Author's note; Harry Potter is English, and I will use English terminology throughout. Therefore an infant is someone above the age of a toddler [under about 2] to age 7 when they move out of infant school [age 4-6] into junior school [age 7-10] and thence to secondary school [age 11-16 or if you stay in education 11-18]. Primary school is the combined infant and junior school. We shan't go into nursery school or middle school. Note however that Hogwarts is a Public School, which means it is administered by Governors but is fee paying. I know JKR later said it was free, but if it was free, you'd have people like Stan Shunpike going there and that I cannot see…all the kids there are really quite posh kids. None of them are hooligans [even Sirius Black]

Note, this was written to amuse myself when I wasn't feeling well. I know it's more tell than show, and I know that I could rewrite it to be novel length instead of essentially a novel outline. Yes, I can write better than this, but I don't have the time or energy as the family has had another large dose of real life. I will probably do better if [or likely when] I write a sequel.

Chapter 1

"You weirdo! You're part of them, that crowd with the funny business! Well let me tell you I don't want to have anything to do with you, it's bad enough that you dumped that freak onto me! Get out!" the big fat man screeched.

Nobody ever accused Narcissa Black Malfoy of being a fool. In fact she was a very shrewd, intelligent woman. And she adored her infant son, Draco, with an obsession that might have tipped over into the madness of the Black family had not Narcissa managed to draw the lucky card in her family and had neither the madness nor the temper.

And when the Dark Lord was banished trying to kill the Potter boy it was a blessed relief from strain. The snaky megalomaniac was insane, of that Narcissa was convinced, and her sister Bellatrix quite as crazy.

He would return, Lucius was convinced, and the idiot seemed to think that this was a matter of rejoicing. He had wriggled out of being put in Azkaban by claiming the Imperius Curse, and had been insufferably smug about it. He had every intention of raising Draco as a Death Eater and dragging that precious baby into his schemes. Narcissa had no intention of ever permitting that to happen, and was making plans early. She had set up a muggle house, and papers for herself in the muggle world, and was busy using Black family money to obtain possessions in the muggle world, so that she and Draco could just disappear if need be. And she had come to inspect the factory she had just bought shares in, one Grunnings Drills, and had been introduced to the manager, Vernon Dursley, who had stared at her modish gown and appeared to have flipped.

"Incarcerous" murmured Narcissa, who was better at wandless magic than her husband; Slytherin girls were more spiteful than the boys and operating wandless or wordless were survival characteristics. "Legilimens," she added.

What Dursley was thinking about was about the freak who was undoubtedly the Potter child, and how he had been left on the doorstep and something about blood wards to protect him from Voldemort.

This implied that the Dark Lord could somehow sense or find the boy. Maybe it had to do with the scar. It didn't matter. Narcissa smiled grimly. Blood wards were old ancestral magic, and it would work equally well for her. James Potter's mother had been Dorea Black and the familial connection was quite sufficient. Harry Potter was the Boy Who Lived for a reason. He was the boy who could defeat the Dark Lord when he grew into his powers as no other Death Eater could. And some had tried, and died horribly for it. Lucius had at least had the sense to do no more than contemplate it briefly. He had been resistant to Narcissa's idea that the residue of the Dark Mark should be removed, so Narcissa had been working on rituals on her own, while he slept or was at the ministry. So far nothing had worked, and Narcissa was coming fast to the conclusion that the incantation must have a Parseltongue component. At least she was not herself marked; with the fashions for sleeveless ball gowns it had not been a good idea. Only Bellatrix of the females associated with Voldemort had embraced the dark mark willingly, but Bellatrix, sister or no, was barking.

Narcissa's mind worked fast, and soon Vernon Dursley, under the Imperius Curse was driving back to Privet Drive, and inviting her in. He opened the door to the cupboard under the stairs, and Narcissa retched at the stench, and looked into terrified green eyes.

Powers, thought Narcissa, muggles are disgusting! They keep their young like this?

She revised her opinion when a fat little toddler ran out of another room, went into the cupboard and kicked Harry Potter.

"That's it, son, you put the boot in to the little freak," said Vernon fondly, this not conflicting with his imperiused commands. Narcissa reached into the cupboard and lifted the cringing, filthy child within. He shot up in her arms although he was the same age as her Draco, give a month or two, and Draco was slight from the high elven blood of the Malfoys. She vanished all the evidence of the child from the cupboard, and stared into Vernon's eyes.

"Jus' my wife and son, I ain't told m'sister yet," he mumbled out loud.

Three very efficient obliviates later, and Narcissa walked out of number 4 Privet Drive with a cleaner bundle, sleeping with the relief of healing spells. If anyone were to treat her Draco this way …. No, she must not think of him as a child, he was the means to kill the Dark Lord, a sacrifice to save her Draco. But he would need a stable childhood to be able to manage that. The house elves would see to that and Lucius … well she would try reason with Lucius, and failing that, there were other methods. The scar was a problem. It would have to be disguised, which would hurt the boy, but that could not be helped. He would be at risk otherwise.

The child, almost three years old, whimpered.

"Hush, little one. My … Orion," she whispered. He would be her hunter to hunt Voldemort; and if he was called Harry at all, not 'Freak', which Narcissa doubted, then Orion was close enough for baby lips not to give himself away. In a year he would know his name.

"Are you mad, Narcissa?" demanded Lucius.

"Do you like creeping on the ground and kissing that arse's robes?" said Narcissa waspishly. "I consider it demeaning. He may be the heir of Slytherin but his name is Tom Riddle, not Tom Gaunt, and whoever heard of a Gaunt called Tom? Or any wizard with a name like Riddle? He's a blood liar if you ask me, I doubt he's even pure blood."

"It doesn't matter; he's powerful."

"Oh, a hypocrite too, Lucius? A grovelling, cowering hypocrite, and if you try that you will regret it," she added, and the spell he was formulating dissipated. "Your precious lord is so powerful he was defeated by a year old baby. And that baby lives and is marked, and he is our salvation. If he can defeat Riddle when he is an infant, when he is grown, and taught all the old magics, and your fey magics, he will be unbeatable and he can free us."

"You traitor!" Lucius gasped. "You will die for that!"

Narcissa did not roll her eyes; she did not have time. She activated the previously prepared runestone and Lucius dropped like a stone.

Well, it had been worth a try, if only her husband was not such a stubborn idiot. They needed him alive for the time being to see whether or not the dark mark could be removed, if only Narcissa could contact a Parselmouth. If the dark mark could be removed, then maybe so could Harry's – Orion's – scar. Which would obviate the need to scald the poor child to hide it inside a larger scar. Well, first of all Lucius must be obliviated to believe that he had twin sons, and then he could be kept … quiescent … on a series of potions that might have him climbing into rose bushes to dance with fairies but should keep him from making trouble.

And Narcissa must make sure to obliviate anyone who had met Draco on his own, and laughingly mention, with some compulsion magic, [] that Lucius had been so pleased when his first son was born that he sent out notices without waiting to see that he had another. And that he did not like Orion so well since the boy resembled the Blacks more than the Malfoys.

A few transfigurations with a bit of ritual familial magic would help with that. The boy's hair had already become blond under Narcissa's magic, and the elves had been told that this was another young master Malfoy, who was their responsibility to look after as well as Master Draco.

She would need allies.

And as much as she loathed muggles, Narcissa loathed Voldemort more.

And she was unable to disappear into the world of muggles if a wizard-hater like Dursley recognised her robes as magical garb. She would need education in how to be a muggle for that contingency, to raise her son … her sons … as muggle borns if need be, until Orion was strong enough for his destiny. She would raise him to always look out for Draco and protect him. But she needed aid now.

There was her cousin Sirius who had opposed Voldemort, and had been convicted of Pettigrew's crime. Lucius had laughed about it. But Sirius would be head of the family; he had never been removed from the line of succession formally. And that might be important.

Sooner or later, Harry Potter would be missed, and then she, as a member of the Black family, could raise questions about why Sirius had been got out of the way, when he was the obvious person to have care of the boy. He had never had a trial. That should be protested. Even though she and Sirius did not get on, it would be understood by all the old families that she had her duty to him. And he would be sufficiently glad to get out of Azkaban, the crazy mutt might even be willing to help protect Orion until he was old enough.

That was risky though. Sirius was unpredictable. Still, if he knew how the muggles were treating the boy, he might be grateful.

And then there was Severus. Severus was suspect; he had lusted after Lily Evans Potter, and he had been rescued from Azkaban by Dumbledore himself. Did he serve Voldemort, or did he serve Dumbledore? Or did he serve Severus Snape? Narcissa had been offhandedly kind to him when he was at Hogwarts, he might be grateful in return. He was at least a Slytherin. Understanding Gryffindors was beyond comprehension.

And that was another reason never to trust Dumbledore. He was not only a Gryffindor, he had also chosen to immure Orion with those ghastly muggles as 'Harry's only relatives' when the old bastard could have chosen to put him with Narcissa's sister Andromeda, who had also turned her back on the Noble Family Black, using the blood bonds of James' mother. And Andromeda would have been delighted.

Maybe it was time to forgive her sister for being a blood traitor. And that would be a safe way to learn about muggles too.

Narcissa smiled. With Lucius firmly drugged into permanent euphoria, she would be able to build a life for herself. One without Lucius. She should have poisoned him years ago. Well, it would be an interesting experiment to see what prolonged exposure to the elixir of euphoria did to someone.