The Eight Potters
A two storey brick building sat in front of Draco. The porch light was on and reflecting off the perfectly green, perfectly manicured lawn. The downstairs light was shining through what he thought was the living room window and just beyond he could see the outline of a shape. It was a tall, scrawny shape with messy hair sticking up in all directions. Draco felt his heart pound and the corner of his lips beginning to twitch in a smile.
Finally, after weeks of waiting with barely any contact, he was here. They all were.
They landed one by one, thumping to the ground with hooves and heavy feet. Hagrid’s motorbike roared as it landed, notifying the last inhabitant of Number 4 Privet Drive of their arrival.
Draco barely had time to dismount before Harry was hurtling through the front door to stand among them. Their disillusionment charm faded and a chorus of voices called out a greeting. Not Draco. He was staring at Harry as Hermione ran forward to hug him, he was too skinny and those tired circles were deep under his eyes. But he was smiling up at Ron and Hagrid not having noticed Draco was even there yet and the happiness wiped some of the lines away.
“All righ’, Harry? Ready ter be off?” Hagrid said.
“Definitely,” Harry said, “but I wasn’t expecting this many of you!”
He beamed around at all of them and then stopped on Draco, his mouth falling open. “What are you doing here?!”
Draco straightened his back and rolled his eyes.
“I couldn’t very well let this lot try and get you back without me,” he said with a smirk. “And besides, I’m of age now so they couldn’t really stop me”.
Harry moved forward and Draco couldn’t help but take one little step in his direction. Harry hit him with a hug that knocked the breath out of him for a second, Draco leaning in and wrapping his arms around Harry’s back. It had been weeks since he’d seen Harry, weeks of awful newspapers and interviews. Weeks of not knowing if one of them might be next, if their last meeting at Kings Cross had actually been their last. He held Harry a little tighter and breathed in the smell of him.
“Enough of that,” growled Moody, “we need to get under cover”.
Harry stepped back with red-tipped ears. Draco didn’t care all that much, in fact, he grabbed for Harry’s hand and didn’t let go as they walked inside.
Harry led them into a very neat home. His own mother wouldn’t be able to find much wrong with the cleanliness of Number 4. Draco looked around in wonder, at the strange muggle contraptions and then at all the space that Harry had lived in. This was the place he had grown up in, the living room he’d watched the news, the kitchen he’d eaten breakfast in. This was the place Harry had been brought to the night his parents had died and the place he’d found out he was a wizard.
And it didn’t suit him at all. It was too white and clean, there were no posters of Quidditch or trinkets from Hogwarts. He knew Harry had probably packed all his belongings up to be ready to leave but there weren’t even any photos of Harry. All the frames showed the three faces of his Aunt, Uncle and Cousin. Actually the more he searched the more he found absolutely no trace of Harry at all, except for the snowy white owl in her cage on the counter.
He turned to Harry to ask but Sirius had caught up to them and was talking to Harry as he led them into the kitchen. And then the 16 of them began to settle themselves on any available surface. They leaned against counters and pulled out kitchen chairs, Fred and George had even pulled themselves up onto one of the gleaming surfaces to sit. Draco stood next to Harry by the sink, Sirius on Harry’s other side clapping him on the shoulder.
Lupin was there as well looking quite healthy for a change, Fleur was with Bill who despite his badly scarred face was smiling happily. Tonks, Kingsley and Mr Weasley were at the kitchen table, Mundungus was hunched over in the back hiding behind Hagrid, Ron and Hermione stood shoulder to shoulder and Moody was in front of all them, dropping two sacks to the floor.
They were all chattering and laughing, Harry calling out to those he hadn’t seen in months. Lupin had snuck over to them and was standing by Sirius’ side, listening as Sirius laughed at something Hagrid had said about the motorbike. Apparently, Sirius had been the one to build it… or enchant it or both? Draco couldn’t figure out which.
“All right, all right! We’ll have enough time for a cosy catch up later,” roared Moody over the noise. Silence fell in the kitchen and all eyes turned to Moody. “Now, as you’ve probably guessed, we had to abandon Plan A. Pius Thicknesse has gone over which leaves us with a big problem”.
“He’s gone and made it impossible for us to connect this house to the floo network,” Mr Weasley sighed, “or to Apparate in or out”.
“Or to place a portkey,” Moody continued, rolling his eye. The electric blue one rolled as well but all the way back into his head. “All in the name of your protection, of course. He’s made it almost impossible to get you out of here”.
“Right,” said Harry. “And that’s where all of you come in?”
“You’re underage which means you’ve still got the trace on you,” Moody said.
“Which means if you or anyone around you casts any magic, everyone will be alerted straight away,” Lupin said, noting Harry’s look of confusion.
“And we can’t wait for it to break because as soon as it does, your mothers charm wears off this place and you lose any protection she gave you,” Moody said.
“So what are we going to do?” Harry asked, looking around at them.
“Brooms, thestrals and Hagrid’s motorbike,” Moody said. “They’re the only magic available to us that can’t be detected”.
Draco turned to see Harry holding his mouth closed, he had that look on his face that Draco knew meant he had a lot of questions but was holding them back. Draco tried not to laugh, this plan was utterly ridiculous and watching as someone had to explain it to Harry was a good form of entertainment. And besides, it gave him a good reason to stare.
“This time when you leave, there’s no going back,” Moody explained. “The charm will break as soon as you're out of range… so, we’re going to break it early”.
Harry opened his mouth but Lupin interrupted, “it’s either this or risking You-Know-Who coming for you as soon as you turn 17”.
“Right…” Harry said, “and Vol- I mean, You-Know-Who doesn’t know about this plan?”
“We leaked a fake trail at the ministry,” Mr. Weasley said, “but there’s bound to be a few Death Eaters on patrol up there anyway”.
“We’ve got a dozen different houses ready to hide you,” Mood continued, “they’ve been covered in every protection we could think of: my house, Kingsley’s place, Andromeda’s, Molly’s Aunt Muriel - you get the idea”.
“You’ll go to my mum’s,” said Tonks with a grin, “from there you’ll portkey back to the Weasleys”.
“Any questions?” Moody asked.
“Er, right,” said Harry, looking around in confusion. “Actually yes, maybe they won’t notice the houses we’re going to but won’t it be obvious when 16 of us fly off to Tonk’s mums?”
Draco bit his lip to hide his grin, Harry was going to absolutely hate the next part.
“16 of us won’t be,” Moody said, “we’ll all have partners and we’ll all be going to different places. There’ll be eight Harry Potters flying out of Number 4 tonight”.
He then withdrew the Polyjuice potion from inside his cloak and gave it a little shake, his mouth turning up in a grin. Draco watched as the entirety of the plan dawned on Harry’s face, it fell instantly as Harry stepped forward.
“Absolutely not,” he said loudly, “no way!”
“I told them you’d react like this,” Hermione sighed.
“I’m not about to let seven people risk their lives-”
“Right because it’s the first time for all of us,” Ron snickered.
“But this is different, you’ll look like me! They’ll target you!”
“None of us particularly want this, Harry,” Fred said. “Imagine poor Draco over there getting stuck looking like you! I don’t think you’d be allowed to date anymore… that’d just be weird”.
Harry didn’t smile. But he did take in the sentence and turned quickly to Draco.
“You’re not- you can’t!”
“Watch me,” Draco answered without room for argument.
“I won’t cooperate, you can’t do it without my hair,” Harry said, crossing his arms and stepping back.
“Well, that’s us beat,” George said. “No chance we can get some hair if you don’t cooperate”.
“Yeah, fifteen of us against one scrawny git who’s not allowed to use magic,” Fred added. “We’ve no chance”.
“Not to mention, Draco could probably just ask you nicely and you’d hand it over,” Tonks added with a smirk.
“Really funny,” said Harry, “very amusing”.
“We’ll use force if we have, Potter,” Moody said, “everyone here’s overage and aware of the risks”.
“This is mad! You can’t-” Harry argued.
Draco sighed and took Harry’s hand in his and squeezed it, Harry fell silent. He turned and Draco met his eyes, he knew how much he hated this but it was the only safe way to get Harry out of there.
“If this were anyone else in this room,” Draco said, “would you risk it?”
“What? I-”
“Harry, what if this was Hermione or Ron? What if it were me? Would you risk it for us?”
He knew he had him when Harry’s eyes fell to the floor, his mouth turned into a firm line and he reached up to pull a small clump of hair out.
“Fine,” he said stonily, handing the hair straight to Moody and into the flask.
“Told you,” Tonks said, winking at Draco. There was scattered laughter around the room and Draco saw Harry’s face burn red. Their attention was caught when the mud-like substance started to change, turning into a clear, bright gold.
“Ooh, you look much tastier than Crabbe and Goyle,” Hermione exclaimed.
“Yeah, hopefully it tastes better too,” Ron added, “Crabbe’s tasted like bogeys”.
“Eating many bogies there, Ron?” Fred asked.
“Shut up”.
“Enough!” Moody said, “all fake Potters over against that wall and line up”.
Draco joined Ron, Hermione, Mundungus, Fleur, Fred and George up against the hallway wall. Harry was watching them, his face strained at the process. Moody pulled out 7 little cups and started pouring out the Polyjuice Potion, Draco wrinkled his nose but Hermione was right, it did look a lot better than some he’d seen before.
“All at once then,” Moody said.
Draco took his cup, glanced up at Harry, and then drank it all in one go. It burned on the way down but it didn’t exactly taste bad, more like a shot of Firewhiskey with a warm aftertaste. And then he groaned as the potion took effect and his body began to bubble and distort. Black hair fell over his eyes and everything in view became fuzzy and out of focus. Merlin, Harry’s eyesight was terrible!
His sweater got a little tight around the shoulders and the cuffs of his jeans fell over his shoes as he shrunk a few inches. It wasn’t as bad as Hermione or Fleur who were straining out of their clothes of Ron whose hands had disappeared under too long sleeves.
Draco looked down and yeah, this was weird. He was Harry, he looked exactly like Harry. He shook his head, cross kissing off the list until he turned back.
“Bah,” Fleur said, “Bill, don’t look at me - I’m ‘ideous”.
Draco glared at her. He liked Fleur, he really did, but no one had asked her opinion on the subject. And then they began to change, not seeming to care much about Harry’s privacy as Moody handed out better fitting clothes. They all just stripped off without worry, clothes falling to the floor. Draco felt a little embarrassed on Harry’s behalf and kept wanting to snap at the others to keep their clothes on or at least turn away.
“I’ve got glasses and luggage for when you’re dressed,” Moody continued. “Hurry up, we don’t have much time”.
Draco wanted to go to Harry, take his hand again but Harry stood against the wall watching in bewildered horror. Maybe it might be best to wait until they had a minute alone on the other end. And until Draco looked like himself again.
“Right, the pairs are as follows…”
Moody read off the list that Draco already knew by heart, he was watching as Harry took it in, noting how relieved he looked when he found out that Hermione was with Lupin and Draco was with Sirius.
Harry, however, looked less than reassured about his own companion. Draco had doubted Hagrid as well, arguing that it was much safer for Harry to be paired with Sirius or Moody. Or actually anybody else at all. But Moody had explained that Hagrid was the last person the Death Eaters would chase and how they’d expect Harry on a broomstick, he then closed the argument. Draco still wasn’t happy about it.
He put on a brave face in front of the giant but Draco knew him, he looked very worried. Draco followed after him as he was sent to grab his firebolt, luggage and Hedwig’s cage.
“Alright?” Draco asked, resting his hand on Harry’s arm. “I know it’s mad but well, it is Moody”.
Harry let out a huff of laughter, “it’s insane. This whole plan is ridiculous and you! I can’t even look at you”.
Draco laughed, “how about this? I was supposed to return to my Aunt’s tonight but, well, I’m sure I can come up with something to let me stay at the Weasleys”.
He raised his eyebrows and grinned at Harry suggestively but Harry just groaned.
“Stop doing that with my face,” he said, “please don’t tell me I look like that”.
Draco laughed and pulled Harry into a hug. It was odd hugging him when they were the same height, he was used to being taller. Harry didn’t quite fit right like this.
“I’ll see you on the other end, yeah?”
They ran outside where the others were all waiting, Sirius was helping Hermione up onto the same Thestral that Lupin was on and talking to them with an easy grin. When he saw Draco and Harry emerge he quickly leaned up and kissed Lupin goodbye before coming over to them. He squinted and then turned to the real Harry, placing a hand on his shoulder.
“It’s going to be fine, Harry, we’ll see you at the Burrow,” Sirius said, sounding solemn for once. “You’re over there with Hagrid”.
They turned to where Hagrid stood next to the huge motorbike and sidecar.
“Is that it? Is that yours?” Harry asked.
Sirius grinned proudly, “made her myself! Well, your father helped a bit- it’s called Elvendork”.
“Elvendork?” Draco repeated incredulous, “why on earth did you name it that?”
“It’s unisex,” Sirius replied, a sad little smile replacing the grin. “Anyway, Arthur and I have been playing around and adding a few fun things on there… just in case”.
“Last time you was on ‘ere, you could fit in one hand,” Hagrid said, joining them. He held out a pair of goggles for Harry to put on. Draco watched as Harry climbed in, looking a bit like a child in one of those muggle bumper cars and he couldn’t help grinning.
“Shut it, Malfoy,” Harry said with a glare. Draco flipped him off and went to grab his broomstick.
He mounted his broom at the same time as Sirius and looked over to the older man. He had felt incredibly safe knowing he would be with Sirius, he’d watched him fight and the man was dangerous with a wand.
“Stay close to me, Draco,” Sirius said, “don’t let them split us up, no matter what”.
Sirius was watching Harry before turning to lock eyes on Draco, “we stay together, alright? And we’ll see them all at the Burrow”.
Draco nodded, turning his attention away from Harry and up to the dark night sky. What was waiting for them up there? Had Voldemort really fallen for the false trail? Would they all get to the Burrow safely?
Fleeting glances were being thrown about the group, Lupin looking over at Sirius and then at Harry. Ron watching Hermione on the Thestral, Bill tightening his grip on Fleur, Mr Weasley carefully looking over all of his sons.
“Everybody ready?” Moody said, “we need to all leave at the same time or the whole point of the distraction is lost”.
Hagrid kicked the motorbike into life, Draco tightened his grip on his broom and nodded at Harry. They’d see each other soon, they would.
“Good luck, everyone,” shouted Moody, “see you all in about an hour at the Burrow! Alright then, three… two… one!”
Draco kicked off from the ground as the motorbike roared nearby. Sirius soared up beside him, both of them speeding off at the same time. They climbed higher and higher, into the clouds and then-
Out of nowhere they were surrounded. Hooded figures on broomsticks surrounded them and Draco couldn’t help the gasp that he let out. There were too many of them! Their real plan had been leaked! It was-
No. There was no time to think. He had already drawn his wand on instinct and beside him Sirius was blasting off curse after curse without hesitation. Bolts of light flashed around them, red and blue and Merlin, green.
Draco focused down on what was immediately surrounding him. He knew he’d be a target with Sirius as his companion, not to mention they were on brooms. He looked and there were at least five hooded figures coming in their directions, their wands raised and curses flying.
“Follow my lead!” Sirius yelled between jinxes. Draco managed a nod, shot off a hex and then followed as Sirius began to roll and dodge out of the way.
Where was Harry? Draco shook his head, he couldn’t afford distractions. He lunged after Sirius in a dive and managed to block a curse directed straight at him. There were yells around them, screams as spells hit their mark. Had any of theirs been hit?
“Stupefy!” Draco yelled, the spell hit the side of a hood and ripped it loose. The scraggly mass of Bellatrix’s hair came flying out of the hood, her maniacally grinning face followed. Bad, very bad, Draco thought, they had to get away.
Sirius must have had the same idea which was odd as Draco had thought Sirius would be one to stand and fight when faced with his cousin. He must have made a promise, Lupin must have made him promise.
Thank Merlin for Remus Lupin, Draco thought as he followed desperately beside Sirius. He didn't know what he'd do if Sirius has stopped to duel in this mid-air chaos. They still had three Death Eaters on them and as Draco looked around he couldn’t make out anything distinct. There were blurs of shapes and brooms and spells, he couldn’t tell friend from foe.
“Faster,” Sirius urged. Draco leaned over his broom and kicked it up a notch, speeding along at increasingly dangerous speeds. A jolt of green flew over his right shoulder, missing him by inches. A bolt of red flew near Sirius’ thigh. He heard laughter following them, curses ringing out into the night.
They were still being tailed, Sirius must have been dodging and circling too much as they hadn’t made it very far away. And then there was a yell in the distance, the Death Eaters behind them paused and then two of them turned and flew in the other direction, leaving only the one.
“Go, go!” Draco shouted.
Sirius must have been listening because they both took off at alarming speeds, shooting straight and fast into the distance. With three Death Eaters they’d had to wind and turn to dodge the spells but with only one? It was worth the risk to get as far away as possible and make a break for protection.
“Crucio!” the voice called from behind.
Draco flinched, he knew that voice, and had known it all his life. His father was chasing him. It only took him a moment of hesitation for his fathers curse to hit home, the cruciatus curse hitting him square in the back.
"Draco!" Sirius yelled.
Draco screamed in answer at the sudden, blinding pain. He bowed over his broom, yelling and clenching his fists. His eyes blacked out with spots, his thigh jolted, his head felt like it was splitting. He couldn’t hold on much longer, his hands were slipping, his weight falling to one side. Merlin, this was it. The pain was so blinding he didn't know which way was up.
Sirius was right there beside him, steady hands grabbing onto him and keeping him upright.
“Hold on,” Sirius yelled, “I’ve got you, we’re almost there!”
But there were more curses coming at them and soon that red would change to green and his father would start with the killing curse.
Draco turned and without hesitation screamed at him, “stop! Father! Stop it!”.
Lucius Malfoy halted in mid-air, he pulled his hood up and stared right at Draco, even as Sirius began to drag him away.
“Draco?” he heard his father, that uncertainty in his voice. “Is it you?”
Draco nodded and held up his wand, the same wand his father had bought for him when he was only eleven. 10 inches long, made of Hawthorn and unicorn hair. They’d gone to Ollivanders first and then Father had bought him ice cream.
Lucius Malfoy didn’t say a single word after that, he looked at Draco and nodded and then turned and flew off hard in the other direction. Draco was panting, the pain from the curse still burning through him.
“Go,” Sirius murmured. “I’ve got you, just focus on flying”.
Draco did. He couldn’t think of anything else, he closed his eyes for a moment and then just tried to fly. Sirius had a guiding hand on his arm to keep him upright and led him further and further into the night until they crashed through an invisible barrier. Sirius soared for the grass, pulling Draco down as well and he helped them both to land.
Draco touched down and then fell sideways off his broom, lying flat on the grass and breathing in deeply.
“Draco?”
A hand was shaking him, he pushed it off.
“Fine,” Draco snapped. “I’m fine”.
“I think we’re at Kingsley’s, be ready to go,” Sirius said, squeezing his shoulder. “I’ll get the portkey”.
And Sirius left him for a few moments to gather himself. His father had tried to kill him. Yes, he hadn’t known but still, he had tried to kill him. Draco took in a deep, shuddering breath. Nope, there was no way he was breathing through this. He pulled himself up, his nerves alight from the curse and his body jittery.
Sirius emerged and oh, hell, his sleeve was singed and there was a gash on his face. Draco hadn’t bothered to check on Sirius.
“Alright?” Draco managed, Sirius grinned at him.
“Just a little friendly hello from Bellatrix,” Sirius said, waving his sleeve. “Don’t know who this one was from but they got much nastier in return from me”.
“Portkey?”
Sirius held up a gardening spade, “takes off any minutes so you’d better grab on”.
“Did you see what happened?” Draco asked and he could hear the panic in his voice. “They knew… they knew our plan”.
“Yeah,” Sirius growled out, his eyes flashing. “Looks like we have a mole”.
“Did you see anyone else?”
Sirius shook his head, “there was too much… but they’ll be fine”.
The portkey began to flash, Draco ran over and grabbed his broom, his head swirling from the movement. He touched the portkey just in time and together he and Sirius disappeared from Kingsley’s backyard and into swirling blackness.