Family names and Magical Contracts

"It's me, aunt Walburga, your niece Narcissa!" She said walking between her son and husband.

After being answered, the portrait calmed down, and the furious expression changed into a mild one.

The books did her a disservice by implying she was an ugly, evil old witch.

Sure, her portrait was old as dirt, but Draco could see she was a looker back in her prime.

"Why are you here, Narcissa? And who is with you?" The portrait asked.

"This gentleman is my husband, Lucius. And this young man is my son, Draco." Narcissa replied as the other two did a noble greeting.

"That's good! You married into the Malfoy family didn't you?" Walburga asked.

"Yes, aunt Walburga. I did." She told the portrait.

"Yes, yes, blood purity must be maintained." Walburga remarked before raising an eyebrow. "Why have you come?"

This time Lucius spoke up. "With your permission." After receiving a nod from the portrait, he continued. "The Malfoy family has come to help its fellow Sacred family return to its former glory."

"How so?" Walburga asked, wrinkling her eyebrows in confusion.

"My lady, I'm sorry to inform you, but after your death, the Black family house has been empty for almost six year now." Lucius said. "With no one to inherit it other than your son, Sirius."

"DON'T MENTION THAT BLOOD-TRAITOR'S NAME IN MY PRESENCE!" Walburga screamed angrily. "IT'S HIS FAULT I'M STUCK LIKE THIS! IF I DIDN'T DREAD HIS RETURN TO SULLY THIS PLACE WITH HIS PRESENCE, I WOULD'VE ALREADY PARTED AWAY!"

"I'm afraid it's necessary to mention his name, my lady." Lucius replied. "For you to understand the perilous condition your respectful family is exposed to. And to see how beneficial our offer really is."

"We've come to offer our heir as a possible suitor for the Black family's legacy to continue. Pure as it was meant to be." Narcissa told her aunt. "The boy has both the Malfoy and Black families' blood running through his veins."

Noticing the image in the portrait was still considering their proposal, Lucius added. "If you don't, the Black family line will end after Sirius' death in Azkaban. Or if by some reason he manages to outlive his sentence, we'd have no guarantee that he won't continue to sully his family name."

"As a member of the Black family myself, I don't want it to happen." Narcissa concluded.

The portrait grumped after understanding the situation and asked. "Since the legacy has already been passed to that blood-traitor's hand, what do you suggest can be done about it?"

"With the Minister of Magic on our side, and your consent, the problem can be solved in no time." Lucius reassured her.

Walburga finally turned towards Draco and asked. "Are you worthy of inheriting the Black family's name?"

Draco approached the portrait, concentrating on gathering his will, he visualized releasing an aura of authority and then spoke clearly. "Yes, Grandaunt. As the heir of the Malfoy legacy, I have extensive knowledge of the importance of our traditions, and have always honored my house in every action I took." He said without missing a beat. "By striving to become the best wizard there is, I've forfeit naive notions of weakness and humbleness." He kept looking her in the eyes. "The Black family's values align with my own, and my ambition will help me not only bring it back to its former glory, but to surpass it altogether."

"Ha! Well spoken boy." The portrait replied with a big smile. "Not sure though from which side you got that silver tongue of yours."

"Does that mean you approve of him inheriting the Black family's name, Aunt Walburga?" Narcissa questioned politely, placing a hand over her son's shoulder as she stood besides him with her husband.

The portrait pondered for a moment. Carefully evaluating everything she had been informed of.

"I do." The portrait nodded before suddenly screaming. "KREACHER!"

From inside a room, an old elf came running.

"Yes, Mistress?" The elf said as he looked at the Malfoy trio. "Miss Narcissa, it's a pleasure to see you again!" Kreacher said with slight happiness in his eyes.

Kreacher, like all house elves, was considerably smaller than a human.

He had a bulbous, snout-like nose, bloodshot eyes, many folds of skin, and had white hair grow out of his bat-like ears.

"Likewise Kreacher." Narcissa said gently. "How have you been?"

"Good." He said bowing towards her.

"Kreacher, from today onward, this young man will be your new master as the new heir and head of the Black family." She said pointing at Draco from the painting. "Step forward Draco Malfoy Black."

Kreacher watched Draco approach Walburga's painting.

"It's an honor to serve you, Master Draco." The elf said, sinking so low that his lips almost touched his gnarled toes. "Kreacher will not fail you."

"Kreacher, go fetch the keys!" Walburga ordered.

The elf nodded and quickly ran back, returning with a golden key in its hand and handed it to Draco.

"From now on, the vault belongs to you." Walburga said, looking at Draco.

Draco getting hold of the key nodded.

"Kreacher, I will be gone now, so make sure to treat him with great loyalty." Walburga said to the elf.

For someone who spent the last of her days grieving her husband and son's death, she had become very close to the elf.

Kreacher, like she was to him, was very attached to Walburga and started sobbing when he heard her.

"Boy..." Walburga said to Draco, as light started glowing from her portrait, showering over him. "... keep the Black family alive."

Like the light, her voice slowly faded away until they were completely gone.

Draco stared back at the portrait, which still looked realistic, but it didn't have any life to it like before.

"Mistress." Kreacher walked forward, started crying and wailing after seeing the lifeless portrait.

While this was all happening, Draco was trying to figure out why she had to fade away.

Not that he didn't want it to happen, he just wished to understand what was happening.

"She transferred the right to you." Narcissa told him. "Now you are the current owner of the Black family and the Secret Keeper of it. After we leave this place, no one except you and Sirius will remember this place actually exists."

Draco could see that she was sad to forget about the house she grew up in.

"I can still share the secret with you and dad." He assured her.

Narcissa gave a gente smile to her son. "Until Sirius is no longer a threat to us, you better keep it a secret."

"I see." Draco said recalling how the fidelius charms worked.

"So... about your Aunt…" Lucius decided to change subjects.

"She is gone now." Narcissa said, sighing. "Gone forever."

With Kreacher recovering from his previous master departure, Draco looked around the house.

"A lot of cleaning up will be required, huh?" Draco said.

"I believe so. I will have to send some of our house elves to clean the place up." Narcissa said.

"Even though you will continue to live with us, we can't have this historical house withering away now that we are legally associated with it." Lucius remarked.

Draco nodded, agreeing with his parents.

He wanted to explore around and find Slytherin's locket, one of Voldemort's Horcruxes, and get rid of Phineas Nigellus' portrait so Dumbledore wouldn't spy on him.

But he was on a tight schedule, and since he wasn't ready to progress with his plans for the Horcruxes, he and his parents went to the Ministry to add Black to his name.

Perhaps when he returned to make Kreacher join his house-elves in his suitcase, Draco would have him find the locket for him.

The next day, Lucius held a small party in the Malfoy manor. Inviting all the rich and famous wizarding families to celebrate the merging of both Malfoy and Black families.

He met his pureblood friends there, alongside some of the most notorious Slytherin students of Hogwarts.

They all celebrated the occasion with him.

"Just when I thought you couldn't surprise me anymore, you go and add another name to yours." Theodore chuckled.

"What can I say, you should've learned by now." Draco shrugged with a smile.

"But what about the other Black, Sirius?" Blaise asked.

Everyone was curious about Sirius, since his deeds of exposing the Potters and killing twelve muggles was well known throughout the wizarding community.

"What about him?" Draco said, pouring himself a drink. "He is still in Azkaban, and I'm sure he doesn't expect to be received with a red carpet if by chance he outlived his sentence."

"It's surprising that you are related to him." Pansy remarked.

"Is it really?" Daphne questioned. "After all, we are all related to each other one way or another."

"Indeed. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that I'm related to the Weasley's in some way." Theodore said, gaining a few weird looks from the others.

"Really?" Millicent asked.

"Being related to each other is very common especially among us, the Sacred twenty-eight." Draco explained casually.

"So, did you inherit all the Black family properties as well?" Theodore suddenly asked.

Though by the looks of the others, Draco deduced it was a topic that interested everyone.

Draco simply nodded and received some surprise expressions from the others.

Honestly Draco didn't care that much for the amounts of money he had stored in Gringott.

Other than the Malfoy Family wealth, Draco had his own personal money he got from his secret business and his house elves' work. Plus the regular raid on muggle criminal factions.

What he did find interesting though, was the collection of books and artifacts he had inherited from one of the oldest wizarding families.

As a side note, the party itself was the perfect opportunity Draco had to capture some annoying beetle.

Then he finally began testing his mind arts in Wizards and Witches.

—————————————————————

He knew that a boy inheriting the name of two powerful and noble wizard families was news enough to bait her.

And now, Draco had at his mercy someone responsible for a lot of grief for the original Harry Potter.

Rita Skeeter, a British witch and journalist who specialized in writing poison-pen stories.

These stories tend to be based on false information and misreported interviews while she worked for the Daily Prophet, as well as authoring a few tell-all biographies.

One would think that with her ability to acquire information as an unregistered beetle animagus, she would have a lot more truth in her stories.

However, as much as Draco found her despicable, he had to admit that she was devastatingly effective in tarnishing even the most loved and noblest of characters' reputation, like she did to the self-sacrificing Harry Potter.

Naturally, Draco wanted her on his side before she caused him any trouble. Having a famous journalist on his side would be very beneficial for his future achievements.

Besides, the blond-haired and green eyed journalist was in pretty good shape for a forty-years-old career woman.

Rita Skeeter was (disappointedly) not that much complicated to influence through mind Magic.

Her defenses were minimal at best.

But at least, contrary to all the muggles Draco had 'worked on', she had some semblance of training in shielding her mind.

Not that it put in any risk his first attempt in 'reconditioning' his first magical human.

It was a resounding success.

Although, for the sake of precaution, Draco had her believing that a stranger was blackmailing her by threatening to publicly expose her for being an unregistered Animagus.

He felt confident that his mind magic had made her completely obedient to him, almost like a proto-imperius curse. If someone else ever managed to probe her mind, they wouldn't be able to link her change to him.

And so, Draco had his perfect media tool, ready to boost his public image whenever he gave the order.

—————————————————————

Seeing as the many muggles he had mind trick to work as his sleeper agents were so useful, and that his experiment on Ms. Skeeter had been such a resounding success, Draco figured it was time to put into motion his plan to recruit the muggle-born graduates of Hogwarts.

That they had learnt the value of their Hogwarts' diploma was not worth the parchment it was written on would greatly help the recruit process.

Even the nerdy Ravenclaw muggle-borns were unprepared for the lack of options for them once they left school, no matter how many 'Outstandings' they had obtained.

Unless you knew someone high up in the Ministry, you were doomed to be a shop clerk or Auror if your grades were good enough.

Intentionally or not, Snape was responsible for not having enough of the required potions' grades to become one of the underpaid police force that had to face killing curses with stunners.

It was even worse if you were a werewolf or a magical creature.

Draco cringed at some of the fanfics he had read about MCs seeking to become a vampire or a werewolf.

It pretty much destroyed all your rights as a wizard or witch and made just everything you did illegal.

Magical creatures weren't allowed to attend school, and without their O.W.Ls were not legally allowed to use magic.

And that's without considering the wands restrictions many fell under.

Dumbledore took a considerable risk having Lupin attend Hogwarts, which was why no other werewolves were seen having the same opportunity.

Draco had no plans to recruit any werewolves until he had found a cure, their 'disease' was just too easy to spread for the risk to be worth the effort.

The same for vampires, to employ someone who couldn't work in the sunlight or near garlic was beyond ridiculous.

That leaves Draco with much better fresh-faced naive fools with fundamental training that would jump at the chance to sign a magical contract for minimum wage.

With about five or ten muggle-born graduating from Hogwarts every year, there should be plenty of sad saps out there looking for a job.

Although Draco believed that Wizards and Witches were stupid, he recognized their cunningness in railroading muggle-borns into their place at the bottom of society.

It took a certain amount of guile to take an open-minded magical child that was raised in the mundane world until eleven, and turn them into sheep to be led to wherever the purebloods wanted them to go after seven years of schooling.

Draco had no other explanation for why no muggle-born returned to the muggle world and used the massive cheat that was wand magic to make a fortune.

There were not even that many that left England in search of fair treatment, and there were zero of them that brought mundane ideas into the magical world.

Mostly because innocent-sounding laws prevented a lot of innovation and immigration, but mostly because they had their common sense drained from them after being 'indoctrinated' into the magical world.

And Draco had no plans for changing it.

The current situation was the perfect and fertile environment to take advantage of and make it so much easier for him to get everyone dancing to his tune.

Upgrading Magical technology and uplifting their society would only be done if he had enslaved the wizarding world.

There was no way he was going to arm them with new ideas and weapons to use against him.

Draco wasn't naive to think that he could change the mentality of the community that was stuck into the Middle Ages by giving them some new dresses and magical phones.

Although updating their wardrobe was just a minor indulgence of his.

The fanfics Draco had read about how an MC opened shops and malls with fresh new ideas in order to be hailed as a genius was just a far fetched dream.

Even if it happens to be possible, and you get money from your ideas, what then?

You now have put yourself at risk of being targeted by purebloods to be either stolen from or outright killed.

Worst of all, what if your ideas ended up making your enemies more creative with how they used their magic.

And as anyone would eventually discover after living for a while in the Potterverse, was that Magic was only limited by one's will power and imagination.

Well-coordinated Death eaters' raid thanks to phones, magical guns that would be much more reliable than the killing curse itself and civil wars thanks to muggle-borns kickstarting creativity.

And most importantly, wizards with access to the internet.

You get the idea.

—————————————————————

It only takes one wizard to break the mold of a brainless sheep and take the only path that was left for them, that of Dark Wizard.

Trying to influence the wizarding world to become a more tolerant place was a recipe for disaster.

Almost as bad as handing out magic for the muggle communities.

I mean, seriously, who would be insane enough to make magic accessible to every single maniac locked behind bars or egotistical pricks that are already in power.

Muggles already hate one another enough to find different and creative ways to kill themselves without magic.

Picture that environment with magical biological or chemical warfare, magically infused atomic bombs or bludger-like missiles.

Just Draco's considerable advance in the mind arts would be explored to exhaustion by dictatorial governments.

Beyond avoiding chaos, Draco wouldn't accept competition.

All the negative reasons Draco had just thought about not handing magic to muggles were things he wished to exploit.

Best of all, most of his plans weren't even against the law.

The magical law to be more precise.

And that was the one he intended on operating under.

After reading and memorizing all the books of legislation he had bought or found, Draco could be sure he had covered the basics.

But Draco would definitely not be limited to it.

Similar to listening to the Ten Commandments instead of the book of the laws you needed to study to become a lawyer.

Which by the way, didn't seem to exist in the Wizarding community. If you broke the rules, even not intentionally, you were expected to defend yourself.

Sure, there were allowances such as if you were underage, a guardian could assume that role. But good luck finding a capable one that is willing to help you.

Back to magical law...

Its main focus was on the International Confederation of Wizards decision to enact the Statute of Secrecy in 1692 and the three Unforgivable Curses.

Other than that was common-sense legislation like stealing, raping and murdering.

The full list of every law that was in effect under the Wizengamot could only be bought at the Ministry of Magic for a hefty price.

It was safe to say that not many people bought it other than old Pureblood families that planned to take full advantage of it.

Worse, it wasn't even advertised properly beyond minor footnote segments in classes at schools like Hogwarts.

The higher-up certainly wished to keep the common rabble ignorant. Not that Draco blamed them, he actually thanked them for the opportunity.

One might come up with a innovative idea, only to be heavily fined (or imprisoned) for breaking some stupid law and have that same innovative idea copyrighted by another person who filled out the correct forms.

Nevermind the hypocrisy involved that has the train to Hogwarts magically enhanced, or that technically the law only prohibited the enchantment of a Muggle item with the intent to use it for purposes other than for what it was designed for.

However, the most significant loophole Draco had found came from the fact that magical contracts bypassed pretty much all laws.

There was also practically none protecting the muggle rights.

That was why it was highly illegal to sexually abuse a witch and then obliviate her, but the same act on a muggle woman would only receive a rebuke without punishment.

Tricking a witch into signing a magical contract agreeing to be a sex slave, however, was acceptable.

You just have to maintain her healthy and not blatantly torture or kill her, much like a magical creature.

Then again, there wasn't really an agency for magical creatures welfare, and house elves were a prime example of the breaches of the law concerning them.

Draco was amazed that more than half of these laws had not been overturned in this day and age. Then again, after taking into consideration the average intelligence of a magical human, it was pretty believable.

Fortunately, Draco recalled that the Muggle Protection Act was not proposed until next year.

So he had the perfect opportunity to expand past his sleeper agents while still not breaking the law.

Muggles were pretty much deemed as beasts under Wizarding law, probably because they used to hunt and burn anything even suspected to be magical.

The more 'humanitarian' activists continually pushed for new protection acts through the Wizengamot, but their efforts had been for some reason until then, insufficient.

Though it might be due to incompetence.

Arthur Weasley, a staunch believer in equality of all magical and muggle folk, knew absolutely nothing about the latter.

Back to his magical contracts…

First step was crafting a standard employment contract that would enslave stupid Wizards and Witches without them even knowing.

The key was to make it quite reasonable at first glance, but under some scrutiny reveal that it was filled with loopholes in Draco's favor.

Any pledge on someone's right as a Magical human would see them only having what little rights a muggle had when they broke the contract.

Non-disclosure agreements would leave them unable to talk about workmates, where they work or what they do.

Though Legilimency and Veritaserum was another possible loophole to be explored.

No disrespect or violence against fellow employees or employers assumes that they are also under contract to respect them. It would only take a couple of people hired to annoy contract workers and would guarantee that a few broke the rules.

No derogatory comments or negative PR against their employer. Which should've been obvious to anyone, after all, who hadn't complained about shit jobs or their boss over a drink?

No blatantly shirking of assigned work. Added to the 48 hours a week workload, and Draco was sure he will have many offenders. Who hasn't had a bad day and knocked off early, took a long lunch or a cigarette break?

Last, but definitely not least, to not break any Ministry of Magic laws while employed. Who even cares to know them all? Beyond Draco, of course.

Obviously there would be no warning or second chances, as soon as someone broke one of those rules, they would be forced to teleport (by whatever means they have at their disposal) to a containment room.

This would be the first place an employee was shown after signing the contract, a comfortable but sparse furniture cell without bars. What they didn't know was that it was warded against Disapparition and Portkeys to stop one from leaving, and a stunning ward for those arriving.

After being stun, some of Draco's elves were assigned to transport his new slaves to a 'secure location'.

Honestly, the plan was a little convoluted, but the best part was that it was also legal and above reproach.

Of course, Draco could simply mind trick his way around and have everyone loyal to him, but beyond it not being feasible nor sustainable, it begged the ascension of a chosen one to defeat the evil Dark Lord.

Among the 20,000 citizens in Magical Britain. To bring them all under control would need a method that his trusted minions could use without him.

Since Draco wouldn't risk teaching Mind arts to his already deadly elves, magical contracts were the best option at the moment.

Besides, it would be the ultimate middle finger for the Wizarding kind to be sold into slavery by his own elves.

The emphasis on his scheme would be that it had to be impossible to trace back to him.

Draco laughed thinking about the new muggle-born recruits that had started flooding in once his elves disguised as wizards started offering good money for full-time employment.

Some of them didn't even bother to ask what they would be doing, and the rest that did were satisfied with the promise that it would be legal and easy.

Little did they know that they would be cleaning and restoring public muggle toilets.

Child's play for adult wizards and witches, and completely legal. Just not the sort of thing reasonable people would be willing to do without breaking some of his magical contracts' clauses.

Draco had even arranged through his new magical human agents a contract from the local government, expecting soon enough to make a national contract after his servants' services became well regarded for their impressive efficiency.

He obviously had big plans for the muggle world, specifically in the media and entertainment industry (news tv, radio programs, recording labels and acting agencies). With his eidetic memory of the future, he knew who to recruit and soon had a lot of future big names in both the music and movie industry.

He only had to be more careful while operating in the USA, since their Magical Congress had grown to be more stringent from its European counterpart due to having to deal with many wizarding criminals who had fled there during their foundation.

Surprisingly, there were even some half-bloods that were desperate enough to sign his seemingly innocent contracts.

He grinned after imagining him as the second coming of Rumpelstiltskin, this time, focused on not being outsmarted as he made sure to include among the many clauses his subjects had to follow an obligatory full-disclosure of any semblance of loophole they might discover.

The special cases would be 'reconditioned' by Draco while the rest would be 'forced' to sign a large contract book that will turn them into slaves in all but name.

All in all, Draco was proud of his setup. It allowed flexibility for his servants while enforcing loyalty.

Speaking of his dear minions, next in his list was to magically improve their appearance beyond basic hygiene, alluring perfumes and simple illusions.

Warts, blemishes and straightened teeth were the easy part.

But Draco wanted to completely overhaul their bone structure. To make them angelic, worthy of being called elves since he was tired of their goblin-like appearance.

Metamorphmagy, Animagus or Polyjuice potions were a step in the right direction.

—————————————————————

Without Ms. Skeeter to trouble him, the news that broke throughout the Wizarding community in England the next few days, were very respectful.

It reported that the most recent documented case of a person inheriting the name of two sacred family names had happened to the child of Lucius Malfoy.

Most of the news focused on how the Malfoys had helped a fellow sacred house rise from its ashes.

Pictures of Lucius and Fudge standing together chatting outside the ministry alongside some articles that painted it in a good light for the masses.

Honestly, they focused more on how good it was that both Sirius and Bellatrix were better off rotting at Azkaban, instead of raising questions about Draco Malfoy Black's future.

Not that Draco was complaining.

He was truly pleased, and somewhat surprised, that his latest stunt hadn't sacrificed his privacy for the rest of the wizarding world to theorize if he was going to be the next Dark lord.

That would ruin all the good will he had been working to build.

Heh…

Funny thing, considering that 'Malfoy' meant 'bad faith' or 'unfaithful'.

Back on track.

Draco might've dodged a bullet with regular people not thinking much of it, but the Dark wizards and witches secretly gathered to offer their support if Draco decided to finish what had been started.

It could be beneficial if he and his parents managed that movement wisely.

But that was something he will have to deal with later.

Tomorrow he was going back to Hogwarts, so he slept early to get a good rest.

—————————————————————

After a couple of hours spending time with his family and preparing for his return, Draco was ready to board the train back to Hogwarts.

Like before, Draco and his friends sat in the same compartment.

After hours of travel, they finally reached their school of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Had a normal dinner with his classmates before spending the night checking his suitcase dimension for his nearby projects.

Next morning he woke up lazily, took a quick shower and went outside.

Over the next few days, Draco was busy with his own things.

He had now started reading the books from the Black family's collection he had his house-elves brought to him.

And even experimenting with some weird Dark magic items.

Taking every safety measure first, of course.

Right now, he was exploring the possibility of making a portkey.

One that he could use to link both his suitcase's small dimension and the Black family's house together.

That would allow him a quick passage to come and go from Hogwarts whenever he pleased.

Though he would have to make the portkey side at the family Black's house unusable without his permission.

This way Sirius wouldn't be capable of finding his 'haven for elves' even after escaping Azkaban.

By the way…

A Portkey was a magical object enchanted to instantly bring anyone touching it to a specific location.

In most cases, a Portkey was an everyday object that would not draw the attention of a Muggle.

Wizards who could not Apparate (dematerialise and reappear at will), who wished to travel by daylight (meaning that broomsticks, Thestrals, flying cars and dragons would be inappropriate), or whose destination had no fireplace (rendering Floo powder useless) would have to resort to the use of a Portkey.

The incantation used to turn an object into a Portkey was Portus.

A Portkey could also be enchanted to transport the grasper(s) only at a given time.

In this way, the arrivals and departures of great numbers of witches and wizards could be staggered, enabling such events such as the Quidditch World Cup to take place with few security breaches.

Before the creation of the Hogwarts Express, Portkeys were used as a means of transportation to not draw the attention of Muggles.

Eventually another method was sought, because the majority of students would either not find the item that was their Portkey, or not arrive in time to take the Portkey.

Many students were 'Portkey-sick' and the Hospital Wing was filled with students for the first few days of term, while they got over their nausea and distress.

Healers recommended that the elderly, pregnant and infirm avoided using Portkeys, similarly to Apparition.

Generally, creating a Portkey without permission was illegal and could even make someone face prison time for it.

Almost like everything else in the wizarding world.

Gods, these people were prolific with bureaucracy.

But luckily, wizards didn't have any method to track someone who used the traditional method the Blacks had.

Through their 'formations', spells weren't even required for making a Portkey.

Better yet, the Black's portkey was more efficient.

Draco could actually carve inscriptions around two doors to link them.

Similar to how the vanishing cabinets were linked by the original Draco, and used to bypass Hogwarts defenses in the sixth book.

Sadly, this method tended to be very costly in materials that were rare in the market.

But he wasn't planning on having his elves mass produce them yet, so one was good enough.

Another hax this 'formation' stuff had was the power to change landscapes and even expanded the space he already had inside his suit.

—————————————————————

Invisibility cloaks are magical garments which renders whoever or whatever it covers unseeable.

Being common items that are mass produced in the wizarding world, and just like the other deathly hallows, people owned inferior copies of the real one.

The first things that made Potter's invisibility cloak stand out as unique, were its longevity and durability.

Draco had bought and earned invisibility cloaks before, but they all turned opaque in less than a year.

He was obviously interested in the Deathly Hallows, though not overly fascinated by them like Dumbledore.

He knew the elder wand was powerful, allegedly the strongest there was, but he didn't know how much that really meant.

The resurrection stone from the books and movies had disappointed him, it fell short of its name, being merely useful to look at dead people.

He couldn't find many uses for it if it didn't step up its game.

Last but not least, the original invisibility cloak had its usefulness, but honestly its canon effect wasn't rare by any stretch.

The only part he was interested in about them, was in regards to the title 'Master of Death'.

It could've just been an overly exaggerated title, like the Deathly Hallows themselves appeared to be.

Why did Draco bring it up?

His elves had reported to him that someone had been sneaking around using an invisibility cloak.

He quickly deducted from keeping tabs on his magical map that Harriet had been constantly visiting the Erised Mirror in the Room of Requirements.

At least until Dumbledore paid her a visit, catching her in the act.

Harriet moved on and continued to investigate the Philosopher's stone.

This time she had no reason to suspect Snape, which didn't mean she would risk it to be stolen.

Draco could work with that.

At night, followed her until she knocked on the gatekeeper's hut.

"Who is it?" Hagrid called.

As Harriet revealed herself, the half giant let her in, and then shut the door quickly.

If Draco didn't know best about the dragon egg, that scene would've been suspicious to Draco.

He spied on them for a while until his cue arrived.

…

"Hagrid, you live in a wooden house!" Harriet told him.

But the half giant wasn't listening. He was humming merrily as he stoked the fire and watched his prized Dragon Egg.

"She is right." Both Hagrid and Harriet froze up when they heard a third voice.

Hagrid's face was pale as snow, and Harriet was very nervous.

The half giant slowly stood up and opened up the door, only to find Draco patiently waiting.

"May I come in?" Draco asked.

Hagrid was still frozen when he saw him, so he couldn't say anything.

"Draco? What are you doing here?" Harriet finally spoke up, coming towards him.

"You've been acting suspicious lately, especially after all that talk about Nicolas Flamel and the Philosopher's stone. I wanted to make sure you weren't getting yourself in trouble." Draco said innocently, ignoring the fact that he had spied on her. "I was about to leave when I heard you talking about dragons." He turned to face the silent gatekeeper. "Harriet is right. Dragons are really dangerous, especially near a school full of children."

"C'me in." Hagrid said quickly, fearing that anyone else could be hearing them.

As Draco walked in, Hagrid looked around outside his hut before quickly shutting the door.

The hut of the Gatekeeper had only one room inside, with hams and pheasants hanging from the ceiling.

In the corner, stood a massive bed with a patchwork quilt over it.

Overall, his house was small and slightly dirty.

"I see you've got your hands on a Norwegian Ridgeback." Draco smiled as he looked at the egg in the fireplace. "Not as fierce as the Hungarian Horntail, but still venomous. And you should know it begins to shoot fire earlier than the other breeds."

Looking at Hagrid's pale face, Harriet quickly said. "Draco, please don't tell anyone about this."

"You know I can't promise you that, Harriet." Draco said. "You said it yourself, it's too dangerous."

"Norbert won't hurt anybody." Hagrid said in a paced tone.

"Norbert?" Draco raised an eyebrow. "Since you've already named it, I believe you must be planning on keeping it."

"I- yes, at least until it grow' up enough to defend its'lf!" The gatekeeper reasoned.

"You're kidding, right?" Draco replied. "After it hatches, it will outgrow your whole house in just a couple of weeks."

Harriet was surprised by what Draco had said, she didn't know much about dragons in the first place, she was worried for Hagrid, who was acting like a stubborn child.

"B-but yeh can't jus' report me." Hagrid pleaded. "Y-yer father is one off the school's chairman, he mighta take Norbert from me."

"I understand you have gotten attached to it. But you have to listen to reason, Hagrid. This could ruin you. It can send you to spend at least five years in Azkaban." Draco sighed, looking at Harriet for help. "And that's considering that by some miracle no student will get hurt."

"Azkaban…" Hagrid murmured, he knew how bad the infamous prison could be, since he himself has been there. Although not for long, it was enough to almost drive him to the point of insanity.

Harriet recalled what Azkaban was from one of Draco's tales about the wizarding world, she turned over to Hagrid and said. "Hagrid, get rid of it, please. I don't want to see you go there."

The half giant was struggling, not knowing what to do.

"You know, I think I know a way for you not to have to abandon… Norbert… forever." Draco finally proposed. "I've got a place where not even a dragon would cause trouble."

Hagrid lit up. "Yer mean' to say that 'yeh know a place', didn't ya?"

Struggling for a brief moment to understand what the half giant was saying, Draco finally smiled and picked from his enchanted pouch a small suitcase the size of his palm. "Actually, I've got a place right here."

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(10/06/2021)

*Hey there! Thanks for reading my work! I hope this chapter is of your liking. I tried to advance the MC's mastery over mind magic, while also exploring the wizarding society. Not to mention using Portkeys as an excuse to link the MC's suitcase with his new property. And yeah, Draco Malfoy Black might be a little excessive for some, but couldn't resist having him obtaining a black dragon through 'bad faith'.

Sorry if you expected more of it. 😅

Any ideas for powers, adventure arcs and girls are more than welcomed. I might not use anything, but you will have my gratitude for trying.

If this chapter is a mess of grammatical errors, please wait that I'll promptly try to fix it. But for that I need your feedback.

Thanks as always for your time, hope you have a fantastic day and please stay safe.

Bye.