AN: Update at last - yay for me :) On the other hand, this update comes because I stayed up all night last night trying to finish my assignment and I didn't :( but then I worked out I didn't lose very much by giving myself the weekend to do it so I got to sleep :) but then when I woke up from my thrown out sleeping pattern I couldn't stand the idea of looking at the stupid thing again today so I wrote this instead but I still havent finished my assignment :S
ok... just enjoy the chapter!
Eventually I made it down to the breakfast room, which was a lot like the sun room really, except for being at the opposite side of the manor. It was probably closer to lunch then our usual breakfast schedule by the time I had managed to get my aching, permanently nauseous self down there. To my credit I was doing well keeping my unaffected pureblood mask on and walking without showing my pain. Or so I had thought.
"Morning Draco, you're looking a bit stiff. Did the Dark Lord manage to teach you your place?" Aunty, who just by my frequent luck, happened to be sitting at the head of the table facing the doorframe, chuckled merrily to me.
"Bellatrix don't you dare mock my son!" Mother snapped back at her angrily. I was just slightly worried that my mother sounded generally upset, but I had no way of cheering her up in front of everyone else and besides I was mostly exhausted from the walk down to breakfast, so I collapsed regally into the chair on my father's left at the other head of the table and deigned to wait for the women to sort themselves out. This was one of the 'rules' to living a better life my uncle had taught me when he and Aunty first moved into our manor.
I glanced at my father to see if I should be concerned and he glanced back at me over his paper, blinking in a way that assured me there was nothing to be concerned about. This of course is not to say that my family goes around blinking in code to each other, rather that we don't talk so much when it isn't necessary. Body language is on the most part as clear to me as direct speech; it's just how I was raised.
"Oh Cissy relax, Draco's a man now I'm sure he'll learn to deal with much more then a little mocking" Bella laughed off after my mother had finished a short tirade involving my merits that I had been too busy soliloquising through to pay attention to.
"He is not a man, he's a child!! My child, my only child! I might lose my only son and all you can do is laugh!" She yelled back dramatically. Thoroughly uncomfortable by this stage, I dragged an apple out of the fruit bowl and shoved it in my mouth, nausea be damned, for something to do. If I could have only stood back and looked at the situation as an outside observer, it would actually have been quite amusing – the way my father's eyes scanned the one newspaper page determinedly, the way I stared fixatedly at my shiny, green apple, chewing methodically, combined with the way my uncle stared similarly at his own coffee which still hovered partway on the trip from the tabletop to his mouth - we really did look ridiculously scared of the female explosion brewing before us.
"No one's saying he's going to die Cissy" Bella placated with more actual compassion then I would ever have given her credit for possessing.
"No one's saying! Of course they aren't saying! They don't need to, everyone knows!" Mother continued hysterically, "He's going to kill him! He'll set him up to fail just to punish you. My child will be the one to suffer for your fail-"
"Enough" Father cut across her just in time given the look on Aunt's face at the memory of her failure to the Dark Lord and someone bringing it up.
"We have trained Draco for this his whole life, he has made us proud and will continue to do so in the fight for our cause" Father stated finally. I concentrated all the harder on my too-sweet apple, not really sure if I should react or not.
"Well we shouldn't have! What cause is left? There is none, that's what. We are the last of a dead race, there are no more proper purebloods that follow the old ways just a barbarian tyrant that you follow for the sake of fighting" she finished coolly spiteful.
"Cissy control yourself" Gasped Aunty in shock, Uncle remained silently watchful, emotionlessly calm, giving no reaction.
"I said enough" Father answered empirically "Go and compose yourself before you say something more you will regret." At that Mother pushed her chair out and stalked angrily out of the room without a word. I rose immediately to follow her but Uncle grabbed my arm in restraint.
"Do not mind her Draco" my Father drawled lazily calm again, "she is just having her monthly brain imbalance, she does not mean what she says." He was cut off from continuing to speak when he had to duck a large stinging hex that came flying from the door frame.
"I'LL GIVE YOU A BRAIN IMBALANCE LUCIUS MALFOY!" Mother yelled at him angrily, Father had the good sense to look a little abashed.
"Merlin forbid I care that our family is going to suffer the weight of this war" she finished quietly dramatic, tears starting to run down her face as she turned on her heel and left abruptly. Seeing my mother cry was always the absolute worst feeling in the world for me, like someone had come along and sucked all of my insides out then slapped me in the face.
So I went to comfort my mother, only to find my uncle was still restraining my wrist.
"Leave her lad, she'll be fine in a while" he said gently.
"I don't care" I said firmly, removing myself, "she's not fine now." I then continued to jog out of the room after my mother to disapproving smirks, rolled eyes or head shakes (depending on individual preference) from those left at the table.
I found her in one of the sitting rooms, crying as she sat wedged in the corner of a puffy, dark leather two-seater couch. She was dabbing at her eyes and sobbing restrainedly but she started crying harder as soon as she saw me. Without a word I crawled in next to her on the couch, laying across her lap with my head resting on her stomach, my body tucked up as close as possible around her. We used to always sit like this when I was younger. We just sat like that for a while, my mum stroking my hair and playing with it as she calmed down and stopped crying.
I loved my mother; she was really probably the only person in the world I had a normal relationship with. She was certainly the only one I enjoyed being petted by and I didn't care what people thought of the way I acted towards her, if they thought I was childish or a Mummy's boy… well maybe I was but it was only for her.
"I'm sorry" I whispered sincerely after a time, "I thought you wanted me to be a Death Eater, I won't do it if it makes you unhappy" I told her earnestly as she smiled lovingly down at me.
"It is far too late for that" a voice spoke severely from the doorframe. I looked up to see the Dark Lord walk into the room looking quite displeased and I have to say, of all the surprises to begin the day with, this was not a good one. It was still way too soon to be dealing with my embarrassment and him again.
Hope you liked the update, probably the last one for a while given the whole assignments thing grrr, so over uni - who's with me?!?!? lol
Katty xx