Mme Pomfrey fussed over Damien for a while after he was brought in, keeping him there long after he had woken up. He was never alone, Blaise having special permission to stay by his side even when he was supposed to be in lessons on the condition that he caught up by himself. Fawkes and Hedwig were always by his side. 

The Slytherins were very cautious of who could come to visit Damien, even more so than Mme Pomfrey. 

Harry had tried to visit Damien at some point, but he was turned away. Luna Lovegood somehow managed to slip past everyone though. 

"There are fewer nargles around you now." Luna sounded very absent, tying a cork necklace. 

"Is that a good thing?" Damien didn't really know what she was talking about, but he never did and he was glad she was acting the same as usual. 

"Oh, yes. They mess with your thoughts." Luna nodded very seriously. "Since the trial there have been fewer in the school, but when we decorate for Christmas I'm sure we'll get another infestation." 

"... Right." Damien just nodded, knowing it was probably better not to argue with her. 

"This will ward them off. It'll be better for you." Luna handed over the necklace that matched her own. 

"Thanks. How is everything? Nobody is telling me anything, I think they're too worried about me." Damien pulled his knees up to his chin. 

He couldn't say he didn't understand, but there was something uncomfortable about being treated like he was made of glass. Though he obviously didn't mean to, Damien was the main cause of everything that happened. 

"Professor McGonagall is acting Headmistress, but they're trying to get a new one because she wants to remain as a Transfiguration teacher. Harry is having a hard time settling in, he's currently befriended a pair of fourth year Gryffindors who have been known for being more like bullies than anything." Luna didn't even imply that she was uncomfortable telling him, which was like a breath of fresh air. 

"It's weird for 'Harry' to not be referring to me." 

"I'm sure you'll get used to it." 

"Maybe." Damien was not the first time his name had changed so completely, but it was the first time the person he thought he was still walked around. "Has there been anything from the Daily Prophet?" 

"They've been banned from Hogwarts, they really only know that ancient magic punished a long list of people, including You Know Who and Fudge." 

The two fell back into silence, Luna reading The Quibbler and Damien lost in thought. If he had known this is what would happen if he used that spell, at this point he honestly wasn't sure he would have agreed to cast it. 

It was bad enough Ron, Hermione, and most of the Slytherins knew what he had been through with the Dursleys, then they had to find out about Umbridge. Why couldn't he just deal with things by himself? 

----- 

Damien was staring, unseeingly, out of the window as the Hogwarts Express rushed him and the other students away from the castle. Though Professor McGonagall had done her best, it was clear that the chaos caused by his spell was too much to clean up while trying to continue lessons, meaning that the term had ended early. 

Damien had managed to achieve what even a basilisk couldn't. 

Fawkes was in the form of the Phoenix, both he and Hedwig in cages as they waited, perhaps as anxiously as Damien, to meet Damien's mother. 

Unfortunately the twins' father had passed away shortly after Damien was kidnapped, and while their mother had remarried since, she seemed to be attracted to unfortunate men. Damien felt horrible, but he was almost glad it was just his mother that he had to meet, not a father, or even more difficult a stepfather. 

"Have you told your mother about..." Draco's eyes flicked to Damien, who was looking rather lifeless. "All of this?" 

"Not yet, not exactly. I did manage to persuade her to let a new Slytherin in our year stay, not that she was happy about it. It's... I don't know how to explain this, besides, you know how hard it is to see her happy." Blaise looked guilty, but he was hardly exaggerating when he said that he was more used to see his mother's halfhearted smiles and what she thought was hidden sadness, he wanted to see the look on his mother's face when she saw it was his long lost twin. 

"If I may add my opinion," Lily, who was in the compartment along with them, ready to work for them for the duration of her punishment. "As a mother I would like to have some warning before something like this is sprung on me. You don't have to tell her exactly, just let her know to prepare herself." 

Blaise gave a small noise in reply, still not very fond of the woman. He did, however, pull out a random piece of parchment and a quill that looked like it was barely clinging to its useful life. 

Mother, 
Thank you for letting me have a friend over for Christmas. I think I've already told you about some of what he's been through, but since then stuff has changed. 
He's still coming, I just think you need to prepare yourself. He's not like you might be expecting. Most of all, please be kind to him. 
Blaise. 

"Happy now?" Blaise plopped back down in his seat after letting his owl out of the train with the short letter. 

"I just... Think it will help smooth feathers when you get there." Draco also wasn't sure how he felt being on the side of Lily Potter, someone who may be showing as much effort as she can, but was still one of the people that caused his friend's family's collapse. 

He was also very protective of Damien for a reason they could explore more when Damien had settled more. Lily was one of the people who had made him go through all of that, no matter what she does, no matter how much she claims to not have known what was happening, Draco could never forgive her, and he knew Blaise felt the same.