A/N: Sorry its been a frightfully long time. After finals I got sick and after sick came Christmas and more sickness! Thanks to all of you for still reading. Hope your holidays were bright!
~o0o~
"If you marry my father, I think I am going to have to have you murdered," Draco mused, lazily insinuating his left-hand fingers into Lacey's thick hair. He briefly wondered if being with Lacey was what having a sister felt like. He had always been very tactile growing up and loved the feeling of a woman's hair, even in a non-sexual way, but his mother always kept hers up and too pristine to touch. He felt more relaxed then he had in days as he sat next to Lacey on the long white couch in the living room of her Swindon home.
"Why not just do it yourself? Why hire someone?" she laughed in reply, pulling away from him to examine his expression, yelping when his fingers caught in unruly brown tangles.
"To keep it hushed up of course. I can't afford a scandal. Don't you know anything about us Malfoy's by now?"
"And who said anything about marriage anyhow?" Lacey added, not sure what answer she was more hopeful for. Draco had finally managed to untangle his fingers from her hair and now rested both hands behind his blonde head as he reclined further back on the couch, "No one. I can just tell my Father might be considering it, that's all. And if you two get married, then I am just going to feel bloody pathetic that I can't get a decent bird and that my parents have better love lives than I do. Think about it, Delaney-you and my father shag like rabbits and my mother is having some torrid affair with a mystery wanker. Fuck. See why I would have to murder you now?"
Lacey let her head fall back as she laughed loudly, "I never thought I'd hear such a speech from you! Come on…. you'll find a girl. A good one too, one that's not after your daddy or your money. I promise!"
"Ridiculous isn't it? I'm so damn good looking and intelligent and charismatic…"
"And humble, let's not forget humble…" Lacey interjected, trying not to burst out again in giggles and Draco nodded before realizing her meaning and glaring at her. His annoyance didn't last long though, and soon they were chatting again; Lacey moved closer to Draco and this time, she played with his fine blonde hair.
"I'm pretty glad we've gotten to bond under these unusual circumstances, Draco. I know it's not the best case situation, but I'm glad to have you to talk to," she said gently, changing the tone of the conversation without meaning to.
"Am I completely used to the fact that you and my father are together? Not really…but its nice to have someone around that isn't blonde and pretentious. I can tell your intentions are good with him," Draco answered and Lacey felt a strong twinge of guilt at his words but kept her face straight, "I know you miss talking to Ginny…"
He couldn't have been more right if he had tried. Once again, Lacey found herself cursing snakes' abilities of perception. She nodded and he gave her a soft pat on the shoulder.
"Unfortunately, I don't think this pointless feud between my family and hers is ever going to end, and I know as well as you do that she's not really okay with you being with him. Which is why you come to me now, and not her. Shame though that she's with Black. She's actually quite gorgeous….HEY!"
Lacey had thrown a punch that was meant to be playful at his shoulder, but hit quite harder than expected. She winced at the sound as Draco flinched away, "Sorry! But that IS my best friend you know…in your dreams you could ever have her."
"Dreams will do then," he winked jokingly, "It's funny really…before I found out about her and him, I thought my Mum was shagging him."
"Draco that's incestuous and fucking disgusting," Lacey grimaced, setting her feet up on the coffee table and sinking back into the white cushions, trying not to let that image take over her brain.
"Wouldn't be the first time its happened in a pureblood family…and now I just wonder who the arsehole is, I mean, really…"
He went on, talking to himself for a moment as Lacey wracked her brain to think of a way to steer him from that train of thought. The less thinking any Malfoy man did about who Narcissa was sleeping with, the better, seeing as the answer was right under everyone's nose.
"Um, Draco?"
He jerked his head over towards her, forgetting his silent guessing game and a raised eyebrow, not unlike his father's, prompted her on.
"What made you say earlier that you could tell Lucius was thinking about marriage?"
A silence hung between the new friends for a moment, and Draco had a vaguely unpleasant look on his face, as if he had taken a bite of something stale, "I saw him going through some of the family heirlooms."
"So? Is he going to give me a walking stick?" Lacey chuckled but Draco didn't even smile in return, "What's wrong?"
"We have more than just masculine heirlooms; jewelry from my mother, and my grandmother and so on, the Malfoy women…"
"Oh Merlin I don't need some gaudy, cursed necklace!"
"Lacey shut up for one fucking moment!"
Draco's eyes were dark and Lacey stopped mid theatrical eye roll, looking very concerned, "I'm sorry…what is it…?"
"Sorry, I just…look, the last time he did that was when he was with Pansy. Granted I didn't know it at the time, but a few days after I saw him going through trinkets, I found them in bed together. He admitted once, right after, that he briefly contemplated divorcing my Mum and engaging himself to her. It's a sore subject, obviously and we haven't actually had a real conversation about it since…" Draco averted his eyes from Lacey, embarrassed about his outburst and also that the thought of Pansy had affected him this much. Astoria was the rebound, if he was truly being honest, and he had convinced himself to believe in their fairytale so much so that he thought she might be the one. But since it had ended, he hadn't suffered too much. Pansy was still the nagging heartbreak and betrayal for him.
"Draco, I didn't mean to…"
"My fault, it's fine," he cut her off gruffly, just as her fireplace right in front of where they were sitting started to glow green. A moment later, the man occupying both of their thoughts stepped out of the floo, brushing ash off of his robes.
"What are you doing here?" Lucius' tone was borderline accusatory to his son as he briefly glanced in his direction. Lacey swore she saw a hint of jealousy pass over his eyes.
"Someone has to come visit the poor girl. Its not like she can have her other friends here, or the two of you can host lavish parties," Draco noted and Lacey's face fell. She wished this house could be brimming with friends and family all the time. If things went her way, there would be plenty of time to acclimate everyone to her and Lucius' relationship and then maybe some people would accept it. But at this rate, Lacey knew she didn't have time for parties here, much less many more days in the mansion at all.
"Soon enough," came Lucius' reply as he unfastened his outer robes, laid them carefully over the arm of the white chair to Lacey's left and finally allowed his eyes to meet hers. Those blue eyes of his were smiling with a secret, even if the rest of his face didn't betray it, "You have ten minutes to pack. I have a portkey ready and waiting."
"Sorry, but what?" Lacey's eyes went wide, looking at Draco for help but he gave none.
"Your birthday is in two days and seeing as you made it very clear you didn't want to do anything on your birthday, we are taking a little trip now. Don't worry, we'll be back in time for your match," Lucius told her, knowing excuses were forming in her head.
"I said no surprises!"
"Yes, no surprises on your birthday. Now come on, throw together a bag and lets go," he continued as Lacey finally moved, walking towards the staircase, giving Lucius a confused look over her shoulder the entire way.
"Is this a romantic trip? Should I pack accordingly?" her voice became playful and Draco groaned in disgust.
"Alright," the younger Malfoy got off of the couch quickly, "I'm not going to stick around to see how this plays out. Have fun you too. See you at the match Delaney."
Lacey giggled all the way up to her bedroom, not exactly pleased with Lucius at the surprise, but thrilled that she was being whisked away. No one had ever taken her on a trip of any sort, and the thought of two days alone with Lucius was the most she could have asked for.
Two days with him. Alone. Secretly. No Narcissa, or pretenses with Remus, no avoiding Fred or hiding from Hermione and Harry. Just him and her alone. It would be her last time with him, she could almost feel it, especially if what Narcissa said about an imminent reveal held any water.
Lacey grabbed her large travel bagged and packed the necessities and some nicer outfits just in case before heading back down the stairs. She didn't bother to owl anyone, against her better judgment. She honestly didn't care if they searched the world over for her in those two days, but she wanted to be unbothered. She would deal with the fallout later if she had to.
"So you really aren't going to tell me where we are going?" Lacey asked as she crossed the living room to where Lucius had been patiently waiting, still standing.
"It will be clear enough soon, now come on. And happy early birthday" Lucius leaned over and whispered to her with a smile, taking her by the arm. He stepped forward and grabbed his robes before ushering her into the floo first with directions to go to the Manor.
He was right on her heels out of the fireplace in his study and picked up his own bag that he had already packed before taking a gilded letter opener from his desk and instructing Lacey hold the handle.
Lucius knew he wasn't the only one with access to magic indicating the use of their floo, and the logged visits to a house in Swindon were already mysterious enough. The last thing he needed was a trail for his wife to follow of where he had taken his girlfriend. Lucius checked the clock, carefully touched the blade of the letter opener, and soon both of them belt the odd tug from behind and the nausea accompanied by that type of travel.
Lacey landed less than gracefully on her arse on a patch of grass and Lucius hoisted her back up. Shaking her head to try and get rid of the dizziness, she couldn't quite make out where they were. They were across the street from a pub of some sort in a rather small village, and Lucius was leading her towards the door in an instant. Once inside, Lacey looked around at the patrons, trying her best to guess what town they were in, or even what country as Lucius made his way to the barkeep. Minutes later they were back on the patch of grass Lacey had fallen on and Lucius asked her to touch an empty butterbeer bottle.
"Another portkey? Why couldn't we just floo…or apparate?" Lacey sighed, hating the way portkey travel made her feel, but Lucius just shook his head.
"Best way to keep a secret a secret. This is the last one," he told her and a moment later they were again in the swirling vortex of spinning earth that type of travel brought about. This time though, upon landing, Lacey started crying.
Once her stomach stopped churning and her full vision came back to her, Lacey immediately knew where she was. They were standing at the end of quaint Primpton Road in Killarney.
"No…you didn't…." Lacey whispered, wiping her tears with the back of her hand as Lucius rubbed her shoulders, "Do they know?"
"I spoke to your father yesterday, they are expecting us," Lucius told her and Lacey dropped her bag, jumped into Lucius' arms and kissed him hard. He stumbled back a bit as she wrapped her legs around his waist and wordlessly thanked him, her tears dampening his own cheeks. He reached up to wipe them away but they kept coming, even when she stopped kissing him and slowly slid down his body to solid ground.
"I've never brought a guy home. Ever. And I haven't been back in so long and…"
"Shhh…whatever happens, it will be fine. This isn't about me, its about you seeing your family," he reminded her gently, tipping up her chin slightly with his index finger and enjoying the happiness in her blue eyes. He had hoped that Lacey would be thrilled. He knew she loved her family but because of lack of time and money, couldn't visit often. Both of these things he could easily provide her and when he had found a number in which to call Mr. Delaney and the man had sounded overjoyed, he figured she would love it more as a birthday present than any piece of jewelry, although that wasn't entirely out of the picture. The thought made him smirk to himself as Lacey grabbed his hand and they walked down the short street to her family house.
He watched as Lacey smoothed her hair, which ultimately did nothing to quell the volume of her locks, and knocked on the door. At this point, Lucius felt a strong and unfamiliar rush of nerves before the door opened. First of all he was sure that Lacey's father was expecting a much younger man as his daughter's companion and secondly, he wasn't used to winning over the family of a woman he loved. With Narcissa, he practically grew up with the Blacks, and her parents deemed him more than suitable from a young age. It wasn't hard at all. This though…
"Bloody hell!"
"Ais!"
The door had burst open and a flash of ginger hair flew into Lacey's arms. When the two women were done hugging, the red-head stepped back and looked at Lacey with wide eyes before beckoning them both inside, "I…I can't believe this! Dad didn't tell me you were coming home! He's just been walking around with a smirk on his face all day and…shit Lacey look at you!"
"I see my bad habits have rubbed all off on you, even though I've been gone," Lacey sighed happily as she looked at her younger sister. Lucius guessed this had to be their relation to one another, especially since the girl looked much like Lacey, except for the hair color, which was light red, but wild in the same way Lacey's was, and cursed like her as well, "Where's Dad?"
"At the store, and Colin is coming!" the younger girl jumped up and down, holding Lacey's hands for a moment in excitement before finally turning to Lucius, "Who'er you?"
Lucius cracked a grin at the thick Irish accent of the girl, the same accent Lacey tried her best to stifle and he didn't know why. He loved when it melted through her speech, "Lucius Malfoy."
"I'm Aislinn, Lace's lil' sis," the girl grinned, shaking his hand firmly as Lacey looked on, blushing and trying to figure out exactly how the spill the beans about him to her family, seeing as this would be the first and last time they would ever see him.
"He's my boyfriend," Lacey finally blurted out, much to the amusement of Lucius, never tiring of hearing himself referred to as such.
"Yeeeahhh….Colin is going to kill you, good luck w'that," Aislinn winked at Lucius.
"Colin is your brother, isn't he?" Lucius tried to hide the worry in his voice.
"Mhmm…" Lacey shrugged apologetically as Aislinn grabbed both of their bags and with a jerk of her head prompted them towards the staircase to the second floor. Lacey was thrilled to be back home again. The Delaney house was just as it was when she left: warm, with family pictures and knick-knacks on every surface, and slightly cluttered. It wasn't as chaotic as the Burrow was, but it wasn't a pretentious home by any means, just a small two story with a lush green backyard in Ireland.
"Lucius, I'm sure Dad'll want you to have the guest room…over his dead body would he want you to share with my sister," Aislinn giggled, pointing to a door at the end of the second floor hall, "And Lace, I've taken over your room a bit, just some of my extra clothes, but I can have it ready in a mo'."
"I can stay in an Inn, if its better that way," Lucius offered, and Lacey briefly wondered if her home wasn't enough for him, watching him and realizing he looked slightly uncomfortable.
"Absolutely not. Dad's constantly dealing with the blokes I bring 'round, its about time Lacey dealt with a bit of embarrassment", her younger sister laughed, a laugh so familiar to Lucius as she set his bag down in the guest room, "Now come on then, they'll be here any minute now!"
Aislinn nearly flew back down the stairs she was so excited as Lacey reached out once again for Lucius' hand, "Thank you a million times over. Are you sure its okay if you stay?"
"If I look worried, my dear, its because I didn't properly think this all through. My desire for you to be happy clearly overran the reality that your father and brother may very well murder me," Lucius told her, which both relieved Lacey and made her laugh as she leaned into him.
"I won't let them. Promise."
A/N: Hope you enjoyed! That little box is lonely! Fill 'er up ;) And thanks if you do!
