Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns everything in this story except for Orlando Baragon, Anna Ominous, the Spiritus Apographon, and of course the plot.

The Filth in Purity
Chapter 10: Parilis

Draco felt as if his feet were made of lead as he walked up the stairs to the office of Headmaster Dumbledore. Because of his mother's ailing health, Draco was allowed to go home every weekend, via floo powder from Dumbledore's fireplace. He hoped the headmaster was not in his office, quite frankly he was one of the last people he wanted to deal with right now. Really the old coot seemed like he could see into your soul.

Quite creepy really.

Draco knocked on the door, silently praying he wouldn't hear the headmaster's voice from the other side of the. Unfortunately, God did not seem to be listening at that moment.

"Come in." An old gentle voice came from behind the door.

After a moment's hesitation, he opened the door and stepped in.

"Ah, good morning Mr. Malfoy."

Draco gave astiff nod and walked over to the bowl of floo powder. He could feel Dumbledore's eyes on him. He thinks he so smart, well he won't get anything out of me that I don't want to give. Then a thought a occured to Draco, maybe he could find an answer to the dilemmaover his new "cousin" after all.

"You are praised for your wisdom headmaster, maybe you can share some with me." Draco took a handful of floo powder. "Answer me this. Hypothetically speaking, you just started respect someone, because they showed no bias against you, then suddenly you found out they were your cousin by way of a disowned family member. What would you do in that situation?"

"Hmm. An interesting scenario indeed. I think I would first verify if this was true. And if it was true, I think I would try to get to know my new found relative." Dumbledore's eyes twinkled as he looked at Draco over his half moon spectacles.

Draco felt his breath catch in his throat as he realized Dumbledore knew he was referring to himself and Tonks. However, after years of Malfoy training he was able to keep his face straight and cool, even though his mind was in turmoil.

"Even if their parents were disgraced from the family?" Draco straightened up, determined to keep with his plan no matter what.

"I don't think they should be blamed for what their parents did. But then again you asked me what I would do, and that is what I would do." Dumbledore continued to smile knowingly.

Draco could feel his composure beginning to slip. He quickly turned around to face the fire place.

"I must go." he said quickly.

"Take care of yourself Draco, and know that help is always given to those who ask for it." For a moment Dumbledore's eyes filled with concern.

Draco did not answer for he was gone after some words and a burst of green flame.

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Draco walked into his mother's room to find an unpleasant sight. His mother was deathly pale, a mere shadow of her former beauty, but the sight that really made him nauseous was the sight of his Aunt Lavinnia Malfoy sitting in a chair at the far corner of the room.

Lavinnia was his father's sister. She hadalready performed her family duty of marrying into another rich Pureblood familyof course, but found herself widowed only a few years later. Not thatshe cared much, she inherited her husbands money and that was all that mattered to her. Whenever she came to visit her brother, Lavinnia's idea of being a family was to constantly criticize Draco.

From her spot in the room she looked like some harpy about to swoop on to its prey. Well Draco was not going to be intimidated by her.

Draco was about to walk over to the bed, when Lavinnia decided to ensure that Draco recognized her presence.

"Your mother is asleep, she wishes not to be disturbed. You may see her later when she wakens. In the mean time I'm sure you can find some way to amuse yourself." Lavinnia drawled in whisper.

"Then how about you go amuse yourself and I sit here." Draco hissed back defiantly.

Lavinnia raised an eyebrow, but other than that her look of superiority did not change as she got up from her chair and crossed the room.

Smack!

Lavinnia quite unceremoniously slapped Draco across the face. Draco clenched his fists and his jaw, bearing the pain silently as to not make noise that would disturb his mother.

"Don't ever speak to me like that again." Lavinnia whispered in a hiss. "Lucius entrusted me to look after you're mother and you. So unless you want to go to Azkaban and debate with him about it, I suggest you do as I say."

Draco glared at her for a moment, but then turned on his heel and walked out of the room. He didn't want to leave his mother, but he couldn't stand being in the same room with with his aunt without screaming.

"Alert me as soon as my mother wakes up!" Draco commanded a house elf as he stormed down the stairs.

The only place Draco could think of to be as far away from Lavinnia as possible while still being inside the house, was in the weapons basement.

The room was filled with different kinds of swords, axes, bows and arrows, from just about every age of the world, the armaments once used before wands took over as aprimary instrumentin battle. However, due to their age, most of them were now dull and virtually useless, mainly for display purposes.

One weapon always caught Draco's eye, it was a scythe with a huge blade on each end. There was nothing else particularly glamorous about it. The blades were rusted, the black handle was chipped in places, and dull. And yet, no matter how many times he saw it, Draco always feltdrawn to it. Under the glass case the scythe resided in, there was a golden plaque that had a message engraved in it.

Parilis, the armament of choice for Salazar Slytherin. A weapon that equalized all things in death.

On impulse, Draco carefully opened the glass case and lifted the ancient weapon out. Now that he did not have to worry about his father or mother walking in on him, he could actually touch the weapon this time. He held it, despite its condition it was perfectly balanced, he brought one of the blades close to him and ran his hand along the edge.

"Ow!" Draco hissed whenhis thumb caught on the blade and blood began to flow.

"Still sharp." Draco breathed in surprise, as he watched the blood drip on to the blade. Then to his amazement the red drops seemed to seep into the metal surface and the rust on both blades seemed to melt away, and the handle repaired itself and became ebony black once again.

"What do you think you're doing?" A voice hissed behind him. Draco felt his grip tighten on Parilis.

"These belong to my father, I am my father's son!"

"Yes, Lucius did try his best, too bad he didn't quite succeed. At least he married to the reputable Black Family."

"Don't speak of my mother as if she were an object!" Draco hissed. He turned around to face his aunt, it took all of his control to keep his face from contorting with rage. Lavinnia raised her head as if she had something bad smelling under her nose.

"What makes you think you are the least bit worthy to touch, much less hold that most sacred weapon of Salazar Slytherin?" Draco usually backed down at this point, but having Salazar's scythe in his hands gave him courage.

"The why don't youcome over and try to pry out of my iron grip." Draco spoke in his own drawling voice, smirking. Lavinnia frowned and was about to reply when a house elf came in.

"Master Draco, Madam Narcissa has awakened." the house elf squeaked. "Miss Lavinnia there is an owl for you."

"Good, you may go." Draco dismissed the house elf, who exited the room as fast as it's little legs could carry it.

"Excuse me." Draco said calmly walking past his aunt toward the stairs, taking Parilis with him.

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Draco slowly opened the door. His mother was sitting up against her pillow drinking tea. She looked slightly better now that she was awake.

"Mother?" Draco smiled, entering the room and closing the door behind him and locking it so Lavinnia wouldn't interrupt them.

"Draco, my son." Though her voice was weak and breathless, a weak smile crossed Narcissa's face, and reached out a hand to her son.

Draco stepped forward. Narcissa's eyes widened when she saw Parilis in Draco's hand.

"Parilis?" her voice was breathless. "You have awakened Parilis?"

Draco knelt down next to his mothers bedside. "Awakened? What do you mean?"

"The blade is bright once more. It has not been so since the Dark Lord met his first death. But you have awakened it." A look of fear began to spread across her face, she took her son's face on her hands. "You must not tell anyone of this, the Dark Lord wants his weapon back, if he finds it has claimed you he might kill you."

Draco still did not completely understand, but he nodded to keep his mother from panicking.

"Good, good. I just want to make sure you are safe." She kissed him on the forehead. Draco was surprised, his mother had not been so affectionate since he was a child.

"Mother," Draco hesitated on asking his next question, for fear of upsetting her again. "Is it true you had a third sister, named Andromeda?"

Narcissa's face instantly fell into and angry frown. "I have no sister now, she parted herself from me and the rest of her family ever since she married that Mudblood Tonks."

Her voice was so cold it made shivers run down Draco spine. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to upset you mother."

"Oh it's all right, it's not your fault." Her voice immediately softened. " Whatever made you think to ask me this?"

"Uh," Draco found himself hesitating again, his mother seemed more fragile than china now. He feared he she would break at any moment, but he found it almost impossible to lie to her. "My Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher is Nymphadora Tonks, Andromeda's daughter."

Narcissa's face fell again and Draco scrambled quickly for some comfort to her.

"But she's---she's been helping me. Helping me to bring my grade up, so I can beat Potter in his best class." It wasn't really a lie, but he wanted to avoid the whole truth. The truth being that Tonks had been helping him so he'd be ready to face the person who attacked him and left the un-healable wounds on his left arm, but that mean telling her he had been attacked in the first place which was something he definitely wanted to avoid. So far far he had explained that the bandage on on his arm for some injuries he sustained in Quidditch practice.

"Mother, do you think the son or daughter should be held responsible for the actions of their parents?" Draco asked carefully changed the subject slightly.

Narcissa was about to answer, when a wrapping came at the door.

"Narcissa? Do you have any idea what your son has done?" Lavinnia's terribly annoying voice came through.

Fear streaked across both of their faces.

If Lavinnia knew Draco had awakened Parilis, she would go straight to Voldemort. Draco wished with all of his heart that Parilis was back in its case in the weapons room. No sooner had he thought this than he no longer felt Parilis' handle in his hands. He opened his eyes, and saw Parilis was no longer there.

His mother looked at him wide eyed.

"Open the door Draco, we can not give her any cause for suspicion."

Draco nodded and opened the door.

"Narcissa! Your son had the audacity to handle Salazar Slytherin's Scythe!" Lavinnia shrieked.

"Did he? Draco you must remember not to touch things in your fathers weapons room." Narcissa spoke gently.

"I swear Narcissa you are much to soft on that boy, it's no wonder he so pressumptuous and insolent." Lavinnia spat indignantly, Draco couldn't help emitting a quiet snarl.

"You should not say unkind things to my son in front of me Lavinnia." Narcissa said, her jaw tight.

Lavinnia's raised her eyebrows. Neither she nor Draco had ever heard a word spoken by Narcissa in Draco's defense.

"Draco dear, you best return to school." Narcissa said quietly, Draco opened his mouth to protest, but his mother held up a hand and continued. "With the midterms coming up you must study hard. I need some good news right now, and top marks on your midterm is definitely good news."

Draco could not fight his mother's pleading smile. With a reluctant nod, a reluctant goodbye, and a reluctant step, Draco exited the room.

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Poor Draco, his life is just about to get much more complicated from this point on. So Draco has awakened the scared weapon of Salazar Slytherin? What does this mean for our yound Slytherin Prince?More on Parilisand Draco's connection to it wll be found out in due time, all you have to do is keep reading and reviewing!

Till Next Time.
-VegaSailor