Lucius Malfoy sat in his chair at the grand desk before him. The wood was varnished a deep russet, the moonlight's glimmer dancing sharply off the polish. Some Ministry work had kept him up at the latest of hours, but that was the least of his worries. It all started with the dainty knock at his office door.

"Lucius?" the soft voice of Narcissa Malfoy came from the opening in the door. Her head peeked through, eyes cold and eyebrows furrowed. An uncomfortable distress radiated from her person, and Lucius commanded her to enter.

"What is troubling you?" he asked in a boring tone. Narcissa was continuously worrying, though she tried to keep her composure at most times. Now, her expression was as readable as ink on parchment, annoying him somewhat. Standing so close to him made him fight the temptation to swipe her for her lack of self-control.

"The Parkinsons are at the front door bearing some grave news," she said, trying her hardest to hide the wobble. Lucius picked up on it at the end of her words, nodding slowly. "Bring them in," he said, dismissing her. Narcissa clutched at her blouse and left the room. Moments later, she was back with two other figures.

"Elijah, Genevieve, what brings you here at this hour?" Lucius asked as he swiftly rose from his desk and gracefully brought his hand out to shake Elijah's. Genevieve, on the other hand, was sporting a handkerchief, completely drenched in her tears. Lucius took a gulp, but ignored her signs of sorrow.

"It is our daughter, Pansy," Elijah said in a hushed voice, as if not to distress his wife any more. Regardless of his low tone, Genevieve let out a shuddered breath, holding Elijah's arm for support.

"Has she fallen ill?" Lucius asked as he sat back at his desk, offering the other seat to Elijah and getting Narcissa to escort Genevieve from the room. Once the two women had exited, Elijah crooked forward in his seat, his black hair falling in wisps around his fair face. It was concerning for Lucius, for the Parkinsons never left the house underdressed, and Elijah's hair was usually worn slicked back, making his heavy chin prominent.

"She was attacked at Hogwarts," was his blatant reply, hinting towards the situation Lucius feared would come up.

"Where is she, Elijah?" Lucius said, his stormy eyes darkening. Elijah sighed and rubbed his temples.

"My daughter is dead," was what came out of his mouth, cracking at the end. Finally, Lucius understood his fear, and he dug his nails into his desk, indenting half-moons in the ancient wood.

"What was she attacked by?" he whispered, trying to gain some sense of hopefulness in the situation.

"It is unconfirmed, but whatever it was, it managed to breach the protection of the school grounds."

Lucius let out an incredulous laugh. Slamming his shaking palms against his desk, he reached forward and bared his teeth. "And did you think about Draco? Do you understand what this might mean for him?"

"I am sorry I'm not giving your son as much recognition as my deceased daughter, Lucius," he snapped back as they stared at each other, the tension in the room almost burning holes through the walls.

"We had a deal, Elijah. Your daughter's companionship with my son for our name," Lucius retorted with as much fierceness.

Since before Pansy was born, Elijah had tried everything to weasel his family name into the Malfoy line. When his daughter came into the world along with Draco, Elijah had swept up the first opportunity he had. But there was a catch inside young Draco that stood in the way of his plans. Lucius was very aware of the Veela blood running through his son's veins, originating from his grandfather and skipping a generation. Once a Veela had their mate, their bond was resilient, but till death do they part. Lucius' background on Veelas allowed him to recognise and define Draco's mate the second she began at Hogwarts. The small Hufflepuff girl was drawn to Draco, singling herself out and making Lucius' and Elijah's job easy. It only took one spell to break her fragile little body, a spell planned out by both fathers to allow Pansy to 'innocently' kill her. After the Hufflepuff girl was removed from Hogwarts, Pansy was led to believe their lie that the injuries the girl had suffered caused her to go home for recovery. She never came back, but Pansy was too thick to notice or realise. Once the girl was murdered by her hands, Pansy was automatically paired with Draco. Until today, their plan had followed through perfectly. Until today, Draco's soul was still attached to another.

"Yes, but Pansy was supposed to be kept safe! For all these years, she's still been bonded with Draco. I'm still trying to find out the details of what killed my bloody daughter, and right now all I have are the words of those dim-witted teachers at that damned school and some Mudblood girl—"

"Mudblood girl?" Lucius intervened, repeating that new information. "You never mentioned that."

"Apparently Pansy wasn't the only one who was attacked last night," Elijah said vaguely, waving his hands in dismissal. "She can't remember anything, anyway. That dirty bi—"

"Her name?" Lucius asked impatiently. Elijah scoffed at his constant interruption and lack of respect, but answered anyway.

"Hermione Granger."

Lucius leaned back in his chair at her name, remembering the filthy Muggle-born girl being quite close to Harry Potter.

"Yet they were both attacked, why is she the lone survivor?" Lucius asked thoughtfully, tapping his long pale fingers with an impatient thud.

"Your Draco found them both but could only save the Mudblood," he sighed, rubbing is forehead with his eyebrows furrowed. "This is irrelevant, Lucius. We need to be focusing on Pansy—"

"It is entirely relevant," he interrupted again. Elijah had enough and stood up. "My daughter is dead and yours has practically lost his mate, yet you want to talk about some Muggle-born scum?"

"Do you actually think my own son would protect—let alone interact with—a Mudblood over his own Veela mate? Have you lost your intellect, Elijah?"

Elijah's eyes darkened as he rethought Lucius' words. It made sense that he had found it suspicious, and now Elijah slowly understood where he was coming from.

"I think I need to see my son," Lucius finally muttered, breaking the tense silence. Elijah took that as his cue to depart, and nodded to Lucius before exiting the room.

Once Lucius was alone, he allowed his face to sag into his hands, elbows propped up on the desk. There was the overpowering fear that Draco would now die a lonely soul, but his thoughts were also plagued by the worry that the Granger girl's involvement wasn't as simple as the daft Elijah Parkinson had intended it to be.

Argh! I know this one was really short, but it's crucial to the plot. So basically this is just a fill-in chapter and the next one will be more interesting. :) xo