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Chapter Seven:

It was past lunchtime when Draco finally awoke and wished his Godfather goodbye. Not hungry at that moment, Draco sought out his professors with whom he would be continuing their classes in 6th year to get his summer homework. Severus naturally assigned him a fairly difficult assignment, but Draco didn’t mind. Snape had instilled a love for potions early in Draco’s life, and he had no plans to ditch it any time soon.

Heading down to the dorms, Draco got his bag to keep notes of his assignments and was heading out of the dungeons when he heard Harry and Hermione’s voices. Pausing in front of the entrance, he was happy to see his friends.

“Gathering summer homework?” Drqaco asked with a smile, and both nodded, coming to stand with him.

“We just started, you?” Hermione inquired, and Draco nodded enthusiastically.

“For my summer potions assignment, I get to come up with a healing potion that I want to improve and how I might go about it. I need to come up with a whole proposal. I am terribly excited. Severus says if it’s compelling enough next summer, he’ll let me actually try working on the improvement because it will be good groundwork for my work with the Dragons.”

“Oh! That sounds fascinating. I am jealous.” Hermione admitted, and the three of them decided to head out to the greenhouses where they knew that Professor Sprout would be. Trying to be brave, Draco casually took Harry’s hand halfway through the courtyard and got a shoulder bump from his boyfriend for his trouble.

The Herbology summer assignment was easy; they just had to pick something to write a minimum 3 foot essay on. Draco had decided to combine his potions homework with his Herbology homework and write about a plant that could change the potion he selected. He didn’t have the specifics, but Prof. Sprout was intrigued and declared that he had enough of an idea for her to approve it.

Since they were outside, Harry and Hermione wanted to stop by Hagrid’s, which was fine with Draco because it allowed him to feel out the half-giant about Draco’s idea. It also gave a moment to apologize for all the stunts he’d pulled in his class over the years. Draco didn’t suspect that there would ever be love lost between them, but he hoped that they could get along enough that they could work together.

When Hagrid found out that he would have control over the sanctuary, the idea seemed to help make some headway. Draco admitted that the farm already had an animal license; they’d only need to get an exotic animal license if Hagrid thought he’d need it. By the time they left, the CoMC teacher had promised to give the idea some serious thought and get back to him as soon as possible.

As they made their rounds, the trio had intentionally kept the conversation light, using the time to get to know each other better without any more of their preconceived notions involved than they had to. Once they had all of their assignments, both Draco and Hermione wanted to head to the library to organize things and maybe get a head start on anything they’d need library resources to complete.

Once they were settled and had convinced Harry to organize things, too, the conversation turned toward the discussions he’d had that morning. Draco found himself confessing his full talk with Dumbledore, including how mad he was at the older man.

“Dumbledore’s dying?” Hermione asked, horrified, and Draco cocked his head to one side.

“That’s what you’re focused on? He confessed to potioning you to help manipulate Harry. How are you not horrified? I mean, I tried to relay what happened as gently as I could, but you should be irate. You should feel violated. Instead, you’re upset that he’s dying? I’d want to dance on his grave if I were you. Hel, I do want to dance on his grave, the old goat.”

“You weren’t like this at Draco’s, ‘Mione. Did you eat, drink, or take anything someone made you other than the elves?” Harry asked, looking concerned, and Hermione scrunched up her nose in concentration.

“Just some of my strawberry shortbreads that Mrs. Weasley makes me! But she’s been making them for me forever. Oh.”

“Yeah, oh. One of Dumbledore’s most fervent supporters. She would absolutely potion you if Dumbledore asked her to.”

“I just,” Hermione ran a shaking hand through her hair. Just then, Theo came up, and Draco quickly explained what was going on. After a brief conversation, the couple decided to go to Snape right then and see if there was anything that he could do, leaving Harry and Draco alone.

Taking a deep breath, Draco let it out slowly, picking up Harry’s hand, he pressed a kiss to the back of it, drawing a sappy smile from his boyfriend. “We have things we need to speak about, if you don’t mind?”

“Like what?” Harry asked, suddenly sounding nervous. Draco squeezed his hand, looking at him adoringly. His soulmate was adorable, and Draco counted himself a very lucky boy.

“Well, first off, I talked to Severus about housing for next year. Are you still going to pick up your Lordships after your birthday this summer? Because if you are, then we both will qualify for Lordship housing. Otherwise, I think it’s just soulmate housing, which is different.

“But the options I got were that I can stay in a suite in the dungeon. I can stay in a room within Gryffindor because my soulmate is a Gryffindor, or we can get rooms in a non-House-specific area, which should be the Lordship dorms. Now, I don’t know about you, but I don’t think that it would be a good idea for you to be rooming in Slytherin or for me to be rooming in Gryffindor.”

“We want to share a room, right?” Harry asked, and Draco shrugged, then nodded.

“I mean, we’re not there now, and I don’t think I like the idea of doing anything in the school more than cuddling and such, no matter if I change my mind or not about sex. I would like to share a room with you, though. Not necessarily a bed because they’d never go for that, but maybe they have a suite with two bedrooms? Or even better, two suites that are next door to each other and have one of those connecting doors like in a hotel?”

“I’ve never been in a hotel, but that sounds perfect,” Harry offered, and Draco just stared at him.

“Your muggle relatives never took you anywhere overnight?”

“The Durseys hated me. They’d take trips, sure, but they’d never take me, except when my letter for Hogwarts came that first time. They took me then because they were trying to hide from the school. I think if they hadn’t sent someone after me, they’d never have allowed me to go to school.”

“I am trying to remind myself that there are bad seeds in every society, but your relatives make me doubt my conviction to be a better person. How did you end up there? Did your parents not have a will?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know much about my parents because it’s hard to get those who were close to them to willingly talk about them. I have a half-composed letter for Accounts Manager Dak Targarkus asking about the Will and who exactly were named as guardians.

“And yes, I am taking up my lordships, at the very least the Potter Lordship, just after my next birthday. Dak and I already have it arranged. When did you… how long have you thought differently than your parents about things like Muggleborns and why did you change your mind?”

Draco didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he considered the question, giving it the respect it deserved. “I don’t know exactly when because it was a gradual process. You have to understand that before Hogwarts, I was very isolated. I had very little exposure to other people. My parents only allowed me to socialize with people whose parents had the same beliefs as they did.

“I can tell you that the whole discrimination aspect of pureblood beliefs has always upset Blaise, which I was well aware of. He’s crap at hiding when his feelings have been hurt. At least he’s crap at it if you’ve known him for any decent length of time. So I have known for quite some time that there was a different point of view, I just didn’t think much about it. At least not until Hogwarts, and I was exposed to other people and their varying points of view.

“Maybe it’s conceit, I don’t know, but I am aware that I am smarter than the average student. I put a lot of work and pride into my schooling and therefore, think that I should be better than most. At first, I was just angry that I couldn’t beat Hermione, especially that first year, because I knew what would happen when I went home. But gradually it wasn’t just her that caught my attention. It was you in DADA. It was Justin Finch-Fletchley in charms.

After that, it spread. It was how creative the Weasley twins’ jinxes were. It was how amazing Neville was at Herbology. It was all these things that my parents had always preached to me about being lesser and weaker than me, yet they were kicking arse. Muggle-borns, half-bloods, blood traitors, all of them were supposed to be less than me, but my firsthand knowledge of them said differently.

“Eventually, there were too many questions, and I found out that it wasn’t just me asking questions. Honestly, Daphne Greengrass was the first one to ask why, if she’s less than us and weaker than us, is Hermione doing so well? Pansy, of course, was irate, but that’s how she deals with stress or when she’s upset about anything. Then Theo asked questions, and Blaise spoke up, saying he’d never believed it and his mother never believed in the disparity we were all taught. So then we had an adult who was saying that our parents were wrong. I think that Vince and Greg were the last ones to start questioning.

“I know their reputation, and while yes, they aren’t as smart as the rest of us, they aren’t stupid either. It just takes them longer to pick up on things, but once they do, they’re as good as the rest of us. Especially in classes that they love. So eventually it was all of my friends’ group asking questions, and trying to figure out who we were supposed to believe. By the third year, we were all angry and confused, which was part of the Buckbeak issue. For the record, I felt horrible about that, but there wasn’t much I thought that I could do about it. If I’d spoken up and admitted I was being a prat, then I would have been beaten severely for disgracing both Slytherin House and my birth House.”

Draco couldn’t help but sigh and shake his head, remembering that year and how stressful it had been. “Ultimately, though I still got beat at the end of the year, not just because of the Buckbeak incident but because once more I didn’t do better than the mudblood. So, at that point, I was realizing that maybe things weren’t quite what my parents said they were, but I was pissed because I couldn’t do anything about it. And then the Triwizard tournament happened.”

Harry snorted and rolled his eyes. “Well, I know what you thought then. Those badges you created made your point quite clear. Although I admit they were quite clever for a 4th year.”

“Thank you for the compliment. They were more challenging to make than I expected. But I think it was a better acting job than the creation process because I wasn’t as against you as much as you think or as much as I wanted you and the rest of the school to believe. Frankly, Harry, while the rest of the school was hating on you for cheating, Slytherin House knew that there was no way you put your name in that goblet. While you are good at DADA. You don’t apply yourself enough in your other subjects to be able to pull that off.

“To be honest, if anyone was going to figure it out, it was the twins, and they failed. I and most of the rest of Slytherin House knew that there was no way you put your name in. And then that leads to this year, and we all knew that you weren’t lying. But the problem was that we were no more free to openly support you than we had at any other time.

“The only reason why we can be open about it now is because I have somewhere to go. My father dying helped as it gave me a reason to accept my Lordships that no one could argue with. Of course not even I expected the Emrys Earldom to come to me and I wish I could say I had no clue why but Dumbledore’s revelation about Grindelwald escaping makes that more clear.

“Although they can kiss my arse if they think that I am doing it all on my own. The adults of this country need to get off their rear ends and stop asking children to take care of their problems for them. It’s disgusting and frankly makes me question if they, even the pure bloods, deserve saving.”

“I know that feeling very well. Do you find it a little troublesome that one of us is expected to defeat Voldemort and the other is expected to take down Grindelwald when none of the adults could apparently defeat either one of them! Hel, Dumbledore is supposed to be this great wizard and he couldn’t even keep Grindelwald confined in his castle! Also, I saw you got three letters this morning. Was everything ok? You looked upset after the one you opened at breakfast.”

In lieu of answering Draco handed over the letter from his mother for Harry to read and pulled out the other two seeing one was from Sirius and the other from his solicitor Gloria Stewart-Thistlethorps. Seeing the scowl on Harry’s face as he read the letter, Draco could only nod in understanding before opening the letter from Sirius.

Dear Cousin,

I appreciate you thinking of me regarding Grimmauld Place. I know that you could have made a decision without consulting me in the slightest. As far as that house goes, you can do anything you want with it. There is… another entity using it, and I am sure it wouldn’t take too much for you to figure out who, so you will have to deal with them. If I were you I’d sic the Dragons on them and forget about it.

As to Lenore Goyle, I would be happy to help her in any way that I can. Ram Goyle is a cruel, violently ugly man and always has been. Last I heard he and Stone Crabbe were both involved in the DoM Battle so now would be the perfect time to not just help Vince and Gregory but Lenore and anyone else you feel needs saving attached to them. House Elves maybe? Not that we need any more house elves, but after associating with yours I can’t stand the thought of how others are being treated. It’s even made me rethink how I treat Kreacher when I go to my birth home. 

Let’s do a floo call tonight, anytime after dinner. I will be back at the Cottage then. I had to come deal with some… business at home. Good luck on your meeting with Dumbledore. I heard it was today. I want to hear all about it tonight.

Yours Truley,

Sirius Black

Lord Malfoy-Black Emrys,

Firstly, may I offer you my deepest sympathies on the loss of your father and Lord. Let me assure you that as you navigate your new responsibilities I will be here to help you in any way that I and my associates can. Knowing you as I do I can imagine the new name is irritating you as it’s a mouthful. You can go by whatever combination you prefer. I would recommend Lord Black-Malfoy or Earl Emrys. Formal occasions will obviously need the full name. But in day to day matters and correspondence you can go by whichever pairing you like best.

Thank you for the rundown of everything that has been going on. In that vein, let me reassure you that I have no lectures coming for you. I recommend to any of my clients that they contact me as soon as possible, and it seems that is what you did. Could it have been sooner? Yes. and I feel as if as you grow into your lordships this  will come more naturally to you. Frankly speaking, it sounds like you have had much more going on than you should. You haven’t even reached your majority yet, and you’re doing as good as anyone can expect of you.

Give yourself a break, Lord Black-Malfoy Emrys. If you need any help freeing Lady Goyle please let me know. As you know you have authority over her being that you are the Lord of her Birth House. Lord Goyle’s current legal issues will help you as well. It will give both you and her time to get out without having to worry about him interfering.

You did not mention the sanctuary that we set up. Have you had anyone take you up on that? Congratulations on your Infinite Soulmate Bond! That is quite the boon and both you and Heir Potter deserve such a blessing. You will be quite a powerful combination both magic wise and politics wise. Does he have legal representation? If not he needs it with the nonsense that has been going on in the prophet. If he doesn’t I would recommend my brother to be his lawyer. He has more than enough time to take on a client as big as Heir Potters matters will be. 

The announcements about your Lordships should come out in tomorrow’s papers. I kept the announcement to the facts with an appropriate expression of grief over the loss of your father and Lord. I think you should hold off on the announcement of the soulmate bond for at least a week or two. 

I think that we should meet in person once you are done with school for the year. I am more than willing to come to you. Hopefully by then Heir Potter has made a decision on letting us represent him. Speaking of legal matters, things are going on well for your cousin Sirius Black. We have a court date. I just got the notification today. I have negotiated for him to turn himself in tomorrow. He hs agreed to this with the understanding that they keep him locked up at the ministry and don’t send him back to Azkaban.

Given that they have Peter Pettigrew, I have every faith that Sirius will be cleared appropriately on that day. 

Lastly, but certainly not least, I want you to be very careful when it comes to your mother. There are those who have always believed that she had her hands in Lucius’ business dealings. I went to Hogwarts with her and know she can be just as vicious as people believed your father to be. Make sure that you keep all of the correspondences that you get from her and a copy of all of the letters that you send to her. I would ask that you are very careful with your personal safety. I would also like to see a copy of any letters you get from her so that I can keep record of what she is saying to you.

As always, if you need anything from me I am a mere owl away.

Solicitor Gloria Stewart-Thistlethorps

Silently he handed both letters to Harry to read and took back the letter from his mother. Studying his soulmate from a reaction, Draco waited quietly for a response as the other boy was obviously upset. Instead of reacting, Harry started reading the two other letters immediately. Thus, Draco took out some parchment and his personal seal so that he could send a new letter to his accounts manager.

Accounts Manager Gragin Gentleheart,

I am sending you an update to my previous correspondence. I have received permission from my cousin Sirius to use his childhood home, Grimmauld Place, for Lenore Goyle and any others that need sanctuary but I may not want in my personal home. The whole house will need to be renovated. So, I will need to have a trust set up for that so that Lenore has money for things as she fixes up the townhouse. I also will need a secondary building or home that can be used by… well I don’t remember what they were called. I remember something about a Phoenix but it’s been many years since I heard the stories and don’t remember the full name of the organization.

My meeting with Dumbledore did not go well. In fact, I do not wish to deal with him any more than I have to in my next several days here before summer break. Dealing with him next year will not be an issue. Apparently, the headmaster has a wasting sickness that is terminal and he will not be returning to Hogwarts. There are more reasons for him not coming back than that, but the wasting sickness is the most final one.

I would like you to look into any stipulations or obligations that the House of Emrys has when it comes to Hogwarts. I have heard rumors that the Camelot Heirs had some kind of seat on the board or something of that nature. The reason that I am asking is because The Thunder and I have been wondering what it would take to privatize the school and get it out of the ministry control. 

I think after this year that it is evident we cannot trust the minister or the ministry/wizengamot in general to look out for the students best interests. If I as the Earl of Southport can do that, possibly in conjunction with others like say Lord Barrows, whom I know has wealth equal to mine, that would be even better.

I am hoping that I can come into your office and talk. I am allowed to leave for Lordship business. So, if you have an opening anytime between now and the end of the month that would be fine. Otherwise, if you do not, I would like to come into your office on the first day after the end of the school year. I have many things going on right now and I will be honest in saying that I am feeling overwhelmed. I will appologize in advance if I am more needy than most of your customers. But between you and my solicitor Gloria Stewart-Thistlethorps I am trusting you, and leaning on you, to keep me legally and financially on the right path. If I ask too much of you please let me know.

Once Sirius is freed then he will have the ability of helping me with some of this. Unfortunately, I feel as if I can’t lean on him until his name is cleared and he has completed his mind healing. Please let me know if there is something you need of me and I am not doing. Also, let me know about the meeting date and time as soon as possible.

May your horde grow in leaps and bounds and your enemies perish in agony at your feet. 

Your faithful client,

Lord Draconis Arcturus Abraxas Malfoy-Black Emrys

P.S. For the time being I would like to be addressed as Lord Malfoy Black when you must use my title. Otherwise please keep calling me Draco or even Draconis.

After casting a drying charm on the letter, Draco sealed it with his official seal as the Earl of Southport, Draco looked up to see Harry watching him. “Tell me what I can do to help you, Draco. You have so much going on. I’ve been wanting to ask you about training for my Lordships. But now that I’ve had a peek into everything that you are trying to keep straight, I hesitate to do so.”

“Oh please give me something to do that I feel like I actually know what I’m doing. Most of your training can be done via books to read. I have more than enough at the Cottage, or what I don’t have there I will have one of the house elves sneak into Malfoy Manor to get. I am already thinking of stealing the library because I don’t trust those arseholes living in my mansion to not ruin everything.”

“What are you going to do about that? The people living in Malfoy Manor I mean. Are you going to just let them run amuck in the manor or are you going to kick them out, too?”

Draco sighed and shrugged. “I haven’t thought about it much. Mostly because of the things that are going on with mother. My first inclination is to just kick them all out of the manor, because I honestly believe that my mother is out to kill me. Severus says I should take her threats seriously and so I am. If she gets rid of me then she would be able to take over the Ladyship and be the Head of the House of Malfoy.

“Obviously, I do not want to die, but I need to make some contingencies just in case. I need to see if Gregory is a close enough connection that I could make him Lord Malfoy if something happened to me. Sirius is going to have to suck it up because he’s going to be my heir until I have a child that can do so.

“Do you know how depressing it is to have to think about things like this at sixteen? Most boys my age are planning how to get whatever girl or guy that they have a crush on. I meanwhile have to make sure there is a succession plan for my houses. I have to actively plan on what should happen if my mother succeeds in her plan to kill me.”

“Merlin, Draco, I am so sorry,” Harry breathed and then reached out to cover Draco’s hand with his twisting their fingers together. “I can’t even imagine having a parent wanting to kill me. I wish I could say maybe its just a misunderstanding, but I agree with Snape. It’s very clear in that letter that unless you let yourself be branded like a cow, as you say, then she’s out to get you.

“I want you to know though that I have your back. At first when Sirius told me what this mark was that I didn’t know how to feel about it. We’ve been enemies for ages, and I never imagined that we’d be anything but. Then you showed up at that battle to help me and my friends and I just… it feels like some switch flipped in my head and now I don’t know why we didn’t get along for so long. Other than I know you had a specific role to play and maybe that is the difference. You don’t have to do that anymore.”

Draco blushed and turned their hands over so that he could press a kiss to the back of Harry’s hand. “I want you to know that this relationship means everything to me. When I approached you first year on the train and offered you a handshake I was wanting to be your friend, but was pants at it because I’d never done it before. I understand now why you turned me down, but unfortunately, I didn’t then. So, I reacted the only way that a spoiled only child knows how and got angry about it. Antagonizing you and the girl that you picked to be your best friend instead.

“I know that Weasley was there too and for a long time you considered him your best mate, but my dislike of him is real and has nothing to do with how much money his family has. I don’t like how he treats you. I know that sounds rich considering how I’ve treated you, but its just a fact. There is a part of me, Harry, that thinks maybe I have always been a little aware of this connection between us. That from the moment we were born there was a small thin bond between us that existed and has been steadily growing since. I want to know everything about you and I want to tell you everything about me. I want to know your fears and the things that truly make you happy.

“I want to stroll with you holding hands in the darkness of night. I want other people to see us together and get jealous because of how in love we are. I want the world for you and to protect you from all the bad. I hate the idea that the adults expect you to beat Voldemort, and wish I had a chance of convincing you they were wrong, because I believe they are.

“I know that you told me about the prophecy and that it has to be you, but I would never trust a prophecy, especially one that came from someone under Dumbledore’s influence. If he’s potioned other people why isn’t it possible that he had control over her, too?

“I can’t say that I love you today. We haven’t even been friends for a week yet, but I can tell you that you are important to me. I can tell you that I look forward to being yours and being able to call you mine. I look forward to the day when all we have to worry about is each other. Maybe because of who we are that day will never come, but if not I know it won’t be because that’s not how I wanted it.”

Draco smiled shyly at Harry who had a big grin on his face. “Wanna go for a walk outside? I have to stay within the castle walls, but we could go walk around the lake.” Harry nodded excited and the two mates packed up their belongings and left teh library.