Chapter 52
29th May 1993
A much more together Lucius sat at his desk keeping up with his correspondence. Almost a month had elapsed since he had had a drink. It got easier not to touch the bottle every day he found.
It was the kind of day that put you in a good mood just because the sun was shining outside and the closer it came to summer, the nearer it was to Draco's return, improving Lucius' mood even further.
He had to say when they had reconciled at Christmas, he had been worried they were not going to be as close as they had been previously even when he made it back for the summer but as it was that was not the case, he found. The lad was still his darling boy and he was so sweet in his letters to him. He was sure he could not know more about what his son did in his school day even if he were to live at Hogwarts they were filled with that much detailed.
He was very pleased with his son all in all.
He had to say the letters had lost a little of there zest over the past few weeks though and he guessed that was because what had happened to the Granger girl.
She had been petrified.
Poor little Ginny Weasley... he wondered if she knew what had happened or how she had got the diary.
He could only imagine what was going to happen when his lord returned which he knew he was going now. How he was going to be honoured...
He had been sitting there for a while when he saw the fire spark. Someone was dropping by. He had wanted to be by himself but when he saw the face he smiled.
"My boy," he said as he got up from behind his desk. Not once had he fire called him from school."How can I help....Draco?" the panic came into his voice as soon as he saw his face. Even in the fire he was able to see his sons upset.
He seemed to be crying.
"Dad... dad you h-have to help me-e! I can't do this anymore-e...."
Lucius looked at him utterly confused. How had this happened and what had happened to be precise?
"Draco where are you fire calling from?"
But the boy was too distraught to tell him. He had only ever been once before. The image of his six year old son with his body black and blue was before his eyes and he could not keep himself from panicking.
"Where are you Draco?" he said his voice stronger than he had intended it to be.
"In Uncle Sev's rooms-s-s. Dad please help me, I can't do this anymore!"
"Can't do what? Draco, get out the fire – I am going to come through and then I am going to do whatever I can to help you, I swear it!"
His son nodded and he went out of the flames as quickly as he had come into them.
Without giving anything else a second thought he grabbed the flu powdered and went through to the rooms of Severus Snape to find they were empty.
"Draco?" he called. He had to with his son, he had to be!
He had been so upset; he had only ever been like that once before.
That had been over Maria...
Draco lay on the bed. He had petrified many people over the year and yet no matter what he had done he had never felt like this.
But now Hermione Granger was lying in the hospital wing.
Tears rolled down his cheek. She had been a good friend to hm. She had caused him a lot of heart ache but she had been his friend, and he had hurt her.
And he just knew he couldn't go on that way much longer.
The weeks that followed he knew he was under the control of Tom Riddle completely. It was he who told Severus that he was fine and kept him from even noticing much was wrong. He made sure he smiled and nodded at all the right times and he made sure he wrote loving long letters home.
As for his dorm mates, they knew he was by nature a quiet boy who liked solitude often.
He wished he had not let himself guilt himself back into writing to Tom, he knew it had been wrong! He knew it had never been right and now he had no one to turn to and Tom was not letting him breakthrough of the vice like grip he had on his actions.
Somehow he wondered if it would be easier if he knew his dad was still mad at hm. To have Lucius but not to be able to go to him was worse.
So many times he had wanted to go to him and tell him what Tom was doing to him, tell him what Tom was making him do.
His dad would make it stop he was sure. But there was not time for that anymore.
Lucius burst out of his friend's apartments and he did not bother to shut the door on the way out. He had to get to his son, he just had too.
He had not felt such a need to get to him in so long and it was killing him that he did not know where he was when he had been in the fire all of a few minutes before. He begun to doubt his judgement and he wished he had heard the boy out. But he had been dying to get them in the same room and hold him as soon as he had seen he was so upset.
What was so wrong with him? What had happened? It was so uncharacteristic for him to be in that state.
Memories kept attacking him, the wedding and the days after and he felt as if he was going to drawn in them. There was just no way out from the memories. They had a hold on him and only one person could release that.
"DRACO!" he yelled as he ran through the dungeon. He knew he should lower his voice – the last thing he wanted was for him to think he was angry but he had to find him and he did not think he was able to control his own emotions enough to lower his voice at that moment. Where was he? "DRACO?"
Footsteps behind him. He turned.
"Severus, tell me where he is?" he demanded, unable to think of the consequences if he did know where he was.
"I don't know where Draco is," The Potions Master returned. Had it been in any other situation Severus knew he would have made his old friend aware of just how much of an idiot he had been of late but the fact he was in such a state was no laughing matter.
"But he used your fire to call me, did you know not?" his panic only growing with the realisation Draco had not even felt he was able to ask to use the fire.
Whatever was happening to him, it was bad. He had felt he had been unable to go to his beloved Uncle Sev for help...
"You have to help me find him. I don't know what has happened, but – Severus, it makes me think of the way he was after Maria."
The camaraderie between the two old friends was restored in a heartbeat and it was as if they had never been apart.
He had been a fool Severus thought but it was obvious no father deserved to go through what Lucius was at that moment. It was written all over his face how hurt he was and how desperate.
"We will find him." the resolve and the determination in Severus voice comforted Lucius if only for a moment.
The two of them had been on there way to the lower dungeons on there search when over the school system they heard the command for students to go to their houses and teachers to report immediately to the second floor corridor.
They run as fast as they could. What with the chamber business going on they knew if the students were sent to their dorms then this was not good.
Part of Lucius wanted to go to the Ravenclaw tower. But he knew his son was not going to be there. Every paternal bone in his body to him his son was in danger.
Even as he ran faster than he had in years he felt as if he was a lion who had been caged. There was nothing he hated more than being powerless. He could go far and wide, but until he had his son in his arms he was going to be shut off from the world.
When they got to the corridor none of the teachers except Dumbledore were able to look at him. They looked away and they looked as if they were full of pity for him.
And it was only when he saw the writing on the wall that he understood why.
His body will lay in the chamber forever.
He didn't have to be told who 'he' was.
His blood ran cold. He fell to his knees. He shook his head as everything else got further and further away.
When Cissy had died he had been in pain. But as soon as he realised just what had happened who had had the diary all year, he felt as if the world was at its end and as if things were never going to be ok. When Cissy had gone he had had Draco to keep him going – but without his treasured son he was nothing.
He remembered how he felt when he had been in Azkaban – that was nothing compared to the way he felt at that moment.
He had brought harm to his boy, his sweet, trusting, darling of a son.
He had done this – he had done it. There was no Maria to blame.
The cry that came out of him was more akin to that of a wounded animal to a human cry. Lucius pulled at his hair – he did not want to be without his son for a moment longer. But he could not close the distance between them.
As Draco lay in the chamber he felt the presence of his mother. He knew as soon as he had arrived she was there for him and that he was not going to be alone.
Tom had explained to him what was going to happen – that he was going to die so Lord Voldemort might rise and he knew as long as she was there when the end came he didn't mind so much.
She just had to stay with him.
And as ever when he was in pain or he was in trouble she was there.
"Hang on sweetheart," she said as she strummed through his locks of fine hair and crowned his forehead with a kiss. "Help is on its way."
She was going to be damned if she felt him die now.
He didn't think he would mind though. At that moment the twelve year old was painfully aware of both his own mortally and the great love he had for his mother. He did not think he would mind eternity with her.
And so he did not reposed; he just bathed in her affection. He was aware that someone had arrived and was talking to Tom, but he was not sure he cared. If he was going to die then he wanted his last moments to be filled with love.
"You have to fight this Draco, your time has not yet come and I am not going to let you die," his mother warned.
When Jane walked into the staff room at Hogwarts, she felt as if she was going to be sick.
Severus had been the one to fire call her. She had been with the twins but of course she dropped everything when she heard what had happened.
Her face was pale and was wet with tears.
She saw she was the last to arrive Lucius and Severus were there as were the three Tonks who looked just as upset as she was by everything that had happened over the past few hours.
"I feel as if I cannot breathe." She announced as she went into the room.
Severus knew no one else was going to comfort her and so it fell to him to take her in his arms. She clung to him as a little scared sister might after she had gone to her elder brother after a storm in the night.
"I take it there has been no words of him as of yet," she said as she pulled back more tears falling.
"All we know is he is in the Chamber."
"The Chamber of Secrets?" she whispered. "It is not possible. No one knows where it is. It's a myth... nothing more than a legend or a spooky story," she tried to convince herself but the look he had on his faced told her he believed it was more than that.
And just like that it was as if her very life had come to its end. The only person in the room who looked sicker than she did was Lucius.
Sitting down she put her head between her knees knowing she had to get a grip of herself if she was going to be there for the lad she could not help but think of as her boy when he got out of the chamber. For anything else to happen was unthinkable. He would come out; and more than that when he did, he was going to be alive. He had to be alive.
As tear trickled down Nymph's cheek as she looked at the devoted governess who she knew Draco thought of as family. The fact that she had been called seemed to suggest that Lucius saw her that way too. But then she knew the three of them had been through stuff she only knew the half of when she had been young.
Lucius looked up and it was as if he had only just seen her enter the room though. He had only just noticed her. He remembered what he had said to her when he had seen her last and he hated himself even more if that was possible. His feelings were irrelevant though. He knew she would agree that the only thing that was even nearly important was the fact that they got Draco back.
He got up from where he had been sitting. On shaky legs he walked over to where his ex employee sat. She looked up when she saw him walk over to her and for the first time in his life that he was able to recall he took her into his arms and he just held her. To be together was the nearest thing they had to getting to Draco and until that happened, then he knew they were going to have to cling to one another if they were going to survive this.
Even as he held her though he knew he had to tell her what he had done. Even though people knowing was useless now – Draco was going to be out of there reach no matter what. He felt he had to unburden his conscience now he had found the power of speech once more. He did not even remember how he had got to the staff room.
Severus must have brought him.
Severus. He had to tell him as well he thought as he looked at the Potions Master who looked as if he too was struggling not to throw up.
In an odd way it was worse than when they had found out about Maria – at least they had been with Draco and they had been able to comfort and hold him. It was a luxury now of them had at that moment.
"Jane darling?" he said releasing he had never used such an endearment for her before. She had always been a darling but he had never acknowledged it.
Suddenly he was thrown back to times when he had had to butter up his wife when he had done things wrong – he would always begin 'Cissy darling.' But he could not think of her in that moment because he knew were she there at that moment she would kill him on the spot and she would feel no guilt whatsoever for it either.
It didn't matter that she had loved him; from the moment she had learned she was having a baby she had loved Draco more.
"What is it?" said Jane as she pulled back. She didn't want to though. She didn't think she was going to be able to hold herself up and that was why they had to hold one another up, she said to herself.
"It's my fault. This is entirely my fault."
Severus turned when he heard that knowing from the moment he had heard it this was more than just him feeling guilty; far more than not being there when Draco had need him to him.
He knew he had been involved.
But Jane shook her head.
"Don't say that. We don't know anything for sure yet. Let's just wait until we have Draco back and then we can start playing the blame game ok?" she said as she reached out and brushed one of his many tears off of his cheeks.
"But that is the thing; I do know why he is down there and how he got there."
For a moment she seemed to freeze before she shook her head and put her hand to his lips.
"Please Lucius – just don't say anything more. Don't say anything that is going to make me hate you," she said as her hands shook.
Andromeda and Ted watched with their daughter as this exchange played out and while Andromeda was desperate to know what her brother in law had done to her nephew, she was beginning to see a new side to Jane as well. One that meant she was utterly able to control Severus and Lucius with a single look.
She had got that from Eliza, whose natural heir Jane was.
"I gave Ginny Weasley a diary when we were at Diagon Alley in the summer."
"Stop it…"
"But it was not just any diary. It was the diary of the Dark Lord."
"P-p-please stop."
"Lord Voldemort's diary."
"Voldemort?" whispered Andromeda unable to believe that he had said his lord's name but then they all knew there was something much greater than him to fear at that moment.
The last Black sister looked at him with all the venom she knew would be going through her sister were she there herself to protect her son that day.
Jane in the mean time had got up just so she did not have to be by the side of the man she had once called her master. She did not think she ever wanted to be near him again, but knowing she had to be held up in that moment though she went straight back to Severus who was kind enough to take her into his arms once more. His lips met her forehead and they held one another again as a brother and sister, but more like siblings who had lost a parent in that moment. Jane's respect for Lucius was utterly gone. She did not think she was ever going to get over what she had just heard.
"Oh my god, if you think you are ever seeing him again you're an idiot." Andy said to Lucius.
"That is if any of us ever see him again," muttered Jane into Severus as a heart rendering sob came out of her. Whatever she had thought had happened when she had got the call she did not think it was going to tear her whole world apart which it had.
She just wanted Draco. All any of them wanted was Draco.
"So we are going back to the custody court are we?" whispered Lucius as he recalled how helpless he had felt when he had got out of jail before and yet when he had got to the court room all his son had wanted was to be back in his arms.
All his son had ever wanted was to be with him.
He shut his eyes as Andromeda's voice rose. And there he was. When he shut his eyes he saw the happy little lad who had asked him to play hide and go seek with him when he had been nothing more than a baby.
All Draco had ever wanted was for him to be a good dad to him and yet he had never been enough of a man to be there for him, he thought to himself.
All these years Andromeda had been right he thought to himself. Had she got custody that day then Maria would never had got near him.
"Ok," he said as he looked up at her. Cut off mid rant Andy looked at him quizzically. "You can have custody of my little dragon... my prince." He whispered, feeling utterly defeated.
Ready to give up almost... or he had been...
"Take it back or I swear I am going to kick the absolute crap out of you," said Severus to him.
Lucius looked at his friend and he had the same steely look in his eye that he had seen so many before as he continued to hold on to Jane.
Severus sneered at Andromeda."He didn't mean it so don't get your hopes up."
"Oh yeah?" Andromeda said fired up. "And you're going to stop me are you?"
"Well I don't know about that, but I reckon Draco might have something to say about it," A voice from the door way said. Turning round Andromeda sighed as Jane shrieked. Ron Weasley, who the voice had come from was flanked by Harry Potter. Behind them Dumbledore stood with a sleeping, pale, battered and bruised little blonde haired boy in his arms. The same one who held all their hearts in the middle of his palm.
"Lucius," Dumbledore said seriously. "I think once I have dropped this one off at the hospital wing, we really need to have a talk."
"I am not leaving him."
Lucius seemed to recover himself as soon as he saw his son and he had soon walked over to the headmaster with open arms expecting to receive his baby into his arms, but Dumbledore did not hand him over.
"Lucius, I really think it is in your best interest to come and talk to me, if you do want to keep your son that is."
Of course he did. As soon as he saw his son Lucius had realised it was nothing but the grief talking. How could he ever consider giving up his son, Narcissa's son!
The elder Malfoy spied the diary he had once had in his own possession in the hands of Harry Potter and it was at that moment he knew he was going to have to bow to the will of the muggle loving headmaster.
Reaching out he knew he run his hand though Draco's hair. He leaned over and kissed his head. "It's all ok, dad's here. I'm here now."
"Miss Jane, if you want to stay with Draco when he gets to the hospital wing I think that would be agreeable to the boy. However, Severus I think it is best if you come with me and Lucius. I may need your assistance."
Author Note: Hey all! I hope you enjoyed the chapter. The next is likely to be posted on the 15th/16th just to let you know as I am in the mist of exams now. It is pretty much my last 'big twist' and I hope you will all like it. Just to let you know, we are heading in to the final chapters now (probably about five more to come.) However; there will probably be a sequel just because of what happens in the next chapter as I think it will really shake things up for the future books. I'm going to have to see the plot through. Anyway, I hope your all well! And as ever...
Please review!
PS: a milestone for me! Fathers Son is now the longest story I have ever written!