"What do you mean you're married?!" Pansy and Astoria shrieked at the same time as Draco informed his friends that his wife would be moving home to the manor in a few short weeks. Blaise Zabini and Theodore Nott were the only ones in attendance that did not look surprised by his revelation. Vincent and Greg nudged each other with a secret smile as gold was exchanged. The blonde just shrugged his shoulders and waved a hand to invite the women to take a seat.
"Did you really not notice?" Draco asked drolly as he poured himself a drink and sat on a high wing back chair with an amused smirk. Slowly, he raised his hand to show not only the Malfoy family signet ring but also a thick platinum band, intricate runes deeply engraved into the metal.
"You never said!" Astoria whined, Pansy sat beside her, looking sullenly at the floor.
"I've worn my wedding band for the last two and a half years, when I'm not at work or on a mission, I'm with my wife in France." Draco said smugly as a small smile graced his features. Pansy watched her one time boyfriend shrewdly, it was true Draco was like a ghost since his mission to kill their headmaster but the look in his eyes gave her pause.
"So, you've hidden her in France? She must be hideous if she hasn't even come to any of the seasonal events. After all, my mother was just speaking to Narcissa about..." Pansy started boldly, her mouth twisted in a condescending sneer but she trailed off as Draco's grey eyes turned to glare at her.
"My wife is a lovely woman, she's been recuperating from the attack on our wedding. I will be having an...intimate gathering with you all when she arrives in a few weeks time. I hope you embrace my wife with open arms." Draco said blandly, not taking his eyes off one of his oldest friends. She may have deluded herself into thinking she could possibly be the next Mrs. Malfoy but she was loyal, never swaying from his side since they were but babes.
"Does she enjoy shopping?" Daphne asked primly, if a bit excited, speaking for the first time. Theo smiled at the woman beside him, his eyes shining with fondness.
"If it's books." Draco shrugged dismissively.
"Oh, what kind of books does she read?" Astoria asked with a little more enthusiasm. While she was told from a young age she would one day marry Draco, she wasn't that upset by the news of him already married. They hardly ever spoke and she felt she probably wouldn't even be there if she wasn't Daphne's sister. However, becoming allies with Draco's new bride could certainly have its benefits.
"Everything she can get her ink stained little fingers on." Draco sighed and rolled his eyes, taking a long drink from his sifter. Theo and Blaise exchanged a look behind their friends head and silently chuckled.
"Where's Ginerva?" Astoria asked suddenly as it dawned on her that the fiery red head was absent.
"At her mother's." Blaise said bluntly with a sneer, the men in the room chuckled, all of them heard the Italian lament his in-laws for hours.
"Oh, but won't the angry sex be worth it?" Daphne asked cheerily as Pansy choked on her drink. "Please, lighten up!"
"Theodore, you've corrupted my sister." Astoria glared at the man who was looking at her sister with clear devotion.
"Yes, I did." Theo purred into Daphne's ear, making the pregnant woman giggle.
"Could you be anymore nauseating?" Draco rolled his eyes, after so many years of sharing a common room and a dorm room with his friend he was accustomed to their amorous displays.
"So, why haven't you told us about her before? I thought you just had a bird on the side...we were taking bets on if she was muggle." Blaise whispered as the room focused on Vincent and Greg teasing Daphne for being so outspoken.
"I wanted to wait until it was safe to bring her home. The attack left her weakened." Draco said bluntly as his eyes cut over to his friend.
"So, it's safe to bring her home now?" Blaise pondered aloud, his eyes drifting back to where Daphne was laughing happily on her husbands lap as Greg and Vince tried to imitate the couple.
-0-
"Mother, where is my wife?" Draco asked briskly after apparating directly into the sun room. Narcissa raised a delicate brow at her son's demanding tone.
"She went shopping with Mrs. Nott, they should be back soon." Narcissa smiled warmly as she took a sip of her tea. She closed her eyes a moment, thinking of how different her son had acted since she gave her son his wife. Before he was so unhappy, the constant pressure of living up to his father's expectations dragged the poor boy down. Now, she saw him laugh more, when he came home from particularly brutal missions Maia would be there to wipe the blood from his brow and soothe him like she never could. The girl surprised Narcissa, it seemed that she could easily handle Draco in his worst moods and be completely indifferent to Lucius's glare.
"She's not wearing her ring." Draco ran a nervous hand through his hair, letting the cold mask he always wore fall for a moment as he looked at his mother.
"Why would she remove her ring, Draco? Has she been having any difficulties?" Narcissa asked in a panic, while in the beginning of their marriage she loved the girl for making her son happy. Now she loved the girl for who she was, the bright young woman who spent many afternoons debating with her over tea.
"No, she's been ecstatic since she's figured that she will be done with her studies by the time Scorpius is born." Draco shook his head vehemently, as he rubbed his own platinum wedding band. It was unusual for him not to be able to feel his wife's emotions, which their wedding rings allowed. He added the charms after he saw how miserable and lonely she was in France so that he could sneak away when she needed him. Now that she was home with him he did all he could to keep her content, the warmth from his wife's happiness filled him with something he never experienced before.
"Oh, you chose a name? Maia didn't tell me that." Narcissa said cheerfully as her mood was always lifted at the reminder she would soon be a grandmother.
"I felt a pinch of panic then nothing. I'll be back, Mother." Draco said coldly as he stormed the floo, intent on visiting his friend Theo.
-0-
"Theo where's your wife?" Draco bellowed as soon as he landed in the spacious ministry office. Theo Nott gave his friend a cursory glance before returning to his work.
"Hello, Draco. Why I'm just lovely today, auctioning mudblood babies into homes and brothels, so kind of you to ask. How are you?" Theo said sarcastically as he sent off an interdepartmental memo.
"Don't play cute with me, Nott. Where's you wife?" Draco snarled as he stormed over to the desk.
"I don't know, out spending a fortune on bloody footwear? That woman is trying to spend her entire dowry twice over on shoes!" Theo groused and peaked up at his friend making him freeze in his chair. Theo has been friends with Draco since they were small children and felt he could get a read on him better than anyone. He had witnessed Draco slaughter entire families, all the while sporting a bored look on his face. He was in attendance as the blonde was tortured by the Dark Lord himself, but he never saw so much rage in the blonde man's eyes. "What happened?"
"My wife's ring was taken, the tracking charms have become unreadable. Do you have anything on Daphne?" Draco demanded quickly, looking at his watch, 20 minutes since he last felt her emotions.
"Yeah, yeah...just a tick." Theo said absently as he was already rummaging through his desk drawers to pull out a single knut. Draco raised a brow at his friend, obviously unamused. "We got the idea from that little group Potty ran in school, took us bloody forever to get it right."
"The proteam charm?" Draco asked with a raised brow, his wife was the one to charm those silly coins. Who else could have the knowledge or the power to cast such a complicated bit of spell work. While normally this would fill him with a sense of pride that his wife could be so ingenious, he was far too panicked at the notion she was in danger.
"Yeah, Daph wanted to get some of the spellyfones. Apparently they can let you talk to anyone anywhere but urgh, muggles!" Theo exclaimed as he kept his eyes glued to the little coin in his hand. "She's not replying, she always has it with her..."
"Well, my wife was with her...do you know where they went?" Draco asked impatiently.
"She said she wanted to look at clothes for the baby but knowing her...they probably went to the muggle world." Their whispered, his eyes darting around the large office. Even though they were alone and Theo placed many charms for his privacy around, one could never be too careful. The little color in Draco's face drained as he thought of his wife alone in the muggle world with all those savage barbarians. He wanted to kick himself for putting off dueling instructors, wanting to believe that she would never need to protect herself, that he would be there to do it.
"Do you know where?" Draco asked quickly as he threw Theo's cloak at him before turning towards the floo.
"Someplace I would never step foot in? Blasted muggles." Theo sneered as they both flooed to the Leaky Cauldron.
"She never mentions where she goes when she gets her shoes?" Draco asked as soon as they were outside the pub, his skin crawled as he was surrounded by muggles.
"No but I did hear Daph talking to Tori about something called...Foyles?" Theo frowned as he tried to remember what his wife and sister-in-law were chattering about. "Yeah! Biggest bookstore Tori ever seen, wouldn't stop raving about it."
"Well, let's go then." Draco nodded curtly as walked briskly down the street. While he was raised understanding that muggles were savages beneath him, Lucius still took him to meet some of his associates in the muggle world. It was hard to miss such a large storefront devoted only to books.
"You!" Theo slapped his hand on the counter, pushing past all of the muggles standing in line. "Was my wife here earlier?"
"What is this? Was there a convention today and I didn't hear it!" A sales girl walked up to the counter with a bright friendly smile, Draco and Theo sneered at the girl, obviously impatient.
"I would need a description of your wife..." The tall man behind the counter said slowly, his eyes darting to his coworker in confusion.
"Daphne Nott, blonde hair, blue eyes,she may be wearing her glasses...uhh she's pregnant and she was wearing her emerald green pointy shoes." Theo rubbed his chin as he thought about his wife and what she was wearing that morning before he left for the ministry.
"Was she wearing a costume too?" The girl chirped happily. "She was here with another woman in those bathrobes, sweet girl. Chattering on and on about our pregnancy sectio-"
"Where are they?" Draco snapped, advancing on the perky girl. His eyes were cold as he scowled at the stunned muggle. Her coworker was quick to pull her away from the irate blonde man.
"Listen, you can't talk to people like that. I'm going to need to ask you to leave." The man said firmly.
"They left here over an hour ago, Trevor tried to help them with their bags but they wouldn't hear of it. I think they went that way..." The girl said timidly as she pointed down the street. Theo and Draco wasted no time in rushing out the doors, Draco pulled out his wand to try and find any recent magic being used in the area. They came to a stop in a poorly lit alleyway, the notice-me-not charms just fading. A sparkle caught Theo's eye and he made his way over to some over turned rubbish cans.
"You recognize this?" Theo asked as he held up a silver charm bracelet, the Malfoy crest in laid with diamonds being the most prominent. Draco felt his breath catch in his throat as he tore the bracelet from his friends hands to examine it. Minor scraped along the clasp were the only sign of any wear on the trinket and he swallowed the lump that formed in his throat.
"C'mon." Draco said gruffly, reaching out to grab his friend they disappeared with a pop.
-0-
After an hour of shouting at the useless aurors, Theo left him to wake the editor of the Daily Prophet. If he had to convince the sniveling whelp to release an emergency midnight edition with only Maia and Daphne's pictures he would get his wife back. A small article was being written along with their photos, a large reward would be offered for their safe return. Theo sat heavily in an overstuffed chair in the sitting room of Malfoy manor and he buried his face into his hands.
"What have you been doing?" Draco stalked into the room, looking impeccable and perfectly put together. Only the blood along his white collar left to hint at anything was wrong.
"I spoke to the Prophet, sent a message out to missive to WWW, and reported them missing at the ministry. We are offering a large galleon reward for our wives to be brought home." Theo said wearily as Draco poured them both drinks.
"I had a meeting with the Dark Lord, he has agreed with me that the Order has gone too far. Apparently kidnapping innocent women is going to be their first move so I made a quick counter of my own." Draco drawled before draining his glass.
"What did you do?" Theo demanded, his voice sounding slightly hysterical.
"I have the Weasley woman...and I may have burned their shack to the ground." Draco shrugged dismissively as he poured another drink.
"And while you have been doing that I have been spreading the word to some of our less reputable sources. We should have word in a few hours where they took them." Lucius swaggered into the room imperiously, a sneer on his face.
"Thank you, Mr. Malfoy." Theo said in a weak voice, the events of the day finally settling on his shoulders.
"Oh, father spreads some gold around a whorehouse and gets thanks but I lower myself to snatching the red headed whale of a blood traitor and I get nothing?" Draco sneered derisively. Narcissa glided into the room gracefully, her grey eyes wet with unshed tears.
"So, you didn't find her?" Narcissa clucked impatiently as she sat beside her husband, smoothing down her skirt. "Why is there blood on your shirt?"
"Urgh, I'll need to shower and burn those. Weasley blood." Draco sneered and used his wand to try and clean his skin. "One of the spawn tried to protect his mother, he burned with the building."
"We haven't had much violence in over a year..." Narcissa said thoughtfully.
"Yes well, the Dark Lord wanted to prove he was benevolent. He allowed the wizarding world to go back to order once the ministry was infiltrated. Mudbloods in their place, Diagon Alley and Hogwarts are open and fully operational. Most of the public had stopped fighting. However, he said from the beginning that if the order strikes out, we were to use any means necessary to cull them." Lucius said shortly as he looked at the clock. It was well past two in the morning, he was shocked his wife was still awake. Her potions usually had her retiring for bed at half eight.
"You think the order did this?" Narcissa said sharply, sneaking a fearful glance at her son.
"Who else? They have been talking about Maia's arrival for months, I just didn't think they would have the stones." Lucius scowled, Theo raised his head to glare at the elder Malfoy.
"You knew?! You knew they were a threat to her and you didn't think it relevant to tell me?" Theo demanded angrily.
"Maia does not venture out of the wizarding world, we believed she would be safe in the alley with your wife." Narcissa interjected coolly.
"So, Daphne was in danger due to her friendship with your wife and you didn't think to let me, your mate, know?" Theo turned his accusatory gaze to the blonde sitting beside him.
"No, I didn't. Perhaps I should floo Blaise, I did snatch his darling mummy-in-law." Draco said absently.