Chapter 10
Lucius stood in the door frame for a moment watching his housekeeper at her work, diligent as ever. He did not quite know how to say to her what he had too.
"I got a letter from Dragon this morning. He has settled back in fine by all accounts. I can't believe that you did not tell him about the tournament though," said Jane with a smile, noticing him.
In front of her were the books as she sat in the sun room. She was nearly done with the accounts for the day before she went upstairs to look through the lining. There was always plenty for her to do. And she always kept herself busy after Draco had gone back to school.
Lucius nodded. "I must say there were a few times I came close to telling him but I did not want to wreck the surprise."
"Well, he was surprised alright."
Lucius sighed. "I have to go to the Crabbe's tonight," he told to her.
Silence.
"Tonight?" she had known it was coming and yet it still panicked her. It felt out the blue. "Must you?"
She knew it was the beginning of everything he had been working for and she had to let him get on with it. But she did not want him to be hurt and she did not know if he would be when he went there. She realised then how they should have stayed in society rather than withdrawing from it. That had been a foolish decision.
When he got there that night they were not going to trust him as they had done in past.
They both knew he was going into danger.
"You know I do," he said and he knew he had said it more harshly than he had wanted to, but he could not make allowances for that sort of sentiment. Not that night.
Especially when the way he felt for her was already in question.
As he looked at her and saw someone who sincerely cared for him, he sighed.
She was scared – and she was right to be.
"Please do not be angry with me, I only want you to be safe," she said as she got up from where she had been sitting respectfully.
"I am not angry with you, but you know I have to do this. I have to go and it is to keep our family safe that I do."
He saw a ghost of a smile return to her face when he said that it was there family. He wondered when she was ever going to take for granted that she belonged with them. Probably never. But it was only fleeting.
"Then I will wait up for you."
She had brought up a child. She could not count the times when she had had the bath a cut of Draco's or something from where he had fallen. And now she was going to do the same for his sire. She would tend his wounds on his return.
He looked at her in a way that she could not explain then. It made her feel a little uncomfortable. What had Draco set off?
XXX
"So I want one side of parchment by the end of the weekend on the use of Runes in the Dark ages and what they reveal about the civilisations of the time."
Draco made a note of his home work and turned to Hermione next to him.
"I am going to have to go to the library before the day is out if I am every going to get all my work done for when it is due," she said to him with a sigh.
Oh, it was good to be back.
"Well, I will come with you if you want. I want to try and keep on top of all my work this year with the tournament going on. That means I am going to be doing it the day I get it," Draco was interested to see how long that was going to last. It even tasted like a lie.
At least he was making his friend happy though.
"After years of hanging out with you boys and it looks as if it is going to pay off. Now, Harry and Ron on the other hand..."
"I am not in the same league as them when it comes to getting my work done in time."
"You are. You're just smarter and better at hiding it than they are," she said as the two of them made their way out to the corridor.
"You're so funny! Not."
The two of them walked along in a comfortable silence for a moment as they listened to the other kids about them. Predictably there was only one topic of conversation.
"What are the Gryffindor's saying about it all then?"
"Only what every other house is saying. That it would be great if the champion for Hogwarts came from our house. You must want a Ravenclaw one."
He went to deny it and then he shut his mouth. He knew the idea was that it was to unite the school – and he was sure they were all going to stand behind who ever got nominated. But, yes, he knew it was going to be the greatest honour any of the houses had had for a long time, to produce a triwizard champion and he would be a liar if he did not say he hoped it was indeed going to be a Ravenclaw who got it.
"Because you don't want it to be Gryffindor,"
"Of course I do," she said with an honest shrug. "We all want it to be someone from our own house don't we? I do not know who it would be though. Fred and George are desperate for it to be one of them and they are already trying to think of ways they can enter."
"Are they to old enough to?" Draco asked. Somehow he always got confused by the ages of the Weasley's; there were so many of them.
"A couple of months off it I think."
He knew it had to be annoying. As he was so much younger than the entering age he did not have that annoyance. He just couldn't enter; it was as simple as that.
He did not know if he would want to go in for it even if he could though. There was too much else going on his life at home. He did not want to freak his father and Jane out any more than they had been already.
He knew they would never forgive him.
"Yeah, I can see how that would wind them up," he also had to wonder if it was because they were part of such a large family. Did they want to try and distinguish themselves from the others more? If he had ever had brothers and sisters, he did not know how he would have been. He did in part wish he had had the chance to have younger siblings – but he knew he was too much of an only child to really wish that.
He enjoyed the fact that he had so much attention when he got home.
"Well, the last I heard of it they were going to try and use an aging potion."
"Dumbledore drew that line, it is never going to work!" it only stood to reason that he had thought of that, didn't it?
"Well, that is what I said to the two of them!" she said and it was clear she was glad she had someone who was of a like mind to her.
Turning away, he was sure he heard her take in a deep intake of breathe and shake her head.
"We have to go and met Ron and Harry for lunch," she pointed out before he could ask her what was up.
XXX
Severus sat in his office. He was well aware there was a meeting at the Crabbe's that night and his friend was going to be there. Lucius was going to go – and he was ninety five per cent sure he was going to have to undergo some sort of torture.
They were going to want to know he was as loyal as he said he was.
When he looked back on Draco's school years, he knew Lucius had often been between a rock and a hard place and he had had to make a lot of sacrifices.
The most important of those sacrifices were the beliefs he had built his life on up until that point.
They were the wrong beliefs. He had learnt that before he had even lost Lily. But it was a hard thing for a man to do – to change the values he had been brought up with. And for all the fact that he had been angry with him for a long time, he felt now he was softening towards Lucius once more.
The one thing he could not take from him was the fact he had always tried. Tried to be a good father, tried to be a good man.
He could only hope that was going to last – but he did not have to worry particularly, for he knew it would. The one thing he was never going to do was turn his back on Draco. The two of them had been through more than most fathers and sons. He was sure they had an unbreakable bond. The only way that Lucius could remain close to his son was if he accepted him for who he was. If there was one thing in the world that the elder Malfoy had the will to stay true to then it was the younger one.
When he had begun to welcome half bloods and muggleborn's and god only knew what else into his home, he had been very foolish politically speaking. But he had also shown to the world, or his corner of it, just how much of a family man he was. And how integral that was to who he was.
When Severus looked into himself, he suddenly found he could not be angry at this man who had risked everything to try and please his son.
He knew he had to let go of all that if they were going to find a way to survive this second war together…
"Hey Uncle Sev," he heard a voice say to him and he felt his heart sink. He, Jane and Lucius had made a deal – when days such as these arose, when Lucius had to put himself in danger, they were not going to tell Draco.
He knew if Draco ever heard they had made such a pact then he was going to be furious. If his father was in really danger, he would want to know. But for all he had been through, there was a naivety to the lad and Severus knew he still did not understand what was just about the corner – and that was the way he wanted it to stay.
He was not usually known for his protective paternal qualities. But then, there were few people who knew him as 'uncle'.
All he could think was it was lucky he was a good liar at that moment.
"What can I do for you today, Draco?"
XXX
As eleven o'clock struck that night Jane begun pacing the floor. She had said she was going to wait up for Lucius to get in and that was what she was going to do.
She had to know if he was safe for that night at least before she was able to even consider going to bed.
Max sat at her feet – he did not seem to be dozing either. He was very institutive to the way she was feeling. If she was restless, so was he.
The book she had been trying to read for moths sat at her side. She did not know why she did not just put it back in the library. She had only hoped it might distract her for a while that night when she had been waiting. So far Lucius had been gone for two hours and not for one minute of that time had she focused on it. At that moment in fact, her mind was so over taken with concern she knew she would have to look at the spine of the book just to know what she was trying to read.
More than once she had considered asking Lucius to get what the muggles called a television. Her mother and father had had one when she had been young. Her mother had got it when the war begun to get really brutal, claiming it distracted her.
Maybe it would prove to be a case of like mother, like daughter?
Still, she did not think he would go for it.
She wanted to know a time when he would be back. She wanted to know what sort of state he was going to return to her in. And she wanted to know if she was going to be able to help him. That was the worst thing. Not really knowing if she was going to be any good.
She had had a lot more time to steal herself for this night than she had for the evening of the world cup. It was the only reason she could think of for the fact she was dealing with it quite a bit better than she had before. And yet, she knew she was going to have to get used to it.
There were going to be many, many more evenings such as this one.
And that was the thought she did not think she could take. That this was her life now.
But then she was going to have to; for there was nothing else she could do. She could not leave however scared she was to stay.
After what felt like a life time, the fire shone bright, the flu network activated. And it was then that she saw a man come through the flames and land on the living room carpet. She thought a man as for a single moment she could not see that the bruised, bloodied body was in fact her friend and brother.
As soon as she saw what they had done to him she felt as if she was going to be sick. She had known they were a vicious bunch. She had seen that when she had finally got around to reading what had gone on at the Quidditch world cup.
But this was so much worse – their violence was now getting into the place that she called home. And hurting the men she loved.
"It is ok," she said more to herself as she got on the floor, shooing Max as she did so.
Filling a conjured bowl with hot water, she gently brushed away the hair form Lucius bruised face.
"What have they done to you, old friend?" she asked him. Hoping she was not sounding like she was talking to him as if he was an idiot, she sighed. She just didn't know what else to do.
His shallow breathing indicated some sort of breakage.
He opened his eyes and she saw that for a moment he did not even know where he was – there was a panic in his eye she had not seen before.
It cut straight to her soul.
"It is ok," She said as she place in head in her lap and stroke her fingers lightly through his blood matted hair, exactly the way she had soothed Draco after a bad dream. "I've got you; you're safe; you're home."
A weak smile played on his lips. "I - I think they believe that I am loyal."
"You are the most loyal man I know. The fact that loyalty is to your son and to your house is neither here nor there," she was delighted to see him smile a little.
They might have brought serious harm on his body but they had not broken his spirit.
Taking one of her hands weakly, he held on to it. Understanding that he needed a moment before she moved him, she let him have his peace, just sitting quietly with him.
Suddenly she was thrown back to when Maria had been part of their house hold. When she had had to hold Draco and sit with him –
Bending down, she kissed his brow lightly, trying to banish such thoughts. They did no good to, anyone, least of all to her.
XXX
"Is he going to be ok?" Jane asked Severus later on that night. When Lucius had been up to standing, she had helped him to the master bedroom before she had called their oldest friend to come and help. She was proud of the way she had handled the night in comparison to the one she had had sprung on her.
But she was not as talented a healer as Severus was, though perhaps it would not be such a bad idea if she was to try and improve that skill. She had an awful feeling it was going to be needed.
"A few days and he will be the delightful soul we know and love," said Snape, his lip curling on the last word.
"The two of you do not have to talk about me as if I am not here," A weak voice croaked from the bed.
She had thought he had been sleeping at last.
Lucius shifted in bed, relieved to find it did not hurt quite so much as before. "How many potions did you have to give me to numb me to this state?"
"I do not think you really want to know," replied Severus. "You should go back to sleep. You are going to have to report back to Dumbledore tomorrow."
"Surely that can wait?" Jane questioned.
"If it could then I would not have mentioned it," Severus replied, tempted to say it slowly as he might have done to Longbottom at that moment. As much as he did have the up most respect for Jane, she did at times let her dim side show through at times.
"I should be fine," Lucius nodded.
"Well then I will see you at that school tomorrow," the potions master said. He nodded to Lucius and left the two of them alone.
"Were you ok, tonight? It could not have been pleasant for you waiting here," Said Lucius, drawing Jane into conversation.
She shook her head as she crossed to the bed and sat on the edge of it.
"After all you have been through tonight; you should not be worrying about me."
As she sat there she found the temptation was to reach out for his hand as she might have done with Draco when he had been sick as a child. Why was it everyone looked so much smaller when they were unwell – or beat up. "It must have been terrible for you this evening."
He nodded. He had not had fun that was for sure. But he could recall a time only too vividly when he had been on the other end of the wand. When he had sent home people battered and bruised to their family.
"I do not think it was anything more or less than I deserved somehow," he muttered thoughtfully.
But she shook her head. "You have made mistakes in your life time; I do not think whether of us can deny that. But you are a good man. And each and every one of us makes mistakes. You are human after all, Lucius; and a good man," she repeated.
Her eyes told her she believed what she had said. Just over a year ago, she would never have said those words to him.
But she had a real belief in him.
"Well, I am going to have to say thank you for thinking that – but I do not know if I can believe it."
In the time the two of them had been together, she had born witness to some of what he had done. But by no means was it the worst. Cissy had been around for that – though he had tried to defend and protect her from the worse of it as well.
"You'll see it one day. I'm going to go now, you really should rest," she said as she got up.
Stretching out, he squeezed her hand before letting her go. "Very well. Thank you for tonight," he replied to her as she made for the door.
"You're very welcome."
Please review!