Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Warnings: Draco is a gossipy queen, but mostly this is a character development chapter.

AN at the end.

Adrian Pucey - Phobos

Liam Baddock - Deimos

Theodor Nott – Oberon

Draco Malfoy – Chaos

Vincent Crabbe - Moros

Gregory Goyle - Pallas

Blaise Zabini – Pan

Pansy Parkinson - Nyx

Daphne Greengrass - Hebe

Morag Macdougal – Nike

Millicent Bulstrode - Cerberus

Elijah Harper - Cratos

Anthony Vaisey - Tyche

Malcolm Baddock – Hecate

Astoria Greengrass - Eris

Flora Carrow - Nemisis

Hestia Carrow – Hypnos

Ginny Weasley – Tartarus

Seamus Finnegan – Hyperion

Neville Longbottom - Chiron

Dean Thomas – Prometheus

Demelza something or other - Selene

Anthony Goldstien - Styx

Terry Boot - Perses

Zacharias Smith - Chronos

Kevin Entwhistle - Pontus

Jack Sloper – Morpheus

Ritchie Coote - Erebos

Colin Creevey - Metis

Dennis Creevey - Eos

Mandy Brocklehurst – Leto

Michael Corner – Charon

Stephen Cornfoot - Atlas

Orla Quirke - Lamia

Ernie Macmillan –Minos

Sally-Anne Perks – Aether

Draco woke up, his mind foggy. His whole body hurt, and he was still sore. He lay in the warmth of the sheets, basking in the silence that was the infirmary. Back in the lair, it was more comfortable, and was warm, and the close quarters were comforting, but it wasn't exactly peaceful. Draco loved waking up, all warm and twisted in soft cotton. He was a relatively low temperatured person, and when he went to sleep, his feet and nose were usually cold, but by the time he woke up, he was warm and it felt soft and good. Despite that, his head was muzzy, ringing a little, and he groggily stretched slightly, eyes shut, and the memory of the foggy, blur that was yesterday afternoon came back, and he groaned. What the hell had they been thinking? But he as he stretched, and opened his eyes, he immediately felt better, and extremely amused.

"Pan! There's a Hufflepuff in your bed, and I am so wounded. You cheated on me with a Hufflepuff? I want this marriage annulled I am so hurt. Wait. It's our child, oh Merlin, you are a mess."

Pan opened one eye, and threw a pillow at Draco, but Chronos opened both eyes and gave Draco a sheepish smile. "Sorry dad," he said, and snagged his shirt, slipping out of the room, a faint blush staining his pale cheeks. Draco rolled his eyes at his friend, who was casually not meeting his eye. Last summer, no, two summers ago now, in what seemed like a different universe, there had been a certain evening. It had been in the tumultuous days of Draco and Nyx dating and breaking up on whims, and when Nyx, at a party at Draco's own house, snogged one of the Fawcett boys, Draco had been incensed, and quite drunk. He and Pan had ended up shirtless, with Nyx fuming. Then of course, when Draco had explained it away as just experimenting and Pan had ignored Draco for a month in a huff. They'd mended their friendship, even snogged a few times, but Draco couldn't take him seriously, and Pan wasn't keen on Draco's short attention span, and naturally flirtacious manner. Besides, when Draco had taken up with Atlas, Pan had gotten persnickety and there had been a week long fight, until Draco got bored and decided to drop him, and chase after Susan Bones (before he snapped out of it, a Hufflepuff, after all), and Pan had miraculously forgiven him. Pan was a weird guy, he got fussy when Draco snogged boys, but didn't mind when he shagged girls, and then of course Pan himself was allowed to shag boys, girls, house plants, and no one batted a lash.

Ah, the adolescent years, so dramatic, and while at the time all of that had seemed the most important thing in the world, but in retrospect, it was all in good fun, and at least they were Slytherins, able to fight and bicker nonstop, but never risk breaking their friendships. Draco smiled, memories of the once normal teenage life he used to lead making him feel old. But also, made him feel like he was a new person; from that world of dinner parties, and dramatic friendships and romances, and almost incestuously complicated boarding school dramatics and rebelling against their parents because there was nothing better to do, to this, to living on the run, to not having hot water work all the time, sheltering Hufflepuffs, rubbing elbows with Gryffindors, and having their own parents try to blow their brains out with spells that were illegal.

"As always, you are a heart breaker, and I wake up alone and forlorn. I thought you were shagging Hebe, I am so unloved, a sad, lonely husband, oh woe-"

Before Draco could go on, Pan lobbed a pillow as hard as he could at Draco's face, and Draco snickered, sitting up, crossing his legs. He lounged back against the wall, amused at his friend, who was hiding under the blanket, clearly appalled also at having shared a bed with someone in the same room as their unconscious headmaster, all be it the old man had a makeshift curtain around his mattress. Nyx came in, not long after, but instead of bringing him breakfast (well, burnt toast, an egg and water), like he had become accustomed, she just brought him a dour expression.

"You're setting an awful example for the children. Really, Chaos? Smoking? Potion ingredients are for learning, not lighting on fire, and I though we were bored of breaking our parents rules and that's why we ran off to live like gypsy's."

Her hands were on her hips, but she was not at maternal as Granger had been, that much Draco did remember. Granger had been a blurry, loud, bushy haired, rampaging tornado, but Pansy only looked mildly annoyed. Draco knew her too well though, and knew about how she had had her own, ahem, rebellions against her mother, and he just shrugged, yawning. Nyx rolled her eyes and picked up his discarded shirt, throwing it at his face, as a method of inviting him to breakfast.

Draco followed her, rolling his eyes as Pan pretended to be sound asleep, muttering about how he would soon murder the next person who threw something at him.

He sat on one of the benches around the long table, between Nyx and Moros. Apperently, yesterday there had been some squabbling because of the disapproval on the part of the boys, and Tartarus was giving Hyperion a mouthful about how disappointed she was that he'd involve one of her brothers, and then of course, Oberon endeared himself to her by pointing out that she had so many, one had to be fun, at least, right?

Draco amused himself with leering knowingly at Chronos, while the other boy did his best to spend the whole meal studiously examining his bread and butter. Breakfast was not generally a meal that had lots of people present, because not a lot of them liked to wake up that early now that there were no classes, and they only had to learn what they wanted to learn, when they wanted to learn.

Draco reached for the coffee pot, pouring himself his third cup, slapping away greedy hands. Everyone should know by now, that Draco required his own pitcher of coffee, and that he would swear up and down that caffeine was a crucial part of a balanced diet.

Moros was of course, falling into old patterns by making Draco some buttered toast, and shoving it towards him with a stern expression that had Draco sighing, and taking a small, demonstrative bite. He wasn't a morning person, and before noon his stomach wasn't interested in food, even repulsed by it.

"After food, go get the others, lets gather in the infirmary, we need to work out our plans. Tart, go make sure your Gryffinbores are locked up nice and tight, would you, darling?"

She rolled her eyes haughtily at him, and dramatically stalked off, but Draco paid her no mind. She had a hot temper, but it cooled as quickly as it flared, and having been raised with approximately one million older brothers, she had a very understanding and all encompassing sense of humor.

Twenty or so minutes later, most of them were in the infirmary. Draco was sitting on his own bed for the past few days, with Nemisis, Hypnos, Tartarus, Selene and Lamia gathered around him on his bed. He was smiling smugly at being surrounded by girls, while trying to ignore Nyx, sprawled in a most unladylike manner against his bed, and Hecate and Tyche who were sitting like the faithful puppies they were, at Nemisis' feet.

Pan was joined by Phobos, Hebe, and Nike, while the rest of the younger members were seated on the floor between the two beds, and the rest were either leaning against the walls, or sitting on the edge of Hyperion's old bed.

"Alright, kids. So we have to talk about Potter, about what our next plans are, and about some boring stuff. Let's do the boring stuff first," began Draco ignoring Nemisis' whine when he said the word boring. She was convinced their lives should be nonstop action, and thought things like what they should eat, or if they needed clothes, were ridiculously mundane.

"Right, we need to find more food, the more people we've got here, the more we're gonna need to find a way to get food. Any ideas that don't involve continuing to rob muggles blind?" This time, it was Pan who had taken over, as he was better at being practical than Draco would ever hope to be. The room was silent, and Pan rolled his eyes. Initially there had been some unrest when they'd found out what filled the rebels pantry was stealing, but if they didn't steal they didn't eat, since they couldn't exactly wander into Diagon Alley looking for some dinner.

Pan muttered something about indecisive, and morals, and Draco was sure he heard the word murder, before throwing up his hands in surrender. Stealing it was, it seemed that the threat of hunger was too serious, more serious than letting the muggles hang on to their excess food.

Pan covered his face and waved his hand at Draco, signaling him to continue on without him. Draco snorted at his best friends melodramatics, but continued nonetheless. "Alright, what are we going to do next? We could do a few things, maybe all at once now that our little families all grown up. We could go back, try for the ones we missed at Hogwarts, but I'm not sure the risk would be quite worth it-"

"Of course it is! What the hell do you mean is the risk-" Morpheus cut in, ever the livid Gryffindor hero.

"He doesn't mean risk to us are you daft? What if we get them killed?" Snapped Nike, quick to defend, rolling her eyes in exasperation at Morpheus' rage.

"What if we do nothing and that gets them killed?" Little Eos' voice was soft, but worried. He was the youngest one there, only 12 or 13, and he was not only usually left behind, but mothered by nearly everyone in their little 30 person family.

"They can't kill them for no reason, not while the ministry and the prophet and public attention are turned to them about the disappearances, already," reasoned Perses though he sounded more hopeful than actually convinced by his own argument.

There was a silence, as everyone mulled it over. The air was thick with tension, as it generally was at these, but unlike back when they were in school they were bonded tightly enough by their commiseration, and common cause. The fighting might get hot headed, but they all needed each other, watched each other. Finally, Draco decided to begin the vote, "Alright, everyone for another go at Hogwarts?"

Sixteen hands went up, some flew, some more hesitantly. "And for not risking it?"

Draco added his own hand to that mix, counting twenty hands. Tartarus shot him a dirty look and he leveled her with a stare. "Look, I'm not one to leave anyone behind, but they'll expect us now, we've been in twice, and the only way we were able to get it done, was by using stealth. They'll expect us, and we're just kids. This is a job for aurors, or adults, or people who aren't held together by spit, grit, and hope. Twenty against. We'll keep our eye on that old place though, see if there's a new way in. Next, what are we going to do?"

Tartarus raised her hand, an unexpected display of courtesy from the normally uninhibited girl. "Hear me out, but I think we should get our minds on two things, figuring out how we can survive on a bigger scale, how are we gonna keep everything up when this war gets bad? We should also figure out ways to help hide people, and maybe even try to expand, not the family, but maybe allied forces, you know? And I think we should help Harry."

She paused while there were some eye rolls, sighs, squawks of outrage, snorts of disbelief and raised eyebrows. Once everyone was done with their dramatic reactions, she continued. "You know who is obsessed with Harry, he's tried to kill him a bunch, and I don't know why, but also Dumbledore and all them have been trusting Harry, and I think that Harry has a plan, and that he's got it fixed in his head he's gonna kill you know who. So why not help him? Isn't that our end goal as well? Harry has a head start, and some connections and stuff, and anyways, we'll have to keep looking after Dumbledore for a while longer, so it's not like they'll be willing to leave."

She finished and then paused, then shrugged, and muttered something about it just being an idea, a slight flush creeping onto her cheeks. Draco rolled his eyes, and muttered, "Must everyone cheat on me so?" while giving Tartarus and Pan each their own glares. There were some muttered conversations, and eventually Draco called out the vote. 8 voted to wait and see, 10 voted to help him, and no one actually voted to toss the sod out, but the rest, Draco included, just didn't vote.

It wasn't that Draco wasn't willing to set aside his distrust of Saint Potter to win this stupid war and get it over with, it was that he didn't want to misalign them, set them up for failure. Why in the hell would Voldemort actually care this much about some teenage boy? But it did make some sense, since Potter and his gang were always getting up to things, and being nearly killed, and danger and nonsense.

"Ok. Well. Here's a compromise. We'll tell him we'll help him, but in the meantime, we have to move forwards with our ultimate plan for survival. I think we need allies, and I think we need to make some wicked wards and escape tunnels before we invite anymore civilians into this wretched lair."

Authors note: I'm anxious to see what people think. I'm trying to slowly flesh out facets of the story I've been leaving up to your imagination. Why hasn't the romantic drama been much of an issue till now? Well, I (and by default, Draco) have been focused on the war, the werewolf thing, the animagus thing (to be discussed in some of the chapters coming up!) and the whole on the run thing. But now that they're slowly becoming more secure, the more human aspects of their lives, the teenager-ish nonsense is soaking back into their lives, because who can help themselves? Alright, I'm going to sleep, then to check on the sheep at 6 am!