Disclaimer: Although I'd love to say I own Harry Potter, I'm not a talented writer, so how could I ever compare my horrible little stories to the great J.K.'s?
A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviewed! It cheers me up to know that people are still sticking with me as I write this. Oh, a quick note: I noticed in chapter one I believe that I accidentally put they were ten, well, they're really eleven, it was Lyn who was ten at the time, so I just wanted to correct that although I probably won't go back and fix that chapter. Now onto the story!
Voldemort's Heirs
The Ministry Ball Preparations
The next few weeks passed with a whirlwind of lunches and dinners between the Guadalupe and Malfoy families and all their family and friends, including Lyn's eleventh birthday. Ginny and Hermione and the kids spent a lot of time just settling in and hanging out with their friends and families while Draco and Deimos spent most of their time attending to household affairs, like the manors their father's had owned, but were not used. Draco and Deimos each had several mansions not in use, and instead of selling them, they each kept one, and gave the rest to be used as orphanages, schools, and the like. Of course, they donated the buildings anonymously, because they didn't want people to think they were just doing it to get on the ministry's good side. Draco, Hermione, Deimos, and Ginny found out that Cornelius Fudge had retired about a year after they disappeared, and Brandon McGillivray, a Durmstrang graduate, took over as the Minister of Magic. He had proved to be very good at his job, and also very fair. He had greatly improved the wizarding world in the past few years and best of all, was liked and supported by almost all of the wizarding community.
"Minister McGillivray, there's a reporter here who says she has some information you will definitely want to hear," his secretary's voice came through the intercom sitting on his desk.
"All right, send her in," he replied back. "I've got about five minutes to spare before my meeting with the Hungary Ministry Ambassadors on the Hungarian Horntail conservation programme."
"I'll let her know sir." The intercom clicked off and a moment later the door opened to admit a tall willowy woman with dark hair, glasses, neon orange nails, and wearing bright purple robes.
"Rita Skeeter, pleasure to meet you Minister," she said noisily due to the fact that she was popping gum in her mouth.
"Pleasure is all mine," he said to be polite. He motioned to the chair across from him. "I hear you have some information that I will be interested."
"Yes I do," she said opening her emu feather covered purse. She pulled out some photographs, and handed them to him. "Do you know who they are Minister?"
"They look familiar, but no, I can't place a name with their faces," he rifled through the four pictures of two men and two women.
"Well, do the names Guadalupe and Malfoy mean anything to you?" she motioned for him to keep the photos. No doubt she had extras.
"Lord Deimos Ferdinand Alejandro Guadalupe III was a death eater according to several convicted death eaters, although he died before we could ever acquire enough evidence to prove it. His son, Lord Deimos Ferdinand Alejandro Guadalupe IV and his wife were death eaters, although not by choice, and yes that is confirmed by several inside sources, and that is off the record," he said seeing her reach for a pad of paper and a quill. "Lucius Malfoy was a convicted death eater. His son Draco Malfoy and his wife were also death eaters, although once again, not by choice. Their families are currently two of the ten richest families in the United Kingdom. Currently, they haven't been heard from since they disappeared ten years ago. So yes you could say their names mean something to me."
"Well guess what?" she asked, but didn't bother waiting for an answer. "They're back in England. They arrived a few weeks ago, and I know for a fact that they will be attending the Ministry ball tonight."
"Really? How interesting," he replied. "Well thank you Miss Skeeter for the photos and information, and if you'll excuse me, I have a meeting in a few minutes."
She was quickly ushered out of his office, and he gave a sigh of relief as the door closed. She had to have had one of the most annoying voices he had ever heard. But none-the-less, he was glad she had stopped by. The information she had provided proved to be interesting. He was glad they would be attending the ball tomorrow night; he wanted to meet them and extend his friendship. Being two of the richest families would mean that they would have a great deal of influence on the wizarding populace. And as long as it was influencing that he agreed with, than it was okay by him.
* * * * *
"Oh Mamá, look at that one!" Lyn's excited voice could be heard as she paused in front of a store window.
"It's lovely; do you want to go inside for a closer look?" Ginny said as she came to stand next to her daughter along with Hermione and Minerva. The four of them were dress shopping for the ball tomorrow night. The boys (Deimos, Draco and Albus) already had tuxedos that would be fine, but girls of course love to shop, and having an excuse to buy a new dress is great. The ministry had given the option of muggle attire along with dress robes because some of the people attending had muggle spouses and children. So having lived in the muggle world in America for so long, Minerva and Lyn had decided to just wear muggle dresses along with their moms. And that brings us back to the four of them inside of a designer store somewhere outside of Diagon Alley in London where Ginny and Hermione were looking for their dresses first.
"Hey Lyn, look at this one, it's got no back, and hardly any front to it!" Minerva giggled pointing to a dress displayed tactfully on the wall.
"I know! Can you imagine someone wearing that?" Lyn replied, also giggling.
"Yes, and don't I look gorgeous in it?" Ginny said stepping out from behind the dressing room curtain. The dress she was wearing was the one that Lyn and Minerva had been giggling about. The black halter-top dress had no back to it, and in the front, it looked like two wide pieces of fabric covering each side of her chest, making it look like the dress had been cut down the middle in front to just above the navel. The floor length skirt looked like several layers of torn black fabric all sewn together to give it a really neat effect (You all know what I'm talking about right? Where it looks like several layers have been ripped up and sewn together to give it a ragged look, but it's really not?). It looked stunning on Ginny's trim figure.
"Oh Mamá! Papá is going to go wild!" Lyn said after recovering from her shock.
"I think you're right Lyn. What do you think of this one Minerva?" Hermione said coming out and standing behind them.
"Mione, we are going to knock their socks off!" Ginny said as she looked at Hermione's gown.
Hermione was wearing a black tube-top style gown that was form fitting. It was floor length with mid-thigh slits on both sides revealing her long legs. The dress had thin diagonal bands of silver glitter on it that caught the light. It looked gorgeous on her and showed off her toned arms.
Ginny and Hermione paid for their gowns and after leaving the store, used magic to send them to their rooms back home where only they could un-package them. After-all, they didn't want Draco or Deimos to see them before the ball.
"All right, let's go to the flower shop and order our boutonnières for the guys, and then we can go to Walton Drive to find dresses for you girls, sound good?" Hermione asked after they sent their dresses home.
"Works for me," Minerva said as Lyn nodded in agreement. So they walked to the flower shop just a couple of blocks away and ordered their boutonnières for the guys. Hermione and Ginny each ordered red rose buds for their husbands, while Lyn and Minerva each joined together to buy a white, two rose-bud boutonnière for Albus. Then they hailed a cab over to Walton Drive and went into another designer dress store called Queen Vibe. It carried classic and contemporary style dresses for girls and teens of all sizes. The four of them walked inside, and Lyn and Minerva each headed immediately to different racks of dresses and began searching. The girls seemed to have radar sensors for the perfect size dress because within ten minutes they each had half a dozen dresses that they brought into a changing room. They went in together to help each other with zippers and things while Ginny and Hermione stood outside and waited for them.
For a while there was just a lot of giggling and the sound of zippers, but then came squeals of excitement, and the door flew open as Minerva and Lyn flew out with wide smiles on their faces.
"Girls, you look beautiful!" Ginny exclaimed as they spun around in front of the three-panelled mirror in front of them.
"Those dresses are perfect on you," Hermione added. "You two look so grown up!" To which Lyn and Minerva just smiled.
Minerva was wearing a blue-grey coloured dress that matched her eyes. The dress was knee length and had a four inch fringe all around the bottom of the gown. The spaghetti straps were braids made out of matching coloured ribbon. With her long blonde hair and blue-grey eyes, she looked lovely in a dress that was suitable for her age.
Lyn had gone with a classic white dress. The dress was a one-strap dress that went to a few inches above her knees on the right, and sloped down to the left till it was just an inch or two above the ground. She was excited to be going to the ball since it was being held from seven to midnight, which was later than she was allowed to stay up, except for New Year's of course.
One thing was for sure…it was going to be a night to remember!
A/N: Okay, that's it for this chapter, I hope you enjoyed. And I'm sorry if anyone reading this doesn't like reading about dress descriptions, but I like doing them, so there. And please bear with me through some parts of this, because Minerva, Albus, and Lyn are all only 11, and so they're at that age where they're still kids, yet wanting to be treated more like grown-ups, and that's kind of tricky to write, at least for me, so I'm trying to keep them in character as much as I can! Review if you want, it's cool if you don't.