A/N: Hello, all! I thank you kindly for the reviews

FYI I decided that I couldn't fit a talk with Mortem into this chapter (mainly because I couldn't think of what they would talk about), so I am replacing what would've been the talk with something else…

FYI2, I have been having troubles with AFForg and have therefore decided to close my account on that site. I am sorry if this causes anyone problems! So, I will no longer have stores on AFForg. I may decide to create a new account later on, but, for now, there will NOT be an account on AFForg. Again, sorry if this causes you any problems…

WARNINGS: see Ch. 1 for general fic warnings

'thoughts'

"dialogue"

~parseltongue~

{mind-speak to familiars}

[mind-speak between bonded (i.e. spouses, spouses-to-be)]

~~~~-scene change-~~~~

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor do I make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter 9:

Dumbfounded Uncles, Attendance Requests and Uncovered Pasts

At Harry's nod, they sat down and began to chat about insignificant things. Harry looked at Cassius. "Lord Parkinson, a moment of your time?"

Cassius got up at walked towards the door. Harry got up and looked at Draco, silently asking for his company. He was about to talk to the last living family he had. He wanted the support, just in case something happened. He didn't know how his uncle would react. He might be totally alienated by him just for who he was. He didn't want to have another Vernon on his hands. He couldn't handle the emotions that would come surging to the surface. He grimaced as he remembered Vernon and his punishments. How they got steadily worse until he was beat…

He noticed Draco softly calling his names. He looked up at Draco, and smiled, though his eyes told the blond everything he had been thinking, though he may not have known the specifics. However, he did know that his family may not have been what he had originally thought them to be.

Together they walked to Cassius, and led him out of the room to the library.

"So, Uncle…"

"Uncle? What do you mean "Uncle" my Lord?"

"Harry in private, please. When I was at Gringott's, I received a very informative letter from my mother. She said that you were her brother and that you knew about it."

"I do not remember something of that nature, and I would remember it."

'I wonder what happened. My mother wouldn't lie to me in her dying letter. Who wouldn't want me to find out about my heritage? The Headbastard. Probably him. I wonder what he did though. Probably an Obliviate with a modification that lets it erase a specific thing. It has been done before, but I think I can undo it. Time to test my Legilimency…' Harry trailed off in thought. He looked up at Cassius and asked him if he remember a Lily Evans from his school years. He had said that, although he had heard of her after her marriage to James Potter, he hadn't even noticed her existence.

"Uncle, I have a theory as to what is going on, however, in order to test it I need to be let into your mind. If I am right, I should be able to fix the damage."

Cassius looked hesitant. Rightfully so. He was a Slytherin, and Slytherins didn't let someone they had just met less than two hours ago into their minds freely. He needed some reassurance that Harry wouldn't pry where he was not wanted. "What is your theory? And how do I know that I can trust you?"

"I think that Albus Dumbledore has used a specialized version of the Obliviation Charm on you. As for trust, I am your family, whether you know it or not. Based on an archaic law that I found mentioned in a history book, my status as Heir Parkinson would not allow me to pry into your mind without your permission as, in the family hierarchy, I am beneath you." Harry knew that he was lying. His Natural Legilimency could pass through any ward or mind magic as if it were thin air, even if such a law existed, which it didn't. He knew this, but he decided to reassure Cassius by telling him a lie to soothe him into letting Harry in. He needed access if he wanted to be able to correct the damage Dumbledore had done.

Cassius nodded, clearly believing Harry's lie.

Draco closed his eyes in the beginning of a blink.

Harry closed his eyes and retreated back into his mindscape. He went into the corner where his Legilimency resided unused and peeled away enough memories to form a doorway big enough for him to go through. He walked into it and he saw the room he was standing in. Only, here it looked different. Everything was wispy, as though it was made of pure white smoke, and the walls were pitch black. However, where Cassius and Draco once stood, were now other wisps of smoke, each one in the shape of their body, though the smoke was the color of their eyes, Draco's stormy grey and Cassius's sky blue. In their heads, a bunch of words floated around, some bigger than others, moving around in their confinement, trying to break free. Harry assumed that these were the thoughts going around in their heads.

Harry moved towards Cassius's head, and delved inside. He appeared in a room that had black walls, each covered in books. From floor to ceiling, which was about one hundred feet from the ground, was covered in books. There were shelves too, each almost reaching the ceiling, neatly placed in rows from left to right along the room. In the center was a fireplace with a chimney that went to and through the roof, with a giant fire blazing. He saw a couch, three tables, each with two chairs at two of them, Cassius seated in one of the chairs, and at the third table was an open book with a quill above it, writing frantically, trying to capture all this information. Harry went to sit in the chair across from Cassius, and asked him if this was his mindscape.

Cassius nodded and said, "It is the library in Parkinson Manor. I love books, and this was always where I felt safest."

"Where are your memories of third year?"

"I keep all the important memories in the library filing cabinet," at this, Harry noticed the library card cabinet, the old catalogue system before computers, "and all the others are in the books on the shelves in chronological order, oldest memories to our left, moving right."

Harry nodded and looked around. He got up, started walking left and kept going until he noticed a book with Sorting Third Year written on its spine. He kept looking along that row until he found a book with Argument with Mudblood on Blood Status written on it. He opened it up and read the words. It was an argument about whether blood status mattered or not after Cassius had called Lily a mudblood. He put the book away and kept on walking down the row. He saw another book, Talk with Dumbledore, and pulled it out. He read it, it was a conversation about the argument with Lily, and noticed something: the handwriting in it was different. He pulled out the next book and the handwriting was the same as the one about the talk with Dumbledore. He went back to the book about the argument with Lily and compared the two sets of handwriting. Sure enough, they were different. And, once Harry studied the different one better, he noticed that the handwriting looked suspiciously similar to Dumbledore's. He pulled out his wand, pointed it at the book and cast "Finite incantatem." At the book. Immediately, the writing shifted until it looked like the one from the other books and the title on the spine shifted to Telling Lily about Our Family.

Harry looked down the rows and noticed the writing on the spines shift on some of the books until the titles were different.

Harry took the book and brought it back to Cassius. He read it and then understanding finally lit up his face.

"Thank you, Nephew. I am glad that you were able to fix what Dumbledore did to me. I remember the day he did this. It was the day he came to inform me personally," he sneered, "that my sister had died." At the end of his statement, he looked downcast, now that he was finally able to dwell on the fact that his older sister was dead, after having been denied that right for fifteen years.

Harry nodded and went for the door. He noticed that, where there had been mahogany double doors before, now stood a single wooden door, the exact door that led to the room the Mirror of Erised had been housed in in his first year. He walked through and found himself walking back out of the corner he had been standing in. However, when he turned back to put the memories back in place, he found that the memories were gone, and now in their place was a wooden door identical to the door to his mindscape, only this one had a lock on it and a black plate with the words Natural Legilimency engraved in silver on it. Harry locked the door and left his mindscape.

When he opened his eyes, Harry noticed that Draco was opening his eyes again, coming out of the same blink they had left him in. Harry looked at Cassius, he had noticed Draco's blink as well, and they both looked at Draco, who was looking at them expectantly. "We're done." Draco looked dumbfounded, but nodded his head. 'Magic is a weird thing,' he thought.

As the Malfoys and Harry sat down to dinner, a house elf popped into the room. "Excuse Floppy, please, Masters and Mistress, Floppy bes bringing Master Harry Peverell a letter." Harry nodded and took the letter from the elf's extended hand. The elf popped away as Harry saw the Gringott's seal on it. He opened it and read it aloud:

"Lord Peverell,

We request your presence at the Gringott's Wizarding Bank England Brach for the reading of the wills of James Charlus Potter, Lily Luna Potter nee Parkinson and Sirius Orion Black on August 2, 1996 at 10:00 a.m.

Please inform Lord, Lady and Heir Malfoy that we request their presence as well.

Sincerely,

Ragnok

Head Goblin of Gringott's Wizarding Bank England Branch

P.S. Griphook requests you arrive one hour early to discuss matters regarding your accounts and the wills."

Harry looked up at the Malfoys and saw them nod at him. He cast an Incendio and the parchment lit up in flame, then he vanished the ashes.

Later that night, as Harry and Draco were curled up together on the couch in Draco's personal sitting room, Draco asked Harry about the look he had seen on his face when he had asked Cassius to talk.

"I was thinking about him being my uncle. My family is not as pleasant as you might think."

"I had heard from everyone that you were practically worshipped by your muggle relatives."

Harry snorted, "That is about as far from the truth as you can get."

"Will you tell me about it?"

Harry looked at Draco. He saw nothing in the blonde's eyes except for curiosity and concern. "I think that some is too gruesome for you, but I will tell you some.

"For the first ten years of my life, I lived in the cupboard under the stairs. I was given little food, just barely enough to survive, that was why I was so thin and small. My family would never touch me except to deliver punishment, and even then, they tried hard not to touch me. I was never allowed to cry as a baby, I learned that fast. I started doing chores from the age of three. They would give me impossibly long lists and punish me when I didn't finish them. I was never allowed to be smarter than my cousin, which I am, and if I got better grades than he did, I was punished. That was why I always got bad grades. I could probably do better than the mudblood know-it-all, but I thought Weasel was the mark, so I did what I was taught to. I did badly on purpose. I was always ahead of the curriculum. Now, I can do Auror level spells, most of them nonverbally, and some even wandlessly. My cousin never let anyone be my friend, they beat up anyone who tried. He and his gang loved Harry Hunting. That was how I learned to run so fast. My cousin also lied to his parents to get me punished. When I received my Hogwarts letter, they allowed me a room, and the beatings weren't as bad for a time, until they learned I couldn't do magic outside of school. When they learned that Sirius Black was my godfather and had escaped, the beating got better, until they learned he had died. This summer was by far the worst. They took out everything they had missed on me this summer. The day I got back, my uncle gave me a welcome home present…"

He trailed off and shuddered. By the time he had finished his story, he was shaking and his eyes had gone lifeless. His voice had become monotone, betraying none of his turbulent emotions. Amazingly enough, his magic hadn't reacted, although Draco had. He had crawled up into Harry's chest, brought his arms around Harrys, brought Harry's arms around himself, and began nuzzling his neck, trying to calm his boyfriend.

Once Harry had calmed, Draco suggested they go to bed. Harry agreed and went into Draco's room to get some pajamas and change into them. Draco did the same, though he changed right in front of Harry. Harry went into the bathroom to change, which Draco found odd as he had changed in front of Harry, but hadn't dwelled on it.

Harry came out fifteen minutes later with his pajamas on and his hair tied with a ribbon of silver silk. He watched Draco get into bed and just stood there awkwardly.

After about five minutes, Harry asked Draco "Where am I supposed to sleep?"

"Curled around me," was all the reply he got.

Harry blushed a little and crawled into the large bed behind Draco. He spooned behind Draco, and they lay there quietly.

After a few minutes, both fell into a quiet, restful sleep, and, for the first time for Harry, one not to be interrupted by nightmares.

A/N: So, what do you think? Good or not?

*looks into crystal ball and sees reflection* Well, this is bullshit.

*hands Harry a cup of tea* Drink it and give me the cup. *Harry drinks tea and hands me cup* Well, Trelawney was wrong, there is no Grim. All I see is the public will reading, coming out and the opening of the Potter twins' shop.

Review? *gives you a picture of the words "pretty please" with a cherry drawn on top* With a cherry on top?