to accept a blood purist.
He didn't need Hermione to like Father. He just needed to make sure that she wasn't accusing Harry of being a blood purist himself, or a traitor or something, for not rejecting his family.
Hermione's mouth firmed, but she nodded and tucked her hands under her legs. "Did the Aurors catch Crouch?"
"No," Draco said, his voice flat with frustration. "We'll probably only see him again if he attacks, and then we might not have time to call the Aurors."
Harry said nothing. He knew that Draco was going to do his very best to wound someone else who attacked Harry at this point, and maybe kill him.
And honestly, at this point, Harry found it hard to blame him. They had both come out of the ritual with different side-effects. Harry had found himself clearer-minded, able to think about things more easily from other points-of-view, like Hermione's. He wasn't as quick to get angry, and he understood some spells and theory better.
Draco, on the other hand, had come out intensely protective of Harry. Mother had said that effect might lessen as he got back the strength he'd sacrificed for Harry in the ritual, but for right now, it meant Draco was like a barely leashed attack dog when it came to Harry's safety.
"Did you hear about the Dark Mark being seen last night?"
Harry's attention snapped towards Ron again. Draco sat up. "No," Harry breathed. "What happened? Did they see Crouch? Voldemort?"
Ron flinched at the sound of the name, but didn't say anything about it. "Nobody could report anything because everyone was dead," he mumbled. "Amelia Bones and two of her house-elves. They all died."
Harry closed his eyes. He knew Susan Bones in their year, vaguely, and he could just imagine how it would feel losing a relative, now that he had relatives he would actually be upset about losing. "Fuck," he muttered.
"Harry, language!"
"Granger, shut up!"
"Draco, be quiet," Harry said, but pressed his leg into his twin's to calm him down. "Sorry, Hermione. It's just—wow. It was just her house? No other place was attacked?"
Hermione turned away from glaring at Draco and shook her head. "No. They can't even figure out for sure why she was attacked. Just being the Head of the DMLE doesn't seem like it would necessarily make her important to V-Voldemort, you know? He hasn't attacked any other Department heads."
"Maybe he knew she was the only competent person in the Ministry besides Dad," Ron muttered.
"Maybe she had something he wanted," Draco said, in the kind of tone that meant it was for Harry's ears only.
Harry thought about it for a moment, then shrugged. "Maybe it was some kind of favor to Crouch, if she was involved in his initial arrest," he said. "It's not something we can know. So who's going to be the Defense professor now that the former one was—exposed?"
Hermione turned white for a second, and Ron, glancing back and forth between her and Harry, was the one who answered. "There's someone coming from the Ministry. An Auror named Kingsley Shacklebolt."
Harry sighed. Father had said Shacklebolt was close to Dumbledore. Not that it really mattered, he reckoned, since he wouldn't be taking those classes. Uncle Ted was continuing to offer him and Draco lessons and would also, as Mother had put it, "make sure they were not suffering from the ongoing effects of the ritual."
"D'you think he'll be better than the madmen and Death Eaters we've had so far?"
Ron and Hermione started discussing it, while Harry felt a little burst of gratitude that they were including Lupin among the "madmen." Draco leaned over to him. "How are you holding up?" he whispered.
"We just got on the train a few minutes ago, Draco."
"More like half an hour."
Harry shrugged to concede the point. "I'll be all right. I'm taking those potions that Aunt Andromeda left for me, and you know they're in those tamper-proof flasks. Tonks and Uncle Ted will be there to watch over us. Dumbledore has to know that convincing Defense professors to approach us before hasn't worked out."
"You would think."
Harry smiled slightly and squeezed his brother's hand in his. "It won't be perfect, but it will be all right."
Hermione turned around to ask him a question about OWLS, and Harry jumped into the conversation, grateful to discuss something that wasn't his safety or health.
....
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