AN: Here is your mini chapter. Still expect the usual Saturday edition as well.

Warning: This one hurts a bit. Maybe don't read it in public.

It had all gone terribly terribly wrong. He stared at the wreck that was once his living room. The overturned coffee table was splintered apart. The white marble of the floo was ash stained with some large swaths missing. His curtains were slightly singed and one of the windows was completely shattered. To make matters worse he was still so angry!

What had happened? It started off so promising.

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"Come in." He thought the thready voice sounded stronger this morning. With a smile he pushed his way into his mother's room.

They were in the dining room this time, the one from his childhood. Not the one still sitting undisturbed in the manor. He shivered. He was never going there again. The huge grecian fireplace was a bright and polished white. A pair of chandeliers tinkled above his head cheerfully. Even the rug, no longer stained burnt red, looked warm and inviting. He resisted the urge to cringe.

She was sitting at the head of the long mahogany table with a smattering of papers laying on the surface. As he walked over they displayed a great deal of interior design and decorations invoices along with a smattering of food options. Party planning then.

"Good morning Ms. Malfoy." He responded already reaching for his card.

"Oh?" She questioned with light mirth as she stared down at the papers. "Well good morning. Mr. Malfoy."

He paused as she looked up, absolutely besotted. He resisted the urge to immediately turn around and leave.

"Party planning are we?" He slid into the proper pose of his father, trying hard to resist the slimy feel. The first time she had mistaken him for his father he beat a hasty retreat and she had to be tranquilized for three days.

"Aren't I always, love?" She smiled before shuffling through the papers. "The caterers are all desperately bidding to be selected, the gardeners are swearing you can't get winterberries in July, and the stable master is throwing a fit about how unequipped we are for unicorn housing."

His heart ached as she sighed in exasperation. She looked stressed but it was an absolutely normal everyday witch kind of stress that made him long for years past. He recalled the exact day she was planning.

"Have you considered hexing them?" He responded dryly.

"Lucius!" She hiss immediately as she glared at him. "Don't be so dramatic. It's Draco's 11th, it must be magical."

Draco felt his heart ping again as he had to fight the urge to cringe. Instead he settled for an indignant snarl.

"It'll be our last year with him… before." To his absolute horror his mother began to cry. Delicate wispy like tears that fell like crystals. So fragile.

"Don't cry Cissa." He responded, patting her back comfortingly. He wasn't exactly sure what he was supposed to do. He had no memory of how his parents interacted in private and since he had elected to skip those parts of her diaries for his own sanity he was flying blind. "He will be back on holidays."

"I know that. I just… When did he get so big?" She looked up at him with crystal eyes.

"That tends to be the process." He responded forcing his face into a half smile. "They start small and needy, then they grow large enough to ship them away for a while. Don't worry. He will still need you for a few years yet."

"Do you think so?" She sniffed lightly. He thought back to his first years at school and the absolutely embarrassing amount of letters he had sent home. Most complaining about Harry Potter and Hermione actually.

"I know so." Draco pulled the little brown package out of his pocket with a grin. His mother had always loved presents. "Look dear, I picked something up for you."

Her tears dried with a careful pat of a delicate lace handkerchief. He was rewarded with a sparkling smile.

"Lucius." She smacked his arm playfully. "You are such a romantic!"

As she grabbed the package carefully, like how one would hold a bird. If he didn't look too closely he could barely see her hands shake. With delicate motions she carefully unfolded the paper uncovering the mass of folded fabric. A delicate flick of her wrist and the feather light material expanded out, settling lightly on the table.

"Oh it's beautiful! And so well made." Her small hand drifted across the dragonhide that had been beat into supple submission. It had been crushed lightly, mimicking the texture of a calm midnight sea. It fell to the floor with delicate silver trim and a eight pointed star clasp at the neck.

"Harvested it myself. An ancient creature she was. Stunning too. 20 meters high, black and silver scales." He commented with an unearned amount of pride. It wasn't like she really had to know the details.

"Hush you silly man. If a dragon appeared you would run screaming." She teased lightly as she wrapped the cloak around her shoulders. It was impossibly light and fell softly on her shoulders, drifting on the smallest breeze.

"I resent that." He snorted in response as she spun. She looked so odd, her hair a mess; a rumpled robe made of cheap fabric topped by a cloak more expensive than the room she was in. However she looked happy and that was enough.

"Thank you my dear." She smiled and wandered over to him. She reached her arms up to his neck and he settled into the hug. He presented his cheek.

"Lucius?" She questioned as Draco stared off towards the wall. "Lucius? What's wrong?"

"Nothing my dear. Nothing at all." He pulled back slightly, finding himself locked in by her arms.

"Why won't you kiss me?" A surge of panic bubbled in his throat.

"Just… didn't want to ruin your makeup my star." He almost sighed in relief as she backed away. He would have if it weren't for the shaking in her hands.

"Sod the makeup. What's going on?" Her voice took on a higher pitch of fear.

"Nothing my love. I was just-"

"When was our first date?" She shot immediately wrapping her arms around herself.

"6th year. Shortly after our engagement I took you to Hogsmeade." He responded reciting the story from memory. She had told him many times when he was younger. He was genuinely surprised when her eyes began to tear up.

"No. That's wrong. Before we were engaged we spent that night on the lake before we went to the broom closet." Draco resisted the urge to gag. There was a reason he had been told the other story.

"Of course. I hadn't forgotten Cissa. I just thought you would consider-"

"Who are you?!" She screeched, reaching for a wand that wasn't there. "You aren't Lucius."

"Narcissa-" He reached out towards her in a last ditch effort to get her to calm.

"OUT!" She ripped off his cloak and whipped it at his face. The fabric barely registered, even as the thick silver clasp scratched his cheek. "GET OUT! I'll call the aurors! HELP HELP!"

Draco backed away slowly as the room began to morph in response to her magic, darkening. The natural light in the room faded out, the candles around the room flaring to light. Slowly those deep red stains welled up from the carpet like sick spring flowers.

"Mother, please." He pleaded, wincing as an invisible force blew past him, shattering a vase in the corner. The shards disappeared immediately, after all it wasn't really there.

"Don't you talk about my Draco! Where is he? What did you do to him? I'll kill you! Avada Kedavra." She screamed wildly as she pointed a wand that wasn't there. He flinched at the small flicker of green that sprouted from the end of her finger. A failed spell, but one with enough intent.

"I'm leaving. I'm sorry." He continued to back away as the door burst open. A team of medical wizards burst in, casting restrictive but harmless charms on her. She screamed violently, her eyes filled with fear.

"Lucius! Help me! They're taking me! Lucius!" He sobs racked the room as Thanius entered with a crash. He took one look at the scene as a silencing charm was cast on her by one of orderlies. Her face still contorted in agony even though it wasn't producing sound.

"You should leave Draco." He commented with a stomp of his hoof.

"I didn't mean-" He stammered out as he stared at the offending cloak balled up in his hands.

"I know, son. I know. But please. For you mother's sake." He cringed as she broke free of the restraining charm, lashing out at the nearest witch. She grunted as his mother's nails raked down her cheek.

"Draco. Out." Thadius huffed with a push towards the door. The centaur immediately set towards his mother casting their brand of a calming charm. Draco quietly watched the light in his mother's eyes die as they met his.

With no other option he fled.