As soon as Arianna entered Flourish and Blotts she saw her cousins, not all of them but most of them. It was always a bit of a shock to see the sheer multitude of the red-headed masses, with a few browns and blonds for good measure. Damon immediately went off to talk to Fred's youngest twins Dave and Brian and George's youngest twins Sean and Mike. Now all alone, Arianna decided to have a look around the store and see if there were any other books she wanted besides those that were required. She walked up to the second level to look through the stacks.
A while later, when she was thoroughly engrossed in a book about the ancient founders of Hogwarts, she was interrupted with a, "Hello…" Arianna started and looked up to find herself looking into a pair of extremely blue eyes. "Uh, hi," she eloquently replied.
"Shouldn't you be with someone older, like some form of an adult?" the strange boy-man asked.
"No, my parents believe that I am capable of taking care of myself. Thank you very much. Unlike other people I don't need to be led around and told what to do. I can think on my own," Arianna snippily replied. She knew she didn't know this boy but instantly didn't like him because he was just so rude.
"Well, didn't mean to offend, but I know there is a bit of a search party going on downstairs for some little girl who wandered off without telling anyone where she was going," the demon child, as Arianna had decided he had to be, replied back scathingly.
"Ari!" cut off the sharp reply Arianna was making in her head. "Oh, hi Damon," she called to her older brother.
"Mum and Dad are ready to leave if you are, so we should probably…" the rest of Damon's sentence would never be known as he looked at who it was with his sister. "Potter."
"Malfoy."
"Wait, you're a Potter, no wonder you looked familiar. Your family-"
"Not now Ari. Let's go. NOW!" her bother yelled softly through clenched teeth. Arianna nodded and mentally told herself to ask her brother later what all the fuss was about.
Damon waited until his sister was safely on her way downstairs before turning back to the Potter boy, "You stay away from her. I mean it. If you don't heed my warning you will not only have to answer to me but also to my father."
"Oh sure, go hide behind Daddy. When are you going to learn that my family couldn't care less about what your family does. Run along now, mustn't keep poor Daddy waiting," Evan Potter replied quickly.
Damon turned on his heel and left the Potter boy to his own thoughts. Evan wondered what exactly it was that caused all the hatred between their fathers. He knew it had something to do with the war or school or both. Evan decided then and there he would find out, especially if he ever wanted to look into a certain pair of smoky gray-black eyes again.
That night at the dinner table Evan kept looking at his father quizzically. Harry, noticing his son's sudden staring problem decided to ask what was going on. He only hoped his son wasn't trying to figure where the random creatures his wife desperately feared were found.
"What can I do for you, Son?"
"Oh," said a startled Evan, "I had a little talk with someone today, and I was just wondering if you could tell me why you hate the Malfoys so much."
Harry dropped his spoon into his soup, he was so surprised by the words that came out of his son's mouth. "What did you just say!" Harry asked as he tried, unsuccessfully to get some of the soup off of him. Luna tried not to laugh at her husband's expression.
"Why do you hate the Malfoys so much?" Evan asked again.
"Yes, Harry, why do you hate them?" Luna chimed in. She had been wondering for years why two grown men such as Harry and Draco could not look each other in the eye. Harry had no problem with Ginny or the children, but when it came to Draco, things got shaky for some reason.
"I do not hate the Malfoys. I love Ginny Malfoy, she is like a little sister to me. The children are nice, but I just don't care for their father. It's ancient history between Draco and me only – nothing for either of you to worry about," Harry stated firmly as he looked pointedly at his son and wife, hoping desperately for this conversation to end.
"Well, if you don't hate them what is that they hate about us? As you know, Damon and I have never gotten along while at school and Arianna didn't even know who I was and she seemed angry with me. It could've been what I said to her but that is besides the point. Why do they hate us?"
"They don't hate us and we don't hate them. Now I have work to go do." Harry stood from the table and looked at Luna, "Thank you for a beautiful dinner." He then turned on his heel and stormed out of the room.
"Did I do something wrong?" Evan questioned his mother.
"No, Evan, you didn't. There are just some things your father refuses to talk about. Draco Malfoy happens to be one of them. Actually, come to think of it, he hasn't talked about Draco at all since the war ended. Don't worry about it. Now hurry up and finish eating so you can go upstairs and make sure the leprechauns haven't messed with your trunk and check your bed for bed bugs before bedtime."
"Yes, mother," mumbled Evan, at the rate he would never be able to talk to Arianna Malfoy because of her bloody brother and this secret.
Arianna stood outside Damon's bedroom wondering if now was a good time to talk about this afternoon. Damon would definitely tell her what was going on, they had always been thick as thieves together, but they'd be darned if they let anyone know it. "Oh, bugger the consequences," she thought as she knocked on the door.
"What!" was the muffled reply.
She carefully opened the door a crack and poked her head in, "Hey Damon, its only me can I come in?"
"Oh Ari, sure. What's up?"
"I just wanted to talk to you about this afternoon. What was with all that 'Potter-Malfoy' nonsense?"
"Don't worry about it Ari. It's not a big deal."
"It seemed like a pretty big deal. Come on Damon we always tell each other everything."
"Alright, but don't tell Dad that I told you. I don't even know that much."
"Okay, so spill."
"From what I've gathered, with my wonderfully honed skills…"
"You mean eavesdropping."
"Do you want to know or not?"
"Yes, sorry."
"Well, I've found out that Dad and Harry Potter or Scarhead, as I've heard Dad call him, didn't really get along at Hogwarts. Actually they pretty much constantly tried to kill each other. I also think there was something that happened during the war and something to do with Mum, but those are purely speculation. No one will talk about either."
"So you hate Potter because Dad hated/hates his Dad? What is this, some sort of family tradition?"
"No I don't hate Potter. I just don't like him. When I first started going to Hogwarts I was a little wary of him, but I thought I would push judgments aside until I talked to him. It was the first thing he ever said to me that made me not like him."
"What did he say?"
"Come on Ari, I don't want to tell you that. It will only make you as mad as it made me."
"Oh, just tell me," Arianna did her best at making puppy dog eyes at her brother.
"Fine, but once again this stays between you and me," Damon demanded.
"I know. Everything we tell each other stays strictly between us."
"I went up to Potter and introduced myself shortly after arriving at Hogwarts. He then responded with, 'Evan Potter. Say aren't you that famous Death Eater's grandson?' I almost punched him. I hate when people bring up that man. He was not a father to Dad so he is not our grandfather."
"How could he say something so mean?" Arianna then remembered how superior Evan seemed in Flourish and Blotts. It was official – Evan Potter had to be pure evil.
"I have no idea, but he did. I didn't seem to faze him at all."
"Maybe I should ask Dad about all this, you know how good I am at getting information out of Dad."
"No, Ari. The one time I managed to even glimpse interaction between him and Potter was at a Christmas party when I was 6. Mum and Dad were talking to Aunt Hermione and Uncle Ron when this new man came up. Everyone seemed so excited to see 'Harry' except of course Dad. I watched Dad as Potter hugged Mum then bent to talk to me. He didn't get two words out before Dad was telling him to stay away form his family and anything else belonging to the Malfoys. Dad then took Mum and my hands and started walking away. Mum tried to ask what was wrong but Dad quieted her with just a look. A look, Ari. I've never seen him so mad, even when we put blue dye in his shampoo as a joke – he wasn't half this mad."
"Oh," was all Arianna could say. She knew at that point exactly what was meant by Malfoy family secrets.
The fateful day had come. Draco stood in his daughter's doorway and watched her sleep. He was not ready for this. How was he supposed to keep her safe so far from home? She was too innocent and little to be sent away right now. He didn't remember Damon being that little when he went off to Hogwarts. Damon had been ready, Arianna was still his baby. He couldn't let her go yet. Draco was about to walk in and wake up his baby when he felt his wife behind him.
"We have to let her go. It's time," Ginny whispered sadly as she wrapped her arms around Draco's waist.
"I know, but I'm not ready. Whoever it was that decided to send young witches and wizards away from their parents at age eleven needs to cursed into oblivion."
"That may be true, but we still need to wake her up so she can eat and get ready to leave."
"Can't we just say that we forgot today was the day the train is to leave?"
"No. Especially not when Damon is already awake and eating his breakfast."
"Fine, I'll do it. She'll be downstairs shortly."
"She better be or I'm coming back up here."
"Yes, ma'am," Draco sneered before kissing Ginny and watching her walk down the hall. "Alright, time to begin one of the worst days of my life." Draco crept over to the edge of his baby's bed, stroked the hair back from her face and murmured, "Arianna, sweetheart, it's time to get up. You have to get ready to go to school."
Arianna was dreaming, or at least she hoped she was. She was standing in the middle of a dark forest with no clue of where she was or where she was going. All Arianna knew at that moment was that she was scared to death and wanted out of there, but she didn't know where there was. She decided to start walking in the direction she was facing. She didn't know if it was the way out but she certainly hoped it was.
After walking about five minutes, Arianna began to hear voices ahead. There were four male voices and at least one sounded really familiar. She walked towards the voices avoiding branches and leaves just like her brother taught her. Finally she came to a point where she could see into the clearing. She hid behind a bush so as not to be seen, then began surveying the scene before her. First she saw two older men dressed all in black. One looked nonhuman while the other looked like someone she had seen before but only in secret, hidden pictures or portraits. Then the two men moved a little and Arianna saw something that had to be impossible. Standing before the two darkly robed men stood a young man who looked a lot like the boy she had met in Flourish and Blotts except the eyes were different. This man's eyes were green and not blue. Then Arianna looked at the other young man and silently gasped in shock – no wonder she recognized one of the voices.
"Malfoy, get out of here. You don't belong here," the Evan look-a-like spat out of the corner of his mouth.
"Oh, get off it Potter. You really don't think you can handle the darkest wizard of the world and my father at the same time do you?" Draco retorted and glared at the semi-familiar older man.
"You stopped being my son months ago, Draco. As much as I hate to say it though, Potter is right – you don't belong here right now. We will come for you later, along with your little whore."
Arianna suddenly knew why the man seemed so familiar – it was her grandfather, Lucius Malfoy! The scum. What was he doing in the woods with her dad though?
"Hush, hush Lucius. Having young Draco here will only make things more interesting. Maybe now he will learn how stupid he was when he decided to change sides," the creature next to her grandfather hissed out.
"Yes, father," Draco spat, "let me learn my lesson, but leave everyone else out of it."
Arianna couldn't believe what she was seeing. What was going on? Who was the fourth man and why did he want to teach her father a lesson? Who was the other person they were talking about, surely not Mum?
"Alright. Let the games begin," her grandfather proclaimed as he drew his wand. The three other men followed suit, and the standoff began.
"Arianna, sweetheart, it's time to get up," a distant voice said and startled Arianna. "You have to get ready to go to school." Arianna opened her eyes to stare into the silver, loving orbs of her father's eyes; which only moments ago had been filled with hatred and defiance.
Platform 9 ¾ was a hotbed of activity. Arianna could not believe the number of people shoved into so small a place. She looked in every direction, trying to get acclimated to her surroundings. Then she saw it – the sea of red, blond, and brown that meant her family was there. Having her brother and all her cousins at school with her was such a comfort. She knew she wouldn't be alone, but she also knew she had to pull her brother aside for a private conversation as soon as possible. Arianna looked again at her family and began doing a mental checklist to see if everyone was there. Mum and Dad were talking to Uncle Bill, Aunt Fleur, Uncle Charlie, and Aunt Althea. Then surrounding them were four redheads and two blonds. Next she saw Uncle Percy and Aunt Penelope and three more redheads, then all the many sets of twins (some of which Damon was talking to). Finally, she saw Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione. Arianna really loved her family, partially for just the sheer number of them. As Arianna moved towards her parents, she saw two blackheads and a blonde walk up to and embrace her Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione. Arianna had no idea who the people were that were talking to her Aunt and Uncle. Then the taller of the two black-haired men turned around and Arianna could not believe her eyes – it was the man from her dream! He was older but it was definitely him.
Arianna changed course and headed towards Damon. She needed to talk to him right now. "Damon," she semi-yelled at him as she pulled on his sleeve. "Can I talk to you for a second?"
"Hang on Ari, Dave was in the middle of a great joke. Can't it wait until…" Damon broke off as he turned and saw the look in his sister's eyes. "What's wrong?"
"I just really need to talk to you privately. It's very important," she pleaded as her eyes diverted over to the dark-haired man again.
Upon seeing where his sister's eyes looked, Damon started moving her to someplace they could talk. "I see you have spotted the great Harry Potter," he spat as soon as they were out of earshot of everyone else.
"That's Har…Wait just a second. He was in a dream I had-"
"Come on you two let's get you on the train before it leaves," Draco unknowingly interrupted his daughter. "Are you two alright? You look as though you've seen a ghost or something."
"Now why would a ghost scare us, Dad. There are tons of them at school and everywhere else," Damon quickly recovered from the shock of having his father interrupt the important conversation he was having.
"Good point. Well let's go say good-bye to your Mum. I want her to get the crying over and done with as soon as possible."
Arianna and Damon followed their father, and soon all thought of Harry Potter was gone as they hugged and kissed all their relatives good-bye. Damon, Arianna, and the rest of the group boarded the train, found compartments together, and waved to their parents out of the window.
"Well you did it. You let her go," Ginny murmured to Draco as she snuggled into his side.
"I know. The house is going to be really quiet now. How long until Christmas?"
"Honestly Draco. Relax. It will all be okay. She has Damon to protect her."
"I know Gin, but… Oh never mind," Draco said as he looked down into his beautiful wife's brown eyes. Just then a thought occurred to him and he gave her a roguish smile. "What do you say we go home and use the quiet, empty house to our advantage?"
"Why, Mr. Malfoy, I never," Ginny tried acting appalled as she blushed slightly.
"No, my dear, you haven't, but you will shortly."
With a pop they were gone to enjoy their new found freedom.