The Unknown Heirs
Chapter three
The Discovery
Draco Malfoy was really very annoyed. How dare Headmistress McGonagall send him to this God- forsaken country? In the freezing cold, yet! He looked down at the address on the piece of parchment again, then looked up at the row of townhouses. This was pushing the claim of failing health just a little too far. She wasn't that sick, and no one ever died from a cold! Yesterday she had requested he meet with her.
Flashback
"Thank you for coming Draco," Minerva said between coughs. "I need you to do me a favor."
"Yes, ma'am."
"The board of governors has informed me that there is a set of Muggle twins whose parents must be notified of their invitations to attend Hogwarts. I'm far too sick to make the trip myself. Would you be willing to go for me?"
End of flashback
The woman may have formed the request into a question, but Draco knew he had little say in the matter. He failed to see why it was so important that Muggles be informed on their eleventh birthday exactly. It was -35 degrees Centigrade! Couldn't this wait for a warm spring day? He quietly cast another warming charm over himself, then finally spotted the address he was looking for. He hoped the inhabitants would have enough manners to invite him in and offer him something warm to drink. He made his way to the door and briskly knocked.
After a minute the door opened, revealing a woman in her early sixties who had short, brown, curly hair and pale green eyes, and a warm smile. "Hello!" she greeted, too happily in Draco's opinion.
"Hello, madam. I'm looking for Jennifer Gideon."
"Of course you are. Why don't you come in? It's so cold out!" She backed away from the door to give him space to come in. "I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name."
"Malfoy, Draco Malfoy," he stated.
"Oh, you are a charmer, just like Double O Seven!" Draco had no clue what the woman was talking about. "Jenny said she would be home," the woman looked at her watch, "well, any minute now. You know, with it being the children's birthday." She took his coat and hung it up.
"Yes, I'm aware of the fact it's their birthday."
"Of course you are. Would you like some coffee?"
"That would be lovely." The woman led him to the kitchen. "You said Mrs. Gideon would be arriving home soon?"
"Oh yes. You know, she always makes the biggest fuss about their birthday, and with it being so cold she wanted to pick them up at school rather than have them take the school bus."
As she poured Draco's coffee, there came kid noise from the front of the house. "Stella, are you in the kitchen?" a woman's voice called out..
The old woman walked to the entrance to the kitchen. "Yes Jenny, I was keeping your guest company." She turned back towards Draco. "It was nice meeting you, Draco. Have a good evening." She then left the room. Draco overheard the conversation in the hall. "Jenny, I hate to run, but I really need to get home. David's old army buddy is arriving in town tonight and I have to get ready. Your cake is cooling, and the young man in the kitchen is very handsome! No wonder you've been keeping him to yourself!"
"He's here now?" the other voice seemed surprised.
"Yes, I left him in the kitchen. Well, good night dear." Then the sound of the front door being closed could be heard.
Draco stood up and waited for the woman to enter the kitchen. He still had no idea how to explain to a Muggle about his world. He heard the footfalls of the woman coming down the hall. "Paul," came a tired sounding voice. "This needs to stop- You!" Draco looked at a woman he had not seen in years, but there was no doubt in his mind who she was. That red hair, her eyes, which were quite big right now, her pale, freckled skin... This was not a Muggle family, and therefore these must be half blood children. "Malfoy, what are you-, how did you find me? You have to leave, now!" The Weaslette exclaimed.
"I see some things haven't changed. A Weasley still can't even finish a sentence. To answer the unfinished question, I came to extend an invitation to your twins to attend Hogwarts."
She seemed to be panicking. "You need to leave! Now!" she repeated.
"Why are you so agitated? I'm here on official Hogwarts business."
"They shouldn't even be getting their letters until the summer," she spat.
"Well, for some reason, your children were believed to be Muggle-born, and Muggle families are informed on the child's birthday to give them time to adjust to the news."
"You need to leave, now!" she said more urgently, as if the third time would be the charm and he would go.
"Mom. who is that?" a girl who looked exactly like Ginny had at ten asked.
At the same moment, a boy who looked like a miniature Draco asked, "Is he our dad?"
Ginny spun around. "NO! Draco Malfoy is NOT your father!"
"But he looks just like me," the boy claimed.
"Gavin, I'm well aware of who looks like who. Take you sister upstairs now, and stay there until I tell you otherwise," she ordered. The twins seemed to know better than to question their mother and sadly turned back down the hall.
Draco was putting things together in his mind, but waited until the children were out of the room. "I know I'm not their father, but they are Malfoys, right?"
Ginny turned back towards him; he could tell she was calculating her next move. "Malfoy, you need to go, please."
"You and Father? Lucius is their father, right? It all fits; you played for his team, he divorced Mother shortly after you disappeared... He and you! He doesn't know, does he? Of course not," he rambled.
"Please Draco, leave! Forget you ever saw us. Tell Hogwarts the children declined the invitation. Just leave us alone, please!"
His eyes narrowed. "I can't."
"Yes you can! Think about the fact that as long as no one knows about them, the whole Malfoy fortune remains yours and yours alone to inherit."
"Trust me Weasley, the Malfoy fortune could be split seven ways and no one would ever run out of money. Those children are Malfoys and they have a birth right! How could you deny them their birth right?"
"Had I stayed they never would have been born. I gave them more that a birth right, I gave them life!"
"You think Father would have had you kill them?"
"Of course he would have! They would have given your mother grounds for divorce and he would have lost everything."
He knew better than to disagree with her too strongly at this time. "Forget about Father. What about their birth rights as a Wizard and Witch? Their magical birth rights? They're Pure bloods and you have them living like- damn Muggles! They have a right to their magical past."
"Please leave or I'll phone the police!" She sounded desperate.
Draco then relied on the skills he learned working at Malfoy Holdings. "Please calm down. Let's sit down and talk about this." He gestured towards the kitchen table.
She crossed her arms over her chest. "I don't see that we have anything to discuss."
He smirked. "Sure we do; they both saw me and now they will have questions."
She glared at him. "And talking with you is going to help how?"
"Please, Ginevra." He could see in her face that hearing her full,given name caused her some emotional pain.
"Don't call me that," she snapped.
"Lucius always calls people by their proper name." He turned towards her kitchen table and then sat down. Ginny simply stared at him. "Look, tell me the story and hopefully we can work something out."
"Why would I do that?"
"Well, you have hidden yourself quite well. If you don't tell me, I will send a letter to the Daily Prophet telling them exactly where you are. As soon as it comes out, I would imagine you'll have the whole Weasley family on your doorstep, along with Lucius. I don't think it will be pretty."
She slumped down onto a chair in a defeated way. "Fine. Yes, Lucius and I were having an affair, and it started because I was angry and hurting. At first it was all about sex, but it changed. I grew to love him, but he never felt the same way. Then I found myself expecting. After I took a bad hit and almost lost the twins, Lucius showed how little he cared. The flowers I received from him were nice enough, however he couldn't even sign the card himself. The whole thing was probably sent by his assistant. I realized I was fooling myself, and even if I did tell him, and if by some miracle he didn't have me get rid of them, we would have had a very sad life. Probably always hidden away. I didn't want that for them. If Lucius had cared even a little, I knew that no one would ever be able to know they were his. That my children, while maybe lucky enough to know their father, would never get to have Christmas morning with him, knowing he was with his other family."
"Still, they never got to have Christmas morning with their father."
"True, but they know that their father never knew about them. They think it's because I never told him. They think I believed he would have loved them so much he would have taken them from me. It's better for their egos to think that he would have loved them that much, and they know I love them so much that I couldn't bear to have them taken from me."
"They will grow to resent you," Draco cautioned.
"I know, but a little resentment towards their mother is better than the alternative. Even if they resent me, they still know I love them, and they believe their father would have loved them as much as well."
Draco looked at her and wondered if some day when he had children he could do the same; care more about their well being than his own. "Look Ginny, I understand not wanting them to be known as Malfoys might seem like the best thing. People's opinions of us are still the same, but they have the birth right of their magical blood and they're going to have questions about me. Potter without his glasses could tell that we're related. Let me get to know them. You and I both know they need to go to Hogwarts, so give them that right."
"Malfoy, you just said it; anyone would know that they're Malfoys-"
"Yes, but I think you forget the fact that my parents are no longer together. I'm not going to lie; Lucius will be pissed you never told him. The worst, I would think, will be your family, but the twins need to know the truth. Bring them home, to the Wizarding world."
"Why do you care?" Ginny asked, obviously annoyed.
"Because it's wrong to make them live as Muggles. They're better than that, and they're my brother and sister." She didn't look convinced. "Look, either you let me get to know them and return with them or I notify Lucius right now. I don't think he'd be too pleased to find that not only did you hide his children from him, but you have them living like this. Hey, we both know how he feels about Muggles; this would push him over the edge. Between you, me, and your family, maybe we can get them used to the Wizarding world enough before he finds out about them and the fact that you have raised them as Muggles."
"That's blackmail! Please -"
"You're not going to make me go away."
"Draco, look at it this way; think about how you grew up having to deal with Lucius' past. I don't want them to have to experience that."
"I willingly dealt with it because besides being a Death Eater, Lucius was a good and loving father. He and Mother never loved each other, but they both put on one hell of a show for me. Personally, with what I've seen over the past ten years or so, it's amazing they never killed each other. The things they have said to and about each other makes my blood run cold. But I had no clue as a child, or teenager, how they felt about one another until after he threw her out of the Manor."
Ginny got a shocked look on her face. "He threw her out?"
"Yes. I thought I just said that."
" I must have missed hearing it."
"Yeah, twelve years ago. I would guess shortly after you vanished. He never told me his reasons for her indiscretions having come out. Perhaps you were the reason."
She sat quiet for a long time, then changed the subject. "Why would Hogwarts send you of all people to inform a Muggle family?" she asked.
"Do you know how they find magical children?" he asked in return. She shook her head. "Well, once they register magic they send out a scout who watches the child for signs. Scouts are usually Muggles who are connected to our world by marriage and such. That way they go unnoticed in the Muggle world. Once it's confirmed they have magical abilities, the scout reports back to the Board of Governors and the Headmistress. I'm guessing she saw a picture of your son and figured he was my son. That has to be the reason she asked me to go."
"How did she get you to come?"
"Oh, I have been teaching Potions for the past couple of years. I wanted a break from being Father's shadow and make a name for myself. Will you let me meet them now?"
"I don't recall saying that I agree to this. Look, you made it your goal to make my life a living--"
"That was what, fifteen years ago? I know I was an arse, but people can change. Are you going to tell me you could get past what Father did to you? That's far more damaging than the things I did to you."
She looked at him intently, trying to figure him out. "You're right. Having them live like this has been wrong, but how...how do I tell them that I have lied to them?"
"With the truth," he replied. "The truth that you believed you were protecting them. When things first came out about Mother, had she known about them she may have tried to kill you. But she's past that now, I think. Anyway Ginny, how much longer are you going to leave them up there trying to hear what's going on down here?"
Ginny laughed and shook her head. "What's with you?"
"Nothing, I just always wanted a brother or sister."
"Fine, I'll have them come down," she said as she rose and the headed to the hall.
