Belle époque – Chapter 6
Lucius took a few steps back to judge the general effect. The mirror addressed him a big smile, thump up.
"You are perfect!"
Ignoring its opinion, the young man turned on himself. The heavy fabric of the pearl gray velvet flew around him, the candles' light reflecting on the embroideries' silver threads. Well, perhaps the mirror wasn't exaggerating: that did look nice.
He ran one last time his hand through his hair then got out of the bathroom to join the others. They were all ready. Matthew was wearing a golden brown robe matching his eyes and Serafino, likewise, wore a blue as dark as his iris. Apparently, they all had the same idea; Lucius' eyes were the same gray than his father's.
They smiled to each other.
"Ready to catch up the ladies?"
"More than even!" Matthew trumpeted with a knowing glance. After all, everybody knew what happened after the Halloween ball.
"For Heaven's sake", Serafino cursed. "Pray don't assume everyone is as vulgar as you."
"Don't tell me you're not hoping anything from the charming little lady you managed to fetch?"
Natasha Alinovitch had a pretty face but was a bit young to Lucius' taste.
"We'll see", Serafino said mysteriously.
Well, well. He'd never been much of a seducer but, after all, they were only fifteen; maybe he'd get started now.
"And yourself, Lucius? Ready?"
"Don't be ridiculous. Una is charming but I like her too much to ruin her reputation."
Matthew made a disapproving tsk then dragged them to the doors.
"Now, now. Don't keep them waiting!"
Lucius checked the time on his silver fob watch. Alright; they wouldn't be late. The girls – that is, Samantha and Una – were waiting for them at the top of the stairs, in the Common Room. Sam was ravishing as always, her burgundy dress matching her auburn hair as well as her partner's clothes. She took his arm and, as usual, they immediately looked like they were made to be together.
Una pouted. Yet, in her sky blue dress she was very pretty herself, the shade bringing out her pale skin and her delicate features. The discreet jewelry she chose to wear added subtle touches.
Lucius bowed elegantly.
"If you allow me, Miss."
She smiled and bowed back.
"Gladly, Sir."
She put her hand in his and they headed together to the Great Hall. Observing discreetly his partner's aquiline profile and raised chin, Lucius thought that, perhaps, this evening would be nicer than expected.
The Great Hall had been decorated in gray and black, with some orange. The general effect was impressive, with the candles flying around. The ghosts played their part as well; few building could pride themselves to have that many, maybe because more purists wizards simply exorcized them. At the Manor, the exorcisms spells were part of the stones, like the place's other protections.
Lucius led a smiling Una on the dance floor and was pleasantly surprised by her agility. Apparently, she had the sense of rhythm, which made their evolution among the other couples graceful and pleasant. Himself was not bad at dancing but not to the point to salvage the dance if she hadn't been able to follow his lead.
The music was a bit outmoded but Lucius liked classical dance with known steps, like waltz or some quicker gigue. Hogwarts' standards wouldn't tolerate the presence of some recent rock band – most of them being muggle's and way too vulgar anyway. If some regretted it, they didn't make a fuss and enjoyed what they had.
At their fourth or fifth dance, Una was laughing and Elvina glaring at them. Yet she couldn't complain: she managed to lay hands on a sixth year Ravenclaw, a challenged rarely accomplished since older students usually stayed among themselves. Of course, it wasn't the same for a Malfoy.
Lucius doubted she understood where this slap came from – and didn't care if he was the one who started it by sleeping with her just to take his mind off things.
The waltz quick rhythm calmed down. Una removed her hand from his shoulder.
"I don't feel my arms anymore; can we stop for a few minutes?"
"Of course. Allow me to offer you a drink."
They slalomed between the other dancers to reach the bar. Unfortunately, it only proposed some fruit cocktail and cider. She disdained the last to plump for a lively kiwi-orange mix – the fresh fruits had been given by some generous parent, probably a Slytherin with something to have amends for.
Lucius gave Una her glass; she swallowed it in two sips. Seeing his round eyes, she blushed.
"Sorry, I was dying of thirst."
"No problem." After all, the ball wasn't a formal one, they were among youngsters. "Does it bother you if I take cider?"
"Not at all; I simply prefer more acid tastes."
He nodded and asked for a glass, which he sipped slowly. Dances had been catchy so he was glad for the fresh drink. His robes' velvet kept him way too warm for his taste.
"Would you like to go for a walk in the park? In all decency, of course."
He said this last sentence in an evoking tone which made her laugh. She took his arm readily and they walked around the dance floor to the exit. Lucius glimpsed red hair swirling around. Molly Prewett was dancing with… Lucius stopped dead.
"Are you seeing what I'm seeing?"
Una followed his glance and, like him, stared wide-eyed.
"Stevens? And he's dancing with a Gryffindor!"
Lucius fought back the need to tell her he was above all dancing with one of the prettiest girl of fifth year. Although she was pureblood and even coming from and old family, and although most Slytherin were watching her from afar, none dared to approach her. After all, the others might take it wrong… but then, Mike Stevens was already isolated within their House; he had nothing to lose.
And he'd took advantage of that. He hadn't been sorted to Slytherin out of nowhere, in the end, halfblood or not.
"Dance is not exactly the right word", Lucius corrected. "Let's say they're waddling as well as they can."
He was exaggerating but that made Una laugh again. Her spontaneous side was almost agreeable, and very rare in Slytherin. Coming from her mother's Spanish blood, perhaps?
"Oh, he only borrowed Weasley's partner", she said, disappointed.
"I thought you disapproved?"
She blushed but her gaze challenged him to point it out.
"Well, that would have been romantic, wouldn't it?"
Lucius grinned. Like all teenagers boys, he considered romance as some strange disease happening only to others and making girl even more incomprehensible. She noted his expression and rolled her eyes.
"Don't try to get it, Malfoy, it's above your comprehension."
He was about to answered when he felt the mood change. Searching the crowd, he noticed the little professor Flitwick rushing to the directorial table, pushing the dancers aside. Seeing him was some of a challenge considering his size but people were stepping aside quickly, which meant he was shaken.
When he emerged to get on the platform from where Dumbledore was observing the room, everybody could see how clay-white he was. He climbed on a chair to whisper at the headmaster. They discussed for a moment and people slowly stopped dancing. Then, Dumbledore rose, and the music stopped.
"I will ask to fifth year's prefects to check if first, second and third year's students are in the dormitories, then come back to list me the possible missing ones. Sixth year's prefects will gather fourth, fifth and sixth year to their respective Common Rooms. Seventh year's prefects will do the same in the park, along with the professor, and ask to the other seventh year to gather within the Great Hall."
He lifted his hand, extinguish the candles.
"I am truly sorry to interrupt the party but circumstances are serious. I will therefore ask you all to show the greatest maturity and hurry back to your Houses."
He stepped out of the platform and the other professors hurried to him to ask for explanations. Whispers started all around the room but prefects were already moving and students started walking reluctantly.
Lucius and Una exchanged a disappointed look.
"I'm afraid we'll have to postpone this lovely evening on another occasion."
"Duty is calling, I understand", she said with a dramatic sigh. "But come back to me when you know what's happening."
He bowed and gave a most gallant kiss on her hand, then let her go to the exit. From afar, he spotted Sam and met her half way to the doors.
"How do we organize?" he asked. "You check the dorms while I do the dungeons, so I send the missing children back to the Common Room?"
"That would be the most efficient", she agreed. "They most certainly aren't all in bed and you can't enter the girls' dorms."
Lucius grumbled.
"I know, thanks."
As most of the boys, he tried once to get down in the girls' dorms and had found himself glued before reaching the end of the stairs. He'd always remember the girls' taunts when they went passed him without helping him, and the subsequent detention he received – the one and only he'd ever had – for his late arrival in classes. But then, getting out of all this glue had not been easy: he'd only been in second year. He had had to be imaginative.
He must admit the adrenaline had helped a lot; he knew no one else would have taken care of it and, if he hadn't managed to get out before evening, he'd had to sleep there. Slytherin House wasn't charitable for its members who proved unable to cope by themselves.
Back then, Sam had of course mocked him like the others, the little pest.
"This isn't time for teasing. Let's go."
They headed for the dungeons and split a few corridors before the statue masking the Common Room's doors.
Being in fifth year and having already ravished a few girls during the year before – within limits, of course – Lucius knew the dungeons' alcoves where the students met. He travelled them up and down, disturbing couples at various undressing stages, and sent them back to their respective Common Rooms. He then made a second patrol to say loudly to the ones he didn't catch that they really had to go or measures would be taken. During his third passage, his detection spells didn't detect anyone. He headed back to the dorms.
Sam cast him a relieved glance when she saw him.
"Everyone is here?" he asked.
The Common room was in turmoil despite her best effort. No one went to his dorm, the official excuse being the need for information. In reality, the youngest were probably terrorized. Lucius himself didn't feel that confident.
"Yes, at least for first, second and third years", she answered, "and those are the one we're responsible for. Some sixth and seventh years are still missing but I guess they won't be long."
Lucius nodded, relieved. In their House at least everyone was alright.
"I'll warn Professor Dumbledore…"
"Useless", she interrupted. "Rodolphus was here a few minutes ago and said he'd take care of that."
Rodolphus Lestrange was their seventh year's prefect. His youngest brother was in Slytherin too but only in third year and seemed to have even less sense than him. Which wasn't easy: Rodolphus wasn't exactly the trustworthy kind, whatever badge his family's donation to the school got him. Coming himself from an old and wealthy family, Lucius still owed his title only to his own capacities.
Well. That would have to do.
"In this case… Do we have any news about what's happening?"
The closest persons pricked up their ears. In vain, because Sam had no answer to give.
"I don't know anything yet. I guess they'll take care of the emergency, whatever it is, before telling us anything."
That much was obvious. Lucius walked around the room to check once again that everyone was fine and to reassure the youngest. Being Slytherins, they hid their fear as best as they could.
He finished his round back at Sam. She'd been joined by Matthew and Una. Serafino was staying with Natasha among fourth years.
"There's nothing more we can do."
"Waiting", Matthew declared.
"Oh great", Una commented sarcastically.
Matthew raised his index.
"We're lucky. None of us have a sibling in another House and we're all here."
He wasn't wrong; all of them were single children except for Serafino, whose older sister had graduated years ago. Lucius rubbed his arm – then nearly stopped when he realized what he was doing. He had to force himself to finish his movement nonchalantly, adrenaline pounding in his veins.
His Mark wasn't burning – he'd have notice earlier – but it tickled. Was it possible that the Lord went up to high gear? Until then, the attacks didn't exactly make the front page, except for the last one, when his Symbol was revealed.
Matthew's questioning eyes met his – he'd noticed his gesture. Lucius shrugged. After all, he had no certitude.
After some more minutes of waiting, he sat. The mood was odd; he'd never felt the like in Slytherin. The Common Room was packed full. Because of the lack of place, the youngest had settled on the ground when they'd fallen prey to exhaustion. They were aligned in a row along the wall, their heads nodding, with a proximity no Slytherin would tolerate under normal circumstances.
Sam and he took turns around the room. At 11, they started sending first years back to bed. They convinced them by promising to call them up if anything new popped out. Second years grumbled until midnight before following. Convincing the third and fourth years proved impossible.
The room was a bit less crowed though, giving some air to the remaining students. Unfortunately, the youngest had taken with them the slight feeling of warmth and solidarity they'd created. Only remained the wait and the feeling that something unimaginable was occurring.
Then, at about 1am, the first seventh years started coming back.
Martin Halley and Nereus Parkinson arrived the firsts. The armchairs to the fireplace were quickly freed for them to seat. Lucius and his friends were pushed from their own places by the sixth years and chase the fourth years away from their cushions to be as close as possible to the two newcomers, leaving to fourth and third year fought over some chairs.
Sam and Lucius exchanged a glance and decided it was useless to wake up anyone. Unless it concerned someone specifically, first and second years could wait for the morning to have news. Anyway, if they'd really want to know, they'd have stayed.
"Hogsmeade was attacked", Martin Halley started.
Questions rang out but he silenced them with a hand gesture. Lucius' Mark was slowly pulsing. He feared the worse – and learnt quickly enough he was right.
"No one knows exactly who they were, because the fighters wore white masks and black coats. They casted the same symbol that decorated Tilly-Hearts house the other day: a skull vomiting a snake."
"There's been lots of damaged house and wounded, as well as five deaths, of what we know."
They exchanged a glance, then Halley nodded.
"We were strictly forbidden to tell those were exclusively mudbloods and halfbloods."
The silence fell. From the corner of his eyes, Lucius noted Mike Stevens cadaverous pallor. The boy tried to lie low – but he wasn't the only one. Although no one liked it, he was far from being the sole halfblood in Slytherin. They all had the sense to stay quiet.
"Clint stayed with Slughorn to help him with some healing potions but the others are about to come back, so we have to hurry if you want deta…"
Halley interrupted his explanations when the Common room's doors opened. There other seventh years went in, including Rose Desange, the Head Girl. She frowned.
"What are doing all those people awake?" she asked icily.
Of course, no one answered. Lucius had never been one to shy away from his responsibilities but, for once, he hoped she wouldn't take the other prefects as examples. He too was exhausted.
Fortunately, she only glared at the crowd, trying to make them uncomfortable – and not succeeding. The confidential information they'd just received justified in their eyes all the disapprobation she might cast at them.
"Well, that stops now. All to your dorms. If there's still someone here within fifteen minutes, I'm calling Slughorn."
Their Head House wasn't exactly the strictest teacher but no one wanted to get a detention on the day following such an event. Wizards killing other wizards! Grindelwald's ghost was still wrapped around the wizarding world, making children shudder under their sheets. Most of them had seen their aunts, grandparents or foreign cousins die during the recent war. Dumbledore had defeated the terrifying Dark Wizard only twenty years ago, ending one of the most horrible magical wars from wizards' history – a global war.
People scattered without protesting out loud. Lucius greeted Una one last time, then Elvina who'd stopped pouting a few hours after the abrupt ending of the ball, then Sam. The latest scowled at him.
"Get up early, tomorrow. They're going to need our help!"
Too tired to argue and curious to have more information, Lucius nodded. Once in his dorm, he barely took the time to put his nightgown before spreading over his bad and sleep.
sososo
The next day, Lucius got up at seven and found few people awake. Tuesday morning classes had been canceled for the ball and the afternoons' might be as well after the previous events. He didn't wait for the others and went directly to the Great Hall to have breakfast.
To his astonishment, Daily Prophet's front-page talked about the Ministry of Magic's visit to his French counterpart. He found Hogsmeade's attack only on page two. The article had clearly been bowdlerized: a group of fanatic in costumes make a mess was far from the truth, and ever farther from the heavy mood.
Lucius glanced at the other students' faces. Most were distraught. Clint, seated a little farther on Slytherins' table, had the gray complexion of someone who didn't sleep. Lucius wondered if the seventh year would be exempt of classes or if his help during such a disaster wouldn't be enough of a pretext.
He folded the newspaper, annoyed. The Ministry tied to diminish the facts but they still remained: seven deaths and twenty-eight wounded a few paces away from the British school of Wizardry. That could only be interpreted as a warning. The Lord wanted to be taken seriously – and to relegate him to page two would only make him try harder.
On the Professors' table were only seated McGonagall and Kamaria Jones. Both were observing the Great Hall. They wouldn't have had another expression had they been able to read minds. Uncomfortable even though his occulmancy was perfect, Lucius ate quickly and went away.
He didn't want to go back to the dorms – the others were probably still asleep – or even to wander in the Common Room.
Thinking about their mysterious DADA teacher, he let his steps guide him to the library. Once there, he went directly to Hogwarts' archives. She might be about forty or fifty… He started by 1950's promotion, even if he doubted she still had been in Hogwarts at the time, then went backwards. He found her in the album of 1944. As he'd suspected, she was wearing green and silver.
Amused by that little success, he took a look at the promotion of 1947. His father's. Looking at his picture, standing straight in his uniform, Lucius wondered what had been his preoccupations at the time. Grindelwald's war had just been ending then.
Thinking about the Dark Mage brought his thoughts back to Voldemort. Had the Lord attended Hogwarts too? Lucius heard him talk French perfectly during the summer but English was definitely his first language, and he sounded British. But then, in which year would have he graduated? He couldn't be much older than Lucius' father. He even seemed younger, to say the truth, but Lucius had just browsed ten years of Hogwarts history without reading his name.
But then, Voldemort… That didn't sound like a real name. Translated from French, it even sounded a bit too much like Death's flight to be true. Or did he choose his skull symbol precisely because of his name? But then, he could have added wings to the bone, why a snake?
His curiosity aroused, Lucius went back until 1930, even if some albums were pretty damaged or missing pictures. He then tried with Gryffindors and Ravenclaw. He couldn't picture him in Hufflepuff.
A snaky thought infiltrated his mind while he closed yet another volume. If Lord Voldemort belonged to one of the old wizard families, Lucius would have known. Of course, he saw him at the Manor often enough, but he had always been just Lord Voldemort, without any parents nor acquaintances outside his father. Didn't he have a family? Perhaps he didn't, perhaps they all died during the war, but still…
Lucius putted the album away, thoughtful. Perhaps he should find some time to look at the pictures one by one? If he only did so for Slytherin, he might find him; his face shouldn't have change that much…
"Immersed in genealogy research, Malfoy?"
Lucius had to fight a jump back. He managed to simply put the volume in the shelf then turn toward the intruder. To his surprise, it was Adrian Prewett, looking at him without animosity.
"Just being curious about our predecessors. Didn't you ever browse those?"
"Of course. On can learn a lot about how some links were forged."
Lucius blinked, surprised. Prewett explained:
"Well, you don't have to wonder why Briggs chose Halwkin as his manager, do you? They graduated the same year. I wouldn't say their friendship is the base of their success, but simply that, in Hogwarts, Briggs noted who might become a rival and made him his ally."
Lucius nodded, then reminded himself he was talking to a Gryffindor. Adrian smiled at him and went away with a polite nod. Where Nimue did that come from? They'd never talked before.
Well, perhaps he'd just wanted company – they were alone in the library even though it was almost 11am by now. Nevertheless, that didn't explain his profoundly non-Gryffindor remarks.
Maybe he should start paying more attention to the way his prejudices deformed his vision of the world.
"Lucius Malfoy!"
The furious voice of Samantha Delacroix resounded at the entrance. Ms Pince glared at her. She didn't care, heading for Lucius with raging steps.
"What are you playing at?" she whispered furiously. "I have been waiting for hours!"
"Sorry, the time flew by without me noticing. I got up early and I thought it was still around nine…"
It was a total lie. She wasn't fooled.
"You will take this evening's shift alone!" she raged. "I'm warning you, this is the last time you let me down!"
He'd remember that next time she'd spend her evening making out with her boyfriend in their alcove instead of dislodging other students from theirs.
Whether he liked it or not, he still had to follow her outside the library to the Common Room. There, fortunately, she stopped raging at him to look after the youngest – those who didn't get their explanations the previous day. Matthew observed them from a corner of the room, grinning.
Well, Lucius just had to return his homework… perhaps first years would stop complaining if he casted a silencing spell on them?