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SIYE Time:23:50 on 28th March 2024
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Summer Story
By Arnel

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Category: Post-OotP, Buried Gems
Characters:None
Genres: Action/Adventure, Fluff, General
Warnings: None
Story is Complete
Rating: PG-13
Reviews: 392
Summary: Summer at the Dursleys’ is typical for Harry Potter who hopes his stay with his relatives will only last two weeks at most. In this sequel to You’re Still You and New Year, New Hope Harry learns that his role as “savior” of the Wizarding world is more complicated than he thought and that he needs his friends and mentors more than he ever imagined.
Hitcount: Story Total: 135224; Chapter Total: 4094







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Interlude: Draco’s Decision

Awareness came slowly. It felt as if certain senses were on overload while others stayed in the background, waiting for the signal to begin working. For some reason, this was a familiar feeling, but he couldn’t remember why. At first Draco only noticed that he was warm and dry and free of pain. That in itself was a blessing, he thought vaguely, especially since the last place he remembered being was Godric’s Hollow in a snowstorm. Then again, it could not be right because the last thing he remembered was the excruciating pain of the Entrail-Expelling Hex his father had hit him with during their last duel. How could it be that he felt no pain?

Dismissing the thought, he concentrated on the information his body was giving him. His sense of touch told him that he was covered with crisp cotton sheets and lying on something almost as soft as his four-poster at Hogwarts. The sounds he heard were confusing, though: to his left was the muted fall of footsteps accompanied by urgent voices asking questions and to his right was the soothing evenness of distant ocean waves. Ocean waves?

Draco open his eyes and found himself in a simply appointed room, one that was very different from his suite at Malfoy Manor and his dormitory at Hogwarts. Where could he be?

His gaze fell on the white-washed walls of the room and he turned his head to take in his surroundings. There was a closed door to his left and on the same wall was a simple three-drawer bureau and mirror combination. There was nothing on the bureau to give him a clue to where he was. The wall opposite the bed was blank except for a painting of a farm. None of the animals in the picture were moving so Draco decided this must be a Muggle room.

Muggle picture? Muggle room? The idea was incomprehensible because he couldn’t recall voluntarily going anywhere in the last few years that would require him to be in a Muggle room.

Nevertheless, the more he thought about it, the more important the painting became. It was a clue to where he was just as much as the window over the rustic desk and chair to his right were. He raised his head to look out the window and saw the ocean and a pier in the distance… and he knew… Somehow he’d transported himself to the room he had slept in on his favourite summer holiday, the one his family had taken when he was nine to Eastbourne on the south coast of England.

Laying his head back on the pillow, Draco stared up at the overhead ceiling fan remembering that trip. They had gone in August of 1989 and he remembered that that particular trip was the last time he’d been truly happy. His mother had made all the arrangements, finally convincing his father to agree to live in a Muggle cottage right on the beach only because there weren’t any Wizarding cottages left to rent this late in the season. Of course, they hadn’t lived completely as Muggles did, but for the few days they were there his parents reduced the number of times they pulled out their wands and they ate in seaside restaurants for all their meals, paying for their meals with Muggle currency–without too much grumbling from his father.

What stood out about this particular trip, though, were his parents’ demeanours. Incredibly, his father had stayed the whole time they were there, he didn’t reply to owls or other summonses, and he was attentive to his wife. Best of all, he had actually interacted with Draco during various activities. Draco remembered feeling very special because for once his father was giving him his undivided attention. As for his mother, she looked genuinely happy and not as if she was pretending to be, which was a rather novel concept as far as Draco was concerned. It was as if she’d left all her cares and concerns locked up at Malfoy Manor.

And what fun they’d had. Draco had spent the entire week in his bathing costume except for mealtimes. The beach had a magic of its own and when he wasn’t wave jumping or swimming, he was building sand castles with Mum or flying kites with Dad. One afternoon towards the end of their stay they’d ventured onto the pier and his father had rented him a pair of Muggle Rollerblades for an hour. Although he enjoyed the sensation of gliding down the pier, by the time they’d had to take the strange wheeled shoes back to the rental office Draco had had enough skating, mostly because, he remembered, his bum had been quite sore from all the falls he’d taken.

Then, on the last night, Draco had insisted they all go to the cinema to watch a film, The Little Mermaid, which they’d seen advertisements for on the pier. He had been pleasantly surprised when his father didn’t grumble much about Mudbloods and Muggles and had actually gone on the little outing. Draco had never seen a Muggle film before and watching it was indeed a novel experience. He’d never felt the compulsion to see another film, though; once was enough.

Still wondering why he’d transported himself to this room full of memories, Draco pushed himself up to lean against his pillows and take a better look at himself. He was dressed in cotton pyjamas and from what he could see his body was free of the cuts and bruises he had incurred during the battle. He rolled up his sleeve to find no trace of the Dark Mark or even the small indentations left by the basilisk fangs. Now very curious, he opened his shirt and examined his torso: it was completely free of the open wounds caused by his father’s spell and there were no painful broken ribs either. Something was up and he was beginning to feel very uneasy about his situation.

Folding back the bedclothes, Draco eased himself off the bed and walked over to the window. He tried to open it, but the sash was painted closed, so he gazed out at the ocean and the Eastbourne pier trying to ease the anxious feelings stirring in his mind. Finally unable to stay cooped up in the room without any answers, Draco walked towards the door intending to go out into the corridor and ask someone where exactly he was.

His hand was on the knob when someone on the other side knocked and he hastily retreated several steps. It was a good thing too, because he would have barrelled right into Professor Snape.

“Professor! What are you doing here?” Draco asked in surprise.

The Headmaster pushed his way past Draco and shut the door. “Sit down, Draco,” he ordered. “You are not allowed to go anywhere until you decide what you are going to do.” Professor Snape directed him to a wooden chair that was now by the bed. It hadn’t been there a moment ago. Draco raised an eyebrow as the Headmaster pulled the chair from under the desk and brought it around the bed. He sat facing Draco and for the first time Draco noticed he was carrying a basket of some sort.

“Decide?” Draco asked haughtily. “Decide what?”

“What you will do, where you will go,” was the professor’s enigmatic answer.

Draco folded his arms across his chest and slouched in his chair. “I’m waiting,” he snapped.

“For what exactly?”

“For you to tell me why you’re here.”

“I died.” Draco raised an eyebrow at this startling answer. “And from the looks of it you’re about to.”

The pronouncement made a lot of sense. It also made Draco very uneasy. “So... where exactly am I?” he finally asked.

“The In Between. Not exactly living, not exactly dead.”

Fear of the unknown didn’t help Draco’s attitude. “Oh, that’s a help,” he scoffed. “Is this some sort of limbo that I’ve been stuck in?”

Professor Snape cleared his throat, looking as if he was trying not to glare at Draco’s attitude. “Limbo yes, stuck no,” he stated tersely. “When I leave here you will have decided, one way or another, what will happen to your body, the one you left back in Godric’s Hollow.”

As he began to understand his predicament, Draco’s bluster fizzled out and he began to worry all over again. “I’ve been In Between before,” he said in a small voice. “Six months ago after the Battle of Hogsmeade...”

“Yes, you were,” Professor Snape agreed in a much kinder tone. “You were met by a colleague of mine, I believe. Do you remember who that was?”

Draco searched his memory and his eyes widened. “James Potter... Harry’s dad! I remember now. We talked for what seemed like forever,” he said incredulously. “He helped me decide that going back and making amends, or at least trying to, was worth all the pain and suffering I’d be going back to. He said I would be a better Slytherin if I channelled my ambition towards light rather than dark magic.”

Professor Snape smiled. “He was correct, wasn’t he?”

A little confused, Draco answered, “I really can’t answer that, Professor. I didn’t have much time to act on it, did I?”

Professor Snape pointed at Draco’s arm. “Getting rid of your Dark Mark is proof enough for me,” he said.

Draco raised an eyebrow. “How do you know?”

In answer, the Headmaster reached under his chair for the basket he had put there. He held it out for Draco to see what it contained. Nestled in a bed of fabric was a bright golden sphere that looked quite like an overgrown Pigmy Puff. Its pulsing light bathed Draco in its warmth and he wondered what exactly it was.

“This is your soul, Draco,” Professor Snape said reverently. “You can do one of two things with it. You can leave it in the basket and I will take it with us if you decide to go On, or you can take possession of it and go back to your body in Godric’s Hollow.”

“Why wasn’t I shown my soul the last time?” Draco asked, feeling more than a little bewildered.

“James felt that your talk didn’t warrant you seeing what your soul looked like at the time. He was fairly certain that you’d insist on trying to change as much as possible and want to go back. He was correct. You did go back and you did a great thing by convincing Blaise and Theo to join you in getting rid of your Dark Marks.”

“I see. So what will my life be like if I choose to go On verses going back?” Draco asked.

Professor Snape gazed at Draco’s soul as he said, “Let me ask you some questions.”

“All right.”

“What was your life’s aim when you were on Earth before the Battle of Hogsmeade?”

Draco thought hard. “I didn’t have one, sir,” he finally admitted. “Unless it was to follow in my father’s footsteps.”

No comment was offered by Professor Snape. Instead, he asked, “Were you always nice, humble, loving and giving?”

Draco shook his head. The answer to that question was shamefully easy and he wasn’t proud of what he was about to say. “No. I was a selfish and arrogant berk who delighted in seeing other people squirm.”

Professor Snape nodded and then asked, “Will you accept the consequences of your past deeds without complaint for however long it will take you to make up for what you did?”

“Only if I have to,” Draco answered uneasily.

The next question was easier to answer. “Why did you get rid of your Dark Mark?”

Draco smiled as he pulled up the sleeve of his pyjamas and looked at his empty forearm. “I decided that I wasn’t willing to do the things Voldemort wanted me to do, even if it meant severe punishment or even death.”

“How did you decide to do that?”

“Get rid of the Mark?”

Professor Snape nodded again.

“The things I talked about with Harry’s dad, the fact that my father dominated me and censured my mother from the time I was little until he went to Azkaban, and the fact that I wanted to be different from who I was previously were what helped me decide. There was a part of me that didn’t want to be afraid anymore, too.”

“I see... Now, if you decide to go back, how will your life be different from what it was previously?” Professor Snape’s eyes bore into him, but did not search his mind.

“I want a new start,” Draco said with finality. “I want to prove that I can be better than what I was and I want to start by helping the people of Godric’s Hollow or Hogsmeade recover from the damage done by the two battles. And I don’t mean just throwing money at a community and then getting my name put on a building. There’s a part of me that wants to be physically involved however I can be. It’s not something my father would have done...” He trailed off for a moment, trying to phrase his next ideas.

“I’m going to try to be nicer to people that I wasn’t nice to before,” he said finally. Professor Snape raised an eyebrow, clearly asking for an explanation. It came easily to Draco who continued, "You see, Ginny Weasley was nice to me when I arrived at the Potter’s crypt before the battle. She didn’t have to be, but she was. Later on, Harry kept me and Blaze and Theo company after the others left and we actually had a real conversation for the first time since we met.” Draco sighed. “Professor, I don’t want to be the person I was my first five and a half years at Hogwarts. It’s not who I am anymore.”

Professor Snape stroked his chin for a moment before he said, “Commendable... and are you willing to accept censure and hardship because of how the Wizarding public views your family?”

Draco looked at the soul in the basket. “Will it get brighter if I go back and try to rectify things?”

“I don’t know, Draco, because I myself have chosen to move On. I sacrificed my life so that Harry Potter and Ginevra Weasley could live. I am now paying restitution for my past misdeeds and know only that one of my former rivals is the custodian of my soul. I don’t know its colour or whether a soul can be repaired and become brighter. Draco, all we can do is try and hope that we can reverse a little of what we did earlier in life. So to answer your question, I can’t tell you what you want to know.”

Draco bowed his head. “Sir, I want to try,” he admitted. “I want a second chance to start over again like I did six months ago. I’m willing to put up with the snubs and the censure and the bad press and maybe even the loss of places I grew up in, because in the end it’s just stuff. And having a few good friends rather than a thousand side kicks or acquaintances means more to me right now than material possessions.”

“It sounds as if you’ve made your decision,” Professor Snape remarked, picking up the basket.

“It looks that way, doesn’t it,” Draco acknowledged. He gazed at his soul for several long moments, marvelling at its perfect shape and how its warm colour made him want to possess it again. He wanted it back for the simple reason that he could have sworn it was brighter now than it was when he first saw it. Looking back up at his former Head of House, Draco stated, “I want to go back. I want to go back even if it means giving up a lifestyle I find very comfortable.”

Professor Snape held the basket closer to Draco. “Then you’ll need this. Pick it up and hold it in both hands. It will know what to do.”

Nervously, Draco lifted his soul out of the basket and brought it close to his body. He liked how it felt in his hands; warm and strong, maybe even strong enough to endure the pain and hardship he knew he must endure to start over again.

As he held it, his soul began to shrink just a bit and become noticeably brighter. Draco looked up at Professor Snape to find the Headmaster smiling at him, as if approving what Draco was doing. Then, without warning, Draco’s soul floated away from his hands and towards his chest and with an audible Pop took residence in Draco’s body again.

Almost immediately, the room in Eastbourne began to fade to black. “Good-bye, Professor Snape, and thank you,” Draco called just before all went black.

He awoke again to find himself inside his body, the one that had been torn apart by his father and left for dead. The pain was excruciating and he gasped when someone touched his side.

A startled voice called, “Madam Pomfrey, the potion is wearing off! Draco’s waking up!”

“Praise Merlin for that!” the healer’s voice exclaimed from across the room. “I thought we’d lost him.”

The first voice sounded relieved as it said, “I thought so, too. How are Blaise and Theo?”

“Resting.”

Footsteps brought someone in swishing skirts closer and a moment later he felt something drip into his mouth. Draco swallowed automatically and the pain dulled a bit. The relief was enough to allow him to open his eyes. Hovering over him were a large young man and Madam Pomfrey herself.

“Mr Malfoy, blink twice for yes, once for no,” Madam Pomfrey directed. “Did the potion help the pain?”

Draco blinked twice.

“Is it bearable?”

Draco blinked once and a few drops more potion was administered.

“That’s all I can give you for now,” Madam Pomfrey told him, sounding regretful. She looked troubled as she added, “I’m sorry I can’t take all the pain away.”

She rose to leave and Draco did something he had never done in her presence before. He said thank you.



A/N: This Interlude took me completely by surprise for I had not included it in my original outline. Anyway, I’d been reviewing what I’d written about Draco, Blaise and Theo in Chapters 28 and 29 and the more I thought about that part of the story, the more I wanted to know what happened from Draco’s perspective. It was suddenly important to me to know the reasons he chose to come back over moving on and what his attitude would be once he recovered; especially since in one of her post-Deathly Hallows interviews, JK Rowling states that Draco would have a grudging gratitude towards Harry for saving his life, but they would never be friends. In the case of this story, I felt it was important to know who talked Draco into trying to be a better person and oddly enough, I discovered it was both Ginny’s acceptance of Draco and James Potter’s pep talk that fuelled his desire to be a better man.

As always, I owe a debt of gratitude to Aggiebell for the quick beta for this interlude. She found the time to read it between family, work and musical obligations and I appreciate her comments and suggestions. Thanks, Aggiebell.

Finally, please let me know what you think of the chapter. I always write back and appreciate you taking the time to tell me your opinions.
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