Chapter 18 Daddy Dearest
A/N: Thanks and praise to excessivelyperky, who has guided this tale through the tangled web a-weaving.
Draco waved his wand over the parchment and the words thereon disappeared. He bit the inside of his cheek; this was the third time he had tried to compose a note to his father and the third time words had failed him utterly. He had to talk to him.
"Get off me, Goyle," he growled. "You're breathing down my neck." His devoted follower backed up hastily.
"Uh – sorry, Draco, I just want to help – "
"Then take your fat arse and your fatter mate and get out. Find me my owl; damned thing's off eating rats somewhere. And hurry it up!"
Crabbe and Goyle ran, bumping into each other and all of the furniture in their path out of the Slytherin Common Room.
Draco pushed back from the table. This wasn't working. He chewed on the end of his quill, and then made his decision. He stood in front of the fireplace, grabbed a handful of Floo powder from the container on the mantel, and tossed it into the flames. "Lucius Malfoy!" he called.
Where was his father? He usually answered a Floo summons with an immediate burst of venomous vituperation. As Draco turned away, there was a whomp! and a green flash from the hearth.
"What is it?" Lucius Malfoy gritted from between clenched teeth. He did not look pleased.
Draco bent down to talk to his father's image. "I'm sorry to bother you, sir, but there's something you've got to know about. There's trouble here at Hogwarts, and I have to tell you—"
"Do you think, you insolent cockroach, that there is anything that happens at Hogwarts that I don't know about?" The wizard paused, then screwed up his face and roared, "I thought you were finally becoming a man! Whimpering in the Infirmary when you should have been gathering information! Gaaah!"
The flames flared and Malfoy Senior's enraged countenance disappeared from the hearth as his tall, black-robed body emerged from the fireplace. He seized his son by the arm.
"Father, please-" Draco struggled as his father's iron grip compressed his already sore arm. Snape had dragged him out of the Infirmary bed by that same arm, and he had been none too gentle.
Lucius Malfoy looked around at the few students in the Common Room, shrinking away towards the doors. His was not a reassuring presence. "Go, children," Lucius said indulgently, and the students flew out of the door and up to their dormitories. Leave it to his father to turn on the oily charm when it suited him, thought the boy.
"Now," Lucius said, looking around approvingly at the empty room, "let's sit down, my son, and have a good talk." He seated himself in a squashy armchair, crossed his long legs elegantly and tossed back his mane of white-blond hair.
What a fop, thought Draco disdainfully. Gods, he's insufferable. He sat down on a settee. "Father, there's a Muggle scientist working with Uncle Severus. I don't know where he came from, but Dumbledore and McGonagall are always fawning on him. He and Uncle Severus were drawing blood samples from the sick wizards the other day, and now they're closeted in the dungeons."
Lucius steepled his fingers and regarded his son. "So what? They can work themselves into a frenzy trying to restore their magic; the influenza will defy all of their efforts. Drawing blood? They might as well draw piss, for all the good it will do them." He smirked and twirled his serpent-headed cane in his hands.
Draco leaned forward. "I'm sure Uncle Severus knows that. He's only stalling, He's one of ours. But this Muggle – his name is Sherlock Holmes – drew blood from another Muggle today. I don't know who she is or where she came from, except that she's a friend of Granger's. Oh, and Uncle Severus is very interested in Granger, by the way."
Lucius sat up straight. "That's rubbish. Your godfather would never waste his time on a Mudblood, little say a student of his! In any case, if anything important was afoot, Severus would inform me immediately."
"He sat on the edge of her bed for about half an hour today. She's so sick Pomfrey thinks she'll croak. She was Uncle Severus' intern; he's probably furious that she's lying in hospital instead of working in the dungeons. But when he came away, he looked terrible. Think he's keen on her? Heh!" Draco sniggered at the thought.
His father was unimpressed. "Don't be an ass, Draco. What about the Muggle girl? Well? Did you notice anything unusual about her?"
Draco's lip curled. "They were treating her like a queen, Uncle Severus was going to give her some Firewhiskey when all he gave me was some hideous slop with Flobberworms in it. Oh, and Dumbledore is right chummy with her as well."
"Where is she now?" The senior Malfoy stood up, shook his cloak back into place and paced back and forth in front of the fireplace.
"I don't know. She was tending Granger when Uncle Severus threw me out of the Infirmary. She seems to come and go when and where she wants to."
Lucius put his hand on his son's shoulder and bent over. His voice was soft, almost friendly… "Find out everything you can about these Muggles. Especially the female, yes; especially about her." He straightened. "Do not fail me." He turned back to the fireplace, cast in a handful of Floo powder and vanished in a puff of green smoke.