The house Sirius bought was definitely more than Harry had expected. It was in a wealthy muggle community on the outskirts of London. It was an old Victorian two story home with five bedrooms, three bathrooms, a large kitchen, and a huge backyard. Why Sirius thought they would need this much room, Harry did not know, but any home that didn't have the Dursley's in it was good enough for him.
Sirius and Remus spent the first two days after they had settled in getting all sorts of clothing and toys for Harry, they even bought him his own TV set and charmed it to work on magic. Harry, being in actuality much too old to be playing with half the things they bought him, surprisingly didn't mind it at all. The way he saw it, he had not had much of a childhood his first time around, and now that he had a chance to relive those years, he didn't think that spending a little bit of time on childish things would hurt, especially considering all the work he would have to do in the next few years to prepare to face Voldemort.
Harry had already met with several of the neighborhood children though since it was summertime, most of them were away on vacation, and he found that he enjoyed playing games with them every now and then. All and all, it was a pretty uneventful few days. It wasn't until about three days after they moved in that something would happen that reminded Harry of the advice Max had left him with.
"Who wants scrambled eggs?" Sirius called out from his spot at the stove.
"I do! I do!" Harry shouted back while waving his arm in the air.
Sirius chuckled and waved his wand over the eggs to cook them. A whooshing sound distracted him for a moment until he noticed that it was just a post owl. It flew right over to him and stuck its leg out. Sirius absentmindedly untied the letter and waited to hear the second whoosh that would signal the owl departure. When he didn't hear it, he looked up again and saw that the owl had not moved, it just stared at him with it's giant amber eyes.
Sirius raised an eyebrow at it, "Go on now, you've delivered your letter, go home!"
The owl didn't move an inch. It was then that Sirius figured he'd better read the letter it dropped off. He picked it up from the counter top, ripped it open, pulled out the folded piece of parchment inside and began to read silently.
"Dear Sirius,
I suppose that it may come as a bit of a shock to you that I'm actually writing to you after all this time but you see Sirius, as much as I hate to admit it, I need help. I want to end my marriage to Lucius, I want my son to grow up away from his influence and I want him put in Azkaban were he belongs. I can't explain it in this letter but believe me when I say that he deserves to be put in jail for the rest of his miserable life.
I know that we haven't spoken in years and the last time we did didn't end up so well, but I am asking that you please put our differences aside and help me, then if you want, I will take Draco and disappear from your life entirely. I am requesting that you come to my home at Malfoy Manor so we can further discuss this. This letter is also a portkey which will activate at exactly 12:00 am on the day you should receive this letter, Lucius will not be home at that time, it will just be me, Draco and our house-elf Dobby, whom I have ordered not to tell Lucius anything. I hope you will come.
Sincerely,
Narcissa Black-Malfoy"
Once Sirius finished reading the letter he looked up at the clock, it was now 11:00 am. Which meant he had one hour to decide what he was going to do. On one hand, it could be some kind of trap to get to him or to Harry, and Lucius either forged the letter or had his wife write it as a way to lure him into their clutches. On the other hand, he had known Narcissa for many years, and though she was vain and selfish and somewhat spoiled, he knew that she cared very much for her child and he doubted that she would be low enough to use him to gain sympathy.
He spent the next hour mulling over it, while Harry sat in the living room watching TV. The next time he looked up, he saw that it was already ten to. He had to make a decision soon. Finally, he decided. He got up from his spot and picked up the letter, preparing for the portkey's activation.
"What are you doing?" Harry asked.
"Nothing Harry," Sirius answered, "I just have to go…visit an old friend, I'll be back soon."
"Can I come?"
Sirius didn't expect this. He knew that he was going to give Narcissa the benefit of the doubt, but he did not want Harry along in case it really was a trap, "eh…no, not this time cub."
"You mean you're gonna leave me here all alone?" Harry asked sounding a bit nervous.
"What? No, Uncle Moony will watch you." Sirius answered confused.
"But he left a long time ago, remember? He said he was looking for work."
Sirius felt like slapping himself in the head 'That's right!' he thought to himself, 'How could I forget? Well this is just great, now there's no one hear to watch Harry, and I'm not leaving a five year old kid alone. I guess I'll just have to take him with me, but I swear if this is a trap…'
Sirius sighed in defeat, "Alright Harry, you can come."
Harry cheered and ran over to where his godfather was standing. Sirius took one last look at the clock, one minute left.
"Okay Harry, hold on to me, and don't let go for anything, understand?"
Harry nodded enthusiastically and clutched Sirius's forearm tightly.
"Okay Harry, hear we go, now remember what I told you, don't let go…ready, 1, 2, 3!"
Narcissa wringed her hands nervously. She hoped that Sirius would take her letter seriously because if he didn't, then her one chance at saving herself and Draco was gone. However, at exactly 12:00 am, Narcissa's nervousness melted away when she saw a man with longish black hair materialize on the opposite side of the room. To her surprise, he had a young child with him.
"Sirius," She greeted happily, "I'm so glad you came."
"What's this all about?" Sirius asked immediately.
Narcissa was a bit taken aback by his abruptness, but she realized that he was probably being that way because he didn't trust her, and she didn't really expect him to anyway.
"Well…first of all, who is this?" She asked looking in the little boy's direction. There was really no need for her to ask him that though since she could tell the second she got a good look at him who he was.
"I'm sure you already know that, he's my godson Harry." Sirius answered stiffly.
"Of course," Narcissa answered softly, "He can go play with my son while we talk, they're about the same age and I'm sure they would get on splendidly. If either Sirius or Narcissa were looking at Harry at that moment, they would have seen his face contort into an expression of disgust, and a small desire to burst out laughing.
"I suppose that would be fine." Sirius answered, despite his remaining suspicions that this was a trap, something told him that it was safe to trust her.
Narcissa then called her house-elf Dobby into the room and had him take Harry into Draco's room so they could be alone to talk. Dobby obediently led Harry out of the room. Both adults missed Harry's look of sheer disgust.
'I can't believe this, I bet he's just as big a git now as he was in my time, I don't care if he's younger now, once a git always a git.'
Harry mentally ranted on and on about that the whole way. Draco's bedroom was on the next floor up a huge flight of stairs. Harry wondered why Dobby couldn't just magick them up the stairs but by the time that thought occurred to him he was too tired to ask.
'Note to self: add physical exercise to lists of things I need to learn.'
Finally, they reached the royal git's room, Dobby opened the door to reveal just as large a bedroom as Harry imagined, as well as an extreme amount of décor in silver and green. What Harry didn't expect to see was a little blonde boy on the other side of the room pressing his ear against the wall.
"Young master, you have a guest." Dobby announced.
Draco only muttered in reply. Dobby took this as a dismissal and bowed out of the room. 'Now I'm alone with Draco Malfoy, great.'
Harry noticed that Draco didn't seem to be paying attention to him and figured if he just stayed were he was and didn't make a sound, it would stay that way. But he found his curiosity beginning to get the better of him and he soon had to know just what Draco was doing. He approached him slowly; as if afraid he would startle the other boy. Once he was close enough, he kneeled down next to him.
"What are you doing?" He asked.
"ssh, I can't hear," the other boy hissed.
This confused Harry for a few seconds, until he noticed something. Draco was pressing his ear against an old fashioned vent, and from it, he could hear voices, one he distinctly recognized as his godfathers'.
"It's Harry right?" Draco suddenly asked in a whisper.
"Yeah, how did you know?" Harry whispered back.
"That's what they said your name was, I'm Draco Malfoy by the way." He answered.
"…nice to meet you" Harry responded quietly, before bother boys turned their attention back to the adult's downstairs conversation.
"I'm not quite sure where to start," Narcissa said more to herself than to Sirius.
"Why don't you tell me why I'm here exactly?" Sirius drawled.
Narcissa gave him a half-hearted glare before beginning her story, "Alright, now as you already know, I was interested in Lucius long before he was in me."
"Right," Sirius answered.
"Well, my mother and father were very happy when they found out about it and immediately approved of it, Lucius finally returned my affections in fifth year and we began dating. After sixth year was over, he asked me to marry him. I said yes of course, I loved him very much and I trusted him completely, that was a big mistake."
"Why?" Sirius asked only slightly more interested.
"Well, when I agreed to marry him I was sixteen so I was still considered underage, and even though we didn't get married for another year, at the time of our engagement, I still had pretty much no say in anything involving my marriage. My parents and Lucius drew up a sort of marriage contract which pretty much defined the rest of my life after the wedding."
"What do you mean?" Sirius asked.
"Well, according to the contract, I was to obey him and never tell anyone his secrets or-"
"Wait a minute!" Sirius interrupted standing up, "You mean you're basically his slave."
"No, no, not like that. Specifically it stated that whatever happened in this household stays in this household, meaning anything he tells me that he directly orders me not to repeat to anyone, I have to do it. I could tell you things that would put him in Azkaban for life, I can tell you his true allegiances, but the contract is binding and I can't, that's why I need your help." Narcissa finished
"But what can I do?" Sirius asked confused.
Narcissa rolled her eyes at him, "What can you do? You can end my marriage."
Sirius's eyes widened, "I can?"
"Well of course, now that you are out of Azkaban you are head of the Black Family, which means you have the right to disown people from the family, to add people, and to end a family member's marriage just to name a few." Narcissa explained.
"Really? Wow," Sirius commented, "Okay, so you want to end your marriage so you can tell me all about how your husband was a death eater, but I thought you loved him, why would you do that?"
Narcissa was silent, and once again she sat down and with a sad sigh, she spoke again: "I did, but ever since You-Know-Who's fall, he's been…different, he hardly ever spends time with me and when he does, we either fight or he ignores me. Plus, I'm worried that he's going to want Draco to serve You-Know-Who should he ever return, I don't want that kind of life for him. I may not be particularly fond of muggles or mud- muggleborns, but they were killing them, and that's wrong, I don't want my son to grow up like that, and hopefully if we can get Lucius sent to Azkaban that will show Draco that he chose the wrong path and maybe he'll go in the other direction."
Somehow, Sirius believed that, he was not sure why he did, but then again he was not sure what possessed him to come here in the first place. But somehow he knew that his cousin was being sincere, and he had to help her.
"Okay then," Sirius said getting up, "Let's go and get this done."
Once again, Narcissa was taken aback by her cousin's words, "What? Now?"
"Of course, when did you think we would do it, I'm sure it won't take long and your elf can watch the children while we're gone, so let's do it." Sirius answered cheerfully.
Narcissa felt much happier now then she had in quite some time. Without another questioning though, she apparated with Sirius to Gringotts to get everything finalized.
The moment the contract was broken, Narcissa felt a huge weight lift off her shoulders both figuratively and literally. She immediately told Sirius how Lucius had not been under the imperius curse (surprise surprise) and how he was in fact in You-Know-Who's inner circle.
They went to the ministry immediately and, despite attempts to stop them by a for some reason very nervous looking Minister Fudge, a group of Aurors were dispatched to the Malfoy home, were they found enough items filled with dark magic to put Malfoy in jail for life. Which is what they ended up doing, but not before Lucius (under veriteserum) named about ten other men who had not been arrested as death eaters who really did follow Voldemort under their own free will. All ten men were convicted and sentenced to life in Azkaban.
Lucius also told the Wizengamot how he had remained free all these years because of interference by Minister Cornelius Fudge and his Senior Undersecretary Dolores Umbridge, whom Lucius had been bribing for years to keep himself out of jail. Naturally, the entire British wizarding community was outraged and soon, Fudge and Umbridge were not only sacked, but arrested and sentenced to twenty years in Azkaban each.
Narcissa took back her maiden name but allowed her son to keep the name Malfoy so that he would inherit the Malfoy fortune once he came of age. However, Narcissa did not have any money of her own and could not afford a place for her Draco and Dobby (who she had been given ownership of). Sirius ended up offering to let her stay with them until she could get her own house and even though she despised the thought of living anywhere near muggles, Narcissa realized she didn't have any other options, and ended up accepting his offer.
She and Draco moved in three days later and (much to Harry relief) they were both given their own rooms.
Harry was having a hard time sleeping. It was hard for him knowing that the boy who was once his worst enemy was sleeping in the room right next to his. He did not care what Max or anyone else said. Draco Malfoy was not his friend and never would be. He couldn't even believe Sirius had invited them to stay in the first place, he thought Sirius hated them, and now he was letting them live with them. It didn't make sense.
"Well it doesn't matter," Harry said, thinking aloud, "I'm not going to start being friends with Draco Malfoy."
"That's what you think."
Harry almost jumped ten feet in the air but only managed to fall off his bed. Struggling to get up, he looked around to find where the voice had come from, he finally found him by the window. His eyes widened in shock.
"Max?"
A/N: Yes that is a cliffhanger, sorry but I couldn't resist, I'm evil like that (Muhahahaha!). Anyway, someone asked me in a review if you can vote more than once, no. You only get one vote otherwise it wouldn't be fair. So everybody gets one vote. Here are the polls so far:
RAVENCLAW: 40
SLYTHERIN: 21
GRYFFINDOR: 11
HUFFLEPUFF: 4
Polls are still open so if you haven't already, be sure to cast your vote. See you later!