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.
SNAKE HEALER: THE MALFOY MUGGLE LOVER
CHAPTER 16: WELCOMING
"At last!" Lucius exclaimed with relief when Harry felt himself impact on the floor of Malfoy Manor. "You're safe. I was beginning to fear that something had happened to you."
"I was fine, it worked perfectly. The only reason why I took so long is that Janus got into an argument with Voldemort," Harry replied, blushing slightly at the parental worry that his father felt. It was not the sort of thing you expected from Lucius Malfoy but it felt good to have a parent fussing over him none the less.
"About the healer I presume?" Lucius queried. Harry nodded, "You can tell me more later, but you should get some sleep first. You too Draco." The two boys did exactly as their father told them, but not before Draco stopped Harry as they parted outside Harry's room.
"Thank You for saving my father and I," Draco said sincerely. "I know you didn't have to do it…" He never got to say any more because he was interrupted by Harry.
"Yes I did have to do it," Harry responded forcefully, Draco looked surprised by the emotion of the words, "He's my father too. If I hadn't done something and he'd died, I wouldn't have been able to live with myself. You don't have to thank me, Malfoy, I did because I had to."
Harry half-expected Malfoy to mock or ridicule him for such sentiments, even though he knew that the Slytherin shared them. Therefore, it was relief not shock that he felt when Malfoy offered his hand and a warm, unguarded smile. "You know, I never expected to say this to you because I thought you were too Gryffindor, but Welcome to the Family."
Harry grinned too as he took his school rival's hand. "And I never thought I'd say this: it's a pleasure." Both boys slept extremely well that night.
Harry was already awake and halfway through breakfast when Draco entered the dinning room for his own breakfast the next morning. The blond Gryffindor had been woken up by an OWL from Caranthir asking after Harry's condition and requesting that they meet that morning. Harry presumed that his elfin friend had knowledge of what had happened the previous night, so had agreed to the request.
"Lucius wants to meet you in his office at two o'clock to discuss a few things. He also said to tell you that he's asked Snape to call an emergency Council meeting for eight, to which I'm invited." Harry said without any greeting, despite their understanding of the previous night they were still rivals and far from close.
"You've seen him then?" Draco asked, concern highly evident in his voice, "How is he? Is he OK?"
"I only see him briefly, but he said Snape had checked him over and found no problem and he certainly seemed fine, if a little busy," Harry replied, a slight smile on his face. He liked seeing the more human side of the arrogant blond Slytherin he knew as Draco Malfoy.
"Good," he replied. The relief on his face was obvious.
Draco said nothing more, and Harry for his part was not going to push his luck and start a conversation because it would only descend into one of their arguments, something he wasn't in the mood for. Instead he ate his breakfast quickly and made his way to the back gate on the edge of the manor grounds. He crossed the narrow country lane and sat in the low stone wall admiring the view looking across the Vale of Pewsey, whilst contemplating about what he knew of the other side of Draco that had been revealed to him that previous night as well as the state of his relationship with Lucius. It was a full half-hour before Caranthir arrived.
"Hey Jason, are you all right?" Caranthir asked as he approached his friend, breaking the said friend's thoughts.
"Yes, I was just thinking about last night, about Malfoy," Harry replied, turning around to face his friend.
"He didn't? I told you not to trust him…" Caranthir growled jumping to a conclusion, as he so often did. It took a while for Harry to understand what his friend was thinking, but once he did, he stopped his friend mid sentence.
"Caranthir!" Harry exclaimed in a tone full of warning. The thought of Lucius betraying Harry to Voldemort seemed ridiculous, that such an idea also offended Harry was an indication of the growing bond between Harry and Lucius. "Lucius would never betray me to Voldemort, especially now that he's no longer a death eater." Harry's protestation didn't convince Caranthir though, the elf still looked as though he believed that Lucius conformed to the Slytherin stereotype. Harry wasn't particularly surprised at his friend's stubbornness, as they'd debated the issue several times previously.
"Jason, I know Malfoy's your father, but he's still a Slytherin. He's evil, he can't be trusted." Caranthir snapped. He sounded extremely concerned for his friend; concern that Harry thought was misdirected and misplaced.
"Lucius may be a Slytherin, but he's not evil. He may be a prejudiced git, but he's on our side and he would certainly never betray a member of his own family, of that I am certain." Harry replied, letting his aggravation with his friend's prejudices get the better. From the look of horror and disbelief on his friend's face, it was clear that neither the tone nor words had convinced Caranthir. But then the elf still held the typical Gryffindor prejudice that all Slytherins are evil, a prejudice that Harry had abandoned a long time ago on realising that Snape, for all his nastiness, was not evil. Realising that trying to convince Caranthir of the truth was a hopeless cause that would only lead to an angry argument, he quickly changed subject to what he had originally wanted to tell the elf – the events of the previous night.
"I know you don't believe me, but Lucius told Voldemort to his face that he was wrong for murdering so many innocent witches and wizards. He only said it because Voldemort had found out that he was a ministry spy, but I think he meant it. Of course, he was imprisoned for opposing Voldemort, but Draco and I rescued him," Harry continued, trying to sound as calm as diplomatic as possible despite his fraying temper. His attempt at this was only partially successful, but by the look of shock and disbelief on Caranthir's face he had succeeded in averting an argument.
"That's why you ended up fighting You-know-who wasn't it? Malfoy handed you over to him, to compensate for rescuing his precious daddy." Caranthir sneered, his hatred of Draco clearly evident in both his anger and in the mocking way he referred to their Slytherin rival.
"Actually he didn't, although I half expected him to do so, despite his insistence that doing anything to aid Voldemort would be betraying Lucius." Harry replied, not commenting on the fact that Caranthir know of the previous night's run in with the dark lord despite his failure to mention it, because he knew his friend had been present at the encounter. "We only ran into Voldemort because the alarm was rigged to ring the moment Lucius stepped out of his cell and I volunteered to distract him while Lucius and Draco escaped."
"You chose to fight you-know-who, but you could have died," Caranthir gasped. He seemed amazed that anyone, even Harry, would confront Voldemort willingly. Whilst Harry could understand fear of Voldemort, especially from someone who was wizard-bred like Caranthir, he knew that he could not fall prey to it if he were ever to defeat Voldemort as prophesised.
"I had it all planned out and I was always in control," Harry replied in a reassuring manner that seemed to work, "Even if I was initially surprised to see you come out of the wand."
Caranthir broke into a grin, "Surprised! You should have seen your face, you looked terrified," he crooned in a manner which would have annoyed Harry had it been anyone else saying it.
"Of course I was terrified, I thought you were dead for a moment, until I remembered what you said about the killing curse only affecting half of you. God, I was so terrified, I don't want to lose you Caranthir or Hermione, I don't know what I'd do without you," Harry replied in deadly seriousness, the fear of losing his friends clearly evident in his voice. He was genuinely afraid of losing his friends to Voldemort, Ron and Hermione especially, only dementors terrified him more.
Caranthir smiled reassuringly, clearly identifying the tremor in his best friend's voice, "I'm not going anywhere, Jason, and neither is Hermione. You're not just my friend, you're my brother, and unlike some people I will not desert you, whatever you are and whoever your family is." From the bitterness in the elfin boy's voice he quickly guessed that Caranthir was referring to his adopted family – the Weasleys.
"The Weasleys haven't cut you off have they, like they did with Percy?" Harry asked sounding extremely concerned. He didn't want to be the cause of a dispute between his best friend and his best friend's family, besides he had always admired the closeness of the Weasley family.
"No, they haven't gone that far but they are pretty angry with me. Mum reacted badly to me choosing to live with my mother, you know how over-protective she can be, and when she found out about you and the Malfoys she sent me a letter demanding that I stop being your friend, which naturally I ignored." From the edge in his voice, Harry could tell that Caranthir was actually very angry with Mrs Weasley, a rift that Harry felt partially responsible for. Nevertheless, he was grateful for the friendship and loyalty that his best friend provided.
"You should go and see her," Harry said, hoping that the rest of the Weasley family hadn't followed their mother's line. A hope that Harry presumed to be groundless, given the feud between Mr Weasley and Harry's father, in fact he was rather surprised that Caranthir had stood by him. One thing he wasn't surprised about though was Molly Weasley's attitude towards her adopted son, he remembered all too well the previous summer's parental struggle between her and Sirius over who was to be his parental figure. "In fact," he continued noticing the unwilling look on his friend's face, "We'll go visit her now."
"But mum will kill me. You know what she's like when she's angry." Caranthir protested stubbornly, making Harry wished he had Hermione with him to back him up. After all if there was anyone who could match his best friend for stubbornness then it would his other best friend. Without the bushy haired girl's assistance though, he would have to deal with his best friend himself.
"Which is why I'll be going with you as support. Not that you'll need it," Harry stated firm with a harsh look that indicated disagreement would not be tolerated. Regretfully his best friend's courage and stubbornness meant that such a glare had no effect.
"She hates me and she hates you, Jason. Thanks for the offer, but there's nothing I can do." Caranthir replied nervously, sounding depressed at this belief, which Harry did not agree with.
"She loves you, Ron. Aranel may be your birth mother, but Molly Weasley thinks of you as her son too. That's why she's angry with you, you hurt her by turning your back on her, she thinks you betrayed the family," Harry responded forcefully, deliberately using his best friend's former name. He was on the verge of losing his temper. The argument continued, with Ron stubbornly refusing to visit his mother, who was living at Grimmauld Place with the rest of the order, eventually Harry got so frustrated that he simply walked off, making it perfectly clear that he would tell Mrs Weasley himself, besides he needed to speak to Professor Dumbledore about the events of the previous night.
Harry had no choice but to fly to 12 Grimmauld Place, a journey that took twice as long as the one he had taken the previous year from Little Whinging. That meant it was long past lunchtime when Harry arrived, making the blond Gryffindor very hungry. Asides from this inconvenience the sheer joy of flying meant that it was a considerably calmer Harry that touched down in the dilapidated square in north London that was home to the Order of the Phoenix. This fact was a blessing when Harry noticed the tall dark haired figure of Caranthir Spencer sitting on the grass in the middle of the square waiting for his best friend to appear. The moment Harry landed the elf got up and walked over to his friend.
"You were right," he said simply. Harry merely smiled and walked towards number twelve, along side his friend, knocking on the door when they got there. It took several minutes for Dumbledore to answer it.
"Ah, Mr Evans, I thought you might pay me a visit. Although I did not expect you to be able to persuade Mr Weasley to accompany you, none the less Molly will be ever so pleased," Dumbledore said, the ever present twinkle in his eyes only increasing at the sight of the two surprised Gryffindors, Caranthir looked particularly shocked.
"Did Professor Snape told you of his meeting with Lucius then?" Harry queried when he had regained his composure. By that stage the headmaster had ushered the two boys inside only to be confronted by the screaming portrait of Mrs Black, who seemed to glare especially venomously at Harry.
"Blood traitor! Freak! Abomination!" she screamed as Dumbledore and the two boys hurried past in the direction of the order meeting room, not stopping to draw the curtain across the portrait.
The old dinning room that served as the meeting place of the Order of the Phoenix was not empty when the two boys entered, for Mad Eye Moody and Professor Snape were sitting at the table, which had various sheets of parchment scattered over it. It appeared that the two men had been in the middle of a meeting with the headmaster. The said headmaster quietly indicated for the two boys to sit at the table, ignoring the suspicious looks that were being sent in Caranthir's direction, as neither the former auror or the potions master recognised the elfin boy.
"Please continue Severus," Professor Dumbledore asked his potions professor once the two boys were settled.
"Lucius said the he and Draco only encountered about a dozen death eaters. Of these, three were killed during the escape, two of them by curses from their own side. The only one he recognised was Dolohov as the other two to be killed were both masked, but we should be able to identify them when missing persons reports are filed for in the next few days." Snape reported, not bothering to question the headmaster about the presence of the boy he did not recognise. Whoever he was would have to be trustworthy simply to get past the many protections surrounding the house. Moody, however, was looking positively paranoid about the strange boy who had accompanied Harry.
The ex-auror did not get a chance to air his concerns though, because Dumbledore gave Moody a stern look to prevent him from registering his concerns, before turning to Harry so as ask the blond Gryffindor to tell his side of the story.
Unlike after the traumatic events of the third task, Harry had no problem with retelling the events of the previous evening, beginning with his vision of Lucius' defiance and ending with his return to Malfoy Manor. However, he did not mention his truce with the Draco Malfoy, fearing Caranthir's reaction to such news. Nonetheless, Dumbledore appeared pleased with the news that Harry gave, especially the revelation that the Gryffindor had been the equal of the dark lord during the Priori Incantatem, even before Fawkes intervention and the twinkle in Dumbledore's eyes got noticeably brighter when Harry mentioned his new Occulumency skills as taught by Lucius. Moody also seemed to approve of Lucius' instruction of Occulumency, much to Harry's surprise, although the dark look aimed at Caranthir after Harry's description of Ron's emergence from his wand did not go unnoticed either. Most curious of all though was Snape's reaction to Janus' labelling of Harry as a 'healer', which the potions master seemed to regard as both highly significant and shocking. This was a reaction which the headmaster curiously noted but wisely said nothing about, instead, once Harry had finished talking he turned to Caranthir.
"Do you have anything to add, Mr Weasley?" he asked the elfin boy, without a reaction from either Snape or Moody, neither of whom had known the identity of the elfin boy up until that point.
"No sir," Caranthir replied, for Harry had mentioned everything that he had known about the previous night's events.
"Very well," Dumbledore replied, not betraying his regret at the elfin boy's lack of information. He wasn't particularly surprised: Harry's explanation had been thorough, but more detail would have been useful, if only for researching the Priori Incantatem. As such detail would not be forthcoming, the headmaster returned to more pressing business by speaking to Harry. "Are you happy with your father teaching you Occulumency? I presume he is teaching you properly."
"Yes, he's a good teacher," Harry replied, "He's also promised to teach me Legilimency next summer, after I've mastered Occulumency."
"Good, I shall pick up Lucius' lessons once you return to school, as the sooner you learn the better. I was also planning on teaching you Legilimency as well, it is a skill you will need." Dumbledore responded. He trusted Lucius to teach Harry properly, but he was not going to allow Harry's lessons in this area be neglected while the boy was at school, because the sooner Harry learnt both Legilimency and Occulumency the sooner he could move on to learning the more advanced magic that which would allow him to defeat Voldemort. "I do believe though that there is an anxious mother by the door waiting to see her son and her son's best friend. I am not so heartless as to keep parents from their children, but I will speak to you two again later." Dumbledore's words were obviously a dismissal, but neither of the two boys moved, one quick look at Caranthir's face told why: they were nervous, not that Harry, with his typical Malfoy colouring, could get any paler. From the extra twinkle in Dumbledore's eyes it was clear the headmaster found such nervousness amusing, but then he knew how much Molly Weasley was missing her son and how, surprisingly, her husband had persuaded her into accepting Harry's true parentage. Of course the two Gryffindors did not know this, at least not until the door flew open and an impatient and equally nervous Molly Weasley virtually ran into the room. It took a lot more than the old headmaster to keep Molly Weasley from the son whom she had been worrying about incessantly for over a month.
Another chapter in which I was tempted to end with a cliffhanger but didn't, mainly because of the problems I've had with writing it. As a sidenote I do intend to finish this story this year, so you shouldn't have to wait too long between chapters.
Yes, Caranthir is Ron. I'll say more about this in the next chapter, especially as to why he ended up with the Weasleys. Just as I'm calling Harry 'Harry' in the narrative so I'll be calling Ron 'Ron' in the narrative from the next chapter onwards. Remember though that in dialogue Harry is 'Jason' and 'Leo' whilst Ron is 'Caranthir'.
Mirie: With regards to the timeline, I made a mistake in saying that Caranthir was two months old when Lilly ran away. My timeline has Ron being born on March 19th as per cannon and Aranel running away a week later on the 26th March. Lilly then broke up with Lucius two days later on the 28th in the evening, making her five months pregnant as I said.
halijadesnape: Thank You for pointing my Snuffles reference out, it slipped through the net when I made it OotP compatible back in July.
Thank You to all those who reviewed chapter 15, 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.