CHAPTER
2: WHATEVER SHALL WE DO?
" It's about time you got here,
Mr. Malfoy. I have been waiting for hours."
Draco opened
his mouth to reply, but his mother been him to it.
" Shut
your claptrap, Severus. Don't you dare snap at my son." God, she
was testy. Not enough sleep, he supposed. She had spent most of her
journey from Malfoy Manor staring out the window, obviously expecting
Lucius and Selene to come riding up and take her away.
Snape
narrowed his eyes at her. " Mrs. Malfoy-"
"
Miss Black," she interupted evenly. " I was never
married."
Snape obviously didn't care.
" Miss
Black, then. This is my house, and I expect you to treat me with
respect."
" Like you did to me when we were in
school?"
Snape sighed; they had only been there two minutes,
and Draco had the feeling he already wanted to boot them out the
door.
" Narcissa, let's not get into that. I was foolish,
and you were..."
" A fetching piece of teenage
girlflesh?" Narcissa said sweetly. Draco could've sworn Snape
flushed slightly.
" No, that was not what I had in
mind."
" A sexy, class-A seductress, then?"
Draco
seriously wished to get out of that room before the conversation got
dirty.
" Virgin ears, Mother. Don't forget."
"
Oh, yes. I'm sorry Draco." She turned and stalked out of the
room, sending Snape a poison-arrow look over her shoulder.
"
Mother!" Draco hissed once they got into Narcissa's temperary
room. " Why'd you do that? Do you want us to be kicked out of
here?"
Narcissa sighed; she evidently did not want to go
through with this right now. "Draco, I can't help it! Severus
Snape was a simple bastard all through school. I can't think of how
he might have changed!"
Draco knocked his head against the
solid oak door. Parents, he thought
bitterly.
Shadows danced
in the half-light of the fire burning slowly in the grate. Remus
Lupin set down his paperwork, heaving an exhausted sigh. Bending
down, he rifled through the papers in his desk drawer until he found
yesterday's edition of the Daily Prophet. He turned and stoked the
fire, settled down and spread the paper over his lap.
STARTLING
DEATH AT MALFOY MANOR
read the headline. Astonished, Remus
leaned closer and continued reading.
Mrs. Narcissa Malfoy,
age 37, was found dead in her bed last night around 8 o'clock.
According to Lucius Malfoy, 41, her husband, " I would
know
those big blue eyes of hers anywhere. That was obviously my
Narcissa."
Mrs. Malfoy's throat was slit.
see MURDER,
page 2B
Remus didn't bother to read the rest. He shut the
paper and stared moodily into the flames.
He could have sworn
Narcissa's eyes were brown.