DISCLAIMER: I don't own Harry Potter or any of it's characters, places or plot. However I DO own the Drakengard Family (copyright pending) and the concept and history of the Dragonæ (copyright ditto).

AN: Phew! I thought this chapter would never end! Seriously people, even if I know that most of hte aspects of this chapters were a MUST for the Story, still it was hard to write (I'm more into the action than the drama or Family stuff, so it was, almost boring to write this). the only good thing that comes from this is that It is now behind, and we can move on into more ENTRETAINING matters... like Michelle's family, wich will be trylu fun ;)

:14:

It was well past midnight when the rest of Harry's troupe arrived to the hospital; in the end they had to put up with about a dozen military guards, apart from Lieutenants D'argent & Jacques, who had been hand piqued to keep them and the Count safe from all harm.
Remus and Sirius had both adopted half a fatherly figure for the sake of the children, Remus was the overzealous ad protective figure, while Sirius was the fun-loving one; John, Drake's pilot, had chosen to stay behind to talk to the police and the media, allowing the lot of them some time to themselves.

From his seat in the waiting room, Harry was observing the events unfold with a critical eye, while fighting the uphill battle of controlling his most childish impulses to throw himself to the ground and cry and wail until he could see his father.

He smacked himself mentally. As much as he appreciated Drake's efforts and caring, he wasn't his father; or at least not his real one, even if he was the closest thing he ever had, apart from Sirius from his past lifetime.

The boy-who-lived sighed, this was not the time for such ponderings.

He glanced around again and found out that the scene around him had not changed in the least: to his fight, was Sirius, with an arm around him and the other around Robert, who was holding a crying Liz, while trying to control his sobbing; Remus was still at the counter, trying to find out what he could about Drake's whereabouts and status. Jacques and D'argent stood on guard, still fully armed, two seat away to the left and right, and all around them were the dozen guards, looking fairly intimidating.

Sirius had been making some jokes, but his usual charm seemed to have been lost by the graveness of the situation.

Sighing, Harry went back to his own little world, reflecting over the past incidents.

He remembered that in the past, he had hated being a magnet for unrequited attention, thinking that it would interfere with his daily life; this, of course had been proven right over and over again by the reactions of Britain's wizarding community to him. At the beginning he had been awed by the mere fact that he was indeed famous; but after finding out just why he was famous, he began hating his fame. 'I was famous because both my parents sacrificed themselves to protect me from a madman' he reflected for a hundredth time 'I would change my fame for their lives, anytime.' He would have loved to have a happy, normal family, perhaps even other siblings, like brothers or sisters; he would have given any amount of things for this dream to come true; but that wasn't going to happen... at least not the way he wanted to...

'But you already have all that', his heart chided him with a voice of its own 'You have Rob and Liz as brother and sister, and there is Drake and lady Silver' he shook his head 'it's not the same' his mind answered 'they are not Lily and James Potter'

'And how do you know?' a third voice reminded him of the bitter facts 'you never knew them either. So how is it different?'

'Simply because it is!'

'Now you're just being childish. There is no difference, and you know it. You just don't want to be hurt if we lose them' Harry frowned

'When did you become such a know-it-all'

'It rubs off from Hermione. Or did you actually think you could be her friend and not learn from her?'

'Cheeky bastard'.

The mention of Hermione posed another problem, a problem that he would have to issue sooner or later, because she was his soul mate.

'She is my soul mate' he remembered that particular fact from his talk with his death. But she was also Ron's girlfriend. 'No she is not' the third voice offered 'Last time she was, but now she doesn't even know him. Plus you know how they were always at each other's throats. Even you know that was no way to live.'

"Harry!" Sirius' voice brought him back to reality before he could answer, "You alright there, pronglet?" Harry blinked and looked up, his godfather was kneeling in front of him, while the others had began walking away. The boy nodded and Sirius' eased the frown that had been forming on his face "We've found Drake, apparently he was just released from surgery; we're heading his way now." The man stood up and offered his hand to his godson, who took it and walked beside him. "I tell you, that man has more lives than a cat, Drake has."

"What do you mean?" The man shrugged

"When your father and I – that means James and I – graduated from Hogwarts, the school that you will be attending when you're older, we both wanted to become aurors, to be able to fight against a madman that was terrifying the country. So, once we were accepted and finished our training, we were sent on a mission, that as supposed to be our final test. Anyhow, in this mission we were to capture one of the followers of the madman so that the authorities could interrogate him and, hopefully, find a way to fight back.

"Such was our luck that we actually crossed paths with one of Voldemort's inner circle members: Antonin Dolohov. The man was a master duelist and excellent at using Dark Curses, so we freshmen, had more than a little trouble trying to capture him." The pair rounded a corner and entered a recently vacated elevator, after hitting the fifth floor, Sirius continued with his tale "We tried to catch him in an open area, where he couldn't harm any civilians, but that, at the same time, gave us a fair advantage against the much more experienced fighter.

"So, we chose a park we both knew quite well, after all we had been there before, on several occasions, during our school days. Once the trap was set, we called the Count to ask for his help in getting the other man to go there; since we had learned that Dolohov was also a very prominent political figure by then, and what better way to catch a big fish, than with a bigger one. Because, sincerely, the owner of a training facility would be too much a temptation for Voldemort to pass up."

"He accepted even if he knew it would be dangerous?" Harry asked and his godfather nodded

"He said it would be an honor for him to help us in our careers even further... after all it was because of him and his classes at Hogwarts that your father and I had it easy when applying for Aurors." They exited the elevator and began following the rest of the group, which was stationed on the furthest north corner. "As I was saying, he accepted and sent a letter to Dolohov; they were supposed to meet in the park to speak about some political gibberish." As they approached the end of the corridor, Sirius summed up the story "To make a long story short, when our target was there and we sprang the trap, the first thing Dolohov did was attack Drake with a dark course that was supposed to melt his eyes, however the man just swatted it away and ran to him while we bombarded the death eater with stunners and other spells. Antonin had to turn around to face us, so he never saw Drake coming... and he received a kick in the back that gave us the opening we needed to land a stunner and silencing charms, and sending him out to the ministry."

"He swatted the curse?" Harry asked, his eyebrows rising when Sirius nodded

"One of the things he taught us in class, was that stopping curses was a lot harder than slightly altering their aim; this can be done almost effortlessly, when you know how." He winked at his godson, admiring his stunned face. After all, somehow, the six year old boy beside him acted more mature than a normal wizard, most of the time, that is. The older man didn't know why or how that was possible, but he suspected that it had a lot to do with him living with the dursleys. After all, Drake had said that they 'weren't particularly kind to Harry', he had wanted to know more, but the old man wouldn't say a word... perhaps it was another job for old Padfoot.

Arriving at the room, they found that the group had dispersed around a single bed, while the soldiers kept vigilance outside. They were let in without trouble and Harry found himself sitting on the couch between Remus and Sirius, while Elizabeth, Robert and Lady Silver –who had been in the room before them – watched over Drake.

Rob was silently standing beside his sister, his hand over his dad's arm, while Liz held the older man's hand in both of hers. Lady Silver, occupied the other side of the bed, and she would, literally, growl at anyone who dared try get her away.

Harry took turns with Rob, in taking care of Liz and placing a hand on the man's arm. During his stay there, Harry noted that something in his chest felt constricted, the feeling continued growing all through the night and wouldn't go away until tears started coming out of his eyes.

Even for all his efforts against it, Drake had become quite important to him, as a mentor, as a friend... as his parent. But, if he accepted the man as his parent then, what would happen to Sirius and Lupin... and what about James and Lily; he didn't want to forget, not them, not any of them or their sacrifices. Their lives.

He tried his best to hide his sobbing, but someone caught him.

"Harry?" startled, Harry turned around to see Sirius walking into the room, his eyes were slightly bloodshot and his hair was disheveled and greasy. The child inside the boy-who-lived won and he ran to his godfather, tightly hugging the man who by then had kneeled and waited with open arms. "What's wrong pup?" He tried cooing the boy, but in only made him cry louder, so he opted for simply patting his godson on the back.

Minutes later, when the Boy-Who-Lived finally got a hang of his emotions, he used his hands to sweep away the tears, and hiccupping spoke of his predicament.

"I-If Drake-" his voice broke for a moment

"You don't worry boy, Drake is a strong man; he'll be just fine in no time, you'll see"

"I- It's not that" Harry corrected "It's"

"He thinks he's going to lose you and his parent's memories if he adopts us as his family" Both wizards looked around to the voice; Rob was just waking up and rubbing his eyes, but his voice barely held any sleepiness in it "It happened to me too, and hopefully not Liz, since she was much too young when she was adopted" the marauder turned back to Harry

"Is that it Harry? You're worried you'll forget?" the boy gazed back at his godfather, and with green eyes boring into black ones he nodded.

"Oh you sweet boy!" The man hugged the boy against his chest "You shouldn't worry about that. I will never leave your side, and I'll be sure that your mother and father don't either."

"Nor will I" they were startled by a fourth voice, coming from behind them; looking round they found Remus Lupin smiling down at them. "Marauder's oath. I won't abandon a friend or family, ever; and you Harry, I love as my own" Sirius smiled up to his friend and nodded, accepting his sentiments.

"But... but-" Harry's words were cut off by no other than the dark skinned boy beside him

"But nothing. Harry, I will always remain your brother, no matter who you choose to live with; even if you chose to leave us and go to live with the Professors here present, I would still call you my brother. I am most sure than everyone here loves you as family" a un-lady-like snort behind them made Rob correct himself "Well, perhaps not Lady silver, but you get my meaning" he winked at his adopted younger brother, giving him a pat in the back before walking out of the room "I'm getting myself a soda, you want anything?" Harry shook, his head, still too bewildered and unsure of his voice to answer verbally. "If you say so brother." He stressed his last word and grinned at his adopted family member.

"You see Harry, everyone – bar the Lady back there – is with you on this. We are your family and family never abandons a member." At Sirius statement, Lady Silver sniffled up a bit, but said nothing.

----

The next day was easier on everyone.

Drake woke up at about noon and chatted amiably with everyone until he fell asleep again. According to the doctors, he should be 'up and running' in about ten days.

However, when the Count heard of this he was on the verge of shouting bloody murder.

Not five minutes later, the group, returning from a small trip to get food, found said character literally gambling his way out of the Hospital bed.

"Aha!" Drake exclaimed jovially "Royal flush! I win again!" he laughed a bit, while his doctor and the nurse scowled "I'll take a day back if you please" The doctor sighed but nodded.

"Yes, yes, I know. I've discounted you six days already! I'm not going to lose again!" Harry snorted, unsuccessfully trying to hold back his laughter, and was followed by other fits of laughter from the rest of the group; even the corners of Lady Silver's mouth twitched to form a smile, which she suppressed masterfully before rolling her eyes.

"Drake" she chided, and the nobleman winced

"Ups!" he looked apoplegically up to the group at the door, "Erm... hello?" the kids, Sirius and Lupin laughed harder while the lady frowned.

"You're supposed to be resting, not gambling your way out of hospital!" she demanded tapping her foot on the ground, and holding her arms akimbo.

Drake, meanwhile, had continued dealing the cards, and took that moment to look at his cards frowning. "Flame!" the female growled and the man sighed.

"Going mom." He left his cards on the table and laid back on his bed once again "sorry folks, it seems that we'll have to cut this match short, for today, that is; I intend to win back my freedom!" He announced high spirited, at which both doctor and nurse chuckled.

"I wouldn't worry much milady. Your husband appears to be healing nicely, and quite fast, if I must say so myself." Both Lady Silver and Drake winced almost imperceptibly when the doctor mentioned them being married, which Harry thought was strange. The doctor made a turn to look at Drake "By the way your highness, me and my fellow doctors are quite impress with your progress; we've never seen such a serious wound heal so fast; that and the fact that you actually survived the wound when all other patients bleed out within ten seconds" The wizards in the room paled at that piece of information, the hadn't known about it. "We were wondering if you knew how you achieved these miracles" Drake smiled and nodded.

"I can tell you about surviving the wound, but I wouldn't know about the fast healing" Harry noted that, if one looked hard enough, one could find out almost easily when Drake lied, as his eyes lost a bit of its twinkling nature. Of course Harry and the other knew about the healing, they were all magical beings, and their magic always aided to the healing on their wounds... which was why dark curses were so hard to heal, because the either blocked one's magic from helping, or they made it work against them. These facts they had learnt from Lupin, who saw fit to teach them some of the basics of dark magic, so that they could 'know what they were up against', in his own words.

"About surviving the wound, it is nothing so grand." He smiled at the doctor sincerely, the twinkling returning to his eyes "It is merely a meditation exercise" The medic and the nurse frowned, not understanding. "Allow me to clarify. The very essence of meditation is to bring the body and mind to a relax and peaceful state; in this state a man can learn many things about himself, because he gets to block all exterior noise, leaving him free to explore inside his vessel. After many years of practice and learning, one can get to the point where he – or she – realizes he can actually control the flow of air inside his lungs, or the rhythm of his heart, he can also choose to divert the flow of blood from one artery or vein to another, but this can only be done for so long, since the body wasn't made to function like that." Everyone in the room stared at rake with dumb folded expressions.

"So you're saying..." the nurse spoke for the first time, and Harry found her voice to be soft and sweet.

"That I diverted the flow of blood on my veins. Yes." Drake nodded "I also made my heart beat slower, to prevent the strain on the lesser veins to where the blood was diverted. It was throughout the knowledge of my body that I knew about the seriousness of the wound, and that if let alone, I wouldn't survive the ordeal. Therefore I had to act. That is why, when I got here, you found my pulse to be slow and faint, but steady" The doctor nodded, those were his symptoms indeed "and you must have also been surprised at how little blood passed through a vein so important."

"Yes, and I must say that you gave us quite a scare there, your highness."

"Sorry about that"

"Never mind" the doctor smiled "All we care is that you are well and are healing better that expected. I do hope you'll be able to teach us this technique so that we might be able to help more people." Drake smiled, but it was a sad one.

"Unfortunately I won't be able to do so, but I can direct you to a group of people who can." The man nodded, accepting the indirect help.

"We'll leave you now" the doctor said looking at his clock "my break is almost finished and I still need to catch a bite." He smiled blushing "I'll come back to check on you in four more hours." He did a curt reverence, and left with the nurse trailing behind, stealing brief glances at the nobleman on the bed, until she passed Lady Silver who, in turn, gave her a murdering glare; after that the woman fussed over Drake, until he looked at her puppy-eyed and pleading with such a sweet and innocent voice that she stopped all she was doing to stare at him.

"Can I get an ice-cream? Pretty please with lots of sugar and a cherry on top?" Harry heard Liz exclaim 'awww' while Rob snorted but tried to hide it.

It was impressive, to say the least, to watch how an old man like Drake could act in such a childish manner; but he most impressive fact was that Lady silver actually bought it. With a tender smile she nodded and left the room.

Immediately Drake jumped off the bed and called the doctor. Apparently said person was waiting close by, because he arrived in a few seconds. "She is gone?" the doctor asked, looking inquisitively into the room.

"She is." The nobleman grinned, "Come on, I have to win back my freedom before she's back." Again they sat on the bed and started playing poker.

On the back of the room Harry could clearly hear Robert and Sirius' laughter, exploding along with his own; Liz, however was having none of it.

"Dad!"she cried approaching the bed

"Yes dear?" Drake asked "I'll stand" the girl's frown intensified

"You are supposed to be resting, and you know it." She growled

"Note that the key word is supposed." The man said "Hah! Take that! Poker of Kings!" The doctor moaned in frustration but did not relent and actually took the card to deal himself "three more days to go."

"DAD!" Liz insisted

"Dearest Elizabeth" he said with a straight face, glancing at her for the first time "do you want to expend Christmas in a hospital?" he asked raising an eyebrow; the girl stood there stunned "If I don't finish this game here, that's exactly what's going to happen... we won't be able to go present hunting, or go to the beach as you wanted..." a smile appeared on his face "need I continue?"

After a moment, Liz ran out of the room screaming back "I'll tell you when she's close!"

New Laughter erupted from the room, closely followed by the howl of anguish produced by a certain doctor.

---

"I can't believe they actually let you go" Harry exclaimed after the limo picked them up at the hospital. Lady Sliver was still fuming and throwing Drake murderous stares every now and then, while the rest of the group remained smiling.

"Let it be a lesson for you, son." Drake said relaxing on his seat "You don't know the power of a little charm until you've tried it." He winked at him and turned back to the lady seating as far away from his as she could "Ain't that so, darling?" they heard the woman growl and face the window, ignoring the frustrating old man that had addressed her.

"So dad, where are we going now?" Liz asked, she had been counting the days until Christmas, and now that it was only a couple of days away, she was most nervous.

"Well, for starters we'll visit Michelle and his parents" Harry briefly remembered Mitch's departure two days before, when his parent's driver got to the hospital to pick him up; The boy was fuming, because he was so worried about Drake, but the summon from his parents was urgent because his baby sister – who he still had yet to meet – was sick. Mich barely managed to hug them all and asked Rob to call him when they had news about their father, before the driver dragged him back to the car. "I need to have some serious talk with them" Lupin grunted, he had been the most displeased about the convenient nature of Michelle's parents "After that I think we should find a couple spare rooms in a hotel near the beach and enjoy a quiet evening." Liz frowned, at which Drake commented "don't worry we'll take all day tomorrow to go pick your presents" the girl sighed, but accepted the plan.

"So, Harry, have you decided what you're going to give your brothers yet?" Lupin asked, trying for a merrier subject.

The boy-who-lived frowned "Not really..." Liz gasped, looking at him as if he had grown another head "…Well, It's not like we've much free time to think, you know,, that with the attack and all…" His excuse made her tear up; but when she was opening her mouth to say something, Drake's hands pulled her from the ground and encased her small body within his arms.

"There, there" he patted her in the back "Don't you kids worry, we'll have more than enough time to decide, right Harry?" He winked from atop his daughter's head.

"Right!"

"Saved" murmured Robert from his right, elbowing him in the ribs; Harry grimaced, his brother was right, his usual babbling had almost got him in a tight spot with Liz. He would have to remind himself to control his tongue more from now on. He might have been a battle hardened teenager, but his brothers weren't… 'My brothers' he thought, remembering what him, Sirius and Rob had been discussing back at the hospital, and found, with great pleasure, that he really could call the people around him 'his family'. Something from his emotions must have shown on his face, because he heard Robert ask him.

"What's so funny?"

Harry grinned back "I'm celebrating Christmas with my family."

AN: Anyway, I would like to thank 'Global Conquest-er' for her wonderful review, that reminded me that there is people out there that like my stories ;) Really, thank you!

Another word of thanks to 'Librarywitch' and 'firelordeg' for their comments.

...

As an after notw, I would like to make a couple of acclarations:

- About Hermione's dreams: There is a valid reason for these 'dreams' or 'visions', and it shall be explained later on.

- About the killing curse Background explanation: What Drake said is actually a light-version of my theory behind the creation of the spell; In the books it is said tha "one must mean it" in order for the Unforgibables to work... meaning that they are fueled by intent, not emotion. I know most of the writers in this site have addopted "hate" as the fuel for the killing curse, but truth is that you could actually cast the killing curse with "love" too, or even with a gran peace of minid. Because it's all about Intent.

- Exactly What Is Drake?: He is exactly as he said: He is complicated =P More shall be revelaed further into the story. When? After Harry's First year at hogwarts ;)

That's all. cheers to all!!! ;)