Harry slowly came to consciousness, sitting up and massaging his scalp, moaning softly when his fingers came upon a tender place near the top of his head. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes quickly and assessed his surroundings, his mind racing. The darkness around him was absolute, he was unable to discern anything. Where am I? he thought desperately. What-

His thoughts were cut off suddenly by the opening of a door to his left that he hadn't noticed. The wood creaked as it swung open, and Harry winced at the sudden onslaught of bright light and the ominous banging noise that the door emitted as it made contact with the now illuminated stone around him.

Taking a quick look around, Harry bit his lip as he realized he couldn't see out of one eye. He slowly looked up at the figure in the doorway as everything came back to him, and stared defiantly into the eyes of Lucius Malfoy.

"Mr. Potter," he drawled. "How delightful of you to join us."

Harry broke his gaze away from Lucius and tried to rein in his hatred as he cast about for an appropriate rejoinder. His eyes fell upon what seemed to be a skeleton in the corner, and he sneered, turning back to the man he hated more than any other save Voldemort. "Skeletons, Malfoy? Couldn't think of anything else to intimidate me? You think I'll be frightened by a little pile of bones, too scared to deal with you?"

Lucius favored him with a saccharine grin. "Malfoy?" he replied slowly, as if savoring every word he spoke. "You toss it out so insultingly, as if the very word made me inferior to you. But what of your brother, Harry? He is a Malfoy as well- and in insulting me you injure him just as gravely, if not more so."

Harry spat on the boots of the man before him. "Draco's no son of yours."

Lucius' grin widened. "Isn't he, Harry? Maybe not legally, but he's mine in blood… And the legalities have no effect upon his name. He renounced me, perhaps, but the name… People shudder with awe and fear when they the word Malfoy is uttered. It is an old name that bears much weight and contains invaluable power. Draco is a Slytherin. We live for power, we crave it. Draco never gave up his name. He couldn't bear to."

Harry clenched his fists, hearing the truth in the man's words but afraid to believe it. Draco wouldn't… But he remembered Draco's uneasiness the day he had come home with the adoption papers, how he had been so reluctant to show Harry the final certificate, how he had never really pressed people to call him Snape, how he periodically forgot to answer to it in class… Harry had attributed this to how new the concept of a real, legal family was to Draco, to all of them, but now he knew he had been mistaken. Lucius was telling the truth. Draco hadn't changed his name.
But he's still my brother, Harry thought. I didn't change my name either, and I'm still as much Severus' son as Draco is. The name, the certificates, the legalities… That isn't what really matters. It's how we feel about each other that counts.

"Speechless, I see," Lucius said in response to his silence, a pleased look sliding onto his face.
"Maybe I just don't want to defile myself by conversing with the likes of you," Harry shot back. The grin slid off the older man's face, but his posture remained as confident as ever. "Why don't you just kill me, or give me over to Voldemort, or whatever you're planning on doing with me and get it all over with." If he leaves to make preparations I might have time to make an escape.

"Kill you?" Lucius chuckled. "Oh no, my dear boy. I have a much more delicious plan for you. In fact, the potion I am using to bring about your demise ought to be ready soon… I really must go. Enjoy what little is left of your life, for you won't have time to for much longer." He turned to leave, and Harry did a mental dance of triumph. That's it, go on, leave. The quicker you get out of here the sooner I'll-

Lucius turned back around. "Oh, how remiss of me. I almost forgot." He pulled out his wand and twirled it around between his thumb and index fingers a few times, and then cast a lazy stupefy at Harry. His world went black.

~~~~~

"Harry!" came a voice from above him, hissing into his ear. "Harry, wake up!"

Harry snapped up as the voice penetrated his dreams, instinctively reaching for a wand that wasn't there. He looked up into the frightened eyes of the one who had wakened him and was startled to find himself looking into Draco's blue-grey eyes. "Draco?" he hissed, his heart rate slowly coming down to a more manageable level. "What are you doing here?" Many emotions assaulted him at once, and Harry was torn between hugging his brother, screaming at him for scaring him like that, and unleashing every curse word he had ever heard at whatever god had refused to allow Draco to escape.

"Yes, it's me, now hush! You have to let me concentrate! My father will have to apparate out of here at some point to report our presence to the Dark Lord. That means the barriers will be down- when I say the word you have to let me apparate you to Hogsmeade! Just relax and let me help you, I don't know how long they'll-" A strange look passed over Draco's face, and he grabbed Harry's wrist and screamed, "now!".
Harry tried his best to listen to what his brother had told him, but it was difficult not to struggle. He had grown accustomed to his father absorbing the shock of apparition for him with his body, and Draco was only holding his arm. Harry desperately wanted to pull his brother closer so that the pain would stop, but at the same time he feared doing so. The mere pressure of Draco's fingers encircling his wrist was agony, and Harry wondered at this as his body twisted into grotesque shapes as the apparated, while trying his hardest to hold still and not cause his brother any grief. He hadn't felt pain from human touch since after Samhain, and that had been because-

Harry's stomach lurched as they came to a halt, and he fell to his knees, loosing the battle to hold in the contents of his stomach.

"Come on, Harry," Draco said firmly but gently, bending over to help him up. "My father could notice that we're missing at any time, we have to hurry back to the castle and get Severus."

Together the two boys made their way up to the castle gates, and the doors recognized them as students and parted for them, albeit more slowly than usual. They made the long walk to the front door in silence, and they found themselves climbing the steps after what seemed like an age. They burst through the doors of the great hall, weary and in search of comfort, and assessed the situation. The students were all eating, but the Gryffindor and Slytherin tables were unusually subdued. All the teachers were present, save Aran, but Snape's plate was empty, and he was standing slightly behind and to the left of the head chair, conversing softly with Dumbledore. He had on a traveling cloak and appeared ready to leave shortly.

The doors slammed open and crashed against the castle's stone walls, and every wand in the hall came out and was pointed immediately in their direction. When the onlookers discovered who had entered the great hall they all sighed with relief, and Severus stood still a moment in shock before running towards them as fast as his legs could carry him. He was less affectionate than usual due to their audience, but he embraced them nonetheless. "Idiot children," he muttered, the words harsh but the tone shaky, tremulous. "Do you have any idea how worried I was?"

"It's not like we did it on purpose," Harry replied in an undertone, leaning against his father for the comfort and support he desperately needed. "We were abducted by Lucius Malfoy. You would have been proud of me, I didn't incinerate him-"

But Severus wasn't paying attention to what he was saying. His eyes had narrowed almost imperceptibly, but the anger on his face was plain to see and his countenance visibly paled as he shook with fury. "Are you telling me-" he began loudly, but Harry interrupted him.

"Dad, hush! People are listening, you don't want to blow Remus' cover-"

"Remus!" he hissed. "Remus! You come in here telling me that both of you were kidnapped by Lucius Malfoy under my very nose, at Hogwarts no less, and expect me to be worried about Remus?"

Harry sighed wearily and took hold of his father's arm. "Why don't we talk about this at home, dad," he replied in a normal tone of voice, purposely speaking at a volume the rest of the hall could overhear. He turned to the head table and said to Dumbledore, "I think we're going to get yelled at by dad tonight, so I'll make sure that Draco comes with me to your office tomorrow for our official punishment, okay?" The headmaster nodded, seeing through to the hidden meaning in his statement, although he didn't look happy with their 'transgressions'.

He started to lead a seething Severus toward the dungeons, but he shook him off and stalked ahead of them, turning back every few seconds to ensure that Harry and the strangely silent Draco were still following him.

After a few minutes of walking they reached the door to their quarters, walking quietly through the door and into the living room, where Severus spun around and faced them, arms crossed. "Explain," he grated, anger and concern infusing his tone.

Harry sighed and plopped down on the couch, rubbing his eyes wearily. He glanced over at the still-standing Draco and frowned. "You okay Draco? Thanks for getting us out of there, by the way. Without my glasses… Oh, yeah." Harry turned back to his father. "Could you do something temporary about my eye? It's bloody annoying to only be able to see out of one eye, and it's giving me a headache."

The potions master cast a muttered spell, and Harry nodded gratefully. "You will have to go see Poppy later, of course."

"Yeah," Harry replied, grimacing at the thought of the hospital wing. "I know. Anyway…"
"It might be prudent for you to retrieve Sals from your bedroom. I doubt anyone could break through my wards, but, as you well know, we have seen in the past that it is much better to be safe than sorry." Despite the appropriateness of the sentiment, Severus seemed faintly disgusted to have said something so cliché.

Harry smiled at the look on his father's face despite his exhaustion and called quietly for Sals. His snake slithered up to him after a few moments and curled herself around his wrist, hissing softly.

"Harry is hurt," she hissed, concern in her voice.
Harry grinned back at her, fiercely glad that so many people cared for him. "Only a few scratches and my pride," he replied teasingly.

From above him came the sound of a throat being cleared, and Harry looked sheepishly up at his father. His arms had unfolded and he seemed to be much more relaxed than before due to his son's normal actions, but he was still waiting for an explanation and casting the occasional worried glance in Draco's direction.

"Right," Harry began. "Well, I guess this actually started a few weeks ago…"

Severus' mood changed instantly, and he sat up abruptly, seething. "A few weeks? You've had suspicions about Lucius bloody Malfoy infiltrating the school for a few weeks, and you never said anything?" Harry winced, less at the words themselves than what he sensed hid behind them. Severus was hurt as well as angry.

"That's not what I meant, dad," Harry replied, futilely attempting to placate his father. "Look, can we all just sit down and talk about this calmly?"

Draco perched himself on the furthest edge of the far side of the couch Harry was sitting on, his posture thoroughly uncomfortable, and Severus deflated at his son's tone and sunk back down into the chair he had been occupying moments before.

"All right," Harry said finally, taking charge when it seemed that no one else was going to speak, "Like I said, this all started a few weeks ago, right after I came back to school. Aran-"

"Professor Aran, Harry," Snape interjected tiredly, too fatigued to properly admonish him.

Harry bristled all the same. "Well forgive me if I don't feel like showing him proper respect after he got us both portkeyed over to Malfoy Manor!"

Severus sat up, his back ramrod straight, and stared at Harry as if he'd never seen him before. "Aran is a follower of the Dark Lord?"

"Voldemort, remember?" Harry reminded his father, but his remonstration was half-hearted at best, same as the potions master's had been. "And no, he isn't. He had this crazy idea that I was influencing Draco, turning him into a dark wizard… So he called Lucius over for a nice little parent-teacher conference." The sneer was clear in his voice. Severus all but snarled, and Draco stiffened. Snape and Harry turned their eyes to him, concern in their eyes, and Harry stroked Sals nervously.

"Is something wrong, Draco?" Severus asked when the blonde said nothing. Draco muttered something that was barely audible and dismissed their concerns with a wave of his hand, urging them to return to the previous conversation. The two traded suspicious looks and glanced at him once more before obliging.

"Well, Draco got locked in his office without me… He was trying to get back the amulet. Aran took it from him in class. The door locked and I couldn't get it open, but when Lucius took out Draco's old wand I lost it. Don't look at me like that, I knew that something was wrong with it and I had to do something!"

"Ah, yes," Severus agreed wearily. "More Gryffindor recklessness. Merlin spare me."

"Would you rather I have let Draco go on his own?" Harry snapped.

Both Draco and Snape looked taken aback. "That was not at all what I meant, Harry; I apologize. Please continue."

Harry nodded, recognizing that he had overreacted and they were all under considerable stress. Snape's try at normalcy had been a futile attempt to reassure them all. "So I barged in through the door and Draco took the wand, and Malfoy shot some spell at Aran-"

Snape nodded. "That explains a great deal. Aran is in St. Mungo's at present. I'm sure the healers will be delighted to know what ails him. I will be sure to get an accurate description of the spell from your memories as soon as possible." But the glint in his eyes told Harry that it would be a very, very long time before the 'proper opportunity' arose, and he couldn't help but grin.

"Yeah. Well Malfoy used petrificus on me and took away my glasses, and then he flooed us over to Malfoy Manor. He taunted me a bit when I woke up, and then he stupefied me… Draco got me up later and we apparated out when Lucius lowered the wards."

Severus frowned. "You said Lucius stupefied you? How did you get out of the throes of the spell?"

Harry blinked. "I dunno. Draco?"

The other boy shifted uneasily. "You were awake when I found you."

Harry cocked his head to the side in confusion. "But you woke me up."

Draco flushed. "You were just sleeping. You know what I meant!"

Severus and Harry exchanged another glance. "At any rate," Severus said cautiously, "congratulations for being able to hold your own while apparating during such a stressful time. You might both very well have died had you not done so."

Draco inclined his head proudly. "My fa- Lucius taught me when I was little."

Harry bit his lip at the slip and looked over at Severus, who appeared resigned to the fact that their encounter with Lucius would be affecting Draco for a long time. "So then we walked up to the castle… You know what happened from there."
Severus was still scrutinizing Draco, and Harry snuggled up to Sals for reassurance.

Draco stood up abruptly. "I'm going to bed," he said shortly, and he retreated to their bedroom.
Harry sighed. "I guess seeing Malfoy again really shook him up."

"Mhm."

"Dad?" Harry asked, remembering something.

His father looked up at him. "Yes, Harry?"

He bit his lip, unsure as to how to proceed. "Lucius… Lucius told me something about Draco when I was captured that worries me."

Severus sighed. "You would do well not to believe him. Harry… I fear that Draco's… atypical actions have distracted me from the fact that you were greatly affected by this, also. This became apparent to me when a casual remark angered you. I do not mean to disregard your feelings. If there is anything you need to speak to me about, anything at all…"

Harry vaguely recalled that Dumbledore had asked him to speak with Severus about the whole Aran problem. But Aran was taken care of for now, and the underlying issue that had been the real problem could wait. Despite his father's fear of neglecting him, Draco really was more important at the moment. "I really think we need to talk about what Lucius said, though. He said that Draco hadn't really legally changed his name… And some of the things Draco said to him in Aran's office made me think it's true."

Severus frowned. "You need not invent stories to distract me from your troubles."

"I'm not!" Harry exclaimed. "I mean it! Draco said something to him about not being able to give it up, and I was looking in a book a few days ago and there was an entry about me, and it said that Draco and I were brothers and it still had his name listed as Malfoy! I thought the book just hadn't been updated, but magic books are generally pretty current, aren't they?"

Severus looked more deflated than Harry had ever seen him. "He ought to have told me that he was uncomfortable with the change," he said offhandedly, and Harry wasn't sure who he was talking to. "Both of you have an annoying tendency to go to any lengths to ensure you do not disappoint me… Neither of you have any idea how proud I already am." He sighed. "You should rest, Harry."

Harry shook his head. "I don't think I could sleep after all that." And I don't want to leave you alone.

"You need your rest regardless." Severus stood and wandered over to the bookshelf by his office, his fingers aimlessly trailing over the spines. His eyes were unfocused, and he seemed lost. "I'm afraid I don't know what to do with either of you."

Harry frowned and looked up at his father. "What?" When Severus didn't reply, Harry pressed, "Is it the whole names thing?"
Severus looked up sharply at that, but shook his head. "No," he replied. "My concerns are more general, although I am rather disconcerted by that as well. Now is not the best time to discuss this, however. Perhaps you ought to retire now, Harry."

Harry sensed that his words were not a simple request this time and hugged his father briefly before going. "It's gonna be okay, dad," he said softly.
Severus smiled wryly in response. "No, Harry, it will not. Not for quite some time, at any rate. But it brightens my spirits a great deal that you are still capable of offering such platitudes after the traumatic experience you so recently endured." He returned his gaze to the books and selected a particularly thick one off the top shelf. Harry doubted his father would sleep that night. "Know that I am proud of you, Harry. More than you could ever know." Harry recognized a dismissal when he heard one and turned to go. He took one last glance in his father's direction, sighed, and made the short trek to the room he shared with Draco. Why can't anything ever be normal? he thought sadly as he slid a sleepy Sals into her box. His dreams that night certainly weren't.

~~~~~

Draco was in a huge pit of snakes, like the one Lucius had described, and he was lying there limply as they crawled over him, seemingly beyond terror. His eyes met Harry's and widened. "Harry," he breathed, wincing as a snake crawled over his face. "Help me, Harry… Help me, please…"

Harry nodded and bent down to speak to the snakes, asking them to leave Draco alone and promising them mice if they found him a way out. The snakes nodded and moved off of Draco, searching for a crack in the wall to enlarge. Draco smiled softly at Harry as he explained what he had done. "Thank you," he said quietly. "I'll see you and Severus soon… Don't wait up for me." Harry nodded, and the world around him slowly dissolved…

Harry sat up sharply in bed, gasping, as he reoriented himself and tried to make sense of his dream. It hadn't been a seer dream; it hadn't followed the usual pattern and didn't make sense besides.

Then what was it? Harry looked over at his brother, who was sleeping peacefully, and sighed, cursing his paranoia. He was so used to visions from Voldemort and seer dreams and the like that he was making a big deal out of a simple nightmare… He snuggled into his covers and told himself everything was okay, but sleep didn't come to him for a long time.

~~~~~

Harry sat with the Slytherins at breakfast the next morning, his instincts telling him that he needed to sit with Draco. Being around his brother had made him uncomfortable lately, but he supposed he was just being affected by Draco's negative feelings from their meeting with Lucius.

"Really, Draco," he asked his brother for the tenth time. "Are you okay? You've been awfully quiet since-"

"Expelliarmus!" Draco cried, pointing his power spreading about the whole hall and summoning all their wands, even the teachers' and Harry's replacement that Ollivander had owled over that morning. Severus' face whitened a few shades, Dumbledore looked furious, and the whole hall was muttering angrily. Harry frowned. "Don't you think that's a little extreme? I know we need to be on guard at all times, especially after… er… yesterday, but I don't think you really needed to-" Harry's voice faltered and stopped as his eyes came to rest on what his father had been staring at all along, Draco's wand. His first wand, the one that was coated in lineage potion, the one that Lucius had taken.

"Draco?" he asked hoarsely, fear creeping into his voice. "Er, how did you… I mean, where did you get…"

Draco grinned and cast a spell Harry didn't recognize, and a few moments later everyone in the hall save Harry and Severus was asleep. The potions master jumped down from the head table with surprising grace and stalked over to stand beside Harry. He was at a loss for words, but he placed a steadying hand on Harry's shoulder.

"Oh, how gullible you all are," Draco sneered gleefully, twirling his wand between his fingers in a manner decidedly reminiscent of Lucius. "Did you really think I'd changed? That I could resist the allure of the darkness? How pitiful, both Harry Potter and Severus Snape taken in by my little ruse! Did you really think I couldn't fool veritaserum? And now you're both going to die, knowing that you were betrayed by your family." He raised his want to cast the killing curse, and promptly fell to the floor, the ring of metal against stone echoing throughout the great hall as the plate that had hit him in the head fell victim to gravity.

"Wanna bet?" a voice from behind them rang out, and a disheveled Draco walked though the doors that led to the entrance hall. Harry stared first at the Draco on the floor and then at the one who had just sank heavily against the wall, his mind racing in time with the other boy's rapid breathing. "Merlin, I hate snakes…" the boy muttered, standing up and walking over to them, giving his other self a good kick along the way. He bound the unconscious Draco and looked at the two before him, sighing. "Polyjuice," he told them, and suddenly everything made sense.
Severus' gaze darkened. "How very like Lucius," he muttered angrily, walking a few paces over to Draco and looking him over for any vital damage. "Did he harm you?"

"No," Draco murmured tiredly, sagging against his father much like Harry had the day before. "He wanted me alive. To renounce you both and continue in the family business." Draco's _expression was justifiably disgusted.

"How did you get out?" Harry asked, walking over to his brother as the last of his strength left him and helping Severus to settle him into an empty seat at the Hufflepuff table.

Draco lifted a brow. "I think the better question is how did you. It was you who got me out, after all."

Harry's eyes bugged out as he stared at his brother in shock. "You mean… you mean that dream…"

Draco looked up at him in astonishment. "Dream?" he exclaimed. "For Merlin's sake, first your dreams predict the future and now you can actually communicate with people…" He shook his head. "You just keep getting weirder, Harry."

Severus cleared his throat, and they both jumped. "Terribly sorry to interrupt you," he interrupted sarcastically, "but I seem to be missing something here, yes?"

"Er, I had a dream last night that Draco was in a huge pit of snakes. I called them off and told them to help him out, and then I woke up. Only, apparently it really happened."

Severus raised an eyebrow. "In that case, I am inclined to agree with your brother."

Harry adjusted his new glasses sheepishly. "I can't exactly help it, you realize."

His father shook his head. "All the same."

Harry grinned, glad things were on their way back to being normal, at least insofar as they always were. "Yeah." And he meant it.

"You realize we're going to have to explain all this to the headmaster, right?" Draco asked.
Harry groaned in commiseration. "Yeah," he moaned. "And Ron and Hermione."

Draco grinned. "You see, that's the upside to not having friends that you actually tell things to. Less explanations." He reached over to steal a roll off Ernie MacMillman's plate and bit into it, still smiling widely. Harry was too happy to see him in decent spirits to reply caustically, but he sighed as he looked around the hall. "Let's wake everyone up, then."

~~~~~

"So you're telling me that Aran was in league with Malfoy, who kidnapped you and Draco and then used polyjuice potion to disguise himself as Draco and stun the entire great hall and attempt to kill you? And you saved Draco from a pit of snakes in a dream, but it was really true, and he found his way here and saved you seconds before you both died?" Ron finished, wide-eyed.

"Eloquent as ever, Weasley," Draco deadpanned. "But that about sums it up, yes."

Ron shook his head and glanced at Hermione in disbelief. "Your family just can't get any weirder, can it?"