Harry at last began again, "You know that Dumbledore had been forced to leave the school, near the end of last year, right?"

"My father," Draco Malfoy said, and for once it wasn't said with enough braggadocio to power Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia for weeks.

"And the rest of the Board," Harry said, trying for once to be charitable, "But mostly your father."

"We had to save the school - to figure out what the monster was, or they'd shut down Hogwarts!" Harry said, looking up to find Draco Malfoy watching him keenly.

"You realize there are other schools...?" Draco Malfoy said.

Harry hadn't, but he wasn't about to admit ignorance. "But other schools might not have unpetrified the Muggleborns!"

Draco nodded, but he'd noticed the difference - Harry'd sounded more... composed, in his last sentence.

"From what Hermione had said, from what she was found frozen with," Harry said excitedly, "We figured out that the creature stalking the school was a Basilisk!"

Draco Malfoy blinked, and blinked again, "Slytherin's monster was a basilisk?"

"Yeah, only someone had killed all the roosters, so Hagrid couldn't kill it easy like..." Harry said, his eyes brimming with a joy that Draco Malfoy was positively confounded to see.

"We killed it, you know," Harry said, seemingly too offhandedly.

Jerking on his reins, Draco leaned forward on his horse, grabbign Harry's rein as he was at it. "What is wrong with you? How did you kill it? Who's we?" Draco's mind was whirling, and he wanted, suddenly, to know everything. Now.

"Oh, sorry, Hagrid got taken to prison because he'd been blamed the last time." Harry said firmly, "He didn't do it, though - Hagrid's no murderer."

Draco barked out a laugh, "Obviously."

Harry quirked an eyebrow at that, "Not to hear your father tell it."

"Oh, father knew." Draco Malfoy said, "He just didn't care. Politics first, principles never."

Harry found himself eyeing Draco - that last sentence had the sheen of something said multiple times. But that wasn't what any parent would teach their child... was it? *

"The girl Hagrid supposedly killed? Moaning Myrtle," Harry said, "So we knew that wherever the monster - the basilisk was, it was nearby..."

"And so, you what - went looking for it?" Draco Malfoy said, looking as if he'd swallowed a lemon. Merlin above! He'd actually asked this child to show him the Muggle World - was he about to see his life endangered because he'd entrusted it to a Gryffindor? This wasn't simple self-sacrifice, this was lunacy.

"Well, sorta -" Harry said, his hands wringing the reins. "We did take Lockhart."

That drew another snort of laughter out of Draco, "Surely you didn't think that would help!"

"No, but we didn't want to turn our backs to him either." Harry said, and Draco was struck by how Slytherin the thought was.

"Inside Myrtle's bathroom, we found the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets." Harry said.

"What?!" Draco Malfoy said, astonished, "How is it that no one else has noticed it before?"

"It only opens to Parseltongue. And someone had, fifty years ago." Harry Potter said, interrupting himself with, "Not Hagrid."

"We went down there, and discovered the basilisk - and Ginny Weasley." Harry swallowed, and looked a bit more solemn, "We also discovered Tom Riddle."

"Who? Was he dead or alive?" Draco Malfoy said.

"Apparently he changed his name after school - took to calling himself Lord Voldemort. It's an anagram." Harry said, glad that Aunt Petunia hadn't minded him reading the paper after she was done. Well, he did so in his cupboard, so she probably never noticed either way.

"He was... in the chamber of secrets?" Draco Malfoy asks.

"yes, or at least a bit of him was. He wasn't really... all there, physically. He'd been possessing Ginny, and draining her life force." Harry Potter said, swallowing uneasily.

"So what'd you do?" Draco Malfoy said.

"What do you think? I stalled for time-" Harry said firmly. "He stole my wand, and ordered the basilisk to kill me."

"What did you expect?" Draco Malfoy scoffed.

"I'd hoped he'd help save Ginny." Harry muttered. "But Fawkes showed up and saved me! He pecked out the basilisk's eyes, and gave me the sorting hat."

"What good does that tatty old hat do?" Draco Malfoy sneered.

"A lot, if it contains the Sword of Gryffindor." Harry Potter said shortly.

"I killed the basilisk, and sent Voldemort away. Again." Harry said.

"Do you have any idea how implausible that sounds?" Draco Malfoy exclaimed in wonder. "A basilisk is a Category S Magical Creature! It's nearly unkillable, except by roosters."

Harry Potter shrugged, a bit uncomfortable about thinking about how lucky he was. "Got lucky, I guess."

Draco frowned, looking honestly a bit angry.

"When Ginny came to, she told us about being possessed - it turns out Voldemort was trapped in a cursed diary." Harry Potter said, his green eyes turning full on Draco Malfoy, "which your father gave to her."

"What? When?" Draco Malfoy said, "My father couldn't - I won't say wouldn't, but couldn't-"

"Before school, in Diagon Alley." Harry Potter said. "I saw. I didn't realize what he'd done, but... Ginny found that book in with her schoolbooks."

"Oh," Draco Malfoy said, looking down.

"Dumbledore and the Weasleys said that your father wanted to bring Lord Voldemort back to life." Harry said, looking levelly at Draco.

Draco's eyes flashed quicksilver quick and bright up to Harry's, picking up on the certitude there, "My father?! No. No. No."

Harry Potter looked at Draco, and shook his head, "You seem certain about that..." Harry said, not quite daring to ask why.

"My father's a Slytherin, Harry Potter." Draco Malfoy said firmly, "I can name all his faults, and we'd be here all night, but one of them is NOT fanaticism." Draco Malfoy gave a dry, wintry laugh that was nearly a bark, "No, my father would never have intentionally brought the Dark Lord back to life. I'd have to ask him to know more -" Draco Malfoy looked at Harry with the certitude that said he was telling the truth as he saw it. "but that's definitely wrong."

"Why would they lie to me?" Harry asked, in a small, firm voice.

Draco pursed his lips for a moment, deep in thought, "I... I honestly think they didn't know they were lying. A thoughtless mistake, a careless error."

Harry shook his head, said firmly, "I'm not dealing with this," and kicked his horse. The horse jerked into a trot, pulling its rein from Draco Malfoy's slackened hand.

*No, Lucius wasn't the source of that statement. Guesses welcome.

[a/n: Harry thinks he has to deal with everything. For once, he's right not to deal with this. Leave a review?

As you might have guessed, I've gotten a bit bored with Draco's Childhood storytime.]