A Family Affair

When Alex emerged clean and rosy-cheeked from a thorough scrubbing, she immediately sought out her brother. Their eyes met and they smiled at one another for the briefest of moments before curiosity got the better of the girl. Crossing the room, she climbed onto the sofa beside Draco and leaned over the arm of the couch, inspecting his battered black guitar case.

"What is it?" she asked, turning her inquisitive grey eyes back to Draco.

"A travel case," he replied teasingly. Alex rolled her eyes, and he reached around her to retrieve his instrument. "However," he continued, flipping open the catches on the hard plastic case to reveal its contents, "inside of the case is a Martin HD-40MK acoustic guitar."

Alex's eyes widened. "What does it do?" she whispered reverently.

"Music," he said with a grin, strumming a few random chords. "You use it to make music." The girl's eyes opened even wider and her mouth dropped open in a surprised 'o'. "Do you like music, Alex?" Draco asked.

She nodded. "I like the Wireless, but I like it better when Papa sings to me," she confessed.

It was Draco's turn to be surprised. He raised his eyebrows skeptically and cast a glance at Severus, who was purposefully ignoring his foster daughter's prattle.

"He's not half bad, really," Sirius confirmed, earning a scowl from Snape. "He has this horrid fascination with the French language, though. It gets a bit tired after awhile."

"Although you choose to remain an uneducated cur, not everyone else should be forced to suffer the same fate," Severus retorted. "Alexis needs and deserves culture and class in her life."

"You supply the education, Severus, and I'll make certain she has some fun," Sirius jabbed.

Draco, sensing both the building tension between the two men and Alex's growing sense of unease, stepped in to diffuse the situation.

"I shall endeavour to educate and entertain you at the same time," Draco said, smiling gently at his younger sister. "As I said before, this is a guitar. It's a Muggle musical instrument. The way you place your fingers here," he explained, indicating the fretboard, "combined with the way you pluck or strum the strings determines what sound it makes. For example, this," he continued, strumming a simple rhythm, "sounds a good deal different from this." He carefully picked out a string of notes to piece together a more complicated fragment of a song. Alex clapped her hands delightedly and bounced a little on the sofa. "Come here," Draco said to her. "You give it a go." Alex's brows furrowed apprehensively, but she accepted the offer of a seat on her brother's lap. "We'll leave off the fingering for now, as your hands are far too small to reach properly." Draco demonstrated the proper grip on the guitar pick and the correct way to use it to strike the strings. Slipping the pick into Alex's tiny fingers, he guided her hand across the strings a few times. "Very good. Keep going, just like that," he encouraged. As she continued to drag the pick across the strings, Draco brought his left hand up to wrap around the neck of the guitar. The combination of Draco's chords and Alex's strumming was no masterpiece, but the sounds they made were clearly recognizable as music. Severus and Sirius shared a very parental smile, their previous harsh words now forgotten. Draco, wrapped up in his sister's very obvious enjoyment of their music, noticed nothing else.

Alex soon bored of the new diversion, complaining that her arm was getting tired. She insisted, however, that Draco continue to play music for her. After a couple of requests for wizard songs that, of course, Draco did not know and in fact had never heard of, Alex settled back on the sofa with a disgruntled huff.

"There's a lot to be said for..uh.. Muggle? music," Sean told her, stumbling a bit over the unusual word.

Draco idly picked out a tune, searching about in his mind for a song to appease his demanding sister. Finally, with a discordant jangle, he set the guitar aside and leaned back into the sofa cushions. "I have reached the conclusion that I don't know a single song that is appropriate for a five-year-old," he announced.

"How can music be inappropriate?" Severus asked, raising an eyebrow in puzzlement.

"It's not the music," Sean explained. "It's the lyrics."

Draco nodded in agreement. "Every song I know is about hatred, death, or sex," he added.

Alex squeaked, clapped her hands over her ears, and ran from the room, drawing a surprised laugh from Sean.

"Alex seems to think that 'sex' is a 'dirty' word," Sirius explained with a grin. "We can only hope she still feels that way twenty years from now."

Sean cast a pointed look at Draco. "Are you sure she's related to him?" he teased.

Severus snorted. "Alexis has only the prudish Miss Granger for a female role model. It is little wonder really that Alex has developed such puritanical notions."

"Prudish?" Sean asked in wonder. At Severus' and Draco's mute inquiries, he grinned his lop-sided grin and shifted forward slightly in his seat. "I guess you were too drunk to remember the dress she was wearing at the club." He rolled his eyes upward and closed them, visualising Hermione the way she had looked that night. "If her skirt had been an inch shorter, you could have seen paradise," he leered. "Good God, does that woman have great legs...." He sighed dreamily, seemingly oblivious to the look of pure hatred Draco was shooting at him. Snape looked vaguely horrified, but Sirius smiled smugly.

"Yes well, that dress was my doing. I convinced her that it was necessary in order to blend in at the night club," Sirius bragged.

"I owe you one," Sean told him.

Unaccountably angered by Sean's remarks, Draco leapt up and hurried off in the direction Alex had taken earlier.

"Now I owe you two," Sean said in a hushed voice.

"For getting Draco hacked at you?" Sirius asked.

"Nah," Sean replied. "For helping me give him swift kick in the ass. Have you seen the way he looks at Hermione? He's crazy about her. Unfortunately, he's got some major hang-ups where women are concerned, so he needs a little motivation," he explained with a grin.

**************************

The three men turned the conversation to safer subjects, with Severus and Sirius continuing Sean's education of the wizarding world. Over an hour passed before anyone bothered to look in on Draco and Alex, who had never reemerged after disappearing into her bedroom. At last Severus stood, stretched the oft-abused muscles that too often made him feel much older than his years, and crept silently into his daughter's room.

Draco lay sprawled across Alex's bed, one arm wrapped protectively around the child curled to his side. Both of them were fast asleep, exhausted from their adventures and lulled by the flickering light and soft sounds coming from Alex's telly. Severus' emotions warred within him as the tender scene before him sent a spike of jealousy and fear searing along his nerves. As glad as he was to see Draco and Alex happily united at last, he couldn't help but worry that the young man would, either willfully or inadvertently, take away the only good thing in his life. Leaving the sleeping children dreaming peacefully, Severus stalked off to lock himself inside his own bedroom. He needed to think very long and very carefully before deciding what course of action would best benefit his little girl.

*************

When Draco awoke, he thought for a moment that he was still dreaming. As had often happened in his dreams, he awoke to touch of Hermione's hand on his face and the sight of her expressive brown eyes watching him intently, with a tiny blonde-haired child nestled in his arms.

"It's almost time to go," Hermione said quietly.

The illusion shattered, Draco rubbed his eyes with the back of the hand that Alex did not currently have a claim on, taking a moment to adjust to wakefulness before carefully disentangling himself from his sister. Wandering back into Severus' living room, Draco blinked at the unexpected sight of Sean dressed in plain black wizard's robes.

Grinning at Draco's flabbergasted expression, Hermione retrieved another set of robes from the table and tossed them to the still drowsy Draco, who somehow managed to catch them.

"A pair of Muggles would draw quite a bit of unwanted attention in Hogsmeade,
Sirius told him. "You'll have to change your hair again, too. You're much too recognizable as a Malfoy - which is especially bad, considering that you're dead."

Draco reached for his wand and then recalled that he had put it aside when he crawled into bed with Alex. After only a split-second of hesitation, he reached out and plucked Hermione's wand from her hand. Pointing it in the general direction of Alex's bedroom, he mumbled 'Accio wand', barely remembering to raise his hand in time to catch the flying object. Returning Hermione's wand to her with a flourish and a grin, he turned his own wand on himself and charmed his hair back to a neutral shade of brown.

"Is there a spell for my eyes?" Draco asked as he tugged on the borrowed robes over his jeans and tee shirt. Stepping forward, Severus took the young man's chin in his hand, tilting Draco's face up so he could look into his eyes. Brandishing his wand, Snape chanted an incantation and then gave a satisfied nod.

"We've been practicing for when Alex is a little older," Hermione explained sadly.

Draco clasped Hermione's hand briefly in a comforting gesture before returning his attention to fastening the closures on his robes. He looked up again a moment later as the door to the outside world opened almost silently to admit a tired-looking man with brown-streaked grey hair who looked around the room warily.

"Remus!" Draco's glad cry startled the man, but Lupin recovered quickly once realised who was addressing him.

"Draco," Lupin returned warmly, crossing the room to offer the young man his hand. "It's good to see you again. Welcome back to the land of the living."

"Thank you, sir." Draco took Remus' hand for a handshake, but then thought better of it and pulled the man into a brief embrace. "I didn't know you were about," he said.

"You didn't think I'd sit back and let Sirius have all the fun, did you?" Remus replied with a slight grin. He stepped back and eyed the young man before him critically. "I find it hard to reconcile the brat I once knew with the man you've become," he said seriously.

Draco flushed a little under the unexpected praise, uncertain how to respond. Unable to think of a suitable reply, he chose to introduce Sean instead. He motioned for the other man to join them.

"Remus, my good friend, Sean Jacobs," he explained. "Sean, this is Remus Lupin. Without him, I never would have lived long enough to become a pain in your arse," he said with a grin.

Smiling broadly, Sean extended his hand to the grey-haired man, only to have Draco suddenly push his hand down as Remus reached to shake it. Both looked at Draco as if he had lost his mind.

"Your rings," he said to Sean. "Take them off first."

Puzzled but trusting his friend, Sean complied.

"Silver," Draco explained to Remus as Sean slipped the intricate Celtic knot band from his ring finger and the plain silver band from his pinky to transfer them to his left hand.

"Thank you, Draco," Remus said gratefully. He shook Sean's now bare hand, and exchanged pleasantries with him.

"Now, do you mind telling me what the hell that was all about?" Sean asked, turning to look at Draco.

"Well I didn't want you burning him," Draco replied, sounding as if Sean should have known that without being told.

"Burning him?" Sean asked, more confused than ever.

"A chemical reaction," Remus explained.

"One of the changes that lycanthropy has on the genetic code?" Draco asked.

Remus nodded. "That's the current theory, at any rate."

"Whoa, hold on. Lycanthropy?" Sean asked, his eyes widening in shock. "You're just trying to fuck with my head, right kid?"

Draco looked slightly uncomfortable at having shared Remus' secret with someone who didn't even know the man. He shook his head. "No, Sean. I'm not."

Sean stared at Remus. "You mean....?"

Remus smiled slightly. "I'm a werewolf - yes."

Sean closed his eyes and shook his head as if to clear it. Opening his eyes again, he blinked slowly and turned to look Draco in the eye. "Kid, you dragged me into the goddamn twilight zone," he said, sounding more awed than anything.

"You can't blame this one on me," Draco said with a grin. "Remember, I warned you."

***********

Minerva McGonagall joined the group in Severus' rooms a short time later and settled in with a book as the others headed off for the nearby wizarding community of Hogsmeade. Sean genteelly offered Hermione his arm, and she took it with a dazzling smile. Completely unafraid of the other man, Sean spent the entire walk talking to Remus about lycanthropy, prejudice in all forms, and Muggle literature. Draco walked some distance behind the trio, scowling at Sean and trying to quiet the anxious pounding of his heart.

Although Harry had adamantly refused to join the group meeting at the Three Broomsticks, Draco knew that he would likely be seeing the third of the famous Gryffindor trio - surely Ron Weasley had to be one of the overprotective brothers Severus had mentioned when describing the vigilantes.

Soon the small party arrived at the Three Broomsticks where Severus led them through the common room to a smaller private meeting room in the back. At the table inside sat three rather burly red-haired men, all of whom were sipping at drinks of some sort and none of whom was Ron Weasley. Stepping inside and closing the door behind him, Draco studied the three faces closely. Two were so much alike that he knew they were the infamous Weasley twins, although they looked very little like they had the last time he had seen them. They had been aged by more than just the passing years, and were unusually somber tonight.

Sirius was introducing Sean to the three Weasleys, who eyed him skeptically.

"Why is he here?" the unfamiliar Weasley asked, his voice holding only curiosity and no censure.

"Well, to be honest Charlie, I hadn't exactly counted on his being here," Sirius began.

"He's with me," Draco said simply, stepping forward from the shadows in the doorway of the room.

Three sets of eyes turned to look at him. No recognition flickered in any of them.

"And you are?" One of the twins asked.

"Draco," he replied.

"Malfoy?" the twins cried in unison.

"No!" Draco said sternly. "Just Draco. Malfoy is my father. I hope the name dies with him." A thought flashing into his mind, he turned to Snape. "You didn't give Alex his name did you?" he asked, with a look of horror.

Snape said nothing, and the mask of indifference which always hid his emotions showed nothing of what he might be thinking or feeling.

"We did," Sirius admitted quietly.

Draco sighed. "Nothing that can't be undone," he said softly, sliding into a chair between Hermione and Sirius. "Well, other than myself, we've got the lady, the Muggle, the spy, and the three overprotective brothers. I'm assuming Remus and Sirius are the would-be Aurors?" he asked. Snape nodded. "The drunkard is doing what drunkards do best... so I suppose that leaves our master strategist?"

"That's correct," Severus replied. "I should have known he would keep us waiting."

"He was late for his own wedding," Hermione said angrily.

"He was even late being born," Charlie said with a nod.

At Charlie's good-humoured remark about the missing man, Draco suddenly felt a sinking sensation in his stomach. When the door opened a moment later, his suspicions were confirmed.

"Sorry I'm late," Ron Weasley said, closing the door and turning a chair around to sit in it backwards. "What have I missed?"

"The Weasel is the Ministry's top strategic analyst," Draco said numbly. "We are so fucked," he hissed under his breath.

At the sound of the word 'weasel' Ron's eyes had instinctively narrowed in anger. Glaring across the table, he stared at the source of the slur. A full minute later, he finally recognized the other man. "Malfoy?" he cried incredulously, wondering at the other man's wince at the sound of his name. "You're dead," he stated.

"The rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated," Draco replied smoothly. "And please refrain from calling me Malfoy. Draco, if you like. Michael...or Talbot. I'll even answer to 'hey you'...but not Malfoy, I beg you," he said in a voice that didn't sound as if it had ever begged.

"Sure," Ron said stupidly.

"Thank you," Draco said gratefully. "Now can we get on with it?"

"But where have you been?" Ron wanted to know.

"In hiding. In the States," Hermione spat impatiently. "May we proceed now, or are you going to keep us here all night with your stupid questions?"

Draco stared at Hermione, shocked. No matter what had transpired among Hermione and her two friends back at school, she had never spoken so harshly to either Ron or Harry. Scathing remarks and hard tones had been saved for Draco's especial benefit.

"I do have just one more question, if the Ice Queen will allow it," Ron replied venomously.

Hermione's cheeks flushed and her grip tightened on her wand. "Take it back," she commanded.

Ron appeared to think about the matter for a moment before he responded. "No," he said, "I don't think that I will."

"Ron" Charlie chastised. "Now is not the time. We have work to do."

"Then get the frigid bitch off my back so I can work," Ron retorted rather loudly.

Tears, partly of anger and partly of hurt, welled in Hermione's eyes; though she tried to hide them, Draco saw the tears and they made his blood boil. He had had enough.

Leaping from his seat, Draco knocked his chair back against the wall with a clatter that served as a convenient distraction. In a flash, he had drawn a thin steel blade from somewhere on his person and was kneeling on the table before Ron. One hand curled into the other man's red hair, and he tugged Ron's head back to give him access to the man's freckled throat. He rested the edge of his knife against the side of Ron's neck; with one smooth motion he could slit the man from ear to ear.

"Apologise to the lady," Draco demanded quietly, his now sea green eyes boring into Ron's rather frightened blue ones. A fine sheen of sweat broke out along Ron's freckled brow and he swallowed very carefully. Behind Draco, the other Weasleys had all drawn their wands, but at a gesture from Severus they stayed their hand. They would wait, but remain prepared in case the situation escalated.

"I apologise," Ron said flatly through clenched teeth.

Draco pulled harder on the red hair, incensed. "Like you mean it, you dickless bastard," he snarled.

Ron swallowed again, felt the blade nick his throat. "I'm sorry Hermione," he croaked at last.

Draco removed the knife, released his hold on Ron's hair, and pushed the man backward hard enough to knock him to the floor. "The next time you feel the need to take your frustrations out on someone, I would suggest going and finding Potter. Perhaps you could rouse his anger enough to pull him from his stupor," Draco said calmly as he tucked the knife back into its sheath in his boot. The ex-Slytherin hopped off the table, righted his chair, and caressed Hermione's back in a comforting gesture as he slid back into his seat.

"Get your hands off her," Ron spat.

Without any change in his expression, Draco slid his hand down Hermione's back, thrilling inside at the slight shiver of her body beneath his fingertips, and took her hand in his own.

"You have no say in what I do, Ron Weasley," Hermione said, tightening her grip on Draco's hand. "You gave up that right when you decided that my best wasn't good enough for you."

"Mister Weasley," Severus cut in. "If you, Draco, and Granger would please set aside your differences and settle them at a more appropriate time, we do, as Charlie said, have work to do."

"My apologies, Severus," Draco said, sounding contrite. Choosing to ignore Weasley, Draco forged ahead. "I'm assuming you've done reconnaissance?"

"Precious little," one of the Weasley twins admitted. "After encountering the wards around the Manor, we've been concentrating our efforts on finding a way to take down or bypass those wards."

Draco shook his head slightly. "The wards are almost impossible to bypass or dismantle. If Sirius and Hermione hadn't managed to locate me, you'd have had to wait for Alex to grow up a bit."

"Blood magic, then," the other twin said with a nod.

"As I suspected," Severus added.

"I know I can get past the wards, and I'm certain I can take them down, given time. However, we need to know what we'll face once we get past them."

"There are other wizards there - at least there were before," Charlie noted.

"Crabbe and Goyle. Your ex-bodyguards," Ron said.

Draco felt sickened at the thought of going to war with his childhood friends, and something of what he was feeling must have shown on his face. Hermione gave his hand a slight squeeze. Glancing over, he forced a small smile for her.

"So, our first order of business should be to set up recon-patrols, right?" Sean asked.

"That seems the logical place to begin," Remus agreed.

"We'll want to observe them around the clock," Ron said.

Sean nodded. "Find out when they sleep, were they spend most of their time, which parts of the building they watch closely - and which ones they don't," he continued.

"We need to be alert for any weaknesses - anything at all we can exploit to give us an advantage," Ron added. Conjuring parchment and a self-inking quill (which just happened to leak slightly), Ron began drawing up a table. "Right then," he said. "We need to keep our shifts short. Say...four hours. That gives us six time slots. We're one person short of having enough for us to pair up without anyone taking more than one shift in a day."

"That's counting Potter," Draco pointed out. "I wouldn't if I were you."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ron demanded fiercely.

"Do you see him here, Weasel?" Draco asked impatiently.

"No, of course not. But I didn't exactly get a chance to ask as to his whereabouts, did I?"

"That is quite enough!" Remus' normally moderate voice sounded strange raised to a near shout. "This bickering is getting us nowhere. Ron, in answer to your question, Harry is suffering from severe melancholia which he is attempting to treat with copious amounts of alcohol. I've taken over his classes until further notice..."

"Classes?" Draco interrupted.

"Harry's the Defence Against the Dark Arts instructor this term," Hermione explained.

"Melancholia," Ron mused sadly.

Sean reached over and took the quill and ink from the distracted redhead and began to make notes. "Severus, Remus," he said after a moment. "You'll take first and sixth rotations tomorrow - well no, today," he corrected himself, checking the clock above the mantle on the far wall. "Starting in about an hour? Then Sirius and I'll take second, I'll let you brothers fight over third and fourth, and Draco and Hermione can take the fifth. Any questions or objections?"

Severus leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. One corner of his mouth lifted in amusement as he watched the Muggle taking charge of the situation.

"Okie-dokie, then," Sean said when no one said anything. "Monday we'll start again with myself and Sirius. Then the Weasleys, then Draco and Hermione in the fourth slot. We'll start from the top there, minus the two teachers. If Potter manages to get his act together, we'll work him in to relieve the rest of us now and again."

Severus nodded. "A sound plan, though you needn't work me out of the schedule."

Sean grinned. "Well, then. If Potter comes around, you can pair up with him, as Remus is going to be out of commission Monday."

Severus groaned at the thought of spending any more time than necessary in the company of Harry Potter.

"That's settled then," Sirius said. "Until we've done some ground work, there's really nothing more we can do."

Everyone agreed with that statement at least.

"Report back to Severus or myself with your findings," Sirius added. "We'll set up another strategy meeting once we've accumulated some data."

The meeting over, everyone started moving towards the door. Sean, with a broad grin to Draco, called out to them all. "Hey!" he cried, getting everyone's attention. "Let's be careful out there."