Harry Potter and the Prince of Slytherin

Draco placed several bags on the table and looked at Lucius who after a moment place a bag on the table as well.

Merc snapped his fingers again and a couple of elves came by and took the bag of money.

"Aren't you going to count it?"

"After the contract, we have a relationship built on trust-- so we don't need to do that." Merc said, "Also since you are the first person to spend more than 300,000 Galleons in years, I will sell you some things for free-- consider it a gift."

"I did want some giant dung beetles," Draco said remembering them, his main purpose today was to buy the elves and beetles but due to auction, he ended up spending all the money on other things.

"For the animals, I see-- I will give you a small colony for free--it consists of 12 beetles." Merc said nodding, "Anything else?"

"You are being too generous aren't you?" Lucius said suspiciously.

"It's not what you are thinking Mr. Malfoy, it's just that the beetles are too cheap," Merc replied waving his hands, "Every beast collector has them, so it's not a rarity."

Draco wasn't surprised that Merc knew Lucius identity since he knew his, "So can we buy some information from you?"

"The price depends upon the information."

"How much do you know about Pius?" Draco asked. "And don't tell me the information that I would know."

"Ummm... difficult- very difficult-- but since you're a guest, I will tell you something I know." Merc said rubbing his chin, "All I know about him is that he started acting out after he visited, Durmstrang for the ministry's business 5 months ago and went rogue for a while only appearing now and then--"

"That would suffice." Draco stopped Merc since he already knew why he just wanted to confirm the timing of the place.

Lucius, on the other hand, was surprised since Fudge told all of them that Pius suddenly acted out on the day of the attack. Lucius was already planning on having a meeting with others to remove Fudge from the minister position but the more he knew about the lies Fudge told, the more he was pissed at him.

"I guess you want to know other things?" Merc asked curiously.

"Yes-- I want to know about anything you can give me-- maybe a suggestion or a warning-- anything interesting would do." Draco said

"Draco..." Lucius wanted to stop Draco since he still wasn't sure he could trust Merc.

"It's fine, isn't it?" Draco said staring at Merc, "I want to know what kind of new conspiracy is brewing up against me."

"We do have something of that sort, In short, beware of any beautiful women you meet," Merc said standing up. "Well that's all, I will now take my leave. The sandwich made by the elves are very good, so I suggest you to try some."

"Wait, what do you mean?"

"You need money for more information, which I believe you don't have." Merc said reaching the door, "Do come again, we host auctions every week."

Draco stared at Merc who closed the door slowly and left.

"What did he mean?" Lucius asked.

"I don't know." Draco shrugged his shoulders, he walked over to the items he bought and checked on them. Right now other than the Lethifold, he wasn't interested in any of the other creatures. The cloaked figure just floated around in the air like jellyfish. Draco knew that there wasn't any way to train these creatures especially considering that it was much more dangerous than the dementors in some way but Draco figured that it might prove to be more useful in one way or the other.

Draco opened his suitcase and called out the elves, who looked pretty shaken up. Draco figured that they must have seen Norberta who was running around the whole place freely. Due to a method of conversation, Draco was able to train Norberta not to mess around the place. Earlier he warned her not to eat the elves but seeing their faces, Draco realized a bit more training was required.

"Take these items in," Draco commanded.

The elves nodded without any hesitation and snapped their fingers making the items float as they entered back inside the suitcase along with all the items. Draco nodded in satisfaction and closed the suitcase.

"Let's go," Draco said to Lucius who looked lost.

Lucius hearing Draco snapped out of it and looked back at him, "I will come back to this place again to find the complete information."

"If its just money isn't there any Cashpoints around here?" Draco asked. Cashpoints are basically wizarding ATM's, made by Gringotts to make deposits and withdrawals faster.

"No." Lucius shook his head, "Those damn goblins haven't made any up to this point."

"Oh! Talking about Goblins, what's going to happen to my vault there." Draco said remembering the incident, "After my last stunt there, I am sure the goblins aren't too happy with me."

"Most of the goblins were knocked out by the potion you used and I managed to tear up the records and obliviate some of them, so I am sure none of them are aware of the incident-- even if they are aware, what are they going to do about it?-- According to their rule, as long as we don't steal, we are fine, aren't we?" Lucius said snorting.

Draco nodded, "Let's leave. I can't wait to go back home."

As Lucius and Draco were going to apparate towards the hotel room, outside the market. Draco noticed the same witch who was trying to bid against him, glaring at his direction. Her haunting eyes stared at them as they apparated out of the place.

Draco didn't think much about it, considering the women looked pissed when he won both the egg and Re'em blood. Draco figured that the women probably wanted to pick a fight but due to Lucius being present, she wasn't able to do anything as they apparated out of the place.

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After an hour or so they finally reached the ministry through a ministry authorized fireplace, which helped in traveling long distances. After they reached the ministry, everyone went their separate ways through the floo network. Draco and Lucius used the floo network and went back to the mansion as well.

As soon as the smoke cleared up Draco felt someone suddenly hug him. It was none other than Narcissa.

"I am sorry Mother for worrying you," Draco said as he hugged her back.

"It's okay," Narcissa said pulling back and checking on Draco, to see if he was okay. Even though the letter mentioned about him being completely fine, she wasn't going to be satisfied until she saw Draco with her own eyes. Seeing Draco's new face she was very surprised as she looked at him from up to down, "You seem to have grown taller in a couple of days."

Draco laughed a little seeing the confused Narcissa. "I want to see the twins." he said.

Narcissa pointed at the other room as Draco walked over. He had missed them a lot over the last couple of days.

Narcissa looked at Lucius who then began explaining her somethings about the potion, which he left out on the letter, since explaining Narcissa about their son's changed face would be difficult to do so until she saw him herself. Lucius left out the stuff about Draco being injured so Narcissa wouldn't worry.

Draco was surprised that Narcissa didn't mention anything about his new face, so he acted completely normal as well. Draco spent the whole day with Narcissa, who after dinner, finally let him go. Draco then went back to his room with a bunch of newspaper in his hand to catch up to whatever he was missing on.

The first two newspaper wasn't anything special but from the second newspaper, various news about Pius's betrayal was printed and the news sources were very accurate. Draco was sure that it was the job of Rita but to his surprise, it wasn't. Each news about Pius was from a different journalist and not one was written by Rita. The first news was written about Pius's disappearances and him turning onto the dark side. The second news was written warning people especially Draco and Harry, that Pius was after them. The same evening a piece of special news was printed out stating Draco's and Theodore's capture. Seeing everything in the news written in such a detailed manner, Draco was sure the perpetrator of all this was none other than Ryan himself.

"Looks like our new enemy is a bit fame hungry." Draco said to himself.