Ara Sasha Malfoy

by Mindige0

Humiliation was one of the major emotions running through Harry's body as he stood on the stairs listening to the conversation happening in the Common Room of Gryffindor. Anger was the next emotion that ran through Harry's body as he put all the pieces together, he had seen the wink that the Headmaster had given Ron and Hermione on occasion, and he had heard the giggles coming from pretty much the whole school whenever he walked past. He had pushed it off as something stupid being printed in the Daily Prophet, Harry never thought that it was due to a *prank* that his friends had been playing on him with the rest of the school knowing. The last emotion that ran through Harry's body was betrayal, a betrayal so horrible that it put the thought of staying with the Dursley's every summer seem tame; every summer having to go back to the hell hole he called a house, because it could never be called his home, only to get letters from his friends when they deemed him worthy of such a correspondence.

“I should have known” Harry whispered before retreating back to his bed where he had been left by his dorm mates. He had only gotten out of his bed because he had a question for Hermione on his homework that was due the next day in Potions, and low and behold he had heard the tale end of the prank that his best friends were playing on him along with the help of pretty much everyone in the school. Harry shook his head, he was at a loss as to what to do, he had the urge to run away and disappear but then the burning desire to save the Wizarding World came to mind. ‘Save a world that would allow a horrible prank on a teenager and then expect him to do what no one else had been able to do?' Harry thought before snorting to himself, no he didn't think that he wanted to be in a world where even professors were abdicating the playing of a prank on a student in their care; he could hear the Headmaster now “it was only to lighten the mood with the war hanging upon us” yeah that sounded just about what the old man would say, if he would confront the old man.

“No thanks” Harry said before looking down at his Potions' homework and deciding that there was no need for him to complete, he would do as he first thought and run away. The Wizarding World could try and figure out how to get rid of the Dark Lord all by their lonely, he sure as hell wasn't going to stick around for *that*. Harry dipped his quill in the ink and wrote out a short missive to the Potions Master, knowing he would go running to the Headmaster as soon as he opened his homework. That would give him enough time to plan his escape and disappear into the muggle world, and to hopefully never be heard from again. Once Harry had finished his short note to the Potions Master and to the Headmaster and anyone that he thought about showing the note to, he laid down thinking on how best to get out of the castle and away with no one knowing. Harry knew the Headmaster had spies, Hermione and Ron being a couple of them on him at every moment of the day, but there had to be a time where the guarding was dropped.

“Breakfast, lunch and dinner” Harry said realizing that he was right as he spoke the words. Why would be need guards if he was still in the Great Hall filled with all of his spies and the Headmaster himself?

“Dinner it is then” Harry resolved to himself before acting like he was sleeping since he could hear his dorm mates making their way up the stairs and into the room. The other boys joked, no doubt about the prank on Harry while making sure to not say anything that would arise Harry's suspicions.

“This is going to be great” Ron said before yawning and then falling right to sleep. When Harry was certain that the other boys had followed Ron into sleep did Harry look at each one of his dorm mates and wonder what he had ever done to them that would make them go along with the prank. Did they not see that the prank in the end would hurt his already fragile emotions and self-confidence? How could the professors of the school allow for something like this to go on? Did they think that since James Potter was his father that he would take this all in stride? Laugh it off and continue on with life? They would be in for a rude awaking come tomorrow night when Harry would disappear and planned never to step foot back into the Wizarding World again if he could help it.

The next morning dawned grey as was the way with Scotland in the fall, Harry took his time to get his things together before making his way down the stairs and out the portrait. He had a Ravenclaw to talk to, and he knew he wouldn't be able to do so with the watchful eyes of his ‘friends' and the rest of the spies that worked for the old man.

“Harry” Luna Lovegood said as she made her way out of the Ravenclaw Common Room, her standard Quibbler turned upside down and her radish earrings dangling from her ears.

“Hey Luna” Harry said before making his way quickly over to where Luna stood.

“You found out did you?” The girl asked in the same airy tone that she used when speaking to anyone else that deemed her worthy of speaking to. Harry jerked his head in a positive before eyeing Luna, was it a bad idea to seek this girl out?

“I didn't really know until last night when the whole tower was laughing” Luna explained easily, most people forgot to include her when there were groups. She was just a bit too odd for their liking, so Luna had taken up the post of oddball Ravenclaw and gathered her information of the going ons at Hogwarts by the rumor mill. The rumor mill had been in rare form last night since they were going on and on about the prank that the youngest Weasley boy and Granger were playing on Harry. She knew then that the Wizarding World had better prepare themselves for the wrath that Harry would dish upon them, she actually couldn't wait for she knew she would be one of the few to be on the right side when it came down to Harry dishing out his just desserts.

“Who doesn't know or agree?” Harry asked the blonde as they made their way to the Great Hall for breakfast, they passed no one on their way.

“Well I have narrowed it down to two others, I think” Luna said before standing to the side of the hallway and tipping her head this way and that.

“The Blibbering Humdinger” Luna said by way of explanation before she continued on walking as if she hadn't said something so totally off the wall just a moment before. Harry nodded his head in agreement; Luna was probably the only person in this whole castle that he could be himself and not worry about other's reactions to his thoughts or attitudes.

“So the others people?” Harry prompted Luna before he got a breezy answer, as was Luna's way.

“Draco Malfoy and Hagrid”

“Draco Malfoy?” Harry said stunned he wasn't all that surprised by Hagrid since the large half-giant had been one of his first friends, but then again he was very loyal to the Headmaster so he could have gone along with it just to please the old man.

“Yes” Luna said nodding her head as well just in case didn't want to take her words at face value.

“But he could rub this in my face…”

“He could, but he won't” Luna said before stepping to the side again and tilting her head, the girl was a real case that was for sure.

“Do you plan to stay” Luna said by way of changing the subject on the reasons why Draco Malfoy wasn't gloating over the prank that his best friends were playing on him. Harry shook his head; he didn't want to voice his answer just in case the castle was listening for him specifically.

“Daddy is looking for help” Luna said, she knew why Harry hadn't spoken so she phrased her words to mean nothing much more than an update on her father and him needing some help. Harry shook his head, he didn't want to put Luna in a position where the Headmaster and his crappy ‘friends' came to her for information on his where abouts.

“Right” Luna said before breaking away from Harry and making her way into the Great Hall and to the Ravenclaw table. It was still quite early so Harry took his regular spot, all the while chanting to himself that he couldn't show that he may know about the prank that was being played on him. It was right as Harry was finishing up breakfast that Ron, Hermione and the rest of the tower arrived to the table and began to dig in, while shooting glances at Harry and sometimes giggling while pointing. Did they think him that oblivious to what was going on around him?

“Harry” Hermione said as she watched Harry stand up and watched as he made his way back over to the Great Hall's doors. Harry turned and gave Hermione a tight smile before speaking.

“Going to Potions” Harry said before turning back around and making his way out of the Great Hall with his two ‘friends' watching him wondering why something seemed different with Harry. The wait outside of the Potions classroom was unbearable since Ron and Hermione both grabbed something from the table and then followed him down to the dungeons for their first class of the day. Harry still wasn't too sure on how Ron managed to get into the class, but he figured it had something to do with being his friend, not something he wanted to think about at that moment.

“Get in” Snape said throwing open the door and then smirking at Harry as he had been doing the whole school year. Harry followed the wave of students only to be knocked into Draco Malfoy, the blonde slipped a paper into his hands and then shoved him and made a nasty comment about Harry's upbringing, this supplied ample distraction for Harry to place the note in the pocket of his pants. He would read what Malfoy had to say when he was alone, and he knew that no one was watching.

“Begin” Snape snapped out before pointing his wand to the board and showing them the newest potion that they would be making this period. The class proceeded with Ron and Neville melting their cauldrons while Malfoy managed to destroy Hermione's almost perfect potion. Harry had to hide his grin; it wouldn't do for everyone to see how amused he was by Draco's sabotaging of Hermione's potions.

“Twenty-five points from Gryffindor” Snape barked before smirking again as he eyed Harry, oh he couldn't wait until the waif found out about his back stabbing friends; see how he likes being pranked on, instead of pranking.

“Bottle up what you have and leave yours essays on my desk” Snape said before glaring at all of the Gryffindors in the room and then almost smiling as Harry turned in his essay and potions before making his way back out of the dungeons for his next class. The rest of the day went on the same way it did before he knew the truth about his ‘friends' and professors playing a prank on him. He had his own prank that he planned to pull just tonight, only his prank had far reaching repercussions, ones that the Headmaster and his Order thought would never occur. By lunch Harry was antsy to get back to his dorm and finish the packing that he had done last night as well as wanting to see what it was that Malfoy had written to him.

“Calm down mate” Ron said before sliding his eyes to Hermione and giving her a quick grin, probably over the prank. Harry jerked his head to the side; he hadn't noticed that he had become a bit fidgety. You would think that his ‘friends' would know that it was never a good thing for Harry to become fidgety, that was always the precursor to all out Harry meltdown. The last time that had occurred had been when he had thought that his godfather was dead; he had destroyed the Headmaster's office. The old man's trinkets and objects lay in pieces on the floor, and when it was all said and done the old man had waved his wand and the objects repaired themselves. If he could destroy the Headmaster's Office with raw magic he had no idea what would happen if that magic was focused on a select memory or situation.

“I forgot something” Harry said before standing up and making his way out of the Great Hall not even waiting for Hermione or Ron to follow. It was a good thing that Ron seemed a bit preoccupied with eating that he shrugged his shoulders and said that they had best leave Harry alone, at least for right now. Hermione agreed and soon the pair was planning the next phase of their prank, which would never be put into effect.

“Finally” Harry said making his way over to his bed and grabbing his trunk and looking through everything in it. He had this feeling that some of the ‘gifts' he had received during his time at Hogwarts were more than just ‘gifts' at least for him. No he was almost certain that a great many of his ‘gifts' had charms on them to track his where abouts, if he was to leave the Dursley's home; they did seem to have a habit of knowing where he was in short order. Harry took out all of the sweater and ‘gifts' he received from the Wesley family before he began sorting through the rest of his things. Once he had completed that he heard the tapping at the window. Harry was quite surprised to see an Owl with what looked like a letter from Sirius in its beak.

“What does *he* want?” Harry grouched to the bird, he knew he wouldn't get an answer but he said it none the less.

“Here you go” Harry said handing over an owl treat and then breaking the seal on the letter and reading it over quickly. Harry snorted at the tone of the letter, so it seemed his own godfather knew of the prank and decided to play along, oh he would pay. The list of enemies got longer and longer and Harry could said with utmost certainty that the Dark Lord was nowhere near the top of his ‘Most Wanted' list, no that dubious pleasure lay with the Headmaster, his friends and his all mighty godfather, even Draco Malfoy was low on the list.

“You want a reply” Harry asked the bird that had yet to leave, almost as if waiting for a reply.

“Here” Harry said writing out a short curt note before attaching it to the bird's leg and then watching as the animal flew out of the window. Harry was just about to pull out Draco's note when the door to the dorm room opened and in walked Ron looking quite smug and put out about something.

“What's taking you so long?”

“Padfoot wrote” Harry said figuring that if Ron heard those words he wouldn't notice that Harry's bed and space was tidy and bare in some spots.

“What did he say?” Ron said looking quite eager to hear about what Sirius had written to Harry.

“Nothing much, he did write for me to tell you that ‘the lines are long but good' whatever that means” Harry said looking confused for Ron's best interest; it wouldn't do for the ginger haired boy to get wind of his flight before he actually left.

“Well come on!” Ron said before dragging him out of the dorm room and down to the Great Hall where lunch was going on. Harry noticed the small nod that Ron gave Hermione, and how the Great Hall seemed to get louder once he entered. Oh he wished he would be there for when they figured out that he was gone.

“Oh shoot” Harry said stopping in his tracks and acting as if he had just remembered something. He was after all the idiot of the Golden Trio, he had figured that much out early on and he had been content to stay that if his friends stuck by him. What a joke now though.

“What” Ron said with a put out sigh, could Harry be any more forgetful?

“I was going to write back to Padfoot” Harry said leaning into Ron's space to whisper out the name. Ron perked up at that thought and told Harry to go along and write him and that he and Hermione would meet him in Care of Magical Creatures.

“Thanks mate” Harry said a tight grin on his face before he made his way back out of the Great Hall and to the Owlery to read over the letter that Malfoy had given him. Once safely in the Owlery did Harry open the letter that Malfoy had passed him.

Potter,

I write to you for a favor, something that I know only you can grant to me. Yes, yes Draco Malfoy is requesting something of Harry Potter. Shocking isn't it? I could expound on how great the Malfoy Family is and how it is owed to me but I won't because I can't. I have seen the errors of my father's ways, and with that the errors of my own. I know friendship is too late for us, but I hope that you can grant me this one favor or more like wish. I have no doubt in my mind that you will refuse but I still hope that you will consider my request and grant it should you decide to do so.
Meet me in the dungeons in the third unused classroom on the right; you'll know it for the snake emblem on the door.

Draco Malfoy

Harry read the letter twice before asking the owls if the blonde was joking.

“Is this a joke?” when he received no answer, did he read the letter over again and the almost desperation that was carefully worded in the missive.

“Right” Harry said before looking up and then searching out for Hedwig, before whistling which brought the glorious white bird down to his shoulder.

“I'm fine, or I'm going to be” Harry answered Hedwig's unasked questions. It was then that an idea struck him, he remembered vaguely about some wizards and witches that gave up their magical ties to Wizarding Britain. He wondered if the goblins at Gringotts could help him out in his plan to disappear.

“Come on” Harry said before going over to where parchment, quill and ink where kept for younger students who didn't have their own birds. Harry scratched out a short missive to the goblins hoping that he would receive an answer before he left Hogwarts. He didn't have much time, and time was of the essence at this point in time.

“As fast as you can” Harry said to Hedwig before watching her wing her way to Diagon Alley and to Gringotts Bank where an old goblin sat waiting for his letter. Harry arrived to Care of Magical Creatures just as the Slytherins did, so Harry nodded slightly to Malfoy before throwing some random insult to a Slytherin making sure not to anger the blonde too much. He would hate for this all to be some other prank, but he didn't think so. Class passed on easily and it was as they were getting ready to leave that Hedwig made her way over to where Harry stood off by himself, playing with their latest ‘safe' creature.

“So quickly” Harry said before noticing that no one was watching him for the time being.

“I would give you a treat but I don't have one” Harry said to Hedwig before he got a nip on the ear and she was winging her way to the Owlery, where she would wait for direction from her master.

“Let's see” Harry said before opening the letter and reading it quickly while checking to make sure that no one was watching him.

Mr. Harry Potter,

Your request is in fact true and hasn't been done in a great many years. The reasons are usually that of the wizard or witch, so we ask you to consider this carefully. It is not something that is easily undone. A great wrong has to occur, although from what I hear, a great wrong is occurring as we speak.
If you decide to complete your course of action, the Bank doors will open to you in your time of need.

May your Gold be Plentiful,

Griphoon

Harry nodded his head; he had no need to think about the words in the letter. The goblins felt the same way as he did it seemed on this whole prank business. It would be in the Wizarding Worlds best interest not to piss off their savior, but they would learn that soon enough. Harry pocketed the letter before he continued on taking notes about the creature that sat in front of him before Hagrid dismissed the class for the day. Harry would miss the half-giant but if what Luna said was true then there may be a way to keep in contact with him once he settled down.

“Harry, mate you coming” Ron said pointing to the castle where the Slytherins were making their way to as quickly as possible. Harry threw a grin at Ron and packed up his bag the whole time thinking what he planned to do once he was free of the horrid Wizarding Britain. He had his sights set on another country and he figured that once he gave up his citizenship or whatever the hell it is considered in the Wizarding World he would be free to take up arms with another country. They seemed to be staying out of the fight in Britain and that was exactly what Harry was looking for.

“Be right there” Harry said before jogging to meet up with Ron and Hermione who shared a secret smile. Harry had one of his own on his faces; oh the day was looking brighter and brighter in his mind. Once back in the school did Harry break off with Ron and Hermione with the promise to be back by dinner. He would be back alright and he would make sure that they left for the Great Hall while he then made his escape. He had planned the whole thing during History of Magic, so he was pretty certain that nothing could go wrong, at least he hoped nothing would go wrong. Harry soon made his way down to the dungeons and to the third unused classroom on the right with the snake emblem on it. When he got there he could hear muffled sounds and figured that Malfoy had placed a spell on the door to make sure no one understood what they were saying.

“Malfoy” Harry said after swinging the door open a bit and coming to a complete stop as he saw Draco Malfoy holding onto a bundle of what looked to be a blanket.

“Potter” Malfoy said in relief he hadn't been sure on if the other teen would show up, and he hadn't really known what he would do if he didn't. So he had hoped and prayed and it seemed his prayers were answered for there, Harry was standing with his mouth hanging open.

“Is that” Harry said going over to where Malfoy was holding the bundle looking quite at a loss on what to do.

“A baby”

“Yes” Harry said before putting his hands out and asking if he could take the bundle. Malfoy was grateful that Harry was reacting the way he was, because he wasn't really certain on how he would be able to keep the dark haired boy silent if he decided not to grant his request.

“What is going on” Harry said looking the baby over and seeing that it had the Malfoy blonde hair and pretty much all of the Malfoy features, except for the cheeks and ears at least from what he saw on the baby's face.

“It's mine” Draco said before leaning over a bit and looking at his child, he wasn't sure how he would cope without seeing it every day but he figured it was for the best, at least he thought it was anyway.

“What” Harry said surprised, Draco Malfoy had managed to get a person pregnant?

“The other parent is dead” Draco explained to Harry, trying to limit the amount of information the other boy knew so he couldn't slam down a horrible judgment on his child.

“Dead” Harry said looking up and into Draco's ice-blue eyes and seeing the truth shining out of them.

“Dead” Draco confirmed for Harry again, before bowing his head remembering that of his lover and how he had managed to keep the secret that he was pregnant until the last possible moment, when help wasn't an option any longer.

“How”

“During childbirth, I tried” Draco said emotion in his voice, he could admit that he didn't love his child's other father but he was absolutely smitten with the product of their few but feverous couplings. It still amazed him that he had created something so pure with someone so evil, he knew that now but he was going to make sure his child knew nothing about him or his parent's lifestyle and that was where Harry came in. Harry nodded his head while taking in the small baby in his arms; it couldn't be more than a month old if that.

“She is a month old tomorrow” Draco stated proudly, he was one of the first Malfoy males to break tradition and have a daughter instead of a son.

“Her name” Harry asked already in love with the bundle in his arms, he could see now that Draco wanted to do what was best for his child.

“Uh” Draco blushed here, he had been grieving the loss other man, even if he was evil to fully decide upon a name for his daughter. He wanted something strong and unique but he only kept coming up with names that didn't suit her.

“You haven't named her” Harry said a bit surprised that Malfoy hadn't slapped a name on the child the moment she was handed over, then again this was a different Malfoy than he had seen before.

“No, nothing fits” Draco said honestly before turning red in the cheeks again. He was about to ask his enemy to name his child, how wrong was that?

“Nothing fits” Harry said before looking down to the baby again and thinking of a name that would suit the child, he wasn't sure on the reasons why he was here, they had yet to be revealed to him but he would take this chance and help his enemy who seemed so lost.

“Ara Sasha Malfoy” Harry said proudly before the baby's eyes opened to show Harry the same ice-blue colored eyes that looked at him with shock shining clearly in them.

“Ara Sasha Malfoy” Draco said before leaning over again and looking at his baby girl, his baby had a name and a strong one. One he would be proud to state from the tops of the castle's roof and from any mountain if he was given the chance to.

“Here” Harry said before trying to pass the now awake baby to Draco, thinking that the other boy wanted to hold his child. Was that what he came here for? To name Draco Malfoy's child?

“No” Draco said shaking his head before pain entered his eyes; this would probably be the last time he saw his child look the way she did now. He was certain that once he stated what his request was that she would never look the way she did now. Even if she was named for a mere moment in his presence he would never forget her.

“What” Harry said before looking to Draco and seeing that the other teen was in pain over looking at his child, something that no father should have to deal with.

“Explain what is going on” Harry said pulling the baby back to him and then making his way over to a chair so that he didn't have to stand for a no doubt long explanation.

“I can't keep her and well….” Here Draco looked up to Harry and began to wonder if this was as good an idea as he had thought it was earlier in the week.

“So you want me to take her” Harry answered for Draco before looking down to the baby when she began to make a fuss.

“Bottle” Harry said hoping that he got what she wanted right. Draco passed over a bottle a moment later watching as Harry handled the baby with great skill and then he continued his story.

“You need to take her, I don't want her to know my family's lifestyle” Draco grimaced at the choice of words he had used, he could think of no better way to tell Harry that his family was in league with the Dark Lord.

“I see” Harry said continuing to feed the baby while waiting for Draco to finish his story.

“I want her happy and to do that she can't be near me at least not right now” Draco said touching his left forearm where the Dark Lord's mark burned on his flesh. Harry saw the move and said nothing, it was no mystery that Draco would join the Dark Lord, he had just hoped that it would be later rather than sooner.

“I want her to have a life I never had, a childhood I never had” Draco went on before he noticed that Harry had changed positions to burp the baby. It had taken him hours to figure that one out and Harry seemed to know instantly, this just proved that he was doing the right thing.

“So what? You are giving her to me? I….” Harry got started to say before Draco cut him off, he needed to get what he was going to say out or he would snatch his child back and run away to hell with the consequences.

“I'm giving her to someone that I know will take care of her, you have to. I know you know about the prank and I know you are leaving, I can see it in your eyes” Draco had always made it his business to know about Harry Potter and every little thing he did and every little emotion he had. He had been shocked just that morning to see the anger, humiliation and betrayal painted on the Gryffindor's face. No one else would notice, but he had and he had noticed how Harry had been ‘forgetful' and continued to disappear, someone only becomes like that when they are planning something and Draco didn't put it past Harry to leave the Wizarding World. He knew how to survive in the muggle world unlike Draco, so he had plucked up any and all courage and wrote his letter asking Harry for a favor and for him to meet him here.

“I know about the prank and I am leaving, but I'm not staying in Britain” Harry confessed to Draco, if the teen was going to give him his child he was going to lay his cards on the table for Draco to make an informed decision.

“What” that pulled Draco up short, he had figured that Harry would disappear into the muggle world in Britain for a while before being found by the headmaster and his Order, but it seemed Harry was holding a grudge a bit more than he had thought.

“Leaving the Wizarding World at least in Britain, they got their chances with me and I'm done”

“Where? No, don't answer that the less I know the better” Draco said before looking at Harry and seeing how tired the boy looked, he looked tired and defeated and for the life of him he couldn't understand how the people of the Wizarding World could rest all their fears and expectations on a mere teenage boy, with a muggle upbringing.

“So you are still willing to put Ara in my care?” Draco nodded his head he didn't know if he could speak over the shock of finding out that Harry was up and leaving Britain.

“Would you like updates?”

“No, the less I know the better” Draco said before a tear made its way out of his eyes, he had been trying hard to fight with the emotions that were running through him but it seemed they had won.

“Here, say goodbye to her for now” Harry said handling the bundle over to Draco and then cooing to the child that her daddy was going to be a hero one day and she would be proud of him.

“Pot…Harry, thank you” Draco said looking up to Harry and seeing that Harry meant the words that he spoke.

“I mean it, and if you ever decide you do want to know more about Ara there” here Harry tipped his head to the baby in Draco's arms and then spoke again.

“Find Luna Lovegood”

“Loony Lovegood” Draco said in disbelief, not sure if he had heard the other teen right.

“Luna if you will and yes, she is the only person I know that wasn't in on the stupid prank”

“I wasn't”

“That much I got from her”

“I see” Draco said before he began to build his Ice Prince mask in front of Harry, it was a sight to be seen. Gone was the Draco that Harry could say he could easily fall in love with and back was Malfoy, Ice Prince of Slytherin and bane of Harry Potter's existence.

“Thank you” Draco said before handing his child over to Harry and then leaving the classroom without a backwards glance.

“Draco Malfoy” Harry said before shaking his head and then wondering how the hell he planned to get out of Slytherin territory and to his dorm with a baby in his arms.

BOOM! Harry heard and felt the castle shake a bit; it seems that Draco had provided the answer for him. Harry took that as his cue to run out of the classroom and up the stairs to the main entrance and then all the way to Gryffindor Tower. He as so in luck since it seemed that everyone had gone to find out what the source of the noise was, so that gave him time to do some quick spells before hiding Ara in a crib and hiding her things in his trunk that sat at the end of his bed.

“Did you hear that?” Ron said an amazed look on his face; he still couldn't believe that a Slytherin had caused the sort of twin's prank if you could call it that. It was more of a potion gone wrong, but even still it was a sight to be seen.

“Yeah” Harry said before closing his book that he looked to be reading as Ron entered followed by the rest of his dorm mates.

“Did you see Parkinson? She was covered in whatever it was” Dean crowed happy to see a Slytherin get their just desserts.

“Where have you been mate?” Ron asked before pulling out some other clothes to change into before heading down to dinner. He had been bugging Hermione for hours now about them maybe checking up on Harry, but at about the time she caved the noise was made and he was sufficiently distracted.

“Well I went to the library”

“Mione and me were there and didn't see you” Ron said a gleam in his eye, Harry was lying and he knew it or he at least thought he did.

“Once I got the book I needed I then went out and sat outside to work on my homework”

“But it's cold outside”

“I was tired of being inside Ron, and I did get cold” Harry said before waving his hand to the books and parchments sitting on his bed.

“Oh” Ron said with a defeated sigh, he hadn't caught Harry in a lie.

“Well dinner's about to start”

“I'll be there in a bit, I want to get this part done” Harry explained showing Ron a charmed piece of parchment that showed what looked to be their assignment on it.

“Alright” Ron said before heading down with the rest of his dorm mates following, seemed that Ron had become a leader and Harry hadn't noticed when. ‘Probably about the same time they decided to play a prank on me' Harry thought before Ara began to kick up a fuss with not being held.

“Hold on Ara” Harry said before going over and picking up the baby and rocking her while trying to calm her down. Harry calmed the baby down for a good five minutes before deciding that dinner had probably started and that he best be on his way if he planned to escape unnoticed. With that thought in mind Harry placed a now quiet Ara on his bed and shrunk his trunk before turning back to bed and scooping up Ara before leaving. He made his way slowly and quietly down the stairs and then through the main entrance of Hogwarts. The whole trip only took Harry ten minutes but it was a stressful ten minutes and as soon as he was out of the front doors did he make his way down the wore down path that lead to the Hogwarts Gates. He could only hope that the Headmaster hadn't raised the alert and lockdown the school yet, he knew the man would feel him leaving but he wasn't sure if he would make it to the gates before a professor came to retrieve him. He was lucky for it seemed that the Headmaster had no clue or figured that Harry was visiting Hagrid outside to not raise the alarm. Harry did hear the alarm shriek when he step through the Hogwarts Gates.

“Ara wish me luck” Harry said before disapparating them to Diagon Alley, or at least as close as he could get. He didn't have much time before the Headmaster raised all sorts of alarms that Harry Potter had left Hogwarts. Harry stumbled a bit before he felt a presence at his side.

“You made it” a goblin said eyeing Harry and then the bundle he had in his arms. He hadn't known the Potter child had reproduced. “Yes but I don't have much time”

“You have all the time in the world” the goblin said before grinning at Harry and then guiding him through the empty bank foyer to a small room off of the side, nowhere near where the carts that would whirl you down to your vault.

“But”

“Wizards have no say in our bank” the goblin said before showing Harry a chair and then pulling out a small crib like item and watching as Harry placed the baby in it.

“Griphoon, I assume”

“Correct, and the child”

“Ara Sasha Malfoy” Harry said before he continued to explain.

“She is not known by her grandparents and I plan to keep it that way. Set up an account with the galleons from my vault, she is mine for right now” Harry said before he watched as the goblin did as he was told.

“Draco Malfoy, I want him to receive a small amount of galleons as well” here the goblin looked up, the son of a Death Eater receiving funds from Harry Potter.

“He'll need them one day” Harry explained before asking Griphoon what he needed to do to end his British Wizarding Citizenship.

“It's quite simple really” Griphoon stated before pulling out a stack of papers and sliding them over to Harry.

“Sign here, here, here, and here” Griphoon said pointing to the spots, watching as Harry signed away his British rights.

“Do you have a country in mind that you plan to apply for citizen to?”

“America” Harry said remembering a few specials on the telly that talked about the almost sister nation.

“Ah” the goblin said not at all surprised that Harry had chosen there to take up residence.

“Well your funds will be transferred to one of the US branches and of course the papers will be filed under secrecy, so have no fear about someone finding you” Harry breathed a sigh of relief, he didn't want to go through all this work only to be brought back when they figured out where he was and how was he to explain Ara?

“Also note that since you have given up your British citizenship that you have been legally emancipated” Harry was shocked that meant he could do what he wanted and he now had the money to back it up.

“Yes the Potter Vaults will stay here but any monies that has been collecting on the vaults will be forwarded to the US branch, speaking of which” the goblin said realizing that he may need to ask *which* branch Harry wanted his money parked at.

“Where do you plan to stay?” Harry pulled up short on that question, he hadn't really given it much thought, and he snorted at the thought that came to mind in the form of Draco Malfoy's voice. ‘There's that Gryffindor act before think.'

“Warm” Harry said he always hated the cold, it was the one time of year that he absolutely hated when having to stay with the Dursley's, they always managed to freeze him and make him catch the flu or sometimes worse pneumonia and if he had to chose a place where he could live it would have to be someplace warm.

“Well there are several branches in several locations” the goblin said before pulling out a map of the United States and pointing out the warm states as they called them and the other states and their climates.

“There's so many….states” Harry said looking up from the map with Ara in his arms now since she had kicked up a fuss yet again.

“There are, you don't have to stay there long if you don't want to”

“Huh”

“They are all governed by one body so you can move from state to state with little to no fuss”

“Oh” Harry said amazed that it wasn't like what he was dealing with the British Wizarding World, he had heard one of the kids start kicking up a fuss when he had to give up his Ireland citizenship to go to Hogwarts. He thought it was wrong, and Harry could see why but put the matter to the back of his mind.

“There” Harry said pointing to a large state with the name “Texas” on it.

“Oh my” the goblin said surprised that Harry had picked the state, he had heard from some of the British goblins that had visited, that the muggles and wizards alike were a bit odd, then again this was the United States they were talking about and they never did anything like a Brit did.

“Is that okay” Harry said worried that maybe he shouldn't have picked the state, it was one of the hottest states in the US, and he figured if he totally hated it then he could move. The goblin was right about that, he had options from the rainiest state to the snowiest and coldest. He shied away from those states, he could deal with rain he was after all British but snow and cold, no thank you.

“Fine, but you picked a state full of quirks” the goblin said before he began to scratch something onto a piece of parchment all the while watching Harry interact with the baby in his arms. How had Harry Potter gotten a Malfoy child? It still baffled him, the feud that had begun when Harry started at Hogwarts was widely known so for a Potter to have the Malfoy child's child was a huge shock.

“Now tell me the details to these accounts you want set up” the goblin said after he placed his parchment in a drawer that would deliver said parchment to another goblin that would handle what needed to be done.

“I want Ara to get 100 galleons a week for the first three years of her life” Harry said doing some mental math and hoping that he was assuming he was right in how much money he had.

“Right” the goblin said not at all fazed by Harry's words, the next words on the other hand would surprise him.

“Draco is going to get 10,000 galleons a month for two years” Harry said calculating that and figuring that it should give Draco enough to get on his feet if his father ever disowned him for any reason or if he ran away and had no access to money. It wasn't much but it would be enough for Draco to start over. The goblin gasped before looking at Harry as if he had grown a second head, which Harry guessed he may have since his amount had gone up from his brain to his mouth but he had known it was right the moment it came out of him mouth.

“He is to not know about the vault until either two things happen, he is either disowned from the Malfoy name or he runs away”

“And how would you like us to notify him”

“Owl is fine” Harry said thinking of how Draco would feel if he knew what Harry was doing now for him, just in case Draco ever realized that he always had more than one path to take.

“Right” the goblin said writing on another piece of parchment the stipulations to the two vaults for the Malfoy's.

“Oh and if Draco is ever disowned he and Ara are to automatically become Potters” the goblin raised his head in shock, Harry Potter was doing an awful lot for Draco Malfoy and his child, what had the teenaged Malfoy done to get so completely under Harry's skin?

“Consider it done” the goblin said writing that stipulation on the parchment waiting for Harry to speak again.

“That's it” Harry said now turning red at the intense look he was getting from the goblin. He wasn't sure if he had done the right thing with his last clause but for some reason he had felt that he needed to do this for Ara and for her father, who she might one day meet again.

“Is there any other way I can be of assistance to you?” The goblin asked after a moment of silence. Harry shook his head he had no real needs at the present moment, he was safe within the bank and he was safely taking care of Draco's daughter.

“Griphoon” another goblin said after knocking and being bid to enter.

“Yes”

“The wizards are looking for Harry Potter” the goblin said before he noticed that said person was sitting across from his superior.

“Keep them away”

“It's shall be done” the goblin said before making his way back to where a floo call was waiting for their response on if the Potter heir had come to their bank.

“Is there…” Harry started to say but stopped when Griphoon jumped out of his seat and guided Harry to a small room for privacy.

“Take as long as you need, I'll come find you when everything is complete” the goblin said before locking the room and then making his way to the floo room to make sure that things didn't get out of hand. Harry took no notice of being locked in the room for he had eyes on Ara and the wet nappy that she seemed to be fussing about.

“Truly a Malfoy” Harry joked before pulling out a clean nappy and then changing the baby girl all the while running commentary about her father and how he probably had thought it beneath him to even change her nappy himself.

“Then again he knew he wanted a better life for you” Harry said still amazed at Draco's actions and he had become Draco in Harry's mind for he was certain that Malfoy wouldn't have thought twice about a child, even if it was his, well maybe if it was a boy but even then he would have handed the child to the house elves and been done with it. No Draco cared for his child the way a father should and Harry wasn't going to knock that.

“Mr. Potter” Griphoon said watching the young man rocking the small child in his arms, quite happy that Harry had come so early and got the ball rolling so soon.

“Griphoon” Harry said turning with Ara in his arms and a worried look on his face. Had they found a way to get to him already?

“It seems that the Headmaster of Hogwarts has alerted the Ministry of Magic about your ‘disappearance' and has deemed our bank with their presence in a few short minutes”

“I…” Harry was at a loss as to what to do, he hadn't really planned out much of his escape but now he had a child to protect and he would do everything in his power to make sure that they were both safe. It was something that had never been done for him and he was going to live by Draco's words of ‘give her a childhood I never had', Harry knew the feeling and was going to make sure that she wouldn't become a spectacle as he knew she would if they stayed.

“No need to worry, they will be in and out” Griphoon said a grin on his face that put Harry on edge, what did the goblin have in store for the Ministry workers?

“Stay here and I shall return” Griphoon said before leaving again and then locking and warding the door so that the Ministry idiots wouldn't notice the door or even if there was a magical signature or two coming from it. Harry could only shake his head, how had he gotten a goblin to protect him and Ara? For the next hour and a half Harry cooed over Ara telling her stories about his life and what he wanted to do once they were both safe to leave Britain and make their way to the state of Texas in the United States.

“Mr. Potter” Griphoon said after entering the room a grin on his face that Harry knew the goblin had given the Ministry workers the hardest time possible.

“Is everything okay” Harry said getting up and making his way over to where the goblin stood grin still on his face.

“Oh quite fine”

“Do they”

“Know that you are here? No, why ever would the goblins house a wizard in our bank?” Griphoon said a sneer on his face, showing Harry just how he had gotten rid of the Ministry and their idiots. Harry nodded his head before giving a yawn, quite tired all of a sudden.

“Mr. Potter due to the time change…” Griphoon said wanting to make sure that Harry understood that it was only the middle of the afternoon in the state of Texas.

“What time is it in Texas” Harry asked wondering if he would be in a spot trying to find somewhere for he and Ara to stay the night at.

“It is going on…” here the goblin pulled out a pocket watch and glanced at the time stated and then calculated what time it would be in Texas.

“Going on about one thirty in the afternoon, Wednesday” Griphoon said snapping the pocket watch closed and then glancing at Harry.

“Oh” Harry was surprised by the time, he had figured that it was maybe a few hours ahead but instead it was six hours behind, it boggled Harry's mind.

“Shall I may be set up a hotel for you?” Griphoon asked Harry, looking at the young lad and hoping he would accept his help. He had no doubt that the Ministry would be alerting other countries soon enough to Harry's disappearance but the sooner that Harry got to the US the sooner he could work his connections and make sure that no one found the young man until he was ready. He looked to need a break from his life in Britain and the goblin was more than willing to give it to the young man.

“Please” Harry said before remembering something else he had wanted done before he left for good.

“Also…”

“Yes”

“I want you to set up an account for the Luna Lovegood” the goblin was shocked to hear those words coming out of Harry's mouth. It was a known fact that the whole Lovegood clan was ‘off one's chump' and there hadn't been a sane one in years. It seemed that Harry Potter was all about surprises this day, and that was something that Griphoon liked about the young man. He wasn't following in anyone's footsteps or following anyone's directions, something that could be admired in a young person these days.

“Any stipulations?”

“Uh” here Harry had to think about the amount of money that was going to go into the account and if there should be any sort of stipulations that would limit the access of funds for Luna.

“Thousand galleons every other month and no stipulations on when she can access it” Harry said knowing that his friend wouldn't abuse the fund he had started for her. He had heard her expound for hours sometimes about the trip that ‘she and daddy' would take once they would raise enough money for said trips. He didn't want to deny Luna of her dream of finding an undiscovered magical creatures, he may not think they exist but they did to Luna and that was all that mattered. She would after all become an Aunt shortly, and trips to America weren't cheap of that much Harry knew.

“Consider it done, now let me set that up along with the lodging for you and…” the goblin was uncertain on how to address the baby in Harry's arms. She was a Malfoy by blood but she was also Harry's ward, something he didn't want to belittle.

“Potter will have to do” Harry said knowing that if he used Draco's last name that all sorts of flags and alerts would be raised once the child was old enough to attend school and such.

“Ms. Potter then” the goblin said smiling to Harry to show that he had done the right thing. He may even hint that there may be a way to discount one of the parents to Harry before he left. It was time consuming and costly but he had no doubt that if Harry was able to become the other parent then he would do so.

“Ms. Potter” Harry said before looking down to Ara, not noticing when Griphoon left the room to take care of the last minute items. Griphoon along with another goblin arrived to the room twenty minutes later both happy to have helped the Potter heir so much.

“Mr. Potter” Griphoon said before pointing to the goblin next to him that would be able to explain about the ritual that would be required if Harry wanted to get rid of one of the parents of Ara.

“This is my associate Grundun”

“Hi” Harry said from his sitting position in a chair.

“Mr. Potter” Grundun said surprised to see the savior of the Wizarding World sitting comfortably in one of the ‘VIP account' rooms. He had seen when the Ministry had come into the bank demanding to search the bank for said person and he had seen Griphoon state that they weren't welcome and that they would never help *wizards*. Seems someone was telling a lie, which was just fine with him since he hated the Ministry just like every other goblin in the world.

“Griphoon stated that there might be a reason for the child's other parent to be erased from its bloodline” he winced at his choice of words. He hadn't really meant to say it so cold and callously but it was out now and there was nothing he could do to fix it.

“What” Harry said stunned he understood what the goblin was saying, even if it was said horribly. Erase Draco from Ara's bloodline? He didn't think so!

“Griphoon” Harry said confused and a bit hurt, he hadn't thought that the goblins thought that lowly of Draco.

“Secrecy” Griphoon said looking at Grundun, telling him that it was very important that he understand that this was a secret he would take to his grave. The other goblin nodded his head before Griphoon began to explain what it was that Grundun was speaking about.

“Not Mr. Malfoy's bloodline but the child's other parent” here Harry saw the shocked look on Grundun's face and knew that Griphoon hadn't relayed all the details about the child in his arms.

“Mr. Malfoy” the other goblin asked, amazed that Harry had been given the child. Malfoy's were known for keeping their children close to them and keeping them well in the ‘old world' ways.

“Draco's parents know nothing of her, I plan to keep it that way” Harry said fiercely, it was the one thing that he knew would die to do.

“I see” Grundun said before peeking a glance at his superior and then nodded his head that he understood no one was to know.

“The ritual that I speak about would allow for the child's other parent, from the union that Mr. Malfoy had to be extracted and in its place your bloodline would replace it”

“Will she be the same?” Harry asked worried it sounded like a great thing but he was worried that Ara wouldn't be Ara any longer and that was something that he wasn't willing to do. He wanted Ara to be the same Ara that Draco had left in his care.

“Yes, there may be little changes like eye color and maybe hair makeup but over all she would still be the same”

“Can I think about it?” Harry asked he wanted to maybe get into contact with Draco and see how the other teen felt on the ritual. He didn't want Draco to feel as if he owed him a debt for taking care of his child when he could not, and that this would be the payment for said debt.

“Of course, if you do decide to do it just contact Griphoon and he will make sure I am alerted” Grundun said surprised that Harry hadn't jumped at the chance to get rid of a bloodline that ran in the baby's blood.

“Thank you” Harry said very grateful that the goblins were being so helpful, he had heard many of the students at Hogwarts moan and groan about how rude and horrible the goblins were but so far he had nothing but good luck with them and he hoped that it would continue.

“Now seeing as it is nearing the eight o'clock hour, we better get your moving going to your final destination” Griphoon said before handing Harry over some papers that had details on his hotel how long he was booked for his room at the hotel in Dallas, Texas.

“Griphoon thank you!” Harry said before hugging the goblin and then laughing at the completely amazed look on his face.

“He hasn't been hugged by a wizard in many, many years”

“Well I do like to be different” Harry joked before hoisting the baby bag that Draco had given him on his shoulder and then holding Ara as tightly as he could while the portkey activated and the pair were pulled away from London, Great Britain and the Wizarding World there. Harry never saw a goblin rush in afterwards and he never heard the goblin tell Griphoon that the Ministry was back and was demanding that they been shown every room in the bank. Harry never heard or saw Griphoon escorting the Minister of Magic along with the Headmaster of Hogwarts to the same room they had been in and he never saw the smirk the goblin had in his face when the room came back clean for any sort of magical signatures that had been in the room in the last twenty four hours.

“Omf” Harry said as he managed to land on his butt in the middle of a large room that had floo places and what looked like rings on the floor spread out at a certain interval.

“Mr. Potter” a goblin said standing next to where Harry currently sat.

“Yes”

“Excellent timing if I do so say so myself” the goblin said before sticking out a hand and grinning at Harry, as if he knew some secret and couldn't seem to hold it in.

“Griphoon sent word of your arrival” the goblin said before introducing himself.

“Name's Taggny” the goblin said still grinning at Harry, what was his deal?

“Harry Potter” Harry said before leaning up and then stating Ara's name.

“Ara…uh…I guess Potter”

“You don't know” the goblin joked before he saw that Harry was conflicted about something.

“Stays in the room so-to-speak”

“She's a Malfoy by blood” the goblin looked at him with a blank look on his face.

“Right” Harry said remembering that he was no longer in Britain and it seemed that the Malfoy name had yet to make it ‘across the pond'.

“So she's yours but not?”

“Something like that” Harry said before he quickly explained that he was taking the child at the request of her father.

“Gotcha” the goblin said before waiting for Harry to stand so that he could take him to an office where they would sort out how Harry's banking needs would be met there.

“Right this way” the goblin said with Harry and Ara following behind all the while Harry was amazed at the attitude of the goblins and people in the bank. They were all so ‘friendly' it was a bit off putting if he didn't say so himself.

“Here we are; would you care for something to drink?”

“Water would be great” Harry said not really sure what else he could ask for but thirsty none-the-less. The goblin then poured a glass of water for Harry and a tall glass of something for himself.

“Quite the heat spell we have going on right now” the goblin said before taking a sip and then beginning to explain to Harry how the bank worked there. It was set up a bit different then the headquarters bank in London. America wizards and witches had much different needs than that of British one. Harry listened and then read the small pamphlet that the goblin gave him to review the type of account he wanted. When the goblin started typing away on a computer Harry about fainted.

“Well it seems your account has already been transferred…..” the goblin was amazed at the shear amount of money in the accounts.

“Uh can I have one of those card things?”

“Debit Card, yes of course”

“That's all I need right now” Harry said ready to get into bed and fall asleep, it was after all now nearing 9 o'clock at night in Britain.

“Just one moment” the goblin said pulling out a card and entering the number into the computer and then swiping it a couple of times on the keyboard activating it.

“Is there a conversion rate or something?”

“No we work with the standard muggle money here, so the only conversion rate you need worry about is that of the Euro to that of the US dollar”

“But what about my galleons to the Euro?” “Griphoon has taken up the mantle of being your account manager and will check the rates when your interest payments come through”

“Okay” Harry said stunned that the goblin was going to manage his accounts, he had heard that goblins tried to deal with wizards as little as possible and for a goblin to take up the mantle of account manager meant that the wizard merited the respect of the goblins.

“Crazy to see since Griphoon runs Gringotts”

“Runs?” Harry squeaked out, he had figured he was talking to like a manager or something not the goblin that ran the bank!

“Yeah, runs the bank along and pretty much all the branches over the world”

“What” Harry said faintly he could feel that his body was about ready to give in to the blank spots that had clouded his vision.

“He didn't tell you?” Taggny said surprised that the other goblin hadn't stated his title at the bank, it was standard procedure and you could get fired if you didn't do it.

“I was in a bit of a hurry”

“Too true, that Ministry of Magic is as thick as dew on Dixie”

“Huh” Harry said totally confused on what the goblin had just said to him.

“Not too bright” the goblin said before laughing, oh the fun he could have throwing out sayings to this Brit.

“That they are” Harry agreed before Taggny then handed over the card and told Harry that he could use the card like a credit card and there would be no need to worry about a PIN number for it right now.

“Thanks” Harry said before sticking the card in his pocket after he stood ready to follow Taggny to the front of the bank again.

“I warn you now, it's hot out there”

“How hot?” Harry asked not seeing Taggny eyes light up at another chance to throw another Texas saying at him.

“As hot as a two-dollar whore on the fourth of July (Jew-lie)” Harry looked at the goblin as if he was nuts and he guessed that maybe the goblin was. He had never seen a cheery goblin, ever, not even Griphoon when he was sending the Ministry on a wild goose chase did the goblin seem happy. No Taggny seemed to be something else all together.

“You'll get used to it” the goblin explained before answering Harry's question on how hot it was outside.

“Well we been having a bit of hot spell these past few days; now if I remember correctly today's high was to reach eighty degrees” Harry had a look of pure horror on his face. How hot?

“Oh that's right you Brits work on the Celsius scale, let me find someone who can convert that for you” the goblin said before skipping, yes skipping off to a teller that knew could pull up the calculator to convert the temperature for Harry.

“That's about 27 degree Celsius for you” Taggny said before grinning at Harry and leading the teen towards the front doors of the bank.

“If you need anything at all just give us a holler” Taggny said before he stepped outside with Harry and pointed him to the hotel that he was to be staying at for the next week or so.

“Now walk right on down this street and then hang a left and follow the road until you reach Victory Plaza, the W hotel will be on your right” Taggny explained before he got a thanks from Harry and then watched as the teen followed his instructions. He shook his head before making his way back into the bank and to his office; he had a goblin he needed to give a hard time. Harry followed the instructions and was soon standing in front of a huge glass and metal building looking all sorts of expensive and new. He was of course sweating since he still had on his uniform from Hogwarts and walking with a baby in his arms, sweater on and cloak was a really bad idea. He had gotten some funny looks but since there were a couple of people walking about with turquoise hair he figured he could fit right in to that crowd for the time being.

“Can I help you sir” a valet asked Harry as he stood at the front door of the hotel wondering what he should do.

“Uh yeah, I have a reservation here” Harry said his British accent drawing the valet closer. Who wasn't a sucker for a Brit, especially in Texas?

“Straight through these doors and the front desk will be on your right” the valet said before jogging away as a woman stepped out of a Bentley, sunglasses on her face and a Prada bag on her arm and hair as big as her whole head. Harry just stared, what were with these people? Once inside Harry made his way over to the front desk, where a woman with short brown hair stood a smile on her face while she greeted the guests that walked by.

“Welcome to the W hotel” the girl said not stopping her smile as she spoke; she was just so chirpy it worried Harry.

“Hi, I....uh have a reservation” Harry stated looking at the girl and wondering if she would believe him. He did after all look a bit too young to be staying at the hotel alone.

“Name”

“Potter”

“Harry” the girl said after typing on her computer and pulling up the reservation.

“Yes”

“I see you plan to stay for the week”

“Correct”

“Just a moment” the girl said before typing away again and then asking for a card that she could charge the room to.

“Here you go” Harry said digging out the card that Taggny had given him. The girl didn't take a second look at it; she just swiped it and then handed it back to Harry once it was cleared that the charges could be billed.

“You'll be in a Wonderful Room, and your room number is 624” the girl said before handing over a small white card and instructions on how to find the room.

“Do you require a crib?” The girl said just now noticing the child in Harry's arms.

“What would be great” Harry said before smiling at the girl, hoping that she would be able to supply him with a crib for Ara.

“Just a moment, have a seat over there and I will get that set up in your room” the girl said before touching the phone and speaking into her headset on her head. Harry was quite glad to be sitting in the comfy seating in the front lobby. He was hot, tired and hungry.

“Mr. Potter” the girl said five minutes later the same smile that had been on her face still there.

“Yes” Harry said standing up and making his way back to the desk.

“Your room is ready and if you require anything further just call the front desk”

“Thank you and I will” Harry said before he made his way over to the elevators that the girl had directed him to and then getting on and riding to the sixth floor.

“Six, two, four” Harry said looking at the plaques that were on the wall that directed him to different numbered rooms.

“Here we are” Harry said after finding the room and sticking the card in the slot to unlock the door.

“Wow” Harry said walking into the room and being amazed. There was no way that a hotel room should look so amazing and he was pretty certain that his Aunt and Uncle had never stayed at a place like this before and probably never would, for they didn't have the funds and Harry wasn't about to share with them either. In the corner near a bank of windows laid the crib while the large bed sat next to it, on the wall was a large flat panel telly and the bathroom was tucked away. It was huge but tucked away to where it wasn't the first thing you saw in the room.

“We're home” Harry said to Ara before putting her down in the crib and then stripping off as many clothes as possible.

“Hot as a two-dollar whore on the fourth of July (Jew-lie)” Harry mimicked before chuckling at the saying, oh if only Luna could have heard that one. She probably would have tilted her head to the side and probably said something much more off-the-wall than that. Now there was one person he knew would be able to keep up with the cheery goblin and his sayings.

“Shower, food and then bed” Harry said before checking on Ara and seeing that she was fast asleep, he could sneak a quick shower before ordering room service. Ten minutes later Harry was exiting the bathroom, rainforest shower heads Harry decided were the best thing invented since the wheel, when he heard Ara stir.

“Just on time” Harry said before looking through the bag and seeing that there was a can of what looked like formula and some bottles.

“Water” Harry said before noticing a small fridge that stated that everything in there was complementary except for the liquor and food. Harry grabbed a bottled water front a top the fridge and then mixed up Ara's formula with a towel wrapped around his waist and water running down his chest from his hair.

“Dinner” Harry said before scooping Ara up and bringing the bottle to her lips, watching as she ate wondering how Draco had done it. It was at the thought of the blonde that Harry was in a bit of a situation, he had shrunk his trunk with his wand, a wand that was very much still under Ministry surveillance, how was he to get clothes from his trunk when he in essence had no wand? It seemed that his question was answered when a house elf popped in and delivered a letter to him. Harry thanked the creature before opening the letter and reading what it said.

Mr. Potter,

Griphoon notified me of the issue you have with your wand being watched by the British Ministry of Magic. I have taken the liberty of filing the correct paperwork to release the charm that watches for all underage magic when not at school. Since you are no longer a British wizard these rules no longer apply to you.

Use your wand as much or as little as you like and don't worry about the British Ministry coming after you.

Regards,

Taggny

Harry read the letter over twice before the words sank in, he could use his wand and never have to worry about anyone finding out. Once the words had registered and Ara had been fed and burped did Harry grabbed his robe and pull out his shrunk trunk and his wand, waving one while the other enlarged. Harry sorted through his clothes and found a decent pair of pants and t-shirt, he would need to get new and better clothes tomorrow that was for sure; Dudley's hand-me-downs weren't going to work in this hotel and definitely not in this climate. Harry checked on Ara one more time before picking up the phone and dialing the number for one of the restaurants housed in the boutique hotel.

“I'll have a hamburger and fries” Harry ordered he wasn't really sure what the whole ‘Texas sized hamburger with all the fixins' meant but he figured it had to be good. Thirty minutes later a man carrying a tray knocked on Harry's room door, and when the man caught sight of Harry his eyes widened. How could someone so young be staying in one of the upgrade rooms, what looked like alone?

“Order for Potter” the man said before watching Harry nod his head and then grabbing the tray and putting it on the desk that sat in the room.

“Thanks” Harry said before he watched as the man walked away, it was a bit odd but that was fine with Harry since he had no money on him. He could have given the guy a galleon or whatever but he didn't think that would fly too well with him. Once back at his desk where his food sat did Harry understand what a ‘Texas sized hamburger with all the fixins' meant, for there on the tray was the largest hamburger he had ever seen with every type of vegetable and condiments on the side.

“Wow” was all Harry said before the smell of the hamburger made his stomach growl. Once he decided that he had spent enough time gawking at the hamburger Harry dug in, eating the burger and fries and washing it all down with a bottled water. Once the meal was complete, which took all that Harry had to do so, did Harry put the tray outside of the room and then turned off the lights while pulling the curtains closed since it was still afternoon outside. Harry then crawled into bed and fell asleep hoping that he would get a few hours before Ara woke up and began fussing for something. It seemed that luck was with him since he was woken up by Ara fussing about four hours later, making it about six o'clock in the evening.

“Sshh” Harry said getting up and going over to inspect what Ara was fussing about.

“Wet nappy and hungry, huh?” Harry asked Ara before searching through the bag for a nappy to change her. He would have to stop at the store or something and pick up more nappys and formula if he planned to keep her happy. Once Harry had changed Ara and fed her did he start looking around the room again and wondering how much the room was costing him a night. He wasn't really sure on how much money he did have, but he understood that he was almost as rich if not richer than the Malfoy's so that meant something but as to the amount; your guess was as good as Harry's. Harry had turned on the telly to see if he could maybe find something that he could watch while playing with Ara before she fell asleep again. The noise from the telly seemed to draw Ara's attention to it so Harry surfed through the channels until he found one that had designs on the screen and classical music playing, almost as if a radio station but for the television. A knock scared Harry from the relaxed atmosphere that the music was sending out.

“Yes” Harry said opening the door with Ara on his hip, and a guarded look on his face. There was no real need and a way for anyone that didn't know he was here to contact him.

“This was left at the front desk” the man from earlier said before handing over a cream colored envelope with his name printed out the outside.

“Thank you” Harry said before he took the envelope out of the man's hands and then watched as the man walked away not waiting for any sort of further response.

“Well let's see” Harry said before breaking the seal on the back that he didn't recognize and then seeing the familiar handwriting of Luna Lovegood.

Harry,

I hope this letter finds you in good health and happy spirits. I hope that once you are settled that you will let me know if you are okay and where you are, as I have been contacted by a certain someone as to wanting to have an update.

Luna

Harry was stunned by the note that he had just gotten, only Luna would be able to figure out a way to get a note to him and probably without even trying and also letting him know that Draco had changed his mind about wanting to know more about Ara as she grew up. Harry resolved that he would write to Luna just as soon as he found a place for him and Ara to stay permanently, staying at the hotel was nice but he was already antsy to get something of his own. It seemed that as soon as Harry began reading his letter did Ara notice that the music and movements on the TV screen were still going. It was while Ara was drifting off to sleep that Harry picked up the phone and called the front desk, he needed to know where he could go shopping at since he wasn't too keen on the idea of shopping at the few boutiques that the hotel housed. They looked to be much too expensive and runway look-ish for him to try and buy anything. He needed everyday wear not something that looked like it had been taken from the runway of some fashion designers collection reveal.

“W hotel front desk” a female voice chimed to Harry, relaxing him a bit since it was the same voice that he knew from his checking in.

“This is Harry Potter in…”

“Room six, two, four; how can I be of assistance?”

“Well” here Harry was a bit embarrassed on how he was to explain that he needed to go shopping for a whole new wardrobe for him and his ‘daughter'.

“Mr. Potter” the girl said still waiting for Harry to speak again.

“I've just arrived here from Britain”

“Yes” the girl said waiting patiently for Harry to explain himself; he was one of the better guests since he seemed to be not very demanding.

“The airline company has lost my luggage”

“I did notice that you packed a bit light” the girl joked getting a laugh out of Harry.

“Well I'm going to need to purchase some clothing for both myself and my daughter”

“Of course”

“Is there like a shopping plaza or something I could go to?”

“Yes of course, there are tons of choices throughout the Dallas/Ft.Worth area”

“Something fairly close since I don't have any transportation either”

“Right” the girl said before Harry heard some papers being rustled on the other side of the phone.

“Well the closet shopping plaza to here is the Mockingbird Station” the girl said trying to find a place that wasn't too far up, but much more upscale then what usual malls carried in the way of stores.

“Could I set something up to go there tomorrow?”

“Yes, of course Mr. Potter” the girl said before asking Harry what time he wanted to leave and if he would need a wakeup call.

“Thank you” Harry said before hanging up the phone once he set up the outing for tomorrow, if Mockingbird Station didn't have anything for Ara there was a mall close by that the girl assured Harry would have something for her.

“Should try and sleep” Harry said before pulling off his pants and shirt and then crawling back into bed and trying to sleep. It would take him a bit of time to get used to the time change but since he didn't have to worry about jet lag kicking his butt on the return trip he figured he would be fine.

BEEP, BEEP, BEEP! Was the sound that the alarm clock made which was followed shortly by the telephone ringing, which was to wake Harry up.

“Hullo” Harry croaked into the phone, it felt like he had just fallen asleep, and he really had since he had been up and down with Ara all night. He wasn't really sure on how Draco had pulled off having the baby for a month at school without anyone finding out about her and still looking none-the-less worn for wear.

“Mr. Potter this is your wakeup call” another girl's voice said into the phone before she started to rattle off that the taxi would pick him and his daughter up at 10 AM.

“Thank you” Harry said before ending the call and putting the phone back on his cradle and then looking to the crib to see that Ara looked to be up and not really doing much besides looking around at what she could see.

“Will you let me take a shower?” Harry asked Ara before getting Ara's response by just looking at him and waving her arms a bit.

“Right” Harry said before rolling out of bed and then grabbing his wand and casting a spell that would alert him if Ara needed anything. Harry turned on the shower and then jumped into the shower after taking off the only piece of clothing, his boxers. He was thanking all the gods for the rainforest shower heads again before the charm went off to let him know that Ara had started kicking up a fuss.

“And so it begins” Harry said jumping out of the shower, turning the water off and then grabbing a towel and wrapping it around his waist as he made his way over to where Ara was now all out crying, turning her face a bright red because of the lack of oxygen.

“Ssssh, daddy's here” Harry said not really thinking over the words he had just said, only focused on getting Ara to calm down enough so that he could check and make sure that her nappy was clean and to check and see when her last feeding was. Harry had in the middle of the night decided that marking every time she ate would be a good idea that way he could see how often she ate and how much. Once Ara was calmed, changed and smelling like baby powder did Harry check the time and see that he had barely twenty minutes for getting ready.

“This will have to do” Harry said throwing on another t-shirt and a pair of jeans that didn't look to horrible to wear out in public. Ara on the other hand had on a onesie with what looked to be unicorns on it.

“Ready” Harry asked Ara before pushing his trunk in the closet and then grabbing Ara's bag and Ara, making sure to grab his credit card and room key before dashing as much as he could to the elevators and then making his way to the front lobby.

“Mr. Potter” the girl at the front desk called out once she saw a young man fitting the description of what the other girl describe to her as Mr. Harry Potter.

“Yes” Harry said a bit winded, he had just barely made it to the main entrance before the clock struck ten A.M.

“Your taxi shall be here in a couple of minutes” she said smiling at the young man standing in front of her. When her co-worker had describe Harry as a guy that looked like he had come from a runway in Britain she hadn't believed her but now seeing him, she tended to agree and with a baby made him all the more drool worthy.

“Great, thank you” Harry said before noticing that the girl seemed to be blushing for some reason. Harry was just about to ask when the valet came in and let the girl know that the cab was there to take Harry to Mockingbird Station.

“Mr. Potter you taxi is here” the girl said before telling Harry to follow the valet to where the car was waiting for him.

“Mockingbird Station” the taxi driver said before getting it confirmed with Harry that he was going to go there and maybe a couple other places if it wasn't too much trouble. The driver was more than willing to drive his passenger around it wasn't ever day that you got a call from the W hotel letting you know that they had a guest that would like to go shopping. Most staying at the hotel stayed close to the building, since money usually wasn't much of a problem for the guests. The ride to the shopping plaza was made with the driver asking about Britain and then telling Harry some of the attractions to see while staying in the Dallas area.

“Here we are” the driver said pulling up to a concrete and metal looking shopping plaza with a light rail system running close by it. The parking spots for the place were already filled and most of the stores hadn't been open that long.

“Uh” Harry said uncertain on what the driver was going to do until he was ready to go to the next location.

“I'll wait here” the driver said before showing Harry a book that he was reading, he would be losing a bit of money waiting for Harry but he figured it would be worth it with the tip that the Brit was probably going to give him.

“Thank you” Harry said before he and Ara made their way to a store that looked to have the kind of clothing he would wear.

“Welcome to Urban Outfitters” a guy said as Harry with Ara in his arms walked in to the store.

“Hullo” Harry said before looking around and seeing the men's section and then making his way over there to see what they had that he would be able to buy. He didn't want to make a ton of stops so the stores that he looked at had better have something for either Ara or himself or both.

“Is there anything I can help you find?” The guy said following Harry over to the men's section of the store and looking at some of the items that were on display. The sales associate was quite hot under the collar at Harry's arrival. It was a known fact at the store that he was gay, he did after all live in City Place, the gay hot spot sort of, in the downtown Dallas area. He had just been telling his co-worker about the bad breakup he had with his last beau and here came this boy-man walking in with a child on his hip. He wasn't too keen on kids but he could suck it up due to the thick British accent, fresh from ‘over the pond'.

“The airline lost my luggage so I am purchasing some things until my luggage can be located” Harry said going with the same lie that he had given the girl at the hotel. He was pretty sure that they would never meet agaom but the lie was just so feasible that he decided to use it until such time that a new lie would need to be used.

“Airlines” the man said agreeing with Harry as if he was in total agreement that airlines couldn't do anything right. Harry nodded his head before looking around the store more fully and not seeing any children's clothing.

“You do have children's clothing?”

“Ah no, most that buy here don't have children; not their sort of thing if you know what I mean” the man explained for he started talking about the area that Mockingbird Station was located.

“It's more for the thirty-something's without a family”

“Is there a store here that has clothing for children?” Harry asked so far he was not impressed with the shopping plaza but he would reserve judgment until his question was answered.

“Well there are a couple of shops that carry children's clothing” the guy said not wanting Harry to leave the station shopping plaza. He was hoping to ask the other man out, but to do so he had to do it on his break as he was pretty certain that his boss would frown upon him asking out one of the customers, even if they were friends.

“Where are they” Harry said before he saw a gleam into the guy's eyes, Harry was a bit afraid of what was causing the gleam but figured that it may mean nothing.

“I can take you there on my break in a bit if you want”

“Uh” Harry said before he was quite happy that Ara started gearing up for a crying fest.

“Ssssh” Harry said bouncing the baby in his arms before asking for a bathroom so that he could check her nappy and to possibly make something for her to eat.

“Let me get you a bottled water for the formula” the guy said before jogging to the back where his things where that he had brought to work.

“Thanks…I think” Harry said to no one in particular, waiting for the guy to return with the bottled water.

“Here you go”

“And a loo” Harry asked before he got a blank look from the sales associate.

“Restroom” Harry translated before he was pointed to the back with the guy leading the way. He could see the disapproving glare from another male sales associate and had to wonder if the restroom was for employees only.

“Thank you” Harry said before going in and then checking to see if Ara's nappy was dirty or not. It was as he knew it was, she was after all a Malfoy and Malfoy's didn't do dirty well at all.

“Just like your pappa” Harry said before changing Ara quickly and then mixing up the formula with the supplied water, which was room temperature.

“Here we go” Harry said before titling the bottle into Ara's mouth and watching as she sucked down the formula. Harry was still amazed that such an amazing gift had been given to him and by his onetime enemy, because Harry didn't think of Draco as an enemy any longer. Only after Ara was burped did Harry make his way back out of the restroom and back to the men's section. He had been lucky that Ara had fallen asleep soon after she was burped so he was good for probably another couple of hours before Ara would start to kick up a fuss about something.

“Back” the guy said before asking Harry what size he wore and what sort of clothing style he was going for.

“Something easy and well as for size, well I'm not sure if the sizing system is the same here as it is in Britain” Harry figured that was the best he could do with knowing his size since he had no idea. It was usually his cousins hand-offs and the larger that the other boy got the baggier the clothes got on him. The jeans and t-shirt he had on now was from when Dudley was ten and he was pretty certain that he couldn't say he didn't know his size that would just seem odd to anyone that heard it.

“Right of course” the guy said not even realizing that there might be a sizing conversion issue.

“How about I pull a couple of jeans out for you to try and then we can work from there?”

“Sure, but not a ton” Harry said before looking down to Ara, he was not going to disturb her if at all possible.

“Of course, of course” the guy said before pulling out a couple pairs of jeans in sizes that he thought Harry might be.

“Here try these on and I will hold her for you” the guy said before passing the jeans to Harry and taking Ara from Harry's arms. Harry had just pulled off his pants when he heard Ara start to cry, so he jumped into the first pair of jeans he could find and dashed back outside of the fitting room to get Ara.

“Let me get her” Harry said pants hung low on his hips and partly done up before scooping Ara out of the guy's arms and cooing at her to calm her down. It seemed that she did *not* like the sales guy and Harry was sort of with her since he was eyeing Harry pretty heavily.

“I think these might be a bit big” Harry commented before one handedly buttoning the jeans and then noticing that the pants still hung very low on his hips, something that he was not really comfortable with.

“They look great” the guy said trying to will away his erection that he had gotten with seeing the dark colored treasure trail that ran into the jeans.

“Bit too low”

“No, they look great” the guy said not noticing the grimace that Harry gave when the guy started to tell him that the jeans were fine. He was very uncomfortable with the way that the jeans fit and the guy was doing nothing but act like they were just fine. “Hmmm” Harry finally said before going back to the fitting room and looking at the other size that the guy had pulled for him. They said that they were a 30, so Harry hoped that they were smaller than the pair he had on.

“Now be good” Harry said to Ara before setting her on the small long-ish bench in the fitting room before he jumped out of the other jeans and then placed the next pair on. He was much happier with the fit of these jeans and decided that he was a 30 waist, which should help with the rest of the purchases.

“Alright in there?” The guy asked wondering why Harry hadn't come back out to model the other size jeans, if he even tried them on. The other size was just fine, but since Harry hadn't seemed all that positive to his reassurances he figured the Brit had gone back in and tried the other size on. How was he to drool over the guy when he didn't come back out to ask his opinion?

“The 30 is what I think we will be looking for” Harry said carrying Ara, her bag and the jeans all back out of the fitting room.

“Oh” the guy said down that he hadn't seen what the other jeans looked like on. Maybe if he was lucky and he agreed to going out with him he would see what the jeans looked like on, that or some other pants that he bought. The trio then made their way back to the men's section and began picking out some things that they thought would work until Harry's luggage arrived from being lost.

“No” Harry said pointing to a pair of pants that the guy had in his hand that he thought Harry needed to get. He had seen the price tag on them and there was no way he was going to spend almost two hundred dollars on a pair of jeans; they were jeans for all that was holy!

“These are a great pair of jeans”

“No”

“But…”

“No” Harry said now gritting his teeth, wasn't there a saying about the customer always being right?

“Paul” another man said walking up to the pair when he noticed that Harry was looking very unhappy with his shopping experience as of yet.

“Michael” the guy said greeting his manager, not happy at all with being watched by his boss.

“How are you doing today?” the manager asked Harry hoping that he would be able to take the sale over from Paul since he seemed to not understand how uncomfortable the other man was when dealing with him.

“Good” Harry responded before Ara started to fuss over the noise that had risen in the store. It seemed that as time went on the store got busier and busier.

“Paul why don't you help those ladies there”

“What” the guy asked stunned that his manager was sending him away from a very large sale that he was about to make.

“It will be rung up right” the manager assured Paul before pushing him to where two women with bleach blonde hair stood looking lost, but very up to date in their clothing style.

“Thank you” Harry said knowing a save when he saw one.

“You seemed a bit….”

“He picked out a pair of jeans that I refuse to buy” Harry explained before the manager looked over some of the clothes and decided that a lot of the items were things that Paul would wear instead of that of his customer.

“I see a lot of things that don't seem to suit you”

“Yeah” Harry agreed and so the manager then went through the pile with Harry again taking out the items that Paul had picked and hadn't listened to Harry when he refused the item. All the while Paul watched and became most unhappy with the way that things were going over there. If the Brit thought that he was going to be seen with him in some of the things he had picked out, he had another thing coming. He would only be seen with the best dressed man possible, it was one of the reasons on why he had broken up with his last beau. His beau had stated to him that he cared more about projecting an image to others than actually caring about the person behind the clothes.

“Excuse me ladies” Paul said before he made his way up to the register where Harry, Ara and the manager of the store were all at; with the manager ringing up the items while Harry listened to the man tell him about the other shops that might have children's clothing that would fit his child.

“Your best bet is to go to NorthPark Mall actually for children's clothing” Paul heard once he arrived up to the register to check on how well his sale went.

“Where are the other things?” Paul asked his manager and then looked to Harry for an answer, he had picked out some pretty hot items for the other man to wear and he didn't see them anywhere in the checkout area.

“He decided against them” the manager said knowing that Paul was pissed that his sale commission wouldn't be as big as he thought it would be.

“But” here Paul stopped he didn't want to piss either Harry or his manager off so instead he nodded his head before asking Harry if he planned to check the other shops for children's clothing.

“No I think I am going to head to NorthPark, did you say it was called” Harry said looking to the manager for a confirmation that he got the name right.

“Oh” Paul said not at all happy now, how was he to ask the guy out if he wasn't sticking around the station?

“Paul, your customers” the manager said pointing over to where the two blondes where standing looking at Paul and wondering what was taking him so long to return.

“Right” Paul said before he pretty much stomped back to the two women.

“Is everything okay?”

“Paul I think would like to ask you out, on a date” the manager said wanting to clarify that Paul was looking for a date and not a friendly meeting.

“Oh, then thank you”

“For”

“Getting rid of him, he is a bit too full of himself for my taste”

“That I can understand” the manager said before laughing with Harry about a joke he had then made about Paul and his attitude.

“Your total for today is two, fifty-five, seventy-six”

“Here you are” Harry said handing over his credit card and then watching as the man swiped it and then gave the card back once the charge cleared from the bank. Once Harry signed the slip one handed, he was handed the bag with the words: “Receipt is in the bag and have a good day” from the manager. Harry was lucky that Paul didn't notice that the transaction was finished and Harry was leaving since the two blondes had Paul's total attention. Harry lifted his bag to the manager and then left through the open glass doors to the sidewalk that would take him to his waiting taxi.

“Back so soon?” the taxi drivers asked when Harry made his way over to the taxi with one semi-large bag filled with things.

“Yeah, they didn't have any children's clothing, so the manager there recommended that I go to NorthPark mall”

“Great mall” the man said before he popped the trunk so that Harry could put his bag in there.

“You can keep it there until you come back from the mall; I have no doubt that you will find plenty for that lovely lady of yours”

“Thank you” Harry said and then smiled to the older man, happy that he wasn't trying to get into his pants like the sale guy had been. It was just as the taxi pulled out of the parking area that Paul was able to make his way outside to see that Harry had disappeared he didn't even give the taxi a second thought for the car that Harry might be in. The short ride to the mall was made with the taxi driver again telling Harry about the local attractions in Dallas and Ft. Worth.

“There are plenty of museums in both cities, but the better ones are in Ft. Worth”

“How far it is from here?”

“Probably a good forty-five minute to an hour drive” Harry nodded his head while watching as the bright blue sky hung in front of him. It just went on and on, it was so much better than England and Scotland that was for sure. How many people in Britain could say that it was a nice eighty degrees, or whatever that converted to in Celsius, outside on a lovely November?

“Here we are” the taxi said pulling up to the curb where the valet for the mall was.

“Should I come back here to find you?”

“Yeah, I'll probably hit the bookstore across the street and might come in myself”

“Is this an incon…”

“No worries” the guy said with an easy smile on his. He was having a great day so far, so he wasn't too worried about how much he made that day. Most days he was lucky to even make half of what he had made already, it was the slow time right before for the busy holiday season.

“If you're sure”

“Positive now go” the guy said before pulling his car away and making Harry go into the mall. When Harry made it through the double glass doors to the mall, did he see a huge directory for the mall set up by categories.

“Infants and children's” Harry said before looking down the list and seeing the infants section and the many shops that the mall had for small children.

“First we go to Hanna Andersson” Harry said thinking that the name was cute so he was probably sure they had a ton of cute clothes for baby girls. Once he figured out where he was and where the store was did Harry make his way into the mall fully, it was pretty empty since it was still sort of early in the morning. Much less busier than the Mockingbird Station shopping plaza that was for sure, there were water features and art work in the center of the large mall arms making Harry stop and gawk over the casual display of wealth. Had he picked the wrong mall?

“Here we are” Harry said before walking into Hanna Andersson and seeing at least ten outfits that Ara just *had* to have.

“Hi, welcome to Hanna Andersson is there anything I can help you with?” a woman with long blonde hair said with a twang to her voice.

“My daughter is in need of some clothing, the airline lost our luggage” Harry explained before the woman asked how old Ara was and about what size she wore.

“She is a month old today” Harry said remembering that Draco had said that she would be a month old today, yesterday.

“Well we have a wide selection of newborn clothing” the woman said before guiding Harry over to the girl's infant section of the store. Soon Harry was pointing out many pieces of clothing and seeing if they went with Ara's skin tone, money was of no consequence when he was looking for clothing for Ara. After Harry picked out two outfits from the high-end children's clothing store, Harry made his way back out into the mall and to another store he had seen on his walk to the store he was just leaving. It was two more stops of clothing shopping for Ara before Ara began to kick up a fuss over being wet and hungry. Harry was much happier with the mall's restrooms since they had a changing station in the restrooms. So he fed and changed Ara before heading back out into the mall to check out a couple of stores for himself. He hadn't really seen much of the mall since he seemed to be stuck in the children's section of the mall but he had seen two stores that looked like he would be able to buy something for himself there. Harry arrived to the Abercrombie store and was instantly on edge, it smelled to high heaven at least in Harry's opinion and the workers were all glaring at Ara.

“Next” Harry said quickly leaving the store and heading somewhere that looked like he would be able to maybe pick some more things up for Ara and even for himself. The large Gap, Inc. store stood before Harry, its fresh sent calming him down.

“Welcome to Gap, can I help you?” A worker asked Harry before smiling at the baby in his arms.

“Yeah, I'm looking for some things for myself and for my daughter” Harry said before the worker spoke again.

“Do you want to start with you or that beautiful baby girl?” the worker said before cooing at Ara and making the baby look at her as if they were crazy. Harry wanted to laugh; it seemed that the Malfoy blood was strong in Ara, for he had seen the same look that Ara was giving the worker on Draco many times in his career at Hogwarts.

“Me” Harry said before the girl walked over to the men's section and began asking Harry his pants size and what sort of style he was looking for.

“Anything, the airline lost our luggage”

“Alrighty then” the girl said before she started pulling out dark washed denim jeans as well as some pants for Harry to try on. She also picked out some button up military shirts, that were big this season, along with t-shirts for Harry to look at. Harry was quite happy with what the girl had picked out and had gone to the fitting room that the girl had set up for him as he picked out items that he thought he might like to have.

“I think I have enough to choose from” Harry said before the girl guided him to the fitting room where the clothes were hanging on hangers or sitting on the bench in the small cube.

“Thank you” Harry said before the girl shook off the gratitude and went to help another person who was looking for something in the store.

“Now be good” Harry said setting Ara on the bench in the small pile of pants and shirts that the girl had picked out that weren't on hangers. Many changes later Harry had quite a large pile of clothing to take to the cash register, and Harry wasn't really sure on how he planned to get the items to the register and he had yet to even look at the baby things they had in the huge store.

“Here let me take this for you” the girl said appearing and then grabbing the things that Harry had decided to get and then telling him to leave the nos in the room and she would take care of that.

“The baby stuff is over there” the girl said pointing to a large baby section and then she watched as Harry made his way over to the section and began picking out a few more things. He had plenty of clothing for the both of them now when he finished at the Gap. It was a good thing too since it seemed that as soon as they left the store Ara decided that she had, had enough of shopping and wanted to go home. Harry wasn't really sure how he knew this but the fussing seemed much different than before.

“I need to get some cash for the taxi” Harry said realizing that he would have to pay the driver in cash, since he wasn't too sure on if taxis took credit cards in the US. They sure didn't in the Britain so he didn't think they did over here, but he couldn't be sure and he didn't want to stiff the guy on a tip because he didn't have enough money. He had none, so he figured going and making with a withdrawal would be the best idea. It seemed that Gringotts thought that he might have need for access to his money so when he found an ATM and stuck the card in, a Gringotts greeting showed up. Seemed the card had a bit of magic in it.

“Two hundred I think” Harry said to Ara before typing in the amount that he thought he would need for paying the driver of the taxi. Once the money was in his pocket and his card in the same pocket did Harry make his way back to where he had come into the mall. He saw the taxi sitting on the side of the driveway and it seemed that the driver caught sight of him, since the next moment the taxi was making its way to the valet area where Harry was loaded down with bags of clothing and Ara and her things.

“Seems you cleaned up” the driver said once he had reached the valet area and had popped the trunk to put the other bags with the first one.

“They had a ton of things that I just couldn't pass up” Harry explained before the driver agreed and then jumped into the driver's seat and then waited for Harry to get in the back with Ara. The ride back to the hotel was made with Harry telling the driver how many pretty dresses he had bought Ara and how he was certain that he would have to have some pictures taken of her while here in her new outfits.

“There are plenty of places to do those photo shoots you are talking about” the driver commented before telling Harry about some of the sculptures and other art items around the area that would stun the people back home. Soon the taxi pulled up to the W hotel's valet drive and Harry was handing over a large chunk of money to the driver. He knew he had made the man lose a lot of money with having to wait for him so he instead gave the guy a nice tip and then waited as the valet unloaded the bags from the trunk of the car and then carried them into the hotel.

“Mr. Potter” the front desk clerk said excited to see Harry again, since it seemed that there was another note waiting for him.

“Hullo” Harry said before remembering that he had wanted to get some stationary paper at the mall while he was out. With that thought Harry jogged back out to see that the driver was just getting in his car.

“Uh”

“Howdy” the driver said before he heard Harry ask him if it would be okay for him to take him back to the mall. He had forgotten something and needed it desperately.

“Not worries”

“Great, just a minute” Harry said before going back into the hotel and asking the front desk clerk if they could put his things in his room while he ran back out for something else that he just remembered.

“Not a problem” the clerk said before watching him leave back out of the hotel. She was amazed by the amount of clothing store bags he had come in with. Once she had directed one of the bellmen to deliver the bags to Harry's hotel room did she put the note that had come back down until Harry arrived back to the hotel. The return trip to the mall was made fairly quickly since there weren't a ton of stores that carried stationary. He found a store and then made his way into it to pick up some stationary, he did after all have to write Luna and Draco and he figured that on the hotel's paper wasn't the best of things. So instead Harry picked out a cream colored paper that had a small embellishment on it and then made his way over to where he could get a very nice pen and noticed a section of cards that he liked so he picked out a few of those as well. Once he was complete with is purchase at the store he and Ara made their way back to the taxi and then back to the hotel in no time at all.

“Thank you again” Harry said handing over some more money to the man and then getting a card with the man's information in it.

“If you need a ride, just call and ask for me” the guy said before handing over the card and then watching as Harry read it and nodded his head.

“Thank you again”

“No worries” the guy said before getting back in his car and then driving off knowing that Harry wouldn't need him again.

“Mr. Potter” the clerk said once Harry arrived back in the hotel with Ara in his arms already kicking up a fuss at having been gone so long.

“Hullo” Harry greeted the girl again before she passed over the note and a message that he was to contact his bank about something.

“Thank you” Harry said before making his way to the elevators and then making his way to his room. He was glad when he arrived that the person who had brought his things in had turned on the air conditioning. He was hot and he was still in shock that the temperature was so warm and in the middle of November. Harry quickly put Ara down in her crib before digging in her bag and seeing that he was getting very low on nappys and formula.

“I refuse to go back out” Harry said before shaking his head and wondering if he could call the front desk and ask them to have someone go back out for him. Once he changed Ara with the last nappy he had, he then got her bottle ready and saw that he had next to nothing in the formula department as well. Ara fussed and fussed before she finally calmed down once Harry managed to take her out of her winter clothing and put her in some of the lighter things that he had picked out of the clearance section at one of the stores. It may be a nice temperature to the residences of the state but to Harry it was hot and he could only imagine what it felt like to Ara with her winter clothing on. Ara soon fell asleep in a onesie that let her arms and legs breathed, it always accentuated how pale she really was.

“Definitely a Malfoy” Harry said to himself before he remembered that he had needed to call the bank and also read the letter that had been left at the front desk.

“First things first” Harry said before picking up the phone and calling the bank, he didn't think that there should be any issues but one never know, and just his luck the Headmaster and the Ministry of Magic had already found him and would be coming to get him.

“Gringotts Bank, Dallas Branch this is Taggny”

“Hullo Taggny”

“Mr. Potter!” the goblin said surprised to hear from Harry so soon after calling, he had after all just left a message.

“Taggny”

“Well I was calling to talk to you about citizenship”

“Okay” Harry said before listening to Taggny explain to him that since he was still considered a wizard that his citizenship to the US would be expedited instead of him having to wait the waiting period to then being able to fill out the application for citizenship. The US government was especially eager to get Harry Potter as a citizen. The government had been notified by Gringotts of Harry's surrendering of citizenship, and they had also been notified by the Ministry of Magic in Britain that Harry Potter had gone missing. Not one to jump to conclusions the government had asked the bank if they could explain how Harry had given up citizenship and why he was there. The bank only told the government the bare details but what they had been given was more than enough for them to want to expedite Harry's citizenship status.

“Ara is of course included in this and if you want her to remain a Malfoy in last name then you are more than welcome to do so. It can be on paper only until such time that things can be ironed out”

“I think I would like to do that” Harry said knowing that he would ask Draco about the blood ritual since he already felt a connection with Ara that a father would have with their child.

“I'll get that rollin' then” the goblin said before Harry asked him about if it would be possible for someone to do some shopping for him.

“I don't see a problem with it, we got some grunts around here that can do that. What cha be needin'?” Taggny asked before Harry said that he needed nappys and formula for Ara.

“Consider it done, they will go to the hotel once they have gotten when you need” Taggny said before telling Harry that he would be in touch with the young man once he had an update from the government about his and Ara's citizenship. Once off the phone Harry checked to see that Ara was still asleep in her crib and the letter was still sitting on the desk where he placed it when he came in to his room. When Harry grabbed the letter he saw that it was from Luna again, he hoped that everything was alright with the blonde headed girl, he would hate to get her into trouble.

Harry,

How are you my brother? Things here have been in a flurry, I personally think that the Nargles have infested a corridor in the castle and that is what is leading to the madness. The headmaster along with the Ministry are desperate to find you, they are quite unhappy with the way that you are acting. Even your ‘friends' have decided to pitch in and help look for you, none of them have put together that you knew about the prank and decided you had enough of being played with.

On another note a Dragon has expressed his impatience of you not writing back. Please do be a dear and write to him, he is most worried about his star. I'm uncertain as to what that means but he said that you would know and that I needed to write it down, so I did.

Write to me when you can,

Luna

Harry read the letter over a couple of times before laughing at Luna's words. Only could Luna decode a letter to sound like utter nonsense in one sentence and complete sanity in another. Harry then decided to write a quick note to both Luna and Draco to calm any fears they may have been having since he left Britain and Hogwarts.

Luna,

I have arrived to my destination with no complications, seems goblins are an amazing bunch and should never be taken for granted. I am settling into my new home and look forward to when I am settled enough that you may come and visit, it is a most unusual place but a place I know you would like. I hope that you don't get into too much trouble with the Headmaster and the Ministry, if they knew you knew how to contact me.

I have included a letter to the Dragon about his star and I do so hope that you can get it to him. I do in fact know what the Dragon was speaking about and I hope that he isn't treating you horribly. I could threaten him with withholding information on his star if he is treating you incorrectly.

See you soon,

Harry

Harry read over the letter twice before deciding that it was just fine the way it was and that he needed to get to work on Draco's letter. He had plenty to update about Ara to Draco.

 

Draco,

I have received word from Luna that you have decided that you wanted to know about your ‘star'. She is doing very well and is already spoiled rotten if the amount of clothing I bought her today was anything to go by. We have arrived to our location and have been enjoying the weather and scenery at the hotel I am staying at currently. I will try and write at least once a week and update you on any changes on your star, and I will also try to include a photo or two when I can.

I am very glad that you decided that you wanted to know more about your star, since I have no doubt in my mind that you will see her again sooner than you think. Also speaking about our star, I was told by a couple of goblins at Gringotts that there is a ritual that will eliminate the other parent's bloodline. Would you allow for something like that to occur? I expressed my distress at the thought of our star not being ours, so to speak but they told me it would not be your blood that would replaced; they also explained to me that most of her features would remain the same except for a few things that have yet to be decided at her early stage in life. I won't hold it against you or make it a payment for me taking her, because she already has me wrapped around her finger, I just thought that with the way that you spoke of the other man it seemed as if you would be happy to get rid of the other's blood that runs through her veins.

Well I think I have rambled my point enough, and I will leave you with making the decision; just remember that this is in no way a payment for caring for our star. No payment is needed.

Harry

Harry was quite impressed with his letter to Draco, so after reading it another time he placed it in an envelope as well and then sealed the pair and then began to wonder on how he planned to get the letter to Luna and Draco. Harry was just about to call downstairs and ask about the post when he heard a tapping at the window to the room.

“Only Luna” Harry said recognizing Luna's owl. Once Harry opened the window enough for the bird to get through did Harry tie the letters to its legs and then asked it to deliver it as fast as possible but to also take care of its self. Soon the bird was winging its way back to Hogwarts; he had a long journey even with the Portkeys that Luna had placed on the bird before she had sent her letters out to Harry. Harry soon began to put away the large amount of clothing that had been bought earlier that day waiting for Ara to wake back up. Harry was in the middle of hanging one of the many dresses he had gotten when the phone in the room rang.

“Hullo” Harry answered quickly, hoping that Ara had not been woken up by the phone ringing.

“Mr. Potter there is a gentleman here for you” the front desk clerk said in a snotty tone of voice.

“I'll be right down” Harry said before he scooped up a sleeping Ara and then made his way down to the entrance of the hotel to meet the man that they front desk clerk had called about.

“Mr. Potter” a guy that looked to be in his mid-twenties said before pointing to the large bags that sat on the floor.

“Thank you” Harry said before guiding the man to his room so that the man could put the items in his room. His hands were full enough with a now awake and hungry Ara.

“Quite the looker” the guy said looking at Ara and then to Harry to see if there was any resemblance between the pair.

“That she is” Harry agreed knowing what the man was doing and wondering if Ara looked anything like him, even if they weren't related.

“Well I better get back or Taggny will have my hide” the man said before cooing at Ara and then putting the bags down and then leaving. He had been stunned when Taggny told him that he was to help a special client, Harry Potter and his daughter. He couldn't believe that Harry Potter had a child but seeing the baby, he saw no resemblance of course that didn't mean that they weren't related that just meant that the other parent's features were more prominent. His father had taught him that much, the man was after all a Medi-wizard; retired but he still saw patients from time to time. Harry watched the man go and could only shake his head; it seemed that people in Texas were a different breed. They really weren't afraid to say what was on their mind and the way that they spoke just made Harry laugh. He knew that Hermione would have shuttered in fear over the way that they spoke, something that gave Harry hours of enjoyment thinking about.

“Ara hungry?” Harry asked Ara as she began to fuss about something; with the door room closed Harry put Ara back in her crib and unpacked the bags that the man had brought to him.

“Here we are” Harry said pulling out some formula and then going and finding a clean bottle before mixing up the formula for Ara. Ara latched onto the nipple as soon as Harry put the bottle in front of her face. She sucked down the formula before Harry burped her. Once she was fed it seemed that she was half way asleep so Harry placed her back in her crib and decided to put the items from the trip and the bags he had just gotten in some sort of order. He would never be able to find anything otherwise and that was something that the Dursley's had literally beaten into him to not do. It was once he was complete with the organizing that the phone rang again, waking Ara up which left Harry unhappy.

“Hullo”

“This is Taylor at the front desk and you have another visitor” the girl said a sneer very clear in her voice if Harry knew.

“We'll be right down” Harry said before leaning over to see that Ara was still in fact up and looked to be ready to do something.

“Downstairs and fuss with the front desk woman as much as you like” Harry joked to Ara before the pair of them made their way back down to the lobby of the hotel.

“Oh hullo” Harry said surprised to see the taxi driver standing in the lobby looking quite out of place with his well worn clothing.

“Howdy” the man said back in greeting before throwing a look to the girl that was sneering at the man.

“Did I forget something?”

“No, no…..nothing like that. My wife demanded that I come back and invite you to dinner” Harry gave the man a look that clearly told the man that he was off or on something.

“My wife has this habit of knowing when I have met someone that ‘needs to be in our life'” the guy said quoting his wife, he knew that if the younger man refused his wife would be here and demanding the young man to come for dinner. Harry raised his eyebrows that almost sounded like the man's wife was magical and a seer no less.

“I see”

“Trust me if you don't agree to me, my wife will make her way here and demand that you come to dinner” the man said shaking his head at the thought of his wife striding into the posh hotel and scaring the living daylights out of the workers there.

“Alright then” Harry said before looking at the girl at the front desk and asking the guy to follow him. It seemed that the girl was itching to call someone to get rid of the man and since the man had been nothing but kind to Harry he wasn't going to allow that.

“Follow me” Harry said with Ara still in his arms while he made his way to the elevators and then the three disappeared from sight.

“Can I hold her?” The man asked Harry once they were safely on the elevator.

“Sure” Harry said before putting Ara out so that the man could grab onto her.

“What's her name?”

“Ara” Harry said not wanting to explain how Ara had a different last name than his own.

“What a unique name” the man said before looking at Harry and then to Ara, he too was trying to find the resemblance between the pair.

“Is it?” Harry asked playing off that he didn't think the name was odd or even unique.

“It is, and by the way names Victor Aquino” the man introduced himself before he started cooing at Ara making the girl gurgle a bit.

“Harry Potter” Harry said before he saw that the man's eyes widen when he heard the name.

“Wizard then” Harry said once they were in his room with Ara back in his arms.

“Yeah and my wife as well”

“I sort of thought that when you said the bit about ‘knowing'”

“Well crap! Means I gotta make it up to the missus somehow” the man said an easy smile on his face that put Harry a bit at ease.

“You don't have to worry about me tellin' the papers here, if you are here you are for a reason and my wife probably knows why” Harry nodded his head, he was here for a reason and he didn't think that the man in front of him would hold it against him for running because things had become too much. If it wasn't the pressure of the British Wizarding World and them wanting to defeat the Dark Lord it was his friends either trying to set him up on blind dates with Ginny Weasley or it was the stupid prank that they thought would be a good idea to pull on him.

“Thank you” Harry said before Ara started fussing again which had Harry making his way over to the bed so that he could grab a nappy to change the baby girl. “I don't envy you” the man said while watching as Harry handled the baby with great care and skill, something he missed since his children were grown up now. Harry grinned at the man before finishing cleaning Ara up and then putting her in her crib. He had a few questions he wanted to ask the man and we wanted the man's complete attention.

“So what's it like being a wizard here?”

“Here as in the US or here as in Texas?” Victor asked while pulling out the chair pushed into the desk while Harry took up a spot on the bed.

“Both I guess”

“It's much different than what you are probably used to that is for sure” Victor said remembering the headlines of the local Dallas Wizarding Newspaper and how they seemed to be siding with the boy-man hero of the Wizarding World on disappearing never to be heard from again.

“How? Should I worry about people going back to the Ministry of Magic and telling them I am here?”

“No, we Americans aren't really fans of the British Ministry of Magic. Most of the people in the wizarding world here believe that you did the right thing with leaving. Have them clean up their own mess” Victor explained to Harry wanting the young man to understand that he would be safe in America for as long as he wanted to call it home. Harry breathed a sigh of relief when he heard Victor's words.

“I've been working with a goblin at the bank about my citizenship” Harry said before explaining that he had given up said citizenship and that he was just waiting on word from the bank that he had been approved for US citizenship for himself and for Ara.

“If you don't mind me askin', but is Ara yours?”

“No, a….friend gave her to me to take care of since he is unable to” Harry said looking over to the crib remembering Draco's face as he said goodbye to his baby girl.

“Then can I ask what her real name is?” Victor asked thinking that Ara was not really her first name.

“Ara Sasha Malfoy” Harry watched the man's face for any sort of shock or surprised and he was not let down for Victor's face morphed into something like awe.

“A Malfoy”

“So you have heard of them?”

“Yes of course” Victor said remembering a meeting that his family had, had with the upper crust of the British Wizarding World; including Lucius and his family. He hadn't liked Lucius at all but he had seen the small child he had with his wife and knew that the boy would be important in years to come. His wife had told him as much, it still amazed him that she was so gifted that she need only to see or even think about something to see into the future and the paths that a person would take in the future.

“Should I worry?”

“No, not from me and my wife at least” Victor joked; now their son on the other hand was a whole other matter. The man was almost obsessed with the youngest Malfoy; he had tried time and again to explain to his son that the youngest Malfoy was set for a different course one that didn't include America. It seems he was wrong yet again, for here he was sitting speaking to the savior of the Wizarding World and the teen was taking care of the youngest Malfoy's child.

“Then who?” Harry said he knew the man was holding something back and he wanted to be prepared just in case he had to defend himself shortly.

“My son” Victor said with a sigh, he knew he had better warn Harry or things could go sour quickly when Harry would meet Jorge for the first time.

“Why?”

“He is a bit in awe of the youngest Malfoy”

“Oh my” Harry said knowing what the man wasn't saying. Seemed that Draco was coveted even in the US for his beauty, it would definitely be something that he would let Draco know when he wrote again. The trilling of Victor's cell phone woke Harry out of the thoughts he was having about Draco.

“Victoria” Victor answered seeing his wife's work number, if you called what she was doing work for she didn't get paid for what she doing.

“Yes dear……… I know dear………….I will dear” Victor said after listening to his wife tell him that he had better bring Harry home for dinner tomorrow night, that way Jorge and Harry could met and Harry could explain things to Jorge about Draco. She had ‘seen' something and it was very important that Jorge and Harry meet.

“Love you” Victor said before getting off the phone and then turning to Harry, looking at the boy and wondering what his next steps where.

“What's your plan?”

“Besides hiding out?” Harry said once he saw that Ara seemed to have tired out and was fast sleep in her crib.

“Yes”

“I dunno, I never got much beyond getting here”

“Well if I know my wife she will have you moving into the guest house and becoming one of the family” Harry was stunned by the man's words, he hadn't really thought much beyond making sure that Ara was safe and cared for but for this man that he barely knew to be suggesting that he would live with him was odd and a bit freighting.

“Victoria always gets her way and she will take one look at you and one look at Ara and you will be directed to the guest house and you will be made to stay there” Victor said before chuckling at the wide eyed look Harry was giving him.

“You can't mean that?”

“Oh I do, you'll see. Dinner is tomorrow and I will pick both of you up. I would pack if I was you, trust me on this” Victor said before going over and looking at Ara one last time before pulling Harry into a hug.

“I…” Harry said at a loss, never had anyone done what this man and his wife were doing for him. He could feel the pride the man had about his family and here he was being included in it, at least he soon would be. He wouldn't ever knock the hospitality that the Weasley's gave him but it was just that, hospitality and nothing more. It wasn't as if the family was always making sure that he was fine or checking to see if he needed anything. No, when one of the children were mad at him he had seen the contact cut and it would only be connected again when the child was happy when Harry begged for forgiveness, something that always made Harry hate himself afterwards.

“Don't worry about it” Victor said before breaking away from Harry and then making his way back down to the lobby and to where his car currently sat waiting for his return. It wasn't as if he was in need of money, no the millions of dollars that the Aquino family made sure of that. He had always enjoyed being around people and when he retired from being a Pediatric Medi-Wizard he had to find a way to fill his days. With his wife away from the house most days he had been bored out of his mind until he found himself riding in a cab one day talking to the driver and swapping stories of their time in Dallas. His bummer sticker said it all, “I got here as soon as I could”. Harry watched the man go and then set to work on packing, if he said that his wife would get her way then there was really no reason on him not following directions. Harry was in the middle of packing Ara's things back up when a tap at the window occurred it still amazed him on how fast the owl could return from Britain, even with the use of Portkeys.

“Got something for me” Harry asked the bird seeing the familiar writing of Luna as well as another letter from what it looked like Draco.

“Let's see what they have to say” Harry said taking the letters and then getting some water for the bird and then offering it the one treat he had in his trunk.

Harry,

I am glad that you are settling into your new life, since your old one seems to be in disarray right now. The Ministry has now placed a bounty on your head. Are they daft to think that you will come back peacefully and take care of their ‘problem' and then being pushed aside until you might be needed again?

I digress on the reason I was writing, seems that the Nargles may have gotten to myself as well. I will have to make sure to put my charm on to keep them back.

I was writing to tell you that during my Divinations class I had the most interesting vision. It seems that the ‘star' that the Dragon spoke about is very important to the both of you and that you should allow the ‘star's' papa a place in your life. I'm not at all sure what it means but I knew I had to write to you.

Luna

Harry read the letter twice before shaking his head at his sister of the heart. The girl could really throw you for a loop when she wanted to, that was for sure and Harry was always willing to hang on for the ride. Harry then took the next letter and broke the seal on it wondering what Draco had to say to him, he hoped that the blonde wouldn't curse him through the letter for suggesting the blood-trade ritual.

Harry,

I thank you for the opportunity of getting to know my star even if it is from afar. I cannot wait until the day that I will be able to meet her face to face. Maybe once things have died down here will I be able to visit her in person but for now, I will have to live off of the photos and letters that you send. Do know that I am grateful to you for them, I may have spoken too soon when I turned your offer down before you left but I am glad you have allowed me what you can.

Luna has been a sight to see for the last little bit, it hasn't been that long since your disappearance was noticed and the Wizarding World as a whole is gone around the bend to try and find you, even placing a bounty on your head. One million galleons, so where ever you are keep safe for I know that there will be at least one witch or wizard eager to get that handsome sum of money.

Please when you have the time; send me a photo or two of the pair of you. Yes even you, I want to make sure that you are caring for yourself. You are a vital part of our ‘star's' life and I won't have you weary and beaten while she is in your care. It will also give me a clue as to where you are staying; I do so hope that it isn't someplace cold. I'm not a fan of visiting a cold country or city during the holidays.

As for the ritual….you are correct in that I do not fancy my star with that sort of blood there to taint her. I will take you up on your offer over the holiday season, yes this holiday coming up. Yule….

I have managed to talk my father in allowing me to have a bit of a holiday with the location currently unknown. I spoke about how a wizarding pen-pal from a different country has some sympathy to our plight here in Britain. My father was only too glad to send me away if it would gain more followers for a certain someone.

I will update you more if you allow me to come, if not I am going to be stuck staying at Hogwarts something that I do not fancy doing since it had been rumored around the castle that the whole Weasley clan is coming to stay to help in the search. Too many ginger haired people in one place for me.

Draco

Harry laughed at Draco's words, he couldn't agree with the blonde more. He had only been to the Burrow once when everyone was home and it was not something that he ever wanted to relive. The tension in the home had been high since every single one of the ginger haired family members had bad tempers, which meant that one wrong things said or done would start an all out war.

“Let's see, let's see” Harry said tapping his finger to his lips wondering what he could say to Luna and Draco both.

“Luna first of course”

Luna,

You must quit writing to me so much! They might notice and that is something that we are trying to avoid, then again they may have already noticed. Please keep safe sister!

If it seems that the Nargles have taken over the school then I say a charm is just what you need. Maybe you could make one for myself and the Dragon's star? Any protection is better than no protection.

A bounty on my head? Why does this not surprise me? I should have thought about this more, but I can say one thing for certain. I have never felt so right in leaving, ever. I don't regret it and I won't regret it.

You always did have a flare for Divination; did you see anything that alarmed you? I can tell you that the star is the light of my life right now and I understand how the Dragon broke with not wanting to know anything. Which brings me to the point that is it possible for you to allow the Dragon to use your bird even if you don't write?

The holidays are fast approaching and it seems that I may have a guest. We shall see though.

Harry

Harry read his note to Luna and had to snort at how rambly it read but since he didn't want to send the bird back without a reply he had quickly written something up. Draco's letter on the other hand would be another story, there was so much that he wanted to say but he would try and keep it short.

Draco,

There is no need for you to thank me about updating you on the star, and you need not worry about me falling over from exhaustion. I am trying my best to take care of myself and I say I think I am doing a pretty good job so far. I won't say that I'm not tired, I am after all getting used to a time change but other than that I am well. I thank you for asking after my health it was something that Granger and Weasley never did, they just assumed and I do so hate when they would do that.

So you would like to visit for the holidays? I will try and make arrangements, because I welcome you to come. If things get a bit much you will have somewhere to go to.

You are going to allow the ritual to occur? I don't want you to think that it is something that I am demanding to be done. I would never want to force you with this type of decision. Think on it some more and if you still agree when you arrive then we will do it. We can be a family….

Harry

Harry looked at his words with a tear in his eye. If Draco really did allow for the ritual to occur then they would be a family. Him, Draco and Ara, a family that could never get rid of him, the tears finally fell and Harry made sure it didn't hit the paper he was using for Draco's letter. He would hate for Draco see that he had been crying over the thought of having a family that cared about him. It seemed that Draco cared more about him than his own friends did, how sad was that? Once Harry knew the ink on the paper was dry did he fold up the paper along with Luna's letter and attach it to the bird's leg.

“Be safe” Harry said to the bird before opening the window and then watching as the bird winged its way into the sky and then disappeared the next moment. It was then that Harry noticed that it was time for dinner, and his stomach gave a growl to remind him just in case he forgot. Harry pulled out the same menu he worked with yesterday and then placed his order for dinner. He had a semi-long day ahead of him tomorrow and he wanted to be as well rested as he could be. Once the food arrived and Harry ate did Harry turn on the TV to the same channel it had been on before and bounced around the room a bit while feeding Ara.

“Papa's coming” Harry said to Ara while she watched his face with a look he had seen on Draco's face a time or two.

“We'll take photos when he gets here” Harry continued on before putting down the empty formula bottle and then burping Ara before she was fast asleep.

“Daddy needs to do that too” Harry said closing the curtains to the room and stripping out of his clothes and then falling asleep. He hadn't really thought about how tired he was but as soon as his head hit the pillow he was out. Hours later and a few feeding in between had Harry and Ara greeting the Texas blue sky.

“Pretty, huh” Harry asked Ara as he got her ready for the day. She was dressed in one of the dresses he had gotten for her and he quickly took a shower and was dressed as well. He was going to ask if Victor could pick him up and show him around town a bit so that he could take a few photos for Draco before he arrived.

“Mr. Potter” the front desk woman greeted to Harry before eyeing Ara and then cooing over her. How a hot guy like Harry could have a child and seemed to be the sole parent? Harry was about to greet the woman when Victor walked in a smile on his face happy to have heard from Harry so early in the day. His wife had told him that he was not to go to work today and that the house had better be in the same shape it was when she left that morning. That meant he needed to stay out of the house, so he had hoped that Harry would call and he could show the teen around town and maybe even do a bit of sight seeing if the other agreed.

“Victor” Harry said a smile on his face before making his way over to where Victor stood waiting for him.

“Come on, plenty to do today” the man said before guiding Harry and Ara out of the hotel lobby and into the BMW that he had pulled up in. Harry pulled up short when he saw what car Victor was driving. Who knew that a taxi driver could make such good money?

“This is yours?”

“Yes, now get in” Victor said watching as Harry got into the back seat of the car with Ara; he wasn't going to sit in the front and risk his baby getting hurt.

“You'll need to get a car seat” Victor commented while he pulled out of the circle drive at the hotel and back onto the street, taking him to a spot downtown that he knew Harry would love for a photo-op.

“Make sense” Harry agreed before he started to ask Victor where they were going.

“You'll see” Victor said shooting a grin over his shoulder and then making his way to the destination. When they pulled up, Harry's face was to the glass.

“What in the world” Harry started before stopping he wasn't really sure on what he was asking or even if he was asking the right question on what he was seeing before him.

“Amazing isn't it” Victor said his smile getting larger when Harry just nodded his head and continued to press his face to the glass of the window.

“You can get out you know”

“I” Harry said before opening the door and stepping out of the car with Victor behind him, camera at the ready.

“So what *is* it?”

“It's the world's largest sculpture of a cattle drive”

“Cattle drive?”

“Yes a cattle drive, they also have a live drive at the Stockyards in Fort Worth”

“Can we go sometime?”

“Of course” Victor said taking note of how Harry seemed to have already taken to the idea that he would be part of their family

“Look at this Ara” Harry said pointing out the longhorn cattle and the cowboys what were guiding the bronze sculptures. Ara didn't seem all that impressed but that could have been because she was gearing up for a crying fest, Harry could tell.

“Ssssh” Harry said bouncing her a bit trying to calm her down. She had been changed and fed so there wasn't much in the way of her wanting things for him to do.

“Poor girl, the sun is probably blinding her” Victor said before pulling out a hat that Harry had gotten at one of the stores he had shopped at yesterday.

“I didn't think of that” Harry said before squinting himself, the sun was awfully bright.

“Do you want some pictures taken here?”

“Please” Harry said once he had placed the hat on Ara's head and then made his way over to where some of the cattle seemed to be crossing a river or creek.

“Smile” Victor said once Harry had Ara in place without the hat on since the cattle shadowed the pair. Harry smiled and waved a bit before Victor took a few photos with the pair of them standing there. Harry was then walking around the park with Victor following behind taking photos for the scrapbook that his wife was already working on for the pair.

“Let's take a photo here” Harry said sitting on a grassy hill with Ara laying on the ground kicking and moving her hands and feet. Victor was right there clicking away, he knew his wife would complain about the number of pictures but he also knew that she would happy that he had thought about the photos that he knew Harry would send to Draco. Once Victor felt he had enough photos did he sit down next to Harry and watch the teen interact with Ara. He was amazed at the maturity that Harry had, but then again when you have a mad man after you and the whole Wizarding World watching your every move, you had to grow up faster than the rest of the people your age.

“What a cute baby” a group of older women said as they too took in the large sculpture of longhorn steers and cowboys atop their horses following along. Harry grinned at the women which had a few of them sighing, and thinking ‘if I was just a bit younger' all the while cooing over Ara. After a good twenty minutes of cooing the women left and made their way to another sight to be looked at while in the Downtown Dallas area.

“Lunch” Victor said when he checked his watch for the time. They had spent much more time than he had thought that they did at the large art work. He knew he needed to check in with his wife soon or he would be on ‘punishment' for the next couple of days, something that he never looked forward to.

“Lunch” Harry agreed before picking Ara up and then making their way back to Victor's car and then to a parking spot just a few streets over.

“What…where” Harry wasn't sure what to ask about first. There didn't look to be any restaurants around since the only thing he saw were huge office buildings.

“You'll love this” Victor promised before all of them were making their way to a glass triangle in a plaza, after of course paying the parking meter so that they wouldn't be ticketed.

“Down” Harry said looking at the stairs and then back to Victor. Where was this man taking him to?

“Down, trust me on this one” Victor said before he started making his way down the stairs listening for when Harry started his journey. Harry could only shake his head before he too began his way down the stairs. Once down the large stair case did Harry noticed that they looked to be in some sort of underground mall.

“Where are we?”

“Call it an underground mall for the workers that work downtown” Victor explained before making their way over to a large food court area and watching as Harry took in the many food choices he could choose from.

“Chick-Fil-A?” Harry asked bewildered, what in the world was that supposed to mean?

“Best damn, sorry, darn chicken sandwich and waffle fries” Victor said getting a glazed look on his face. Chick-Fil-A had been one of the few items that he had been hooked to the moment he arrived to Texas many, many years ago.

“Let's go there then” Harry said wanting to see if the look on Victor's face was true or not.

“What do I get?” Harry said looking at the menu and seeing meals and salads and all sorts of other things.

“Number one and large size it” Victor said before stepping in line that stood waiting to get their order taken.

“Number one” Harry said nodding his head thinking that the chicken sandwich looked very, very good.

“Can I help you” a woman said with a thick twang in her voice, it was very apparent to Harry that she was born and raised in Dallas or at least the state of Texas.

“Two number ones, coke to drink and make them large sized” Victor ordered waving off Harry when he started to say that he could pay for his own meal. The woman was quick to rattle off the price for the meals and then practically snatched the credit card from Victor's hand. Ah, the joys of the over worked! Soon Harry, Victor and Ara were making their way with food in hand to a sitting area where many of the workers from the office buildings were sitting.

“You'll love it” Victor promised before pulling out his sandwich and jumping right into eating it. Harry on the other hand made sure that Ara was content before pulling his white bag that held his sandwich to him. After picking the pickles off of the sandwich did Harry finally take a bite, and he was in love. Harry moaned at how good the sandwich was and was soon eating with a gusto that he hadn't ever had when eating at either his Aunt and Uncle's house or at Hogwarts, house elves had nothing on this!

“Good?” Victor said before Harry was nodding his head stuffing his face with the waffle fries and drinking his coke. Victor laughed before he too was busy eating lunch, he knew his wife was making something special for dinner as he had seen her put the roast in the crock pot, but even he did love himself a good Chick-Fil-A chicken sandwich every now and then.

“Where to now?” Harry asked once they were finished with their meals and Ara was now sort of looking around at the people that were milling around the food court area.

“I think to a mall for some sunglasses for you” Victor said knowing that Harry would learn sooner or later that sunglasses would be a requirement in his future.

“Right” Harry said remembering how bright the sun was when they had been outside.

“I think after that it will be time to head home, we might want to swing by the hotel and get your things and you will need to check out as well” Victor said before standing up and taking their trash to the nearest bin. Once the trash was thrown away did Victor guide Harry and Ara back out into the daylight, which had Harry squinting for all he was worth, how could the sun be so bloody bright in the almost winter?

“How about we swing by the hotel first and then we can head to NorthPark for those sunglasses”

“Sounds good to me” Harry agreed before the pair found Victor's car and got in, a quick trip to the W hotel had Harry checking out and watching as the valet stuffed his trunk into the boot of Victor's car. The front desk clerk was put out that Harry was leaving so soon, but knew she really didn't have a way to keep him there.

“NorthPark” Victor said before speeding the car away from the hotel and then making his way to the semi-empty mall. Victor pulled the car up to valet and was out with Harry and Ara making their way into the mall.

“You might want some new glasses as well” Victor said before shaking his head at the look Harry was giving him.

“Maybe” Harry said before looking at the large map for a store that would sell sunglasses, it probably wasn't best of him to have sunglasses that weren't prescription but he really didn't want to wait to have his eyes checked and then to have to pick out glasses….there was a reason that he was still wearing the old glasses that his Aunt and Uncle had gotten for him. He was crap at fashion at least to an extent and he wasn't going to even try to pick something out without the help of a woman or at least a guy who had more fashion sense then himself.

“My wife will drag you back” Victor warned before guiding Harry to the Sunglass Hut and watching as the teen picked out pair after pair of sunglasses and getting a head shake from him that they didn't look right. It was finally a pair of Oakleys that Victor finally decided that Harry had found the perfect sunglasses.

“Those” Victor said pushing Harry to the closest mirror so that he could take in his face in the glasses.

“Wow” Harry said stunned, he never knew that sunglasses could look so good on his face.

“These” Harry agreed quickly before going over to the cash register and paying for his sunglasses the man sort of looked at him funny since he had glasses on his face, but didn't comment. The glasses were quite expensive and who was he to say anything on the teen wasting money on sun glasses?

“Victoria will no doubt have you back at the EyeMasters tomorrow getting new glasses” Victor commented before the pair made their way back to the valet area so that they could get the car and go over to the Aquino household. Harry watched as the houses whizzed by him as Victor took him to a part of Dallas that looked to have been where the upper crust of Dallas lived.

“Welcome to University Park/Highland Park Village” Victor said before slowing down to the required speed limit of 25 mph, Harry watched as each small house was passed and wondering how he would ever be able to find his way around the town.

“Here we are” Victor said pulling up to a corner house at the corner of two small streets, when Victor pulled into the drive Harry saw that there was already another car there and it looked like another one was pulling up right behind them.

“That's probably Jorge, Victoria told him to be here” Victor explained before parking the car, popping the trunk and then getting out never really noticing that Harry was in awe of the small little house that stood before him. How could a house this small have a guest house?

“Jorge come over here and help me” Victor shouted to his son before Harry saw the man that he has seen yesterday make his way over to where Victor stood.

“Small world” Harry muttered before getting out of the car and watching for Jorge's reaction.

“Mr. Potter!” Jorge said with the trunk in his hands, which he of course dropped and began cursing quite fluently in Spanish.

“Jorge!” Victor said embarrassed that his son was acting so uncivilized.

“Sorry papi” Jorge said still staring at Harry and then he looked down to the trunk at his feet.

“Aqui” Jorge asked his father before getting a nod in response. Jorge looked at Harry for a moment longer and then picked up the trunk and brought it in with Victor, Harry and Ara following him behind.

“About time” Harry heard in a woman's voice before a conversation was given in Spanish and Jorge was moving out the back door and to a small guest house that sat in the backyard.

“Nice to meet you Harry Potter” an older woman said, she didn't look to be over the age of thirty-five but with wizards and witches aging differently than muggles, Harry suspected the woman was much older than she looked.

“Mrs. Aquino” Harry said remembering Victor's last name at the last moment. He was certainly not going to call the woman Victoria until she gave him permission.

“Victoria or madre will be just fine” Victoria said an easy smile on her face. It seemed that she had been home for quite some time since there were pots and pans sitting on the stove and she was dressed in a casual yet current fashion. Harry nodded his head, he was uncertain as to what to call the woman so he figured when the time came he would let his mouth answer for him.

“Jorge” Victoria said turning around and giving her son a look that clearly said ‘be nice or else'.

“No worries madre” Jorge said now empty handed before kissing his mother on the cheeks and then grinning to Harry.

“Fancy seeing you again”

“Likewise” Harry said a grin on his face, it was at that time that Ara decided she had enough of the light conversation and she wanted to eat now and she was dirty.

“Oh isn't she a looker?” Victoria said seeing Ara for the first time it seemed. Harry cooed at Ara trying to calm the baby down but it seemed that Ara was not having it. She wanted food and to be dry and happy, and neither were occurring at that moment.

“I need to change her and probably feed her as well” Harry said before Victoria pointed out the bathroom to Harry. Once Harry was in the bathroom did Victoria turn to her son and glare at him. She knew he would be causing all sorts of trouble in the near future, so she had best nip it in the bud before anything could happen.

“You will leave Harry and any guests he has here, alone! Understood?”

“Crystal” Jorge said confused but knowing his mother had her reasons for doing what she was doing.

“Excellent” Victoria said before going back to work on the dinner that was just about ready.

“You two do be dears and set up the dining table”

“Si” they both said before leaving Victoria to her kitchen while waiting for Harry and Ara to return from the bathroom.

“Victoria” Harry said moments later, he hadn't wanted to startle the woman so he had decided to call out her name.

“Harry” Victoria said a smile on her face, he would be a lovely addition to their family and once things settled down she would try and see what the future held for Harry.

“Jorge and Victor are setting the table, why don't you go to the dining room and have a seat” Harry nodded his head not willing to fight with the witch that seemed to be in her element.

“Harry” Victor greeted the teen before quickly putting the items in his hands down on the table finishing up the place settings.

“Victor”

“Papi, I'm going to help madre” Jorge said before making his way to the kitchen to help bring dinner to the table. Soon the food was down and the four where eating, it was during that time that Harry explained to Victoria and Jorge that of his past and the reasons why he had run.

“Ara was a large part of the decision as well” Harry said looking at the baby in his arms, he had gotten pretty good at eating one handed.

“Why?” Jorge asked he had heard that the child wasn't Harry biologically but for him to give everything up for a child that wasn't his made him confused.

“Her real father is…..” Harry was at a loss as to what to say about Draco. Victor knew that Harry was going to drop who the child's father was and when he did he could see his son begging to be introduced soon thereafter.

“What” Jorge asked impatient as always, this was one of the main reasons that the goblins at Gringotts hadn't promoted him yet. He needed to learn to take things much slower than he usually did, he was fast at getting stuff done, of course but sometimes with the quickness came a lack of care of the details something that every goblin wasn't willing to lose when it meant money on the line.

“Is someone that I hear you know about” Harry said testing the waters; he did not want Jorge on his knees begging Harry for an introduction but he also didn't want it to be a surprise if Draco showed up in the near future as he had hinted to. Victoria glared at her son; she hoped he remembered her words to him earlier.

“Who” Jorge said thinking of a list of people that he knew from Britain the list was very short so Jorge was coming up blank on who it might be. “Draco Malfoy” Jorge's face morphed into awe and amazement while looking at Ara now. Here was the child of Draco Malfoy, had he knocked up some witch or had he may be knocked up a wizard; for Jorge thought Draco never to be a bottom type person.

“Oh..uh…” Jorge was at a loss for words it was then that his mother's words came back to him. She knew something and was warning him off, he would do so but he would make sure to keep an eye out for the blonde beauty that was for sure. Harry was waiting for Jorge to say something but when it seemed as if nothing was forthcoming the topic soon moved to what Harry planned to do now that he was here.

“I don't really know” Harry said before shaking his head, Gryffindor indeed!

“Well school is a must”

“But Ara”

“Will be taken care of” Victoria said before she pointed Victor to the small study the house had and telling him to grab the stack of papers she had sitting on the desk there. Victor returned quickly eager to see what his wife had planned for Harry and Ara.

“It's the American equivalent to Hogwarts without the boarding part” Victoria said passing over some paper with the name American Wizarding Academy of Dallas on the front of each piece of paper. Harry eagerly took the papers and read each page more and more excited to be able to return to his wizarding education.

“You will of course have to make the decision if you want to go”

“Of course” Harry agreed right away, as if Victoria was the school themselves.

“An excellent choice” Victoria agreed with Harry before going on about her time there as well as her son's, the pair of them were the only Aquino's that were born and raised in Texas so they knew about the wizarding academy. For the rest of the evening the family with Harry and Ara talked about the wizarding world and the differences between the British one and their American counterparts.

“Well Hell's Bells” Jorge said looking at his watch and noticing the late hour, he had promised his roommate that he would be back at a decent hour and it was nearing the end of that hour.

“Go” Victoria said to her son before standing and giving him a hug and a kiss, she could see that her son had figured that he would need to treat Harry and Ara as family and had already begun to do so. Jorge said his goodbyes before jumping into his car and making his way back to his apartment.

“Come let me show you your new home” Victoria said standing and then leading Harry out of the dining room, knowing that Victor would clean up while she showed Harry around the guest house.

“Home” Harry said to Ara who seemed to be up at the moment. Victoria smiled before turning the handle on the front door of the guest house and then guiding the pair into a semi-lit room.

“Thank you” Harry said right away, he was glad that it seemed that the Aquino family had taken a liking to him and Ara. He hadn't really had time to think about what would occur once his week was up at the hotel but now here he was with a home to call his own for however long he wanted it.

“I'll leave you to unpack a bit and you should probably head to bed.” Victoria said before pulling Harry into a half hug trying not to crush Ara that lay in Harry's arms.

“Thank you”

“No need to thank family, hijo” Victoria said before backing out of the house and making her way to where she knew her husband was standing in the kitchen wanting to know what in the world was going on. Once Victoria was gone, Harry looked around the room and house a bit more before finding the largest bedroom and deciding that would be where he would sleep with the room next to it being Ara's room once she was able to be on her own more. It seemed that Victoria was a gifted witch for she had a crib in the bedroom waiting for Ara's body.

“Madre” Harry said shaking his head before changing Ara out of her dress and into a onsie that he knew would come in handy later on. Dead tired Harry put Ara in her crib and stripped out of his clothes before falling on the bed and falling right to sleep. Tomorrow he would unpack the pair of them and then he could ask about how he was going to go to school as well as care for Ara, he didn't want her going to some daycare far away in case she got sick and he needed to get her. Draco had entrusted him with her care and he planned to live up to that trust. The next morning Harry was woken up by a tapping on the window.

“Luna” Harry groaned knowing that Luna had written again. Harry opened the window and let the owl fly in, and Harry had been semi-right for their tied to the bird's leg was a parchment but instead of Luna's familiar handwriting it was Draco's. Harry opened the letter and read it:

Harry,

I thank you for allowing me to come and visit in the next couple of months. As of yet I haven't made any plans for fear that you would regret my invitation to myself for a visit. Thank you……

How is our star doing? I am waiting as patiently as I can for a photo of her and I seem to be irritating everyone in the castle with my odd moods. Please do send a photo soon, for I don't think that I will be protected from attack from my housemates soon.

Here is an update on the British Wizarding World. It seems that the latest idiot we call a Minister has decided to declare that should any witch or wizard see you they are to report the sighting to the Ministry immediately. They will arrest you on sight, from what I can gather it will be for treason, so I do hope you have a good defense if you ever set foot here again. Also it seems that Granger and Weasel have been telling all that can listen about how you are really a coward and that you are nothing without them and that you will be back soon enough. I was quite ready to hex them in your defense but realized that would look most unseemly for me. I am quite glad for the fast approaching holidays; that is for sure. Also your godfather and Professor Lupin have taken to cursing your name every now and again when questions about you come up. It seems that the only ones to stick by your side are Luna, I and Hagrid. The oaf even back-talked to the Headmaster and never had I thought I would see that. It seems that the Headmaster was quite insistent that the oaf go to Gringotts to find out about your vaults and the oaf would have nothing of it.

I do hope that you are well and I plan to see you soon.

Draco

When Harry finished reading the letter he was amazed at what he had read. Was the Ministry so at a loss with his disappearance that they were willing to arrest him for treason? What had he ever done to them to merit this sort of reaction, and for the Headmaster to be asking after his vaults at the bank? Did the old man think he controlled Harry's life so completely that it was his duty to do so? And his godfather, he would have thought the man would understand but then again he was in on the prank to begin with. Maybe once he finished his education and became his own person would be return but right now he had more important things to think about and it was just waking up to greet the day.

“Ara what am I to do?” Harry questioned the baby before he began getting the pair of them ready for the day. Not long after Harry had dressed the pair of them and fed Ara did Victoria come through the door of the guest house smile on her face.

“Morning, morning” Victoria said stunning Harry when he looked at her for the first time today.

“Morning” Harry finally said after getting his shock under control. He hadn't expected to see Victoria dressed like she had just stepped out of a fashion magazine and looking much better than most of the models did.

“We have quite a day ahead of us” Victoria said before guiding Harry out of the guest house and to the main house where Victor sat at the kitchen table reading the newspaper.

“Victor” she said looking at her husband wondering if he was going to come.

“Work calls” he said before getting up and kissing his wife and then patting Harry on the shoulder a look of remorse on his face. He was leaving Harry and Ara to Victoria for the day and the woman had it in her mind that Harry was to get new glasses, a haircut and any other items that she thought he might be in need of.

“Bye” Harry said before watching as Victor left leaving the pair of them standing in the kitchen.

“Well let's get going, plenty to do today” Victoria said before making her way to the garage and her waiting car. Once outside Harry pulled up short, was that a Bentley she was driving? He may not be a car fanatic but he knew a high-end car when he saw one. His uncle always moaned about the fact that his boss drove such cars to rub his status in Vernon's face, Harry thought otherwise but knew better than to say something like that to his Uncle.

“Get in” Victoria said slipping into the driver side seat and then starting the car and waiting for Harry to get in. Harry quickly got control of himself and got into the backseat with Ara in his arms.

“We need to find you a better way to carry her” Harry said nothing to the comment, he didn't know if he could. He was sitting in a Bentley, a Bentley! Victoria was soon weaving through traffic taking Harry to their first stop of the day, the optometrist for a pair of new glasses. Once done getting his eyes checked Victoria pushed glasses frame after frame at him shaking her head at some and putting the others in a pile.

“These or these?” Harry said once Victoria had got it down to two pairs that Harry liked.

“Either but I like the second ones better” Victoria said before getting a nod from the man that had been helping them once they entered the store.

“Then we get those” Harry said before the man nodded his head and then began to ring up the glasses and then handing over the frames, prescription and other items to the people who made the glasses.

“They'll be ready in about an hour” the man said before taking Harry's name and then watching as the three left for another store. The next store it seemed was a store full of baby items; Harry was quite glad to finally have a carrier for Ara and placed the child and her ‘lock and latch' system into the car with ease. By the time they had done that, it seemed that they had wasted an hour and so returned back to the eye glass store.

“Here you are” the man said handing over the glasses and watching as Harry took off his old glasses and placed the new ones on.

“So how do I took?” Harry said turning a bit so that Victoria could look at the glasses and Harry's face.

“Amazing” Harry blushed at the words, he had never been able to take a complement well and it seemed that Victoria and the man that worked there were agreeing that he looked good.

“Thanks”

“Can you do his sunglasses” Victoria asked knowing that Harry would sort need them if he planned to drive in the near future.

“Sure can” the guy said taking the glasses and handing them over to the people that were making glasses, they had hit a lull so they were fairly quick about doing the sunglasses.

“No charge” the guy said before flashing a smile and then making his way over to where a woman, that looked to have too much make-up, stood.

“How'd you manage to do that” Victoria joked before snatching Harry's old glasses out his hands and then sticking them in her purse, she was going to burn them the first moment she got.

“Now to the Academy” Victoria said happy that she had accomplished one goal, she wanted Harry to get a haircut but figured she was pressing her luck on that.

“How about a haircut, lunch and then the Academy” Harry offered up, he had seen the way that Victoria was eyeing his hair and he could say that he wasn't a fan of the length it was either. He kept it sort of long to try and tame the wildness but he also did it to piss of his Aunt and Uncle, who thought that only delinquents had long hair.

“Deal” Victoria said pulling the car out into traffic once they were all in and making her way to her favorite salon. It was an hour later that Harry was walking out of the salon looking like he could be a model with Ara in her carrier fast asleep.

“Now lunch and then the Academy” Victoria said taking them to a place for a quick lunch and then heading straight to the Academy to enroll Harry in school.

“Mrs. Aquino, a pleasure to see you” an older woman said a gentle smile on her face at seeing Victoria Aquino.

“You as well, it seemed only yesterday I was here with Jorge” Victoria said a smile on her face still, remembering when Jorge had come to the Academy for the first time.

“And who have your brought with you today?”

“Harry Potter” Victoria said getting straight to the matter at hand. She knew the woman would be amazed to hear the name but she would also have the Academy swear to secrecy on not releasing on who was a student.

“Mr. Potter an honor” the woman said sticking out her hand for Harry to shake, which he did with a smile on his lips. Oh he loved America, and he couldn't wait until Luna and Draco came for a visit; which of course reminded him that he need to write Draco once he arrived home. He got a kick out of thinking that he finally had a home, a place to call his own.

“So what brings you to the states?”

“Plenty” Harry said before breaking eye contact with the woman, he wasn't willing to tell this lady his story until he knew that he could trust her.

“I see” the woman said before looking to Victoria to see if she would help her out.

“Let's just say that the Ministry of Magic in Britain have finally lost their minds, loco”

“Loco, indeed” the woman said with a laugh before asking Harry if it would be okay for her to contact his previous school.

“I don't think that is the best of ideas”

“Why”

“The Headmaster of the school is looking for me”

“I see” the woman said and she did see. She had never been really fond of Albus Dumbledore; he seemed to have just a bit too much power to only be a Headmaster of a school. He had a bit too much lee way with the lives of his students and this being one of them. He always spoke about how he would never take up the mantle of Minister of Magic but why would he need to when he was molding the minds of the generations that would grow up and control the world?

“No matter, you can take placement tests” the woman said before standing and going to get a small sphere that would evaluate where you were and what your potential would be.

“Just hold it and I will interpret what it does” the woman said watching at Harry took the sphere from her hand and then watched as it swirled with color for a moment before three colors emerged, she had never seen three color emerge before. Two had been the most and even then one was so faint that she had missed it on first glance, but here she was looking at the sphere and seeing three very distinct colors; black, white and silver. Each color represented a magic that was attracted to the witch or wizard, and it seemed that three types of magic were attracted to Harry and the power with which he would wield the powers was astonishing as well. It was the utter lack of understanding of the powers and magic in general that worried her. Had Albus Dumbledore been so afraid of this teen that he was holding out on the boy?

“Is everything okay?” Harry asked worried when the woman didn't speak for a long while, just staring at the sphere wondering what she was seeing and what it meant.

“Perfectly fine” the woman said a twang in her voice now; she always did go back to her country roots when she was angry or nervous.

“I can see that you are powerful, your magic shows me that” she said pointing to the sphere but her next words would have all three snarling and cursing Albus Dumbledore.

“But it seems that the Headmaster of Hogwarts has felt it be best that you not hone your skills or your magic. You have plenty of raw magic and talent, but I have a feeling he feared what would happen if that magic was refined and honed to the point where it could have been used on him” Harry snarled, now Draco's words made even more sense. The Headmaster had sold him out to the Ministry!

“Alright?”

“No, I received a letter today that stated that the Ministry of Magic has a warrant out of my arrest for treason”

“Treason?!”

“Yes and to make matters worse I was told that they had put on a bounty on my head”

“How much”

“One million galleons” the two women knew the word galleons but since they didn't work in the banking business they were a bit unfamiliar with what that actually meant.

“Like a million dollars”

“Ah” the women both said before frowning, was the old man so worried that when they found Harry that he would be a danger?

“Well you don't have to worry about that here, the Academy will swear an oath and no one will be able to speak about you or your where abouts to anyone” the woman assured Harry and Victoria.

“Thank you” Harry said before he listened to the woman rattle on about the extra courses he would have to take to get caught up with the students his own age.

“Also, Harry has a daughter” Victoria said once they had ironed out the specifics on how they planned to get Harry caught back up.

“Daycare”

“If possible”

“I don't see why not” the woman said before pressing a button and asking for her assistant to enter.

“A Daycare application” the girl nodded her head and made her way to the desk for the application in question, once it had been handed over did Harry start to fill out all of the paperwork. It was a long process but by the end of it all Harry was now a new student enrolled at the American Wizarding Academy of Dallas, and he was start school on Monday morning. That would give the principal enough time to get the oath in place and to also ask those teachers that would be willing to help Harry get caught up.

“I will see you on Monday, Mr. Potter” the woman said before shooing Victoria and Harry out of the room.

“One more stop” Victoria asked Harry, Ara had been fairly good the whole day so she didn't think it would be an issue to make one more stop for the day before heading back home.

“Uh, sure” Harry said looking down at Ara and seeing that she was asleep.

“Excellent” Victoria said before guiding them to the car and then out of the school's parking lot and down to a car dealer. Harry would need a car and soon, so she would try and talk Harry into getting a car.

“A car dealership” Harry said as he watched as Victoria pulled into the parking lot at the dealership, eyeing all of men that were sort of standing outside drooling over her car and the sale that could be made from the person in the car.

“You'll need something to get your back and forth to school and getting Ara”

“Right” Harry said before he noticed what car dealership they were at.

“A Maserati?” Harry knew the car maker's name, he had heard his cousin moan on and on about how when he turned sixteen that he wanted a Maserati as his first car. When his Uncle had yelled at his cousin he knew that the car was way out of his relatives price range, which meant that it was very, very expensive if they were unable to get it for their only son.

“Very safe” Victoria said pulling the car into a spot and then turning off the car. She knew she would be in for a fight on Harry getting this kind of car, but she knew that he needed a car and that if left on his own he would pick a normal car something that would be noticed the moment he stepped foot onto the campus of AWA of Dallas on Monday.

“I can't afford this car” Harry said, he may have been bending the truth a bit but there was no way on God's green Earth that he was going to buy one of these cars.

“Trust me, you'll need it” Victoria said before opening her door and getting out of the car, looking very much like the trophy wives that men had in the area they were currently at.

“Good afternoon” a man with an easy smile said on his face to Victoria before he watched as a teenager got out of the car with a baby and a car carrier as well.

“Afternoon” Victoria said in a thick accent that had the man turning to check her out one more time.

“We are looking for a car for my son” Victoria explained to the man and asked what sort of inventory they had on hand that they could look at. The man stared at Harry in shock, here a mother was willing to let her son get a new or used Maserati when it clearly looked like he had a child that didn't look to be hers.

“Well we have a Quattroporte, as well as a few others” the man said knowing that the woman would want something with four doors instead of two.

“Let us see the Quattroportes then” Victoria said before the man guided them to a small lot that had a total of five cars there.

“That one there” Victoria said pointing to a white looking Quattroporte with a contrasting interior of grays and black.

“That one just arrived here the other day” the man said before asking if they would like to test drive it.

“That would be great” Victoria said before she realized that Harry may not have a driver's license yet.

“Drivers license and some insurance” the man asked before he watched as Victoria pulled out the insurance and Harry pulled out a card that looked to be a driver's license for another country.

“His father lives in the United Kingdom” Victoria quickly explained before the man took the card and her insurance to get copies of, once that had been taken care of the man returned with the key in hand and a plate to put on the car since it didn't have one yet.

“Let me pull it out and put this on” the man said before jumping in the car and then starting it up and pulling it out so that he could place the license plate on the back of the car.

“Ready” the man said once he had attached the license plate to the car and then watched as the teen buckled his daughter into the backseat while his mother took the front seat and he took the backseat next to the baby.

“We drive on the right hand side” Victoria reminded Harry before he was slowly pulling out of the car dealer and into traffic.

“Just make a right here” the man said after they had reached the corner of Inwood Rd. and Lemmon Ave. Harry checked and rechecked before pulling out and making a right, he could say that it was sort of fun to drive in America. He had been grateful when his Uncle had taken him to get his license, what for he hadn't known but he had been glad since that meant that if he had wanted he could have driven anywhere he wanted to.

“Right here” the guy said from the back as Harry pulled to a stop at the red light at the corner of Mockingbird Lane and Inwood Rd. Harry turned right and then followed the street as it made its way over the Dallas North Tollway and then back towards where they had been shopping when they started out that morning.

“I know where we are” Harry said his accent throwing the guy for a loop again, he had just then remembered that the woman had said his father lived in the UK which meant that this was probably the teens first driving experience in the states. What had he been thinking?!

“Right here” the guy said making one big loop for the four of them in the car. Harry could say he was in love with the car, but he still didn't have that kind of money to be spending on a car.

“And here we are” the guy said happy to be back in the parking lot of the dealership and in one piece. This was one expensive piece of practice equipment.

“So what did you think?”

“I love it” Harry said honestly before watching the man in the back with his eyes wide, could it be that the mother was going to buy this car for her son?

“Hmmm, if we could have a moment” Victoria said her voice hard, she did so hate having to deal with these sorts of people when she was out and about, but there was nothing that she could about it.

“Right, I'll be back” the guy said getting out of the car and making his way into the dealership to get himself a soda, he needed some sugar or something in his body to calm himself down.

“So you love it, but….”

“It's too expensive”

“Hmmm” Victoria said wondering how she could explain to Harry that the AWA of Dallas was the premiere wizarding school in the Dallas area and probably most of the US, and that only the best of the best went there and that usually meant that your parents were rich or you had enormous power.

“The AWA of Dallas is exclusive and only the best will be accepted”

“I….” Harry was at a loss he had sort of known that the school was for the rich but he didn't think that the students would be rolling in a Maserati or cars of the like.

“Trust me on this”

“I don't have the money for this car”

“Leave that to me”

“I couldn't possibly…”

“We are family and family provides for each other” Victoria said before opening the door to the car and going off to search for the man that had been helping them.

“Family” Harry said to himself and then looked back to the backseat to see that Ara seemed to be awake and looking for him.

“Right here baby girl” Harry said before jumping out the front seat and then going to back to grab Ara before she started crying.

“Harry” Victoria said returning with the man a smile on her face.

“Madre” Harry said happy to have a family even if it was coming together a bit soon.

“We'll take it” Victoria said before winking at Harry and then leading the stunned man back inside to get the paper work taken care of.

“Make ready” Harry heard over the loudspeaker in the parking lot as he made his way into the dealership to find a bathroom to change Ara in.

“Down the hall and first door on your left” a guy said before walking over to where Victoria sat with the man and another man it seemed. When he returned from changing Ara he could see that Victoria was unhappy about something.

“What did you say to me?”

“Mrs. Aquino you have to understand that…”

“Now you listen here you, my son wants that car and he shall have it. I don't care if our last names are not the same…..oh you know what? Forget it!” Victoria said before grabbing her bag and standing up to leave. She had enough of these men treating her like she was an idiot; she drove a Bentley for crap's sake!

“Please….” The manager of the dealership said before Harry arrived to the scene.

“What's going on?”

“A misunderstanding”

“Hmmm” Harry said waiting for the man to start explaining.

“Well it seems that we are unable to put the car in your name due to the out of country driver license”

“That's it?”

“Well…”

“If you insulted my mother in any way you can forget about the sale you may have been getting”

“Mr. Aquino”

“It's Potter if you had even looked at my driver's license, which you said you did since you know it is out of the country”

“Sorry” the manager said before looking at the teen and wondering how he acted so mature for his age.

“How about this? We leave and you can keep the car” Harry said knowing that they would break soon enough.

“No, no….let me call a couple of people” the man said before moving towards his office to call a couple of people to see if they could title the car to Harry even if he had an out of country driver's license.

“Sorry about the confusion” the manager said coming back to where Harry and Victoria stood, while the sales man sat hoping that something would be figured out.

“Confusion”

“It seems that everything will be fine once you apply for a Texas Driver's License”

“We planned to do that today actually” Harry said playing along with the man so he would just get to the point.

“So the car is yours if you still want it”

“Madre” Harry said turning to Victoria to see what she thought. A smile was on her face; oh he would fit right into the family! He had gotten right at the man and hadn't backed down.

“Si and we want some extras as well” Victoria said before rattling off some maintenance items she wanted to add and to be free of charge.

“Consider it done, now why don't we get the paper work started” the manager said guiding Harry, Ara and Victoria into his office to complete the sale. About an hour later Harry was pulling Ara's ‘lock and latch' system from Victoria's car and putting it in his own. He owned a Maserati!

“Pleasure doing business with you both” the manager said before handing over the keys to Harry and then watching as the two made their way out of the dealership. What a day, what a day! Harry followed behind Victoria all the way home until she pulled over to the side and told Harry that he had his own garage and that it was on the other side of the house. Harry followed her instructions and soon found the garage, pulling the car up in the drive and then putting it in park and turning it off.

“Here you go” Victoria said coming out and handing over the opener for the garage door, Harry started up the car again and then pulled the car into the garage once the door was open.

“Now let's get dinner ready” Victoria said before being told that he and Ara were going to write Draco a letter to let him know how things were going.

“Oh that reminds me” Victoria said going in the house and returning a moment later with a couple of photos from the other day when Victor took them around town.

“Thank you, Draco will love these” Harry said before taking the photos and Ara into the house and then rereading what Draco had written so that he could reply to some of the items in the letter.

Draco,

I have enclosed those photos that you have been asking about. Hopefully this will calm you down a bit, so that your housemates and year mates don't try and kill you. I have much to tell you but will try and keep things short.

First is that our star is quite the looker it seems and everyone is instantly taken with her. Sort of like her papa, at least from what I have seen both at Hogwarts and here. You have quite the fan base here, okay maybe that is pushing it but I know of at least one person that would kiss the ground that you walk on. He's a Gringotts employee, and is quite smitten with you. When told about our star's parents; he about wanted to cream himself, his mother kept him in check though.

Second is that I have enrolled into school at my new home, and I mean home. I would give you the name but I fear that if the letter were to get into the wrong hands they would find me easily enough. Seeing as my citizenship isn't finalized yet, I will refrain from telling you that for right now. I guess I could tell you the name of the school since I have been informed that there are many branches of this school all over the country I am in. It is the American Wizarding Academy, they are a nice lot a bit odd but nice all the same.

Third is that your information about the bounty on my head as been received and I will make sure that measures are in place should they come looking for me for any reason. I refuse to return back to that life that I lead there, so I will make sure that things are taken care of. As for the Treason they are accusing me of, well I know that not to be true but I think that the Ministry and Minister think that it will make the other countries that they are no doubt searching in, hand me over easier. It's just too bad that the Americans think that the Ministry is a useless bunch I think they're exact words were “loco”, their loss is my gain.

Finally, when you have more details on your trip please let me know. I have plenty of room where I am and I would like to make ready a guest room for you. Our star has her own room but stays with me for right now. Our star is going to be spoiled rotten this Yule that is for sure.

Seen you soon,

Harry

Once Harry was happy with the letter did he stick the letter along with the photos, that where moving into the envelope and directed the bird back out into the sky to make its trip back to Hogwarts. Harry was shaken out of his thoughts about Draco and Luna coming to visit by Victoria knocking at the door and telling him that dinner was ready. Harry made his way to the main house with Ara in his arms and then he smelled the delicious meal that Victoria made.

“I hear congratulations are in order” Victor said knowing that Harry had been allowed to enter the AWA of Dallas.

“Thank you” Harry said with a blush before the three of them talked about the day they had and what they each had done, Victoria told their story while Harry enjoyed the Hispanic meal that Victoria had made. For the next couple of days the routine was the same Victoria and Victor would get up and have breakfast with Harry and Ara before heading out to work and then returning home and having dinner with Harry and Ara. It was Monday morning that the routine changed, for Harry woke early to make sure that he had a bag packed for Ara to bring to the daycare in the school as well as the uniform that he and Victoria had gotten for him over the weekend.

“Ready baby girl” Harry asked Ara before putting her in her carrier and then making his way to the main house for breakfast. He had driven to the school many times over the last couple of days so he was confident that he would be able to find the school that morning.

“Morning hijo” Victoria said before kissing Harry on the cheeks and then cooing at Ara as well before pushing Harry to a chair so that he could eat.

“Big day”

“Yeah and I'm not sure if I'm ready” Harry joked before eating his breakfast and saying goodbye to madre and papi.

“Ready” Harry said pulling his car out of the garage and then making his way to the school all the while wondering when he would receive word that his citizenship had gone through. Victoria had worked with the goblins at the bank to make sure that things were fine but as of yet he had not received word on the status of his citizenship for the United States. Harry finally pulled up to the school and noticed that quite a few of the students were eyeing his car, and he began to wonder if Victoria had been right about the whole needing the right car for the school. When he pulled into the parking lot and saw pretty much every high end sports car there were on the market, he knew she had been right. Harry found a spot sort of close to the school but well enough away from the other cars that he wouldn't hit them if he parked wrong.

“Hola” a girl said walking up to Harry as he worked to get Ara and her carrier out of the car. She was the queen bee of the school and she wanted to make sure she had first dibs on this piece of fresh meat.

“Hullo” Harry said his British accent making the girl want to whimper.

“New” the girl said never really noticing that Harry was working to get Ara out of the car.

“Yeah” Harry said before rolling his eyes his back was to the girl so she didn't see; was she that slow? Of course he was new it wasn't like she had seen either him or his car any other time.

“Oh” the girl said now noticing Ara as Harry had the carrier out of the car and in his hands as he made his way towards the school where the principal would be waiting for him.

“Aubrey Smith” the girl introduced herself before following Harry as he made his way to the main office of the campus. He wasn't going to offer up his name quite yet and when he saw the principal waiting for him he couldn't help but smile.

“Ms. Smith if you could leave Harry with me” the woman said before smiling at Harry and then winking watching as the girl blushed and then made her way over to where her friends stood stunned.

“They've been sworn to secrecy but I figured you would like to be the one to tell people who you are”

“Thank you”

“No problem at all, I see your daughter made the trip just fine” the woman said guiding Harry and Ara into the main office and then to her own office.

“She did”'

“Excellent, the daycare is in this building” the woman said before explaining to Harry his schedule and how things would work out since he had some classes that he would need a tutor in. It was just as the woman had shown Harry the daycare and he dropped Ara off that the bell rang signaling that the start of class was in five minutes.

“Your first class of the day is muggle studies” the principal of the school said as they made their way over to one of the buildings that had many students going towards it.

“Muggle studies?” Harry asked, he had been brought up by muggles he didn't think that he needed to have a class about them.

“Yes, here in the US and Texas especially we strive to blend in with the muggles of the world. This class is very much different than that at your previous school I would imagine” the principal explained before pushing Harry into a classroom that was half full.

“Don't worry about your presence here getting out” the principal said before turning and leaving. A small group of guys and girls were standing on the other side of the room watched him; it was something that Harry instantly didn't like.

“You're the new kid” one of the girls said, she had heard Aubrey expounding on the new student that they had and that his name was Harry.

“I am” Harry said making most in the group gape, it was a British wizard!

“Name's Trisha” the girl said before she introduced the rest of the group to Harry. The way that they spoke to him made him not like them; they reminded him of the Hogwarts' rumor mill a bit too much.

“Take your seats, take your seats” the teacher said as he made his way into the room. Once in the room properly did he see Harry standing there looking lost.

“Hola” the man said before asking for Harry's schedule and then gasping. Harry effing Potter was standing in front of him. He then remembered the warning that Mrs. Harker had given to them all about the newest student of the AWA of Dallas.

“Hullo” Harry replied in kind before he noticed the teacher's eye widen and then flicked to his forehead to make sure that the paper wasn't lying to him. It wasn't since he could see the tale-tail lightning bolt scar on Harry's forehead.

“Please take a seat” the teacher said before pointing to a free desk on the other side of the room where Trisha and her gang was. “This is Harry Potter, class welcome him” the teacher said and watched as most of the students gaped at Harry, who was trying very hard to disappear.

“OMG!” Trisha said with the rest of the class nodding their heads in agreement, now they understood the secrecy oath they had all taken last week. The whole freaking world was searching for the teen that was currently sitting in their classroom.

“Hullo” Harry said blushing as he did so, once it looked like no one was going to do anything the teacher snapped at his students and things seemed to return to normal. Harry was handed a book and soon got down to listening to the lesson at hand. When the bell rung for the end of the first period class, Harry was a bit worried on being bombarded with students finding out that *the Harry Potter* was now in their mists.

“Harry” Trisha said as she made her way over to where Harry stood looking at his schedule and trying to figure out what class was next.

“Oh hullo” Harry said before noticing that there seemed to be a very large man behind Trisha.

“What do you have next?” Trisha asked kindly, she could see that he was a bit lost so she figured that she would help him and then maybe she would soon end up in his bed. She was of course forgetting for the moment that she had a boyfriend and he stood next to her. Harry was about to speak but was stopped by a girl with hair colored blood red with black streaks.

“Don't you worry your pretty littl' head over what his next class is” the girl said before rolling her eyes and when Trisha starting to turn a bright red.

“Nasser” Trisha said a sneer on her face, it was clear to Harry that neither girl liked each other. Harry was at a loss, he knew he needed help finding his next class, which was Science he thought, but he wasn't sure on what he should do.

“Come with me” the girl with the red and black hair said before grabbing Harry's arm and moving him down the hall towards where there was another group of students surrounding a locker.

“My name is Nefertiti, yes as in the Egyptian queen” the girl explained before leading Harry around the group of people and leading him to who knew where.

“Where are you taking me” Harry finally asked, he was a bit afraid that the girl had big plans for him.

“Taking you to your next class” she said before guiding him to in fact not his next class.

“How did you know?”

“One of my many talents” she said with a grin and then a wink as she guided him into the room.

“This isn't my next class” Harry said looking at his schedule and seeing that the room she had guided him to was in fact where his third period class would take place.

“We are on a rotating schedule; Mondays, Wednesdays are odd number classes where as Tuesdays and Thursdays are even with Friday having a long study hall and a shorten version of all eight classes.” Nefertiti explained before she pushed Harry into the room and made her way in as well. Harry only nodded his head, he was a bit confused on what she meant but he figured she knew what she was talking about.

“So Harry Potter” the girl said taking a seat next to Harry once he notified the teacher that he arrived and had been given a book for the class. Harry shrugged his shoulders, he didn't like to spread around the fact that he was here but it seemed that the rumor mill at the AWA of Dallas was almost as bad as the rumor mill at Hogwarts.

“The pretties will want you” the girl said moving her eyes over to where it seemed that the ‘pretties' sat when in the class. They were glaring at Nefertiti, while smiling at Harry the next second. They seemed so fake to Harry and he resolved to not get caught up in their games for he was certain that they had them. They were no better than Lavender Brown and her band of gossip girls that ran Hogwarts.

“The pretties” Harry asked, he figured that it was a nick name for the group but he wanted to be sure.

“The group that is sitting over there looking at you as if you hung the moon” Nefertiti said before glaring at said group and getting a not so nice gesture from one of the males in the group.

“Do you…I mean are you in a group?” Harry asked the girl sitting next to him she didn't strike him as a loner; no she seemed to be a leader.

“Yeah, they call us the extras”

“Extras?” Harry was now thoroughly confused on what was going on at the school and the cliques that they had there.

“We are the group that fills up the space that the pretties and specials aren't able to” Nefertiti explained right before the bell rang to signal the beginning of class. The teacher was soon asking the students on their reading that had needed to have done about the history of wizarding in the United States. Most of the students just sort of slouched in their chairs trying to avoid being picked on.

“Mr. Potter” the teacher said before asking Harry a question about how the wizarding world worked in Britain.

“It's….” Harry was at a loss as to what to say. He knew that he only knew a small portion of how the wizarding world worked in Britain and he was hesitant to even release that bit of knowledge for fear that he may be wrong and make the class think the wrong thing.

“How is the government ran there?” The teacher said, she could see that Harry was having a hard time speaking about wizarding Britain but she figured that he knew at least enough that she would be able to show the class how different things were in Europe.

“Incompetently” Harry said without even thinking about what he was saying, he flushed when he was the shocked look on his teachers face.

“Yes well” the teacher said before rephrasing the question.

“I mean how does the government work there?”

“Well there is a Minister of Magic, and of course he has an undersecretary and there are departments in the Ministry it's self; such as the Magical Law Enforcement and the Department for Magical Games and Sports” Harry said once he understood what it was that his teacher was asking.

“Interesting” she said, surprised that there was a department for games and sports. It was a bit to regulated in her opinion and she would open up the floor for debate on if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

“Anything else?”

“No not that I can think of” Harry said not really knowing that the America version of the ministry had in effect that was the same as the Ministry in Britain. He had figured the games and sports would be of interest to them since he had noticed when he had gone with the Weasley's to the Quidditch World Cup that the Americans had seemed surprised on how stringent things were with dealing with sports.

“Okay class, here is the deal” the teacher said already liking the idea that she was forming.

“We are going to have a debate” most of the class sat up at those words, they loved having debates in this class.

“We have those for government regulating sports and games and we will have against” the teachers said before she made her way over to her desk and grabbed the bag that was always at the ready for these sorts of thing.

“Red is for and blue is against” the teacher said before moving from student to student as they picked out of the bag a token that was colored either blue or red.

“Harry” the teacher said coming to stand in front of both Harry and Nefertiti. Harry stuck his hand in and pulled out a red token before the teacher moved on to Nefertiti, who it seemed was lucky and had gotten the same colored token as he had.

“Sweet deal” Nefertiti said with a smile, they knew they had this in the bag. Harry was probably the one person in the room who would be able to fight for something in favor of regulations on games and sports.

“Now everyone has a token; reds on this side and blue on this side” the teacher said before pointing to one half of the room of red and the other for blue. A few of the ‘pretties' it seemed had pulled red tokens and were eager to get next to Harry.

“Harry Potter” a girl that also seemed to be a ring leader of the ‘pretties' at least in this class said before taking an empty desk on the other side of Harry. Harry said nothing in return, he hadn't been introduced and he certainly wasn't going to fall at their feet just because they thought he would.

“So who wants to be scribe for this?” Nefertiti said looking at the group and seeing that only a couple of people seemed to not be in a stupor over finding out who was sitting among them.

“Cheryl” Nefertiti asked before getting a nod in response.

“So what are the reasons for why the British Ministry feels the need to have their hand in sports and games regulations?” Nefertiti asked, before looking at Harry and seeing that he looked a bit lost with all the other students staring at him in their group.

“People” Nefertiti said seemingly snapping the group out of their stupor and then getting their notebooks out to take notes in.

“Well…” here Harry hesitated, he didn't really know *why* the Ministry had a hand in the games and sports world he just knew they did. He could only speculate at this point in time.

“I think for the most part it deals with Quidditch”

“Quidditch” a guy said a bit disbelieving of Harry's words.

“Yeah” Harry said, it seemed that already one of his team members was less than impressed with him.

“Makes sense” Nefertiti said connecting dots that even the teacher probably hadn't even thought of.

“Explain” another one of the ‘pretties' said before sneering at the girl.

“Well think about it, Great Britain is one of the leaders for Quidditch. There has to be a reason on why or how they can produce so many good players.”

“But”

“Think about it…..when was the last time the US won the Quidditch World Cup? 1920? 1930?”

“1932, actually” another member of their group said before blushing when one of the ‘pretties' glared at him.

“Well there you go, for the most part Europe runs all over the US and much of the world. There has to be a reason, and I think at least part of that reason is due to the regulations they have on it.” Nefertiti said looking at those in their group and noticing that some of the group were nodding their heads, while others seemed to be glaring at her as if that would back her down from her taking control of the group.

“Well I think…..” one of the ‘pretties' said before Nefertiti was knocking them down.

“You don't do that much” she got a glare for her words but she also noticed some were trying hard not to laugh at the person that had spoken before she had. The person said nothing unable to think of a comeback to Nefertiti's words. The bell rang soon after that and the teacher was shouting at them that they would be working on this the next time in class.

“We will work on this next class time as well” the teacher said before watching her students talk in groups about their latest assignment. Harry followed Nefertiti knowing that he would get lost in the sea that was the magical high school.

“Last class of the day” Nefertiti said before she noticed that one of the teachers was making their way over to where she stood with Harry at her side.

“Mr. Potter”

“Yes” Harry said trying to remember why the woman that stood in front of him now looked so familiar.

“Your daughter” was all the woman got out before Harry was rushing to the location where his daughter would be. The teacher and Nefertiti followed Harry as he made his way to the nursery where it seemed that Ara was screaming her head off.

“Ara” Harry said scooping her up and then looking around the room and seeing that most of the teachers in the room looked tired.

“What happened?”

“She just started crying and she wouldn't stop” one of the teachers explained, they hadn't wanted to pull Harry out of class to calm her down but the longer she cried the louder she got until they couldn't take it anymore.

“It's all right” Harry said before kissing her cheeks and bouncing her around the room, it seemed that the contact from Harry and his voice calmed her down until she fell right asleep.

“How did you…” Nefertiti asked before being glared at by the teachers in the room. She had followed when there was no need for her to be there.

“Ms. Nasser is there a reason on why you are here?” One of the teachers said looking not happy about something.

“She's here with me” Harry said quickly, he could see that Nefertiti wasn't liked by pretty much most of the school, which he found stupid. It was like being back at Hogwarts; just he figured he should have known that since it was school after all.

“Hmm” the teacher said before moving away from where Harry now stood with Ara in his arms, now dead to the world.

“She okay” Nefertiti said taking in the features of the girl that Harry now held. She could tell that something was off with the situation, Harry wasn't the child parent of that much she knew. She had been learning plenty from her grandmother about the magics that were from their homeland of Egypt and one of them was aura reading, and reading that child's aura told her that she was not Harry's child. No the child was of other parentage but one of the parents was meant for the British Savior, she could see the two auras dancing around each other.

“She will be” Harry said looking around and wondering if he could just leave for the day. It had been a long and exhausting day and he wanted to go home and take care of Ara.

“Mr. Potter” the oldest woman who looked to be running the small daycare said, glaring at him and then the child. Her aura as Nefertiti watched it lashed out at everything and it made her take a step back; trying to get away from it.

“We're leaving” Harry said for some reason very uncomfortable with the woman standing in front of him.

“Mr. Potter” the woman said shocked that he was up and leaving, when most came into contact with her they did as she told them but it seemed that he was different along with the girl that was with him.

“She's evil” Nefertiti said as they exited out of the daycare and then the school, to hell with turning in his sheet that stated he had gone to all his classes.

“I could feel that” Harry agreed making his way out to his car with Nefertiti on his heels.

“You need a ride home?”

“Nah, I should probably head back” Nefertiti said pointing her head back to the front entrance of the school. She was probably already in enough trouble for leaving with Harry but she had wanted to get away from that woman and as far as possible.

“Well you give this to the secretary in the office?” Harry said digging in his pocket one handed and then shoving the paper that the principal had given him for the teacher's signatures.

“No problem, see you tomorrow” Nefertiti said before waving at Harry and then making her way back into the school, while Harry put Ara into her car seat. Harry was already thinking that other arrangement would need to be made for the care of Ara, because he now refused to have his child in the care of the woman they had just fled from. It was as Harry was about to close the door that Ara opened her eyes and almost looked as if she was making sure that everything was fine.

“Daddy's here” Harry said quietly before kissing Ara on the forehead and then closing the door before jumping in the driver's seat. The whole drive back Harry tried to think up a reason for his early return that he could feed to Victoria.

“Harry” Victoria said standing out in the driveway when Harry arrived back to the Aquino's home.

“Victoria” Harry said he was still a bit uncertain at times on what to call the woman. Even though they had taken him in he always worried that it was other reasons than that of actually caring about his wellbeing.

“The principal called”

“Oh” Harry said wondering how much the principal told Victoria, he wasn't like he had made a beeline over to her office once he got Ara, maybe he should have done that now that he thought about it.

“Said you left early”

“Well I was fine until a professor came and got me about Ara”

“And…” Victoria could tell there was more to the story, and since she had been unable to get any more information from the principal she thought she would go right to the source.

“There was a worker that just” Harry said before shivering at the feeling he had when the woman had spoken to him and then glared.

“Is there an issue”

“She's evil” Harry said before looking at Victoria as if willing her to believe him.

“Old lady with short gray hair and a mean scowl on her face?” Victoria asked, she remembered the woman from her time at the school, and she too had thought the woman was evil. She of course could never prove anything, but she was certain that if given the chance the woman would do harm to you in an instant.

“Yes and Nefertiti confirmed it”

“Nefertiti?” Victoria asked, Harry had already made a friend but for some reason the name was making her frown. She had heard the name once before, and not about the Egyptian Queen of old, but more recent.

“Nasser?”

“Yes” Harry said wondering if maybe Victoria knew Nefertiti's parents or something.

“Her grandmother” Victoria mumbled then following Harry into the house since he had retrieved Ara from her car seat. Harry changed her and fed her before putting her down for a nap, hoping that Victoria would be able to help him out on what to do about the care of Ara. Harry didn't notice when Victoria left to do some research on Nefertiti Nasser, for some reason she felt that the girl would be a good ally to the upcoming conflict she could see when the British Ministry of Magic found out where Harry was.

“Oh” Harry said when he arrived to the kitchen to see that there was an owl waiting for him.

“Here you go” Harry said getting out a few owl treats and a bowl of water for the bird.

Harry,

How are you doing brother of mine? Things here are still in an uproar over your disappearance. The headmaster is still searching for you, using his connections with the rest of the wizarding world to try and find you. Many foreign wizards have visited Hogwarts all leaving with grim looks on their faces. I worry for you brother of mine…..they may discover you sooner than you ever thought.

The Gryffindors seemed to have banned together now and are claiming that you shall return and when you do you will rid the world of the Dark Lord. Something about a prophecy, of which I do not know the details as of yet but I will soon enough.

The white dragon has as of late been acting most odd. Do you know anything about that?

Your sister,

Luna

Harry shook his head at the note he received from Luna, only she would ramble on about the most important things like they were nothing. Harry was happy to know the movements of the headmaster, that way he could make sure that he was one step ahead of the old man.

“Draco” Harry said seeing another parchment rolled within Luna's letter.

Harry,

How is our star doing? How are you doing? I am almost certain that Dumbledore has lost his mind; he has seen fit to meet with other countries to bring you back. Not much is said about your reasons for running, but the Gryffindors are now of the mindset that you are training to defeat a certain someone. That house swings from one extreme to the next, not a few days ago they were cursing your name but now things have changed. There is rumor of a prophecy but how much of the information from a giggling Hufflepuff is correct is up for debate.

Father has deemed me worth of going on my trip for this Yule, since I do not have a location would it be possible for you to set up my Portkey? Once things are set up let me know that way I can notify father of the plans and he can be proud as a peacock telling a certain someone that he may be gaining new followers from a different country not in Europe.

Smitten? Am I not Draco Malfoy? Of course they were smitten, of course they are going to have to prove their worth to me, for me to even consider being in the same room with them, I do have standards after all. Hopefully my arrival there won't disrupt too much, I do so hate being followed around.

What should I pack for my visit? You never have actually said if you managed to find a place that was warm or not. If I know our star she doesn't take to the cold well, I figured that much out when I mistakenly left her uncovered while I did something. She kicked up a right fuss over that, so I can only hope that you have picked somewhere warm.

I shall end things there, but do keep me updated on the status of the trip; will you?

Draco

“Only Draco” Harry said shaking his head, he knew the blonde would just love the whole idea of someone bowing to him. He had always been a bit self important.

“Harry” Victoria called from the front door of the house, looking around for any sign of Harry and Ara.

“In the kitchen” Harry said before patting the bird and then making his way to the living room to see that Victoria was now standing there with a smile on her face.

“Letters?” Victoria asked a smile on her face, she could see that Harry was falling for or had fallen for Draco Malfoy and hard.

“Yes” Harry said remembering the two letters that now sat on the kitchen table.

“Yule….” Victoria started knowing that Harry had something important to tell her. She always seemed to know when things were going to happen like this.

“Draco is coming for a visit and but I am going to have to set up the trip”

“I'm sure Jorge can help you out there” Victoria said thinking that Draco making his way to the US would raise all sorts of flags with people that they didn't want attention from.

“Gringotts” Harry said totally forgetting that the bank had brought him over and without all the paperwork that was usually required when going through the government.

“Of course, that way his movements aren't monitored”

“Excellent” Harry said thinking of if there would be anything else he would need to do besides make sure that the guest room was ready for Draco.

“Well talk to Jorge in the morning and he can get things set up for Mr. Malfoy” Victoria said before smiling again at the look that was on Harry's face. Oh but the boy had fallen hard, and didn't even seem to know it. Harry was just about to ask Victoria for some help on decorating the guest room when the phone began to ring.

“Hullo” Harry answered a bit scared on who it was that was calling, no one knew this phone number so the phone ringing was a huge surprise.

“Harry, glad I got you” Taggny's voice said on the other line of the phone. Harry's mouth hung open; a goblin was using a phone….a muggle invention.

“Taggny”

“Yes” Taggny said before laughing, British wizards really were a special breed.

“You're on the phone”

“I am”

“How”

“Well Alexander Graham Bell….” Taggny started before laughing at Harry, oh the teen was great fun to mess with.

“Now to business” Taggny said in a business tone of voice, he was actually quite happy to be telling Harry this news.

“Okay, should I sit down?”

“You might”

“That bad”

“No, quite the opposite” Taggny said before waiting a beat and then telling Harry the good news.

“Your citizenship papers came through; you and Ara are now US citizens”

“What…wow” Harry said stunned he had worried because of the words that Luna and Draco wrote about the Headmaster using his connections in other countries to find him. What if the US officials thought better than to give him citizenship after meeting with the old man? Now though it seemed that he didn't have to worry about that any longer, no he was a US citizen now and that meant that even if the Headmaster or the Ministry of Magic found him they would have to go through the US government first to even think about taking him back to the UK.

“Congratulations” Taggny said a smile on his face; he had been a bit worried when they got word that the Headmaster of Hogwarts along with the Ministry of Magic had requested that they hear them out about their lost ‘Savior', and finding him and bringing him home. He had worried that the President of the US Magical World would listen to the British wizards and agree with them, only to return back home and go about finding Harry. It seems that wasn't the case something that Taggny and the other goblins at Gringotts-Dallas were happy of.

“Thanks” Harry said stunned before Victoria asked him what was going on.

“Ara and I are US citizens” Harry said to the woman, her smile grew even more. It would be a cold day in hell before Harry and Ara would leave the state of Texas and the US now. The only way that they would be leaving is if Draco Malfoy wanted them to leave, and she didn't see a Malfoy doing such a thing to their family. A smirk broke over her face making Harry wonder what the woman was thinking.

“Taggny, thank you” Harry said before quickly hanging up the phone wanting to ask Victoria what she had on her mind.

“Victoria” Harry said his tone of voice telling her that he was interested to know what she was thinking.

“It's nothing Harry” Victoria said waving her hand as if the movement alone would do something for her.

“Right” Harry said letting Victoria's answer slide, he knew she knew more than she was letting on. She always did, she was almost like the Headmaster in that respect but he also knew that she actually cared for him and would tell him once she was able to ‘see' more.

“Dinner is in a bit, so why don't you write to your friends” Victoria offered before leaving the guest house the same way she came in. Harry sat in the chair still stunned until Ara started to kick up a fuss at not being paid attention to.