Hill House and Malfoy Manor

Author's Note: Dark Healer Years One and Two are on my profile page!

Afternoon sunshine streamed through the window of the garret room at Hogwarts. Harry's mother, the hag Cora Coldfire, was suckling Goldie, his baby sister, at her breast. The sunshine glinted off Cora's red hair and shone off her green nose and cheeks.

Harry was restless. Goldie needed his mother's constant attention. All Goldie did was feed and sleep. Harry supposed a baby's first three months were like a fourth trimester. Without his classmates there, Harry felt alright acting like a kid again. He patted Cora's green arm. "I'm bored."

The hag smiled at him. "Here Harry, hold Goldie."

Harry took Goldie into his arms. Goldie had green skin like their mother. Cora had actually given birth to Goldie, whereas she'd adopted Harry when he was a baby.

"Hey Goldie," said Harry.

Goldie blearily turned her head towards the sound of his voice. She had a little tuft of blond hair on her head. Harry could not forget that her father was the tiresome fraud, Gilderoy Lockhart. Harry was glad Lockhart was no longer in the picture, but he still didn't have his mother's undivided attention. She had a new baby now and they couldn't run around the castle and play. They spent Harry's birthday in Cora's rooms. Fortunately there was always an abundance of the best food at Hogwarts, so Harry could have treacle tart and orange jelly. Much better than the food they got in Cora's cave in the London sewers where they used to live.

That afternoon a magnificent eagle owl dropped by with an ornate scroll of the finest vellum into Harry's right hand. It was an invitation to Malfoy Manor! Harry's heart leapt. He had been hoping to visit Malfoy Manor again. The Malfoy's had the best of everything. The invitation was for him to stay at the Manor in two days time. That evening Harry was awoken by a screech owl which dumped a wad of parchment at him. Harry recognised the slanted script of Sadie McIntyre. When she didn't have to do school work, she liked to write with purple ink in a weird handwriting. Looking over the message, it sounded like Sadie was lonely and was inviting him to Hill House as soon as he could make it. Fortunately Hill House was just a quick Floo journey away.

Harry staggered out of the fireplace at Hill House. He didn't think he'd ever get used to Floo travel. Sadie gave a little squeal and came running up, flinging her skinny little arms around him and pressing her hard mannequin face into his chest. A magical accident in their first year had resulted in her permanent disfigurement. Her face was like a melted green doll's, with eye holes for her staring blue eyes. Harry hugged her back tight enough to make her squeak and stroked her dyed purple hair.

She looked up, her masklike face creasing to form a grin. "Heyyy, Harry. Soo glad you could come." She sounded rather breathless.

Her cupped her plastic face in his hands. "Good to see you too. I got your letter. You're lonely because Tracy's on holiday, is that it?"

Tracy Davis was one of their mutual friends in Slytherin House.

She smiled with the lips of her mask. "Yes, Harry, I am. Soo glad you could come. I know how excited you are to have a baby sister and you don't wanna be away from her for long."

Showed what Sadie knew! Goldie was as sluggish as a green grub, but she hogged all his mother's attention!

"I'll take you with me to Malfoy Manor," Harry decided. "They won't refuse. I'll just say I won't stay I won't come if you don't come as well."

Sadie's blue eyes opened wide for a moment. "That's… very sweet of you, Harry…"

"Hello, Harry!" Chip, the purple homunculus creature Sadie had created the previous Summer came tottering up. He had his paper mask on –a paper plate with a smiley face drawn on it. "How has your summer been? This is my first summer – this lifetime."

"Hullo, Chip," said Harry.

They went up to Sadie's room. "Listen, Harry," began Sadie. Even though Sadie was badly disfigured, Harry could read her expressions and now she looked worried. "You may not have heard yet…" she held up a Daily Prophet. "There's been a breakout from Azkaban."

"Oh?" said Harry. "Azkaban's the wizard prison, right?"

"Yes," said Sadie. She shuddered. "There's something so soo wrong with a society that has a prison like Azkaban. A society that would put anyone in a prison with demons that drain their life and sanity. Chip tells me that the Muggles stopped using torture ages ago. In this country anyway."

"That's right," squeaked Chip.

Sadie unfolded the paper. A large photograph of a sunken-faced man with long, matted hair blinked slowly at Harry from the front page.

BLACK STILL AT LARGE

Sirius Black, possibly the most infamous prisoner ever to be held in Azkaban fortress, is still eluding capture, the Ministry of Magic confirmed today.

"We are doing all we can to recapture Black," said the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, this morning, "and we beg the magical community to remain calm."

Fudge has been criticized by some members of the International Federation of Warlocks for informing the Muggle Prime Minister of the crisis.

"Well, really, I had to, don't you know," said an irritable Fudge. "Black is a danger to anyone who crosses him, magic or Muggle. I have the Prime Minister's assurance that he will not breathe a word of Black's true identity to anyone, and let's face it – who would believe him if he did?"

While Muggles have been told that Black is carrying a gun (a type of metal wand that Muggles use to kill each other), the magical community lives in fear of a massacre like that of twelve years ago, when Black murdered thirteen people with a single curse.

"Thirteen people? With one curse?" said Harry.

Sadie compressed the lips of her mask and nodded grimly.

"A great tragedy," piped Chip.

"Black was a big supporter of You Know Who," said Sadie. "And he would not come quietly. Instead, he blew apart a crowded street and killed a wizard and twelve Muggles."

Sadie twirled a strand of her purple hair between her fingers. "Now we know that Black and the Lestranges were You Know Who's inner circle. The Lestranges are still in Azkaban, but now Black is loose…" She shook her head, her purple hair rippling and bouncing. "I'm afraid for you, my love." She touched Harry's arm. Her blue eyes were strangely bright and her voice trembled a little.

Harry felt a little uneasy, but actually not too bad. He could still make a show of bravado. "Black can't be any worse than Voldemort."

Sadie winced at the sound of Voldemort's name. "Black escaped from Azkaban and that's supposed to be impossible. If he wasn't totally mad before, he will be after that place. Locked in a castle with Dementors – they're demons that cause depression and madness. The rotten Ministry has a prison which actually causes madness! Totally the opposite of rehabilitation."

"Why?" asked Harry. Having been raised by a hag in the sewers, he didn't know everything about wizarding politics.

Sadie grimaced. "The first Minister was as bad as a Death Eater. And once Azkaban was established, different administrations didn't want to change it. It's such a disgrace."

They moved onto more cheerful topics. Sadie showed Harry his birthday gift.

"You bought me a snake?"

Sadie smiled proudly. "I've got you an Oroboros!" A brilliant green snake coiled around her arm. "They're magical snakes. You let them wrap about your arm and bite their tails and then it's like a... conductor of energy."

Harry laughed softly. "Brilliant."

Harry held out his arm, letting the snake smell him. It was just over a foot long. "What am I going to name you, hm?"

The snake glided up to his shoulder and nudged under his chin and hissed contentedly. "Suuss."

Harry stroked his hand down the back of the snake's head. "Are you male or female?"

"Female."

"Then I'll call you Susie."

Harry's first task was research. He flipped open Sadie's encyclopaedia. The Oroboros is a breed of snake, commonly used in alchemy. They are capable of storing energy in their bodies. The energy is released when it bites it's own tail, and adds to whatever it is touching at the time. Most commonly they are used with cauldrons, but other objects of power or even the owners themselves. According to Muggles, and in symbolic-based disciplines, they are used to reflect endlessness, and eternal cycles, much like the phoenix. They can be a symbol of cheating death." That's why Sadie was interested in them then. She had an interest in stopping death in other people. Harry wondered whether Chip was a dead Muggle she had resurrected. The way the pair of them talked, it sounded like it.

Setting the book down, Harry quickly whispered a warning about not biting people without permission to Susie the snake, who gave a tiny hiss of agreement, he launched himself at Sadie, wrapping her in an enthusiastic hug. Sadie was unprepared and they both tipped onto the floor, laughing.

Harry's other presents: from Tracy Harry got a book about unusual potions. Draco sent him a silver necklace with the Malfoy insignia, and Daphne sent him a book as well, this one on plant ingredients, with a note tucked into the front about combining their talents at some point to try and increase both their grades.

Apprenticeship: A Guide to Advanced Magickal Learning was his book from Theo which Harry spent a minute grinning at.

That night they parked themselves on Sadie's bed. Harry thought he could be open with her. Before he even said anything, she knew something was wrong. She gazed at him with intense blue eyes through the eyeholes of her mask. "Is there anything you want to tell me, Harry?"

"Yes," said Harry bluntly. "My mum has a new baby now. I bet Goldie will be Mum's favourite. Mum actually gave birth to her. She just adopted me."

"That's nonsense, Harry," said Sadie, patting his arm. "You'll always be special to her. You were her first kid. Chip's no biological relative of mine, but I'm definitely his Mummy. This is perfectly normal."

Sadie was using herself as an example of 'perfectly normal!' What could be said about that?

"Uh huh. Right," he said aloud.

"Sadie is my Mummy," squeaked Chip. "My true Mummy, now. My Muggle parents did not believe I was anything other than a doll."

"And they thought I was just a sad, cracked girl who thinks her doll is real," said Sadie, shaking her head. "I will be Chip's true Mummy now. Just like Cora is yours."

"Your laughter always cheers me up," said Harry.

"Laughter?"

Harry began to tickle her so that she flailed her little thin arms and shrieked with laughter. He let her up and she clutched at him tightly, pressing her cold green nose against his. Her blue eyes were bright, her purple hair all dishevelled, and her heart was beating fast. "Why'd you do that, huh?"

With her pressing against him like that he realised that she had developed boobs. It was distracting.

"Just a momentary aberration. Sorry." He remembered their friend Tracy Davis saying that last term and he thought it sounded cool.

He let her push him onto the bed where she leaned over him, her purple hair tickling his cheek. "Copying Tracy now? Interesting? How'm I gonna make you behave?"

"How about reading him the comic?" squeaked Chip.

Sadie had a Muggle comic with the character Superman. "Courtesy of Colin Creevey," she said, waving it under Harry's nose. Creevey had been very taken with Sadie in their first term, even sneaking into Slytherin House at night to see her. He thought that the mask fused with her face made her look like a superheroine.

Sadie began to read the comic aloud by describing each panel. "So Superman is obviously one of the great wizards. He can even fly without a broom. Very few can. I can barely fly with a broom."

Sadie never could grasp that Muggle superheroes are not meant to be wizards.

"Now this Amazo the android can copy Superman's powers just by looking at him…"

"That doesn't make sense," squeaked Chip. "Where would the android get the energy from? The writers must think nanotech is magic. Magic doesn't make sense any more than the android does."

"Exactly," said Sadie. "Our birthright is chaos itself. The way the magic system works is completely arbitrary and no spell has any cost – it's not physics. It's just pointing a stick and saying funny words. Most Muggles think too much when they try to make up stories about magic. Magic is nonsensical. It is chaos. And since Dark Magic is greater chaos, it must be better. It's wonderful to be chaotic." She pointed at her work bench. "I've created a vampire plant. How can a thirteen year old witch do that? It makes about as much sense as a second year being able to brew Polyjuice Potion in secret in a toilet."

There was a very ugly plant on the bench. All tentacles, suckers and mouths ringed with spiny teeth.

"Feed me now, you lazy meatballs," it grumbled.

"Cute, isn't it?" Said Sadie happily. "Just a drop of darkness made it perfect."

She emptied a jar of dead beetles into the plants spiny maws.

They both went to sleep in Sadie's bed that night. Harry's dreams were troubled. He fancied that he was by the lake at Hogwarts when Sirius Black arose from the waters wrapped in garments soaked in brine. He glared at Harry, his eyes gleaming red. "Just wait, Harry Potter," he hissed. "What you learn next will break you!" He seized Harry with clammy hands and Harry sat up in bed, cold sweat on his brow.

"Sadie!"

His friend was asleep, her purple hair loose on the pillow. But she stirred at the sound of his voice. "Mm. Wassup Harry?"

"I had a nightmare."

Sadie smiled at him. "So did I. I dreamt I was eaten by a giant slime blob and passed through its bowels. Phwoar!" she shuddered with pleasure at the thought.

"I dreamt about Sirius Black!" said Harry.

She peered anxiously at his face. "It's alright, I'm here."

She snuggled against him and he hugged her tight, her cold cheek touching his. She began to murmur her favourite lullaby, sticking his name in it. "Hush, Harry, the Darkness will rise from the deep, and carry you down to sleep…"

Harry didn't think much of the lullaby, but her closeness was immensely comforting.

00O00

The next day they set off to Malfoy Manor where they rejoined their friends from Slytherin House. Tracy Davis was so delighted to see them that she hugged Harry and began snogging Sadie, not letting the small girl go.

Since Sadie and Tracy were preoccupied, Harry talked to the others about wizardly matters. "Are there any good bands going around this summer?" Harry asked. Draco had introduced him to some wizard music groups over the last summer, but he couldn't recall much about them.

"Celestina Warbeck has a hit," Pansy Parkinson said. "Her new song Splinched hearts."

Pansy begun to recite the song. Her voice was a lovely soprano and unlike Sadie, she could sing in tune. Harry admired how effortlessly she filled the air with clear song.

"Beautiful, Pansy," praised Daphne Greengrass.

"Such a girlie song," Theo said derisively. "If you want masculine stuff, try Wand Blaster, Harry."

"He'll go deaf from that noise," Pansy snapped back. "Plenty of boys listen to Celestina."

They began to scuffle.

"Blaster is decent," Crabbe contributed. Neither he nor Goyle was saying much. Both had hit puberty, and their voices were booming and squeaking a lot.

"You would like it," Pansy tossed back.

"Hey, I like it too," Millie Bulstrode piped up.

"It's barbaric yelling."

"So?"

Pansy threw up her hands.

"Wand Blaster is playing right before we go back to school. Dad says he's too old for music that loud, but he's letting me take my own broom out. And!" Theo exclaimed with a triumphant look. "No curfew!"

Everyone gasped in amazement. Theo looked very proud of himself. It was quite a feat, no curfew, at only age thirteen.

"The show starts early," Theo said a bit more calmly, "which means it gets out early."

"Probably the only reason he's letting you go," Daphne laughed.

"Probably," he admitted, "but I don't care. I get to go by myself. That's the huge part."

"Not by yourself," Harry told him. "I'm going with you."

"Father will never let me," Draco lamented.

"What else is going on?" Harry interrupted.

"Not much, I'm afraid," Daphne told him.

"Curses," Harry said, disappointed.

"We could practice curses, if you like, but we're not supposed to do magic outside of school."

Harry groaned along with the rest of his friends. No matter the subject, Daphne always managed to get in the last word.

"Well, that rule really only is applied to students who don't come from all-magic families," Theo reminded them.

"Speaking of students and school, how's everyone coming on their homework?" Pansy wanted to know. "I haven't even started yet."

"I'm nearly done," Tracy said, as she and Sadie finally broke apart. The blonde girl was one of the brightest witches in their form.

"That's disgusting," Daphne groaned. "How can you be done?"

"I've had a curfew this summer," she complained. "With that Sirius Black escaping from Azkaban, my mum and dad are paranoid that he's going to come knocking."

"He wouldn't knock," Draco interjected.

It was getting close on to supper time, and everyone had to go home. Nobody wanted to, but there was nothing for it.

"I'm not hungry," Crabbe rued.

"That's got to be a first," Draco noted.

00O00

Harry decided that he ought to take a look at his homework that night. It was depressing, in a way, but it would have been dishonest to try to pretend that it didn't exist. It had to get done sooner or later, so he might as well get it out of the way. It was well that he did open his folder, because the assignment from old McGonagall was monstrous.

They would soon be learning about transfiguring larger objects. It wasn't soon enough until sixth year and Advanced Transfiguration when they would begin to learn about human transformations, which was what sounded very entertaining to Harry. "I can't wait until I can give myself a forked tongue to mouth back at the old bat," he declared. He was sitting with Sadie and Draco in the Malfoy library with their books spread before them on the table.

Draco's laugh echoed down the stacks. "Oh that's priceless! You forgot about snake eyes as well though."

"Do you need help?" asked Sadie, touching his hand.

"Theo or Tracy would be a better bet for help with getting a high mark," said Draco with a sneer.

"Good evening," Mr. Malfoy greeted them as he strode into the library.

"Hello, Father," said Draco.

"Hello, Mister Malfoy," said Sadie and Harry.

"How goes the homework?"

"Badly," Draco said with bluntness. "We need our new books. Sinistra is calling for specific citations."

"I hadn't planned for the trip until the end of the month, but if you need the books, we can go tomorrow."

"Thank you, Father."

Since they couldn't really do their homework, they decided to look for interesting books in the shelves. Draco thumped a heavy book down, causing him to jump in surprise.

"I found the pictures of Grandfather Malfoy," Draco announced. "Abraxas Malfoy!"

"Oh?" said Harry.

"That's wonderful Draco," said Sadie, grinning. She had reappeared from between another pair of shelves, staggering slightly under the weight of a heavy book. Demonological Dissertations.

She peered at the photo. "Abraxas was someone you had to mind your Ps and Qs with," said Draco.

Sadie smiled at Draco with the lips of her mask, probably not knowing how to respond.

Draco wanted to go on about his relatives. Harry knew he should put up with it, because he was the guest.

"He died of Dragonpox," continued Draco.

"Aw. I'm sorry," said Sadie, patting him on the arm.

"What if I told you he was really strict and gave me a good thrashing when I pinched his wand?" demanded Draco.

"I – Um…" Sadie was clearly flustered. "Sorry… um… that was wrong. I'd never thrash anyone. I couldn't bear the thought of anyone thrashing Chip."

"You'd be a useless disciplinarian," said Draco with a sneer.

"Nonsense," said Sadie. She picked up Chip and cooed at him. "Kindness and a firm hand are all that's needed."

"That's right!" squeaked Chip.

"If Chip your doll were really alive, you couldn't handle him," said Draco.

"He is alive," said Sadie. "I loved him from that first moment I saw him. So pale and thin. So fragile as only a Muggle could be."

"Right," said Draco. "You could be the incurable weirdness poster child."

Draco did not believe Chip was anything more than a doll. What should Harry think?

Sadie smiled at Draco. "We can agree to disagree about that. We can both agree that every Malfoy is very smart and what real Dark Arts scholars should be like. Abraxas, Lucius, and Draco too."

"You're right about that," said Draco, swelling with pride.

"May I borrow this?" asked Sadie, pointing at Demonological Dissertations.

Draco agreed that she could. She could certainly work around him quite easily.

00O00

The next morning, Harry was awoken at dawn by Sadie breathing down his nostrils. She grinned and thrust a breakfast tray at him. "Bright and early," she said, kissing his cheek. She had already showered, and judging by the smell, she had done her hair dyeing routine. She had brought him toast, tea and porridge. It would do for a first breakfast. He would have second breakfast later.

Since it was so early, Harry had an hour to shower. The water here, like at Hogwarts, was always the perfect temperature. Living in the sewers, he'd always had to wash in a pool of cold but clean water Cora had discovered underground, where she caught eels for them to eat.

Harry regretfully shut off the water when Draco pounded on the door. He towelled off thoroughly and pulled his dressing gown back on before opening the door.

Draco was standing in the corridor with an impatient attitude, but he started coughing as he got a faceful of the steam billowing out of the bathroom.

"Blimey, Harry," he gasped. "The sauna's down on the ground floor."

"It wasn't hot enough," Harry retorted. "That needs to be looked at."

Draco coughed again. "I can't see a thing."

Harry chose to ignore that comment and strode past Draco, down the hall. The fine rug was deliciously pleasant to his bare feet. He jumped across the hardwood gap between the rugs.

The day looked as though it were going to be very pleasant, so Harry decided to wear just his robes. It would probably be much too warm with both robes and trousers. He'd worn just his pants under his robes at Christmas, when hundreds of people had been packed into Parkinson Place. The heat there had been almost oppressive at times. Diagon Alley, with the sun shining directly on black robes was likely to be worse.

He pulled out a sheet of parchment from his trunk and dipped one of his raven feather quills into the pot of ink on the desk. Robes, he wrote. Black wool for school. His school robes were about an inch and a half short on his wrist now. New hat. Green everyday. Black everyday. Something for Christmas. He'd had to borrow dress robes for the Christmas party, and Harry wanted clothes that wouldn't squeeze his neck. He'd need white for New Year's, he realized, writing it down. There was no way he was going to have all of these ready tomorrow.

"I'll just take the everyday and let the shop send me the rest," he decided.

His list for school ought to be arriving this morning, he figured. In any case, the bookshop would know. What else do I need?

Professor Snape, who taught Harry's favourite subject, Potions, had stressed the need for the highest quality of ingredients when potionmaking. He scribbled down several things he needed to replenish. Beetles and doxwood.

Hedwig hooted at him from his perch on top of the cage. Owl treats, he scrawled.

He glanced at Susie's tank. Memo - snake food, he scribbled

What did he need in Quality Quidditch Supplies? He checked his tin of broom polish. It was nearly empty: Harry took excellent care of his prized racing broom.

The Nimbus 2000 had been as good as new when he'd gotten it back from being repaired. During his last Quidditch match against Hufflepuff, the Seeker, Cedric Diggory, had pulled a sneaky play on him, and Harry and his broom had come off second-best.

Several of the twigs in the tail were growing wild, so he included a trimming kit on his list as well. Harry wondered if any new model brooms had come out yet. He and Draco would probably waste several hours in the store.

Harry wiped off his quill and put it away. He sprinkled sand across the parchment to dry the ink and rolled it up.

His wand sheath went on a special loop on his robes, and Harry felt that he was properly attired. He drew out the key to his Gringott's vault and tucked it into his pocket. His moneypouch, light as it was, he tied inside. It would be full soon enough, and then well on its way to being empty again shortly after.

It was time for a big second breakfast, and Harry hurried down to the dining room where Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy were already at the table. "Good morning," he said cheerfully as he joined them.

"Good morning, Harry," Mr. Malfoy replied.

"Good morning, dear."

Harry couldn't decide which was better; the omelet or the fried potatoes. The omelet was filled with cheese and bacon, ham, sausage, onion and basil. The fried potatoes were cut into small pieces and tossed with bacon pieces, crumbled sausage, onion, and sprinkled with cheese.

Harry couldn't help but gulp his pumpkin juice in his excitement. Soon he'd be strolling down the length of Diagon Alley! When they were all assembled in front of the fireplace in the lounge, Harry reached for the Floo powder first.

"I don't think I'll ever get used to travelling this way," he said. "It makes me sick."

"It's nothing," said Draco impatiently.

"I'll go with you," said Sadie hurriedly. They held hands as they stepped into the fire.

"Diagonalley!" Harry said hurriedly.

With a sickening jolt, Harry felt himself spinning. I don't think I'll ever get used to travelling this way, he thought.

Harry felt a wave of vertigo wash over him, and he tumbled over, landing on a stone floor with a jarring thud. Sadie landed beside him, her purple hair all dishevelled and with specks of soot in it. "Whee! Wasn't that a fun ride?"

"No," grumbled Harry, staggering to his feet.

"I have to agree with Harry," squeaked Chip.

They stood up. Harry knew he'd never seen this place before. The place appeared to be some sort of dimly lit wizards' shop, but Harry was certain that nothing for sale here was ever likely to be on a Hogwarts school list.

A glass case nearby held a withered hand on a cushion, a blood-stained pack of playing cards, and a staring glass eye. Evil-looking masks stared down from the walls, an assortment of human bones lay upon the counter, and rusty, spiked instruments hung from the ceiling. Even worse, the narrow, dark street Harry could see through the dirty shop window was definitely not Diagon Alley.

"I don't like this!" squeaked Chip. "It's spooky."

Harry knew what he meant. The atmosphere of this shop made his skin prickle.

Sadie clapped her little hands together, her blue eyes gleaming with excitement. "A shop devoted to the Dark Arts! Wonderful!"