Yeah, yeah, it's late. Explanations at the bottom, 'cause I don't feel like typing it right now. Just enjoy the chapter, please.
Boy Who Lived: Prince of Thieves
Chapter 3
Recap:
"No, I"m not. Harry Potter died six years ago. I am the Prince of Thieves." The raven said that with conviction, but, as he did, the fringe of his hair parted slightly, and Lucius could see the begining of the famous scar.
About to express his confusion, the older man was interuted when an incredulous voice cried, "Father?!"
Turning slowly, Lucius knew that if he was anyone else, he would have cried, because there, in all his glory, stood his only son, Draco Lucio Malfoy, alive and well.
Instead, he opted for a nod, and a formal, "Draco."
Draco looked shocked for mere moments before his face showed nothing but disgust. "Hello, father." His eyes turned from the older blond, and landed on the Prince.
"Draco, you are the Malfoy heir, are you not?" The Prince queried without letting the other boy speak first.
Draco scowled, looking much like his father at the moment, and said, "I wasHeir Malfoy. Now I am just Draco, My Liege."
Lucius was struck by the parallels of his own life.
"Lucius, you are Heir Malfoy, are you not?"
"My Lord, I wasHeir Malfoy. Now I live only to serve you."
That was the first and only conversation he and the Dark Lord had, without any curses cast by Voldemort. It was almost civil.
Lucius looked at Harry again. If Draco was playing his part, did that mean the Prince played the part of Voldemort?
"No, sir. His Majesty would never do that. He cares for all of us too much." Amy whispered.
He had forgotten about the young empath.
"My Liege, my life as Heir Malfoy ended when I left the grounds that night, a few months ago. I refuse to become the older brother to whatever brats my father and that- that- whore could make together." Draco sneered when he mentioned the woman he thought his father was to marry.
"Draco, I'm not going into a marriage without your consent, and you obviously didn't approve of her. So, we broke it off." Lucius explained, and though his outer appearance was cold, he was practically pleading with his son now.
"It doesn't matter that you didn't go through with it! It's that you considered it that's the problem! I put up with your dating, I thought it was a way to work through the grief. But, it turns out you have already forgotten mother!" Draco shouted, losing his cool quicker than his father.
Before Lucius could respond, a sharp voice said, "Draco." And both pairs of gray eyes were drawn to green.
"You are losing yourself to your anger. I thought we got rid of that bad habit. Go back to your patients. I will take care of it from here." The Prince ordered, and though he knew his son submitted to the slightly younger teen, Lucius was shocked to see his son bow, and comply, leaving the small group that now held the attention of the whole hall.
"Lord Malfoy, please follow me. We have much to discuss." The Prince commanded, and, like Matty, he walked off without waiting to see if the older man would do as told.
Glancing back once at the disappearing platinum blond head that belonged to his son, Lucius scrambled to follow the younger man into the back chambers.
He found himself going through a partially hidden set of doors, and into a circular room, decorated in muted colors and plush furnishings.
The boy, he found, was flung out in one of the plusher chairs, seemingly completely relaxed.
"Lord Malfoy, I think, for convenience purposes, you should call me Harry. You are not sworn to me, nor are you part of my Court, so asking you to call me Liege is just pompous." Harry said, smiling serenely.
"Harry, then. You may call me Lucius. You know, Headmaster Dumbledore has been looking for you for a long time." Lucius stated as he himself settled in the chair across from the raven, who frowned slightly, but not at him.
"Dumbledore, looking for me? No, he was looking for the famous Boy-Who-Lived. Harry Potter slipped through the cracks. I was just a pawn to him, one he could move freely."
Lucius sneered. "Ah, poor little famous boy, your precious pride was hurt, being told what to do, wasn't it? Used to getting your way with those muggles you lived with? Is that why you ran away and created this Court, so you could be treated like a prince again?"
Something akin to fury flashed in the jade eyes, but, just as before, the emotion was gone too quickly.
Instead of yelling, which Lucius would have expected from a Potter, the raven casually got up, and pulled up the green shirt that covered his torso. Lucius' breath caught in his throat.
The boy's beautiful body was marred with criss crossing scars, most of which were faded. The shirt was replaced, and Harry sat again.
"Ten years of constant abuse. I endured it because I thought I had no choice. I 'ran away'as you put it, because a week before Ginerva Weasley went into the Chamber of Secrets, I received a letter from my dearuncle Vernon. In it, he said that when I got back from my 'freak school', we would be having more fun together than usual. I was only twelve, but I could guess what that meant. When I showed it to the Headmaster, he brushed it off as easily as dirt, said I was overreacting. During the Chamber Escapade, I escaped through the private chambers of Salazar Slytherin, and left. It wasn't until years later that I found out the reason Dumbledore was so adamant about me retuning to my relatives was because there was a sort of ward around the house that took my powers and drained them, filtering them to the Headmaster himself. I was running off a mere fraction of my real power while at that school. I defeated Voldemort twiceon a fraction of my power. Can you imagine how strong I am now? I don't even know the full extent myself. I wasn't treated like a prince by those muggles. And I didn't want to be treated like a Prince now, but it was the best way to accomplish what needs to be done." The raven explained.
Lucius felt like an idiotic schoolboy, chastised by a teacher, though he didn't show it. Instead, he asked, "What needs to be done, and why do most of your closest followers seem to think you need my help?"
"Lucius, I'm sure that you know from listening to Voldemort rant so much, that the chains that bind the Wizarding World are deteriorating quickly. It's not due to the muggleborns, but to the muggles themselves. Muggleborns are magical, just as you and I are, so why prosecute them due to their parentage. But I am trying to stop muggle/wizard relationships, which is weeding the power out of ancient bloodlines, as is the inbreeding purebloods practice. Our race is dying, birth defects and squibs are getting more and more common. But, if a purblood married and had children with a muggleborn, those children would be less likely to suffer from the same things that plague almost every pureblood child. Your son Draco is one of the few that came out normal and healthy. A good example of bad breeding are Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle. Both come from long lines well respected for their brilliance. Those two, though, couldn't contemplate their way out of a paper bag. I need help because, even though I am the product of a muggleborn and a pureblood, my health is failing. In a little over a year, neither Harry Potter nor the Prince of Thieves will exist anymore. I need someone to take over my mission once that happens."
The blond sat back heavily in his chair, "Wait, wait, you're dying? Of what?" He demanded, more worried than his conscious mind would admit.
"Magical atrophy. My power was so strong, that even Dumbledore wasn't able to take it all, and some was siphoned off, and waited for the oppurtune time to rejoin my core. It happened all at once, and then, it just started deteriorating." The whispery voice didn't change. In fact, it sounded like the boy was welcoming death.
"And you're okay with that? With your life ending that way? What about defeating the Dark Lord, or getting married, or becoming Minister of Magic or something?" Lucius demanded, shocked that anyone would welcomedeath at such a young age. At eight teen he himself was revelling in life, in his high position in the service of the Dark Lord.
"You make it sound like I have a choice, Lord Malfoy. I do not. I never did. And, yes, I accept that I am to die, because there is nothing in the world that can stop it, no cure for Magical Atrophy. I will die, Lucius Malfoy, but I want my goal to live on. That's why I need you. You are used to being in charge, to having to direct the actions of others. Originally the job was going to be your son's, but I fear Draco isn't ready, not yet. And as to Voldemort, well, no matter how he tries, no one is truly immortal. Nature will take care of him, just as it is of me." Harry sighed, his eyes distant.
"I refuse to become some vigilante in the fight against the destruction in the Wizarding World on the word of a teenager. And the Dark Lord has come back to life before.You are the only person who can defeat him, and the only way he can die is by your wand. And, besides, what you're asking goes against every belief I've held since I was old enough to walk." Lucius hissed, growing irrationally angry, though, deep down, only to himself, he admitted that Potter was right about the Pureblood inbreeding. Belatrix Lestrange was a good example of that.
"I knew you were going to say that. I can't make you do this, but I do beg you sleep on it, and get back to me tomorrow. You can even leave me now, and go seek out your son. You have many things to discuss." Harry's green eyes were filled with barely hidden disappointment, and Lucius found himself wishing he hadn't put it there.
To make up for it, he said, "I will do that. I don't think I can change my mind that easily, but I promise to think." He swept out of the chair he was perched in, and out the door, not looking back once at the beautiful boy lounging in the too large chair.
He got directions from Amy to the infirmary without having to voice his question, and quickly made his way to his son's new domain.
Lucius knew he was close from the smell of antiseptic permeating the hall, and the faint sounds of groaning from those in pain.
Opening the wooden door carefully, he was met by a sight he knew would forever haunt him. His son, his only child, covered in blood that was not his own, tears pouring down his face as he clutched the hand of a stranger who was taking his last breaths. The origin of the blood was from the fact the man had no bottom half. Anything from his waist down was blasted clean off.
Lucius wasn't close enough to hear the man's last words, whispered to his heir, but he did see the light finally leave the strangers eyes, and could hear Draco whisper 'Goodbye,' before closing those eyes.
Lucius cleared his throat, and Draco spun around, catching sight of his father. He tried to establish the Malfoy mask that had been a permanent part of his face for all of his life, though Lucius could see the cracks in it. "I'm the Prince's Personal Healer. I'm supposed to be able to heal anything, save anyone." Draco said wryly, though his eyes held secret pain. Lucius opened his arms in a welcoming gesture that his son appeared to attempt to refuse, before he crumbled completely, the tears welling again, and he threw himself at the older man, clinging to him and sobbing into his robes like he hadn't done in years, even when his mother died, he had been self contained.
"He was so young!" The smaller blond wailed, "Only my age! People my age aren't supposed to die!" Oh, so he knew of Harry's condition..., Lucius thought, before continuing to listen to his son's woes, "It was an accident, a training accident! He was supposed to dodge! He came to me, but it was too late. I couldn't do anything but give him potions to numb the pain. I can't go through with this! I know he told me to be strong, that the cause was going to need me when he was gone, but I can't! I just can't!"
Lucius could tell when Draco left the subject of the dead man now laying on the bed, to the boy who was dying slowly even as they spoke. Harry had said so himself. There was no cure to Magical Atrophy.
"Draco. Draco, listen to me! There is nothing you can do to help him, and mourning him before he even dies will only serve to make him angry!" Lucius told his son, holding him closer and glad that the other patients in the room were asleep. No one was there to tell the tale of seeing two emotional Malfoys.
Watery gray eyes peeked up at him. "You know? How?" The tone wasn't suspicious, only curious.
"He... he told me himself, a few minutes ago." Lucius frowned when his son laughed.
"It's wrong, isn't it?" The younger Malfoy asked, "How blase he is about his own death? It's not right! He's my age! People my age aren't supposed to just accept their own deaths like that, or even die period!" Draco suddenly burst out.
Lucius wisely stayed silent, letting his son cling to him, and their shared knowledge. The Prince of Thieves, the Savior of the Wizarding World, the Boy-Who-Bloody-Lived, was dying, and both men were helpless to stop it.
But there was one thing Lucius could do for the dying boy, and even as Draco's tears soaked the front of his robes, he came to a decision he knew would change his life forever, and his views on magic entirely, but he would do it for his son, his pride and joy, to save his grandchildren from an unfortunate fate.
He would help the Prince reach his goal before the boy took his last breath.
OoOoOo
Neither Malfoy noticed the small beetle detach itself from the folds at the bottom of Lord Malfoy's silken robes.
Rita Skeeter had thought that Lucius Malfoy's desperate search for his wayward son would make for some juicy columns, but all thoughts of that plan were gone now.
Wait until the Wizarding Public found out Harry Potter was alive, and for them to see just how far the Golden Boy had fallen.
Yes, it's later than I said, but it's a bit hard to type out a chapter without a space bar, wouldn't you agree? I had to buy an external keyboard that plugged into a usb port so I could get this out. Why? Well, because I just had to buy the freakin oldest laptop on the market! They don't even make replacement keyboards for this thing anymore, if they ever did! So, yes, y'all met the requirements of this chapter. I'm already workig on the next one. Well, off to bed for me, I have a final exam review tomorrow.