Chapter 26

Lucius was having what could only be counted as a bad day. He knew he was going to have to stay later than he had intended too. Meetings had been cocked up and he had a mountain of paper work to do. He knew he could very well walk away from it and do it in the morning, but the sooner he got it all done the better the thought to himself. Then the next day wasn't going to be so bad.

Owling the restaurant, he changed the time of the table to two hours later. Once they had confirmed it was fine, he fluued into the fire place and called Maria.

"I have had to change the time of the restaurant to seven," he said to her. "It's been a hell of a day. Can you send an elf to the Tonks' and tell them I am going to be late to pick up Draco?" he asked.

"I thought you don't want me involved where they are concerned," she teased him.

"Well, they are going to have to get used to it. Can you do it or not?" he snapped harshly.

"Of course," she said taken aback. Without another word he left the fire place. She felt quite put out by that. She was going to be his wife but that did not mean he could talk to her in such a manner. She walked back to the sofa, and picked up her book and continued as if nothing had happened.

---

"Draco come on honey, it's nearly five, put your shoes on darling. Dad will be here to get you soon." Said Andy as she watched him play. He had been so much fun for her and Ted that day. It had been so lovely to have him to themselves. They missed having a child about the place and he was the perfect anecdote to all that.

Ted, who was so good with him, helped him put his shoes on. "What are we going to have for tea tonight, as we are not so lucky as Draco going to a restaurant then Andy?"

"I am going to do scampi and chips. It's your uncle Ted's favourite Draco!" Andy told him. Behind her back Ted made a face to Draco telling him that whatever he thought of his wife's cooking, it was most definitely not his favourite dish.

Draco giggled out loud.

"What are you two laughing at?" Andy asked.

"Nothing my dear, nothing!" said Ted in mock adoration.

Draco laughed harder.

"You behave young man or I'll have to tell daddy what a bad boy you've been," Andy teased, but there was an instant change in her nephew. "Ok sweetie calm down. It was just a joke."

But that wasn't a joke to the little boy any more. Draco wanted his father. He had missed him that day, as they had had such a good time over the weekend. What Andy had said had reminded him of everything Maria had told him over the past few weeks.

He wanted Lucius. Going over to the window, he looked out of it and waited for him.

"Sweetie ,he really is going to be here any minute, come away from the windows. He is going to think we have been torturing you all day or something," Andy begged her nephew but he wouldn't.

"I want my dad," he said to them. Ted looked confused at Andromeda. He had always been a daddy's boy but he never waited for him so desperately. Not when he had been with them any way.

Five minutes. Ten minutes. Fifteen. Twenty.

Why hadn't he come for him yet?

"In fact I think if your daddy knew he might even want a new little dragon. Give you to some poor half blood couple or mudblood couple. You could go to your aunties and uncles and never come back."

Never come back...

That was it, wasn't it? He hadn't come back for him, because he wasn't going too. He didn't like him and wanted a new son.

Draco began sobbing. The boy who never cried in front of his aunt and uncle wailed out loud. Something was truly distressing him realised Andy. Draco didn't do tantrums. At least, not like this.

"Oh, honey pie, he is coming," she said but he shook his head as if there was something he knew that she didn't. Dodging the offers of comfort they provided he ran into the kitchen and hid under the table where he could cry uninterrupted.

Until that day Andy had not thought it possible for a boy to cry do hard for so long. She knelt down by him, trying to reach him to comfort him but he wasn't having any of it. He cried harder the closer she was to him. More than once she had to leave the room because she found it too hard watching him work himself into such a state. This was not ... him.

Something must have happened.

"Where the hippogriff is he?" Ted asked her and she shrugged. All she hoped was that he came soon.

-

Lucius at last left the office. The day from hell was over he told himself. Soon he was going to be enjoying the company of his son and Maria. Smiling, he walked along the ministry to the exit. Exiting going out the visitors entrance, he apperated to the Tonk's cottage. He hadn't wanted to get ash all over himself if they were going to dinner, which in actual fact he was beginning regret. He wanted to go home and put his feet up, but oh well....

He had said he was taking them out. And that was that.

Knocking on the door he waited on the doorstep. Looking through the glass he saw nothing for a while. But when a figure did appear it came towards the door quickly.

"Where the hell have you been? We were expecting you hours ago!"Ted demanded of him.

"Did Maria not send the elf, I told her too." He said confused. "They were meant to tell you I was going to be late getting him tonight."

"No, she bloody well didn't." He said as he shut the door behind Lucius. The first thing he heard when he got into the house was sobbing.

Heading in the direction of the noise, he walked into the kitchen where he had left his happy son that morning and found Andy sitting on the floor by the table.

"Talk to him." She shook her head as a tear slipped down her cheek. She had never been so glad to see Lucius Malfoy. Her nephew had thrown her back that day to when she had had him for the first time when he was a baby and how impossible it had been to comfort him when the only person in the whole world that he wanted, he couldn't have.

-

Draco was shaking but he didn't know what to do. He had been told not to flu home but he wanted to. He didn't understand why his father had left him. Had Maria told him about the pinching? Bringing his hands up to his face he sobbed harder. He just wanted to go home, he wanted his daddy! And where was Maria? They were meant to be friends. Why was she letting his father do this to him?

"Daddy..." he sobbed as huge tears rolled down his face.

"Talk to him."

It was round that point he became vaguely aware that his aunt had stopped trying to get him to come out which was a good thing. He didn't want her. He just wanted his dad.

He sobbed with so hard that he had not seen the black shows or robes enter the room. As Lucius kneeled down he didn't register it.

All he could think of was what to do. Maybe he could run away, he loved his aunt and uncle but he didn't want to stay there. He wanted home! His bed, his blanket, Jane, his father...

"Daddy," he cried out again. Why hadn't he come for him? He hadn't meant to be such a bad boy!

"Yes son?" it was the first time in over an hour and a half he had stopped. Because his father's voice, velvet and soft answered him. He stopped, looked at him for a moment and then, as relief flooded his heart, sobbed even harder. He had come back for him.

"Oh come here little one," his father said, reaching under the table, Lucius took his sons little hand and help him crawl out from his position. He had seemed so small when he had been crouched under the table like that. He had been scared of something, thought Lucius. This wasn't upset, this was fear. But what was there to be scared about? He just didn't know what. Andy and Ted didn't have a clue either, though he felt he could kill them both for letting him get in to the state to begin with.

"Daddy..." Draco muttered once more as if he still couldn't believe it was him. Lucius didn't think he had ever seen him like this. He was looking at him as if they had not seen one another in years, not hours.

"Ok son, I'm here, ok, it's me. Come here, shh," he said as he pulled Draco into him. The little boy clung on as if he was going to disappear at any given moment. He had never felt clung like this before. He was shaking like a leaf being blown about in autumn. "It is all going to be ok."

"Daddy I d-d-d-didn't think –" Draco broken speech made it all the harder for him to convey what had happened to him.

"Deep breathes and tell me what it is, little one?" he said as he rocked him back and forth and kissed him.

"T-t-that you w-e-r-r-r-e," Draco said through quick sharp, panicking breaths. "C-c-c-omi-n-n-n-g."

Lucius looked at him in shock. Whatever he had been expecting to have been the cause of all this, it was not that. He thought that he was going to leave him? That he was going to leave him there... Where the hell had he got that idea?

Picking him up, he rubbed circles on his back like he had when he was a baby and continue to try and calm the fraught boy.

"Draco I am never going to not come back for you...how could you even think that? Draco, you're my baby, my son." He whispered to him. "I know you think you're growing big but you're still my little one. I am never going to not come back to you, for you! Come on, son, you know that." But he continued to shake as if he didn't believe it. Taking off his clock, Lucius awkwardly brought it round to wrap about his son.

"Do you want to go home dragon?" he asked, and Draco gave a small nod. "Ok then, we'll go straight home shall we?" again he nodded. "Ted, Andy." He said curtly and wept out of the house.

"Lucius!" Andy called after them. He brother in law, knowing he had little choice turned about quickly. "Flu me when he has calmed down."

-

"Ok shh," cooed Lucius. Gently he took his sons shoes off for him, and took his jumper off him too so he was just in his jeans and a T shirt. Draco had seemed to calm considerably the minute they had got home, but still he was boiling hot from where he had worked himself up so badly. Lucius hoped he wasn't going to get sick. "What's all this about little man?"

Stroking back Draco's sweaty hair from his forehead, he continued to rock him back and forth, back and forth trying to get him back to normal, but he didn't think they were going to get 'normal' that night. Just then his sons arm caught his eyes.

"Dragon, what's this?" he asked. Having taken off Draco's jumper he noticed he had a bruise on his arm. That was the curse and the advantage of the Malfoy skin. Being so pale it showed literally anything up so Lucius on the whole knew when his son had hurt himself.

But this seemed a few weeks old now. Had it really been so long since he had seen his son this close up.

"I banged myself daddy," he lied. He couldn't find out the truth!

"Did you?"

Draco nodded before collapsing back into his father's arms. He felt as if he had exhausted himself which was a fair assessment of what he had done. He shut his eyes knowing he just wanted to stay with him and sleep.

He was only vaguely aware of his father asking if he wanted a bath, himself nodding and within five minutes the two of them being together in the bathroom with his dad washing his hair for him as he sat in the tub. Normally it was Jane who did this now but his father had given him baths when he had been very small. The tub was just the right temperature and Draco relaxed it to it. Being just the two of them felt like the old days again and he was sure he felt much better just for having his father to himself for a while.

His father lifted him out into a warm towel and continued to look after him personally throughout the evening despite Draco on more than one occasion hearing Jane come to check in on him.

He felt only semi conscious he was that tired and he didn't remember ever feeling this exhausted. He came about again on his father's lap in the rocking chair. His father had covered him with his blanket and he felt better than earlier yet ashamed he had made such a show of himself.

"Sorry daddy," he said to him.

"No, Dragon it's me who's sorry. I shouldn't have trusted others to look after you. I should have brought the message myself that I was going to be late. You have nothing in this world to be sorry about." He told him gently.

"Then you don't think I have been bad lately?"

"No, why would I? I most certainly don't and that is why when I was on my lunch break today, I went and got three tickets to the next Kenmare Kestrels next game."

"For me, you and Uncle Severus?"

"Of course. The game is next Saturday."

"Alright!" beamed Draco. It was the first time he had seen his son smile all night long. Draco threw his arms about his father in a happy embrace, and he could see his son was still who he had always been.

"Draco, I do need to talk to you though."

Draco returned to how he had been sitting before and looked more solemn. He had known there was something else.

"Why did you think I was not coming to get you?"

"I don't know, you were just so late coming and I ... I dunno." He shrugged.

"Ok well for future reference son - There is never going to come a day when I don't come and get you. Wherever you are, it doesn't matter. I will always come back for you. It doesn't matter what other people say, it is me you listen to. I will come back for you. Do you understand?"

Draco nodded and pulled his blanket closer. He didn't want this moment to end. He had his father there with him.

No one and nothing else mattered to either of them.

Lucius sat there just content to be with his dragon. Gently stroking the boys cheeks with his thumb, he continued to cradle his son till he was a deep slumber. Again he was thrown back to all the sleepless night he had had with his son when he had been a baby. He admitted that during that period he had not always appreciated what he had had. Especially when he had known that he had an early start the next day. But it had always been him who had got up in the night. He would let the others look after him at day but not in the night. That had been when the boy had needed him the most.

What he wouldn't give for another sleepless night with his baby son. But he had grown now....

When he was sure that his little son was not going to be disturbed by it, he lifted him up and tucked him into bed. As he did so Draco reached out for his hand and would not let go of it. He wondered what that meant. That even in his sleep his son was desperate to hold on to his father. Gently soothing him, Lucius kissed his sons hand before tucking him in properly. "I love you." He told him before leaving the room. He left the night light on for a while.

Going down to Jane's room, he knocked on the door.

"Sir?" she asked.

"Can I ask you to do something beyond the call of duty tonight?" he asked her.

"Of course."

"I need you to stay with my son tonight in the rocking chair. I don't remember the last time I saw him so distressed and I would not have him alone tonight. If the boy shows a sign of discomfort - has a bad dream or asks for me, come and get me. It doesn't matter how late or early it is. Any time he wants me, I'll come."

"Of course."

"Thank you."

Turning to the stairs he raced down them to his office, where he found the nearest bottle of Fire Whiskey and down two glasses. He had stayed calm while he had been his son but he felt a fury in him. He had felt anything like it since he had been with Him. It was a feeling you only got when you knew something or someone you value more than yourself had been hurt. The vision of his son cowering under his aunt and uncles table was going to haunt him forever.

"Where the hell were you?" came a question from the open door. "I have been sitting in that restaurant for hours by myself thinking the two of you were going to come at any moment," she said to him.

"My sweet Maria – you bitch." He accused her.

Maria face fell. "I don't understand. What have I done to offend you?" she asked.

"You didn't send the elf, did you? To the Tonks." He asked with a mad glint in his eye. "My little son has been crying for hours because he was that scared I wasn't going to come back for him. Do you have any idea how it feels to be so powerless?" he asked her. It was quite clear to her that he had been drinking. "To be a father and know your little one is in pain?"

"But sir, I did!"

"Don't lie to me Maria."

"I did, I sent an elf! – he's name was Dabby, or Debby?" she tried to remember but his eyes lit up.

"You sent Dobby?"

She nodded.

"Well, in that case, my dear, I am mistaken," he said as he directed his anger away from her. Going over to her, he embraced and gave her a hard, firm kiss on her lip. "Go to bed and I promise I will make all this up to you in the morning."

She looked up at him with her big confused eyes. He supposed he must have scared her. He hadn't meant to. He really would make it up to her, he thought. "Go on my dear," he encouraged her. She left the room silently.

When he was sure she was far enough away, a sickening smile crossed his lips.

"DOBBY!" he yelled.

The house elf apparated into the room and didn't even get time to get his bearing before he was kicked violently across the room.

The house elf didn't know how long the beating went on for; only that he genuinely had no idea what he had done wrong.

Dobby only lost consciousness at the end when he felt his master heavy boot come down on his face.

AN: *sobs*

I feel so incredibly evil. As if it wasn't bad enough that Draco's going through hell, I've hurt Dobby! (Blame Maria, not me!)

Please review, though I acknowledge I deserve none after that...