Prequel to Deathly Hallows

There are times in one's life where we must realize who we truly are. Draco had to find out his identity the hard way during this journey to London.

He and Ernest had been riding on the bus for several hours now, and frankly, both seemed to get tired of the endless whispers and gossip. Sure, Seamus's story about Dumbledore's sins were shocking, but then again, so was the story about his son Sean and his involvement with Lucius Malfoy.

Draco wondered if he should tell Ernest about Lucius and Sean, but decided against that for a while. Ernest still had a crush on the older wizard and anything bad about him would crush the boy. Ezekiel laughed as he spoke to various people, scaring some off or enlightening others. Draco essentially had no one to talk to.

But that was about to change when a strange girl stepped onto the bus. Everyone stared at her, she was wearing a strange white dress with white sequins sewn to it. Her olive-green hair trailed down her back and her light-colored skin was like a polished silver teacup.

She said, "Hi, mind if I sit here?"

Draco nodded. The less words he spoke, the better. The girl sat beside him and said, "Thank you. Times are hard these days. I'm Kennedy Jaspotelli. And you're..."

"Drake Black," said Draco. He knew not to use his true name. "And that's my brother...Eston Black." He frowned again, ashamed that he had to hide Ernest's true name. Belllatrix would surely kill him for that.

"Drake and Eston Black," said Kennedy. "It must be hard to live in the world..."

"Of course, said Draco. "Our parents have been captured by some cruel wizard and my brother and I escaped."

"You mean Dumbledore captured your family?" asked Kennedy. Draco stared at her. "I heard nothing but bad things about him; he had botched up the life of a certain kid, saying he was a Chosen Hero. But the real Chosen Hero was punished for intervening by being handed to one of the most corrupt wizard in the world..."

"What was his name?" laughed Ezekiel, who had overheard them.

"What's with him?" asked Kennedy.

"He's weird," said Draco. "Very weird. Sometimes he says good things, but other times, he acts super-weird. You can never tell which."

"Lucius Malfoy was one of the worst wizards I ever heard of," said Kennedy. "I heard that he allied with the Dark Lord to get ahead. He held that poor young man captive for several years."

"So I've heard," said Draco. He knew that story, Sean had even taken care of him, and even Ernest, as a small child and he wasn't too happy with that arrangement. So that's why he built the Knights, Draco mused, he wanted to get rid of Dumbledore and Lord Voldemort and punish my father. But were there any children? Why do I even ask that question? Megan, Lydia, and Seamus are those children...

Any more silent revelations were interrupted when the bus stopped and two more children climbed on. Their names were Sameth Fujishima and Saphira Gatzby. They too were running away from their pasts and cruel families. Ernest was so startled by their presence that he nearly ripped Saphira's skirt. As Saphira turned to look at the frightened boy, Draco caught her face.

Holy crap! he thought to himself, that girl looks almost like Jacquel Romanov! Well, Jacquel had brown eyes and golden-brown hair, but the Saphira had green eyes and red hair. Sameth had blue eyes and brown hair. They all seemed to look like each other and Jacquel, even though they were not identical twins or even triplets.

Sameth said, "Why are you staring at us?"

Ezekiel said, "Do you want to go to London? You must go with us!"

Saphira asked, "Is he your grandfather?"

"Not really," said Draco. "And as to your question, you seem to remind me of someone I once knew."

"Who?" asked Sameth.

Kennedy said, "We'll find out soon enough. Your names?"

"Sameth Fujishima," said Sameth.

"Saphira Gatzby," said Saphira.

"Drake Black," said Draco.

"Kennedy Jaspotelli," said Kennedy.

"Ezekiel Bloor," said Ezekiel. "Now that we all know each other's names, we must all go to London!"

"Why?" asked Sameth.

"In London, we can find the answers to our questions," said Ezekiel. "Drake here wants to find himself and the little albino boy is just the albino boy. Your quest is clear to you, you don't see it yet. But to London we go!"

Draco frowned as he looked upon the weird little group that he had became a part of less than a day ago. He never even considered that a part of his life. He never even once considered Crabbe or Goyle as his friends.

But then again, Draco vowed to break free of the grip that threatened to cut off his future, and if that meant befriending several strange children and a weird old man, so be it.