Disclaimer: Everything belongs to J.K.R.
AN: This story is part of the Halloween Collection of the Haphne discord server. You can find the other stories here.
community/HarryDaphne-Collection/133850/99/0/1/0/0/0/0/
If you are interested in Haphne and want to join the fun, go to
discord dot gg/pKSdvJQvhU
Just delete the spaces and replace 'dot' with '.' after you copy and paste into your browser.
We're pretty open to other shippers, so you are welcomed, no matter which pairing you prefer.
This story is from a multiple pov. I will change the pov by chapter, so this means sometimes very short chapters. Don't tell me you've not been warned. ;) I'll try to post a couple of chapters at a time if they are too short.
Many thanks to Federer Rex for beta-ing this chapter.
The door slammed shut behind Astoria.
Draco closed his eyes and let out a long breath. It was about time the bitch left him alone. Damned, that had hurt! Who would've thought the bitch could become that violent? Yes, she'd never taken his taunts meekly, but until today she'd never attempted more than a scratch or a slap in the face.
Of course, he'd always shown her who the master was.
He groaned again, struggled to a sitting position, and used his desk to get to his feet. He sank into his chair, closed his eyes, and leaned back with a deep breath.
The door to the study opened.
Draco jumped and opened his eyes wide. Did the bitch return?
His mother entered the study, a deep frown on her face.
He relaxed and got on his feet to greet her, ignoring the dragging pain that still throbbed in his groin.
"Mother. How can I help you?"
"Your wife just took Scorpius out of his lessons and called the Greengrass elf to apparate them away," his mother said instead of an answer. She sat down in one of the visitor's chairs. "You fought again? Draco, this has to end!"
"I couldn't agree more, mother," he said with a mirthless laugh and sat down again. "However, as long as you and father don't agree to the divorce—"
She interrupted him with an impatient gesture. "We've discussed that before, Draco. We don't have the gold at present to pay Astoria the compensation she can demand for a divorce. More importantly, she will take Scorpius with her. You know that by the stipulations of your marriage contract, she may raise the children out of your union until their majority in case you separate or divorce. Another of the demands of that precious sister of hers we couldn't fight. I hate that woman!"
"You know there is a way to get back at both, don't you?" a silky voice said from the door. "I think it is about time we take that route."
Narcissa turned around, and Draco once again got to his feet.
"Father."
"So cryptic dearest, please explain." Narcissa asked.
Lucius came into the room and closed the door behind himself. He walked to the visitor's chair next to Narcissa's and sat down. "Before I explain, would you mind doing the honours, darling?" he asked his wife with a gesture.
Narcissa pulled out her wand and cast a complicated Silencing Ward upon the room. "Now, explain yourself," she said, and put the wand back into her pocket.
Lucius leaned back in his chair and crossed his legs.
"I'd think the answer is obvious. We can't go on like this, but we don't have the gold to pay Astoria as your mother said, nor do we want to lose dear Scorpius. Your course of action is clear, Draco. Astoria has to disappear."
A giant's fist seemed to jam into Draco's stomach, and he sat straight upright. "Do you mean—" He didn't finish his sentence and gaped at his father.
Instead of an answer, Lucius gave him a long, level look. "I never took you for a simpleton, Draco."
Damned, the old bastard meant business. Gods, father had to know how much he hated what he'd as good as ordered him to do. Father wasn't a man of direct words. He talked in veiled hints, nevertheless expected him to pick up on his words and act upon them posthaste.
He didn't mind obeying his father. However, murder was something else. He'd failed his duty with Dumbledore. Would he be able to go through with killing Astoria? That was doubtful. After all, he'd cared for her superficially once, and she still was the mother of his only child.
Scorpius would be devastated.
"Or perhaps you are," father cut into his thoughts. A slight sneer appeared on his face as he continued staring down at him along his nose. "I never said a word against delegating tasks."
The air returned to Draco's lungs. Well, that simplified things a lot.
Killing had never been his forte, and he wasn't looking forward to making himself the prime suspect of yet another murder case. He'd been lucky he got out of the investigation of Dumbledore's death scot-free, even though he'd made more than one attempt to kill the old goat and instigated an attack on the school. It was only thanks to mother's foresight to trap Potter in a life debt that had kept father and him out of Azkaban. Potter had hated it, but he'd testified in their favour at their trial that followed the downfall of the Dark Lord and even got the mudblood and the Weasel to follow his example.
"I will bear that in mind." He nodded at his father and got a genuine smile in return.
Draco permitted himself to respond to his father's smile with one of his own. He rose from his chair. "Perhaps it is time I'll take myself to the hovel my wife's family calls their home and make sure that she and my heir are alright."
Father's smile intensified. "As always, I appreciate your quick understanding, Draco."
Draco stood at the edge of a car park, hidden behind a large bush of hydrangea that still had most of its leaves and blossoms, although already coloured and faded around this time of the year. The garden was raised above the car park, and made him hard to see by a casual observer from inside the house, while he had a good view of the lawn and the house.
The house wasn't much compared to Malfoy Manor, yet it was one of the bigger houses in the village.
Two storeys high with an impressive roof soaring above, it stood set back from the street in a sizable, well-kept garden. A few shallow steps led from the street to a gravelled path that meandered through flower beds with a riot of colourful asters, dahlias, and hydrangeas. The wild vines that covered the drab brownstone facade had turned a fiery shade of red. In the golden rays of the late October sun, it almost seemed as if the house was on fire.
Everything was orderly and clean, from the scrubbed step at the entrance to the stark white door and window frames to the gleaming window panes and golden letters above the entrance door.
The sun caught in one of the golden letters and blinded Draco.
He closed his eyes as if in pain and averted his head.
Here he was, in front of The Green-Eyed Cat, the pub owned by the Abbott family, the family of Astoria's mother, since before the times of the Statute of Secrecy. Besides the golden letters above the entrance door, only a small, shingle-roofed display at the gate that showed the menu of the restaurant attached to the pub hinted the house held a business, a pub with rooms for rent, and a restaurant that catered for both Muggles and magical folk.
Draco sneered.
It was bad enough that the younger Mrs Malfoy came from a family where the women had to work to contribute to the family's income. But catering to Muggles was inexcusable. He wrinkled his nose as if he had smelled something rotten.
Yet, inward venting about his wife's humble origins wouldn't get him anywhere. He had a task at hand. How to go about getting rid of his wife?
Well, in a way that wouldn't cast suspicion on him, that much was obvious. Also, he had to remove Scorpius from the line of fire before anything happened to Astoria. However, before he could contemplate what to do about his unwanted wife, he'd better make sure they stayed at the pub, although he couldn't think of another place where they might have found shelter.
Once again, he peeked through the leaves of the hydrangea bush.
The front door opened.
Draco ducked his head.
A young woman came out of the house. Although it was not yet noon and the restaurant catered to dinner guests only, she already wore her stark-white chef's jacket with a double row of gleaming silver buttons over wide black pants. The sturdy, yet highly polished boots at her feet would have made a good mirror, and she had covered her hair with a colourful scarf. Not a single lock peeked out from under the scarf.
He'd shared classes with her for seven years, so he knew her hair to be an unusual shade of gleaming wheat, kept in an ultra-short men's haircut that suited her in a weird way. Many young men, not only from Slytherin, had vied for her attention. She'd turned them all down, said she had better things to do than dating.
This one was much too ambitious for her own good.
The young woman cast a look up and down the empty street.
Draco ducked deeper behind the bush. What was she up to?
From her elated vantage point, she didn't notice him lurking behind the bush.
She pulled her wand out of the sleeve of her jacket and cast what looked like a Notice Me Not Charm, then backed into the house and said something to someone inside.
Astoria?
Moments later, she came back, together with a house elf. Between them, the two levitated a heavy-looking cast-iron stove towards the parking lot in front of the pub.
Draco looked around. Damned, they were going to discover him here. There was no hiding place nearby, and apparating away was no option. The telltale sound would alert Greengrass that someone had lurked behind the bushes, and she would be on the lookout for potential dangers. No, his best course of action was to make it look as if he had just arrived.
He scurried a few yards back and straightened, just in time for Greengrass and the elf levitating the stove down the steps to the garden and putting it in an empty parking space.
"We can leave it here, Sipsey," Greengrass said. She lowered her wand and put it away. "I've called the rubbish collection service to take it away. They said they'd pick it up sometime this morning, in any case before the pub opens."
The elf nodded and apparated away almost without a sound.
Greengrass made a few steps into the parking lot, turned, and let a critical eye swerve over her well-kept domain.
She'd always been a perfectionist.
Draco straightened and walked down the pavement.
The movement caught Greengrass' eye, and she turned towards him.
"You!" A faint blush appeared on her high cheekbones.
"Good morning, Daphne dearest," he said. "I'm not here to keep you away from your work. You need every meagre Knut you can get. I'm here to pick up my son and my wife to take them home."
She put her hands on her hips. "What makes you think they are here?"
"Please, Daphne, don't play dumb with me. Where else could they go than to you and that hovel you call your family home?"
The colour in her cheeks intensified, and she drew her delicate brows together until her face looked like thunder. "This time you've gone too far, Draco. You killed Astoria's familiar. That's inexcusable. You know how important a familiar is to a witch or wizard."
He sneered at that. "Did Astoria tell you that? Where's your proof? Besides, we both know that Astoria isn't much of a witch anymore, don't we? So, for what does she need a familiar?"
A small, irate noise escaped her throat. "That Astoria's magic suffered because of her affliction doesn't change that she is a witch. You are the one who is accountable for her poor health, and you just made it worse by killing her familiar." She whipped out her wand and pointed it at him. "It's up to Astoria to decide whether she and Scorpius will return to you. I will not help you get them back. I already deeply regret that I insisted on your marriage. Astoria would have been better off without you."
"Ah, but that's doubtful, isn't it, dearest Daphne?" he said in his most silky voice, a trick he had adopted from his father. "After all, she needed the Malfoy gold since your family didn't have two Knuts to rub with."
A stinging pain hit his wand hand. He yelped and jumped a step back, then glared at the woman in front of him. "Damn you, bitch, what was that for?"
"Just a small reminder that I won't let insults against my family pass unpunished." She put her wand away and marched towards him until they stood almost nose to nose. "Neither will I let you hurt my sister and my godson ever again. Leave, Draco, and never return if you know what's good for you."
"Or what? You'll hit me with Stinging Hexes again?" He couldn't help the sneer that curled his lips. Who did that bitch think she was? She'd left Hogwards after their OWLs and worked as a handmaid, while he had learned the art of fight and torture from the best of them, his aunt and his father.
She stepped even closer. "If you don't leave them alone, I'll kill you, Draco, and nobody will ever find your body."
Her voice was barely above a whisper, and she uttered the words with a quiet confidence that sent an icy shiver down his spine.
His eyes widened.
She meant business and would act upon her words if he wasn't careful. He had no doubt about that. He wouldn't put it past her to turn her chef's knife onto him and feed him to the guests of her restaurant for Sunday roast. She had the guts to pull that off without the Aurors ever suspecting her.
However, it wouldn't do to let her know she had successfully intimidated him.
He cleared his throat and laughed. It sounded like a goat's bleating, even in his own ears. "I guess I'm supposed to quiver in my shoes." He took a step back and gave her a mock bow. "I know now that my wife and my heir found shelter in your family's hovel. Tell them I expect them to return to Malfoy Manor by noon tomorrow."
He didn't wait for her response, turned his back to Greengrass and apparated away.
He appeared in a dense wood he knew to be not far away from the village. The canopy of the tall trees had already coloured and thinned out, yet it still blocked most of the sunlight of the late October day from reaching the ground that was covered with a thick carpet of dead leaves. In this area of the British Islands, there was a constant wind coming from the nearby sea, the towering trees swayed and groaned in the breeze.
To a superstitious ear, that might sound like the groan of a tortured soul. The Muggles in the village thought so, which had given the forest the reputation of being haunted.
Idiots! Every witch and wizard knew that the ghosts of the area congregated in The Green-Eyed Cat.
Which brought him back to his current predicament.
His wife was welcomed to leave him and stay with her sister. Merlin knew he had enough of the bitch and her tantrums! His heir, however, was another matter.
He'd be damned if he let him grow up in that hovel, unaware of anything a true Malfoy had to know, and following the Abbott family trade of serving to their betters. Even worse, serving Muggles.
No, Scorpius would grow up at Malfoy Manor. He didn't care that the marriage contract stated otherwise if Astoria left him. He'd have to get his hands on Scorpius first and get him out of Astoria's reach, then he'd deal with the bitch. Once she was out of the way, Scorpius' would be his. His claim on the child was superior to its aunt's claim in the law's eye.
However, he had to be careful. Greengrass might lack magical education, but she made up for that in determination. He wouldn't like to cross her again.
He cast a Disillusionment Charm on himself and cursed when he had to repeat it. The bitch had destroyed his wand, he'd had to make do with mother's wand—again. He'd take the bitch to account for that. He spread his arms and apparated back.
This time, he appeared at the back of the house.
The house sat on a sizable corner plot. While it looked rather small at the front, it stretched wide into the back of the plot. From the few visits he had to take to that hovel he knew that the ground floor held the taproom, the restaurant, a breakfast room and a lounge for overnight guests, and the kitchens and Merlin knew what else you'd need to run a pub and restaurant. The second floor had guest rooms in the main house and apartments for self-catering guests in the annexe at the back of the house.
The family quarters were under the rooftop, two flats, one for the old hag, Joan Abbott, Astoria's and Greengrass' grandmother, and Greengrass lived now in the flat that had once belonged to their parents.
The old hag was on the Continent, visiting friends, Astoria had told him a few days ago. The summer season was over, the house was empty of guests, so he'd only have to contend with two magically inferior witches.
A grin spread over Draco's face. This should be easy.
He made himself comfortable behind a bush with a full sight of the back door that led into the family's private garden at one side of the house. The other side was reserved for guests, with a terrace and tables for dining, and an informal area with sun chairs around a small pool that was already closed for the winter at this time of the year.
Astoria would make sure that Scorpius did his lectures. She was a conscientious mother; he had to give that to her, although she was too soft with the boy. However, Scorpius couldn't stay inside for too long and would probably run into the garden to play as soon as his last lecture was over.
He didn't have to wait long until the backdoor opened and Scorpius stormed out, with all the signs of an individual shaking off the dust of a hated place. He headed straight towards a set of swings and climbed on one. The next moment, he swung high in the air. His joyful laughter echoed through the garden.
Draco permitted himself a smile. The boy was so much like him at that age. He'd also hated that his lectures forced him to stay in the house and had run into the park as soon as they were over. His smile morphed into a frown as he took in his son's appearance. The boy looked like a Muggle ragamuffin, dressed in faded blue cotton trousers and a colourful sweater he wouldn't want to get caught dead in. It was about time he took the boy with him. Astoria had already corrupted him with her mediocre upbringing.
He cancelled the Disillusionment Charm on himself and stepped out of the cover of the bush. It wouldn't do to scare his heir by appearing in front of him out of thin air.
The moment he saw him, Scorpius' joyful laughter faded. He put a foot to the ground, brought the swing to a halt, and stood up.
"Sir!"
"Good morning, Scorpius. I have come to take you home."
Scorpius looked up at him, his expression as blank as a freshly cleaned slate. "Will mu—mother come with us?"
Draco didn't miss the slight slip, frowned, and knocked Scorpius on the head with the knuckle of his index finger. Not too hard, but hard enough to remind him he'd made a blunder, just like his father had knocked the habit of childish endearments out of him. "A man doesn't call his mother by a childish endearment, Scorpius."
"Yes, sir. I'm sorry, sir, it won't happen again." Scorpius lowered his eyes, and the blank slate became like stone.
"You're a good boy, Scorpius. Where is your mother?"
"She's talking to Aunt Daphne in the kitchen."
Well, that was fortunate. The kitchen overlooked the garden at the side of the house. They couldn't see him from there.
"Oh, in that case, we best not disturb them. Come on, Scorpius, we have to leave."
A frown appeared on Scorpius' face, and he backed away. "I'll have to tell mother first. She will worry if I disappear without telling her where I have gone."
"There's no need for that. You're going with your father, after all. I will send her a house elf with a letter as soon as we are back at Malfoy Manor."
The frown deepened. "Why don't you go into the kitchen and tell her right now?" The distrust in the child's voice was palpable.
"Because—" Damned, he couldn't think of a plausible explanation at the drop of a hat.
Scorpius' eyes widened at his slight hesitation. "I'm not coming with you!" he cried and backed away even further.
Draco jumped forward to grab his arm.
The child sidestepped, turned, and ran towards the safety of the backdoor.
Damned, he couldn't allow the boy to reach the house and tell his mother and his aunt what had happened. Everything would be ruined then. He pulled out his wand to stun the boy.
A noise right behind him made him whirl around.
Something black filled his vision and connected with his head. A screaming pain exploded in his skull, then the world went black.
t.b.c.