Disclaimer: All recognizable characters and settings belong to J.K. Rowling.
"I can't believe it," Snape said, still stunned. "Potter is Hadrian."
Draco gasped as he let go of Harry. "My twin is the boy who lived!" He exclaimed.
"Oh, Merlin!" Narcissa's eyes widened. "You were almost killed that night," She looked at Harry's scar, the only thing that had remained from his previous appearance. "You're still in danger." She said shakily. The dark lord would want revenge on him and there were still faithful followers that would be more than happy to do his bidding.
"We will protect him," Lucius said fiercely.
"But don't you...I mean, don't you support you-know-who?" Harry asked hesitantly.
"No," Lucius said firmly. "We give the impression that we do, we have our reasons for that. But we do not support him. We thought we did once, a long time ago. But we were young and foolish and it did not take long to realize our mistake in joining him."
"Oh," Harry said, glancing at Draco. "At school, you act like a -"
"A what?" Draco asked, a flicker of amusement crossing his face.
"A pure-blooded snob," Harry said finally.
Draco snickered. "I know. I'm supposed to." He was supposed to act like the majority of the death-eater children. His parents didn't tell him why, just that he was to play along.
"Oh," Harry said in confusion.
"It wouldn't be right if I only cared about purebloods since our godfather is a half-blood." Draco shrugged.
"You are?" Harry asked Snape in surprise. He had thought everyone in Slytherin was a pure-blood, especially the head of house. Apparently, he had a lot to learn.
"Yes. My father was a muggle." Snape said quietly. He couldn't stop staring at the boy. Merlin, I was a git to my godson, he thought shamefully. He had treated him so badly during class just because he had looked like James Potter.
"Oh. So you don't want me dead? You don't wish I had died that night?" He looked from Narcissa to Lucius. He had to be sure.
"No!" Narcissa said vehemently. "Even if you were not our son, we would never wish that on a child."
"We were grateful he was gone," Lucius said honestly. "We had hoped he was gone for good."
Harry looked around for Tipsey but she had disappeared. He didn't blame her since everyone was mad at her.
"I need to talk to Albus about this," Snape spoke up.
"Can you ask him to come here? We want to talk to him as well," Lucius said, glancing at Narcissa who nodded.
Snape nodded and went to the fireplace to floo call the Headmaster.
"Draco, why don't you give your brother a tour of the house?" Narcissa suggested. She smiled warmly at Harry. "Would you like that?"
Harry nodded. "Yeah. If you don't mind," he said to Draco.
"I don't mind. Come on!" Draco grabbed his arm and pulled him out of the room.
Narcissa laughed. "Can you believe it, Lucius? We have our baby back!"
"It's unbelievable," Lucius kissed her. "If we hadn't intervened when we saw that man hit him…"
"We wouldn't know," Narcissa whispered.
"But you did intervene," Snape spoke up. "And Hadrian is home where he belongs. I can only hope he will forgive me for this past year," he sighed.
"He doesn't seem the type to hold a grudge," Narcissa murmured. "He's so sweet."
Their floo flared suddenly and Dumbledore stepped out. "Hello everyone," he said, eyeing them with curiosity. "Severus? You said you three needed to speak with me?"
/
"I can not believe this," Dumbledore said, his normally twinkling eyes full of shock as he sat on the Malfoy's sofa. He had just been told about everything that had happened since they met the train on the platform.
"You had no idea?" Snape asked.
"That Harry was Hadrian? No, of course not," Dumbledore shook his head. "I knew, of course, that James and Lily found Harry as a baby on their doorstep. A note was included, saying the baby was named Harry and he needed a new family and had been charmed to look like the Potters. James and Lily fell in love with him instantly and claimed him as their own. They made it like they had kept Lily's pregnancy a secret."
"They didn't try to find out who he was?" Narcissa asked.
"How could they? The only name they had been given was Harry. The child was glamoured and neither of them could break it." Dumbledore answered.
"What about when they heard about our child going missing?" Lucius asked in an irritated voice.
"I don't know," Dumbledore confessed. "I didn't even make the connection, they may not have either."
"And the blood wards around the Dursley's home?" Snape raised an eyebrow.
Dumbledore averted his eyes.
"There are no blood wards, are there?"
"No. I did put some protective wards around the home to alert me if any death eaters entered," Dumbledore admitted. "I put out the word about the blood wards to hopefully scare off any of Voldemort's remaining followers from trying to find him."
"Did you know he was being abused?" Narcissa asked with a glare.
"No, not to the extent that he was. I knew they did not care for him the way I had hoped they would," Dumbledore said a little guiltily. "I thought he was safest there."
"He wasn't," Snape said briskly. "He was hit and starved. They didn't even buy clothes for him. He is shorter and thinner than Draco due to this abuse."
Dumbledore let out a sigh. "I am very sorry about that." He murmured.
"His past makes his behavior more understandable." Snape mused.
"How do you mean?" Narcissa asked curiously.
"Hadrian is impulsive, rushing into situations without thinking things through. He ignores the rules for his safety and does not trust adults easily." Snape said.
"Harry has a very big heart and wants to help people," Dumbledore spoke up.
"Yes." Snape agreed. "Which is why he rushes into danger. It's why he thinks he has to figure things out on his own. For him, adults are not to be trusted. And he wants to help others the way no one helped him while he was with the muggles."
Dumbledore winced slightly.
"He has a hero complex," Narcissa realized. "It's why he went after that stone. He's just a little boy, he shouldn't have even considered it. He could have been…" She trailed off.
"He could have been killed and we would never have known he was ours," Lucius finished for her, dread filling him at the thought. "There was also the broom incident. His first time on a broom and he flies after a small object, almost hitting the ground."
"According to Minerva, he flew effortlessly to catch the Remembrall," Dumbledore said in defense of Harry.
"Neither boy should have been in the air and of course, Draco should not have thrown Mr. Longbottom's Remembrall," Lucius acknowledged. "However, Draco received consequences for his actions while Hadrian became a seeker." He had heard all about the unfairness from Draco many times over the past year.
"He received detention?" Dumbledore asked Snape with some surprise.
"Yes, as well as a howler from his parents, although he was able to open it in private," Snape said.
"I expect my son, my sons, to obey the rules and not go around trying to break other students' belongings," Lucius said.
"Hadrian's too little to be a seeker," Narcissa fretted. "He is smaller than Draco."
"Seekers are supposed to be small," Dumbledore said. "Of course, it is up to you if he plays again," he added hastily at the dark look Narcissa gave him.
"We can not take him off the team," Lucius said after a moment with a sigh. "He would think it is because he is a Gryffindor."
Narcissa frowned. That was true.
"We'll get him to a healthy weight this summer," Lucius said. "Make sure he is getting the vitamins he needs. He will be fine. And we will be at every game to make sure." Suddenly he groaned.
"What?"
"Draco wants to try out for the Slytherin team. If he gets a spot then he and Hadrian will be competing."
"So we will cheer for Slytherin and Gryffindor," Narcissa said easily. "We can support both of them."
"It just makes it more difficult with them in different houses."
"Perhaps it will help the students and even the professors realize that Quidditch is supposed to be a fun rivalry," Dumbledore said thoughtfully. He broke into a smile when Harry and Draco walked into the room.
"Good afternoon, boys. Harry, look at you," Dumbledore said in amazement. "You truly are a Malfoy. How are you taking all of this?"
"It's strange yet it feels right," Harry said. He hesitated. "You didn't know, Sir?"
"No Harry. I had no idea about any of this," Dumbledore assured him.
Harry relaxed.
"I suppose we will have to let the Dursleys know you won't ever be returning," Dumbledore said.
"They won't care," Harry shrugged. "They've always hated me."
Dumbledore's face fell. "I'm sorry for that, Harry."
"It's okay. I have a real family now." Harry replied. He wasn't sure of the Malfoy's yet, but so far they had been a million times better than the Dursleys. Plus, he actually belonged here, as crazy as that was to think about.
"I'm very happy for you, Harry," Dumbledore said. He chuckled. "You'll keep your parents on their toes, that's for sure."
Harry flushed. "I don't know what you mean," he lied.
"Oh? I seem to remember something about being out after curfew a lot, going after the stone, almost dying..." Dumbledore raised an eyebrow.
"I must ask, Albus. Is there any supervision at Hogwarts?" Lucius asked sarcastically. "It seems my son was in quite a bit of danger throughout the year."
"Not really," Harry defended the Headmaster. "I mean, Quirrell did curse my broom and I was almost thrown off, and then in the detention in the forest I faced Voldemort, and there was also Fluffy and the troll -"
"Troll? The one that was let into the castle? You faced it?" Narcissa paled. Draco had written that a troll had been let into the castle but she hadn't known any of the children had come into contact with it.
"Yeah, it was after Hermione so Ron and I kind of fought it," Harry said sheepishly.
"Who is Fluffy?" Lucius asked.
"A three-headed dog that was one of the protections for the stone. It resided on the third floor." Dumbledore spoke up.
"That's why the third-floor corridor was forbidden!" Draco exclaimed. "I wondered why."
"Wasn't he already knocked out when you went after Quirrell?" Snape asked in confusion.
"We met it before that...accidentally!" Harry said quickly.
Snape shut his eyes and shook his head. The child had faced more danger than he previously thought. "You were on the third floor, which was forbidden to students." He said, opening his eyes.
"We were just hiding from Filch," Harry said without thinking.
"Which means you were out after curfew," Snape said sternly.
Harry nodded reluctantly.
"You may not be good for my sanity, child," Narcissa remarked lightly, pulling Harry in for a hug.
Harry just smiled sheepishly.
/
After Dumbledore left, Lucius gave Harry a considering look. "Perhaps now we can hear about all of your exploits this past year."
"You may want to take some calming draught first," Snape said wryly.
Draco started to snicker. Then his eyes widened. "Yeah, you can tell them about the time we all got caught past curfew," he said to Harry.
"Uh, that's okay," Harry hedged.
"Tell them!" Draco insisted. "Tell them I was telling the truth about the dragon." He had been quite furious that no one had seemed to believe him about the dragon.
"This again?" Snape sighed. He had heard Draco's excuse for being out after curfew was to catch the Gryffindors with a dragon but he hadn't believed it. It seemed too absurd. He had been very displeased that his godson had broken the rules and lost his house fifty points.
"Draco, I told you that even if that story was true it does not excuse you for being out after curfew," Lucius said. "You deserved your loss of points and your punishment from me. You shouldn't have been in that forest for your detention, though. Neither of you should have." He had sent a strongly worded letter to both the Headmaster and McGonagall for their lapse in judgment for assigning that particular detention.
"You were punished?" Harry asked Draco in surprise.
"Yeah, he came to the school," Draco muttered.
"The castle can be dangerous, especially for a first year, so you should not be wandering around at night with no supervision around," Lucius said.
"Oh," Harry said, considering this. He wondered what that was like, to have a parent come to the school because you had misbehaved. Because you had done something potentially dangerous and they wanted to make sure you stayed safe. "Must be nice," he said wistfully.
"What? Getting a smacking – I mean, a scolding from Father?" Draco asked in a huff, his face flushing in embarrassment.
"I gave you a couple of swats, not a smacking," Lucius rolled his eyes at his overly dramatic son. He focused on his other son. "What do you mean that it must be nice?"
"Having parents that care," Harry said. "I know Professor McGonagall wrote to the Dursleys whenever I got into trouble or hurt but they certainly didn't care."
Snape felt a surge of anger. How had he not noticed the boy had been abused? He usually could see the signs.
"We care," Narcissa said, taking Harry's chin gently in her hand and looking into his eyes. "We care if you get into trouble or get hurt."
"I assure you, had I known you were my son you would have received a few swats and a serious lecture from me as well," Lucius told him with a wry smile.
"I kinda got into a lot of trouble this past year," Harry admitted. "I'll probably make you guys angry." He chewed on his lower lip anxiously.
Lucius crouched down to Harry's level. "I want you to listen to me very carefully. We are your parents and we love and care about you. Yes, there will be times you disobey and we get upset with you. We may punish you. But we will always want you and love you." He said sincerely.
Harry wanted to believe that. Desperately. He wanted to have parents so badly. "Even when I tell you the dragon story is true?" He asked finally.
TBC:
