I must apologize for being away for so long. I lost my PC. Sobs and everything on it. I now own a MAC and have had to teach myself, by way of trial and error, to use a system that I am completely unfamiliar with. I have only just purchased the Word program and have many hours of frustration ahead of me. I apologize for any inconsistency in either my writing, or my updating. I have also lost my Aim account as well as all e-mail addresses including that of my beta and would appreciate if she could contact me again when she reads this!

And yes, I am currently ignoring the entirety of the sixth book. I had already mapped out this story to its very ending and trying to work in the events of HBP would be impossible without starting from the very beginning. So, this is very much AU after book five.

Thank you

Hide-N-Seeker

Response to Reviews…I always find it rather annoying to wade through a list twice as long as the story so I do not thank my reviewers individually. And since you know if you reviewed or not, you know if this Thank you pertains to you or not!

I do, however, respond to comments or valid questions posed in reviews. The one that had me chuckling the most was the issue of concern over the much abused "finding the perfect mate/getting out of writing about two separate people falling in love and bypassing the whole having a relationship issue" so I totally understand the hesitation you may have to read about such here! Despite how it may appear, there is no instantaneous love at first sight (or bite as the case may be here) for two reasons. Though those stories have their own charm, and I must admit to having read quite a few of them, I just can't see it happening here! Go back and read what the guardian will be searching for and then consider who it is searching for. I very much doubt that Draco is currently concerned with True Love and all its pitfalls. Rather, he'd be more inclined to look for power and strength…but that is just my opinion. The other reason is that I simply would prefer to see the relationship develop in a more realistic fashion.

CHAPTER 5

Draco stared blankly at the walls of his rented room. He ignored the increased noise of the outside world as morning came and people stirred. Dully, be cast Tempus and stared at the floating numbers till they faded away. It was near ten. His father's trial had started at nine. He had been up for hours. For a time, he had been considering going against his father's wishes. But in the end, he did not have the heart to deny that request. He had not wanted to go back to the Manor though he knew his mother waited there for him.

He had warned her the day before that he would remain in the Alley until news of the trial reached him. He also warned her that her husband was planning something. She had only demurred that Lucius was always planning something.

The noise outside of his open window escalated for no apparent reason. Draco forced himself to sit up and peek through the wisp of curtain to the street below. People were yelling and pointing, shaking their neighbor's shoulders and moving out of the streets as fast as they could. Draco tensed and stumbled away from the fragile glass when some random witch pointed a finger at him and began jumping up and down.

"What is going on?" he muttered to himself and ventured another look. People were scrambling for wands, ducking into stores and generally mucking about uselessly. Draco was confused. There didn't seem to be anything out there to be scared of.

Suddenly, someone was pounding on his door, causing his heart to leap in his chest.

He stared hard at the wood, debating if he should answer when the pounding grew more urgent and was accompanied by the pleading voice of the older woman who had checked him in. "Mr. Malfoy! Mr. Malfoy, you have to leave here!" she cried. "Hurry up, if you don't want to get caught!"

Draco jumped to attention. "Caught!" he hissed out. "What the fuck is going on?" He strode to the door and pulled it open, prepared to demand an explanation of the woman when she shoved him back into the room and slammed the door shut behind her.

"Mr. Malfoy," she pleaded with the blond boy between pants as she tried to catch her breath. "They know you're here!" she told him. "You have to get out of here!"

"Who?" Draco demanded and watched this stranger gather his few possession and press them into his arms. "What is happening?"

"Your father!" she cried and shoved his shoes at him. "Your father has just condemned seventy three families to death! The Auror's will be here for you in minutes if the crowd doesn't break in first!"

"Aurors" Draco exclaimed. "But I haven't done anything wrong!"

The old witch gave him a pitying look. "The sins of the father..." she patted his arm and held out an old container filled with ashes for the floo.

"Wait!" he told her and grabbed her arm when she would have turned away. "Tell me what happened. Please, tell me."

The woman's lower lip trembled uncertainly. "He named the others."

"He..." Draco blinked. "Oh, Merlin..."

It didn't take him very long to figure out what this actually meant for him. Lucius Malfoy confessed and then named the other families allied to the Dark Lord. Those families would be after him now, as well as the Ministry. The Ministry would want answers to questions about his father and his own allegiances, the others would be after his blood. Voldemort would be after him. Shit.

"He then confirmed it through Veritaserum." The old woman continued. "There was a riot at the ministry as soon as he took the potion. It seems your father has made enemies of his only allies."

"But why?" Draco whispered to himself. "Why would he...after all this time..."

"For you, I would imagine. Child, you must leave now!" the woman gave him a gentle push toward the hearth. "Go on."

Draco blindly followed directions and stumbled into Malfoy Mannor in a daze, barely catching the "poor boy," the woman had said as the world had began to spin.

Narcissa Malfoy had arrived at the gates of Hogwarts only moments after the trial had started. She knew, long before, what would happen should this day ever come. Lucius had made her swear an oath to present herself to Dumbledore and his Order the moment things got underway.

With a heavy heart, Narcissa climbed the many stairs of the school and pushed her grief away until she was certain that she had done all she could to keep her one and only child safe.

She had made her concerns apparent to her husband many years before Voldemort had truly risen for the second time about who she thought would actually win this war. And though she had expected Lucius to be furious with her, he had surprised her by agreeing that there was little chance that the Dark Lord would ever win. But he had made that oath…

She stumbled slightly on the last step before the doors to the school and stared without seeing at the familiar grey stones and worn wood. She had walked into her relationship knowing who and what she was marrying. She had known all along what promises her husband had already made. She had known since their engagement that Lucius was not going to live to see his only heir graduate.

She could only imagine what Draco though of all of this. She was slightly disturbed by the appearance of that Parkinson girl and the brute, Goyle at her side as she was leaving the manor, but since they were contained in the front room with the floo unless escorted into the main building by one of the Malfoy's themselves, she was not too worried about their presence.

She was doing her best not to arouse suspicion in those loyal to the Dark Lord in what she was about to do. And thankfully, Draco was safe elsewhere and was smart enough to figure out that it would not be prudent to remove himself from the safety of his current location.

It was going to be so hard for her son in the next few months…years. For however long it took for this bloody war to end. Things were never going to be the same and there was no longer safety in numbers. There would be no allies for them among the Dark and the Light had no reason to trust them.

But if Lucius was right, Dumbledore would not throw the remaining Malfoys out without at least listening. Not if they at least had a use…

Draco regained his sight as he stepped from the floo and yelled out. "MOTHER!"

"Hello, Draco." someone, definitely not his mother spat behind him.

"Draco," a second voice growled.

Draco heard the familiar voice at this back and cringed. He slowly turned around, schooling his features into his well used mask of indifference. "How did you get in here?" he questioned icily. The wards around the Manor should have stopped them from entering, maiming or killing them without difficulty.

"Oh, that was easy. We simply told your dear mother that we wished to see you; to support you through this tough time. We are such good friends and all that," the first voice simpered.

Draco narrowed his eyes at the two figures lounging in the large stuffed chairs near the floo. "Where is she?" he growled.

"Your dear mother? Oh, she mentioned something about going shopping. Right Greg?"

The other boy nodded and rested his large hands in his lap with deceptive obedience. Draco watched him warily. If the old lady at the inn was right, then his father had just condemned both the Parkinson's and the Goyle's as Death Eaters. This was no friendly visit.

What concerned him more, though, was his mother's absence. If she really was out shopping, then she would have been caught up in that mess in the Alley. Those people would have torn her apart. He stepped back with one foot only to find a wand pointed at his head at his first movement.

"You didn't think that it would be that easy, did you?" Pansy hissed furiously between her teeth. "Did you think that there wouldn't be consequences?" The larger boy slowly withdrew his wand and pointed it with slow precision at Draco's heart.

One wand, Draco could have dodged the spell. Two, and he was at a disadvantage. He watched them with sharp eyes. The cold look on his face was enough to cause them to pause. "You would dare to draw your wand on me in my own house?" he asked them in a dangerous whisper.

Gregory started to drop his hand but changed his mind when Pansy started to laugh. "You would dare betray us?" she mimicked back at him. "Betray our Lord?"

"Not my Lord," Draco let a smirk slip onto his face though his eyes remained that same steely grey.

That was all it took.

"Crucio!" Pansy screamed. Apparently she had been practicing this summer. Her curse held more power now than Draco expected. Like his own family, the Parkinson's supplemented the normal school curriculum with the Dark Arts. There was no doubt that she knew what she was doing.

Draco took a chance that Gregory would be slower than his pug faced companion and dodged in front of the other wand. He dropped the shoes he still held in one hand and found the old woman's tin of floo powder still in the other. Thinking quickly, he tossed the whole container into the fire and leapt back in with a cutting curse right on his heals. He screamed out the name of the first store that he thought of and skidded out of the hearth on his stomach in Madame Malkin's robe shop.

Scrambling to his feet, Draco stared around him wide eyed, catching the shocked looks on the faces of both workers and customers alike.

"A Death Eater!" someone pointed at him and screamed.

"I'm not-" he began to protest when someone else shoved him from behind.

"Scum! Someone call the Aurors!"

"I haven't-" Draco stumbled and fell. He finally drew his own wand and pointed it at several of the more violent people surrounding him. "I am no Death Eater!" he spat and carefully regained his feet.

"Lair!" another woman shouted from the back. "I bet you're just like your father!"

Draco backed toward the door, knowing that it wouldn't be any safer out there, but it would be more open in case he had to run or fight. He felt the smooth door behind him and with one more quick glance around, he fled.

Harry was startled as he left Eyelops with a fresh bag of owl treats to find absolute chaos in the streets. He stared at the panicked wizards and witches with dumbfounded fascination. They were absolutely out of control. He followed the yelling and screaming mass of bodies into the streets and carefully drew his own wand in case it became necessary that he defend himself.

Tonks and Fletcher seemed to have been swallowed in the crowd and Harry had no interest in seeking them out. For all he cared, they could stay lost. It was several tense minutes before he found a face he recognized. He side stepped the more stationary members of the Alley and cornered the clerk from Flourish and Blots.

"Ma'am," he nodded to her when she turned to face him. "What's going on?"

Her eyes widened and flicked back and forth from his scar to his eyes. "H-Harry Potter!" she breathed. "Oh, my! It's Harry Potter!"

Harry wasn't sure why she was so surprised. He had seen her this very morning only hours ago when he had paid for his purchases. The scowl was too large to hide so Harry gave her the full brunt of it. "What's going on?" he demanded knowing that nothing short of that would made her respond in any articulate fashion.

"What's-OH! You mean you don't know!" she squealed in excitement. "Lucius Malfoy confessed to being a Death Eater!"

The scowl grew. Harry already knew that Malfoy was a Death Eater. But that did not account for the panic in the streets. He had been telling the wizarding world at large that Voldemort was back and that his Death Eaters were running about for several years now. He had even named some of the figures he had recognized only to be ignored. Fudge was good at only one thing; covering his own ass. He raised one questioning brow and silently bade her to continue.

"He named his accomplices too," she nodded knowingly. "The Ministry has already issued warrants for seventy three others. To think, some of those named were right there in the trial room! They tried to run of course, but the Auror's got a few of them."

Harry just stared at the girl as she continued. He opened his mouth to ask a question but was cut off by a scream. He whirled around and found a mass of people pressing in on one figure barely visible where it was sprawled on the ground. Being Harry, he did the only thing he could. He through himself into the middle of it with out regard to his own well-being.

Wide wine red eyes shifted quickly from one threat to another while the Humans around her charge bolted in every other direction. In all her travels, she had never come across a creature that could panic itself over nothing the way mortal humans could.

Of course, Human were one of the only beings in existence who were their own greatest threat. She ruffed her fur up around her neck in disgust and followed obediently behind her bonded. Keeping to the shadows, she noticed the waves of pure magic shifting in the dusty streets. This could not be a good omen.

Draco found himself overwhelmed quickly once the people became aware of his presence. Surrounded and separated from his wand by a line of angry wizards and witches, Draco readied himself for the inevitable. Carefully, and with as much dignity as he could gather, Draco sneered at the mob and wiped at the thin stream of blood running down his face.

A short time ago, Draco had ceased attempting to reason with them. No one was listening, not that he blamed them. He shifted on his hands, lifting his shoulders from the dirty cobbles and half sitting up. If he was going to die here, it wasn't going to be with him lying on his back.

Bitterly, he noted that several of his tormentors were Hogwarts students that he had harassed at some point in the past six years. One teary eyed witch spat at him and accused him of the murder of her baby brother. Draco merely stared back, unable to do anything in the position he was in. It was hard to accept, but Draco was quick to realize that there would be no help coming. Whatever his own views, neither side would be willing now to save him.

One vicious looking man raised his wand and took two steps into the empty space surrounding the blond. He stalked forward, the raised yells from the others encouraging him to do things that most of them would never have considered before. Just before the words of a rather illegal pain curse passed his lips, a small figure shoved him to the side. The man stumbled and turned to glare at the impudent child and faltered.

Standing between the sprawled Malfoy and the mob was one of the most recognizable figures in the wizarding world. The whole congregation fell into silence, watching without comprehension as Harry Potter, the very Boy-Who-Lived himself, took a defensive stance in front of his own school nemesis.

Draco knew he was gaping. Oh, he was fully aware that his mouth was hanging open in shock and that he was not the only one. A careful survey of the previously blood thirsty crowd reveled that more than half of them were in the same state. Draco decided that he was far safer where he was and watched carefully for his first chance of escape. At the moment, running was not an option. Neither was fighting, since it was one against...fifty? Draco chose not to count; he really wasn't interested in the numbers anyway, just his survival.

Harry never took his eyes off the crowd. Instead, he focused his green eyes on anyone that so much as twitched until everyone had settled into an uncomfortable silence. "What," he finally growled out when he figured that everyone was listening, "is going on here?"

The man that Harry had stopped from attacking Malfoy at the last minute transformed from the leader of an enraged mob to a jovial average wizard intent on shaking the hand of the Boy-Who-Lived. Harry declined the outstretched hand with a piercing glare and raised his own wand when the man would have stepped closer.

"Uh," the man stuttered in confusion, "we, that is," he gestured at Malfoy still sitting in the dust, "we were just cleaning up around here. Didn't you hear the news? Malfoy has confessed to being a Death Eater!"

Harry quirked an eyebrow, not bothering to even glance in Draco's direction. "Yes, Lucius Malfoy." Harry agreed readily.

Several people murmured at that and looked ashamed. Others were staring at the boy hero incredulously.

"You can't mean to defend him!" a fellow student, third year Ravenclaw if Harry remembered correctly, yelled from the back. "His whole family is nothing but a long line of dark-"

"You can't mean to judge him on his father's deeds." Harry spat back, very familiar with the whole idea. Too often now had he been compared to his own father, and at times found lacking. "Unless you are taking lessons from Voldemort," the crowd cringed and shuddered, "you have no right to be attacking someone else without just cause."

"He's-"

"Not a Death Eater!" Harry finished savagely. "Unless that has changed in the past few weeks?" Harry tossed the question over his shoulder at the blond with out looking back.

"Hardly," Draco sneered. "I have never had any desire to be branded by that madman."

"There, you see?" Harry announced to the crowd.

"How can you just believe him!" Some random witch cried out. "He's-"

"A spoiled selfish git with little regard for anyone other than himself, I know," Harry finished. "That doesn't make him guilty of what you are accusing him of."

Draco bit back a protest and an insult that was just begging to be let loose on the other boy, but he doubted that it would endear him to the crowd or his lone defender and wisely remained silent.

"His father-"

"Is currently still in Ministry custody and paying for his crimes, I would hope," A dark voice cut off the hysterical shout and Professors Severus Snape and Minerva McGonagall stalked through the parting crowd to stand facing Harry.

Snape sneered at the glaring teen and took in the scene without further comment. McGonagall's no-nonsense stare made the majority of the crowd wilt as if they were back in school being reprimanded for some offence.

"Mr. Malfoy," McGonagall addressed the younger Malfoy. "If you are finished here? Your mother is rather worried."

"You found her?" Draco sighed in relief.

"She is with Headmaster Dumbledore at this very moment." She assured him. "Severus, I see that you have this situation in hand. I have a few errands to complete. If you'll excuse me, Mr. Malfoy, Mr. Potter," she nodded once and shot the Golden Boy a significant look that clearly said "we will talk later" and apparated away.

Severus immediately went on damage control and sought to minimize the danger, both current and in the future, to his Godson. "It seems that some of your father's previous...friends...are not so happy to hear that the remaining Malfoy's are less inclined to the Darker arts." Snape ignored the whispers around them and set about insinuating that Draco and his mother were pro-light. He hated to admit it, but Potter's defense would go a long way to help in that regard, though the action itself was nothing short of foolish.

As long as Draco did nothing to contradict them, there would be enough evidence that Draco was not allied to the Dark Lord to save him from this sort of situation again. The support of Dumbledore and Potter would prove invaluable in vouching for the younger Malfoy's allegiances.

As long as Potter did not prove to be as fickle as his mut of a godfather, or as rash as his own father was, Draco would be grudgingly forgiven by the majority of the wizarding community and saved from following in his fathers footsteps.

Harry continued to remain alert and stood braced against the slowly disintegrating crowd. His vibrant eyes scanned back and forth slowly, alert to any threat. A flash of silver caught his attention, but when he tried to focus on it, it vanished. Vaguely he heard the Potions Master berate the blond for his continued "lazing about" followed by a question about the blonde's lack of shoes. The shuffling behind him announced the other boy's climb to his feet.

One chastised witch meekly held out Draco's wand were it had been rescued from the street and yelped in surprise when it was snatched rather rudely from her fingers. Flushing, she ran off without comment.

"Oi! Harry!" A shrill voice yelled out.

Harry sighed and stalked off, hands once again limp at his sides and his head down. "Back to prison," he muttered just loudly enough for the two Slytherin's to hear him. Draco exchanged a look with his own Godfather and opened his mouth to say something to the slouching teen, but didn't know what to say.

Harry was suddenly surrounded by no less than seven Auror's, lead by Tonks and Kingsley. The group swallowed his slight form to the point that Draco wasn't sure he was even still there or if he had been port-keyed off immediately. He risked a glance at his Godfather and saw the barest hint of confusion in those dark eyes as they followed the Boy-Who-Lived as he was escorted from the Alley.

"Sev?" Draco asked with the lack of formality only years of familiarity can provide. "Why did he...?" He gestured at the retreating teen vaguely.

"Because he's and idiot!" Snape scowled.

The blond felt a sudden urge to argue with his mentor but snapped his mouth shut when he realized who he would be defending. "If that is true," he answered, choosing his words more carefully, "then I am glad of it."

"Yes," Snape agreed. "It does rather work in your favor...this time."

Draco just stood there, trying to come to terms with that fact that Harry Potter had just defended him, saved his life, helped ensure his future safety, and had not even looked at him once in the process.

It was with great relief that the white dog followed her charge from the crowded streets. She had been prepared to viciously murder the first mortal to lay a hand on Harry but was glad that it had not been necessary in the end. No one noticed her stalking the shadows, just as no one noticed the flares of pure magic rippling off of Harry. If she had not witnessed some of their achievements firsthand, she would have lost all faith in this weaker race long ago. They never noticed anything important, it seems. The boy was practically glowing, by the Lady! You would think that would give them a clue.

Never tangle with someone who's power exceeds your own by more than half. It generally turns out badly. It's a basic rule of survival.

She took little notice of the mortal he was defending. Other humans are not her business. The dark stranger that came later, though...now he she will watch. There was something there that felt threatening. Her bonded seemed to have little liking for the tall male, or even the younger pale male he had been protecting. It was odd that he would place himself in a position like that for someone he felt such bitterness toward, but she never claimed to understand humans. They have always been some of the most irrational of races. And at the moment, her Harry was still very much human.

But that would change...all he had to do was call out to them and he would forever leave his mortality behind him.

Rather than follow the group of people ushering Harry from the street, she remained behind to figure out what had gotten these silly creatures so worked up to begin with. The one most likely to answer her questions was one involved, so she discreetly slunk through the shadows and watched the pale figure her bonded had been defending. The blond was sickeningly easy to spot. His hair was like a beacon in the sun light. She inched closer until she could distinguish his scent from that of all the other bodies around and was surprised to find that he smelled pleasant enough for one of his kind.

She turned her pointed ears in his direction to catch the softly spoken words that he was exchanging with the taller man. "My mother went to Dumbledore?"

"Now is not the time," Snape hissed.

"My father?" Draco asked.

Snape sighed and reached out one hand to lay on the blond's shoulders. "I'm sorry Draco. He knew that as soon as he agreed to say anything that he would be silenced. He was prepared for this for a long time."

The blond shrugged the hand away and turned away to stare hard at the ground. "Who did it?" He demanded.

Snape glared half-heartedly at his godson and shook his head. "I was not there, Draco. I do not know…but I will find out. Your mother is waiting."

Draco allowed himself to be ushered away, feeling rather numb and apathetic after the adrenalin rush he had just experienced. He glanced once more down the mostly empty street where the Golden Boy had disappeared and whispered a barely audible "thanks, Potter," into the wind.

I hope he doesn't expect that to be sufficient gratitude for endangering MY bonded's life…With her tongue lolling out in a canine grin, she wagged her tail gently side to side and returned to Harry's side.

Harry jerked his arm away from the overzealous Auror at his elbow and sent a dark look at the young recruit who couldn't have been more than three years older than Harry. They were unsuccessfully trying to frog march him in the general direction of the ministry building, but Harry was having none of that. Harry came to a dead stop and snarled, "This is bloody ridiculous!"

"Mr. Potter," a stern older Auror frowned at him, "we have orders to escort you to the Ministry at the first sign of danger."

Harry felt the youth grasping at his arm again and he whirled around. "Touch me again and you'll lose that hand."

"Mr. Potter!" The elder Auror exclaimed. "I must insist-"

Harry cut him off. "The first sign of danger' as you so aptly put it, has come and gone before you even knew where to look. I will be returning to my rooms. I will be doing so under my own power, and without the Ministry's help," he sneered the last word and brushed past a gaping Tonks to make his way to the Leaky Cauldron.

With a significant look at Shacklebolt, she hurried after the boy. The other Auror's had trouble deciding what to do with themselves and settled for a round of throat clearing and vague invitations for someone else to make a decision. With a sound of disgust, Shacklebolt faded into the crowd and left the group there to look incompetent on their own.

Well, I had to cut it off because this chapter was getting away from me. That and I don't know if this is going the way I want it to. I may come back and scrap this and begin again. glares at page

Hope that you all review anyway…I could REALLY REALLY use the support right now…

Hide-n-seeker