Chapter 4
Meet the Malfoys
Harry stepped out of the fireplace and brushed ashes off his clothes. The room he had arrived in was about the same size as the entrance hall at home and decorated in different shades of green.
"Nice place." He said to Draco who had been the one traveling first and was already waiting for him.
"It'll do." Draco answered with a smirk.
The room they had arrived in turned out to be only one of the Manors sitting rooms. After a tour of the house Harry had figured out that it was about four times as big as the Potters home divided on three floors.
Harry and Draco were sitting in Draco's room waiting for the dinner to be ready. Dinner was always served at seven o'clock sharp at Malfoy Manor, no exceptions.
"What's it like living in a place like this?" Harry said looking around Draco's room. It was at least twice as big as the one Harry had at home and Harry's wasn't small.
"Sometimes it's a bit too big." Draco confessed. "I mean, it can be a bit lonely."
They were sitting on the large bed playing a game of Exploding Snap. "I can understand that, you don't even have any brothers or sisters."
"No, you had a sister right?" Harry had mentioned Hailey earlier during the day.
"Yeah, Hailey. She's 12 and goes to Setherton."
"What's Setherton?"
"Setherton school of Magic is the only magic school in North America. All my grandparents except for my granddad on dad's side, my parents, aunts and uncles, all my cousins and friends who are witches or wizards either have gone, goes or will go there."
"Oh, you'll go there to then." Draco was feeling a bit disappointed he hadn't known Harry for long, but he still would have wanted Harry to go to Hogwarts with him. Despite knowing the boy for less than a day they had become closer than Draco had ever been with anyone before except for his parents and godfather.
"No."
"No? Where will you go then?" Draco started to feel a bit more hopeful.
" Hogwarts. You know I was born here in England right." Draco started to smile at Harry's confection. They would have so much fun in school once they were old enough to go.
"Yes, everybody knows that." That the Boy-Who-Lived was British wasn't a secret.
"Yeah I suppose. So anyway I've decided that I want to go to Hogwarts instead of Setherton, since a part of me still feels British."
"Don't sound like it." Draco had made fun of Harry's American accent all day, and had no intentions of stopping now.
"You think my accent's funny you should hear your own." Harry crossed his arms over his chest and pouted.
"At least I know how to talk."
"What do you mean by that?" Harry narrowed his eyes.
"For example do you even know what the word ´yes´ means?"
"Yeah, I do."
"Then why don't you use it?"
"What…" Harry thought for a second while Draco looked smug. "Oh I'm sorry." He said sarcastically. "Yesss, I know what yes means."
"See much better." Draco said sounding even smugger than he looked.
Harry unable to come up with a good comeback line decided to go physical instead. He threw himself towards Draco who in an attempt to get away from Harry tried to move out of the way. It only resulted in Harry hitting him in a way that sent both boys flying to the floor.
It was a good thing that the walls and floors of Malfoy Manor were as thick as they were or the two women sitting in the downstairs parlour might have been disturbed in their conversation by the two boys currently rolling around on the floor, behaving in a way that was certainly not becoming of a Malfoy.
"You said Harry had been living with you for five years." Narcissa said, she'd been curios about how Harry had come to live with his family ever since she'd met Harry and Melanie, but hadn't wanted to ask in front of the boy in case he didn't want to talk about his life before.
"Yes, we were contacted by a woman living not far from where Harry's relatives lives. She told us about how they were neglecting him, barley feeding him and having him live in a cupboard under the stairs."
"Oh my god." Narcissa eyes grew big and her hand went over her mouth.
"That was my first reaction too."
"How could they do that?" Narcissa couldn't understand how anyone could be that cruel to a child a three year-old at that. The world was far from perfect but to actually know someone who had gone through something like that.
"I don't know, and I won't go back there to ask them either."
Narcissa nodded. "What about Dumbledore?" As far as Narcissa knew the man still claimed Harry lived with his muggle relatives.
"He knew what Harry was going through with those people, still he wouldn't do anything." There was a cold anger in Melanie's voice.
"I knew there was a reason I didn't like that man, but to let a child be abused. For what, does anyone even know?"
"No I doubt that. We've never heard from him. We thought that he at least would send us a letter after we had removed Harry from his relatives telling us he knew what we'd done, but we didn't get anything, thought it was a bit strange actually."
The two women sat in silence for a few minutes. "You said a woman contacted you." Narcissa said after a while.
"Yes a Squib named Arabella Figg, why?"
"The thing is, Dumbledore still claims Harry Potter is being kept safe by his muggle relatives. It isn't well known, but my husband has a status that allows him to find these kinds of things out."
There was another silence. "Are you saying Dumbledore doesn't know Harry has lived with us for the past five years? That we adopted him?" Melanie was staring at the blond woman with big eyes.
"Well if he didn't have contact with the part of the ministry dealing with guardianships and the woman who wrote to you was, and is the only contact he ever had with Harry, it is possible."
"So if Mrs. Figg has kept writing to Dumbledore telling him everything is fine for all these years, he doesn't know anything?" Melanie started to laugh.
"It's a possibility." Narcissa said also laughing.
"I'm telling you, she wasn't happy with Dumbledore when she wrote that letter to us, but do you really think she would do that?"
"I don't know her, but I think you should write her when you get home and find out."
Melanie nodded. Any further discussion was interrupted by a man entering the room. He had long hair that was the same blond as the other two Malfoys.
"Hello dear." Narcissa said and got up and gave Lucius a small kiss.
Melanie too got up and walked over to the couple. "Hello, I'm Melanie Potter." She held out her hand.
"Lucius Malfoy."
"Melanie and I met in Diagon Alley today." Narcissa explained. "Well, actually it was Draco and Harry who met in Diagon Alley today. We found them talking in Quality Quidditch Supplies."
"I see." Lucius seemed a bit amused at his wife's explanation. "Did you say Harry Potter?"
"I wondered how long it would take for you to pick that up. Yes I did."
Lucius looked between the two women standing in front of him. It looked like he had an internal battle going on. "You will have to explain this to me during dinner. I'm famished."
"Melanie and Harry are staying to eat with us." Narcissa informed.
"I gathered as much." He turned to Melanie. "I hope my wife hasn't been too much for you."
"No." Melanie laughed. "We've had a great time and the boys' have had a lot of fun too. At least I think so."
"You're American."
"I'm fascinated over how perceptive Englishmen seem to be, yes I'm American."
Lucius laughed at the woman's mock sarcasm, it was rarely people were very open with him. It was something that came with the title and also with the fact that they didn't really trust him.
Harry who was the bigger of the two had managed to pin Draco to the floor when he heard the small pop that indicated the arrival of a house-elf.
"Dinner is ready Master Draco." It squeaked, and disappeared before it too could be attacked by either of the boys.
"We should go." Draco said from under Harry.
"Yes, I'm hungry." He was careful pronouncing the ´s´ in yes.
The two boys got up from the floor. Harry had to stifle a laugh at the sight of Draco's hair. Fortunately the blond boy was standing with his back to Harry and didn't see the smile on his face. Draco's hair was more or less standing straight up and was a complete mess. Judging by how it had looked when Harry had met Draco that morning, messy was not a way he liked his hair. Harry had no intentions of telling him of its current condition. It would be way more fun to let his friend walk down to dinner like that.
Together the boys made their way through the corridors and down the stairs to the dining room. Draco's room was on the third floor on the south side of the manor and the dining room was on the north side on the first floor, as far away as you could possibly get.
"Why is your room so far away?" Harry asked as they were walking down the second set of stairs.
"It's the dining room that's far away, not my room."
Harry shrugged he supposed that was one way of thinking of it.
When they got into the dining room the three adults grew silent at the sight of the boys.
"What?" Draco asked.
"What have the two of you been doing?" Lucius Malfoy asked staring at his son's hair. While the two women tried not to laugh and not succeeding to well.
"Draco's been teaching me to talk, sir." Harry said and walked over to the table and sat down in one of the empty seats. "I can now say yes in a satisfactory way."
Draco was still standing in the doorway looking between his mother and her new friend laughing, his father looking shocked and Harry looking extremely smug.
"What'd you do?"
"Me?" Harry looked at him with large innocent puppy eyes.
"Yes you. What'd you do?"
"I didn't really do anything. You did most of the work yourself."
"Mother?"
"It's nothing dear. Come and sit down." Narcissa had managed to stop laughing. She knew how important the hair was to Draco. She didn't know how Harry had succeeded to make it into a mess without Draco noticing anything, but he had and judging by the smug look on the boy's face ha had also figured out that the hair was something that was important to his new friend.
"I will not. Not until you tell me what's going on."
"Well," Harry started. "You see you hair…"
He didn't get any further before Draco's hands flew to his head and his eyes got big and became filled with horror at the feel of the mess covering his head.
"You messed up my hair!" He almost screamed at Harry. No one messed with Draco Malfoy's hair.
"If you hadn't made us end up on the floor it wouldn't have become such a mess. The bed was much softer you now."
Lucius shot the raven haired boy a look at his choice of words. Had anyone else than an eight year-old boy just said that he had seriously been wondering what had been going on in that room.
"If you hadn't tried to maul in the first place we wouldn't have ended up on the floor."
"Your right, I'm sorry." Melanie stared at her son. Harry never apologized for something as small as messing someone's hair up. "Can I make it up to you?" Harry asked and got up from his chair.
"Ok, I guess." Draco sounded a bit hesitant.
"Great." Harry walked back to Draco with a smile and stood in front of him. The adults could see that he was doing something to Draco's hair but they couldn't see what due to the fact that Harry was a few inches taller than Draco.
When Harry stepped back Draco's hair was still messy, but an organized mess. Narcissa noticed that her son looked a lot different like this. More childish and mischievous, more like Harry she noted. It looked good though. "That looks good."
Draco tried to reach for his hair but had his hand pushed away by Harry. "Don't touch it, you'll mess it up. Your mom's right it does look good."
"How my eight year-old son learned to do hair will stay a mystery to me." Melanie said, with a shook of her head.
"Hair is important." Harry declared as he and Draco sat down at the table. Draco nodded in agreement even Lucius seemed to have a slight nod on the head. "But, if you want to know you can blame it on Hailey, her and her magazines."
Sometimes, when it came to how he looked, Melanie didn't know if Harry was an eight year-old boy or a fifteen year-old girl. On the other hand Hailey was the exact same way and had been for years. That Harry had just told her she could blame Harry's fashion sense on Hailey only confirmed what she had suspected.
During dinner Lucius had gotten the story of how Harry had been saved from the Dursleys. The three boys had also been told the women's theory regarding Dumbledore and they had all found it extremely amusing, especially Lucius. He didn't know what the headmaster's plans for the boy had been, but he knew they had been crushed by him being brought to America. Lucius felt very gleeful that evening and had offered Melanie to use one of their owls to send the message to Mrs. Figg. He needed to know the answer.
It had been decided that Melanie and Harry would stay at Malfoy Manor for the remaining two days of their vacation and a house-elf had been sent to the Silver Unicorn to pick up their things and bring them to the Manor.
Harry and Draco were lying in Draco's room talking. An extra bed had been added to the room for Harry to sleep in. there were more than enough rooms in the Manor to have give Harry one of his own but the boys had asked to share instead.
"So did you like what I did to your hair?" Harry asked, Draco had disappeared to inspect it after dinner and reappeared several minutes later with it still looking like Harry had made it. Harry had taken it like a good sign, but no-one had brought it up.
"Yeah, it was different but I liked it."
"I think I'm growing on you."
"What makes you think that?"
"First you let me fix your hair, and then you say yeah. I'm proud of you Drake."
"Did not."
"You so did."
Draco huffed and turned away from Harry pretending to go to sleep. Draco lay in bed with a smile on his face he couldn't believe he and Harry had become such god friends in such a short time. They hadn't even known each other for a day yet. Draco had other friends but none was like Harry, they were all so – pureblood. Harry was different he was a bit crazy, and the fact that he had given Draco the fist nickname he had ever had only made Draco like him more.
"Good night Harry." He said to the dark room.
"'Night Drake."
Lucius Malfoy's first impression of Harry Potter was that the boy had been too influenced by muggles. When he had walked into the dining room the previous evening the first thing Lucius had seen had been the muggle clothes consisting of black pants and black and red striped t-shirt and black messy hair coloured green in the tops. Then he had been too shocked by the sight of his son to think much more about the other boy.
During the dinner Lucius had learned that it was a lot more to the Potter boy than his appearance and a talent for styling hair. He had started to explain to Melanie about what he did in the ministry and in general as an influential person it the society. He didn't really have a job but plenty to do anyways, when Harry had actually struck up a conversation with him about international politics.
At first Lucius had thought Harry had been joking with him but it soon became clear that Harry knew exactly what he was talking about and where he stood in different questions. It had felt a bit weird to talk about those kinds of thing with a boy the same age as his son, but he had soon gotten over it.
Harry told them that he was going to a muggle school back at home and that he had skipped two years because they had been too easy for him. Draco had for a while looked a bit put out about the fact that it had turned out that his new friend was a genius. It hadn't lasted long though, all it had taken was Harry staring at the different kinds of silverware muttering about never learning which one to use first and the fact that Melanie complained about Harry spending more time thinking up pranks than concentrating on homework.
Lucius felt that Harry would be good for Draco the friends he had here were all the children of people Lucius knew from old. Not all were people Lucius really liked or liked Draco socializing with.
After the first war Lucius had been accused for being a Death Eater, the accusations were not without foundation. He had supported the Dark Lord. He had also wanted to get out. The problem was that at the point he had figured that out his wife had been pregnant and all he really thought about was protecting her and his unborn child so he had stayed loyal out of fear for their wellbeing. The irony was that it was for the same reason he wanted out. He didn't want his child to be dragged into the same mess he was in.
After Voldemort's fall Lucius had managed to stay out of prison and was currently playing for both sides. For the time being it was better to lie low. He doubted very much the threat from the Dark Lord was over and he didn't want to totally turn his back on those who had been Death Eaters with him seven years ago in case they decided to dispose of him or turn him in to either side now or when the Dark Lord returned.
In the case of Draco, Lucius only wanted the best for his only child. He knew he spoiled Draco. Which might give him a bit of a shock when he would have to face the real world, however Lucius felt Harry could help him with that. The fact that the raven haired boy was so different from the people Draco was used to would let him open up to people in general being different at an earlier age than Lucius did. The narrow mindedness Lucius had had as young were one of the main reasons he had ended up in the service of the Dark Lord.
Lucius was brought out of his thought by a scream sounding through the Manor. He got up from his chair. The scream had been a woman's but not Narcissa's so he assumed it was Melanie Potter. Making his way out of his study he wondered what had happened and if she was ok.
He had thought the sound had come from the Entrance Hall, though it was hard to tell in the Manor, and made his way in that direction. A few seconds after the first there was another scream though this one had words in it.
"Harry James Potter you get down here right this instant!" Lucius knew one young boy who was in a lot of trouble. "You too Draconis Lucius Orion Malfoy!"
Lucius didn't know how Mrs. Potter had learned Draco's full name, not that it really mattered. He himself remembered when his mother had used his full name when he was younger, and not so young. It had never been fun. To have someone else's mother do it. Lucius couldn't help but smile at how not confident Draco must be feeling right now.
The Entrance Hall at Malfoy Manor had double doors leading out of it to the inner parts of the house. These doors were usually kept open to let light through from the high three story windows covering the front wall of the Entrance Hall and simply to make passage easier to and from the large staircase leading to the upper floors.
Now the door in front of Lucius were only slightly open, like someone had pushed it closed on their way through and not gotten it to close all the way. Not thinking much about it Lucius walked up to the door pushed it open and was on his way through when he was hit by a large amount of ice cold water. He just like Melanie couldn't help to let out a scream at the shock. Being hit by a curse was one thing, getting a bucket of water over your head something completely different.
When he got over the initial shock he looked out over the room and saw Melanie standing in the middle of it in a similar state as himself, in other words looking like a drenched cat.
The second thing he noticed were the two boys standing on the stair not really daring to step down in to the room. He also saw that it looked like Draco had borrowed clothes from Harry. Draco rarely used muggle clothes. Lucius had only seen him dressed in it a few times when they'd had to go into muggle London for some reason or other. Now he was wearing green, why green Lucius didn't know, pants a black t-shirt with a silver tie hanging loosely around his neck. He also had the messy hair from yesterday, or more likely a remake of the messy hair from yesterday. Harry was wearing similar clothes in style with the same black pants as the night before and a black t-shirt with a green tie, breast pocket and a few thing Lucius didn't know what they were printed on it. At least they kept to the Slytherin colours.
"I'm so sorry for this Mr. Malfoy." Melanie said. "I'll make sure Harry's grounded for a month when we get home."
Lucius saw the boy pale at the threat. "That won't be necessary." Lucius wasn't completely sure what made him say it, considering he was standing in the Hall dripping water and shaking from cold. He like Melanie was already doing pointed a heating spell on himself to at least make himself warmer and a bit dryer. Maybe it was the fact that he had already made up his mind about the fact that Harry would be good for Draco, or it was that Lucius wished he'd been able to do things like this growing up. As it was now he didn't even know how to act to make Draco see he didn't have to be perfect all the time.
"Really?" The two Potters asked in unison, the older in disbelief, and the younger in hope.
"It's not like the water wont dry up is it." He said and surprised himself even further.
He turned to his son who seemed to shrink under his father's looks. "Draco, you look different." He thought that was the best way to bring up the change without it sounding too much like an accusation and without giving an outright compliment.
"I borrowed from Harry." He said and stepped down from the stairs.
"I gathered as much. Last time I checked your wardrobe you didn't have that kind of clothes in it." Draco stared intently at a spot somewhere in front of Lucius and shifted his feet. Lucius sighed. "You look good though."
Draco looked up at his father with a smile. "You think so?" What Lucius thought had always been important to Draco.
"Yes I do. As long as you don't wear that when we have guests of the kind who we don't want to upset you can wear them."
"Thanks dad."
"Told you, you looked good." Harry said with a confident voice.
"I know. It's just so different."
"I'm gonna go change clothes." Melanie interrupted the boys.
"Yes, me to." Lucius agreed.
The grownups left Melanie Walking upstairs and Lucius back the way he came and left Harry and Draco in the Entrance Hall.
"That went better than expected." Harry said with a low chuckle.
"You were about to be grounded for a month." Draco reminded him.
"But your father came to my rescue."
"I noticed. That was a bit weird."
"Why?"
"He's not the kind of person that usually condones this kind of behavior."
"Well the buckets over the doors is a classic."
"I still can't believe you actually talked me into to doing this."
"What can I say, my powers of persuasion are outstanding." Harry said with a big smile.
"I think we should take the last one down before someone else gets that one over them self too."
Draco had not more than said it before the last door was pushed open. The bucket fell as in slow motion hitting the man entering the Entrance Hall in the head along with the ice cold water.
"Uncle Sev!" Draco called and rushed over to the man who stood swaying frozen in the spot where he had been hit by the water and the falling bucket.
"Oops." Harry said and started chewing on his lower lip.
"What's going on in here?" Narcissa Malfoy came down the stairs and found the two puddles of water the two boys and the drenched Severus Snape. "Severus?" Narcissa said and held her hand over her mouth.
Draco too held his hand over his mouth but in his case in wasn't in horror, but instead in an attempt to hide his laugher. He had never seen his godfather look like this. His father had looked fun standing in the Hall all wet, but it could not beat the speechless Severus Snape.
"Severus, are you ok?" Narcissa walked over to him and put her hand on his arm. The contact seemed to bring Snape back to the present.
"Did I just get a bucket of water over me?" his voice was distant.
Draco couldn't hold the laughter in any more and started laughing so hard he had tears falling down his face and barley could stand up. At Draco's outburst Harry started laughing too, after all the man did look very funny. His shoulder length hair was lying slicked around his face and the long black robes also snuck to his body dripping on the floor around him and the fact that he had that distant confused look only made the whole thing better.
"I believe so."
Severus nodded slowly, and then blinked a few times before turning to look ad Draco. The blond boy immediately sobered up at the new evil glimmer that appeared in the man's black eyes. He raised his wand and preformed a heating spell on himself to dry his clothes and hair.
"Hello uncle Sev." Draco said with a weak voice.
"Why was there a bucket over the door Draco?" The calmness in Snape's voice was slightly terrifying.
"It was fun?" Draco said hopefully.
"Fun?"
"It was my idea." Harry said taking a step forward. "And yes it was fun, you should have seen yourself."
Harry was brave everybody in the room had to give him credit for that, he was also stupid. No-one messed with Severus Snape and got away with it without paying.
"And you are?"
"My name's Harry Potter, sir. I'm a friend of Draco's."
Snape shot Narcissa a glance and the woman nodded. Lucius choose that moment to walk back in to the Entrance Hall.
"Severus, what are you doing here?" He noticed the still damp state of his friend's hair and clothing. "I see you found the last of the buckets."
"I did."
"I know you'd like to give the boys detention but they're not your students. Shall we go and sit down and you can tell me why you showed up unannounced."
Snape reluctantly agreed and left the Hall with Lucius, with Narcissa walking along with them. Once again the two boys were left alone.
"This is a very strange day." Draco stated and looked after his parents and godfather.
"This time I agree with you. Who was that? You're uncle?"
"No not really, Severus is my godfather. He's also the potions professor at Hogwarts."
"So that's what your father meant with giving detention."
"Yes. Severus does not like it when his students don't do as he tells them."
"He didn't tell us to not put a bucket of water over the door."
Draco started laughing again as the memory of the drenched Severus returned. "No, but I don't think he would have cared about that technicality if we had been at Hogwarts."
Harry nodded. "Why do you think he's here?"
"Let's go find out."
"What about all the water?" Harry asked looking around the still wet floor.
"Dobby!" Draco called and a house-elf appeared with a pop.
"Yes, master Draco, what Dobby do for young master?"
"Could you dry up this water."
"Of course master Draco."
Harry and Draco left the house-elf to do his job.
Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy along with Severus Snape were sitting in the green room. It was the same room as Harry had arrived in the previous day.
"That boy was Harry Potter, as in the Harry Potter Boy-Who-Lived, Harry Potter."
"Yes it was." Lucius was amused by the fact that Severus had managed to say the name Harry Potter three times in one sentence.
"Isn't he living with his muggle relatives?" And did he have an American accent?"
"No he isn't and yes he did." Narcissa said.
"Care to explain?"
At that moment they were interrupted by Melanie coming in to the room with a letter in hand, a big smile on her face.
"Severus I would like you to meet Melanie Potter. Melanie this is our good friend Severus Snape." Narcissa introduced them and the two shook hands.
"I got a letter from Mrs. Figg." Melanie squealed like a schoolgirl getting a letter from her crush.
"You did, what did she say?" Lucius squealed like the schoolgirls over exited friend. Severus winced.
"You were right Cissa."
Narcissa clapped her hands together and – Squealed. Severus thought that maybe the bucket had killed him and he had gone to hell. A part of him hoped it.
"What is the matter with this letter?" He asked, and was once again interrupted. This time it was Draco and his new friend entering the room. This was the first time he noticed Draco's new appearance, but he refrained from commenting. This was so not his day.
"We got the letter." Melanie said this time to the boys.
"We did?" Harry looked exited. "What does it say?"
"Cissa was right."
"He really doesn't know?" Surprise was clear in the boy's voice mixed with disbelief.
"Do I ever dare ask what's going on here?" Severus said more to himself then to anyone else.
"Severus." Lucius began. "Maybe you can tell us something. Do you know if Professor Dumbledore knows that Harry doesn't and hasn't lived with his muggle relatives for the past five years?"
Severus's surprised expression was enough answer. "The headmaster is convinced Harry s living and always has lived with the muggles."
"I can't believe it." Melanie said.
"Believe it sweetie." Narcissa placed a hand on Melanie's knee.
"Sev, do you know what Dumbledore's plan for Harry is?"
"Not exactly, but I do know it has something to do with the final demise of the Dark Lord."
"How will having Harry grow up with a family that does not love him help with that?" Melanie asked, her voice hard.
The adults seemed to have forgotten about the boys still standing close to the doors. Draco noticed Harry getting uncomfortable with the subject and hesitantly took Harry's hand in his giving the taller boy support. Harry smiled at his friend and squeezed his hand.
"It's easier to control someone who longs for being loved more than anything than it is controlling someone who has been loved his whole life and has learned to stand up for himself."
The other three adults knew how true that was, but had a hard time believing someone could be cold enough to do it, someone who was the leader of the light side at that.
"I don't think we should tell him yet." Lucius said.
"You want to keep this up?" Melanie asked.
"I agree with Lucius." Severus said. "If this is used right, it will be Harry who controls Dumbledore and not the other way around."
"What if I don't want to control anyone?" Harry spoke up.
All the adult's eyes snapped to the boys standing by the door still holding hands.
"You're the Boy-Who-Lived Mr. Potter." Severus said. "Sooner or later you will be dragged back into the middle of this war. If there is something Dumbledore is right about it is that."
"Was that a necessary thing to say to an eight year-old?" Melanie asked with ice in her eyes and voice.
"I'm sorry, but I think he needs to know about the reality he lives in."
"It's ok mom." Harry said. "I agree with Mr. Snape."
"About what?"
"Both things, not telling about where I live and not letting myself be controlled."
Melanie nodded. "If you want to."
"I do. I still intend to go to Hogwarts. I won't let an, what was it you called him Drake? Right. Manipulative old coot, control my life."
Severus stared at the boy in a state close to shock. He had known James Potter in school. That boy had been a downright arse and as much Gryffindor anyone could be. Harry on the other hand was Slytherin to the bone. It had shone through during the speech and also when he had stood up to him earlier. This was not a boy who would allow himself to be pushed around.
The rest of the day along with the next passed quickly, and too soon it was time for Harry and Melanie to return home. Harry didn't want to go and Draco didn't want him to.
"You have to come visit." Harry was saying. "I'll show you Salem."
"I'd like that." Draco said.
They were standing in front of the fireplace in the green room waiting for Melanie.
"How about Christmas?" Harry suggested.
"What about Christmas?" Melanie asked and walked into the room.
"For Drake to come visit us. It doesn't have to be over Christmas exactly but around there. When we have break."
"I don't see why not. We have to right to each other and decide in a date."
Harry grinned. He was going to show Draco everything there was to see in the city.
"We have to go now honey." Melanie said and took a pinch of floopowder and threw it into the flames.
Harry gave Draco a hug which the blond returned before stepping into the flames and calling "Diagon Alley."