Chapter - 9 : Pleasure Part - 5

Mrs. Malfoy smiled that small smile again. "Family is important to you."

Harry shrugged. "I don't know. I mean I hate my muggle relatives and they hate me even more but I wouldn't let anyone hurt them either. They're my family whether I want to be related to them or not."

Some emotion flickered across Mrs. Malfoy's face too quickly to be identified but she nodded as if she understood. Maybe she was thinking about Sirius and Regulus and his dad and her wildly different sisters. Harry was thinking about ministry traps and Narcissa Malfoy and Sirius Black and Bellatrix LeStrange. Somehow it was all so much worse now that he knew he was related to all of them.

If things were different, he would have already killed Voldemort and be trying to raise Teddy right now. Would Headmistress McGonagall have let him bring a baby into the dormitories? Teddy who was also technically his distant cousin. Would he have ever known that if not for Mrs. Malfoy?

The rest of lunch passed quickly and pleasantly. Harry thanked his hosts then excused himself after lunch.

That night on his way home from the bus stop, Harry was stalked by several cats. Most of them were probably the neighborhood kneezles but one of the cats was a tabby with glasses markings. A certain animagus was spying on him for Dumbledore. There were a lot of strangely dressed "muggles" hanging around his relatives' house after that.

The second lunch with the Malfoys in London was equally pleasant. When he got home, however, there was a house elf waiting for him in Dudley's second bedroom.

Harry's heart nearly burst with happiness.

"Harry Potter is a great wizard!" Dobby shrilled as Harry lunged at the elf. He kept shrilling even while Harry hugged the elf so hard that Dobby's feet came off the floor. "Oh! No one has ever – This proves what a great wizard Harry Potter is! He must not consort with the bad wizards!"

"Dobby! I'm so glad to see you!"

"Harry Potter knows my name!"

Dobby trembled as Harry reluctantly set Dobby on his feet and released his death grip on Dobby.

Dobby moaned. "I called Master a bad wizard!"

Then Dobby took a running leap at the wall across from him, head first. Only experience and several years of quidditch prepared Harry to grab Dobby as he sailed through the air. Unfortunately for Harry, he was quite a bit smaller than when he had first met Dobby. They ended up on the floor in a tangle of arms and legs and ears.

"Oh no!" Dobby wailed. "Dobby has injured the great and kind Harry Potter!" Still tangled with Harry he began to bang his head on the floor. "Bad Dobby! Bad Dobby!"

Harry slipped his hand between Dobby's head and the floor as he hissed, "Shut up Dobby!"

Dobby stilled before he smashed his forehead into Harry's hand. Huge drops of saltwater plopped into Harry's outstretched hand.

"Harry Potter is trying to protect wretched Dobby!" the elf sobbed. "Kind Harry Potter! Gentle Harry Potter! Wretched, unworthy Dobby doesn't –"

"Dobby I know that Lucius Malfoy is a Death Eater. But he has something that I need."

Dobby stilled. "Dobby can get it for Harry Potter! Then Harry Potter will not have to deal with Master any longer!"

Harry winced as he tried to imagine what sort of punishment Dobby would give himself over that. Would he end up beheaded like the elves at Grimmauld Place? Was it possible to behead yourself with magic?

"Harry Potter will get it for Harry Potter" Harry said firmly. "I don't want Dobby to get punished."

Dobby burst into tears. "Harry Potter is a great wizard! Dobby will protect him!"

Crack!

Dobby was gone. Harry stared at the wet spot on his shirt.

"My first death threat" he muttered. "I didn't even make it to Hogwarts first this time around."

Despite his babysitters, Harry had lunch with the Malfoy family three more times before school started. It was surprisingly easy to lose them on public muggle transport. Who sent a bunch of muggle-ignorant purebloods to watch a kid living in the muggle world? And what did it say about Harry himself that he found himself grudgingly liking the Malfoys – even the sane, non-hostile Mr. Malfoy.

The adults loved each other and adored Draco. Draco adored them. He felt safe with them and it showed. In Draco's world nothing could go wrong so long as his family was together. Years later that would translate into attempting an impossible, near suicidal mission to protect his parents from Voldemort's wrath. They were a real family.

For the first time, Harry wondered if his family would have been like that if either or both of his parents had lived. He liked to think that they would have been. He liked to think that he would have had brothers and sisters, a grim on weekends, and a werewolf in the basement on full moons. Would he and Teddy have been like that? Not exactly the way it would have been with his own parents but that same sort of happiness? What if he had married Ginny? Would they have been happy together? Would she have minded raising Teddy with him? Would Teddy have been happy with her?

Changing time and events made one think about strange things. "What ifs." It was irritating. Only irritating. Nothing else.

Harry concentrated on reading his owl ordered books on blood magic (old, moldy, and hardcover), occulomency for idiots (new and paperback), legimancy for dummies (old, moldy, and hardcover) and magical majorities (also new and paperback). He also reviewed his newly purchased sixth year textbooks and practiced the meditation techniques in the occulomency and legimency books. At least when he was taking notes he was too busy to worry about things that had never been. And in some cases would never be if he did things right. This time around Teddy was going to have a real mum and dad – even if Harry had to seal them in a room with him to make them do the right thing.