Finding Harry - Harry, Draco, PG Title: Finding Harry Author: elfflame Rating: PG Summary: Harry disappears the night of the attack on his parents' home. (Pre HBP canon) Disclaimer: This story not intended to infringe, no money is being made. The characters and places do not belong to me. I’m just borrowing them for a bit. A/N: Notes with the Prologue
When Draco and Orion made it back to their room, Draco tried to talk to Orion, but Orion was having none of it.
“Ori, I know you’re angry…”
Orion spun to face him. “Angry? Are you kidding me, Draco? How would you feel if you’d been lied to your entire life? That your ‘father’ turned out to have killed your parents? Hm? Do you honestly think you could forgive him? No? Then don’t expect me to!”
“Ori, you know father didn’t…”
“I don’t know anything about what he would or wouldn’t do, Draco. We know he was there. Obviously, even if he wasn’t intimately involved in my parents’ deaths, he could have stopped it. He could have…if he’d really wanted to.”
“Ori…”
“No! He lied to you too, Draco, how can you defend him?” He couldn’t listen any more. He just needed to think, and Draco wasn’t going to allow that. “Just leave me alone. I need to think.” When Draco continued to stand there, obviously trying to figure out what to say to calm him down, Orion couldn’t stand it any more. He stormed from the room. He had no idea where to go, but he had to get out of there. He had to be alone.
He didn’t know where he was going until he realized suddenly that he was in the hall that led to the meeting-place Dumbledore had provided for him. He entered the room, and sat there alone for several minutes. How could anyone expect him to deal with this? How could Draco stick up for Lucius? Why had Lucius never told him? Did he think that Orion was too weak? Or was he just protecting himself?
He was so lost in his thoughts that he did not notice a ginger-haired boy enter, then stare at him, curiosity plain across his face. “Malfoy?”
Orion looked up to see the boy looking at him guardedly. “Weasley. What do you want?”
“I…” his face went red. “I just saw the open door, and wondered what was up. I didn’t mean to bother you.” His eyes flashed. “I’ll just leave you alone.” He turned to leave, but Orion realized he needed someone to talk to, even if he couldn’t tell him everything. Someone who wasn’t in the family, who didn’t have a stake in how he felt about things.
“Weasley…” The boy turned back to look at him.
“What?” He was obviously suspicious.
Orion looked at the other boy, hesitating. He bit his lip. “Talk with me?”
He was incredulous. “You…want to talk…to me?” The suspicion was back quickly. “Where’s your brother? Is this some kind of trick to get me in trouble so that I lose a bunch of house points?”
“No. I just need someone to talk to. And I can’t talk to Draco. He doesn’t understand.”
“I know what you mean. My brothers…well, let’s just say being the youngest brother’s never been fun.”
Orion smiled. “I bet. How many brothers do you have?”
“Five. And a younger sister, too.”
“Geez. I can’t imagine.”
Weasley sneered. “Yeah, well I can’t imagine being raised a Malfoy…”
Orion sighed. That had struck a nerve. “I didn’t mean it that way. I just meant…Well, me and Draco get into enough fights. I can’t imagine there being more of us. And at least we’re the same age…” But they weren’t the same age, were they? After all, the Boy Who Lived was born in August or something, wasn’t he?
Weasley ducked his head, but Orion could see the grin on his face. He walked to the couch across from Orion and said, “I can’t imagine. Fred and George are twins. They always spend all their time together. I always envied them…”
Orion smiled. “Yeah, well, they probably aren’t quite as close as you think. But they probably face everything together ‘cause it’s easier. Even when Draco and I are fighting, we always stick up for each other. It’s nice knowing that he’ll always defend me, no matter what…” But if they weren’t really brothers, would Draco keep doing that?
“Malfoy?”
Orion started. He’d almost forgotten he wasn’t alone. “Huh? Oh, sorry, Weasley.”
“It’s okay. You all right?”
“Not really.” He wished he could tell Weasley everything. But he just wasn’t ready. He didn’t even believe it himself, and if he told Weasley, the kid’d probably blab all over the place about it. “Look, would you mind, I mean…it seems strange to call you Weasley all the time. Could I call you by your first name? And you could call me Orion?”
Weasley smiled shyly. “Yeah, Mal…uh…Orion. I’d like that. But call me Ron, okay? I hate it when people call me ‘Ronald.’” His nose crinkled in distaste. “I feel like I’m at a funeral or something.”
“Right…Ron.”
The two talked about everything. About classes, favourite and least favourite. About Quidditch, and who they thought might win the Quidditch cup at Hogwarts this year. That led to talking about houses, and about heads of houses, which led to talking about Snape, which was much easier to talk about without Draco around to fly off the handle again. When Orion realized that it was almost time for dinner, he offered to walk down to the hall with Ron.
“You’d want to be seen with me? Your brother probably wouldn’t like that…”
Orion scowled. “Yeah, well, Draco doesn’t have to like everything I do.”
Ron grinned. “Cool.”
Before the boys left the room, Orion also invited him to come back on Monday. “I mean, I realize you and Draco don’t exactly get along, but…well, it helped, you know? Talking to you, I mean. Sometimes I need someone to talk to who isn’t going to tell me ‘That’s not the Malfoy Way!’ all the time, you know?”
Ron grinned. “Yeah, I think I do.”
Ron was right about Draco. When the two boys arrived outside the Great Hall, Draco, Greg and Vince were just coming up from the dungeons. When Draco saw who Orion was with, he scowled. “Weasley.”
Orion could feel Ron stiffen beside him. “Malfoy,” he said with a sneer.
Draco turned to Orion. “Where the hell have you been? I’ve had Greg and Vince here looking all over for you. And I find you with…” he sneered in Ron’s direction, “this?”
Orion could see Ron’s face growing red already. “Draco, I don’t have to report my whereabouts to you every second of the day, you know. And if I want to talk to Ron, I can. There’s not a thing you can do to stop me.”
Draco’s eyes flashed dangerously. “Father…”
“Father has no say in it either!” With that, he pulled Ron behind him, and they entered the hall.
Orion made sure to sit between Theo and Blaise after he separated from Ron, so that Draco couldn’t hiss in his ear the entire night. He’d probably have to avoid him in the common room, too. Draco, Vince and Greg sat across from them, and Orion could feel Draco watching him through the entire meal.
When they returned to the common room that night, Draco was quick to attack. “What the hell do you think you’re doing? Do you want to piss off father?”
“Why should I care what he thinks, Draco? He obviously doesn’t care what I think.”
“That’s not true! Didn’t you see how upset he was today? Didn’t you see how your accusations hurt him? Damn it, Ori, he loves you. And you acted like he’s been keeping you locked in the basement or something!”
Orion no longer cared about discretion. He was too angry. “What do you care, Draco? Your life is the same it always was. Mine’s the one that’s been turned on its head!”
“Ori, nothing’s changed…”
“Everything’s changed, Draco! I don’t even know who I am anymore!”
“Calm down!”
“No! I want to scream! I’m sick of being calm. I hate this! I hate him!”
And then a calm, silky voice came from behind him. “And who is it, exactly, that you hate, Mr. Malfoy?”
The boys turned, and saw Snape standing in the doorway of the common room, a dark scowl on his face. Orion also began to notice that the entire house was staring at the two of them, as though they were street performers, and they didn’t want to miss the next act.
“Um…No one, sir.”
Snape strode across the room to where the boys stood. “No one? It didn’t sound like that from what I heard while I was in the hall, Mr. Malfoy.” He sneered down at Orion. “Perhaps you should be more…circumspect in your arguments next time? Tone them down a touch, perhaps? I wouldn’t want to have to write to your…father…now, would I?”
Orion’s heart sped up. Did he know? He swallowed. “No, sir.”
“Good. I suggest, if you wish to continue this little…ah…discussion…you do so in your room. Got it?”
“Yes, sir,” the boys chorused.
Without another word, Snape shot a glance around the room. As he did so, people seemed to unfreeze from where they were standing, and return to whatever they had been doing before the boys’ fight had distracted them. Then Snape strode from the room, his robes fluttering behind him.
Orion began to see exactly why Ron didn’t like Snape… He hurried to his room, but Draco followed close behind.
“Ori, we need to talk about this…”
Orion turned to look at his brother. “No. We don’t. I’m angry at him. It’s that simple. If you want to defend him to yourself, that’s fine. But I can’t do that anymore. I need to find another way to deal with this. Because he lied, Draco. And that’s not something I can just ignore.”
Draco looked away for a moment, and Orion knew he was trying to keep his composure. When he looked back, Orion could see tears glittering at the corners of his eyes. “I…just don’t want to lose you, Ori. You’re my brother.”
Orion smiled sadly, and put his arm around his brother’s shoulders. “I promise, no matter what, Draco, I always will be.”
Draco clung to him for a moment, then smiled. “Thanks. I…I promise I won’t mention it again until you want to talk about it, okay?”
“Thank you, Draco. I think I’m going to bed now. It’s been a long day.”
“Okay. I’ll try to keep the others from waking you when they come in. You know Vince and Greg. They always sound like a heard of elephants…” The boys laughed at this, then Draco turned and left the room. Orion got undressed, put on his favourite set of pyjamas, and slipped under the covers. But it was a long time before he fell asleep.