Ferinus Consanguinitas

Now beta'd by Night The Storyteller

"You’re kidding me right? The new headquarters can't be here, he is a death eater!!!"

"Calm down Harry, we will explain it all in due time, but we have an Order meeting starting in a few minutes."

"But Tonks, this is insane."

"Let’s get a few things straight Potter, I don't believe in your ideals or that of Dumbledore's little Order. But right now, they are the only chance I have at getting my son back, and if it means that I have to allow you and your ilk in my home then it’s what I will do. Having pureblood means nothing if your legacy is dead, and my family comes first, Mr. Potter." Lucius was glaring at Harry, and if looks could kill, he would be six feet under by now.

"Only the pureblood part of the family I'm sure." Harry said, his glare just as fierce as Lucius.

"So if Voldemort gave you Draco back, you would return to your precious Dark Lord?" Lucius and Tonks both flinched at the name, and Lucius took a deep breath before talking again.

"The Dark Lord won't return my son, and if for some miracle he did accept my family back into his fold, we would be nothing more than spell fodder so he could get his hands on our fortunes, even "He" needs money to support him in this war."

"I still don't believe that you won't betray us." The glares of death had lessened a bit, both sides were backing off to lessen the tension.

"I couldn't if I tried Potter. My wife and I took and made so many wizarding oaths and unbreakable bonds that even thinking of betraying you or the Order is painful to us, and acting on those thoughts would mean both of our deaths." Harry heard footsteps behind him, but was reluctant to take his eyes off the senior Malfoy.

"Sorry to interrupt, but I need to speak with you Mr. Malfoy." Forgetting the man that had tried to kill him numerous times, Harry turned around quickly to the man who spoke.

"Remus!" Harry gave his surrogate uncle a giant hug, Lucius scoffed at their display. Harry let the werewolf go and Remus turned to smile at Tonks, her short hair turned from bright green to neon pink as she gave a smile of her own.

"Of course Mr. Lupin, once again welcome to my home Mr. Potter." Lucius’s drawling voice was dripping with sarcasm; Remus gave Harry an amused smile and a nod, and then followed Lucius through a large wooden door with bronze handles.

"Come on now Harry, let’s get you settled." Tonks said, leading Harry from the entrance hall that was lined with portraits, and then passed the door that Remus and Lucius had just entered. Everything in the manor was gorgeous, he would have expected it to be all done in greens as the tent had been, but the walls of the hallway were a pale blue with ornately carved dark wood trim. The carpet that covered the stone floors was thick and cushy, and Harry felt a bit guilty that he was still wearing his shoes. They finally came to two dark wood doors which opened up to a large room with a curving grand staircase. Many doors led off of the room and Harry knew that he would probably end up getting lost more than once during his stay. He followed Tonks up the staircase and to the hallway leading right.

"OK Harry, this is the east wing, your suite is the second door on the left. You will be sharing with Ron, and it is kind of like the seventh year quarters, two bedrooms sharing one bath and a common room. Most of your friends will be staying down this hallway too; the twins have the first door on the right, while Ginny and Hermione will be the first door on the left. I think Mr. Lovegood and his daughter will be staying in this wing as well along with Professor McGonagall, hers is the fourth on the left." She pointed out different doors as she walked with Harry to his door and began searching around in her robes, finally pulling out a scrap of parchment.

"All doors have passwords, but there is a master overriding all of them just in case of an emergency. Umm… lets see your password is Canary Creams, Fred and George were the ones to redo all of the ones in this wing." The door swung open to reveal a small sitting room. There was one couch and two wing back chairs placed in front of a white marble fireplace; paintings of landscapes and magical beasts lined the walls along with two floor-to-ceiling bookcases full of reading materials. There were two doors leading out of the back of the room, presumably to the bedrooms. The room was decorated in a rich reds and golds and he wondered if it had been redone in Gryffindor colors just for him.

"Is everyone here already?"Harry asked while walking over and opening the door on the left, inside was a giant four-poster bed (much like the one in the tent), and it took up most of the space in the room. Sunlight penetrated through the windows on either side of the bed, and Harry squinted a bit even with the spell to protect his eyes. This room unlike the common room was done in light earth tones and felt very relaxing.

"No, they went back to the Burrow a few hours ago to collect some last minute items, I think they are spending the night there and will come back early the next morning. Hermione and the Grangers will be here tomorrow as well, they wanted to pack up their house before they came." Harry pulled his trunk and Hedwig's cage from his pocket, placed them on the ground and unshrunk both. Another door to the right opened to a small hallway, which connected both rooms to a decent sized bathroom with two sinks, separate cabinets and mirrors. There was a tub much like the prefects bathroom, fully equipped with multiple faucets and shower heads, but on a much smaller scale.

"Oh I bet the Malfoys are happy with this arrangement – muggles, mudbloods and blood-traitors all living happily under their roof." Tonks laughed quietly and then looked sadly at Harry as he came out from exploring the bathroom.

"I know that you don't like the Malfoys, with good reason, and I don't think anyone in the Order would have willingly trusted anyone with the last name Malfoy. The only reason we trust him now is that there is no way that he can betray us. He is ready to give up everything to get his son back, and we are going to try our hardest to help him. I think You-Know-Who might have made a grave mistake by getting on the bad side of the Malfoy family." They walked back into the common room as they talked and Harry leaned against one of the couches as Tonks tripped over the hearth rug and sat in one of the chairs, blushing at her clumsiness.

"What do you mean by that? All Lucius has done is botched one mission after another for Voldemort, why would him helping the Order do us any good? Well aside the accommodation that is." Tonks was about to answer when a male voice interrupted her

"Because being a Malfoy is what all purebloods once strived to be, there are rumors that a lot of pureblood families are not happy with what You-Know-Who has done to Draco. They can see their children in his place, and it scares them." Both Tonks and Harry looked over from the couch to see Blaise Zabini leaning against the door frame.

"And how about your family, Zabini?" Harry asked harshly, not feeling comfortable around his Slytherin classmate.

"My mother is dead, she waited too long to choose a side and You-Know-Who made an example of her." Harry saw only a few seconds of emotion on Zabini's face, and he felt a pang of regret at his harsh tones.

"Mad-Eye sent me up, as the meeting is starting in 15 minutes, and tell him I'm not his damn errand boy." Blaise glared at Harry.

"Thank you Mr. Zabini, come on Harry we can get you unpacked after the meeting." Tonks nodded at Blaise and he left the room, entering the door across from Harry's and slamming it behind him.

"He was already here when we came, apparently his mom was killed just before...." Tonks hesitated and let a breath out before she continue.

"She was killed a few days before the attack at the school, but no one knew anything was wrong until she didn't pick her son up at the train station. The school sent him here and he was the one who sent a message to the school that Bellatrix had come for Narcissa." They were walking down the stairs, Harry a bit in front of Tonks, worried she might trip again, he stopped and looked back at her.

"Blaise did that? Wow. But why was his mom left there alone? Shouldn't her house elves have told someone that she was dead?" Harry was impressed that Blaise had the guts to send for help, or maybe he thought that he would be next if he didn't.

"They were all killed as well, and it was quite brutal, but the death eaters had a point to make." She looked a bit sick, maybe she was one of the aurors on the case.

"And that point was?" Harry asked, but he already knew the answer.

"Choose sides or pay the consequences." They had passed downs a few more hallways and came into a high ceilinged circular room. There was only one other door leading from the room, and all around the walls were pictures with names and dates under them. It was the Malfoy’s family tree, and standing in front of the far wall was a blond haired woman with her back facing them. As they drew closer to her Harry could hear that she was talking to herself in hushed tones and Tonks leaned close to Harry's ear.

"I'm going to go find Mr. Malfoy, he is the only one that can get her away from the scroll when she is like this." She whispered, Harry nodded and Tonks went back out the way they came. He walked a few more steps towards the woman, but still could not understand what she was saying.

"Hello Mrs. Malfoy." Harry said as he got close enough to recognize the cruel woman he had seen in Madam Malkin's almost a year ago. She looked around 10 years older than he had remembered, her skin was sickly pale and her eyes were bloodshot and red rimmed with deep black circles under them. Narcissa stared intently at the wall; Harry followed her gaze to the giant tapestry and found himself looking at a picture of Draco, the very last name on the bottom of the massive family tree.

"He is still alive, the scroll would say if he wasn't." Harry wasn't sure if she was talking to him or to herself. He felt he should try and offer some comfort to this woman, a mother worried for the life of her only child, but he didn't think it would be welcomed.

"Cissa darling, you were supposed to stay in your room and wait for me, remember?" She didn't respond to her husband surprisingly soft tone and continued to look at the wall, rooted to the spot that told her with certainty that her son was alive. Lucius placed his hands on her shoulders and gently turned her around, she protested for only a moment before allowing herself to be led out of the room. Harry watched them as they left before turning his back to look at the spot where Narcissa had been staring. Tonks moved toward the door she had been leading them too, but turned around and walked back to Harry when she realised he wasn't following.

"How is the scroll able to know when a person on it dies?" Harry asked. He looked up from Draco's name tracing back with his eyes to all the people that had come before him.

"Well, when a person is put on the scroll, a small part of the person's magic is placed there as well. So when they die, that part of their magic dies with them, then the scroll records the date of death when the magic disappears." His gaze had once again returned to the captivating blond boy, sneer in place even in this picture.

"But how does one get on the scroll, when they are born or is it as soon as the mother gets pregnant?"

"No, not anymore. A lot of pureblood family trees used to self update as soon as a child was conceived, using its blood magic to monitor the family members, but that had the potential to allow descendants the family did not want on the tree." Her voice turned bitter and her hair began to get a bit of reddish tone to it.

"What do you mean?" He could probably guess, but Tonks looked like she needed rant.

"Well take me for instance, I'm not on the Black family tree, but if it was self updating then I would have beeen, and then the Black family would have to admit that there was a mudblood in their family line." She rolled her eyes at the word mudblood.

"Yeah that makes sense in a pureblooded "stick up the arse " sort of way. So how does one get on the scroll?" Harry gave her a small smile, trying to encourage her to continue.

"Well you would have to have the permission of the head of the family and then drips some of the person’s blood or if the child isn't born yet, the pregnant mother’s blood onto the scroll to prove that they are indeed of the Malfoy line."

"If this is the Malfoy family tree, then why is Sirius put on here?" He pointed towards his beloved Godfather’s picture, it seemed to be the only one out of the lots that was smiling.

"The Malfoys are kind of like the lineage record keepers of the purebloods, this room is magically linked to almost all of the other pureblooded families’ trees, so when theirs get updated this one does as well. In this room they always know when someone is born and when they die. Many of the other families also consult the Malfoys so as to prevent inbreeding from happening too often in the bloodlines. Though with some of these families, their trees look more like a straight stick." Harry had a good laugh at that comment and indeed some of the families on the wall showed tendencies to marry only close relatives. He looked again at the part of the wall that showed the Black family and Sirius’ intact name and picture. It seemed the Malfoys didn't believe in burning holes on their family tree. Beside Sirius was a picture of his brother, Regulus, they looked a lot alike, but while Sirius' picture showed him as an older man, Regulus was still shown in his teens, a testament to how young he had died.

"They never found out what had happened to him, he just disappeared one day, I don't think anyone would have known if not for the scroll that he was even dead." Harry looked back at Tonks, she was looking at Regulus' picture as well.

"Did you know him?" Harry turned back to the wall, Regulus wasn't quite as handsome as his brother had been at that age, but the resemblance was still striking.

"No, I was only 5 when he died....truthfully I had no clue he ever even existed until I first joined the Order and saw his name on the Black family scroll in Grimmauld Place. Mum didn't really talk about her family much… Come on now Harry, we are probably late for the meeting as it is." Harry’s thoughts strayed back to Draco as he turned from the scroll to follow Tonks.

'Would Draco die young as Regulus had, would his picture stay as it was forever?' He paused at the door and looked once more at the two faces on the scroll.

Draconis Abraxas Malfoy
June 5, 1980 ~

Regulus Arcturus Black
August 4, 1961~ March 6, 1979

"Arcturus.....R.A.B." Harry whispered.

"What was that Harry?" Harry walked quickly through the door to catch up.

"Oh nothing Tonks." Harry's mind was racing as he turned and followed her back to the meeting room....could Sirius' brother really be the same person from the locket....he needed to talk to Ron and Hermione.

*--------*


"You can't trust him Lyra!" McGonagall’s pleading voice echoed through the slightly open door of her room and into the hallway where Harry had been walking back to his room after the meeting. It had only been a quick session to catch Harry up on the few things that had happened since he left for the summer. Many of the things they had to say Harry had already heard from Lyra when they were brewing the potion. Harry decided quickly that they were keeping things from him again, and was refused any kind of answer when he asked what they were doing about trying to rescue Draco.

"It could be our only chance and I am taking it, Auntie Minnie. I'm sorry, I will be back soon." Harry ducked into his room and eased the door shut just at Lyra walked by. Neither she nor McGonagall had been at the earlier meeting and he hadn't realized they were even in the manor. He waited until her footsteps had stopped echoing in the hall before he exited the room and crept towards the study.

"Foolish girl, running off alone, she is going to get herself killed just like her father." McGonagall said, not loudly, but enough for Harry to hear the anguish in her voice.

"She is a smart young woman Minerva, and she is my only hope right now." The door was almost closed, but he thought that it was Lucius' voice. He heard footsteps coming from the other side of the door and he hurried back to his room and sat heavily on the couch.

'What is going on? Why would his head of house be talking with Lucius Malfoy in her private room?’ He tried to think of any sort of reason for this strange behavior, but his mind was overworked with all he had learned today. He got up from the couch and moved into his bedroom, undressed and crawled into bed. His mind was still racing, but his body was ready for a long night rest and sleep overtook him swiftly.



A/N I know another sorta filler I'm soooo sorry, I promise we are closer to some Harry/Draco bonding time
Thanks for reading and for your reviews!