Draco Veritas

Fanfiction
Title:	Draco Veritas
Author(s):	Cassandra Claire
Date(s):	24 August 2001 - 04 August 2006
Length:	17 chapters; 537,821 words
Genre(s):	action/adventure, het romance
Fandom(s):	Harry Potter
Relationship(s):
External Links:	Cover art by Bhanesidhe.
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Draco Veritas is the last novel in Cassandra Claire's The Draco Trilogy.

It has sixteen chapters plus an epilogue; chapters 13 through 16 and the epilogue were all split into two parts each.

See The Cassandra Claire Plagiarism Debacle.

Trilogy

• Draco Dormiens
• Draco Sinister
• Draco Veritas

Summary

Author's summary: "The sequel to Draco Sinister, featuring winter at Hogwarts, snogging, Quidditch, mysterious things and Rhysenn Malfoy."

Background

A few months before the last chapter of "Draco Veritas" was completed, Cassie accused Aja Romano of passing around spoilers for future plot points of Claire's Draco Veritas.

The last chapter of "The Draco Trilogy" was posted August 4, 2006, the same day as Avocado's expose, The Cassandra Claire Plagiarism Debacle. On August 4, 2006, Lori Summers made a post at ParadigmOfUncertainty, the yahoo group where The Draco Trilogy had been serialized for years, and announced the end of the series:

Everyone ought to be aware that Cassie has posted the final chapter of Draco Veritas:

http://www.fictionalley.org/authors/cassandra_claire/DV17.html

This completes the DT, a truly staggering and historic piece of fanfiction the likes of which I'd never seen before and none of us are likely to see again.

Cassie is moving on to professional publishing, and I know we'll all be queuing up to buy her first novel. We all wish her the best of luck, and I know that I for one can't wait for the rest of the world to discover what we've all known for years! Lori

On August 6, 2006, Claire announced that she would be taking all her fanfiction offline in an author's note at the end of Draco Veritas, the last chapter of which had been posted August 4, 2006.

August 4, 2006 was also the same day Avocado published The Cassandra Claire Plagiarism Debacle.

Cassie wrote in "Draco Veritas'" end notes:

VERY IMPORTANT NOTICE: After this last chapter has been up for a while, all my fanfiction on Fiction Alley and elsewhere will be deleted. If you would like to be able to read the Draco Trilogy again in the future, I recommend that you download it from this web page (each part is available as a separate .pdf file complete with references and illustrations) so that you'll have it after it's removed from the Net:www.heidi8.com/dt/

Claire's work was removed from fic archives and mailing lists in mid-August. The Draco Trilogy, A Lot to Be Upset About, and Something Impossible were made available for download as PDF files from August 2006 through March 2007. With the announcement, fans scrambled to save and share copies of Claire's other works before (and after) they were deleted.

Outtakes & Alternate Scenes

In Which Draco Realizes Why He Is So Fond of Green Umbrellas

Claire and Rhysenn co-wrote an alternate version of a scene from DV Chapter One, published as In Which Draco Realizes Why He Is So Fond of Green Umbrellas. It may have been a December 2001 Christmas cookie. Its FictionAlley summary, titled "Draco Veritas Alternate Scenes," was as follows:

"This fic is in honor of Tom Felton turning fourteen. One year closer to being a legal sex symbol. Go Tom! It's a bit of fluff that takes off from the "Is there somebody else?" scene in DV1 at the Sleazy Weasel."

The story diverges from the events of Draco Veritas to become Draco/Harry slash.

A Very DV Xmas

Written for Christmas 2004 and updated with a new cookie for Christmas 2005. They are still available online.

• "The Malfoy/Finnegan Correspondence"
• "Christmas Shopping"
• "Malfoys in the Garden"
• "Disobedience"
• "Voldemort's New Career"
• "Two Letters: One False, One True"
• DV15 cookie

Works Inspired by DV

Fanfiction

• He Loves Fierce: DV10 and Fuse: DV11 by reena

Fan Art

• List of DV-inspired fan art at the The Draco Trilogy Archives (as archived by the Wayback Machine in Dec. 2008)
• deviantArt search for Draco Veritas. (Static snapshots of the search results can be viewed here and here, taken April 29, 2023)

• 

  DV Blaise Zabini by tairamika (2002) - Female!Blaise Zabini as depicted in Draco Veritas

• 

  Rhysenn Malfoy by M. Starling - Based on Draco Veritas Chapter 13

Reviews

That was a loooong read. 2 weeks before I finish it. I must say the book doesn't deserve to be written that long. There was too many unnecessary scenes. But that did not make me read it less. I love the books. If you think the Potter books got darker towards the ending, think again, this book is probably 25x darker than that. In here comes a very complicated lives of our beloved teenage wizards. There was killing or should I say decapitating, jealousy, betrayal and lots and lost of drama. But there is also an equal amount of comedy, sarcasm, mystry, thrill, adventure and love. This is very Cassandra Clare, I was so surprised to have read the story of a boy and his pet Falcon, and I mean the exact same story (if you have read the Immortal Instruments) from Jace's childhood with Valentine. [...] I did not really agree with the ending, she seems to ran out of ideas, for such a long book I was expecting more on the ending, but I think I can let go of that, after all I have read so many adventures. A book that I wish has never ended until they are with families, and career...

The final installment to the famous "Draco Trilogy" by Cassandra Claire and she couldn't have finished it more beautifully than she had. Featuring a lot of laugh-out-loud moments, witty and ascerbic wit with dialogues delivered and the tying up of all loose ends--including who really ends up with whom. [...]

The story opens with Draco and The Golden Trio return for their last year in Hogwarts wherein Ron’s been made Head Boy and Hermione as Head Girl. [...] Draco and Harry were both made Quidditch Captains (no surprises there) but insists on keeping up appearances of hating each other which irritates Hermione to no end (since she's the one who has to mend their bruises for both boys refuse to drop by the infirmary) and piques Blaise Zabini’s curiosity. Blaise happens to be Draco's new girlfriend, much to Ginny's intense (and badly hidden) jealousy. [...]

Still in the romance department, Harry doesn’t want to spend time alone with Hermione nor wants to talk about what happened last summer. This leads to Harry being confronted by Draco and the two ending up in The Sleazy Weasel (a Wizards’ Strip Club, deftly hidden behind The Three Broomsticks, complete with a veela bartender. Unfortunately, Harry ends up drunk as a lord, with Hermione finding out where he has been. [...]

The one great thing about being on your senior year at Hogwarts is The Seventh Year Pub Crawl, wherein, you guessed it, seventh years are allowed in Hogsmeade Village for most of the night while the rest of the lower years stay in the castle for the Yule Ball. Seamus summons his courage to invite Ginny as his date, to which she surprisingly agrees. [...] Draco decides to stay at the castle and "oversee" the Yule Ball--all handsomely dressed up, may I add--and ends up kissing and then talking to Ginny outside by the rose bushes. [...] It seems that it's not only Ginny who's having secret rendezvous, but her brother Ron as well. Unfortunately, Malcolm Braddock caught Ron and his mysterious girlfriend in bed. [...]

It seems that Lucius and Voldemort are not yet done toying with Draco's life. We find out about this when Snape made Draco drink a Soporus Potion (to make a person remember his most recent dreams) during a Potions lesson. Draco saw his father and Voldemort talking about him and the Terminus Est sword (or the Weapon of Death as referred to by the Dark Lord). Over time he, along with Hermione, found out about The Four Worthy Objects: the Mirror, the Dagger, the Cup, and the Scabbard. They uncovered Voldemort's plan of using these for a spell which could be anything than good. They then needed to steal the Cup from the unplottable Stonehenge Museum (which then involved Draco creating a "distraction" indeed, a couple of burly security trolls, a very furious Ginny, a sputteringly mad Ron and a scruffed-up Seamus).

In an effort to leave his past behind him and to focus on the task ahead, Harry decides to visit his parents' graves, taking Draco with him. Upon coming back to Hogwarts, he apologizes to Hermione due to his behavior for the last few months. [...]

When Ginny decides to make Seamus her new boyfriend (and introduced him to her parents), she finds herself caught in a complicated and not clearly defined love triangle between Draco and Seamus. [...] It is in "Draco Veritas" where we witness the biggest fight Harry, Ron and Hermione ever had. One can't say whether the rift made can be mended. [...]

Finally, the wedding of Sirius Black & Narcissa Malfoy (since Lucius "died" in the last book) is to take place at the Malfoy Manor. The newlywed's plan was to legally adopt Harry as Sirius's son--effectively making Harry and Draco brothers! One could never have imagined that happening. But it was not to be the blissful wedding ceremony that everybody expected it to be. Instead, all the wedding guests were confronted of the truth regarding the real identity of Ron's girlfriend; the Death Eaters make an appearance and took Harry, Draco and Ron with them; Ginny time travels and runs into an 11 y/o Draco; and Ron finds out what makes him so special. Also, as a treat, I get to learn of Rhysenn Malfoy's life story--she who is the daughter of a female demon and a Malfoy ancestor 600 years ago.

The jarring truth of the true father-son relationship of Lucius and Draco is finally revealed. [...]

Christmas morning finds us with Draco as he lies dying in the infirmary. All the same, there was an exchange of gifts that had sentimental value to the two boys: Harry receives the Malfoy Family Code of Conduct while Draco gets The Marauder’s Map.

Meanwhile, the Slytherins had their own rowdy party at Pansy Parkinson's house where she gets drunk due to the many cups of Dementor’s Kiss consumed--deemed to be the most powerful cocktail in wizarding creation. Blaise finds out exactly what her so-called friends were planning for Draco due to his traitorous treatment of them. [...]

On more disconcerting news, Seamus has finally came out of the closet and informed his parents that he's gay--except he's not. I can't any more than that without giving the plot away. But this I tell you, Seamus realizes that if Ginny dies, then he'll die too. After all, it is Ginny's use of Sympathetic Magic which binds their lives together.

Harry decides to go and fulfill his destiny: that of confronting Voldemort for the final battle and defeat him. But things don't go as planned since Hermione insists on finding him; accompanied by Draco who made a promise based on his honor and family name to always take care of Harry. A funny bit was when they were going over their game plan, she finds out that he has a map of wizarding strip clubs instead of a map of wizarding London she originally asked for. Where do they ultimately end up but in The Midnight Club–-a logical extension of the uses of Polyjuice Potion. Try to guess the connection between these two things. Add to the mix a place called The Shrieking Teacup in Diagon Alley.

But in teaming up together to find Harry, will Hermione and Draco instead seek comfort with each other? From such tiny beginnings do doubts grow like seedlings in the heart, putting forth their branches, unfurling their leaves, until even the memory of love is suffocated.

In the end, you'll just have to guess who proposed to whom; whether or not Draco dies, the question of Harry following him to the afterlife, whether Pansy suffers for her part in the plan against Draco, if Victor Krum is truly writing a book and whether his relationship with Fleur Delacour is the real deal, and whether Hermione truly needs to die--but then who'll accept Harry's marriage proposal?

Other than the demise of Voldemort which is secondary to this plot, the question in the minds of the fans of "Draco Trilogy" is whether or not do Draco and Ginny end up together? [...]

And now, I finally have to bid adieu to my most beloved fanfiction ever. I have been a fan since it first came out years and years ago and I do not regret having an alternate, romantic and angsty dimension added to the "Harry Potter series".

• "This is truly the end of an era, Cassie. I just want to say thank you, I've been following this story for the past five years and it's been quie a ride. I can't wait to read your novel, and see you move on to bigger and better things, because you are truly amazing. Now without further ado..."

• "Congrats on finishing your epic trilogy, Cassie! You should be rightly proud of this, even if you will be pulling it down later this year - it's never 'just' a fanfic, it's a story that you've stuck with for six years, which is a great achievement."

• "You know, this trylogy changed me completely. It's the deepest psychological thing I've ever read ( and I don't think there'll be any). I'm almost crying now. What you've done - you not only completed the book - you've made the chatacters more alive than any living creature i've met and shown the feelings I've never felt and seen."

• "thanks for having written something so epic for the world of harry potter fandom - it seems as if your fic has accompanied my important teenage years in some way. to paraphrase, it's been a fantastic journey you've shared with us."

• "God, thank u thank u thousand times thanks. Maybe that seems to be crazy but u've changed my life and I am glad that I read Draco trilogy and that I knew u. I hope u'll become a great writer and every book will be the one and the most favourite for u. Just thanks."