Quicksilver

Quicksilver
(title subject to change)
story rating NC-17
pairing: DM/HG

Disclaimer: Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Draco Malfoy, etc. are the sole property and righright of the lovely J.K. Rowling. This story is for entertainment purposes only and is in no way affiliated with the original Harry Potter novel series or the Warner Bros. films.

This story contains minor violence, some adult language, and overt sexuality.

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Chapter Twelve
The Other Sister

Harry and Hermione wordlessly helped Draco revive his parents and get them each lying down on a sofa. Hermione then administered first aid to MalfMalfoys while Harry and Draco bound Peter Pettigrew and Pansy Parkinson with rope, then charmed the ropes against escape. Draco walked out of the room for a moment, then returned with a large trunk. The two boys put Voldemort\'s withered body inside, then padlocked it and charmed the lock. Neither was sure if this was truly the end of the Dark Lord, as he found far too many ways to come back, so they went to a great deal of trouble to be sure his body was contained.

As Harry and Hermione collapsed into armchairs, Draco went upstairs again. He came back down with blankets for all and an eagle owl perched on his shoulder. He wrote a quick note to Dumbledore, then sent twl owl on its way. With a heaving sigh, he finally sat down.

Harry turned to Narcissa and cautiously asked, \"Mrs. Malfoy? May I ask you a question?\"

She smiled weakly and replied, \"I\'m sure that you have many, Harry. There\'s been a lot revealed in the past little bit. And you may call me Cissy, if you wish.\"

\"Did Voldemort call you Daffodil...Evans?\" he asked, pushing his glass up his nose.

Narcissa smiled a bit wider and chuckled softly. \"Yes, darling, he did. It\'s been a long time since I\'ve been called that...I changed my first name as well as my last when I married Lucius, as an added element of security.\"

Harry looked bewildered. \"But doesn\'t that mean...?\"

He was interrupted immediately by her response, since she already knew the question. \"It means that your Aunt Petunia was hellbent on not allowing you to know anything about yourself or your family. Such a great sister she is.\"

Every mouth in the room dropped open except for Lucius\'s, who smiled warmly at his wife. Narcissa continued. \"Yes, Harry darling. There were three of us. Your grandmother was quite fond of floral names, as you can see. Petunia was old oldest and she was jealous beyond words that she\'d been born a muggle while Lily and I grew into witches. I went into hiding when Lily did because she didn\'t think that I would be safe, either. And that\'s when I met Lucius...my Luke...the most wonderful man on the earth.\" She beamed at her husband. \"We thought that no one would question the family heritage of a Malfoy wife and that would make me a lot more safe. When we heard that Lily and James were killed and that you\'d survived, we\'d considered taking you from Petunia and Vernon...but then Voldemort cursed my husband. I lived and breathed each day since to keep the family secret.\"

\"You mean...I have more family? Another cousin?\" Harry looked disbelievingly at Draco. This was big news to both boys. Harry, orphaned, couldn\'t stand to live with his Aunt Petunia and her muggle family. They treated him like scum. Draco had grown up generally alienated, raised by nannies and house elves.

Hermione smiled at Harry, but wouldn\'t look at Draco.

\"Yes, dear. You have more family. You\'ve no idea how long I\'ve wanted to tell you...and Draco. But until now, I\'m sure that you wouldn\'t have believed me, my son.\" Narcissa had turned to Draco. \"I know that you\'ve found out so much lately that it\'s making your head spin and you\'ve no idea how sorry I am.\" Tears welled up in her eyes as sixteen years of frustration started to come tumbling down.

\"I owe the biggest apology of them all,\" said Lucius, who then groaned from the pain in his head.

\"No. Neither of you need to apologize for anything. It was all out of your hands, for the most part. But you\'re right, my head is spinning. I just can\'t believe that I\'m a...it\'s just so weird...\" Draco looked between both of his parents, trying to compute different details he had just learned.

\"A Quicksilver?\" Lucius offered. Draco\'s confusion was justified. Quicksilvers weren\'t very commonly known in the magic world yet, as there were very few of them in existence.

\"Yes.\"

\"Take off your shirt, son. There\'s something that you need to see.\" Lucius instructed, then pointed at the mirror by the fireplace.

\"Oh, Merlin...what now...\" Draco said warily, but obeyed. He wa ove over to the mirror and looked at his left shoulder, where Voldemort\'s Cruciatus curse had hit him. There, embedde his his skin, was a large gash...in the shape of a lightning bolt.

\"Bloody hell!\" exclaimed Harry, who walked over to Draco to get a better look.

\"A Quicksilver wizard or witch has the ability to deflect the Unforgivable Curses under certain circumstances, though until Harry, none had done it against Voldemort. That mark is the most true symbol of a Quicksilver...touched by a curse but deflected it back like l aga against a mirror. Other talents come about as they grow older...heightened senses, some wandless magic, et cetera.\" Draco thought about how he\'d heard Pansy through the soundproofed dungeon walls. \"Albus Dumbledore was the first ever, to history\'s knowledge, Quicksilver wizard, which is why we trusted him with our secret...and why I hated him so much while under the Imperius Curse.\" Lucius yawned, then said, \"I need a nap after all this excitement. I\'m still not to my full strength.\"

\"Father...one more thing. Why is it that my binding charm came away so slowly, over a long period of time?\" Draco asked.

\"You had to begin thinking for yourself as your true self. All it took was one small instance where you began to think more openly than the bind had previously allowed. If you can remember when you started to do just that, you can probably pinpoint when your bind began to unravel.\" Lucius said slowly, then began to nod off.

The collision in the hallway, Draco thought, I\'d noticed for the first time, that day, that a muggle-born witch could be beautiful. He turned to look at Hermione. His heart sank when she stared back at him blankly, as if she didn\'t care either way what he was thinking.

***

Once Dumbledore had received Draco\'s message, he immediately owled a distress call to the Ministry of Magic. Then, with Snape and McGonagall to escort him as the Heads of the two Houses to which the missing students belonged, walked to the eof Hof Hogwarts Estate and Apparated to the Malfoy mansion. They met up with waiting members of the Ministry and began a search of the house.

After looking over the main floor and the upstairs, they finally found the weary group in the parlor of the dungeon. Professor McGonagall gasped at the sight of her battered students. Snape scowled at Pansy, then turned to Pettigrew. \"Finally met your end, you sleazy bastard,\" Snape said to Peter, voice dripping with an ancient contempt.

\"And where is...the body?\" Dumbledore asked Draco, who pointed at the trunk in the corner. Two Ministry guards cautiously walked over to the trunk and picked it up, then Disapparated.

Several mediwitches summoned wheelchairs, into which Lucius and Narcissa each sat down. Before they could Disapparate to St. Mungo\'s Hospital, Lucius looked at Draco and said, \"I\'m proud of you, son.\" Then they vanished. Draco\'s eyes filled...that was, perhaps, the t tit time he\'d ever heard his father say that phrase to him.

Ministry guards left with Peter Pettigrew, who were eager to turn him over to Azkaban knowing that he was alive. This would clear Sirius Black\'s name, forever.

Professor Snape had Pansy Parkinson sent to St. Mungo\'s as well, believing that psychiatric treatment would be more suited to a sixteen year old girl first-time offender than a trip to Azkaban. His decision was heavily influenced by Draco\'s description or hyr hysterical behavior. Pansy had always been too lazy to be hysterical about anything, so the turn in her behavior suggested that she might have been cursed.

Each of the remaining children held their professors\' hands as they Apparated back to Hogwarts.

***
Author\'s Note: I have recently come across a spoiler of Order of the Phoenix, which told me that Sirius Black dies in the one book I\'ve yet to read. That\'s incredibly upsetting (RIP Padfoot). No matter whether he is alive or dead, clearing his name is important and I wanted that mentioned with the capture of Petettiettigrew in my story.