AN: I do not own anything recognized as part of the Harry Potter universe.

Telling Family

"I was fifteen when the Dark Lord Riddle marked me. I knew his background, his days as a school boy, for my father shared a dorm with him. I also knew at fifteen that my father had raised me to be at least a financial supporter of the Dark Lord Riddle, but my father also made sure to instill the Malfoy family motto into my life. My father was more family oriented than many of my classmate's fathers, and so my father was the one threatened and tortured with the cruciatus curse when I hesitated to acknowledge him as my family's sworn lord, as my own lord. Afterwards, my father was tortured for daring to have a son that wasn't willing to throw his life away to his cause.

"I firmly believe that day was the beginning of the end for my father. He knew it, and so set up a marriage arrangement between me and one of the Black sisters, not wanting to leave me an orphan with no family willing to look after me, besides the house elves. He stepped up my studies, and once he realized I had a mind for battle tactics as many of my ancestors had, he willingly set up tutors from among the portraits in the family mansion. When the Dragon Pox epidemic swept through, my father didn't last long once he got sick, not like the Fleamont Potters and others who lasted weeks before succumbing."

"I don't like to think of what I had to do for Riddle. He marks his followers at fifteen, and then has them recruit for two years while they try to earn his good will before being sent... out... to torture, to kill, to raid. At first, Riddle had worked towards goals for the sake of the goals, but before my father died, he had only hijacked the goals of the most verbal purebloods as a platform to kill under. That meant that our goals were worked towards, but his anger was what the main focus was. I was good at what I did, but that did not make me the best person."

Lucius Malfoy lifted up his eyes to the eyes of his son, who sat in a chair opposite. The light from the window was grey from the rain outside that the pair could hear beating against the window.

"I tried to raise you as if the belief of the masses was correct, that the Dark Lord that called himself Voldemort would not come back and as if we would be continuing to try to get our duties back ourselves. Since I am one man, it would not be through warfare. However, once it became clear that the Dark Lord Riddle was back and he called me, my priorities had to change. My thought that we were picking up back where we were in the last wizarding war changed within minutes after I was called because of two other young men, Harry Potter and Cedric Diggory.

"I was taken hostage. I was the second hostage of the day really, for all that Potter used Pettigrew's life debt to force him to side with him. My life for safe passage, for all that Riddle tried to kill Potter anyway. You know I've told you what happened in the graveyard."

The family parlour that they were sitting in felt cool despite that the fire was burning in the fireplace. It was if the manor didn't like being reminded it's lord had almost died.

Draco swallowed.

"I started making friends with Potter because of some research I had done with Theo over the summer. He had found the rest of his manor library this summer, and found some research it seemed someone had started before it had to be abandoned. So I helped him. We... If what we found is true, than Potter is..."

"Immortal. I did tell you he rose from the dead in front of me. He should not have survived. Draco, I know you know this, but what is our family motto?"

"A Malfoy bows to no one."

"Unfortunately, that is no longer correct."

"NO!"

Draco's shout echoed in tone to his face, not wanting to believe what his father had just said.

"Abraxas bound our family to serve a Dark Lord, Draco."

"Say it's not true. Please."

"Draco, please come here."

Lucius's opened his arms to give his son a hug, even as his wife shifted a little to give space for their son on the love seat. His son, despite being taller for his age, squished in between them as best as he could, leaning against his side as he tried his best to calm down.

"I can't. I know this is a terrible realization, but I've fixed it as best as I can."

"How?"

"I am not surprised now that I think of it that one of our ancestors wanted to make sure we would never be bound for long to one we don't want to be, but I found the magical requirements to shift my service to another. I bound myself to Potter instead."

All three family members watched as Lucius rolled his sleeve down, showing not a snake entwined with a skull, but a phoenix with a lily and a strange mark under it's chin made up of a line bisecting a unilateral triangle, with a circle as large as could be and not leaving the confines of the triangle within the triangle.

Draco hid his face shortly after with his face in his arms after that.

"Why does everything happen to Potter?"

Sirius was very sure that houses like his were not supposed to eat blood. It hadn't when he was a boy, so why did it seem to need to now? To find that answer, he was searching the library that he had spent hours hiding from his mother in for the answers. Sure, he was still in the midst of making copies of the books, but that didn't mean that he couldn't go searching their pages, the basement, and the ward room on the main floor for the answers to this problem. He had been taught how to access the wards by his father long ago, but it seemed to be one of the most civil conversations with Orion Black that the Dementors had not completely messed up.

He found it, of course he did, and of course it had to be that simple. The problem with the Black town house was it's owners pride in their family. While there was a definite process that was recorded in a few places on how to attach the house to the wards and the benefits to it, he found no sign in the diagnostics of the wards that they were being fed by the ley line. Because of that, the only outside magic the house was getting was the magic fed to it during seasonal rituals and the natural magic seepage that the house was absorbing from the area.

That created a problem. The house had drained most of the ambient magic of the area in an effort to keep functioning as it drained more than the ley line was seeping. Also, they had only really started the seasonal rituals this past year.

Well, as he really didn't want his godson to feel forced to spill blood for the house in an effort to keep it fed, it seemed he had one choice really.

He went to talk to the Weasley men about getting the number of people it required to get the house attached to the ley line.

"Sirius..."

Oh, bother. What now? Wait, that's his godson. Then again, what now?

"I might have become a Dark Lord, or a Grey Lord at best..."

What?!

"Keep going..."

"At least the Malfoys are for sure no longer serving Voldemort?"

No Way!

That's exciting!

Bad idea.

No, Good idea.

You sure?

Of course, I'm sure.

Let me time how long you're sure on that one.

Hmm, maybe there's more than the reason that I apparently don't know how to season food that has Moony keep popping in.

"Give me a few to make sense of this, okay, pup? Did anything else happen to you before spring break?"