Draven, who had regained consciousness for a brief second, slipped back into the world of darkness. "This is getting old!" He yelled in frustration. "Where the bloody hell am I?" He growled as he began to pace back and forth in the darkness like a caged animal. With a lurch, the darkness dropped away and he suddenly found himself in the middle of a living room trying to regain his balance. "Now we're getting somewhere." He rubbed his hands together and surveyed the room. It was decorated in rich reds and golds and had a large fireplace that took up almost an entire wall. It's mantle was covered with moving photographs. Draven crossed the room to get a better look. Each photo, he noted, depicted happy events. As he had suspected, he was back in the Potter's house. He picked up one of the photo's and stared at the two happy faces waving at him. "I wish I could have known you. Maybe things would have been different." He sat the picture down, suddenly feeling like an intruder, and moved away from the fireplace. "I wonder what you two were like? Aunt Bella has told me stories but it isn't the same." He whispered to the seemingly empty room. Sighing, he turned towards the doorway just as Lily Potter entered.
Lily rushed into the living room looking for her wand. Her eldest child had taken to stealing and hiding it, and everything else within reach, whenever he got his hands on it. At first she had thought that it was cute but on days, like today, when she was running late for work, she found it more annoying that cute. After turning over every couch cushion in the room, she finally found it. With a sigh of relief she headed back the way she came only to realize that she hadn't see the little thief during her search of the house. She stopped and panic seized her chest. "Harry?" She called out. "Sweetie, where are you?" Green eyes darted around the room. "Tinky!" She called out and waited for the house-elf to appear. "Tinky, have you seen Harry?" All thoughts of being late had vanished.
The house-elf, obviously female, bowed her head. "Tinky last saw Master Harry playing with the little one." She promptly replied.
The elder Potter felt her panic triple. "Harry was playing with the baby?" She questioned, carefully. From the very moment she returned from St. Mungos with the baby, Harry had made his dislike, of the newest addition to the Potter family, known. James would have laughed at his sons antics and brushed it off as simple sibling rivalry but Lily had caught the toddler, more than once, levitating the baby high above the floor. He wasn't even two yet but had an unusual amount of control over his magic. Control he shouldn't have.
Tinky nodded her head. "The young Master was enjoying himself!" She informed Lily, cheerfully. What nobody knew, or even suspected, was that Tinky had bound herself to the one with the strongest magic, Harry. So when Lily, or anyone for that matter, asked her a question she didn't have to answer truthfully or punish herself for lying. Harry was the only one she truly served and he was only a toddler.
Without bothering to dismiss the house-elf, Lily rushed from the room. And, not for the first time, wished that James was still with her. He had only been gone for little over a month but she still missed him terribly.
Once Lily had left, Tinky turned and stuck her head under the nearest couch. "Tinky make the young Master lunch now." And with a pop, she disappeared.
Harry, who had been under the red couch for most of the day, giggled at the silly house-elf. With a thump he crawled out from under, dragging his stuffed Padfoot with him. For the second time in his young life, Harry felt a familiar presence. Green eyes searched the room and landed on the figure standing near the fireplace. Using his previous hiding place for help, he pulled himself up and toddled, a little unsteadily, towards the person. Once he reached his destination, he held his arms up, expectedly. "Up! Up!" He added, in a squeal, for good measure.
Draven who had been watching with fascination looked down in surprise. "You can see me?" He inquired as he reached down and picked the toddler up. A jolt went up his spine and he shivered. "I guess you can. I wonder why?" While he had the boy, his younger self, this close, he decided to take advantage of the situation. He had no pictures from his childhood and the Dursley's never took any of him, so this was his only chance to see what he looked like as a baby. Balancing the boy on his hip, he used his free hand to brush back the toddlers black bangs. He almost dropped his previous cargo when he saw the jagged lightening bolt scar etched, angerly, into the flesh of the boys forehead. "This isn't possible. Where did you get this? When?" He couldn't bring himself to look away from the scar that had marred his own forehead until he came into the care of the Malfoy's and the Dark Lord, who had removed it. Green eyes met their twin and Draven suddenly felt overwhelming sadness coming from the younger boy. "What's troubling you, little one?" It felt odd being able to interact with his younger self.
Little Harry snuggled close to the teenager. "Daddy gone." He tearfully whispered. "Daddy gone, baby bad!" He tried to explain. "Mummy love baby, no Harry." He sniffled and buried his face in the older boys neck. He felt safe with this boy. He reached his own hand up and traced the scar that had become a part of him on Halloween. "Tandy Day."
"I'm sure that isn't true, little serpent." Draven used the nickname he was so fond of and realized that this was probably why he was so fond of it; he had been called little serpent long before Bella had started using it. "I'm willing to bet my inheritance that your mummy loves you very much. And that's a pretty big bet coming from a Malfoy." He smiled and rubbed the toddlers back, comfortingly.
"Ma'foy?" Harry mumbled into the neck he was, currently, nuzzled into. He lifted his head and made a face. His daddy had used that name before and he hadn't like it very much.
"Oi, none of that now!" Draven chuckled. "We Malfoy's aren't that bad." He moved over to the couch and sat down. He knew this was all impossible but right now he was enjoying getting to know what he was like as a baby. He sat little Harry on his knee, facing him. "I'm Draven Malfoy and you..." He touched his nose. "...are Harry Potter." He offered his hand to the toddler.
Harry blinked and eyed the other boy, critically, which to Draven looked comical. "'aven?" He questioned then smiled and took the offered hand, inspecting it for candy. He frowned when he came up empty. "Tandy!" He demanded.
Draven smiled and pulled his hand out of the toddlers grasp. "Sorry little serpent, I don't have any candy. Now what is this about your mummy not loving you?"
"Mummy no love Harry." Harry reached out to play with the red and gold tie that hung around Draven's neck. "Mummy love baby more. Mummy weft to get baby. Daddy here wiff Harry. Daddy go bye-byes cause snake come and take Daddy. Mummy no here, baby bad!" He shoved the end of the tie into his mouth.
Grimacing, Draven didn't even try to remove his tie from the slobbery mouth. "So you have a little brother?" He inquired. This was all surreal. He hadn't even known that he had a sibling, hell he didn't even know that his mother had survived that Halloween night so long ago. But according to Harry, his mother had left to have the baby and wasn't in the house when the Dark Lord attacked. James and Harry were the only ones here and James didn't make it through the attack. He tucked this new information away to review later.
Harry shook his head furiously. "Ister." He mumbled around the mouthful of tie.
"Ister? You mean sister? You have a little sister?" Draven blinked and frowned at the look on Harry's face. "I have a brother."
"Weally?" Harry blinked. "No like?" He questioned.
"His name is Draco and he's older than me. So that makes me the baby, just like your sister." Draven was quiet for a moment. "I'm very close to my brother, I love him. And he loves me."
"No like ister. Make fly!" Harry used his hand to simulate levitating.
"You make your sister fly?" Draven chuckled. "You should be nice to her, Harry." He said seriously. "You never know when you may never get to see her again. Or maybe won't even remember having a little sister." He smiled sadly and felt goosebumps form on his arms. "No more flying, alright?" He questioned, gently pulling the tie over his head and placing it over Harry's. "Keep this safe for me, you think you can do that?
Harry frowned but nodded. "Awight, 'Aven. No fly." He promised. "You leave." He crawled down off his lap and sat on the floor, tie still in his mouth.
"Leave?" Draven tilted his head to the side and felt a shiver run up his spine again. "So that's what that feeling is? But how did you know?" He mumbled to himself. "You be a good boy for your mummy, ok?" He looked down at his hand which was beginning to fade.
Little Harry looked towards the doorway where his mother had reentered carrying the offending baby sister.
"Harry!" Lily breathed out a sigh of relief when she finally spotted her eldest child. "You scared mummy!" She walked over to her son and kneeled down. "Don't do that again, ok Harry?" She wrapped one arm around him and pulled him into a hug. She released him after she placed a kiss on his forehead, directly over the scar. "How about I stay home today and spend time with you and Sydney? I think a trip to the park is overdo." She just noticed the Hogwarts tie that her son was chewing on. "Where did you get this, Harry?" The colors marked it as belonging to a
Gryffindor but she was sure that her's and James' were packed away in the attic.
"'Aven. 'Aven Ma'foy" Harry looked back to his new friend and gave him a sad smile. He didn't know how or why, but he knew that he wouldn't see Draven Malfoy again. He looked back to his mother and little sister. "Pak? Go pak?" He clapped his hands together in glee, he loved the park.
Draven lifted his hand and waved before the darkness once again claimed him. The last thing he heard was the voice of Lily Potter asking young Harry who, exactly, Draven Malfoy was?
Opening his eyes, Draven blinked at the sudden brightness. "Erg!" He turned his head to the side. "Where?" He mumbled and licked his dry, cracked, lips. "Where am I?" This surely didn't look like the Hogwarts Hospital Wing. And the person dotting over him was much too young to be Madam Pomfrey.
The woman jumped and her violet eyes darted to her patient who was now awake. "I'm Healer Rouée and you don't know how happy I am to hear your voice." She smiled. "You're in St. Mungos, dear.You were transferred from Hogwarts three weeks ago when your condition suddenly turned critical. Healer Plorn was very worried." She fussed over his pillows as she spoke. "I'm sure your parents will be very relived to hear that your awake." She turned and rushed out of the room to floo the Malfoy's and tell them their son had finally regained consciousness.
Draven took in his new surroundings. He couldn't remember anything after Seamus beat him into unconsciousness. Well, that wasn't exactly true, he could remember, in vivid detail, two very odd dreams. After a few minutes his eye lids began to feel heavy. Sleep was calling to him and he finally surrendered to it's embrace.
That's how Healer Rouée found him half an hour later when she came in to check on him and tell him that his parents would be in to see him in a few hours, it was the middle of the night after all. She cast several spells to make sure he was ok and just sleeping. The Healer smiled as she watched the steady rise and fall of his chest. "Sweet dreams, Merlin knows you need the sleep." She turned and left the room, she had other patients that had to be tended to. The boy could sleep until his parents arrived.