Disclaimer - I don't own Harry Potter... this is an AU, it will contain slash, and I will update as often as I can.

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PART ONE

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Draco, shivering from more than cold, held his infant sister Andromeda closer to him. He watched her closely, and gave a sigh of relief seeing her little chest rise and fall as she breathed. The tiny girl was eeriely silent, and her lips were blue, a fact that scared him beyond belief. His were probably too; it was so cold, and he dared not get closer to the blaze. They had to leave, find someplace warm, someplace safe.

He stared a the rubble of Malfoy Manor one last time, searched for a sign that his mother had escaped. Finding none, Draco fought back a sob. He couldn't break down, Ana was counting on him.

Holding her tightly in one arm, Draco mounted his old Nimbus 2001. The one his father had given him... father. The man was in Azkaban and would remain there the rest of his life - he couldn't help himself let alone his children. He didn't even know Andromeda existed, Narcissa hadn't realized until long after he'd been caught.

For a while, still dazed by the horror of his mother's death, the blond wizard flew aimlessly. Then, without really thinking, he turned towards London. Towards Diagon Alley.

He was slightly confused when he ended up standing at the entrance to Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, leaning on his broomstick. It seemed to be closed for the night. "Damn," Draco muttered quietly, glanced at his sister's pale face, and began knocking loudly.

A female voice asked, from the other side of the door, moments later, "Can't you tell we're closed?" She sounded more than slightly annoyed.

"I can't see how that matters, since I want to talk to the Weasleys not buy their merchandise," Draco snapped in reply, irritably.

"Verity, who's at the door?" he heard the twins ask their employee simultaneously.

"I don't know," the young woman exclaimed. "It's night, I'm not letting him in!"

"Fine, don't let me in," Draco said, trying hard to hid the panic in his voice. "But take my sister!"

The door swung open, and one of the Weasley twins stood in the entrance. "Malfoy," he spat, and slammed the door. On Draco's foot, since he'd expected a reaction like that. The Weasleys were a Light family, and Malfoys had always been Dark...

"Take my sister," he told the older boy softly, handing the tiny bundle to him. The red-haired boy stared down at the baby, pale face staring up at him, blue lips trembling.

"Oh gods..." he whispered. "George, g-get Mum!" Fred returned his gaze to Malfoy, only to find the blond boy was gone. "Bloody hell."

"Mum!" George yelled, stumbling out of the sooty fireplace in his haste. He was face was deathly pale andn his freckles stood out sharply in contrast. The Weasleys were staying in Grimmauld Place with Harry, helping him with his research on Horcruxes and giving him lessons on fighting Dark Magic. "MUM!"

"George? Where's your brother, hun?" Molly Weasley asked, worried at the frantic expression on her son's face.

"He's at the shop, Mum, we need your help. Malfoy just left his baby sister with us and ran off crying!"

"Oh... my," Molly replied, speechless. Then she shook her head to help clear her mind. "I take it you want me to take care of the baby?" she sighed when her son nodded. She was suddenly hit with the image of a tearful blond boy shoving a tiny baby into her son's arms and running away into the darkness. "Very well."

"What about Malfoy?" someone asked from the stairs. Harry was leaning against the railing, standing on the last step. The expression on his face was unreadable.

"Harry!" Mrs. Weasley exclaimed. "You were so quiet... what about him?"

"Why else would Draco Malfoy leave his sister with a Weasley, unless he wanted her safely away from Voldemort...? He's switched sides, or he wants to." Harry remembered the night Dumbledore died very clearly - Malfoy had nearly been turned to the light. He couldn't forget it. No one seemed to care whether or not he was coerced into it, they hated him ... it sickened Harry. "The only reason he became a Deatheater was because

Voldemort threatened his mother. So if he even considered switching sides, she must be dead. He's in danger. He's on our side. He has no one to turn to. And you just say 'What about him?'!"

Mrs. Weasley had the grace to look ashamed. George looked more than slightly shocked about the outburst, but nodded after a few moments. "Fine, then you can look for the git," he told Harry with a shrug. After his mother flooed to the shop, he added, "I'm coming with you of course, in case you run into trouble."

Harry gave the red-head a smile, stepped into the fireplace, and clearly said, "Weasley Wizard Wheezes." He spun around sickeningly and fell out of the fireplace on the other end. Standing up quickly, he saw Mrs. Weasley taking a small bundle from a very upset Fred. At the same time, he heard George emerge from the fireplace behind him.

"She's so sweet," Molly whispered in an awed voice, falling instantly in love with the baby at first sight. She shooed the boys away, took Verity under her command, and ordered the frazzled lass to gather blankets and other things the baby would need. After casting a warming spell and a cleansing spell, she asked her sons, "What was the little darling's name?"

Fred and George looked at each other, and shrugged.

"Whatever her name is, she's fine now?" Harry asked, looking at the tiny baby girl. She looked like Malfoy with his silvery gray eyes and white blond hair. However, her tiny face had a cute impish look completely unlike her brother's. Molly smiled, and Harry took that as a yes. "Then I'll go fetch her brother. And shouldn't someone get Tonks? She's their only family that isn't evil, insane, or in Azkaban that I know of." Without waiting for an answer, he left.

Huddled in the darkness of a narrow alley off the main street, Draco tried to make himself small as possible. To silence his chattering teeth, his shuddering breaths. He'd done what he'd promised, Andromeda was safe, Mum would be happy. A single tear trickled down his cheek and froze halfway down. She was dead, and it was all his fault. He should have made her take Ana, he should have tried to hold Voldemort off while they fled.

... helpless grief, black despair, and utter self-loathing overcame him. He didn't notice the Dementor floating closer and closer, and nor would he have cared if he did, so wrapped up in anguish he was. It was feeding off of him, there were others beyond it, and one was sneaking in close for a kiss.

"Expecto Patronum! EXPECTO PATRONUM!" he looked up tiredly when he heard someone yelling, and his eyes widened at the dark things surrounding him, at the bright creature of light protecting him... the anguish of his mind faded to a tolerable level. He barely registered, as he fainted, arms catching him and holding him, while still fighting off Dementors and Deatheaters as they were surrounded.

After fighting through several more Dementors and the three remaining Deatheaters, Harry and George were free - George had done most of the work on the way out, as Harry had his hands full with Malfoy. Surprisingly the way back to the shop was free from mishap.

When they ran into the shop, locked it up, and burst into the back rooms, Molly Weasley hushed them, "She's sleeping!" she whispered fiercely at them, but her eyes softened when she saw their weary faces and Malfoy's unconscious, near-lifeless body. She conjured a small bed for the boy right next to his sister's cradle. "What happened?" she asked softly.

Harry was slightly confused from her change in respect to Malfoy, from uncaring witch to mother-hen. He gently dumped the blond onto the bed, and sat down next to him. The amount of magic he'd used up... left him exhausted physically and mentally.

"Potter saved Malfoy from a Dementor's loving kiss," George told his mother, voice thick with cheerful sarcasm. His mother paled, and immediately began a health scan on the blond. Nothing major was wrong with him, but she healed everything down to the smallest scrape, finishing with a warming spell. Still the boy shivered, trapped in his own personal darkness.

There was a long uneasy silence that wasn't broken until the baby began crying. Mrs. Weasley went to pick her up, but Draco beat her to it. He rose sleepily, and picked his sister up out of the crib. "Shh, Ana, s'okay," he murmured, and lay back down holding her next to him. She stopped crying, cuddled close to her big brother.

Everyone gaped at him, assuming he'd fallen back asleep. Fred mouthed at George, Did you see that? George nodded numbly. Malfoy acting like a loving brother. What was the world coming to?

Several moments later, Draco moved again, gave the people watching him a look of confusion, and asked irritably, "What the bloody hell are you people staring at?"

As no one else was going to answer that, Harry shrugged, and said, "I, for one, was slightly surprised that you woke up already. Having frozen half to death and then nearly..." he shrugged, not feeling like going into detail about Draco's near-death experience and the timely rescue by one Harry Potter, "but I can't speak for the others. If tonight was any example, you're not going to be safe even here." Harry gave the twins an apologetic look, but they just shrugged it off. He was Harry, after all, he knew what he was talking about when it came to that kind of thing. "So I was figuring when you woke up, we'd bring you to the House."

"The House? What are you talking about and why did you use that weird inflection as if house had to be capitalized?" Draco asked, annoyed because he had the feeling that something was being hidden from him.

"Harry are you sure that's a good idea?" Mrs. Weasley asked. Meaning,

"I wouldn't have suggested it if I thought it wasn't, would I?" Harry asked, rolling his eyes, replying to the spoken and unspoken questions. "In any case, since he's up, we might as well go now."

"But the baby, she can't go by floo powder!" Mrs. Weasley exclaimed at the dark-haired boy for his lack of judgment.

"Then you can bloody well Apparate there with her," Harry snapped, and the motherly witch stopped nagging him the moment she saw the look in his eyes. He was mentally, magically, and physically exhausted and if he didn't rest soon either his temper would explode or he'd faint. Or both.

"She's not Apparating anywhere with Andromeda!" Draco held the little girl protectively, glowering at the witch.

"Shut up, Malfoy, she is, if you want her safe," Harry said as dragged the blond witch out of bed, careful not to upset the sleeping baby. Draco snarled at him, and handed his sister to Molly. The already small boy seemed to deflate after Mrs. Weasley Disapparated holding his sister. He glared at Harry, who smiled and motioned for him to take some floo powder.

"Where?" Draco asked, before throwing the powder into the fireplace.

"Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place," Harry whispered told him. Telling himself that it wasn't a mistake as he followed the blond wizard back to the most noble and ancient House of Black...