Hermione sounded horrified. Harry nodded to her. "So I made a bargain with the Malfoys. They don't yell at the elves or treat them horribly by making them punish themselves anymore, and in the meantime, Dobby is just my elf. They improved the elf quarters, too."
"And what did you give them in return?"
Ron's eyes were narrow and shrewd. Harry smiled at him, a little embarrassed. Ron was determined to consider himself stupid next to Hermione, but he was really smart on his own. Just not as much at schoolwork as Hermione. "I promised to act happier, and attend sessions with a Mind-Healer. And not tell the elves to call me Harry instead of Henry. That's what I told Dobby at first."
"It sounds good," said Hermione reluctantly, nibbling at a chocolate biscuit. "But I worry that they're just slaves, Harry. Have you thought about freeing them?"
Harry snorted. "Then the Malfoys would be so upset that it would make the row over the kidnapping look like nothing."
"Yes, I saw that story in the papers." Ron leaned forwards intently. "Black tried to kidnap you right in the middle of Diagon Alley? Is he mental or something?"
"Well, yeah, I think so." Harry ran his hand through his hair. "But the really scary thing was Mrs. Malfoy. She used a spell on Black to get him to leave me alone. It practically tore his chest apart. The paper had a story one day that she might have killed him, but then apparently the Dementors are still hunting Black, so that's how they know he's alive or something."
"That's horrible, too," Hermione whispered.
"Tell me about it." Harry shook his head and grabbed a treacle tart. "It was the most horrible thing I've ever seen. And the worst part is that none of them understand just how bad it was. They just keep saying that they can't lose me again, and they would do anything to keep me safe. I don't want that 'anything' to include torturing people, though."
"I kind of understand it," Ron said, totally unexpectedly. "I know Mum would go mental if someone hurt one of us."
"Yeah, but she wouldn't torture someone."
"I think she would, mate." Ron was staring into the bowl of soup in front of him as though it held all the secrets of the universe. "I think she might kill someone, even."
Harry blinked, thrown. Then he said, "All right, but the Malfoys said that Mrs. Malfoy did that because of something called the Black madness. That means your mum wouldn't actually go mental, because she doesn't have that."
Ron's mouth quirked, but his eyes were unhappy. "All the pureblood families are interrelated, Harry. My mum has Black relatives not that far distant. And my father's mum was a Black." He perked up a little. "Hey, I ought to look at the old books and see how closely related we are, now that you're a Malfoy. We're probably cousins not too far back."
"The point is," Harry said, putting aside the thought for a moment that he might have relatives who weren't smotheringly overprotective and inclined to torture people on a regular basis, "I don't want them to torture to protect me, but I couldn't get them to promise not to do it. And Black is still out there, and he's been on the Manor grounds at least once, and they don't know how he's doing it."
"That sounds scary." Hermione reached over and rested a hand on his arm for a second, above the silver bracelet that Mrs. Malfoy wouldn't let him take off. "Maybe you can—just take extra precautions? I'm not saying that you have to let them cast terrible spells to defend you. Just not take risks."
"What risks can I take?" Harry asked bitterly. "There's always someone with me now. I'm amazed that I got to visit you by myself, but maybe that's because there's two people with me and we're right in the center of the Manor. The Malfoys probably think that there's not that much risk to it."
Hermione and Ron exchanged a glance that Harry hated, because it felt as if it left him out. Then Hermione faced him and took a deep breath. "I have something to say, Harry, and I know you probably won't like it, but hear me out."
Harry felt an unpleasant squeeze happen in the middle of his stomach. "Okay," he said.
Mrs. Malfoy would have scolded him for sounding ungracious. Hermione just gave him a smile. "The way you talk about them, it's as if you don't really belong here. You say 'the Malfoys.' You don't call them Mother and Father, and you don't talk about yourself like you're a Malfoy. I think part of the problem is that they think they're losing you, you're slipping away, because you don't seem to acknowledge that you're part of a family."
"I don't want to be part of a family that tortures people!"
"I can't blame you. But you weren't talking like you were part of them even before that, were you? You were calling them Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy in your letters to us, and in your head, I'm sure, even if you don't do it to their faces."
Harry swallowed as he thought about the Malfoys learning that through the spying spells. But he shook off the fear. Healer Letham said they were his family and wouldn't abandon him. That meant it was all right if they found out.
"I think," Hermione went on in an even lower tone, "that they think they might already have lost you, because you're drifting away from them. And they might lose you if Black kidnapped you again. So it's hard for them to relax or let you out of their sight, because they're worried about what you're going to do. Maybe they'll turn around and you'll be gone."
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