Despite leaving his childhood home knowing Lucius had meant every word he'd said, Draco still clung to the hope that his mother would talk his father round and everything would be okay. Even when he heard nothing from either of his parents, he still clung to the remote possibility that things could be fixed. Despite his bravado, he didn't want to lose his parents from his life.

Sadly, even his faint hopes of reconciliation were dashed when less than six weeks after the fateful falling out, Draco received an owl from his father's solicitor. The paperwork the owl was carrying were the legal forms, informing Draco that Lucius had cut him out of the family. He now no longer had access to the family vault at Gringotts, he'd been cut out of his father's will and as of this day he wasn't allowed to set foot on any Malfoy property that he didn't own outright. Basically, it meant he had the penthouse he lived in, and his own personal bank account. Everything else had been stripped away from him. Including the mother who'd always been there for him, and who he'd thought would always be there.

"I can't believe they did it," Blaise said when Draco informed him about the solicitors letter he'd received.

"You can't believe my father could be such a bastard?" Draco asked with a snort.

"That I can well believe," Blaise replied. He had a very low opinion of Lucius, but he'd never once slagged off his best friend's father, as despite it all he knew how much Draco loved and admired Lucius. "What I find harder to believe is that your mother went along with it."

"I have to admit, that hurts more than my father's rejection," Draco confessed. "I'm used to my father being disappointed in me, and wanting too much from me. But Mother has always been there for me. She's never once let me down before."

"Maybe she can still work on your father," Blaise suggested. "Get him to change his mind."

"Not now he's made it official," Draco said with a sigh as he brushed the papers into his desk drawer and slammed it shut. "If anyone could have made him see sense, it would have been Mother. I just have to face it that this time she didn't choose me. I may be her only son, but she chose to stand by father as he kicked me out of the family."

"I don't know what to say, Draco," Blaise muttered, running a hand through his jet black hair. Even though his family was pretty dysfunctional and his relationship with his mother was flimsy at best, he couldn't in a million years picture her cutting him out of her life. So he really had no idea what his best friend was going through and what to say to help him through his problems.

"What is there to say?" Draco elegantly shrugged his shoulder as he got to his feet. "It is what it is, and there's nothing we can do about it. I just have to forget about it and live my life."

"That's the spirit," Blaise said, giving his friend a grin. "Speaking of living your life, how are things going with Granger?"

"Slowly," Draco answered with an exasperated sigh. "I've been snowed under with the club and Red Diamond, and she's been busy on a big case. The best we've managed is to grab a quick coffee."

"So no action then?" Blaise pressed.

"Sadly no," Draco replied. "Although hopefully her case is nearly over so when I ask her out again she can say yes."

"Invite her to the opening of Red Diamond," Blaise suggested.

"I was going to do that," Draco replied. "But it won't be for another few weeks though."

"It's something to look forward to," Blaise said with a shrug. "Besides, if she has plenty of notice, she can make sure she's free."

"I guess there's no harm in asking," Draco said with a nod. "And I can always see if she's free before then."

"Of course you can," Blaise said with a grin.

It had been obvious since school that Draco quite liked Hermione, so Blaise was going to do everything he could to encourage the relationship if it made his friend happy. And if upset Lucius in the process than that was even better in Blaise's opinion, it would serve the old bastard right for abandoning his son.

"We are going to have to get on with sorting the opening," Draco said as he grabbed a couple of glasses and poured some of the club's finest fire-whisky into them and handed one to Blaise. "We want this launch to be spectacular."

"And it will be," Blaise reassured his partner as the pair sat down on the sofa in the corner of the room. "The furnishing of the bar is almost finished, the drinks lists are printed and staffing is sorted. The license for the premises came yesterday, and all the signs go up tomorrow. All we need to do is organise a sophisticated soirée that will have the entire wizarding world sitting up and taking notice of us."

"Let's guess, you already have an idea," Draco chuckled.

"I do as it happens," Blaise replied. "I was thinking making the party very exclusive, invitation only. I was also thinking we could do a theme."

"What sort of theme?" Draco asked warily. Dressing up wasn't his style, and Blaise knew that.

"Red."

"Red what?"

"Just red," Blaise declared, jumping to his feet and turning to he was facing Draco. "The bar is Red Diamond, so on the invitations we print a dress code. Everyone attending the party has to wear something red."

"I don't own anything red," Draco pointed out. As a proud Slytherin, the thought of wearing red, the colour of their rival house, Gryffindor, was not at all appealing.

"Go out and buy something then," Blaise answered with an unconcerned shrug. "But you have to admit the idea is a good one."

Draco had to concede his friend was right, having everyone wear red was a good gimmick for the opening. It would certainly grab people's attention, as would the exclusive part. Draco knew that once the word got out that the opening was invite only people would be clamouring over themselves to try and get an invite to the grand opening. After all, what self-respecting witch or wizard wanted to miss out on the hottest society event of the year?

{}{}{}{}{}

'Red Diamond's, Red Hot Opening,' glared the headline in Narcissa's morning paper. As well as a preview of that evening's opening night, the article contained a few shots of the exterior of the classy looking wine bar, along with a picture of the proud owners, Draco and Blaise. According to the article, all of Diagon Alley was going to be part of the opening with the street paved with lush red carpet for the events and several mini bars positioned outside for the people wanting to enjoy the evening outside. In fact the entire street was going to be cornered off, and only those with invites to the party were going to be able to access the street come seven that evening. The article also revealed that several celebrities were rumoured to be attending the opening, and as a goodwill gesture to their new neighbours in the street every business owner and worker had received an invitation to the opening. It was now just a case of waiting to see just who the chosen people were who had been invited to the grand opening.

Taking one final look at the picture of her son, which had been taking at the opening of the club, Black Diamond, Narcissa snapped the paper closed and pushed it away before her emotions got the better of her and she began to cry. Over the last eight weeks, she'd done a lot of crying, and none of it had done any good. It didn't change what had happened, and the regrets that Narcissa now had to live with.

"Problem?" Lucius asked his wife, looking at her over the top of his own paper. Since they were reading the same paper he had a sneaking suspicion what had caused Narcissa to close her paper in such haste.

"What do you think?" Narcissa snapped back. She rarely lost her temper and she never shouted at her husband, but at the moment things were pretty strained between the pair. "Today is a big day for Draco, and we're not there for him."

"And whose fault is that?" Lucius questioned as he put down his own paper. Unbeknown to his wife, he was full of regrets himself, but he was also a stubborn man and it would be a cold day in hell before he backed down and admitted he'd acted too hastily where Draco was concerned. "Draco knew the consequences of turning his back on us."

"We were the ones who turned our backs on him," Narcissa said quietly. "All he wanted was our support."

"Which he had for over twenty years," Lucius retorted. "But this goes both ways. Cissa. How could he possibly expect us to support him when he refused to even consider doing his duties as a Malfoy? He's not blameless here, Narcissa."

"I know he's not," Narcissa admitted. As much as it pained her to be estranged from her son, she still believed that Draco had made a mistake in ruining the arrangement with the Greengrasses. The truth was as their only son, there was things expected of him, and he'd failed to face up to responsibilities as a Malfoy. "But he's still our son."

"And he always will be," Lucius replied softly. Despite everything, he still cared for his son, and he always would. "But unless he's going to back down, things won't change. You know that don't you, sweetheart?"

"I do," Narcissa answered, sadly nodding her head.

The truth was, she knew she could have stopped things before they went too far. Narcissa really was the only person who could change Lucius's mind once it was made up about something, so if she'd really tried she could have stopped him from cutting Draco off. However, she hadn't objected as she'd believed it would never happen. She'd been convinced that after a few weeks, Draco would have come round, apologised and decided to toe the line. However, it hadn't happened and as the weeks dragged on, any chance she'd had of changing Lucius's mind had gone. However, it had sadly reached a point where her husband had been forced to act, otherwise Draco would have known it was all bluster and he just could keep defying them.

Although, if Narcissa had known how things were going to turn out, she would have stepped in and ended things long before now. If she'd ever honestly thought she would have lost her only son, she would have spoken up and put a stop to the madness. But she'd underestimated the stubbornness of both her husband and son, and in the process she'd lost her son and her marriage was under severe strain. Now she just had to live with the consequences.

"We should go out this evening," Lucius suddenly declared as he got to his feet.

"Where?" Narcissa asked, her mind immediately turning to her son's opening, even though she knew her husband couldn't possibly have an invite to the party. It was very clear Draco wasn't inviting them to his big night.

"I actually thought we could go to Paris, spend the night there," Lucius said, moving around the table where he gently pulled Narcissa to her feet and wrapped his arms around her delicate waist. "I thought it would be nice for us to have some time alone, just the two of us."

"It sounds good," Narcissa replied with a soft smile. She hated it when things were strained with Lucius, so she was more than willing to take advantage of his romantic offer and try and put things back on track. If only things were so easy to fix with Draco.

"We have to carry this through, Narcissa," Lucius said softly, the pain evident in his grey eyes. For the first time, Narcissa saw how much their estrangement from Draco was affecting her husband, and she knew she had to stand by him, no matter how painful it was.

"We will," Narcissa vowed. "We'll get through this together, Lucius."

As she said goodbye to her husband, Narcissa hoped her son also had someone to help him cope with recent events. As much as she disapproved of Blaise, she hoped that Draco was right and that he was the good friend her son had always said he was. Right now, he was all Draco had.