Harry Potter The Long Lost Malfoy

Harry gave a choppy nod. It wasn't as though he could ever forget that Black was actually guilty of kidnapping him, not when he was surrounded by people who would never let him forget it. "But I don't know what Professor Lupin would do. If he would believe me. Or maybe he would, but then just try to help Sirius kidnap me again."

"Hmmm." Healer Letham leaned back on the couch. "This problem is not so easily handled as that of Professor Snape. Has he said why he thinks you, in particular, need to learn the Patronus Charm? It's not easy to perform."

"Because I was so badly affected by the Dementors on the train."

Harry winced as he said it, and Healer Letham caught it, of course. She looked at him patiently, and looked, and Harry huffed finally and told her.

"And now Draco is angry with me," Harry finished up, "because it's my adoptive mother's death I hear when a Dementor comes close to me. I think he wishes my worst memory was being kidnapped or something."

"It would be extremely unlikely that a baby that young would be able to form memories."

"Can I please tell Draco that?"

"Yes, of course." Healer Letham considered him. "But I think that Draco's words bother you because part of you agrees with them, do you not? You still do not understand how to relate to the Potters. People who died for the love of you, but also kidnapped you from loving parents and a brother who grew up mourning the loss of you. People who are indirectly responsible for you being targeted by Voldemort and growing up with abusive Muggles."

Harry winced and looked off to the side. "Do I have to decide how I feel about them today?"

"Of course not. But you need to keep thinking about it. Putting aside the thoughts and denying them doesn't work."

"Anyway, what am I supposed to do about Professor Lupin?" Harry asked, returning hastily to the problem that he thought was complicated, but seemed a lot less complicated now than he'd assumed.

"I would try speaking to him and see if you can make him understand that you really are Henry Malfoy, that this isn't something forced onto you. He might be thinking of you as an innocent, unhappy victim who's going along with your new identity because he thinks you haven't a choice."

Harry grimaced. "And I shouldn't say anything about Sirius yet?"

"I would say not. This is something subtle and complicated. Better to allow your father to work on it from the Ministry angle."

"He wants Sirius eaten by Dementors, though! Draco showed me his letter."

They'd both written home about the Dementors on the train, of course. Harry had received a letter full of assurances and kindness about how his reaction didn't make him weak, and a box of sweets that Mrs. Malfoy really seemed to believe Harry could eat before they saw each other again. Draco had got a much blunter letter from Mr. Malfoy alone that told him to protect Harry and promised Sirius was only going to have his soul eaten because Mr. Malfoy couldn't think of anything worse.

"Your father knew Draco would show that to you. What do you think that says about him?"

"I don't know. Subtlety makes my head hurt."

Healer Letham smiled. "I think you might be too caught up in the idea of House traits and that you're not allowed to be subtle or cunning, as a Gryffindor. You can be, if you like. Imagine why your father would want you to know he thinks that."

Harry swallowed and leaned back in the grey couch that contained him. Healer Letham, meanwhile, looked a little off to the side, somehow attentive and listening in a way that didn't need her to stare directly at him. Harry had never met anyone else who could do that.

Harry wrestled with the problem in his head for a few minutes. One of the problems with the problem was that there wasn't any one right answer, Harry thought. Draco would probably think something different from him. And Draco knew their parents better.

But Mr. Malfoy had written that letter to Draco. And he'd known Mrs. Malfoy would be writing her supportive and warm letter to Harry, with the comments that Mr. Malfoy had added to it. Why did he want Harry to see both of the letters?

Harry caught his breath, and Healer Letham turned to him at once.

"He's trying to be honest," Harry whispered. "He knows I was upset with them for lying about the house-elves, and trying to keep me away from Dobby. And he told me the truth about not really being under the Imperius Curse, too. Other people lied about who I really was, and it was terrible when the lie ended. Sirius never should have stolen me and lied in the first place. The Potters shouldn't have lied about me being their son. Father wants me to know that he's being as honest with me as he can."

"And if you find the truth ugly and wish you didn't know it?"

"I might wish it was different, but I would never rather not know it. I want to know it."

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