The Wonders of Family

o.O.o

The Wonders of Family

o.O.o

"Good morning Grams," Chris said in a chipper tone, then looked down at his shoes as his great-grandmother fixed her glare on him.

"I suppose I cannot blame your reasoning," she said, looking at Harry then suddenly smiling at the young men as she pushed a large bag into her great-grandson's hands. Chris's head popped up in surprise. "Well you need more food then what Harry packed," she admonished them. "You all be careful now, do you hear me? I will be watching out for you if you need me," she gave each of them a kiss on their cheek before grabbing Draco's left wrist. "You should really take care of that before you leave," she pointed out.

"I almost forgot about that," Draco scratched the back of his head sheepishly.

"This is going to hurt almost as much as it did to get the mark," Harry said as he pulled out his wand and placed a silencing charm on Draco before he could reply. Draco glared, then his face twisted into silent screams and he fell to his knees as a black smoky snake left through the mark, hissed at Harry, then dissipated. "Sorry about that," he looked down at Draco as he helped him to his feet and lifted the silencing charm. "Couldn't have you waking the whole house now."

"You could have given me a proper warning!" Draco glared as he accepted a pain potion. He looked down at his once marked wrist, and for the first time in a long time he felt...clean, happiness...light. "Thank you Harry," he said quietly as the trio exited the kitchen once more through the back kitchen door.

o.O.o

The arms that were wrapped around the curly-haired witch brought about the feelings of a warm secure safeness. Hermione unconsciously pressed herself closer to the warm body holding her securely and buried her face into the crook of the person's neck. She heard the person's breathing stutter the same time as she felt something hot and solid growing against her thigh. Her eyes slowly opened to find her sight obscured by long white-blond hair.

Her head snapped back at the same time surprised stormy grey eyes snapped open in surprise, matching the same look on her face. "Yo-" she winced as something crumpled in her clenched palm and cut into her skin. Hermione brought her hand up to see her own blood dripping and soaking a piece of parchment. Her name was written across the front in Harry's handwriting.

She twisted in Lucius's arms to find her best friend missing from the transfigured bed and hastily unfolded the blood soaked note, ignoring Lucius as he grabbed her bleeding hand and healed the cut. He looked down at his witch in concern when he noticed she started breathing heavier as she read the note. Phoebe suddenly sat up and cried out the same time as Hermione, frightening the other two witches and wizard.

Both witches curled into a ball and bawled, further scaring the other occupants of the nursery. Lucius grabbed Hermione and rocked his crying wife as he pulled the blood-soaked parchment out of her grasp. The wizard suppressed his own cries, as his throat and heart clenched in overwhelming fear for his son.

"What's happening?!" Piper demanded as she and Paige held Phoebe between them, attempting to soothe her. Lucius looked over at the women who called themselves the Charmed Ones.

"My dragon," was all Lucius could whisper before hiding his face into Hermione's neck and silently letting go of his own silent tears, dropping the parchment to the floor. Paige orbed the note and read along with her older sister.

"I'll ask Mister Snape for the calming draught," she whispered as her two older sisters held each other crying, one bawling. She re-entered the room with a shocked potions master and two extremely worried husbands who rushed to their wives side. Severus handed everyone a calming draught, only spelling it into an irreconcilable Hermione and Phoebe's stomachs. Hermione continued holding tightly to a non-complaining Lucius long after the calming draught took its effect on her, finally drifting off to sleep in his warm safe embrace.

"Don't," she whispered and held him tighter when he moved to leave the bed. He gratefully complied with his wife and stayed with her until he was sure she was fully asleep. Phoebe looked on at her worriedly as she slept. Lucius looked over at the empath as her own husband cradled her in his lap.

"So many emotions," she whispered to Lucius as silent tears fell down her cheeks, they both moved their eyes back to a sleeping Hermione. Lucius only held her tighter, his heart skipping when he felt a small bump being pressed into his stomach...their child. He looked down at his wife in silent awe, laying a lingering kiss on her lips. Phoebe and her husband Coop smiled at each other as they felt the wizard's emotions flow through him and them.

o.O.o

"Hold her," Coop said to Lucius as the blond stood by the nursery window, not looking out, but watching over his silent wife as she stared off into the distance. "She feels safe when you hold her," the cupid explained quietly. Lucius complied with his witch's unspoken emotions and lifted Hermione from the rocking chair and placed her in his lap, rocking them both back and forth as he held a non-protesting witch in his arms. His heart clenched as he yearned to hear her voice again, even if it was to berate him for touching her without her permission.

A few minutes later she slowly climbed out of his lap and walked into the bathroom between her bedroom and the nursery. Lucius sighed audibly when the door closed. "Is there not anything else I can do besides hold her?" He asked, hating how he sounded like he was pleading. "She has been in this state for a week," he said silently to the sisters, his wife's cousins.

"Be there for her," their Grams's voice whispered near her granddaughters' ears. The sisters looked at each other silently questioning each other, then they smiled.

"Bring her down to the kitchen," Piper said to Lucius. "It doesn't help her much staying in the nursery twenty-four/seven remembering her best friend as a baby, then having him ripped away by his own choice. She needs a change of scenery," Piper explained to the blond. Lucius carried his precious cargo down into the kitchen a little while later, sitting with her on a chair looking out the kitchen window.

"Dammit!" Piper muttered loudly enough to catch the attention of Lucius who eyed the marble counter top piled high with vegetables and the witch chopping away at them.

"Need help?" He asked the witch who was trying to act overwhelmed. He smirked at her bad acting, but went along with it.

"Could you?" Piper asked pleadingly. He bit back a laugh as he carried Hermione to a bench at the counter and took the seat next to her grabbing a knife and helping the horrible actress chop. After five minutes Hermione waved her wand and the whole counter top of vegetables fell apart into perfectly diced and sliced pieces. She stood up and climbed back into a surprised Lucius's lap.

Lucius raised an eyebrow at an equally surprised Piper, trying not to smirk at her failed plan. "I didn't really need all these vegetables," Piper muttered to herself after sending the duo to the main drawing room after Paige.

Lucius found the youngest sister at the desk in the drawing room surrounded by balled up muggle paper and muttering to herself as she wrote, shook her head, and crumpled up yet another paper, then discarding it into an overfilled waste basket. He sat with his wife in a chaise facing the roaring fireplace, holding her close as they listened to paper being wrinkled, thrown, then scratched upon with a muggle pen.

"Dang it!" Paige muttered loud enough to catch the attention of the witch and wizard sitting quietly and comfortably near the fireplace. Lucius turned, eyeing the witch quizzically, wondering what she was doing in her corner. At least she was a better actress than her older sister. He could give her that much.

"Is there a problem?" Lucius spoke up.

"I ran out of paper," Paige muttered as she rummaged through desk drawers looking for new leafs of loose paper. Lucius wrinkled his brows.

"Why not just erase and reuse what you have?" Lucius asked, puzzled by their lack of knowledge of spells. Paige looked up at him like he had a second head.

"You can't erase ink," she said slowly. Lucius smirked at the witch and pointed his wand at a crumpled piece of paper. It shot into the air smoothed itself out, erased itself of the ink, and floated onto the desk before Paige who looked down at the brand new leaf of paper. "Wow," was all she could say. "Can you do that to the rest?" She asked politely.

Lucius smirked, but nodded, agreeing to her request. He took his time waving his wand to each piece of paper, making the page new again, and floating it over to an ever amazed Paige. Hermione suddenly waved her wand and all the paper balls shot up into the air, unwrinkling themselves, erasing the ink, and they piled themselves into a neat pile next to Paige. Hermione gently tugged on Lucius's wand arm, and wrapped it around her person, burrowing herself closer into his chest. Lucius smiled down at the top of Hermione's head as he held her tighter to his chest laying a kiss to the top of her head.

"Hermione?" Lucius asked softly when she went usually stiff in his lap. She gasped and tears started springing from her eyes.

"Hermione!" Phoebe and Coop called as they ran into the drawing room.

"Harry!" Hermione started bawling as the two empaths clutched each other and cried along with her, holding their chests.

"What happened?!" Lucius demanded as his arms tightened around his wife. "What is going on?!"

o.O.o

"As promised," Harry said, handing the goblin, Griphook, the sword of Gryffindor. The goblin greedily took the sword as he snuck the trio into Gringott's under Harry's invisibility cloak.

"I think I left my stomach behind," Chris breathed out as the goblin's cart drove them further down into the bank's depths. Draco just smirked at the 'witch'.

"Merlin!" Harry gasped, then laughed.

"What?" Draco and Chris asked. Harry smirked at Draco.

"Unless you know something we don't," Draco glared at the laughing Boy-Who-Lived, who could only nod.

"We're related," Harry laughed again. "Hermione and I did the ceremony to become blood siblings," Harry smirked at the stunned blond.

"You-her," Draco stuttered. "No...no no," he shook his head in denial. "You cannot be my step-uncle!" He tried not to shout at the, again, laughing raven-haired young wizard.

"So that would mean we are cousins," Chris smiled at Harry and chuckled at the blond who was still in denial. The cart suddenly lurched forward, throwing the trio and Goblin out, then took off, leaving them stranded at the bottom of Gringott's.

"They've discovered us!" Griphook shouted.

"Get to the vault!" Harry ordered. The goblin hurriedly led them to the door and inside.

"Thank you for the sword Harry Potter," Griphook said and took off, leaving the trio inside.

"Just find the cup," Chris said to the angry wizards, and reached out to grab the nearest chalice.

"No!" Draco shouted, stopping Chris and Harry from touching anything. "You touch and the object duplicates and burns your skin," he said.

"Accio Helga Hufflepuff's cup!" Harry tried to summon, nothing happened and Draco snickered.

"Summoning won't work in here either," Draco smirked.

"Well then how do we find it?!" Harry tried not to yell his frustration. "We can't touch, we can't summon!" Chris held out his hands.

"Helga Hufflepuff's cup," he said in a clear strong voice. White-blue orbs surrounded an object at the top of the piles of gold and appeared in Chris's hands. When the orbs disappeared a golden cup lay in his hands.

"Cool," Harry breathed out.

"We need to leave," Draco said urgently as they heard curses being thrown in the distance.

"How?" Harry asked. "The damn goblin abandoned us!"

"Hold on," Chris said as he grabbed the two wizards and orbed them into their warded tent in the forest.

"That is always fun," Draco chuckled as he rubbed his stomach.

"Every time you orb it tickles," Harry smiled. "We should apparate him sometime soon," Harry said to Draco.

"Sometime after you win this war," Draco was suddenly serious. "Now we need to move on to Hogwarts."

"We'll rest first," Harry said. "It's almost morning. Then we'll fly to Hogwart's tomorrow when night settles in. Get all the sleep you can," he said as he took a bunk and promptly fell asleep.

Draco looked down at his former school mate sadly. His thoughts began drifting off as he thought about how Hermione was doing. He cursed himself a thousand times over for actually forgetting and leaving his galleon behind. Hopefully Hermione was doing well, he knew she would be worried sick for him and Harry. Then he thought of Hermione's theory about Harry being a horcrux and he actually wanted to cry for a third time in his short life.

The morning and afternoon passed quickly for the trio. They awoke to tension filling the air around them. They could feel it, almost smell it. Something big was going to go down, they could feel the ever tightening tension seeping deep into their bones and the very air they breathed as they made their way to Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry under the cover of nightfall.

"We fly into Hogsmeade," Draco said over the wind. Harry looked at him curiously. "Hogwart's will be warded against intruders," he explained. The trio silently entered the Hogshead and followed the hidden passage into the Room of Requirement.

"Harry!" Ginny called as she ran into his waiting arms. All his friends gathered around him.

"It's time," was all Harry said.

"All the younger students Fifth year and below will be evacuated," Draco said over the chattering.

"Death Eater!" Parvati Patil spat.

"No!" Harry hissed back and shoved Draco's dark mark-free arm in her face. "He's with us!" He said loud enough for everyone to hear. "He has been helping us since the death of Dumbledore. We owe him respect for being a spy for the Order! Now we need to listen to him and evacuate the younger students," Harry ordered.

"Those Sixth and Seventh year students who wish to stay and help us fight will be welcome," Draco said speaking over the chattering that suddenly became louder. He ignored the distrusting looks and glares. "Those who wish to leave will need to help the younger students evacuate. Prefects please see your houses safely to an exit," he finished just as there was a loud Boom in the distance.

"Clear out!" Harry yelled to the panicking crowd. "Prefects gather your house!" He yelled with a Sonorus charm. "We need to get to the Chamber of Secrets," Harry pulled Chris and Draco through the panicking students and out into the corridor. They ran down moving staircases, past yelling portraits, up empty corridors.

"What are you doing?!" Minerva McGonagall yelled. The trio stopped at the sound of her stern voice. "Who are you?" The professor glared at Chris.

"Professor," Harry spoke up. "It's starting. You need to warn the other Professors and the Order and guard the school. Students are already being evacuated by their house's prefects." She nodded and strode away as quickly as she came upon the young men.

"This is the girl's bathroom," Draco smirked. Harry just looked at him.

"You had no qualms about that our Sixth year," Harry smirked back. "I'm sorry for cursing you," he sincerely apologised, then turned and hissed at a sink.

"Parseltongue," Draco said to a freaked out Chris as the sinks slid open. Harry turned and smirked at them before jumping down and sliding into the darkness. "Just great," Draco muttered as he and Chris followed. Harry led them into the Chamber of Secrets.

"The Basilisk," Draco looked at the reptilian corpse with a guilty expression. "Father always beats himself up over this," he said quietly.

"Let's just grab some fangs and leave," Chris said as he suppressed a shiver at the remains of the large snake. Harry used his Basilisk's fang to pierce the founder's cup. Water engulfed them when they attempted to escape the chamber before the water soaked them.

"They've started," Harry said as the trio ran back into the Room of Requirement to find Ravenclaw's personal possession.

"Ravenclaw's diadem," Chris said, the crown appeared in his hands.

"You come in handy," Draco smirked at him, then abruptly turned at the noise of a pile of things spilling over. "Crabbe, Goyle," Draco greeted them in a neutral tone.

"You're with him!" Crabbe accused. "Traitor!" The Slytherin attempted to hex his blond housemate.

"Wand!" Chris summoned. Crabbe's wand disappeared from him and reappeared in Chris's hand.

"What was that?" Crabbe asked in awe, forgetting about Draco.

"You!" Goyle yelled.

"Expelliarmus!" Harry shouted and Goyle blocked, to the amazement of Harry and Draco. Crabbe grabbed Goyle's wand and yelled. The white-orange flames of Fiendfyre shot out of the wand and the young wizard could not control them.

"Run!" Harry shouted.

"Accio brooms!" Draco yelled as they turned a corner that was already flaming in the magical fire. Harry threw the horcrux into the flames as the trio and a rescued Goyle flew out of the flame engulfed room.

o.O.o

"Misster Weasley," the quiet voice hissed. Ronald Weasley tried to suppress the chill that ran down his spine at the voice of his Dark Lord addressing him.

"Yes Master," the ginger said in a grovelling tone, silently thanking Merlin he did not stutter.

"You will bring me Ssseverus Ssnape," Voldemort hissed. "Immediately!" He ordered. Ron jumped and scurried away to do his master's bidding.

o.O.o

"Wyatt!" Chris called as Harry closed the eyes of a smiling ginger as tears dripped off his chin.

"What's going on?!" Wyatt demanded as he orbed into a literal war-zone.

"Can he be healed?" Harry asked quietly as he looked down at Fred Weasley. Wyatt kneeled over the body as his hands glowed golden-white. "Is he...?" Harry drifted off after what seemed like a minute of Wyatt's healing. Suddenly Fred gasped for air and looked wildly around his surroundings. "Fred," Harry grabbed him into a bear hug.

"He was almost gone," Wyatt said quietly. "What is going on here?" He asked as people ran past them some falling injured from spells and curses, some falling dead from the Killing curse.

"It's toning down," Chris said. "But the ending is near," he said quietly, looking at Harry.

"I'm going to find more people to heal," Wyatt said suddenly. "I'll be careful," he said looking at his worried brother. "When I need help I'll call Aunt Paige. Call me again if I'm needed." Chris nodded and left with Draco and Harry as they left for some place called the Shrieking Shack.

"What was that you did to me?" Fred asked the blond as he helped him up.

"I healed you," Wyatt answered. "Hermione's magic is different from ours. I'm guessing you wield the same brand of magic she does," he said as he eyed Fred's wand.

"You know Mione," a wide smile broke out on Fred's face.

"She's my cousin," Wyatt answered. Fred frowned.

"She doesn't have family. Her parent's were killed," he said sadly. "They were the only family she had." Wyatt just gave him a soft smile.

"We discovered our relation a few weeks ago," he answered as he looked around at the falling and fallen wizards and witches. "With my magic I don't use a wand," Wyatt said thoughtfully. "If you watch my back while I heal-"

"I'll gladly do it," Fred interrupted with a big smile. "I owe you a life-debt after all."

"A what?" Wyatt asked as he followed Fred.

o.O.o

"Nagini," the soft harsh voice hissed. "Kill," it ordered. Then the owner's voice was gone.

'That was old Voldy?' Chris mouthed to Harry and Draco as he shivered at the sound. They both nodded to him gravely and all three jumped when the snake started mauling its ordered target. Harry jumped up and ran to help but the snake was gone and a fatally injured potions master was left behind.

"Uncle Sev!" Draco shouted as he and Harry rushed to his aide.

"Wyatt!" Chris called.

"Take them," Severus Snape whispered to Harry as his last tears started falling. The potions master was surprised when glowing hands started alleviating his pain.

'You're going to be all right,' a warm voice soothed him while his wounds were healed and the pain started dissipating.

"I will never get over how cool that is," Fred smiled down at the healed Dark Wizard and the Whitelighter.

"Thank you," Severus said to his miracle healer. "Harry we need to talk alone," he said solemnly and gave his Godson a bear hug, to Draco's surprise. "To the Headmaster's office," he said to Harry as they left the shack to see the morning beginning to blossom over the blood covered grounds of everyone's beloved wizarding school.

o.O.o

"Harry," Chris said as he and Draco waited for him by the steps in front of the Great Hall. Harry looked at them as if in a daze.

"You know," Draco said quietly. "Hermione was right." Harry smiled sadly.

"Hermione is always right," Harry answered softly. "Tell her I love her," he requested.

"What is going on?" Chris asked exasperatedly.

"He's going into the forest," Draco answered softly. Chris's head turned to Harry sharply.

"You can't go alone," he said definitely. Harry just shook his head sadly.

"I have to do this alone," he said simply, but with overwhelming sadness.

"You're family just like Hermione is," Chris said firmly.

"Either we go with you into the forest," Wyatt spoke up from behind Harry, "or we don't allow you to go at all."

"Mister Potter has to do this alone," Severus Snape spoke up from beside Wyatt. He looked at Harry with tears in his eyes. Draco looked at his Godfather in wonder at his show of open emotions. "Go Harry," he ordered softly. Harry looked at him thankfully before heading towards the Forbidden Forest.

"He's not going alone," Wyatt said definitely.

"He has to," the Dark wizard hissed. Wyatt shook his head and became invisible.

"No he doesn't," Wyatt's voice said before he orbed away.

o.O.o

"It's Harry," Coop said quietly as he held his own wife. "We felt it when Hermione felt it."

"What did you feel?!" Lucius demanded to know as he held and rocked his precious bundle as she clung tighter to him, quietly sobbing.

"She felt Harry p-p..." Phoebe tried to say, but drifted of as she sobbed into her husband's chest.

"Harry passed," Coop said softly. Everyone gasped. Hermione sobs became louder at the confirmation of her best friend's death and Lucius held her to himself tighter than ever as he worried about the fate of his son.

o.O.o