Shrouded in midnight black robes, I'd felt very much like a ghost.
In fact, I must have seemed like one, drifting in and out of the empty corridors, hands behind my back, contemplating what I would have to do.
So, they wanted me to get married. Well then. Nothing short of the wand of Merlin himself (or, possibly, the Imperius curse, but I was too strong for that, surely) could force me to do something I didn't want to.
Of course I wanted to marry and give perfectly pure-blooded heirs, to carry on the Malfoy name.
But that was just a part of me. A large part, perhaps, but just a part nonetheless.
Another part of me wanted to leave everything I'd known, and run away somewhere with Lily, get married, and be the father of her children.
But then, that was just a 'part' too, wasn't it?
Damn duality.
A sort of popping sounded behind me, interrupting my thoughts—a house elf.
I turned around, looking at it disdainfully. It trembled under my gaze. Ha. I still had the touch.
"M-master, Your Father is wanting to see you, master, he is wanting you there now."
"There? Where? Be more specific, elf. Or else."
It's disgustingly large eyes watered, and it sniffled pathetically. Salazar forbid it left any of its germs on me. I stepped away inconspicuously.
"Th-the Main Hall, m-master." It was itching to apparate away from me, wasn't it? And it was a new elf too (it didn't have the characteristic scars and bruises of the Malfoy Elves), I noticed. Hmm. Quite young.
The young ones were always fun to jinx. And intimidate. Bwahahaha.
"Come with me, elf."
"D-Dobby, master, that is my name." I raised an eyebrow at him, debating whether to curse him to death on the spot for speaking out of turn, or not.
But then, I was in the mood to curse my father, not this insipid little house elf. Maybe I would later, if Wizard Wireless got boring enough.
And it usually did, hence the unusually high mortality rate of Malfoy Family Elves.
See, it wasn't really my fault—since entertainment failed to entertain me, I had to find my own source of entertainment. And people said I was sadistic? Ha.
Well—wait a minute, I was.
Ah, well.
"Boy," my father said irritably as I entered, as if I were a particularly irksome burden, "the guests will be here any minute. Have you gotten ready yet?"
"Yes father." I wanted to gesture to my elaborate clothes and say 'OBVIOUSLY, YOU SENILE OLD FOOL' but I didn't. I would have had to be crazy to do that. Father might have been old, but he knew more curses than I did. And that was saying something.
"Good. Go to the ballroom—the eighth one, the others are being redone—and sit there with your mother. I shall Apparate there shortly."
A curt nod that passed for respectful, and I was gone.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
"Lucius, you really should wear that color more often, it suits you," one of the Black sisters-- the blonde one-- twittered. If memory served me correct, she was Narcissa. Or Bellatrix. Or that other one. Hmm. I hated remembering names.
"Of course it suits me. I wear black almost every day of the year." I muttered grumpily.
She laughed, and touched my shoulder. Honestly, what was her point?
My mind drifted away from the meaningless conversation.
Lily Lily Lily Lily Lily Lily Lily. It felt strange, not knowing where Lily was and what she was doing at that exact moment. At Hogwarts, I'd pretty much memorized her schedule (not that I did it intentionally, of course, only fools did that).
Maybe she was painting her nails. But no—she didn't do that. Reading a book? No—she'd been complaining about the lack of them at home. Today was Christmas eve—and she was. . . celebrating with her friends.
I felt a twinge of jealousy. But that was an understatement. A twinge? Ha. I felt a tidal wave of the bloody thing.
And not at her—at her friends. That they got to be near her. That they'd known her longer than I had. That they were sharing Christmas Eve with her.
Damn it, damn it, damn it.
She was probably having fun without me.
Was she even enjoying my absence? Maybe she was cozying up to—what was his name again? Well, he didn't even deserve to be remembered.
The point was, how could she? While I was here, wallowing in semi-loneliness without her?
"You know, Narcissa," I began, turning on the charm, as the blonde in front of me beamed (so she was Narcissa)., "we should stop all this mindless chatter. How about a dance?"
"Why of course, Lucius," she smiled lightly and took my hand in hers.
Thankfully the dance was a short one—I wasn't in the mood to dance while I thought up possible ways of killing He-Who-I-Didn't-Know-the-Name-of.
"Now, just out of plain curiosity, why did you help that--" she looked up at me cautiously and continued, "muggleborn?" It was obvious she'd been about to say mudblood, but had suddenly remembered my long-ago threat—anyone calling Lily a mudblood would be calling me one.
"Well, my dear, it was just a bet Severus and I had going. According to him, I would never do anything that would put my reputation on the line. But I did—I usually win bets, you know. I have the courage to do things Severus would never do." I shrugged nonchalantly and swirled the Fire Whisky in my glass.
"But, Lucius," she couldn't say my name the way Lily did, "what is Severus really like? Even with us Slytherins he's withdrawn. Frankly, I don't understand him."
"Severus is a man, and women find it harder to understand men, Severus most of all. He's a smart young bloke, even if he is a bit eccentric. But why are we talking about Severus? Tell me about yourself. You're in—your sixth year, are you not?"
"Fifth—Sixth is Bellatrix. How could you forget? I've only just told you!" She giggled flirtatiously.
She seemed so much older than Lily, even though they were the same age. Lily possessed an innocence Narcissa never had.
"You have? My mind is like a sieve these days, you know, anything that goes in goes out again."
"Oh, but surely you're not that old, are you, Lucius? You're much too handsome to be called old."
"Of course I'm too handsome for that word. I'll never be old. It's a Malfoy family secret, you know," I said, putting on a conspiratorial air.
"Really?"
She was too gullible. Lily would have gone along with the joke, making it obvious she knew what it was. Narcissa seemed to believe every word that came out of my mouth.
"I was just joking, Narcissa. But we Malfoys don't really age. Must be the pure blood."
"Oh, right, of course you were. Dear me, it's that dreadful cousin of mine. He's absolutely awful. A Gryffindor! Can you believe it? He's the shame of the family, and he being the heir and all. Maybe they should just give his title to Regulus—that's his brother, of course." I raised an eyebrow—I hadn't known they were related. They both had the same last name, of course, but Black's being a Gryffindor made me think it had just been a coincidence.
"Yes, I know, he doesn't act at all like a Black, does he?"
"I've never met—Regulus, you say?"
"Yes, he studies at Durmstrang now—parents are afraid he'll go astray just like Sirius did. It's all in the friends, you know? Bad friends, and you turn out just as bad as them. You know, the Potters? They're pureblooded, but they just love muggles! It's disgusting."
"Yes, I know of them. Gryffindors, the whole lot."
"Is there anything wrong with Gryffindors?" A voice asked.
I swirled around, wand out.
It was Sirius Black (I had to include his atrocious first name—there were too many Blacks in the room).
"Oh, hello, Sirius. How nice to see you." My voice was hard as ice, and I still held my wand directed at him.
"Malfoy."
"No pleasantries?" I pretended to be hurt. Maybe a duel with Black was just what I needed to rid myself of this post-Lily gloom. Flirting with Narcissa only added to it.
"None needed."
"Oh, I'm hurt. Deeply." My voice dripped sarcasm.
"Are you now?"
"Lucius, Sirius, please." Damn it, I'd forgotten Narcissa. Women never liked fights.
"Narcissa—excuse my abrupt departure. I—need something outside." I turned on my heel and left abruptly for the gardens.
For those of you unfamiliar with pure-blood conduct, my 'going outside' was an invitation to Black for a duel.
Footsteps rang on the pebbled walkway behind me.
Black was no coward. He was just too impetuous. That boy had a terrible temper, and he didn't even have the subtlety to go with it.
"Care for a duel Black? I need to hurt something, and I'm afraid house elves will not suffice."
"You hurt House Elves for sport? You really are pathetic, Malfoy."
"Am I? At least I act the way I'm expected to--" I ducked, as a ray of purple light shattered the statue behind me. "That way, is it? Draius Callosem." Blue light that would have given him a day-long migraine shattered into a million bits with his counter curse.
Hmm, he wasn't bad.
"Head aches, Malfoy? Is that all you can give me? Incendio!"
I waved my wand, and the spell deflected to the bush beside me.
"Shame you aren't in Slytherin, Black, else they'd have taught you better spells—Serpensortia!" A black snake shot out of my wand and slithered, hissing, toward Black—
"Finite Incantatem!" The snake disappeared—
"Rictusempra!" I shouted, and silver light shot towards Black and hit him before he had time to move.
I walked calmly over to his still supine form, and, like any good host (though I doubted good hosts dueled with their guests), I helped him stand back up.
"At least it wasn't the Cruciatus, Black. Now aren't you lucky."
Black's look shot daggers at me, but he didn't try to curse me. Proper wizarding conduct—he'd lost, and that was that. It was considered cowardly to try and curse me after the duel was over.
Hurting something was good—I felt better already.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
A/N: I noticed Lucius swears a lot more in this chapter. . . you see, I didn't have the privilege of writing it—He e-mailed it to me! Seriously. I never knew Voldie-headquarters had computers. *snicker*
Yes, so that's why this took so long. Well, I was procrastinating a bit too—I had this yesterday, but Lucius wanted me to proofread it, and I decided to study Chemistry first instead (STUPID STUPID STUPID subject!!!)
Lucius and I hope you like this chappie :D
Thanks to:
Sannabelle—Thanks for reviewing! :D
Kingsdork24—well, I think Lily does love James, but in a different way, of course. I'm putting it in the sequel (if people want a sequel, which is in Lily's P.O.V., this time, not Lucius', it's what she writes in the Diary he gave her [possibly]) . Thank you for reviewing!!! :D I'm glad you like the story, and I will try to review faster! :D
AJRoald—I think Lucius feels the need to give expensive things, just to keep his rep up, lol. Thanks for reviewing, and hope you like the chapter :D
Briana—thanks for your long review!!! *loves long reviews* I PROMISE I'll check out your story, as soon as I stop failing chemistry! Argh. Thanks for reminding me about Sirius—that saved me tons of page flipping :D And thanks too for telling me about the arranged marriages cliché! The story would've been in grave danger if you hadn't seen it :D I think all that fanfiction boggled my mind, and I can't tell the diff between fanfics and the real books! I had to bug Lucius a while about it (which is very dangerous, mind you—bugging a fully trained dark wizard), and according to Lucius-dear, the marriage isn't arranged, it's just very forcefully suggested : P Malfoys will be weird. *turns around to see if Lucius saw that statement* *sighs with relief—he's too busy trying to kill Harry*
Dilligas762—wow! I can't imagine anybody reading my—er—Lucius' story that much, and staying up that late to finish it! I'm touched :D I promise I'll try to make the next chapter as fast as possible, but it takes so long since I have to recheck the whole story, and I have to proofread it too *sigh* Plus schoolwork *shudder* It's definitely not J.K. who put me up to this—it's Lucius. *shakes head, and points to enormous Malfoy Shrine behind her* He's much more convincing, especially with his wand pointed at your throat :D And, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! :D
Nikki—Lily's finding love with James will take a bit—at the moment, she still hates him :D But it won't stay that way for long, of course—I don't think Lily's the type to marry someone just because he proposed :D I'll give you more details in the e-mail then :D Thanks for reviewing!
Dwendilwen— I was looking through my reviews on ff dot net, and I realized that I didn't get your review in my mail! Teehee, so I'm just re-up-loading this chappie to say thank you for reviewing :D School's actually being pretty terrible to me too, especially Chemistry. And, without Lucius to help me here (memory increasing charms, the works). Now that you talk about it, it's quite obvious to me now the—argh I have to use this word—chemistry between Bellatrix and Lucius. They're both death eaters, and I doubt Narcissa is. Hmm. I'll have to ask him about that. Again, thanks for reviewing! Hope you liked the chapter :D
