27 July 1985

The days and weeks passed easily for Harry and Severus. With a little backup from the Headmaster the acquisition of Harry's familiar was specifically put off until Harry had fully settled into his new circumstances.

In the meantimes the Potions Master had gone over his lesson plans for the new term and he had researched a Primary School for Muggle children in Manchester, England. His research included a Primary School on the wizarding side of Manchester that would work as well. Severus was still debating internally as to where he would send his son.

Harry was looking forward to school since he had not been allowed to go to school when he was living with the Dursleys. He was soon to turn five, though, and it was time for him to learn how to write properly, and to better his reading. He also needed to get used to other children. Despite students coming to Hogwarts at the beginning of term there were no children Harry's age.

Since Severus had a whole host of ingredients to prepare for seven levels of classes it was the child's new grandfather who showed him around the castle. Hagrid and Fang continued to accept the child's help with the Thestrals, and after Severus had supervised a proper introduction, Harry could also help with the new arrival, Buckbeak the Hippogriff.

27 July 1985 - early afternoon

Harry James Potter-Snape was walking with his grandfather down to Hagrid's hut. The half-giant, coming from his pumpkin garden bellowed a friendly hail as he waved. Fang, asleep on the front porch perked up when he smelled the arrival of 'Lemon' and 'Dirt'. With a stretch that caused him to rise from the wooden slats of the porch Fang tumbled over to his little 'Dirt' and hairy-faced 'Lemon'.

"Hi, Fang! Hi, Hagrid!" waved Harry and was promptly knocked onto his back by the boarhound. He giggled now since he was no longer afraid of the 'big baby'. For a moment the groundskeeper and the Headmaster watched as boy and dog wrestled, then Fang jumped to his feet, and Harry was soon chasing the boarhound.

"Good afternoon, Hagrid," greeted Albus.

"'Eadmaster. What's got ye out o' yer office, Sir?" Hagrid ushered the older wizard to his front porch where they could keep an eye on Harry and Fang.

"It was getting stuffy with all that paperwork and when Severus had to work on his ingredients for his classes I had a lovely reprieve in my grandson." The old man smiled proudly. He was so very pleased with his little family.

"What a nice lil surprise that was, 'Eadmaster," chuckled Hagrid. "Professor Snape's always thought highly of ye."

Albus blushed and smiled in melancholy. "I have not always measured up, Hagrid, but I do hope that I am making amends where I can."

Harry breathlessly ran down the hill with Fang after him. He barrelled right into the groundskeeper. Before he could smack head or nose on that very tall man's knees, Hagrid caught him.

"Sorry. That hill just kept pushing me and I couldn't stop!" he laughed. "Hagrid are you feeding Buckbeak soon?"

Hagrid set Harry back on his feet and grinned. "Ah 'spec we can feed Bucky right now, 'Arry. Ah picked some fresh sweet melon squash. Nice treat fer 'im t'day." He stood and turned to Albus. "Ye 'aven't met our 'Ippogriff, 'Eadmaster. Care to come along?"

Albus stood from his chair. "I'd like that, Hagrid. Harry told me about his first meeting with Buckbeak and how Buckbeak 'affectionately' knocked him on his bum."

Hagrid whistled for Fang who was bouncing after something in the grass a few feet away. Lifting his broad head he looked towards his humans, left the large rat he had almost caught, and trundled along with them to the Hippogriff paddock. The rat squeaked and scampered through the grass towards the castle. Harry caught a glint of silver dashing away but as he was going to feed Buckbeak, the curious shine was quickly forgotten.

Feeding Buckbeak and the Thestrals ended all too soon for Harry. He was picked up at Hagrid's Hut by his father and he walked between the new father and son (his grandfather and father) to the castle. Albus departed at the Entrance Hall with a hug and a kiss from Harry and an… affectionate nod… from Severus.

Once down in their quarters in the dungeons Harry let free his first yawn. Severus ushered him off to 'the jungle room' and put his son to bed. Once he was sure that his child was asleep, Severus Summoned his new drawing tablet and art quill - a special quill that would automatically renew its ink reserves, and the platinum nib could be exchanged magically between six others.

The Potions Master seated himself by the softly glowing fireplace that gave off just enough heat to take the chill out of the air from the pervasive cold of the dungeons. Facing his sleeping son he flipped the drawing tablet to an empty page. For a moment he studied the innocence in his son's sleeping face. His face was one unmarred by the abuse of his relatives. Before Severus was simply a child, a normal boy. He began to draw his son.

28 July 1985 - A Dragon Boy

A visitor. A boy his age. Harry sat primly on the sofa in their sitting room. He wore a pair of trousers, a pale blue shirt with short sleeves, and over that a knitted brown jumper with hem and cuffs that were cream coloured. He had intended to wear his dress shoes but his father mentioned that he and the little boy visitor, his father's godson, were going to play in the Staff Courtyard. Therefore, he wore a pair of black socks (he had been talked out of the yellow socks decorated with mean looking blue fuzzies on it) and his new trainers.

Harry was both excited and nervous. He had tried making friends but they either moved away (Maisie) or were scared away by Dudley and his friends (skinny Jack Parker). This boy, this Draco Malfoy, would be his first friend that wouldn't move away or be scared by a bully. That is, if Draco and Harry even liked each other.

Severus, taking to his drawing tablet, appeared not to be nervous about this visit as he sketched a small portrait of his son waiting. The truth was, the Potions Master was worried. Harry had got along well with Lucius during their shopping trip but becoming friends with Draco was another matter altogether.

The young wizard frankly loved his godson. Draco was destined to become very like his father but he was also blessed with a strong compassion that Severus suspected might send the boy into Hufflepuff when he became a student. Lucius had reacted badly, at first, to that supposition but then he had heard the wisdom of his brother's logical argument that 'no matter what House Draco might be Sorted into, the child was still the son of Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy'.

Lucius was teaching his son all that he needed to learn about being a son, then an heir, and lastly of being the son of a Death Eater. Draco knew his father had never wanted to be under the thumb of the Dark Lord, and he also knew that his grandfather Abraxxas had been the one to 'present and betray', his godfather, Severus Snape. Just as his own father must appear the 'foppish aristocrat and Death Eater to those in the Dark Lord's Circle, Draco knew, even at the age 4 that he had a role to play in public versus the one he lived in private.

It was this Draco Malfoy, of the private world of the Malfoys, that Severus hoped would befriend his son.

Malfoy Manor - Draco Malfoy's Bedroom

"Why did my godfather have to get a son, Father?" asked Draco with his head in his wardrobe.

Lucius was seated on an elegant Louis XIV chair upholstered in sea green silk. "Your godfather was not 'forced' in any manner, Dragon. Young Harry needed a family that would be able to protect him and without argument your godfather is one of our world's most powerful wizards."

"But Uncle Severus is mine," Draco pouted as he closed the door of his wardrobe. He was supposed to have picked out a shirt to wear but all he had done was turn his pale blond locks into a mess as the clothing that hung above him had served only to annoy him.

Lucius would usually send Draco back to complete his task but the child was genuinely upset. Waving his child over towards the bed, he pointed his wand at the wardrobe; the doors opened, a shirt flew out towards the elder Malfoy, and then, before Draco could sit upon the edge of the bed he drew his son closer and slipped the shirt onto him with a touch of magic.

Draco tried to suppress a sniffle and so he was happy when he father enfolded him into the comfort of his arms. There, in such safety, he was allowed to weep. After a few tears were let onto his father's chest Lucius drew his son away, wiped away his tears with a conjured handkerchief, and nudged him to raise his silvery-grey gaze of the small boy's up to his own.

"You do not wish to share your godfather?" Lucius asked softly. Draco only shook his head in mournful negativity. "Your godfather has a very large heart, Dragon. For me, for your mother, most certainly for you, and now he shares the love he holds for us… his family… with his own son."

"What if Harry doesn't like me?" Draco asked softly as the real worry asserted itself. "I don't know any other children, Father."

Lucius chuckled gently. "You do recall that your godfather is my brother, correct?" Draco nodded. "So, he is your uncle, as you so call him. Therefore, Severus' son would be…?"

Draco only paused a moment, "M-my cousin?" A spark of understanding lit his beautiful gaze and Lucius smiled as he then nodded. "Harry's my age, too. Do you think he'd like to chase peacocks with me or ride my Aethenor?" His voice perked up just a bit.

"Severus tells me that one of Harry's favourite activities is to run with the groundskeeper's dog, Fang. He also enjoys drawing, and Severus has made the attempt to play chess with him."

Draco's nose wrinkled. His own father was trying to teach him the game but he still found it more fun to create mayhem on the board with the animated chess pieces. Lucius outright laughed. "Yes, Dragon. I understand that Harry is quite enamoured of making a mess of wizarding chess just as you are!"

For a moment Draco smiled at his father. He was very much reassured that his fears were unfounded. However, there was one more things he needed to know before they went to Hogwarts. He leaned forward supporting himself by placing his hands on his father's knees as he leaned forward.

"Does Harry like good socks, Father?"

Lucius also leaned forward and tapped his son's pert, aristocratic nose. He whispered, "I happen to know that he has a pair of green and yellow socks that your godfather detests."

Draco was suddenly overjoyed. He clapped his hands once and ran over to his wardrobe. "I'll meet you and mother downstairs, Father! Thank you!"

The elder Malfoy, satisfied with his moment of parenting, rose from his chair and left his son's bedroom. It was now time to find Narcissa who was also trepidatious about meeting her new nephew.

Narcissa Malfoy was more beautiful as a woman who was a mother than she had been as a sixteen year old ingenue. Lucius was breathless at the sight of his wife. The lovely woman appeared as delicate as a lace and silk flower in her new tea dress. The bodice, of sea green spiderweb lace spilled over cream silk until it ended in an Empire waist. The skirt then drifted down in the softest of silk in green and cream stripes. Pale green slippers with a hint of a heel ended the 'stems' of shapely legs in semi-transparent silk stockings that matched the green of the slippers.

"Ahh, Narcissa Black, be mine own… once again?" Lucius sighed.

Narcissa turned to find herself in her husband's arms. She kissed him and melted delightfully against him. She then smiled wickedly up into those silver-grey eyes of his he had shared with his son.

"Ever and always, my love," Narcissa then delicately slipped from her husband's arms and twirled slowly for him. "Acceptable?"

Slowly the wizard shook his head. He stepped into his wife's sphere once more and began to remove the silver pins that held her curls up on her head. One by one tendrils fell to her back and shoulders. Lucius then Summoned two combs of green enamel with a diamond peacock on one and a diamond peahen on the other. He carefully placed one comb on each side of her temple artfully loose. He then used his wand, and a Cosmetic Sticking Charm to hold the styling in place.

"That is acceptable, Cissy." He took his wife by the shoulders and turned her so she could view herself in the full-length, oval mirror.

Narcissa wrapped a curl around her finger and managed a shy smile at her reflection. "Lucius, I'm a grown woman not young woman vying for a suitor..."

"Shhh," he moved aside his wife's hair to nibble at that sensitive spot beneath her ear. When she giggled he knew he had the right place. "You will ever be as young in my eyes as the day I beheld you in your wedding gown. Spun sugar drifting over the blue ice of Winter."

Narcissa turned in her husband's arms and this time he kissed his wife with every particle of love, passion, and adoration lodged for her within his heart. When he pulled away, Narcissa was pleasantly light-headed, and her lips were rosy with arousal.

"Now, my beloved, Cissy, you are perfect," he pronounced. He offered her his elbow. "Shall we meet our patiently waiting son?"

Narcissa wrapped her hands around Lucius and stopped him. "Lucius…" she drew him closer and drew a hand down his chest until she held his opposite hand. "What we hoped…" she pressed the palm of his hand to her abdomen. "... was just this morning confirmed at one month."

Lucius expressed his delighted joy.

The old Muggle clock on the mantle, the only heirloom of the Snapes, chimed the noon hour and alerted Severus to the precise time of the Malfoys arrival by Floo. He stood just as the the orange flames whooshed into green. He motioned to his son and Harry scrambled to stand beside his father.

Severus could feel the nerves and excitement radiating off of his son like a palpable seen wave of magic. The elder Snape extended a hand to the younger Snape. Harry gripped his father's slim fingers in his small hand and sighed with some relief.

"Brother, might we come over?" came Lucius' voice through the Floo.

"You and your family are welcome, Brother," replied the Potions Master.

All three of the Malfoys gracefully stepped through… well, two of them were graceful. Draco emerged sneezing from the unfortunately ever present lingering dust of fireplace ash. Severus conjured a handkerchief for his godson while Lucius cast a simple Scourgify that vanished the ash. Once the sneezing fit was finished, introductions were made.

Harry was enchanted with his Aunt Cissy. She looked just like a fairy princess from the book Harry had rescued from his cousin. Then he met his new cousin - a near carbon-copy of his father.

"My son, Draco. Draco, your cousin, Harry," said Lucius with a slight nudge to Draco's back.

Harry bowed rather than offering his hand. "Welcome to our home, cousin," he recited just as his father taught him.

Draco bowed in return, but then straightened. "Your socks are black!"

Harry grabbed the knees of his trousers so he could view his socks better. "Yeah, Dad told me that your visit was formal so I had to wear black socks."

Draco lifted the hems of his trousers to show socks that were green with blue hippogriffs. Harry shot an 'see, I told you so?' at his father. "Those are neat, Draco!"

With that simple acceptance, Draco beamed. "What kind do you have?"

"Lotsa stripes and blue meanies," replied Harry. He turned to his father. "Can I show Draco my blue meanie socks?"

Severus sighed, and nodded. "Go put those atrocious socks on, and hurry. We are having lunch in the staff courtyard."

To Draco's surprise Harry caught his hand and dragged him into his room. At the doorway Draco was petrified as he looked at everything that made up a jungle in the evening. Harry moved to his wardrobe, sat on the step-stool, removed trainers and socks, and dove in for the blue meanie socks.

"I've never seen anything like this…" Draco finally managed to blurt. "Who did this?"

"Dad painted it for me," replied Harry as he tied the shoelaces of his trainers. "He told me he used to draw and paint when he was younger but he stopped when he had to grow up. So, one night while I was sleeping dad painted the walls."

Draco moved into the bedroom and climbed up onto the bed. "Do you think your dad would paint my room?"

Harry climbed up beside Draco. "I can't say for him but you sure could ask. Dad told me he's your godfather and he loves you just like he loves me." He shrugged. "That means he might paint your room. What's it like now?"

Draco wrinkled his nose. "Kind of girly. It's white and with some blue but it's just all…" he waved his hands. Harry nodded in understanding. "My old, fat cousin Dudley had a room that was all in pink with fluffy clouds on the ceiling."

"Ew!"

"Yeah," agreed Harry. "Dudley peed on the walls a lot 'cuz he hated it. His bedroom always smelled bad."

"Didn't his mother and father get mad at him for doing that?" asked Draco aghast at this strange Muggle cousin's behaviour.

Harry shook his head. "Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon never got mad at their 'Dudders'," he confessed sourly. "They just threw me in my cupboard when Dudley misbehaved."

"That's awful, Harry. I'd never be nasty like that to you. We're family." Draco smiled.

Harry grinned back. "Yeah we are."

Severus stuck his head into his son's room. His lips were thin. "Harry, are you trying on all of your socks? You are making our guests wait."

Harry and Draco slid off the bed. Harry grabbed his father's hand. Draco, feeling a tiny stab of jealousy caught his godfather's other hand in his. "Sorry, Dad. I was telling Draco about my room. He likes it."

Draco nodded. "It's wicked, Uncle Severus!"

"Thank you, Dragon," nodded Severus.

"Dad? Could you paint Draco's room? He said it's got blue in it but it's girly." He looked across his father's abdomen. "Would you want a jungle, Draco?"

Draco shook his head. "King Arthur and the Round Table. All the knights and stuff. That would be…"

"You found our wayward offspring, Severus," chuckled Lucius at the sight of the dour Potions Master with a cherub on each side of him.

Narcissa smiled, "I was afraid they had vanished."

Draco moved over to his mother and was about to tell her about Harry's room but Severus tossed the glittering green floo powder into the flames and called out, "Hogwarts Staff Courtyard!"

The Staff Courtyard was a lovely little hidden away garden that Severus and Lily Evans had found as first years at Hogwarts. Together, in the tradition of The Secret Garden, they cleaned up the forgotten garden. They set to rights statuary that had fallen, and repaired stone benches that had succumbed to lichen and erosion. They planted all manner of flowers, ferns, bushes, and Lily had planted a pepper tree with the knowledge that she likely would not see it come to fruition long after she left Hogwarts. As it was, she planted the tree, and never saw the garden after that first year. Lily's attention had been captured by her schoolwork and friends. Severus spent an annoying amount of his free time avoiding, when he could, the four Marauders of Gryffindor - James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew. This garden became his refuge.

He had tried after their first year to lure Lily into coming back but it had been a one year project that she soon forgot. Severus had continued to maintain the garden. He planted an herb garden, roses that bloomed in the array of a rainbow, and he planted ingredients that he often used in his potions.

The young student built up the surrounding garden with wards and spells to further keep it hidden, and to do so should he ever pass on. The courtyard became his own little place to study, and to hide away from the Marauders. When he returned as teacher and spy he had shown the garden to Albus and suggested that it be kept just for the staff.

Over nearly five years each teacher had added to the garden flowers, ferns, ivy, bushes, or trees that reminded them of comforts from their childhood.

Albus, who adored roses, had placed a whitewashed gazebo at the center of the rose garden. With Pomona Sprout's help he had coaxed a yellow flowering ivy to drape itself over the gazebo. Minerva, who rather enjoyed lavender and blue bells of Scotland had planted those in a corner of the garden where she added a stone grotto where she could sit and study, or sleep in her Animagus cat form amongst the aromas of her childhood.

Filius Flitwick, the dwarven teacher of Charms had gotten besotted one evening and had sprinkled all of the garden liberally with a profusion of clover. Sober, he had added moss, and then a quaint, small stream that ambled throughout the garden.

It was a hidden enchantment that Lucius, Narcissa, and the two boys had never seen.

"There are no birds here," remarked Lucius as Severus directed them to the gazebo on the north side of the garden.

"Very true, Lucius," agreed Severus. "The problem is in changing the wards to allow birds or insects to fly in and out." He mused thoughtfully as he took a seat under the shade of the gazebo. "House elves have to mimic what nature provides."

Lucius 'listened' to the magic of the wards. It was a particularly rare talent he had in which he was able to thread his way mentally through each layer of wards that had been settled over the garden since Severus had begun his initial work in his first year as a student. It was a formidable talent and it was a good thing that Lucius was not, and never had been, on the side of Voldemort. If so, Lucius could conceivably have been as powerful opponent as the Dark Lord.

So rare, in fact, was his magical talent that neither he nor Severus could ever find a description or name for it. It also had come to Lucius as easily as breathing did. Since the day he had discovered this skill (at 16) he had called it 'listening'. He did so now in order to find the one ward that would allow the natural inhabitants of nature into the garden. No doubt if there were no birds then there were no insects, spiders, etcetera. How their jobs were being mimicked by house elves Lucius could not comprehend. It would be so much easier to allow that bit of Nature to exist within the perfection of the garden.

"Ah!" Lucius declared as he found the one ward he was looking for.

Draco was not interested in watching his father do something invisible that no one could see. Since lunch might be awhile he'd rather play. Interrupting, he asked, "Can me and Harry go play, Father?"

Only for a moment did irritation cross Lucius' face as he was distracted from the magic of the wards. Narcissa touched her husband's arm in placation and focussed her attention on her son. "Go and enjoy yourselves, Dragon. I or Severus will call when lunch is ready."

Without a by-your-leave Draco grabbed Harry's hand and they both rambled off the gazebo and out into the garden where they could play.

"...clover's just a weed!" scoffed Harry.

"Noooo!" cried Draco as he pulled his dark-haired cousin down beside him amongst a profusion of clover. "Watch." Draco picked fully formed, three-leafed clover.

"Four-leafed is supposed to be lucky," muttered Harry.

"Muggle myth. Of course, that does keep Muggles away from what they consider common clover… all those plants with 3 leaves."

With sudden interest Harry watched as a very faint green glow limned his tow-headed cousins fingers. Draco was weaving the fragile plants together as one might do so for a daisy chain. He then held it up to Harry. "Spit on it."

"You sure?" Harry pulled slightly away.

"Spit. On. It." Draco ordered thinly. Harry, still skeptical and sort of weirded out, leaned forward and spit. Draco gave the small, woven vine of clover a twist. "Alright. Wait." Draco scrambled to his feet and ran for the gazebo. Harry watched as the boy held the short vine out to his father. He asked him something, Uncle Lucius nodded and took out his wand, and touched the vine. There was a sparkle of magic, and then Draco ran back to Harry and seated himself. He presented the vine to Harry with a smile.

"Uhhh…" Harry took the vine of clover and was startled to find that it now felt like cool, metal links. "What is it?"

Draco was a little disappointed that Harry had no idea what he had just done for the boy. "It's a lucky friendship bracelet. My father did the solid magic because I can't do that, yet."

"Lucky friendship?" Harry studied the bracelet, saw the catch and hook, and asked Draco to help him put it on.

Draco looped the bracelet around his cousin's left wrist and hooked it closed. Harry admired the small bit of jewelry that glinted greenly in the sunshine.

"I want to make one for you, Draco," said Harry with a smile.

Within minutes Harry was picking clover plants with three leaves and long stems. Under Draco's quiet instruction he wove the plant material with such concentration that the tip of his tongue lay upon his lower lip. Finally, his creation was nearly finished. He then had Draco spit upon the small vine.

"Alright," said Draco the teacher. Take one end in each hand. You're going to twist the vine once. The right hand will go towards you and the left towards me." Draco watched as Harry expertly twisted the small creation. "Perfect! Now, take it to your father or mine and ask him to 'make it into links'." Draco looked up. "We're too young for that sort of magic."

Harry hurried to his feet, ran to the gazebo, and then held the twisted plant matter out to his father. "Draco said that you're supposed to make it into links…" he held up his left wrist to show the bracelet the younger Malfoy had made. "See, Shadow? Like mine."

Severus' wand appeared in his hand. "Ligare O Fortunae."

In Harry's hand the vine shimmered and changed into emerald metal links imprinted with three leaves each and ending in a hook and clasp. Harry thanked him and ran off with his gift for his cousin.

"Lucky friendship bracelets," mused Lucius. "I had no idea Dragon knew of them."

"We have an extensive library, my dear," interjected Narcissa. "Perhaps he has begun to see its value."

Lucius sighed. Before the melancholy of knowing his child was growing he turned to their host. "Your owl-letter was suitably vague, Severus. What is that you wished to share with us?"

As if prepared, Severus removed an odd bottle from within a hidden pocket of his long coat. The bottle was shaped like an elongated tear with pointed, curled ends. The bottle was black but for the very center that coalesced like a milky memory from a pensieve. He held up the teardrop suspended between his thumb and forefinger as he showed the object.

"Fascinating," remarked Lucius.

"There is something… eerily wrong about whatever that is, Severus," Narcissa shuddered slightly and put her hand protectively over the secret she had shared hours earlier with her husband.

Severus, ever the observant wizard, caught Narcissa's protective gesture. Quickly he enclosed the tear in the palm of his hand. "Narcissa, I think you should go and watch over the boys. Now." He rose from his chair and took several steps away from the witch. Narcissa did not ask any questions as she abruptly rose from her chair and made her way to the boys who were now watching something in the small stream.

Severus returned to his chair. "Wretched Hades, Brother," gasped Lucius. "What is that thing you have?"

The Potions Master returned to his chair and revealed the black tear. "Pure Essence of Dementor."

Lucius cursed under his breath in French. He then looked over at his wife who had seated herself between the two four-year olds. "Will Cissy be all right?"

Severus nodded. "As will the child she carries, Brother."

"I do not know what to begin to ask, Severus… what, how, when?" stuttered the aristocrat.

"I have long wanted to understand the Dementors, Lucius. They are a magical creature that has been around longer than we have been in existence. We fool ourselves into believing that we can control them, and the truth is… we do not."

Lucius held up his hand. "Put that away, Severus. It makes me ill just seeing it." The Potions Master tucked the tear away in his hidden pocket. "How did you manage to even study a Dementor. You know what they do to our…" Lucius' right hand covered his left forearm where his Dark Mark had begun to noticeably burn.

"Because of the Dark Mark and its… reaction to a Dementor… it was not possible to do my research to the depth I wanted. However… circumstances changed." Severus unbuttoned his left cuff and rolled up the sleeves of coat and shirt, and showed Lucius his smooth inner forearm. Lucius' mouth very nearly dropped open. His silvery gaze widened in wonder. "Somehow, when I rescued Harry and adopted him as my son… events in Time changed. I am convinced that myself and Albus would have died and Voldemort would be returned. My son would have been caught in the miasmic threads of a Prophecy that compelled him to kill the Dark Lord." Severus shook his head slowly. "That has been changed and with that past crushed my Dark Mark was erased. Immediately I dove into my theoretical research and I was able to break down what a Dementor is and how it… takes the sustenance of a Soul…"

Narcissa knew that Severus as a Potions Master dealt with magical substances that were dangerous but what he'd had in his hand was much darker than dangerous. She could sense its existence and it felt like all the tears she had wept over the miscarriage she had a year before Draco. A tiny son who had not lived even long enough to take a breath when he was born. The terror she had felt for her unborn child had shaken her and when Severus ordered her to leave she happily did so.

Walking towards her son and her nephew they were both crouched on the edge of the small stream that tumbled through the garden. "Whatever has your interests?" asked Narcissa.

Harry flinched but not because he was afraid of his Aunt Cissy, it was simply that he had not heard her. He smiled to welcome her. Draco replied to his mother, "We're looking for tadpoles, Mother."

Narcissa sat between the two boys. "Have you seen any?"

"No," replied Harry. "But there's lots of shiny pebbles at the bottom. Do you think it would be all right if we took some?"

"Please, Mother?" pleaded Draco.

"Perhaps three or four each," she agreed.

Harry stretched out onto his belly so he would be closer to the water. Draco tried to stay in his crouch and almost fell into the stream. His mother had caught him. Upon seeing the his cousin was having luck in his prone position Draco shifted and he was soon on his belly.

Narcissa was pointing out interesting pebbles until Draco picked one out of the water that gleamed a bright yellow. "Gold!" shouted Draco.

"That's not gold!" asserted Harry.

"It is so!" Draco glared indignantly. "This is gold and now I'm rich and that means you're my slave and you have to do whatever I tell you to do!"

Something broke in Harry. It almost felt the way a breaking bone might snap but it was not that. It was indefinable. As that something broke a wave of heat, angry and in pain, washed so quickly over Harry he couldn't stop himself. He pushed and Draco flailed and fell into the stream. Draco did not sit down and cry. He shot back up of the water, and though he knew his mother was ordering him to stop, he still struck out by pulling his cousin down into the water with him. Like two dragons the boys splashed, wrestled, and yelled all manner of insults at each other. Suddenly, a burst of Accidental Magic radiated from Harry. The magic knocked Draco back several feet along the stream.

The heat, the anger, the pain stopped. Cut off like the strings for a marionette. And, like that puppet, Harry became a thing boneless and he flopped into the water. As water filled his nose, his mouth, and his lungs… all went black as ink.