Chapter Four

He tried his best to ignore the staring, the fact that the room went deathly silent as the doors opened. It was obvious that news of what had happened had made the rounds as quickly as usual, and people were craning to get a look at Harry Potter carrying the child-version of Draco Malfoy, his most hated enemy, bar Voldemort. Well, Voldemort, Lucius and Bellatrix, really. It took what seemed like forever to reach his friends at the Gryffindor table barely a third of the way down the Hall, a comforting pat on his shoulder from Dumbledore making him feel only slightly better.

Draco clung to him with a death grip, face pressed firmly into Harry's shoulder, and Harry realised he still wasn't ready to face the situation the way his friends were going to ask him to. He was suddenly incredibly nervous of their reactions. He hadn't seen them since their Potions Class first thing. And then, he had no time left to prepare because he stood facing them, holding Draco awkwardly and trying to ignore the ferocious whispering happening all around him.

Neville, Seamus, Ginny, Dean and Ron stared at him in disgusted fascination while Hermione managed to look both curious, reluctant, empathetic and encouraging at the same time. Fred and George simply gave him identical small, albeit curious smiles, and, when nobody shifted immediately, they parted to allow Harry to slip onto the bench between them, Draco fearfully clinging to him as he settled the child on his knee. Dumbledore reached his own seat and clinked his glass, effectively capturing the attention of the room.

"The apple pie is looking particularly delectable tonight, do not halt your meal on our account." he stated with a smile, and then proceeded to begin helping himself.

Slowly but surely chatter returned, and clinking cutlery resumed. It didn't take much to know that most of the urgent, battling voices were discussing the most recent Potter Palaver. Harry, still being looked at expectantly by his own circle of friends and not quite ready to deal with them, decided to focus everything on the trembling child on his knee, pointing out things on various plates and asking Draco what he wanted to eat, deliberately ignoring everyone else.

The child eventually shuffled around to face the table, but kept peering around balefully at the faces who kept shooting glances at him, looking away when they made eye-contact. He was incredibly nervous, and in an attempt to make him more at ease Harry gave him his full attention, completely ignoring the others, and once he had followed his lead Draco relaxed just enough for Harry to collect the things he asked for so quietly and so politely.

"Anything i want?" the small voice had asked, subdued, and Harry's inner self had smirked at the irony of him encouraging Draco Malfoy to have whatever he wanted.

Yeah." he whispered back, "whatever you like, Draco."

The child had stared at the table with such a serious, pondering expression that Harry couldn't help but smile.

Harry had to stifle a laugh at the selection. An almond cookie, three marshmallows, a tiny slice of chicken and a larger slice of apple pie, ice-cream included, and two small clementines. Harry bargained with him to get him to also eat a small spoonful of mashed potato, grinning when the child managed to haggle him for another scoop of ice-cream.

Once Draco was munching away, Harry grabbed a chicken leg, as he could eat it with his hand and leave Draco the plate, and finally looked up at his friends. The twins looked non-plussed, but grinned widely when he finally acknowledged them.

"Taken up baby-sitting now, have we Harry?" grinned George.

Harry felt his cheeks go red.

"Nahh, he's adopted a Malfoy." answered Fred.

Harry shook his head and swallowed a grin, looking skyward.

"I hear they make rubbish pets, mate." added George.

Harry, surprising himself, laughed. Draco looked up at him, expression indignant.

"I'm not a pet! Am i, Harry?"

The Gryffindor group went silent at the sound of Draco calling Harry Harry. Child or not, it was still extremely odd. Harry ignored them and shook his head.

"No, you're not. You're a Malfoy."

Draco nodded, and returned his attention to the marshmallow on the end of his fork. Harry smiled bemusedly at the sight of someone eating marshmallows with a fork, for Merlin's sake. Malfoys.

"So, Harry. Are you going to tell us why we've got a cursed bloody Slytherin at our table?"

Harry looked up sharply at Ron's snippy question, even as Hermione smacked his arm.

"Ron!"

"Ow! What? What did i do?"

Hermione huffed.

"You know perfectly well. We discussed the possibility of having Malfoy for dinner seeing as Harry was so attached to him!" she hissed. Harry looked at her in shock.

"I'm not attached to him!"

This was still Malfoy, for god's sake! Hermione raised an eyebrow.

"Really. Then tell me why you wouldn't hand him over to Snape."

Harry flushed, but refused to look away.

"Because Snape's a nasty bastard, and this is just a kid."

Hermione was the only one who didn't grumble under their breath. Well, except the twins, but they never reacted to anything like expected.

"He's a Malfoy." muttered Ron, this time dodging Hermione's smack.

"He's a nasty bastard too."

Harry glared at him as Draco looked up sharply, eyes widening.

"Now look!" he snapped, as Draco swallowed and flushed a ruddy pink colour, eyes shimmering.

"Hey, hey, it's alright, Ron's just being stupid."

"What? Harry!"

"Shut up Ron."

"Hermione!"

"Ron!"

Harry ignored them as he touched the small shoulders of the Malfoy, one hand rubbing awkwardly.

"Hey, it's okay, Draco. Don't cry."

Draco sniffled, rubbing his sleeve across his eyes once.

"I'm not." he whispered. "Malfoys don't cry."

Harry frowned but didn't say anything, and Hermione caught his eye, obviously having heard, and looked concerned for a moment before looking away uncomfortably. He knew it was going to take time for everybody to accept Malfoy's presence, even he himself wasn't entirely at ease with it. And he knew that everyone would react as Hermione did, uncomfortable with feeling sympathy or concern for what was, essentially, the enemy.

Harry sighed, and then looked at Ron, tilting his head in Draco's direction.

"What?" his friend asked, slightly bewildered looking.

"Apologise." filled in Hermione, scowling as Ron shook his head.

"To a Malfoy?" he asked in disgust. Hermione whacked his arm again and he winced.

"To a child, Ron."

"Sorry." he muttered darkly, shuffling away from her, and Hermione sent a tense smile in the child's direction.

The rest of dinner was a terse affair, at best. By the time they'd cleared their plates they had argued over the same ground so many times that Harry's head felt heavy. Ron wasn't speaking to him, and Hermione had questioned everything from why Harry had jumped his desk in Potions to how he had convinced Snape to allow him to keep the child. It was no surprise to any who had been present in the class that Snape had glared maliciously at the group through the whole meal, and Dean reported that the Potions Master hadn't eaten anything, too focused on trying to kill them with his gaze.

Ron had stormed off as soon as he had finished, and Hermione had smiled apologetically to Harry and followed him, telling Harry she'd talk some sense into their stubborn best friend. The others had filtered off with most of the student body, and the twins had elected to wait on Harry while he waited on Draco. As they were getting ready to leave, Harry snagging one of the empty side bowls to carry Draco's clementines and some other things he'd chosen - the child was an incredibly slow eater - the twins had turned their backs to them, suddenly, and Harry looked back to see what was going on.

Beyond the twins stood a trio that Harry just simply couldn't stand. Pansy Parkinson, flanked by Crabbe and Goyle, flicked her dark hair over her shoulder and stared defiantly up at the faces of the twins.

"You're headed in the wrong direction, Pansy," said George sweetly.

"Door's that way." Fred finished off smoothly in that disconcerting way they have.

"Push off, redheads. We've come for Draco. You'd had your chance to pose with him, Potter, now hand him over."

Harry turned and stood between the twins, leaving the blonde in question sitting on the bench behind him.

"Just leave it, Parkinson, he's not going with you."

Her muddy eyes spat at him as he crossed his arms, alert and aware from years of watching the Slytherins that she carried her wand up her sleeve, just as Draco did. She growled, not as good at the cool, collected facade as the blonde pureblood. Harry blinked. Less of Draco, more focus on the problem at hand, his logical mind chided.

"You cannot be serious. He's coming with us, he's our Housemate."

Harry shook his head, and warmed when he saw the twins were mirroring him.

"He's going nowhere with you, Parkinson." Fred pointed out helpfully.

"Yeah, we've adopted him for the time being." added George.

"Run along." they chimed together, and even Harry felt uncomfortable at the bizarre way they intoned it precisely the same.

It was eery.

Eery enough that the two Slytherin bodyguards shifted uncomfortably behind Pansy, looking away from the Gryffindors. Their temporary Leader snarled, and stepped towards Harry, who didn't have time to react before the twins closed ranks before him.

"Potter you better watch out." she hissed, "we don't give up that easily."

Harry wondered at her backing off, before he noticed McGonagall striding their way. As the Slytherin's strode off, they were joined by Zabini who had been casually leaning against the Great Doors, watching.

"Mr Potter, come with me. Madame Pomfrey is ready to check on Mister Malfoy."

She glanced between the twins, not fooled by their innocent expressions. Her stern expression did soften, a tad, Harry thought. Or maybe his brain was just addled. Rescuing a Malfoy was one thing, but thinking he could see softness in the features of his Head of House was simply silly talk. He nodded to the twins as they grinned at him, George leaning over for the bowl of Clementines, both giving a small wave to the child watching them all curiously, before they sauntered up the aisle and out of the Hall. Harry wondered if McGonagall had noticed they had turned in the opposite direction of the Gryffindor tower. He looked at her. Her stern gaze was thoughtful and a little worried, but before Harry could fully take that in she had made a shooing gesture with her hands and begun to stride off again.

"The Hospital Wing, Mr Potter. We don't have all evening."

With that she disappeared, and Harry turned back to the bench where the reason for today's excitement sat, munching on a marshmallow.

"Come on, you." he sighed, reaching his arms out for Malfoy. The child reached for him too, and Harry felt a weird twist in his abdomen, wondering if this was what Mrs Weasley was always talking about, the parent things she spoke of. He shook his head to clear it. Now he knew his brain was addled.