Away and Back
by Teddylonglong
All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.
I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes.
Harry
"You're going to regret this," Lucius Malfoy threatened his son and was just about to cast a spell, when Harry reacted.
Quickly pulling his wand, he cast a strong Stunning spell at the older wizard, sighing in relief when the man crumpled to the ground.
"Accio Lucius Malfoy's wand," Harry said, quickly catching the approaching wand with his left hand.
Draco spun around. "What was that?" he wondered aloud.
Knowing that the other boy would not be able to hear or see him, Harry quickly waved Hermione over.
"Hi Draco, that was Harry," his best friend quickly explained to the Slytherin. "He didn't want your father to hurt you."
"Potter?" Draco asked, incredulously looking around. "Where's he?"
"You can't see him," Hermione explained. "He's under some kind of safety spell, but he was behind you and overheard your conversation with your father. He said to tell you thanks for supporting him."
"Oh well, that's what I told Father," Draco scoffed. "It doesn't mean that I'm going to do it."
"In any case, you better leave before your father…" Hermione interrupted herself, when Harry said, "Ask him if he's comfortable enough to return to his father's home. If he needs a place to stay, he's welcome to stay with us for the time being."
When Hermione repeated for Draco, the blond boy's eyes became wide like saucers. "Potter, can you hear me?" he enquired and, seeing Hermione nod in confirmation, continued, "if you really trust me not to harm any of you, I'd really appreciate it. I could stay at Fairy Alley, but Father would probably look for me here."
"Harry, are you really sure about that?" Hermione asked, eyeing her best friend in apparent concern.
"I believe that his conversation with his father was genuine, so, yes," Harry replied, nodding his head in affirmation. He had not been able to see the other boy's face while he had been taking to his father; however, he had very well realised from his composure how very much he was scared of the older wizard. 'He won't be able to really harm me let alone bring any Death Eaters into the manor,' he thought.
"Harry asks if the Veela is really your mother," Hermione enquired, causing Draco to stare at her in shock. "Well, as I said, he overheard your conversation."
"Yes, but, does it matter?" Draco asked.
"Of course not, Draco boy," the twins spoke up, simultaneously.
Harry realised that Draco had not even noticed his company until that moment.
"Sirius," he addressed his godfather. "I think Draco needs our help. Why don't we take him to Buckbean, while everyone else proceeds with our plan here? We'll all meet at home afterwards."
When Hermione repeated his words to Draco, the Slytherin agreed immediately.
"Even if you seem to not really be my cousin, Harry and I are going to help you," Sirius addressed the boy, before the three wizards left to head to Diagon Alley.
"Mr. Black, if you need proof as to where my loyalties lie, you can always ask Blaise Zabini," Draco told the older wizard. "He knows everything about me."
"Just call me Sirius," Sirius offered, "and if Harry trusts you, that's enough for me. He knows what he's doing."
Hermione
'I can't believe it,' Hermione thought, as Remus led Amelia, her and the twins to the Stretched Harp to look for some kind of information about travel imps. 'Draco Malfoy. Hell must have frozen over.'
"I just hope Harry really knows what he's doing," she whispered to Amelia, who was walking on her right side.
"Well, the conversation had to be genuine, since neither Draco nor his father seem to have noticed us," Amelia replied, pensively.
"And Malfoy cast the Silencing charm, so it's not as if they were having a conversation for us to hear," Hermione added, feeling strangely reassured by the older witch's words.
Finally, they reached the Stretched Harp and thoroughly skimmed the books about magical animals for some kind of information about travel imps, however, without any success.
"I'll just ask the shop owner," Hermione said in determination, ignoring the twins' comments, as she stepped over to the young wizard, who seemed to be in charge for the shop.
"Excuse me, sir," she addressed the man in a soft voice, "we're looking for information about travel imps. Do you have anything…" She slowly trailed off, as the shop keeper lightly shook his head.
"Probably not," he admitted. "What you're looking for is the 'Encyclopaedia of Magical Beings'; however, we don't have it anymore. You can only find it in second-hand bookshops."
Apparently noticing the silent plead in her questioning look, he continued, "When my father retired, he opened his own second-hand bookshop. It's called 'The Curved Harp', and it's situated right next to Bewley's in Cruise's Street. You know Bewley's, don't you?" he enquired.
"Yes, of course," Remus replied on Hermione's behalf, who did not question the older wizard's response, knowing that Remus knew Limerick quite well.
"Very well. It's behind an old fashioned, brown door with a small harp, similar to the sign of our shop here. For Muggles, it's not visible, but you can hardly miss it."
"Thank you so much," Hermione replied, eagerly.
"I can't guarantee that he has the book, but he'll be much more forthcoming if you tell him that I sent you," the shop owner advised them, informing them that his name was Cian O'Brien.
The small group thanked the shop owner and hurriedly left Fairy Alley.
Draco
'Am I dreaming?' Draco wondered, as he followed Sirius and an invisible Harry Potter into Gringotts.
'Maybe Father wouldn't really hurt me, considering that I'm his only heir,' he thought, worried that it was exaggerating to seek refuge with his school nemesis. 'But I don't want to be used for anything concerning the Dark Lord,' he reassured himself.
Sirius asked to meet Buckbean, assuring the goblin who greeted them that it would not take longer than two minutes, before they were led into an office, which Draco thought belonged to a goblin holding a fairly high position at the bank.
Buckbean seemed surprised to see a Malfoy in his office; however, Sirius explained the matter, and Buckbean addressed him in a relatively friendly voice.
"Mr. Malfoy," he said, "I'm going to cast a charm at you, which will enable you to see and hear Mr. Potter. Is that all right with you?"
"Yes please," Draco replied in a polite voice, causing the goblin to nod and quickly cast a spell.
An instant later, his former classmate came into view.
"Hi Draco," Harry said, extending a hand to him.
'Like I did at the beginning of our first year,' Draco recalled, before he quietly shook the other boy's hand.
"Thanks Potter," he said, quietly.
"It's all right," Harry replied, shrugging. He asked Buckbean for a small parchment and scribbled a few words down, before he handed the parchment to Draco.
It was the address of Potter Manor.
'It's in Ireland?' Draco thought, incredulously. 'I didn't know that. Probably Father doesn't know either.' A smirk crossed his face, as the parchment vanished into thin air.
"Let's go home and talk," Sirius suggested, and both boys nodded their agreement.
Harry
'I can't believe that I invited Draco Malfoy into Potter Manor,' Harry thought, when they took their seats in the living room after introducing Draco to Gina, asking the elf to have a room prepared for the boy near Harry's.
"Just to set a few ground rules," he hesitantly began to speak. "This is my ancestors' home, and I expect you to behave towards the portraits of my grandparents and great grandparents."
"I will," Draco assured him.
"If you need anything, you can call Gina or Dobby. You probably still remember him," Harry continued in a no-nonsense voice.
"Yes, I do," Draco replied without any emotion visible on his face.
"You will also remember Buckbeak," Harry continued, carefully observing the other boy's expression. "He was not killed, because we saved him and brought him to Potter Manor. He's residing in one of the stables and is allowed to freely roam our garden. If that's not acceptable for you, I suggest that you remain inside and not venture into the park behind the house."
"I understand," Draco said, nodding his understanding. "I'll be careful to not come near him."
"And the last rule is that you won't attack anyone here in our home, neither inside nor outside, and you will treat everyone equally, independently of their blood status," Harry continued in a no-nonsense voice.
"Agreed," Draco promised, letting out what seemed to be a sigh of relief.
"I wonder where the others are," Harry thought aloud, turning to Sirius.
"They're late," Sirius agreed, shrugging. "Maybe they found something interesting." Turning to Draco, he suggested, "Why don't you call Dobby and ask him to fetch some belongings from your home? In the meantime, Harry can show you to your room."
HP
It was almost dinner time, when Remus, Amelia, Hermione and the twins returned. Before Harry could ask what had taken them so long, his view fell onto the book which Hermione was carrying. It was a large tome, which somehow looked antique enough for him to wonder where they had bought it.
"Do they really sell old books like that at the Stretched Harp?" he asked, incredulously, causing Hermione to dive into a long monologue about the Curved Harp, a small second-hand bookshop a ten-minute walk from Fairy Alley.
"Now, I believe that it's late enough, so let's have dinner before doing so much as opening the book," Sirius interrupted the girl's tirade, much to the relief of everyone else.
"Considering that it's New Year's Eve…"
"… we still have the whole evening to read the book," the twins agreed, grinning.
Amelia
'During the next holidays, I'll bring Susan here,' Amelia thought, as she observed the young people interact with each other during dinner. They even acted with Draco Malfoy as if he had always been there. True, the boy was a bit shy for a Malfoy, 'but leave him a couple of hours in these twins' company, and he'll adjust,' she thought in amusement, when Sirius, who had been eager to try the desert, suddenly transformed into a yellow canary.
'I should question Draco about his father's intentions. They said something about Voldemort earlier,' she suddenly thought; however, not wanting to spoil New Year's Eve for anyone, she decided to put the matter off for a day or two.
As soon as the house-elves had cleared the table, Hermione placed the old tome right onto the dinner table and began to look for travel imps.
"Here," she blurted out in clear excitement, "is a whole entry about travel imps."
She skimmed the writing, before she began to read. "It is rarely known that travel imps are the managers of the Knight Bus. Sitting in the wheels of the bus in groups of five, they try to drive the guests mad by making the bus drive tight bends or jump over distances. Their fur is mostly green, and they are sometimes mistaken for Leprechauns; however, while driving the Knight Bus, they usually remain invisible and never leave the wheels. At 5:55 every Sunday morning, they drive the bus to the Imp Cauldron, a secret place in Fairy Alley, where the bus remains for 55 minutes, invisibly to the public, while the travel imps are being fed by the culinary imps (see page 83)."
"Well, that's a huge improvement," Sirius blurted out, seemingly happy.
"So what?"
"Do we need to go to Fairy Alley…"
"… at six o'clock in the morning…"
"… and talk the travel imps…"
"… into making a time travel with us?" the twins enquired, wearing doubtful looks.
"We neither know where the Imp Cauldron is nor if we'll be able to communicate with them at all," Amelia spoke up, inwardly sighing.
"That's not a problem to find out," Draco said in a soft voice. "We can just go to Fairy Alley and ask the fairies or the leprechauns. I'm sure they'll help us." He remained quiet for a moment, before adding, "Would you mind enlightening me what this is about though?"
"Maybe we should continue this conversation in the morning," Amelia suggested. "Before telling Mr. Malfoy about your project, we should learn more about his motives as well as his father's intentions."
"I agree," Sirius acknowledged immediately.
"Sorry Draco, this isn't meant against you, but I'm sure you understand that we have to be careful," Harry explained to the blond boy in a gentle voice.
"I understand," Draco replied. "Just ask, and I'll tell you everything I know, even under Veritaserum."
"Thank you, Mr. Malfoy," Amelia said, smiling.
"Oh, please just call me Draco," Draco corrected her, letting out a deep sigh. "Mr. Malfoy is my father, and right now, I don't want anything to do with him."
"Why don't we go out…"
"… into the park…"
"… and play a nice game of Quidditch?" the twins suggested, grinning broadly.
Everyone voiced their consent in apparent relief, apart from Hermione. Amelia had noticed before that the girl did not like flying, even if she was not bad at it.
"Why don't we let the boys play and go for a walk through the park in the meantime?" she suggested to the younger witch.
"I'd like that," Hermione agreed, smiling. "If you don't mind, I'd like to go and visit Buckbeak."
"That would be nice. I haven't made his acquaintance yet," Amelia admitted, and the two witches headed out into the park. Even if it was dark, it was not difficult to find their way, as there were small lights just above the ground lining the paths.
"It's beautiful," Hermione voiced what they both thought, as they walked towards the stables in amazement.
The girl introduced Amelia to the hippogriff, and Amelia was astounded by the large animal's gracefulness. She was just gently petting Buckbeak's head, when she felt a tag at the ring, which she was invisibly wearing on a chain.
"Oh Merlin, I need to go," she informed the girl. "It's some kind of emergency. I must go to the ministry and check what it is. Please tell the others that I'll be back as soon as possible." Without waiting for a response, she apparated away, glad that Sirius had not put up any anti-apparition wards on the manor.
tbc...
Thank you so very much for your kind comments on the previous chapter! My muse appreciates it a lot. I'm sorry that I did not manage to update yesterday, but I hope this chapter makes up for the wait. See you next weekend.
