When Extended Family is Discovered

by Athey

Slow-paced Veela-fic AU HPDM. Summer after 2nd year Harry meets his mothers real father, and it turns out that he's not a muggle at all. Meeting a family he didn't know existed, keeping secrets, and now Draco Malfoy is acting very odd. slash Dumbl!bashing Probably DISCONTINUED

4. When Worlds are Turned Upside Down Again

Chapter 4 – When One's World is Turned Upside-Down... again.

He opened his eyes, blinking owlishly for a moment before a wide grin spread across his face. He'd done it. It wasn't the full shift – he could see four spectrums of light, which mean he was picking up the ultraviolet light range, like normal for his avian form – but he couldn't see the magnetic fields of things. But that was more of a sense than just a sight, so it probably required a more complete transformation of other parts of himself.

In any case, it was definitely enough for what he needed. He just hoped he could get up to the tower without running into too many people, and without them noticing. If anyone did spot him and realize his eyes looked odd, he could just claim it was a spell someone cast on him. There were people wandering around the castle with duck bills, and rabbit ears, or purple skin with yellow polka-dots, all the time. Now, especially, since it was the very end of the year and people were celebrating now that exams were basically done.

He set off for the castle but paused in his steps as his peripheral vision seemed to pick up on something large and dark, moving near the edge of the forest. He turned and looked more closely at what had caught his eye. It looked like a dog of some sort. A great huge black dog. It was stalking back and forth along the edge of the forest, seemingly looking for something.

Harry stood there, frozen, watching the dog and feeling, very strongly, that this was something important.

"Harry!"

Harry was pulled suddenly from where his eyes were trained on the dog and turned back to see Ron and Hermione racing towards him – Hermione more sedately, while Ron was waving his arms excitedly.

"Hey, Harry," Hermione said smiling warmly. She paused as she and Ron got closer and she looked at him curiously. "Where are your glasses, Harry?"

"Er... lost them. It's okay, I've got an extra pair up in the tower, I just need to go up and get them."

"Oh..." Hermione said, voice trailing off and still looking at Harry curiously.

Ron seemed completely oblivious to their conversation and came to an excited stop, bouncing with energy. "I'm done!" Ron exclaimed laughing. "No more exams or classes!"

Harry laughed and grinned at his friend. "That's great! I've been done for the last three hours. So how was Divination's exam?"

Ron grimaced before giving an exaggerated sigh. "It was awful. But it's done, so who cares? It was really weird though because after the class was over and done with, I was gathering together my stuff and Trelawney suddenly went all stiff and started talking in a low weird voice. I mean, she usually goes on about people dying horrible deaths and all that, but this was the first time I heard her actually start going on about You-Know-Who. It was kind of creepy.

Harry frowned. "Voldemort? What'd she say?"

"Hell if I know. Something about the Dark Lord being alone and friendless, but now his servant would return to him and he'd become even more awful than before. Damn creepy if you ask me."

Harry felt an awful chill shoot down his spine and a sinking sensation fill the pit of his stomach. He tried to shake it off. Trelawney was a fraud and a hack, after all. Everyone knew that. It didn't mean anything.

"Weasley!" a voice bellowed from behind them and they turned to find Draco Malfoy scowling darkly and stomping towards them in a huff. He was glaring right at Ron, but his eyes flickered to Harry and his steps faltered slightly for a moment before he seemed to recover his determination and finished stalking up to Ron.

"What do you want, Malfoy?" Ron growled angrily.

"You should be grateful that I'd even bother with you, weasel," Malfoy said haughtily as he dug his hand into his rucksack and started to pull something out. However, the something in question seemed to be giving him some trouble, as he appeared to be struggling with it.

Ron, being paranoid and ever-wary of Malfoy, drew his wand, obviously expecting some sort of attack or trick. Harry wasn't quite so sure, but he still watched Malfoy cautiously.

"Your damnrat, has been sneaking into my bag all afternoon!" Malfoy growled, struggling some more. "Come out you damn beast! Ugh! I swear I've caught him in my bag four times today alone! Every time I tossed him out and he'd slip back in later. If I wanted a stupid rat for a pet – which I never would because a rat is a pathetic pet – I certainly wouldn't want your old, sickly cast offs. Get out, you stupid ruddy thing!"

"Scabbers?" Ron exclaimed, looking startled and confused.

Suddenly, Harry's enhanced peripheral vision caught the large black form approaching them with incredible speed. Harry turned to the side and just barely threw himself out of the way as the huge black dog came lunging towards them and grabbed hold of Malfoy and started dragging him towards the Whomping Willow.

"Malfoy!" Harry yelled and Malfoy screamed in horror and pain as he was bodily dragged away, kicking and screaming. The pair suddenly seemed to vanish at the base of the tree and Harry, Ron and Hermione went running after them.

Harry ducked and rolled, dodging the frantically swinging branches of the murderous tree and rolled right down a hole at the base of the tree he'd never realized was there before. He heard Hermione and Ron calling after him, but didn't slow in his pursuit as he discovered there was a tunnel and the panicked screams of Malfoy echoed from further down it drove him forward.

The tunnel was low and Harry had to hunch over at the waist to go on and eventually just resorted to a sort of crawling run. The adrenaline was rushing through his veins and it felt like time was dragging on forever. Malfoy's terrified yelling seemed to be further and further away and it twisted something irrational inside Harry's chest, pushing him to rush forward faster.

He was absently aware that Ron and Hermione seemed to be calling out from behind him again, and they sounded a bit closer than they should be if they were still stuck at the entrance, so he assumed they'd managed to get in the tunnel, but he was too focused on moving forward and getting Malfoy.

Finally he came to the end of the tunnel and what appeared to be a trap door overhead. He pushed it up and looked around frantically. His eyes fell upon Malfoy who was sitting with his back against the far wall, and staring with wide, terrified eyes at a large black dog who seemed to be dragging his rucksack across the room in its jaws, growling fiercely. Malfoy's eyes fell on Harry and the relief that flooded his face in that second was tremendous.

He made something of a whimper of a sound but then both his and Harry's gaze snapped back to the black dog as it began to shift and move and was suddenly replaced with a man.

Harry crawled the rest of the way out of the trapdoor and trained his wand on the man while slowly working his way sideways, inching towards Malfoy.

Then the man turned around.

Malfoy gasped and made something of a horrified strangling squeak, while Harry just felt his whole being freeze up in anger.

"You," Harry growled angrily at the man who had betrayed his parents to Voldemort. The man who had been their friend; the one who was supposed to be Harry's godfather, but who had abandoned him. "I'll kill you," he snarled and brought his wand up, not even sure what he wanted to cast, just knowing he wanted it to be something awful.

But the sound of voices and the trap door flying open again distracted him for a moment. He looked down and Ron and Hermione were just trying to pull themselves up – next thing he knew, his wand was flying out of his hand and into the hand of Sirius Black. Black flicked his wand again and Ron and Hermione both yelped in shock as they were also disarmed.

Harry roared in anger and ran across the room. "Traitor!" he screamed as he bodily tackled the man, throwing him to the ground and wrestling for the wands.

"Harry!" Hermione shrieked while at the same time, "Potter!" was yelled out in a panicked voice from Malfoy.

Harry and Black tussled on the ground for a minute. He was grabbing and clawing at the man beneath him in a fit of pure anger that totally blinded him to everything going on around him. Which is why it caught him by such surprise when he was suddenly pulled away from Black and magically bound.

He roared in frustrated anger at being torn away from the man, but was quickly shocked out of it when he found he was looking up into the tired and panicked face of Professor Lupin. He swiveled his head around and his eyes widened considerably as he took in Ron, Hermione, and Malfoy... all bound.

He looked back and Lupin was looking at Black as the haggard man pushed himself off the ground and to his feet and quickly ran for Malfoy's bag.

"Where is he?" Lupin asked Black.

"In that kid's bag," Black rasped and something in Harry's mind clicked.

"I trusted you!" Hermione bellowed angrily at Professor Lupin. "I can't believe this! You're helping him!"

"You don't know what's going on here, girl, so don't presume –" Black began to growl out, but his voice cut off as he pulled Malfoy's bag open and shot his hand deep inside before triumphantly pulling out a fat, terrified rat.

"Scabbers!" Ron yelled.

"No, not Scabbers," Black sneered before beginning to laugh rather madly.

"Peter..." Remus whispered, looking at the rat with horror and betrayal etched on his face.

"Peter? Peter Pettigrew?" Harry asked, looking at the two men in confusion.

"He's an animagus. This isn't a rat, it's a man. A traitorous, murdering, back-stabbing bastard," Black snarled before dropping the rat on the floor and aiming his wand. The rat squealed and ran in circles, finding itself trapped in the room's corner.

"Sirius wait!" Remus yelled, reaching out and pushing Black's wand down and then aiming his own at the rat instead. A spell shot from his wand and a moment later it was growing and twisting and transforming into the form of a short, fat, balding man, who was sniveling and begging for his life.

"Scabbers!" Ron squeaked in a horrified, high pitched voice as he stared, disbelievingly at the man now occupying the space where his pet rat once had.

Remus aimed his wand again and a moment later, Pettigrew was magically bound, just as Harry and the others were.

"I'll kill him!" Sirius snarled and was about to lunge for the man when Remus grabbed him around the shoulders and held him back.

"No, you're going to explain to me what the hell is going on, first!" Remus demanded.

"Isn't it obvious?"

"I'd like an explanation, actually," Remus said firmly.

Black looked torn and his gaze flickered from the sniveling Pettigrew to Lupin before he seemed to relent. "I was never the secret keeper. I was a decoy. We switched to Peter because no one would have ever expected him," he paused and gave a harsh, humorless laugh. "But he betrayed them. He betrayed all of us. He's the Death Eater Spy! He was the one feeding information to You-Know-Who. God, Moony, I'm so sorry I ever suspected it was you..." his face crumpled slightly with regret and his head bowed before he seemed to recover himself.

"When I got to James and Lily's house, I was already too late. They were... they were dead. After I got Harry out of the rubble, Hagrid showed up and said that Dumbledore had told him to collect Harry and bring him to 'em. I told Hagrid that I was Harry'd godfather. That James and Lily wanted me to keep him safe, but Dumbledore had insisted. Said he had somewhere Harry would be safe. I... I was weak. I was just so angry and I knew Wormtail would vanish if I let the trail get too cold, so I handed Harry over and let him take my bike and I went after the traitor myself.

"But he set me up! When I finally cornered him in London, he shouted out, making it like I was the one who betrayed James and Lily! It wasn't me, Mooney! It wasn't me," Black said shaking his head in desperation. "I'd never betray James and Lily. Never."

Professor Lupin looked like he was trying not to cry and he nodded his head in silent acknowledgement.

"Wormtail cut off his own finger and left it there on the street. Then he shot off a blasting curse into the crowd, transformed into the rat, and vanished down a sewer. The Aurors showed up after that and the next thing I know I'm in a holding cell. A day later they were shipping me off to Azkaban. I never even got questioned, Moony. No trail, no nothing. That bastard Crouch never even bothered to ask me a damn thing!"

Black turned his blazing gaze on Pettigrew again, looking even more furious and insane than ever. "And it's all because of him."

"How did you know where he was," Remus asked, shakily.

"Fudge came through Azkaban over the summer on his yearly inspection. He had a copy of the Prophet with him and I asked him for it. On the front cover was a picture of that kid's family," he said, nodding his head in Ron's direction. "I saw Peter sitting on the kid's shoulder in the photo and recognized him instantly."

"He's at Hogwarts," Mooney whispered. "They said that you were heard whispering that in your cell. You were talking about Peter."

Black nodded his head, but his eyes remained trained on Pettigrew.

"Remus, Sirius, p-please... I... I swear it's not like you think," Pettigrew sniveled desperately and Black roared in anger, once again requiring Lupin to hold him back. "Ron! Ron, haven't I been a good rat? You can't let them k-kill me!" he wailed and Ron paled even further.

"Oh good god," Malfoy whispered, grimacing in disgust. "Weasel's pet rat has been that disgusting creature of a man, all this time? Please tell me you've been keeping that thing in a cage at night and not doing something horrid like sleeping with it."

Ron made a choking sort of sound and shook his head in silent horror.

"Sirius, I'm going to let Harry and the others go, alright?" Remus asked in a cautious voice you might use with a wild animal. Black nodded, but his gaze remained trained on Pettigrew. Lupin took a few cautious steps back and paused as if trying to gage whether or not it was really safe to leave him, but he apparently decided to go ahead because he made his way over to Harry.

"Can I release you without having to worry about you attacking someone?" Lupin asked and Harry nodded in numb silence. He was feeling a bit too overwhelmed at this point to do much else.

Lupin pointed his wand at Harry and the magical ropes dissolved away. A moment later Harry realized that his wand was being handed to him and he took it in hand.

He took a few slow steps closer to Black while Lupin went over and released the others and knelt down to check on Malfoy, who's leg was bleeding from where Black had bit him and dragged him down the tunnel.

Harry came to a stop a foot away from Black and Lupin turned and watched them cautiously in case he needed to act.

"You didn't betray them," Harry said, looking at Black.

Black looked up, looking almost startled before his sunken eyes softened with grief and he shook his head. "Never."

"But he did?" Harry said, his voice going hard as he glared over at Pettigrew who flinched and paled further beneath the glare.

"Yes," Black growled and sneered angrily as he began to raise his wand and point it at Pettigrew again.

"Sirius? Sirius what are you doing?" Lupin asked worriedly.

"I'm going to kill this filthy traitor like I should have twelve years ago," Sirius snarled. His arm raised fully and a green glow began to spark and flicker at the tip.

"No!" Harry said, suddenly grabbing Sirius arm and pushing it away.

"What? Why!" Sirius snarled in bewilderment as he looked down at Harry.

"If you kill him, then no one will believe that you were ever innocent! He's the only proof, right?" Harry said.

Sirius' jaw floundered slightly and his eyes darted back between a cowering Pettigrew and the silently pleading eyes of the boy still holding his arm.

"He betrayed all of us," Sirius said in an almost desperately pleading whine. "He got James and Lily killed. Framed me for it... lost me you.. I..."

"Please," Harry said in a quiet but firm voice. "Don't kill him. I don't think my father would want his best mate to become a murderer like this."

Black's resolve flickered and finally he closed his eyes in defeat. "Alright," he whispered.

"Oh, thank you Harry," Pettigrew simpered from behind him and Harry turned a furious glare on the man.

"Don't thank me. I just want to make sure justice is served and the real criminal is put to justice. I hope you enjoy dementors because you're going to be seeing a lot of them, real soon," Harry spat and Pettigrew flinched and cowered again.

"Well, lets work on getting everyone out of here and get Peter to Dumbledore. He'll know what to do," Lupin said.

Harry nodded at him and then his eyes were drawn to Malfoy as Lupin bent down to try and help him up. Malfoy grimaced in pain and a brief keen escaped his throat before he clamped down on it and climbed unsteadily to his feet.

Before Harry had even registered the urge, he was walking across the room and slipped his shoulder under Malfoy's armpit and taking some of the weight off of the other boy's wounded leg. Malfoy's eyes were wide as galleons as he looked down at Harry in some sort of stunned shock, but he apparently decided to simply not say anything because he remained silent as Harry helped him over to the trap door.

Ron looked totally bewildered by this and looked over at Hermione who just shrugged. Lupin went over to Sirius and the two of them hauled up Pettigrew and dragged him to the trap door.

"How did you know to follow us here?" Hermione asked Professor Lupin as they made their way back through the low-ceilinged tunnel.

"I was looking over the Marauder's Map in my office when I saw Peter Pettigrew's name, along with Mr. Malfoy's name, approaching you three on the grounds. Then I saw Sirius' name come from the forest and then the whole lot of you head into the secret passage to the Shrieking Shack."

"Marauder's Map?" Malfoy asked, in confusion.

"It's a map that Harry's father, Sirius, and I, along with Peter's help, made in our fifth and sixth years at Hogwarts," Lupin said and Harry came to an abrupt stop and looked back over his shoulder at Lupin in shock.

"You made it? My dad made it?"

"Yes, Harry," Lupin said with soft smile.

"You're Moony!" Harry said with sudden realization.

Hermione's head shot to the side and she stared at him, wide-eyed. "You know!" she accused.

Harry looked over at Hermione and blinked. "You know?" he asked in surprise. Then he blinked, grinned and shook his head. "Of course you know. You probably figured it out that first month when Snape had us all write those essays on Werewolves."

"Of course I did!" she said indignantly.

Lupin just looked stunned. "Harry, how did you know?"

"Know what?" Ron bellowed in frustration.

"That Professor Lupin is a werewolf, you dunderhead," Malfoy groaned in frustrated annoyance.

"How did you know?" Ron and Lupin both asked at the same time.

"I didn't. I just happened to follow these two's babbling conversation better than you, apparently," he spat at Ron with a sneer.

"Harry, how did you know?" Lupin asked more softly this time.

Harry fidgeted and looked around at the group cautiously. "It's... er... I figured it out the same as Hermione. With Snape's essay, and then when I saw that Professor Lupin's boggart turned into a full moon," he lied, although it was apparently a bad attempt, because Malfoy was looking at him through narrowed, suspicious eyes. Harry looked at the floor and resumed walking the blond down the tunnel.

The group finally made it to the end with Sirius dragging Pettigrew most of the way rather roughly and not the least bit apologetic for it.

"Let me go first," Sirius offered when they all came to a stop. "There's a knot on the tree that if you hit it just right, the tree stops being so homicidal."

"No, let me do it," Professor Lupin said. "Just in case there's someone up there."

He climbed up and a moment later he called back down that it was all clear.

Sirius dragged a whimpering Pettigrew to the hole and used his wand – probably stolen – to levitate him up and presumably, Lupin moved it from there. Then Sirius helped Harry get Malfoy up and out and the rest followed after.

Harry crawled out and sat himself beside Malfoy and then helped him scoot to the side as the others began to climb out. Malfoy hissed out through his teeth and Harry's eyes instantly snapped to him with concern.

"You okay?"

Malfoy looked at him with a baffled expression for a moment before his face pinked slightly and he scowled. "I'm fine, Potter," he spat defensively. "It's practically your fault I got dragged into this whole mess, I don't need your help."

Harry glared and pushed himself to his feet. "Fine, whatever," he bit back and stalked away. "Don't know why I even asked," he grumbled bitterly to himself, feeling hurt and confused, and annoyed with himself for feeling hurt and confused. What was Malfoy's problem, anyway?

"Okay, so how are we going to work this?" Ron asked as he climbed out the hole.

"Well, first we're going to get away from this tree. It only stays immobile for so long," Lupin said and they all quickly shuffled to a safe-distance. "Alright, I think we should break into two teams. Can you three get Mr. Malfoy up to the Hospital wing? Sirius and I can take Peter to Dumbledore."

"Are you crazy?" Harry exclaimed disbelievingly. "It definitely isn't going to take all three of us to get Malfoy to the hospital wing, and you need someone to go with you to take in Pettigrew. Sirius can't go with you because the second he's seen by anyone, they'll start firing curses, or summon the dementors or something."

Sirius bowed his head, deeply scowling and a low, frustrated, growl seemed to emanate from his chest. "Damn it, he's right."

"You could come with as Padfood," Lupin offered thoughtfully.

"That's a possibility," Sirius said, perking up instantly.

"I'm still coming with you two," Harry said, stubbornly. "I can act as second witness, too."

"Hey, you should grab the map and take it up with you," Ron said, excitedly.

"Well, that would mean a detour to my office..." Lupin began hesitantly, but his voice died away all of a sudden and his face went ashen white. "Oh no," he whispered and Harry noticed that his hands began to shake and he slowly began to double over at the waist.

"Moony? Hey, Moony, are you okay?" Sirius began hesitantly before a sudden gasp came from his throat and he looked over his shoulder and into the dimly setting sky. "Oh Merlin no! Moony, did you take your potion tonight?"

Hermione gasped, Harry felt his veins run cold and Malfoy made a horrified whimper from somewhere behind him as Professor Lupin doubled-over completely, and began screaming in pain as his limbs and body began to contort and twist horribly.

"Damn it! Run!" Sirius bellowed to the kids as he remained standing in front of Lupin and tried muttering calming words and telling the other man to hold onto himself, desperately.

Lupin transformed into the werewolf with a snarling roar followed by a loud howl that pierced the sky.

"RUN!"Sirius bellowed again before he transformed into the giant black dog Harry had seen drag Malfoy down the tunnel seemingly forever ago. He barked and jumped up, trying to distract the giant, bloodthirsty werewolf from the others filling the grounds.

The sudden shrinking of a dark blob in Harry's peripheral drew his gaze and he suddenly screamed in anger and fury as he watched Peter Pettigrew – currently placed on the opposite side of the werewolf from Harry – transformed into a rat and scurried out of sight.

"NO!" he yelled, but Ron came up and grabbed him around the middle, holding him back and trying to pull him away from the werewolf. "Stop it Ron! He's getting away! Pettigrew is getting away!"

"I think we've got a bigger problem than Pettigrew right now, Harry!" Ron bellowed.

Suddenly a sharp canine yelp of pain shot through the sky and Harry looked up as Sirius was tossed aside like a rag doll, and the werewolf began to stalk towards them. Hermione shrieked, and a Ron made a rather undignified squeak of horror. However, it was the terrified 'Ohgod,ohshit,ohshit!' chant that came from Malfoy that twisted up some weird wrench deep inside Harry's chest, and he absolutely couldn't fathom why. But he wanted to protect all of them, and that's all that mattered.

Harry pulled himself out of Ron's grasp and in an instant, that red ball of power deep inside him was purple and power was flowing out of every pore of his being. He crouched over slightly in a balanced attack pose and didn't even bother to close his eyes or focus. Adrenaline, instinct, and muscle memory drove him in the fastest transformation he'd ever completed. Granted it was also the most painful transformation he'd ever completed, as well.

A shocked shriek came from behind him, and this time it was Ron who had made it, but Harry's mind was now ultra focused on the snarling beast that was stalking towards him to care how much this would freak out Ron, or how Malfoy might react to this revelation. Then again, Harry already suspected that the blond knew what Harry was – at least, he had to have guessed on some level.

Harry spread his huge feathered wings, placing a barrier of himself between his friends, and Malfoy, and the giant werewolf that stood before him. His hands were out in attack-ready position, long sharp talons spread wide and a fierce mighty screech echoed through the air, warning the furry beast to stay back.

The werewolf – and that's all it was, Harry couldn't let himself think of it as Professor Lupin at a time like this – snarled back and let out another howl.

"Harry, what are you doing! Oh my god!" Hermione was yelling in the background She shrieked suddenly, as the wolf lunged forward, but Harry leapt into the air, instinct sending him slightly alight, suspended in the air by his natural veela magic, and leaving his powerful legs and their talons free.

He kicked at the lunging werewolf and sent him flying back with a shocked canine yelp of pain. Blood seeped from the deep gashes Harry left on his chest, but the pain didn't seem to be enough to deter him because he got back up and prowled from side to side for a moment, snarling angrily at Harry, who simply sent out another ear-piercing screech of warning. Harry turned his head slightly over his shoulder, catching Malfoy's eye. That illogical something twisted again, and he felt the drive to protect him grow ever still. His eyes moved over and locked on Hermione's and yet let out another demanding trill before bobbing his head towards Malfoy and then towards the castle.

Hermione was clearly shocked by everything that was going on, but her mental facilities thankfully returned rather quickly and she hurried over and began to try and haul Malfoy up onto his good leg. "Ron!" she growled in panicked impatience.

"Harry lookout!" Ron yelped and Harry turned back and barely dodged to the side enough to let loose another swipe of his legs at the werewolf's side and send him deflected to the side, now sporting another new wound.

"Ron, helpme!" Hermione growled and Ron hurried over and began to assist with getting the wounded Malfoy out of there.

"What about Potter? You can't just leave him there?" Malfoy yelled, his voice breaking in panic as his gaze shot back and forth from the castle sanctuary, and Harry, who was still alight several feet in the air, playing parry with a werewolf.

"Um... I'm gonna go with 'Harry can take care of himself', in this one," Ron said, looking both horrified and in awe of his best mate, as he and Hermione dragged a somewhat reluctant Malfoy up to the nearest castle door. "Blimey, 'Mione, did you know he could do that?"

"No! I had no idea! He said he hadn't completed it yet!"

"You two can't seriously be thinking of abandoning him?" Malfoy yelped, and his voice still had that shocking authentic tinge of panic to it, that legitimately surprised Ron and Hermione.

"Come on Malfoy!" Ron growled as they got to the heavy wooden doors and Ron pulled them open.

"I'm not leaving him!" Malfoy suddenly demanded.

"He'll be fine, Malfoy! As soon as we're safe, I suspect, that he's going to get out of there himself." Hermione said.

"And how the hell is he supposed to do that?"

"Well, his form has one very noteworthy advantage over a werewolf," Hermione said in an exasperated tone.

"And what's that?" Malfoy snapped.

"He's got wings!"

Malfoy blinked and looked back at Harry and the werewolf still taking sparring jabs at each other. Harry really was in a much better position, and he was clearly dodging the werewolf's attacks with surprising areal ease. The wolf would lunge, but Harry would dodge each attack swiftly, and in most cases, he got in very damaging slashes with his powerful legs and sharp talons.

"Oh, I hope Professor Lupin will be alright," Hermione said worriedly.

"Are you completely mad, woman?" Malfoy yelped in shock.

"He can't help himself!" Hermione said indignantly.

"I don't bloody well care! He nearly killed us! And he's still nearly killing Harry!"

Hermione's eyebrow raised slightly into her forehead, taking mental note of Malfoy using Harry's first name for the first time that she could ever actually recall, but opted that now was not the time to point it out.

A loud screech from the grounds drew their attention back to the fight and they watched as Harry lowered to the ground just enough for his legs to touch down and bend and then push off with a powerful thrust. He went up into the air a good twenty-five feet and hovered there, with powerfully beating wings keeping him magically aloft.

The werewolf leapt into the air several times but couldn't get nearly close enough to get at Harry. It howled and snarled in frustration and anger but it's efforts eventually petered out. Suddenly, it turned it's gaze on Ron, Hermione, and Malfoy, still gathered in the stone archway by the heavy wooden doors. It snarled, went down on all fours and began to barrel towards them. They all yelped and screeched in surprise and fear and quickly ran inside, slamming the heavy door shut behind them. Hermione pointed her wand and shouted out Colloportus! An impenetrable barrier formed, magically sealing the door closed, just as the heavy thump of the angry beast sounded against it from the other side.

Back on the other side, the werewolf scratched and howled at the door in frustration before snorting angrily and turning back around. He snarled at Harry, still hovering in the air before pausing and sniffing at the air. He put his nose the the ground and began to track forward. Harry watched warily from above, wondering what the hell was going to happen now. He was hesitant to just leave because there was no telling who could come across Professor Lupin when he was like this and wind up hurt or killed.

That thought, combined with the direction the werewolf was heading sparked a sudden recollection in Harry's mind and he turned his head to spot the form of his apparent godfather, shuddering slowly and appearing to push itself up.

Spotting the movement and the sign of life, the werewolf howled again and began to run towards the wounded dog.

Harry screeched and willed himself towards Sirius, hoping to hell he'd get there first. His trajectory was a little wobbly and it took him a moment to get his wings angled just right – long enough that the werewolf nearly got to the large dog first, but Harry nose-dived at the last moment and scooped the dog up in his large hands, wrapping his arms around his whole body and then kicking off from the ground with his powerful legs.

The werewolf leapt into the air and only just barely missed sinking his teeth into Harry's leg before falling back to the earth in a tumble of angry, snarling fury.

Harry struggled to fly with the greatly added weight of his godfather in tow, and it wasn't long before he knew he was going to have to land, or crash; which ever happened first. His goal, really, was to just do it far enough away that the wolf wouldn't follow. Finally the two toppled onto the bank of the Black Lake and Harry dropped his heavy burden before falling to his knees panting heavily with his exhaustion.

Feeling his whole body go weak and heavy, he released his hold on the glowing purple energy and felt himself slipping back into his human form. He crouched there on his hands and knees nearly gasping for breath before letting himself collapse onto his side and roll over onto his back. He let his head lull to the side and watched as the dog transformed back into Sirius Black. The man appeared to be injured – probably a few broken ribs by the way he was holding himself, but he pressed on and nudged his way over to Harry's side.

"Merlin, kiddo. That was... that was insane," Sirius said with an exhausted laugh. "Where the hell did you learn to do that? You mum never even managed to do that!"

Harry let a weak laugh escape his chest before heaving a relieved sigh. He hadn't noticed the werewolf following them as he flew away and he felt fairly confident that they wouldn't be found in this clearing by the lake. He tried very, very hard, not to think about Pettigrew and how the man had escaped them. Instead he just let his breathing calm down and let the coolness of the sandy shore beneath him cool his overheated and overtaxed muscles.

"I'm really shocked, really," Sirius said in a musing sort of tone, "Lily was always insisting to James that it'd be recessive in you. Said there was no way you'd be a Veela. I didn't think it added up, but it seemed to ease some of Jamie's worries, so I didn't say anything. Wow, though... that was just brilliant, Harry. Just brilliant." Sirius let out another rather exhausted-sounding, but truly joyful laugh before heaving a sigh of his own and letting himself fall back onto the sandy bank beside Harry.

The two laid there in silent for several moments before Harry heaved a sigh. "So now what?"

"I keep looking for the bastard," Sirius said coldly.

"But now he knows he can't hide at Hogwarts. He'll leave. He could go anywhere. It sounded like he was trying to sneak out with Malfoy's luggage before, but he could slip in with anyone, really – or just take off into the forest and vanish."

Sirius growled in frustration but otherwise remained silent.

"There's got to be a way to clear you without having Pettigrew around," Harry grumbled in frustration. "I mean, there wasn't even a trial for you, right? That's got to be illegal! That's like, a serious miscarriage of justice! You were specifically denied your basic right to due justice or whatever!"

Sirius snorted derisively. "This is the wizarding world. Our laws are a bit more archaic. Besides, Fudge would never let it get out, what really happened to me. It'd be too great a blemish on his perfect political career. He hasn't been in office very long and he's not willing to risk it all on me."

"He's ordered you given the Kiss on sight," Harry growled angrily. "You've never gotten the chance to defend yourself, at all! You deserve a trial! If they held an actual trial, there's no way they could get together enough evidence to convict! Right?"

"They don't need things like evidence," Sirius said bitterly.

"I still think we should try," Harry said determinedly as he pushed himself up onto his elbows.

"I set so much as one foot in the presence of Fudge or an Auror and they'll have me before a Dementor in the blink of an eye. And anyone who they find that's been helping me out will be charged with aiding a criminal. No way, Harry, it's not safe."

"So what are you going to do? Just stay on the run? You can't do that! You'll die, or they'll catch you!"

"I haven't exactly got much of a choice, do I?"

Harry paused, frowning in thought before that determined glint re-entered his eyes again. "Yes you do."

"Oh really?"

"Come with me."

"Come with you?" Sirius echoed in confusion. "Come with you where?"

"Come with me to France."

"Wait... what? France?" Siriussputtered.

"Last summer I moved in with my grandfather in the Veela Nation. I'm going back there again this summer. They can keep you safe. The British Magical Ministry has no jurisdiction in the Veela Nation, and we don't have to extradite criminals! You could claim sanctuary within the Nation. My Grandfather has acted as a diplomate and as legal council to the Family for decades, so he's got loads of contacts. I bet he could even try to work it so you get a real trial."

"Are you kidding?" Sirius gaped at him in disbelieving shock.

"No, I'm serious... er..."

Sirius snorted. "No jokes about the name."

"Right."

"Do you really think that they'd take me in?" Sirius asked, dubiously.

"If I ask them to. If I explain everything, I'm sure they would. But um... well, you can't tell Dumbledore about any of it. He doesn't know I'm living with them yet."

"Wait, how is that working?"

"It's a really complicated story. Let's just say I'm not entirely sure where I stand with my opinion on the Headmaster – the jury is still out, so to speak."

"Well, I can't entirely fault you there. The man has always seemed a bit shifty with some things, but overall, he seems to have everyone's best interests a heart."

"Yeah, but what if 'everyone's' best interests, conflict with my best interests?"

"Huh?"

Harry shook his head. "Never mind. Later. Anyway, we need to work out what we're going to do here. Like, how we're going to get you to France and into the Veela Nation without you getting stopped by the Central Administration of French Wizardry. They do have an extradition treaty with the British Ministry of Magic, so you'll still need to dodge them."

"I don't think I'm recovered enough to manage apparition over such a great distance," Sirius said with a shade shake of his head.

"I've got a broom you could borrow... do you think you could survive flying across..." Harry trailed off and shook his head before bringing his hand up and smacking his own forehead. "I am so dense!"

"What?" Sirius asked, smiling with confused amusement.

"I've got a portkey! Papy Luc had a special emergency international portkey registered and made just for me. It's got diplomatic priority and protection enchantments so you'd bypass all of the normal international portkey scans! It's perfect!"

"Whoa, really? Merlin..." Sirius voice trialed off with surprise. "Although I'll admit that the idea of flying that Firebolt was a bit enticing. It was so hard to wrap it up and send it off without giving it a proper test run first."

Harry's eyes widened and he gaped at Sirius for a moment before a wide smile broke out on his face. "Wait, you sent me that broom?"

Sirius grinned and nodded. "Yup. Although I noticed you had another one that you used against Hufflepuff. What was that?"

"It's the broom that papy Luc got me for Christmas. It's a French broom called the AstroFlash. It's pretty brilliant. I still haven't been able to make up my mind which I like flying more – the Astro or the Firebolt. Anyway, we need to make some plans for you using the Portkey. I can't just send you off without giving them some warning. If Sirius Black just popped up in the entryway without any explanation at all, they'd probably start throwing hexes the moment they noticed you."

"I would expect as much."

"Okay, so I need to send off an owl right away. If I could get to a Floo... maybe Professor Lupin... no, wait... I can't trust him with this yet."

"Huh? Why not?"

"As far as I can tell, he's loyal to Dumbledore. All year long, he's had loads of opportunities to talk to me about things like my mum being half Veela, and my Grandfather's existence and all that, but he never did. It was like pulling teeth just to get him to tell me stories about my parents! Best I can figure, Dumbledore told him not to tell me too much, so he kept quiet. I can't trust him with information about my papy, because he might just run off and tell Dumbledore."

"No way. We can trust Remus."

"How would you know? You haven't seen him since before you got locked up in prison?"

Sirius huffed in frustration, but didn't argue the point any further. Finally he heaved a defeated sigh and shrugged. "He owes Dumbledore," He offered weakly. "It was Dumbledore who allowed him to come to Hogwarts even though he was a werewolf. Dumbledore covered for him, and set up a place for him to remain restrained during the full moons. And now, it's Dumbledore who has given him the chance to teach, even knowing what he is."

"So he feels like he owes the man his loyalty," Harry finished with an understanding nod. "It makes sense, and I can't totally fault him for it, but he's playing along with the Headmaster's schemes to control my life, and that, I'm not okay with. I still can't know for sure which Professor Lupin would put first – my well being, or his loyalty and debt to Dumbledore. That's why I can't trust him with this."

Sirius sighed and nodded his head in concession.

"So using a Floo is probably out. We'll have to wait on an owl. I'll send Hedwig off right away and she should get there by tomorrow afternoon. Think you can find someplace to hid until then?"

"I've been hiding for nearly a year, I think I can manage one more night."

"Okay, we need some place that we can meet up at later, so I can get the portkey to you."

"You don't have it on you?" Sirius exclaimed.

"What?" Harry returned defensively.

"Harry, what's the use in having an emergency portkey if you aren't wearingit when there's an emergency?"

Harry flushed with embarrassment and shrugged, mumbling under his breath about a bothersome chain and being afraid of losing it.

"Anyway," Sirius said, rolling his eyes, "like you said, we need a place to meet up. How about meeting at the Shrieking Shack again? There's a knot in the wood that if you hit it with a rock, or a stinging jinx, it'll stun the tree still for a few minutes. Think you can manage that and meet me sometime tomorrow?"

"Yeah, sure. I think I can manage that," Harry said, nodding eagerly.

"How about after dinner, will that be alright?"

"Yeah, sure. Seven o'clock?"

"Yup.

"Good," Sirius said with a final nod and a hesitantly hopeful grin.

Harry heaved a sigh and gave the man a worried smile. "Will you really be okay?"

"I'll be fine," Sirius groaned while grinning warmly.

"Okay. I should get back to the school and see how Malfoy's doing. You really chewed up his leg."

Sirius grimaced with guilt. "Yeah, sorry about that."

"Will Professor Lupin be alright?" Harry asked, suddenly worried. "I'm... I'm afraid I might have really hurt him."

"Werewolves heal remarkably fast. And I've seen him sustain some really awful injuries over the years. Hopefully he won't encounter anyone else tonight and he'll just wake up in the morning way more sore and tender than usual, but still basically fine."

"I hope your right," Harry said still frowning with guilt.

"Alright then, I suppose we'd ought to start heading back to the school."

"You mean, I should head back. You should go disappear somewhere safe."

"No way. I'm sticking with you until I'm sure you've made it safely to the castle. There's a werewolf roaming about out here."

Harry made an exasperated grumble, but inside he was smiling slightly, glad to have someone else who seemed to care.

"Fine, but you need to at least transform. I can't risk someone seeing you now."

"Roger," Sirius said and a moment later he was shifting and shrinking down into the great shaggy black dog.

Harry pushed himself to his feet, groaning as his strained muscles protested the movement. The two then proceeded to cautiously make their way along the shore of the lake and then across the grounds until Harry came to the same heavy wooden door that his friends and Malfoy had entered through earlier.

He turned back and after kneeling down he awkwardly pet at the dog-Sirius' head. Sirius panted happily before turning his head and licking Harry's hand. Harry laughed and grimaced as Sirius barked once before turned, taking one quick look around and then bolting down the grounds towards the forest.

Harry heaved a sigh before turning and entering the safety of the castle. He was startled to find himself legitimately torn between rushing to the hospital to make sure Malfoy was okay, and rushing to the owlery to send off the letter. Finally he crushed the irrational impulse and raced to the owlery to send off the letter warning his Grandfather and family about Sirius. This was far more time-sensitive, and Malfoy did not look to be at all in some sort of life threatening situation once they got him inside.

Still, he felt inexplicably antsy and as soon as he'd sent the letter off with Hedwig, he was rushing all the way back down to the hospital wing and through the large heavy double doors.

"Harry!" Ron and Hermione exclaimed at once, both bolting across the hall to meet him. Hermione wrapped him in a great, shocking hug, while Ron just stood to the side, smiling with relief.

Harry finally disentangled himself and found his eyes searching the hall until they fell on Malfoy in one of the beds half-way down the ward. Madam Pomfrey was no where to be seen, and he was grateful for that fact. He began walking right towards Malfoy the next moment, Ron and Hermione trailing behind with slightly bewildered expressions on their faces.

"Are you alright?" Harry asked before he could stop himself.

Malfoy ducked his head, and scowled at the bed. "Well, I'm not dying, I suppose," he moaned, exaggeratedly.

Harry felt something untwist in his chest and a slight sigh left his lips.

"Well... good," Harry said, haltingly as he suddenly registered just how weird this was and realizing he needed some reason other than checking on the health status of DracoMalfoy, for being here. "Um... right – so what did you lot tell Madam Pomfrey or any of the professors about er... how I distracted the um... werewolf?" Harry asked, cringing slightly at his crappy delivery.

"We didn't tell them anything about your Veela form," Hermione said in a hushed whisper, glancing around the ward cautiously as if making extra sure they really were alone, before sending a suspicious look over to Malfoy.

He noticed the look and huffed out in annoyance. "If you want to keep it a secret, far be it from me to be the one to tell," he drawled, sounding forcefully bored.

"Yeah, well, you haven't told anyone about it all year, so I trust you can continue keeping quiet about it?" Harry said, with a smirk.

"All year?" Hermione echoed in shock, looking between Harry and Malfoy with increasing suspicion and confusion.

"And what makes you think I've known about any of this allyear?" Malfoy sneered incredulously, but there was legitimate panic in his eyes and for a moment their gazes locked and that panic turned to silentpleading. Harry realized suddenly that Malfoy didn't want Harry to reveal that he was a Veela to the others.

"Well, not all year," Harry recovered slowly. "Just since... since the quidditch match where you caught me. I was sprouting some feathers during that match. I figured you noticed them while you carried me down."

Malfoy's brows raised slightly, almost as if he were acknowledging the acceptably good recovery and the quickly made-up lie.

"Ah, well, you're right. I didn't think you knew though," Malfoy agreed haughtily. "You don't tend to be that observant, after all." He smirked but after a moment it slid off his face and was replaced with cautious curiosity. "How come you don't want us to tell anyone about it though? Are you saying that Dumbledore doesn't already know?"

"No, he doesn't. Or... well, he doesn't know that I know... it's complicated. I don't want Dumbledore to find out that I've managed my Veela transformation, because it would lead to a whole lot of other questions discoveries and he'd make things really really difficult for me if that happened," Harry answered honestly and Malfoy looked legitimately surprised.

"Is this mutiny among the light's loyal ranks, I hear?" Malfoy said with a gleeful smirk.

"Yeah, well it's none of his damn business, is it?" Harry grumbled bitterly.

"Dumbledore's Goldenboy isn't quite as loyal as we were all lead to believe?" Malfoy asked, still grinning like the cat who caught the canary.

"Hey, sod off, Malfoy," Ron snapped in annoyance.

"I wasn't talking to you, Weasel," Malfoy sneered.

"Alright, alright. That's enough," Harry said, raising his hands between the two and cutting off their imminent argument. "Just don't tell Madam Pomfrey or anyone else that I transformed into anything. You can say that I did lure him away into the forest and that's the last you lot saw of me. I managed to wind my way around some trees and things and found myself a hiding place until he was gone and then I came back."

"Okay, but what about Sirius Black?" Hermione asked.

Harry heaved a sigh and sort of shrugged. "I don't know. We can try giving our statement, but without Pettigrew, I'm not sure we can get anyone in the British Ministry to listen to us."

Malfoy frowned in deep thought for a moment. "I could see if my father would try speaking up on his behalf. No guarantees though."

The other three turned and looked at Malfoy with varying degrees of shock, confusion, and disbelief.

"Why would your father do that though? Sirius wasn'ta Death Eater," Hermione said pointedly.

"And if he were, my father would never come within ten yards of defending the man. That would be political suicide given his 'past'. However, he might consider standing up for someone else wrongfullyaccused, and in this case, wrongfully imprisoned by the Ministry for more than a decade without a trial."

"Yeah, but your father wasn't wrongfully accused, he was wrongfully let off," Ron growled and Malfoy just sneered, deeply at him in return.

"Ron, notnow," Harry growled before turning back to Malfoy. "Okay, maybe, but why would your father be willing to do that at all?"

"Black is my mother's cousin," Malfoy said with a shrug. "He's practically my uncle."

Harry's eyes widened in surprise. "He is?"

"You didn't know?"

"No, I had no idea," Harry said, shaking his head.

Malfoy dramatically rolled his eyes in exasperation. "Yes, well he is. He's family, and as such, it would be family duty to see that justice is served properly."

"And of course it wouldn't hurt in your father's eyes if he did something that would make Harry owe him something," Hermione pointed out suspiciously.

Malfoy just raised a single eyebrow, not actually denying anything.

"It might not actually be necessary to use your father's support," Harry began, "but it would be nice to have someone local that was fighting for him too."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Hermione asked, but Harry just shook his head and said 'later'.

The group spoke for a brief while longer before Madam Pomfrey reappeared with Professor Dumbledore and Snape following after them. They were all questioned as to what happened, and the group was basically able to stick to the cover story without any real problems.

They admitted that Malfoy was dragged away by Black, but left out the fact that he was an animagus at Harry's request. They told about Pettigrew and the Marauder's map, and watching him transform from a rat into a man. About Professor Lupin coming to their aid as well and the whole story getting sorted out and the group leaving to return to the castle, only for Professor Lupin to transform and Pettigrew to get away.

Pomfrey and Snape both looked a bit shocked, but Harry couldn't help but feel increasingly suspicious at the lack of apparent surprise from Dumbledore. But then again, the man never did seem surprised by much of anything.

They claimed that Ron, Hermione, and Malfoy were already near the door when Lupin transformed and Harry waved his arms and distracted Lupin before running off and escaping to hide in the forest. Black got away and no one had seen him or Professor Lupin since.

Snape looked decidedly sour and angry by the whole thing, and made a number of comments, such as Black's irresponsibility at abandoning four school children to the hands of a werewolf. Harry bickered with him a bit, but Hermione nudged him in the ribs with her elbow and he managed to shut his mouth.

Harry was greatly relieved when all of the questioning was concluded and he was finally able to retreat to Gryffindor Tower and get some rest.

– –

The following morning Harry woke up unpleasantly early and couldn't manage to get himself back to sleep. Finally he huffed his way out of bed, showered, dressed and left the dorm alone. There was no way he'd manage to get Ron up this early. It was a Friday, but neither of them had any exams left. The only ones still testing today were NEWT students, and without classes or exams, Harry was fairly sure that Ron would just lay in till mid-day.

After a few bored minutes in the empty common room, Harry marched his way out into the school proper and started to aimlessly wander. Before he even registered that his feet might be taking him somewhere of note, he found himself standing before the large double doors of the hospital wing.

He stood there, just staring at the doors for several minutes, wondering what the bloody hell he was doing there. He wasn't still worried about Malfoy was he? That was just irrational! Sure, it had been a pretty bad bite, but Madam Pomfrey could heal vanished bones; Harry didn't doubt that she could patch Malfoy up without any real problems.

It had bled a lot though, and had looked pretty gruesome. He'd looked like he was in a lot of pain too – although he'd seemed fine last night during their interrogation. But couldn't bites result in infection? Maybe not when magic was involved... and surely Madam Pomfrey would have taken precautions for stuff like that. She knew what she was doing. Malfoy was fine.

And why the hell was he even worried about Malfoy anyway? It was totally and completely irrational! He didn't even like Malfoy! He was a spoiled, nasty git, and a bully! He had been horrid to Harry ever since the first day of first year! He'd insulted Ron, and the only reason he'd cared one lick about Harry was because of his stupid scar. Not to mention he'd been a snooty little prat...

But he'd been better this year... mostly just because they'd hardly even looked at each other. He'd still been nasty to Ron, but he'd been perfectly cordial to Harry; if not down-right avoiding him like the plague. It was odd, but it was better than having the prat constantly pick fights with him, or sabotaging his potions.

Harry growled under his breath, totally and utterly frustrated with himself as he pushed the doors open and entered the hospital wing, anyway. It seemed no matter what logical arguments he presented to himself in his mind, some part of him refused to walk away from the infirmary until he'd at least seen Malfoy.

Besides, he could use this opportunity to make sure Malfoy really was going to keep his secret. And since Malfoy didn't seem to want anyone to realize that he was a veela, Harry could always leverage that to force the Slytherin prat to keep his mouth shut. Besides, it was early enough that Malfoy might just be asleep, in which case, Harry could just look at him and leave and no one would ever even have to know he'd come.

Harry walked quietly down the completely empty ward and came stop at the foot of Malfoy's bed. He appeared to be sleeping. Harry released a small sigh of relief – not entirely sure if he was relieved that Malfoy was asleep and he wouldn't have to interact with him, or relieved that he had visual proof that he was still alive and breathing, because there was no reason at all for Harry to be relieved to see that Malfoy was breathing.

But then Malfoy's eyelashes fluttered and his eyes opened, revealing two silver-gray eyes, blinking up at Harry with bleary confusion.

"Potter?" Malfoy asked and Harry felt himself lock up.

What the hell am Idoing here? This was stupid! It was weird! It was totally and utterly irrational!

"I... er..." Harry stuttered, feeling more and more like an idiot for being here.

"What are you doing here?" Malfoy muttered as his hand came up and he rubbed it over his face sleepily and then through his tousled blond hair.

"I..." think of something! 'I was worried and wanted to make sure you were alright' – NO! That's stupid and weird! Think of something else! "I just... I wanted to talk to you about the... er... the Veela thing."

Malfoy's eyes widened and darted around the room in an almost panic for a moment before glaring angrily at Harry and pushing himself into a sitting position, propped up against his pillows.

"I – "

"No! Be quiet!" Malfoy hissed as he reached over onto the night stand and grabbed his wand. He looked around cautiously again before casting what Harry was fairly sure was a privacy spell of some sort. "Pull the screen over so no one can see us," Malfoy grumbled as he shifted himself around a bit more, trying to get comfortable. Harry did as directed and came back to the side of Malfoy's bed just as the boy winced and pulled the blankets back on his leg a bit to examine it.

"Does it still hurt?" Harry asked, once again speaking before he could stop himself.

"Of course it does. I was mauled by a great mad beast and dragged down a filthy tunnel in it's jaws," Malfoy snapped and Harry ducked his head, not sure what to say or do. He felt guilty for some reason, but it really wasn't his fault. If anything it was Pettigrew's or Sirius', and loosely, one could maybe point the finger at Ron for having the rat in the first place and bringing it to the school, but he could hardly have known who Scabbers really was. And yet Harry couldn't stop the irrational pit inside him that blamed himself for not being able to save Malfoy from being barreled over and dragged off by Sirius in the first place.

"Sorry," he mumbled and Malfoy looked at him with narrowed, suspicious eyes.

"What for? Not like it was actually your fault," he muttered eventually, looking away.

Harry looked up at him, somehow surprised by the response.

"So you wanted to discuss the 'veela thing'? Malfoy drawled in annoyance, abruptly changing the subject.

"Er, yeah. Right. So I mean... you're one too, right?"

"I most certainly am not!" Malfoy snapped defensively.

Harry blinked at him, taken aback by the response. "But er.."

"But what?"

"But you smell like one," Harry said helplessly and shrugged his shoulders.

Malfoy's eyes widened and his face went slack before his head suddenly bowed, chin touching his chest and he heaved a heavy sigh. "Please don't say that," he whispered, almost desperately.

"Malfoy, what's the deal?" Harry asked, frustrated. "I mean, if you're not a Veela, then what are you?"

"I'm human! I'm a human, pure-blood wizard!" he growled, desperately.

"You don't smell like a pure-blood human," Harry said pointedly.

"I bet my father would," he said, bitterly.

"Your father would, what?"

"Smell human."

"Malfoy, I really don't follow you on this. What are you talking about!"

Malfoy growled out an annoyed sort of huff before sinking back into his wall of pillows stacked up at the headboard.

"My great-great grandfather, was a full-Veela," Malfoy said in a very quiet voice that Harry had to strain to hear. My grandmother, who was only one-quarter veela, showed some of the traits, but she had strict control over them before she met my grandfather, Abraxas Malfoy. No one in our circles had the faintest clue that she had any... impurities, in her line, and my grandfather loved her, so he ignored the fault. My father was only one-eighth veela and never exhibited any of the signs. Being only one-sixteenth, it was expected that it would pass me by as well. I shouldn't... I'm not..."

"But it hasn't," Harry stated simply and Malfoy cringed.

"It would appear," Malfoy sneered slowly and derisively, "that while my father's veela traits were recessive, they were still there and passed on to me."

"And in you, they're not turning out to be nearly so recessive. Surely you've known this was coming for a long time, though. I mean, you've had to have been setting things on fire since you were a kid."

Malfoy turned his head and glared angrily at Harry. "I don't need you to rub it in!"

"I'm hardly rubbing it in. I don't see why you're so bothered by this. It's not something to be ashamed of!"

"It means I'm not normal. I'm not entirely human! I'm some sort of beast!"

"You can't seriously believe that!" Harry shouted angrily.

"How can I believe anything else? I mean, look at what you turned into last night! Some kind of giant bird-monster!"

"Hey! I happen to find it kind of majestic! And besides, it's absolutely brilliant to be able to fly without a broom."

Malfoy just gaped at him.

"And it's not like I mentally change into some kind of crazed monster when I transform," Harry pressed on stubbornly. "I'm still me. My mind and my ability to think and act isn't altered at all. Not like a werewolf's is. Only my body is transformed; I can fly and I've got really wicked claws and even Ididn't realize how strong I was in that form till last night. My vision is beyond description. I can see everything and it's all so clear! We can see ultraviolet light in addition to red, green, and blue, and it's crazy how much extra stuff is hidden in that spectrum. Did you know that feathers have patterns that are only visible in the ultraviolet light spectrum? Oh, and I can see magnetism! And I always know which way is north."

"Like some kind of bloody animal!" Malfoy snarled.

"It's an advantage!" Harry yelled back. "How is someone who can wield elemental fire without a wand, inferior to a wizard! It makes us stronger! I makes us better, if anything!" Harry exclaimed before clamping his mouth shut rather quickly and trying to stomp out the guilt of voicing that secret thought aloud.

"You think we're better?" Malfoy whispered hesitantly, and Harry met his eyes and saw something akin to hope there, rather than the shame he'd seen there before.

Harry mentally fumbled for a moment, warring between saying what he thought was the right or proper thing to say, and what part of him honestly believed, which just happened to not be the most politically correct viewpoint, if he were being honest with himself. Finally, it was the worried, hope, warring with self-loathing, in Malfoy's eyes that made the decision for him. Part of him didn't like this particular way of thinking, and yet another part of him secretly believed it, and he knew it would appeal to Malfoy and his prideful ego.

"We're stronger and faster than them, and we can fly of our own power," he began quietly. "Even without completely transforming, we can make partial use of some of our advantages. Look at me – I'm not wearing glasses, am I?"

Malfoy seemed to blink with a sudden realization and he narrowed his gaze at Harry speculatively.

"You weren't wearing them last night either," he realized.

"No, I don't need them now. At least, not when I've got a partial transformation active, like I do now. Just my eyes, and only a portion of it, but it's enough. My vision is incredible. I can see for miles, and so many colors! Not to mention how wide my peripheral vision range is. No human-wizard can see as well as I can right now. No human-wizard could stand toe-to-toe against a werewolf and come out without a scratch. And if I ever find himself in a pinch and someone disarms me, or someone captures me and takes my wand away, I won't be defenseless.

"Even without transforming, I can wield magic wandlessly. Magic like this," Harry said as he raised his hand, palm up, and focused for a moment. Suddenly a blue fiery form began to emerge from his hand, as if it were the surface of a lake. The form looked almost like some sort of water-serpent, or a leviathan. It's head was adorned with a crest of blue flames, and it even had a mouth that it opened and almost appeared to roar, sending even more blue flames licking outwards.

The blue fire-serpent twirled and coiled through the air, and Malfoy was transfixed by it's visage before him. His jaw was hanging open with unconcealed awe. Harry had been working on this all year long and was quite proud of the extent of the control he'd mastered over it.

"I didn't know you could do that with it," he whispered, his eyes still trained on the magical serpent of fire.

"Have you practiced with your fire much?" Harry asked, keeping the serpent coiling in the air and then having it start to coil its way around his forearm. It was warm, but it's flame couldn't hurt it's creator, so he wasn't nervous.

Malfoy shook his head shakily, still watching the flames. "Father always scolded me whenever I started fires," he whispered. "He trained me to control it just enough to make sure I never used it on accident. It was a shameful thing in our home. I wasn't supposed to use lesser magic like that. The magic of some sort of creature," he trailed off, sounding bitter.

Harry scoffed angrily. "People who think that Veela are lesser creatures, just have an inferiority complex," he spat.

Malfoy's eyes finally snapped away from the flaming serpent and up to Harry's face, looking confused.

"Inferiority complex?" he echoed incredulously.

"Yeah, that's right," Harry said, defiantly. "Deep down inside, they know that creatures like Veela have a power that they never can. A power that's beyond their reach; that's more powerful than they are. We don't need the crutch of a wand to use our natural magic, but we can still use one and perform wizard magic perfectly. We get both. You take away a wizards wand and what is he? No different than a muggle. But not us. We can do this-" he emphasized by suddenly turning the blue calmly coiling serpent into a huge raging ball of bright red and yellow flames that shifted from tear-drop in shape, into a spiral, and then splitting off into tiny balls that he sent sailing through the air across the partitioned off space around Malfoy's bed like arrows before he had them suddenly stop and disappear into a poof of smoke.

"Whoa," he heard Malfoy whisper under his breath.

"They're afraid of this power, just like muggles are afraid of the power of wizards. It's a magic they can't control or tame, and so they label it as unnatural, or inferior, or freakish," Harry said, in a low, bitter voice as he let the last of the flames fade away into nothing. "They try to make themselves feel better by claiming that they're superior because of their purity of blood, or something else equally arbitrary and fundamentally meaningless. Something that they can latch onto to sooth their wounded ego. And then they pass on those biases and bigotry to their children, who are taught to believe it from birth without ever thinking about it for themselves or using their own powers of observation to stop and actually look and think about what they can see with their own eyes.

"It's fear. It's a lack of understanding. It's bitter, jealous contempt. But it's not true. You're not inferior because you ended up with dominant veela genes. Your better for it. It makes you stronger, not inferior. But only if you master it."

Malfoy was looking at Harry now with shocked wonder on his face. "I'm better," Malfoy whispered, and the corners of his mouth turned up slightly and his eyes gleamed with something new and different. It wasn't just the normal arrogant pride Harry often saw in Malfoy, or had expected to see along with the statement 'I'm better' – it was something different entirely. It was almost like Harry was watching Malfoy heal, right before his eyes, from some old, painful, wound. Then he smirked. "My father's jealous. He didn't get this power, but I did. I got something he can never have, even though he had even more right to it by birth than I did." But then Malfoy paused, frowned and his eyes clouded over with self-doubt again.

"But what if I can't do any of that stuff?" he asked, quietly, looking down into his sheet covered lap. "I'm only one-sixteenth veela. That's like nothing. I shouldn't have gotten any veela traits at all. It doesn't even make sense."

Harry shook his head. "It doesn't work like that with the veela traits. It's all or nothing. They can remain dormant for generations of breeding with humans and still crop up seemingly by random chance. And when they do, you've got it all. It's not just a little bit here and there. Either their dominant and you get the veela traits, or it's recessive and you get nothing."

"How can you be sure?" Malfoy asked, skeptically.

Harry frowned and looked away, seriously questioning his own sanity for what he was considering doing. At this point, the only people that he'd told of his secret were Ron, Hermione, and sort of Sirius Black. And here he was, legitimately considering telling Draco Malfoy, of all people.

He let out a heavy sigh, hoping he wasn't making a monumental mistake.

"Can you keep this a secret? For real, I mean. Don't even tell your father. No one. Got it?"

Malfoy seemed to waver for a moment of indecision before coming to a decision and nodding his head. "Fine. Not even my father. Do you want an oath?"

"Oath?"

Malfoy rolled his eyes dramatically as if he were seriously put-upon by Harry's lack of knowledge.

"Merlin, Potter, you weren't seriously just going to take me at my word were you? An oath, you know a magical oath. Not something as extreme as an unbreakable vow – besides we'd need a bonder to do that, anyway. Just a simple wizards oath. If I break the oath, something nasty happens to me."

"What sort of something?" Harry asked.

"It's determined by magic," Malfoy said dismissively. "It's said that magic will determine the most appropriate punishment for the crime, and it seems to be true. I've heard stories of some truly awful things happening to people who broke magical oaths, but also some seemingly small and silly things happening. It depends on the crime and the size of the breech in trust."

"Oh... Okay," Harry said, still not entirely getting how magic was to determine the punishment, but accepting it was still probably true.

"You've got to be careful of the wording of an oath," Malfoy said, slipping into something of a lecture-slash-haughty tone. He pulled his wand back out and held it in his fist, end pointing directly up. "I, Draco Lucian Malfoy, do hereby swear a wizards oath that I will not reveal to anyone else through intentional means or deception, that which Harry Potter is about to relay to me with the intention of secrecy, until such a time when he releases me from my oath, or provides exception to discuss it with any specifically denoted individuals. So mote it be."

A flash of light burst from his wand before it settled back down into the quiet calm of moments earlier.

"Wow. Language was a bit flowery though, don't you think?"

"You've got to be proper about these sorts of things, Potter," Malfoy said haughtily.

Harry felt the corner of his mouth turning up in amusement and it nearly shocked him. There was a time that he was sure that a remark like that from Malfoy would have just annoyed the shit out of him, and yet here he was finding it mildly amusing.

He shoved the weird thought deep down and pressed on.

"Alright well... okay so I'm a quarter veela –"

"A quarter? Seriously? But how? The Potter's certainly weren't Veela and neither were the Blacks! I'd know if they were, that's for sure, so how the hell are you a quarter veela?"

"I – wait, what do the Blacks have to do with it?"

"Your grandmother was Dorea Black. Surely you know that?" Malfoy exclaimed in an exasperated tone.

Harry just gaped at him and slowly shook his head. "No... I... I didn't. But, it's not like I even really know much about Sirius Black until yesterday. All I knew was that he was my dad's best mate."

"Yeah, well they were also something like second-cousins once-removed or whatever. It's been years since my mum made me study the Black family book of names. But I know that Dorea Black married Charlus Potter. They weren't able to have kids for ages, apparently, and everyone assumed that the Potter line was going to die out because of it, but late in life, they had their son James and spoiled him rotten. He was supposed a real brat and that's why Severus hated him so much. They were bitter rivals in school."

"Wait, whoa, whoa – what?" Harry exclaimed, feeling suddenly very overwhelmed.

"Honestly, Potter. Don't you know anything about your family history?"

"Not my dad's side, apparently," Harry said, pulling a chair over and sinking into it rather numbly.

"So where the hell does the Veela come from?"

"My mum."

"I thought your mother was a mu – muggleborn?"

"That's what she and everyone else thought for years, but it's not true. Her parents that raised here were both muggles, but the man she grew up calling dad wasn't actually her father. Her mother had an affair with a very attractive French diplomat one summer while her husband was out of the country or something. Turns out that diplomat was actually a veela. He tried to make contact with my mum when she was younger, but my grandmother was ashamed of what she'd done and tried to keep him out of my mum's life. It wasn't until my mum was older and going to Hogwarts that he finally contacted her in secret and told her the truth. She needed to be warned so she could prepare for physical maturity and all the craziness that comes with it."

"So you mum was half Veela and no one knew it?" Malfoy exclaimed in shock.

"That's right. My grandfather had been trying to get in contact with me since my parents died, but Dumbledore blocked him at every turn and lied to keep me here in Britain. We figure he was afraid if my grandfather got custody of me, he'd take me to France and that would be the last that Britain ever heard of me. I would have ended up going to Beauxbatons along with all my cousins. As it is, all of the transfer paperwork is prepared and can be sent at the drop of a hat, should something happen here and I need to make a run for it."

"You're really serious?" Malfoy gasped and Harry nodded seriously.

"I am. There's a lot of shifty stuff that Dumbledore has done to me, that I've discovered since last summer, and it makes me and my whole family really nervous. When I was five years old and my accidental veela magic started causing a bunch of fires, Dumbledore actually took me away for a day and performed a magic binding ritual! He even leftitthere, even after I started Hogwarts. My grandfather had a specialist come in last summer and remove it."

"Binding! That's disgusting! How dare he? Is that why you got so much better in class this year? Because your magic was bound before?"

"Yup," Harry said with a sharp nod, and fighting the smile that wanted to break across his face at Malfoy having noticed the improvement in spellwork.

"I already hated the barmy old coot, but even I never suspected him of doing something like this. It's criminal, you know! You should have him up on charges!"

"But there's no proof," Harry said, shaking his head. "And he's got too much influence."

"He hasn't got nearly as much influence as you might think," Malfoy said, tipping his nose up arrogantly.

"Yeah, well anyway – right now I'd like to just keep my nose down for as long as I can manage. So far, it seems like he still hasn't noticed that I'm no longer living with my muggle relatives, but who knows how long that will last. I think he's keeping his head sort of buried in the sand so that he can have deniability should it ever come to light how my relatives treated me. My grandfather figures that's the only way we've managed this long without drawing his notice. Either that or he has noticed, and he's just keeping quiet about it and waiting for the right moment to act, which, well... honestly kind of scares me. I won't feel calm about the whole thing until I get to France next week, safe and sound."

"So you're living with your grandfather in France now?" Malfoy asked sounding both incredulous and impressed at the same time.

"Yes. In the capitol of the Veela Nation, Iledevol. I've lived with them since last summer. I went back to visit them over the holidays too. My grandfather's chateaux is where I started to learn about my fire control and my transformation and meditations. I didn't know a single thing until last summer. In fact, since my magic was sealed away before that, everything I've managed now, I've managed in less than a year. If you started working on it, you could probably do much the same as I've managed in about the same amount of time... although, I did have a tutor last summer, and without one, you'd probably have a harder time of it. I mean... assuming you wanted to learn any of it."

Malfoy looked thoughtful for a moment and nodded. "I can manage, I think. I can probably even get myself a tutor and keep it under my parents noses, if I'm cunning enough about it."

"Really?" Harry said dubiously.

"Assuming the person has other credentials for teaching besides just being someone who coaches Veela, I can always mask his hire under some other pretense. I have pretty much total control over selecting my tutors each summer now. Father is much to busy to pay them much attention, and mother doesn't care as long as I'm happy with them."

Harry was slightly surprised for a moment before rolling his eyes at himself. Of course Malfoy would get whatever the hell he wanted from his parents. He was Malfoy.

"I can ask my grandfather for some suggestions," Harry offered with a shrug. "He probably knows who some of the best tutors are."

Malfoy just nodded his head in silent acceptance of the offer.

The pair were quiet for a moment, each seemingly lost in their own thoughts. Harry's mind was mostly mulling over the brief revelation Malfoy had let out earlier and finally he spoke up.

"So Snape hates me because he hated my dad?" Harry asked.

Malfoy just looked at him with an utterly dumbfounded expression. "You seriously didn't know that already?"

"No! I've never been able to work out why he hates me so damn much! I mean, he's definitely said things like 'arrogant just like his father' and all that rubbish, but I didn't realize that was the real crux behind him hating me so much."

"According to my father, your father was little more than a bully who was always getting special treatment from the teachers because he was a favorite of theirs. He tormented Severus from the day they met on the Hogwarts express as first years."

"Why do you call him Severus?" Harry asked, his mind latching onto that rather than deal with the gut wrenching concept of his father being a 'bully'.

"He's my godfather," Malfoy answered simply and Harry's jaw dropped. "He and my father were good friends at Hogwarts, although my father was older than Severus, of course."

"Your godfather? For real?"

"Of course. Why would I lie about that?"

"And... and my father was really a... a bully?" Harry asked hesitantly.

Malfoy opened his mouth to respond but seemed to hold himself back at the last minute before sighing and looking away.

"I really don't know, Potter. I'm sure that whatever your father dished out, Severus gave back just as hard. They were rivals or something. I imagine it might have been something like how you and I were always at each others' throats first and second year. Mother said that Severus was friends with your mother, even before they started at Hogwarts, and your dad didn't like that because Severus was a Slytherin. They fought over her and your father was the one who won in the end. He's probably bitter over that, more than some schoolyard rivalry. Your dad got the girl, and you're the living proof that he lost."

"You can't be serious!" Harry exclaimed, horrified by the mere thought of Snape fancying his mum.

Malfoy shrugged. "That's what I heard. Obviously I wasn't there," he said with an over-dramatic eye roll and a drawl.

"Snape liked my mum?" Harry said, more quietly this time, but still incredulous.

"He's really not that bad. Okay, well, yes he is, if you're you. He hates you. But he's nice to me."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Lucky you," he said, sarcastically. "Of course he likes you, you're his godson."

Malfoy just gave an unapologetic shrug. "Well, you've got your own godfather now. Of course he's a wanted prison-escapee, but I suppose it's better than nothing."

Harry nodded, looking thoughtful again. His mind still hadn't completely wrapped itself around this idea of him having a godfather. He'd already known, of course, but before he'd thought Black was a traitor and a murderer. Now he knew he was innocent.

"And I'm related to him," Harry whispered with dawning shock.

"Distantly, but yes." Draco paused in thought, scrunching up his face a bit. "Let's see... Sirius Black's mother was Walburga Black, and her father was Pollux. Pollux was Dorea's brother. And Dorea was James Potter's mother. So that's first-cousin-once-removed, right?"

"Hell if I understand any of that," Harry said, shaking his head dumbly. Malfoy rolled his eyes.

"Because James Potter was born so late in Dorea's life, he's not actually at the same level of the tree as Sirius Black was. You are. So you and Sirius are second cousins."

"Didn't you say that Sirius Black was something like an uncle to you?"

"Well, not literally.Sirius Black and my mother are cousins. So I've got the same relation to Sirius Black does, that he had to your father. We're pretty much in the exact same position on the tree."

"So you and I are related?" Harry said, and something deep inside him didn't like that idea for some reason.

Malfoy scoffed. "It's such a distant relation, it barely means anything. I mean, we're like third-cousins once removed or something like that. We barely share any blood at all. I'm more closely related to Bulstrode, and I definitely don't consider her a part of the family."

"I'm related to Millicent Bulstrode!" Harry choked.

"Potter! Malfoy scolded in exasperation. "We're from old pureblood lines, what do you expect? Merlin, don't be such a dolt. If you want to get technical, you're also related to two of your dorm mates."

"Huh?"

"Longbottom and the Weasel."

"No way!" Harry exclaimed in shock. "How so?"

"It's not like I've go the whole family tree memorized. But I know that the Prewetts are on there, and so is a Longbottom. And that's just from the Blacks. Who knows what families the Potter's intermarried with."

"Prewetts?"

"Weasel's mother was a Prewett."

"Oh." Harry paused and then pinned Malfoy with an annoyed glare. "Do you have to call him that?"

"If he stops calling me Ferret, I'll stop calling him Weasel," Malfoy said in a falsely sweet voice that made Harry snort. Yeah, that was going to happen.

Harry sighed and the pair fell into quiet again. Harry couldn't help but wonder if Ron had any idea that they might be related somehow. Or Neville for that matter.

"Hey, do you know if there's any way I can find out about the Potter genealogy? Or even look at the Black family tree thing you mentioned?"

"Well, because my mother was a Black before she married my father, she had her own copy of the Black Family Book of Names, and that's what she made me study from. Your family should have had a Potter one as well, but I have no idea what could have happened to something like that. Your godfather might know. Or Professor Lupin, I suppose, since he was apparently your father's friend as well."

Harry hummed and nodded his head slowly, still not entirely sure what, if anything, he could do on the subject. Finally he just shrugged it off. He was only vaguely curious, really. He had a huge family, after all. A year ago, he would have leapt at the remote possibility that he held some slight relation to the Weasley's, but at this point it seemed so distant a relation, it was hardly relevant in comparison to his grandfather, uncles, aunts, and cousins.

Harry looked back at Malfoy, still sitting in bed, propped up against a small mountain of pillows and looking entirely bored.

"So how long are you stuck here for?" Harry asked.

"Not much longer. My parents are coming later to take me home to see our personal healer."

"You're leaving?" Harry exclaimed.

"Well, I finished all of my exams and there are no more classes. It seems pointless for me to spend the next few days at the school, especially if I'm laid up in the hospital," he drawled in an obvious tone. "Our hired Healer will be far more capable of tending to me than the school's medi-witch, and my recovery will be quicker that way as well. Also, I could hardly stand the ride back on the train as I am. How dreadful!"

"Yeah... yeah, I guess so. With no more classes, there really is no point in you hanging around here any longer," Harry admitted hesitantly. "So when will they be here?"

"It should be soon, actually," Malfoy said frowning as he pulled out his wand again and cast a tempus. His eyes widened at the sight of the time. "Very soon. You ought to leave, Potter."

"Huh? Why?"

"How the hell am I supposed to explain to my father why you, of all people, would be here visiting me in the hospital wing? I don't think you need me to tell you that he doesn't exactly likeyou."

"Oh... yeah. Good point."

Malfoy rolled his eyes exaggeratedly.

"So I guess I'll go then," Harry said, haltingly, and feeling oddly disappointed that he had to go and that he wouldn't be seeing Malfoy again for months. Howutterlyabsurd! "I'll write to my grandfather tonight and ask him to look up some British tutors who can tutor a veela, but who also have other credentials, and send you the list, yeah?"

"They don't necessarily have to be British – I've had a French tutor once, and and an Italian tutor, but that was actually for the language, so it was easier to cover for."

"Do you speak French?"

"Of course. We have family in France. And even if we are greatly estranged from them, we do still visit our French villa every few summers. I was taught French and Latin since I was young."

"Oh, darn. I thought we could cover it up by pretending you had an interest in learning French."

"I could always say I wanted a refresher," Malfoy said with a slight shrug. "The instructor would need to be good in other areas as well, of course, but I could say I chose a French tutor, specifically, because I wanted an opportunity to work on my French again. It's been years, after all."

"Alright. That might work then. I'll tell my grandfather that French tutors are okay too, so long as they've still got more specialties than just dealing with Veela." Harry finished with an accomplished smile. Feeling oddly excited by the prospect of exposing someone else from his life at Hogwarts, to his other 'secret' world of Veela. It was sort of exhilarating to think that he was going to giving someone else their first real glimpse into the world that he'd only just discovered a year prior and quickly fallen in love with.

It wouldn't be the same, of course. Malfoy was just getting a tutor and finally starting to learn about his Veela abilities and heritage. He would actually be going to the Veela Nation. But there was still something rousing about the whole idea of it.

"Alright. You'd best go. They'll be here soon."

"Right. I guess I'll... see you in September, then."

"Right," Malfoy replied awkwardly.

"Right. Well... bye." Harry stood up and started to make his way, jerkily to the dividing screen.

"Potter!"

"Hmm?" Harry paused and turned back to look at Malfoy curiously.

"Just... thank you."

"It's not a problem. I kind of like the idea of having someone else at Hogwarts who knows about all this veela stuff. Besides, you'll need to learn about it all so you're prepared when your allure kicks in."

Malfoy's eyes went wide with sudden realization at the mention of that, but he quickly pushed the thought aside. "Not just that," he said rather impatiently. "I meant for... well, when Black dragged me off, you just ran right after me without a second thought. You could have just left, or run off and gotten one of the professors to deal with it instead, but you didn't. And when Lupin turned into that great homicidal beast you stayed behind and kept him distracted so we could escape. I... I think it's pretty much a given that you've paid for that life debt."

"Oh..."

"So... thanks."

Harry nodded his head dumbly, not sure what to say. He'd never really been any good at accepting gratitude. Mostly because he got such praises so rarely. "Yeah, well... um... you're welcome, I guess."

"Right."

"We're back to this again, are we?"

Malfoy rolled his eyes. "Just get out of he you dumb prat."

Harry found himself grinning at that. The words hadn't had the usual bit that Harry had come to associate with Malfoy insulting him. The words almost sounded sort of fond.

"See ya around, Malfoy. Have a good summer," Harry called out as he pushed the partition aside and began to make his way out of the hospital wing. He felt the privacy ward break as he passed through it and just as he was pulling open the large heavy double-doors, he heard the other boy faintly say, "Youtoo," before he passed out into the hall and left the other boy behind him.

– –