The Tale of Rotcellocxat
In the hallway, the heirs of Malfoy trudged dejectedly towards the living room: both of them around six years old with the trademark Malfoy silver hair, Scorpius being the eldest, possessing wavy hair and the face of Lucius, while his brother looked like the spitting image of Draco at that age. Worriedly, Severus looked at his brother Scorpius. "How do we tell our parents that we lost our sister?"
"Technically, we didn't lose her. She's hiding in the manor somewhere. We'll just tell them that."
"That's even worse. We can't tell them that a three year old beat us at Hide and Seek. That's so embarrassing."
"Technically, she beat us several times; that's why she loves Hide and Seek." Scorpius' brow furrowed as he thought of a scheme to get them out of this one. "Mother usually keeps an invisible tether on her. Maybe we can somehow make it visible."
Severus admired his brother's scheming, but knew Scorpius needed to perfect the plan before they could use it. "But Scorp, they'll notice that."
"I know. I haven't worked out the details yet but I guess I just don't have time to. Luckily, it's Mother's turn to punish us so we'll get a lighter sentence."
Feeling very ashamed, they entered the living room where their mother, father and grandmother sat chatting and sipping eggnog near the Christmas tree. They elbowed each other trying to decide who would deliver the humiliating news. When they heard a giggle from behind them, their heads snapped around to find their grandfather carrying their sister. After Lucius set Astrum down, she ran up to everyone in the room and kissed them goodnight, saying to each, "Bonne nuit."
Narcissa smiled at her granddaughter. "Do you remember whose turn it is to tell you a story?"
"It's my turn." Without a grumble but instead a slight smile, Lucius picked Astrum up. Aside from Astrum's giggles, the fire crackled, the only sound echoing throughout the living room as everyone stared in disbelief.
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After finishing her evening regimen, Astrum crawled into bed. "Grandfather, please tell me a story."
"If you insist," Lucius replied, and so began the story of Rotcellocxat.
"Within the village of Nodnol, there lived a terrible beast named Rotcellocxat that ate gold galleons. This beast could look like any wizard or witch, but beneath that shell lay a voracious blob. To calm Rotcellocxat, each villager fed the beast one gold galleon. It didn't matter if the wizard or witch was good or bad, it still ate their gold. Over the years, Rotcellocxat became insatiable and wasteful, demanding more and more galleons from the villagers. Most of the time it lost its galleons, and demanded even more galleons from the villagers. Finally, the villagers couldn't feed Rotcellocxat any more, so it found a new source for gold, a dark wizard named Suicul who had a fortune in gold galleons.
Though Suicul had been imprisoned for following an even darker and truly evil wizard named Tromedlov, a choice he regretted, he served his sentence knowing his family had plenty of galleons and would live comfortably in his absence. However, with Suicul's imprisonment, Rotcellocxat tried to eat all of Suicul's gold after having eaten all of Tromedlov's gold."
Astrum gasped in horror. "What could Suicul do?"
"Luckily Suicul had an aide named Retsel, who looked after his gold and warned him about Rotcellocxat. No one knew that Retsel remained loyal to Suicul, because they only communicated through letters. Also, no one knew that Retsel was nearly as devious as Suicul. In order to become Suicul's aide, Retsel sabotaged his competition."
"Sabotage?" Astrum's eyes widened and she gasped. "Retsel hurt people?"
"No, not really," Lucius answered. "When Suicul looked for someone to help him years before, Retsel made sure he was the only one who showed up. Retsel enchanted one wizard's broom so it flew the wrong direction and he missed meeting with Suicul. Several other witches and wizards received notes changing the location of their meetings. Retsel blackmailed…, threatened to tell naughty things about the editor of The Daily Prophet, if he didn't print a lower salary of the job with Suicul. The salary is how much gold that person would receive for doing the job."
"That sounds naughty. Did Retsel get in trouble?"
"On the contrary, Suicul admired Retsel's tricks so much so, that he hired him to be his aide. Suicul knew he couldn't let another wizard hire someone so devious. Retsel vowed loyalty to Suicul."
"Why didn't Retsel visit Suicul in prison?"
"Retsel warned Suicul that following Tromedlov would only lead to misfortune, but Suicul wouldn't listen, because hatred and ambition blinded him. Retsel told Suicul that if he ended up in prison, he wouldn't visit, because he loathed prison to the point it made him sick."
"Oh, prison's yucky."
"Yes," Lucius agreed. "Anyhow, when Rotcellocxat threatened Suicul's gold, Suicul instructed Retsel to send a flock of Yenrotta after Rotcellocxat so he did."
"What's a Yenrotta?"
"That's a creature that feeds on suffering. They started pecking at Rotcellocxat, which slowed the creature down. Now that the Rotcellocxat slowed down, Retsel found out several things about Rotcellocxat that would embarrass it if anyone else found out. That made Rotcellocxat stop eating Suicul's gold."
"Is Suicul still in prison?"
"Now that he had served his time, he was released."
"Did he live happily ever after?"
"Yes, he did, once he was reunited with his family. Now you know the story of Rotcellocxat." Lucius pulled the covers to Astrum's chin. "Bonne nuit, Astrum."
"Bonne nuit, Grandfather," Astrum replied. "Don't forget to kiss me goodnight." Lucius paused at the door, before returning to give Astrum a quick kiss on the forehead.
[Readers go back and read the Proper names backwards]
