"So, what am I looking at exactly?" the boy-who-lived frowned as his green eyes watched the movements coming from the other end of the table.
Mad-eye, Lupin and Tonks, together with the Golden Trio, were now huddled together at one end of the long table in the dining room. They sat watching the mysterious figure sitting at the opposite end, carefully eating a tower of pancakes made by an over-enthusiastic Molly Weasley. Ever so often he would look up at them with his curious silver eyes before turning his attention back to his meal to take another bite.
"That," Remus stated, "Would be Draco Malfoy. At age four"
"Yes, but why am I looking at a four-year-old Draco Malfoy?" Harry stressed out his question
Why, was a very good question—a question that could be answered by an event that took place at exactly this same day last week.
The Order had set out once again for another mission. This time it was to scout for Deatheater activities in Wizarding communities to see how far they've spread out. It was Lupin and Shacklebolt who discovered the unconscious and mangled body of the Slytherin in one of those communities and seeing as they were the only ones assigned in that area, they couldn't comprehend how he ended up in that state.
At this point there were two options: leave him to die or take him as a prisoner. Lupin disliked the kid but leaving a former student to die in the street made him feel uneasy. So with Shacklebolt's approval—which is not surprising because he was such a do-gooder, they apparated him back to the headquarters.
Of course at the sight of the Deatheater in 12 Grimmauld Place was not welcomed to obvious reasons and after countless of arguments they grudgingly agreed with Remus' decision. If anything, this would benefit them in the war. Having a Deatheater at your mercy was like having a ticket to information about Voldemort's plans. It took them a week to heal the Draco Malfoy well enough to have him regain consciousness.
And it was this day—today, that he was scheduled for his interrogation under the influence of Veritaserum except that…
"I accidentally gave him an Age Tranfiguration Potion instead," Tonks moaned, prompting Lupin to pat her back.
The Golden Trio blinked up at her. And then the redhead spoke, "Why the bloody hell do we even have that potion here?"
"Language, Mr. Weasley," Lupin reprimanded, "And we keep that here hoping that we could use it as an alternative for polyjuice potion."
The werewolf's explanation was met with silence.
"Which mean…?" Harry and Ron said slowly
"Oh honestly you two," Hermione, resident know-it-all, rolled her eyes at her best friends' cluelessness. "The Polyjuice potion takes a whole month to brew and we can only brew so much at a time considering how much ingredients we need. Age potions only require a week. It serves well enough as disguises."
"Pfft. How would aging someone disguise them?" Ron snorted.
"Think about it," Hermione continued on, "If you were in search for a 17 year old would look twice at the direction of a seemingly old, 60 year old? Besides, the Order thinks it's safer to transfer refugees when they're children. The Deatheaters mostly leave them alone unless they're really looking for someone. They're pretty much set on one target: Us and their old adversaries before they were locked up."
"Even then, why can't we still question him?" Harry eyed the Slytherin again, "It's only his age that's changed"
"Because unfortunately the potion was still unmodified, "Mad-eye spoke for the first time frowning at this piece of information
"Unmodified?" Ron asked
Hermione nodded, "Modified Age potions rewrite the memory clause that helps them retain them no matter what age they grow into. Unmodified Age potions only let you retain memories from that point in your life. If Malfoy had been transfigured to his older self he would still remember everything as it barely affects the timeline of his memories. But seeing as he's only four…"
"He doesn't know what anything beyond that point," Harry finished.
The group fell silent again except for Tonks who had excused herself, upset with her mistake and Lupin followed suit to go comfort his wife. The peace however did not last that long as Molly come bustling in quite cheerfully just minutes after. She whistled a tune as she approached the four-year-old who had now finished his meal and was sitting patiently for someone to tell him what to do.
"Are you all finished up my dear? Can I offer you a cookie?" Mrs. Weasley cooed
"Yes please, Ms. Molly" came the polite reply of the Deatheater
"Mom!" Ron gasped as his mother's show of affection to his archenemy
"Oh come now Ronald!" Molly laughed airily, "He's just so adorable. I haven't had a little one around the house in so long. And one so mannered too."
"I think I'm going to be sick," Ron muttered under his breath
Harry broke out into a smile, "So why can't we just turn him back?"
Hermione frowned, "The antidote, unfortunately, takes longer to make. And besides, were running low on ingredients. That was the first reason why we couldn't even modify the potions"
"It's getting harder out there," Mad-eye interjected, "Getting a hold of and transporting food is easy enough. It's the potion's ingredients that have been difficult to get a hold of since everyone's in need of them. I've instructed Ms. Granger to save what we have left for healing potions. Merlin knows we need them."
"Well what do we do now?" Harry said exasperatedly
"Well we can't just leave him out there!" Hermione with bleeding Gryffindor heart, exclaimed
"And why not?"
"Honestly, Ronald!"
"Give him back to the Malfoys?" Harry suggested
"Oh, shall we invite them over for tea Potter?" Mad-eye snorted, "I will not deal with anymore bloody Deatheaters"
"Yeah! They'll probably hex us before we can speak," Ron said indignantly
"So he stays," Harry sighed defeated
"I don't know, leaving him for dead sounds good"
Hermione glared at the Weasley.
"Or not" Ron said hastily
The four fell once again into silence as they let this new decision sink in. It wasn't long before a new argument had come up as the boy-who-lived spoke up once again with a question that would lead them to another decision.
"Who's taking care of him?"
The three men all turned to look at the Gryffindor Princess. Hermione's eyes widened with alarm as she figured out what that meant to her.
"What? No, way. Absolutely not. I'm sorry but I can't possibly do this. I can't and I won't. Not now, not ever. No. No. No. No. No. I am NOT doing this." Hermione crossed her arms and gave the three a pointed look.