With Ariana and Narcissa leaving soon, a few things had to change.
One of those changes was the dual baby shower that they had planned on having for Narcissa and Amelia.
In addition to deciding to up the planned date, Amelia arranged for them to have it in an empty room at the Ministry both for extra security and also for convenience so that most of the people who worked at the ministry and were invited could simply pop in immediately after work.
When it finally started Harry had to admit that it was rather well done and a lot of people were invited, most of them women.
However after watching them ooh and ahh over what seemed to be the 100th baby outfit, he had gotten rather bored with it.
Now going over to where the doors were located, he found Su currently playing with her hair. Since she played with her hair a lot that didn't actually mean she was bored, it was more the expression on her face.
"Bored?" He asked.
"Very," She confessed easily as she nodded her head.
"I'm glad to see I'm not the only one not into this sort of thing," He admitted with a slight chuckle.
"It's mostly for women to talk about women and baby stuff," She commented.
"Aren't you a woman?" He pointed out.
"I would have thought you would have figured that out by now," She teased.
"Oh I definitely know you're a woman," He answered by kissing her.
"Only because you made me one," She coyly replied, "you want to go find out if I'm a woman still?"
Having lost her virginity to him a few days ago, Su was rather proud of that fact and he could tell what she was really insinuating.
"Here?" He asked.
"Yes right in front of everyone," She said sarcastically, "I meant we go find someplace."
Hmm, sneaking out to go have sex or staying at a boring baby shower?
Such a hard decision.
"Let's go," He immediately said.
"You got your invisibility cloak?" She asked.
"You know I do," He answered, "Amelia made me bring it just in case although we probably could just walk out."
"Where's the fun in that?" She pouted.
Su was still always up for an adventure...and this was definitely his idea of a good adventure.
While no one was looking, he slipped the cloak over both of them and headed out.
They decided to hit up the training room that they usually went to for junior auror training over the summers as nobody was likely to be in it.
When they got done, following a very satisfying time, they decided to head to the auror department and say hello.
Yet when they got there, they immediately noticed just how sparse it was with only Kingsley Shacklebolt currently there.
"Hey Kingsley," Harry greeted.
"Hello Harry and Su," He greeted back even as he ruffled through some papers.
"We were at the baby shower and figured we'd stop by here and say hello," Harry explained.
"Sorry guys, I really don't have time to chat right now," Kingsley admitted, "what with most people either at the baby shower or already gone for the day I got swamped with everything else that needs to get done."
"Need any help?" Su offered.
"Unfortunately it's a lot of stuff you wouldn't really know how to do," Kingsley explained.
At that moment, the auror department's secretary walked back in and then over to Kingsley.
"We got a report that there may be drug dealer activity over on Sumter Ave. Witness claims the drug dealer tried to sell him some Crystal Dreams," The secretary told him as she handed him a note.
"Thanks Angie," Kingsley said, now sighing, "I don't know how many times I've been down to that street for drug activity."
"Is it bad?" Harry asked.
"Sumter Ave is kind of the wizard ghetto," Kingsley explained, "the entire street was built just for wizards and right next to the ministry building so wizard's who didn't want to apparate could simply walk to work. The problem was it ended up attracting the wrong kind of wizards and someone figured out there was a lot of money to be made selling drugs on that street."
"Weren't they legal until just now?" Harry asked.
He remembered Narcissa mentioning something about that.
"Correct," Kingsley answered, "most of the drug trade used to be entirely legal so we couldn't really do anything about it. You can thank Madame Bones for fixing it however. It's not until recently that things have begun to change. Unfortunately by now a lot of people are addicted to it and they know they can go to Sumter street to get it. We've made plenty of arrests but it's usually just some young punk they get to sell the drugs for them and if they're caught they're quickly replaced. We've been trying to find out who exactly is supplying them or who their boss is but so far none of them have really known either, making things difficult for us."
"So are you going to at least go after them?" Su asked.
"I could but I'm afraid I'm going to just have to let this one go for now," Kingsley was forced to admit, "I don't really have the time and chances are they'll probably be out selling drugs tomorrow too."
"We could do it," Su volunteered.
"I can't have two untrained minors act as aurors," Kingsley pointed out, "besides if anything happened to either of you, Amelia would kill me."
"We would be careful," Su insisted, "and it's a low priority, low risk thing. We could even just observe and take some photos or something."
Shacklebolt just shook his head and said, "I'm sorry, I just couldn't allow it. Perhaps when you start junior auror training next week I could maybe sanction a side-alone patrol or something."
Su surprisingly made no further complaint and said, "All right, I suppose you're right, well see you Kingsley."
She then turned around and walked out with him following.
"So where to now?" He asked.
She looked right at him as if the answer was obvious.
"How well do you know me Harry?" She said as she put her hands on her hips.
"Let me guess, over where that drug dealer was," He answered.
"Bingo," She said approvingly as she continued walking.
"What would we do over there?" He asked, "we couldn't arrest him."
"No, but we could take photographs," She argued.
"We don't have a camera," Harry answered.
"Yeah we do," She replied as she whipped out a camera seemingly from thin air, "I swiped it off of Tonks' desk on our way out and hid it under the invisibility cloak. She won't mind if we borrow it."
Any other auror probably would have minded if they had borrowed it, but Tonks...nah.
He was hopeful that with Tonks now in charge of the Dumbledore manhunt they might actually get to do something more interesting than simply training.
"I mean think about it," Su argued as they walked, "aren't we the ones who took out Dumbledore and all those clones? Shouldn't we be doing a lot more dangerous missions?"
A part of him wanted to say no, but as he thought about it he realized she did have a point.
It's not like they couldn't protect themselves. Surely against Dumbledore it would be a different story, but most people they should easily be able to beat in a duel. They were world class duelists after all and they could certainly do as well as any auror."
If the absolute worst happened and there was a fight, they could handle themselves against some random street thug drug dealer.
"All right, let's go, but we observe and take pictures only," He cautioned.
"Okay," She said happily.
When they got outside the ministry while wearing the invisibility cloak, they headed over to the correct street.
He wouldn't have called it dangerous, but he also wouldn't have called it a place you would want to let your kids out to play unsupervised.
Graffiti covered many of the walls, and most of the homes appeared to be in pretty poor shape with bars on the windows.
So this is where all the troubled wizards lived.
As he viewed the very depressing scenery however he spotted the last person he ever expected to be in such a place: Draco Malfoy.
He nearly let out a gasp, but managed to stifle it at the last second.
Draco had come with them to the baby shower, but it appeared that like them he had managed to sneak out.
Just what was he doing over here though?
More importantly, he noticed who Draco was with.
It was Snakeroot, a recently graduated Slytherin who was known for getting into trouble, and not the Weasley twin kind.
Putting two and two together, he guessed Snakeroot was in fact the drug dealer.
Both he and Su snuck in for a closer look and listened into their conversation.
DUELDUELDUEL
Draco felt finally free as he walked down Sumter Street, totally ignoring the dingy state of the street and houses surrounding him.
His life seemed to have gone downhill as soon as he had lost in that duel to Potter back in first year. No longer commanding the respect he deserved, and adding insult to injury he now had see Potter practically lord winning over him everyday, as Pansy and all those other girls practically fell all over themselves because of him.
It was pathetic. You would think they would know a real man when they saw one. It should be him with those girls and not that stupid Potter. If he had won that duel clear back in first year he would have and best of all he could do whatever he wanted to them. He'd be sure to give them some better manners.
Instead they had to go run around his own house while he stayed inside his room as a practical prisoner.
This stupid trip had been even worse. His mother was over there celebrating with her bum of a new husband. He could see no reason to celebrate his own mother or that blood traitor Amelia getting knocked up by that former convict.
Yet he had come to the baby shower and suffered through it so that he'd have the chance to see Snakeroot, who had agreed to meet him here while he sold product.
Snakeroot was an older boy that had just graduated from Hogwarts who was also in Slytherin.
He came from a not so reputable family, but was well known for being able to get students what they needed in school and one thing that Draco needed was the drugs that Snakeroot provided him.
At first Snakeroot had offered him some for free to "see if he liked it."
With things as bad as they were what with his mother getting remarried and having Potter and his little sluts hanging around the house and then of course the stress of being in school, he had figured having a chance to relax a bit and escape from his problems would be a good idea.
The drugs worked and helped him to relax and feel totally free and happy. They allowed him to feel not only happy, but also escape from his miserable life and instead dream out one of his greatest fantasies, involving raping Potter's little sluts while he was tied up and forced to watch.
The drugs effects eventually wore off however leaving him wanting more when his next problem hit.
Yet that time Snakeroot wanted something in return.
With the amount of money that he had this hadn't been a problem and for awhile he had been able to continually get more supplies of the drug whenever he wanted it.
However his mother soon noticed that he was withdrawing such large sums from his bank account left by his father. Unwilling to admit the truth for what he was using the money for, he had told her that it was for clothes.
Of course that then sparked her deciding that he did not need to be spending so lavishly and cause her to put a limit on the amount of money available to him every month.
It had enraged him that she would do that. That money was his as his father had lost all rights to it and he as his heir was entitled to half of everything he had owned after his mother got the other half in the divorce.
It wasn't something she disputed, but as his mother she had gotten control of it until his 17th birthday when he came of age and could legally claim it. Still it was his money and the only thing that he really valued about his father. Truth be told he felt like he had barely even known his father, he never seemed to have had much contact with him at all in fact before he went to prison, but at least he had left him a lot of money.
His money... that he couldn't get to because of his stupid mother.
With his money now no longer accessible, he had then turned to selling some of his belongings. With many of them quite valuable he had managed to go a long way in continuing to be able to afford drugs.
Recently however he had run low on items to sell and people to sell them to, yet when he confessed this to Snakeroot, he had agreed to give him the drugs... in exchange for helping him sneak drugs and other contraband items into the school.
While risky, he had agreed to it as he definitely still needed the drugs and he was starting to go through withdrawals without them.
His hands had been clammy and kept shaky, his vision was blurry, and he simply could not concentrate.
Worse yet, his sleep without the drug was restless and his dreams nightmares. While awake, he was even starting to hallucinate a bit.
So far however he hadn't gotten caught but the problem was this summer.
While his roommates were too stupid or simply didn't care if he was taking drugs, his mother would surely notice the symptoms which was one reason why he stayed in his room as much as he did so that she wouldn't notice anything wrong with him.
Even if he could manage to continue using without her notice, he was already running low on drugs and he needed more soon.
That had been what had prompted him reaching out to Snakeroot, who promised to get him a summer's worth of it if he did a job for him.
He'd do anything if he could get him that much drugs. He didn't think he could last if he didn't.
When he got over to where he knew Snakeroot would be, behind a dumpster so that it afforded him at least some privacy, Snakeroot came out from behind it and greeted him:
"I was wondering if you were going to show up or skive it off."
"I got held up longer than I expected." Draco explained, "I got here though didn't I? Now where's the stuff?"
"Don't worry I got it right here." Snakeroot answered, holding up a bag.
He made a grab for it but Snakeroot held it up out of his reach. "Not yet, not until after you do the job for me."
"What's the job?" Draco asked.
"It's nothing major, you've just got to make sure this package gets to Ratfink's dad, you still remember him?" Snakeroot asked.
Ratfink was another student who he had known before he graduated a year ago, but of course his name wasn't his real one as much as Snakeroot's name wasn't really his either.
Yet whatever his real name was he couldn't remember it.
However Snakeroot apparently wanted to get in contact with Ratfink's father and he would be more difficult to get in touch with as he was currently on the run from the law.
The fact that Snakeroot would assume that he could get in contact with him wasn't too surprising;: he seemed to have a lot of connections to people even if he couldn't remember why he had them.
This had become a common problem over the last year and a half. He felt entitled and knew that everyone else was beneath him but he wasn't sure why. When he brought this up to Goyle one day, Goyle had pointed out that it was because of who his father was.
Personally he couldn't see why his father was so important but a few people still seemed to respect him. He supposed it was because he used to have a lot of money.
One thing he did know was that money was the most important thing a person could have, followed by his connections to people who had it.
It was those connections that he would be able to now take advantage of.
Apparently Snakeroot must really want to get whatever was inside the package delivered if he was willing to pay him with that much drugs.
While it would obviously be risky if his mother ever found out, he considered it well worth it to him.
"All right, but it'll take awhile for me to get in contact with him and deliver it to him without my mother noticing." Draco admitted.
"Then you'll just have to wait to get your payment until you do." Snakeroot calmly replied.
"Please, I'm almost out, I'm going to need some more before then." Draco begged.
Snakeroot grinned and finally said, "What you think I run some sort of charity? I should have cut you off after you ran out of money to pay me, but I didn't do that now did I? I let you work for me, now didn't I? Yet I suppose out of the goodness of my own heart I could let you have a little payment upfront."
Snakeroot reached into the bag and handed him a small amount of the purple powder that was the drug he used.
It was called Crystal Dreams, or so Snakeroot said, but it always gave him such a high when he used it.
Careful not to drop any, Draco put it carefully away. While tempted to use it right now, he knew he couldn't and still get away with it without anyone noticing the rest of the evening.
He would just have to wait until he got home.
"So what's in the package?" Draco asked as he looked down at the brown paper wrapped package.
If anyone asked, he supposed he could pass it off as a baby shower gift that he had decided not to give.
"That I simply shouldn't tell you." Snakeroot replied, "Also, no peeking inside. Leave it just the way it is and if it isn't, I'll know about it and you won't get anything from me, you hear?"
Draco nodded.
"Good." Snakeroot answered with satisfaction, "Now you should get on your merry way and back to your mommy."
Draco said nothing about Snakeroot's subtle insult about him being a momma's boy, concerned more now with making sure the package got safely to Ratfink's father.
DUELDUELDUEL
Both he and Su had just listened to the whole conversation from nearby under the invisibility cloak.
As stunned as he was by Draco's apparent drug addiction, he wasn't entirely sure just what to do.
When they got far enough away however, they decided to discuss it.
"What do you think we should do?" He asked.
"The way I see it we have two options, we either tell someone, or we try to handle it ourselves, such as clobbering Malfoy and his drug dealer and bringing them back with us," Su suggested with obvious glee at the prospect of the second choice.
He was admittedly tempted to be the one to catch Malfoy in an illegal act and knock him unconscious so he could be brought to the authorities...or perhaps the ministry jail cell. He certainly deserved it and far worse for all the stunts he had pulled over the years.
The problem however was that they weren't aurors and they really had disobeyed Shacklebolt by coming here. There was also the chance of there being some recourse against them since they were still underage and not allowed to use magic outside of school except for special circumstances, such as during junior auror training or some allowed while training for the world dueling tournament.
That idea would have to be regrettably out.
Instead they would have to tell someone, but who?
His mother would have to be informed, but he wasn't sure if it should be him or Su telling her.
What they needed was someone with authority, someone who could and would enjoy arresting Draco as much as them, but would also be sensitive to how Narcissa would feel.
Someone like Tonks.
"I think we should tell Tonks," He suggested.
Su thought about it for a second and then agreed.
"I know Tonks wouldn't say anything and she could just make it look like we went back to the baby shower and got her to spy on the drug deal," Su answered, "I'd say she's super lucky though. Getting the chance to arrest Malfoy."
"Yeah, but she's also going to have to be the one to tell Narcissa, and that's not going to be nearly as enjoyable," He pointed out.
Her smile faltered a bit at that.
"I suppose you're right, it will be hard on her, knowing that her son is apparently a drug addict," She said.
"Well it's not like he hasn't disappointed her before," He said, "still I feel bad for Narcissa as it would be hard on any parent."
"Not my father," Su answered, "in fact I think he even uses the same drugs that Malfoy uses. It sure looks the same anyway. The only difference is he uses it with opium."
"Opium?" He asked, "the muggle drug?"
"It's actually not that surprising, most muggle drugs were actually considered magical at one point. Opium, marijuana, cocaine. They just ended up leaking out into the muggle world," She answered.
He shook his head and said sarcastically, "Right because more drugs are the one thing that the muggle world is missing."
"My father always seemed to care more about his drug than me," She admitted.
It was a hard confession to make. Both she and Pansy both had pretty awful fathers, but fortunately due to their situation with him and with Amelia letting them stay, they didn't actually have to see them almost at all, something he would guess both them and their fathers were grateful for.
However it reminded him just how important not letting anything come between him and his family was.
"I suppose I can at least see why Malfoy would be using it," He commented.
"Why?" She asked.
"Sometimes even I want to escape from my problems," He admitted.
"Drugs don't help you solve your problems though," Su pointed out, "they merely help you forget about them for awhile. The thing is they will still be waiting for you and you'll have to deal with them sooner or later."
"True, but it is nice to just forget for awhile," Harry answered, "besides I have you to help me deal with and forget my problems."
He leaned in and kissed her, which she gladly accepted.
When they broke apart, she said, "Careful Harry, you might become addicted to me."
"Oh, that's an addiction I can live with," He replied with a grin.
DUELDUELDUEL
Tonks now had a bit of a problem on her hands after Harry and Su had just come to her after the baby shower.
She had just now told Narcissa what had happened and she was now allowing her to compose herself and figure out what she was going to do.
During the whole time she had told her, Narcissa had remained quiet as she detailed what had occurred, yet she could tell that Narcissa was far more shaken than she appeared to be, her usual mask in place.
It admittedly hurt her to see Narcissa this way, yet not because of Draco. Draco was admittedly a piece of rubbish and probably deserved anything coming to him, but that wasn't his mother's fault.
Despite everything, Narcissa had done her best to try and save her son, and that was something that she respected.
In truth, Narcissa had actually saved herself, rejecting the many family standards that her sister Andromeda, which of course was her own mother, as well as cousin and now husband Sirius had also rejected.
The remains of the entire Black family had been changed, although certainly in many weird ways.
Narcissa was now married to Sirius, and Sirius was also married to Amelia, who had adopted Harry, who was marrying her adopted niece, as well as several other girls...
Unbidden, her thoughts turned to Harry and just what their relationship was at.
In the past, her relationship with Harry had not really been an issue since she had been undercover pretending to be a girl his own age.
Yet when it came came out that she was with a boy two-thirds her own age, it was bound to cause some disagreement among her co-workers or the wizarding world at large.
The good thing was in her own family it wasn't really that big of a deal in comparison, what with Sirius marrying his own cousin and another woman, or her own mother being a blood traitor and marrying a muggleborn.
So she was probably safe from anyone she actually cared about being upset as long as she married for love.
As for herself...
She would never have guessed that she would end up in a harem with a boy that young, but she still found him very attractive and thought of him as a man...a man who seemed to have even more experience than she did.
That was a very important distinction, thinking of him as a man instead of a boy.
Amelia could believe all she wanted that he should be able to preserve what little he had left of his childhood, but Harry was pretty much already grown up.
In a duel, he was better than most adults, and in relationships he knew quite a bit as well. It was just some of the other things he was still lacking in.
That caused her no concern however since she was still trying to figure them out herself.
Another thing that weighed heavily on her mind was that she wasn't like the other girls with Harry, she could break up with him and still had choice whether to marry him or not...and that was something she very much had not decided on yet.
At the moment, all she really wanted to do was let things progress the way they were going and see how it went. She could see herself marrying him, but she could also see herself choosing to go her own separate way.
Having to share him however was not something that bothered her though. That at least she knew.
She found she enjoyed spending time not only with him, but the other girls as well and considered them now to be her best friends.
So there was indeed plenty of time to go before any actual marriages occurred, and plenty could still happen, but as for now, she was happy with the way things were going.
Finally Narcissa came out of her room.
Narcissa appeared to be a bit disheveled.
"I don't know if I can do this," Narcissa confessed.
That was definitely a surprise. Narcissa always seemed so on top of things, so to see her like this...it was rough.
"You want me to handle it alone?" Tonks asked gently.
"No, I know I need to," Narcissa answered.
"Have you decided what you're going to do?" Tonks queried, "legally we can probably get the jail time waved if he pays a fine and gets checked into that new rehab program."
"I had no idea that my own son would benefit from it when I started," Narcissa confessed, "I hope it works. I'm not really sure just what to do if it doesn't."
She felt bad for Narcissa. It wasn't her fault that her son was so rotten. While she still wanted to believe that Draco could still change...she hoped more that her other children turned out a lot better.
"I was actually going to talk to him anyway actually," Narcissa confessed, "I got a report this morning from the school stating that his grades were so low he'll have to repeat his 4th year. I put off telling him because of the baby shower."
Yet another strike against him.
"Am I a bad mother?" Narcissa said as she started to cry.
She tried to compose herself as she wiped away her tears.
"Sorry," Narcissa said, "these stupid hormones."
Tonks idly wondered just how uncharacteristically emotional she would get during pregnancy...and hoped she wouldn't.
"You're not a bad mother, you've done a great deal for him, he just hasn't taken advantage of any of it," Tonks insisted as she pulled her in for a hug.
"Come on," Narcissa then said, having regained her composure and looking once again like the strong woman she knew as she headed over to Draco's room.
They both got to the front of Draco's door.
She knew Draco always locked it, but she used magic to unlock it and allowed Tonks to burst inside.
Draco was currently on his bed, currently staring off into space.
It even took him a second for him to even register what had happened, but when he did he looked over at them in anger.
"What on earth are you doing? This is my room! Get out now!" Draco yelled at them.
"We know about the drugs Draco," Narcissa informed him calmly.
He looked terrified, but he still tried to deny it.
"What drugs? I don't do drugs!" Draco insisted pathetically.
Yet as she looked at him, it was clear he was using right now. His eyes were listless and had a slight purple tinge to them, a side effect of the drugs, and he seemed to be struggling to even stay cognizant of his surroundings.
"Search his room," Narcissa commanded Tonks.
She started upending things, searching for anything that stuck out.
Finally her eyes alighted on his bookshelf which was sticking out.
Looking behind it, she found what she was looking for.
She held up his stash with one hand and looked inside, the purple powder that was his drug still inside it.
Looking further behind the bookshelf, she spotted the package that Draco had been put in charge of delivering.
As she opened it up, however, she found that it only contained a medium-sized black rock.
She was just trying to figure out if it was a drug of some kind when she heard a loud gasp come from Narcissa.
However she turned to look at her just in time to see Narcissa faint as she collapsed to the ground.
Now immediately concerned, she rushed over to see if she and the baby were okay.
Narcissa, now lying on the floor whispered, "It's not possible," before fainting yet again, causing her to wonder just what she had meant.