A New Family For Harry

Here's more of "A New Family For Harry". There are some plot developments at the opening in this part, but I hope you'll all be very satisfied by the chapter's end (in that, well, some of the warnings and the rating will start to seem earned!)



Note: This installment is broken into two chapters now -- not all of the text would fit, for some reason.



Lilith, as to your question about whether Draco might join in -- I think this part might answer your question (or it might raise some new questions!).



Tina109, that's a great question, and I think the story will play with that issue in the installments to come (will they or won't they be discovered?).



To all my reviewers, and to those who have given such a high rating to this story, thank you! Your feedback, questions, and responses mean the world to me -- hey, that's why I write. Please keep the reviews coming, and I will strive to update this story frequently.



Now, on to the next chapter:





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Inviting some of Dumbledore's faction to Harry's eighth birthday party appeared to have been a wise maneuver.



In the next few days, Lucius received several owls containing cautious expressions of approval of how Harry was coming along. That the boy was such a pretty child, charming and genuine, had no doubt helped in their favor. But the attendees who had arrived with skepticism in their eyes had obviously been, if not entirely convinced, then had their interest piqued when they queried Harry and heard from the boy himself that his current situation was a beneficial one: that he liked living with the Malfoys; that he had a set of rooms all to himself when before he had been shut into a cupboard; that his learning was coming along swimmingly under Lucius's supervision; and that he enjoyed having a play companion in Draco rather than being compelled to submit to his bully of a cousin.



All in all, Lucius smirked when he read a letter from one of the hangers-on to James Potter's crowd of Gryffindor House that ventured to say that, Harry indeed seemed better off where he was with Lucius than he had been with the Muggles Dumbledore had installed him among.



The only way in which the strategem had come to seem at all burdensome to Narcissa and Lucius was that now the other families, wizarding families they did not generally extend their association to, seemed to assume they had rights to keep within the social circle of the Boy Who Lived.



"Who is it this time?" Lucius asked one morning over breakfast.



Narcissa pursed her lips. "The Weasley family. They brought a boy to the party, one of their brood. Not that they were gracious to us, oh no; obviously they wanted to gawk at our Harry, see his scar for themselves, and report back to Dumbledore that we were no doubt mistreating our ward."



Lucius gave her an approving nod. Narcissa had not been as quick to warm to Harry as he had, and she remained somewhat distant to the boy. However, she had rapidly become accustomed to the additional status their family gained by hosting the Potter child, and so became possessive of Harry and protective of him by virtue of her keen interest in rank and power.



After she cast the parchment to the side, he picked it up. "Well. I rather think we must choose one or two of these other families and allow them access to Harry, if only to keep up the report of our generosity and the understanding that Harry is well placed."



"But the Weasleys." Narcissa wrinkled her nose in a way that reminded him of Draco. "They're Muggle-lovers, and they have ever so many children. What if they wish to bring them all over at the same time, and the little rodents destroy some of our belongings?"



"We'll make it clear they are only to bring the one," Lucius murmured as he penned a reply.



The scroll had come from Molly Weasley, rather than Arthur, which surprised Lucius not at all. He could not imagine Arthur performing any obsequies to the Malfoy family however much he was fascinated by making the acquaintance of the wizarding world's Boy Hero. But Molly had ambitions for her children, though perhaps she did not articulate them in precisely that manner, and no doubt the tale of the orphan boy tugged at her ample heart-strings.



"Their place in the confidences of Dumbledore and his ilk makes them well suited to act as our designated liaisons," Lucius noted. "We'll invite the Weasley boy for tea Saturday next."



* * *



And so it happened that one Ronald Weasley, wearing patched robes and a defiant look on his freckled face, arrived the following week.



Harry remembered him from his party, and after some awkwardness with the two of them sitting across from one another whilst saying nothing, Harry took Ronald's hand so that he could show off his toys and sundries.



Lucius spent most of the afternoon in his study, answering correspondences and taking Floo calls, but when he heard a small knock, he opened the door to reveal Draco standing on the other side, his eyes swollen from crying.



"What seems to be the matter?" Lucius asked briskly, ushering Draco inside.



"I don't like Ron!" Draco burst out. "He's poor, and he's ugly, and -- and -- and -- Harry hasn't played with me all day," he finished in a shriek.



Lucius sighed and set his son upon his knee. "Can you not play with both of them together?"



Draco's smooth brow furrowed, and he spat out, "They asked me to play with them, but I said that I wouldn't!"



Lucius turned his head so that he could meet his son's eyes and said, "Well, then, I expect Harry will be free to play with you tomorrow."



"But I want to play with Harry today, and he just wants to play with Ron, and Ron has horrid red hair!" Draco wailed.



Lucius patted him on the back until the boy stopped crying and spent a few minutes with the hiccoughs instead.



"I can understand your feelings about the Weasley boy," he said at last.



Draco blinked at him, his grey eyes wide. "You can? But I thought you wanted Ron to come and play with Harry."



Lucius rubbed Draco's back while he thought. "It's not that I want Ron precisely. And in another situation, I can imagine forbidding such a boy to even enter our house. But now that Harry has become part of our lives, I have become more...politic in dealing with other types of people and families."



Draco sniffled. "Because you changed your mind about them?"



Lucius gave a hearty laugh. "No! But I have changed my mind about how useful they might be. In the past, Draco, our family has allied ourselves in particular ways, and in certain...regimes, those ways have brought power. But certain arrangements of government and rule cannot be counted upon, and the process of making sure others think well of us keeping Harry has made me realize that we Malfoys are in a unique opportunity to grasp power now, in whatever atmosphere the wizarding world's politics move in."



The boy leaned on him, his white blond hair brushing against Lucius's chin. "I don't understand any of that."



With a smile, Lucius tipped his son's chin up. "Just know that we are practicing a diplomacy, not because we think well of such people, but because we let them think we think well of them. And in this way, we shall have our way, do what we please."



Draco drew a sleeve against his eyes. "That sounds all right, I suppose."



Lucius kissed him on the forehead. "Now, run along and play."



The boy cocked his head to the side, as though considering something. "We should have our way, if we...act nice?"



"Something like that," Lucius said, hiding his amusement.



"Yes, Papa," Draco said eagerly, and scampered out of the room.



* * *



That night at dinner, Harry was full of talk about Ron, how Ron had ever so many brothers and maybe one or two sisters, how Ron had gnomes in his garden, how Ron knew all sorts of swear words, how Ron told Harry about his favorite Quidditch team, and now they were Harry's favorite Quidditch team as well.



Draco glared at his dessert, not touching it throughout Harry's enthusiastic narration. When Narcissa broke in to change the subject, Lucius heard Draco lean over and hiss to Harry, "Remember what you promised."



Harry looked confused for a second, then his face became full of merriment. "All right," he replied, almost as if teasing Draco.



Lucius nodded through Narcissa's story of some or other scandal in some of the first families, and kept a carefully blank expression so he wouldn't hurt the boys' feelings.



So Draco had not only "played fair" with the Weasley boy, he had negotiated with Harry for something in exchange for doing so.



Lucius had to keep himself from smiling benevolently at his son. How very like a Malfoy the boy was proving to be.



* * *


Continued in Part II of this installment -- click next chapter!