A New Family For Harry

AN: Wow, thank you guys for the great reviews! It's totally encouraging to hear you like the story so far. Please let me know what you think of different developments in the story, and I'll keep trying to update regularly! More reviews definitely help me write faster.


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Fudge had made his blustering farewells to Lucius and to Harry, leaving by Floo not half an hour after bringing Harry to his new home. Harry seemed slightly reluctant to see him go, but Lucius suspected this was not fondness or attachment so much as a nervous reaction to the rapid changes he had seen in the past twenty four hours after leaving those Muggles who had mistreated him, and a desire to cling to something or someone familiar.

As the boy sniffled a little and dashed away a tear surreptitiously by dragging a sleeve across his eyes, Lucius smiled. It was, all in all, a very good frame of mind in which to intercept Harry, gain his trust, and begin the process of fashioning his loyalty to the Malfoy family and their concerns.

"Did you bring any things with you?" Lucius asked. He glanced about, to see if Fudge had brought along Harry's possessions, miniaturized perhaps, or if there was a key to some sort of facility at which the boy's belongings would have been stored temporarily. Surely the child of Lily and James Potter, kept even in abject circumstances by his no-account relatives, would have some belongings of his own.

The boy's cheeks reddened. "I don't -- all my clothes used to be Dudley's, so. I haven't really any of my own."

Dudley, if he remembered correctly, was the spawn of the Muggles who had lost the right to raise Harry. Interesting that the Boy Who Lived had been made to feel as though the very garments he wore were not his own. How different it would have been for him from the start if only that fool Dumbledore had entrusted his care to a wizard family with real standing in their world.

Lucius clucked his tongue. "I see. And nothing else? No special toy you kept with you always? Or perhaps a blanket or bear?" Surely even the most cruel of guardians would have, in a moment of pity, allowed him some trinket or dolly, a special object held dear.

"No." The boy's voice trembled a little, but he looked up with Lucius, his expression entirely without guile. "Sometimes I got Dudley's toys after he broke -- after he was through with them."

"Here, anything you have will be your own. There will be no wearing of anything of Dudley's, no cast-off toys, just things that belong to you, Harry."

Lucius reached down and tapped Harry's nose lightly with his fingertip. Harry's brows raised in surprise, and then, startled, he grinned.

It must have been that no one touched the child in casual affection, never mind the proper demonstrations of family ties through physical contact. After a pause, Lucius reached out to tousle Harry's messy hair. The boy seemed surprised, but then smiled, and even leaned a little into the touch.

Lucius smiled back, pleased. "We'll work on getting you outfitted this afternoon, and start seeing about toys for you a little later today. For now, how about breakfast?"

Harry's face brightened, but then he looked down, as though he was following some instruction not to appear over eager. "Oh, well, the building they kept me in last night, they gave me a roll this morning."

"Now, now, that won't do. You must have something more substantial than that." Lucius clapped his hands once, and to his right, his house elf Dobby materialized from the kitchens.

Harry gave a small gasp, evidently shocked by the sudden appearance of the creature before him as well as the creature's very appearance itself.

"Was sir wanting something now, or did he want something earlier and Dobby not know?" the elf asked in anguish, stumbling towards Lucius. He wrung his hands and continued in a high-pitched whine. "Dobby lives to serve the Malfoys, and if there would be anything they would be wanting, and Dobby not give it to them or help them to it, Dobby would punish himself most harshly!"

Lucius's lips had barely parted in admonition to the elf when Harry stopped goggling and giggled, his small hand covering his mouth.

"Think he's funny, do you?" Lucius asked him, a tilt of his head in the elf's direction.

"Yes. He's like something out of the films, the way he talks and moves." Harry moved his arms in imitation, albeit in jerky motions, as though acting the part of a robot. "And he's so funny, acting like you're not nice, when you're very nice, aren't you?"

Nice? No one had described Lucius Malfoy in such a way before. Yet to a mistreated child who had been justly taken from lowbrow relatives but made to spend time in a sort of bureaucratic holding are while his fate was decided, someone like Lucius, offering toys and clothes and a home, must seem quite nice.

As his mouth quirked, Lucius took a breath. "Indeed I am nice to you Harry, and you will find I will always be so."

This time he reached out and cupped Harry's cheek with his hand, and Harry turned his small face into the gesture slightly with another giggle. "So then he's very silly," Harry continued. "You wouldn't make him punish himself."

Dobby looked between the two of them, his eyes wide, and tried a tremulous smile.

"This, Dobby, is Harry Potter," Lucius intoned.

Dobby's ears perked up then went entirely flat. "Harry Potter? In the home of the Malfoys? Oh, Harry Potter, Dobby has been wanting to meet you for ever so long, ever since --"

"That will do," Lucius cut him off. Of course the boy would need to be told about his special status and his family's history, but now was not the appropriate time. "Dobby will have to let me address any topics pertaining to the past for now."

"Yes, sir, of course, sir, yes, yes," Dobby babbled. Then he bowed. "Very pleased to meet you, Mister Harry Potter sir."

Harry laughed aloud. "Hi, Dobby."

Dobby clasped his hands together in a joyful pose, the very picture of happiness at having been addressed by an infamous seven year old boy.

Harry looked amused, and gave Dobby a small wave.

Lucius rolled his eyes at Dobby when Harry wasn't looking. Of course the child would take a fancy to their worst house elf, and then assume that Lucius was the embodiment of generosity and goodness, as unlikely to discipline a house elf as an elephant would be to begin leaping from tree to tree.

But perhaps this provided a certain opportunity, both to gain more of Harry's affections and to deal with Dobby's difficult temperament and tendency for ludicrous dramatics.

"Harry, you have never met a house elf, but right now what you need to know about them is that their life's pleasure is to work and serve the wizards of the family they belong to. Dobby is one of our house elves, and so belongs to the Malfoys. But now that you are living with us, and will be part of our family -- how would you like Dobby as your very own house elf? He would help you clean your room, and tend to you when you need someone to draw you a bath, or lay out your pajamas at night, and fetch you whatever you like from the kitchens when you are hungry, even play with you when you want something to do."

Harry peered at Dobby, and then gave Lucius a merry look, full of trust. "I'm used to doing things like that for myself, so I don't need --"

Dobby let out an anguished wail. "Oh please, Harry Potter sir, let Dobby do all the things that the wonderful Master Lucius has described!"

Harry beamed at what he obviously took to be an entertaining display. "Well, if you really want to do that sort of thing, then yeah, okay."

"Oh, thank you, Master Lucius, thank you, Harry Potter sir, Dobby will work so hard as Harry Potter's own elf, he will welcome Harry Potter to the Malfoy family and make him feel ever so much at home!"

Lucius held up a hand to stop Dobby from continuing his raptures. "Dobby, Harry here needs some breakfast."

"Breakfast! Yes! Whatever Harry Potter would like! Shall I serve Harry Potter here in the study, or in the kitchens, or in his rooms, or --"

"The informal dining room will do, Dobby."

The house elf did a skip where he stood, and then nodded frantically at Harry. "Right away, sirs!"

Harry jumped in startlement when Dobby disappeared with a crack, but then gave a nervous little laugh.

"Let me take you to the informal dining room, Harry, so that you can have your breakfast," Lucius said.

"Won't you have breakfast with me?" The merest jutting of the lower lip, the very beginnings of a pout, played upon Harry's face.

Lucius had to restrain his smile. So soon he was already becoming attached, then.

"Well, other mornings I will, but I think I will let Dobby serve you muffins and eggs and sausages and crepes and pastries while I tend to a few matters in the drawing room. Then, when you are through, I shall come to fetch you, and we will spend more of the day together."

"That sounds all right, I guess. As long as you come back after." Harry extended his arm without any prompting, already ready to put his hand into Lucius's once more, and they walked out of the room together.