Unlikely Beginnings

@>*~

Chapter Thirty Eight

When he\'d left his room, he had absolutely no clue where he\'d go. There were
so many things spiraling through his mind that Severus simply needed to
walk, meander, for as long as it took to clear his mind. He had settled on
the fact that the boys were on theiy, by, but he still had no idea how
quickly they would arrive. It was obvious to him that Draco would be leading
the way, but how? On memories almost ten years old? Snape knew there was a
good head on that child, but even the sharpest mind\'s memories faded. It
would give him at least a week, give or take, before they would find
themselves in a heap of trouble.

When he\'d come to that conclusion, Severus realized he\'d made his way all
the way back to the main entrance of the castle. He frowned, looking
intently at his surroundings, and then turned to go back to his room.
Walking up to the passage way he assumed he\'d come through, he was stopped,
watching as the wall slid silently, blocking the hall. A blank look came to
his face, wondering if he was being trapped when he looked over to another
passage, and it closed itself off as well. Frowning, Snape closed his eyes
for a moment, wondering which direction he\'d actually come from, but, when
he opened his eyes again, the corridor directly in front of him was opened
again.

Quickly, he dashed through it, and began walking down the hall, again almost
lost in thought. He hadn\'t noticed any abruptly changing walls or door ways
on his way, but perhaps he\'d simply waved them off and chose another alley?
For anyone that had been inside the castle before, knew it was an
inveritable maze of sharp turns and collapsible passages, which he\'d just
witnessed. If one was trying to get somewhere in particular, they\'d never in
a thousand years find their way. Letting his mind ease, Snape recalled the
last time he was here, remembering the doors that appeared on walls, leaving
him in the room he was seeking, though he knew he had been no where near it.

He\'und und his room in mere minutes, and had went to bed. He didn\'t receive
much sleep that night, and any he managed to hold onto was restless and
disturbed. Severus woke at daybreak, or what would have been dawn in
Scotland, but he didn\'t care. It was a reason to stop attempting to sleep,
and he began to wander around his room. The Dark Lord was due to arrive the
first day that Snape himself had apparated, but he never showed. It was
clear that the ranks were starting to become frustrated about that, unsure
of what they were to do. Most had taken to wandering the castle, disrupting
classes, or holing up in random rooms to drink and chat.

The thing was, that Voldemort must have been there to begin with, in the
room in which they\'d all congregated, when he called them all by the Dark
Mark; but then he had left. Why? Snape couldn\'t think of any reason for
that, to gather them and leave them leaderless, at least for the time being.
It was unlike other times he\'d been summoned, where the Dark Lord would be
already waiting for his minions to appear. Or else, he always made a timely
entrance, drawing their whispering attention before he commenced a speech
about whatever he was planning this time.

Snape was about to pour himself another cup of Firewhiskey when his Dark
Mark burned, stopping him dead. He felt sickly like he was the only one
being summoned, but he knew he couldn\'t disobey. Setting the bottle down
with a thud, he turned abruptly and started out of his room. Voldemort had
returned to the castle, and was calling the Death Eaters to him. By the time
Snape had made it down three corridors, he found he wasn\'t the only one
called, thankfully. They were called to the same room that they had been
gathered the first night they arrived. No one spoke as they walked, and
Snape was fighting to clear his mind of any unhelpful thoughts.

It was quiet, save for his own footsteps and the beat of his heart. He was
sure the sound of the others\' shoes made sound as well, but he couldn\'t hear
it. The only thing he heard was the slightly disconcerting sound of the
silent rustle of robes as they walked towards the room. There were arched
doors in the stone all around the room, coming from corridors in the maze
that was the Castle of Durmstrang. Unlike Hogwarts, the castle shifted its
walls, sometimes displaced halves of entire floors, not only staircases and
the scant hidden rooms. It truly was a maze, and anyone not knowing where
they were going could, indeed, find themselves in a room with no way out.

Death Eaters poured out of the passages, and moved to stand before the Dark
Lord. Voldemort sat in a large chair, hands on armrests that ended with the
heads of some rather vicious looking animals, poised in a snarl. The chair
was covered with fur and leather, but that was simply a standard feature in
this castle, though Snape was sure it had been spruced up before Voldemort
had deemed it worthy of his arse. The Dark Lord sat, unmoving, unblinking as
his red eyes scanned through the ranks coming to stand before him. The two
of his most prized servants were standing directly behind his chair, and
Snape didn\'t bother hiding the slight shock at seeing who stood there, since
that was most everyone else\'s expression as well. Peter Pettigrew, and
Lucius Malfoy.

@>*~

The trip through Muggle London was shorter than they thought it would be,
and they decided it would be a good idea to stop for a bite to eat. It was
easier to stop there for a while than to stick around Diagon Alley because
they could tuck their cloaks away, find a secluded corner in a small shop
and no one would notice. It was either that, or Knockturn Alley. No one
would blink an eye at them with their hoods up iey key kept up the air of
purpose, which was probably why they hadn\'t chosen that route. By the time
they got out of London, safely sitting in the train, it was close to nine
thirty.

The ride was quiet between the two of them, with only few words, though
there were quite a lot of glances at each other. Absorbed in their own
thoughts, they mutually and silently decided to stay that way until they
reached their destination. As they ate, Draco had told Harry where their
first stop was; Harry didn\'t have much of a plan B to offer, so he had
agreed. They were at the very edge of England now, and were wondering how to
cross the English Channel to get to France. The Channel Tunnel was an
option, but they still had a very long journey ahead of them, and not much
time to go about doing it.

With not being sure how long Snape would be in Durmstrang, Draco didn\'t want
to take the chance that they\'d get there and find out he\'d already left.
What a waste of a trip that would be, huh? One thing he\'d noticed about
Harry; he dawdled. Now, whether he knew it or not, he did, and it was
another thing that drove Draco batty. He didn\'t have the luxury of dawdling,
not when his father was around. Draco had learned to always be on time for
things, be punctual. Now, they\'d walked out into another bit of trees, and
found a gap in them, like a small clearing.

It was obvious to Draco that they were going to apparate, and when he turned
around to look at Harry, who had been following him through the trees, he
found that Harry didn\'t seem to know what was going to take place here.
Draco didn\'t have his license, but he knew how, courtesy of his father.
Harry looked back at him, looking a bit confused now, and perhaps a bit
restless. \"Now what?\"

Draco stared at him for a moment, before he threw up his arms. His mouth
worked for a moment, not really wanting to yell at the other boy, as it
might draw someone into the forest to investigate; and, he just didn\'t feel
like yelling. \"Well, what did you think we were doing, hiking off into the
trees for? A shag?\" Draco let his arms drop, and thought for a second that
Harry might blush at the mention of sex. Even if he had, it was too dark to
see it with the few feet between them. Harry sighed, and Draco continued,
crossing his arms over his chest. \"Harry, it\'s not that hard; I\'ve done it
lots of times.\"

\"That\'s easy for you to say. If you want to go that way, go ahead, and I\'ll
meet you there,\" Harry said petulantly, even as he started to fidget. Draco
sighed, watching the nervous boy across from him. He swore, if Harry pouted,
he *would* meet him there. Harry just stood there, staring back at the
blond, and Draco wondered if Harry knew how he was acting right now. He\'d
chaulk it up to the hormones for now, but as he didn\'t really know Harry
that much, this could be a regular occurrence. If that was the case, he
wasn\'t sure how much of it he could take. Being around the other boy was
going to be such a headache until this baby was born, if he was even
pregnant. He still wasn\'t quite sure whether Harry was lying through his
teeth or not.

\"Okay, how\'s this: I\'ll teach you.\" Harry looked back at him, starting to
shake his head nervously. Draco continuedt wat wanting to hear the, \'Gee, I
don\'t know, Draco. It sounds dangerous,\' speech. How Harry had ever managed
to do the many so called heroic things he\'d done by being a big baby, Draco
couldn\'t fathom; that lead him to believe the hormones theory, for the time
being. \"You\'ve studied your books for the test, right?\" Harry nodded, but
still looked unsure. He really hadn\'t gotten too far in the text, but even
then, it was hard to learn something like that from a guide. \"So, look, all
you have to do is picture where, exactly, you want to reappear, and
concentrate hard on that image. Imagine you\'re there, and, presto, you\'ll be
there.\"

\"Draco, I\'ve never been out of England!\" he shouted. \"I have no idea where
to go. Yes, I could sit here and think all I want about France, but where
would I turn up? Paris? Versailles?\" Harry stalked moodily over to a fallen
tree trunk and sat down on it. He was tired and really didn\'t feel up to
trying something he\'d never done before, especially when his mind insisted
on wandering. What was he supposed to do, picture some guy in a beret?

Shutting his eyes, Draco simply waited a few moments before he decided what
he was going to do; what they were going to do. He turned to face Harry,
who\'d stomped by him through the grass, and now he saw was slumped down on a
log. Draco sighed loud enough to draw the other boy\'s attention, and then he
smiled at Harry before simply disappearing. Harry blinked in the dark, not
quite sure if his eyes were playing tricks on him. When he looked to the
sides, around himself, and still didn\'t see Draco...

Harry stood up abruptly, and almost tripped himself in the tall grass as he
turned around, looking for the blond. He stared at the last spot he\'d seen
Draco in, and his eyes went wide in horror. \"How,\" Harry whispered to
himself, before changing his words, \"How could he leave me?\" He fell quiet
now, every little sound jumping out at him, and he tried to repress the
panic that was quickly trying to overtake him. Before he had a chance to
call out for the other boy, he heard a faint breath being drawn from
somewhere close behind him. He whirled around, looking, feeling his heart
beginning to beat faster before he saw the other boy step out from around a
tree, smiling.

When Harry saw who it was that began laughing,starstarted to run to the
other boy. First, he wrapped his arms around Draco\'s neck, hugging him
tightly. Draco certainly wasn\'t expecting this, and he\'d simply stood there,
arms at his sides. Harry pulled back, and looked a bit angry, Draco had time
to muse, before the dark haired boy pulled his arm back even farther, and
launched it straight into Draco\'s stomach. Ah, that was more like what he
had been expecting, as the air was forced out of his lungs at the blow.
Harry still had his arm over Draco\'s shoulders as the blond doubled over,
and he wheezed slightly as he tried to regain his breath. \"Why the bloody
hell did you do that for?\" he asked, voice still a bit hoarse.

\"You left!\"

\"I didn\'t go that far, Harry,\" Draco pointed out, literally, as he jerked a
thumb behind himself to the tree he\'d been behind. Harry turned his head
back to glare at the tree, the poor thing not even three meters away from
where they stood now. This gave Draco time to compose himself, and he stood
straight, looking at Harry. \"Look, since you don\now now anything about
France, why not just picture me?\"

\"How?\" Harry asked, sliding his arm from Draco\'s shoulders as the other boy
stood up. \"I don\'t have any pictures of you, though.\"

Choosing to ignore that comment, not even shaking his head in resigned
frustration, Draco continued. \"It does the same thing as thinking of the
place you want to go. I\'ll go first, then you follow.\" He noted Harry\'s eyes
flick nervously to the side when he said he\'d leave first, but it honestly
was the only way to go about teaching Harry to do this. \"I\'m telling you,
it\'s not that hard. Just... concentrate,\" he said, closing his eyes, and he
calmly stood there for a moment.

Draco pictured the cobbled street he\'d remembered. His father had taken him
on a specific route on their trips to the wizarding school of Durmstrang;
through all-wizarding communities, though there was the occasional stop in
Muggle cities, mostly for material things. He remembered down a street,
walking past a little shop on the corner once or twice, smelling the smell
of baking bread as he passed. He put the memories together as an image in
the front of his mind, and relaxing himself and focusing on the image, he
opened his eyes once more.

He found himself standing in the middle of a street, and had to dodge out of
the way before a carriage got too close to where he was standing dumbly. The
street was full of rushing people, making their way to and fro between the
many different shops. It was one of the few wizarding communities in France,
and the first stop on their journey, and he was glad he wasn\'t trying to
teach Harry how to apparate somewhere that wasn\'t safe, like somewhere that
people wouldn\'t take sanely to someone suddenly appearing out of thin air.

Harry had seen Draco\'s eyes moving behind their lids, etching some image
onto them, and with a soft pop sound, Draco was gone. Forcing himself to be
calm, as well, Harry didn\'t panic at the disappearance. He gave a heavy
sigh, trying to settle his nerves before his eyes flickered closed. He
started to picture Draco; blond hair, grey eyes, black cloak... No, that
wasn\'t working. All that was doing was making a choppy picture of all of
those things stuck together, like they were cut out of several different
magazine pictures.

He squeezed his eyes gently, and tried to call up another image of the
Slytherin. The first thing that came to mind was from only a few minutes
ago, when Draco had sidled around the side of the tree, smiling at him. Not
a whole smile, mind you; more of his usual arrogant smirk. His body leaned
gracefully against the tree; lean, though Harry knew there was toned muscles
underneath. The silver blond hair picked up glints of moon light,
highlighting a few strands white, and Harry felt the smell of the other boy,
sharp, and he thought of a many petaled flower with thorns, not matching a
smell, but the flower it came from, whose name escaped him.

With his eyes still closed, Harry began to smile, and felt his body shift.
He reached up to hold the bag he was carrying back onto his shoulder, but it
was already there. \"Hmm,\" he heard from the near vicinity, and he slowly
opened his eyes to find himself standing in an alley way, with Draco leaning
up against the wall he was facing, arms crossed. Harry smiled fully, and
Draco gave him a sweeping look with his eyes before rolling them to the side
as he turned his body.

Harry started with him, saying, \"I did it.\" He hadn\'t even realized it, but
he supposed that was what that shift was, maybe a different breeze, but it
was definitely easier than he thought.

\"Yes, it was marvelous, Potter,\" he drawled, though he didn\'t say it with
much malice in his voice. He sounded amused to Harry, and he only had a
moment to spare before his face paled and he turned around as quickly as he
could, kneeling down. Draco was about to continue before he saw Harry go
stark white, before flushing again, and turning. Draco instinctively stepped
forward, crouching a bit behind the other boy, laying a hand on the small of
Harry\'s back. He held back an \'ugh\' and opted for, \"Harry?\"

Harry\'s body gave another jerk as more bile surged upwards, and out of his
mouth. Draco only saw a bit of sick, or rather, heard it come up, and kept
out of viewing range after that. He rubbed lightly across Harry\'s back,
waiting for him to finish. He knew Harry hadn\'t eaten much that day, so
there wouldn\'t be much to come up. Harry gave a couple last dry heaves, and
then stilled for a moment before starting to straighten himself up. Draco
stood quickly, a concerned expression on his face, which Harry noticed as he
faced the blond. \"Yeah,\" Harry said, swallowing. \"I\'m alright. The
apparating jostled my stomach, didn\'t take too kindly to that.\"

Draco nodded, and began to walk out into the busy street. Harry followed
after him, though he caught up to Draco\'s side after a moment; he didn\'t
want to be alone, and he hadn\'t a clue what he\'d have done if he couldn\'t
manage to apparate, and Draco didn\'t come back. He\'d never have made it this
far without the other boy\'s help, and Harry knew it. Harry looked at all the
shops they passed, though his eyes lingered on a flower shop, with all sorts
of exotic magical plants waving at him through the glass panes.

They made good time as they wound their way down the street, though still
having no clue how long it would take to reach Snape before he headed back
to Hogwarts. \"There are matches coming up,\" Draco said as they passed a
broom shop. \"What exactly is the Gryffindor team going to do for a Seeker,
if we\'re still gone? I know we have a reserve,\" he said a little more
quietly, knowing full well that the rest of the Slytherin team wouldn\'t
hesitate to bring in the reserve, \"but I have no idea about your team.\"

Harry thought about it for a moment before answering. \"I\'m not sure,\" he
said, looking at Draco as they walked. \"I never thought about it, really.
Though we\'ve been letting Dennis practice with the Snitch, he\'s not really
ready for it, but I suppose he\'d be considered our reserve Seeker. He
probably wouldn\'t even have been given a chance to play if I was still at
school, but I s\'pose with the new...situation, I won\'t be playing anyway. I
don\'t know if I want anyone else to know.\"

The blond watched as Harry gestured vaguely to his stomach, and was reminded
of Harry being sick only a few minutes ago. There certainly were signs
saying that it was true, that Harry was really pregnant. He wondered if
anyone else knew, maybe Granger, since she did tend to stick her nose into
everything. \"Why not?\" he asked.

\"Just strange, you know?\" Harry said, and paused for a moment. Draco didn\'t
say anything, but Harry saw him nod faintly to his side. \"I was raised
thinking males couldn\'t carry children, so it never crossed my mind.
Sometimes I don\'t even remember, and that kind of... scares me. Like if I
hurt it, or something.\"

It. Draco hadn\'t even looked at Harry\'s stomach and contemplated a child at
the same time. When they\'d last touched each other, it hadn\'t even crossed
his mind that he might be doing something that would damage the child. He
didn\'t even know the gender, but maybe Harry didn\'t either. He really didn\'t
want to go into that right now, though. It was too soon for him to think
about it, maybe get some more apparating practice done around this town. For
now, Draco thought he\'d change the subject to something less awkward, or at
least not something so emotionally potent. \"I heard you were raised by
Muggles.\"

\"Yeah,\" responded Harry. He knew it was a subject change, and right now,
he\'d be glad to yak about his boring and cruel relatives compared to the
problems of his life. He didn\'t particularly think of any of this as a
problem, but why did it always have to happen to him? Was it even possible
for him to go an entire year, or six months, without something tragic
happening in his life? He\'d barely made it the first year of his life
without being scarred for life.

\"How could you stand it? Being around Muggles, I mean. Did you not have
other relatives who could take care of you?\" Draco asked. He had never been
in a Muggle house before, even, but he knew they weren\'t as large as the
Manor he grew up in. Despite what people may think, he wasn\'t waited on hand
and foot, forcing house elves to do his bidding. Of course, he was used to a
certain amount of luxury in *that* department, but it wasn\'t as if he was an
invalid when it came to doing something menial for himself.

Harry sighed quietly, almost unheard by Draco in the busy, noisy street.
They were nearing a less cluttered area, though, coming up into the more
proper and fancy businesses. \"None that I know of,\" Harry said.
\"Dumbledore\'s the one who thought it would be best for me to stay with the
Dursleys. I\'m not sure if he knew or not how they\'d treat me.\"

\"Bad?\" Draco thought he might have picked another wonderful subject to talk
about, but now he couldn\'t make himself shut up. He had no idea what had
spurred this sudden interest in Potter\'s life, but he had to admit it wasn\'t
that bad. The only others he knew about their lives were people he\'d spent
time with even before school started. Crabbe and Goyle were exactly the
same, pampered, stuffed full of sweets. Blaise had been quiet then, too, but
Draco knew he wasn\'t a selfish brat, or, at least not all the time.

\"You could say that,\" Harry said, and if they had to pick a word to describe
how he voiced those words, it might have been \'forlornly\'. There was no way
Harry could deny he wished he had grown up with his parents, and never had
the awful life he had before his Hogwarts letter came by owl post. \"They
hated that I could do magic, locked me in the cupboard under the stairs for
five years; that kind of thing. When I came back from school after my first
year, I guess they were even more scared of me; decided I would be allowed
to sleep in my cousin\'s second bedroom, but they still made sure they could
lock me in when they felt they needed to.\"

\"That\'s horrible,\" Draco said, frowning. He had no idea Harry had a less
than stellar life with his family, or relatives. Since he was raised in a
wizarding family himself, he grew up knowing the name Harry Potter, and the
\'fame\' that surrounded it; most people probably didn\'t even know that about
Harry at Hogwarts, let alone the entire wizarding world. \"No wonder
You-Know-Who wants to rid the world of Muggles.\"

Harry managed to scoff at that, \"Didn\'t your father ever tell you that
Voldemort isn\'t pure blood?\"

\"What do you mean?\" Draco asked, frowning deeper as they continued down the
street. They came to the end, to an intersection, and they stopped. Draco
had a thoughtful expression settled over his features, and Harry couldn\'t
tell whether or not it was to think about where to go now, for directions to
where they were going to stay, or about what he\'d just said.

\"His father was a Muggle, from what I understand. It seems he\'s taking his
revenge on all Muggles due to his father disowning him when he was little,
just because of what he was.\" Draco didn\'t say anything, but he gestured to
turn left, and they started down another street, and Harry followed, still
at the other boy\'s side.

\"From what I\'ve seen, all Muggles are vile,\" he said after a minute. \"They
persecute wizards for nothing more than having magic, and try to rid
themselves of us, calling us the \'filth\'. Why do you think we take so many
precautions against letting Muggles find out about our world?\" He\'d never
really been given a chance to speak about how he really felt about non-magic
folk, but this was alright. It definitely was true he\'d never actually known
a Muggle, and he knew there were a couple of Muggle-borns in Slytherin, but
none in his year, so he didn\'t usually speak to them.

\"They\'re not all bad,\" Harry said, looking up at a tall, beige building they
were approaching. \"Take the Muggle-born students at school, for example;
especially Hermione. Her parents are both dentists and they were proud of
her being different from themselves. They even go with her when she needs to
pick up books and things from Diagon Alley. My relatives would only drop me
off at the train station, and that was only after I scared them into doing
it; that, and they were glad to be rid of me.\"

Draco supposed he could be wrong; after all, they were all just human
beings. He wasn\'t going to give it too much thought, at least not at the
moment. They stopped in front of the tall building, and Draco opened the
door, letting Harry go inside. Harry wasn\'t sure what he was stepping into,
didn\'t even know if it was a bar with rooms for rent, or a classy hotel.
Either way, he was a bit nervous, especially when it turned out to be the
latter. Draco followed him inside, and passed him, making his way to the
desk.

Harry caught up again, and listened to what Draco was saying. \"This\'ll be a
good place to stay until tomorrow night. My father prefers the darker, more
shadier hotels, at least the ones that still held class in his eyes, but my
mother brought me here. She didn\'t think they were proper places for a child
to stay, so we came here.\" Harry looked around while Draco talked to the
witch at the desk. It was a fairly nice hotel, but he could tell that it
wouldn\'t have stuffy employees, bowing and simpering to the rich.

That actually surprised him a little bit, considering his few experiences
with Narcissa Malfoy; he\'d always thought Draco\'s mother was the kind to
have everything done for her, while she sat there and simply watched. He had
to admit he didn\'t know the woman, and had never seen her in a private
setting, or without her husband. Harry was beginning to think Draco was
starting to warm up to him, but he wasn\'t sure why. Maybe he\'d been wrong
about the kind of person the blond was, and he\'d known him for seven years.
How should he be able to judge the boy\'s mother when he\'d only seen her
scant times in public, and only spoken to her once.

The way Draco looked at him sometimes made Harry think he was simply
humoring him, but Harry frowned at the thought. He hoped they could at least
come to some kind of understanding, especially since he was carrying Draco\'s
child within himself. He heard Draco thank the witch, and take something
from her hand. Draco turned and stepped back towards Harry, jingling the key
to the room they were staying in.

While they were still in Diagon Alley, it had been late and they were both
exhausted, which allowed them not to piss around with two rooms there, but
what about here? They certainly had time to make arrangements, but Harry
shrugged those thoughts off as he walked up the stairs after the blond. He
was tired, though, they\'d walked quite a long way, but it was good. They
weren\'t in a rush, yet, and it had given Harry time to settle himself, and
his stomach.

@>*~