The Amazing Illegal Wonder Potion

Chapter 3

Unwanted guests

Harry returned to Grimmauld Place on his broomstick, following Sirius's motorbike. His trunk had been bewitched to follow them, which worked rather well until they began to slow down, at which point it slammed into Harry's back and nearly knocked him off his broom. Groaning in pain, and careful now to slow down gently, he descended towards the dark London street.

When they entered the dimly lit hallway of Sirius's house they were greeted by Remus Lupin, who threw himself at Sirius and attempted to strangle him. It took Harry a few moments to realise that this was, in fact, a passionate embrace and not attempted murder. That still didn't explain why Lupin was trying to bite Sirius's face off, but as it didn't seem to be bothering his godfather, Harry decided not to intervene. It was probably a werewolf thing.

He left them to it and went into the kitchen. He suddenly realised that it was growing light outside and he still hadn't slept. He had had too many nights like this lately, and was starting to look like a proper, angst-ridden teen. He didn't even need to dye his hair black.

However, it was hard to feel sorry for himself when his godfather had just seemingly returned from the dead. Harry made a mental note to find something to get depressed about later, but for the moment he decided to give in to temptation and allow himself to be happy. Luckily, this state of being didn't last long¹, since the first person he saw when he entered the kitchen was Draco Malfoy.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Harry shouted.

"What does it look like, Potter?" replied Malfoy, sneering. He was stirring sugar into a cup of black coffee. "I've come for a holiday with my mum's cousin. Not a crime, is it?"

Harry turned to the kitchen's only other occupant, Severus Snape. "What's going on?" he yelled, forgetting for a moment that he hated Snape and wasn't talking to him.

Snape, however, had not forgotten anything, and replied with a sneer: "None of your business, Potter. Why don't you go upstairs and save something? Bit of a hobby of yours, isn't it?"

A few hours ago, the taunt might have worked. But now that he knew Sirius was alive, it had little effect on Harry. In fact, he was suddenly feeling reckless, as if his father had awakened in his blood, and he said, with a sneer to match Snape's best, "Go fuck yourself, Snivellus."

Behind him, Sirius, who had just entered the kitchen, was forced to make a hasty retreat. A cold shower suddenly seemed like a very good idea.

* * *

"Okay, the way I understand it," said Ron as Harry, Hermione and he sat in his and Harry's bedroom a little while later, "Malfoy's mum started feeling very insecure after his dad got chucked into prison. Reckon she didn't feel safe without him to protect her, and suddenly she decided she didn't want to be caught on the wrong side of the tracks, see. So she went to Dumbledore and he's agreed to give her and Malfoy protection."

"Yeah, but what are they doing here? Surely the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix is no place for a Death Eater's wife and son, even if they have chickened out of Voldemort's little army. I mean, how do we know we can trust them? Scratch that, any idiot should realise that we can't trust them!"

"Well, where else would they go?" said Hermione, who had been quiet up until this point. "You remember what Sirius said about his brother, you can't just hand in your resignation form when you want to stop being a Death Eater. Voldemort has no mercy for deserters."

"So what would happen to Malfoy and his mum?"

"They'd get tortured and probably killed."

"And we're protecting them why?"

Hermione sighed. There was just no talking Ron and Harry. They simply refused to understand the importance of cooperation between all wizards.

They also failed to understand that Draco Malfoy was one helluva good shag. Although, on second thoughts, maybe they were better off not knowing that.