The Code

**The Code** is an AU Harry Potter fanfic written by Aduro (known as **AduroWrites** on AO3) available at AO3 and FFN, but there are important differences between the versions: it was originally written in 2006 but is since 2019 in the process of being revised, with the revised version available on AO3 while on FFN the new chapters are added after the original ones together with commentary on the changes (which may be more interesting for other authors or returning readers than for the general public). The old version contains about 150 000 words in 30 chapters, while – as of July 2023 – the new version has reached 230 000 words in 27 chapters (out of a planned 31). While the revision is mostly stylistical, some details in plot and characterization are changed and the AO3 rating is set to Mature rather than Teen as on FFN. This article follows the revised version.

This is an alternate universe story: it is set during the 1996/97 school year, and the Ministry has again insisted on selecting the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher; thus, Snape still teaches Potions. Furthermore, professor Vector has been injured in a death eater attack, being replaced by the young Claire Jameson, and Bill Weasley has been brought in to teach Ancient Runes. There are transfer students from both Durmstrang and Beauxbatons, while other students have transferred out. Finally, Draco Malfoy, who is the main character, is a lot smarter than he has been letting on.

Three sequels have been published on FFN: The Code Breaker, The Decoding and The End Code; whether these will be rewritten as well, and/or published on AO3, remains to be seen.

## Plot summary

Draco's summer has started out great; with his father in Azkaban and his mother away in Spain "visiting relatives" (i e seeing one of her many lovers) he can let his guard down and be himself. Read advanced textbooks, far beyond the level he usually displays. Read *muggle* books. Play the piano the way it is supposed to be played. Then his father is broken out of prison and orders Draco to follow him to France, so it's back to playing the dutiful son – with a promise of a Dark Mark at the end of the coming school year hanging over his head. On the train to Hogwarts after another miserable summer, he decides to replace the Malfoy Family Code his father expects him to follow with a new code, that he will formulate himself over the coming year.

At the welcoming feast, Dumbledore announces that all sixth- and seventh-years are expected to take part in a weekly Debate Class, specifically to discuss prejudices against muggles. They will meet in two groups, one for those believing in pure-blood superiority and one for those believing in equality, and prepare arguments for a debate to be held before Christmas break; those undecided will form a third group, able to move between the first two to observe and ask questions, and instead of participating in the debate will need to write a paper on what they've learned. When Blaise Zabini joins the equality group, he is suspected of being a spy until Draco – mentally berating his friend for not having prepared his move better – makes a show of publicly attacking him; Draco himself chooses the neutral group, but waits to do so until everybody else has left. However, neither Blaise nor his new confederates have taken the warning to heart, so after the next week's meeting Draco has to fight Cassius Warrington and Theodore Nott to stop them from beating up Blaise – and then obliviate all of them and plant new memories in order to hide his own involvement.

Bill, meanwhile, has taken the job as Ancient Runes professor as part of an Order plot: Voldemort is starting to grow suspicious, so in order to not be found out Snape will need to stop spying. Instead, Dumbledore has found a way to transfer part of his Dark Mark to Bill, so that when Voldemort calls his followers he will be able to follow hidden under an invisibility cloak and spy on what is said. He will then hide his findings in a code in the homework he gives out, whereupon Tonks, who has gone undercover as a transfer student in his class, can decipher it and deliver the data to the Order and/or the Ministry. Of course, Draco soon not only catches on but breaks the code; however, having grown to like Bill and realizing that exposing him would also expose his own hidden intelligence, he decides to keep the secret for at least some time.

The Gryffindor-Slytherin Quidditch game is interrupted by a Great Vampire Bat, which eventually turns out to have been branded with the Dark Mark, and in the confusion of the fight Draco makes the split-second decision to save Harry when the latter is thrown from his broom; before they reach the ground, however, they are caught by a wind spell and both fall the last five meters. Dumbledore catches them with a spell, but Draco still hits the ground hard, breaking a leg and dislocating a knee; Madam Pomfrey gives him a sedative but his unusually high tolerance for mind-altering drugs means it leaves him awake but loopy, and he inadvertently tells Bill that he has broken the code. Bill checks Draco's records, noticing that he has almost no personal records and five years of straight E grades, and comes to the conclusion that Draco is a genius. Once Draco has woken up in the hospital wing, Bill confronts him and they come to a kind of truce, keeping each other's secrets.

After an argument with Harry and Ron escalates into a fistfight, Draco is given detention with Hagrid over the Christmas break, during which he reveals that he can see thestrals due to having witnessed the death of his older brother Lukas when he was seven, and accepts Hagrid's offer of training the thestral colt Orion – under the provision that it be made to look like more detentions.

## Characters

### Main characters

* Draco Malfoy
* Bill Weasley

### Other central characters

* Pansy Parkinson
* Cassius Warrington
* Ginny Weasley

### Non-canonical characters

* Agathe (Slytherin)
* Diedre (Ancient Runes student)
* Giovanna (Slytherin student)
* Patrick (Ancient Runes student)
* Rosaline
* Timothy (Ancient Runes student)
* Hadrian Anwir
* Chloe Baxter
* Mirabelle Bonnet
* Mirabelle Bonnet's father
* Mr. Boucher
* Mrs. Boucher
* Jeremy Brown
* Darla Burgess
* Eugene Burlington
* Carangi
* Eleanor Connelly
* Lionel David
* Anna Farrow
* Higgins Farthing
* Annelise Flannery
* Anna Fletcher
* Haynesworth
* Patricia Hayworth
* Heckert
* Claire Jameson
* Jorgensen
* Bertha Leroy
* Isobel MacDougal
* Lukas Malfoy
* Theodore Nott senior
* Liam O'Flannery
* Sheiling
* Bryant Stevick
* Jeremy Sutherland
* Volsky
* Henrietta Walworth
* Dieter Warrington
* Wiltshire
* Adrien Wronski

## Further non-canonical world elements

### Books

* *Guide to the Bog*
* *Past Pleasure and Pain: The Psychological Potions*
* *The Physics of Time Travel*
* *The Time-Turners Explained*

### Businesses

* Esper and Sons
* Renna's Lotions and Tonics

### Classes

* Debate Class
* Herbology for Potion-Making

### Concepts

* Boiler's Constant
* The Dissenter's Code
* Malfoy Family Code
* Signum
* Thurlow's Laws of Matter Replacement

### Events

* Ancient Magical Wars in Egypt
* Third Norse Reign

### Magical creatures

* Ballybog
* Great Vampire Bat
* Welsh bronze

### Objects

* Bed-Wetter's Bane
* Magical desk lamp
* Memory book

### Organizations

* Brewer's Club
* Hogwarts show choir

### Pets and other animals

* Ammon (thestral)
* Eagan (thestral)
* Midnight (thestral)
* Orion (thestral)
* Rhiannon (dragon)

### Places

* Bastion
* Bonnet estate
* Boucher family's house
* The Chocolate Hare
* Draco Malfoy's study
* Draco Malfoy's wing of Malfoy Manor
* Former Potions classroom
* Haunted Forest of Blackwell
* Hogwarts drama room
* Lucius Malfoy's office
* Malfoy Manor dining room
* Malfoy Manor library
* Malfoy Manor music room
* Malfoy Manor thestral stables
* Solstice (restaurant)

### Potions

* Bruise-be-gone
* Delirium antidote
* Delirium Draught
* Exception antidotes
* Fae-flame
* Gardner’s Elixir of Relief
* Hangtooth antidote
* Hangtooth Poison
* Immobilization potion
* Masking potion
* Numbing potion

### Potion ingredients

* Fig root
* Manticore hoof powder
* Unicorn hoof

### Spells

* Anti-crying charm
* Anti-destruction ward
* Asphyxiation Spell
* Congelo
* Deaden Flame spell
* Diagnostic spell
* Fae-flame counter-charm
* Fire-suppression charm
* Inscriptus
* Opacus fulgoris
* Oxygenating spell
* Pater's Ritual
* Segnis
* Shocking Hex
* Sound-barrier spell

### Titles

* Assistant Minister
* Secretary (Ministry position)
* Senior Assistant to the Secretary

## References

1. ↑ Chapter 1
2. ↑ Chapter 2
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Chapter 4
4. ↑ Chapter 6
5. ↑ Chapter 8
6. ↑ Chapter 9
7. ↑ Chapter 10
8. ↑ Chapter 13
9. ↑ Chapter 15
10. ↑ Chapter 16