Okay, here's chapter 3. The hits on my user page tell me that people are reading this, but no one is reviewing. When I was writing Keep your Enemies Close, I got upwards of twenty reviews per chapter, and I haven't even broken 20 yet. Look people, reviews really keep me writing, and it's hard to get motivated to write a story when no one is giving me any feedback. So if you're reading this, please give me a review. I would also appreciate if you guys would give me your opinions on where you think this story should go. I have my ideas, but I want my readers to get what they want too, so let me know what you're thinking. Enjoy, and don't forget to vote and review!
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"So, Harry, have you talked to Andromeda about what's going to happen with Teddy now that Remus and Tonks are gone? I mean, you are his godfather."
Harry turned to face Hermione, slight annoyance quite evident in his face. "Herms, you've been back for two hours, we've got a funeral to help plan, and all you want to do is bug me about what I'm going to do next. All I hear is do I know where I'm going to live, do I know if I'm going to work or what I want to do, or what's going to happen with the baby. And I keep telling you that I don't know!"
Hermione, completely used to the behavior of the two main men in her life, was completely undaunted by the mini temper tantrum and settled back in the couch, getting comfortable for a long talk. "Harry, you need to think about these things now. I mean, Andromeda just lost her husband and her daughter, I doubt she's in any shape to take on a newborn. And I know your parents left you a lot of money, but you cannot live off of that forever, and you can't stay with the Weasleys, either."
Harry knew that his friend was right, but he was in a mood to fight. "And why can't I? They would let me stay here as long as I want. And as far as that goes, I'm in no shape to raise a newborn. I don't even know how to change a diaper." He stood as he finished speaking, looked down at his friend. "Herms, I appreciate that you're trying to help, but you have to realize that I don't want your help. I want time to figure out my life and what to do. I don't want to jump into things. Especially raising a baby."
Mrs. Weasley, who had been passing through the living room on her way to the kitchen, paused when she heard Harry talk. For a moment, all thoughts of funerals and cooking left her, and she focused on Harry and Hermione. They both looked too thin and sickly, and she decided she'd have to start making sure they ate more. She'd lost one son, she wasn't about to lose two more of her children.
"Harry, you know you're welcome here as long as you would like to stay. And should you need to take Teddy, I would be more than happy to help you learn how to be a parent."
Harry jumped when Mrs. Weasley spoke, whirled around in the direction of the voice. "Molly, I didn't know you were there." He blushed, mind racing. "And I should be getting a place of my own, I've put you through enough."
"Nonsense. Saved the world is what you've done, Harry. Now, the two of you go get dressed. The funeral starts in an hour, and you need to be ready for it. Afterward, Kingsley Shacklebolt has asked to speak to you, Harry. Hermione, he's requested you as well. I've already told Ron. You'll be meeting in Arthur's office in the basement. It's the most privacy I can give you."
Harry and Hermione were both helpless to do anything other than what Mrs. Weasley had told them to do. Hermione did have to get in the last word, though. Her personality wouldn't let her do anything other than that. She did, however, wait until she was at the door of the room she was sharing with Ginny.
"Harry, whether the Weasleys want you here or not, you and I, we're not part of their family, and they need to be left alone. You need to get your own place and you need to start your own life. I know what happened is tearing you up, it is me too, but you've got to move on and let it go."
**
Draco would have thrown up had he known he had been getting the same advice from his mother as Harry had been getting from Hermione. Move on and let it go. Begin your new life in the world we have left. Narcissa had been telling her son that for two days, but it really had yet to sink in. Draco was wallowing in a sea of alcohol, self hatred and loathing in general. It wasn't a bad existence, he'd decided. You lounged around in your pajamas, avoided mirrors at all costs, and drank like a fish. Ate occasionally if the thought occurred to you, but didn't worry about anything other than necessary bodily functions.
Unfortunately for his master plan of drinking himself into oblivion every day, his mother intervened. He hadn't taken into consideration parental concern, or the fact that the whole ordeal, which was how he was currently referring to Voldemort, the battle, and the aftermath, had brought his family quite a bit closer. His parents were actually behaving how he assumed normal parents behaved, and were, in fact, driving his slightly crazy with their concern over his rate of alcohol ingestion.
Three days after his period of drunkenness had begun, Narcissa cold heartedly jerked him out of it with a spray of ice cold water from the tip of her wand when Draco's only response to her attempts to wake him was to groan, crack open one eye, groan again and roll over.
"Bloody hell, what in Merlin's name to you think you're doing?!" Draco leapt from the bed, howling in anger and confusion, his stomach roiling from his daily period of almost sobriety after four hours of sleep.
"I told you, Draco, that today there are funerals to attend."
"I'm not going to any bloody funeral." Not the slightest bit shy, Draco stripped off his shirt and yanked another one from the floor, not even checking it for cleanliness before donning it. "You go, but I'm staying here."
Narcissa's grin was sharp and dangerous, and for a moment Draco wondered who really ran his parents' marriage, Lucius who was overtly dangerous, or Narcissa who hid her true personality behind a façade of nonchalant obedience and chilly beauty? "Oh yes, you are. Despite the terms we were on, and despite the circumstances, Andromeda is my sister, and she has lost her husband, her only child and her son-in-law in one fell swoop. You haven't any siblings, so you don't know what it's like, but we are going to those funerals, whether you or your father like it or not. Now go shower, shave, and get dressed in something appropriate. Don't forget your mourning robes and your wand. Be downstairs in one hour."
"Mother-"
"No, Draco. I mean it. Get ready."
Draco sighed and dropped onto his bed once his mother had left the room. He hadn't ever met his aunt or uncle, knew Tonks only as an Auror who had been a member of the Order of the Phoenix. He vaguely remembered that the Daily Prophet had announced the dates of funerals of those who had been killed in the battle, those on the side they deemed the right one anyway, and he thought he remembered seeing that Fred Weasley, Remus and Nymphadora Lupin and Theodore Tonks were going to be held at the Burrow together.
Groaning, Draco forced himself to his feet and stumbled toward the bathroom. If he was going to have to face the dream team, he was going to damn well look his best. There was, after all, no good reason for Harry, Hermione and Ron to see the state that he'd been in. No good reason at all, and he'd be damned if they got to see it.
**
"Ron!" Harry hissed at his friend as Ron passed through the hallway. He stopped and turned, raised his eyebrows at Harry.
"What are you doing, mate? Things are getting ready to start soon."
"I thought you said it was just Fred's today? I see four coffins in the back yard."
"Mum didn't tell you? Andromeda owled and asked if we could do it together. I guess with the baby, she just didn't have the time or the energy to host three funerals, so Mum offered to do it together. The article came out in the Daily Prophet yesterday."
"Do you really think I've been reading the Prophet lately? I'm not ready to face Andromeda, or Teddy."
"Harry, Teddy is less than a month old, I seriously doubt he blames you for anything." Ron shook his head, nervously adjusted his robes. "Now get dressed and get downstairs. We've got ten minutes before it's due to start."
Harry grabbed his robe from the foot of the bed, jerked it over his head and followed Ron down the stairs. "Where's Hermione?"
"You got me. I imagine down in the backyard already. I saw Ginny down there a few minutes ago, and they're normally always together."
The mention of Ginny had Harry stumbling down the last three stairs. It was a shock for him to realize that he hadn't thought of or spoken to Ginny since the night of the battle. Wanting to stop and analyze that, but knowing he didn't have the time at present, Harry stalked into the back yard, set on finding Hermione.
But, as was normally the case in the life of Harry Potter, that didn't happen. He spotted Hermione, and in his single-mindedness, didn't pay attention to anything else. He crashed into a woman, and they both ended up sprawled on the grass.
"Sorry, I didn't-" Harry stopped mid-sentence when he realized who he had run into. "Mrs. Malfoy."
Narcissa hesitantly tucked her hair behind her ear, managed to gracefully climb to her feet. "Mr. Potter, in a hurry I presume?"
She still managed to sound regal when she spoke. Not at all like the woman several days earlier who had been so desperate to find her son. "Yeah, sorry. I didn't mean to crash into you." He paused, gathered his thoughts. "What are you doing here?"
"Supporting my sister. Andromeda needs all the support that she can get right now."
Slightly confused, Harry couldn't keep himself from speaking. "But I thought you two didn't talk to each other?"
"We haven't in years. However, I felt that what she's going through warrants a truce, at least for the moment. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to find my husband and my son."
"How is Draco?"
Both were surprised at the question, and it was unsure who was more surprised, Harry or Narcissa. However, Narcissa softened for a moment, and offered a smile. "Doing as well as he can. It's a lot to deal with, what he went through. I'll regret all my life that my son took the Dark Mark."
"Mother."
Narcissa turned, motioned for Draco to join them, which he did with a great deal of reluctance. He'd dressed in the best clothes he owned, black slacks and a fluid silver button down shirt, his mourning robes tossed carelessly over his shoulder, a sheet of black silk, his shoes shiny enough to see his reflection in, his hair impeccably styled, looking as good as Harry had ever seen him look, even if he was a little paler than usual, and slimmer than he'd ever been before.
"Harry was just asking about you, Draco."
Draco arched one pale blonde eyebrow, gave Harry a look of cool indifference, one that he'd had eighteen years to perfect. "Is that so? Still jealous are we, Potter?"
"Actually Harry was making sure that you were doing okay, Draco."
"Since when do you have any interest in the welfare of my family?"
Harry didn't even try to stop the normal verbal repartee he and Draco were so prone to. "Well, it seems I always have to save your bum, so it shouldn't surprise you that I ask about the state of it. I'm sick of coming to the rescue."
"No need to worry about that. Your services are no longer needed."
"Good, then next time I'll leave you to be burned alive."
Shock registered on Narcissa's face a split second before anger registered on Draco's. "Shut your mouth, Potter."
"Burned alive? You were almost burned alive? Draco, what happened?"
"Nothing, mother, don't worry about it." He sighed in relief as he spotted Andromeda with an infant in her arms. "There's Aunt Andromeda, don't you think you should go say hello?"
Momentarily distracted, Narcissa glided toward her estranged sister, laying a hand on the shorter woman's shoulder. Harry and Draco watched in silence as Andromeda's eyes filled with tears and she collapsed into her sister's arms, years of fights and divided loyalties forgotten in one moment of intense grief. They may have spent years pretending to hate each other, but in the end, each was all the family the other had left.
Forgetting who he was standing next to, Harry spoke softly. "If only everything could be fixed that easily. It would make the next few years a hell of a lot easier."
Draco chuckled, as caught up in the scene as Harry. "That's for damn sure, Potter. Too bad it won't be that way."
Willing to go with his instincts, Harry continued. "Your Mum saved my life, Draco. I owe her a lot for that. Without her, things would have ended completely differently."
Draco shrugged. "She has her moments of insanity. I'd have let you die." He stopped, changed his mind. "Well, maybe not. In the grand scheme of things, I guess you're better than Voldemort."
That was one of the highest compliments Draco could have ever given Harry given their history as enemies. He was still reeling from it when Hermione and Ron ushered him to his seat for the funerals.
"Is it my imagination, or are the Malfoys here?"
Hermione nodded at Ron's question. "They most certainly are. Andromeda's been leaning on Narcissa since they got here. It's amazing what a death can do to a family."
"Draco wasn't a complete jerk either. I think it's really starting to hit him, everything that would have been different if Voldemort would have won."
Ron scoffed. "Never. That I will never believe."
Hermione shushed them at that point, turning to the front to pay attention to Arthur, who was starting the funeral. For the moment at least, members of the Order, Death Eaters and everyone in between were existing in peace. And yet, Harry couldn't help but wonder how long the armistice would last.
**
Please review, folks. I've worked my butt off on this, and I want to know what you think. Next chapter up soon. I promise.
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