V. EVOKE
Harry woke up in a jerk and screamed as he felt his whole body hurt in blinding pain. Then, as always in alert state he was, he noticed a small movement on his left side, then noticed the foreign surrounding he was in. A second later, he heard someone called his name.
"Potter."
Draco Malfoy came into Harry's blurry sight.
"M-malfoy?" Harry looked at the tall blond in confusion and hissed when his head throbbing in pain. He grimaced. "A-ah!"
"Lie a bit on the headboard," Draco ordered and Harry obeyed, still unsure about what was going on. Malfoy handed him a glass of water. "Drink."
Harry took the glass of water from Draco without a thought and sipped it a bit before he gulped the whole fresh water. Draco took the empty glass from Harry's hand and put it on the nightstand.
"Now drink this." Next Draco gave Harry a vial of potion. Harry corrected his eyeglasses' position on his face to see better at the object Draco was holding. Seeing Harry's puzzled expression, Draco explained briefly, "You are in my bedroom. I brought you to the Malfoy Manor last night. You were blacked out. My mother did medical check-up charm on you. These are potions your body needs to heal."
At the mention of Malfoy Manor, Harry panicked. He tried to stand up but flinched at the pain on his ribs.
"Calm down, Potter. You're safe here. The Dark Lord and his Death Eaters don't live here," Draco sneered, then brought the vial back in front of Harry's face. Draco was bitter as he remembered his father in Azkaban. Because of this teen with black hair in disarray, lying in his bed. "Calming Draught. Drink."
Not yet processing all Draco's words, as his head was throbbing in pain, Harry heard tapping on Draco's window near the desk.
"That must be your owl." Draco put back the potion vial to the nightstand and walked toward the window. He opened the deep royal green curtain, letting the ray of warm sunlight illuminating the bedroom. When the window opened, a snow white feathery owl flying straight to Harry.
"Hedwig!" Harry greeted his owl and patted her head as the owl landed on his lap.
"Your trunk and the owl's cage." Draco gestured his chin to the objects near him to Harry.
Harry, at first perplexed by the existence of his belongings in Draco's bedroom. But then it all finally dawned on him.
"So... you took me with y...I...how… Why?" was all Harry could say. His thoughts jumbled inside his pounding head.
Draco was about to give Harry any horrible insults he could think of that morning when his door was knocked from the other side. The Slytherin closed the window and the curtain back then walked to the door.
Again, after casting a charm to check who it really was on the other side of his door, he opened it. Narcissa Malfoy came into view.
"Mistress Malfoy!" Harry was between greeting and shouting at her at once, a result from the combination of alert and surprise. He felt his torso to check if his wand hidden beneath the shirt was still there. It was.
"Mister Potter," Narcissa nodded at him. "You haven't drunk your potions."
"He's about to, Mother." Draco walked back toward Harry and handed him the potion vial again.
"How do I know if you're not poisoning me?" Harry was staring at the vial in Draco's hand skeptically.
"And why would we poison you?" The Malfoy matriarch raised one of her eyebrows.
"Well…" Harry honestly didn't know the answer. He just decided to not trust and believe anyone anymore. Plus, it's Malfoys.
"Drink the potion, Potter!" Draco hissed, starting to lose patience.
But Harry Potter was a stubborn person.
And Narcissa didn't want to deal with a half-blood stubborn teen in that crisis time.
"Potter, we did not provide you shelter and spent our precious potions on you out of charity case. We need you to be in right state so that you can grant us our request concerning Draco's safety, is why I need you to heal, immediately," Narcissa spoke in her usual arrogant voice.
"Safety? Is Malfoy in danger?" Harry replied dryly, used to the Malfoys' dramatic acts at everything concerning their egos and wellbeing. His heart sank. Of course they wanted something from him. Everyone always wanted something from him. Nobody genuinely cared about his wellbeing. Disappointing. Harry sighed.
"Drink." Narcissa handed Harry the potion vial, staring at him intimidatingly.
Apparently still couldn't control himself from intimidation people always aimed at him, Harry did as she ordered. What mattered if he died anyway? Nobody cared about him. He drank all six vials of potions that caused his bones and head screamed in pain. He was grateful for the last potion that immediately dimmed the pain. Hedwig hooted beside him in soothing manner.
"The potions will take three hours to restore your body's prime state. Sleep will help the process. Or at least lie down, close your eyes and don't do and think anything. At all," Narcissa told him and then she and Draco left him for breakfast in the dining room.
~o~
At what Harry guessed was precisely three hours later, he heard incoming steps toward him. He opened his eyes, watching Narcissa was walking toward him as Draco took a sit on an armchair in one corner of the bedroom, watching Harry. Hedwig flew and perched on her cage, sleeping already.
Narcissa performed a medical check-up charm on Harry with her wand. Satisfied with the result, she called the manor house-elf and ordered him to bring a mug of ginger tea, tomato soup, banana cuts, and French omelette. And when the house-elf popped loudly back in Draco's bedroom with a tray of requested food, Narcissa ordered to put the tray on Harry's lap.
"Finish them all," Narcisa said to Harry and walked across the room to sit on the other armchair next to Malfoy.
Harry wanted to refuse the food, but his grumbling stomach said the otherwise as he inhaled the delicious scent of the food presented on his lap. It was a simple set of meal, but perfect for his five-day empty stomach. He sat up against the headboard, moving the food tray with him. Hesitantly at first, but then savoring all the food vigorously, Harry finished his brunch in less than fifteen minutes. Drinking his warm ginger tea, Harry glanced at Draco and Narcissa over the rim of his mug, noticing that they were watching him the whole time stoically. Oh how he envy them for having such strong self-control.
"Thank you," Harry finally said to them. A rich amount of gratitude in his eyes. Decent food after a month starvation. For him. How pathetic, Harry said mentally. He wanted to cry for that.
Draco Malfoy saw the glint in Harry's eyes. He was watching him intently.
A loud crack announced the house-elf to the room, surprising Harry. The elf took the tray and popped back out of the room.
"I am aware that my cousin, Sirius Black, left you the Black House at Grimmauld Place in his will," Narcissa started talking from her armchair.
"What? Who said— How did you know?" Harry straightened his upper body, alerted. "You were cousins?!"
"The Gringotts had his Will and I was informed by them. And yes, I am a Black. Black family tradition decreed that the house was handed down the direct line, to the next pure-blood Black male. But as Sirius and his brother deceased, both with no descendants, the ownership of the house is most likely to pass to the eldest of their living relatives, which would mean our cousin, Bellatrix Lestrange, before me," Narcissa filled Harry in.
"Bellatrix owns the house now?!" Harry paled instantly. The house was being used as the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix! "No…"
"An exception made it possible that she wouldn't inherit it due to her permanent residence status in Azkaban. Which lead to the ownership fell on me. But as we know, she escaped from Azkaban. It is only a matter of time before she is being alerted about the news and claims what supposed to be hers." Narcissa clutched the armchair.
"Which means, if she finds out her cousins were childless, she will do anything to summon the ownership of the Black House to her," Draco continued his mother's sentence.
"Luckily, there is a simple test if you have indeed inherited the house, ruling out the Black's tradition." Narcissa stood from her chair and flicked her wand.
There was a loud crack, and an old house-elf appeared.
"Kreacher," Narcissa greeted the house-elf.
"Mistress Malfoy! It is an honor!" The house elf bowed deep.
"You see, Potter," Narcissa went back to Harry, ignoring the old house-elf, "you can prevent her from taking the house. If you rightfully inherited the house, you have also inherited the house-elf."
"No! No, no, no, no!" Kreacher screeched.
"Give it an order," continued Narcissa.
"Kreacher, hand me that glass of water," Harry ordered hopefully.
The old house elf was grumbling inaudibly, trying to hold himself to stand still. In five seconds, it screamed in agony, hitting its head with his own hands and finally in tears and scrunching face, Kreacher obeyed and walked toward the nightstand beside Harry and took the glass off it to give it to Harry.
"Seems it has been passed into your ownership. You are the legal owner of the Black House now, Potter." Narcissa glanced at Draco then make eye contact with Harry again. "And this is where we will ask a favor from you."