Circle of Love

Draco looked at Harry, and arched an eyebrow. “You're looking for His Horcruxes? Are you crazy?” He sat down in one of the chairs in the sitting room, his mind reeled with the risks they all had been taking. If Voldemort even smelled an inkling of it, they'd be surrounded. It only served to strengthen his resolve to help.

“We've been doing that for over a year now,” Harry told him. “That's how Professor's Dumbledore's hand got hurt- he had found one. It was the Gaunt family ring, and cursed him before he destroyed it. The book that your father gave Ginny, I destroyed in the chamber of Secrets.” Harry finished telling him the rest they had found.

“So Hermione was burned by Hufflepuff's cup? You put the girls in greater danger than I thought Potter.” Draco stood up and glared at Harry. He shoved his hands in his pockets, and felt his fingers tighten angrily.

“You don't have to come with us if you're afraid Malfoy.” Harry retorted.

“Afraid? For the girls perhaps. What ones to have left to find?” Draco asked, and sat back down.

“A necklace that some wizard with the initials 'R.A.B.' took from the cave. Dumbledore and I went there, and he drank a potion that practically killed him, and we retrieved was this note from the R.A.B to Voldemort.” Harry pulled the paper from his pocket, and handed it to Draco. “That happened the day he died, so the three of us have been working on it.”

Draco read the note, and his brows furrowed in thought. “Who do you three think he is?” He asked finally after looking up. Plastered on one wall of the sitting room was the old Black family tree. He could see his name, and his parents' names from where he was. It was quite large, and except for the blasted parts that burned into the very plaster of the wall, it held every name of the Blacks and those married into the family for seven centuries.

“Regulus Black perhaps, he had the middle initial 'A'.” Harry replied. “He's one of the few Death Eaters of that era that have some of those initials in common.” He watched Draco get up from the chair and walk over to the tapestry. His finger traced over some of the names as he looked it over.

“Regulus Arcturus Black,” Draco rubbed his hand along his chin thoughtfully. It certainly fit, he had heard whispers about how he had fell from grace most of his childhood. Harry came to stand beside him, and he turned his head side wise to look at him. “It fits- he angered the Dark Lord by turning away from him, and he ran. My father and Aunt Bella considered him worse than Sirius at that point, and helped hunt him down for his execution. It's good to know he didn't die for a coward's act of running. If it's him of course.”

Hermione entered the sitting room to see both of them standing in front of the tapestry. For a moment she stood there to watch both of them. In two very different ways she loved both of them, and it pleased her to see that they had set aside their hatreds of each other to work together. But she had a mission to perform, and she moved to walk over to stand beside them.

“Professor Snape needs to see you,” Hermione said, and accompanied her words with a quick kiss on Draco's cheek. Her hand slid into his, and she laid her head on his shoulder to look at the tapestry also.

“How's Mariah's hand?” Harry asked from beside them, his eyes still gazing at the family tree to avoid the sight beside him. They'd met up with Ginny in the kitchen earlier before coming into the sitting room to talk further. She had stayed in the kitchen to work on some classwork while they had left to talk some things over.

“The professor fixed it up, and she's got a few days free from her potions making.” Hermione replied with a smile, “Maybe she'll get out of the laboratory now.” She reached out and touched Draco's name on the tapestry. Who ever had been charged with maintaining hadn't kept it up since his name was last added. The handiwork was beautiful in it, and her finger ran over Sirius' blotch sadly. If she knew the spell, she'd restore them all.

“That's good,” Draco said, and squeezed the hand in his tightly. “What does he want?” He asked, a mite curious. He felt the shrug of her shoulders against him and he turned to walk to the door. “Coming?” He looked at her with quirked eyebrow.

“Sure- worst he can do is throw me out,” Hermione replied with a small laugh. Somehow she didn't think he would, but would Draco understand her for not telling him when she first figured it out?

Severus Snape stood in the room he called his office, and watched the young girl as she looked over some of the potion vials and ingredients he had in a cupboard. Mariah had been nervous when Hermione had left her there, the professor's words still going through her head. It was an awkward few minutes for her while they waited for Hermione to return, and she'd pondered over that also. Who had she gone to get?

Mariah marveled over some of the potions, and he told her what some of them were for. He even brought out the workings of one to show her the changes he'd been making to it. In the sharing of this, she relaxed enough and he slightly upturned the corners of his lips. His hand rested upon the small music box, and his thumb played with the latch to it.

Draco held Hermione's hand as they entered the doorway to the potions room, and his eyebrow again arched to see Mariah still there. Snape was still standing, and she hadn't hexed him yet. Neither had noticed their arrival, and he just watched the girl as she looked through the cabinet.

“You needed to see me, Professor?” Draco asked finally, and fully entered the room with Hermione.

Snape turned to look, and his hand finally left the small music box to gesture to the seats. He looked at Hermione, and nodded for her to stay. “Please sit down,” Severus told them, and Mariah turned from the cabinet finally. She set the vial down on its shelf. Some still covered a small counter under the cabinet, but they could be put away later.

Hermione took one of the seats, and touched Mariah's hand lightly as she sat beside her. Draco took the other chair next to her, and she smiled at him at him reassuringly. This all confused him more, and leaned back in the chair to think.

How to start? Snape thought as he looked at the three younger wizards. He nodded his head, and sat down upon the top of his table, and crossed his arms across his chest. “Long ago Albus Dumbledore did me a favor,” He began, and he watched the three of them look towards him at his words. “Two young people who shouldn't have fell in love did. In that love a child was created,” His eyes lingered on Mariah briefly, and saw her head tilt slightly. Her American parents had never hidden the fact that she'd been adopted, or why she'd been given up. He was grateful to them for that. They'd raised her as their own, and in truth he accepted the fact they were her true parents. Her mind wasn't tainted by the Pureblood crap forced into Draco's head, and her life had been better for it.

Mariah looked at him, He knows who my parents are- were. Her eyes shifted to Draco and Hermione, and saw no surprise on the other girl's face. Draco's was rubbing his chin thoughtfully, and she wondered why they were here. Support maybe? Hermione yeah, but Malfoy?

“I took the baby, a small girl-child to Albus to hide. Her parents couldn't keep her, for her mother had married someone else by the time they had left Hogwarts- and the father was caught up in things too dangerous to keep the child himself.” Severus continued, and watched Draco look at him with those words. Draco had found a few years ago by accident that Snape and his mother had had an affair, and when Twinky had given Snape the music box he'd figured out just how far back the relationship had gone. He felt the small squeeze of Hermione's hand and he glanced at Mariah. Her eyes were locked on Snape as he told the story.

“The wizard that was married to her mother- your mother Mariah, would never have raised the child as his own. He too was embroiled in the acts that your own father was in. They were friends of sorts, and followed the same master.” He gave a bitter smile, and sighed. “Never doubt that your birth parents loved you, loved you enough to give you away to keep you safe.” Snape said and broke eye contact with her to look at the music box.

“Who were they?” Mariah asked him, still in the shock of it all. Her mind rolled over the words he had spoken. She'd always believed that her parents had fought against the evil- but Snape's words made her believe that they had been part of it. She looked at the two that sat beside her, and noticed that Malfoy was paler than usual. His eyes were affixed to Snape's face, and his hand gripped Hermione's tightly.

Hermione nodded to Mariah, and placed her hand on the other girl's. The pain from Draco's grip hardly phased her, and she squeezed back lightly. “You knew, didn't you?” He whispered, and turned his face finally to look at her. She nodded slightly, and he almost pulled his hand from hers. “I figured it out Christmas day.” She whispered back, and he relaxed a bit. He wasn't happy she hadn't told him right away, but for now he waited on Snape's words.

Severus stood up from the table and walked over to the box and opened it. He smiled at the picture it contained, and lifted it out. He walked to where they sat, and handed her the picture. “They are.” He stepped back, and he saw Draco's face. It held anger and sadness in it, and sighed.

Mariah's eyes looked into the picture as the woman smiled and waved at who ever took the picture, and then leaned over to kiss the man beside her. They widened in horror, and her eyes snapped to look at the older version of the wizard pictured. It was like a nightmare to her- and the picture dropped to the floor.

“You are not my father!” Her words came out harshly in her disbelief. “I was always told that they were heroes, working for the good guys and hunted by the bad ones. Your... your... a freaking Death Eater! What about... her?” Her finger pointed towards the picture that laid upon the floor. The figures in it now seemed to mock her with their happiness.

Draco bent and picked it up, and looked at it with a new insight. His mother's tears had been real at the grave site, but for far different reasons. He remembered Remus' words from long ago. “Nothing is ever as it seems,” He murmured, still angry over it. Bitterly he remembered how he had told Mariah about what his own father had done in Voldemort's name to his mother. That had been just a few days ago, and realized the pain she'd be in to know she could never know the woman who had given birth to her.

Mariah stood up, and Snape's eyes winced briefly at the pain of her words. It radiated through her voice, and he looked at Draco again. “Her name was Narcissa Black- Malfoy. Our mother.” Draco said, and handed the picture to Hermione. “They were both spies for the Order, so yes- they were hunted by Death Eaters.” His words came out with a angry tinge. He'd been lied to throughout his whole life. His sister had never died- and he'd been denied her for the whole time. But as he looked at her, he realized that if Lucius could have been fooled into believing Mariah had been of his blood, she'd have grown up like him. They'd saved her from that also, and he was glad. Then it hit him even harder, the courage his mother had displayed carrying Mariah and delivering her, knowing she would never see again.

Draco looked at Snape, and then Hermione. “You're my sister.” He said in wonder, placing a hand on Mariah's shoulder. He felt her small shrug and pulled his hand away. He knew deep in his heart that Snape and his mum had made the correct choice. Seeing what his own father could do, Mariah and his mum would have been in danger. He was angry Snape hadn't told him the first day Mariah had arrived with her brother. Caleb. He knew it all also as a Secret Keeper. Now he understood Cal's words from before- why he had placed Mariah in his protection. From one brother to another to care for her. Cal hadn't been able to reveal why he was doing it, but now the symbolism of the act wasn't lost on him.

Draco's hand brushed against the vials on the table, and with a grime satisfaction listened to the harsh tinkles of glass breaking as they hit the floor. He looked at Snape again, his anger clear in his eyes. His shoe stepped on some of the glass that littered the floor, and he ground it against wood.

Draco knew that Slytherin rules still applied here, and they would discuss this away from the prying eyes of others. His trust of his mentor was shaken now, and his mother- well he couldn't even think about it. His mind went back to the memories of when he'd asked about Mariah, and now took the shuttered, pained looks for what they truly were. Knowing she couldn't tell him still angered him for not telling him.

The truth of it all hit Mariah like a rush of emotions; anger, sadness and resignation coupled with the joy of finally knowing. Her parents were Death Eaters, spies or not. Her brother was a Death Eater, spy or not. Hermione stood up and went to Mariah, placing her arm around the older girl's shoulder. Mariah leaned into Hermione, and the first few tears of shock fell and soaked into the cloth covering Hermione's shoulder. Her mother was dead, and she'd never get the chance to know her.

Draco placed his hand on Hermione's and looked into her eyes. “How did you figure it out?” He asked her. The realization she somehow got Snape to tell them didn't his escape his mind, and knew things would have turned out differently if she had told him. Snape was the one who needed to do this, and he smiled at her.

“Your eyes- both of you share your mum's eyes.” Hermione said, and she felt him wrap his arms around the two of them. She smiled to see Mariah look at him, nodding her head before placing it back on Hermione's shoulder.

Severus Snape stood silent as he watched the scene before him. While he hadn't been able to restore Narcissa to either of them, they would have each other now. He turned slowly to rearrange the bottles that had been placed back in a disarray. The glass he left on the hard wood of the floor for now as a reminder. Yes, Draco and Mariah had each other, and it had all worked out for the best.

~*~

I want to thank you all for reading and the reviews on it. Not sure how many more chapters are to go on this, but it should end with a final battle scene. Hope you enjoyed this chapter. ~~juls (reviews appreciated but never required. They make me squee with joy seeing them.)