A/N: Hi there, guys. I know that there's no good reason for this to have taken nearly three months for me to update, but I have one that's at least almost-good-ish, even though it's not really "acceptable" or anything.

My computer deleted this chapter. Ugh. I don't know how many of you guys are writers as well as readers, and how many of you guys who are writers have had something deleted after you had already finished it – but those of you who have been in my situation will understand that it is even harder to re-write something than it is to write it in the first place. I don't comprehend the exact reason why that is; because you'd think that it'd be easier, but it's not. It's emotionally draining because the whole way your brain is telling you that you didn't have things worded that way before, that it was better before, that you're an idiot for not having it saved onto a flash-drive as well as your hard-drive. Etc. Etc.

Anyways, it's done now! The next chapters are also lost, but I'll get to work on them as soon as I go try to satisfy the readers of my other fandoms who have (believe it or not) been waiting even longer than you Harry Potter folk have. And I don't even have a REASON to give them, cus their updates have been delayed due to pure laziness on my part...

Enjoy!

He was to return the watch to the boy in two days time, but hopefully two days would be enough. Harry seemed to be under the impression that there was no trick to talking to Evan through the watch, and all you had to do in order to hear him was to have acceptance of the fact that you could. It certainly explained why the watch would be heard by the boy. Apparently it was completely invisible and mute to anyone who did not already know that it was there and it could speak. Harry claimed that although the first time he'd heard it he didn't know what it was, he had never doubted in his life that maybe voices could speak to you without you knowing why. It was rather innocent, actually. And innocence was not something that Lucius was familiar with.

"Evan?" He asked tentatively, looking down at the watch in his hand. It trembled slightly, but made no sound. Clearly, Lucius did not believe the watch could speak. He tried to clear his mind, as if preparing for Occlumency, and did everything in his power to accept the fact that the watch was Evan Rosier, and Evan Rosier was alive.

And then he felt it. Snaking through his veins like bitter poison.

Hope.

It was filling him up, taking him over, and he let himself fall into it. That must have been the real trick behind it all. Harry's hope that someday he would have a friend. Lucius' hope that his one true friend wasn't gone.

"Evan," he sighed out, and it wasn't a question this time – because he knew he'd get an answer. The things the child had said were too sophisticated to have come from nowhere.

"Luc," The watch whispered back, only it seemed to come from just beside both of his ears. It was an odd sound, a whisper on the wind, but it was all that he had, and he clung to it. "How have you been, my old friend?"

Lucius smiled, something that he rarely did. It was absurd, of course – the grin on his face. Just as it was absurd that a dead man had put it there. Nothing, however, was quite as absurd as the idea that he and Evan were merely old friends. But pureblood mannerisms and thought systems clouded their words. They would never speak any of it aloud. He would never hear Evan say "I love you" nor would he ever utter those words to another man himself. Even in privacy, they wouldn't dare speak to each other in any romantic way. But they didn't have to. It wasn't words that had made them realize their feelings for each other; and it would never be words that kept those feelings alive. It was much stronger than that.

"I have been quite well," Lucius answered, "I have a son,"

"A son?" Evan sounded interested, "He would have been born before I figured out how to communicate this way, I expect."

Lucius nodded, knowing that the watch had already been in the same room as Draco before.

"I was hoping for him to have your eyes," The blond confessed, laughing softly at his own stupidity.

"That's a foolish thing to hope for, Lucius. My eyes used to frighten the other children, don't you remember?"

"They never frightened me." He whispered, knowing that the signature Rosier eyes were a horrific sight to behold. Evan's grandfather had the haunting eyes, a deep terrible color, too sharp to be charcoal, too bright to be gray, and too cruel to be silver. Neither his daughter nor his son had inherited those dreadful eyes, but they'd both passed the gene to their children. Bellatrix and Evan both had them – and it was rumored that the insanity began there. Personally, Lucius didn't think that it was likely for insanity to be transferred on an ocular gene, but there was no denying that Bellatrix, Evan, and their grandfather were all … a little imbalanced.

"No, I suppose they didn't," Evan mused, "But we can't have your son relying on the friendship of a cool, confident Malfoy, now can we? Better we leave the little prats to the Malfoys and the little murderers to the Rosier's. Don't you think? After all – The Blacks have gone soft on us. Three blood-traitors in one generation. Their grandparents are turning in their graves."

Lucius actually took a moment to consider that. Three blood-traitors. Sirius Black and Andromeda Black were clear candidates for the first two. But Regulus Black hadn't been discovered betraying the dark until nearly two years after Evan was dead.

"You knew of Regulus' betrayal, then?"

"Lucius, it's not-"

"You died for him!" Lucius hissed out, angrily gripping the watch tighter in his hand. "You died for him knowing that he betrayed us! How do you know he didn't betray you? It seems rather odd, doesn't it? Aurors at Ollivanders the day he has a malfunctioning wand, and insists that you buy him a new one."

"I'm the one who broke his wand. It's only natural that I be the one to purchase another for him. He was betraying us that day, yes. He saw his broken wand as an opportunity to meet up with Aurors and fake his own capture. He did not insist that I do anything; in fact, he was rather upset the entire time that I forced myself to tag along on that little venture. He was setting himself up, not me. I couldn't take a hint and get lost, so instead I got killed for being exactly who I am. Don't blame Regulus for my death, Lucius. I died because I was devoted to the Dark Lord and would not pretend to be anything but that. I had to choose between a life in Azkaban in exchange for surrendering to lesser beings than myself, or dying for a cause that I believed in."

"The Dark Lord could have broken you out of Azkaban,"

"The Dark Lord would have been proud of me that day. I took out every single mudblood on that Auror squad."

"So? The Dark Lord is dead, Evan."

"The Dark Lord will return. As will I."

Lucius had no response to that. If he disagreed, it would make him a lunatic for even having this conversation in the first place. "What does Harry Potter have to do with all this?"

"Ah, yes. He's got everything to do with this, actually. Though, it would be better if he did not know that, or at least did not have any memory of it – until the very end."

"Should I Obliviate him?"

"That will erase his memory."

"Yes, Rosier, I'm aware of what that spell is used for." Lucius spat out in aggravation.

"Well if you're going to be like that, Mr. Malfoy, then feel free to give me back to the Potter boy at your earliest convenience. I will keep my plans to myself."

Lucius sighed, and took a deep inhale. For two men that claimed to be nothing more than friends, this was sounding more and more like a lovers spat by the minute. Lucius did not have lovers spats. Not even with his wife.

"Listen, Evan. If you're in need of my assistance, then tell me what to do plainly. I don't have any time to be working through that jigsaw-puzzle mind of yours, especially because I can't read it in the first place."

"Oh, you're no fun, Lucius. I was only teasing you," Evan jested, sounding very much as if there would be a smirk decorating his lips if he still had a body, "It is imperative that in the upcoming war, Harry Potter is on our side, not Dumbledore's. It is equally imperative that until The Dark Lord is completely and entirely returned to his former power, everyone remain ignorant of Harry's defection, including the boy himself."

Lucius frowned. "How is he going to be on our side the entire time and not know it?"

"It was once whispered in certain circles that Abraxas Malfoy was the best legilimense in the world, and Severus Snape the best occlumense."

Intrigued, Lucius nodded. "Go on,"

"Of course, there are those of us who know that there was one even greater than your father at raping the mind."

Lucius chuckled at the crude yet accurate description of legilimency. "The Dark Lord, of course. He surpassed us all in all. He was the greatest wizard of his time and ours."

Evan agreed, the watch buzzing merrily in a way that somehow suggested sadistic frenzy more than happiness.

"However – there are only three people who know that you: Lucius Malfoy, can shield your mind better than Severus Snape would every dream of. Those three people being those of us in this room, and I hardly count, since I'm technically not here, and Harry Potter."

Lucius smiled fondly. It's true – he didn't let anyone know how many of his memories and thoughts were kept on mental lock-down at all time. In his opinion, Snape's biggest flaw was that he kept walls around his entire mind and let no one in, rather than doing what Lucius did. He let everyone in, and allowed their freedom within his thoughts to distract them from the fact that he had a very small portion sectioned off and well protected. A portion that contained very complex but secret things – like the fact that he'd been in love with Evan Rosier since he was fourteen years old, which his father would have been very much unhappy to learn of during one of his 'mind-rape' sessions, as Evan had dubbed them.

"You want me to put a barrier in Potter's mind."

"Yes," Evan agreed. "A very strong one. Strong enough that even he can't tell it's there."

Lucius frowned. "That's impossible, both sides of his mind would have to grow and record memories as the same person, or else he'd develop a split personality and go insane when he discovered the barrier – you know that already, Evan. It's what killed my mother."

"Your mother went insane because both sides of her mind didn't realize about each other. What I'm suggesting is more like … tinted windows on a muggle car. They can see out of them, but no one can see in."

Lucius' eyes widened when he realized exactly what Evan was suggesting with all of this. "So – basically – what you're saying is that you mean to store all of his memories of the wizarding world so far, including you and I, into one side of his mind, and allow that part of him to see but not affect the other half of himself. You're going to let him live his whole life as the Light Side's hero, forced to watch that Old Coot Albus Dumbledore take over his future, while all he can do is observe! It will be miserable for him, Evan. His true self will be trapped inside of his head forever. A barrier strong enough to keep his light side from discovering it would be too strong for his dark side to break!"

The watch seemed somehow warmly amused, as if Evan had expected this exact reaction. "Harry understands this, and is unafraid. Do not worry, Lucius. Firstly, I will remain with him, though only his 'dark side' – as you put it – will be able to communicate with me. Also, please believe me when I say: there are much darker things inside of this child than his own mind. When that barrier needs to be broken, it will fall with little effort."

"Evan, a wall that strong? Especially if it is willful on his part? There's only one man I can think of who could possibly break it, and he's been gone for quite some time."

"It will not need breaking until his return either way, Lucius. The Dark Lord will be the one to release Harry Potter to the world for who he truly is. Their fates are intertwined, my dear friend. It's the only way."

It was a rather brilliant plan, Lucius thought. Then again, Evan had always been brilliant. Insane, psychopathic, and self-righteous – but brilliant.

"But what about you, Evan? You are, doubtlessly, one of the most devoted followers our Lord has, but with you putting all of your energy towards getting him back, when do you focus on finding a body for yourself?"

"Don't be silly, Lucius. The amount of preservation charms on my body is remarkable, I can be taken to it and put back whenever I want. Unlike The Dark Lord – I was not obliterated, I was merely killed. But when I first got used to only living through this watch, I didn't know how to communicate properly, and then after that I realized that I'm actually more useful to the cause as a watch than a person anyway."

Perhaps the word "dumbstruck" ought to be added to Lucius' list of personal use adjectives after all. All of this time, Evan could have marched the Potter boy over to his grave, dug up his body, and gone right back to being alive. It had been years. Lucius had mourned him for over a decade. Furiously and without sound-mind, Lucius threw the watch across the room, not allowing himself to wince when it collided with the hard marble bust of his thrice-great grandfather, and dropped to the floor.

As fate would have it, Draco chose that moment to step into the room. He noticed the watch immediately, something that was not so difficult to do, considering the house elves kept everything in perfect order, so seeing anything on the floor at Malfoy Manor was a rarity indeed.

It happened very quickly, and Lucius saw it very slowly. Draco bending over, picking up the watch, and freezing.

"Draco?" Lucius asked, knowing damn well that if he got an answer it wouldn't be from his son.

"Do not... Throw this watch around." Evan's voice hissed. Draco's body stood up again, clutching the watch firmly, but not facing Lucius. "If you are unable to have civilized conversation, then say so, and bring me back to the boy – but this watch mattered more to me in my life than it did to you after my death and I refuse to let you mistreat it."

And then he turned, and Lucius had known already what he would see, but it still took his breath away. His son's face was a mask of fury and disgust, a look that didn't suit his delicate features at all. But his eyes were Evan's eyes, and in that moment Draco looked exactly how Lucius had always wanted him to. All Malfoy with a touch of Rosier. Without Narcissa's eyes, one could even imagine that the boy wasn't hers at all. And with Evan's eyes, one might even imagine-

"Stop it, Lucius." Evan said softly, "You chose her, and it was the right choice. It's too late to regret that now."

"You think I've never regretted it before now?"

"I think that looking at your child and wanting him to be someone he's not would make you no different from your own father."

Lucius' nostrils flared and he stood up, looking darkly down at the figure that he had to remind himself was not his son. "I am nothing like my father, and you know it."

"Well, that's certainly good, because if Draco followed in your footsteps and committed patricide in order to gain his father's estates, then I must admit – I'd be quite upset." Evan remarked, eying Lucius meaningfully.

And Lucius smiled back at him – because between them, Evan's open admission to sadness at the idea of Lucius' death was as close to an 'I love you' as they'd ever get.

XxBxExLxOxVxExDxX

"Will it be today, then?" Harry asked meekly, his green eyes darting anxiously up at Lucius and his small pale hand gripping tightly to the pocket watch, the way a child might hug at a parent's leg around strangers.

At this point, Lucius Malfoy was far from a stranger, but he looked rather tall and imposing, standing there with his best cloak on. It was the day before his son's birthday, and they were having a dinner tonight, then taking Draco to France for the rest of the summer. Evan had insisted that it was imperative for the mind barrier to go up before Harry received his Hogwarts letter, so here they were – in a muggle primary school classroom; that had been abandoned until the new school term.

Lucius looked down at the ten year old and nodded, taking out his wand. They walked out to the playground attached to the school, and looked around to see if anyone was watching.

"Put the watch around your neck Harry,"

The child obediently did as he was told, sighing contentedly as he felt the watch warm against his chest. He knew that soon he would forget about the watch, and that it would turn invisible, unable to be seen by anyone, including Harry himself – or at least the Harry that he was about to become, if that made any sense.

"Now face away from me, this will be useless if you see me doing it."

Harry nodded, and closed his eyes, and turned his back to Lucius, tensing slightly with nervousness when he felt a wand pressing at the back of his head. It seemed like Lucius was behind him muttering Latin nonsense for hours. But slowly, he felt different. Faded, almost – like a shadow of a thought, in someone else's head. Panicking, he reached a hand back, desperate to feel that Lucius was still behind him.

He felt nothing.

He opened his eyes, desperate to see something, anything, even if it wasn't the black pavement that should have been under his feet or the swing-set that he knew he was standing right beside.

He saw nothing.

Lucius' Latin murmurs were over now, and he strained his ears to hear if the man was still behind him or not. To hear the chirping of a bird, or the whistle of the wind against his ears.

He heard nothing.

And so, trapped in the endless blackness of his own foreign mind – Harry Potter screamed.

A/N: Okay, so yes – I did leave it in a bit of a cliffhanger. Sorry. And yes, it's extra douchey to have one, because I don't update this fic often. Sorry-er?

And yet clearly not sorry enough to not end it in a cliffhanger... xD

Hope you enjoyed this chapter. Hope you REVIEW it. Hope you go back and review any before it that you haven't. Hope you know that without reviews I doubt I'll manage to even START much less POST the next chapter.

So seriously. Review.

I love each and every one of my readers!

-Beloved

P.S. Sorry for any mistakes. I don't have a beta. If you're up for making it your own personal priority to correct my mistakes before I post the fic in the first place, send me a PM, and I will gladly let you do so. If you're not really all that committed to helping me out, then don't correct my mistakes in your review. Thanks :D