Chapter Five

Malfoy Manor, Wiltshire, 2 December, 1981

In a little less a month, the entire Malfoy house was turned upside down by the arrival of Adrian. He brought the family closer together and kept his parent's on their toes and Draco had a brother to play with. The House-elves loved explaining everything about themselves and anything else he asked about, and he delighted them by eating at least two helpings at every meal.

Though Draco and Adrian communicated mostly through baby-talk (all their really articulate speech is baby-talk), Narcissa and Lucius could see that they were best friends, rarely fighting and sharing everything; they even insisted on sharing a room.

Lucius also enjoyed having another son, though it wasn't yet official The noise didn't bother him; it only meant that the boys were enjoying themselves. And besides, Lucius reasoned, it wasn't as though they would disturb the neighbors.

Narcissa laughed more now, often at her sons' antics, and was seldom seen without a smile on her face. She frequently baked, a latent skill which she had discovered while pregnant with Draco, making anything from simple chocolate chip cookies to crème brulee, with the boys, and though they made a huge mess and slowed her down, she liked nothing better than watching them sneak huge bites of the pastry when they thought she wasn't looking.

Lucius, upon learning that Adrian enjoyed flying, went to Diagon Alley and bought him a broom identical to Draco's, and they zoomed around the house, roaring with laughter, whenever they got the chance.

Malfoy Manor, once eerie and forbidding, was now a home, filled with the sights, sounds and smells of a growing family.

Malfoy Manor, Wiltshire, 5 December, 1981

Severus Snape had completed the potion, as promised, and was coming to deliver it. He hadn't seen Draco in quite a while, and though far from affectionate, Severus was fond of his godson, making sure to buy him a gift each Christmas and birthday. He also intended to start training him privately before he started school.
Snape wondered what had possessed Lucius and Narcissa to adopt a son, and one whose blood status was questionable, at that. He himself was a half- blood, but that was information he tended to withhold from the company he kept.

He wondered where the boy had come from. He knew that The Daily Prophet was also dying to know, ever since they'd seen Lucius and Narcissa with two cloaked children at Diagon Alley last month. It was well known that young Annabelle Zezilli Malfoy had died a month before the sighting. The reclusive Malfoy's being out in public was rare in itself, but the whole family out together was unheard of. And just who was that second cloaked child, anyway? Rita Skeeter had already come to him twice asking.

The first time, she'd been irritating, rude, and pushy. His mouth twitched at the memory of her second visit.

She wouldn't be back again.

"Master, Mister Severus Snape is here, with the potions," Dobby said, bowing low.

"Yes, send him in immediately," Lucius said distractedly, gazing at the instructions for the Blood- Binding ceremony. He cringed. The ritual really was unpleasant.

"Hello, Lucius."

He looked up and saw Severus standing, bat like, in the doorway. He'd-

"Severus, you- you've cut your hair!" Lucius spluttered, the ritual vanishing completely from his mind. [In the wizarding world, a man's blood or financial status was displayed by the length of his hair, at least in the older times. Now, anyone, even Muggles, could wear their hair long, but Lucius' circle of friends tended to keep with the old ways.]

Indeed he had. His (clean!) hair now barely brushed his cheekbones, even combed carefully and very neat and… stylish.

Severus noticed him staring and sighed. "Honestly, I've had the same haircut since I was eleven years old. I'm twenty-one now, Lucius. It's time to move on," Severus said in his bored drawl, though he ran his hand through his hair self- consciously.

And time to get over her, he thought.

It was time.

They were gathered in the dining room, which had been darkened for the ceremony. Severus was in his usual black, his face cast in strange shadows from the self-boiling cauldron he was stirring, the navy blue potion bubbling gently. Lucius stood to his left in a black velvet cloak. Narcissa stood to his right in a flowing black gown that covered her from neck to toes. Draco was in a set of black dress robes with a silver tie across form Severus. They were all gathered around the table. The ritual stated that the joiner (Adrian) had to be seen by the witnesses only just before the ceremony was complete, so Adrian was covered in a black, filmy cloak with the hood up, standing away from everyone else.

Severus divided the potion into three silver goblets and paced them in front of Lucius, Narcissa, and Draco, the empty cauldron in the center of the large table.

Lucius went first.

"Per meus cruor , EGO recipero is puer ut meus filius quod redimio meus vita , meus cruor , quod meus prosapia ut him. Ex iam ut infinitio sit meus filius , reus in cruor. Permissum him similitudo suus prosapia , pro nos es unus. Permissum nostrum cruor run per suus vena quod purgo him of suus quondam vita , quod verum suo nostrum prosapia. Nos es reus in cruor," he chanted, slicing cleanly through his hand with a ritual knife of carved vampire fang and letting the blood run into the goblet of potion. The potion turned a steely gray. Raising his goblet in both hands, he poured the contents into the empty cauldron. His part was done.

Narcissa was next.

"Ego , quoqutake is puer ut meus filius. EGO vinculum him per meus cruor. Permissum him similitudo suus prosapia , pro nos e es unus. EGO spondeo per meus cruor quod meus vita protego him ex vulnero quod tutela pro him ut meus own filius. Nos es iam suus prosapia. Nos es reus in cruor," she chanted, eyes closed. She took the knife from Lucius and sliced her hand open, letting the blood drip into her own goblet. The potion in her goblet turned a rosy pink, and she poured it into the cauldron.

It was Draco's turn.

"Capio him ut meus frater , quod mos tracto him ut talis. Permissum him similitudo suus prosapia , pro nos es unus. Quis EGO have , EGO mos partis per him , quod ut is postulo mihi , EGO ero procul suus pars. Nos es reus in cruor," Draco said, having been instructed on the difficult incantation for a month. He repeated most of it, but Narcissa helped him at the end. He, too, sliced his hand open and let the blood run into the goblet. The potion turned a vibrant blue, almost too bright to look at directly, and Draco poured it into the cauldron, whimpering a little from the sting of his cut..

At this point, the cauldron began to boil rapidly, the potion changing colors constantly, from black to clear to brown to a fiery red. It stopped boiling as suddenly as it'd begun, and the color remained a liquid gold color that shimmered in the dim candlelight. Severus poured a measure of the potion into a fourth goblet and handed it to Adrian.

Adrian took the goblet and recited his part if the incantation, "EGO recipero lemma ut meus prosapia. Permissum mihi similitudo lemma , pro nos es unus. EGO mos partis quis est Mei per lemma, servo lemma, quod tutela pro lemma ut meus own prosapia. Ex iam ut infinitio , nos es a prosapia. Nos es reus in cruor," and pulled off the cloak disguising him.

Severus almost choked when he saw the boy's eyes. They were her eyes. But how?

And without thinking, Adrian drank the potion in his goblet, down to the last drop. He sank to the ground.

Almost immediately, he began to shift and change. His rounded features sharpened bit, his cheekbones higher, nose slightly more pointed. His eyes changed as well, from their startling, solid green. The green formed a ring around the outside of the iris, and a solar flare of the same green formed around the pupils, the middle turning a stormy silver gray with streaks of a dark blue scattered throughout. His skin grew a shade lighter, and his raven black hair from the roots out to the tips turned a light ash blond, though still darker than the rest of the Malfoys. His lips grew thinner and his limbs longer. He lost some of the baby fat he carried, though not much and he still kept his father's unmanageable hair, though it was sleeker now, and longer.

The physical changes, however, were not what everyone was paying attention to.

It was his screaming that kept their attention. Screams and wails of utter agony that seemed to come from his very soul, bloodcurdling, haunted shouts that made both Lucius and Severus blanch; both seasoned Death Eaters who'd never heard anything like this. He started to thrash on the floor, foaming at the mouth, still screaming.

"Severus, what is this? What's happening to him?" Narcissa cried, trying to get to Adrian, but Lucius held her in place.

"The physical changes are very painful for the joiner. His blood has to change to mix with yours, so he is in pain in every vein, blood vessel, and artery. His heart will beat faster and faster and stop, when he'll stop thrashing. My job then is to give him Pectus pectoris Satus, the heart restoring potion. It'll bring him back around," said Severus, pulling a small vial from his cloak filled with a brandy- colored potion.

At that instant, Adrian stopped thrashing and was still. Severus hurried to his side and poured the potion into his mouth, coaxing it down his throat, and pressed his ear to the boy's chest. He was rewarded by the sound of a steady beating, and he picked the boy up gently. Adrian's head and limbs flopped about lifelessly, but Severus knew better. The boy was alive.

"Where is his room?" he asked quietly. Lucius pointed up the stair shakily. "Last door on the right, Severus," he said weakly.

Without another word, Severus turned and went up the stairs. No one saw the single tear that rolled down his cheek.

Oh, Lily, what've I done?

What HAS he done?!?! *Bababaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!*

Haha, since I took so long to update, you guys (and girls) get an extra long chapter! Yay, you!

Oh, here's a picture of what Snape looks like to me in this chapter:

Well, I must adjourn to bed, so enjoy, and another chapter should be posted sometime this weekend!

-TheNefariousMe

PS: I love reviews! Please send me some! I like to hear ideas other than mine, sometimes, so tell me what you really think, because as long as it isn't just mean, that's what'll help me out! Thanks!