"Follow me," Lucius told Hermione. "Do you have your bags?"

Hermione nodded, pulling the pocket sized bags out of her pocket. Lucius took them and turned to Snape suddenly.

"Guess what?"

"No," Snape answered immediately. "I'm not playing this game."

"Then I'm not telling you," Lucius shrugged.

"Fine." Snape did not seem phased but less than two seconds passed before Lucius spoke. "They're doing a Jekyll and Hyde musical," said Malfoy.

"Really?" That seemed to amuse Snape because a small smile had come to his face. "That could be---"

"—absolute and utter shit," Narcissa said. No one had seen her come down the stairs until she was back at her husband's side. "Or it could be good. Do you want to go when it opens?"

"Maybe," Snape answered.

"Oh!" gasped Narcissa suddenly, turning to face Lucius and giving him a light hit on the shoulder as she did so. "Take this. Juliet is not to have her phone until I say so and Draco is not to go in the music room."

"Why not?" Lucius asked, taking the phone his wife was holding out.

"When I got upstairs they were fighting. And neither of them had cleaned," she explained.

"Fighting over what?" asked Lucius.

"Something ridiculous, I'm sure," she said with a sighed. "Sound familiar?" she added teasingly.

"I never fought with Medusa," Lucius argued. Snape and Narcissa both laughed at that, making Lucius angry. "I rarely fought with Medusa."

"Right," Narcissa laughed, sharing a knowing glance with Snape. "And I never fought with Bella."

"You attacked Bella at our wedding," Lucius reminded.

"I won," Narcissa shrugged off.

"As interesting as the story is, we have to go," Dumbledore interrupted. "Severus and I have something to do. I will see you at the meeting?"

"Of course," nodded Lucius. "Sev, are you coming by tonight?"

"Probably," Snape said. There was no goodbye, the two professors simply left and Narcissa turned to Hermione.

"I'm sure you're confused dear, but you'll get used to it. We never know what's going on," she said. "Lucius, take her to the guest room."

"Which one?" he asked, the same question he'd asked earlier.

"The one next to Juliet's room," Narcissa decided.

"Still smells like smoke from Juliet's little experiment," Lucius reminded.

"The one next to Draco's room then," Narcissa sighed. "I'm going to get dinner." She walked away, leaving the boxes where they were on the ground.

"Have you eaten yet?" Lucius asked Hermione. She shook her head; she was slightly apprehensive about being alone with Lucius. He had taunted her before and the rumors of his treatment Muggle-borns were enough to keep her on edge. "I'm sorry then. I wouldn't advise eating Narcissa's food however. You're better off sneaking food later. I'll have Juliet show you the kitchen."

"Thank you," she muttered. Lucius had begun to walk up the stairs, chatting casually with Hermione as he did so. When they got to the stairs, the casualness dropped as they found Draco and Juliet in the hall.

"You started it!" Juliet was shouting. They were on opposite sides of the hall, both standing in front of their rooms. "I was minding my own—"

"—bullshit!" interrupted Draco. "You were being the same little bitch you always are!"

"Who are you calling a little bitch?" laughed Juliet. "Self-absorbed asshole."

"This is coming from the girl who spends three hours looking at the mirror every morning," Draco snorted. "And you're calling me self-absorbed?"

"Hell yeah," she shot back. "At least I'm not so self-absorbed I can make friends. And thanks to your little stunt, I can't talk to my friends because you got my phone taken away!"
"I'm locked out of the music room because of you!" shouted Draco. He had inherited the same loud voice that his mother had used and it was rather scary to see it come from him. "I was actually working on something!"

"You have been working on the same song for three months. And guess what? IT STILL SUCKS!" Juliet screamed. That made Draco snap. He lunged for Juliet but Lucius yelled before he did more than tackle his cousin.

"MALFOYS, STAND DOWN!"

The reaction was automatic; Draco jumped away from Juliet and she in turn snapped to her feet.

"Your rooms, now," Lucius ordered.

"But—"

"—now!"

When they realized that Lucius was actually angry the two bolted back to their rooms. Once the simultaneous sound of their doors slamming Lucius turned back to Hermione.

"Juliet's been living with since she was born. Her mother, my sister, was killed shortly after Medusa was born and she's been here ever since. She and Draco are like siblings but that does not mean they get along. Here, this is your room," Lucius told her he opened the door. He put her bags on the floor before restoring them to their regular size. "One of us will come get you for dinner. If you want to be alone I understand but I would suggest you have Juliet give you a tour of the house." He gave her a nod as well as a sad little smile before shutting the door and heading across the hall to Juliet's room.

He wasn't surprised when he found Juliet standing in front of her easel. Like her parents, Juliet was a visual person and was constantly drawing or painting. Her easel, her most prized possession was in the middle of her room with her back go Lucius.

"What are you drawing?" Lucius asked her. Like her mother had, Juliet loved to do her work with music and had to shut off what she was listening to when Lucius spoke.

"Not sure," she answered truthfully. "I think it's a snake. What's up?"

"Why were you and Draco fighting?" He didn't have to waste his time being blunt. Juliet's unknown father was always blunt and it was a trait Juliet had picked up. With a deep breath, Juliet threw her pencil against the easel and turned to face Lucius.

"So I was asking Draco about Hermione because she's staying with us, so I should be able to know something about her, right? So he was getting his typical emo self and just telling me to shut up and leave me alone. He hates her, he doesn't know anything about her, this sucks, why is she staying here, blah blah. So I said maybe you'll get a chance to you know actually make a friend for once in your pathetic life and he flips out. Goes absolutely nuts and keeps tells me that at least he doesn't have to fake to make friends. So—"

"—I think I get it, Juliet," interrupted Lucius. He knew his "children" well enough to see where the story was going. "Are you going to apologize?"

"Hell no," Juliet snapped. Lucius said nothing, instead fixing with an expectant face. "Fine. He should apologize to me."

"And he will," Lucius told her. "How many times have we told you not to say things like that?"

"It's not my fault he has no friends!" Juliet argued. "I know, I know. He's a Malfoy so everyone's afraid of him and it's not his fault it's the family name, all that shit—"

"—language, Juliet—"

"—sorry, but he could so have made friends even so. He likes being the emo wonder boy," Juliet finished

"I'm going to go talk to him," Lucius said. "Especially with Hermione here, you cannot be starting fights so often. Her parents just died in the fire in London. She needs some peace right now."

"Oh my god. Yeah, of course." Juliet Malfoy was several things but stupid was not one of them. "Wow."

Lucius left Juliet to herself, heading straight across the hall to his son's room.

The first thing Lucius noticed was the silence. He very rarely walked into Draco's room without hearing music or Draco singing but his guitar had been locked in the music room. Instead, Draco was lying on his bed with his orb floating in a tiny circle around him. Draco had changed the orb so rather than playing his music aloud it only played to him, like an invisible ear bud. He was reading too, which didn't surprise Lucius.

"Draco," Lucius yelled. Draco looked up, waving his hand to stop the music his orb was playing. "What are you listening to?"

"Faint," Draco answered with a smile. Lucius just sighed. Several years ago he had accidently given Draco a cd of music that he and Snape had made in Hogwarts. It turned out that Draco absolutely loved it and more often that not, was listening to either a song Lucius had written or a song Snape had written. Lucius thought it was a little odd but it was nice to have someone (other than Narcissa) listen to his music. "What's up?"

"You were fighting with Juliet again," Lucius said. Draco opened his mouth to argue but his father raised his hand. "I heard the story. I don't care what she said, that does not give the right to say something back."

"Tell her to leave me the hell alone!" Draco pleaded.

"Language. She won't stop unless you stop," Lucius told him. "That's not the big problem right now. Hermione's staying with us for the summer. You—"

"—why is she here?" Draco demanded.

"Her parents died in the London fire," Lucius explained. That shut Draco up for a second; he may have hated the girl but he wouldn't have wanted anything quite so horrible to have happened to her.

"So why is she here? Shouldn't she be with the Weasleys or with Potter?" Draco asked.

"Dumbledore thought she would want some privacy," Lucius lied. He knew the truth; that Dumbledore thought it was too dangerous for anyone other than the adults to be around Harry Potter at the moment. "And we offered the house. You don't have to like her. Just leave her be."

"Fine by me," Draco assured his father.

"Good." Lucius turned to leave but just as his hand rested on the doorknob Draco called for him.

"Hey, can I—"

"—you are not allowed in the music room until you apologize to Juliet or until your mother says so," Lucius said. Before Draco could argue Lucius left.

Narcissa was still in the kitchen when he got there, singing to herself as she attempted to make….something. She was so absorbed in that she didn't realize that Lucius was there until she felt familiar cold hands wrap their way around her waist.

"How are the demons?" she asked with a smile.

"Good. I found out what they were fighting about," Lucius breathed into her ear.

"Now what?"

"Juliet made another crack about him being friendless. He insulted her back," Lucius said.

"The same as always," Narcissa sighed. "Did you talk to them about Hermione?"

"Yes. That doesn't mean they'll listen," Lucius reminded Narcissa.

"Well, let's find out. DINNERTIME!"

"Darling, please don't shout when I'm next to you."