Disclaimer: Though I would love to lay claim to these characters, I cannot. They are the property of JK Rowling and the Harry Potter Series. I make no money off of this story.

October 1980

Arthur walked into the house running his hands through his hair, another Death Eater strike today and the Order was nowhere near ready to retaliate. Their best fighters had gone under after the attack on the Longbottom's and Arthur couldn't be sure if his family was as safe as he believed. Glancing around his home he watched as his older two boys played with the twins, an infant redhead was asleep in a rocking bassinette and thankfully the boys weren't being terribly loud about their play. Molly had probably gotten onto them already.

Speaking of his wife, Arthur moved from the front door to the kitchen where a, very, pregnant Molly hummed as she cooked dinner, "Evening Molly dear," he said as he kissed her cheek. Molly's face lit up as she turned and greeted her husband rather enthusiastically, "How is our little boy?" he asked when she finally pulled back to let him rub her belly, "Our boy is doing wonderfully." After the twins were born the couple had decided not find out the sex of their children, and after Ronald was born nearly a year ago, they just assumed that their sixth, and Molly certainly hoped last, child would be a boy as well. "Bill and Charlie had their wands taken away today," said Molly as she flicked her wand at the sink, "they kept setting sparks off under the twins seats so I've stowed them." She nodded towards a cupboard in the corner; a strong notice-me-not charm was cast on it so the boys wouldn't think to look in there. "We'll give them back at the end of the week, hmm?" said Arthur as he picked up the Evening Prophet.

Molly was preparing to call the boys to the table when there was a shift in the Burrow's wards. Arthur and Molly exchanged a look before he stood and removed his wand from his pocket, "Keep the boys inside." He moved towards the door and just as he reached to open it there was a knock.

A woman stood on the other side, when Arthur had finally gathered up the courage to open it. She was pale, sick looking, and the child that hid behind her skirts didn't look better, but what took Mr. Weasley's attention was the swaddled toddler in her arms. "Pl-please … please help them," said the woman as she began to hold the hidden bundle out, "He'll kill them." There was no reason for Arthur to ask whom. After a moment he recognized the woman, an Order member believed to have gone missing three years ago. "Rowena..." he said cautiously taking the child from her. He heard a gasp behind him and turned to see Molly standing in front of the boys, one hand over her mouth, the other holding Charlie and Bill back, when he turned to speak again to the gaunt woman she was gone, the little boy looking back behind him.

November 1981

"Ah, Good evening Mr. Weasley," said a rather portly man as he allowed himself in the Burrow, "I'm here to gather the children." Molly stood over an old bassinette that rocked a baby Ginny; beside her was a dark haired girl who hid behind it, her hand held in Charlie's, "What do you mean 'gather the children'? Who are you?" Arthur was tired of the fighting, the war was only a month over and November 2nd he had been given notice that the children of Tom Marvolo Riddle, Jr were to be turned over to the courts. "Molly I told you—" "No Arthur, they are as much ours as Bill, Charlie, the twins, Ginny…I won't let them go." "Molly, dearest, they need a home of their own."

"No," said Molly as she picked up the little girl, turning to the boys where a dark haired five year old sat between the twins, "Alexandrus and Vivienne are staying with us." However as Molly tried to move she found herself frozen, as did Arthur and the others. The little girl, who had remained silent through out the ordeal as she'd been swung up onto Molly's hip, and her brother began to cry.

"Silence." The word rang through out the room as a presence took over. Lucius Malfoy had taken advantage of the chaos in the little house and had immobilized everyone with a quick spell, "You cannot do this Malfoy. You're already under investi-" "I cannot do what, Weasley, claim my God children?" The spell was released and the lawyer moved forward to remove the girl, Vivienne, Molly had called her, and took the hand of the boy, "Come now children. Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy are waiting for you."

Molly glared at Malfoy, more than her husband was doing—Arthur had seemingly accepted defeat—"This isn't over Lucius Malfoy, those children were brought to us to keep them away from people like you." Lucius raised one fine eyebrow before turning and following his attorney out the door. Arthur glanced at his wife before hanging his head, Molly was fighting tears, "Oh Arthur, first the Potter boy goes missing and now they've been taken from us. You…you must talk to Dumbledore, surely he can do something."

The older man nodded solemnly but he knew that the old Headmaster would do nothing. It was talking to Albus that had put the children in danger in the first place.

May 2, 1998

Draco couldn't believe his eyes. He was in the middle of a war, one of the Weasley twins was dead, Potter was off being a Hero, Granger was … well Draco wasn't were Granger was, but he just stood there, huddled in a corner. He was beginning to have second thoughts for the hundredth time in just over two years. But this was for his family, to save his mother and keep his father alive, to make him proud. How proud would Lucius Malfoy be to learn that none other than The-Boy-Who-Lived-to-Be-A-Prat had saved his son? This certainly wouldn't be a happy homecoming … if there were even a home to go to, parents to go to … if he even lived. Soot covered Draco's angled features except in the tear tracks, he wasn't sure when he'd begun to cry, probably shortly after Granger slapped him again. After escaping the Room of Hidden Things she had laid into him about how stupid he had been to allow Crabbe to cast such a spell and when he'd tried to summon enough anger she'd just reared back and slapped him. Then she was gone, off with Potty and Weasel again. He wasn't even sure if she was alive anymore … and he couldn't figure out why he even cared.

The fighting had come to a standstill, it was strange, as the blond watched from his hiding spot, everyone seemed to be frozen and then he heard it. The hissing voice of the Dark Lord, calling Potter out. Giving the Order and the school time to mourn their lost, somehow Draco though that the Dark Lord was making this easy for him, to gather their strength for a second attack. Pulling himself up from his squatting position, Draco peered around, he didn't see any Slytherin's in the rubble that had been the Hogwarts entryway, but what he did see made the air catch in his breath until it came out in one word, "Ariadne."

A ghost from his past, he was sure, aged to the point she would be just a little older than him, but she had to be a ghost. Dark brown hair brushed the waist of the dress she wore, one that looked just like the dress his mother had given the toddler during her third Christmas with the Malfoys. She wasn't even facing him, it was why he believed her to be a figment, someone had probably cursed him and this was the only comforting thought he could bring up. A skinny little girl in a black dress, barefoot as she stepped through the debris, but as the name left his chapped lips she turned and they locked eyes. "Ariadne," he said his voice a little louder, the Hidden One his father had called her, she was always hiding in those first weeks, and it was a meaning that his mother took to give her the name.

And she was moving towards him, barefoot just as the last time he had seen her, she moved closer and closer until his face was in her hands, "You're real?" he questioned, she didn't answer but instead smiled, brighter than what should have been on a battlefield. He couldn't stop himself from pulling the girl into his arms , "You're real, you're alive … you're here." Clinging to her, as though she were a lifetime, a realization hit him, "Ariadne … Ariadne you're here. You're here and He's here, you cannot stay. Ariadne, you have to go." This time it was his turn to take her face in his hands as he spoke, but she didn't seem to take him seriously. "He. Is. Here," he said again trying to emphasize each word, but again the meaning was lost to her, "Come with me."

Finding strength he hadn't had since the day he took his mark, Draco Malfoy ducked and dodged past every person left in the rubbish of his former school. He was on a mission to get this girl away from the man everyone believed to be her father, a man who had made no qualms about killing the children that had been born of his loins previously, and as far as Draco or anyone else knew, Ariadne Riddle was the only one left to carry on the line. Together they ran, Draco kept a hard grip on her hand until he saw three people running up from the docks. He had a good idea what three would be running together like that and didn't think any of them would be too kind to see him running off with a girl, especially a girl who supposedly looked a lot like her father used to. They ducked behind a tree until he heard them go by.

"Harry you can't go," he heard Granger say in a strangled voice, "We've lost Fred … Dumbledore, now Snape. You can't…"

'Snape?' he thought as he kept Ariadne clutched close to him, Severus was dead?

"I have to Hermione. I have to or he'll kill everyone else…" reasoned Harry as they walked. Draco thought he heard a muffled foot stomp, "No…please." He wasn't sure what was happening but in the next moment he heard Granger let out a sob, "Then let me go with you. Don't go alone." "Ron," Draco heard Weasley shuffle towards the voice, or he figured it was Weasley, "Hermione, I'm not going to be alone." And then there was one set of footsteps walking towards them. He clutched his mother's wand tightly in his hand as he prepared for Potter to find them both, but even Ariadne was being quiet as she pressed herself against him as if trying to hide in him. Potter walked by, Draco and Ariadne going unnoticed, but he waited until he heard the other two walk towards the castle.

They reached the boathouse rather easily after that, Draco wanted to put her on a boat and get away quickly, he could hide her, protect her … but part of him was scared. What of his mother? His Father?

"Son?"

Draco turned, instinct put Ariadne behind him, she said nothing, and her attention wasn't even on the tall man that stood just outside the light of the boathouse. "Father," said the younger Malfoy as he squared his shoulders, he didn't think that Lucius would hurt him, but to regain favor with the Dark Lord he might turn in the innocent girl that Draco was doing his best to protect. "Is that…" the elder Malfoy stepped into the light, dark circles stood prominent under his eyes, his skin was sallow and his cheeks hollowed out. This wasn't the same man who only nineteen years ago had swept into the Burrow and taken a child, this wasn't even the same man that Draco had called father three years ago. The man that stood before the seventeen year old was a desperate man, a man who … well Draco wasn't sure he could even be called a man anymore. Not after enabling a mad woman to torture an eighteen-year-old girl in his childhood home. Though he still had some need to make Lucius Malfoy proud, Draco didn't hold his father on such a pedestal anymore.

"Son, Draco, is that…is it, Ariadne?"

It caught her attention and Draco felt her lift his arm up as she peeked under his triceps, "It is. But you will not turn her in, Father." Lucius only shook his head and took two steps forward, but Draco took three back keeping distance between his father and the girl who for four years he considered a sister. But as he moved back he felt the pressure of her hands leave his back and heard the creaking of footsteps. Lucius was looking over him, watching the girl's movements as she uncovered a body, "Severus." It was the first time Draco heard a crack in his father's voice, the revelation made him turn his own body to take in the sight. Ariadne was kneeled next to the prone form of his Godfather. Quickly he moved forward only to freeze when Ariadne's hand flew up to stop him. "Ariadne please….let me help," but he watched her hand move to the injured man's chest and she slowly moved it up to his neck, but as it got closer to the snake bites Snape's own hand grabbed her wrist, "No," he wheezed out.

It didn't seem like a split second before both Malfoys were working on Severus Snape trying to heal him. They didn't notice when Ariadne left, nor when she came back, Lucius only accepted the weeds she brought and tried to use them in a make shift paste, but nothing seemed to be working. Nothing could stop the poison. Draco and Lucius were ready to give up when Ariadne kneeled between them and leaned in to, what Draco thought, kiss his neck, but then he noticed she was sucking, and the darkness of Severus' veins was retreating. "Stupid girl," bit out Snape as the poison left him, Ariadne wasn't even stopping to spit as she moved to each bite, Lucius took the turn to heal the empty wounds now as Draco ruffled through his robes looking for potions. He found two for pain, three blood-replenishing potions, and a resistance for poison, as well as a Draught of Living Death.

As he administered the potions to a reluctant Snape, Voldemort's voice sounded through the room again. Lucius and Draco froze as it sounded as if he were right there in the boathouse. Potter was dead. The Malfoys shared a look, "We've lost," said Lucius, he looked ready to give up completely, "Not yet Father." Draco pocketed the Draught and took Ariadne's hands as she drank in the last of the poison. Her eyes were dilated and he felt a vibration running through her, he slipped the potions he'd found into her hands, "Take this one, drink it your self. These are for him, one when the boat lands and another at sunrise. Find a place and hide, I'll find you." Her eyebrows furrowed in question, "You and Severus are going to hide, Father and I will come for you when this is all over."

The Malfoy's stood and apparated out of the boathouse after carrying Snape to a boat and setting it loose in the water. Lucius went on to his wife assuming his son to follow, but Draco wanted to give someone hope. He needed to tell Granger that Snape was alive and would be alive, that they could still win. He needed to tell Granger, for some reason she had to know.