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Chapter Four:

It was late at night. The Cottage was quiet with nearly everyone sleeping. Holding the wards over a property with so many people in it was definitely a different experience. Once all the guests were gone, he would fine-tune the ward notifications somewhat so that he wasn’t getting so much information from them. Right then, he could tell that he wasn’t the only one up and about. There was someone in the library, he guessed Granger, and there was someone wandering the hallways, he guessed Potter.

Granger most likely was trying to get some last-minute exploring of the possibilities done. Potter had the same insomnia issues that Draco had, and he wouldn’t be surprised to find the Gryffindor there with him in the conservatory, eventually. Briefly, Draco wondered what kept Harry up. In Draco’s case, he just seemed not to need as much sleep as other people, and he couldn’t help but wonder if that had something to do with the Dragon Mage thing. Tonight, though, Draco’s mind was just in too many places and covering too many issues to sleep.

Dragon Mage.

Merlin Emrys.

Earl of Avalon.

The magical soul of Merlin Emrys.

Lucius Malfoy falling through the veil.

Everyone was going to know much more about his life than he liked.

The Thunder

What classes did he want next year?

Should he start to encourage people to check the Book of Souls?

Should he and Harry check it themselves?

What had he done to deserve two parents who wanted him dead?

Right then, he didn’t even know where to start. Where he should be focusing his worrying and what he should push to the back of his mind. His father tried to kill him. His mother was possibly trying to kill him. Can he trust Dumbledore? Should he trust Dumbledore? What should he make public and what should he keep a secret? Should he include other adults? Yes, that one was obvious, but who should he include in his little… whatever it was that he was doing? He had Black. He had Severus.

That was it. He had an escaped, illegally imprisoned convict and a man with two masters. Hopefully, Black’s name would be cleared soon, and hopefully, Severus would go from two masters to no masters, but their reputations were probably both tainted for life. And then there was Harry. Always Harry, apparently literally always Harry.

“Draco? You’re up, too?”

Draco couldn’t help but snort and paused the swing that he was sitting on, motioning for Potter to join him before casting the enchantment that would set it to swing on its own. Draco had curled up on one end with his legs underneath him and a thick blanket over his lap that was used more for its weight than its warmth.

Harry had sat down at the other end, his knees pulled up to his chest and his arms wrapped around his legs. Just when he wondered if Potter was going to speak again, the younger boy huffed. “Seriously, shouldn’t you be asleep?”

“I don’t actually require much sleep, and now I wonder if it has anything to do with the Dragon Mage thing. I also have a lot on my mind that doesn’t seem to want to quiet.”

“Do you want to talk it out?” Harry asked, concerned, and Draco shook his head after considering the question. “I think that I have talked it out too much since my father died. Tell me why you are up instead. I know this being up late isn’t an anomaly for you. So, why are you up tonight?”

Harry sighed before answering, resting his chin on his knees. “Sometimes it’s nightmares. Sometimes it’s… its visions from or of Voldemort. Tonight, it is much the same as you. Brain won’t quiet. Don’t know what to expect when we go back to school. I don’t understand why we have to just linger for a whole week just to get to the end of June, but I guess it is what it is. I’m not in the mood to deal with Ron and his temper tantrum, but maybe it’s better to get it out of the way. He just… he has turned out to be very disappointing. I just feel like…”

Harry paused and looked to Draco, who had been studying the other boy quietly as he spoke. “Do you ever wish you could go back and make a different choice that day? That first day, I mean, when I rejected your handshake on the train. Because I do. Every time Ron shows his arse, letting his temper loose on the rest of us because he has the maturity sometimes of a flobberworm. I keep wondering if it’s worth it to keep trying, and too often I think no, but then Hermione gets on me and I do it anyway.”

“I don’t mean to stick my nose in your friendships, Potter, but I think that you need better, or if not better, at the very least more, friendships than you have now. I am not going to disparage your friendship with Granger, even though I think at times she forgets she’s not your mother, but Weasley.

“I regret the things that I have said about the Weasley family as a whole because I think that they have some wonderful people in their family. Ronald, though, isn’t one of them, and I regret nothing I have said about him specifically. He’s a spoiled, hotheaded, git, and the irony is that he’s everything that he claims I am.”

Harry nodded before continuing, and Draco smiled when cups of hot cocoa popped into his and Potter’s hands. “Ron’s jealousy and temper are truly becoming impossible to deal with, especially since he doesn’t seem to want to do anything to improve either of them. He gets mad if I do too well in classes or if I show any interest in learning anything other than DADA. He gets mad if I spend my own money on anything other than candy. I can’t make friends who aren’t him or Hermione, and heaven forbid they’re from another House.”

“None of those things are how a real friendship should work,” Draco said softly. “You deserve better than that. Hermione deserves better than that. Are you aware that he talks about both you and Hermione behind your backs? And he certainly has friends that aren’t you or Hermione, because it’s often he and Finnigan that we have to protect our first and second years from. Dean Thomas sometimes follows behind them but he never participates. I don’t know if you are aware, but Dean is a distant cousin of Blaise’s.

“I am not going to tell you to end the friendship. That is a decision that you need to make for yourself. What I am going to say, though, is that you do need to make other friends. Branching out can only be good for you. And I hope that Granger and Theodore do not keep their relationship a secret for much longer. It would do everyone good to see such a couple. It would also help if we were not the only mixed house romance with one member from the house of snakes.”

“I’ve been considering our relationship all day,” Potter murmured, and Draco cocked his head to one side.

“Are we going to keep all of this to ourselves, or are we going to tell people? Are you going to tell people about all of the things that have changed? I have some work to do to make up for not studying hard enough up to this point. Is that something that we can work on over the summer?”

Draco hummed, shifting so that he could lay his head on the back of the swing and still see his soulmate. “I don’t want to hide our relationship from people, to be honest. I mean, everyone is going to know that Father died, and I was his heir, so naturally I would have succeeded him. He and Great Grandfather Roman did terrible things to the House of Malfoy’s reputation. And as much as I love him, Grandfather Abraxas didn’t help much either. After he retreated to the Cottage, he basically isolated himself.

“I don’t know why. He would never tell me. I don’t even know why or how he was able to convince Father to allow Apollo to bring me here. Because it wasn’t as if there was any love between them. At least not from Father’s side, or maybe there was, and it was as complicated as my own relationship with Lucius. Not that that matters or is on topic.

“Where I was going with that was to say that none of the recent generations of Malfoy men before me did anything good for the name. They’ve trashed it, and now it is up to me to rehabilitate it. The Lordships will be published in the paper automatically. There is nothing that I can do about that. The Earldom will cause a stir, but again, that is out of my power.” Draco shook his head and drained his hot cocoa before continuing.

“Some of the outrage that will stir up when the announcement happens will die down when you don’t get pulled online as Lord Pendragon, Earl of Camelot. There are enough people aware that it’s a possibility that it won’t be a complete surprise in certain circles. Father bragged about the possibility in our line often. When Master Brenvroth was here today, he told me that I have enough going on that I should not spend time worrying about the things that are out of my control.”

Harry had been nodding along, looking curious and when Draco stopped, he immediately picked up the topic of their Dragon Guardians and ran with it. “Did you like him? I got paired with the other one, Madame Sterra. She reminded me a lot of McGonagall. She’s a solicitor, but works as the head of the bank’s investigative services.  She’s going to help me get some control of all this bullshite that the Prophet says about me that isn’t true. She thinks that we should be open about soul-mating. She says that it would do a lot of good for the country.”

Draco wrinkled his nose before answering. “If you and I decide to go public with the soulmating, it hopefully won’t have anything to do with any ‘greater good’ that is for sure. I mean, I would be pleased if we decide to announce it and it creates a resurgence in people checking the book. That magic is getting neglected because Muggleborns and Muggle-raised decided that it wasn’t real or important.

“I can’t even fully blame Dumbledore for that because the trend had started long before he came into his power. How do you want us to handle our relationship, Potter? I know that we agreed to work on friendship first, but I… I think I would like us to be boyfriends while we do that.

“I’m not saying that I want to start snogging all over the place, because I am not as interested in that as a boy my age maybe should be. I would like to do things like hold hands and maybe a cuddle or two, though. I am invested in this relationship, Potter, and doing the work to be worthy of that infinite bond. I know it will be a shock to people, but I am less worried about their opinions. I think that you and I need to agree to make relationship decisions based on what is best for us and not what is best for public opinion or any other such nonsense.”

Harry was looking pensive as Draco spoke. Slowly, he stretched out his legs to entwine his feet with Draco’s, which were poking out of the bottom of the blanket for temperature control. “The first thing that I think is that you should call me Harry instead of Potter if we’re going to start dating. Which, by the way, I am completely onboard with. I don’t think that it’s unreasonable to call each other boyfriends while we work on becoming friends, given how invested we each are in the soul mate bond.

“Secondly, I am ok with telling people about the bond. But maybe we need to do some education there, or else the current prejudices will just interfere with the unity process. We are hoping for unity, right? And what about Dumbledore? Are you sure you are ready to be at school? I mean, I know you and Lucius didn’t have a great relationship, but it’s only been a few days, Draco.”

“I have no choice, Po… Harry. You are right. I will try to call you, Harry. It is only right. To answer your last question first, I have to go back. I am not in a position to show any weakness right now. I need to go back, hold my head high, and try to show I am a better man than my father was. I need to meet with the Thunder, which is the name my friends circle calls ourselves. It may sound childish, but to be fair, we were children when we came up with the idea, and now we’re all too sentimental over the name to change it.

“As to Dumbledore, no, I am not sure, but I do think that I need to make inroads there. I can’t fight Voldemort, the Ministry, and Wizengamot, my mother, and Dumbledore. Tell me this, do you think that Dumbledore is irreversibly dark, or do you think he’s fallen into the trap that is power, and needs a reality check to bring him back to the man who fought Grindelwald?

“Personally, I think that he’s more misguided than evil. I think that if my Godfather and others sat him down and had a serious coming to Merlin talk with him, that he’d realize what he’s done. I think that notions like “the greater good” can be dangerous, and I can see someone not realizing they’ve fallen into a trap until it’s far too late.

“So, do I trust him right now? No, but I can see myself trusting him at some point, depending on what happens. I am fairly confident that he’s going to pull me into his office at some point and have a talk Lord to Headmaster. How he acts in regards to my new station will go a long way in determining how I feel about him. Going back to your earlier question about if I am sure I should go back.

“I have too many things to accomplish not to. Besides the Headmaster, next year’s accommodations, and next year’s schedule, I need The Thunder. We have things to work out, plans we need to initiate or discard, and I have a duty to them to be there when they need me. Who knows how the school will react to them coming with me to the DoM battle.

“I may be underage, but the moment I accepted those Lordships I became emancipated. Plus, I would like to make some apologies. I am considering making an offer to Hagrid to run his own creature sanctuary. I won’t lie to you. I don’t think that he’s a good teacher, but I do think that he’s good with animals and that he could do a lot of good rescuing creatures that have been abused or whose owners just can’t take care of them for one reason or another.”

Harry nodded rapidly, almost bouncing in his seat. “Hagrid would be splendid at that! That would mean that Dumbledore would need to replace not just the DADA professor but the Care of Magical Creatures position, too.”

“Andrew Barrows is a world-renowned magizoologist and would love to teach at Hogwarts. He wants to stay here in England to be closer to his brother and sister, but needs a position that would allow him to do so. As to the DADA position, I have two ideas about that. My Godfather could move into that spot like he’s always wanted, but that would just require that we get a new potions teacher, and I don’t know how I would feel about losing Seveus in that class before I graduate.

“My second idea is that we convince Dumbledore to get the curse on the position cleansed and then invite Lupin back to be a teacher. The downside to that is his furry problem. If rumors are correct, part of the reason he left the last time is because he forgot to take his potion one night and transformed on the grounds, which is not ideal.

“We’d have to come up with some way to make sure that such a mistake couldn’t happen again. Maybe he’d need to be locked up in one of the secure rooms down in the dungeon the night of the full moon.  I know that Snape has been working on improvements to the Wolfsbane Potion that would make it something called time release. I believe that he got the idea from Muggle medicine and is trying to figure out how to bring that into the magical world.”

Draco yawned big, drawing Potter’s Harry’s attention, and noticed that the Gryffindor yawned himself soon after Draco did. “I also want to spend time with you in a different setting, I don’t want to start next year with the scandal of us revealing our relationship. If we do it now, then they’ll have all summer to get the gossiping out of their systems.”

When both he and Potter yawned again, Draco stopped the swing and stood, leaving the blanket behind. Holding out a hand, he pulled Harry up and off the swing before leading him to his room. At the door, he gave a smile and the most chaste of kisses to the younger boy’s cheek before heading to his own room. The kiss hadn’t exactly been something that friends would exchange, but it had felt right. As he slipped into sleep, Draco thought that was probably all that mattered.

~*~ ~*~

The next day, Draco found himself stepping through the floo into his Godfather’s office at Hogwarts, bringing up the rear of those heading back to school. Their belongings were being moved by the house elves. All of those within his personal circle had brought back just what they thought they’d need for the last week-ish of school. Those being Theo, Blaise, Vince, Greg, Daphne, and Pansy. Theo, Greg, and Vince were staying because they had formally requested sanctuary. Pansy’s mother had ordered her to stay no matter what her father said. Daphne was staying as part of the plan with her father to keep her and her sister Astoria safe, and Blaise was staying because he was ducking his new step-father. Of the non-Slytherins, only Harry had requested sanctuary and was staying. He had followed the Slytherin’s lead and only brought a portion of his things back with him.

The rest of the non-Slytherins were ok with their families. Although Hermione was returning after a visit with her parents. Neville’s grandmother and Luna’s father were fearsome in the defense of their children and were perfectly safe at home. As was Ginny Weasley, although she had admitted that the last few days had given her something to think about. Ginny, Luna, and Neville had all expressed interest in visiting over the summer, although Ginny admitted that she wasn’t sure how her mother would react.

“I spoke to Dumbledore about some of his… actions. Not just myself, but Minerva, Black, and Lupin, also. We had a very frank discussion with him, and I believe that we made some headway. He’s going to want to talk to you. Because I know that you make a lot of these kinds of decisions with The Thunder, I thought I would mention it to you so that you are not caught off guard when the request comes.”

Frowning, Draco gave his Godfather a nod of acknowledgement. Then, after thanking Severus for the use of his floo, Draco bid the non-Slytherins farewell and followed his friends down to the dungeons. The Slytherin dorms were split up into three people per room. Draco shared a room with Theo and Blaise. Greg and Vince roomed with a boy named Santosh Adwani, who was a quiet pureblood boy whose family immigrated to Britain two generations back from India. Santosh, who went by Tosh, was a wiz at charms, and Draco often sought him out with Charms questions in trade for helping Tosh with Potions.

Eventually, the Thunder members settled in Draco, Theo, and Blaise’s room. They tried not to meet up in Greg and Vince’s room because they didn’t want to chase Tosh out of his own room. They had at times met in the dorm room that Pansy and Daphne shared with Millie, but that was off the table now that Millie wasn’t part of them anymore. There was one other girls’ dorm room shared by Tasia Hodges, Violet Sutton, and Mori Tazu. Pansy didn’t particularly care for Violet Sutton, but thought the other two girls were alright.

“I’m sorry that I didn’t devote enough attention to you all when we were at the cottage.” Draco bit his lip as a rush of guilt went through him. “I don’t want any of you to get the wrong ideas. I’m not trying to pull away or forsake you for Pot… I mean Harry.”

“You’re in mourning,” Theo said, bumping his shoulder into Draco’s and pulling a reluctant smile. “We get it, Drake. Not to mention that you’ve had other things going on as well. Getting the sanctuary set up for those of us who needed it. Dealing with your apparent soulmate bond with Potter. Dealing with your surprise inheritance and the shock of you being the Earl of Avalon. Dealing with the notion that your mother may be trying to kill you, on top of your father having actually tried to kill you before he died.”

“We all understand, Drake,” Pansy said, giving him a side hug. “You’re here now. That’s what matters. We’d all give anything to have a soulmate, and on the opposite end, none of us are prepared to inherit our Lordships or Ladyships. We need to be getting to the Great Hall for dinner. Is there anything that we need to know now?”

“I know that we’ve always been highly skeptical about Dumbledore and said that we’d never join his cause, but I think we need to rethink that. I don’t believe that any of us considered what a huge task it would be to take on the Dark Lord, Dumbledore, the Ministry, all while one of us was settling into a Lordship.”

“So just because it’s a lot that means that he’s suddenly trustworthy?” Pansy pushed back angrily, and Draco huffed.

“I don’t know what he is, but can you tell me that you truly believe that we can fight the Dark Lord and Dumbledore with currently only my cousin Sirius and my Godfather on our side? Be honest. Which one of you is going to stand up and take point on heading a fight with Dumbledore, if we don’t at least listen to what he has to say? Because I am not doing it.”

Pansy hopped off the bed and scrunched up her nose. “I just feel like now that we’re here, you’re changing the plans on us. What has that man ever done to help us?”

“Nothing,” Theo shot back, and Draco found himself having to hold back his temper, knowing he needed to hear what his Godbrother had to say.

“But that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t at least hear him out! I didn’t hear you volunteering to fight Dumbledore, Pansy. What’s that saying? No plan holds up under the first engagement or something like that? Well, this is the first engagement and frankly I don’t want to take on all those people at once, let alone asking Draco to do it. And we all know that is your expectation. He’s our leader because none of the rest of us want to do it.”

“This is not what I signed up for,” Pansy snapped, then stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind her.

“She’ll come around,” Daphne promised as she moved to take Pansy’s place next to where Draco sat.

“She’s scared and furious with her father. He sent her a letter telling her that if you would not get on board with marrying her, he was going to sign a contract with Rabastian Lestrange, who had always fancied her. Her mother is furious too. Mother Thesia told her that she would do everything she could to try and come up with a better option, but you know it won’t be something that Pansy is willing to tolerate.”

“Nor should she,” Draco said with a sigh and rubbed his temples, wishing he could just lie down. “Rabastian is the last person that I would wish for her, and I understand the hesitance with Dumbledore. I am not exactly excited about the notion, but I just think that we need to be open-minded about it.

“I’ve never wanted to run this group like a dictatorship. That’s why I ask you all your opinions on things, but I am telling you now. I am not willing to spearhead fighting the Dark Lord and Dumbledore simultaneously. Snape said that they had some kind of conversation with the headmaster. It was himself, McGonagall, my cousin Sirius, and Professor Lupin. I hope it was the coming to Merlin meeting that we’ve been saying he needs. So, other than Pansy, is anyone else opposed to hearing Dumbledore out and possibly siding with him?”

When no one else spoke up, Draco nodded and stood. “Then I will talk with the Headmaster whenever he calls for me. Now, let’s go to dinner before we all starve.”