Autor's note: I would like to thank to both J.K. Rowling and Notwolf for the chance to play with their respective toys - and hope you will have fun doing the same. Please regard the following as a tribute to their talent and dedication to the creative miracles of writing. No infringement of any rights is intended and no profit is made of it. All the heroes and situations that can be recognized as J.K. Rowling's or Notwolf's belong to their creators. The spelling and other mistakes are entirely mine. I hope you will enjoy the rest!
Sisidy was pale which had to tell Lucius something - she was the most fearless elf ever born. He bended to her to hear the news.
'There is a carriage on the front lawn, Master Malfoy! And the guest wants Sisidy to put their horses in the stables!'
'So what is wrong with such request, Sisidy?' Lucius was appalled that any guest could be left in front of the manor waiting.
'But... but these horses breath fire! They will burn the stables down and fry the other horses!'
Lucius was trying to think who of his guests was trying to pull a prank on his house-elf. There were a few hot heads but they were all accounted for. Horses breathing fire, that sounded exotic! He swallowed hard. Few very exotic people had also shown up. On their background he would even shake Aline's sister hand. The floor groaned under his feet as the director of Beaubatons and Hagrid were dancing something resembling a pirate's jig. That was it - the fire-breathing horses had to belong to the third and only one missing at the moment director of magic school - Tanassov of Durmstrang had been invited as a peer of Severus and he had accepted the invitation. Sure, the reply was sent back with an enormous eagle who had coughed or more accurately vomited the tube with the RSVP card on Lucius's desk, then had grabbed his croissant, drank his tea and left through the window the creature had broken on the way in. Small wonder Tanassov's transport had scared Sisidy - Lucius still remembered that he himself had looked at the eagle's flight from the somewhat questionable safety of the space under his desk, wand in hand. Nobody could say that Malfoys were cheap hosts but he would have preferred to host that event on some other grounds. Too late for that, he had to rise up to the occasion. Lucius braced himself, put an anti-inflaming charm on his best set of gray silk robes and went downstairs.
His prediction was completely accurate - in front of the manor a classic gold quadriga was parked and its four horses were still breathing some tiny blue flames from their nostrils. That these were no ordinary horses one could guess by their size, almost half exceeding the dainty Arabians and taller even than the sturdy German loaders. Their tight reigns were in the right hand of a handsome young man, tall and dark-haired, dressed in what appeared a red military-style uniform with gold fastenings and black trousers. His left hand was tightly snuggling to his frame one very fairly clad young lady who chose the moment to turn and look down at Lucius. Luna Lovegood was the escort the director had chosen and Lucius belated remembered that Severus had mentioned something about her robbing him of the pleasure to see the Boy-Wonder shredded by Tanassov for destroying the precious goblin-locating artifact.
'Dr. Tanassov, Miss Lovegood, welcome to my home!'
'Thank you, Mr. Malfoy, did my horses scare your house-elf into palpitations or it just gave such impression? I will be glad to know where I may leave my transport.'
'Ahem, do they need any special treatment, sir, I am not quite sure my stable hands have any experience with that breed...'
The dark man laughed. 'No, not these ones, these are fed with ordinary coal and I am sure they will find the local one to their taste as well. However they are partial on non-leaded fuel as a drink, I hope it will not be a problem. They detest the lead, but as far as I am aware, the non-leaded brands are common in Britain. Otherwise they may show some bad manners, I am afraid. May be it is an idea for me to put them in the pen separately from the other guests' horses?'
"He is enjoying it!' Lucius thought. He was male more than enough to understand a show-off and it was undeniably one for the sake of impressing Luna. She was smiling at Tanassov as if the entire world had coalesced on him. None of them had stepped from the quardiga and Lucius thought fast. There was the old stable which had been deserted for ages, but it was a solid stone structure, very few beams supporting the roof only and some stone rings built in the walls. It had already suffered a major fire and was not restored after it, just cleaned from the debris. He offered it to Tanassov. One flip of his wrist was all it took for the horses to jump start into a gallop and in few seconds they stopped in front of the building. Lucius hastened to open the door, Tanassov took out his wand and the four horses were chained to four rings with a quick muttered incantation.
'Sisidy!' Malfoy summoned the elf and sent her to bring the coal, there was plenty in the cellar. He had to send her to apparetre with some human to bring the fuel though. Mateo suddenly came out of the dark and smiled politely. 'Anything I can do for you, Lucius?' His nephew breathed a sigh of relief - Mateo was god-sent. He introduced him to the couple and the sangrista politely inquired about the horses' preferences in octane figures. Luna laughed and Tanassov smiled appreciating the care. 'The higher the better, of course, but no airline's fuel, there are ingredients that these horse do not fare well with.'
'And no human flesh for them?' quietly asked Mateo. Lucius was startled, he thought that his guest would be mad at the suggestion and he had heard about the temper of Durmstrang's director. Instead the man only shook his head.
'Not these ones. We have several of the species that are still bred, but we try to keep their number at bare minimum. It is not easy - neither to breed nor to keep them, they have terrible temper as you know. But I am surprised that someone still will remember them, outside of the small circle of specialists who I would not dare to call veterinarians myself.' Tanassov's question hanged in the air.
'On the Iberian Peninsula there were a few until recently, you remember the horse on "Guernica", Pablo had depicted one of them there although few living souls know about it. Yeah, temperamental beasts, these horses...The Romans kept feeding them Christians, then the Moors kept them alive for they loved a fiery ride, then the Inquisition found some implementation and General Franco was rumored to be in awe with them...' Mateo and Tanassov looked at each other and a wave of understanding passed between them. Lucius shuddered. It was beyond the realm of magic, it involved Muggles and it was cruel even under Voldemort's own idea of cruelty. He tried to suppress the image and motioned to his guests to come in.
