More to Life

Chapter Two - Magic and Malfoys

"So you need a... wand to do magic?" Harry asked. It was the first time he had spoken in half an hour.

Severus glanced up from the plate he was eating from and looked at the black haired boy. "Most of the time."

Harry quirked an eyebrow up. "What do you mean most of the time?"

"Exactly what I said."

Harry let out a sigh and started picking at the food on his plate. His life had made a complete turn around in the space of a few hours. The thought of being a wizard didn't surprise him as much as he thought it should have. Maybe I've always known really just not remembered... He had to admit he had done a lot of things that couldn't be explained and now they made perfect sense.

"You do not need a wand to Apparate," Severus said, knocking Harry out of retrieve.

"Apparate?"

Severus chewed on his last piece of meat before answering. "Appearing from no where," he said so the nine year old would understand.

"Like that Death Eater did?" Harry asked.

"Yes."

"What else don't you need a wand for?"

Severus let out a grunt of frustration. He knew the boy had every right to ask about the Wizarding World, but frankly answering questions that every Wizard and Witch should know was beginning to down right annoy him. "Some Wizards and Witches can do wandless magic."

"Only some?"

"Yes, only some Potter. Powerful ones, I might add."

Harry laid his fork on his plate to signify he had finished and sat back in the chair. "Sometimes... if I will something enough it happens. Is that wandless magic?"

Severus bit back a smirk. "All children can do accidental magic Potter. It normally dies down by the time you turn eleven." The Potions Professor looked the black haired boy in the eye and continued. "However the shield you conjured earlier is a different story."

"Shield?"

"The blue light you made appear in front of you when the Death Eater threw that curse," Severus explained.

Oh that Death Eater... Harry gulped, remembering what had happened earlier that day. "About that Death Eater..."

"You didn't kill him Potter, though I wish you would have. Avery can be... bothersome at times. Macavoy, the woman, can be a little overdramatic."

Harry bit back a laugh. "Only a little? Anyway about that... shield?"

"It is obvious that you are an Aegis Wizard."

"A what now?" Harry asked confusedly.

"An Aegis Wizard, someone who can cast a shield without a wand. No child can do that accidentally."

Harry looked at his hand then back at the Head of Slytherin. "But I didn't even know what magic was till a few hours ago. How could I make a shield?"

"Aegis Wizards don't need to think about it much Potter." The black haired man stepped out of his chair and stood a few yards away from the table. He motioned for the boy to stand as well. "Put your hand out in front of you." Harry gave him a confused look, but did as he was told. "Stupefy!" Harry closed his eyes again, much in the same manor as he did a few hours ago. The same blue light appeared in front of him, deflecting the hex back at the Potions Professor. Severus conjured a Shield Charm and the hex dispersed.

Harry blinked. "You made a shield too?" Harry pointed out.

"Mine was a charm Potter, yours was pure reflex, only something an Aegis Wizard can do."

The little green eyed boy grinned, and then it faded a little. "Does that mean I'll stop being able to turn someone's hair blue?"

Severus blinked. "Most likely."

"Damn," Harry muttered softly.

The Potions Professor heard him and allowed himself to smirk. "You'll be able to do much more than that when you are a fully trained Wizard, Potter."

Harry's eyes lit up once more. "Really? Like Apparate you mean?"

"Yes, among other things."

"What other things?"

"If I told you, what would the point of going to school be?"

Harry blinked. "Suppose so... When does school start then?"

"When you're eleven."

"Eleven?! That's like... two years away," Harry complained.

"I'm glad you can count Potter," Severus said sardonically.

Harry scowled. "What do I do till then?"

"You will probably stay with me, much to my disappointment."

Harry scowled even more if it was possible. "I'm not that bad," he said, crossing his arms across his chest.

"I'll beg to differ," Severus muttered, his lips curving into a slight smirk.

Harry shifted on the spot a little. "What about him?" he asked, nodding his head in the still sleeping Dudley's direction.

Severus tapped a finger against his chin. "Do you have anymore relatives?"

The black haired boy scowled yet again. "Aunt Marge. She's Dudley's Aunt not mine, well not really anyway."

Snape nodded. "I'll wipe his memory clean of today's event, apart from... certain facts. I'm sure he'll be happy there."

Harry scoffed. "Probably." Severus raised an eyebrow at the small boy. "What?" Harry questioned, "I don't like Dudley, never have. It's not like I'm gonna miss him at all."

"Suit yourself." Severus snapped his fingers and a House-Elf appeared. "Take Potter to one of the guest rooms," the black haired man muttered under his breath, before returning his attention to Harry. "You'll be staying here for the night at least, after that we'll see what happens. I'll deal with this cousin of yours. He'll be gone come morning."

Harry nodded slowly then followed the little creature out of the room. He really wanted to know what the creature actually was, but thought he had already asked enough questions for one night. Even after the weird day Harry had had, he found he could smile about it. He thought he should be sad about his Aunt and Uncle... passing away, but he wasn't in the slightest. He wondered if that made him a bad person. Harry shook his head. It wasn't his fault the Dursley's never did anything to make Harry actually like them.

Harry's bedroom had been the cupboard under the stairs for as long as he could remember. All the children at school had their own rooms, like Dudley did. How come all he got was a flimsy mattress? It wasn't exactly warm under the stairs either. Frankly, Harry wondered what he had done to deserve eight years in a household where he was clearly not wanted. He knew he probably wouldn't get an answer. Someone must really hate me somewhere...

The elf didn't speak to Harry all the way up to the guestroom. It opened one of the many doors along the landing and stood aside, gesturing the young boy to enter the room. Harry gaped at what he saw. A huge four-poster bed sat in the room, draped with a dark green quilt. The rest of the room was decorated in deep mahogany furniture. Harry turned to look back at the house elf, but it was no longer there.

The green-eyed boy let out a long yawn. Wanting nothing more than to curl up and sleep for a long time, he did just that. He was asleep in a matter of minutes.

*~*~*

Harry decided very early on that it was very easy to get lost in Snape's house. Could pass for a hotel, Harry mused as he walked along one of the endless corridors. Just as he turned a corner, Harry ran into something, or rather someone, and fell to the floor with a thud.

"Ow..." Harry muttered. He gave his head a shake and looked up. A boy, Harry guessed he was about the same age as himself, was sat on the floor in front of him. Grey eyes caught sight of the other boy.

"Erm... hullo," the boy muttered, picking himself up off the floor. He offered a hand to Harry and pulled him up. "I guess you are who I'm looking for?"

Harry shrugged. "Probably. Who sent you?"

"Severus. I would have found you ages ago if you hadn't gone walkabouts."

Harry scowled. "I didn't know I wasn't supposed to. Who are you anyway?"

The blonde boy grinned. "Sorry, how rude of me. I'm Draco Malfoy." He held his hand out for the other boy to shake.

Harry stared at Draco, a grin slowly appearing on his face. No one his age had ever said anything remotely nice to him before or apologised to him for that matter. He took hold of the pale hand. "I'm Harry..."

"Potter, I know," Draco interrupted. "Everyone knows who you are." He glanced up at Harry's lightning shaped scar on his forehead.

Harry smiled weakly. "Yeah."

Draco let go of Harry's hand and cocked his head to the side. "Is it true you've only just found out you're a Wizard?"

Harry nodded. "Yeah, so if you say something and it goes completely over my head, just ignore it."

Draco grinned again. "I think I like you already."

Harry couldn't help but smile. The Wizarding world was already turning out to be ten times better than living at Privet Drive. He knew he'd never have to go back to Little Whinging again. Harry just grinned even more. "I could say the same for you."

Draco gave Harry a thoughtful look. "Here's a deal for you. I'll teach you everything there is to know about the Wizarding world and you teach me about the muggle world."

"Muggles being people who can't do magic, right?" Harry asked,

"You catch on quick, Potter."

"You sound like Snape when you said that."

Draco scowled. "I do not sound like that miserable git."

Harry giggled. "Sure you don't."

*~*~*

The two boys managed to find their way back to the guestroom Harry was staying in. They talked about random things for a few hours. Draco told Harry about Diagon Alley mostly; all the things that could be bought there. In turn Harry told Draco about muggle appliances mostly, since that's all Draco seemed to care about.

"So they work on elkectcity?"

"Electricity Draco, and yes."

"So what's Elkectcity?"

Harry sighed and rubbed the scar on his forehead on impulse. "I've never asked, it just makes things work. Who cares what it is."

Draco shrugged. "Good point. It's fascinating though."

"To you maybe," Harry mumbled.

Of course, Draco then started talking about Quidditch.

"Quidditch?" Harry asked.

"It's a game, played on broomsticks." Draco looked up at Harry mouthed the word 'broomsticks'. "Yes broomsticks Potter. At least muggles get some things right." Draco pulled a small box out of his pocket and opened the latch. Miniature figures appear out of it as the box itself rearranged so it resembled a Quidditch pitch without any stands around the edge of it. Draco pointed to one of the figures that was holding the Quaffle. "This is a chaser. There are three of them on a team. They try and throw the Quaffle, that's the biggest ball, through the hoops at the opposite end of the field." He then pointed to a little figure with a bat in its hand. "That is a beater. They attempt to keep the Bludgers away from their own team and aim them towards the other team instead." He gave the little keeper a flick on the head. "That's the keeper, obvious what they do, right?" Harry nodded as Draco continued. "And that-" he said, pointing to the figure that was chasing something around the pitch, "-is the seeker. They try and catch the Golden Snitch, which is that little gold thing flying around. When it's caught, the game ends and not before." Draco looked up and gave Harry a grin. "So?"

"Football is a lot easier to remember," Harry mumbled, "But Quidditch looks fun."

Draco gave Harry a puzzled look. "What's football?"

Harry sighed.

*~*~*

"What about your family then?" Harry asked as he watched Draco rummage through his pocket to find his Exploding Snap deck. "And are those pockets bottomless?"

Draco grinned at the last question. "Near enough... Ha, found them." He started to share the cards out between. "You asked about my family, right?"

"Yeah."

"Just me and my Mother. I never knew Father, but from what my Mother tells me I'm glad I don't." Draco picked up his card deck and shuffled them in his hand.

Harry proceeded to do the same thing, but failed miserably and the cards went flying all over the bed. He scowled at them as he began to pick them back up again. "Why?" Harry asked, looking up at the grinning Draco.

Draco's grin faded and he mumbled something under his breath that Harry couldn't catch. Harry gave him a confused look so Draco spoke up. "He was a Death Eater... Don't look at me like that."

Harry looked down at his deck of cards. "Wow... When did he... you know..."

Draco put down the first card on the bed. "Just before the Dark Lord kick the bucket."

The black haired boy put his first card down slowly on top of the other card. "What about your Mother then?" Harry asked, trying to get away from the subject of Draco's Father.

"She's called Narcissa Black, changed her name back when Father died. I kept mine as Malfoy, I mean Draco Black doesn't sound that good."

Harry sniggered under his breath and Draco caught him and threw a nearby pillow at his face. Harry caught it before it hit him in the face and threw it back. "What about cousins and what not?"

"I've only got one cousin. She goes to Hogwarts, in her fourth year if I remember rightly. She's called Nymphadora, but she hates it." Draco sniggered under his breath and place down another card. "I see her Mother, Aunt Andromeda quite a bit. The rest of my family is quite twisted."

Harry thought about this for a moment and then spoke. "Death Eaters?"

Draco looked a little surprised and mumbled 'yes'. "Aunt Bellatrix and Uncle Rodolphus are in Azkaban, the Wizarding prison. Nasty place if there ever was one. My Mother's cousin is there as well, but he's not a Death Eater. He..." He looked up at Harry and reconsidered his sentence. "Maybe I'm not the best person to tell you this..."

"Tell me what? ...Snap!" Harry yelled out. As soon as he said it, the cards exploded. Harry stared at the smoking pack of cards and started sniggering. "Guess it's called Exploding Snap for a reason."

Draco grinned. "Yeah."

"So this cousin of your Mother's..."

Draco's grin faulted. "I don't know if I should tell you. Sev might kill me."

Harry tapped on the bed quilt a few times. "How about you tell me and if Severus decides to tell me himself, I'll make out that's the first time I've heard about it?"

Draco looked hesitant. "Alright... but don't blame me if you don't like it. His name is Sirius Black. As far as I know he was your parents' best friend."

"Why is he in Azkaban then?" Harry asked.

"My Mother always tells me he didn't do it, but no one will believe him mostly because of his family name. Black's are known for being Dark Wizards but Only Aunt Bellatrix is really. Well her and my grandparents and my Mother's Aunt and Uncle, but they're all dead anyway. Sirius was meant to have killed some muggles and a Wizard called Peter Pettigrew. That was eight years ago. He's still in Azkaban now. I don't want to say anything else about it..."

Harry shrugged. "Ok, if you don't want to..." Harry attempted to make a downhearted expression. Draco looked up and caught it.

"Oh alright," Draco gave in. "There's a charm called a Fidelius charm, it hides someone so that only one person, their secret keeper, knows where they are. Your parents had to hide from the Dark Lord; you know that part, right?" He watched Harry nod as he continued. "Well Sirius was meant to be the secret keeper. Mother thinks he changed it to someone else, though he didn't tell anyone. Whoever the secret keeper was sold your parents out to the Dark Lord-"

"And that's how they died..." Harry finished off. "Now I know why you didn't want to tell me. Sorry Draco. Nice to know you fell for it though."

Draco blinked, thought back and then grinned. "You... You'd do well in Slytherin, you know."

Harry stood up and took a bow. "Thank you."

"You don't seem to upset about it..." Draco asked, referring to the story he had just told.

Harry shrugged. "I never knew them really; I find it kind of hard to miss something I never knew."

"I see your point," Draco agreed. "Want to play Wizard's Chess?"

"Another game in your bottomless pockets?"

"No. Sev has a board downstairs somewhere. Let's go and find it."

"Ok, but I have no idea how to play chess," Harry grumbled.

Draco gave him a smirk. "I'll just have to teach you then. As well as teach you how to cheat at it."

~+~

Leatrix Malfoy ~ 30^th September 2003