Draco Malfoy *5th Year*

Chapter 18

"Nasty brat standing there bold as brass. Harry and Aurora Potter the twins who stopped the Dark Lord, friends of mud-bloods and traitors alike. If my poor mistress only knew-"

"Kreacher! That's enough of your bile, away with you!" Sirius commanded from the staircase.

"Of course master, Kreacher lives to serve the noble house of Black," The house-elf mumbled as he slunk off.

"Sorry about that. He never was very pleasant, even when I was a boy. Not to me, anyway," Sirius smiled sadly as he came towards Harry and me.

"What, you grew up here?" I asked

"This is my parents' house. I offered it to Dumbledore as headquarters for the Order. About the only useful thing I've been able to do," Sirius replied, walking into the room and looking towards the intricate tree wallpaper that covered the room.

"This is the Black family tree.

My deranged cousin. I hated the lot of them. My parents with their pure-blood mania. My mother did that after I ran away. Charming woman," He placed his finger on the charred spot where his portrait had been on the wall. My eyes trailed down as I followed the lines linking the family together, they halted over the Malfoy name and I felt a lump in my throat and tears beginning to form so I looked away quickly.

"I was 16," He added

"Where did you go?" Harry asked

"Your dad's. I was always welcome at the Potter's," Sirius smiled fondly.

"I see him so much in you two. You are so very much alike,"

"I'm not so sure," Harry said quietly, I placed a hand on his shoulder

"Sirius, when we were... When we saw Mr Weasley attacked, we weren't just watching. We were the snake. And afterwards, in Dumbledore's office...there was a moment when I wanted to... This connection between us and Voldemort. What if the reason for it is that we are becoming more like him? I just feel so angry all the time. And what if, after everything that we've been through, something's gone wrong inside us? What if we're becoming bad?" Harry asked weakly. Sirius stepped forward and placed a hand on our shoulders.

"I want you to listen to

me very carefully. You're not bad people. You're very good people who bad things have happened to. You understand?" We nodded

"Besides, the world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters. We've all got both light and dark inside of us. What matters is the part we choose to act on. That's who we really are," Sirius smiled gently at the two of us before pulling us into a hug. There was a knock on the doorframe and Hermione popped her head around the corner

"Time to go," She said

"When all this is over, we'll be a proper family. You'll see," Sirius said to Harry and me, making us smile.