Chapter 55

"Sir," called Hannah as she walked through the manor, the elder women trailing along behind her.

Together they went into the living room,

"You may go," said Jane, perhaps a little more imperiously than she had intended too. She was home now and she was ready to take on her role as unofficial mistress here.

Lucius within in seconds of her arrival had joined her, half delighted, half anxious about her return.

He looked at her for a moment before he went into great her and was slightly struck by the way that she was standing. She had come a long way from the nervous young girl she had been when she had first come to be his son's governess, it struck him.

She was unrecognizable from that woman.

'Darling Jane,' the words resounded in his head.

He looked at her and he saw not an employee. But a friend; more than that, a sister.

"Welcome home," he said as he walked in to the living room. Having handed in her resignation the week before, it had been some regret she had left the twins. She did not like leaving jobs half done and she had to say she would have liked to stay with the two of them no matter how intolerable the parents were. It was a shame she was not to be with them till they were at Hogwarts.

But Draco had needed her so much more – and she was going to be stuck with an intolerable parent either way she supposed.

"Quite," she said with a doubtful look on her face. "Thank you, sir."

He had to say he did not like her being so cold. He knew he had done wrong and she was going to punish him for it but he felt as if he was facing his mother once more.

"Come Jane, there is no need for any formality between the two of us."

"Is there not?" she asked doubtfully as she looked at him.

"I know to say the least you were furious at everything that happened this term but I thought..."

"You thought due to the fact that I had agreed to come home that all was going to be well between the two of us. I am very too sorry to disappoint sir, but that is not the case!"

He was silenced for a moment by her strength and he could not help but feel as he had when he had to face Sev for the first time after his confession.

If he had thought she was going to be the soft touch because she had kept it together when they had been with Draco he really was going to be disappointed, he realised.

"You know if it had been the other way round, and I was the one who had given him that diary then by now, my body would be beginning to go rotten next to wherever Maria's corpse is now." she said.

Lucius looked on dazed, as if she had physically slapped him. "I am going to be here as long as Draco wants me to be. He is now legally just as much my responsibility as he is yours. Don't forget that, sir."

"I am not going to fight you Jane. All I ask is you don't become my enemy."

"Don't harm a hair on your sons head, and I won't be."

He knew she was not against him in her heart, only furious at what he had done. But he was going to prove to her he was trustworthy.

Stepping back, he allowed her to pass.

"I take it I am back in my old room," she said a little more softly. She knew as well as he did they were going to have to find a bit of common ground once more.

"Yes, you are," he nodded as he watched her head up the stairs.

It had not been the home coming he had wanted for her. But the fact she had come home over powered that at that moment and in spite of the tension that was between them, he smiled.

Somehow he already began to piece back together the bits of as broken life.

"Can't we go outside already?" asked Ron as he closed the library booked and looked longingly out of the window which was streaming sun into the room. He wouldn't mind but exams had been cancelled for Pete's sake.

"Well, if the three of you had kept adequate notes when I had been in the hospital wing, we would not have to be there would we?" asked Hermione but said it in a jesting voice.

She did not think though whatever she said that Draco could really feel a lot worse than he did already.

When she had woke up, what happened with him was explained to her by Ron and Harry. She was not angry. After all it was Voldemort's fault, not his. Yet as ever Draco seemed determined to bear the burden for what had happened.

Stupid boy.

"No matter what we had done it would never have been enough," teased Harry though.

As much as they were all delighted to have her back with them and well once more, she had found they were nice and sympathetic to her for a few days and then they had begun to tease her once more for her love of learning and her actually wanting to take the exams.

But then she knew that was what she had signed up for when she had taken lads as her best friends. She had to say she liked there way of dealing with all though. Her dorm mates were still fusing about her and she could not take it. She was so eager after that to get back to the boys when she had been with them. The teasing helped. Kept her mind of off things.

The girls seemed to be confused as to why she had kept up her close friendship with Draco as well but then if he had finally gotten over himself to hang out with then in front of the whole school then she sure as hell was not going to break that off. She had a feeling he needed her more than the others to forgive him. And so she would.

She nodded, knowing it was true.

"Well fine then let's go out." She said knowing that with the three of them complaining that she was going to get nothing of consequence done any way.

"I will stay in with you if you want me to," said Draco to her in another attempt to make it all up to her.

"You're alright Draco. I reckon Harry and Ron are right any way. We have been in all day, we should get some fresh air. Come on, first one out to the lake is a basilisk," she said and all the boys looked at her as if trying to figure out if she was kidding or she was actually suggesting that was a joke.

"So what are we all doing this summer?" said Hermione as they strolled out of the front doors.

"Dunno," said Ron jumping in as the first of the three boys to respond. "Mum and dad said they had a surprise for is but mum and dad's surprises are rarely any good. Probably Charlie's lost a limb or something."

"Well we're going out to France for a bit."

"Really?" said Draco. Just the word France was enough to make him smile due to all the happy memories he had out there.

"Yeah," said Hermione. "Are you going as well?" she said with a raised eyebrow as that was the only reason that seemed to account for his enthusiasm.

"I hope so." He said unsurely. He had yet to raise the question with his father. "If not then I am going to be at home for the summer which is not going to be so bad I guess," he said with more confidence than he felt. "At least Jane is going to be there this year."

The four of them dropped down under the shade of a tree.

"Who is Jane exactly Draco?" asked Harry.

"Oh she was the one who was in hospital wing with me." He said to him.

"Yeah I know that but is she your aunt or something?"

"No, she was my governess when I was a kid. I didn't have mum so dad hired her to look after me when he was at work and stuff. Since then, we've never been able to get rid of her." he said with so much affection in his voice that they were left in no doubt that the last thing he wanted to do was to be ride of Jane.

Harry shrugged before looking out miserably at the lake.

"I hate summer," he sighed.

"Don't worry mate, I told you, you can come and stay with me again." Ron offered.

"And you can come and see me as well!" Draco suggested.

"And your dad is going to be ok with that?"

"He is going to have to be."

Severus was thoroughly unsurprised on the last day of term when he got a little visitor.

He had been expecting him.

Draco wondered into the potions rooms and Severus was delighted to see how much he looked like his old self. How he was so resilient to everything he had been through he was never gouging to know.

"Come to say good bye have you child?" he asked.

"And to extract a promise that you are going to come and see me over the summer."

Severus sighed. If there was a way to take away what he had done the summer before then he knew he would. But then he knew he was not the only one feeling that. Lucius did too.

"You do not have to worry about me not coming to see you this time. I am not going to let anything come between me and you. Especially not now I am your guardian."

"It is odd to think you and Jane are my guardians as well as dad." Draco mused.

"It changes nothing Draco." Severus told him and then realised how it sounded. "Not for the negative anyway. Jane and I will continue to be there for you, but you are first and foremost your fathers son."

He nodded; he knew that was what he was. "The only different is that if something happens, if you or dad are ever hurt then me and Jane can look after you." He nodded. "There is no need to look so worried about it Draco."

"I know that."

"Good boy." Said Severus with a smile. "Now you go and have some fun, you only have a day here left, and I promise you this; you will see me sooner than you think when you get home."

Draco looked curiously at him but it was quite clear his uncle was done talking to him. "Scram kid."

Draco shook his head and walked towards the door but just before he left the room, but just before he did, he turned back. "I love you, Uncle Sev."

Severus nodded. "I love you too."

Draco packed his trunk up that night with the other lads. They laughed together and joked about, enjoying one another's company. He could not quite understand why or how kind they were all being to him. It further installed belief in him that things would come about.

The train ride was spent among friends. Harry, Ron and Hermione stayed with Draco.

When they were on the train, Hermione thought to herself how much she had wished when she woke up that by the time they were on the train back that Draco would have found a way to have forgiven himself. Yet there was still tension between them as they rode. She really did not want to leave things between them badly. They had both been through too much for that.

It was not animosity between them but shame.

"You will write to me when we go home won't you?" she asked.

She wanted him to know that she really did want him in her life. What had happened was awful – but at the same time, it was over.

"Of course, I will."

She could not believe how much everything he had been through had changed him. It was for the better though. She knew he wasn't scared over anything anymore. He wasn't going to deny they were friends ever again.

With the situation between defused, Hermione sat back and stared out of the window, thinking about her mother and father and the comforts of her home that she was soon going to be enjoying.

For Harry Potter they got to the train station far too quickly. He loved the station when he got there for a new year but loathed it when it meant he had to go home. And both of the school years he had so far been at Hogwarts for had gone too fast for his liking.

"It's going to be ok," Draco said to him but just then it seemed easy for Draco to go say. Even if he did not have the best dad in the world, at least he did have a dad; and that was a precious gift.

Together the friends stepped out on to the platform, no one leaving anyone else behind.

Ginny appeared not so long after. She had been the only person he had hurt who Draco had not had to make a mends with after what he had done for her.

"Ron, Ginny, over here!" said their mother as soon as she saw them. Part of the urgency Draco could not help feeling was to get them away from him.

"See you over the summer mate," said Ron as he and Draco gave one another manly slaps on the backs. He did likewise with Harry and then looked awkwardly at Hermione.

"Remember to write. All three of you."

"We will," Draco nodded.

Harry had soon trailed over to his aunt and uncle and Hermione found his parents. Meanwhile, Draco found his father.

Lucius had to say his son was not the only one who was nervous about his home coming. They had a long road ahead and the only way he wanted to tread it was if they were together.

"Prince," he said with a small smile.

Draco nodded. "Dad," he returned. Normally they could talk about how the term went and what he had been up to but there seemed to be little point to that conversation.

"Let's get you home little man," Lucius nodded seeing no other way to take the conversations. Draco nodded. "Jane is going to be wondering where we are."

"She's home already?"

"Yes, she returned last week," Lucius informed him.

"Good," Draco nodded as they made their way out of the station.

As they walked out they past Slytherin's and Ravenclaw's. They were friendly as he said goodbye but he could not help but get the feeling that maybe the Slytherin's were not as accepting as his other friends as they had been when they were at the hospital wing. It had been extreme circumstances after all.

And they did not have the bond that he did with the others.

But then maybe it was just a feeling. He hoped so. He didn't want to lose them when they had been the kids he had known since before he could remember.

Severus sat at the table at the dining room with Jane as they waited for Draco and Lucius to get back from the station.

On the table there was salad and chicken, as well as bread. It was too hot for a roast and yet Jane had been sure to make sure they were going to start the summer as they meant to continue it. As a united family.

For Draco's sake.

She had had to talk not only Severus in to it but also herself. It was not as if she wanted to sit down to a meal with Lucius at that moment but in her heart of hearts she knew it had to be the right thing to do and Eliza would approve.

So she had to lead by example if they were going to gain back the common ground they had always shared previously.

"You know for what it is worth, I think you are doing the right thing by making us all sit down together for a while. It is what we need," Severus said to her gently.

She looked a little nervous.

"Well, it is what Draco is going to need when he comes home. The three of us playing for the same team – his."

"Perhaps but I think it is a good thing for you, myself and Lucius too."

She sighed. It seemed for the last few weeks she had spoke about nothing else but getting the family back together and if she was bring honest, talking about it was getting a little dull. She actually wanted to do it now.

"Deep down all we need is time. The great healer that it is..." she said as she tried to convince herself. They needed time to forgive and get used to one another once more.

It had been a long year indeed. For all of them.

He nodded seeing she had had enough. Besides, just at that moment the door opened.

"Jane?" a voice called.

"Hey darling, I'm in here," she said as he got up to greet Draco back from school. He came in and he had a big smile on his face for her and it warmed her heart. She realised at that moment she wished she had never left this house. As hard as it was to be with Lucius, it was her home and it was where she belonged as long as Draco was there.

But she was home again now and she was going to be there to greet him home every year from that one onwards.

Throwing his arms about her, it was only then that he realized she was not the only one there to greet him.

"I told you you'd were going to see me sooner than you thought you would."

The teasing between Draco and Severus brought a smile not only to Jane's face but to Lucius' as well. As the two of them caught one another eyes she realised she did not have the energy to be angry with him anymore.

There were so many other things that had to matter more to them in the life they were living.

"I'm glad dinners up already, I'm so hungry," said Draco as he opted to take the seat next to Severus and Lucius made his way over to the dinner table.

"You're always hungry," teased Jane.

"What can I say, I am a growing lad!"

"You most certainly are." Said Lucius as he sat down.

"What can you expect? I am a teenager now too!"

"Dragon, stop it, you are making me feel old!" Jane sighed.

When had he got to be a teenager? But it was Lucius who felt the oldest by that statement and it showed on his face.

"What are you thinking?" his son asked him.

"Just how quick the time has gone that is all. It does not seem two minutes ago since you were a tiny little baby. And now you're grown."

It didn't seem possible.

At the end of the meal Jane could not help but think on the whole it had gone quite well. All of them had managed to keep their feelings largely in check and there had been no snipping at all at one another.

It was odd how Draco was able to diffuse to situation between the adults just by walking into the room.

She wondered if he knew just how much he did mean to them.

All of them.

She could feel that she was weakening toward Lucius already. But then maybe that was not a bad thing.

Anger was a bad emotion and it was not going to do her any good.

She had to soften to him so she could play her part of guardian.

And so she would forget. Yet she remained confused to if she could really ever forgive.

Draco was happy to back home he realised when he got there and when he had had dinner. Despite the circumstances, they had had a few laughs over the meal and now he felt that the manor was getting back a bit of the soul it had lost the year before.

The walls should be ringing with laughter.

However, there was still an ache for his nana he thought. Eliza had been such a big part of his home and it was only now she was gone he realised just how much she had been one of life's great characters and he missed her laugh.

He knew he was thirteen and he should have got used to it by now but death seemed so final.

He shook his head. There was life after death. And he had seen it. But he still hated it.

As he lay down on his bed there was a knock on his door.

"Come in."

Lucius strolled into his son's room and gave him a smile. His dad looked like he had when he was young. His shirt was open at the top and he had dark trousers on, his hair was brushed.

He was the same. And yet different.

"Welcome back son."

"You too dad."

And he knew he was his dad again.

'Father', the menacing tyrant was gone. 'Dad' really had come back.

Author Note: Just the Epilogue left now! Hope you all enjoyed the chapter!

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