Chapter Text
1992 – July
As a child, Severus was never one for patience.
But once he grew up, he understood how important it was to be patient. It was usually between the moments when an impatient and a patient person made a decision that one found the most excellent opportunities. That, and once he had met James Potter, Severus had vowed to not be as arrogant and hasty as he was.
So, when Albus told him that Harry had to stay with the Dursleys because of Lily’s protection, Severus bid his time, pouring over all of the spell and ritual books he possessed, staying up to ungodly hours until he could find a way to transfer or replicate the effects of Lily’s protections. His initial, more rash, reaction was to remove the boy from the house and then burn it down to the ground with the Dursleys in it. No one who abused children deserves to live.
It took him six years, but he finally made the potion to replicate Lily’s protection on his body. Then Harry could leave the Dursleys and live with him, assuming he wanted to do that.
However, as he apparated into Privet Drive, he saw something unusual in this mundane, muggle neighbourhood.
Harry was chasing around a house-elf in the middle of the street. The elf seemed to be… dancing?
“Come here you little imp,” Harry yelled at it, as it kept apparating every time Harry came close to it. “You totally ruined this afternoon and I am going to be blamed for it.”
Vernon Dursley came out, face red with anger and clothes covered in… cake? Severus gazed at the situation in disbelief. How was the neighbourhood where Tuney Evans lived becoming so weird? All the moment needed to be complete was a blundering ministry official.
“Boy, you and your freakish magic are going to be kicked out of this house. I will make you regret the day that–”
Severus decided that was enough and sent a petrification jinx his way before the oaf of a man could finish that sentence. As for taking care of the house elf, Severus sent out a blast of magic from his wand that wouldn’t harm the elf; just let it know of his presence.
“Elf,” he beckoned, drawing its and Harry’s attention. The elf popped in front of Severus and gave him a slight bow. From this close, Severus recognised the elf immediately. It was one of the Malfoys’. Harry smiled brightly and ran towards him.
“Master Prince,” it said. Severus shuddered at how it was clothed. The Malfoys were wealthy, yet Lucius would not even give the elf the respect it deserved. Most pureblooded families were similar in this respect.
“What’s your name, Malfoy elf?”
“Dobby is called Dobby, sir. Dobby shall aid you in your role of custodiae protectiones.”
This surprised Severus as he was unaware that the house elves would help him protect Draco. Abraxas had never mentioned it. Perhaps he was unaware of it, like most wizards were, of the fact that, at times, a house elf’s magic far outweighed a wizard’s.
Before he could ask Dobby what happened here, he was tackled by Harry.
“I am so glad that you came, Sev. This thing has been so awful. He was hiding the letters that my friends sent me and then levitated a cake onto Vernon’s boss’ wife’s head.”
“You did what?” Severus asked the elf, running a comforting hand down Harry’s back.
“Dobby was just following orders, sirs. The Lady Malfoy gave Dobby the order to protect the Black heir and Harry Potter sir was the only heir in danger. The letters had magicks in them, sir Prince,” the elf explained, removing a small stack of letters bound by a thread. Severus nodded, accepting the letters and placing them in the folds of his robe. He then paused on a fact that Dobby revealed to him.
“Are there two heir Blacks?”
“What is an heir Black, Sev?” Harry asked.
“I will explain it to you in a moment,” He replied to Harry, who wasn’t happy with it but accepted it nonetheless. Severus turned to the elf, who nodded. This just seemed to add to his confusion. What the fuck was Black thinking? Two heirs? The Blacks were an insane bunch, but this was practically unheard of.
“Dippy,” he called, summoning his own elf. She popped into appearance, and Harry jumped. “Take Dobby to the house and let him stay in the presence of Draco’s magic. Dobby, go with her. It will help. I promise that Harry will be safe with me.”
Dobby hesitated for a moment, but Dippy grabbed him and disapparated.
“What just happened?” Harry asked.
“Let’s go inside and I will explain everything,” Severus said, casting privacy spells in the neighbourhood. He was grateful that none of the neighbours had come out at the commotion. Not even Arabella Figg. It was just painful to obliviate so many people.
Severus levitated the petrified Vernon Dursley and walked to the front door with Harry. He knocked thrice and thanked Merlin for having a silencing spell ready for Petunia, who screamed at the sight of her floating husband.
“For Merlin’s sake, Petunia. Shut up.” Severus stepped into their living room and vanished the cake that was all over the couch and floor. He put Vernon down but kept him petrified. Severus and Harry sat on the sofa opposite Petunia and her son. He removed the silencing spell he had cast on her.
“Snape, what have you done to my husband?” she asked, visibly relieved to regain her voice.
“Not much, Petunia. He’s just momentarily paralysed. This is but a fraction of what I warned would happen if any one of you raised a hand at Harry,” Severus said with a fierce glare.
“But Harry is the one who attacked Dad with his magic,” Dudley shot out.
Harry began to furiously retort to that but was stopped by the hand Severus had placed on his chest.
“He did nothing of the sort, Dursley. It was a house-elf that did it, not Harry.” Severus gave them a calm reply, and then, for effect, he added, “you remember what those are do you not, Tuney.”
Petunia bristled but did not rise to the bait. “It appears we are at an impasse, Snape.”
“There’s no impasse, Petunia. It is no longer safe for Harry to be here,” Severus said, explaining why his visit was earlier than usual. He turned to Harry and handed him an expanded trunk that had been shrunken in size. “Place this on the floor of your bedroom, tap it once, and place everything that you want to take from here in it. Close it, tap it twice, and it will return to its current size. You’ll be living with me from now on.”
“Really?” Severus was blinded by the magnitude of the smile on Harry’s face and the happiness emanating. His stomach felt much lighter as if a worry he didn’t know he had just disappeared. Severus nodded, and that smile just got brighter.
When Harry left, Severus turned to the Dursleys. The youngest one had a look of apathy on his face, and Severus doubted that anything beyond the realm of nourishment would interest him. Petunia, on the other hand, looked conflicted.
“You can’t take him,” she said, finally.
Severus dismissed her claim with a look. “The only reason why I did not take him when he was six years old was because Lily’s protection only worked in the presence of a blood relative. But now, that I have replicated it, your presence in his life is no long required.”
“But Dumbledore is the one who sent him here. What if he comes to check up on Harry?”
“Albus Dumbledore has not cared once about how Harry is treated when he is not in Hogwarts,” Severus scoffed. “If anyone does come to see you about Harry, they will be far less courteous than I have been. Wizards care deeply about children, so I wish you luck. Especially if those who supported the Dark Lord come knocking. They are more of the kill first, ask questions later intellect.”
“What should I tell them?” she asked, fear visible in her eyes.
“Tell anyone who comes calling that Harry is protected.” Severus stood, but before he exited the room, he turned back. “Also, I would suggest a move. I here Sweden is lovely this time of the year.”
Severus made his way up the stairs to Harry’s bedroom, where he found Harry sitting on the bed, looking out the window. Deep in thought, he had abandoned any notions of packing his belongings.
“Harry?” Severus said gently as he sat next to the boy on his bed. That sense of dread was back and clawing at his stomach. “Is everything alright?”
Harry gave him a small smile. “When I was five, I always dreamed that some relative of mine that I hadn’t met before, would show up and take me away from them. Now that I’m finally free of them…”
“You don’t know how to feel?” Severus completed Harry’s words, confirmed when the boy gave him a slight nod. “Look, Harry. It will be a big change from what you are used to. I have never been a parent, so I may not know some things. But I promise that you can live with me as long as you want to. Draco is staying with me as well, so I am pretty sure he will be vocal about what he needs.”
“Why is Draco staying with you?”
Severus was about to reply when the arrival of an owl interrupted them. It hammered at the window impatiently, holding its leg for them to take the letter. Severus opened the window and snatched the letter, glaring at the owl.
He paled at the Ministry seal on the envelope.
Dear Mr. Potter,
We received information about the use of a hover charm at your residence at eight minutes past seven.
As you are well aware, wizards not of age are not allowed to perform magic outside the school, and additional magic will lead to expulsion from the school (Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery, 1875, Paragraph C).
The Ministry would also ask you to remember that any activity that risks exposure to the non-magical community is a severe breach of Section 13 of the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy.
Have a pleasant evening. Yours sincerely,
Mafalda Hopkirk
Officer for the Improper Use of Magic
Ministry of Magic, Level Two
“What is it Sev?”
“It is a warning from the Ministry for underage magic,” Severus replied, frowning at it. He shook his head and then placed the letter in his robes with the other. “Never mind that, Harry. We can appeal to it, especially now that Dobby is at my house. Now, to finish packing?”
Harry nodded, and Severus flicked his wand, thankful he no longer had the trace. Harry’s possessions flew through the air and stacked themselves neatly inside the chest. He opened Hedwig’s cage with another flick and gave her a note he had addressed to Draco.
“Go and stay there,” Severus whispered to the owl, who leapt out the window. He added the cage to the chest and closed it, tapping the lid twice. It shrunk instantly.
“How does that work?” Harry asked, admiring the magic.
“I dunno,” Severus confessed. Harry gave him a look of surprise. “What? It was a gift from Regulus. He charmed it and would not tell me how he did it.”
“I’m just surprised there is something you don’t know.”
“Harry,” Severus began, picking the chest and tucking it into the folds of his robes. They made their way out of the room. “While I do consider myself smarter than most wizards of my time, I confess that I am not omniscient.”
They paused at the landing, watching Petunia and Dudley’s expressions.
“Farewell, Aunt Petunia.” Harry tugged on Severus’ hand. “Let’s go. I don’t want to be here any longer.”
Severus gave Petunia a look that more or less translated to ‘interfere and I’ll kill you’ before he smiled at Harry. He waved his wand to remove the paralysis spell on Vernon and dissolved the linking spell between Harry and Dudley.
“Okay, Harry. Hold on tight to my arm. This will feel very strange.”
And the two of the apparated, determined to never return here.
*
Severus and Harry appeared on the outer edge of his wards, and Harry promptly threw up.
This act brought an unexpected smile to Severus’s face, reminding him of the first time Lily had apparated with him and his mother to Diagon Alley and vomited when they arrived. He cast a scourgify at Harry’s mouth and vanished the throw-up.
“That was awful,” Harry muttered, making a face at the aftertaste of the scourgify.
“Your mother thought so as well,” Severus said in reply, bringing a smile to Harry’s face. He pressed forward, receiving no resistance from his own wards.
However, Harry just stopped, hand pressed against an invisible barrier, testing to see how much it would bend before snapping back into place.
“Um, Sev. I’m stuck.”
“So it seems.” Severus frowned as he wondered why this was so. “Dippy.”
Dippy popped into existence.
“Master called?” she asked, gazing at Harry in confusion before gasping. Harry took a step back, worried about the elf’s gaze. “The boy is cursed. No wonder the wards shan’t let him in.”
“What do you mean?” Severus asked, squinting at Harry in hopes of seeing what Dippy saw. He saw nothing and even cast a revelio in hopes of seeing something. Even that failed.
“There is a blue aura surrounding the child’s magic, Master.”
“What?” Harry asked, panicking, and Severus placed a reassuring hand on his back.
“It’s okay, Harry,” Severus said as his front door opened and Draco walked out. Draco smiled at the sight of Harry and tackled him with a hug. “As soon as Draco untangles himself from you, we’ll go to a cursebreaker at Gringotts.”
“You cannot go tonight, Uncle Sev,” Draco insisted. Upon the confusion on Severus’ face, Draco explained further. “Tonight marks the start of August. I’m declaring tomorrow.”
“Lughnasadh…” Severus muttered, thinking about when he declared to the dark on the Lughnasadh after his twelfth birthday. “Okay, Draco. We will go tomorrow morning. Dippy, can you fetch my heir ring so Harry can enter?”
“What’s Lughnasadh? And what is Draco declaring to?” Harry asked, still fiddling with Severus’s wards by trying to push his hand past them. Dippy disappeared and then reappeared with Severus’ old heir ring.
“All in good time,” Severus said, taking Harry’s chest out of his robes and exchanging it for his ring. Dippy nodded and disapparated again. He gave his ring to Harry. “Here, put it on, and it will allow you passage through the wards. Do not worry about it being too big for you because the magic in it shrinks it down to the wearer’s size.”
“What is it?” Harry asked, admiring the goblin craftsmanship of the ring.
“It’s an heir ring. I am the head of an old wizarding family called the Prince family. Draco is the heir to the Malfoy line and I am assuming that you are the heir to the Potter line. This ring grants you temporary heir provisions and as such you can enter the Prince properties. Try it now.”
Harry smiled as the wards melted away and turned dormant upon his touch. He walked past the boundary, and the three entered Severus’s cottage. Severus waved his wand, and three glasses of water floated over from the kitchen. They each took a glass and a seat on the couches in the living room.
“So, Sev,” Harry began, having finished his drink. “What is Draco declaring to?”
Severus looked at Draco, wondering if he would like to explain this. But Draco just shook his head.
“There has always been two factions, or two sides, in any war or conflict—“ Severus conjured two small figures on his coffee table. One was black, and the other was white. “—they are called the light and the dark. They have always been at odds with each other. Like Salazar Slytherin and Godric Gryffindor, and Merlin and Morgana. More recent examples are Grindelwald and Albus or Albus and the Dark Lord.”
The figures started to fight, and the one representing the light began to snuff out the dark one.
“So, which one is better?” Harry asked.
“The dark, obviously,” Draco drawled.
Severus chuckled as their conversation reminded him of one he had with Lily.
“Why must one be better than the other?” he asked, waving his hand making the figures stop fighting. “They are two sides of the same coin, and we need both to avoid any one side growing too powerful. There have been periods where the light and the dark have coexisted and worked together to solve problems, like during the numerous goblin rebellions. Not that the wizards were necessarily in the right during that situation.
“The tradition has been that usually when a wizard turns twelve, they do a test to see which path fits them better and after that, on the following Lughnasadh for dark wizards and Imbolc for light wizards, they would declare which path they are choosing to follow. From there, you complete a series of tasks until you turn fifteen to demonstrate your respect, understanding and mastery of the path that you have chosen. Being a dark wizard does not mean that you kill people. It just means you have a natural affinity for the darker side of magic. The same is true for light wizards. Just because you are light does not mean that you can not kill.”
“What are those days that you just mentioned? Lughnasadh and…” Harry asked, confused. Severus could understand the confusion because this was the first time he had heard about the Wheel of the Year.
“Harry. We are the descendants of the Celtic druids, Saxon wiccas, and Roman mages. Our traditions and culture have blended so much that we are not sure where some parts of it come from. For example, the Wizengamot, our government. Did we create it, or was it inspired by the muggle revolutionaries in France or the Senate in the Ancient Roman government? It is impossible to tell at times.
“However, the Wheel of the Year has been embedded in our traditions until recently. It consists of eight days, spread out equally in the calendar year: the equinoxes, solstices, and four other days. These days, magic is said to be the most potent and reactive. Over time, these days are divided into three dark days, three light days and two equinoxes.
“Samhain is the first of the dark days. It marks the beginning of the days of darkness and is the time we honour our ancestors. Yule coincides with the Winter Solstice and is the longest night. Wizards practising dark magic are the most powerful on this night. Imbolc celebrates the start of the end of the dark days, purification and new beginnings.
“Of the light days, Beltane is the first. Light wizards celebrate the beginning of the days of light and honour the earth’s fertility. Litha is the Summer Solstice and is the longest day. Light wizards commemorate the triumph of light over darkness. Lughnasadh celebrates the start of the end of the light days, protection and new endings.
“Ostara is the spring equinox and comes after the dark days. Day and Night are equal and light is overtaking the darkness. Similarly, Mabon comes after the light days and is the fall equinox.”
Harry nodded as he absorbed what Severus told him.
“Why aren’t these days more well known then, even among wizards?”
“You can blame the muggles and the mudbloods for that,” Draco responded.
“Draco!” Severus all but yelled. He reigned his magic, remembering that his godson didn’t know any better and was raised by Lucius Malfoy, a pureblood with a stick so far up his arse anything he said was incredibly ignorant and offensive. “We do not use that word, ever.”
“What’s a mudblood?” Harry asked.
Severus placed a hand on Harry’s.
“I don’t ever want you to use that word on anyone. Even Lily would have never wanted you to use it. That word is a slur that implies that you have dirty blood.”
“Why would my blood being dirty matter Sev?”
“Pureblooded wizards are wizards who have never had any muggle relatives as far as five generations up their family tree like Draco or your friend Mr. Weasley. Most of the older families are pureblooded. They believe their blood to be much purer than mine or yours. We are half-bloods because at least one of our parents is pureblooded: your father and my mother. My father was a muggle, and your mother was a muggle-born, meaning both her parents were muggles.
“All of us could be called mudbloods because we are not pureblooded. But recently it has been used to refer to muggleborns and people with half creature rather than halfbloods.”
Severus risked a glance into Harry’s eyes, which, as he expected, was full of anger.
“So what,” he spat towards Draco. Harry stood up and looked down at Draco. Sev could feel the magic around him trembling. “You think that just cause my mother was not born to witches and wizards, she is less than you purebloods? You think that I am filthy or weak? Just when I thought that we were making progress Draco, its the same story.”
Harry stalked out the front door, leaving Severus and Draco behind.
*
“Go talk to him,” Severus said after a few minutes of silence since Harry’s departure.
“Why not you, Uncle Severus? He is your adoptive son, and well, he hates me now, since he thinks that I hate him, his mother or Teddy.”
“Draco,” Severus sighed, skipping the part where Draco called him Harry’s adoptive father. “Harry doesn’t hate you. There is a reason why I did not talk to him about the pureblood’s ideology yet. He tends to rush into things, without thinking them through, and infers incorrect conclusions.”
“Why me?” Draco repeated.
“You are a pureblooded heir of an old wizarding family. Yet, we both know that you do not hate muggleborns because you think that their blood is filthy or that they received their magic by siphoning or stealing a wizard’s core. I know that your mother taught you better than that.”
“She did,” Draco nodded, agreeing with Severus. “I just dislike them because they come into our world and expect us to change—”
“I know that, Draco. But you need to help Harry understand that. Now go on, child.”
Draco nodded, pensive about the conversation he would have with Harry. He walked out the front door as he tried to retrace Harry’s footsteps. Severus rose from the couch and went to the other end of his small cottage. He knocked on the small closet door where Dippy had made herself home.
The door opened, and Severus stepped in, careful not to step on any of the pillows or rags his elf had used to make her nest. He crouched low where Dippy stood over Dobby. She ran a palm over Dobby’s wounds and healed them with magic.
“How is Dobby doing?” he asked her.
“He shall be fine. Why is you sending another elf to Dippy? And who is his masters?”
“Dobby is belonging to the Malfoys,” Dobby answered, looking directly at Severus. “As Dobby told you, Dobby was protecting the young Black heir on orders from Lady Narcissa.”
“How are you able to tell me this? Do the Malfoy bindings not prevent you from revealing this information?” Severus had figured that it was Narcissa securing her future away from Lucius. They had, after all, discussed this many years ago on nights that Severus recovered at the Malfoy Manor after raids with the Dark Lord. She had initially planned on getting Black to nullify the marriage contract. But now that he was in Azkaban, she would ask Teddy or Harry for their aid when they became the Lord of the Black Line.
But there was no way that Severus would let Harry become a target for Lucius’ wrath.
“Lord Prince is Heir Malfoy’s protector, so the Malfoy magic recognises him as one of Dobby’s masters.”
“I’m not a Lord, Dobby,” Severus clarified as he thought over his bond with Draco now. The protection ritual would let him ensure that Lucius never hurt Draco again. He handed Dippy the letters that Dobby had kept from Harry. “Dobby said that these are spelt. Can you take a look at them, Dippy?”
“Yes, Master Prince.” Dippy flipped through the stack of letters that Severus had given her. She analysed each letter individually and sorted them into two separate stacks. She picked up the stack on the left and handed it to Severus. “These are safe, Master. They are not enchanted. But these ones on the floor are. Dippy suggests that you burn it.”
Severus checked the names on the ones that Dippy gave him. Five were from Teddy Lupin-Black, two were from Mr. Longbottom, and three were from Draco himself.
“Dippy, come with me,” Severus said, grabbing the two enchanted letters from Mr. Weasley and Ms. Granger. “Dobby, rest here and do not worry about needing to protect Harry or Draco. They are safe here.”
Dobby nodded and lay down on the old pillows in Dippy’s nest. Severus left Dippy’s closet deep in thought, with Dippy following behind him. He made his way to the kitchen and prepared a glass of Ogden’s finest.
“What’s the matter? I thought having Harry with you was what you wanted. You had been working hard on the potion to protect him. Why are some letters bothering you?”
Severus gave the old elf a bitter smile and sipped the firewhiskey before casting the muffliato charm he had invented.
“The reason I brought him here was to protect him. I told the Dark Lord about the prophecy in my time of weakness and as a result, his parents are dead. And now, I find out that he is getting charmed letters from people who are supposed to be friends,” Severus snarled, flinging those letters on the counter. He recalled the conversations he had had with Harry during the school year, comparing them with the ones before Harry had started Hogwarts. The subtle differences, along with what Dippy had mentioned earlier about Harry being cursed and the wards not letting him in, made Severus want to kick himself for not noticing it earlier. “He is not even safe at Hogwarts.”
“What do you mean, Master?” Dippy asked, levitating herself onto the kitchen counter opposite Severus. She rearranged the carelessly tossed letters into a stack.
“My first class, he answered all the questions that I posed. The questions were meant to be difficult, so that no one would suspect our relationship and use that against Harry. But in the classes after that, his potions were bad and he did not answer any questions I posed. He became more rash in his actions and jumped to conclusions without thinking it through. He even tried to take on a fully-grown troll on his own. Had Draco not been there…”
“Do you think it was Quirrell who cursed Harry, when he was possessed by the Dark Lord?”
“I think not. The Dark Lord serves no purpose in modifying Harry’s behaviour. I think that the presence of the stone in the castle was a test and that it might be—“
Severus’ words were cut off by the arrival of a brown and white barn owl. It rapped on the glass with its leg once and waited patiently on the window sill with a letter held by its beak. As Severus opened the window, he noticed the metal cuff with the Gringotts seal around its leg. Confused, he gave it a treat and ripped it open as soon as he verified his name on the envelope.
Lord Prince,
This letter acknowledges that at a quarter to four in the afternoon today, you registered another heir to Prince bloodline. The heir shall be granted access to the heir vaults with a standard monthly allowance of fifty galleons. As a reminder, heirs shall inherit the lordship in the following order of acknowledgement (unless stated otherwise):
Edward Prince
Harry James Potter
Please do not hesitate to reach out if you have any concerns.
As always, Gringotts Wizarding Bank appreciates your business.
Silverfang.
Manager of the Prince Vaults.
Severus dropped the letter in shock.
I have a son?
*
After searching for ten minutes, Draco found Harry in the greenhouse, gently feeding tendrils of his magic into a group of plants with white flowers having six petals and a yellow centre.
He stayed back to avoid disturbing what Harry was doing and watched him, entranced by his skill and sheer power. Draco had never heard of anyone doing what Harry was doing. Even his mother, who boasted the best scarlet roses among her friends, had never done this.
How the fuck can Harry think that I think him to be lesser or weaker when he is the most magically powerful wizard of our age?
“Are you just going to stand there, and not say anything, Draco?” Harry asked without turning around. He plucked a small flower from the plant and turned around, offering it to Draco.
Draco accepted it at once, gazing into Harry’s eyes. There was no hatred, which was good, but something lurked underneath, which Draco’s basic Legilimency abilities could not identify.
“I’m sorry,” they both said at the same time. They paused and gave each other odd looks.
“What are you sorry about?” Draco asked, puzzled as to why Harry was apologising to him. “I am the one who used that word and said the awful stuff.”
“I shouldn’t have just assumed your position on the matter and then yell at you and leave without giving you a chance to explain it,” Harry said, not meeting Draco’s eyes. “Its the same thing that I did with Teddy earlier this year. I assumed stuff about him and hated him for it. I am trying to work on not jumping to conclusions and listening to what people have to say before making an assumption.”
“Ah,” Draco said, dragging Harry to a bench that Severus had placed just outside the greenhouse. He toyed with the flower nervously. “I do not hate muggleborns. I dislike them because they come to the wizarding world with little to no respect for our traditions. Because muggle’s hate anything they consider to be “pagan” and muggleborns grew up learning from them, our traditions and cultures are disappearing. Yule became Christmas and Samhain became Halloween. A lot of other muggle beliefs have come into this world and—“
“Why can’t we teach them then?” Harry asked, interrupting Draco.
“What?”
“I didn’t know that I had magic until I met Sev. My aunt is a muggle and she knew that I had magic. They treated any instance or mention of magic like a freak incident. Most muggleborns grow up similar to the way I did. So why don’t we give them a book before they come to Hogwarts or a class during their first year at Hogwarts that explains everything to them “
“That… is a good idea,” Draco admitted. “But the Wizengamot, the way it is right now, will never come together to pass this law.”
“Explain.”
“The Wizengamot has, since its inception, always been divided between light magic practitioners and dark magic practitioners. Currently, the light holds sway, and our headmaster is the Chief Warlock. They will not pass the law because they do not want to teach muggleborns about dark magic even if they have an affinity to that kind of magic. And the dark side will not pass such a law for the same reason, in addition to the fact that most of them detest muggleborns.”
Harry processed this information before he asked, “Do I have any seats in the Wizengamot?”
“How do you not know this?” Draco was slightly appalled. “The Potters used to be one of the most influential families. They worked hard in bringing both sides together to pass laws. As far as I know, they had four seats and since, you are the heir, I assume those seats can be claimed by you when you come of age.”
“How do you know so much about my dad’s family?” Harry asked, surprised at what Draco knew.
“Well,” Draco began, his cheeks turning slightly pink. “I was obsessed with you as a child. I read everything I could about the boy who defeated the Dark Lord when he was one year old.”
“It wasn’t me,” Harry said, his face darkening.
“What?” Draco asked, turning to look at Harry.
“I did not kill Voldemort. It was my Mum’s sacrifice that protected me from him. She refused to step out of his way. She died, and her sacrifice caused Voldemort’s killing curse to rebound into him. That why I got mad, because I assumed that you called her weak. My Mum was not weak. I remember that night perfectly. She is the bravest woman I know.”
“I’m sorry,” Draco repeated, wrapping his arms around Harry and pulling him into a hug.
1992 – August
Dinner had been a quiet affair.
He and Draco had made up. Draco would not call anyone a mudblood again. Harry had filed the information about him having seats in the government away. He planned to use it at a later date.
Severus was abnormally quiet. If Harry did not know better, he would have said Sev was downright depressed. He would not say anything when Harry asked if there was a problem and promised Harry that all was okay. He did tell Harry that they had a meeting at Gringotts tomorrow morning.
After dinner, they made their way to a clearing in the woods by Sev’s cottage.
Harry stood beside Severus, wrapped in the warm shawl that Severus had given him.
Draco was in the centre of the now-finished, ritualistic circle, holding a silver knife in his right and his wand in the left. He then put his wand down in front of him and began the ritual by slitting the palm of his left hand and letting the blood drip onto the chalk outline.
“Now, Uncle Sev.” Severus nodded at Draco and pressed the tip of his wand to the outermost circle. It immediately burst into flames, encircling Draco and separating him from them. “I summon the Darkness. In the final days of the light, before the darkness overtakes it, I ask for protection as I begin this journey inward. I ask that you accept my claim and intention of declaring myself as a child of the dark.”
Nothing happened.
Draco looked nervous like he had perhaps mispronounced something or spoken the wrong words. He gazed at Harry, who had been watching expectantly, waiting for something to change.
Severus moved, intending to extinguish the flames and have Draco try again later when a gust of wind blew into the clearing. A cloud of dark smoke arrived with it, snuffing out any light in the vicinity and suffocating the flames. It condensed before Draco into a vaguely humanoid figure with purple eyes.
“The young heir Malfoy,” it spoke in a deep voice that reverberated and bounced around them. It brought one of its shadowy hands to Draco’s chest, and it slipped inside instantly. “So, you intend to declare your magical core as dark? It doesn’t feel evil, does it? Nor are you attuned to performing light magic. Just like little Cissa, who I met all those years ago.”
It turned to look at the other people present during the ritual.
“The young Prince child. Well, the one that was young,” it clarified in a fond voice while it looked in Severus’ direction. “You have grown, child of the dark. I am sorry for you loss. Alas it is the job of the Darkness to stay out of–”
It trailed off when it noticed Harry standing beside Severus, and the shadowy mass shot in an arc around Draco and was now in front of Harry. Its purple eyes were fixed on Harry’s green ones. It brought a vibrating shadowy hand to Harry’s cheek, and the moment they connected, the Darkness became more personified. The shadows melded into pale white skin and long dark hair that had been tied off.
As a human, The Darkness was a boy who could not have been more than five years older than Harry.
“What a wonderful gift,” he breathed at a level that only Harry could hear. Then his voice grew a few octaves as he said, “I accept your declaration, Draco Malfoy, son of Houses Black and Malfoy.”
After that, he vanished, taking all the darkness with him.