Remus Lupin sat in Dumbledore’s office, he was in Hogwarts after so many years but he barely paid attention to the place he had lived in for seven years of his life. If he let himself feel that nostalgia and indulge in the memories he would surely break.

Every place he’d look would bring the ghost laughter of James and Peter, the painful reminder of who Sirius had become, and him, the only one that remained.

He had lost so much, turned into a monster against his will at a young age, alone for most of his life he had finally, finally, found people who cared and loved him, but he hadn’t been allowed a simple life, You-Know-Who was a threat to everyone and he only got stronger as time went on. They had to fight him, give everything they could so a madman wouldn’t be capable of dictating the lives of thousands of innocents, fight for the many that had already been killed and then, the one thing James and Lily couldn’t give up, their son, was threatened and they had to hide away.

Even that had not been enough.

His heart ached for every lost one, alone again, he continued to live, fighting his own shadows, against all odds and to his own surprise, he had one small hope, guiding him on. That hope was why he was at Hogwarts in the first place.

He stood up when he heard Dumbledore entering the office, the headmaster smiled to him and calmly walked toward the desk.

“Remus, I wish it had been a better situation to see you again but I hope you tried some of the candy, we should all be able to find the small happinesses in these new days”

He attempted a smile but managed only a tired grimace, he wasn’t here for that anyway.

“Good to see you too, sir”

Dumbledore, however, shook his head “I don’t suppose casual talk is what you came to talk to me” the older man sat down in his chair and motioned to Remus to do the same.

Remus winced, his voice failing he sat back down and took a deep breath before starting.

“There have been rumours, about Harry, some--” he looked down at his hands “Some even say he died with You-Know-Who”

“I wish I could tell you those rumours were all lies” his heart skipped a beat and he turned to look at the headmaster, whose furrowed expression made his stomach drop.

“Then Harry is--” it hurt too much to even think about it.

The headmaster then met his eyes, he tried to read what they told but couldn’t find an answer.

“No,” the older man said finally “I don’t think Harry Potter is dead”

Remus was sure that if he tried to stand now he would fall, his hands and legs shook with anxiety, he had so many questions, if he wasn’t dead, then where was he? Why had those rumours spread? What did Dumbledore meant by saying that the rumours were not false?

He settled on asking the latter.

Dumbledore nodded at his choice, taking his time to answer in a satisfactory manner.

“The absolute truth as we know it,” the man started “is that on that night of October, when aurors arrived in Godric’s Hollow, the baby Harry Potter was nowhere to be found”

Remus listened afraid that even breathing would prevent him from knowing.

“Even before that, I had sent Hagrid, I was afraid that with the disappearance of their leader, some of his most fanatical followers might try to hurt the only survivor of that night”

“Then you think one of the Death Eaters have him now?!” he asked rapidly but one look from the headmaster told him to just listen.

“When he arrived, the boy was not there, it worried me more than I wished to admit” Dumbledore said gently “But as the night turned into day I knew that they couldn’t have taken him”

“But how are you sure?!” Remus begged.

Dumbledore smile returned, looked deep into his eyes and he felt eleven again, standing in front of the professor that always seemed to know more than he let on.

“They thrive on the attention, with their master gone they would turn aggressive, I already knew that” Dumbledore tried to make Remus see how important that was “And yet nothing, a day has gone by and they are as lost as we are, if they had taken the boy, we would already have heard from them, instead they scattered, some loyal, some fleeing to avoid imprisonment, but none claiming to hold a green-eyed child”

Remus let that information sink in, they didn’t have him, they didn’t have Harry, he could almost see the relief filling him, but his first question remained and he couldn’t relax just yet “Then, where is Harry?”

“That... is what we don’t know”

***

“Take the riiight at the red building” Ginny read from the paper where she had written Mrs. Rees information, balancing Harry on her hip.

Draco rolled his eyes but accepted without saying anything, they turned but quickly pretended to be talking, as close as they could, with Harry readjusted to the front, obscured by them.

Before leaving the hotel they had put Harry in his new baby beanie, making sure it would cover his scar but also his hair, just in case, that morning they had noticed that along with some of the still celebrating wizards, in the midst of the muggles, the uniform of the aurors could be seen.

The search for the Boy Who Lived had started.

When he was sure the wizard had left, Draco turned to Ginny and indicated a store on the other side of the road.

“There’s a pawn shop there, we will need the money,” he shrugged and eyed the road again “There might still be some around here, give them time to search elsewhere”

Ginny wanted to avoid the lines but, to her annoyance, had to agree with Malfoy, she begrudgingly nodded and hoped they weren’t held up too long.

They entered the shop uncomfortably close and took the room as a way to get finally some space, Ginny sat on a chair by the window and put Harry down in front of her, it just looked as if she was playing with him and he would be hidden, Draco meanwhile turned to the shop owner.

The burly older man gave one look at him, young with ill-fitting clothing, he could just tell what was going on in his head, because it was exactly what he would assume in his place, Draco was glad Weasley had decided to stay away, the irony was killing him.

Taking a deep breath he ignored that and turned instead to the man, he had had to deal with worse than that, he could do it.

“I’m here to sell this bracelet”

He then put the bracelet in front of himself, ensuring that the owner would have to reach for it, the man sighed, expecting something cheap, ready to laugh at his youngster bravado.

The owner quickly weighed the jewellery in his hand, rolling his eyes, it didn’t felt like much but he nevertheless took his scale and put the bracelet in.

Draco however smiled when the man’s eyes widened, it had felt so light in his hand but on the scale it gave a completely different weight, he tried with his reserve scale to no avail, same result. He eyed Draco with suspicion but decided to analyse the metal instead.

The bracelet was more perfect than any he had seen and nothing like sterling silver, it didn’t make sense, it wasn’t plastic and it wasn’t silver plated, but pure silver was too soft to create jewellery, and yet, the more he searched, the more the answer seemed to be just that. Of course, Draco knew that what made his bracelet was magic, nothing dangerous, just the necessary spells to mould silver but the man would never need to know.

The suspicion grew as he looked the teenager up and down, so the owner asked him accusingly “Did you steal this?!”

Draco rolled his eyes wondering if he would need to invent some sob story “It was my mother’s.”

“Can you prove it?” the man asked.

“This is an unique piece, you won’t see another like this, I can sell it elsewhere”

“I can call the cops”

Driving his feelings deep down, he offered a shrug “They will just agree with me”

The owner looked again at the bracelet, could he risk it? If it had been stolen, he wouldn’t see it again and if the boy was telling the truth then he would turn away a client.

“Do you want to redeem this later?”

Draco bit back a smile and faked a pitiful expression “No, too many memories”

It wasn’t a complete lie, it was a painful remainder of his mother but aside from his wand, he would now have to be a muggle, muggles don’t need magical bracelets.

The man nodded, even more interested.

“I will give you five hundred”

The blond didn’t know how much that was but he was sure he could get more.

“That much? Are we talking about the same thing?”

The owner groaned “A thousand then, it’s double”

Draco debated pushing his luck, if he could pull this off, he would have only one last shot.

He took the bracelet with calculated show, shaking his head “I knew the other shop looked better handled”

“Two thousand!” the man hurried “It’s my last offer”

Draco smiled and handed the bracelet back to the man “It’s a deal then”

When the man went in the back to get the money, Ginny joined him again but he couldn’t tell what she was thinking, her eyes and expression unreadable to him at that moment, it was very frustrating considering how easily she let her emotions show, reading her had been the most fun he had in... almost two months if he was honest with himself. She had that brand Weasley personality and could never really hide from him, he hoped she didn’t start now.

But that expression was gone before he could ask her about it and instead she turned a mocking smile to him “So you can use your trickery for good, huh?”

He rolled his eyes but smiled, it was an acknowledgement of sorts, as close to a compliment as he would get from her, he suspected.

“Any more Aurors?”

“None, only muggles”

Grumbling about the youth of today the man returned and handed the money to Draco while focusing solely on the bracelet, they decided to leave well enough alone and just exit the shop.

“Do you think-- second road, here,” they turned “do you think that is enough?” Ginny asked.

Draco eyed the money in his hand suspiciously, sighing he decided to just shove the notes in his pocket “We will find out.”

They assessed the building in front of them.

This was the most important part of their plan, they could escape the wizarding world grasp only if they could pretend to be normal muggles, and this was the beginning of that.

Draco and Ginny shared a look full of uncertainty and together they entered the building.

They looked around the place, it wasn’t packed but there already were plenty of people, the queue would only make them more anxious and that wasn’t a pleasant thought.

A man nearby eyed them up and down and rolled his eyes, he then pointed to a strange device they had never seen before.

“You need a number and when you go in to talk, don’t waste anyone’s time, you hear me?”

“Sure” Ginny offered, as long as they didn’t have to talk more than it was necessary to that man it was perfect.

Draco took one of the papers from the machine and peering over his shoulder Ginny read the number 138.

“I assume they are going to call us” he rationalized “What number do you think it’s at now?”

Ginny shrugged.

The voice from one of the booth reached them then...

“Number 56 to booth 4!”

They shared a groan and sat down on the plastic chairs on the side.

He had finally had a good night of sleep and the wait still made him want to just go back to bed and when it didn’t make him sleepy, it made him restless and he had to pace in front of the two chairs they had claimed. Harry meanwhile had decided Ginny’s hair was the most interesting thing in the room and began to pull on it, she wanted him to stop but the moment she took his hands from her hair he just started screaming, gaining her the disapproving looks of most of the people in the building, so she just resigned herself to the slow scalping of her hair from a toddler.

That hell continued on for two hours.

“Number 138 to booth 2”

To say they run to the booth would be an understatement.

“Good day, what can I help you two?” came the tired voice of the employee on the other side, a brown-haired, bored-looking woman in her mid-thirties.

“Yes, we have become homeless a few days ago” Draco started.

“Car accident, tragic, crocodiles may have been involved” Ginny added to the very unimpressed woman.

“And we don’t have a job and as you can see,” he pointed at Harry and Ginny raised him a little “we have a child”

They shuddered but agreed that it was the best cover.

“So we--”

“You will need to fill these forms and then present them together with your documents to my colleague at booth seven.” She passed them a stack of papers and a pen, absolutely not caring about them.

Draco eyed the pen with suspicion, he only knew what it was due to a time when one of his father employees used one on some documents, his father had complained to him and his mother about the contraption before firing the man the next day. He didn’t trust the thing and missed his quills.

They sat back down and eyed the papers.

Why becoming a muggle was so hard?

Draco filled the lines in mostly silence with Ginny offering her informations while distracting Harry from grabbing the pen.

“Surname?” he asked before the realization hit him “We will need to use the same surname, won’t we?”

Ginny rolled her eyes “It doesn’t mean anything.”

“It means we will have to pretend we are married,” he said disgusted.

“Daddy dearest would disown you?” Ginny mocked him.

Their whole situation was in many ways very funny but leave it to Malfoy to take it so seriously. Way too seriously, why hadn’t he insulted her back? It was the one thing she knew she could count on now.

Refusing to look up from the papers he finally answered her “Can’t really disown me from Azkaban, can he?”

Was that... resentment? From Draco Malfoy? About his father?

He looked at her from the corner of his eye, noticing her incredulity he shook his head “Of course, everything would have been different if he was there,” he sneered “by now our side would be at the advantage and I would be relaxing in the manor, but since we are here and I’m stuck with you, as you put it, it doesn’t mean anything”

And there it was. It was almost comforting, humanity from Draco Malfoy was a terrible thought.

So terrible it made her laugh and he couldn’t help but join her hysteria, the comedy of their situation finally catching up to him, a few people giving them the side-eye.

“So, back to the important,” Draco said then, more relaxed than before “Who are we?”

Ginny thought about it, she thought about it but nothing. They sat there for a minute but the inspiration refused to come and Harry even started fussing, she sighed and got up “Think about it, I need to go change him”

Draco wouldn’t fight her on it.

Nothing really came up, he couldn’t use a wizard surname as a muggle and he didn’t know any muggle ones, if he ever wanted to be someone else in his life, what would that person be called? That was the problem he supposed, he didn’t want to be someone else, he had grown up with everything he could have ever wished for, raised with the best that money could buy, his life had been what most could only dream of, but he as he was, didn’t exist.

Draco Malfoy was a baby in a manor, still waiting to live that life.

He was the failure with nowhere to go.

Yet.

Smiling, he could almost feel like he was five again, standing in the garden of the manor he had tried to catch the birds that would land on the fountain and his mother had smiled, told him he would get dirty and called him by her side. He had happily obeyed, enjoying the sun he laid his head on his mother’s lap while she read a book out loud for him. He could no longer remember the story but he could remember being unable to pronounce the protagonist’s name, I was so angry, he laughed and remembered the tantrum he made at that, Narcissa had been more patient than he deserved and told him to just say as much as he could.

As much as I can, huh, Draco thought Thank you, Mother.

“Hewitt?” he had been so distracted by the memory he didn’t even notice Ginny returning.

“Is it a problem?”

“No, it works well”

Ginny shrugged, however, eyeing the next question she had an idea.

She asked for the pen and for Draco to hold the papers so that she could write, grumbling as he did so and she rapidly wrote in it before he could notice her expression of mischief. Her small revenge.

“Finished” she announced, waiting for him to notice.

“You look too happy, Weasley, what did you--” his eyes widened.

“DAVID?!”

She laughed, shifting Harry on her hip so she wouldn’t disturb him, she just knew how much Malfoy would hate such a common name.

“Mr. David Hewitt, perfect!” she mocked him, enjoying his look of horror.

“Well then!” he decided to counter-attack “Mrs. Virginia Hewitt”

Draco didn’t know if she paled more from the name or from being his (pretend) wife.

Looking daggers at each other they moved towards booth seven, thankfully free.

Holding a coffee the woman at that booth seemed more awake than the one from before and even smiled at them.

“Finished?” she asked livelily.

“Yeah” Draco nodded and passed her the papers.

She glanced between the papers and then turned back to them “Everything seems in order.”

They weren’t sure what that meant but hoped it meant the end of the whole process and possibly a place to stay.

“All we need is some identification.”

Their stomach sank “...What?”

“Your documents” she explained not understanding why they looked so worried.

“And if we didn’t have those?” Ginny asked, trying a casual tone.

“Well, that’s a problem, we can’t help you without documents”

“Even if we procured those later?” Draco asked, leaning over the counter.

“I’m afraid that to receive your needed identification would require time and we wouldn’t be able to do anything until then” the woman explained patiently.

Ginny tried arguing with her but Draco just looked around them, the booth was far enough from the other booths and no one else seemed to need it at the moment, everyone focused on their own situation.

He took out his wand and pointed at the woman, whispering “Confundus”

The woman’s eyes glazed and Ginny smacked him on the arm and whispered “We are not supposed to do magic!”

“Do you have a better idea?” he put his wand away again “And besides, it’s been two days from the Dark Lord disappearance, they are still dealing with all of that and celebrating, as long as we don’t use it any more they will only receive a notice that someone they think is only a one-year-old did magic and assume it was a mistake”

She glared at him, hoping vividly that he was right she turned to the woman who smiled at them, completely unaware.

“So,” Draco asked “Can you help us?”

“Of course!” the woman said and then started telling the two teenagers how their situation would be from that moment on.

Their new life began.