Harry came to slowly, eyes blinking against the brightness that flooded his vision. He could only see blurry shadows and a lot of white.
' Where am I? What happened? I was going to Transfiguration, and then?'
He heard some bustling around him, and a voice speaking.
"He's awake, let me do my checks headmaster"
' Who is that? Her voice is familiar'
"Of course Poppy" came a man's voice, "Severus and I will wait"
' Poppy? Severus?'
And then it came to him, as his memories flooded back.
' I must be in the Hospital Wing, and Dumbledore and Professor Snape are here also. What happened?'
Harry tried to speak, to ask that very question, but it came out in a bit of a croak. His throat felt like someone had packed it full of sand.
"Don't try to talk yet, you need something to drink first" Madam Pomfrey said, "Here, let me put your glasses on, then you can sit up a bit and have something to drink"
His vision cleared as his glasses comfortable weight settled on the bridge of his nose. He could see Madam Pomfrey looking over him, while Dumbledore and Professor Snape looked on from the other side of the room.
"Try sitting up there, tell me if you feel any pain"
Harry pushed himself up so he was sitting, and shook his head at the nurses questioning look. She handed him a glass of water, telling him "small sips now", and he drank it, his throat feeling better immediately.
"Harry dear, are you up to answering some questions from the Headmaster and Professor Snape?"
"I think so," he said, giving a small cough.
' What the hell happened to me? Why am I here?'
Dumbledore and Snape moved forwards, till they were standing right next to Harry. Dumbledore was the first to speak.
"Harry, my boy. I'm so sorry that you have been hurt"
' Now you're sorry I'm hurt! Where were you the rest of my life?'
"Thank you, sir "
Dumbledore winced slightly at the cool tone of voice. Snape just watched this, impassively.
"Sir?" Harry said, looking at Snape, "What happened to me?"
"You were stunned. Draco and Daphne went looking for you when you didn't appear in Transfiguration. They found you after searching for a while. We're hoping you may shed some light on what happened" Snape said, his voice tight and controlled.
"I'm not sure, sir. I was on the way to Transfiguration from the library, and then I just woke up here"
"You didn't hear anything? An incantation, even footsteps? Anything you can tell us?" Snape asked.
Harry screwed up his face in concentration, thinking hard.
"Not that I can remember sir"
"Harry," Dumbledore said, "We wish to help you. Rest assured, whoever is responsible for this will be punished severely"
"Expelled," Snape said
Dumbledore ignored the addition and continued. "Do you know of anyone, student or teacher, who would wish you harm?"
' You might not wish me harm, but I'm not sure you wish me well either'
"No, sir. The only one I can think of is Weasley. Ron Weasley. But I don't think-"
"No first year would be capable of this" Snape cut in, looking directly at Dumbledore. "A talented enough third year perhaps"
"All avenues will be pursued, Severus," Dumbledore said quietly, "But I think, in this you are wrong"
"If I am not, they will both be expelled" Snape stated, with a quiet finality.
Dumbledore turned back to Harry.
"Whoever attacked you chose their location well. There are no portraits on that corridor to perhaps give us information. Tell me Harry, is corridor your usual way of getting to Transfiguration?"
"Not really. I had to go to the library before class, and that's why I was going there. Usually, I don't"
"Well," Dumbledore said, with a slightly relieved look on his face, "That gives us something. Whoever it was would have had to be following you"
' Doesn't seem like it's that big a help'
"Harry, I wish to speak with you after the Easter break," Dumbledore said, "You will be spending it with the Malfoys?"
"Yes"
"Excellent. First Sunday after the break, 2 P.M. My office. The password will be Pepper Imps"
With that, Dumbledore left the Hospital wing, giving a cheery farewell to Madam Pomfrey. Snape was still standing by Harry's bed, looking at Dumbledore's departing figure with an odd expression on his face.
"Sir?" Harry said tentatively, "It sounds like you suspect someone?"
Snape looked back at Harry and just looked at him for a few moments before answering.
"A few days ago, Ronald Weasley was jinxed multiple times over the course of a few hours. Nothing major, but enough to cause anger. I believe you may know who is behind that"
' Goddamnit Draco. I told you and Theo to just leave the bastard alone.'
After Draco had told Theo how much Ron had pissed Harry off, the two had decided to ambush him, and leave him wobbling around and being tickled. Harry had tried to talk them out of it, saying he just wanted nothing to do with the ginger anymore, but Theo had just smirked and said "You won't be doing anything. Anyways, Slytherins look out for each other"
Harry just looked back at Professor Snape with an expressionless mask on. The man sighed and carried on.
"Weasley has two brothers in the third year, Fred, and George. You know them?"
Harry nodded, of course, he knew the Weasley twins. The two biggest troublemakers in the school, everyone knew them. They were possibly the only students who could match Peeves for pranks.
"It is possible, but not too likely that they were taking revenge on you for what had happened to their younger brother"
' Draco I'm going to kill you'
"The more I think of that though" Snape continued "The less it makes sense. This is not like them. They would be more likely to vanish your clothing or do something embarrassing and highly amusing to them. This attack does not fall into their modus operandi"
"So who could it have been sir?"
"Who knows?" Snape said, faraway look in his eyes.
Madam Pomfrey said that Harry would have to spend the night in the Hospital Wing. He hated being in there, she treated him like he was an infant. It was nice at first, not having to do anything, but after a few hours he was feeling restless, and he couldn't have another argument with the strict nurse over whether or not he was too weak to at least walk around the room. He didn't even have any books with him to serve as a distraction. Luckily, his friends paid him a visit that evening. Even luckier, they brought him one of his library books, so at least he would have something to do. Madam Pomfrey had told him that she would only let him out the next day at lunchtime.
Harry took great pleasure in guilt-tripping Draco and Theo about the possible outcome of their attack on Weasley. He neglected to tell them until the very end of their visit what Snape had said about how unlikely it was that it had actually been the Weasley twins who attacked him. When he did tell them though, Theo visibly sagged with relief, while Draco hit Harry with a pillow.
Harry finally got the all clear to leave the Hospital Wing just in time to make it down to the Great Hall for lunch. Everyone was getting excited about the Quidditch match the following day. It was going to be Hufflepuff-Gryffindor, and whoever won this match would be facing Slytherin in the finals after Easter break.
"There's no chance Hufflepuff will win, Draco. Not a chance"
"I'm telling you, Blaise, you'll see. Gryffindor has a better team, but Hufflepuff has a better Seeker. Diggory will get the Snitch for sure. The only question is if Gryffindor will score enough to win anyway"
"Isn't that quite unlikely?" Tracey asked. She really didn't care much for Quidditch, but would still support the Slytherin team with everyone else.
"Generally," Harry said. He had been doing a lot of reading and talking about Quidditch, and felt he had a good idea of the game, "But there isn't usually such a disparity between the teams. If the seekers were taken out of it, Gryffindor would absolutely clobber the Hufflepuffs".
In the end, both Blaise and Draco were proven right, when Gryffindor won by ten points after Cedric Diggory, the Hufflepuff Seeker caught the snitch. Even though most of the relatively short match had just been Gryffindor scoring goal after goal, it had still been exhilarating. Harry was getting excited as the time drew near to his second year, and with it, the chance for him to try out for the Slytherin team. Draco was very confident that both him and Harry would get onto the team when they tried out, but Harry still felt nervous at the thought. What if he just wasn't good enough? It was enough to make him want to not try out, just in case. Either way, he had told Draco he would try next year, so he would have to do it.
"What are those things?" Harry asked, pointing to the leathery horses that were pulling their carriages to the train.
"Harry, what are you talking about?" Draco asked him.
"You know, those horses pulling the carriages. They don't look at all like normal horses. Well, except for the legs and tail I guess"
Now everyone was looking at him strangely, although Theo's face had a very odd expression on it.
"Harry, there isn't anything pulling the carriage," Draco said a bit worriedly.
Harry looked at Draco's face, trying to find the joke. He looked back at the horse, saw its tail whip at a fly, and then looked back at everyone else in the carriage.
"You guys are joking, right? Seriously?"
"Harry," Daphne said gently, "There's nothing pulling the carriages, except magic"
"But-"
"He's right," Theo said, voice lower than his usual self-confident tones.
"What?" Daphne said, staring at Theo
' Well, at least everyone's looking at him like he's the crazy one'
"They're Thestrals. My father warned me about them" Theo said.
"Thestral," Harry said, the name tickling something in his memory.
"Yeah. You can only see Thestrals if you saw someone die" Theo said, making everyone look a little uncomfortable, "Who did you see die?"
"Duh, his parents" Pansy said petulantly.
"No. You have to be old enough to understand what happened. Dad wasn't sure if I would be able to see them and I was eight when my mother died. Harry would have been too young when his parents died."
Draco gave Harry a look.
' oh fuck it'
"A kid at the orphanage died. I watched him fall down the stairs" Harry said lightly.
Pansy gasped, "That must have been horrible"
"Not really," Harry said. They must have picked something up from his tone, because the conversation shifted very quickly, although Daphne kept giving him furtive glances, and Draco had a little blush creeping up his neck.
As usual, Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy were waiting for the boys at the train station. They Apparated to Malfoy Manor, and Harry found that this time the apparition wasn't nearly as bad as his first time had been. Dobby arrived to take their trunks, and Harry and Draco went to unpack. Draco had promised to show Harry a part of the grounds they hadn't been to on the last trip. Apparently, before the Malfoys 'acquired' this bit of land, it had been a muggle golf course. It really was a breathtaking view. A large grassy plain stretched before them, with small foresty areas in it, and flowers and trees dotting the landscape. There were deer meandering in it, and Draco said there were a few unicorns that lived in the little forest.
"Not that many of course, it's not that large. But father says there are enough of them, that we could make a living on nothing else but their hair"
They ran through the long grass, rolling and playing in it. It wasn't too long before they were tired, and started the trek back to the Manor.
"What do those Thestrals look like actually? I've only seen drawings of them"
"Like a horse crossed with a dragon. A bit creepy actually. They have these long wings that were curled up against their bodies"
"Worth watching a muggle die to be able to see them?" Draco asked casually, half question half statement.
"I guess. It still isn't any fun seeing a person die. They just-stop being a person and become a lifeless thing"
"I'm telling you, Harry, you can't think of muggles as if they're people"
"But they are! They can't do magic, and maybe they're more stupid than us, but they're still people"
Draco shook his head quite violently, blonde hair flying around.
"Harry-"
"C'mon Draco, I'm too tired to argue about this right now," Harry said, not really lying. He was feeling quite exhausted.
Dinner was amazing, as Harry had come to expect from the Malfoys. As Harry and Draco were heading to bed, Lucius pulled Harry over for a moment.
"Harry, tomorrow I'd like to talk to you. Perhaps after breakfast?"
Harry failed to hide a yawn and nodded while saying "That should be good sir. Thank you"
Lucius gave Harry an indulgent smile. "Not at all Harry"
"So Harry, as I said in my letter to you, the prospect of adoption does not look very likely"
Harry nodded. They were sitting in Lucius' study, Harry felt he was being swallowed by the armchair he was in. He didn't want to shift around too much though. He still had a voice in his head screaming about showing weakness, and while he ignored it most of the time, he had to give it something.
"The problem is, the current adoption laws are extremely archaic and outdated. There is a custom, which is almost law by now, to name a godparent for a child. This way, if the parents are incapacitated, the godparent will raise the child. Your godparent causes some rather large problems for us"
' I have a godparent?'
"Who is my godparent?" Harry said, some anger leaking into his voice.
"A wizard by the name of Sirius Black. He was your father's best friend"
Lucius stopped and looked hard at Harry.
Internally, Harry was shaking.
' What the hell? Where has he been?'
"The problem Harry is that Sirius Black is serving a life sentence in Azkaban. No hope of parole"
' What?' Harry thought, his bubble of indignation leaking into his voice.
Lucius must have noticed Harry's shocked look because he was quick to continue.
"He killed thirteen muggles and a wizard. The night your parents were killed in fact. And Harry, this is going to be very difficult for you to hear"
Lucius took a deep breath, as Harry was wondering what else would be coming.
"Sirius Black was the one who betrayed your' parents location to the Dark Lord"
Harry's body began shaking a bit.
' It's his fault. His fault the Dark Lord killed my parents. His fault I grew up in a nightmare. His fault. It's all this Sirius Black's fault'
Harry was speechless. What could he say to that? How was he meant to respond to a bombshell like that?
"Harry?" Lucius said kindly, softly, "Would you rather continue this conversation later?"
Harry shook his head as if to cast the thoughts of his parent's murder away.
"No, sir. If it's ok, I'd like to discuss this now, and sort through my thoughts later"
"Very well," Lucius said approvingly, "Now, obviously Sirius is unable to be your godparent. However, since legally he is the one who should be looking after you, it becomes very difficult for someone else to take custody of you"
"But, what do they expect me to do? What happens to other kids in this type of situation?"
"It is an extremely rare situation to be in. In the wizarding world, if parents and godparent are unable to take in the child in question, he or she will usually be adopted by family-Close family. Aunts and Uncles and the like"
' Well, that sure as hell won't happen with me' Harry thought, still reeling from the what he had just learned. He was actually feeling slightly hysterical.
' Don't show it! No weakness!'
"As such, your case, while not unprecedented or unheard of, is very, very uncommon. To remove custody from the Parent's chosen, and to hand it over to another would require a meeting of some of the Wizengamot. Not the whole court, but some of them"
"That sounds do-able though?" Harry said, a bit confused.
"That alone would be. However, we would also need to show why your current living situation is unsatisfactory. Of course, no-one would think that a muggle" Lucius said that word with such bite, Harry was almost surprised to see the man wasn't foaming at the lips, "orphanage is a fitting place for a young wizard, particularly not you. That too would be manageable, even without us being forced to go into details of what you have experienced in that place"
"So what is the actual problem, sir?"
"The problem, Harry, comes in with your headmaster. Being that you are an orphan, raised in the muggle world, your headmaster and by extension, head of house, are considered to be your Magical guardians. Now, Albus Dumbledore may be willing to allow you to be adopted by a wizarding family, but there is next to no chance he will allow you to be adopted by his political enemy"
"He wants to speak to me after Easter", Harry blurted out.
Lucius sat in deep thought for a few minutes before speaking.
"He will very possibly warn you about me. He believes me to be a puppet-master, making the ministry dance on my strings. I wish my connections were that good" Lucius said with a small laugh.
"You said, informal adoption would be possible?" Harry asked, wanting to stay on point. The information he had been told about his godfather was rattling about his head, and despite his brave front he just wanted to get out of the study already.
"Yes. It should be no problem. What it would practically mean, is that you would stay here over the summer, and breaks as you desire. Nothing would be legally changed, at all. Legally, Narcissa and I would have no say with regards to you, and anything requiring your guardian's approval would still have to go through the orphanage matron or Dumbledore. Nevertheless, you would not be living at that place, and I believe that should be enough, for the moment at least"
"I think it will be sir. Getting away from the orphanage is all I want right now"
"Then that is the course we shall take. We must be careful, Albus Dumbledore has the legal power to forbid you from coming. Additionally, I believe a Confundus charm may be in order. We wouldn't want the Matron wondering why you aren't there, would we?"
"No, sir," Harry said. His exuberant feelings rising, even on top of his melancholy mood.
By the end of the week, Harry felt totally rested. The break had been really good. It had taken him until the end of the day after his chat with Lucius to regain his equilibrium, but Draco had helped. They had gone flying, and after that Harry told Draco the whole story. How his dad's best friend, and his own godfather, had been the one to betray his parents to the Dark Lord. Draco had been suitably shocked. He knew the name, Sirius Black, of course. He was an infamous killer. A whole street of muggles had been blown up in his fight with another wizard, named Peter Pettigrew.
"We're related to him actually," Draco said.
"Pettigrew?"
"No, Black. My mother was a Black. Sirius is her cousin. Although Mother's sister and her husband are in Azkaban"
"Really? Why?"
"Auntie Bella was the Dark Lord's best servant," Draco said, with a bit of pride in his voice. Harry didn't notice that though, he was too focused on the words themselves.
"Really? That's crazy! What did she do?"
And so, the rest of the day was spent with Draco regaling Harry with tales of his aunt and uncle's actions during the war. Harry listened with horror, but a small part of him was jealous.
' That's power. Being able to do whatever you want. That's real power'
The last two days of the break gave Harry a lot of alone time. Draco had completely forgotten about the homework they had been assigned until a chance comment by his mother had reminded him. He had become quite frantic, leaving Harry glad he had done most of it before the break. Harry used a lot of this time in the library and was reading an old philosophy tome and muttering to himself when Lucius walked in without his noticing.
"That's quite gross" He was saying.
"What is?" Harry jerked at the sudden voice, almost throwing the book. He saw Lucius standing there, and relaxed, his heart still racing.
"The stuff this book is talking about sir. About being selfish" He said, showing the book to the man.
"What's gross about it?" Lucius asked, settling into an armchair.
"It's just-It isn't good to be selfish, is it?" He asked, suddenly feeling quite uncertain.
"Selfishness" Lucius drawled, "Is the most honest of human attributes. No-one else, outside of close friends and family, will truly be thinking of what will be best for you. It is up to you to look out for yourself"
"But the way this book is talking, you can do anything in your own interest!"
"And so?" Lucius asked, arching one eyebrow.
"What about-" Harry said, feeling a bit flustered, "What about the law?"
"Ah, the law. I believe that book actually discusses it"
"Oh. I haven't read that much of it"
"I would be most pleased if you would take that book with when you return to Hogwarts for the next term. You should read it, Harry"
"I will sir. Thank you"
"I believe you will find it most illuminating" Lucius continued as if Harry hadn't spoken. "Just ensure that you think what it says through. The ideas contained in there are brilliant, but require much thought to comprehend fully. In fact, that book is practically the Malfoy family philosophy. We can discuss it over the summer"
"Oh Draco, you're almost finished your first year at Hogwarts" Mrs. Malfoy was saying on their last day of break. "I can't believe you've gotten so big!"
Harry smiled at Draco's discomfort. The blonde boy frankly hated it when his mother displayed affection in front of other people.
"You'll be good, won't you boys?"
"Yes ma'am" Harry responded, while Draco just nodded.
"Wonderful. Harry, we're so looking forward to having you over the summer" She said, giving Harry a warm smile.
"Come on boys, we must get going" Lucius called from the entrance hall. They walked until they were outside the gate, and Lucius and Narcissa held out their hands. Harry took one last look at the Manor where he would be spending the summer and gave a brilliant grin.