Bridging chapter, next is Harry's introduction to Dancia Malfoy being the only person in the world who ever showed him any concern, that won't effect him at all will it?
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As he took a sip of his wine the aristocratically handsome man seated in the lounge of Malfoy Manor returned the stare he was receiving from a pair of scintillating sapphire blue eyes, slightly nonplussed at their intensity.
Tilting his head to the side he leaned his chin into his hand as his elbow landed on the side rest of the high backed chair he had been offered by the Lord of the house, trying to figure out why that gaze was just so...unsettling.
Through his life, be it at the orphanage he grew up in, his first real home Hogwarts, the journeys of his youth, and his rise in power, the man known as Lord Voldemort had been stared down by many people.
Usually, their gazes were fearful, furtive, prey squirming under the scrutiny of a predator. Sometimes they were defiant, realizing they were about to die and would not give him the satisfaction of seeing them panic. Recently he had seen quite a bit of begging, hoping for mercy where none could be found.
What he was not use to, was a thirteen month old baby glaring at him with such intensity that if he didn't know better, he would think she was trying to catch his head on fire with her mind.
The Dark Lord didn't know it, but that was exactly what Dancia Alya Malfoy was doing at the moment.
Said Heiress, who had recently begun teething and was very much not ok with it, was doing her best to pool her vast magic stores in an attempt to lash out at the fool before her.
Unfortunately even though Draco had been the equivalent of Howitzer in his previous life this new body was just that, new. It couldn't channel the power he could bring to bear so he was forced to sit here, with a monster, in his family's ancestral home, and be only able to glare at the bastard.
"My my isn't my little niece an intense one?" Dancia did not shudder, but it was a bloody close thing she was ready to admit. Memories of Draco's 'training' beneath his Aunt's tutelage came rushing to the forefront as the Dark Witch in question bent down to observe her niece seated in her high chair.
"She is very mature for her age, hardly ever starts a fuss, and quite obedient as well," Lucius stated with pride to both his sister in law and the Lord they had both sworn themselves to.
Dancia did her best not to roll her eyes at that, she hardly ever fussed because most of the time Lucius was spouting off the same stupid shite that he'd indoctrinated Draco with. It had taken nearly a decade of hardship, a trip to Mexico with Harry and Neville, and far too much tequila to finally break him of it.
So no, Dancia didn't fuss, because she wasn't bloody well listening to the inbred twit this time around.
"She is my heart though, the warmth in her eyes is what keeps me moving through the day."
That had been mother, and so she smiled.
Breaking her gaze from Bellatrix and Riddle, Dancia turned to Narcissa and extended her hands happily, the blonde woman simply smiled as she plucked the girl up and held her tightly.
Lucius was a write off, Dancia knew that, he always had been, it had just taken a blood war, years of being terrorized in his own home, and eventually a tribunal for Draco to realize that. If it hadn't been for the testimony of Harry Potter and Hermione Granger, he and his mother would have joined the man in a life sentence in Azkaban.
Narcissa though, she had always loved Draco, and had always put his safety before her own, and it was no different with Dancia, so she figured the least she could do in this new life was actually show some bloody appreciation for the effort.
"A fine addition to our ranks for sure," the Dark Lord demurred, no one else sensed it, but Narcissa stiffened as she held her daughter closer. That...actually made warm fuzzy feelings form in the century old wizard's heart, mother always did seem less...enamored by the whole blood purity thing than the others.
Good to know that extended to wanting to keep her child out of it all, even though it was a forgone conclusion that Lucius's idiocy would draw her into a madman's machinations.
Dancia wasn't sure if it was the simple fact that she got to observe the man's descent into depravity, or that she had already gotten to see the end result as Draco, but at some point in the past year all kind thoughts for the man who sired her had vanished.
"Of course she is, and she'll be the most powerful and loyal witch of the next generation, won't she?"
Crap.
Aunt Bellatrix plucked Dancia from her mother's arms and soon cradled the infant in her own, "Who is Auntie Bella's favorite little witch? You!" Running long nailed fingers gently down the side of the child's face, said child did her best not to make any abrupt movements.
Fact, there were very few things that legitimately scared him at the end of his life, but one of the things that always would terrify him though? Was his Aunt Bellatrix LeStrange.
"You are quite fond of your niece are you not Bella?" Smiling she turned to Riddle and met his crimson gaze as she nodded quickly in return.
"She is adorable My Lord, her eyes hold such intensity, and I can feel the raw power boiling beneath her skin just waiting to be used! That...and...and she is awfully cute when she is cuddling her stuffed rabbit..."
Never living that one down, Dancia thought dryly.
Lord Voldemort snorted in amusement, "Well then, why not spend more time with your sister and niece? It isn't likely you'll have a child of your own anytime soon since your husband seems to be more interested in his brother than you, so why not try and bond? After all, wouldn't it benefit all if the little princess took after my most loyal servant?"
OK. What. The. Fuck?
While Lucius and and Mother paled, Bellatrix nodded gleefully as she leaned her head down to touch noses with her niece, "We're going to get along ever so well are we not!?"
Fuck. Fuck. Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck. FUCK!
First off, the LeStrange brothers? Gross. Just, no. Draco wasn't going anywhere near that. Second, Bellatrix acting like...what...a second mom? Was this one of those butterfly effect moments? Since she was a girl this time around the mad witch had more interest in her?
Ugh, her kingdom for the ability to speak coherently, this being a baby thing was getting old.
As things stood, over the passing days, weeks, and months, Bellatrix did take a more active part in Dancia's life, and it wasn't all disturbing, strangely enough. It ended up her aunt was an intellectual, which Draco had never known after her decade stay in Azkaban, as well as being a talented singer.
So when she was watched by the mad witch Dancia would get serenaded with the latest magical research via song which...really ruined her image as a psychotic killer rather quickly.
It was...admittedly...cute. Bellatrix LeStrange was a cute, psychotic, violent, loving, and intelligent young witch, and Draco could see now what the Dark Lord had.
Unending potential.
It was rather terrifying, really.
All that came to an end when Bellatrix slammed the manors doors open one day while burying her nose in a handkerchief, she was sobbing and crying while Mother and Lucius attempted to calm her down. Eventually, they got the message, which, honestly, shocked Dancia.
The Potters were dead, aside from little Harry, and in their deaths, they had seen to the fall of the Dark Lord.
Shit, Draco hadn't even realized it was that time, but it fit, dammit.
Contrary to the shite Dumbledore had everyone believing by the time Draco and Harry hit Hogwarts it was not 'The-Boy-Who-Lived' that defeated the Dark Lord. Rather it had been a complex, house-wide sacrificial rune that required the father to obstruct the target knowing he was going to die, followed with the mother begging to be taken in the childs stead also knowing she was going to die.
If both were murdered in cold blood, and the wand was turned on the anointed child, well, the wizard holding said wand would explode rather hilariously and the child in question would be shielded against his magic.
Hermione had found that in Lily Evans journals, why that old goatfucker never bothered reading the woman's research was anyone's guess. Draco, along with Ron and Harry figured the old man just couldn't admit there was someone far smarter and cunning than him on the field, and thus decided to just ignore it.
Fussing a bit, knowing exactly what it would do, Dancia gained Bellatrix's attention as she scooped the baby in her arms and began rocking her gently. She didn't know what the mad witch was babbling about but it kept her focus on her and not the fallen Voldemort, and hopefully, off poor Neville's family.
Eventually, Bellatrix fell asleep on the couch holding Dancia, who was eventually plucked from the woman's limp grip and taken to her rooms by her mother. When she was awoken in the morning, and brought downstairs she was shocked to see the sitting room full of aurors.
It would appear that Rodolphus and Rabastan LeStrange, along with one Bartemius Crouch Junior had attacked the Longbottom family the night before, which Dancia had expected obviously.
What wasn't expected though was that Bellatrix hadn't been involved in the slightest, rather than joining on their little crusade she had gone to Malfoy Manor to cuddle her niece, and thus the only intelligent member of that group was missing.
They had rushed into the Longbottem home, wands blazing, only to be met with Alice Longbottom's curses. When they finally downed her and began torturing the witch her little Neville exploded out with a wave of panicked magic temporarily stunning them all, which was all the time Frank Longbottem needed to kill all three of them.
Dancia sighed at that, you don't fuck with grey wizards, they are efficient, amoral, and get the job done in a quick fashion, and on the plus side, Neville would have a real childhood now.
Silver lining there.
As it stood Bellatrix was not arrested or even charged with anything, she was simply informed her husband was dead, and that he was a Death Eater. Dancia could not have been the only one to notice how happy her Aunt was with this revelation, but judging by the looks of her parents and the gathered Aurors...she really was.
So that was the next few years for her, no Dark Lord, no despondent and alone mother, and being raised by Black witches while her father stood furtively aside not wanting to earn their ire.
It wasn't until what she realized would be Harry's eighth birthday that Dancia paused combing through her long snow white hair that she had a way of changing...everything, more than Bellatrix's absence with the Longbottoms ever could have.
"No..."
Seriously it couldn't be that easy could it?
"No really, he's Albus Bloody Dumbledore he has to have a defense against that..."
But Harry had told Draco all about that summer, with...
"Dobby," a moment later her personal elf appeared before her hopping on his tiptoes. The little guy was deathly loyal to her, being that Dancia was the only person to ever show him affection and all. It was...cruel to utilize that loyalty the way she did, but, well, you go to war with the weapons you have.
"Little Missy Dancy be calling Dobby?!" He asked with his usual enthusiasm, Dancia held her sigh in wondering yet again what the hell Harry saw in these creatures but pushed that aside for now.
"I would like you to find Harry Potter, and observe him without being seen, at the end of the day come back to me and tell me what you have seen." The little elf saluted, and popped away.
It wasn't until later that night, when Dancia was trying to figure out which sleeping gown to pick for the evening, that Dobby returned. The little elf had obviously been crying, and for quite a time, eventually he shuffled forward, held the young witch in a hug, and sobbed.
"It is being terrible what they is being doing to the Great Harry Potter Little Missy Dancy!"
Well...fuck... Consistancy isn't always the best thing...
Being a girl this time around may have been Harry's fault, but that was a different Harry, Draco's Harry.
This one was Dancia's, and he was hurting now...
Screw it.
"Dobby I want you to prepare a few things..."