Chapter 23

Draco Malfoy was not a happy little boy. He was a creature who had endured very little changed in what had been a fairly stable upbringing. There was very little in his life now that he did not remember from his earliest childhood days.

And so when things that were new did come into his life he knew he was quick to judge them. That was simply part of who he was.

That included people. And he knew from the start he did not like Maria Pilak.

It was the way that he had met her. He felt like she had been sneaking about with his papa and he did not like it.

He was a precocious child who knew his own mind. His father had made sure of that. But Lucius was in a new frame of mind.

As the three of them sat round the dinner table an awkward silence had prevailed. Two weeks had passed since the death of her parents and Maria was still enjoying the hospitality of the Malfoy family. More than once she had asked the lord of the manor if he wanted her to go. And each time he had told her that was not his wish.

Did he love her? No. could he love her? Absolutely not. That was what she had taught him over the last few months. There was never going to be another Narcissa. She had been a rare saint who had been sent to earth to join him for a time, but then she had been taken from him. He had to except that.

Over six years had passed.

But was he able to mourn her, love her and enjoy companionship from who he hoped would be a friend to him till the end of his days? Yes he felt sure he was able to do that. And if she was there to be a bed mate for him as well all the better.

He was a young man still. And he still felt desire. That was what Maria arose in him. But not love.

Never love. Lust only.

He had come to the conclusion that there was only one person left on earth who he could still love with his whole heart and that was his son. Though he was being difficult about Maria.

But then he was so rarely met knew people. Maybe Eliza had been right. He had kept the boy too isolated. If he was going to be the leader when he got to Hogwarts then he had to learn that there was more to life than the two of them, Jane and Eliza.

"Eat Draco." The little one had hardly had one mouthful of his chicken stew.

"I do not want it papa." He said stubbornly.

"Then it can be put away till tomorrow night. You'll be hungry by then no doubt, but it will not taste so nice." He said to him. They may have plenty of money but that did not mean he was not going to teach his son the value of what they had been blessed with.

"It doesn't taste nice now."

"Oh I am sure that isn't true," said Maria. "I'm sure it is very tasty. Just have one spoonful."

"I'm not a baby!" he retorted sharply when he heard the patronizing tone in her voice.

"Draco you will not speak to our guest in such a manner do I make myself clear?" asked Lucius angrily. The girl had just lost her mother and father and the last thing she needed was him misbehaving himself.

Draco sat in his chair and sulked but his expression was such that his father knew instinctively it was going to make no difference whether he reasoned with him or not.

"Draco if you are going to sulk all evening then do me a favour and go to your room so that at least the rest of us can enjoy a pleasant evening."

He, loudly, pushed his chair back, got down and walked over to the door, which he slammed on his way out.

"I think it is my presence which is upsetting the boy. I should go."

"No he should not be such a brat. Maria you have done nothing wrong and I will not allow you to leave my house for such a reasons." He said to her. "He has to learn."

"Still I cannot help feeling..."

"Well do my dear Maria." He said to her.

-

"You have to get used to other people young man it is the way of the world. You want to do your father praise don't you?"

"Of course I do."

Gentle Jane looked down on her charge. She knew him and she knew he was going to put up a fight about Maria if he had his way. She knew him.

"Well then you are going to have to be more hospitable to your father's friends."

Draco stayed silent. He didn't want to be kinder too her. He wanted to be horrible to her so that she would go and leave the people who actually belonged at the Malfoy manor to it.

"Oh Draco please try to like her. She seems nice enough. And she has not been horrible to you has she?"

"No."

"Well then I am sure she just wants to be your friend."

"Do you like her Jane?"

Silence. Draco knew he had scored a point whatever she said now because the fact was that she didn't like Maria any more than Draco did. In her eyes she had done nothing but disrupt the running of the house hold and upset Draco. Jane was the nearest thing he had ever had to a mother and she was just as protective as one.

"My opinion counts for very little. I am not a Malfoy and I am a women Draco." She said to him as she gave him a knowing look. The two of them were in agreement over Maria but that did not mean they could do anything about it. They were both prisoners of Lucius will.

"Bed, my young man." She said suddenly. "Let's regain you your papas favour shall we? I heard you left dinner under quite cloud."

-

Draco thought long and hard about what Jane had said that night to him and how unfair it was that some one life her who had been with them for so, long had absolutely no say in who was in her life or not. She seemed very submissive to his father and while it had always been the case he didn't think he had ever noticed it so acutely before.

Time for a change of tactic he thought to himself. Getting Maria out of his life was going to be impossible if he wasn't playing along.

So Draco got up early the next day and went down for breakfast early. He checked the dining room but seeing no one was there (but three places had been set for the meal), he went down to his father's office.

Knocking, he waited for permission to go in.

"Enter!" Lucius called.

He was doing paper work sorting through business. It was rare that his little son came into he him at this time but he looked as if he had something to say to him. Going round the other side of the desk, he allowed his father to pop him onto his lap. Lucius might have been angry with him the night before but it rarely lasted.

"I want to say sorry for being difficult last night daddy. I didn't eat my meal and I know I was nasty to Maria. I didn't mean to be. I know she is sad enough without me adding to it."

He didn't mean it and his father somehow knew that. He didn't understand why he had taken against her so much but he was grateful for the thought at least. Draco obviously wanted to get back in his good books and Lucius hated it when he had to punish his son. His boy was and always had been his best friend since the day he was born.

"Alright Prince," he said as he kissed his head and embraced him. "but I don't think I am the one who you should be apologising too, do you?"

"No. And I will say sorry to Maria when we are at breakfast." He offered. His father appeared satisfied and he lent back into his arms and let him cuddle him for a moment. Lucius inwardly realised the older the boy got the less he was going to allow him to do this, after all his son was already six. Six years had passed?

Really?

No... They couldn't have he thought to himself.

"Ok little man." He said as he kissed his forehead.

The two sat there for half an hour before they headed to breakfast find Maria already there. She had a tentative smile on her face for Draco.

"Sorry." he said as he came in. "for last night."

There was something insincere about it and just as his father picked up on it, so did she and it stung her. She had to say after the week of being there with them the only Malfoy man she liked was Lucius. How much easier it would be if Draco went to Hogwarts already.

"It's ok," she said to him. A fake apology was better than no apology at all she guessed but she did scowl a little and Draco saw it, but his father did not as Lucius had been picking up the daily prophet.

"Well I am had you two are getting on again!" he said and simultaneously Draco and Maria thought 'Again?'. They had never got on in the first place.

"Yes," agreed Maria anyhow. "I think we will get on much better now, wont we?"

Draco noted the same patronizing tone in her voice that had been there the day before. But he decided to ignore it. He had only just made up with his father and she was not worth falling out about again.

"Yes."

"I was thinking Draco, why don't we go for a walk later. I feel as if we should get to know one another a little better."

"Master Draco has his lessons to attend to Miss Maria," offered Jane who had come into the dining room quietly and sat immersed in a book.

"Well I am sure he can have one afternoon of Jane. You have been working hard lately haven't you?" his father said. "No, I think a walk is a very good idea. Get some air into those lungs of yours."

Draco gave Jane a grateful look. At least she had tried to get him out of it. No he would just have to endure it.

-

At three o'clock the two of them left the house together, with Lucius watching them go. He was glad they were going to get on with any luck. He didn't want Draco to be upset but he did not want Maria to go. She was agreeable. God knows how long it would take to find another agreeable women in society.

"Why don't we go into this garden?" suggested Maria. She was pointing to the rose garden.

"No," objected her small companion. "That was my mothers." He was not going to go in there with her. That was private. It was sacred.

Maria nodded and so they walked on till they found a garden which was agreeable to both of them. They were far from and well out of the view of the manor. There was no way Lucius could see them through all the hedges there. Finding a bench Draco say down with her and was silent. He could think of nothing to say. They had nothing in common and he did not want to have anything in common with her.

"You don't like me do you?" she suddenly asked.

Without the presence of his father or Jane, Draco felt no reason to lie.

"No. And I don't think you like me either?"

"That's not true." She lied. "In fact I like you so much that I want you to play a game with you."

"A game. Ok."

"Would you like you know how to play?"

"Ok."

"All you have to do... is pinch me." Draco was so shocked for as moment that he did thing. Why would anyone want someone else to pinch them? For a game?

"Go on," urged Maria.

He nodded and as she showed him her bear arm he did as he was told and he pinched her. In a way it felt good. Given the chance to hurt her he dug his little nails in to her skin.

When he turned his head to face her again he had a small smile on his face.

"Right," Maria nodded. "That was good." But as he watched her he noticed something new come into her eyes, a darkness. Her eyes were menacing. "Now, it's my turn!" she declared.

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