Sorry this took so long, I suddenly had a life. Shocking I know…

Part 3 – Haunted

'Why are you in trouble?' Poppy asked sitting down next to Charlie and Lucius.

'Because I left the room. I wasn't supposed to leave until father said I could.' Lucius replied teary eyed.

'Why couldn't you leave your room?' Charlie asked rubbing comforting circles on the boys back.

'Not my room. The Room. In the basement. The one with knives and hooks and things,' the boy shuddered at the last word and buried himself in Charlie who exchanged a look with Poppy. They silently agreed to tell Lucius what had happened as far as they could tell anyway.

'Oh Lucius honey, your father can't hurt you, not anymore.' Poppy said gently.

Lucius looked at Poppy like she'd lost her mind, a look they'd seen on an older Lucius and Charlie let out a surprised laugh before silencing himself at the incredulous look from the young boy and the glare from the Healer.

'He's here too, I don't know why but I saw him, he's here already,' Lucius looked up at Charlie with a look that would have put puppies to shame. 'Do you think he followed me?' he asked suddenly nervous, 'or maybe he has spies? Or maybe it's aliens and they have three eyes and one of them floats above them a planet or something and-'

' Luke!' Charlie called rather loudly after several tries of Lucius.

'My name Lucius,' he said with all the arrogance of the Malfoy line, causing both Charlie and Poppy to hide laughter.

'Your father didn't follow you,' Charlie replied running a hand through the blonde locks, 'and he doesn't have any spies or aliens, at least as far as I know.' Charlie replied poorly hiding his amusement not that Lucius noticed.

'But I saw him!' Lucius practically shouted pointing to the door to Harry's room

'That wasn't your father,' Poppy replied, 'that was Draco.'

'That wasn't Draco!' he pulled away from Charlie abruptly before they could explain who he was, 'Draco's dead and it's my fault!' he buried his head in his arms and started to shake.

Poppy and Charlie shared a confused look while Charlie rubbed comforting circles on his back. 'Lucius who was Draco?' Poppy asked.

'Was he your friend?' Charlie offered gently.

Lucius shook his head, 'was he your brother?' Charlie asked.

'He was my twin.' Lucius said quietly, 'and I killed him,' he threw himself into Charlie suddenly and sobbed.

There was a heavy sigh from the doorway. 'Draco was Lucius' twin brother he died, for Lucius only about a month ago now. They caught the Dragon Pox, Lucius had it first then Draco caught it but something went wrong and the Malfoy's were burying their oldest son a week later. I believe from what little Lucius has told me then his father believed that it was Lucius fault that Draco died.' Severus replied moving to the bed with Remus. Both men looked furious.

Charlie glanced down at the quietly sobbing boy in his arms, 'Lucius, baby,' Charlie began to mutter to the boy, 'it wasn't your fault that Draco died,' Charlie kept murmuring to Lucius and the adults waited until Lucius had calmed. 'Lucius?' Charlie asked quietly. Lucius just snuggled into Charlie and gave a soft snore.

'I narrowed it down to four possible potions that used the same ingredients. What happened to Lucius?' Severus asked not pausing between subjects.

Charlie sighed, 'My idiot brother happened. He's currently with Minerva going over the effects of unknown spells and improper casting.'

'Those blasted morons are going to end up killing themselves or someone else,' Remus stated matter of factly sounding an awful lot like Severus.

'So you said you narrowed it down.' Poppy stated wanting to know if there was anything she could do to help her favourite patient.

'Based on the ingredients used it was either a soul binding elixir, a love potion, industrial strength cleaning agent or a heavy laxative.' The last two were said with a note of confusion.

Remus chuckled, 'I think given that it was fed to Harry we can safely rule out the cleaner.'

'And the laxative, I'm pretty sure that the only people worried about Harry being regular are Harry and Poppy,' Charlie offered.

'So it was either the elixir or the potion,' Poppy asked wanting to make sure.

'Exactly and given the intellect of the vast majority of this school's inhabitants, I'm going with the love potion, number nine actually.' Severus offered.

'Really? Number nine?' Remus asked unable to hide his amusement, not that he wanted to of course.

'Yes Lupin,' Severus replied rubbing the bridge of his nose in irritation.

Charlie looked between Remus and Poppy who were both trying not to snicker.

'What's so funny about love potion number nine?' he asked not knowing why the other two found it so funny not realizing that they had all spent time in the muggle world.

'It's a muggle thing,' Remus replied with a wave of his hand still amused.

'Oh,' Charlie replied still not seeing what was so funny about number nine, especially having experienced it personally.

'So given Harry's reaction who ever tried the potion failed,' Poppy said trying to get everyone back on track.

'Yes so they attempted to brew the love potion but ended up with a binding elixir.' Severus added.

'And because of what Dumbledore had done to Harry his soul may have already been bound.' Remus finished, 'and because the elixir needed to do something, it's fighting against the spell.'

'But because they should have the same effect shouldn't one augment the other?' Charlie asked as he gently rocked Lucius.

'Not if the potion was brewed by a different person then who casted the spell. The magicks would counter act each other,' Severus replied.

'So instead of bonding the soul the potion is trying to unbind it,' Remus worked out.

Severus nodded as Charlie asked, 'So now what do we do?'

They all fell silent for a moment.

'Harry's system needs to cleanse itself of the potion.' Poppy replied.

'How?, It's not like we can just magic it out of him.' Charlie asked, ignoring the glare from Severus.

'Damn it, Charlie! Stop being a buzz kill,' Remus snapped, just frustrated not angry. 'Charcoal,' he blurted suddenly.

'But there isn't anything in his stomach for him to expel,' Poppy pointed out most unhelpfully.

'So we inject it into his system,' Poppy offered.

'How?' Charlie asked ignoring the glare from Remus and the scowl from Severus. 'His body is reject everything we try to help it.'

'I can do it,' Severus said suddenly, 'it'll need a day but I think I can get the charcoal to act as a bonding agent and attach itself to the elixir in his system so when it gets rejected it brings the elixir with it,' he explained eagerly.

'Then what? Harry will still be infected with whatever Dumbledore did to him.' Charlie pointed out, tightening his hold on Lucius trying to bring attention to the young boy before Remus, Severus and Poppy hexed him.

Poppy brightened, 'then we wait a day, let Harry rest and then we give him a soul binding elixir that's brewed by Remus and Severus,' she replied rather smugly.

'Why them?'

'Because together they are more powerful than Albus and their bond with Harry is far stronger than the one that Albus has.' Poppy replied, though it seemed that she had more to add.

'There's something else isn't there.' Remus stated.

'They are trying to help Harry not hinder him.'

'I'll go start the cleansing solution.' Severus said standing pulling Remus up with him. He gave the werewolf a gentle kiss before vanishing down to the dungeons.

'I'll go talk to Draco,' Remus said after a moment heading into Harry's room leaving Charlie with Lucius as Poppy went back to her office after letting Charlie know he could take Lucius to his rooms for the night.

.......

'What if the cleansing solution doesn't work?' Draco asked as soon as Remus entered.

'Then we will deal with it when and if it happens,' he replied as he gave an affectionate kiss to top of Draco's hair before mussing it slightly, 'have faith Dragon,' he admonished gently.

Draco sighed, 'How's my father?' he asked.

'Other then the fact that he's nine, he's fine, asleep and worried about his father,' here he gave Draco a pointed look, 'but otherwise perfectly fine.'

.......

'I'd like to see Draco,' a small voice came from Charlie's chest area after Poppy had left.

'You should know Lucius that this Draco isn't your son or your father in disguise. He's actually your son.' Charlie explained and before Lucius could ask how Charlie continued, 'You're actually much older, older than me even, but someone hit you with a spell and made you younger.'

'Really? No joke?' Lucius asked watching Charlie with doubtful eyes.

'Really,' Charlie replied.

'I'd like to see him, to apologize,' Lucius said not looking at Charlie.

'I'm sure he'd appreciate that,' Charlie said with a soft smile as he set the boy on the floor, giving him a gentle push toward the door.

.......

Lucius made it half way before he stopped and look back to Charlie who stood and followed him.

Nine year old Lucius Malfoy stood in the doorway watching Draco with Harry.

Draco was taking to Harry as he worked on his homework. Though it looked to be a little awkward the way he was writing as his other hand was holding Harry's hand and his thumb was gently running over Harry's knuckles absently. After a few moments he brought the hand he was holding to his lips to kiss it softly. He didn't lower the hand immediately instead he closed his eyes and seemed to pray into the hand.

Lucius, with tears threatening to fall waited for the hands to be back on the bed before he spoke.

'I'm sorry about earlier,' he said softly.

Draco looked up from his work and gave his father a soft smile, 'it's all right. It was probably really scary waking up in a new place and having no idea where you are.'

Lucius nodded as he looked everywhere but at Harry.

'This is Harry,' Draco said, his affection for the boy in the bed thick in his voice as he spoke, 'he's sick but they're trying to make him better.'

'Is he your boyfriend?' Lucius asked moving closer to the bed.

'He is,' Draco nodded, 'and as an adult you really like him.'

'He's really pretty,' Lucius commented.

Draco turned back to Harry and brushed back a stray lock of hair, 'he is isn't he?' he agreed, a sad, dreamy quality to his voice.

'Draco are you sure you're not my brother?' he asked.

'Yes, I'm sure,' Draco began to reply before his father's words had a chance to register. 'Brother?' since when do you have a brother?' he didn't bother trying to hide his surprise.

'I had a brother, I don't anymore.' He replied sadly, looking at the not very interesting floor.

Draco put the book down and beckoned Lucius closer, 'Come here to me.'

Lucius looked up at the older boy slightly suspicious but going over anyway, Draco pulled im onto his lap.

'When I was your age, whenever I was upset about anything you would pull me onto your lap and tell me stories of the boy who would save us all from the darkest man ever.'

'Did he do it? Did he defeat the dark man?' Lucius asked eagerly.

'Don't you want to know how he did it?' Draco asked slightly amused.

Lucius shook his head. Draco sighed looking at Charlie who just shrugged. 'Are you sure, because before the boy could defeat the dark man he had to face Dragons and a basilisk and giant spiders,' Draco asked.

Lucius looked from Draco to Charlie, torn. He wanted to hear both damn it! Charlie came to his rescue.

'How about we find out if the dark man was defeated and then we hear all those fantastic stories,' he offered.

'Yeah!' Lucius agreed eagerly.

Draco turned back to Harry and carded a hand through the soft locks. He a small smile played on his lips, 'yes the boy defeated the dark man, but he didn't do it alone like he had been told he would,' he replied.

'The boy was Harry wasn't it?' Lucius asked watching Draco.

'Yes but now…' Draco trailed off not knowing what to say.

'Is that why he's sick?'

'No poppet,' Draco replied using the name his father used to call him, 'Harry's sick because of a power hungry madman with control issues.'

Lucius looked to Charlie who chuckled, 'a really bad man who wants everyone to do what he wants them to do,' he clarified. 'He trapped Harry's magic and his soul and now they are fighting to be free,' he continued.

'Then when Harry's better will we destroy the really bad man?' Lucius asked sounding rather angry.

'We?'

Lucius nodded, 'We. The more people that help with something the easier it is to get done,' he explained.

'True enough Luke.' Charlie said ruffling Draco's hair.

'Lucius,' the boy huffed crossing his arm in a way that reminded him of both Draco and the adult Lucius.

'Did Harry really defeat a basilisk?' Charlie asked, he had of course heard the stories from his brothers but they were all known for… embellishing their stories and he had never gotten a chance to ask Harry himself.

Lucius perked up at this forgetting about the nickname. 'He says he did,' Draco replied skeptically. His skepticism didn't stop him from retelling Harry's version of events form that night in second year. He was halfway through the quad-wizard tournament, as Harry had begun to call it, when Lucius began to snore softly.

'I've finished the potion,' Severus announced from the doorway.

'I thought you needed a day,' Draco half asked half stated.

Severus sat down next to his son, 'I thought I might, but the potion needs it more than I do,' he replied not looking away from Harry. 'Now we wait.'