Chapter One

One of the many good things about Malfoy Manor being so big was that even now, during the hottest day, in the middle of the hottest summer they'd had for a while, there was still places to keep cool.

Harry had been struggling, he couldn't deny it. The first week of the holidays he'd needed a potion to be able to sleep, but they were very addictive if taken long term so Harry had been forced to get used to having the nightmares every night and feeling forever tired.

Today was good though; it was so nice to get out of the house, away from the smells that London normally had and that were made a hundred times worse with the heat. It was just nice to be out in the country away from everything. No one rushing passed the windows or yelling in the street, no one for literal miles.

They were only away from Grimmauld Place so that the protection charms could be placed. The old threat was back and it was time to get everyone that much more protected; better safe than sorry after all. There was a lot of magic floating around and Lily didn't want Danica or Harry in the firing line.

Seeing Malfoy Manor appear from nowhere in the middle of a big field as Harry was told its location was as amazing as it was confusing. Fidelius Charms were very powerful and, hopefully, would keep them all safe.

Harry wasn't sure what was worse; being stuck inside for his own safety or the fact his father was gone for so long, and knowing who he was with. There hadn't been a day gone by that Harry hadn't pictured Voldemort's face since he'd returned, he could see his red, slit eyes every time Harry closed his own green ones.

Harry felt his face get splashed with a large amount of cold water and grinned at Danica who was playing in the swimming pond.

"What was that for?" Harry demanded with a laugh.

"Come and play!" she begged, "Draco has managed to find more lilies than me! I need help to win! I must win!"

Harry grinned and pulled himself up. He stripped off to his swimming trunks and dived into the cool, fresh water. It was nice, not too cold but just right to be refreshing on such a hot day. Harry wasn't so interested in gathering water lilies, though, and just floated on his back.

Draco and Danica were giggling, splashing the water over each other and swimming around him. Harry floated, the cool water on his back and the sound of nothing but laughter and nature around him, he was completely relaxed.

He was back in the graveyard, the water slipping away from him replaced by hard stone, scraping against his skin.

"Kill the spare!"

There was a flash of bright, green light and Cedric's dead face was staring up at him. Everywhere around him was filled with laughing. Cold and cruel filling the air, coming from every direction around him, filling his ears and eyes and lungs.

He couldn't breathe. There was a muffled voice far away but he couldn't focus on it as his lungs screamed for air.

"Harry!" Draco yelled, pulling Harry from the water.

Harry coughed out the water he'd swallowed and gripped at the grass on the shoreline, trying not to keep panicking.

"What… what happened?" he coughed.

"You fell asleep." Danica said, also climbing out of the water, "Then you started thrashing around and slipped under the water."

Harry could have screamed in frustration, instead took several deep breaths, "I'm sorry, I was just… it was so peaceful in the water."

Draco nodded, "Yes, well. Maybe be relaxed but not falling asleep relaxed when you're in water. Drowning bad. People tend to generally need air."

Harry grinned, "Really? Never would have guessed."

"Lets go inside." Danica suggested, looking a little worried, wrapping a soft towel around Harry, "We'll get dried off and see if Petal can make us some of that really good hot chocolate? The stuff with the mini marshmallows?"

Harry wrapped her in a big hug and nodded into her wet hair, "Yep. Let's go."

They wrapped themselves up tightly in the towels they'd brought with them and wondered back to the house. By the time they'd gotten there they were mostly dry, although smelling strongly of pond. Danica had gathered a large bunch of flowers from the gardens which she handed over to Narcissa as she opened the door.

"Thank you." Narcissa smiled, "They're beautiful."

"You're welcome." Danica smiled, "Can we ask Petal for some hot chocolate? To warm up after swimming?"

Narcissa nodded, "Of course you can. I think she's in the drawing room, she'll be nearly finished cleaning it though, so go and get clean first please rather than making more mess for her."

The three of them nodded and walked quickly through the house to Draco's rooms. Harry's room at Grimmauld place was bigger than average, Draco's old room was at least half as big again. His new suite was bigger than a lot of people's houses.

It had an impressive sitting room, a large kitchenette (not that Draco did much cooking), two bathrooms, one wet room and four bedrooms. Draco's things were mostly confined to his large master bedroom but he was slowly filling up the space.

"Petal has said she'll send someone up to help you in the bath, Danica." Draco said, grabbing a large pile of fresh towels, "You take the big bathroom and have a play in the bath."

Danica clapped her hands and ran off into the room. Harry didn't even need to look to know there would be a bath the size of the one in the Prefects bathroom at Hogwarts in the master bathroom. Danica would love every second of it.

"I'll take the shower." Harry offered, "It will stop me from trying to drown myself by falling asleep again."

Draco smirked, "That's a good idea I think."

Harry went into the wet room and locked the door. There were already several towels hanging on the back of the door but Harry added the one that Draco had given him to the large pile. He stripped of his swimming trunks and moved under the hot shower stream that felt more like really heavy rain on his head.

It was nice, despite a lot of mud coming off his legs from where Draco had dragged him onto the bank and he felt a little guilty for making the room so dirty. He washed away the mud and used a musky smelling soap that was sat on the side of the sink.

He felt much better as he dried himself off and pulled on his clothes. He suspected Petal had them washed and dried while they'd been swimming and playing in the gardens as the large mucky patch that had been on Harry's jeans left knee was gone.

Draco was already out of the bath, sprawled on one of the sofas, reading a book.

"Danica's not out yet but Grem said she'll be out soon. It took her a while to actually make her wash rather than just swimming up and down the bath tub." Draco smirked.

It wasn't long before Danica came out, dressed in her pale blue summer dress with pink flowers. She sat down on the sofa, in between Harry and Draco and looked over the book Draco was reading.

"Whatcha reading?" She asked, "That's a weird picture."

Draco smirked, "It's just old, they had a different way of drawing things in the past. It's a Gorgóna Louloúdi, it means mermaid flower. It's a book about Herbology; it was my lowest mark last year and, what with the O. coming up I want to get as much studying in as I can."

Harry rolled his eyes, "Draco you did perfectly well in Herbology! You still are well on track to get an Outstanding."

"It was five marks less than my next lowest, I was fourth in the year." Draco said firmly.

"Yes, after Hermione, who is always best, Daphne who is roughly where you are anyway and Neville, who is brilliant, more than brilliant at Herbology. You seriously have to chill with all this studying stuff." Harry grinned.

Draco rolled his eyes; Harry would just never get how important his grades were to him so he'd mostly given up trying.

"Can I have a room this big when I'm a bit more grown up?" Danica asked, "I am getting to be grown up, I'm nearly seven."

"Grimmauld place isn't big enough for all of us to have rooms this big." Harry smiled, "You're just going to have to put up with your room as it is."

"Besides," Draco said, "Mother and Father only gave me this room so that they could send me out of the rest of the house for 'important meetings'."

Harry felt his heart fall. Draco was right, there were more and more people coming back into the fold, being made aware of Voldemort's return. Lily was happy to have Harry and Danica in the house when the meetings were going on, as long as they stayed upstairs. Narcissa on the other hand was determined to keep Draco as far away from it all as possible, partly as they didn't yet know which side Dumbledore would ask them to fall on.

"Worth it to get a really nice room though." Harry smirked, trying not to let his worry ruin their happy day.

Draco grinned, "True, very true."

There was a knock on the door.

"Come in." Draco called, casually.

Lily walked slowly into the room, "Wow, Cissy wasn't kidding when she said she'd given you an upgrade. No getting any ideas you two." she smirked at Harry and Danica.

Draco grinned, "Well you know..."

"It's nice, I like it." Lily smiled, "Anyway I came to say that the spells are nearly done at home so it's time to go. We need to pop into the shops on the way home so think of what you want for your birthday dinner."

Harry smiled and stretched, "We'll see you soon?" he said, turning to Draco.

Draco nodded, "Of course. I think Mother is actually thinking of coming to stay with you. Just for a day or two, she doesn't get on very well with…" he hated the fact they were having to play nice with the Death Eaters.

Harry smirked, "No one is getting on very well with them."

Danica was scanning the book shelves, the ones she was tall enough to see, looking for a book, "Can I borrow this one?"

"Danica!" Lily chided, "You have enough books, and you forgot the magic word."

"Please?" Danica asked, turning her large eyes towards Draco, "I'll look after it."

Draco rolled his eyes, she was almost impossible to be annoyed at, "Which one is it?"

"About the water." Danica said, showing him the cover.

It was an old book he'd had since he was a child about basic magical creatures that lived in the ocean.

"Yes, of course you can borrow it." Draco smiled, "I think you'll like it. It has a huge passage on Narwhals. They're the only magical creature that is well known and sighted in the muggle world for what they are, of course muggles don't know their horns have the same properties as unicorns ones, but still."

Danica grinned and jumped onto the sofa, looking through to try and find the bits on Narwhals.

"Danica," Lily said, walking over and taking the book carefully from her, "It's time to go. Go and find your shoes."

"But-"

"No." Lily said, "Shoes, now."

Danica let out a loud sigh and stomped dramatically out of the room, Lily following behind her.

"When did she turn into a teenager?" Draco asked.

Harry sighed, "Lets just say she's not really enjoying being at home right now. She's young, not stupid. She knows that something is going on, she knows something really bad happened to me at the end of last year but… well, how do you explain that to a six year old?"

Draco nodded his understanding, "Yeah, yeah I get that."

They walked slowly out of Draco's room and down the long corridor. Most of the paintings had been taken down, there were too many faces there that were loyal to the pure blood ideals and Voldemort to leave them listening in.

"You know she can always come and stay with us for a while." Draco offered, "Give her a bit of a break."

Harry nodded, "Yeah, thank you. I know, you've always been there for us."

Harry and Draco found Lily and Danica in the entrance hall, both of them had their shoes on and were ready to go. Narcissa and Lucius were standing with them, talking about how pretty the flowers looked that Danica had picked earlier.

"Ready to go?" Lily asked.

Harry nodded, "Yep. I was thinking of having tacos for tea, for my birthday dinner? If that's OK?"

Lily smiled, "Of course. We can grab the stuff when we hit the shops."

Harry wasn't really looking forward to this birthday, if he was honest. There was just too much going on but good food would help. Tacos were always a fun meal. He was also looking forward to having his friends over, it was always easier with them around.

It was the moments when he was alone that Harry really felt the weight of everything that had happened. It was too much, far too much for a fourteen, nearly fifteen year old, to wrap his head around.

"Harry?" Narcissa asked softly, "Are you all right?"

Harry looked round to her and blinked, "Yeah. I'm fine."

"Are you sure?" Lucius asked, "You seemed to have gotten a little lost in your thoughts for a moment there."

Harry forced a smile, "Yeah… seem to be doing that a lot at the moment."

"You'll be OK." Draco said.

Lily wrapped him in a hug and kissed the top of his head, he was so tall now she had to stand on tip toe to do so.

She held Danica tightly in the other hand and turned on the spot, leaving Malfoy Manor with a loud pop.