A/N - Here's a bit longer chapter for you!
Narcissa Malfoy was livid with the Ministry. "No you may not talk to my husband; he is on his death bed for Merlin's sake! Let him go in peace!" She was partially so emotional because this was the third time since Draco's visit to the hospital that the Ministry had harassed her and her husband. However the blame lay largely in the fact that her husband was on his death bed. Draco's visit had been a great surprise, but it somehow made her even sadder. Draco's visit made it final, the last nail in the coffin so to speak.
Narcissa attempted to listen to the Auror, "Please Mrs. Malfoy, we just need a minute with your husband." The woman, a Patil she suspected, urged the older woman to reconsider.
"If you think that one minute of my husband's time is all it will take for you to trick him into releasing my sons whereabouts, then you are sorely mistaken. He is a Malfoy, and if you had any idea what that means, you wouldn't even attempt to swindle him." Narcissa snapped at the now frightened girl. "I am not obligated to share my son's whereabouts with you, and neither is my husband. You know as well as I that there are no grounds on which to suspect my son of anything. Now, I would appreciate it if you would leave, now!"
Padma, whose eyes were wide with fright, mumbled something akin to an apology and left quickly.
Hermione and Ginny were waving to their children as they entered the school building.
"Oh Gin, I can't believe how old they're getting." Hermione said tears stinging her eyes. She wiped them with her sleeve before they could fall.
Ginny was trying to hold herself together as well, but tears were already running down her cheeks. "At least Rose is your oldest, James will be going off to Hogwarts in just four short years!" she said on the verge of hysteria. Hermione put her arm around her sister-in-law's shoulder and gave her a side hug. Ginny sniffed and wiped the tears from her eyes before straightening up. "I can't believe I'm being so emotional, it wasn't this bad when I sent James off to his first day of charms school." The Potter's had decided to give their children the choice between Charms school and homeschooling. James immediately chose charms school because of his social nature. It had been quite a shock to them when Albus asked if he could go to Muggle School with his cousin Rose, but they allowed him to anyway.
Rose had purposefully asked to go early. She had wanted to be the first one there; she was like her mother that way, always ready to learn. This of course had annoyed her cousin, Al. "Rosie, we're like 15 minutes earlier than everybody else!" Al complained. He didn't want to be known as the 'nerd' or 'teacher's pet'. His uncle Ron had told him horror stories about such names.
Rose simply ignored him and waved to her Mum once more before entering the building. They had been there before, so Rose knew exactly where to go. "C'mon Al, it's right in here!" she said excitedly as she ran toward the classroom. She took a deep breath before entering. She looked around analyzing the room. There was a big red round table in one corner, and different colored cubbies below a row of hooks in the back of the room. She counted 4 rows of desks, and the white board read: MRS. HANDY. Rose Giggled at the name. She noticed that Al still hadn't entered the room, just before she left to go find him the teacher entered the room.
Rose put her prettiest smile on and introduced herself, "Hi, I'm Rose! I have your morning class, so does my cousin but I don't know where he went." She rambled. The teacher was about the age of Rose's parents, but she had laugh lines and a tanned face.
She smiled warmly at her new student, "Well, hello Rose! My name is Mrs. Handy" She pointed to her hand as she spoke making the girl giggle.
"Can you read your name Rose?" Mrs. Handy asked. The question confused Rose, of course she could. She answered in the positive even though she was a bit puzzled. "Well then, why don't you go hang up your backpack on the hook with your name on it, and then sit at the desk with it as well? I just need to help some of the other students. It was very nice meeting you Rose." The adult gave her a large smile and turned to the door where more students were entering. Rose was relieved to see Albus among them.
Harry sighed, tracking down Malfoy had been harder than he thought. The bank that much of his fortune had been transferred to in Switzerland only ended up transferring it to another bank in France, a bank that wasn't willing to let England's magical government confiscate it's records. Malfoy was smart. Obviously if he hadn't been caught in ten years! This however, just made Harry even angrier. How was it even possible to be so under the radar that no amount of influence from the ministry had gotten them any closer to finding him?
Harry knew that one of the only few people that could was on his deathbed.
Just then, Padma entered the conference room set aside for the 'Malfoy case'. Harry got his hopes up, just to be crushed by the defeated look on her face. "That woman is terrifying." She said simply. "I didn't get anything out of her, not a thing, and she still managed to rub in my face that they did in fact know where he is, and 'we have no evidence'!" Padma gave a lousy impression of Mrs. Malfoy.
"The paper trail led to a dead end, in France. The money was barely in Switzerland a day, ten years ago." Everyone in the room sighed and looked around defeated. "How is this possible? Are we even sure it was him at the hospital?" Harry tried for the only explanation that made sense to him.
Blaise spoke up, "Yes, it was him."
"How do we know? Where's the evidence?" Harry was getting irritated with is coworker.
Blaise held up a piece of paper, "Gringott's just sent a notice about the Malfoy accounts. All but one of the accounts have been transferred to Draco's name, the other is to his mother, Narcissa. The papers were signed by Draco, at the hospital." Harry knew that the signed papers were more than sufficient proof, wizards can't sign for other wizards on legal documents because of the charms put on them by the banks and the Ministry. Blaise continued, when he saw Harry's further angered look. "Theoretically it makes sense." All eyes in the room then focused on the handsome man, "The Malfoy name may have been tainted after the war, but they are still a very influential family in the wizarding world. The wards of the Malfoy Mansion are legendary; no wizard has found his own way of apperating in and out of the house. Believe it or not but the Malfoy line was critical to the first protection spells, wards and illusion enchantments. And they've been keeping up with the times, the most powerful spells are being created by them. If anyone could get around the ministry, it would be a Malfoy."
Rose decided that she didn't like school, at all. She was sitting all alone during 'free activity time' Al had an easy enough time making friends with the boys, but Rose was sitting in her desk looking at her nails because she was too shy to talk to any of the other children. Adult's she was fine with, but other children were another matter entirely.
Mrs. Handy walked up to Rose's desk and crouched to be about eyelevel with the obviously left out girl. "Rose, isn't there anything you want to do?"
"Do you have any books?" Rose asked her teacher.
Mrs. Handy's eyes lit up as she remembered a little girl that chose to read in a corner of the room.
"Yes we do!" she said enthusiastically. Usually the children didn't know how to read at all, but already she had two students ready for books. She brought the red-head over to the other girl sitting on a bean-bag reading.
"Olivia, would you mind if Rose here would read here as well?" The woman asked politely.
The blond little girl glared at the teacher with such force that she was taken back.
Rose felt her stomach flop. She felt harsh rejection run through her body and was about to turn and go find Al when the little girl spoke. "It's Livia, not O-livia, just Livia." She spoke harshly to her teacher who tried to apologize, but was cut off by the girl, "and no I don't mind if you read here." She said in a normal voice, but pointedly at Rose and not the Adult.
Rose felt a little better knowing that she didn't have objection to her presence. Rose started to look through the books on the shelf when the other girl spoke, "There's nothing interesting, you shouldn't bother looking." The girl said. She then motioned to the book in her hand, "I've brought this from home if you'd like to read it with me."
Rose smiled and joined her, "I'm Rose but you can call me Rosie."
"Livia, you can call me Liv, but NEVER O-Livia that's not my name!" she said melodramatically making the redhead laugh.
Hermione and Ginny were back at the school to pick up their children on the first day of school. They were surrounded by other parents as well some excited, some bored, and some waiting impatiently.
The final bell finally rang and the children ran outside towards the back of the school. Many of the children ran to their parents but a few just wandered toward the playground equipment. Albus ran straight into Ginny's arms and started telling him all about his day. She was laughing and chatting animatedly with him.
Hermione became a bit worried when the initial rush of students subsided and Rose was nowhere to be seen. Some of the other parents began walking either to their homes, or their cars with their children in tow. Hermione noticed a beautiful brunette, about her age with the same anxious look on her face.
"Al, do you know where Rose is?" She asked interrupting him telling his mother all of his new friends names.
He looked around like she would be standing next to him, and shrugged. "Probably with that angry girl." He said and continued talking to Ginny.
Hermione's nerves heightened even more at this, 'that angry girl'? What did that even mean, was she hanging out with the wrong crowd? Was there even a wrong crowd at five years old?
Her nerve subsided when Rose exited the school talking energetically with another, happy looking girl. She spotted her mother and skipped over to her, "Mum, this is my new friend, Livia!" she said pointing to the other child who was still only walking toward them. She then whispered, "Don't call her O-livia, that's not her name just Livia."
The other girl waved at Hermione, and then walked to the brunette standing to Hermione's left. She crouched to give her Daughter a hug, "Hey sweetie, how was your day?" She spoke with an American accent that surprised Hermione for some reason.
"Boring, everyone in the class except for Rose and me are stupid." She said plainly making her mother blush.
"Livia!" she said and covered her daughter's mouth. She turned to Ginny and Hermione, "I'm so sorry, she was taught better than that!"
Livia just smiled and mouthed, "No I wasn't" behind her mother's back, making Hermione smile a bit.
"Don't worry about it, I know how kids can be." Hermione said.
"Hey!" Rose said defensively, but Hermione just hugged her smiling.
Livia turned to her mother and asked, "Can Rose come over to play sometime?"
"If Rose's parents are ok with it, I don't see the problem." She said and turned to Hermione.
Hermione expressed that it would be fine, and they exchanged information to set up the play date.
Lucius Malfoy lay on his back staring at the ceiling. The shade was exactly what you would call eggshell white. Normally this concerned people, but it meant something different to Lucius. He never lived with white walls, in fact he had always lived in placed almost completely devoid of color. The green and silver of the Slytherin Dormitories were the most colorful room he'd ever slept in, until now.
Narcissa was at his side reading some widarding magazine, and scowling. She had been doing that a lot, scowling that is. Lucius didn't like it, though he supposed it was better than seeing her crying. He heard some commotion down the hall and idly wondered what it was.
He took a laborious breath and tried to sit up a bit more. Narcissa fussed over him but allowed him to sit straighter. He would not lose his pride, not until the very end.
The noise in the hall was getting louder and he looked toward his slightly ajar door just in time to see a little girl open it smiling, "Grandpa!"
She jumped up on the bed, ignoring her parents warnings to be careful and hugged the sick man lightly. "Livia…" he whispered as he held her.
A/N - Ah! What did you think? Please Please Please review! I'm throwing my dignity to the wind as I get down on my knees and beg you to review! Let me know what you think, your predictions, your questions, your criticism, hell If you have flames go on ahead!
Thanks for Reading!