Spoiler Warning: This story is a sixth year fic that follows on from the events of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. As a conseqeunce this story contains *major* spoilers for book 5. You have been warned.
Revised Version Posted 22nd June 2003
SNAKE HEALER: THE MALFOY MUGGLE LOVER
CHAPTER 3: RELATIVES
"If I look in the mirror and see the face of a Malfoy looking back one more time, I swear I'm going to kill myself," Harry griped one morning about a week after his arrival at the home of his new guardians, Janus and Maria Malfoy. He had been somewhat guarded at first, despite Dumbledore's constant reassurances that they could be trusted, especially after he had recognised Janus from the fireplace conversation he had overheard at Malfoy Manor. It had taken some prompting from Janus for Harry to remember that Lucius had not treated the other man like a death eater in their conversation, and that wasn't because they were expecting to be overheard. Gradually over the week though Harry had come to realise that they were neither untrustworthy nor evil, even if Janus was in frequent contact with Lucius.
"Flawless beauty is but a rare gift, cousin mine, you would do well to appreciate it before it is lost from you for ever." An aristocratic voice drawled from the doorway in a dreamy tone. A voice that made Harry realise that not all members of his new household were good and trustworthy, for Lucas Malfoy was most definitely the spawn of Satan, although not in the kill all muggles and worship Voldemort way that the Malfoys were traditionally associated with, but in more of an arrogant conceited arch-prankster manner, that you despised and loved at the same time. In Harry's opinion he was the cross between Draco Malfoy and the Weasley Twins, with the qualities and faults of both of them.
"I locked the door for a reason, Lucas," Harry warned, it was not an idle threat as Lucas would have been able to testify, "If you want to be able to walk tomorrow I suggest you get out of here now." Lucas walked out of the room immediately, closing the door behind him, the memories of spending virtually the whole day as a Ferret just two days previously were too fresh. Of course Lucas didn't know that Harry had help with the prank from the Weasley twins, who supplied him with a concentrated form of one of their latest ideas, Ferret Fudge. After Lucas had taken his chunk of the fudge Harry had simply force-fed the Ferret form of Lucas once an hour between breakfast and bedtime, with just one break for dinner. What worried Harry was that Lucas hadn't returned the favour to Harry during the course of the previous, which meant that he would almost certainly would be the target of a prank today, and unless Harry ate and drank nothing all day than there was nothing he could do about it.
Harry met Lucas again ten minutes later, on his way to breakfast, as he walked past the other boy's bedroom, "Good Morning Cousin Harry. Have you learnt to appreciate physical perfection yet?" Harry rolled his eyes at the greeting. Harry's intense dislike of his new Malfoy look had been a running joke for Lucas ever since he had arrived. It took a few days for Harry to realise that Lucas wasn't just joking and that he genuinely believed the Malfoys were the most beautiful people on earth, it was a sense of arrogance and conceitedness that astounded Harry, but then he imagined that Draco Malfoy probably believed the same thing.
"Unlike some people Lucas I am neither gay nor asexual. I only look for beauty in girls." Harry replied sternly, ignoring the pleasantries. Lucas was someone who could only be tolerated in small doses, while in a good mood, rather like the Weasley twins in one of their more mischievous moods. And whilst he wasn't as bad in the mornings as Ron, Harry was most certainly no morning person either, so was most definitely not in the mood to deal with Lucas so soon after getting up. Of course it was just his luck that Lucas was at his most hyperactive in the mornings.
Lucas stuck his nose in the air before replying in a snobbish voice, "I am a Malfoy," he sneered, "Malfoys are not homosexual." If he hadn't sounded so much like Draco Malfoy Harry would have laughed.
"Then why do you keep trying walking in on me while I'm naked in the shower?" Harry asked pointedly. It was a habit, which annoyed Harry immensely and had begun the taunts about Lucas' sexuality. In fact Harry and Lucas had had the exact same conversation at the same time for the last three days running.
"I appreciate works of great beauty, Harry," Lucas responded, his tone that of a tortured artist, "I know only of one other person who has a body as exquisite as the one you are currently disguised as. It will be a great loss to the world when Harry Potter adopts his usual form."
The first time Lucas had said that Harry had wanted to bash himself on the forehead for missing the blatantly obvious. It wasn't boys that Lucas was sexual attracted to, it was himself and anyone who looked at all like him, "Of course you think I'm beautiful, my disguise makes us look like identical twins you conceited git," he retorted. Having said that they weren't totally identical, there were slight differences in their facial features, Harry's eyes were slightly bigger, and his face slightly more pointed. Lucas was also an inch taller, and wasn't quite as skinny, but it was enough to make Lucas' friends have a hard time telling the two apart. In the end Harry had resorted to having to tell them about the Notice-me-not charm covering his scar so they could tell him and Lucas apart.
Janus and Maria were already eating breakfast when they entered the dinning room, the former reading a copy of the Daily Prophet while doing so. After a round of good morning's were exchanged, both boys launched hungrily into their breakfasts, Harry, unwisely, ignoring any concerns about being on the receiving end of a prank.
It wasn't until Harry had some of the egg that he began shrinking extremely rapidly until he was just two inches high. He only stayed at this height for ten minutes, but even so it was still a surreal experience to see everything around you looking a thousand times bigger than you are, and an incredibly scary one too. One thing he didn't want to be repeated was being picked up in Lucas' hand, whilst he was perfectly used to being in the air, having a giant Malfoy peer at you as if you were some sort of curiosity was not a pleasant experience, especially when the said Malfoy was commenting on how cute you were in the sort of voice he would talk to babies. Determined not to make a show of himself he just sat there first on his chair and then on Lucas' hand dazed by the surrealism of the situation, not even reacting when Lucas spent a few minutes prodding him trying, unsuccessfully, to get Harry to react and say something in what was likely to be a very high-pitched voice. Just moments before Harry grew back, Lucas placed the Gryffindor on the floor and watched as Harry shot up at an amazing rate. Still in a daze from what had just happened Harry managed to bump his head painfully on the edge of the table as he was getting up again.
His cry in pain revealed the second and, in Harry's opinion, worst element of the prank. Instead of his normal voice, Harry's exclamation came out in the same of aristocratic drawl that Lucas, Draco and their fathers spoke in. Naturally Harry did not enjoy sounding like his archenemy, and was quick to protest the point, "You bastard!" the voice that was coming from him yelled, "Change my voice back immediately. I am not spending the rest of the day sounding like a bloody Malfoy."
"The rest of the day, dear cousin?" an amused Lucas responded in a questioning tone, "The voice changing potion lasts for a full forty-eight hours, and the counter-potion takes a week to brew." A triumphant smirk appeared on his face; it was the sort of expression that made Harry want to bash his face in.
Harry restrained himself though, responding with a glare, and a heartfelt, "I hate you." before getting on with his breakfast, leaving his offending egg well alone just to be on the safe side. Harry was very surprised to find that Lucas didn't attempt to break the silence and tease him or generally annoy him, as he was so fond of doing. Not that he wasn't thankful for the respite, it did give him time to think up some retorts for the inevitable jokes about the pranks, as well as time to think of a comeback. But then looking over at his second cousin, Harry saw that he was too busy eating breakfast to talk.
The rest of the morning was uneventful; Harry beat Lucas in a seekers only Quidditch match yet again. Lucas didn't really mind, although he still refused to admit that Harry was the better seeker, his ego came in the way of that. Lunch, however, was more interesting although not because of the food. Janus came back home for lunch, as seemed to be his standard routine, accompanied by Lucius, who had turned out to be Janus' brother. Harry had been surprised and alarmed to learn of the exact nature of the two men's 'distant relationship' two days previously, but by then he had learnt to trust Janus and his reassurances that Lucius would not do anything against his brother or his brother's family, of which Harry was officially part. Harry didn't feel bitter at Dumbledore for lying, if the headmaster had told the truth Harry would have protested against his new guardians a lot more than he actually had, and most probably ran away too, a course of action that was extremely dangerous what with Voldemort after him.
Not that staying with Janus was any safer as Lucius soon testified, "The dark lord has found out that Harry is currently living here, he intends to attack tonight." The death eater intoned solemnly. There was a silence before Harry spoke.
"Not again," he yelled, frustrated at Voldemort's dogged pursuit of him, "Why just he won't he leave me alone?" It was a rhetorical question, so he was surprised when he received an answer.
"Because of the prophecy you destroyed during your visit to the Department of Mysteries and the fact that he believes you to be the son of James Potter," Lucius explained calmly, unaffected by Harry's outburst.
"I already knew that." Harry snapped coldly, his temper had been aggravated by the news of Voldemort's attack, and certainly wasn't helped by Lucius Malfoy talking down to him about something he knew already.
"I would hope so to," he replied before getting back to the topic in hand, especially as Lucas seemed to be somewhat angry, "I only found out about the attack an hour ago, the dark lord is not stupid. He knows that if he told me I would warn you. I came here as soon as I could."
"It took you an hour to find father and get here?" Lucas snapped. Harry knew that Lucas disliked Lucius and Draco at the best of times, but he was likely to be far more hostile to his uncle having just found out his family was Voldemort's latest target, Lucius was a death eater after all.
"No, it took him five minutes to find me, fifty minutes to plan your survival and five minutes to get here." Janus responded in a stern tone, designed to reprimand Lucas for his outburst.
Harry perked up at hearing mention of plan that might allow them to escape Voldemort, he was dreading the prospect of someone else, especially anymore of his relatives dieing because of him, he wouldn't be able to live down the guilt, "What is this plan?" he asked hopefully. He wasn't feeling quite so good once he had heard it, not if two people, especially Lucas and Janus, had to sacrifice their lives for him.
"I'm not going to be sacrificing my life for you," Janus responded harshly, "He's going to kill me anyway when I refuse to join him. Your presence here makes no difference he would have come after me and tried to kill me eventually, that fact you're here makes it sooner rather than later." Harry was shocked by how accepting he was of his fate, the fact he would most probably die that evening didn't seem to bother him one bit. It was a manner, which bore no argument, not that it worked on Lucius, who argued back anyway.
"It would be much easier if you joined the dark lord, Janus," Lucius propositioned sneeringly, "then this whole argument would be avoided, and I wouldn't have a dead brother on my hands."
The hardness in Janus' cold grey eyes spoke volumes about the likelihood of that proposition, "To join that monster would betray everything I stand for," he spoke confidently and determinedly. It is a tone that made his previous tone look weak, "And that is one thing I refuse to do. They call me The Malfoy Muggle-Lover Lucius, it is a name I live by and it is a name I will die by. You can laugh all you want Lucius, but you and I both know it is a legacy that will live on, in the hearts of our children because it's the future. Voldemort is your last stand, against the tide, against the Healer, against your own son. Soon you and petty prejudices will be no more part of Slytherin than they are part of Gryffindor or Hufflepuff. It is a legacy I am prepared to sacrifice my life for. When Voldemort kills me he will be sealing his own fate." There was a moment of silence before Lucius spoke.
"You overestimate your importance, Janus," Lucius retorted. They had been staring into each other's eyes throughout Janus' speech, the staring constant continued through Lucius' reply, "Your death will serve nothing, and as for the Healer nowhere does it say that he has to be a muggle-lover."
"Come on Lucius," Janus responded fiercely, "Be practical. We both know who the Healer is, what his views are, and how unlikely they are to change."
"People change," Lucius replied not really believing what he was saying. Janus picked up on this too by merely raising a questioning eyebrow. The death eater sighed in frustration and broke the staring contest. He didn't say anything, but he didn't need to, he had clearly lost the argument, even if he refused to admit it. Not that the signal of defeat helped any, he was thoroughly confused by what they were arguing about, and who this Healer was and why he was so significant. The mystery was deepened further when Lucius looked directly at Harry, an inscrutable look on his face, as though he were assessing him, before sweeping from the room, robes billowing behind him.
Harry spent the rest of Lunch trying to talk Lucas out of sacrificing himself during the forthcoming attack. He wasn't even going to try and persuade Janus to live; the man was set on martyrdom, although Harry wasn't quite sure what he was a martyr for. Whatever happened, he knew Janus would not die because of him, although that probably wouldn't prevent any feelings of guilt occurring after the event occurred.
Much to Harry's surprise, Lucas was just as insistent as father about the need to sacrifice himself. He openly admitted that he was going to do so specifically for Harry, although the Gryffindor wasn't quite sure why he deserved such a sacrifice, and he didn't find Lucas' arguments all that convincing. The main reason seemed to be because they were second cousins, and therefore it was his duty to sacrifice himself as Harry was vital to the war effort and far too important to lose, yet he couldn't come up with any precise reasons why he was so vital besides his role as the Boy-Who-Lived, which Harry regarded as symbolic and pretty much irrelevant to the argument. After all, his actual defeats of Voldemort were due to a hell of a lot of good luck and his mother's sacrifice. Even so nothing could dissuade Lucas from his role in the plan, much to Harry's annoyance.
Between her son's stubborn insistence and her husband's determination Harry felt quite sorry for Maria. No woman deserved to have her son and husband die in front of her, but despite that she didn't seem to be taking the prospect too badly, whilst she certainly didn't look happy, she didn't look unhappy either. In fact she seemed resigned to the prospect, making Harry wonder if the plan had been discussed beforehand.
Harry was just plain worried about the prospect of having to face Voldemort yet again, and experiencing the awful reality of seeing someone else die when he survived. He still hadn't totally dealt with the guilt of seeing Cedric and the Dursley's die because of him, so he was dreading the prospect of adding Lucas to the deaths he had indirectly caused. All this, however, was outweighed by a bigger concern, deep down he knew that something momentous was going to happen that night, he didn't know what, but with Voldemort involved it was not going to something pleasant.
An incredibly frustrating chapter to write. Mainly because of Lucas, Who I found surprisingly difficult to write for a secondary OC, who appears in only a couple of chapters, if only for the temptation to turn him into a mega Gary-Stu and make him a transfer student (He attends Beauxbatons, as he didn't want to go to the same school as Draco). I resisted though and now promise that none of them will appear in more than three chapters, although they will be mentioned a fair bit. I've got no plans to add any more OCs into the fic, except for a DADA teacher.
Thank You to all those who reviewed chapter two, your reviews were most appreciated. If you want me to e-mail you when I update this fic leave your e-mail address in your review.