Chapter 9 – Letters and Understanding.

[Malfoy Manor – 23rd – 24th December]

Lord Malfoy

Curious, you? What about me!

There are many out there who is curious about me, and they should because no one has even taken the time to talk to me, to get my opinion about what is happening.

You have questions, so have I.

So, why should I humour you?

If you want me to answer yours, you will have to answer mine. What does the Dark believe in? Why did you even join Voldemort in the first place? After all, you don't seem like a guy or a family who bows down to just anyone!

There are many more questions like this inside of my head.

Sincerely
Lady Cassiopeia Luci Potter- Slytherin-Le Fay
Heiress to the ancient and noble house of Black

It hit Lucius so clearly that the girl he was damn proud of having gotten to know and will know had emancipated herself by the sound of it, and with having so many titles to her name it was sure to draw some attention to herself if she let it happen.

There was so much more to this girl than he had believed it to be, she was smarter and more cunning than even his own son had told him. The titles on the letter she had inherited made him curious indeed.

Is she more grey, than light?

Yet, Slytherin and Le Fay are dark families at least they were back then, and that made him wonder how those names came to belong to the Potter and the Black families. How came it to be that she was sorted into Gryffindor?

Lucius sighed when he felt the wards warn him of his wife leaving the manor again, without having a reason to even go out at this time of night. It had not been the first time she had done so in the last couple of years. Ever since the Dark Lord had been killed off, Narcissa had been occupied with going out, like their relationship did not excise.

They needed to have a good to an honest conversation – he had thought that even with their arranged marriage, they had a loving relationship, a mutual fondness of one another.

Now all he felt was contempt, and they never spent any time together – not like they did before.

Nevertheless, he was tired of living by other expectations of him, and the fact was she wanted to change his life around, that is why he began to write to the Girl-Who-Disappeared.

Lady Potter
23rd December
It is surprising that you at all wrote back to me, I would have thought you would have ignored it completely – you are curious, who would have thought.

The matter with the Dark Lord is complicated, and you are right in that we would not have followed him because of any reason. It was my father who was a devotee, but what he told me of the Dark Lord was something else back then than what he became – more of it you will know in later letters.

Politically the dark is seen as a traditionalist, especially now when our culture and holidays are disappearing – the muggleborns who are coming into our world think it's outdated and are uncomfortable with them, but what they didn't understand is that we didn't want to conform them to it, but we wanted them to understand and not change it.

There was a time when werewolves, vampires and other creatures walked among us without fear until those that came into the magical world began to champagne against them because of fear and how the muggle world perceived them.

We want the old ways back or at least a compromise.

People need to be educated about the culture they come into, but since the classes were dropped because of Dumbledore, everything went downhill because he thought we didn't need it. We also want a clearer separation from the muggle world, or we should be more aware of how the muggle world works, so that we don't do something stupid, after all, we don't want magic to be discovered.

I am a businessman, so, I have a need to go into that world and have to know how to behave and dress in that world.

What do you think? What do you think about Dumbledore? What do you want to happen? Where are you? What are you doing now?

Sincerely
Lucius Malfoy

Lucius Malfoy 24th December

Intriguing, and I must agree with you.

I can testify that we that comes into the magical world know nothing, and it is hard to get information about the magical world, and if we ask, we do not get answers. If I had been educated into the world I had been thrust into, it would have been easier to blend in.

There is also no easy way to find the books pertaining to things like this in the Hogwarts library, if there is it must be easier to find them.

I can agree that there should be classes in Hogwarts on politics, etiquette and law, after all, it is plain impossible for us to know the different laws here if we don't ask or at least not before we are caught.

Hmm, where I am right now – they tell non-magi parents the truth when their children first show signs of magic and depending on how they react… You know what I mean! For me, this would have meant everything back then, and I would have known about the world earlier than my eleventh birthday. I would have known why things happened, that I was not the freak – that it was Normal.

What doesn't I think about Dumbledore? Dumbledore is manipulative and has too much of an influence over everything that is happening in the world. Also, he is obsessed with me for some reason, because he doesn't think Voldemort is dead and I have a feeling he won't believe he is dead unless I am dead too.

The British Wizarding world needs to be changed, but I have no interest in politics though sooner or later I will need the proxy to sit in my place.

Now, I am waiting to take my OWLS, and then I am off to another county again on a tour that may take me around the world.

Sincerely
Cassiopeia.

PS! The gift is part one of a two-way journal – so that we can talk if you want to that is.

The letter from Cassiopeia was enlightening and it shows that she was finally beginning to think for herself, about her own power and not following anyone else. There was something about that he liked, and one thing for sure there should be more people like that out there.

Learning from the mistakes of the past.

It was also interesting to learn of her insight into how it was for the muggleborns coming into our world, and that there should be classes in Law, Politics, and other such things since sooner or later we would be exposed if something is not done.

In between the lines of her letter, he got to know the girl behind the title, and he also knew that somewhere along with the line things for has not been easy, and he wondered where she could have taken the trip to because those countries that had that law was few like Spain, Canada, Norway and other Asian countries. Those had always been more advanced than other countries when it came down to everything Britain was not.

After this letter, we exchanged other letters in the whole getting to know one another – the journal he got was an interesting addition, though, it was kind of illegal here in Britain for some reason making him believe that there should be classes in Law or something similar people could take if they wanted to study upon things – rare laws that no one knows about but knows.

[25th December]

Cannot thank you enough for this gift! Lucius began to write, as he opened up the journal and he had expected her somewhat to begin to write to him at once, but as the day went by him it wasn't before late that night Cassiopeia answered him in a way he had counted on.

You do not have to thank me.

Where have you been? and I love to irritate you.

It had always been interesting to irritate her since she reacted so well to it in her letters, and he was curious like never where she had been.

I have had a terribly busy day today, with everything that has been going on with studying for the tests I will be going through the first week in January, then I was invited to a Masquerade ball by the Spanish Minister of Magic. So, it has been a long night.

You have met some terrible famous people, so, Spain? Have you been to other countries too? Why did you even decide to travel? Lucius asked her because she finally told him where she had taken the road to, and he wondered what the whole thing was about other than just travel for the fun of it.

It's only because the goblins are on my side for some reason, they wanted me to meet him and you don't exactly say no to goblins who have helped you as they have. I am only in Spain because I am doing my OWLS here!

I travel because, I wanted to get away, learn. TO Me, Knowledge is power, but also, have a deep love for history. It was something I had to do, to get control over my own life – because this cant is taken from me. I wanted to find out who I was other than the girl who lived and my relative's slave.

What is happening back home, with you?

Lucius recoiled by how she described her relationship with her relatives, and it was something that should have been noticed something like that in her previous letters.

It's interesting to see them run around like headless chickens over your disappearance – as I told you in one of my letters, they aren't doing a lot to find you.

For me, things have been the same and I am bored. We Malfoys like to do business and we don't care much where we get them, though, we have a family winery in the French riviera that has made wine for decades. We also own a whiskey distillery.

Like many things my hobby is politics, but it is becoming like a chore since the death of the Dark Lord and with that I find myself longing for something else to do.

What do you like to do?

Finding that it was in his best policy to talk the truth and from the heart and finding that she was listening to it and not even interrupting him helped to get it all out.

I had expected more from the teachers, have none of them showed any interest in that I am gone? It's more than this because I have always felt like I have floundering to get some information on the wizarding world.

Before coming to Hogwarts, I liked to learn and read every book I came about especially about history though coming to Hogwarts all life became all about surviving.

I like practising my magic and reading every book I come about.

What has happened to you that makes you believe every adult in your life, don't believe you? Lucius questioned softly, and continued to write, you may not know, I have been afraid to go out and do things because everyone believes I would sooner or later do something stupid because of you-know-who death. In the end, my wife and I have drifted apart since that happened, not like we even had a strong marriage in the first place – life has become a chore and is the ear of the minister is irritating. He wrote back honestly, something that was becoming a habit right now between them.

I am sorry about you and your wife! I am also surprised that you are even writing this down to me, after all, I am still fourteen years old.

When you say it like that, it is weird, but let's say that everything about it is my curiosity speaking. Been curious about it for years.

Oh? Then I am curious about you!

Lucius could practically see the quirk of her lips when she wrote the reply.

Curiosity is not really an answer, you know.

I know! Lucius stated, but telling her something more would not go over well, however, but it would be fun.

Now, back to your original question – I have never believed in authority figures in my life, they have never believed in anything I have told them, so, why should I believe in them?

What happened? Lucius asked, hoping to hear something in the writing to show him how to handle the case and how to never get on her nerve.

I was placed with my non-magi Aunt, Uncle, and son – as you know some mundane people lash out if they do not understand a thing, and my relatives hate magic and with it they hate me! I did not even know my name until I was six-seven years old. Before that, it was girls, boy and freaks. My room was the cupboard underneath the stairs, but when I got my Hogwarts letter, they became scared, so they moved me up to my cousin's second bedroom.

No one at primary school took me serious about what happened at home, no one of our neighbours could see what was happening at home – when I came to Hogwarts, I tried to get somewhere else to stay but the headmaster told me I had to stay at my relatives' place because of something or another.

From the moment I became four years old I had to do most of the chores around the house and took care of the garden – in plain view of the neighbours. I never got any food, only stale bread or stale water – why no one even seemed to notice my thin and frail body is a mystery. In school, I was bullied and chased around while the teachers said and did nothing. Never saying anything about how I was struggling. I never got new clothes, only hand-me-downs.

I was punished if something unexpected happened, I was blamed and punished for doing magic, either starving me or beating me with a belt.

SO, I stopped telling people about my home life. Even getting better grades in school I was punished because their son did bad in school, so, I had to be cheating – so I stopped trying.

Hogwarts was supposed to be better, but it showed itself to be the same if somewhat on a different scale.

All of this made Lucius lose his words and reading this made it clear that something was wrong under Dumbledore's nose, shouldn't he have cared about their supposed saviour? If he was reading this the correct way, something should have happened to warn us of her abuse – for god's sake children is revered in magical Britain and should be taken care of.

Why did no one check up on her? Also, why did no one believe her? There was something more going on here, something that the idiot headmaster did not need any one of them to know. If this was the truth, it was no wonder that Cassiopeia clashed with his son, who is the epitome of a spoiled brat and thinks he is entitled to everything he wants.

Do you know why no one noticed your abuse now? How did you even survive? Also, how did your introduction into the wizarding world go? Did you meet a teacher, after all, they should have taken care of you? You do know that there are people out there who believes you o have lived a life in luxury? Lucius inquired over the most thought of questions he had about her when she told him these things.

I know everything of why that was, when I did a complete test with the goblins – I found out that I had blocks on my magical core, I was full of compulsions and potions for me and others to act a certain way around me and me to them. Did they actually think and believe I lived a life in luxury? If they would have looked closer, and maybe if I hadn't all of these compulsions, they would have found out the truth though.

If it were Dumbledore who said this, they would have believed anything because that is the effect he has on people. They would have followed his every word.

I see, you got them to purge you of all of them and take off your core? That was all that Lucius could say to it, because what else could he mention, and he could practically hear the distress in the young girl that was maybe finally able to tell this to someone that cared and could maybe do something about it.

It was a relief to get them off – it was like getting a heavy burden off my shoulders.

Survive? I don't know how I even survived though I think it had to be because of my magic, my magic has always been close to the surface, even with a lot of it bound tightly. Thinking back, and really feeling it, my magic has always been close, and I had always felt it. It had been a lot more responsive before Hogwarts, thereafter, I could never feel it.

Lucius had to smile because he could practically taste the epiphany the girl was having as she wrote this, and then came the tactical anger over how much her life had depended on her magic before coming to Hogwarts.

Now, I know why that was – Dumbledore blocked my magic then. Why had a hard time at school, as before it all I could do a lot with magic.

I was not actually introduced to the wizarding world by a teacher, but by Hagrid. It was him that showed me Diagon Alley, and I had to practically force him to tell me about what happened to my parents, and what had happened to them. My relatives had only told me that my father was a drunk and that my mother was a whore, and that they had died in a car crash. Coming into the wizarding world was a gigantic culture shock, him yelling out my name in the Leaky Cauldron, making it yet the more overwhelming for me to deal with everyone – overjoyed people who was seeing me for the first time. We had to drag ourselves into the alley.

I was eleven, and it was creepy.

Lucius had to laugh out at this, he could see her shuddering at remembering her first experience in the wizarding world, but why was she introduced to the world of magic this way? This should not have happened, at all. It was disturbing.

Also, he could not believe how many times he had caught himself laughing at something Cassiopeia had written.

Everything was a confusing mess, going from practically being invisible to people around me to people looking at me like they knew everything about me… Even my classmates believe they knew everything and classmates are afraid to talk to me because they think of me as unapproachable. So, it has been frustrating making friends, because it seemed like no one wanted to get to know me – making this one of the reasons why I needed to getaway.

It is no wonder then that you shy away from people! When it comes down to being I have to be seen in public, it's expected of me but I have lived longer than you so that's that, but all I want is to be left alone. Lucius revealed, after all, if I suddenly disappear everyone will think that I am up to something because of my last name.

Okay… That's weird, but as they do that to you they only look at my scar, while they look at your last name. They look at me in a fickle and indecisive way, while they look at you because of your past.

You are correct. They look at me in a way that will further their own agenda, so, you may be onto something there, Cassiopeia.

I am always right, Lucius.

Lucius smirked, because, at this point, they may as well be friends.

There is a lot in the wizarding world that is still confusing for me, but for the most part, I quickly got the hang of what the wizarding world expected of me. At first, this world became salvation from my relatives, but it changed quickly to something I never wanted. I was never allowed to be alone in Diagon Alley, I had to beg Hagrid to leave me alone to get my things. Nevertheless, I never got to read any of the books because I wasn't allowed to do anything because of my relatives never allowed me.

I was never allowed to ask questions because that would have helped me to understand it all better – if I had known how my Gallons there is in Pounds, it would have helped me back then to understand the economy better, and I could have maybe bribed someone, because back then I only knew of my trust vault that Hagrid said was only for school. It wasn't before I went to Gringotts this time that I understood it all.

This to Lucius explained a lot of all in how Cassiopeia was back in her first years from everything he had heard from his son, and from what he could see in her second year. Also, hearing it explained from her point of view, made him understand better why she had behaved as she had done, and why she was impressed with magic all the time.

It stirred something in him and made him want to realize even more of why the second year went as it did, and why everything he could see in her was confusion. It made him also realize why her robes were so dirty, even shabby.

Making him go back to read some of the things said again, to see if something else could be learned from it, that he had not seen.

I think Dumbledore wanted me to be ignorant.

That sounds like something that goat would have done. Lucius smirked as he wrote it down to the girl on the other end, How did you meet my son?

I met your son for the first time in Madam Malikins, and I cannot say that I was impressed. He just began to question me about everything, and answered his own questions, without even giving his name until the end. Never allowing me to speak or answer. When he finally introduced himself, he never allowed me to do the same, at least not before he saw Hagrid and insulted him and when I told him that he was my first friend – he walked away.

What was my son thinking? Thought, Lucius was now angry because he had thought him better than this, and now he finally understood why in the end she rejected his hand in friendship. Also, this wasn't the Slytherin way – a Slytherin would have done anything to gain influence, thinking that anyone had something to gain.

The Hogwarts houses sounded interesting, but I was more or less discouraged from Slytherin from the get-go, all I heard was that Slytherin was evil and dark, and Gryffindors was good and heroes. So, I begged the hat to place me anywhere else but Slytherin.

I felt like everyone forced my hand, and I wonder what would have happened if I had taken up the hat's promise of finding myself in Slytherin. What would have happened if I had gone into the snake pit.

After all of this, the summer was bearable because I knew that I would spend the next ten months away from them, so, I had something to look forward to.

Can we walk about my Hogwarts years later?

Of course! Lucius wrote down knowing that the years of school would be something both of them had heard about, but that everything else could be said on a later date.

Can you tell me something about yourself?

Sighing, all he could say to that was that she now deserved something from him, he also had to say something about himself to the curious girl. What do you want to know?

[26th December – 00:30. Madrid.]

What do you want to know?

The question for her was a long-awaited one, but it was a relief to finally tell someone about her experiences coming into the world of magic – and he was interested in listening to her complaining. The thing was she had laid almost everything bare for him to know, so, now she had to figure out something good to ask him.

It was freeing for her to just write to someone that is interested in her, and they had already spent many hours on her own story, so, that it was only fair for her to do it to him.

I want to know how you grew up. How was Hogwarts in your time? What more can you tell me, and what do you believe in? According to what I have gotten from everyone else, especially your son, is that you hate muggles, is that true?

I will answer the last question first, then sec, third and anything else you wonder about. I have never been or believed in the classic pureblood supremacy, after all, as I have told you in my letters is that I have business in that part of the world. My father on the other hand was a fanatic, but at the end of it, I sometimes wonder if he had changed his views. The thing is my wife on the other hand again is a traditionalist, and when it came down to it she reacted drastically when the Dark Lord was killed a couple of years ago.

When Draco was born, I never had the time to spend any time with him – at first because my father kept me busy and as he was always scheming, then my wife kept me away. It wasn't before he was eight that I got to spend any sort of time with him.

Cassiopeia could hear the frustration in Lucius's writing over not having spent time with his son while he was growing up, and knowing this now, she could understand it. Draco wanted and wants his father's approval.

By that point, it was hard for me to talk to him, and even for him to listen to what I said and about my real thoughts of things.

He has even apologised to me through a letter from both him and Parkinson. Cassiopeia told him back because what else could she tell him that he didn't know himself.

Good to know!

Being raised up in the pureblood circle was boring, and its own brand of craziness. All those dreadful balls I had to go to growing up, though, I learned to love it somewhat.

There was something in his writing that made her want to laugh because it was so not like him to say something like this if she had to go out from what she had observed from him when she had first seen him. Also, she felt like this was just a small piece of his life that she was getting a look into, and even just a piece of the iceberg of how life growing up back then had been.

My father Abraxas Malfoy was a strict no-nonsense, die-hard traditionalist. I think he followed Riddle back then because he first wanted our dying traditions back into our lives and our culture back. I was promised to Riddle, forcing me into the whole revolution though, I agreed to some of the goals he had back then, but then Riddle suddenly became Voldemort and changed his view and became quite extreme. By that point, I was trapped! When you somehow vanquished him, everyone in my house was relieved. My father was relieved that it was over, a point was that he died one year later in his sleep.

My mother Analise…

Cassiopeia practically could see the tears that were about to fall and knew that the whole thing was hard for him to even say something about. His mother had to have meant so much to him.

My childhood was not horrible in a sense, but I had a lot of expectations thrust upon me because of my name, my mother tried to ease me into it all. I also learned years ago not to show any emotions, it was practically frowned upon. It was a weakness showing them because you could be taken advantage of. I learned quickly not to do anything that would give people. The balls I had to go to was boring, and throughout my Hogwarts years, I didn't do anything special other than get to know a couple of good friends or acquaintances. The only true friend I seemed to have from that time was three years younger than me – Severus Snape, the outcast. Also, someone that was bullied by the Marauders, a gang in school.

I know who they are, and if there is something, I hate it is bullies. Cassiopeia stated firmly into the journal, and it made her angry to hear that finally, someone told her how her father had been in school. Finally, someone mentioned it, mentioned it without doing anything drastic though Snape had always hated her because of her father, and now she knows why.

Okay, that's good. How much do you know about your parents?

The question took her by surprise because no one had even taken the time to even ask it in all the years she had been to that school, and everything she had heard was superficial. Nothing, only that I remind them of my father, and that I have my mother's eyes.

Only that?

If I weren't the best, I was punished… There is nothing more about it I can tell you, after I had graduated, I was practically forced into politics, and into an arranged marriage. Nothing from then on has been something I had wanted to do, so, now I stand over quite the dilemma over what to do.

Cassiopeia knew that he was avoiding the whole thing with his mother, and that made it more real for some reason, so, she would not press him for information about what happened, Yep, only that, so how has your Christmas been?

That was random…

It just sounds like we are done for now with discussing our past, so, that leaves the present and the future open for debate. Cassiopeia smirked as she wrote it, and with that, we talked about everything else that had been happening around them both, and it became a lovely discussion about all thing other than the past.

When they suddenly got a glint of the clock, they could not believe that it was almost daytime and that they had spent the whole night talking to one another, so with that, they managed to tell each other a goodbye and a promise to write to one another in the next couple of days.