number 12, grimmauld place

chapter one

"she was a mess
but she was his everything."

____________

Draco Malfoy has had enough.
He was tired of this. Tired of being the bad guy. Tired of having this ugly Dark Mark on his forearm. Tired of sitting in those horrible meetings listening to the Death Eaters' gruesome plans and conversations with Voldemort, like he'd been doing all summer.

He had cried himself to sleep countless times, scared of what was coming, scared of what he was soon to lose. It made him slowly, but surely go insane.

On one summer evening Draco was thinking, hard. He couldn't live like this. He was so young, he didn't deserve to see any of the things he was seeing.

Then a crazy idea came into his head.

What if he joined the light side?

On one hand, at least he would be safe from Voldemort, from what he had heard, the Order's protection was good.

On the other, he would probably have to stay at their base meaning he would have to deal with Potter, the Weasel, and the Mudblood, and he couldn't imagine what Voldemort would do to him if he got caught.

But he was slowly starting to go insane, living in this house. He thought of confronting his mother and telling her his plan, but she would never let him and Voldemort could possibly read her mind and know his plans, so he decided against that.

Draco hesitantly pulled out a parchment and a quill before he could overthink this any longer and wrote to the only person he could think of.

Dear Professor Dumbledore,

It's Draco Malfoy. Sir, I know this is unexpected but I can't do this anymore. living at You-Know-Who's base and witnessing terrible things on a daily basis, I can't do it. I want to join the light side. This is long overdue, I know. But please. Professor, please let me join. I know people might not trust me but I promise all I want to do is what I should've done a while ago, and you're the only person I can think of who would help me in doing so.

Yours truly,

Draco Malfoy.

He would never send an owl to his headmaster, but he really needed to leave this house. He sealed the note and sent it off with his owl that his mother had bought him secretly over the summer, for some company.

He looked out the window and sighed, praying that his plan would work as he got onto his bed and slept.

Meanwhile, Albus Dumbledore and other members of the Order were sitting at the table, and just finishing their dinner, talking about nothing in particular, when a grey owl swooped into the window
Remus Lupin, who was closest to the owl, took the letter and saw the name Professor Dumbledore written in unfamiliar handwriting.
Reluctantly, he passed it to Dumbledore and said: "It's for you, Albus."

Dumbledore took it curiously, opened it, and began to read, a look of delight yet sympathy and sadness etched deeper into his face as he read further.

"It's from Draco Malfoy. He wants to join the light side, he says he's tired of living at Voldemort's base and witnessing the horrible things he does. Everybody at the table was shocked. However, Dumbledore wasn't.

He always knew Draco would come around, and in all honesty, Dumbledore was quite proud of him for being brave and sending this, considering only Merlin knows what would've happened if he got caught.

"I don't see why he can't join." Said Dumbledore.
"B-but Albus how do we know this isn't all a trick? A plot to make us trust Malfoy and welcome him in just to have him betray us! I mean, it's not very unlikely, is it?" spluttered Mrs. Weasley.

"I understand where you're coming from, Molly, but what if he's telling the truth, and we listen to you and refuse point-blank to let him join? All the suffering he's been through, don't you feel bad? Everyone deserves a second chance. I, for one, think that we should let him join. And also, since he's in Death Eater meetings and knows a lot, that could be really helpful for us to know what Voldemort is plotting." said Remus to numerous nods of agreement.

"Well said, Remus. Molly, dear, we are all adults fully capable of doing a lot of damage with a flick of our wands. If he was trying to trick us, it would be nothing we couldn't handle. What do you say?" said Mr. Weasley to his wife.

"Oh, alright then, fine," gave in Mrs. Weasley. "He can join."

"Excellent, " said Dumbledore. "As for everyone else, if anyone has any objections, please inform us." he informed, though it seemed everybody agreed.

"No? Splendid, I'm going to send my reply." He said, conjuring some parchment, ink, and a quill as he began to write, everyone watching him intently. He sent his owl off and bade everybody goodnight as he apparated back into his house, happy he was able to help someone out of such a dark path.

Harry and Ron, who had been staying at Grimmauld Place, woke up abruptly the next morning, thanks to Hermione slamming their faces particularly hard with a pillow because they wouldn't wake up.

"Jeez Hermione, what's your problem?" Harry groaned, rubbing his nose.

"You need to wake up! Mrs. Weasley said they have some important news for us at lunch." She replied. putting her hands on her hips.

"Can't she just tell us it now? I'm tired." said Ron, burying his face into his pillow.

"Oh please, you've been sleeping for 12 hours. Just wake up!" Hermione rolled her eyes, leaving the room.

"What do you think the news is?" Harry asked Ron eagerly. Mrs. Weasley never let them join Order meetings and he was so desperate for any news on Voldemort.

"Dunno." Ron said simply as he got up and stretched.

Harry sighed and they both went downstairs to Mrs. Weasley making their breakfast. When she was done, they thanked her and ate.

They spent the morning playing Wizard's Chess and Exploding Snap when it was finally lunch time.

"Time for lunch, come on." said Mrs. Weasley.

They all got up and saw that other members of the Order were there, including Dumbledore, which was unusual because they always just had a quiet lunch with the Weasleys, except for the occasional day where another member would have lunch with them.

Number 12, Grimmauld Place has never been the same since Sirius died.

Over the summer, Albus Dumbledore took Harry so they could persuade an old friend of Dumbledore's, Horace Slughorn, to come back and teach at Hogwarts, and since then, Harry has been staying at Grimmauld Place with the Weasleys and Hermione.

It was quite hard for him to come back at first, as he still missed and was grieving Sirius, but he always tried to make himself busy so he wouldn't have time to dwell on these sad thoughts.

They sat down at the table and began to eat.

It took, in Harry's opinion, forever for everyone to finish. When they finally did, the Golden Trio looked at Mrs. Weasley expectantly.

Mrs. Weasley cleared her throat and looked at Dumbledore, who nodded and said calmly,

"Draco Malloy will be staying here for the summer."