Disclaimer: I own nothing; it all belongs to J.K.Rowling. I'm just borrowing the characters to play with for a while. This is for pleasure only, no profit is being made, and no copyright infringement is intended.
CHAPTER FOUR – Malfoy and Malfoy
Draco Malfoy knew his father was in prison and it was up to him. He was required to assume the position of Head of the family. If the death of Sirius Black is true he might even be the Head of two families. And all that meant he was to follow in his father's footsteps. As he prepared himself for what he expected to be a supremely significant meal, he was completely oblivious to the rest of today, July 31st's events.
Looking at his dinner, two cheeseburgers, fries, and a side of Death, he began to embark on the next step to what he felt would be his destiny. Deciding it would be difficult to swallow Death without anything to smooth the taste and help him gulp it down; he remembered the ketchup packets in his pocket. Unfortunately, those useless filthy muggles at the restaurant neglected to place imperturbable and unbreakable charms on the packets. His hand came out wet and coated with a sugary sweet tomato paste.
And it was here that the aurors burst in, stunned him immediately, and took him back to the ministry for questioning.
"We got him boss, caught him red-handed even, right as he was about to eat dinner." The muggle raised aurors there snickered to themselves; mainly because they knew the others completely missed the irony.
"We got something concrete to charge him with?" Kingsley Shacklebolt inquired.
"Well, it's clear he had every intention of being a Death Eater. I mean just because we agree Harry Potter is not a clone of his father, doesn't mean this one ain't. You never know when you're dealing with slimy homosexual ferrets."
Kingsley was well aware of this auror's hostility towards and unnatural fear of ferrets. He assumed it was some bad memories from auror training. Mad-Eye Moody had a habit of finding the small, cute, furry animal that inspires the most fear in each particular person. Goodness knows, Kingsley cannot even see a bunny without having to fight the temptation to dropkick it hard. Or at least half of it.
"Well, lets see what he's done and what he knows."
After administering the veritaserum, and working their way through some of the usual questions, they got to the important ones, and found out nothing that would help their case. It turns out, this was Draco's first time, and they managed to stop his meal before he became a Death Eater. He was going to put off his marking until after Hogwarts. He had not done any crimes worthy of Azkaban; he was just merely an insufferable little crybaby. Spying on Potter, spying on Dumbledore, cheating at Quidditch, cheating at school, reporting everything to his father. Nothing that surprised any of them. The aurors knew they did not even have cause to bring Narcissa Malfoy in, as she never openly supported the Dark Lord or became a marked Death Eater. She simply supported her husband and avoided all the murdering, the raping, the stealing, and the eating death. A nibble off your husband's plate would never hold up in court anyway. She seemed to be a pretty stubborn and faithful wife and mother, a fact that raised a few eyebrows among the aurors. They were shocked, appalled, and a little reluctantly stimulated to learn that she still breastfed Draco.
Reluctantly, the aurors decided to keep Draco a day or two just for kicks. They planned to officially fine him as much as they could and would surely submit all their findings to the Hogwarts Board of Governors, who would determine if his status as a student would continue.
Harry Potter woke up early in the morning August 1st, feeling more refreshed than he ever had before. He slept soundly without visions force fed into his mind, nor nightmares haunting his dreams. He mainly dreamt about rolling hills and mountains, smokestacks expunging thick smoke, trains speeding in and out of tunnels, and a pink-haired nymph that lived in his bellybutton who liked to jump up and down a lot. He realized it was all nonsense and neglected to make any correlations, though apparently the same couldn't be said for all parts of his anatomy.
When he finally felt like he should face the world out there, he slowly opened his eyes and saw this morning's Daily Prophet open to page 6. There was picture of a particularly ugly, hunched-over man sneering, and you could see his lips moving appearing like something along the lines of "…will all rue the day they crossed me…" The man seemed to greatly enjoy the word "rue" if you watched the picture, because each time he said it, he seemed to stick out his lips and purse them like a chimpanzee and repeat "rue" with more ferocity. Any issues his morning slumber had with his anatomy were quickly resolved by a wave of nausea.
A closer look at the paper showed the page 6 article was about his potions professor at Hogwarts, S. Saladbar Snape. A brief glance through the article and he discovered the man was not only a disloyal Death Eater, not only a disloyal Order member, but also and more importantly unemployed. In a day sure to be filled with many more birthday presents, this was a great one to start with.
His happiness faded a bit as the wind blew the paper closed and Harry caught the front page headline, written in huge letters: Boy-Who-Lived Defeats You-Know-Who Again! For Real, This Time, We're Pretty Sure! Next to it there was picture of him smiling devilishly and winking. He sincerely regretted not killing Colin Creevey when he caught Harry with his camera doing a Gilderoy Lockhart impression. The picture's caption read: Lord Potter celebrated his 16th birthday in style by capturing and defeating the Dark Lord, as well as one of his faithful servants, former Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge. Harry could only groan and mumble about how this was going to affect him. He realized even in his mind his thoughts could only groan and mumble, with the occasional grumble, as he wondered where they came up with Lord Potter.
His musings were interrupted by the arrival of the Headmaster and Tonks into his bedroom. The Headmaster smiled brightly seeing the paper in the young man's hands, and Tonks elected to express herself by running straight at the boy and wrapping her legs around his waist in a hug that sent both them crashing onto the bed. Tonks saw the usual glee, fear, lust, embarrassment, shock, and happiness flashing through his face while his hormones seemed to have placed him in a temporary body bind. She seemed to feel more complete and like a giggling school girl whenever she was in his presence. Like most school girls do, as Harry liked to imagine, she stood up on the bed straddling his belly and jumped up and down in joy. Harry had the feeling he was not going to be able to get through this day with much dignity intact. But for the sight in front of him, this was well worth any price.
Hormonal-induced euphoria was quickly ended for the two young smitten morons when an old man cleared his throat. "How are you feeling this morning, Harry?"
"Kinda like a balloon that really needs to stop inflating. My bursting is inevitable, its just a matter of how big my explosion will be, Sir." Harry answered honestly.
The Headmaster gave auror Tonks a sharp look and she meekly got off the young man and settled comfortably on the edge of the bed next to him.
"Hands to yourself, witchy woman!" the old man sternly stated. His mouth seemed to twitch when he added, "at least in my presence, please." His eyes seemed to darken and narrow as he looked at the young man next to her and he added a "for now" under his breath. Harry felt a little scared seeing his Headmaster's bedroom eyes.
"Anyways Harry, this morning, I bring good tidings and cheer. I have procured the pardon of your godfather after many Death Eaters captured last night testified under veritaserum to Peter Pettigrew's continued existence as a Death Eater. He has not been caught but at least now Sirius can be seen as the hero he was."
Harry seemed caught in emotions and simply said a quiet "Thank you, Sir."
"This makes the morning even more productive, as we can take you to Gringotts where you can accept your Potter inheritance, and we can officially read Sirius's will, which very well might affect your inheritance."
"My inheritance, sir? What do you mean?"
"Well Harry, in the wizarding world, among most pureblood lines, a wizard in a direct line of ancestry receives his formal majority on his 25th birthday, unless there is no current Head of the Family. In those cases, a young man may become Head of the Family as young as his 16th birthday."
"Is this why the paper called me Lord Potter?"
"Exactly, my boy. But as with being the Head of the Family comes all the responsibilities of that position. You must negotiate the marriage contracts, manage all the finances, including monthly stipends to members of the family, as well as provide for all the members of your family, and of course eventually produce your own heir to continue the tradition."
Harry's head seemed to get a little heavy at the thought of being responsible for so many other people and he was stuck in a daze until the headmaster added, "of course since you're an orphan and all members of your father's extended family are dead, being Head of the Potter clan should be a bit easier than most."
Harry at first brightened at being freed of the responsibilities he thought he had a second ago, before his face fell into a deep sadness. This was a sadness only another orphan could ever understand. At least adopted kids knew that their real parents didn't want them or love them. Orphans had no idea what was so freakishly wrong with them.
"Not to fear, Harry. If the will reading goes as I suspect it will, you will also be the head of the Black family. Whereupon you can reinstate Andromeda Black-Tonks to the family, and negotiate a marriage contract for Nymphadora here."
In a fitting response it seemed all the blood fell from the young man's face as he paled every bit as much as the young woman next to him blushed.
Sure enough, after the will reading at Gringotts, Harry was the sole heir to Sirius Black and was to be the the Head of the Black family as well as the Potter family. A ridiculously rich, powerful, and smitten young Lord Potter-Black left the bank with the Headmaster and Tonks and proceeded to Grimmauld Place for some lunch and birthday cake.
Arriving at Grimmauld Place, they discovered many of the charms protecting the house had fallen upon the acceptance of a new Head of the most Noble and Ancient Family Black. Realizing it mattered little, with the defeat of the Dark Lord and his Death Eaters, the three made their way to the kitchen. Molly Weasley saw them enter, and she immediately shrieked like a banshee, sprinted over to Harry, and hugged the bejeebus out of him. Apparently the rest of the house became aware of the new arrivals as they all came downstairs when they heard the wailing. Congratulations, thanks, and birthday wishes came pouring in from all directions and Harry was doing his best to keep himself from crying at the love and affection everyone was giving him. After all, he's not a sissy boy. Tears are a symptom of wussiness, and he was not going allow himself to come down with a case of delicate femininity. Smiles, brief one-armed hugs, and lots of deep throat-clearing sounds were his choice for acceptable responses.
Hermione Granger was the first to bring up the apparent physical changes in him, which were explained to be the result of his magical growth spurt. She then asked, "Well that explains the height and the muscles, but why do you look so smitten and happy?" Tonks apparently could smell a catfight a coming, and decided to go practice walking past the troll-leg umbrella stand, while Ginny Weasley tried her damnedest to stair holes through Tonks retreating back.
Harry blushed, avoided people's eyes, and stated "I got Voldieshorts, Snape got fired, and Sirius's name has been cleared. Shouldn't I be smitten and happy?"
Hermione responded to the challenge "Yeah, you should. But that doesn't explain the lust in your eyes." Before looking up thoughtfully and adding "At least I hope it doesn't."
Ginny chose this moment to add to the conversation. "I think it's safe to assume it has more to do with Tonks quick tactical retreat than Snape's underwear fetish."
Hermione and Ginny realized that the land they had marked and protected from all other Hogwarts' girls had been swiftly overcome by overwhelming outside forces. Ginny felt a bit melancholy although not so much she didn't appreciate the fact that the boy was smiling and happier than she'd ever seen him. Hermione could tell immediately Operation: Smoking Potter was a failure, and launched her own hungry eyes onto her backup plan, Operation: Food and Sex.
Ronald Weasley was truly happy for his best mate. 'Voldie's gone. He's not going to touch my sister. And Hermione is looking at me like I look at a bucket of chicken. Lucky bloke scored an older woman, who's an auror, and can change into anyone he wants her to be. Almost is a shame he's too stupid, err excuse me, noble, to take advantage of that. Ah well. When are we eating cake?'
Harry, proceeded to stare at his feet and shyly mumble things like "she…..pink hair…..kiss my twin...naughty and naughty…..bellybutton" before Ginny and Hermione rescued him and explained it aloud so that he only needed to nod rather than enunciate clear English sentences.
Harry had a complete thought just now and chose to voice it, "Where's Kreacher?"
Ginny wanted to respond as it seemed Hermione was a bit distraught at that question. "Ahh, see there was a minor problem. Apparently Mundungus found the life-sized house-elf shaped chew toy that Buckbeak likes so much, so he returned it. Turns out, there was a stray Petrificus Totalus Moody shot off when the wards around this place collapsed this morning. Long story short, Buckbeak has already been fed for today, never actually had a chew toy, and it's probably time you got a new house elf."
Harry smiled at the righteousness of the situation and decided to ask Dobby about working for him. Unfamiliar with the magic of house-elves, he was not prepared for Dobby to appear right in front of him.
"Greatest Wizard Harry Potter sir!" was all that could be understood before Dobby's voice was muffled by clutching Harry's leg so tight you would think the antidote was in there.
Dobby leaned back and smiled with immense pride as apparently he caught a case of delicate femininity and the tears came pouring down. "You want Dobby to be your house-elf, Greatest Wizard Master Harry Potter Sir?"
Harry could only smile and shake his head at the young elf's enthusiasm and apparent lack of concern for showing so much emotion. "Yes Dobby, I would love to hire you to work for me, and to be my friend, not my enslaved servant."
Hermione's demeanor finally brightened at the way Harry phrased the request. Dobby only looked supremely confused. He was torn between complete joy at being the Greatest Wizard Ever's friend, and disappointment that he did not want to bond with him.
Dobby looked a bit sad and said "Master does not wish to perform the House-elf bonding ceremony, Greatest Master Sir?"
Harry inquired why Dobby was so hesitant, and though it took a while, what with all the tears, and the leg hugs, and the frequently repeated greatest's, sir's, and Dobby's, he did get a proper explanation. Apparently, House Elves magic is directly tied into their bonding to their Master. And as such both Dobby and Winky have been weakening for years now. Hermione felt appalled and ashamed and Harry thought that that was deservedly so.
Harry immediately agreed to bond with Dobby if that was what Dobby really wanted. If he truly is Dobby's friend there's no way he could deny the little guy. He was about to voice aloud the same offer to Winky, when she too appeared and could do nothing but cry and hug his leg. Dobby seeing this response, latched himself comfortably onto the other leg, and advised Harry to walk them both to a more private room so that they could bond.
Walking through the main room, on the way upstairs, Tonks smiled and mentioned to Harry "You seem to have got a bit of elf stuck to your legs."
Winky seemed to know she was being made fun of and narrowed her eyes at Tonks and said "You's better treat Master well or Winky swears to Merlin, Winky gonna to open up a can of whoop-"
"Winky!" Harry exclaimed smiling and leaning forward to look down at his knees. "She was just teasing us." Harry got moving again and said suavely "Come on guys, let's bond."
Tonks could only look a bit frightened at the little elf. The smiles that came over Dobby and Winky's faces could've brightened Azkaban.
The house-elf bonding ceremony had a couple of steps to it, some of which took a bit of time, so the three were in the den with a silencing charm around them for a good half-hour without interruption. Or before interruption would be more accurate.
Narcissa Malfoy was furious. Her little Drakey-poo was stuck in a ministry holding cell still and had been since last night. And now she finds out, that her son is in fact NOT the Head of the Black family! This is unacceptable. A filthy halfblood claims to be the Head. Okay sure, sure, he beat up the Dark Lord. So he wasn't helpless. That does not give him the right to take what is rightfully her little Drakey's.
It was at this time, she realized she completely recollected her family's ancestral home. The Fidelius that must have been guarding it was gone now. Now she just needed to turn on her natural allure or maybe just yell her head off until the lawyer's finish drawing up her appeal. She apparated into the bedroom she shared with Trixie when they spent time in the Ancient and Most Noble House. She was screaming her head off demanding that 'Potter' come out this instant. Her niece Nymphadora informed her that he was busy in the den and not to be interrupted. Narcissa was born a Black and was not about to wait around for this.
Perhaps she would have been better off if she had waited around for this. But alas, no one's ever accused any Malfoy of being patient.
Harry had just linked his magic with both Winky and Dobby, and now was going to lock the procedure through a subservient bond of some sort. Honestly, he had no idea what he was doing. He just did what Dobby told him. First he bonded with Winky, and Winky nodded immediately and frequently indicating she knew exactly what Master wanted and could manipulate her elf magic far more powerfully now. She felt healthier and better than she could ever remember. As Harry again prepared the same spell, he was unaware someone had just burst through the den door, but once Narcissa entered the silenced area and her yelling could be heard, he freaked out and jumped back. Unfortunately the final binding aspect of the ritual had already shot off his wand to complete the ceremony. But with his attention divided, his aim was a bit off. He managed to nail Mrs. Malfoy right in the left breast with the spell. Dobby jumped up to help and then sat back down feeling a little woozy. But Narcissa Malfoy took the spell in the chest and her eyes rolled back into her head as she quickly fell to the floor unconscious.
Confused and scared Winky and Harry both had no idea what to do. Luckily it was Dobby who, though disoriented, was able to provide some useful information. "Greatest Master Ever Master Harry Potter Sir! It worked! Dobby feels Master's desires and Dobby's house-elf magic is singing to Dobby! But something feels very different. Dobby wonders…. Master Harry, order Dobby to do something!"
Harry thought briefly and said "Drop and give me twenty push-ups, now soldier!"
Dobby's face lit up like Rudolph and he responded with a smug smile "No, thank you Master. Dobby thinks Dobby won't do that" And then Dobby's face quickly fell and he looked scared "unless of course Master wants Dobby to, Greatest Wizard Master Ever Sir."
"No, no Dobby, I just made that up. So what does this mean?"
"Dobby feels no compulsion to obey Master sir. Dobby is Master's elf, You is Dobby's Master, but also, now, Dobby is FREE!" Harry could only laugh as Dobby was doing cartwheels around the room. Including over the unconscious Mrs. Malfoy.
"Dobby would apologize and ask for punishment, but Dobby can tell Master's just as happy about this as Dobby is!" And then the little house-elf began doing back handsprings around the room.
This time when he landed a back handspring his weight went right into Narcissa Malfoy's stomach, she let out an "ouffff" and begun to wake-up. Harry still had no clue what happened but it seemed to make Dobby awfully happy. Mrs. Malfoy shook her head to get rid of some of the confusing thoughts and feelings she had, before she locked eyes with Harry.
"Cissy is a bad elf!" she exclaimed before jumping up, running full speed into the wall, and knocking herself unconscious again.
