Chapter 8: Dawn's Friends and a Story

Disclaimer: All things HP belong to JKR and all things Buffy/Angel belong to Joss
Title: Granddaughter
Author: Kate R.
Rating: FR13 to Teen I guess
Pairing: None right now
Summary: the Continuation of Letter Home. After the things Joyce hinted at in the letter come to pass, Dawn goes to her grandfather.

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Sunday morning, Harry woke up hearing motorcycles park. Today was the first day he had that he was recognized as Lee Rourke's ward and not Vernon Dursley's.

He heard Dawn open the front door and squeal as he was coming down the steps.

"Dragon! Silver!" She cried. There was an 'oof' and a 'thud' before someone answered her.

"Nice to see you too, Sunrise," a voice Harry knew said.

"Malfoy?" he questioned as he hurried to the door.

"I am so sorry, Silver," Dawn was saying as Harry felt his jaw dropping. "Giles warned me your leg would be bothering you after a five hour ride on the bike."

"It's all right," Harry heard said as someone he never thought to see in muggle clothes using a muggle means of transportation got himself to his feet by bracing against the bike. He leaned against it for a minute until Dawn gave him his cane.

"I feel like a goober," she was saying. "I was just so excited to see you guys again."

"It's fine," Draco Malfoy said as he helped his father into the house. Harry pulled the door open wider when he noticed Lucius was in some pain and he doubted it was from the landing on the ground.

"Are you okay?" he asked timidly.

"I'm fine," Lucius answered, in an actual warm tone. "I just need some aspirin, that’s all. Leg cramp."

"Oh," Harry said. "Okay. I know where that is."

He took off to get the bottle of Tylenol while Dawn got Lucius settled in a chair. A quietly spoken spell and Lucius was wearing jeans and a t-shirt while Dawn was rubbing his leg. Draco was watching, concern on his face as his father hissed a few times before relaxing.

"The leg cramp from hell," Dawn teased as Lucius finally relaxed.

"No, that would be what happened when Draco's mother would sit on my legs some nights," he told her. "This is just . . . I need to remember to stop and stretch on long rides."

"Drove straight through, huh?" she asked. Lucius chuckled and nodded,

"Not my most brilliant plan but after having to plan for a megalomaniac for twenty or so years I think my brain is tired," he said. Draco sighed and watched as his father let his legs rest on the ottoman and Harry approached with the aspirin.

"Here you go, sir," Harry told him, offering the pills. Lucius took one and downed it with a drink of water. Then he leaned back against the chair and sighed.

"Dragon, tell Harry the story, he's curious I can tell."

"Yes, father," Draco told him, ad pulled Harry to another couch so he could continue to watch over his father.

"You want to know why we're here and how we ended up being friends with Dawn, right?" he asked. Harry nodded mutely. He had no idea how he was going to ask that question without seeming impertinent or setting Dawn off as he had the one time he'd asked why she woke everyone with her nightmares.

"I was supposed to get the mark after school ended last year, after Cedric . . . died. I went home, after that nasty remark I made to you, sorry about that, by the way, and Father was waiting for me. Not mother, which scared me. Father led me t a car wehre a driver was waiting and we talked on the way back. I admitted I was afraid and unsure about the mark. He didn't react but then, he never reacts emotionally. Or at least, he didn't used to. Now he's better. But I was scared, potter. Scared to death of being a slave to the dark lord. Father had me taken to my rooms when we got home and then he went for a walk. I don't know what he was doing, he won't tell me besides 'making a choice' he says. Anyhow, the time came that I was to be branded and I came downstairs. Father was standing by the mantle, just . . . watching me in my uncomfortable dress robes. He was wearing his, too. And I wasn't sure then, but I am now, I saw conflict. Real conflict. Then Voldemort came and father, I thought at first his eyes were going to go blank again, they always do when the Dark Lord is near. He stopped looking at me so I couldn't tell. Avery and Knott were on either side of me, leading me to the place where the brand had been sitting in the fire, right next to my father, oddly enough. He still wouldn't look at me. I remember I whispered, 'Father, please' or something and just before the brand came down, father moved. His wand was out and he hexed half the people in the room, including the dark lord and my mother. Then he grabbed me and apparated. A curse caught him in the back but he stayed on his feet until we'd apparated six different times with six different wands. After each jump he snapped the wand so it couldn't be traced. When we got to the last place, he collapsed. I only saw the injury then. It was a triple hex: High fever and delirium, slash cut curse, and major stun curse. I didn't know where we were at first, not until Professor Flitwick was there. Turns out it was his house and his granddaughter just watched everything silently until he asked her to help him with father. Then he asked her to help me and I guess for those two weeks we did okay. Father got better and then Ethan Rayne came and said we could stay with him because the wards at his home wouldn't be broken by anything linear and orderly. We've been with them, on their side, ever since. Okay?"

Harry nodded, stunned, knowing Lucius had just branded himself a traitor to Voldemort.

"Father picked me," Draco said, as if in some ways he still couldn't believe it. "He picked me over everything else. Over more money, more power, more prestige, he picked me."

"That's what good parent does, Malfoy," Harry told him. "When it comes down to crunch time, a real parent will always pick their child's best interest over everything else. He is the best kind of parent."

Draco nodded and continued to watch his father as Dawn continued to rub his bad leg to work the cramps out of it.

"He'll be fine," Harry told the Malfoy heir. "Come on, help me in the kitchen for a few minutes so he can rest."

Draco nodded and followed Harry with one last look at his father. Lucius was tired, he knew. Damnably tired. But he'd gotten them here. And he'd looked after Draco at the same time. He was managing right now. Even if he was in pain because he didn't have the pain draught he needed for the damage to his leg.

Draco, Harry could tell, was worried. And looking at the older Malfoy, seeing the lines of strain in his face, he was too. But he had faith in Dawn and Angel and everyone here. They could help. He was sure of it.

"He's in good hands, Draco," Harry told him. "Let's get you fed."