Chaser 1: Mod Head!Canon: Lucius Malfoy has many flaws but loving his peacocks more than his family is not one of them.
Optional prompts: (quote) 'Let's face it; this is not the worst thing you've caught me doing.' - Tony Stark, Iron Man, (word) Labyrinthine, (image) .
A/N: This story was put together after our Chaser 1 disappeared on us. I hope we did justice to her ideas as it was a team effort to get this , while I posted it, I would like to give full credits to these who wrote most of it: Scrumptiousinternetllama (our Beater 1) and Anareol (our Chaser 2). I hope everyone can understand that while this fic could continue I only wrote the ending and have no wish to continue, especially not without an express agreement of our Chaser 1.
The Unexpected Family
Lucius Malfoy was sitting in his office, reading over some reports about Death Eaters. They informed him as to what the group was up to in the Wizarding World, as well as Muggle society. Once he had read through all of them, he would compile a full report of happenings and show it to the Dark Lord. He was happy to do his duty for the pureblood cause, but some of these events made even him recoil. Countless numbers of women and children had been slaughtered—entire families! He faintly wondered what the Muggle world thought of all of these deaths, but then chastised himself. You shouldn't care about what they think! They are scum, dirt beneath your fingernails. They must be eradicated by any means.
He turned his attention back to what he had been doing earlier—designing. Lucius had noticed that the peacocks that lived on the grounds of the Manor looked rather plain. As a result, he had been attempting to design something to decorate them. Many ideas had been scrapped and thrown into the bin but this one… it seemed more promising than the others. It was a simple daisy chain design that he imagined would look rather elegant around the necks of the peacocks.
"Lucius!" a shrill voice called from down the hall. "Lucius, come quickly! They've got Potter! Potter and his friends!"
His sister-in-law, Bellatrix Lestrange, entered the office. "Lucius, quickly! We may need to call the Dark Lord here to take care of them!" She seemed positively elated at the prospect—then she saw the square of paper on his desk. "What were you doing?" she asked, her nose wrinkled. She stepped closer and her eyes lit up. "My, my Lucius!" she shrieked. "Drawing flowers were we?"
Lucius rolled his eyes, "Let's face it; this is not the worst thing you've caught me doing."
Bellatrix scowled. "Just hurry up and get downstairs."
Lucius set his papers aside, got up and followed Bellatrix through his labyrinthine house to the Great Room, which was now mostly empty except for a fireplace, a few tables which had been scooted to the sides of the room, and of course, the elaborate chandelier hanging from the ceiling.
The room was now filled to the brim with people, including his own wife, Narcissa, as well as several Snatchers, one of whom was Fenrir Greyback. He prided himself on being virtually unafraid, but Greyback always put him on edge.
The focus was currently on the three young people in the middle of the room, two boys and a girl around the age of eighteen. One of the boys had red hair and blue eyes. Lucius assumed he was a Weasley. The other boy had black hair. That was the only feature Lucius could discern as the rest of his face was puffed up as if he'd been stung by a wasp… or hit by a Stinging Jinx. The girl had curly, brown hair and brown eyes, which glinted with intelligence.
"Is it him, Lucius?" Bellatrix asked him excitedly, forcing the boy's puffed-up face up for him to examine.
"What happened to his face?" Narcissa asked.
"Yes, boy, what happened to your face?" Bellatrix barked at him.
"Stung," the boy lisped. "Been stung."
"How are we to know for certain if these are Potter and his friends?" Lucius asked. "If we call the Dark Lord and it is not him, we will all be in serious trouble."
"Get Draco," Bellatrix said. "He went to school with them for six years, surely he must know if it is him."
"I shall fetch him," Narcissa said. She left the room and came back a few minutes later with his son following behind.
"Draco, come closer," Bellatrix ordered. "Look at these three and tell us if they are Potter and his friends, Granger, and Weasley."
Draco examined the three children, and after a moment, said, "What happened to his face?"
"Apparently, he was stung," Bellatrix answered. "But it could have been a Stinging Jinx to keep us from realizing his identity. Is it him?"
"I can't be sure," Draco answered. "His face is too puffed up to really tell."
"But then, surely these are his friends, Weasley, and Granger?" she asked, not relenting. "Surely you must know."
"It's been a long time," Draco replied. "I… they've changed a lot if it is them." Lucius bent down to examine the girl. The black-haired boy wasn't worth wasting his time over; it would take too long to identify him.
He looked deep into her eyes and whispered, "Legilimens." He expected the images to come hurtling towards him, one memory after another to give him an insight into her life story. But instead, he was hit by what felt like a mental brick wall. An Occlumens… He was about to remark on this fact when a pendant slipped out of the girls shirt. It hung there, ominously swinging back and forth, almost in slow motion. It felt like everything was going in slow motion. He recognised that pendant. It was one of a kind, a gift he had given to someone dear to him. Andy.
He remembered the day he had gifted it to her. How she had rejected it, saying it was far too extravagant a gift for his sister-in-law to be. He had scowled but her smirk had given her away. She knew full well that he was more than a future brother-in-law to her, and that she was more than a future sister-in-law to him.
But the question was, how did this girl come to possess it?
"Draco is right. That's not Potter, but we'll still question them. Perhaps they know something."
"Father?" Draco looked perplexed, a frown marring his smooth features. He was going to get wrinkles.
"Not now, Draco. Go to your room." Draco looked as though he was about to argue but one stern look from his father seemed to silence any thought of argument.
"Yes, father." Draco stood up and left the room, his jaw tight.
"You!" Bella snarled. She had her wand pointed at a Snatcher. "How dare you even think of coming here with the wrong people!? Crucio!" The Snatcher writhed on the floor, his screams echoing around the room. Lucius cringed as he watched the Snatcher's back arching up. Bella flicked her wand and the Snatcher crumpled onto the floor, a quivering mess. "Now, go before I change my mind and decide to just kill you for your failure."
"Yes, Madam Lestrange," he breathed. How he managed to speak was beyond Lucius.
Bella huffed and turned to Lucius. "Lucius! You were thinking of decorating those annoying birds of yours, correct?"
"Why yes, but…"
"I'll be taking care of that. You just find out if these brats are of any use. If not… well, you know how we deal with those." Bella stormed out of the room, a demented grin on her face and her wand grasped tightly in her hand.
The moment she left, Lucius made his way over to the three teenagers. "You," he said, addressing a bulky Snatcher, "Take these two down to the dungeons." He gestured to Harry and Ron with a sneer. The Snatcher moved forward and grabbed both of the boys, pulling them away from the room, and into the dungeons. Lucius tried not to laugh at their pathetic attempts to break free of the Snatcher's grip and turned to face the girl.
"What do you want?" she asked, her chin in the air. Lucius scowled at the defiance.
"Where did you get that necklace from?" he countered. She looked surprised. Good, he had caught her off-guard.
"Why do you want to know?" she asked. More defiance… it would have been amusing, had he not wanted the answer so desperately.
"Answer me," he said. His tone must have been threatening, for she leant backwards and gulped audibly.
"No."
Lucius sneered. "Do you think that I would hesitate to have your little friends dragged back in here and killed? I'd make sure they'd die slow, painful deaths, just for you." He grinned at her, emphasising that the idea didn't faze him in the slightest.
She glared at him. "My parents gave it to me."
"Liar."
"I'm telling the truth you pureblood piece of peacock shi—"
"Bring the boys back in—"
"No!" she screamed.
"Then tell me the truth," he said, his voice careful and calm.
"But I am telling the truth! I… I was adopted and my mother, well my adopted mother gave it to me. She said it belonged to my real mother." Hermione's lower lip wobbled and her intelligent eyes were watery. "I swear it's the truth! So just… just don't hurt my friends, please." Her voice failed her on the last word and she let the tears spill over, unable to stop the hiccups escaping her throat.
Lucius clenched his fists and cleared his throat. The girl's sobs were making him uncomfortable. If the girl was telling the truth then that meant… he had a daughter. He had a daughter that Andy had kept from him. A daughter that Andy gave away. Kind, sweet, passionate Andy who married a Muggleborn and broke his heart, gave her own daughter away. Or did she? Blacks were very particular when it came to their heirs. If Andromeda's mother had seen her with a child and had presumed that the child belonged to that Muggleborn scum…
He looked at the crying girl in front of him with new eyes. She could be his daughter… his pureblood daughter.
A door slamming broke him from his thoughts. Bellatrix was back. "Lucius, did you make any progress whilst I was taking care of your pretty little birds?" Lucius turned and stumbled backwards in shock. Bella's hands were covered in a rich, dark red liquid… it couldn't be.
"Well, have you?" she repeated. When Lucius remained silent she snarled and strode over to the girl on the floor. "Obviously, you haven't," she said and dragged the crying girl up onto her feet.
"Bellatrix don't!" he finally spoke up.
"And why should I stop?" she asked, with one precisely done eyebrow raised. "Are you defending Mudbloods now? Don't just stand there like an uncultured swine, say something!"
"She isn't a Mudblood."
"How do you know that? If she is Potter's bitc—"
"She isn't. There's no way my own daughter could be a Mudblood bitch!" A sharp intake of breath followed that statement.
"Daughter?" Bellatrix burst into hysterical laughter. "You're trying to tell me that my Cissy produced this… quivering pile of—"
"She didn't." Lucius looked down at his feet but kept his shoulders squared.
"Then who?" When he didn't answer Bellatrix stepped forward and pulled out her wand. "Legilimens," she whispered.
The images shot straight to the front of his undefended mind and he could feel Bella probing, none too gently, inside his head. With a grunt, he pushed her out of his mind, but it was too late. She had already seen all there was to see.
"Andy," Bella whispered. Her normally pale skin now had a heavily mottled red hue. She took a step closer to Hermione and Lucius spread his arms out to shield her, only to be hit with a shrieked, "Impedimenta!"
He flew backwards and hit the wall with a grunt. "Be…" he tried to call Bellatrix but the air had been knocked out of him.
"Now, I and your little girl are going to have a nice little chat, aren't we? You should have kept to tending your peacocks rather than interfering in this, Lucius." Lucius watched with trepidation as Bella approached his daughter, and everything went black.
Screams sounded in his head… but they were muffled. Sounding like they were filtered through cotton wool. "You dare disrespect your mistress!" Lucius' eyes came into focus just as he saw Dobby disappear, pulling none other than Harry Potter, Ronald Weasley and his daughter with him. The last thing he saw was his daughter's sad, confused eyes as Bella's spell flew after Dobby.
They were gone. Bellatrix's frustrated screams were the only things he could hear. As he sat up, he noticed Bellatrix's attention shift to him. Shit. "I'm going to kill you!" she shrieked.
"No, you will do nothing of the sort Bella." said a cold, venomous voice. "You turn your wand from my husband or so help me Morgana—I will end you!"
Bella turned to Cissy. Lucius eyed his wife and her sister with apprehension. He wondered why he had just helped his—till today unknown—daughter only to endanger his wife. He tried to reach his wand with shaking hands but his eyes remained trained on the two witches.
"Let me kill him, Cissy! That bastard cheated on you with Andy!" shrieked Bellatrix.
"So? He is still mine," said Narcissa, her voice as cold as the North Pole and just as harsh. "If you won't lower your wand, I will cast all of the spells that I can still remember from our family grimoires. "
Lucius watched transfixed as Bella lowered her wand. She spat on the floor. "Fine!" she growled and then stomped away.
Narcissa laughed. It was not a happy sound. Brittle and just a tad broken. "Well, that went well." She twirled her wand and tapped her foot as she looked him over.
"Since your fascination with that girl prevented a disaster, I'll let you be. For now. But you better have a very good explanation tomorrow."
Lucius gulped. At least Cissy had always wanted a daughter. He could explain once he could stand up again.