The repercussions of that night took over a month to die down.

First, Professor Snape tried to assign Harry and Draco detention. Dumbledore, of all people, was the one to intervene and say that he thought Harry and Draco had acted bravely and they had obviously run into the troll by unlucky accident.

Draco sat in the chair in the Headmaster's office and was quiet, the way his aunt had taught him. Harry, meanwhile, had an expression of wide-eyed innocence that Draco couldn't help but admire, even as he wondered how Harry managed to hold onto it. He supposed that running around with his godfather and then lying to his parents about it probably gave him some practice.

Anyway, Harry still got detention for using the potion on Professor Snape, but he didn't seem to mind that. He even got some congratulatory letters from his father and godfather over it, he told Draco.

Then, Aunt Andromeda sent a letter to Draco about the troll that only consisted of one line. I am disappointed in you.

Draco moped about it for two days, which was how long it took Harry to get Draco to tell him what was wrong. Then Harry volunteered to send an envelope full of slugs to Aunt Andromeda, which Draco had to talk him out of.

"She has no right to say something like that to you!" Harry was sitting on the edge of Draco's bed, his eyes full of fire.

Draco gave him a tentative smile. He could tell their friendship puzzled the other Slytherin boys, but most of them stayed away. Crabbe still hadn't confronted Draco. Theodore Nott was prone to watching and waiting anyway. And Blaise Zabini was the sort of person who nodded at everybody and acted cool or friendly as it suited some internal schedule.

"She does have the right to say things like that to me, though," Draco tried to explain to Harry. "She's my aunt, and she's disappointed in me."

"But it's not like you went out and hunted down the troll!"

"No, but I still could have hidden and not got involved."

"I was the one who threw the pepper in the troll's eyes. I was the one who got involved."

"I have to write back to her," Draco said, staring down at the ink and parchment that still waited. He very much did not want to write back to Aunt Andromeda. It made his throat clog and his nose sting. "What am I even going to say? I know Dora disappointed her sometimes and Dora laughed it off, but it's just hard to do with me."

"Tell her the truth," Harry said, and grabbed his hands. "Even blame me if you want. People do, like Professor Snape, and it doesn't bother me."

"Why not, though?" Draco asked, looking at him in wonder. "I would be so upset if my aunt even wrote me a letter like the ones you got from your parents after your Sorting, and this is worse."

Harry shook his head. "It was actually something my parents taught me. My mum's Muggleborn, you know?" Draco nodded. Uncle Ted was Muggleborn, and he was brilliant, so it wasn't like Draco had some kind of grand prejudice against them. "Well, she got a lot of guff from pure-bloods when she married my dad, but she stood up to them and just said that she was jolly well going to marry him anyway. And my dad married her. And my godfather doesn't care what anybody thinks of him. Especially not his family."

"I know Aunt Andromeda would like to reconnect with him," Draco offered awkwardly.

Harry smiled, but didn't say anything else about the Blacks. "Well, anyway, you can blame me if you want, because I do what I think is right and it doesn't matter if even my family is upset with me about it."

Draco hesitated for a long time after that, but in the end wrote back to Aunt Andromeda and said that he'd been on his way back to the Slytherin common room after the incident with the troll, and that he hadn't meant to run into it and hadn't even known there was a troll there, and Professor Snape hadn't been able to give him detention.

She sent a letter a week later that finally, finally, said, As long as you haven't ruined your reputation with Professor Snape. Did you read the letters that I sent you before Halloween yet?

Draco hadn't, because the letter she'd sent him had made him afraid to, but he went back and did, and every one of them said how much she loved him and how hard these few months at home had been without him.

It had the effect his aunt wanted, at least. Even when Draco was scared to write to her, she never wanted him to doubt that she loved him. And Draco never would again, now.

He didn't even have to blame Harry.

"Have a great Christmas, Draco."

Draco hugged Harry back hesitantly as he stood in the train station. He could already see Harry's parents waiting in the distance, with Sirius Black next to them, grinning at his aunt. Aunt Andromeda stood like a patient statue, and it was weird for Draco not to run to her at once. But he wouldn't see Harry except maybe on New Year's Eve, a holiday that all the Blacks had always celebrated, and he wanted to make sure Harry knew he would miss him.

Harry's grin was wild as he drew back, an exact copy of Sirius Black's, and he ruffled Draco's hair like Dora for a second before running off to his parents. James Potter hugged him so hard that Draco heard him gasp.

Draco walked, with more decorum, over to Aunt Andromeda, who held her hand out and smiled as Draco clasped it. Uncle Ted was more open, leaning over and hugging Draco hard, too. Draco was glad that he didn't gasp like Harry did, though.

"Where's Dora?" Draco asked as he stepped back, looking around. He didn't see a hair of his cousin's multicolored head, which was pretty unusual.

"She had to stay late for Auror training," said Uncle Ted. Draco looked a little nervously at Aunt Andromeda, who still hadn't said anything.

But his aunt nodded now, and her smile was brilliant and slow when it came. "Yes, that's right. She'll be home tonight, Draco, and I know that she's eager to hear the stories of your adventures at Hogwarts, as we are." For a moment, her eyes darted in the direction of the Potters. "Even if they're more adventurous than I would personally be comfortable with."

"Don't blame Harry," Draco said. "I was the one who went along with brewing that potion." He'd of course told Aunt Andromeda about the potion that Harry had used on Professor Snape, although he'd emphasized that Harry was the one who got detention for it.

"I am not saying that I blame him. I am saying that I am not sure he is a proper friend for you, with your reputation as the Boy-Who-Lived to keep up."

Draco drew himself up as far as he could. "I appreciate your opinion, Aunt Andromeda, but I think I have to choose my own friends," he said, as calmly as he could.

For a moment, he had the distinct impression that Uncle Ted was holding his breath. Aunt Andromeda stared at Draco while the air between them seemed to spark with winter's light, deep and cold.

Then Aunt Andromeda smiled more brilliantly than before. "I don't need to worry about you, then, not with pride like that," she said, and she took his hand, and they walked over to one of the Floos that led into King's Cross.

Draco glanced back, but the Potters had disappeared with Harry. He did see Sirius Black looking towards him. He gave Draco a little smile before he Apparated.

Draco then turned to look at Aunt Andromeda. She was watching the place where Sirius had disappeared with a calm, thoughtful face.

"I look forward to New Year's Eve," was all she said before she led them to the Floo, and they disappeared in a flash of flame.

"Let's burn the old year!"

Draco stared at Sirius Black as he danced madly around the fire in the middle of the garden behind Aunt Andromeda's house. He was waving a full bottle of…something…over his head, and howling like a maniac. Or like a dog, which he'd just told Draco he could turn into.

Draco shook his head and glanced over at Harry. Harry was standing next to him, smiling, with shadows playing across his face. His hair glinted with a little bit of red where the light caught it. Draco wondered if that was because his mum had red hair, although Harry said he thought of his as black.

Harry caught his eye and smiled back. Then he said, "Well, aren't we?"

"Aren't we what?" Draco then cautiously eyed Aunt Andromeda, who hadn't moved much since they'd come out to the garden and lit the fire. She stood with her hands clasped in front of her, but she wore a white gown, one that was touched with soft color as the firelight flickered on it. Draco only saw her wear that gown on the last day of the year.

Uncle Ted wasn't here, but Dora was, yelling cheerful words at Sirius as they danced around the fire. Uncle Ted always excused himself, even though Draco knew Aunt Andromeda had said he could come. According to Uncle Ted, some ceremonies were just a little too Black family for him.

"Burning the old year!"

"But that's just an expression. You light the fire and then you talk about how it's consuming all your old fears—"

"It means something more than that when Sirius and I do it." Harry leaned towards him, and Echo stirred on Draco's arm for a second as though she assumed someone being so close to him meant she would have to do something about it. Harry was smiling at Draco with slightly scary cheerfulness, though. "Come on. Or are you too scared?"

"Neither of us is a Gryffindor," Draco muttered, but he followed Harry towards the fire. Aunt Andromeda watched them go, and Dora turned her hair bright red as she noticed them.

"Are you going to do it?" she asked eagerly.

"I always do it every year!" Harry shouted back, and then he closed his eyes and put his hands together in front of him. Draco squinted suspiciously at him. There was something bright and glinting forming over Harry's hands. Draco wanted to tell him he couldn't use magic outside of school, but of course, he probably could get away with it here, given the presence of so many adult wizards.

And he didn't look as if he was using his wand, anyway.

The white light surged out of Harry's hands and rose above him. Draco could hear soft muttering coming out of it, all in Harry's voice. There was something about Snape and something about Slytherin and something about Death Eaters.

"What are those?" Draco whispered. "It?" He didn't know what was the right pronoun for a seething cloud with multiple words springing from it.

"Old fears!" Harry opened his eyes and grinned at Draco. "You summon them forth so you can burn them in the fire. Come on, Draco, I bet you can do it if you want to. I can do it, and that's just because Sirius taught me. I'm not a Black by blood!"

Draco had still never heard of something like this, and from the slight frown on Aunt Andromeda's face, he thought maybe it was something she hadn't planned to teach him until he was older. But he still cupped his hands in front of him and focused as hard as he could on all his old fears.

The troll. Getting in trouble with Professor Snape. The sick terror that had consumed him when he read Aunt Andromeda's letter about being disappointed in him. Going to Hogwarts. Not having any friends.

When he opened his eyes, the cloud was dancing above him, as pale as his hair. Harry whooped at him and darted towards the fire. Draco followed, although at the more sedate pace and with the quietness that he knew Aunt Andromeda would expect from him.

The fear-clouds whirled around them, and as Harry began to dance around the fire like the mental Black he was, his cloud swirled straight into the flames. Draco gasped as he heard the muttering stop, and then something soft and bright green rose from the fire. Harry reached out his hands to cup it.

"That's the fire's blessing," he told Draco. "My new year is going to be full of luck and hope."

Draco decided that he could do that, too, and he wanted that. It had everything to do with participating in a Black family tradition, of course, and not because he didn't want to show Harry he was scared.

He felt a momentary twinge as the white cloud burned up in the flames, but then a surge of peace as the green dust drifted out and covered him. For a second, he thought he saw his mother's smiling face there, more clearly than he'd ever seen it in the dreams where she died to protect him.

He didn't have a lot of time to think about it, though, or that it might have made him depressed. Harry grabbed his hands and pulled him into a dance around the fire, and Sirius was laughing and joking, and Dora danced with both of them, and Aunt Andromeda smiled while the fire-shadows played on her face.

Draco thought he had never been happier.

"Hagrid can't keep a secret to save his life, you know."

Draco started as Harry dropped into the seat next to him at the library table. He blinked once and shook his head a little. "Yes, all right, that's been established. But what does Hagrid have to do with you?"

"He came and took me to his hut for a visit." Harry smiled at Echo. He always noticed her, while even the people who tried to spend the most time acting like Draco's best friends never did and treated her like an ornament. "He said that since he knows my Dad and Sirius, he should talk to me."

"About what?"

"Well, something I don't think he was supposed to talk about, really." Harry leaned forwards with his eyes glowing mischievously. "But he was bursting to tell someone. He's got a three-headed dog here in the castle."

"Where in the world—" And then Draco realized it, and wanted to smack himself in the forehead, and Harry, for going and finding something like this out. "The third-floor corridor that no one is supposed to go into!"

Harry's eyes were bright as he nodded. "And he says its name is Fluffy and it's guarding something."

"That's what three-headed dogs do," Draco said in exasperation. Harry gave him a blank look. Draco shook his head. "Never mind. Just things that my Aunt Andromeda taught me." Her lessons in mythology were more interesting than most of Draco's subjects now, although at least Potions and Transfiguration were decently challenging. "And did Hagrid tell you what it was?"

"No. He stopped and said that it was Nicholas Flamel's secret."

"Well, he's famous for creating the Philosopher's Stone," Draco drawled, and waited.

Harry's eyes widened. "But it would be ridiculous to have the Philosopher's Stone here in the castle!"

"Maybe not. My aunt—" And then Draco stopped guiltily. Talk about people who can't keep secrets to save their lives, he scolded himself.

Harry raised his eyebrows. Then he said, "Come ooooon, Draco. Tell me."

"It's really not something I'm supposed to talk about."

Harry thought about that for a long, hard moment. Draco could almost see him wrestling his curiosity into submission. Finally, Harry nodded with a long sigh. "Okay, if you're really not supposed to talk about it, I reckon I can respect that."

Draco smiled at him. "Thanks." He couldn't think of many other Slytherins who would have let it go.

"But if you change your mind, you know where I sleep."

Draco was becoming intimately familiar with the backs of his eyelids and the way they looked when he rolled his eyes since he'd got to know Harry. He settled now for doing it once, and then opening his eyes quickly as Harry said, "So what are we going to do about the dog and the Stone?"

"Leave them alone, of course. What did you think we would do?"

"I thought we could sneak in and see the dog, and try to figure out a way past it—"

"Look, this isn't like one of the adventures your godfather took you on where you fought Death Eaters who probably weren't all that dangerous and escaped," Draco said, and not even he had known his voice could sound that harsh. "This is serious. There are really good reasons that we shouldn't try to find our way past that dog, okay? That's the way it is."

Harry sat back. "Well, it must be. I don't think that I've ever heard you say 'okay' before. You're too posh for that."

Draco sighed and resisted the temptation to lower his head to rest on the table. "Whatever you want to hear, Harry. But the fact remains that we can't get past the dog, and we shouldn't try." He stroked Echo, who was reassuringly solid and still against his hand.

"All right," Harry said finally. "But I wouldn't be surprised if trouble related to the dog comes looking for us, you know."

"Why?"

"Call it this instinct formed from fighting Death Eaters who probably aren't all that dangerous," Harry said, and then opened his Transfiguration book and started talking about the homework, and no matter what Draco said, he couldn't get him to say another word about the dog or the Stone or his instincts, which was beyond annoying.

Draco dodged, gasping, as Professor Quirrell lurched off him again. It had actually been easy enough to get past the other traps when his instincts and Harry's had urged them to check and they'd found the music playing to soothe the dog to sleep. Draco's teaching in Herbology had told him to use fire on the Devil's Snare, and Harry's prowess on a broom had let them catch the flying key. There had been a minor scuffle when Harry had wanted to sacrifice himself as one of the chess pieces, but Draco had conjured a little golem that did just fine.

"Where did you learn to do that?" Harry had asked in an undertone as he scrambled away from the chessboard to stand next to Draco.

"Aunt Andromeda, of course." Draco had grabbed Harry's hand and pulled him across the room.

They'd found the troll already unconscious, and Draco had worked out the potions riddle without hesitating. He'd thought there was only enough for one dose, but Harry had cast a Flame-Freezing Charm on the fire in the doorway. That had only held it for a second, but enough for Harry to slip through behind him.

Now, though, Draco's throat ached with regret. He was going to get his friend killed. Professor Quirrell was firing Killing Curses around.

And Draco had seen a shadow behind him, near the entrance. He suspected he knew who it was, which was why he had wanted to come.

But then there was a shout, and Professor Quirrell pitched forwards and slammed his head into the floor. His turban gave a muffled shriek. Draco stared, while Echo reared up menacingly on his arm.

Then Harry whipped around and cast another Stunner behind him, at the shadow near the door started to move. The shadow whirled aside. The hood it had been wearing flew away, and Draco watched with a sense of despair as blond hair identical to his spilled down its shoulders.

"Draco," gasped Lucius Malfoy. "Son. Join with me, and we will accomplish great things in the Dark Lord's service!"

Draco actually had no chance to say anything, because a hand grabbed his ankle. Harry's Stunner must not have worked on Professor Quirrell as well as he thought.

Draco cried out and lurched backwards. Echo struck from his arm as his father reached out to grasp him. Her fangs sank into Lucius's arm at the same moment as Draco smelled something burning.

Lucius and Professor Quirrell shrieked together. Draco stared at the red lines spreading up his father's arm. He might have stood there staring forever, but Harry grabbed him around the waist as he leaped past, ending up with them rolling on the floor and Draco free from Quirrell's hold on his ankle.

Draco turned his head and saw the flames marching up Professor Quirrell's arm. He was screaming madly, trying to beat them out, while something else uttered thin, high sounds from behind the turban.

"Don't look," Harry whispered, wrapping his arms around Draco. "Don't look."

"Then you shouldn't be looking, either," Draco said. His voice was strange and small and broken to him. Echo was wrapped tightly around his arm and squeezing it with rhythmic contractions of her crystal body, the way she always tried to soothe him.

"We won't look together."

So they hid their eyes, and even when something evil and cold passed over them, they didn't raise their heads. They stayed like that until Professor Dumbledore and Professor Snape came and found them together in the chamber, with the ashes of only one body.

Lucius Malfoy had gone.

"I am afraid that I must assure you, my boy, that Lord Voldemort is very much alive."

Draco blinked at Dumbledore saying that. "I knew that, sir. I mean, I felt the cold evil thing pass over us, but I knew that already," he added, when Dumbledore started to open his mouth with a patronizing smile on his face. "Aunt Andromeda always told me that he was alive and he would come back for me someday."

Dumbledore hesitated for a long moment. The white lights of the infirmary made his beard glow even whiter. Draco looked kind of stubbornly at the beard. He didn't want to meet Dumbledore's eyes. Aunt Andromeda had taught him too much about Legilimency, but not much Occlumency yet.

"Why did you and Mr. Potter decide to go down there?" Dumbledore finally asked. "Mr. Potter has been in the process of getting scolding from his parents and godfather for the past hour and hasn't been able to answer me."

Draco narrowed his eyes. He had thought that Aunt Andromeda was just coldly angry with him and that was why she wasn't here, but now another possibility occurred to him. "Did you tell my aunt where I am? What happened?"

"My dear boy—"

"Did you?"

"We both know that Mrs. Tonks sometimes gets excited," Dumbledore said, although he didn't say how he knew that. Draco didn't think he and Aunt Andromeda had ever met since Draco came to live with her. "I wanted the chance to have a quiet chat with you without all the excitement in the background."

Draco nodded. "I understand completely."

"You do?" Dumbledore gave him a hopeful smile.

"Yes, sir." Draco let any trace of softness fade from his face as his eyes narrowed.
"And I know that I need her here right now, excitement and all. Now please Floo her, or she won't be pleased when I owl her."

"I will speak with her and tell her that it was my fault so you will not be punished."

"I'm afraid of being pulled out of Hogwarts more than I am being punished," Draco said shortly.

Dumbledore looked completely surprised. "Your aunt would do that?"

"She would if she thought it was anything more than a coincidence that I ran into danger here my first year." Draco leaned forwards a little in his bed. "Floo her, please, Headmaster, or I'll have to get up and do it myself."

Maybe just because he didn't want the extra "excitement" of explaining to Aunt Andromeda how Draco had fallen on the floor and cracked his head when he was still too weak to walk around, Dumbledore gave in.

"That was completely irresponsible of you, Draco."

Draco cringed. He had known this was coming. "Irresponsible" was almost the worst word in his aunt's vocabulary. He sat up and folded his arms defiantly, though, with Echo curled around his elbow. "I know what I saw, Aunt Andromeda. He was there."

"Yes, your Headmaster has told me all about how the Dark Lord was there, and why it means that you need extra training."

Draco shook his head. "I don't mean him. I mean him. Father," he added quickly, since he could see Aunt Andromeda's mouth opening and knew he was probably in for a scolding about the imprecise quality of his language.

Aunt Andromeda sat back with a much paler face than normal and stared over Draco's head at the far corner of the infirmary where someone with dragonpox was resting right now. "You're certain of that?" she whispered.

"Yes, of course. I saw him. And Echo bit him. But he was gone when Harry and I got up. I think he survived the poison."

Aunt Andromeda nodded. "He would have some means of that. The Malfoys have—always been clever."

Draco didn't take that as an insult. His last name was Malfoy and would remain so to the outside world, but he was a Black. "Where do you think he went? Where has he been? Why was he helping him? What's he going to do next?"

His flood of questions brought a faint smile to Aunt Andromeda's face. "He was helping the Dark Lord, and he doesn't have anyone else would take him in when he betrayed his own kin, so he must hold to that allegiance. But the other questions, I'm afraid, I can't answer."

Draco scowled down at his hands. Aunt Andromeda spoke before Draco could start brooding about why he had such a stupid father. "I'm afraid that I must insist on you answering me, Draco."

Draco started and looked at her. "What do you mean?"

"Why did you decide to go down there in the first place?'

Draco steeled himself. She wasn't going to like this. "Harry and I knew that the three-headed dog was probably guarding the Philosopher's Stone. We didn't want to disturb it or anything, but sometimes we checked on the dog just to make sure that it was still there and still doing what it was supposed to do. This evening, I mean that evening, we checked and that music was playing and the dog was asleep, so we went down because we didn't want Voldemort to get the Stone. And Professor Quirrell burned when I touched him! Why did that happen, Aunt Andromeda?"

Aunt Andromeda sighed and came over to the bed to fold her arms around him. "I can't be sure, but I think when your mother died, she created that sacrificial magic that's your protection as an active weapon against the Dark Lord. When his host touched you, the protection couldn't burn the spirit form that the Dark Lord has apparently taken, but it could burn the human body he inhabited."

Draco shivered. He was proud, and he missed his mum, and he wished that she was still here, and he was horrified that had happened.

"So I didn't murder him."

"No. Don't be ridiculous." Aunt Andromeda pulled back enough so that she could look sternly into Draco's eyes and touch his chin with her hand for a moment. "I don't want you to ever worry about that. Besides, he tried to murder you. So he deserved what he got."

Draco didn't know if he believed that as much anymore after a year spent at the school, where things seemed to get complicated and confusing all the time, but he let Aunt Andromeda hug him until the Potters came over to meet her, and then he got to watch the way Mr. and Mrs. Potter fussed and stood their distance and Sirius Black grinned at the whole thing.

But best of all was when Harry got out of bed and came over and stood next to them, and Draco got to see that his friend was all right, like him, magical exhaustion or no magical exhaustion.

"Of course you'll visit me over the holidays."

Draco, who after some of the things Aunt Andromeda had said to him wasn't sure he would be going anywhere without an escort ever again, still nodded obediently.

"I'm going to miss you," Harry said conversationally, and suddenly launched himself forwards and hugged Draco.

Draco froze for a second. They were in the middle of King's Cross, where anyone could see, and he'd focused that year on projecting a slightly chilly friendliness. It kept people away from him while also not encouraging them to think that the Boy-Who-Lived was some kind of haughty blood purist. Was Harry going to ruin everything with a hug?

And then it occurred to Draco that he would rather ruin his deception than ruin his friendship, and he grabbed Harry back and hugged him tight.

"You can come visit me, too," he said into Harry's neck.

Harry laughed and pulled back with his eyes bright. "Of course," he said. Draco noted that Mr. Potter, who seemed like the uptight suspicious Auror-type, was watching them with his hand on his wand, which was probably why Harry whispered what he said next. "Even if I have to sneak out with Sirius instead of just walking out the front door."

"Your parents think that—"

"They think you put me in danger, not the other way around. And they still sort of think that meeting you on the train is what got me Sorted into Slytherin." But Harry didn't sound very upset about it, just rolling his eyes in the way Draco had to do with his aunt and uncle sometimes. "I'll see you in a few weeks!"

And he walked away with his trunk dragging behind him and Hedwig, his beautiful owl, balancing on his shoulder. His father continued to look doubtfully at Aunt Andromeda while Harry's mother put her hand on his shoulder and drew him close.

"Ready for a good summer, little dragon?" Cousin Dora asked. The Aurors had given her special time off from training to come meet him, although Draco privately thought that was also because lots of Aurors had kids at Hogwarts, too. Dora turned her hair brilliant purple and winked at him.

"It's going to be brilliant," Draco said firmly, and on his arm, Echo stirred as if in agreement.

The End.