Okay, Chapter 8. Love the reviews, wish I'd gotten more on the last chapter, but such is life I suppose. This is now officially the most I have ever written in so short a time. Normally my muse decides to make me wait in between update, but the material this time is coming just as fast as I can type it. I finished Chapter 7 in less that an hour this morning. It's the most amazing thing that has ever happened to me. I love writing this story, and I am remarkably happy that all of you reading it like it as well. Unfortunately, I probably won't get any chapters posted tomorrow or on Monday. But, I'm hoping that two chapters today will help make up for it. That way you're only going technically be shorted one chapter. But I want this finished by competition time. Twenty chapters is what I think I'm shooting for total. BTW, in the next few chapters, there will probably be a higher rating. I don't want to have to change the rating of the whole story, so I think I'll write it so that my younger readers can bypass the heavier stuff. It won't be NC-17, it won't even be a strong R, but I think it might get a little romantic. Light R as my best guess. So this is an advanced warning to tall those out there who aren't old enough for it.
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Harry looked over at Draco. "Look, before we go in there, I just want to say thanks." At Draco's surprised look, Harry continued. "I know you didn't have to do this. That you could have continued the way that you were and that you would have been fine on your own. But you didn't. You're doing this, helping me gets my parents and Sirius back. That's enough to make me change my mind about you, Malfoy."
Draco didn't want to be touched. He didn't want to honestly believe that Harry was telling the truth about what he thought. He didn't want to believe that the people he'd had this adventure with were actually so big hearted that they could forgive him for all that he had done, for what he had been, for where he had come from. But then again, he supposed that it was mercy and forgiveness that really separated them from Voldemort and the Death Eaters.
"Don't mention it." Draco said after a pause during which he tried to come up with something more to say than that. "We're even. You helped me, now I'm helping you. Quid pro quo."
Harry nodded, understanding. "A what for a what. This was repayment."
"Not precisely, but close enough. I wouldn't have done this if there wasn't something in it for me, Potter. I just want to make sure you understand that I'm not as selfless as you and your gang would like to believe that I am. I'm in this for me."
Harry had a feeling that wasn't the only reason, but he was too anxious to see his parents to argue it any further. "Whatever you say, Malfoy. Let's get this done." Harry looked at the door. "I need entrance into the chamber where my parents and godfather are."
Draco didn't think it could have possibly been that easy, but the door swung open nonetheless. Wands out, the men proceeded into the room. It was a stone chamber, with slats of stone in rows, like primitive cots. Only three of them had occupants. Harry started to run over, but Draco grabbed his arm.
"We stay together. No one awake has ever been in here. We don't know what might be guarding them."
Nodding, Harry hung back to match his stride to Draco's. Slowly, they approached the cots. Harry took the beaker of potion from his robes. "Does this have to be swallowed?"
Draco thought for a second. "Yes."
"Help me then. We have to get them sitting up or else they could choke. Sirius first. He'll be able to explain to my parents who I am and the fact that they've been cryogenically frozen for seventeen years."
"I couldn't agree more with that one, Potter. Last thing I want is one of your parents mistaking me for my father and cursing me clear into next week. From what I've heard, they were wonderful wizards and could curse without using a wand."
"You'd be right there." Harry grabbed Sirius' shoulders and hefted them up. Acting quickly, Draco pulled out the stopped, and poured a mouthful into his mouth. Sirius coughed and sputtered, but swallowed the drink. Not ten seconds later, his eyes opened.
"Harry?" Sirius asked, grabbing his godson in a hug. "What happened? I should be dead!"
Harry returned the hug hard. His throat was clogged with emotion. "We thought that you were. That thing led down to here. It's beneath the Ministry. A sleep chamber. Voldemort knows about it, and Draco found out and told us, so here we are to rescue you."
But Sirius' gaze had fastened elsewhere. "Is that?"
"It's Mom and Dad."
Draco decided he'd be the best to explain. When Lily and James died, Lily gave her life to save Harry, and James did the same thing to save them both. Lily was protected by James' sacrifice, and then Harry were protected by hers'. Retrospectively, Harry were also protected by James', which meant that the three of them were connected that night. When Voldemort cursed him, the power of not only Lily's spell, but also of James', protected him, and made the spell reflect itself upon Voldemort. When that happened, somehow, and I don't know how, the most recent spells Voldemort had cast, were reversed.
" Fudge wasn't the Minister then, a man named Ricardo Juarez was. The only Hispanic minister we've ever had. The Aurors who were first on the scene reported that Lily and James were still alive, but only barely. He ordered them taken to St. Mungo's, under different names. They were treated, but kept sedated. When they were stable, Juarez had them taken to the chamber beneath the ministry and put into a sleep state. A cryogenic one, if you will. They can only be unfrozen from inside the chamber.
"Juarez and both of the Aurors who knew who was in that chamber were killed barely two weeks later. No one knew about it until Scrimgeour took over. Fudge had received a report on it, but apparently was too busy with keeping things running these past years, that he never got around to going down there. Now here's where the details get a little foggy. From what I know, I can tell you the apparently the thing you, Sirius, fell, or leapt or whatever the hell you did, into that night led straight into that Chamber. When everything had been set up thousands of years ago, it was thought that people might try to break in, and that whoever did would need to be stopped. By falling into that thing. But generations went by and no one ever did, so it was forgotten about where it led. Our assumption that anyone put in here was automatically put to sleep was right."
Sirius let out a low whistle. "What do you say we wake up your parents Harry? You must be dying to meet them. But why did you wake me up first?"
"Because they won't know who I am. They think I'm still a baby. I'm eighteen. They know you, they'll recognize you, even though you're older now."
"Makes sense." Sirius looked at Draco. "You batting for our side now, boy."
Despite the fact that it sounded more like a statement than a question, Draco decided to reply. "Just settling some old debts and paying for some mistakes." He shrugged. "That and murdering women, children, and Muggles isn't my style."
"Glad to hear it." He looked at Harry. "Shouldn't you be in Auror training or playing Quidditch or something?"
"I didn't finish Hogwarts, Sirius."
"What?!" Sirius was mad about that one. "And why the buggering hell not?"
"Because I made the school too dangerous for other kids. Sirius, at the end of my sixth year, Snape killed Dumbledore. Voldemort's on the rise again. He's taking over."
"All the more reason to hurry the hell up and wake your parents. They can help. I can help. Your father would just love a crack at Severus I imagine."
Harry thought about what Dumbledore had said, about Snape being the one to give away his parents. "He'll have to get in line. I want a crack at him myself." He slipped behind his mother and lifted her shoulders. Sirius dumped in the potion and Lily did the same thing that Sirius had. Coughed, swallowed and opened her eyes.
"Sirius, oh Merlin, where are we? I thought for sure I was dead. Harry! Sirius, where's my baby? And James?"
Sirius grasped Lily's shoulders. "Calm down Lily. There's a lot to be explained here. A lot you need to know. You aren't twenty one anymore. You've been frozen, put to sleep in a special chamber beneath the ministry. You've been down here seventeen years."
"Harry?" Lily questioned tearfully.
"Right here Mum."
Lily whirled, saw her son. Her very grown son. She burst into tears and reached for him. Near tears himself, Harry moved into his mother's hug. Sirius gestured to Draco. "Let's give them a minute while we wake up James. I imagine he doesn't want us to see him lose control."
Strangely sympathetic toward Harry, Draco did as Sirius asked. He could see Lily and Harry hugging and talking out of the corner of his eye, and honestly, it broke his heart. He'd never experienced such love from anyone in his life.
Sirius administered the potion while Draco held James up. When James opened his eyes, Sirius launched into a brief explanation of everything that had happened. James hugged Sirius quickly and then went to his wife and son. Sirius casually slung an arm around Draco.
"It's a good thing that you did here. And I know you say you didn't do it for him, but it's still a good thing you've done. You aren't like the other Malfoys, Draco. You've got a heart. You're what I would consider to be a human."
Draco didn't know how the people in that cave were refraining from killing him. After all that his family had done to them. After all that they'd been through because of his father and Voldemort. After seventeen years of separation. Seventeen years of Harry thinking that his parents were dead. It amazed him.
James looked down at Lily and Harry. "Why don't we get out of here? There's a lot we need to get caught up on. I have a feeling that it'll take a few hours."
Harry grinned at his father. "It can wait. Molly Weasley cooked a welcome back dinner, and there are some people I'd like for you to meet. People who have saved my life more that once."
Lily's gaze found Draco. "And who are you?"
"Mum, Dad, this is Draco Malfoy. He's the one who told me that you were still alive and showed me how to get here."
James strode to Draco, offered the younger man a hand. "Thank you. For giving us back our family."
Draco took the hand hesitantly, shook it. "Seemed only fair, after all my family did to instigate the separation."
Lily hugged him tightly. "They don't deserve you, Draco. You're family doesn't deserve to be able to call you theirs'. They're unloving, cold, hard hearted people who don't know how to care about anyone but themselves."
Draco wondered if Lily wasn't psychic as well. He looked into her eyes, and saw no judging there. Just compassion and kindness. Warmth and love. He felt something wedge itself in his throat. He lowered his voice and cautiously returned her embrace. "I wish my parents were more like you."
Lily's laugh was like a bell. Bright and beautiful. "And don't worry. I won't tell a soul you said that." She linked arms with Harry, and with Draco. "Now let's get the hell out of this place."
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There we have it. Chapter 8. I hope everyone enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it. Prolly no update tomorrow. I'll try my best, but I can't promise anything at this point. Damn my college physical and shot appointment. That's just my luck I suppose. Don't forget to review. I thrive on reviews.
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