Chapter Four

There were far less tears but far more screaming, swearing and throwing of things at the Dursley's but in the end Hermione and Lily managed to get them to agree to have someone watch over them. Nikka's eldest brother, Dimitri, had drawn the short straw and was left trying to calm down the three rather angry Dursley's.

Lily and Hermione arrived back just outside Malfoy Manor. Draco had been waiting for them and reached out a hand to lead them across the magical boundary.

"Hermione? Are you OK? You look like you've been crying." Draco said, giving her a slightly awkward one armed hug.

Hermione nodded, "I'll be fine."

"It was… tough." Lily said, feeling completely drained and wanting nothing more than to hug her children.

"Winky has some tea and cakes ready." Draco said, "She said you'd need the sugar."

Winky had been more than happy to be sworn over to a new family just after the battle at Hogwarts. It had been Dobby's idea, for Winky to come and be a part of the Malfoy household. He knew that there was a place free and Winky would be so much happier with a family.

Narcissa and Lucius had been worried about it, Petal had been greatly loved and they simply didn't want to replace her. They also didn't feel they could of said no to Dobby, looking so happy with himself, after everything he had lost, and it had worked out for the best.

Winky had fitted straight in; she knew what it was like to work in a high pure blood house, and so far had not a single mistake to her name.

"Are you coming in?" Hermione called to Draco, a short way down the path to the house.

"I will be in in just a minute." Draco smiled, "I have to feed the wards."

"You what?" Hermione frowned.

Draco looked slightly awkwardly and shrugged, "Blood wards… they need blood to be a full strength."

Hermione's eyes grew wide.

Draco laughed, "You can come and watch if you want; it's not so bad. I can barely even feel it."

Hermione followed almost on autopilot to the edge of the long drive way. She raised her hand, running it over the magic, she could feel it almost like a wall under her fingers. She was sure that she would be able to push through it if she needed to, it was only really solid from the other side.

"How often do you need to do this?" Hermione asked.

Draco pressed his wand to a patch of clear skin on his forearm, skin that was littered with round scars and healing scabs.

"Every day." Draco shrugged. The patch of skin beneath his wand broke, letting a trail of blood drip slowly to the ground, "It takes at least 70ml, or a third of a cup. Father and I have been alternating, but I've been trying to do it a little more as it'll be just up to him once we leave."

"Is… I mean, is it safe?" Hermione asked, watching Draco stop the bleeding and wipe his arm on the grass.

"Yeah pretty much." Draco smiled, somewhere between reassuring and smirking, "It's a little more than one person should really be loosing in a day, everyday, but we've been eating this special diet. Lots of green vegetables, red meat, extra iron. We'll be fine."

Hermione didn't look all that reassured as they walked slowly back towards the house.

"I thought you'd know all about it anyway." Draco grinned, "Little Miss know it all."

Hermione gave him a playful nudge, "Ha ha. I never really bothered. I've been looking up loads of protective stuff for when we… leave, but the first line of Blood wards said that it took years and years to set in place, and you all have to be blood related, so it wasn't of much use."

Draco smiled, "We're lucky here." he said, looking around, "Malfoy Manor hasn't moved in over eight hundred years. Others have them as well, like Lestrange Manor, but they wont be using them. You-Know-Who won't be letting any of the Death Eaters use them; they'd keep him out as well. There's no telling a Blood ward who's who, it's just us and them thinking."

"Where else has them?" Hermione asked, curiosity getting the best of her.

"The Crouch country home had them, although they'll be dead by now." Draco sighed, "The DeGeres', Nikka said that her father and brothers have gotten them up to full strength again. Grimmauld Place has them as well, although they'd be next to useless."

"Because they haven't been feeding them?" Hermione clarified.

Draco nodded, "In part. As long as there is some blood spilled between each equinox, so four times a year, the wards will remain in place but weak. Sirius is clumsy enough that they would have been fine until… until he wasn't at the house any more. There are ways to set them up quicker again, even after it's lapsed but it needs a lot more blood."

"Sirius…" Hermione fought for the best way to say what she was thinking, "It's not like it would be difficult to take some of his blood. It would give us somewhere to go while we were, you know."

"Granger!" Draco said, a mixture of shock and a slight amount of being impressed, "We can't go around stealing blood, bad witch, very bad witch!"

"I just-"

"It wouldn't help anyway." Draco smirked, "There are too many Blacks around, Sirius and Mother are first cousins, meaning that between Bellatrix and Mother, they'd be able to push through."

"This is all so confusing!" Hermione laughed, "I need another graph."

"Tell me about it." Draco laughed, wrapping his arm around Hermione's shoulders, "Let's go find some cake."

Lily dug her nails into the skin under her hair line and took a deep breath, "Danica Rose James, calm down!" she snapped.

Danica had just gotten out of the bath and was screaming loudly as Lily tried to oil her scars. Danica sat down on the chair by her bed and glared evilly at her mother.

Madam Pomfrey had warned them that Danica's behaviour would go through a lot of changes while she adjusted to being made a werewolf. The first two weeks or so had been the worst, Danica just sat there, she was so lost in her head that the whole house had lived in fear of loosing her completely.

Then something had changed, a change which had brought more screams, tantrums and arguments than she and Harry had ever had between them. Still, it was better than before.

Harry poked his head around the door, spotting his frazzled mother, "Want some help?"

Lily looked over at him and forced a smile, "I'll be back in ten minutes." she promised, she needed those ten minutes though.

Harry walked into Danica's room and sat on the bed where his mother had been.

"You don't look so happy." Harry said.

Danica ignored him.

"Do you like your new room?" Harry asked, picking up one of the many pink pillows from the bed.

"I liked my old room." Danica spat.

Harry nodded, "Yeah I liked my old room as well. These ones are huge!"

"It's not the size I don't like." Danica huffed, rolling her eyes.

"Well maybe you can make some suggestions, of things you'd like changed?" Harry suggested, "I' sure Winky would be happy to-"

"I don't want to talk to Winky!" Danica snapped, "I want my old room, and Petal and my old life!"

"I know a lot has changed but-"

"But what?" Danica asked, throwing her hands in the air, "What's the stupid point?!"

"We can't just give up." Harry said, frustration building in his voice, "I'm not giving up, and I'm not giving up for you!"

"Well I don't want you to!" Danica hissed, "What is the point?"

Harry took deep breath, "Danica, your life isn't over…"

"It might as well be!" Danica screamed, pulling at her hair, "I spend three nights a month in a cage, Harry!"

"It's only three nights a month!" Harry snapped back, knowing that he shouldn't be shouting at her but he couldn't help it, at least she wasn't going to be putting her life on the line.

"I hate it! Everyone hates me now!" Danica said, tears streaming down her cheeks, "I heard mum and uncle Lucius talking, they don't even know if I'll be allowed to go to school!"

Harry felt the anger drain from his body, "Danica…"

"Everyone is treating me like an idiot, all the time! I'm not a baby!" Danica shrieked, her voice growing louder and more high pitched with every word, "I know how people look at uncle Remus, they shouldn't but they do and now they're going to look at me that way! It's not fair!"

Harry stood up and wrapped her in a hug, Danica pushed half-heartedly at his arms before sinking into a sobbing mess.

"I know things are really, really bad right now." Harry said softly, "And it's not fair that people are treating you like a baby."

"It's just…" Danica sniffed, wiping her face on a corner of her towel, "I was getting there, you know? To the mystical grown up place. And now I'm just some stupid kid that no one tells anything to."

Harry couldn't blame her for being so upset, he remembered being about that age, so close to Hogwarts and maturity and freedom and yet so far.

"Well, I'm not going to treat you like a baby." Harry said, "You'll always be my baby sister of course, but I'm going to treat you like you."

"I can't do anything! I can't even have a bath without mum making me put that stupid oil on!" Danica pouted.

Harry sighed, picking up the bottle, "Well it smells nice enough." he shrugged, "And look it says for scars, you were the one who said you didn't like the way you looked."

"Well would you like to look like this?!" Danica snapped, some of her anger bubbling back up again.

Harry wasn't sure what to say, "It can't be that bad."

"It stings." Danica insisted.

"It can't be that bad." Harry repeated, slapping a smile on, "Here, why don't I put some on?"

"Harry no…" Danica started, his big eyes open wide.

But it was too late, Harry had poured some of the flowery smelling oil onto his fingers and rubbed it on his lightening shaped scar.

The effect happened in an instant. Harry felt as though rather than oil, he'd just rubbed fresh nettles onto his head.

"Oww… oww!" Harry said, trying to rub the oil off, which only seemed to make it worse.

Danica fell from the bed laughing, clutching at her side as she gasped for breath while Harry ran to the bathroom to wash off the stinging.

"Well I'm glad it's entertaining you!" Harry pouted, dramatically, splashing water onto his forehead which also failed to help, "It said it was for scars!"

"Muggle scars." Danica said, through another bout of laughter, "Not magical ones! And I did warn you!"

Harry was about to saying something very sarcastic back at her when he realised this was the first time she'd laughed since she'd been attacked.

Harry used the excuse of washing his still stinging forehead to let himself cry for a moment, he wasn't sure exactly why he was crying but the tears were definitely needed. He took several deep breaths and wiped his head and face before walking back through to Danica.

"So, how long does the stinging last?" Harry asked, washing it off had only just taken the edge off it.

Danica shrugged, "About two hours, maybe three, you put loads on." she let out another peal of manic laughter.

"You could of warned me!" Harry laughed, giving her ribs a few playful jabs.

"I tried!" Danica grinned.

"Well next time, try harder." Harry said, poking his tongue out at her, "See, nothing's really changed."

"But no one will tell me anything any more!" Danica pointed out.

"Ask me." Harry said honestly, "I will tell you, if I'll tell mum, I'll tell you. Promise."

"There are things you don't tell mum?" Danica asked, shocked mouth open wide.

Harry laughed, "Yes."

Danica thought for a moment before nodded, "Where's Dad?"

Harry sighed; it would have been most unlike Danica to ask the easy questions he supposed, "I don't know. I do know that where ever he is, he's in danger. He's pretending to like the 'evil man' so that he can help us get rid of said 'evil man'."

"Will he come home?" Danica asked.

"I don't know." Harry said, slightly regretting telling her to asking him anything she wanted, "He's trying, he is really trying his best."

Danica looked at her scarred arms, "I saw, in the news paper, that dad left because he doesn't love me any more, that he doesn't want a half-breed daughter."

"Danica… that's not true." Harry said, wiping his eyes, "I promise you that's not true. They have to say that, and dad has to pretend, because of the 'evil man' but it's not true."

"Promise on your broom?" Danica said, staring into his eyes.

"I will promise that on anything you want." Harry told her, "Hell, I'll promise on my broom, Cho, my friends, anything. He loves you so much, we all do."

Danica nodded, "I believe you."

Harry smoothed her damp hair down her back, "I… I know you didn't ask this, but I'm going to tell you anyway. I'm going away soon as well, with Draco and Hermione."

Danica shook her head, "Why?"

"To help fight the 'evil man'." Harry told her, "I can't tell you exactly what we'll be doing, but I'll try my best to get back to you. You can't tell Mum though, she'd… she'd get really upset. I need you to be a really good girl though, do everything that you're told by mum or uncle Lucius."

"Even put the stupid oil on?" Danica asked, raising her eyebrow.

Harry grinned, "Give it here."

She handed him the bottle without question. Harry stood up and walked over to the window, dropping out into the thick flower beds below.

"Harry!" Danica squealed, "I can't believe you did that!"

"No more oil." Harry said firmly, "Not unless you want it. Your scars are what they are, no one who matters will care."

"I heard a noise, is everything OK?" Lily said, rushing into the room.

"We're good mum." Harry grinned, "I'll leave you to help Danica get dressed."

"Have you put your oil on?" Lily asked, smiling to Harry as he walked passed them.

"Nope." Harry smirked, "I dropped it out the window. That stupid stuff is awful."