Always (A Draco Malfoy Fanfiction)

Chapter 1: The Potter Twins

It was a still night. Although the moon was half-hidden, there was still a faint silverly sheen cast on the ordinary, quaint little house of number four, Pivet Drive.

Serene and unassuming, a young boy lay asleep on his cramped bed, a glean of sweat gathered upon the curious lightning shaped scar on his brow, a pile of twisted blankets curled like ropes around him. The threadlike strands of a spider's web hung in the corner beside him, and a buzzing fly beat its tiny wings parallel to the soft snores that echoed in the room.

The boy gave a muted mumble as the door to his bedroom creaked open.

"Harry?" A small voice whispered. "Harry are you awake?"

Harry groaned and wriggled further down into his blanket, pulling the fabric up over his eyes.

A petite girl skipped closer towards him, poking out her head, until their noses were almost touching. She peered at him for another few seconds, waiting for another movement, for a response from her brother. When she received none, she gave a huff of impatience, and with a swift push and leap, landed on the coiled lump on the bed.

"Ow!" The boy shot up and shoved the other child, so that she landed with a plop on the floor beside him. "What the hell, Valerie!"

Valerie stuck out her tongue, merriment and cheekiness glowing in her cerulean eyes. "Your fault, sleepy pants." She pretended to shake some dust off her as she hopped up, before shooting her most dazzling grin at Harry, showing off two rows of pearly white teeth.

"Aww, come on Harry. Don't look so annoyed! I was just so bored. Besides, you're awake now aren't you? We can do something fun!" Her forehead scrunched up as she had a new line of thought. "And you know I hate it when you call me Valerie...Petunia always screeches that at me. I swear that women needs to do something about the stick up her arse!"

She cleared her throat and began a poor but squeaky imitation of her aunt. "Valerie Potter, I swear if you put one more toe out of line I'll string you up by your neck. No, actually I'll send you to that school...what was it called again? St Martha's College for Young Ladies. Perhaps you'll stop being such a feral child then." She opened her mouth and pretended to gag.

Harry had been glaring up at Valerie, but his scowl slowly faded under the strength of her innocent, cheerful smile. He gave a small laugh as she said the last part, but quickly covered it up as sigh of exasperation.

"Have you looked outside Val? In case you haven't noticed, it's pitch black! Go back to sle..."

He trailed off at the pathetic expression forming on his sister's face. "Oh, stop looking at me like that".

"Pleaseeeee!" Val cried again. "It's almost Dudley's birthday. And you know how those go. This could be our last chance for a real laugh! They hardly ever let me go outside."

"Alright, alrig-"

He barely had time to grab a jacket, before Val had already pulled him out of the door.

"Shhhhh, quiet! Don't wake the Dursleys!" Harry whispered urgently.

Val didn't seem to hear him as she skipped happily to the door. Even though her springing feet should have thudded against the floor, the room remained as silent as ever. Her dark brown hair flew up and down.

With her hand wrapped around Harry's wrist, the two seemed to reach the playground in no time.

"Geez, it is quite dark isn't it."

"I told you..." Harry began, but whilst, it had been a rather dark night before, the moon abruptly came out of its obstruction behind the clouds, and everything around seemed to become much lighter. He felt a feeling of safety and security grow in his heart.

"Okay." He grinned at Val. "Let's play."

That seemed to be the phrase she was looking for, because with a small whoop of joy she hopped up onto the bars and did a full 360 degree turn. Her hair hanging down around her face, she glanced upside down at Harry.

"Are you ready for tomorrow?"

He grimaced. "Ready as you are. Let's try to stay on our best behaviour. We have to avoid a disaster like last time."

Val laughed. "I think last time went very well. Dudley's face certainly looked much sweeter with some cake on it".

Val couldn't help smiling as she thought back to last year.

Dudley had something particularly insulting to Harry. This was a bad decision, because Harry and Val were a team - if you messed with one, you'd be sure to face the other's wrath.

And Val, who quickly became very indignant, had later 'accidentally' pushed Dudley over, so that the boy landed in his own birthday cake. She remembered having a very strong desire to humiliate him, just as he had humiliated Harry. The next thing she new, although she was sure the floor had been quite clean only seconds before, Dudley had proceeded to slip on some unidentifiable juice on the floor and promptly landed face down on the ground. Petunia of course had run to help her son, but she too tumbled, and fell on top of Dudley. Vernon, who was very frustrated, had then come to help both of them, and likewise, he too tripped. By this time, the three had made a pretty spectacular human pyramid, which was topped off when the table unexplainably broke and the beautiful, specially made, three tiered cake had dropped down and splattered onto their handsome looking clothes.

Although Harry and Val had found this to be of extreme amusement, unfortunately, their aunt and uncle did not think so. Dudley had been particularly infuriated considering that many of his school friends had seen the fiasco, and had struggled to stifle their snickers.

That would have been one of the highlights her life, perhaps the top highlight, if not for the fact that the Dursleys seemed determined to blame her for the event. That was hardly fair. How could they blame her for their own clumsiness? How could she have made the table fall?

Predictably, none of her relatives seemed to have any sense of logic or rationality. Vernon and Petunia had shared a glance of distrust mingled with disgust, and then she and Harry were confined to their bedrooms for a whole (very boring) two weeks. Perhaps she deserved some punishment (she had pushed Dudley after all), but it was truly unfair for them to put Harry on house arrest too. In this case, he was innocent.

Valerie's thoughts skipped back to the present as she watched Harry hop on a swing.

"Come on!" He yelled, pointing to the seat beside him.

Val ran, giggling, dark hair fluttering around her.

The duo ran around laughing and teasing, until finally, exhausted, they proceeded to trot back up home, and sneaked carefully up the stairs. Harry headed to his tiny cupboard under the stairs, and Val to her laundry room turned bedroom.

Her head barely hit the pillow before she was fast asleep.