Harry Potter The Long Lost Malfoy

There was a flicker that seemed to strain the corners of the room as though the spell had really woven a huge spiderweb through the air, and then something pulled at the corners of Harry's face. He gritted his teeth. It didn't hurt as much as the times that Dudley and Piers had caught him and beat him up, or being thrown in the cupboard without meals.

When the sensation passed, Harry blinked and looked at the Malfoys. They wore unmistakable expressions of disappointment. Harry smiled a little. "I still look like me, right? Sorry that I'm not who you were looking for," he added, because he thought he could be a little gracious now that he'd won, and he did hope they found their kid. "Maybe you'll find him someday."

"Now that it has been proven that Harry is indeed a Potter," said Professor Dumbledore cheerfully, "I think he should get back to class."

But Mrs. Malfoy had abruptly stood, her eyes very wide. "Could he have?" she breathed. Then she brandished her own wand, and the incantation that came out sounded like it was in some other language, not Latin. Not that Harry knew Latin very well.

This time, the pulling sensation was brief, but there was a sharp, stinging sensation on his scalp that raced up and down. Harry gasped and buried his face in his hands. His eyes were stinging and tearing up, and he didn't want anyone to think he was crying. It didn't really hurt, it just pulled a bit, that was all.

When he looked up, his eyes weren't tearing up anymore, but there was something that still blurred his sight. Harry scrunched up his face and rubbed at his forehead. Had Mrs. Malfoy tried to blind him, or something?

"Oh, look at you, Aldebaran."

Harry jerked back in surprise as Mrs. Malfoy abruptly hugged him. Her embrace was warm and comforting, and yes, it was exactly the way he had sometimes seen Aunt Petunia hug Dudley. But he shrugged off the idea at once. That was ridiculous. Mrs. Malfoy wasn't his mum.

"Let's get those glasses off. They must be tremendously uncomfortable for you. No Malfoy has ever needed them. Or Black, for that matter."

Harry stared at her, not knowing what she was talking about, and Mrs. Malfoy whisked the glasses off his face. Harry opened his mouth to object that he wouldn't be able to see without them, and then closed it. The hospital wing around him was clear and shining, and he could see the faint smile on Mr. Malfoy's face and the shock on Professor Dumbledore's perfectly.

Unease grabbed him and strangled him so tightly that he couldn't breathe.

Mrs. Malfoy was laughing, slightly, her eyes wide open and her smile so bright that Harry thought it looked unnatural on her face. "Oh, Aldebaran!" And then she conjured a mirror, or took one out of her robe pockets for all he knew, and held it out to him.

Harry jerked back from it like he had from her hug. That wasn't him in the mirror, it was Malfoy! White-blond hair and grey eyes and somehow they had attached an illusion to his face to make him think—

Except for his clear vision. And the fact that a lightning-bolt scar still stood out on the forehead of the berk in the mirror.

Harry put down the mirror. "You're really desperate to pretend that I'm the son you lost, aren't you?" he asked, his eyes flitting back and forth between Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy.

"You are our son." Mrs. Malfoy stepped back to him and shaped the contours of his face with her hands. Harry tried to ignore the feeling that they really had changed and just shook his head.

"You can say whatever you want, but I'm not going to believe you."

"I, too, would like some reassurance that this is not a complex illusion." Professor Dumbledore seemed to have recovered from his initial shock and was smiling, but Harry took comfort in the fact that it was a steely smile. "While it is always a sad thing to lose a child, you cannot take over Harry's life and make him into a replacement for the son you lost."

"The spell I removed is one exclusive to the Black family," Mrs. Malfoy said, not bothering to look away from Harry as she answered Dumbledore. "I thought that perhaps Sirius Black might have put it on him. I knew the reversal charm, but there was no way the true illusion would have been removed without it."

"Who's Sirius Black?" Harry asked. Professor Dumbledore had narrowed his eyes, so he might know, but Harry didn't.

"He was your godfather—or at least, the man picked by your supposed parents to be your godfather." Mr. Malfoy's voice was as hard as Professor Dumbledore's smile. "He is a member of the Black family, as my wife also is. He betrayed the Potters when he was meant to keep the secret of their house from the Dark Lord, and he paid for it. He's in Azkaban. The wizarding prison," he added, with a slight sneer.

Harry braced himself with that sneer. He knew that it was his expression of confusion that had made Mr. Malfoy do it. That suggested that they would always despise him for what he didn't know, and it didn't matter if they were related or not.