A World Unrighteous

Nobby Leach listened with half-ear as people screamed and yelled outside the Ministry; flinched every time he thought someone had been hit with something more severe than a jelly-leg curse. But as it went on, he brought his pale hands together and told himself it was for the best. It's for the best, Ned needs this...eventually though, as all men must be, he was snapped out of his brooding. Looking up, he saw the fair-haired devil Abraxas Malfoy enter his office. Unintentionally pouting, the man of nearly fifty demanded in a petulant tone, "What do you want?"

Grinning in that oddly somber, but satisfied way, Malfoy said, "I think you should resign."

Raising an eyebrow, Nobby's acne-scarred face looked all the more garish. "What makes you say that?

"This," the devil-man answered tossing down a folder. Opening it, the Minster felt his heart give an unintentional flutter. They were pictures of a trio of kids, one about twelve with a grin that would put an angel to shame (he had singing voice that would do the same and he'd been trying to convince Anne that they should send Ned to one of those muggle music schools...) and then two other kids, a little girl and boy who were a perfect pair. Their eyes were always on the other and the dusky blond of the girl complimented the deep brown of the boy's in such a way that they seemed to be two halves of a coin.

Pushing back from his desk, Nobby gave Malfoy a defeated look. "Alright," he said. "You caught me."

"You can keep your job, you know," the fair-haired demon offered, tempting the Minister.

Suspicious, he ran a hand over his dimpled face and inquired, "How?"

"Easy, tone down the squib rights campaign."

Nobby's eyes went to the picture of the older boy. Ned. His son. "No can do," he replied.

Malfoy's hands came down on the heavy wood of his desk and by all feats, he caused it to shake. "Why?" he demanded fiercely. "Do you even know what you're doing you little mudblood! This world isn't for them it's for us! Oh, dash it all, Leach! Those duds are disgraces!"

"My son is not a disgrace!" the minster hollered, standing up to meet Malfoy eye to eye. "Ned is not a disgrace. Not to me. Not to his mother. Not to his brother or sister! We love him."

The blond pushed back and studied him. "Does your wife know about your sons? Daughter?"

Sticking his hands in his curls, Nobby shook his head. "Merlin, I love Helena," he whispered. "She makes me laugh like no one else...but what kind of legacy does a man leave behind without a child? Not a good one as far as I'm concerned."

Something like sympathy played across the devil's fine features. "I'll make a deal with you Leach," he suggested.

"I'm not making a deal with you, you fucking demon."

The fair-haired man laughed. "Oh, but you'll like this one!" And with a sly, sly smile on his lips, Abraxas told him his deal. "I'll quiet the riot if you step down. I will let what you've passed for the squids stay and your wife will never have to know about your children."

"Never?" Nobby repeated doubtful. "Why?"

Abraxas's finger ran over the faces of Ned, Albert and Lisa. "I'm a father," he said and when he looked up, the minster knew he was telling the truth. "I would not want your son to be burdened by your failings as I do not want mine to suffer from my doings."

Putting out his hand, Nobby leach committed himself to the devil's deal. "I'll resign tomorrow."

"Good on you," Malfoy praised. Rummaging in his pocket, he grinned as he handed a slip of paper to Nobby. "I have the name for the successor I want you to appoint on this," he said.

"Alright," Nobby grumbled and with a short bow, the fair-haired demon took his leave. Plopping back into his seat, the muggleborn gazed down on the faces of his children. They were good children. They thought he was a good man. So did their mother. He didn't...he didn't want them, or anyone, for that matter, to think ill of him. Not for his sake, no, but for Helena's.

It wasn't her fault she was barren.

Eyes meandering to his wife's portrait, he opened it up and tucked behind her smiling face a picture of Ned. He was grinning, pet chicken in hand and of the twins - Lisa and Albert - swinging on Anne's family farm's tire swing. Taking up the rest, he burned them. No more proof would remain. He didn't even keep wallet pictures of the children in fear that someone would see them.

But no one would think to look behind the glittering eyes of his wife's portrait...

Many years later, years after he was killed during the war, Helena Leach finally returned to her husk of a home and found the picture frame her husband had kept forever and always on his desk. Blinking back tears, she picked up the chard frame and startled as it fell apart in her hands. When it did, two other photos floated to the blackened earth beside her feet.

Curious, the aged woman lifted the burned pictures and saw that they were photographs; one of a boy aged about twelve years with eyes like Nobby and the other was of a little girl and boy about four or five years old, their curls thick and wild just as her husband's had been in his youth. A shaking hand coming to her mouth, Helena felt tears gather in her eyes.

"W-Why...?"

Her husband had been unfaithful. Told her he loved her for years and year and years, but here in her hands was proof that he hadn't loved her as he said. There had been another woman. One who gave him children? Letting out a heart-wrenching sob, Helena fell back and clutched at her pained heart. What did she do with this? It was too late for questions and she doubted she would find these children now...

In the midst of black and gray, Helena leach wondered whom in the end her husband thought of, was it the grinning faces of these youngsters and their mother? Or was it of her?

It made her dead cold to think it may not have been of her.

This one-shot is thanks to KodeV who prompted me with: "The history of why the MoM resigned due to the prompting of Malfoy senior. For some reason, I don't think the reason is as nefarious as the rumors states." I hope you like it!

So, you'll have to let me know what you think of Nobby Leach and Abraxas Malfoy after this! I don't think either is perfect or noble, but they are to an extent, sympathetic, wouldn't you agree?

Thanks for reading and please review!

EDITED: 7/25/15