Warning: Rated M for a reason. Will contain slash, incest, violence, and mature themes.

Main pairing is Tom Riddle / Harry Potter

If there is any butchered sentences or misspelled/misused words please tell me.

Thank you for the wonderful reviews!

Trail of Ashes

Chapter 3

Mrs. Bell was once again happily chatting away about the wonders of Lady Malfoy, but Harry was too confused and lost in thought to really listen. His talk with Warden Davis and the brief visit with the Malfoys had been both eye opening and exhausting for the young boy. They had agreed to take it slow, the Malfoys as happy as they were to see their son understood that the situation was not ideal in any manner. They were essentially telling him that Magic was real and that his entire life with the Dursleys was all manufactured by some spell!

He wasn't Harry at all then? But some boy named Aethonan? Shifting uncomfortably, he glanced back at the oblivious Mrs. Bell, before going back to staring at the white blankets on his bed. It was an uncomfortable feeling, being told your life is a lie. He was happy in some ways, since the Dursleys weren't real they couldn't actually send him back to them. But it had felt real. He had lived almost nine years of that life, only to find himself in the body of a six year old... Nothing made sense to him, but when he had told the Warden this, it was brushed off. Magic didn't need to make sense, it just was.

Reality and fantasy had lost meaning to young Harry, who felt he might have just fallen into a coma himself and could be dreaming this whole thing up. An unwanted freak waking up to a wonderful family who think he is their long lost son? This had to be a dream.

Yet, he knew it wasn't because he never had wonderful dreams, only nightmares, and it had been days since he had awoken to this strange magical new world...

Mrs. Bell left, muttering about young people and wrinkles. Harry only shifted his staring up to the ceiling and sighed. His mind lost in a whirl, it would be hours before he finally slept.

-0-0-0-

Harry, was sitting on his bed staring at the white screen, pensive about what was coming. He had been meeting with the Malfoys, mostly Lady Malfoy for a month. According to Warden Davis they were progressing slowly but surely through reacquainting themselves and regaining Harry's supposed lost identity... But Harry was not really in agreement. Where as Aethonan supposedly loved cats and dark chocolate, Harry hated anything that reminded him of Mrs. Figg and her devil spawns she called pets, and found dark chocolate bland and bitter in comparison to treacle tart, a dish he had only had the luck of eating once at a birthday party Dudley had been invited to and unfortunately forced to drag him along with. Aethonan was curious and happy in private, but confident and stoic in public. Harry was quiet and unsure of himself in either. The boy the Malfoys hoped he would be was gone, whether or not Harry's life had been real, it was the one he remembered and it had become a sore point in the meetings with the Malfoy family.

Though Harry tried, he wanted so badly to be a part of the perfect family the Malfoys represented, he was worried it would never be. And today would be the final nail in the coffin, he was sure. Today was the day Harry finally met Aethonan's brother; his twin brother, Abraxas. While Carina visited she had told him much about his brother, seeing his interest and having little else in common to discuss. Abraxas was in Lady Malfoy's opinion on his way to becoming the epitome of a pure-blood heir, being studious and respectful while also cunning and ambitious. Lord Malfoy had said little on the matter, or anything else really, but had seemed to agree with his wife. If Abraxas hated him, as Harry feared he would, he knew that he would never really be apart of the Malfoy family. Desperation seemed to claw its way up his throat and he had to blink back a sting in his eyes. Pushing away the worry and frustration of being so close, he focused on being calm and the 'good' Malfoy heir he supposedly was. The thought slowly grounded him until he was once again staring at the white screen that hid the door a blank look on his face.

When the Warden came in, followed by all three Malfoys it was Aethonan's blank face that greeted them.

"Hello Aethonan, how are you doing today?"

Broken from his thoughts Harry turned to look at the group gathered at the foot of his bed. The Lord and Lady Malfoy looked like their usual beautiful and stoic selves, while Warden Davis seemed almost as anxious as Harry had been. Then he turned to focus on the newcomer, the young Malfoy.

Sure enough, just as Davis had said, they looked quite a bit a like. Abraxas however wasn't deathly pale, but a more pleasant healthy color of a boy who saw sunlight on a regular basis. His hair was quite a bit longer that Harry's own and brushed back to look more like the Malfoy patriarch. His face unlike his parents also expressed his nervousness, though Harry could see he was trying to hide it behind the collected pure-blood mask their family usually portrayed.

The failure to completely hide his emotions made Harry slightly more relaxed, happy that he wasn't the only one nervous nor was Abraxas as perfect as his parents had made him seem.

Done with his examination, Harry turned to back to the Warden, "I'm all right."

Lord Malfoy twitched a little at the slang, frowning he opened his mouth before closing it at a sharp look from his wife.

Davis glanced at the Malfoys then back to Aethonan, "Well how about the adults give you two some time to reacquaint yourselves, while we discuss Aethonan's progress."

Ushering the two adult Malfoys out, they left the silent boys to their awkward reunion.

Fidgeting the older of the twins remained standing, though he took a step forward so that he could lean on the bed frame.

"So did you really forget everything?" Abraxas was looking at him curiously, without his parents there to keep him in line he still was only a six year old boy; who had recently been told that his younger twin brother no longer remembered him nor their family. "Father said you aren't much better than a mudblood now."

Wincing, Harry glanced down at his lap, and nodded. While Lady Malfoy was always attempting to re-teach him everything he was supposed to know, Lord Malfoy was usually off to the side silently judging him and finding little to redeem. To Carina, he was her son who while was lost would find himself again; however, to Aurelius he was an unneeded disappointment. After all, why did he need an uneducated muggleborn, when he already had the perfect pureblood heir. Davis had tried reassuring him that it wasn't true, but sometimes he forgot that Harry wasn't actually six, but nine and that those three years made a huge difference in intellectual maturity.

"Mother said that Father's wrong though, that whatever you are, you are still family."

Harry looked up at those words, into the face of his twin, who looked back just as searching. Abraxas was mentally younger than Harry, but he was often given treatment and put into situations that had matured him past his six years. And unlike his younger twin, he wasn't broken by abuse from those meant to shield him the harshness of the world.

Even with his blind belief in his worthlessness he could see the slight fondness Abraxas' expression held. Smiling at Aethonan, he walked over and sat next to him on the bed. Whatever Abraxas had found in his search had reassured him that his mother was right.

"Whatever happened to you Ceph, you're still my little brother." Reaching over, Abraxas grabbed Harry's hand and squeezed.

And though he could feel the tears overflowing and running down his cheeks, Harry knew he'd never been so happy as he was in that moment. Harry's face was hurting by the time Abraxas left, he'd never smiled so much as he did in that one meeting.

-0-0-0-

Sitting across from each other a chess board in between them, the twins listened to their parents argue with Warden Davis for the third time this month. It had been three months since Aethonan's reawakening but St. Mungos or more specifically Warden Davis had denied the Malfoy's his release. At first everyone had agreed that the young Malfoy was in no condition to return home but as time went on Lord and Lady Malfoy were getting impatient to return back to their normal lives. They wanted their son back home.

"Knight to H-5; check. Do you think they will let you come home this weekend?" Abraxas was eyeing the board, planning out his next move while listening to the rabble outside. It was unlucky for Davis that the silencing wards were so effective in their private ward, or he might not have to deal with such loud Malfoys.

"Queen to H-5. Warden Davis says my magical core is still recovering and until it does he refuses to let me leave." Harry frowned at the board.

"Bishop to G-7; checkmate. Lost again, little brother. Thought I must admit you're getting better. Well Davis may have been convinced otherwise if I heard that correctly."

Frowning, Harry glanced up at Abraxas' smug expression. He unlike his brother had not been concentrating much on the arguing, thinking that it was already a lost battle. But the noise from the other side of the door was now quiet, and whatever had lead Abraxas to his conclusion was already done and said.

An hour later the Malfoys returned with the news, Aethonan would be coming home in two days time.

A/N - I know nothing about chess. Sorry for the short chapter.