Chapter Ten: Come the Firefly

--"I am sorry to say that from the moment you have arrived in this class, my dear, it has been apparent that you do not have what the noble art of divination requires." Professor Trelawny, PoA

Draco Malfoy rolled over in his bed, trying to ignore the snores of the Longbottom boy. He could not sleep for the life of him. His father hadn't written yet, and since it had been nearly two weeks, that was anything but good. There was no conceivable way Lucius hadn't heard of his Sorting; Draco had sent a letter himself. The long silence could only mean one thing.

Lucius was filing papers to disown him.

There could be other reasons (perhaps his father was so bloody proud of him that he'd decided to wait to write a letter) but they were all bull. He would be a Malfoy no longer once the papers went through.

There were few cases of a pureblood being disowned. The only ones he could think of in recent history were Sirius Black, who'd always been against pureblood ideals, and Andromeda Black, who'd married a Muggle. If he recalled correctly Andromeda had been in Ravenclaw, and Sirius had been in Gryffindor. If he wasn't put up for adoption, they were the closest relatives he had who would even consider taking him.

He didn't know his Aunt Andromeda very well; he only knew that she'd married a Muggle and had a daughter she'd named Nymphadora of all things. Nymphadora, according to his father, had graduated the year before, and had been in Gryffindor. Apparently she'd even been seeing one of the Weasleys.

Sirius, on the other hand, he knew quite a bit about from his fathers rants. The man had been arrested for being a Death Eater and killing thirteen people with a single curse, but had been proved innocent. He'd then legally taken custody of and adopted his godson, Harry Potter. He'd also apparently wed the girl he'd been engaged to before being arrested, whom his parents seemed to despise as well.

He wasn't sure which would be better. At Andromeda's house he wouldn't have to deal with Harry, but for all he knew she was still living with a Muggle. But that was better for the alternative; no self respecting pureblood family would adopt a disowned Malfoy, and he'd most likely end up living with some Muggleborns who felt sorry for him. He hated pity more than anything else.

He stewed for a moment before his mind went back to the topic it had gone to ever since he'd arrived here. Why Gryffindor? While bravery in itself wasn't a bad thing, he wasn't fond of the Gryffindor habit of rushing into things without thinking. Besides, he'd had Slytherin values drilled into his head for as long as he could remember. What had made things go so wrong?

Black would know, his traitorous mind whispered. He must've gone through the same thing. He was raised to a dark family- the darkest there was. You've heard the stories about his mother. And yet, he was still in Gryffindor, still best friends with half-bloods… why?

"None of my business," Draco mumbled under his breath. "And I'm not like Black. I'm not."

Then why didn't the idea hold as much horror as it once had?

-----

Mrs. Weasley bustled around the house in a generally dark mood. Not only had her Ronniekins, the twins, and darling Percy gone back to school, Ginny was in her room sulking and refused to come out, and Arthur was still at work. Bill was off in Egypt doing who knows what, and Charlie…

She sighed. Charlie, the most foolhardy boy she'd ever raised. Honestly, he's worse than the twins sometimes. He'd left that lovely girl Nymphadora to work with his dragons. Such a nice girl, she'd been…

"I've half a mind to send him a Howler," she muttered under her breath. "I thought I'd taught him better. Leaving a wonderful girl like that for those silly dragons of his… well, one day he is going to regret it. He will look back and realize that he's lost Nymphadora, and it's his own fault." She paused. "I shall have to invite her over for tea."

With a smart nod, she went back to her sweeping.

-----

"Right," Davies said to the team. It was the first Quidditch practice of the season, and Harry and Hermione were eyeing the team with nervousness and calculations. "This is Harry Black and Hermione Granger. They're going to be our Seeker and one of our Chasers respectively." Sound immediately broke out.

"What?"

"But they're First Years!"

"I've never—"

"Davies, what the hell are you thinking?" Harry vaguely recognized her as Melissa Jones, who'd dated George for a while the first time around. "They're first years, and this is a dangerous game. They're going to get hurt."

"Who cares about that?" Andrew Kyr shouted. "Are they any good is the bloody question we should be asking. Why the hell else would Davies get firsties?

More shouting broke out at this, and before Jones and Kyr could come to blows, Davies let out a high pitched whistle. Everything immediately fell silent and all eyes turned to the captain. "Okay. You all are going to listen to me, and you're going to listen now. Black and Granger, from what Flitwick has told me, are good. Damn good. And frankly, I can't think of any way this team could get worse. Bloody hell mates, last year Hufflepuff beat us!" The team hung their heads, ears turning red with remembered shame.

"With these two though, we might have a chance. And yes, Jones, they are young—very much so. But according to them, they've been flying for years, and if they can't handle themselves, then I can and will kick them off this team. So no, I will not be allowing them to get injured." She flushed slighlty, but closed her still-open mouth.

"And if anyone treats them badly for being firsties, as Kyr here so eloquently put it, they will be dealing with the business end of my fist. Got it?" The team nodded once more. "So let's try this again. This is Harry Black and Hermione Granger, your new teammates. Now, let's get flying, you bunch of ingrates!"

With a few moans and goood-natured grunts, the Ravenclaw team took to the air. Harry and Hermione were about twenty feet off the ground when Melissa flew over to talk to them. She smiled apologetically. "Hey, sorry about Davies. He isn't usually like this, he's just really stressed. He's the youngest Quidditch captain at Hogwarts you know. I'm Melinda Jones. I didn't mean you shouldn't be on the team, by the way; it's just, my half-brother's a first year, and I'm a tad too overprotective of him. No hard feelings?"

"No hard feelings," Hermione confirmed. "I'm Hermione, and this is my best friend Harry. It's nice to meet you." Melissa moved to reply, but Davies whistled again.

"ALRIGHT! TEN LAPS AROUND THE PITCH! WE ARE FOCUSING ON ACCURACY, PEOPLE! IF ANYONE SO MUCH AS SKIMS THE STANDS, WE WILL DO TEN MORE LAPS! GO!" Melissa muttered something about overachieving morons and the three of them flew off.

A long and grueling practice later, Harry and Hermione were back in the Ravenclaw Common Room, just relaxing. After a few moments of comfortable silence, Hermione spoke. "Any progress on the cure, Harry?"

He sighed and shook his head. "Not after I figured out how to bond the Permanent Stick Potion in. What about the Non-Addictive Dreamless Sleep?" When they had come to Hogwarts they had decided to work on projects seperately to save time, and combine every week or so.

"Better. I found a way to replace the mugwort with chamomile, as odd as it sounds, which decreases the dependancy, but it's still there. Can you think of anything else?" At his request she listed the ingredients, and he frowned in thought slightly.

"Have you considered replacing the bogweed with, oh, I dunno… some sort of retaining agent bonded with thyme? That would get rid of most of the dependency, at least decrease it even more, and it would make it taste much better." He sent her a roughish smile.

She stared at him with wide eyes before leaping over to give him a hug. "Harry, that's bloody brilliant! And I can use lacewing flies as the retaining agent! Oh Harry, you're a genius! I've got to go work on this!" She rushed over to the Common Room door.

"Hermione!" Harry called over to her. She looked over her shoulder at him with a raised eyebrow. "Maybe you should wait 'till tomorrow… you do realize it's eleven o'clock?" A cute blush came over her face.

"Right. I knew that."

-----

Tea with Mrs. Weasley was a decidedly awkward affair, full of loaded questions such as:

"Have you seen Charlie lately? He mentioned you in a letter," and

"So what have you been doing since you and Charlie broke it off?"

"No, I haven't heard from Charlie," she said with an awkward smile. "And I've been accepted to the Auror program."

Mrs. Weasley's eyes lit up. "That's lovely, dear! Arthur works at the ministry, you know. Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Department. They've offered him several promotions, but he's just so happy where he is!" She let out a helpless giggle as if to say 'Well, you know how Weasley men can be.'

Tonks smiled again, a slightly forced one. "I'm glad for him, that he has a job he loves. I've always wanted to be an auror, ever since I was a kid." She found that she was blurting things out to Charlie's mother that she'd never gotten the chance to tell Charlie, but somehow it was the least awkward part of their entire conversation so far.

"My mum would tell me stories about how horrible her family was, and dad would step in and say that the Death Eaters would be taken care of by the big, strong Aurors like his little Nymphie." She let out a choked sob without noticing. "He—he died, a few years back. But that was how I met Sirius and Josie and Remus, and Harry and Hermione, and they're… well, they're my family, really.

"After Dad died, Mum and I fought more and more. She blamed me for his death, because I was there too, and I survived when he didn't. And all of the little things that hadn't seemed to matter before—me being a Metamorphmagus, so she never knew if she was looking at me or not, and her tendency to still look down on all things Muggle because of the way she was brought up, and all these other stupid little things—they all seemed so mush more horrible with Dad gone.

"So I stayed with Sirius over the summer when they kicked me out, and I remember just thinking—this is it, this is what it would've been like if Dad was still alive and Mum and I were a little more forgiving, and I loved it. And then I got to accepted, and it all would have been perfect, but Charlie…"

She sighed. "I understand that he has places he wants to go, and things he wants to do, and I think I understand that they're places I can't go, things I can't do, but it still hurts. I just wish that he would have given it a try, see if it worked, because now I'll always wonder." She rubbed at her eyes, thanking her lucky stars that her talent let her keep them from turning red, and smiled slightly at Molly Weasley. "But I'll never know, now will I?"

Mollly sniffled slightly and patted Tonks' hand. "I am so sorry, dear. Arthur and I broke it off for a while too, you know. Middle of the first war, and we were madly in love, but he wanted to join the Order, and he didn't want me getting dragged into the war. After my brothers' were killed, I managed to convince him that I was a target anyways, and that we might as well enjoy ourselves while we still could.

She smiled, dare Tonks say it, wickedly. "Nine months later, Bill was born."

Tonks choked on her tea and started laughing despite herself. The rest of the meeting was decidedly less awkward, and when she left, Tonks was still smiling. "Thanks for the tea, Molly," she said with a wide grin. "We should get together again sometime."

Molly pulled her into a tight hug. "That would be lovely, dear." Mrs. Weasley was still smiling and waving when Tonks Apparated away.

-----

Amelia Bones was in her kitchen, singing along to tunes on the Muggle radio, when the owl came. "And all of the people, and I don't know why… Oh, hello Artemis. Got a letter for me?" Continuing to hum, she took the letter from the owl's leg and began to read it.

Amelia,

Thank you again for the lovely dinner. Sirius' niece, Nymphadora Tonks, is going to come over to join Sirius, Josie, the Grangers and I for dinner tonight. It's not at all formal; unless it rains, it'll be a barbeque. Muggle or magical clothes are fine. I hope to see you there! No need to R.S.V.P; just show up if you can.

--Remus

Amelia smiled at the letter. Remus was sweet; she was so lucky to know him. "You fly on back to Remus, Artemis. He said not to bother to send a letter back, so I'll just come. See you later!" Artemis hooted and flew back out the window. Feeling even more cheery than she had before, Amelia turned the radio up a few notches. "Can't keep my eyes off of you…"

-----

Sirius sighed heavily as he looked at the letter. "Hey Jo!" he shouted.

"Coming!" his wife yelled back from the library, coming into the kitchen where he was sitting and joining him at the table. "What is it?"

He sighed heavily and looked up at Josie. "Lucius Malfoy's disowned his son for getting into Gryffindor. Remember, Harry and Hermione told us in their letter? Well, I'm his closest blood relative other than Andromeda that would be even possibly willing to take him. This is a form asking if we'll come to the custody hearing. I doubt Andy will, she's still torn up over Ted."

Josie sighed, but smiled slightly. "Remind you of anyone?" He chuckled. "I dunno. I would hate for him to have to be sent to an orphanage, but do you think we can handle four children? We already have Harry and the little tyke on the way, and Hermione practically lives here already—would Draco be too much?"

Sirius ran a hand through his hair, a habit he'd picked up from James years ago. "I don't know, Jo. He would only be here for the summer and winter holidays, and Tonks is here over the summer too, so she could help out. Winter would be the only difficult time, but the Grangers did say they owed us, and would help us out if we needed anything… what do you think?"

She smiled slightly. "I think we should definitely go to the custody hearing, and at least see if Andy turns up and what state she's in, if it looks like she can handle him if she shows. And if it doesn't, or if she doesn't come… we can figure it out then. We do have the room…"

He laughed. "We certainly do. I don't know how Uncle Alphard managed to live in a house this big on his own. Well, he had his dog, but that was it."

Josie smiled at him. "Why don't you send that back in then and say we'll be there. I was researching a potion for work… I'll be in the library if you need me, alright?"

"Alright," Sirius said with a smile, leaning over and giving her a quick kiss. "I'm going to fill out this form… I hate forms. Loathe them. With a passion. Stupid bloody forms." He continued to mumble to himself as Josie went back to the library, but he was smiling.

-----

Harry finished the sketch with a final flourish and smiled slightly, sadly. It was everything he had wanted it to be, which was the most depressing part of all. The drawing was a perfect rendering of the moment… he could almost hear the voices, and he hated it.

Anyone looking over his shoulder would be awed by the picture. It was a man, with fairly long hair, falling backwards in a graceful arc. His arms were spread in an attempt to stop his fall, and a look of surprise and remorse echoed through his eyes and across his face. His mouth was slightly open, and behind him was a gaping blackness, covered by a fluttering curtain.

It was perfect, yet it was one of the most flawed things he'd ever seen.

He sighed and flipped through the pages a bit before closing the sketchbook over a drawing of a beautiful woman lying spread-eagle on the floor in front of a broken crib, with death and destruction surrounding her.

They had given their lives for him, and now he had to pay his penance. The drawings were the reminder of all his failures, all the things that had gone wrong and would never, never go wrong again.

He swore it.

-----

Nymphadora Tonks laughed loudly and continued to talk to Amalia Bones. "So then I asked him, what would his brother want with a hinkypunk anyways?" She could barely breathe, she was laughing so hard, but she somehow managed to continue. "And he says, 'Geeze, Tonks, might as well call it a kinkypunk, let's put it that way." She dissolved into laughter, as did Amelia.

Sirius shook his head, laughing maniacally. "Tonks, where do you get these stories?"

Remus snorted. "We need to make sure she never meets Mundungus Fletcher."

The group laughed some more, and Josie leaned over to kiss Sirius on the cheek. "This barbeque was a very good idea, dear." He beamed, and she turned to Amelia. "How's Susan doing, Amy?"

Amelia smiled. "She's doing well, thank you. She was Sorted into Hufflepuff, but said that she was sitting with a group of friends including Harry and Hermione at the Ravenclaw table for meals."

Mr. Granger smiled. "Yes, I believe Hermione mentioned that in her letter." The rest of the evening was spent in companionable silence as a bond was slowly formed, and fireflies swirled around in the darkness.

-----

Dumbledore sighed heavily. His plot was not going to work, even he could see that. Somehow, Miss Granger had already befriended Mr. Potter, and her fierce loyalty to him could be seen in her eyes.

But there were even more disturbing things at work. She had an absurdly strong Occlumency shield; even he could not break through it. That meant that either she had learned somehow, which was near impossible, or she was a natural at the mind magics.

There were only two ways to be a natural at mind magics. She was either a natural at Legilimency, which meant she would have natual Occlumency shields, like Severus, or… or she was a Seeress.

The question was, which?

AN: In the next chapter, we find out what'll be happening to Draco. And yes, we'll be getting to the real Philospher's Stone stuff soon enough. :) Any guesses on how Hermione knows Occlumency? Anyone? Anyone:P Also, last chapter's title referred to "Sit with us?" Yeah. And this chapter's title comes from the last poem in Book One of the Abarat, by Clive Barker.

--Aerin