notes: yeah i know harry being an animagus is cliche, but this story is for me to write all the old cliches how i like them. don't worry, he's only got one animal not ten (i'm sure the animal is cliche too but what can ya do.) this is meant to be more of a family/society-focused fic not a superpowered harry one. as for sirius, we will see him... soon. probably. after harry gets out of the safe house.
Potter Family Safe House
Whatever Ginny had been expecting for their first day alone in the safe house, it wasn't anything quite as uneventful as what she got. She'd known Harry was a loner – while people gravitated towards Tristan, Harry had kept the same two friends for six years and not made any real efforts to expand – but she had thought he might still appreciate the company of another person, when they were the only two in the place.
But all he did was cook for her – she probably could have managed it herself, but he knew the kitchen much better than she did – and leave the meals on the counter or in the fridge for her to consume at her leisure. The rest of the time, she spent wandering around the little cottage, and he stayed in his chosen bedroom, doing Merlin knows what.
She assumed reading. There wasn't a whole lot else to do in the house. But with so many wards up, he could have easily been practicing magic, or just talking to himself. Slytherins did that, right?
I suppose the sum of the problem is: I'm bored. We can't leave. And we only have each other to entertain us.
Mind made up, Ginny got off her bed and headed down the hallway to see what Harry Potter was up to tonight. Do I need an excuse? 'Sorry, I was going out of my mind with boredom and I wondered if you wanted to play Exploding Snaps or muggle card games or literally anything else because I'm dying out here.'
That should do the trick.
There were faint sounds of music coming from inside his room. She knocked, and received no answer, so she tried the doorknob. It twisted easily and the door swung silently open at her push.
"Oh," she said when he turned to look at her. She hadn't been expecting him to only be half-dressed. "Sorry. I – "
Harry reached over to his dresser and pressed a button on the muggle radio player he'd had going. "Don't worry about it," he said. Ginny didn't know how she couldn't worry about it – he was only wearing jeans, his hair still damp from a shower, a green shirt lying innocuously on his unmade bed. And he looked…
Good. He looks really good.
She'd seen Tristan shirtless before – Quidditch practice, training drills, and an unfortunate side effect of practically living with him most summers – but Harry's body was leaner and taller, if not more muscled. And, if she hadn't hallucinated it, he had scars on his back that she knew weren't mirrored on Tristan's skin.
"Do you wanna come in?" Harry prodded, and Ginny blinked herself back to reality to find him picking up his shirt from the bed. When he looked at her, there was a smirk on his face. "I'm going to assume this isn't your first time seeing a boy shirtless, even though you're acting like it."
Her cheeks turned red. "Of course not, I – what are you implying?"
"I wouldn't dare imply anything," Harry said, a bit too mockingly for her taste. He tugged the shirt on and her gaze jumped traitorously back up to his face. "Did you want something?"
"No, I…" Ginny paused to gather her thoughts. She'd definitely had a reason for coming here. "I was just bored. What are you doing in here?"
Harry quirked an eyebrow, glancing pointedly at his bathroom door. "Showering."
Ginny flushed a deeper shade of red, but said resolutely, "I mean, in general. You've been locked up in here most of the day."
Harry shrugged. "Sorry, I don't know what Gryffindors consider suitable entertainment – actually I do – but I've just been reading." He gestured at a bookshelf scattered with random books, some muggle and some wizard. "Not much else to do around here."
"I've noticed," Ginny muttered. He hadn't suggested he wanted her to leave, so she took a step further into his room. "Any new Patronus messages? Or any kind of messages?"
"If I get one, you'll be the first to know," Harry said dryly.
Ginny crossed her arms. They seemed to be at an impasse. "Do you want to do something?" she ventured finally.
"Like what?"
"Like…" She gestured at the window. "There's a backyard out there. If it's under the wards, we could, I don't know, fly around. There must be brooms here, right?"
Harry shook his head. "Too much of a risk of accidentally flying outside the wards. And the backyard is small. This isn't a manor."
"I know that." Ginny tried not to sound too sharp, but she supposed a clash was inevitable, given that he was a Slytherin and she was a Gryffindor, and she was pretty sure they were honor-bound to not get along. No matter how well things had been going yesterday. "We could play cards. Chess. Checkers?"
"As scintillating as those options sound…"
"Stop that," Ginny interrupted. He raised his eyebrows at her. "Stop – being all annoyingly Slytherin and disdainful and bored with everything. Just because the rest of your House thinks they're all too good for us plebian folks doesn't mean you actually are."
Harry blinked at her. He almost looked impressed. "I don't think I'm better than you," he said slowly, then added with just a trace amount of teasing to his tone, "Except maybe at catching the snitch."
"Oh, really?" Ginny tossed her hair and stood up straighter, to gain even a tiny bit of height, although he was several inches taller than her. "When we get back to Queenswood, I'm gonna make you eat those words. One-on-one Seeker match, just you and me."
Harry considered her for a moment, then said, "Deal."
"Good." Ginny let herself feel pleased for a minute, before remembering why she'd actually come here. "You're really just going to stay in here and read the whole time?"
Harry shrugged and sat down on his bed. "Unless you have a better suggestion. And I'm not that fond of games."
Ginny leveled him a look. "Odd, for a Slytherin."
Harry grinned wolfishly at her. "I am odd for a Slytherin, thanks."
She rolled her eyes. "Can we at least just talk? I need company or else I'm going to drive myself mad."
"Gryffindors," Harry said with a mock huff. "Always need entertainment."
"Sorry we can't all be as boring as you."
He smirked. "All right, you first. What's on your mind, Miss Weasley?"
"Don't call me that, you sound like one of my teachers."
"My mother is one of your teachers, I'm perfectly entitled to call you that. Would you prefer 'Weasley'? I feel like that would get confusing, since there's so many of you."
"What's wrong with 'Ginny?'" she demanded
"Nothing, I suppose." He tilted his head. "Is there a reason your parents named you after the queen who famously cheats on her husband who shares the same name as your father?"
Ginny stared at him. "No."
"Hm."
"Oh, shut up, what about you? What kind of a name is Harry? It's not even short for anything!"
"Am I supposed to take name complaints seriously from a girl who named her owl Pigwidgeon?"
Ginny huffed. "Whatever. Okay, here's a game – secret for secret. I tell you one, you tell me one."
Harry narrowed his eyes. "That's not a real game. You're just trying to swindle me out of all my secrets, aren't you?"
"It's a real game!" she defended. "We play it in Gryffindor common room. It's how I found out your brother was secretly studying to be an Animagus last year."
Harry tilted his head. "You couldn't have figured that out on your own? He's not very good at secrets."
"True." Ginny paused, considering it. "Well… either way, he hasn't mastered the transformation yet, anyway, so it's a moot point. Dunno why he didn't just tell us in the first place, I think he's been spending too much time with Dumbledore, all these great big secrets…"
She trailed off and looked over to find Harry smirking at her. "What?"
He shrugged. "Here's a secret: I already am an Animagus."
Ginny blinked. "What?"
"Yeah, I mean, after the whole Triwizard Tournament, our Defense teachers keep trying to kill us, now Voldemort is back too, drama, I figured it wouldn't hurt to have some extra secret abilities." Harry smiled. "I talked Tristan into it, too, but he kept waffling so I got ahead of him. I only managed it last year."
He paused, then added, "And don't go telling any of your Gryffindor gaggle. They cannot keep secrets. Only Blaise and Daphne know."
"Gryffindor gaggle?" she repeated, before shaking her head. "Wait, so what's your animal?"
"Secret for a secret," Harry said nonchalantly.
Ginny sighed. Fair is fair. "One time, I spelled Ron's broom to only fly backward all summer and blamed it on the twins."
Harry rolled his eyes. "I tell you a secret that any Death Eater would kill to have, and you tell me about some stupid prank?"
"It was a good prank, he's still never figured it out," she protested. "And you're around Death Eaters all the time, if they wanted to kill you, they would have already."
He leveled an unimpressed look at her. "Tell me something better."
Maybe I am being a bit too stubborn with my secrets, since I'm the one who suggested the game… but I didn't think he'd tell me anything so important, either.
"Okay," she said slowly. "For years… I had this huge crush on your brother."
"That's common knowledge," Harry said dismissively.
"I'm not finished," Ginny snapped. "I wrote him this awful Valentine's card once, when I was younger… it said he had eyes as brown as mud after rain." She waited patiently while Harry started snickering. "I thought it was poetic at the time."
"Very poetic," Harry managed through his laughter. "Oh, he didn't tell me that one, that's good."
"I'm still not done," she said, and waited again for him to stop laughing before she continued. "It was one of… one of the things I wrote to Tom about. In the diary. He used it to manipulate me, telling me about how I could get Tristan to love me back."
Ginny took a deep breath. Harry's laughter had faded, and his gaze was solemn as he stared at her.
"When I – when I finally moved on, from Tristan, it was like I was moving on from the diary, too. The things Tom taunted me about, none of them were relevant anymore – I didn't feel so overshadowed by my brothers, I had friends so I wasn't lonely, and I didn't have some pathetic crush on the Boy Who Lived anymore."
"So… you're better now?" Harry asked after a beat of silence.
Ginny smiled humorlessly. "I thought I was. But it's never that easy. Ever since the Department of Mysteries, I've been having the nightmares again. It was never really about Tristan, I just kidded myself into thinking that. He's haunting me. Not the eleven-year-old girl with a crush."
At some point, she'd sat down on the floor, though she couldn't remember one. Harry slowly slid off the bed to sit in front of her on the carpet.
"I haven't told anyone," she said, voice going low. "I don't want Ron to worry – he's got enough going on, with the DA and everything… he'll be on the frontlines if anything happens to Tristan. And I intend to be there, too, so I can't have them treating me like I'm made of glass."
Harry adjusted his glasses, as if the word had reminded him of them. "Is that why you're telling me? Because I won't coddle you?"
"Like you could," she scoffed. "No, I'm telling you because you're a Slytherin, and there's no reason for us to interact in Hogwarts, outside of trash talk on the Quidditch pitch. So it won't be an issue."
"Very well thought-out," Harry said lightly. "And I assume I'm not going to tell Tristan because what happens here stays here?"
"Exactly." Ginny beamed at him. "Now it's your turn."
Harry tapped a finger to his chin in thought. "Let's see, what other secrets can I tell a Gryffindor…"
Ginny reached out to shove him in the arm. "Just tell me what animal you are, you prat."
"What do you think?" Harry asked with a grin.
"Is this a guessing game?" she asked. "I don't know… a snake. A slippery, slimy little snake – "
"Snakes aren't slimy, actually," Harry interrupted. "They're actually pretty soft. I can introduce you to my friend in Hogwarts, she loves being petted."
"We just agreed we wouldn't have any interaction in Hogwarts," Ginny pointed out absently. "Wait, you're friends with a snake?"
He shrugged. "Well, yeah, I can talk to them. They like hanging around the lake. And they make better company than most humans."
"Not that I'm surprised, but that's still kinda weird, Harry," she said, and he smirked at her. "Okay, if you're not a snake, then… a bear? An eagle… a hawk? Harry the hawk?"
"Please," he sighed. "You're terrible at this."
"Why don't you just show me?" Ginny suggested innocently.
"Fine," Harry said, and then she blinked and where he had been sitting was a beautiful black wolf with the brightest green eyes she'd ever seen. There was a patch of white fur in the shape of his lightning bolt scar on his forehead, and when she hesitantly lifted a hand to touch his back, his fur was soft as silk beneath her touch.
"Wow," she breathed, as Harry the wolf huffed at her. "Don't let this go to your head, but you're gorgeous. Better off like this than a human, actually."
Harry the wolf whined at her in protest, then shook his head until she removed her hand so he could re-transform back into a human.
"Does wolf-you have a name?" Ginny asked.
"Yes, but you don't get to know it," he said, raising an eyebrow at her. "Maybe after a few more secrets."
She sighed dramatically. "You're so stingy with these. Hey, is that why your Patronus is a wolf?"
"Not exactly," Harry smiled. "My Patronus isn't… technically a wolf. Although it's hard to tell the difference. But that's a secret for another time."
Ginny frowned. "Werewolf?" But Harry didn't seem inclined to amuse her guesses anymore, so she said, "All right, fine, my turn. I… want to be an Animagus."
Harry snorted. "That's not a secret. Everyone wants to be an Animagus."
She turned her best puppy dog look on him, the one that always made Bill and Charlie and her father melt. "Can you teach me?"
He hesitated. "I could, but I thought we agreed to no interaction at Hogwarts."
Ginny batted her lashes at him. "I'd make an exception for this."
"You could ask Tristan," he pointed out, undeterred.
"Has he mastered the transformation?"
"He's close," Harry said with a shrug. "Or you can ask Hermione, I'm sure she'd be happy to help."
"Oh, so you just don't want to spend any time with me, I get it," Ginny said, pressing a hand to her chest in mock hurt.
"Lions and snakes don't get along, right?" he said, but there was a smile on his face. "I'll teach you. But not for free."
"You want money?" she asked, eyebrows shooting up. "You're richer than my entire family."
"Not money," he said dismissively. "Slytherins deal in favors, you should know that."
She bristled automatically. "What kind of favor?"
Harry looked at her for a long moment, and then said, "The DA."
Ginny blinked. "What about the DA?"
"You don't let Slytherins in," he said. "If you can convince your little Golden Trio to change that, I'll teach you the Animagus transformation."
Ginny stared. "Wha—you can't ask Tristan for this yourself?"
Harry shook his head. "I can ask Tristan. I could even join the DA myself. He offered, when you guys first started. But things were so delicate with the other Slytherins and Umbridge's stupid Inquisitorial Squad, I couldn't risk it. Besides," he added with a smirk. "It's not like I needed it. I'm just as good as Tristan at Defense."
"Sure," Ginny agreed dryly. "But then why me?"
"I mean, I suppose any of you could do it. But your brother and Granger don't exactly have a favorable view of Slytherins. And…" He looked her up and down, making her shift under his gaze. "I think you have a good shot at convincing Tristan of anything. If I do it, it'll just be a favor to his brother, and none of the Slytherins will want to join because they'll think it's just a pity move."
"Right," she said slowly. "But if you don't join, and Tristan convinces other Slytherins to join first, the rest of them might follow suit… damn, that's a good plan actually. Very Slytherin. But why do you think I can convince Tristan?"
"I'm sure you're very persuasive," Harry said lightly. "Also, he likes you."
Ginny choked. "What?"
Rosevale Manor
Tristan stumbled out of the Floo, coughing on the green smoke. Never liked that stupid thing… I swear, all fireplaces have it out for me.
Musings on his eternal rivalry with fireplaces were summarily stopped by the figure who entered the hallway to see who had come through the Floo. Astoria Greengrass – he'd been hoping for Daphne, but that was okay – looked quite different outside of her pretty ballgown from the party last night, with her golden curls tied up in a ponytail and wearing casual clothes. Tristan got to his feet properly and flashed her a smile.
"Morning," he said cheerfully.
Astoria looked suspicious, but managed a "Morning," in return. "What are you doing here?" she asked, closing the book she'd been reading and tucking it under her arm.
"Oh, I came to deliver some good news," Tristan said, totally casual. At least I hope I sound casual, and not like I came here to snoop around… which I definitely did. "They caught the Death Eaters from your sister's party."
Astoria's eyes widened. "They did? Who were they?"
Tristan held up his hands. "Classified information, I'm afraid. They won't even tell me, and I'm the Boy Who Lived!" he exclaimed mournfully, as if people – at least, people of the Order – didn't constantly keep secrets from him.
"But I did catch a name," he added, wandering closer to Astoria. She still seemed only surprised, not caught or terrified. Which I suppose is a good thing – means she's not involved. And I didn't think she was, since she's in the DA but… it never hurts to be safe, with these purebloods. "A Death Eater named… Kyburn?"
Astoria looked at him for a moment, blue eyes deep in thought. "Kyburn is an old pureblood family," she told him. "Haven't heard of one of them being a Death Eater, though."
"First time for everything," Tristan said, shrugging. "But I – that is to say, we couldn't help but notice… there was no Kyburn on the guest list."
Astoria crossed her arms. "What are you implying?" For a moment, she almost sounded as haughty as her older sister usually was. Tristan smiled at her, undeterred. He'd dealt with Slytherins worse than either of the Greengrasses before.
"Well, it's only a theory but… if there was no Kyburn invited to the party, then logic would suggest that… someone had to let the Death Eaters in, right?" Tristan prompted. Astoria nodded, but she didn't seem to be paying attention to him anymore.
Either she knows something… or she's just extremely lost in thought. With a Ravenclaw, either is possible.
"I just thought I'd come over and ask if you had any leads," he finished with a winning grin. "Like, on who could have had the motive to let the Death Eaters sneak in, or maybe invited them as a plus one without letting your mother know beforehand? Because they didn't break in by force."
"No," Astoria agreed. "They didn't." Her voice trailed off, until she blinked and refocused on him. "I don't have any idea. And Daphne is out on a date with Theo, so unless you want to talk to my parents…"
Tristan blanched. "No, uh, no, thanks. You are definitely the most pleasant person to talk to in this house."
She smiled at him. "That's not exactly a compliment, but thanks."
"Yeah," Tristan said, a little lamely, and returned her smile. Daphne might know more… I'll have to ask Harry when he comes home, then. "Any other news? On the Death Eater front, or, uh, anything else?"
"Nothing about the Death Eaters," said Astoria, although she was twisting the ring on her finger like a nervous habit. Tristan's eyes narrowed. I might have picked up some things from Harry, but I think that means she's lying. "Is it… is it true they were targeting DA members?"
Tristan blinked. "I – well, maybe. But I don't think it's anything you need to worry about," he said with his best comforting leader smile. "You're pureblood. And they seem more fixated on the six of us who were at the Department of Mysteries, anyway."
Astoria's eyes narrowed. "You think because I'm pureblood, I'm safe?"
"Well… aren't you?"
She sighed and sidestepped around him, clutching her book to her chest. "You think the Death Eaters will quietly let me go when I'm a member of Dumbledore's Army? When my sister is best friends with your brother?"
Tristan opened his mouth, but couldn't find anything to say, and closed it again with a sheepish smile. "Sorry… I guess I never really considered."
Astoria turned back to look at him, her ponytail twirling as she did. "You're a good leader, Tristan," she told him gently. "For Gryffindors."
Tristan watched her walk away, his good mood vanished into one of itching uncertainty. Harry said the same thing…
Spinner's End
It was too early in the morning for guests, so when Severus opened the door and found Narcissa Malfoy standing on the other side, his already irritated mood soured even further.
Although, as visitors go, she's a far better sight than her husband – or, Merlin forbid, her sister.
"Can I help you?" he asked, raising a single, unimpressed brow at her.
Narcissa stood up straighter, mouth set in a tense line. Something was clearly bothering her. "Please, Severus, I need to talk to you. It's about Draco, and it's urgent."
"It must be, for you to interrupt my breakfast," Severus agreed sarcastically, but he held the door open for her anyway. Malfoys do not often say 'please,' so I should at least figure out what it is she wants from me.
Narcissa walked into his house, stopped to make a disgusted face at how rundown it was, and then began pacing his sitting room.
"Don't wear a hole in the floorboards," Severus muttered, passing her by on his way to make coffee. Muggle drink it may be, but at least it woke him up.
"Severus, Draco has done something stupid," Narcissa blurted out, and when he turned to look at her, he noticed how incredibly not put-together she looked. He had never seen Narcissa Malfoy without perfectly curled hair, perfectly painted lips, and perfectly selected wardrobe. And although all of that was technically intact, she looked harried, and worn, and tired, most of all.
And desperate.
Desperate Slytherins are never a good thing.
I should know.
"You'll have to clarify, your son has a habit of making exceedingly stupid mistakes," Severus told her dryly. "Starting from when he tried to duel Potter, twice, and failed, both times – "
"He's agreed to work for the Dark Lord."
Severus stopped and turned around. "He's not taken the Mark."
"No," she confirmed, wringing her hands as she walked around his ratty old furniture. "Not the Mark. Not yet. And he's not working directly for the Dark Lord, I know that much. But my sister – Bellatrix, she offered him a mission. Said it would help the Dark Lord, that he would reward Draco – and Lucius – greatly if he would do it. And he said yes."
Severus fought the urge to roll his eyes. "Narcissa, forgive me, but what was he supposed to say? He's a boy, barely of age. His father is in prison. He's dealing with the Dark Lord. And there's no way Draco can escape his attention, not when his entire family is ensconced in the Dark Lord's inner circle."
He didn't add, Thanks to you and that sneering arsehole you call a husband, but he hoped it was implied in his tone.
Narcissa looked at him pleadingly. "I need you to help him."
"With his mission?" Severus asked dubiously. "I highly doubt he would even tell me what it is, let alone accept my help."
"You don't have to tell him. But – Severus, I can't have him join the Dark Lord." Narcissa's wringing had gotten worse, possibly from the near-treasonous thoughts she was sharing with him. "Not Draco. He's too young and… he'll end up just like his father."
Severus looked at her imperiously. "Is that not what you want?"
"No!" she said forcefully. "Lucius is in prison. Of course I don't want that for Draco. I want him to survive this war and then live in peace."
"In peace?" Severus stepped closer to her until he was towering over her. For wearing such high heels, she was still smaller than him. "Narcissa, there are only two outcomes to this war. Either the Dark Lord wins, in which case, only his Death Eaters will be allowed to live in peace, or he loses and dies. Which one are you hoping for?"
There was a moment of horrible silence as the two of them stared at each other, neither one willing to say what had to be said – until Narcissa decided to break it.
"Whichever one gets my son out of this alive," she said, lifting her head defiantly. "You're his teacher. And – and my friend. All I ask is that you watch over him, at Hogwarts. Make sure he doesn't do anything that might get him killed – or worse. It's a simple task."
"Perhaps, but Draco is not a simple boy," Severus mused. "What you're asking for is that I steer him away from the Dark Lord's influence, aren't you?"
Him giving voice to her wishes seemed to embolden her. "Yes. You know how he is – how he was raised. But I don't want that life for him. If there's anything you can do for him, Severus…"
He inclined his head. "I will look after Draco, as I look after all my Slytherins."
Narcissa's gray eyes pierced him. "Will you swear an Unbreakable Vow?"
"To what, exactly?"
"To protect him, if worse comes to worst. To save him from becoming a monster, in any way you can. To save his soul, Severus. Will you do it?"
"My word isn't enough?" he asked softly, in a voice that would seem dangerous to any lesser woman. But Narcissa stood her ground.
"I will give you anything you want – money, magical artifacts from our vaults, any possession of Lucius' you might desire."
"A tempting bargain," he admitted. "I will swear it, on that condition and one other. You need to speak with him, as well. I can only do so much from the shadows. You're his mother – teach him right from wrong."
As you should have done years ago, and then perhaps we wouldn't be in this mess.
Narcissa nodded slowly. "I will. And we'll need someone to tie the Vow."
Severus sighed. "I know of a person who will be glad to help."
Too glad, in fact. But if there's anyone who can help me help Draco Malfoy, it's Dumbledore…
