One morning, Harry was sitting at his desk, looking over reports from the Auror teams that were investigating the New Death Eaters case. He was just finishing perusing the third file when the door to his office suddenly burst open and a disheveled Ron Weasley came flying into the room.

"Harry, have you heard?" Ron said loudly, making Harry jump.

"I think the whole Ministry heard you, Ron." Harry grumbled, breathing deeply and grabbing his quill slightly tighter. Sudden noises and Apparitions were still making him feel uncomfortable.

"Remember the Death Eater we managed to take back with us?" Ron said, ignoring Harry's grumble.

"The one Malfoy almost killed? What about him?" Harry said, looking up at Ron, now paying full attention to the conversation.

"He was found dead half an hour ago." Ron said with a grimace.

"WHAT?!" Harry shouted.

He sprang to his feet and slapped both hands on top of the desk, making the papers shuffle from the sudden gush of air.

"How? What happened?" he asked Ron, his green eyes glinting with anger.

"This morning the Healers sent us a message saying he was slowly starting to gain consciousness. They were even hopeful me might be able to talk today, but half an hour later I received their owl saying he was found dead." Ron finished, flopping onto a chair in front of Harry's desk. He looked tired and gaunt, like he hadn't been sleeping well.

"But how can this be?" Harry mumbled to himself, starting to pace in front of Ron. "We had Aurors watching him, trying to prevent this from happening."

"That means the Death Eaters managed to get past our security. It wouldn't be the first time, after all Harry." Ron said grimly.

Harry nodded, a deep frown appearing on his forehead. He had to agree with Ron. After the fiasco at the party, when the small group of Death Eaters attacked them, they had taken every precautionary measure to keep their men safe, as well as the only enemy they had who could possibly give them some answers. And now he was dead, and they were left standing in the dark, again.

Harry cursed, pushing his fingers through his hair. He stopped his pacing and turned to look at Ron, a determined expression on his face.

"This is not good. I want to speak to the Aurors who were in charge with the watch. Perhaps they saw something that might help us." Harry spoke quickly. Ron nodded in response, getting up and ready to leave. "And Ron" Harry continued suddenly. "make sure no one else hears about this. Let's keep it between ourselves as much as possible."

Ron nodded again and left the office, closing the door with a loud bang. Harry let out a deep breath and went to his chair, sitting down wearily. Things were really not going well. He was in dire need of good news.

He picked up the next file from his desk and started reading it unenthusiastically. His mind was thinking fervently about the newest developments when a loud crack came from the middle of his office and Draco materialized in front of him.

"Bloody hell!" Harry yelped, this time grabbing his wand and leaping to his feet in an instant.

At the sight of Draco Malfoy he lowered his wand and took in a deep breath. He glared at the blonde man, who was standing in front of him. Draco was breathing heavily as if he ran miles on end. His eyes though were glittering with excitement and he was grasping a bunch of scrolls in one hand, the other holding his wand.

Harry was too annoyed to pick up on Draco's mood. He flopped onto his chair again, frowning at the papers in front of him.

"What is it with everybody today?! First Ron almost knocks down my office door giving me bad news and now you show up from nowhere and..." Harry stopped his rambles, just then noticing the wide grin appearing on Draco's face and the scrolls he was gripping in his hand.

"Enough whining, Potter? I thought you would never stop." Draco drawled.

"What have you got there, Malfoy?" Harry asked, paying no attention to Draco's taunts. He had enough bad news for one day and wasn't feeling up for his old nemesis's jokes.

"I found something. Here." Draco said, thrusting the scrolls on Harry's desk.

Harry picked them up one by one, looking over them quickly. His eyes were widening with each scroll and by the time he had finished, his mouth was hanging open slightly.

"Where did you find these?" he asked in a baffled tone.

"Found them hidden in a Death Eaters' hiding place in Scotland. Wasn't easy to find them and they were even more difficult to retrieve. Someone had placed powerful curses to protect these. I had Theo come and help me with the curse breaking and we were lucky to escape when a patrol came snooping around the area."

Harry looked up and watched Draco attentively. Just then he noticed the scratch marks and bruises Draco had across his face and arms. His once perfect clothes were slightly thorn here and there, and his hair was a dirty mess. But what stroke Harry the most was how his pale pace glowed. He looked almost happy.

"Malfoy, are you sure these can be trusted?" Harry asked slowly. "Don't get me wrong, I could wish for nothing else than for this to be right, but if they aren't and we go for it..."

"I checked them myself dozens of times." Draco breathed out, waving a hand dismissively. "They are genuine. And that name, the one who keeps popping up in each scroll, I've seen that name before."

Harry frowned and looked down at the scrolls.

"Argus Pyrites." he read quietly.

"Exactly!" Draco said enthusiastically, going around the desk and stopping on Harry's left side. "At first it didn't say anything, just another name amongst all these others, but I suddenly remembered something. When I was young, I used to spend a lot of time in the library at home." Draco stopped, seeing the look of astonishment Harry was giving him. "Yes, Potter, the Manor had a library with other type of books besides on how to curse muggle-borns. And for your information, I quite enjoyed reading them." Draco snarled, then continued. "Among the books there, I remember reading one entitled Alchemy, Ancient Art and Science."

"Don't tell me, you fancied a light reading and you just happened to find that one?" Harry said mockingly, looking over his shoulder at Draco.

He saw a delicate shade of pink rising onto Draco's cheeks and he snickered.

Hermione and Draco are so similar. I wonder if they even realize just how much they are alike. Harry pondered to himself.

"Why is this book so special?" Harry asked quickly, before Draco could retort.

"Because, Potter, this book happens to be written by none other than Argus Pyrites." Draco finished with a satisfied smirk.

"Blimey!" Harry whispered, looking back down at the scrolls.

Indeed the name Argus Pyrites kept appearing all over the parchments, being related to all sorts of weird spells and potions. For a second he wondered if Hermione had heard of this book or its author. She was after all the most well-read person he had known. There was also Draco apparently.

"That's not all, Potter." Draco continued, arousing Harry from his thoughts. "This guy, this Argus Pyrites" he hesitated for a second then said in a serious voice "his son had been a Death Eater in Voldemort's service."

"WHAT?!" Harry shouted for the second time that day.

"Yes." Draco continued quietly, a deep crease appearing on his forehead. "Apparently his family fought for Voldemort during the First Wizarding War and joined him again when he came to power fourteen years later. I couldn't find much reference about the rest of his family, but what I could find out is that Pyrites was a loyal servant of Voldemort. He was quite the eccentric character, wearing white silk gloves and leaving them stained with red blood for effect. He also used to wear flashy robes, making him look like a dandy but he was known for his cruelty, and because of his mysterious parentage, the other Death Eaters didn't bother with him much."

"How do you know all this?" Harry asked, his eyes growing wide in amazement.

"As soon as I remembered the title of the book and the author's name I went to the only person I knew who could give me answers."

"Who?" Harry asked, although he suddenly figured out the answer himself. Sure enough, a second later Draco gave him the confirmation.

"My father." Draco said curtly.

"Did he know this Pyrites guy?"

"Not personally." Draco shook his head. "He only saw him once," Draco hesitated for a second "that day your parents..."

Draco heard Harry take a deep breath of air, his fists clenching on the desk. They looked each other in the eye and Harry urged Draco to continue. The blonde nodded and continued to speak.

"It appeared as though Voldemort wanted him to remain hidden and only gave him certain missions. Perhaps because he was related to the notorious Alchemist or for some other reason, Voldemort never told his followers about him, only those at the very top."

"Like your father and probably Bellatrix?" Harry asked, spatting the witch's name with disgust.

"Yes, I'm sure my aunt knew about him as well, but like I said, they never really bothered with him."

"What happened with him?"

"No one really knows. That's the really intriguing and annoying part of it." Draco let out a frustrated sigh. "No one has really seen him ever since that Halloween night, not even during the Second Wizarding War. It is as if he disappeared from the face of the earth. And the book at the Manor... disappeared as well. It's not there anymore. I went to look for it and... it's gone."

"Could it be your family sold it or gave it away?" Harry said tentatively.

"Not likely. Malfoys don't sell their property just like that and a book so old and of such value..."

"Value?" Harry asked, his looks puzzled.

"The book was the original one, Potter." Draco said exasperatedly. "It had the author's signature and motto engraved on it."

"Argus Pyrites's?"

Draco nodded in response and pointed at one of the scrolls. In one corner, three words were scribbled in red ink.

Truth will out!

Thank you for reading this story! I hope you found the information Draco had intriguing and made you curious about what will happen. Stay tuned for the next chapters! Until then, have a wonderful day! ^_^ <3