Hikaru M: Yes I know, how early for an update but truth be told, this was supposed to be a one shot. It was only when I was rereading it that I realised how long it was and divided it into parts. Made no sense giving the chapters names since they're really all the same part...if that makes any sense. Just in case you haven't picked up yet, this fic, despite the setting, is quite Lucius centred and his memories take up like half the story (meaning there hardly is a plot but moving on...) I hope you enjoy it anyways, and I apologise for the cliffhanger. I'm not really a fan of them but it was definitely the best place to stop part i. If my thoughts sound a little disjointed that's because I'm kinda sleepy. This also accounts for the lack of author's notes at the bottom.

P.S. Since the majority of the story is Lucius' memories, you might not get a sense of who Delilah is. Kinda makes her ghost-like; I quite like that. She doesn't actually appear much, but then again neither does anyone else.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. Neither did I make money off the writing of this fiction nor any of the characters used (not even my own).

Part ii

Draco had seen her several times in his youth, in pictures and in person, but he had never actually met the woman; his eyes darted over to his father occasionally to monitor his reactions. The elder Malfoy held the same aloof disposition, casually disinterested, that he held when meeting new people, his face betraying none of the myriad of thoughts that Draco knew had to be going through his mind.

Iris smiled a charming smile, embracing the woman gingerly like a woman of her status would. Delilah smiled at him and nodded. He felt slightly faint; how could, of all the people in the world, this woman be related to his wife?

"And this charming young man is young Master Malfoy, I presume? I apologise for not attending your wedding dear, but as Iris rightfully said, I'm not exactly one you would want around for a wedding."

Lucius snorted lightly at the comment; if his memory served him right, Iris spent the first night of their honey moon in tears because the one person she hoped would turn up didn't. Her parents, former Death Eaters, were both dead, and many more suffered the same fate or were in Azkaban for the long haul. A few made it, but they were all "high society", being there only for the sake of being there. They were all cold and in retrospection, Lucius could not blame Iris for wanting her smiling face in the crowd.

Delilah turned to face the entire group. When her eyes landed on Lucius, a moment of sadness flashed across them before they regained their usual brightness. Next to him, Narcissa finally placed the face.

"Ah. Delilah. Russett it was, am I right?"

She beamed pathetically at Narcissa, her face twisted into the expression of one who smiled politely in the presence of their better. Andromeda watched her keenly as long forgotten memories of the woman as a school girl flashed across her mind with alarming vividness. Looking to Lucius, she noticed that he looked relatively blank as if still trying to remember where he had heard that name. His dark grey eyes falling on her, deep with an unnameable emotion, she knew that Lucius was without a doubt the most exquisite liar that the Malfoy line, or even the wizarding world, had ever produced.

"How could I ever forget you? Narcissa Black," her tone was notably ambiguous, "well…I guess you don't go by Black anymore. How terribly embarrassing of me, do forgive me. I suppose all my memories of you would be of Narcissa Black, that blonde Slytherin girl in my year...I hope you don't mind."

Narcissa dismissed her worrying as silly, pretending not to mind the slip up. Lucius could see through her mask, having been married to her all those years, and saw a viperous coldness underlying her smile. She had never really taken well to Delilah, and he believed the reverse to be true as well. He felt Narcissa loom closer to him and felt her arm link with his, no doubt a show of possessiveness to her old Hogwarts rival. Andromeda and Draco watched the soon to be tense exchange, wondering to themselves how much the other parties knew.

"So Iris dear," Narcissa started again, "how is it that Delilah came to be your aunt? If I recall correctly, Delilah, you're a half blood and Iris…isn't. I hope I don't come off as rude, I'm simply…curious."

She sipped her wine slowly, eyebrows arched slightly in askance. While she had never been much of a pure blood fanatic, she had always been cautious of half bloods and muggleborns as she was, without a doubt, a stickler for wizarding etiquette. Draco would agree; it bordered on obsessive to the point where she would bluntly state that it made no sense marrying a person unless they were well read in wizarding etiquette, which technically included the pure blood community solely. She stood awaiting the answer to her question, petty jealousy bubbling inside her troubled mind. Of course, Lucius knew full well that the jealousy she had, though never officially validated was not without cause. It was a simple fact that she never caught wind of.

"It's an interesting story actually." Iris started, clearly unbothered by Delilah's tentative silence. Taking that as a sign, Delilah picked up after her.

"We, her mum and I, have the same mum but different fathers. It was an extensively sordid, but very secretive affair…I, myself am not sure that I know all the details of it, but essentially the result is that my father was a muggle and her father wasn't. Hence my niece, gem of my wizarding family, is a pureblood and I am not."

Narcissa clearly disapproved. It was hardly acceptable when a man had children with different mothers, but for a woman to have had more than one husband was absolutely awful. Andromeda and Draco looked clearly enthralled with the idea, as it had an air of morbid fascination hanging about it. It clearly offended their pureblood sensibilities but the mere idea, trying to fathom how such an affair would work out without discovery was fascinating in the least. Lucius already knew the words coming out of her mouth, repeated time and again whenever he asked about her family life. He pretended to be obscurely fascinated.

"So who in your family then is Veela?" Andromeda asked, beside herself with curiosity, directing the question clearly at Iris. The younger woman frowned slightly in confusion. She was considered beautiful yes, but she hardly had the odd magnetic pull that a Veela would have.

"You must be mistaken. No one in my family is a Veela."

It was Andromeda's turn to frown. Delilah looked clearly amused, her blue eyes occasionally flickering to meet Lucius', who was clearly unable to look away when she did. Andromeda and Iris began competing for Narcissa's attention with their semi-argument, asking her input or opinion, dragging her eyes away the woman who was smiling reminiscently at her husband.

"You've ruined me, Lucius."

He could hear her soft, tormented voice echoing in his head, repeating a sentence that would plague him for the majority of his distinguished life. The last time he had heard those words, he was behind a barred cell door in Azkaban after the war…

"I think the person you should address that question to is Delilah."

The sound of Draco's drawl of a voice broke their eye contact, Delilah trying not to seem surprised at the sudden mentioning of her name. She smiled politely at Draco, who only frowned in return. He never really had approved of her much; as far as he was concerned, she was a horrible mistake from his father's past and it was there that she should stay. Lucius suspected it to be more along the lines that his wife and son had formed an alliance against him when it came to her; she made his heart flutter in ways that he thought impossible but it was just a silly fascination from Hogwarts. Just a silly fascination.

"I'm sorry?"

"The question? Who in your family is a Veela. I assume being the elder one, you would know more about your family tree…"

Andromeda's eyes drifted towards Draco, whose voice seemed to be coloured with a slight tint of dislike. His grey eyes were sharp on her yet she was clearly unaffected; Draco reminded a lot of an impetuous child who was trying to protect his father from an imaginary danger. She stifled an undoubtedly inappropriate chuckle at such a tense meeting but found herself wondering about how imaginary this danger was. Draco was no longer a hot headed teenager and he would hardly be so hostile to a member of his wife's family without cause…how much had been going on since their Hogwarts days?

"I for one am astounded at the fact that Andromeda even remembered that I am part Veela. We never even spoke; the Black family memory is something to be reckoned with indeed," she laughed lightly at that, "but Iris was right in saying that no one in her family was a Veela. It's something I got from my father."

"A muggle?!" Draco exclaimed surprised, earning a few appraising looks from the nearby crowd.

"My mother always said that knowing how close he was to magic was the one thing she loved about him the most."

It was one statement that would always sound sad coming from her mouth. Lucius began to reminisce, against his will, about their days together at Hogwarts. It was the beginning of what he could only describe as the undoing of his life. He could never pinpoint when he began to talk to her as it began mostly against his will; McNair's fascination with her began when she was in second year and they were in third. Whenever she went to the library and it was full, she shared a table with them, if she was ever spotted, they had to go and talk to her, whenever it was a trip to Hogsmeade, they accompanied her. Oftentimes Lucius found himself nauseated by McNair's fawning over her; McNair would try to cover it up as his trying to seduce her into bed with him, but Lucius could always see that whenever she was around, he would try so hard to keep her attention.

She was a fascinating creature, Lucius would concede that much to McNair. Her looks were more captivating than most, even Narcissa seemed to be jealous of her, and her mind was the womb of intelligence. The few times that Lucius had not walked away when Walden shamelessly stalked her or flagged her down, he was intrigued by the depth of mind she had. Even though his father taught him of the lesser worth of half bloods, he found himself thinking on several occasions that Walden would never be worthy of her. What she lacked in pedigree, she made up for in everything else; looking at her, he even fancied that she looked like a pure blood, save for the river of dark curls that gushed straight down her back. He tired of Walden's stories about her swiftly; he had focussed only on the exterior, not realising the side of her he had left untapped. Without realising it, Walden had led them both into a trap; they were both enthralled by her though Walden was only interested in what lay underneath her uniform. Lucius had, unfortunately, let his curiosity of half bloods get the better of him.

Even though she was a Gryffindor, she spent most of her time with them, Walden McNair and his friends, and by the time she reached third year, she would sit with them even when the library wasn't full, when they saw each other in the corridors she would speak first, even when they went to Hogsmeade she would go with them. At first he thought it was that she was finally reciprocating McNair's interest, but he soon learnt that she saw them as friends. She would smile at them and wave from the Gryffindor table across the hall. McNair would wave and smile back, Snape would give a curt nod and he would simply stare her down. Even when McNair wasn't around, she would sit with him in the library, sometimes in companionable silence and other times in stimulating conversation. He found that whenever he spent time with her, he could never see Narcissa the same.

Soon, it wasn't strange to see them together in the library though it was the only place they were friendly; anywhere else, McNair was between them, trying so hard to keep her attention with his shallow conversation. Snape often had to come to his rescue, being in her year made him an indelible tool to McNair, and began being friends with her. Lucius often spotted them talking to each other when Snape wasn't busy with another Gryffindor, some girl with shoulder length dark red hair. Despite her fascinating qualities, he never really thought much of her as the time they spent together was limited. Her mind was wasted on McNair, who always told the males in the common room about the slight swell of her still developing breasts, the rounded curve of her hips, her plump pink lips and the creamy expanse of her flawless skin. She alone seemed to be their common interest.

Lucius seemed unaffected by McNair's tales of her beauty as he often sat in a corner, busy scribbling away at some essay or another – Snape was always noticeably absent from these occasions – while he droned on about her voice and the sweet tinkling sound of her laughter, how her smile was as always brightest when she saw him and it was more beautiful than anything he had ever seen. Then he would always try to save face about how badly it made him want her. Lucius couldn't help it when he broke the news to her.

She found him in the corridor, a book in hand as she jogged towards him. She didn't call his name until she got next to him, chest heaving as she tried to catch her breath and her face flushed pleasantly from the exertion. As she pushed the dark hair from her face, he couldn't help but think how much prettier she was than how McNair hungrily described her.

"Lucius, you wouldn't have seen Walden around would you?"

"No. I haven't."

"I have his Transfiguration book," at this, he raised an eyebrow, "he lent me it so I could do an essay and I almost forgot that he would need it for today."

"You do a lot of that. Almost forgetting." he commented idly as he took the proffered book and flipped through the pages scanning for nothing in particular. So this is why McNair had to be borrowing his Transfiguration book for the past week…

"So he's taken to lending you his books now has he?"

It wasn't a question insomuch as it was a statement. Clearly unimpressed, he didn't realise he had said it out loud until he looked up and saw her puzzled face.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"He's not interested in friendship."

"I think I would've guessed that by now." she said, with a bit of nervous laughter, her blue eyes never leaving Lucius' face.

"Walden's always has been hinting at a relationship." Her voice was quiet when she said that, her hands clasped shyly in front of her as her face became tinted with a slight blush. Lucius noticed she couldn't look him in the face when she said that, looking at some point to her left. Again, he was clearly unimpressed. Why would any girl, even if she were just a half blood, with so much potential waste herself on a boy like Walden McNair?

"There's only one thing he's interested in, and that's what's in your knickers."

If asked, he could never say why he told her that, even though it was true. The look of horror that crossed her face as the words were analysed was unparalleled. She blanched terribly, tears welling in her eyes as she no doubt recounted every syllable uttered by McNair in his presence, in the hallways, in the library, in Hogsmeade, in the letters he wrote her ever so often and most importantly in private. He wondered vaguely if she were ever going to ask him if it were true, force him to ingest Veritaserum or at least ask him in a broken voice if he was telling the truth. The look on her face however, said that there were little clues that McNair had carelessly left behind that were coming together.

She was at the tender age of 13; Lucius wondered for a moment if it were possible for her to love someone when she was so young. The book was knocked from his hand as she rushed past him in a direction that was definitely not the Gryffindor tower. He remembered hearing rumours that she lived in the Room of Requirement at that point as her footfalls sped around the corner and disappeared into the heart of the castle. That night was the first time he had ever confided anything in Severus and the way things had happened after that, it was definitely not to be the last.

A sharp tug on his arm brought him back to the present moment. When he looked around, everyone was laughing; to save face he chuckled lightly then took a sip from his drink. The tug on his arm had been Narcissa convulsing slightly with laughter. It was good for her to free up like that, as before she often didn't have a chance to. She finished with a harsh but satisfied sigh. Looking into her brown eyes, he remembered when Narcissa had first begun charming them blue and crystalline. Then they were cold and unwelcoming, now they were filled with warmth and mirth; though the sentiment behind them was the same, the colour made all the difference. She thought she was doing something romantic when she charmed them to his favourite colour, not knowing that every time he looked into them he remembered grabbing deep handfuls of thick silky black hair as he crushed his lips hungrily against another's, hands roaming, sighing, moaning, whispering, gasping, clothes falling to the floor, bodies colliding in love against each other, heat, passion, comfort, freedom, the feel of her arms around him and the bitter realisation that one day it would all have to come to end.

"Lucius, I'm off to find Scorpius to give him my congratulations. Are you coming?"

He declined, saying he would have a lengthy word with Scorpius on his own time. Narcissa, not entirely wanting to leave her husband behind with Delilah, reluctantly let his arm go and followed Iris and a reluctant Draco to find Scorpius and his bride. Andromeda quickly left soon after, saying something about finding Teddy before disappearing into the crowd. The remaining two looked at each other for a moment, Lucius taking the last sip of his drink and Delilah merely standing serenely in front of him. His eyes caught on the necklace she was wearing, a simple chain of white gold with a rare gemstone that swirled with blue and green hues, which she had no doubt gotten from him for Christmas. It matched with her dress.

"It was a gift from someone special last Christmas." she said simply as she noticed where his eyes were. He nodded in acknowledgement of her statement.

"You wear it well."

"Thank you. This is a very nice reception that I've heard you planned."

"Thank you. It was the least I could do for my grandson."

"Scorpius if I'm correct?"

"Indeed. Scorpius. He's the only grandson I have so I assume I'm obligated to shower him in expensive things against his father's will."

She smiled, her eyes crinkling with mirth.

"I suppose so. Who would have ever thought that Lucius Malfoy, perhaps one of the most feared men since Grindelwald and Voldemort, would turn out to be a doting grandfather?"

He smirked at her comment.

"Any person who had taken the time to know me."

"Such a simple answer? You should know how hard it is to see something in a person who doesn't know who they are."

"I always watch those who know who they are." he said gently. Banter was always a feature of their conversation; it brought to mind more pleasant memories like when they had first kissed. It was in her fourth year when they really got to know one another; always exchanging titbits of information and confiding in each other things they probably wouldn't have told anyone else. He found her a more than pleasant substitute for his house sometimes, when tempers were running high and every word counted. She was refreshment from walking on eggshells constantly; he envied her naïveté and innocence, the fact that she was raised in a straightforward household where what was said was what was meant and that she hardly had to be pretentious and deceitful to get by. She was allowed to live a normal life uninhibited and without constant vigilance. Maybe that was the reason why they spoke so much; her word was more valuable than he had known.

A selfish being like himself wanted her all to himself; his envy of her life began to morph into a horrible possessiveness. Being a Malfoy, he simply always got what he wanted. She was untainted by the corruption and reputation that dogged him everyday, free of the rules that regulated everything from his deportment to his yawns, free to live her life and grow at her own pace and establish her own rules. He was jaded as a rule of inheritance; she had the choice. While he was too far gone, he could live vicariously through her and enjoy the freedoms she so clearly took for granted. Simply being near a pure soul like her lifted the burdens of life from his shoulders; it was a feeling that he couldn't get from Narcissa or McNair, Snape, Crabbe, Goyle or from anyone in his house. It was a feeling that he wouldn't dare seek from anyone else. And though he knew he shouldn't have, he trusted her; he sought that exhilarating feeling from her and it was from this ridiculous attachment that he came to need her.

Their first kiss was gentle; not demanding or rough like when he was with Narcissa, and definitely not heated with passion. As time went on their kisses would become more intense and sear with a flash of heat wherever lips landed but their first had been timid; he could taste the fear and uncertainty in her mouth as they finally defined what they had both been feeling. He didn't push her and she didn't fight him, they simply sat in the darkness of the castle, lips pressed in meek chasteness against each other, hands slipping through white blonde hair and arms wrapping around a slimming waist. It was one of the few moments of gentleness that Lucius had ever initiated in his lifetime and the mere thought sent tingles across his mouth as though he was 15 again. That had been the freedom he had been thinking of whenever he spoke to her and for a moment, all was well. The simple smile he had received and the peck on the cheek was, amazingly, enough for him. It was the promise of a bright future and a compensation for the past he had suffered; it was all he needed and the thoughts of his reality never crossed his mind. Snape had been quick to point out how it was bound to fail; fate could never permit the son of Abraxas Malfoy to be happy so easily. How right he had been…

"The son must pay for the sins of the father." he muttered, unaware that she was still there.

"Talking to yourself in public? The Lucius I knew would never have done that…reflecting on your life's story I presume. You seem to be deep in thought Lucius. Perhaps we can catch up some other time."

By the time he had caught what she had said, she had disappeared into the crowd, leaving behind no trace of the long curls of black hair or the vivid blue eyes. She was like a ghost, leaving not even the warmth of her presence behind. Thinking that it wasn't the time or place to reflect on love lost, he quickly bade the bridal party farewell saying jokingly that at his old age he shouldn't be staying out so late and after reassuring Narcissa that he was simply tired, he apparated to the Manor where the family celebrations would continue later.