Harry listened with horror to Draco´s tales. The Dark Lord was cruel and vile, and while Harry could understand that part of it was necessary to gain power – Father had never led the boys to believe that you could use velvet gloves to get hold of wealth and influence – he was utterly disgusted with the disrespect that creatures held for his associates.
The followers he had gathered around him during his first reign were respectable witches and wizards of excellent breeding and education. Of course, not all of them could rule the world, even among the upper class there had to be leaders, people who distinguished themselves from the others by power, knowledge and wealth (Malfoys, ideally), but nevertheless, it was not right to deny them the respect they deserved by their pureblood status.
According to Draco, and Harry doubted his word not for a single moment, the Dark Lord punished his followers with Cruciatus (Father!) and Imperius (Harry shuddered when he thought about Greg´s father going home to beat his wife within an inch of death as a punishment for failing to find out Sirius Black´s whereabouts.) on a regular basis. But not only that, he used it for his amusement, too!
A true leader, Father had tought them, gained his followers´ respect and loyalty. It seemed the Dark Lord had not learned that lesson. He led his deatheaters (what a stupid name!) by fear. Harry found it depressing that a man like Father – who was a natural leader – had to bow to a brute like the Dark Lord. The only good thing in this whole mess was that Draco was safe at Hogwarts.
Another pleasant discovery of September was that Remus Lupin turned out to be a very competent teacher. His lessons were hands-on unless he deemed the subject of the lesson too dangerous.
They encountered a boggart in their first lesson. It was hidden in a wardrobe in the staff room. Most Gryffindors found it exciting to be allowed in there, but Harry was sorry for the teachers who had a free period and weren´t able to spend it peacefully in their room. He felt a bit awkward about inconveniencing them.
Lupin explained how they were to get rid of the boggart and then had them queue up to try the spell out. Harry found that extremely useful. Boggarts never came to well-maintained buildings like Malfoy Manor, so he had known about the Riddiculus spell, but had never tried it out. He made sure he was near the front of the queue. Let someone else make the beginners´ mistakes, but don´t work with a weakened boggart!
Lupin chose Longbottom as a guinea pig. They whispered in front of the wardrobe for a little while before the professor opened it and the boggart made its appearance. It looked like Uncle Severus! Longbottom said his spell and suddenly the boggart wore a witch´s dress and a vulture hat. The class roared with laughter and the professor smirked!
Harry acted without thinking. He was beside Longbottom with two long strides. "How dare you!" he hissed angrily and hit the boy with a hair growing charm. Within moments, Longbottom looked like a bear. Some of the girls shrieked.
First Harry thought it was because of Longbottom´s new appearance, but then he noticed the boggart. Father and Draco´s dead bodies lay on the floor. Father´s face was contorted in pain and blood ran from Draco´s nose. Lupin stared at Harry calculatingly.
Harry glared at the professor angrily. Then he pointed his wand at the boggart and cried his spell. Father and Draco changed into Lupin and Sirius Black and they were rolling on the floor, absorbed in some serious kissing and groping.
Harry laughed and the boggart fled into the wardrobe.
The class was dumbfounded. Everybody looked at professor Lupin for his reaction.
The wizard took a deep breath before he clapped his hands. "Well done, Harry! Not the image I'd have chosen, but I guess I have to take what I was ready to dish out to professor Snape. Five points to Gryffindor!"
After that the lesson proceeded normally.
At dinner, Harry heard rumours that professor Lupin hadn´t punished him because he really was involved with professor Black in such a way. Served them right, for messing with Harry´s life!
-x-
Uncle Severus asked Harry to stay behind after potions, which happened to be the next class after Defence Against the Dark Arts.
"Rumour has it you gave Longbottom fur for ridiculing me," the potions master smiled.
Harry hung his head. Certainly Uncle Severus was going to say it hadn´t been very Slytherin to do that.
"I have to thank you for that," laughed Uncle Severus. "And tell me, did you really – how did Peeves put it so nicely – put Lupin and Black snogging like there was no tomorrow on the floor?"
Harry nodded.
Uncle Severus laughed even harder. "I´d love to see Black´s face when he hears!"
Harry swallowed hard. He hadn´t thought of that. What was his godfather going to say?
"By the way, your brother gave me something for you, but so far I wasn´t able to give it to you without arising suspicion." Uncle Severus opened a drawer of the teacher´s desk and put some tiny things onto the top. He pointed his wand at the items and unshrank them.
Harry beamed. The things Mother had saved for him! His photo album, his Harry book, some of his toys. The boy was a bit disappointed that his broomstick wasn´t among the things, but then a broomstick could be replaced. Although, thinking of it, there was not much chance of this happening very soon once Sirius Black heard about Harry´s boggart. There was also an envelope with Harry´s name in Narcissa´s elegant handwriting.
Harry´s heart missed a beat. What if that vile creature found out she had written to the foster son she was supposed not only not to love, but also to hand over to her Lord?
"Thank you, Uncle Severus!" Harry gathered the things in his book bag and left the classroom.
A house elf informed Harry at dinner that professor Black wished to see him after the meal in his office. Harry glanced up at the head table and could barely supress a shudder. Black was infuriated. Lupin was talking to him in what seemed a soothing manner but at least from afar he didn´t look very successful. Black snapped at his old friend repeatedly.
Weasley followed Harry´s gaze up to the head table. "Trouble in lovers´ paradise," he giggled when Black spat another angry remark at Lupin and the man retreated with a look of hurt on his face. The other Gryffindors joined in, but Harry didn´t feel like laughing.
"He summoned me to his office after dinner," he said with a feeling of doom.
"Aww, we´ll try to revive what is left of you when you come back," promised Thomas. The others agreed, even Granger. It seemed she had enjoyed the laugh Harry had given her and was ready to pay him back for it.
Harry ate three helpings of dessert in order to postpone the meeting. When he reached for a fourth cup of ice-cream it combusted spontaneously. The boy didn´t need to ask who was responsible for that. Nearly shaking with fear, he made his way to his godfather´s office.
Black wasn´t there when Harry reached the office. The boy hadn´t expected him to be. The man had set his ice-cream on fire, and he had to be in the Great Hall in order to do so. Harry didn´t have to wait long though.
Black arrived with his robes billowing around him and Professor Lupin jogging after him.
"Sirius," the Defense teacher pleaded. "It was a joke and I allowed Severus be ridiculed before! He considers him family! I should have known!"
"So it is your fault, not the brat´s, is it?" Black stopped and turned so abruptly that Lupin slammed into him. "It´s your fault that the whole school thinks...!"
"Let them think what they want! The rumours will die down eventually," pleaded the light haired wizard.
"Let them think that I have something abominable going on with you?" Black sneered. "I´m the last of the Blacks! Fate gave me a second chance to my house! I have plans! Plans which involve some goodlooking young witch and a couple of kids, not nasty rumours about me and my last childhood friend!"
Lupin looked hurt, but stood his ground. "Don´t forget you owe this chance to Harry!"
"The brat destroyed my reputation with one swish of his dirty little wand! Here I was ready to sacrifice some years to James´s memory and protect his boy! And what do I get? Gossip and shame! – Ah, here you are! You ungrateful little child!"
Black opened the door to his office and pushed Harry inside not too gently.
"What were you thinking?" he raged at the scared boy. "You exposed myself and Remus to ridicule and gossip! We are two Hogwarts teachers! If you can´t respect us as your parents´ friends, you will at least respect us as your teachers!"
Harry hung his head. What was he to say?
"Are you sorry, Harry?" Lupin asked softly.
Harry nodded. "Yes, I´m sorry."
"Stop putting the words on his tongue!" Black shouted at his friend. "He couldn´t be less sorry! The idea to apologize didn´t even cross this spoiled brat´s mind! Detention, Potter! You will come to my office every evening after dinner! Sit!"
Harry sat on the indicated chair obediently. Black slammed parchment and quill in front of him.
"Write! I must not behave like a swine!"
"How often?"
"Until I say it was enough!" Black glared at the boy angrily.
"Sirius, Dumbledore said you have to tell students what their punishment is." Lupin reminded his friend.
Black looked murderous. "Well, so be it!" he hissed after he had refound his composure. "One million times. You may write as long as you want every evening, but no less than two hours. Your punishment is over when you´ve written it one million times."
Harry gasped. This was going to take months, if not years! How was he supposed to do his homework? How was he going to meet Draco?
"One million?" Lupin asked in disbelief. "Sirius!"
"That´s my last word. Good night, Remus," Black opened the door and Lupin couldn´t but leave.
Harry wrote for four hours that evening. His hand hurt. He still had homework to do.
"How many?" asked Black when the boy got up. He had been grading essays while Harry worked.
"1217," whispered Harry.
"998783 to got then."
Harry collapsed against the corridor wall. This wasn´t going to take months. It was going to take years! He wondered what would happen if he wasn´t finished by the time he graduated.
-x-
It was well past curfew when Harry returned to Gryffindor Tower, but the third years were waiting for him in the Common Room.
"You look dreadful," Weasley pointed out. "Here, take a cauldron cake."
Harry was, indeed, hungry, but he felt bad accepting food from the other boy. For one, he wouldn´t have offered food to Weasley if the roles had been the other way round, and second, the Weasleys were one poor lot. Taking food from a starving man seemed wrong.
"It´s from the kitchens," sighed the redhead when Harry hesitated. "And you know, my mother is quite a good cook."
Harry bit into the cake to escape the necessity to answer.
"What did he say?" asked Brown and Thomas added: "What did he make you do?"
Harry told them about the herculean task he had been assigned.
"But that will take you years! And you need to study and do your homework!" Granger was scandalized. She stomped up to the girls´ dormitory and returned with a stack of library books. "Here! I borrowed those for this week´s homework, but I was going to return them first thing tomorrow morning. Take them. It will save you some time."
Harry blushed at the kindness and thanked the girl. Once he was settled at a table with a jug of pumpkin juice, some more stolen cakes and the books, the others went to bed in order to leave Harry to his work.
With a sigh the boy bent down to his bookbag to get some parchment. He needed an essay for Black the next day, and although he was very tired, he didn´t dare show up without it. When he searched for some new parchment, Mother´s letter slipped into his hand.
Harry smiled and opened it.
"My dearest Harry," the letter said, "next Sunday you will have a visitor. I want you to give him the enclosed."
Now that was a strange message, especially as Harry discovered a sock when he looked at the envelope more closely. When had Mother written the letter? When was the next Sunday she was talking about? He just hoped that he hadn´t missed it with the letter lying in the drawer at Uncle Severus´s office. But then, he hadn´t had a visitor all month, had he?
-x-
Waiting for Sunday gave Harry something to look forward to and made dealing with life at large and Black in particular easier. The boy went to his detentions every evening and by the end of the week he had worked himself to close to 5000 lines.
On Saturday, Harry was to be found in the library all day. He was so behind with his homework that he not even enjoyed Draco´s company much. The blond pitied his brother for Black's revenge and helped him with his homework by gathering the books he needed. He even offered to write his essays with the copy quill in order to take some of the workload off Harry, but Harry pointed out that Black was certainly waiting for him to try to cheat.
"Are you sure? He's a Gryffindor," Draco sounded doubtful.
"But he comes from a Slytherin family. He must have learned something there," Harry sighed.
The night from Saturday to Sunday, Harry barely slept. Who was the mysterious visitor going to be? Was Mother coming to Hogwarts? She could pretend to visit Draco. But then again, never had Harry heard of a student having a visitor!
The boy trotted down to the Great Hall for breakfast with the Gryffindors. He forced down some spoonfuls of porridge, but it tasted like parchment, and a mouthful of tea didn't change it a bit. When Harry left the hall to go to the library – he still hadn't finished half of his homework – he nearly ran into Father.
The blond wizard sneered down at him. "Potter!" he spat before he wrapped his cloak tighter around his frame and stalked up the marble staircase.
Harry thought he felt his heart break. Father had sounded so cold, so distant! He was startled by a gentle touch to his elbow.
"Harry Potter, Sir!" piped Dobby, the house elf, by Harry's side. "Dobby begged Master to allow him to come along! Dobby hoped to see Master Harry!" The small creature looked at Harry with his huge green eyes. "He hopes to show Master Harry the book Mistress Narcissa gave Dobby!" He held up a small book, which was barely more than a leaflet.
Understanding, Harry pulled the elf into the small chamber where usually the first years waited for their sorting.
"Dobby!" he cried. "So you are my visitor!" He rummaged in his pocket and gave Dobby the sock Mother had sent. "This is for you!"
Dobby beamed and howled with grief at the same time. "Dobby is a disgraced elf!" the small creature wailed. "Dobby doesn't deserve clothes. Dobby was always good!"
Harry took the booklet from the elf's hand and skimmed through it while the little creature lamented its fate. There was a small passage, marked in red. Harry read it quickly and drew his wand.
He touched Dobby´s head and the elf fell silent. "I bind thee to the House of Potter! Your body and soul is mine from now on. You will serve me as is fit for an elf. In return I will protect you and deprive you of garments for as long as I see fit."
"Oh, Master Harry!" cried the elf, "Dobby will gladly serve the House of Potter from now on!" He threw himself forward and embraced Harry´s legs. After a short while the elf recovered and stood. He cleared his throat. "The Malfoys are a pack of vile creatures!" He looked around nervously and beamed when nothing happened. "Harry Potter is a lazy git! – Bad Dobby! Bad Dobby!" The elf sank to his knees and banged his head on the floor.
"Stop it!" cried Harry.
Dobby obeyed. "Dobby had to test whether the plan had worked." He smiled happily. "Dobby is no longer bound to the House of Malfoy. He is loyal to Harry Potter now."
"I don´t understand." Harry was puzzled.
"Lady Narcissa," the elf hesitated when he felt no urge to punish himself for not using the title Mistress, "sent Dobby to protect Harry Potter. She gave Dobby a message for Harry Potter."
"A message?"
"Yes, Master! The Lady wants Harry Potter to know that she and her husband love him, but they have to act as if they don´t to protect Draco. She asks Harry Potter to have faith in her and she can´t wait to be able to openly show how much she loves him. She came up with the plan to free Dobby and bind him to Harry Potter instead. Harry Potter is considered a Malfoy, so she hoped he can free a Malfoy elf. Dobby is now bound to the House of Potter and Harry Potter alone has power over him."
Harry smiled. Mother had found a way to protect him and show how much they cared for him. Merlin knew which orders she had given to Dobby. There could be more messages, or the elf could carry more of Harry´s things.
Harry knelt in front of the small elf. "Is there more? Did Mother ask you to tell me more? Or did she give you something to forward to me?"
The elf hung his ears. "She considered it, Master, but it was too risky. If the one they call the Dark Lord ever found out he´d kill the family. She only dared send Dobby when the Dark One was gone to Europe."
Harry was a bit disappointed, but then Dobby was more than he had dared hope for so far. "He is in Europe?" The boy hoped that Dobby knew more.
"Nobody knows where he is exactly, but he said he was going to leave the country," confirmed the elf. "Everybody assumes he went to the continent, but nobody knows for sure."
Harry got up. His family was in danger. The fact that Father hadn´t dared speak friendly to him made it even more clear. If he ever wanted his family back, the evil wizard had to die. The only one working to achieve that was Dumbledore. If Harry had to work with despicable Gryffindors to get his family back, he was going to do it.
-x-
Harry hurried up the marble staircase to the headmaster´s office, Dobby in tow. Only when he reached the stone gargoyle guarding the staircase to the office did the boy realise that he didn´t have the password. He´d have to wait for somebody to tell him or the headmaster to come out. Harry sat on a window sill near the entrance and waited. The headmaster was known to turn up here and there in the castle on Sundays, so certainly the man had to leave his office at some point.
Twenty minutes later – Harry considered asking one of the professors for the password – the gargoyle jumped to life and gave the staircase free. Somebody was coming down. Harry slid from the sill and stood beside the gargoyle.
"Potter!" he was greeted by Father´s indifferent voice. "What are you doing here? And what are you doing with my house elf?"
"We are speaking about MY house elf," Harry replied equally coldly. "And now kindly step out of my way. I need to talk to the headmaster."
"Impertinent brat," spat Lucius. He stepped aside to let Harry pass. When the boy slid past him, he squeezed his shoulder for the briefest of moments. Harry reached up to touch Father´s hand equally briefly. It was little, but it had to be enough. What if Voldemort found out? They couldn´t risk it.
Harry stepped on the moving staircase. Sad, he watched Father strutt down the corridor, his blond hair and robes billowing behind him.
"Master Harry is sad," Dobby observed. "Everything will turn out well in the end."
Harry smiled weakly. Dobby had always had a special connection to him. It probably was because the elf had helped when Mother wasn´t able to take care of two toddlers at once. "It will," he said with a confidence he didn´t feel. Was he trying to reassure Dobby or himself?
The headmaster offered the boy a seat when he entered the office and listened to his tale patiently.
"Thank you, Harry," he said kindly when the boy had finished his tale. "This confirms what my sources say. Voldemort left the country, but we have no idea where he went."
Harry was a bit disappointed. The old wizard had known! He, Harry, would have loved to contribute something to the cause. Then he remembered something.
"Sir," he said politely, "I recently acquired a house elf. Dobby." The creature bowed until his nose touched the carpet. "I wanted to ask whether it is allowed for me to keep him in the dormitory."
The headmaster shook his head. "This is not acceptable."
Harry opened his mouth to protest, but the old man stopped him with a raised hand. "We cannot allow students to bring their own servants. But your elf can stay at the kitchens and you can call him whenever you need him. Is this acceptable for you?"
Harry nodded eagerly. As long as Dobby was on the school grounds it was as good as if he was by his side all the time. Elves were able to apparate even through wards to follow their master´s call. He turned to the elf. "Dobby, I want you to work at the Hogwarts kitchens unless I call you to serve me personally. You are allowed to refuse orders from – Sir, who is in charge of the kitchen?" – "Professor McGonagall." – "You are allowed to refuse orders from Professor McGonagall if they contradict my orders and to come and see me whenever you want to. You will under no circumstances punish yourself. You are mine to punish."
The elf bowed again and disappeared with a loud crack.
"That was a very kind thing to do, to forbid him to punish himself," said Dumbledore.
Harry didn´t grace the comment with a reply and set out for the library.
-x-
Dobby´s presence made life at Hogwarts better. The little elf made sure Harry got his favourite desserts every evening. He prepared what Harry needed for his homework when the boy had detention with Sirius Black (the wizard hadn´t softened one bit so far and insisted on his million lines) and prepared small snacks for when his master returned to Gryffindor Tower.
Harry´s relationship to his new housemates (as far as Harry was concerned Slytherin was still his house) improved when Dobby started bringing snacks for Harry´s dorm mates, too.
The best of all was, though, that Dobby carried messages from Harry to Draco and vice versa. Harry ordered the elf to respond to Draco´s call, too, and so the two boys had their own little elf-a-phone. It was much more convenient than the copy quills, thought they still used those during classes.
By Halloween Harry felt more at ease with life than he had since Voldemorts rebirth. Speaking of Voldemort, the boy considered sending Dobby to Malfoy Manor to ask for news, but then he didn´t. First of all, he wasn´t sure Dobby could access the Manor once he no longer belonged to the Malfoy family, and what was even more important, Harry didn´t want to risk his parents´ or Dobby´s safety.
This was why he heard the news from the papers. The morning after Halloween (the feast had been superb) the owls brought more newspapers than usually. Harry knew it meant something important had happened and went to sit with Percy Weasley – the oldest Weasley boy at the school – immediately. He didn´t have to wait long. The Weasleys had, indeed, sent the paper to their oldest son and Harry was able to read with the boy.
Lord Voldemort hadn´t been to the continent, it seemed. No, he had freed a dozen of his followers from Azkaban! Among them Peter Pettigrew and Bellatrix Lestrange, Mother´s sister. Harry shuddered. Mother and Father were in even more danger now! Certainly Bellatrix, her husband and his brother were going to live at the Manor. Father could deny quarters to the others, but not to family.
Harry feared for Lucius and Narcissa with Azkaban escapees in the house. If those criminals weren´t dangerous per se, they were certainly giving the aurors an excuse to come to the Manor. Heaven knew what happened when Father tried to defend his family´s home. (Harry was certain Lucius wouldn´t allow the authorities into the house without a fight.)
"Did you read it?" Draco asked when they met on their way to Care of Magical Creatures. "Aunt Bella escaped."
"You call her aunt? She´s a criminal!"
"Of course I call her aunt!" Draco whispered back urgently. "Do you want me to make a mistake when I go home for Christmas? We must pretend to be glad she´s free!"
That made sense. "Can´t you stay at Hogwarts for Christmas?" Harry didn´t like the idea of Draco in a house full of deatheaters.
"No!" Draco hissed. "She´ll expect Father to call me home to meet her. I have to go!"
"You have..."
"How often did I tell you not to speak with this boy?" Black grabbed Harry by his neck from behind and shook him. The wizard only let go of the boy when an angrily hissing Shamira made her appearance beside his fingers. "Have you still got that snake?"
"Yes," sneered Harry. "And you just proved that I need her." He hissed a soft thank-you to the snake.
"You´re welcome, Master," the snake hissed back. "That was close! I nearly sank my fangs into his hand."
"You must not!" Harry hissed back.
Seven weeks later, Draco returned back home with Shamira wrapped around his forearm. The snake was reluctant to go first, but when she realised how important it was to Harry, she agreed to go and protect Draco for him.
-x-
Harry on the other hand returned to Grimmauld Place with his godfather. He had hoped that the man would let him stay at Hogwarts as they weren´t on speaking terms other than the question how many lines Harry had written so far.
The house was infested with Weasleys again (that Harry got along with Ronald quite well didn´t mean he had to like being surrounded by Weasleys all day). Mrs. Weasley took over the kitchen again, ignoring the fact that now two perfectly trained house elves were available.
Harry spent most of the time in his room, writing his lines. When one of the Weasleys (Ronald kept pestering Harry about playing chess with him) or Dumbledore tried to lure him out of the room, the boy reminded them of his punishment and that he wanted to get done with it "before he was old enough to take a bride".
Between the line-writing, Harry exchanged short messages with Draco via copy-quill, but the blond couldn´t put much in writing but the fact that "the Manor was bursting with guests".
Harry was woken by Ronald Weasley on Christmas Day. "Come out of that room!" cried the redhead. "Mum insists we can´t open our presents before you are there. So move your butt!"
Harry sighed and dressed.
The Christmas tree was in one of the dark parlours. Somebody – if Harry had to guess he´d say Dumbledore – had decorated the room with live fairies, holly and a huge mistletoe. The tree in one corner was loaded with glass baubles, silver garlands and candles.
All the Weasleys, Black, Lupin, Dumbledore and Uncle Severus (the only pleasant surprise so far) were waiting when Harry entered the room. The pile of parcels under the tree was huge. Being the Master of the house, Sirius Black did the honours of handing out the presents. It took nearly half an hour to give each to the right person, and when Black was finished, everybody was sitting in a small pile of gifts.
The Weasley children had only small piles, Harry couldn´t but notice, and the paper their presents were wrapped in looked reused. There were snippets of old spellotape and small holes here or there.
Harry´s pile was the biggest and the exquisite silver wrapping told clearly that, somehow, Mother and Father had managed to send their presents. Harry glanced at Uncle Severus and the wizard gave him a small nod and smile. So the potions master had brought the gifts from Harry´s family.
When everybody had their presents, people started to unwrap their gifts.
Harry got a horrible pullover from Mrs. Weasley (why did that woman give him a present at all?), some sweets from Ronald (Harry was glad he had bought the boy some cheap chocolate), more sweets from Dumbledore, a small photo album featuring his biological parents from Mr. Lupin and a pile of toys and a new broomstick from Father and Mother. Uncle Severus gave him a very advanced potions book.
"Severus, don´t you think you´re putting too much pressure on young Harry," asked Mr. Weasley.
"Not at all, Arthur," smiled the head of Slytherin. "Harry saw the book in my library last summer and was interested. So I got him his own."
"But Severus, this is past NEWT level!" Arthur insisted. Percy came nearer to look at the book.
"Malfoy Manor has one of the biggest libraries in Britain," sneered Harry. "Do you honestly think I spent twelve years there without reading a bit?"
"Wow! You mean to tell me you actually understand this?" Percy looked at Harry with admiration written all over his face.
"I haven´t tried any of the potions so far, but I understand the theory."
Dumbledore smiled. "It seems that growing up with the Malfoys had some advantages I didn´t foresee."
Harry didn´t answer to that and continued opening his parcels. The last one was a small envelope, wrapped in red and gold. It had to be from Sirius Black. Harry opened it with shaking hands. What did his still livid godfather give him?
It turned out to be a voucher for 500.000 lines. Harry thanked the man, while the other present wizards abused Black for being a grudging monster.
"You said you´d forgive everything!" cried Mr. Lupin.
"So! I changed my mind!"
"Well, then see what happens if I change my mind!" Mr. Lupin barked back. He stomped towards the door.
Black was out of his seat in an instant and went after him. "Remus, wait!" He caught the other wizard just before he reached the door.
"Mistletoe!" the Weasley boys cried merrily.
The two wizards blushed.
"It´s tradition!" cried Dumbledore.
"Well, if it´s tradition," sighed Black and rolled his eyes. Black pulled his school friend into a hug and kissed him passionately. Mr. Lupin returned the kiss with equal gusto.
Harry blushed and started reading his potions book. There were things he just didn´t want to know.
Two hours later a grumbling Sirius Black informed Harry that his punishment was over.
"If you ever – ever! – expose myself or Remus to ridicule like that again, I will kill you personally," hissed the man. "you will keep your mouth shut about what you witnessed earlier. One would think they tought you a bit more decorum in a pureblood household."
"They did!" Harry hissed back angrily. "But they also taught me to stand up for friends and family and Lupin had ridiculed my uncle Severus!"
"Snivellus is not your uncle!"
"As far as I´m concerned he´s my only family in this house! And his name is Severus! So much for decorum!"
"You cheeky little rat! I will be treated with respect!"
"You would if you deserved it!" Harry only realised that he was shouting when entered the room and asked them if he could help.
"Remus, hold me back or I´ll throttle that boy!" Black threw his hands in the air in a gesture of helplessness.
"I didn´t ask you to mess up my life, you know!" Harry shouted at the man. "I´d much rather spend Christmas with my family!"
"You know that that´s no option, Harry," Lupin said kindly.
Harry collapsed into an armchair and burried his face in his hands. "I know," he muttered. "But that doesn´t mean I have to like it."
"Of course not," replied Lupin. "But don´t forget this mess is not Sirius´s fault."
Black avoided Harry for the rest of the holidays and the boy was grateful for that. He was trying not to hold a grudge against the man, but it was so hard! Again, Harry spent most of his time in his small bedroom. The only person who could lure him out of his room those days was Uncle Severus, who visited twice more before it was time to return to school. The potions master brought little news from Mother and Father apart from that they were alive.
Once Harry was back at school he could hardly wait to meet Draco. He hurried to the library as soon as he had put his things into his trunk at Gryffindor Tower.
The blond was already there and he was very pale.
"What happened Draco? You look horrible!" Harry whispered urgently as they hid behind some shelves.
"Nothing," Draco whispered back.
"That´s not true," hissed Shamira. She slid from Draco to Harry when her Master held his hand out for her. "One of those men beat him."
"Beat him?" Harry shrieked in parseltongue.
Shamira wrapped herself around Harry´s wrist. "Beat him," she confirmed. "They treated him like a servant all the time and when he didn´t bring that bottle fast enough he was beaten. But I killed that man." She showed her fangs proudly.
"Is it true, Draco? Shamira says she killed a man to protect you!"
Draco nodded and sank to the floor, his back against the shelf. "Aunt Bella´s brother in law. He beat me and Shamira bit him. Thanks Merlin she hit his arm and they didn´t bother to examine him too closely, or they would have killed her and probably me." Tears ran down Draco´s cheeks. "It´s horrible, Harry. The Manor is full of those people. Father has to act friendly, but they´re treating everybody who´s not one of them badly. I´m not one of them and nor is Mother. I´ve seen her work like a house elf."
"I will tell Dumbledore. He will help," promised Harry.
Draco shook his head. "I´m sure Dumbledore knows. Uncle Severus is there quite often after all."