Chapter 2

"So how the end of the term son?" said Lucius as he and Draco headed down the road which was to lead them both home.

A thoroughly pure blood wizard in some ways, Lucius knew he could not deny that he loved to take his son home the muggle way. It gave him a chance to talk to him before everyone else did and he got the feeling his son valued the time they had together on their way home just as much as he did.

"It was ok," said Draco. "Of course, we did not win the Quidditch Cup," he said bitterly. As the Seeker for his house, Draco had to admit he did feel a little responsible for that just as he had done the year before.

"Well, you still have four years left for that," Said Lucius

Deep down, he knew part of him still wanted Slytherin to win when the house cup was on. After all, old habits did die hard and that was the house he and Cissy had been in. And when he had taken her to the other house games at the weekends, she had cheered so loud. They had had a lot of fun at those games when they had been kids.

But his son was a Ravenclaw and ever since he had been he had had divided loyalties between his own house and his sons. He did want his son to have at least one victory while he was at school.

But four years? Was that it? He had felt just a little older every time his son had had a birthday and apparently that was not going to change any time soon. Four years left till he left Hogwarts...

"Yeah, but I just thought we had a good chance this year. You saw the way that I flew," Unlike the year before his dad had attended all of his matches.

"Yeah well, you did fly very well son it is just that a few of your class mates flew better apparently. Don't worry dragon, I am going to take you to see how it is really done this summer."

The two of them had always had a shared love of the sport and so it had gone without saying that they were going to the Quidditch World Cup.

"Wicked."

Silence took over them for a moment before Draco's thoughts turned back to Sirius and how he was going to manage to sneak out to meet him that night. Again, as if he was able to read his mind, Lucius changed the subject.

"Well, I cannot believe the first thing you told me about was Quidditch when there have been a lot more exciting things going on at the castle at the end of this year."

"Yeah, as I am sure you have read in the papers things did get a little... busy up there."

"Rumour has it that Harry was involved."

"When isn't he?"

"Draco." It was the tone that told him that he had pushed his luck and he was not to joke about it anymore.

"So I was there when he got away. What more do you want?"

"Details son."

"All I know is he did not do all the things that he was meant to have done." He told his dad. "And he deserved his freedom."

He did not know what the others would think of him telling his dad what they knew. He knew his friends did not trust his dad. But he was not going to lie. He couldn't. And for it was worth, he did trust his father once more. And his dad was more than a father – he, too, was his friend.

Of course, what his son was saying to him did not come as a surprise to Lucius. He had been among the wizards who had been trusted by Voldemort in the last year of the war and he knew Sirius had not been a Death Eater.

"So you were there when he got away?" Lucius asked with a raised eye brow.

He sighed as Draco nodded. He knew he could do nothing more. After years of the two of them pushing against one another, Lucius had at last learned to accept his head strong son for what he was.

"Oh, I bet your uncle loved that."

"Yeah, he was so thrilled that he celebrated by getting an innocent man sacked from a job he was good at."

Lucius had to say he had seen it coming. Despite his every attempt, his son had always been determined to go his own way. He had socialised with a mud blood – where was the harm in doing so with a half breed?

He had got various letters praising Lupin that year.

"Yes well – what is done is done and your uncle cannot take it back."

"Doesn't make it right dad."

"I never said it did."

The two of them got lost in their own thoughts. Lucius supposed in the way that his son had phrased it with Lupin being an innocent man even he felt for him a bit – he had been going soft in his old age after all. It was the effect his son had on him.

As for Draco, he tried to drive what had happened at the end of the year from his mind. If he had to deal with it that night then he did not want to think about it then as well.

As evening drew the two of them arrived back home and on sight of the manor a real smile spread across Draco's face. Hhe loved getting back after a long term.

The huge white house where he had grown up had been reformed to its glory since he had got Jane back in it. There was a time he had not thought it was his home.

That now seemed ridiculous.

Before he had even gotten out of the carriage, Jane was out of the house and she had a smile on her face and her arms open wide.

Just as it had been with father, he did not know how much he had missed her until he had seen her.

"Hello my darling." She said to him as she came running out to greet him, the formality of former years long forgotten.

Casting off his care easily for there was no one but family near him, he rushed into her arms. She had always been a comfort blanket to him and whenever he was with her he felt safe as he had done when he had been young.

She could make him secure even when his father could not.

"Your home my love," she giggled as she kissed his forehead.

"Yes he is - and I think he and his father could do with a cup of tea." Said Lucius to her with great fondness.

"Of course," she said as she whisked the two of them into the house.

Little did Draco know his cousin in his animagus form was already there in the forest watching him.

After the usual drilling from Jane over the term Draco headed back up to his room.

He knew he had not been so glad to be home once more in a long time. He had had no doubt that this was where he had wanted to be for the summer.

It was his safe place; it was his home; it was where nothing bad could happen to him; and it was where he was going to lie low till he had seen his cousin.

Dinner was a quiet affair, though his father did mention something about a letter from Severus. Draco knew he should concentrate on it but due to the fact he had another letter on his mind he found he was unable to. By the end of the meal, he was pretty sure he had agreed to say sorry to Sev for being rude but he was not exactly sure.

He knew he was going to figure it out in the next couple of days as they were sure to get a visit sooner or later and it was probably going to be sooner.

Not stupid enough to think that Jane and his dad were not going to notice something was up with him, he had tried to keep up with the conversation, but he had been unable too. He was excited about the thought of seeing Sirius again. There was a kind of romance about the escapee that had turned him into some kind of hero for him already. When he had been talking about the last war and he had been talking about his friends. He had said he would have sooner died himself than see Harry's parents die and he knew that was the sort of friend he wanted to be.

He had always set a lot of value by loyalty. There was a lot to be said for it. That was doubly so now.

When dinner came to an end he told, them both how tired he was by the end of term and that he wanted to get an early night so that he could enjoy the rest of summer.

"Ok then son," said Lucius as he settled down in his chair with the Daily Prophet as he had not had a chance to read it that morning.

"Sleep well sweetheart," said Jane as she too took her nightly place on the sofa with a dozy Max by her feet.

"Night," Draco nodded as he left them to it.

"Did you buy any of that?" Jane asked as soon as she was sure Draco would not have heard her.

"Not a word."

Draco stayed in his own room, dressed under the sheets. His father checked in on him at ten o'clock as he knew was his habit. He had checked in on him every night when he had been home last summer and he had no reason to think that was going to be any different.

The sound of the door gently shutting down the hall told him that his father was in his room. As for Jane she was further on down the corridor and he never heard her go to bed any way. Yet the fact his father was in bed gave him some confidence that she would be too.

Sneaking out of his room as quietly as he could he went down in the direction of the kitchens. Despite the fact that he had lived in the same house since the day he was born he had to admit to himself as he went into the kitchens that this was an area of the manor he knew very badly. He had never had any reason to come down here when he had been a young lad and he did not see himself needing to come down here again anytime soon – only to get scraps of food for convicts.

Once he had got the meat, some other snack types food as well as a few bottles of water (which proved the hardest to find,) he ran down to the living area and out of the back door into the garden unaware that his father's dark room was hiding his figure by the window.

Sirius, as eager as he had been for the food, run out of the woods in his Animagus form and jumped up at the teenager.

"So that's how you did it." Lucius said out loud to himself.

"Will you get off me, you mutt?" teased Draco as he put the bag he had put the food bag down.

Sirius once he was sure they were far enough into the forest, transformed and looked at his little cousin and wondered how the hell Draco had grown into the young man he had. He was nothing like his mother from what he remembered and somehow he did not think Lucius had been the tenderest of fathers when Draco had been a kid.

And so how had he grown up as he had?

"Nice to see you were as worried about me as I was about you lot kid," said Sirius.

He looked to Draco as he had at their previous meeting. As if he needed a good meal, a good wash and a nice, undisturbed long sleep.

He wished he could take him up to the manor and offer all of those things. But he had to think of his father and Jane and they both knew if he came in then the family were going to be in danger. And his dad was never going to have him in the house. He had asked a lot of Lucius and he knew his father had his limits. He was not going to test them so soon in to summer.

Besides, it was the opinion of Sirius that the lad had done enough for him already.

"You, are ok aren't you Sirius?"

"I'm free, and that means more to me than anything else. And at least part of that is down to you." He smiled at him. It had been a long time since he had been able to trust any member of his family.

Draco smiled. Both of them knew it had been a team effort but the fact that he had been part of a team meant a lot to Draco and he had to admit part of that was because they were related. He felt as if he had done it in part for his mum. She would have wanted him to be there for their family, wouldn't she? He knew he was more Malfoy than Black. After she had died that had become an inevitability. But that did not mean he did not value the ties he had with the Blacks.

"I am glad. I don't know what we would have done had we not been in time to get you away from the dementor." said Draco with a shiver.

They had been the worst thing about the last school year without a doubt.

He had hated it. The fact that they were there all the time... it meant he could always hear her when they were close... she had been back in his head...all her little threats about how she was going to make sure if he was bad he would never see his beloved father again.

"There would have been nothing to do kid – at least not for me."

Draco did not think he could bear to think how he and the others would have felt. In everything he did he tried to succeed, not only for himself but for his for himself but for his family. That was one of the things he and his dad did agree on. That no matter what, Malfoy's were winners. And the bond that held them together was more important than anything.

But when it had come to Sirius they had had to succeed. Any other option would have been hellish.

He did not think Harry would have ever got over it. And he knew he would have had a hard time.

It was bad enough that they had let Peter go.

"Kid, don't stress your head. What's done is done and we all got out unscathed apart from poor Ron and his leg and Madam Pomfrey sorted that one out for us. So we have to accept that all is well that ends well for now. I think we both know this is a bit more of a beginning though."

A far off and slightly afraid look came into his eyes. Unlike the kids, he had been alive in the first war. He knew what was coming. And in his heart of hearts he knew it was going to be worse than before as well.

"There is going to be a war now he has gone back to him though, isn't there?" Draco asked.

As Sirius looked at him though, he felt his heart sink. It was the reason that Draco was so unlike his father and mother that meant he was able to feel so much emotion for him. He was so naive. Just like Harry, he was still child for now.

He didn't want to stop that from being the case. But neither was he going to lie or molly coddle the pair of them. He just didn't see the point in it. He had to tell them the truth. They had to know he had been straight with them from the off.

"Yes, there is going to be a war. And at one time or another I think we are all going to have to fight for what we really want. What we believe in." He said.

The food the child had brought him was forgotten as they looked at one another intensely for a moment.

Here was a new type of adult Draco thought to himself. One who was going to be honest with him. To Sirius, he was not 'prince' or 'dragon'. He was not the fragile little Draco who had been so hurt by Maria. He was a young man on the cusp of life. And he had to be ready for what was coming at him whether he liked it or not.

"You are going to be ready." Said Sirius to him. Just as last time, it had been his war, he knew the one that was coming to them whether they spoke about it or not was going to belong to the generation of Draco and Harry. "But don't worry. Us old timers are going to hold your backs." He said with a flash of a smile.

It was that smile that showed people what Sirius must have been like when he had been a young man and his cousin loved it. There was something so cool about him. It was not as if you could put your finger on it but he was so unlike everyone else he had ever met in his whole life.

Picking up the bag of food Sirius sighed. "I have been stopped here already for too long and I do not want you to get in trouble with your old man so I am going to have to go now," Sirius said to him with some regret. This was a lad he wanted to get to know.

"Can't you stay on just a little longer?"

"I wish I could young man. I want to get to know you and Harry more than anything else at the moment, I can tell you that. But now this Draco. We are going to be friends. And you are nothing like your parents."

Sirius wondered then if he had said the right thing. Draco's eyes suddenly betrayed his hurt.

"Why say that?"

"We can talk about it another time, but for now, I do have to go little cousin." Ruffingly Draco's head he was soon back in his animagus form and running away as fast as he was able to. He didn't really fear the Dementors anymore now he was in the south but he did not want to get caught.

If the kids were not with him then he couldn't risk it.

Draco was unaware he was being watched as he headed up to the house.

His father knew where he had been and had an idea of what he had been doing. Lucius shook his head. Of everything he had wanted for his son when he had been a baby, helping a fugitive had never been on his list.

He wondered how dads were meant to react to this situation. Did he go down and ask what he had been doing? Or did he ignore it?

Or did he just monitor the situation.

In spite of everything, his gut told him that Sirius was gone for the night. After all, he wasn't going to hang around all night. He had to keep moving if he was going to avoid the Ministry. Having observed Draco come back in, he was sure he was not going to go back out.

Lucius did all he could for the night; activated the wards about the house to make sure no one could get out without him knowing. Then he went to bed and wondered when convicted criminals had become his son's choice of companion.

Author Note: I hope you guys enjoyed that chapter. It has been one of the more interesting ones to write for me what with Sirius showing his face. His canon view of Draco has been changed obviously because of his closeness with Harry.

Re the last chapter – this is pretty much the note I should have put up with the first chapter – I was so excited to be posting this plot again that I didn't really explain where I was picking it back up. As you guys have all worked out now, yes I did skip most of book three pretty much on the same basis I did book one; we all know the story and I did not want to go through the motions for the sake of it. If I did to be specific about something then I can flash back, but asides that, I think it would have been boring. Though there were some interesting moments (the boggart class being one) I would have loved to write, Lucius just had so little to do with Book three. I could not think of anything to do with him except have him and Jane sit round the manor and wait for Draco to return (though I would have loved to write little Max's arrival). In this story, Buckbeak had a go at Crabbe and as lazy as it is, I am just going to say pretty much he and his dad then acted as Draco and Lucius did in canon. It just is not feasible to have Draco mucking around in class here; as you guys know, he loves studying in this plot and is too much of a good guy to act like that. He wouldn't screw up Hagrid's class for him. Anyway, any questions about the plot please do ask. I think I have rambled on enough here. Hope you're all well and enjoying the story!

Please review!