Author Note (added 31st October): No Updates till December now guys as I am crazy enough to do Nano once more. Have a good November all!

Chapter 15

Lucius arrived at Hogwarts In the middle of the evening meal. He had planned it that way. Knowing he was going to have to walk up to the office of the headmaster, and knowing he had to get there quickly with the news he was carrying, it was one of those very rare days when he did not want to see his son.

Apart from anything else, he knew while the mask he put on could fool an awful lot of people, it rarely worked with his flesh and blood.

It had been an interesting night and an interesting meeting. After that first death eater meeting he had returned to, where he had got the shit kicked out of him and was hexed all the way to the next year, things had once more begun to get easier for him.

He did not think he was yet trusted by his comrades as he had been when they were first Death Eaters, but he did not think they suspected him of being a traitor either.

The thing that he did not think the Dark Lord took into account was that there were other, perhaps stronger bonds between most of his men than the ones he formed between them.

When he had had looked about the circle of death eaters that evening, he had seen the faces of the boys he had grown up with, the faces of the friends he had sleep over's with and first learnt how to fly with. The boys he'd shared dorms with, courted with.

Together, they had figured out how they were meant to talk to girls and how to be gentleman. They had fallen in love, side by side, they had been the best men at one another's weddings and they had been the first to be told whenever one of them had welcomed a new son.

No dark lord, no matter how hard he tried, was ever going to be able to make them forget those bonds.

In part, the friendship and the comradeship he had always felt for them made his job a lot harder than he wanted it to be.

He did not like betraying those he counted as his friends.

But then the thoughts of those who were not just his friends, but those who were his family came. Severus, Jane and Draco were the ones he was doing this for.

So that when all this was over the lot of them might have a life that was really worth something. He knew when the war did come to a close, or at least he hoped, a lot of those he had grown up with were going to go to jail for their crimes.

He was on the right side of the fence. And that was where he had to stay so; as soon as he had learnt the news, he had come right up to the school having sent a note to Dumbledore with just the time he was due to arrive on it.

The quick quotes quill that he had used to write it meant that even if it had been intercepted no one was going to be able to trace it back to him, not that anyone could figure anything out from just the time.

When he got to the office he found that the gargoyle was waiting open for him so he needed no pass word to get access to the quarters of the head master.

"Ah, Lucius. Good evening," said Dumbledore from behind the desk where he had been waiting to receive the man who was proving to be a rather good spy after all. They were going to make an Order member out of Malfoy senior yet, thought Dumbledore. "You have news for me I take it?"

Pleasantries were not really their thing.

Lucius was a man who liked to cut all the bull – and in spite of appearances at times that was something Dumbledore he found he was able to respect about the man.

"Peter Pettigrew – he is with the Dark Lord once more."

XXX

When the school had been told about the ball at the beginning of December, it had seemed if it was a long time away.

Yet suddenly, one Saturday morning, Draco woke up to find it was the Christmas holiday.

He thought suddenly because he had been working so hard that he had barely noticed the days going by.

There were multiply reasons for this – one of them was it was one of the only ways he could think of getting over the embarrassment of asking Hermione out...

Of course, she had been fine with him... but he felt a little awkward, which was just what he hadn't wanted to happen. He had realised somewhere along the way that this was the way Mandy had felt about him and he had given her pretty short shrift sometimes being the way that he was.

It wasn't a nice feeling and he regretted the way he treated her now.

But at least she was happy. Terry and she were of course going to be going to the ball together by the sounds of things.

When he asked Luna it had been on a bit of a whim, but at least he was in for an interesting night. And if he could not go with the person he really wanted to then it didn't really matter who was on his arm.

Besides it was not as if either of them thought it was a date. She gave him some one to go with and she got into the ball.

Win, win, he thought as he looked out to the snow covered ground. Part of him wondered if he could get another hours sleep, but he was suddenly very awake.

And it was not as if he did not have plans for the day.

The first day of the holidays was a Hogsmeade trip. He knew a lot of people were going on dates in to the village ahead of the ball.

He only hoped he did not see too many of them or he knew he was going to need a sick bag. No, he had other plans in the village.

Namely he was on his way to go and met his aunt Andromeda.

In the middle of everything else, he had been doing a lot of thinking over Sirius, over the way he seemed to see the tournament.

There was so much he still did not know about the man which he felt he should – and so he had decided to try and get his aunt to open up once more.

He did not know how much luck he was going to have after the way she had reacted in the summer – but he had to try.

At the end of the day, he wanted to look out for both Sirius and Harry. He could not do that unless he knew what was going on.

And so he got up and changed, pulling on a blue sweater for the day. The chill of winter had truly hit Hogwarts now it was December and thus it was far too cold to go out without a jumper and coat.

When he got to the Great Hall he saw the Gryffindor's were there – and if it was normal then he would have gone straight over to them – but they were just starting the holidays and it would be nice to spend a bit of time with the Ravenclaw's.

XXX

Hermione watched as Draco joined his own table. As the two of them made eye contact, he gave her a smile but she knew he was hurting. No matter how he tried to say he was ok, she knew he was bruised.

And she knew she wanted to go to the ball with him.

"What is going on between the two of you at the moment?" said Harry from her side as he saw the two of them looking at one another.

"It's nothing," she said to him shaking her head, but he wasn't stupid.

Again, she gave a little shake. She didn't want to talk about it.

It was not as if she and Draco were not acting as they always had when they were together. But...

She did not know what was going on with her and Viktor. She had said they could go to the ball together, but did that make her his girlfriend or what?

And if it did, then she did not know if she wanted that to be the case. If only he had come to her sooner – if only she had known he was going to ask her – if only...

She wanted...

She did not know but she did not want things to be as they were then.

She cursed the whole damn ball and wished it was not going to happen.

"I don't believe you."

"Then don't!"

XXX

It was snowing on the walk up to Hogsmeade. Just as Draco had thought there were plenty of couples around that day which he did not want to see really.

He knew it was not as if the two of them had ever been together – but he felt as if he had got dumped. Which was stupid...

He shook the thought out of his head and walked up to The Three Broomsticks. His aunt had said that she was going to met him there at eleven thirty. He hoped to miss the lunch time rush and he had to do a bit of last minute shopping before Christmas.

As ever, he was glad to get to the pub. The thought of a glass of Butterbeer to warm him on winter's day was always welcoming.

Honestly, he did not know how the muggles got by without it, it was so good.

His eyes scanned the room for his aunt and it did not take him long to find her. No doubt, she was curious as to why he had wanted to meet her.

It was not as if the two of them met every week. He had to admit he had been a little on the cryptic side when he had wrote to her – that was only because he had needed to get her to agree to come.

Her face lit up as she saw him and he wondered if he had betrayed her when he had brought her here.

It was not that he wanted to do that, but to only learn a little more over who he was. Who his mother had been when she had been a girl.

He had to know what he had meant when he said you're not like your parents. And he had to know what Sirius himself was like.

Short of trying to get a time turner and go back to his parents youth there was precious little he could do.

Of course, he had thought about asking his mother the next time he saw her – but he had no idea when that was going to be and he did not think his father was going to take too kindly to him putting himself in danger then. He had no idea how to see her otherwise...

No, his aunt was his best option.

She had a wide smile for him as soon as he came into view.

"Hello," he said as he kissed her check, the dutiful nephew. "I hope you don't mind coming up here," he smiled.

"To see my favourite nephew. As if I would. The truth is Draco, I have been looking for an excuse to come back up to Hogsmeade – the last time I was here was when Nymph was at school, so all in all, it has been a little too long. You are as good as excuse as any and better than most; how are you, my darling?"

"I'm good – now we are past the first task that is. Can I get you a drink?"

"Quite the little gentleman today, aren't you? Getting ready for the ball?" she said with a twinkle in her eye but regretted it as soon as she saw his face fall. "A sensitive subject?" she guessed. He gave a little nod. "Sit down sweetie, I'll get the drinks."

It was clear she felt sorry she had touched a nerve.

Within two minutes she was back with a pair of butter beers. Only those who had got up to the village even earlier than he had were also in there, some taking an very early lunch.

"So are you going to keep me in suspense a lot longer or are you going to tell me what this is all about?" asked Andy.

"I want you to tell me about mum, when she was a kid."

She looked a little disbelieving. She could not count the number of times the two of them had discussed Cissy when she had been a girl over the years – but she was never going to deny her motherless nephew stories about his mother if that was what he wanted.

"Well – she was sweet, I think. Probably the kindest of us three girls. Of course, grandpa and grandma made sure she knew who she was and what family she came from, the respect that should bring her – but she had a softness to her."

"Was she ever bad when she was small?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, Draco, honey, she was a little kid; of course, she got in to trouble from time to time, but then so do we all!" Said Andy with a shrug as she took a sip of her drink.

"Can you remember what she did wrong? Who she did it with?"

"No specifics – and her and your aunt Bella were always as thick as thieves. Me too, when the three of us were really small. Draco, I still don't get where this is going."

He knew he had to tell her the truth if he was ever going to get near the answers that he wanted from her. That much stood to reason.

"Sirius," he said under his breath but loud enough so that she was going to be able to hear.

As soon as she heard that name, she tensed up.

Andy put her head in her hands. She had so thought that the two of them were through all this.

"I said what I wanted to say to you about Sirius over summer," she said almost angry that he had brought her up to the school to talk about him – and that the boy had used his mother as a cover.

That had not been very fair either.

If it had been any one else then she knew she would have got up and gone – but it wasn't. It was Draco and if he had a sudden obsession with his mother's cousin then she had to know why. Sirius was a dark wizard – and Draco was the son of one who had been dark.

But it took her all of a milli-second to get such thoughts out of her head. Her Draco had always been a good boy. He was not like Sirius, or Lucius or even Regulus. He was going to stay on the safe and narrow because he had somehow picked up a good set of morals along the way.

And he was one of Harry Potter's best friends. That did not sound like to her a boy who was going to go over to the side of the dark.

But then she had to know what else was his motivation for this – this Sirius obsession.

"I know – but you have to talk to me about him. I need to know what kind of guy he was, what made him tick."

"Why? Why on earth would you of all people need to know that? Sweetheart, perhaps you have not been reading the newspapers but the man is a murderer. He is the scum of the earth and if I had my way then you would not even know his name."

Draco shocks his head, but was reluctant to go any further. If he told her he was innocent and she did not believe him...

As much as he did love Andy, he knew she was likely to be a little bickered in her views at times.

"Because... because I just need to know who I am and where I am from on my mother's side of the family, ok? I may carry the Malfoy name but I also carry my mother's blood. I just want to know more..." he said. "Oh, Andy don't look at me like that – I am not about to go all pure blood maniac on you. I asked Hermione Granger to the ball, doesn't that say something?"

She nodded and paused for a moment.

"She turned you down?"

"It doesn't matter; I'm going with someone else already. I don't want to talk about it. Anyway, that is not the point, the point is... doesn't matter."

But she knew that it did matter to him – it mattered very much to him. He had that look in his eye that said if she was not going to tell him what he needed to know then he was going to get the information from somewhere else not matter what, by hook or by crook.

And perhaps it was better that he got it from her then from anywhere else – she would then knew what he had been told.

But suddenly she got the horrible feeling that it was too late for all that and that his mind was already elsewhere and seeking out new sources of information.

He was not a Ravenclaw for nothing after all.

"So how is Uncle Ted?"asked Draco as he took a swig of his butter beer, confirming what Andromeda had already known.

That conversation, at least, was over.

XXX

Jane Greenwood had more confidence in herself than she... ever had really, she thought as she walked back down the lane to the little cottage where she had grown up. Of course, she was only going to get a certificate for the work she was doing with Severus and it was not as if she was going to become a healer but it was more than she had had the year before.

Maybe it was in part that which had given her the confidence she had needed to go and see her mother that holiday season. As ashamed as she was of the fact, it had been well over a year since she had last seen Mable.

The two of them had sent letters and cards the last Christmas but the two of them had not exchanged meetings or gifts.

She had not told her mother she was coming for when she had sat down to write to ask to come she found she had got too nervous of the response to even write the letter. There correspondence was that of acquaintances, not of friends – much less of a loving mother and daughter.

And so here she was, unannounced at the one place she disliked most in the world.

For it was not her mother she saw when she looked up at the cottage where she had been raised but her beloved father.

Had it not been for that last Sunday in the last war then god only knew how different her life might have been.

She walked up to the door and she had been about to knock on it to be let it when it opened.

"I thought I saw you coming up the path," Jane's mother said to her as she came in to her daughters view.

It was lucky she had seen some things she had been with the Malfoy's, thought Jane, or she did not think she would have been able to hide her surprise at seeing her mother once more.

For the first time ever, she thought she looked as if she was a real old lady.

Mable Greenwood seemed to have shrunk in aize – her eyes were hidden by bags and her skin was hideously pale –it was not Malfoy pale. It was as if she had been trying to turn into a vampire or something.

Jane did not think she could rightfully say how long it had been sight her mother had seen the sun.

"I have come home to see you mama. To wish you a merry Christmas."

"You and the little elves?" her mother said as she raised her eyebrows and turned to go back inside. She neither invited her daughter in or shut the door on her.

Jane pushed on though. She had not come just to be turned away and she was not going to run scared of her disapproval.

"Just me actually – the elves were a little busy," she said to her with a smile but as her mother turned back to her, she saw it was not going to be reciprocated.

"I suppose you want tea."

"That would be pleasant."

"Go through." Her mother nodded to the front room and Jane did so.

The room was still as she remembered if from when she was a child. But after years of living in a spacious manner, she knew the room felt cramped and stuffy to her now days. The same pictures remained. The same furniture.

But now her father was not there was different, it was not the room she had had her tea with her parents in so often.

She knew her mother most likely lived in this room these days. There was an old stained tea cup by her chair from her last brew. There were tissues by it.

It felt so, so oppressive and dark. She didn't remember it that way when she had been little. The old TV her father had got for her mother in the war was on –

"Still watch Coronation Street hey mother?" she called through to her.

"Yes," her mother said bluntly. She did not seem to want to be drawn into conversation.

"Does Mrs Ogden still sing when she does the pub?" she asked as she recalled the past fondly.

"She left – years ago."

"Well – that is a pity," she said as she sat down.

"Do you really think so Jane? Do you really care?" her mother asked as she came into the room. Her mother had a look on her face that said she clearly did not think she did.

"Well – " she didn't. It had been so long since she had watched a bit muggle TV that she didn't. She hadn't for a long time- it had never crossed her mind. "I was trying to make a bit of conversation."

"The fact that passes as conversation between the two of us these days says enough," her mother said as she sat down, tea forgotten. "So how is he?"

"Who?"

"You're... what's the word... pimp? Master?" she said with a raised eye brow.

"Oh mother – is that what you think of me?" she said as she shook her head thought she did not know why on earth she was so surprised by it all.

She had never approved of the choices she had made when she had got involved with the Malfoy's. She did not know why she had thought that was going to be any different now.

"Well, it is what everyone says you know. Now that boy of his has grown up and left – what is it you call yourself now? His house keeper. I do not know why the two of you do not just come out with it and call yourself his concubine."

Jane felt tears sting her eyes.

"You really are never going to forgive me are you? If I had put on my black and stayed here with you would we be closer than we are now? Would I be your ideal daughter?"

"Do not you dare speak thus to me! If only your father could hear you I cannot tell you say ashamed of you he would be!"

"Enough mother. I am not a little child – you cannot change the way I thought about him nor he me. You only say such things because you knew he would be on my side."

Her mother looked at her as if she had slapped her and she knew she had hit a sore spot. But that was not the reason that she had come. She had not come to fight her mother.

She had wanted the two of them to build a fresh. She had thought now she was getting on with her own life, her mother might be able to find it somewhere in side of herself to be proud of the life choices she had made.

But as ever she had got that wrong.

"I am so sorry to have disturbed you, mother. Coming here was a mistake today – I can see that now. I didn't mean to upset you."

She had not had a chance to take tea with her mother and she had not even got her clock off – but she knew it was time to go.

Getting up, she headed towards the door of her childhood home.

She walked fast towards the door so that her mother would not get a chance to see the tears in her eyes.

She was not going to give her that.

"Jane," her mother called her back.

Blinking, she turned and looked at her mother as she waited for her to say her piece. After all, her mother was a woman who always had plenty to say.

But her mouth remained shut.

"Merry Christmas mother."

XXX

As soon as he got back to his room, Draco pulled out a piece of parchment and sat down on his desk.

He couldn't believe he had not thought of this before.

Dear Professor Lupin...

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