BLOOD WAS POUNDING IN HIS EARS, as Saros wondered if he had entered some weird dream state. It was better than thinking he had caught someone sneaking around his room in the dark. However, as he gave a firm pull to whoever he had captured, he found it odd that they didn't fight him, instead, seemed to willingly follow in the direction of the force. And with just enough light from the fading lantern, Saros was finally able to make out the person that had been intruding and leaving behind the notes.

"Draco?"

His breath caught in his throat, almost as if someone had reached out and snatched him by the throat, holding him in place. Draco stood before him, small little crying sounds continued to emit from him, but he didn't even bother reacting to his name. His shoulders were hunched over and his head dipped low, enough to hide the majority of his face, but Saros could recognise his little brother in a heartbeat.

What was he to make of the entire situation? For the last several weeks, he had been almost desperate to figure out who A.S. was, whether it was because he thought the anonymous sender was there to hurt him or as time went on, help him. However, it didn't make sense to Saros, especially since the last person he would tie the initials to was Draco. Not to mention, Draco had shown a clear loyalty to their parents, what business would he have sending an owl to Angelina or leaving little hints around for Saros?

And yet, that was when Saros noticed something very odd about the situation, Draco's eyes were partially closed. Even through the midsts of crying, he hadn't responded to anything that Saros said, nor did he react to being moved. Instead, his body seemed to sway lightly and he kept his head low, all while crying. One hand was closed tightly in a fist, while the other arm dangled loosely.

Was he asleep?

With a nervous swallow, Saros reached out and grabbed Draco's fist, struggling for a couple of seconds to get him to open up his fingers. Eventually, he managed to pry open the grip, revealing a small little note, similar to the ones that had been left behind previously. And similar to the last one, the word "Help" was written down. For a few seconds, Saros scolded himself, thinking he had been unable to recognise Draco's handwriting, but then he thought to himself, how could he have remembered during such a time where his own mind had been a mess?

And as he looked down, he had to question, was that even Draco's handwriting or had he purposely used a different style to throw others off?

Just when Saros thought he had been thrown the biggest curveball of his life, dealing with the idea of his parents manipulating his memories, now he had to believe that his brother was acting as some form of vigilante. But it didn't make sense, especially when Draco had been trying to keep Saros away from his friends that knew the truth, he had played along with their parents' lies, and made no sign or gesture that he thought Saros was in the right anyways.

No matter how confused he was though, Saros couldn't ignore the fact that his little brother seemed to be in distress. He wasn't sure what to do at the time besides gently guiding Draco to come rest on his bed. Draco seemed to resist initially in his sleepwalking mode, but eventually, his legs seemed to give out and he collapsed onto the bed. The crying was starting to fade, turning into little whimpers and then the room fell completely silent.

Starting to feel dizzy from everything that had unfolded so quickly, Saros remained still for a few moments, allowing Draco to continue to sleep. However, he couldn't wait for very long because A.S had been something on his mind for quite some time. Reaching his hand over, he grabbed Draco's shoulder and gently began shaking him to stir his brother out of his sleep. It took a few good shakes before Draco awoke with a start and seeing Saros' face in the light, he immediately sat up in a panic.

"What are you doing?!" Draco snapped at him as he tried to place some distance between them. "What are you doing in my room?"

"Draco," Saros replied calmly, " you're in my room."

Glancing around for a moment, it seemed Draco was double-checking to make sure Saros was telling the truth and when it was confirmed, he quickly jumped to his feet off the bed. Saros stood up to block the door as he needed to speak with Draco, rather than having him run out of the room to avoid confrontation. Once Draco noted that he was practically cornered, his eyes started darting from left to right, trying to plot an escape route.

"Draco,  listen to me, you're the one who came to me," Saros said, pointing to himself, " you're the one that's been leaving me messages. You left me one tonight."

There was an exaggerated scoffing sound that blurted out in the darkness before Draco spoke. "You don't know what you're talking about, I didn't leave you any sort of message!"

"Yes, you did!" Saros countered. "I caught you leaving this!"

The small note of "help" was held up, leaving Draco to squint his eyes before shaking his head. It was clear that he did not wish to take responsibility for it even though he had been caught in the act. But Saros wasn't going to let it all go simply because his brother said otherwise, he knew what he had witnessed, the evidence was in his hand and the fact that Draco was in his room.

"You're A.S," he told Draco, " you're the one who's been leaving the messages. You sent an owl to Angelina, you left clues for me to figure the truth out for myself, I know it was you, Draco, so stop lying to me! My entire summer was filled with lies, I don't want to hear any more of them, I just want you to be honest with me. If these letters are you then you're the one who told me to find Luna, you're the one that told Angelina to find me...why would you do that?"

Draco's eyes continued to dart over to the door behind Saros, but Saros was clearly standing in front of it. It also didn't help that Saros had a wand and Draco was completely unarmed at the time.

"Draco!" Saros called his name louder only to have his voice soften drastically afterwards."Talk to me, please, I'm your brother, you can tell me."

Suddenly, Draco slumped to the floor, burying his head between his knees that he drew up to his chest. He couldn't look at Saros when he spoke, whether it was out of shame or nerves, he just couldn't look him in the eye.

"I didn't know I was A.S." Saros heard him confess initially as he made his way over to where Draco was on the floor. "How could I know initially, everything was happening at night. But then I would wake up and find that I had written out all these letters to you, telling you everything that happened. I had to keep burning them because I was afraid that you were going to find them, but I was more afraid of Mother and Father finding them."

Saros was settled across from Draco on the floor, listening as Draco decided to pour everything out at once.

"A couple of times, I found myself almost sending owls in the night, I would wake up outside of your room, with a letter in hand explaining everything. And then, I guess, my subconscious took over to make sure that you learned the truth. You remember everything now, don't you?" he questioned.

Draco lifted his head to watch as Saros gave a slight nod before he spoke. "I remember a lot of things, the past mostly. But I can't remember Angelina, I have no memories with her, do you know why? Was it something that Father did?"

"He was only trying to protect you. They're only trying to help-"

"Draco! Did Father do something to me so that I wouldn't remember Angelina? You need to tell me what happened?"

"I-I-I don't kn-kno-"

"Yes, you do-"

"No, I don't!" Draco cried out. " I don't! I don't! All I know is, you found the family tapestry one afternoon after we brought you home from St Mungo's. Everything had been just fine until then and you saw that your face had been burnt off of it. You started going mental, you left the room, demanding that you wanted to speak to Angelina. Mother thought you were going to get yourself hurt, so she told Father to do something."

The room was quiet again with the exception of Draco started to cry almost instantly. But Saros needed more, he didn't want to push Draco too far, but it was his mind that was in question, his own memories, he needed to know what Lucius had done.

"Then what? Mother told Father to do something, so what did he do, Draco?"

"I don't know," Draco whispered, " I don't. All I know is, he struck you from behind with a spell and then he took you into one of the back rooms. When you came out to join us for a meal, it was like it never happened. You went back to believing that everything was great around you but you weren't Saros. At least, not the one I grew up with, you were...so off. You didn't even talk the same. It was wrong, it was all wrong!"

Rather than Saros interrupting again, he remained quiet, allowing Draco to continue.

"When they said they had you at St Mungo's with no memory of who you were, Mother and Father said this would be our second chance at getting you back. You would be able to come home again and we wouldn't have to deal with the whole blood-traitor nonsense. That's all I wanted, I wanted things to go back to the way they were before the Quidditch World Cup. You and Father were on good terms and you weren't looking to leave us behind."

"Draco," Saros said softly, " my intentions were to never leave you or Mother or Father behind. I just wanted you all to wake up and realise that we had been wrong with our views. It was something that was preached within our families for years, but it didn't make it right. Blood status doesn't make a person, that's what I wanted you all to see. I didn't want to leave you, do you remember how many times I reached out to you, Draco? I reached out to them as well, I wrote letters to Mother and Father, but they weren't willing to listen and you know that."

"They just wanted to keep you safe-"

"And I want the same for them," Saros said, although he wasn't sure how much of it was true after learning that Lucius had done something to him. "I didn't want them to suffer, I just wanted them to open their eyes. I wanted them to set a good example for you and understand that the world is not the place they've made it out to be in their heads. People like Hermione Granger and other muggle-borns are not our enemies. The true enemy is the man that ordered Father to kill me that night."

Draco's eyes widened drastically as he swallowed and peered up once more. They started to sting from the irritation of crying, but he continued to look at Saros, who was stuck in a frown remembering the events of that night.

"So he really is back then?" Draco asked. "I figured he was, the way Father had to keep leaving for business and how he had your leg. It all seemed to add up to one thing, but I didn't want to believe it. He's back, just like Potter said."

"The worst part is," he said, " I thought Father was actually going to kill me that night. I didn't think he was going to hesitate to kill me to please his precious lord. But he did...and that means, he knew that Voldemort-"

Draco flinched.

"....it meant that he knows somewhere inside of him that the Dark Lord is wrong," Saros finished. "And I just want to pull that part to the surface because it is wrong, Draco. No matter what happened in the history of our kind, you can't blame an innocent generation. We passed our judgement on the Weasley family when in turn, they're great people. Think of all the things you've missed out on because you've judged people based on their blood status rather than knowing them. And think about the friendships you have now, are they really your friends, or are they just loyal to your blood status?"

Finally, there seemed to be something that was waking up inside Draco, something that was allowing him to listen to Saros, rather than just write off what his brother was saying as being wrong.

"We have family willing to help us," Saros told him, " Andromeda and Sirius, they want to help our family. They've helped me plenty through this journey and they'll help you too, Draco. But you have to be willing to let these prejudices go. Those beliefs aren't helping you, they're hurting you. They've hurt our family to the point where we almost lost what we all had permanently."

"I don't want to lose them," Draco said, " I don't want to lose Mother and Father. I know what they did was wrong, I know what Father did to you was wrong, Saros, but please, don't...don't send him to Azkaban."

For a moment, Saros was frozen in place, wondering if Draco had somehow overheard the conversation that he had with Dumbledore before? But that would have been impossible, Draco wasn't around. More than likely, he believed that out of spite, Saros would go to the Ministry to report what their father had done and who is allegiance was to.

"No, Draco," Saros replied, " we're going to help Father. I think he needs it the most."

"Promise me."

Perhaps his voice had faltered at some point that made Draco believe that Saros didn't have Lucius' best interest at heart. But still, no matter how angry he was with his father, he didn't think to send Lucius to Azkaban would solve anything. And if it were to happen, Saros wasn't sure if he could keep Draco's loyalty. At that moment, he was walking on eggshells with Draco, he had to keep his little brother close and make sure that Draco didn't have any reason to believe that Saros was attempting to deceive him.

It wasn't going to be an easy journey for Draco, especially going against their parents, but if he believed it would reunite their family as a whole soon enough, he more than likely would be willing to do anything.

"I promise, Draco."

With nothing more to say in the late hours of the night, they agreed they would talk again in the morning, as it would be the start of Draco's journey. There still seemed to be plenty of tension between the two, whether they were questioning how well it was going to end. But Saros pulled Draco into a hug before letting him go. Draco was just nearing the door when he heard his brother call after him, leaving him to linger a little longer. Saros was climbing into his own bed before turning to him.

"A.S," he said, "what does it stand for?"

There was a ghost of a smile on Draco's face as he answered. "Serpens album," he said, " it means white snake, I just reversed it to album serpens. I guess so no one would be able to figure out it was me. Night."

"Good night."