Prologue
The Barries, though one of the oldest pureblooded wizarding families in Britain, had never been among the most influential ones. Whether it was their strange Scottish traditions or tendency to drink more than was appropriate that kept them apart from the rest no one knew, but lately it had become clear to all that the isolation had grown deeper and not all looked favorably on this recent development. One of their youngest had reportedly moved out of the Barrie castle a few years before, a strange exception from the family's tradition of keeping its members safe inside the castle walls until they got married. No invitation to a wedding had been sent out, however, and this was more than enough to raise a sea of rumors among those who still cherished the more traditional way of life.
The previous time the wizarding world had been at war the Barries had been able to maintain an air of impartiality, which most families would have done almost anything to achieve. To most people their means to keeping up this neutrality were unknown, though many kept whispering to each other tales about bribery and promises the family had made to all parties involved. Some were sure the so-called Barrie impartiality was merely a façade, and that the castle's vast cellars had been filled with You-Know-Who's opponents, who the Barries had quickly released and bribed silent after He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named had been defeated. No one said this to the Barries, for obvious reasons.
Draco Malfoy was one of the people who really knew what was behind the Barrie impartiality, and it had nothing to do with money or promises of any kind. The thing that kept the Barries from participating, even more than their reluctance to do so, were the stereotypical characteristics the members of the family all seemed to possess. An average Barrie was a 6'2" male with the most distasteful reddish hair, and a lack of intelligence as well as the ability to restrain himself from women and alcohol. On top of that, they all had problems with authorities and were well known for not taking orders from anyone than the head of their own family. Having the Barries on their side would only resort to trouble, but having the family against them could resort to something much worse. Unlike most pureblooded families the Barries favored large quantities of children and their ability to breed like rabbits was the subject of many jokes all over England.
To the Malfoys the Barries had no other significance than their existence as an old, widely spread pureblooded family. The value of the Barrie blood was irreplaceable, especially during the times they were living, they needed allies, but more than that, they needed pure blood and the magnificent power that was a given with it. The Malfoy family was known for its highest status in the wizarding society and it had not been achieved effortlessly. The family had always known to keep their relationships with other pureblooded families as cherished as possible.
When Draco looked at the house that rose out of the flat landscape like a lonely tooth in the mouth of an old man, he found it hard to believe it belonged to any pureblooded wizard. It was a typical two-storey farmhouse, roughly built and painted unevenly with a bright red colour. Nearby stood two unpainted buildings for the animals, and vast fields spread out to the edge of the horizon all over this only sign of human habitat they had encountered for miles. There was something very lonely about it all, and some aspect of it made Draco's lips pout in a displeased manner. It was all very… un-magical.
He could hear his father sneer as he passed him, starting to take quick steps toward the house and the white door gleaming in the weak sunlight of that April morning.
"Do you suppose there will be trouble?" Draco asked and his father sneered again.
"We shall see."
The pale boy followed the narrow pathway in front of him with his eyes and thought. He had nothing against the Barries, nor did he have anything for them. The few times their families had encountered one another the Barries had appeared as they usually did; ill- mannered and bordering on incomprehensible.
"Did you meet with the head of the family?"
His father nodded. "They want to remain impartial," he snorted, sounding more than a little loathing.
Draco wasn't surprised. "Do they have that option?"
There was a small silence. "For now," the man finally said as they reached a small gate that led to the yard.
They crossed the garden silently; their faint footsteps scared the hen from the path as they made their way to the entrance. Draco placed three loud knocks on the door with his gloved hand and stepped back. Not a sound could be heard from behind those thick walls for a long time, so long that the two turned to look at each other passing a wordless question between them. Finally, the house came alive with the sound of a key turning in the lock, and the door opened inward to a warmly lit kitchen. A young man with bright red hair in ragged robes held the door open. He was taller than either one of them and seemed to possess almost all of the usual Barrie characteristics.
"Daniel," the older of the men said and nodded politely. Daniel Barrie's face grew pale beneath the flour and he cleared his throat before speaking.
"Lucius," the man pronounced in his strange Scottish accent and gained more colour to his face as he turned his eyes on Draco looking extremely surprised, "this yer wean then?"
Draco nodded but decided it best to leave the greetings at that. He knew better than to start a discussion with a Barrie. Their way of speaking knotted his ears in no time.
"Yes, this is Draco." The man made the introduction and Daniel's eyes lit up.
"Didna ken he wis so auld awready," he laughed a little nervously. "The last time eh seen ye ye wis only a wee bairn."
"Yes, it's been a long time."
Draco heard the impatience in his father's tone and straightened his posture, preparing to enter the house.
"Too lang if yer askin me," the man laughed again, sounding even more nervous this time. He was still leaning to the doorframe, blocking the entrance with his body. "Eh remember in the auld days hou aw families used tae be spendin a lot mair time thegither. Thare's nane o that naw mair. The guid auld days, ye ken?"
The pale man nodded. "Things can always be improved," he reminded the other one calmly.
"Ye reckon?" Daniel asked, but spoke again before an answer could be given to the question. "Come on in, oot o the cauld. Ye'll freeze yer heids."
He moved to let them in, beating the flour off his robes as he did. Draco looked around, taking in all the details that seemed more than a little out of place in the house of this so-called bachelor. His eyes searched the room, noting not only the two loaves of bread waiting by the baking oven, but also the fresh flowers in a vase on the table, and the brass star of six points on the wall above the door.
"Rather strange for a Barrie to move out unaccompanied," Lucius said, gazing around the kitchen lazily.
"Eh like me peace an quiet," Daniel replied, clearing his throat again. "Havin a load o brothers can dae that tae ye."
"Hmm," the blond man looked at the star on the wall and his lips tightened, "perhaps you'd like to show us the rest of the house."
Draco's brain registered the tone; it wasn't a suggestion, it was an order. Daniel seemed to notice it too, and the colour that had risen to his cheeks faded again.
"Awrite," he muttered, sounding so guilty Draco wanted to grab him by his shoulders and shake him. The boy closed his eyes for a moment before following the two out of the kitchen with his teeth clenched. The house was silent, so silent it made Draco expect a sound to emerge.
"A rather large house for one person," his father commented, looking up at the rafters calculatingly. This time Daniel kept quiet until the other man asked about the price of the property.
"Eh did aw the biggin meself," he said rather proudly. "If ye want a proper house, ye better big it yerself, eh awways think."
Draco looked around as they walked on, and if he had been anyone else he could have almost admired the way the house screamed out "home" louder than any place he had ever been in. There were no cold surfaces anywhere, just warm wood, fireplaces and armchairs that looked like you could sink so deep in them you might never be able to get to your feet again. The floorboards creaked under their feet, and even that felt like a built-in feature, just put in place to make whoever walked there feel as welcome as possible.
Then, they came to the stairs. From outside the little farm house looked like a bungalow with a tiny attic, not a two-storey house as it now seemed to turn out to be.
As soon as Draco saw them his eyes shot up at Daniel just in time to see his face grow paler as he glanced upstairs himself. Before anyone could say a word, the boy started ascending the stairs, knowing his father's bad leg wouldn't be able to take the climbing. He blocked all thoughts of all the other possible reasons why he was now climbing up the stairs, leaving the two behind. He could hear Daniel clearing his throat again, and this time it sounded a lot louder, like a warning of some kind. Draco held back his tongue as he heard the blatant gesture. Daniel Barrie was turning out to be one of the most ill considered people he had had the chance to come across.
He came to a landing, and continued upward. He could hear the other two keeping up a conversation. The voices were growing faint, but he could still hear Daniel's absent replies to his father's questions. By the time he reached the second floor, the sounds had become muffled but he wasn't sure if it was because of the solid wood between them, or the strange and ominous feeling that was taking over him.
He looked to his right, and saw the end of a hallway. Behind him on his right was a narrow door. He walked to it, and opened it to a bathroom. Two sinks, a seat and a bathtub behind a shower curtain. Draco looked at the deep blue shades of it, and the colourful fish that dotted its surface here and there. He bit his lip, and closed the door.
He followed the hallway to its other end where he found three doors, two on his left and one on his right. He could hear his own breathing very clearly now, the air seemed heavy and dusty, and the faint light falling in from the window at the end of the hallway decorated the walls with a sickly yellow. Draco took a deep breath, and opened the first door on his left, wanting to avoid what he knew was the largest bedroom as long as possible.
He stepped in the room, took one look at the light blue walls, the hand-carved cot and the mobile with animals above it, and closed the door immediately, heaving in large portions of air as he did. He pressed his cold hand on his face for a second before moving on to the next room, expecting nothing less than the pale shades of red and the crib he found. He stepped further in, making an effort by walking to a closet and opening its door, only to find piles of nappies and burping cloths neatly stacked to the shelves. With a few hurried steps, he was back in the hallway.
The third door loomed in front of him, its dark surface seemed to radiate the careful consideration and love its maker had intended to carve in it and guessing what was on the other side of it only enhanced the feeling. Draco stared at it for ten seconds he counted in his head, another five, and stepped forward, knowing exactly what he would find, but not knowing what he would do afterward.
The door swung open quietly, no one had even bothered to lock it.
From what Draco saw and remembered of the room it was very nice with a large tidily made bed in the middle. The floors were darker here, resorting to an air of intimacy that seemed to cover the room like a blanket. A large Victorian type wardrobe stood in the corner, and another brass star gleamed on the wall above the bed. Next to the bed were two cribs built from some sort of light wood, birch maybe, or aspen. All of this the boy noted in a very indifferent way, for the defiant stare of Mrs. Daniel Barrie kept his eyes in place like a charm.
Her eyes were dark brown, so dark when pointed to that threatening glare that they looked almost black. She wasn't English, that much was clear, and so was the fact that this woman had never even dreamt of doing magic. She had probably fallen for the man and married him, completely unaware of the world he irreversibly tied her to. She had probably never even imagined that starting a family with the man she loved could resort to this, her standing in her own bedroom with her toddler in her arms and the newborn twins in their pram asleep like angels, facing a young man who could kill them all with no more than two words. She probably didn't understand any of it, who Draco was and why he was there, and she was probably afraid of it all, but still she stood there, hand on the handle of the pram as if she was going to make a run for it. The toddler kept looking at his mother, and then at Draco like asking how to feel about all of it, and Draco felt his jaw clenching as he took a few steps in the room.
The features of the man from downstairs were drawn on the toddler's round face so clearly he recognized the little boy a Barrie even without the ghastly red hair and the pale blue eyes. Draco's eyes stayed glued to the child for a while. Seeing in his mind a similar mob of hair covered in blood he looked away quickly, feeling a familiar pressure in his throat. His gaze moved back to the woman, whose eyes narrowed threateningly.
Deciding it best for all of them for him to leave the room as swiftly as possible, Draco walked past them without giving them another glance, and opened the doors of the wardrobe, closing them almost immediately with two loud bangs. Quickly, he made a round in the bathroom before walking out and closing the door behind him.
As he descended the stairs, his mind was completely blank. What he had just done felt like something that had happened to someone else, a slightly disturbing anecdote he had heard from a friend. His hand slid along the wooden railing by the steps and the voices of Daniel and his father started to make sense again. He turned on the landing and met his father's eyes briefly before turning away and giving his head an almost invisible shake.
"Hou did ye like up the stair?" Daniel asked, his voice quivering barely enough for the boy to notice it.
"I'm sure it will be more impressive once it's properly furnished," Draco replied, and walked down the last bit of stairs. "If you ever need it, we're always interested in selling."
Daniel let out a high-pitched laugh. "Naw, yer bonnie furniture would be too guid for me humble wee hame."
Draco snorted quietly.
"Well, if you ever change your mind…" he sighed. Draco could see his father still looking at the stairs, and he knew what it all must seem like to him. Before anyone got the chance to blow the man's cover he shot Daniel a warning glance, the man was pale as a sheet now and some drops of perspiration had risen to his forehead.
"A cup o tea then for ye fine fowk?" he now asked, drawing Lucius' attention in an instant.
"No, thank you. We must be on our way," he refused and started walking towards the kitchen again.
"Ye sure? Got the breid an aw, fresh frae the oven an aw," Daniel kept asking and though the boy knew it was necessary, he wished the man would just let them leave.
"I have no doubts when it comes to your skills with baking, Daniel," the blond man said dryly, "but perhaps we should save it for another time."
Daniel laughed again, "Well, eh guess eh should get to wirk an aw. Havin a ferm is mair wirk than maist fowk ken. And eh dae it aw by masel maistly."
The older man snorted loudly, and walked out of the house. Draco gave Daniel another warning look, despising the gratitude in the man's eyes as well as his own weakness. Draining his mind clear of the flood of warnings and hateful comments the boy closed the white door behind him, and wished he'd never get a reason to go back.
His father was quiet as they walked away from the house, a cold wind blew from the east and the boy shivered absently under his light cloak. It was hard to tell from the man's silence whether he knew Draco had lied, or was just disappointed not to find anything. The silence continued for the entire mile from the farm to the point where they could finally Disapparate. Before returning to the castle, Draco glanced back at the direction of the house one more time, wondering if his decision would prove to make a difference.