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The Guile and Devotion of a Black Heir	By : StarLightMassacre Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male Views: 104291 -:- Recommendations : 9 -:- Currently Reading : 26
Disclaimer: I do not own anything from Harry Potter; all rights go to J. K. Rowling. I make no money for this piece of fictional writing and never will.

Chapter List
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Last Time
He could relate to Rabastan because he had been beaten and starved for fifteen years as well…he swallowed hard and he vowed to talk about this with his new family and his betrothed and his family, especially as he had been forced to watch Draco send off his Eagle owl with the letter that would inform Lucius Malfoy that his newest, adopted son had been abused and starved as a child. Hedwig wouldn’t be able to out fly Saracen, he was too fast and much bigger and stronger than his little snowy owl, he only hoped that his Father read his letter too before he did anything or tried to claim that he was hiding things from him on purpose and he hoped that Rabastan wouldn’t mind his letter being a little late or that he didn’t think that he was hiding things from him either. This was all such a mess; he just hoped that it was at all salvageable after it was all said and done.
Anger Issues
He had been expecting it, of course. But after the events that had happened on the train, Harry had hoped that Dumbledore would have waited until at least the next day before summoning him to his office to demand answers from him, but no. As soon as the welcoming feast had ended and all the students had been dismissed, Professor McGonagall had come right up to him and told him that the Headmaster wanted to see him immediately in his office and that he particularly enjoyed Bertie Botts Beans this term.
It was bad enough that his own house was shunning him, every single one of them, and he’d been forced to sit on his own after being split apart from Draco when they’d arrived at the Great Hall. Some of the other Gryffindors were even glaring at him and he didn’t understand it, he was completely confused. So he’d been adopted, did that actually warrant this amount of vitriol? What business was it of their anyway? Why did they get a say in his life or where he lived when they were nothing to him? He didn’t understand it.
He’d kept his head down and he’d eaten his dinner quietly, trying to ignore the glares and hissed comments going on around him. This wasn’t how he’d imagined the beginning of his sixth year to go, not merely because he’d been adopted, against his knowledge and wishes at first, into the Malfoy family.
He sighed and made his way up to the seventh floor and instead of going with the other Gryffindors and heading to the Tower to get some much needed sleep, he went the opposite way and made his way to the Headmaster’s office for a little chat that he could have really done without, even if he had been expecting it.
“Bertie Botts Beans.” He said clinically to the stone gargoyle that guarded the office.
He climbed the winding stairs once the gargoyle had moved aside with a heavy heart and he knocked on the door sharply, wishing that he could just go to bed, but he cleared his mind and steeled himself for the talk that was about to be forced on him.
“Please enter.”
Harry did so and he found himself swept into a tight, crushing hug as soon as he set foot through the door. He laughed when he smelt a familiar scent.
“Hello Remus. How have you been?”
“I’ve been going out of my mind with worry.”
“I kept telling you that there was nothing to worry about.” He said as he pulled back to look at the haggard looking werewolf.
“I know you did, but I didn’t know if you were forced to write that under duress or not, I had to see you with my own eyes. The words you were writing, hell even the way you were writing them was so different from what I know of you. I couldn’t trust the letters.”
“Oh Remus, if I’d known that then I would have set up a meeting between us at the Leaky Cauldron to assure you that I was fine, all you had to do was ask. Lucius helped me with my calligraphy, so my writing is actually legible now. I don’t smudge the ink all over the parchment with the side of my hand anymore either.” Harry said with a grin.
“So you are alright?”
“Of course. I’ve never been better. You should see how much I’m learning, Remus! And I’ve found out that I really like Arithmancy and I have a natural affinity for Ancient Runes. It’s brilliant and with what Lucius and Draco have been drilling into me, I’m really excited to start my classes this year.”
“Well, you seem perfectly fine.” Remus sounded amazed, but relieved and his stance sort of shrunk as he relaxed. “I’m so happy.”
Harry nodded. “James and Lily will always be my Mum and Dad, always, and nothing will ever change that, but I never knew them. I have no memories of them, only of the night they died when a Dementor comes too close to me and that’s not a memory that I like thinking about, it’s too painful. Yet I never had anyone to replace them once they were gone, not until now and Lucius…he’s the only Father that I’ve ever known. No one else has ever been a Father figure to me, and Narcissa is the same, she’s a Mother to me now and I’m so happy. I’ve never had any sort of parental figure before, no one I could call family before. I was just getting used to Sirius and then he was snatched away from me. Lucius is stern, of course, but he cares about me, Remus. He’s teaching me so much and he’s sorting everything out for me, absolutely everything. He’s getting me back on track to be a true grown man and I’m so grateful. He and Narcissa are teaching me things that I actually need to know, things that aren’t taught at Hogwarts and no one else thought to teach me, things like how to magically pay bills, how to run a magical household, how to conduct myself in the Wizengamot, even how to care for a magical newborn. I had no idea how to do any of that, yet it’s only since I was adopted by the Malfoys that I’ve been taught how to do these things.”
“I know your relatives are Muggles, but weren’t they showing you how to run a household?” Remus asked bemusedly.
Harry snorted harshly. “They taught me how to cook and clean and how to garden and paint a fence and the outside of a house with no ladder. Oh and how to ration food, but that’s about it. They were unfit to care for a child, Remus. What did you think the newspaper article meant with ‘unspecified neglect’? It’s why Lucius adopted me when it came out at Gringotts.” Harry lied.
He and Lucius had talked endlessly about him going back to Hogwarts and it was by mutual agreement that they decided not to mention Dumbledore’s neglect as a magical guardian. Lucius wanted Dumbledore to believe that Harry was still ‘on his side’ so to say, just in case something happened to him while he was at the school and Lucius was so far away.
So instead of skirting the issue or changing the topic as he had discussed with Lucius, Harry was twisting the truth slightly and the ‘unspecified neglect’ that the papers had mentioned as the reason behind Lucius adopting him was now the abuse that the Dursleys had put him through seeing as all of that was going to come out too. He could easily make that the reason behind his adoption, despite the fact that Lucius didn’t know about the abuse of the Dursleys yet and it had actually been Dumbledore’s neglect as a magical guardian that had spurned Lucius into adopting him almost two months ago now.
“You should have come to speak to me before all of this, Harry.”
Harry looked to Dumbledore sat behind his desk for the first time and he crushed the wave of cold, icy rage before he could give himself away.
“I had very little choice in the matter. I was taken to the Ministry via a guard without being told what was going on, just that my immediate presence was required at the Ministry and that I was to bring all of my belongings and then, when I arrived, I was immediately handed over to Lucius and I was told that he’d adopted me and that he was now my legal guardian. I admit that I was very unhappy in the beginning, I did pitch a fit, but I was unceremoniously told to shut up, that I couldn’t do anything to change what had happened and to go home with my new custodian. Frankly I don’t care anymore, the Malfoys are the best thing to ever happen to me.”
“Do you really mean that?” Remus asked him.
Harry nodded. “I do. Everything that has happened in these last seven weeks…everything I’ve learnt, everything I’ve been given and taught, to how I’ve been treated…I don’t ever want to lose that now.”
“Have you signed anything for Mister Malfoy, Harry?” Dumbledore asked.
Harry scrunched up his face. “No, why would he have me sign anything?”
“Would you care for a lemon drop?” Dumbledore offered randomly.
“No, thank you. I’ve just eaten dinner.”
“Are you sure he hasn’t made you sign anything?”
Harry frowned. “I’m not sure I like the way that you’re insinuating that I have poor memory, headmaster.” Harry stressed. “I haven’t signed anything, only the papers in Gringotts to allow me to claim both of my Lordships early and that was my doing, not my Father’s.”
“This really has to stop, my boy.”
“What does?” Harry asked, just a slight bite of anger in his tone.
“You know that Lucius is not your Father, James Potter is.”
“As I said just a moment ago to Remus, James and Lily will always be my parents. Always. They loved me, cared for me, did everything for me and they even died for me. I’m not forgetting what they did and I’m not replacing them, because to me there’s nothing to replace. I don’t remember anything about them, I didn’t even know what they looked like until I looked into the Mirror of Erised in my first year and I never had a picture of them until Hagrid gave me that photo album in my first year. I was eleven before I even knew what they looked like…what else am I supposed to do? If someone offers me a loving, caring home where I can learn to be a strong, independent man, but still have all the love, care and support that I need, I’m going to take it with both hands, because I’ve never had it before and now that I have had it…I crave it. I crave all of it and I won’t be able to let go, I don’t want to let go of that.”
“You disappoint me, Harry.”
“Why? Because I choose to live in a loving home instead of the abusive hell that I was living in before? Why does that disappoint you? No, in fact, what the hell does it have to do with you in the first place?” Harry demanded. “As my Father said at our last meeting, you are the headmaster of my school, nothing more. So why am I even here? Is this meeting to do with my education? Why are my living arrangements so interesting to you? It shouldn’t matter to the headmaster of a mere school where I’m living!”
“You know why.” Dumbledore said quietly. “You know about the prophecy, I told you…”
“Fuck that stupid prophecy, it was made by an insane old woman who drinks far too much cooking sherry and suffocates herself with incense in a tiny room stuffed in the top of a tiny tower. I don’t believe a damn word of it!” Harry shouted.
A hand landed on his shoulder and squeezed. “Watch your language, Harry.” Was all Remus said and Harry breathed in deeply and composed himself.
His arse would be red raw for the next week if Lucius had been there to witness his severe loss of control and decorum, and to actually curse like an uncouth Muggle, he’d be standing in the corner with his sore bum for several hours before being forced to sit on a hard, wooden chair.
“My opinion still stands; I don’t believe that foolish old woman. She’s a drunk and she gets high on incense fumes. You can’t believe a word that comes out of her mouth. She spent all of my third year predicting that I was going to die a horrible, grisly death, which only got worse when I was going through the Tri-wizard tournament. Do you have any idea how afraid she made me? Predicting my death in class when I had to go out and do those stupid tasks when I never wanted to do it in the first place! No, I don’t believe her.”
“You know her true predictions….”
“No! I know that you told me that they were true predictions! But I’ve made my own decision…nothing that comes out of that woman’s mouth is real.”
“Voldemort needs to be stopped.”
“Then why do I have to be the one to do it?!” Harry exploded. “I’m sixteen; does that mean anything at all to you? You can’t tell a sixteen year old to save the world and to fight in a war that started before I was even born! I don’t care if Voldemort killed my parents, it was their choice to fight in the war, not mine and people die in wars! I want nothing to do with it, I’ve made my own choice and my decision is that I won’t fight just because my parents did. I don’t have to be included in this war just because they were. I want a nice, peaceful life and that’s what I’ll get…I’ve seen and suffered too much death in my life already and I’m only sixteen.”
“Voldemort will never leave you alone.”
“I still don’t care. If he believes that rubbish, that’s his problem. I’m going to live my own life the way I want to, I have a family now and I’ll make my own one day in the future too and I’m happy to do so. I want a nice, ordinary life. I want a partner, I want to get married and I want kids. I want a nice house; I may or may not want a full sized, professional Quidditch pitch for a back garden. I don’t want any pets outside of Hedwig and I’m hoping to get an extended family too, with in-laws, the works. I don’t want to fight, I never have, so I’m making a stand, I won’t fight in this war. So you need to find someone else to be your gullible scapegoat because I refuse to do so anymore. This war is your problem now, not mine.”
“There is no one else, you know…”
“I only know what you’ve told me.” Harry said through clenched teeth. “There is always someone else! You can’t possibly believe that me, a sixteen year old boy, is capable of murder! That I’m even remotely strong enough to take out that evil bastard. I’m not and I won’t sacrifice my life to that beast just because you tell me to, headmaster.”
Harry turned smartly on his heel and he left the office, hurrying down the spiral staircase and striding angrily down the corridor. He had to get away or he was going to say something that would alert Dumbledore that he knew that he had been his previous magical guardian…he could not allow that to happen.
He’d done as he’d meant to and he’d declared that he was no longer going to play a part in this war, he didn’t need to blurt out that he knew Dumbledore was a cold, manipulative fucker as well.
He needed to send another letter to Lucius, immediately. He had to tell his Father about everything that had happened and had been spoken about in that office, including his loss of control and his furious cursing. He had to be completely honest, even if it meant a punishment awaited him when he went home for the Christmas holidays. Until then, he needed to keep his head down and he needed to study hard, Lucius would not accept substandard grades for any reason, not even if he spent a month in the hospital wing, as he’d been told by Lucius after Draco had mentioned that Harry spent at least several weeks in the hospital wing a year. He had to work hard, study harder and keep his head down until he was out of school, it would be difficult, but he was sure that he could do it. He just needed to try as hard as he possibly could.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X
The large, cavernous room was lit by a huge, burning fire in the massive fireplace at the far end of the room and the long, narrow wooden table was filled with seventeen bickering people and Albus Dumbledore wearily stroked his beard with a wrinkled hand.
He was concerned; Harry’s passionate speech had left him nervous, an emotion that he didn’t feel all that often. If the boy refused to fight, the wizarding world would fall to Voldemort…if the boy didn’t die, he would never regain his power at the Ministry.
He’d called an emergency meeting of the Order of the Phoenix and he’d told them all about Harry’s explosive declaration in his office. The people sat at the table were arguing and shouting at one another about how best to deal with the situation.
“You have to make the boy see sense, Albus!” Alastor Moody growled out over the rest. “This is a war, not a game. He can’t just stop and pack it up like a set of cards! This has Malfoy written all over it.”
“That was my thought also, Alastor. It is obvious that Lucius Malfoy is planning, not to kill Harry as we had originally feared, at least not yet, but his goal now seems to be to convince Harry that he doesn’t need to fight in the war and thus he’ll remove the threat to his Lord. Harry is the only one who can defeat Voldemort for good. With Harry refusing to fight, Voldemort is free and unopposed to take over the wizarding world. He already has the Wizengamot, Albert Runcorn, a secret Death Eater, was voted in as the new Chief Warlock and with Lucius Malfoy whispering into Fudge’s ear, I’m afraid that the Ministry holds no friends for us at the moment.”
“The boy refused to pass his seats back to you?” Elphias Doge asked in outrage.
“I’m sure that that is Lucius Malfoy’s doing too. He is using Harry to garner more votes for his proposals, with Harry controlling the Potter and the Black seats; he has two very influential seats and two votes, not just the one. If he is copying Lucius Malfoy and agreeing with every word that he puts forward, then I fear what new laws and regulations are being passed.”
“I asked my Uncle about the Wizengamot meetings, Dumbledore. He’s refusing to tell me anything about them; he is disgusted that I, an Auror, would ask him such things when it is illegal to speak of anything to do with the meetings outside of other Wizengamot members.” Kingsley Shacklebolt said in his slow, deep voice.
Albus sighed and steepled his hands together and rested his chin on his fingers.
“I’m afraid that everything seems to have gone wrong. We’ve lost the Ministry, we’ve lost Harry and as a result, we may lose this war.”
“We will not give in!” Moody raged. “The Ministry needs to be cleaned out and the boy needs to be made to see sense!”
“And how would you do that?” Remus demanded furiously. “Force him to fight? He’s a sixteen year old boy; he’s not even a legal adult in this world! If he doesn’t want to fight, then I don’t see how we can make him. He’s scared! He’s had enough of having his life put in danger and after what he’s been put through, what teenager wouldn’t? He came into this world only five years ago and since then he has been attacked and hurt and in constant danger, he’s afraid and in pain. He’s had enough and I don’t blame him. We need to find another way.”
“There is no other way!” Emmeline Vance burst out. “If there was then we would have used it already. We need the boy.”
“He doesn’t want to fight anymore! You can’t just force him to do it when he won’t!”
“We’re going to have to, Remus.” Albus said quietly. “We need him to fight Voldemort; we need to get rid of him once and for all. Forcing Harry to fight is for the good of the wizarding world.”
“Do not say that to me!” Remus shouted loudly. “Do not sit there and tell me that forcing Harry to fight is for the good of the wizarding world, because unlike everyone else here, I am more concerned about Harry than I am about anything else.”
“Do you not want the Dark Lord stopped then?”
“Of course I do! As Harry himself does, he said as much in the headmaster’s office! I just don’t want it to be at the expense of Harry’s health or happiness. He doesn’t want to fight, he’s never been a violent boy anyway and forcing him to fight and to kill is going to destroy him. I won’t let you do that to him. If you can’t convince him to fight willingly, then you’re going to have to find a different way. Harry has been through too much as it is, he’s tired of it.”
“But what else can we do?” Bill Weasley asked. “We can’t allow Voldemort to win.”
“How would you feel about being Lord Weasley?” Dumbledore asked. “Being the Order’s eyes and ears on the Wizengamot.”
“I can’t be though; our family gave up the Lordship decades ago.”
“If you disown Bilius Weasley, then your feud with the Malfoys will be resolved and if you then announce that you, and you alone, agree with the Pureblood ethics and traditions and denounce all blood traitors, then you’ll be able to claim the Lordship for yourself. With the loss of the Black and the Potter seats and with the Lord Shacklebolt refusing to reveal the topics of the meetings, it is now imperative that we know what the members of the Wizengamot are voting on.”
“We have refused for decades to disown one of our ancestors for something so ridiculous.” Arthur said softly. “How can we disown someone from our family just because they loved a Muggle, because they loved children and wanted more of them?”
“The circumstances have changed drastically. We need to know what the Purebloods are planning, what laws they’re passing in order to counter them. The Wizengamot are mostly made up of Pureblood Lords and with a Chief Warlock who is now a suspected Death Eater, there is no telling what laws they are passing. We need to know and we need to expose them and their plans to the public. I imagine that they are trying to increase the regulations on Muggleborns, Lucius Malfoy proposed such a thing two years ago and as the Chief Warlock at the time, I shut that dangerous idea down immediately. I fear that without me there and Runcorn the Chief Warlock that things will be very different if the same proposal is brought before the Wizengamot again.”
Arthur nodded. “I’ll go to Gringotts tomorrow morning. The Wizengamot would never accept me as Lord Weasley, so I understand the need for it to be Bill, but it’s going to take a long time for this to go through the bank and that’s if the Ministry doesn’t make things difficult.”
“As long as it is eventually accepted, that is all we need. There is nothing we can do about the length of the process.” Dumbledore sighed, wishing fervently that there was some way to speed it all up. It would likely be the New Year before he had any insight into the Wizengamot at all and that was at the earliest. “I’m still unsure about what we can do with Harry, but I’ll think of something and I’ll approach him again once it gets further into the school year. Minerva, can I trouble you to keep an extra close eye on him and who he’s talking to, this dependency on the Malfoy family might stretch to young Draco as well.”
“Of course, Albus.” The elderly witch agreed immediately.
“Then I believe that this meeting is concluded. Good evening to all of you.”
Albus swept out of the kitchen of Grimmauld Place, thankful that Harry hadn’t closed it off to them and that he seemed to have not told Lucius Malfoy their whereabouts. Perhaps there was still hope after all and this was just a phase of a teenaged boy rebelling. He didn’t have much time left before he was sure that Tom would strike out and he needed to tell Harry about the Horcruxes, perhaps that would incite the boy to fight.
Even so, everything had gone wrong this summer and Harry had been damaged more than he’d first thought if he was truly serious about not fighting in this war. He hadn’t thought that seven weeks was long enough for Lucius Malfoy to do so much damage to all of his plans and his carefully constructed path, but he had been very wrong and now he was paying the price for it.
He should have tried harder to get Harry away from Lucius Malfoy sooner, but he’d trusted that Harry would protest more than he seemingly had. He had expected him to fight the Malfoys and to stay true to his own parents, but he hadn’t. Harry had just accepted it all easily and he had integrated himself with the Malfoy family so completely that he was even defending them and was now declaring that they were his own family.
A mere seven weeks, not even two months and everything had gone so completely wrong. He had to act fast now and he had to get Harry away from the Malfoys if he had any sort of hope of righting the wrongs that had been done in the last month. His plans had been ruined so completely by Lucius Malfoy that he now had to get rid of the man, and quickly.
This couldn’t continue, he had to get Harry to fight and he had to have the boy take a killing curse from Voldemort. It was the only way to right the wrongs that had been done. It was the only way to shift everything back to how it should be. One way or another, he would make Harry fight and he would put everything back to how it should have been. It was the only way.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X
Harry was drowning under a sea of homework and essays. It did not help that he was also taking two brand new subjects either as he had to get used to the Professors and their teaching style, which was naturally different to Draco and Lucius’, and he was behind his other classmates in said new subjects too; he was struggling a little with the work load and all of the assignments he was given not only in Arithmancy and Ancient Runes, but in his other lessons too as the subject level became harder in preparation for the N.E.W.Ts. The only subject he wasn’t having any problems with was Defence Against the Dark Arts, but then he’d always had an easy time of that, even if nonverbal spells were incredibly difficult and a new subject matter for him.
He had taken to haunting the library as much as Hermione had in their previous school years, though she never seemed to be in there when he was, and he was spending a lot of time in the library lately, so he knew that she wasn’t there nearly as much as she used to be. He hardly cared though, he didn’t have the time to figure out her sudden aversion to the library, though it was likely because he was suddenly spending so much time inside it that she was avoiding coming in here. He hated her for that too, he thought as he once again left his stuff on the table that he was currently occupying and went to find yet another reference text book on the dusty shelves that were far too high in his opinion.
“You really are embarrassing.” Said a voice several minutes later, disturbing Harry from his intense perusal of books, trying to find one that would actually help him.
Harry grinned and turned from the shelf to see Draco leaning on the table he had vacated and reading through his homework seriously, frowning at whatever he was reading.
“Is that any way to speak to me? I’m your younger brother.” Harry teased.
Draco scoffed at that and then he grimaced at something he had just read as he took the quill that Harry had left on the table, dipped it into the black ink and crossed out something on his parchment.
“This is wrong; I suggest that you read your books more closely.”
“I have been, honestly! I’m just so far behind everyone else. Can you help me, please?”
“Of course, all you had to do was ask. Now sit down and pay attention as I generously impart my wisdom onto you.”
Harry snorted as he walked back to his table and sat down next to Draco, who started telling him where he’d gone wrong, how and what he needed to do to work out the right answer. With this one on one, more concentrated teaching, Harry understood more because he could question Draco as much as he needed to and ask him to go over something if he needed to hear it again and he could have him check over his work for him to make sure that he was handing in the best quality work that he possibly could.
It took hours for him to finish his homework to Draco’s level of expectation, and with the subjects that he understood more in and didn’t need any help with as the only assignments that he had left to do, Draco got his own homework out and finished his own assignments off.
Draco even asked for his help on Defence Against the Dark Arts, which made Harry feel happier that he’d needed help with Arithmancy and Ancient Runes. He had thoroughly enjoyed teaching the DA after all, maybe he should have a harder think about his career choices and think seriously about what he wanted to do once he graduated, perhaps being a teacher would suit him better than becoming an Auror.
“Draco, what career do you want?” Harry asked with a frown.
“Hmm?” Draco hummed as he meticulously finished off his sentence. “I was thinking of starting a career in Potions. I want to be a Potions Master, so I’ll have to Apprentice to a Master for several years first before I can get a proper career and become a potioneer.”
Harry smiled. “That seems perfect for you; you’ve always done well with Potions.”
“I’ve had to work at it, but I’m proud of where I am. What do you want to do?”
Harry sighed. “I wanted to be an Auror, but I’m fed up of all of it. I don’t want to fight anymore or spend my life catching people and throwing them in prison, putting my life in danger day after day. I was thinking that maybe I could be a teacher. Maybe Defence Against the Dark Arts or Care of Magical Creatures.”
“You can’t be any worse than Hagrid; you know that absolutely no one is in his classes this year?”
Harry grimaced. “I know, Hagrid isn’t speaking to me because of that.”
“Good riddance.” Draco huffed. “Now stop procrastinating and help me with this question.”
Harry went back to helping Draco and everything was quiet and perfectly fine at their lamp lit table in one of the numerous study areas dotted around the library. It was peaceful, this sort of interaction with another person. He was doing all of his homework on time, he was doing it to a very high standard and not just doing a half arsed job and he was actually enjoying it because he was doing it with someone else. Blaise Zabini even found them and joined in on their little study group and he even got Harry to help him with his Defence homework in exchange for help with Astrology, a subject that he excelled in.
It was a far cry from trying to concentrate in the loud, noisy and busy Gryffindor common room with Hermione berating him every five minutes for not doing his homework sooner and Ron trying to beg off on playing chess or disturbing his thoughts to ask him what he was writing. It was no wonder he’d never truly applied himself to his studies before. He’d never really gotten the opportunity to try before.
“Cosying up with your new pals, hmm?” A scathing voice spat at him from behind as he bent over the table he was sat at, measuring the length of his parchment.
Harry let go of his homework and turned to look at Ginny, who was furious and puffing up in anger like her Mother and brother both did and he sighed.
“It’s not like that, Ginny. As I told Ron and Hermione on the train, I had no choice in my adoption. Lucius filed for my custody at the Ministry after it emerged that I was being neglected at home and his application was accepted. I never even knew what was happening until after it had all been done and finalised. I’m finally being taught all the things that I need to know, my Father is helping me with my Lordships, my Mother is helping to teach me spells to help around the home and how to care for children. Draco is my brother now, why wouldn’t I be doing my homework with him? I haven’t changed all that much, I’m just putting more effort into my school work, why is that such a bad thing?”
“They’re Malfoys, Harry! Death Eaters!”
“They aren’t.” Harry said calmly.
“I saw him at the Ministry! He fought against us! You said yourself that Lucius Malfoy was in the graveyard with you!”
“Hmm…I don’t recall ever telling you such a thing.” Harry said consideringly. “But I don’t want to lose any of you over this. So I have a family now, I’m being looked after and cared for, why does everyone see that as such a bad thing when it really isn’t?”
“We were your family!”
“I was never taught anything by your family, I was never told anything and I never felt cared for like I do now. I won’t apologise for seizing this opportunity while I can.”
“Why them?!” Ginny hissed.
“Because the Malfoy family were the only ones to offer.” Harry said as calmly as he could while his anger was being roused and stoked so expertly. “No one else thought that I was worthy of a family, no one else even tried, so why not them when they saw how miserable and run down I actually was? I was not in a good place, Ginny. I’m finally being looked after like every human being deserves to be, I’m being taught and brought up properly and I don’t care who it’s with, I’m so very happy now, why can’t you just be happy for me too?”
“I just can’t, not with those creatures.”
“I saved your miserable life.” Harry reminded her, his anger flaring bright and icy cold, going from a warm simmering to blazing white hot in an instant. “You would be dead right now if it wasn’t for what I did for you!”
“Ron came down…”
“Do you think an idiot like Ron would have ever figured out what had happened?!” Harry demanded of her. “Do you think that he would even have been able to get into that chamber when it has Parseltongue passwords? No! You would be dead without me, you would have died four years ago if I hadn’t gone down in that damn Chamber to find you and you thank me for that by turning your back on me just for being adopted into a real family. You really need to look in a mirror and have a long, hard look at yourself and ask if the ungrateful bitch looking back at you is the person you really want to be!”
Ginny ran off and Harry took in a deep breath and he sat himself down again. He couldn’t even remember standing up.
“I lost composure, didn’t I?”
“Definitely.” Blaise told him. “But due to the circumstances, I say you handled that really well. Her face when you reminded her that you’d saved her life was worth it.”
Harry sighed. “I’m just so angry lately. It flares up and I lash out without thinking, I don’t even have time to think! One minute I’m fine, then the next minute the anger surges and I’m up on my feet, shouting.”
“I think you’ve thoroughly burnt your bridges with that load of riffraff though.” Draco said with a haughty sniff. “Now come here and write this paragraph out again, you’ve gotten mixed up with your information yet again. I’m sure you don’t pay attention.”
Harry groaned and went back to his homework so that he could rewrite it yet again because Draco wasn’t happy with it. He needed to stop getting so damn angry and he needed to get on top of this mountain of homework. He had been made the Gryffindor Quidditch Captain this year as well and he needed to start holding try outs for new Beaters, a new Chaser and a new Keeper very soon as the first game was on the Saturday of the second week of November.
He was going to be so busy this year, what with his duties to his Quidditch team, his mass of homework and his lessons. Not to mention his self-study to catch up with Ancient Runes and Arithmancy, keeping up his correspondence with Rabastan and his duties to the Wizengamot as Lord Potter-Black. His schedule was literally jam packed this year and he couldn’t work out where he was going to find the time for all of it, but he would come up with something. He had to, even if it meant that he had to drop himself from the Quidditch team. He’d hate to do so, he loved Quidditch so very much, but his studies, his betrothal and his duties to the Wizengamot came first. They had to come first, even if it meant that he had to give up the sport that he absolutely loved. He had much more important things to deal with this year, after all.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X
Lucius Malfoy knelt in front of the high backed chair and allowed his Lord to sift through his memories at his will. He allowed all of the memories of Harry to come to the forefront, as he’d been instructed to do, thinking about the boy’s talents, his strengths, his intelligence and thirst for learning. How he was slowly opening the boy’s eyes and turning him permanently away from Dumbledore, how he had immediately thought to adopt the boy once the opportunity arose so that he could, one way or another, take the boy out of the coming war, including his very real thoughts about how he would dispose of the boy if it was asked of him, at least before he’d gotten to know Harry as a person. He allowed his Lord to see the growing fondness he had for the boy, how he had come to care for Harry, who was so spirited, yet sat silently for hours devouring every book that he gave to him.
He let his Lord see how he had immediately thought to put Harry with a loyal Death Eater once the boy had told him that he believed that he liked men more than he did women and how the Lestrange family had eventually came to his mind as a loyal, suitable family after he had probed a little at Xerxes to hear about the state of Rabastan.
He didn’t hold anything back or try to hide anything from his Lord, who had been pleased with him for his forethought in adopting the boy quickly when the chance had arisen before Dumbledore had had the chance to block this avenue of opportunity. His Lord who had been pleased with Harry taking up his seats on the Wizengamot and being taught to his full potential, and especially with the contract that put Harry with Rabastan Lestrange, one of his most loyal followers.
“The boy seems to be progressing well.”
Lucius brought up the letters that he’d gotten, first from Draco, and then several hours later the one from Harry and then the second letter from Harry that had arrived with a school owl the next morning. The former had been Harry’s admission of abuse by his Muggle relatives, told to him in the letter by Draco. The second had been Harry’s version of what had happened to him by the disgusting Muggles that he’d lived with and the third had been Harry’s guilty confession that he had used several coarse, vulgar words in front of Dumbledore and that he had lost composure and his temper several times, but ultimately that he had screamed at his Headmaster that he was not going to fight in the war, that he refused to be a part of it and that all he wanted was a life of his own and a family.
“The boy is receptive of the idea of a family with Rabastan?” The Dark Lord questioned softly.
“I believe that it is correct to say that he adores the ground that Rabastan walks on, my Lord. They are very receptive to one another.”
“Is that so, Xerxes? This pleases me.” The Dark Lord hissed, his red eyes gleaming happily at all the new ventures he could delve into with the boy out of the way and kept busy with Rabastan. “Make sure that nothing happens to destroy this bond that they have, I will see them engaged and then married. If I can keep the boy busy and out of my way, then there will be nothing to stop us, my old friends. How are Rodolphus and Rabastan coming along on their recovery plans? I will have need of them in the coming months.”
“Well, my Lord. I was initially worried about Rabastan, as I informed you he seemed to be merely going through the motions because he was told to do so, but now, he is throwing himself into his recovery plan and he’s working harder and asking about what else he can do to help himself. I believe that this is fully because of Harry. He wants to get stronger and fitter for Harry. They had no mirrors in Azkaban, they could see what each other looked like, but not what they themselves looked like and I’m sure that coming out of the prison and seeing his own face for the first time horrified him and it made him lose all hope…until Lucius came to me with the proposal for a betrothal between him and Harry. Now, since he’s met Harry and they’ve spent some time together, his lust for life has come back and his hope and his pride, his emotions are coming back and he’s showing more interest in the things and the people around him. It’s all thanks to Harry.”
Voldemort nodded his bald head. “This pleases me too. Rabastan is one of my most loyal followers, seeing him and Rodolphus wasted to nothing angered me. The wizards who put them in that prison will pay. I am pleased that he is becoming the man that he once was. Keep him and the boy interacting, they must not be allowed to drift apart and we must break the boy away from Dumbledore once and for all. If he truly doesn’t want to fight again, I will accept that, but I will not allow him to oppose me. I will kill him if he stands in my way.”
“I will speak to Harry when I see him at the next possible opportunity, my Lord. I will see what he’s thinking and if he actually meant what he said to that old fool.” Lucius said respectfully.
“Dumbledore believes that what he said was true. He called an emergency Order meeting the very same night. He is concerned and afraid. He’s talking about forcing the boy, by any means necessary, to fight in this war, but he fully believes that the boy doesn’t want to and so does the werewolf, Remus Lupin, who was also in the Headmaster’s office when Potter had his outburst.”
“Do you believe that the boy will stand by and let my plans commence, Severus?” The Dark Lord asked with a sibilant hiss.
“If he is anything like his old self, then no. But by all accounts, from Lucius, Xerxes, Rabastan, Rodolphus and Dumbledore himself, the boy has changed significantly. If he truly has changed so much, then I don’t see any reason why he would intervene with your plans, my Lord. The rift between him and Dumbledore is only growing.”
“Look after him in the school.” The Dark Lord ordered. “I will not have that old fool damaging what Lucius and Xerxes have started moulding. If I don’t have to worry about the boy, then my plans can progress that much quicker and that much smoother. This pleases me. Leave me, all of you. I have plans that need to be made.”
Lucius stood, bowed respectfully and he left the room immediately. He and his fellow Death Eaters remained silent until they made it outside of the property.
“Make sure that you do look after Harry in that school, Severus. He’s my son now and I would see no harm come to him.”
“He is to be my grandson-in-law as well; you won’t like what my family will do to you if anything happens to that boy.” Xerxes added. “Rabastan is very fond of him and since he’s been betrothed to Harry, I’ve seen a vast improvement in his behaviour and his mental health has improved as well. That boy is good for my Rabastan. I won’t have anything stand in the way of Rabastan’s recovery.”
“I will keep a closer eye on him, but as a Gryffindor, it is harder for me to be around him at all times than if he had been in my house.”
“I understand that, but the boy is a true Gryffindor at heart and he wouldn’t consent to being moved, even if there was a way to move him, I’m sure of it. Just do what you can and if there is anything that you see or hear, get in touch with me immediately. I will do what I can as his Father.”
“How is he as a son?”
“He’s more intelligent than I would have expected. There is a surprisingly quick, focused mind under all of that hair. He’s usually well behaved and he responds well to punishments when he isn’t well behaved. He is surprisingly easy to teach, he picks up things quickly and easily and when he actually applies himself, he can understand things to a depth that I wouldn’t have believed him capable of. You should see a new side to him this year, Severus. I’ve told him that if he doesn’t apply himself one hundred percent then he will be severely punished and he will have all of his privileges stripped from him once he’s home.”
“I am surprised to see him with that hair still.”
Lucius sighed aggravatedly. “There is nothing to be done for it. I tried to have it cut back respectably, but that never worked as I planned, so I had him use copious amounts of potions on it and still nothing worked…I gave up and told him that as long as he brushed it twice a day that I wouldn’t have him completely shave his head. Not that you could tell that he’s brushed it at all, but I trust him to do as I say.”
“Has he taken to instruction well?”
“He has taken to it wonderfully well. He needed a parental figure, someone to give him a structured set of rules and guidelines to follow and to give him punishments that are both fair and just to reprimand bad behaviour and someone to be strict enough to stick to them. He has had no direction throughout his life and hearing of how those abhorrent Muggles treated him, I can understand why he craves a known set of rules and a punishment that he knows isn’t going to change daily. I need to speak to him about the letter Draco sent to me, I need to find out how badly he was treated other than his rushed admission of being beaten and starved, I need to break it down into more finery as well, then I’ll make a decision to see if he needs a Mind Healer or not.”
“Draco told you that it was that bad?” Severus questioned with surprise.
“Draco told me that the boy was beaten and starved since he was a young child. Harry confirmed that he said as much to Draco, but it could be a lot worse from the way the boy is acting about it. Such a thing repulses me.”
“As soon as Harry tells you where they live…” Xerxes trailed off, his strong, age lined face was pale and tight with anger. “I’ve come to like that boy and what he’s doing for Rabastan. He’s good for my boy, that he’s been hurt deliberately in such a way…I’d kill those beasts in a heartbeat.”
“I think we’re all in agreement for that, Xerxes.” Lucius said. “I would be happy to invite you to pay them a visit once I have their address from Harry.”
“I wouldn’t mind a night with them. Several hours under a heavy silencing ward with them at my mercy in revenge for Harry.” Xerxes sighed. “I’m sure it would make Rabastan and Rodolphus happy too, once I’ve told them. Perhaps letting off some steam will do them both some good and aid in their recovery.”
Lucius nodded as they reached the property boundaries. “I will contact you once I have spoken to Harry then. Good evening gentlemen.”
With that, the three of them Apparated away to their respective houses, leaving the grounds of the heavily warded, heavily guarded, previously abandoned manor house that their Lord was hidden inside.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X
Xerxes was very confused when he finally found his Grandsons in the mismatched house, only to see Rodolphus comforting a sobbing Rabastan in the front room when he got home. He’d only just told their Lord how well Rabastan was coming on, only to find him in this disgraceful state upon his return.
“What in the name of Merlin has happened?” He demanded of his Grandsons.
“It’s Harry.” Rodolphus told him.
“Is he alright? He hasn’t been injured has he?” He asked quickly.
“No, he hasn’t sent Rabastan a letter in three weeks, but an hour ago a letter turned up with Hedwig, one that looked like he’d been writing it for two weeks, but it isn’t finished. Harry cut himself off in mid-sentence, left a cryptic ending about needing to talk to Rabastan face to face and ended it with a rushed signature.”

“He’s going to break off the betrothal, I know he is!” Rabastan growled in a rough voice that was harsh from his tears. “I’m not what he wants, of course I’m not. I’m ugly and old and decrepit! He’s going to want some young thing that’s handsome and strong, who hasn’t been ruined by years in Azkaban and I’m not regaining my strength quickly enough, I know that. I’ll never be able to regain what Azkaban has taken from me and he sees that too, he doesn’t want to be stuck with the likes of me for the rest of his life.”
“I think you have the wrong end of the stick.” Xerxes told his Grandson, easing himself down beside him. “Young Draco sent his Father a letter a week or so ago. Harry unwittingly revealed some rather…unsavoury facts about his childhood and he’s been forced to come out with the truth. If this is about what I think it is, then he sent you that letter in haste before the news could get to you from someone other than himself, so that it doesn’t look like he’s hiding anything from you. He sent a message to Lucius just hours after Draco did and then he must have waited for his owl to come back before sending this letter to you. I assure you though he is not looking to break the contract, in fact, from what Lucius was saying he’s already preparing for a quick engagement, so I suggest that you have a ring fashioned for him ready for when he comes home for the winter holidays.”
“What happened to him in his childhood?” Rabastan demanded, becoming the protective man that Azkaban had tried to whittle away and that Harry had rekindled.
Xerxes sighed. “I know very little, as does Draco and Lucius I imagine, as Harry wasn’t very forthcoming with details on the train journey, and his letter to Lucius was rushed, but from what he let slip, he was abused, beaten and starved as a young child by those Muggle beasts that he lived with. It’s why he accepted the adoption with the Malfoy family so easily, he’d never known the love and care of a real family before and now he craves it.”
“They hurt him?” Rabastan growled. “My betrothed? I’ll kill them. I’ll kill all of them and I’ll make it slow, for all the years that my Harry had to suffer from them! I will find out what they did to him, every last little thing and I’ll make sure that they suffer for every single one of the instances where they hurt or upset him.”
“That was the thought of Lucius and I.” Xerxes nodded. “He’s going to talk to Harry, see if he needs a Mind Healer after everything that he’s been through, as he is clinging to the three Malfoys quite tightly despite how little time he’s actually truly known them, and then he’s going to find out from him where those Muggles live and he’s going to invite us to go with him to pay them a little visit. Those pieces of filth will regret every instance that they laid a finger on him or denied him food before the end.”
The three of them slipped into contemplative silence and stayed with their own thoughts, thinking about all the painful, horrifying curses that they knew and would use on those Muggles once they found out how very badly they had hurt Harry.
“Does our Lord have any news or new missions for us?” Rodolphus asked after several minutes of internal pleasure, thinking of the effects his curses would have on mere Muggles.
“No, he asks that you remain on your recovery regimes and that you work on making yourselves healthy and combat ready. He also asks, Rabastan, that you do your all to keep Harry attached to you and that you do nothing to sever the bond between you, he is very pleased at the progress you have made with the boy and he is pleased that you are both getting healthier and fitter. He is content to plan and send out lower level Death Eaters for the assassinations that he needs completed, he is content to wait until you are both better.”
“I dislike not being able to help the cause.” Rodolphus said in frustration. “Rabastan has a mission of sorts. He has Harry and he has to work on his betrothal, I have nothing to distract myself with.”
“You could always try to get that Wife of yours with child. It wouldn’t hurt to at least try, even if you had to force her.”
Rodolphus’ face pinched in disgust at the thought of sleeping with his own Wife.
“I wouldn’t put it past her to purposely thwart my reluctant attempts by injuring herself while carrying the baby and then I would have done so for naught. It would be just like her.” He sneered.
“I say it often, but your Father is the biggest fool I’ve ever had the displeasure of knowing.” Xerxes sighed. “If it weren’t for the both of you, I would be happy to call him my biggest mistake. He took too much from that bitch Wife of mine and I was always away on missions for our Lord, so Lyvia got into his head and the sparse time that I spent with him was not enough to combat her potent poison. I’m glad that he never had the chance to do the same to you both, that he left you to me and flounced off to India after the death of your Mother to leave me to raise you both in peace. You two are the sons that I always wanted to have, but all I got was Rhadamanthus.”
“You know we see you more as our Father than him.” Rabastan said. “I didn’t even meet him until the year after I graduated Hogwarts and then I was thrown into Azkaban only a few short years afterwards. The one and only time that he actually came and visited was when Rodolphus was fifteen and he only came back to set up his engagement with Bellatrix and I was spending that summer in Brazil with that penfriend I had. I never had enough interaction with him to see him as anything other than a distant relative; he’s a near stranger to me.”
“I feel the same way. I was three when he left and I don’t remember that far back. All I can remember of my childhood is you, Grandfather. How happy I was, how happy we were. How you taught us and built us up. You are my Father in my mind, even if it’s not official. That man came back when I was fifteen, because he thought I was actually a year older, he thought I was sixteen already and he was actually angry with me when I informed this stranger in my home that I was only fifteen. He set up that engagement immediately, regardless of anything else and he told me that it was my duty to the Lestrange line to accept. You were away on a mission, Grandfather, I had no one to help me, so I was pressured into signing the contract over that summer and I have regretted it since.”
“You boys are the apples of my eye. I care for you both, but I can’t forgive that son of mine for abandoning you both, even if it was the best thing that could have happened for all involved. I will never forgive him for what he did to you Rodolphus, it is as simple as that. If he puts another foot out of line, I will dispose of him and I hope that you boys don’t think ill of me for that, if it comes to pass.”
“Of course not, Grandfather.” Rabastan said. “After all the meetings, Harry has been hinting at the same thing. He says that my Father isn’t good for me and that he’s hindering my recovery and if he had to, he’d be willing to eliminate the threat to me.”
Xerxes was surprised but he chuckled darkly. “I’ve said it numerous times before over the last month or so, but I really do like that boy. I’m glad that he’s joining the family. He’ll fit in well. I must remember to tell Lucius that his son is planning cold blooded murder, he’ll be so proud of how far Harry has come in just seven weeks.”
“He’s said now that he wants five children at a minimum. It was in the letter that he just sent me. I’m not sure if he’s testing my reactions or if he really wants even more children than that but has been told to only have the three children. It feels like he’s working on bringing me around to his way of thinking and his desire to have more than the three that he’s been told to have. But as of our last correspondence, he wishes for five children.”
Xerxes laughed. “You get a ring on that boy’s finger this winter, Rabastan, you hear me. You can’t let a treasure like that get away from you. The most you could expect from a Pureblooded witch is one or two children, if you had a Wife like your brother then you’d have none. Five! I can hardly wait for you both to be married. I don’t care if he’s testing you or being told to only have so many by others, you get that boy with as many children as you can.”
“Tell Grandfather how Harry formatted his letter for you, brother.” Rodolphus teased with a smirk.
Rabastan laughed scratchily and pulled a long, actually an incredibly long, letter from his pocket and unfolded the piece of parchment that had to have been at least two feet in length, if not longer. He could definitely understand why his Grandsons had come to the conclusion that Harry had been writing it for two or so weeks.
Xerxes took the letter and looked at it and he laughed as he saw that each different paragraph was in a different coloured ink.
“I mentioned to him just once that sometimes I have trouble following long passages of text because I forget where I was and I can’t find where I’d left off in a passage easily.”
“So he wrote you a two foot long letter and put each paragraph in a drastically different colour so that you knew exactly where you were and if you did lose your place, you’d know what you’d already read from the colours. That boy is coming very close to worming his way into my cold heart.”
“Rabastan almost had a heart attack when he saw the length of the letter, then he realised what Harry had done for him and he almost cried from happiness.” Rodolphus said, getting a shove from his younger brother in the process.
Xerxes smiled as he read the words that Harry had written. He could tell that the boy really had come to love his Rabastan and he couldn’t be happier…except perhaps when Harry presented him with his very first great-grandchild. The next generation of Lestranges.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X
Harry was upset and fed up. This was the second time in a month that he had to hunt all over the school and the grounds for his belongings. He contented himself with the knowledge that this would be the last time though. He’d gotten permission from Professor Flitwick to get an advanced Charms book from the Restricted Section of the library. One that contained an incredibly powerful locking charm that the imbeciles in his dorm room wouldn’t be able to break in their wildest daydreams.
As he snatched up another one of his books that had been jammed into the visor of a suit of armour, its spine twisted and the leather cover and the pages shredded, he vowed that he would have his revenge for this.
“What are you doing?”
Harry turned to look at his brother and Draco and his friends actually took a step back from the anger and hate in his eyes.
“They won’t get away with this.” He hissed.
“They took all of your stuff again?!” Draco demanded.
“Everything, even my robes this time. I had to transfigure my pyjamas into a normal shirt and trousers to come looking for my things. They even took my fucking trunk.”
“I thought you were going to get a locking charm.” Blaise asked.
“I got one, but it took a while to convince Flitwick of why I needed a book from the Restricted Section, too long. I was going to cast the charm tonight, after I’d gotten used to the spell, but it seems that they got there before I did and they spent the night throwing my stuff all over the castle.”
“Come on, let’s look for it all.” Draco sighed as he headed off in the opposite direction, looking high and low for books or clothes stuffed into alcoves or behind statues.
Harry was so angry and it fed the cold, icy anger inside of him, engorging it and causing it to grow bigger until he could barely see straight from the anger. They would come to regret this; he’d make damn sure of it.
It took him hours to find everything that he’d lost, including spotting his trunk bobbing in the lake from the third floor. By the time he’d gotten all of his things back, dried those that were soaking wet from being thrown into the lake or down a toilet, it was almost dinner time.
He’d wasted an entire day, that he had previously planned to spend studying, chasing down his own possessions. Some of which were so wet or so damaged that he didn’t even want to keep them, including the shredded robes that he’d found pieces of all over the fifth and sixth floors.
“I sent a list to Father of all the things that are too damaged or not worth saving. He’ll have new ones sent to you soon.” Draco told him.
“Even my trunk has been warped by spending the night in the lake.” He groused. He was in a foul mood.
“I say that we curse them.” Blaise said.
“No need. I found a very handy charm in that book that I got from the Restricted Section. If they try to open my locked trunk again…they’re going to seriously regret it.”
“What does it do?” Draco asked eagerly.
“Let’s just say that they won’t be using their hands again for a while.” Harry grinned.
“You know that they’re going to try again.” Draco said with a happy smirk.
“I’m counting on it.” Harry grinned wider.
“I love this new side of you.” Blaise insisted.
“It’s always been there, I just never exercised it much.”
“You’ve always wanted to curse people?” Draco asked with disbelief and a touch of surprise.
Harry looked at him seriously. “Can you keep a secret?”
“Of course. On my honour as a Malfoy.”
“I actually cast the Cruciatus curse on Bellatrix right after she killed Sirius, before any of this happened and before I was adopted. That fake Moody in fourth year really shouldn’t have demonstrated those spells; he not only showed us their effects, but he taught us all the incantations and wand movements for the Unforgivables too.”
The two sixteen year olds opposite gaped at him and Harry shrugged. “She is the person that I hate most in this world.”
“But, the Dark Lord, he killed…you know.” Blaise said uncomfortably.
“Yes, but I never knew them. I can’t even draw upon one memory of them; I was too young to remember so they’re just a concept to me, something I knew I had, but I don’t have anymore. You can’t miss something that you don’t remember having. But I knew Sirius well, I loved him, I had memories and presents off of him. I remember how he looked and smelt, how tightly he used to hug me, the sound of his voice, the feel of his robes under my hands, his loud laugh, the way he prepared the coffee that he was always drinking from the moment he got up until the moment he went to bed, he always put it in his favourite mug. I loved him, I remember everything about him and she killed him right in front of me, a memory that haunts me every single night and leaves me bathed in a cold sweat. I hate her the most…her and Umbridge. I’ll never forgive either of them.”
Harry left the two boys staring after him and he went to redo all of his homework, as his originals had all been destroyed last night. He’d had to borrow a quill, ink and parchment off of Draco.
He reached Gryffindor Tower with no problems and he sighed as he went up to the boys’ dormitory and made it to his bed, where all of his salvageable things were waiting for his attention. He had no robes, no clothes, hardly any books left (none of them were undamaged), no trunk and his Firebolt was still missing. The one thing that he had off of Sirius was his beloved Firebolt and he was not going to let them get away with taking such a precious gift from him. They had no right to even touch it.
The broom was personalised to him anyway, so they couldn’t even try to claim it as theirs, everyone knew that he was the only person in Hogwarts with a Firebolt, but it was an inconvenience, because he was holding Quidditch try outs tomorrow. He needed new Beaters, a new Chaser and a new Keeper, and if certain members of the Gryffindor team were as difficult as his dorm mates were being, especially after the way Ginny had reacted to him in the library, then he would need to hold more try outs for more players on top of the new Beaters, Chaser and the Keeper that he already needed. Maybe he should just replace the entire Gryffindor team, it might actually be easier, but then he hadn’t seen Katie Bell yet, maybe she didn’t care that he’d been adopted at all, he’d have to find out otherwise he’d be the only member of the team that had been on the team last year.
He sat on his bed and he redid his homework, using the notes that Blaise and Draco had kindly given to him, because again his had gone missing in the night. Instead of learning more about Ancient Runes and Arithmancy and reading more to make himself understand more, he was now redoing homework that was due in next week. Thankfully it was a Saturday and not a weekday, so he had the time he needed to do it all again, even if it did ruin all of his plans of self-study.
Hopefully all of his new things would arrive by Monday morning, because he only had what he was currently wearing and he couldn’t keep transfiguring them into pyjamas and back and he had no socks to wear and no change of underwear either, he felt like he was back in the cupboard, wearing his cousin’s too big, baggy briefs and a pair of trousers and a shirt that were several sizes too big for him.
He clenched his teeth together and took in several long, deep breaths. He would have his revenge on them, even if he had to wait weeks to implement it. He would pay them back for what they’d done to him twice now. It was only a matter of time and he could hardly wait to take his revenge on them now.
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Harry had been forced to hold try outs on a borrowed school broom, but Professor McGonagall had promised him that she wouldn’t accept thievery and she’d have his broom back with him soon. He’d tried to summon it twice now, but wherever it was, it wasn’t responding to his spell.
He’d still shown up most of the applicants for the team positions on the school broom and he’d thrown Ginny off of the team after she refused to stop belittling him and had petulantly and blatantly ignored his Captain’s orders. From her face, she hadn’t expected him to react at all, let alone by throwing her off of the team. It was her own fault for being so puerile and bitter over his adoption. If she couldn’t be happy for him, then fine, but if she couldn’t even put it aside long enough to get ten minutes into a practice session without sneering and belittling him, then he was not going to put up with her. It made it better because he knew that she wanted to be a professional player, her chances of that now were slimmer, because any team she applied to could look into her school records and see that she had been kicked off of her school team for unprofessional conduct.
He’d made a whole new team, though Katie Bell was still a Chaser with the new addition of Demelza Robins and a new girl to replace Ginny named Sarah Priskin. His two new Beaters were third years and his Keeper was a second year. He had a young team, with a touch of experience from himself and Katie. If he played his cards right and trained them superbly, then this team would be Gryffindor’s triumph for the next four years.
He had also prepared a reserve team, who were very, very young, all second years with one third year as a Beater. The twelve year old Seeker was being trained personally by him and the poor boy had almost wet himself when Harry had told him what would be happening from now on and that he would be having personal lessons to help him fly and to hone his skills to be an excellent Seeker. He had this year and the next to get this young boy into shape and up to the standard that he expected and then, when he graduated, he’d leave behind his handpicked team as his legacy.
Monday morning saw a regal owl landing in front of him with a large parcel and Harry smiled as he took the letter from the owl’s beak and tore it open, thankful that he had as Lucius warned him that as soon as the parcel was free of the packaging, it would all resize and the weightless charm would disengage.
He abandoned his half eaten breakfast and took his parcel back up to Gryffindor tower and into the dormitories. He tore it open eagerly and watched as his brand new, sleek trunk resized itself. He grinned as he noticed the personal touches on it, the dark wood, the gleaming polish, the little carved vines around the edges, the Malfoy crest stamped onto the front and the small inscription of his name in gold on the front of the rounded lid, just above the seam where the trunk opened.
He grinned wider and flung it open and his mouth actually hurt from his smile when he saw all the new books, the pristine robes (both school ones and his brand new Quidditch robes in scarlet red and yellow) and all of the things that he needed, plain black socks, plain black boxer-briefs, two sets of black gloves, one pair was sheepskin for the winter and the other pair was dragonhide for the summer, everything that he had lost had not only been replaced, but had been upgraded with a Malfoy twist of flair. He loved it and what he loved more was the letter and the small, wrapped gift, right on the top of everything, with Rabastan’s distinctive, shaky writing on the front. He was just sad that he didn’t have the time to open it just yet, he had lessons in just twenty minutes. He swore that he would do so at lunch time now. The waiting would just make him that much more excited to open it.
He immediately cast the locking charm on the trunk and the little added extra, he wouldn’t make the same mistake twice and they were not going to destroy any gifts that he’d been given by his adoptive Father.
He went to his bedside drawer, thankful that his dorm mates hadn’t bothered to look through the drawers of his bedside table, likely to avoid waking him up as the bedside table was right next to his head, and he took out his Father’s invisibility cloak, several framed pictures of his parents, the album that Hagrid had given to him, his three vault keys and his exchange book. All of them went right into his trunk to be covered by the protective charms and he smiled. All he needed now was his Firebolt back, and he would get it back, of that he promised. He would get it back and he would have his revenge on those who had taken it in the first place.
He immediately changed himself out of the clothes that he’d been wearing for the last few days (it was a relief to finally change his boxers and actually get on a pair of socks), wearing all fresh clothing and the pair of highly polished new shoes that Lucius had sent to him before he slung his new backpack over his shoulder and he made his way to his lessons feeling so much better and he was happy to know that it would never happen again. Those imbeciles would not be able to break that locking charm and after the brilliant effects of the additional charm that was on the trunk kicked in, they would regret even trying to touch his stuff.
His day passed well enough and he loved the looks on his dorm mates faces when they saw him not only wearing brand new, high quality clothing, but also handing in his completed homework. It made him smile as he sat himself next to Draco, who he’d informed of all the goings on and his new delivery of items.
“Your trunk matches mine, only my name is done in silver.”
“You do have a fondness for silver.” Harry said with a smile.
“What is your favourite colour? I don’t think you’ve ever said.”
“I don’t know. I’ve never really thought about it, but I am drawn to several different colours for different reasons. Gold definitely, because it’s the colour of the snitch, blue because it’s the colour of the sky, which represents freedom to me and my love of flying, green because of my eyes, which always make my think of my Mum, yellow because of the sun, which represents happiness. I just…I don’t have one colour that I like, I’m drawn to several of them.”
“You really are special.” Draco told him and Harry chuckled quietly. “And speaking of special, have you heard more from that special person of yours?”
Harry grinned. “He sent me a letter this morning. It was in the trunk along with a small gift. I never had the time to open it; I’m going to do it at lunch. I really can’t wait, I want to know what he has to say and what he sent to me.”
“You have it so bad for him.”
“I know, but I can’t help it. It’s insane, I never expected to even like him, but I do, Draco. I really do. I want to help him, I want him to get better and I know it’ll take a long time, but I want to be there for him, to help him. He’s letting me do everything that I want to, if I say I want five kids, he says fine, if I said I wanted ten of them, I’m sure that he’d agree. He let me talk about our ceremony for three hours and he just agreed with me. He’s not at all what I was expecting.”
“What, you thought he’d be an insane, rambling lunatic who fired off curses at shadows?” Draco murmured under his breath, barely audible to Harry, who was bending his head near Draco’s mouth and even he had trouble hearing him.
“Well, that’s not exactly what I thought, but I did say to myself that if he was like that then I wouldn’t even consider him, but I wasn’t expecting him to be so caring or attentive. So…normal, I guess, despite what that place did to him. He’s damaged, jumpy and twitchy, but that will get better with the right potions and the right medical attention, I’m sure of it. Despite that, he actually seems near enough normal. He reacts normally, not like Bellatrix. She not only jumped at shadows, she cursed them too without thinking. No, Rabastan comes across as normal to me, did he come out of Azkaban like this, or is it thanks to his recovery programme?”
“He was much worse when he first came out, Harry, believe me when I say that. You didn’t get to see him at his worst and thankfully I missed a lot of it too because I was at school, but I remember seeing a bit of him during the holidays and when I got home for the summer, Mother and Father were talking a lot about too. You missed the worst of the effects, when Rabastan was clinging to his brother and refused to let go of him, when they had to walk around holding hands and they had to share the same baths, the same bed and they refused to be separated long enough to go to the bathroom separately. That was a very bad time, but they’ve both improved a lot since that time and given some more time, I’m sure that they’re only going to get better.”
Harry nodded his head in agreement and he then turned to actually start on his class work. He did like Rabastan and he was surprised that the man was actually near enough normal, or as normal as someone really could be after fifteen long, harsh years in Azkaban, but he was sure that given a few more years then he’d be much better than he was at the moment, he had already improved. Draco had told him what he’d once been like and he was much better now than he had been then and now that Rabastan had him, Harry was going to help him to recover as much as possible, because he wanted Rabastan to be better, he wanted Rabastan to regain his strength and he was sure that Rabastan wanted that as well.
Together he was sure that they could get Rabastan to where he needed to be and he hoped that he was enough to help Rabastan, was he enough of an incentive for the man to get better? Would he want to get better for their potential future family? Would that be enough of an incentive for the man? If he wasn’t enough, then would the thought of their future children be enough of a drive to help Rabastan recover as fully as possible? He didn’t know the answer to that and it drove him crazy. He just wanted Rabastan to get better and to recover from his awful ordeal. He wanted them to be a proper, normal family. He wanted Rabastan to get better so that they could love one another, so that they could have and love their future children. He wanted that so badly that he was willing to do absolutely anything to make it a reality.
On the other hand though, even though he knew that Rabastan’s body would mostly heal from the damage that had been done to it over the decade and a half he had spent in Azkaban, he was also sure that as he spent more time with Rabastan, talked to him more and got to know him a little more, then he would find some very dark secrets, after all, he himself had nightmares from what he’d gone through in his life…he would be incredibly surprised if Rabastan didn’t have some nightmares of his own.
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A/N: I hope you have all enjoyed this chapter, lovelies and I hope I’ve done a bit of justice to the book version Voldemort, who is a little saner than in canon, but not too sane as he is still a vile, cruel man. But I needed to do something to help make the plot line at least seem realistic…so I’ve had to make Voldemort a little more sane and more willing to let Harry live and I’ve had to make Harry more open minded and accepting as well as more clingy to the idea of family thanks to his lack of one and the abuse of the Dursleys. Otherwise there would be absolutely no chance of this working, so just roll with it, lovelies.
Josh: Voldemort looks the same as he does in canon. Tall and thin with a bald head, gleaming red eyes, no nose, snake like. The works.
Chaos Lady: I checked on this again, just to make sure and Snowy owls are definitely smaller than Eagle owls. The wing span of a female snowy owl is between 49 and 59 inches, but the male Eagle owl’s wing span is between 63 and 74 inches long, so Draco’s owl would have been bigger and much faster than Hedwig and she would have been little to Harry, who is a sixteen year old boy after all. My Jethro is a large cat and he’s 11lbs and I still call him little, it’s just habit now.
The next chapter now is going to be October into November and Hogwarts gets a visit from the lovely Lucius Malfoy. We also get some more Narcissa and a scene of Harry/Hedwig bonding, but until then, I hope you’ve enjoyed this chapter and I’ll see you all soon,

StarLight Massacre. X
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The Guile and Devotion of a Black Heir