“I said no!” Millie repeated firmly, crossing her arms in front of her in a manner that looked so much like Ginny that James and Lily couldn’t help but laugh. Her sister, however, did not stop pestering her.
“Come on Millie, we need you,” she begged, tilting her head. “We can’t do this without you.”
“Good! I don’t want you to!” Millie answered, looking straight at her.
“But we’re doing this for you, Millie,” Lily insisted. “You can’t let Manning treat you that way and then get away with it! She needs to pay for what she said.”
“You locked her in her dorm for the rest of the evening “ can’t you settle for that?” Millie asked.
“Two measly hours spent in her comfy dorm is not punishment enough!” Lily said firmly. “Eddy told us what she’d said “ she deserves to pay.”
“And the fact that I don’t want the two of you getting into trouble of course means nothing?” Millie sighed. “Or the fact that I don’t care about Zelda Manning or what she said…”
“Liar!” Lily interrupted glaring at her sister. “You do care!” After seeing the way Millie had cried after what Manning had said, James was prepared to agree, but then he was prepared to agree with just about anything to get to see that girl seriously hexed. No one should be allowed to hurt his granddaughter that way and get away with it; he only wished he could do something about it himself.
“Look Millie, we’re not exactly asking you to do anything directed at Manning, just to help us making this work,” Jordan injected. “Let’s face it, neither of us are good enough at potions to make it work like we want to and if we were to try alone we might end up hurting her,” he said, as if this was a matter of helping them with their homework.
“And calling it off never occurred to you, of course?” Millie asked, annoyed. Jordan and Lily both shook their heads. Millie sighed and let her arms drop to her sides, making Lily fling herself around her sister’s neck.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you,” she chanted happily. Millie pushed her away.
“Look I’m only doing this so that the two of you won’t hurt anyone!” she said firmly. “And I don’t want anything to do with using this later,” she added just as firmly.
“Got it!” Jordan said with a grin.
“Promise, sis,” Lily answered, holding up her hand while placing the other one over her heart. Millie rolled her eyes and stretched out her hand.
“Will you hand me that so that I at least can take a look at what you’ve got so far?” she then sighed. Smiling Lily handed her the parchment looking very smug and pleased with herself.
“Blimey, you’ve got it all wrong!” Millie then groaned, accepting the quill Lily handed her as she began to work.
“James, we have to go,” he heard his wife say, pulling at him. Confused, he looked at her.
“What? Now?” he asked.
“Yes now. You do want to see Sirius and Christopher get back from Romania don’t you?” she asked. “If you don’t, I can go myself,” she then added.
“No, no, you’re right, I do want to see them get back, not to mention hear what they have done while they were in Romania,” James said, throwing a final look at the three teenagers sitting on the floor by the fireplace.
“They’ll be at it for hours James, it’s not like you’re going to miss anything,” Lily said, smiling to her husband. James looked at her and smiled, wondering how it could be that she always knew what he was thinking. Taking her offered hand, he pulled her to him for a kiss, running his fingers through her long hair with his free hand.
“I love you, Evans, you know that?” he said.
“You’ve given me a clue or two over the years,” Lily answered with a smile. “Now let’s go!” she said, giving his hand another pull.
When they arrived at the house Sirius, Christopher, and Kevin were already there, talking, gesturing and jumping up and down with excitement, trying to tell Harry and Ginny exactly what they had done during the time they had been gone.
“We saw Romanian Longhorns, Swedish Short-Snouts, Common Welsh Greens and they even had two Antipodean Opaleyes!” Sirius said excitedly.
“And one of them had a baby “ even if it was the wrong time of year for them to have babies “ and although the baby was only a few weeks old, she was already spitting fire!” Christopher said, his eyes shining with enthusiasm as he spoke.
“We took pictures,” Kevin added. “Want to see? I’m so glad mum and dad made me take the camera. They wanted me to try and photograph a Scalegobble, but they only live off the scales of Hebridean Blacks and they didn’t have any of those in the parts of the reserve we were in. They said they had them in another reserve, further north “ but we didn’t get to see them. But I got some nice pictures of the baby spitting fire, see,” he said holding out a picture of a dark green dragon with the smallest golden horns imaginable, breathing a long pillar of fire.
“That’s a Romanian Longhorn,” Sirius informed them, sitting down next to his mother on the sofa. “The horns will grow a lot longer when she’s older; her mum actually had horns that were almost five feet long! And they weren’t even considered to be that long for the species. The males can get horns that are up to seven feet in length!” he said.
“Someone has been studying during his Christmas break,” Ginny said, laughing hugging her son. Sirius blushed a bit and tried to push her away.
“Dragons are interesting,” he then said shrugging his shoulders as he corrected his hair, making his grandmother laugh when she remembered James at that age “ constantly aware of his own appearance and always trying to be cool. Not that she had been all that impressed then.
They were interrupted by the sight of a very pregnant Luna stepping out of the fireplace, followed shortly by her husband. With a smile, she held out her arms to her son and hugged him dearly, as Colin stepped out and said hello to the others in the room.
“I see you have your photos out,” Colin then said, turning to his son who nodded vigorously.
“Did you get any pictures of the Scalegobble?” Luna immediately asked, making James laugh as he remembered that Luna was the person running the Quibbler, which of course explained the strange animal. James had been rather interested in dragons when he was Christopher’s age. Enough to know that there was no such thing as a creature stupid enough to make dragon scales its primary or only source of food.
“Sorry mum, they didn’t have any Hebridean Blacks in the reserve,” Kevin answered a bit disappointed. Luna, however, just smiled airily and gave him another hug before turning to Ginny.
While the two mothers chatted, Colin and Kevin collected the photos and put them in one of his bags. Giving him the bag, Colin then urged him to the fireplace after letting him say goodbye to Christopher and Sirius, who Harry then sent up to their rooms to unpack.
“I’m sorry we have to leave so soon, but we are in a bit of a hurry,” he explained to Harry, after Kevin was safely sent off. Harry smiled and told him he understood perfectly well.
“I know what it’s like to be busy,” he said, glancing at Luna who was still talking to Ginny, looking as if time wasn’t something she needed to pay attention to at all. She did seem to notice her husband looking at her, however, and gave him a happy smile as she returned the glance. To James’s and Lily’s amusement she also seemed to understand what exactly what he wanted, and so she nodded dreamingly before she hugged Ginny goodbye and walked over to the fireplace.
Just as she was about to step inside, she turned and looked at her husband and gestured into the room.
“Oh, you…” she said wistfully, making both James and Lily quite bemused as to what she wanted to convey. Colin however, seemed to know exactly what she meant and gave her a wide smile that reminded Lily of Kevin. It was very clear whose smile the boy inherited.
“Oh!” he answered her simply, before he turned and picked up the bag she apparently had been gesturing at, even though James and Lily were quite sure they wouldn’t have been able to figure that out even if they had hours to do so.
They were not the only ones who found the situation amusing, because the moment both Colin and Luna had left, Harry and Ginny started to laugh.
“Do you think they ever speak to each other?” Harry asked with a laugh.
“They do seem to have an easier time speaking to others than to each other,” Ginny laughed, as Harry slipped his arm around her waist. “But then they don’t seem to need to either,” she added futilely, trying to stop a strand of Harry’s hair from falling into his eyes.
“Nope, they don’t, do they?” Harry grinned, making Ginny’s task a lot more difficult by blowing the strand of hair out of her hand. “What is that they say….Oh “ you “”
“Oh,” Ginny finished with a smile, giving up her attempts to tame his hair and instead putting her hand around his neck, pulling him closer.
“Seems to work like a charm,” Harry said, grinning as he pulled her closer still, bending down so far that his lips nearly touched hers. “Let’s try that again…Oh “ you “ ”
“Oh!” added Ginny pulling him down the last few inches to kiss him.
“Mum! Dad! That’s gross!” Sirius’s voice interrupted them. “Can’t you do that where I can’t see you?” he said, scowling as he walked past them to get another one of his bags.
Unlike James and Lily, Harry and Ginny managed to refrain from laughing long enough for Sirius to leave the room. Especially Harry seemed to think it was hilarious and as soon as Sirius was out of the door, he buried his face in Ginny’s neck and hair to stifle the sound of his laughter.
“How in Merlin’s name did Luna and Colin manage to have seven children?” he laughed, making her laugh too.
“You know, they don’t have seven children yet,” Ginny then reminded, still giggling a bit.
“They will have soon enough!” Harry said smiling, giving her another quick kiss before letting her go. “On a completely different note “ I have to take Sirius back to Hogwarts. Term starts tomorrow after all,” he said with a smile.
“Well I’ll be up when you get back,” she said smiling. “And Christopher won't,” she added with a wink, making Harry give her a warm smile and another kiss before he headed off to get Sirius and say goodnight to Christopher.
****
The first day of term was eventful to say the least. Not only did both those that had been home during the holidays and those that spent Christmas at Hogwarts have thousands of things to tell each other, but at dinner time James and Lily found out exactly what revenge their granddaughter had planned for Manning when she suddenly turned into a huge yellow Canary making the entire school roll over with laughter.
Surprisingly enough, every student seemed to know the magic involved, and it took a while for anyone to recognise that something was out of the ordinary.
“You managed to slip her a Canary Cream!” Abby said to her friends, leaning over the table, grinning.
“Well, kind of,” grinned Lily and nodded her head towards the giant bird now fluttering her wings and running around in circles.
“Why isn’t she turning back into herself?” Abby then asked surprised. “A Canary Cream doesn’t last this long. And how did you get it to her in the first place?” she asked, casting Lily a look.
“Let’s just say it helps to be on a first-name basis with the house elves,” Lily whispered with a wink as a teacher finally managed to calm the bird (girl) down enough to lead her out of the Great Hall, probably to escort her to the hospital wing.
“She’ll be back to normal right?” Abby then asked.
“Unfortunately,” Lily answered with a smug face.
“Miss Potter! Miss Malfoy! Did you honestly think you’d get away with something like this?”
Both girls started when they heard Snape’s sharp voice behind them. When they turned around he was glaring at them, and his eyes were filled with glee rather than anger.
“And what makes you think it was us?” Lily asked cockily, “Sir,” she then added when Millie elbowed her in the ribs.
“Because, Miss Potter, the two of you are basically the only ones with complete insight into those infantile prank products that your uncles produce. The only ones with incentives for using them that is,” he added with a snarl and a disdainful glance at Eddy.
“I’m…” Millie started, looking down at her feet.
“Had nothing to do with it,” Lily interrupted. “It was only me. Millie did nothing,” she said, looking Snape straight in the eyes as she stood up before him. James wasn’t sure he would have believed her if he had been the one asking, he could see that Snape didn’t. Scrutinising them both with narrowing eyes, he snorted.
“As if you are clever enough to do any such thing, Miss Potter,” he said scornfully. “You may think me a fool, but I can assure you that I am not. I know that this was an enhancement of your uncles’ products and that to make such an enhancement requires skills in potions that you do not possess,” he continued. “Your “sister” here, however, does. She has a real clever little head on her shoulders, just like her father,” he added making Millie start. Turning his gaze to Millie, he sneered. “With such an act for cunning and scheming, you would have probably have made an excellent Slytherin. If you had had the right upbringing at least,” he added, almost bringing Millie to tears and making James want to strangle him slowly.
“What is going on?” Professor McGonagall asked, coming up from behind Snape.
“These two are responsible for the commotion here tonight, and I’m giving them both detentions as well as taking twenty points from Gryffindor…”
“I’ve already told you, Millie didn’t do anything, I did! Alone!” Lily said firmly, pushing down Jordan in his seat as he tried to get up.
“And I already said that I don’t believe you,” Snape said only to be interrupted again, this time by McGonagall.
“Professor Snape, surely Miss Malfoy would not do such a thing. She’s a prefect!” she said. “And if Miss Potter already admitted to doing it alone I think it’s only fair to assume she is telling the truth. Now punish Miss Potter and leave Miss Malfoy alone,” she added before she turned her attention to Lily. “As for you, I’m highly disappointed in you. To embarrass a fellow student, in front of the entire school, not to mention that risking her health by giving her a substance that is not properly tested is not in any way allowed in this school. I’m appalled! You should be grateful that it is Professor Snape is the one handing out the punishment for this and not me!” she said before turning her back to them all and leaving.
Snape however, did not look pleased. Staring at Millie, he bent down over her.
“I hope you are satisfied with yourself, Miss Malfoy. Letting your sister take the entire blame for something you were very much a part of,” Snape hissed. “I guess you are more Draco Malfoy’s daughter than I’ve given you credit for…”
“That’s enough Severus!”
Snape stilled the moment he heard Harry’s voice behind him, turning and looking at him with contempt.
“And I suppose you think it is quite alright for your daughters to break the rules?” he said. “Or to humiliate another student? Quite the Potter family tradition isn’t it?” he added venomously.
“No, I do not find it alright, and I will have a talk with my daughter about that later,” Harry answered, giving his daughter a stern look.
“She was hardly the only one involved,” Snape said.
“Oh really? Then how come Professor McGonagall claimed she is?” Harry answered coolly.
“Because she is covering for Miss Malfoy,” Snape said firmly. “Your daughter is not good enough at potions to…”
“I seem to remember being given Ds in your class, just to end up with and E at my Potion OWL. Clearly your perception about the grades for those with a Potter name is somewhat lacking,” Harry answered calmly. “Now I think Professor McGonagall mentioned something about you giving Lily detention for this, so I suggest you either let her finish her dinner in peace or get on with the punishment,” he finished, meeting Snape’s gaze without blinking.
“Fine! Miss Malfoy will not be able to get away with breaking the rules forever. She’ll slip up eventually,” Snape said nonchalantly. “Miss Potter, your detention starts now. You can live without the rest of your dinner,” he said, waiting for her to collect her things.
“Dad, I…” Lily started turning to Harry.
“Not now, Lily. I meant it when I said that we’ll talk later,” Harry said, in a tone of voice that told her, as well as her grandparents that he was not at all pleased with her actions. Lily nodded and followed Snape out of the Hall.
Turning towards Millie, still staring down at her feet trying to fight of the tears, Harry’s expression softened as he put a hand on her shoulder. “Millie, would you mind coming with me, I would like to talk to you too,” he said quietly. Slowly she nodded and followed him out.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, but Harry just shushed her and shook his head, indicating that this wasn’t the proper place to talk as he gently steered her out of the Hall.
When they reached his office Harry beckoned her to sit down, much in the manner he had when he told her about Draco’s escape.
“I’m so sorry dad, Professor Snape was right, Lily didn’t have the skill to do the changes and…”
“And you did them for her,” Harry finished. “So why did you?” he asked. Millie seemed surprised but she seemed to think carefully about the question before she answered.
“Because I wanted her to feel as bad as I did when she…” she quieted, swallowing hard before she buried her face in her hands. “Maybe Professor Snape is right. Maybe I am like Draco after all,” she sobbed.
“Because you wanted revenge for what she said to you at the Yule Ball?” Harry asked, making her look up in surprise. “I’m not completely blind you know,” Harry said, smiling when he looked at his daughter’s nonplussed expression. “I may not have heard what it was she told you, but I did see your reaction to it. I would have gone after you myself, but Eddy was so fast and I figured he would do a better job at making you feel better than I could. Judging from the look on your face when the two of you came back, I think I was right,” he finished with a faint smile making Millie blush.
“But I still did, I wanted her to…” Millie stuttered.
“Millie, we all make mistakes. And we all have things we regret, things that we would have wanted to do differently, or for different reasons,” Harry said soothingly.
“But I didn’t confess either! I let Lily take the blame. I let her get detention alone!” Millie exclaimed, agitated.
“I have to admit that surprised me a bit,” Harry said calmly. “But I’m guessing you would have if the situation had been different, and if it hadn’t been Snape asking you.” Millie looked at the wall, swallowing hard. “What did he say to you by the way? Before I got there I mean.” Millie’s head jerked up and she started at him. Then she closed her eyes for a moment before she answered.
“That I would have been a good Slytherin,” she whispered.
“Coming from Snape I would say that’s a compliment,” Harry said. “But I don’t think you need to worry, Millie. You think far too much about others to be a Slytherin,” he added, smiling slightly.
“But what if he is right?” Millie said.
“Then the sorting hat wouldn’t have put you in Gryffindor.” Harry looked at his daughter compassionately.
“But…” Millie started, unable to meet Harry’s eyes. “The…the sorting hat…kind of, it…”
“Wanted to place you in Slytherin?” Harry asked once again, surprising Millie.
“You knew?” she asked startled looking up at him.
“I guessed,” he said. “It would be foolish of me to think you get everything from me and Ginny and nothing from Draco or Pansy. As much as I want to, I cannot credit myself for everything you are,” he said, making her stare down at the same spot on her feet she had been staring at for most of the evening. “It does not make you a bad person!” Harry continued firmly, grabbing her chin and lifting it up so she was forced to look at him. “The sorting hat wanted to put me in Slytherin as well,” he added, making Millie stare at him and James give a startled cry as he grabbed a hold of Lily, who herself was a bit startled. Neither one of them could even think about their son being in Slytherin.
“It did?” Millie asked surprised. Harry nodded.
“When Voldemort tried to kill me as a child, he left a part of him in me. My ability to speak Parseltongue, for instance,” he said, and this time James wasn’t the only one that gave a startled cry. Being considered for Slytherin was one thing, speaking Parseltongue was a completely different matter. As far as Lily knew, no good witch or wizard knew how to do that, well save for Harry apparently.
“I had to learn to live with those parts of me as well as the parts my parents gave me,” Harry continued. “And you have to learn to accept the parts of you that you have from Draco and Pansy. They do not make you a bad person, just as my ability to speak Parseltongue doesn’t make me one,” he said firmly.
“I know, but I helped Lily because I wanted Manning to feel bad. You used your ability to speak Parseltongue to save mums life,” Millie insisted.
“I also took custody of you to get back at your father,” Harry said calmly. “Now I’m not saying that what you did was right, it wasn’t not by any means, but it does not mean you are not nice. It only means you’re human, that you make mistakes.”
“Was taking me…”
“No! Don’t ever dare to say that, Millie. Taking you in was the smartest decision your mother and I ever made. Even if I made it for the wrong reasons,” Harry said firmly. “Millie, I know you want to think that you are nothing like Draco, but truth is you are some ways. But as Dumbledore once told me, it’s what you choose to do that makes you who you are, not what parts you have in you,” he said, stroking her hair.
“But my choice was wrong,” Millie said.
“And sometimes they will be. And sometimes you’ll do the right thing for the wrong reasons, or the wrong one for the right reasons, but as long as you are able to see the difference, you’ll be fine. After all, you wouldn’t feel this bad, if you were bad yourself,” he said calmly. “Draco would not feel bad after a thing like this. I even doubt your sister does, and I don’t think you would consider her to be a bad person, even if she can be a bit clueless to other people’s feelings at times.” Millie shook her head and leaned on his shoulder.
“Why didn’t you let Professor Snape punish me?” Millie then asked, looking up at him.
“Because I guessed that you weren’t as involved in this as your sister, and that Snape wouldn’t give you a punishment that fitted your involvement,” Harry answered, giving her a scrutinising look before he seemed convinced that he had been right. “And also because Snape was out of line,” he finished. “He had no right to speak to you that way. Besides, if your sister wants to take the blame then she is old enough to make that decision for herself, and to live with the consequences of that decision,” he finished as a knock was heard on the door.
Looking up Harry flicked his wand to open the door only to see Dean come into the office.
“Hi Harry. Millie. I’m not disturbing you, am I?” he asked with a smile. Harry shook his head.
“I think we were about done here,” he said, casting Millie a glance to see her nod. Smiling, he rubbed her shoulder as they stood up, watching as Dean made it down the stairs. Once he was down, he gave Millie a hug and told her not to forget her homework before he sent her off.
“Is she alright?” Dean asked. “I heard Snape wanted to give her part of the blame for what happened at dinner tonight.”
“She’ll be fine, I think. She’s a bit worried about being too much like Malfoy,” Harry answered. “How is Miss Manning doing by the way?” he then asked.
“She’s fine. It didn’t even take half an hour for the spell to lift, although Poppy insisted she’d stay an hour or so more to see if the substance had any side effects,” Dean answered. “But I have to ask. Why is Millie so scared of being like Malfoy? I mean, she is nothing like him.”
“That you can thank Percy for,” Harry said tiredly. Dean looked bewildered and James and Lily couldn’t help but to wonder what Percy now had done. They would have thought being the daughter of convicted Death Eaters would be enough.
“Remember when Millie was nine, and Ginny and I had to go to court to keep her from ending up with Mrs Malfoy?” Harry asked. Dean nodded. “Well, the court wanted Millie to testify. To say where she wanted to live, how it was living with us “ things like that,” Harry continued. “Well as if that wasn’t enough for her to handle, Percy took it on himself to tell her exactly why she was living with us in the first place, telling her everything her parents had done, including the result of the attack at the Burrow,” he said, his jaw set in dislike at the memory.
“She didn’t know?” Dean asked.
“Of course she didn’t! She was nine! There were no reasons for her to know those things. She knew that she was with us because we loved her and because her parents had done some things that weren’t nice “ she did not need to know more than that. She was perfectly fine with that!” Harry said agitated. “When Percy told her, he made her feel as if she was a burden to us. As if we only took her on because no one else did “ which was true when we did, but hardly by the time she was nine. Percy made her feel as if our lives would be better if she was not in it, and that she was a reminder of Draco and his actions. That’s when she started to worry about being like him, and looking like him. She never worried like that before,” he said, sitting back down on the sofa.
“His escape is, of course, not helping the matter,” Dean said, sitting down himself. Harry shook his head.
“It’s got her all riled up again. And between Zelda Manning and Snape running around telling her she’s like him, it’s not easy for her to keep her spirit up,” he sighed. Dean nodded as Harry swore under his breath. “This was hard enough for me in our third year, when I thought I was the target of a mad fugitive, but for Millie, being Draco’s daughter “ it’s not fair. She doesn’t deserve this!” Harry sighed.
“I actually remember that year. How scared we were when he broke into our dorm, and how no one could figure out how he got in and out without being seen,” Dean said, sending shivers down James’s and Lily’s backs. Harry however just stared at Dean, mouth slightly open and a blank expression on his face.
“Harry, are you alright?” Dean asked after a while, looking rather worried.
“I can’t believe I didn’t think of that before!” Harry then said quietly. Dean gave him a strange look, but he ignored it. Instead he stood up and walked over to the cupboard in the corner. The one that only opened magically. Opening it, Harry took out a large book and placed at his desk, turning over the pages at such a pace that it was almost impossible to see what was actually on the pages. When he stopped, James and Lily were surprised to realize that it was only a calendar “ if still filled with cryptic markings instead of text.
“Harry, I have to admit I don’t understand. What is it you have realized? What is this all about?” Dean asked looking as confused as James and Lily felt.
“I don’t want to say anything yet, Dean. I want to make sure if it’s even possible first,” Harry said while studying the calendar. “I’m going to call a meeting with the Order “ let’s see if I…” he mumbled something that James and Lily couldn’t hear. “In a month,” he said frowning. “Damn! I would have wanted it to be sooner!” he then added, clearly annoyed.
“But if you want it to be sooner, then why don’t…”
“Because I won’t have been able to contact everyone I need to talk to before that,” Harry said, not waiting for Dean to finish. “Besides, we have to take the full moon into account as well. I need Remus to be there,” Harry said firmly before closing the book and crossing the room to put it back and pull out another. “I’m sorry Dean, but I don’t have time to talk right now, I have to go to work,” he said apologetically. Dean nodded.
“I’ll just leave you to it, I’m sure you’ll tell me when you feel you can,” he said and left. Harry hardly noticed when he closed the door behind him.
By the time night had fallen he still hadn’t gone home, and James and Lily had gotten tired from watching him work so hard. Sighing, they decided to leave him alone. As they left, Lily looked at him and had to fight the urge to tell him to go home and go to bed. But then she knew that had it been her who had been in his situation, and him that had been in danger, she wouldn’t have cared for sleep either.
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Finally, this chapter is up! I know you have all waited terribly long for it and I'm sorry. I can only hope that next chapter will be up sooner. For those of you that don't want to wait, the fic is completely finished at Fanfiction.net, same title and penname.
I am also currently rewriting the story to fit with the new canon. If any of you would be interested in seeing the progress, it can be found on my LJ and a link to that can be found in my profile.