Viventibus Mortem

I can only wish I owned these characters, but I don't and someone else does :p

X Absence, Abstinence

"Draco what is wrong with your father?" Harry whispered. Never in his whole life would he have ever thought the proud and arrogant Lucius Malfoy was capable of sulking. Draco visibly tensed for less than a second, not expecting a usually non-observant Harry to notice his Father's unusual behaviour, but it seemed someone had it out for him because the green-eyed Gryffindor also noticed his reaction to his question.

"Promise you won't get mad or yell," Draco said hesitantly, but his request was very serious. "In fact swear on your magic you won't get mad or yell." Harry looked back at Draco, taking in his humour-less words and very sombre expression, then back at the elder Malfoy sulking in Hermione's father's study. A vow would be worth getting to know what brought the arrogant man crashing back to earth.

"I swear on my magic that I will not yell," Harry compromised, if Draco was this serious about his reaction than he was very sure at least some anger on his part would be involved.

"You didn't say you would not get mad," he rolled his eyes.

"Well if you want me to promise not to get mad then chances are that I will be very upset with what you know and I don't," Harry concluded. Draco just shook his head and closed the doors to the study to make sure his father would not overhear what he was about to say to Harry. He took a deep breath before speaking.

"FatherwasfallingforHermione," he whispered quickly, hoping to get the admission out there as fast as humanly possible.

"What was that?" Harry asked, confused. Draco rolled his eyes again.

"FatherwasfallingforHermione," he whispered again quickly but a little slower. Harry's brows furrowed.

"All I got was something about Father and Hermione," Harry verified the words he understood. "But what I heard in between does not make any sense," he said slowly, shaking his head. "I mean...your father hates muggleborns right?" He asked, begging Draco with his eyes for his question to still have at least some truth to it, as backwards as that logic sounded in his head. Draco sighed before giving him an answer.

"I am not so sure any more," he admitted. Harry's face turned purple in under a second.

"What?!" He hissed through gritted teeth. Draco shushed him and looked towards the closed study doors apprehensively.

"Do you want him to know we kno-"

"What is going on out here?" Lucius lifted an eyebrow as he stood in the open doorway to the study. Harry glared at the Malfoy patriarch.

"Just wondering what you are still doing in Hermione's home," he bit out. Lucius looked down his nose at the green-eyed young man.

"Not that it is any of your business," he drawled. "Miss Granger gave her permission to let Draco and I reside in her home for as long as we need or want to during her absence and gave us the choice of selling her other home."

"Well you know what I think," Harry stated, not asked. Lucius rolled his eyes.

"I do not want to know what you think, but you are going to tell me what you think whether I want to know or not," he said arrogantly. Harry gave him a sardonic chuckle.

"I think I need a drink," he said to himself aloud. Lucius smirked.

"Now I can agree with that," he turned and strolled back into the study and pulled a bottle of firewhiskey out of the desk. Harry lifted an eyebrow.

"Hermione would kill you if she found out that you hid that in her father's desk," he said. Lucius lifted a neatly groomed eyebrow.

"What Hermione does not know will not upset her," he murmured as he served three tumblers of the whiskey. The three wizards each lifted a glass to the absent witch before knocking back the contents of their tumbler and serving another for themselves.

"So what is the news on the Manor?" Draco asked his father. Lucius sighed and swallowed the contents of his glass again before allowing Harry to serve him a third helping of firewhiskey.

"It will take at least six months to clear the rubble," he spoke in a resigned tone. Harry looked confused.

"Why not just vanish the remains?" He asked. Lucius gave Harry an incredulous look but his son spared him an explanation.

"Our family has many secrets," Draco answered evasively. Harry looked at him in confusion then it dawned on him. The Malfoy family's ancestral home was centuries old. There had to have been many secrets buried within the walls of their Manor or a portrait that may have survived the damage and was still stuck to a portion of wall. The Malfoy men would have to spend hours upon hours sifting through each piece of rubble, large and small, to find out if just one piece held a secret or still had a portrait or painting stuck to it, and to find items still buried underneath and in between everything. Luckily, they had magic to help them along with their search and clean-up.

"Well well," Severus drawled from the entryway. "Here I was going to invite you all to the Leaky Cauldron for a drink, and there you all are having a drink and I did not even receive an invite," he sneered. Lucius shoved a tumbler towards the potions master and Severus glared before taking a sip of the amber liquid.

"If that invite is still open I would like to take you up on it," Lucius said before taking a sip from his fourth serving of firewhiskey. Severus took his friend's tumbler and drank the remaining contents. "What was that for?" Lucius glared at obstinate black eyes looking back at him nonchalantly.

"If we are going out for drinks the least I can do is catch up with you before we head out," Severus drawled. Lucius rolled his eyes and filled his friend's tumbler to the rim.

"You were saying?" He queried, lifting an eyebrow. Severus brought the tumbler to his lips and took a long drink.

"What are you planning on doing with the lands your Manor resided?" Severus asked conversationally. Lucius fought not to roll his eyes at the commonly asked question.

"What is all this interest in my Manor all of a sudden?" He asked, irritated by the repetitiveness. "It was there, it is gone. I am going to clean the damn mess up!" He slammed his fist into the desk. Harry glared at the older wizard.

"Is that the only thing you are cleaning up?" Draco asked lightly. Severus observed his brother's reactions to Draco's question. Lucius sat up straighter in his seat and cleared his face of every emotion he unwittingly showed.

"Not that it is any business of yours," he sneered at his son. Draco rolled his eyes at his father.

"On the contrary Lucius," Severus spoke carefully. "As it so happens, it is everyone's business." He handed him the evening edition of the Daily Prophet.

Lucius Malfoy, eligible bachelor, donates large sum of galleons to help clean up and rebuild Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

By Rita Skeeter

"Do they not know the meaning of anonymous?!" He hissed, wandlessly setting the paper aflame. Severus shook his head disapprovingly at Lucius reaction and waved the ashes into a waste bin. "How did that blasted woman even find out about this?" He sneered.

"Only Hermione can answer that last question," Harry muttered under his breath. Lucius turned his enraged stormy grey eyes onto Harry.

"What does that mean?" He ordered the green-eyed teenager to tell him. Harry unconsciously squirmed in his seat at Lucius's commanding tone, feeling like a child being questioned by his father.

"Well," Harry began hesitantly. "Did anyone ever wonder why Skeeter suddenly stopped slashing Hermione in her articles during the Tri-Wizard Tournament?" He asked. Severus, Lucius, and Draco lifted an eyebrow in interest. "Believe me if I knew the answer to your question and mine..." his words drifted off. "Suffice it to say that Hermione found out something interesting about Skeeter and now that Hermione has disappeared the shark is off its leash and tearing through every and any piece of news or gossip she can sink her rotten teeth into," he sneered at his own words and at the thought of Rita Skeeter on the loose again.

Severus lifted his tumbler. "To Hermione," he said softly, finishing off the contents of his drink. Lucius served himself another drink and lifted it to the dearly missed witch along with Draco and Harry.

HeArT*hEaRt

The curly-haired witch sitting in his lap resembled Hermione so much. He smirked down at her before whispering in her ear, "Where have you been?" The woman looked up at him with a sultry smile.

"I've been here all along," she answered, her high voice sounding like nails scratching across a green chalkboard. Lucius winced at the sound and frowned.

"You are not Hermione," he observed in his drunken state. The woman continued giving him what she thought was a sexy, come-hither smile. Severus lifted an eyebrow, gazing interestedly at an inebriated Lucius.

"I can be anyone you want me to be," she said suggestively while rubbing her breasts into his hard chest, and moaned at the contact. Lucius's face turned red in anger and stood up abruptly, knocking the surprised woman down to the floor where she landed on her bum with a flinch.

"You can never be Hermione!" He shouted at her. "You disgust me!" He stomped out of the Leaky Cauldron and his best friend, son, and Harry Potter hastily followed in his wake.

"I think your father already fell for Hermione," Harry commented to Draco while helping Severus escort the drunken blond home.

"This is Hermione's room," Draco tried to pull his father towards his own room. Lucius pulled his arm away and continued on towards the bed, falling onto it and sniffing the bed covers and pillows. Draco tried not to look disgusted, but knew he was failing. "What has gotten into you?" He whispered, closing the door on his now passed out father.

"Only you Hermione," a sleeping Lucius whispered in his sleep. "Only you."

….

"You should get some sleep Draco," Severus said to his exhausted Godson. "You have a long trip tomorrow and travelling by floo is exhausting." Draco nodded his acquiescence and gratefully headed up to his own room.

My apologies again for taking forever to post these new chapters...