Author: Miss Bellatrix
Date: 21/09/03
A/N: Review! As always! …Please?
Lucius was furious, and was dragging a small pyjama-clad child by his upper arm, step by step - a blond boy of about four years old. The little boy tripped, and was only held upright by his father, who wrenched him up by his collar. A desperate, heart-breaking wail of pain was cut short by the sound of flesh meeting flesh- Lucius had hit him across the face. Draco started sobbing again- tugging on his fathers' hand around his arm, and begging him to stop.
"You will never do such a thing again, Draco, do you understand me?" Lucius said, pushing the little boy towards the bed, not caring that he was tripping over again in his blinding sorrow. Draco's face was blotched with tears and he was choking back more, the distress of what was suddenly happening overcrowding his four-year-old senses.
"Embarrassing me in front of our guests - how dare you?" Lucius continued. "Some of my guests are very important people, boy! They are not to be bothered by whining brats, like YOU!"
"I'm sorry, Father, I'm sorry, please, I won - "
A teeth-snapping shake from his father caused him to stop talking, but not calm down. Being shaken violently again didn't help, with more tears falling from his pale eyes, watching his father yell at him.
"Father, no, pleas-' He grasped at his fathers hand, his tiny fingers clasping around the much-stronger wrist frantically.
"I didn't know, please, stop…" Looking up at his Lucius' tall figure, he threw his apprehension to the wind and buried his head in his fathers' robes, wailing ardently against the velvet, beyond any means of comfort through his sorrow. Lucius looked down at his son, and then pushed him a little too roughly toward the bed, uncaring of the way the little body stumbled and how, when he got up he tripped over again, hitting the underside of his chin brutally against the solid bed frame from the force of his fathers' shove.
"You will go to bed and stay there, this time, do you hear me? I do not wish to see you tomorrow morning until I send for you, Christmas Day or not."
The little boy climbed sobbing onto the oversized bed, not bothering to get under the bedclothes. He curled up, tiny against the bed, and sobbed harder than ever against the pillows, clutching at the pillow as if it were a lifeline and trying to draw much-needed comfort from it. He had woken up during the night and had run downstairs to ask his parents if it was Christmas Day yet, and whether he could open his presents. Unfortunately, they had been entertaining important guests for dinner, and Lucius Malfoy had not been inclined to laugh off the intrusion of a four-year-old into a rather delicate discussion.
Lucius Malfoy paused by the door watching his son, who was still too upset to pull down the bedcovers and slide into bed. He decided to let his son be exposed to the icy-cold night air, which was frosty even inside the Manor, instead of putting him to bed himself. He blew out the candles, the only source of light in the room - as Draco's cries grew more and more insistent and hysterical due to the oppressing darkness.
…review…hit the review button, and I'll love you forever…