Draco stood impatiently, staring about himself and jumping at any minor sound. Where on earth was Potter? They only had an hour or two until the rioting began, and if they planned to make any sort of difference to the events which unfolded they'd need to figure things out immediately.

Minutes ticked by and a horrible thought occurred to Draco, it was possible Potter wasn't coming.

No, Draco quickly thought, he may be a reckless imbecile on occasion but he was, more than anything, unfailingly good. He was caring to a fault- it was part of the reason Draco had loathed him so strongly their first years at Hogwarts, how he had been kind to everyone but him, it felt like a punishment- yet still, it meant he would in no way give up a chance to save people. He was coming.

As Draco mulled over possibilities for Potter's delay, there was a sounding crash from the trees nearby.

Draco startled at the sound, whipping his wand out and bracing for attack. Unfortunately, the dark and trees obscured everything but the faint outline of the hilltop he stood beneath, he couldn't see what was happening.

There was a pause, some rustling, before a string of loud crunching ensued from the hill before him. From where he stood, it sounded as if something was doing it's absolute best to tear up everything in it's path. And it was growing closer.

A dark mound was just visible in the undergrowth, and Draco was growing steadily more nervous as it approached. Perhaps one of the Death Eaters had unleashed some deadly creature he knew not of the first time around, perhaps it was something even worse.

He was preparing to simply send a stunning curse at the creature, when the crunching paused at the foot of the hill, and the mound began to rise, forming the outline of a figure. Draco's heart dropped to his stomach, the 'Stupefy!' forming on his lips when none other than Harry Potter stepped into the moonlit clearing.

Draco was so taken aback he forgot to react for about thirty seconds.

Harry began brushing off all of the crumpled bits of leaf and debris from his muggle clothes, righting his glasses and attempting to smooth down his, now leafy, tangle of hair.

He looked up at Draco, smiling sheepishly when their eyes met, "Hi."

Draco blinked.

Harry took a step forwards. "So I was th-"

"What the fuck is wrong with you?!"

Harry stopped.

"What?"

Draco diverted his gaze.

"I'm genuinely astounded. What the fuck were you even doing? Did you fall down the hill?? How do you even manage that? It's not even a big hill!"

"It wasn't on purpose! I walked into a tree by accident and lost my glasses, then when I was looking for them I tripped and fell down the hill! It's an easy mistake!" Harry retorted defensively.

He looked so ridiculous with his mussed, leaf-strewn hair and self-righteous frown that Draco couldn't even find it in himself to be angry. He simply burst into laughter.

Harry rolled his eyes. "You'd have done the same thing if you were me, it's like a pissing jungle up there."

"Well, technically I wouldn't," Draco smirked, righting himself, "considering I don't need glasses, and so wouldn't be looking for them in the first place."

"Oh yes, ha ha very clever. Enough small talk, what are we going to do about the impending Death Eater 'situation'? I'm hoping you have a plan, considering you were likely in the midst of it all the first time around." Harry moved to stand closer to him, crossing his arms and staring around them, as if looking enough would provoke the answer into jumping out at them.

Draco glared at him, "Just because I was one later on doesn't mean I was a Death Eater when I was fourteen! I didn't plan that attack!"

Harry's expression morphed into one of apologetic surprise, "No that's not what I meant! I mean, yeah I did think you were a bit of a Death-Eater-wannabe at that age but I don't mean that you were in on it, you weren't that bad. I was just saying that your dad was, so I assumed you'd have some inside knowledge." He paused, tone becoming softer, "he really didn't tell you anything?"

Draco looked at the canopy above them, "No, well, not directly. He told me that on the night of the cup that I should leave with mother early, as he had some 'important things which would certainly show muggleborns their place' he needed to get on with. Looking back I realise I was more complacent in it than I should've been. I didn't know exactly what he'd planned, but I wasn't upset when I saw what it was that he'd done." He diverted his gaze to the floor, "Actually, I was kind of excited. I mean I know now how bad that was, but at the time I just-"

Draco trailed off, sighing. Harry placed a gentle hand on his shoulder, offering one of his sweet, Gryffindor smiles. "Well, what matters is that you're trying to change it now. It won't mean anything if we can really change things."

Draco shrugged off his hand, he wasn't about to allow Potter's charming eyes and his friendly demeanour fool him, he would never be just another fan in his trap.

"Anyways, back to the plan. I think I have an idea of what we can do, if we find a way to remove the muggles from their cottage, the Death Eaters won't have anyone to humiliate to start their riot. They could try muggleborns, but that would be a lot harder to do. The only reason they could access them the first time was because of all the panic. If we stop them from getting the muggles, the plan will be ruined, and we can throw them off course."

Harry frowned. "It might, but I doubt it'll deter them completely, they'll find something to do to scare people."

"Yes, but we'll be ready for them when they do, once they realise their bait is gone, they'll no doubt return to their original meeting spot. I know for a fact where that was, courtesy of my father. We just need to meet them there. We can alert the Ministry, have them ready before the damage is done. There's enough wizards here they'll have no chance."

Harry smiled at that, before faltering slightly, "but what about your father? Won't he be arrested?"

"I doubt it, he has some serious connections at the Ministry, and considering he won't have actually done anything yet, I'm sure he'll worm his way out of it just fine."

"Good. Then let's get started."

———

The two arranged for Harry to alert the Ministry, as he was the more trusted of the pair of them, and for Draco to apparate the muggles to a safe location. Luckily, this meant that the Ministry would be distracted enough that their weak protective wards could be broken whilst Draco infiltrated the cottage.

As he crept inside the tiny house, Draco thought privately that it was so very typical of the Ministry to have minimal security around the muggles. 'Who cared about them anyways?' Arseholes, anyone could get through those 'protective' charms, they obviously didn't care at all.

A brief thought occurred to him that his past self would've been disgusted at such pro-muggle thinking, and suddenly he was extremely pleased with himself. He wanted nothing to do with that boy.

He reached the upstairs floor quickly, silencing his footsteps on the creaky stairs. He cast a whispered disillusionment charm over himself, of course they'd know he was there once he grabbed them and in a most undignified fashion, teleported them to a new location, but at least this way he wouldn't scare them if they woke up before that.

Draco decided the best course of action would be to take the parents first, children were rather easy to control when frightened, and he'd most likely need only take each of their hands and he'd be on his way.

He slipped into the largest room, hoping the parents would be in there. To his delight, he found both adults asleep and in bed.

Right. This was now the tricky part.

He felt supremely uncomfortable sneaking into bed with a couple of strangers but it had to be done. Once he was next to them, he looped one hand firmly around each of their wrists. The woman stirred, turning to her husband blearily, "Samue-?"

Crack.

Her words were drowned by the spinning sensation which unfolded around them. They landed harshly in a meadow somewhere in Somerset. Draco wasted no time in rising, immediately apparating back to the house.

Time was getting on, he had only a few minutes before the Death Eaters were due to the cottage. He now spared no seconds on silencing spells, running through the top floor and exploding into what he hoped was the children's room.

They weren't there.

He searched the entire top floor, there was nobody there.

Panic settled in his lungs, he flung himself downstairs and hunted for them in desperation. If he saved the parents but not the children, and they were still forced to be puppets for the dark, he'd never forgive himself. That felt almost worse than doing nothing at all.

He flew into the garden, a wave of relief washing over him when he spotted two small figures at the garden's end.

When he approached, the older of the two spun to face him, "Daddy! You're not D-" he grabbed their wrists.

Right as he disapparated, he could've sworn he saw a cloaked face appear at the gate.

He landed with a thump. Both children were screaming. The parents were nowhere to be found. He didn't have time to dwell on where they'd gotten to, it could be dealt with after.

"Oi!" He shouted at nobody in particular, "I've got your kids here! Come help them!" He hoped the parents would hear and come to console their family, but he didn't stick around to find out.

He needed to meet Harry.

Another crack. He was gone.