Chapter Ten: Old Faults, New Grudges
Narcissa Malfoy was having an afternoon tea, discussing plans with her niece regarding how to build a closed pool in a new structure within the large Manor's gardens, when an owl posed himself in front of the window. Narcissa opened the window, took the letter and began reading it. It was a letter from the Ministry! Could it be that perhaps Shacklebolt had finally allowed her a few days to visit her niece at Grimmauld Place? As she read the letter, Narcissa's hope disappeared, replaced by a pleased surprise. The Ministry was informing her that due to her husbands strong cooperation in helping capture many death eaters in the recent months, his sentence had been revised and changed. The change was from a life sentence to a period of ten years of House arrest, a prohibition of using dark magic ever again and of using grey magic for five years. He would have been released the following day. Narcissa was excited and relieved, Lucius would be coming back! While she blamed him for his support to the Dark Lord in the last war who had costed the family much and who had almost killed them, she still loved him. There were some issues however that with his arrival, Narcissa feared could arise. Beside her, all of the current inhabitants of the Manor were not at the moment fond of Lucius in the least. Draco actually loathed his father for how he had raised him according to his racist beliefs and blamed him for that and for what he had put the family through by supporting the Dark Lord. Then there was Winky, their new house elf had her own reasons for hating Lucius, reasons regarding her now dead friend Dobby, who had once been an house elf for the family and whom Lucius had mistreated horribly. What would she do seeing her late friends abuser coming back into the house? Nymphadora would probably be the one with less problems, at least if Lucius had, like Narcissa, at least partially changed into a more accepting person. There was another inhabitant of the Manor who remained and who would not be fond of Lucius, Hermione. The girl's attitude at Lucius return was what worried Narcissa the most. The girl was a reasonable and logical person, but right now she was still healing, and her reaction at the arrival of the former owner of the house in which she had been tortured was unpredictable and could set her healing process back. She would have to handle the issue very delicately and quietly tell the girl about Lucius arrival. Regarding Hermione, another problem for Narcissa was that Lucius could be expected to obstacle her plans about Hermione and Draco. Narcissa would have to talk to her husband and make him see that Hermione's marriage into the family would benefit the Malfoys greatly. She was not much worried though, there was the possibility that after all he had been through, Lucius opinions toward muggleborns had changed, like hers had.
At dinner that evening, Narcissa told everyone her husband would return at the Manor the following afternoon. The reactions of everyone were as Narcissa had predicted.
Draco coldly informed his mother that while he was extremely not pleased with this development, he would be fine with it as long as Lucius, he refused to call him "father", stayed as far away from him and Hermione as possible. "I will tolerate his presence in this house mother, but if he begins to bother me and Hermione in any way, or if he in any way obstacles her healing, I will lock him up in a separate room and you won't be able to stop me".
Hermione took Draco's hand, holding it tightly as she thought that the man who had been the owner of the Manor at the time of her torture, and that she had fought at the Department of Mysteries, would be coming back the following day. However she controlled herself and told Narcissa that she would try her best to be civil and to not let this new development bother her. - "I will try Narcissa, however, if he is less than civil towards me just once, I am not sure my tolerance will stand" -
Tonks had not yet spoken, there with Teddy in her arms, she listened as the others said their opinion about Lucius Malfoy return. Tonks was not particularly pleased at Lucius return, but not really unpleased either. Part of her hoped that Lucius had changed as his wife had and that she would be able to form at least a civil, if not friendly, relationship with the husband of her great-aunt. - "I hope he will be civil towards everyone, however Narcisa, if he becomes too unbearable I fear that I will have to end my period of visit in your house earlier than we thought. " -
Winky, who had listened carefully and with increasing outrage to what was being said, when was asked about her own opinion, answered with a question - "Lucius Malfoy is not an owner of this Manor in any way legally now right? He has only the right of residence here, as a permanent guest I understand " - As Narcissa nodded, Winky continued - "then Winky won't feel obligated to serve Lucius Malfoy in any way and hopes that Mistress Narcissa will not order her to do it. " After saying this, Winky left without saying another word for the entire evening.
Later, when Hermione had gone to bed with Draco, he reassured her about his father's arrival " - Don't worry, he won't be able to do anything, he can't use neither dark or grey magic right now and if he bothers you to much, you can always punch him with your hit-it-all style _ " Hermione laughed - " Sure, I would leave a punch or two for you too if you wanted to contri… wait a moment!" - Glaring at him she continued - " What is this new nickname? Since when you call me "hit-it-all"? - Draco smirked, the minutes before going to sleep were going to be fun.
The following morning, Hermione woke up very early, around 6:30 am, she wanted to sleep more but first she thought of getting a bottle of water in the living room since she was quite thirsty. carefully slipping out of Draco's arms, she went downstairs towards the living room. The weather was quite bad, there was a storm outside. Just as she reached the living room, a lightening of the storm enlightened the room showing a dark figure near the window. Hermione froze, as another lightening revealed better the figure, she let out a terrified scream letting fall on the floor the glass she had been holding who went into pieces. She had recognized the figure, the person near the window in the living room was the one she had been nervous about meeting since the former evening, even as she did not show it. That person was Lucius Malfoy.
Lucius was looking at the storm from the window in the living room, he had just come back after having been released earlier than anticipated from Azkaban. He was eager to meet once again Draco and Narcissa, but he had decided to wait until both of them would have supposedly come in the living room for breakfast. As he was looking at the storm, suddenly he startled. hearing a terrified scream just behind him, turning towards the scream, he was shocked, in front of him stood terrified the very scared figure of Hermione Granger, with her wand pointed at him.
What was the girl doing in the Manor? Thinking that first of all, for his own safety, he had to calm her and assure her he was not a danger to her, something that was very true considering the fact he could not use dark or grey magic, he spoke - " Good morning Miss Granger, I must say I am quite surprised to see you in my house. However, before I ask you what you are doing at my Manor at this early hour, I would like to assure you that I am not a danger to you. The war and Azkaban have changed some of my older beliefs, I do not consider you mud-muggleborns as inferior as I did before and even if I still did, I would not want to harm you without reason. I allowed you to be tortured here that time, but I assure you I did not like it one bit even then, such brutality towards a young girl in my house, regardless of her blood status, was awful to me even then. However even if I wanted to harm you, It would be quite difficult for me to do so, the Ministry has forbidden me to use dark magic ever again and grey magic for a period, so you have nothing to fear from me. Now, Miss Granger, I would suggest you lower your wand, then we can sit and ta.. "
"Is this suspicious man, which to Winky appears to be the wicked Lucius Malfoy, bothering Mistress Hermione? Does Mistress Hermione wants Winky to send him away flying out of the Manor gardens? Mistress Hermione has only to ask, Winky would be REALLY delighted to fulfill such a request from Mistress Hermione" Winky had a evil grin on her face as she finished the last sentence, then she went to look at Lucius Malfoy with an expression full of disdain.
"There is no need Winky, I do not believe he could be a danger right now even if he wanted to be, could you however go calling Draco and Narcissa and tell them to come here?" As Winky, a little disappointed, nodded and left, Hermione lowered her wand and agreed to sit down, told Lucius to wait for Narcissa and Draco that would explain everything to him about her presence in the Manor.
Narcissa arrived in the living room, excited to see her Lucius finally back, but also worried that he may have upset Hermione by meeting her like that in the living room as Winky had told her. Narcissa and Draco arrived in the room at the same time, both worried about Hermione. When they saw Lucius and Hermione sitting quietly on opposite sides of a large the couch however, their worry lessened.
Draco was angry, what had his father managed to ruin this time? He always fucked up his life, either by his raising him to believe in racist madness or by inviting to live a madman in their house. By the sight of him and Hermione rather quite demeanor his worry had lessened, but not much. - "Lucius, what a surprise to see you back so soon. I hope for your own good that you haven't done something to Hermione here, she is our guest and she lives here. I am not very pleased with your presence here, however if you manage to stay away from her and from me I will be mostly fine with it."
Hermione's panick attack had long passed by now, and having seen how Lucius Malfoy had been, after all, pretty civil and polite to her during her moment of panic, arriving as far as to apologize for what happened to her in the Manor, also saying he did not believe in pureblood suprematist ideals anymore, she felt it was right to say something, since Draco was being unnecessarily hard on him - "Draco, you don't need to be so harsh, he has been very polite and civil towards me before, he has not done anything to me. I came here to get a bottle of water and seeing his figure through a lightening of the storm, I panicked. He was very civil towards me and actually reassured me, he also apologized for what happened to me here that time. " -
Narcissa was surprised, very pleasantly so, at how the situation was developing. Apparently Lucius had somehow changed too, like her, at least a little during his time in Azkaban. It seemed he had been quite civil towards Hermione, and it was pleasing to see the girl trying to defending him in front of Draco. Perhaps Hermione Granger, soon to be Hermione Malfoy Narcissa thought, would prove valuable to the family also by helping significantly in mending the broken relationship between Draco and his father. For now however, she wanted to talk with her husband in private, to tell him of her plans and of the necessity that he tried to apologize about Dobby to their new house elf Winky. - "Lucius dear, I am truly glad to see you have returned, I am pleased to see nothing has happened between you and our beloved guest. Now would you like to come with me in our room. I am sure we are all still a little sleepy and would like to get back to bed for a while." -
Everyone agreed to go back to bed and Narcissa, once in her bedroom with Lucius, locked the door, casted a muffliato, put him on the bed starting to kiss him with passion and hugged him for while, happy to have him back and wanting to release her happiness openly now that they were alone. Lucius, kissed her back with the same now unrestrained passion and for a while they just stood on the bed holding each other, happy to be together once again. She then told a quite shocked Lucius Malfoy of the circumstances regarding Hermione's stay in their Manor and of her plans regarding the girl.
Lucius was not exactly pleased at first. He had not the same prejudices regarding muggleborns anymore, but the fact alone that Hermione was a muggleborn meant that she may adapt badly in a family such as the Malfoys, where being a pureblood also often meant refinement, self-control and noble manners that such a girl had most likely not been raised with. However, after Narcissa reminded him of the prestige, power and new talent the girl would bring to the family, he came to agree that such benefits more than made up for the other things. Hence, once Lucius agreed to help his wife in her plan, Narcissa went on telling him about their new house elf and of her link to Dobby. Lucius still did not like the elf he had so horribly mistreated much, he thought elves role and nature was to serve and Dobby totally refused that nature. He agreed however that such mistreatment of his own servant had been very unbecoming and wrong of him, so he accepted Narcissa's suggestion that he apologized to Winky regarding his mistreatment of Dobby. Lucius then settled with his wife in the bed, trying to rest. He had been surprised about the new situation in his house, but he was hopeful everything would work out well. His wife still loved him, the only problem was Draco. He had to mend the broken relationship with his son. He hoped Hermione would help him achieve that, the girl seemed willing about it from how she had defended him before. He also had to apologize to their new house elf. That would be more difficult, while he knew the apology was needed and right, his pride hurt at the thought of apologizing to an house elf regarding his mistreatment of another house elf. He would do it though, his pride had made him guilty of many things in the past. Old faults dating back decades to when he first joined the death eaters in the first war. Old faults that kept creating new grudges of people towards him, this time within his own family. He would make amends for it, and would not allow his pride to get in the way this time.