Chapter 3

Draco could not stop hearing his cousin's words in his head. That he was nothing like his mother and father. All he had ever wanted to be when he was young was like his dad. Of course, he knew he wasn't perfect. But he wanted to be a little like him – like the good bit of him.

But what Lucius and Narcissa had Sirius known?

Every time he thought he had got used to the idea his dad had not always been reformed as he was then, it hurt every time a little more that he had been bad in the past.

With the chance that second war was coming, he was beginning to wonder just how bad the man he had proudly called dad for so long had been.

The Quidditch World Cup for him he did not think could come quick enough. Whether he was playing or he was watching Quidditch never failed to divert his attention.

He didn't know why. Maybe it was just a boy thing as he was yet to come across a boy who did not like Quidditch but when he was near a game; it just took his thoughts away from everything else that had been going on in his life.

Maybe that was why the day after he had seen his cousin he went out flying for the morning. It was not the game but it was the next best thing to it.

"He is acting odd." Said Jane as she watched him out of the window. "Is he ok, do you know?" she said to her boss and friend.

"I have an inkling but it is nothing to worry about I don't think," Lucius said to her. "It is no worse than what he has got up to in the past."

A look through the grounds had told him that Black was, as he thought, gone from his property.

She looked at him knowing he was going to say no more on the matter but wishing that he would. She was of the opinion that there had already been too many secrets and lies between them over the years.

But she knew he was the parent here and no matter what, she was never going to be blood. So at times, she had to accept what he said.

Looking out the window once more she saw that Draco had landed and was coming up towards them.

"Are you ok, my darling?" she asked as he came in and he nodded.

"Just fine Jane. Getting ready to go to the match." He told her.

"Yes, I am sure you boys are going to have a great time." She nodded.

"What? You're not coming?"

"Not this year honey, someone has to stay here and look after Max and I am sure as hell not leaving him with the house elves."

She had to say as much as she did like going to the odd game, she had been pleased to have the excuse to stay home that year. She was not in her twenties anymore and big crowds had never been her favourite place to be.

She had decided a weekend on her own would be quite nice and she and Max could go on some lovely long walks why the boys did some male bonding or whatever they did when she was not there, which was not often any more. As much as she knew and loved the fact they didn't mind her living there, she was sure they needed time for one another sometimes.

"Are you sure you don't want to come with us? It's be good." He said as he sat next to her and let her put her arms about him.

"No, darling, I am going to stay here. We can do stuff together when you guys get back though."

"Absolutely. France, right dad?"

"Yes, we can go out for a few weeks before you go back to school. After all, you are going to need a rest before you go back in. Next year is going to be a big one for you kids. Makes me wish I was a student myself still."

"Why dad, what's going on?" asked Draco now curious as to what his father was going on about.

To him, most terms were big ones but it definitely sounded as if his dad was going on about something a little more specific.

"Well that would be telling," his father teased and Jane laughed a little in a way that told him she was in on it as well.

"What's going on? You cannot just leave me hanging like that."

"Can I not?"

"No it's... cruel – Jane, tell me!" he said as he snuggled deeper in to her arms.

"Without my employers instruction I could not possibly divulge such classified information."

"You are both just mean!" he said to her as he broke free of her grasp. "Dad come on..." he said to him walking up and leaning on the arm of his chair.

"Nope." Said Lucius who wanted to enjoy the secret for just a little longer.

Draco was disappointed further that day when Lucius did give him a piece of information – but not the one he wanted.

He had been getting on with his studies in his room when his father came in. And he had known straight away from his demeanour what he had wanted to talk about.

"So you have spoken to Sev then?"

"Yes, I have." Said Lucius and he sighed. The one thing he had never had to worry about was the relationship between the man he saw as a brother and his son. Lucius sat down on his son's bed.

"I knew you were angry with him about Lupin but not to say good bye Draco..."

"Better that than row at the train station."

"Well, yes, it is never good to brawl in public but the least you should have done is go down to the dungeons. You do it every time before you come home."

"Then it would not have killed him to come up to the tower for once would it?"

"Draco, that would hardly have been professional."

"Well, that's irrelevant because it would have been a personal matter…"

He was sure he was being deliberately awkward about this on purpose.

"Son, I know you don't like it when he goes into professor mode but he was doing his job."

"So it his job to be a complete idiot is it?"

"Draco." his father said knowing he was not going to have to say anything else for Draco to take his meaning.

The younger of the two Malfoy men shock his head.

"Well the good news is that tonight at dinner the two of you are going to be able to work it through."

"What? He is coming here?"

"I don't know why it is such a shock when he has come here for the last fourteen years of your life." Lucius said with raised eye brows. "And he is simply coming for dinner with the friends he looks on as his family and I do hope you are going to be a little more gracious to him when he gets here."

"Whatever dad."

()()()()

"Oh my, he is a teenager now isn't he?" said Lucius as he came down the stairs making Jane laugh out loud.

"So I take it, it did not go so well when you told him Severus was coming here for dinner."

Lucius shook his head and sat down.

"He is not a little boy any more Lucius."

"No, his not. It is a shame Eliza is not here to help us. She would have been good with him at the moment." Ever since he had been a small boy she had believed in a firm but fair approach to bringing kids up and when she had thought Draco was being too cheeky she had never thought twice about telling him to watch his tongue. Draco and Eliza would have been at logger heads at that moment, for she had always been of the old school, but at least he would have had someone on his side who saw it from his point of view.

He was grateful for Jane but she was like - the pair of them were far too indulgent and always had been. Eliza would have been more of a sparring partner for him – and maybe that was what he needed.

She knew how much he missed her. He felt as if he had lost his mother when she had died. It was not the sort of thing you just got over.

"We can help him though," said Jane to him gently.

Lucius nodded. He knew that. He just wished the elder women was there to tell him what he had been like when he had been his sons age – that this was all normal and this was nothing to worry about.

But then Draco had always taken himself seriously. Especially when not came to what was wrong and right. His little Master Morality had always spoken his mind.

So when six o'clock rolled around and Severus came over, for the first time in a year there was a tension among them as they sat down for dinner.

The year before he and Lucius had had trouble between them to say the least. But they had worked through it.

Severus had perhaps been the one who had been most appalled by the diary incident. Certainly, he had been the one who had taken the longest time to come around. Part of Lucius said that was because the two of them had not been struck under the same roof together. He had had time to dwell on it where as he, his son and Jane had had to get on with living together.

Even to that day he was sure Severus did not trust him as he once had. He did not feel the closeness he had had to him when Draco had been nothing more than a baby.

But then that was in his friend's personality. He had never found forgiveness an easy thing to give.

And now that went for his son as well he thought.

The four of them sat round the table as they had so many times in the past.

Jane cleared her throat. She had to say she hated it when they were like this with one another, the men who she thought as her boys. It just felt all wrong to her. It was so unnaturally for them not to be laughing when they were together. They should be having fun while they could.

"So Severus have you got any plans for the summer?" she asked pleasantly

"None at present accept my research." He said to her.

"Not going to the world cup then?"

He shook his head.

"Result."

It was the first comment Draco had said either to or about his uncle since he had got there.

"Draco!" scolded Jane.

"What?"

"You know what you are doing and I think it would be a lot pleasanter for all of us if you would stop acting like a spoiled child." His father added on.

"You know what, whenever anyone bullies anyone else it gets them in to trouble but it is as if you lot just accept it with him." said the younger Malfoy as he put down his cutlery. He had not had much of an appetite that day anyway.

"Draco, if you were listening on the night that Black escaped, I am sure you heard that they were the ones who bullied me when we were at school. In fact, had I not been so rudely interrupted, I would have told you how he was very nearly the cause of my death."

"And you say other people are over dramatic," muttered Draco.

"Draco, I will not ask you again to be polite to our guest." His father warned.

"No dad. Lupin was good at his job and I loved his classes. And just because Severus can't let go of some teenager angst he lost his job."

"You're talking to me about teen angst?"

Silenced by his father, Draco scowled his way through the meal.

()()()

"I am so sorry about that, Severus; I am not entirely sure what has got in to that boy of late." Said Severus as they returned his study after the meal.

Some traditions of their friendship had continued.

"As you pointed out at the table it was teen angst."

Lucius rolled his eyes. He knew his father would never have allowed him such an indulgence when he was Draco's age. In fact, he was sure if at his son age he had made an outburst at the table such as that then his father would have made sure his bottom was shade darker when he went to bed that night.

But then he had lived in the social world when he had been young. He had, of course, retreated from it when his wife had died. He hadn't remarried and after the last social event that the Malfoy's had held had gone so tragically wrong he had never had the heart to go back in to it.

Of course, he and Jane had held parties for intimate friends. But then they did that rarely. And never when Draco was home.

"Yes, well he is going to have to get over it pretty quickly as I am not going to have him like this all summer with you. Especially not when we go to France."

"Ah yes I meant to tell you already. Much to what I am sure is going to be Draco's disappointment, I am not going to be able to join you in France this year. Dumbledore says he needs at least one of us close by."

It did not take Lucius long to work out what he was talking about. They were the two spies he had against Voldemort.

Now Pettigrew was on his way back to him they both had to be careful.

Unlike Severus who had been a spy in the last war (Lucius was at times still surprised by that fact) this was going to be his first war in which he was going to be as it were fighting for the light (and that fact too shocked him.)

"Does he think anything is going to happen immediately?"

In the past year, the three of them had often had meetings at Hogwarts in which the professor had pushed the two of them to trust in one another completely for when the war did come they were only going to have one another to talk to. They had also spoken about conduct; how far to go in the line of duty and the very serious risk they were both taking. Lucius had been forced to accept that he might not see his son grow into his full manhood should things go terribly wrong...

There could not be any doubt or mistrust in the relationship between him and Severus anymore.

But the fact was there was some.

And he had a feeling there was always going to be after everything that had gone on.

They had lied to one another in the past at the same time as calling one another brother.

"No, but he does think something is going to come eventually and that we should be ready for it when it does."

Severus had to say ever since he had heard Dumbledore's plan he had never had a lot of faith in Lucius being a spy. He had lived a too privilege life. He was too comfortable. He wasn't spy material.

But then maybe that was the genius behind the plan.

"Of course, we are going to be. Should I remain here as well?"

"No, Lucius. You know as well as I do that we have to carry on as normal, especially at times such as these. You always take Jane and Draco away at this time of year. Your presence here at this time can be put down to the world cup for a period but you are going to have to eventually."

He nodded.

Lucius wondered when his life had got so complicated – but deep down he knew the answer to that.

When he had had a child.

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PS. I am loving writing teenage Draco!