Author's Note: It just seems important to have something like this in this fic. Don't worry, Lucius and Hermione are indeed going to interact again quite soon. Promise. ]

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Lucius drummed his cane along Draco's desk as he waited for his son to return from whatever morning class it was that he helped teach. He was starting to wonder himself why he was here at all and, more importantly, why he was still here?

He chalked it up to ennui and to boredom. What else did he have to do anyway? He would have to leave soon though. He couldn't quite figure out what he was hoping for now that he was at Hogwarts, now that he had seen his son again.

There was no love between them, at least not on Lucius' part. If the Draco loved him, he pitied the boy in the dismissive way that one might pity a dead bird.

Thankfully, his hour-long wait was brought to an end by a rather haggard-looking Draco flinging open the door.

"Yes, I can clearly see just how much you are enjoying this new job of your's."

Draco rolled his eyes sullenly and offered no reply other than to softly slam his books down on the desk beside his father. It was a small bit of defiance, one that the boy could afford so Lucius offered his son a small smile of approval.

"How many classes do you teach?"

"Mostly I just do tutorials," Draco muttered running a hand through his hair uncomfortably.

"You don't seem delighted to see me again."

"....I'm just not quite sure what it is that you want yet."

Lucius chuckled. "Clever boy."

"Would you tell me what it is you want?"

"Do I need a reason?"

"I suppose not. I suppose you're going to have start doing things without reasons now."

"Why?"

"Well, it's not like you have any now...with Him being gone."

Lucius blinked. Was that why he had no motivation? He covered his surprise though; he wouldn't be allowing Draco any victories, no matter how small. "I didn't need him to have a reason for doing things."

"Please, I think I'm old enough to handle the fact that you don't come here to see how your son is doing."

"Were you ever under that illusion?"

Ah, he could still get to the boy. He wondered why even that was beginning to lose some of the charm, especially when Draco just shrugged. Perhaps he was learning how to cope from Severus, the patron saint of bitter recluses. He frowned. It wasn't that he cared if Snape had become Draco's surrogate father, but in the end Draco was just going to be like every other Malfoy: ridiculously rich and endlessly bored. That was fate and if Severus' influence affected that, Severus would no longer be needed in the grand scheme of things.

"I think if I ever had that illusion it was always abruptly shattered by your arrival."

"Oh?" Lucius looked quizzically at the boy, he hadn't really been expecting an answer.

"But never mind that, how's mother?"

Impudent little brat.

Lucius scowled and Draco smirked. He was struck by how similar they both were. Obviously they would be as Draco was his son but it felt a bit different now. It felt like they were both haunting the other, and Lucius couldn't say that he liked it very much.

"You know better than I do how your mother is."

"You don't see her at all then?"

"No and I must say that it is an improvement. You can tell her that next time you see her."

"She's not having much to do with me since I continue to have anything to do with you."

"So don't have anything to do with me then, Draco. No one's stopping you. You can do whatever you want. In fact, I encourage it. Do whatever pleases you and don't worry about the consequences."

"Maybe."

"Don't maybe me, boy. She's your mother, if you miss her then be with her."

"What makes you think I would want to be with her anymore than you did?"

Lucius supposed that was fair though. The woman had never had much love for anything but herself, not that Lucius was any different, but he had always felt cheated that his wife was no more in love with him than he with her.

"At least you think I'm might be marginally useful to you."

Perhaps wanting parents' affection is not something that could be beaten out of a child though Lucius had thought he had done a decent enough job of discouraging it. He had never been as harsh as his father, but then he had never thought there was a need to be.

"You don't need me. You have Crabbe and Goyle, don't you? Friends are far more useful to boys than fathers."

"I would hardly call them friends, but after you got their fathers killed, they don't want to have anything to do with me. And you're right; friends are more useful than fathers. Seeing that I have neither, I suppose I will make do with what I have."

"Don't sound so pitiful, Draco. It won't do to be pitied."

"Why not? You're only alive due to the pity of others."

"It's better to live and be pitied then dead and respected. But if I could have avoided it, then I wouldn't be pitied."

"And why did you avoid it?"

"Because I'm selfish? Because I'm evil? Because my life isn't what I wanted it to be? Take your pick."

"So it wasn't because…never mind."

Had the boy been on the verge of saying what Lucius thought he had been on the verge of saying? "Because of you?"

"It doesn't matter," Draco replied looking rather ashamed of himself. Emotions were not virtues in the Malfoy family.

"Maybe," oh how he hated that word, "it should have been, Draco, but it wasn't."

Draco nodded. "I should go. I have another class. Will you still be around?"

"Yes, nowhere else to go as of yet."

"Then I'll find you before lunch if you want."

"If you want."

Draco nodded and gathered his books and silently left.

Well that left Lucius with a lot to contemplate, but he wasn't about to sit there and actually contemplate it. He rose from the table, pushed in the chair and left the room, cane in hand. He would look for something else to occupy all of the time he had.

~~~

tbc