Disclaimer: Hope everyones enjoying their Christmas, or having just a nice day, if they don't celebrate Christmas. Anyway, i think you all know by now that I don't own Harry Potter, or his fellow characters, just the plot. Sorry for any spelling mistakes and grammar issues, and I promise, that no matter how similar it is to any other authors, the writing is my own. Now let's see is Harry and the others are having as nice of a Christmas Eve, as we did last night (us people in the US.) Enjoy~
~Kuro
Last Time: The group of four went in the doors to Malfoys Manor.
Now: December 24, 1989, 6:27pm
Harry mentally gasped in awe. Tom had told him about purebloods and their wealth and money, but he wasn't prepared for this. The entrance hall alone must have cost the Malfoys, thousands to build and maintain.
The floors were a black obsidian, and the walls white marble. To his immediate right was a roaring fireplace and an immaculate fluffy rug. On the shelf above was an ornate pot, which Harry guessed contained Floo powder, one of the methods of transportation Tom had mentioned in their lessons.
Lining the walls were many portraits of people who bore a resemblance to Lucius and a few that had some of Narcissa's features. Cloaked in shadows at the very end of the enormous hall was a grand staircase between two glass doors that led to other parts of the manor.
"This is the Entrance Hall where we welcome guests to Malfoy Manor, when we hold balls and galas. The portraits on the walls are our ancestors, who have been silenced only in this part of the house for convenience's sake." Lucius introduced.
Silenced? Harry questioned mentally. Ah! Tom had said something before about how portraits were able to move between other portraits and speak.
"This way, Harry, my lord." He gestured towards the grand staircase.
Walking up the stairs directed to, Harry blanked his face, and collected his calm. The party of four walked into what seemed to be a parlor. The light green colored room, was much warmer than the grand entrance hall. A light brown round table in the middle of the room held a vase of roses. Circled around the table was a sofa, armchair and loveseat, all done in shades of cream. Covering the floor was a soft baby blue rug. On the opposite wall was another fireplace, and a shadowed doorway.
"Sit. Make yourselves at home." Narcissa welcomed She and Lucius took the love seat and Tom sat down elegantly on the armchair, leaving the sofa to Harry. An awkward silence pushed in.
"Do you want to stay with us, Harry? I can't imagine that you would want to return to the muggles, but.." Narcissa trailed off.
"I would like to, if it proves no burden on you." Harry accepted gratefully. A gentle smile gracing his face.
Both Malfoys stifled their shock. It was the first time they had seen Harry's angelic smile up close, and it almost erased their memory of his bloodstained smile while torturing that muggle. His smile was so pure, it was as if he had no ideas about the different types of predators lurking around in the world, that would gladly pounce on that pureness and wreck it.
Lord Voldemort was close to letting emotion show in his eyes, but his iron will managed to close off any emotion in time. He had witnessed Harry's smile many times over the memories that Kindness had, but it was nothing compared to the physically version. He killed all of his unnecessary thoughts and cleared his throat.
"Lucius, search into any methods that will allow you to adopt Harry legally into the Malfoy family. There should be a clause in the laws about abusive parents that is rarely used, if not go to the goblins. They should be able to give some help. Make sure to be discreet as you do so. We cannot let the old fool suspect anything until it is too late for him." Voldemort ordered, his voice stern.
"Yes, my lord." Lucius replied diligently.
"Check the Potter will." Harry spoke up. All the heads turned toward him. "I don't think that my parents would have left me with h Dursleys on purpose. Dumbledore may have meddled with the wills using his positions as Headmaster and Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot."
Voldemort nodded slowly, his ruby eyes calculating. "Yes, Lucius, Narcissa take Harry to Gringotts tomorrow, find out what you can and buy him the necessities of a son of the Malfoy house and the heir of House Potter. For tonight you and Narcissa, relax. You two have done well in finding Harry. I will retire to my study for now."
"You're staying here too, Tom?" Harry's voice cut through, a smile on his face.
The Malfoys stiffened in apprehension. They didn't wish to see Harry in pain, but they wouldn't be able to do anything if their lord turned his wand on Harry for being overly familiar.
"It's Vold… yes, I'm staying here as well." Voldemort's icy ruby eyes softened the slightest fraction when they landed on Harry. He started walking towards Harry. "Take care to not ruin the Malfoy reputation, and I expect you to study more about magic and etiquette while you are here, alright?" Without waiting for a confirmation, he leant down and softly kissed Harry's forehead. "I expect you to be great." He whispered softly, breath trailing along Harry's ear.
Standing up abruptly, Voldemort said, "I'll see you all at dinner."
"Yes, my lord." The Malfoys replied. "Dinner will be at nine." Narcissa added in.
"Good." Voldemort left the parlor from the door behind Harry's sofa.
"Narcissa, can you show Harry around, I have some documents in my study that need to be sent off by dinner time?" Lucius asked his wife.
"Of course, go ahead, I'll see you at dinner time then." Narcissa replied.
"Well, Harry, my son Draco is about your age. He'll be coming back soon, so why don't we wait for him and then he can take you on a tour of the manor? Narcissa said softly.
"Sure." Harry replied. "Thank you for having me, Narcissa."
"It's no problem at all Harry." Narcissa smiled warmly. "I hope to have you as part of the family. Here, these are the books that you dropped, while you were running. I dried them for you." she held out a stack of book, the one thing, Harry had bothered to keep from the Dursleys house.
"Thank you," Harry said gratefully. These were the books he had worked on ever since he had decided to not hold back and skipped grades. Some of them contained his knowledge about what magic Tom had told him about, the others were all about the knowledge he had gained from the Muggle world. He wondered if would have the chance to continue his education in muggle topics.
All of a sudden the fireplace roared to life, cutting off Harry's thoughts. The fire turned emerald green and leapt higher than before. At the same time, a ghostly white doe manifested into the room.
"I'm sending Draco over by floo, Narcissa. Have a good night." A deep tenor seemed to be speaking through the ghostly thing.
Narcissa smiled softly. "Prompt as always."
Harry wondered who she was talking to. Surely not the silvery creature. And yet the creature, harry figured was a doe, seemed to give off an unheard snort, and its eyes clearly gave off the message of 'what else did you expect'.
The fireplace spit out a boy that looked to be around half a head taller than Harry, and then went back to its normal yellow-orangish glow.
"Mother!" the boy exclaimed, after dusting the ash and soot off of himself. He walked over and hugged his mother tightly. "Who is this, mother?", the boy asked seemingly having noticed Harry for the first time.
The boy seemed to be observing him, so Harry reciprocated. The boy was, no doubt, Narcissa and Lucius' son. He had pale blonde hair, and blue-gray eyes, which were looking at him in curiosity and suspicion. He was taller than Harry by just a bit and held himself high, with a grace that seemed to have been taught.
"This is Harry, Draco. Harry, this is my son Draco." Narcissa introduced. "Draco, Harry will be staying with us from now on. Lucius is trying to get Harry legally adopted. Harry's been through a lot, so you need to take care of him as an older brother alright?"
"Yes mother." was Draco's short response, but if anything, Draco seemed to be scrutinizing him more.
"Draco, can you take Harry on a tour of the manor? His room will be one across from you. Show him to the shower afterwards, and lend him pair of your clothes for tonight, would you. We will go shopping for more clothes tomorrow." Narcissa asked, hoping that the two boys would get along. She knew that Draco had been spoiled by her and Lucius being the only child, but deep down, he would accept Harry being a part of the family as well. Maybe.
Draco silently nodded and reached for Harry's hand tugging him out of the door. "See you at dinner, mother." he said as he and Harry disappeared around the corner.
"So…. How do you know mother and father?" Draco starting questioning Harry as soon as he was sure he was out of his mother's hearing range. He stared at the slim and petite boy. His emerald green eyes looked blank, and Draco couldn't read his face. The boy's face was quite aristocratic, like his own, with a developing jaw line, high lose, and full pouty red lips. From what Draco had seen of his movements, he had innate grace, and moved with an elegance that made Draco jealous. The boy definitely looked like a proper pureblood heir, but Draco had been introduced to, or taught about all the pureblood lines that were worth anything, and none of them had any children that looked like this. Nor did any heirs have parents who recently passed, and would need adoptive parents. So, he concluded, Harry must have been a halfblood, because, he didn't look related to any purebloods, and his parents would have never thought about taking in a muggleborn.
"I'm Harry." harry said softly, his voice melodical. "You're Draco, right? Nice to meet you." a small smile curling up the edges of his lips, at Draco's silent confirmation.
"Yes, but Harry what? Don't you have a last name?" Draco inquired.
"Hm, I guess I do." Harry mock mused.
Harry was being infuriating on purpose, Draco was sure of it. "Never mind, when's your birthday?"
"July 31. I'm the same age as you." came back Harry's response.
"Nope, I'm older, my birthdays on June 5th, so I'm older by two months. Let's finish the tour. Right now, we are in the west wing, where immediate family resides. The east wing is where we hold balls, and where we have guest bedrooms, sitting rooms, and parlors." He gestured to a room on his right. "Here is the kitchen, when mother feels like baking something- normally our food is prepared by our house elves."
House elves? Harry wondered. Right, Tom had mentioned about the creatures that liked to cook and clean in some magical families. He peered into the kitchen. The floor was white tiled and the wall opposite them contained a wide window with beautiful view of the snow covered grounds. It was a wide spacious room, with shiny marble countertops, and gleaming muggle appliances. There was a kitchen island table in the middle, styled like a bar counter, with some barstools.
"Over here is a private sitting room." came Draco's voice from further along in the hall, this time from a door to his left.
Harry caught up with him, not quite running. This room was done in a light mint green with a wooden table in the middle, and comfortable looking sofas on either side of the room. The windows were covered in thick drapes, and the floor was covered in a velvety rug.
"Come, let's go upstairs." Draco urged, pointing up at the staircase at the end of the hall. "The third floor is where the bedrooms and the library are."
Harry perked up at the word library and starting walking a bit more faster. He walked into the first doorway he saw when he emerged from the staircase.
"Wait, Harry don't go in there yet. One of the Malfoy's have to give you access to the library, otherwise you'll be rejected from the room!" Draco exclaimed, coming up just in time to see Harry disappear into the room. Draco had never actually seen the wards in action, but he assumed that the wards would let anyone into the room, judge if they had permission, and then either kick them out if they didn't, or let the person be if they did. He winced inwardly. Being ejected from the room and crashing into the wall outside wouldn't be comfortable, but it wouldn't be too hard on Harry, Draco hoped.
Yet moments passed and nothing happened. Reaching the doorway, Draco peered inside, hoping that the wards hadn't thrown Harry into something else that was more harmful. He gawked when he found Harry in the middle of the room, perfectly unharmed, and observing the Malfoy library. Perhaps his father has lied about the wards, it was either that, or Harry was able to disentangle the wards, but that seemed like the most far fetched conclusion he had ever made in his life. Someone of his age able to dismantle, or slip past wards, it was unthinkable. No, more likely that his father had lied, for one reason or a another.
Harry took in the sunlight bathed room. The Malfoy library was even bigger than Priory Leighwood's library, and that was saying something, as the library had to be stocked for a few hundred smart students. There was a full wall glass window, that was uncovered, letting the sum stream into the room, setting it alight with a brilliant glow. Where he was at presently was the center of the library were there was a clearing. Space had been made to set some comfortable armchairs, and throw rugs in a circle. On the side without a window, the wall was lined with hundreds of colorful books, all neatly arranged and dusted. To either side of the clearing were bookcases and bookcases, stretching toward the far off ceiling, each stocked to the brim with books. The library seemed to go on forever, and Harry grinned. The sheer number of books might actually be enough to give him a challenge for once. He had been bored in his school, too smart to stay in line with the curriculum, too smart for his classmates to prove much of a challenge for him. This library just might.
"Well, you've discovered the library I guess," Draco said breaking the silence. "Be more careful when you start poking your nose into unidentified rooms though. Father told me that there were wards to stop unwanted intruders from going in, the library but maybe it was another room."
"Wards? You mean that tingly feeling I got when I passed the doorway?" Harry puzzled.
"Yea.. Wait, what!? There were wards on this room then. How did you get in. did someone give you access to the library." Draco's face adopted a shocked expression.
"No, i just walked in." Harry said raising his eyebrows, wonder what was so astonishing. There had been a sort of poke when he had passed the doorway, but certainly anyone could break through, if those were the only wards that Draco was talking about.
"Well, come on then." Draco motioned for Harry to follow him. On the other side of the library, were multiple doorways, all neatly spaced from each other. "These are the bedrooms for Malfoys, and related family. Mother told me that since you are being adopted by us, your room will be that one." Draco pointed to the blank white door, that mirrored the library door almost perfectly.
"Over here is my room." Draco said pointing to the door that they were currently standing in front of. It was another white door to the left of the library doors, and closer to the staircase that they had arrived from.
"There is mother's and father's room." Draco continued, pointing to the doorway, all the way at the end of the hallway. "The door between your room and my parents' is the guest bedroom, when we have relatives over. If guests stay the night, and they aren't related, they are put in the east wing."
"Mother wants you to wash up for dinner. Right now, we have a guest over, so you have to polite to him." Draco began steering Harry into his room. "Here you can wear some of my clothes for tonight because we'll go shopping tomorrow for you. All the bedrooms in this wing have an attached closet, and bathroom, so you can wash up in your room. For now, just come here."
Draco pushed Harry into the center of the room, where Harry instantly caught the image of his figure in a full body mirror adorning the wall opposite him. The blood from his unplanned torture session, was nowhere to be seen, so he assumed he had subconsciously erase traces of the mess. That must be why, Draco hadn't freaked out yet. Either that, or he had an impossibly good mask, which might actually be true. Even though there was no blood, he still looked like a mess compared to the luxuriousness of his surroundings. He could definitely use a shower, staring at his dishevelled hair, and ragged clothes.
Harry lifted his eyes from the mirror and observed his surroundings. Draco's room was nothing like Dudley's had been- not that he wanted it to be. It was immaculate, and everything was orderly. The wallpaper was done in a baby blue, and the floor, slate gray. There was a bed pushed against the intersection formed by the front and left walls, and a window that offered a view of the snow covered grounds. Against the remaining portion of the left wall, was a large wooden desk, and some shelves containing books that had titles like Intro to Brewing, Charm Basics 101 and From Animal and Back.
Draco had disappeared into one of the doors on the right wall, the one closer to the window side. Harry assumed it was his closet, and that the other doorway led to the bathroom, based off of what Draco had said earlier.
"Here." Draco reappeared from the doorway holding a handful of clothes folded neatly. "You look a bit smaller than me, but they should fit for tonight. Wear these to dinner tonight." He pointed to a emerald green shirt, black skinny jeans, and black dragonhide boots. "Father is less strict about apparel when we don't have guests over, but he says that our guest is alright with not wearing robes inside the house. Then for breakfast tomorrow, wear this set. Draco pointed this time to a pair of of navy jeans, and dark gray shirt. "After breakfast, we'll probably start getting ready to go to gringotts, and Diagon Alley, so you have to change into robes. Father insists on retaining proper decorum in public, so…" Draco trailed off, holding out a set of extremely dark green robes and a black cloak.
Harry silently nodded his head. "I should go wash up now shouldn't i?"
"Yea. your doors just down a few feet from mine. Just call if you need help. I'll be in my room, and I'll take you down to the dining table, when it's time for dinner alright?" Draco asked, walking over to his desk.
"Alright. Thank you, Draco." Harry smiled, grateful that Draco didn't seem to hate him for taking away his position as only child of the Malfoy family.
"Sure, Harry." Draco turned in time to catch a glimpse of Harry's smile just before he left the room.
He was left gaping behind Harry's retreating figure. Maybe, his parents actually were persuaded to take him in- a smile like that would have the world falling over its feet to have that smile directed at it. People could be convinced to do anything in return for that smile. His soon to be brother, would be one beautiful person in the future. Ugh. he would have to be the protective big brother, wouldn't he? He shook his head sighing at himself, contemplating his day.
He had spent the morning at his godfather, Severus' house. Then he had ate lunch and came home as usual, but at home, his mother was waiting with a totally random boy, who would be adopted into the Malfoy family. He was prepared to hate the boy, for sweeping into his family, but Harry was slowly starting to grow on him. Fine- he was the chance to be a big brother, then he would be the best damn big brother in the world. After all, Malfoy's were always at their best no matter what happened.
Well, once again, I hope you all have a nice day, and spend it with your friends, family, and loved ones! Thanks to all those who read, reviewed and favorited- thanks to all of you for your support. See you next time.
~Kuro