Before I start this chapter I want to apologise for taking so long. I have actually got several more chapters finished already however I like to have some wiggle room in case I decide to change something. At the moment I'm doing my exams so I'm not getting any writing done at all, also the last time I tried I got major writers block.
If anyone else is a fan fic author do you find you think of really good stuff to write in patches, but then there is the massively annoying hassle of writing the bits in between?
Thanks to the people who have reviewed or added my story to their favourites etc.
I have just finished writing Rons reaction to the news, but Im not sure I like it.
Well until the next chapter, enjoy.
The Lion and Serpent
By
TheBigEmeraldPeacock
Chapter 4 – Tea and Tantrums
Snape's POV
Severus apperated directly into the living room of Spinner's End, just before sunrise.
He had received the letter from Narcissa yesterday lunchtime and had sprung into action immediately. His first move was to meet with Dumbledore.
As vacant as Ronald Weasley was, being the son of two order members and the best friend of the unkillable Potter made him valuable from certain aspects, mainly hostage ones.
He had already informed the headmaster of Lucius Malfoy's removal from the death eaters; and had even suggested that the family might be a useful asset if offered the right temptation. Dumbledore had said he would think it over, however with the great possibility that the Weasley boy would soon be a Malfoy, there was little choice left in the matter.
Dumbledore had of course agreed with Narcissa's plan for Severus to discover whether this was a plan or mere coincidence.
Severus highly doubted it was Voldemort's doing; as a member of his inner circle, he would have been told of the plan as he had most contact with both the Weasley boy and Draco through teaching potions.
It also didn't match the dark lord's most recent behaviour. After the incident with the prophecy a few month's ago Voldemort had changed his battle plan; he resolved to stop pursuing Potter and focus on taking control of the wizarding world. He had said that when it was time to kill Potter, the boy would come to him.
Being bested by an underage boy 5 times did not make anyone look good, no matter how 'special' the boy apparently was. It was something of a relief not to have to worry so much about the safety of someone who looked so much like that prick James Potter.
He had gone from Hogwarts to death eater HQ, which was presently at one of Lestrange's hovels.
He was told Voldermort was out of the country and wouldn't return until that night, and so he waited. It was past 3 when the dark lord finally appeared, and another half an hour until he called for Severus.
The discussion had been brief. Severus outlined the situation, emphasising how unpleasant this was for all of the Malfoys (Voldemort had enjoyed that), and downplaying the Weasley boy's relationship with Potter. He had finished by saying that holding meeting's at Malfoy Manor would now be impossible as it would be filled with muggle loving fools soon enough.
The dark lord had agreed, saying it was the ideal punishment for Lucius, being tied by marriage to such a disgraceful family.
And now he stood in his living room, and was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief. It seemed Draco was safe; though once he found out he was marrying Ron Weasley, Severus doubted he would be happy.
He chuckled at the thought as he sat down at his desk and began writing letters to Dumbledore and Narcissa.
Molly's POV
Molly sat in the kitchen; just as she had yesterday when she first received the ministry letter; staring out of the open window at the sun rising above the trees. She had seen Arthur off to work half an hour ago and had decided not to go back to bed, to see if the letter came before the children woke up.
She had no idea who Narcissa Malfoy had written to; but she hoped that as Draco was involved as well this source whoever they were, was reliable.
The sun had fully risen 2 hours later, and the sounds of both Ron and Ginny moving around upstairs could be heard through the ceiling. Molly sighed and decided to just start breakfast; hoping the letter would arrive when the children weren't around.
Unfortunately, no sooner had they sat down to eat, than a large eagle owl swooped in through the window, and landed in front of her. Ron and Ginny both stared at the owl in curiosity as it held out its leg to Molly, where a letter was attached. She removed the letter and the owl immediately took off out of the window again.
Turning the envelope over she saw her name and address written in a slanted handwriting.
"That was a pretty fancy owl, who's the letter from mum?" Ginny asked.
"Oh it's probably nothing important", Molly replied, standing up, "I just remembered I forgot to put some sheets out to dry", and she abruptly left the room.
She faintly heard Ron say, "Well that was weird. you don't think she still sends fan mail to Lockheart do you?"
Walking into the garden, she opened the envelope and sat in the shade of one of the apple trees; she unfolded the letter and began to read.
To
My friend looked into the issue and it turns out that he is not the source of the issue we discussed. He does however know of the events, but I am told he has no interest as his goals have moved away from his original target. Therefore I will be making effected parties on my end known to the situation later today. I suggest you do the same. Once the discussion which will arise has calmed, we will have to arrange a meeting to move forward.
N.M
The letter was cryptic, but Molly supposed it was safer not to mention names, and it wasn't hard to understand what Narcissa meant. 'He who must not be named isn't behind this, but he knows about it, however he's not interested as he isn't going after Harry anymore. Well that's good news for Ron and Harry I suppose. She plans to tell Draco today, and I should tell Ron as well I suppose'.
She looked around the garden, worried. It was of course a relief to know that Ron wasn't in any immediate danger; however she didn't savour the task of telling him he was getting married to his school nemesis. 'I supposed it would be easier just to tell everyone at once' she thought; 'having everyone over for dinner tonight would be best'. She stood and headed back to the house, already planning what she would cook.
Draco's POV
Draco sat in the rose garden, thinking about his mother's strange behaviour the day previous.
After she had left to go to Diagon Alley, he had found a house elf fishing a breakfast tray out of one of the fountains in the palm house. The elf wouldn't tell him how it got there, which meant his mother had done it, but why?
She had eventually returned late afternoon, with armfuls of Hermes shopping bags, all full of scarves. This was even more suspicious because she only bought scarves when she was stressed and now she turned up, hours after leaving with about 50.
Before he could even ask however she had walked off to her bedroom saying she was exhausted.
Then early this morning he had heard her pass his room heading towards the owlery to send a letter, she usually just let a house elf do it, something was definitely going on.
Under usual circumstances Draco would have simply found his mother and demanded an explanation; however since it was probably either to do with his farther or the death eaters, he wanted no part in it. 'Plausible deniability, the new family motto', he thought to himself, smirking.
He lay back on the grass and closed his eyes, listening to the sounds of the bees buzzing from flower to flower. He was almost asleep when a shadow fell across his face; cracking open one eye he looked up at his mother.
"Darling I need to tell you something", she said, looking distinctly uncomfortable.
"Alright", he said, becoming nervous at his behaviour, "take a seat", he patted the grass next to him.
She looked at the billowy silk dress she was wearing and then down at the grass, a look of distaste crossing her face.
"I would prefer to talk indoors, the sun is very bright and I don't have a parasol."
'Yeah right, you just don't want to crease your dress', Draco thought, amused at his mother's obsession with her appearance; "Alright" he replied, standing up and following her back to the house.
As they walked up the steps and into the shade of the cloisters; Draco became more nervous. It didn't show on his face of course, that sort of display showed weakness.
They walked into the main house and entered his mothers reading room, which overlooked the field of purple tulips his farther had had planted for her birthday several years ago. French doors which led out onto a small balcony were open and a floral smell wafted in. There was a small table laid with a tea service, in the centre of the room, which his mother walked over to and sat at, indicating he should do the same.
Once he had been seated and she had poured him some tea, his mother began to speak.
"Draco, yesterday I received a rather serious letter concerning you." She took a sip of tea, "You haven't done anything wrong of course", she said quickly, seeing the look on his face. "Well anyway, initially I was worried that the subject of this letter was the dark lords doing, so I of course wrote to your farther and then set out to gather more information on what was happening."
Draco was now really worried, was this situation really that serious?
"Anyway, I discovered the subject of the letter couldn't be reversed; so I immediately wrote to your godfather and asked him of the dark lord's involvement" she continued.
Draco held his breath.
"He wrote me back this morning and it turns out the dark lord is not involved or interested in this situation", she said smiling at him.
He relaxed slightly; it seemed it wasn't as bad as he thought. "What is this situation then?" he asked. From the little his mother had said, he didn't have a clue.
Narcissa sighed sadly and pulled out a piece of parchment, "This is the letter I received yesterday morning".
Narcissa's POV
Narcissa was beginning to get anxious; Draco had been staring at the letter for nearly 5 minutes and his eyes had stopped moving across the page long ago; his mouth occasionally moved minutely, mouthing words but making no sound. She poured herself another tea, having finished the first cup, and tried to pull her son out of his paralysed state.
"Draco", she whispered, softly.
He looked up at her with utter despair in his eyes; she felt her chest tighten, and had to fight the urge to hug her son.
"You went to see Umbridge?" he asked in a rasp, quickly taking a sip of his now cold tea.
"Yes darling, it was the first thing I did; I tried to get it overturned, but the woman has gone power mad; I had to be escorted out of the ministry by security, even though I had been nothing but reasonable to the woman", she looked out of the window to hide the guilty expression on her face.
"And there was no one else?" Draco asked, his voice returning to normal.
"Not unless you want to marry Yaxley", she said bitterly. They both looked disgusted.
"This isn't fair! She can't do this!" Draco exclaimed, his eyes tearing up.
"You know she can darling, you read the letter, we're all bound by law", Narcissa said soothingly.
"No I won't do it, I'd rather go to prison" Draco burst out.
Narcissa lost her patience at this; standing, she slapped him hard across the cheek,
"That is enough Draco! I will allow you to be displeased with the situation for now, but I will not be seeing another member of this family go to Azkaban! I won't! So you will calm down and act rationally!"
Draco had gone silent after he had been hit and now cowered slightly at his mother's admonishment.
"Do we understand each other Draco?" Narcissa asked, staring down at him disdainfully.
He gathered himself, straightening up in the chair, "Yes Mother, sorry", he replied meekly.
Narcissa sat, and smiled reassuringly at her son, "You have to focus on the positives of the situation. The ministry sent the guidelines of the union this morning, and it's all quite simple. No one is going to force you to consummate the marriage; all you have to do is reside together, and the Weasley boy will have to take our surname."
"Hell would freeze over before I become a Weasley", Draco snorted.
His mother chuckled, glad her son was being reasonable, "Well it seems we're gaining a Malfoy then, doesn't it?"
"He won't come quietly you know; it's bad enough we're polar opposites, without the added injury that he's marrying a man". Draco amusedly replied.
"I wouldn't worry about that; I met his mother at the ministry and we met Umbridge together; she knows the penalties for not going through with it as well", she said, sipping her tea; and then she remembered something, "Draco, Why did Umbridge say she had caught you on several occasions kissing Blaise?"
Draco choked, sending spurts of tea out of his nostrils, all over the lace table cloth.
Molly's POV
The table in the Burrows kitchen was packed.
Almost all of her children were in attendance, excluding Percy; as well as a motley gang of order members, composing Lupin, Tonks, and Mad-eye Moody.
The room was filled with laughter and animated discussion as she sat down at the head of the table; it was good to see everyone was recovering from the loss of Sirius; it pained her that what she had to tell them would probably just add to their troubles, especially Ron's.
She glanced over at her youngest son, who was listening to some story of Lupin's, laughing occasionally. This wasn't going to be easy at all; she didn't even know how to begin, should she just wait for a drop in conversation and just blurt it out?
Some of her worry must have shown on her face because Arthur placed his hand on hers and asked "Are you alright?"
There was no point lying to him, he could always tell; "You'll know soon" she replied, giving him a sad smile.
He looked concerned at her words, but did not question her further.
The end of the meal was drawing near, and Molly knew she would have to tell them soon.
She began to stand when there was a knocking at the back door; everyone watched as she walked over and opened it.
"Albus?" she said, surprised at the sight of the headmaster standing on her door step in flowing red robes.
"Good evening Molly, I heard you had organised a gathering and I was hoping you wouldn't mind me intruding for a short while", Dumbledore said, smiling serenely.
"No, not at all come in", she stepped aside and he entered the kitchen.
After everyone had greeted him and he had been offered a drink, Dumbledore spoke to the room at large.
"I believe Molly has some news she wishes to share with you, hence the reason for gathering you all here tonight" he said, looking at Molly with his twinkling blue eyes.
"You know?" she said weakly, 'well it is Dumbledore I suppose'.
"Yes I'm afraid the ministry informed me of all those effected by this particular act who are attending Hogwarts presently", he replied solemnly.
"What's going on?" Arthur asked, though everyone looked just as confused.
"Would you like to explain, or shall I?" Dumbledore asked, looking at Molly.
"I'm not sure I'm up to it, if you wouldn't mind", Molly replied, sitting down at the table.
"Not at all", Dumbledore smiled and began.