Ok chapter 3 is finally done. Don't own Harry Potter etc. (Though I wish I had Lucius… I believe I've said that before…) Anyway, enjoy!

Verbal Spars and NEWTS
It was a rough start for Draco. He was not used to being shoved awake at the ungodly hour of 5:30. But, he new he could catch up on sleep during one of the meetings; it's what his dad did anyway. After wiping his eyes for about five minutes he decided that getting dressed would be a good thing. (Walking around the Ministry in quiditch boxers would not be the smartest thing to do) After finding some clean clothes and brushing his hair he slipped downstairs to find Lucius finishing the third cup of coffee.

"I thought you didn't like that muggle stuff." Draco said as he pulled out a muffin from the cupboard and poured himself some milk. His father gave a non-committal shrug and poured himself another glass.

"I mean you are always going on about how muggles are bad etc. But here you are drinking the stuff they make." Draco decided that his father was not a morning conversationalist.

"…When you reach my age you will thank your gods for coffee… and any sort of sugar or caffeinated substances." Draco nodded at his father's advice; he knew that he was probably right. It seemed that his father was right about most things, girls, grades, teachers etc.

Draco sat down and pulled the newspaper in front of him and began to read, a few lines down he found himself re-reading the same word over and over again.

"You're a brave soul." Lucius muttered as he sat across from him, Draco raised and eyebrow in question. "I don't attempt to read the newspaper till lunch."

"Why."

"Because my brain doesn't comprehend anything till then. They could print in big red letters "Lord Voldemort is Dead" and I wouldn't really comprehend it… though at lunch my brain would think something along these lines, "Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit… fuck, shit, shit, shit…" etc."

Draco chuckled as he finished the last of the milk. "I still don't know… you seem to like the oddest most rude smelling things, gin, beer, vegemite, coffee… I could go on."

"No doubt you could, but hear me, when you have a child they will say the same thing to you. Anyway go brush your teeth and then we will be on our." It seemed that his father woke up after five and a half cups of coffee. Or it could be the fact that he was talking. Draco found that talking to some of his dorm mates woke him up pretty quickly, especially if it consisted of making the Gryphandors miserable (or the Hufflepuffs)

Once he finished washing his face and brushing his teeth he returned downstairs to his father's study.

"Floo powder?" He asked. Lucius nodded and held out the emerald jar to him.

"You haven't learned to apparate yet… but maybe we can take a family vacation to Japan, they don't have apparition rules like England, I think the legal age is 14 or 15… not sure. But I want you to learn and the ministry classes are boring… you are more advanced than that so I'll teach you… your mom can help, she's a pretty good teacher. Anyway, till then it's floo." Draco groaned and took a handful.

"What do I say?"

"Ministry Library."

Draco nodded and tossed the handful into the fire and stepped in.

He landed with an uncomfortable thump and quickly rolled out of the fireplace. After brushing himself off he looked around. The place was cold and quiet. Empty bookshelves lined the walls and pentagrams had been scratched into the doors. He heard a pop and turned to see Lucius standing behind him.

"Not much of a library is it?" He said. Draco nodded and walked over to some double doors.

"So… how do we get out?" He knew enough not to open doors when you don't know where they lead and what's behind them. Lucius shook his head and motioned Draco away from the doors.

"Don't go out there… unless you want to walk in on the women's bathroom." Draco made a face and quickly walked away.

"What's the door doing in here?" He asked. Lucius shrugged and made his way over to a small in descript door in the corner.

"I don't know… the ministry is weird, like Hogwarts, things are in odd places. Don't worry they don't move… thankfully. Anyway, this is the old library, they moved it after a fire 15 years ago… had nothing to do with Him though… amazingly enough."

It's true; it had nothing to do with Him. About 15 years ago there was a very pretty but extremely dull librarian working there. Of course, like most people of the time she smoked. So one day, (after hours, around 7pm or so) she fell asleep holding a cigarette in her hand, and, of course, it dropped onto an old book. It instantly caught fire. Sadly to say the ministry lost a lot of books and the librarian perished in the flames. After that incident they only hired ghosts to be librarians, as ghosts can't exactly smoke.

Lucius sighed as he set his pack down next to his desk. He had three reports to Fudge, two to Him, and a foreign minister (also death eater) to prepare for… along with a hell of a lot of filing. Thankfully Draco could do the filing. After he situated himself and managed to figure out what to do first (A report to Fudge then one to Him) he motioned for Draco to come over.

"Ok this is going to be boring for you but I really need you to do it for me. This stack here needs to be filed. When you are done tell me… Also if you can't find something tell me ok? All the papers with my signature in red at the top need to be left out ok?" Draco nodded and took the 10-inch pile of papers. He then set to work in front of the cabinet, shifting through the papers and occasionally pulling one out and leaving it turned over on the floor.

An hour passed then another hour and Draco finally finished. He sat up and stretched. He heard a satisfying crack in his back then turned to face his father.

"I'm done dad." He said quietly, not wanting to disturb his father too much. Lucius looked up from the paper he was going over and nodded.

"Good… you can go raid the kitchen if you want… I think there is some food, it's down the hall to the left." Draco hopped up and eagerly left the room. His stomach had been nagging him for the past half hour and he was grateful for the excuse to stretch his legs.

How the hell does Dad do it? Sitting there all day pouring over papers… Draco thought as he helped himself to the muffins in the cabinet, after that he turned his attention to the freeze box (It was a large box that had a cooling spell on it to keep the contents cold) He removed some cider and poured himself a cup. He then grabbed some chocolate from a basket in the counter and sat down at a table off to the side.

I'm starting to think that I don't want to work for the ministry… to much paper work and regulations… though it might change by the time I become of age to work, with the rise of Him and all… He sighed contently and drained the cup of cider. He stood and walked over to the counter where he had left the cider out and poured himself another cup; this time he brought the jug with him to the table. As he nibbled away at the muffin he had grabbed (chocolate) his mind turned towards the upcoming NEWT testing.

Have to go study… heard they made it harder, over 2000 points this year, have to get at least a 1950… that's if the test is worth only 2000 points. Hmm, potions should be easy, as will mythical creatures… I will have to get dad to help me study History. And mom can help me with transfigurations… Divination I'll just have to wing… and I'm not too worried about everything else.

"How are you doing?" A voice asked. Draco glanced up as he heard a chair being scrapped across the floor.

"Pretty good." Lucius nodded as he poured himself some juice.

"That's good. So, how is it going at school?" Lucius chuckled, "Besides blowing up third floor bathrooms."

Draco scowled and shook his head, wishing his father wouldn't keep reminding him about that incident and the humiliating punishment that followed. (Had to sit on the floor in front of the Gryffindors while wearing only bunny pajamas (wear they got them he didn't know) and eat dinner.)

"History is being a nag… I haven't been doing to well in it." Lucius nodded understandably. "Potions is fine, getting top grades as usual."

"Topped that mudblood that follows Potter around?" Pride flashed through Draco's face as his father mentioned it.

"Yes I have, it was pretty easy, Professor Snape keeps lowering her grade anytime she helps Longbottom."

"Longbottom… why does that name seem familiar?" Lucius mused as he absentmindedly fiddled with his cup. After a few seconds realization dawned on his face, "Ah now I remember."

"What?" Draco inquired.

"Maybe when you're out of school I will tell you." Lucius said as he refilled his cup. Draco shrugged dismissively and continued down his list of school activities and grades. About half an hour later he had updated his father on everything worth noting that was going on at Hogwarts.

"Ah… there are times when I miss, then I remember divination classes and I am glad that I am rid of it." Lucius murmured as he and Draco left the kitchen. "Anyway, your mother has arrived, want to go see what's going on?" Draco nodded and trotted off after his father.

"Is Fudge there?" He asked as they rounded the same corner Lucius had the previous day.

"Hmm, I don't know."

"What do you mean that it's garish?" A voice cried out, echoing off the walls.

"Yep, he's there." Lucius confirmed as he and Draco entered the main hall to find a very flustered minister and a very haughty Mrs. Malfoy.

"Oh good Lucius you're here, tell him those big neon red wreaths are garish and need to be removed!" Narcissa growled as her husband and son walked over, bother regarding everything with a raised eyebrow. It made the two look like twins.

"I have to side with Narcissa on this one Fudge, those wreaths are pretty scary." Lucius said and Draco nodded in agreement.

"Of course you would side with her, she's your wife!" Fudge exclaimed, waving his arms in a frantic circle.

Lucius gave him an off hand shrug and replied, " All the more reason to side with her, one can't help it if they have a very smart spouse."

Fudge blustered but kept silent, watching in growing fury as Narcissa rearranged things. Finally he snapped, "Fashion sense does NOT count as intelligence Lucius." He growled. Lucius scowled but hid his anger well.

"I'm afraid you haven't seen the full extent of my wife's brain. I am sure she is ten times smarter than you and would make a very good minister of magic if she ever felt the urge to be one." Draco chuckled as he watched his father and the minister spar, well more like his father wiping the ministers ass.

"But it seems that she is not the minister and I am, so I should not have to subject to her sarcastic remarks."

"You seem to deal with Dad's everyday, what's two more two people to deal with today? Or is it overwhelming you?" Draco sneered. Lucius nodded in approval as Fudge bit back his anger and tried to find a rational reply.

"You- You- I am going Mr. Malfoy, I will see you at the meeting later." He turned his heal and marched off.

"You mean you will be seeing both of us as I will be attending as well!" Draco called after the retreating back.

Once order was restored Lucius and Draco left, deciding to perfect their plans for later that day.

"You did pretty well." Lucius said as he went over Draco's homework, marking any errors he found.

"In what? The homework or the… disagreement with Fudge?"

"Both. Ok, you got the date wrong here, Gwendolyn the Wise was actually born in 1245, not 1256. That was when her brother was born. Um, some spelling errors here and there, nothing to difficult… and yes… I believe that's it." Lucius gave it one more quick run through then handed it back to Draco.

"Was that all?" He asked as he started to collect his stuff.

"No, but the rest of them are at home."

"Ok, that's fine. Well we should head off for the meeting, ready?" Lucius asked, Draco nodded and stood up, carefully folding some pieces of muggle paper and tucking them away in a pocket.

"Yep."

"Good. Off to the wonders of Thursday meetings…"

"AKA Hell with annoying ministers." Muttered Draco as he closed the door behind him.

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