Chapter 5

The grandfather clock in the hallway chimed nine times to announce the morning hour. The sound reverberated off the marble floor as two sets of boots made their way down one of the ground-floor corridors of the Manor. Draco led the way, with Lucius closely at his heels. The man paused outside a door that stood ajar and turned to look down at his charge.

"Do you remember what I told you yesterday about behaving?"

The boy nodded solemnly. Any other day, he would have likely whined at the question, but the truth was that today he felt a bit nervous and overwhelmed. What if the tutor thought he was dumb? What if the man didn't like him? He refrained from voicing these thoughts, though, as he was unsure how Draco would take them.

His guardian regarded him for a moment before giving a single nod of his own. "Very good." The elder Malfoy pushed open the door to reveal a classroom on the other side. The rectangular room was one of the smaller ones within the Manor, being roughly the same size as one of the dormitory rooms at Hogwarts. It contained a large desk which sat to one side of the doorway in front of two large windows that looked out onto the grounds. A worktable with a set of chairs was positioned in the room's center; a chalkboard hung on the wall across from the door.

Behind the desk stood a man with sandy-blond hair and a pair of horn-rimmed glasses. The man seemed to be currently engaged in a battle with his briefcase, which had apparently sealed itself shut.

"Problem, Mr. Jenkins?" Draco asked as he paused just inside the doorway. Lucius stood next to him, eyebrows raised.

The man looked up, and gave the pair of them a quick, nervous little smile.

"I, ah – this is one of the new bottomless bags from Lectree School Supplies. It has undoubtedly sealed itself – with my wand inside." He explained a bit sheepishly.

"I see." Draco said as he withdrew his own wand out of his sleeve. He pointed it at the bag, muttering a soft opening charm that generally worked on such objects. The container sprung open immediately.

The sandy-haired wizard immediately moved forward and plucked his wand from the canvas interior. "You have my thanks." He said to the older Malfoy as he clutched the item tightly to his chest.

Draco raised an eyebrow and gave the man a short nod before turning and looking down at his young charge. "Lucius, this is Mr. Jenkins, your tutor. I expect you to show him the same respect that you would me, understood?"

At the boy's somewhat hesitant nod, the elder Slytherin turned back to the tutor. "Do you have everything you need?"

"Why, yes. I believe so."

"Then I shall leave you to your work." Turning to the boy beside him, Draco added. "And I will see you at lunch."

With that, he spun on his heels and exited the room, shutting the door behind him.

Alone with the tutor, Lucius eyed the man a bit skeptically before his eyes landed on the briefcase that had been the center of attention a few moments before.

"Bottomless? Does that mean I could fit in there?" The boy asked. The bag certainly didn't look very big.

The man pulled a handkerchief out of his breast pocket and ran it across his forehead. "Technically, yes, but you really aren't supposed to put living things in these types of bags."

Lucius scowled slightly at the response as he approached the desk. "Why not?"

"Because it's easy to lose items in there, and if a living being got lost, well, it could die."

"Oh." The boy said, reaching forward to grasp the bag's handle. "Can I see inside?"

He was disappointed when the item was pulled out of reach and then sealed with a flick of the tutor's wand.

"No. Such items are not for little children to play with." Mr. Jenkins said, before instructing the boy to go sit at the worktable.

Lucius did as instructed, albeit with a slight bit of annoyance. Once seated, he watched as parchment and an inkwell floated over to him from the side of the room, guided by his instructor's wand.

"Let us begin with spelling." The man said as he picked up a piece of chalk and began writing out a list of words on the blackboard.

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By 10:27 the next morning, Lucius had actually accomplished quite a bit in his studies. He had practiced a spelling list containing words like "two," "blue," and "shoe." He had worked on his penmanship - particularly in regard to writing lowercase letters, and had also learned about owls and how they had been domesticated by the wizarding world. And he had practiced mixing various colors to create new hues.

The boy thought Mr. Jenkins was a good enough tutor – he was very patient, which Lucius appreciated – but the man seemed awfully jittery. Lucius may have been nervous the day before, but his tutor was downright jumpy. The man had almost leaped out of his skin (and thrown his piece of chalk over his head) the day before when a stray peacock on the grounds started calling for its mate right outside the classroom window. The boy wasn't quite sure whether it was being in the Manor itself or something else that was causing his tutor to be so anxious.

He received an answer to that question a few moments later.

Lucius had been excused to visit the restroom. On his way back, he was suddenly accosted by Artie, who was playing with something – tossing it and catching it with his teeth - and wanted the boy to play with him. Lucius took the item out of the hound's mouth and turned it over to find himself staring down at a mask. The mask was black with silver etchings going around each eye, connecting in a flourish on the forehead. A second silver embellishment decorated the chin. There were openings for the eyes, and two small ones for the wearer to breathe out of their nostrils. The mouth area was covered by three small silver boxes, with small openings in each.

Thinking it would be great fun to surprise his tutor, Lucius shooed Artie away and donned the mask. He slipped quietly back into the small classroom, unnoticed by the man who stood writing something on the blackboard. After a moment, Mr. Jenkins turned around, only for all color to drain from his face upon spotting the child in the mask.

"D-D-Death-Eater." He stuttered out, his voice barely above a whisper. He backed involuntarily into the chalkboard, his eyes wide. A few seconds later, he regained enough of his senses to move toward the desk, where he quickly gathered his wand and bag. He then fled the room, leaving a somewhat bewildered Lucius in his wake.

The boy removed the mask and quickly peered out into the hall. He saw Mr. Jenkins disappear around a corner at the far end. Suddenly, he felt very alone.

Unsure of what to do now, Lucius went in search of Draco or Narcissa. He found them both in the study.

As soon as the boy entered the room, Draco's eyes narrowed. "Lunch is not for over an hour. Why aren't you with your tutor?"

"He left," came the boy's simple answer. But before Draco could question why the tutor had suddenly abandoned his position, Lucius had a question of his own. "What's a Death Eater?"

The eyebrows of both adults in the room lifted to their hairline. "Where did you hear that term?" Draco asked, a bit of steel in his tone.

"Mr. Jenkins said it, when he saw this." The younger Malfoy said, holding up the mask for his guardian to see.

Narcissa had a sudden intake of breath, and Draco's eyes widened slightly as he reached out and took the item from the child.

"Where did you get this?" The man asked while stealing a quick glance at his mother, and Lucius did not miss the sudden seriousness that had overtaken his tone.

"Artie had it. He was playing with it."

The elder Malfoy tilted his head slightly and eyed the boy with a skeptical gaze. Lucius stared back, butterflies having taken up residence in his stomach. Was he in trouble?

"Draco," Narcissa spoke up from where she stood in front of one of the bookshelves. "He doesn't know what that is. I'm sure he's telling the truth."

Lucius watched as his guardian closed his eyes and then ran a hand over his face. "Surely this was stored in a secure place. How did the hound get hold of it?" It was clear that Draco was directing the question at his mother.

The witch leaned one shoulder against the shelf beside her as she regarded the object in her son's hands critically. "I do not know. Your father had an assortment of hiding places, and I never knew where he had stashed that mask after the war." She tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear. "I suspect he chose a spot in one of the east wing rooms, since several of those are currently being renovated. Perhaps the elves uncovered the hiding spot and Artie found it. It's not as if your father was prone to leaving death eater memorabilia just lying around the manor."

Draco narrowed his eyes at his mother. He would have argued that leaving such objects lying around was very Lucius-like. In fact, if the man had been here, Draco would have suspected him of purposefully orchestrating events so that the mask ended up in the boy's hands. But, considering the man and boy were one and the same, that scenario seemed rather unlikely.

Lucius, on the other hand, still wanted his question answered. "What's a death eater!?" He said, with more than a little impatience. He stomped his foot for emphasis.

Draco turned his attention to the boy and raised an eyebrow at him. "Come around here." He said, nodding to spot on the floor next to his chair.

The boy carefully navigated around the desk, coming to a stop at his guardian's side. The man laid down the mask and then turned his chair slightly so that he was looking more directly at the child, who was now gazing up at him with expectant eyes.

"Death eaters -" he said before stopping. How was he supposed to explain this to a child? He sighed and began again. "Death eaters were people who believed very strongly that wizards and witches should be pureblooded, and so chose to follow a person they called 'the Dark Lord', which many in the wizarding world considered to be a bad man."

He paused, watching the child's reaction. When Lucius gave a small nod of understanding, the man continued. "Many death eaters wore masks like that one." He nodded toward the mask that was now resting on the desktop. "Which is why Mr. Jenkins reacted the way that he did."

"Oh," Lucius said as he looked over at the mask. He understood, to an extent. His parents had certainly been adamant about pureblood culture, but they had also been noble, upstanding people. He couldn't imagine them choosing to follow a bad man.

His brow furrowed. Something was out of place.

"Why is that here?" He asked, pointing to the mask. "My parents never had anything like that!"

Draco raised an eyebrow at the boy's insistent words. He knew for a fact that his grandparents – his grandfather, Abraxas, in particular – had dabbled heavily in the dark arts. But he also knew that Lucius had likely been sheltered from those practices at this age.

"It was my father's," he answered truthfully. He didn't look at his mother, but he could feel her eyes on him.

The child's eyes grew large. "He was a Death Eater?"

Draco nodded. "Yes"

He expected the boy's next inquiry to be "why?" He did not expect the actual question that came out of the child's mouth.

"Were you a Death Eater too?"

The elder Malfoy felt his mouth go dry. He swallowed heavily, and then – not trusting himself to speak - gave a single nod.

Before his ward could pose any further inquiries, though, Narcissa spoke up. "He didn't really have a choice, Lucius. It was expected of him. He did what he needed to in order to protect our family."

Draco met his mother's eyes for a long moment before turning back to his charge. "And speaking of protecting our family," he said, "I trust that I do not need to tell you that this conversation is not to leave this room." The man raised an eyebrow at the child.

Lucius stood up a little straighter. "Yes, sir." He said, feeling a small weight of responsibility on his shoulders.

"Good." The man said as he tapped his desk once, causing a piece of parchment to appear. "Now, go play. It appears that I need to secure you another tutor." He gave the boy a small smirk.

His eyes, though, betrayed a hint of unease that would remain long after Lucius and Narcissa had exited the room.

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Two mornings later, Lucius found himself back in the small classroom with a new tutor. The man was a bit shorter than the previous one, with dark brown hair instead of sandy blond. He was portly, but not overly so. Instead of a bag, the instructor had appeared with only his wand and a walking cane. Draco had introduced him to Lucius as Mr. Collins.

"If he gives you any trouble, please let me know." The elder Malfoy said.

Mr. Collins smiled. "Lucius and I will get along splendidly." He said jovially. "I'm sure there won't be any trouble."

Draco smiled politely, and then faced his charge. "Behave," he said pointedly, before turning and making his way out of the room, closing the door with a click behind him.

Mr. Collins was still smiling. "Lucius Malfoy." He said finally. "I have waited a long time to meet you in person."

The boy's eyebrows raised at those words, but he could not make much sense of them. He was six. How did this man know about him?

Before he could ponder this question for very long, though, the man had turned toward the chalkboard and used his wand to write out a maths equation.

17 X 36 = ?

"Complete the equation." Where there had been joviality before, now there was coldness.

"That's too hard for me!" Lucius protested, "I've only started learning how to add and subtract. I don't even know what that 'X' means!"

"Silence." The man commanded, "I do not tolerate backchat from my pupils. Complete the equation."

"But I don't know how!" The boy said, frustrated.

The man tutted as he stood over the child. "Such disrespect. I will show you what happens with disrespectful students in my classroom. Stand up and bend over the desk."

"What?" Lucius' eyes went wide. Surely he didn't mean . . .

But apparently the man did, because the next thing Lucius knew, he had summoned his cane and stood expectantly over the child, waiting for the boy to comply with the order.

"You can't!" Lucius said, panicking.

Mr. Collins leaned down, so that he and the boy were eye to eye. "I assure you that as your tutor I can discipline you in any way that I see fit. Now, comply quietly and we can keep this between us. Otherwise, I will have to inform your guardian of your disobedience. I'm sure he would be less than pleased."

The child's eyes widened once more at the man's words. The last thing he wanted was for Draco to be upset with him. What if Draco decided to punish him as well? With that thought in mind, Lucius stood and slowly made his way toward the instructor's desk. Once there, he bent over, laying his cheek on the polished wood.

A few seconds later, he heard the swoosh of the cane and then felt the impact, before a line of fire erupted across his backside. "Ow!" He cried out. He tried to move, but a hand in the middle of his back kept him from rising.

Another stroke brought tears to Lucius' eyes, and at a third one a sob broke loose. He then felt the man lean down to speak into his ear.

"Oh, I'm going to enjoy being your tutor, Lucius Malfoy." Mr. Collins sneered. "Did you know that my parents were tortured and murdered in this very house, at the hands of Death Eaters? I took this position to pay back your family's kindness in hosting them during the war."

The man straightened up, but Lucius was still trying to process his tutor's words. What did the man's parents have to do with him?

"Let us finish this. You have three more strokes to go." Mr. Collins said.

And with that he raised the cane again, and let it fall.

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