An End And A Beginning

9: Masks and Bergamasques

'I've found something out,' Draco said without looking up as Harry approached the hidden corner of the estate away from the main house.

He was sat on a log by the bonfire he'd started, notebook and quill in hand as he frenziedly finished writing up some notes. The bonfire site itself was where Matthew usually lit fires so there was always garden waste around to fuel things. A little magic had helped the damp November wood and now the fire burned heartily and there was no longer any trace of his father's underwear or old socks or his tattier clothing. Draco had also taken the liberty of burning a number of pairs of shoes, they just seemed to personal to pass onto someone else. His handmade dress-shoes and newer footwear would be taken to a charity shop at some moment... He must ask Harry for help with that one.

It felt good to be sitting in the cold in his hat and fingerless gloves but also feel the warmth of the fire on his cheeks as the flames licked higher. It reminded him of bonfire nights when he was younger and when the Parkinsons would hold great parties and let off fireworks because Guy Fawkes was one of their distant relatives by marriage.

'Oh?' said Harry, sitting down beside him and huddling into his Auror coat.

Draco snapped his notebook shut and glanced at Harry. The flames gave an orange glow to his olive skin and Draco was drawn back to his memory of the military men around the Cenotaph. He wondered if that was when his fascination with a man in uniform had started.

'My Great-Uncle Etienne is still alive and I've spoken to him.'

Harry frowned. 'How?'

'Nothing reprehensible. I haven't broken my terms of my house arrest or anything. Just let me explain in a long-winded way. I didn't even know he existed until yesterday. Well, I did but he's one of those black smudges on the family tapestry. My great-grandfather was rather like Walburga Black in that sense and had no qualms in disowning his eldest son. Anyway, it turns out Etienne Malfoy went to Cairo at during the Second World War. He didn't tell his father or brother but left England as soon as he finished at Hogwarts and got off the Hogwarts Express. He joined the British Army; the Muggle British Army. Once out in Cairo, he got in with a man called David Stirling. Turned out Stirling was a bit of a wild card and was setting up something called the Special Air Services—'

'Your great-uncle was involved in the original SAS?'

'I suppose,' Draco said with a shrug.

'Okay, right, carry on...'

Draco briefly narrowed his eyes; the information was clearly of relevance to Harry but he didn't understand why. 'So, in 1941, Etienne trundles off into German-occupied North Africa in a Muggle uniform and spends a large amount of time carrying out hit-and-run raids on the German lines and generally blowing things up with explosives. Can you believe it? A Malfoy who's a real daredevil. Anyway, he was captured in '43 and imprisoned by Nazis. He and Stirling managed to escape four times but were recaptured and sent to Colditz. He then managed to successfully escape Colditz with a British Lieutenant William Millar in late-January 1944. He'd only been there two weeks. They hid in a German truck heading for Czechoslovakia. Millar continued with the original plan but Etienne decided to take a train to Gottmidingen. He reached Switzerland in three days. He didn't quite say but my great-uncle hinted that he had some expertise in wandless magic to help with Disillusionment Charms or Notice-Me-Nots so they weren't detected. After his escape, he went to France and joined the French Résistance sabotage groups. He spent the final year of the war stealing dynamite from the Germans and then setting explosives on the railways to destroy the Nazi infrastructures, mostly in the mountainous regions in the south of France and near the Austrian/Swiss border. It turns out that he was recognised by the Muggle authorities as a war hero. He showed me his medals, they're amazing—'