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 7: DENIAL
Lucas led Harry through a side entrance and through the manor towards the front of the manor and Lucius' office, which was not far off the entrance hall. They had not even to check the office to tell that Lucius was not there; they could hear angry voices arguing in the entrance hall. They sneaked onward hoping to see the argument without being detected by either of the participants. When they peered around the doorway into the entrance they saw they needn't have worried about being detected. The argument was much too fierce for either Remus or Lucius to pay attention to anyone who might be watching. Indeed someone was watching; Draco was leaning casually against the frame of another door that led out of the entrance hall, looking far too interested in the argument to pay any attention to either Harry or Lucas.
"Her husband and her best friend had betrayed her," Lucius was shouting at the werewolf, "And you expect her to trust her friends! For all she knew they were all part of the cover up."
"That still didn't give you the right to take advantage of her," Remus responded equally loudly. Harry was somewhat surprised to see the normally calm werewolf so angry.
"I did not take advantage of her," Malfoy sneered in reply, "She wanted someone to talk to and she chose me, because she trusted me to keep her secrets."
"Don't lie, death eater." Remus snapped angrily, taking a threatening step towards Lucius, "Lilly hated you, she said so."
"You think I would allow a woman who hated me to be my assistant?" Lucius asked rhetorically, seemingly unaffected Remus' threatening gesture. His tone of voice cold and bitter, "She and I were good friends. She trusted me."
Remus glared at Lucius, his anger making him unwilling to accept the blond man's point of view, "Lilly would have rather died than willingly associate with a death eater like you, Malfoy."
"Lilly was not a judgmental fool, who saw the mark on my left arm and branded me as evil. She saw me as I actually am and not the faceless death eater I am perceived to be." Lucius sneered in reply further incensed by Remus' comments. If there were only one thing he hated, it would be being judged by the mark branded on by the manic who he had been tricked into joining when he was a young idealistic school leaver twenty-five years previously.
"I'm sure she did," Remus hissed viciously in reply, "but then you did put her under the Imperius curse so as you could have an affair with her."
Smack! Lucius' already considerable rage had boiled over at this last accusation and he lashed out at the man who had dared accuse Lucius of forcing someone to have an affair with him. It was a preposterous accusation, not least because Lucius had no need to stoop that low to get a mistress; he was far too attractive for that. But also because he would never abuse a friend in such a manner, sure he stopped at nothing to destroy his enemies, but he always treated his friends properly and with respect.
"I would never treat a friend or a lover like that," Lucius thundered as Remus responded to the punch. The two grown men were soon fighting viciously in the entrance hall of Malfoy Manor.
Draco immediately leapt forward to aid his father, but was stopped by a cry from Lucas, who had also rushed towards the two brawling adults, intent on stopping the fight.
"Get the house elves to stop the fight," Lucas called once had had got his cousin's attention. Draco stood there shocked at the sight of the older boy, looking as if he hadn't heard the instruction.
"Stop bloody gawping and act like a Malfoy, before your father gets seriously hurt by an angry werewolf," Lucas yelled again a few moments later, sounding thoroughly annoyed by Draco's non-action. With a brief sneer, which Harry presumed was in response to his status as a Malfoy being questioned, Draco shook himself out of his reverie and summoned a house elf as Lucas had instructed. Within a matter of seconds Lucius and Remus found themselves magically pinned to opposite cold marble walls of the manor entrance hall.
"Let me go," Lucius snapped at the house elf who had restrained him. Surprisingly the creature didn't oblige.
"Master Draco is telling Tibby to restrain Master Lucius, sir," the creature replied in it's squeaky voice, "Master Draco is not wanting Master Lucius to be hurt by the intruder, sir."
"If you don't let me go the only thing that is going to get hurt around here, apart from that monster over there, is you!" Lucius snapped, glaring forcefully at the house elf, who glanced hesitantly over to Draco. The Malfoy heir looked as though he was going to side with his father, but don't get a chance to respond as he was cut off by two identical yells.
"No," Harry shouted, at the same time as Lucas. He may have been angry with Remus for lying to him and deserting him when he needed it, but that didn't mean he wanted the werewolf to be hurt by an angry Lucius Malfoy.
Lucius glared angrily at the direction from which the cries had come from, ready to give Harry and whoever else had spoken a tongue-lashing. The reprimand never came as it was driven out of his mind by the sight of a boy who was supposed to be have died to protect his illegitimate son.
"You're supposed to be dead," he cried, out of shock not anger this time, "It was part of the plan, a plan you agreed to."
"I'm a Malfoy," Lucas offered by way of explanation, accompanied by an enigmatic smile. It seemed to satisfy Draco, but not Lucius, who presumably wanted more details, "You can't plan for Harry Potter look-alikes tumbling through your fireplace when you need them, claiming to be the said Potter's brother."
"Caranthir!" Remus gasped disbelievingly once Lucas had finished speaking. Harry and the Malfoys looked at Remus strangely as the doubt disappeared from Lucius' face, "James and Aranel had a son named Caranthir." Remus explained, "I don't know what happened to him after Aranel disappeared, but if he's anything like James it'll be him."
"Assuming your tale is true," Lucius replied coldly, "How would this Caranthir have known about our plan, when not even Draco knew?"
Remus shrugged his shoulders, "Probably something to do with the wood elves, both James and Aranel were half wood elfin." he replied calmly. Harry was surprised to see him talking cordially with Lucius, considering that he had been extremely angry with the death eater only moments before. It wasn't only Remus' calmness that surprised Harry though; he found the revelation that his father, James Potter, was a half-elf pretty surprising too. He hadn't even known that wood elves had existed until a few moments previously, so the thought of being related to one was strange and certainly far more appealing than the prospect of being related to the Malfoy's. He didn't comment though.
Lucius frowned. He didn't like the explanation, but it was a likely possibility; elves of both types did have the nasty reputation of knowing everything that was going on and it would be just like the son of James Potter to sacrifice himself for Lilly's son, even if they weren't blood relations.
"Yes," Lucius sneered, more to himself than anyone else, shooting a glare at the house elf who had both himself and Remus pinned the wall, "Elves do have a nasty habit of knowing more than they should." Harry thought of Kreacher and unconsciously nodded in silent agreement.
There was a moment of silence, in between Lucius' mutterings and Lucas asking his uncle a question that Harry did not want to hear. He was surprised that Draco didn't ask more about the events of that night and the plan.
"Do you think this Caranthir person knows that Harry is your son?" Lucas asked confidently, shooting a defiant grin at Harry, who glared in response, "I mean if they did know would he have tried to help us save Harry?"
"Without having met the boy I can not tell," Lucius replied scathingly, "But I would imagine the fact that I am Harry's father would not alter his Gryffindor tendencies, as Lilly Potter is Harry's mother."
Harry paled significantly at these words, it was one thing to hear them from Sirius and Lucas, it was totally different to hear them the man himself.
"You are not my father!" He yelled desperately, more to convince himself of this than anyone else. Doubt and fear clawed his way forward, as old insecurities about his house placement and concerns that he was too much like Tom Riddle made themselves known.
"As much as you attempt to disprove, I am indeed your father. Furthermore I intend to act like your father and as much as you seem to like danger, I intend to keep you safe. Unless of course you especially want yet another thing in common with Tom Riddle," Lucius replied coldly, in a tone that wasn't much warmer then that of Snape in one of his worst moods.
Harry gulped even more as his last desperate anger was rebuffed, the hope that James Potter was his father rapidly sinking beneath the waves of despair. If both men truly were telling the truth then the choice was a horrible one, another similarity with his parents' murderer or Lucius Malfoy as a father. It was a choice he refused to accept because both options were too horrible to comprehend. It was a choice that only fuelled his desperate denial. He was beyond angry now. He was desperate, desperately hoping that the news was not true.
"Prove it," Harry said, using the least remnants of his angry to disguise his anguish, "Prove that you are my father. I bet you can't."
Lucius fell silent for a few moments, contemplating how best to show his unwilling son the truth. He hadn't actually thought of how to prove his true parentage to the boy yet as he hadn't been counting on having to do so quite so soon. But then he hadn't equated Lupin and the werewolf's stubbornness into the situation; of course he knew the two had been in contact, just as he knew that the werewolf was among those monitoring the manor for any sign of him leaving the grounds. It was just he had not gambled on the two of them meeting each other until he was ready to tell Harry the truth. There was of course a paternity potion, but that took far too long to brew. Showing him the secret areas, which only a Malfoy could enter, was out too and Lucius doubted Harry would accept the self-updating family tree as evidence. There was a spell to test paternity too, but that would take several hours to research and he wanted to prove his paternity to Harry immediately. Then an idea struck him, he would enchant a piece of parchment to show Harry's family tree, the spell was a complex one, but he knew it off by heart from his time as a senior archivist at the ministry.
"Tibby," he ordered, adopting a commanding tone, "Release me from your spell and fetch me a few sheets of parchment, then go punish yourself for attacking me." The house elf complied without a word, allowing Lucius to enchant several pieces of parchment, after the small group had made its way to his office.
"Place a drop of your blood on this parchment," Lucius ordered once they were all comfortable. He handed a sheet of the parchment that he had just finishes enchanting, "It will show you your family tree."
Harry didn't bother to quibble; he was far too desperate and far too nervous about the results of any proof of his parentage to consider that Malfoy might be tricking him for some other purpose. Pricking a finger he let a drop of his blood fall on the parchment, which promptly did exactly as Lucius said: it drew Harry's family tree, complete with Lilly, Petunia and Lucius.
"There has to be a mistake!" Harry yelled desperately, upon seeing the name that was in his father's place on the family tree, "You must have cast the spell wrong. It probably showed you as my father because you cast the spell or because the bond we made must have interfered with the spell. The parchment is lying. I'm not your son." Harry knew he was clutching at straws, but he really didn't care. He was desperate for something to disprove the fact that he was a Malfoy, a list of things that was getting shorter by the minute.
"I do not make mistakes," Lucius asserted, sounding annoyed at the slight, "But if you insist on your foolish belief that I did make one, then you can try again."
Harry did so on a second enchanted parchment, with exactly the same results as for the first time. Again he protested, "I told you that the bond is interfering with the spell," he said, "It has to be, there's no other explanation."
"Or it could be that the spell is telling the truth," Draco snapped, before his father could reply. The Slytherin had been standing in the corner watching proceedings with an annoyed glare, "But if you want to persist in your Gryffindorishness then test the spell on someone else."
"The spell is lying!" Harry protested desperately, "It has to be. I can't be a Malfoy. It's impossible. I'm nothing like you."
"As much as I wish you weren't. It appears that you are, regrettably, a Malfoy, even if you refuse to act like one," Draco sneered in an almost perfect imitation of Professor Snape.
Harry turned to face Draco and glared at him, in what was unknowingly an almost perfect imitation of Lucius' glare, "Of course I refuse to act like a Malfoy," he cried, "I'm not a conceited arrogant evil git."
"No, you're…" Draco began, before he was cut off by an angry yell from his father, who did not want to put up with his two sons' angry bickering.
"Boys," Lucius warned. The two children in question turned to look defiantly at their father, who gave them a patronising look in return, "We are here to discuss Harry's parentage, not to listen to your pointless bickering." He fell silent for a moment, waiting for a response that never came. Taking this as a sign of agreement, he continued, "Harry, the spell works perfectly and is telling the truth. If you refuse to believe so, I am prepared to test the spell on myself."
Harry thought for a few moments. He wanted the spell tested but not on the three Malfoys, he didn't trust them to tell him the truth about his family. Then of course there was Remus, one of his mother's friends, who had been the first to claim that Harry was a Malfoy. Yet despite all that he trusted Remus, most probably because the werewolf didn't like the Malfoys and would probably prefer Harry to be a Potter by blood as well as name.
"OK then," Harry replied, "We can test it, but on Remus, not you. I don't trust you."
Lucius swept from his office towards the entrance hall, where Remus was still bound against the wall by the house elves. Harry followed to ensure that there was no foul play. For some reason Lucius seemed to want Harry to pretend to be his son, just as he wanted Harry to stay at Malfoy Manor and Harry was convinced that Lucius would do anything, even deception, to ensure that what he wanted happened, he was a Slytherin after all.
Surprisingly Remus willingly gave his blood for the family tree creation spell without any protest, although Lucius did explain the whole scenario to him first. The fact the spell worked perfectly was no surprise though, at least not to Lucius and Remus and even if he didn't know it, Harry. The fact that Harry protested the result again was also no surprise, although it was Remus who came up with the response to his desperation this time.
"Harry. I don't like this much either, but it's the truth. I doesn't matter who your father is or what your father is like, you are a good person, Harry and nothing is going to change that." Remus said kindly. He would have reached to comfort Harry if he could have.
"That's all right for you to say. You don't have to live with him and the fact that he is your damn father," Harry said bitterly, indicating Lucius, before adding hurriedly, "Not that he is my father of course."
"Harry," Remus sighed. He didn't like seeing anybody, especially the son of one of his best friends in such denial. Not that he blamed him, he certainly wouldn't like to be a Malfoy, "I know that Malfoy is evil, but that doesn't you are just because you're his son. You're the son of Lilly Potter, remember, and no son of Lilly could ever be evil, she was far too kind."
Harry sighed, cursing his godfather for bringing his mother into the equation and destroying the main plank of his argument against the fact that he was a Malfoy. Having said that the thought that his mother's generous nature prevented from acting like an evil Malfoy was oddly comforting, "But that doesn't mean I have to want to be a Malfoy, as you all seem to expect of me," he argued fiercely. As the barrier of his denial broke down, anger welled up inside him at the unfairness of the situation.
"Of course not," Remus replied, sounding slightly offended by the idea, "If you wanted to be a Malfoy I would have you sent to St. Mungo's. I know that Malfoy is evil, just as much as you do. It's just you deserve to know the truth, warts and all. I know the truth hurts, it usually does, but in the long run lies hurt even more."
Harry desperately tried to find a flaw in the werewolf's logic, or at least a tiny glimmer of hope that he truly was James Potter's son. He found none. His desperation turned to anger, anger at his mother for creating the situation, anger at the Malfoy's, anger at James Potter for not being his father and above all anger at the unfairness of the situation he now found himself in. He looked around for someone to take his anger out on but Malfoy had disappeared, he stalked off to confront the man. As much as he disliked having to see the death eater, he needed the whole story and Lucius Malfoy, the man who was his biological father, was the only man who gives it to him.
Caranthir is indeed the boy who pretended to be Harry in chapter four. Of course there are questions as to how some who Harry has supposedly never met, pull off the act he did. The answer is simple though, he's a Hogwarts student albeit under a different name. The names 'Caranthir' and 'Aranel' are both elvish, and come from and http:/e and happened to like the name)
Phoebe, yes the chapters are short, but they're not that short (3000 words a chapter). Besides I'm sure you're willing to sacrifice chapter length for regular updates. Not that it's an issue as I have no intention of writing longer chapters, it reduce the time I have to spend on my other fic.
Thank You to all those who reviewed chapter six, your reviews were most appreciated, even if Fanfiction.net isn't showing them on the review page. I do still have copies of them though. If you want me to e-mail you when I update this fic leave your e-mail address in your review.