Harry Potter The Long Lost Malfoy

"Harry, please. I just want to talk to you. I promise that I'm not going to try and kidnap you or take you anywhere."

Harry glanced warily over his shoulder. Lupin was standing in front of his classroom with his hands held out. Harry grimaced. He shouldn't have gone past it to get his Charms book from his bedroom, even if this was a shortcut to Gryffindor Tower.

"I don't trust you. You haven't even told me personally that you knew the Potters and me when I was a stolen baby. Were you just going to keep that to yourself forever?"

Shock grabbed Lupin's expression. He shook his head a little and closed the door of his classroom behind him. "Where did you hear that?"

Harry sneered. "Sirius Black."

More expressions went on chasing themselves across Lupin's face, and he moved his lips as if counting invisible numbers. Then he shook his head again and muttered, "Maybe what I have to say won't come as a shock to you after all, then."

"I don't want to hear what you have to say, Lupin."

"Then maybe someone else?" Lupin offered, and opened the door of his classroom again. A huge black dog sauntered out into the corridor, its tail giving a single wag that might have been directed at either Harry or Lupin.

Harry felt as though someone had hit him over the head with a club. He moved a step backwards, ignoring the way Sirius growled, and drew his wand. His hand strayed towards his robe pocket, where he also had a Portkey that Mother had slipped him before he left home this time.

Sirius sat down and whined. Lupin sighed a little. "Really, Harry, all he wants to do is talk to you. He isn't going to kidnap you again. He's sane enough now that he knows that won't work." He gave a strained smile. "And I realize that we have you to thank that for as well, or rather, the Malfoy house-elf who was defending you."

"I don't care what he wants to say. I made my choice. I'm staying a Malfoy."

"I know," Lupin said soothingly. "I'm only saying that he could still have a connection to you, as your godfather. He tried to get one by sending you a broom for Christmas, but he noticed that you didn't bring it back with you to the school. Why not?"

"Mother burned it."

Lupin and Sirius gave him what seemed to be identical looks of horror, and never mind that Sirius was currently a dog. Harry thought, distantly, that Draco would probably have agreed with them, and then forced the thought away. His hand was hovering above the Portkey, and since it was in his pocket, he could touch it and be away before they even knew what he was touching.

But because they had gone to such effort to sneak Sirius into the school, Harry did want to know some things. "So Dumbledore told you that Sirius had never got a trial and no one had ever seen the Dark Mark on his arm?"

"That's right." Lupin smiled shakily, as if he thought Harry asking that meant he had a chance of persuading Harry around after all. "I went searching for Sirius when he told me that. And it wasn't hard to find him. He's remained here because he wants to protect you from the real traitor, Harry."

"Peter Pettigrew. You said." Harry frowned at Sirius. "I don't understand why you haven't tried going to the Ministry and telling them that you're innocent of betraying the Potters, though."

Sirius looked up at Lupin as if searching for guidance, and then transformed so suddenly that it looked as if air was rushing in to fill the space where he'd been. He shook his head, muttered something under his breath, and focused on Harry. His hair was trimmed now, but he still had some dirt under his fingernails, and his eyes were haunted.

Harry caught his breath at being so close, again, to the man who had betrayed his family, but he stood there and stared at him, absorbing the impact.

"I think the Ministry would just set the Dementors on me," said Sirius, his voice raspier than Harry remembered. "There was an order to have them Kiss me on sight. Albus is working on clearing my name, but for now, I need to stay hidden." He gave Harry a tentative smile. "Thanks for mentioning to Albus that I'd never had a trial. That's the reason that he was able to do so much so quickly."

"Sure," Harry said. "I don't think you need to suffer for something you didn't do."

The emphasis in his words must have reached Sirius, because he winced. "But you do think that I should suffer for giving you a better home."

"You didn't, you bastard! There's no guarantee that the Potters loved me more than Mother and Father!" Part of Harry was surprised at how easily the names flowed out of him now, compared to the way that he used to think of James and Lily Potter as Mum and Dad, but then, Father and Draco weren't the only ones who had changed. "And you devastated them! I don't want you Kissed on sight or anything, but you bloody well should stand a trial."

He lowered his voice. The last thing he wanted was for someone to come and interfere, and raise the alarm that the Notorious Sirius Black was in Hogwarts.

"I did what I thought was best!" Sirius looked self-righteous, and Harry had the blinding revelation that no one was ever going to convince him otherwise. "Sure, you suffered because of it, but I couldn't have known that at the time! And I knew for sure that you would suffer if my dear Cousin Narcissa brought you up."

Harry closed his eyes and just stood there. He felt like a hypocrite, in some ways, given that he'd thought before he preferred his own set of morals to Draco's.

But neither the Dursleys nor the Potters had been responsible for those morals, if he thought through it objectively. He'd decided on the right thing to do more because it was what the Dursleys didn't do, and even though the Potters had loved him, it wasn't like they'd spent enough time with him to mold him in their image. Not really.

"I wish you hadn't done it," Harry said, and shrugged, and opened his eyes. "So why are you here, anyway? Why did you want to speak with me? Just to find out what happened to the Firebolt?"

"Yes." Sirius shifted when Harry glared at him. "Well, and to tell you that we found Pettigrew."

Harry blinked. "Where?"

....

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