"Then they shouldn't torture people," Harry muttered, but he was thinking about it. Healer Letham had said some similar things, but not so bluntly as Hermione. And Harry was used to listening to Hermione, at least thinking about what she said when she said it.
"I think Hermione's right, mate." Ron had a biscuit of his own and was sipping hot chocolate, but he took the time to look at Harry over the rim of the mug in a way that was very familiar. This was Ron's serious expression, the one he'd had when they were searching for the Philosopher's Stone their first year. "They're trying to overprotect you because they assume that you want to disappear. You want to be gone. And when you show that you don't want to be protected by people who torture kidnappers…" He shook his head. "It just makes it worse."
"But that's still true," Harry said, and straightened his shoulders. "I still don't want to be protected by people who torture kidnappers."
Hermione tapped her fingers on the edge of a silver plate. Harry didn't know if it was Dobby who had chosen the ridiculous, extravagant things, or if it was just that there weren't any plates in Malfoy Manor that weren't like that. "Then you need to tell them that. Tell them that you can't stand seeing them torture people."
"They acted like it was justified."
"Well, then go back and argue with them about it again." Hermione smiled a little. "You said in your letter that you wanted to see us and you wouldn't be happy until you did. And I bet you said that to them, too, right?"
Harry squirmed in place, especially knowing that Mrs. Malfoy and Mr. Malfoy were probably watching this conversation. Or one of them, anyway. "Um, yeah, I did."
"They'll do anything to keep you happy. That has to include not being violent. If they really mean it—if they value you more than they do the chance to torture Sirius Black—then they'll do it."
"But just keep in mind that it's going to be hard for them," Ron butted in. "I meant what I said about how my mum would go mental if one of us was hurt, Harry. If Black shows up again, then I don't know how they'll react."
"They don't need to hurt him like that. No one deserves to be hurt like that."
"What if they think they were hurt like that when Black took you away as a baby?"
Harry winced, but lifted his chin. "That still doesn't mean that the right thing to do is to try and spread the pain around. The Dursleys thought like that. Dudley and Vernon took it out ln me when they were angry. They shouldn't think like that. Not if they're really my family."
"Tell them that," Hermione advised him. "See what they say."
....
"Henry?"
Mrs. Malfoy's voice was low. She stood in the doorway of her drawing room and stared at him as though she was drowning and he was the one who might throw her a rope. Harry swallowed back the urge to say anything just to make her stop staring like that and asked, "Can we talk?"
"Of course." Mrs. Malfoy stood aside. Harry walked into her drawing room and looked it over. It was decorated in dense green and silver, and he didn't think it looked too different from what the inside of the Slytherin common room must look like. At least Draco's bedroom was less full of House pride.
Mrs. Malfoy motioned him to sit down on a silver stool near the fireplace, and then built up the fire with a swish of her wand when he did. Harry sighed. Did he look cold? He couldn't tell if he did, or if Mrs. Malfoy was just doing anything she could to make him happy.
If she'll do that, then maybe she really will hold off on torturing people.
So Harry decided to be as blunt as he could. He met her eyes and asked, "Can you please never torture people again?"
Mrs. Malfoy clasped her hands around her knees and shivered as if she was the one who was cold. "I was—not myself when that happened. I admit it, Henry. But I would stop Black with any means at my disposal if I thought he would take you again. The only thought going through my mind when he failed to Apparate with you was that he might kill you right there."
Harry swallowed and nodded. "I don't think he wants to do that. I think he wants to preserve the Potter legacy. When he mouthed James at me? I think he wants me to go back to being Harry Potter."
"Do you want to?"
Mrs. Malfoy asked the question in an agonized voice, her hands so tight Harry could hear her bones creaking. Harry shook his head, but she didn't look that reassured.
"No," Harry said. "I just—I was never really Harry Potter. I can't go back to living a lie now that I know the truth. I know Draco was afraid that Black might take me and Memory Charm me, but you know who I am, now. You could get me back. It's just that Black's so mental he probably isn't thinking about that."
Mrs. Malfoy bowed her head. "Then why do you speak of us—your father and I—as Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy?"
They did hear it when I said that to Ron and Hermione. Bloody hell. Harry didn't spring up and run out of the room, though, even though he really, really wanted to. This kind of courage and facing up to it was something he and Healer Letham had talked about, even though she had thought Harry wasn't ready to do it yet.
Well, I'm a Gryffindor. And I chose to be one, even though the Hat wanted to put me in Slytherin. Time to live up to it.
Harry sighed and said, "Because I still lived the first twelve years of my life as someone else, and then I got pulled back into the family. Can you blame me? It's still so strange. I like having living parents, and I like having Draco as a brother, but I still don't think of you as perfectly my parents. I barely know who I am."
Mrs. Malfoy stared at him as if she was having a revelation. Harry just blinked in confusion. He was pretty sure that he'd said all this before, like when he'd refused to take the name Aldebaran and refused Mr. Malfoy's offer to have him moved to Slytherin House if that was what he wanted.
But maybe it being put in these exact words was what she needed to hear, because Mrs. Malfoy whispered, "Of course. Of course, Henry. I should have thought of that."
"I know there are things I have to compromise on," Harry continued. "Like I can't just go outside alone because Black might be waiting for me, and my name, and not treating Draco the way I treated him before I knew we were brothers. But there are things I can't compromise on. Things that are right and wrong. Like the way you treated house-elves, and the way you treated Black."