Before Harry could structure his thoughts into a coherent decision on what his next move would be, Draco's parents hurried into the hall, followed by Snape.

"We have one week until Bella's visit," said Narcissa urgently, holding her robe that had been thrown on haphazardly.

"Severus told us everything," Lucius said, coming to a stop in front of Harry, kneeling down to look him in the eyes.

"He's a wiccan," said Draco, his tone still rich with wonder.

Narcissa looked up at him sharply. "Have you confirmed that?"

Draco shook his head and reached over to put a hand on Harry's stomach. He closed his eyes, frowning, and whispered a word, turning his hand over. Harry looked down and gasped as a black foggy symbol appeared there.

"There," said Snape in a hushed voice. "That's the lock on his magic."

"It is impressive that he never accidentally unlocked it," said Narcissa, looking at Harry curiously.

"He never knew to try," replied Snape. "Now, what is the plan?"

Narcissa was quiet for a moment. She kneeled down next to Lucius and looked at the symbol more closely. "This lock is more complex than we thought."

Snape leaned down to examine the symbol for himself. Harry felt uncomfortable under all this scrutiny; everyone was staring at his stomach.

"Yes, I see what you mean," said Snape. "This line here, and this character here. No wonder he never broke it himself. This was created with the dying life force of his parents, it will take almost the same amount of power to unlock it."

"Why are we unlocking it at all?" Asked Harry, feeling hysterical. It seemed that his decisions were being made for him once again.

"Because the murderer of your parents is visiting in a week," said Draco gravely, looking at Harry with determination. "And you need the means to protect yourself."

"But that is exactly why we shouldn't unlock it," said Harry hurriedly. "If he's visiting in a week and will presumably want to steal my magic, why would we unlock it and make his job easier?"

"We can't assume that he won't be strong enough to unlock it himself," replied Snape. "Sure, fifteen years ago he wasn't strong enough. But since then he has drained many wicca and has grown incomparable in terms of power. If he can unlock your magic, you will be losing this one week that you can spend training and growing stronger; you will have no ability or knowledge of your magic. It will be like serving it to him on a silver platter."

Harry swallowed. "What is it like? The magic?"

Narcissa smiled at him warmly. "Don't worry, it is an amazing gift. It has always been a part of you, there is nothing to be afraid of. You will just be reacquainting yourself with it."

Harry nodded. "So how do we do this?"

"We need Severus, obviously," said Narcissa, her brows furrowed. "He has a parental connection to Harry that can be useful in breaking the lock. Draco as well, although his connection is less significant in this case. I will help guide their power by doing the incantation. I'm not sure that's enough, but we can't underestimate the parental bond that Severus has here."

Although Snape's look of concern didn't change, Harry frowned. "Can you stop calling him my parent?"

Narcissa looked at Harry as if seeing him for the first time. "Right now we don't have time to breathe, let alone be offended by mere facts. We have to do the breaking as soon as possible so that you can spend the following week learning and preparing."

"Then let's do it now," said Draco impatiently. "Let's break it now."

"Wait, what about any side effects?" Lucius asked, holding up his hands to slow them down. "This is the first time ever that this is being done. We don't know how the bond will react once Harry gets his magic back."

"It's just a risk we have to take," said Narcissa decidedly.

"We could send them away on a 'holiday' for a month or so, to get them out of observation," offered Snape. "If we're really questioning the sanity of removing the lock."

"You want me to hide from the murderer of my parents?" Asked Harry, his voice rising. "No, unlock my magic so I can kill him on sight."

Everyone turned towards him silently.

"Harry, you can't kill him," murmured Draco, shocked.

"Why not?" Asked Harry, his anger growing. "You all seem to forget that he killed my parents and tried to murder me too. And you expect me to be in the same house with him while he tries to steal magic and do nothing about it?"

"You'll defend yourself, of course," said Snape. "But killing him unprovoked will bring down the wiccan law on everyone here, not just yourself."

"Unprovoked? Wiccan law?" Asked Harry, his head spinning, not sure which to address first.

"Look, I understand the hatred that you're feeling towards Him," said Snape, holding Harry's shoulders. "Do you think I don't want to kill the monster that killed Lily? But if we do so we will be no better than the dark wicca. We will certainly be treated as such by the law. When a disruption as great as a murder occurs here, every wiccan in this city and the next one over will feel the ripple of it. We have law enforcers who will rush here and arrest all of us."

Harry looked into Snape's eyes. For the first time, the wall wasn't there. The passion and honesty shone through.

"I'm not asking you to get along with the man. But if we want to incapacitate him, we have to come up with a comprehensive plan. Not only because murder is out of the question, but also because of how powerful he is as a wiccan. There is no point sitting here and discussing this. First we have to unlock your magic and see if it is even strong enough to withstand the force of his attacks when he chooses to steal your magic."

"Why are we assuming that he will know who I am at all?" Asked Harry suddenly. "Maybe he won't recognize me. He met me once when I was a one-year-old."

Everyone's eyes flicked up to the lightning bolt scar on Harry's forehead.

"Do you remember how you got that scar?" Asked Lucius softly. Harry shook his head.

Draco moved forward again to place three fingers over it. He moved them clockwise in a semicircle, uttering a word. Harry felt something cool on his forehead and saw everyone's solemn expressions.

"What?" He asked impatiently.

"It's shining a dark green," explained Narcissa. "That means it was created with black magic. Voldemort will recognize the scar he left on you."

"This scar," said Harry, gasping. "It was left by him?"

He felt an overwhelming sense of nausea. He'd been marked.

Snape nodded at him and blew on his forehead. The cooling sensation disappeared, and the glow with it, Harry assumed.

"Can't we remove the scar?" He asked desperately.

"I'm afraid that none of us are strong enough for that," murmured Snape.

"We need to unlock your magic," Narcissa pressed. "We need to do it right away. The risk of not doing it is greater than the unknown consequences of doing it."

"It is ultimately your decision," said Draco reassuringly.

"Yes," acknowledged Narcissa reluctantly. "But a decision you must make fast."

"Fine," said Harry, bracing himself. "Let's do it. Let's unlock my magic."

"The worst case scenario is that your bond won't hold," said Lucius as they started walking towards the garden.

Harry looked at Draco who was walking beside him, holding his hand for reassurance. He'd dismissed thoughts of any possibility of ever removing the bond between them for some days now. But now that it was a possibility again, instead of hopeful, he felt a kind of sadness. If he wasn't tied to Draco anymore, he had no reason to stay at the manor. He'd found a place for himself here and despite the struggles he'd gone through, he'd come to like his life here. The companionship of being with Draco, someone who was understanding and mindful towards him, would be the thing that he'd miss the most.

He held Draco's hand a bit tighter after that until they reached the ancient white tree. The moonlight streamed down on them. The snow was finally starting to melt away, but the scene was as magical as ever and took Harry's breath away once again. This seemed like a suitable place to decide the rest of his fate.

He stood in front of the tree and the others made a circle around him. Snape was on his right, Draco on his left, and Narcissa directly in front of him, with Lucius standing behind her. They held out their hands in the direction of each other, while Lucius kept his pointed down.

"He is the anchor," explained Snape, still in teacher mode and catching Harry's curious gaze. "That is the role of the bonded, to anchor their wiccan."

Harry shifted uncomfortably. There was so much uncertainty with what they were about to do. Even if his bond with Draco remained intact, how could they define their roles in a wiccan-wiccan bond? He smiled, not finding the idea of being the one to order Draco around the least bit troubling.

He looked up at the perfect circle of the moon as Narcissa started the incantation. There was an undeniable magic in the air, charged evermore by the magic that they were putting into it. Harry watched, mesmerized, as Narcissa's words turned into a white light that surrounded him. By now, Draco was covered in an aura of gold while Snape was covered in a blue one. Would he be able to do spells like these after his magic was unlocked?

He gasped as the black symbols appeared again in front of his stomach, but grew and drifted to the centre of the circle. The blue and golden lights simultaneously moved to encase it. For the first time, Harry felt a physical blow. Until now, all the strings and the glowing scar that had appeared on and around him had felt beyond the physical realm, but this strange black symbol seemed to have a physical hold on him. The more faded the black became as it was covered with the golden and blue lights, the more pain Harry felt in his stomach. It was as if something was eating him from the inside out. He clutched his stomach, falling to his knees.

"Stop," he gasped out.

His words were carried away by the wind. He doubled over as the pain grew. The symbol in front of him was spreading and growing larger in order to try and keep itself from being completely devoured, but it wasn't fast enough. Harry stared at it and willed it to disappear, wanting the pain to stop. He watched in astonishment as the white light encompassing him moved towards the black symbol, covering all the leftover areas that the gold and blue lights hadn't reached yet.

The pain disappeared all at once with the symbol. He felt his magic unfurling inside him like a smooth syrup and sighed with pleasure. Draco appeared at his side a moment later, wrapping an arm around him. Harry brought his hands up and stared at his palms. He could feel the golden energy of his magic buzzing under his skin, ready to be released.

"Are you okay?" Asked Draco with concern.

Harry looked up at Draco, his vision swimming, filled with spots of colour. He tried to blink them away and after a few tries his vision became clearer.

"Yeah," he replied, smiling dreamily.

He heard Narcissa's soft laughter. "He's feeling the magic."

"What about the bond?" He heard Snape ask sharply.

He could still tell whose voice was whose, but they all had a sing-song quality to them that he hadn't heard before. He looked around at the nature surrounding him; it was more beautiful than he could remember. Each flower petal made an impression on him with the life inside it pouring through.

"I feel the bond," said Draco, sounding relieved. He waved his hand just to make sure that the golden string was still in place. "The bond is fine."

Recalling his earlier concerns about their roles in a wiccan-wiccan bond, Harry worked hard to concentrate on Draco. It was hard to keep his attention on a single thing when everything was so adamant on being distracting.

"Draco, sit," he commanded, trying it out.

"Why?" Asked Draco, perplexed. "Are you alright?"

"He's trying to see if he can command you around now that the bond is wiccan-wiccan," said Snape with an amused smile.

"Obviously I'm still in command," said Draco, crossing his arms over his chest. "Harry, stand."

Harry scrambled to stand up and pouted. "Why are you still in charge?"

"Because the bond initially formed between us with me in charge. Don't push your luck, Harry. You're new to the wiccan world, be thankful that I'm still in charge and will make sure you're headed down the right path," said Draco indignantly.

Harry was too busy poking a leaf to pay him much attention. Lucius stepped forward to make a comment, but Narcissa pulled him back. "He's just rediscovering the world; give him the night. We'll talk about the more serious matters tomorrow."

With a reluctant nod from Lucius, Draco's parents left the garden, followed by Snape shortly after that. Draco kept a cautious hand on Harry's back but let him walk around the garden, touching and looking at things that had seemed so ordinary before but looked so fascinating now.