Nathair woke up harshly, bolting up in the bed, his chest moving up and down as he fought to get his breath. As his breathing evened out, he noticed that his pajamas stuck to him with a heavy coating of sweat, as visions of his dreams danced in his eyes he moved to get out of bed when he suddenly felt the aftereffects of the previous night's dreams. The tall, powerful man seemed to be haunting him, in his home, thoughts, and dreams. The man was so much older than him, and ever since the creature talk he had with his father he was very aware that he would most likely be the Mate of a creature. Not to mention the man he was dreaming of would have a Mate as well. So the age difference, the fact that he was one of his father's death eaters, and that both of them were pretty much destined to be with someone else, were all hard for Nathair to come to terms with.

Moving to the bathroom Nathair stripped off the soiled clothes and hopped into the shower, he stood still allowing the hot water to roll over him. Nathair sighed as the steam and the hot water warmed his body. As he closed his eyes he could picture the man, he for lack of a better term, had a crush on. The man had captivated his interest since he left Hogwarts, he was so different from anyone he'd even met, or had met sense.

Grabbing a thick, fluffy towel from the stack next to the shower Nathair wrapped it around his waist as he stepped out of the shower and walked over to the night table and looked at the clock. It was only just after five, much too early to go down to breakfast, so Nathair got dressed in a set of his casual robes and went to the common room and over to the small library that had been set into the conner. Picking through the selection of books, which were categorized by magical affinity as they should be, then by subject, rather than just by subject like the main Hogwarts library. Most of the books were in his father's or Lucius's libraries, or were ones that he had bought, thought there were a few that looked good enough to read. Picking up Uses of Runes and Arithmancy in Ward Creation Nathair walked over to one of the large chairs next to one of the fire places and curled up on it as he opened the book and started to read.

As he read he could hear noises coming from both dorms, as people got ready for the day. Not long after the noise started, people started to trickle out of the dorms, some going to the library, or out the door, no doubt heading to breakfast. Though none of them were his friends. Looking at his watch, given to him by his father for his new birthday, the day Tom adopted him, Nathair stood up and walked back to his room where he dropped the book off, before going to Draco's room and walking in. Seeing that Draco wasn't in his bed, he turned around, only to see Draco preening in the bathroom mirror. Nathair broke out laughing, which startled Draco enough for him to jump backwards, which caused him to trip over the toilet, and fall into the bathtub. Making Nathair crash to the floor in uncontrollable laughter.

"Th-that... wa-was price... less," Nathair huffed out between brakes of laughter, as Draco struggled to get out of the bathtub.

"That wasn't funny. What are you doing here?" Asked Draco as he finally got out of the bathtub, rubbing his back from where it hit the tub.

"I came to get you up, I thought you were still asleep," Nathair admitted as he stopped laughing, and got off the ground. "So, how long were you preening in the mirror?"

The startled look on Draco's face at the question started Nathair laughing again, which turned the startled pale look on Draco's face to one flushed red with embarrassment with a slight glare.

"Come on, if you're done preening, I'm hungry, let's get going to breakfast. Unless you need more time with your mirror? By the way, you need to work on your glare, I can think of a dozen more people whose glares are more scary. Your and my families being at the top of that list."

Draco followed Nathair out as he walked towards the common room, where the rest of their friends were gathered.

"What took you two so long, we've been waiting for you."

"I've been up for a while, I went to go wake Draco up when I found him gazing in his mirror."

"Hey!"

"We've all known Draco long enough that that doesn't surprise any of us in the least," said Pansy as the rest of their friends cracked up laughing around her. "If you watch him long enough, you can see him look a little too long at any shiny surface that comes his way."

"I do not," screeched Draco as he blushed deeper, before he stalked over to the portrait and out of the room.

"He really does that?" Nathair asked Pansy as they followed him out of the common room.

"Oh yeah, he's been doing it since we were kids. It's gotten worse in the past few years. You just haven't been around him long enough, or at the right times."

"Wow. I can see it now. I knew he was really into his looks, but I never expected anything like this. Imagine how much fun this'll be, if the blushes I've gotten so far in the past few minutes are any indication," said Nathair as he watched Draco as he was still stomping ahead of them in the hall.

As the foursome followed the angry blond to the great hall Nathair noticed two people leaving the foyer and going out the open doors onto the grounds.

"I'll be back in a few minutes, go on without me," said Nathair as he broke away from the group and followed the two out the doors.

They walked down to the lake, and past a large grouping of rocks that provided protection from prying eyes. Once Nathair saw them heading towards the lake, he knew where they were going. Before he left they had taken him a few times to their secret cave where they kept all of their secret stuff, for potions, spells, and other things they were developing.

As Nathair walked closer to the rocks he felt someone behind him.

"Now who-"

"Are you-"

"And why-"

"Are you-"

"Following us?" Asked two identical voices from behind him.

"You don't know who I am, but you know who I used to be, and that's why I'm following you." Nathair turned around and found two twin redheads looking at him from on top of one of the rocks. "Nice to see you two again."

"How can it be that-"

"It's nice to see-"

"Us again, when-"

"We don't know you?"

"But you do, you're just looking with eyes, not with your minds. Who else would know exactly where you are going and what is waiting for you beyond these rocks."

The twin's narrowed their eyes as they looked at him, only two other people beside the two of them knew about their cave, and one of them was their brother Charlie, and the other was missing, presumed dead after so many years.

"That's impossible-"

"The only person-"

"That could know-"

"Everyone thinks he is dead."

"So how do you know?" Fred and George asked at the same time, as they jumped down from the rock and moved closer to Nathair, using their height to their advantage, as they towered over Nathair, looking down at him.

"Well unless you've told anyone else in the past three years, only four people know about this place, you two and your brother being three of them. So who's left?"

"Do you know where he is?" They asked as they rushed forward.

"Like I said you're using your eyes. You need to use more than that."

It was like a light bulb had been turned on, their eyes lit up with surprise, "Harry?"

"Not any more. My name is Nathair, now."

"We thought you were dead, or something. Where have you been little brother?" The two asked as they pulled him into a bone breaking hug that pulled him clean of his feet, before setting him down and steering him past more of the tall rocks and into their secret cave.

"It's a long story. But let's just say I have a real family now, and that the one I used to have were thieves and liars. You two and Charlie were the only people in my life, at the time, that weren't trying to use me in some way." Though Nathair didn't give any names or spacifices Gred and Forge understood exactly who, and what he was talking about.

"We understand-"

"Since you've been gone-"

"They've let a lot-"

"Of stuff slip."

"We only hoped-"

"That you were-"

"Safe, and protected."

"I was, my father wouldn't let anything happen to me, he's protected me with his life for longer than anyone's known. You don't have to worry about me anymore, but the light side, they won't know what hit them."

"Good, they deserve-"

"It, especially our family."

"As much as I want to talk to you, and see what new horror's you two have invented since I've been gone, we should all get going, breakfast is almost half over, we'll be missed. We'll talk later, under the "eye", ok?" Asked Nathair as he looked up at the two teenagers he had missed all of these years.

"Good thinking little bro, we'll see you at the "eye"," they said together, before they took off on a run towards the castle, tripping and pushing each other along the way.

Laughing behind them, Nathair walked slowly to the castle, enjoying the fresh morning air before returning to the castle. He looked over the empty grounds as he walked towards the school, memorizing the changes that had occurred in the past three years. The forest looked bigger, some of the stones had been moved from the places they used to be, the lake had more water, even its shore line was closer to the school then Nathair remembered it being.

As he walked into the great hall he could feel Dumbledore's eyes on him, not that he looked over towards the bearded man. He just kept walking to the Slytherin table, sitting next to Draco.

"So what was so important that you missed half of breakfast?" Draco asked as uninterested as he could, but Nathair could hear the hitch in his voice, giving his anticipation away.

"Nothing much. Did I miss anything?"

"No. Sev will be giving our schedules out soon. You should eat something, if word gets back to your father that you're not eating there will be hell to pay."

"Relax Draco. Father will be fine, and see I'm eating," Nathair said as he picked up some toast and jam.

"We're lucky we have the weekend to settle in before having classes on Monday. I hate when we don't have at least a day to settle in after summer hols." Pansy was picking at the bowl of fresh fruit she had in front of her as she rested her head against her hand, looking like she could fall asleep at the table.

"Why do you look so tired? You went to sleep earlier than the rest of us."

"Tell that to Lucinda, that stupid cat kept waking me up all night wanting her ears scratched."

"Why didn't you use a sleeping spell on her? That would have kept her away from you and quiet for the night?" Nathair asked Pansy as she looked ready to fall into her fruit.

"You think so?" She asked, her eyes hopeful with the faintest hint of dark circles underneath them.

"Yes, it seems like an easy solution to keep her from waking you up."

"I guess I'll give it a try if she does it again tonight, I need to get my beauty rest."

"Yeah you do," said a whispered voice from the Gryffindor table.

"I wouldn't be talking Weasley. You're the ugliest thing I've ever seen," sneered Draco.

"Shut your mouth Malfoy!"

"If I were you I'd shut yours Weasley," said Nathier in a cold voice. "You will lose if you keep talking."

"Who asked you, you slimy snake. I wasn't talking to you!"

"But I'm talking to you, and if you have any kind of brains you would shut up about now."

"You utter bast-"

"Fifteen points from Gryffindor Mr. Weasley. You're lucky it's not more had you been given the chance to finish saying the word you were going to say." Severus Snape loomed over the flushed red-head who looked like he was about to explode. "Get back to your breakfast before I change my mind."

Ron sat back down, Nathair could practically hear his teeth clenched grinding together in frustration.

"Getting into trouble on your first full day here?"

"Of course not, Sir. We were just talking."

"Yes," the snarky man drawled. "Here are your schedules, be sure not to be late for any of your classes."

Nathair had been around the potions master for so many years he had learned the real emotions behind the man, and what words that many would see as cruel were actually ones of either concern or praise. Unless you knew the real man behind the snark you wouldn't understand that these were subtle, nearly undetectable ways that he hid his true feelings from those that would use it against him.

Looking at his schedule he saw that he would have a large workload as well as the duties his father wanted him to carry out while he was there.

"Potions, arithmancy, care of magical creatures, ancient runes, history of magic, transfiguration, defense against the dark arts, herbology, astronomy, and charms, looks like we'll be in every class together," said Draco as he looked at each of their schedules.

"Yeah, good thing I'll already know all of this. Looks like all the time my father had me studying is going to pay off, I'll be done with the homework fast, and have more time to work on other things."