If only that were true, Father. But where are you now you Bastard? Jail...because you were WEAK, claiming power that you never had...using what strength and control you did have to beat mother and I into submission. Yet you forgot some of the precious Malfoy code that you worked so hard to drill into me, didn't you? Like the part where it says a Malfoy doesn't bow down to anyone...least of all a weak excuse for a wizard who uses young people in a form of revenge to do his dirty work...shock troops for the zealots

Potter was stupid to take you in, you stupid arse. You're useless...to Voldemort's cause, and CERTAINLY to this cause. Dumbledore could have helped you, maybe trained you so you knew more than lies and maliciousness...but you hesitated. Always relying on someone else to save your sorry ass. Merlin, Malfoy, you're such a screwup...your father was right and the Weaslette has you pegged sure as a pirate's leg.

With that, she dismissed him and he went on his way to the new quarters which were to be "home" for the next several months. He found the hallway and stopped short at the ironic torture before his eyes. The portrait guarding where he was to sleep was none other than Albus Dumbledore, the very man Draco had been told to kill the previous year.

Mara was not surprised to find Hedwig outside her window late that night. She had known Harry the moment she saw him, and knew that he would ask her help. For this reason, a carefully composed reply - politely declining - already sat addressed on her vanity table.

I need to warn you about Draco. He's the reason Dumbledore is dead and my brother Bill so scarred. More than that, he is on the run from He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. He begged Harry for refuge - and Harry brought him to my family. Because after all, who would expect Draco Malfoy, Pureblood Prince, Snob of Slytherin, to associate with the Weasley family....Blood Traitors to the highest degree?

Grandfather promised me acceptance, but who's to say what form that would take? You may be his granddaughter, but you have helped his enemy. And he doesn't sit well with traitors. But how can you be a traitor, Mara? You've never been near him! He's never responded, in all this time, to all those letters you sent... Why now?

Harry Potter... was perturbed.

"Malfoy...  I'm sorry."

Draco smirked, "As you should be.  Even you should have too much respect for these beautiful features to harm them."

Mara lashed out in her mind, trying desperately to throw off the spell she found herself under.  Something was thrown over her head, and though she could not move to verify her suspicions, she knew it was an invisibility cloak.

"So why exactly are we trusting Snape?" Ron asked for the hundredth time.

"Because he's on our side, you numbskull, now shut up or Wormtail will hear you and blast your freckled face off."