Work Text:
“Mummy, I wanna go home.” Draco whined as his mother carried him up a front path leading to a strange house. They’d never been anywhere like this before and, even at three-years-old, he knew there was something wrong with the way everything they’d passed so far looked the same. He didn’t mind order. He preferred it, actually. It made all his favourite toys easier to find. But this… this… sameness…
“Now, now, Draco. Mummy is on a very important mission. Don’t you want to help me do well?” His mother asked.
He contemplated this. Doing well was important. That was what his parents always told him. It helped you move in the world, whatever that meant. He understood it was something good. Whenever he did well, his father praised him, and his mother called him very intelligent. And intelligent meant smart, and smart meant he did well.
“Yes, Mummy,” he replied. He did want to help her do well. She was intelligent too. It’s what his father always said.
So, he behaved himself and stopped frowning at all the sameness that made the back of his neck itch. His mother knocked on the door with a number four on it. He was turning four on his next birthday. He hoped they had iced fairy cakes and hot chocolate.
The door opened to reveal the face of a woman that reminded Draco of when he visited his father’s stables. She had a long neck and yellow hair. He frowned again. That wasn’t the right word for her hair… his hair was blonde, just like his father’s, but it was much lighter than this woman’s.
The woman and his mother spoke over his head before his mother entered the house. Inside, a very large man was waiting in the room with the comfortable, squashy chairs. They had one at home. Mummy called it a “family room”. It’s where his mother and father liked to sit and read while he played on the floor with his toys. There was a boy on the floor of this family room, surrounded with toys. He had hair like the woman and was very round, like the man. He looked bigger than Draco and his friend Blaise put together. Off to the side, near a corner, sat another boy. This one was a lot smaller than Draco and had dark hair like the portrait of his Aunt Bella who was in Azkaban.
His mother set him on the floor, speaking with the two other grown-ups. He made his way over to the smaller boy. He was pale, like Draco, and he looked up with wide green eyes. His dark hair was messy, and it nearly covered his eyes. He tilted his head, staring up at Draco with curiosity. Draco stared back. Neither blinked.
His mother came up next to him and picked up the small boy, settling him on her hip before scooping Draco up in her other arm. “Come Draco, let’s go show your father your new little brother.”
Draco blinked, head tilting again. Brother? His parents had talked to him about brothers the day before when they were getting him ready for bed. And sisters. Blaise got a new sister a few months earlier. She had been much smaller than this boy. As his mother walked out of the house with the four on the door, he looked around and wondered which house they’d found her in…
His new brother whined after Mummy had apparated them away from the strange and wrong looking place. She’d quickly set them down on the ground and rubbed the boy’s back as he got sick on the ground. Draco didn’t understand why his new brother was apologizing for throwing up. Draco remembered the last time he’d had a bad tummy ache. Getting sick into a basin, though it felt horrible, made him feel a little better after.
Their mother carried him into their house - their manor he remembered - as Draco raced ahead to find their father. Daddy was in his study. He looked up and smiled as Draco ran into the room.
“Daddy, we found my brother. At the strange place. I didn’t like it. It was all the same. ‘Cept for the number four. I’ll be four on my birthday.”
“Is that so, Draco? Did you do well and help your mother?” Draco nodded. His father patted him on the head, standing as his mother and brother entered the study.
“I believe the new member of our family is ready for his potion,” his mother said. Draco watched as his father took a small bottle out of his desk.
“Severus just dropped this off. He was curious as to why we needed it, but he didn’t ask too many questions. It just needs a few drops from each of us.” Draco and his brother watched as their parents did something with the bottle and it glowed red before turning white. He stood next to the chair his mother sat in, his brother in her lap.
“Alright, sweetheart. Remember what I told you, about us being your new Mummy and Daddy?” His brother nodded. “You just need to drink this. I know it tastes bad, but, if you do, I promise we’ll be your Mummy and Daddy forever.” Draco’s brother smiled before drinking the contents of the bottle. Draco made a face along with him. He remembered the yucky potion he’d had to take when he was sick. It had tasted very bad indeed.
“Can we keep him now?” Draco asked. He liked this new brother.
“Yes, son,” Daddy said. “The potion is making him sleepy right now. He needs rest while his looks change to match ours.”
“And it’s almost time for your nap as well,” Mummy said. “But, when you both wake up, you’ll be able to play together.”
Draco and his brother were put to bed soon after. Draco curled around his brother’s smaller body. He was looking forward to having someone to play with everyday. Blaise only visited once a week. This close up, he noticed a strange pale line on his brother’s forehead. It looked like the scar he had on his leg from when he’d fallen in the greenhouse. He kissed it before settling into the pillow and falling asleep.
When they did wake up, his brother looked a little different, like their father had said he would. His hair was two colours, just like their mother’s. The sides and back were blond like Draco’s and their father’s. And his eyes weren’t green anymore. They were the same warm dark colour as their mother’s.
“Mummy, Daddy, what’s brother’s name?” Draco asked when their parents came to get them.
Their father picked up his brother, smiling at the little boy. “His name is Corvus.”
—30—