Lucius's POV

The air in Malfoy Manor was suffocating with rage.

Not just mine—hers, too.

Narcissa stood at the far end of the drawing room, her posture rigid, her arms crossed tightly over her chest. She was furious, but her anger burned cold, precise. Mine, on the other hand, was boiling.

Draco was gone.

Not just gone—escaped, like some common criminal. And he hadn't gone alone.

The Mudblood had gone with him.

That was the final insult. The one thing I could not, would not, tolerate.

I gripped the edge of my cane so tightly my knuckles turned white, my mind racing with possibilities.

"Where would he go?" Narcissa's voice was sharp, slicing through my thoughts.

I turned toward her, my expression dark. "If I knew that, they would already be dead."

Her lips pressed into a thin line. "Draco was always careful. He planned this. He knew we would come after them."

"Come after them?"

I let out a low, cold laugh. "Come after them? No, Narcissa. I will do more than come after them."

I took a slow step forward, my grip tightening around the silver serpent handle of my cane. "I will burn the world to the ground if that's what it takes to find them."

Narcissa arched a brow, unimpressed. "And then what?"

I exhaled sharply through my nose, feeling the fury swirl beneath my skin like wildfire. "Then, my dear, I will destroy them."

She tilted her head slightly, watching me with that calculating gaze of hers. "Draco is our son, Lucius."

"He is a traitor," I hissed. "A disgrace. He had everything—a name, power, a future. And he threw it away for her."

My pulse thundered in my ears at the mere thought. The audacity of it.

"Then he is lost to us," Narcissa said simply, her tone eerily calm.

"Not yet," I muttered.

I turned sharply, my mind already shifting, strategizing. "I want every contact, every spy, every ally we have searching for them. I want the wards at the manor expanded—I don't care if it takes an army of Dark wizards to do it. If they try to return, they will not leave again."

"And if they don't return?" she asked, a slight edge to her voice.

I smirked. "Then I will find them myself."

The world was large, yes.

But no matter where they ran, no matter where they hid—

They would never be beyond my reach.

Narcissa's POV

I had never been a mother in the way most women were.

I had given birth to Draco. Raised him. Ensured he was well-fed, well-educated, well-mannered. He had been my creation, molded into something worthy of the Malfoy name.

But love?

Love had been an afterthought. A concept that held little meaning in the grand scheme of power, legacy, and control.

And now, my son had betrayed me.

Lucius raged, his fury consuming him like a storm, but my anger was different.

Colder. Sharper.

He had run. He had defied everything he had been raised to uphold, thrown away his future for a filthy Mudblood.

That was what stung the most.

It wasn't his rebellion that wounded me. It was her.

Granger.

That wretched girl, with her self-righteous intellect, her foolish ideals, her audacity to steal my son from under me.

I would find him.

With or without Lucius.

He would never fail me, of course—I knew that. My husband was many things, but incompetent was not one of them. He would burn cities to the ground if that was what it took.

But I would be the one to drag Draco back.

I knew him better than anyone.

I knew his fears. His weaknesses. The cracks in his carefully crafted walls.

And I knew he could not survive without us.

No matter how much he thought he could escape, no matter how much he believed in her, he would break.

And when he did, I would be there.

To remind him who he truly was.

And to ensure that Hermione Granger never poisoned him again.