Chapter Text
Harry Potter never understood what Summer Holidays really meant until the summer of his 13th birthday.
For the first time in his life, he didn’t have to go back to the Dursleys. The Diggorys took him in and to be honest it had been a bit awkward at first… well, Harry had felt awkward, at least.
Mr Amos Diggory worked at the Ministry of Magic in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures and he was very proud of his son. Apparently, Cedric was not only a decent seeker, but he was also the top of his class and in good position to become Prefect next year. Harry tried to be polite and to listen to Amos boasting about his son’s accomplishments at every given opportunity at first… but it became boring quite quickly.
Thankfully, Mrs Daisy Diggory wasn’t like her husband. Of course, she clearly loved her son, but she was mainly worried he might be doing too much and putting his health in danger. She sometimes scolded Amos because he was putting too much pressure on Cedric, but Cedric was always prompted to reassure her and tell her that he was okay.
Daisy was a mind-healer – kind of a psychiatrist but for wizards – and after a few days of letting Harry adjust to their house, she gave him a choice. Either she would be his psychiatrist or someone else from St Mungo’s would be, but he would not stay any longer without speaking about what happened to him to a professional.
Harry had been a bit frightened by that announcement at first. Even though he managed to be honest and tell the truth to a Ministry Official the previous year, it was mainly for his friends. He still had a hard time trusting people to believe him so he really didn’t want to talk if he could avoid it. But Daisy welcomed him in her home, so she probably knew already… So, in the end, he decided that it might be easier to talk to her as they would spend the next two months together anyway.
As soon as he agreed to the therapy session, Daisy had relaxed and even congratulated him. He wouldn’t have to speak about the hard stuff right away, but they would have two sessions of two-hour talk every week. She also encouraged Harry to keep a diary and to write at least once every other night.
“It’s for you, I won’t be reading it neither will anyone else,” she assured him with a smile. “You can write about your day or about a special memory. I also would like for you to write down your dreams and your nightmares if you remembered them. Remember you’re doing it for you. Writing it down might help you process it and, when you’re ready, we’ll talk about it during sessions, ok?”
Harry had approved hesitantly and immediately Daisy had ordered Cedric to take Harry to London to buy writing supplies. If he wanted to be motivated to write, he would need supplies that made him want to do it, otherwise, it would never stick!
The Weasleys twins had been around at that time, so they came with them and they ended up having a wonderful time in Muggle London. Apparently, Daisy’s father was muggle and he had introduced his grandson to the muggle world since he was a toddler. Fred and George were far less comfortable than Cedric and Harry though. So, it had been really fun to see them taking the elevator for the first time or to order some soda cans from a vending machine.
Cedric was nice. He had offered Harry to help him with his summer assignments and he was good at Quidditch. They flew a lot when the weather allowed it. He even got a bit jealous when Harry’s week at the Malfoys’ came closer. The Prides wasn’t his favourite team, but it was still a pretty awesome opportunity that he wished he had too.
Professional Quidditch Team’s training was something else. Harry felt lucky that Wood wasn’t there because it could have given him ideas. Neville had a good intuition not to come over until the last weekend because neither his friends had any energy after their training. After the first day, he and Draco just dropped dead on their beds. They were completely drained but it was good fatigue. Harry didn’t even get a nightmare despite missing his daily fifteen-minute meditation session before sleep.
Around the 3rd day, their bodies seemed to adjust a little and they had the longest exploding snaps game in the evening. They had been playing in a small sitting room and Draco’s parents had been there too, reading a book for his mother and the Daily Prophet for his father. An old turntable was playing some classical music. It very much felt like a quiet family evening despite Harry being here.
Harry didn’t see Draco’s parents much. Draco’s father was working most of the day. He was usually finishing his breakfast when they went down in the morning, and sometimes, wasn’t home when they come back from the Quidditch Training at 6 pm. Draco’s mother was very beautiful and only took tea for breakfast. She was the one who took them to the Quidditch Training in the morning and came to get them back in the afternoon. She usually had social events during the day and was apparently managing some of their monetary investments. Draco told Harry that she wasn’t the one cooking as it was the house-elves’ jobs, but she always made sure they finished their plates and that Draco ate his vegetables.
They seemed a bit cold in Harry’s eyes because they never hugged Draco or told him they loved him as the Dursleys did with Dudley or the Diggorys with Cedric or even the Weasleys with their children. He waited for Neville to be there before expressing his concern to Draco but the Slytherin assured him that he had never doubted his parents’ love and that they were just acting a bit more distant because they had a guest over.
“I’m not a guest… I’m just a kid and… Don’t they want to adopt me? Will they keep on acting like that towards you if they really adopt me?” Harry asked and it sounded like a whine even to his ears.
It seemed to sound weird to Draco and Neville too because Harry never whined. He had never been really allowed to. But Daisy told him that he needed to act more like a kid, so he guessed it was okay.
“Hospitality is important in wizarding culture… even if you’re just a kid, you’re still a guest and the Heir of an important House and…” Draco started mumbling before Neville came saving him.
“What Draco is trying to say is that you aren’t less important because you’re a kid, and his parents try to respect that. As for what would happen if they manage to adopt you… I’m sure you don’t need to worry. They probably just don’t know how much space you want or if you would be comfortable with too much proximity… They’ll probably be a better option than my grandmother if you need real parental hugs…” he joked.
“My parents aren’t big huggers either… I mean… they were when I was 5 or something but… well… I’m not 5 anymore. But they will always be there if you need them and they always say that I can go to them for anything.” Draco smiled softly but seemed to think about something sour because his face became darker and he looked down immediately after that.
“What is it?” Harry asked.
“Nothing,” Draco sighed. “Anyway, you don’t need to worry, my parents won’t just stop loving me if they adopt you. I’m an awesome son, you won’t replace me so easily.”
Draco was grinning now, so Harry did the only sensible thing to do, he grabbed his pillow and threw it to his face.
On his last day at the Malfoys, Harry had a hard time sleeping. Draco and Neville had been fast asleep, but he had been lying there in his bed for what felt like hours. Some thoughts just could not sit right in his mind. So, at some point he decided to get up and to seek the kitchen for a glass of water. He knew it was just an excuse because he could very much have just drunken some water from the tap of Draco’s in-suite bathroom, but he needed it.
When he passed by Mister Malfoy’s study, he saw that the light was still on, so he knocked softly at the door.
“Come in,” called the man’s voice.
When he pushed the wooden door, he noticed that Mrs Malfoy was there too.
“Mister Potter, I thought you boys had gone to bed already…” Mr Malfoy said while his wife watched Harry carefully.
“We had,” Harry acknowledged. “Draco and Neville are already sleeping…”
He looked down. He had felt far braver a few minutes before when he had still been in his bed.
“What can I do for you?” Mr Malfoy continued.
“I… I wanted to ask you something… about…” he was fingering now. He felt so stupid. “About my childhood friend. June Islington? Draco told me you didn’t have the time last year and I perfectly understand but I was wondering if…”
“If I had any more luck since the end of your school year?” Mr Malfoy finished for him and Harry nodded with relief. “Sadly, I didn’t and I’m very sorry about that. It seemed that the muggles completely lost track of her. I tried to retrieve some of her personal belongings through her former guardians but either they didn’t have enough ownership feelings toward them, or she’s somewhere protected against localization charms because even through magical means, I couldn’t find her. I’m very sorry Mister Potter. Draco told us it was of utmost importance to you…”
Harry forced himself to breathe slowly and to control his reaction. He knew that already, there was no need to feel disappointed. He knew it already.
“Apart from localizing her, would your charms tell you if she was dead?” he asked, trying not to think too much about the implication of his question.
“Mister Potter…”
“Harry,” he corrected him without looking up. He just needed to keep breathing. Not to think too much. It was just information. Knowing or not knowing wouldn’t change the fact that it had already happened and that he couldn’t do anything about it.
“Harry,” Mr Malfoy resumed. “Those charms would indeed come back unsuccessful in the eventuality of the demise of the target. However, I cannot confirm that this is the reason why the charms are unsuccessful without a drop of blood of the target, which I don’t have.”
“Hope is the only thing stronger than fear, Harry,” Mrs Malfoy said softly. “Instead of thinking of the worse, try thinking about the best. Your friend might also be safe and sound, waiting to come back to you, somewhere. If it’s due to happen, Fate will bring her back to you, eventually… On the meantime, my husband will keep trying to find out what happened to your friend.”
Harry was staring at the ground. He just needed to breathe out. It wasn’t that hard…
“Draco told me that she might be from your family…” he mumbled.
“She, indeed, shares physical marks that are prominent in the Black family. However, I found no trace of a child being born around 1981 in my direct or extended family, whether it had been in or outside of wedlock…”
“I understood you weren’t really close to your whole family…” Harry tried to argue. He looked up at her, but he really didn’t know why he felt angry. It wasn’t her fault. He knew it wasn’t her fault but…
“Of course, I’m not in contact with my most extended family, some of them had left Britain for a few generations already. However, if you’re referring to my sister, Andromeda, I assure you, I have proof that she didn’t give birth that year. As for my cousin, Sirius… I cannot know for sure, of course. He had always assumed the role of a player, but for as much as I know, he wasn’t really into the kind of relationships that could father a child at that time…” she sighed softly. “I’m afraid I didn’t have the courage to reach out to his last known lover to know if they knew anything about it, but I could if you want me to. I’m not sure they would answer me though…”
“You don’t think that person could be my friend’s mother?” Harry deduced.
“No, they can’t be,” she confirmed.
Harry looked away. That man betrayed his parents, it wouldn’t be that surprising if he also betrayed his lover and cheated on her behind her back. He certainly must have been the irresponsible kind.
“There’s also Regulus, my other cousin. He was only 18 when he died in early 1981 but had been missing for a few weeks before that. If he had a lover, somewhere, he didn’t tell me about it…”
“Were you close?”
“I made him Draco’s godfather,” she answered simply. “He was kind and would have sacrificed everything to protect what mattered to him.”
He understood that she didn’t want for Ace to be her younger cousin’s daughter, but she couldn’t know for sure. Nobody knew for sure…
“Just so you know, we tried to use my blood to locate your friend and it didn’t work either,” Mrs Malfoy added. “As for the other locating charms, there are several reasons that could explain this failure. One of them is that she’s not from my family…”
“But your family would have hurt her if they had believed her to be a squib,” Harry snapped.
“My family isn’t perfect; I can reckon that. I would never condone the way my aunt treated both my cousins and I tried my best not to reproduce this situation with Draco.”
“By forcing him to marry a girl he doesn’t love?!”
Both adults seemed taken aback by this accusation.
“Did Draco complain about his betrothal with Astoria?” Mr Malfoy asked.
Harry froze. He never really talked to Draco about it. He was angry with the idea of forced marriage, but Draco and Neville didn’t seem to find it strange or anything.
“He didn’t…” Harry admitted, not willing to put Draco in a worse situation towards his parents. He had probably already talked too much. “I… maybe it’s just me because I was raised by muggles but I… Arranged marriages aren’t really a thing anymore back there,” he muttered.
The two adults shared a silent look.
“It’s a bit more complicated than that but please, know that we would never force Draco to do something he didn’t agree with. Our arrangement with the Greengrasses was a necessary measure we took in time of war to ensure our son’s future if anything had happened to us. Thankfully, we made it okay and saw him grow up ourselves. As for the lingering engagements of our arrangement, we plan on talking it through with Draco when he will be of age. He’ll have his word in this, and so will Astoria Greengrass. We can at least promise you that.” Mrs Malfoy explained.
“And for the record, we had this kind of arranged marriage too, in our time. It didn’t prevent us from loving each other or our son dearly,” Mr Malfoy explained, creating a soft smirk on his wife’s lips.
“Oh, you were so totally in love from day one, Lucius. I could have done anything to you,” Mrs Malfoy teased him.
“I’ll pretend that I don’t realise that you still can,” he answered lovingly.
And seeing them like that triggered something warm into Harry’s chest. He felt a bit like intruding but he was also kind of relieved… but still, he didn’t really know what to think. It’s not because Draco’s parents’ arranged marriage was happy that he would be!
“What if Draco doesn’t like her, though? What if she doesn’t like him?” he said. “What if… what if he likes someone else?? Or he has a child who is a squib?! Do you even know why he felt so down lately???” He almost yelled. And he felt stupid. Maybe Draco just didn’t want to talk to his parents about what was going on. Who was he to judge?! He certainly didn’t speak to anyone about what was on his mind for a very long time. He was such a hypocrite. Or maybe Draco did talk to his parents already but didn’t want to talk to Harry… Maybe it was Harry’s fault for not being open enough… Neville had always been a better listener. And suddenly Harry felt sick with himself and couldn’t face the two adults anymore. “I… I think I’ll go back to bed…” he mumbled, and he fled before giving them a chance to answer.
When he stumbled into Draco’s room, he didn’t notice his friend stirring softly into his bed. He was lost in his thoughts. What was he thinking? What if he had put Draco in troubles with his parents? What if all that had just been an act and…
“Harry?” Draco’s sleepy voice called. “What’s going on?”
Harry looked up and dove into his friend’s silver eyes. He knew he would never forgive himself if he had just done something that could put Draco into any danger… However, theoretically, his parents shouldn’t represent a danger in any situation… they weren’t the Dursleys… theoretically…
“Har’?” Draco called again.
Harry stumbled to Draco’s bed and looked at his friend. He would go back to the Diggory the next day, how would he know if he had just screw Draco’s relationship with his parents? What if Draco’s parents didn’t want to foster him anymore??
Harry knew he couldn’t escape his nightmares that night no matter how much meditation he would put himself into. What had he been so stupid???
“C-can I sleep with you?” he muttered. “I…” What could he say? He didn’t even know how to explain to Draco what he just did!
But Draco didn’t need any explanation as he just pulled his cover and made him more space on the mattress. Harry lied down next to him and tried not to think of Mr Malfoy as a Vernon Dursley rip-off.
He closed his eyes and cuddled against Draco’s chest. Draco sleepily hugged him back and Harry felt nostalgic suddenly. It reminded him of those nights during the summer between his 2nd and 3rd grade in elementary school. When Ace had invited him over. Before her foster mum died. Before everything went to hell for her.
Harry fell asleep on that thought and on the next morning, he woke up to Neville’s smirking face.
“w-what?” he groaned.
“Nothing. Your pillow sure seems comfortable…” Neville laughed.
Harry frowned and looked on the other side to see a frozen Draco who didn’t dare to move. His pillow was, in fact, Draco’s arm and he quickly got up.
“Sorry…” he mumbled.
“No prob’…” Draco whispered, massaging his arm to restore blood circulation. “Are you feeling better?”
Harry didn’t understand the reason he asked that at first. Then he remembered the night before and his discussion with Draco’s parents and felt like he was going to be sick. So, he just groaned and hid his face on Draco’s pillow.
“What?” Neville asked.
“I… I talked to Draco’s parents last night and… I…” Harry started and then stared sideways at Draco. “I… I just can’t understand that stupid arranged marriage business…”
“You argue with my parents about my betrothal?” Draco choked.
“Among other things…” Harry mumbled. “I said some stupid things…”
“Well, clearly you regret it,” Neville ratiocinated.
Harry nodded. He didn’t know why he got so worked up. “They… they told me they didn’t get any clue about Ace and I just… I know it’s not their fault, but I was so mad…” He sighed. “I’m sorry, Draco. I don’t want to make things strange between you and your parents…”
“It’s okay…” Draco tried to smile but it looked a bit fake. “I doubt anything you said could do any real damage to my relationship with them.”
Harry tried to believe him but still felt bad about the whole situation. He groaned into the pillow again.
“What now?” Neville laughed.
“They’re certainly waiting for us downstairs, aren’t they?” Harry moaned.
“Certainly,” Draco confirmed proudly.
“If you’re feeling so bad, you should just apologize, Harry,” Neville said kindly. “I’m sure the Malfoys won’t be mad at you.”
“Hum…”
Harry wasn’t convinced but his friends didn’t leave him the choice as they were pulling him out of the bed. They washed their faces and changed before going downstairs for breakfast. Both Mr and Mrs Malfoy were already there.
“Hello~,” Neville and Draco said brightly.
“Good morning boys,” Mrs Malfoy answered.
“Good morning…” Harry mumbled less lively than his friends.
But neither Draco nor Neville would let him get out of it.
“Harry has something to tell you,” Draco announced.
And Harry was ready to strangle him. But it wouldn’t do well to do it in front of his parents anyway.
“I… I wanted to apologize about last night…” he mumbled without looking up to see the adults’ faces. “It was rude and not my place to express opinions about your relationship with Draco… Please don’t be mad at him for what I said…”
Silence answered his speech until Mrs Malfoy to put an end to his misery.
“We accept your apology and are not mad at you either, Harry. You worry about your friends and our son is one of them.”
“How can we be mad at you for being a loyal and faithful friend?” Mr Malfoy confirmed. “If anything, we should be grateful that our son has such wonderful friends around him.”
“Our gratitude is also toward you, Heir Longbottom. We didn’t have a chance to thank you both properly for discovering the Chamber of Secrets and clearing our son’s name. Severus told us what you did. It was very brave,” Mrs Malfoy said.
“Well, they’re Gryffindors…” Draco hmphed uncomfortably behind Harry.
His mother smiled softly at him.
“As a reward, we organized with your respective guardians to have you both over one more night on the 1st of August to see Ireland-Greece Quidditch Match,” Mr Malfoy said.
“The qualification match for next year World Cup????” Draco exclaimed excitedly.
“Indeed,” his father confirmed.
Harry was gobsmacked. He knew how hard it was to have places to this event from Ron’s non-stop complaining the previous year. He eyed Neville who seemed equally amazed despise not being as much a Quidditch fan as he or Draco.
When Daisy appeared in the floo hall of the manor an hour later to take him home, Harry hadn’t got rid of the amazement on his face yet.
“Does that mean that the Malfoys revealed to you your secret birthday present?” the woman joked lightly.
“Did you organize that with them?” Harry asked in a whisper.
“They asked for our permission as your temporary guardians and we had no reason to refuse. Amos and Cedric were going anyway. I guess the more the merrier. Are you ready to go?”
Harry nodded and said bye to Draco and his parents – Neville had already left ten minutes before. Daisy took the floo with him as she did the week before and Harry stepped out coughing in the Diggorys’ small living room.
“Cedric is on the back yard, the Weasley twins are here,” she told him while spelling his bag to his room upstairs.
“Ok, thank you, Daisy.”
“If you’re okay with it, we’ll have a session at 2 this afternoon.”
“Ok.”
“Off you go then. Cedric had so many questions for you, don’t make him wait.”
Harry nodded and ran to the back-yard door. He found Cedric and the twins easily as Fred and George were almost yelling. They both seemed pretty upset.
“Hey, guys…” Harry made himself known timidly.
“Oh, Harry! Welcome back!” Cedric said cheerfully. “How was your week? Are you still able to walk by yourself or are you under a litre of pepper-up potion right now?”
“I’m okay, it was awesome,” Harry smiled. “I learnt so much new moves. I could show you if you want!”
“Harry!” Fred stopped him, pretending to be outraged.
“How dare you!” continued George.
“It’s already bad enough that Slytherin’s seeker went training with you…”
“… don’t give Hufflepuff a chance to keep up too!”
Harry laughed softly at their antic.
“But the game would be much more interesting if we give the other Houses a chance too…” he pretended to whine.
“They don’t need one!” George said matter-of-factly.
“Yeah… they’re already trying to still away one of our beaters… No need to put us under more handicaps…” Fred moaned.
“What?!” Harry laughed.
But George had just elbowed violently his brother to make him shut his mouth.
“Anyway, we should probably go, or mum will go frantic…” George groaned.
“Send us letters, okay?” Cedric requested.
“We will… but I pity the owl that would carry away the numerous letters of you two love birds across the world…” Fred sighed.
“Would you shut up!” George snapped but Cedric was laughing joyfully.
“I’ll make sure to change owl before answering so no bird gets hurt,” he promised, and George groaned louder, probably because he was going along his brother’s joke.
“See you in September then, Harry!” Fred exclaimed pulling a sulking George behind him.
“Bye,” Harry said before turning to Cedric. “Where are they going?”
Cedric stopped staring at the two red-heads’ back and blinked at him. “Oh, right, you weren’t there. Their father won the Daily Prophet Grand Prize Galleon Draw and they’re going away to visit their brother Bill in Egypt.”
“Oh! That’s… awesome!” Harry exclaimed. “They didn’t seem so thrilled about it, though…”
Cedric shrugged. “Well… you know… with so many children, their family has always had difficulty to make ends meet and they’re kind of upset that their parents would waste money on vacations instead of investing it or using it to repair their house or any other responsible thing that needs to be done…”
“Wow… did someone curse them to act like Percy?” Harry joked and Cedric smiled at him.
“Their other brother, Charlie, is also in Egypt right now and they suspect their mother decided to go there on purpose. I think that’s the real reason they’re so mad…”
“Charlie is the Quidditch-Dragon tamer one, right?” Harry asked. “He was the one to help us getting Draco the week of training with the Prides… Is something wrong with him being there too?”
Cedric looked at him as if he was pondering whether he should tell him more or not.
“Well, you see… when Percy was in first year, something happened and, well… their mother was furious with Charlie. He was in 5th year then. The twins had never seen her like that. And it became worse and worse… She even asked him to withdraw the wand she bought him for his first year. In the end, Bill – who was finishing his 7th year at the time – decided to take Charlie with him when he left for Romania for his first job at Gringotts. Charlie enrolled in a magizoologist internship program with a specialization in dragonology and got his international NEWT equivalent there… He hadn’t been home since. I know the twins and Percy saw him a few times during the summer and he went to Hogsmeade a few times to see them too but… well, it doesn’t seem that his relationship with his mother gets any better with time and distance…”
“Wow… I… I didn’t know the relationship between their parents and their brother was so bad… Ron never told…”
“Well, Ron was still young when it happened so I’m not sure he understood everything…” Cedric sighed.
“But weren’t their parents in Romania with Ginny for Christmas two years ago?” Harry inquired.
“According to what the twins told me then, Charlie refused to see his mother. He still spent some time with his sister though but not his parents…” the older boy explained sadly.
“Oh…”
Harry wanted to know what happened now, but that curiosity was out of place. It wasn’t his business and certainly not Cedric’s place to tell him. Maybe he could ask the twins or Percy next year… He hoped everything was going to be okay for them that summer.
“What was that about Hufflepuff trying to steal away one of our beaters?” He asked to change the subject.
Cedric coughed awkwardly. “What? That? Nothing… just a lingering joke that Fred is playing on George and that starts to get old…”
“Really?” Harry grinned.
“Yeah! Nothing a small 3rd year should bother himself about! So, tell me, how was your week?”
And with that Cedric successfully changed the subject. They went back to a safe topic: Quidditch.