Hi everyone! Since it's Halloween I think this is the perfect date to post this.

This has been a very long project that I've been writing for almost two years now, so obviously it's a story I really care about and I hope you all will enjoy it. It's very long so I have a few chapters ready, hopefully my writing will always be ahead from the updates so you don't have to wait long, so far I'm thinking a chapter per week, let's see how that goes.

So for now we're going to start at Harry childhood, but as soon as the important stuff happens I will skip time a bit more so we can get to book one. And yes, it's gonna be Drarry, if you don't like it, I'm sorry, but I'm trying my best to make this natural, so even if you don't really like slash, at least give it a try, who knows.

Also this is my first fanfiction in English, so if you find anything wrong, please just notify me, I'm trying to do my best, but mistakes happen.

So let's get on with this and if you're interest on reading my thoughts on the things I modified from canon, read my end notes.

The ties between us

Chapter One: Harry Potter

Draco Malfoy was a lonely boy, he was very well loved by his parents, he had a close relationship with his godfather and he even got a few friends that would visit him from time to time, but still something never felt quite right, he always supposed it was because he was alone most of the time. His father, Lucius Malfoy, wasn't a warm and loving person, but he would always spend time with his son and give him a few smiles and, sometimes, if Draco was really good and his father was in a good mood, he would let Draco sleep with the head on his lap. Narcisa Malfoy, on the other hand, was a very loving mother, if only no one was looking, she was the one who spent more time with Draco, because different from Lucius she didn't have work outside of the manor they lived in, but despise how much she loved her son, she couldn't give him the same interaction that children have with each other.

Close by the manor there was a village with a few children, but Draco wasn't allowed to play with them because they were all muggles and he was a Malfoy and Malfoys don't get close to this kind of filth. In fact, the only reason why there was a muggle village close to Malfoy Manor was because they needed to hide the fact Mr. Malfoy was a death eater, because back on the war it was very useful to attest they weren't involved with the Dark Lord using the muggle village as example.

Despise being all a disguise, Mr. Malfoy always had a close eye on the village, making sure none of the residents would give him trouble or get too close to the manor and other wizard business. To keep them even more distant he would also make sure none of the residents had magical children or family connections to wizards, the only exception was Mr. Gabbour, a squib that would play the role of mayor of the little village and tell Mr. Malfoy when someone new had arrived or any other problem that would concern the wizard. In the few visits Mr. Malfoy made to the man, Draco would always try to convince his father to let him go too, sometimes being successful, so he could look at the other children around and the funny little houses they lived in.

It was one of the days that Severus was visiting his godson that an owl from Mr. Gabbour arrived in the manor. Mr. Malfoy read the letter and an ugly expression showed in his face.

"Bad news?" Asked Snape not truly interested.

"Maybe, apparently the woman who moved to the village last month invited her family over to see the new house, they have arrived earlier today"

"Does he think there will be a problem?"

"He said it might, which is not good enough"

"Considering how disgusting she sounded when you described her…"

"Exactly, I will have to go down there"

Very annoyed about it all, Lucius stood up from his place.

"Hopefully it won't take too long"

"Can I go with you, father?" said Draco looking up from the book his godfather had just presented him minutes ago.

"Severus came to see you, you shall spend time with him"

Draco didn't say anything further, but it was clear to Severus that Draco wanted to go with his father.

"I think we could all do with a walk, it's a lovely day" In truth, Severus didn't want to say anything, he wasn't interested in going anywhere close to the pet village the Malfoys had, but it did concern him the amount of time Draco spend on his own locked inside the house. He knew the boy only wanted to get out of the house for a bit and he thought he could do this for him if only this once.

"Very well. Go and change, Draco"

With a nod, the boy vanished from the room as fast as would be acceptable, before his father could change his mind.

Soon the trio was at Mr. Gabbour doorsteps looking very strange in such a muggle place.

"Mr. Malfoy!" Welcomed Mr. Gabbour, for which Lucius gave a short nod and started following the man, but stopping as he notice Severus not moving.

"Not coming?"

"Your business, I'm more interested in looking around" It was a lie, but Severus did not care if Lucius would notice or not, he wasn't interested in listening to the conversation.

Without saying anything else the two man entered the house and Severus finally turned to look at Draco. The boy was looking around clearly wanting to walk around and explore.

"Come, let's have a walk"

Draco didn't say a thing, but Severus could see through his eyes that he was really excited to be able to walk around the muggle village. He knew this was a bad thing, Lucius would not be pleased if his son started having an interest in muggles, but he supposed, considering Draco was only five, that he was going to grow out of it eventually. In fact Severus was so distracted with his thoughts that he didn't notice that Draco wasn't following him anymore.

Draco was looking around very happy to finally be able to have a proper look around and to be able to see parts of the village he hadn't seen so far. He looked at this godfather a few times and notice he didn't appear very interest, in fact Draco suspected that Severus knew he wanted to look around and that was why he found a way for them to do it, sometimes Draco was sure his godfather understood him like no one else.

The two of them were almost in the end of one of the village's streets when Draco notice two boys with ages not far from his own, he always loved when he found other children in the way to Mr. Gabbour's house, he knew he shouldn't because they were muggles and because in the end he would just be frustrated that he wasn't allowed to play with them anyway. Stopping on the street, Draco started to analyze the two boys, one was very small, probably younger than him and with clothes too big to be his own, the other one was the exactly opposite, he was big, even bigger than Draco, and he was very fat for such a young age, Draco was hopping the boy was at least a year or two older than him, because he was too big. One thing that caught his attention thought was the way the small boy was walking backwards until he bumped into a wall, it was clear to him that he was scared of the bigger boy.

Draco twisted his nose, as if something smelled bad, and looked at Severus to see if he had notice what was going on with the two boy, but as he did so, he noticed that his godfather was nowhere in sight and that meant he was in big trouble. He was just going to leave the place to go after his godfather before his father found out the two of them got separated, when he saw the bigger boy hitting the small one on the stomach in what looked like a very painful punch. Making out his mind Draco walked to the two boys.

"What do you think you're doing?" Said Draco in what he hoped was a good impersonation of his father but only managing to sound arrogant and not powerful.

The two boys looked at him startled by someone else noticing them, but as soon as they gave a proper look to Draco their reactions were very different. The small boy looked scared as hell and looked at Draco as if he was the maddest person he had ever seen, the bigger boy, on the other hand, smiled, contended that Draco was smaller than him.

"Who do you think you are?" Said the bigger boy sounding very arrogant and full of himself.

"I am Draco Malfoy"

Draco was sure that as soon as the boy knew who he was he was going to back down, he might not know about wizards, but the people on the village all knew the Malfoys were an important family and owner of the lands around the village, well, actually he was owner of the village too, but that was a small thing that the muggles didn't need to know.

But none of the boys recognized the name, in fact the bigger boy laughed.

"Seems like you found your lost brother, freak, he is just as weird as you" Said the bigger boy looking at the smaller one.

Draco didn't completely understand what the boy was saying, but he knew he had just being called a freak and that was unacceptable. But before he could give him a piece of his mind the whale grabbed him.

"Wanna play with us?" the boy talked with his face so close to Draco's that he could smell the bad breath that made his stomach feel strange, but the boy didn't seem to notice as he gave Draco a smirk.

"How dare you…."

Draco was still fusing in the boys hand, trying to break free when they notice someone approaching.

"What is going on here?"

As Severus deep voice filled their ears, the boy let go of Draco and looked up a bit scared, clearly looking for some kind of excuse, but it was clear to Draco, that he wasn't going to be successful and so he smirked back to the boy.

"This boy was causing trouble" said Draco feeling very smugly.

"That's a lie! You are the one who came to provoke us! Look, sir, how my cousin is all scared"

"He is scared because you were punching him!" Said Draco losing a bit of his cool, that boy was truly what his father would call a true slytherin (if only he wasn't a muggle). How dare he have the nerve to blame him!

Draco looked up to see how his godfather was going to react when he saw a funny look in his face as he looked to the small boy, he them turned to the small boy, but couldn't figure out what could have caused such reaction, maybe it was the too big clothes and the funny glasses?

Whatever it was, Severus wasn't saying anything and Draco was getting really annoyed, he looked around, hoping for some kind of miracle to happen when he saw his father and Mr. Gabbour walking on their direction. The bigger boy, that also noticed the two man and the similarity between one of them and Draco, started to panic, because if the blond man was the boy's father, he would obviously defend his own son.

"I wasn't punching anyone!" said the bigger boy in a voice even louder than before.

Draco was getting even more upset with the screaming when he realized what the boy was doing, the front door of the house opened and a man that looked more fat than Draco thought it was possible walked out going in their direction.

"What is going on here?" Said the man very rudely

Draco was so impressed by the man size that he didn't even say anything, while the bigger boy smirked thinking he was scared.

As if! You don't know MY father.

"What is going on here indeed" Said Lucius in a controlled voice as he got closer to the group.

"This boy was hitting the other one and has threaten me, father" Said Draco looking up at his father.

Lucius gave the bigger boy a cold look and Draco smirked as he saw now who should really be scared of who.

"That… that's a lie, sir"

"Is it?" said Lucius in a calm voice that Draco knew was amused, clearly his father didn't believe the boy, but wasn't showing quite yet.

"I'm sure of it, my Dudley wouldn't be causing trouble" Said the fat man still a bit aggressive but clearly noticing that Lucius was not a man he wanted to cross.

Lucius looked firmly at the man who was getting visibly uncomfortable.

"What have you done this time, boy?" Said the man now looking at the small boy.

Draco almost snorted at the man, did he really thought he could blame a boy that couldn't even look up and was pretending to not exist ever since it all started? Come on, how stupid that family was?

"Severus?" said Lucius as he noticed his friend not saying anything.

"Look… at the boy" Said Severus without taking his eyes from the small boy still cornered against the wall.

Lucius did as he was told and Draco could see his father distaste for the poor state the boy was in, but nothing seemed so special about him, so why was Severus so interested in him. Whatever it was it seemed his father noticed it too because his eyes went wide for a moment before he turned his head looking at Severus for confirmation.

"Oh my" Said Lucius as Severus nodded his head, he took a step closer to the boy and put his hand on his chin to have a better look at the boy's face, his fingers brushed something on the boys forehead that Draco couldn't see and the fat man shifted uncomfortable.

"This is an accident he had as a baby" Said the fat man very abruptly and looking like he wanted to do nothing than to grab the boy and disappear with him.

"I know what this is" Said Lucius without taking his eyes of the boy.

The fat man's face got red and he was clearly in panic now.

"So this is little Harry Potter" Said Lucius smiling

Draco's eyes went wide and he looked to the small boy again. This was Harry Potter?

When Harry first heard that Aunt Marge was moving, he had hoped that she would go somewhere so far away that they never would see her again, unfortunately that did not happen, in fact she even invited them to go and see the new house. Obviously the Dursleys didn't want Harry to go with them, but there was no one to look after him on the days Uncle Vernon would be off from his job, so with much complaining and warnings they took him.

Harry knew his stay on Aunt Marge's house would be horrible because the woman seem to hate him even more than his aunt and uncle, he was also sure he was going to sleep on the floor or something and even if his cupboard wasn't the most comfortable place, it was better than the floor.

Not long after they arrived Harry and Dudley had been sent out, Harry didn't like listening to Aunt Marge's insults, but he knew it was much worse to be outside alone with Dudley. In fact not much time had passed and his cousin was already cornering him and punching him, which was one of his favorite games along with 'Harry Hunt'.

What surprised Harry was to see a boy interfering, because that had never happened before, he was bigger than him, but then so was everyone, but not as big as Dudley, which was as good to Harry as it was bad for the boy, because he clearly had no idea of the kind of trouble he was in, Dudley would just punch him too and maybe even blame Harry for it. As harry looked at the blond boy he couldn't help but be scared of him too, because either he was mad, and his aunt and uncle hatted mad people, or he was really capable of beating Dudley and that was a very scary thought, if a boy like that could beat his cousin, he would very likely kill him.

Suddenly the situation had gone out of control, there was a man close to the blond boy and Dudley manage to make Uncle Vernon get out of the house. Harry just wanted to disappear, especially because the man with the long black hair seemed to be looking at him with too much interesting and Harry was worried that he would see he was a freak and blame him for what happened just like Uncle Vernon was doing.

Suddenly there was a hand on his chin and he saw himself staring at another blond person, one that Harry was sure was the other boy's father, they were very much alike but the man had some kind of scary thing that made Harry feel all cold inside, he looked at Harry as if he had found a treasure, but also as if he wanted to kill him with his eyes.

And then another strange thing happened, the man said his name. No one ever said his name, not even his aunt and uncle most of time, but there it was, that stranger knew his name and Harry had no idea how was that possible.

Uncle Vernon, who had been very furious ever since he left the house, was now in a mixed state of fury and panic.

"You two, get inside the house!"

Dudley was going to protest but Uncle Vernon grabbed his arm and shoved him aside, he was just going to do the same thing with Harry but the blond man put his hand on Harry's shoulder and looked at Vernon daring him to even touch the boy. Seen he wasn't going to make it, Harry's uncle only made sure Dudley went to the house, but Harry was certain that after everything was over he was the one going to pay for it, in fact he was quite mad at the blond man for keeping him there, that action was going to cost Harry a few more beatings than usual.

"So, you are one of them" Said Uncle Vernon as soon as Dudley was out of sight.

Harry looked up at his uncle and them at the other people with them, the way his uncle talked could only mean one thing: those people were like him. In all his short life Harry had never met anyone like him and he was almost positive that he probably was the only one in the world that was like that. Not that he knew what that means, but it was what his aunt and uncle said he was.

The blond man seemed very amused by the way Uncle Vernon referred to them, it was probably because he was older and had listened to it lots of times. Harry wondered if that was his future, to just get used to it.

Soon the sound of the door came again and Harry saw Aunt Petunia walking out of the door in clear distress.

"Vernon, what happened?"

But before Harry's uncle could say a thing Aunt Petunia made a weird noise that Harry had never heard before.

"YOU" Said the woman pointing at the man with the long black hair.

"Petunia" Said the man with a smirk causing Aunt Petunia to make another one of the weird noise and get closer to Uncle Vernon.

"Oh Vernon, he is one of them"

Uncle Vernon's face got even more red and he had the ugliest face Harry had ever seen.

"You two know each other?" Asked the blond man still very amused and Harry couldn't believe how he wasn't scared of Uncle Vernon.

"Unfortunately" Answered the other man in his deep and calm voice.

"Do you think they want him?" Said Uncle Vernon in a quiet voice and a bit of hope showing up.

Harry looked to the pair and had a bit of hope himself that maybe those people would take him away, after all they were like him, maybe they would like him? But Aunt Petunia didn't seem happy with the perspective, what Harry thought was a bit strange.

"Go inside, boy" Said Petunia shaking her head as if denying something.

Harry looked up to the blond man that still had a hand on his shoulder, he didn't know what he should do, he knew that not going on was going to cost him greatly, but he really wanted to stay, it was the first time he ever got this close to someone like him.

"Get inside!" Said Petunia in a high pitched voice.

Seen the distress his Aunt was Harry stepped away from the blond man and this was all his uncle needed to grab his arm painfully and shove him in the way to door, the movement was very suddenly so Harry few hurting his hand on the floor, but he was used to it, so he soon hurried back to his feel and run back to the house.

As soon as the boy was out of sign Petunia turned to Snape with fearful eyes.

"What are you doing here?" She asked sharply.

"I could ask you the same?" Said Snape with a smirk, such a long time and it still looked like no time had passed at all.

"You stay away from my family, Snape! I know what you've done, Lily told me all about your... Friends"

"We should just give them the boy, they will leave us alone" said Vernon full of hope, not seen what was the real problem between his wife and the dark hair man.

"Not to them, Vernon, not to them"

"You don't want the child?" Asked Lucius finally sounding confused.

"No, we never wanted!" Said Vernon full of rage.

"Enough" Said Petunia staring at her husband before turning back to Snape "I don't know how you found us or what your intentions are, but we are not giving the boy to you! You made my sister go to that… that school, now look where that got her! We are not going to let the boy be part of any of this. Ever!"

With this last words Petunia grabbed her husband's arm, who look very smug and approving of his wife words, and turned around intending to go back to the house.

"I'm sorry, but I clear must have misunderstood you… Are you saying you intend on keeping Mr. Potter from going to Hogwarts?" Asked Lucius with Severus knew to be false politeness.

"He's not going!" Said Vernon looking furious again.

And using the shocked expressions of the group of wizard as distraction the Dusleys got inside the house, locking the door and putting down the curtains.

"What was that? Are they completely mad?" Asked Draco after so long only watching.

His voice called back the attention of the two man who still looked at the closed door with atonement.

"That was… unexpected" Said Lucius very put out and all Severus could do was silently agree with him.

Back at the manor, Draco was finishing the tale of what had happen for the second time so that his mother, who was sitting with them at the table, would also know all about him meeting Harry Potter.

"I heard he was living with muggles, but I wasn't expecting such filth things" Said Lucius to all on the table.

"But they don't live there, right? We would have known if Harry Potter was living in our grounds" Asked Narcissa still in shock with the recent events.

"No, apparently he is related with the woman who moved here. They must be hiding the boy pretty well, I never allow people related to wizards to move in"

"Who are those people anyway? They are horrible, why is Potter living with them?" Asked Draco not over the fact that the bigger boy had tried to hit him.

"I don't know, I thought he was supposed to be with relatives?" asked Lucius giving Severus a pointed look to tell his friend he expected an explanation.

"They are his aunt and uncle" Said Severus with distaste.

"Are you sure? Why would they treat him like that?" Asked Lucius in an almost surprised tone.

"Petunia is Lily's sister, but she hated Lily since she found out that only her sister was to go to Hogwarts"

"She was jealous them! It's know to happen on muggle families"

"Exactly. For what we saw, it seems like her views on magic hasn't change"

"I did not knew you were so close to Mr. Potter's family, Severus" Said Narcissa in a false surprise that always got Severus to hate the woman.

"We were neighbors in childhood"

"And friends back in Hogwarts, I remember you and little Miss Evans causing quite the fuss back on our days, Slytherin and Griffindor been friends and all that"

Severus looked at Lucius and recognized his knowing look, his friend was the only one who got closer to the full knowledge of his secret besides Dumbledore. Lucius was older than Severus, the man was already a prefect when he got into Hogwarts, but part of the friendship they now had was formed on the three years they spend together at school, in fact it was said friendship that helped Severus to go up so fast on the Dark Lord's ranks after his graduation. Back at Hogwarts Lucius had seen Severus trying to maintain the friendship of one Lily Evans, the girl who later became Lily Potter, and Lucius had a pretty good idea of the feelings his friend had for the girl. Since Severus and Lily had broken their friendship on their fifth year, she was never mentioned between the two friends, but Lucius knew that Severus had tried to ask the Dark Lord to keep her alive when he went after the boy, so he also had a few ideas about the man's feelings even after the broke up. Severus knew that Lucius had his suspicions but it was an unspoken agreement that they would never talk about it, not to one another, not to someone else.

"Still a bit surprising though, even if she does not like magic, the way you all talked seemed like Potter is not in the best of companies" Said Narcissa looking at the two men and ignoring their previous eye exchange.

"That's an understatement. He was supposed to be five now, but he was clearly far too small and doesn't look much health… and the clothes he was wearing was definitely not his" Said Lucius with distaste.

"But the Potters had a lot of money, I'm sure they have enough to take proper care of the boy" Said Narcissa still not fully taking sides on the matter.

"He doesn't have accesses to his vault yet, but I know that Dumbledore made sure they receive enough for the basics" Said Severus starting to get into deep thoughts, why would the boy be in such bad shape? He was expecting a spoiled boy, not a scared cat.

"That's a thing to be taken in consideration, shouldn't Dumbledore be aware of the boy? Like… to make sure everything is in place? What would happen if the boy was to die of starvation? It would be quite a tale to have the savior surviving a killing curse and dying of starvation on his own family watch" Said Lucius with humor.

Severus got deep into thoughts after Lucius words, Dumbledore had said the boy was alright and that he had someone watching, but clearly something must have gone very wrong, that boy he saw today wasn't anywhere close to what he was expecting. Severus also thought about how Albus knew about Petunia's distaste for magic, he knew how Lily had suffered after her sister started mistreating her, so why had he left the boy without keeping a close eye on him? Severus knew about the blood wards, he understood the protection the boy needed, but nothing of that would be useful if, as Lucius said, the boy was to die of something like family mistreatment. Severus himself had gone through that, his family wasn't the best thing in the world, his mother tried, but his father was not a good man, he knew the kind of things that could happen in bad family environments and despise his feeling to the Potter boy, he didn't want the boy to die or to be too traumatized that he won't be able to fight back when the time came.

"I will talk to Dumbledore about it, I'm sure he has no idea about it and will be doing something"

"Why can't we just bring him here?" Said Draco making all the adults look at him "I mean… the man said he didn't want Potter, so why not just take him from them instead?"

A bit of silence followed Draco's words, but each one of them holding it for different reasons, because the other two Malfoys looked quite interested in their son's words, but Severus was feeling cold from the inside out, because he knew taking Potter from his relatives wasn't an option, he was living with them so he could be protected, but the Malfoys didn't knew that and he wasn't about to tell them.

"Things don't work like that, Draco, you can't just take a child from his legal guardians" Said Severus in what he hoped was a good way to dismiss the idea from the child's mind, not that he was lying, what he said was true and he knew the other adults also knew that, which was the reason he wasn't so worried about living Potter in a house so close to Malfoy Manor, he knew the Malfoys wouldn't do something as foolish as taking the boy.

"That's another thing to be taking in consideration" Said Lucius not noticing his friend internal distress "If that woman hadn't recognized you, her husband would have given the boy to the first wizard who asked, considering no one is looking after the boy he could have disappeared and no one would know about it until it was time for him to go to Hogwarts. I can just imagine the repercussions if the famous Harry Potter didn't show up for school, especially when everyone find out it was because Dumbledore left him in a muggle house with people with history of hating magic. If Dumbledore doesn't know the boy has been mistreated how is he going to know that someone took him and… I don't know… killed him?"

All the arguments only made Severus feel worse, because in the end Lucius was right and the thought of it scared the hell out of him, his purpose in life was to make sure her son survived and he thought that it was fine until he was due to Hogwarts because Dumbledore had the same interest that he had on keeping the boy alive, but now he was starting to dumb even that, especially considering the old man was unable to protect Lily, if he had fail her, it means it was possible to him to fail again.

Soon, Severus left Malfoy Manor, going straight to his quarters in Hogwarts, he felt sorry for it because he was supposed to stay with Draco the rest of the day and dine with him, but having a talk with the Headmaster was more important in that moment and he could make up to his godson another time.

"What a surprise, Severus, I thought you were spending your day with the Malfoys, did something happened?" Said Dumbledore with an unimpressed tone as soon as Severus entered the room.

"Actually, yes" Said Severus finally getting the other man's full attention.

"Do tell"

"I saw Potter today"

With this Dumbledore's eyes looked even more attentive to Severus, ready to eat his every word.

"How did this happen?"

"Someone related to his aunt and uncle moved to the Malfoy's pet village, Lucius went there to deal with the caretaker and Draco wanted to have a look around, we ended up meeting him there, by accident"

"How was him? Did you talk to him? Did the Malfoys?"

Severus looked Dumbledore in the eye for a moment, the man sounded more worried when he asked if the Malfoys had talked with the boy then when he asked how the boy was and Severus felt his blood boil with something he wasn't quite sure what it was.

"We didn't have enough time to talk to him with Petunia and her husband screaming at us and at the boy, trying to blame him for attracting us"

"Is that so?" Said Dumbledore starting to lose interest in what was being said.

"They are mistreating the boy" Said Severus abruptly, trying to get back the other man's attention "He looked really scared when we were there and Petunia was screaming insults at us just like she did Lily…"

"That doesn't look like mistreatment, she was nervous with people intruding and he was scared of new people around, he's only five, it's a normal behavior" Said Dumbledore interrupting the explanation.

"That wasn't all!" answered Severus starting to get angry "He's looking too small, he doesn't look like he's receiving enough food, his clothes were clearly second handed and not fitting and Draco said his cousin was punching him"

"I'm sure things can't be that bad, you must be seeing things because you had a bad encounter with Lily's older sister" Said Dumbledore dismissing again what was being said.

"Lucius agree with me, does he also had personal reasons to do so?" Said Severus stopping his sarcasm the best way he could, but seen Dumbledore's silence, he went back to talking "Petunia said she won't let the boy attend Hogwarts"

"She can't do that"

"Her husband was almost begging us to take the boy from them, they don't want him, so they are mistreating him as punishment"

"They can't give away the boy, Petunia's husband might be willing to do it, but I'm sure she won't let him do it, she knows how import it is for the boy to stay in her house, in fact the protection of the blood wards not only keeps Harry save, but also his family, Petunia won't let the boy go"

"You are ignoring what I'm saying"

"Why would Petunia hurt her own nephew?"

"Why would she hurt her own sister?"

Silence followed for a while, both men looking to each other and trying to see understand what the other was thinking.

"I don't think Petunia would do anything that would put Harry at risk, the main reason why he's there is to be save and she knows about it all, but I do have someone looking out just in case, so I know that nothing too bad is happening or I would have been informed" Said Dumbledore gently, thinking a bit more before continuing "But if it will ease your mind, I will pay them a visit as soon as the Easter Holiday is over"

"Why not sooner?"

"Because I'm sure they intend on staying in the house of this relative you mention for the duration of the holiday and I don't want to intrude too much and make them even more scared them what you said they were"

Severus gave Dumbledore another intense look, he knew that the man had a strong agreement with Lily's sister and all the reasons why the boy had to live with her, but something had set him off when he saw the state of the boy, something that had hit a sore spot of his own childhood and he couldn't shake it off. Unfortunately, the only thing he could do was to trust Dumbledore, so he agreed with him, hoping that a visit would scare Petunia enough to start treating the boy a little better. And he could always pay her a surprise visit, just to make sure, after all, Lily would have been horrified if she knew what her own sister was doing to her son.

About this chapter.

So what originated this story was my desire to read something where Harry and Draco had the chance to grow together or be friends, but also something close to canon. Here obviously it's the diversion point between canon and my story, so a few things aren't still in place.

One thing that usually made me uncomfortable in this kind of story is the "Good Malfoys" thing. For me the Malfoys really believe in blood purity and tradition, if anything I think they believe it even more than Voldemort himself, because they are actually pureblood and because they're from families with tradition and respect and a strong name, so for me, even if they weren't with Voldemort, they would be 'good'. But there's one thing I know there are: a loving family. And love is a very complicated thing, because most people think it has to be pretty or for you to love you have to be good.

The Malfoys in my view do love each other very much, in fact we can see bits of it all over the books, the most visible, obviously, is Narcisa's love for her son, but I don't think Lucius loved Draco any less, just different, in the end he does go around Hogwarts in the middle of war screaming for his son, I think that says a lot about him in that aspect. So this is something that is going to play out a lot in this story and is the canon I believe in, that says the Malfoys aren't good but they love each other.

Also, there's something on Pottermore about how Lucius thought Harry was going to become the next dark lord or something and how a lot of Death Eaters thought Harry only needed the right kind of influence to became one of them. In fact that makes a lot of sense, because you can't know if a baby is good or bad until it develops character and Voldemort himself asked Harry to join him in the first book, so I believe a lot of people would have interest in a young Harry. This is what I'm playing with, Lucius is not interested on saving Harry from his awful family, but he want to get close to the boy, see if he is what he's expecting and use this to give Dumbledore some trouble.

Severus is also going to play a part in this, but no, he would be the Severus that suddenly feels sorry for Harry and starts liking him, in this story he will be very much the man we see on the books and that includes his contradictions. He's going to be like roller-coaster, full of ups and downs. I will talk more about him in other chapters, but so far I have only talked a bit about his relationship with the Malfoys. I think Snape being Draco's godfather is just a headcanon, but it's a good one, so I'm using it, also I put a little bit of what his relationship with the Malfoys are, Narcisa went to his house to ask for help on book six and she said he and Lucius were friends, I like to think they not only had a past, but a continuous relation.

About POV, I'm going to keep changing it, but it's going to have more of Harry soon.

Also about Harry. In a lot of fanfictions where Harry's living situation with the Dursleys is found out, he usually is a traumatized kid. Now the Harry we see in book one is a sassy kid with enough gut to go and fight Draco because he is a bully and I think kid Harry is just as strong, but with a very strong Slytherin trait: he's cunning. He makes fun of Dudley from behind his back, he thinks his sassy comments, but he doesn't actually say them because he knows he will get in trouble. As the books goes, Harry stops doing the things he usually did do please the Dursleys and let his true personality take charge, in fact he even goes into a rebellious phase in book 5.

Now, in this story, Harry is five, he's not the same kid from book one, but he has the makings of it, so he's going to be wary of limits because he still following the Dursley's rule, but he won't be a traumatized boy, as he gets comfortable with the situations around him, we're going to see more of the Harry as we know him.

Anyway, so far I think this is it. I hope you guys like it and see you next chapter!