Author's Note: It looks like though I didn't have anything ready to post last week due to a problem I discovered with a scene in Ginger Snap, this week is going to be a bounty of posts. Some have asked some questions about this story. It has long been in production. Originally, I considered making it part of Ritually Yours, but on due consideration determined that it is actually a parallel story to that, and would have really messed up that story. I am not expecting it to be any longer than Ritually Yours, but I've been wrong before.

Warning: This chapter contains references to child sexual abuse. While no actual description of acts occurs, you should be aware that it's coming.

Chapter One

Draco was surprised that his father met him at Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. He'd expected his mother. He did not immediately approach his father. His father was standing near the edge of the platform, almost concealed by a column, and appeared to be deep in thought. Draco knew the particular pose and look well. It was not a good thing to interrupt.

So Draco looked around the platform. Professor Snape was heading over towards McGonagall and Potter . . . and Victoria. Professor Snape had never lied to him, but Draco wasn't yet quite sure that he had told him the whole story. In fact, Draco was sure that there was more to the story. He casually waved to a few of his fellow Slytherins, as he watched the ebb and flow of the platform.

It looked like Granger was being met by her parents. She got a big hug from her mother. Draco missed getting his mother's hugs. He wouldn't admit it to anyone, but somehow, looking at Granger enveloped by her mother and now father, he longed for it again. He found his gaze moving from the Grangers, across the platform, to his father again.

His father had stepped forward a bit, and now stepped back again. He was looking right at Victoria. Draco saw an unexpected expression on his father's face, that of longing. With great effort, his father brought his expression back under control, but Draco had seen it.

Draco was almost certain now. Victoria Price, the third year girl due to have a baby in the Spring, was his half-sister like Professor Snape said. He had to find a way to confirm it, though, confirm the situation which his father and half-sister were in.

He waited until Victoria left the platform before walking up to his father. "Hello Father," Draco said. He wanted to say more, but this public, and he had to be the perfect pureblood son in public.

"Draco," his father nodded. "We shall be taking the Wyvern home, today."

Draco loved to ride in the Wyvern. The Wyvern had been his great-grandfather's horseless carriage. It was sleek, painted a green so deep it was almost black. To hear his father tell it, the car had been the last of his great-grandfather's pride and joys, only residing in the Malfoy carriage house during the last three years in of his great-grandfather's life. The best thing about the horseless carriage to Draco's mind though, was that his great-grandfather had modified it so it could fly, and got a permit to make it legal, way back in 1948.

"Let's fly," Draco said, with a big smile.

"Let's," his father said, tossing his cane up in the air and catching it. It didn't take long for them to enter the car park that the Ministry maintained below King's Cross station. Nor did it take long for Draco's father to secure his trunk in the boot. The horseless carriage exited via the owl portal.

Draco watched as London sped by under the horseless carriage. His father was keeping them rather low. Father had often told him that it was best not to keep one's head in the clouds, as it was very hard to see. As London spread out, slowly reaching out into the countryside, Draco finally figured out the one question that he could ask to confirm Professor Snape's story. "Father, is it true that Grandfather put you under an unbreakable vow to marry Mother?"

"I cannot speak of it," his father said, his mannerisms confirming what Draco had been told. "I shall not repeat my father's mistakes."

That was the last word that was spoken from his father to Draco that day. They arrived two hours later at Malfoy Manor in Wiltshire, and the house elf immediately brought his trunk up to his quarters. Draco had to walk.

It was very comforting that his father had said that he wouldn't repeat his father's mistakes. Draco knew that his Grandfather Malfoy was a throughly evil man. It was only complications from dragon pox that had finally made him retire, six years after the infection, at least that was what the everyone said. Draco believed otherwise.

Draco needed to speak to someone about what he'd learned, but it was obvious that his father was not going to be able to be that person, nor were any of his fellows in Slytherin. He couldn't wait for his return to Hogwarts to work this out. Owling Professor Snape, or Victoria wasn't something he could do ... yet.

It was definite that he wasn't going to talk to a house elf, and that left one person currently residing at Malfoy Manor. There was no helping it, he was going to have to be smothered by his mother.

"Now, how is my little dragon boy?" Draco's Mother asked him, standing as he entered her parlor. She didn't hug him. He'd told her not anymore before he left for Hogwarts. He missed the hug.

"Did you know a Erlene Prince at Hogwarts?" Draco asked. "I think she was in Father's year."

His mother stiffened a bit. "Where did you hear that name?" she asked softly. She seemed uncertain if she wanted to know the answer.

Draco wasn't sure how to reply, really. He'd actually hoped that his mother would respond with an answer. He kept silent, like he'd seen the fifth-year prefect do when Bole had responded his question about a missing item with a question.

"Erlene had a child, didn't she?" his mother asked, her eyes boring into Draco's "Probably in the third year?"

"Yes, Victoria," Draco said, meeting his mother's gaze.

"I told her that if she seceded, that would be the perfect name," Narcissa Malfoy said. "Is she spending the holiday at Hogwarts?"

"No."

"That explains why your father chose to pick you up." Draco watched his mother settle down on the sofa. "Sit down, Draco. So, tell me about this Victoria."

Draco took his seat next to his mother on the sofa. His mother pulled him close. With her arm around his shoulder, he felt close to his mother. It was a feeling that he'd missed at Hogwarts. He'd been told that feeling homesick was normal. He guessed it was, but wasn't really the home he missed. It was the little things.

He missed his mother tucking him in every night. He missed the hugs. He missed his father sneaking him an extra strawberry scone under the table to avoid his mother's knowing gaze. He even missed the way their house elf Dobby would pound his head on the wall after doing the slightest thing incorrect.

The arm around his shoulders, the familiar surroundings of his mother's parlor, the soft music playing in the background ... all of it made Draco relax. Time seemed to roll backwards, back to the time that he would talk to his mother about everyone he met, back before he had even learnt how to read.

"I met Victoria Price, she uses her step-father's name, on my second day of Hogwarts. It was just an introduction, and some advice from a prefect that Victoria was the person to seek out if you needed help with Herbology. I was told that she was also good at Potions, but by the weekend I'd heard that she'd gotten herself banned from Professor Snape's lab."

"It wasn't her fault though."

"I find that hard to believe," his mother said. "Severus does not ban people from his lab for no reason."

"It's not her fault," Draco repeated. "She can't help the fact that her step-father ..." Draco searched for the word to use. He didn't want to use a word that would cause his mother to have to use the mouth washing spell. Especially when he didn't really know how it happened. He settled for an neutral as possible term. "... made her pregnant."

Draco watched the expression on his mother change, from a calm, cool, and collected mother one to an expression of fury. He'd never really seen his mother get mad. She was always calm, even when things went really wrong. Draco had never seen her eyebrows meet and her lips pressed into a think line. He'd never seen her hair frizzle and spark with anger.

"Were is Victoria now?" she said, standing. "I'm going to go flatten that man."

"I don't know, mummy," Draco said, his mother's towering fury causing him to cringe back on the sofa. "Professor Snape was taking her to Christmas Break. He said something about Victoria asking if he had his Death Eater robes though."

"He and I are going to have to talk." his mother said, calming down slightly "No child of my husband should be treated that way."

"You mean, she is my half-sister?" Draco asked. "Really?"

"I don't see how she couldn't be," his mother said, sitting back down on the sofa. "Your father's behavior of the past couple years would seem to indicate it.

"A couple years ago, he went to watch the sorting, as is his right as a member of the Governors. He came back and was already into the fire whiskey. He's been a lot more active at Hogwarts than he's ever been since then. I've really never asked why. I actually thought he'd gotten drunk for the opposite reason."

"Father got drunk?" Draco said incredulously. The idea of his strict and proper acting father getting drunk just didn't fit.

"Your father does not get drunk often," his mother replied, taking a brush out of the adjacent end table. "It actually doesn't take much to make him that way. He's been using a switching spell to replace his wine with sparkling fruit juices since at least his sixth year. But, every once in a while ... well, he takes a whiskey lullaby."

"Now, tell me about your half-sister Victoria," she ordered as she began to brush her hair.

Draco resumed his tale about his half-sister, as his mother first brushed her hair, and then began to run the brush through his. By the time they were called for dinner, Draco was sitting in his mother's lap, embraced in her hug as his head leaned against her shoulders.

Erlene Prince-Price opened the silverware drawer in the apartment where she, her husband, and her four children lived. It wasn't the cleanest place, and it definitely wasn't large enough for the family. She'd lived a hard life since she had been forced out into the muggle world when her grandfather had disowned her and her first husband had been forced to disavowal their relationship.

Erlene had just returned from platform nine and three quarters. She had met her daughter's head of house, Professor Snape, there. Until that moment, she had expected to be picking up her daughter for Christmas Break. Until that moment, she had no idea that her husband had been sexually abusing his step-daughter. Until that moment, she had no idea that her daughter was pregnant with her second husband's baby.

"Where's Vicky?" Erlene turned around briefly to look at the speaker. It was her third daughter, Judith who was three, almost four. Little Joseph, just sixteen months old was toddling up to his sister's side. She never could tell Judith and Julie's voices apart.

Erlene turned back to the drawer, fumbling around with everything stashed in it. "Victoria will be staying elsewhere this Christmas."

"Why?" Judith asked, in a plaintive tone that Erlene knew was just the beginning of a long set of questions.

"Because she needs to," Erlene said, knowing that the answer wouldn't be enough for her youngest daughter. Her hand finally touched what she was looking for. It was made of elm with an unicorn hair core. It was her wand. There had been another wand in the drawer, three years ago, cherry with the same core from the same unicorn. That had been her first husband's wand. Both of them were custom makes, made after an accident in dueling during their sixth year. It was now Victoria's wand. "Where is Julie?" She hoped that the question would stop Judith's whys before they really started.

"Daddy took her out to help get dinner," Judith said.

"How long ago?" Erlene said, turning around to face her daughter and son.

Judith shrugged.

Erlene knew that meant that it had been a while. Suddenly she felt a bolt of horror go through her mind. The pregnant form of her daughter, just starting her third trimester had been enough to prove to Erlene, without a single word from Victoria, exactly who had been responsible. That was why, for the first time in nearly decade, Erlene had her wand out, ready to curse. Now that betrayer of vows and despoiler of daughters was out with another of her daughters, a daughter on the cusp of puberty.

The door jingled, as someone tried to unlock the door. "Judith, Joseph, go to your room now, and close the door. Don't come out until I say you can." Her children obeyed, the tone of her voice booking no argument from them. The door opened just as their bedroom door closed.

Her husband and Julie entered, carrying takeout from Victoria's favorite restaurant, obviously expecting her to come home, based on the smell of Sakura's full Japanese dinner. "Fenton Milhouse Price, step away from my daughter," she ordered, her wand pointing at her husband. The tip of her wand sparked with her anger. "Julie, put the food on the table, then come stand behind me."

Fenton had rarely seen her angry, and never had seen her angry with a wand. In fact, until recently, he'd rarely seen her with the wand. The door behind him slammed shut, and even though he stood a good foot taller and outweighed her by a good five stone, not to mention that his construction work had given him a well muscled body, he trembled.

Erlene had never seen Fenton tremble before. This was the first time the roles had been in her favor. Usually it was him coming home drunk, thought that hadn't happened in the last five years, that had her trembling, and often left her explaining away injuries.

"What's going on Mum?" Julie asked, having put the bags on the table.

"I just found out what your father did to Victoria," Erlene said, her anger still rising. "Why did you do it, Fenton?"

"It is my right as the head of the house to discipline the children as I feel fit," Fenton replied, back against the door and staring at Erlene's wand.

"Raping Victoria to the point of making her pregnant is not discipline," Erlene said, as she caught another smell over that of the food. It was enough for her to finally use her wand. "Incarcerous!" Ropes shot out of her wand, and bound Fenton, tightly, causing him to tumble over.

Erlene then turned to her daughter. The scent was clear, but she had to check. She lifted Julie's skirt, then dropped it. "Your father did that to you?"

Julie nodded, and after a moment's silence, continued, as if a dam had suddenly broke, and her words were the water. "He said daughters were supposed to do it, and that he'd done it with Victoria. Now that she was away at school and I was old enough, it was my turn. It hurts, but he said it would eventually feel really good. Mummy, why does he do it?"

"I don't know why my jewel," Erlene said, using her free hand to pull her into a hug. "But he's not going to be doing it any more. I am going to call the police, and he is never entering this apartment again."

"Really?" Julie said as she burrowed into her mother's hug.

"I might have to pull out my old books, but this place is going to be safe," Erlene said.

"Mummy, there is an owl in my room, but it's not Vickie's," Judith said. Erlene turned around to discover that her daughter had opened the door. "Why is Daddy all tied up?"

Victoria was surprised when Professor Snape stepped into her bedroom. She had changed into her nightgown after her bath, and was reading her transfiguration text, always something that could get her yawning. He'd knocked, though, and she was still awake, so she'd let him in and resumed her place under the covers.

"Miss Price, I've just heard from the police in Hounslow," Snape said, standing at the foot of her bed. "Your step father has been arrested and charged with raping your sister Julie. They would like to interview you tomorrow afternoon."

Victoria felt as if the world was crashing down on her. It was only the revelation of her pregnancy, a pregnancy that she had been trying to hide, trying to deny, that had brought what her father had done to her to her head of house's attention. Her gaze dropped down to her swollen belly. No other Slytherin knew what happened to her, and she'd never told her mother what her step father had done to her.

And now her step father had done it to her eight-year-old half sister. Victoria had been ten when her step father had first raped her. She'd never considered that her step father would do the same thing with Julie as he had with her. Her step father had told her, after all, that sharing no blood connection meant that he had no restrictions with her. It was obvious that her step father had lied. Her step father lied a lot, but for some reason, Victoria had believed him, and now her sister had been raped. Victoria knew it was her fault.

"Miss Price ... Victoria it is not your fault," Professor Snape said. Somehow he had moved around from the foot of her bed without her noticing. His hand touched her chin and directed her gaze so that his eyes met hers. "You could not stop him. Do not think that if you'd somehow done more your sister would not have been his victim. If anyone is at fault, if anyone is to blame, it is him and those responsible for enforcing the law.

"I notified Child Protective Services the morning after I found out. They chose not to act. They chose to allow a predatory abuser to remain in a house with young children. They chose to not even inform your mother as to what had happened to you. She only found out when she met us on the platform due to your failure to notify her of your alternate accommodations for Christmas.

"If it wasn't for your error, and your failures, your step father would not be in custody right now."

Victoria found herself shaking. She wanted to believe her professor. She wanted to think that she'd stopped her step father. But she couldn't. She wanted to see her sisters and little brother, to know they were safe. She wanted to be sure that her step father would never hurt anyone again. That she would never come home from school again to see her mother sporting bruises from her step father's drunken rage.

She'd let her step father do it to her, when she discovered that it seemed to stop him from attacking her mother. A step father raping her was to her mind better than a beaten mother. She figured that if she hadn't done it, her brother wouldn't exist. She knew that her mother had miscarried at least twice. Victoria had forced herself to believe that she had done some good by submitting to her step father's attentions.

"Let it go, Victoria," Snape ordered, placing his hands on her shoulders.

Victoria cried. Her tears flowed down her cheeks. Her body was wracked with long suppressed sobs of sorrow for how she had been forced to live. She obeyed Potions Professor, letting each moment, each tear, release a little bit more of what she was holding back. The crying, the wracking sobs overwhelmed her body. Her vision collapsed as tears distorted her view. She was nothing but her emotions.

Finally the sobs ended, and the tears trailed off. She did not open her eyes, but felt Professor Snape guide her to lay down. He pulled her covers up, and tucked her in. He whispered softly into her ear, "It shall get better." And then the lights dropped, leaving her wrapped tightly under thick blankets. The words echoed in her mind, and as she dropped into sleep they echoed in her soul.

Like every time he'd defied his father's magic, Lucius Malfoy stood on the balcony off of the library of Malfoy Manor looking towards the North West Cottage. It was in that cottage that his father still lived. His father that was why he couldn't do anything about his own daughter. As the red smoke of what ever experiment that his retired from public view father was doing billowed out of the cottage chimney, Lucius could not help but curse his father.

Everything that Abraxas Malfoy touched turned evil. There had been a time that Lucius believed that he could escape it. There had been eight months were he truly believed that he could set a different path than his father. Those eight months on the run with Erlene had been a dream, the last time he had truly been free.

It had started with their trip, two days before his time at Hogwarts officially came to an end. They'd flooed from the Three Broomsticks to the Old Blacksmith's Shop in Gretna Green, once Lucius had received word that his father was going to force him into another marriage immediately following his return to the Manor. Lucius had been determined to marry the woman he loved.

For eight months, he was married to Erlene. They had spent every day traveling through Scotland, England, and Wales. They had spent every night trying to make sure it was impossible to deny that Erlene was Lucius's wife. He'd been literally torn from the bed he was sharing with her, ripped from their joining, a joining that had been successful some time that week.

"Dobby," Lucius ordered as he continued to stare, unable to turn away from the cottage. "Scotch on the rocks." As he stared at the red smoke, the memory of the couple days after being torn from Erlene burned in his brain.

His father had placed him on a bier, and ritually bound him with the blood of a cockatrice under a dementor's cloak. He'd been force bound to the ancestral dominance wand, dragon heartstring and elm, instead of his beloved cherry and unicorn hair. He had not know what had happened to his beloved first wand until he'd seen it with his daughter. The dominance wand seemed push him more and more towards the dark spells his father preferred.

Then newly bent to his father's will, he'd been taken to the Dark Lord's side. There he had been forced to witness depravities that to this day he did not speak of until he broke and ended up joining the Dark Lord's Death Eaters drunken orgy receiving his mark after raping a muggle to death. With his mark, he no longer had any morals to stop him. He'd beaten, tortured, raped, and murdered. He sipped is scotch

Only once had his father's control broken, when the Dark Lord tested his loyalty by ordering him to curse his father. Lucius had taken that with great pleasure. He'd left his father weak and unable to rejoin society. The man was crippled, bent over, and easily exhausted from that point on. He still had control over Lucius though.

Once the Dark Lord was defeated, the control lessened. Sometimes, especially after he saw his daughter, it seemed to disappear, until he found himself on this balcony. On this balcony where he would rage against his father until his will was broken again.

Anger built to a crescendo, Lucius tossed the remnants of his scotch on to the tile of the balcony. He knew that if he couldn't break his father's control before he died, his father's death would seal his darkened soul. And then, some day, he would do it to his own son. It was the only reason that Abraxas Malfoy remained alive.