Author's Note: This story got delayed just a bit when I realized that I'd messed up the sequence of events in my outline of scenes. Fixing it required that this chapter become tightly focused on the Julie story line. I had to move a couple scenes focused on other Slytherins later in the story, but as a result I think the overall plot should be better. The next chapter will likely come a lot sooner than this one did, unless the muse moves to another story.
Unfortunately I didn't get as much of a response from my beta readers on this story so there may be more errors than usual. Please PM me if you spot any.
The Smoldering Hearth
Julie was quite looking forward to her arrival at school. There wasn't a school near the Malfoy Manor and her mother hadn't wanted to pull her out of school anyway, at least until the end of the year. Julie was all for remaining at her school, even if she wasn't one of the popular girls at the school. She admitted to herself that she was quite often the girl ignored, especially after spending her second year of schooling recovering from the loss of her twin brother. (Who was coming back to life, hooray!)
She was a good student, who got good grades. True, she wasn't known for wearing the latest clothing, and was literally from the other side of the tracks from the school and where the popular girls and boys lived, but all that was about to change. Today she was going to arrive in the Wyvern. Riding in the back seat of the 1948 Vauxhall Wyvern was fun. Well, she kind of wished she could have sat in the front seat, but her mother was sitting there as her real father drove after a port key to some place just off the M4. Maybe she'd get to ride there on the way home after school. Her father had promised to take her to and home from school every day, at least 'for the foreseeable future.'
The deep green Vauxhall pulled up in front of her school in Houndslow, and Julie got out, being careful not to scuff up her brand new black school shoes. She had on a brand new wool gray skirt, white silk shirt, and red cardigan with the school logo on it. It was a lot better than the worn handed down outfit that she'd worn before the Christmas Break.
As she stepped on to the walk towards the front entrance, Julie spotted one of those popular girls just ahead of her. She put on a big smile and called out, "Good Morning Cassie."
"It's Cassandra, wench," Cassandra Winton-Henke shot back, even though she had told everyone to call her Cassie. Cassandra was one of those that called Julie 'wench' because her mother had once worked as a barmaid. It had been the invention of William Morley, and had unfortunately caught on. Most of the sting of the name had died, but it still hurt Julie at bit to be called it.
Cassandra turned to look back at Julie, her brief glance when returning the greeting having made her do a double take. "Oh, the wench has new clothes. Mummy must have got a new rich boyfriend. Bet she..."
"Young lady, I suggest you stop there," the Headmistress said. "Good Morning Mrs. Price."
"It's Mrs. Malfoy now," Julie's mother said, placing her hand on Julie's shoulders. "It's a long story, but Fenton is no longer in my family's life and is currently a guest of the Queen. I've returned to the Malfoy family, and need to update the authorized list so that Lord Malfoy can pick Julie up this afternoon."
"Certainly, Ms. Malfoy," the Headmistress said. "Miss Price, Miss Winton-Henke, head along to your class room. There are only a couple minutes left until classes began."
Julie headed into the school, down the corridor, and into Mrs. Chou's classroom. Mrs. Chou was already standing in front of the black board, and about a third of the class seemed to have found their seats. Cassandra headed for the closet and her friends. Julie did not follow them. She hadn't worn a coat, and her intention of trying to be friends with the popular girls now that she wasn't in hand-me-down uniforms any more, had been temporarily shelved by Cassandra's reaction.
"Is that a new hair clip, Julie?" Mrs. Chou asked.
"Yes, my sister Victoria got it for me for Christmas," Julie said with a smile, turning slightly so the jade and sliver clip could be seen better by her teacher.
"Please convey my thanks to your sister Victoria for her letter," Mrs. Chou said. "It is always nice to know that you've had some effect on your students."
"Victoria says if she has a girl, she wants to name it after you, no matter how bad Allison sounds with whatever last name she has," Julie said, with a smile. She didn't tell Mrs. Chou that Victoria was pregnant. It didn't feel right to do so, if Victoria hadn't told her already in her letter.
"Well, I always said I didn't marry Mr. Chou for his last name," Mrs. Chou said. "Everyone, sit down. It's time for Mathematics."
Erlene had not intended on picking up Julie from school. With Junior inside her again, she was already starting to show a bit, or would be if she hadn't decided on wearing a particularly baggy outfit to pick Julie up. It would probably be the last time she left Malfoy Manor for the rest of the month, so when Lucius had run into some issues at the Ministry, she'd taken the Wyvern and headed off to Houndslow. She was a bit behind Julie's usual pick up time, but not that much, maybe a couple minutes late.
The Headmistress was standing with Julie when she pulled up. In Erlene's experience, that was never a good sign. She turned off the car and pulled on the brake, as Julie and the headmistress approached. It looked like Julie had been crying, which wasn't a good sign either. Erlene rolled down the window. "Is there something wrong, Headmistress," she asked.
"I'm afraid that I must apologize to you, Mrs. Malfoy," the Headmistress said. "I'm afraid there was an incident today involving what turned out to be an illegal interview of your daughter by Mr. Price's lawyers, one of which claimed to be the CPS advocate."
"I think I'm going to need to come in to hear this," Erlene said, turning off the engine.
"I think so," the Headmistress said. "But I want you to know before we even start that we have already filed a complaint, which we would like you to join us in, against the firm of Cattivafede and Bugia."
"I'm afraid that firm is about to have quite a bit of trouble," Erlene replied, getting out of the Wyvern. "Julie, are you okay?"
Her little jewel looked up at her, trails of tears still visible on her face, but with an expression of defiance. "No, but I will be," she said, quoting something that her sister Victoria had said several times.
"Well, then, let's get started on making you better," Erlene said as they were led back into the school and into the Headmistress's Office. "Oh, and Headmistress, I'm afraid that the firm in question may soon find that it will have to disassociate itself from the case. The retainer that Mr. Price had with them has been withdrawn by his patron's heir."
"That is quite good news, though we shall insist that the firm be sanctioned severely," the Headmistress said as they took seats around the Headmistress's desk. "Julie, would you be so kind as to repeat what you told me about Misters Cattivafede and Bugia's questioning ... and before she does, you should know that Mister Bugia was posing as a member of Child Protective Services. I strongly suspect a warrant will be issued for that, shortly, at least Officer Krupke seemed to imply that. Go ahead Julie."
"Mum, I was just finishing my Maths test when I was told to go to the office. To men were their. They told me they needed to interview me about what father had done to me. I told them, and they questioned what I said," Julie's tears resumed. "They said I lied. They told me that what happened couldn't have happened. They said father was going to take me back, and you'd go to jail instead. Then they said something about you and a Russian, I think Kutzisnutov? What ever he did it was unforgivable."
Erlene interrupted. "It wasn't a Russian, it was something that happened to your father right after his first appearance before the judge. Headmistress, you should be aware that there was an attack in the cells that resulted the loss of his ... privileges. We'll leave it at that."
"Indeed," the Headmistress said. "In any case, I entered the room shortly after the Kutzisnutov comment, and the two lawyers stories as to why they were at the school swiftly fell apart. They left rather precipitately. I decide that given your daughter's condition afterwards, I would not return her to class today, and instead we had tea together until your arrival while I worked on the appropriate response."
The statement was slid over to Erlene, and she quickly read it. "I'd be happy to join this complaint, Headmistress. I may keep Julie home for a couple days, after this, but she'll be back as so as I'm sure she won't be bothered by those lawyers."
"Quite understandable," the Headmistress replied, as Erlene added her signature. "If you will send someone by tomorrow afternoon, I will gather her assignments for the next week."
Draco figured that he shouldn't be totally surprised that he got the letter from Julie instead of Victoria. He was a bit though. It was true that he'd arranged for Julie to be next door to him, instead of across the hall next to Victoria. He'd really gotten to know Julie much better than his other half sisters over Yule Break, but still, Julie had know Victoria all her life, and both of them were girls.
Still, he'd gotten the rather messy letter with tear drops dotting the parchment, telling him exactly what Fenton Price's lawyers had said to her. No one should talk to his sisters like that. No one should talk to anyone's sister's like that. That was something he was quite sure off, even if the narrative had several obvious misunderstandings. It was obvious that it wasn't a Russian and her mother Erlene doing something, but an accusation that his mother had cut Fenton Price's nuts off. He'd crossed his legs protectively when that line had come up, even though he knew that Fenton had deserved it. After all, he'd somehow become the confidant for both Julie and Junior, and knew all that had been done to them by their "father."
He'd passed the letter off to Victoria when he returned to the common room, and then sat down at a table trying to figure out what he'd write back. It had to be good. As thought about that, a trio of third year boys took a seat at a couch that the table was backed up against. A quick glance up at the noise they'd made allowed him to identify them. He'd once cowed Claudio Cattivafede, Warwick Nelson, and Donovan Dewar by throwing his father's name around. That hadn't been a good idea, he knew now.
"Father told me he just took a case where a witch married a muggle," Cattivafede said, as he sat down on the end of the couch and propped his feet on the coffee table. "Apparently the witch now claims that the muggle raped their daughters, even getting the eldest pregnant, and now wants a divorce and full custody of their mudblood children. Father's not going to let that happen though. He's going to make sure the blood traitor loses everything."
"Blood traitor deserves it," Nelson said. "They probably opened their legs for him."
"Mating with muggles, disgusting," Dewar commented. "They deserve to be tortured and killed."
At one time Draco probably would have nodded at all three of the older boy's comments, and around the common room, there were several boys that were doing just that. It was obvious, though, that Claudio Cattivafede was talking about his sister, and over Yule, Draco had changed. His chair scraped against the tile of the common room as he stood. He could not let this stand.
"It seems that the Cattivafede Branch Family has no honor," Draco said, drawing up to his full four feet ten inch height moving to stand at the end of the couch. "It is obvious that the Malfoy family shall have to disassociate itself from a firm that can not understand that so many things are wrong."
"You're not threat, Malfoy," Cattivafede said, still seated, casually looking up at Draco. "You're not the heir of the family anymore. I doubt your father even listens to you. You just go on about waiting until your father hears about this, and nothing happens."
"Oh, that's where you're wrong," Draco said "You see, the Malfoy family side of this is not with the disgusting muggle that you seem to think should be supported as a way to get back at a blood traitor. You see, I know the full story that your father didn't tell you. And I think my father will quite approve what I'm going to do to you, and you know why?"
"Why?" Cattivafede asked, still lolling back on the couch.
"Because standing up for your family is something that my father believes in." And with that, he flipped his wrist, allowing his wand to leave the holster that Victoria had given him for Christmas. "Petrifectus Totalus! Wingarduim Leviosa!" All three boys' legs locked together and their arms fused against their now stiff straight bodies.. Draco shot the Cattivafede up to the ceiling, and the immediately back down, busting his nose against the ceiling. Then he levitated the boy up into the chandler, a large wheel like structure festooned with candles. "Habena Braccas!" From under Cattivafede's robes a pair of boxers emerged, scarlet, festooned with of all things cartoon lions. Draco was sure that even after his justice was over those boxers would be the talk of the house.
"I shall leave you two down here," Draco continued. "I suggest that when the bindings end, you remind your friend Sanctimonia Vincet Semper, leaving the judgement of purity to those dedicated to upload it ... and it is advisable not to be on the wrong side of a Malfoy. Don't insult my sisters or my father's first wife again."
With that, Draco went back to the table and picked up his stuff. As he headed back to the dorm room, he heard Victoria speak up, causing him to pause, just out of sight of the common room. "It seems that Draco has been practicing. You do know that only Potter is better at practicums in his year? Oh, and that our father has been tutoring him for years? I'm pretty sure that you remember who our Father is? You may have heard that this past November he won the British Open Dueling Championship? He left his last opponent in tears and having soiled himself. Father intends that Draco will follow in his footsteps. That's why gentlemen, you never tickle a sleeping dragon, or my little brother ... or me. I'm a lot more evil."
Professor Severus Snape looked up at Claudio Cattivafede. The third year was clinging to the chandelier like his life depended on it. There were splashes of green wax from the everlasting candles that had long been installed in the Slytherin Common Room on his naked body. It was obvious that his body had a few first degree burns not associated with the candle wax. There was a pile of ash below the chandelier, probably Cattivafede's clothes, though there was a pair of boxers over the top of a candlestick that Snape was sure was owned by the boy. It was not a good choice.
He'd been summoned to the common room by the boy's friends, and received an obviously biased story from them about how Draco had attacked them without provocation. Snape knew better. He didn't even have to read their minds. There were always the little giveaways, ticks and phrasing that led him to doubt what they said. Being able to read their minds just gave him a way to confirm that he was right about them lying to him.
The aforementioned duo, Warwick Nelson and Donovan Dewar had come to his office in their underwear. The dungeon's passageways were generally a bit warmer than those up around the towers that Gryffindor and Ravenclaw lived in, so going from the Common Room to Snape's office wasn't chilling in just their boxers. That was not the case where he'd punished them for lying to him.
Snape decided that he wouldn't even give Mister Cattivafede the chance to lie to him, especially since the Common Room still had witnesses, including two of the First Years, Zabini and Greengrass. "Stay silent if you value your evenings, Cattivafede. Your friends Nelson and Dewar are busy cleaning the Divination Class Room. It seems that Professor Trelawney stopped by my office just as I was about to see to their punishment for lying to me. She had foreseen that I would have two strong young wizards to assist her in some cleaning of her classroom and office."
"But the Malfoys ..." Cattivafede began.
"Don't dig yourself a hole, Mister Cattivafede," Snape snapped. "I do not think you realize how much trouble you have made for yourself and your father by discussing in front of one of the affected parties a case that he is involved in. Add to that, the fact that your father is part of the firm that is primarily employed by the Malfoy Family as their solicitors, and it was members of the Malfoy family that you called mudbloods. Oh, and the witch who is their mother and Lucius Malfoy's first wife? She was born Erlene Prince, and happens to be my first cousin once removed. So you have also earned my disdain.
"Your loose lips have cost many tonight. They will continue to do so, even if you do not say a single word again. Be glad that Miss Malfoy did not decide to silence your vocal cords forever, as it is well within her capabilities."
Snape could tell that Cattivafede was thinking now, and wouldn't be protesting for a while. He silently levitated the boy down from chandelier. The boy stood up and Snape conjured a robe to cover him, only for it to slide off his body. "It sees that Miss Malfoy cast a persistent stripping charm, probably due to emotional distress enhanced by pregnancy hormones. Do hope it wears off before morning."
"Or wears off at all," Blaise Zabini said from the table where he was working on his Herbology Assignment.
Snape's left eyebrow rose. He considered the possibility. Then decided that some time having to deal with the embarrassment would assist Cattivafede with the learning experience. It was Friday night. If Cattivafede still couldn't keep anything on by lunch time Saturday he'd reverse it. Until then, a public point that the punishment that the Malfoys had dealt to their solicitor's son was warranted and considered within Snape's expectations needed to be made. It was still three hours before third years were usually sent off to bed.
"Have you finished today's Potions assignment?" Snape asked. Cattivafede shook his head. "I expect an extra foot from you, and you will start work on it now. Zabini, Cattivafede is not allowed to leave the Common Room until he is either done or it is a half hour before bedtime. Cattivafede, I suggest you stay away from the Malfoys as much as possible. I shall expect you in my office before lunchtime tomorrow."
Snape watched as Cattivafede moved over to a free spot at the table that Zabini was sitting at with Greengrass, picking up his bag of books as he passed a couch. Once he was certain that Cattivafede was going to be working on the assignment, Snape turned, and with a swish of his cloak, left the Common Room.
Lucius Malfoy carefully positioned the new painting that he'd had done of his family just before Victoria and Draco returned to Hogwarts. It had just been delivered, and he thought that the artist had done a wonderful job. It was just of those that had attended the Ball, so his two youngest were missing, but he wasn't sure that either Judith or Joseph would be able to sit down long enough for a painter to sketch them. Just this morning Joseph had escaped from the bath and somehow had made it all the way to Julie's room, in an entirely different wing of the manor.
His three eldest children were front and center of the picture. Julie, being the youngest pictured, was in the center with Draco and Victoria flanking him. No attempt was made to hide Victoria's pregnancy. Lucius stood behind Julie, with Erlene on his right, and Narcissa on his left. All of them were attired in the same robes as they had worn during the Ball. He thought that both of his wives had chosen particularly fitting robes, and had been very careful to make sure that he was equal in his praise of both, to the point that both of them had called him on it.
He moved to take his seat at his desk, making sure that Julie's school identification card was causally placed where his soon to arrive visitor would spot it, with just a corner resting on his wand rest, so it tilted up to make it easier to read. It was her old one, with her old name. She had a new one that read "Juliet Antonia Malfoy." She's apparently tried to get the t dropped. Lucius didn't really see the problem with her legal first name, but it had apparently been the reason she'd turned down dancing with the scion of the Montgomery family. Someday he was going to get a response to why other than "you know."
The door opened revealing his wife Narcissa and the head of Cattivafede and Bugia, Prospero Cattivafede. Erlene was confined to the master suite at the moment due to the last couple days of her accelerated rebirth of Junior. "Solicitor Cattivafede," Narcissa introduced.
"Be seated," Lucius said, not bothering with any social niceties. The Cattivafedes were a cadet branch of the Malfoy family, and Prospero was a third cousin twice removed.
"Lucius," Prospero said, taking a seat across the desk from him. Prospero had a much darker blond hair than Lucius, streaked with gray, and his face was wrinkled a bit from age. Lucius had been just seven the first time he'd met Prospero, who had already been in his early forties then.
"Your firm has been the family firm for almost a century," Lucius began. "However, a recent event has given me question as to the loyalty of the firm to the family. Indeed, recent events have made me question the loyalty of the entire branch, and the ethics of at least one member of the firm, probably more."
"I am unaware of any action against the family," Prospero replied.
"It seems that someone has not followed my instructions to drop any support of Fenton Price, due to his actions against my immediate family," Lucius said. "I realize that the instructions came over Yule, and might not have been properly distributed as a result, however I recommunicated them after the incident at my daughter Juliet's school. It has now been two weeks since then, and yesterday afternoon I received owls from Victoria, Draco, and Professor Snape at Hogwarts. Added to details that I have only recently learnt about the encounter Juliet's school, I have to question if your firm is the type of firm that should represent a respectable family."
"May I ask what details you have discovered?" Prospero asked. "I'm afraid that my son has been rather tight lipped as to his actions on the Price case."
"Juliet is eight, almost nine, and was raped by Price," Lucius said. "Fortunately it was only once, and unlike Victoria there seems to be no lasting physical result, though his timing was almost right for it. Your son and another member of the firm questioned her, with your son posing as a member of the muggle Child Protective Services, while apparently one of them was polyjuiced to look like Price.
"The questioning was harsh, and appears to have been designed to make sure that became an unreliable witness. My daughter nearly spent the entire evening locked in her room crying. If it wasn't for the fact that there was an episode of The Next Generation that she hadn't seen on, I'm not certain that she would have ever left her room."
"The Next Generation?" Prospero inquired.
"Television show," Lucius said. "Full title is Star Trek: The Next Generation. Sequel to a show that aired in the nineteen sixties. I'm afraid that my daughters are trying to corrupted me to become a Trekkie. That being said, I do not like having to deal with a rightfully upset daughter. Which brings me to my eldest daughter and son. It seems that someone in your firm decided to tell Claudio Cattivafede about Juliet's interview and the firm's intention to portray my daughters and first wife as scarlet women and he repeated it in the Slytherin Common Room. Draco, and then Victoria defended the family honor.
"The question is do I need to defend the family honor by firing my solictors, or are you going to do something."
"Rest assured Lord Malfoy, actions will be taken, and you will find them most appropriate," Prospero promised. You certainly can expect that the firm's representation of Fenton Price is over. As for the two who interviewed your daughter, do you wish them fired or reassigned to the Azkaban Review you commissioned?"
"Much as I wish to put them out on the street, keeping them employed and under control of your firm is more likely to result in their silence and prevent them from working against the family goals. Azkaban it shall be. And I expect some results by next Yule at the very least."
