"A Few – Items … that Might Embarrass Me…"

"They that are on their guard and appear ready to receive their adversaries are in much lessdanger of being attacked than the supine, secure and negligent." (Benjamin Franklin)

Lucius' angry steps echoed along the paneled walls of the deep, cavernous dining room at Malfoy Manor as he paced back and forth in agitation. He turned with a squeak of his boots as he angrily tossed Snape's crumpled-up note into the fire-place.

"This is outrageous!" he shouted. "It is one thing attacking me, but to make attempts on the life of my son?! I will not tolerate this! I'll strangle young Vincent with my bare hands if he so much as looks at Draco askance! I will put a curse on his father! I will personally eradicate the whole miserable bunch of them!"

Eleanor and Draco sat at the table, still wearing their street robes and with their school supplies strewn across the tabletop between them. Two house-elves cowered nervously by the door, surveying their master out of huge, worried eyes. Lucius showed no intention to stop his angry diatribe against the Dark Lord, the Crabbe family, the Death Eaters or the universe at large any time soon. From the walls the portraits of various Malfoy ancestors surveyed the current master of the Manor with expressions of amusement, boredom or shared anger. Several shouted encouragements. Eleanor felt a headache coming on.

She knew that she would have to let Lucius calm down on his own time before they could think of how to counter this latest threat of the Death Eaters. Draco looked a bit pale, but seemed less concerned than his father.

"Crabbe couldn't poison anyone," he whispered to her during a renewed outburst. "He's so dim he'd drink the stuff himself by mistake before he could get it into anyone's food. If that's the best the Dark Lord can do, I'm not surprised any more he never could get Potter, though he's just a stupid, self-important Gryffindork."

Eleanor didn't quite share the younger Malfoy's optimism, but felt reassured that Draco seemed to prove rather unaffected by the news. Finally Lucius stopped wearing a groove into the dining room floor, slammed both fists on the table and looked at his family.

"What are we going to do?" he asked. He pulled out a chair and sat down facing his lover and his son.

Eleanor leaned forward steepling her hands before her. "Well, we first have to make a decision whether we want to have you attend school at all this year," she said to Draco. "Everything else follows from that."

"'Course I'll go," shrugged the younger Malfoy. "I'm not going to be intimidated by an idiot like Crabbe with a poison bottle," he snorted.

"That's the spirit, boy!" hollered a yellowed portrait of old Petronius Malfoy.

"Oh cut it out, great-grandfather. This is not helping," sighed Lucius.

"Well, if Severus knows there are going to be attempts on Draco's life, then so does Dumbledore. He will not let any of the students be injured," said Eleanor. "I think Draco would be safer at school than anywhere else. Look how Dumbledore has managed to protect Harry Potter, despite the fact that Voldemort has expended considerably more energy and resources on trying to kill him. Plus Severus will be on the lookout as well."

Lucius cast a sour look in her direction. Dumbledore was a sore topic for him, and the fact that the headmaster of Hogwarts had recently pardoned him in his function as chief judge of the wizengamot had not changed his deep-seated dislike of the man. The old wizard was the last person on earth Lucius wanted to feel indebted to. Now it seemed he would also have to be grateful to the man for protecting his only son and heir against his former master. Eleanor had just rubbed salt into the wounds.

"Yeah, that's why Dumbledore employed a known werewolf at the school a few years ago," Lucius griped. "But fine, it's decided. Draco, you'll go to Hogwarts this year. I'll be damned if I let my family be cowed by Voldemort. We're not going to hide, and we're not going to alter our lives just because of some Death Eaters. Still I'm not going to rely on that old fool of a headmaster to protect my son."

He pushed back his chair and got up again. "You two, come here!" he commanded the two house elves who approached him, warily prostrating themselves. "Move the table over there." Eleanor and Draco stood aside as the two servants pushed against the long heavy oak table and slowly and painfully shifted the bulky furniture to the side.

Lucius picked up his cane and removed his wand. He mumbled a bunch of passwords and finished with a resounding "Alohomora!" pointing at the floor. A moment later the seams of a large trapdoor showed in the smooth floorboards. The elves hurried over and pulled up the door revealing the top of a circular stone staircase leading down to a room underneath. Draco looked on as if he'd seen the secret space before, but Eleanor stepped up in curiosity.

"My, my, Lucius, do you ever run out of surprises?" she asked him.

He gave her a brief smirk. "Don't count on it, dear," he teased her. "Now I know we'll have this place crawling with aurors tomorrow for your weekly Defense workshop. But this is something you would not ever want them to discover."

"May I see, though?" she asked.

"Of course," he assured her. "After our wedding you will also get the secret ward passwords, just like everyone else who is of age in the family. Please, after you."

He lit the top of his wand with a spell and held it above them as Eleanor carefully followed the well-worn stone steps that seemed to be shaped from the very bedrock on which Malfoy Manor was built. She heard the sound of Lucius' boots behind her, and a little distance off the lighter footfall of his son. After about two turns she found the staircase even out onto a smooth flagstone floor. A large domed chamber now rose above them, and at the apex she saw the light that filtered down the stairs from the dining-room above.

She pulled out her own wand and cast a spell for light. Now she could make out tall shapes against the walls of the room and as she walked closer she saw shelves reaching all the way to the arched ceiling. The illumination of her magical tool showed her the grotesque forms of mummified body parts, cob-web encrusted bottles and jars, skulls of magical beasts, old grimoires with curling shriveled leaves that seemed to whisper and hiss at her as she approached and instruments of torture, some gleaming with fierce stainless newness, some encrusted with rust and substances she did not want to further contemplate. A clothes stand held several sets of Death Eater robes and masks.

"Nice," she said with a doubtful glance at her lover. "I – guess my grandfather Falco would have been very impressed."

He joined her and encircled her waist with his arm. His warm breath caressed her neck as he whispered into her ear. "One day soon, all of this will be yours, too."

She cleared her throat. "I can barely wait, my dear," she said.

He laughed quietly. "Liar," he challenged her.

As Draco approached he moved over to his son.

"Don't touch anything!" he cautioned him. "Half this stuff isn't catalogued. We haven't known what it does for several generations. I guess we haven't had a scholarly-minded Malfoy in the family since great-great-aunt Melusina tried to research and inventory everything properly. Unfortunately her efforts came to a rather sudden end."

"Why?" asked Draco and reluctantly withdrew his hand from what looked like a stuffed manticore. Lucius began searching the contents of a lower shelf off to the side.

"We are not sure," he said. "Draco, hold my wand for a minute. Eleanor, I need some more light over here. One day she didn't come back up into the dining room. No one ever saw her again. For all we know, she might still be down here somewhere."

"Ugh," said Draco. "You'd think you'd be able to smell her after a while."

The older Malfoy withdrew a small leather pouch from a box filled with various objects. "Now I won't have you talk with disrespect of Aunt Melusina, Draco. I am sure she decomposed very gracefully. – All done. Let's go back upstairs."

He led the way back to the dining-room where the elves closed the door and put the table back in its old place. As they pulled their chairs up again no one would have guessed they were sitting on top of a secret room filled to the ceiling with dangerous Dark Arts objects.

Lucius opened the pouch and shook two objects into the palm of his hand. Draco and Eleanor leaned forward and looked at them with curiosity. One of them appeared to be a plain silver ring set with a cabochon cut from some material like a shimmering translucent pearl, the other was a walnut-sized rock of an intense red color not unlike a piece of polished cinnabar.

The witch stretched out her hand and picked up the rock, which proved to be quite heavy for its size.

"You actually own an entire bezoar. Impressive," she said as she identified the rather rare and expensive object.

Draco appeared interested now. "I've used tiny bits of it as a powder in Professor Snape's potions class, but I've never seen a whole one," he declared.

Lucius lifted an eyebrow. "Then I am sure you can tell me about its magical properties, son."

Draco cast a quick glance at his father, then at Eleanor. "It's the most powerful antidote to poison that exists," he said. "It is on very rare occasions found in the stomach of a certain type of black goat."

Lucius nodded. "Very good. It seems studying for your NEWTs last year has had some positive effects. I want you to take this to school with you tomorrow. You will place it in a glass of water every evening and drink the water in the morning. It should render you impervious to virtually all poisonous potions. Guard this well. Most of your classmates' parents would have to work for an entire year to be able to afford one of those." He put the stone back into the pouch and handed it to his son.

"What about the ring?" asked Eleanor. "I do not think I've ever seen a stone like that. It's beautiful."

Lucius gave her a grim smile. "It should be. It was cut from the horn of a live unicorn."

The witch sat back with a gasp. "Holy Hecate! You mean someone killed a unicorn to obtain this ring?"

"Yes," her lover admitted. "My family has owned this ring for four generations, and a Malfoy paid with his soul for it. Draco, can you tell me what a piece of a living unicorn horn will do?"

The younger Malfoy picked up the ring with a rare show of reverence and twisted it between his fingers. As the horn cab caught the light the jewel shone with an almost unearthly beauty. "Unicorn horn will temporarily turn dull and darken when in the presence of poison," he quoted. Lucius nodded. "You will wear this for additional protection."

Eleanor put her hand on his arm. "Wait! This is a proscribed substance. If anyone sees Draco wearing this it will be confiscated and he will be brought before the wizengamot."

Lucius nodded. "That's why we will do this." He lifted his wand and touched the ring which now showed a plain green jewel, not unlike a Slytherin house ring. "It will still warn you, becoming darker in color, but no one should recognize it for what it is." He handed the ring to his son, who slipped it on his hand.

"Hey," said Draco, "I almost forgot. I also still have this." He fumbled at the collar of his robes and pulled out a small round gold pendant showing a twelve-rayed star and magical runes.

"A talisman for protection. Where'd you get that?" asked Lucius.

"Eleanor gave it to me when you were in prison and she brought me your seal and your message."

The older Malfoy looked over at her with a lift of his eyebrows. "You didn't tell me. Thank you for doing that."

Eleanor actually felt a little embarrassed. "I was worried, even then," she explained. "Does it work, Draco?"

The younger Malfoy nodded. "It turned cold as ice just before Bellat…" he caught himself remembering that his father had forbidden that his aunt's name would ever be mentioned again. "That woman and the other Death Eaters came at us behind the house in July. That's how we managed to resist their attack, because I was able to warn the others."

Lucius looked at his family in satisfaction. "Very well. I want to see the Dark Lord's plans play out now! He will find the Malfoys a harder nut to crack than that clueless Potter-brat." With his usual energy and sense of purpose he got up, slipped off his street robes and gallantly helped Eleanor out of hers. "Draco, I believe it's time for you to go upstairs and pack up your things for tomorrow."

He waved an imperious hand at the house elves. "Nibbs, help my son with his Hogwarts trunks. Libby, take our cloaks and serve tea for two in the silver hall."

Then he turned to his fiancé and offered her his arm. "Eleanor, I believe we have some business to attend to in the ball-room." She picked up the battered-looking scroll of parchment she had brought back with her earlier from Diagon Alley and walked out of the dining room with him.

Behind them in his broad gold frame old Petronius Malfoy squinted up into his enormous powdered wig. "Poor Melusina," he sighed. "Such a delightfully curious witch. Such a terrible fate…"


The ball-room, also known as the Silver Hall, was a large vaulted chamber with a polished grey marble floor which occupied almost the entire ground floor of the south wing of Malfoy Manor and could easily accommodate up to 200 guests. It was aptly named for the lavish silver-framed mirrors and silver and crystal chandeliers that decorated it and gave it the appearance of a sparkling, glittering ice cave. Large windows caught the afternoon light as Lucius opened the heavy double doors and strode up to a mural that covered a broad space along one of the walls.

The smooth plaster was adorned with a dizzying array of labeled and interconnected squares and elegant scrollwork. Each small box bore the name of a member of the large and sprawling Malfoy family. Down the center between hundreds of other branch-offs ran the main line of the house dating back to the noble Reynard de Mal-Foi who had come to England as a sorcerer with the armies of William the Conqueror. His name almost touched the ceiling. Towards the floor the line currently ended with Draco Malfoy as the last direct heir.

Above his square Eleanor saw the name of Lucius Malfoy. The box that represented him was outlined in broad black to indicate that he was the current head of the family. A double ring that had connected him with the name of Narcissa Black was broken to indicate that the marriage had been dissolved, but surrounding her name still appeared a few generations of Black family members to indicate the other half of Draco's blood line.

Lucius turned to his companion. "It's time we gave you and your family the space they deserve here." Eleanor broke the old seal on the ribbon that held the scroll she had retrieved from her vault at Gringotts and unfurled the parchment. The blond wizard looked over her shoulder to survey the Sartorius family tree drawn in amber ink on the heavy cream vellum. It looked almost like a shrunken version of the mural with the tiny painted squares holding different names and connections, of course.

Eleanor cast a sideways glance at him, taking more interest in the intensity and focus with which he examined her bloodline than in the document itself. After a childhood away from the oppressive and often violent past of her old house she found she did not much care about her ancestry. Of course with Lucius this was a different matter.

She did not share his disdain for muggles and muggle-related people, but knew him well enough by now to refrain from trying to change him. When she had accepted his proposal of handfasting on her birthday earlier that year she had known it had to also be an acceptance of who he was, with his tremendous capabilities as well as his glaring flaws.

"Impressive," she heard him say as he pointed to some of the names. "There, this sideline shows you are related to Cornelius Agrippa. You can truly be proud of your name. This reads like a 'Who's Who' of continental magical history! Let's get this up on the wall." She shook her head, suppressing a grin. He sounded just like a proud hunter ready to nail another trophy above his fire-place.

Still, she held the parchment for him as he now pointed his wand at the lettering and incanted a duplication spell that lifted a copy of some of the little boxes, leaves and branches from the paper. With small jabs he directed the floating ink to the wall where the drawing expanded and the lettering developed a momentum of its own. The labeled squares zoomed around the mural and found their new places among the Malfoy family tree.

Eleanor noticed that some of the people had already existed in the drawing before and the newcomers blended with the older writing merely causing new branches to flourish and new connections to grow. She watched in fascination as for a moment the whole picture seemed to come to life and rustled like a living, growing tree in a breeze. Her own square sidled up to the box that bore Lucius' name and playfully bumped up against it several times before finally settling down at its side.

As the whole mural stilled, the amber color of the Sartorius family names slowly darkened to black. Eleanor had just started to roll up her parchment when she suddenly felt Lucius lean forward with a hiss and stab his wand at a square slightly above her name. He looked back at her in complete surprise. "I don't believe it, Eleanor," he said, his voice sounding rather accusatory. "Why have you never told me? It can't be possible!"

The red-haired witch felt a brief tremor of panic run through her as she leaned in to examine the part of the family tree that Lucius pointed out to her. She fervently hoped she was not somehow related to someone called Smith, muggle extraordinaire.