Harry James Potter (Malfoy)

Harry was currently weeding the garden. Again. He’d already completely weeded it yesterday, but his aunt was convinced there were more weeds in the flower beds that he needed to get rid of. He didn’t see any, but he was pretending there were more that he was pulling out. If nothing else, it allowed him to be outside in the sun for a bit and get a bit of a break from his other chores. He was also pretty sure Aunt wanted him out of the house for a while. She didn’t like seeing his face or being reminded of him being around.

It wasn’t too hot outside right now, so he didn’t mind staying out for a little bit and pretending to weed for a bit longer. But he also knew he had other chores he had to do today and that he’d need to go back inside soon.

Though at least there wasn’t that strange appearance to the air near the house like yesterday. It almost looked like there was somebody watching the house, and Harry in particular, yesterday, but whenever he looked over there wasn’t anybody there and the air just looked… strange. The air didn’t look like that today.

Eventually he got up and went inside, washing his hands from the dirt on them before starting on the rest of his chores, which mostly was cleaning up after Dudley and Uncle. Especially Dudley.

~~~~

A couple days later, Harry was washing dishes after lunch when the doorbell rang. Aunt told him to answer the door as she settled Dudley down for his tele shows and so Harry went over to the door, wiping his hands off on his shirt to dry them before opening the door.

On the other side was a woman with gray hair and a singular glass in front of one of her eyes. Harry couldn’t remember the word for it. She also was wearing a suit. He did see what looked like surprised recognition in her eyes before her expression cleared and she spoke. Maybe he imagined the look.

“Is either Petunia or Vernon Dursley here?” she asked, a strong and loud voice asked. Harry nodded and left to get Aunt and bring her back to the door. Once he had, she shooed him away and he went back to washing the dishes in the kitchen, not really caring who the woman at the door had been. People who came to see Aunt, Uncle, or Dudley didn’t really care about him or want to know anything about him.

He wasn’t sure how long she’d stayed and talked with Aunt. It also seemed like she was looking around the house a bit the few moments he’d seen her while going about all his other chores through the house. She did seem surprised by the work he was doing but Harry didn’t know why she seemed so surprised. This was normal.

At one point, he did think he saw the air look a little off near his cupboard, just like the air had looked off when he thought he saw somebody outside a few days ago, but he must’ve been imagining things again. Uncle didn’t like him imagining things. Normal people didn’t imagine things like giant people and flying motorcycles.

~~Lucius & Cissa~~

Lucius and Cissy had heard from Snape the day after they started investigating Harry’s living situation in regards to what he’d been able to glean from Albus.

Apparently, the man hadn’t checked in on Harry and was convinced that he was safe and happy with his aunt and uncle. This was most definitely not true and it left all three adults fuming. They still weren’t sure whether or not he’d be open to having Harry removed from the house if he knew about the abuse, so they decided to start moving to get custody without alerting Albus. In case Albus wouldn’t want to move Harry, this would hopefully keep him from finding out until they either had custody of Harry already or were nearly there and would be able to show just how unfit the muggle relatives were.

This involved sending Amelia Bones to investigate the Dursley household under the guise of something his aunt and uncle would believe and welcome rather than the truth. She’d do what Lucius did when he was watching and at some point cast a few spells to make her unnoticeable to see if Harry did live in the cupboard like Lucius suspected and check a few other things before completely leaving. Once she’d gained enough evidence of their wrongdoings, Harry’s custody case would move as quickly and quietly as possible.

It took a couple days for her to have time to go and investigate, especially since Amelia had agreed to keep everything about the case to herself for as long as she could. None of them knew how Albus would react to Harry being moved from his aunt’s house nor about the Malfoys taking in Harry since he would most likely expect Lucius to take up his mantle of spy along with Severus when Voldemort decided to return.

Amelia was also going to talk to Minerva since Severus had mentioned that she’d been present the night Albus left Harry at the Dursley house. Hopefully Minerva would have more insight into that night since they weren’t going to outright ask Albus about it and asking Rubeus would possibly lead to Albus finding out since he wasn’t the best at keeping things secret. He was a great guy, but not good at keeping secrets.

After a few horribly slow days waiting for information, they finally heard from Amelia and left Draco with Severus so they could meet with her in her office at the Ministry. They entered and she motioned for them to sit while she locked the door and put up privacy wards so nobody could hear what they discussed.

“What have you found out?” Cissa immediately asked, desperate to know what was going on with her cousin. The little bit she’d heard from Lucius and Arabella had her itching to get Harry out of that house and bring him to a home where he’d be loved and raised knowing exactly who his parents were. And where he could be kept from being used as a pawn by anybody good or bad.

“Well,” Amelia started after sitting back down, “I discovered enough to start getting Harry removed from that house. If I do everything correctly, he should be quietly removed and placed with you within a couple weeks. Most of the time I’m allowed to act without having to go to any of my superiors, which works in our favour this time.” She sighed a little. “Lucius, what you’d suspected turned out to be correct. He does in fact sleep in the cupboard under the stairs despite there being two empty bedrooms upstairs that he could be using. And he appears to do a majority of the chores there despite his young age. When I talked to his aunt, she acted as though Harry didn’t live there and only mentioned her husband and their son. He certainly isn’t getting the care he needs and deserves in that house.”

“What did you find out from Minerva?”

“Minerva mentioned that she’d watched the Dursleys the entire day leading up to Harry being left there. She’d even told Albus that they were the ‘worst sort of muggles’ and shouldn’t be entrusted with Harry. Rubeus had also, apparently, been rather reluctant to leave Harry there too.”

Cissa nodded at that, figuring as much. She knew Minerva from the Order and from her time at school and there’s no way she would’ve been ok letting Harry get placed with Lily’s sister and her husband.

“How easily do you think this will go?” Lucius asked, crossing his legs.

“Hm, as long as I don’t specify who the child is that I’m acting in the best interest of, it shouldn’t take too long. And luckily, there are laws in place that allow me to hide the identity of the child. We wouldn’t want anybody else getting wind of Harry being moved from his house, be it Albus thinking he knows better or a Death Eater family wanting custody of The Boy Who Lived.”

“And you’ve started the paperwork for this?”

“I have.”

“Is there anything we can do or need to do at this stage?” Cissa asked, wanting to do anything to make the process faster and easier. Amelia thought for a moment.

“There are a few papers you should fill out that I can give you to take home. I will also be doing an assessment to make sure you’re fully able to take care of Harry, as is protocol, but I’m sure you’ll pass with flying colours. I’ll get the papers for you and then I’ll let you know when I’ll be coming over and keep you updated on each step of the process.”

Cissa nodded. She’d already started planning what room in the Manor Harry would have and what extra items she should have for it. They would go shopping for clothing once Harry was in their care and they’d bring in a healer as soon as possible to see what injuries he may have and get him treatment.

They’d also take Harry to get some toys and books (both magical and muggle) and of course he and Draco would share some too. She just knew Harry didn’t have any toys or books if he wasn’t even given a proper room.

Amelia gave them the paperwork and then they left, heading to get Draco while also updating Sev. When they got there, Draco ran over and gave them both hugs and started telling them what potion Sev had started teaching him about. Lucius gave him the update while Cissa listened to Draco talk about what had happened from the moment he’d been left with his godfather in great detail.

They went back to the Manor not long after and sat Draco down. A discussion was definitely due in regards to Draco getting a new brother.

“Draco, dear, you remember your friend Harry right?” Cissa started. Draco emphatically nodded.

“Yeah! Has he been allowed to come over and play?” Draco asked, eyes filling with excitement at the prospect.

“In a way. How would you feel about Harry becoming part of this family?”

Draco looked at the two of them for a moment. “Like a brother?”

“Yes, like a brother,” Lucius said as they nodded. “His relatives aren’t kind to him, so we’re going to get custody of him and raise him instead. He’s your cousin but the two of you will be raised as brothers. Would that be alright?”

Draco started nodding. “My new friend will get to live here! Forever sleepover!”

Cissa chuckled a little at that. “It’ll take a week or two, but then he’ll be coming home.”

He pouted a little at how long he’d have to wait, but he was still excited. Especially when he found out Harry’s room would be right next to his. He then started talking about all the things he and his new brother would do once he got there.

Cissa and Lucius were just happy that Draco was excited.

~~Minerva~~

Minerva had definitely had an interesting couple of days.

It started when she’d gotten a letter from Amelia Bones out of the blue. She’d been relaxing at her home in Scotland to enjoy the last bits of summer holidays before she’d need to go back to Hogwarts to prepare letters and get lesson plans ready and all her other duties as Head of House, Transfiguration Professor, and Deputy Headmistress. Especially since Albus sometimes neglected certain duties.

The letter from Amelia was just as confusing as she stated she’d be by in about a day to ask about a child, but hadn’t specified whom in the letter, stating she’d explain when she got there to ensure nobody else found out about the case. Minerva was assuming it was a student at Hogwarts that she’d taught in the past year or so and perhaps there was an issue with their home life. Well, she’d been right about it being an issue with home life, but it wasn’t a current student of hers but rather a future one.

When Amelia flooed over, she asked if anybody else was around and then closed the floo and put up privacy charms just in case despite nobody else being in the area. This only piqued Minerva’s interest even more.

“Amelia, what exactly is this all about?” she asked, looking at her former student. Amelia looked back at her.

“This is about Harry Potter.”

Minerva’s brain short circuited for a moment.

“ Harry Potter ?! What exactly is wrong?”

Amelia sighed. “I was asked by Narcissa and Lucius Malfoy to look into the boy’s home life. They’d encountered him at a muggle playground and realized something was wrong. As you know, Narcissa is Harry’s cousin through the Black line since Charlus married Dorea Black. Narcissa had apparently been interested in finding where her cousin had ended up after the death of his parents so she could be involved in his life in some capacity especially since she could tell him about his parents more and show him pictures she has. Something didn’t seem right to them when they saw Harry and so Lucius decided to spy a little to find out what he could while Narcissa talked to some neighbors along with Arabella since Albus left her there to keep an eye on Harry.

“What they’d found out painted an unfavourable picture of his aunt and uncle. According to Arabella, Albus has never checked up on Harry and hasn’t listened to Arabella’s concerns because she’s never had concrete proof. So I was asked to come in and see what I could find out from inside the home without alerting Albus, in case he didn’t want Harry moved from the house, and I found that Harry’s home life was abhorrent. I was also told that Severus had mentioned you’d been present the night Harry had been left at that house.”

It took Minerva a moment to process everything. Harry was being abused ?! From Amelia’s tone of voice and the look in her eyes, it wasn’t anything less than abuse, and fairly bad abuse at that. She nodded once she processed what she’d been indirectly asked.

“I had gone ahead to watch the house for the day to see what kind of muggles they were and if they were fit to raise Harry and take care of him. I could tell from what I saw that they wouldn’t be a proper family for Harry and told Albus as much. But he insisted that it’d be best to leave him there as they were his closest blood relatives and he’d be safe. Hagrid was even reluctant to give Harry to Albus since he’d already grown so attached to him and we were leaving him disconnected from the wizarding world.”

Amelia nodded at the information. “In the few years that he’s been living there, has Albus ever mentioned going to visit Harry or check in on his home life?”

“No, he’s never mentioned it. I assumed he’d been making sure Harry was loved and cared for, but I’ve been too busy with my duties and some of Albus’ that I’ve had no time to check myself or ask Albus outright about it.”

Amelia frowned a little. “Some of Albus’ duties?”

Minerva just nodded a little. “He’s put too much in his schedule so sometimes I’ve got to take care of some of the Headmaster’s duties. Though, of course, some of the issues relate to how much is still being resolved since the fall of You-Know-Who.”

Amelia nodded at that. “Thank you for telling me this. It’ll help with removing Harry from the home.”

She didn’t stay too much longer after that. She did promise to let Minerva know when Harry was rehomed with the Malfoys. Once he was, she’d write a letter to the Malfoys about being able to see Harry, and maybe bringing him to see Hagrid as well. She’d missed him and she knew Hagrid did too, and they could help with telling him about his parents and giving him some pictures. And maybe she’d be able to start teaching him Wizard’s Chess.