OOO

Harry blew out the candles on his birthday cake and a loud if somewhat unenthusiastic spate of clapping followed. Mrs. Weasley began to cut it up and pass around the pieces; it was easily as large as Draco's had been, though this time she made it all herself. After downing one piece and slipping Harry an envelope, Theo wished him a happy birthday and retreated to his room.

From across the table, Ginny glared at Draco who ducked his head and focused on his own piece of cake. Seconds and thirds were foisted upon them by the anxious Mrs. Weasley and Harry opened his gifts, thanking each person in turn and telling Draco to remind him to thank the Malfoy parents for the heavy wool cloak embroidered with Hogwarts' crest.

While Fred and George guided him through how to use the Zonko's products they'd bought for him, Draco noticed Ginny slip off to the upper floors. He followed and stopped short when he heard her voice in Nott's room.

"I'm done with the last one Theo. Can I borrow another?"

""I guess. Take what you like."

A moment of silence, then Draco heard the door closing. He looked at Ginny as she stepped into the hallway and she paused, startled by the sight of him, before heading for her own room.

"You know, Ginny, I don't think the answer is going to be in those books," he said softly as she walked by.

"Really?" She turned on him, her face as red as her hair. "Then where do you think the answer is going to be?"

"I don't know…" he sighed. "I mean, I don't even know what's wrong…"

"I'll tell you what's wrong," she whispered, pulling up close to him, "is you and Harry not getting him any help trying to cover for… for that other friend of yours."

"Ginny!" His brow furrowed. "You promised not to say anything!"

"I haven't!" She rejoined. "I promised so I won't. And I wonder if that's good. He isn't speaking, he isn't eating, and he hides in his room all the time. I don't know what to do; he won't even talk to me or the twins. None of us have seen him smile since it happened. Mum's at her wits end but he only ever tells her that everything is fine.

"This isn't my fault!" Draco looked at her, agitated. "Something went wrong and I don't know what…"

"Then who's fault is it, that all of you charged into it and now that something's gone wrong, none of you will own up to it? We should tell somebody, somebody who can help him. Even if we don't give them all the details."

Draco paused, uncomfortable and unsure of what to say. At length, he sighed. "Look, I'm sure he'll open up soon. You'll see. We'll get to school and it will be the same as ever."

Ginny said nothing and Draco went back downstairs where Harry was still at the table with the twins and Luna. They sat and talked for a while longer about the coming year, about flying and pranks, about anything at all except what was weighing on all of them, some more than others. As the sunlight coming in through the kitchen windows began to fade, Luna pointed out that she promised her father she would be home before dark and Harry suggested that they leave as well.

"We should do something else soon, though," Draco suggested.

"It has been rather lonely since the picnics ended," Luna observed. "I miss it. And I wish they hadn't."

"It's just… it's not the same." Harry frowned.

""But we could go to the zoon, the three of us – or all of us, if Theo and Ginny like."

"Ginny is mad at you two," Luna pointed out.

"I know that!" Draco frowned.

"We really can't do anything about it." Harry looked miserable. "I mean, Draco's right. His parents… they'd go spare." He turned to Draco. "About the zoo… I don't know, Draco. I'm thinking of going home."

"What? But why? You hate the Dursleys! My parents love having you here!"

"I know and that's a bit… it's not exactly comfortable all the time, is it? With some of the things they say." Draco flushed at this. "Besides – two months? I feel like I'm intruding. I am intruding. I should go back."

"Come on!" Draco protested. "Summer is nearly over!"

"Draco, it's a month more until September."

"That's not so much!" He turned to the blond. "Luna?"

"Harry doesn't really want to stay." She studied Harry's face then looked at Draco. "And it would be a bit selfish to insist he stay because you want to have somebody to hang out with. I would like to go to the zoo, though. I miss the snidgets."

Draco sighed and threw his hands up. "Well why don't we all stop talking all together and pretend like we don't know each other," he muttered in anger. "Because that's what it's becoming."

He stormed off to where the Thestral he'd ridden over was tethered and flew off with Harry trailing behind him. They landed in the woods in silences, checked on Fluffy, met up with Sirius at the appointed time and returned to the house. Civilities were exchanged with the parents but not much else and Draco buried his head in his pillow while Harry started to gather up his clothing and belongings.

OOO

Ink was spreading across the page, leaving trails like wounds, only to fade moments later.

If only they knew… if only I could say… what has happened? When did this…

Sometimes people cannot understand. But isn't it cruel to make them worry? They are taking notice.

I am sorry. I cannot ever say how sorry… I wish I could say, that I had even a moment…

Wash your face and comb your hair.

I am a fool and I am blind.

Aren't we all?

OOO

A week into August, Theodore woke up from the afternoon nap he'd been taking. He rolled over and felt something hard beneath him. Looking down, he saw the covered of the black book. He held it, frowning, and then set it on the nightstand, wondering how long he'd been sleeping.

Stretching as he stood, he walked down to Ginny's door and gave a light knock.

"Come in." An absent-sounding voice came from the other side of the door.

He opened it to find her stretched out on the bed, flipping the pages of a book, one by one. He drew closer and saw that it was a book of poetry by Emily Dickenson. She didn't look up from the page she was reading so he cleared his throat.

"Ginny?"

Looking up, she gave him an unsure smile. "Hey Theo!" She sat up on the embroidered bedspread, brushing her shoulder-length hair back with a sweeping gesture. "How are you?"

"I just woke up." He sat down next to her. "I am afraid that I owe you an apology. I have not been much myself of late."

"That's alright." She squeezed his shoulder. "We were really worried that something had happened to you."

"I was just… I'm sorry for freaking out on everybody. I needed some time alone to sort things out. The… the exercise we did dredged up a memory and I had trouble with it."

"Do you want to talk about it?" She asked tentatively. "You don't have to if you don't want to. But it might help."

He nodded. "You might be right. It was… It was about my mum."

"Draco thought that might be it," she mentioned. "Were you remembering her death?"

Again he gave her a nod. "I saw it happen, as you know. And when… when the spell was cast on me, it was like I was back there, holding her hand and watching her fade away in front of my eyes. I always felt like I should have done something – called my father, called one of the house elves, done something to revive her, to heal her, to save her. But all she had at the end was a little boy and his irrational panic, watching her die without knowing what to do."

"And you say it all again," Ginny intoned sympathetically.

"Yeah," he sighed. "I felt like I wanted to cry. Stupid and useless."

"Theo, you were so young. What? Four, five?"

"Four."

"What could any four-year-old have done? Your being there doesn't make you responsible. There probably wasn't anything anybody could have done." She took his hand. "People die sometimes and there's nothing anybody can do. You know that, Theo."

"I know. It still hurts though. And living through it again… it was just too much." He picked up the book she'd left sitting on the bed. "You've been reading poetry?"

"I've been reading everything," she laughed. "After you stopped doing the picnics and the readings, I wanted to know what happened so I finished off the story you were reading. Then I saw something else that looked interesting and I kept going from there."

"How far have you gotten?"

"About a shelf and a half."

"Not bad." He smiled. "And what about the others? Did you tell them what happened?"

"I filled them in." She frowned. "Harry went back to the Dursleys you know."

"What?" Surprise etched his features. "Why would he do that?"

"Said that he was uncomfortable." She fiddled with her nails. "Everybody was really. I mean, nobody's blaming or anything but after you got so… so quiet, everybody kinda… everything went weird."

"Oh."

"I was mad at them because they wouldn't tell anybody what had happened and nobody wanted to admit they'd been doing magic they shouldn't have been doing and all Draco was worried about was his secret and Harry's been feeling awkward around the Malfoys and…" she sighed. "It's a real mess isn't it?"

"It's my fault. I suggested the lessons. And then I worried everybody and retreated into my shell…"

"Theo!" She punched him lightly in the shoulder. "Stop blaming yourself for everything!"

"Does that mean you won't let me make it up to everybody?"

"Did you have something in mind?"

"I'm thinking a picnic with bentos."

Ginny laughed. "And what on earth are those?"

"It's Japanese. I can explain it – but let's have some lunch first."

The red-head grinned and jumped off the bed. "Sounds like a plan to me. Draco wants to go to a zoo too, you know."

"Magical or Muggle?"

"You know him; he'd be happy with either."

She rushed down the last few steps to tell her mother they were ready for lunch. Ginny hummed as she went, glad that Theo had snapped out of it, whatever 'it' was, but never looking closely enough to see the darkness lurking behind his eyes.

OOO

"He left again?" Petunia looked suspiciously at her husband. "Why? For where?"

"I dunno," he replied gruffly. "No business of mine, it is, where that freak goes. So long as he's out of our house. All the better for when Marge comes to visit."

She sniffed. "Not as though I care – but did he say where he was going? Was it with that dreadful blond boy again?"

"Some red-headed chit. Said they were going to some… weasel farm or something."

Petunia doubted very much that they were going to a weasel farm. But if he had left of his own volition, then as far as she was concerned she had done her duty and wasn't about to go asking after him.

OOO

Draco pulled Harry along at such a rapid clip that the green-eyed boy could barely keep up; even Dragon was panting at their side.

"Draco, what's wrong?" Harry looked alarmed.

"And why didn't you let us in on that little bit of information?"

"What bit of information?" He looked over at the girls. Luna had her usual placid expression on but Ginny looked fretful. "What's going on?"

"Harry, you were hissing," she pointed out.

"What? No I wasn't. I just said 'hi!'"

"To the snake?" Draco asked.

"Well, yeah. I've done it before you know. When I was a kid, at another zoo, it was telling me about Brazil…"

"Never mind about Brazil!" Draco interrupted and practically threw Harry into a plastic chair by a food court table. "You're saying that you've been able to do this since you were a kid?"

"Do what? I don't know what you're getting at!" He sounded frustrated.

"Harry, you can talk to snakes!" Ginny sat down. "You're a Parselmouth!"

"So what?" He looked back and forth at his friends. "That's weird?"

"Of course that's weird, Harry," Nott rolled his eyes. "Very few wizards are Parselmouths and almost all of them were associated with Slytherin. Lord Voldemort being one of them," he said, whispering the last in a somewhat deeper tone.

Now Harry could feel the agitation that his friends had been demonstrating and he paled.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, feeling unaccountably guilty for the skill. "But I thought everybody… I mean, Draco seems like he understood… what's going to happen?"

"Well we can't say anything about it," Draco insinuated darkly. "Or people will start assuming all the wrong sorts of things. My mum and dad would have kittens for one. Probably think you were the Heir of Slytherin or something."

"Think I was the what?" Harry asked.

"It's an old Hogwarts legend," Ginny said. "But that hardly matters right now. What I want to know is how you got it?"

"I think we'd all like to know that," said Nott, studying Harry's face seriously.

"I hear you can get it from swimming in certain lakes. Is that how you got it?" Luna asked.

"No! How do I know where I got it from?" Harry frowned. "It's something that's always been there. Not like I took classes or something."

Draco sighed. "Well, I can't say I'm specifically familiar with the Potter family lineage. But even if I was, the family trees are so convoluted it could have descended from anywhere."

"So you're saying that…" Harry dropped his voice. "… that I could be related to Voldemort?"

"That's not possible," Theo spoke up sharply.

"Theo?" Draco looked over.

"Read a history book," he said, rolling his eyes. "The Dark Lord had no immediate family." He paused and put a finger on his lips. "You could, however, be related to Salazar Slytherin. He was, after all, the first known and most famous one. Reason for the house animal and crest and everything."

"Well how do I know?"

"That far back?" Draco laughed. "Probably never will. Besides, you've seen the tapestry in Grimmauld. The way the family trees go…"

"Everybody pureblooded is pretty much related to everybody. Distantly," Ginny added, seeing the look on Harry's face. "But if you trace it back far enough there are only so many families."

"Because nothing says classy like inbred," Draco muttered sarcastically.

""That's how your parents feel," Ginny pointed out.

"And I've seen enough of the animal world to know what happens when you inbreed. Do you know the health problems that some dogs have because of inbreeding? This is all beside the point, though." He leaned in towards Harry. "The point is that it would probably be better of f for you if you kept this particular talent a secret."

"Because it's dark?"

Draco bit his lip. "There are certain perceptions attached to it, positive and negative. If you want to avoid stirring up a nest of vipers – and yes, that pun was entirely intended, don't give me that look Theo – then you should probably keep this under wraps."

"We know you're not dark though." Luna gave him a reassuring pat.

"Well thanks for that." Harry sighed. "Do you think anybody else heard me?"

"It was noisy in there and nobody else was close," Draco observed. "Probably not." He shuddered. "Still, dark or not… nasty creatures. I was barely able to get close to the glass."

"That's right," Harry recalled. "The attack when you were little."

"And the other incident at the zoo," Draco added.

"I suppose this means you're due for a third," Luna said breezily.

"What do you mean?" Ginny asked.

"You know what they say about things, good and bad, coming in threes. The bite when he was little, the incident at the zoo – that's two. Don't you think there will be a third?"

Draco looked pale. "I should hope not! Besides, those two were years ago – don't you think it would have happened by now? And anyway, as long as I stay away from roaming snakes and have no bursts of uncontrolled magic, I should be fine. Besides," he smirked, "if I ever was attacked, Harry could just tell the thing to bugger off."

"Very funny," Harry punched him in the shoulder. "I'm glad dark magic is such a joke to you, especially when it's infecting your friend."

"I already said it wasn't dark!" He protested. "I mean, not exactly."

"While I'd love to hear you two prattle about snakes for the next three hours," Ginny interrupted, "don't you think we had better go and see the other exhibits? We haven't even been to the equines yet."

"Or the birds," Luna added.

"Let's go," Harry replied, standing. "And I'll do my best not to do any more of… of that."

"An excellent idea." Draco pulled out a map of the zoo. "We're near the aquarium and water exhibits – shall we go there next?"

"Lead the way," said with a gesture and a laugh.

OOO

The beast is there! I have seen it! Great and strong, as is befitting.

A true one this time? Not like the other?

There can be no doubt. I am sure of it. What more have you need of?

I will abide. Something more than this.

After all this time… the awakening has come I am certain! Everything points to it, the places, the signs…

Wait. Wait and see.

But the reports from the castle…

Wait.

OOO

A/N: First, happy day after St. Patrick's Day to you all – hope you wore your green :) So things are moving faster and the next chapter should take us up to the start of the school year. Things took a bit of a negative twist for Theo there but there are bigger plans for how things are unfolding so everything's back to almost normal – at least on the surface and at least for now. ;) Stick around and you'll find about what happens and until then – happy reading.