A Brother’s Bond

Harry stood still with his wand extended and focused as hard as he could on the memory of his mother holding him after he had told her the secret about the training, then whipped his wand forwards.

"Expecto Patronum!"

There was only silvery mist when he opened his eyes and looked, and Harry exhaled a little, hard. But Hermione and Ron clapped and cheered from their chairs along the far wall of the classroom, and Tonks turned her hair blue with excitement.

"That's a very good start for a month into training!" Tonks chortled, and her hair turned green this time. "Sometimes it's all people manage. And even that mist would at least make a Dementor hesitate. You'll get better at it, especially if you continue to practice with as much dedication as you have been." She eyed him. "A powerful memory?"

Harry nodded, watching the mist as it cleared away. Then he turned as Draco got up from his own chair.

"I bet you I can do that better than you, Henry."

"Oh? And what are you going to bet, Draco Lucius?"

Draco's face screwed up with annoyance. Harry grinned. He'd heard Mrs. Malfoy using that name once during the summer, and had been looking forward to the point when he could bring it out.

"That Falmouth Falcons poster on the wall of my bedroom that you liked so much."

"Done," Harry said immediately. He knew that the Malfoys would have bought him a copy of the poster if he'd ever asked, but the point was, he hadn't.

"What are you going to bet?"

"I'll never call you Draco Lucius again."

From the way Draco's eyes narrowed, he seemed to be on the verge of demanding something else, but then he decided to accept it, maybe because Ron was smirking. "Fine," Draco said, and turned around, his wand aimed in front of him. Harry opened his mouth to tell him that his wrist was a little too stiff and would probably ruin the Patronus Charm he was trying to cast, but then closed it. Draco hadn't tried to disrupt Harry's attempt to cast. Fair was fair.

"Expecto Patronum!"

The silver mist billowed out, and clung together for long enough that Harry thought he caught a glimpse of a muzzle. Then it broke apart.

"Well done, Draco!" Tonks clapped hard enough by herself to make up for the fact that Ron and Hermione didn't—unsurprisingly—and Harry joined her. That really had been great, much better than Draco's first attempts and better than his.

Draco gave Harry a triumphant smile. Harry grinned back. Draco was still pretty obnoxious sometimes, like with the thoughtless comments that he dropped around Ted during their Defense lessons, but it was also fun having a brother.

.....

Harry was expecting to have a big pile of presents and a huge tree at the Manor for Christmas, because that was what had happened last year. What he didn't expect was to walk into what looked like the center of a party the instant they came through the Floo, although it was one without guests and a huge table piled with food and gifts at just one chair.

"What's going on?" he asked, staring at his parents as they came forward to welcome them. From the way Draco was smiling as he came up beside Harry, he'd anticipated this, but Harry had no idea what it was.

"This is a belated celebration of the day we found you," Mrs. Malfoy said, embracing him, while Lucius wrapped a light arm around Draco's shoulders. "We thought about taking you out of school on the actual day, but I knew that you were having a session with Healer Letham that day, and—well, we were going to see you anyway. And I wanted to wait until we could have a proper celebration."

"These gifts are all for you," Mr. Malfoy added, steering Harry towards the chair with the presents in front of it. "So that you can remember how much we love you."

Harry held back a sigh as he sat down. It was like his family to show love through gifts, he realized that now. And it was better than the Dursleys never giving him anything.

It just made him feel weird, sometimes.

"But, um." Harry glanced at Draco, trying to say without saying it that he was worried about his twin being jealous.

Draco laughed at him. "I helped pick out of most of these gifts, Henry. And I got twelve years of being spoiled all by myself before you came along." He sat down at the chair facing Harry's on the opposite side of the table. "How many older brothers can say that and have their younger brothers be the same age?"

Harry smiled, and began to unwrap the gifts. The first one was a copy of the Falmouth Falcons poster on the wall of Draco's bedroom, the one with the players zooming against a background of deep, intense blue sky. He glanced at Draco. "Does this mean that you admit my Patronus was better than yours after all?"

"Shut up."

Mrs. Malfoy smiled, and Mr. Malfoy gave something that might have been a laugh, if it was quiet and under his breath. Harry smiled as he set the poster aside, and went on opening the rest of the gifts.

Books, robes, a model broom that would allow him to study maneuvers before he practiced them, a pair of dragonskin gloves lined with niffler fur that Harry kept touching because he loved the way they felt, a glittering jade inkwell, and a set of Omnioculars joined the poster on the table. By the end, Harry was feeling a lot more relaxed. Draco obviously wasn't jealous, and in fact would smile with anticipation as Harry opened each gift. Apparently, seeing Harry's face when he looked at them was part of the fun for him.

Harry turned to his parents and opened his mouth to thank them, then closed it again as a house-elf abruptly popped into the room. It wasn't Dobby, but Harry had to rack his brain for a second before he remembered this elf's name. Sidney, that was it.

"Master Henry Malfoy is having one more gift," Sidney said, crouching a little, as if he thought that Harry's parents would be upset about having forgotten a present from their tally. He extended an obviously broom-shaped package.

....

Do you want to read ahead by more than 60 exciting premium chapters?

Then join my p*atreon right now.

Link: p*atreon.com/Sonic_Spectre (Remove the *)

Free members can unlock upto 2 chapters.