Notes: Only recently got back into reading HP fanfics, and after encountering some very interesting Bella-centered stories by Nokomis, this crawled out of my head. Probably full of mistakes, and I have no idea if I'll ever look it over again, but here it is.
Summary: Draco remembers his dead aunt. He sort of has to, since she's haunting his house. But Bellatrix is family, and so is not entirely unwelcome.
The Haunting of Draco Malfoy
A Harry Potter Fanfic by
Nate Grey (xman0123-at-aol-dot-com)
Draco Malfoy knows better than to fear ghosts. What little power that remains from their former existences is not enough to harm anyone with enough common sense, not even a Muggle.
But there are exceptions to every rule, and Draco reluctantly accepted that, the day that he first spotted the ghost of Bellatrix Lestrange leaning over his son's crib.
He is not sure what surprised him more at the time: that she would choose to remain behind as a ghost, or that she would have any interest in his offspring. Now, he realizes that neither is much of a shock. Bellatrix ended the Black bloodline personally by killing her cousin Sirius, and very nearly ensured the deaths of both of her sisters' children (Draco never properly met Tonks the Auror, but firmly believed, especially after several Polyjuice fiascoes, that there is always a use for a Metamorphmagus), himself included. The Malfoys are the only family left that she could or would take any meaningful interest in.
That fact does not make him any more comfortable about Bellatrix haunting his home, but he has come to believe that she means Scorpius no real harm. And yet Draco somehow fears the idea of Bellatrix being fond of his son even more than if she had hated him.
Scorpius reminds Draco a great deal of himself in his youth: not quite as spoiled, but private, levelheaded, and more likely to take on momentary allies than lifelong friends. He loves his mother and respects his father, the same as Draco did. But even there, there is a key difference: Draco has asked his son, at random intervals, if there is love between them. He has always tried to give the impression that either answer would be acceptable. For Draco would understand, if his son did not love him. Part of him might even be relieved.
But Scorpius, who has never been one to express much through physical affection, has never had a problem with striding forward, seizing Draco's forearm just below the elbow, and gazing straight into his eyes. "Of course I love you, Dad," he always says. "You've never given me a reason not to." Draco hopes that is true, and never fails to at least squeeze his son's shoulder, or to stroke his golden head as he falls asleep. It is not much, and still it is more than his own father ever gave him at that age.
It only makes the interest that Scorpius has in Bellatrix all the more alarming. He knows who she is, of course. Draco has never made a secret of their relatives, and has perhaps told his son a bit too much about them. He sometimes hates to admit it, but Bellatrix is almost directly responsible for the powerful wizard that Draco has become. She was far more strict with him than his parents had ever dared to be, and never made a secret of the fact that she would kill him if he disappointed her too often. Draco knows now that it would've been a kindness, coming from the Dark Lord's most favored general. He suspects, or at least hopes, that she would have done it quickly, as a favor to his mother. He can never really be sure, though.
Scorpius isn't afraid of Bellatrix. Not yet. He knows the stories, knows he should at least be respectful towards her ghost, and he is. But he is also terribly fascinated by her. Draco has no idea what they talk about, and he has tried to find out. Bellatrix always manages to sense any listening devices or spells, and has Scorpius disarm them beforehand. She only speaks to him, and is silent around anyone else. Scorpius will only say that she tells him of the past, and isn't looking to hurt anyone anymore. He claims that she is actually tired, and only wants to be around family.
Draco isn't sure what to believe beyond that. It is impossible to read her, either because she is a ghost, or because he learned Occulmency from her, and Bellatrix would never teach any student of hers everything that she knew. He has tried talking to her, even dared to try enraging her a few times. But her only response is to stare at him with her haunted, haunting eyes. Sometimes she will smirk as she passes through a wall, and once, he is quite sure, she sighed a little.
The day that Scorpius left for Hogwarts, he actually stopped at the front door, turned back, and called into the manor, "I'm going, Great-Auntie Bella! I'll show you what I've learned when I get back!" It left his poor mother unable to sleep for a week, but Draco suspects that Bellatrix might be impossible to live with otherwise. Again, she never says anything, but she has never needed words to haunt anyone. Her presence alone can do that all too well.
Draco has even found himself talking to her normally now. She does not respond, but she never, he notes, leaves until he is done. He does not tell her anything that is all that useful. He tells her about family vacations that she missed, shares the letters that Scorpius sends from school, and occasionally updates her on the few old Slytherin classmates of his that: 1) still talk to him, 2) aren't dead, and 3) that she would even care about in the first place. It is quite a short list, but Draco imagines that Bellatrix is amused to hear of the new ways that Pansy Parkinson (no longer her name, but it is impossible to keep track of the current one) thinks of to charm him away from his wife. At least, Draco is amused by them. He imagines Pansy's third (or is it fourth? he can never recall) husband is not.
Perhaps what worries Draco the most is when he finds Bellatrix standing in the gardens, staring up at the moon. At these times, she is perfectly silent and perfectly still, and her eyes nearly double in size, bulging out of her face. Nothing save the voice of Scorpius can remove her from that trance. Draco would give almost anything to know what is in her mind at those times. He has even lost sleep wondering over it. His wife thinks him mad for it.
"Let her be, Draco," Astoria always tells him. "You should be immensely grateful for any moment of peace we have from that woman." He is not sure what it is about Bellatrix that makes his wife fear and despise her so, but she is careful not to let Scorpius see it. Astoria will not even sleep in the same room as Draco if he makes the mistake of mentioning Bellatrix in any way. He is always amazed that he married such a sensitive woman, but when she comes to him at night and her eyes sparkle in the darkness, he recalls why he did so, fondly.
Deep down, though, he is worried about Bellatrix's little staring act in the garden. He instinctively knows she is waiting for something or someone, and there is only one person Draco can imagine that she might wait for. And if his guess is right, well, then it is only a whole new set of reasons to curse Harry Potter and every other hero that never got the job done quite right.
But Draco can live with that. The good thing about heroes is that they breed like mad, and so there are always a few more to serve as cannon fodder in the next war. He, on the other hand, is a Malfoy and a Slytherin, and he takes comfort in that, despite everything. It may mean that he will live (or perhaps die) watching his son become the next instrument of the newest (or perhaps an old) dark lord. Whatever comes, Scorpius will live on: it is in his blood, and being on the winning side does not matter quite as much as having the cleverness to switch to the surviving side in the final moments. It is another thing that Bellatrix has taught him, although perhaps neither of them knew she had until after she was quite dead.
Endnotes:
Some people change, others do not. I think Draco is in the first group (Pansy is not).
I don't know where the phrase "Tonks the Auror" came from. Pretty sure I never saw it until I typed it. I wanted some way for Draco to refer to her that implied unfamiliarity and dislike ("can't even be bothered to remember her name," is what I thought), and that's what I settled on. I'm sure he could think of worse ways to describe her, but I can't recall them ever having any prolonged contact, and personally, at least, it's much harder for me to find the energy to hate someone I know very little about. Malfoys hate most people as a rule, of course, but at a certain point it's just easier to ignore the ones that don't matter as much, even if they are (or were) relatives. Cousins especially.
Having looked over this several times, it seems to make far less sense to me each time. Maybe it will mean more to someone else.