Chapter 4

Lucius awoke the next morning to sunlight streaming in through his bedroom windows. He rubbed his eyes as he sat up, his gaze settling on the small house elf perched on the end of his bed - an elf he had never seen before.

"Who are you?" The boy asked, his voice still betraying the dregs of sleep.

The elf, who had been watching over Lucius for the last few hours, perked up immediately at the boy's question. "Mitzy is being assigned as Master Lucius' personal elf. Master Draco is wanting Mitzy to watch over Master Lucius and help take care of him."

Lucius' eyes narrowed slightly at the thought of the house-elf watching him, but he didn't have a chance to respond before the little elf continued. "Master Draco is wanting Master Lucius to be getting ready and going to breakfast."

The boy rubbed a hand over his eyes again, wiping away the last remnants of sleep. "I want to eat up here."

The elf nodded, but her little face turned grave. "Master Draco is telling Mitzy that if young master refuses, Master Draco is coming up and making young master mind."

Eyes widening slightly at that statement, Lucius slid out of bed and went in search of clothes for the day.

He was hungry, anyway.

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A quarter of an hour later, the boy entered the dining room to find Draco sitting at the table alone, reading the day's copy of the Daily Prophet. The older male looked up as Lucius approached the table. "There you are. Did you sleep well?" He said as he laid the paper down and folded his hands on top of it. At the boy's small nod, he continued, "Mother went out to do a bit of shopping, so it is just me and you. What would you like for breakfast?"

"Custard Creams?" Lucius asked, climbing up into the chair next to where Draco sat at the table's end. The boy saw no reason to change his regular breakfast choice.

Draco, though, apparently had other ideas. "Custard Creams are not a breakfast food. However, you may have some jam and toast if you wish."

"But I always have Custard Creams for breakfast." The complaint came out as a whine.

The older Malfoy ignored the whine as he added more sugar to his morning tea. "Well, you will not be having them today. Choose something else."

"I want Custard Creams!" The child all but shouted as he slammed a small fist down on the table.

Draco raised both eyebrows at the exclamation before his eyes narrowed on the boy. "Lucius, I am not going to argue with you. You have two choices. You can sit there and eat an appropriate breakfast of your choice. Or, if you continue to throw this tantrum, you can sit there on a sore backside with a breakfast of my choice. And I promise you, I will not choose anything that you would like. Now, which is it going to be?"

"But Custard Creams is my choice!" The boy argued loudly in frustration, smacking his hand on the table again. "You're just being mean!"

The older Malfoy's expression darkened. "Lower your voice." He snapped, " I have already explained to you that isn't an option, period. And if you raise your voice to me or hit this table one more time, I will see to it that you do not eat another Custard Cream for an entire week. Now, choose something else or I will choose for you."

The boy's defiance deflated at Draco's harsh tone. "Fine," he muttered as he released a sigh a moment later, "I'll choose something else."

"Jam and toast?"

Lucius thought about it for a few seconds before shaking his head. "Can I have hash browns?"

"You may," Draco said in an even tone. "Would you like something else to go with them? Maybe some eggs?"

At the boy's hesitant nod, the older Malfoy tapped the table once so that a plate with the discussed items appeared before the child. Even though he had chosen this meal, Lucius eyed the food warily.

"Eat," came the command from next to him as Draco lifted the newspaper and disappeared behind it again. "After breakfast, you and I are going to have a discussion."

Lucius reached forward and picked up his fork. "What kind of discussion?"

"One about how things are going to work around here for the foreseeable future. Now, eat."

Grimacing at the thought of what such a discussion might entail, Lucius put a forkful of hash browns in his mouth and pretended they were Custard Creams.

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After spending nearly twenty minutes watching Lucius dawdle over breakfast. Draco folded his paper and laid it down next to him. He tapped the table, causing the dishes to disappear. "Now," he said, clasping his hands in front of him, "Let's talk."

"Don't want to." The boy pouted, tucking his chin into his chest.

The older Malfoy fought back a laugh at the child's petulant display, and instead forced a bit of steel into his tone. "Eyes up."

A small pair of steel-grey eyes rose to meet his.

"Starting tomorrow, you are going to follow a schedule," he began.

The boy's brow furrowed. "What sort of schedule?"

"Well, for one thing, you will spend your mornings with a tutor."

"What tutor?" The words came out as more of a demand than a question.

Draco narrowed his eyes for a moment at the child but chose not to comment on the boy's attitude before continuing.

"This morning, I sent out a request for a tutor, and I received a response shortly before you awoke. He will be here first thing in the morning."

Lucius scrunched up his nose, but the older Malfoy continued before the boy could speak.

"Therefore, you will spend your mornings on your studies. Lunch will be served at noon, after which you are free to play during the afternoon. Dinner is served, as always, at 6:00. Shortly afterwards, you will have a bath, and then go to bed. Any questions?"

"Why do I have to study?" came the immediate whine.

"Because I am not certain how long this . . ." Draco paused, searching for the correct term to describe their situation, "arrangement . . . will last, and on the chance that it might be somewhat permanent, I would prefer if you didn't grow up to be a dundering blockhead who cannot tell me the sum of 2 and 2."

Lucius crossed his arms in front of his chest. "2 and 2 is 4!" he said proudly. He didn't want to spend every morning studying, and he figured showing his knowledge could possibly allow him to escape the onerous task.

Draco was quick to deflate those sails. "Very good. I will inform your tutor that you are ready to move on to slightly more difficult maths"

The Malfoy heir noted the boy's pouting posture but chose to move on. "Let us now go over the ground rules."

"I don't need rules." Lucius muttered.

Draco refrained from rolling his eyes. "Everyone needs rules. I am an adult, so I am forced to live by the rules of society. You are a child, so unfortunately you must live by my rules. Luckily for you, I only have three." When the child did not respond, the young man continued. "Rule #1 will not surprise you: I expect you to demonstrate good breeding at all times. You will respect me as the head of this household and also those that I put in charge of you. You would do well to remember that there are better ways to get what you want than through tantrums and rudeness. And speaking of rudeness, please look at me when I am speaking with you."

Reluctantly, the platinum-haired boy looked up. "What are the other rules?"

"Rule #2 - no wandering. This house contains many items that are dangerous for children. You are allowed in the normal living areas of the manor but exploring beyond that is off-limits. In addition, you are not allowed to step one foot outside of this manor without permission. When we are in town, you are to always stay by my side. Understood?"

Lucius nodded. He was quite familiar with this rule, as it had been the same one that his mother had had for him when she was alive. Little did he know that was where his guardian had gotten it as well (through Lucius' own implementation of it with his son.).

Draco reached up his sleeve and pulled out his wand, resting it on the table before him. "Last rule. You are forbidden from touching my wand, or anyone else's for that matter. Magic can be volatile in the hands of children, and the last thing we need is for you to blow up the drawing room." The older man reached over and tapped Lucius' chin, causing the boy to look up. "If I catch you touching my wand, I will smack you with a ruler. Am I clear?"

The boy shuddered slightly at the threat but nodded. "Yes, sir."

"Any questions?"

Lucius went to shake his head, but then paused. "Yes, one." At Draco's inquiring look, the boy continued. "It's not breakfast anymore. May I have some Custard Creams now?"

Draco couldn't conceal his smirk as he tapped the table and caused the treats to appear.

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After a morning and early afternoon of running aimlessly around the manor (the approved sections, at least), Lucius finally found himself later that afternoon lying on his bed, thumbing through a book of children's wizarding tales. His mind was elsewhere, though, as stared at the pages, deep in thought. Next to him lay one of the estate's hounds, who was enjoying the occasional rub to the head he received from the young boy. Lucius had just flipped to a story about Wolfric the Bold when he heard a knock at the door.

"Hello darling!" Narcissa said as she strolled into the room, several parcels floating behind her. She stopped short upon surveying the scene before her. "Lucius, you know I don't approve of hounds on the furniture."

"Artie's sad." The boy said without looking up from his book.

Raising an eyebrow, Narcissa moved forward and sat on the edge of the bed. "Is he?" She reached out to stroke the dog's head. "Why is he sad?

Lucius shut his book with a sigh. "He's upset 'cause I can't spend time with him anymore." He stole a glance up at the Malfoy matriarch.

Even displaced in the 6-year-old version of her husband, Narcissa recognized the emotional manipulation underscoring that look.

"Am I to assume that this has something to do with your talk with Draco this morning?" She asked.

"He says I have to study all the time now." The boy said, crossing his arms over his chest in a pout.

Narcissa suppressed a smile at the child's exaggeration. "Only your mornings. At least, that's what he told me before I left to go shopping. Did he not relate the same to you?"

"I like my mornings. I don't want to spend them bloody studying!"

"Lucius!" The rebuke was mild, though. In truth, Narcissa found the boy adorable and she was having a difficult time not showing her amusement at his petulance. "Unfortunately, little lords are expected to study, because one day they will grow up and they have to know things in order to successfully run a household, especially one as grand as this." She said, gesturing around her.

The young Malfoy sighed. "I still don't like it."

"Well, I'll let you in on a little secret." Narcissa said, reaching out to tuck one of Lucius' stray tresses behind his ear. She lowered her voice in a mock whisper. "Draco did not like studying much either when he was your age."

"He didn't?" Lucius sat up a little straighter.

"No. In fact, he caused several tutors to quit due to his naughty antics. Not that you should get any ideas," She added quickly, upon seeing the look in the boy's eye.

"What shouldn't he be getting ideas about?" Came a voice from the doorway. The pair on the bed looked over to find Draco standing there.

"Narcissa said you were naughty at my age!" Lucius declared with a smirk.

"Did she now?" Draco said, crossing into the room and approaching the bed. "What exactly did she say," He asked, eyeing his mother suspiciously.

"That you ran off your tutors." The boy declared. "What did you do?"

The older Malfoy sat on the edge of the mattress and leaned back against one of the posts at the bed's end. He observed the child for a moment, taking in his eager curiosity, before answering. "Well, with one I filled his coat pockets with toads, which he happened to be deathly afraid of." Draco smirked at the memory. "With another, I found some old paint and poured it into his satchel."

"Which, if I remember correctly, leaked out of the bottom and all over the hardwood floors." Narcissa said, and then added as she turned to the young boy in the center of the bed. "Bright green paint, embedded in the grooves of the hardwood. It took the house-elves forever to clean it up, even with their magic."

Lucius raised his eyebrows. "Father would have been really cross if I had done that," he said. He turned to Draco. "Was your father cross?"

Narcissa took in a sharp breath, but Draco didn't miss a beat. "Oh, exceptionally. Especially considering he had gone all the way to Sweden to find a replacement tutor. I can assure you that was the last time I seriously misbehaved during a tutoring session."

The boy was tempted to ask how, exactly, his guardian had been punished, but the question remained on the tip of his tongue when the man spoke again.

"Do I need to tell you what will happen if you don't behave in your tutoring sessions?" Draco asked, raising an eyebrow at the child.

Lucius shook his head quickly. No, he had a very good idea of exactly what would happen.

The man narrowed his eyes. "If I find out you've been misbehaving, you'll be in trouble with me, even if your tutor has already punished you, understood?"

"Yes, sir." The boy said, his voice quiet as he ran a hair through Artie's hair, concentrating on how the fur slipped through his fingers. He could feel his guardian's stern gaze on him still, and it made him a little uncomfortable. Did the man expect the worst of him?

"Really, Draco," Narcissa spoke up from her spot on the bed. "I'm sure Lucius will be excellently behaved." She reached over and carded a hand through the boy's hair, returning the small smile that the child sent her way.

The Malfoy heir gave his own small smile at the interaction between the two. "I hope that he proves you right, Mother." He said before he stood and moved toward the doorway. Once there, he paused. "I have some work to do in the study. I will see you both at dinner."

Narcissa watched her son depart before turning back to the boy on the bed. "Now, would you like to see what I brought for you?" She asked, gesturing toward the parcels behind her.

She grinned as the young Malfoy's eyes lit up, and began to hand him the packages one by one.