Cheating time, Unwilling fate.

Chapter 14

The train journey was quite uneventful apart from the usual pranks played by the Marauders on each other. Harry was content sitting with Lucius and watching the proceedings. James being current head boy had left for patrol with Lily. Denise was reading a book and ignoring the jibes and friendly ribbing the Marauders gave each other. It was a happy group that finally reached the train station. From there the new students took a ride through the lake with the first years.

Hagrid was just as huge and friendly as he remembered. “Two more Potters eh! I thought I had me hands full w’th yer brothr’ and he’s frien’s”, he chuckled good naturedly when he came face to face with Denise and him.

Harry smiled. “Hullo Hagrid. My brother and his friends told me a lot about you too. “

Denise grabbed Hagrid’s hands. “Yes James did that.” She added in an Sirius like voice.

Hagrid laughed. “Onto the boats. Fo’r to each.”

He left to herd the rest of the first years. Harry helped Denise on the board. They sailed silently and were soon deposited in a sideroom to the Great Hall. It was Professor McGonagall who led them into the Great Hall for sorting. Denise looked up at the roof in amazement. She had had her previous schooling at Baeuxbatons. Yet there was no disdain in her eyes unlike a certain Veela he had known.

He looked at the Slytherin table and spotted Lucius sitting at the head with other prefects. He winked. Lucius smirked slightly in response. He looked at the Gryffindor table and spotted the Marauders who were hooting and giving catcalls in their direction. Denise looked at Sirius and puckered her lips in a mocking of his earlier attempts to kiss Lucius. Sirius looked smug. Harry smiled.

‘You are most certainly going to be a Gryffindor.’ He whispered in her ear.

‘And you my dear brother are going to be in Slytherin.’ She whispered back. The siblings stared at each other in silence.

“I can keep a better eye on Lily.” Denise smirked at him. Harry’s lips quirked. He nodded his acceptance. He would rather be with Lucius.

The first years were finished being sorted. Dumbledore spread his hands in a warm welcoming gesture. “This year we are welcoming two seventh year transfer students from abroad. Please welcome Mr. Alexandre Potter and Ms. Denise Potter.”

They stepped up to the podium to be sorted. Alex went first. The sorting hat was placed on his head.


‘Feeling adventurous Mister Potter.’ The hat whispered in his mind.

‘Well you know us Potters’ Harry sassed back.


‘You wish to be placed in Slytherin this time. The last time you were quite vocal in your protests against that house I gather.’


‘Last time there wasn’t someone I wished to be with, in that house.’

‘Very well.’ The hat shouted out. SLYTHERIN.

The hall quieted. Almost all were expecting him to be placed in Gryffindor he supposed. ‘Boy! Are they surprised?’ Snape quipped in his mind. Harry smirked.

Lucius stood up and started to clap. The rest of the table followed. Alex kissed his sister’s cheek and placed the hat on her head. Then he swaggered to Slytherin table and took a seat beside his very relieved fiancé. ‘I thought you wanted to keep an eye on your brother?’ Lucius whispered.

‘Denise can help with that. You need me more.’ He answered back. Lucius looked at him with an inscrutable expression on his face; inside he was giddy. After a few moments the hat shouted out GRYFFINDOR for his sister. The applause was from Gryffindor table this time.

Dumbledore stood up. Now that we are all finished sorting I would like to introduce you all to a guest. Professor Slughorn had decided to take on a new apprentice who would be residing in the castle and help with his classes. Please welcome Mr. Draconis Fey.

Harry gasped at the newcomer. He knew those pointy features and that walk as well as he knew his own. It was Draco Malfoy albeit with dark brown hair and green eyes. Green haunted eyes……with a look that reminded him of the look in Sirius’s eyes when he had escaped from Azkaban. ‘Green eyes…..What in the hell is he doing here.’ Snape’s astonished voice filled his ears. As if he had heard him Draco turned his head in Harry’s direction and smirked. Harry stared.

He felt somebody lurking on the outskirts of his mind. Harry let him in. ’30 minutes. Room of requirement’ was the simple message.

Lucius didn’t have the advantage of knowing the stranger before. He merely thought that the stranger slightly resembled himself. Then he turned his eyes to his fiancé and found him staring unblinking at the newcomer. He was intrigued. ‘Is he merely a previous acquaintance……or perhaps something more? Could they possibly have a shared history?’ He mused.

Harry broke his gaze. He had to have a talk with Draco first and get the answers. He looked back at Lucius who was frowning slightly at his display. Harry plastered a calm expression on his face.

“I have known him in the past. We don’t get along. I am just surprised to see him here of all places.” Lucius wasn’t convinced but accepted his explanation. It was sensible after all. He nodded and dug in.

The dinner finished. He spied Draco getting up and leaving through a side-door. He grabbed Lucius’s hand as he got up. Lucius shook his head. “I need to get the first years to their dorm.”
Harry nodded. “See you at our rooms.” He left.
*************

Harry faced Draco who was calmly sitting beside a fireplace. On his side lay a pensieve. Harry lifted an eyebrow in question.

“There are a few memories in there. Hopefully they will answer almost all of your questions. As per how I got here?” Draco raised his left hand. A very suspiciously familiar locket dangled from his fist. The portal; Harry gasped in realization. He took a long breath and dived in the pensieve face first. A familiar falling sensation gripped him.

Memory ________

He found himself watching himself sitting by a bed. The memory Harry stared at the blond lying in hospital bed. Lucius was deathly pale and barely conscious at the moment. Still he was gripping Harry’s hand in a death grip. An extremely young Madam Pomfrey was hovering over the blond boy waving her wand and muttering diagnostic and counter charms to known poisons.

A fierce turmoil of emotions gripped Harry. What had happened? He looked up at the school nurse. She sighed, “He is not going to make it unless….The poison had spread too fast Mr. Potter. The cleansing would kill your unborn son. I am sorry.” Harry’s eyes widened. He had gotten Lucius pregnant. He had heard of wizards who got pregnant. It wasn’t possible for a normal gay couple without an extremely long potion regimen. Only the very powerful couples managed the natural pregnancies; which happened with them. The wizard pregnancies were difficult to handle even in normal circumstances and somebody had managed to poison Lucius. He found himself growling in his anger. He was going to lose his son and possibly Lucius due to some bastard.

“You have my permission.” Harry could see the effort it took for his other self to choke out the words. The memory Harry sighed and moved to get up.

“Harry, please don’t leave me.” Lucius choked out in an extremely weak voice. His eyes were desperate.

His heart swelled with an unnamed emotion. Whoever had done this would pay dearly. The memory Harry kissed Lucius’s brow and whispered, “I won’t lose you. Not like this.” Despite stabilizing potions he knew Lucius was losing the battle with the poison. He lifted the vial madam Pomfrey gave him to Lucius’s lips. He drank it without protest. His eyes drooped.

“Outside Mr. Potter.” The memory blanked out for a second and Harry found himself gazing at a lifeless looking Lucius.

“I am sorry. We were too late.” Madam Pomfrey whispered sadly.

Harry watched as his other self stared at the body lying in the bed; pale and dead. He staggered. He watched his memory self stoop down to kiss Lucius on the lips, then turn and run away. Was he the reason Lucius died prematurely in this timeline? There were no walls here he could find support against. Suddenly his legs were unable to support him. He sat down on what he supposed was a floor. Was this the reason Draco came here? To stop him. He blinked and shivered as he was hurled into another memory.

He was in Azkaban and looking down at shivering blond. ‘Draco.’ His mind thought furiously. This Draco looked dirty and skinny. He had the look of someone who was in Azkaban for a few weeks at least. He watched as two guards came and hoisted him up.

One of the guards leered at the boy. “He’s a pretty one innit. Too bad ministry’s keepin such tight check on prisoners. No dement’rs either. Fuck! I wood luv to hear him scream at least.”

“Shut yer gob John. He’s one of them Malfoys. Powerful lawyers even if they have no hope of gettn’ out. At least his mother would be getting’ the kiss today. She want’n to see the brat.”

They half carried the pale boy who looked nearly unconscious. Harry followed. A newly furnished meeting room which must now be serving as a meeting room contained Narcissa Malfoy.

She was still tall, still proud even in the prison garb and still wore an expression as if she had something unpleasant under her nose.

Draco was dumped in a chair opposite her. “15 minutes” One of the guards grunted and left. The memory Draco stared at the woman he thought he had loved as mother for so many years. Harry sank down on the floor. Draco gathered himself together and looked up.

“Hello Narcissa. Getting a kiss today no?” Draco jibed cockily. Harry stared. Why was Malfoy acting so weirdly towards his mother?

“Hello Draco and yes I am getting kissed today. Isn’t it wonderful? The torment of your life would be gone, you think.” Narcissa replied smirking cruelly. She leant forward. “I don’t think so. I wanted to tell you a few things dear Lucius never found out. A blacklist of crimes I was never convicted of you see. Just for you. I plotted with both Dumbledore and Bellatrix to kill both sets of you grandparents and your uncle and his wife of (your other) father. Of course none of the great wizards ever found out. Poor Peter died under my Imperious curse. In short I destroyed all your possible family except on my side. It was the revenge I sought when Lucius sidelined me to get hitched to your father. Pity considering how much he loved your father.”

Draco’s face twisted in anger. “I found out everything on my seventeenth birthday. That day the blood glamour you weaved upon my birth wore off. You being the oblivious one never cared to wish me. Father was there that night. He saw me and he remembered everything that you did to him and my dad. You put him under spells again the next day but he didn’t let you find out that I knew. I wore muggle contraptions to hide my real eyes and hair all this time and wizards being the fools they are, never noticed. Why are you telling me this now?”

Narcissa’s face flamed in anger. “Because that idiot Potter ran, just like your real father did. He was a Potter too. Alexandre fucking Potter was his name. Granted he thought Lucius was dead and so were you….his unborn son. Dumbledore helped me with that one, you know. That old meddling coot that Potter wanted to die for. I thought that saving that worthless Potter’s ass once would be enough to keep me out of this hell hole but no…….. He bloody ran. I am still getting a kiss in a few hours. So I decided to give you a parting gift of knowledge. Harry Potter is your first cousin. I obliviated Lucius and Pomfrey and kept him thinking I carried you. You are nothing but a filthy Potter spawn and still no one would know or believe you. You will rot here with your Father.”

Draco smirked. “Actually, Potter saw through his link that Father and I were forced to do dark lord’s bidding and told Granger. Ironically he never stayed to tell her about your supposed innocence. So you see, in a few weeks Father and I would be free or at most under house arrest for a few years then free; while you would rot here. Goodbye ‘Mother’.” Draco stood up and slowly walked away from her.

Harry sat numbed with shock. ‘Will my life ever be less dangerous and less weird.’
‘I guess not’ Snape murmured sarcastically ‘and here I thought you were only a danger magnet. Now you have a son… my freaking godson…….. you moron from a time travel.’
‘Yes and you being in love with my dead mother was less creepy to find out’ Harry muttered equally sarcastically. Snape was silenced.

Harry visualized the room of requirement and found himself rising back up.

Memory end_____

Harry wondered what he was going to say to Draco. It was going to one hell of an awkward conversation.

He looked at Draco. His son looked up straight into his eyes. “So, you are Alexandre Potter.”

Harry sighed and nodded. He took the other chair beside the fireplace. “Draco,……..”

“Please don’t say it Harry. All I wanted was your friendship and you all high and mighty, gave it to everybody but me.”

Harry bowed his head and asked the question “How did Lucius die?”

Draco stared stunned at his perceptiveness. Harry concentrated and Draco’s chair expanded into a sofa. Harry sank into the sofa beside him and gathered his son in his arms. Draco stiffened for a few minute but relaxed as Harry ran soothing circles on his back. “I came here looking for family Draco. I know why you took the same chance. There wasn’t anyone left there for you.”

Draco shivered and burrowed deeper into his embrace. “He died in his sleep just a few days after we were placed under house arrest. He knew death was coming for him. Narcissa told him they killed you when you ran from Hogwarts straight into waiting ambush of Death Eaters. It was this year’s Christmas when you disappeared. Father was two weeks pregnant. All those years he wished to join you in death but that bitch kept him under powerful spells. Finding out that the woman who I thought was loving Mother was threatening my own Father with my life is enough to shake anybody. After Azkaban he really woke up only to wish for death. He finally got his wish. The day I buried him I was so lost. I kept wandering through the house. Then, I found this locket and a book in the library. I took the chance.”

The boy hesitated before he blurted out, “You have to stay well away from my Father at least till New Year. I do not wish to be ripped apart in time and space.”

Harry sighed “I know Draco.” Draco looked up. “I had to separate my parents too.” The boy’s eyes went comically round; then he burst into an embarrassed laughter.

Harry’s lips twitched. He ran his eyes on the boy. Despite his grin Draco looked pale and drawn. There were dark rings around his eyes and his body was too light. On the other hand it was a sign that he had to come clean with Lucius now. Otherwise both of his boys would get hurt. ‘His boys’ he thought with a grin.

**************

Harry dragged Draco to his suite of rooms. Lucius was reading in a chair by the fireplace when the two walked in. Lucius raised a brow at the other boy.

Harry dropped into another seat and Draco sat on the sidearm. “Hullo love.” He smirked. “Meet Draconis Lucius Malfoy Potter, our son.”

The book fell from Lucius's hands. He stared openmouthed at the grinning boy perched on the chair arm. Five seconds later he shut his mouth. Time turners existed in this world. Bigger and better time turners weren’t entirely unexpected in the future. Now that he knew it, the boy had his features except for Harry's eyes and hair. Yes, he could very well be their son.

“Time travel?” He asked tentatively. Draco nodded. “Come here, Son.” Draco smiled and jumped into his arms. Harry laughed.

The night was the one when he told Lucius about his being from the future and the circumstances in which he came back. They both confessed their secrets to each other. When they finished talking it was past midnight and Draco had fallen asleep in the middle of the bed.

“He looks so fragile.” Lucius whispered. “Time travel indeed. He is truly your son; the spoiled brat.”

Harry kissed his cheek. ”It’s a pity we cannot have him all over again. I would have loved to discipline his tantrums.”

Lucius gave him doe eyes. “You can discipline mine all right.”

Harry’s eyes darkened with lust. “New year darling; then you are mine.”

Lucius laughed. They settled down to sleep on either side of their son. The realization hit them at the same time. ‘I have a son.’

I guess I would give Draco a baby sis.