Easter

Easter at the Malfoy's was different from the other times Harry had been there.

Of course, he had been asked all about "the horrid business" with the Chamber, and "That disgusting excuse for a wizard". It was most incredible, seeing Lucius and Narcissa worried and angry as he told them the stories.

The teachers had all shown their feelings for Harry but that was different. They were paid to care. Seeing Narcissa cry softly as Harry told how everyone had been treating him like a pariah was just-it was like having a mother.

But still, something was off. They were far more emotional than even the turmoil at Hogwarts could account for.

Lucius had given a long, and uncharacteristically, rambling speech about the importance of honor, glory, and power. Harry only really noticed something was weird from the looks Draco kept giving his parents.

They seemed far more-overprotective than Harry had ever noticed them being before. Their new elf, Tufty, followed Harry and Draco whenever they left the Manor. Even if they just went into the grounds.

"At least her cooking is better than her hiding" Draco had remarked when Harry pointed out the elf's conspicuous attempt at secretly watching them for the fifth time.

"Why're your parents so worried, anyway?"

"I dunno," Draco said, frowning. "It's not like them. They've always said about how no-one would dare do anything untoward to a Malfoy"

' Must be nice'

"Probably all the stuff going on at school's got them on edge. Giant killer snakes, crazy teachers. You know"

Harry chuckled ruefully. "Believe me, I know"

"You know what I meant"

"Yup"

Lucius also broke their previous tradition, by approaching Harry with a book himself. Even more oddly, while all of the previous books Harry had borrowed had been about theory or philosophy, this was entirely practical.

A compendium of Darkness

Based on the list of contents, it was an instruction manual for dozens, if not hundreds of curses and spells that were considered Dark. Harry would not have been surprised had Lucius told him that every spell in that book was banned and illegal to cast.

"Sir?" Harry said, looking up from the heavy, leather-bound tome in his hand. "Don't get me wrong, I'm really grateful, but why do you think it's so important that I read this book?"

Lucius simply looked at him. "I merely have a feeling that you will find it useful. Perhaps it is time for Draco and yourself to expand your extra-curricular activities. Broaden your horizons, so to speak." Draco had been quite jealous.

"He gave it to you?" He had said incredulously, "He's never even let me look at it!"

"Well, he did definitely imply that it was for both of us to use, so-"

"Oh, come off it, Harry. He still gave it to you! Besides, we can't exactly practice these on each other! I mean, I'm all for learning this stuff, but you are not thinking of trying this blood boiling curse on me, are you? Or this eyeball deflating one?"

Harry just smiled at Draco, causing the other boy to shift nervously.

"Are you?"

Harry burst out laughing.

"God, Draco, you should have seen your face. Of course, I won't try them on you. Maybe Creevey though"

"Is that mudblood really still following you around?"

"Yeah. Now he wants me to teach him how to do the leg locker jinx"

"Merlins balls, they really are dumb, aren't they?"

"Yup. You know, Granger came to apologize for thinking I was the Heir"

"Of course she did. You know how mudbloods are. I'm sure all of Hufflepuff did as well"

"Well, yeah. But that's to be expected from Puffs. Their whole, everyone is kind and friendly and all that shite. I just thought Granger was smarter. I mean, she is practically top of the year in everything" "That's what you get for growing up with Muggles"

Harry looked at Draco. It took him a few minutes to realize he was being stared at, but he looked back at Harry and said "What?"

"Seriously? That's what you get for growing up with Muggles?" He said, scornfully. Draco actually blushed, a little.

"You're different. You're not a mudblood, and you realized how weak and useless Muggles are. She hasn't. Probably won't. It's in her blood"

"It's in my blood too. My mum was a muggle-born"

"That's not the same thing"

"Why not?"

"It's like- You're a half-blood. But a half-blood like Tracey, not like

Andrea. You have Muggle grandparents, but both your parents were magic" "Had"

"What?"

"I had Muggle grandparents. They're dead, apparently. Snape told me"

"Whatever. Your parents were magical, and that's the point. Then there's a half-blood like Andrea-" "Andrea Lucas?"

"Yeah. Her dad's a Muggle-"

"Really? She never seemed like that"

"Will you stop interrupting me?"

"My, my. Someone's feeling touchy today, Draco"

"Just. Whatever. Look, even a pureblood from the Sacred TwentyEight, for the most part, would marry someone with Muggle grandparents, as long as both parents are magic"

"Seriously? After all the talk about it being in the blood, and all that?"

"Well, it's more like there aren't enough true purebloods to keep it that way, so yeah, we just ignore it. My grandmother was a halfblood like you"

"Woah," Harry said, feigning utter shock. Draco seemed to buy it, though.

"We've always been far more pragmatic than many of the other families. It's much more important for someone not to be raised by Muggles, anyways"

"Why?"

"The more Muggle blood you have, the more likely you are to have a Squib for a child. Which is bad, but not that bad. Squibs get sent to live like Muggles, and they live in that world. They're a waste, but they don't ruin our world"

"And kids raised by Muggles?"

Draco, probably not noticing the acid below Harry's tone, went on.

"That's the problem. They come into our world with all their stupid ideas of how it should be run, all taken from the Muggles of course, and try change things. We go according to how tradition has proven it to work, not the Muggles' stupid innovations. They come in and complain about all sorts of things"

"Probably cause no-one ever told them any better"

"What?"

"Draco, I only found out I was a wizard when I turned eleven. Just before coming to Hogwarts, in fact. How the fuck was I meant to relearn ten years of my life?"

Draco looked like he had been slapped.

"Harry, you aren't the problem"

"No, but you're lumping me right in with the rest of them. So maybe you should start making some sense"

"Damnit Harry, just listen. You never tried to tell us the way we were doing things is stupid. Other kids raised by Muggles do. Why?"

"Because I know Muggles are small-minded animals, and because I hated everything about almost every Muggle I met?"

"See! You could tell that we're better"

"Yes, Draco. But the kids who were raised in happy homes by their families don't feel that hate, and they just want to defend the way they were brought up. Is that really so bad?"

"Yes!" Draco stood up, flushed. "If they want to be in the Muggle world so much, they should just stay there!"

"Or maybe," Harry said slowly, "Maybe they should be taken from the Muggle world much earlier. They could be adopted by magical families too. Solve that issue"

"Well, yeah. But you aren't the first to think of that" Draco said, with a savage satisfaction on his face.

"Really?"

"Yeah. Father says there was a push in the Wizengamot to do exactly that, years and years ago. And you know who stopped it?"

"Dumbledore?" Harry guessed.

"Right in one. Who else, but the great champion of Muggle rights? He even fought Grindelwald, when all Grindelwald wanted to do was make sure Wizards didn't have to fear Muggles"

"Yeah, well I don't really care about all that. Honestly, all that matters to me about Dumbledore is that it's because of him I had to grow up in that shithole of a place. You'd think the smartest wizard in the world could have come up with a better plan, no?"

"Father has always said that Dumbledore…"

And so, Harry and Draco spent much of their time. Doing nothing more than lying on the grass in the spring weather, and talking. Oh, they did far more than that, they flew and practiced Quidditch (hard as it was with only two people), and read Lucius' books.

Daphne, Theo, Crabbe, Goyle, and Pansy came over one day, and that had been a lot of fun. After producing a snake ("fuck the trace, I'll do magic whenever I want to") Daphne had asked Harry to translate a conversation with it for her.

It had actually been really funny, laying on the grass with Daphne and a snake, and trying to explain about school to it.

" $No-one has to teach a snake how to be a snake. We simply are$"

"What did he say?"

"He said, no-one has to teach a snake how to be a snake, they simply are"

"Tell him humans are more complicated"

" $Humans are more complicated$"

" $And far more foolish$"

"He says we're more foolish"

"How dare he?" Daphne gasped in mock outrage.

" $Why does your she smell like blood?$"

"Hey, Daph. He wants to know why you smell like blood"

"Um," Daphne stuttered, eyes wide and face bright red.

" $From her nether regions. Is she hurt?$"

Harry could barely get the words out, he was laughing so hard.

"He wants to know if you were hurt in the nether regions" He managed after several tries.

"That's it," She said, outrage real this time, and vanished the snake.

"I'm going to-I'm going to go forget this ever happened"

"Don't worry Daphne! It's totally natural!" He shouted after her back. She just put up a finger towards him, without even turning around.

Harry just sat on the grass and chuckled to himself. 'Merlin, but that was far too awkward. No wonder people think snakes are evil'

A few days before they had to return to Hogwarts, Narcissa took Harry to buy himself a nice set of dress robes. She had been insistent that he would not be going to his Order of Merlin ceremony in his day to day robes, and would be buying something nice for the occasion.

"Besides, while we're there, you can buy something to wear when you have to be at that man's trial". Like her husband, Narcissa would not refer to Lockhart by name.

At Madam Malkin's, Harry learned to stay silent while Narcissa and

Madam Malkin discussed him. It only took him trying to give input three times before he understood that he really knew nothing about fashion, and was honestly hopeless when it came to what looked good him.

"And is there nothing better you can do with your hair?"

By this point, Harry was starting to get quite irritated.

"Well, I used it to brush it every morning, but I gave up when it would look like this by the time I finished breakfast"

"Hmmph" The disgruntled proprietor grunted.

In the end, Harry left the store with two sets of dress robes. One was dark grey with green linings, and would "Set off your hair and eyes magnificently". That, he would wear to the ceremony.

The other was far more somber, jet black, with only hints of silver around the cuffs and neck. It would "Give off the right impression. That you are taking the trial seriously. People set a lot of store by clothes". Apparently, Narcissa did.

The ceremony was actually quite boring. Harry stood in a line with all the Aurors who had been a part of the attack on the basilisk while Cornelius Fudge, the Minister for Magic gave an incredibly long speech about bravery and courage and all the things that made

Britain great. Harry tried to concentrate on it, he really did, but it was honestly almost as bad as one of Binns' lectures. He soon found himself spacing out, and looking at the crowd. Most of them were obviously the families and friends of the Aurors, but the Malfoys were there, as were most of Harry's friends, Professor Snape, and Dumbledore.

"Harry Potter, Order of Merlin, First Class"

Harry stepped forwards, to where Fudge was waiting with the beautiful medal. It seemed to be solid gold, was about double the size of a Galleon, and had a green ribbon hanging from it.

"At twelve years of age, you are the youngest recipient of any Order of Merlin in history, with the exception of Melvin Fratcomb, who received it along with the rest of his family at age eleven. I am proud to present you with this medal, and may you wear it for many years in good health, as a representative of the best Britain has to offer"

There was a round of applause as Fudge affixed the medal to Harry's robes. A camera flash went off. Fudge shook Harry's hand, and he walked off the podium as the next recipient was called.

"The youngest in history," Draco said, badly imitating Fudge. "What an honor, Harry Potter!"

"Oh shut up, you," Harry said, nudging him with his elbow.

"Just making sure your head doesn't get too big"

Harry's grin didn't fade.

By the time the whole ceremony was finished, Harry was famished. He had eaten a large breakfast, but still, it was lunchtime by now. Luckily, they were all ushered into a ballroom where there were tables lined with food, buffet style. Ignoring Draco's whining about the shoddy quality of Ministry food, Harry piled a plate high and began eating, pausing every few minutes to receive congratulations.

"Harry, I'm pleased to see that you seem to be enjoying your holiday"

Harry turned to where Dumbledore was standing, with his own plate of food.

"Youngest in history, with apologies to Mr. Fratcombe. Your parents would be most proud"

Harry swallowed. He didn't really like thinking of his parents, to be honest. They were strangers to him. Oh, he could appreciate on an intellectual level that he had, once upon a time, had parents. That his parents loved him enough to die attempting to protect him. But on an emotional level? Well, most of the time, they meant nothing.

Most of the time.

"Thank you, Headmaster," he said, voice scratchy.

"Don't mention it, my boy. You know, the green ribbon on your medal represents Slytherin House? It's where Merlin was, as a student"

"Really?"

"Really really," Dumbledore said, eyes twinkling. "Just think, you might be sleeping in the same bed he did, centuries ago"

That was pretty amazing.

"I did not only approach you to offer my congratulations, deserved as they are. I must inform you that Gilderoy Lockhart's trial date has been set"

"Oh?" Harry said, trying to appear disinterested, but his heart began beating quite hard.

"Yes. It has been set for Monday, the 17th of May. Due to my being a witness, and a possible conflict of interest, I will not be heading the trial. Regardless, you require either myself or Professor Snape to accompany you, as a minor. I will be going either way, but if you prefer?"

"Professor Snape, please"

Nothing showed on his face, but Dumbledore felt like he had been stung.

"Of course, of course," he said, with a cheery smile. "I'll confirm all the details with him" "Thank you, sir"

"It is my pleasure. Make sure you try the broiled ham, it is one of the few things the Ministry is truly successful at"

With that, Albus Dumbledore meandered off.

The night before returning to Hogwarts, Harry woke up in the middle of a fitful sleep with a gasp.

He had been dreaming. A similar dream to one he had been having over the past few nights, too.

He rubbed his eyes, trying to remember the details, and why it left him feeling so damn good.

He could remember something about screaming, maybe? And someone rolling on the floor? What the hell had he been dreaming about?

He couldn't remember exactly, only that he had been strong. So strong.