Chapter Fifty-Seven: If only we could use Avada
Lucius thinks about how much easier murder had been in the good old days. The repercussions of the breaking of the curse continue.
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Hermione brushed aside Severus' fears and worries knowing that she was merely forcing a momentary reprieve. They'd have to talk about the issue he'd raised, but not yet. She couldn't face the truth that neither could keep the other safe, no matter how close their bond. Instead, she much preferred to allow their mutual desire, their need, to take centre stage.
When Severus eventually moved them back into the bedroom and their large four-poster, Hermione did her best to heal him with her touch and give him the reassurance he needed with her body. Sometimes, words were not what were needed. Her teasing had mellowed his mood, and now her love-making eased the last of his fears. They were both alive, and they celebrated their survival in the most basic fashion of human history.
But as their passion cooled and Severus thankfully slipped into much needed sleep, the Gryffindor brooded in lieu of her husband. She would have to cautiously approach the topic again, because she knew that he'd follow her cue and gnaw at his supposed failing in protecting her in silence. He had enough inner torments already, he didn't need another one. But she hoped that once she'd had time to think, she could talk about it frankly with him, convince him that although she was furious with Ginny, that truly, she was glad that the bubble had burst, that the evil pus that had been festering in the deep for so long had finally been revealed for all to see. There was no hiding the evil that lurked within Ginny and Molly. The truth of the matter had been exposed, and even Ron, George and Percy had had to expose their Darkness. This had done them good, it had done her and Severus good. They truly were made stronger.
But right this minute, she wasn't as at peace about it all as she wanted to be. She was well aware that she'd have lost it utterly if he had been the one to be cursed. Severus, even if he didn't want to acknowledge it, was strong. He had the ability to carry on, even when the world around him was falling to pieces. He would fall to pieces in the dark and the quiet, when all that needed to be done, had been done.
Harry escorted Claudia home to Malfoy Manor. Or, to be more accurate, Kreacher elf-apparated his master and his young Veela to Malfoy Manor. The Malfoy elves weren't pleased to see Kreacher being appointed for the task, but their disapproval, even jealousy, was appeased because instead of going to Grimmauld Place, the young couple had come home to the Manor.
Claudia was too tired to even notice the elves for once. She merely allowed her appointed chamber elf, a young elf called Tilly to fuss over her tired state and take her to her chamber.
Harry watched Claudia being guided away and felt his resolve crystallise. The others had chosen to stay at the castle, but he knew Claudia's desire for home was too great to be at peace at Hogwarts, to her a strange and alien institution, no matter it's comfort and grandeur. That desire for home, for family was something Harry had had since he was a child. It was something he understood.
Harry'd once tried to gain a home and a family by marrying into the Weasleys. Not consciously, but it had been something that drew him to the Weasleys, time and time again. Now, he'd been given a home and a family without there being any thought or design on his part by Hermione, by Severus, even the Malfoys. Yes, the Slytherins delighted in the political power their close bond provided, but, it was second to their genuine feelings for each other. Finding the same yearning for family, and the willingness to give anything for family in Claudia eased an ache he hadn't known he'd had. Yes, Ginny would have, hopefully, once the taint of Darkness was removed, been able to offer that kind of bond, but, the love, the desire he also wanted in his marriage was, and probably had never been present with Ginny. But with Claudia he knew he was entangled in ways beyond imagination. And the soul-magic they'd all performed together had cemented that feeling. He'd seen her soul and the way it worked with him. They had been a team, and he understood in ways he couldn't explain that she made him better. He was completed through her warmth, her innocence and her pain.
Harry had long been given his own permanent room at the Manor, the Malfoys' being adept at somehow making him feel he had his own space within their home. As he'd kissed his tired but elated Veela and left her to her to the care of Tilly, he'd wondered if this was how Severus had felt when he'd come to the Manor for succour. Had the Slytherin been as conflicted, wanting to take the comfort and the ease the Malfoys provided, even when he disagreed with their politics, their actions?
Not that Harry disagreed with them now. Lucius, Narcissa, the Ferret, they had all more than won Harry's undying loyalty with their actions to save Hermione. Even if their deeds since the end of the war had not done so, from the commitment they'd shown to the Light from this day's work alone, Harry would stand by them as his blood, his kin.
The wizard's oath Harry had taken as he'd become Hermione's blood-brother aside, he knew the Malfoys had exposed themselves at the Castle. Their vulnerability had always been their commitment to family. Now that Harry was connected by blood and magic, as were Ron and Percy, to Hermione, their acknowledged, beloved daughter, things were only going to get more interesting. The Weasleys' fight against the Darkness had become the Malfoys' fight, too.
And the decades of having to negotiate the Dark Mark and Voldemort, not even counting the Slytherin mindset and attitude to Old Magicks meant that Narcissa and Lucius had plenty of practice in fighting personal Darkness, as well as Riddle's influence. No matter Draco's petulance and arrogance, he'd never truly been corrupted by the Dark. The Ferret had come close, he'd skated along the line between evil and reasonable behaviour, but ultimately, Bellatrix, Rodolphus, Rabastan, none of them had been able to touch Draco's soul. Even Riddle living in the Manor hadn't touched the blond's inner core because his parents had loved him and protected him from the worst of it.
The Malfoys' strength, and they were strong as a family, especially because of their sheer potent magical power, was now aligned with Harry's. There was no way to stop the purebloods knowing that he," the Saviour of the Wizarding World", had been bound to Hermione, which meant he was bound to the Malfoys. The next time Harry had to be identified as he entered the Ministry, the records would indicate his changed blood connections. Lucius was in some convoluted way Harry's Father, and wouldn't that make Sirius bark in ironic laughter and James shrug his shoulders at the absolute madness of the post-war world. But Harry felt a sense of peace that they were his blood, he was theirs.
Draco, his childhood nemesis was his brother. It was easier to think of Ron and Percy as his brothers, for the Weasley brothers had always been that to him in his heart. But suddenly from being an orphan, he had two living sets of parents. Both sets totally family-focused and determined to protect their families. He knew Lucius would bleed for him now, as would Arthur. Lucius would step in front of a curse for him, just as his biological father had done. He couldn't believe how fortunate he was. He was learning from all the father-figures he'd had throughout his life how to love utterly and completely.
It settled something in Harry that he didn't know needed settling. Harry suddenly felt like he'd finally come into his own and grown up. Whatever sacrifice had been required of him for the curse-breaking, one thing was for sure, it had taken the last of his fear of not belonging, of not having kin. He now had kin coming out of his ears. If he wanted to, he could start tracing his family trees on multiple sides, all because he'd accepted Hermione as his sister, Ron and Percy as his brothers.
How the Lestranges, if they had survived, would have marvelled at this turn of events. And even Ron had bound himself to Hermione. It would ease the issue Ron seemed to struggle with regarding his feelings for Hermione. Now there was a clear definition of what place she occupied in his life.
Harry stripped of his clothes and threw them into the hamper by the side of the door. He felt the silent magic taking it all away to be washed and pressed. He stretched and went to stand in front of the mirror. He no longer looked like the little boy he had been. His memories took him back to that day he'd stood in front of a mirror almost as elaborate as this monstrosity that stood in the corner of his bed-chamber. When he'd seen his parents beside him in the Mirror of Erised, he'd been so young, so lost, so in need of family. He stared at himself now, trying to see his father in his face, his mother in his eyes. What would James and Lily think of him, the choices he'd made? He was so different to the boy who'd spoken to them when he thought he was marching to his death less than a year ago, today.
Harry had learned and grown so much post Final Battle. He'd entered the world of the purebloods, taken political decisions his father had never grown up enough to make, to comprehend. James and Sirius had been so young, so idealistic. Harry had been forced to leave ideals behind, to become a realist. Severus and Lucius were training him to be a political animal.
He thought about having Severus as a brother-in-law, and couldn't help his grin. His mother would be delighted. Or, at least, he hoped she would have been. He liked to imagine that if she had lived, that she would have one day grown up enough to apologise.
Harry frowned. He wanted them to understand, to be the mature, pragmatic people he was learning to emulate like Kingsley, Andromeda and Minerva, but he knew, there was no way of knowing how James, Lily and Sirius would accept this changed world, or him. The Sirius of the days before his death had not been able to think rationally, to set his vendetta against Severus aside, even when he knew Severus was working for the Light. Would his God-Father turn from him if he knew he was hand-in-glove with Lucius Malfoy? That he trusted, respected Severus? James, Lily and Sirius had been as single-minded, as blinked in their opinions, their politics as that crazy bitch Bellatrix, as Rodolphus and Rabastan had been. Their world was divided into Slytherin and Gryffindor. You were either in one camp or the other.
Harry shook his head. He didn't want to think about the people he'd lost, their choices. He didn't want to think about all those people who'd died in the war on both sides. It was too late, he couldn't change the past, and he knew Severus, Lucius and the others were different people because they'd lived through the agony of the last year of Riddle's rule.
Harry had lost the innocence he'd had, but he'd also learned so much about love, friendship, loyalty. He thought so differently now. Black and white weren't as clear, he'd walked in both the Light and the Dark. He loved, and he could acknowledge it now, Claudia, partly because although technically she was a Dark Creature, she was someone who was imbued with Light because of all that she had suffered. She'd seen so much personal pain and rejection, and instead of turning cold, she had made herself vulnerable and reached out to her long-lost kin, hoping for love.
Harry poured a drink into the baroque goblet from the jug of water that stood on the tallboy and downed it in a few gulps. He felt too much, and wanted to do too much, too quickly. He knew he couldn't just propose to Claudia now because her magic had penetrated deep within him. He had to give her time to adjust to England, to the loss of her blood-kin. He knew having talked to both Severus and Lucius about it that they were waiting for her family to do something. When they did, the two Slytherins were going to bloody them for their treatment of her.
But the whole fiasco with Hermione and Ginny had brought home to Harry that he wanted a wife and family of his own. He'd been wanting a family his whole life it seemed, and he'd thought he'd have to marry Ginny to get it, but now, now he had it because of his blood-bond to Hermione. Now he wanted a wife and family because he wanted to claim Claudia, to have her as his one and only forever. He'd never felt like this about Ginny. He wanted to see Claudia big with his child, he wanted to spend his days and nights making their babe, actively working to expand their family. When Claudia's magic had touched his own, he'd felt their rightness. He remembered Hermione trying to explain to him about auras and how they blended when the partners were right for each other. His aura and magic had meshed with Claudia's, hers with his.
Ginny through the ritual he'd performed with Ron and Percy had become his sister, and that was where he was comfortable having her. He'd tried to tell her that when they'd broken up, but she'd not understood. It had always felt slightly wrong when they'd made out, and that was why he'd resisted bedding her when she'd wanted him and tried so hard to seduce him. Yes, he was attracted to her, but somehow it had felt unclean. Now that she was his sister by blood, he could allow himself to sigh in relief. He was safe from her.
He removed his glasses and left them on the glass topped table in the bathroom before stepping into the shower area. Harry sighed. The Weasleys' had been distant kin to the Malfoys, but now their bond was much stronger. Did that make Draco a Weasley by blood and the Ron and Percy Malfoys by blood? And if Ron and Percy were Malfoys, what about Bill and George? Charlie? Harry was grateful he didn't have to try to sort out that genealogy. All purebloods were linked. The ties that bound them all were so complex, convoluted. It made marriage a delicate business because you had to ensure you weren't marrying your brother or your uncle or some such connection because of some blood-bond someone else had taken.
The hot spray of the rainwater emulating magical shower turned on as Harry stood under the shower-head. As the heat penetrated deep into his tired muscles his thoughts turned to what he needed to do to Grimmauld Place. If he was to bring a young bride, like his beautiful Claudia into his home, he'd need to do more than he'd already done to spruce up the place. His bathroom in London could definitely use a shower like this. And as he reached for the soap, which considerately moved to be where his hand groped blindly, amenities like this too.
No wonder Draco had been such a spoilt, stuck-up brat at school. The Malfoys seemed to delight in spending their filthy lucre, in adorning their home with every magical convenience and device that would make life ridiculously easy. They wanted for nothing, at least materially. And now that their heir and only son was so securely provided for with his bride-to-be, and their adopted Hermione so well settled, the older couple seemed somehow much more content, at peace. Perhaps Lucius' words, said on numerous occasions were the truth. He was glad the war was over with the Order as the Victors. Perhaps he truly had had no choice but to continue to be Riddle's right-hand-man, even if in his heart of hearts, he'd wanted nothing but for the scaly monster to be destroyed forever.
Lucius watched his wife sleep in the guest chamber they occupied. He'd dozed when they'd first retired, but the events of the past evening and morning were too monumental to allow him to rest. He had become the blood-bound father of the Boy-Who-Lived. As well as two Weasleys. He'd done a quick spell in the shower, just to check, and the genealogy showed that he'd acquired three new connections via Hermione.
It pleased Lucius because he could now boast that he had all three of the Golden Trio as his adopted or blood-bound offspring. They would forever be linked to the Malfoys. But it meant that the evil spawn that was Ginevra Weasley was now linked to him, too. Sending the despicable menace to Azkaban would reflect on his family now. Locking her up, however useful and easy a solution that might be, was not the answer. They'd need to do something more than putting her in a cell and throwing away the key.
He sighed. He wished joining the Light meant that he didn't have to make such difficult decisions. In the old days, he'd have just cast an Avada and ended her irritating presence. But having accepted two of her brothers into his family, he couldn't then turn around and murder their youngest and only female sibling. It just wasn't done. Playing nice was more painful than he'd anticipated.
Lucius looked in once more on his beloved Narcissa, who was still, thankfully, fast asleep. He pondered if it would be prudent, but then, deciding that he might as well act the aristocrat he was, he dressed and walked over to the guest chambers that held the Weasleys. He told himself that they were probably all resting, that his presence amongst them would not be welcomed, but Lucius couldn't, didn't want to allow the matters, the thoughts in his mind to fester.
When Lucius knocked on the door to their suit of rooms, he found all the Weasley men up and about. For a moment, Lucius could admit to himself that he felt nonplussed, but then, he cloaked himself in Malfoy hauteur and sneered at George who'd opened the door.
For a moment, there was silence, but then Arthur stood up to greet Lucius. "Thank you for coming," said the red-head, as though having a Malfoy come to call was an acceptable and everyday occurrence. "We've been talking about solutions to Ginny."
Lucius inclined his head and moved into the room. "I've been lying awake thinking that in the old days we had easier ways to deal with this kind of thing."
He could see the curiosity the younger men couldn't hide, but he was startled to see Arthur grin at his words. "Yes, we can't throw the people who do us wrong in Azkaban and forget about them now," said the perceptive Gryffindor.
Lucius smirked. Somehow, he felt that he could speak the truth with Arthur. "Nor can I cast a quick Avada to end the matter if they are a complication we want to avoid."
A/N: Love it or hate it, please let me know what you think.