The Black Hearts

Chapter II: Friends and Children

By: Angel Vanilla

TEXT is to indicate the point of view that the part of the story takes place.

NOTE: I will be calling Draco Daniel now, so I hope you're not too confused. If you are, maybe you should read the first chapter, instead of starting with the second… Sweatdrop

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Draco/Daniel

Veri Magical College was much like Hogwarts on the outside, I mused when I first saw the grand castle at the top of the hill above the town of Enton. Yes, much like Hogwarts on the outside.

I had woken up early that morning, made sure I had everything packed and ready to go, and then Apparated to Enton. (Like Hogwarts, you could not Apparate in or out of Veri, and it was also Unplottable.) I saw the two who were to be my guides almost instantly—both stuck out like sore thumbs among the average townspeople of Enton.

One of them, a girl, had brown hair down to her shoulder blades with purple streaks in it, and a shirt with the colorful, but very unoriginal, saying, "bite me." She was, to my disappointment, taller than me, as was the other guide, a boy. He had dark blue hair and blue eyes, and a shirt with Japanese writing on the front. His glasses—while not the same style—reminded me somewhat of Potter's dorky glasses. The boy's glasses were not at all dorky in style, but they seemed so after you took one look at them and noticed the thick lenses.

"Hey, you must be the new guy. Daniel, right?" The girl asked. I could hear a tongue ring that clicked against her teeth as she spoke. I nodded. "Cool. I'm Alex. This here is Takashi. Real name's Andrew."

"Nice to meet you," I answered. I had already decided to at least attempt to be nice to people, even if I didn't like them.

We started up the path to the school, Alex and Takashi—he refused to be called Andrew and loved his name because he was a fan of some Muggle thing called "anime"—both talked almost constantly, mostly giving me advice about who to stay away from and what teachers to avoid angering. That was fine with me. I wasn't really much of a social person, despite what all of my old friends thought. I only stayed in the spotlight at Hogwarts because it had been expected of me.

"So… how old are you?" Alex asked. For some reason I had come to like the odd clicking that her tongue ring made when she talked. She also had a slightly lisp, and it made her voice sound sweet most of the time, not that she would ever admit it.

"I turn eighteen in January," I answered.

"You're pretty young to be going off to college. What about your seventh year at school? Term's not over yet, you know. Where'd you go to school?" Takashi asked. I didn't like talking about my past much, and I didn't want them to know that I had gotten the Dark Mark when I was only sixteen. Not that I was a Voldemort supporter, I did it mostly to please my father. Who wasn't really my father after all.

"I used to go to Hogwarts. I never went back after sixth year, though," I told them.

"You must be a pretty decent wizard if the Headmaster would let you in and you didn't have your seventh year completed," Alex said. Takashi nodded in agreement.

"He's a nice guy, but pretty tough to please."

"So I've heard." I answered. "I didn't really have many friends at school, and it gave me time to study a lot."

"Not a good friend-maker, eh?" Alex asked. "That's okay, neither are we. I've got an attitude problem and Takashi's… well, Takashi. We don't have many friends either, except each other."

"I think your attitude's fine. And you… I guess you're just a little hard to understand, that's all," I told Alex and Takashi.

"So, I guess we're friends now, then?" Takashi asked.

"Yeah. Friends."

I was reminded of my very first day at Hogwarts, when I'd tried to befriend Potter. I knew now that if I hadn't been suc an arrogant, over-confident prat then he would probably be sitting next to Potter, Weasley and Granger right now, laughing himself silly. It didn't matter now, that was in the past.

"Well, it's Saturday today, so no classes. Let's show you where all your classes are and introoduce you to the teachers," Alex said, and Takashi nodded.

"Except I'll stay behind when you introduce him to Atlantic," He said, shivering. "That man freaks me out…" Alex rolled her eyes.

"He's the Potions Master here. Takashi thinks he's creepy because of his mood swings. Happy one day, depressed the next, so on and so forth," Alex explained. "And when he's in a bad mood, he's not a very good teacher."

Reminds me of Snape, I thought. If so, then I would know the perfect way to make him like me. I grinned. Oh, how much fun I was going to have with this class…

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Remus Lupin sighed, and wished that Tonks hadn't left. His house seemed empty without her bright, happy presence to fill it. He smiled, thinking of her bubble-gum colored hair, and took a sip of the tea he held.

Just then, a knock at the door interrupted his thoughts of his girlfriend, and he stood from his slightly worn, and very comfortable, armchair to answer it. Of course he didn't have to go through the silly procedures that Molly and Arthur did—the personal questions. He had set up a ward around his home which prevented anyone from Apparating or Disapparating, and no one with the Dark Mark could enter unless he specified it.

Opening it, he asked, "Who is—Samantha?" Lupin stared at the woman on the other side of his doorway. A person he'd thought he'd never see again—she'd been thought to have been killed, back during the first war with Voldemort. Lupin wondered why everyone called this the "second war of the Dark Lord" when the first one had never really ended.

Samantha Malfoy-Williams—Thompson now, he reflected—had been friends with him and Lily during their school days. James didn't like her because she was always getting him in trouble because of his pranks, and Sirius was her mortal enemy because she was the sister of Lucius Malfoy. She was a Gryffindor, so she never interacted much with her brother during the school year.

All of them had thought she'd been killed a few months after seventh year for refusing to take the Dark Mark.

"Remus," She gave him a small smile, which lit up her large, bright blue eyes. For the first time he noticed the young girl in her arms, who looked like a miniature version of Samantha.

"Why don't you come inside?" He asked. There were a million questions racing through his mind right now, but this was the one that made it's way out first.

"Thank you," Samantha answered, and followed him into his small, but extremely cozy, house.

There was a moment of silence, and he led her into the sitting room on the left and gestured to one of the chairs, and both sat down, looking at each other.

"Where have you been?" Lupin asked quietly, not wanting to wake the girl, whom he presumed to be her daughter.

"I had to hide, after refusing the Mark. I couldn't contact you—or anyone else—for a very long while, as I had no idea where any of you were. Believe me, if I had known, I would have written to you and let you know that I was fine," Samantha assured him, shifting the sleeping girl in her arms.

Lupin nodded. He knew she would have, and Samantha would never lie to him. "What's her name?"

"Emma," She answered. "Emma Julia Thompson."

"Where is John?" Lupin asked. John Thompson had been a Ravenclaw a year ahead of them, and he and Samantha had married as soon as they were out of Hogwarts. At the beginning of the war.

"I don't know. I left our house after packing a few things—the Dark Mark was there, but not his body," Samantha told him.

"I'm so sorry," Lupin said softly, and he meant it. He didn't know what he would do if he knew something had happened to Tonks. There was another moment of silence, this time broken by Samantha.

"I came to ask you where the Headquarters is now. The old one was destroyed in the last war, wasn't it?" She asked.

"Yes, it was," Lupin confirmed. "But why do you want to know about it?"

"I want to leave Emma with them while I search for John. I know she'll be safe there, with them," Samantha explained. Lupin blinked.

"We don't even know where he is." Both really knew that this statement meant: But you don't know if he's even alive.

"Remus, I would know if he were dead. We have twin rings. Mine isn't glowing," Samantha told him. Lupin nodded. It made sense, then. If John were in danger, Samantha's ring would glow one color. If he were dead, it would glow another.

"But why leave Emma at Headquarters? She won't be very safe, not anymore. Snape played us for fools, and now they're sure to know where our Headquarters is. We're working on moving it to Hogwarts." Samantha flinched as he said Snape's name.

"I heard about Severus, and I can't believe it. He had a reason, I'm sure of it," She told him. But she didn't sound so sure—mostly hopeful. "I have nowhere else to take her. I left my son with Lucius and my daughter with a very good French friend of mine, but they can't take Emma." Lupin blinked.

"I didn't know that you had any other children," He said.

"Yes. Daniel and Anna," Samantha told him. "Both don't know that they aren't with their real parents."

Something clicked inside of Lupin's mind. Daniel, Samantha's son. Samantha giving her son to Lucius. Lucius' son, Draco.

"Did your brother ever have any other children?"

"No. Narcissa wasn't able to have any children of her own, as the result of a bad potion while she was in school. Why?"

"Draco Malfoy. Daniel is Draco Malfoy," Lupin said. Samantha nodded.

"How did you know that?" She asked him.

"I'll tell you later," He said, and she didn't press the subject, knowing he would tell her when he thought the time was right. "Anyway, I don't think you should leave Emma with the Order. Or at Hogwarts. An attack last year proved at it wasn't the safe-haven we'd always thought it to be."

"What attack? I heard about Dumbledore's injury, but nothing about an actual attack," Samantha said.

"A student created a way for Death Eaters to get into the school unnoticed. Luckily no one was killed, but it did rattle us quite a bit," Lupin explained.

"Despite all of that, the safest place for Emma is with the Order," Samantha told him. "I have to take her there, even if there's a chance of her getting hurt. That risk will only increase if she's away from fully trained witches and wizards."

Instantly Lupin said, "I could take her." He'd already made up his mind. He'd been unable to help his friend that night that they thought she had been killed, so he was going to make it up to her.

Samantha shook her head. "No, I couldn't ask you to do that, Remus. I don't want to cause—"

"Samantha, I want to take her. You go, and search for John. I'll care for Emma," Lupin told her. "During my transformations I'm sure Molly or Tonks wouldn't mind watching her." Samantha sighed. Although Lupin made it sound as if she had a choice in the matter, she knew otherwise. Once Lupin had gotten it into his head to do something, it was done, one way or another.

"Are you sure, Remus?"

"Quite sure." He assured her, without hesitating for a second.

"Alright." Samantha said, and wondered how she had gone from searching for the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix to giving her youngest daughter to the best friend she hadn't seen in years.

But now that she knew Emma was safe, it was time to search for John.