"He wants to marry you?" "Of course, he's very happy with our match. As is his brother and grandfather…his father is a poisonous, petty bastard, though."
"You shouldn't speak ill of your betrothed's family." Daphne warned him "I take it that you are a gene carrier?"
Harry nodded again. "I am and I don't speak ill of Rabastan's family, only his father and we're both in agreement that he has no right to call himself a Lestrange. He abandoned his own sons, his own family, for decades after all."
"I can't believe that the Lestranges wanted you of all people. They really must be desperate."
"I will warn you that if you speak ill of my betrothed's family like that again, I will curse you."
"As will I." Draco countered. "If you speak ill of my brother, then you speak ill of me. If you insult him, then you insult the entire Malfoy family and I won't stand for it."
Pansy seemed to be at a loss as she looked between Harry and Draco and then at the letter that Harry was still writing; he'd moved on to purple ink. He'd stoppered the silver ink bottle and handed it back to Draco.
"Why are you writing in different inks? Such gaudy colours too." She sneered instead. It was like she needed something, anything, to sneer at in order to make herself feel bigger and better. It came across as utterly pathetic to Harry.
"If I want to test out different coloured inks, why shouldn't I?" Harry asked.
"Rabastan Lestrange will definitely not like receiving a letter set out like that."
"You talk as if you've actually ever seen or spoken to him." Harry remarked. "He enjoys getting letters from me, no matter what form they're in or what colour ink I use. I could send him a singing dwarf to relay my message and he'd still enjoy it and he'd reply as well. Do not talk of my betrothed as if you know him or have ever even met him before."
Pansy suffered her humiliation for only several seconds before the compartment door was opened and Harry was looking at Ron and Hermione. He smiled at them widely, excited to see them again after so long.
"How was your summer?" He asked them. "You won't believe how much I've learnt this summer, it's been amazing! I have so much to tell you!"
"How can you say that after everything that's happened?" Ron burst out angrily.
"Excuse me? I don't seem to understand what the problem is."
"Merlin, you even talk differently!" "Of course I do, I've been educated in elocution to help me with my role as Lord Potter-Black in the Wizengamot. Don't fault me for that when I'm helping to make a difference in the world we live in."
"Professor Dumbledore was making a difference!" Hermione told him, just as angrily as Ron.
"He stole my birthright from me. He was using seats on the Wizengamot that are rightfully mine and I had no idea about any of it. He stole my rights from me and he's lucky that he isn't facing a trial and a stint in Azkaban prison because of it."
"He said…he said…"
"I bet that there is a lot that he's said and told you about everything that's happened, but until you hear both sides…until you hear my side of things, then you have no hope of making an informed decision. If you only take one side as the truth without listening to the other, then you're only being purposefully ignorant."
"Seven weeks you've spent with the Malfoys and look at you!" Ron spat.
Harry looked down at his new, pitch-black robes trimmed with silver that had matching sterling silver fastenings that he'd had tailored for him at Twilfitt and Tattings. The crest was still the red and gold Gryffindor lion, as was the tie done perfectly at his throat, but Harry thought that he looked rather good.
"He looks perfectly fine to me." Draco complimented. "Unlike you, Weasley. How many of your brothers wore that robe before you got it?"
Ron's ears went red and Harry sighed. This was not going at all how he'd hoped. He'd hoped that his friends would understand, that they'd be righteously angry on his behalf when he told them what Dumbledore had done to him…he'd forgotten that they'd been following Dumbledore's orders too. That Dumbledore had told them not to send owls to him and they hadn't, then suddenly, as soon as he was in Malfoy Manor, he was getting at least a letter every day from them both, most likely on Dumbledore's orders too. That thought upset him, he loved them, they were his friends, his first two human friends in his life and he didn't want to let them go. It was hurting him. The way that they were looking at him was hurting him.
"What has this got to do with you, ferret?"
"Do not insult my brother in such a way." Harry demanded angrily. "I still want to be friends with you both, but I will not let you speak to Draco in that way."
"Why would anyone want to be your friend now?!" Ron exploded. "You've made your choice, you've picked them over us!" "I haven't chosen anyone over anybody else! It is you who is breaking off this friendship. I still want to remain friends, I just won't stand idly by and allow you to offer insult to my brother and to my family!"
"They're not your family, Harry. You're the son of James and Lily Potter, not the Malfoys." Hermione told him quietly.
Harry sighed raggedly in frustration. He didn't understand why everyone kept saying that to him.
"Yes, I am. I will always be their son, as Sirius will always be my godfather, but they're all dead, Hermione. They're all gone and I have no one left to be my family. Yet why does that mean that I can't have another family? A family willing to adopt me and take me in and care for me? Why can't I have that too just because my parents happen to be dead? Why does them being dead mean that I can't have a loving family? They'd want me to be happy and I am."
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