Owls from Malfoy Manor

by eleigh17

A year after the end of the war, Harry begins an unexpected correspondence with the mother of his one-time enemy. Through their letters, Harry and Narcissa develop an unlikely friendship that redefines the Malfoys' place in the new wizarding society and brings Harry closer to someone he never thought he'd befriend. Drarry with some Harry/Ginny thrown in there. EWE.

1. The First Letter

Chapter 1: The First Letter

Mrs. Malfoy,

I hope you've been well since the trials. I am sorry that your husband was sent to Azkaban – I hope you understand that there was nothing I could do for him, though I wish I could have, out of thanks for you. I realize that it has been nearly a year that your actions have gone un-thanked, and for that, I apologize. I'm writing to remedy that. I cannot express how grateful I am for what you did for me in the woods that day. It is because of your choices that I was able to survive the war and defeat Voldemort, and for that both I, and our entire world, owe you our thanks.

Please let me know if there is anything that I can do for you or your family in the future.

My best wishes,

Harry Potter

Dear Mister Potter,

I thank you for your letter. My son and I have been readjusting to the Manor without my husband since the trials, but you have no need to apologize. Lucius deserves to be in Azkaban, and I believe he knows it – it was he who brought He Who Must Not Be Named into our lives and our home, and it is because of him that we almost lost our only son. Nothing you could have said would have changed his guilt, and I would not have wanted it to. My son and I, however, owe our freedom to your testimony, and for that, I thank you sincerely.

Draco has also informed me that I owe you his life as well, for risking your own neck to save his in the FiendFyre. Any feeling of obligation towards my family and myself should be dissolved by this selfless and courageous action. We will forever be in debt to you. You are a true Gryffindor.

My greatest thanks to you, Mr. Potter.

Narcissa Malfoy

Harry was surprised by the sincerity and honesty in Narcissa's response. He hadn't actually expected a response at all, let alone one so transparent about her feelings towards him, and her actions during the war. In retrospect, he wasn't sure why he responded to the letter. He could have left it there and moved on with a mutual respect and understanding between himself and Narcissa Malfoy. Maybe it was out of some continued oblication, but Harry believed it was something deeper. He continued their correspondence.

Mrs. Malfoy,

I want you to know that going back for Draco was the only option that crossed my mind. It was not meant as a heroic action – only as the right thing to do. I hope that he's also adjusting to the new wizarding world. How are you both dealing with the changes? I know that the reparations your family paid to the Ministry were meant to alter your lifestyle. It must be quite the adjustment.

I am sorry to hear about the trouble that Mr. Malfoy brought to you and Draco. It is unfortunate that one person's decisions can change the course of an entire family, although I am very familiar with the havoc that one person's choices can cause. I hope that you will be able to move forward from Mr. Malfoy's choices with the wizarding community as we rebuild and restructure. I haven't seen you around the Reconstruction at Hogwarts or the Ministry, however your presence there, helping and showing support, would do wonders for the face of the reconstruction efforts, as well as for the face of the Malfoy family. I would consider it a personal favor if you and Draco would be willing to lend a hand.

Hope to see you soon.

Harry

Narcissa shook her head at the latest letter from the Potter boy. She had felt that she owed him a certain amount of candor after everything he went through because of the crazed leader Lucius had chosen to follow. But she hadn't expected another reply, and now it seemed he'd taken a special interest in her and her son. Writing to him could have its advantages. An association with Harry Potter would undoubtedly help to raise the Malfoy name from the mud that Lucius had left it in.

It was more than that, though. She could feel the boy's isolation in his words – she could feel a loneliness that mirrored her own. The war had ended and the fear had ebbed, leaving her as empty and drained as the manor house where she stayed. Harry's was an isolation that Narcissa could not help but feel partially responsible for, as it had been her people that had killed his family, her ideals that had led to the war of which he was forced to be the hero.

Sighing, she sat down at her carved oak desk and carefully penned a reply.

Dear Mr. Potter,

Thank you, once again, for you letter and for your concern for Draco and myself. In all honesty, we are adjusting to the seclusion that comes from who we were during the war. We both regret the things that we were made to do. Our isolation is to be expected, and we do not wish to disrupt the reformation of our society with our presence. It is because of this and candidly, perhaps out of fear, that I have hesitated to join the reconstruction efforts. However, if you are certain that I will not step on any toes or create a disturbance with my presence, I wish to do all that I can to repair the damage that occurred during the war.

Sincerely,

Narcissa Malfoy

Mrs. Malfoy,

I understand your isolation better than you might imagine. I spent the first eleven years of my life alone, and I thought that after finding friends at Hogwarts, I would never feel so isolated again. But the aftermath of this war has pulled my closest friends and I in all different directions. I find myself surrounded instead by people that don't know me, and for that, I have never felt so alone. Who knew being a "war hero" was so insulating?

My apologies if I've overshared, ma'am. Your letters have been so forthright that I wish to return your honesty with my own. Have I ever been so honest with anyone? And somehow, I find it easier to write to you than to speak to those that are constantly around me. Perhaps because I know you'll understand.

Perhaps if you join the reconstruction, though, we can help one another out of our respective solitudes. As I mentioned, and I am sure you're aware, your presence in the reconstruction efforts would benefit your family image greatly. While some may be uncomfortable, I think it vital to our efforts to have such a well-known pureblood family's name in support of the changes the Ministry is making. You may help to bring some of the others around. I hope to see you at Hogwarts in the very near future.

And please, call me Harry.

Best,

Harry

Harry's letters to Narcissa sometimes took him hours to compose. He worked harder on them than he ever had on his Hogwarts schoolwork, trying to get the right mix of formality and familiarity into his sentences. These letters seemed more important than his schoolwork ever had.

Whenever he read them over, he felt detached, as though Hermione, rather than Harry himself, had written the words. But they were his words, his thoughts on the paper in front of him, holding emotions Harry didn't realize he felt until they were on the page before his eyes. Writing to Mrs. Malfoy was a bit like having a Pensieve, he thought. The thoughts were no longer trapped in his mind, but there before him where they finally made sense.

To Narcissa, he could write things that he would never be able to say to Mrs. Weasley, in spite of the fact that Molly was more a mother to him than anyone else had ever been. He told Mrs. Malfoy things that he'd never even brought up with Ginny, despite his love for his girlfriend. Somehow, he knew that Narcissa would not judge him, and that regardless of their sides during the war, their circumstances gave them more in common than he had with his friends right now.

Ron was busy basking in the limelight of being a war hero. Harry couldn't blame him – after so many years of being the youngest brother, best friend to the Boy Who Lived, Ron deserved some recognition. He was out with a different girl every night and spending far more time at the pub than Harry wanted to. He was coping with the aftermath of the war in his own way – in a bottle, in the beds of strangers, in the flashes of cameras. Harry didn't blame his best friend, but he couldn't relate.

Hermione spent every waking moment at the Ministry. If Harry had thought her busy during her Hogwarts years, it was nothing in comparison to the crazed woman she had become in the last year. He'd stopped trying to make plans with her of late, after they were cancelled at the last minute, time and time again. He couldn't hold it against her. He knew that she had taken Fred's death hard – they had just begun to see each other before the trio left on their extended camping trip. Keeping busy was her coping mechanism, and Harry would be there when she ran out of laws to rewrite and trials to attend.

He had Ginny, of course, but she'd had to deal with so much in the last year. Mrs. Weasley was by no means a weak woman, but she had needed the support of her youngest child more than ever, since Fred's death. And Ginny seemed to be the only one George would open up to since he lost his twin. Harry could not fault any of them. He too had taken their losses hard, and he understood that the Weasley family needed to hold each other together through the aftershocks of the war. They were there for him too, but their methods were not his.

So he'd found his own coping mechanism, and apparently that was writing. Writing letters to Narcissa Malfoy.