Summary: The night that Harry and Dumbledore return from the cave, the Death Eaters are delayed from reaching the top of the Astronomy Tower for one more minute. Draco Malfoy lowers his wand. // An AU in which Draco accepts Dumbledore’s offer to fake his death and go into hiding with the Order of the Phoenix.
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The Ministry had changed.
Draco had last visited during the summer before fourth year. His father had stopped by, Draco in tow, to visit a few choice contacts in the Department of Magical Games and Sports. “My son, Draco,” he’d said to innumerable people, and Draco had smiled and shaken hands while his father told them that he flew for Slytherin, and eventually—what a coincidence!—Cornelius Fudge happened to look in on Ludo Bagman at the same moment they were visiting with him.
They’d left that day with tickets to the Top Box tucked into his father’s robes. Draco remembered swaggering through the large, light-filled Atrium at his father’s shoulder, feeling that every door was open to him. He’d flipped a Galleon over his shoulder into the Fountain of Magical Brethren as he’d gone.
Now the Fountain was gone, and the center of the Atrium boasted an enormous statue of black stone: a witch and wizard perched on twin thrones.