The Boy Who Lived

Chapter 6: Reunion

Draco Malfoy paced his room. He had hardly been able to concentrate during his exams, which took five hours to complete unfortunately. When they had told him to eat beforehand they weren't joking. There wasn't even a really good break. Just more and more testing. Only one thought consumed him throughout the testing: Where was the Elder wand and why wasn't Potter using it? If it was Draco he would be using it no matter what!

His mother had greeted him at the door when he went home, asking him how it had gone. She had baked him fudge brownies, his favorite, and tried to usher him into the kitchen to eat some, but he had declined. He was in no mood to be fussed over. She had bitten her lip, but left him alone as he trudged wearily up the stairs.

He could tell she was upset, but he was done with caring about what she wanted or felt. He had spent too much time already worrying about her plotting behind his back: trying to hold his hand when he no longer needed her to. No, this time he would do it alone. No Severus Snape that his mother sent to follow him around and make sure nothing happened to him. He was done with all of it.

This time he would do it alone.

But where did Potter hide it? That was the one thing that still troubled him. He hadn't been anywhere lately besides Hogwarts and probably the Weasley's filthy blood traitor house. If it were Draco he would keep the wand at the Weasley's, but Potter had already proven that he was no Draco earlier that day. He didn't think like Draco: he thought like a muggle lover, unreasonable, and highly confusing person. And what would a person like that do? Most likely he had denied the wand, not wanting to use it. Probably, he was too afraid of the fights it would cause in the future, Draco pondered.

Well, he, Draco Malfoy, was no coward. If he had the Elder Wand when fighting Dumbledore he would have been able to kill him with no problem. Thus, there was only one place the wand could be all things considered…Hogwarts. Maybe he put it back in Dumbledore's tomb even. Presuming that's where Voldemort got it from...right? He pondered this for a moment, but knew that he must be right.

So how could he get back to Hogwarts if McGonagal wasn't going to let him repeat his seventh year? It would look a little suspicious if he pretended he just wanted to pop in for a visit. Wouldn't it?

Narcissa Malfoy watched her son very closely for the few weeks after he had taken his N.E.W.T.s. They heard back about the trial of her husband three days after the exams. He had, unsurprisingly, been sentenced to life in Azkaban, but might be allowed to leave after ten years depending upon several clauses that Narcissa didn't even bother to read. She knew it wouldn't be allowed. Harry Potter had been called to appear at his trial and that's when the remaining Malfoys' knew it was over. But that was old news. There was nothing Narcissa could do about Lucius so she didn't feel like dwelling on it.

News of his father sent Draco to confine himself in his room, not allowing his mother to enter. She had to place food by his door and he refused to even open it until he heard her footsteps leave. It was frustrating: she had lost her husband and had no intentions of loosing her son too. He was definitely up to something. She could always tell when he was planning something. But he wasn't letting her in.

She sent Goyle to visit him first, but the other boy had no idea what was going on after he left Draco's room. He was too stupid to hide the truth from Narcissa's careful probing questions (not to mention her hot chocolate and specially made fudge brownies), so she had been forced to let him go. Then she had called on Pansy Parkinson to see what was wrong with her boy. However, that had ended in a screaming fight upstairs in Draco's room and the girl to come stomping down, looking as if she had just been in a physical row, and flying off in a fit.

It was when Draco had come downstairs one morning to eat breakfast with Narcissa for the first time in weeks when she had first been let into his life again.

"Mom," Draco said between spoonfuls of grits. "I got a note back from Professor McGonagal today. She got my N.E.W.T. scores. They've accepted me as an intern at Hogwarts, well a teacher's aid-- for the new Defense teacher."

"And who might that be?" Narcissa had frozen. When Draco had said he wanted to go back to Hogwarts she had never thought he was this determined. Why did he want to go back so badly? She hadn't thought that there was anything left at that school!

"I...don't know," Draco said truthfully. "But it sounds exactly like what I wanted. I can't really think of what else to do and I think I would learn a lot and it's only a year."

Narcissa didn't say anything. What could she say? No? He wouldn't listen to her even if she forbade it and she didn't want him to hear the word "no" ever again after this last year living on Voldemort's whims. Instead they finished breakfast with little more talk and then Narcissa left the house. She knew where the only place she could turn to now would be and, although she didn't much like the idea, she knew that there was little way around it.

The rest of her family was gone now... There was only her and her son. And where else could you turn if it wasn't towards your family?

"Harry?" Ginny called up the stairs. She had gone up to Teddy's room, because he was crying and Harry had stayed with Andromeda to continue their pleasant conversation and finish drinking his tea. It had been two weeks since the N.E.W.T.s and although Hermione had gone home to visit with her parents before the start of her internship (she knew she had gotten in by now), Harry was still staying at the Burrow. He accompanied Ginny now on her daily trips to Andromeda's and had grown quite fond of the older woman. She had so many great stories to tell him about her generation -- not his parents, but Mr. and Mrs. Weasley at school, Dumbledore as their Professor, and even Neville's grandmother. She refused to tell him about the first time Voldemort took over the Wizarding world, however (or respond to any questions about her own time at Hogwarts for that matter). Nothing was said about how she had deserted her family to go off with Ted Tonks, much to Harry's disappointment.

"Yeah?" Harry called up the stairs.

"Can you, um, come assist me up here?"

Andromeda's face was tight with hidden amusement. Harry stared at her uneasily as he told Ginny he would be up in a minute. There was something going on here that he wasn't quite getting and it bothered him. He trudged up the stairs slowly, all senses on guard. He smelled it before he opened the door. Wrinkling his nose, he stared at Ginny who was hovering over Teddy's changing table, plugging her nose with one hand and trying desperately to change the diaper with another. "'Ould yeouh halp meh?!" She asked, sounding like a duck.

Harry stared at her in horror and immediately plugged his own nose against the noxious fumes. The doorbell rang from somewhere downstairs and there was several loud voices talking in the hallway. Ginny and Harry gave each other a startled look, but focused on their task at hand. Harry had never heard Andromeda's voice raise and, although he couldn't imagine Andromeda not being a formidable in anger, he hadn't expected to ever hear her in a tizzy.

"Where are the baby wipes?" Harry asked, removing his hand only to speak. Ginny shot him a glance and gestured behind her somewhere. He inched over to the crib and found them lying underneath it for some reason. Had Teddy made a mess the night before on the bed? Sometimes Harry thought that the kid could only eat, puke, and poop. He returned to Ginny's side and looked down at the mess. "BWAH!" Harry exclaimed, gagging on nothing as he fought desperate attempts not to throw up.

"Either move out of the way or help," Ginny snapped, she pushed most of the poop onto the diaper and held up the baby's feet so that he wouldn't soil the changing table underneath. She gave Harry a look that seemed to say "legs or diaper" he took the legs, staring down at the poopy mess in horror. Ginny was back a second later to clean the rest of the mess up and then went through the steps to put on the fresh diaper. "You've never done this before, have you?" was her only comment when it was over.

Harry shook his head and Ginny rolled her eyes at him. She used one of the wipes to clean off her hands and then took the baby from Harry expertly. Harry stared at her. Over the last month or so she had gotten rather maternal and he found it rather suited her. He had even found himself daydreaming about prospective children he hoped to have with her in the future, though he quickly pushed such thoughts aside as soon as he realized they were rolling around in his head. She smiled at him.

"He's sleeping again," She giggled. "To be a baby! What a life!"

Harry smiled at her. "Do you want to put him back in the crib?"

"No," She decided. "He'll never sleep tonight and Andromeda will kill me. Let's go downstairs. I'm curious who this visitor is."

"Me too," Harry smiled.

As they made their way downstairs the voices stopped their low hissing. Harry and Ginny exchanged worried looks and Harry stepped in front of Ginny as they entered the living room. There stood, to their surprise, Narcissa Malfoy, red faced and splotchy as if she had been crying. Andromeda was staring at her in open disdain, obviously not enjoying her company.

"I know who killed my daughter," she hissed. She had given Harry and Ginny one look and then turned back to her sister, obviously deciding that they knew enough to not be of any harm. "And for all your talk of family being the only place you can turn now, I want to spit in your face. Where were you last year when my husband was on the run and my daughter was fighting your master?"

"He wasn't my master," Narcissa said, pleading with her. "I never cared about what side I was on! I just wanted my family to be safe! You of all people must believe me."

"Your family?" Andromeda laughed. "Well if I wasn't counted in the so-called family then, then why should I count you now?"

Harry felt like they were intruding. He looked helplessly at Ginny, who was inching back out of the door. He decided maybe he should follow her, but he would have to wait until she had actually left so he wouldn't draw attention to himself and their absence.

"I've always thought of you as my family Meda," Narcissa said, her voice hushed. "You're my older sister no matter what mom and the others tried to tell me. I was heartbroken when you left me in that house. I didn't know what to do. I thought...I thought I had no other way out."

"I see," Andromeda said, disregarding the fact that Narcissa was now sobbing quietly. "You're still at your old ways Cissy. Crying can't get you everything. Just like Bella can't get everything through force and coercion. Why can't you just say you married Lucius Malfoy so that mother wouldn't scream and curse at you for not following in your sister Bella's footsteps and marrying a man of prestige?"

Narcissa sniffled. Harry had never seen her be anything but rude, so this display greatly shocked him. "I didn't have a choice," she said. "I didn't love him and he didn't like me, but there was nothing else left to me. Mother wouldn't let me follow you and she made certain I wouldn't in the same way. I'm not smart like you Meda, you were always the smart one and there was nothing left to me... even Sirius wouldn't talk to me anymore after he left the Black house. There was no one else."

"Oh Cissy," Andromeda sounded soft for the first time. "You should have come to me. You could have owled."

She shook her head miserably. "I couldn't, Bella would tell on me. I couldn't confide in anyone. And how was I supposed to do anything for you in this last year? I could barely keep my family intact! We lived under the Dark Lord's thumb practically!"

"Come here, come here," Andromeda soothed and Narcissa flung herself into her older sister's arms. "I thought you were lost to me."

"I thought you would never talk to me again even if I tried!" Narcissa said, sobbing now.

This was the last scene Harry saw before he slipped out the door and joined Ginny in the kitchens. He knew they weren't meant to see that exchange, but it bothered him that Narcissa appeared to be going to Andromeda for advice. What could she possibly need enough to come visit her sister who she hadn't talked to until she was about fourteen or fifteen years old? It seemed rather odd...

Loony2010 - Really what interview? Like another tv thing?

padme789 - You're still a jerk ;p...

And I guess I just wanted to note that we all know how this story is going to end ;p I'm just interested in playing with what could happen in the middle. I do have a plot not (crazy, huh?) and I hope that you guys will enjoy it ;p. I will update again tomorrow night, I got in tonight at like 3:30 from traveling... I was kind of surprised by how many people are on the highway at 3:30 in the morning and mostly not trucks.